LONDON - Never a population to shy from criticizing establishment, Great Britain in recent years has had more than its fair share of homegrown targets. The country’s slide into austerity since 2007 has witnessed a grim, recession-tinged outlook on life, a malaise that has allowed Brits to express themselves with ever-greater bitterness. The theme of the criticism, introduced by then-Prime Minister Gordon Brown and his Chancellor Alistair Darling and continued with aplomb by Messer’s Cameron, Osborne and Clegg, is that those in power just do not know what they are doing.
This malaise is often compounded by the best efforts of those in positions of responsibility to improve or at least make amends. Take the BBC, for example. The BBC has suffered one of the worst periods in its history, with the slow-burning revelations within the furore surrounding the Jimmy Savile affair that the men in charge knew what was going on for decades and said nothing. The conviction of veteran broadcaster Stuart Hall on charges of paedophilia just weeks ago has done nothing to assuage anger against the corporation. The BBC, it is clear, is not in the public’s good books.
It is in this context that the National Audit Office (NAO) announced the results of an investigation into compensation paid to outgoing directors. The pay-offs, as they are being described, occurred between 2005 and the present day, and hit a total of 60 million pounds. The cost to the taxpayer, who funds the BBC through the payment of television licence fees, may have been as high as 1 million pounds, some reports suggested.
The revelations have provoked a certain degree of outrage, as the nation shakes its head once again at the crisis mismanagement and questionable decision-making rife in the BBC. One of the beneficiaries was George Entwistle, who was Director-General of the BBC in the throes of the Savile scandal and lasted 54 days on the job. According to newspaper reports on the NAO’s findings, Entwistle received an original pay-off of 450,000 pounds, followed by “36,500 pounds in various fees, including legal and PR costs, and a further 25,000 pounds, made up of another three weeks’ salary.”
The BBC was quick to respond to the announcements, with Strategy Director James Purnell appearing before a snarling Jeremy Paxman on (the BBC’s) Newsnight on Monday. Purnell described the findings as “humbling” and riddled with “extremely embarrassing mistakes,” admitting that the Corporation was at fault for how the situation had been handled. However, Purnell was adamant that the BBC would not be instigating “a witch-hunt,” choosing instead to “learn from its mistakes and move on.”
One of the most embarrassing elements about this semi-scandal is that it was not revealed by a newspaper, but by the NAO, performing an audit well within its remit of a state-funded entity. The press has reacted gleefully to the findings, as they have once again revealed the total mismanagement at a high level of a beleaguered institution. However, if Purnell is proved wrong, where the BBC goes next after this is far from clear: after so much uncertainty and instability, surely a fresh round of blood-letting and compensation pay-offs is to be avoided.
Monday also saw an actor who has been waiting in the wings for some time now take centre stage. Sir Mervyn King, governor of the Bank of England, stepped down after a decade at the helm, to be replaced by Canadian Mark Carney. Monday was the new Governor’s first day of work.
Anticipation surrounding King’s successor has been steadily rising since Carney’s appointment was announced in November 2012. The first non-Briton to be named Governor since the bank was established in 1694, Carney’s CV has been picked over extensively. It is widely believed that his ability to steer Canada away from the effects of the global crisis and recession while Central Bank head was a key motive for his appointment.
It has also been much stated in the press that after ten years of King’s tenancy, during which the UK has gone spectacularly bust and still remains in the doldrums, what was needed was a breath of fresh air. The former governor is symbolic of so much of went wrong with the UK and its continued struggles, that any change would have been viewed as positive – so much so that Carney’s wages (at an estimated 694,000 pounds per year, 100,000 more than King received) are hardly discussed.
The buzz surrounding the new arrival has been more tangible in the last week, with the Standard publishing a two-page feature on Carney yesterday and much being made of his wife, Diana Fox. The focus so far has been positive, albeit cagily so. The new governor courted positive publicity by turning up to work on Monday using the Underground, with some commentators making the distinction between the new governor and his predominantly chauffeured predecessor.
Carney is now entering his grace period, during which he will probably be unable of doing any wrong. The most immediate impact of his appointment will be the cultural change that he brings with him, and which is noticeable in media coverage. A society that is tired of the mismanagement and shoddiness presented by its institutions, so conveniently exemplified once more by the BBC, is ready for a breath of fresh air – as is the economy, and the government.
@archiewhit
First published in the Buenos Aires Herald on July 3, 2013
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