Blade sharpening

It's a bit like the Ancien Regime trying to avoid Madame Guillotine.

Lord Patten, who will ultimately decide who does and does not survive Savile, has opined he expects there will be resignations. He has also revealed that the re-writing of the Rippon blog was on his orders; by similar logic, he has apologised to Grant Shapps for a letter based on the blog from BBC Public Affairs operative Julia Ockenden.

We've had leaks of semi-public rows between Meirion Jones, Newsnight and now Panorama producer, and David Jordan, Head of Editorial Policy. We've had suggestions Panorama turned Meirion down on the Savile story at the same time as he pitched to Newsnight, with the implication that he could have run to Panorama when rebuffed by Rippon, and the ten month silence on the matter from the BBC might never have happened. Today, the Independent suggests George Entwistle invited Helen Boaden to take over Audio and Music when Tim Davie moves on - but she turned him down. The Indie then spins this into "insiders" saying news has become risk-averse and needs new leadership. I've no sense that News has been more or less pusillanimous since Hutton; this is simply opportunist poisoning of an already murky pool.

The saddest new piece of the jigsaw is that Liz MacKean is reported to be taking voluntary redundancy.