What MPs are NOT Doing about BBC Scandals

[Teddy Bear]

Today is the day that a committee of MPs were supposed to be getting to the bottom of the Newsnight Savile scandal, and the excessive BBC payoffs.

If these initial articles from The Telegraph are anything to go by, then the UK public can only despair.

Lord Patten: BBC has consumed 'buckets of contrition'
Lord Patten, the chairman of the BBC Trust, acknowledges "it's been a bad year" for the BBC, and says that over recent years people got "stars in their eyes" in relation to talent and pay.

The former cabinet minister, who now chairs the BBC Trust, admitted it has "been a bad year" for the corporation which had been forced to consume “buckets of contrition” over the scandals which have rocked it over the past year.

Recent scandals including revelations about Jimmy Savile's sex crimes and large pay-offs for senior staff have seen the BBC make the headlines for the wrong reasons.

Director general Tony Hall is also giving evidence at today's session which will examine the fallout from the Savile scandal and executive pay.

The annual report and accounts published in July revealed the BBC has spent around £5 million investigating the Savile affair so far.

What's been revealed in this past year is the revolting mindset prevalent at the BBC.
What Patten calls a bad year is the fact they've been found out.

Buckets of Contrition??? We can see just what he consumes, and it's sure not contrition.

End the licence fee, and then we'll see real contrition instead of the 'lessons have been learned' bulls**t that we're continually fed by them, while they maintain the same ignorant and insidious mindset that we're all able to recognise.

Video: BBC 'needs more Liverpool accents'
The Director-General of the BBC has said he is "worried" that the corporation has a "metropolitan bias" and is failing to reflect the rest of Britain.

By Steven Swinford

Lord Hall told MPs that he wants to see more regional accents on the corporation's programmes and have more programming on life outside London.

Asked if the BBC has a "snobbery" against regional accents, Lord Hall said: "I think it doesn't matter what people sound like in terms of their accents. I happen to think Merseyside accents are great, I would like to hear more.
"It is an important point that we reflect the diversity of the UK outside London. I do worry about this. We have to guard against the metropolitan bias."

During an one and a half-hour long session before the Commons, Media and Sport committee Lord Patten, the head of the BBC Trust, attempted to downplay the scale of pay-offs given to executives.

The committee heard that the corporation made a total of £3.8 million worth of pay-offs which were beyond their contractual entitlement. The pay-offs caused outrage and led to calls for a police inquiry.

However Lord Patten said that the pay-offs must be seen "in context" because they cost less than "broadcasting half a football game".

He said: "[I'd like to raise] one other point that does not in any way excuse the way in which, for years, severance payments have been handled
"In the two periods covered by KPMG and National Audit Office [investigations] the BBC overspent on severance payments by £3.8m. It is about what other TV networks would pay for televising the first half of a Premiership football match."

He said that the amount involved paled in comparison to the failure of the "wretched" Digital Media Initiative, which cost the corporation £100 million, and with payments involving other broadcasters.

He said the amount involved in the severance payments were "about what BT or Sky would pay for televising the first half of a Premier League game of football."

Lord Hall, the BBC's new director general, was accused of "cronyism" after giving a job to a friend.

Suzanne Heywood was appointed to lead a two-month review into making the corporation a "simpler place to work".
He worked with Lady Heywood, who is married to Cabinet Secretary Sir Jeremy, at the Royal Opera House before he joined the BBC as director-general.

Lord Hall said he exempted himself from the decision to appoint Lady Heywood because they were previously colleagues, but defended the decision.
"It would be wrong if they could not get a job at the BBC because they knew me," he said.

MPs also asked Lord Hall about second jobs at the BBC. Lisa Opie, who earns more than £200,000 as controller for business, knowledge, and daytime, also runs a café on the side.

Earlier this year she blogged that juggling two jobs had left her tired. Lord Hall said that her comments were "daft" but defended the right of senior BBC managers to have second jobs.

The committee also heard that at least one employee has left he corporation after being investigated for bullying in an ongoing harassment probe.

Lord Hall admitted that he had received an email from a whistleblower but failed to reply. "I c***** up," he said.

He cocked up, on something that he now claims is so important to them that they now have a department to deal with it. How would you like him as your boss?


Do these MP's really understand the gravity of what's been going on within the insidious BBC, or is it just the Telegraph articles giving us this mumbling bumbling idiotic statements of Hall and Patten?

Who cares about regional accents, or that Fat Pang thinks it is minuscule relative to what it costs to program a football match? These people are vastly overpaid for the lack of value and service they provide, and have also shown to be corrupt and unethical. Considering that licence fee payers risk prison if they don't continue to fund this racket, which is ruining this country with their bias and agenda, is there anybody out there with enough backbone to do something real to end this scandalous organisation.

If the BBC is allowed to continue as it has, after everything that's come to light in the past year, not to mention its continual bias in defiance of its charter, this country is finished, at least as far as anything soldiers fought for in WW2.

The final article today is more about the staff member who left the BBC because of accusations of harassment or bullying. But I note these particular statements from Patten

Despite Lord Hall's statement on bullying, the chair of the Trust said there was no need to change the way the corporation was governed.
He said it was a "delusion" to think changing the way the BBC was governed would solve all its problems.

He told members of the Culture, Media and Sport Committee he was astonished by the amount of attention the media gives to the BBC.
The annual report and accounts published in July revealed the BBC has spent around £5 million investigating the Savile affair so far.

