Voting rights

An interesting contribution to the Charter Renewal debate from John Tate, the BBC policy and strategy chief squeezed out by the arrival of James Purnell. In a talk in Oxford last night, the guts of which have appeared as a Guardian blog, he argues for democratisation of BBC governance, with each licence fee-payer getting a sort of Co-op divi, in the form of a vote for non-executive directors, who then appoint the Director-General.

This avoids any dangerous stuff, like licence-fee payers voting direct to bring back Top of The Pops, Compact, Adam Adamant and Tales of the Para Handy, and stops short of how you decide the level of the licence fee. But, Tate argues, it must be big enough to keep the BBC in the UK's top ten of internet sites.

Whilst John told his Oxford audience it was the end of a six-year career with Auntie, it looks like he's staying as Chairman of BBC Studios and Post Production, with his last reported wedge for that put at £80k p.a.