Tim Davie has said it out loud. According to the Telegraph, the BBC Director-General claimed in a staff meeting on Tuesday that it’s “truly amazing” the broadcaster is “pulling off” forcing people to pay the £159 licence fee. Apparently it’s “glorious” they “don’t need to make a profit on everything”…

“It’s truly amazing what we’re pulling off by the way. That most households are pretty happy paying a licence being a forced payment. It’s amazing what we’re pulling off […] People think we’re the cat with the cream at the moment and I know it doesn’t feel like that internally and I really am very sensitive about saying that.”

He also insisted that ITV and Sky are “in crisis“… despite the BBC themselves cutting local radio stations and merging news channels:

“Our budgets are slightly better than some of the commercial operators and the lovely thing is we can play long term as well, we don’t need to make a profit on everything which is glorious.”

On the issue of bias, Davie claimed “there’s a whole load of waffle talked about, you know, the Left. It’s not largely a Left or Right thing at the moment, it’s social issues, it’s rural affairs, what you think about the countryside, what you think about climate change, what you think about diversity.” What does Tim think about his presenters repeatedly ignoring his own impartiality rules?