The BBC is "love-bombing" Tory frontbenchers, candidates and (even) bloggers

Although some observers interpret yesterday's Conservative Party announcement that it would freeze the BBC licence fee as confrontational, most readers commenting on ConservativeHome saw it as being rather on the timid side.   

Much more important than freezing the licence fee - a relatively modest measure - has been the Tory leadership's stepping away from the much more radical option of forcing the BBC to share the licence fee.  David Cameron declared himself to be a supporter of the licence fee and said it would remain "the principal way of funding the BBC for some time".

It certainly seems that the Corporation has been going out of its way to endear itself to the Conservatives of late, as it recognises that the party is more than likely to be in government and deciding its future before too long.  Indeed, to use Eric Pickles's terminology, it could be said that the Beeb has been "love-bombing" the Conservative Party:

• Contact between BBC Director-General Mark Thompson and Ed Vaizey and Jeremy Hunt is "very frequent".
• There have been several programmes aired very recently which - unusually for the BBC - depicted Margaret Thatcher sympathetically.
• The Corporation has recently recruited a former Conservative HQ policy unit staffer to work on strategy, reporting to Caroline Thomson, the BBC's chief operation officer.  Tina Stowell, former key aide to William Hague, has been moved from BBC Worldwide to domestic Corporate Affairs.
• What's more, the BBC's in-house lobbying operation - also headed by a one-time senior figure at Conservative Central Office - would appear to have upped the ante in terms of its courting of the Tory MPs of tomorrow.  Reports have reached us that when the BBC aired those programmes about Margaret Thatcher the other week, emails were sent out from the BBC public affairs department to a number of Conservative PPCs and other figures in the party with information about them.  And the same department is now hosting a programme of dinners for Conservative parliamentary candidates expected to enter the Commons next year, at which the aforementioned former CCO insiders are giving presentations on the BBC's future.
• Conservatives (including this site's editors) are now the beneficiaries of free DVDs of best BBC output - including, before Christmas, of the (excellent) serialisation of Little Dorrit.

In the words of one Tory insider familiar with the operation, it is "one of the country's most professional and well-financed lobbying machines".  And it is, lest we forget, funded by the licence fee.

Jonathan Isaby and Tim Montgomerie

Comments

[YMT]

Can't write anything short enough to explain my views on the BBC so to sum it up.

"God I hate the BBC....."

[bill]

I would not want the BBC to love bomb anyone. I would prefer it to be abolished and failing that cut right down to size and redirected.

[Malcolm Dunn]

The BBC may have been inviting lots of Conservative Mps and PPCs to dinner etc but their political output remains pretty much the same.See Iain Dale's recent posts on Marr being a 'Conservative free zone' and the fact that Kevin Maguire is the journalist that appears most often on Radio 5 news programmes.
It is a shame. I think the BBC is on the whole a wonderful institution. 2 years ago after reading numerous attacks on the BBC on this site I made a week long diary on my consumption of TV and Radio. BBC programmes made up more than 90%. Since then ITV has gone further downhill even though I'd like to support it.
Having lived for a while in the USA I would hate our broadcasting to go the way theirs has.
Freezing the licence fee seems to me a good idea but privatising the lot may well destroy it and ruin what is good about the BBC as well as the bad.

[Tony Makara]

I think its fair to say that the BBC is the only 'political' broadcaster in the UK. Its programming from news coverage of the middle-east and domestic politics, to its childrens programming is loaded with political imput and completely contravenes any claim it has in being objective.

The fact that the BBc is now cosying up to Conservatives is interesting. Perhaps this great parasite just seeks to attatch itself to whomever can provide it will an ample supply of funding on which to gorge itself? We all all seen the recent attempts to rehabilitate Baroness Thatcher through various docudramas, perhaps this is no more than the BBC repositioning itself, making sure that the next government will be a compliant host body to leech off?

[no longer a voter]

Scrap the BBC it has been the enemy of England and God since before the last war. Close radio 1 (garbage) dump Jonathan Ross etc etc until the entire communist project is deracinated.

[JGS]

The Beeb is institutionally leftist. If it can't reform itself then abolish it.

[ToryBlog.com]

The BBC *is* currently subscription based (the tv tax), its funding does not come out of general taxation, it is just that the subscription is demanded with the threat of imprisonment if people do not pay.

