The Last Night of the Proms was already a pretty fraught affair, with one attendee received verbal abuse for turning down an EU beret. Flag wars raged of another sort high above the standing audience however, as a group of patriotic Tory MPs – including a couple of ministers – turned up to find themselves awkwardly sitting next to a box full of metropolitan BBC executives. They were “not very happy about it”…

Among the group were Richard Sharp and Fran Unsworth, who – despite avoiding another row about banning Rule, Britannia! – were sat with faces like they’d “licked p*ss off a nettle”. At one point a Tory MP thought they’d try lightening their mood by throwing a Union Jack flag into the neighbouring BBC box. Unsworth apparently recoiled from it, though Sharp did reluctantly pick it up. Presumably the MPs’ after party at a Secretary of State’s flat was a less awkward affair…

The BBC’s Director of News and Current Affairs, Fran Unsworth, is leaving the corporation at the beginning of next year. Fran Unsworth says: “After more than 40 years with the BBC, I have decided that the time is right for me to hand on the job of leading the world’s best news organisation.” Guido’s sense is that she did try to hold the line on BBC impartiality against internal forces pushing their agendas. Which means one of the most critical jobs in setting the tone of the BBC is up for grabs.

Appointed in 2018, one of her main tasks was to oversee a major restructuring intended to focus on pooling resources into “multi-skilled story teams”, instead of the usual BBC farce of sending multiple news crews to the same event to cover it for different programmes. It was always bonkers that individual programmes have their own economics, science, and tech presenters when they are only occasionally used. Don’t get Guido started on the BBC jamborees that are Glastonbury and a US presidential election. It will be interesting to see, after 3 years, how big the BBC presence is at the party conferences next month. The BBC contingent has in the past been so bloated that it matched in size the rest of the entire media…

BBC News’ Director, News & Current Affairs, Fran Unsworth, is leading a meeting explaining the ‘modernisation’ of the BBC to around 130 employees in the room, and many more elsewhere watching on an internal live stream. She has announced 450 job losses…

The major restructuring will focus on pooling resources into “multi-skilled story teams”, instead of the current farce of the BBC sending multiple news crews to the same event to cover it for different programmes. At major events such as party conferences sometimes the bloated BBC contingent is as numerous as all the rest of the media combined. It is bonkers that individual programmes have their own economics, science, and tech presenters when they are only occasionally used…

The BBC is belatedly and brutally making the decisions it would have have been forced to make a long time ago if it were run like a for-proft company. The way to avoid big ruptures like this in the future is to move to a sustainable subscription-based model…