Everyone who pays the BBC licence price ought to be given shares within the company and be allowed to nominate its bosses, a senior Tory MP has mentioned.
Sir John Redwood made the argument in a pamphlet selling an “ownership revolution” for the centre-right assume tank the Centre for Policy Studies.
The Thatcherite Conservative MP mentioned possession is a “core philosophical dividing line” between conservatism and socialism, below which he mentioned individuals “live in a rented ‘social’ house, depend on earnings from employment or on state benefits, and have no savings or private pensions to sustain a decent lifestyle”.
Sir John criticised the BBC’s “licence fee tax model” as he mentioned the broadcaster’s revenues are being “eroded” by viewers switching to streaming providers.
The BBC is “often out of touch with much of its potential audience” resulting from a deal with “a narrow set of attitudes and interests”, having grow to be “a major voice of the net zero movement, a robust supporter of international governance and a doughty opponent of populism”, he mentioned.
The finest strategy to resolve the difficulty is to ask customers what service they want and the way it ought to be paid for, based on Sir John.
“The government should therefore announce that the BBC will be given to the licence-payers. On a stated date anyone who is paying a licence fee would be granted a single share in the BBC, which would be newly incorporated to reflect its changed ownership.
“It would then be up to the new shareholders to decide who they wished to employ as board members and as director general.”
The former cupboard minister additionally warned that the UK is vulnerable to slipping again into nationalised trade, government-directed corporations, and reliance on the Civil Service to “mend the holes and cover the cracks”.
Instead, he mentioned, ministers ought to enhance possession, together with of properties by supporting self-builds and the sell-off of council-owned derelict buildings for conversion into residential use.
The BBC has been approached for remark.
Source: www.impartial.co.uk
