It's Public, Until It's Not

The good thing about a campaign for abolition is that it figuratively separates the men from the boys on both sides of the debate about the BBC.  It’s odd that nobody has ever before campaigned explicitly for abolition and closure of the BBC.  We are the very first, and while we have received strong support from some, and equally strong opposition from others, there are large numbers on both sides who have been left confused by the concept of abolition.  Some anti-TV licence campaigners actually are in the BBC’s corner and, unable to support us, they will be exposed as wolves in sheep’s clothing.  Conversely, many defenders of the BBC will be faced with a difficult choice. 

If the BBC really is a public body and a public service broadcaster, then surely we, the public, should be able to decide to abolish it when we have no further need for it.  Yes?  From that perspective, abolition of the BBC would be the culmination of its mission.  Having fulfilled what it set out to do, and having no further useful function in society, it can be abolished.  As such, its assets must be realised and returned to we, the public.  Rather than allow the private sector to take over and benefit from 90 years (and counting) of public investment, we should have it placed into receivership and its assets (equipment, film archives, buildings, vehicles, etc.) broken-up and sold.  Its buildings can be sold or leased on the commercial market or to residential developers.  Its vehicles can be flogged to fleet owners.  Its back catalogue of ‘excellent programming’ can be sold to one or more other broadcasting companies, many of whom should be delighted to have rights to the archive.  And so on.

At this point, the BBC’s stooges protest that the BBC must go on!  Instead of returning the BBC’s assets to the public - where they belong, assuming the BBC is what they claim it is - they proceed paradoxically to say that the BBC can be commercialised or privatised, despite its functional redundancy.  Thus, the meaningless of all the ‘public service broadcaster’ fig-leaf hogwash is exposed, and the consistency that would require these people to side with us and call for abolition is abandoned.  As long as it suits them, they tell us the BBC is in the public service, and when it doesn’t suit them, it’s suddenly not a public service broadcaster after all.  The attachment is not to values and principles, but to an organisation that provides employment and support in a cultural struggle by the Left against the rest of the country.  This explains why the BBC, itself an anomaly in an era of digital technology, still stumbles on.  There are too many vested interests in it to face up to reality.  Instead, they will happily allow the BBC to transmogrify into the even deeper sham form of a private sector 'public service broadcaster' - despite the fact we already have a plethora of them already: mainly the ITV network.

The inexorable logic is for abolition, and a successful campaign for abolition is an essential chess move by those of us who genuinely oppose the BBC.  The BBC is the enemy and must be closed down for good.  Anything less plays into their hands.