The licence fee-funded BBC may feel ‘obliged’ to broadcast royal events but we all know left-wing Auntie’s ideologically opposed to our monarchy – now they have finally proved it. And the momentous side-step I’m referring to is mission creep where their phrase “funding challenges” will be increasingly used to hide their roll-back on covering key royal events.
It is just the latest example of metropolitan elitism that cannot embrace any national pride unless it involves the Olympics, the World Cup or Eurovision. For the first time since 1989, the Commonwealth Day Service, attended by King Charles, Queen Camilla, and other senior Royals on Monday, March 9, was not broadcast on BBC One.
The Commonwealth Day Service celebrates the unity and diversity of its 56 member countries comprising 2.7 billion people to promote peace, democracy, and equality.
“Nah,” thought the keffiyeh-wearing BBC execs sipping their oat milk, caffeine-free, caramel lattes: “Sod that!”
It’s bizarre as you would assume – with newsworthy high-profile Epstein scandals around Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Sarah Ferguson – every royal event offers fascinating insights into the world’s biggest family drama.
Apparently not.
Instead the BBC opted to air an episode of Escape to the Country. Clearly this property show must be of superior UK cultural significance.
Let’s look at that Escape to the Country episode, to see instead how the BBC feel our £174.50-a-year licence fee is better spent.
In it, excellent presenter Sonali Shah (it’s not her fault when they broadcast the show) helped middle-aged Canadian couple Stewart and Derek snap up a Scottish mansion and checked back in on a family from California who bought a dream country cottage.
No wonder we have a desperate UK housing crisis.
When asked why there was no Commonwealth Day Service on the BBC, it said: “Our decision not to broadcast in the same way we’ve done in previous years reflects the difficult choices we have to make in light of our funding challenges.”
Funding challenges? Last year the BBC made a staggering £6 billion in revenue, with £3.8 billion coming from the TV licence fee and £2.2 billion from commercial activities.
To put the BBC’s financial clout in context, that’s more than the combined annual GDP of these five countries: Tonga, St Kitts and Nevis, Grenada, San Marino and Greenland.
Let’s not kid ourselves.
The BBC didn’t show it because, while the majority of Brits in an increasingly unsettling world see our monarchy as a lynchpin of UK society and community, they view it as a baffling anachronism.
Who can forget the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee in 2012 when during the carriage procession, they cut to presenter Fearne Cotton joking with singer Paloma Faith about a Diamond Jubilee sick bag featuring Her Majesty’s face.
At the time BBC obituaries editor Nick Serpell tweeted of the crass cutaway: “The bizarre sight of Fearne Cotton examining Jubilee sick bags had me reaching for one of my own.”
Thousands complained about the day’s ‘inane’ coverage and endless chats with celebs, while Sir Stephen Fry slammed it as “mind-numbingly tedious,” adding he “expected better of the Beeb”.
Now the BBC has set its new precedent and excuse – expect to see less royal pageantry on the Beeb and more bemoaning their “funding challenges”.