"Meanwhile, the DCMS said it was scrapping a review of the BBC's funding model that was set up by the previous government, and is disbanding its expert panel. Instead, the government will examine the issue of BBC funding as part of the charter review process, before the BBC's current royal charter expires in 2027."
Of course it's long been apparent that technological changes having dramatically changed the broadcasting and hence consuming landscape, the legally-enforced TV licence method of funding Public Service Broadcasting in the form of the BBC was fast becoming unsustainable. However, I think many can breathe a sigh of relief that it doesn't fall to a Conservative government to be making the key decisions.
Interestingly, the BBC Chair, Samir Shah CBE, made a wide-ranging and significant speech recently 'A Very British Success Story: The PSBs at the heart of UK creativity' that not only covered the whole PSB landscape, but also crucially Charter Review and the funding model. He made the point that not only had the BBC been forced to make painful cuts due to the licence fee being frozen, but had also been required to take on increased responsibilities such as the funding of the World Service and free licences for the over 75's. He might also have mentioned the funding of the Local Democracy Reporting Service and broadband roll out to rural areas.Not surprisingly the effect on the BBC has been dramatic with massive cuts to the local radio network last year, together with the World TV Service and more recently the reduction of journalists affecting Newsnight and now Hardtalk and news provision generally. Interestingly, this recent article 'Elite Paywalls or Social Media Misinformation: The Alarming Future of ‘Two Tier’ Journalism' by Bylinetimes highlights the dangers:-
The UK is facing a “grim” world of “two tier” journalism, in which access to high-quality information is reserved for the few, with increasing numbers relying solely on dangerously unreliable online sources for their news, according to a new Parliamentary report.
The Lords Communications and Digital Select Committee, in a report on “the future of news” suggest that current trends in the industry such as the worsening economics of mass market journalism, low trust among the public and a growing number of people actively avoiding mainstream reporting is contributing to this malaise.
It states starkly that “There is a realistic possibility of the UK’s news environment fracturing irreparably along social, regional and economic lines within the next 5–10 years. The implications for our society and democracy would be grim.”
It adds, having taken evidence from a wide range of people, including national newspapers and group owners, national broadcasters, academics, think tanks and tech giants on a visit to San Francisco, “The period of having informed citizens with a shared understanding of facts is not inevitable and may not endure.”The article spells out many of the behavioural changes going on:-
It warns that use of AI tools is about to make matters even worse since it will give more power to the tech giants to create “engaging news summaries giving them unprecedented influence over the type of news we see”.
Statistics in the report on where people get their news backed up the change in the last five years. BBC's flagship BBC1 channel saw a decline from 58% to 43% between 2019 and this year, ITV were down from 40% to 30% and Channel Four was down from 17% to 14%. The Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday was down from 18% to 13%, the Guardian and Observer was stable at about 10%. Increasingly people were getting their news from the internet with YouTube going from six per cent to 19%, TikTok from 0% to 11% and Instagram from 13% to 18%. Only Twitter, now X under Elon Musk, showed a slight fall having previously risen from 16% to 17%, it has now fallen back to 15%, lower than in 2019.
Returning to Samir Shah's speech, it will be noted that he has effectively started Charter Renewal discussions by suggesting that it's time to ditch the routine of having the BBC's very existence under continuous review (there are midterm reviews) and instead enshrine its status in law. I suppose the subtext is trying to remove political interference, but that of course fundamentally means sorting out funding.
At this point I should declare that I thought I had got the answer. Seeing that technological change means that it's only a matter of time before terrestrial broadcasting will cease, along with the Public Telephone Service, all to be replaced with broadband distribution, you simply ask the Internet Service Provider to collect a tax. There, sorted! Why had nobody thought of this? Well it turns out they had of course and the idea was casually floated by the BBC four years ago, not surprisingly to be met with right-wing fury from the likes of the Taxpayers Alliance and Daily Mail.
It is the answer though for a number of reasons:-- Cheap to collect
- Difficult to avoid
- De-criminalisation
- Individual not property based
- Easy to apply age, disability or income discounts
- Could help fund all PSB's eg Ch4
- Maintains concept of 'universality'
As we are going ‘off piste,’ I thought I might comment on the sacking of Louise Haigh as transport secretary.