The former cabinet minister added that he hoped the focus would soon shift from the scandals to the programmes made by the BBC, saying: "If that happens, I suspect arguments about governance would seem less important in the next year or two."

I am pretty sure if the BBC was privatised it would solve most of their problems, hardly delusional, and if it didn't they would fold - problem solved.

BBC employee forced out following harassment investigation, director-general reveals
At least one member of staff has left the corporation following a probe into harassment, the director-general of the corporation has revealed.

A BBC employee has left the corporation after being investigated for bullying in an ongoing probe into harassment, director-general Tony Hall has revealed.
Lord Hall made the revelation to members of the Culture, Media and Sport Committee.

He said staff had been left depressed over the scandals which have rocked the corporation over the past year and that the BBC had opened a support line for workers to report bullying and harassment.

The new director-general, who took over from George Entwistle earlier this year, said that in “at least one case” a member of staff had left the BBC because of their behaviour, following “a number of disciplinary hearings” brought about after complaints.

Chair of the BBC Trust Lord Patten also gave evidence to the committee on Tuesday, which had gathered to examine the fall-out from the Savile scandal and executive pay.

Despite Lord Hall's statement on bullying, the chair of the Trust said there was no need to change the way the corporation was governed.
He said it was a "delusion" to think changing the way the BBC was governed would solve all its problems.

He told members of the Culture, Media and Sport Committee he was astonished by the amount of attention the media gives to the BBC.
The annual report and accounts published in July revealed the BBC has spent around £5 million investigating the Savile affair so far.

The former cabinet minister added that he hoped the focus would soon shift from the scandals to the programmes made by the BBC, saying: "If that happens, I suspect arguments about governance would seem less important in the next year or two."

[steevo]

It's playing out like a pathetic American soap opera. Excuse me but I got a few laughs. I've had a few drinks too, sorry.

[Teddy Bear]

You hit the nail on the head with your analogy Steevo. It pretty much says to the BBC, 'do what you like, posture a bit, and nothing will be done about it'.

Can't blame you for laughing or drinking, it's that or cry.

[Teddy Bear]

Though I've already posted my views on the subject of BBC top executives working other jobs or running their own businesses whilst supposedly performing their BBC functions, this Mail article has the position of director general Tony Hall about it in response to MP's questions.

Hall can't see anything wrong with it, and even said he thought it was good for BBC staff to 'get involved in things outside'.

Shows how he regards the responsibility of sucking at the public teat. Privatise the BBC and let them all get involved with things outside.
Will MPs really let this farce continue?

BBC staff should be encouraged to take second jobs 'to find out about life outside' says new director general

• Tony Hall has 11 outside positions on top of his £450,000 BBC role
  
• Said he thought it was good for BBC staff to 'get involved in things outside'
  
• Accused of failing to crack down on managers earning second salaries

By Aladair Glennie

BBC staff should be encouraged to hold down second jobs while working full time for the corporation, the director general has announced.

In a controversial response to recent scandals over multi-tasking executives, Tony Hall said employees should moonlight for other organisations to ‘find out about life outside’.

But as it emerged Lord Hall has 11 outside positions on top of his £450,000 BBC role, critics accused him of failing to crack down on managers who earn lucrative second salaries.

Quizzing him before the culture, media and sport committee, Tory MP John Whittingdale said it was ‘extraordinary’ that senior managers were allowed to top up their salaries by working extra hours.

Others accused him of failing to exert the ‘firm hand of governance’ by cracking down on the problem.

Earlier this year it emerged the BBC’s former technology chief John Linwood held down a £28,000 outside role while he was presiding over the failed £100million Digital Media Initiative, prompting accusations he had failed to concentrate on his day job.

And last month, business controller Lisa Opie was found to be supplementing her £207,000 BBC income with a second job running her own café business.

She kept a regular blog about the stresses of fitting calls around ‘proper job meetings’ and left work at 4.40pm to get back to the café in time.

Lord Hall agreed her blog was ‘daft’, but refused to condemn her for juggling multiple roles. He said: ‘My position on this is I think it is good for people in the BBC to get involved in things outside the BBC, especially if it is for charity.

'I obviously do charitable contributions myself. It is important to have a perspective of what life is like outside.’

Labour MP Paul Farrelly said Lord Hall should have ‘struck a much firmer tone’ on the issue, adding: ‘If you are being paid a quarter of a million pounds by the BBC you should be expected to work full time for the BBC, as in any other organisation.’

But Lord Hall replied: ‘No I haven’t [struck a firmer tone], for the reason I said. As I was careful to say it depends on the person, it depends on the job.

'I think people can learn a lot by being a non-exec on a charity or some other organisation which you then bring back into the BBC.

'I think that kind of fluidity and porousness between the BBC and other organisations is actually a very good thing.’

Pressed on Miss Opie’s case after the hearing, he said: ‘It was all done in her own time, and the manager concerned is absolutely certain she is concentrating on the day job, which is all I ask of somebody.’

Mr Whittingdale, who chairs the committee, said: ‘Nobody is saying you shouldn’t get involved in charities, but it is completely different when you have a highly remunerated job on top of your main role.

'If you are a member of senior management, you shouldn’t be earning extra money by taking on extra work outside the BBC.’

[Teddy Bear]

So let's look at how Tony Hall has responded to accusations of bias at the BBC.
We must be quicker to tackle bias, admits BBC chief as he vows to reflects more diverse views. The BBC must reflect a wider range of views from across the country, the director-general admitted yesterday.

