Miscalculation

The BBC is now on the back foot, having badly misjudged the mood of the long-suffering licence payers, and is now faced with a deluge of letters castigating them for their actions over ‘Gollygate’, as against a tiny trickle of support from the perpetually-aggrieved.

A glimpse into the world of the highly-paid BBC executive provides an explanation as to why they are so terribly out of touch with their audience:

In the world according to BBC1 controller Jay Hunt, the debate about Carol Thatcher’s use of the word ‘golliwog’ is clear cut.

The glamorous Cambridge-educated television executive popped up on the BBC’s news outlets yesterday to tell millions of viewers and listeners that the comment was ‘completely inappropriate’ and ‘racist’ and Miss Thatcher had to go.

In other words, to tell us all what to think, and how to behave, according to received wisdom at the BBC.

Sadly for her, the viewers weren’t prepared to tolerate this, particularly in the wake of the Jonathan Ross affair:

But while the 41-year-old was giving a stern and at times shrill defence of her actions, the BBC was busy counting up the complaints from viewers angry at the decision.

The viewers have tasted blood, Jay. They want more.

Others asked how she could be so sincerely incensed about Miss Thatcher’s remarks, yet previously have so wholeheartedly defended Jonathan Ross.

In an interview late last year she called Ross a ‘responsible broadcaster’ whose £6million-a-year salary was ‘academic’.

In other words ‘one of us’. The viewers disagreed, and forced your employers into an apology more grudging than the one Carol Thatcher reportedly gave.

This little debacle is swelling the ranks of the tv licence rebels and earning the BBC unfavourable press from all corners. Perhaps employing fewer people who regard those that pay their vastly-inflated wages as dim, lowest-common-denominator walking cashpoints would help?

The Australian-born BBC boss ‘stress bakes’ cakes to relive her tension – and yesterday she sounded like she needed to knock up a quick Victoria sponge.

She appeared tetchy at the backlash over her decision as she was asked whether a private conversation should have led to the sacking of a presenter.

‘How very dare they! Don’t they know who I am?’

They do now. They don’t like it, and more and more, they are beginning to resent paying for it.