The threat was barely disguised. Gerry Morrissey, assistant chief of the broadcasting union Bectu, said his members would "strike immediately" if the BBC closed its final salary scheme to new members and raised the retirement age of younger staff from 60 to 65.

Morrissey is doing a great impression of the lemming-like union leaders of the 1980s who – in league with Margaret Thatcher – condemned millions to the dole queue. He ignores the fact that Britain faces a pensions crisis. We’re living longer and not saving enough for life after work. Many companies face billion-pound pension fund deficits. True, bosses and politicans have hardly shown a good example, looking after their own retirement interests before everyone else’s. But the BBC is funded by a tax – the licence fee. That tax is highly controversial. If Morrissey forces the BBC off the air, he is simply helping the vested interests who want to kill the licence fee and break up the corporation.