Whether or not Miriam O'Reilly wins her claim against the BBC will probably be more down to which side has the better legal team than anything else. Miriam claims to have suffered age and sex discrimination, and believes the Corporation took revenge because she was thought to be behind stories criticising the BBC for dropping older women presenters.

Liberal Democrat equalities spokesperson, now Minister for Equalities, Lynne Featherstone, expressed her own concerns about age and sex discrimination at the BBC last year, when she blogged about Arlene Phillips losing her job as a judge on Strictly Come Dancing. Lynne later told her Party Conference that she was unable to to describe her feelings about the BBC decision "in parliamentary language".

Stephen Fry is often quick to proffer an opinion on almost anything that takes his fancy. Recently he commented on female sexuality. Last year Fry took umbrage at a homophobic article by Jan Moir in the Daily Mail. But when, a short while later, the BBC asked audiences if homosexuals should face execution, what did Stephen do then? Nothing - not a single tweet of criticism.

CBBC presenter Andrew Hayden Smith came out as gay a few years ago. Andrew gave an interview to Attitude in May 2006 and commented about not being able to include a gay kiss in Dr Who because "they couldn't push it that far." Andrew ceased to be a CBBC presenter in July that year.