Co-conspirators watching Argentina crash and burn in the World Cup final last night will have been treated to a new halftime advert from the BBC, in which various highly-paid B-listers plead viewers to keep paying the £180 licence fee. Comedian Romesh Ranganathan dutifully reads his script, which claims the BBC “creates six and a half billion pounds for the economy”.
The figure traces to the BBC’s Annual Report, published this month, which put the corporation’s ‘contribution’ to the UK economy at £6.7 billion for 2025 to 2026. That is a Gross Value Added estimate, measuring money flowing through the BBC and its suppliers. It does not measure new wealth conjured from nothing.
The licence fee raised roughly £3.9 billion in the year to March, and every pound of it is taken by law from households who would otherwise have spent it elsewhere. Rather than spending it on Scott Mills’ £750,000 salary, they might have spent it on other broadcasters, other services, and other businesses. It is ridiculous to pretend the licence fee is some great boon for the British economy. But when 500,000 people stop paying in a single year, is it any surprise to see them wheel out the celebrities to beg for mercy…
Tom Baldwin, author of Starmer’s hagiography, spoke to Times Radio:
Tom Baldwin: “I think he’d like to do something. He’s very dutiful and driven by service. That’s why he came into politics. I think that’s characterised his time as prime minister. He hasn’t always sought popularity or been good at being popular. But I think he has some of the necessary qualities that we actually do want in a prime minister. That resilience, that relentlessness, that ability to carry the weight and the job really does weigh very heavily on people and he carries that weight very, very well.”
Jo Coburn: “NATO Secretary-General?”
Tom Baldwin: “I think that’s something that he would be interested in. I think it probably requires Andy Burnham’s government to support him in that and these are some of the questions which Andy Burnham has to resolve quite quickly.”