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The BBC is an imperfect but beloved institution – sadly this might not stop the Tories

Editorial: If Boris Johnson does smash it up, there will be real public grief over the emasculation of a glorious part of public life

Sunday 16 February 2020 20:02 GMT
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As with the monarchy, people just like the BBC. It’s part of the British identity
As with the monarchy, people just like the BBC. It’s part of the British identity

We are told that Boris Johnson is coming after the BBC. There will be a consultation on the licence fee and the intention, a “senior source” has told The Sunday Times, is to “whack it”.

(Even without the belligerent, juvenile language, the identity of the “senior source” would be obvious enough. Dominic Cummings has banned all government advisers from speaking to journalists. He has not yet extended the ban to himself.)

Politicians’ hostility to a potentially hostile media is nothing new. But the war on the BBC is about more than that. Brexit has purged the Conservatives of its moderate influence. David Gauke, Ken Clarke, Dominic Grieve, Amber Rudd, the list goes on. They are no longer MPs because they could not countenance inflicting no-deal Brexit, and its immense harm, on the voters who never voted for it. They since have been replaced by more pliant alternatives, with the extremists still at the controls.

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