Ten good things about the BBC

January 28, 2010 — admin

I’ve done two things today. Firstly, following a discussion on Twitter with @PaulTwinn, who took issue with my last posts and comments about Nick Robinson, I’ve added Biased BBC to my blogroll because it is a decent blog that has some insight into the very subtle way BBC bias manifests itself.

I accept totally that people within the organisation don’t detect bias or believe that they are on anything other than the middle ground. I’ve never worked for the BBC, but I do have a Master’s Degree in Journalism and Media Theory, five years in the industry and am studying for a Postgraduate diploma in Public Relations after three years in that industry. So I know how the system works. And it isn’t just me claiming there is bias in the corporation – they admit it themselves.

Anyway, enough of the BBC bashing, I think it’s important to remember that the BBC’s coverage of politics is staffed by many good journalists who are earnestly seeking to present the truth to people in the best way that they can. Taking it a stage further, the BBC is also graced with many very courageous and skilled reporters who risk their lives in war zones and undercover investigations to bring the news into people’s front rooms. It is not without reason that the BBC commands respect across the globe.

I am one of the few people I know who believe that the BBC’s investment in BBC3 and BBC4 and digital technology is money well spent – the corporation cannot afford to rest on its channels complacent in the knowledge the licence fee exempts it from having to make progress. It doesn’t and the BBC has been prepared to make risky decisions to stay with its commercial rivals.

So the second thing I am doing today is enforcing a bit of impartiality upon myself by listing 10 reasons why I am happy to pay a licence fee – even if I believe it could be cheaper!

1) The BBC carries British values and standards throughout the world and will remain the most trusted and respected trans-global broadcaster well into the 21st century. Such regard is not built up for no reason.

2) There exists a tradition of quality wildlife and natural world programming at the BBC that the corporation has maintained and even improved (the Planet Earth series was the best recent example). I hope this will continue even when Sir David Attenborough cannot.

3) The BBC has made a substantial proportion of its back catalogue available to the public first on VHS and then on DVD. Okay, this helps bolster its income but means that people born after Fawlty Towers was originally broadcast are able to enjoy it, along with other classics such as Yes, Minister and The Office.

4) iPlayer – the corporation has displayed a high degree of acumen and foresight by pioneering this technology and making it available on platforms such as Virgin, BT and even the iPhone as it doesn’t require Flash Player.

5) The BBC has one of the most accessed and wide-ranging websites in the UK, not to mention one that is fully customisable and has content from cookery to history. It is certainly a lot better than Sky’s and ITN’s and of the online newspapers, only the Grauniad runs it close.

6) Jeremy Clarkson. It’s fair to say that he is the antithesis of everything that the liberal BBC stands for. It’s not just that he’s there – ITV could have done that – it’s that an organisation with such a loud exponent of its collective political anathema gives him a platform that its instincts tell it should be denied. Long may it continue.  

7) BBC Parliament. Hardly anyone can receive it and of those that can, hardly anyone watches it. But as Sir Humphrey said of Radio 3, the countryside, the opera and the universities “It’s vital to know that they’re there!” Televising parliament was a huge turning point in our political culture and the BBC covers it well. It’s not its fault that no-one’s interested.

8 ) Local radio. In many places, it has been marginalised by commercial competitors but it still serves a small but significant part of the population who if it wasn’t there, would have little or no access to local news. Local radio plays a part in helping communities define themselves.

9) The Reith Lectures, which have been commissioned by the BBC since 1948 and most recently broadcast on Radio 4. The 2008 lectures on China were particularly fascinating – it’s a shame that they are not put out on TV; BBC2 is an obvious home for them.

10) Charitable events, notable Comic Relief and Children in Need. The corporation has helped raise more than £1bn since the 1980s with these two charities and that is something to be very satisfied by. Some may think it’s all got a bit too much but in this case I believe the end justifies the means.

So there we are – ten very good things about the BBC. I don’t oppose it, I don’t want to see it privatised, it has an important place in the nation’s fabric. I accept that it will always be an organisation with a culture that prefers a particular way of presenting things. But I won’t just ignore that fact.

Posted in Mundane occurances, Other blogs. Tags: , . No Comments »

Ken Howard’s new website

November 26, 2009 — admin

Lib Dem councillor for Knaphill South and Hermitage Cllr Ken Howard now has a website of his own. Apart from the usual journalist-politicians ups and downs, Ken and I have always got on pretty well and he’s nothing if not passionate about the environment.

He wrote a particularly good report on light pollution (that I’m sadly not able to find on the WBC website) about two years before it became an issue in the mainsteam media. While I couldn’t possibly recommend a Lib Dem website, it might be worth a glance.

It would be nice to have some other Conservative sites to point to, of course.