Facing accusations of left-wing bias in its news coverage of a range of recent issues, Tony Hall admitted the corporation could have ‘responded quicker’ to some recent criticisms of bias and said it was ‘bound’ to get some things wrong. He added: ‘We should avoid groupthink ... We should look to a range of voices and examples around the UK.’

So now he's on record acknowledging the left wing bias prevalent at the BBC, though this garbage about what 'we should do, or must do', is simply that. They are so used to getting away with 'lessons have been learned and we need to move on', that they are stuck on this track when trying to excuse their misdeeds.

But what has Hall actually DONE about what he now acknowledges during his tenure as director general?

In a sarcastic aside, Mr Davies said Lord Hall had increased the number of left-wing employees at the BBC by appointing Blairites such as ex-Labour minister James Purnell and former spin doctor Godric Smith to senior management positions.

Lord Hall conceded it was curious that the BBC buys more copies of the left-leaning Guardian than any other newspaper.

Oh yes, very curious. Perhaps it could be accounted for by the simple fact that the BBC advertises for most of its positions in the Guardian. Rather than sarcasm from these MP's, let's see some backbone and action. If they continue to allow the BBC to run as it has, they are simply showing how they themselves are unfit for office.

We must be quicker to tackle bias, admits BBC chief as he vows to reflects more diverse views

• Tony Hall admitted BBC could have 'responded quicker' to criticisms
  
• Lord Hall was grilled by MPs on the Culture, Media and Sport committee
  
• Covered issues including severance pay scandal and Digital Media Initiative (DMI) - which wasted £100million
  
• 'We are always searching after impartiality and new perspectives,' he said

By Alisdair Glennie

The BBC must reflect a wider range of views from across the country, the director-general admitted yesterday.

Facing accusations of left-wing bias in its news coverage of a range of recent issues, Tony Hall admitted the corporation could have ‘responded quicker’ to some recent criticisms of bias and said it was ‘bound’ to get some things wrong.

He added: ‘We should avoid groupthink ... We should look to a range of voices and examples around the UK.’

Lord Hall was grilled by MPs on the culture, media and sport committee, on a string of issues including the severance pay scandal and the failed Digital Media Initiative (DMI), which wasted £100million.

Appearing alongside him, BBC chairman Chris Patten admitted the corporation’s founder Lord Reith would be ‘turning in his grave’ at the revelations, and said the DMI fiasco was a ‘horror story’.

Some of the most strident criticism came from Tory MP Philip Davies, who said the BBC was guilty of imbalance in its recent coverage of political events such as welfare reform and benefits tourism.

Mr Davies claimed BBC employees were naturally inclined to be left-wing, despite working for a supposedly impartial organisation.

In a sarcastic aside, Mr Davies said Lord Hall had increased the number of left-wing employees at the BBC by appointing Blairites such as ex-Labour minister James Purnell and former spin doctor Godric Smith to senior management positions.

Lord Hall conceded it was curious that the BBC buys more copies of the left-leaning Guardian than any other newspaper.

And he appeared to concede the BBC had made a mistake in describing the Government’s housing benefit reforms as a ‘bedroom tax’, which Mr Davies said was ‘clearly a political term’.

The director-general said: ‘I absolutely want to get the terminology right ... We’ve got to find ways of describing controversial issues and I think you’re damned if you do, damned if you don’t.’

‘Thank God we listened and said let’s change what we’re doing. Maybe we should have responded quicker but we responded.’

Lord Hall insisted: ‘We are always searching after impartiality, new perspectives, new views. When we get things wrong, and we are bound to, let’s not keep looking over our shoulder.

‘Let’s make decisions on the basis we should get things right. But when we get things wrong, and we are bound to, we should admit it and move on.’

He added: ‘I also think we should do more on Europe. It’s a vital issue and reporting on Europe from Europe to the UK should be an important part of what we do.’

Lord Patten said only £3.8million of the £369million paid to departing staff over the past eight years was in excess of the BBC’s contractual obligations, and only that amount could be considered ‘waste’. It was just half the cost of broadcasting a Premier League football match, he added.

[Teddy Bear]

Another article from The Telegraph, this time giving a little more meat than yesterday's. I do like the occasional snubs given to Hall and Patten by MP Phillip Davies. It might be the only satisfaction we get from this committee.

Like this one to Patten: Mr Davies also highlighted a BBC Trust report which criticised a programme by John Humphry’s which was broadly sympathetic to the government’s position on welfare reform.

The accusation prompted an angry exchange with Lord Patten, the chairman of the BBC Trust, who questioned whether Mr Davies had read the BBC Trust's report on the programme. Mr Davies replied: "You forfeited the right to ask the questions when you lost your safe seat in Bath." ;D

He must have been thinking of Hall when he said:

Mr Davies said: “What I worry about is this complacency that we get at the BBC. It seems to think everything is fine and dandy, everything is hunky dory.”

The BBC director-general conceded that the BBC buys more copies of The Guardian than any other newspaper, and said that in future staff should “read a broad range of newspapers”.

In response to a report which found that the corporation gave right-leaning think tanks “health warnings”, Lord Hall suggested that in future the corporation would be more “careful” in its descriptions.

'Staff should read a broad range of newspapers', like that's going to change something. I do follow how the BBC and Guardian report the news, and it wouldn't matter how often I did it, so long as I'm aware of their inner agenda, as well as facts as reported from other sources, I'm going to reject their 'take on it'. So why should it be any different for a left winger, unable to grasp the reasoning and principles of a right wing press?

