The Government really needs a good firing.

That's a bit of a contentious title.

I mean the Government of the UK, or at least the bits of it that won't listen to the board of advisors that they appointed to reel the BBC in and make them behave.

HMG planned to "top slice" (whatever that means) 130 million off the license fee in 2010 and give it to ITV and Channel 4 (or just C4) on the basis that they too perform elements of public service broadcasting.

The BBC Trust have been doing some research and have discovered that the recent 5.50 rise in the fee, levied to pay for the switch to digital, needs to go away next year - after the switch is completed. I'd rather it was kept on and the extra fiver went to making a new series of Torchwood, or perhaps was used to commission some new programming in from some new writers. Maybe we could have another poetry season. However, the general public thinks it should go and the license fee should come down.

OK.

They also said that the general public does NOT want C4 or ITV getting hold of the license fee, or any part of it.

Here's the whole story including the whys and wherefores of the survey.

The Daily Mail puts it like this.

The Daily Mail is owned by The Daily Mail and General Trust, who have a subsidiary called DMG, who own a 20% interest in ITN...well, Wiki has a general list here, with appropriate caveats about trusting Wiki entirely.

Essentially, the Daily Mail's parent company is in direct competition with the BBC, both for local and national news, and has a significant internet presence to defend - a presence which is going to either have to change business models or disappear behind a paywall while the BBC continues to be "free".

The Government's response to the license fee issue was "well, we might anyway" - which is why it needs firing. The people have spoken, at least in a poll, and this should indicate that they've got to rethink.