Maybe he's realised that although he has the right to do so, alienating half his audience isn't a sensible idea.
It’s not so much the alienation, it’s that the BBC relies on a licence fee, which is particularly paid by older Tory voters
If 10,000 of them think Fuck it, why should I help to pay Gary Lineker £1.5m a year to spout Woke gibberish (which he does) AND avoid tax on it, that’s 10,000 x £180 a year = £1.8m lost, every year from now on. Lineker is not worth that. And if 50,000 older people think fuck the Licence Fee then the BBC is in real trouble
Market forces. The beeb relies on older Tories coughing up. What a shame for Gary
Gary will be fine. I wouldn't worry about him.
He’ll be fine, just like Jeremy Clarkson is fine. But if the BBC wants to survive (I doubt it can, but it should try) it has to do this. The spectacle of this mega-millionaire tax avoider exulting in his ludicrous lefty views on social media is nauseating - he only has that influence because of the BBC
See, also, BBC presenter Alan Sugar. Though, to be fair, Gary Lineker was a world class footballer who was internationally famous because he scored countless goals for Leicester, Barcelona, Everton, Spurs and England. Sugar not so much.
Sugar is arguably more impressive than Lineker. The Amstrad was genuinely quite revolutionary
OK so Sugar made a decent guitar that was quite popular at the time. Does that enable him to pretend to be some kind of business guru for the rest of his life?
Guitar? You may wish to recalculate using your Amstrad calculator!
His violins are legendary, though.
Sugar's greatest innovation was a cheap word processor incompatible with anything else. Back in the day I used to scratch a few bob here and there translating Amstrad WP files to PC or Mac for onward editing. In retrospect I might have realised it would be short-lived.
I adapted mine with a PC drive to do that myself! - posting the 5.25 inch discs to editors in many a magazine or newspaper or academic journal. Saved a lot of money on having to buy a pukka PC till prices came down.
Alan Sugar epitomised why the UK gets nowhere in many fields in tech.
Cheapest possible product, barely developed, chuck it over the wall.
But that was why it was so popular with bands like the Who. You could throw it off the stage one night, and be playing it again the next.
So much is the same as mid-1990's ; a BBC stuffed to the gills with Conservative placemen, a government soon to be voted out in a landslide.
All we might need is the second dawning of Britpop, to complete the holy visions.
Yes, that well known bastion of Tory politics the BBC
I pity the BBC.
It cannot win
The barking left think it’s full of Tories, the barking right think it’s full of commies. It tries to tread the middle ground and generally does on national issues. On local issues it’s news is little more than recycled press releases from charities and lobbyists.
High time the licence fee was abolished and it sought its own funding. Especially when viewing numbers are falling
Without licence fee funding the BBC would collapse. It might get some subscribing to pay for Dancing on Ice or Attenborough (while he remains alive) and the odd drama like Gold and The Bodyguard but that is about it.
Not having adverts is one of the few advantages the BBC now still has over rivals with viewers
Of course it will collapse. That’s what the BBCphobes desire.
What do you suggest when broadcast TV ends?
To put it another way, the next generation doesn't watch broadcast. They watch iPlayer. Already.
Maybe he's realised that although he has the right to do so, alienating half his audience isn't a sensible idea.
It’s not so much the alienation, it’s that the BBC relies on a licence fee, which is particularly paid by older Tory voters
If 10,000 of them think Fuck it, why should I help to pay Gary Lineker £1.5m a year to spout Woke gibberish (which he does) AND avoid tax on it, that’s 10,000 x £180 a year = £1.8m lost, every year from now on. Lineker is not worth that. And if 50,000 older people think fuck the Licence Fee then the BBC is in real trouble
Market forces. The beeb relies on older Tories coughing up. What a shame for Gary
Gary will be fine. I wouldn't worry about him.
He’ll be fine, just like Jeremy Clarkson is fine. But if the BBC wants to survive (I doubt it can, but it should try) it has to do this. The spectacle of this mega-millionaire tax avoider exulting in his ludicrous lefty views on social media is nauseating - he only has that influence because of the BBC
See, also, BBC presenter Alan Sugar. Though, to be fair, Gary Lineker was a world class footballer who was internationally famous because he scored countless goals for Leicester, Barcelona, Everton, Spurs and England. Sugar not so much.
Sugar is arguably more impressive than Lineker. The Amstrad was genuinely quite revolutionary
OK so Sugar made a decent guitar that was quite popular at the time. Does that enable him to pretend to be some kind of business guru for the rest of his life?
Guitar? You may wish to recalculate using your Amstrad calculator!
His violins are legendary, though.
Sugar's greatest innovation was a cheap word processor incompatible with anything else. Back in the day I used to scratch a few bob here and there translating Amstrad WP files to PC or Mac for onward editing. In retrospect I might have realised it would be short-lived.
Yes undoubtedly the WP systems were the real cash cow. His PC range was pretty successful too (I bought one). The violins has issues - a bit Amstradivarious!
Just to avoid confusion, it was the Amstradocaster I was talking about.
Maybe he's realised that although he has the right to do so, alienating half his audience isn't a sensible idea.
It’s not so much the alienation, it’s that the BBC relies on a licence fee, which is particularly paid by older Tory voters
If 10,000 of them think Fuck it, why should I help to pay Gary Lineker £1.5m a year to spout Woke gibberish (which he does) AND avoid tax on it, that’s 10,000 x £180 a year = £1.8m lost, every year from now on. Lineker is not worth that. And if 50,000 older people think fuck the Licence Fee then the BBC is in real trouble
Market forces. The beeb relies on older Tories coughing up. What a shame for Gary
Gary will be fine. I wouldn't worry about him.
He’ll be fine, just like Jeremy Clarkson is fine. But if the BBC wants to survive (I doubt it can, but it should try) it has to do this. The spectacle of this mega-millionaire tax avoider exulting in his ludicrous lefty views on social media is nauseating - he only has that influence because of the BBC
See, also, BBC presenter Alan Sugar. Though, to be fair, Gary Lineker was a world class footballer who was internationally famous because he scored countless goals for Leicester, Barcelona, Everton, Spurs and England. Sugar not so much.
Sugar is arguably more impressive than Lineker. The Amstrad was genuinely quite revolutionary
OK so Sugar made a decent guitar that was quite popular at the time. Does that enable him to pretend to be some kind of business guru for the rest of his life?
Guitar? You may wish to recalculate using your Amstrad calculator!
His violins are legendary, though.
Sugar's greatest innovation was a cheap word processor incompatible with anything else. Back in the day I used to scratch a few bob here and there translating Amstrad WP files to PC or Mac for onward editing. In retrospect I might have realised it would be short-lived.
I adapted mine with a PC drive to do that myself! - posting the 5.25 inch discs to editors in many a magazine or newspaper or academic journal. Saved a lot of money on having to buy a pukka PC till prices came down.
Most of my clients were lady authors who wouldn't stoop to such a trick!
So much is the same as mid-1990's ; a BBC stuffed to the gills with Conservative placemen, a government soon to be voted out in a landslide.
All we might need is the second dawning of Britpop, to complete the holy visions.
Yes, that well known bastion of Tory politics the BBC
I pity the BBC.
It cannot win
The barking left think it’s full of Tories, the barking right think it’s full of commies. It tries to tread the middle ground and generally does on national issues. On local issues it’s news is little more than recycled press releases from charities and lobbyists.
High time the licence fee was abolished and it sought its own funding. Especially when viewing numbers are falling
Without licence fee funding the BBC would collapse. It might get some subscribing to pay for Dancing on Ice or Attenborough (while he remains alive) and the odd drama like Gold and The Bodyguard but that is about it.
