Is this the BBC’s best defence?

Proposals by Nadine Dorries to scrap the BBC licence fee have produced something of a meltdown over at Broadcasting House. The Culture Secretary wants to keep the licence fee flat at £159 a year until April 2024, after which it will rise in line with inflation until 2028 when it will be replaced by an as-yet-unknown funding model. The news has induced dozens of the Beeb’s highly-paid stars into paroxysms of rage, not seen since the days of Brexit, as the Corporation’s biggest names rush to defend their employer on Twitter.

Mr S has a soft spot for Auntie but some of the arguments being mounted in its defence are simply laughable. First up, was £295,000-a-year BBC Breakfast frontman Dan Walker, who tweeted a graphic of the Corporation’s services captioned ’43p a day’. This, of course, ignores the fact that the licence fee is mandatory and effectively paid at the barrel of a gun, regardless or not of whether one uses the Beeb’s services.