My Lords, I rise briefly to support all my noble friend Lady Bull’s amendments.
The world has changed somewhat since about a century ago. My great-grandfather, Stanley Baldwin, who was the then Prime Minister, would go round to Cowley Street, just around the corner, sit down with Sir John Reith, as he then was, and discuss in some detail exactly how best to use the radio to deliver what he wanted to deliver. He was the first Prime Minister to use public sector broadcasting as a means of mass communication to the electorate. Things have moved on somewhat since then, to the extent that I believe that in recent times certain members of the Cabinet have even refused to appear on the public sector broadcaster, which is a strange development, to put it mildly.
I did some research, and I do not think it is an accident that 43% of the 35 speakers at Second Reading referred directly to the issue we are talking about in this group of amendments. If one wants a metric for the depth, strength and breadth of feeling across the House about this set of principles, that is evidence enough.
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Public sector broadcasting, which, in a sense, had its birthplace here, has evolved in various forms around the world. The Reithian principles of “inform, educate and entertain” have broadened into a definition that is more generally recognised around the world, and which we can rightly take some credit for. The key principles are, essentially, universality of availability and appeal; provision for minorities, as the right reverend Prelate pointed out; education of the public, as stressed so forcefully by the noble Baroness, Lady Bull; distance from vested interests, which is particularly important in this day and age of mounting disinformation; quality programming standards, which would seem a no-brainer but is not adhered to by all sides; and the fostering of national culture and the public sphere, which is particularly important, not least in an election year.
In his Royal Television Society address in March, the director-general of the BBC highlighted three particular aims he has for the BBC during his tenure. The first is to pursue truth with no agenda, the second is to back British storytelling, and the third is to bring people together. It would be hard to disagree with any of those.
We live in a world where our current Government have, for the last few years, frequently stood at the Dispatch Box and talked—usually when they were slightly on the back foot—about how we are world-leading, world-beating, et cetera. In all my experience of giving praise, praise is at its most effective when it is given to us by other parties. If you go around the
world and ask people what they think about our public sector broadcasters, they say they are genuinely world-beating and set the pace for the world. For once, can we accept praise and believe what the rest of the world is telling us, rather than thinking that we can reinvent truth—and do it in a way that may lose what we have? I quoted Joni Mitchell at Second Reading. She did not talk about the baby going out with the bath-water—they use showers in California—but you get my point.