Tom Waters over at Conservative Home has an interesting peice on the BBC, plugging the Freedom Association event tomorrow. It is nowhere near being properly abolitionist but is worth a quick read. This comment, from “Y Rhyfelwr Dewr”, is of greater interest strategically:

Personally, I’d say cut down the BBC hugely — probably down to Radio 3 and 4, and probably BBC 4. Stuff which is culturally and educationally desirable, but fundamentally non-commercial.

There is absolutely no need for BBC to be competing with commercial broadcasters that cannot hope to out-bid it. There is certainly no justification for tax money to pay for shows like “Heros” which ITV would have bent over backwards to broadcast.

The BBC would then be funded from the arts budget (which would be increased, but not by nearly the value of the licence fee). Every year, the BBC would need to justify the quality of its output, competing with the Royal Shakespeare Company, Welsh National Opera, the National Theatre, and a myriad of others demanding a share of the pot.

Then, remove all regulations governing bias. BBC  can be as biased as it likes, knowing that, if it is too relentlessly left-wing, inevitably, ITN or Sky News will deliberately adopt a strongly right-wing approach. Competition is wonderful!

I found this to be a useful reminder that competition works at every angle. A public sector adversary, competing with the BBC  for the same funding provides a new pressure on the BBC. Altrusitic sacrifice would compete with altrusitic sacrifice for the same limited pool of taxpayers blood.

Altruism’s passkey to wealth is need, and it’s obvious that every other artform would come along with it’s own pathetic list of artistic and therefore fiducary needs. As it dangles ovre the precipice of it’s own intellectual foundation, the feet of the BBC would snapped at from below by obscure dramatists from Aberdeen to Plymouth.

A remote and elitist quango would then proceed to decide what the BBC must do to justify it’s nightly feeding. The chances of this being anything like what the viewer wants are remote, and so it is a very good idea to get this remote elite involved, as soon as possible.

Bias then is likely to multiply massively, springing the second trap – pressure from ideologically sensible competitors. Finally TV would start to become balanced, the ravished carcass of the BBC would be flung into the pit of it’s ideological associates and the vibrant life-enhancing ideas of the  libertarian right can race Tories to the BBC’s former vantage point.