A glance at the conservative press shows you that dissent not only on the BBC but also on the EU is simply not allowed to exist. Even civilised conservatives, who deplore the dumbing-down of British culture, can never discuss in public what would happen to that culture if their allies succeeded in abolishing Radios Three and Four. Scottish nationalists boast that theirs is a warm and cuddly “civic” nationalism, yet they demand the sacking of BBC journalists who fail to show proper deference to their leaders.

The easy explanation for the group-think is that many journalists act like prostitutes, whoring out their integrity to whoever pays them. It is certainly the case that you cannot defend the BBC in most right-wing newspapers without running into trouble.

In his memoir Hack, Graham Johnson, who worked on the News of the World until the hacking scandal closed it, describes the Murdoch press as being like a dictatorship: “You learn to become a good functionary, a good corporate functionary. You learn to instinctively edit your ideas to fit the newspaper and the political views of the proprietor and the editors.”

But the usual complaints about mercenary journalists miss the point. The Scottish nationalists’ assault on broadcasters is led by political activists not commercial competitors. And in England the journalists most likely to go along with Hacked Off or demand the destruction of the BBC aren’t proper reporters but ideological commentators.

And therein lies the answer. Scottish nationalists and English Tories obsess about the BBC because they want it to be more not less biased. They want their prejudices confirmed, and if they can’t have that, they want BBC reporters to think once, twice, a hundred times before giving Nicola Sturgeon or David Cameron too hard a time.

Because the BBC is funded by a licence fee everyone must pay, because it is in the end a state broadcaster, fanatics from all sides know that it folds under pressure, which was why Tony Blair’s government attacked it with a ferocity it never displayed towards its opponents in the Tory press.

For all the sectarian fervour he has aroused, John Whittingdale is not saying he will end the licence fee. For all its attempts to intimidate journalists, the SNP does not want to close the BBC but seize control of it.

Scrupulous politicians know they must show restraint if free societies are to remain free. In London and Edinburgh unscrupulous politicians know that an “independent” broadcaster that can be threatened with cuts to its grants and bullied in a way no truly independent journalist would ever accept, is much too useful an institution to destroy.