Open season

Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt, with prompting from The Sunday Telegraph, has stuck an unhelpful fork in two BBC hot potatoes - the next presenter of The Today Programme, and the 2012 DG Stakes.

This first, from Political Editor, Patrick Hennessey.

Currently, the BBC’s leading news radio programme has just one female presenter, Sarah Montague, whose voice, critics say, can get lost among the strident male tones of John Humphrys, James Naughtie et al. Unlike some of his more risk-averse colleagues, Mr Hunt is keen to join the fray. “I’d like to see many more female presenters across the BBC, and across all our broadcasters,” he says. He is conscious of protecting the BBC’s independence, and that it would not do for the Culture Secretary to tell the organisation “what to broadcast”, but his personal view is clear: “If you ask me would I like to see that, yes, I would – and I think the BBC is conscious of that, and they are actually trying to change that.” 


This is unhelpful because the current presenter-designate of The Today Programme is Nick Robinson, who's had good pairings with Evan Davis over a couple of summer stand-in stints. He needs to come off the road soon as Political Editor, so that a new face can be established before the next General Election. Now he may have to wait until either John Humphrys or James Naughtie hangs up his bakelite headphones. And the Culture Secretary's remarks will make this summer's testing of potential new Today presenters into a mixture of blood sport and beauty contest.

Meanwhile, perusing the parade ring before the 2012 DG Stakes...

Mr Hunt goes still further and says it would be “wonderful” if a woman succeeded the current director-general, Mark Thompson, when he steps down within months. Candidates to take over include Helen Boaden, who runs BBC News, and Caroline Thomson, the corporation’s chief operating officer. The BBC has never had a female “DG”. “Well, it would be wonderful to have a female DG, just as it was wonderful to have a female prime minister. But I think the worst possible thing would be if an individual became DG because they were a woman. And so I think we’ve got to be really careful to make sure that we’ve picked the best person for the job and not picked someone because of their gender.”


These remarks, bland and guarded as they may seem, are not helpful for George Entwistle.