Ceremonial

The Kroll Number One Nickel-plated Letter Opener will be taken from the wall this morning at 180 Great Portland Street, and carried on the Cushion of Succession to the BBC Trust conference room known as Lyons Corner. There, a Second Assistant Head of Governance, or "Nippy" as they are affectionately called, will fillet the envelopes marked "Yes, I'd like to be BBC DG", under the watchful eye of the great Kroll himself, with Loehnis of Egon in attendance.

But how many envelopes ?  Some bookmakers are still offering odds on people who are said not to have applied - like David Abraham of C4, and Peter Salmon, Baron of BBC North. Lord Patten and Dom Loehnis will be particularly keen to see the final list of outsiders.  It's going to be difficult this time to go back to the market and tickle preferred candidates, as happened when Mark Thompson was lifted from Channel 4.

Our readers poll (now closed) has Helen Boaden as the preferred choice, on 27% of the votes cast, followed by Caroline Thomson on 20%, Tim Davie and Mark Damazer (not applying) on 17%, and bookies favourite George Entwistle on 10%.  This probably reflects the fact that many readers are from BBC News; a good number are women, and there's a slight radio bias - plus a deep-seated fear of the unknown, so no outsiders got a tick. Many thanks to those of you who bothered to click.