David Elstein
Ann Arbor
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Articles by David Elstein
Nandy’s ‘Netflix tax’ is the pure insanity
The news that Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy is considering adding a "streamer tax" to her list of options for bolstering the BBC's finances caused predictable outrage amongst readers of the Daily Telegraph – and no doubt many others. It is a dumb idea.
Nandy’s ‘Netflix tax’ is the pure insanity
The news that Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy is considering adding a “streamer tax” to her list of options for bolstering the BBC’s finances caused predictable outrage amongst readers of the Daily Telegraph – and no doubt many others. The news that Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy is considering adding a “streamer tax” to her list of options for bolstering the BBC’s finances caused predictable outrage amongst readers of the Daily Telegraph – and no doubt many others. It is a dumb idea.
There’s only one way to fund the BBC (and John Simpson won’t like it)
John Simpson, the veteran BBC foreign correspondent, is the latest from that venerable institution to pronounce its historic funding mechanism, the TV licence, as a busted flush and no longer fit for purpose. The BBC chairman and its new director-general also did so in July in evidence given to the Commons' culture committee, which was examining the BBC's future funding.
I saw the BBC in its glory days. It’s no wonder our pride in it has plummeted
At the start of my working life, I spent four years at the BBC. As a general trainee, I was privileged to be assigned first to the World Service, before transferring to what is now Radio 4, and then to BBC TV current affairs. As a member of the Panorama team led by Jeremy Isaacs, starring such reporters as James Cameron, Robert Kee, John Morgan, Michael Charlton and James Mossman, I felt not just proud, but intensely proud. I will always be grateful for that opportunity.
What has the BBC ever done for us? Very little, it seems
The BBC has made another self-promoting video, this time referencing John Cleese's speech (as "Reg", in Monty Python's Life of Brian), asking: "What have the Romans ever done for us?" Sadly, the video completely miscues, by featuring the comedian and regular presenter of BBC shows Romesh Ranganathan asking, instead: "What has the BBC ever done for me?" The answer disappointingly isn't: "Plenty of jobs, actually." Nearly thirty years ago, BBC Presentation, memorably led by the talented Pam...
Britain is castigated for crushing the Mau Mau rebellion. Kenya should thank us instead
It is nearly 75 years since the Kenya Emergency was declared. The then British colony was facing an uprising (the Mau Mau rebellion) within its largest tribe, the Kikuyu, who formed 20 per cent of the population. Mau Mau remains an emotive term, even today (though its origins remain unexplained). The rebels, the self-declared "Land and Freedom Army", portrayed themselves as doughty warriors against colonialism.
New model Auntie
Big decisions that Matt Brittin, the BBC’s new director-general, needs to make very quickly in order to save the Corporation This article is taken from the June 2026 issue of The Critic. To get the full magazine why not subscribe? Find our subscription offers here. Matt Brittin started work as the BBC’s director-general in May. The public have two key expectations of the Corporation: that it provides excellent programmes and accurate, impartial news.
The BBC stares into the abyss
As its new Director General, Matt Brittin, prepares to take the reins, the response by the BBC to the Government Green Paper on renewal of its Charter is a cry of anguish. A mixture of self-aggrandisement and self-pity, it demonstrates a remarkable lack of self-awareness. The document is full of information, but is unreliable. It argues for “real reform” of the Corporation’s financing, yet its bedrock demand remains that everyone must be forced to pay for the BBC, whether they like it or not.
The licence fee must go, and the BBC must earn its living fairly. Here’s how
Tuesday’s publication of the government’s Green Paper on the future of the BBC gives the public three months to respond to a series of questions about how the Corporation should be regulated, run and financed. The last of these issues is the most important. It is also the easiest to answer, even if the document tiptoes around the licence fee as if it were an unexploded bomb.
