Busted flush

Matt Brittin successfully moved up to 'stroke' at the BBC with his performance at the Culture Select, politely steering Culture Select Committee MPs away from 'a reformed licence fee' to some new model of universal household impost. The licence fee: "It is yesterday’s model. It is a busted flush."

In doing so, he's probably had to gamble that a new, per household payment won't work out at much more than it is now, and that he will have to reshape the BBC into a smaller suitcase to ensure it's onboard Andy Burnham's Easyjet UK future. 

So now the Treasury should take the lead from the DCMS in working out how money might flow from, say, a combination of council tax and/or utility bills (a broadband and smartphone levy has always been this blogger's favoured solution); Reeves can work on exemptions; and Nandy needs to concentrate on a a vaugely independent mechanism that sets the BBC's income, ideally over rolling five-year periods.