On this story all week as bbc editor and hejoins on this story all week as bbc editor and he joins me on this story all week as bbc editor and hejoins me now. Has it been awkward . Not particularly, not particulalry. Maybe i have a advantage in that i have not in here that long s0 i have not in here that long sol i have not in here that long so i havent become best friends with various of the people i was reporting on. You are talking about people like huw edwards you are goingto end up working with but you just try very, very hard. You come across try very, very hard. You come across a try very, very hard. You come across a lot of awkward situations in journalism and you try very, very hard to think how would i cover this if it was another organisation, if it wasnt the bbc, and you try and go straight down the line. You come from newspapers, the independant in particular, has it affected how you view the row over bbc pay . I dont think it has affected how i view the row. Basically i approach this as a hack, ido basically i approach this as a hack, i do not purchase it asa i do not purchase it as a company i do not purchase it as a company man. It isa as a company man. It is a juicy story, fantastic, gossipy details. At its core, a list of names, a list of numbers and i find at its core, a list of names, a list of numbers and ifind It Com Pletely a list of numbers and ifind it completely fascinating so as an completely fascinating so as an Old Fashioned hack, this is really. I wouldnt say sexy but a juicy story. A lot of viewers see it as self flagellating coverage, the media talking about itself at the expense of other news . How would you answer that . I dont think it was self flagellating. If youre the bbc you have to cover yourself in a way that tries to be fairand yourself in a way that tries to be fair and objective. You have to be tough. I was very conscious. I had two interview tony hall on news at ten, two nights in a row, which is a Prestige Bulletin and there is no way i would not give him a hard time. When i was editing the packages, i would make it seem we were giving them a hard time. I dont think its self flagellation. It isa self flagellation. It is a hugely important Public Interest story. How do we spend public money . There is a question, did we do too much . That is complicated one, it has to do with what else was on the news agenda. But i would say we got it roughly right i would say that, wouldnt i but broadly speaking i think we got it about right. There is also an accusation from some viewers that the News Coverage focused on the gender gap to distract from the sheer size of the salaries . Were you under pressure to report the story in any way . I was under absolute no p iessu ie i was under absolute no pressure whatsoever. Hand on heart, no one tried to. Maybe to go back to your previous quesstion, maybe youre conscious that you may be under some environmental pressure but i came under no editorial pressure to spina under no editorial pressure to spin a particular line. Having been a kind of Media Adviser and having thought about the cons in the previousjobs and having thought about the cons in the previous jobs and gone through some difficult things in myjopurnalistic career like shutting down a newspaper, i was obviously thinking what is the line the bbc would like to put out. They feel like they have a story on gender. Tony hall in particular has made particular strides. I tried to make sure i did not focus too much on gender and was thinking about what the audience and public would care about and at base, if you find chris evans is paid £2. 2 million you think, wow, that is a big number. That was at the forefront of my mind. There were other issues revealed like diversity, class and i made sure i got those into my line and on air at the ten oclock news. Well, many of those who contacted newswatch expressed their dismay and disgust about the levels of salary revealed and there was also concern about the Gender Disparity with the top seven on the list all men, and on the issue of race the top 2a are all white. John maguire thought. Mick warren had a similar view. One might assume that people are paid partly according to their experience, to their experience, to their experience, to the amount of work done, and the types of shows presented. For Instantjohn Humphrys and jeremy vine both present Tv Quiz Shows which contribute to their bills. Trickier factors are how replaceable each person is and how much they would earn elsewhere. Bbc says although it often pays below the market rate, it cannot ignore the rates. But that cuts no ice with David Goodchild who told us. Well, the bbc direct general lord Hall Rsponded to all these points in an interview he gave on wednesday. He said that the Gender Pay Gap was lower on the bbc thanit was lower on the bbc than it was nationally bbc and pledged equal pay off the air between men and women by 2020 and pointed to the increased competition to bbc for presenters from companies such as apple and amazon and said continued effo rts and amazon and said continued efforts to reduce the on wage bill. Onair. We are constantly working at ensuring that we get the balance right between our public, who want to have great shows presented by stars and great presenters and them also wanted to know that their money their money, public money is being spent properly and it is aleways a balance. Mark damazer has worked as bbc for many years. Including Deputy Director for bbc news and was a bbc trustee. He is now master at saint peters college, oxford. Welcome to newswatch. You used to be management and made these kind of decisions. Were you surprise . I was surprised by the gender gap. I thought there might be a gender gap but it was considerably more embarrassing and bigger than i had anticipated. Some of the individual figures caused some surprise. Not necessarily in news, sometimes outside. Not all were surprising. Ican not all were surprising. I can see entirely from the Point Of View of an average Licence Payer that they would have looked on average high. In terms of the negotiating these