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The House of Lords debate on saving the Beeb is currently a Tory-free zone. Plus, the former lives of Glenda Jackson and Brenda Blethyn
Scrap the licence fee; make viewers pay for BBC TV by subscription; and sell off most radio stations, excluding Radios 3 and 4. This, according to a page one story of another Sunday broadsheet two weekends ago, is what Downing Street wants. Since then online petitions have been set up to “save” the BBC, and, on 5 March, the Lords will discuss the future of the corporation in a debate initiated by Labour peer Tony Young. Speakers will include Joan Bakewell, Melvyn Bragg and David Puttnam. Two crossbenchers, John Birt, director general from 1992-2000, and historian Peter Hennessy, will also speak, as will a few Lib Dems. But they must avoid sounding like an echo chamber in the upper chamber, simply mouthing niceties about Auntie. And, up to Thursday evening, not a single Tory had put their name down except for the minister for culture and media in the Lords, the appropriately named Baroness Barran, to wind up. Do Conservative peers fear upsetting Boris Johnson? Surely vast numbers of older Tory voters listen to Radio 2 and local radio – all proposed for the chop. One peer interested in the debate is outgoing DG Tony Hall, who tells me he will go to hear the discussion. “But I can’t, of course, speak.” Continue reading...