Tie-less Thommo and the Lords

In quiet, thoughtful room in the House of Lords yesterday, BBC DG Mark Thompson and his coach Marcus Agius, Chairman of Barclays Bank, seemed a little suckered into careless remarks on pay yesterday.  Mark said there were problems attracting top talent to senior jobs, and Marcus was fairly dismissive of the injunction from the BBC Trust, that top pay is benchmarked against other industries - and then discounted by a range from 50 to 80%.

Mark cited the fact that there was only one other applicant when he became DG.   Not quite the whole picture, because Tony Hall, Jana Bennett and Jenny Abramsky were also interested.  Mark Byford was put forward by the "home side", as acting DG, but Thommo, then at Channel 4, was such an obvious choice that many others wouldn't have bothered to push "print" on their CVs.

Mark is currently selecting a new Director BBC Vision, where the six figure salary is expected to start with a three, rather than Jana Bennett's five. We're tipping George Entwistle, currently acting on a package of £197k. Other applicants are said to be Lorraine Heggessey (no evidence of a current big job, since leaving Talkback Thames in June last year); Jane Root, who set up indie Nutopia in 2009; Pat Younge (£318k package), Peter Salmon (£463k package) and Roly Keating (£258k package).  Is Mark saying that's a poor field ?   Was he hinting he'd rather have Jay Hunt back ?

Marcus Agius takes around £750k p.a. and a 31st floor Canary Wharf suite from Barclays Bank. I'm really not sure the BBC needs the Barclays' ethos in its senior management remuneration policy. Thommo can call Marcus up for advice on the phone at anytime, it seems.  Maybe Marcus should have told him to wear a tie yesterday.    Pay stuff from 15.56 onwards....