Yakking for Argyll

The timid mediocrities and the begrudgers are at it again - squealing in statutory reviews and the media about the impact on competition of the BBC’s massively successful and massive website services.

Take it from Argyll. Listen, you blinkered whingers - where were all of you when the BBC had the vision to realise the power of the internet, plan to use it inventively in our interests and prepare to lead the market? You were unwilling to invest. You hadn’t the independent thought or the long-sightedness to see the new world for yourselves. You didn’t see where we were headed. You only saw it when we were already there and well down the road.

So have the grace to shut up and take it on the chin. You failed. This is possibly the one thing the BBC has got absolutely right - and it was the one that really mattered. This alone has justified the licence fee.

Without the BBC’s lead, where would this country be in terms of serious, developmental and reliable delivery of the web-based services we literally cannot do without? Where is the advantage to us of crippling the BBC’s achievements by some statutory limitation, of slowing them down while the less competent catch up with where the BBC were ages ago? They’ve earned the right to carry on leading on this front. Leave them alone, give them the respect they deserve. Start trying to see the next big thing for yourselves. - and invest in it.