2 weeks Ago
JAN MOIR: There's something putrid in the BBC and the laughable punishment of Huw Edwards is further evidence of the rot By Jan Moir for the Daily Mail Published: 01:49 BST, 20 September 2024 | Updated: 02:06 BST, 20 September 2024 e-mail View comments Yes, there was the possibility of a jail sentence of up to three years. Huw Edwards even carried his own suitcase into Westminster Magistrates’ Court earlier this week, indicative of the fact that a part of his broken soul must have feared the worst. Yet in the end he was spared a custodial sentence by a chief magistrate who believed that the disgraced BBC anchor presented ‘no threat’ to the public.
Six-month suspended sentence instead. Next case! Really? But how could the judge know? How could he be sure of this threatless state? Edwards certainly presented a threat to the 17-year-old crack addict whom he paid £35,000 of his taxpayer funded wealth to buy explicit photographs from – to say nothing of the vile images of sexually abused children he devoured over a period of time from another convicted paedophile. Disgraced former BBC newsreader Huw Edwards at Westminster Magistrates Court, where he was given a six-month suspended sentence for making indecent images of children And please, let us not forget that what he viewed was something darker than legal porn and indecent images; some of them were nothing less than child abuse crime scenes.
For God’s sake, one of the victims was only seven years old. What message does this leniency send to the parents of these abused boys? And why is this awful, terrible, buzz-cut, guilty as charged man-perv being draped in the cloak of celebrity clemency? From the moment of his arrest to the light-touch release of his sentencing this week, there is no doubt that Huw Edwards has been treated as an exceptional case. Some are blinded by his stardom, some are consumed by his status, some just look at his smart charcoal suit and familiar, lugubrious face and think, oh dear, poor Huw.
He’s so tormented! Let’s not punish him any more. His position as a big cheese in the BBC-ocracy certainly seems to have protected him, within and without the organisation, to a degree that I find utterly sickening. If a weird bloke who lives at the end of your street papered his shed walls with similar images of abused children, he’d be condemned as a dangerous criminal and hopefully jailed.
Somehow, as it’s BBC star Huw Edwards, we’re supposed to sympathise because he is in the grip of – let me get this right – an illness. The court heard at length about Edwards’s mental health problems – which I might add weren’t an issue until he got caught. We were invited to sympathise lubriciously about a working-class upbringing where Edwards’s failure to get into Oxford left him ‘feeling like an outsider’ at the BBC, which he perceived as being full of Oxbridge graduates.
When Edwards joined the BBC in 1984 it almost certainly was a nest of Oxbridge elites, and, in the upper echelons at least, it probably still is. But so what? Poor likkle Huw entered adulthood feeling inferior, we are told, and this was compounded by working in an organisation that he perceived as being full of socially superior poshos. Well join the club, mate.
As someone who grew up on a council housing estate in a bleak Scottish town, I am disgusted – furious! – by this defence of so-called working-class limitations being an excuse for validating one’s inner hurt by indulging in abuse and illegal porn. I might add that former BBC lifer John Humphrys came from an even poorer Welsh background than Huw Edwards, but never felt the need to use his humble circumstances as an excuse to indulge in an immoral and unlawful sexual interest in children. For me, for John and perhaps for you, too, this preening, misplaced, class-based, vomitous self-justification is an insult to us all.
During Edwards’s trial, Philip Evans KC was keen to establish his client’s status. ‘It is obvious to the court, I’m sure, that Mr Edwards is not just of good character but of exceptional character.’ Was it really? What utter rot.
He was just a dirty old man by any other name, but these clammy, supportive sentiments were upheld by BBC stalwarts such as Emily Maitlis and Jon Sopel, who rushed to Edwards’s defence. They blamed newspapers for unforgivable intrusions into his private life. Yet when he finally admitted his crimes, they had no apology to the news outlets that had rightfully helped to expose him.
‘I’m horrified, I think we’re all horrified,’ said Maitlis this week. ‘I’m speechless.’ Well, perhaps we should be thankful for small mercies.
Yet in a case such as this, it is not difficult to believe that ‘two-tier’ Britain invades every section of society like a terrible smog. Can you imagine if it were Nigel Farage in the dock for receiving 41 indecent images of children –seven of which were classed as category ‘A’? The cell door would have slammed shut faster than a rat trap. The BBC would have been in uproar.
Emily and Jon would have been unanimous in their righteous condemnation. As it was, Beeb news bulletins about the case meekly played along with the mental health issues at the core of his pathetic, self-pitying defence. And now, even after all this time, you have to wonder why the BBC repeatedly protects the predators who lurk within its ranks.
Jimmy Savile, Stuart Hall, Jonathan King, Rolf Harris and Dave Lee Travis weren’t all paedophiles, but they did use their celebrated Beeb status as a flame of influence to lure the young and impressionable into their seedy orbits. Perhaps it is because the BBC see themselves as morally superior, the establishment who cannot be questioned, least of all by inky newspapers asking impertinent questions. Perhaps it is because as an organisation they are weirdly terrified of upsetting the talent.
