New Statesman letter on BBC`s gender gap

Helen Lewis rightly stated that the BBC`s justification for its "unequal" and unfair pay policy, that it "has to compete in the market", doesn`t "stand up to scrutiny", but she fails to tell us what the real reasons are (Out of the Ordinary, 28th July, 2017). Profligacy with the licence payers` money is one, but clearly idiocy is another: how can anyone believe, for example, that Match of the Day`s viewers would not watch the football highlights programme, if Lineker and Shearer were not on? Also, "outright sexism" is not a new phenomenon at the BBC, which far too frequently resembles a boy`s club for the privileged, rather than a public sector organisation, immune to parliament`s laws. Another cause is the presenters` greed; if they are not happy earning ten times the national average, a figure which is highly inflated because of the obscenely high earnings of people like themselves, they should be told to leave. 

       The most obvious ways to reduce the gender pay gap, not just that of the corporation, but of all businesses, are either for an earnings` cap to be set at £250,000, or for income tax to be 100% above that level. Politicians tell us how keen they are to reduce unfairness and inequality, so isn`t it time they put their legislation where their mouths are?