Is Mr Portillo the man to stop the BBC getting any dumber?

Who should be the next chairman of the BBC? Should it be Terry Burns, the former Treasury mandarin and chairman of Abbey National? Or Michael Grade, the former chief executive of Channel 4? Or Michael Portillo? Their names are believed to be among the 79 people who have applied for the chairmanship. A great deal of lobbying is taking place. Two of the candidates set out their stalls last weekend at a conference of British and Italian journalists and politicians held at the Palazzo Labia in Venice.

Lord Burns was not there in person, but was represented by his chief sponsor and supporter on earth, John Birt, director-general of the BBC from 1992 until 2000. The two men are old pals. They have been on walking holidays together — oddly enough in the company of Robin Butler, the chap who is conducting the inquiry into intelligence failures and Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction.