The BBC and the arms trade: a silent scandal

Sir Roger Carr, chairman of BAE systems and new vice-chair of the BBC Trust. Photo: The CBI

“Sometimes you have to make hard sacrifices”, said
Sir Michael Lyons, former chairman of the BBC Trust, after the Corporation’s decision
not to renew Jeremy Clarkson’s contract on
March 25. Clarkson’s apparent status as “too valuable to sack”, despite a long
list of indiscretions, was displaced by the
insistence that, in the words of the BBC’s director of television, “it’s like
football clubs: no one is bigger than the club.”

The Clarkson fiasco – complete with “derogatory
and abusive language”, a “physical attack” lasting around thirty seconds, and allegations
of death threats made to the BBC
Director-General by Clarkson fans – has, unsurprisingly, received its share of
media coverage. Owen Jones saw the
saga as a “test” of whether the
“well-connected” and “highly paid” are held to the same standards as everyone
else, while the BBC news website provided an
almost comically wide spectrum of public reaction
to Clarkson’s departure, ranging from the views of Star Trek actor William
Shatner to the original “Stig”, Perry McCarthy.

Although the coverage was, at times, excessive,
this was still an important story, raising vital questions about privilege,
bullying and the integrity of the BBC. But more troubling, if less sensational
stories – going right to the heart of our public broadcaster – have been
largely overlooked.

“Surely
you should go?”

The BBC
Trust is “the governing body of the BBC”, with
the responsibility to ensure that the Corporation delivers on its mission “to
inform, educate and entertain.” The Trust describes itself as “the guardian of
license fee revenue”, aiming to make the Corporation “simpler, more efficient
and more open.” It also sets editorial standards, appoints
the Director-General and serves as “the final
arbiter on complaints.” Established through the 2006 BBC Royal Charter, the
Trust, along with the separate executive board, plays a central role in the
governance and regulation of the BBC.

As Dan
Hind has written for ourBeeb, the Trust’s
members are not, to say the least, chosen democratically. There are twelve trustees
– four of whom are charged with representing Britain’s Home Nations, one an
International Trustee – all formally appointed by the Queen, on the
recommendation of government ministers. Hind also illustrates how experience in
journalism has not exactly been a prerequisite for trustees, with CVs instead
distinguished by “strong links with the financial sector”, and roles on the
boards of energy companies.

The current chair of the Trust is Rona Fairhead,
who was CEO of the Financial Times Group from 2006-2013. Her biography
on the BBC website notes that she sits on the Board of HSBC Holdings, but makes
no mention of the fact that she
became the chair of HSBC’s audit and risk committee in 2007,
with “responsibility for governance and compliance across the global bank.”

Inevitably, Fairhead has had to face some
serious questions. When
pressed by the Public Accounts Committee on the
HSBC tax evasion scandal, she protested “I could only respond to the
information that I had”, mainly blaming the management of the bank’s Swiss
branch, “because they should have created a controlled environment.”
Conservative MP Stephen Philips was not satisfied, asking “How can you stay in
place as a non-executive of this bank? Surely you should go?” Labour's Margaret Hodge,
the chair of the Committee, put it
more bluntly: “The performance you have
shown here as a guardian of HSBC does not give me confidence as a licence
fee-payer in your ability as a guardian of the licence fee-payers’ money and I
think you should consider your position and resign.”

Fairhead’s power over BBC decision-making should
not be overstated, and her recent
call for largely replacing the Trust with an
external regulator demonstrates a grasp of public concerns with accountability
and oversight. However, there is definitely something concerning about this
core public institution being governed by people whose career backgrounds could
hardly be further from the mission of “inform, educate and entertain.”

“More
trustees with business and financial backgrounds”

Maybe we shouldn’t find this surprising. We’re
now at the point where we expect most of our public institutions to be linked,
in some way, to banking. Careers in British public service are often stepping
stones to careers in finance, and vice versa.

A similar “revolving door” exists with weapons
companies, who also have many friends in important places: from
the Ministry of Defence, to the Department of Trade and Investment,
and even the
House of Windsor. Now, it seems, the arms
industry will have a representative at the top of the BBC.

Sir
Roger Carr, the chairman of Europe’s
biggest arms company, BAE Systems, has recently added “Vice-Chair of the BBC Trust”
to his CV. Carr has been chairman of BAE since February 2014, and “is also a
member of the Prime Minister’s Business Advisory Group and a senior advisor to
KKR – the world’s largest private equity company.” Appointed as a trustee on
March 20 along with former Radio 4 controller Mark Damazer and former Tory
donor and banker Mark Florman, Carr apparently fits with the government’s
keenness to “introduce
more trustees with business and financial backgrounds.”

BAE’s
record

What does “business experience” with BAE look
like? This is a company perhaps best-known for its role in the
1985 Al-Yamamah arms deal,
making £43bn selling warplanes to the Saudi monarchy – with an estimated £6bn “distributed
in corrupt commissions, via an array of agents and middlemen.” The Serious
Fraud Office began an investigation into the Al-Yamamah deal in 2004, only for its probe to be shut down in
December 2006, after alleged
Saudi blackmail.

More broadly, BAE’s business model is about
selling as many weapons as possible. It has had military customers in over one
hundred countries, including but not limited to Hosni
Mubarak, the Bahraini
royal family and the United
Arab Emirates. As the Campaign Against Arms
Trade (CAAT) puts it,
BAE “has armed dictatorships and human rights abuses around the world… Its
chair should not be paid £70,610 a year to ‘represent license fee payers’
views.’”

With the exception of CAAT, there has been
virtually no media discussion of Carr’s appointment (there is also this
piece from RT). Clearly, our journalists are so
used to the submersion of our public institutions in corporate influence that
they no longer seem to notice.

The
real scandal

And this, unfortunately, is not the first time
we’ve had to ask questions about the BBC and the arms trade. CAAT has
previously campaigned (successfully) against plans
for BBC political editor, Nick Robinson, and security correspondent, Frank
Gardner, to wine and dine with representatives of the arms industry. It has
also, in the past, expressed
concern over Top Gear’s links with Clarion Events,
a company with a history of purchasing and promoting arms fairs.

When we discuss events at the BBC, we will no
doubt continue, for some time, to talk about a
self-described “not very interesting fat man”
being sacked from “his not very important job.” But by bringing BAE’s chairman
into such a senior position with the BBC Trust, the government has deeply associated
our public broadcaster with an industry known mainly for corruption, bribery
and contempt for human rights. This is the real scandal we should be talking
about – and fighting.