The company he keeps

Neither Culture Secretary John Whittingdale nor his No 2 Ed Vaizey had any declared hospitality from the BBC between 1st October 2015 and the end of the year.

Whitters had lunches with Paul Dacre at the Mail, Chris Evans of the Telegraph, Richard Desmond of the Express, Oliver Duff of the iNewspaper, Dawn Airey of Getty Images, Global Radio and The Spectator. Dinner was taken with Simon Cowell, Sarah Sands of the Evening Standard and Pinewood Studios. Plenty of dissenting views about the BBC to be heard there, I guess.

Tickets were taken for the Spectre premiere, from Eon Productions; Judas Priest, from UK Music; Deep Purple, from the BPI, and the Capital Jingle Bell Ball, from Global. On the sporting front, hearty John took in England v Estonia, England v France, and New Zealand v Australia in the Rugby World Cup Final. Perhaps not surprising the White Paper is running late.  

In terms of formal meetings over the same period, Whittingdale met with his infamous BBC Charter Advisory Group twice and BBC DG Lord Hall twice. Also, oddly accorded two meetings was Mark Thompson of the New York Times. BBC supporter Armando Ianucci, Trust chair Rona Fairhead, BBC Worldwide CEO Tim Davie and C4's David Abraham got a session each, and on the trendy side, so did Ian Katz of Newsnight and Heidi Blake of Buzzfeed.