Sadly we live in a world where money is seen as the be all and end all. I am slightly cynical but here's my radical theory.
Mark Thompson is scared that there will be Conservative Government. It is not a secret that the Conservatives do not favour the BBC in the same way as the current Government. The tories will scrutinise the corporation much more rigidly and therefore the BBC is now, as a form of tokenism, being seen to make cuts and save "public" money so that the "media" can report the BBC in a positive light!
Cuts however could be made elsewhere. cutting back on unnecessary departments and managers is the logical solution but, and this is my angry but, cutting back on programmes that the public want to watch and enjoy is ridiculous. The BBC is funded by "public" money. I am a member of the public and I pay the licence fee. If they can justify paying millions and millions on rugby and show it for 13 hours on a Saturday because it is apparently what the public want, then they should make more programmes like Lark rise too as that is also what the public wants. Otherwise there's a double standard!
There rant over. I am still writing to the BBC. Anyone care to join me?