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Following from my last post, and my previous points about the BBC failing in it's duties, Greg Dyke (former Director General of the BBC) has also today stepped forward to tell us the BBC is part of a "conspiracy" preventing the "radical changes" needed to UK democracy ... and he told a Lib Dem conference meeting he wanted a commission to look into the "whole political system".
But Greg Dyke also said 'I fear it will never happen because I fear the political class will stop it' and said 'major changes he had wanted to make to the BBC's coverage of politics had been blocked'.
He told the Liberal Vision fringe meeting about the expenses scandal and how it had changed voters' attitudes ... 'The evidence that our democracy is failing is overwhelming and yet those with the biggest interest in sustaining the current system - the Westminster village, the media and particularly the political parties - are the groups most in denial about what is really happening to our democracy ...'
Mr Dyke also said ... 'there had never been a greater separation between the 'political class' and the public. We want more influence over our lives and we are not just prepared to hand it over to this strange bunch of people who stand for Parliament ...
... I tried and failed to get the problem properly discussed when I was at the BBC and I was stopped, interestingly, by a combination of the politicos on the board of governors. Why? Because, collectively, they are all part of the problem. They are part of one Westminster conspiracy. They don't want anything to change. It's not in their interests ...'
He said ... 'the expenses scandal had been 'British democracy's Berlin Wall moment' but he feared the opportunity to change the system was fading away. He called for an end to pathetic jeering, shouting and childish behaviour and the pomp and ceremony in Parliament ...
... an independent commission should look at ideas such as moving the seat of democracy out of Westminster, a fully elected upper chamber with no whipping system, proportional representation, cutting the number of MPs by half, and reforming their pay and expenses, he added. It's time to be radical. Our current model was designed for the 18th Century. It doesn't fit 21st Century Britain' ...
And he added ... 'We want more influence over our lives and we are not just prepared to hand it over to this strange bunch of people who stand for Parliament because they have been knocking on people's doors for 10 years ..'
and went on to say ... 'A lot of the BBC governors were also what I call semi-politicians and they liked the present system and.... maybe they were right - it's not the job of the BBC to change the political system and to start questioning the political system ... I happen to not agree with that but, you know, we didn't get anywhere' ... and he added ... 'In the end political journalists live in the same narrow world as politicians do and they don't see a need to change because they think it's the world. They just don't understand that out there it's very different.'
Change - a challenge indeed ... however happen it will, and aided by the internet & 21st century technology, politics & power will eventually change forever ... and with Greg Dyke's comments today we are a little more wiser about the real BBC (and BBC journalists - particularly their 'political' journalists) and the role (or lack of a role) they are playing ... which, if nothing else, confirms what most of us in the blogosphere already know ...
Referred to on Robert Peston's 'What future for media and journalism?' blog.
