Stephen Fry: 50 And Not Funny

BBC4 is showing a repeat of the celebration of Mr Fry.An orgy of sycophancy is served up.One problem.All the clips of the 80's performances reveal a painful fact that the man was not/ is not funny.Maybe it was funny at the time, let us charitably allow.

A few days ago the same channel aired a speech the man made about public service broadcasting -the future therof.No surprises for guessing that it was pro.If they paid people for spouting melifluous nonsense Mr Fry would be on top dollar.Oh,he is!The words specious claptrap come to mind when searching for a description of his performance.Here is the only salient point.It was a carefully crafted piece of special pleading,a flagrant defence of vested interests,culture delivered at the point of a gun in the form of the licence fee.The Fry argument is that people who oppose public service broadcasting are phillistines and ideologically motivated.The fact that those defending public service broadcasting are equally ideologically driven is either beyond his grasp or something he chooses to ignore.

Liberals also have the insuperable problem that in order to deliver their liberalism a degree of coercion by the State is required from which any genuine lover of freedom would recoil.They thus reveal themselves to be profoundly illiberal.Liberal totalitarianism (elephant ,drawingroom).