Not having adverts is one of the few advantages the BBC now still has over rivals with viewers
Of course that should be Strictly not Dancing on Ice which is ITV. You could probably now add Death in Paradise as a BBC show people would subscribe for but that is about it
I haven't watched QT for ages but I'm surprised so many on here say it is Tory biased. Wasn't when I last watched it - especially the audience. Must have changed a lot.
So much is the same as mid-1990's ; a BBC stuffed to the gills with Conservative placemen, a government soon to be voted out in a landslide.
All we might need is the second dawning of Britpop, to complete the holy visions.
Yes, that well known bastion of Tory politics the BBC
I pity the BBC.
It cannot win
The barking left think it’s full of Tories, the barking right think it’s full of commies. It tries to tread the middle ground and generally does on national issues. On local issues it’s news is little more than recycled press releases from charities and lobbyists.
High time the licence fee was abolished and it sought its own funding. Especially when viewing numbers are falling
Without licence fee funding the BBC would collapse. It might get some subscribing to pay for Dancing on Ice or Attenborough (while he remains alive) and the odd drama like Gold and The Bodyguard but that is about it.
Not having adverts is one of the few advantages the BBC now still has over rivals with viewers
Without Lineker we can all pay a reduced license fee...
Get rid if the so called experts, have an AI robot introduce and commentate on the games... or give no commentary at all. Would save a billion or. so ...
So much is the same as mid-1990's ; a BBC stuffed to the gills with Conservative placemen, a government soon to be voted out in a landslide.
All we might need is the second dawning of Britpop, to complete the holy visions.
Yes, that well known bastion of Tory politics the BBC
I pity the BBC.
It cannot win
The barking left think it’s full of Tories, the barking right think it’s full of commies. It tries to tread the middle ground and generally does on national issues. On local issues it’s news is little more than recycled press releases from charities and lobbyists.
High time the licence fee was abolished and it sought its own funding. Especially when viewing numbers are falling
Without licence fee funding the BBC would collapse. It might get some subscribing to pay for Dancing on Ice or Attenborough (while he remains alive) and the odd drama like Gold and The Bodyguard but that is about it.
Not having adverts is one of the few advantages the BBC now still has over rivals with viewers
Of course it will collapse. That’s what the BBCphobes desire.
What do you suggest when broadcast TV ends?
To put it another way, the next generation doesn't watch broadcast. They watch iPlayer. Already.
How will the TV license work then?
At a guess, roughly like YouTube, Netflix, Amazon Prime, ITVX, FreeVee and about a hundred more.
I don't understand what all the fuss is about with Lineker, the BBC and free speech. Seems fairly simple to me.
If you work for the public funded BBC then you have to be politically impartial and can't say whatever you like on Twitter.
If you don't work for the BBC then you can say what you like.
So, if you want to say what you want on Twitter don't work for the BBC.
Except that only seems to apply if you express opinions the government doesn't like. BBC presenter Alan Sugar is free to urge people to vote Tory, as he did in 2019, and to criticise Mick Lynch and the RMT, as he did earlier this year.
Gary's 'left liberal centrism' is also fine if aimed Left rather than Right. "Bin Corbyn" was one of his tweet themes. No probs.
No, I have a problem with that as well. If lineker said that, then fuck him, again
Maybe he's realised that although he has the right to do so, alienating half his audience isn't a sensible idea.
It’s not so much the alienation, it’s that the BBC relies on a licence fee, which is particularly paid by older Tory voters
If 10,000 of them think Fuck it, why should I help to pay Gary Lineker £1.5m a year to spout Woke gibberish (which he does) AND avoid tax on it, that’s 10,000 x £180 a year = £1.8m lost, every year from now on. Lineker is not worth that. And if 50,000 older people think fuck the Licence Fee then the BBC is in real trouble
Market forces. The beeb relies on older Tories coughing up. What a shame for Gary
Gary will be fine. I wouldn't worry about him.
He’ll be fine, just like Jeremy Clarkson is fine. But if the BBC wants to survive (I doubt it can, but it should try) it has to do this. The spectacle of this mega-millionaire tax avoider exulting in his ludicrous lefty views on social media is nauseating - he only has that influence because of the BBC
See, also, BBC presenter Alan Sugar. Though, to be fair, Gary Lineker was a world class footballer who was internationally famous because he scored countless goals for Leicester, Barcelona, Everton, Spurs and England. Sugar not so much.
Sugar is arguably more impressive than Lineker. The Amstrad was genuinely quite revolutionary
OK so Sugar made a decent guitar that was quite popular at the time. Does that enable him to pretend to be some kind of business guru for the rest of his life?
Guitar? You may wish to recalculate using your Amstrad calculator!
His violins are legendary, though.
Sugar's greatest innovation was a cheap word processor incompatible with anything else. Back in the day I used to scratch a few bob here and there translating Amstrad WP files to PC or Mac for onward editing. In retrospect I might have realised it would be short-lived.
Yes undoubtedly the WP systems were the real cash cow. His PC range was pretty successful too (I bought one). The violins has issues - a bit Amstradivarious!
Just to avoid confusion, it was the Amstradocaster I was talking about.
those BBC rules in full: - Attenborough can't broadcast a show about UK nature loss. - Lineker can't tweet criticising the government. - Alan Sugar *can* tweet criticising strikes. - The BBC chair *can* be a Tory donor who didn't disclose he facilitated a loan to Boris Johnson.
So much is the same as mid-1990's ; a BBC stuffed to the gills with Conservative placemen, a government soon to be voted out in a landslide.
All we might need is the second dawning of Britpop, to complete the holy visions.
Yes, that well known bastion of Tory politics the BBC
I pity the BBC.
It cannot win
The barking left think it’s full of Tories, the barking right think it’s full of commies. It tries to tread the middle ground and generally does on national issues. On local issues it’s news is little more than recycled press releases from charities and lobbyists.
High time the licence fee was abolished and it sought its own funding. Especially when viewing numbers are falling
Without licence fee funding the BBC would collapse. It might get some subscribing to pay for Dancing on Ice or Attenborough (while he remains alive) and the odd drama like Gold and The Bodyguard but that is about it.
Not having adverts is one of the few advantages the BBC now still has over rivals with viewers
Dancing on Ice is on ITV
Not having adverts is such a highly prized advantage the viewing figures are falling year on year.
It really is not sustainable to have a license fee that funds the BBC in the multi channel and streaming age.
Pay for the non BBC element of the license fee out of general taxation and let the BBC compete for its funding. It keeps telling us how highly prized it is. If that’s the case it will have no problem.
Maybe he's realised that although he has the right to do so, alienating half his audience isn't a sensible idea.
It’s not so much the alienation, it’s that the BBC relies on a licence fee, which is particularly paid by older Tory voters
If 10,000 of them think Fuck it, why should I help to pay Gary Lineker £1.5m a year to spout Woke gibberish (which he does) AND avoid tax on it, that’s 10,000 x £180 a year = £1.8m lost, every year from now on. Lineker is not worth that. And if 50,000 older people think fuck the Licence Fee then the BBC is in real trouble
Market forces. The beeb relies on older Tories coughing up. What a shame for Gary
Gary will be fine. I wouldn't worry about him.
He’ll be fine, just like Jeremy Clarkson is fine. But if the BBC wants to survive (I doubt it can, but it should try) it has to do this. The spectacle of this mega-millionaire tax avoider exulting in his ludicrous lefty views on social media is nauseating - he only has that influence because of the BBC
See, also, BBC presenter Alan Sugar. Though, to be fair, Gary Lineker was a world class footballer who was internationally famous because he scored countless goals for Leicester, Barcelona, Everton, Spurs and England. Sugar not so much.
Sugar is arguably more impressive than Lineker. The Amstrad was genuinely quite revolutionary
OK so Sugar made a decent guitar that was quite popular at the time. Does that enable him to pretend to be some kind of business guru for the rest of his life?
Guitar? You may wish to recalculate using your Amstrad calculator!