How the BBC brought in the licence fee by stealth
Opinion David Elstein Sun, December 14, 2025 at 7:00 AM UTC 5 min read Consumer behaviour is inexorably moving away from live viewing of broadcast output to streaming of content - Mike Kemp/In Pictures The BBC regards “universality” as one of its core values. But what does it mean? It also argues that preserving “universality” makes it impossible for the BBC to move from licence fee funding to subscription funding. Is this the truth?
Olusoga’s BBC rewriting of the Mau Mau Emergency is a travesty
Prisoners are marched towards Githunguri court in Kenya during 1953 at the time of the Mau Mau uprising - AFP Tucked into an 8-minute section of the third episode of his 3-part documentary series, “Empire”, David Olusoga’s account of the Mau Mau Emergency in colonial Kenya in the 1950s is not just deeply skewed and error-strewn, but – by the end – unintentionally hilarious.
Humility is anathema to an arrogant and out of touch BBC
ANDY RAIN/EPA/Shutterstock More than 20 years ago BBC2 broadcast an edition of its “Correspondent” series entitled “Kenya: White Terror”, dealing with the Mau Mau rebellion in the 1950s. One of the interviewees was a former district commissioner, who was asked if he had beaten or authorised the beating of Mau Mau detainees. Having already been asked the question, and replied in the negative, he paused lengthily before replying again, through gritted teeth, “no”.
Trump’s film tariffs would be a total flop
The President’s idea for rejuvenating Hollywood is an absolute clunker “Hollywood is dying,” asserted President Trump, reportedly after talking to veteran actor Jon Voight, the 86-year-old father of Angelina Jolie. Reaching for his trusty weapon of choice, Trump threatened to impose a tariff of 100 per cent on “foreign” films imported to the US.
Subscribe to save the BBC
This article is taken from the December-January 2025 issue of The Critic. To get the full magazine why not subscribe? Right now we’re offering five issues for just £10. The BBC’s most recent Proms season — the last to be organised by David Pickard — brought widespread praise for many of its concerts and its overall ambition. Yet barely commented on was that only 26 out of the 73 Proms concerts reached our television screens (and only six on the night of the performance), let alone why.
On Esports and competitive cooking: once more on the nature of sport
ABSTRACT I offer a modified definition of sport. Some have claimed that it is impossible to define sport. I believe it is possible to give a definition, understood as articulating intuitive views about what correct usage of the word is. Through an examination of competitive cooking and Esports, I argue that a common definition of sport as a game of physical skill needs to be modified to account for why these should not be considered sports.
Death by a thousand cuts
This article is taken from the October 2024 issue of The Critic. To get the full magazine why not subscribe? Right now we’re offering five issues for just £10. “Never miss a beat! The Proms! On iPlayer and BBC Sounds!” Through July, August and September, this promotional message was ubiquitous on BBC Television. But it was subtly misleading. Every one of this season’s 73 Proms from the Royal Albert Hall was indeed broadcast live on Radio 3, and can be heard again on BBC Sounds.
Kenya’s history rewritten
Inflated Mau Mau death figures based on incorrect statistical projections have now become accepted as “fact” This article is taken from the December-January 2024 issue of The Critic. To get the full magazine why not subscribe? Right now we’re offering five issues for just £10. The alarm bells should have rung as soon as the Buckingham Palace press releases landed.
How Ofcom signed off on Channel 4’s lies
The regulator was complicit in a misleading C4 documentary about the Mau Mau uprising in Kenya This article is taken from the August-September 2023 issue of The Critic. To get the full magazine why not subscribe? Right now we’re offering five issues for just £10. The UK’s media regulator, Ofcom, is toto take on new responsibilities.
ABOS and ACGME Partner on a New Platform
American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery and Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education Partner on a New Platform to Facilitate Case Log Entry and Real-Time Assessment June 20, 2023 – CHAPEL HILL, NC and CHICAGO, IL – The American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery (ABOS) and the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) are excited to announce their collaboration on a new platform in which orthopaedic surgery residents submit their surgical skills and professional...
