Cheaper TV?

A government minister today warned that the BBC stands to lose its automatic right to the licence fee if it continues to operate in secret. Grant Shapps warns that the BBC needs to regain public trust in order to justify their right to a licence fee which the independent sector would kill for. You can see his point but I can't help but wonder if he has actually missed the wider point.

Although the cost of heating bills continues to dominate our headlines as various political figures squabble for votes, it isn't my heating bill which causes me the most irritation. It isn't that my wealth renders my heating bill a stroll in the park because just like everyone else, it is a constant headache. For all that though, the bill which irks me the most is the TV licence fee. Once a year I pay the £145.50 and resent almost every penny. I wouldn't begrudge this fee if it were for the radio. I find the radio provision, on the whole, to be of decent quality. Radio 4 in particular continues to set the standard in broadcasting. The TV is another matter.

I shouldn't think I watch more than about 6 hours a month and really, honestly wouldn't miss it a jot if it wasn't. Much has been written about the effect of TV on our society. I don't think we can deny the way it has eroded freedom for adults and children alike. We fight tooth and nail to keep the TV in its place. It is situated in one of the least inviting rooms and would be laughed at by the average bloke owing to its evident antiquity. Put simply, it is not important because there is so much more to see and do.

This brings me to Grant Shapps and his idea to slash the licence fee. I couldn't disagree more with him. I would double it to begin with and assess how many people choose not to pay it. If people don't pay it, the TV will either be driven underground or people will seek other avenues of pleasure. As fewer people would hopefully pay the fee, the income to the BBC would be accordingly slashed. They would then be faced with weeding out the dross of which plenty. They would also be reminded of their role. They are a public service broadcaster, not a secret society. Just as we saw the appalling lack of good grace shown by the police in the aftermath of the Andrew Mitchell inquiry, the BBC has become an unaccountable mess with obscene salaries and pay-offs being paid on the back of an unchallenged licence fee.

We are told that all the Local Councils will be experiencing cuts of about 5% for the next financial year. Look at you local council. Do you think they could survive with such cuts? Of course they can. All this shows is just how over-funded they have been for so long. The last Labour government proved one thing. You can throw as much money as you like at public service, but it is of limited value unless you engage the people most in need of assistance - the public! This pointless trend of waste needs to stop and we all need to step back and ask, as President Kennedy once famously said, "not what our country can do for us, but what we can do for our country". I appreciate it sounds very cliched now, but its message is as relevant now as it was sixty years ago.

The word cut is emotive if not put in to context. Cuts compared to what? Would we all be worse off if we became involved in communites which came together and made things happen collectively for the good of the many rather than the few? The latter will never happen if we just watch TV all day and I'm  not suggesting that the majority do. Spending my time in Knighton, I have been reminded of the beauty of rural life. When the working day ends at 5.00pm, a series of community activities spring to life and the people get together. There is little or no Local Council input. This is just people doing things collectively for the common good. In a way, they do so because they are so isolated geographically. If they can do it in a place like Knighton, they can do it anywhere. For that to happen, there needs to be the will and the need. The TV has its place but the community has to come first because the country just can't sustain life with the status quo. For all that is being written about the woes of the NHS, the argument really needs to get back to the grass roots. This is where the people come in. If we want a better system, we need to get back to a community level. This means more GP practices not more hospitals. Hospitals deal with people beyond the scope of General Practice. If more was invested in the latter, the hospitals wouldn't have their current strain.

Talk of HS2 is frankly obscene when you consider the libraries and day centres which have been closed. This isn't rocket science and neither is it about London. This is all about sustaining small communities. I'm sorry to say, the TV will only have a bit part in such a process. It is to our shame that many elderly in society admit that the TV is their best friend. We all need to play our part in this.