Douglas Carswell's Blog

Next Chairman of the BBC

I've no strong views as to which particular quangocrat should head up our state-run broadcaster.

What I do find surprising is the widespread presumption that the candidate that ministers nominate for the role will automatically get the job.

If you study the small print, there has to be a confirmation hearing in front of the relevant Commons select committee.  The rules have de facto, if not de jure, changed; no approval, no job.

Moreover, the political environment in SW1 is changing.  The legislature is starting to recover a sense of purpose in holding the government to account.  Perhaps it is not surprising that those professional pundits who take their briefing direct from "government sources" haven't spotted this trend.

It'll be the views of the dozen or so MPs on the relevant Commons select committee that will determine if ministers prefered candidate for the BBC role now gets the job.  They, of course, owe their position to the whole House of Commons, not the patronage of one man. 

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