Givers and takers

Lord Hall, silent in the House of Lords since January 2013, gets on his hind legs this evening to deliver a Lord Speaker's lecture.

It's been widely previewed. He's calling for the establishment of a Local Democracy Foundation, to be run as a charity. He wants it to take over the existing BBC local democracy reporters’ scheme, which costs £8m of licence fee funds a year, paying for 144 reporters who share their output with the BBC and local and regional papers.

The expectation is that it might grow exponentially with conscience-money from Facebook and other internet monsters. The problem - finding a mechanism that checks Reach Plc, Newsquest, and Johnston Press from sacking even more directly-employed hacks and relying on a growing, free newscopy service.