IS THE BBC biased? Yes, of course it is – depending on who you ask. Those on the right insist the BBC is a left-wing plot, while those on the left say the Corporation slavishly follows an agenda set by right-wing national newspapers.

Both sides are right and wrong at the same time, or so it seems to this observer. An organisation as big and unwieldy, as troublesome and as occasionally brilliant as the BBC is bound to cause annoyance. In the sandpit of political life, all the main parties accuse the Corporation of bias.

Witness the words of Tom Baldwin, a senior advisor to Ed Miliband at the election (bet he won't be putting that on his CV). Writing in a national newspaper, Mr Baldwin dismissed the common theory that the BBC is a giant left-wing conspiracy.

"It is no such thing," he wrote. "And I write that with the certainty of someone who has spent the year making almost daily complaints to the BBC on behalf of the Labour Party."

The Tories complained something rotten about BBC election coverage – and yet they won, so the BBC clearly isn't much cop at being biased. In the end, all parties moan about the corporation. This suggests the BBC must be doing something right (or something left).

It's an old argument, and one that has been dredged up again because the new culture secretary is an old Thatcherite Tory who is said to be no friend of the BBC. This at least was the view of the usual suspect national newspapers as they piled in gleefully with stories about the Government "going to war against the BBC".

Nearly all of main national newspapers are BBC-phobic, either on ideological grounds or for business reasons. Newspapers owned by Rupert Murdoch are obliged to disparage the BBC at every opportunity. It is safe to hazard that this is because Murdoch believes the BBC gets in his way and stops him making enough money.

Others just don't like the look of the BBC, including the Daily Mail. Mind you, the Mail doesn't much like the look of anything. Not liking the look of a thing is its main reason for existing, or so it seems.

Before the election, the Mail used the antics "exposed" in the BBC comedy W1A to deliver the following verdict in a review: "If the bumbling buffoons of W1A are even halfway accurate then it's little wonder that all the political parties are promising to either reduce or freeze the licence fee."

Let's pause here for a moment. So a sit-com which makes fun of ludicrous meetings at the BBC, or inane meetings anywhere else, is a reason to condemn the BBC. Can you imagine Sky TV running a comedy which mocked itself or made fun of Rupert Murdoch? Of course not.

Whether Mr Whittingdale leads an all-out assault on the BBC or merely bashes it about a bit, only time will tell. He has in the past trotted out the depressing line that there is no public-service reason for popular TV shows such as Strictly Come Dancing. Well, none other than the fact that the public likes such shows – which are therefore doing a public service.

We would be an awful lot worse off without the BBC, or with a humbled BBC that was only allowed to make dull programmes that no one wanted to watch.

In this country we have a rich mix of broadcasting and other media. The Beeb remains an important keystone in all of that. It doesn't do everything right. When it comes to the national news, Channel 4 wins for this viewer, and don't ask me to defend The One Show. But we'd be a poorer country if the dedicated Beeb-bashers had their way.

CITY of York Council is to be run by the Conservatives and the Lib-Dems. Cue giggles and obvious remarks about the dangers of coalitions containing those two parties. Wherever did they get that idea? Hopefully, there isn't a rose-garden anywhere close to West Offices.

But let's be serious. The biggest threat to local life lies in further government cuts. And that's not me speaking. It's the Tory-controlled Local Government Association, which has written to Chancellor George Osborne warning that further cuts would devastate local services and harm the vulnerable.

It's hard to disagree with that.