Richard Sharp donated £400,000 to party and used to be Rishi Sunak’s boss
The Tories are expected to announce the appointment tomorrow of former Goldman Sachs banker Richard Sharp as the new chair of the BBC. Mr Sharp is a Tory donor who had given more than £400,000 to the party up to 2010.
In 2014, Sharp was forced to deny that his attendance at a Tory fundraising party, while a member of the Bank of England’s most senior regulatory committee, breached rules. Weeks before the party, he had told MPs on the Treasury Select Committee:
I intend to be, and will be, completely independent in fulfilling my duties as a member of the FPC … Having been a donor to one party, I think it is perfectly legitimate for this question to be asked. I can give you my assurance that I will be independent.
Sharp used to be Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s banking boss and, in 2014, was understood to have a personal ‘worth’ of around £100 million.
SKWAWKBOX view:
The conduct of the BBC during the 2019 general election, in which it abandoned even the token pretence of impartiality that had allowed the ‘Corbyn surge’ of 2017, is a stain on the UK’s supposed democratic fabric. The corporation’s closeness to the Tory party shows no sign of being reduced by the appointment of its new chair.
The news underlines even more deeply the importance of the independent media. Support it if you can.
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ITs always a good idea in Toryland UK to have the odd Bankster on board for any odd jobs around…and where better than the BBC and then off to the old folks resting place the Lords….ITs traditional and patriotic isnt it?
Note well Starmer will fail to condemn the brazen corruption
🚨🚨🚨
Tory snouts trough ing. NB Starmer will NOT utter a peep about the blatant jobs for the boys. Jobs for bungs. Because Starmer wants hus turn.
Meanwhile Julian, whom Starmer imprisoned, has been refused bail🚨🚨🚨
Evils have been rampant here for generations. We need to get our house in order before lecturing others about corruption. A two thousand pound suit, does not hide greed and wickedness. Tools of injustice remain tools of injustice, no matter how exorbitantly dressed 🚨🚨🚨
Damn fine chap. Yaaaaars! Sound fellow. Used to be my fag at Toffington Prep School. What ho! Yaaaaarrrrs!! (oh God- new pair of trisers over here Jeeves…)
Currently the political coverage by the BBC is abysmal. Listening to Evan Davies giggling every evening is a health risk and I imagine few now doJournalists with any integrity will feel they can’t stay or will be forced out. That will suit the Tory Party just as driving people out of the Labour Party suits Starmer. Is Ian Lavery still under attack for saying what Vicky Young the BBC reporter said at the press conference? He would be a good strong candidate to lead the Left in a new party. I know he says he doesn’t want it but if they drive him out maybe he’ll change his mind? Strong, loyal and a true Socialist he could be a major force.
Always a resolute defender of the BBC, I’ve had enough. The news/current affairs programs are unwatchable propaganda and any decent drama is produced in conjunction with streaming services (The Serpent for example), that leaves sport which I don’t watch, endless repeats of the same awful films, game shows and the odd documentary for nearly £13 pm. Not to mention the wages paid to DJs when everyone listens to streaming services.
Aye, and if Skwawk thinks “The conduct of the BBC during the 2019 general election, in which it abandoned even the token pretence of impartiality that had allowed the ‘Corbyn surge’ of 2017, is a stain on the UK’s supposed democratic fabric”, that goes x100 for its Covid-19 coverage!
Meet Richard Sharp
https://jewishnews.timesofisrael.com/leading-candidate-to-be-next-bbc-chair-is-jewish-banking-expert-richard-sharp/
just look at those soul-less dead eyes, where do they find such people, oh yeah sorry CCHQ. Can you imagine this guys giving the thumbs up to ‘the young ones’, ‘black adder’ or any of the BBCs excellent (risky) back catalogue, no chance, look forward to more antique porn, property porn and bradley walsh game shows, oh and more of those talentless twats
mrs bowns boys. i used to think it was worth shouting for, now i am not so sure.
As with the BBC, so has long since befallen the Guardian. Really, this is a political coup! Not even a bloodless one.
As sectarian and corrupt as this appointment is, it will make very little difference to the daily behaviour and lack of objectivity of the BBC. The state-funded BBC is systemically, ideologically and theologically neoliberal in the sense that they really really believe that history ended the very second that the iron curtain started to fall and Stalin’s state capitalism conceded defeat to unadulterated omni-exploitative ‘free’ capitalism.
They (the bbc) don’t even sustain journalistic capabilities for fear that it shows the brutal and decaying neoliberalism that is, for then, their Holy-of-Holies, their transcendental truth. That’s kinda the reason why they cannot even admit that SARS-CoV2 has a survival rate of around 98.8 – 99.2%. There are populations to cull and vaccines to sell if neoliberal capitalism is to survive.
