BBC: good news!

We are winning. Today the government announced their plans for the future of the BBC. And they’ve been forced to scale back their attacks on our public service broadcaster. The Times is calling it a “government climbdown”.

There are still things in the government’s plan that 38 Degrees members will need to correct together. But today’s news is a moment to celebrate all that we’ve achieved in the campaign to protect the BBC.

Together we’ve made sure:

• Plans to take money away from CBeebies and CBBC, and hand it to channels with adverts, have been kicked into the long grass. The government will now run a public consultation in the autumn – and you can bet 38 Degrees members will be ready to respond in our hundreds of thousands.
• Plans to appoint a majority of government cronies to the new BBC board have been scaled back. We’ll need to keep campaigning to make sure the BBC remains independent from government interference.
• Plans to stop popular programmes like Strictly Come Dancing and the Great British Bake Off being shown in the best time slots have been scrapped completely.
• The BBC’s funding has been protected to make sure it can keep delivering world class public broadcasting. A key demand of 38 Degrees members’ 350,000 person strong petition.

From the moment the government announced their plans, 38 Degrees members were there. Here’s what we said in July 2015:

“The government thinks it can tear our BBC apart by stealth – slowly slipping in cuts and changing the rules. But if hundreds of thousands of us create a huge public outcry now, we can show David Cameron it’d be a political disaster to destroy our BBC.”

Almost a year later, 38 Degrees members were right. Because of overwhelming public pressure, David Cameron stepped in and over-ruled his own Culture Minister who was hell bent on destroying our BBC. It’s moments like these that we can be proud of what people power can do.

The successful strategy relied on thousands of 38 Degrees members’ time, energy and money. 38 Degrees members gave a lot to winning this campaign. Thousands of 38 Degrees members donated so we could protect our BBC. Chip in here to help up take on the fights that matter!