 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| Letters From London |
| Humorous Views on London Culture, Royals, Gossip and Politics |
Hey, Big Spenders - 20 July 2008
In almost audible tones, ranting and raving, we hand over a mandatory £139.50 licence fee to
the public funded BBC. That amounts to £3.4 billion a year. This so that the BBC can insult us
with crap comedies - and I use that word ‘comedies’ guardedly; After You’ve Gone seriously
makes me lose the will to live. Further insults regarding the way they have been splashing out on
transport for guests and newsreaders - £5.3m on taxis with another £5.2m for private car hire,
£13.8m for door to door cab service, all totalling £19m a year. And please, adding more insult to
injury, let’s not forget those all vital pay raises. Limo delivered caviar and champagne for all
deserving execs.
Having moved their new regional centre from London and with taxi fare increases looming,
prepare to sell blood when the licence fee is increased along with every other service. With the
salaries paid to newsreaders (more than £200,000), is there some reason they are unable to
pay for their own taxis? They don’t carry cash like Kate “he’s lucky to have me” Middleton and
the Queen? Two alternatives: the tube and the bus. Innovative notion.
Pay rises and the obligatory bonuses for senior executives who are pleased to bring us a British
11 year old determined to become an American ‘beauty’ queen, a series about teenaged girls
determined to be Page Three Girls, a series about young women determined to be Glamour
Models, and a follow up to these: Addicted to Boob Jobs. Lots of makeup and lots of breasts;
decidedly creepy. Wait. All hands on desks gentlemen, please.
Jonathan Ross now makes £6m a year. Clearly without a clue, I thought he was making £3m…
but that was so last year. How quickly time goes by when you’re having a laugh. Jana Bennett,
director of ‘vision’ smiled sweetly and quickly banked her new pay packet when it went from a
pathetic £103,000 to £536,000 plus a £23,000 bonus – mere pocket change for those at the
upper echelon of the revered BBC. Jenny Abramsky, head of radio added an extra £90,000 and
a £19,000 bonus to the biscuit tin next to the Aga in her palatial kitchen. Oh yes. And a £4m
pension. Give me a job. I can sit all day in an office with a lovely view, my Jimmy Choos on the
highly polished endangered wood desk making rubbish decisions, knowing my driver, Jeeves (not
his real name) will get me home by 5:00. Director-general Mark Thompson waived his bonus this
year because he saw his pay package rise to £816,000. Thanks MT. His rationale for executive
pay rises was that some executives had increased responsibilities. Really. MT declared BBC
wages were a “tiny fraction” of those paid out to other important executives in the private sector
totally screwing the economy, the lives of others, the world. It’s a public service Marky,
regardless of the fact that BBC Worldwide has greedy tentacles out to buy and sell programmes
such as Lonely Planet and Top Gear.
How can we mention the BBC without following with descriptive words such as dodgy, faked,
rigged, dishonest. It’s the phone-in competitions, stupid: Blue Peter (for children), Children in
Need (for children) and Comic Relief – (for African children)…we’re not laughing and neither is
the Queen. Messing about in the editing room again? Tut, tut. We are not amused…either.
I know. Blame the US for us being ripped off. Gordon does.
In almost audible tones, ranting and raving, we hand over a mandatory £139.50 licence fee to
the public funded BBC. That amounts to £3.4 billion a year. This so that the BBC can insult us
with crap comedies - and I use that word ‘comedies’ guardedly; After You’ve Gone seriously
makes me lose the will to live. Further insults regarding the way they have been splashing out on
transport for guests and newsreaders - £5.3m on taxis with another £5.2m for private car hire,
£13.8m for door to door cab service, all totalling £19m a year. And please, adding more insult to
injury, let’s not forget those all vital pay raises. Limo delivered caviar and champagne for all
deserving execs.
Having moved their new regional centre from London and with taxi fare increases looming,
prepare to sell blood when the licence fee is increased along with every other service. With the
salaries paid to newsreaders (more than £200,000), is there some reason they are unable to
pay for their own taxis? They don’t carry cash like Kate “he’s lucky to have me” Middleton and
the Queen? Two alternatives: the tube and the bus. Innovative notion.
Pay rises and the obligatory bonuses for senior executives who are pleased to bring us a British
11 year old determined to become an American ‘beauty’ queen, a series about teenaged girls
determined to be Page Three Girls, a series about young women determined to be Glamour
Models, and a follow up to these: Addicted to Boob Jobs. Lots of makeup and lots of breasts;
decidedly creepy. Wait. All hands on desks gentlemen, please.
Jonathan Ross now makes £6m a year. Clearly without a clue, I thought he was making £3m…
but that was so last year. How quickly time goes by when you’re having a laugh. Jana Bennett,
director of ‘vision’ smiled sweetly and quickly banked her new pay packet when it went from a
pathetic £103,000 to £536,000 plus a £23,000 bonus – mere pocket change for those at the
upper echelon of the revered BBC. Jenny Abramsky, head of radio added an extra £90,000 and
a £19,000 bonus to the biscuit tin next to the Aga in her palatial kitchen. Oh yes. And a £4m
pension. Give me a job. I can sit all day in an office with a lovely view, my Jimmy Choos on the
highly polished endangered wood desk making rubbish decisions, knowing my driver, Jeeves (not
his real name) will get me home by 5:00. Director-general Mark Thompson waived his bonus this
year because he saw his pay package rise to £816,000. Thanks MT. His rationale for executive
pay rises was that some executives had increased responsibilities. Really. MT declared BBC
wages were a “tiny fraction” of those paid out to other important executives in the private sector
totally screwing the economy, the lives of others, the world. It’s a public service Marky,
regardless of the fact that BBC Worldwide has greedy tentacles out to buy and sell programmes
such as Lonely Planet and Top Gear.
How can we mention the BBC without following with descriptive words such as dodgy, faked,
rigged, dishonest. It’s the phone-in competitions, stupid: Blue Peter (for children), Children in
Need (for children) and Comic Relief – (for African children)…we’re not laughing and neither is
the Queen. Messing about in the editing room again? Tut, tut. We are not amused…either.
I know. Blame the US for us being ripped off. Gordon does.
