Taxi troubles

A CONSEQUENCE of the Parliamentary expenses scandal is the insistence that Britain's military top brass travel second-class on the railways – even if this means passengers eavesdropping on conversations relating to this country's national security.

By The Newsroom

Published 20th Apr 2010, 23:19 BST

Updated 20th Apr 2010, 23:20 BST

They have accepted this with typical fortitude. The same, however, cannot be said for those three senior BBC executives whose combined taxi bills, over a three-month period, amounted to 12,000.

Their defence is that they are busy people, they often make telephone calls when travelling and the confidential nature of these discussions means that they cannot be held in public.

It is a spurious excuse. For, in case it has escaped the BBC's attention, this country's Army chiefs have an even more pressing agenda – namely the welfare of those brave soldiers serving on the frontline in Afghanistan.

If they can forego first-class travel, then, surely, BBC managers can lower their expenses – unless, of course, they're terrified at the prospect of the obscene salaries paid to so-called entertainers finally being made public.