Ex BBC boss Thompson
from Richard Lutz
From the living room sofa, I might as well have been watching a bunch of babies on my tv as MPs quizzed the BBC bosses on why unneeded millions were thrown at fellow managers who were given the heave in a management clean out.
Under scrutiny from Parliament’s Public Account Committee chair Patricia Hodge, increasingly becoming Redoubtable Woman Number 1 in the Commons, they basically agreed they were guilty but blamed each other for the crime.
It was as a 3 year old is caught with a hand in the tin and pleads: ‘You know when you saw me taking those sweeties. Well, it wasn’t me.’
The meeting was confusing, alarming, sad and enraging, watching 7 witnesses faill to simply admit wrong was done.
So, on to the players: First we had former DG Mark Thompson who guided the £1m pay out to his pal Mark Byford when he was made redundant. Thompson is the same man- after 30 years at the BBC- who had no idea Savile was a sexual predator.
Then there was Marcus Agius, BBC Trust member who also knew nothing either. But the former Barclays banker does know a thing or two about pressure and public scrutiny as he was a central figure in the Libor rigging scandal when his bank was fined for deceiving millions of savers. Nothing like having a modern bank boss on the Trust board to figure out how to shuffle the cash.
Then there was Michael Lyons, the former Trust chair, who admitted he should have worked a bit harder at thinking through how an extra £1m of public money was handed over to the exiting Byford. ‘Maybe in hindsight…’ he began.
And there was current Trust chair Chris Patten who knew nothing because it all happened before his reign.’Not me, mate..’ seemed to be his course of action.
Moving past Nicholas Kroll, the top bureaucrat at the Trust who never thought part of his £245,000 pa job was to question the big payouts of public money, there was the former HR boss Lucy Adams who Hodge had to continually slap down for being economic with the truth. Continually.
One media columnist today wittily likened the PAC investigation to a Mafia show trial with all the bosses either mum, quietened by failing memories or simply blaming the person down the line.
Ms Hodge said after the committee meeting: “It was a very unedifying experience watching seven people at the top of the BBC dancing on the head of a pin to try and avoid responsibility for the decisions taken.’
Sadly, funnily, the entertainment is over. The BBC babies and their half truths will disappear into mythology. Byford hasn’t raised his head to offer the excess cash to charity or. shock, back to the public purse. Ex boss Thompson was doorstepped at the exit and said he couldn’t wait to get back to NYC to handle the New York Times and, I guess, the others will drfit back into other high paying power driven posts where the game of shadows and financial slapstick will continue.
Footnote: I watched proceedings on Sky News as the BBC Parliament Channel didn’t think the live broadcast of the PAC meeting was in the public interest.