His violins are legendary, though.
Sugar's greatest innovation was a cheap word processor incompatible with anything else. Back in the day I used to scratch a few bob here and there translating Amstrad WP files to PC or Mac for onward editing. In retrospect I might have realised it would be short-lived.
I adapted mine with a PC drive to do that myself! - posting the 5.25 inch discs to editors in many a magazine or newspaper or academic journal. Saved a lot of money on having to buy a pukka PC till prices came down.
Alan Sugar epitomised why the UK gets nowhere in many fields in tech.
Cheapest possible product, barely developed, chuck it over the wall.
No actual knowledge of what he was trying to sell.
Quite. The PCW was basically a heap of the equivalents of Betamax VCRs all put into a box and sold as one unit. Notably the - three inch, was it? - disc drive. Only it was so successful that the manufacturers of the different bits had to put them back into production!
Betamax was superior to VHS, though.
VHS was the cheap option but with a larger supply of videos available in plain covers. Allegedly.
Why bother with having a government just get the Daily Mail to dictate the policies which the gimps in no 10 can enact .
The BBC is now so terrified of what a vindictive Tory government might do with the tv license review that it caves in everytime.
And to rub salt into the wounds it now won’t broadcast the David Attenborough programme on BBC tv but stick it away on iplayer.
God forbid the right wing snowflakes are faced with the truth of our destruction of the natural world .
What the BBC don’t realize is that the Tories will fuck them regardless .
I agree with some of that with Nico, but see below - I would say that it's more that the BBC is now administratively Tory-dominated, as in the 1990's.
Starmer may also do something similar, but probably to a lesser extent. I think the logic for these decisions being moved out of the ambit of central government is now stronger than ever ; in fact these may come to be seen as even more important reforms than anything to do with the license fee, for the survival of its credibility.
So much is the same as mid-1990's ; a BBC stuffed to the gills with Conservative placemen, a government soon to be voted out in a landslide.
All we might need is the second dawning of Britpop, to complete the holy visions.
Yes, that well known bastion of Tory politics the BBC
I pity the BBC.
It cannot win
The barking left think it’s full of Tories, the barking right think it’s full of commies. It tries to tread the middle ground and generally does on national issues. On local issues it’s news is little more than recycled press releases from charities and lobbyists.
High time the licence fee was abolished and it sought its own funding. Especially when viewing numbers are falling
Without licence fee funding the BBC would collapse. It might get some subscribing to pay for Dancing on Ice or Attenborough (while he remains alive) and the odd drama like Gold and The Bodyguard but that is about it.
Not having adverts is one of the few advantages the BBC now still has over rivals with viewers
Dancing on Ice is on ITV
Not having adverts is such a highly prized advantage the viewing figures are falling year on year.
It really is not sustainable to have a license fee that funds the BBC in the multi channel and streaming age.
Pay for the non BBC element of the license fee out of general taxation and let the BBC compete for its funding. It keeps telling us how highly prized it is. If that’s the case it will have no problem.
Yes, apologies I meant Strictly.
I would pay a license fee for some BBC shows of cultural merit eg Attenborough, the Proms and big sport events like the 6 Nations and Olympics and Wimbledon. The rest can be funded by advertising or subscription, that would keep Strictly going as it has a big audience, probably Pointless, the Apprentice, Call the Midwife and Death in Paradise too but other programmes which could not attract viewers would fall by the wayside
I haven't watched QT for ages but I'm surprised so many on here say it is Tory biased. Wasn't when I last watched it - especially the audience. Must have changed a lot.
It always used to feel like a third Tory, a third Labour and a third Lib Dem. But closer to the activist base of each than the voters, so 2/3rds leftie.
The Govt did not sack Lineker. Roger. Do keep up [Roger, never knowingly correct]
I think the charge is that it kind-of did behind the scenes.
I'd be surprised if this were true - if the government had any sense it would be out of the blocks denouncing the BBC for being against free speech and cancel-culture (something which it criticised the left for).
Ian Wright: "Everybody knows what Match of the Day means to me, but I’ve told the BBC I won’t be doing it tomorrow. Solidarity."
Whether you are in the right or the wrong (and I have no particular views on this) Ian Wright has always struck me as someone you would want in your corner. Loyal to a fault.
I haven't watched QT for ages but I'm surprised so many on here say it is Tory biased. Wasn't when I last watched it - especially the audience. Must have changed a lot.
Last night's programme certainly wasn't Tory biased. It was from North London.
Actually - before I go to sleep in Vietnam (or read some more of Simon Sebag Montefiore’s world history ((essentially the same thing*))’I think @kinabalu makes a good point
Gary Lineker is over 60. His career as a mainstream pundit is nearly done. Young people have no idea who he is or what he did. Likewise Ian Wright. How much better to be fired for a noble political opinion than to simply be retired for being passé
The same rule applied to Clarkson
Plus the entire broadcast ecosystem is shifting. This way a Lineker or a Clarkson gets a final bite of the cherry
*montefiore’s world history is excellent but turgid. Needs to be read in small doses over months
So much is the same as mid-1990's ; a BBC stuffed to the gills with Conservative placemen, a government soon to be voted out in a landslide.
All we might need is the second dawning of Britpop, to complete the holy visions.
Yes, that well known bastion of Tory politics the BBC
I pity the BBC.
It cannot win
The barking left think it’s full of Tories, the barking right think it’s full of commies. It tries to tread the middle ground and generally does on national issues. On local issues it’s news is little more than recycled press releases from charities and lobbyists.
High time the licence fee was abolished and it sought its own funding. Especially when viewing numbers are falling
Without licence fee funding the BBC would collapse. It might get some subscribing to pay for Dancing on Ice or Attenborough (while he remains alive) and the odd drama like Gold and The Bodyguard but that is about it.
Not having adverts is one of the few advantages the BBC now still has over rivals with viewers
Dancing on Ice is on ITV
Not having adverts is such a highly prized advantage the viewing figures are falling year on year.
It really is not sustainable to have a license fee that funds the BBC in the multi channel and streaming age.
Pay for the non BBC element of the license fee out of general taxation and let the BBC compete for its funding. It keeps telling us how highly prized it is. If that’s the case it will have no problem.
Yes, apologies I meant Strictly.
I would pay a license fee for some BBC shows of cultural merit eg Attenborough, the Proms and big sport events like the 6 Nations and Olympics and Wimbledon. The rest can be funded by advertising or subscription, that would keep Strictly going as it has a big audience, probably Pointless and Death in Paradise too but other programmes which could not attract viewers would fall by the wayside
Attenborough ofcourse, in himself, also represents the golden era of BBC cultural and intellectual output before Birt.
A very open-minded but also royalist intellectual, who made BBC2 one of the best channels in the world, from when he ran it in the late 1960's, up to about 1994, or 1995.
Ian Wright: "Everybody knows what Match of the Day means to me, but I’ve told the BBC I won’t be doing it tomorrow. Solidarity."
Whether you are in the right or the wrong (and I have no particular views on this) Ian Wright has always struck me as someone you would want in your corner. Loyal to a fault.
If I were the BBC I'd use this as an opportunity to replace Lineker and Wright afresh for about a quarter of the cost.
"... electric bikes are known as ‘electrically assisted pedal cycles’ (EAPCs). You do not need a licence to ride one and it does not need to be registered, taxed or insured."
According to James May the pedal is the important bit there.
If the electric motor only runs when you pedal, it's a bike.
If it runs without you pedaling, it's a motorbike, and not only needs tax and insurance, it needs a license plate as well
Most electric bicycles are power assisted; another word you have to pedal, but the electric motor makes it a lot easier
Yes, much easier for feckwads to mow down pedestrians, they are a menace in downtown Seattle these days.
Out of interest, how many pedestrians have been killed by e bikes in the last year in Seattle?
