BBC To Form Own Political Party For Next General Election

31st January 2004

The BBC is to form its own Political Party for the next General Election in an effort to retain its position as the true opposition of the Labour Government, a role that has been significantly diminished following the Hutton Report.

The resignations of Greg Dyke, Gavyn Davis and Andrew Gilligan appeared to signal the end of an era for the BBC – one where the corporation experienced both unprecedented levels of liberty in its news reporting, but also an extraordinary amount of Global respect and recognition as the pinnacle of international journalism. Whilst the first factor is certain to change, it is feared that the Hutton Report will leave a lasting scar on the BBC’s respected position internationally.

However, the resignations are not as drastic as first appeared. Whilst Greg Dyke and Gavyn Davis have stepped down from their leading positions within the corporation – it is part of a new initiative by the BBC to form a political party, which will stand for the 2005/6 General Election in an effort to become the true opposition of the Labour Government.

“We cannot expect to overturn Labour’s massive majority of worthless MPs with our huge range far more competent candidates,” Greg Dyke explained, “But we can make a serious dent. I mean, regardless of Hutton’s determination, many people now believe Tony Blair to be a liar and would have supported us over him had they had been Lord Hutton.

“Look at the reporting in the media over my standing down. No network reported it as a favourable position and many of my rivals were genuinely saddened to see me go – because they respected me. Now if Blair were to stand down tomorrow all the reports would say ‘About time too.’

“Well, the BBC News 24 ones at the very least.”

Gavyn Davis, who also resigned with Dyke, will assume the responsibilities of gaining the Tory constituencies:

“To be honest, it’s not going to be a challenging job. Most people vote Conservative because they can’t make their minds up so vote for the first party on the list, I mean they must do – surely no one would cast a serious vote for the Tories. But as B comes before C, the BBC will be first on the list and gain the majority by default.”

Andrew Gilligan – the third high profile BBC employee to step down – resigned because it was becoming fashionable and needed to do something to boost his reputation. On hearing about the BBC’s plans to form a political party he immediately commented that when they were in power before they were responsible for selling weapons of mass destruction to Iran, Syria and North Korea and that both men were responsible for the death of his canary, which apparently committed suicide on hearing Gilligan had resigned.