NEW DG ‘CONSIDERS TWO-TIER’ BBC LICENCE FEE: James Robinson (Daily Mail 6/9) reported that new BBC director general Tim Davie was considering the introduction before the end of the current BBC Charter in 2027 a two-tier licence fee – with basic and premium packages – as well as future funding via income tax, which would involve a sliding scale levy according to income, or via council tax.   Mr Robinson explained that the two-tier licence fee would mean that basic programmes such as Eastenders and Blue Peter, as well as news output would be available for the cheaper fee, while Strictly Come Dancing and first-run dramas would be graded as premium.

TIM DAVIE ‘HUMILIATES’ PURNELL, BUT ‘DESPERATELY WOOS’ ANDREW NEIL:  Andrew Pierce (Daily Mail 6/9) suggested that in Tim Davie’s management shake-up, a loser was former Labour minister James Purnell, who had been in overall charge of radio services, but was now line-managed by Charlotte Moore, whose new role as chief content officer encompassed all services except news and that emanating from the regions. Mr Pierce claimed that the change was a ‘humiliation for Mr Purnell, who had been in the running to become director general.  Mr Pierce also speculated that Tim Davie was ‘desperately’ trying to woo back to a presenter slot the former Sunday Times editor Andrew Neil, whose previous BBC current affairs roles had been axed by former director general Tony Hall.

BBC STAFF SURVEY PLANS ‘TRIGGER OUTRAGE’:  Susie Cohen (Daily Mail 6/9) said that the BBC was ‘under fire’ from a range of MPs and pressure groups for Plans to spend up to £1 million (over five years) on  computer software involved in regular staff surveys designed to gauge opinions of staff on how to make the corporation a better place in which to work. Ms Cohen said that Dennis Reed, of campaign group Silver Voices, had said that over-75s who were now being forced to pay for their licence fees would be ‘enraged’ by the news.

CHARLOTTE MOORE APPOINTED TO BBC BOARD: A BBC announcement (3/9) said that Charlotte Moore had been appointed Chief Content Officer of the BBC  – in charge of all content except that originating from BBC News and the nations and regions – and had joined the corporation’s executive board.  The release said:

The Chief Content Officer’s responsibilities include:

• Television commissioning for all BBC network TV channels and BBC iPlayer
• Radio commissioning and production for all ten national radio networks and BBC Sounds
• Multi-platform commissioning and production for all children’s and education content
• BBC Proms and Orchestras

As Chief Content Officer, Charlotte Moore will be the creative lead and set the strategy for BBC TV, Network Radio, BBC iPlayer and BBC Sounds, across all key genres and platforms. She will lead the Channel and Station Controllers and set an editorial strategy which reflects the diversity of all the BBC’s audiences.

The release also confirmed that, as Tim Davie had outlined in his speech to staff on 3/9, the BBC Executive Committee, which previously had 18 senior executive members of the corporation, had been slimmed down to 10 members. Those removed from the committee included David Jordan, the director of editorial standards, James Purnell, the former Labour minister who was director of radio and education, and Sarah Jones, chief general counsel.

BBC ‘WORRIED ABOUT LICENCE FEE’: Guido Fawkes (4/9), noting that new director general Tim Davie had thrown some ‘surface-level red meat’ in terms of u-turning to allow Rule, Britannia to be sung at the last night of the proms and talking about getting rid of left-wing comedy, was at the same time digging hard to protect the corporation’s ‘telly tax’ (the licence fee). The blog said this was evidenced by that the BBC was currently advertising for a new £63,000-a-year ‘communications specialist’ to work specifically on TV licensing.

Emily Ferguson (Express 4/9) reported that figures gathered by her newspaper suggested that the BBC had boosted its licence fee enforcement spending by £38 million to £140 million in the coming year, the extra costs being triggered by the scrapping of free licences for the over-75s from August 1.

