Get On, Clip In, Fall Off

Cut the crap...

The depressing aftermath of the Hutton report last week, after the publication of which Gavyn Davies fell on his sword and Greg Dyke was requested to kindly fall on his by the Governors of the BBC, has had some interesting effects. It's clear that Dyke wasn't ready to go, didn't want to go, and that the staff didn't want him to go either - there aren't many companies where anything up to a thousand staff would spontaneously protest if their chief executive resigned. Dyke is an angry man now. Every interview he gives reveals more facts about the way in which he was forced out by panicking governors, and the grovelling and utterly complete apologies which the acting DG and vice-chairman of the board of governors read out have only insulted the BBC more.

Dyke was a tonic for the BBC after the demoralising grind of redundancies and mumbo-jumbo which characterised the Birt years, got people back into a frame of mind where they were proud to work there and, heaven forbid, refocused the corporation back on its primary business, making programmes. At one of the protests "Cut the crap, bring Greg back!" was seen on a lot of posters, and I'm wondering why nobody's seriously been suggesting such a thing. While it's entirely possible that the whole experience has soured Dyke enough that he wouldn't want the job back anyway, and it would probably be politically tricky, it seems to me that the Governors should at least invite Greg Dyke to apply for the vacant post of Director-General, if only to give him the opportunity to turn it down.

I've been thinking about visiting one of the online petition sites to start a petition to the Governors to do the honourable thing and offer Dyke his old job back, as he was the best man for the job up to a week ago when he resigned, and is still the best man for the job now. He didn't want to leave, but ultimately the governors forced him out through fear of the government, and if the BBC wants to assert its independence from government a very good way to do that is to offer to appoint just the man who made Blair and Campbell rejoice so openly when he resigned.

But.. would anyone join me in signing such a petition?