Stimulation

Charles Moore, former editor of The Telegraph, is in no doubt about the star quality of his former deputy, Sarah Sands, now editing the Today programme on Radio 4. "She was brilliant, because she was excited by news, understood how to humanise it, and enjoyed mischief."

The sparkle, at least for Moore, continues on radio, with Sands bringing 'remarkable interviews' for his breakfast enjoyment. "Her mixed cast includes John le Carré, Tom Hanks, Judi Dench, Earl Spencer, Neil MacGregor and assorted Nobel Prize winners, as well as more usual fare, such as Peter Mandelson or David Lammy." (No suggestion that any of them had books or programmes to plug, and may have been offered rather than invited.)

Moore (Eton and Trinity, Cambridge) is chairman of The Rectory Society (he lives in one in Etchingham) and a director of The Global Warming Policy Foundation, alongside Nigel Lawson, another recent Sands/Today guest.

The only problem with Today for Moore, who is presumably still in touch with his protege, is those news bulletins that dot the programme, produced by the radio newsroom, with the support of BBC Newsgathering.

"At present, they are notably Westminsterish, boring and lazy. They love to find a “report” from a pressure group, trade union or Leftish think tank which says that the NHS is “at breaking point” (or whatever) and attacks the callousness of the Government for not spending more. They never consider that such coverage represents vested interests just as much as would stories supplied by big business. Under Sarah Sands, Today is, thank goodness, challenging this dreary producer-interest, spoon-fed concept, offering a much wider definition of news as something that people find enjoyable, worth hearing and worth thinking about. This is the Today of tomorrow. I have listened to the programme for half a century, and never found it so stimulating."

And for how many of those years has Charles been paying the licence fee that keeps Today going ?
In 2010, Moore withheld payment over the behaviour of Jonathan Ross at Radio 2, and was eventually made to pay a fine of £262, plus £530 costs and a £15 surcharge. In March this year he wrote that he was in receipt of more than 100 letters from the licence fee collection unit - has he fallen behind again ?

(It will be interesting to see if any of the candidates to succeed James Harding offer this new Moore-Sands definition of news "as something that people find enjoyable, worth hearing and worth thinking about" in their Powerpoint presentations.)