PORTOBELLO REFLECTIONS 24th JANUARY 2022

 THE BBC AND NADINE DORRIS 

The TV licence is an anachronism, it is not of course alone, this country is awash with anachronisms from the Royal Family, to the House of Lords I could go on. When we wish to keep anachronisms we call them traditions, when we wish to dispose of them, we call them relics. As anachronism go the TV licence strikes me as of greater value than the Royal Family, and much greater value than the House of Lords. Indeed, the BBC is an institution that enriches British life and culture and is admired throughout the world.[1] The same cannot be said for the House of Lords, rancid and corrupt, a carbuncle on British democracy.

Alas the licence fee will have to go, not because of the reasons put forward by the Culture Secretary[sic] Nadine Dorries, a woman who understands as much about culture as a dead hedgehog.

A Dead Hedgehog opines

The reason that the licence fee is no longer viable has however been provided by Ms Dorries, inadvertently or not. It is that governments cannot be trusted not to use the licence fee as a weapon of control over the BBC. When we get around to searching for an alternative mechanism can we not hope for open minded and generous thinking that seeks to replicate the current generous levels of money available for genuinely independent public service broadcasting that provides the cultural range of the BBC. We will, of course, need a progressive government in place for that to happen.

The Sound of Music

Recently listening to a piece of music by Peter Baumann ‘This Day,’ with its haunting refrain,’ …this day, will fade away.’ I was struck by two things, one is the lack of solidity in memory, I have lived for, give, or take a day 23,750 days, how much of that time/experience have I retained? Indeed, this day is overwhelmingly likely to fade away, into the irretrievable darkness of all those other days. The other was listening to music, I really began to listen, paying attention to the variety of components that melded together to produce this sound. How often do I do this these days? True I do not listen to music as much as I used to, and a lot less than many others. But the ubiquity of music is now a commonplace fact, music can be listened to anywhere, and some go around all day with headphones on with music pumping into their head. How much of it do the really listen?

I remember the first time I heard Dark Side of the Moon on headphones. It was transformative, I could never listen to music in the same way again. Some of that experience remains, but not much. The music has not, in Don Maclean’s words ‘died’ but it is at risk of losing what is left of its power.


[1] Much of the hostility to the BBC, particularly from the left, is based upon the false assertion that the Corporation is primarily a provider of news. And it is true that since at least Brexit the BBC has hardly covered itself in glory as a source for reliably prejudice free news. However, the BBC is so much more.


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