Out of here

The BBC DG Mark Thompson was on a tram out of Salford shortly after 10am this morning. He strode to the back, to sit on his own. One Twitterer saw him at Piccadilly - "he looked knackered".

He spent 2 minutes of his 19 minute speech at the Radio Festival on BBC local radio. Again he stressed that it was not being singled out or victimised in the DQF cuts.  However, because of high fixed costs in property and transmission (signed off presumably at finance committees by the DG), the impact of the cuts would be more severe.  Understand ?

Meanwhile, in an adjacent room, Controller Radio 4 Gwyneth Williams announced she was spending some of her budget (singled out for protection) on sending Just A Minute to India, for its vital 45th Anniversary. You could not make it up.

More later when somebody posts Thommo's Q & As.  The Radio Festival - not streamed anywhere.