BBC watch

Last Friday Whittingdale gave a speech to Cambridge Conservative Association.

He talked a bout the BBC charter which is up for renewal next year.

Whiting dale said as an aside "if we don't renew it next year, it may be that the BBC ceases to exist ......a tempting prospect"

Previously he had compared the licence fee with the poll tax.

This is something the Murdoch empire has tirelessly worked for for years. They were quick to remark when Gary Lineker said "this chump(Whittingdale) sums politicians up. The BBC is revered throughout the world. We should be proud of it not destroy it"
The Murdoch press quickly attacked Lineker as "a sniping left wing bore"

We will continue to watch this with interest.

In my opinion - the BBC has expanded into areas where it should never have gone. If it had adhered to the original remit, it's monies would have been more than adequate to go round. Unfortunately it has entered the tech arena where there is a lot of competition - in my view, completely unnecessarily. Yes - we are extremely proud of the BEEB - and we want to keep it. Hands off the big commercial boys.

The BBC should be in the tech arena. It was ahead of the game right from the start.

I do not think anybody can say it is not value for money, for all we get from it.
If it could charge all those who watch on i-player and pretend they do not get BBC programmes, there would be even less of a problem.
It costs us less than 50p a day for quality programmes. Look at all the Attenborough we have seen over the years.

I used to have BT for my landline, but stopped it when they started putting up the prices and offering "free" sport, etc.
I do not want to pay extra for television programmes I do not watch. I most certainly do not want friend of Cameron taking over our viewing choices.

Leave the BBC licence fee alone. As for likening it to the poll tax, I wish my poll tax, i.e. council tax, was that low. I pay that much a month. The licence fee is definitely worth the money.

It is another institution which is the envy of the world which the government want to get rid of. I think the licence fee is excellent value for money - and would be at twice the price.

Top Tories in both of the houses are ready to oppose the recommendations, which they see as an assault on the BBCs editorial independence, creative freedoms and ability to run its own affairs.

Apparently Whittingdales proposals do not require legislation, but the prospect of another Tory rebellion like the one over child refugees, academies and others may well alarm ministers who are still trying to recover from all the most recent U Turns.

Many Tories watch the BBC and listen to the radio, and the government is not prepared to annoy this group of voters.

Report in the Observer

Well at least it shows that Murdoch hasn't bought every single Tory yet, only those in the Cabinet! Thank goodness for small majority governments I say!

The mood at the BFTAs was astonishing according to one audience member after the Woolf Hall director Peter Kominsky tore into the governments threat to the BBC. He was given a standing ovation after accusing the government of trying to "eviscerate" the BBC and channel 4.

Speaker after speaker stood and decried what the government is attempting to do.
Most of it was cut by the BBC as they have a duty to be impartial - pity they don't tell that to LK.

Hislop referred to it as changing the Beeb from public broadcasting to state broadcasting

That's because Whittingdale is acting like the son of Putin in trying to interfere with the content of the BBC

I was shouting at the TV screen last night watching the David Attenborough programme when David Cameron came on waxing lyrical about the amazing programmes he grew up watching on the BBC . The air in the Tegan household turned blue....

Exactly tegan. Unless the left hand etc........No I don't believe that they are hypocrites and economical with the truth and I assume they think their voters are stupid.

theconversation.com/four-ways-john-whittingdale-could-wreck-the-bbc-58812

White paper out on 9th. At least he had a green paper out last year, so we could discuss, etc., although he never takes any notice of anyone.
If the white paper gets kicked out by the commons and Lords, will he be another casualty after the EU referendum?

The BBC needs to remember the quality programmes it has shown over its successful years and forget about presenters. Programmes may need narration/guidance but the emphasis should be on the programme content not the presenters life, likes and dislikes, blue peter like "skills" and general over exposure. Support the great BBC and quality

anniebach I presume you agree with Hislop as you posted his views, which sum up my feelings.
Did I hear right that the government want to appoint much of the Board - who will also be members of said government?

We do need a watchdog because I think the BBC had tended towards an arrogance in some of its decisions and it is, after all, our money it is spending, but that doesn't mean state control.

Yes Whittingdale keen to appoint governmental non-executives to the board. As I said previously Whittingdale -son of Putin.

He has already suggested that ITV will be sorry for putting Farage forward as the exit representative and not one if Whittingdales cronies. The man is getting way above himself and needs pegging down.

inforrm.wordpress.com/2016/05/15/the-bbc-white-paper-is-a-recipe-for-long-term-decline-steve-barnett/

Someone who thinks that Whittingdale is going to get everything he wants.

A very worrying development, but hardly surprising because hardline Conservatives don't really believe in public anything.

So it begins. George Osborne moaned about the BBC and its "softer content" . The BBC has keeled over and begun by taking all its recipes off line - gone forever. Bloody annoying as I use it quite a lot.

What is the MATTER with this government?????!!!!!!

They are back on. The BBC backed down.
Power to the people.
Now it's time to do it about something more important than recipes.

Being vegetarian, I have better sources of recipes than the BBC, by the way.
I started buying BBC Vegetarian Good Food magazine. Then they stopped it and sent me the normal one, telling me they had put vegetarian recipes in it. I asked for my money back.

Yo! Now it is time Whittingdale and all the would be Putins shut up and let the BBC to decide for itself how it conducts itself as a public broadcasting service.

BBC has actually put them on the Good Food website. I thought that would be the best place for them anyway.

See Whittingdale has taken fright a bit after yesterday's reaction from viewers. He was giving a talk at a conference yesterday and seemed to go into a mini u Turn (that well trodden path by so many before him) by saying that it isn't for him to tell the BBC what to broadcast. Well done Whittingdale, now just keep walking along that path and you will finally understand that this is not a Putinesque state but a democratic state where freedom of speech including broadcasting is king.

Good old Skinner??!

I was watching with my grandson. We had read something about Dennis Skinner in the paper before the queen's speech, about his mother having dementia, and him singing to her. So for the last eight years he has been going to a dementia group in his constituency and singing to them.
So my grandson knew who to look out for and thought it very funny him being the only one shouting out. I told him that Black Rod knew what to expect.