The BBC is on fire. It needs a new Director-General. The runners and riders:
There is some talk in news circles about the structure of the Director-General role changing, including a rumour that it could be split in two to better manage at-times competing functions. The proposal would be for a full-time journalist to head up the editorial side of the BBC at the DG level, and a seperate non-journalist businessperson to head up the commercial functions, also at the same DG rank. Many at the top of the BBC feel this double-header would unencumber the role. The job is a poisoned chalice when it comes under media scrutiny…
Despite the government not having a technical role in the appointment it is a highly politically-charged process and there will be significant lobbying and jostling from all sides, including from Downing Street. Labour sees the analogue BBC as its own territory and wants to install a loyalist. Is the ‘plot’ to remove Davie actually an own goal for the right?
Speaking on Times Radio, former Home Secretary David Blunkett spoke about overdiagnosis of mental problems:
“Let’s distinguish those who are really severely mentally ill, diagnosed with things that require prolonged medical and diagnostic treatment. My wife and I talk about this a lot, because she’s a retired GP, about the fact that you can be sad without being ill. You can be momentarily depressed because your boyfriend or girlfriend’s just thrown you and you’re not mentally ill. You can even have mild issues, which can be dealt with with the right kind of support, but it doesn’t make you mentally ill. So we’ve got a real task, I think, to get the psychology, if you like, of this over. But there are things where you definitely need medical intervention, and there are other things where you need good friends, you need good connectivity, and you need a job.”