BBC 'should move to Wellingborough'

Peter Bone again. On Friday he came up with a novel suggestion to save money - the BBC should move out of London.

"I am sure that such a move would gain the support of the governors and all the people who work in the BBC," he told the House during a debate on a private member's bill.

"It might be a good idea to relocate the BBC to Swansea, but people might say that Swansea was much too far away for people needing to get back to London to meet important people.

"I have a much better solution.

"If the BBC were relocated to Wellingborough, people would have only a 50-minute journey into town to meet those people, and the rents and rates in Wellingborough are much lower than they are here."

The wholesale migration of White City Guardianistas to Bone's backyard troubled Jacob Rees-Mogg.

"I am concerned about that suggestion, because it might lead to a whole load of left-wing voters moving to Wellingborough, which could undermine my hon. Friend’s majority," he fretted.

Bone replied:

"Alas, the public interest comes before self-interest, and I would lay down my seat if we could get the BBC to move to Wellingborough."

Public-spirited Bone also laid into the "very regressive" licence fee.

"Anyone who does not have a television is still hounded as though they do have one," he said.

"I had a constituent - this is not made up - who told the BBC licensing authorities that he did not have a television set. They did not believe him.

"They sent inspectors around to inspect every room in his home to see whether there was a hidden television.

"That is the sort of thing we might get in a totalitarian state, but surely it is not acceptable in the United Kingdom at any time, and certainly not in this century."

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