Nobody Wants to be the Next Head of BBC Trust

[Teddy Bear]

It appears that besides Seb' Coe, 8 others have pulled out of wanting the job of head of BBC Trust.
While ex BBC Director General Greg Dyke, wants to blame minor issues for their decision, he clearly doesn't want to focus on 'the elephant in the room'.

Greg Dyke: Hunt for BBC Trust boss has become a 'mess'
Sir Howard Stringer and Michael Portillo have both pulled out of the running to become the new head of the BBC Trust

By Steven Swinford, and Anita Singh

Two more leading candidates have pulled out of the race to become the new head of the BBC Trust amid accusations that the process has descended into a “mess”.

Sir Howard Stringer, the former Sony chief executive, and Michael Portillo, the former Conservative defence secretary, were both approached about the role but decided not to apply.

A total of nine candidates have now pulled out including Lord Coe, the Olympics chief who had been the Prime Minister’s preferred choice, Dame Marjorie Scardino, the former chief executive of Pearson, and Sir Peter Bazalgette, chairman of the Arts Council.
Despite the setbacks Sir Jeremy Heywood, the cabinet secretary, will begin interviewing the remaining shortlisted candidates today. Sajid Javid, the Culture Secretary, believes that the shortlist remains “strong”.

However Greg Dyke, the former director general of the BBC, said that the job is "unattractive" because the trust is likely to be abolished under the royal charter review in 2016.

Mr Dyke said: “The problem with the job is that quite clearly in two years time whichever government is in power will quite rightly get rid of the Trust and go back to having a proper board of governors.

“How do you persuade someone to take on a job that in two years time won't be there? How do you make that attractive? It's just a complete mess, it has been a mess ever since they set it up.

“The best bet would be to say we want to appoint someone who will initially be chairman of the trust but will go on to become chairman of the BBC. But it's quite difficult to do.”

One of the leading candidates who shunned the chance to replace Lord Patten told The Telegraph that the “massive uncertainty” surrounding the role had influenced the decision.

Lord Patten’s three years as BBC chairman were marred by controversy over excessive pay-offs to staff, the £100 million failure of an IT project and the Jimmy Savile scandal. He resigned in May after heart surgery, and will now advise the Vatican on its media strategy.
Critics have said that the BBC Trust has failed to properly scrutinise the corporation and there are growing calls for it to be replaced by a board of governors.

One of the candidates who rejected the role said: “You've been asked to apply for a job which is definitely going to change in two years' time at Charter Renewal, because everybody thinks the current system of governance doesn't work.

"So there's just massive uncertainty and it may be that the job you're applying for doesn't exist in two years' time. That's nobody's fault, that's just the timing of Lord Patten getting ill. But it's very difficult to get people to apply for a job like that."

Michael Lyon, the former chairman of the BBC Trust, said: “It has been a very messy selection process. I think if people look at the last 20 years they would ask themselves whether acting as the chairman of the BBC was risky and the answer would be yes. There is huge reputational risk. This is far too much of a political football.”

[Teddy Bear]

Think you live in a civilised and free country?
When the organisation that has displayed total disregard for its charter in all manner of agendas, and one that has a host of scandals recently coming to light, and yet the public are forced to pay for it under threat of imprisonment, is something akin to a third world dictatorship.

Now we hear that a third of the BBC Trust, who are supposed to represent the interests of the licence fee public in monitoring the BBC have family members working within the corporation.

The ignorant public putting up with this are content to have the illusion that this is a free country.

SEBASTIAN SHAKESPEARE: How the BBC Trust keeps it in the family

By Sebastian Shakespeare

The BBC Trust is under fire after it emerged that a third of its members have a relative or partner employed by the Beeb.

The Trust, which is meant to hold the Corporation to account and represent the interests of licence fee payers, has been struggling to find a suitable candidate to succeed Lord Patten as its chairman.

A string of contenders including Lord Coe have ruled themselves out of the race.

Interviews are being overseen by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, but calls for the Trust to be scrapped altogether and replaced with a new governing body have been growing louder.

For the range of cosy connections among the 12 Trustees has led to accusations of many conflicts of interest.

Acting Trust chairman Diane Coyle is married to BBC News’ technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones, while Elan Closs Stephens, the Trust member for Wales, is the mother-in-law of news producer Katie Prescott.

Another trustee, Sonita Alleyne, is the aunt of actress Jade Alleyne, who stars in CBBC’s musical drama The 4 O’Clock Club.

Trust director Jon Zeff is the brother of freelance TV director Dan Zeff, whose credits include the BBC3 comedy Siblings and an episode of Doctor Who. Their sister Susannah is a development producer for 360 Production, which makes programmes for the BBC.

Another Trustee, David Liddiment, is a non-executive director and shareholder in All3Media, which makes property show Homes Under The Hammer and drama Inspector George Gently for the Corporation.

Conservative MP Philip Davies, a member of the Commons media select committee, tells me: ‘I don’t know of any other regulator in the world where this would be tolerated.

Can you imagine if a third of the members of the Gambling Commission had relatives who worked for [bookmaker] William Hill?’

Another Trustee, Nicholas Prettejohn, tipped to become the next chairman, has sat on the board of the Royal Opera House since 2005 — where current BBC chief Tony Hall was the boss until 2012.

And Sir Jeremy Heywood, a member of the independent interview panel for the chairman post, is married to Suzanne Cook, who sits on the Royal Opera House board.