The longest day

It's bash the BBC day, as the Annual Report is unveiled. Sir Michael Lyons tries a pre-emptive strike, telling The Telegraph, executive bonuses are suspended until the Trust agrees they can come back. Later, Mark Thompson will probably point to an internal review of executive pay, due to report in the autumn - but will it be enough to sate the newspaper op-ed pages ? And will the balance sheet reflect the black hole in long-term funding that many programme makers think exists ?

Culture Secretary Ben Bradshaw in the FT takes sides on the top slicing of the licence fee, saying there "..are plenty of people within the BBC that do not feel it is a well-led organisation and that is almost for me the most worrying thing. And they don’t feel they are being well-led on this issue. It fits into a pattern. It is not the only issue. There is almost a feeling of despair among a lot of highly respected BBC professionals.” Oh dear. The BBC political strategists are being driven into the unwelcoming arms of Jeremy Hunt and David Cameron.