g hall

Whatever happened to the good old fashioned words like homosexual or sodomite or ******

__________________
"That government is best which governs least."
"This is a sharp Medicine, but it is a Physician for all diseases and miseries".
"To be "matter of fact" about the world is to blunder into fantasy --and dull fantasy at that, as the real world is strange and wonderful."
TANSTAAFL TANJ

Besoeker

They got replaced by asterisks.

Aardvark

Still in the OED for the time being.

Paul Beck

Well the TV licence is actually cheaper than what you pay in other countries (like Germany AIUI), but you get far more for it in the UK-- I think the licence only funds a couple of TV channels in Germany.

The BBC can produce highbrow programming (when it feels like it!), which doesn't normally get high viewing figures, without the pressure from advertisers.

I imagine if series like Coast were on a commercial channel, they would get strangled at birth due to initial bad ratings.

The reason we have (arguably) got the best TV in the world, is that the BBC can set a high bench mark (because it doesn't worry about ratings so much), and the other commercial channels therefore have to compete with it.

Cancelling of the licence fee would mean the end of BBC radio as well remember. I'd rather listen to BBC with a varied output and no commercials; than a commercial radio station that plays the same six songs all day with ads every five minutes.

Andrew Constantine

Paul

Political power in the UK is mainly in the hands of the BBC. It has a quite clear agenda, including being:

very pro EU
pro further mass immigration
generally left of centre views
pro high taxation
pro an interventionist and high expenditure state
Pro Scottish nationalism
Anti England and English nationalism.

You can see why Britannist and I (indeed most members of this form) would like to see the BBC closed down.

Andrew Constantine

Keyser Soze

Maybe the Mods could put up a simple poll on this point of yours AC?

Should the BBC be closed down?

YES-

NO-

UNDECIDED-

g hall

It's not a question of the BBC being closed down but changing the remit back to what it used to be.
It is infused to much by the "Islingtonia" PC attitude.
A cap on salaries should also be brought in and the amount of staff culled

__________________
"That government is best which governs least."
"This is a sharp Medicine, but it is a Physician for all diseases and miseries".
"To be "matter of fact" about the world is to blunder into fantasy --and dull fantasy at that, as the real world is strange and wonderful."
TANSTAAFL TANJ

Britannist

I don't see why I should be forced by law to pay towards the salaries of the Guardian-reading BBC staff (i.e. through the compulsory television licence fee) - in order for me to be allowed to watch independent channels such as ITV.

Scrap the television licence fee - end the BBC poll tax. We'll then see how long the Brussels Broadcasting Corporation lasts without public money.

Not too long, I should think.

Britannist

Andrew's description of the BBC is correct - its political stance is somewhere between 'New Labour' and Campbell's Liberal Dims. The BBC has been pro-EEC/EU for the last four decades (even before the UK was forced into the EU by Heath). The BBC ignores England by habit - mentioning of the 'E' word seems to be strictly prohibited on BBC programmes. Perhaps the BBC is frightened of the fact that if there were no UK - there would be reason to have a British Broadcasting Corporation for a British state which would have gone. There are, of course, many who see no need for the BBC as it is presently set up now.

There are whole areas of domestic affairs in England which are being deliberatately avoided by the the liberal/left biased BBC whose staff and managers do not seem overly keen to cover specifically English matters in their news and current affairs output.

Most of the output of BBC Radio Five is a good example of BBC bias - its overall tone is leftist and pro-EU.

Another area of BBC bias - is Northern Ireland. The BBC does not like Ulster Unionists. Indeed, when and where this week did the BBC put on air anyone from the Unionist strand of Northern Irish politics this week who is opposed to the new sharing of power agreement with SIN Fein at Stormont? The answer is (as far as I can tell) nowhere (certainly not in any of its national radio/television programmes this week). Unionists who are against SIN Fein being involved in the Stormont Northern Ireland administration do exist - despite the BBC doing its best to avoid giving them publicity.