Bearing in mind that the job was as Director General of the BBC, one of the world’s biggest and most powerful broadcasters, you might think that the job would be hard to just walk into. In fact it seems it would be harder to get a job in the BBC canteen than to get your feet under the DG’s desk.
Here is is a statement by Chris Patten which you can tuck away for future reference when the BBC start fulminating about any other organisation appointing someone to a position of power and influence without due process….things like an interview or selection of candidates.
Lord Patten also denied there was any element of cronyism in the appointment, which was announced just 11 days after Mr Entwistle resigned and only involved one candidate being interviewed.
He said: “If you appoint somebody who is regarded by most of the world as the outstanding candidate then it does seem to me that arguments about process are pretty by and by.
“If we had spent the next four months on this you would have all been telling us we were off our trolleys.
“We had to move fast. I’m delighted in moving fast we have also managed to find the out-and-out outstanding candidate.”
Crony Chris Patten has a cheek saying there was no cronyism involved in Lord Hall’s appointment. Hall’s been Director of News and Current Affairs at the BBC, Chief Executive of the Royal Opera House (highest-paid charity CEO in the UK plus extra management fees), chairman of the Royal Television Society and the Theatre Royal Stratford, an Honorary Visiting Fellow of Journalism, a council member of Brunel University, a member of nine quangos including the corruption-riddled London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games….and in an apparent conflict of interests (but not if you’re a crony) he’s still deputy chairman of Channel 4. Finally his old boy network (he went to King Edward’s, Birmingham and Keble, Oxford) is stuffed full of well-connected people. Hall is the very epitome of a crony.
Patten is definitely part of the problem, not part of the solution. Although he knows the BBC hates the Tories, as long as Cameron is so scared of the BBC, nothing will ever change.
lojolondon, Completely agree with you. Cameron is really scared of the BBC and things will not improve until some Tory with backbone replaces him
You mean Nigel Farage, the beeb’s favourite alternative to Nick Griffin (until he ends up in number ten).
It seems there is more democracy in action when electing the leader of the Chinese Communist party than there is in choosing the boss of the BBC.
Lord Hall is head of the Royal Opera House, a much loved institution, with lots of creative and talented people, he’s leaving that to go to a not loved institution with, well, not very creative and untalented people.
Seems like a demotion .
Richard Bacon, not the sharpest knife in the drawer asked Sir Christopher Bland ( what an apt name, bland by name, bland by nature ) what ‘s Lord Hall going to bring to the job ?
” To steady the ship ” came the terse reply. What astounding insight, my Liege, I suppose that’s why they pay you £1 million pounds a year.
” To steady the ship ”
As I recall, with some ships, being steady was helpful briefly but not necessarily that much of a solution to the main issue.
‘Course, some still think that control of the nation’s edit suite can sort anything in post…
Sir John Tusa, former head of the BBC World Service on the Richard Bacon programme said of Tony Hall, ” How refreshing, he’s a human being !! not a zombie, not a dalek.”
Talk about a back handed compliment , in other words, everyone at the BBC is an automaton.
Incidentally, why is everyone at the BBC a ” sir.” ?
because the loons can’t spell shit
Every time the BBC covers health policy, it is heavily stacked in favour of the tax-financed, free-at-the-point-of-use NHS, and this position is supported, no matter how senior the reporter or interviewer. And yet, yesterday, the BBC informed the Culture Select Committee that 574 of its senior staff have complete private health insurance as part of their pay package. Some utter disconnect, surely. Or utter hypocrisy. At the very least, the bBC should have to bring this to the attention of viewers and listeners.
Radio 3 Announcer (in hushed tones):
And we rejoin the Opera after an extended interval as the audience settle back into their uncomfortable highly subsidised and yet still rather expensive seats. Those familiar with this complex and improbable libretto will recall that prior to the break the bent old Lord Panjandrum sought to mask the ambitions of his quarrelsome and unruly sons and daughters. Their hipocrisy and traiterous tendencies have wrought much dismay in the hearts of the English due to their constant bickering and tilting at imaginary Tory dragons. Their plots and false conspiracies and their questing after pie in the sky in the land of Socialistia may only be halted by their betrothal to the bent old Lord’s new servant. His predecessor, the sad, deaf, dumb and blind George, self-immolated and threw himself to the wolves that dwell below the castle wall; his only concelation a stolen sackful of gold. The servant who came before George was the wily yet forgetful Thompson who escaped through a trap door to the land of plenty with his own huge haul of treasure. We can expect much high drama, haunting themes and tear-making tradegy as the plot unfolds under the shadow of great hidden evil that still pervades the castle. The new servant, our new hero, is in fact himself a great Lord in disguise and an old man pretending to be a boy. He may now be wedded to the boys and girls but it will surely soon be revealed that in reality he is already closely related to them and the stain of incest oncemore threatens to consume all in the frightening final act.
