"This licence fee announcement will be the last. The days of the elderly being threatened with prison sentences and bailiffs knocking on doors are over"

Shippers & Co. at The Sunday Times tell us that Boris is trying to "save his tottering premiership" through "a series of populist announcements", including:

•Freeze the BBC licence fee for two years to help the cost of living.

And this morning Nadine Dorries has indeed announced a two-year freeze on the licence fee that the Mail on Sunday says, "with anticipated inflation rises, means the BBC will need to find savings of circa £2billion". And the Culture Secretary has  just tweeted:

This licence fee announcement will be the last. The days of the elderly being threatened with prison sentences and bailiffs knocking on doors are over. Time now to discuss and debate new ways of funding, supporting and selling great British content.

Blog favourite Rob Burley, ex of the BBC, probably sums up the BBC supporter's view today:

• Part of “operation red meat” - distract from partygate by effectively cutting BBC funding again. This will mean services will have to be cut, staff in news and elsewhere will be lost, more mistakes will be made. Short-sighted doesn’t cover it.
• Also in the Times today, I post to pre-empt the defunders who will pointlessly clog up my timeline. Just because you don’t like it doesn’t mean the public don’t support the BBC.

And in response to Nadine's tweet, Rob simply wrote:

• Oh great.

Things are moving. Pro-BBC Twitter is already up in arms.