One thing you have to admire about the Prime Minister of Italy are his balls. Metaphorically speaking of course. Last week, trapped in yet more scandal over "beautiful women" attending his parties, he continued to insist that he has never paid for sex: "For those who love to conquer,"...
I happen to like Boris Johnson. I think he provides a bit of much-needed colour to the political scene, and he seems better at his job than that annoying nasal Red Ken but I don't live in London so what do I know. But is he worth £250k for a weekly column in the Daily Telegraph? Yes - if they are...
Mark Thompson has finally admitted that the BBC must cut its budgets. Not, as you might expect, because it is lavish, over-staffed and is strangling its commercial rivals to death but because it might breach its ‘statutory borrowing limit'. How awful if that happened. Oh well, nonetheless we should...
More shocking news for the BBC: The Scotsman reports that Tam Dean Burn has added his voice to the chorus of actors vowing never to work for the Corporation again unless it reverses its decision not to show the DEC broadcast. What do you mean you've never heard of Tam Dean Burn? He found fame starring...
Writing in today's Financial Times, BBC director-general Mark Thompson indicates that he would support a merger between Channel 4 and Five in order to save them costs and preserve his precious licence fee from any proposed top-slicing. Sadly for Trisha Goddard, who has just been dropped by Five for...
Anyone else watch Mark Thompson's and Michael Lyons' performance before the Commons culture, media and sport select committee? There was pitiful little evidence of either wearing a hair shirt - in fact, neither looked that they were particularly bothered to be there. Thompson said that the BBC...
Jonathan Ross will only get paid £4.6m of our money this year. What a shame. By suspending him without pay for 12 weeks, the BBC is hoping that by mid-January we will all have forgotten about the appalling lapse in taste and regulatory control that led to the radio programme being transmitted. And they...
Good to see that Ross and Brand have been suspended. Let's just hope that it is without pay and that Mark Thompson finally shows some decisiveness and the ability to reign in an organisation that appears to be spiralling out of control by firing them. A lot of heat and very little light has been...
Listening to BBC Director General Mark Thompson’s hair shirt speech yesterday, it occurred to me that there’s a rich irony out there. While advertisers and agencies take a rigorous regime for granted, our public service broadcaster has been playing fast and loose with the truth. In our quest...
