YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU’VE GOT UNTIL IT’S GONE

There have been rows over the BBC licence fee for as long as I’ve been writing about TV, which is more than 25 years.

While some question why they have to spend £159 of their hard-earned cash when they barely access the BBC, others marvel at the excellent value they get for 43p per day, per household.

Now culture minister Nadine Dorries has frozen the payments at the 2021 level for the next two years, saddling the corporation with a £1.5bn deficit which will spell the end for certain services – Radio 5 Live? The news channel? BBC3/4? Time will tell.

As if that weren’t enough, she says she’ll scrap it altogether in 2027.

Well, firstly, I admire her optimism in thinking her party will still be in power in five years’ time. But I think she needs to listen to her predecessor, John Whittingdale, who spent many years seeking a better way of funding the BBC. In short, he failed.

Following her announcement, he reiterated his belief that the licence fee remains the ‘least bad’ option available as there is ‘no viable alternative’. Subscription is a non-starter as the broadband delivery infrastructure isn’t there. Ditto advertising, which would ruin ITV and Channel 4. And general taxation would be even worse, leading to ‘an annual argument between the BBC and the Treasury’, plus weakening the BBC’S independence.

It is a fact that, like the NHS, the BBC is the envy of the world. As a journalistic brand, it is trusted more than anything else. That is not to say they don’t make errors – you only have to look at the Martin Bashir/princess Diana debacle to know that mistakes of judgement happen. But, on the whole, it strives to be fair and balanced.

So we let politicians meddle with the BBC at our peril. Especially when they are doing it to distract from their own terrible behaviour.

I’m with Dragons’ Den’s Deborah Meaden, who declared: ‘For those kicking the BBC right now… you will miss it when it’s gone.’