Normal service

He'd probably call it being helpful, winning publicity and making the case for more funds - but I suspect BBC News bosses are increasingly cheesed off with their World Affairs Editor, John Simpson.

In a wide-ranging and oddly-unfocussed interview with The Independent, John's principal point seems to be confessing to previous tax avoidance and now putting that right. Could he be pre-empting another newspaper's story ? He reveals his and his South African wife had put their London town house in the control of a Bahamas-based company, which would have allowed the company to avoid stamp duty or inheritance tax in a future sale. Now he's changed that. However, he protests "I pay rather a lot of tax".

Then it's on to the perilous state of the BBC's foreign newsgathering coffers. "The BBC's budgets are being cut so horrendously you can't spend more than four or five days on a story now. We only have one foreign trip for the London-based correspondents in the coming months – it happens to be me going to China. The rest of it is all going to be based in our foreign bureaux, which is fine but it's not normal service. This ongoing series of cuts is quite wrong. It's bad for the entire BBC, it's bad for the TV industry and it's bad for the country."

There are those - some viewers and many BBC correspondents - who will welcome this development. Foreign planners might like to know what John's movements for the rest of the year, so they can ensure funds are in place. "I'd like to go back to Zimbabwe. I'm planning to spend time in the Amazon later this year which I'm sure will be difficult."

And finally, one in the eye for news colleague Huw Edwards leading Jubilee coverage."I missed David Dimbleby so much. I do find it a bit weird that we've got this state-of-the-art Rolls-Royce that for some reason we don't always bring out for these occasions."