Tag Archives: BBC licence fee

Diary Blog, 2 June 2022

Morning music

[Old Orangerie, Lazienki Park, Warsaw]

On this day a year ago

In the Germany of the mid/late 1930s, such weather was called “Fuhrerwetter“…

[1930s, Nuremberg: the Bund Deutscher Madel make display]

Twitter trivia news

Quite a few tweets seen this morning talking about the “suspension” (expulsion?) of the “Andrea Urban Fox” Twitter account. I have seen, in the past, a few tweets from that person (who seems to be tied up with the Jew-Zionists in some way). Not one tweet was of any interest whatever. Just rubbish. Why do so many people post meaningless rubbish on Twitter, and in some cases for hours daily? I can only suppose that it gives them something to do.

I cannot remember now whether Andrea Urban Fox ever tweeted about me. I think that she may have done, critically, and several years ago. No matter, anyway.

Maybe now, if the “suspension” actually turns out to be a permanent expulsion, “Andrea Urban Fox” will find something useful to do with her day(s).

[Update, same day: that Twitter account was reinstated, for whatever reason. Twitter, apart from now being far more dull than it once was (the result of the censorship, and expulsion of interesting tweeters such as David Icke, Alison Chabloz, me —if I may be a little immodest— and many others), is a mess in terms of how it works. Will Elon Musk really proceed with its acquisition? He seems too intelligent.]

Tweets seen

The “problem” (((problem))) is by no means confined to the USA. “They” try to get the non-whites to believe that the you-know-whos are on the side of the blacks and browns. No, they are playing the non-whites off against white Europeans, in a strategy of Zionist supremacism.

Oh, and that (((one))) is as much a genuine “Stewart” as I am a genuine “Liebowitz”! See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Stewart#Early_life_and_education.

https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2022/5/24/what-is-putins-end-game-in-ukraine

I agree with both of the above tweets. In what world are those people worth that pay? When Justin Webb returned to the UK after having spent several years in Washington for the BBC, he was asked the main difference between the UK and USA, and trotted out the old story about the younger man looking at another man”s very expensive car and exclaiming either (UK) “he should not have such a car” or (USA) “one day I shall have such a car“. Trite, tired, mediocre, and actually quite inaccurate (the story, Justin Webb, and indeed the BBC). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justin_Webb.

The BBC is out of its time, really. Its output is now certainly not of higher quality than that of its competitors, and as for it being “ad-free”, not so; it advertises itself and its output constantly, and shows government propaganda quite often (as well as in its shows).

The BBC receives excessive funding via the “licence fee” system, a tax by any other word, enforced by bailiff-like enforcement staff. Even today, there are people (often poor single mothers etc) in prison for (following court order) not paying, or being able to pay, that bloody “licence fee”.

Now I read that the best of the BBC TV channels, BBC Four, is going to be axed to save money! The only decent part of the BBC left. It really is time to get rid of the BBC’s “licence fee” funding and make it compete on a level with the other channels (now numbered in the dozens).

I might take a different view, were the BBC on a higher general cultural level, but that is not the case (even on BBC2) now, and has not been so for decades. As said, the best bit of the output, on BBC Four, is going to be axed.

As for BBC Radio— appalling. Radio 4 is almost entirely unlistenable now, while Radio 3 has been greatly dumbed down.

Get rid. Take away Justin Webb’s (and others’) rice bowls.

Talking of the BBC, I was interested to see that a son of the poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko, one Sasha Yevtushenko, is now a BBC radio producer: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sasha_Yevtushenko. Aged 43, apparently.

I recall meeting the then very young (maybe about 4-y-o, cannot quite recall) Sasha Yevtushenko, sometime in the early 1980s, when at Bournemouth with my then girlfriend, who was a friend of his mother, the third wife of the poet.

The maternal grandmother of Sasha Yevtushenko lived in some expensive part of Bournemouth, very close to the sea, and had one of those Victorian wooden beach huts in which people change for swimming, which huts now sell, sometimes, for tens or even hundreds of thousands of pounds. That one was on a quasi-private beach.

Despite the hot weather, we were the only people there. It was like a small cove, as I remember. I also remember the almost (?) hyperactive little boy holding the door handle from the outside, shouting out “Nilzya!” (“Not allowed!” in Russian) repeatedly and (for no reason) refusing to allow me to exit the wooden hut. There were small windows in the door. I could see him holding the handle.

