Lord Coe to be new BBC Trust boss?
zz9
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According to Boris Johnson..http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2641781/Olympic-legend-Sebastian-Coe-lined-new-BBC-Trust-chairman-Boris-Johnson-lets-slip-fantastic-news.html
Could be a very good choice. Though a bizarre echo of the W1A satire, Olympic boss joins BBC. Let's hope he finds somewhere to keep his bike and has a more competent intern...
Could be a very good choice. Though a bizarre echo of the W1A satire, Olympic boss joins BBC. Let's hope he finds somewhere to keep his bike and has a more competent intern...
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It's like a teacher marking their pupils A-Level exams.
You could bring Jesus Christ himself into the role and it would be dubious.
I thought he was in line for the head of the IAAF next year, which seems a role far better suited to his expertise. And appointing a former Tory MP and Lord to head up the BBC Trust didn't exactly turn out so well last time. Sounds dubious.
Nick Griffin is available now he is longer an MEP !!!
(Lights blue touchpaper and runs away)
Didn't he spend oodles of money taking out a super injunction to stop his wife finding out that he was bonking someone else?
Have I remembered incorrectly?
Sounds like your memory is spot on.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1463242/Coe-affair-claims-will-not-affect-Olympic-bid-leadership.html
I'd forgotten about that. In fairness the Olympics turned out about as well as could be hoped. How much of that is down to Coe is debatable, but he did head up the bid process and the games were a resounding success. Whether that makes him qualified for the BBC Trust gig is another matter.
"BBC Trust chair hours reduced leading to claims that it encourages Coe"
"Advert for £110,000-a-year role amended to attract candidates who cannot give three to four days a week"
Interview panel:
Jeremy Heywood (Cabinet Secretary)
Carolyn Fairbairn (Former BBC Executive)
Lord Kakkar (Professor of Surgery at UCL)
http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/jun/26/bbc-trust-chair-hours-reduced-lord-coe
http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2014-06-25/peston-is-right-left-wing-bias-at-the-bbc-is-a-myth
It's no different to how Ofcom regulates the commercial channels, except the BBC Trust is supposed to be independent of the Government.
When a teacher is using tests in that way that's for their own personal interest. No outside force is interested in such tests, so no conflict of interest in the teacher marking them himself.
But A-Levels are of outside interest.
A-Levels actually assess the teacher and the school to some degree. So you cannot have a teacher marking his own teaching with A-Levels.
In the case of the BBC Trust. If the BBC is not doing well then attention inevitably turns to the regulator and were they not doing their job well? Just as teachers tend to get blamed if exam results are down.
So we need a BBC Board of Governance to regulate the BBC, and also an "exam body" that does NOT regulate but merely marks the work of the BBC. Call that the BBC Trust if you want. But they shouldn't regulate the BBC.
http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2014/jul/29/sebastian-coe-ruling-out-run-for-bbc-trust-chairmanship-report
The IAAF top job seems a more obvious fit when it becomes available next year.
The rumoured 'front runner' now is Nick Prettejohn, a "former advisor to George Osbourne"
Coe I thought would have been excellent.
I dont think even the tories would try and privatise the bbc, Channel Four would be a much easier target, and I doubt a total scrapping of the license fee is on the cards, I could see the tories introducing a light license fee covering BBC1, BBC2, BBC News, BBC Parliament and BBC Radio, with other BBC services including iplayer only available on payment of an additional subscription.
As for Lord Coe, its great to see the tory gerrymandering that was underway has not been successful.
If the Tories win the election the next BBC charter renewal might be very interesting. I don't see it as out of the question they might say something like, "OK BBC, you get another seven more years with the TVL, after that it needs to be done differently, get back to us in a couple of years with your proposals", or something like that. It seems the TV landscape has changed so much, and will continue to change, that the current model is increasingly outdated.
Coe dropping out of the running seems a further indication he thinks he has a good shot at the IAAF job. He couldn't have done both due to the conflict of interest (real or apparent) of heading up a sports organisation whose major championships would be the subject of future BBC rights bids.
The "outdated" aspect has been dealt with by both Ireland and Germany recently by just making their TV licence a mandatory payment for every household and business, which also removes the need for inspectors, detector vans etc. If included with council tax then it could also be a variable fee in line with house value, again addressing a complaint against the TV licence. But still something that could be a political hot potato that some people might wish to avoid. After all the poll tax on paper was quite a sensible, logical and fair idea...
As for Coe dropping out it make me think of the Wilde quote. Too lose one high profile applicant may be regarded as a misfortune. To lose two...