Of one thing we can be sure if David Cameron wins Britain’s coming general election: the Conservatives would rein back the BBC. And if Gordon Brown’s government were to defy political gravity and scrape back into office? Well, it would set about reining back the BBC.

Those charged with running Britain’s public service broadcaster might pause to reflect as to how they have managed to so antagonise the two big parties. I struggled at the Labour and Tory conferences to find anyone with a good word to say about the corporation. The Liberal Democrats seemed a tad friendlier, though far from universally so.