BBC executive expenses

Ian Walker

The government is overspending my £30,000,000 per hour and you're worried whether Arian Chiles is paid too much?

It's a pathetic smokescreen from a desperate Westminster.

Jonathan Cook

I've had a quick flick through the BBC expenses.....

One thing that is striking is how much time appears to be devoted to "business meetings" and how little time is spent on making sure we have first rate programs to watch on TV!

Ellen

This place is a law unto itself.

Night after night Newsnight is presently issuing 'global warming' propaganda via its "ethical man".

Why doesn't Newsnight's 'ethical man' tell us what the execs and 'stars' at the BBC earn.

At least we get a choice over the MPs we elect to receive our expenses. There's no such choice with the BBC.

sandy

These are only expenses paid for by the execs and claimed back.Their expenses booked and paid for by the BBC directly and all the expenses of the "talent" are excluded.

Why so shy?

Percy

Extraordinary on the 10 o'clock news last night. Leading with a huge editorial piece on Pakistan as if it was Panorama, so Mervyn King's pretty damning verdict on the state of the nation's finances could be pushed down the agenda. The BBC must think we are all total cretins.

Alex

BBC = Labour propaganda department

Alfred T Mahan

There is no moral justification whatsoever for taxing the poor through the licence fee to overpay BBC executives when there are private sector companies in competition.

It needs to go as soon as possible.

oldtimer

There is only one good thing to say about this release of information about BBC expenses - I am now old enough not to have to pay the licence fee. Otherwise I would be hopping mad. A few examples that caught my eye from 2008/09:

Mark Thompson
Drink to catch up on business projects...11/11/08...£21.38
2 days car hire for family not used...30/10/08...£55
Parking meter...11/11/08...£0.60

Mark Byford
...to attend Scotland v England rugby match...08/03/08
1 Rail fare to attend...£3.60
2 Taxi...£13.00
3 Taxi...£14.00

Tim Davie
Business entertainment - internal
Numerous claims (c24) for "business discussion"

Zarin Patel (Chief Financial Officer)
Numerous claims (11) for business entertainment - internal.

How does the BBC justify allowing its executives to claim for "business entertainment - internal"? This sounds like a very convenient excuse to go down to the pub (or fancy club) and buy drinks at the licence fee payers expense. And why is Mark Byford allowed to claim for attending a rugby international? And the BBC pleads poverty.

Verity

I have suggested this many times, yet no one ever takes me up on it: Dynamite the BBC. They're not worth diddly. They don't do anything that other broadcasting companies don't do. Their news "services" are prejudiced and socialist agenda laden. Why should people be forced by law to pay for propaganda to be pumped into their minds?

The requiring of a licence to own a TV is lunacy and a throwback to the days when TV was a big novelty. How about a licence to own an electric kettle, or a microwave? The BBC is still coasting on the reputation it got during WWII when it was the only national broadcaster. It really doesn't have an international reputation any moe.

The following day, I would suggest a tribute dynamite event at the UN on the East River.

Suki

I loved the spin they put on not releasing 'stars' salaries: they would defect to other channels where their pay would be confidential.

Yeah, right.

Jonathan Sheppard

Can someone explain why Mark Thompson gets his annual congestion charge fee paid for by the taxpayer?

THX1138

I wouldn't go there on the expenses, Can some explain to me why Boris has just run up

Boris £4,698 taxi bills - including a whopping £237 for one bill alone.

To quote Boris from his launch speech:

"How often have we sat on public transport and watched as someone engages in provocative or aggressive behaviour?"

That would be not very often for you then Boris!

TGF UKIP

Humphrys can, offensively and aggressively as he likes, grill a Tory Shadow or MP on their outside earnings yet he remains a protected species on earnings and expenses.

Moreover, it's not just hotels, taxis etc not covered by this very partial pulling back of the curtain but how many of the bastards are given chauffeur driven cars and London flats and just what else "is paid for centrally"?

Needless to say one bunch who won't be pressing for answers is Dave and his cowering gang.

Alf Tupper C.R.O.F.

All this excitement about expenses and not a word on the salaries these people pull?

Just as a rough guide, Chris Moyles earned £650,000 year before last. So even if he put in 40 hours a week (and why would he need to?) he'd be on £312/hr.

Mindst you, the career of a Radio 1 DJ has to be crammed in before the age of 35. The requisite obnoxiousness tends to wane rapidly after this stage.

Verity

Suki - Seconded.

TomTom

I pay £12 a month for a TV Licence and a friend of mine draws his £250,000 at the BBC from that contribution.....but he doesn't pay for his TV Licence - he expenses it !

Paul

"But the salary of individual performers will stay private despite the fact that the license fee pays for them."

What's that got to do with anything? My taxes pay for the salaries of millions of public sector workers, many doing an important job, many doing useless jobs, but I don't expect to know each and everyone's salary. What a person earns is very private, it really is none of our, or your, business.

Verity

Paul writes: My taxes pay for the salaries of millions of public sector workers ..., but I don't expect to know each and everyone's salary.

If you did "expect" or want, to know a public sector worker's publicly-funded salary, the information should be available to you. It is this foolish attitude that allowed the troughers in the HoC to treat the taxpayers with such utter contempt.

What a person earns is very private. Not if they are paid out of the public purse, it's not.

Paul

Verity writes: "It is this foolish attitude that allowed the troughers in the HoC to treat the taxpayers with such utter contempt."

So, Verity, you expect or "want" the salary of every NHS nurse, every policeman, every social worker, to be made public? While we're at it let's have their addresses and credit card details as well.

David Burns

Thompson tells us every line of expenses is justified. This includes one guy who had to buy two ipods to test the the iplayer (one for each head?). According to the Today programme Thompson claimed 23p for parking. Does anyone know of car parking that charges in pennies? One guy charged for travel to a rugby match - surely this is a personal expense? There is a history of QPR book. Come on there are lots of examples of BBC Executives claiming personal use items on expenses.

David Ossitt

Paul.

"While we're at it let's have their addresses and credit card details as well"

Now you are being sarcastic.

Salamanda Palagandafan

Paul.

The salary of every nurse, policeman, social worker is public in the sense that you only need to know their grade and there it is laid down.

Verity's right: what's the big deal about keeping salaries a secret?