This was perhaps inevitable given the scale and nature of recent economic and political events; namely Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt publicly declaring that "he could "absolutely" see viewers paying less than the current £145.50 after next year's negotiations between the BBC and the government", according to this BBC News article.

Problem is, it's now incredibly difficult for anyone to defend a public institution whose management seem completely and utterly incapable of correctly identifying service(s) that are core to its purpose (c.f. the embarassing 6 Music climbdown), whilst staunchly ignoring pleas to cut back on major digital TV services, regardless of the validity of doing so.

So if Mark Thompson and Tim Davie collectively screwed up over 6 Music, what hope is there in relation to any other proposed cutbacks where the arguments are less than clear cut? Because if BBC management are incapable of cutting bits of 'waste' around the edges properly, they have effectively invited someone else to do the cutting for them.