The only two arguments against making the subscription optional is loss of revenue for the BBC and loss of control for politicians.

Neither of these are good reasons to continue with the mandatory subscriptions model.

I don't hate the BBC, I really like it, and like Malc, watch it more than any other channel (have to resort to DVD for La Belle Noiseuse and other French nudey movies) but I really do not want politicians to legally force me to subscribe.

[sjm]

I get mildly irritated by the BBC's relatively pro-Labour stance, but I get wildly angry at its patronising, dumbed-down reporting and style of programme-making.

With the honourable exception of David Grossman and Paul Mason.

[Sally Roberts]

My gut instinct tells me that I agree with those voices calling for the abolition of the BBC - but Wait a Bit.....We need the powerful media voice to propel us into power - don't we?!! Perhaps we should cosy up to them for a little longer...say another year or so?

[Schlieffen Plan]

Root and branch reform will soon be possible. Digital switchover will allow the BBC to charge a subscription for its services ie if you want to receive it you have to pay for it....rather like Sky1 or Nickelodeon. This would force the BBC to think clearly about the sort of broadcaster it wants to be - a limited producer of high quality current affairs, drama, documentary, light entertainment and childrens' programmes (no soaps, sport, films or reality crap).

Digital switchover would also allow a change in ownership structure. Like an old-fashioned building society, the BBC would become "mutualised" ie owned by its members or subscribers with HM QE2 holding a golden share (the existing Royal Charter) to make it bid proof.

Problem solved. Five minutes to coffee time... might just sort out a quick flat tax plan....

[Andrew Gibson]

As John Sullivan warned, all institutions end up being leftist unless explicitly founded for "right wing" purposes. (As evidenced by, say, the Rowntree Trust, or our universities, where leftists rule the roost.)

If the BBC is love bombing the Tory leadership, that is not "progress": it simply confirms that the BBC will seek to serve the politicians in power rather than the public.

You don't get (so much of) this type of politicking from Sky.

[Mark Demmen]

We should not forget that the liberal-left establishment is not identical with the current Labour Government, and, among many qualities, has a remarkable sense of self-preservation. Manoeuvring of this kind should be therefore expected to co-opt and neutralise what these elites probably now accept is a Conservative government-in-waiting.

The test will be whether the Conservative leadership is willing and able to resist, or if it just allows itself to become part of the 'progressive consensus'.

In this specific case, we all know the BBC licence fee is finished as a justifiable form of funding. The BBC knows this, and the leadership knows it. So when are we going to admit it in public?

[pp]

The BBC are slime. The BBC have shown beyond any doubt that 'unbaised' is not their thing - and trying to switch sides now just condemns them even further.

If state funding cannot produce 'unbiased' coverage (and the BBC have proved that it can't) then nothing can, and we should accept theat all coverage will be biased, and in light of that, individuals should get to choose which biased view they want to finance (if any).

I don't want to pay for a pro-labour BBC, and it is would be equally unjust to expect a labour supporter to finance a pro-tory BBC. State broadcasting has shown itself to be fundamentally flawed so should be abandoned.

[Raj]

Close radio 1 (garbage) dump Jonathan Ross etc etc until the entire communist project is deracinated.

Radio 1 is for young people, who I'm sure would say the same about Radio 3 and 4. You have to have something for everyone - you personally can't dictate programming.

Sally makes a point I did yesterday. If you openly declare you will destroy the BBC, it will drop any pretext of being neutral and fight for its life by backing Labour and the Lib Dems to the hilt. There seems to be this strange naivity that one can slag the BBC off and yet get elected no probs.

Whilst the BBC isn't pro-Tory, it isn't spending all of its time working against it either. To say otherwise is sulking in the extreme. Bite down on your pride and try to work with it at least until after the election. Long-term decisions can be taken later.

[Jack Stone]

The reason that most on this site hate the BBC is because being right-wing they are obviously intolerant and with that intolerance not just comes an intolerance towards anyone who is different to you on grounds of race, sex and religion but comes an intolerance towards anyone who may express a different opinion to you or threaten your views in anyway. I don`t agree with this intolerance but I can understand it as its just the way people are when they are right-wing.

[Howard A Ward]

Sally Roberts has got it right. Cosy up to them for a while and then once in office break up this institutionally left wing biased organisation.

