Cameron's licence fee cut - and how he'll pay for it

Chris

Sorry but this is one bit the beeb does well for me.

BBC3 - Gavin and Stacey.
BBC4 - Secret life of the motorway, and others.
CBeebies - Enough said.
CBBC - As above.

By all means trim the £1m and £3/4m salaries of all those "controllers" but these channels are superb in the same way that Sky (ads every 10 minutes) isn't.

Bill Kristol-Balls

So will Cameron now stop going round quoting lines from Gavin & Stacey as he plans to abolish the station where it got it's break?

Tidy...

wrinkledweasel.blogspot.com

CBeebies is Soma for the under fives.

Your children are being hardwired to have the attention span of a goldfish.

We have before us the results of a generation brought up on daytime TV; appalling attention span, illiteracy, strange, truncated speech patterns, and a fanatical devotion to simulacra.

C is for Cretin. C is for CBeebies.

C Beebies is gay. ur random, m8

Nicholas

BBC4 is OK - the new BBC2 - and it would be a shame if that went.

R King

I'd rather pay the licence fee than give a penny to $ky and Murdoch.

hmmm

What a rubbish idea. 1Extra and BBC3, sure.

BBC4 though is public service broadcasting at its finest. It's an easy target because it's not popular.

Just goes to show exactly how shallow and unprincipled Jeremy Hunt is.

Ben Stevenson

Apparently, CBeebies has an annual service budget of £17.7 million.

The BBC has an income of £3 billion. I think things like CBeebies could succeed as commercial businesses - funded by either adverts or subscription. Why should these be used to justify a compulsory charge to watch any TV?
Scrap the BBC.

Stephen

If they lay one finger on BBC Four I'm switching my vote. It's the only channel worth watching.

DavidDP

Not BBC4! It's the best channel on UK TV!

Same old Tories

So he would scrap a radio station aimed at young (black) people and the TV station that brought you Gavin and Stacey and The Thick of It - all to keep Rupe sweet.

Nice people you Tories.

Frank P

I should think that Channel Four is probably under severe threat also, after it's gay little jaunt tonight through the political pedigree of Bullingdon Boys, Dave and Boris.

Their 'friends' from the Spectator editorial staff, Young Toby, James De Long Pole and even sister Rachel of the Johnson clan put the boot in, to boot (so to speak).

A very interesting dissection and appraisal of our potential holders of highest office. Luckily for Dave and Boris, probably very few punters from the plebeian electoral rolls would be watching that Channel at that time of the evening. But those that were would certainly have had their prejudices bolstered. It certainly helped me to understand just why there is such a disconnect between the editorial staff of this magazine and those of us readers who have been obliged to live in the real world.

Whichever way you cut it, even allowing for the exaggeration of the Tristrams, it was an insight into their privileges, arrogance, assumptions and their complete unworthiness as political leaders of this country.

I hope Verity gets a chance to see it; her long held and oft expressed assessment of Call-me-Dave would be vindicated in excelsis.

Just how much longer do we have to put up with bunch of neo-Marxist mechanics at one end of the political spectrum - and a band of hee-hawing warring Hooray Henrys at other, vying to lord it over the lives of ordinary people who are struggling to make a living, while submitting to extortionate taxation by the whole bunch of despicable bastards that comprise the political class and its multitude of parasitical camp-followers?

It is surely time for a revolution of a different kind. To suspect that the attitudes portrayed in tonight's mockumentary were possible is one thing; but to have it not only confirmed, but our noses rubbed in it, is a little too much to bear, even for our docile electorate.

Stand aside Gordon the Gargoyle; bugger off Boris the Blundering Buffoon; Down the drain with Dave the Devious Dilettante.

Hannan's the Man ... though before I hang my hat on his bandwagon, could somebody perhaps reassure me that his childhood of chicken-plucking and cotton picking in Peru and his education at Marlborough and Oriel is free of the ludicrous excesses and escapades of those of HM Leader of the Opposition and His Egregious Excellency the Albino Mayor of London? Given a cleanish rap sheet, I'll post his pamphlets any day.

