It has been suggested that the BBC could be forced to give up some of its income from the licence fee to help fund regional news on commercial broadcasters such as ITV which are struggling during the downturn.

The suggestion was included in a government-backed report called Digital Britain which is aimed at helping those broadcasters such as ITV which have been hit by the fall in advertising.

The government believes there should be several suppliers of regional news, not just the BBC, and has suggested giving some money from the home of Eastenders to any organisation willing to make regional news for commercial groups.

The money would come from a section of the licence fee that was used for helping with the switchover from analogue to digital TV and that has not been spent.

If approved, the move would mark the first time in nearly 90 years that the BBC has been forced to share some of its 3.6 billion pound budget. But the corporation is likely to fight the suggestion.

Would you object to suggestions that money you have paid being given to other broadcasters or do you think the BBC should accept it needs to help out at a time when commercial groups are in dire need?

As the annual chore of filling in tax returns looms on the horizon again, many taxpayers might be reflecting longer than usual this year about just where the money is going.

Since the last time he ripped open the blue cellophane HMRC envelope with a sigh and started hunting around for his P60, Joe Public has seen billions of pounds going to the banks, thousands if not millions being used to bankroll the expensive tastes of MPs — and now he sees the BBC clamming up about how much it spends on stars from that other effective tax, the licence fee. 

Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee, to which the National Audit Office spending watchdog reports, is fuming because the BBC will not reveal how much it pays its big-name radio presenters. 

The BBC Trust says it keeps salary details confidential because it has legal obligations to staff and that disclosure would raise questions over data protection and privacy laws.

The generosity of BBC salaries has been a long-running theme, especially since it was reported last year that Jonathan Ross receives some six million pounds a year. Newsreader Carrie Gracie raised eyebrows more recently when she revealed she gets 92,000 pounds a year.  

The Corporation says it merely pays the going rate and in some cases less. It has launched a comprehensive redundancy programme and has confirmed that its stars’ salaries will be cut when contracts come up for renewal.

BBC Director-General Mark Thompson has staunchly defended the licence fee, calling it a “critical part of this country’s investment in the creative industries”.

But is it enough? After the jaw-dropping revelations about the way MPs spend public funds, taxpayers are perhaps rightly suspicious about what happens to their money behind closed doors.

Should BBC salaries remain confidential?  Does the BBC have a right to withold information from the National Audit Office? 

The thought of ringing up a mega-corporation with a query or complaint elicits a mental - and at times even audible - groan from among the most stoic of people.

The frustrations felt at wasted time spent pushing buttons on the dial pad leading to endless tedious messages in the hope of reaching an employee with a modicum of knowledge is often compounded by the thought that there is a financial cost for the effort.

Why should customers pay for this inconvenience which leads only to make profit for corporations and serve as a deterrent to obtaining good service?

At least some relief will soon be offered by Talk Talk, the phone company owned by Carphone Warehouse, which will be offering free calls to all 0845 and 0870 numbers as of June 2, 2009.

Although such services are regulated by PhonepayPlus, overseen by communications industry regulator Ofcom, various media firms have been investigated for irregularities to do with using these numbers.

Among several high-profile cases over the years, you will recall the 2008 scandals involving the BBC and ITV. Ofcom fined ITV 5.68 million pounds for cheating viewers over phone-in competitions they could never win and the BBC admitted it failed to pay more than 100,000 pounds to charity from calls viewers made to premium-rate phonelines.

Paying for calls to premium-rate numbers helps ensure that large companies remain impenetrable and unaccountable to their customers.

What do you think? Should premium-rate calls be abolished?

At the moment it looks as if only one person can win this series of BBC One’s “The Apprentice” - and this is Kate Walsh. The 27-year-old is the only candidate with any natural flair for business and has shone in every task. Last night’s episode was no different.

With 10 weeks gone and just six candidates remaining, Sir Alan Sugar decided it was time for “one of my favourite tasks”. In other words, the one that made the wannabe apprentices (and us watching at home) the most uncomfortable. Both teams were then told they would be thrust in front of a camera and expected to sell products on live TV.