[ToryBlog.com]

If any Tory MP comes out with that previously repeated crap that the BBC is special because of the way it is funded, they should be shot.

Special because people get a criminal record for not paying the subscription? I think we could do without that kind of 'special'!

But I do also agree with Sally too. There is no need to address this now, but if it is not moved to an optional subscription model when the tories are in office, it will simply reinforce the view that New/Blue Lab are just part of the same establishment taking it in turns at the top table, but fundamentally identical.

[Tommy]

This is outrageous. The BBC should be non
-partisan, not flock from party to party when it seems there may be a new government.

[David Sergeant]

A problem for the BBC, and any other broadcaster is that journalists tend to be left wing. It's a variation on the educational dictum - "those that can do, those that can't teach". Bashing right wing politicians is so much easier because you avoid looking as if you are against helping the poor etc while looking tough, indeed one of Labour's great advantages for some time is that journalists are happy to accept, and project, the image of Tories being nasty so the journalist can look so nice and compassionate by at least snearing at them (Marr is good at that). Good for the journalist's image, showbiz people often see it that way too. It is probably impossible for even a well meaning BBC management to control this attitude.

[Tommy]

"The reason that most on this site hate the BBC is because being right-wing they are obviously intolerant and with that intolerance not just comes an intolerance towards anyone who is different to you on grounds of race, sex and religion but comes an intolerance towards anyone who may express a different opinion to you or threaten your views in anyway."

Yawn.

[YMT]

lolJackStone and his "boohoohoo, you're all racists" attacks.

I think you'll find most of us hate the BBC because it's Sh*t.

Also Tim can't you start deleting lolJacks irrelevant posts and block his IP from posting? The constant racialism taunts are tedious and lolJack and his Kin don't really deserve to be allowed to post their red rants on ConHome each and every day! He/she/dolly is perfectly free to troll his views on his/hers/its own site.

[Steevo]

"Sally Roberts has got it right. Cosy up to them for a while and then once in office break up this institutionally left wing biased organisation."

Agreed and I'm American. They've been so anti-Isael and to a lesser extent US. I don't know how many here know but even they admit to liberal/leftist bias. And you should read some of their former employees. Take their head off once the Tories have power, and take the load of tax and threat of the law off the citizen. You'll be much better off with pure competition to have any hope of more balance like here in the states. At least we can still get a powerful conservative/libertarian view.

[Susan]

I spy rats fleeing Labour's sinking ship. However, if the outcome of this "love-bombing" were to be an equally partial BBC unquestioningly toeing the Conservate Party line it would be just as disastrous for fair and balanced reporting and still against the interests of a public service ethos. Scrap the fee and then the Beeb can do what it wants.

[Dontmakemelaugh in Oz Down Under]

The BBC is a menace to Britain. It has been suggested many times that those that want its output should buy it by subscription.

It comes as no surprise that the "reasonable, nice Mr Cameron" sees that there will be no change in the funding of the BBC for some time.

No doubt the BBC sees the "reasonable and nice Mr Cameron" as the ideal (Conservative?) leader to continue to oversee and implement the policies of its liberal lefty ethos and bring it all to fruition on behalf of the EU i.e. England to disappear and be consumed in the EU bog; a gradual but ineluctable, quicksand style of governance; our decline as a pre-eminent nation to be managed in a 'reasonable" genteel manner and probably into the benign arms of Islam; our borders to continue to be non existent for those determined to enter one way or another

I do not care how bad the TV is in America - I do not have to pay for it.
Imho the BBC is beyond redemption,. Why bother to fix a media that is broke only for its propaganda to break you?

[John Ward]

There is a lot of truth in the preceding comments, including tendencies in journalism (yes, and showbiz!) but there is a powerful that must not be overlooked.

That is the large-scale infiltration of the BBC by Common Purpose-trained (brainwashed?) managers are others at (often) senior level. The Corporation is so riddled with this subversion that it cannot be reformed.

As anyone who has tries to clean out the vipers from within any other public body will know, once entrenched they cannot be fully eradicated. The BBC has to go, unfortunately, and that is why: it is in effect their own fault, no-one else's.

[albion]

"I do remember... the corridors of Broadcasting House were strewn with empty champagne bottles. I'll always remember that",

- Jane Garvey, BBC Five Live, May 10th, 2007, recalling May 2nd, 1997.

