Form book 21

Tara Conlan in The Guardian has the story of Lord Patten briefing The Trust on progress towards the recruitment of a new Director General.

One of her sources suggests Lord Patten was in skittish mood, saying the successful candidate would need the  "the wisdom of Aristotle" as well as the "striking power of Wayne Rooney".   There are at least two hopefuls who would have preferred Chris to mention other philosophers - Aristloclea, Aspasia or maybe Arete of Cyrene - and other goalscorers - Kelly Smith or Fara Williams.

Tara confirms the bookies view - The internal favourites are thought to be Caroline Thomson, the BBC's chief operating officer who has helped steer the corporation through a previous charter review, director of news Helen Boaden and director of vision George Entwistle.

But this line will have our turf accountants wondering- One source claimed that so far the list of external candidates who are the right age and have the right experience has "fallen short" of expectations.


Does this mean that Ed Richards at Ofcom and Lionel Barber have decided not to play, or that they don't have the right experience ?  Lord Patten really needs strong external candidates, even if his intention is to place the job inside; he and Dom Loehnis need to convince Cameron it was a proper contest.