Belts

Tony Hall's financial fixer, Anne Bulford, has unveiled a raft of measures to save BBC money without hitting programmes. The elephant in her latest email is "merging divisions", which will have everyone twitching.

There is some detail on smaller matters of house-keeping - no first class rail travel, no claims for lunch in the UK, no taxis for staff use during the day in London Zones 1 to 3; a reduction in the mileage allowance for late night and early morning taxis - from 40 to 25. Thus, for every mile beyond 25 you live away from your base, you'll pay £1.60 back to Auntie on every taxi journey. This is tougher on shift-working lower-paid support staff, who often move well out of the centre to get to affordable homes.

In the air, flights less than six hours will be economy; over six, you can go premium economy.  First will still be allowed for overnight and flights lasting more than eight hours, if you can demonstrate you're hitting the ground working.

There's a worrying phrase used - "subsistence alcohol", which will no longer be claimable. I presume this means staff can still buy a drink for a contributor, but not for their own habit.

Standby for the traditional late October issuing of job cuts targets to be achieved by March 2016. That'll have even more people wincing.