Thursday, July 31, 2014

What do you see as your strengths and weaknesses ?

If the real requirement for the BBC Trust chairmanship, as seen by Dave and George, is a BBC fan who can command the respect of backbench Tories, talk tough and handle themselves well in interviews, then I'm not sure who the DCMS panel are actually interviewing in the first round - maybe each other.

Let's run through the current Paddy Power take on runners and riders.

6/4 Nick Prettejohn
Zoomed to favouritism, after yet another unhelpful endorsement from George Osborne, who started the crashed Coe bandwagon. Former President of the Oxford Union who plied William hague with drink, but can find no recent recordings of him actually speaking....
6/1 Patience Wheatcroft
Media Baroness (Tory) - ruled out by Sebastian Shakespeare in the Mail on 25th July thus: I hear that Tory peer Patience Wheatcroft is ‘absolutely and unequivocally’ not going to succeed Chris Patten in the plum £110,000-a-year, part-time post.
13/2 Martyn Rose
Bouffant serial entrepreneur and Tory donor, with seven cars (two Bentleys) who's set up good-work initiatives with Michael Gove, Teresa May, and chairs Cameron's Big Society Network. The Times ruled him out yesterday.
7/1 Diane Coyle
Economist, blogger, balletomane, and Acting Chair, who made no secret of her application. Sadly it didn't impress the shortlisters, and she's not even getting an interview.
8/1 Suzanna Taverne
Serial non-exec and governance nerd, with a background in banking, media and museums, who's also already a Trustee. Not a star on the comms front, as this video, in which she fails to inspire Stephanie Flanders and others, demonstrates.
8/1 Howard Stringer
Sir Howard, 72, who made his media names with CBS and Sony, is already a non-exec on Lord Hall's BBC board. He says he was approached to apply but said "thanks, but no thanks"
8/1 Patrica Hodgson
Former BBC fixer, she lost out to Patten when she applied for the Chair (as a Trustee) in 2011, then was snubbed further when Diane Coyle got Deputy. Just started a three-year contract as Chair of Ofcom (at the slightly more rewarding salary of £145k for three days a week). With a little extension she could get regulate the BBC even more from a distance...

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