Sir Antony Jay, Kt. CVO: the BBC Condemned.

“But we were not just anti-Macmillan; we were anti-industry, anti-capitalism, anti-advertising, anti-selling, anti-profit, anti-patriotism, anti-monarchy, anti-Empire, anti-police, anti-armed forces, anti-bomb, anti-authority. Almost anything that made the world a freer, safer and more prosperous place, you name it, we were anti it.”
Sir Anthony (co-creator of the political comedy, “Yes, Minister”) was quoted thus in The Daily Telegraph, back in July 2007. A year later he wrote:
“The BBC spends over £4bn every year, most of it on undistinguished programmes which are indistinguishable from what is available on competitive unsubsidised channels,” Sir Antony, 78, (right) writes in an essay called ‘How to Save the BBC’, published by the think-tank the Centre for Policy Studies.
He adds: “It also uses this subsidy to compete unfairly with commercial companies in areas like publishing and the internet. Many people also see it as a propaganda vehicle for the liberal elite whose views and values are at odds with those of most of its audience.”
British Gazette’s comment: Here, here! Amen!
It is the opinion of the British Gazette that a campaign should be set up forthwith to abolish the BBC and with it, the TV Licence, currently £145.50 and set to remain so until 2016.
Let us face it, the TV licence is effectively a tax, and a regressive tax at that.
Now Dear Reader, I here you shout: “No it is not! No one needs a TV set. It is a luxury!”
Excuse me, Dear Reader, but you are a young single mum living on state benefits with three or more children, and without the support of the father/fathers? No? Well please find such a lady and ask her. She will explain to you more eloquently and with more assertive articulation than can the British Gazette, the errors in your thinking.
The British Broadcasting Corporation was established under a Royal Charter in 1927. Since that time it has grown to become one of the most powerful state broadcasters in the world. In 1927 radio broadcasts, or “the wireless” was in its infancy. People had crystal wireless sets with valves and headphones. Families sat around this wonderful new communications medium listening – at first through shared headphones, later loudspeakers.
That was EIGHTY FOUR years ago.
The world has changed. In April 2012, Greater London TV viewers will experience the Digital Switchover being the last of the regions in Great Britain to loose their analogue transmissions. Northern Ireland will follow later that year.
Now, TV licence payers choose from a wide range of satellite and cable channels. And yet, the BBC holds up well against this competition. The BBC – to use a commercial phrase – is the market leader in the provision of its broadcasting services.
Why?
Three reasons:
One: It has always been there. People are naturally conservative creatures, resistant to change, and also creatures of habit.
Two: The BBC is trusted. It has been around for 84 years. It has become a British institution.
Three: the BBC does not have adverts. How many times Dear Reader, when faced with a decision of which TV programme to record, the choice being between a BBC programme and another programme running at the same time on a commercial channel have chosen to record the commercial offering to view after the BBC’s offering? Yes? Why? So you can fast forward through the adverts of course! You will of course be aware that if you are recording from one of the commercial digital channels the adverts will constitute nearly twenty minutes of the hour, thus enabling you to listen to the programme in a little under three quarters of an hour! The convenience!
There are three good reasons to disband this market leader:
ECONOMIC: Disbanding the BBC and abolishing the TV Licence, will be a huge boast to the economy as it will boast economic activity through more business for company’s advertising on the commercial channels and put £145.50 in the pockets of the poorest families.
POLITICAL: Disbanding the BBC and abolishing the TV Licence, will eliminate a state broadcaster that acts as a propaganda outlet for the Great Global Warming Scam and (to a lesser extent) the European Union. For those who doubt this, we would refer you to the comments of Messrs. Marr and Paxman:
“..the final answer, frankly, is the vigorous use of state power to coerce and repress. It may be my Presbyterian background, but I firmly believe that repression can be a great, civilising instrument for good. Stamp hard on certain ‘natural’ beliefs for long enough and you can almost kill them off.”
Andrew Marr, The Guardian, February, 1999
“But the bigger question is whether the BBC itself has a future. Working for it has always been a bit like living in Stalin’s Russia, with one five-year-plan, one resoundingly empty slogan after another. One BBC, Making it Happen, Creative Futures, they all blur into one great vacuous blur. I can’t even recall what the current one is. Rather like Stalin’s Russia, they express a belief that the system will go on forever.”
Jeremy Paxman, The James McTaggart Memorial Lecture, 24th August 2007.
SOCIAL JUSTICE: Disbanding the BBC and abolishing the TV Licence, will remove a regressive tax from the shoulders of the poor.