THANKS to the licence fee the BBC is like the object at the heart of those unrestrained contests between Uppies and Doonies; a political football at which anyone can have a good kick and there’s no comeback.

At the weekend it was the turn of senior producer Euan Angus to get a doing, roundly booed at an SNP Conference fringe event for every wrong the BBC has ever inflicted on the independence movement. And that’s a long charge sheet.

Although I don’t go along with that, I’ve had a few pops at Auntie over the years myself, most recently when Director General Tony Hall outlined a plan for a new BBC service to fill a so-called “democratic deficit” by supplying local newspapers with the old staples of court and council coverage.

It was quickly and rightly dismissed as a Trojan horse which would extend the BBC’s reach into local communities even further, but even if misguided at least Lord Hall was trying to be helpful.

Higher visibility is all part of the BBC’s Charter renewal process, and as it reaches a climax, top BBC brass have been out on manoeuvres in a bid to head off what could be the most far-reaching changes in the corporation’s post-war history.

Readers might not have heard about the monstering BBC Trust chair Rona Fairhead received at the Society of Editors conference this week, but it exposed yet another weakness in the corporation’s governance.

Next up, in a fortnight, is a rare foray north by news and current affairs chief James Harding for a discussion at the Royal Society of Edinburgh about the role of the media in British politics, at which it is safe to assume he will be more politely received than was Mr Angus.

Belatedly or not, the BBC recognises the need for much more intensive engagement in Scotland than it has mounted for years, because the double whammy of the political earthquake and charter renewal means change is inevitable.

Later in November it’s the turn of the DG himself to cross the Border when he’ll meet Culture Secretary Fiona Hyslop and is expected to speak publicly about his vision for the corporation’s future in Scotland.

It will not be before time. BBC management has shown little grasp of the very different landscape here and understanding its thinking in Scotland has required nods and winks from those in the know up here to reinterpret what was coming out of London.

So when Ms Hyslop said at the weekend that the BBC had failed to keep pace with devolution, she was not wrong. It is easy to accuse her of having an ulterior political motive – not helped by the cack-handed Linda Fabiani articulating it for her – but the problems for news coverage have been there for years and the arrival of the Scotland Bill powers in 2017 will only make them worse.

The BBC’s debate should not be about what to concede under duress, but how far it can practically and willingly go and it starts with leadership.

Rather than waiting for instructions, BBC Scotland needs to be in the driving seat of change so Lord Hall must accept the London-centric limitation of his outlook and empower controller Kenny MacQuarrie and his team to be the face and voice of the corporation here. It should be Mr MacQuarrie outlining the future, not Lord Hall.

Ms Hyslop has outlined her expectations for a new federal BBC, with spending in Scotland more closely tied to licence fee revenue and funding new Scottish TV and radio channels, but this is far from straightforward.

New channels don’t necessarily mean better programmes – multi-channel TV suggests the opposite – and the threat to existing commercial media companies posed by anything funded by the licence fee is real.

A new Radio Scotland 2 taking a more popular or local approach would be head-to-head with local commercial radio. And what would a whole new TV channel contain? BBC Scotland could easily become more expensive but more thinly spread and still manage to damage commercial operations.

Which brings me back to the jeering to which Ewan Angus was subjected; political operators of all persuasions use the BBC Charter to justify intimidation when broadcasts are not to their liking.

So a beefed-up BBC Scotland, directly answerable to the Scottish Parliament, which crowds out private rivals is both a commercial and political issue, an even more dominant player in radio and TV which becomes involved in content supply to print and online publishers, just gives politicians an easier target at which to aim.

And no matter what shape Scotland takes in the future or who’s in government that’s not good for any of us.