High profile

One can only imagine the to-ing and fro-ing over the last 18 hours for the BBC machine to disown the Newsnight/Maitlis opening monologue, thus...

BBC statement on last night's Newsnight pic.twitter.com/JFm4Nt5YMv

— BBC News Press Team (@BBCNewsPR) May 27, 2020

It will have gone through Lord Hall, Sir David Clementi, Fran Unsworth, David Jordan, John Shield, Kamal Ahmed, Esme Wren, Jim Gray, and, trickiest of all, Emily Maitlis. Many in BBC News will be very angry.

This is the current BBC Reality Check offering on the same story.

"What was the official “essential travel” advice when Dominic Cummings made his trip to Durham?"

Boris Johnson’s top aide has defended making a 260-mile journey from London to north-east England with his family during lockdown at the end of March.  Dominic Cummings says he did the "right thing" to be near relatives. His wife had coronavirus symptoms, and Downing Street says he wanted to ensure he had childcare if he got sick too.

The UK Government advice on essential travel at the time, which still remains in place, includes:

- Not visiting second homes, whether for isolation purposes or holidays

- Not leaving your home, the place you live, to stay at another home

- Remaining at your primary residence, to avoid putting additional pressure on communities and services at risk

Pretty clear.  But then, the BBC jury is not saying Emily was wrong, just not impartial. Brilliant, eh ?