the times | Saturday September 5 2020 1GM 31
Leading articles
agenda which, for reasons that were never spelt
out, it claimed would be impossible under EU
rules. Now, it seems the argument has shifted
again. According to James Forsyth in a column for
yesterday’s Times, Mr Johnson’s real goal is to pick
technological winners rather than bailout losers.
Leaving aside whether a government that bun-
gled the tracing app should be so confident of its
ability to pick technological winners, Mr Johnson’s
new policy poses more questions than answers.
What form would this state aid take? Does the
prime minister want to fund more blue-sky tech-
nology research? If so, that is hardly outlawed
even under the EU’s regime. Or does it want to be
able to take equity stakes in promising technology
companies? But why would any promising start-
up want the government as a shareholder when
there is no shortage of risk capital in the markets?
Or does Mr Johnson envisage going down the
Chinese route, subsidising everything from loans
to land? That would risk antagonising all of Brit-
ain’s trading partners, not just the EU.
Even if Mr Johnson’s case for a more
interventionist state aid regime stacked up, it
would still be necessary to embed this in a robust,
rules-based, independent framework. One only
has to look at how easily the state was captured byvested interests in the 1970s to see where a politi-
cised process might lead. Ministers would find
themselves besieged by MPs demanding special
treatment for constituents. The definition of what
counted as technology would quickly prove elas-
tic. A politicised regime would also deepen strains
in the Union, not least because under the terms of
the Withdrawal Agreement Northern Ireland will
remain subject to EU state aid rules. Meanwhile
there would be a free-for-all as devolved govern-
ments and regions tried to outbid each other with
subsidies for prospective investors.
Mr Johnson is said to joke that only three mem-
bers of the government agree with him on state
aid. Yet the silence from his party is deafening.
This is not how the political system is supposed to
work. To paraphrase Margaret Thatcher, Britain
did not successfully roll back the frontiers of the
state across Europe over the past 40 years only to
see them reimposed again at home by stealth by a
tiny cabal in Downing Street. Tory MPs should
demand as a matter of urgency that Mr Johnson
publish his plans for how industrial subsidies
should be managed after the transition period
ends in December. Then they can decide whether
this is really worth the price of no deal or whether
it is time to insist on another U-turn.contrasted with the complacency evinced by Lord
Hall of Birkenhead, the outgoing director-general,
in an address last month at the Edinburgh Inter-
national Film Festival. Lord Hall boasted that the
BBC had “reformed and reinvented ourselves for
the digital age”. Mr Davie, by contrast, acknowl-
edged that it had spread itself too thin, been tardy
in ending failing projects, allowed too much dupli-
cation and stubbornly continued to recruit people
who were a “BBC type”.
All of this is true, as is Mr Davie’s candid asser-
tion that the BBC has no right to exist. Yet the
corporation’s remedial actions are limited and
belated. They include a comically trivial reversal
of its decision not to have Rule, Britannia! and Land
of Hope and Glory sung, but only played in an
orchestral form, at the Last Night of the Proms on
September 12. More substantively, the corporation
is reviewing its broadcasters’ use of social media to
ensure that it accords with the requirement to be,
as Mr Davie put it, free from political bias.
The dispiriting aspect of the call for BBC em-
ployees to avoid partisanship is that it needs to be
made at all. Nor is the problem confined to socialmedia. Regardless of the merits of Brexit, it domi-
nated politics after the 2016 referendum yet the
BBC gave scant evidence in its news coverage, let
alone wider programming, of understanding the
impulses of the narrow majority that favoured it.
This is a wider malaise than simply the expres-
sion of personal views, which ought to be kept pri-
vate, by the corporation’s journalists. A claim to be
eschewing political bias cannot be credible if the
BBC is unable to recognise when it is being biased.
Ultimately, the model of a public service broad-
caster funded by a compulsory levy is out of step
with consumer sovereignty. The BBC’s products
are not free. They are paid for by a captive audi-
ence. The licence fee enables the BBC’s online
content to crowd out commercial providers, whe-
ther other broadcasters or regional and national
news outlets. It is a mere truism that the corpora-
tion cannot plausibly maintain that its content is
world-class while simultaneously arguing that it
would be disastrous if the licence fee were replaced
by a subscription model. The BBC under new
management has begun to acknowledge failings.
It should now frankly admit its anachronisms.course a formerly fabulous physique. Now comes
hard scientific evidence to back up the intuition
that a dad bod is not all bad. Asked to rate differ-
ent-shaped male bodies in terms of the owner’s
likely parenting abilities, respondents feel the
leaner, more muscular types measure up least well
in the dad stakes. In contrast the, ahem, fuller-fig-
ured chap is judged more inclined to display
warmth, kindness, dependability and other traits
suited to successful child-rearing. Old iron man,
meanwhile, is too busy training for his next triath-
lon to care about his kids.
While he may look well-equipped, the type ofbloke who manages to stave off the dad bod tag
may well prove a bit all show and no go when it
comes to humdrum paternal devotion. Honed abs
may be handy for fathers’ race on school sports
day; they don’t win any prizes through the rest of
the year.
A word of warning, however, to lockdown-
snacker dads feeling smug. A little excess baggage
may be lovable, but hitting the cakes too hard at
the expense of the cardio is not. Quite apart from
the health risks, too much weight suggests a lack
of the discipline required for effective parenting.
Moderation is, as ever, the message.Picking Winners
Tory MPs should insist that Boris Johnson publish his policy on state aid so
that they can decide for themselves whether it is worth the price of no deal
Of all the issues that threatened to come between
Britain and the European Union, who would have
predicted that the two sides would be close to fall-
ing out over state aid? Hostility to industrial subsi-
dies used to be an article of faith for the Conserva-
tives. Not so long ago even the most diehard euro-
sceptics regarded Britain’s role in shaping the EU’s
robust state aid rules as a significant achievement.
Indeed Boris Johnson himself acknowledged as
much during the Brexit referendum. Yet the prime
minister has now become such an enthusiast that
he is apparently prepared to walk away from a
trade deal rather than provide Brussels with reas-
surances that Britain will not seek to use subsidies
to undercut EU companies. This is troubling.
It does not help that the reasons given for Mr
Johnson’s conversion to state aid keep changing. In
the run-up to last year’s general election, the prime
minister was clear that the goal was to provide
more help to struggling businesses. The Tories
even issued a briefing note which said that they
wanted a new state aid regime “which makes it
faster and easier for the government to intervene
when an industry is in trouble”. After the election
the government changed its tune, pointing to the
need to spend money to deal with the aftermath of
the pandemic and for it to achieve its levelling-upWeak Signal
The BBC has begun to admit failings but ought to acknowledge its anachronisms
The BBC was from its earliest days envisaged as a
vehicle not just for entertainment and informa-
tion but exhortation. John Reith, the corporation’s
first director-general, was explicit in his book
Broadcast over Britain (1924): “It is occasionally
indicated to us that we are apparently setting out
to give the public what we think they need and not
what they want, but few know what they want, and
very few what they need.”
Reith’s newest successor is sensibly cautious
about the scope for social engineering. Tim Davie,
who took up his post as BBC director-general this
week, immediately declared an end to the corpo-
ration’s expansionism and warned its employees
against engaging in “partisan campaigns” on
social media. His intervention is welcome. Mr
Davie understands that Britain is a pluralist
society, not a tabula rasa on which a public sector
behemoth can inscribe its own version of the
public good. Yet he did not properly address
concerns about the BBC’s privileged position due
to its income from the licence fee, and its failure to
reflect the breadth of British society.
To his credit, Mr Davie’s remarks this weekBig Daddy
A classic dad bod may be an indication of better parenting ability
The phrase dad bod, disapproving yet also affec-
tionate, has always carried some ambiguity. To be
a middle-aged man in possession of a dad bod
indicates your waist measurement in inches has
caught and possibly overtaken your age in years.
