ROGER MOSEY: Dear Matt Brittin, read the riot act on impartiality and make sure your BBC listens to people from Wrexham to Whitehaven

Dear Matt,

Welcome to the BBC. Being a general manager has to be one of the best jobs in the world, and many people will support you to prove it.

But there’s no point in pretending that your legacy isn’t one of the most difficult things a new chief executive faces.

Even on your first day in the job, you will be dealing with comments made by Fran Unsworth, the able executive of BBC News from 2018 to 2022, who says she was pushed out of her role by gender ideologues at the company.

He says his department is becoming ‘increasingly unmanageable’ due to the extreme positions of activists in his teams. ‘This wasn’t just a trans issue,’ he said. ‘There was a lot of bullying going on on all sorts of issues: people didn’t want to hear certain points of view. They were ‘no platform’ to them.’

To sum this up: the BBC’s junior staff decided that the views of some of the people paying their salaries were not welcome on national broadcasts.

So let’s start there. This is just the latest in a series of incidents that have left viewers with the impression that the Company has come under the influence of activists.

There was a particularly bad moment in 2021 when eminent scientist Robert Winston said on Question Time that “you can’t change your gender” and Fiona Bruce added: “A lot of people will strongly disagree with you.”

And perhaps it’s time to exonerate presenters Justin Webb and Martine Croxall; Both have found themselves subject to sanctioned complaints from politically correct fanatics in your own bureaucracy.

Roger Mosey says one of Matt’s toughest tasks will be ensuring the BBC’s commitment to impartiality is upheld

Then you need to read the riot act (again) to staff who don’t understand the meaning of impartiality, which is the lifeblood of the BBC, and tell managers to stand firmly behind true diversity.

This means representing All the people of these disputed islands. The BBC has had a poor track record of picking up on the public discontent fueling Brexit, and it’s easy for journalists in London’s residential areas to be unaware of what’s going on in Wrexham or Whitehaven.

I recommend you give real Empower your teams across countries and regions. There are already too many of them and it is time they were listened to and strengthened.

The truth is that the BBC remains a great national asset, despite all the rotten cabbage that will be thrown your way. 94 percent of us consume it at least once a month, and it provides us with many of our national talking points: The Traitors, Blue Lights, David Attenborough’s 100 Years On Planet Earth and countless other great television shows.

But unless your predecessor Tim Davie left you a note saying ‘No money I’m afraid’, as Labor politician Liam Byrne did in 2010, then that was sadly an oversight.

Interim chief executive Rhodri Talfan Davies said the current license fee model was nearing the ‘end of its life’, and he was right. Less than 80 percent of households now pay this amount.

I personally will pay BBC Radio’s license fee on my own and can’t imagine a day without listening to live commentary on Radio 4 and Radio 5 Live, but the truth is that younger viewers, in particular, find the concept of paying to watch TV extremely strange. Competition from broadcasters and online content means many people feel they no longer need to pay for the BBC.

I know you’ve already discussed this with Culture Minister Lisa Nandy, but frankly you both need to take action. Nearly two years into the Labor government, we are still in the consultation phase about future funding models – whether it is a new tax, buying advertising, a switch to subscriptions or a mix of these – and the BBC has not shown its hand either.

It’s of course true to say that you want to continue to be accessible to everyone, and ‘universality’ remains the buzzword: something for everyone. But unless you can find a guaranteed source of income, soon there will be ‘not much left for anyone’.

Nandy said he likened the BBC to the NHS in its vital national service role.

Some may disagree with this statement, but we are already seeing what the alternative looks like in a chaotic digital age. Global media is increasingly run by tech companies and American billionaires – you know this since Matt works at Google – and the stakes have never been higher.

Do we want our national debate to be driven by Elon Musk at Channel X or by Jeff Bezos at Amazon, which has reduced The Washington Post’s editorial freedom since buying the paper in 2013?

Herein lies one of the most acute decisions you face. How can you make sure BBC News meets the needs of people here and around the world?

Latest reports suggest the BBC’s news operation plans to cut costs by 15 per cent, with job cuts being the main focus.

I believe this is extremely misjudged. The company cannot have both.

If we are facing a crisis of misinformation and disinformation, then making large numbers of decent journalists redundant is not the solution.

I accept there are no easy alternatives, but the biggest source of savings would be a radical take on TV commissioning by making iPlayer the heart of everything the BBC does. This could mean a decline in traditional channels: perhaps we could merge BBC Two with BBC Four and eventually ditch BBC Three.

This has been talked about within the company for years, and now is the time to do it.

You should also improve the performance of the news section; is constantly losing out to Channel 4 and other rivals at awards ceremonies.

There are hopeful signs that this can be done. The BBC’s home editor Ed Thomas has made some striking investigations into mini-markets selling Class A drugs and vape shops employing illegal workers. These are issues people care about.

Millions of viewers will see a series of recent reports on abuse of the asylum system. This is not something the BBC would have dared to do five years ago.

This isn’t about moving from one political position to another, it’s about hearing the concerns of everyone from Reform voters in Sunderland to Green voters in Waltham Forest. And to base the national debate on facts, not just emotions.

I promise you that must be the real excitement of the job. We all own the BBC, so make it feel like it. Entertain us; make us laugh and cry (for the right reasons); and above all: tell us the truth.

Good luck

Roger