BBC Trust boss Lord Patten 'busted flush' says Greg Dyke

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2013/dec/26/bbc-trust-lord-patten-greg-dyke

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The former BBC director general Greg Dyke says the chairman of the BBC Trust, Chris Patten, is a "busted flush" and the corporation would be better without him at the helm in one of its most crucial years.

In an interview with the Guardian, Dyke said Lord Patten had been left severely damaged after what the culture secretary, Maria Miller, described as an "annus horribilis" for the corporation, and predicted that the trust would be abolished and the BBC brought under the control of the media regulator, Ofcom.

With the debate over the future shape of the BBC and its funding due to begin in earnest in 2014, Dyke said it was time for its supporters to stand up and be counted with its "biggest enemy, the Murdoch empire, in disarray".

This year, Patten has been criticised in the fallout from the Jimmy Savile scandal and for agreeing to a £450,000 payout to short-lived director general George Entwistle . Then this week the Tory peer was accused by MPs of "obstruction and secrecy" after he blocked publication of documents relating to the corporation's £100m Digital Media Initiative (DMI) fiasco.

Dyke, now chairman of the Football Association, said: "The BBC has a problem in the sense it's got a busted flush as chairman. I am surprised [Patten] is still there. It would probably help if he wasn't."

Patten indicated he would stand down in 2015, although he admitted it was not ideal in a general election year and in the midst of negotiations over the renewal of the BBC's charter and the next licence fee agreement, due to begin next year and to be completed by the end of 2016.

Dyke said Patten had suffered an enormous amount of damage from Entwistle's resignation as director general at the height of the Savile scandal last year after just 54 days in the job. He said Patten had also mishandled criticism of the severance payments.

A longtime critic of the trust, Dyke told the Guardian: "It was a disaster waiting to happen and it happened. No one is quite certain who reports to who and who is in charge, and that has to be sorted.

"It seems to me almost certain that the regulation of the BBC will go to Ofcom, and the BBC will have a board with one person who is chairman, working alongside the director general. It will be light-touch regulation, like it is with Channel 4."

The BBC has been criticised in recent months by some of its biggest stars, such as David Dimbleby and Jennifer Saunders, prompting its director of television, Danny Cohen, to call on talent not to join the "daily chorus of BBC bashing".

Dyke, director general between 2000 and 2004, said: "It's time for those of us who really care about the BBC and who can get a mouthpiece to stand up and say what we value about the BBC.

"The BBC is very good at regrouping and sustaining itself. In the end it has the support of the country and it always has had. That's why Thatcher never took on the BBC – because it has the support of middle England."

But he said he was fearful of Dame Janet Smith's investigation into sexual abuse at the BBC in the Savile era, which is due to be published early next year.

"It's very difficult to apply the standards of today to 25 or 20 years ago," said Dyke, who was interviewed as part of the judge's review, which has been in contact with more than 700 people.

Dyke said he was concerned that it would link criminal activities with something wider about the moral position of BBC management.

He added: "Reithian values are not about morality: they are about independence."

A spokesperson for the BBC Trust dismissed the criticism. "We have heard these types of comments from Greg Dyke before. The trust hasn't commented when he has made them in the past and we don't intend to do so now."

The current director general, Tony Hall, set out his vision for the BBC in October, including a next-generation iPlayer and a digital store selling BBC programmes. He added that there were hard choices to come about more cost-cutting and predicted a difficult year ahead.

Critical to the future shape and funding of the BBC will be two political events: the Scottish independence referendum of September 2014, bringing with it the prospect of a break-up of the corporation, and the general election on 7 May 2015.

Grant Shapps, chairman of the Conservative party, warned in October that the BBC could face cuts to the TV licence fee unless it rebuilt public trust. There remains the possibility that more of the licence fee will be topsliced, as it has been for broadband rollout and local television services.

Other influential political voices support a regulatory shakeup. Tory MP John Whittingdale, chairman of the Commons culture, media and sport select committee, which will begin its deliberations of charter renewal and the licence fee in January, said: "In my view, the BBC should end up with an external regulator, probably Ofcom."

The regulator's chief executive, Ed Richards, said in October that it would be "comparatively easy" to take responsibility for the wholesale regulation of the BBC.

Whittingdale also said the corporation had to think carefully about its core purpose in the digital era. "Tony Hall outlined all sorts of new areas he wants the BBC to explore but basically the main job of the BBC is making public service programmes," he said.

"That is what should occupy most of their time. The BBC spends a lot of money on technology and there is a question whether the BBC has to do all this development. I hope DMI will loom large in the memory of everybody and they don't cut budgets in order to pursue what could turn out to be fads."

Whittingdale said: "The BBC has to work out what it does that only it can do and what it does that other people can do perfectly well."

"The licence fee is looked at every charter renewal and every time it survives," he added. "But the argument against the licence fee is stronger every time. The question is finding an alternative."

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