Seven thousand, nine hundred and sixty five. That’s the number of TV licence fees needed to pay for just one man’s salary at the BBC.
I’m talking of course about Gary Lineker, who it’s been announced will soon leave the organisation, saving taxpayers well over £1million per year.
For years, Gary Lineker has been not just the best-paid employee of the BBC, he’s been the best-paid employee of any public-sector organisation.
And what do licence fee payers get in return? Lineker’s primary job at the BBC is heading up the football highlights show Match of the Day. There’s no doubt it’s successful, with millions of weekly viewers.
There’s also no doubt that Lineker feels like part of the furniture, given he’s been there since 1999.
But does anyone really think he’s that crucial to its success? That people tune in for Lineker, and not for the analysis of the other experts or, more fundamentally, the football highlights themselves?
We have an answer to this. Match of the Day 2, on Sundays, also receives impressive viewing figures and is more than competently hosted by Mark Chapman, whose services only cost taxpayers around £325,000.
Still a handsome salary, but only a fraction of Lineker’s at £1.35million.
And unlike Lineker, Chapman isn’t a magnet for political controversy.
A reminder that Lineker compared the language used around the Rwanda plan to that of 1930s Nazi Germany – a truly vile comparison.
Or that he backed a second Brexit referendum in 2018. Yet rather than putting him in his place, the bosses at the Beeb changed the impartiality guidelines to suit him.
Lineker may be missed by some, at least initially. But for many licence fee payers, which now include the over-75s of course, this is a decision long overdue.
Lineker was never worth the cost, neither to taxpayers nor the BBC whose reputation for impartiality he has done so much to damage.
