Quality | 2009.08.04
Hugh Muir's diary
They are all so very different. And yet so many of them seem the same
With the Equality and Human Rights Commission beset by strife and finger pointing, one wonders who will carry the message of diversity into the very corners of government policy. One hopes it will be the civil service. But they are not getting very much help in that direction. A conference last week for 200 to 300 high flyers seemed what Greg Dyke would have called hideously white. And so, one of the future elite stood to ask the speaker, Simon Fraser – Lord Mandelson\'s permanent secretary – if the makeup of the other permanent secretaries did much to reflect diversity. "Oh there are lots of different and diverse personalities among the permanent secretaries," he said. "Much the same as the diversity in this room." Masters of the universe. Which universe?
As Clarkson continues to enhance the BBC\'s reputation with his C-word asides about the prime minister, we cannot help but reflect a little more on Auntie\'s never wholly explained ban on newsreader George Alagiah doing good works as patron of the Fairtrade Foundation . The charity told us of its disappointment at the ban. "George had a marvellous understanding of issues in the developing world. He was a marvellous patron." We got no sense on its thinking from the BBC last week, but apparently the fear is of a conflict of interest. And such a thing is not inconceivable. But why is that different from all the presenters who turn a buck making speeches and selling their expertise to companies. Kate Silverton brings her gravitas to Breakfast News but from her website we see it doesn\'t end there. "Kate is very experienced within the corporate field and regularly chairs and facilitates conferences," it says. "Kate presents a number of corporate videos for companies and financial institutions." This year alone she has popped up to assist Abbey-Santander, NatWest and Peugeot. She is good at it. No harm done. George was a good patron. Just seems a shame.
And what are we to make of news that execs are to scrap the Blue Peter garden in favour of a virtual replacement once the BBC swings large swaths of the operation to the new citadel of truth in Salford? Perhaps it doesn\'t matter. Maybe by employing the new whizzy graphics the watching cherubs won\'t be able to tell the difference. But wasn\'t it just two weeks ago we reported assurances at a staff meeting that a new garden would be established at Salford – on the roof. This is how it starts. Broken promises. Disillusionment.
As President Sarkozy recovers from his little fainting problem, there is renewed debate on the subject of presidential openness. All the Fifth Republic\'s top men, bar Giscard, have had serious health issues and all covered them up to varying degrees. Including the incumbent, who promised during his election campaign to issue health bulletins every two months but in fact has issued just two in two years. And both were astonishingly vague and short. It is said the president has already had a hospitalisation, in October 2007, details of which were never fully revealed, but he is in no danger for he has his own personal physician plus four "military medics" based at the Elysée. He is also regularly accompanied by his "etiologist and guru", Jean-Paul Moureau. And then there is Carla, for better or worse.
Finally, we are all a little bit poorer with the announcement that Andrew MacKinlay, the Labour member for Thurrock (pictured) and the most amiable bruiser in the Commons, is to step down at the next election. We have written here of his diligent, robust approach to his duties and his yen for eating rice paper, so long as it contained useful material. His no-nonsense approach is what most commended him; and we liked the way he last week responded to a questionnaire from the Telegraph that sought to quiz him on the detail of his holiday arrangements. He went looking for its reporters with the list of questions and muttering something about a place where the sun doesn\'t shine. Typical him.
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