Most Australians like at least one branch of the ABC: retirees can’t live without Radio National, the quasi-educated adore Dr Who, singlet-wearing-ecstasy-ingesters are well accommodated by Triple J, and once a month I tune into the First Tuesday Book Club to be intensely stimulated by Marieke Hardy.

When the PM announced cuts to the ABC and SBS, large protests were attended not just by the sort of people who turn out to any anti-Abbott rally, but ordinary Australians who did not want to see their favourite programming disappear.