Hard work should pay. Unlock quality journalism that champions free enterprise. |  | Gordon Rayner Associate Editor | Samir Shah, the BBC chairman, revealed much about his own shortcomings when he wrote to a committee of MPs on Monday with his response to the crisis engulfing the broadcaster.
Mr Shah, who knew about the concerns over the BBC’s Panorama fakery in January but did nothing, is still putting forward mitigation for the doctoring of a speech by Donald Trump, over which the US president is threatening to sue.
Mr Shah told Dame Caroline Dinenage, the chairman of Parliament’s culture, media and sport committee, that Panorama’s journalists argued: “The purpose of editing the clip was to convey the message of the speech made by President Trump so that Panorama’s audience could better understand how it had been received by President Trump’s supporters and what was happening on the ground at that time.”
I have to say that sentence stopped me in my tracks when I read the letter. Why, after everything that has happened over the past week, is Mr Shah still trying to come up with excuses? | An excerpt from Mr Shah’s letter to MPs | The BBC’s managers could not see the dishonesty that was staring them in the face in January; they thought The Telegraph was making a fuss out of nothing when I approached the BBC for comment last week, and even now Mr Shah can’t bring himself to accept without qualification that what Panorama did was wrong, plain and simple.
It is little wonder that many within the BBC are crying out for stronger leadership as the corporation’s board begins its search for a new director-general.
Read Gordon’s analysis in full ➤
More of our coverage:
BBC facing ‘fundamental’ overhaul of licence fee ➤
Trump tells broadcaster: Apologise by Friday or pay me $1bn ➤
Charles Moore: Is Nick Robinson’s furious blame-shifting a confession of guilt? ➤ | | Matthew Lynn Residents of the ‘global north’ want their own nations put in order first Continue reading ➤ Michael Deacon Zack Polanski has just shown why no sane person will be voting Green
Michael will be replying to your comments at 11am. Continue reading ➤ Celia Walden The cult of competitive victimhood has consumed Britain
Celia will be replying to your comments at 4pm. Continue reading ➤ | Make your voice heard. Join our journalists in conversation on today’s biggest topics. | | Algeria’s Imane Khelif beat Italy’s Angela Carini into submission after just 46 seconds at the 2024 Paris Olympics | | Does the International Olympic Committee truly deserve applause for considering, a decade too late, a ban on trans-identifying males in women’s competition, asks Oliver Brown. Surely this is a case of president Kirsty Coventry acknowledging only what has been staring her in the face. During the Paris boxing scandal, where two fighters with sex test results showing male chromosomes both took gold as women, she was asleep at the wheel.
Continue reading ➤
Olympics to ban transgender athletes from all women’s events ➤ | |  | | Once the nation of the stiff upper lip, Britain is a place where mental health struggles are leaving many languishing on benefits. Nearly one in four of the working-age population, equivalent to 10.4 million people, is now classed as disabled, with young people a key driver in this problem. Officials say the surge is linked to “changes in public awareness and attitudes towards disability”, including mental health disorders such as PTSD and developmental disorders such as ADHD.
Sir Charlie Mayfield’s review into Britain’s worklessness crisis, published last week, warned that the country was facing a “quiet but urgent crisis”, estimating that staff on sick leave cost UK businesses £85bn a year. Labour is trying to tackle the problem, but with plans to grant employees the right to sick pay from the first day of their employment, the party could make matters even worse.
Continue reading ➤ | | | | New statistics from the Department of Transport reveal that men are far more likely than women to cause a serious car accident, yet they are far more confident behind the wheel. This doesn’t surprise Diana Appleyard, who is in a constant battle with her husband Ross over each other’s driving skills. She thinks she’s better and safer (albeit slower). Ross, who “can spot a lady driver a mile off”, begs to differ… Continue reading ➤ | | | Much is made of the pressures on British coastal towns when the “grockles” (holidaymakers from outside Devon and Cornwall) arrive in summer, clamouring for pasties and surf. What happens to these places during winter, when the ice cream vendors pull down their shutters and only the locals remain? We spoke to residents in second-home and holiday-let hotspots to find out. Continue reading ➤ | | | | | Have we become a nation that is simultaneously obsessed with food and doesn’t know how to cook it? Our kitchens are filled with gadgets which do the work for us, and supermarket shelves are laden with shortcuts. Anything you once needed to cook can now be purchased ready-made. They have boiled the eggs for you, mashed the potatoes, chopped the broccoli into florets, grated the cheese. The chickens have already been sprinkled with salt – you don’t even need to touch the raw bird, you can just roast it in the bag it came in and slide it, hands-free, on to a plate. Eleanor Steafel investigates the cooking crisis in British kitchens. Continue reading ➤ | | | Warren Buffett is a source of inspiration to Questor, the Telegraph’s stock-picking column, and Berkshire Hathaway’s track record means everyone should learn from it – regardless of whether they agree. So as it sits on cash and buys up downtrodden assets, what lessons can we take for our own portfolios? Continue reading ➤ Below are two more helpful articles for you this morning: - A shower might be the quicker option this morning – but here’s why a hot bath can help your heart, sleep and mood.
