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BBC bans staff champagne after footing £60,000 bill
Danny Brierley15 Oct 2008
THE BBC has banned champagne after it was revealed it was costing the corporation £60,000 a year.
Managers have also ordered that this year's Christmas party budget is slashed by 50 per cent.
A memo was circulated to staff last week after a Freedom of Information request revealed that the BBC spends £60,000 of licence fee-payers' money on champagne and at least £250,000 on Christmas parties each year. The cutbacks are intended to help offset an £8million increase in energy bills.
A source said: "In the current climate it just doesn't feel right to spend licence payers' money on champagne."
A BBC spokesman added: "No company or organisation is immune from the current financial crisis and like everyone else we face real increases in costs from fuel, utilities and other areas.
"We need to scrutinise everything we do in light of the financial pressures we are facing."
Reader views (6)
I worked for some 20 years for the BBC. To my mind, many BBC managers are a bunch of lazy, sycophantic and incompetent bureaucrats. Were it not for the dedicated grassroot staff, the Corporation would collapse.
- Patrick, VIGO - SPAIN, 15/10/2008 23:27
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Elitist Marxist Bully Boys at their most arrogant.
Make them pay for the champagne themselves - not with our money!
- Tangomike, Kensington, London, 15/10/2008 20:26
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BBC
CBC,
fat cat organizations, paid for out of taxes.
Privatize!
- Gew, Rosemont, Canada, 15/10/2008 15:25
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Hey BBC, how about not wasting any of our money at all, current climate or otherwise?
ALL of that money is a forced tax, we have no choice as to whether we pay it or not. So wasting it on rubbish is a disgrace.
- Frank, Home Counties, England, 15/10/2008 14:48
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"In the current climate it just doesn't feel right to spend licence payers' money on champagne.
In exactly what kind of climate would it be acceptable to spend £60,000 a year on Champagne and at least £250,000 on parties?
- We, Kent, UK, 15/10/2008 14:09
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Hmmm.
A source said: "In the current climate it just doesn't feel right to spend licence payers' money on champagne."
Hang on a minute - it shouldn't feel 'right' to spend this amount of license payer's money on champagne no matter what the climate!
- Bob, Berks, 15/10/2008 13:54
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