Left of centre, off of the strip…

BBC executive says corporation should foster ‘left-of-centre thinking’ reports the Telegraph.

Hat tip: DB, who wrote in the comments to David Vance’s earlier post on this: “An anonymous commentator mentioned the Ben Stephenson piece in the comments here yesterday. I brought it to the attention of Conservative Home where Jonathan Isaby blogged it. This led to the Tory culture and media spokesman commenting on it, as did a number of Telegraph bloggers. The Daily Mail has run a story on it and today I see that it’s on the front page of the Telegraph. Not bad going.”

Not bad at all.

Takes me back, this does. I just went on iTunes and spent 79p on a little Suzanne Vega nostalgia. Having spent three minutes back in 1986 I can almost, sort of, maybe believe Ben Stephenson’s claim that:

“Like ‘left-field’, it is a phrase that I use with frequency when talking to the creative community to encourage them to develop and approach their ideas from a completely new perspective,” he said.

Correction: that he frequently uses the phrases “left field” and “left of centre” when talking to the “creative community”, that I believe 100%. I bet they lap it up.

The bit I almost – but not quite – believe is that he really doesn’t think he is being political. I didn’t believe it of Suzanne Vega either.