Back in Spring of last year Guido discovered that the art project known as BBC Verify was staffed by an incredible 63 people with combined salary costs of a £3.2 million. And it still managed to confuse hectares for acres in its farm tax analysis…
By December the BBC had managed to shave off two staff from the team, which produces around two stories a day including such zingers as “Five key impacts of Brexit” which fails to mention anything positive about Brexit. Good news, until they tell you that staff costs have risen by £100,000 at the same time…
Now that we’re in the new year Guido can report that Verify has stuck with its 63 staff while paying them even more. Salary costs are now £3.4 million – an increase of £100,000 a month. Crucial funding for Marianna Spring be fooled by more wombat memes…
Tom Baldwin, author of Starmer’s hagiography, spoke to Times Radio:
Tom Baldwin: “I think he’d like to do something. He’s very dutiful and driven by service. That’s why he came into politics. I think that’s characterised his time as prime minister. He hasn’t always sought popularity or been good at being popular. But I think he has some of the necessary qualities that we actually do want in a prime minister. That resilience, that relentlessness, that ability to carry the weight and the job really does weigh very heavily on people and he carries that weight very, very well.”
Jo Coburn: “NATO Secretary-General?”
Tom Baldwin: “I think that’s something that he would be interested in. I think it probably requires Andy Burnham’s government to support him in that and these are some of the questions which Andy Burnham has to resolve quite quickly.”