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Conservative Government on Mission to destroy the BBC

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Peter Sarf

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Where did you hear this?


Agreed. If you ask kids these days about this topic they are shocked a license is needed to view live "TV" but do not need a license to view any content that is live but not deemed to be "on TV"; when you ask if they think they will buy a license when they are older they generally say no because they watch video clips on an 'on demand' basis when they want.
It does make me wonder how many people (households) do pay for a TV licence.

Back in 1988 when I bought my house I did not have a TV and I never got reminders. I was hardly ever in and never got round to getting a TV. In about 1992 I thought I better have a TV in case of visitors I also had more money four years into a mortgage and more time to watch TV (less overtime and commuting time I think). Last ten years I have been sharing with my partner at her house so I stopped getting a licence for a house I hardly use and have scrapped the TV (old tube monster). But since then, every two years, I have been pestered incessantly if I do not get round to going through their hooped requests quick enough !. It is quite threatening them saying they will break down the door !.
 
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najaB

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In my mind the TV license as a concept should be scraped and the BBC funded out of general taxation. I.e. a levy on council tax bills.
If there was a way to ensure that the day-to-day (more likely year to year) funding wasn't at the whim and fancy of the Government of the day then maybe so. But I don't know how feasible that would be.
 

GusB

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Is it still the case that certain religious bodies forbid the watching of television in Britain these days?

Where did you hear this?

When I was at school I had a friend who had ultra-religious parents and as far I was aware they were Bretheren. There was no television in their house and it wasn't permitted.

They did have a computer (a Sinclair QL, of all things) and a computer monitor which was occasionally hooked up to the VHS recorded that they used to play films. It always struck me as odd that films were allowed, but TV wasn't. The father didn't seem to have any objection to the kids watching episodes of Neighbours that had been recorded, either.

All hell broke loose one day when "faither" discovered that his son had hooked up a makeshift aerial and was quite happily receiving live television via the video recorder. I excused myself rather quickly and made a sharp exit as a result.
 

Peter Sarf

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When I was at school I had a friend who had ultra-religious parents and as far I was aware they were Bretheren. There was no television in their house and it wasn't permitted.

They did have a computer (a Sinclair QL, of all things) and a computer monitor which was occasionally hooked up to the VHS recorded that they used to play films. It always struck me as odd that films were allowed, but TV wasn't. The father didn't seem to have any objection to the kids watching episodes of Neighbours that had been recorded, either.

All hell broke loose one day when "faither" discovered that his son had hooked up a makeshift aerial and was quite happily receiving live television via the video recorder. I excused myself rather quickly and made a sharp exit as a result.
All these years your mother has been wondering where that coat hanger went !.
 

Ediswan

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When I was at school I had a friend who had ultra-religious parents and as far I was aware they were Bretheren. There was no television in their house and it wasn't permitted.

They did have a computer (a Sinclair QL, of all things)
My 1970s secondary school headmaster had no TV at home. Ex-REME, an aspiring intellectual, not especially religious, just believed there were better things he and his family could do with their time than watch TV.

For your friend's case, Sinclair QL makes its own sort of sense. Sold as a serious computer rather than for games.
 

Trackman

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When I was a youngster my dear old grandad wouldn't let me watch BBC1 at his house as he said it was 'Tory Channel'. He'd go off on as well if I mentioned the BBC.

For your friend's case, Sinclair QL makes its own sort of sense. Sold as a serious computer rather than for games.
If it worked correctly.
I would have gone for a BBC-B.
 

GusB

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When I was a youngster my dear old grandad wouldn't let me watch BBC1 at his house as he said it was 'Tory Channel'. He'd go off on as well if I mentioned the BBC.
Funny you should mention this. While it was never explicitly mentioned in my grandparents' house, they were very much STV rather than BBC. My gran loved her soaps - Emmerdale, Coronation Street and (Take The) High Road - but she could never be persuaded to watch Eastenders.