This appointment won’t make any difference – the BBC is the state funded mouthpiece for the Tory party and that will remain the same with this man in charge. The BBC did a hatchet job on Jeremy Corbyn and its unfair and partial reporting about him and other comrades such as Diane Abbott was one of the reasons why we lost the election because unfortunately many people still believe that the BBC has some integrity – it hasn’t.
Just to remind people what this man stands for, this was a genuine wall street trader talking about the crash during the crisis. Yes you could say the Euro etc., didn’t crash but the Euro has long term problems which if the rules aren’t changed will be in deep trouble. Broadly speaking what this trader is saying though is what Traders actually believe and why stock markets are just Casinos. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-nEkpLnsEU
It’s a long time ago and my memory’s not what it was, but I’m pretty sure the dumbing down of education preceded the dumbing down of TV.
It only takes two seconds of a promo clip of shite like Mrs Brown’s Boys to know it’s shite – so that’s all I’ve ever seen of it.
There’s almost nothing worth watching on any channel.
Why bother spending money on anything but dross when the majority is perfectly happy with game shows, reality TV, quizzes, antiques, car/house restoration & Scandidrama?
ps the two second rule is only 99.9% efficient – I misjudged Harry Hill for years on the strength of a stupid shirt collar. Sorry, Harry.
I’m not anti-TV, I check the listings – if I’m lucky I find something worth watching somewhere every couple of days.
Pay for the BBC? Fuck off.
PBS can be good.
Their series The Balkans in Flames recently was excellent.
Remove the establishment mouthpiece and let them fund the BBC issuing propogands across the world on behalf of the British people.Let the establishment fund it ,why the victims should be made to pay seems a travesty of justice and a insult to the intelligence of joe public.!
British Bankers Channel the posh version of Pravda.
Refusing to pay BBC license? That would be a criminal offence……….but en-masse?
I’ve not a had TV Licence for over ten years because I don’t watch “live” tv broadcasts or watch catch-up on iPlayer. You don’t need a licence to watch catch-up from ITVhub, All4, My5 etc while classic BBC, ITV and Ch4 content (including Dr. Who) can be found on BritBox. My subscription cost £5.99mth – £71.88pa, half the cost of a TV Licence.
Sh*tbox more like. I’m not paying to watch the repeats they put out every single day and for which they expect me to pay for through a licence fee.
Plus they want all my details so they can harrass & spam me, and monetize my information/data.
You can get a fair proportion of what’s on sh*tbox through the OD services on a smart Tv/Computer without needing a licence and without subscription.
Of course, you DO require a licence to watch the bbc iplayer (Only because they’re avaricious, profligate, nonce-protecting, former public schoolboys who demand us plebs provide them with their opulent standard of living for the utter shite they churn out) but not the rest of catch up services.
Pay a subscription just to watch the new spitting image series?
No thanks, I’ll get it free off youtube if I want to watch it, thanks
And it (new Spitting Image) was shit anyway!
Pravda….Truth!
Mehhhh , so what , it not like we don’t know what the BBC has become , all the more reason to support Alt Media like this one and many other good sources of unbiased truthful news on the Internet.
Its a lost cause and should there ever be a Socialist Govt in the UK ,,, target number one is the introduction of all of Levson 2 and the utter gutting of the establishment BBC .
Working from the ground up with activists and grassroots slowly but surely informing and debunking the propaganda drivel that the MSM spews out is the best way to go IMO
I agree with your comment ‘So What’. Like the LP the BBC is very rapidly killing itself without much assistance in its case by being deadly dull and unimaginative. It’s taken them a YEAR to remember they have kid’s TV Channels that could be used in remote learning. They are also supposed to have a pool of creative talent – but let’s see what emerges! Horrid Histories endlessly repeated isn’t what I was thinking about.
Repair shop and Staged
Labour manifesto commitment on free broadband should be included in licence fee
MSM and toilet papers can be put out of business by a fully functioning BBC
Challenge is how do you make it fully functioning
I remember an episode of the ‘Simpsons’ when Homer spent 3 days with his remote muttering that with all that choice, he will soon find something he wants to watch……….’Married at First Sight, Australia’ to your taste?.
I don’t know if this is relevant but……….Richard Sharp is jewish & pro-Israel. His twin sister is a ‘Senior Judge & so Tony Blair “Is the class war really over?” Dare I also suggest the IHRA definition protects wealthy Jewish families from any criticism.