BBC Licence Fee Freeze - A Response

Yesterday I blogged my letter to Caroline Nokes MP: http://thedesertonthenet.blogspot.com/2010/10/bbc-license-fee-freeze.html


I've had a reply from Ms Nokes and I don't like it.


Thank you for your email of today's date, sent prior to the Chancellor even having confirmed the freeze on the licence fee.

I too am an avid fan of the BBC, I think they make some excellent programmes, and it remains the channel I turn to first for news, both local and national.

However, at a time when we face an unprecedented deficit I do believe it is imperative that all areas of public spending are scrutinised very carefully, and I can see no reason to exempt the BBC from that process. Sadly for too many years the country has spent beyond its means, and we are left in a situation where we are borrowing more than we spend on the NHS and defence combined. We are spending £120m every day on debt interest, that is simply unsustainable.

I would prefer that there was a freeze in the licence fee, and the BBC adapted to the current situation, than there had to be extra tax rises on hard working families.


As kindly requested by 38 Degrees, I have forwarded her response on to them.

BBC Licence Fee Freeze

I had originally planned my next blog entry to be a faux-tirade on what I would do if appointed Director-General of the BBC. That entry will still occur but first I want to post a copy of the email I have just sent off to my MP, Caroline Nokes (Conservative, Romsey & Southampton North) regarding yesterday’s announcement to freeze the License Fee for six years. I used the 38 Degrees tool which has a simple, three-step process for helping constituents email their MP. I highly recommend you make use of it.

http://www.38degrees.org.uk/page/speakout/protect-BBC

I am a self-confessed avid fan of the BBC in its current iteration. I feel I get excellent value for my license fee and find I favour watching shows on its channels than alternative broadcasters, to the point were save one specific programme on ITV, do not watch that channel whatsoever. Furthermore, I have been a life-long listener to BBC Radio stations, as are my parents, be they local or national ones and cannot imagine having to tune into commercial stations.

The proposed freeze on the licence fee for the next six years is ill-advised, unwarranted and along with the corporation now having to fund the World Service and S4C, means a budget slash of 16%, loss of jobs, tightening of belts and ultimately at least the partial degradation of a world-renowned, trusted and established broadcaster.

I urge you, as my representative in parliament, to hear my comments and take a stand against this freeze. I am not alone in my views and I trust you understand my concern.

What you thought you knew

I was treated to the near breakdown of my very soul today when two different people told me that what I thought I knew about letter writing I did not at all.

How did this happen to me?

For the majority of my life I've been under the impression that letters to people whom you are acquainted with are signed off 'yours sincerely', if not then use 'yours faithfully'. This has been a staple of my letter writing ever since I can remember.

When I was writing a draft template today for my charidee work, two friends (who do not know each other) kindly offered to give me their much-needed comments and feedback. Which of course, included both of them telling me I was signing off my letters completely incorrectly.

I'm in a total quandary! Do I seek therapy through my GP? Do I track down the teacher/s who imparted this clearly-false information to me, torture them before beheading them in a fit of knowledge-system failure to sate my extreme* bewilderment? Do I stop whining about it? (No chance – this is prime blog material!)

What hasn't helped is, as a regular user of Snopes, (I am SICK of those emails sent to me by well-meaning people telling me I just had my PIN stolen by the unsuspecting looking stranger who's now wafting a business card under my nose with plans to rape, stab and kill me to death on a petrol forecourt), I would normally treat being told that something I take to be the correct form is not so with a hefty pinch of salt (watch that blood pressure!).

Wanted: Salt. Last seen smothering chips to death.

But I was soon the recipient of an email from a third friend cheerily offering me a link to the Basildon Bond website confirming what the first two friends were telling me.

I've lost all faith in my skills as a letter-writer (which I do for my parents) and feel ashamed. I'm sure I'll be looking in the local estate agents' window soon for a comfortable, well-appointed rock beneath which to live for the rest of my days.

*Well I feel shaken slightly, to say the least. Like I need a sit-down while hugging a soft toy.