And plans to charge for lateral flow tests, and relaxing rules for foreign travel are further concerns. On a positive note cases in North Somerset and Sandford/Winscombe seem to be falling. Numbers are below 300/100000 in both area and the same goes for Lostwithiel and Bedminster although Bodmin is still high.
The new cabinet includes Nadine Dorries whose role seems to be to lead the right wing against the BBC and any other left or liberal media outlets. Could be interesting as I suspect most people under 40 are not bothered about the BBC – they chose their own news sources in the net – but core troy voters tend to be older and perhaps more reliant on the BBC. They also often like the general reliability of the BBC News, which is generally reasonably unbiased? Both left and right complain about it – so it must be doing something right!
Whilst adverts are annoying on both radio and tv I do wonder why the BBC competes with various stations on the radio – Radio 1 and 2 have many competitors, Classic fm or Radio 3? I would argue for Radio 6 as encouraging the innovative, Radio 4 has a generally unique provision. Radio 5 Live is great for sport where there is room for 2 national channels, but their phone programs are a bit tedious allowing people to rant without expert analysis is just dumbed down radio more suited to commercial channels. In the regions local stations provide a useful counterbalance to commercial radio, and provide instant local feeds for breaking news. World Service is vital on all sorts of levels – cultural, social, environmental, scientific – keep sharing the knowledge.
The most important need is for there to be a Public Service channel which has a degree of independence to provide news, debate and analysis. Channel 5 has been doing this well – so the government hates it and will privatise it out of spite.
It would be detrimental to the democracy of this country to see polarised news channels (that are trying to get established in this country). I am not sure why they are allowed to broadcast – maybe we need a more impartial regulator?
The tories need to be careful with their culture wars – Bristol seems happy with the present situation of Colston’s statue in a museum with information about his career and deeds. Rees-Mogg and the toffs will chomp at the bit about slave owners statues being removed – but again I think the vast majority of young people are more savvy than their elders as to the significance of these statues.
Governments need to look to the future, not the past.