What exactly is stopping you from doing that rather than simply sounding off about how other people aren’t catering to your curiosity?

And lets remember that after 2012 we will effectively have no choice but to pay Sky or whoever if we want to maintain a TV service.

On the railways, I find it disturbing, though not surprising, that the Adam Smith Institute wants to revisit privatizing Network Rail again, given what happened last time and the appalling safety record that Network Rail inherited from Railtrack in 2001.

And on London Underground, like this article says look what happened with Metronet. And in my view 1 of the things that is good about London public transport is that the mayor can set ticket prices and be held directly accountable for it.

This kind of comment from the ASI is totally unsurprising.

BTW, since we’re on R4 comedy ‘Just a Minute’ is my preference.

“Cut back massively”: Total Managed Expenditure is expected to total £696bn this year (2010/11), according to the Emergency Budget. In 2015/16, the end of the Parliament, it is projected to be £756bn. That’s not a ‘massive cut’ in the public sector. It’s not even a ‘tiny cut’. It’s an increase. Even when you account for inflation, the figures don’t change much. The projection for 2015/16 at after discounting for inflation is £671bn, a cut of 3.6% phased in over 5 years, equivalent to 0.7% per year. On this definition, it is certainly a ‘cut’. Though it’s hard to justify the ‘massive’ bit when you’re talking about a cut of less than 4%. Also worth noting is that what is being cut is capital expenditure. In every single year, in both cash terms and after adjusting for inflation, current expenditure will rise.

It’s annoyed me so much I’ve devoted a whole blog post to it!

i actual find the now show the only funny comedy on R4. but yes, I’d pay for R4 no problem. and the website (although it crowds out competitors). bbc1 and 2 are pretty terrible. i watch newsnight, question time and the week in politics and that’s it (but then i have all the documentary channels on sky).

those managers only get paid so much coz they set their own wages at the bbc.

Also the radio is loved everywhere but because of the licence fee it can’t be sold abroad – that is sellable.

I’d pay for the BBC on a Sky card. I know there is a whole bunch of sanctimonious drivel on it – “The Now Show” on R4 springs to mind – but those unpopular minority shows would rapidly disappear.

Get shot of it and let the overpaid managers see if they do get the same wages in the private sector…

Sell it off – the sooner the government starts governing and not trying to run a business the better…