Amongst the numerous other truly despicable things they’ve done in the space of four days, the government have attacked the BBC. IMHO, here is why, how and what it will probably mean.
THE WHY
The Tories have always hated the BBC for two reasons: firstly, it isn’t a commercial enterprise (it’s not run for profit with adverts etc); secondly, they always viewed the Beeb with suspicion, believing it was full of ‘lefties’. They’ve always wanted to destroy it or force it into changing into just another commercial station.
THE HOW
Well, first they took over control of the BBC in 2017 – replacing the 12 independent Directors with a Board of 5 Directors appointed by the government…. who then appoint the other 7! The Board (and other key departmental managers) are therefore now all Tory-supporting wealthy business/banking types. They then ensured that all the people in key political positions (chief political editors, political correspondents, the managers and presenters of all political programmes from Question Time to Radio 4’s Today programme) are Tory supporters, donors and ex-advisers/publicists.
As a result of this, we saw in this election the most staggering level of pro-Tory and anti-Labour bias from the BBC (which I won’t document here but has been very meticulously and well-documented elsewhere for those who are interested).
Now, after the Election, the Tories do a classic Orwellian thing (actually, the most Trumpian thing) by saying ‘black is white and lies are truth’ (saying the exact opposite of the truth): they state that the BBC were actually biased against them (as they did yesterday when announcing they were ‘boycotting’ Radio 4 in protest)!
Of course, simultaneously, they announce that they are ‘reviewing the licence fee’ and might decriminalise non-payment – this, having removed the subsidy for over-75’s recently and tried to ensure the public blamed the BBC for this, not the government!
WHAT IT WILL PROBABLY MEAN
The declaration that the BBC were actually biased against them coupled with the threat to their future funding/viability does several things: it tells the public the lie (which gains the Tories sympathy, feeding into the anti-BBC narrative); it warns anyone at the BBC that the government now controls their destiny and that anything the BBC does that the Tories don’t like will be met with punitive measures! And it paves the way for the reduction or removal of the licence fee, the break-up of the BBC (probably into separate commercial enterprises for sport, news, nature etc) and the full commercialisation of the BBC (as the Tories have always wanted).
Of course, this will be incredibly damaging to our democracy and yet another step towards a fascist society – as beginning to turn our State Broadcaster into a Government mouthpiece resembling that of North Korea (or an Orwellian ‘Ministry of Truth’) has already been in this Election!
Finally, I’ve not yet researched this in any detail and am by no means an expert on the BBC. This is just my opinion based upon the knowledge I do have and the limited reading I’ve done.
The Tories have always hated the NHS and the BBC (two great British institutions) vital to our democracy. I expect both to disappear (i.e. to be run in completely different ways that are commercial and unrecognisable from the past) in the next 5 years.
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Tom Lane
