The General election is less than 4 days away and the hot favourite to be Prime Minister has today made a surprising statement. Today, whilst Boris Johnson was speaking to potential voters in the North East of England he was asked about abolishing the TV licensing fee and Mr Johnson replied: “I’m certainly looking at it.” The BBC has come in for significant criticism following the announcement that it was to scrap free licenses for over 75’s and as brought to you by UNN, questions regarding the impartiality of some of its presenters.
Following Mr Johnson’s statement, the senior political correspondent at BuzzFeed Alex Wickham took to Twitter to add further fuel to the fire. Mr Wickham tweeted: “Dominic Cummings and senior No10 aides have drawn up plans over the last few weeks re BBC licence fee. They are looking either abolishing it entirely or decriminalising non-payment. Source says they want to relieve the burden on the justice system of chasing people who don’t pay.”
Mr Johnson did add further thoughts in addition to his initial comments regarding the licence fee: “You have to ask yourself whether that kind of approach to funding a media organisation still makes sense in the long-term given the way other organisations manage to fund themselves. That’s all I would say – the system of funding out of what is, effectively, a general tax it bears reflection.” From next year it is expected that 3.7 million pensioners will lose their free licences.
Understandably the BBC have reacted angrily, A BBC executive has told the Express “If you turn it into a for-profit subscription service, then that is not a public broadcaster.” However, Peter Bazalgette, chairman of ITV, offered a different perspective saying “Technology now allows turning the licence fee into a subscription service. But there are strong public interest arguments against it.” During her short stint as Secretary of state for the department of digital, culture, media and Sport Nicky Morgan suggested in November she would consider scrapping the £154.50 a year fee and replacing it with a Netflix-style subscription.
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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