The culture minister said former Tory Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher – who founded Channel 4 in the early 1980s – wanted to be “free of state restrictions” by the end of the decade. Ms Dorries also appeared to suggest that a “series” of fascism “always existed in and around Channel 4” in an article for the Mail on Sunday. He referred to statements by left-wing Labor MP Claudia Webbe, who said privatization was “the plantation of fascism”. Ms Doris wrote: “A Labor MP has argued that a Channel 4 sale would be ‘the hotbed of fascism’.” I should not be surprised. This series has always existed in and around Channel 4 “. The minister added: “The former head of news, Dorothy Byrne, who defended the station, is the same person who in a lecture compared our prime minister with Vladimir Putin.” Ms. Byrne, who has condemned the decision to sell the channel, said in 2019 that Johnson was a “known liar” who repulsed Putin’s approach to the media. She said the prime minister’s move to online videos after regular interviews with journalists reminded her of the Russian leader who “likes to speak directly to the nation”. The controversial decision to sell out the public broadcaster has sparked outrage from opposition parties, some top Tory supporters and leading media personalities. Ms Byrne claimed that Doris “did not know much about broadcasting” – and noted that Thatcher “invented Channel 4” in 1982 to spur investment in independent television. But the culture minister insisted she had “a really conservative and Thatcherite vision for Channel 4”, arguing that privatization would allow the channel to grow and invest in better technology. Attacking the “lazy, overworked and misinformed rhetoric of the Leftie luvvie lynch mob,” Dorries wrote: in complete abusive behavior. hysteria.” In her memoirs, Thatcher said that by 1988 she had decided that Channel 4 would be better privatized, but said she had been defeated by the “monopoly grip” of the broadcaster. “In 1988, Margaret Thatcher was right,” Doris said. “He could see that Channel 4 would only make full use of its potential when it was free of state restrictions – and that is the vision and the result that we will offer.” Labor described the plan as “cultural vandalism” and warned it would cost the industry jobs in the north of England. Baroness Davidson, the former leader of the Scottish Tory party, has also suggested that she will cut jobs in the independent sector outside London. “This is the opposite of uplifting,” Tory’s peer said of the plan. The sell-off is expected to be part of a draft media law to be presented in the Queen’s speech – which will set the upcoming agenda for Boris Johnson’s government – next month. Defeat in the Commons seems unlikely, given the working majority of 77-year-old Boris Johnson, but the story in the Lords may be different, as there is no majority of Tories in the upper room. Tory MP Sir Peter Bottomley, who said he opposed the sale “because I am a Conservative”, said his peers would revolt. “The House of Lords will remove any clause privatizing Channel 4,” he said.
