Julia Hartley-Brewer waded into the debate around the BBC licence fee...and it didn’t exactly go swimmingly.
The radio presenter tweeted about the £159 annual licence fee (working out to 43p a day) because the culture secretary Nadine Dorries has signalled that the government plans to freeze funding for the broadcaster – and eventually scrap it.
It is reportedly part of No.10′s “Operation Red Meat”, where ministers roll out proposals earlier than intended to distract Tory backbenchers – and the general public – from the furore around the Downing Street parties in lockdown.
While Hartley-Brewer signalled that she would support reducing the amount of money she pays towards the BBC, it turns out her argument was not quite as foolproof as she thought it was.
She tweeted: “I pay the BBC licence and these are the only services I ever use.
“Good value for money...?”
She crossed out all but five of the BBC’s 24 nationwide services available, leaving only BBC iPlayer, BBC One, BBC News, BBC Two and BBC Parliament.
It wasn’t long before people were comparing her comments to pretty much everything else that comes as part of a set...including Celebrations, the NHS services and even a continental breakfast.
Others pointed out that the radio presenter was actually using iPlayer, which actually carries almost all of the BBC’s output.