Who hasn't shot JR?

First of all, I'm probably not representative of the typical BBC consumer. For many years we had no TV (and consequently suffered years of abuse and harassment from authorities who couldn't get their heads around this simple fact. Perhaps the government could put as much investment into rounding up real criminals?). We finally succumbed to mild pressure from the Cost Centres to get a TV and were therefore forced to purchase a licence although we had no intention of watching BBC programmes. As things currently stand, I can probably muster up an average of one hour per week devoted to BBC programming. I very rarely use BBC websites, preferring more balanced (unbiased) and less parochial sources for news.

Therein lies the rub; who is representative of the BBC consumer and does the Corporation have any idea how to connect with them? Yes; the biggest problem for the BBC is that it is wholy disconnected from the consumer. Its customer being government which doles out large slabs of cash for it to overpay ineffective executives (why is Mark Thompson paid £800,000 a year exactly?). As a result it generates content it wants and imposes it on the paying customer. If the paying customer isn't interested, then like me, he doesn't watch.

As an aside, the governance from its paymaster is laughable - ref BBC Procurement being subjected to a "savaging" by the naifs on the Public Accounts Committee (Edward Leigh been in Parliament for 30 years and totally disconnected from commercial reality, Austin Mitchell asking ludicrous questions about whether toilet rolls were shipped up and down the motorway (get a grip man. Presumably selected because he himself was once a reporter - what has that got to do with procurement and finance exactly?) and some completely ancient MP (Alan Williams I believe) so doddery that he couldn't find the pages in the NAO report. The BBC procurement team was kind enough not to wipe the floor with this ragbag of misfits and ingenues but it must have been a real struggle for them not to. A complete joke; we have more stringent oversight of our local Scout Group accounts. The result, broadcast on BBC Parliament if not so utterly infuriating would count as far better comedy than the Auntie normally pumps out under this banner.

Following are a few thoughts on the BBC disconnect.

Simon Schama's American History: A Future (something of which I was made aware through advertising on Radio 4) - an interesting hypothesis but highly disappointing in its execution. Schama himself appears to be an intelligent man but in the production the programme was dumbed down to snail's pace conveying 3 or 4 interesting facts for every hour broadcast. The constantly changing shots - showing something and then whipped away onto something else - left the programme devoid of continuity and depth. Here is something at which the BBC should excel (and with the exception of the Gettysburg coverage) failed miserably.

Gardener's World - last week they advised viewers to sweep up leaves by using a lawnmower - how massively irresponsible is this? Already the blight of suburban weekends they advocate extending the season. Perhaps they could calculate how many extra tonnes of CO2 are pumped into the atmosphere as a result of this needless use of energy?

Blue Peter - even my kids, massive devotees over the years, now say this is rubbish. The reason, as far as I can tell, is that it doesn't connect with the realities of thier lives. They're not interested in the presenters chucking themselves up/down distant mountains - it bears no relation to their interests and day-to-day lives.

Reliance on a few individuals. This is another bugbear; why oh why given the thousands of talented individuals in this country does everything have to revolve around a few highly irritating "celeb's" - the curly, square-faced jerk from Top Gear, Wogan, Ross, the wally going in a taxi across America, the flop-haired one off "Have I Got News For You", etc?

The only solution to all of this is to hit the BBC where it hurts - i.e. stop paying the licence tax until they start producing what we want.