Confrere

The Guardian tells me that the Editor of Today, Ceri Thomas, (disclosure: old chum, but long time no-see) is sitting on the story many BBC journalists want. He's apparently acting as "prisoner's friend" to Newsnight Editor Peter Rippon in the Pollard Inquiry.

So presumably he now knows why the Savile investigation was stopped, and whether or not there was pressure from above - and just can't say.

• "Prisoner's friends" are a long-standing feature of internal BBC disciplinary inquiries. You can choose any member of staff, as long as they are not a solicitor. Most choose gnarled and ring-savvy union reps. In the Byford-driven internal inquiry after Gilligan-Kelly-Hutton, nearly everyone called had a friend - and the numbers involved punched a serious hole in some rotas.