13 APRIL 1985, Page 22

Beggaring belief

The Treasury has a name for it: the Beggar's Sore. This is the technique used by the spending departments of state in their annual jousts for public money. Invited to put forward economies, they reply by proffering their Sore — that is, something which no one of normal sensiti- vities could readily bring himself to touch. Old hands at this game are watching with amusement what they regard as the amateurish attempts of the BBC, which has contrived an improbable combination of Sores: Doctor Who and the Pope — Time Lords both?