BBC ‘SHOULD AXE SPRINGWATCH PRESENTER BECAUSE OF BIAS’: James Gant (Daily Mail 4/9) said that following BBC director general Tim Davie’s speech in which he had said bias had no place on the BBC,  Tim Bonner, the head of the Countryside Alliance, had asserted in a tweet that the corporation should drop BBC Springwatch presenter Chris Packham because, he alleged, he frequently expressed strong opinions on matters of public policy. Mr Gant noted that within hours of Mr Bonner’s tweet, Mr Packham had protested in a tweet that a stag hunt group had received a £50,000 coronavirus loan and a £10,000 grant.

BBC MUST ‘URGENTLY CHAMPION IMPARTIALITY’: Dan Sales (Mail online 3/9) said that new BBC director general Tim Davie, in his first address to staff, had asserted that if they wanted to be opinionated columnists or partisan campaigners on social media, they should not be working at the BBC, and that the corporation needed to urgently ‘champion and recommit to impartiality’.  He had insisted his drive was about being ‘free from political bias, guided by the pursuit of truth, not a particular agenda’, and asserted:

‘If you work here, nothing should be more exciting than exploring different views, seeking evidence with curiosity and creatively presenting testimony. Making use of our own experiences but not driven by our personal agendas. I wonder if some people worry that impartiality could be a little dull. To be clear, this is not about abandoning democratic values such as championing fair debate or an abhorrence of racism. But it is about being free from political bias, guided by the pursuit of truth, not a particular agenda. If you want to be an opinionated columnist or a partisan campaigner on social media then that is a valid choice, but you should not be working at the BBC.’

Mr Sales reported that Mr Davie had also told staff that there was no room for complacency about the BBC’s future and must evolve to protect what was cherished because if current trends  continued ‘we will not feel indispensable enough to all our audience’. He added that Mr Davie believed the corporation had spread itself too thinly amid competition from streaming services, which could mean it was time to stop making some shows, to stop navel-gazing, and maybe close down some services, stating that the end had come of ‘linear expansion  for the BBC’.

Mr Sales also said that Mr Davie had made it clear that he opposed the idea of a subscription model of revenue generation in future, but had not spelled out what other options might be favoured.

Steven Brown (Express 3/9) said that Mr Davie, in his address to staff,  had said that the future of the corporation was in doubt if it could not regain the trust of the public.  He had also said that the corporation must explore new ways of delivering impartiality, including seeking a wider spectrum of views, pushing out beyond traditional political delineations and finding new voices from across the nation. Mr Brown added that he had warned staff that he would be taking action in the coming weeks, including new guidance on how to deliver impartiality, and affecting a ‘radical shift’ in the focus of the BBC  to reconnect with those who felt alienated by the corporation.

Ti Davie’s full speech can be read here.

NEW BBC DG ‘IN TOUCH WITH ORDINARY PEOPLE’: Robert Hardman(Daily Mail 3/9), stressing that he wanted the BBC to thrive,  argued that in the row over the last night of the proms, new director general Tim Davie – who had announced that the sung version of Rule, Britannia would be included –  had been handed a very simple, headline-grabbing and cost-free means of making his mark on the corporation, and in tune with ‘ordinary people’. Mr Hardman claimed that the decision would be welcomed by most ‘level-headed’ people in the country, though he said that the announcement about the change of heart over the proms was ‘both condescending and nonsensical’ in claiming that the problems had been thrust on the BBC by the problems of Covid-19  rather than being of their own making.

Leo McKinstry (Express 3/9) claimed that the decision by Tim Davie over the proms represented an extraordinary defeat for the ‘social justice warriors’, and that if Mr Davie continued in the same way, he would ‘transform the corporation for the better’.  Mr McKinstry  suggested that the new director general was the ‘antithesis of the progressive mandarin’ who had worked in the commercial world and in the 1990s had been a Conservative activist.

BBC’ SHOULD PROVIDE COMEDY THAT IS FUNNY’: Rod Liddle (Sun 3/9), noting that new BBC director general Tim Davie had reportedly suggested that BBC comedy was too ‘left-wing’,  argued that the real problem was that jokes told on air – involving often, for example, that Donald Trump had an orange face – were not funny.   He asserted:

‘Listen in now and you get ­panels of people who all think the same thing, making the same jokes, over and over. It is stultifying. Luckily, the new director-general of the BBC has noticed this. Tim Davie has said he wants a few more right-wing comics on those panel shows.’