What can a polite guest do? One can hardly force open the door and possibly hurt the small child, no matter how peculiar his behaviour. In the end his mother called him.

I blogged about the poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yevgeny_Yevtushenko] some years ago. See https://ianrobertmillard.org/2017/04/04/yevgeny-yevtushenko-darcus-howe-and-the-msm-cultural-musings/.

How time flies in a life: it seems not hugely long ago that an odd little boy was shouting out in Russian while imprisoning me in a beach hut. Now, the small boy is suddenly 43, and a BBC radio producer. Well, there it is; and I myself am no longer in my twenties!

[Update, 23 June 2022: https://www.forumdaily.com/en/syn-evgeniya-evtushenko-rasskazal-o-zhizni-i-poslednix-dnyax-poeta/. I was unaware that Yevgeny Yevtushenko had had two more children as late as 1990].

A talk worth hearing

“Millennial Woes” (Colin Robertson), talking in 2021 about the evil and misnamed “Hope not Hate” (((cabal))).

Seems to have been subject to censorship (or a technical defect). Try to find it online, on Odysee.

More tweets seen

Much of France is still good, still beautiful, but Paris and some other large cities and towns are now largely not French, not European, and do not deserve to exist.

The Great Replacement. The Coudenhove-Kalergi Plan. White Genocide.

More tweets

…and the semi-uniformed person, presumably some kind of attendant, seems to be not much interested, certainly does not do anything (or call for help on his radio), but (on his own against about 20 untermenschen) just bleats slightly at the mainly non-white mob. Perhaps afraid of being attacked.

This is an example of why, in the future, some form of social nationalism will have to take the reins. To exterminate evil.

He’s behind you!“…

Tweeter above failing to see that the whole “trans” nonsense of recent years is but a small part of a far-wider attempt by secret circles and cabals to destroy what is left of traditional society, particularly in Europe and other white-European-settled parts of the world, and to replace it with a “society” of dystopia— raceless, unisex, cultureless, hopeless, atomized (so easy to rule), and drugged in every way. As said many times, social nationalism must rise up to exterminate evil.

Ha ha! A one-time trainee psychiatrist (who seems to need a psychiatrist herself, in my opinion). As far as I have read here and there, she did not work for long as a doctor of any kind. No longer able to sustain the fakery of the facemask nonsense, now that most people have woken up.

Her Twitter feed is amusing, full of replies to her from cranks who are still wearing facemasks. Some really give themselves away, saying how much they love wearing their masks. Mentally-disturbed, quite obviously.

I did not see her tweeting that when this shambolic mess of a government made wearing facemask muzzles a legal requirement, and failure to comply with the facemask nonsense punishable by law.

I have remarked in the past on the blog about how doctors who become politicians or “activists” are usually a waste of space. Other examples? Dr. David Owen; Dr. Hastings Banda; Dr. Liam Fox. Dr. Evan Harris. Etc.

The incredible shrinking NHS

https://www.advertiserandtimes.co.uk/news/eight-year-old-with-broken-leg-turned-away-from-hospital-aft-9257120/

Shambolic. To me, after various experiences over the past decade, unsurprising, however.

In fact, it is not just the NHS hospitals and GP practices, but also dental services, central and local government generally, roads, rail, the courts, the police (a fortiori)…you name it. In down to earth language, this country’s gone to ratshit over several decades (and especially since 2010).

It is not the “fault” solely of immigrants (or immigration), or Jews, or British people becoming “wiggers” etc. It is a compendium of many causes, working together to trash the country. A Gordian Knot which, however, can be cut.

More tweets

This is him: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_Hickel. Frightening to think that a person of that sort may actually influence the policies adopted by governments.

Late tweets

Homeschool your children. Contrary to what many in the UK believe, it is not illegal! See https://www.gov.uk/home-education.

Late music

Diary Blog, 18 January 2022, with more thoughts about the BBC

Morning music

[The Cloisters, Upper Manhattan, New York City, USA; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cloisters]

The BBC and its funding

A tweet showcasing the views expressed by the half-Jew mass media figure Michael Grade [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Grade].

To a large extent, Grade’s views about the BBC are wrongheaded. While I think that the time has indeed come for the BBC licence fee (tax) to go, I do not think that the BBC should simply be left to sink or swim in the commercial media world.