Good review. The children’s condemnation of the Barber of Savile and his panorama of monsters went well, until the distracting entrance of Shylock and the saracens’ chorus.
I’d love to see a production of their Götterdämmerung, with Auntie throwing herself on to Hall’s funeral pyre, as Broadcasting House blazes away in the distance.
“MPs fury at BBC ‘hoses down’ executives with lavish pay offs”
[Opening excerpt]:-
“MPS TOOK the gloss off Tony Hall’s appointment as the new BBC Director-General yesterday as they tore into the corporation for ‘hosing down’ departed executives like George Entwistle with lavish compensation packages, paid for out of the licence fee.”
http://www.theweek.co.uk/people/bbc-crisis/50238/mps-fury-bbc-hoses-down-executives-lavish-pay-offs?
“Parade of the BBC chiefs who hit pay-off jackpot: MPs’ fury as executive who missed top job gets £670,000 – even though she WANTED to quit.”
[Excerpt]:-
“Losing a well-paid job at the BBC is like ‘winning the lottery’ because of the huge pay-off that inevitably follows, MPs said yesterday.”
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2236793/Parade-BBC-chiefs-hit-pay-jackpot-MPs-fury-executive-gets-670-000–wanted-quit.html
http://www.theweek.co.uk/people/bbc-crisis/50238/mps-fury-bbc-hoses-down-executives-lavish-pay-offs?
For reasons that may yet one day become apparent, I came across this gem from the BBC expediting guidelines recently…
Article 23(d) of the Charter: “In exercising all its functions, the Trust must act in the
public interest and, in particular, it must…(d) exercise rigorous stewardship of public
money.
‘Course that is used in some contexts as an excuse to stop anyone asking questions and them being held to account.
However, internally… when blowing the corporate wad derived from compelled poll taxes on the corporate hierarchy… open season!!!!
If Lord Hall was such an outstanding candidate then why was he not considered in the original Entwistle short-list. If not then why don’t the BBC sue the head-hunting firm which included Entwistle and the other no-marks. I assume this won’t happen as either the head-hunting firm was appointed because they shared the same leftist agenda as the BBC, or they can point to the recruitment criteria which steered them to one narrow group of Guardian-approved candidates.
Also does’t it make those from the BBC and the left look remarkably foolish in that they lavished similar praise on Entwistle as they are now doing on Lord ‘Haw-Haw’ Hall: ‘This is the London-metropolitan elite calling. Today East London vibrated to further enrichment …’
Finally, I understand Jose Mourinho, ‘The Special One’, was approached but turned down the job as he could not create a functional team from the BBC. Apparently he noted that as the current BBC squad only had ‘left-sided prima donnas’, it was therefore so unbalanced as to be beyond redemption.
I believe he wasn’t available at the time.
Many thanks for the point of information. Though would you not feel that for the Entwistle appointment Lord ‘Haw-Haw’ Hall at that time thought he was not in the running and therefore let the world know of his unavailability. Particularly, since he suddenly has become available?
It does seem to me that the left can stitch-up these appointments (including Quangos, NGOs etc.) through both formal and networking means which are never scrutinised because the BBC/Guardian approves.
‘the left can stitch-up these appointments ‘
Not just the left, but that side of the divide does seem adept at playing democratic systems in distinctly undemocratic ways, as history has shown.
I remain intrigued as to why the BBC story on this was closed for comments in record time (and before most UK licence poll taxpayers could access a PC), and just when folk were starting to ask if the process was even legal…
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20441887
“422. GettaGrip
22ND NOVEMBER 2012 – 16:43
Having just read the ludicrous justification for the settlement the BBC Trust reached with Entwhistle can we, the the major stakeholders, the License Payers, see what terms have been offered to Lord Hall. We have a situation where the poor can be jailed if they don’t have a TV license whilst incompetent BBC management can hold the Trust ransom. No other country would tolerate this, nor should we.”
“BBC ‘outwitted by George Entwistle’s greed’, says former Channel 5 chief executive”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/bbc/9697914/BBC-outwitted-by-George-Entwistles-greed-says-former-Channel-5-chief-executive.html
I didn’t realise that Stephen Fry’s brother was a BBC Trustee – what a cosy little smug back-slapping environment it comes across as.
Is Anthony Fry any relation to Stephen? There’s a passing resemblence, but a quick Google reveals nothing.
I read yesterday that he was, but having gone back to where I read it it seems to have been deleted and so it may have been a mistake. They certainly look similar – best get the Bureau of Investigative Journalism onto it.
