This week's MP's column comes from Philip Davies, Conservative MP for Shipley

The BBC has been in the news a lot recently – mainly for all the wrong reasons! 

My constituents have been raising BBC funding with me and it has been reported that recent polling suggests as many as two-thirds of people would like to see an end to the mandatory licence fee.

The BBC’s latest tranche of out of touch and politically correct decisions has even led to some of their most vocal previous supporters starting to come around to realising that the current situation is untenable.

On the one hand, the BBC agreed to accept responsibility for covering the cost of free TV licences for all over 75s - which includes around 8,000 people in Shipley – and have now abandoned that. Then, on the other hand, they have annoyed a great many people by trying to mess with the much-loved Last Night Of The Proms whilst at the same time committing to spending £100 million on “increasing diversity”over the next three years.

The BBC needs to be reminded that, in return for being able to charge an increased licence fee amongst other things it readily agreed at the time to cover the licence fees of our most elderly citizens. It should not be allowed to get away with going back on that past deal now.

When I pressed the BBC’s executives, who attended a Select Committee hearing, on the cost of these free TV licences, they could not deny that the BBC had paid £453 million towards free TV licences for over 75s in the previous year and, under its new plans, would pay just £250 million.  

This is a point that does not get made often enough. 

Instead of the position being that they don’t have the money to pay for the free licences, they actually do have the money but are going to cream it off for their pet projects – to the tune of around £200 million a year.

That’s £200 million they seem very keen to spend on what many people would consider to be waste of money initiatives - like the one to increase so-called diversity which they have boasted is “the biggest financial investment to on-air inclusion in the industry”. 

If only they were so keen to have diversity of opinion at the BBC instead of an over-representation of people with left-leaning, woke, politically correct beliefs that in no way reflect the views of the majority of the British people.

The BBC could also focus on the wages of BBC presenters who get rich or richer on the back of the licence payer.  Like the politically opinionated football presenter and pundit Gary Lineker – with his eye-watering earnings – the equivalent of thousands of free TV licences.  

This is as astonishing as it is outrageous.  

If Gary Lineker alone had his earnings slashed to what would still be considered a huge salary by anyone’s standards, then most – if not everyone – over the age of 75 in Shipley would be guaranteed their free TV licence.

I have argued for a long time that the BBC licence fee should be scrapped.  
The BBC always seems very confident (some might say self-satisfied) about the quality of their programmes. 

So why not - in the 21st Century - allow people to choose which programmes or which channels or radio stations they want to pay for? 

It would probably even be advantageous for the BBC itself as it could try to raise more money if it so wished.

When I was growing up, if you wanted to watch the best sport, the best comedy and the best drama, you watched the BBC. Now, if you want to watch the best sport you watch Sky, if you want to watch the best drama you watch the likes of Netflix or Amazon, and if you want to watch the best comedy you try and find some channel showing comedy shows from about 30 years ago.  

It’s pretty clear that the BBC itself and the licence fee have lost the confidence of the British people and yet individuals still risk ultimately being sent to prison after ending up in court for not paying the licence fee each year.

If people did have a choice over paying the licence fee then, when they found themselves fed up to the back teeth of the BBC’s perpetual obsession with political correctness, diversity and all of the so-called equality agenda - not to mention the very real concerns over bias, they could take direct action and decide not to watch the BBC. In this supposedly free country, people should not be forced by law to pay for something they do not want or do not agree with.

It should be a free choice and, as far as I and many of my constituents are concerned, the sooner we scrap the mandatory BBC licence fee the better.