Grade apparently wants the BBC to get rid of BBC2 and BBC Four television, presumably to save money. To echo Margaret Thatcher, “No! No! No!” Completely wrong. BBC2 and BBC Four are the best bits of BBC TV, the bits worth keeping and, though only after reforms are executed, the bits worth subsidizing.

The obvious way to subsidize the BBC is through direct government subsidy. Critics say that that would mean the BBC becoming a government mouthpiece. Hardy ha ha. What has it been for the past ~20 years (and certainly very arguably, since the 1920s)?

We do not say that, for example, the courts cannot do their job properly and (reasonably) impartially because they are funded directly, that is from central funds.

The licence fee system is both unfair and inefficient, with large collection (and enforcement) costs. It comes down to us from the era prior to the Second World War, during that war, and immediately subsequent to it, an era when people had to have a licence to own, among other things, a radio, or a dog.

The original licence was for radio, and was introduced in 1923; the TV licence was introduced in 1946: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_licensing_in_the_United_Kingdom#History.

In previous blog posts, I have explained my overall view: I support public service broadcasting, and think that the effective founder of the BBC, Lord Reith, had the right ethos, “to inform, to educate, and to entertain“, in that order. See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Reith,_1st_Baron_Reith#%22Reithianism%22; and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC#1927_to_1939.

What that means to me is that both commercial and populist considerations have to take second or third place. The BBC, as or if a public service broadcaster, must have the confidence to ignore the siren voices of “is it popular?” or “is it competing with commercial mass media?“. The whole point of subsidizing the BBC is that it has no need to compete with ITV, or Sky, and no need to pander to the tastes of the uncultured.

The BBC went wrong a long long time ago. In the 1960s. The pandering to mass sports interest by coverage such as Grandstand was part of that, as was the commissioning of most BBC comedy and variety shows, and the later focus on popular dramas, and what we now term “soaps” (from the American “soap operas” sponsored by detergent companies, shows such as The Guiding Light).

Generally, it can be said that, especially during the 1970s and thereafter, there was the impetus to compete for notional “ratings” with ITV and, later —after the 1980s— Sky. Pointless and unnecessary.

My solution for the current BBC question would be to keep BBC News, BBC2 and BBC Four, though all reformed, and with a far higher cultural level on BBC2. No newsreaders (or others) getting anything over £200,000 a year in gross pay, at absolute maximum. A focus on arts, sciences, current affairs, and historical subjects.

As for radio, keep only Radio 3, Radio 4, and the BBC World Service (and return that last to its pre-1990 glory days); Radio 3 to reverse its current dumbing-down tendency, and Radio 4 to be thoroughly purged of its now-pervasive Jewish influence, suburban “wokery”, and general hostility to white Northern European life and culture.

Subsidize the above channels; get rid of, or sell off, the rest. Also, sack most of the present on-camera (and radio presenter) staff. Start with useless overpaid drones such as Gary Lineker. Lord Reith would spin in his grave to see some ignorant big-mouth of that sort paid a million a year to shoot the breeze about football (the new “opiate of the masses”).

Amusing note:

In researching for the above piece about the BBC, I happened to see something about John Logie Baird, generally considered the inventor of television (though there are also others with good claims, including Germans, Americans, Japanese and Russians: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mechanical_television#Television_demonstrations). What amused me was this:

“Soon after arriving in London, looking for publicity, [John Logie] Baird visited the Daily Express newspaper to promote his invention [television]. The news editor was terrified and he was quoted by one of his staff as saying: “For God’s sake, go down to reception and get rid of a lunatic who’s down there. He says he’s got a machine for seeing by wireless! Watch him—he may have a razor on him.” [Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Logie_Baird].

How often we see those ahead of their time described as insane, or silly. The inventor of the hovercraft, Cockerell, received only limited personal benefit from his work during his lifetime. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cockerell#The_hovercraft.

Tweets seen

https://twitter.com/Brexit011/status/1483200148545097729?s=20

True [addendum: the already-removed tweet showed Angela Rayner], but then look at the present crowd: Priti Patel, Liz Truss etc…

Come to that, look at the part-Jew, part-Levantine, chancer and bad joke presently masquerading as Prime Minister…The fact is that the whole Westminster political milieu and system is broken.

