The BBC’s Sian Williams claimed a deduction in her earnings of £3,231 for “professional clothing for studio”, £975 for “professional hairdo and colouring”, and a further £325 for laundry of professional clothes in her 2004-05 tax bill.

But HMRC did not consider clothing “wholly, exclusively and necessarily in the performance of employment duties” despite Williams’ belief that an implied term of her BBC contract meant she must not wear the same clothes more than two or three times a month or she would lose her job. And the tribunal agreed:

“It is argued on behalf of the appellant that she does not need clothes for warmth as it is warm inside the studios, and that she would be prepared to read the news without clothes and only wears the clothes because her employer requires it . . . the tribunal does not accept as realistic that she could perform her duties without wearing any clothes at all.”

We wait in anticipation to see if Williams calls their bluff.

And hope Bill Turnbull decides not to show solidarity if in the event…