Zoe’s a star, but doesn’t deserve Chris’s salary

CONGRATULATIONS to Zoe Ball, who will take over the Radio 2 Breakfast Show from Chris Evans in January. Her promotion, I suspect, is part of a tacit plan that will ensure that no man will ever again get a high-profile job at the BBC. At least for the next decade or two. Zoe will not get the same £1.6 million salary as Chris Evans did — and she is fine about this. Sensible girl! For why should she get the same? Zoe and Chris may be different genders but they are also different people, with different experience and different careers.

Equally, no one expects that Lauren Laverne will be earning the same as Kirsty Young, who she is temporarily replacing on Desert Island Discs — again under the Beeb’s strict new No Men rules.

Lauren is like a half-pint of flat bitter in comparison to the smoked whisky allure of the almighty Kirsty.

There has to be a price on talent and experience, and that applies to both sexes.