Image

Savile, like others such as the Jews Greville Janner and Leon Brittan, seems to have been protected by the Jewish/Israel lobby. Savile himself as good as admitted it in a TV interview I saw not very long before his death. He said or implied that he was part-Jew (which may or may not have been true, almost certainly not), and that he had somehow helped the Israeli Embassy with confidential matters (who knows?).

Starmer, of course, is married to a Jewish woman lawyer, and their children are being brought up as if fully-Jewish. He is a member of Labour Friends of Israel.

I have no idea whether the above allegations in respect of Starmer’s role in the Savile scandal indicate that Starmer deliberately tried to protect Savile (he may have been simply incompetent, or just mistaken). Still, the matter should be investigated, if it has not already been.

Don’t blame Raab, as such. Blame the system that put him there. Blame a system that puts idiots like Michael Fabricant, Boris Johnson, Angela Rayner, Diane Abbott, Nadine Dorries, and hundreds like them, into Parliament. Not to mention the untermenschen such as Fiona Onasanya (now binned and on the dole, but others are still there).

More tweets

As for trade unions, like most institutions and organizations in Britain now, all but useless. Completely taken over by Common Purpose careerists and other enemies of the people.

Image

Good grief. The BBC is so replete with “licence”-payers’ money that it pays a scarecrow-on-a-stick nearly £300,000 a year to “work” only half the week…

Late tweets

Drunken Churchill, in 1940, made the famous “we shall fight on the beaches” speech, in which he said:

” We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender…”

…but of course could never have imagined that, 81 years on, most of the British people are more interested in football, TV talent shows, and dance competitions, than in “defending their island”.

Indeed, a significant minority of deluded persons actually welcome the invasion of Britain by hordes who, at best, will be useless, and at worst a mortal danger both to UK citizens and to the national heredity.

Ultimately, you can see what element is behind this warmongering in the USA and UK— the same “element” that was behind the two world wars. “They” play on existing tensions for strategic profit.

On this day a year ago

Late music

[“You see, my son, here time turns into space!“]

“The stars in their courses fight on the side of the just“…[ancient Chinese proverb].

Diary Blog, 16 January 2022

Morning music

On this day a year ago

Historical views on history and monarchy

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-10404373/The-Queen-RIGHT-axe-Prince-Andrew-sake-monarchy-says-WILSON.html

Was reading the above article on the Royal Family and UK monarchy by scribbler A.N. Wilson.

Long ago now, I reviewed a book by A.N. Wilson on Amazon UK, where I was about 40th most popular reviewer (out of millions). Later, around 2012, the Jew-Zionist lobby had me barred from reviewing on Amazon UK (and on the separate American site…so much for “free speech” in the occupied USA…). All my reviews were then hidden from the public, and remain so.

One of the reviews effectively lost was the one about a book on British history in the 20th century, by A.N. Wilson. My view had been that his book was a really good read, but at the same time riddled with historical inaccuracies, absurd conclusions, and simple spelling mistakes. This article is similar in some respects.

Look at this:

“…we should not take the durability of the institution for granted. 

At the end of World War I, when Russia, Germany, Austria and many other European nations were replacing their monarchs with forms of government in every way more tyrannical and bloody, George V, our king, once quietly remarked: ‘I’m going to have to work hard to keep my job.’

He and his wife, Queen Mary, did indeed work to develop the concept of constitutional monarchy.

Far from endangering parliamentary democracy, it strengthened it. With a monarch as head of state, there is continuity and stability — it is no accident we remained a democracy when countries without kings or emperors ended up with leaders such as Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini and Franco.”

Well, let’s see. “At the end of WW1...” etc: In 1917, the rule of Nikolai II in Russia was replaced by that of the Provisional Government under Prince Lvov and Alexander Kerensky. It was not “tyrannical” or “bloody“, but was chaotic and unable to rule. Indeed, one could argue that the previous years of Nikolai’s rule, at least since the 1905 uprising, had been at times both tyrannical and bloody, especially if the Russian participation in WW1 is placed on the scales.

True, the Bolshevik government, which replaced the Provisional government later in 1917, was certainly bloody and, in the lay sense, tyrannical, and that was so even under Lenin, certainly later yet under Stalin.

Germany after WW1 was not a tyranny. The Weimar Republic was decadent, badly-run, verged on disorder at times, and was quite illiberal towards those who, like Hitler, were German nationalists, but it cannot really be called either tyrannical or bloody. Neither was the government of Hitler, in its 6 years of relative peace (1933-1939). It was dictatorial; it was not tyrannical. There is a difference. As for “bloody”, not so, overall.

