Someone give the Daily Mirror a calculator

Published on 11 February 2008 in , ,

There’s a piece in the Daily Mirror today, in outrage about the fact that apparently (and there’s no source quoted, so who knows how true this is)…

BBC boozers spent almost £250,000 of licence money on Christmas parties.

Daily Mirror website, 11 Feb 2008

Apparently “Crew and stars guzzled up to £50 each at 13 bashes in bars and restaurants” too! It’s clearly an outrage!

So outraged was I that I decided to find out what the average amount spent was per staff member.

According to the 2006/2007 BBC Annual Report, there are 23,037 people working for the BBC on permanent contracts.

Doing some simple maths, that £250,00 works out at a whopping £10.86 per staff member – or in London terms, three pints. Which is a far cry from how much the Mirror thinks BBC staff are guzzling… And as the staffing figures don’t include freelance or contract staff, you can bet the average amount per staff member would be even lower.

One can’t help but wonder how much per head the Mirror’s christmas party cost last year. Of course, they won’t tell you that…

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