Osborne set to put brakes on BBC gravy train

In Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs media comes
either under 'esteem' or 'self-actualization'.

After John Whittingdale its now the turn of the Chancellor of the Exchequer. In his interview for the Andrew Marr Show, George Osborne has underlined the obligation of the BBC in contributing to balance the books of Britain’s finances. It is an altogether different debate as to whether austerity as proposed by the Conservative government is the right thing to do in the present circumstance, but as a publicly funded organisation, the BBC certainly has its responsibilities in fulfilling certain socio-economic obligations and merely wishing it away in the name of creative licence or journalistic rights or media freedom is not commensurate to the needs of a 21st century organisation, especially at a time when the deprived and the vulnerable are feeling the pinch of the £12 billion welfare cuts as proposed by the government of David Cameron. However important media freedom might be, and no one is denying its significance for a free society, meeting the basic survival needs of the people, especially the impoverished and the vulnerable, comes much higher in the Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs as compared to the importance of consuming news.

Along with his colleague Whittingdale, the Secretary of State Media Culture and Sports, Osborne also need to have a close look at how the corporation, considered to be one of the prized British institutions, is managed. BBC Director General Tony Hall has already promised a leaner and thinner corporation which fits into the mold of a modern, inclusive and smart organisation. He has also announced a further thousand job cuts comprising mostly of managers, yet a closer scrutiny is necessary to make sure that public money is not wasted especially at a time of austerity.

'Imperial ambition'

The other observation made by the chancellor about the BBC is equally important. Osborne has expressed his concerns about the “imperial” ambitions of the BBC. His concerns may have stemmed more from Osborne’s political ideology promoting free market where other media organisations within the UK are on a level playing field so as to encourage healthy competition, but a different facet of the problem is as important as mending its finances.

George Osborne wants the BBC to play its role in balancing
the books and rein in over its "imperial" ambitions

The chancellor has highlighted his apprehension about the BBC doing everything from publishing "features and cooking recipes" and “effectively” nearly serving the purpose of the “national newspaper as well as the national broadcaster." But there is a wider aspect to it which goes beyond the national domain of the United Kingdom.
As the successor of the “Empire Service”, the BBC World Service may have lived its age of “overseas broadcasting” since the early 1930s and decided to continue with it in 1946 “after the immediate exigencies of the war had melted away and in harsh austerity conditions”, and many may enjoy the grandiose of referring it to be a “jewel in the BBC’s crown” but one also has to recognise the changed global order where Britain no longer occupies the position of importance it once did.

The purpose of the media in the modern day society may be of an antidote to power and the powerful, ironically its voice and that of the wider civil society is listened to only if they are associated with those who matter and with clout. Whatever may have been its imperial past, not much sheen is left for Great Britain in the current matrix of diplomacy and accordingly the British media doesn't enjoy that kind of penetration and reach as is the case with those in the United States of America, or the emerging economies like in Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. Despite all the myth surrounding the glory of the BBC, it has to be accepted that Britain is neither a trend-setter in today's world nor does it have the power and position to adjudicate on maters global as was once the case.

In such a backdrop, it makes little sense to flaunt the BBC World Service as an effective soft power tool. Soft Power as proposed by Joseph Nye becomes effective only when it is supplemented by Hard Power, the resultant being the Smart Power, which lies somewhere in between Hard Power and Soft Power. For the proponents of the argument surrounding World Service as a soft power tool may be self-aggrandisement, but there are doubts as to whether it is value for money for the British economy and fetches any commensurate benefit to the British people.

Cost-benefit analysis

Funding the World Service cost the BBC £245 million in 2014-15, and it is now time to do a cost-benefit analysis in terms of the advantages accrued to Britain - its economy and the people - and whether it is worth spending that kind of money at a time when a large section of the British population, including the disadvantaged and the vulnerable, are feeling the pains of austerity and cuts in public services.

Its now time to do a cost-benefit analysis of the benefits
accrued to Britain from the BBC programmes
in India and Bangladesh

While provisions like the Ebola information service for West Africa on WhatsApp may still be of some ethical value, although rightly questionable at a time of austerity, given Britain's commitment to human rights, development, but one finds it hard to reason as to what British interest will be served by the launch of the BBC Bangla TV programme - BBC Probaho, on Bangladesh’s cable/satellite station, Channel-I, apart from the fact that the editor of the BBC Bangla Service will use this pretext to make bi-monthly trips to Dhaka at the cost of the British taxpayer.
According to the information available through the Freedom of Information Act 2000, "the incumbent editor of the Bangla Service spent 49 working days on duty away from London during the period 1 April 2009 to 31 March 2010. The total cost of the three trips paid by the BBC World Service was £6,384.44". The BBC, however, didn't provide any information regarding the costs incurred by the BBC World Service Trust, now the BBC Media Action, as it is not subject to the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