ReplyDeleteApparently she has a previous conviction which is spent but which she states she declared anyway. In the resulting furore, she has been dismissed by Keri Starmer for reasons unspecified.
In the past, probation officers, myself included with spent convictions have been employed by the organisation and have been able to demonstrate that we are not bound by our past but can move on.
The government appears to be running scared of the media and the opposition and has disregarded a longstanding piece of legislation which has proved to be a lifeline for some and enabled them to contribute without stigma.
I know little or nothing about Ms.Haigh ( other than a principled stand over the P&O ferries mass sackings) but think she has been hard done by.
The only positive I can see coming out of this is that presumably Rishi and Boris will be excluded from any comeback in the future on the same grounds.
Mm not my experience. Having some convictions as a youngster the glass ceiling in probation as a career was there. Despite the rhetoric bullshit. None the less some incredibly talented colleagues in bucket loads could not defeat those controlling and odd numbers of staff who never let go. However forgiving we might feel the story on spent conviction discharged in court and mobile phone is a scandal.it does not add up properly and no one should be pleading guilty if the didn't seek to describe. The role and that conduct are not the best public advert for starmers labour. It sadly doesn't reflect on COVID party fines for the other two in the same way. It's just how it is seen. The haigh story will come out I'm sure she's target news now and can't hide with more lies. That's why she has to go.
DeleteThe probation service and academic circles remain notably silent when it comes to addressing criminal convictions, despite the focus on offender engagement, lived experience, and desistance. This quiet stance feels increasingly significant in light of global developments. This blog as an exception sometimes writes on these matters - Guest Blog 26 and a few others
Deletehttp://probationmatters.blogspot.com/2015/02/guest-blog-26.html?m=1
including the well documented problems we have with Visor
http://probationmatters.blogspot.com/2018/08/visor-special.html?m=1
And the significant concerns with Vetting practices.
http://probationmatters.blogspot.com/2018/04/nps-and-vetting.html?m=1
In 2024, Donald Trump was elected President of the United States, despite being convicted on 34 felony counts. This raises questions about differing societal and political attitudes toward rehabilitation and second chances.
Similarly, the recent Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson mega-event, which reportedly attracted over 108 million global viewers, underscores how convictions of some are perceived differently elsewhere. Tyson, who was convicted of rape in 1992 and served three years in prison, an example of someone with lived experience who has not only rebuilt his career but also gained widespread acceptance.
By contrast, in the UK, Labour MP Louise Haigh was last week removed from her role as transport secretary over a spent minor conviction from 2014. Just a few years back Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak received convictions for breaking Covid rules but were not dismissed. Haigh’s situation reflects a starkly different approach, while the United States—despite its notoriously high incarceration rates— which can be argued as showing signs of embracing rehabilitation and lived experience with electing Trump, while the UK seems to double down on punitive measures. Labour is advocating stricter sentencing reforms and expanding the prison system.
This divergence begs a critical question: Does Labour’s response to Haigh’s conviction signal a concerning shift in the UK’s approach to justice and rehabilitation when expectations in the UK even for politicians has in the past been less strict?
https://amp.theguardian.com/politics/2011/jan/11/criminal-mps-expelled-from-commons
I have no great loyalty to the BBC but reading this post whilst on vacation in USA makes me appreciate just how dire mainstream TV can be!
ReplyDeleteAlso anything that removes enforcement from poverty stricken single mothers has GOT to be worth a serious look.
Inappropriate dirty old man Greg Wallace has made a statement to prove what an inappropriate dirty old man he is by blaming the victims (sound familiar?):
ReplyDelete"I'm reading in the paper, there's been 13 complaints in that time... Now, in the newspaper I can see the complaints coming from a handful of middle-class women of a certain age just from Celebrity MasterChef. This isn't right."
He finished his statement by saying: "In over 20 years of television, can you imagine how many women, female contestants on MasterChef, have made sexual remarks or sexual innuendo - can you imagine?"
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0k8kryvdjno
I'm sure he is not blameless given the volume and spotlight but in context these allegations are from when he was not so old and the environment afforded his behaviour may well have encouraged his line as a way of celebrities ego massage . Let's hear the details first.
