[News76]

The words i never want to hear ever again, in fact this whole merger should be thrown straight into Room 101 if it were up to me and cost cutting started again from scratch (not that i will be listened to on this but there we go!)

But then what really is your alternative. Everybody agrees with you that the merger is a bad idea and that, in an ideal world, it wouldn't be happening; but that's not the situation we are in. The BBC has to make severe cuts across all services and BBC News has to suffer fairly. If you aren't cutting the News channel then what are you prepared to lose instead? I'm listening.

Because, quite frankly, the News channel merger is probably one of the fairest places you can make cuts - it isn't a particularly unique service (in that everything it does is done by other BBC services) and, with regard to the channel's higest viewership moments, it will be functionally identical after the merger. I think the proposals can be improved (without significant increase in cost), but can't say that it isn't a sensible decision given the circumstances.

Anything but this frankly but it's not my choice is it?