Wind Up the BBC

Another day another blow to the Government. Hunt is accused of leaking information relating to the Murdoch bid for that part of Sky they did not already own. Hunt denies he was personally involved and we shall see what the result may be. In the meantime we have the depressing news that Miliband is more popular with the electorate than Cameron. I told you my fellow countrymen show symptoms of madness sometimes. It is though a strange old world as two Labour peers, first Lord Sugar and now Lord Winston, have come out against Livingstone as Mayor for London. Do they know something about Livingstone that is not yet in the public domain? With Hunt's relationship with the Murdochs now in the public domain it will be most interesting to read the reply from the BBC to Shapps's letter to them of today about the Newham letter on housing benefit. The BBC tried shortly before midnight to get a Minister on the Today programme this morning to refute Newham's charges but not surprisingly found everyone in bed. How arrogant of the BBC to think it is so important that it can at close to midnight expect someone to be waiting to take its request for a Minister to appear before it in the morning on what is after all hardly an urgent story. This whole episode yet again demonstrates that the BBC has ceased to be impartial, should no longer be funded by the taxpayer, should be broken up and its bits sold off or closed. Shapps himself has questioned the BBC's behaviour and asked them three highly pertinent questions. You can read his letter here. Because of the BBC's behaviour it is evident that the only way to have an impartial media is in fact to have various partial entities competing for customers as they do in the USA. Sky is hardly to the right of the BBC but no doubt if the BBC were abolished to allow space for others there would emerge a TV station that did represent the conservative element in this country.