Watch the birdie.
 

The next time you go to pay for your ever increasing television licence, and thus fund the coffers of the BBC, bear this in mind.

In it's wisdom the BBC decided to use £60,000 of licence payer's money, our money, to commmission a public work of art by the artist Tracey Emin. The sculpture is of a bird sat on top of a plinth, and is called Roman Standard, and is sited outside Liverpool's Anglican Cathedral.

Tracey Emin is quoted as saying she is 'very happy', and thinks the BBC has bagged a bargain.

The sooner the licence fee is scrapped the better. For the BBC to waste money like this is outrageous. It should take it's place in the market place like every other company, and either survive or perish on it's merits.

Re: Watch the birdie.
 

So this is why they want an increase on a regular basis to commision "BBC Folies" and we pay.

Re: Watch the birdie.
 

You do realise that one of the Beeb's needs for increasing the license fee is for the experimental use of the WWW to show T.V. Programmes and that when they have succeeded in using this modern technology they then propose to have the law changed so that anyone with a computer surfing the net will have to have a licence! How are they going to get the rest of the world to pay for what is supposed to be free? If they want/need to do this shouldn't they make it pay as you go so that those of us that don't want this service do not get penalised for it?

I really do think this is one time the human rights thingy could be of use, british governments 'independent' mouthpiece censors citizens freedom to surf!

Re: Watch the birdie.
 

I have given a TV setup for my comp a serious bit of consideration as I could whatch tele on the train. This is going to be like the carry on we had when satalite broadcasting started. :(

Re: Watch the birdie.
 

i wish i could opt out of b.b.c. ....i wouldent miss it at all.

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Re: Watch the birdie.
 

Thinking about it the license fund is already paying for this service, the research funding is by you, supposedly for you, and when they have spent millions and are ready to launch it, they will charge YOU for it all over again!

Re: Watch the birdie.
 

The powers that be spent £60,000 pounds on this statue, even though it has nothing to do with the BBC.

Money well spent, if you happen to be another bird and can fly up to see the bloody thing.

Re: Watch the birdie.
 

It won't be a problem Rindy the beeb will spend hundreds upon thousands of pounds building a hide and they will get Bill Oddie up there to describe it for us!

Re: Watch the birdie.
 

Since it's at the top of a twenty foot pole, I at least hope the reception has improved in the Merseyside area.

Re: Watch the birdie.
 

Last year the BBC ran a deficit of £188.2 Million.

BBC Govenors were awarded Bonuses of 25% of their salaries.

Since Bonuses are usually awarded for sound financial management, are we to assume that without their intervention this appalling deficit would have been even more horrendous? And is this why, despite BBC1's audience share falling from 25.2% to 24% and BBC2's audience share falling to just 9.6%, the govenors were given a total of £546,000 in bonuses? True, Mark Thompson, the Director General, waived his bonus of £135,000. But then when you are burdened with an annual salary of £540,000 it probably feels good to offload a bit of tax liability.

Re: Watch the birdie.
 

Any one up for a bit of "shoot the birdy" in mersyside?

Re: Watch the birdie.
 

Well, you know my love of public art and I do actually think the Tracey Emin one is a nice piece BUT it should absolutely NOT have been paid for by the BBC. The BBC's job is to put TV programmes on TV, I pay my licence fee as a contract for them to do that - if they spend their money on other stuff I don't see why I should have to pay them.

I rarely watch BBC anyway - apart from QI on a Friday night!

Re: Watch the birdie.
 

I agree Gayle as a piece of public art I do actually like it, and would have been able to see it from my little garret when I was an art student there.

Tracey Emin said the fee she would have normally charged would have been £300,000 for a work of this size. HBC might have been off leaving Broadway alone, and getting Trace to do a bird a top a pole.;)

Re: Watch the birdie.
 

What makes you think she would try and improve Broadway? Would it not be better to do the job for the Coppice?

Re: Watch the birdie.
 

Because £300,000 was the figure mooted as the cost of refurbishing Broadway.:eek: