Another Labour supporter gets top BBC job

The appointment of Sir Michael Lyons as the Chairman of the new BBC Trust follows the appointment in recent years of Labour supporters Gavyn Davis as BBC Chairman and Greg Dyke as Director General - not to mention his predecessor Lord Birt who went to work for Tony Blair after leaving the BBC. 

Lyons is a former Labour Councillor and serial local government bigwig. More recently he has been commissioned by Gordon Brown to oversee major governmental reviews, getting paid almost half a million pounds to do so.

Tory Culture, Media and Sport spokesman Hugo Swire has responded thus:

"We congratulate Sir Michael on his appointment. However, today we have a situation where important appointments - increasingly dominated by Labour supporters - are made without any form of public scrutiny.  It is deeply regrettable that another announcement should have been sneaked out when Parliament is in recess.  People are entitled to ask on what criteria Sir Michael Lyons – someone with close links to the Labour Party and Gordon Brown in particular – was selected for this role. It is time for major public appointments such as this to be conducted with greater transparency and to receive greater Parliamentary scrutiny - which could be in the form of a Parliamentary confirmation hearing from the relevant committee. But to have a situation where an applicant from a confidential shortlist is announced when Parliament is not sitting is unacceptable."

This Guardian interview from 2004 is worth a look:

"You can ask Sir Michael Lyons pretty much anything, but don't ask the government's favourite son whether he is still a card-carrying member of the Labour party. "I'd rather not answer that question," the former Labour councillor says with a steady gaze. The response is perhaps not surprising. Where government reviews are concerned, Lyons proves to be the bookie's favourite."

Deputy Editor

Comments

[Umbrella man]

Disgraceful.

[Deputy Editor]

FYI - Notes to editors in Conservative press release:

Sir Michael Lyons is a former Labour Councillor and was commissioned by Gordon Brown to carry out two major reviews for the Government, one into civil service relocation and the other into local government finance.

Answers to Parliamentary Questions show that he was paid nearly half a million pounds to carry out the reviews. PQs - 23 October 2006, 24 January 2007, 8 November 2006. Including VAT, his remuneration came to £417,713

He was a member of a review commissioned by the Government into the Fire Service in 2002 and a member of the Treasury's Public Services Productivity Panel.

He also carried out a review entitled ‘Towards Better Management of Public Sector Assets - A Report to the Chancellor of the Exchequer’, published in December 2004.

[FedUpwithCameron]

Do the words "Marmaduke" and "Hussey" mean anything to you. How about "arrant" and "hypocrisy"?

[Graeme Archer]

Despite all the evidence around about them, they're still dancing like it's 1997, aren't they? Absolutely disgraceful.

Off topic I know but had to share my favourite Today moment of the day. Sometime before half 6 this morning, we had Justin Webb telling us of the US govt view of the release of the British sailors. "In their view they [the Britons] had done nothing to deserve the Iranian intervention". Good god. We pay for this.

[Graeme Archer]

Sorry, in case the emphasis wasn't clear in my last post -- Webb's piece on Today this morning made it clear that a view that the Britons were innocent victims of a dangerous regime was simply one opinion out of many, and by the inflection in his voice it was pretty clear what he thought of the fact that it's a view voiced by some in the US administration.

[Outraged]

I am not a lawyer but is there some law being broken here? Can the Tories call for a judicial review? Isn't there meant to be complete "balance" - no-one would surely think this will encourage it, with no public scrutiny.
On a positive note, in the context of the debate growing in the public and even within the BBC about bias in the BBC, if the Conservatives are sensible enough and raise this sensibly in the media (particularly newspapers and BBC rivals), this could end up being a serious miscalculation - the government are mistrusted enough as it is, and this reeks of manipulation of the media/ sleaze at its worst.

