Stop That Appointment!

While the Mail has been laying into the BBC for anything Jubilee related that does not meet with the approval of its legendarily foul mouthed editor, readers may not have noticed that a second front has been opened against the Corporation. This concerns the upcoming appointment of a new Director General (DG) to replace Mark Thompson, who is stepping down at the end of the year.

Broadcasting House, London

And the bad news for Dacre and his attack goons is that the name apparently in the frame to replace Thompson is Ed Richards. Who he? Well, he’s been head of regulator Ofcom. But his most heinous sin is to have worked for the 10 Downing Street policy unit of the blessed Tone. Dacre despises Blair – and by definition anyone associated with him – and so his appointment would not do.

Hence today’s broadside from Daily Mail Comment, the authentic voice of the Vagina Monologue. All the usual anti-BBC smears are deployed: “bloated bureaucracy ... support of mass, uncontrolled immigration ... passionate love of the EU ... lofty disdain for the values of the people who are forced to fund it ... utterly unable to comprehend the public’s deep respect and affection for the Queen”.

Which c*** said it was none of my f***ing business?

On top of all that, Richards “has never made a TV programme in his life”. Like John Reith, then. But this minor detail counts for nothing as the litany of buzzwords and dog whistles is deployed: “bloated Quango ... magnificent offices ... misleading accounting methods ... failure to control Ofcom’s exorbitant £140 million budget ... lavish salaries ... senior commissars”.

And, readers, you need to remember all that bias. In case anyone had forgotten, whingeing James Slack has been sent over the top in support: “BBC party line on green energy ... so sneered the BBC’s Evan Davis ... brutal inquisition ... BBC treats the pursuit of ‘green energy’ as some sort of holy grail, much in the same way as it continues to revere the collapsing European single currency”.

Yes, the deeply subversive Beeb is full of folks who are not the Mail’s Kind Of People. And to finish off the attack, while demonstrating what a broad church the Dacre press really is, Andrew Pierce (who claims that his presence means the paper is not homophobic, while managing to miss Letts, McKay and Littlejohn routinely indulging in gay-bashing) also attacks Ed Richards.

Pierce obediently repeats the “Labour stooge” accusation, then asserts that Ofcom has been guilty of “double counting”, unlike his own editor, who is guilty only of “double c***ing” as he routinely abuses his minions. Then he gets it all wrong by asserting that Richards learnt his trade “at the feet of Gordon Brown” while not noticing that the Number 10 policy unit wasn’t part of Pa Broon’s domain.

But it kicks the right target and does what has been ordered, so that’s all right, then.