Hugh Barnard

The BBC helped raised £38 million for Children in Need last year. They were so inventive, funny and delightful and we were so generous! Hurrah for everybody!

Let's look deeper, £38 mil is 1.2% of the BBCs current annual budget of 'about' £3 billion. This is the sort of figure that can be raised by simple economies in the BBC and a little tithing from these children of privilege. So we can find this £38 million via a little movement and generosity from the organisation itself. This is all public money too.

So, the current contribution can be raised directly without involving all the expense of stunts, payments by the public to network operators for SMS messages, telethons and assorted crass paraphernalia. If both happen (not my preferred avenue, see below) then the amount is doubled. If overpaid people at the top tithe, the results are even better.

Actually, all this is a Sartrean example of bad faith, these people are 'playing at compassion' when there are easier and more efficient routes (including within their own organisation), if they really, really (to quote the immortal Spice Girls) want to mitigate this particular 'bad'.

Of course, there are subtexts, such as my favourite neo-Orwellian mantra 'scarcity is control', a favourite with politicians and the establishment. If they don't pretend that these resources are 'scarce', by which we often mean that we have isolated them into unrealistic, artificial and badly-chosen silos, then needs start getting satisfied, resulting in a reduced clientele for the establishment (shock, horror!).