Clapper

It's a sad thing, even for this blogger, that Lord Patten (cheekily Lardy Lord) is stepping down as BBC Chairman. It should have be a good match - old political hand, with a genuine love of the organisation he might well have worked for straight from university, picks up a role of anticipated light-touch regulation in his later years of portfolio fun - and it crumbles in his hands. The script wasn't meant to be like that.

Eleven years ago, he had an angioplasty as Governor of Hong Kong, when doctors diagnosed two narrowed coronary arteries. Seven years ago, he underwent a cardiac ablation. The BBC made sure that defibrillators were close to where he worked, when he signed on.

This year he's flown to Hong Kong and the States (and I'm guessing also to the holiday home near Toulouse). Let's hope he's really recuperating well - and really enjoys the extra time this alarm bell gives him.