What a tragedy it would be if a combination of Donald Trump, Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage does for the BBC, aided by the cack-handedness of a Panorama producer, the weakness of a director-general who should have stuck to marketing Pepsi because he certainly knows nothing about journalism, and the inactivity of a board who put off dealing with a glaring problem until it was too late.

Under Tim Davie, the corporation — once the jewel in Britain's crown — has been bogged down with avoidable problems. But splicing together two speeches made by Trump to his thick Maga supporters in 2021 was crass in the extreme because it was so unnecessary. If Panorama had simply run the second one made before the Maga invasion of the Capitol building in which he said "We fight, we fight like hell", the point would have been made. Now the would-be dictator of the US threatens to sue the BBC for $1 billion (he has form, he's also currently trying to get $10 billion from Rupert Murdoch and the Wall Street Journal).

His appalling followers here, Johnson and Farage, are jumping on what they hope will be the imminent grave of the broadcaster. Be careful of what you wish for; do we really want a Fox News in this country when we already have the far-right/wrong GB News which apparently pays Farage £98,000 a month, as much as he gets annually for NOT representing Clacton as its MP. 

We accept that newspapers are not impartial because they are owned by either the mega-rich or by big companies, and editors are appointed who will follow the given political course. Only The Times comes anywhere near sitting in the middle despite having Murdoch as its ultimate boss. But we have the choice where we spend our money.

But the BBC is owned by us, the licence-payer, and we expect what we see or hear or read on its internet news pages to be unbiased so we can make up our own minds. As you may have gathered, I reached my decision on Trump, Johnson and Farage shortly after they opened their mouths. Trump is plain wicked, Johnson a charismatic buffoon and Farage a spiv, the sort you used to see holding court in City bars at midday. And now the BBC have handed them the ammunition. 

The charge sheet is predictable, but no less bad for that: doctoring the Trump speech (so unnecessary because with everything he says he condemns himself); antisemitism by the BBC Arabic Service (again, surely not needed when we could all see what Netanyahu and the IDF were doing to Gaza, and pandering to the transgender lobby. Ah, here we have a problem. Approximately less than half a per cent — yes 0.5% — of people over 16 in the UK regard themselves as transgender so why the hell has our national broadcaster been making an ass of itself with phrases like "pregnant people".  Newsreader Martine Croxall should have been given a pay rise for rolling her eyes and correcting that to "women" instead of being censured.    

All of this could — should — have been nipped in the bud with a DG up to the job. Davie clearly wasn't that person and his replacement should have editorial experience at the highest level because it's the News aspect of the broadcaster which has caused the current problems. The board needs an overhaul and a new chairman (sorry person). 

Is it too late for David Dimbleby to take over because he has made it clear that he would have acted immediately had he been in charge? He wouldn't have delayed publishing the report of the failings by six months, so long that my old friend Gordon Rayner (fotp) heard about it from a source and gave the Telegraph, where he is associate editor, its best run of stories since the MPs' expenses scam.

And because of that dithering by a board led by the deeply unimpressive Samir Shah, Trump is gloating about 'fake noos' and for once he is right.

*****

I wrote last week on the enormous privileges of the Royal Family which they have tried so hard to keep secret. But we are kept in the dark about so much more and it's about time, in a democratic country, this changed.  Take for instance the Freedom of Information Act. When my chum Andrew Lownie began research for his devastating book 'Entitled' on the (former) Yorks, he made endless requests under the FoI for information about Mr Windsor's time as UK trade envoy. This was a position, pushed through against the wishes of his brother Charles, by Blair and Mandelson, paid for out of the public purse. Yet every request for papers from the Departments of Trade and the Foreign Office was denied.

An appeal to the independent Information Commissioner was successful. But then what happened? He was told the files were closed until 2065 by which time Lownie will be either no more or well past the century mark. Fortunately for him and us all, 300 of his 3,000 requests to people who knew both Windsor and Ms Ferguson were answered and since his book was published three months ago many of those who originally felt unable to help have changed their minds. He will be writing an update to be called, appropriately, 'Untitled'. 

It is not the first time he has run foul of FOI. The same happened when he researched Traitor King, his biography of the Duke of Windsor, Edward VIII. No files were available he was told. Fortunately the 'mirror' files were there for all to see in the Bahamas  where the duke had been sent away as Governor. As for his battle to get his hands on the Mountbatten papers for his book on Louis and Edwina, it was worse. The papers had been bought for £5 million of public money by Southampton University. As we now know, Mountbatten, idolised by the then Prince Charles, was not as decent as we all were led to believe. Apart from screwing up the partition of India, he was revealed as a vile paedophile.

He was part of a ring of perverts who preyed on boys from Kincora, a boys' home in Belfast. Many of these poor kids were taken to Mountbatten when at home at his castle in Sligo and the illegal behaviour was covered up by MI5. Trying to get the papers from Southampton cost Lownie £500k in legal fees for which  he had to sell assets and remortgage his house.

Mr Windsor will be unhappy to learn that it was Lownie's effort to make good that money that spurred him to write Entitled. He can blame wicked Uncle Louis and successive secretive governments.

*****

AND FINALLY

Last week's Jottings brought an email from my good friend and fellow columnist Dick Dismore. He wrote: "Your liberal sentiments are exposing themselves like an Afghan asylum seeker outside Cheltenham Ladies' College". The best (maybe the only) fan letter I've ever received. 

ALAN FRAME

11 November 2025