John Whittingdale will lead the process of the BBC Charter Renewal. Image: Flickr/ Number 10
John Whittingdale,nicknamed an “adolescent ideologue” by Lord Patten, hasn’t let the grass grow under his feet. He has done a lot in the two months since his appointment as Secretary for Culture Media and Sport on 11 May.
He has arrived at a deal with the BBC over how to deal with the ghastly problem of modernising the licence fee, and he has appointed a committee of eight great and good people to look into the knotty problem of the BBC Royal Charter renewal. He’s also responsible for a green paper on the BBC which asks fundamental questions about what it should do. He’s an enthusiast who cannot believe his luck. Maybe he does resemble a teenager given the car keys, but at least he’s passed his test in the shape of chairing the CMS Select Committee on the future of the BBC which went on for yonks and listened to dozens of submissions.
