I’ve a piece in the current issue of Standpoint on the disastrous rule of James Harding as the BBC’s Head of News. He was a former editor of the Times, who didn’t strike me as a bad man as editors go, if you can forget about the moment when he turned down the chance to break the MPs’ expenses scandal, one of the biggest stories of his career.
Since moving to the BBC, however, his seedy behaviour has become a threat to British culture. Harding is a sinecure-dispenser, who has stuffed his friends and associates into senior positions, without requiring them to compete in front of BBC boards. Open appointments stop cronyism, and are a useful protection against sexual harassment. (Creepy bosses cannot say to women ‘sleep with me and I’ll guarantee you a promotion’.) And Harding has circumvented them.
Please don’t tell me that all bosses in the private sector insist on having his or her“team” in place.
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