Stone rolling

There now seems to be some reasonable momentum in the campaign to review the cuts to BBC local radio. In this morning's Adjournment Debate in Westminster Hall. I reckon 60 MPs made an appearance.

There were calls for fuller debates in the Commons and Lords - but the next interesting date for your diaries is 2nd November, 4.15pm when Mark Thompson and Lord Patten are making themselves available to MPs.

Responding, Ed Vaizey got the tone wrong - and, as Ben Bradshaw noted, his speech sounded like it could have been written by BBC management.  It certainly had the ambiguous stat that Thommo peddles - that he's "protecting the output that reaches 86% of local radio listeners".  Let him apply that principle to Radio 4, if it's such rational way of making a cut.

Vaizey commended Helen Boaden's blog on the topic, though acknowledged that others might be more sceptical about its promises.  Another MP revealed that the BBC's Public Affairs unit have been out spinning on the topic, with one Julia Ockenden explaining it's not Management's fault that local radio is facing 20% cuts - it's a problem with the costs of the buildings and transmitters that the Management bought for them.