Mr Liddle argued that the solution was not to choose comedians simply because they were right-wing, but ‘comics brave enough to tackle subjects the BBC staff think are sacred cows’.

He concluded:

‘One more thing, D-G. I hope you are including Newsnight in your list of comedy programmes that need an overhaul. And ­ridding of leftie bias. Get shot of Emily Maitlis for a start. That would give us all a laugh.’

‘CONSERVATIVE VIEWS OMITTED FROM BBC NARRATIVE’: Nicholas Burnett (The Conservative Woman 3/9), discussing BBC bias, observed that throughout the summer, in the ‘midst of racial tension stocked by Marxist agitators’ (referring to the Black Lives Matter protests), the BBC had chosen to amplify individuals’ claims of racism against the police ‘without challenge or context’.  He added:

‘The same sense of grievance plays out in much of the ‘woke’ narrative too often consuming BBC News output. Many black people don’t feel deeply offended by white society. Many gays feel awkward with train carriages painted in their name. Many women roll their eyes when the next round of gender-pay grievance figures is headlined. Conservative views are omitted from the BBC’s narrative as it gives credence to ‘strong feeling’ over balanced rational coverage. Britons do care about fairness, tolerance and equality but not the version pushed by activists.’

Mr Burnett argued that the BBC’s pursuit of ‘more diversity’ had led now to the assumption that race, sexuality and gender were primary factors in the worth and measurement of people , and that – in effect – was bouncing back on them with reported claims of institutional racism within the BBC, with employees of the Africa service complaining that having a white manager was akin to ‘working the cotton plantations of old’.

Mark Duell (Mail online 2/9) reported that the BBC had announced that sung versions of Land and Hope of Glory and Rule, Britannia would be included in the last night of this year’s proms on September 12, reversing an earlier decision that they would not be. Guido Fawkes (2/9) included the full BBC statement:

‘The pandemic means a different Proms this year and one of the consequences, under COVID-19 restrictions, is we are not able to bring together massed voices. For that reason we took the artistic decision not to sing Rule, Britannia! and Land of Hope and Glory in the Hall. We have been looking hard at what else might be possible and we have a solution. Both pieces will now include a select group of BBC Singers. This means the words will be sung in the Hall, and as we have always made clear, audiences will be free to sing along at home. While it can’t be a full choir, and we are unable to have audiences in the Hall, we are doing everything possible to make it special and want a Last Night truly to remember. We hope everyone will welcome this solution. We think the night itself will be a very special moment for the country – and one that is much needed after a difficult period for everyone. It will not be a usual Last Night, but it will be a night not just to look forward to, but to remember.’

A report on the BBC’s own website (2/9) reflected the statement and noted the decision had promoted a tweet from culture minister Oliver Dowden that he was ‘pleased to see common sense has prevailed’, while Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer had said it was the ‘right decision’. The article noted that performer Chcichi Nwankou, who ran a black and ethnic minority orchestra, had told the BBC that the inclusion of the songs was ‘offensive’.

Mark Duell also reported that other supporters of the decision included television presenter Piers Morgan and actor Laurence Fox.

‘DAVIE FACES EXISTENTIAL BBC THREAT’: Edward Browne (Express 1/9) reported that in a speech to staff on Thursday, new BBC director general Tim Davie was expected to announce a shake-up in BBC comedy output  so that it was no longer dominated by ‘left-wing bias’.  He reported that according to ‘inside sources’, the BBC was perceived as targeting the Conservative party more often than it did the left and now needed to commit to producing material that was more inclusive of beliefs across the political spectrum. Mr Browne added hoped that such a move would help restore trust and confidence in the corporation as it faced questions about the future of its publicly-funded model.  The Express also reported (1/9) that pressure groups the Silver Voices and the National Pensioners Convention were writing to Tim Davie to plead that he reverse the decision by the BBC to scrap free licences for the over-75s.

