Hello and welcome to rock and roll politics with me, Steve Richards.

Thank you very much for tuning in from wherever you are around the world.

And I know this is truly global, uslo.

We've got questions later on in this podcast from Dubai, bits of Europe, bits of the

United Kingdom, even. So thank you for tuning in wherever you are. We've got questions on a whole

range of topical issues. Inevitably, after my reflections last week about the advice in

inverted commas that Kirstama was getting from just

about everybody on the planet, there are responses to that from a range of different perspectives.

There are questions about Johnson, the virus, you know, all the kind of urgent themes.

But I'm going to reflect if it's okay with all of you for a bit

on the BBC, which has plunged itself into another of these regular crises that kind of erupt around it.

And this one would not be greatly significant in itself if it wasn't part of a pattern. And the pattern matters because we

finance the BBC, and I bet those of you listening to the podcast want the BBC to work. The idea

is a brilliant one to have a sort of publicly funded broadcaster.

It means that on the whole, its output is cheap and accessible.

However, it has been for a long time, certainly when I've had any dealings with it,

either as a staff correspondent or in other

ways, poorly run. And this is illustrated by these crises. Take the Diana situation and one of the

key questions that will be whirling around in coming days.

Why was Martin Bashir reappointed when quite a few people in that management hierarchy

knew about problems associated with him?

Why did no one say, are you sure this is the right move to make? Now, Tony Hall didn't,

...