Rough House

It's clear from their report on the lightning licence fee settlement, that most MPs on the DCMS Select Committee have little time for either Sir Michael Lyons and Mark Thompson.  They kick Sir Michael for not leading the negotiations and writing "side letters" to Jeremy Hunt; and they kick Thommo for crowing in a speech to Voice of the Listener and Viewer conference, thus...

30.  It is worth considering within this context, Mark Thompson's comments in his speech to the VLV that:

setting the BBC's funding usually seems to involve months or even years of research, analysis and debate — not to mention gainful employment for an army of commentators and consultants […]

we entered the negotiations with confidence and I believe with the public's priorities and preferences front of mind […]

more time would have allowed more detailed discussions and more debate. But I'm sceptical, I have to say, that it would have led to a better or fairer agreement [...]

There is something almost cavalier about the first assertion, just an air of the patrician in the second, and an element of complacency in the third.

They kick Sir Michael again for an "underwhelming strategy review" - "our sense is that the hard choices on content are yet to come".  They kick Thommo again for claiming "savings and efficiencies" twice. "We urge the BBC to make it very clear in future financial statements where they are proposing new savings measures, and where they are simply progressing previously announced plans".  And they take the Daily Mail's agenda on where someone should live to do their job. 


The Trust meet today for the first time under the chairmanship of Lord Patten.  I'm looking forward to a robust response.