the times | Saturday September 5 2020 2GM 11
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in the fight protests about that show,
which is exactly what satire should do.”
Mr Wilson speaks admiringly of col-
umnists such as Rod Liddle and Peter
Hitchens. “The problem with a lot of
right-wing columnists is sometimes the
atmosphere goes a bit sour. If you have
an opinionated columnist who is used
to winning an argument, what you end
up with is quite a feisty row which won’t
necessarily have many laughs in it.”
He said the show has always attacked
both left and right. “We get flak from
both sides. It has been increasing over
the years because people are just so
touchy these days. I deplore the over-
sensitivity, and people complaining
about being offended about this, that
and the other. The whole woke agenda,
I really hate that. But that sensitivityEmily Maitlis’s Newsnight monologue
attacking Boris Johnson and Dominic
Cummings breached impartiality
standards, the BBC’s complaints board
said, but it had no power to punish her.
Maitlis, 49, opened a programme in
May by criticising the prime minister’s
“blind loyalty” to his chief adviser after
he was accused of breaching lockdown
rules. She told BBC Two viewers:
“Dominic Cummings broke the rules.
The country can see that, and it’s
shocked the government cannot.”
A day after the programme the
broadcaster rebuked Maitlis, who earns
about £260,000 a year, saying that her
comments “did not meet our standards
of due impartiality”.
Now the corporation’s Executive
Complaints Unit (ECU) has said that
quit before Murray, 70, announced her
own departure after 33 years on the
show. The BBC said that new present-
ers would be named in due course.
Mohit Bakaya, controller of Radio 4,
said: “When it comes to the art of radio
presenting, there are few that can
match the brilliance of Jane Garvey.”
In 1994 Garvey’s voice was the first
heard by listeners at the launch of
Radio 5 Live. She has been vocal about
the BBC’s gender pay gap, saying in 2017
that the corporation had “fobbed off”
female staff.
She revealed that she was leaving on
yesterday’s show saying: “I have loved
presenting Woman’s Hour... No time to
get maudlin, we can do that in late
December.”Garvey follows Murray out
of Woman’s Hour studio
Emma Yeomans
BBC board rules Maitlis went too far
her monologue “went beyond an
attempt to set out the programme
agenda” and placed her “closer to one
side of the debate”. In a report, the ECU
acknowledged that a “breach of stan-
dards has been identified” but said that
no further action was required.
The report read: “The ECU’s remit
does not extend to judging whether
disciplinary action against individual
members of staff is warranted... that is
a matter for BBC News.”
After the broadcast the Newsnight
team was reminded of impartiality
guidelines but no one faced disciplinary
action.
A clip of Maitlis’s monologue was
widely shared on Twitter. It was later
removed from official BBC accounts.
Tim Davie, the new director-general,
has said that there is no room at the
BBC for partisan campaigners on socialmedia. Mr Davie, 53, called for the BBC
to recommit itself to impartiality earlier
this week, telling staff: “If you want to be
an opinionated columnist or a partisan
campaigner on social media that is a
valid choice, but you should not be
working at the BBC.”
Yesterday Gary Lineker, the BBC’s
highest-paid star, who has been critical
of the government’s response to immi-
grants trying to cross the Channel,
appeared to shrug off the warning to
employees to cut out political tweeting.
When a journalist tweeted a news-
paper column to Lineker which said
that he should be “terrified of Tim
Davie’s speech”, the Match of The Day
presenter replied: “Nah.”
On Wednesday the former England
striker, 59, announced that he was
preparing to welcome a refugee into his
£4 million mansion in Surrey.Greg Wilford
Jane Garvey has announced that she is
quitting Woman’s Hour, a few weeks
after Dame Jenni Murray said that she
was leaving the BBC Radio 4
programme.
Garvey, 56, who has been with the
show since 2007, will leave at the end of
the year. She will go on to host her own
Radio 4 interview series.
“It’s been a real privilege to play a
small part in the history of this very spe-
cial radio programme,” she said. “On
one unforgettable day I interviewed
David Cameron in the morning and
Mary J Blige in the afternoon. There’s
no other job like it.”
Garvey is believed to have decided toand touchiness applies equally to the
right-wing columnists and Conserva-
tive MPs. There are lots of people,
mostly on the left, who don’t hold with
the whole woke agenda at all. But they
won’t say things, because people’s
careers can be ruined. It is really toxic.
“On the other side, there’s the press
ready to pounce from the right. Person-
ally I’m probably on the right myself. I
have a Spectator subscription.”
Many jokes which used to be on the
programme would no longer be consid-
ered acceptable, he said. “There were
quite a lot of sexist jokes if you go back
to the Nineties. There’s no way you
would put those out now; and rightly.”
Letters, page 30
Leading article, page 31
Weekend Essay, pages 34-Spectator
bans Co-op
in ads row
Emma Yeomans
The Spectator has banned the Co-op
from advertising in its pages in a row
over editorial freedom and trans rights.