Austria did become a kind of dictatorship, but only after 1933, under Dollfuss and, subsequently, Schuschnigg, but for the preceding 14 years had been a constitutional democracy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Austrian_Republic.

What about Wilson’s contention that ” He [George V of England] and his wife, Queen Mary, did indeed work to develop the concept of constitutional monarchy.” True up to a point. Wilson’s phrasing is awkward. The “concept of constitutional monarchy” had been developing in England and the UK for centuries, certainly since the English Civil War and the century following (17th/18th centuries).

Moreover, the same process was happening across Europe; certainly that was so in the 19th Century. It was not confined to the UK by any means.

As for Italy, Mussolini was dictatorial, though not officially a dictator (though he presented himself as such). Some who were (thankfully) repressed under his rule (notably the Mafia and other criminals, and Stalinist Communists) would say (wrongly) that he was a tyrant, but Italy remained a constitutional monarchy right the way through Mussolini’s rule, a fact that Wilson either does not know or fails to mention.

An Allied invasion of Sicily began in July 1943, leading to the collapse of the Fascist regime and the fall of Mussolini on 25 July. Mussolini was deposed and arrested by order of King Victor Emmanuel III in co-operation with the majority of the members of the Grand Council of Fascism, which passed a motion of no confidence. On 8 September, Italy signed the Armistice of Cassibile, ending its war with the Allies.” [Wikipedia].

In fact, Italy only ceased to be a monarchy in 1946, following a mass referendum.

So Wilson seems once again to need either a history lesson or a lesson in how to express himself. Having said that, I certainly agree with most of his criticism, in the article, of Harry (“the Royal Cuck”), Meghan Markle (“the Royal Mulatta”), Andrew Windsor, and others, such as the horrible and entitled (mostly in both senses) moneygrubbing “younger members of the Royal Family”.

I believe that A.N. Wilson was once a regular guest of the Queen at table, at Windsor Castle, but was (sometime in the 1980s, or maybe a little later) cold-shouldered after he wrote a piece in the Evening Standard about what he had heard at dinner.

I see that I am not the only one to have noticed Wilson’s factual inaccuracies: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A._N._Wilson#Critiques_of_Wilson’s_work.

Tweets seen

I stick with my view, held for nearly two years now, that much of the Covid madness has been a very-large-scale psychological experiment in mass conditioning, designed to result, down the line, in an almost robotic and very Pavlovian response to the orders of the System.

Remember the early/mid 2020 “social distancing”, with lines of shoppers obediently x-metres or feet away from each other, only moving forward on the orders of deadhead supermarket “marshals”? Then there has been the facemask nonsense, as noted in the tweet. Also, the almost-useless and often dangerous “vaccines” and “boosters”, and the equally-useless mass “testing” for “the virus”.

Somewhere not far down the line, there will be the microchipping of the population . Those refusing to be microchipped will be, pretty much, social outcasts, unable to travel internationally or even within the UK (or wherever), all but unable to access services, all but unable to buy food or car fuel (as cash is phased out). Already, I read, many under-24 people are accustomed to using cards for almost all purchases, and use cash as little as once or twice per month. They will be easily persuaded to be microchipped. The microchipping will come in “not with a bang but a whimper”, and few will see the dangers and implications; even fewer will resist.

14 words

We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children”— 14 words…

It may be, that not very far in the future, the societies of Western and Central Europe will fall into complete decadence, their economies ruined, their legal and political systems ineffective and scarcely operational. A kind of Dark Age may be coming. If so, what really matters is to be prepared to seed a new pan-European civilization and culture, which can eliminate evil and disorder, so that a better future, and far future, will be able to exist.

More tweets seen

I posted the above film clip out of amusement, really. I (quite genuinely) wonder why idiots like that speaker, and her tiny and lumpenproletarian audience, waste time on demonstrations like that. Still, there it is.

A long time ago, in the 1980s, I was —very unusually— coming out of the Circle Line station at King’s Cross. It was a a summer afternoon. There was, just before the stairs leading to the street, a bank of public telephones. I happened to notice that there was a small black diary or notebook on the floor. I picked it up and looked at it, thinking that I might post it back to the owner, or hand it in to the police.

