Forum for former BBC staff

Forum for former BBC staff
http://www.ex-bbc.net/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl >> News and Comment >> Why keep the Licence Fee? http://www.ex-bbc.net/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?num=1416391696 Message started by Administrator on Nov 19^th, 2014, 10:09am

Title: Why keep the Licence Fee?
Post by Administrator on Nov 19^th, 2014, 10:09am

Neil Midgley (a self-confessed Right-winger- "very much a small-government, free-markets, cut-welfare, civil-liberties kind of chap") has written this article for the American Business Magazine "Forbes" defending the Licence fee.

It may be found here.

"I want to mount a staunch defence of the BBC licence fee, and of that monolithic state intervention."

The article ends with a reference to the BBC Pension Fund.....

Title: Re: Why keep the Licence Fee?
Post by ianpollock on Nov 19^th, 2014, 8:11pm

Mr Midgley would be well advised to learn more about his subject. The BBC agreed to pay more into the pension scheme because the law says that solvent employers must make good any deficits. Surely as a right-thinking person, he is not suggesting that the BBC should have, in some way, reneged on its legal obligations? How shocking that would be. He might also like to ponder the fact that the nearly two-decades long partial pension contribution holiday that started in 1988 and ended in 2007 saved the BBC, in current cash terms, about £2.5bn. Paying off a deficit now is straight forward payback.