[thePineapple]

The wider question is why non-News staff need to be covered by those impartiality rules. It's not like he's going to be hosting a debate on the politics of the day anytime soon. Same with anyone else working in Sports or anything else non-News related.

The license fee part arguably is irrelevant. The BBC isn't the civil service. It's not like it in itself is working on implementing government policies in a way that civil servants should refrain from openly criticizing it.

I agree. Alastair Campbell (although obviously very biased) made a good point that his tweet would have had a minute effect on people's trust in the BBC. It may do now, because it's been their top story since last night.

Compared to much larger controversies, such as Richard Sharp's involvement with Johnson and Sunak, it seems like an issue that's been blown way out of proportion. Last night's NaT could have had really interesting analysis about the bill itself and the political arguments, but they sacrificed a lot of that for the Lineker story. That seems to me like the wrong editorial decision.

(Perhaps this is getting too political, but it does raise some questions about how the Beeb reports and priorities certain stories)