Morning:
12°c
The Culture Secretary, Ben Bradshaw, has attacked BBC chiefs for their refusal to support the sharing of some of the licence fee with other providers of regional news. He is quite right to do so.
Viewers wanting regional news are not well served by a cash-strapped ITV, and for that reason, the idea of ring-fencing 3.5 per cent of the licence fee to fund local news on ITV, and possibly children's programming, is worth consideration.
Instead, when the idea was floated last month in the Government's Digital Britain White Paper, Sir Michael Lyons, the chairman of the BBC Trust, treated the proposal as an attack on the BBC itself.
Mr Bradshaw says this response makes the Corporation look as though it is concerned only with protecting its own generous funding and privileges.
At a time when 27 BBC executives earned more than the Prime Minister last year, that criticism rings true.
The Jonathan Ross affair caused many viewers to ask whether an organisation that spent £18 million on one entertainer was really making effective use of the £3.6 billion it receives from the public every year.
While much of Radio 4's output and programmes such as Newsnight maintain the highest standards of public-service broadcasting, it is right for the BBC to look harder at how it spends the licence fee.
Sir Michael has admitted today that some salaries appear too high, and that bonuses for the 10 most senior executives have been suspended. In a recession, the BBC must tighten its belt like everyone else.
And its leaders must open their minds to the possibility that some of the £3.6 billion could be spent on worthwhile provision from outside the Corporation, without that amounting to an undermining of its unique status and achievements.
A for effort
The Charity Commission is expected to declare today that three out of the five independent schools investigated over their charitable status have passed the "public benefit" test.
The other two, prep schools which offer few or no bursaries, have been given 12 months to do more to help disadvantaged children locally.
It is welcome that the Commissioners appear to have recognised the value of the majority of independent schools, as most are seen by universities and employers as doing a good job.
The idea that stripping away charitable status and sending their pupils back into state schools would solve deep-rooted problems of low expectations and poor discipline in the maintained sector is absurd.
In any case, most independents already give bursaries and awards to the less well-off - more than £200 million last year, dwarfing the £100 million charitable status is thought to be worth.
One third of all independent-school pupils currently receive some support. Some schools are already seeking to build up funds in order to become "needs-blind" or open to all, regardless of parental means.
That, and the creation of more low-cost independent schools run by companies or voluntary-sector institutions, ought to create a range of alternatives to the present landscape of a few oversubscribed state primaries and secondaries, ever more expensive private schools and too many mediocre or failing maintained institutions.
As the Charity Commissioners ponder the lessons of their investigation, they must remember that this is a time to encourage, not bully, good schools.
Two-wheel Games
The London Olympics are meant to encourage grassroots participation in sport and physical activity.
It is ironic, then, that so little progress has been made in providing an infrastructure for people to cycle to the Games.
Our survey of the five boroughs hosting the Olympics shows that they have too little cycle parking.
As this paper's Safer Cycling campaign has made clear, people are far more likely to cycle if there is secure bike-parking.
We should be striving to ensure that as many Games visitors as possibly travel by bike.
