Having it both ways

It's come to something when you can point to Grant Shapps as a Tory with a more rational approach to the BBC than those speaking for No 10.

In the Sunday Times, Tim Shipman quoted a 'senior source' thus: “We are not bluffing on the licence fee. We are having a consultation and we will whack it. It has got to be a subscription model."

Meanwhile Grant Shapps, Duty-Minister-For-The-Weekend-but-not-Today, told Sophy Ridge on Sky News (audience around 200k): “There is a consultation out there. It is just a consultation at this stage. There are no further decisions made at all.

“The BBC is a much loved national treasure. We all want it to be a huge success. But everybody, including the BBC themselves, recognises that in a changing world the BBC itself will have to change.

“But it is simply not the case that there is some preordained decision about the future funding of the BBC out there. The charter runs to 2027 so there is long way to go on all these decisions.”