The BBC, and especially Newsnight, did a remarkable job of simply ignoring anything unfavourable to the party that went on to win the recent General Election.
An American book launch that in any case belonged on daytime television led on the day of the dodgy business letter. There were many other such examples.
Anyone would have imagined that there had been collusion.
So the Government's response to the impending Charter renewal will either be no change, or else the replacement of the license fee with a flat fee on every address, with or without an old-fashioned television set.
Labour, which as much as anything else has watched the BBC campaign against the NHS for as long as many of us can remember, needs to make an alternative proposal.
The BBC license 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.
An American book launch that in any case belonged on daytime television led on the day of the dodgy business letter. There were many other such examples.
Anyone would have imagined that there had been collusion.
So the Government's response to the impending Charter renewal will either be no change, or else the replacement of the license fee with a flat fee on every address, with or without an old-fashioned television set.
Labour, which as much as anything else has watched the BBC campaign against the NHS for as long as many of us can remember, needs to make an alternative proposal.
The BBC license 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.
One would not need to be a member of the Trust (i.e., a license-payer) to listen to or watch the BBC, just as one does not need to be a member of the National Trust to visit its properties, or a member of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution to be rescued by its boats.
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