I never thought the day would come when I would say in all seriousness, it is time to scrap the BBC licence fee.

It is time for the BBC to be set loose as a fully commercial broadcaster.

It is time for you and me to be relieved of the burden of the £112 annual tax.

The Corporation has long forgotten the qualities required of a public service broadcaster.

What a sorry, sordid mess at the top of the BBC.

As Lord Birt has just revealed in his memoirs, the appointment of Greg Dyke as his successor as director general of the BBC was nothing less than a brazen fix.

He was asked by the then chairman Sir Christopher Bland to rehearse Dyke the night before the final interview with the BBC governors to make sure Dyke had his answers on political fairness absolutely right.

Some governors had rightly complained that Dyke's open support for Labour made him unacceptable. At the vote, Dyke squeezed through with "the narrowest of majorities".

This was the same Sir Christopher who had written to The Times newspaper saying the best man or woman would be appointed by the 12 governors and the field was genuinely open.

However, there appears to be no record of any other candidates being given special coaching by Lord Birt. Genuinely open?

This squalid backstairs manipulation was being conducted by a pair of unsavoury executives paid for directly by you and me - the two bosses of what was once one of the most prestigious public corporations in the world. It beggars belief.

The attitude of another senior executive, Rupert Gavin, head of BBC Worldwide, the commercial publishing arm of the BBC, is no better.

He planned to publish the memoirs of the game show host Michael Barrymore, even after the inquest revealing the tawdry details of the disgraced presenter's party at which a young guest died in horrific circumstances.

Gavin did not change his mind until pressures from Press and public forced him to cancel publication.

Pretending BBC Worldwide was living in a different world from the BBC was hypocritical humbug.

The fundamental reason for having the licence fee is to absolve the BBC from the need to scavenge alongside commercial broadcasters, fighting for ratings with which to attract advertisers. It does not need advertisers. What it does need is to produce programmes of real quality, integrity and inspiration - right across its output.

Sadly, the Corporation has lost its courage. It no longer has the confidence to believe that using the most creative talent to make the finest television programmes will once again find appreciative audiences.

The licence fee should give the BBC the freedom to reaffirm its role as world's best public service broadcaster.

The Corporation is awash with talented young people who could make it happen, given the right leadership. That is something the present crop of accountants and bureaucrats can never, ever be.