MORE than a quarter of a million over-75s are said to have refused to pay for their TV licences and this could be the catalyst that forces a major overhaul of the BBC. Many will say – “Not before time!”

I have been a broadcaster and producer with the BBC but, like many others, walked away because of the back-stabbing way of life. A well-known weather presenter once explained that the famous BBC centre at Wood Lane was circular so that the rumours went round more easily.

I am still broadcasting but only with independent radio stations which stand or fall by their own performance not by holding out their hands for public funding.

What is wrong at the BBC? It is difficult to know where to start, not least that it has become a smug, self-serving organisation with many overpaid, over-rated people whose prime consideration is no longer providing a service that puts viewers and listeners first.

In fairness, the Beeb reflects much of society. We live in a ‘me first’, money-mad world of diseased morality which celebrates mediocrity and sweeps standards of decency and goodwill aside to bask in the effluence of ignorance.

READ MORE: Euro 2020: BBC reject claims of pro-English bias during tournament coverage

Let us look then at the quality of news presentation. While another, foreign channel presents really international news and probes under the skin of the problem, the BBC consistently picks just one or two prime subjects and then tells us what to think. News presentation has been shoved aside in favour of opinion-inflicting.

Reporters have become ‘editors’ and there are several for every possible facet of the topic. If there was a news item on boil-lancing, the BBC would have an editor for it. Even better, they would stand outside the offices of the Health Minister in the dark when everyone else has gone home to deliver their ‘report’.

Why? It is the same if someone reports that the Queen has a chill. They will stand outside the gates of Buckingham Palace to tell us. If they have to remind us where the Queen lives, why not have a backdrop in the studio? Why? To justify their expenses.

Talking of expenses, Laura Kuenssberg is said to have bodyguards because she is so disliked. Perpetually snarling at the camera is perhaps the image she likes but to the rest of us it is obnoxious, especially since we are paying for it.

For some time, the BBC has had a weekly laugh up its sleeve in that viewers are invited to air their views. Once a few have done that, someone from the news department is given the right to reply, says very little but always has the last word. The viewers are never right and the BBC are are never wrong.

READ MORE: Who are the BBC's top 10 earners?

The BBC has become obsessed with Covid, black, gay and left-wing viewpoints. A combination of all four has driven them into ecstasy and we have been force-fed whatever they want to shove down our throats. It is not just news coverage but all programme presentation seems to be dictated by BBC preferences rather than what the licence-payers might prefer.

Arrogantly, the BBC will try to convince us that it spends our money wisely. It doesn’t. Match of the Day pundits are rewarded for their five minutes of inside-knowledge to the tune of around £200,000 per year – and more. The big status pundits get twice that and, of course, Gary Lineker earns well in excess of £1 million.

And from a Scottish perspective, the objectivity of the English football pundits has been woeful during the Euros. Even games not involving England quickly become all about them, as usual.

I have been to countless football matches and never needed a team of people to tell me what was going on. Live coverage often means three or more people in the studio, someone at the side of the pitch, someone else in the commentary box and yet another pundit alongside that person. That is before we start looking at the techno crew.

Radio sports coverage is the same. A commentator used to give us a ball-by-ball account of what was going on. Now we get, “Is that the same coat you were in at last Friday’s match?” It’s like being in a department store waiting for an assistant to stop their conversation about last night’s Corrie.

READ MORE: Herald writer and former BBC broadcaster Bernard Bale back on the wireless

In the Breakfast TV studio, the presenters spend more time chatting with each other than actually giving us news. Sports presenters, weather people and suchlike seem to be encouraged to reach out to become celebrities.

Weather presentation is generally poor with more time spent telling us about the weather we have already had, arm waving to generalise the areas they are mentioning and sentences littered with ‘could be’, ‘might be’ and the best of them all for a weather forecaster – ‘unpredictable’.

What does this all add up to? It adds up to a corporation that is self-serving at best. It adds up to an organisation that is prepared to pick the pockets of pensioners for its own financial and moral gratification.

If the BBC were a High Street store it would have closed well before now. It is time for it to be dismantled. In 2019, the BBC had an income of almost £5 billion of which nearly £3.7 billion was raised by licence fees. Just think what the NHS could do with that extra income.

If the Beeb went, what would we replace it with? Nothing! There are plenty of others and many of greater value and less-biased presentation.

The British Broadcasting Corporation lives on its genuine past glories, an image of quality broadcasting. That has all gone – and so should the BBC.

Bernard Bale presents a Saturday evening light entertainment show on Box Office Radio. See boxofficeradio.co.uk for details

Our columns are a platform for writers to express their opinions. They do not necessarily represent the views of The Herald.