In case you have been in any doubt, the prime minister and his chief aide, Dominic Cummings, greater than give a rattling about who runs the BBC –
In case you have been in any doubt, the prime minister and his chief aide, Dominic Cummings, greater than give a rattling about who runs the BBC – and intend to have a major affect over the appointment of a brand new Director-Basic.
The present chairman of the BBC board, David Clementi, confirmed acute political sensitivity in persuading Tony Corridor to face down as Director-Basic sooner than he would in any other case have carried out.
The purpose is that Clementi’s personal time period of workplace ends in simply over a 12 months. And had Corridor stayed in publish longer than that, Johnson and Cummings would have chosen a brand new chair to switch Clementi with the specific function of guaranteeing that Corridor’s successor wouldn’t be hostile to their ambitions for wholesale reform of how the BBC is funded and what it does (beneath the principles, the federal government chooses the BBC chair, the BBC board chooses the DG).
So Clementi seems to have gained a tactical battle over Downing Road, by taking management of the method to switch Corridor. Even so Cummings and Johnson haven’t surrendered and intend to have a voice.
Here’s what I do know.
In keeping with a properly positioned Downing Road supply, if the BBC’s board and Clementi ‘attempt to put somebody like Purnell in [as DG], we’ll put in a md whose first job is to fireside him…The likes of Purnell [would be] “useless on arrival”‘.
This can be a reference to the shape Labour minister, James Purnell, who’s the BBC’s director of radio. It isn’t clear but whether or not Purnell is a candidate to succeed Corridor.
What’s extra, Cummings and his colleagues are actively looking for attainable Director-Basic candidates they regard as sympathetic to their goals for the company.
All of which makes Clementi’s activity all of the trickier – as a result of though he’s duty-bound to guard the BBC from political interference and to nominate a Director-Basic perceived to be greatest positioned to guard the company’s independence, he’s additionally conscious that the federal government has the ability to considerably change the scope of what the BBC does and the way it’s funded by future negotiations on its constitution and licence price.
For what it’s value, Cummings’ and Johnson’s views on what they suppose is improper with the BBC should not precisely clear, apart from that they need ‘huge change’.
They’ve stated they suppose non fee of the licence price ought to stop to be a felony offence. And so they have raised the query whether or not within the period of streaming – Netflix, Apple et al – the BBC ought to transfer to a subscription mannequin, and away from being funded by what’s in impact a ballot tax.
I additionally perceive Cummings is satisfied that ‘the BBC can’t carry on cannibalising everybody else’s web sites’ – which the BBC would furiously deny that it does.
After which there may be the thorny query of what the responsibility to be neutral means for the BBC’s vital information service – with the BBC and Johnson utterly unaligned on whether or not the company was neutral in the course of the election.
All of which implies Clementi wants to seek out the broadcasting equal of Henry Kissinger to switch Corridor. It gained’t be simple.
Robert Peston is ITV’s political editor. This text initially appeared on his ITV information blog.