In the Telegraph today, it says that Hall will continue to receive £80,000 BBC pension on top of his £450,000 salary. How does that work??? Surely an employee only receives a salary and a pension comes at the end of his working life.
And the Beeboids complain about Bankers feathering their own nests.
‘when the BBC start fulminating about any other organisation’
Ah, yes, but… when Jezza has a go at a hapless PR industry sap on the topic of them overseeing their own industry as being unacceptable… on that now lauded bastion of acceptability Newsnight, part of the FoI-exclusive, wagon’s-circling BBC Trusted-within-an-inch-of-its-life national failures’ treasure trove… the concept of ‘unique’ gets elevated to a whole new level.
Meet the new seat-warming, unboatrocking, public sector teat-sucking, other-peoples-money-spending, leaving it as I found it, time-serving one-of-us droid same as the old seat-warming, unboatrocking, public sector teat-sucking, other-peoples-money-spending, leaving it as I found it, time-serving one-of-us droid.
Lord Hall said today,
‘blah blah blah restoring public confidence in the bbc blah blah blah most important part of the task blah.’
So, in 9 months time expect a firm of PR bunnies paid for by the BBC ie us to publish a report saying just how successful Hall has been in ‘restoring public confidence in the BBC’.
As for eliminating the horrendous financial waste, the spanish practices, the overmanning, the feather-bedding, the £499.99 taxi bills, the institutional bias, reducing the licence tax (preferably to zero)…
Nah.
“Pension and a salary at same time: a great BBC tradition”
By Nigel Horne.
http://www.theweek.co.uk/uk-news/50244/pension-and-salary-same-time-great-bbc-tradition?
“MPs criticise ‘lottery size’ £4.2m severance payouts for just 10 BBC bosses.”
“New director general announced as generous golden goodbyes revealed.”
http://www.peoplemanagement.co.uk/pm/articles/2012/11/mps-criticise-lottery-size-GBP4-2m-severance-payouts-for-just-10-bbc-bosses.htm?
It is all going to unravel. That supposedly intelligent people should behave like greedy children is exactly what you expect from the 68er generation. The sooner we are done with them the better. I very much hope the younger generation is made of different stuff.
We can all now see what these people are made of. Mostly greed and hypocrisy with a dash of ersatz morality to season.
The baby boomer generation is the worst in history. Had the best of everything because of what previous generations had done. Especially the WW2 generation They have ruined it for future generations. They have bankrupted the global economy. They have had the best of everything and future generations will suffer for it. They only thought of themselves not future generations. Before them white people had loads of children now they have children well below replacement rate.
The main reason for an aging population and immigration.
Not all Baby Boomers are Lord Halls. Far from it.
‘It is all going to unravel’
Going to?
Sorry to invoke Godwin again, but this already looks like ‘Downfall 2, the BBC years’ , with a bunch of troughers seeing the end coming and partying like it’s 2012… and all other parties at Westminster have still let them keep the keys to the bubbly cabinets, prescription drugs and caves full or looted antiques.
http://u1.ipernity.com/20/17/49/11871749.55326d5b.560.jpg
‘After another hard day’s work (a month), the Trust reflects on a job well done’
From those wonderful folk who brought you Kristallnacht (http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningzone/clips/kristallnacht/3278.html ) and Night of the Long Knives ( http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/history/tch_wjec/germany19291947/1consolidatepower2.shtml )
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-20457309
Just wondering, given the rather party-driven bum’s rush into the top slot without much reference to anyone really*, if that was the best image they could have chosen.
Where’s he having his first rally with the troops: Nuremberg?
*‘Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures – and for the BBC these are extraordinary times.
That is why BBC Trust chairman Lord Patten approached Tony Hall to be the new BBC director general without going through the normal recruitment process
Or… in other words, a putsch, then?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/history/mwh/germany/munichputschrev1.shtml
‘so he organised:
*the Hitler Youth
*propaganda campaigns’
Maybe some have learned from history.
Well, the bits they like.
‘If you appoint somebody who is regarded by most of the world as the outstanding candidate…..‘
So that’s a several billion majority in favour of Hall, then. An arrogant way of making an appointment more akin to NK than UK. Remind you of another BBC stance on something? That’s the one – the ‘science’ with the ‘overwhelming consensus’ which supports the eco-socialists who support the politics which supports a world totalitarian government.
At least they’re being consistent.
‘So that’s a several billion majority
For whom the BBC speaks.
Apparently.
And without need to bother with silly things like substantiating claims.
Ask Newsnight.
Oh, sorry… no one did.
It would be a joke, but thanks to the unique way the BBC is funded, it has turned into a tragic farce that only HIGNFY would go near but for the ‘sensitivities’.
And despite zero humour, or value, every day we are compelled to buy a ticket without ever going near their shiny new theatres.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20457090
Lord Patten says his bank balance is not quite on par with the Chelsea owner.
