TIM Davie’s career as BBC chief is surely holed below the waterline.
His authority is shot.
The shocked director-general has discovered that his biggest stars are in charge, not him.
His surrender yesterday was total.
He has reinstated Gary Lineker, apologised and promised new, clearer guidelines on social media posts.
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Anyone who believes his “independent review” will crack down on anti-Tory bias will be disappointed.
It is infinitely more likely to give staff and freelancers outside of news and current affairs the nod to tweet whatever they like.
Expect, then, a renewed barrage of Tory-hating, anti-Brexit tweets.
Because what this episode confirms beyond doubt is the vast gulf between the woke, left-wing, Twitter-fixated prejudices homogeneous at the BBC and the views of much or most of Britain.
BBC managers, ignoring any contrary evidence, consider all small-boats migrants “refugees” and anyone who disagrees morally degenerate.
That includes the majority who back the crackdown on illegal immigration.
Beeb workers can afford to treat their viewers with contempt because their jobs are funded not by profits but by the archaic tax on your TV.
Maybe that’s why it didn’t trouble them that the commentary-free Match of the Day enforced by their virtue-signalling robbed the blind of football coverage.
Mr Davie’s mission was to shore up support for the licence fee by reimposing rigorous impartiality.
He’s blown it. Left-wing bias will be cemented.
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Those under him don’t care. They know the licence is safe anyway.
The Tories have failed for years to tackle it. And a Labour government will never defund its own broadcasting arm.
Cut-price Army
A £5billion injection into our forces sounds impressive.
We only wish it truly was. Welcome as Rishi Sunak’s new funding is, it is half what the MoD wanted.
And his pledge to raise military spending to 2.5 per cent of our GDP is an aim, not a firm commitment with a deadline.
Short-changing our forces was bad enough after the Cold War.
Given the threats now from the vile regimes of Russia and China, it looks ill-judged.
We cannot defend freedom on the cheap.
Tech a bow
HE gets a lot of stick, but credit to the Chancellor for saving thousands of jobs.
The collapse of the UK branch of SVB threatened scores of tech start-ups that had substantial sums invested in the American bank.
Jeremy Hunt and others worked into the night to ensure it was rapidly bought by HSBC, funds secured and the crisis nipped in the bud.
Well done.
Our fear now is this: How many other US banks face similar problems?