Too many cuts spoil the BeebCONSERVATIVE governments often find a reason to take pot shots at the BBC. Usually, it is the supposed left-wing bias of the publicly funded broadcaster that gets it into trouble. Now, however, it’s cooking recipes.
These are the offending items on the BBC’s website that George Osborne, the chancellor of the exchequer, singled out in an interview on July 5th as evidence of the corporation’s “imperial” ambitions. His wider argument was that the BBC needs to trim its activities outside of its public-service remit, particularly in areas where it competes directly with commercial newspapers and broadcasters.
The chancellor’s purpose was to warm viewers up for cuts to the BBC’s funding, which were duly announced the next day. Reached after fraught negotiations between the Treasury and BBC executives, the deal involves the BBC covering the approximately £650m ($1 billion) annual cost of free television licences for the over-75s, a tab that until now has been picked up by the Department for Work and Pensions. The transfer of responsibility for the subsidy helped Mr Osborne...Continue reading
via Brian Rushton, A case of imperial overstretch?
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