To an extent I can understand why this was. When I was growing up, BBC News presenters still exhibited clipped "RP" (received pronunciation), and to many ordinary people this made them seem posh (and potentially out of touch with the "real" people).
 

Ediswan

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If it (QL) worked correctly.
I would have gone for a BBC-B.
Agreed about the BBC B. For one thing, add an IEEE-488 interface and you had relativey cheap access to a huge range of (not so cheap) instruments for doing 'real science', the sort that leads to papers published in respectable peer-reviewed journals.

Also, if we are looking at 'What has the BBC ever done for us?", the BBC Computer Literacy Project played a significant role in bootstrapping the UK IT industry. Furthermore, without the BBC involvement, Acorn may not have grown large enough to be in a position to take the risk of developing the ARM processor. Without ARM, the modern smartphone market might be very different.
 

javelin

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Is this like "the Conservatives want to privatise the NHS"?

Given they've been in power for the vast majority of the post-war era then clearly the Tories are really **** at actually doing what is claimed, so you don't have much to worry about.
 

bspahh

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Indeed so, but Laura loves to "help matters along"... :D
The same Laura who the left thinks is against them too?

It strikes me that if a political journalist is disliked by both left and right then they’re actually doing a good job of being impartial.
 

52290

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The same Laura who the left thinks is against them too?

It strikes me that if a political journalist is disliked by both left and right then they’re actually doing a good job of being impartial.
Politicians of all parties are like Corporal Jones, they don't like it up em
 

Peter Sarf

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The same Laura who the left thinks is against them too?

It strikes me that if a political journalist is disliked by both left and right then they’re actually doing a good job of being impartial.
Entirely agree. Proves the BBC are not sucking up to any party.

In fact commercial television might be more prone to political interference. If an advertiser on a channel favours a particular party then they would be in a position to influence that channel by either not advertising on the channel or by increasing the amount they spend on their advertising.
 

Bevan Price

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Maybe they should become regional. For instance, Radio Manchester, Radio Merseyside, Radio Lancashire and Radio Cumbria could be consolidated into Radio North West.
The danger of that is that it could become 95% news about Manchester, and 5% news about everywhere else.
 

najaB

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Is this like "the Conservatives want to privatise the NHS"?

Given they've been in power for the vast majority of the post-war era then clearly the Tories are really **** at actually doing what is claimed, so you don't have much to worry about.
That argument assumes that today's Conservative party is like that of years past. I don't think that assumption is supported by the evidence.
 

DynamicSpirit

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If there was a way to ensure that the day-to-day (more likely year to year) funding wasn't at the whim and fancy of the Government of the day then maybe so. But I don't know how feasible that would be.

I would have thought that all it requires is for Parliament to pass a law specifying that the BBC must each year be given a sum of money calculated according to some formula (or maybe, determined by some apolitical expert panel). Provided the law is drafted without loopholes, that would give the BBC roughly the same level of certainty and independence that they have today (In other words, that their funding is secured unless the Government takes some fairly drastic action involving Parliament).
 

Xenophon PCDGS

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I would have thought that all it requires is for Parliament to pass a law specifying that the BBC must each year be given a sum of money calculated according to some formula (or maybe, determined by some apolitical expert panel). Provided the law is drafted without loopholes, that would give the BBC roughly the same level of certainty and independence that they have today (In other words, that their funding is secured unless the Government takes some fairly drastic action involving Parliament).
How is "Russia Today" funded?
 

JamesT

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I would have thought that all it requires is for Parliament to pass a law specifying that the BBC must each year be given a sum of money calculated according to some formula (or maybe, determined by some apolitical expert panel). Provided the law is drafted without loopholes, that would give the BBC roughly the same level of certainty and independence that they have today (In other words, that their funding is secured unless the Government takes some fairly drastic action involving Parliament).
I can imagine the Treasury resisting anything like that strenuously. Once you concede the principle that some areas of spending are immutable, lots of other bit of government will try and get the same. Which would make it nigh on impossible to make significant budget changes in reaction to events.
 
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