The Licence Fee & Boris’s Fake Fight with the BBC
The Tories love to pretend the media is against them, but they both serve the same agenda
On Wednesday, it was reported that Boris Johnson’s government is considering scrapping the licence fee.
[For non-UK readers, the licence fee is a mandated payment all citizens are required to make if they own a television, it is how the BBC is funded. Non-payment can result in imprisonment. We have Orwellian posters about it]
Scrapping the licence fee is not a new idea, thinktanks have been suggesting it for years, but the way it was brought up this time positively reeked of an agenda.
We tweeted about it at the time:
#Tories "threatening" to scrap the #LicenceFee is your classic bait-and-switch psy-op.
The pro-establishment #BBC will now be trumpeted as a "national achievement" by the #MSM, gaslighting the left into defending an institution which undermines their movement every day.
— OffGuardian (@OffGuardian0) February 5, 2020
Right on cue, the next day, a twitter hashtag appeared in the UK “trending” category: #FiveThingsILoveAbouttheBBC.
It didn’t really go anywhere and was an obvious contrivance, but the point was clear.
At the same time a couple of editorials materialised defending the BBC too, whilst some of the voices calling for its scrapping, are actually covertly suggesting increasing it further and/or making it voluntary.
Now there’s talk of making it a “subscription-style” service, like Netflix and other streaming companies.
The certain reality is that the licence fee is going to increase, starting in April. Along with now being compulsory for the over 75s. Despite the increased revenue, the BBC is apparently making cuts (I imagine everyone will be too busy defending its existence to mind about that, now).
Where will it eventually end? Is it an issue even worth talking about? I don’t know, that’s not the point.
Really, I’m just putting this little piece out there, not because it’s a very important issue (the, “we love the BBC” kickback never really got off the ground, mercifully), but rather because it’s a perfect, encapsulated example of how the government and the media actually work together.
Sure, they will largely agree. The state will talk, and the media will echo without question. It happens all the time.
But just as often, and just as insidious, are moments like this, where a pretence of “opposition” actually serves to simply frame a false debate and boost the apparent bona fides of both sides.
For example, this an extension of the fake Tory vs the media narrative that recently played out through reporters boycotting a Downing Street press conference.
What's behind the "strained relations"?
A desperate need to present a monolithic establishment as at war with itself, in an effort to prevent the increasingly cynical, poor & desperate working class from taking to the streets in all-out revolution. #BorisJohnson #MediaFreedom https://t.co/gqVWHWKYxR
— OffGuardian (@OffGuardian0) February 5, 2020
When Boris Johnson cracks down on the BBC’s (totally pretend) “anti-Tory bias”, his base cheer on as the liberal media get a bloody nose, and the stenographic typing pool that is the mainstream media get to paint themselves as rebellious types who aren’t afraid of speaking truth to power.
Meanwhile, those on the left (who the BBC truly are biased against) are gaslighted into defending an institution that demonised Jeremy Corbyn and his movement unrelentingly for years, and will do the same to any true-left wing politician in the future.
Whatever eventually happens to the BBC, never make the mistake of thinking that it and Boris aren’t on the same side.
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Ain’t paid for a TV license, since 1979, coz’ you’d have to be very poorly educated & informed,
to believe for a second, anything the BBC ever told you, in relation to context >>>
License to kill ? With ex-judicial proceedings ?
Just like Obama … or HRC, FFS !
What a racket ! Who d’fuck do you think you are ?
Pompeo ? Pontius Pilot or what ? Seriously ?
Justice is only for elites, like Arbuthnot versus Assange !!!
Rule of Law, you can forget in any ‘democracy’.
He who pays the best & most expensive piper,
calls the tune . . . just like Hollywood or Las Vegas.
BoJo is doing absolutely nothing about the ‘Woke’ Cult.
Latest is the U of Kent’s “deplatforming” of Professor Selina Todd.
And, of course, there’s the Tory Party’s ongoing attempt to muzzle one of its own MPs (the MP for Shrewsbury) for – shock! horror! – going to a conference to hear those holding different opinions!
BoJo on the Woke Cult is turning out to be like Theresa May on Brexit.
His honeymoon will soon be over and, unless he defends us against rampant Wokism, his leadership (or lack of it) must be in jeopardy.
