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Tories plan to 'rip up' the BBC
The Conservatives said today they would look at "ripping up" the BBC's royal charter as part of reform plans for the corporation if elected.
Two of the main proposals in the Government's Digital Britain Bill concerning broadband rollout and sharing the BBC licence fee with other broadcasters would also be reversed, shadow culture secretary Jeremy Hunt said.
In an interview with the Financial Times, he signalled major change for the BBC, accusing bosses of being out of touch with the "hard times" by allowing high management salaries.
Mr Hunt said in particular he would change the way the BBC was governed, replacing the current BBC Trust which he said acted as both cheerleader and regulator.
"We haven't made a decision on the timing of (changes in the governance structure), but we do think the structure...has failed," he told the FT.
"We are looking into whether it would be appropriate to rip up the charter in the middle of it, or whether one should wait."
The current royal charter allowing the BBC to charge a licence fee expires in 2015.
Mr Hunt said the Tories would scrap proposals to add a 50p-a-month tax on all telephone lines to help pay for superfast broadband access across the country.
Also for the chop would be plans forcing the BBC to share around 130 million of the licence fee with other broadcasters.
He said he wants to improve the conditions for commercial TV in the UK by deregulation, rather than spending taxpayer funds.
"(We will have) a very fundamental root-and-branch discussion with the BBC about all its activities," Mr Hunt said.
Mr Hunt cited last year's incident in which DJs Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross left obscene messages on the voicemail of actor Andrew Sachs and high salaries as evidence of the corporation being "out of touch".
"That is clearly out of touch with the hard times the rest of the electorate is going through," he said.
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Wednesday 30 May 2012
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