Any Conservative that supports the BBC in any way shape or form is deluded & dangerously naive.

They hate us.

They are the enemy.

Full stop.

The endemic liberal leftisms of the BBC have been engrained into the very fabric of the corporation by allowing liberal left internationalists set the hiring policies & recruitment agenda for the past decade.

Mass sackings of the more obviously political employees who use their position at the BBC to further a politcal agenda is a must.

Alas, I have a nasty feeling that the cosy consensus & conspiracy against the taxpayer will continue when DC becomes PM - & all the insults & underhand tactiocs against the Conservative Party undertaken by the BBC for the past 20 years will be forgotten & go unpunished.

[subrosa]

The BBC needs reorganising. Give Scotland their bit and let us get on with broadcasting to the people of Scotland instead of the endless London based programmes.

Bringing Question Time to Glasgow is more of an insult than common sense, particularly when the licence fee payers will have to cough up for Dimbleby and his crew to travel up and down from London, because none wants to live in Scotland.

[Stewart Geddes]

The issue here is that under the Labour Government the BBC stopped reporting the news and started creating the news. Notice how many times we have reporters talking to reporters who opine about what might be or may be happening.

It would be far better if they simply reported the facts, we would save a fortune in reporters salaries.

[Michael Taylor]

The BBC is so manifestly and thoroughly complicit in the New Labour decade of lies, bullying and disaster, that it is clearly a big part of the problem. I do not believe it can be reformed, and I do not believe anyone should waste time, effort and money trying. Moreover, there's no justification for a State Broadcaster of any size or reach anyway these days.
Break it up. Sell it off. Sow the ground it occupied with salt.

[clive elliot]

It's not surprising that the BBC is as it is, when most of its staff are recruited by advertising in the Guardian !

[Geoff Middleton]

The BBC is irredeemably biased, culturally and politically, in religious matters, and in its total capitulation to climate alarmism.
Not many people want to pay for the Guardian-on-air.
Abolish it.

[Man in a Shed]

Not feeling the love here - so I say this, in love of course, privatise the statist and corporatist left-wing parasites.

Seriously - the BBC always toadies to the government of the day to some extent. Perhaps the corporate background will go back to blue from the post 97 Red ? We shouldn't be fooled.

Its important to dismantle the BBC. Split radio of, give independent local radio a fair chance, and have multiple public service broadcasters funded by subscription.

The BBC will fight a tremendous rear guard action and needs to be firmly dispatched early in the next Conservative govt.

[Conand]

OK I'll stop bashing the beeb. I hereby claim my free DVD.

[Jack Stone]

Man in a Shed. The BBC dispatched today the NHS tomorrow perhaps! Why do the Conservative Party hate the most loved British institutions so much. Its a mystery to me!!

[ToryBlog.com]

I wonder if we should talk to Jack's wife Rosetta to she if she can help us understand what Jack writes.

[YMT]

Ignore lolJackStone Man in a Shed et al

[Tommy]

"Why do the Conservative Party hate the most loved British institutions so much."

Perhaps we could put it to a vote.

Or would you come back and scream: populist!

[Tommy]

"I wonder if we should talk to Jack's wife Rosetta to she if she can help us understand what Jack writes."

Took a while for me to get that.

[Deborah]

Why si the BBC giving out freebie DVDs to politicians and hacks?

[Ad]

The problem is for example using one aspect of the BBC and thus calling for the whole institution to be scrapped. This approach is both irrational and illogical. For example i doubt many here will listen to Pete Tong on a friday night on Radio 1 or lsiten to Cheggers popc quiz on Chris Moyles in the morning but as a 20 year old guy who pays the license fee i do. Don't forget it's not just you paying for the license fee but everyone !!

Now thats off my chest, like malcom the earlier poster i love the BBC. However there does need to be reform and re-evaluation. You can't ban an institution simply because it doesnt cosy up to your political dogma, im not an ideologoue so it may be easier for me to state this.

Rather we need to see the BBC become objective with some leftist and some rightist commentators. Generally though its mainstream output should be objective with contributors from both sides.

We need to look at cutting wastage, for example getting the best from BBC 4 and putting life into BBC 2. We could also look to cut radio stations that have very poor output, remeber those who wish to cull radio 1 and 2 they have millions of listeners (all who pay the license fee may i add).