No clue. Can tell you that TWO feckers came within inches of me on sidewalks YESTERDAY zooming along at speed, weaving their sorry way though streams of pedestrians.
Am talking about the ones that are littering the sidewalks as per city policy, for the fun of visitors and profit of investors, all with LOTS of feel-good propaganda AND insider cronyism.
Alright then. Let’s just cancel the BBC entirely. Have a bunch of channels paid for by subscribers/viewers. That’s more honest and maybe healthier. Enough
We can have a UK Fox and a UK CNN. Sorted
Very healthy, I’m sure.
Mmm that'd be just super if we could replicate the Fox v CNN tv dynamic over here.
The Govt did not sack Lineker. Roger. Do keep up [Roger, never knowingly correct]
I think the charge is that it kind-of did behind the scenes.
I'd be surprised if this were true - if the government had any sense it would be out of the blocks denouncing the BBC for being against free speech and cancel-culture (something which it criticised the left for).
I think it's more likely the BBC did it (suspend, not sack in any case) because they thought it was expected than because they were actually told to.
Although there's a lot of variability I think there are clear signs now that we've passed Peak Labour for this parliament and swingback should gradually take place between now and Election 24.
So much is the same as mid-1990's ; a BBC stuffed to the gills with Conservative placemen, a government soon to be voted out in a landslide.
All we might need is the second dawning of Britpop, to complete the holy visions.
Yes, that well known bastion of Tory politics the BBC
I pity the BBC.
It cannot win
The barking left think it’s full of Tories, the barking right think it’s full of commies. It tries to tread the middle ground and generally does on national issues. On local issues it’s news is little more than recycled press releases from charities and lobbyists.
High time the licence fee was abolished and it sought its own funding. Especially when viewing numbers are falling
Without licence fee funding the BBC would collapse. It might get some subscribing to pay for Dancing on Ice or Attenborough (while he remains alive) and the odd drama like Gold and The Bodyguard but that is about it.
Not having adverts is one of the few advantages the BBC now still has over rivals with viewers
Dancing on Ice is on ITV
Not having adverts is such a highly prized advantage the viewing figures are falling year on year.
It really is not sustainable to have a license fee that funds the BBC in the multi channel and streaming age.
Pay for the non BBC element of the license fee out of general taxation and let the BBC compete for its funding. It keeps telling us how highly prized it is. If that’s the case it will have no problem.
Yes, apologies I meant Strictly.
I would pay a license fee for some BBC shows of cultural merit eg Attenborough, the Proms and big sport events like the 6 Nations and Olympics and Wimbledon. The rest can be funded by advertising or subscription, that would keep Strictly going as it has a big audience, probably Pointless and Death in Paradise too but other programmes which could not attract viewers would fall by the wayside
Attenborough ofcourse, in himself, also represents the golden era of BBC cultural and intellectual output before Birt.
A very open-minded but also royalist intellectual, who made BBC2 one of the best channels in the world, from when he ran it in the late 1960's, up to about 1994, or 1995.
Your sort of guy, Oracle, your sort of guy - am I right?
Suella Braverman breaks the Ministerial code and is made Home Secretary a week later.
Meanwhile Johnson's fixer is made Chairman of the BBC and Lineker is sacked for showing a compassion most of us share
This government can fuck off.
I can't believe that we're not on the streets with pitchforks making it happen
Lineker has not been sacked, rogerdamus.
Under new labour they had their own fixers running the Beeb. Get annoyed at the system not the side you don’t agree with.
If you seriously think people should be in the streets with pitchforks over the BBC governship and Lineker you’re deluded.
It was never quite like this during New Labour. Lineker's likely dismissal in itself is neither here nor there, but under the surface we have a Putineque Party ownership of our national broadcaster.
EXCL: The BBC has decided not to broadcast an episode of David Attenborough’s flagship new series on British wildlife because of fears of backlash from Tory politicians and rightwing press - @horton_official reports Pippa Crerar
In other news Pippa Crerar changes her name to Peppa Pig in an attempt to avoid the Fascist backlash at pointing out the Tories are Fascists
So much is the same as mid-1990's ; a BBC stuffed to the gills with Conservative placemen, a government soon to be voted out in a landslide.
All we might need is the second dawning of Britpop, to complete the holy visions.
Yes, that well known bastion of Tory politics the BBC
I pity the BBC.
It cannot win
The barking left think it’s full of Tories, the barking right think it’s full of commies. It tries to tread the middle ground and generally does on national issues. On local issues it’s news is little more than recycled press releases from charities and lobbyists.
High time the licence fee was abolished and it sought its own funding. Especially when viewing numbers are falling
Without licence fee funding the BBC would collapse. It might get some subscribing to pay for Dancing on Ice or Attenborough (while he remains alive) and the odd drama like Gold and The Bodyguard but that is about it.
Not having adverts is one of the few advantages the BBC now still has over rivals with viewers
Dancing on Ice is on ITV
Not having adverts is such a highly prized advantage the viewing figures are falling year on year.
It really is not sustainable to have a license fee that funds the BBC in the multi channel and streaming age.
Pay for the non BBC element of the license fee out of general taxation and let the BBC compete for its funding. It keeps telling us how highly prized it is. If that’s the case it will have no problem.
Yes, apologies I meant Strictly.
I would pay a license fee for some BBC shows of cultural merit eg Attenborough, the Proms and big sport events like the 6 Nations and Olympics and Wimbledon. The rest can be funded by advertising or subscription, that would keep Strictly going as it has a big audience, probably Pointless and Death in Paradise too but other programmes which could not attract viewers would fall by the wayside
Attenborough ofcourse, in himself, also represents the golden era of BBC cultural and intellectual output before Birt.
A very open-minded but also royalist intellectual, who made BBC2 one of the best channels in the world, from when he ran it in the late 1960's, up to about 1994, or 1995.
Your sort of guy, Oracle, your sort of guy - am I right?
Ian Wright: "Everybody knows what Match of the Day means to me, but I’ve told the BBC I won’t be doing it tomorrow. Solidarity."
Whether you are in the right or the wrong (and I have no particular views on this) Ian Wright has always struck me as someone you would want in your corner. Loyal to a fault.
If I were the BBC I'd use this as an opportunity to replace Lineker and Wright afresh for about a quarter of the cost.
I think if they wanted them back at this point they might have to double their salaries. Or at least give a hefty donation to a charity benefitting asylum seekers.
Linekar steps down from motd. Where's my tiny violin when I need it?
Tories descend to Nazi-style censorship.
Yes, it sort of proves his point.
I don't care one way or another but the double standards of the right wing press defending the right of free speech for Farage and Yaxley-Lennon, and cheering the fall of Lineker is a joyous irony.
When Alan Sugar takes to Twitter to slag off Mick Lynch, that’s fine.
But when Gary Lineker tweets critically of government policy, that’s a breach of impartiality.
One criticises our democratically elected government. The other… doesn’t.
Good grief! Is criticising the democratically elected government verboten now?
What sort of a country have we become? What happened to free-speech?
Perhaps explain's Leon's fondness for Ron DeSantis? Libertarian turned Oligarch, modeling his politik on Viktor Orban.
The BBC is a state broadcaster. You don’t have that in America (perhaps wisely, who knows). I believe the BBC as we know it is doomed. Sadly. But if it is to survive it needs to be rigorously impartial in party politics. All employees (freelancers or otherwise) who provably gain the majority of their income from the BBC should be told, on pain of sacking, no political opinions on social media
And this should apply to left and right. To Sugar and Lineker. Just STFU as long as you work for the beeb
The license fee needs to go, and ASAP.
As for the BBC it’s survival should depend on its ability to raise revenue without a license fee.
The BBC's brand name would give it huge power to go to markets to raise cash. I think a subscription based model and member ownership, along the lines of the National Trust, is the way forward if it is to have a long-term future.
