If you have time on your hands and want a cathartic experience for free, why not join the BBC’s online consultation exercise about its future direction? As the Today programme presenters remind us, there are no wrong answers. Except there obviously are. When the question is, “In the future, how important or not do you think it is that the BBC provides a valuable public service for the people of the UK?”, I think we know what we’re expected to say. Ditto, “In the future, how important or not do you think it is that the BBC delivers this by seeking to pursue truth with no agenda?” Seriously?
But the exercise says something about the continuing place of the BBC in national life. No one would really be that bothered if Sky or Channel 4 asked viewers what they thought (but then, they’re not publicly funded). So when the Corporation declares that “The BBC belongs to all of us”, it is right. There are precious few things in a multicultural diverse society that actually bind the nation. And although the BBC probably doesn’t do it for teenagers and whole communities, it still has an unequalled status for older people and the middle classes. And I mean that as praise.