Even as the passage of time reasserts the gap,
you are likely to remain confined to the L, XL and
in extremely wobbly cases XXL items at the back
of the rack in M&S. And yet the designation is not
straightforwardly insulting, connoting as it does a
degree of cuddliness, an understanding of the
grimly inevitable havoc that the stresses and
strains of dutiful fatherhood wreak on what was ofDaily Universal Register
UK: The Women’s Super League season
begins with Aston Villa v Man City.
Iceland: England travel to Iceland for a Uefa
Nations League group stage match.
Raquel Welch, pictured,
actress, One Million
Years BC (1966), 80;
David Brabham, racing
driver, winner, Le Mans
24-hour (2009), 55;
Johnny Briggs, actor,
Coronation Street (1976-2006, 2012), 85; Dick Clement, scriptwriter,
Porridge (1974-77), 83; Paddy Considine,
actor, writer and film director, Tyrannosaur
(2011), 47; Tracy Edwards, yachtswoman,
skipper of the first female crew to sail
around the world (1989), 58; Werner
Herzog, film and opera director, Nosferatu
the Vampyre (1979), 78; Baroness (Valerie)
Howarth of Breckland, founding chief
executive, Childline (1987-2001), 80;
Margaret Howell, fashion designer, 74; Lord
(Julian) Hunt of Chesterton, chief executive,
Met Office (1992-97), 79; Michael Keaton,
actor, Batman (1989), 69; George Lazenby,
actor, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969),
81; Karita Mattila, soprano, 60; Dame
Martina Milburn, chief executive, The
Prince’s Trust, 63; Sir John Mummery,
deputy chairman, Takeover Appeal Board,
82; Mark Ramprakash, England cricketer,
(1991-2002), 51; Chris Sinclair, chairman,
Reckitt Benckiser, 70; Al Stewart, folk-rock
musician, Year of the Cat (1976), 75; Johnny
Ve g a s, comedian and actor, 50; Annabelle
Wallis, actress, Peaky Blinders (2013-19), 36.
In 1972 , at the Olympic Games in Munich,
Palestinian terrorists killed two members of
the Israeli team and took nine more hostage,
all of whom were killed in an ensuing battle.
Emily Maitlis, pictured,
journalist, lead presenter,
Newsnight, 50; Jason
Atherton, Michelin-
starred chef, 49;
Christopher Brookmyre,
novelist, Fallen Angel
(2019), 52; Sir SimonBurns, Conservative MP for Chelmsford
(1987-2017), 68; Idris Elba, actor, Luther
(2010-19), 48; Macy Gray, singer-songwriter,
I Try (1999), 53; Naomie Harris, actress,
Spectre (2015),44; Tim Henman, tennis
player, former British No 1, 46; Sofi Jeannin,
chief conductor, BBC Singers, and mezzo-
soprano, 44; Roger Law, satirist and
puppeteer, co-creator of Spitting Image
(1984-96), 79; Dame Monica Mason,
director, Royal Ballet (2002-12), 79; Pippa
Matthews (née Middleton), sister of the
Duchess of Cambridge, 37; Sir Colin McColl,
head of MI6 (1988-94), 88; Gavin Patterson,
chief executive, BT Group (2013-19), 53;
William Porterfield, Ireland’s first Test
cricket captain (2018-19), 36; Tom Ransley,
rower, Olympic gold medallist (2016, men’s
coxed eight), 35; Sir Richard J Roberts,
biochemist and molecular biologist (Nobel
prize, 1993), 77; Greg Rusedski, tennis player,
former British No 1, 47; Sir Iqbal Sacranie,
secretary-general, Muslim Council of Britain
(2002-06), 69; John Sauven, UK executive
director, Greenpeace, 66; Alice Sebold,
novelist, The Lovely Bones (2002), 57; Emma
Soames, editor-at-large, Saga Magazine, 71;
Roger Waters, musician, Pink Floyd, 77.
“Watch out for the fellow who talks about
putting things in order. Putting things in order
always means getting other people under your
control.” Denis Diderot, French philosopher,
Supplement to Bougainville’s Voyage (1796)
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