Britbox subs suggest its not nearly as popular a brand name as you think
SVB is in the process of being wound down. FDIC are paying all insured depositors on Monday. Uninsured are getting certificates.
There are many, many venture backed companies who are going to be in serious pain this morning.
Speaking of pained land pirates . . . AND high-priced real estate . . .
Seattle Times ($) - FTX engineering chief loses Orcas Island house in fraud case
A nearly 10-acre estate on Orcas Island is headed into government hands after a top engineer and associate of Sam Bankman-Fried at the collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX pleaded guilty to a six-count indictment, including wire fraud.
Former FTX engineering chief Nishad Singh bought the secluded property for $3.7 million in October, according to county property records.
Singh agreed to forfeit the property as part of his guilty plea, according to people familiar with the case. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because the forfeiture was redacted from court records.
The Orcas Island property includes a four-bedroom house and a two-bedroom guesthouse with “luxury amenities,” a 70-foot lap pool, hot tub, forests, gardens, ponds “and infinite privacy,” according to an online listing.
The property includes “magnificent marine and mountain views” including views of the San Juan Islands, Vancouver Island, the Olympic Mountains and Mount Rainier.
San Juan County, which includes Orcas Island, has some of the highest home prices in western Washington. The county’s median single-family home price was $960,000 in 2022, higher than King County’s median of $900,000.
Singh, 27, paid for the house with money from his personal FTX account. But the government believes the property is linked to his crimes in the case, in which prosecutors allege that customer funds at FTX were misappropriated by co-founder Bankman-Fried and his lieutenants.
Before FTX’s collapse, Singh reportedly lived with Bankman-Fried and others in a luxury penthouse in the Bahamas. It is unclear how much time, if any, Singh spent at the Orcas property since he bought it.
Singh has also agreed to forfeit an undisclosed amount of stock, prosecutors said in court last month. The assets subject to forfeiture were blacked out in a revised indictment filed in conjunction with his guilty plea. His lawyer declined to comment on the property forfeiture but, following the plea, said Singh “wants to do everything he can to make things right for victims.”
The plea marked the culmination of more than two months of talks with federal investigators in Manhattan about Singh’s exposure to an alleged fraud at FTX that has cost customers more than $8 billion.
Singh has agreed to cooperate with the government in the hope of receiving a lighter sentence. . . .
Suella Braverman breaks the Ministerial code and is made Home Secretary a week later.
Meanwhile Johnson's fixer is made Chairman of the BBC and Lineker is sacked for showing a compassion most of us share
This government can fuck off.
I can't believe that we're not on the streets with pitchforks making it happen
Lineker has not been sacked, rogerdamus.
Under new labour they had their own fixers running the Beeb. Get annoyed at the system not the side you don’t agree with.
If you seriously think people should be in the streets with pitchforks over the BBC governship and Lineker you’re deluded.
It was never quite like this during New Labour. Lineker's likely dismissal in itself is neither here nor there, but under the surface we have a Putineque Party ownership of our national broadcaster.
Ŵould you say the same about Clarksons dismissal from his TV gigs for a newspaper column ?
Lineker will not be dismissed. I have no doubt about it.
Suella Braverman breaks the Ministerial code and is made Home Secretary a week later.
Meanwhile Johnson's fixer is made Chairman of the BBC and Lineker is sacked for showing a compassion most of us share
This government can fuck off.
I can't believe that we're not on the streets with pitchforks making it happen
Which streets i thought you were not UK based?
Out of interest, BJO - if you were asked the standard opinion polling question “if there was an election tomorrow, who would you vote for?” What would your response be?
Genuine question.
I respect your opinion as someone from the socialist/corbynite left. Also, to be blunt, your opinion is useful to me, for betting purposes.
I guess, the angle I’m interested in is - is the “stop the boats” stuff effectively uniting the left behind Starmer?
Wrong decision and cancel culture is a disease but oddly I don't think we'll be having the free speech brigade like Matt Goodwin and co shouting about this
those BBC rules in full: - Attenborough can't broadcast a show about UK nature loss. - Lineker can't tweet criticising the government. - Alan Sugar *can* tweet criticising strikes. - The BBC chair *can* be a Tory donor who didn't disclose he facilitated a loan to Boris Johnson.
The current brand of Tories don't care about the hypocrisy anymore as long as they win. They are taking their lead from the GOP and Trump. I suppose we should be thankful Johnson only put his dad in the House of Lords instead of making him chair of the BBC.
It's all very well laughing at the BBC and its Tory chairman getting themselves in a pickle over Lineker but loads of Tories would quite happily see it fall apart anyway. It's those who value the BBC who should be most worried about this.
Linekar steps down from motd. Where's my tiny violin when I need it?
Tories descend to Nazi-style censorship.
Yes, it sort of proves his point.
I don't care one way or another but the double standards of the right wing press defending the right of free speech for Farage and Yaxley-Lennon, and cheering the fall of Lineker is a joyous irony.
When Alan Sugar takes to Twitter to slag off Mick Lynch, that’s fine.
But when Gary Lineker tweets critically of government policy, that’s a breach of impartiality.
One criticises our democratically elected government. The other… doesn’t.
Good grief! Is criticising the democratically elected government verboten now?
What sort of a country have we become? What happened to free-speech?
Perhaps explain's Leon's fondness for Ron DeSantis? Libertarian turned Oligarch, modeling his politik on Viktor Orban.
The BBC is a state broadcaster. You don’t have that in America (perhaps wisely, who knows). I believe the BBC as we know it is doomed. Sadly. But if it is to survive it needs to be rigorously impartial in party politics. All employees (freelancers or otherwise) who provably gain the majority of their income from the BBC should be told, on pain of sacking, no political opinions on social media
And this should apply to left and right. To Sugar and Lineker. Just STFU as long as you work for the beeb
The license fee needs to go, and ASAP.
As for the BBC it’s survival should depend on its ability to raise revenue without a license fee.
The BBC's brand name would give it huge power to go to markets to raise cash. I think a subscription based model and member ownership, along the lines of the National Trust, is the way forward if it is to have a long-term future.
Britbox subs suggest its not nearly as popular a brand name as you think
BBC is VERY popular brand in the USA.
Indeed, it is mainstay for PBS tv programming, with strong appeal to viewers with higher levels of income and education.
SVB is in the process of being wound down. FDIC are paying all insured depositors on Monday. Uninsured are getting certificates.
There are many, many venture backed companies who are going to be in serious pain this morning.
Speaking of pained land pirates . . . AND high-priced real estate . . .
Seattle Times ($) - FTX engineering chief loses Orcas Island house in fraud case
A nearly 10-acre estate on Orcas Island is headed into government hands after a top engineer and associate of Sam Bankman-Fried at the collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX pleaded guilty to a six-count indictment, including wire fraud.
Former FTX engineering chief Nishad Singh bought the secluded property for $3.7 million in October, according to county property records.
Singh agreed to forfeit the property as part of his guilty plea, according to people familiar with the case. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because the forfeiture was redacted from court records.
The Orcas Island property includes a four-bedroom house and a two-bedroom guesthouse with “luxury amenities,” a 70-foot lap pool, hot tub, forests, gardens, ponds “and infinite privacy,” according to an online listing.
The property includes “magnificent marine and mountain views” including views of the San Juan Islands, Vancouver Island, the Olympic Mountains and Mount Rainier.
San Juan County, which includes Orcas Island, has some of the highest home prices in western Washington. The county’s median single-family home price was $960,000 in 2022, higher than King County’s median of $900,000.
Singh, 27, paid for the house with money from his personal FTX account. But the government believes the property is linked to his crimes in the case, in which prosecutors allege that customer funds at FTX were misappropriated by co-founder Bankman-Fried and his lieutenants.
