I love it (being an age of steam kind of guy), but I think we need to keep going where the audiences are going, when are resources allow.

My chief problem with TV news is its underfunding relative to its still high importance! Yes — I want you paid more money to keep you out of academia!

I know you’re keen to bury TV news now you’ve left it, but quite a lot of people want to watch the news at that time; as is evidenced by last nights figures.

Maybe there are fewer watchers, but the argument runs that these are people who are actually making a positive choice to tune in.

For the BBC and ITV, this seems to matter — a lot. I hear the argument, and see the evidence, that the net constitutes a revolution in our news habits. But we need not all stop and apply for tutors posts at this stage.

And as Jack Aubrey might remark, it would be a dull spectator who didn’t relish the engagement between such well manned ships o’ the line (even if HMS ITN is sadly undercrewed and the skipper’s a right hard horse).