Fox/Sky: more twists and turns
The 21 st Century Fox bid to buy the 61% of Sky it doesn’t own has provoked a formidable level of opposition. Will that count when push comes to shove? Who would want to be a media regulator? The whole idea of cross-media regulation is bedevilled by confusion.
The state of Channel 4
It should be much easier for Channel 4, unburdened by the in-house inertia of other broadcasters, to address the “nations and regions deficit” that disfigures the broadcasting sector. Is it time to relocate? Channel 4’s Chief Executive, David Abraham, and Chief Creative Officer, Jay Hunt, are leaving on a high note.
11 August 2017 Frontpage
Civil Society Futures is a national conversation about how English civil society can flourish in a fast changing world.Come and add your voice»
The meaning of Dunkirk
David Elstein, director of three episodes of the seminal "The World At War" series, finds Dunkirk to be a powerful film but one shorn of historical context. Here he fills in the vital gaps - and finds some curious anomalies. Few movies made in Britain have been as successful as Christopher Nolan’s “Dunkirk”. Like many “British” films – and thanks to a generous tax credit scheme, coupled with a favourable exchange rate – “Dunkirk” was funded by a Hollywood studio (in this case, Warner Bros).
Fox and Sky: what happens to media plurality now?
For those people passionately opposed to Rupert Murdoch’s media empire, the statement from Karen Bradley last Thursday would have aroused mixed emotions. One of the companies in which the Murdoch Family Trust (MFT) holds a controlling 39% interest – the US-based 21st Century Fox, hereafter “Fox” – is trying to buy all of Sky plc, in which Fox itself already holds a controlling 39% share.
DUP Dark money | openDemocracy
Theresa May is desperately clinging to power, relying on the DUP, the hard-right party that has blocked same-sex marriage, and kept abortion illegal. Worse still, they're bankrolled by dark money – we've exposed the shady group behind their lavish pro-Brexit campaigning, but they're still refusing to name their secret donors. Now they hold the balance of power at Westminster, it's even more vital that we find out who their paymasters are.
The football kicking the players, on the fiftieth anniversary of the 1967 war
What was truly ironic about the Arab legal case was that Arab representatives at the 1967 UNSC laid out the legal justification for what Israel did, beginning on June 5. June 5 was the anniversary of the outbreak of the 1967 war. It is too long a time to rely on memory and since there was no internet then, web accessible historical documents tend to be sparse and subject to a selection process impacted by current ‘narratives’.
My Three Day war: a memoir
Derby Day 50 years ago saw me in the nearest betting shop to the BBC’s Lime Grove studios. I was actually on stand-by for Panorama, just in case the Israeli authorities allowed any TV crews in to cover the conflict in the Middle East that had broken out the previous Sunday.
Should the law be changed to make sure the BBC does not lose out in the steadily changing world of digital viewing?
Splash headlines about the BBC are not unusual in the solidly conservative British newspaper, the Daily Telegraph. Usually, they are negative, or even hostile: the “Torygraph” (as friends as well as critics often dub it) views the BBC with suspicion and even hostility, as a bastion of liberal values, overpaid bureaucrats and EU-friendly programme makers.
The Sky bid: battle commences
The opponents of the bid by 21st Century Fox (or 21CF), controlled, through a 39% minority stake, by the Murdoch family trust (or MFT) for the 61% of Sky plc it does not already own (but which it effectively controls, also through a 39% stake) can celebrate: they have won their first skirmish.
ITV News takes another backward step
On Monday February 27th, ITV – the UK’s dominant commercial broadcaster – will once again exile its most prestigious news bulletin from its 10pm slot, first established fifty years ago. “News At Ten” was for decades a key ingredient of the ITV schedule, attractive to discriminating viewers and advertisers alike, and although not a major audience winner, part of a line-up that out-rated its rival channel BBC1, year in and year out through the 1980s and early 1990s.
