Wednesday 17 December 2008

Saving The License Fee

The iPlayer and second-generation Freeview stuff is all well and good. But if the BBC really wants to save the license fee, then that fee should be made optional, with as many adults as wished to pay it at any given address free to do so, including those who did not own a television set but who greatly valued, for example, Radio Four.

The Trustees would then be elected by and from among the license-payers. Candidates would have to be sufficiently independent to qualify in principle for the remuneration panels of their local authorities. Each license-payer would vote for one, with the top two elected.

The electoral areas would be Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, and each of the nine English regions. The Chairman would be appointed by the relevant Secretary of State, with the approval of the relevant Select Committee. And the term of office would be four years.

At the same time, we need to ban any person or other interest from owning or controlling more than one national daily newspaper. To ban any person or other interest from owning or controlling more than one national weekly newspaper. To ban any person or other interest from owning or controlling more than one television station. To re-regionalise ITV under a combination of municipal and mutual ownership. And to apply that same model (but with central government replacing local government, subject to very strict parliamentary scrutiny) to Channel Four.

7 comments:

  1. Why are you so keen to privatise the BBC?

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  2. I think the policy in your first paragraph is an excellent one, and should be applied to the NHS too - nobody should have to pay for it, but everyone who values it should be entitled to do so, including those who do not use it. This scheme would be bound to raise at least as much as the current system.

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  3. Galahad, I'm not. This is the only way that I can think of to prevent the privatisation of the BBC, the case for which is otherwise unanswerable.

    And Kevin, everyone uses the NHS. If you collapse with a heart attack in the street, or you are hit by a car, then the ambulance will take you to an NHS hospital. As much as anything else, private hospitals do not have Casualty or A&E.

    No wonder that not even ten per cent of people have private health insurance. What for?

    If this NHS Board thing ever gets off the ground, then it should be elected as set out here, but by universal suffrage. The same for Ofcom, the Press Complaints Commission, and the Human Fertilisation and Embyrology Authority. Just for a start.

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  4. But people who hadn't paid would still be able to watch or listen to the BBC.

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  5. Just as non-members can visit National Trust properties, and just as non-members are rescued by the RNLI.

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  6. English regions again.

    Remind me who's actually voted for them?

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  7. The regional assemblies were a daft idea, but the regions themselves are just facts. What else would you use?

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