Interim process

It's hard to fathom how the BBC got itself into such a tangle over dispensing with Richard Sharp. As a man of unblemished integrity, foot-faulted by the system, not his own poor judgement, why not stay on as BBC Chairman until a replacement is ready to run alongside and get a top notch handover ?

His choice is to leave in July. And we're told, by Tim Davie, that there will be some sort of process to select an interim chairman. This can only be the work of the DCMS; the logical route was to ask Sir Nicholas Serota, the Senior Independent Director, to step up. Has he blotted his copybook in some way ? Or are there other non-execs chomping at the bit ?  Self-effacing Muriel Gray, perhaps ? Golfer and businessman Sir Damon Buffini ?  Sadly little mention for the quietly competent Shirley Garrood.... 

Meanwhile followers of the continuing search for a new chairman will have enjoyed recently-blonde Baroness Stowell of Beeston on BBC radio being coy about possible candidacy.  Perhaps the interviewer didn't know she went up against Richard Sharp and was marked 'also suitable'.  Sadly her radio appearance was to bandwagon for Zelensky to get a slot on Eurovision; fine for a Conservative peer, but an ill-advised line for a potential non-executive chairman to take.