My tax avoidance tip – win literary prizes!

David Cameron is said to want a woman to be chairman of the BBC Trust, now that Chris Patten has had to retire early because of ill health. Perhaps he has a bad conscience about what happened last time. By far the best candidate then was the runner-up, Patricia Hodgson, a distinguished BBC veteran who is committed to its virtues and has always understood its vices. She would have led a return to the BBC’s core strengths, and saved licence fee money in the process. But the government did not know what it wanted, so it chose the nearest chum, Lord Patten, who accepted in that casual and complacent spirit and found himself plunged into crisis. Patricia Hodgson is still the best person of either sex for the job, but she has declared she will not apply, because she has only recently begun her work as chairman of Ofcom. Who can blame her? Because of the timing of the election (2015) and Charter renewal (end of 2016), whoever gets the job now will be insecure in it.