Fractious

There were a number of prickly exchanges between Tories on the DCMS Select Committee and the BBC DG Lord Hall this afternoon.

The DG clearly wished observers to infer that the decision to bow to the imposition of Over 75 licences in the last Charter negotiations was made between George Osborne and the then BBC chairman Rona Fairhead (later a Tory Minister). His colour chart edged to magenta at any suggestion that the BBC was not 'honouring' a pledge in proposing a narrowing of free licences to those in receipt of Pension Credit; he insisted that both Osborne and Culture Secretary John Whittingdale knew that the BBC would have to test its continuation as a universal benefit for Over 75s - confirmed two years later in the Digital Economy Bill.

Damien Collins, chairing the Committee took delight in the vagueness of BBC published minutes at the time; if Lord Hall was as apopleptic then as now about the wrongness of this condition added to the Charter, why was not this choler reflected in the record ?  Maybe that'll encourage better minutes in future - they couldn't possible be less informative than they are at the moment.

New finance chief Glyn Isherwood got a little roughed over on the staged reduction in payments received from the Department for Work and Pensions, which means the BBC coughing up £450m this financial year for the benefit, before taking full responsibility in 2020/21. He needs more practice dealing with the farmyard economics of Philip Davies MP. Mr Isherwood was on surer ground with continuing attempts to resolve the Personal Service Companies mess with the HMRC, which he approached with admirable frankness.