Red Ed?

Not content with calling the BBC workers threatened strike "irresponsible", Ed Milliband is now having a go at the firefighters threatened strike action on 5 November.

Instead of attacking the FBU maybe "Red Ed" should speak out more to denounce the threat of mass sackings of firefighters - how much more irresponsible can any employer be.

Away from disputes ( and we await the outcome of the consultative ballot of BBC members tomorrow) I've been to the TUC General Council, spoke at an excellent meeting of the London Photographers Branch last night, met with the union's legal firm, Thompsons and have been planning some of the activities to oppose the BBC cuts along with activists from the World Service Branch.

A welcome intervention from shadow culture secretary Ivan Lewis today who is calling for an investigation in to what he calls the "dodgy deal" that led to the licence fee settlement - and which now will inevitably lead to significant cuts in jobs and services.

Hold on tight this could get bumpy...

So the big day is here - George Osborne and his fellow millionaires in government will tell us we've all been spending too much and begin the great welfare slash and burn programme they've been itching to deliver since the election.

490,000 public sector jobs, hundreds of thousands of jobs in the private sector which are reliant on the spending of either public sector organisations or workers, communities facing devastation, services cut - the toll looks grim.

For our members at S4C, BBC, World Service and Monitoring the news is alarming. A last minute deal between BBC management and will see the BBC licence fee frozen at the current level of £145.50 for the next six years, a 16% cut in real terms.

The BBC has also agreed to relieve the Government of funding for a range of services and take on the burden themselves.

Among the extra commitments the BBC has signed up to are to fund the World Service and Welsh-language broadcaster S4C out of the licence fee from 2015. The BBC has also agreed to take over funding of BBC Monitoring.

In addition it will provide £150m a year for the rollout of superfast broadband to rural areas from 2013 and £25m a year for local TV and online content. A further one-off capital investment in local TV and online services of £25m will also come from the licence fee and the BBC will also underwrite the rollout of the digital radio network nationally.

In total, the BBC has committed to spend an extra £340m of licence-fee money to fund all these undertakings by 2014-15. Government expenditure from central taxation will fall by an equivalent amount.

Initial estimates suggest that more than 3500 jobs will be at stake and that some BBC services will have to be cut. As Bectu General Secretary Gerry Morrissey said last night this is the BBC doing the Government's dirty work.

We are led to believe there is no alternative. That's bollocks. The Tax Justice Network and unions have set out a clear alternative. The problem for the Government is that doesn't fit with their ideology.

Yesterday I went to the TUC's rally in Westminster Hall, a good start to the campaign against the cuts. Today I'll be speaking at 3 rallies in Parliament, at Downing Street and at the start of a feeder march in Lincoln Inn's Fields. Saturday there are demonstrations in different parts of the UK. It's gonna be busy.

In between times I'll meet the BBC to hear more details of how the cuts will impact and attend the TUC General Council to discuss the campaign with other unions.

Yesterday we briefed MPs in our Parliamentary Group about these issues and the campaign for Charles Atangana, the Home Office's Rapid Review of Terrorism Powers (which includes Section 44), the threat to council-run information services, the Home Affairs Select Committee Inquiry in to phone-hacking and the likely bid by Rupert Murdoch to take full control of Sky.

A brief respite from the BBC

Back from Brussels where I was at a meeting of the EFJ's Labour Rights Expert Group where we discussed union organising at Sky, lobbying in Europe over labour laws and a mapping project for the European new media industry.

I also had a useful meeting with IFJ General Secretary Aidan White.

Prior to that it has been BBC, BBC and a bit more BBC.

I've been in negotiations (more tomorrow), done member meetings across the UK, had reps meetings, done dozens of media interviews and tried to answer dozens of questions from members and reps about the BBC's latest offer.

The unions are now consulting members on the latest offer - all indications are it will be rejected and strike action will follow.

And in between it all we've had the National Executive Council, I was on a panel with BBC journalist Jonathon Charles, former ITV News head Clive Jones and media academic Nathalie Fenton talking about international journalism in the 21st century. Hope we didn't put too many students off!

Today we've also launched our new campaign to stop the exploitation of interns. Read all about it here.

Mark Byford to go...?

Rumours abound tonight that BBc Deputy Director General Mark Byford is to go. Mark is a friendly and likeable man but his alleged £400,000 p.a. pension, his decision to spend £5000 going to South Africa for the World Cup while the BBC was facing cuts and his poor response to the Hutton report when the BBc was facing a political crisis mean few union members will be sad about the news.

I understand they will not be replacing his post - good.