BBC is a national gem

Paul Nuttall MEP (UKIP) wrote in November expressing the view that the Licence Fee should be scrapped. I am not sure if this is a personal view or UKIP policy, but whichever it is it should be challenged.
House of CommonsHouse of Commons
House of Commons

There are many people in the Ribble Valley who will agree with some of UKIP’s views and policies, as I do myself, but if it is their intention to commercialise the BBC then we need to be very careful about hidden agendas.

The BBC is one of the gems of our national heritage, free to speak on any subject but not in the palm of any company or political party. It is required to give a balanced view. Right-leaning politicians don’t like it when they are challenged by the BBC. They consider it to be bias when it is actually balance. Politicians would prefer someone like Rupert Murdoch to be fronting political debate, someone representing the corporate world, a world which already has far too much influence over our lives.

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For about 50p a day we get all the TV and radio programmes the BBC broadcasts. They have made errors of judgement at times, but their standards of production are second to none. They are certainly respected around the world for telling the truth.

Should the licence fee be scrapped we would have to suffer endless adverts put on by companies who have paid huge fees for their broadcast and which we would then have to pay to watch! The present government has already altered the non-payment of the licence fee from a criminal to a civil offence. Why do that? What’s to be gained? Another hidden agenda no doubt. Mr Nuttall should be careful what he asks for, it may lead to his party losing the chance to gain a seat in a Tory heartland.

Mr J. Watson,

Clitheroe