Holly ......

BBC4-Only Connect...BRILLIANT.

Dave B

I hope he cuts the explicitly racist 'Asian Network'

http://www.bbc.co.uk/asiannetwork/

Pete-s

Perhaps the commentators should remind themselves why Hunt is having to look at the BBC so closely. At 3B pounds by for the biggest quango. It has traded its independence to being the mouthpiece of the Labour gov; for being left alone to build an overloaded bureaucracy that the civil service would be proud of. It is bloated and overpaid and biased.

If you want to blame someone; blame Thompson and his ilk for bringing the BBC to such a state that only an axe taken to the structure will get rid of the deadwood.

GeoffH

"Not BBC4! It's the best channel on UK TV!"

Agreed. In fact, the only one that truly represents the BBC ideal as we used to understand it.

Keep BBC4 as it is now and scrap the rest.

Diane C - London

Frank P should calm down. All the nonsense about Dave & Boris happened 20 years ago! They are not acting like that now. Unlike the socialists and marxist who caused havoc and mayhem in their youth - they are still exactly the same, only their discredited ideas are being foisted on the rest of us! The country is desperate for a change and the Tories will provide that. And at least they will know how to behave once they are back in power, which is more than can be said for the present lot. First whiff of expenses and money and they couldn't get their snouts in the troughs fast enough.

John Moss

BBC3 and 4 are off air for most of the day and a look through the schedules will tell you that 90% of what they show is repeats. They should both be shut down immediately.

The BBC should also run i-player as a pay-per-view download service at a rate which is "too cheap to cheat".

They could generate a huge revenue from this and cut the licence fee for everybody - in fact, I am pretty sure they could probably generate enough income from this alone to get rid of it.

Axe the TV Tax!

Bill (Scotland)

For those expressing horror about the idea of trimming BBC4 or CBeebies (i.e. you Fraser! - lol) either you believe in reining in the behemoth that the BBC is or you don't. I think there should be at most 2 television channels and 2 radio stations operated by the BBC under the licence fee (which could therefore be substantially-reduced, not just held at current levels for a few years). The rest should either be scrapped or made subscription-only. Fraser, if CBeebies is as valuable (as a palliative) as you claim, then no doubt you will be prepared to pay for it when many others don't want to (such as me). I would happily pay to receive BBC4 on subscription as I agree it is good.

Reducing the size of the State is essential; keep this objective in sight and don't become diverted by side-issues.

Mark Molyneux

Closing channels 3 and 4 will be no loss as long as the superb programmes they broadcast are moved to BBC2. What the BBC does well is spread too thinly. "Less is more" should be the mantra of this bloated behemoth.

strapworld

Perhaps it is the affect to his brain that has altered Mr Nelson's mindset.

The Australian Government, it has been reported, has said that children should not watch television. They should be read to, and shown the wonders of the world. Trees, Birds and wildlife in general. Ants and spiders etc.

That Mr Nelson, so obviously,plonks his children in front of the 'box' would, in Australia, be viewed as child abuse. I just think it is very sad.

Of course the BBC has to be trimmed. The channels that people like could and should be sold off.

There should be a complete clear out of the top management board and they replaced with people paid far, far less.

Indeed those 'executives' could organise a management buy out of the surplus BBC channels. That would test their mettle.

I find it quite odd that the report named The Davis Report on 'Crown Jewels' of sport was

1. Chaired by a former BBC employee who was a sports reporter amongst other things. (That was an unbiased report then!)

2. This absolute nonsense that it should be FREE to air. Are people mad? We pay the Licence TAX for which one can be imprisoned if you fail to pay!

3. The standard of programme and presentation of sports on SKY and ESPN is far superior to the BBC.
Remember Test Cricket switching from one channel to another, breaking for weather reports etc? The smug presentation. I do not like the Andy Gray domination of football on sky, but nobody can argue that football presentation is far better on Sky than the deadly BBC and ITV.

