Left wing BBC should stand on its own feet

Your regular correspondent for the Labour Party , John Boaler writes in support of retaining the licence fee for the BBC.

This comes as no surprise to me as the BBC’s output no doubt aligns with his own world view.

From a right of centre perspective, however, the BBC is a highly partial political broadcasting organisation.

Whilst the BBC may not openly support any politcal part, the BBC’s entire output of news, drama sport and comedy nowadays seems to be based around a rigorous left wing, liberal or woke viewpoint.

In my view the BBC does not just report the news it actively campaigns to shape the news as shown by the recent coverage of the after works drinks receptions (aka parties) by Downing street civil servants and staff.

Now in a free country with a free press I can accept all of this just as I accept the right of the Guardian, Daily Mirror, Independent and others to have their own politcal view and promote it.

However I can see no reason why anyone owning a TV set should, under pain of criminal sanction, be forced to subsidise the output of an organisation that treats many of them who hold traditional conservative views with thinly disguised contempt.

Therefore I hope any who think as I do will offer their full support to Nadine Dorries as surely the time must soon come for the BBC to stand on it's own feet and generate revenue from either advertising or commercial subscriptions, not from a broadcast poll tax.

Graham Carroll

Maple Close

Calne

Remember innocent until proved guilty

The noun prejudice and the verb to pre-judge are closely related.

All too often, these days, an accusation is assumed to be accurate.

The jurors in the court of public opinion seem to be in a hurry to jump to conclusions before they have heard all the evidence (facts rather than speculation), having only heard the case for the prosecution (presented by the press and other media) who may rely on unreliable witnesses.

The problem is that this sort of performance may prejudice the chances of the accused getting a fair trial in a proper court of law – where the principle is that a person is “innocent till proven guilty”.

We should all be wary of becoming prejudiced about any matter under consideration by pre-judging the issue before we have heard both sides of the argument.

Malcolm Morrison

Prospect Hill

Swindon

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