Whatever the truth, something is putrid in the great house of Beeb, and Huw Edwards’s laughable punishment both by the courts and by his former employers is further evidence of the rot. Nicole's latest role is perfect for her Nicole Kidman has another hit on her hands with The Perfect Couple (Netflix), a six-part drama in which she stars as Greer, yet another rich bitch wife who may or may not be being abused by her husband. Nicole Kidman, whose stars in new Netflix hit The Perfect Couple, at the Venice Film Festival In this glossy motherthriller I could watch Nicole’s Greer wafting around in five-ply cashmere all day, shouting at her florist and snobbily declaiming that: ‘Anyone who wears flip-flops outside the confines of their own house should be arrested.
’ She’s clearly never been to the Cardiff Tesco on a Saturday morning. Despite the glamour, there is something oddly lacking about this big-budget whodunit. But as a wealthy trophy wife, Nicole is perfection.
Reeves is a picture of self-praise Sound the feminist trumpet. Chancellor Rachel Reeves has just announced plans to replace every painting in the lavish state room at No 11 Downing Street with artworks of or by women instead. Maybe she will find a spot for the portrait of Margaret Thatcher that the Prime Minister junked the moment he got into Downing Street, seconds before he was on the phone to Harrods asking for some free shirts.
Maybe not. Still, hasn’t Rachel got anything better to do? There are still a few pensioners left with sixpence in their bank accounts. Shouldn’t she be mounting a raid to relieve them of what’s left of their savings, instead of feminising a great office of state? At a reception for female business leaders on Wednesday evening, she said she wanted to mark the lives of the ‘amazing women who have gone before us’ and was installing a statue of Millicent Fawcett.
Oh God, not her again. There’s already a statue of the suffragette leader in Parliament Square, holding up a tea towel to show how she got the tomato soup stains out with only some Borax and a good soak. Even in the Lefty-approved parade of acceptable heroines, haven’t we moved on from Millicent? It is all so performative.
It’s not a celebration of anything else except herself. If Rachel can’t quite believe that she is the first female Chancellor, neither can anyone else. The award for best dressed.
.. There is a Sporran Gate uproar in my Scottish homeland.
Reporting on the Emmy television awards, the New York Times described kilt-wearing Richard Gadd’s sporran as a ‘fanny pack’. Hamish! Pass the smelling salts before I faint of horror. Richard Gadd with his trophies, plus kilt and sporran, at the Emmy television awards The newspaper of record then compounded its crime by adding that the Baby Reindeer creator would ‘need a bigger fanny pack’ should he win more awards for his wonderful hit Netflix show Baby Reindeer.
The NYT was forced to add a correction. It noted: ‘An earlier version of this article misidentified an accessory worn by Richard Gadd. It was a sporran, a pouch traditionally worn with a kilt, not a fanny pack.
’ A pouch? At least they didn’t call it a purse. Scots star Alan Cumming also wore a kilt and sporran to collect an Emmy for The Traitors US. In fact, he wore a kilt, trousers, a plaid wrap and a tartan tie, which covered all bases, apart from the one called ‘good taste’.
Fanny pack or not, it might have been a bad night for the reputation of Scottish national dress across the globe, but it was a great night for the east of Scotland, my very own homeland. Alan (from Angus) and Richard (from Wormit) have given the world a warning. The Taysiders are coming! No 78-year-old woman asks a man to marry her ‘as a joke’.
Come off it! At that age everyone is playing beat-the-clock, not guess-the-question. However, many congratulations to Maureen Lipman who proposed to her boyfriend on a train – and he accepted. The actress said she had popped the question to David Turner in jest – he is also 78 – but now they are to be wed.
She has previously spoken of the joy of finding love again in her 70s with David after the double bereavement of her husband of 30 years, the playwright Jack Rosenthal, and then her subsequent partner of 13 years, Guido Castro. Maureen Lipman said she proposed to boyfriend David Turner, 78, on a train in jest Rosenthal – the father of her two children - died in 2004 from cancer. Castro, a computer expert who had a form of Parkinson’s, died after falling ill with Covid.
It doesn’t take much imagination to picture the heartbreak behind all that. So many of us have been there. Yet after being knocked about by life, it takes courage to pick up the pieces and take a chance on happiness again.
I find their story of late-life love inspirational and charming. Dare to dream, kids! In other golden oldie news, former pin-up Linda Lusardi said she can’t believe she turned 66 this week. Neither can I but she looks wonderful.
Twiggy has finally hung up her mini skirt at 75 – but says she still wears shorts on holiday. And 84-year-old Tom Jones played a concert in New York. It’s not over until it’s over.
No matter how successful, adored and famous a pop star becomes, there will always be a grump in the corner moaning that they can't see what all the fuss is about. Usually that grump is me, but not when it comes to Taylor Swift. I love Taylor's songs and her admirable, demented work ethic, which crested this month with the release of two new albums — The Tortured Poets Department and The Anthology — both written, recorded and made while she is in the middle of her worldwide Eras tour, performing on stage for three straight hours at every show.
Huw Edwards BBC Share or comment on this article: JAN MOIR: There's something putrid in the BBC and the laughable punishment of Huw Edwards is further evidence of the rot e-mail Add comment More top stories.