BBC at risk of developing "Metropolitan bias", Lord Hall admits
Lord Hall has admitted that BBC is at risk of developing a "Metropolitan bias" he was accused of filling the corporation with Blairites and refusing to admit to when it made mistakes.

By Steven Swinford

The new Director-General of the BBC conceded that the corporation had to "avoid groupthink" after being accused of showing a left-wing bias over issues like Europe, benefit tourism and the spare room subsidy.

Lord Hall was forced to make a series of admissions after a criticisms by Philip Davies, a Tory back-bencher and member of the culture, media and sport committee.

Mr Davies said: “What I worry about is this complacency that we get at the BBC. It seems to think everything is fine and dandy, everything is hunky dory.”

The BBC director-general conceded that the BBC buys more copies of The Guardian than any other newspaper, and said that in future staff should “read a broad range of newspapers”.

In response to a report which found that the corporation gave right-leaning think tanks “health warnings”, Lord Hall suggested that in future the corporation would be more “careful” in its descriptions.

He also admitted said that the corporation should have stopped describing the axing of the spare room subsidy as a "bedroom tax" at an earlier date. It only changed its tone after weeks of complaints from ministers.
However, he rejected criticism from Mr Davies that shows such as Any Questions and Question Time fail to represent the British public. He also rejected criticism of the BBC’s coverage of a European Commission report into benefit tourism.

Mr Davies highlighted how the BBC’s reporting had claimed benefit tourism was a “canard and a myth”, when the comments were not included in the 269 page report. Lord Hall claimed that the report had been “condensed” for the 10 O’Clock news.

Mr Davies also highlighted a BBC Trust report which criticised a programme by John Humphry’s which was broadly sympathetic to the government’s position on welfare reform.

The accusation prompted an angry exchange with Lord Patten, the chairman of the BBC Trust, who questioned whether Mr Davies had read the BBC Trust's report on the programme. Mr Davies replied: "You forfeited the right to ask the questions when you lost your safe seat in Bath."

Lord Hall said that the BBC must guard against a “metropolitan bias” and better reflect the views of the public outside London.
Asked if the BBC has a "snobbery" the regions, Lord Hall said: "I think it doesn't matter what people sound like in terms of their accents. I happen to think Merseyside accents are great, I would like to hear more.
"It is an important point that we reflect the diversity of the UK outside London. I do worry about this. We have to guard against the metropolitan bias."

In response to other questions, Lord Hall claimed it was "beneficial" for staff to have second jobs outside the corporation, despite widespread criticism.

One member of executive who oversaw a £100million IT failure was allowed to take a second job while working for the corporation, while another held down a second job running a café and blogged about her struggle to juggle two jobs.
Lord Hall criticised her blog as "daft", but defended her entitlement to a second job.

He said: "It is good within reason for people within the BBC to do something outside of the BBC, especially things that are unpaid and charitable.”

[Teddy Bear]

BBC Watch makes the observation that during a parliament debate about The Future of the BBC, the only view expressed used by the BBC when reporting on this debate is that of Tessa Jowell, a Labour MP.



It's well worth reading the parliamentary record of this debate to see just which of the MP's are saying what, and why. It will be no surprise that Labour and Lib-Dem MPs want the BBC to continue pretty much as they have, regardless of the scandals that have engulfed the BBC, or become public knowledge, over the past year.

The debate begins at 4:58pm a short way down on the page, and continues on to the next page.

When you think of the immoral and unethical issues that the BBC have been involved in, and see the way that self serving MPs who are willing to ignore it because they find that despite that 'criminal' behaviour it still is beneficial to themselves, it shows the real dodgy foundation of our government.

[Teddy Bear]

The Guardian has detailed the hearing of Hall and Patten before the Culture committee last Tuesday. Though MP's touch on the various failings and misdeeds, it has to be seen what ultimately, if anything, they will do about it.

I am surprised that The Telegraph and Daily Mail hasn't made more of this than they have, if only to raise public awareness.

Lord Patten and Tony Hall give evidence to the Commons culture committee
The culture committee hearing is starting now.

Lord Patten, the BBC Trust chairman, says it has been "a bad year" for the BBC.

But if the BBC can recover, and concentrate on good programmes, it can put the arguments about governance behind it, he says.

He says Tony Hall is appointing a very good team.

10.36am BST
John Whittingdale, the chair of the committee, asks Patten if he accepts that he is to blame for the failing of the BBC Trust.

Patten says he has been blamed for things that happened before his time, like Mark Byford's pay-off.

People can say they made the wrong choice of director general (George Enwistle).

At the time the appointment was made, no one said it was the wrong appointment.

But Entwistle, a decent broadcaster, was "overwhelmed by events", he says.

10.40am BST
Patten says he is surprised how little political pressure there is on the BBC to be candid.

And he says he is amazed how much press attention the BBC receives.

10.42am BST
Tony Hall, the BBC's director general, is talking now.

He says that, since taking up his post, he has been focusing on four things: building a team; getting out to visit people, at least once a week; addressing past mistakes; and setting a sense of direction.

He has given speeches to set out a sense of direction, he says. Those speeches have gone down well.

10.44am BST
Asked what he is doing about bullying at the BBC, Hall says the BBC is opening its first bullying and harassment support line.

The BBC is implementing the Dinah Rose recommendations, he says.

Complaints will be investigated by people from a different departments.

And exit interviews are being conducted to see what people say about bullying, he says.

In at least one case, someone has left the BBC because of their behaviour, he says.

10.45am BST
Ben Bradshaw, the Labour former culture secretary, is asking questions now.