Branding and Identity partner wanted for the Inquiry into the Future of Civil Society Project
The Inquiry into the Future of Civil Society is looking for a partner to develop and deliver the branding and identity for this landmark two year project that aims to provide a clear vision for the role of civil society in England over the next ten years. We want a partner who will work with us in a collaborative way, taking a co-development approach in order to ensure that the branding and identity reflect the ambition and scope of the project.
Bauman's legacy | openDemocracy
Forgive me, this is as personal as it is political. I don’t know what to do. A world that was getting darker suddenly turned pitch black. Zygmunt Bauman is dead. The towering intellectual colossus of our times and yet such a frail, slight and humble human being is gone. He lived an amazing life and was an amazing person. The brilliance of his mind and the warmth of his heart shone so strongly and clearly that even in these bleakest of times we had a person that could light the way to a good society.
Was the Richmond Park by-election really a setback for Brexit?
Zac Goldsmith’s billionaire father, Sir James Goldsmith, tried to upset the 1997 general election with his personally-financed Referendum Party, whose objective was to force a referendum on Britain’s membership of the European Union. The campaign failed, Sir James himself winning a negligible number of votes in Putney (where I live); two months later, he died of pancreatic cancer.
Rupert returns | openDemocracy
21 st Century Fox – the Murdoch family’s entertainment conglomerate – is bidding for the 61% of satellite broadcaster Sky it does not own. Predictably, alarm bells are ringing? What is at stake? Rupert Murdoch launched Sky television as a UK-targeted satellite television service in 1988. Its meagre offering included a movie channel, an entertainment channel, the UK’s first 24-hour news channel and a rudimentary sports package. Few expected it to survive.
The challenges of negotiating a post-Brexit FTA with the EU
While an UK-EU free trade agreement may seem the best way forward, a comprehensive FTA’s scope along with the time and capacity needed to conclude it makes that a difficult sell. Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, which sets out the mechanisms for how to withdraw from the EU, has generated much debate ever since the UK voted to leave the Union on 23 June. Can it be triggered without Parliamentary approval? Is it reversible once triggered?
International trade implications post-Brexit
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The British government will not have enough time to negotiate all the necessary trade issues once it triggers Article 50, so many interim agreements will be needed to preserve UK trade. The UK wants to get the best possible access for goods and services to the European market. At the same time it wants greater regulatory space in shaping its own trade policy.
By Luis Gonzalez, Luis Javier González Cuéllar Verified, David Elstein, Georges Haddad, Yaacov Hecht
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openDemocracy
Verified
Four myths about Brexit and financial services
UK-based finance firms will need far more than just ‘passporting’ rights to keep up their operations in the EU after Brexit, and the government will likely want something in return. The result of June’s referendum on whether the UK should leave the EU has exposed limits in assumptions and concepts that strategic planners at financial services (FS) firms – from banks and insurers to dealers and asset managers – must recognise.
Brexit: Ireland stands to lose most
From a British and Irish business perspective, Brexit has the potential to be one of the most disruptive events for trade and business of the post-industrial age. In the immediate aftermath, it has been Irish businesses that have suffered most, although many economists agree that the UK economy is likely to start feeling the effects in the New Year. The UK is Ireland’s largest two-way trading partner, supplying 34% of Ireland’s imports and taking 16% of Ireland’s exports.
How to be President, in 140 characters or (much) less
Barack Obama, like so many others, never saw it coming. Assured by his pollsters that his anointed successor had a lock on the election, he was stunned by the actual result. So in his classy, graceful way, he took on the role of grief counsellor for his shocked and shattered staff as Hillary’s brick wall in the Rust Belt collapsed – barely defended, as it turned out, with her electoral strategy undermined by complacency and a sharper, cheaper, better-organised opposition.
Mexican environmental grassroots protest: what does it mean to resist and defend the territory in a repressive context?
