Young staff want to air their views instead of respecting rules, says former Today editor

‘In its drive to reflect a new world, the BBC sometimes overlooks an older one with polite incomprehension’

SARAH SANDS claims young BBC staff expect to “have their view of the world on air”, as she suggests the corporation cannot understand Rightleaning views.

The former editor of Radio 4’s flagship Today programme, who resigned earlier this year, said impartiality was still at the BBC’S core, but “respect for the rules is weakening” and it must ensure that it is not conforming to a “cultural like-mindedness”.

Writing in the Financial Times, she said: “The BBC is not just a broadcaster but also an attentive employer in the age of the employee activist. The result is a sense of entitlement among younger employees: they expect to have their view of the world on air.

“In its drive to reflect a new world, the BBC sometimes overlooks an older one. It can treat social conservatism with polite incomprehension.” Ms Sands, a former editor of The Sunday Telegraph, spoke out after the corporation was drawn into a row over whether Rule, Britannia and Land of Hope and Glory were being axed from the Last Night of the Proms due to sensitivities about Britain’s colonial past.

The broadcaster initially said that only orchestral versions would be performed at its annual classical musical concert, which is held at the Royal Albert Hall, but then bowed to pressure and vowed they would be sung.

Tim Davie, the new director-general of the BBC, reportedly believes the corporation broadcasts too much Leftwing comedy and is pushing for an overhaul. Richard Wilson, the executive producer of Have I Got News For You, has said that a lack of Right-wing comics is part of the problem.

“Most people who work in the comedy business will be Left-wing,” he said. “It is by its nature slightly anti-establishment and subversive, and it has got a young audience. But we try and leaven it as much as possible.

“Predictable jokes we try and cut out. It is not something that we don’t try and address. It is definitely the case that there aren’t many Rightwing comics. It’s not like America, where there are a lot of Right-wing commentators who are funny.”