Much has been made of the threat the Tories pose to the BBC after they said the corporation must take on the £750m cost of free TV licences for the elderly, which the government previously covered. As the BBC plan cost-cutting measures, including redundancies, in order to carry the financial burden, could the answer lie in the over-75s themselves?
Joan Bakewell has written a lively editorial in the Radio Times criticising the ‘sneaky’ Conservative government for rolling out ‘social policy disguised as a BBC contribution to austerity’. Her solution? That the over-75s dig deep:
‘Plenty of people over 75 could afford to pay the licence fee and would be pleased to do so to save the BBC they love.’
The 82-year-old Labour peer has urged everyone who can afford the fee, to get in touch with TV licensing and start paying for it:
‘So what can we over-75s do? The BBC says it will introduce a scheme for those who want to opt back in to paying the licence fee.
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