Does Tessa smoke skunk?
I’m becoming increasingly worried about our culture secretary, Tessa Jowell. A few weeks ago I complained that she had issued a veiled threat about the BBC’s charter, licence fee and independence, apropos the Gilligan-Campbell dispute, during an interview with the BBC’s Peter Sissons. Consequently, Tessa wrote an angry and indignant letter to this newspaper denying that she had said any such thing. But then, last Friday, she assured us that the Hutton inquiry might well be an opportunity to examine the BBC’s future funding and structure. Perhaps, I thought at the time, it was really my use of the word “veiled” to which she so strenuously objected. But on Sunday we learned from Tessa that, once again, the current dispute will NOT affect any future decision on the charter, licence fee, etc. These mood swings seem, at first sight, to be quite baffling, and those of us who care deeply about Tessa’s state of health wrack our brains for a possible answer. I have a close friend who is prone t
