Recent listings of some eyewatering salaries have put the messed-up, much beleaguered BBC under scrutiny again and the resulting fall-out is far from pretty.

Fair to say that there are more than a few who suspect there’s something rotten in the state of broadcasting – or more specifically, in state broadcasting, perhaps?

Not much of a worry if you’re one of those collecting up to £2m annually for your football commentary or something close to that sum for playing wall-to-wall Kylie and picking up the phone to Mr or Ms Angry. But elsewhere there’s growing disgruntlement.

Income envy is unattractive, if understandable. Putting all that angry stuff aside though – not easy, I know – it does beg a couple of questions from taxpayers who fund lavish lifestyles. How much is enough? And where does it stop?

There’s a lot wrong with the Beeb. It’s bloated and sometimes worryingly editorially biased. The corporation has dragged its heels appallingly in ensuring equal pay and espouses a determined aim of media domination in every area.

Goodness knows why. When its funders – you and I – are required by law to pay up, whether we like it or not, dear old Auntie needn’t bother getting out of bed for a single step towards the ratings race starting block.

It does though. It fights fiercely to defend its “stars”, claiming they’d go somewhere else were they not to be awarded the living standards of oligarchs, and does its best to minimise – even squash - any and all competitors in news and entertainment output

I speak as a fan. No, really. I’m a BBC traditionalist, in spite of everything I know of its imperfections.

It’s still my first port of call on occasions of national and international importance, I continue to rate its dramas as among the world’s best and it is to BBC radio I turn in the mornings – at least, until it all gets too shouty and starts to do my head in.

But – and my but is a big one (pun intended) – I do have to wonder how much is enough and when enough will finally be declared too much.

Putting the withdrawal of free TV licences from the over-75s to one side for a minute, is the corporation doing itself any favours at all by shelling out other people’s money with the fiscal abandon of Lady Bountiful?

It’s safe to say, I’d estimate, that while great bags of cash are dropped, willy-nilly, into the laps of publicly funded “stars”, local and regional BBC services are receiving no similar investment in quality output.

That’s not only shameful, it’s self-defeating. Everyone comes from somewhere and relevant local broadcasting is every bit as vital to daily life as expensive Mr Shouty blathering on about cycling in central London. Not much help to folks in Harraby or Workington, right?

It wouldn’t take a lot to put the BBC back on track to earning the respect of all who used to hold it in high esteem... and would like to do so again.

It is a sitting duck for targeted anger. Always has been. But it appears to be going out of its way to invite the shots now.

From one pot of money – ours – a more sensible and indeed businesslike distribution of resources would be a start. If the big guns feel inclined to move elsewhere, let them. Chris Evans did and was still the Beeb’s second highest earner, with £1.25m in his back pocket.

Good luck to him. Nice deal if you can clinch it. I’m not envious. Not one bit. I think I have enough for my needs – for now, anyway.

But I bet the guys and gals at BBC Cumbria are a bit peeved. Grafting on to bring local information and entertainment to local people, my guess is they would wish that their shoestring might one day soon be just a tad longer.

As a BBC traditionalist, I’d support their wish. It’s quite likely others in Cumbria will feel the same way.

There’s next to nothing we can do about it, of course. But, it being our money that’s thrown around in an unnecessary and unequal ratings race, we’re surely allowed an opinion.