Former leader of the Conservative party in Scotland Ruth Davidson (Telegraph 1/9), surveying the tasks in front of new BBC director general Tim Davie,  argued that, because the current licence fee funding model for the BBC was on its last legs, he must come up with an alternative. She argued that he must exercise a tighter grip on ‘talent management’, particularly in preventing BBC presenters from both moonlighting and becoming involved in political activities and social media commentary. In addition, he needed to make the corporation genuinely diverse in its staffing and what was reflected in the output.

Ex-BBC television news executive Roger Mosey (Daily Mail 1/9) argued that Tim Davie had to deal with a ‘existential threat’ to the corporation over its funding model and needed to be ‘honest about what he wants the BBC to do, how much it will cost and how it can find the money without penalising the poorest’, as well as tackling the growing feeling among sections of the public that the BBC was not on their side.  Mr Mosey claimed that the row over the last night of the proms – with the BBC axing the singing of Rule, Britannia – had prompted despair among current and former executives, with one saying it was ‘unbelievable’ that a decision had been taken to axe the singing of patriotic songs. He argued that the BBC had done well 25 years previously  in identifying the appeal of Tony Blair and Labour, but had struggled to understand the rise of Boris Johnson and the Tory party’s surge in the general election of 2019. Mr Mosey opined:

‘Davie, thank goodness, seems to get this.  Privately, according to friends, he admits that the BBC ‘has some blind spots’, acknowledging that it underestimated the strength of public hostility to the EU during the Brexit debate.  The same friends told a ­Sunday newspaper last weekend that he is determined the BBC should shed its London metropolitan bias and ‘politically correct’ culture.  Can he achieve this? I t will certainly be a challenge. That ‘woke’ mindset seems only to have hardened in recent months, with some insiders expressing fears that it is becoming increasingly impossible to challenge fashionable orthodoxies inside the BBC.’

NEW BBC DG ‘MUST CONSIDER ALTERNATIVE FUNDING MODELS’: Gordon Rayner (Telegraph 31/8), quoting Whitehall and ministerial sources, said that Tim Davie, the new BBC director general, had been told to come up with a ‘palatable’ replacement for the licence fee by 2027 when the current BBC Charter ran out, and also that decriminalisation of non-payment of the licence fee – making evasion only liable to civil penalties – was now a ‘done deal’ which will be announced within weeks. Mr Rayner claimed that a minister had also said there was interest in ‘levelling the playing field’ by allowing  broadcasting regulator Ofcom to award more licences to commercial rivals. He added that the BBC Licence Fee (Civil Penalty) Bill was due for a second reading in November. Mr Rayner also reported that Mr Davie, in address to staff later in the week, would say that the current licence fee needed to offer better value for money by the BBC connecting properly with all its audiences, by offering fewer repeats and programming that appealed to a wide range of views and backgrounds, rather than just to metropolitan ones.

Helena Kelly (Daily Mail 31/8) following up the Telegraph report above, said that there was ‘real optimism’ in ministerial circles that the BBC could thrive without the fee, and that  alternatives being considered were said to be a subscription service similar to Netflix or Amazon Prime.  Ms Kelly quoted a BBC spokesman as saying that the licence fee was the way of funding the BBC at least until 2027.  Also in the Mail (31/8), Katie Feehan said that an ‘insider’ had claimed that Tim Davie’s immediate priority would be to undo ‘the terrible damage done by Tony (Hall)’ and reverse the decision not to include a sung version of Rule, Britannia in the last night of the proms on September 12. Ms Feehan said a senior BBC source had told her that the proms row was another example of the BBC walking into a ‘completely unnecessary and absurd row’ about culture. It was also report in the Mail that Tim Davie was expected to clamp down on BBC presenters making money by hosting corporate events, and on staff use of social media, especially with regard to comment which could be interpreted as biased.