But, can anyone tell me why all channels are fixated with former players presenting these programmes? I think they add ZERO and I want articulate and argumentative journalists/commentators who add more!

BUT The time has come for the tax to be killed and the BBC sent into the market place.

We are supposed to be a democracy. Yet we tamely allow our viewing and listening to be politically driven. That is not right.

For the record I want a FoxNews type news broadcaster. We have had the Guardian type for so many years now!

Dorothy Wilson

Couldn't the decent programmes on BBC4 be shifted to BBC2, which seems to have gone down hill lately. As for BBC1 I can't remember the last time I watched anything on it.

Colin Pritchard

Frank P. Would you be good enough to post details of the programme. I'd like to watch it on iPlayer.

Colin Pritchard

Frank P. As you were. Sorry I was looking for the programme on BBC4 and not Channel 4.

I've found it now:
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/when-boris-met-dave/4od#3009995

Boudicca

BBC4 is just about the only BBC station I watch (apart from Have I Got News For You any 'Strictly'). Far better to scale back the dreadful dumbed-down BBC1 and its never-ending content of soaps, makeover shows, tired 'drama' and all-round drivel.

Andy Leeds

He ought to scrap the license fee period. The BBC is populated by the left and their bigoted prejudice. Why the hell should we be expected to pay for it ?

JONNY

With the highst respect Frank P I think you should get over this Bullingdon fixation of yours.
I encountered this lot when I was up at Oxford. They paraded in the quad outside at 3 in the morning, when I was hastily scribbling my last-minute weekly essay. Making one heck of a stupid din.
So I put my head out of the window and swore at them.
But my experience is they're no different from your usual adolescent louts, just a shade more plush and upper class. Quite civilized, even pleassant, when sober.

So let's cool down about the Buller shall we. And concentrate on some of the real issues.

Nicholas

May I also take the opportunity as it is Grumpy Sunday to record how disgusted I am that the BBC does not broadcast the England/Australia Test cricket live whilst being quite prepared to interupt the schedules to broadcast live the World's Most Obscure Sporting Event As Long As It Is Trendy And Bien-Pensant Innit.

You won't convince me that the decision was not part of the spiteful, leftist, anti-English, anti-right, class war bollocks that permeates that haven of communist throwbacks long in need of a good clear out beginning with Andrew Marr and his jaundiced, leftist-prejudice and trendy bigot pandering view of British history.

Nicholas

Bullingdon? Didn't watch it. Not interested. Agree with Jonny. The exuberant high jinks of rich and privileged young men. Waiting instead for the dramatisation of how the really nasty communist student politicians, the ones who were members of the party with links to the KGB and the Cold War enemy of our nation, spent their time conniving, Gramskiing, leaking secrets and generally being the same traitorous scum they are now - only more overtly.

Waiting instead for the exposé of that enemy of free people Jack Straw, the Uriah Heep of British Politics, and the nation-threatening shennanigans he got up to as a communist student activist. How his vile communist genesis and "low cunning" has brought to power a creature of the night bent on destroying or displacing every single one of our proven legal and constitutional safeguards. An odious monstrosity, a Shakespearian Richard III made flesh. If ever there was a creature not demonised enough it is that cold-eyed, calculating and utterly deceiving reptilean criminal.

anne allan

So, Frank P - at the age of 18 you were a model of sobriety and commonsense. Did your chums also enjoy evenings of airfix modelling and sorting stamps into alphabetical order?
The programmes being lauded to the heavens would originally have been trialed on BBC 1 or BBC 2; just return to using the two channels properly and stop wasting the taxpayers' money

Frank P

Colin Pritchard

Sorry, yes, lazy of me not to link the Channel 4 programme that I discussed above (but note the time of the post - nocturnal ranting leads to sloppy posts I agree). Having just googled it myself this morning, I find that it is a repeat from October. Surprised it wasn't discussed in the Coffee House then, given the input of the in-house hacks to the programme (perhaps it was - and I missed it?)