Posted in Other blogs, Woking Borough Council. Tags: , . No Comments »

Denzil’s bin posting

November 26, 2009 — admin
I haven't got a picture of a Woking bin, this one's from Peterborough

I haven't got a picture of a Woking bin, this one's from Peterborough

I saw Denzil Coulson after the executive in Brewery Road Car Park while I was chatting with the News and Mail’s excellent reporter Beth Woodger. He stopped to make some chat and it was good to exchange words after a few little storms in teacups over blog posts etc. He’s standing as the Lib Dem candidate in North East Hampshire, where he’ll be canvassing the leafy streets of Fleet trying to nab James Arbuthnot’s 12,500 majority away.

You’d have to be pretty optimistic to believe he’ll do it but it takes guts to slog away at the other side’s safe seats and it’s fighters like Denzil who keep politics interesting. While I wouldn’t like to think we’ll lose a seat like North East Hants, I’m sure Denzil will give a good account of himself and I’m pleased he’s standing for Goldsworth West again – we might not agree on much but he’s strong member and the council needs that on all sides.

Following our discussion, he walked off and looking at his website for the first time since the Queen’s Speech, I now realise why. He’s gone and posted a cheeky little piece about the rise in cost of the green bins for April 2010, claiming that it is about raising money rather than keeping the environment clean. Well, it’s only going up £2  for most people from £35 to £37, which isn’t exactly extortionate and from £15 to £20 for a second bin.

Denzil’s point is that concessionary charges are going up from £20 to £25 for the first bin and £10 to £15 for the second, which works out at a higher percentage than non-concessions. But obviously if you calculate it in percentage terms, you will get a higher percentage the lower the starting base – that’s just the way numbers work.

I don’t think it’s a big secret that the point of the new scheme is both environmental ie it will help more carbon-efficient collection and prevent 400,000 plastic bags going to landfill and budgetary ie it embraces the principle that residents who use the service should contribute to it rather than the cost being spread to everyone through council tax.

One of the beauties of the new waste scheme is that it introduces a small slice of free market economics into the service. It’s basic pricing theory – if the council charges too much for bins, people simply won’t take up the service and the council will be forced to reduce the price. If however take-up is huge and the council doesn’t test price elasticity at a higher level, it has done taxpayers – including those on lower incomes - a disservice by not attaining Best Value.

So if concessionary households are struggling to find the extra £5 a year, that is something that the market will tell us and I am sure will be examined further.

Posted in Environment, Other blogs, Woking Borough Council. Tags: , , , , , . No Comments »

Woking News Farce

November 17, 2009 — admin

I have found an outrageous website to entertain anyone interested in Woking and Horsell news. It’s called Woking News Farce and it has clearly caught the attention of the finer stitches of Woking’s civic fabric considering who pointed it out to me.

However, I would like to say that contrary to a number of questions I have received I am not the site’s editor, nor was I aware of it before this morning. I wish I was, though; it carries on the best traditions of local journalism in a way that I fear is some distance beyond the reaches of my own imagination.

So if you fancy something a little less serious than the stuff I come up with, do pay it a visit and find out whether it’s your cup of tea. Be warned that some of the content is a touch risque but I think it’s worth a peek.

Posted in Other blogs, news. Tags: , , . No Comments »

Life after Lisbon

November 4, 2009 — admin

DavidCameronEuroWell, that’s it. The Czechs have signed and the Lisbon Treaty becomes law soon. DC has outlined his response, no doubt hoping to kick this into the long grass until after the election.

Unfortunately, I don’t think that will convince some of the more strident Eurosceptics, who will continue to call for a referendum on something, anything, to do with Europe. The thing about referenda is that there is a time, a place and more importantly a question, for them. We can have several referenda a week if we like but unless they are timely and relevant, they are a pointless waste.

Principled these people may be, but they are also myopic. They can’t see that a Conservative Party arguing over Europe is exactly the alternative to Gordon Brown that the public doesn’t want. They can’t see that having this argument amongst themselves now assumes we are going to win the next election – which is still a bold assumption. They can’t see that yes, the question of our relationship with Europe is the political question for the next 10 years; but it isn’t by any means the most important question on the ground in British politics at the moment.

Conservative MPs and PPCs should ask themselves how we are going to manage and reduce the overwhelming debt that Labour has built up and how our shattered economy is not only going to be re-built but re-modelled for a new economic era.

They should ask themselves how to address education, training and social mobility – let’s not pretend these are three separate things – and how to stop young people in many parts of the country growing up without opportunity or hope.

They should consider how they will deal with the question of our Armed Forces and the tough choices that are needed to define what we want from our military in the future.

They should look at our police force and emergency services – including the NHS – and try to understand how we can restore public trust in the police, reduce crime and establish proper administration and a sustainable future for the NHS.

They should think about our constitution and our relationships with our immediate neighbours and how we can work together to bring about prosperity and transparent government. Local government is another area where the Conservative Party desperately needs to inject vigour, a sense of purpose and efficiency.