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Facing up to the fear of repression, powerlessness, loneliness, and hopelessness is the only way for people not to give up. The openMovements series invites leading social scientists to share their research results and perspectives on contemporary social struggles.
By Barry Hindess, David Elstein, Alice Poma, Tommaso Gravante, Michael Edwards, Anthony Barnett Verified
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openDemocracy
Verified
Populism, the era of Trump and the rise of the far right
I am amazed to discover the sheer volume of hand-wringing there is going on about our present political era of Trump, Brexit and the rise of the far right in Europe. It would seem that President-elect Trump has triggered mass hysteria about a threatening return to the fascist conditions that led to the second world war. But is this a fair assessment?
Wed 30 Nov FP | openDemocracy
Since democracy is a form of dependency on the will of others, we need to work a lot harder to overcome our narcissism and belief that we know best.
My 350 on Donald Trump: why the economy will boom
Trump’s win made everyone, not just politicos and news junkies, aware of deep and sustained current conflicts in American society that would have been played down in the event of a Clinton win. Difference and contestation are now out in the open. More importantly, Trump's victory has made us more aware of the stakes and the scope of these present conflicts. Overnight, politics has become relevant to people across the globe.
The biggest Brexit scandal of them all
The most disturbing aspect of the referendum campaign was the failure to acknowledge – on either side of the argument – the issue that has now emerged: process. Largely concealed from the electorate during the referendum campaign is the question that has recently taken the foreground in the post-Brexit debate – the sheer difficulty of disentangling the UK from the EU, even given the will and the necessary support.
“Build democracy and it spreads like a virus"
In 2015, Nathan co-organised “Platform Cooperativism,” a pioneering conference in New York, which kick started a wave of global discussion about online democratic platforms. He recently co-edited the book, Ours to Hack and to Own: The Rise of Platform Cooperativism, a New Vision for the Future of Work and a Fairer Internet. In the run up to the Open 2017 - Platform Co-ops conference in London, Oliver Sylvester-Bradley, from The Open Co-op explores some of Nathan’s ideas.
Review: The Fall, series 3
Too often, UK drama series are re-commissioned simply because of audience figures, irrespective of whether their quality or inherent open-endedness justifies such extension. So “Broadchurch 2” on ITV was a complete bust, despite the success of the first series; “Missing” (on BBC1) and “Humans” (Channel 4) have started their second series, neither very promisingly (“Missing” has mysteriously become “The Missing”).
Channel 4: a national treasure?
Channel 4’s new drama series, National Treasure, strikes familiar notes: politically engaged, contemporary, challenging. An ageing comedian, played by Robbie Coltrane, now reduced to presenting a daytime show on Channel 4 (where else?), is accused of sexual crimes in the distant past. A pair of odiously fashionable commissioning editors at Horseferry Road tells him his hosting duties will not be needed for the time being.
The draft BBC Charter is “distinctively” fishy
One of the most significant differences between the recently published draft BBC Charter and the current one is a new requirement for the BBC to be “distinctive”. The most recent development in the Bake Off story served up by Damian Collins MP, Acting Chair of the Select Committee for Culture Media and Sport, is a timely reminder that this “distinctiveness” requirement has the potential for long-term damage to the BBC.
Diversity - what Ofcom needs to do
Ofcom's new CEO has pledged to make diversity and inclusion a priority. The regulator needs to improve or it could face judicial review. Ofcom is now the regulator for the entire broadcasting sector and has a decisive role to play in driving diversity and inclusion. For the commercial sector, Sections 27 and 337 of the Communications Act requires Ofcom and broadcasters to promote equal opportunities.
The Great British Bake Off defects to Channel 4 - what does it all mean?
It took the independent production company, Love Productions, four years to persuade the BBC to try out a baking contest as a series idea. In 2010, "The Great British Bake-Off" (otherwise known as GBBO) launched on BBC2, inauspiciously, with an audience of some 2 million.
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