Inspired choice who could save the BBC from itself

THE Government is considering a brilliant stroke – the appointment of the newly ennobled Charles Moore as Chairman of the BBC.

Lord Moore would be an inspired choice. Not only is he a cultured and civilised man, successful editor of two great publications and the acclaimed biographer of Lady Thatcher. He is also greatly knowledgeable in the skills and arts of politics which are required in this post.

The BBC badly needs just such a person, a genuine patriot and social and moral conservative who understands that BBC bias is not crude partisanship but a far deeper problem. The national broadcaster, allowed for far too long to recruit its key staff mainly from the ranks of metropolitan radicals, has become a sort of private planet whose inhabitants have little knowledge of anyone but themselves.

Like goldfish who do not know that they are fish or that they are in a bowl, they gaze blankly on our world and see only a place they vaguely despise. Well, all that is coming to an end as the money runs out and the licence fee loses its power. The BBC is going to need friends among those parts of the population it has despised and ignored – and soon. Charles Moore would be able to make such friends, if the Corporation’s upper echelons have the sense to listen to him and the Government gives him its full backing from the start.

This news is exciting. We hope that Ministers will not be ambushed by those who prefer uninteresting, bland alternatives such as George Osborne or Baroness Morgan, on the grounds that they are safe. Safety is the last thing the BBC needs. Protected from critics, it will shrivel into nothing. Re-energised by true radical change, it could be restored to its former glory.