Beyond satire

From the BBC 22 November 2012:

The BBC Trust has today appointed Tony Hall - Lord Hall of Birkenhead - as the Director-General of the BBC, following the departure of George Entwistle... Lord Hall will take up the post on a salary of £450,000 per year.


From the BBC 3 April 2013:

Tony Hall has vowed to review senior staff pay-offs and salaries at the BBC. The new director general said the size of pay-offs "has not been right" and that the corporation must justify how it spends the licence fee. Lord Hall takes over after the BBC was accused of "rewarding failure" over the £450,000 paid to his predecessor George Entwistle. Mr Entwistle resigned after 54 days in the job at the height of the Jimmy Savile sex abuse scandal.

Lord Hall told BBC Radio 4's Today programme there was a need for the corporation to look at how it spends all its money, including pay-offs for senior executives. He said: "I think the size of the pay-offs has not been right... There is a serious issue here. I'm looking at pay-offs and I will have something to say about pay-offs in the next couple of weeks.

He said capping the senior salaries bill would be part of his plan to "simplify" the organisation. "Senior salaries is a big issue... the senior salaries bill has come down already by a third and it will not grow under me. I will be looking for ways of simplifying the organisation, responding to things I hear from both insiders and also outsiders about the way this place can work more effectively."