The media market in Bangladesh is already saturated with a large number of television channels and it will be hard to make any impact for any new entrant. Moreover as it happened with the BBC Hindi TV in India in the 1990s (and the beneficiary it that case was the  ANI), Channel I will flourish at the cost of the British taxpayers. These sort of projects generally serve as a platform of quid pro quo, often nourishing symbiotic relationship between those in the upper echelons of in this case the Bangladeshi society. The privileged make hay as the impoverished and the vulnerable in Britain suffer, and it is morally imperative on the government of the day to rectify such delinquencies.

Also available:
Why should I pay for the BBC.
Scrap BBC tax at a time of austerity

Tirthankar Bandyopadhyay is a journalist and media consultant.

He can be contacted at tirthankarb@hotmail.com
All comments are personal.

Future British workforce facing systemic failure

Labour market expert and author of a review of vocational education for former Education Secretary Michael Gove, Alison Wolf has argued that cuts in the sectoral budget will be detrimental to the supply of skilled workforce for the British economy.

Historically, the supply of skilled workforce in Britain may have been ensured by apprenticeship programmes and institutes of vocational learning, but these organisations are failing the current generation and funding cuts is not the only reason behind their systemic failure.

This observation is based on a real life experience of an Employability Adviser in a Further Education (FE) college over the past two years. The views may be constrained by being biased on the experience of an individual in only one such institution, but the general feeling among a large section of the population who are either employed or associated with the FE sector is that a majority, if not all, of such organisations of further education across London, if not all over the country, are run in a similar fashion.

The popular wisdom about the FE colleges in the United Kingdom is that these organisations are meant to make those who are not suitable for the normal route of GCSE and AS & A-levels for whatever reasons, employable so that there is a steady flow of skilled workforce in the British economy and only those who are capable of traversing the higher education route are allowed to do so. The idea was to engage the less qualified ones into gainful employment so that over time they can gain some practical skills so as to make up for the lack of their academic qualifications.

However, it is now evident that the focus is not on making the learners employable by way of imparting vocational education and teaching them functional skills but to make them 'pass' their course(s), by handing over coursework often without independent assessment, so as to ensure the funding of the FE college. The underlying presumption is that a 'pass' ensures £5000 per student per annum and there is no incentive for 'merit' and 'distinction' either to the student or the staff. I do not want to delve into any further details as to how a 'pass' is ensured, often without any learning at all, but there is enough evidence that a section of the students who are unable to write a proper sentence or do some basic Maths even when they are in Level 3, which is equivalent to AS/A-Levels.

Talking about functional skills, there is generally not much faith either in the curriculum or in the teaching methods in English and Mathematics. Having studied in India, I find the content too simple so as to expose the students to the complexities of modern life. Although on paper the focus is on student-centered learning, in practice the onus is on the teachers to ensure that the learners get a 'pass', even if it is through innumerable 're-sits', and the teachers literally hunt the students, coax and cajole them to appear for the tests. This is because of the fact that the performance of a teacher is linked to the paper results of his/her students. Often we are told that the students should be encouraged to take ownership of their acts and be responsible for their actions, however, responsibility or to use its nearest synonym obligation are not part of the lexicon of a majority of the students. Many of them attend these courses not because of any willingness to learn or gain skills but to make sure that the benefits of their parents or carers are not curtailed.

The FE Colleges may be meant to make the students who can't traverse the academic route, of the GCSE, AS and the A-levels, for whatever reasons and make them employable, however, in reality employability has the least priority. The 16-19 year old Levels 1 & 2 students are supposed to attend an hourly session on Employability for 36 weeks, but since it has no qualifications attached, no assignments or examinations, and the Employability Advisers are not accorded the status of lecturers, the students start loosing their focus after six-10 weeks when they start getting assignments on their vocational courses. These lead to behavioral, punctuality and attendance issues ultimately vitiating the relationship between the Employability Advisers and the learners.

Often the classroom sessions deter students with genuine interest and employability needs from seeking help as their voices are eclipsed by those resorting to problems as they consider the hour-long employability session nothing but useless captivity. However, the college enforces classroom seasons over workshop-style ones as, and this is the general perception, it ensures £900 per students per annum as compared to £100 for workshops. In the process, the college ensures its earning at the cost of the Employment Advisers facing the flak at the front-line and the majority of the learners failing to develop any of the peoples' skill.

