BREAKING: Huw Edwards Resigns from BBC in Wake of Sex Pics Scandal

BBC News at Ten anchor Huw Edwards, has resigned from his £439,000 a year job after spending the last nine months living as an off-air recluse.

Edwards, 62, inexplicably disappeared from the airwaves last July, at around the same time reports surfaced that an "unnamed" male BBC presenter had paid £35,000 to a young, vulnerable adult in exchange for initimate photos of them.

Edwards' name was squarely in the frame from the outset, him having disappeared like a fart in the wind for no other apparent reason.

It wasn't until his wife, producer Vicki Flind, released a statement that the widely discussed rumours about the veteran Welsh broadcaster became public.

In the statement, Flind said: "Huw is suffering from serious mental health issues. As is well documented, he has been treated for severe depression in recent years.

"The events of the last few days have greatly worsened matters, he has suffered another serious episode and is now receiving in-patient hospital care where he'll stay for the foreseeable future.

"Once well enough to do so, he intends to respond to the stories that have been published."

In recent months Edwards, who has been suspended on full pay, has been living the quiet life with his elderly mother in the Carmarthenshire countryside. The air is much fresher there and he can enjoy undisturbed nights' sleep dreaming about Men of Harlech.

Earlier today, the BBC released the following statement: "Huw Edwards has today resigned and left the BBC.

"After 40 years of service, Huw has explained that his decision was made on the basis of medical advice from his doctors.

"The BBC has accepted his resignation which it believes will allow all parties to move forward. We don't believe it appropriate to comment further."

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Further anti-BBC reading:

• Is The True Or Did You Hear It On The BBC?, by David Sedgwick (aff. link)
• The BBC: Myth of a Public Service, by Tom Mills (aff. link)

BBC Commits to £6m Investment in Online Education Platform

The BBC has committed to £6 million of investment in its online education platform, BBC Bitesize.

Deviating slightly from normal TV Licensing Blog service, I have to say that BBC Bitesize is product that I, no doubt along with many other parents, found incredibly useful during the darkest hours of covid lockdown.

I should mention at this point that there is no legal requirement for a TV licence to use BBC Bitesize.

For anyone unfamiliar with BBC Bitesize, it's an online learning platform that contains resources on pretty much every topic, in every school subject, from Key Stage 1 to GCSE level. There are engaging videos, animations and activities to stimulate the learning experience.

There are certainly a lot worse ways the BBC could spend £6 million of TV licence fee payer's money - as it regularly does. Anyway, enough of blowing smoke up the BBC's arse - I've exceeding my yearly quota for that in this article alone!

Patricia Hidalgo, BBC Director of Children's and Education: "Our Reithian values to 'inform, educate and entertain' are the driving force behind the content we provide young people and their families. To 'educate' is at the heart of the BBC's purpose for the last 100 years and we are so proud of the innovation we have pioneered as we have helped the nation to learn.

"We're continuing this rich heritage as we evolve BBC Bitesize for the next generation of young learners investing in technology to deliver personalised content supported by the educational rigour and trust we have earned over this centenary."

The new enhanced BBC Bitesize will pilot a range of content aged at the post-16 audience. It will also enhance content discovery, recommendation systems, and self-curation features, making content more personalised, relevant and easier to find.

According to the BBC, the improvements will make learning, homework and exam revision simpler, more effective and more accessible.

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Former BBC News Presenter Martine Croxall Begins Discrimination Legal Action

Former BBC News presenter Martine Croxall is taking the national broadcaster to an Employment Tribunal over allegations of workplace discrimination.

Croxall, 55, joined the BBC in 1991 on a work experience placement with Radio Leicester. After several years touring the Corporation's local and regional newsrooms, she became a presenter on the national BBC News channel in 2001.

In recent years she has been a regular presenter on the BBC News channel, as well as being a stand-in presenter on the Corporation's flagship News at One and News at Six programmes.

Croxall was unceremoniously dumped from the airwaves in 2023, as part of the BBC's plans to restructure its news output. Croxall's departure coincided with that of several other very experienced, very talented, middle-aged presenters and reporters.

News has now emerged that the thirty-year veteran is taking the BBC to an Employment Tribunal, amid claims of sex and age discrimination. The case is listed at London Central Employment Tribunal on 1st May 2024.

Several of her co-workers - Karin Giannone, Geeta Guru-Murthy, Kasia Madera and Annita McVeigh - are also taking action against the BBC.

The BBC has form for discriminating against its female journalists.

In 2020 an Employment Tribunal ruled that the BBC had unlawfully discriminated against Samira Ahmed, who received a fraction of the pay of a male presenter, Jeremy Vine (insert expletives here), for doing a comparable job.

On the back of Ahmed's tribunal win, the BBC went into damage-limitation overdrive in an effort to stave off similar claims.

According to a BBC insider at the time: "They've spent a huge amount of money telling women they don't have a claim - but now they're approaching women as they head to tribunal and offering to make it go away."

Given the vast army of lawyers employed by the BBC it is remarkable the frequency with which the national broadcaster finds itself in legal hot water. They are, in the main, BBC lawyers cast in the same mould as Post Office lawyers - overpaid, undertalented, content to bypass due process and with a dubious interpretation of acting in the public interest.

I'm sure we'll be hearing a lot more about how the BBC uses public money to silence disgruntled employees over the next few days.

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