Q: Given how bad the BBC's year has been, shouldn't the annual report have been more contrite?

Patten says it has been a bad year for the BBC. He is not sure it has been the worst ever.

10.47am BST
Tony Hall says he is making changes.

He cites Mishal Husain joining the Today programme. She is doing brilliantly, he says.

(There were complaints about Today not having more female presenters.)

10.51am BST
Q: What about the dossier about bullying presented by the NUJ? It said three senior managers were at the centre of multiple complaints about bullying.

Hall says one person has been disciplined. Another case is still being investigated.

Q: People are being asked to do more with less. Isn't that a problem?

Hall says that he understands this.

But Newsnight shows that good leadership can make a big difference. Ian Katz, the new Newsnight editor, is making a real difference, bringing "drive" to the programme. That is what Hall hoped for when he made the appointment, he says.

Now Newsnight is cooperating with Today. People used to say that would never happen.

Katz has not finished changing the programme, Hall adds.

10.53am BST
Halls says he is looking at removing layers of management.

He is also looking at "sideways management" - ie, people who are not adding value.

Tony Hall
Tony Hall Photograph: /Democracy Live
10.58am BST
Philip Davies, the Conservative MP, is asking questions now.

He asks about claims that Nick Pollard, the Sky executive who did a report on Newsnight's decision to drop a Jimmy Savile investigation, thinks it was a "mistake" that he excluded evidence from Helen Boaden.

Patten says that a Conservative MP Rob Wilson has already taken this up with the BBC. The BBC have told him to take this up with Pollard.

The Pollard report was very honest, he says.

Tony Hall says the excluded evidence would not lead to Pollard changing his conclusions.

It is time to move on from that, he says.

Patten also says that Pollard is clear that the Boaden evidence would not change the conclusions of his report.

11.02am BST
Davies does not let go. He suggests that Boaden should not still be at the BBC.

Tony Hall says Pollard has made it clear that Boaden's evidence would not affect his findings.

Q: Boaden was either lying to the Pollard review, or she was telling the truth and she allowed a programme to go ahead in a cavalier way. Are you happy for her to be at the BBC in a senior role?

Yes, says Hall. He says that it is perfectly possible for people to hold different recollections of an event.

He repeats the point about Pollard standing behind his findings.

Updated at 5.51pm BST
11.05am BST
Davies asks about reports that a Panorama investigation into Comic Relief has been shelved.

Hall says it is not unusual for a programme not to have a transmission date.

Q: Will the programme go out?

Hall says he does not know. The BBC cannot put out programmes if they are not ready. But his aim is to get programmes broadcast.

11.10am BST
Q: Are you happy with the BBC's preparations for the World War One commemorations?

Hall says he hopes what the BBC does will satisfy both those people who know a lot about World War One, and those who know every little about it.

Q: Are you satisfied that the person in charge of the World War One broadcasts, Adrian Van Klaveren, is a person sacked from his job at Radio 5 Live because he could not be trusted to take decisons over output? [That is a reference to the Newsnight/Savile affair.]

Hall says Van Klaveren moved before Hall took up his post. Van Klaveren is now doing a very good job in his new role, he says.

11.14am BST
Conor Burns, a Conservative, is asking the question now.

Q: [To Hall] Are you not intellectually curious as to who was right in the Newsnight/Savile affair - Helen Boaden or Mark Thompson?

Hall says he has looked at this. He genuinely thinks two people had different recollections.

He wants to move on.

Burns says he is a big BBC fan. That puts him in a minority amongst his Thatcherite colleagues.

11.19am BST
Ben Bradshaw, the former Labour culture secretary, goes next.

Q: Is it acceptable for people at the BBC to have second jobs? He cites Lisa Opie, who he says earns more than £200,000 as controller for business, knowledge and daytime but also has a cafe business.

Hall says it was "daft" of Opie to blog about being tired because of her second job. But in some circumstances it can be good for people to gain outside experience.

Patten makes the same point, although he says he can understand why Bradshaw is concerned about this case.

Updated at 11.22am BST
11.21am BST
Labour's Paul Farrelly goes next. He asks Hall why is was not firmer about executives having second jobs.

Hall says people can learn from outside jobs. They can bring this experience back to the BBC.

Q: But we are not talking about non-executive directorships. And we are talking about people earning large salaries.

Hall says he and Farrelly will just have to disagree on this. Hall wants the BBC to be "more fluid, more porous", less isolationist.

11.26am BST
Q: Who is to blame for allowing the culture of excessive severance payments to take hold?

The executive, Lord Patten says. James Purnell [the new BBC director for strategy and digital] made this point in an early interview, he says.

Patten says sometimes it was justified paying someone "over contract" to get rid of them quickly.

11.29am BST
Q: Do you consider Mark Thompson's answer to the select committee about Mark Byford's pay-off to be full and frank?

Lord Patten says the way Thompson defined "contractual" was not the same as the way the NAO defined "contractual".

11.31am BST
Patten says over recent years the BBC found itself competing for talent not just with ITV and other big broadcasters, but with independent production companies.

People got "stars in their eyes" in relation to pay, he says.

Lord Patten
Lord Patten Photograph: /Democracy Live
11.38am BST
Q: Have you added up the total amount of pay-offs that can be put down to George Entwistle's tenture?

No, says Patten. But the main cost was Entwistle's pay-off.

Q: Mark Thompson was paid £200,000 and paid it back. Is that right?

Patten says Thompson may have been given six months notice, but, because he started his job at the New York Times before that period was up, he may have not taken all of that. That may explain why he "paid back" money.

