Speeches by Lowe.

“So you have a plan for the justice system to work with the Home Office and local authorities? You are telling me that all that is under way and that there is a blueprint for that, and it is going to be delivered on behalf of the British people?”

“Maybe you should go and have a chat with Elon Musk at X. He managed to cut 80% of his staff, and it seems to me that his platform works better now than it ever has, but there we go.”

“I think this is a very interesting piece of work, and I came along today to learn as much as anything. People talk about the digital revolution, and it is making a huge difference everywhere. I was really intrigued as to whether you have been to talk to some private sector businesses that face the same challenges that …”

“It is a vast amount of money. We are seeing the private sector being taxed—we are seeing taxes on farms, we are seeing taxes on small businesses and we are seeing business rates going through the roof—but that almost pales into insignificance when you look at the numbers we are talking about here, so it is absolutely c…”

“I will end there, Chair.”

“I don’t think we are picking holes, Tim. I think what we are saying is, “Let’s get at the truth.” That is where we want to be.”

“We are not Victorian Britain.”

“Let us have a debate about that at a different time. Are you spreading the word on something that is failing within?”

“I am sure we can have a further debate on this, but I am not sure that UK plc is in particularly good health. We are looking at the economy here being destroyed.”

“I think I can safely say that, since the Long Parliament, the British have been very suspicious of monopolies. You would be the first monopoly in history to dismantle itself willingly and deliver value for money, so I find it very difficult. I am very concerned that the taxpayer, as usual, is on the wrong end of this d…”

“I do not have much more time, as I can feel the Chair itching on my left, but I think editorial product and distribution are different issues—you have to split the two.”

“I think you will find, Tim, that the young do not go to the BBC.”

“But you cannot judge it if you do not have the information.”

“We touched on this earlier on. This Committee sits with a hat of representing the taxpayer and value for money. That is the reason we are here. As the NAO says, without clear ways of measuring non-financial impacts, how can you demonstrate the savings you are making? I accept you are making savings, Tim, but are they h…”

“Okay.”

“I would have thought so, but—”

“Complex systems mean opaque data.”

“Thank you for that. I have a question on the complexity of your finance system. I am finding it difficult to understand why it is so complex. I would like to know why. After all, your actual business model is not that complicated. You send out 72 million letters a year to collect the licence fee from those people who h…”

“The question for Jonathan is “What are you now doing to change as a result of this Report, if you accept this Report as valid and having veracity?””

“That is not money that you have to go and earn; it is money that comes in. I accept that they have not agreed it yet—it is remiss of me not to have done that—but I am struggling to understand why your finance system is so complicated. A complicated and opaque finance system means that it is very difficult to make good …”