The public thirst for transparency was never going to stop with Parliament. And does the BBC really think that it can duck criticism when MPs will attack with the zeal of the historically scarred. They wish to share the rod:
Days after MPs caused public outrage by blacking out details of their expenses, the BBC is refusing to reveal how much is spent on hospitality and gifts for its best-paid celebrities.
The corporation is to publish claims by senior executives, some totalling more than £1,000 a month, amid accusations that it is wasting millions of pounds of public funds.
Publication is being brought forward by several weeks to forestall demands for
greater disclosure and could come as early as today. But BBC bosses will
remove some of the most sensitive information about expenses, leaving them
vulnerable to charges of “partial transparency”. They cite an exemption in
the Freedom of Information Act that allows the corporation to refuse to
disclose information related to its “journalism, art or literature”.
Let me guess: disclosure will reveal huge waste, contempt for those who pay the licence tax and all-round public sector parasitism. Then any support left for the Corporation may die away. Associating the BBC with sleaze would be a positive outcome.
