Maria Miller’s decision to write to the BBC asking what “further action” it plans to take against John Inverdale over his comments about Wimbledon women’s champion Marion Bartoli (“never going to be a looker”) has won the Culture Secretary rare praise from liberals, but it’s not an act they should be applauding.
No one should defend Inverdale’s casual misogyny (and few have) but it is for the corporation, not government ministers, to decide how it disciplines its staff. The principle of BBC independence is too important to be sacrificed on a whim. Inverdale has, as Miller concedes, already apologised “both on-air, and directly in writing to Ms Bartoli” but she still views it as fit to call for his head (without quite summoning the chutzpah to say so).
On his LBC phone-in show this morning, Nick Clegg wisely declined to endorse her criticism and BBC director general Tony Hall has rightly signalled in his response that he regards the matter as closed. Miller’s decision to dredge up a two-week-old row likely has more to do with her desire to avoid being shuffled out of the cabinet than any sincere concern for women’s rights. It’s also not the first time she’s taken aim at the principle of a free media. When the Telegraph reported that she claimed £90,000 for a second home where her parents lived, one of Miller’s advisers responded in the manner of a Soviet censor by reminding the paper of “the minister’s role in implementing the Leveson report”.
In seeking to save her job, Miller has only succeeded in again demonstrating why she is unfit to hold it.
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