Nice-guy Howard took charge of team Ignite, leading Kate and Lorraine Tighe while Yasmina Siadatan wrestled the captaincy of team Empire from Debra Barr and funny-man James Walsh. For once, both teams took to the task rather well.

Allowed to choose the products they would sell, Howard went for expensive items such as a chip-fat fryer, air guitar and a preposterous leather jacket while Debra’s Empire pinned their hopes on shifting bulk amounts of low-end goods, including a poncho and a remote control car.

Bossy Debra, who after raising her voice to Sir Alan and his aides in the boardroom clearly is not scared of anything, was labeled a “natural” as she gave viewers the hard-sell.

The highlight, however, was Kate playing air guitar to Led Zeppelin and “releasing my inner rock goddess.” The TV crew were in stitches, and so was I. Unfortunately for Kate, Lorraine’s attempt to sell satellite navigation systems ended in a pile-up. Comments like “it has got a safety camera for those of you who are speeding around and clocking up lots of points” and “it will save you from having lots of accidents” did not go down well with her producer.

The viewers did not like it either and Howard, Kate and Debra sold just 10 percent of what the channel would expect from their chosen items. They were outsold by Debra, James and Yasmina and would have to face Sir Alan’s wagging finger.

It looked as if Lorraine, whose hopeless performance cost them the task, would be the one to go, especially when in true “Apprentice” fashion her erstwhile teammates turned on her like a pack of wild dogs.

Sir Alan had other ideas. Turning his attention to Howard, he told him he was “risk adverse” and a “Steady Eddie.” In these difficult times, apparently, “ordinary people” are not good enough.

Next week, the candidates face a series of pressurised interviews, always a series high point. Not that any of it matters - this is Kate’s competition to lose.

The task on last night’s episode of “The Apprentice” had to be the hardest of the series so far. Sir Alan Sugar met the candidates at the O2 Arena, formally the Millenium Dome, and gave them all a lesson in the art of re-branding.

Their challenge was to use their creative and marketing skills to re-brand one of the UK’s faded seaside tourist attractions - Margate.

The teams had to choose a theme for the makeover and produce a series of posters and leaflets to attract a new generation of tourists to the Kent town and then pitch their ideas to industry experts and local residents.

Yasmina’s team, Ignite, made the sensible choice and decided to aim for the family market. Team Empire, on the other hand, decided to sell the various delights of Margate to… the gay community. It was James, who Sir Alan memorably described as being from “a village that is missing an idiot”, who suggested the idea because “these people have lots of money.”

It was a shocking performance from Empire. Their research involved walking into a local gay bar to find it almost empty - and then deciding to do a photo shoot there anyway. The posters were awful (they should contain no more than 10 words - they used 70!) and team leader Debra made a complete hash of the leaflets. After leaving half of the leaflet blank, Debra told the tourism experts that this was space for local advertisers, which did not fool them one bit.

Ignite performed admirably, taking great photos on the beach and producing a rather attractive series of promotional material. The experts liked them and so did the locals. Once again it was Kate who excelled - at the moment she is the only candidate who looks like she can win this competition.

Her team won handsomely and Sir Alan wasted no time in laying into Empire’s incredibly inept campaign, telling them: “You made a brave statement by going for the gay market and then you whispered the message!”

Debra came back into the boardroom with James and Tanzanian beauty queen Mona and it was time for the weekly back-stabbing to commence. They were all hopeless but, in the end, it was Mona who got the chop for not getting behind the campaign to target the gay market

You could hardly blame her, it was a terrible idea and it should have been Debra who went for only giving herself 30 minutes to create a leaflet and for her astounding belligerence, both during the task and in the boardroom.

Anyone who raises their voice to Sir Alan is surely not long for this reality TV world.

After shouting his way through the previous tasks, estate agent Philip Taylor was booted off ”The Apprentice” last night for breaking that age-old rule: never mix business with pleasure.