Before FTX’s collapse, Singh reportedly lived with Bankman-Fried and others in a luxury penthouse in the Bahamas. It is unclear how much time, if any, Singh spent at the Orcas property since he bought it.
Singh has also agreed to forfeit an undisclosed amount of stock, prosecutors said in court last month. The assets subject to forfeiture were blacked out in a revised indictment filed in conjunction with his guilty plea. His lawyer declined to comment on the property forfeiture but, following the plea, said Singh “wants to do everything he can to make things right for victims.”
The plea marked the culmination of more than two months of talks with federal investigators in Manhattan about Singh’s exposure to an alleged fraud at FTX that has cost customers more than $8 billion.
Singh has agreed to cooperate with the government in the hope of receiving a lighter sentence. . . .
Not surprised to see the remaining Tory supporters on here - the nut jobs I call them - supporting curtailing free speech when it suits them. They are twats
I haven't watched QT for ages but I'm surprised so many on here say it is Tory biased. Wasn't when I last watched it - especially the audience. Must have changed a lot.
The organisers of QT actually have difficulties getting enough Tories to fill the audience, even in Tory-leaning areas, as the sort of people more likely to want to give up an evening to travel to the location and listen to political debate tend not to be typical Tories.
Suella Braverman breaks the Ministerial code and is made Home Secretary a week later.
Meanwhile Johnson's fixer is made Chairman of the BBC and Lineker is sacked for showing a compassion most of us share
This government can fuck off.
I can't believe that we're not on the streets with pitchforks making it happen
Lineker has not been sacked, rogerdamus.
Under new labour they had their own fixers running the Beeb. Get annoyed at the system not the side you don’t agree with.
If you seriously think people should be in the streets with pitchforks over the BBC governship and Lineker you’re deluded.
It was never quite like this during New Labour. Lineker's likely dismissal in itself is neither here nor there, but under the surface we have a Putineque Party ownership of our national broadcaster.
Someone needs to do one of those editing jobs on this to include Lineker, Attenborough and Braverman in the subtitles
Linekar steps down from motd. Where's my tiny violin when I need it?
Tories descend to Nazi-style censorship.
Yes, it sort of proves his point.
I don't care one way or another but the double standards of the right wing press defending the right of free speech for Farage and Yaxley-Lennon, and cheering the fall of Lineker is a joyous irony.
When Alan Sugar takes to Twitter to slag off Mick Lynch, that’s fine.
But when Gary Lineker tweets critically of government policy, that’s a breach of impartiality.
One criticises our democratically elected government. The other… doesn’t.
Good grief! Is criticising the democratically elected government verboten now?
What sort of a country have we become? What happened to free-speech?
Perhaps explain's Leon's fondness for Ron DeSantis? Libertarian turned Oligarch, modeling his politik on Viktor Orban.
The BBC is a state broadcaster. You don’t have that in America (perhaps wisely, who knows). I believe the BBC as we know it is doomed. Sadly. But if it is to survive it needs to be rigorously impartial in party politics. All employees (freelancers or otherwise) who provably gain the majority of their income from the BBC should be told, on pain of sacking, no political opinions on social media
And this should apply to left and right. To Sugar and Lineker. Just STFU as long as you work for the beeb
The license fee needs to go, and ASAP.
As for the BBC it’s survival should depend on its ability to raise revenue without a license fee.
The BBC's brand name would give it huge power to go to markets to raise cash. I think a subscription based model and member ownership, along the lines of the National Trust, is the way forward if it is to have a long-term future.
Britbox subs suggest its not nearly as popular a brand name as you think
BBC is VERY popular brand in the USA.
Indeed, it is mainstay for PBS tv programming, with strong appeal to viewers with higher levels of income and education.
Yes PBS which is public broadcasting.....ask them to pay for it though and it judging by the uptake does not seem nearly so popular....anything can be reasonably popular if free but that says nothing about its actual fungibility
those BBC rules in full: - Attenborough can't broadcast a show about UK nature loss. - Lineker can't tweet criticising the government. - Alan Sugar *can* tweet criticising strikes. - The BBC chair *can* be a Tory donor who didn't disclose he facilitated a loan to Boris Johnson.
The current brand of Tories don't care about the hypocrisy anymore as long as they win. They are taking their lead from the GOP and Trump. I suppose we should be thankful Johnson only put his dad in the House of Lords instead of making him chair of the BBC.
And their problem is that, right now, they're not winning. And that seems to be sending them bonkers.
Not surprised to see the remaining Tory supporters on here - the nut jobs I call them - supporting curtailing free speech when it suits them. They are twats
I haven't watched QT for ages but I'm surprised so many on here say it is Tory biased. Wasn't when I last watched it - especially the audience. Must have changed a lot.
Last night's programme certainly wasn't Tory biased. It was from North London.
Though they supposedly balance the audience.
What we are seeing is that while in 2019 that balance favoured the Tories, now it favours Labour. Quite right too if it is a representative sample, as that is what the polls show.
Not surprised to see the remaining Tory supporters on here - the nut jobs I call them - supporting curtailing free speech when it suits them. They are twats
Not surprised to see the remaining Tory supporters on here - the nut jobs I call them - supporting curtailing free speech when it suits them. They are twats
Did you predict a 30pt Lab lead incoming?
When?
By July, so we've got months of his repetitive drivel still to come.
Suella Braverman breaks the Ministerial code and is made Home Secretary a week later.
Meanwhile Johnson's fixer is made Chairman of the BBC and Lineker is sacked for showing a compassion most of us share
This government can fuck off.
I can't believe that we're not on the streets with pitchforks making it happen
Which streets i thought you were not UK based?
Out of interest, BJO - if you were asked the standard opinion polling question “if there was an election tomorrow, who would you vote for?” What would your response be?
Genuine question.
I respect your opinion as someone from the socialist/corbynite left. Also, to be blunt, your opinion is useful to me, for betting purposes.
I guess, the angle I’m interested in is - is the “stop the boats” stuff effectively uniting the left behind Starmer?
Anyone else from the Socialist/Corbynite left so riled up by the small boats stuff that they’re now in the Starmer camp?
I wonder about the impact on the Greens/Lib dem polling, too. They have the political space for a cleaner, less politically nuanced moral position, but are they cutting through? I’ll be watching the VI closely.
Not surprised to see the remaining Tory supporters on here - the nut jobs I call them - supporting curtailing free speech when it suits them. They are twats
So much is the same as mid-1990's ; a BBC stuffed to the gills with Conservative placemen, a government soon to be voted out in a landslide.
All we might need is the second dawning of Britpop, to complete the holy visions.
Yes, that well known bastion of Tory politics the BBC
I pity the BBC.
It cannot win
The barking left think it’s full of Tories, the barking right think it’s full of commies. It tries to tread the middle ground and generally does on national issues. On local issues it’s news is little more than recycled press releases from charities and lobbyists.
High time the licence fee was abolished and it sought its own funding. Especially when viewing numbers are falling
Without licence fee funding the BBC would collapse. It might get some subscribing to pay for Dancing on Ice or Attenborough (while he remains alive) and the odd drama like Gold and The Bodyguard but that is about it.
Not having adverts is one of the few advantages the BBC now still has over rivals with viewers
Of course it will collapse. That’s what the BBCphobes desire.
What do you suggest when broadcast TV ends?
To put it another way, the next generation doesn't watch broadcast. They watch iPlayer. Already.
How will the TV license work then?
At a guess, roughly like YouTube, Netflix, Amazon Prime, ITVX, FreeVee and about a hundred more.
If the license fee is not universal to anyone watching anything, then it isn't the license fee.
The BBC fought very hard at the creation of digital TV to stop it being turned into a decryption key for an encrypted channels.
Did you know that the license fee, for TV, was going to use encryption, back when TV was introduced? Just that they couldn't create a decent system back then.