Making the students employable may be one of the main objectives of the FE colleges, but employability advisers face enormous hurdles while organising work experience for the students and the resistance / reluctance / indifference  are alike from the vocational lecturers, curriculum managers, careers and apprenticeship teams, the college management and the students. There is tremendous apathy on the part of the curriculum managerial staff to engage with the local employers and trade bodies so as to ensure work experience for the students and facilitate employment for them in the long run.

The FE sector in the UK calls for serious introspection and possible overhauling as it is increasingly digressing from one of its main objectives and in the process failing a large section of the future workforce.

Tirthankar Bandyopadhyay is a journalist and media consultant.
He can be contacted at tirthankarb@hotmail.com
All comments are personal.

Scrap BBC Tax at a time of austerity

James Whittingdale is expected to take a close and
hard look  at the BBC Charter and the Licence Fee

The Secretary of State for Media, Culture and Sport, James Whittingdale, should take a close and hard look at the Licence Fee when discussing the next BBC Charter, which will come into force at the end of 2016.

When the Conservative government is resorting to Victorian penny pinching and making the poorest and the weakest in Britain more vulnerable, the BBC is employing the resources generated through Licence Fee in Britain to launch a television programme in Bangladesh.

The launching of the BBC Bangla TV programme - BBC Probaho, on Bangladesh’s cable/satellite station, Channel-I is nothing short of an expediency as it will not reap any benefit for Britain and those who help the corporation survive by paying the Licence Fee.

It beggars belief that the new television programme being launched by the BBC Bangla Service will cut any ice with the audience, not least because of the sustained decline in the BBC’s influence in Bangladesh, but also due to the fact that the media market in the country is crowded by the presence of nearly a dozen television channels, if not more. Moreover, the continuous decline in the audience figures of the BBC Bangla's radio programmes are a testimony of the listless editorial leadership of the service.

The BBC World Service has a dubious distinction of floundering with public money when it attempted to launch its Hindi television channel in India in the 1990s. As the BBC faltered, its supplier the Asian News International or the ANI flourished. There is a widespread apprehension that like the ANI in Delhi, Channel-I is prospering at the cost of the Licence Fee payers in Britain as BBC Probaho is destined to fail.

The sponsorship of the longstanding relationship between BBC Bangla and Channel-I by the BBC Media Action also raises serious financial and editorial questions. Questions are being raised as to why the British taxpayers' money should be used to help a foreign media business flourish. Secondly, is the editorial stature of the BBC, despite its continuous decline, compatible with Channel-I's position in the media landscape of Bangladesh?  

When the government is making additional cuts, it should ensure that the ordinary people have enough resources at their disposal to make a decent living. Resources at the disposal of the ordinary people would  be better utilised to meet their basic needs rather than paying the bills of an expedient move by a maverick or a dubious BBC manager.

Also available: Why should I pay for the BBC

Tirthankar Bandyopadhyay is a freelance journalist and media consultant. 
He can be contacted at tirthankarb@hotmail.com 
All comments are personal.

High time India reciprocates to reap diplomatic dividends

What a gesture of friendship and camaraderie by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, first to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee​ and then on Saturday to Prime Minister Narendra Modi​. The people of Bangladesh have always been at the heart of the Indians and their struggle for independence remembered with reverence on the other side of the border and so are their strides on the social indicators of development.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has
walked the extra mile for friendship

Prime Minister Sk Hasina was quick to acknowledge the tide of geopolitics and its significance in South Asia, although it must be said that she had always been on the right side of a cordial relationship with India.

Notwithstanding the irritations in the bilateral relations, Sk Hasina has walked the extra mile not only to strengthen the friendly ties with her neighbour but also delivered on the promises made by the Bangladesh government to make the historic relationship smooth and render it with due cordiality.

It wasn't an easy task though!

Sheikh Hasina had to tread a dangerous path not only in the country, to overcome the widespread anti-Indian sentiments and wipe out an air of suspicion, but also within her party the Awami League to make Bangladesh's relationship with India effective and meaningful. She had to stave off strong and often conspiratorial opposition to friendly ties with India from a section of the domestic media, other groups in the civil society and also an arm of an influential international media organisation having strong roots and historic links with Bangladesh. Quite expectedly, this arm of the international media organisation downplayed the success of what is being termed "a historic trip" and highlighted Khaleda Zia's allegation, during a one-to-one meeting with Prime Minister Modi, that "democracy is at its peril in Bangladesh".

