BBC Local Radio

I accept that entirely. The BBC has a long and proud tradition of regional broadcasting centres. Manchester is one, Birmingham and Newcastle are others. Bristol has probably the finest natural history service in the world bar none. I do not take anything away from any of the work done regionally by the BBC—that is not the point. There is, however, no sense in producing coverage of the Hampton Court or Chelsea flower shows—as far as I am aware, Hampton Court and Chelsea are still in or around London—from Birmingham. To pick up on the point made by my hon. Friend the Member for Suffolk Coastal, there is no point in flying a production team from Scotland so that Mr Dimbleby can have his programme directed and produced in London. There is no point in flying expensive guests from London to Manchester—if they will go at all—to sit on a sofa for the breakfast television programme. That exercise is costing £1 billion. We could add to that the management fees charged by the BBC—the director general's salary would pay all the salaries for one local radio station for a year. I do not suggest that the director general of the BBC is not a terribly important person because I am sure somebody will convince me that he is, but there is a huge amount of waste. When the Minister responds, I would like him to direct the BBC, perhaps through its new chairman of the trustees—Lord Patten, I hope—to areas other than this candle-end of a cut, which is miniscule in terms of the BBC's finances. That candle-end shines a real light into the ordinary everyday lives of local people up and down the country, and I want it to continue to burn.