The BBC does need reassessing but like some who have posted here around 90% of my TV watching is on the BBC so i am not going to be a hypocritical or a closed mined ideologue like some here and simply call for the banning of the whole thing because of one area of its output (eg political news)

Rather refrom, sharing of the license fee, and a balanced nature of broadcasting must be the priorities.

[H Taylor]

As a floating voter who has voted Tory in the past, I am shocked at the spite and vitriol shown here towards the BBC. Most voters don't watch the current affairs and political programmes you are all so cross about, but just enjoy the dramas, documentaries etc which are the best in the world. And the licence fee is great value for money compared with the high price dross on Sky etc. It is very worrying when political parties of any persuasion want to interfere with the media especially broadcaster. And that includes freezing the licence fee.

[Lindsay Jenkins]

What strength of anti-BBC feeling here!

Yet there are many good things today and go back pre 1960s and the BBC prided itself on being British but otherwise neutral.

That was before the deliberate BBC campaign to pepper the airwaves with expletives and break down social mores - a left wing agenda. In short the BBC was hijacked.

Technology changes may indeed force the BBC to rethink and go back to what it once was. If not then a Conservative government should 'encourage' a root and branch reform.

[Jack Stone]

If the BBC were abolished you would not get things like period dramas and wild life documentaries. You would not get nightly news programmes like Newsnight. You would only have local radio that plays classic twenty four hours a day poip music. We would be poorer as a nation without it just because the Conservative Party can`t tolerate people who disagrees with it.

[Raj]

Ad makes some good points. Just because it might be too biased with the politics doesn't mean it's all bad. And just because you guys don't like its content doesn't mean the majority feel the same way.

Really, some people are so selfish here it's silly.

[Alan Carcas]

The BBC love-bombing the Tories? Have you missed the week long anti-Tory, anti-Thatcher, "celebration" of the 25th anniversary of the miners strike, with Arthur Scargill in his usual screeching form? Who wants enemies when you've got love-bombers like that?

[Richard Calhoun]

If this article is correct it appears that the BBC is susceptible to the party in power, or about to be.

This is yet another reason why it should be privatised

[Sally Roberts]

"If the BBC were abolished you would not get things like period dramas and wild life documentaries. You would not get nightly news programmes like Newsnight. You would only have local radio that plays classic twenty four hours a day poip music."

No - you'd only get superb channels like UK Drama and Animal Planet! You'd be forced to watch the excellent current affairs coverage on Sky News as well as channels such as CNN; Fox News; CNBC; Al Jazeera; France 24 and Russia Today which give perspectives from all over the world! You'd be forced to listen to excellent independent radio stations such as LBC News and LBC 97.3... Too, too terrible!!!

[resident leftie]

While a small number of right-wing commentators and the usual gaggle of outraged Daily Mail readers who post online might think the BBC is biased, the majority of viewers and listeners do not. I'm trying to get more recent data, but the last independent survey I can find suggests that people believe there is a slight Conservative bias! In general, the BBC will be seen as the voice of the establishment, regardless of its reportage. If you aren't part of the current hegemony, you may well perceive bias. If you are an unusually strident political geek, you are going to see bias in any organisation which reflects mainstream public opinion.

If there is any bias at all, it is towards the general views and outlook of ABC1 quality newspaper readers; in business reporting, against unions, but also overrepresentative of the consumers vs business view, with less interest in shareholders and employees.

Many of you fundamentally disagree with publicly funded broadcasting, and are using supposed bias as an excuse to knock the BBC.

And, Jeremy Clarkson.

[Tommy]

"remeber those who wish to cull radio 1 and 2 they have millions of listeners (all who pay the license fee may i add)."

I notice that you conveniantly left the word TELEVISION out of the term TELEVISION license fee. The tv license tax isn't supposed to be used to fund radio.

"Many of you fundamentally disagree with publicly funded broadcasting, and are using supposed bias as an excuse to knock the BBC."

I like your contributions to conservative home, you tend to be bring a left-wing perspective, but you cannot seriously expect us to believe that you do not believe that the bbc is biased.

BTW Yes we do oppose a 'publicly funded broadcaster', as do a majority of the british people.

