Monday, March 23, 2015

The liberal Lubyanka that is the BBC

ANDREW BRIDGEN MP is on a mission to bring down a broadcasting Leviathan which demands on threat of imprisonment, and a hefty fine, a yearly tax of £5 billion from the British public. According to Bridgen; "On current trends, that will see 100 more people put in prison and over 300,000 citizens criminalised ". This Goliath of broadcasting goes by the name of the BBC: it demands financial remuneration from every television owner in the land: the tax is for the mere ownership of a television set – not for watching the BBC mind you, but just for owning a television
                
                The unfairness of this system would have been readily appreciated by medieval peasants who had to pay taxes of whatever value demanded by their robber barons and city sheriffs – such as the one immortalised in fiction through the story of Robin Hood.
                
                We are obliged to pay for services provided by the likes of the utility companies. When it comes to the energy companies we have a choice (if we wish to make it); when it comes to the BBC we have none; but when it comes to one of the BBC's  main competitors[1] – Sky: Rupert Murdock was given no such right by parliament to demand you pay him through taxation. You either bought into one or more of his services or you did not – the choice is yours. No one will be imprisoned or face a fine if they default with Sky; no one will be left with a prison record if they default with Sky. They will have their service terminated -  and even then Sky will welcome them back when they are financially able to buy their services once again when they become solvent.
               
                No prison and no fine; and no criminal record. Only a state regulated body such as the BBC would ever countenance either fining or gaoling a tax defrauder for owning a television set. This is madness: or it would be in a rational world; a world that the BBC governors and its chairman (sorry, chairperson) seems not to inhabit when it comes to broadcasting in the modern world. The BBC should no longer be able to go cap in hand to the politicians each year to increase the tax on television ownership, in the hope that they grant its yearly increase, and adding further to the prison population and criminalisation of BBC tax defaulters.

THE BBC has, over the decades, seen itself (along with politicians and a majority of the British people) as the finest broadcaster in the world. The institution was much loved by the British people (including myself). The term 'auntie' was a cosy reference that kept the population enamoured even under the Savile years in the 1970's and 80's.
                 
                 Andrew Bridgen referred to the BBC's mission statement and quoted the following; " [the BBC] exists to serve the public, and its mission is to inform, educate and entertain.” This implies at the very least, that objectivity free from all political bias, is the pre-requisite when it comes to educating and informing, as well as reporting, by a public broadcaster – the only part of this mission it has managed to live up to today, is to entertain (but even hear it is losing ground fast to it competitors).
                
                 The bias in the BBC on issues such as global warming, membership of the EU; multiculturalism, and immigration, cannot be disputed. The BBC's former employees have broken the silence on this institution's liberal bias. The BBC suffers the delusion that the nation is 100 per cent socially liberal and supports multiculturalism and immigration which gives them the right to dictate the liberal agenda that they support.

REALITY IS SOMETHING that, apparently, the BBC is out of tune with. They believe the whole UK  have bought into their multicultural liberal demesne; where they and they alone dictate the liberal agenda. They will not test this of course by doing away with the licence tax and allowing themselves to be cut adrift  into the private sector to survive on their own. The BBC dares not test its belief in its own superiority within the market place.
                
                 The BBC is becoming a liberal PRAVDA[2]; being allowed to continue by politicians who call themselves democratic. Now this broadcaster is looking into the possibility of charging the same licence tax for those who use its services on line. I firmly believe that the BBC believes themselves as vital to this nation's culture, as a water supply is to our people; and without it all cultural expression would be dead, and a new dark age would descend on these isles.
                
                  I doubt if Andrew Bridgen will ever accomplish his task of reigning in or better still doing away with the licence tax – but I wish him well in his attempt. 
               
               
               
               



[1] The BBC loathes any reference to competitors – especially Rupert.
[2] The old Soviet newspaper meaning 'truth'

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