On 14 December 14 less than 48 hours after his landslide election victory, Boris Johnson intimated at moves to decriminalise non-payment of the tax that is inaccurately known as the BBC ‘licence fee’. This was not unexpected. During the final week of the election campaign, Johnson had raised the prospect at least of its outright abolition. He correctly branded it a tax and his chief strategist Dominic Cummings was reported to be working on proposals for alternative ways in which the corporation could fund itself.
It is understood that ministers had already been instructed to boycott the BBC Radio 4 Today programme over credible allegations of its consistent anti-Brexit and anti-Conservative biases. In the ensuing days, the announcement received widespread praise and approval from voters. Nicky Morgan only last week came out and questioned the BBC’s role going forward but did state it is protected until 2027.
In other words, for the remaining seven years of the current ten-year charter period, the funding model will be based on the coercive, regressive tax. Morgan suggested that her announcement showed the Government was ‘taking heed of public opinion’. This was before confirming that what was being launched was merely a ‘consultation’ on whether non-payment of the licence-fee should be decriminalised. Can you hear the sound of the ball landing in long grass?
Three days later, Morgan was back, this time with the revelation that the licence fee might not in fact be scrapped outright, but replaced by a tiered level of access whereby viewers could choose the level of services they required. Since Boris Johnson won the election, there have been a few disturbing hints that he might be reneging from some of the positions he previously appeared to espouse robustly. Immigration reduction, HS2 and Huawei all come to mind. Now it is starting to look as if the BBC and its stealth tax called ‘licence fee’ might be going the same way. Is Boris about to wimp out on this one too?
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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