NEW DG ‘IS NOT STEREOTYPE BBC EXECUTIVE’: Matthew Moore, media correspondent for The Times (£ 31/8), argued that new BBC director general Tim Davie faced an “even more daunting” set of challenges than his predecessor Lord Hall did on Day 1 and that he had “a fight on his hands” due to “dwindling ratings, stretched finances, a hostile government and a suspicious public”. Mr Moore claimed however that Mr Davie did not fit the “north London elite” stereotype of a BBC executive, having a “staunchly suburban” background and “commercial instincts” and added that he “is understood to appreciate that the licence fee is unlikely to continue in its current form after 2027, and will prioritise maximising outside revenues”. Mr Moore opined that it was “savvy” of Tim Davie to “pronounce his ‘deep commitment to impartiality'” in his statement accepting the job, calling it “a clear message to No 10 that he had heard its complaints about the notorious Emily Maitlis Newsnight monologue and other bias rows.”

‘A CONSERVATIVE CHAIRMAN WON”T SAVE BBC’: Nigel Jones (The Critic 30/8), noting that former Telegraph editor Charles Moore and Sunday Times editor Andrew Neil were being cited as possible replacements for Sir David Clementi as chairman of the BBC when he retired in February 2021, argued that Boris Johnson was ‘probably too timid and pusillanimous’ to appoint either man. He added that even if either Tory accepted the ‘Herculean task’ of clearing this particularly noxious stable, they would find themselves on mission impossible without sacking the entire BBC staff and starting from scratch because the poison of leftist wokeism was ‘engrained in the BBC’s very bloodstream’.  Mr Jones reported that Margaret Thatcher had similarly hoped that her appointee as chairman, the Conservative Marmaduke Hussey, would sort out the corporation, but he had failed.  Claiming that the BBC had long since surrendered any claim to be an impartial national broadcaster,  he concluded that a bold and truly conservative government should ‘have the guts’ to pull the plug on the BBC by scrapping the licence fee and leave it to sink or swim, unsupported by a television tax ‘which is reluctantly paid by an increasingly resentful and restive public’.

BLACK BBC STAFF COMPLAIN OF CORPORATION ‘RACISM’: Kurt Zindulka (Breitbart Europe 30/8) said that dozens of current and former black employees of the BBC, speaking to the Huffington Post, had complained of a hostile work environment and ‘covert racism’ within the corporation, despite it being seen as ‘woke’ and disproportionately diverse by most ‘right-leaning Britons’.

DAVIE ‘SET TO BECOME MOST RADICAL DG SINCE DYKE’: John Arlidge (£ Sunday Times 30/8) claimed that Mr Davie was set to introduce the most radical reforms to the BBC since Greg Dyke 20 years ago.  Mr Arlidge – explaining that he had not interviewed Mr Davie – said he had pieced together his intentions by talking to ‘senior BBC sources, close friends ands executives who have worked with him’. He added that the changes would include reconnecting with a broader audience by shedding its London-metropolitan bias and its ‘politically correct’ culture, while at the same time ridding the corporation of its ‘lumbering management’, by halving the size of its executive committee from 18 to 9. Mr Arlidge, noting that Mr Davie is the first director general since Sir Michael Checkland in the 1980s not to have a journalistic background, said that he was not afraid of taking on the news ‘behemoth’  to restore impartiality through providing ‘facts, the truth and proper reporting’.

BBC ‘MUST BECOME IMPARTIAL ONCE MORE’: Sir Robbie Gibb (Sunday Telegraph 30/8) argued that events in the past week, including the last night of the proms row, had made the scale of the challenge facing Tim Davie ‘painfully clear.’ He argued that BBC bosses had seemingly seemed so fearful of causing offence to woke activists over racism that they had ended up outraging the majority of the public who were proud of their country, its heritage and traditions, and, further, that the corporation had been ‘culturally captured’ by the left-leaning attitudes  of a metropolitan workforce drawn mainly from a similar economic and social background.  Sir Robbie added that BBC staff were increasingly letting their political preferences show, ranging from liking certain tweets to flagrant breaches of editorial guideline impartiality rules, such as Lewis Goodall, the Newsnight policy editor, grabbing the New Statesman’s cover story with an attack on the government. He claimed that during the EU referendum, rigorous internal controls ensured bias-fee coverage, but that afterwards, this had been abandoned and ‘group think’ crept back in. He argued that what was now required was a cross-BBC steering group to ensure impartiality across all BBC output and that content genuinely reflected the ‘outlook of the country’.  He asserted:

‘In order to provide evidence and benchmarks  on which impartiality can be judged, the BBC Board, working with the BBC editorial policy and standards department, should commission regular Ofsted- style reports into individual programmes and how the BBC is handling a particular running story. The BBC can only be justified as a publicly-funded broadcaster if it provides something commercial rivals do not – truly impartial news coverage.

