Sharp being blunt

Richard Sharp may have lived up to his name on Wall St but he's plain naive in creating hostages to fortune for the BBC; lacking in empathy for staff; and still acting like the investment banker he is, rather than the chairman of one of the world's greatest publically-owned institutions.

In a long Sunday Times interview he agrees that “the BBC does have a liberal bias”, but insists “the institution is fighting against it”.  Presumably he's prepared to share his evidence for this bias with 'Defund the BBC' and give examples of the hand-to-hand fighting his marketing-trained Editor-in-chief is having with dangerous wets infesting his organisation 

He wants sharper business coverage, he says, pointing to a screen in his office showing Bloomberg News, whilst offering no evidence whatsoever of a public clamour for ticker-tastic broker speculation courtesy of the licence fee. 

When reminded that News had just sent its business and economics operation to Salford Docks (losing 100s of years of business journalism experience in the process) he opines gnomically "We are required to run inefficiently". Brilliant.

Mr Sharp also reveals the existence of a three year old daughter from a second marriage, now ended.