Sent to Manchester and Liverpool to sell products pitched to them by inventors, loudmouth Phil instead spent the entire task flirting with Kate — favourite to win the competition — and cheekily saying things like “I’d buy anything off her” as if he was auditioning for a role in a Carry On film.

The products chosen by both teams were just ridiculous.

Ignite team leader Lorraine, who has had a bust-up with Phil in every episode so far, went for a cat playhouse and a bicycle luggage holder, while team Empire, led by Mona, tried to flog a two-person dog lead (don’t ask) and a silk sleeping bag that can be worn like a jumpsuit.

Autocrat Lorraine decides she is the person to pitch the products to retailers, despite her shocking attempt at selling exercise equipment a few weeks ago. The most over-used — and irritating — phrase of this series is surely one candidate yelling to another: “I’m just as good as you are at selling.”

Back in the boardroom, a bewildered Sir Alan Sugar immediately panned the teams’ product choices, particularly Debra’s attempt to sell the sleeping bag suit to a retailer specialising in high-end designs, who summed it up rather nicely by saying: “It’s just not very stylish.”

Kate, Philip and Ben failed to make a single sale between them, however, and team Ignite were heavily outsold by Empire. Lorraine brought Philip and Kate back into the boardroom with her to face Sir Alan’s wagging finger and cleverly chose to bring the pair’s romance to the overlord’s attention.

After being picked on by Philip for weeks, Lorraine got her revenge when Sir Alan fired Philip, saying: “Your bravado and attitude isn’t going to fit in my organisation.”

A teary-eyed Phil then stormed out of the boardroom in a way that his Y-front-wearing breakfast cereal creation Pants Man, for which he will be remembered, would have been proud.

So long Noorul Choudhury, we barely knew you. Mainly because we did not even know you existed.

After surviving for five weeks by lurking in the background and hoping Sir Alan Sugar would not notice he was there, Noorul has finally been ejected from this series of “The Apprentice”.

The good performance by last week’s winning team turned out to be a blip and last night the candidates were back to what they do best: making a complete pig’s ear of a rather straightforward challenge. Tasked with selling a range of bric-a-brac, team Ignite left the most pricey item — a rug — in the back of their van until it was almost too late, while team Empire did not even bother to have the items valued.

Both teams made a net loss and it was back to the boardroom for more infighting.

This series the section of the show devoted to the task has been getting shorter and shorter and last night the grilling by Sir Alan and his aides started after 35 minutes, which tells you everything you need to know about the amount of business acumen on display.

Project manager Ben, who is clearly starting to agitate Sir Alan, made a total mess of choosing which two teammates to take back into the boardroom with him. For the first time in Apprentice history, a team leader changed his mind and one poor candidate who thought she was free to go was called back in.

The result was a formality, however. Taciturn Noorul offered nothing and whichever team he ended up on was effectively a man down.

It was Sir Alan’s easiest decision so far. Choosing a worthwhile winner, on the other hand, may be his hardest.

The chief villain of the latest series of “The Apprentice”, now at the half-way stage, is undoubtedly Belfast-born Ben Clarke, who has wound up not just his fellow contestants and Sir Alan Sugar but everyone at home watching the show.

His claim three weeks ago that he should not be fired because he had “won a scholarship to Sandhurst” will surely become part of reality TV folklore. The former stockbroker is on top form again this week, when viewers finally get to see if he can live up to his own hype as project manager of team Empire.

Ignite, meanwhile, get motor-mouth Philip (pictured), the second most obnoxious contestant on the show and the man responsible for last week’s cereal box character, “pants man”.

This week the candidates are given an inventory of bric-a-brac to sell and warned not to take any of the items at face value. The team which makes the most profit wins.

It is not long before cocky Ben is back doing what he does best - talking about himself. He says, modestly: “I am a natural born leader. Sandhurst clearly saw that in me and that’s why I got an army scholarship. Under those situations where I am under extreme pressure, i.e. heavy gunfire, explosions going off around me, people getting injured - that’s when I can bring a team together.” Something tells me Ben is proud of the fact he was once offered a scholarship to Sandhurst.

