Springer

Ma Hodge has the scent of big BBC blood and a lust for a kangaroo court, it seems. There may not be enough chairs for her next Public Accounts Committee - The Non-Contractual Severance Payment Public Hanging Session, Editor's Cut - with ex-DG Mark Thompson, ex-senior non-exec Marcus Agius already "invited".  Presumably Antony Fry will be there again, as will Lucy Adams - and surely ex-chair Sir Michael Lyons will eventually want to make his case ? Now there's talk of Mark Byford and Caroline Thomson getting the black-edged invites; will Pat Loughrey be far behind ?

Seven or eight in the front row is unprecedented; it could turn out like a Jerry Springer families-at-war special. Ma Hodge, a tad disingenuously, tells the Guardian ""I don't want scalps. What I want is to get at the truth, and I'm fed up with them all blaming each other. I'm going to get them all in front of the committee together because I can't think of any other way of successfully finding out who was responsible for making those crass decisions. Then those responsible will have to think about their positions."

Expect some Murdoch-style letters of atonement before we get there...