THE revolving doors have been fair spinning away at the BBC of late. Political editor Laura Kuenssberg is quitting her post in April, though will doubtless be destined for other high-profile roles.
She would actually be an interesting choice to take over the Andrew Marr gig, after his temporary replacement, given that the man whom nobody would guess hails from bonnie Dundee is also off - in his case to LBC and the New Statesman. Andy too, did a lengthy stint before the mast as political editor at the Beeb.
Whoever dons Laura’s mantle can be sure of one thing; they will become an instant hate figure on social media. A favourite target of Scots viewers in particular, she first washed across my radar at the time of the 2010 election.
As you might recall, days upon days went past as Gordon Brown calculated whether or not Labour could go on, and the LibDems latterly did a deal with the Tories resulting in David Cameron’s deputy being Nick Clegg. (Wonder whatever happened to him?)
Laura, at that time a relatively junior political reporter, was stuck in Downing Street filling hours of dead airtime as the news vacuum continued. Trust me, being able to blether on when nought is happening is an enviable skill.
Her enemies, when she got the top job, routinely accused her of being little more than a Johnson mouthpiece and dispenser of government propaganda. Her admirers knew that coming up with that level of insider info might have meant supping with a lot of devils, but that comes with the territory if you want to get the goods.
Her team, interestingly, are uniformly in the fan camp. I know it’s de rigeur these days to hate the media, but political editor of anything is a tough old gig given the relentless news cycle.
A more interesting development at the corporation has been the appointment of Muriel Gray as the board member who will represent Scotland, and chair its Scottish committee.
Predictably this has caused a right old flurry in the doo’cots. It’s fair to say that Ms Gray has a bit of a reputation for starting fights in empty rooms. (I have been an eye witness here). But it’s also fair to say she knows a great deal about Scottish broadcasting.
A lot of commentators have made the point that she is a vocal supporter of the Union, having once seemed in favour of independence. The thing to remember here is that what was once known as the national governor for Scotland, before the BBC underwent several bouts of remodelling, is basically appointed by the UK government of the day.
You can be certain sure that Nadine Dorries’s culture department would not have been in the market for approving any candidate suspected of having tartan knickers. The official version is that the job is allocated in consultation with the BBC in Scotland.
Stretches the imagination just a bit to imagine anyone at Pacific Quay quibbling about London’s favoured choice.
As for the job itself – it consists of “supporting the BBC to meet its aims … having a strong knowledge of Scottish culture and politics” and being an ambassador to key stakeholders.
The principal key stakeholders in this context are the Westminster and Holyrood governments and Ofcom, which took over the regulatory function from the now defunct trust.
My politics are not in alignment with Muriel’s. But I suspect anyone presuming she’ll touch the forelock and automatically fall into line might be in for a wee shock.
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