What Do The Taliban And The BBC Have In Common?

The Needle Before……. and After the Taliban Before and……and After the BBC Yes, that’s right, they both destroy great works of art in pursuit of their closed minded ideology. Banksy, to my mind the UK’s greatest living artist (and actually, yes, I could justify that statement) created a piece of meaningful art outside of BBC Television Centre in central London which summed up just how disillusioned the British public, especially of my generation, feel right now. It was the poignant image of a young boy dropping his ‘Jim’ll Fix It’ medal into a drain. The BBC sent the workmen in to scrub it away. Why ? Because it implied criticism of the corporation. All great art speaks, all great art stimulates thought, all great art, from Giotto via Manet’s ‘Olympia’ and beyond Picasso’s ‘Guernica’ to the present day, has been provocative. The cultural philistines at the BBC can have as many Yentob inspired documentaries as they like but until they put artistic creation above managerial expediency they can never be a Corporation that Broadcasts for the British license fee paying public. And do they own that hoarding ? Does the BBC actually own that piece of hardboard that Banksy chose to place this artwork ? And if the BBC are sued because a precious work of art has been destroyed and they didn’t own the hardboard hoarding opposite BBC Telivision Centre, who pays ? Not the BBC management on their ludicrously high salaries, but all of us who pay the BBC license fee. Just like McAlpine’s £185,000.

RELATED: THE BBC: IT’S THE VATICAN AND THE MAFIA ALL ROLLED INTO ONE