DURING my time as editor of this newspaper, I once had chief executive of a council ask: "Do you have to keep on publishing details of my salary?"

I was reminded of the question last week when the Government announced that the BBC will have to publicly name all employees and presenters who earn more than £150,000. It will be included in a draft of the BBC's next Royal Charter.

Culture Secretary Karen Bradley says that publishing the salaries would help ensure the BBC "produces value for money for the licence fee" and that more transparency could lead to savings that could be "invested in even more great programmes".

The counter argument from the BBC is that publishing the salary list would be a "Poacher's Charter" – encouraging other broadcasters to gazump the Beeb with higher offers to its stars.

Sorry, but I don't buy that. Do you really think that Sky or Channel 4 really need an official list of who earns what before they launch a rival bid for the likes of Gary Lineker or Graham Norton? Of course not. If they want someone, there are people called agents who get a phone call to start the negotiations.

Credit goes to Strictly Come Dancing presenter Claudia Winkleman, who says she is "all for" disclosure of big BBC salaries because the stars work for the public.

I subscribe to the view that if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys. Talent deserves to be rewarded. But the bottom line is that it has to be right for taxpayers to be able to see how their money is being spent – and to be in a position to judge whether the talent on show justifies the rewards.

Transparency is part of the price to be paid for being a high-earner in the public sector. And the same goes for council chief executives.

ON the subject of the BBC, it was a privilege to be asked to be a judge for the BBC Local Radio Gillard Awards last week.

The awards are named after the late Frank Gillard, who initiated the BBC's local radio network, and will be presented at the International Centre for Life in Newcastle on November 10.

Naturally, I can't give away any secrets but suffice to say that campaigning, investigative journalism is alive and kicking in local BBC stations around the country. Just like local newspapers, the national agenda is often set through journalism at the grass roots. Long may it continue.

MEANWHILE, I blame the bang on the head for offending members of the Women's Institute last week.

Shortly before driving to Esh Winning, near Durham, to speak to a meeting of Waterhouses WI, I was taking something out of the back of the car, slammed the boot shut, but forgot to take my head out of the way. It made such a crack that my wife heard it inside the house and ran out to find me staggering around the road, seeing stars.

I was still feeling a bit sick when I was addressing the WI ladies an hour or so later and telling them about my life in newspapers.

"When you started out as a trainee reporter in those days, you did all the really boring jobs, like going to the country shows, taking the names of the mourners at funerals...and writing up the WI reports," I said.

The words came out before I could stop them. For the record, I love the WI. It was the concussion.

AS always, it was the speaker's job to judge the competition at the WI meeting. This time it was "an interesting newspaper cutting".

One of the ladies cheekily brought a Daily Mirror page showing the iconic picture of streaker Michael O’Brien – arms outstretched like Jesus – after being captured during half-time at the England-France rugby match at Twickenham in 1974.

The Australian accountant, ran naked before a crowd of 53,000, and Police Constable Bruce Perry famously took off his helmet to cover O’Brien’s private parts. "It was a cold day – he had nothing to be proud of,” said PC Perry.

O’Brien was fined £10 - the exact sum he'd won in the bet. The bigger punishment was that he lost his job with a London stockbroking firm.

A WI member had kept the cutting all those years but she didn't win the competition. I gave the points to the cutting about toilet paper, issued to the Nazi armed forces during the Second World War, being put up for auction in Dublin.

The roll of Edelweiss brand Klosettpapier was said by Whyte's auctioneers to be in "remarkably unused condition" and valued it at £100. I suspect they'd have struggled to get a bidder otherwise.

RAMSBOTTOM, near Manchester, staged the World Black Pudding Throwing Championships the other day.

In Gloucester, they have the annual cheese rolling contest down Cooper's Hill, and the Highland Games features Haggis Hurling.

Is it not time for Teesside to launch the search for the Parmo Discus World Champion?

FINALLY, and still focused on the world of sport, it is surely time to crack down on the use of the world "literally" by commentators who set a bad example.

"Novak Djokovic is literally a wall," announced the commentator during the US Open final the other day.

No. He's not.

Please let me know if you come across other examples.