Ex-Mail editor’s blast at public sector ‘Blob’
Dacre quits Ofcom race with swipe at civil servants
THE former editor of the Daily Mail launched a stinging attack on the civil service last night as he pulled out of the race to become chairman of Ofcom.
Paul Dacre said he had been rejected by the original interview panel because his ‘strong convictions’ were incompatible with the role at the media watchdog.
Despite Boris Johnson restarting the appointment process – granting him a second chance – Mr Dacre said he would not be reapplying for the job.
Describing his run-in with Whitehall as an ‘infelicitous dalliance with the Blob’, he claimed officials were determined to stop anyone with right-ofcentre views getting top jobs in the public sector.
He wrote in a letter to The Times: ‘To anyone from the private sector, who, God forbid, has convictions, and is thinking of applying for a public appointment, I say the following: The civil service will control (and leak) everything; the process could take a year in which your life will be put on hold; and if you are possessed of an independent mind the more liberal/left, and chance are of unassociated winning you will the have with lottery than getting the job.’ Despite being urged by senior ministers to reapply for the role, Mr Dacre, 73, said he will instead take a job with a private firm – and included a swipe at Sarah Healey, permanent secretary of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, who notoriously boasted of spending time on her Peloton exercise bike while working from home.
Mr Dacre wrote: ‘I’m taking up an exciting new job in the private sector that, in a climate that is increasingly hostile to business, struggles to create the wealth to pay for all those senior civil servants working from home so they can spend more time exercising on their Peloton bikes and polishing their political correctness, safe in the knowledge that it is they, not elected politicians, who really run this country.’
He described the BBC, which is now regulated by Ofcom along with other TV channels and radio stations, as a ‘great, civilising force’ which he would ‘die in a ditch to defend’. However, he warned that it needed to be saved from itself as well as the ‘frighteningly wellresourced streaming giants’ such as Netflix.
He wrote: ‘I wish Ofcom all the luck in the world as it faces the awesome challenge of trying to regulate the omnipotent, ruthless and, as we’ve learnt, amoral tech giants without damaging freedom of expression – a freedom I spent 28 years as an editor fighting for both publicly and privately with ministers.
‘Whether Ofcom, whose chief executive [Dame Melanie Dawes] is a brilliant career civil servant, latterly at the Ministry of Housing, has the wherewithal to deal with such issues, is a different kettle of fish.’
Downing Street declined to comment last night.
If you are possessed of an independent mind, you will have more chance of winning the lottery than getting the job Paul Dacre’s advice to those applying for a ‘public appointment’