Diane C & Jonny;

I'm quite calm Diane, just interested in the way our 'betters' really think about the plebs.

Not a fixation, Jonny - just a critique. You Oxord types do close ranks when the hoi polloi bites back, don't you? If you don't mind I'll decide what the 'real issues' are when I take to the keyboard. It is certainly no good relying on the hacks here to discuss them . When the commentariat raises any matter of breaking news of real import (e.g Neather) the staff immediately claim diplomatic immunity.

And don't try to convince me that the arrogance, superciliousness, divine right to rule and downright boorishness has leached from these twats with the passage of time. They are just more cunning at dissembling as they age. I had reached my conclusions about them prior to seeing this revealing 'docudrama' and the further insight provided by their 'friends' and other erstwhile alumni, merely confirmed my own analysis of what makes then tick. Wankers all! Sadly; as I too would like some rapid relief from the bunch of Marxist pigs with their trotters on the levers of power and their snouts in the trough.

Btw, I'd give Delingpole a pass from my sweeping condemnation; I saw him shoot the shit on the Glenn Beck Show. Well done, my son. But even you must admit that your plummy accent was a handicap, as much of the time that could have been devoted to your exposing the Marxist mess here, was taken up by Beck taking the piss. Rather rude of him I thought. You did okay despite that At least Beck is hammering home the Leftist threat implicit in Obama's regime, unlike our hosts on this blog who seem to averting their eyes from Obummer's recent difficulties.

Hannan's the Man! Unless of course, as I suggested above. someone can find an entry on his rap sheet that would cause me to revise my opinion.

Tele

Change the law to make it easier for universities and private citizens to broadcast their own channels. Things are moving to HD cameras and the broadcasting companies are selling their equipment cheaply. It's never been easier to make and publish your own television show.

AAE

"Nation shall speak peace unto nation" boasts the BBC in Broadcasting House. Well, not via BBC World it doesn't. I can't be the only one who, lulled into a false sense of comfort in foreign parts by finding an english channel on the TV, within minutes wants to put my boot through the screen. What smug self-satisfied lefty student pap! And don't imagine that you'd ever hear one word of domestic British news - that would be far too nationalistic. It makes CBeebies look intellectually rigorous, and has all the excitement of "Tonight at 6" in the old GDR.

Dennis Churchill

If there is a market for BBC4 then it will be supplied with or without a State Broadcaster.
A State Broadcaster of the size of the BBC has no place in a democracy.
The BBC is too politically biased to be supported by Tax Payers ,it is like being forced to buy the Guardian in order to purchase the Telegraph.

Peter From Maidstone

I am sure that we could put together a list of decent programmes produced by the BBC, and even bearing in mind that the Spectator commentariat is going to be culturally biased I bet we could not fill the schedule of two channels.

I seem to spend much of my TV time watching documentaries on various Wars and Battles, or Dad's Army, or HIGNFY, and most of those are paid for by my Virgin Media subscription.

Roger Davies

I would pay a Tenner a month for BBC1, BBC2, R3 and R4. I am not interested in the rest of their output and do not believe in this digital age that anyone should be forced to pay for what they do not want to receive. Ideally I would break up the BBC and flog it off.

old fogey

Of course what we BBC sceptics really want, aside from the odd salary reduction and liberal bias corrected, is to see one J. Ross defenestrated, very, very, painfully....

Norman Dee

Some have come close to saying it but never quite got there, but should not the target of any cuts in the cost of the BBC start at the heart of problem. How much of the £3B is spent to produce a left wing propoganda machine that the news department has become, sell it off and reinvest the money in what the BBC does do well, entertain and educate. We are surrounded by news organisations coming at us from every direction, why do we need a state owned one, put it into the private sector, make them earn the fabulous sums they pay themselves, make them justify the enormous over staffing, and if the now free from news BBC entertainment channels want to buy their output it will be at competitive rates.

