Policy issues

The Daily Mail rather churlishly asked yesterday if the latest "capuccino hiring" by James Harding, Director of News at the BBC, could be former Cameron policy adviser Camilla Cavendish (Baroness Cavendish of Little Venice). She's made three reports for the Today programme on Radio 4 this week about air pollution, particularly in London.

Camilla was at The Times from 2002 until 2012, as Associate Editor, columnist and, in 2010, she became Chief Leader Writer. James Harding joined The Times as Business Editor in the summer of 2006, and became Editor in 2007, leaving in December 2012.

Camilla's radio voice may be a little Marmite, but she's in no doubt she's got it - her twitter handle announces her as an award-winning writer and broadcaster. She was an occasional presenter of Analysis on Radio 4 from 2005 to 2008, and has made three appearances on Question Time. The BBC assured The Mail that this time, Camilla was doing a small number of authored pieces on some topical policy issues. What's perhaps more surprising is that each of her three pollution pieces was longer than six minutes - an accolade rarely afforded to in-house reporters.