The BBC is under threat again. The Minister in charge, Jeremy Hunt, said next year he planned to have “tough discussions” with the BBC, and force them to change “a huge number of things”.

By making these threats now, the government is dipping its toe in the water. The Conservatives don’t like the BBC and are strongly influenced by Rupert Murdoch, who wants to see it cut. But they know that the BBC has popular support. They’ll be watching the public reaction this week to judge how much BBC-bashing they can get away with.

If the Culture Secretary’s threats pass without a fuss, the government will take that as a signal that they can press on. But if we respond quickly with thousands of emails to our MPs saying “hands off our BBC”, we’ll make them realise that cuts to the BBC will cause a big political storm. That could be enough to make them back off.

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