Brand and Ross

No I don't care about them, Ross occasionally comes out with something interesting at about the same rate that Brand comes out with something funny i.e. increasingly rarely; however the fact is they're popular so the BBC will continue to employ them.

What is worrying is the 'news' that Ofcom could fine the BBC £250,000, big whoop. From their annual statement (PDF) the BBC had a profit for 07/08 of £118m from an income of £4,689.4m of which the licence fee income totalled £3,368.8m. To put it another way £250,000 wouldn't even cover a year's wages for all 10 Executive Directors whose total remuneration for the year 07/08 including bonuses was £4,960,000. In fact it wouldn't cover the annual wages of just one of the Executive Directors where the lowest base pay is £314,000. Oh and as I'm assuming both Brand and Ross have signed contracts I doubt any of the fine would come out of their wage packets.

This reminds me of the recent story regarding John Carew of Aston Villa who received a "hefty" fine of £100,000 for breaking the team's curfew arrangements. Very hefty when the story I heard started with "fined two weeks wages" in other words his weekly take-home pay is greater then the yearly median gross wage in this country. Oh I'm sure he's as devastated as the BBC would be were they to be fined.

[Using my psychic powers I foresee Brand and Ross removed from the BBC, receiving fat pay-offs for the breaking of contracts (which the Daily Wail will shout about) before Brand is snapped up by Sky and Ross becomes a regular columnist for the Daily Wail]