Thank you for your email concerning the BBC licence fee.
As you know from previous correspondence I, too, am a strong supporter of public service broadcasting and I support the principle of the BBC being funded by a licence fee.
You are aware by now that the BBC reached an ‘agreement’ with the Government on the day before the Comprehensive Spending Review took place and bearing in mind what was announced by the Government in the CSR and the fact that the Government, for ideological reasons, wanted to cut back the BBC it was probably the best deal that the BBC could have got. There was one particular aspect of the deal which I would wish to comment on.
The BBC World Service is, in my opinion, the ‘jewel in the crown’ of the BBC. Everywhere in the world – particularly in countries where news is censored or restricted – the BBC World Service is acknowledged as the most authoritative and unbiased provided of world news and this massively benefits the United Kingdom. The one criticism that could be made in the past against the BBC World Service by commercial competitors was that because it was funded by the Foreign Office it was the mouthpiece of the British Government and, therefore, I very much welcome the fact that the World Service is now going to be part of mainstream BBC activities. Bearing in mind the massive support that there is amongst MPs for the BBC World Service the BBC negotiators could, if they had pushed a bit harder, have got some of the Foreign Office funding to go with taking responsibility for the World Service.
Thank you for taking the trouble to write to me about this.
