Operation Red Meat And The Gutting Of The Beeb

Just as the scandal-wracked government in Australia has punitively frozen ABC funding for years (while denying with a smirk that any cuts have been made), Boris Johnson's ultracons in the UK will now freeze BBC funding for the next 2 years, then go further and abolish the licence fee which funds the broadcaster, and use the introduction of a new funding model as a threat to hold over the organisation. Part-privatisation and subscription models are on the table. This comes after a decade of cuts (a drop of around 30%, inflation adjusted) and calculating conservative political attacks. It's a major step forward in the right-wing project to undermine trusted sources of information and public services.

The latest cuts are part of "Operation Red Meat" (no, really), Boris Johnson's plan to save his skin by appealing to "populist" MPs and voters. After repeatedly breaking his own Covid rules, the British PM is under intense pressure, including from within the conservative party. "Red Meat" will attempt to win over backbench & electorate extremists by giving them an Australian-style militarised attack on asylum-seekers, the removal of remaining Covid precautions, and the BBC cuts, while the broader public will be appealed to with a promise to catch up with the surgery backlog in public hospitals, invest in skills training, and introduce a booze-ban at Downing Street.

Cynical stuff, but it's been a desperate week - 35 of his own MPs have submitted letters of no confidence, short of the 54 needed to force a leadership vote, but not by a reassuring margin.

Behind closed doors this week, Johnson is known to have complained that all this was actually his aides fault - for failing to smooth over his scandals and protect him.

There's some big, bad changes in this self-preservation package. They give the measure of a very small man. They also point to the danger of what comes next.