DavidDP

"I would pay a Tenner a month for BBC1, BBC2, R3 and R4."

Problem is the loss of scale. You'd likely have to pay far more a month for the same level of output without a universal fee.

Snowman

The kick out BBC4 must the loopiest idea around. Who's this chap Jeremy Hunt anyway?

Keep BBC4, Radio 3&4, the rest can take a running jump.

Mrs B

Don’t watch much telly. Its 90% crap. Never watched Strictly Come Dancing, watched X Factor once, once was enough. Can’t stand soap operas. Occasionally get some good documentaries, but unfortunately they now have an ‘in your face’ presenter whose personality must shine through at all costs. Any drama now has camera angles that drive me mad - tried to watch ‘Spooks’ but couldn’t stand the facial close ups. And for this I’m forced to pay £142. I like Rugby and Cricket. Refuse to subscribe to Sky - I hate them as much as the BBC. This summer had to listen to the Ashes on the radio, then catch up with the highlights on Channel 5. B’stards. The top execs at the BBC are laughing all the way to the bank with taxpayer’s money. Television is there to control the masses and its working brilliantly - witness Cameron and Brown cosying up to these ‘celebrities’ - all of which I’ve never heard of.

Nicholas
Liked and agree with your comment about Jack Straw - I’m surprised it got through moderation though, but glad it did.

TGF UKIP

Fraser, stop hiding behind posts about the BBC - are you welshing on Neather?

Nick

BBC4 is brilliant - home of a multitude of intelligent and well-made documentaries on history, art, religion, science and politics. It's the TV equivalent of reading the back half of the Spectator.

What I find extraordinarly depressing about how the BBC is run is that nationally important programs like Today on Radio 4 (yes, I know many of us CoffeeHousers find Humphreys % co annoying) has to cut back on its researchers, who are paid a pittance anyway, and yet Jonathon Ross's salary would pay for Today for years.

Verity

Diane C – London, referring to Dave and Boris: “They are not acting like that now.” Well, yes, they are actually. Dave more so than Boris. The same sense of entitlement. The same arrogant assumption that people will look up to them (for some indiscernible reason) and will wish them to manage their affairs. And wasn’t Dave on the expenses fiddle? Can’t remember the details, but didn’t he, a multimillionaire, charge the taxpapers for trimming his wisteria?

To those people defending the BBC, don’t you think that the same talent that produces some of the programmes you like would be perfectly happy to work for other companies? I am baffled that the government should be forcing people to pay for that which is freely available on capitalist channels and that there isn’t a mass withholding of this lunatic fee that Brits are charged for being allowed by the government to have a TV in their homes.

Nicholas - “Jack Straw, the Uriah Heep of British Politics,” … That is so on the mark I can’t stand it. Totally inspired and the truest word anyone will ever write about Jack Straw. Why didn’t I think of it first?

Frank P – Agree. James Delingpole is one stand-up dude.

The last time I lived in Britain, having come back briefly before fleeing again in horror, I found the rabid socialism being drip fed to the license payers was quite amazing.

Frank P again, no I didn’t see it and won’t as, needless to say, I do not subscribe to the BBC. I have no hesitation in taking your word for the quality of the programme.

Frank P

Verity

The Boris & Dave show was on Channel 4 (the subsidised commercial channel). I try not to watch that Channel normally, lest John Snow pops up; his evil face and ingrained leftist sneer causes me to have a severe bout of dyspepsia. But I saw the programme in question as I was flicking through on my way to Fox and caught about an hour of it. You can watch it on the web:

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/when-boris-met-dave/4od#3009995

It is worth an hour + of your valuable time and will provide endless grist to the mill for your keyboard duties.

TGF UKIP

Well said Strapworld, I agree with every word you say. I too dearly wish that if by some miracle Dave actually wins a workable majority, he might open up the airwaves and welcome in Rupert with Fox News to provide a much needed balance.

