A Diminished BBC, you say? By Gum, no!

From Part One. In 2008, Ireland was the only country in the EU whose people got to vote on the Lisbon Treaty. All the reportage and analysis at the Irish edition of the Sunday Times was against the Lisbon Treaty.

Most of the main political parties were pro-Lisbon. And one of the paper’s journos, Sarah Carey, wanted to write a pro-Lisbon piece, but she was effectively told she couldn’t. She quit the paper.

But who wants a weak Europe outside of the Sunday Times?

There were rumours afterwards that Predden George Dubya Boosh had Rupert’s ear, and he was asking him to go anti-Lisbon in Ireland coz they could do without a European syoooperpower.

Whatever the reason for the lack of balance, is this the kind of independent media we want to be paying for, signing in through a firewall for the privilege? If people have to pay for stuff, there'd better be breasts on page 3.

Meanwhile, the BBC appears to spend its news budget attacking ITSELF lately, and when it attacks Cameron, it gets itself in the shit.

Thatcher went after the BBC just a little. Blair went after it too, through Alistair Campbell, over the sexed up dossier and suicide of an expert witness on whom the Blair government had apparently put an immense amount of pressure. Spin doctor Campbells went ballistic at them.

British governments sanction the BBC, but they also want to sanction the BBC. This sort of battling with the prime ministers of the day wouldn’t happen if the BBC wasn’t actually independent. 

It clearly needs to be able to attack or expose when other news editors are busy licking the gickers of the powerful or being sold shite by Max Clifford types.

Here’s something though: Where does the money go for selling the

franchise for Dancing with the Stars, or for peddling Doctor Who overseas, or for Downton Abbey boxed sets on the DVD? 

How are BBC Worldwide, and BBC America, “for profit”? And couldn’t they use some of those profits to reduce the cost of the licence, and remain “independent”, and continue to deliver quality news, and adhere to the public service remit? Who the hell made that decision, to have an investment banking arm of Hollywood stars at the BBC, that the TV licence public don’t benefit from? Rein that back in, and you retain independence, Shirley?

Much of this piece harks back to earlier times

Maybe Murdoch was right on Lisbon. Maybe he's right when all of his papers support the Tories or Labour or the Republicans in 'Merickyay. But the BBC weather app isn't about to sell me a timeshare in Greece that’ll be a fraction of what it’s worth today, in 2020 hindsight. Sky might try, through its ludicrous premium rate help lines.