to be delighted at the appointment of John Whittingdale

[longfingernails]

Looks like the Britain-hating commie Beeboids are going to get their comeuppance.

When I lived overseas, the two things that were most admired about the UK were the BBC and the NHS. It's sad to think that this government is likely to start dismantling both. :(

icimoi surely not the same Nick "I stood for election as a Conservative" Robinson?

Voter turnout was 66.1%. 36.9% of that is 24% or just less than 1:4 people voted Conservative. So Tories might be majority in government but nowhere near majority of voters.

Love the Beeb.

'Bit of a token'? The BBC haven't questioned the governments line on anything over the past 5 years, even on the NHS H&SC Act fiasco.

John whittingdale's half brother is one of the country's worst paedophiles.
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/11238339/Charles-Napier-admits-string-of-historic-sex-offences-against-boys.html
Before he asks the bbc any questions I would like to ask him.
1.) what does he know about the diplomatic bags used to carry child porn.
2.) how he felt knowing that his brother was teaching children in Cairo despite having a conviction for child abuse
3.) when he talked about savile at the bbc did he not feel a bit conflicted after being part of thatcher's cabinet that allowed him to get the keys to broadmoor.

On another point, most of the written press is Tory-controlled via Murdoch and certainly far more blatantly biased than anything the bbc puts out.

I'm aware he has experience in managing the government's perception of culture. That is far from being the same thing as having an interest in the arts. I'm not saying that he doesn't, but it's proving hard to find.

I've can only get BBC now I'm out of the UK. No other British channels (I don't have satellite). Its made me realise just how truly dire it is. The news reporting is awful, the election reporting biased (and inaccurate), its dumned down so as to appeal to small children (makes even CNN appear intellectual) and its "home grown drama" mainly consists of sexist period pieces with controlling men, playing to middle aged male stereotypes, or crime dramas involving a lot of superfluous violent serial killings and peadophilia. Or crime/gangster dramas, like East Enders...

I didn't realise before how much ITV and especially C4 I watched. You think something sounds good on BBC, you watch it and after 10 minutes, realise its utter drivel. e.g. long drawn-out drivel, like Atlantis. I now watch the domestic channels in a foreign language, with no sub-titles, as that's still more entertaining than watching the BBC.

Doesn't every political party claim the BBC is biased against them?

The BBC produce far more excellent programmes than bad ones and they are free of advert breaks the licence fee is worth it for that reason alone, watching anything live on commercial channels is irritating in the extreme due to the breaks.

The standards of some things have slipped a bit but I also think certain events including some sporting ones should be available on the BBC irrespective of where else they are shown.

Here we go again....yawn.....

Since this all reminds me of Thatcher era 'Points of View' - can we please please please get Barry Took to run the BBC and get that why-oh-why so smutty Singing Detective off the telly...

Tory complaints of pinkos and lefties in the Beeb? It isn't 1986 - they didn't have Political Correctness gone mad back then either.

If World in Action was still on, you'd really blow a blood vessel.

Very funny thread, I have this image in my head of the OP as a female Sen. Joe McCarthy.

Apparently he voted against equal marriage, which makes me think that he is a dinosaur, and not really suitable for any public position.

In this day and age, with so many 'broadcasting options', and taking into account that you can consume all the BBC's non live iplayer, and web and radio content for free, the licence fee definitely needs to be discussed.

However, is this the person to have that discussion? No.

Yes, the BBC despise traditional British values. Several presenters, current and former, from the left and the right, have admitted the liberal-left

What are the traditional values that the 'liberal left' aren't supporting? tolerance, kindness, empathy?

Thank you for posting that Should, what an absolute, sickening disgrace.

The mind truly boggles at the existence of the Paedophile Information Exchange.

You have to suspect that the BBC is doing something right when both sides complain vociferously about bias

Having spent many years not watching foreign television because it is so bad, I think the BBC is vastly underappreciated. The only thing that is often done better outside the UK is news programming (UK news programmes are horribly dumbed down but this isn't confined to the BBC).

Whatever you think about the BBC, criminalising people who fail to subscribe has no place in today's society. Imagine being forced to pay to have the Guardian delivered but being fined or imprisoned when
you say you don't want it.

A state broadcaster that we're forced to subscribe to sounds more at home in China or Soviet Russia.

I think what everyone's forgetting is how much better and how much cheaper and how much less biased Murdoch's Sky/News International empire is.

These bbc isn't bias claims are hilarious. Did anyone listen to the radio one coverage?!

Good point about being forced to pay for something you don't use.

And for all the lovely people who would pay or even pay double for specific parts of the BBC, how about a subscription service? Problem solved!

And let's not forget, there have been plenty of politicians on both sides involved directly or indirectly with PIE. Margaret Hodge anyone?

Um. I think left wing people would normally point out that just because someone's family member has done something criminal it doesn't mean that their entire family are guilty.

I don't listen to Radio 5. But Radio 1 news was awful. I remember one report in particular where they summed up the party policies of the two main parties. They said Labour wanted to protect the NHS and improve benefits for the poor. They said the Conservatives wanted to cut benefits and the 50p tax rise. No mention of tax cuts for the lowest paid workers, no mention of extra free childcare. That was the general tone, they would present it as though all the Labour policies were positive and all the Conservative ones negative.

Really, people who are in favour of BBC impartiality and the principles behind it shouldn't support this sort of thing. But I think often they only pay lip service to impartiality and what they really mean is 'I want a BBC biased to agree with me'.

I don't listen to Radio 1 , and from memory their news is covering politics only very superficially because their target audience cares more about slebs. Radio 4 however treated us to weekly Nigel Farridge interviews for the last couple of years and a lot of Tory policies have not been challenged very hard at all.

A state broadcaster that we're forced to subscribe to sounds more at home in China or Soviet Russia.

Except you are only really forced to subscribe to them if you own a television, and most of their content can be received without owning a television.

I think the problem is more that the license fee subscription method is based on how television was watched in 1975.

It is just like 1975. Time for a massive change.

People who whinge about the licence fee never seem to work out that they're actually paying more towards the running costs of commercial TV, and they have no choice at all. After all, the money for all those adverts doesn't come out of thin air.

and from memory their news is covering politics only very superficially because their target audience cares more about slebs

Yes, the were all over thingy leaving One Direction.

The "BBC is biased" complaint from the Conservatives was used extensively in the 80s as a tactic to avoid answering questions on their policies.

It became ridiculous, with the whole interview wasted in arguments - rather as they did in the Election over the SNP coalition fantasy.

I wonder if they're gearing up for a similar stunt this time:
"When will you implement your promise of 30 hours free childcare?"
"You see? This is a prime example of BBC bias! You would not ask that question of the Labour party!"