The Stage

Equity conference - Union prepares for battle to defend BBC licence fee

Published Tuesday 18 May 2004 at 12:20 by Jeremy Austin

General secretary Ian McGarry has warned the government that the union will not stand by and watch the BBC dismantled in the forthcoming review of its charter.

Setting out the union’s position during his speech to conference, McGarry attacked any attempt to break up the Corporation into privatised constituent parts and to abolish the licence fee. It would be, he said, “an act of vandalism which would not only be catastrophic for our members, it would deny viewers any real choice or quality programming at all and will please only those who are queuing up to raid the assets of the BBC for short-term commercial gain”.

Setting the tone for the first day of conference, which concentrated on motions regarding the television and film sectors, it proved to be the first of a series of growls and hackle-raising statements from a union gearing itself up to oppose any wholesale change of the constitution of the BBC and particularly the ending of the licence fee.

McGarry went on to say that he had a “growing feeling of confidence” if not optimism “that we are going to win our argument”. He added that while the government has told him that it is unrealistic to suggest the retention of the status quo, it did recognise the groundswell of public support for the continuation of the Corporation’s funding structure.

The first two motions debated by conference called for a campaign to raise public awareness of the threat to the BBC and of its structure and also for the union to devise a campaign for all members and other allied bodies to defend the licence fee. They were both passed.