Sacred cow

"The world's most famous football show. Gary Lineker with the big names
 and the big games from the Premier League." Source: BBC One

The government has announced that the current TV licence fee of £159 will increase by £10.50 to £169.50 from next April, a rise of 6.6% - but less than the BBC had anticipated.

The BBC must find £400m in annual savings by 2027/28. In 2023 as part of a drive to save money 1,000 fewer hours of new TV programmes. 

Hit in the cuts is a trimmed down Newsnight, one of the more serious programmes among the BBC's deteriorating standards as it seeks to appeal to the lowest common denominator rather than educate people in accordance with its mission to "act in the public interest, serving all audiences through the provision of impartial, high-quality and distinctive output and services which inform, educate and entertain”.

Soccer coverage, by contrast, goes on and on and on with Match of the Day taking centre stage. 

Earlier this year it was reported that BBC currently pay £211million to the Premier League for the rights to show the highlights programme every weekend on Saturday night and a repeat on Sunday morning.

Last month the Mail Online reported that the BBC were preparing to open contract talks with Match of the Day presenter, Gary Lineker whose £1.35million-a-year contract expires when the BBC’s existing deal for Premier League highlights runs out at the end of next season,

Apparently the corporation are eager to secure their top-paid presenter despite reports that he has "continued to talk politics, backing pro-Palestine marches since the terrorist attacks in Israel" and "supporting protesters’ right to hold events in London on Armistice Day".

It is a travesty that those of us who have no interest in soccer, and even less in the private opinions of the BBC's overpaid presenters, are forced to pay inflated licence fees for content directed to a specific audience requiring an additional multitude of pundits, reporters and sports correspondents.

The Chief Executive of the English Basketball Association was right to question the amounts of television rights money spent on Soccer as the BBC.

They should let it go or move soccer to a separate pay channel.

Postscript [11.12.2023]

Gary Lineker criticised over Rwanda comments in impartiality row

Overpaid, over indulged and licence payers are funding it. 

Some Comparisons

Benito Mussolini and Gary Lineker striking poses

Soccer pundit Gary Lineker dropped himself right in it when he compared the language used to launch the government's new asylum policy with that used in 1930s Germany.

In the same spirit, his balcony pose in a BBC News bulletin reminded me of more graphic analogy from that era.

The BBC said that the sports presenter was taken off their Match of the Day show after a row about the impartiality of Lineker's tweets claiming that he had breached its social media guidelines for tweeting about the government's new migration law.

Not wanting to be left behind, an increasing number of pundits are withdrawing their services in a show of solidarity for Lineker.

I see from his Twitter account that Lineker has 8.8M followers which may account for the outpouring of sympathy for the BBC’s top earner of over £1 million annually. 

By contrast Home Secretary Suella Braverman has a mere 120.9K Twitter followers.

From a Church Times tweet about another BBC casualty: "The BBC Singers is one of the leading advocates of choral music in the world, and their budget probably equals one sport presenter’s salary. The BBC corporate spin on it is beyond belief."

Sympathisers can sign a petition to stop the planned closure of the BBC Singers here.

The BBC previously announced that some of their News channel’s most famous faces, including Jane Hill, Ben Brown and Martine Croxall, were to be axed before the launch of a channel that combines international and domestic news.

For those of us who find the BBC's obsession with soccer completely disproportionate, some trimming of the seemingly endless number or presenters, commentators and reporters is long overdue.

The commentator John Motson  unwittingly summed up the problem in a quote from a tribute following his death. When the BBC apologised for a delay in presenting the News because coverage of a soccer game had overrun, Motson retorted, soccer is the news!

For too many he was right.

Time for the Beeb to red card Lineker?

Lineker has been the main presenter of Match of the Day for more than 20 years          Source: BBC

Following news that the TV licence fee is to be increased from £157.50 to £159 Mail Online reported this reaction from a community nurse after Gary Lineker tweeted his 'heartless' reaction to the increase.

The mother-of-two who specialises in dementia and palliative care said she is facing being kicked out of her home for missing a TV licence direct debit.

"She fumed: 'I'm an NHS nurse, worked all through the pandemic. Me and my two children are facing homelessness and TV licensing are taking me to court for a missed direct debit. She said she questioned if she could be taken to court and added: 'Explained it to the inspector that came to the house. 'But as I had a BBC channel on it was deemed a breach as the licence was not renewed due to the failed direct debit. 'Paid it on the spot. Got told to change my plea to guilty to avoid more fees. 'It's been a long nightmare'." 

Mail Online reported that BBC star Gary Lineker was accused of 'mocking the poor' after joking about his £1.3million salary in response to the corporation ramping up the cost of the licence fee. The 60 years old former England soccer player responded to news of the hike from £157.50 to £159 on Twitter with 'But, but I've just taken a pay cut', followed with a zany face emoticon.

Lineker's attempt at a joke misfired badly and saw him described as 'heartless' and 'missing the mood of the public'. The community nurse responded with "I hope you manage to survive with your pay cut."

