Memo to the new BBC chair

I find it hard to overstate the importance of the BBC in ensuring a sense of continuity and cohesion in our national life. As an institution it is far from perfect, but it does continue to offer the possibility of an eventual victory for sanity over nihilism in the evolution of the nation’s media output. That may sound a little ‘over the top’, but having lived through a couple of weeks of Big Brother media excess it doesn’t feel all that much of an overstatement.

What’s certain is that the incoming chair of the BBC Trust will have a very great deal to think about. The ability of the BBC to be a serious contender for a renewed charter in ten years, along with an adequate licence-fee settlement six years from now, will crucially depend on the ability of this new body — the Trust — to establish an effective and robust form of governance.