Damien Grant: Our self-important broadcasting censors need to be reined in

In terms of bureaucratic overreach, few rival that of Sejanus building statues to himself. He was Emperor Tiberius’ man in Rome, while the degenerate sovereign luxuriated on Capri and, left alone for too long, Sejanus believed himself impervious to supervision.

He wasn’t, and his career was ended in a typically brutal Roman fashion.

There are many similar examples in the two millennia since, where middling civil servants assume more power than is good for them. It is a classic principal-agent problem and we have had a perfect example last week in the Broadcasting Standards Authority (BSA).