The BBC - like the NHS and the United Nations - is an institution that it is dangerous for any politician to criticise but the Conservative Party is right to point out its faults. ConservativeHome recently welcomed George Osborne's critique of the way the BBC crowds out competition and David Cameron's complaint about Tim Westwood's violent playlist. Hugo Swire's intervention of today also deserves praise.
Speaking in a Commons debate, Mr Swire, Tory Culture & Media spokesman, acknowledged that there was "huge support amongst the public for the BBC but," he warned, "an unacceptably high level for the Licence Fee will undermine that support". There are plans for the licence fee to grow from £131.50 a year to £180 by 2014. This would be an increase of inflation plus 2.3% every year - at a time when more and more people are turning to satellite TV and the internet for their entertainment and news. Mr Swire thinks that £180 would be "simply too high for many families on low incomes".
Mr Swire has called for the National Audit Office to undertake "full and transparent scrutiny" of how the Corporation spends the licence fee (levied regressively on every household as a poll tax). There has been controversy over the high salaries being paid to top BBC presenters like Jonathan Ross (£18m over three years). Independent rivals to the BBC - not fortunate enough to have its unique source of compulsory income - complain that the BBC could cause super-inflation in the industry and make it harder and harder to compete. Mr Swire also noted that "recent Beethoven downloads exercise saw the BBC make available one million free downloads". This, he said, would carry an £8 million price tag in the marketplace and "if repeated could severely damage the commercial market".
John Whittingdale, the Tory chairman of the Commons Culture committee, came to Mr Swire's support: "The BBC is already by far the biggest player and an increase of this kind will distort the market further and place the BBC in too dominant a position". Even the LibDems agreed that the proposed increase was too high. Shaun Woodward, Labour deputy to Tessa Jowell (who skipped the debate), said MPs risked playing politics with one of Britain's most trusted institutions. Labour, who fell out with the BBC after the Hutton Report, may see the licence fee debate as a way of rebuilding bridges with the Corporation.
The Daily Mail covers the Commons debate on the BBC here.
Well, full marks to Mr Swire for (rather diplomatically) taking on the BBC. What a pass we've reached with that overweening institution when politicians won't cross it for fear of political retribution.
More than any other part of the media, it was the BBC that sidelined and mocked into irrelevance the Conservative party after 1997. The sooner the BBC is privatised, the better. Then that viper's nest of treacherous, self-promoting, precious journalists will have to fend for themselves in a commercial market place, unprotected by Licence fee money, extracted under menace. It'll be thin pickings for most of those luvvies.
Posted by: John Coles | June 21, 2006 at 20:31
The BBC's news coverage is incredibly biased and unprofessional. It should not be beyond criticism. It's visceral Anti-Americanism, Pro-Eropean and Anti-Israel is damaging because it misleads people who cannot make a rational choice in a democratic society if all they hear is one side.
Posted by: Cllr Francis Lankester | June 21, 2006 at 22:38
The bias is institutional and, if the BBC continues to ignore the problem, it's very hard to see what else can be done except to dismantle what was once a national treasure.
A typical “comedy” show on Radio 4 last week managed to poke fun at both Jeffrey Archer and the Hamiltons, completely bypassing 9 years of Labour sleaze. Political humour funded by my Conservative license fee is fine, so long as its balanced.
Posted by: Mark Fulford | June 21, 2006 at 23:19
I wholeheartedly agree with all of the views expressed above but I wish to add that this monster is one of our own making.We had 18 years worth of opportunity to reform the BBC and address the ingrained institutional bias and we did not bite the bullet.
Break up and sell off of this wildly unbalanced anachronism is now the only option available and it ought to be one of the first acts of an incoming Conservative Government. Do it swiftly and early so that there is plenty of time from that point until the next election in order to allow good time for the squealing of the lefty luvvies and their fellow travellers to die down. The argument that the British love the BBC too much to allow this break up is untenable and can be easily countered by a good spin meister, especially by showing people the real world cash saving that they will make, along with creating guaranteees that the best of BBC programming, the Attenborough Natural History type stuff for example, is assured of continued production and broadcast.We can finally slay this dragon if we just show the courage of our convictions and demonstrate some grit.
