Pay

The Prime Minister's Official Spokespeople, who brief the journalists in the No 10 Lobby, are real people. No 1 is James Slack, a former Home Affairs Editor for The Daily Mail. No 2 is Alison Donnelly, whose cv includes spells on communications for the BBC and Wasps RFC.

Which one briefed this, after Theresa May said the BBC must take the full cost of Over 75s licence fees ?  "As the PM said taxpayers will rightly want to see the BBC using its substantial licence fee income in an appropriate way so it can deliver fully for UK audiences. This includes showing restraint on salaries for the senior staff."

Fag-packet calculations suggest that firing all BBC senior managers paid over £150k would save £20m; reducing all senior managers to £150k would save £6.6m. Not entirely sufficient to plug a
£745m hole....

Aside from Slack and Donnelly, the Prime Minister has 37 special advisers on her staff, 27 of them paid more than £65k. Declared salaries for SpAds at No 10 total more than £2.3m.