The power of left-wing patronage

In July last year, controller of BBC drama commissioning Ben Stephenson gave an interview to - of course - the Guardian, which kicked off with the following mission statement:

Making drama is the best job in the world – the privilege of working with writers with a unique vision, the spine-tingling spirit of camaraderie between a production team, the privilege of broadcasting into the nation's front-rooms. What could be better than that?

But what I love about it the most is how passionate the people who work in drama are. Working in TV drama isn't a nine-to-five job, it is a wonderful, all-consuming lifestyle. It gobbles up everything. It is glorious.

And with passion comes debate, discussion, tension, disagreement. If we didn't all think differently, have different ideas of what works and what doesn't, wouldn't our lives, and more importantly, our TV screens be less interesting? We need to foster peculiarity, idiosyncrasy, stubborn-mindedness, left-of-centre thinking.

He's still there.

Even Brits who recognize BBC bias do not appreciate how far-ranging is its impact on British culture overall. The leftists have been in uncontested control of the the largest source of arts patronage in the country for over 40 years, and throughout that time if you wanted a career in television, or if you wanted your book, play or comedy act to receive a priceless TV review - or even a mention - you had to be left-of-centre.

Deepening the active in-house bias, already over-paid BBC establishment figures set up production companies to skim the cream of the corporation's external commissioning. Check out the empire Kirsty Wark and husband built up. Nepotism is rife - quite apart from the God's annointed Dimbleby family, Peter Snow has done his considerable best to impose his son Dan not merely as the military historian he is not, but as an all-purpose presenter just like his dear old Dad.

That is the power of patronage the BBC enjoys - my money being taken under threat of criminal prosecution by a self-serving, self-perpetuating oligarchy in order to promote an agenda that is actively hostile to what I believe - on the basis of far wider life experience than any of the BBC lifers even aspire to - is best for me, my family and my country.