From time to time young people seeking a career in journalism write to me asking how they might better find a place in this old game. I am sometimes tempted to suggest the easiest way of doing so, in Scotland at any rate, would be to learn Gaelic. A lifetime sinecure at BBC Scotland’s Gaelic radio and television services would await them.

This, though, is not quite what they wish to hear. And it would be, more significantly, a snide response anyway. As BBC Alba is released from the tyranny of seeking popularity, programme-makers are free to make the shows they wish; the result is a product often superior to that produced by their English-language colleagues at Pacific Quay.

Despite much labour, great intentions and