Anne Bulford, the BBC's managing director for operations and finance, who is giving evidence alongside Patten and Hall, says the only BBC executives that she knows of who paid money back from their severance payments were John Smith and Roly Keating.

Patten repeats the point about Thompson not getting all his notional pay-off because he started at the New York Times early. But he says Thompson did not get a penny more than his contractual entitlement.

11.40am BST
Labour's Jim Sheridan goes next.

Q: I used to work in a private firm where, if managers wanted to bring in consultants, they were told that money would come out of their pay. Would that work at the BBC?

Hall says he wants to cut the use of outside consultants.

But sometimes outside consultants can be useful, he says.

11.47am BST
Sheridan asks about cronyism at the BBC.

Q: The BBC has given a job to Suzanne Heywood, wife of the cabinet secretary Jeremy Heyood?

Hall says that he was not involved in that appointment because he knew Heywood from their work together at the Royal Opera House.

It would be wrong if people could not get a job at the BBC because they knew him, Hall says.

Q: And what about Godric Smith, the former Number 10 spin doctor?

Halls says that was a good appointment. Sometimes the BBC needs someone like Smith to provide an outside perspective.

11.55am BST
John Whittingdale goes next. He says he wants to turn to some BBC failings.

Q: The BBC lost almost £100m on its digital initiative. How did that happen?

Patten says PWC are doing a report on this. The BBC will publish it when it's ready. Then people will have a full account of the whole 'wreteched business".

Originally an outside company was involved. Then it was brought in-house.

In the summer of 2012 the BBC Trust started to get worried about this. A whistleblower submitted information. And, during the director general interviews, something was said that made the Trust worry.

Accenture did a report. It arrived on the director general's desk in the spring this year. His response was to pull the project immediately.

These mistakes have happened in the public sector. But the BBC has always prided itself on being a good engineering company.

The full story will be set out in the PWC report. It is a "lamentable" story.

Q: Whose fault was this?

It was the BBC's executives, he says. The BBC Trust supervises big financial projects every quarter. But it does not manage them.

Q: So it is Mark Thompson's fault?

It is the BBC executive's fault, Patten says.

He says that if, when he applied to be chairman of the BBC Trust, he has been told that managing large IT projects was part of his job, he would have told them to appoint someone else.

11.57am BST
Tony Hall says he took the decision to write off the digital initiative.

He thought that was better than continuing to lose money on it, he says.

There may be a chance of recovering some value from it, he says.

Some managers know it was not working. But they did not speak out.

The BBC needs to change its culture so that people speak out.

Having a blame culture, where people just look for someone to blame, does not help.

Q: Will someone get the blame?

Hall says a legal process is underway. He does not want to say more.

12.00pm BST
Paul Farrelly, the Labour MP, goes next.

Q: We were scathing about the BBC's decision to buy Lonely Planet. Now it has suffered a predictable fate. Did the BBC Trust sign off its sale?

Patten says the trust agreed to its sale on the basis that this was "the best we were likely to manage" under difficult circumstances.

12.06pm BST
Labour's Gerry Sutcliffe goes next.

Q: What work are you doing to clarify the roles of the BBC Trust and the executive?

Patten says the BBC is still looking at this. He hopes to report before Christmas.

He hopes to achieve three things: strip out unnecessary layers in the Trust; clarify what the Trust does, including possibly doing more in public; and clarifying the role of the non-executive directors.

Michael Lyons, Patten's predecessors, wrote to the culture secretary before he stood down proposing changes, he says. But he did not get anywhere.

12.08pm BST
Q: What does Nicholas Kroll do?

Patten says he is like the permanent secretary of the Trust.

12.11pm BST
Patten says the BBC Trust is a regulator. There is no harm cheering when the BBC does something well. But it is a regulator.

Ofcom has said it could regulate the BBC.

But it could not provide a governance function. It regulates Channel 4, but it does not decide how much people at Channel 4 are paid.

12.15pm BST
John Whittingdale goes next.

Q: Maria Miller told the Commons yesterday that the BBC had agreed to changes to the way the NAO audits it. Will the NAO have unfettered access to the BBC?

It depends what you mean by "unfettered". The BBC does not believe the NAO should get involved in editorial matters, Patten says.

He says he does not have an ideological objection to the NAO getting involved. Others have worries, he says.

In the past there were concerns about the NAO being involved in programme making. And there were concerns about the NAO "ambulance chasing".

But generally the BBC wants a smooth relationship with the NAO.

Whittingdale says no one is suggesting that the NAO should get involved in editorial matters.

Patten says he hopes the BBC and the NAO can resolve how the new relationship will work.

Updated at 12.15pm BST
12.26pm BST
Paul Farrelly goes next.

Q: There used to be a "director of reward" on the BBC remuneration committee. Who was that?

Hall says he has no idea.

Anne Bulford, the BBC's managing director for operations and finance, says that may have been a reference to someone from HR.

Q: Is Lucy Adams' pay as director of HR inflating pay across the BBC?

Hall says Adams is leaving. She will be replaced by someone on a lower rate.

Q: Is there any other broadcasting company where the head of HR is paid more than the head of the main broadcast network?

Hall says Cohen is paid an appropriate amount. When Adams leaves, she will be replaced by someone on a lower salary, he says.

12.27pm BST
Tracey Crouch, a Conservative, is asking the questions now.

Q: Did cuts to news go far?

Hall says he does not know fully yet. He is still looking at budgets.

But savings have to be achieved, he says.

