MP cancels his BBC licence over women and white privilege podcast

The BBC has been accused of wasting money on a podcast of “racist drivel” about women and white privilege.

One Tory MP, Ben Bradley, said he would cancel his licence fee in protest at the edition of No Country for Young Women and its discussion about “Karens”.

“Karen” is a term that originated in the US and describes a middle-class, usually middle-aged, white woman who displays a sense of entitlement and a patronising manner that masks racist attitudes.

The BBC Sounds podcast hosted a discussion with Dr Charlotte Riley, a feminist historian, and Amelia Dimoldenberg, who presents a YouTube series.

The presenter, Sadia Azmat, asked: “How can white women not be Karens?” The guests replied that they should educate themselves on the history of white women and accept that whiteness is a privilege.

Ms Dimoldenberg said: “Don’t be so loud. Stop shouting and stop attacking black voices, instead you should be uplifting them.” Dr Riley added: “Get out of the way, basically.”

MPs said the BBC should not be wasting money on such things after just announcing £25m in cuts to regional news services.

Neil O’Brien, MP for Harborough, Oadby and Wigston, tweeted: “The BBC just slashed regional news so it can fund this kind of racist drivel to try [to] get down with the kids.”

Ben Bradley, MP for Mansfield, said: “BBC spending £100m on diversity and this junk (which honestly is racist! Would not be acceptable the other way around!) whilst at the same time ditching regional news in order to save £25m.

“Absolute joke. Cancelling my TV license [sic]. I don’t need to pay for this.”

Mr Bradley said later that the BBC was displaying “backwards priorities” by ditching regional reporting to save £25 million but spending four times that on diversity initiatives.

A recent high profile ‘Karen’ story featured Amy Cooper, a New York City banker who was caught in a viral video making a hysterical call to police and claiming that a black man had threatened her life in Central Park. In fact, he was a birdwatcher who had asked her to put her dog on a lead.