Licence Fee Payers should be able to vote for the new Director General

As regular readers will know, I have long been campaigning to democratise the BBC Licence Fee.  Last year, I introduced a Bill to Parliament, that would have given licence fee payers, the chance to elect the Board and structure of the BBC, including having a say over programming.

For this reason, I tabled a Commons Motion last week, urging that licence fee payers be given the choice to vote for the new Director General of the BBC, which is currently up for grabs.

We are always told that the BBC is owned by the British people. Well, let's prove it. We should have a choice over who runs our most important broadcasting institution - especially if we are compelled to pay for it.

My Commons Motion is below:

That this House notes that a new Director-General is being recruited by the BBC; believes that this is a perfect opportunity to bring real democratic accountability and give licence fee payers the chance to elect the new head of the BBC; considers that the BBC cannot continue in the way of a 1970s kleptocracy, and that the undemocratic licence fee has become an anachronism in the days of multi-channel satellite television, as the BBC Licence Fee Payers (Voting Rights) Bill points out; and calls on the Government and the BBC Trust to give licence fee payers a genuine say on who will run the BBC in the future

The Daily Mail and Sunday People have written more about this here and here (you will need to scroll down a little).

P.S. My previous blogs on this are HERE.

P.P.S.  You can read the proposed Democratisation of the BBC Bill, here.

by Robert Halfon - Working Hard for Harlow.