Trial by the ill-informed

Slot machines on the front, Hastings -

when the rule of law goes out the window, life's just a lottery

 

The appointment of a new Director-General coincided with BBC trustees appearing before the House of Commons public accounts select committee to explain the settlement with George Entwistle.  Today the Guardian newspaper reports: "Labour MP Margaret Hodge, who chairs the committee, was scathing about the size of the payoff.  'It demonstrates a complete lack of understanding of how this is viewed in public given that it is licence fee payers' money,' she said. 'It is incredulous' (sic)."

 

Leaving to one side the fact that Ms Hodge appears not to know the difference between incredulous and incredible, I am concerned above all by the knee-jerk reaction coming from someone at this level.  On the 5 pm news on Radio 4 yesterday, when, predictably, twenty minutes were spent covering the appointment of the Director-General and grilling Lord Patten about his own performance - with needless and insulting aggression on the part of the interviewer - it emerged, unsurprisingly, that the settlement with George Entwistle had been negotiated in detail with the assistance of expert lawyers on both sides, and that the BBC had been advised that if they did not give him the amount now criticised as excessive, they would be likely to face a larger award in the courts.  So the BBC had no choice.  Perhaps Ms Hodge should bone up on the law.

 

Similar moralising has been evident in the Prime Minister's criticism of tax avoidance - described as "morally repugnant".  This in spite of the fact that avoidance is within the framework of the existing law.  No mention of companies' duty to their shareholders to maximise profits, or of the criticism that directors might receive for paying excessive tax when the amount concerned could go to dividends.  If Parliament's unhappy about the ability to avoid tax it should change the law and leave moralising to others better equipped.

 

If you take this together with the Twitter frenzy in the paedophile scandal there is a worrying trend in the direction of mob rule.  Fortunately Lord McAlpine has brought some sense into the equation by suing the media and tweeters right left and centre.  I would like someone equally powerful to remind MPs that they are the legislators and that, instead of criticising legal behaviour, it is within their power to change the law.  Without legal certainty, life's just a lottery and most of us lose out.

 

Antony Mair