Charles Moore in The Telegraph on the breaking of Boris…

“Mr Johnson’s complaint also deserves sympathy. The process by which he was ejected from office and is being pursued afterwards is not fair. It constantly uses process – police, official inquiries, now the House of Commons Privileges Committee – but its motive is political (though not always party political: Boris-haters are more powerful in the Tory party than in Labour). It is not a means of justice but of revenge, chiefly for Brexit.

There are widespread complaints that the Boris saga degrades public life. This is true. But the blame, in the media, tends to be laid on Mr Johnson alone. The sadder truth is that it should be shared by both sides. If Boris is unruly and selfish, his enemies are devious and hypocritical. He is out, having been legitimately – though not necessarily wisely – ejected by his parliamentary colleagues. It would have been much better to leave it at that, rather than seeking to break him.”

Charles Moore on what he loves about journalism…

“… there’s a lovely thing about working in a newspaper office when things are going right. Though we’re all very competitive and rude and difficult and sometimes drunk and all the rest of it, it’s because you’re focused on something that you’ve got to do, an esprit de corps, and a sort of excitement and pleasure. I absolutely love that about journalism.”

Charles Moore on the future cultural status of the BBC…

“Like the Church of England in the 19th century … I think the BBC should be disestablished.”

The revelation in The Sunday Times that Boris wants to appoint Charles Moore as BBC Chairman and Paul Dacre to run the media regulator Ofcom, prompted outrage from the chattering metropolitan media class; with the likes of Adam Boulton accusing No. 10 of being an “oligarchy” exhibiting “elite populism run riot”. When Guido pointed out to Boulton that Labour had dominated the quangocracy for over a decade – citing the Independent‘s 1995 discovery of plans to install Blair’s friends in high places – Adam claimed there wasn’t evidence to support that – when Guido asserted with evidence otherwise, Boulton told him “F off” with his lies and smears. It was admittedly very late. Anyway, Guido’s been busy crunching the numbers…

• In the last year of Major’s government, 57% of political appointees had Tory allegiances, versus 32% for Labour
• One year after Blair came to power, Labour appointees were up to 75%, versus 13% for Tories
• During every single one of New Labour’s years, more than half of political appointees with declared affiliations were Blair or Brown backers. In 2006/7 and 2009/10, it was 70%.*

Labour deliberately prioritised getting their allies into high power media positions – including appointing Greg Dyke, who had previously donated £50,000 to Labour, to the role of BBC Director-General. Can you imagine the outrage if the Tories did similar today?

The era of Labour-dominated quangocracies didn’t end with the coalition in 2010, however. In 2011/12, the percentage of Labour-affiliated appointments actually beat Blair’s 1997-98 record at 76.7%. From 2010-2014, 3x more Labour supporters were appointed to top quango jobs than Tories, it was a noticeable blind-spot of the Cameron era…

• 2011-12: 76.7%, 13.8%, 4.3%
• 2013-14: 45.6%, 30.8%, 7.5%
• 2014-15: 37.6%, 25.9%, 11.8%
• 2015-16: 41.2%, 33.1%, 14.7%
• 2016-17: 37.7%, 37.1%, 10.5%
• 2017-18: 40.6%, 30.2%, 14.6%
• 2018-19: 47.4%, 31.6%, 10.5%

Since ’97 there have only been 2 years when Tories have got more public appointments than Labour, astounding when you consider the Tories have been in charge for a decade. Guido doesn’t reckon anyone could look at the last 23 years of Labour’s quango domination and credibly complain about this Downing Street initiating a decades-long overdue end to the Blairite dominance of public appointments…

*Source: Public Appointments Commission

See also: Nearly Half of 2019 Public Appointments Support Labour 

In possibly peak Tory wonk watch news, Guido learns that the distinguished journalist and Thatcher biographer Charles Moore is to join the Countryside Alliance’s new top team following a comprehensive reshuffle of the lobby group’s board. The Alliance describe soon-to-be Lord Moore as a “Keen hunting man and a staunch defender of the rights and beliefs of rural people and communities”. Two new jobs for Moore in a month, he’s on his way to beating Osborne’s record at this rate…

He is to be joined on the new board with Lord Daresbury – Master of the Hunt for 29 seasons – and Chris Horne – the managing director for shoot selling day website GunsOnPegs. Alliance Chairman Nick Herbert sais: “I am delighted that we have been able to attract such high-quality individuals to join our Board. Their experience and insight will be hugely valuable to the Alliance’s work for the countryside”. The 2019 Tory Manifesto famously avoided Theresa May’s fox hunting faux pas – will this new team be able to secure yet another u-turn from this government?