In response to The Conservative Woman: How BBC malice tainted Sir Cliff,
nanumaga wrote:
I’ve just coughed up a tenner to the crowdfunding campaign aimed at getting a judicial review into the BBC’s actual role and its right to collect a Poll Tax. I have encouraged half a dozen friends to do the same. This story pretty well describes many of the reasons why the people in charge of the BBC, or only 95 per cent of them, really don’t deserve to be paid from our hard-earned income via a Poll Tax. A couple of chums of mine who were both at the top end of ITV, one being ex-BBC, told me of the myth surrounding the BBC’s justification for paying such enormous salaries. The BBC line was ‘We have to get the best people and this means we have to pay more than the private sector’. The true story is that the BBC, ten years ago at least, was paying nearly double the going rates in the private sector.
It’s an abuse of the rights of all citizens that we are compelled to pay, exclusively, for a broadcaster which many of us would cheerfully not watch or listen to under normal, free market terms. The BBC didn’t supply the satellite dish and cables which we use – we had to pay for these. I’d guess that the BBC viewing in our house is under 10 per cent of total TV viewing time and for the rest we cough up £35 per month, including a huge repertoire of TV and movies, back catalogues, including BBC, top speed fibre optic broadband, phone line rental and free phone calls . . . a very good deal . . . go figure, as they say! Paying £150 a year on top of this to the BBC for a massive selection of stuff which we rarely watch seems to be a little strange. If they have something we’d like to see we would be happy to pay for it. They rarely do. I’ve given up on Radio 4, of which I was once a devotee. The Today programme is witless and predictable. Same for PM and Wato. Afternoon drama is remorselessly dull and usually stuffed with an agenda. Radio 3 still affords a few oases of enjoyment but is often filled with witless commentators trying to emulate Classic FM. On the whole? I would let it go, tomorrow, in a heartbeat. It has ceased to represent or offer anything which I or my children perceive as having any intrinsic value. This broadcasting corporation is clearly pining for the Norwegian fjords. It’s not extinct but it may well be, quite soon. RIP BBC.
I would kick it into touch tomorrow but I dread having a couple of beefy blokes bashing on my front door threatening me with a court action because I have two televisions in the house but I’ve elected to not pay or watch the BBC. How on earth is this a rational way to run things? Why the hell do I have to subsidise Claudia Winkleman’s next face-lift? I’ve never, ever watched Strictly go dancing.