DAVIE ‘TO CLAMP DOWN ON MOONLIGHTING BY BBC PRESENTERS:  Rosamund Urwin (£ Sunday Times 30/8) said that Tim Davie, the BBC’s new director general, would clamp down on presenters such as Naga Munchetty, Fiona Bruce and Simon Jack making tens of thousands of pounds by hosting corporate events and moonlighting for private companies. Ms Urwin reported that a ‘source close to Davie’ had said that he believed impartiality was a cornerstone of the BBC and that the corporation needed to think about whether there were things which happened with outside interests and on social media which could erode trust and confidence.

MPs WARN THAT BBC NO LONGER SERVING AUDIENCES:  Guido Fawkes (30/8) reported that, according to the Telegraph, the new BBC director general Tim Davie had received a ‘blunt’ letter signed by 14 Tory MPs  accusing the BBC of fundamentally failing to ensure it was covering the diverse perspectives and interests of the public, with the result that many no longer wanted to fund it.  The letter also instanced several examples of bias reporting, including the BBC1 Panorama programme about supplies of safety equipment to hospitals which had been dominated by Labour-supporting contributors without the audience being properly told.

‘TWO TV NEWS CHANNELS TO RIVAL BBC’: Glen Owen (Mail on Sunday 30/8) said that former BBC executive and Downing Street director of communications Sir Robbie Gibb was spearheading a drive to raise funds for GB News, a 24-hour broadcasting station which would provide what was being described as an antidote to the ‘woke, wet’  BBC.  Mr Owen said that the new channel would use a ’standard digital platform’ such as Freeview and had already been granted a licence to operate by broadcasting regulator Ofcom.  He added that pressure on the BBC would further increase with the development of a second rival, a news channel from Rupert Murdoch’s News UK company, likely to be streamed online in a similar way to Netflix. Mr Owen – referring to the controversy about the dropping of the sung version of Rule, Britannia from the last night of the proms – also reported that Lord Hall, the outgoing BBC director general, had insisted that the BBC was not ‘a woke’ corporation and that his predecessor, Tim Davie (due to take over on September 1) had jointly approved the decision about the proms. Mr Owen added that ‘a source close to GB News had said that the servicer would be ‘truly impartial’ and would deliver the facts, ‘not opinion dressed up as news’.    He speculated that broadcasters such as Andrew Neil and Julia Hartley-Brewer had been approached about working for both channels, and said that News UK was ‘at pains’ top point out that it would not be a British version of the ‘right-wing’ Fox News in the US, but rather a television version of services such as TalkRadio.   He added that GB News had also distanced itself from Fox News and from ‘claims that Nigel Farage would be involved’.

NEW DG ‘COULD REVERSE PROMS DECISION’: Ryan Sabey (Sun 29/8), quoting a ‘BBC insider’, said that incoming director general Tim Davie believed that the corporation’s decision to axe the sung versions of Rule, Britannia and Land of Hope and Glory at this year’s last night of the proms had wrought ‘terrible damage’ on the BBC and could reverse it.

Scarlet Howes (Mail on Sunday 30/8) claimed that, according  a report on the Slipped Disc music website,  the BBC Symphony Orchestra, which performed at the last night of the proms, had held a ‘panicked meeting’ about ‘unconscious bias’ and ‘institutional racism’ a few weeks before the row over the content of the concert. She added that the meeting, which discussed responses to the Black Lives Matter movement, decided to forge close links with Chineke!, the first professional orchestra in Europe to be made up mainly of black and ethnic minority musicians.

