Sir John Redwood is a former MP for Wokingham and a former Secretary of State for Wales. He will soon join the House of Lords.
Are BBC journalists not very good, or do they stick to the establishment line however wrong it may be? This issue cannot be avoided as the Government launches its enquiry into the BBC’s future.
Ministers do need to answer several important questions: should the license fee (or BBC tax) continue? What is public service broadcasting and do the BBC offer that? Can they claim to be independent and balanced in their news and commentary programmes?
The BBC does not follow a party-political bias. It gives tough interviews to Conservative and Labour in and out of government, and to the other parties. It does, however, follow a systematic bias about issues that increasingly preoccupy the public. They accept lazy and false explanations of the cost-of-living crunch, ignore most criticisms of net zero policy, and failed to take seriously the problems caused by excessive immigration. Their choice of topics, and their limited range of so-called experts invited to interviews, ensures a growing gulf between the BBC and much of their former (or potential) audience.
For example, the Corporation has acted as cheerleaders and propagandists for an idiotic version of net zero theory and policies: the self-harming diatribes to shut down our own oil and gas, to force us into battery cars by banning petrol and diesel, to hasten the end of the gas boiler, and prevent us driving in many locations are interwoven into so much of their output.
For years, they have prevented analysts like myself appearing to explain how all these policies – as well as deindustrialising the UK – actually increase the output of world CO2. Beyond the lost jobs and tax revenues, as we close down overtaxed oil and gas. If you go and buy a battery car in the UK, we usually have to burn more gas to recharge it when you plug it in; importing gas in liquid form for home heating produces three times as much CO2 as using our own down a pipe.
The BBC backed the establishment when it set about creating big inflation in the first half of this decade. They fans of lockdown, and massive subsidies to offset some of the economic damage. The Bank printing so much money, and paying highly inflated prices for bonds, went unquestioned. When it predictably went wrong, the BBC accepted the official line that the inflation was caused by Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and the resulting surge in energy prices.
The BBC had reported inflation three times target before the invasion – so had they forgotten, or did they want to help the Establishment shift the blame? Did they not notice inflation stayed low in countries importing a lot of energy like Switzerland, Japan, and China because they did not overwork their money printing presses?
Throughout the boom/bust policy cycle of 2020-25 they ignored the colossal losses incurred by the Bank on its bonds, forecast at £288bn from Q3 2022 by the OBR (which they ordinarily worship). They refused to report these, or to allow comment on the impact on budgets, as the Treasury and taxpayers have to pay for these losses as they occur.
If a large private sector company had been reporting anything like such results, I suspect the BBC would have given them top billin, with plenty of interviews criticising the bosses.
The BBC underplayed the big migration and did not interview to explore the impact on housing, wages, public spending and productivity of inviting in so many low paid and no pay people. It seemed to take the Establishment line that migration was good for growth, ignoring the depressing impact on per capita figures.
To many of its critics,its wokeish stance can be summed up as the Bash Britain Corporation. The BBC has been caught dumbing down Last Night of the Proms, presenting the worst features of British history, preferring programmes condemning slave traders rather than praising our Parliament and navy for leading a world movement against slavery.
When the BBC comes rattling the collection tins demanding a bigger and continuing tax an increasing number of people say ‘No’. I have written before on the damage complacency has done to our entertainment industry, with the BBC now tiny compared to the US giants. Many people now pay for downloads and subscriptions for imported films and sport.
Today news and comment is under review. If the BBC cannot persuade even half the public it offers a well informed and unbiased public service, it will need to change.
Media can be a great strength of Britain. We have plenty of talent in entertainment, commentary and journalism. A once large and domestically dominant all-purpose broadcaster financed by a dwindling tax and facing a declining audience has had to give up on much sporting coverage, cut back on original material and has narrowed the range of views and expertise it will allow on its channels.
No wonder it now has to reconsider and try harder from its tiny world base with a turnover one twentieth of Comcast.