It's all very well laughing at the BBC and its Tory chairman getting themselves in a pickle over Lineker but loads of Tories would quite happily see it fall apart anyway. It's those who value the BBC who should be most worried about this.
Does anyone want to save the BBC?
The BBC will be fine as it's a strong, global brand.
The issue is how it's funded, which is completely separate and as we've gone over on here many times, it's days being funded by telly tax are numbered... not because of Tories and the right wing press but because younger generations have so much choice now.
It's the younger generations that doom the licence fee not the old or the right particularly.
It's all very well laughing at the BBC and its Tory chairman getting themselves in a pickle over Lineker but loads of Tories would quite happily see it fall apart anyway. It's those who value the BBC who should be most worried about this.
Does anyone want to save the BBC?
Really intrigued to see if anyone else follows ian Wright refuses to go on tomorrow’s Match Of The Day out of solidarity.
Issue that has the potential to go through some real crossroads territory for the BBC.(not the 1970s Motel soap)
I don't really care about Lineker. I'm not a MOTD watcher - he's likeable enough as a presenter. His half-witted political pronouncements on Twitter are faintly annoying but I don't find them a big deal.
That said, it's very disingenuous of left wing commenters (and commentators) to highlight the odd bit of right wing flotsam floating on the overwhelming left 'liberal' and growingly 'woke' consensus that holds sway within the BBC, to try and claim that there is equal bias, or even that the BBC favours the Tories. We all know this to be untrue - even people within the BBC like Andrew Marr have acknowledged the corporation's left wing bias. So don't try it, it is neither impressive nor interesting.
On the other side of the coin, it is a pretty crappy state of affairs that the best this lame Government can do to rally their flogged footsoldiers is pick some stupid confected fight with 'the Beeb'. If they were in any way concerned about the wholesale surrender of the cultural arena to the left, they would have done more about it before now than try to get Gary Lineker cancelled off MOTD. Pathetic shower.
Linekar steps down from motd. Where's my tiny violin when I need it?
Tories descend to Nazi-style censorship.
Yes, it sort of proves his point.
I don't care one way or another but the double standards of the right wing press defending the right of free speech for Farage and Yaxley-Lennon, and cheering the fall of Lineker is a joyous irony.
When Alan Sugar takes to Twitter to slag off Mick Lynch, that’s fine.
But when Gary Lineker tweets critically of government policy, that’s a breach of impartiality.
One criticises our democratically elected government. The other… doesn’t.
Good grief! Is criticising the democratically elected government verboten now?
What sort of a country have we become? What happened to free-speech?
Perhaps explain's Leon's fondness for Ron DeSantis? Libertarian turned Oligarch, modeling his politik on Viktor Orban.
The BBC is a state broadcaster. You don’t have that in America (perhaps wisely, who knows). I believe the BBC as we know it is doomed. Sadly. But if it is to survive it needs to be rigorously impartial in party politics. All employees (freelancers or otherwise) who provably gain the majority of their income from the BBC should be told, on pain of sacking, no political opinions on social media
And this should apply to left and right. To Sugar and Lineker. Just STFU as long as you work for the beeb
The license fee needs to go, and ASAP.
As for the BBC it’s survival should depend on its ability to raise revenue without a license fee.
The BBC's brand name would give it huge power to go to markets to raise cash. I think a subscription based model and member ownership, along the lines of the National Trust, is the way forward if it is to have a long-term future.
Britbox subs suggest its not nearly as popular a brand name as you think
BBC is VERY popular brand in the USA.
Indeed, it is mainstay for PBS tv programming, with strong appeal to viewers with higher levels of income and education.
Yes PBS which is public broadcasting.....ask them to pay for it though and it judging by the uptake does not seem nearly so popular....anything can be reasonably popular if free but that says nothing about its actual fungibility
PBS relies mainly on DONATIONS, not government funding (which accounts for 15% or thereabouts) so many Americans ARE paying directly & personally for BBC programming.
And NOT just Americans. For example, Seattle's PBS affiliate gets a LOT of support from Canadians in Vancouver, Victoria and elsewhere in BC, who watch via cable or broadcast or web, and who are big fans in particular of BBC programs on PBS.
EDIT - of course this has zero to do with Pagan's point, which is focused on BBC in UK.
Linekar steps down from motd. Where's my tiny violin when I need it?
Tories descend to Nazi-style censorship.
Yes, it sort of proves his point.
I don't care one way or another but the double standards of the right wing press defending the right of free speech for Farage and Yaxley-Lennon, and cheering the fall of Lineker is a joyous irony.
When Alan Sugar takes to Twitter to slag off Mick Lynch, that’s fine.
But when Gary Lineker tweets critically of government policy, that’s a breach of impartiality.
One criticises our democratically elected government. The other… doesn’t.
Good grief! Is criticising the democratically elected government verboten now?
What sort of a country have we become? What happened to free-speech?
Perhaps explain's Leon's fondness for Ron DeSantis? Libertarian turned Oligarch, modeling his politik on Viktor Orban.
The BBC is a state broadcaster. You don’t have that in America (perhaps wisely, who knows). I believe the BBC as we know it is doomed. Sadly. But if it is to survive it needs to be rigorously impartial in party politics. All employees (freelancers or otherwise) who provably gain the majority of their income from the BBC should be told, on pain of sacking, no political opinions on social media
And this should apply to left and right. To Sugar and Lineker. Just STFU as long as you work for the beeb
The license fee needs to go, and ASAP.
As for the BBC it’s survival should depend on its ability to raise revenue without a license fee.
The BBC's brand name would give it huge power to go to markets to raise cash. I think a subscription based model and member ownership, along the lines of the National Trust, is the way forward if it is to have a long-term future.
Britbox subs suggest its not nearly as popular a brand name as you think
BBC is VERY popular brand in the USA.
Indeed, it is mainstay for PBS tv programming, with strong appeal to viewers with higher levels of income and education.
Yes PBS which is public broadcasting.....ask them to pay for it though and it judging by the uptake does not seem nearly so popular....anything can be reasonably popular if free but that says nothing about its actual fungibility
PBS relies mainly on DONATIONS, not government funding (which accounts for 15% or thereabouts) so many Americans ARE paying directly & personally for BBC programming.
And NOT just Americans. For example, Seattle's PBS affiliate gets a LOT of support from Canadians in Vancouver, Victoria and elsewhere in BC, who watch via cable or broadcast or web, and who are big fans in particular of BBC programs on PBS.
Comments
To put it another way, the next generation doesn't watch broadcast. They watch iPlayer. Already.
How will the TV license work then?
They do it all the time.
A payday ?
I must be unusual.
Meanwhile Johnson's fixer is made Chairman of the BBC and Lineker is sacked for showing a compassion most of us share
This government can fuck off.
I can't believe that we're not on the streets with pitchforks making it happen
https://twitter.com/reece_dinsdale/status/1633987667699412994
The BBC is now so terrified of what a vindictive Tory government might do with the tv license review that it caves in everytime.
And to rub salt into the wounds it now won’t broadcast the David Attenborough programme on BBC tv but stick it away on iplayer.
God forbid the right wing snowflakes are faced with the truth of our destruction of the natural world .
What the BBC don’t realize is that the Tories will fuck them regardless .
those BBC rules in full:
- Attenborough can't broadcast a show about UK nature loss.
- Lineker can't tweet criticising the government.
- Alan Sugar *can* tweet criticising strikes.
- The BBC chair *can* be a Tory donor who didn't disclose he facilitated a loan to Boris Johnson.
Not having adverts is such a highly prized advantage the viewing figures are falling year on year.
It really is not sustainable to have a license fee that funds the BBC in the multi channel and streaming age.
Pay for the non BBC element of the license fee out of general taxation and let the BBC compete for its funding. It keeps telling us how highly prized it is. If that’s the case it will have no problem.