If the BBC disappeared tomorrow, that could only be a positive development. The air would certainly smell a bit sweeter. There would be no downside whatever. The Zionist BBC has spent years and decades shilling for war and has the blood of millions on its hands. Its poisonous output consists entirely of lies, smears, distortions and propaganda. It has no saving graces at all. The scum who work for it should be found employment where they can do no further harm and perform an honest day’s work for the first time in their miserable lives. Maybe as street sweepers or brussels sprout pickers.
The BBC will not just disappear it will be sold off to be one extra possession of a billionaire and continue to shill with even less scrutiny. Be careful what you wish for.
My view of the BBC is that far from being unbiased it has always had bias built in since its inception. There never has been a Golden Age of television. It is and still is the State Broadcaster despite the much self paraded monicker as ‘ Public Television.’ Sesame Street was Public Television in the US and great it was too, but the public referred to have never sat in many numbers on the Executive Board of the BBC. Corbyn and Labour had a plan to democratise the BBC but thankfully for Laura and the two Andres with a Show he ( Corbyn ) didn’t get near doing it. This is probably why the above three mentioned voted Tory. That and the higher income taxes of course. Apparently the money is to be made at the BBC by producing content and to be fair the BBC used to take risks… Read more »
The argument should not be about abolition of the licence fee but of restoring the BBC to what it is supposed to be and fighting for the BBC to be a truly independent public interest broadcaster and not a state propagandist. The problem is that this change will never happen whilst we have an unreformed Labour Party that is still dominated by the soft tories. Whilst the Tories have now become a fully fledged extreme right wing party, with a manipulated and stolen landslide the engineering of Labour to return to the centre right fold has been quietly or maybe I should say, quite openly happening. If labour ever get in the priority of any fair minded politician should be to fight for proportional representation and for a more rigorous integrity of the voting system to prevent its slow privatisation. The demise of the BBC or its ‘privatisation’ will just… Read more »
Exactly. You put it across much better than my ham fisted attempt earlier.
Brilliant.. I thought it was twisted
There’s two ways in which state-run mainstream media news is financed–corporately or publically, but the objective in either case is the same. The funding has little to do with the message both proliferate an official narrative. The commentators are merely actors or salesman convincing the bewildered viewer to accept neoliberal austerity and unending imperialist wars.
The only difference between public and privately owned media news is the way it’s “packaged” giving the impression that it’s different. This illusion allows the propaganda to be spread through a wider viewer scope. However, both media news outlets insidiously manipulate viewers and obfuscate facts. That’s why so many young people on turning away from mainstream media news and using alternative sources to secure information.
Everyone must now become a librarian and diligently search for the truth, or at least for data offering more than just one point of view.
yes yes excellent points
it should also be noted as you state
the commentators are merely actors or salesman
many news casters are casting spells
many of these folks tv radio print pundits are actual actors with equity cards.
and as myles matthis has pointed out from very old families rewired and reanimated by the ashkanazi and khazar non semite non jew crime families running the show.
the world is a stage and all that
what what
Perhaps the author has forgotten, or is unaware, that under Labour the BBC was slanted towards Labour. As the State broadcaster it spouts the propaganda of whoever is in charge, more or less.
Fundamentally it represents the views of the Establishment.
They will probably never get rid of the BBC and it will probably become funded directly from general taxation or a new internet tax for example. The State cannot lose its main propaganda tool.
The same people are always in charge. Whether they select Labour or Tories to be their mouthpiece makes no difference.
Under Blair and Brown is NOT under Labour. It’s under the Tory Lites.
the mason mark thompson i think is his name? the idiot that now runs the new york dwindling times he said after an extensive investigations we could not find any proofs of jimmy saville wrongdoing while at or within the bbc. jane stanley at bbc like the dancing israelites had pre crime knowledge of the 9 and 11 event ritual. stop paying your licence you do not have a contract with the head talmudick mason in the beeb. no contract no wet ink from 2 consenting parties no signatures no contract the company that goes to peoples door for the bbc is it not an an american military manufacturer? for shits and giggles why not not pay licence fee tax go to court and use jane stanley and the bbc 911 insider dealings pre crime for knowledge of murder the bbc as a criminal demonck enterprise as reasons to not… Read more »
Oh please. Jeremy Corbyn was a true leftwing politician? Stop already.z
The BBC……Orwellian, Establishment wankfest. One of the visible heads of the Beast. Repugnant to the core, utterly corrupt and serving the agenda of a tiny minority of war criminal scumbags who fuck with everyone’s lives and manipuate the spritiual landscape from behind the curtains. Shame on the British public for being so completely and utterly fooled by these shitbags
Calling the BBC Orwellian is nicely ironic, as the BBC boasts that it employed Orwell as a propagandist. http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/orwell_george.shtml Even though the BBC is required to be impartial and it boasts of its impartiality.
