The Daily Telegraph is promoting the candidacy of George Osborne as next chairman of the BBC. The former Chancellor negotiated two licence fee settlements, the most recent hobbling Auntie with responsibility for social policy, as a means of driving welfare cuts at the Treasury just ahead of a Budget.
He'd met Rupert Murdoch twice in the run up to that deal; BBC Chair at the time was Rona Fairhead, who said she'd previously only met George Osborne at "formal functions" and "across the room at parents' meetings".
Mr Osborne's manifesto for a smaller, weaker, more compliant BBC was published as an Evening Standard leader in December last year.
The BBC is something of a leitmotif in Mr Osborne's career. His old school chum, James Harding, enticed Sarah Sands from the Evening Standard to run Today on Radio 4, which gave George his top-level entry into newspaper journalism.
Tim Davie is a serious, sound choice as Director General of the BBC - steeped in the tradition of the Corporation but with the commercial experience it absolutely needs
— George Osborne (@George_Osborne) June 5, 2020
* In July last year, the Office of Budget Responsibility described the potential of the Over 75 licence decision to put Treasury welfare costs up, not down: "It is relatively unusual for a government to delegate parameters of welfare policy to a broadcasting company in an attempt to save money, and it is perhaps not surprising that this may have unintended consequences. The BBC’s decision to means-test free TV licences via a link to pension credit receipt may well raise welfare spending by more than it reduces BBC spending, particularly once the BBC spends the money it saves by means testing. The net effect on the public finances would therefore be to push the budget deficit up not down."
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