Was it coincidence that, just as the under-fire Director General of the BBC Tim Davie this week accepted a £20,000 pay increase, taking his salary to £547,000, he sacked MasterChef’s John Torode for allegedly uttering a racist slur?
Who knows. But as a newsman, Davie must have been aware the allegation against Torode, who has denied it and is said to be considering suing the Beeb, would get blanket press coverage.
Coverage which would deflect focus on his salary and whether he merited it given his abysmal performance as Director General.
The BBC is still reeling from the Huw Edwards scandal, its pro-Palestinian Gaza documentary, the Gregg Wallace affair and the corporation’s failure to cut live-stream footage of pop duo Bob Vylan leading chants of ‘death, death to the IDF’ [Israel Defence Forces] at Glastonbury.
As for MasterChef, first Davie sacked presenter Gregg Wallace which, given Wallace’s propensity for revealing his private parts to colleagues, he should have done years ago. And now he’s sacked the show’s host John Torode for an unspecified historic claim dating back maybe five or even six years, with sources claiming Torode used the hideously racist N-word, although he says he has no recollection of doing so.
The BBC has sacked MasterChef host John Torode for an unspecified historic claim dating back maybe five or even six years, with sources claiming he used the N-word
The BBC refuses to reveal exactly what Torode is accused of saying which makes it almost impossible for him to defend himself. And yet despite Aunty’s knee-jerk sacking of Torode, ITV are standing by him and continuing to air John And Lisa’s Weekend Kitchen, a show he co-presents with his wife.
Which all leaves a rather unsavoury taste in the mouth.
And makes me wonder if Davie’s sacking of Torode was really about saving his own half a million pound skin.
- Rachel Reeves wore a mint-green trouser suit for her Mansion House speech. She looked like a packet of Polos – a saccharine confection with a gaping hole in the middle.
My tiny fibs helped mum’s Alzheimer’s
The estimated 982,000 Alzheimer’s sufferers being cared for by loved ones, should take solace from the raw and honest book – serialised in the Mail –called Remember When: My life with Alzheimer’s.
It was written by ex-ITV presenter Fiona Phillips, diagnosed aged 61, and her husband Martin Frizell. My tip, learned when looking after my Mum, is not to correct them. When Mum asked where her sister was, I didn’t tell her she died 20 years ago and when Gorillas In The Mist was on TV and Mum said she was worried they looked hungry and ‘can we get them some bananas’, I pretended to do so… again and again.
- Best news of the week: not only have punk duo Bob Vylan had their US visas revoked after being accused of anti-Semitism at Glastonbury but they’ve also been cut from a 37-date European tour. Their careers are now blowin’ in the wind.
Beeb can’t justify Zoe pay
Zoe Ball is the BBC’s best-paid woman
Radio presenter Zoe Ball is now the BBC’s top earning female on a salary of up to £519,000.
How can they justify that when she took time off due to ‘family issues’ and has given up her five-day-a-week morning radio show to present one Saturday afternoon radio show once a week?
It’s an insult to the other BBC women grafters like the exceptionally talented and ever-present Sophie Raworth, who earns far less.
- Courtney Wright, 12, was removed from her school’s diversity day because she was wearing a Union Jack dress deemed unacceptable. Her school said it was committed to an environment where every pupil feels ‘valued and included’. Unless of course you’re a patriotic English white girl.
- Meghan’s ‘With Love, Meghan’ TV show hit Netflix’s global top ten in its first 24 hours – but it’s since failed to make the service’s top 300 most-watched shows. Which makes us wonder if Megs can twerk her way out of this latest commercial catastrophe.
Myleene mockery
Myleene Klass showers on I’m A Celebrity in 2006
Seeing ex-pop singer Myleene Klass rejoicing after receiving her MBE from the King stuck in my craw.
She’s built her £12million fortune on her body, not least after her bikini shot in the jungle shower in I’m A Celebrity, and has done some good stuff for charity. But she’s been given the same gong my grandfather Charles Platell got after four years of serving in the blistering heat of Alexandria during the Second World War, leaving his five children and wife 9,000 miles away in the Aussie bush while he fought for King and Country.
- Yes, those who worked with our troops in Afghanistan as translators deserve safety and so do their families. But I’m horrified by the super injunction that prevented us from knowing thousands of Afghans had secretly been rehomed in the UK. Even worse is the fact that among them could be people radicalised by the Taliban. I’m wondering if we’ve just welcomed a future generation of suicide bombers into our midst.
Westminster wars
- At her Mansion House speech Rachel Reeves tried a joke after her recent breakdown. She said she’d been asked what job she’d do if not Chancellor and had quipped: ‘Many would sympathise if I had said, “anything but Chancellor!”’ Hardly a laughing matter given the jobless figure has just hit a four-year high. How long before Reeves adds to it?
- So Labour’s getting a grip on migration. That must be why the number of foreign nationals claiming Universal Credit benefits has soared by almost 100,000 on their watch – which lays bare the Leftie mantra that these folk come here to work and boost the economy.
Three adorable lion cubs frolicked during their first day of freedom outside, after their traumatised mother Aysa was rescued from war-torn Ukraine and rehomed at a wildlife park in Yorkshire. Yes, people mean more than animals, but don’t these stories melt your heart and restore your faith in the kindness of humans?
- Prevent’s counter-terror officers dismissed fears over the killer of Tory MP David Amess, despite warnings that he might have become radicalised. One said Islamic State fanatic Ali Harbi Ali ‘seemed like a great person’. I hope that witless individual can live with himself, knowing David Amess would be alive today if he’d done his job properly.
Was Air India pilot to blame?
Latest findings on the Air India crash that killed 260 indicate captain Sumeet Sabharwal, 56, might have cut off the fuel to the engines after take-off. Who knows what the truth is, but it is deeply worrying that he was even allowed in the cockpit given he was known to have mental health issues, had been on sick leave and struggled with depression.
