.....AND AGAIN.....

I`m intrigued by the `resignation` of the BBC`s now former China Editor Carrie Gracie.  She has apparently relinquished that post (although rather surprisingly still employed by the BBC in some other capacity) due to the apparently illegal pay gap between women employees and men.  She may have a case, I don`t know, but it has thrown up a strange kind of imbalance which is of interest not only to BBC employees but also the licence payers of whom, thanks to the onset of anno domini, I am no longer one.

It`s reported (by the BBC themselves, I believe) that Ms. Gracie was paid £135,000 a year as China Editor and that, in response to her grumbles about the inequality of pay with male editors, she was offered a pay rise of £45,000 which would have brought her annual salary to £180,000.  That would still have resulted in a lower salary than that paid to male `Editors,` hence Ms. Gracie`s decision to resign.  The obvious conclusion is that her male counterparts are paid even more than this princely sum, which outstretches the salary of the Prime Minister by some considerable distance.

Now, being a retired elderly person on a fixed income and struggling to survive in these uncertain times, even £135,000 a year would do me nicely and £180,000 even more so.  So I must conclude that, rather than the fight being taken up by the female employees of the BBC for parity with their male colleagues, if I was still a licence payer I might be fighting for the male salaries to be reduced to the same level as the female ones.  That way the law would be satisfied as, with the exception of some avaricious male `editors, would the  majority of BBC employees and possibly the licence payers might sleep a little easier too?