Summary
If I were Mark Thompson, the BBC's new director general, I wouldn't be too alarmed by Tessa Jowell's report purporting to show that two-thirds of the public want to scrap the licence fee. If this Government's track record is anything to go by, the Culture Secretary will do a great deal of sabre-rattling over the next 18 months, and then renew the BBC's charter on almost exactly the same terms as before.
The BBC is just another of those British institutions, like the House of Lords, that the Government constantly threatens to dismantle, only to leave more or less intact at the end of the day. One week it's fox hunting Tony Blair has been promising to abolish that particular tradition since 1997, yet each year the huntsmen still gather on the village green the next it's the honours system.See the full content of this document
Extract
Why the Beeb's Big Drama Is Just a Farce
You have to ask yourself why the Government bothers. Why announce that you're going to take apart some much-loved institution like the BBC and then do absolutely nothing?
One reason, obviously, is to keep Labour backbenchers happy. The Pr...See the full content of this document
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