Alternative comedian

It's likely the second big name Scot to take the platform at the Edinburgh TV Festival will have more traction in Charter Renewal. Nicola Sturgeon, 45, from Irvine, follows Armando Ianucci, 51, from Glasgow today, as she presents an Alternative Taggart Lecture to Armando's Big Night Out.

She's clearly identified some opportunities. If you're breaking up the BBC Trust anyway, why not create a successor with a federal structure ?  If you're giving up BBC3 as a broadcast channel, why not give the unused spectrum to Scotland ? If Radio 4 and Radio 5Live only really penetrate England, why can't we have two national radio networks in Scotland ?

She's upping the ante way beyond those who argue that the licence fee must be spent where it is raised (cf The Midlands) to a level that says 'nations' must have some sort of parity of service with that offered to the wider UK, The bit she doesn't quite get is that, within the Osborne deal, that sort of "rebalancing" can only be achieved by taking bigs lumps out of the UK-wide budget.  And both Scotland and the UK will end up with a diminished service.