Decline

Lord Patten seemed to be channelling Derek Jacobi's portrayal of the elderly Roman emperor, Claudius, at

today's DCMS Select Committee. Tired, reflective, without ambition, he took the inevitable kicking with more grace than in the past. He pointed out, again, that quite a lot of the bad things at the BBC has happened before he got there. He pointed out he was 69. He pointed out that the BBC had been in front of parliamentary committees 16 times in the past year.

Lord Hall managed to maintain his bouncy demeanour throughout, even with Philip Davies and Ben Bradshaw (one of Hall's former employees).

I was wrong about lollipops - very little new stuff to offer, apart from Lord Hall's announcement of a bullying and harassment hotline (to complain, rather than get tips) and the news that one member of staff had left after an investigation.