Unfortunately, though, I guess the chance of that is zilch with Dave being perfectly aware that conservative Fox would be every bit as tough on Blue Labour as Red Labour.

Nice to dream about though, as would be nominating our own Glenn Beck - Kelvin McKenzie, Richard Littlejohn? but can't really think of any others (The Heff's a bit too pompous and self-inflated) which goes to show what a dearth there is of right wing journalists in this country.

I would also agree with the surprise and unease expressed above at the Speccie's reluctance to engage with what The Big Red One and his politburo are embarked on across the pond. I can only think it's because, as the house journal, they have no wish to embarrass Dave and The Clique who are all busily brown-nosing away.

Marcher Baron

"Personally, I’d pay £100 a year just for it [Cbeebies] – just for its kid-sedating powers." So make it subscription only, then you could pay for it and I wouldn't have to fund it. I've given up watching the BBC. Whatever happened to their racing coverage?

Nick

Verity wrote:

"To those people defending the BBC, don’t you think that the same talent that produces some of the programmes you like would be perfectly happy to work for other companies?"

Well, yes, that may well be the case, but there is no guarantee. There's certainly superb dramas and comedies produced by commercial US channels but most of the rest of US TV I've seen is rubbish, certainly in terms of documentaries. And most of the TV I've seen in continental Europe is pretty dire.

Don't traditional Conservatives believe in gradual improvements to institutions that largely work, rather than wholesale radical restructuring ? The BBC largely works pretty well I think.

Verity

Oi! TGF UKIP - What about Daniel Hannan, then? He's a journalist and author and is much loved by Fox.

Pot Head

Anyone who genuinely finds the licence the most upsetting aspect of life in Britain has almost certainly attained a state of existential nirvana, and should go volunteer in a soup kitchen, instead.

The BBC can't be made into a bland, cringeing, apologising rebuttal unit. The whole point of the BBC is that it's a fabulous mad aunt, who lives in a dilapidated cottage in the middle of the metropolis surrounded by books, bassoons and children.

It's 38p a day for the Olympics, the Shipping Forecast, Doctor Who, The Thick of It, Tess of the D'Urbervilles, Life On Mars, Terry Wogan's breakfast show, and the most recognised and trusted website in the world. If you'd rather spend that on a first-class stamp, to complain about it to your MP, you're mad.

strapworld

TGF UKIP. actually jon gaunt, nick ferrari would be a good start alongwith jeremy clarkson.

I would have suggested some of the Spectator team but I am convinced after recent broken promises to me by the Editor and the liberal rantings by others I think the magazine and this blog have been taken over by the Observer!

TGF UKIP

Verity, granted, I'm not sure where Hannan stands on the green nonsense though and while being highly articulate I'm not sure if he might be a little on the highly polished side to provide the Glenn Beck populist touch to reach an audience wider than just us anoraks.

Among the other pols one who might very well fit the bill, though, is Nigel Farage though I guess most Coffee Housers, as opposed to Speccie hacks, are hoping he puts his boot up that rat Bercow's arse.

Verity

Pot Head: "the most recognised and trusted website in the world."

Words fail.

AAE

FRANK P - can you kindly post a link for Delingpole/Glenn Beck on Fox? Thanks

Bob T

It was remarkable that Murdoch Jnr gave a speech setting out his wishes for the BBC and only 2 weeks later these reappeared - as Conservative policy!

Part of the criticism was that the BBC has competed unfairly. The BBC has been too succesfull in some fields (their online offering in particular). Why on earth should we as viewers and licence fee payers wish to have these parts of the BBC disrupted, closed, sold off in the interests of leveling the playing field with its less successful competitors?

Dixon

Cut, shmut.

Abolish it entirely. Then we can talk!

Nicholas

"The BBC can't be made into a bland, cringeing, apologising rebuttal unit. The whole point of the BBC is that it's a fabulous mad aunt, who lives in a dilapidated cottage in the middle of the metropolis surrounded by books, bassoons and children."