[Graeme Archer]

Sorry, obviously I'm fixated with hatred of the BBC bias and Labour patronage today, I was just having a cup of tea and trying to put my finger on which novel all this is reminding me of. It's that Trollope novel, one of the Barchester ones I think, where at the start (It's The Warden I think) it just seems to go on and on about a possible change of government and the terrible impact it will have on the appointment of some clerical body. I remember reading it as a child and thinking "goodness, this is boring, isn't it funny how much things have changed in such a relatively short period of time". Of course I read it before the concept of New Labour and its unashamed stuffing of any public body with people who either share its worldview (change everything remotely British into some sort of culture-less pap) or who are willing to take their shilling in order to get ahead. Also relevant is the fact that Trollope was concerned with the influence of the executive on clerical appointments; which organisation these days has to a large extent displaced the established church in seeing itself as the setter of the moral tone for debate, in fact for the discourse of the nation? The BBC of course. It's a small crumb that Trollope would have written something amusing about the abuse of power that this disgusting government plays with, but then I get even more depressed when I realise that his replacements -- the Alistair Beatons (sp?) and his ilk -- who dominate the dramatic agenda of our broadcasters -- see fit to attack the government only from the left.

[John Marsh]

Robin Aitkin in his book "Can we trust the BBC?" says that the Tories suffer from the Stockholm Syndrome. The Tories are tormented by the BBC but come to feel attached to their tormentors. They don't have the guts to deal ruthlessly with the BBC by setting up a powerful and independent auditing body whose remit is to report annualy on the impartiality of the BBC. Another masterclass in cowardice from the Tories.

[TomTom]

Vladimir Putin put his student friend Tamara Gavrilova in charge at NTV hving brought it under control.

It seems only reasonable that with Party Boss Brown taking over from General Secretary of Politburo Blair, that Brown should put his man in charge of The State Broadcasting Corporation

With his 16 years as Chief Executive of 3 Councils and his closeness to the Blair-Brown Era he is the ideal choice to represent the new Prime Minister in the State Broadcaster.

It seems ideal - Vladimir Putin would see the logic in this move

[FedUpWithCameron]

Before we all over do it on "the BBC are just like the Commies" line can I refer you to what the Daily Mail's columnist Peter McKay said about Iran - basically the British government are all liars and therefore he preferred the Iranian version. The Mail on Sunday repeated the same guff also.

[Automated Robot]

"the Blair Reich... certainly believe in recycling their "independent" advisers"

You read it on Conservative Home here back in 2006!

[George Hinton]

Nothing like nepotism, the old school tie or getting your mates a nice little sinecure.
We should have learnt by know that NuLab need no lessons on how to pervert and subvert due process.
Will Lyons tithe his salary to NuLab to pay for the next elections???, I think we need to know.

[William Norton]

George Hinton:Will Lyons tithe his salary to NuLab to pay for the next elections???, I think we need to know.

I expect it will be on Panorama at some point?

[Andrew Woodman]

July 2010 Maybe William!

I wonder if all of this will tame Mr Swires enthusiasm for the BBC?

[Derek Buxton]

Well there's a surprise, another Blair/Broon toady get the top job at the "Blair Broadcasting Corporation", and the fat salary and perks that go with it. Meanwhile in the real world £135 a year are taken at gunpointfrom the people to stuff his pocket with. And they said the Tories had sleaze!

[malcolm]

This does 'though present the Conservative party with an opportunity. I would hope that in the next few weeks the Conservative party will AT lEAST ensure that everyone in Britain will be made aware that Michael Lyons is a member of the Labour Party, that he was a Labour councillor and this government has form with its unhealthily close ties with past senior members of the BBC. This I hope will do much to undermine the public's confidence in the impartiality of the BBC when it turns against us in the run up to the next General Election.

[Umbrella man]

Mr Lyons looks like a b-list quiz show presenter in that lilac suit and black shirt!

[malcolm]

Or a stand up comedian in a dodgy club.You can just imagine him saying 'there was an Englishman, Irishman and a Scotsman....'

[deborah]

Looks pretty pleased with himself though, doesn't he?

[Peter Golds]

For the record, he served on Birmingham City Council nad was later CHhef Executive of the Authority, by courtesy of Labour.

all these crony toadies should be sacked the moment Cameron walks across the door at Number 10

[Matt Davis]

If this wholly unacceptable and unjustifiable appointment doesn't at last make our party's leadership realise that their current toadying to the BBC has been a complete waste of time and effort then there really is no hope ever of the necessary break up and sell off happening under a "Conservative" government.What more oproof is now nbeeded that the BBC is a wildly biased anachronism and that we need to bite the bullet and promise to end that publicly funded gravy train for weak minded lefties.