Yes, some of these areas are affected by EU policy. But they are big questions that impact on people in Britain today, now. The European question won’t ride off into the sunset. The Lisbon Treaty makes exiting the EU easy if Britain should ever wish to do this. If it instead wants to attempt renegotiation, then it will be free to try that too – although I cannot see how it would be achieved.

The point is that this is not a fight that we need to have now, it is not a fight that will win any elections and it is not a fight that the British people, many of whom have suffered job losses and reduced household incomes on top of spiralling food and energy costs, want to have now either.

Eurosceptics, including myself, need to let it drop. Otherwise they will lose the public confidence and hand victory from the jaws of catastrophe to Gordon to have another five years. And we certainly won’t be attempting renegotiation under him.

Update 5/11: There is a convincing and slightly expanded version of the same argument I make at Ben Archibald’s blog. I think this sets out in detail the context in which we should all see the European drama.

Posted in Conservatives, David Cameron, Europe, Other blogs. Tags: , , , , . No Comments »

Shoulder to shoulder no more

October 29, 2009 — admin
It's all gone a bit wrong for Brown

It's all gone a bit wrong for Brown

Following America is what Labour has done best throughout its tenure – in Iraq, Kosovo, Iraq again, Afghanistan and finally Iraq yet again. On each occasion we’ve gone in with America and been the last ally to exit ahead of them. What a shame that the recession has not been a similar story.

We learn to today that the recession, which famously “started in America” is no longer there. Last week, we learned the British economy, which was “better placed to weather the financial storm” than ever before, it still in it. This was totally unexpected by the government, who had used its new-found comradeship with the Daily Telegraph to place an article that anticipated recovery. Er, that was a mistake.

Guido has a great account of what actually has been going on here.

The fact is that once again Gordon seems to have an entirely different view of the world from everyone else. Either his civil servants are so incompetent that they were unable to see the “shock” figures coming, or his Treasury officials are too scared to tell him the bad news.

Either way, the PM is still denying that there are tough times ahead when most of the rest of the country – who don’t have the benefit of access to dodgy Treasury estimates – have figured out that the party is over. I’m not altogether convinced with Conservative performance on the economy over the past 18 months – it’s been patchy to say the least.

But the reason it’s been patchy is becuase there are any number of traps for an opposition without access to proper information to fall into. By and large, DC has avoided falling into those and Gordon looks determined to hurl himself into them instead.

The idea that the Conservatives want to prolong a recession by ordering unecessary spending cuts is ridiculous. Either the cuts don’t need to be made – in which case why would you contrive to reduce the size of your economy? – or despite recovery, which just means growth, the cuts still need to be made because we are spending more than our income.

That’s the point. Gordon spent 10 years at the Treasury, so we can be sure he understands income and expenditure – but it’s an interesting example of how quickly economics goes out the window when political considerations start to dominate instead.

Posted in Economy, Labour, Other blogs. Tags: , , , , , , . No Comments »

Green papers

October 14, 2009 — admin
Sir Thomas Legg about to send out letters

Sir Thomas Legg about to send out letters

A slightly lightweight but nevertheless poignantly acerbic little morsel on ConservativeHome.

I understand the anger about expenses but really, isn’t reforming the system enough? My father says that there are four motivating emotions for humans – greed, fear, lust and jealousy. It’s clear to me that this story is not so much about the moral rectitude of MPs but about the newspapers manipulating the latter of these emotions to shore up their own shaky position and lure readers back off the internet.

Please don’t go – it only encourages them.

Posted in Other blogs, politics. Tags: , . No Comments »

Comparing the speeches

October 9, 2009 — simonashall

An interesting analysis over at Tim Dodds’s Lightwater blog on the leaders’ speeches. I’ve commented.

Posted in Other blogs. Tags: . No Comments »

The blog of Olly Wells

September 25, 2009 — simonashall

I did promise that I wouldn’t be blogging on individual Lib Dems unless they blogged on individual Conservatives or executive decisions in a new spirit of shared common purpose. So imagine my delight when Olly Wells mentioned my name in his latest offering on the parking charges in Woking.

Despite my lack of imagination, I felt the best thing to do was to leave a comment for him underneath. So now I’ve exhausted my mind for this afternoon, I’m off to lie down.

Update 26/9: To his credit, Olly Wells allowed my comment to stand and replied to it but I’m not even slightly convinced. For those who don’t wish to read  it on his website, here it is in full:

Thank you for your comments. To answer your questions I am in favour of reducing parking prices and charging hours to ensure parking in Woking is competitively priced to ensure as many people as possible are able to visit Woking. This will be good for local businesses. I favour reducing the number of cars on the road by increasing the amount of public transport available, making it easier for local people to come to Woking town centre. I would spend the profit from parking (reduced by reduced charging) on improved sustainable public transport. I do not accept that the council’s present flawed financial model is the best or only model available. I believe that this model can be changed to improve revenue and reduce costs. Your next likely comment might be to ask me to tell you how. For this I suggest you vote Liberal Democrat at the next local election, after reading our literature of course. The Liberal Democrats propose real change and real change will not come from simply looking to make small changes within the current boundaries such as reducing staffing levels or increasing council tax. The boundaries need to be changed, this will require our imagination and innovation.

