Steven Barnett cited in the Lords debate on the BBC

During the Lords debate on the BBC held on the 5th March, Lord Foster of Bath drew upon the writing of Prof. Steven Barnett. Drawing from Barnett’s forthcoming publication on the BBC Lord Foster quoted; “not since the election of Margret Thatcher in May 1979 has the future of the BBC been seriously threatened by a powerful and deeply hostile government with a massive majority and an intent on doing it series damage”. Lord Foster continued to cite Barnett’s work to explain how the present hostilities towards the BBC are situated in historical events and score settling. Lord Foster provided the example of the 2004 documents of New Frontier Foundation, then headed by Dominic Cummings which called for the end of the BBC. Closing his speech Lord Foster again drew from the work of Barnett to support his view that the challenge to the licence fee was the first in a coming salvo of attacks against the BBC.

Lord Foster’s full speech can be viewed on Parliment TV (from 14.44). Or in the clip below;