Posted by: Matt Davis | June 22, 2006 at 00:10
Whether you believe in the original purpose of public broadcasting or not, BBC has outlived its remit. It was built to teach and to preserve a neutral channel not under the thrall of commerce. It was only ever marginally successful at either. Now, the internet makes both justifications dated: wikipedia is free knowledge, blogs are speech under nobody's command. BBC now exists for the sake of existing. Fair enough, but it should pay its own way.
Posted by: Julian Morrison | June 22, 2006 at 00:29
England has a State Church which receives no taxpayer funds and pays VAT on church repairs.
Britain has a State Broadcasting Company run like an Established Church which gets a levy backed by Criminal Law since 1949 which thinks it is the State Church sermonising with an opinion on every subject and criticising those who do not subscribe to its gospel.
The BBC thinks it is correct and virtuous and those who do not agree are knaves and fools and asocial. It has its own agenda and it is clearer what BBC policy is on any issue than that of the Conservative Party.
The BBC has started to manufacture News rather than report it, and when you hear BBC interviewers berate farmers over taxpayer subsidy the full irony is hard to describe.
It is a self-righteous and priggish organisation which shows just what huge amounts of public money can do if fed relentlessly into a business...............now if only we had been like the Koreans and done that in semiconductors.
Posted by: TomTom | June 22, 2006 at 06:42
Privatise it, preferably yesterday.
Posted by: Serf | June 22, 2006 at 13:47
Like most of the posters above I sometimes despair over the BBC's political coverage but I'm also aware that the BBC is liked and trusted by the populace far more than other broadcasters or any political party.
Any reform we suggest will have to be put forward with skill and a desire to improve it.
Any attack based on ideology or for political revenge will I think be doomed to fail.
Posted by: malcolm | June 22, 2006 at 14:28
For a moment I thought the BBC had recovered its impartiality and was warming towards the Tories, but they have clearly had a good word with themselves and much of the old subtle anti Tory reporting is back.
Anyway, that's bye the bye. This is about the most hideous tax in the land and the vacuous, irresponsible and cretinuous way in which it is spent.
I'll have to give my views on this subject some thought.
Posted by: rwdbailey | June 22, 2006 at 16:10
I know the BBC can be biased at times but personally I have always found ITN news programmes far more left leaning than the BBC.
If you watch Channel Four News or the early evening news on ITV1 most nights you will find something that is ourageously biased.
The only news I don`t think you complain about is Channel Five`s that is produced by Sky but that is so bland and down market it seems to be produced for those with no brains.
Posted by: Jack Stone | June 22, 2006 at 16:45
If that's some sort of defence of the BBC's bias, it doesn't wash. We're PAYING for the existence of that bottomless well of left wing thought. If ITN/Channel 4/Channel 5 want to risk losing their various audiences by pouring out unbalanced news programmes, then that's their commercial risk. The BBC reports the way it does secure in the knowledge that everyone will continue to pay their licence fees and that, thereby, the Corporation is secure. The Beeb is long past its sell-by date - close it down and watch the politcal debate in England change for the better.
Posted by: John Coles | June 22, 2006 at 17:05
Jack, your argument is completely ill founded. The other broadcasters do not have a dty to produce unbiased reports on current affairs, whilst the BBC does.
Personally I'd have the BBC set up in the same form as Channel 4 is, its a public broadcaster but receives no state funding. I'm more than willing to put up with adverts and some decent programming for once, rather than the tv poll tax and leftie drivel which the BBC currently provides.
Posted by: Chris | June 22, 2006 at 17:08
Except of course John we'd probably get slaughtered.Like it or not the BBC is more trusted than we are.
Posted by: malcolm | June 22, 2006 at 17:13
No need to destroy BBC. Just close the tax spigot and cut them loose from the state. They can probably continue as a going concern, commercially.
Posted by: Julian Morrison | June 22, 2006 at 17:23
Malcolm, if you believe that then you'd believe anything. Maybe you should widen your social circle. Courage, mon brave - we are right and they are in ultimate decline.
Posted by: John Coles | June 22, 2006 at 23:55