The BBC is a propaganda organisation. It should be disestablished and the television licence should be abolished, immediately.
abolish
no need
no arrangement
no deal
no consent
no contact
no signature
no 2 parties
no contract
no licence fee tax
all an act
by murderous child fiddling preverted
actors
is it not already
There’s a real dilemma with this one.
As biased as the BBC is, if they get rid of it, there will be zero possibility of a Labour win. All the paid channels are already pro Tory to a much greater degree than the BBC.
That leaves ITV and C4 News, relatively few people watch them.The latter will be a target for removal too by the Tory bastards.
ITV is likely to fold in the next 5 years because their funding is increasingly precarious. If they don’t fold they’ll be taken over, probably by a major US broadcaster or Sky.
We need to keep the BBC, yes it needs reform, but better the devil we know.
heavy meat indeed to ponder indeed
frank spenser
but i do not agree any more monies should be given especially a new series of
some mothers do have um
poor frank
Back to your comedy Norman.
Do you have a cohesive argument against my point? Which left wing private radio or TV broadcaster can you name? Zilch.
sorry i did not bother reading what your comment was
i just saw your name and thought of betty and frank spenser
at some stage i will take a look at what you said and will probably give you an up tick
poor frank
Why are you hoping for a Labour ‘win’. That will change NOTHING. The system, Evil and cancerous to its core, must collapse and be swept totally away before any hope for the UK populace is possible. Otherwise it is a Nantucket Sleighride to the very depths of despair and destruction.
I’m not a revolutionary Marxist, Trotskyist nor Bolshevik, nor other idealist nor anarchist. That’s why I’m hoping for a Labour win and keeping the BBC, albeit a mofidied version of the BBC.
We already had a Labour win when that awfully nice Blair chap took the reins. Recall the euphoria? From some quarters you would have thought it WAS a revolution. But it turned out that Tony was just Thatcher with a knob. So much so that Thatcher admitted it herself. (Although she may have had to loan him HER knob.) In any case Tony’s phoney baloney became the new model for Labour –helpfully rechristened as “New Labour”. Whether “New” Labour could ever again become “Old” Labour i.e. REAL Labour was a question unconditionally answered by Jeremy’s unexpected entry. The notion of the slightest REAL leftward slide sent the overlords into a frothing panic so severe they had to turn Jeremy into Adolf. (And don’t think they were insincere in that transformation. For them, the slightest encroachment on their exploitative money grubbing is more horrific than any number of Holocausts.) Of course… Read more »
Poverty gone in China, and burgeoning in the West. Long live ‘Freedom’!!!!!!!!!!!
You’re a Tory. A Guardian ‘Pink-ish Tory’, at best.
‘For non-UK readers, the licence fee is a mandated payment all citizens are required to make if they own a television, it is how the BBC is funded.’ I’m sure this was a mistake but this is important. The falsehood above is also the perception held by a large group of the population who actually pay the licence meaning that for a lot of them they don’t know what they are paying for and why. The law is that you do NOT need a television licence if you only own a television. People who subscribe to Neflix do NOT need a television licence. Same with any On-Demand service. The law states that you ONLY need a television licence if you watch LIVE broadcasts. The licence in fact has nothing to do with television but is for those who receive LIVE broadcasts which in fact can be received on laptops and… Read more »
I thought they changed the rules at least (don’t know about “the law”), such that you now need a licence to watch BBC “on demand” (i.e. iPlayer).
Yes my apologies you are correct. The law was changed for them to bring iPlayer under the licence fee.
I hate the bbc – why should I have to pay for it’s lies. It’s theft! They steal off me to fund the lies they tell me.
And how they love the royal family – it’s hard to keep my food down when I hear them talk.
Yes the Royal Family are quite nauseating, but imagine the alternative of having someone like President Blair in charge, and commanding all the revised powers the president will be given.
A thoughtful and timely article.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZBM-pkJPio , and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wtt4LbWl84. The BBC supports terrorism, as does the UK governoncers
Absolutely. The Tory ‘battles’ with the BBC are a charade that suits both sides, for it gives the BBC the credibility and popularity vital to spread government propaganda, while also allowing the government and the rest of its client media to shift the political debate even further to the right of the allegedly ‘left-wing’ BBC benchmark.
