Amusement

What larks the new DCMS team have been having since July, tying, re-tying and untying loose ends in the Whittingdale White Paper, en route to its emergence later this week as a draft Royal Charter.

Leaks suggest the accountancy brain of Karen Bradley has been at work. So, she's not so bothered about appointing all the non-executives to the new unitary board, but would quite like Auntie to come clean about all staff paid more that £150k. She's not ready to privatise C4, but would like to make it move north, to Birmingham or Manchester, and sell off Horseferry Road, raising a cool £100m for The Treasury.

What else might be in play ? I suspect we'll see other financial tourniquets applied to the use of the licence fee in Scotland and Wales, and maybe outside London.  And there's the big loose end of finding a higher court to regulate BBC online content, in place of The Trust. Ofcom has no locus in these matters, and doesn't want it. Watch out for a bright idea from Matthew Hancock.