VOTING RIGHTS IN THE BBC

That this House supports reform of the BBC Royal Charter, bringing democracy and voting rights to the BBC; notes that licence fee payers have no right of redress if they disagree with the BBC Trust and Board; therefore calls for new legislation, enabling licence fee payers to vote on the BBC's strategic direction and aspects of senior salaries and programming, including referenda on particular issues; calls also for licence fee payers to be given a vote on the election of members to the BBC Trust and the election of non-executive members of the BBC Executive Board; believes that the BBC is something the UK should be justly proud of, as the broadcaster has an umbilical cord to the British people and society; regrets that the BBC is currently run like a feudal monarchy, with many examples of waste and excess such as spending of over 50,000 on taxis every day; and calls on the BBC to become more accountable to ordinary people, who want more money to be spent on good BBC journalism, sport and new programming, rather than wasteful and expensive projects, such as the one billion pound move to a new Media City in Salford, Manchester.