Last month UNN brought you the news that a consultation was to take place on future of the licence fee. At that time, the original proposal to decriminalise non-payment of the fee and possibly scrap the BBC all together.
Government has consultation on whether non-payment of the BBC licence-fee should be decriminalised
Since then this has already been downgraded to merely modifying the licence model (not before 2027), and only a ‘consultation’ on decriminalisation. Mr Johnson has promoted himself as a great fan of ‘oven-ready’ solutions. He could heat up and serve this one immediately, the only time limitation being the time it would take to pass legislation terminating the current BBC Charter and allowing it a reasonable period to transition to its new funding model.
On the 23rd of February a ComRes poll found 50 per cent saying the BBC is poor value for money, and support for abolishing the licence fee at 61 per cent. Also brought to you by UNN 200,000 people cancelled their TV licence in the year to November 2019.
Given the level of public support why does Boris Johnson seem intent on burying the issue. Reasons for this could include but are not limited to panicking at first contact with the BBC or has he gone rogue after a BBC-Whitehall pincer movement? The most likely is that he never had any genuine intention of even decriminalising non-payment, never mind abolition. UNN’s Oliver Down most certainly hopes he is wrong.
Did Mr Johnson’s rattling about the BBC has much more to do with personal annoyance at its intrusion into his private life, most notably during the general election, than it has to do with any principles-driven political conviction. Apart from Brexit Mr Johnson is sounding ever more the metropolitan-‘progressive’ conservative. Mr Johnson is largely in sync with the Left-‘liberal’, corporatist, state-interventionist, Green, culturally woke. Prove me wrong Mr Johnson!
Even Boris ministers are backtracking and running scared. There are no “pre-ordained decisions”, exclaimed Transport Secretary Grant Shapps. Nicky Morgan is now saying the new boss at the BBC will need to be a reformer. Wasn’t it the government stating it would be doing the reforming? They have fluffed it. In the meantime, the BBC remains able to treat its funders by stealth withcontempt. They report from Brussels on the UK’s most famous night in many a year (Brussels). Many feel Boris will indeed wimp out.
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Current Affairs Correspondent | My name is Oliver Down I am 22, and a staunch brexiteer. I am a Bristolian lad who studied politics in Leicester. I believe in free speech and accurate journalism and I won’t be afraid to give you “the other side” of the story!
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