'The BBC is itself a victim here.'
It is easy to imagine that a free TV licence for over-75s is an ancient right rooted in the era of black-and-white television, two channels and Hancock’s Half Hour. In fact, the idea is less than 20 years old, and was introduced in 1999 by Gordon Brown when he was chancellor of the exchequer. Crucially, Brown accompanied it with a government pledge to make up for the shortfall in BBC revenue from treasury coffers.
But important points of principle were at stake: not only was the 2010 cut proposed without warning – neither Parliament nor the public were consulted – but it would mean that an arm of government welfare policy was to be funded from the licence fee rather than from taxation. The effect would have been devastating for BBC and its ability to serve the public.
Negotiations took place in a single night and under enormous government pressure the BBC agreed to a licence fee freeze, to take over funding for the BBC World Service from the foreign office and other costly concessions.
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