Minutiae

Not much to learn from the latest set of BBC Trust minutes, except that, by Janaury, the DG was not ready with his "tough choices", i.e. closing BBC3 as a liner broadcast channel, so we'll have to wait for February minutes for that. Did things really move that fast ? Are we talking sudden black hole ?

This is the Trust getting grumpy about diversity statistics, and lack of progress towards not-very-challenging targets. "Trust members discussed the report with the Executive, agreeing that, while some progress had been made, it remained very slow. They agreed this was caused by a number of factors, including the low turnover of staff in some departments".

Elsewhere, we glean that Sir Howard Stringer is on board as a new non-executive with the Trust, and it looks like Brian McBride will move aside when Tone and Jim find someone else - he's got a one-month extension, having been in the post just a year.