The Conservative MP also clashed with another committee member, Paul Farrelly, at a coffee kiosk in Parliament

IMHO: This week the nation's favourite broadcaster, ironically nicknamed Auntie, took a deep breath, rolled up its shirtsleeves and had a go at tackling "women's issues"

The thinking man's neglected crumpet Joan Bakewell believes that her ruling-class voice makes her unemployable by the BBC. Look how cockneys dominate the ratings: Benedict Cumberbatch, for instance, or the pearly king himself, David Attenborough.

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There was a time when I looked forward to BBC2's Newsnight. I felt sparks might fly, particularly if Jeremy Paxman were in charge. Along with Radio Four's Today programme, it provided by far the most informative political forum in broadcasting, though in the heyday of New Labour's virtual one-party state it was a bit too much part of the project for my tastes.

The Starkey brouhaha follows a well-trodden path. Curmudgeonly man says something crass. Somebody gets cross

Knowledge is power – especially when it comes to languages

Michael Crick has become the latest high-profile BBC News journalist to quit the corporation after the Newsnight political editor announced his defection to Channel 4.

BBC staff are preparing to mount picket lines outside the entrance to the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham as part of strike action which is set to begin next Tuesday.

As a senior lobby journalist quits print, Matthew Bell traces the rise of the political website

While Nick Robinson enjoyed a successful stint as guest host on Newsnight this week, his high-profile colleague and rival Robert Peston – the BBC Business Editor who is said to covet Robinson's gig as the corporation's political supremo – announces that he is far too busy for similar undertakings.

Nick Robinson's stint fronting Newsnight may have proved a successful experiment at the time of printing, but it seems that he would be wise not to get overly comfortable in the hot seat quite yet.

No sooner had Sebastian Barry collected his Costa Book of the Year award and the literary world had licked its lips after eating its way through the four-course meal in the InterContinental Hotel's ballroom than scores of glamorously dressed guests began tramping down to the Hyde Park hotel's trendy Cookbook Cafe for some after-show nightcaps.