It's all a bit like the budget really. The Chancellor makes his statement in the Commons, the Government's PR machine goes into overtime spreading the good news, and then gradually, as detailed scrutiny begins, rather less positive headlines emerge.

So it was last week with the BBC's launch of DQF - Delivering Quality First. To begin with it seemed as if Radio 4 had got off unscathed since it was to suffer no reduction in its 'content spend', whereas Radio 5 live for example, was being cut by 7.5 per cent.

Then a few days later the BBC's own in house newspaper Ariel came out with this headline "Radio 4 takes a hit it wasn't expecting". The paper reported that shortly after the DQF launch by Director General Mark Thompson, Radio 4 producers are up in arms over proposed job cuts and changes to their department.

The Corporation accepts that the overall number of BBC producers will drop, but says the assistant producer total will go up, resulting in an overall net reduction in staff in the Radio production department of five per cent.

The DQF launch also revealed that Radio 3 is facing a cut in its content spend of 2.9%, but this again is not the full story. They are going to be looking into the BBC orchestras which provide much of the network's music. Lots of rumours I hear say one is likely to be cut which would certainly be controvertial.

Of course DQF has also been reported as handing down a death sentence on Long Wave. However it is rather more complicated than that so in Feedback I also talked to Radio 4's Network manager, Denis Nowlan about when the sentence would be carried out and the consequences for listeners who still value it.

If you want to take part in the consultation about DQF, which runs until December 21st, a questionnaire is available on the BBC Trust website. We'll be tracking that process over the next few months before the conclusions are published in the spring.

Meanwhile the drive to increase productivity, which some call cuts and make other savings has already begun. Don't feel too sorry for the Corporation though. It now knows what its income is for the next few years and that is around £3.5billion. Hardly peanuts.

Roger Bolton presents Feedback

• About the the BBC: Delivering Quality First
• BBC Trust: Delivering Quality First
• Listen again to this week's Feedback, produced by Karen Pirie, get in touch with the programme, find out how to join the listener panel or subscribe to the podcast on the Feedback web page.
• Read all of Roger's Feedback blog posts.
• Feedback is on Twitter. Follow @BBCR4Feedback.
• The picture shows the BBC's national transmitter in 1934.

We had long discussion yesterday, considering various tactics for avoiding a possible clash between the late night Shipping Forecast and the end of the last Test Match. Could we only carry it on FM and DAB? That wouldn't work for mariners far from land as they rely on the carrying power of Long Wave...

Read the rest of Denis Nowlan's post and leave comments on the BBC Radio blog.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/features/london-season/

Editor's note: Tony Travers is Director of LSE London, a research centre at the London School of Economics and a contributor to Radio 4's London: Another Country. Here, he responds to this morning's #GreatestCity debate with a short essay about London's status as a 'world city' - SB

London can be a difficult place - the scale of vast cities can challenge human comprehension. It is also incredibly spread out, with its eight million people covering about 700 square miles of land. But what makes it so rewarding is its extraordinary mixture of people and history, combined with a relentless capacity to rejuvenate and re-create itself.

Between two and three million of today's Londoners were born overseas - the number is inevitably imprecise. There are dozens of national and/or ethnic groups from each continent. Having so many people from different countries makes the city almost unique. Given the short period over which many of them have arrived and their epic diversity, London remains tolerant and, overwhelmingly, peaceful.

Such numbers of people from so many different starting-points inevitably creates opportunities for an endless series of experiences and experiments for anyone who lives in or visits the city. London is also a big Scottish, Welsh, Irish and English town, creating powerful (if complex) links to the rest of the UK.

The city's history is etched in its buildings and streets. Dozens of beautiful books are published each year about London, making it possible to access more and more detail about what happened in the past in these same buildings and streets. Films are also an easily-accessed way of reliving modern history: for anyone who wants to be reminded what 'docklands' looked like before Canary Wharf and about the way in which developers can change the face of the city The Long Good Friday is an entertaining way to do so.

