Tonight:
5°c
THE BBC's director general, Mark Thompson, has finally surfaced, taking shows presented by Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand off the air while complaints over their offensive messages to actor Andrew Sachs are investigated. It is the right response, if belated, following more than 18,000 complaints from the public. Mr Ross could not be relied upon to treat the matter seriously on his Friday-night programme, and the BBC was in danger of treating licence fee payers with contempt by letting the show go out.
But the matter is not over yet. The BBC still needs to make it clear how its editorial controls failed. The Corporation has promised an investigation which will report to the full BBC Trust on 20 November, but viewers will want to know why the probe has to take so long. We still need a full explanation of how a pre-recorded and edited broadcast was allowed to air while clearly offending against agreed standards of decency.
Ofcom, the media regulator, will continue to investigate whether the programme broke its broadcasting code. Mr Thompson now has to explain why, in an organisation that spent £500,000 training staff to “rebuild trust” after rows over faked competitions, things went so badly wrong.
The danger if he does not is that this affair will do the BBC and its reputation far graver damage — for the issues here go to the heart of its public service remit. That remit does not include any obligation to carry this kind of low-grade comedy: such material can be provided by commercial channels. Instead, the BBC should strive to set higher standards in its output — and that is what the licence fee should allow it to do. It would be tragic if the Corporation's real excellence in many areas were damaged by its mishandling of one breach of taste.
Cut rates now
THE CHANCELLOR, Alistair Darling, will tonight tell the City how he intends to find the extra money that the Prime Minister wants to borrow. Mr Brown declared earlier this week that it is responsible to go into the red when times are hard; but most people find, when they demand a bigger overdraft, that their bank does not automatically respond to that argument. Voters who are trying to cut back their own borrowing are hardly going to believe the claim that for government, piling on extra debt is the only answer.
What is more, the loans have to come from somewhere. The pound's huge falls in recent days suggest that the overseas investors who are likely buyers of UK government debt have their doubts about its attractions. It is obvious both to the City and to the public that if borrowing had not risen so much in the good times, the Chancellor would have been in a much stronger position to tackle the recession's effects now.
The Shadow Chancellor, George Osborne, is on safe ground in calling for an immediate cut in interest rates, since it is clear that inflation is no present danger. His proposals for modest cuts in small business taxes and a council tax freeze, though unspectacular, may have more appeal than Mr Brown's promise of Keynesian public works projects. Mr Darling, meanwhile, must say what he will do if the banks to which the Treasury has offered taxpayer support do not pass interest rate cuts on to borrowers.
And celebrating ...
OUTDOOR ice rinks. They have become an established part of a London winter which seems to have arrived earlier than usual. This year more rinks will be open than ever: as we report today, Battersea is to get its own next month on Lavender Hill. Even small children and those who dislike team sports or the gym can manage, with a little practice, to wobble around a rink in a pair of rented skates. And in settings like Somerset House, the Tower of London and the Natural History Museum, skating is a way to keep warm while appreciating some of the capital's great landmarks.
