John Whittingdale appointed Culture Secretary as Sajid Javid moved to Business

[Dave2002]

Anyone thinking of moving to the constituency of Uxbridge and South Ruislip?

No, but I once worked in that area. Perhaps I even lived for a short while on the fringes of that constituency, but it was a very long while ago.

[french frank]

Is that set in stone? If a non Tory government gets in within 10 years

It could be changed technically, at any time, I suppose. But the 10 years includes the earlier freeze from 2010, which was for 6 years. It would mean the BBC isn't emerging from the wood yet in spite of extensive cuts. Radio 3 has - judging from the figures available - already suffered a mauling compared with the other music radio stations.

But then there will be the whole business of the new BBC governance structure with the BBC Trust, introduced by Labour in the wake of the terrible way the BBC treated Labour over the Iraq business. Now it will be the turn of the Tories to deal with the terrible way the BBC have treated the Tories since they've been in government …

[ahinton]

Is that set in stone?

Who cares? The abridged Labour manifesto was set in exactly that and now even Harriet Harperson refuses to admit to knowledge of its current whereabouts...

[pastoralguy]

Anyone thinking of moving to the constituency of Uxbridge and South Ruislip?

Or Scotland...

[Barbirollians]

Well that will teach the BBC for their appalling biased coverage of the election campaign - appeasing the Tories and acting as their cheerleaders especially on the economy has led to a Culture Secretary to deal with the new charter who considers the licence fee to be as bad as the poll tax .

[french frank]

Well that will teach the BBC for their appalling biased coverage of the election campaign - appeasing the Tories and acting as their cheerleaders especially on the economy has led to a Culture Secretary to deal with the new charter who considers the licence fee to be as bad as the poll tax .

Yes, that makes sense: so the Tories will clobber them?

[subcontrabass]

Torygraph view: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/t...h-the-BBC.html

[MrGongGong]

What i've picked up today (from people in music of all political persuasions) doesn't bode well at all for those of us keen on things like R3

[Barbirollians]

Who cares? The abridged Labour manifesto was set in exactly that and now even Harriet Harperson refuses to admit to knowledge of its current whereabouts...

I really dislike the abusive term Harriet Harperson - it is grossly sexist and seeks to abuse her for being a feminist.

[Barbirollians]

Yes, that makes sense: so the Tories will clobber them?

The Tories apparently believe they were hard done by in the election campaign by the BBC which is laughable as anyone who compares the toadying Today programme interviews with Tories by Sarah Montague with her response to Labour will know - let alone their failure to push the question on where the welfare cuts were coming from .Moreover, the last five years the BBC like most of the media have peddled the lie that austerity was necessary in 2010 when it went against all the usual economic theory for how to deal with the recession .

[teamsaint]

... well, to save further pressure on the interweb, you might like to know that wiki informs us that -

"Whittingdale voted against the legislation for same-sex marriage in 2013. In 2014 Whittingdale along with six other Conservative Party MPs voted against the Equal Pay (Transparency) Bill which would require all companies with more than 250 employees to declare the gap in pay between the average male and average female salaries"

Thanks for helping ease pressure on the WWW, Vinny.
Edit: found out what Gongers was on about. Barring by association really is a nonsense.

[jean]

I really dislike the abusive term Harriet Harperson - it is grossly sexist and seeks to abuse her for being a feminist.

Yes. Please stop it.

[french frank]

The Tories apparently believe they were hard done by in the election campaign by the BBC which is laughable as anyone who compares the toadying Today programme interviews with Tories by Sarah Montague with her response to Labour will know - let alone their failure to push the question on where the welfare cuts were coming from .Moreover, the last five years the BBC like most of the media have peddled the lie that austerity was necessary in 2010 when it went against all the usual economic theory for how to deal with the recession .

The British Tories were not alone in thinking certain economic measures had to be taken - and let's not think that the UK has suffered 'austerity' in the way it has hit Greece and Spain. Yes, it did matter who was in control of those measures but that was the whim of the collective 'will' of the electorate.

All political parties have paranoia about the 'media' being biased against them, or not being fair to them in some way. The finger doesn't always point in the same direction. It's part of political discourse in this country, built into the adversarial system whereby clever, respectable lawyers are able to argue in court, in the interests of justice and fairness, that black is white.

[MrGongGong]

All political parties have paranoia about the 'media' being biased against them, or not being fair to them in some way. .

Surely (again.... sorry) rather than the media being 'biased' (though it puzzles me how folks can go on about the 'leftie' BBC when you see all the nonsense about a rich woman having a baby?) I think it's more that they tell stories, it's all a drama.
I don't think this is a new thing, I think lots of people voted for Regan because he was a convincing actor.
Many people vote for Boris because he is entertaining (even the way that people refer to him as simply 'Boris'). The same goes for Farage, many people vote for him because he makes good telly.
We can learn much from those folks who DO understand the semiotics of theatre and television.

Maybe the trick the Labour party missed (apart from the dodgy wars !) was not getting Glenda Jackson to be leader (I like her, she went to school with my mum.......:joke: but that is one of the ways people make decisions and always has been)

[Bryn]

Surely (again.... sorry) rather than the media being 'biased' (though it puzzles me how folks can go on about the 'leftie' BBC when you see all the nonsense about a rich woman having a baby?) I think it's more that they tell stories, it's all a drama.
I don't think this is a new thing, I think lots of people voted for Regan because he was a convincing actor.
Many people vote for Boris because he is entertaining (even the way that people refer to him as simply 'Boris'). The same goes for Farage, many people vote for him because he makes good telly.
We can learn much from those folks who DO understand the semiotics of theatre and television.

Maybe the trick the Labour party missed (apart from the dodgy wars !) was not getting Glenda Jackson to be leader (I like her, she went to school with my mum.......:joke: but that is one of the ways people make decisions and always has been)

If I may put forward a counter-argument, Vanessa Redgrave - superb actress, but her public speeches on behalf of the WRP were generally dreadful in their delivery (never mind the content).