New deal

Union activists at the BBC always said they were ready to pay more for a decent pension.  So that's the new deal on offer from Mark Thompson this morning.

Under current scheme/s, staff pay 4% of their salary in; today's proposal offers a pension that will reflect a career average salary (at age 65, mind you - an age very few people currently reach at the BBC) if staff are prepared to surrender 7% of their earnings a year.  Neil Midgley has the whole Thommo memo at the Telegraph. It's not, I think, a climbdown, as Neil's headline says - more a concession. What's missing is how much extra the Executive have decided the licence fee can contribute to the scheme (if any) and where it's coming from....  We now have until November to find out.