[Mark Wadsworth]

I dunno, altho' it is undeniably true that the BBC is totally PC (apart from Clarkson) the Labour Party as such does not get a very easy ride, compared to e.g. Cameron or Farage.

I think that the way that Ruth Kelly rode roughshod over the Lyons Review on the day of its release must rankle with him. I heartily endorse Chapter 7, para's 41 to 50 to anybody who is interested in this sort of thing.

[John Coles]

Mr Cameron recently made much of no one being able to find David Milliband's spine: does Hugo Swire have one?
I realise that criticising this appointment- and by extension the BBC - would probably spoil Mr Cameron's little rondelay of dinner parties, but someone has to realise the truth of John Marsh's comments (1316) and then act to end the Corporation's pernicious influence.

[TFA Tory]

Hugo Swine will not risk upsetting his establishment cronies. His brown nosing of the BBC is becoming very tiresome.

It is also worth noting that Richard Ryder, John Major's Chief Whip, is Deputy Chairman of the BBC. Several of his Major cabinet colleagues - Turd, Patten, Heselswine, Clarke and Gummer - are all advising Cameron on policy groups etc. Will Ryder be next?

[Opinicus]

Labour has politicised the BBC when we get in we simply throw out their people and put in ours. Its standard practice on the Continent and we know how much the BBC wants us to be more European.

[Lyons - local govt legend]

"Lyons worked as an economist working in the public sector, and between 1980 and 1983 served as an elected Labour Councillor on Birmingham City Council[4]. He then became Chief Executive of three significant local authorities: Wolverhampton Borough Council (1985–90); Nottinghamshire County Council (1990–94); and then Birmingham City Council (1994–2001). Lyons was knighted in January 2000 in recognition of his services to Local Government."

Quoted from his wiki entry.

You are denouncing someone who was a Cllr for 3 years, but who then, in a politically neutral capacity, headed up Local Authorities for 16 years, ran a committee for the government of the day, who promptly ignored everything he said, and you still have the audacity to call him some sort of New Labour lickspittle?

His 16 years alone as a Chief Executive should make you ashamed of yourselves. By saying what you do, you undermine the whole basis of officer/member relations at local government level.

[Matt Davis]

Oh puleease don't give us that "neutral officer" crap, anyone who has been a Tory Councillor in a Labour run authority (which you plainly have not) knows that that just isn't true in reality as opposed to the dream world of Labour spin. Most Local Govt Officers are either Labour or LibDem in their sympathies and whilst many do an ok job of maintaining and/or pretending their nuetrality, time and time again their natural bias comes through, sometimes only subtly but often not. I have served under 2 different Chief Execs and one Interim and I know what I am talking about.

To try to get sanctimonious about "undermining" member/officer relations just makes you look either incredibly naive or a Labour troll, it certainly doesn't make any difference to the fact that Lyons is a NuLab toady and should never have been allowed a job like this. Quite frankly it is you who should be ashamed of yourself for buying into this Labour lie.

Just more proof of the need to break up and sell off the BBC which is no more than an institutionally biased left wing anachronism with no justifiable place in the modern world.

[TomTom]

Birmingham City Council

Chief Executive 1 = Sir Michael Lyons, Chief Brownite Placeman at BBC

Chief Executive 2 = Lin Homer

Election fraud orgy in 2005 then moved to run Asylum & Immigration Deartment for Home Office

Fascinating career paths

Chief Executive 3

Christine Gilbert, Tower Hamlets, wife of Tony McNulty now Head of Ofsted

[Bob Bradley]

"Hugo Swine will not risk upsetting his establishment cronies. His brown nosing of the BBC is becoming very tiresome" and "Mr Cameron recently made much of no one being able to find David Milliband's spine: does Hugo Swire have one?"

Gentlemen, you clearly read a different press release to me. Judging by the piece in todays Telegraph, Swire seems to have taken the fight over this appointment to Labour's door. Didn't he also recently say it was unacceptable that the BBC hadn't interviewed the chap who wrote the book on BBC bias? It seems to me that Swire is doing the right thing in pinning the BBC down on this without turning it into a rant. I really don't see that the attacks on Swire are justified myself.