Salford by numbers

I've always struggled with maths and goal posts.  46% of the 88-strong team producing BBC Breakfast have opted to move north with the programme in 2012.   25% of the Marketing, Communications and Audiences staff in scope will also go - no absolute figure given.  And 33% of an unfamiliar unit, BBC Connect and Create, will make the move out of London.

These three figures (all below 50%) push the number of people moving north to 55%, says the BBC.  The previously reported figure was 45% - deemed a triumph in October 2009, by the BBC Press Office.

So what's really pushed it up that extra 10% ? "Staff outside scope who have volunteered to move since 2009". This must mean London-based staff who couldn't previously get a job with one of the moving departments, but now apparently can. Either because they fancy the lifestyle in the North West of England; or because their jobs were threatened by the continuing cuts across the wider BBC.  Let's hope they've all been through a rigorous selection procedure, otherwise some of those 5,000 applicants for the remaining 500 vacancies will be pretty hacked off.