The Government is expected to make a final decision on whether or not to decriminalise TV licence evasion in the next few weeks.
As the legislation currently stands it is a criminal offence for a person to receive TV programmes, or BBC on-demand programmes, in any property that is not covered by a valid TV licence. The legislation - section 363 of the Communications Act 2000 - is unfair, outdated and unenforceable.
At the start of February, when coronavirus was merely a 16-point word in the game of Scrabble, the Government launched a consultation - its second in the space of only five years - on the future of the TV licence fee.
This second consultation sought public and stakeholder opinion on whether TV licence evasion should be decriminalised, thereby nullifying TV Licensing's oft-mooted bullshit about criminal convictions and £1,000 fines.
It would be reasonable to say that in the intervening months, despite walking a very perilous tightrope, the BBC has succeeded in pissing off the Government on several occasions.
In April, right at the height of the coronavirus crisis, the BBC was accused of reporting fake news, which unfairly portrayed the Government in a bad light. Specifically the BBC falsely reported that "the boss of a large NHS Trust" had been on the phone complaining about the lack of PPE for his frontline healthcare staff, when in reality he was no such thing.
Only a couple of weeks later, at the beginning of May, the BBC's Panorama programme again looked at the thorny issue of PPE for healthcare workers. Presenter Richard Bilton interviewed a number of NHS staff, who it subsequently transpired ALL had a connection to the Labour Party or trade union movement. It was also revealed that the BBC approached trade union organiser and self-proclaimed communist Nigel Flanagan in an effort to source firebrand interviewees for the programme.
In June MPs were scathing of the BBC's coverage of the London Black Lives Matters protests and Emily Maitlis expressing her blatantly biased opinion, live on air, about Dominic Cummings' alleged breach of coronavirus restrictions.
In July the BBC confirmed that it would renege on its deal with the Government to continue funding the universal over-75 TV licence. As part of its last financial settlement with the Government, the BBC agreed to "accept full liability" for the over-75 TV licence. To add insult to injury the BBC is now trying to deflect blame for its decision onto the Government, having conveniently forgotten how much of a hard-on Tony Hall got over the deal at the time.
Just last week the Government criticised the BBC for the ridiculous notion that patriotic British anthems Rule Britannia and Land Of Hope And Glory could be omitted from Last Night Of The Proms for fear of offending some woke minority groups. The spineless national broadcaster has now decided that the songs will be played, but the lyrics can't be sung.
Speaking of the debacle the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson MP, said: "I think it's time we stopped our cringing embarrassment about our history, about our traditions and about our culture, and we stopped this general bout of self-recrimination and wetness."
Referring to the planned decriminalisation of TV licence evasion, a Whitehall insider told the Daily Mail that the BBC should expect its chickens to come home to roost.
"It was made very clear that they would be expected to honour the agreement to fund free TV licences, but they chose not to", the source said.
"And the recent misjudgements over the Proms just strengthen the feeling that they are badly out of touch with the public they are supposed to serve."
You can read the representations the TV Licensing Blog made to the Government consultation here.
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3 comments:
You're an expert at complaining about the 'rotten lefties' appearing on the BBC, but we never hear from you about overt tory bias within the old school tie corporation.
For example the incoming DG being a former tory candidate for fulham (Or somewhere in W. London)
Robbie Gibb going to co-ordinate teresa may's campaign as PR man for the tories.
'Nasty' nick robinson being a former president of the Oxford University conservative Association.
andrew neil - chairman of press holdings, owner of right-wing publication 'The spectator'
And the amount of overtly right-wing guests he hosts on that show.
Plus the amount of right wing politicians and political commentators compared to left wing oneson Question time. Centrists such as career stammer and jess mouthpiece philips are centrist and NOT of the left.
And you complain about NHS staff highlighting this government's ineptitude and incapablility in preventing deaths, merely because those interviewed happen to have links to the labour party?
I usually enjoy your blog, but your pro-right wing balance needs redress.
Yeah, thanks for that.
When you work for the BBC you see that they are all over the place, as far as bias is concerned. It's just generally a ridiculous 'culture' all of its own with everyone forever making sure they're 'on message'. The 'message' is never examined, queried, challenged - only very rarely does anyone dare rock the boat or go against the prevailing ethos.
When they do, they don't last long...
Any culture such as this, whatever bias or angle it has, is dangerous and needs to be sidelined before it can do damage. (In the case of the BBC, any more damage.)
Hilarious as it is, the comedy series W1A like all good comedies has more than a grain of truth in it. The, er, all up a dark and noisome passage of its own, headless chicken, gobbledegook-speaking that is the BBC is captured brilliantly. It's funny - but the underlying truth is that this is an entity which shouldn't be allowed to pretend that it is either the truth, a genuine reflection of our culture, or (heaven forfend) a social leader guiding the zeitgeist.
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