I thought they already were a bland, cringeing, apologising, rebuttal unit on behalf of New Labour.

Mad aunt? You are getting confused. It is a mad pantomime dame - and that's their idol Brown.

As for Dr Who - the biggest dollop of predictable, formulaic, puerile, shallow, ageist tripe on TV.

Verity

Nicholas - Tee hee.

TGF UKIP - Hannan's on our side. He wrote a piece in The Telegraph on Sunday in which he barracked global warming notions. Some of it was quite funny. (Personally, I am absolutely certain the global warming is one more tool in the One Worlder toolbox.)

The man's got his head screwed on, and a very handsome head it is too, which will appeal to the ladies.

I agree with you about Nigel Farrage. Hannan is more feline (like John Redwood). Farrage is more direct - and is equally articulate and quick on his feet in an argument. They're very different in approach - you are right. I think Farrage could win a general election were he to be magicked onto the Tories.

In any event, the Tories aren't going to win with Dave nominally at the helm. He seems to be a voter repellent. As mentioned yesterday, there was a thread on a Telegraph blog (if memory serves, Ben Brogan) and out of 200 comments, two had notionally spoiled their ballots and the other 198 expressed profound dislike of the man.

I have yet to see a member of the public defend David Cameron in print. A couple of supporting trolls (despatched by whom, I wonder) have flitted onto this site and disappeared again, but the public appears to be negative to, or at best, apathetic about, Dave.

Verity

Frankly, I'm with Dixon. It may seem iconoclastic now, but believe me, you'll thank us for it.

What's the worst that could happen? All the clever and creative people would go to profit-making companies? Oh, the shame! The shame!

EC

I would like to see the BBC truly embrace equality and diversity.

To do this it must abandon its policy of cultural cringe whereby minorities are afforded 'equality plus' status and must not be offended at all costs.

The only way forward lies in it becoming an organisation that is committed to causing equal opportunity offence regardless of race, ethnicity, religion or creed.

Frank P

testing

Frank P

Can anyone explain why when I try to post (in response to AAE's request) a You Tube clip of Delingpole's appearance on the Glenn Beck show the software on this site rejects it?

Dixon

I cite again "Dixons Duality":

On the one hand, the BBC has a budget of 10 Billion $ ( the licence is only a part of it ), whilst on the other hand, the most expensive undertaking in Human history other than war, which is space exploration, costs the USA only 18 Billion $, which is the budget of NASA. This gives some idea of the immense scale of the BBC. A corporation that basically broadcasts TV shows but which is more than half the size of the largest space, aerospace, astronomical, exploration and environmental organisation on Earth! Ask yourself, if NASA does all that yet the BBC costs more than half its budget for turning out a few TV shows, where does all the money go?

Dixon

Someone mentioned soma.

Well it must be said that Huxleys vision was prophetic. Look, he even predicted the breed exemplified by PotHead! Give PH his Olympics for 38p a day and he's content.

EC

Frank P,

Nope, I've just tried posting your Glenn Beck link and it won't 'ave it! - or any other Youtube link like I try.

I've noticed that some commenters use something called "tinyurl" - whatever that is.

EC

testing, testing, harsh random, pot luck isn't it?

Verity

EC - Tiny Url shortens lengthy urls to just a few letters and digits. Go to tinyurl.com, paste the url you want shortened, hit Go and a tiny url will come up and you can post that instead. It works.

Wily Trout

Scrap BBC1 and 3. Only broadcast BBCs 2 and 4 from 6 pm to 11 pm. Before 6 pm have a screen message that says "get off your fat arse and do something". After 11 pm it can say "GO TO BED".

john chruistmas

Its not before time,this lead boot of a broadcasting company,should pay its directors according to ability. Plus it should be non partisan,at the moment it is so far left its like its being broadcast from Moscow! Make it pay its way-go really private!!