I’d be happy to fight to save a broadcaster that really did work independently for the British people. Sadly, the BBC is far from that – it is a government mouthpiece that spreads lies and smears about the opposition parties that are like something from Mugabe’s Zimbabwe. I’ve not watched or listened to the BBC since their appalling election coverage – and don’t intend to again.
Brilliant article. Of course the Tories and the BBC are on the same side. BBC employees openly parade their pro-Tory bias with impunity (who could forget Kuenssberg’s two ‘indiscretions’ just days before the GE?). The BBC was at the forefront of the ‘systemic anti-Semitism in the Labour Party’ propaganda – the biggest Big Lie in the history of post-war politics. Pretending the BBC is against them is a classic conservative tactic to push the BBC even further to the right. We see exactly the same tactic used by Australian conservatives in relation to the ABC. And, over the last twenty years, it has unfortunately worked. It would be a fair guess that much of the rubbish which the ABC broadcast about Corbyn and the UK Labour Party emanated from, or was inspired by, the BBC – particularly the selection of persons to be interviewed on UK politics on ABC radio… Read more »
BBC News reporting on the day of the Rabbi Mirvis attack on Corbyn was unbelievable – and in more ways than one. Even the Conservative Peter Oborne had noted the vast gap between the fairness of Corbyn and the thuggery of Johnson:
https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/boris-johnson-may-win-election-rest-us-will-lose
But there on the BBC 6 O’clock News was a ten minute party political broadcast for the Tories and a shamelessly deceitful – and content free – trashing of Labour. The biggest joke is that, even then, the BBC are seen as being bolshie and hostile to the Tories! (In the same way that the Guardiargh is an “extreme left” publication)
As usual, the odious multi-millionaire ‘philosemite’ Philip Adams was positively despicable in libeling Corbyn, entirely falsely, as an ‘antisemite’. And the creature is always nominated as the most ‘Leftwing’ on the ABC-a forty year employee of Rupert Murdoch!!
Adams has obviously changed sides, consequent upon his rise in affluence. He’s one of a number who’ve libelled Corbyn and Labour on the ABC. My no. 1 gripe is that under the ABC’s ‘Code of Practice’ (a sick joke), a response is supposed to be broadcast from any person/organisation subjected to serious allegations. The code also requires a diversity of views to be broadcast. Neither of these things happens in relation to Jezza and Labour. The ABC gang responsible for this are practitioners of anti-journalism.
Not just Corbyn-the ABC is as much Right as any other part of our MSM, save the worst cess-pits of the Murdoch Empire. And it is 100% Groupthink, with NO ideological diversity at all. The hatred directed at China, in particular, is loathsome in its viciousness. The odious Birtles, the ABC’s resident hate-monger in China, was giggling with joy today as he related how the coronavirus was destroying the Chinese economy, which according to this hate-crazed ghoul, was grinding to a halt.
Other European countries also have state TV channels dominated by people appointed by the party longest in Governmental power there. They are equally Establishment mouth pieces: some people do anything for money – I mean presitutes screwing a whole population for fat salaries and “popularity”.
The only difference with the UK is that they are paid out off the general budget, not a separate license fee but still out of tax payers pockets. London is rubbing it in yes.
It reminds me a bit of something I once heard about the US tax system: That apparently there is no Constitutional basis for forcing people to pay income tax . . .
I haven’t researched it, but it wouldn’t surprise me. Of course I don’t doubt that considerable harassment would be incurred by the intrepid souls who decided to test this . . .
Taxation is the price of a civilised society.
Except that some very uncivilized kings, princes, dictators and barbarians have exploited taxation for their own private gain…
And some highly civilised Scandinavian countries have used taxation for the benefit of their societies for decades (until recently when the globalists took over).
I hope it’s obvious that what I mean is that taxation may be the price of a civilized society, but it is no guarantee of one.
It is now, thanks for clarifying. I generally enjoy reading your posts.
Same here.
Here it is WarD,
There it is – in spades too! You’re a gem Maggie. I wonder what the actual percentage of Americans is who actually know this – after all, it’s on YouTube. You’d think it would be quite a few…
Very interesting, but how come no one has challenged this is court yet?
My guess would be that they would be intimidated into not doing so. Otherwise any American can claim the $50,000 if they can find the law/amendment/mandate obliging them to pay such a tax. As I said earlier, I imagine the harassment involved in making your case would be extremely prohibitive, although I think there are one or two “eccentric” outcasts here and there who have actually got away with refusing to pay. Not significant enough persons for the “authorities” to hound to death, or for the mainstream media not to be able to ignore to the absolute hilt. I can well imagine how easy that would be for them. Just think about it: An innocent man like Assange being slowly murdered before our eyes by what we once respected as “The State”, allied to a decades-long entrenched warmongering Establishment which has exceptionally vested interests in NOT telling anybody about this… Read more »
You don’t seem to have mentioned the Wireless Telegraphy Act, 1949, which is the cornerstone of all this nonsense…
http://www.spiderbomb.com/tv/act.html
jimmy saville was paid millions
he had employment for more than 30 years
nobody knew nuffink
unkle jimmy was buried under 13 feet of concrete in a coffin at an angle of 33 degrees
jimmy saville spent many christmas with dennis and margaret thatcher
hung out at royal palace
even spent plenty time in the israeli knesset
now the guy could not operate a dj mixing desk so was not really a dj
what was he?
just another epstein,robert maxwell lord mcalpine and lord greville janner
zion blackmail murder inc
and child wrangler
Some brave people did speak out like Skinner and Baddiel !
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=eykrI4QUlsQ
Hmmm. Thanks for pointing that out. But comedy is often much too ambiguous to make a useful impact in a matter like this. Pedophilia is just not amusing. But do tell if you suffered any consequences for the remarks.
d baddiel and frank skinned made a million for doing the rabbi’s bidding
they did not suffer do not fret my son.
alas they will suffer the tortures of the damned hell fire
for eternity for the contract they made the deeds they have done and witnessed.
disclosing in a joke like this is pure babylonian kabballa
bull
You’re a constantly negative so and so. Surely Skinner and Badiel deserve some credit, but no, you just lash out at them too.
comedy is zion gold already
very much a cohen enterprise is it not
baddiel is his mother not melanie phillips and his father not barber lerner spector or rita katz from site intel group
or sum such?
ffs
Savage Savile was an Establishment WASP active in the last century ; this century some immigrant Mirpuri men had a go at bother free child rape streaks in the YUK.
While contorted Christianity vaporized nothing worthwhile replaced it.
I see that you are now micro-targeting your Islamophobic rage. Shall we also speak of Epstein, Weinstein, Moonves, Dershowitzet al, as well?
You should be happy that you’re not a troubled teenage girl living in a northern town, being raped time and again, together with THOUSANDS of other girls in the same situation as yourself. You might be grateful for some Jewish or Christian person rescuing you from such medieval debauchery.
What a lunatic bigot you are. So no Jews or Christians ever act badly, or commit sex crimes? You are joking, surely. Such group hatred and collective guilt is straight out of the Nazi play-book.
the image above stating the tv licence database
is watching you
that database
is that like the tim osman database that robin cook talked about before he tripped fell off a mountain during a suicided episode
the bbc tax should be covered by mi5 and gchq and bbc named changed to either talmud oded yinon vision
or
tavistock trauma bullshit broadcast programming ltd
The British Broadcasting Corporation will be nationalized and funded via federal taxation instead of via a television licensing programme. BoJo is merely announcing that the federal funding scheme is going to change whereby the BBC will be nationally funded via individual taxation & corporate taxation.
CANADA has the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation enshrined in Canadian culture via nationalized & federally funded taxation of all Canadians so that taxation via a license fee is not required or interpreted as a regressive form of taxation.
Limeys are daft wankers when it comes to federal taxation and nationalization schemes to build commoditized capture of whatever the feds want to attain economic windfall from.
Left & right dichotomy can be reduced to the great unwashed masses of uneducated serfs guided by Feudalist Lords, bureaucratic arbiters, & requisite Court Jesters to fulfill the King’s palate for amusement, levity, & rule.
