Sir Alan Sugar is in the papers this morning claiming he will step down as director of some of his companies to avoid the escalating brouhaha over his BBC job that has been gathering speed ever since Gordon Brown appointed him 'enterprise tsar' last week.
It shows that Sir Alan knows there's a problem and is attempting to do something about it, but sadly this step is woefully inadequate. The base of the problem, as numerous people have pointed out, is that Sir Alan will effectively have a show promoting himself, funded by licence-fee payers (all of us), at the same time as taking a very political role within the Government.
It has the whiff of President Chavez's all-singing, all-dancing 8 hour public broadcast extravaganzas, only not as exciting. Taxpayers have made Sir Alan a star, and anyone who works at the BBC and has two brain cells to rub together should see that if Sir Alan wishes to take his peerage then he can no longer present the Apprentice, as this would compromise even the token impartiality the BBC so desperately clings to. Let's hope they identify this conflict, and act on it.
And so, shortly after Gordon has raised his embattled eyes and said 'you're hired', Auntie will surely have to point her wizened old finger at poor Sralan and say 'you're fired'.
Sir Alan Sugar is in the papers this morning claiming he will step down as director of some of his companies to avoid the escalating brouhaha over his BBC job that has been gathering speed ever since Gordon Brown appointed him 'enterprise tsar' last week.
It shows that Sir Alan knows there's a problem and is attempting to do something about it, but sadly this step is woefully inadequate. The base of the problem, as numerous people have pointed out, is that Sir Alan will effectively have a show promoting himself, funded by licence-fee payers (all of us), at the same time as taking a very political role within the Government.
It has the whiff of President Chavez's all-singing, all-dancing 8 hour public broadcast extravaganzas, only not as exciting. Taxpayers have made Sir Alan a star, and anyone who works at the BBC and has two brain cells to rub together should see that if Sir Alan wishes to take his peerage then he can no longer present the Apprentice, as this would compromise even the token impartiality the BBC so desperately clings to. Let's hope they identify this conflict, and act on it.
And so, shortly after Gordon has raised his embattled eyes and said 'you're hired', Auntie will surely have to point her wizened old finger at poor Sralan and say 'you're fired'.