History

You only make a guest appearance at the 1922 Committee by invitation, and the invitation to Tim Davie might well have come before October 7th. It would be good to know who, on the Board and Executive Committee, advised the BBC DG it would be sensible to accept. 

The last recorded appearance by BBC figures at a 1922 Committee meeting came during the Falklands conflict. Tory MPs were already biting the BBC's ankles over Newsnight, where Peter Snow used the phrase 'If we believe the British...'.  The playground bullies of that time wanted the BBC to refer to 'our troops' consistently. And then came a Panorama special "Can we avoid war ?"  In the aftermath, William Whitelaw is said to have organised an appearance at the 1922 by chairman Lord Howard, and Alasdair Milne, covering for the absent DG Ian Trethowan.

Presenter Robert Kee later resigned over the programme, which used surveys to examine public opinion on 'going to war'.  Tam Dalyell later wrote: "When Kee saw the first version he was uneasy, feeling that it gave too much exposure to the opponents of the action."

"It was my Panorama appearance on 10 May 1982 challenging her Falklands expedition which was the epicentre of the object of Mrs Thatcher's rage. One of her ministers, Sally Oppenheim, opined that the Panorama editor George Carey and I should face treason charges.

"Some 20 years later Kee told me that with the benefit of hindsight and further knowledge of the Falklands War he had certain regrets in not accompanying the then BBC chairman, the pugilistic and heavyweight George Howard, and Alasdair Milne to a meeting of combative Tory backbenchers, which was described to me by one of its number as "blood on the wall, old boy, blood on the wall."

Alasdair Milne (by the way, Tim) is so far the only DG to be effectively sacked, and the only one not to get a knighthood. [Belated correction; neither Greg Dyke or George Entwistle have been knighted; Greg is said to have offered his resignation without expecting it to be accepted]