The government should think twice about attacking the BBC – post-Brexit Britain has never needed it more

No one is disputing the fact that the broadcasting corporation has its faults. But the licence fee is far from one of them

Nicky Morgan has come a long way since she was a Boris-sceptic backbench MP who pledged she would never serve in a Johnson cabinet. Today she is a frontbencher, elevated to the House of Lords, and is happily ensconced as culture secretary. So far from being anxious about Mr Johnson’s brand of politics, she now seems fanatically on board. She has even learned to speak the same bizarre language as the other Johnsonistas.

Hence her illogical but determined assault on the future of the BBC. To be fair, Lady Morgan, as we must now learn to call her, has a point when she says that the BBC needs to move with the times, and meet the competitive challenge posed by the likes of Netflix and other streaming, non-conventional “broadcasters” (not to mention the many other web-based diversions available to the public, young and old). The “Blockbusters” line might have been a little gratuitously offensive for such a still highly successful and adaptable organisation as the BBC. The BBC has, after all, weathered a century of unparalleled change already, from wireless radio to wireless web, and needs no reminding of its problems – but the point can be taken.