Not quite… but still ‘brave’ to raise matters of millions so casually as you dole ’em around to guys who are not self-made via compelled public gouging.
Any other comparisons to Russian billionaires and their practices I leave up to you, dear reader.
Well, by popular consent of we the plebs; we get a cast off from the Opera House to run the BBC.
None of that democracy mallarky…it`s only OUR BBC up to a limited point, and is very much THEIR BBC after that.
Recall Patten getting lightly flambee`d by some MPs Committee…how quaint of them all to open up the Hampstead Drawing Room in order to let a little daylight in on magic…the “confirmation hearing”( no-in no way religious…urgh!) was Islington soiree fireside chat, as he was gently asked to affirm his greatness, by some old fag or Old Bailey wifelet.
No surprise then that Patten will do much for same for his pal in the plush seats…as if there`s any other kind once you get the wide aisle that the BBC provides for its “friends”.
How dare they mock the Police elections and encourage spoilt ballots…when will WE get the vote to turf Fatty Tango Dancer out for our Gazan Licence Point Co-ordinator?
At least we GOT a vote for the Police…why not one for the BBC Trusties?
I know Tony Hall well, as well his former oppo in BBC News &CA the ultra-smooth – and utterly OBN – Richard ‘Dickie’ Peel. What’s certain about Mr Hall is that he is a BBC luvvie to the core, and has exactly the same instincts and outlook as those at the corporation who for two decades now have pursued an agenda of relentless left-wing bias. Nothing will actually change under him though he will re-arrange a few deck chairs and find ways of massaging the BBC books to make it look like economies are being made. The problem – on top of his leftie instincts – is that like almost all his predecessors in recent history , he has had no experience of anything but working in the media and the public sector, and is so trapped in that prism that he cannot even see that he is biased. Behind the scenes, among MPs, there are those who want major change, and I am working with them. But there’s an Everest to climb, and the Hall appointment means the cause has been put back because others see him as reasonable and competent. The problem is that in on a narrow BBC definition he is.
I wish you well .My MP ,a Tory, seems to think Patten is a top man.
It all looks so obvious. Nothing will ever change until this wretched generation is driven from power or gives up.
Well I hope it is true that there has been a major leak of BBC Trust emails, with fascinating consequences for the Trust. Showing evidence that the BBC Trust hides embarrassing findings from the BBC Trust Editorial Standards Committee’s findings.
I wonder if John Harvey Jones had still been around, in his prime, and thrown his hat into the ring, would he have been appointed, or even seriously considered? The BBC is just another business, after all – why the obsession with media types, particularly when the recent examples we’ve seen have proved to be pretty poor leaders?
Robin ,
I wish you well. But one question is really bugging me about recent events. Can any of the MPs you work with shed any light on why the Timid Tories haven’t even attempted to force through major change at the BBC given the open goal presented to them recently?
I think they have wasted a once in a decade chance to remove one of , if not the biggest, barrier to Britain’s long term recovery and prosperity. The Tory Party should be ashamed of its inaction opposite the BBC.
The list of things the (current leadership of) the Tory Party should be ashamed of is so long it is hard to know where to begin.
What hope “fighting to cut off the EU hand in your pocket” from someone frightened of the BBC.
Parliament used to be a profession for ambitious lawyers. Now it’s PR boys as far as you can see, who see the BBC as a possible source of future jobs and appearance fees. Conflict of interest: between us licensepayers , and their interest.
So the job wasn’t offered to BBC Jersey’s managing Editor? http://voiceforchildren.blogspot.com/2012/11/bbc-children-in-need-and-99-red-balloons.html
From the Bliar days there seems to be an (almost sensible) idea that senior public sector salaries should inflate in order to attract ‘top talent’ from the private sector.
That may have been the idea.
The reality of course has been that the highest paid public sector jobs go to only those with impeccable (sic) public sector CVs – a quango here, an NHS trust there, a big (ie public sector funded) charity somewhere else.
So the same clowns end up in the same jobs but with a multiple of their ‘old’ salaries, meanwhile convincing themselves at any rate that they are in ‘public service’.
The reality of course is that they are in the self-service business.
… looking at you, Lord Hall.
Spot on, Uncle Bup, the public sector is one big merry go round at the top.
The stagnant pond needs oxygenating – urgently.
What does Mr Hall know of Jimmy Savile’s exploits over the decades?
Com on, Alan, have you not learned to interpret bBBC Speak? When anybody associated with the bBBC mentions “most of the World” they are only talking about their cloistered little world. As far as they are concerned nobody outside of their carefully selected, inbred sect matters, they are the world, the whole world, and nothing and nobody outside of that has any form of alternative opinion worth considering.