"Most voters don't watch the current affairs and political programmes you are all so cross about, but just enjoy the dramas, documentaries etc which are the best in the world."

Then they could be funded by advertising, if people watched them.

"And the licence fee is great value for money compared with the high price dross on Sky etc."

What the hell is this, points of view?

"It is very worrying when political parties of any persuasion want to interfere with the media especially broadcaster. And that includes freezing the licence fee."

The government which holds responsibility for the bbc tax deciding to not raise the bbc tax is worrying? Whats next? Doctors curing patients? novelists writing novels? Dancers dancing?

All very worrying. How dare these people do their jobs!

"If the BBC were abolished you would not get things like period dramas and wild life documentaries."

Yes they don't have any of these things in countries that don't have the bbc tax do they?

"You would not get nightly news programmes like Newsnight."

News at 10????????????????????

Or if you would prefer an example from another country how about nightline?

"We would be poorer as a nation without it just because the Conservative Party can`t tolerate people who disagrees with it."

We have no problem with those who disagree with us, we just don't want to give them an endless supply of money to pretend to be neutral.

[Ad]

Sorry Tommy i should have included TV in there becasue of course they get millions of viewers two, in fact BBC 1 the greatest proprotion of viewing share in the entire country!

There are arguments to be had and made about BBC reform many which i am open to. It's jsut if people didn't base arguments on single pointed political dogma we may be able to have a proper pragmatic debate about the role of the BBC which EVERYBODY watches and must fairly have a say in. It may have a lefty bias at times but it's usually been biased towards the current government presumably for fundign purposes if anything else. But you cannot turn it into the British Broadcasting Conservatives.

The strongest arguments relate to the fact that the license fee is compulsary however the only way you could really solve that one is to surely hold a referendum?

[snegchui]

What was the BBC remit when founded?
Does that remit hold today and is being maintained?
What were the conditions in which it was founded?
What are the conditions in which it operates today?
These are valid questions to ask.

The BBC on founding had almost no competition, had a large element of public information service in its remit and strived for a reputation of impartial authoritative information. Coupled with this was public entertainment, low brow comedy on 1 (usually of very high quality) and impressive historical drama. And its sports coverage was good as well.

Now, I think the BBC struggles financially to compete for good sport. To bid effectively would require huge licence fee increases or dumbing/running down of other bits. Should it pull out altogether?

Dramas and comedy. Questions of taste, I agree, but there seems to be a reversal of good shows in that now most of the good stuff comes from the US. The danger is that without public funding of some sort, the British Film Industry could suffer.Should the BBC maintain its role here. I think there is an argument, but it may well be quality over quantity, but you better have good talentspotters.

Impartial and authoritative news and information source. I think there is a general agreement that the likes of Panorama are past their heyday and Newsnight is very variable. Is this because of bias or getting too small a share of the pot? The CNNs run on much bigger budgets.

What is the BBC? Is it a hybrid broadcaster trying to serve too many masters, or is it a worldclass broadcaster that needs a different funding model to get the funds it needs to compete in the new world?

My way forward would be to shrink it down to news and info channel, but world class. I appreciate others would bust its funding model and keep it the size it is or larger.

[David Galea]

Why are the BBC sending free DVDs out to political websites?

The BBC is paid for by British people therefore the entire BBC archive should be placed online in the public domain for free legal online download by Bittorrent software. Then people can do whatever they like with past BBC shows. It's our money so BBC productions should belong to us

[Geoff]

"the fact that the license fee is compulsary "

aaah, "Ad", that explains the grumpy letters which I have been throwing away for about 20 years.

[Telly Tax Rebel]

Let's get one thing straight - The "licence fee" is neither a fee or a subscription, it is a tax enforceable with fines and the threat of imprisonment, My definition of a fee/sub is that it's a matter of choice and not a "pay up or else" option. Still - "fee" sounds better than tax doesn't it?

The way forward after digital switchover is a monthly subscription based on choice, I'm sure the BBC will benefit in the long run, for examble - if Wayne and Chantelle need their fix of Eastenders and celebrity this and celebrity that (on ice) then they will have to pay their monthly subs or be faced with a blank screen - sorted!.

It's a simple solution to what is a simple problem but don't expect politicians to queue up to give their support, I bet they claim their licence "fee" back on expenses, Do as we say not do as we do.

