Form Book 13

Crikey. Just Day Two since the semi-official invitation for runners and riders in the BBC 2012 DG Stakes, and "friends", "supporters" and "insiders" are still on the mobiles, one hand cupped over their mouths - this time to the Independent's Ian Burrell.

 "Supporters of Caroline Thomson, the BBC's chief operating officer, urged her to stress her editorial credentials as well as her obvious talents as a manager. Ms Thomson is a former commissioning editor at Channel 4 and trained at the BBC as a journalist, skills she drew on while reporting from the scene of the 2007 Cumbria rail crash."

Ah, but Helen Boaden does Industrial Relations, apparently..

With her track record as a programme maker and award-winning journalist, she is in a better position than many of her rivals to carry the support of 20,000 colleagues during a period of intense upheaval. "There's a danger that you lurch from one strike action to the next," one BBC source said. "It requires really strong leadership from someone respected inside the BBC who knows how to get stuff done."


You'd guess George Entwistle's best hope would be that these two females and their "supporters" would  wreck each other's chances, and George would come through the middle. I think they've though of that.


The male internal candidate thought most likely to beat the two women to the post is George Entwistle, the head of BBC Vision, though he is from a similar mould as Mr Thompson and his appointment might be seen outside the organisation as unambitious.