one by one, no i wasnt enormously surprise. Several viewers have described some of these salaries as obsene, and they are eye watering, arent they . It isa arent they . It is a truth and it is not necessarily a happy truth that the way people get paid across the economy is not across the economy is not a reflection of moral virtue or moral value. It would be hard to say that a nurse or a policewoman, orafire a nurse or a policewoman, or a fire officer is not worth more by way of moral value than they stand in the economic hierarchy and you have to take that to one side and look at it asa side and look at it as a market based calculation. Once you get to that, and strip out the notion that these people are intrinsically more virtuous, then the figures make more sense. But people think, the bbc isa but people think, the bbc is a Public Organization and in the end there is no organisation and theres no need for a news reader to be paid that much . The problem with that, if other people are paid a great deal more and im afraid the bbc has to operate by trying to get the best talent, and to get it for a price thatis talent, and to get it for a price that is always likely to be discounted to what everybody else is paying but it has to be reasonable enough to get people in theirjob and recruit new people and it is not a lwa ys and recruit new people and it is not always happy and it is difficult and embarrassing but the bbcs right to have a policy that says we need talent and we are going to have to pgy a lot of you and a lot of bbc staff, women, minority staff, have been quite pleased. I was on the bbc trust for a couple of years and i was not an enthusiast for this. I was perfectly happy about bands in which you could locate a number of people but not necessarily their name and i was absolutely happy and am happy that the gender gap is being disclosed. It is not the same as individual names the same as individual names disclosed. Management pressure has come out because the gender gap will have to be sorted. It will be extremely difficult. In some cases it is likely to result in inflation. It is go to be very hard to do this if you do not inflate some peoples salaries, those people being women, and that may not be good for the total pay deal that the people worry about overpayment in general if they think everybodys been paid to match at you again to have to be paid more on average. One of the things likely to happen is that some of the better paid men is that some of the better paid men wish deal on any of them, may leave. And it may be that they are replaced by other cheaper men or women replaced by other cheaper men or women at that will, in some way, co m p iess women at that will, in some way, Compress The Gap between the males and females but i think the bbc cannot go on like this Evenif Cannot Go On like this even if it is true that the bbcs record is more defensible than most if not all of that robbed casters and many other big corporations in other fields of the economy. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you for all your comments this week. We are off the airfor a few comments this week. We are off the air for a few weeks but to share your opinions on bbc news on Current Affairs by calling us or news on Current Affairs by calling us or e mailing us stop you can find us on us or e mailing us stop you can find us on twitter and have a look at our website thats all from us, we at our website thats all from us, we will be back to hear your thoughts about bbc coverage again in september. Goodbye. Hello and welcome to the weekend although you may view that as a somewhat hollow greeting once you have seen the forecast. Some really very wet weather on friday in South West England and wales in particular. But that transferring further east around this low pressure, which is still a player in our weather going to the weekend. Not a washout. More of a sunshine and showers picture. But some of those showers will be heavy. Some sunshine in between, and after a really windy day for some of us on friday. Over the weekend, it is still breezy, but the winds are looking lighter. Showers could be gusty. This is what it looks like for early risers. Showers move in towards south west of the uk, and band of rain pushing away from the uk but still there in Northern England and Southern Scotland. Breezy picture in northern scotland. But North West Scotland should fare well throughout the weekend. Northern ireland picking up the odd shower here and there. Quite wet across parts of Northern England, the further north you are. Here is a drier, brighter slot across much of wales and down towards south east england. Already, at this stage of the morning, a few showers popping up in South West England and south west wales. Outbreaks of rain affecting parts of eastern england, but beginning to push away. So on through the day. Where we start with sunshine, showers build. Where you start wet, it may ease. Throughout North West Scotland, it will stay dry, breezy, but warm in, with some sunny spells. One or two showers in northern island. You could catch a shower across Southern Scotland into Northern England. It could well be torrential and thundery. The risk of hail, too. A rumble of thunder maybe to the south. Could be a lot of rain to come. Going to the evening, some of the really heavy showers to fade. Could be, compared with friday, a quieter day at the open golf at royal birkdale. Fewer showers around, but on sunday still some wet weather as we go into the final round. So this is how sunday is shaping up. Again, it is Reallyjust Sunshine and showers. Maybe more of us, on sunday, escape the showers. Temperatures through the weekend in the high teens, low 20s for most us close to average for this time of year. As we go into monday, this system pulls away. It may have some lingering cloud and outbreaks of rain for Eastern Parts of england, but for monday and tuesday, for most of us, it is looking like a quieter story. Briefly High Pressure and some fairly warm sunny spells coming through. 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