It seems unfair to single out the BBC for being bloated, biased drivel when Sky News and Channel 4 exist, save for the fact that to consume BBC output you have to pony up considerable dough or face imprisonment. Nobody can dispute the BBC’s cultural contribution in the past where once it was part of the national fabric, but that hasn’t been true for more than a decade now. All the arguments against fundamental reform are completely obsolete.

It is also instructive in who has joined in the #SaveTheBBC mewling. It’s all the wearisome celebs, blue-tick europhile luvvies and third rate wokey comedians who would struggle to make the same scratch were it that the BBC had to compete for its audience share.

But there’s another reason the left are worried. The BBC is part of the establishment machinery through which they advance their agendas. BBC reform threatens their stranglehold on the narrative. The soft left bias of the BBC is well documented and obvious to the objective observer.

What makes the BBC all but unwatchable in recent years is the dogmatic adherence to the mantras of diversity and inclusion, where skin colour and gender balance matters more than producing informative or entertaining content. It is further marred by its flatfooted attempt to balance every issue by splitting nuanced issues into opposing camps, choosing the very worst of both to represent issues. This arguably damaged public debate more than outwardly and unashamedly biased content.

There is then the question of what we get from the BBC that we wouldn’t get otherwise. Would we really miss the excitable gossip merchants they call political journalists? They’re every bit as out of touch as the politicians to an extent that they’re part of the problem. This was was especially evident over the course of Brexit when its leading polticos couldn’t even tell the basic difference between the single market and the customs union. If its political hacks can’t even master the basic terminology of an issue, when should we trust its analysis?

Over the years we have seen a marked decline in its political coverage. This is especially true of BBC Radio 4. It was always been gratingly sanctimonious and smug, but in recent years has assumed its audience is in need of political re-education and takes every opportunity to preach the gospel of Saint Greta. As to BBC comedy, its best years are long behind it. Again it is hamstrung by the diversity agenda and seeks not to offend. That risk averse corporate mentality can never produce daring, spontaneous comedy.

Perhaps worst of all is the absolute abuse of power, and breach of trust, in the way children’s television is used as a platform for middle class left wing indoctrination and BLM wokery. This exemplifies the supreme arrogance of the BBC. Then as Donald Trump put it, “everything woke turns to shit”. Nothing demonstrates this better than the way in which the BBC managed to wreck its flagship franchise, Dr Who, alienating its core audience for the sake of diversity.

The endemic disease at the BBC is most obvious when you look at its management. As recently as July 2020, the broadcaster encouraged all staff to start including their gender pronouns in their email signatures. It can be argued that the BBC has been captured by the woke Gestapo like many other of our key public institutions.

UKIP has long had a beef with the BBC. Until UKIP made its first breakthrough into the European Parliament, you would seldom hear a eurosceptic viewpoint ventured on the BBC, and Radio 4 comedy casted eurosceptics as “gammon” long before the term was even invented. Only when UKIP swept the boards in euro-elections was euroscepticism given an airing, but the BBC sought to “balance” the equation by giving endless airtime to Caroline Lucas and Plaid Cymru cranks despite having no meaningful national foothold.

When it came to the referendum, its bias was barely disguised. It even sent Jonty Bloom out to Norway to do a hit piece on the EEA option and sent Carolyn Quinn out on a jolly to Greenland to talk about its departure from the EEC – as though that had any bearing on a modern complex economy leaving the EU (an entirely different animal). Its coverage was biased, but also among the lowest quality. As to its malicious and condescending framing of the immigration debate, it will never be forgiven by leave voters.

We doubt the BBC is capable of reform, particularly as it gears up for the big Net Zero debate (assuming it allows one), where again it will abandon any pretence of impartiality. It may be able to restore some balance but is unlikely to regain the trust it has burned so many times.

Since the explosion of online streaming, the media landscape has transformed and media consumption habits are evolving, yet the BBC wishes to remain the same monolithic bloated corporation it has always been, where competition is stifled rather than encouraged. It has the audacity to then say funding cuts harm British creative industries. The internet has provided writers and comedians with opportunities to speak directly to audiences. The BBC is no longer a kingmaker. The market decides, and that’s what they resent.

Perhaps the lamest, self-serving argument of all is that the BBC is an arm of our “global soft power apparatus”. This allows our elites to push their agendas and narratives beyond our shores in much the same way as foreign aid. It provides a propaganda outlet for BBC favoured think tanks and NGOs, who all essentially subscribe to the same set of beliefs on climate, Brexit and immigration. They represent nobody and service only the interests of those who loathe the British people.

Though we welcome this latest cut to funding, we see no reason to prolong the BBC’s lingering death. It should be put out of its misery as an act of compassion before it tarnishes its cherished legacy any further. There’s no reason to wait until 2027. The BBC is not owed a living, nor are its has-been football pundits and grossly overpaid “personalities”. It was good while it lasted, but it’s time for Britain to shake off this 20th century hangover. The world has moved on.