Tim's test

It looks like BBC Director General Tim Davie spent just over 50 minutes in House of Commons Committee Room 14 with the backbench MPs of the Tory Party. 

At the start, Chair Sir Graham Brady said Davie agreed to come a couple of months ago, and asked members to keep their language "moderate". Tim Davie said he needed the MPs' “help and support” to make sure BBC stays “strong”, adding that it  “hurts” when people say the corporation is “not patriotic”.

Not-really-backbench Robert Jenrick, the migration-minister-who-attends-Cabinet, managed to get in and place a question: "I’ve never been so disappointed in the BBC as I have been this past fortnight. I worry that the organisation has lost the confidence of many people and in particular the British Jewish community. That loss of confidence began with the BBC's refusal to call Hamas terrorists. Will you reconsider that, and change your editorial policy?"

Dean Russell, MP for Watford, raised local radio cuts. Mr Davie's response included the line 'you've cut us by 30%'; this is out of step with the usual BBC response, which is to argue that spending on 'local' is not being cut this year, just shifted to online.