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Partway through Wednesday’'s highly controversial speech on the future of the BBC, the culture secretary, Nicky Morgan, struck a rather conciliatory note. After warning that the corporation could go the way of Blockbuster, foisting unwanted VHS cassettes on to a public too busy streaming, she acknowledged that: “"British broadcasters remain essential. Universal availability means the BBC and other public-service broadcasters can still create shared moments that bring the country together".” Take the Gay-in and Stacey seasonal special, which became the most watched TV comedy in 17 years. She marvelled: “"On Christmas evening millions of us sat down to watch the same programme at the same time.”" It was the kind of observation that would not be out of place in a director general’'s speech, painting a picture of Britain’s favourite Auntie, the box in the corner that keeps the family together, a wellspring of information and entertainment - in short, a national institution as vital to our culture as the NHS is to our health.

If Lady Morgan really does believe that, a question arises: why on earth is she; taking a financial sledgehammer to the foundations of the BBC? A universal service that takes no outside advertising, the corporation is funded by a licence fee levied on all households that are not otherwise exempt. That has been the case since the end of the Second World War, and those who do not pay what they owe face fines or even criminal prosecution. On Wednesday, however, the culture secretary called time on the entire regime, proposing that non-payment of the licence fee no longer be treated as a criminal offence and even warning that come the end of this charter period in December 2027, “"we must all be open minded about the future of the licence fee”".

So on the one hand. Lady Morgan values -the universalism of the BBC, while on the other she wants to take away the financial means of keeping it universal. The case for decriminalisation is easily made: it is largely women and the poor who get prosecuted. But that argument was considered and rejected a 2015 review by David Perry QC, who found the system fair and proportionate. True, viewers in the UK are going more digital, and research last October from the regulator Ofcom found that children in their early teens more readily recognise YouTube and Netflix than the BBC. But the job of a government that recognises the BBC’s value is to find ways to keep it financially sustainable. In Sweden, the government has moved from a fee-based regime for public-service broadcasting to a tax. Such are the fruits of a mature social democracy rather than Britain’'s political culture of kidding yourself that someone else can pay your way. Pretending Netflix is the future and the BBC the past is flat wrong: in order to grab millions of subscribers, Netflix has amassed billions in debt. Baroness Morgan should rethink her stance: universal services need universal funding. The alternatives are either cutting programmes or losing viewers.

Which is not true about BBC

A) BBC is funded by donations

B) BBC is funded by license fee

C) BBC takes no outside advertising

D) All the above