Tom Richmond: A Strictly tedious tale of BBC irresponsibility with our cash

Yet this is precisely what happened at the BBC when it started paying “golden goodbyes” to failed executives on an unparalleled scale, including £1m to Yorkshire-born former deputy director-general Mark Byford who was only entitled to a £500,000 pay-off.

“Why was £500,000, which is for most people mega bucks, not enough?” pondered Margaret Hodge, the chairman of Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee.

She’s right. But my question would be this: how can the BBC be taken seriously when it lectures politicians about their poor governance of this country yet is so fiscally irresponsible and out of touch with its licence fee payers? Pots and kettles comes to mind.

The answer is not abolishing Chris Patten’s dismally inept BBC Trust and passing control to the media regulator Ofcom, which is an enduring symbol of New Labour. That will simply result in more of the same.

Instead there needs to be a board of super-governors made up of respected individuals with great experience of the private sector, and who can generate new income streams so there are some more original programmes on a Saturday night rather than yet another series of Strictly Come Dancing and the D-list celebrities attempting to follow in the dance steps of last year’s winner Louis Smith, the Olympic gymnast.

Such a board would also consider whether it is fair to have a £140-a-year flat tax on every television in the land – the ubiquitous licence fee – when it can be circumvented by those who access BBC programmes and services via their computer.

For until these issues are reconciled, I’m afraid the Corporation will limp from one crisis to another because of its weak leadership – and the decision of successive managers to invest too much money in the pay and perks of staff rather than the quality programmes that once defined the BBC.

In that regard, the tweet from Newsnight’s editor after a late-night appearance by the “boring” Labour treasury spokeswoman Rachel Reeves does have some resonance. It’s not guests like the Leeds MP who are sending viewers in search of the remote control off button, but the dull and predictable nature of programmes that no longer inform and entertain. In short, it is in danger of becoming the Boring Broadcasting Corporation on the evidence of the past seven days.

TALKING of reform, a word of warning about Ed Miliband’s continuing power struggle with those trade union benefactors who bankroll the Labour Party.

If the Doncaster North MP fails with his attempt to reform this arrangement so union members have the right to opt in – or out – of Labour affiliation, Miliband will be bereft of credibility.

Yes, the unions are too influential. Ditto those wealthy individuals who prop up the creaking finances of the Tories and the Liberal Democrats.

No wonder Britain’s finances are in such a mess when the main parties are up to their neck in debt.

It’s led me to wonder whether all three are hoping the situation becomes so dire that they can push through full state funding of political parties – the likes of you and me paying for their activities – rather than looking at innovative ways to forge a new relationship between the main parties and Joe Public.

THIS brings me onto the triumphalism of Chancellor George Osborne, who says Britain is through the worst of the downturn.

Mmm. Yes, the slump was not as deep as some had forecast, but the recovery will still take far longer than anticipated, rises in the cost of living are crippling many household finances and the budget deficit still requires radical surgery.

I’m afraid chief pipsqueak Osborne is at his worst when he is smug and he had that “I told you so” smirk when he lambasted his Labour opponent Ed Balls.

I’m tired of Osborne spending so much time talking about Balls, and vice versa. I hope both men are banned from mentioning the name of their opponent during the party conference season in the vain hope that they focus on their own plans.

AT least the British Chambers of Commerce is showing backbone over high-speed rail. An open letter to David Cameron reads: “Imagine our country today without the M25, the Jubilee Line, or the Channel Tunnel – all investments that were fiercely opposed and contested before their construction. HS2 is no different.”

Ditto those British engineering bosses who have told the Government to back the UK construction industry to build the line on time – and on budget. What a pity that these two interventions were not afforded the same status as the utterances from the scheme’s opponents.

ON the subject of trains, a trip from Leeds to London was a dispiriting one.

I’m not sure what was more irksome – the blocked-up toilets that had not been cleaned or repaired before the train departed, or those passengers who leave their cases and paraphernalia on seats and then get the huff when asked to put these items onto luggage racks.

Yet it was also interesting watching how children interacted with their parents. Those who were encouraged to read a book, and engage in conversation, were far better behaved than those left to their own devices with the latest must-have gadget, and who quickly became bored and irritable.

Is that your experience?

FINALLY football pundit Gary Lineker says Roy Hodgson’s England team are “awful”. I agree but it is not the manager’s fault – he does not have the players at his disposal.

But would the side be any better under Lineker? No, not least because the FA would have to emply a gag-writer for him. I’m afraid his intervention is further evidence of the timeless adage that talk is cheap.

IF the role of Sports Minister is so important, why is Hugh Robertson now embroiled in controversy over plans to veto Lottery funding which would have seen millions of poppies planted to mark the centenary of the Great War?

Is there no limit to his meddling? For the record, he is the Tory politician who backed Scotland’s unsuccessful bid to host the Tour de France’s Grand Départ in 2014 – and he’s still not prepared to accept the fact that Gary Verity and Welcome to Yorkshire won this race.

Sport needs its political champions – I would like to see a Sports Secretary in the Cabinet ensuring the Olympic legacy is delivered – but Robertson is clearly juggling, and dropping, too many balls at the Department of Culture, Media and Sport where his brief has also included same-sex marriage legislation.

It leads me to conclude that Robertson is not sufficiently interested in his brief and should be removed. Why? If he was, he would be a full-time sports minister on top of his game at all times.