ITBB has learned...

ITBB has learned that Robert Colville of the Centre for Policy Studies was a 'talking head' in a BBC News at Ten report last night. He tweeted this about it: 

Just watching my News at 10 appearance on public sector pay freeze. Introduced with 'The BBC has learned that...' this could happen. By reading the front pages of the Times, Mail and Guardian this morning?

The relevant bit ran as follows:

The BBC has learned that millions of public sector workers in England, including teachers and police, could face a pay freeze next year. There are 5.5 million public sector workers, but it's thought that NHS staff may be exempt from the measures.

The BBC's use of 'The BBC has learned that...' has been a standing joke for some time of course. 

  

The report itself by Faisal Islam contained a fair range of public and private sector voices disagreeing with each other but ended with Faisal saying, "As the economy continues to suffer, the bulk of the tough decisions on tax and spend are to be put off, but not for public sector workers", thus making it sound as if public sector workers have been particularly hard done by.