Readers may take an iota of reassurance from yesterday’s performance by the Public Accounts Committee’s chair, Margaret Hodge, who showed she’s an equal opportunities prat.

The self-aggrandising MP treated current and former BBC bosses with the same disdain and lack of courtesy that she showed senior representatives of the big four accountancy firms at the end of January.

Overblown severance payments to Beeb executives is a matter in need of scrutiny, and Mark Thompson deserves a kicking for his part in diminishing the most admirable public service media organisation on the planet.

But, as with the interrogation of Deloitte’s Bill Dodwell and his counterparts, Hodge wasn’t up to the job. The ex-market researcher clearly thinks she’s sharp-minded and dogged, formidable even, when, in fact, she’s a boorish, mealy-mouthed bully.

Take, for example, her treatment of the odious Thompson, who she told at one point to “Focus on the question”, after he had responded in 22 words to an opinion Hodge had voiced at almost three times the length.

Then, with eye-watering arrogance, typical egotism, and a hint of uncharacteristic self-awareness, she added, “I have been very generous to you in not interrupting you, as is my usual wont.”

As the one-time director-general uttered his very next sentence, Hodge talked over him.

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