DeleteHe’s surely grasping at justification and minimisation that he can “see the complaints coming from a handful of middle-class women of a certain age”.
DeleteIt is interesting he identifies this group and it may well be his experience is of “many women, female contestants on MasterChef, have made sexual remarks or sexual innuendo” too.
I doubt any women would be making statements as Wallace claims although it is a possible somewhat a reality in my experience women of particular class age and mindset complain quite often and on minor issues it's more than over sensitivity. Now that being said no doubt there will be a huge over reaction.
Delete"We're living in the age of impunity" - BBC reporter speaking about recent world events including putin's war crimes in syria & subsequent invasions of Ukraine, netanyahu's war crimes, trump, assad, xi, etc.
Delete"Gregg Wallace allegations 'tip of the iceberg', former MasterChef contestant claims... The former contestant, who wants to remain anonymous, claims he witnessed a "toxic environment" on set - but was too scared to speak out after signing a non-disclosure agreement.
The former contestant who spoke to Sky News said he was "not for one second wanting to let Gregg Wallace off the hook, but I don't think it's just him".
The contestant was so shocked by what he saw on the first day of filming, he said he wanted to leave.
"I don't know why I didn't actually. But I think it was partly because I was just too embarrassed. I didn't want to be humiliated," he said. " (from sky news)
A toxic culture of bullying. Sound familiar?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cgk1v20lrn2o
ReplyDeleteCan murderers change – or are they born evil?
An article by celebrity Forensic psychiatrist and 2024 Reith Lecturer, Dr Gwen Adshead
"Deep down most of us have a capacity for cruelty but the risk factors that make some people act that out with extreme violence are specific. They are a little like the numbers in a bicycle lock. Just as all the numbers have to line up for the bicycle lock to open, multiple risk factors are usually in place before violence erupts."
"It takes a radical kind of empathy to sit with a man who has decapitated his partner, or a woman who has stabbed a friend. But trying to comprehend them and gain new insights about ourselves requires going where they walk, and seeing what they see. And that is what ultimately leads to change."
By contrast, politicians & ideologically decadent fuckwit acolytes have spent decades trying to disassemble the Probation Service, destroying the profession & ethos of 'advise, assist, befriend'; replacing them with 'monstering', bullying, coercion, greed & outright lies, aka managerialism.
Are you reading this mahmood, timpson, starmer, reeves, et al? Any chance you might take notice?
Remove probation from hmpps.
Make it an independent locally focused service.
Clear out the useless 'excellent leaders' who have dragged Probation to it's bruised & bloodied knees, & slit it's throat.
Reinstate the profession & it's efficacy as a force for meaningful rehabilitation.
Be brave. Be bold.
And yet probation officers work with serious, violent and repeat offenders daily and nobody writes much truth about the work of probation.
DeleteWant to learn about probations role unpaid work, electronic tagging and serious further offences then pick up any newspaper. Even prison overcrowding mentions probation recalls as a problem.
Where is the real account of what probation officers do in preparing prisoners for release and supervising people in the community? All those glossy Ministry of Justice and HMPPS videos about “Why I became a probation officer” do not capture the truth, not like this does.
“McNally believes fundamentally that his role is separate from that of the gardaí. Your purpose as a probation officer is about helping people change their behaviour – that the focus. So you’re actually working for the betterment of the community and the betterment of the individual. And you work in partnership – you’re supervising the person on behalf of the court. You’re exercising authority yes but there is no benefit for us to be dealing with them in a capture ‘em, nail em, jail ‘em way,” he said.”
https://www.thejournal.ie/gerry-mcnally-probation-service-interview-6351779-Apr2024/
listened to lecture 1 this morning... I didn't detect a single murmur of the word 'probation'
DeleteAnon 13:30 Thanks for reminding us - we covered it here:-
Deletehttps://probationmatters.blogspot.com/2024/04/lessons-to-be-learned.html
Instead of people like Gerry McNally having a say in what probation is and should be we get RPDs, AEDs, Thornden-Edwards, Timpson, Gauke and Mahmood.
DeleteThe Internet, AI, social media and who knows how many broadcasting channels are available for access in today's ever increasingly polarised world means we all seek out the news that suits our own ideological perceptions.
