The Great Debate about the BBC and Licence Fee

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  • Would you believe it? A survey has indicated that BAME and other special groups are over represented on the BBC, by quite a significant margin. The BBC is not representative of British society.

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    Celebrate it, Anticipate it, Yesterday's faded, Nothing can change it, Life's what you make it

  • I probably have some C90 cassette mix tape somewhere with recordings from there. It was either listen to laser or Crapital radio and then came along Kiss which was alright in it's early days but went downhill fast along with the music. As soon as anything gets commercialised it spoils it. I'm more a raver than a clubber and underground is where it's at.

  • https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-53347021


    Rumour has it that they are in negotiation with Phillip Schofield to tempt him from ITV (how Mali would have loved that!)

    That will no doubt involve millions so pensioners will help foot that bill :rolleyes:

  • That is disgusting :evil: Piers Morgan needs to get on the case with this with some heavy publicity campaigning. The thing is if all those pensioners refused to pay what can they do about it. They are relying frail old folk that fear breaking any laws or simply can't be bothered fighting because they are old and tired of fighting. This is the equivalent of a drug dealer targeting school kids.

  • It reeks of the old pals act with snouts in the trough. Instead of the BBC becoming business efficient with no waste, they want to carry on as usual with the excesses they have set up with the usual suspects who are earning obscene amounts of money for little work. The BBC don't seem to have heard of efficiency, their attitude is " It's only public money2..

    The Voice of Reason

  • Furious ministers threatened the BBC's funding last night after it defied them by axing free TV licences for most over-75s from the end of the month.

    Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden warned the move will "have an impact" on a Government probe into whether to decriminalise not paying the £157.50 tax.

    He added the decision "will be considered as part of looking at the way forward" on whether the licence fee survives beyond 2027.

    Speaking at a Downing St press conference he said: "I very much regret the decision the BBC has taken. I'm sure people up and down the country will feel let down."

    Instead of sticking to the brief of a “public service broadcaster” and producing educational programmes and documentaries, the Beeb wastes vast amounts on pointless luvvie output which neither serves the public interest nor entertains the average viewer.

    Why? Because in their desperate bid to woo youth audiences, the corporation’s high command has thrown its critical faculties out of the window.

    And the quest is a wild goose chase. According to the latest Ofcom report, most kids have given up on conventional broadcast TV anyway.

    Sombre Beeb executives like to imply that the Tory government is to blame for cutting BBC funding.

    But it’s clear to us that if the corporation slimmed down its sprawling empire — and cut the salaries of vastly overpaid managers — it would have plenty of cash to help out the over-75s.

    Who can argue with that comment?

  • Ministers can huff and puff and try to blame the BBC but it was then that axed the free licences. Gordon Brown introduced free licences for the over 75s, George Osborn scrapped them

  • No. George Osborn stopped subsidising them out of general taxation.

    The problem being that welfare funding should come from general taxation. The Government is accountable for welfare funding, which is not something that can be delegated.

  • No. George Osborn stopped subsidising them out of general taxation. It is the BBC who took over funding the concession and it is now the BBC that is scrapping them.

    Yes, effectively he scrapped them

  • Yes, effectively he scrapped them

    That's just your opinion but that simply isn't the case. The concession was to be financed by the BBC who agreed as part of the charter renewal last time and the BBC should be honouring that, otherwise the charter falls into disrepute. If it can be reneged on by one party then the other may wish to as well and just dump the licence at will and with little warning.

  • That's just your opinion but that simply isn't the case. The concession was to be financed by the BBC who agreed as part of the charter renewal last time and the BBC should be honouring that, otherwise the charter falls into disrepute. If it can be reneged on by one party then the other may wish to as well and just dump the licence at will and with little warning.

    Lets out it this way

    If you stop giving your OH housekeeping money so groceries cannot be bought and the cupboard is bare then who has starved you?

  • That's just your opinion but that simply isn't the case. The concession was to be financed by the BBC who agreed as part of the charter renewal last time and the BBC should be honouring that, otherwise the charter falls into disrepute. If it can be reneged on by one party then the other may wish to as well and just dump the licence at will and with little warning.

    It's beyond the scope of the charter and questionable whether the BBC should be getting involved with welfare provision at all. An interesting tactic by the Government. What next though? Maybe if they want to stop funding welfare based prescriptions, they could ask Boots to fund them...

    Accountability still rests with the Government and their decision to stop funding the over-75s licence from basic taxation.

    Edited once, last by jj20x (July 10, 2020 at 6:15 PM).

  • Yes I agree with that, so I guess most of us are on the side of the BBC on that specific argument.:/

    I've been having a sort of politics week, this week. I've half watched a load of select committees, including the culture committee looking into PSBs. James Purnell (a minister under Blair, now a BBC boss) was questioned by MPs and I'm afraid to sum it up in a few words, I'm not hopeful.

    The conservative MPs questioned Purnell about the BBC's bias, especially that Emily Maitliss Newsnight incident and his reply was the matter was dealt with swiftly. As Maitliss still has her job, I beg to differ.

    I'll try and summarise the event later, if I get a chance, but after the BBC, the CH4 boss was questioned and she was even worse. She thinks CH4 news and its presenters are totally unbiased. obviously she is living on Planet Mush, which sums up most of her channel's output.

    And the PSBs wonder why Netflix has become so dominate.:rolleyes:

  • The conservative MPs questioned Purnell about the BBC's bias, especially that Emily Maitliss Newsnight incident and his reply was the matter was dealt with swiftly. As Maitliss still has her job, I beg to differ.

    Isn't their mission to "educate and inform" which she did

    It's only bias if it's an opposite view to yours

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