MOU
I used to watch BBC Wold News back when I had cable for those occasional bouts of insomnia. Boring, Boring and sometimes Cloying. Though it did have its interesting moments such as when one reporter, reported the collapse of the Solomon Building almost twenty minutes before it happened and I thought only the CIA was interested in psychic phenomenon but I digress. Anyway looks like Boris is like Trump who ranted and raved about “fake news” and now that CNN and MSNBC and ABC are on his side supporting his Neocon, Neoliberal, war like agenda to spread “Freedom and Democracy” he’s found new friends to play with other than his new buddies in Silly Con Valley who seem to be doing their best to undermine the First Amendment now of anybody on the left or right that isn’t on the “American Exceptionalism” team or tends to be “antisemitic” by questioning… Read more »
I was listening to a BBC ‘discussion’ re. novel coronavirus in China. The racist hatred and contempt, the mendacity and hypocrisy were psychopathic. This from the Establishment propaganda organ of the State where 200,000 were murdered by Tory social savagery and class hatred since 2010, and where even the disabled are vilified in the Evil sewer they call their Free Press, and are consequently attacked by the drunken thugs that are such a feature of English life.
I think you would have enjoyed the reporting of the recent tragic deaths of the illegal migrants in the lorry detained at the border. It was initially reported that the 28 dead were Chinese, and American budgiecage liners leapt in to gloatingly imply they were trying to get out of China because conditions were dire.
However, one can only guess at the crushing disappointment of the NYT and others on learning they were Vietnamese, denying them the opportunity to China-bash. But the initial reports seem to have been based on the disgusting “ they all look the same” ethos of the investigating police.
We did indeed enjoy the kitty litter climbdown when we heard that all the victims were Vietnamese, more so because it was the victims’ families themselves that stepped forward without prompting. In other words the news media were too lazy to check UK police claims about the victims’ backgrounds.
One thing that the psychopaths who are employed as presstitutes in the Western MSM sewer do not possess is any great human empathy for the various racial, cultural and class untermenschen who they are paid to peddle hate propaganda against.
Its probably about time. The license fee has a long history, it started out as a radio license fee dating back to the dawn of radio. This license not only allowed you to own a wireless but also permitted you to listen to authorized stations — it was a lot more restrictive than ‘pay money to own a radio’. This license became the funding source for the BBC, the UK’s monopoly broadcaster, and was a relatively stable funding source because early radios were effectively not portable. Things began to fall apart with the introduction of radios in cars and then the true portable, the transistor radio. In theory, as with televisions today, you needed one license per location where the radios were used but this rapidly became unrealistic and enforceable and since the license was only a pound annually at the time it was eventually dropped since it cost more… Read more »
I have Freesat and I occasionally watch local news programmes from BBC regions. Two crackers are South Today and Spotlight. Anyone would think that all people from those regions care about is the Royal family, the army, the second world war, veterans reminiscing, any story about links to American servicemen who were in the area during WWII, monuments and statues and sport. They are geared to the tastes of an elderly conservative audience who I’m guessing, will be prepared, and able to pay for the privilege. Though each region reflects the political makeup of their area, to some extent. I have to say the home counties, south, south-west and to some extent, London with their very large populations do the Conservative party proud and are always ready to garner votes for them. Don’t forget, they kept track of defaulters for 40 odd years with vans that had a circle of… Read more »
Please do. Save her for me. You may shoot the rest of her appalling brood yourself.
. . . along with all the other aristocratic assholes, Upper class twits, BoJophiles, public school alumni, Oxbridge grads, Lords . . . I have a very long list.
The BBC mostly never even made it to the 1960s. Consider the dramas, comedies, documentaries that constantly hover around a narrow range: the old public school system, the home guard, saucy seaside double entendre, TV comedians who were just re-treads of the old music hall variety acts etc. The anniversary of World War 1 coinciding with increasingly aggressive dismantling of the public services seems to have been taken as an opportunity to really roll us all back to that cap-in-hand “Golden Age”. Even those little spurts of protest represented by the hippies and the punks have been quietly shovelled into the memory hole.
In 1926 they banned Labour politicians and trade union leaders from the radio, preventing them from explaining the working conditions that had brought about the General Strike. No change in the BBC for nearly a century.
I’d happily pay for the drama/documentary/comedy & BBC4 bits of the BBC (& Match of the Day, of course!), as long as the news & current affairs dept didn’t get a penny.
Even BBC drama these days is a pitiable parody of its golden age, now long in the past. The UK is definitely a State in full moral, intellectual and spiritual collapse, with a leader fit for the times.
Match of the day , another idea to keep thoughtful minds at bay , idiots on £5 an hour watching multi millionaires kick a ball around, yes we mustn’t miss that, the opium of the masses comes to mind.
I may be in a minority – but I’ve always loathed sport.
