At last some honesty.

It takes a brave man to show real honesty, especially when it involves criticising your employers. But last night, at the Edinburgh TV festival, Jeremy Paxman did just that.

In an open appraisal of broadcasting in general, he criticised the licence fee as a tax on the ownership of a television which he said was 50 years out of date, and even called the recent deceptions uncovered across the industry as being handled in a "preposterous" way.

What truth, and what honesty. It's something needed to be said, and at last one of the BBC's big name, and widely respected presenters has finally broken ranks and put his cards on the table. His points have been raised before by just about every form of media, so it was refreshing to hear it come straight out of the BBC. Will it change anything though? I very much doubt it.

One point that Paxo did make also hit home, how can an organisation with an assured income of £3.5bn, find itself in a budget crisis. The sooner that question can be answered, the sooner the quality of programming can improve.