Hypocrisy of the BBC

TUNE in to almost any BBC current affairs programme and you will hear shroud-waving interviewers attacking ministers over Government cuts. Yet there’s one question they never ask: where is the money to come from to pay for the extra spending they demand?

Let the Mail enlighten them. Every penny the Government spends must be raised either by borrowing – to be paid back by future generations – or taken from the hardearned wages of honest taxpayers.

So how sickening to learn that the BBC – never slow to suggest rich companies and individuals should contribute more – itself has a history of tax-dodging on an industrial scale.

Indeed, MPs were told yesterday that until the taxman called a halt to the scam, the Corporation avoided some £10million a year in National Insurance contributions alone by paying its staff through Personal Service Companies as if they were self-employed.

This is the same BBC – aptly described as a ‘rogue employer’ – which fought tooth and nail to avoid revealing the inflated salaries it pays its star presenters, preposterously claiming transparency would spark talentpoaching by rival channels.

Even now, it is using every trick at its disposal to keep payments secret from the licence-fee payers who foot the bill.

The next time the BBC delivers a sermon on public spending, isn’t it worth remembering just who’s preaching?