Lineker may have taken a pay cut from around £1.7 million but he is still paid £1.3 million, the cost of over 8,000 TV licenses when many pensioners over 75 and over-stretched workers cannot afford one.

I know soccer is a kin to religion for many but the cost of retaining this over-paid 'high priest' and other similarly over-paid 'stars' is depriving some of the most vulnerable in society of a link with the outside world, particularly when they are essentially under house arrest during lock-down.

Own goal

Post-goal celebrations are coming under scrutiny by English medical officials, with some calling for yellow cards to be shown to players who violate Premier
 League protocols. | POOL / VIA REUTERS  (Source: The Japan Times)

Back in the Summer the Premier League issued official guidelines on how soccer games should be staged, played and broadcast amid the Covid-19 pandemic. Players were told not to spit, clear their nose or surround match officials when the season restarted.

Some sports, such as basketball and tennis, penalise players for spitting, but football and rugby do not, so the players are free to expectorate.

Also, from the Japan Times on hugging:

"Chelsea manager Frank Lampard defended his players on Thursday amid a growing debate about teams celebrating goals with hugs and high-fives while the country is battling the COVID-19 pandemic.  

"The Premier League was holding virtual meetings to reinforce the message that protocols must be respected, but Lampard echoed other top-flight managers in suggesting that was easier said than done. 

"'Football has and always will be a game of instinct. If we want to take the instinct out of the game then it is not that simple'."

It is simple. 

The NHS is being overwhelmed because some people will not change their habits. 

People are dying, jobs are being lost, businesses are closing. Families are having to survive on food parcels while the next generation misses out on their education.

The average salary for a Premier League footballer exceeds £3m a year. Instead of being a law unto themselves some sense of responsibility would be welcome .

Yellow cards needed?                            Source: The Indian Express (Photo AP)

BBC Gravy Train

The BBC has come under fire after it published accounts showing that staff pay had soared 3.5 per cent to £1.5billion this year - while the Corporation pushes ahead with its plans to strip a million over-75s of their free TV licences. (Mail Online)

The BBC's highest paid 'stars'.  Source: Mail Online

plus executive pay:

There are 91 BBC executives who are paid MORE than the Prime Minister and 11 bosses get more
than DOUBLE his salary.  Source: Mail online

The BBC's mission is "to act in the public interest, serving all audiences through the provision of impartial, high-quality and distinctive output and services which inform, educate and entertain".

It is a job they do well at their best but 'Auntie' is not what she used to be. Pay and 'bias' have again been dominating the headlines. 

Their salary bill is similar to the cost of running their main TV channels: BBC One- £1.2bn, BBC Two- £481.2 million and BBC Four- £52.3 million according to the BBC's Annual Report and Accounts for 2017/18.

In 2015, the government announced that the BBC would take over the cost of providing free licences for over-75s by 2020 as part of the BBC fee settlement. 

In a staggering breach of faith the BBC later claimed that "BBC Two, BBC Four, the BBC News Channel, the BBC Scotland channel, Radio 5live, and a number of local radio stations would all have been at risk" if they honoured the commitment that guaranteed their fee settlement.

Delayed as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, demands for licence fees are being received by pensioners over 75 year old at the same time as the BBC published accounts showing that staff pay had "soared 3.5 per cent to £1.5billion this year".

There is no recognition in the BBC that part of the problem in honouring their obligation to elderly pensioners is the unjustifiable amount of money paid out in salaries when they cannot afford to do so.

I suspect that I am not alone looking at the photographs of the highest paid 'stars' only to find that just two of the ten have any impact on my life and then only because they are BBC newsreaders.

Personally I prefer Reeta Chakrabarti and Ben Brown at less than half the cost.

Programme content has become dire with endless repeats. New series are built around murder and violence while frequent soccer programmes pervade the airwaves, something that could well be left to other providers given the cost to the licence payer.

New content is bogged down in the BBC's 'diversity' drive. Knee deep in political correctness and wokism BBC's mission is increasingly questionable. Not all change is for the better as the BBC should learn from their mishandling of their previously successful Strictly Come Dancing.

In the 2011 census over 86% of the population were white with 13% identifying as  BAME but often the BBC's news coverage conveys the impression that white people are the minority in the UK. 

The BBC's Breakfast time programme constantly undermines the Government's strategy to defeat Covid-19 while some of the presenters adopt the role of official opposition to the Government.

One ought to expect the highest standards from a public service broadcaster but some of the trailers are jaw dropping. 

Following on from their promotion of BBC 3's Drag Race, the BBC are currently promoting Little Mix in a series that encourages grotesquely made-up youngsters to mimic their hosts by cavorting around in clothing that could easily be mistaken for underwear.

I do not watch EastEnders but the trailers illustrate life in the East End as constant misery and angst. No wonder the programmes are accompanied by health warnings.

As a public service institution the BBC should be readily available to all, informing and educating. 

