This is worth a look for those with a penchant for blood sports.
It’s BBC chairman Lord Patten, of ‘incurious’ George Entwistle fame, being grilled by Tory MP Philip Davies over his less than outstanding first few months at the BBC.
The famously urbane Patten looks like he’d like to thump the ‘impertinent’ Davies.
Opinion seems split on who got the best of the encounter, depending what you think about urbane peers and chippy MPs I suppose (and the Beeb of course).
Patten claims he only spends 20 days a year on ‘remunerated’ posts outside the BBC – which may lead some of his employers to wonder what they’re paying him for. Davies, it seems, would prefer a poodle-like BBC.
These Commons committees are all very well, they certainly hold executives from here and there to account although they don’t seem quite so fearless when it comes to grilling members of the Government.
But, if you’ve a job like Patten’s (and other pressures on your time of course) don’t you spend all your life preparing for these inquisitions rather than actually doing your job?
Davies was being gratuitously rude. Shocking behaviour. I am completely nuetral about Patten. He is though a considerable public servant who deserves much more respect than this man, whom nobidy has heard outside Westminster, has given him. It is entirely possible to ask tough and penetrating questions without stooping to insults.