ReplyDeleteThat creates a very competitive consumer market that requires supply. Trump may have been correct in saying "there are alternative facts".
"Fact" is becoming more and more a percepton rather then an absolute.
Sin, spin and spin again until everybody is so dizzy, disoriented and blurred of vision we can be feed our "fix" by which ever "dealer" we choose to go to that's willing to supply it.
The Brexit debate being a perfect example.
I find it all pretty disturbing really and a bit scary too.
I looked up what Orwell might have made of it all yesterday.
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/orwell-exposed-the-cowardice-of-journalists-and-intellectuals/#:~:text=Orwell's%20thesis%20was%20that%20journalists,MOI%20or%20any%20official%20body.
'Getafix
Remember how the crc's wriggled their way out of paying the full redundancy package to staff, the unions sat on their hands & the govt supported the crcs' theft of the redundancy money?
ReplyDelete“What they say and what they do are two different things.”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cdd01jr6122o
A 91-year-old former sub-postmistress from County Durham, the oldest victim of the Post Office IT scandal, has been offered less than a third of what she'd claimed in compensation.
Betty Brown and her husband spent more than £50,000 of their savings to cover the unexpected losses which started as soon as the Horizon computer system was installed in her branch.
She was hounded out of her job and forced to sell her post office at a knockdown price in 2003.
She says with the help of her government-paid advisors, multiple reports were prepared to back up her detailed claim.
More information was then requested by lawyers acting on behalf of the government which oversees the GLO scheme. When her offer came through, it was for 29% of what she had claimed.
After the horse has bolted...?
ReplyDeletehttps://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvg6r7zk47eo
"The new Covid corruption commissioner has started an investigation into personal protective equipment (PPE) fraud.
Tom Hayhoe's first task will be reviewing the £8.7bn of PPE bought during the pandemic that then had to be written off the government's books.
Mr Hayhoe is also likely to review the previous government's abandoning of attempts to reclaim money from deals worth £674m.
The Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) lost three-quarters of the £12bn it spent on PPE in the first year of the pandemic, largely due to inflated prices and kit that did not meet requirements."
"lost"? Some might say that's a euphemism for 'handed to chums'
Reminiscent of the crc raid on probation funds?
selous, june 2015: "...an enhanced Voluntary Redundancy Scheme was put in place, in line with the terms of the National Agreement on Staff Transfer and Protections agreed with the probation Trade Unions, and funded by monies from the Modernisation Fund to support a sustainable reduction in resource requirements. An initial wave of redundancies was made in advance of the letting of the contracts for the CRCs, and the remaining monies were transferred to the CRCs on a pro rata basis to be used for the same purpose... we have no plans to reclaim any monies allocated to CRCs from the Modernisation Fund"
Your trouble there was staff volunteered for the reduced rates by signing up to the their offered deals more fool them. You can't blame privatised profiteering that is to be expected. It just highlights the failing ability of the staff who signed coupled with pathetic union failure to defend them or ensure a proper redundancy policy.
Deletehave recently uncovered reference to the Modernisation Fund costings in govt paper
Deletehttps://www.parliament.uk/globalassets/documents/commons-committees/Justice/Spring-Supplementary-Estimates-Memoranda-2014-15/MoJ-Supplementary-Estimate-2014-15-Final-Signed.pdf
"£120.00m in relation to MoJ Modernisation Funding"
When does something become just too broken to be fixed?
ReplyDeleteI think the CJS has reached that point.
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/government-ministry-of-justice-geoffrey-cliftonbrown-commons-public-accounts-committee-national-audit-office-b1197939.html
'Getafix
Government plans to boost prison capacity could fall short by thousands of cell spaces within two years and cost the taxpayer billions of pounds more than anticipated, Whitehall’s spending watchdog has warned.
ReplyDeleteThe National Audit Office (NAO) said current expansion plans are “insufficient to meet future demand” amid a projected shortage of 12,400 prison places by the end of 2027, with costs expected to be at least £4 billion higher than initially estimated.
The National Audit Office (NAO) said current expansion plans are “insufficient to meet future demand” amid a projected shortage of 12,400 prison places by the end of 2027, with costs expected to be at least £4 billion higher than initially estimated.