- Dave Watts has skied in 50 resorts in 20 different ski areas in Italy, but this ski resort reigns supreme.
| | Josh O’Connor and Jessie Buckley as Romeo and Juliet in 2021 |  | Dominic Cavendish Chief Theatre Critic | As a theatre critic at The Telegraph for the past 25 years I have seen an incredible amount of Shakespeare and can definitely tell my Two Gentlemen of Verona from my Two Noble Kinsmen.
But to rank all 38 of his plays? Though this be madness, yet there is method in’t. It’s a personal list and one that I hope you have strong opinions about!
So do I hate The Taming of the Shrew as much as most people? Have I fallen under the spell of A Midsummer Night’s Dream?
With each entry, I have recommended an online screening, from the National’s Romeo and Juliet featuring Josh O’Connor and Jessie Buckley, to Julius Caesar at the Bridge with Ben Whishaw and David Morrissey and a 1970s production of As You Like It, filmed entirely on location at Glamis Castle and starring Helen Mirren.
See Dominic’s ranking in full here ➤ | Cupboard confessions Every weekday, Orlando Bird, our loyal Reader Correspondent, shares an off-piste topic that has brought out the best of your opinions and stories. Orlando writes...
What does your kitchen cupboard say about you? That was the question posed by Rob Crossan’s article. In my case, the answer is simple: “Memory shot”. I always forget which staples we already have in store, so am endlessly accumulating new packs of rice, for instance. Another conclusion you could draw, in fact, is that I’m a survivalist who intends to live exclusively off risotto in the wake of Armageddon. There are worse fates.
Telegraph readers, too, have been casting an analytical eye over their cupboards. “We’ve got a well-stocked kitchen and pantry,” wrote Patricia Smith. “Old habits die hard.” She attributed this to “rationing during the Second World War and other times of shortage”.
Another reader revealed: “There’s always a tin of Golden Syrup at the back of mine. The lid is welded in place, the contents having been used once in a fit of nostalgia. It’ll come in handy again one day, maybe.”
Charles Bede added: “Having been brought up in isolated environments, and very much enjoying gardening, cooking and preserving, I try to have (within reason) everything on hand at all times. I always have homemade jam and pickles about, as well as what some might consider ‘specialty’ spices. I cannot stand a dirty or disorganised kitchen or pantry, and am careful about rotating supplies.”
Finally, I don’t know about you, but this scenario – described by Martin Iles – resonated with me: “I find the cupboard crevices useful for retrieving accidentally scattered black peppercorns after I’ve forgotten to buy a new pack.” The same applies to garlic cloves in my fridge. That Doomsday risotto won’t flavour itself, after all. Are you a hoarder? A ruthless rationaliser? A use-by-date refusenik? Send your responses here, and the best of the bunch will feature in a future edition of From the Editor PM, for which you can sign up here. | | The name easyJet was dreamt up when its founder, Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, ‘scribbled it on a napkin’ | EasyJet is Britain’s biggest flight operator and the second largest in Europe, carrying almost 90 million passengers in 2024. When was the low-cost airline founded? | | Find as many words as you can in today’s Panagram, including the nine-letter solution. Visit Telegraph Puzzles to play a range of head-scratching games, including PlusWord, Sorted, and Quick, Mini or Cryptic Crosswords.
The solution to yesterday’s clue was CURVEBALL. Come back tomorrow for the answer to today’s puzzle. | | Thank you for reading. Have a fulfilling day and I hope to see you tomorrow. Chris Evans, Editor
P.S. I’d love to hear what you think of this newsletter. You can email me your feedback here. | |
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