(from Blithering Bunny)
The Guardian:
Tessa Jowell, the culture secretary, and Lord Birt, the No 10 policy adviser, are at odds over proposals that would force the corporation to share some of its £2.8bn licence fee income with commercial rivals.
Ms Jowell, who has been putting the final touches to a green paper on the BBC charter, is determined to fend off proposals for a new external regulator of the corporation and ensure it is allowed to keep all the money raised by the licence fee.
But Lord Birt, a former director general of the BBC, is believed to have backed the recommendations of a panel chaired by his friend Lord Burns, under which the corporation would be governed by a new regulator with the power to redistribute a proportion of the licence fee to other broadcasters.
Read the rest here.
Weekend 17th October 2026
BBC finally, after weeks of riots, suddenly admits there might be ‘riots’…but they only happened now…all that building and vehicle…