Sunday 31 October 2010

The BBC deserves better than Mr Cameron's sneers

David Cameron enjoys joshing with journalists. He also, in a previous, non-political life, worked as a media public relations expert, lobbying against, among others, the BBC. So when he tells a Brussels press conference that we're all in the cuts and freeze business together, "including – deliciously – the BBC", it's probably best to leave high horses in the stable. You can make too much of a deliciously duff joke. But you also see why our prime minister needs to be very, very careful.

Is he in hock to Rupert Murdoch? Labour MPs, anxious to see more of his Number 10 visiting book, want fuller disclosure here. The two main Murdochs, father and son, have been heavy-footed and loose-tongued in their lobbying against the corporation. And 16% cuts in the BBC budget, plus a six-year licence fee freeze, rammed through in a 48 hours, speak nothing for government concern to protect either quality programming or broadcasting independence.

We should be clear. The BBC World Service the Foreign Office was happy to pay for until a few days ago now faces an uncertain future. The BBC's ability to compete as a world-class programme maker stands in grave doubt. Concomitant problems for creative industries here at home will be inescapable. These are serious cuts with serious consequences.

Of course, too much BBC top-salary foolishness has damaged the corporation's image. Of course, continuing spasms of introversion, such as the pending journalists' strike over pensions, don't help. Of course, the director general and the BBC Trust are currently forced to make the best of a bad job. But there is nothing delicious about their predicament, nor about the real losses of freedom and resource involved. The licence fee isn't a tax, to be turned on or off like some Whitehall tap. It is contract between viewer and corporation. It matters that this contract now seems in tatters. It matters, too, that politicians in power wipe the smiles from their faces as the damage is done.

Observer editorial