In recent years, the creation of a directly-elected mayor for London has further enhanced the city's image and importance. Given this power and epic size, it is hardly surprising people elsewhere in the UK often see London as too dominant and too powerful. However, once London had been allowed - during the 1920s and 1930s - to become a city of eight million people within a super-region of almost 20 million, there was no way back. The economic benefits of being so populous and with such a large entrepreneurial economy within a relatively small geographical area have given London massive economic importance both within Britain and overseas.

In recent years, an academic literature has emerged about 'world' or 'global' cities. London has always featured as one of the top two or three locations within any list of such places. In terms of its economic importance, its links to the rest of the world, its political/social tolerance and the extraordinary 'world within a city' make-up of its population, it can rationally be compared with Paris, New York, Tokyo, Mumbai or Shanghai.

Other British urban centres have significantly redeveloped in the past 20 years, narrowing the gap between them and London. The UK has a large number of major cities, creating an 'urban system' where each can benefit from the other. Complementary development rather than negative competition is undoubtedly the best way for all to succeed. City life is not for everyone, but for those who do like it the rewards can be enjoyed 24 hours a day, seven days a week. London is, and has always been, a place of opportunity.

Tony Travers is an academic specialising in London and a contributor to Kwame Kwei-Armah's The London Story

• Listen to episode one of The London Story on the Radio 4 web site. The second episode is on Tuesday morning at 0900. Find out about all the programmes in the season on the London: Another Country? page.
• Play back this morning's live chat about the Greatest City debate on the Radio 4 blog and listen to the programme itself here.
• Visit LSE London's web site for more about Tony's work.
• The picture shows a crowd at London Zoo. It's by Steve Bowbrick. Used under licence.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00c67t1

Test Match Special is a favourite programme. I first started listening more or less forty years ago. I remember not only the wonderful Arlott and Johnston - but Alan Gibson and Don Mosey and Alan McGilvray and EW Swanton. Like many others I turned down the TV commentary to listen to TMS - unless Richie Benaud was on TV duty.

That is a bit harder to do now as Sky (who do a very good job I rather think) and TMS are not in perfect sync. Alas.

Of course everyone with an interest in cricket and/or TMS knows of the Brian Johnston corpsing moment - or should that be corpsing minutes. I was listening live at the time. But I have other favourite moments. I do this next bit from memory - and someone out there correct me if this is wrong - but I recollect a New Zealand batsman in the 1970s (perhaps Bev Congdon?) making two successive huge hundreds. John Arlott asked Trevor Bailey what were Congdon's weaknesses. Trevor Bailey replied... "He loses concentration when he gets to 170." Very fine.

Why is TMS so good? Because it is about metaphor and simile - about literature and art, about weather and place - about food and drink - as well as about a great game (though not necessarily a better game than baseball - but that's another story). And we are always looking for the perfect balance between the sporting ingredients and the other delicacies that surround the cricket. Everyone has a different opinion about what that balance should be... and it is an art form. We must not miss a ball but it would be a mistake not to let the team go off piste.

We are in good nick at the moment. The programme of course is now online and on 5 Live Sports Extra but it will long stay a defining part of R4's culture. It will not be a sports commentary programme alone. I am going to see the TMS team on Saturday morning at the Oval. Let us hope the match is still alive at that point. I have an Australian wife and my children have Australian passports and some of them will be with me. I do not know whether I am impartial. I would not wish to fail the Tebbit test. So I shall pray for Freddie's knee.

• 5 Live's Test Match Special page and details of how to listen in Jonathan Agnew's Oval preview.
• Adam Mountford, Alison Mitchell, Mihir Bose and Oliver Brett contribute to the Test Match Special blog and producer Adam Mountford has his own.
• Dozens of great Ashes moments from 5 Live's archive.
• Subscribe to the Test Match Special podcast and embed the Test Match Special widget.
• Follow Jonathan Agnew on Twitter.
• A page of 'gaffes and giggles' from Brian Johnston's web site.
• Dave Podmore's Ashes, a comedy about 'the game's laziest bits-and-pieces player' starts tonight at 2300 on Radio 4.
• The picture is from the BBC's picture library and shows (L-R) Alan McGilvray, Trevor Bailey, Freddie Truman, and Henry Blofeld in the Test Match Special commentary box at Lords in 1981.