A searing piece in defence of the BBC today from Jackie Ashley:

“The calls for absolute transparency about everything are malicious. Any organisation which has to justify every salary, every croissant and every taxicab will get so bogged down in paperwork it will stop functioning.”

Apparently “plenty of other oganisations at the time tolerated similar behaviour” to Jimmy Savile too, so how dare you question Auntie there. Jackie smells a conspiracy and blames Murdoch and the Mail for all these attacks, concluding “there is no solidarity among journalists”. Except of course under her roof. While defending the excesses and failings of the BBC, you might have thought Jackie would declare an interest given that she is married to one of the Beeb’s best paid stars. But Guido is sure that could not have possibly clouded her judgement…