So Cllr Wells is in favour of reducing the car parking charges and times that are charged for. Result – more cars in the car parks and on the roads and good news for business. He’s also in favour of reducing the number of cars on the road through better public transport. Result – fewer people using the car parks and impaired revenue from them. Alongside this, his idea is to spend the “profit” from the car parks on the public transport and that Woking Borough Council should run this transport system (or at least fund it). Result – a great big hole in the budget.

So we have more cars in the car parks and fewer. We have income to boost public transport generated by users that we are trying to drive away. And we have the council’s accounts being meaninglessly broken down so we can state for political purposes than one section makes a “profit“. What about all the other sections of the council that make a “loss”? How does he think that corporate management and member services are paid for?

Cllr Wells avoided answering my question about how you re-organise the council’s accounts to make this work. Instead he told me to read Lib Dem literature (sorry, I’m reading the new Dan Brown book at the moment, at least that’s partially based on fact and it’s a good deal more interesting) and vote Lib Dem in 2010 to find out.

If the Lib Dems have a plan to revolutionise Woking Borough Council, why didn’t they deploy it in 2006/7 when they were in control, instead of ducking the difficult decisions that had to be made by the Conservatives in 2007/8 and are still ongoing? Isn’t this the party that criticises DC for not stating his policies? And I’m supposed to believe that if I vote Lib Dem next year, they’ve got a cunning plan that will allow endless investment in services that are supposed to be provided at other tiers of government?

The only other option is borrowing. And that’s a subject that I’ll be returning to before long.

In the meantime, Cllr Wells may think I’m stunted in this area but I recognise the difference between imagination and fantasy. I’ve also asked enough questions of politicians in my time to know a question dodge when I see one.

Posted in Other blogs, Woking Borough Council, lib dems. Tags: , , , . No Comments »

Opening the Upper House

September 25, 2009 — simonashall
Packed with cronies or open for applications?

Packed with cronies or open for applications?

It’s a quiet Friday today, not much new in the papers – I’m waiting for the documentation for the October 1 Woking Borough Council meeting to be available.

Looking through some of my recommended blogs, I return to Tim Dodds’s post earlier today about Labour’s Baronesses. I agree with him that it’s a bit of a mockery that these wonks and flunkies hold the same honour as Lady Thatcher, our greatest post-war PM, without having done much, or indeed anything, to have deserved it.

But leaving that aside, I’m interested in his thoughts on how to reform the house of Lords, make it properly democratic and representative, yet also a force for holding the government to account. I think it is also vital to prise away honours system from politicians and the civil service machine. Honours are a great institution of our country – but like much else, they have been brought to the brink of ruin by Labour.

Clearly the current ”life peers” are just a vehicle for government patronage. It’s not democratic, it’s not fair and it has no place in the UK. But a fully-elected chamber would inevitably find itself – even staggering the elections in between parliamentary ones – in a position where it was dominated by a governing party and not able to hold the Commons properly to account.

I was in favour of this arrangement because the American model works well – but am now less sure.

Anything in between is a hotpotch, whether it’s 50% or 70%. Voters have enough difficult understanding how everything works at the moment without having to add another election using yet another system into the mix.

I wonder whether appointment to the Lords shouldn’t be the same as appointment to, say, the magistracy. That is, limited to a particular number of people who apply for the posts in an open process. We don’t need more than 200 members of the Lords, all of whom could be paid a small salary – say £10,000 – plus sensible expenses and apply to an independent board, set up as a charitable trust rather than a quango.

Lords would be selected for appointment by the board and then recommended by the PM to the sovereign. At the beginning of each parliament, the board – not the PM – would work out under proportionality rules the political make-up of the Lords, including cross-benchers, and announce the actual membership during an initial meeting in the chamber. Only those sitting as members will be allowed to use their titles.

The board would then be in charge of monitoring attendance and behaviour of peers, with their party retain only the right to withdraw the whip. Those peers not pulling their weight may find themselves omitted from the next parliament and each year, the board would publish an annual report on its activities and those of peers for consideration by the Privy Council and public.

Obviously it’s impossible to completely exclude political influence from a political institution and the civil service would need to be involved in administering the new arrangements. But the principle of taking politicians’ favours away and handing them to an open and transparent body for due process would be an encouraging and refreshing change. 

Posted in Other blogs, politics. Tags: , , , . 2 Comments »
« Older posts