[Steve in Pudsey]

Appeasing people who know the cost of everything and the value of nowt does seem to have been a hallmark of this country's political decision making over the last decade or so, so the recent announcement is not a surprise.

The license fee does need a rethink, and a system linked to general taxation or the council tax has a lot going for it, not least removing the cost of administering the license fee, and being harder to evade and having structures for means testing built in.

Perhaps sweetening that by incluoding the transmission costs of the BBCB multiplex - I assume the other PSBs which have their HD service on there are paying for that at present, so being able to say that this chunk of tax is supporting all PSB would be politically useful.

Some limits on talent and exec utive pay would make sense.