Posted on 04/12/2013 4:12:53 AM PDT by Biggirl
Ding Dong the Witch is Dead, a song from the Wizard of Oz, has sold 20,000 copies this week after anti-Thatcher campaigners encouraged people to buy it to celebrate the death of the former Prime Minister. It is currently number four and on course for a place in the top five by the time The Official Chart Show airs on Sunday, three days before Lady Thatchers funeral.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
He done riz’ from the dead
As it happens, the BBC isn't government-funded either, other than a very small Foreign Office grant to the BBC World Service (radio). The TV Licence Fee which funds the BBC, although collected by a statutory agency, is not subject to variation by government decision, isn't part of the government's budget, and the government has no say in how the BBC chooses to spend it. The principle of complete independence of the BBC from government control was firmly established in the 1920s and 30s by its first Director-General, John Reeth, and has been fiercely upheld since (much to the occasional regret of all successive governments, of whatever party, when anti-government views are broadcast). In wartime conditions, Churchill did briefly toy with the possibility of bringing the BBC under direct government control, but wisely thought better of the idea.
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