Instead we have an over-paid politically correct woke elite constantly lowering standards by foisting their own liberal views on audiences thus 'normalising' abnormal behaviour.

The announcement by Gary Lineker that Sue Barker is to be replaced on A Question Of Sport by ex-soccer player Alex Scott brought one of the best suggestions: Alex Scott should replace Lineker.

That would be diversity!

Take-a-knee tyranny

Liverpool players take a knee in memory of George Floyd.                                                                                                                                          Source: CNN

Soccer players are doing it. Bishops are doing it. Senior police officers are doing it. All following the latest import from the US, taking a knee.

Even the Holy See has endorsed it with dire consequences.

Black lives matter. White lives matter. The sanctity of life matters. The manner in which George Floyd lost his life was deplorable but he was no saint. Watch this video by US commentator Candace Owens to learn what it means to be 'going with popular opinion'. 

The BLM mission is to 'eradicate white supremacy'. 

They "affirm the lives of Black queer and trans folks, disabled folks, undocumented folks, folks with records, women, and all Black lives along the gender spectrum. Our network centers those who have been marginalized within Black liberation movements" but it is difficult to take the BLM slogan seriously when hoards of people congregate in breach of coronavirus lockdown rules designed to save lives.

With 'Black Lives Matter' on the back of their shirts, social distancing was quickly forgotten in the Brighton - Arsenal soccer game having taken a knee before kicking off.

The problem with special interest groups nowadays is that if you do not affirm them you are deemed to be against, harbouring some sort of phobia. Holding another opinion is simply not tolerated.

Full marks, then, to Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab who refused to be intimidated for holding an opinion of his own about taking a knee.

As statues are toppled and apologies for past associations with slavery increase, modern slavery continues but strangely it does not attract the same level of criticism.

Some lives do not appear to matter so long as you take a knee.

TV license: BBC and soccer 'stars'

BBC ‘stars’ pay from public funds 2017                                                                          Source: TV LICENCE RESISTANCE

I was somewhat taken aback on hearing a statement in Parliament that the BBC enjoyed revenues from the British public amounting to £3.8billion plus another £billion from sales. The BBC's total income was £5.0627 billion in 2017–2018 (Wikipedia).

It puts into perspective the BBC's bleat about the £745m cost of maintaining government policy of free TV licensing for the over 75s which was part of the fee settlement reached with the BBC.

Although funded by the tax payer through the licence system BBC 'stars' have not suffered the wage restraint demanded of public servants. In the latest BBC pay list Gary Lineker has replaced Chris evans at the top with a salary of £1,750,000-£1,759,999 for presenting Match of the Day and Sports Personality of the Year. If £1 million were knocked off that figure he would still be over paid for a task that could be easily performed by any reasonably competent sports journalist/personality.

Why are there so many sports editors, correspondents and commentators most of whom are biased beyond measure? News readers hand over to sports presenters who utter a few words before handing on to a sports correspondent, something the news reader could have done. There is layer upon layer, all adding to production costs.

While on the subject of news readers I do not see Reeta Chakrabarti on the list despite being among the best of the bunch along with Ben Brown who appears on the bottom rung. Can it be because they have not turned their presentations into personality shows when personality is all that appears to count at the BBC? 

The BBC needs to take a good, hard look at itself. Soccer has been elevated to a state of religious fanaticism with BBC soccer 'stars' being remunerated on commensurate levels with the enormous amounts paid to star players.

Auntie might have known best when she was the voice of the nation but those days are long gone.

The beautiful game

Er... not quite! More like this, this, or even this. Preferred score

Passion 1: 0 Aggro

Carry On England

In a recent blog http://letnothingyoudismay.blogspot.com/2010/06/anyone-care-to-risk-prophecy.html Fr Michael Gollop wrote “It always seems to help if you know absolutely nothing about the subject you are talking about.” To that I plead guilty. I know nothing whatsoever about the football game that uses a round ball.

Unlike rugby football where the shape of the ball ensures the bounce is unpredictable, in soccer a round ball makes for easy placement. Perhaps that is why it is called the beautiful game but not so beautiful for England in their World Cup game against Algeria who they just managed to hold to a 0 – 0 draw. One of the team members, a Mr Rooney, was heard to complain after the match, “Nice to hear your own fans booing you – that’s loyal supporters”. Could it be that his loyal supporters were disappointed that a player receiving a reported £90,000 a week (I can’t say earning), failed to justify his enormous pay packet after fans had spent thousands of pounds, probably saving for years, to watch their heroes do their bit for England, if only in the opening rounds? After all, he didn’t have to do it all himself for the money; there were ten other players to assist him.

Fanned into frenzy for weeks in the build up, England supporters expected their team to walk on water but to tread water was not what they had paid to see. Like failed bankers, these over-paid soccer players have become divorced from reality. They show their contempt for ordinary mortals by using the pitch as a spittoon, hardly the role models we might expect for the money, but carry on England, no doubt your ‘expectorant’ will continue to serve you in the manner you think you deserve.