12.33pm BST
Q: What impact will your property strategy have on programme making?

Hall says he accepts this is an important point.

In modest ways, the BBC needs to ensure that where it bases people allows people to reflect the people the BBC serves.

Returning to the BBC after 12 years, Hall thinks the BBC's local and regional role now matters more than it did, not less than it did.

Hall says he and James Harding [the BBC's director of news] want to say something more about local news later this year, or early next year.

12.38pm BST
John Leech, a Lib Dem, goes next.

Q: The BBC's approval ratings are much higher than politicians'. But they vary regionally. What are you doing to address this?

Hall says he wants to do more from the nations and the regions.

Q: But the amount spent by the BBC on Northern Ireland and Scotland has gone down?

Hall says that the spending varies from year to year. But, generally, spending from places like Northern Ireland and Scotland are due to go up.

Patten says Welsh language broadcasting and rugby probably help to explain why spending from Wales seems high.

Q: What is the BBC doing to improve programmes for black audiences?

Hall says he is "not satisfied" that the BBC appeals enough to black audiences. Who the BBC employs is a factor in this, he says.

12.41pm BST
Q: Only 47% of people saying the BBC is making distinctive programmes no one else would make?

Hall says that is a very, very good figure. But he would like it to be higher.

Q: Doesn't this also show that commercial broadcasters are following the BBC?

Hall says he hopes commercial broadcasters will follow the BBC. In other European countries, where state broadcasters are vibrant, commercial broadcasters are vibrant too. It is good that they feed off each other.

12.45pm BST
Q: What channels are CBeebies and CBBC on on freeview?

Hall and Patten both don't know. But the app is doing well, Hall says.

Q: Does the fact that you don't know which channel these are on showing these are being neglected?

Hall says the audience for Newsround is growing even though it is not on the main BBC channel any more.

The important thing is to show children that you have distinctive programmes for them, he says.

12.51pm BST
Hall says the voices that the BBC uses should reflect the whole of the UK.

A BBC reporter from Norfolk made the point to him recently that, to understand the rise of Ukip, you needed to understand what was happening in a place like Norfolk.

12.52pm BST
Hall says the BBC has to guard against "metropolitan bias".

12.57pm BST
Paul Farrelly goes next.

Q: The BBC's pension fund deficit has gone from £1.17bn to £1.7bn. What is the BBC doing about that?

Anne Bulford, the BBC's managing director for operations and finance, says that the change is caused by a change in bond yields. The £1.7bn figure is a snapshot in time, she says.

1.04pm BST
Philip Davies, the Conservative, goes next. This is the last round of question. Davies is asking about impartiality.

Q: Does it strike you as strange that the BBC buys more copies of the Guardian than any other paper?

Yes, says Hall. But he also thinks the BBC gets too many papers. People need to read papers. But they might be able to cut down on the number they buy.

Q: Recently Policy Exchange was described as a "rightwing" think thank. It was given a health warning. But lefwing thinktanks are rarely labelled like this. Davies quotes a report backing this up.

Hall says he would like to see that report. He would then be able to give a considered response. But Davies may have a fair point. It is important to label organisations, so that people know where they are coming from.

Q: The Sunday Telegraph published a story showing flaws in the way the BBC reported the EU's "benefit tourism" report. The BBC said the EU report said benefit tourism was a myth. But I could not find that in the 276-page report. Was it there?

Hall says Mark Easton, a very fine journalist, reported it like that. He says the report on the news. He thought it was fine. Sometimes when you have to boil something down to two minutes, you have to leave things out.

Q: The BBC uses the phrase bedroom tax. Why does the BBC think the withdrawal of subsidy is a tax? That is a political term.

Hall says the BBC is now getting that right.

Q: But that is only after the government protested.

Hall says the BBC listened. He thought that was what Davies wanted.

1.09pm BST
Davies says anyone who takes decisions makes mistakes.

The BBC is not normally happy to own up to mistakes.

But the BBC Trust said that John Humphrys programme on welfare was biased.

Patten tries to intervene.

Davies says Patten lost the right to ask questions when he lost his safe seat in Bath.

Patten says his Bath seat was never safe.

Have you read the report, he asks Davies.

Davies says he has.

Patten says it did not criticise Humphrys. It just said the programme would have been better if other information had been included.

Patten says poll findings show the public think the BBC is more impartial than other broadcasters.

Davies says he worries about "complacency" at the BBC.

Hall says he hates complacency. Any organisation as big as the BBC will make mistakes, he says.

The BBC should always be looking for impartiality, and seeking out new voices.

It should admit when it makes mistakes, he says.

1.17pm BST
Q: You say the Question Time audience is balanced in the same way wherever it is filmed? What is the party balance?

Hall says it is 30% Conservative supporters, 30% Labour, 10% Lib Dems, 10% Ukip or another party, 5% others and 15% don't knows.

Q: And do you think it is like that?

Hall says you cannot predict how the audience will react to what is said.

Q: Recently Any Questions was broadcast from Ilkley. Davies says he knows Ilkley. It is very Conservative. He would love to have it in his constituency. Yet, when Jonathan Dimbleby, asked if people supported welfare cuts, they were not in favour. Yet polls show the welfare measures are very popular.

Hall says Any Questions is not the same as Question Time. But he thinks the audiences for these programmes are balanced, he says.

Before the session ends, Patten says he wants to clarify that Mark Thompson did not repay the BBC money from his severance payment. (See 11.38am.)

And that's it. The session (at last) is over.

I will post a summary soon.

