Happy New Year

Apologies for the brief gap in coverage - perhaps I didn't quite hear the bit about celebrating the New Year 'with caution'. 

BBC Director General Tim Davie has chosen to launch the Corporation's centenary year with an article specially written for Mr Murdoch's Sunday Times (now free here).  The paper has turned it into a news item, building a standard line ("We are here to serve, to work tirelessly to offer every single household outstanding value for the licence fee") into 'a passionate defence' of the funding system. 

Both Mr Davie and Mr Murdoch know that the system can only change when the UK has 100% access to reliable internet service, and the Government makes a decision that turns it into a utility service to which every household must have access. 

Until then yes, we know that the noisiest Conservatives don't like the don't like the licence fee, egged on by Murdoch papers, The Telegraph and The Express. No 10 responds to that pressure with now typical Johnsonian delay.  There is no need for an organisation already handcuffed to be further pistol-whipped by this negligent and petty approach to announcing a settlement that has to be in place by the end of March.  Make sure, when the figures are finally announced, that you look to Rishi Sunak as much as Nadine Dorries as familiar services are cut.