Deciding that time is money, Ben then rules that team Empire should not even bother having their items valued. His cheap, quick-sale techniques returns to haunt them in spectacular fashion.

Meanwhile, Philip tries to stay calm but his feud with Lorraine soon resurfaces. Lorraine is — understandably — convinced that an old Persian style rug is the prize item but Phillip ignores her advice and focuses on… a skeleton. Sir Alan’s adviser Margaret Mountford watches on in disbelief, saying: “This has got to be one of the most stupid activities they have yet engaged in.”

Which is really saying something.

“The Apprentice”, Wednesday April 29 at 9pm, BBC ONE.

Cheerio Paula Jones! You may have had nice hair, but you were rubbish at counting.

It has to be said, however, that once again Sir Alan Sugar fired the wrong candidate in last night’s episode of “The Apprentice”. Charged with setting up their own cosmetics business, the two teams had to make and sell their own beauty products using all natural ingredients.

Paula’s team, Empire, came up with by far the better product. Choosing seaweed as the main ingredient, they put together an attractive soap and shower gel range that even Sir Alan acknowledged looked the business.

Unfortunately, they made a costly error when selecting an essential oil for their beauty brew, confusing sandalwood (which is very, very expensive) with cedarwood (which is not). Under the impression that they had spent practically nothing, the moment Sir Alan’s aide Nick Hewer broke the bad news and their jaws hit the floor was the best moment of this series so far.

Empire had blown their budget and no amount of ineptitude from the opposing team, Ignite, could save them, though Team leader Nurool certainly gave it his best shot. The former chemistry teacher should have been good at this challenge, but he has to go down as one of the worst project managers ever. Ignite’s honey-based soap was a gloopy mess and Nurool was practically invisible.

Had Empire not made their costing error, they would have strolled to victory. As it turned out, they ended up making a loss and were left to reflect on what might of been in loser’s cafe.

Paula understandably chose Ben and Yasmina, the two candidates she had put in charge of finances, to accompany her back into the boardroom for the showdown with Sir Alan. Before long, the two turned on their team leader and, rather unfairly, it was Paula who got the chop. It should have been Ben, who took credit for other people’s efforts and boasted “I did outstandingly well on sales… and I’ve got a scholarship to Sandhurst.” Priceless.

The wrong team won and you could feel Sir Alan’s disappointment at not getting the chance to fire Nurool. Something tells us he won’t have to wait long.

Incompetence, in-fighting and all-round confusion. That’s right folks, “The Apprentice” is back on our screens tonight and this time “Britain’s best business prospects” (their words, not ours) are here to show us how not to sell beauty products.

Sir Alan Sugar shuffles the teams again (as if that will make any difference) and picks two of the “quiet ones” as project managers. Paula and Noorul lead the teams as they try to create and sell their own line of cosmetics and, for once, they both get off to a good start.

But don’t worry, it doesn’t last. Under Paula’s rule, team Empire plug for a shower gel and soap combo and head to Poole beach to collect their key ingredient, seaweed (as you do). It all falls apart, however, when they misread the formula of their product and confuse three percent with three grams and, to make matters worse, expensive sandalwood with cheap-as-chips cedarwood.

When Nick Hewer, Sir Alan’s right-hand man, points out how much product they will have to shift to make any money, the candidates are, for once, speechless.

Meanwhile, team Ignite put all their faith in a honey-based product which, despite team leader Noorul’s chemistry background, does not turn out as planned. Unable to start again, they are left trying to sell a product that is sticky and congealed.

Needless to say, the punters are hardly enthused. But when faced with sales-pitches like “Come on, you can give it to your mother” and “It’s a personal favourite of the Queen” (lie), who can blame them?

Not so much soap as soap-opera. And all the better for it.

– The Apprentice, Wednesday April 15 at 9pm on BBC ONE –