Andrew Neil, the broadcaster and
chairman of the company that owns
the political magazine, accused the
group of trying to use its “financial
might” to influence editorial content.
Stop Funding Hate, a pressure group
aiming to discourage advertisers from
spending money with organisations it
deems problematic, had tweeted: “Over
92,000 Co-op UK members over-
whelmingly backed a motion on
responsible advertising at the com-
pany’s 2018 AGM.
“Many who voted will be
disappointed to see Co-op UK’s man-
agement supporting a magazine noto-
rious for transphobia & ‘anti-Muslim
propaganda’.”
The Co-op’s official Twitter account
responded that the advert had been
placed via a media buyer and that the
company would speak with its buyers
about no longer using The Spectator.
Neil tweeted: “No need to bother,
Co-op. As of today you are henceforth
banned from advertising in The Specta-
tor, in perpetuity. We will not have com-
panies like yours use their financial
might to try to influence our editorial
content, which is entirely a matter for
the editor.”
The Co-op said the tweet was sent in
error and there was never any intention
to withdraw business. Its internal policy
on advertising states: “We will not seek
to affect the editorial independence of
publications or channels”.
Fraser Nelson, editor of The Specta-
tor, said: “I couldn’t quite believe that
the Co-op would be so easily cowed by
social media trolls, so I did contact
them to check, but have not been in-
formed of any change in their position.
“We are living in crazy times. The
Spectator has a 192-year old tradition of
giving a wide range of debate: the
cancel culture, especially when
embraced by corporates, is a malicious
trend that no self-respecting publisher
should tolerate.
“If they say the tweet was incorrect,
then is it their policy to keep advertising
in The Spectator? We have asked, there
has been no reply, so our ban remains in
place and our commitment to free
speech and a wide range of debate
remains absolute.”
A Co-op spokesman said that he had
contacted The Spectator to confirm the
group was not withdrawing business.Not for the first time has Have I Got
News For You been accused this week of
being too left-wing. This time, however,
the show’s executive producer has hit
back, saying that the problem is not
BBC bias but a lack of right-wing com-
edians, and he should know because he
is on the right himself.
While he often puts right-wing col-
umnists on the teams, Richard Wilson
said the issue was that they tended to get
into rows with other panellists, generat-
ing a lot of heat but not many laughs.
Mr Wilson, who as well as producing
the long-running show is head of
comedy at Hat Trick Productions, seems
unlikely to be pushing a secret left-wing
agenda. He admits to being conserva-
tive with a small c, once volunteered as a
Latin teacher at his sons’ school, and is
scathing about “woke” culture.
He spoke out after reports that Tim
Davie, the new director-general of the
BBC, believes the corporation broad-
casts too much left-wing comedy and is
pushing for an overhaul.
Mr Wilson, 58, says other shows are
more overtly political than Have I Got
News For You, which celebrates its 30th
anniversary this year. “But not many
people watch them,” he said.
“Most people who work in the
comedy business will be left-wing. It is
by its nature slightly anti-estab-
lishment and subversive, and it has got
a young audience. But we try and leav-
en it as much as possible. Predictable
jokes we try and cut out.
“It is not something that we don’t try
and address. It is definitely the case that
there aren’t many right-wing comics.
It’s not like America, where there are a
lot of right-wing commentators who
are funny.
“Andrew Neil is a good example. He
made some rude comments about the
BBC, but I think he is terrific. There ar-
en’t many people like him, though, and
there certainly aren’t many comics. You
cannot just have someone on because
they tick a box.”
Recent panellists from the right have
included the comedians Fin Taylor and
Henning Wehn, the journalists Isabel
Hardman and Camilla Long, and the
MPs Johnny Mercer and Nicky Morgan.
Wehn, who is German, gets away
with being right-wing because of his
“funny” accent, Mr Wilson said. “I don’t
know how well his material would go
down if he was English. They would say,
oh, he’s a bit right-wing. But because he
Valentine Low
Have I got lefty news for you? Hardly
... I lean to the right, says show’s boss
Victoria Coren Mitchell said Ian Hislop and Paul Merton were merely anti-establishment. Henning Wehn is a “right-wing” guest
RICHARD KENDAL; STEVE BROWN/BBCsays it in a German accent, people find
it funny.”
Victoria Coren Mitchell, who occa-
sionally hosts the show, said: “This talk
of Have I Got News For You being too
left-wing is absurd. It’s just anti-estab-
lishment! Donald Trump is anti-estab-
lishment, is he left-wing? It’s mischie-
vous, it fires darts at everybody; most of
the criticism I get when I’m on is from
the left who feel strongly that it’s too
right-wing. Basically anyone with a dogRichard Wilson
said Britain lacked
funny right-wing
commentators