It is high time that India recognises the friendly gesture of Bangladesh in the backdrop of a bilateral relationship which has been on a roller coaster ride over the past more than four decades and with the evolution of geopolitics.

India should be mindful of fulfilling her commitments to the people of Bangladesh, made on several occasions. The public perception in Bangladesh is that India is quick to make promises but falters when it comes to delivering on time, often seen by Dhaka with suspicion and as a sign of lack of commitment. This perception is of course not without reason. The promises made by the then Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee on reconstruction of villages post the devastating cyclone Aila took a lot more time to deliver than the usual period of gestation.

The operators in South Block should recognise the fact that Bangladesh may be small in size but it occupies a position of strategic importance and it is only in India's interest to nurture the bonhomie and friendship that's in the air at a time of sweltering heat and high humidity in both the countries.

Prime Minister Modi's strategy of extending an olive branch of friendship to South Asian neighbours like Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, notwithstanding her size and importance in regional and global politics is bound to reap diplomatic dividends in the time to come.

Tirthankar Bandyopadhyay is a journalist and media consultant. 
He can be contacted at tirthankarb@hotmail.com 
 All comments are personal.

An authentic Highlander with chubby looks & cheeky smile

My Tuesday morning passed with a sense of loss. Political passing has never been so remorse, at least recently. I encountered a similar sense of loss when Tony Benn passed away in March last year. Back home in India, political passings are full of statist grandeur, depicting the clout and power of politicians. A sense of loss is often overtaken by the public display of grief.

Courtesy: The Telegraph

I gulped emotion ever since the news of Charles Kennedy's untimely demise flowed from the television sets during the breakfast programme. A stream of  condolences followed. For Paddy Ashdown, whom Kennedy succeeded as the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party, he was a repository of decency, wit, humour and charm, when large parts of modern day politics were bereft of the traits that rendered it humane.
Kennedy's high point in politics was when he vehemently opposed the Iraq War in 2003. With Tony Blair being the bagpiper in the campaign against Saddam Hussein's "weapons of mass destruction" and the Conservative Party under Ian Duncan Smith following suit in Britain, the Liberal Democrats under the stewardship of Kennedy stood rock solid as a moral compass, despite his denouncement for "treachery and treason", against the divisive war. Over a decade after the war, Kennedy's apprehension about its credibility had been proved right. The liberal in him insisted that inspectors be deployed to make sure that the weapons of mass destruction were destroyed rather than going all out for the scalp of Saddam Hussein.

Iraq is not the only issue where he instinctively made "an exceptionally shrewd" political judgement. The bleak performance of the Lib Dems in the recently concluded general election is a testimony to the gut feeling of Kennedy opposing any possible coalition with the Conservatives. The two parties were in coalition for five years and in the end the Conservative Party gained at the cost of the Liberal Democrats. Kennedy's opposition to the coalition was based on the intuitive apprehension that "David Cameron would use it to re-brand his party as Liberal Conservatives destroying the real Liberal Party in the process".

When Kennedy became the leader of the Liberal Democrats in 1999, the political landscape in the United Kingdom was dominated by New Labour and more so by Tony Blair. The Tories were in utter disarray with leaders like William Hague, Ian Duncan Smith and Michael Howard grappling as to how to cope with the Tony Blair phenomenon. Although the leader of the third largest party in the House of Commons, Kennedy with his captivating charm, authentic touch with the ordinary people, principled politics and brilliant oratory performed the role of a 'de facto' leader of the opposition in parliament.

It is to Kennedy's credit, and also that of Paddy Ashdown, that the Lib Dem apparently turned into a party of intellectual and ethical refuge for many - who despised the Tories and yet were not necessarily heart and soul with New Labour - despite its inability to become pivotal in the once effectively predominant bi-partisan electoral politics in Britain.

It was under his leadership that the strength of the Liberal Democrats in the House of Commons reached 62, the highest tally for a third party since the old Liberal Party days of the 1920s, in the 2005 general election, only to plummet to 57 under the stewardship of Nick Clegg in 2010.

As tributes flow from all sides of the political spectrum, Kennedy will be dearly missed in Britain for delving into the humane terrain of politics, his gaiety and serious principled politics. His stance on the Iraq War made the Liberal Democrats stand apart in the face of jingoism worldwide. Kennedy's lovable chubby looks and cheeky smile endeared him to many well beyond the murky world of politics. Binge drinking was his demon and Kennedy had to pay dearly for it. British politics will never be the same again without the sandy-haired Highlander.  

Tirthankar Bandyopadhyay is a journalist and media consultant. 
He can be contacted at tirthankarb@hotmail.com All comments are personal.