Andrew Marr should think before he criticises Sky News on the “never wrong for long” front. Here is what he told the Lords:

“I do think (the BBC is) different and we have to stay different,” he told the House of Lords communication committee.

“This is most acute in the age of 24-hour news because the desperate journalistic desire to be first is felt so intensely.

“Our main competitor, Sky News, always trumpets that it is first with this, first with that.

“Well, we are the BBC and we have to be sure that we are right. We must not, therefore, get into the culture of first with this, first with everything – first and frequently right.”

Lest Marr forget, on July 7, 2005 it was Sky News, with their refusal to slavishly accept the official line, who told Londoners what was really going on in the capital, whilst the Corporation steadfastly regurgitated what it was told.

That is why we need plurality of news supply. Not merely “plurality within the BBC” as the Corporation sometimes likes to argue it provides. It is plurality of news provision that is most at threat right now (£40m ITV regional news cuts anyone?), and not the BBC.(Disclosure: I worked for Sky News)