[Tommy]

"The "licence fee" is neither a fee or a subscription, it is a tax enforceable with fines and the threat of imprisonment,"

Not just any kind of tax, but a POLL TAX!

[John Prendergast]

Just ensure all news goes out via ITN, FOX,CBS,Blomberg,Speigel,Private Eye.

BBC will get the mesage, afgter all by giving exclusives when in Northern Ireand to ITN, BBC soon had to back off.

When we win then, do a corruption investigation into every level with Jail as a result. It will be fair, there is enough rot in BBC for several prisons'full

[Freddy]

I like most BBC programmes, but I'm uneasy about their political and defence coverage.

To cover defence matters well you have to get the basic facts right. If you can't identify the equipment being used (other nations as well as British) you can't do the job properly.From time to time the BBC make elementary factual errors eg:- identifying an ARV as a personnel carrier!

With regards to the BBCs political coverage, I'd like to make the following points:-

1) I know they don't have to balance the number of people on each programme but my perception is that there is now a very noticeable imbalance of Labour and Tory guests.

2)When Labour are narrowing the gap in the polls I think that we are told about more polls than when the Tories are widening the gap.

3) I am fed up with endless programmes on Blair and the Blair years.

4)I am not interested in what John Prescott thinks.

5)I think that they ought to give more prominence to Conservative announcements than they do. Many are simply ignored. Labour announcements and reannouncements and rereanouncements are covered ad nauseam. On some occasions more coverage of the Labour rebuttal is given than coverage of the Conservative announcements.

6)The selection of items to run on the news requires strict editorial control.

7) They don't seem to take complaints at all seriously and make changes as a result.

I do hope somebody from the BBC is monitoring this and related threads over the past couple of days.

[pp]

Having been forced to pay for the digital switchover (so I can have hundreds of channels not to watch, instead of three that generally had some thing worth watching) - if it means that the licence can be scrapped and the whole BBC made subscription only (like bbc gold or whatever), it may actually have been a price worth paying...

Hurrah! (after all) maybe the BBC should have been more careful what it wished for...

[Isaac Hunt]

"What's more, the BBC's in-house lobbying operation - also headed by a one-time senior figure at Conservative Central Office"

That would be Andy Scadding, former Head of Broadcasting at CCHQ. Why the secrecy? Is he leaking to Conservative Home?

[sfsgferg]

Those BBC bast**ds, let's blow them to hell when we get into power.
I have no doubt they'll be scrupulously balanced when we're in power, only to turn on us again when Labour are in the ascendant. Remember, they took a completely ideologically victorious conservative party, proved correct in almost every way, which was fair, honest and triumphant at the end of the cold war, and they almost single handedly atomised it between 1997 and 2003. Now it is our turn. Cut the funding, there is a recession on and we have an excuse.

[Peter]

Labour, Conservative or Jedi, the notion of a public broadcaster shaping output to us, and paid for by us, to suit its own agenda and selfish interests is risible.

Not to mention pretty unique, just like the way it is funded.

[Peter]

We would be poorer as a nation without it just because the Conservative Party can`t tolerate people who disagrees with it.

Posted by: Jack Stone | March 17, 2009 at 11:57

Just to be clear... the BBC disagrees with the Conservative Party?

Is that how it's meant to operate?

I rather fear that getting a nice doco or period drama seems poor compensation for a propaganda machine for an entity that sees fit to use a large part of its output against those it 'disagrees' with.

Rather like saying 'Ok, sure, maybe some things are bit squiffy on the political front, but those Nuremberg Rally specials by Leni Reifenstahl are lovely bits of cinematography'.

[Chris Gallagher]

I agree, scrap it. I see no reason whilst the British people should pay for a bunch of sycophants kissing up to whatever political party is in power. Nor should they be providing the cash for an employment bureau for assorted luvvie lefties. And that’s ignoring the fact that the corporation is biased, inaccurate and anti-British. Furthermore the BBC is crowding out decent programming in the UK private sector as it has all the money.

And as for “quality programming”, 95% of the TV DVD’s I own are American. Excellent shows such as CSI, Scrubs, 24, The Wire et all. The last time the BBC produced something of note it was called Blackadder and has been around for 20 years. We won’t miss paying £139.5 Per Household Per Annum for state propaganda.

[hollyedeli]

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[tomkinadle]

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