First, it’s a kind of news polystyrene. The big boys up there don’t really want to tell you anything – but how to deliver “news” with minimal content? Easy – no matter what time of year it is, there’s always enough sport to pad things out on TV.
Second, I can never see a sport programme without seeing visions of the old Greek and Roman slave shows where all the newly conquered lined up to display how good their teeth are, show off their muscles etc. all to impress their new masters. Yes we’re all just eager lumps of meat ready to grind on that tread mill.
Exactly, I can’t stand any of it myself, we could be on the verge of world war three, and if there was a group of three/four fellas in a pub, you could bet you last tenner they would be talking about football, how many points they need, what happens if the tose the next game, all of it totally irrelevant of course
People get heated up over sport for the same reason they get heated up over soaps, the royals, celebrity gossip, …or for that matter, such more selective topics as disputes over scriptural passages, arcane philosophical matters etc. That is: these are topics that people feel they have control over. You could even quote Marx about “the sigh of the oppressed creature, heart of a heartless world, soul of soulless conditions”. I don’t want to deny people their “guilty pleasures”. We all need them. I just wish that the TV channels were honest and say, “Well that’s all the news we’re willing to tell you. Meanwhile we will return you to some light music.” Or how about: “The world is going to hell but here’s a pair of nice boobs to take your mind off it!”
No, it’s to give thoughtful minds a break!
“Football is the ballet of the masses” – Dmitri Shostakovich. So bite me.
And if you’re working for £5 ph, yes, you are either an idiot or desperate and doing it for cash-in-hand!
I have no objection to football being shown in its own slot. But when it, along with every other sport, invades every news programme as well then I think that “thoughtful minds” are being invited to have “a break” even during the news.
Actually probably one of the best ever mini series ever produced for TV was Edge of Darkness:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090424/
Also State within a State wasn’t too shabby either:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0770652/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
Callan was the peak. Great scripts and acting. All downhill since.
Callan was actually ITV. Hard to believe now, but ITV used to produce some great drama in its good old days. One of my favourites was “Brideshead Revisited”, made by Granada TV in 1981. I’ve got it on DVD, and in the “Extras”, there are interviews with the cast, who explain how it was originally going to be much shorter, but they managed to talk the director into including more and more of the book, such that in the end it was a fantastically faithful reproduction of the book, down to actual dialogue in some cases. They say how this sort of thing could never happen now, but everyone involved was totally committed to the project, and Granada gave them their head.
I guess ITV companies had a lot of money in those days, relatively speaking, and could afford to be more generous.
My own personal fave (and it was definitely on the BBC) was “I Claudius”. A homespun tale of intrigue, nepotism, poisoning, incest, and cannibalism. What more could you want? “Game Of Thrones” had far more dazzling visuals (not hard) but not even Ramsey Bolton thought of doing what Caligula did to his pregnant sister.
Interesting point: the director of IC was having trouble motivating his cast till he told them it was just the Godfather transferred to ancient Rome. And Francis F Coppola told HIS cast that The Godfather was ancient Rome transferred to the present day. Which just goes to show that there have always been oligarchical bastards.
Look at the shambles that is Dr Who now, and the halcyon days of Pertwee, Baker and Troughton. They can’t write scripts anymore.
Checked Callan out on IMDb. Looks good but that was my Rockford Files phase so I missed it.
There is a very simple answer to this Tim.
BBC works on the same principal as Sky?
Those who wish to partake of their programmes, pay directly for them?
That doesn’t include repeats, which have already been paid for hundreds of times over…..
Are you shilling for Murdoch, then? 😁
Murdoch, Branson, Barkley Brothers, Rothschild, who cares. I won’t be paying them.
Yeah we have subscription TV in the land of the free fire zone but we don’t have a bunch of spooks riding around in van making sure that you aren’t violating the terms of your subscription by triangulating your TV signal or following down your cable lead. They just cut you off or not. I have several channels that I stopped paying for like Starz that I still get for some reason.
And I’d pay for Radio Cymru, Radio 4 Extra, Radio 3, Radio 4 (in spite of “Today”), plus BBC4 and maybe BBC Parliament (wouldn’t have missed it during the Brexit debates, for example).
(Even Radio 2 is sometimes ok on a boring car journey).
Occasionally BBC2.
I’m on the left and wild horses wouldn’t make me defend the BBC! It’s the main propagandist for neoliberalism. Goodbye BBC and good riddance to bad rubbush.
Amen to that!