'Radio 1 and 2 should be sold'

Let's think logically for a moment. The selling of Radios 1 and 2 would create two giant commercial radio stations that would make one or two large companies (not necessarily British) very happy as a result, and would make any other directly competing radio and TV stations thoroughly miserable as large advertisers would switch the bulk of their spend towards the new stations.

Listeners to Radios 1 and 2 would end up being bombarded by ads for ringtones, loan companies and Dido, forcing them to retreat to the safety of their iPods for (relatively) commercial-free music and podcast chat, therefore depriving the rest of the radio industry of listeners that might be gained by people tuning to other stations during tracks that they don't like.

All of this is on top of any potential damage to the UK's thriving musical culture that might theoretically result from a privatised Radio 1 and Radio 2, but that of course would be very difficult to assess before it actually happens. And don't bring Classic FM into this argument since it essentially has its market (barring Radio 3) to itself.

So are there any advantages to this particular scenario? Well apart from making one or two companies rich and giving the Government a lot of money in one go, no. And the Government has other ways of making money from the selling of radio spectrum before it has to resort to such tactics.