Patten, BBC, Trust…oh and Europe.
All words which are increasingly hard to put together in one sentence that you could say out loud without laughing.
Thinking of complaining to the BBC Trust about the BBC’s coverage of Europe?…shouldn’t bother judging by Patten’s latest bit of thinking out loud:
‘Conservative Eurosceptics could be sending the party down the path to “political suicide” if they show they are unwilling to accept British membership of the EU in any form.’
Impartiality in his DNA.
He also seems to believe that the BBC in its present form is sacrosanct and cannot be reduced in any shape or form:
“I have got no doubt at all that a smaller licence fee would result in cuts in services. Every time in the last couple of years we have tried to reduce services there has been a storm.
“I think we should be realistic the next time we negotiate the licence fee about what the consequences would be if the licence fee was substantially reduced.”
Well…what exactly would those consequences be? Think we could live with them somehow.
Patten criticises Eurosceptics, warning them to support (Europhile Cameron)! Patten should be severely sanctioned for what is a blatantly partisan remark. As BBC chairman, he should be strictly neutral, especially in the field of policy and current affairs, and ensure the BBC does the same. In railing against Eurosceptics, he has widely crossed the line into unacceptability. If we didn’t know before (and we did), it is clear that come the referendum, all the vast resources of the BBC will be massed on the ‘Keep In’ side – and Patten will make damn sure they are. Little wonder Cameron appointed him to the chairmanship. Not only is he ‘sound’ on Europe and ‘global warming’, he’s an Oxford man, so is always going to be right. /sarc off.
I don’t care if Pattern is a wet Tory or whatever…Being the chairman of the BBC trust, he shouldn’t be making political statements or observations about anything, or anybody at all….
The “Impartial” BBC should be that at all times…”Impartial”.
it sounds to me like the liberal elite is in a bit of a panic. The peasants do not seem to be on message. One look at Patten and you know the type. Same as Cameron, Clarke, Milliband , Clegg and the rest of the clones. Expect a lot more of the same.
As to Patten’s absurd defence of the TV tax. What about the benefit to the economy of billions put back into the pockets of the peasants?
Oh I forgot that is what peasants are for to keep the Pattens of this world in the luxury that they feel is theirs by right.
I think that you are being a bit hard on the Liberal left and the BBC when you say that they are only in it for their own benefit. I am sure that the money and the trappings of power that they effortlessly accumulate are incidental to their true mission, which is to create a liberal left ( socialist) utopia. Naturally those with true LL credentials and superior thinking would have to be the leaders of such an enterprise. After all ordinary , common people may not understand what is best for them in the long run, they need to guided, to be shown how to think the correct thoughts, to be molded. The BBC is superb at this and an essential part of the project. So you just leave it alone and stop carping and citicising , otherwise bad things may happen.
Reminds me of this.
‘‘Conservative Eurosceptics could be sending the party down the path to “political suicide” if they show they are unwilling to accept British membership of the EU in any form.’
How out of touch can you get when a recent poll showed a majority of the population in favour of leaving the EU.
Patten may have been right about Euroscepticism five or ten years but the political landscape has now changed, since UKIP became a viable electoral choice. Appeal for unity doesn’t wash, we have been betrayed too often, and with the rise of opinion via the internet instead of his beloved organ, the people’s voice is being heard. Patten is facing the wrong way fighting yesterdays war. Greece has axed its state broadcaster, we should do the same. In future, Patten will have to pay for his own lunch instead of us.
Just imagine it. The BBC, left to non Tax payer means, could not function and fails. All broadcasts are cut in the middle of Question Time. No doubt as a socialist facist is screaming protest of the imminent event.
Just imagine it……………………………
…five or ten years ago…
Split the BBC along the lines of its original mission, to inform and entertain. News and current affairs can go in Informco and Doctor Who and stuff into Entertainco. The BBC’s battery of left wing comedians can go where they rightly belong, and it isn’t Entertainco. The public can have a choice to subscribe to one, both, or none.
“Patten is facing the wrong way…”
Patten is Chairman of the BBC Trust. He shouldn’t be facing any way.
I wonder who told Mr Patten to utter those words; was it the EU, who perhaps threatened to cut off his pension if he didn’t show some public support for the monstrosity. But, in doing so, Mr Patten has also publicly shown how partial the bbc management are on the subject of the anti-democratic EU. The sodding bbc should be privatised; I think a lot of people would support that view. However, I don’t think that’s going to happen any time soon. So, the only way to weaken and hopefully destroy this nest of socialist propaganda is to deprive it of funds; by finding other ways of obtaining entertainment other than live tv broadcasts. I have now been doing so for almost 2 months, as a preparation for when I cancel my licence at the end of August. It’s easy.
I cancelled my forced subscription 6 years ago. Best thing I ever did! I never knew how much time I had in the evenings to educate myself in other things outside of socialist propaganda.
Remember, the BBC is beholden to the EU, and has to report annually on how well they are putting across the pro-EU message.
The words Patten and trust are very rarely seen in the same sentence and for good reason.
He is a typical “tory” placeman – he sold out to the EU and the liberal consensus that has flourished at the BBC for the last 20 years.
They must have been so pleased when he was appointed – after all in BBC terms “he is one of us”.
I’d like to know which party would face political consequences for reducing the license fee and shrinking BBC services.
If you mean ‘who would dare’
None of the current 3 but UKIP might
If I were a Labour stoolie, then the likes of Patten and Clarke, Heseltine and Yeo would be manna from heaven.
Which, of course is why they all end up in jobs like they`ve got. Which is why the BBC and the Guardian seek out these plinths of mediocrity to spout the house-trained line of “forces opposing the righteous cause of socialism”…but funnily enough always seeming to end up in a Socialist victory.
If I were drawing “Der Sturmer” for Labours ends, Patten would have to be the template for the plumptious Tory who always seem to do very well out of Labours regimes.
The Chinese had him figured out alright.