Speeches by Hinds.

“We have been trying to nail down—not only with you but with others—a phrase that has come out and that everyone is saying: permanent charter. We are trying to understand what that means and what would be different in practical terms. I think there would be no practical difference. Is that fair to say?”

“Your Green Paper talks about requiring prominence of some definition of media on online platforms. One potential definition is just public service media, but there is also the suggestion that you could define it some other way. You definitely could, but when you get to that half of the sentence with anybody, you realis…”

“Thank you.”

“With respect, Secretary of State, without funding it would not exist, would it? Without funding objectives, there would be no BBC.”

“And they don’t think it would be unsettling if you were just renegotiating the entire budget? Would that not be unsettling?”

“I do not want to cut across you, Secretary of State, but I do not think that was the question that I was asking. I was asking, on the question of prominence on social media, do you think it would be acceptable to have a potential situation where the BBC and Channel 4 news are promoted, but The Telegraph and The Guardia…”

“You could still have exemptions.”

“Have you had discussions with them about that and their preferred option?”

“Secretary of State, what is permanent about a permanent charter?”

“So, in practical terms, there is no difference.”

“Forgive me, but I think you said: “I can tell you, hand on heart, that we have made no decisions about this.””

“Okay. Does the thing hinge on the difference between the word “tax” and the word “levy”?”

“The first time today.”

“I must confess that I do not recall that decision in the last Government to not use local or national media. I seem to recall something rather 180° opposite—but we will leave that for another day. I wanted to come back to this thing about prominence: how you promote prominence and what gets prominence. You are quite ri…”

“Secretary of State, I am going to try to push you for absolute clarity on one point, which has already come up today. In the Green Paper, it was clear and explicit on page 71 that you were discounting the idea of funding the BBC either through general taxation or through a household tax—we might debate the difference b…”

“How would you respond to the suggestion that, in trying to add up all these things—the traditional kind of TV licence base, plus video on demand, other platforms and adding a fee to streaming subscriptions—what you are trying to do in effect is come up with a formula that includes every household in the country? Would …”

“Why did you make the decision about a streamer levy before the Green Paper was printed?”

“Do we know for a fact that the prospect of putting a surcharge on people’s subscriptions would not deter that investment, even if the net effect on the revenue of the streaming company was the same?”

“The Government’s proposed carve-up of Hampshire ignores their preset criteria, has no mandate and splits up East Hampshire. The benefits, if there are any, will come way off in the future, whereas the costs and the disruption happen now. Does the Minister think that the advent of a new Prime Minister is a good moment t…”

“But news is all merging, isn’t it? You have radio stations doing online stuff, online things doing radio, newspapers creating radio stations and telly doing its little thing on YouTube and Facebook, and you have TalkTV and TalkRadio. There is not really a distinction any more. Whether you are the BBC, Channel 4, The Te…”