While it’s no surprise that the Conservative party aren’t fans of the BBC
(British Broadcasting Corporation) and are trying make cuts to the BBC wherever
they can get them, it’s quite a surprise to see how brazen the Conservatives
are in doing it.
Appointing an outspoken critic of the organization in John Whittingdale MP
as the culture secretary two months ago sent a clear message that the
conservative government are planning to gut the BBC and take no prisoners while
they do it.
The BBC is arguably the most popular public institution in the UK save the
NHS and the conservatives are already experiencing backlash as British starssuch
Daniel Craig, Dame Judi Dench and Rachael Weisz sent a letter to Downing Street
imploring the government not to attack and weaken the BBC.
Their pleas however are likely to fall on deaf ears as the BBC may a long
term casualty of a Conservative Party emboldened by a stunning election victory
and solid majority in the House of Commons which puts them in a position to
take on and win public battles to cut popular institutions such as the BBC.
The conservatives have made no secret of their plan to gut the BBC and even
privatize parts of the organization as they see the BBC as wasteful and
inefficient. However, in their luster to cannibalize the BBC, they end up making
arguments as to why the BBC should be left well alone. Whittingdale made the
argument with a straight face that the BBC has no business making popular
programs such as Strictly Come Dancing and The Voice when its competitors in
the private sector could produce them which, needless to say, doesn’t make
sense.
It’s no fault of the BBC that it makes shows the public love and if it
couldn’t make shows the public loved, why would there be a need for it? While
there is a solid argument that the BBC has exceeded its public service remit,
if Whittingdale’s argument gets taken seriously the BBC will be reduced to a British
version of PBS which would make the BBC culturally irrelevant and would rightly
justify calls from Conservatvies to liquidate the beeb altogether.
However, this argument will likely be the one repeated again and again on Newsnight’s,
Question Time’s, parliamentary committee
hearings and every right wing newspaper or blog you can shake a stick at for
months to come until the BBC’s Royal Charter is up. Executives at the BBC see the writing on the
wall and have already agreed to take on extensive costs at the hands of the Conservatives
as according to the Guardian “BBC agreed to pay for free license fees for the
over-75s from 2020 at a cost of £700m a year.”[1] While the BBC has the public (who pay for BBC),
the Labour opposition and just about every creative industry you can think of
in its corner, there will be little in the way of organization’s powerful
enemies taking it apart piece by piece as there will be nothing democratic about
how one of Britain’s most loved institutions will be brought to its knees by a
government dead set on weakening the BBC until it breaks.
The real question would be to ask why the conservatives are trying gut and
raid the BBC despite it being one of the few public institutions that meets its
stated ambitions and the answer is simple, the Conservatives are targeting the
BBC because it is one of the few
public institutions that meet its stated ambitions. The BBC has served as a public
reminder that public institutions can be as good and, in some cases, better
than their private sector counterparts and the Conservatives hate the BBC
bitterly because of it. They’ve hated the BBC for the lion share of its 93 year
insistence and will continue to hate it until they turn the BBC into a slightly
better version of C-Span.
Because of this, the BBC is in serious danger and there’s not much anyone
can do as the BBC’s leadership are fully aware of why the Conservatives are
after them and are fighting as hard as they can to keep the BBC as it is. The
BBC has the winning argument and the public at large on their side as Lord
Hall, Director General of BBC, rightly couched the debate about should decide
the fate of the BBC: politicians with their agendas or the public who keep the BBC
alive and who the BBC was created for in the first place.
In sum, the BBC can only hope that the latter gets involved in the fight
for the future of the BBC before the former get their way.
[1]
J. Martinson, 2015, BBC Fights back against Tory assault on waste and right to
make popular shows, http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/jul/13/bbc-fights-back-against-tory-assault-on-waste-and-right-to-make-popular-shows
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