‘Tories, leave the BBC alone’

FOR anyone who has had to move cities for a new job, you have my heartfelt sympathies.

That is exactly the situation I faced this month. Finding a rented place. Moving in. Getting the bills set up. Make sure everything works. The worst part for me is having to buy a second TV licence. Why, if you have one in your – for want of a better word – family home, do you need to pay a second mandatory tax? It seems so unfair.

Now, I am paying £318 for the pleasure of watching live television – that’s 87 pence per day. The reason is because the law says that I must buy a TV licence, even if I don’t have a TV, if I want to watch live television. And that money goes to the BBC.

Boy, should I be angry. Pause. Take a breath. The BBC is in huge trouble. It is being battered by everyone. But it is a problem of its own making. The BBC is facing an existential crisis because it simply does not know what it stands for. It is in trouble because it has lost its confidence. It is in trouble because of poor leadership.

I’m not talking about Tim Davie, I’m accusing those who continue to recruit in their own image and fail to understand that things have moved on; and viewers, especially the young, no longer see the BBC as an appointment to watch or listen.

What’s making matters worse are the cuts. Having gone through at least five rounds of redundancies in 24 years, I know that, in the main, it is those who are the most experienced, most talented and most likely to have a career outside the corporation, who will leave.

Barnie Choudhury

I’ve written story after story for Eastern Eye taking the BBC to task. Those who know me understand that I’m a critical friend. And “bad-weather friends” need to tell some home truths.

The BBC needs to change and embrace modern Britain, reflecting it on- and, most importantly, off-air. But the BBC must continue to be paid for by anyone who watches live TV or accesses the iPlayer.

This latest attack is political expediency. Don’t be fooled by this government’s claims that it is freezing the licence fee because of the cost of living.

Come on, stop treating us like idiots. I’m not an economist but, prime minister, get a grip and put down taxes, reduce national insurance, and tax those energy companies who are raking it in while families are choosing between heat and food.

We get the government we deserve. That’s why we’re being played. While Partygate, Borisgate and Whipgate continue, the government is putting out initiative after initiative hoping we’ll be distracted. Don’t fall into that trap.

Before you think you know who I vote for in the privacy of a ballot box, let me say I dislike politicians, and I take my cue from novelist Tom Clancy, whose film version of The Hunt for Red October had this memorable line: “Listen, I’m a politician, which means I’m a cheat and a liar, and when I’m not kissing babies, I’m stealing their lollipops.”

With that in mind, we have a culture secretary who doesn’t understand her job. No, minister, Channel 4 isn’t paid for by a licence fee – a basic grasp of your job would be helpful, no? And before you accuse me of misogyny, your two male predecessors were useless too.

The Tories are simply doing what every government has done. The BBC is such an easy and soft target. But this lot are on a rampage to destroy it, like the Taliban and the Buddha statues, because this government believes, more than any other administration in living memory, that since the taxpayer funds it, since it is the “state broadcaster”, the corporation must do everything it says.

How dare it reports on illegal parties day after day? How dare it diss the prime minister and highlight his propensity for being economical with the truth? Why has the BBC got it in for BoJo? Um. Because it’s what journalists do?

Those Tories know full well that the BBC has not led the news agenda on this. It is the Daily Mirror and ITV News – and Muslimgate was the Times. Yet it still wants to murder the BBC.

For my 87p a day, I get local, regional and national news. I get drama – note to the BBC: please stop intellectualising Agatha Christie – I get arts, music and the most precious things, the World Service and World TV.

Without the BBC we limit our global soft political power. It is revered around the world. It still gets the big names – Kiefer Sutherland on Radio 5 Live, wow – it still educates, informs and entertains. And it still inspires “nations to speak peace unto nations”. What about it don’t this lot get?

Barnie Choudhury is a former BBC correspondent, and in 2021 presented a three-part series on the 2001 race riots (www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000vx2z/episodes/guide); and Pick of the Week on Radio 4.