Said diary turned out to belong to someone at an address nearby, so I walked there. Why not? I was in no hurry, and I like to help people if I can.

I noticed that the appointments for the coming weeks were all this march, that demo, and feminist workshops etc. It was a slice of life straight out of a Private Eye parody, or the then “AgitProp” sections of magazines such as Time Out, or City Limits [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_Out_(magazine); https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_Limits_(magazine)].

I soon arrived at the flat where the diary’s owner lived, 1930s social housing. I (dressed in a pinstripe suit, and sporting a silk tie) knocked at the door. A strange, rather red-faced and intense young woman opened the door, but only about 6 inches. I explained that I had found the diary and where. She looked very suspicious; taking the diary, she shut the door without a word of thanks! I suppose that when the (1980s version) of the “woke” revolution (was going to come), courtesy, or indeed simple politeness, and gratitude, would be unnecessary…

Perhaps the odd young woman thought that I was a member of MI5 or Special Branch who had stolen her diary to get intelligence, and/or was wanting to get to know her or even recruit her. Or did she imagine that I wanted to rape her (or whatever)? God knows. Stupid creature. As often said, “no good deed goes unpunished”…

Did the young woman use the public telephones to avoid any telephone tap on her own telephone? Or did she simply not have a telephone in the flat? Mobile telephones were effectively unknown then, of course.

I wonder where said young woman is now? Probably a member of the Labour Party (Corbyn faction), and/or a local Labour councillor, now aged 60+ and with decades of silly militancy behind her. Or did she fall by the wayside en route to the post-Marxist promised land, marry some accountant or solicitor, and acquire a suburban house, and a holiday home in some place unaffected by the collapse of white England? Who knows?

More tweets seen

National Socialism has passed into history, but the essence of it, in a new form, will rise up to rule Europe.

Late tweets seen

I believe in public service broadcasting, but the BBC has not been that, in any serious way, for years, for many years.

I believe in the original dictum of Lord Reith: “inform, educate, and entertainin that order of priority.

The major strategic mistake the BBC made, at least 50 years ago, was to compete with ITV (and commercial radio) for “ratings”, i.e. cheap popularity. The whole point of having the licence fee (meaning a tax on owning a TV) was, or should have been, to create a TV and radio service which concentrated on relatively “high-minded” stuff. Instead of that, the BBC established Radio 1 and, on TV, dumbed down, first of all, BBC1 TV and then BBC2 TV.

The dumbing-down continued, particularly from the 1980s. In the 1990s and thereafter, the BBC television output gradually declined in quality, and the new efforts were generally poor. BBC Three television was markedly rubbish (it was eventually put online-only), though one bright spot was the new BBC Four, which is now (now that BBC 2 TV is so poor) the only decent BBC TV station, the only one with any intellectual pretension.

As for radio, the World Service was reduced from something really worthwhile in the 1970s and 1980s to very poor in terms of quality through the 1990s, and by 2010 to rock-bottom.

The process continues. On radio, it is noticeable that the dumbing-down continues; Radio 3 output is sometimes close to some of that on Radio 2 these days.

I therefore welcome the announcement that the BBC licence fee (tax) is going to be abolished. I welcome it on principle, and also because, these days, something like the BBC, a huge and bloated corporation run by and staffed by, largely, an in-group, almost all thinking the same way (and mostly the wrong way), is totally anachronistic.

Turn on your TV. How many channels are there? 100? More. Yes, mostly rubbish, but many not, or not completely. Do the few BBC ones really offer anything different from the rest? I say no. Ads? The BBC may not have paid advertising, but it advertises its own shows all the time, which is equally irritating.

Now we have the Internet as well. There is just no justification for subsidizing what the BBC, most of the time, now does.

At one time, almost every country in the world, even the tiniest, had its own “national airline” or “flagcarrier”. That was basically an outcome of international conditions that, by the 1980s, had already been superseded by new norms that better reflected reality. The BBC, as it now is, has no place of significance in the world, and no right to be subsidized by a punitive tax.

I also look forward, of course, to the overpaid BBC drones and “celebrities” having their rice-bowls taken away, but that is a secondary, though pleasant, thought.

More late tweets

Interesting, if true.

I have little doubt that a proper study would confirm a similar rate in the UK, maybe 50,000+.

Late music

[Akademgorodok]