And it's always the same people who are blase about anti-Semitism too.
https://twitter.com/Parody_PM/status/1634243947450220544/photo/1
VHS was the cheap option but with a larger supply of videos available in plain covers. Allegedly.
Starmer may also do something similar, but probably to a lesser extent. I think the logic for these decisions being moved out of the ambit of central government is now stronger than ever ; in fact these may come to be seen as even more important reforms than anything to do with the license fee, for the survival of its credibility.
I would pay a license fee for some BBC shows of cultural merit eg Attenborough, the Proms and big sport events like the 6 Nations and Olympics and Wimbledon. The rest can be funded by advertising or subscription, that would keep Strictly going as it has a big audience, probably Pointless, the Apprentice, Call the Midwife and Death in Paradise too but other programmes which could not attract viewers would fall by the wayside
I'd be surprised if this were true - if the government had any sense it would be out of the blocks denouncing the BBC for being against free speech and cancel-culture (something which it criticised the left for).
Gary Lineker is over 60. His career as a mainstream pundit is nearly done. Young people have no idea who he is or what he did. Likewise Ian Wright. How much better to be fired for a noble political opinion than to simply be retired for being passé
The same rule applied to Clarkson
Plus the entire broadcast ecosystem is shifting. This way a Lineker or a Clarkson gets a final bite of the cherry
*montefiore’s world history is excellent but turgid. Needs to be read in small doses over months
Under new labour they had their own fixers running the Beeb. Get annoyed at the system not the side you don’t agree with.
If you seriously think people should be in the streets with pitchforks over the BBC governship and Lineker you’re deluded.
A very open-minded but also royalist intellectual, who made BBC2 one of the best channels in the world, from when he ran it in the late 1960's, up to about 1994, or 1995.
Am talking about the ones that are littering the sidewalks as per city policy, for the fun of visitors and profit of investors, all with LOTS of feel-good propaganda AND insider cronyism.
Stay Out: 37% (-3)
Re-join: 63% (+3)
Omnisis, 9-10 March
@horton_official
reports Pippa Crerar
In other news Pippa Crerar changes her name to Peppa Pig in an attempt to avoid the Fascist backlash at pointing out the Tories are Fascists
…
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=scottish+police+chief+apology+comedy+youtube&qpvt=scottish+police+chief+apology+comedy+youtube&view=detail&mid=2E556592B47467EDEAE72E556592B47467EDEAE7&&FORM=VRDGAR&ru=/videos/search?q=scottish+police+chief+apology+comedy+youtube&qpvt=scottish+police+chief+apology+comedy+youtube&FORM=VDRE
Seattle Times ($) - FTX engineering chief loses Orcas Island house in fraud case
A nearly 10-acre estate on Orcas Island is headed into government hands after a top engineer and associate of Sam Bankman-Fried at the collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX pleaded guilty to a six-count indictment, including wire fraud.
Former FTX engineering chief Nishad Singh bought the secluded property for $3.7 million in October, according to county property records.
Singh agreed to forfeit the property as part of his guilty plea, according to people familiar with the case. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because the forfeiture was redacted from court records.
The Orcas Island property includes a four-bedroom house and a two-bedroom guesthouse with “luxury amenities,” a 70-foot lap pool, hot tub, forests, gardens, ponds “and infinite privacy,” according to an online listing.
The property includes “magnificent marine and mountain views” including views of the San Juan Islands, Vancouver Island, the Olympic Mountains and Mount Rainier.
San Juan County, which includes Orcas Island, has some of the highest home prices in western Washington. The county’s median single-family home price was $960,000 in 2022, higher than King County’s median of $900,000.
Singh, 27, paid for the house with money from his personal FTX account. But the government believes the property is linked to his crimes in the case, in which prosecutors allege that customer funds at FTX were misappropriated by co-founder Bankman-Fried and his lieutenants.
Before FTX’s collapse, Singh reportedly lived with Bankman-Fried and others in a luxury penthouse in the Bahamas. It is unclear how much time, if any, Singh spent at the Orcas property since he bought it.
Singh has also agreed to forfeit an undisclosed amount of stock, prosecutors said in court last month. The assets subject to forfeiture were blacked out in a revised indictment filed in conjunction with his guilty plea. His lawyer declined to comment on the property forfeiture but, following the plea, said Singh “wants to do everything he can to make things right for victims.”
The plea marked the culmination of more than two months of talks with federal investigators in Manhattan about Singh’s exposure to an alleged fraud at FTX that has cost customers more than $8 billion.
Singh has agreed to cooperate with the government in the hope of receiving a lighter sentence. . . .
Lineker will not be dismissed. I have no doubt about it.
Genuine question.
I respect your opinion as someone from the socialist/corbynite left. Also, to be blunt, your opinion is useful to me, for betting purposes.
I guess, the angle I’m interested in is - is the “stop the boats” stuff effectively uniting the left behind Starmer?
Wrong decision and cancel culture is a disease but oddly I don't think we'll be having the free speech brigade like Matt Goodwin and co shouting about this
Does anyone want to save the BBC?
Indeed, it is mainstay for PBS tv programming, with strong appeal to viewers with higher levels of income and education.
https://twitter.com/lewis_goodall/status/1634232693847097344
Nadine there supporting the same policies they have in North Korea and China.
Wrighty had no chance anyway.
When?
For all his faults, Prince Phillip was WAY more impressive than ANY of his (acknowledged) spawn.
Making Fast Eddy the new Duke of Edinburgh, make him look (even) smaller than he was yesterday.
What we are seeing is that while in 2019 that balance favoured the Tories, now it favours Labour. Quite right too if it is a representative sample, as that is what the polls show.
Anyone else from the Socialist/Corbynite left so riled up by the small boats stuff that they’re now in the Starmer camp?
I wonder about the impact on the Greens/Lib dem polling, too. They have the political space for a cleaner, less politically nuanced moral position, but are they cutting through? I’ll be watching the VI closely.
Westminster voting intention:
LAB: 50% (+5)
CON: 26% (-)
LDEM: 7% (-4)
REF: 6% (-)
GRN: 5% (-1)
via @Omnisis, 09 - 10 Mar
We are just 2 months away from some real elections. Let's see what happens then.
The BBC fought very hard at the creation of digital TV to stop it being turned into a decryption key for an encrypted channels.
Did you know that the license fee, for TV, was going to use encryption, back when TV was introduced? Just that they couldn't create a decent system back then.
The issue is how it's funded, which is completely separate and as we've gone over on here many times, it's days being funded by telly tax are numbered... not because of Tories and the right wing press but because younger generations have so much choice now.
It's the younger generations that doom the licence fee not the old or the right particularly.
Issue that has the potential to go through some real crossroads territory for the BBC.(not the 1970s Motel soap)
That said, it's very disingenuous of left wing commenters (and commentators) to highlight the odd bit of right wing flotsam floating on the overwhelming left 'liberal' and growingly 'woke' consensus that holds sway within the BBC, to try and claim that there is equal bias, or even that the BBC favours the Tories. We all know this to be untrue - even people within the BBC like Andrew Marr have acknowledged the corporation's left wing bias. So don't try it, it is neither impressive nor interesting.
On the other side of the coin, it is a pretty crappy state of affairs that the best this lame Government can do to rally their flogged footsoldiers is pick some stupid confected fight with 'the Beeb'. If they were in any way concerned about the wholesale surrender of the cultural arena to the left, they would have done more about it before now than try to get Gary Lineker cancelled off MOTD. Pathetic shower.
And NOT just Americans. For example, Seattle's PBS affiliate gets a LOT of support from Canadians in Vancouver, Victoria and elsewhere in BC, who watch via cable or broadcast or web, and who are big fans in particular of BBC programs on PBS.
EDIT - of course this has zero to do with Pagan's point, which is focused on BBC in UK.