2.54pm BST Lord Patten and Tony Hall's evidence to the culture committee - Summary
Select committee clerks help MPs prepare questions for sessions like this and today it seemed as if the strategy was straightforward: collect every story published by the Daily Mail over the last 12 months knocking the BBC, divide them up amongst the committee and then go through them one by one, seeing what Lord Patten, the BBC Trust chairman, and Tony Hall, the director general, have to say. As you can imagine, there are plenty of such stories on file, and the whole session went on for ages. At one point Patten said he was "amazed" by how much coverage the BBC got in the papers. "I wish Syria featured more," he said. By chance, there was a select committee hearing on Syria today. But I bet it didn't last as long as this one.

Here are the main points from the hearing.

• Patten sought to to downplay the scale of the £3m-plus severance sweeteners given to departing senior BBC executives, arguing that it is about half the cost of what BSkyB and BT pay to air half a Premiership match.

[I'd like to raise] one other point that does not in any way excuse the way in which, for years, severance payments have been handled. In the two periods covered by KPMG and National Audit Office [investigations] the BBC overspent on severance payments by £3.8m. It is about what other TV networks would pay for televising the first half of a Premiership football match.

• He said that public accounts committee hearing in September which saw senior BBC managers arguing with each other in public about severance payments had been a "car crash".

• He declined an invitation to say that Mark Thompson, the former BBC director general, had misled the public accounts committee when talking about Mark Byford's pay-off. Thompson may have been using a different definition of "contractual" from the one used by the National Audit Office, Patten said.

• Patten said it had been "a bad year" for the BBC, but not necessarily the worse in its history. The BBC had consumed "buckets of contrition", he said.

• He played down his own responsibility for things that had gone wrong at the BBC. Speaking about the severance payments, he said:

When I became chairman of the Trust, having read the charter and looked at the role of the Trust, I certainly didn’t expect that people would think I was running the personnel department of the BBC.

With reference to the BBC's failed digital programme, he also said that he would not have taken the job of Trust chairman if he thought it meant being in charge of major IT projects. The BBC Trust "tends to get blamed for things beyond its control," he said. He went on: "That's life. At 69 I'm beyond ambition."

• He said it was a "delusion" to think that changing the way the BBC was run would solve its problems.

• Hall said he wanted to reduce the number of managers at the corporation to produce a "simpler, slimmer BBC".

• Hall said the BBC was still hoping to broadcast a Panorama investigation into the use of Comic Relief funds. There was a "proper story to tell", he said. But he also seemed to confirm that the broadcast had been delayed.

When you have a programme which is controversial, and right to be controversial, and making big claims and right to be making big claims about things, you shouldn't set a transmission date. You should absolutely ensure there's proper time for proper processes to be gone through ...I very much hope this programme will be transmitted but I don't know yet what the substance of the allegations that are being made are and are they right or wrong?

• Hall praised Ian Katz, the new Newsnight editor (and former Guardian deputy editor) and Mishal Husain, the new Today presenter. Katz was showing how new leadership could revive a programme. And Husain was “doing absolutely brilliantly” , Hall said.

• Hall said that at least one manager had left the BBC following allegations of bullying. This came when he was asked about an NUJ dossier making allegations of bullying by management. Other cases were still be addressed, Hall said.

• He said a new bullying helpline was being set up at the BBC.

• Patten said the BBC would not object to the NAO having unfettered access to the BBC's accounts, provided it did not get involved in editorial matters. Maria Miller, the culture secretary, has said the NAO is getting new powers over the BBC. Patten said how this would work was still being resolved, but he implied he did not see any objections.

• Hall said said that Lisa Opie, a BBC executive earning more than £200,000 a year, was "daft" to blog about how tired she got doing a second job running a cafe. But in principle he defended the right of BBC staff to have jobs outside the corporation. He wanted the BBC to be "more fluid, more porous". On Twitter the Conservative MP Rob Wilson condemned this position.

Hall says he'll allow BBC managers to cont. to have more than 1 paid job even if on £250k. The gravy train rolls on for senior managers!

— Rob Wilson (@robwilson_RDG) October 22, 2013
• Patten said the BBC would publish a report by consultants PWC on the way it wasted almost £100m on a digital initiative. It was a "wretched business" and a "lamentable" story, he said.

• Hall defended Helen Boaden, the BBC head of radio who was criticised by a report looking into how the BBC handled revelations about Jimmy Savile. Hall said that he was "very confident" in Boaden. Asked about the way Boaden and Mark Thompson, the former director general, gave contradictory accounts about whether they had discussed the Newsnight Savile investigation, Hall said: "It is perfectly possible for two people to have different views about something and to both think they’re right."

• Hall revealed the make-up of the audience for Question Time. It was 30% Conservative supporters, 30% Labour supporters, 10% Lib Dems, 10% Ukip or another minor party, 5% others and 15% don't knows, he said.

• Hall said the BBC had to guard against "metropolitan bias". When the Tory MP Philip Davies told him the BBC orders more copies of the Guardian than any other paper, Hall agreed that this was odd.

Now I know about it, the imbalance is one thing, but the numbers are another, so I'll probably conclude we cut back on the number of papers that we use. People need to read papers but they need to read a broad range of papers, clearly.

[Teddy Bear]

Until the 6th December 2013 the government is requesting proposals from the public regarding The Future of the BBC.
Hopefully all those who are aware of the insidious agenda of the BBC will do so.

Submissions to be made through the Parliament Commons Select Committee Website here.

Please use this opportunity to try and have the BBC neutered.