OFCOM ‘INVESTIGATING BBC’s COMMERCIAL PLUGS FOR BRITBOX’: Matthew Moore (£ Times 28/8) said that the BBC was facing an Ofcom review of its decision to run advertisements for Britbox , a commercial programme box set service provided through online streaming in which it owned a 10 per cent stake.  Mr Moore explained  that Britbox was a joint venture between the BBC and ITV – which owned the remaining 90 per cent – and cost subscribers £5.99 a month to access classic episodes of series such as Doctor Who. He said that Ofcom investigation had been sparked after a promotion for Britbox was run after an episode of Doctor Who, and suggested that the regulator would likely conduct a wider review of the BBC’s rules for cross-promoting commercial products later in the year.  Mr Moore noted that the BBC’s rivals had long complained that the BBC had an unfair advantage because it could market products on its television and radio stations at no cost. There were strict guidelines on the promotion of commercial products, but in the Doctor Who case, the BBC had said it was permissible because it was a trial scheme ‘focused on helping viewers find materials directly relevant to the show they had just watched’.

BORIS JOHNSON ‘NOT DOING ENOUGH’ IN LICENCE FEE ROW: Gerrard Kaonga (Express 30/8) reported that Dennis Reed, the director of the campaign group Silver Voices – which was trying to reverse the BBC’s decision to charge over-75s for their BBC licence fees – had accused prime minister Boris Johnson of ‘washing his hands’ of being able to intervene. Mr Reed claimed that the BBC would jump at the opportunity of talks with the prime minister about resolving the matter, but so far Mr Johnson had said everything was down to the BBC. Mr Reed asserted:

‘The Government must approach the BBC rather than conduct an argument through the press, which is what has happened up to now. They could approach the BBC and the new director-general and say we have got to quell this dissatisfaction amongst the over-60s.’

BBC LICENCE FEE NON-PAYMENT ‘TO BE DECRIMINALISED’: Jason Groves (Daily Mail 29/8) reported that ‘Whitehall sources’ were suggesting that dodging payment of the BBC licence fee could be decriminalised from next month – with a loss of revenue of £1 billion over five years – after a poll commissioned by the newspaper had found growing public discontent with the broadcaster. He said the poll findings included that two thirds wanted the licence fee scrapped; only 18 per cent believed that non-payers should face a criminal record;  30 per cent said they watched no BBC television and 57 per cent said they never listened to BBC radio; more than  50 percent believed the corporation was too politically correct;   30 per cent believed that output was left-wing, compared with only 18 per cent who believed it leaned to the right (the rest don’t knows); and that 59 per cent believed Boris Johnson  when he criticised the corporation for ‘cringing with embarrassment over our history’.

The Daily Mail (29/8) also claimed that the BBC’s taxpayer funded offices were sitting empty – causing huge negative consequences for nearby businesses – as ‘vast swathes’ of employees continued to work from home despite the easing of the Covid-19 lockdown. Danny Hussain reported that it was estimated that only 20 per cent of staff had returned to office working, and that output continued to rely on ‘cheap Zoom calls’. He added that the BBC press office had refused to give figures on home-working.

A Daily Mail editorial (29/8), though saying there was ‘much to admire’ in the BBC output, called for the decriminalisation of non-payment of the licence fee.

A Sun editorial (29/8) – after a poll for the newspaper found 57 per cent wanted the licence fee scrapped – argued that, under new director general Tim Davie, ‘either the BBC rapidly begins to better reflect Tory-voting, Brexit-backing Britain, or it continues serving it favoured niche of woke metropolitan liberal-lefties and self-destructs’.

BBC ‘PLAY DRUG DEALER TRACK’ WHILE BANNING RULE, BRITANNIA: Dan Keane (Sun 29/8) said that the  BBC  radio music station 1Extra was ‘plugging’ a former county lines drug dealer’s new drill rap – which axing the singing of Rule, Britannia for the last night or the proms.  Mr Keane said that Potter Payper’s new track had been played on August 19, ‘just days before it announced the controversial BBC proms axing’. He noted that Conservative MP David Morris had said:

‘This is another belter from the blundering BBC. On the week we’ve had the Beeb try and stop Brits from singing Land of Hope and Glory, they are now telling the nation to listen to a county lines, drug-smuggling criminal instead, and just weeks after he got out of jail.’