'I didn¿t know enough' isn't an improvement on 'I didn't know'. It's a prompt to find out more, not a get-out-of-jail card

A saintly Scotsman arriving at the Pearly Gates is asked by St Peter if he’s led a good life. ‘Och aye,’ he says, ‘I was a good husband, a good father and — as you know — I neither smoked nor drank.’ 

St Peter: ‘Aye, so ye say, but what about thon nip of brandy on yer deathbed?’

The Scotsman, embarrassed: ‘Och aye, but I didna ken that would keep me oot of Heaven.’

There’s a great crack of thunder, a blinding light and a mighty voice roars: ‘WELL, YE KEN NOO!’

There’s a lot of it about, isn’t there?

Deputy Prime Minister and Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg didna ken the party’s former Director of Campaigns and Elections, life peer Lord Rennard, 52, had been accused of groping a string of women colleagues. Rennard denies the allegations.

Clegg didna ken the party's former Director of Campaigns and Elections, life peer Lord Rennard, 52, had been accused of groping a string of women colleagues. Rennard denies the allegations

Former BBC Director-General Mark Thompson didna ken there were stories about Jimmy Savile ravishing young women on the broadcaster’s premises, although they were general currency during his eight years at the Corporation.

Didn’t know — or, didn’t want to know? That is the question for both men.

At least ten Lib Dem women made accusations against Rennard, as we reported on Friday. One was offered a meeting with the peer to discuss the impact of his behaviour. After refusing — are you surprised? — she says she was told she had no future in the party.

  More... So what DID you know, Mr Clegg? Bombshell email: Nick Clegg was told about Lib Dem sex scandal four years ago We Lib Dems need honesty - most obviously from Nick Clegg himself

Party activist Stephen Tall says: ‘Just as the BBC turned a blind eye to the alleged offences of one of its stars, so, too, did the Lib Dems.’

It’s a good connection to make. The BBC’s absurd Pollard report on the Savile affair — replete with preposterous ‘redactions’ of any words that might prove remotely embarrassing for Corporation bigwigs — reveals an organisation where all the men and women at the top did everything they could to maintain (or feign) ignorance of what had happened. 

Having spent 36 years at the BBC, Jeremy Paxman knows where all its bodies are buried. He told Nick Pollard’s inquiry it was common gossip that the disc jockey liked the company of young girls — a tactful way of putting it. 

Former BBC Director-General Mark Thompson didna ken there were stories about Jimmy Savile ravishing young women on the premises, although they were general currency during his time at the Corporation

Pollard concludes that it was not a question of executives not knowing about Savile’s activities. It was that senior executives didn’t want to know. This has always been obvious, long before the story broke.

After all, Savile conducted some of his nefarious behaviour on BBC premises. He entertained young women in a caravan berthed in the BBC car park. How could his activities have remained unknown?

Lots of people did know, of course, as Paxman says in his evidence to Pollard. So why was nothing done about it? Possibly because to confront the problem would be to take responsibility for it. Heads might roll. And not just deputy heads. 

The other problem about Savile concerned class. He was working class and from the North. He appealed to a demographic that was well below the sights of the predominantly middle-class BBC management.

They knew he was a weirdo, but he was a weirdo in touch with the Prince of Wales and one who spent Christmases with Margaret Thatcher. He didn’t hide his activities. He flaunted them.

The allegations against Rennard (pictured) are made by mature women. Clegg's initial defence - that he had no knowledge of the specific allegations - is a temporary device

The allegations against Rennard aren’t as serious. They are made by mature women. Clegg’s initial defence — that he had no knowledge of the specific allegations — is a temporary device. Having launched an inquiry, he now hopes that what he knew, or didn’t know, will cease to be the question.

He’ll be in the clear if the inquiry finds Rennard has a case to answer and also if it finds otherwise. 

So will the men who didn’t know, Clegg and Thompson, survive?

Thompson, like Clegg, has modified his defence from not knowing to not knowing specific details.

And he is no longer at the BBC. He’s the big bucks chief executive of the New York Times.

Clegg might be in less trouble if the Rennard allegations were his only problem. But he’s now regarded by some in his party as a drag on the ticket, the main reason why they face being wiped out at the 2015 General Election. 

Thompson’s clear of the BBC, but not out of the woods. If there are further claims that he knew more than he’s admitted about Savile — and did nothing — it will undermine his position at the New York Times. Local rivals of the Grey Lady, as the paper is known, will make sure of that.

Surely ‘I didn’t know enough’ isn’t an improvement on ‘I didn’t know’. It’s a prompt to find out more, not a get-out-of-jail card.

  Laura performed faultlessly at the Six Nations rugby match between England and France at Twickenham

Soprano Laura Wright, 22, sang the national anthem for the 82,000 crowd at the Six Nations rugby match between England and France at Twickenham.

While overcoated, heavy-booted and woolly-hatted spectators in the stands whimpered about the cold — myself among them — Laura performed faultlessly  in a white dress slashed to the waist.

A rugby player for Rosslyn Park Ladies, she is said to have ‘speed and good technical awareness’.

And legs that would distract the Dalai Lama.

Forget Oscars, television is the new cinema

The Washington DC blogger Andrew Sullivan says he’s tired of the Oscars — ‘the naked public relations, the excruciating host, the preening luvvies… It’s the celebration of a mass movie experience in the cinema that truly deserves to die for anyone over 25’. 

Instead, he and his partner watched Argo, an Academy Award nominee, ‘on a couch five feet away from a 56in, high definition, 3D flat screen television.’ 

They had speakers all around the room. Drank Coke at a tenth of the cinema price. And could pause the film at will. They didn’t miss the coughing, the sneezing and hard-to-place odours that are part of the cinema experience.

Young folk I know, who can’t afford huge tellies and banks of speakers,  watched Lincoln, Zero Dark Thirty and Django Unchained before they’d even opened in Britain by ‘streaming’ them on to their computers from illegal internet sites.  The best movies are always available because copies are sent out prior to the Academy Awards.

The cinema experience has been changed, too, by blockbuster television serials. When was the last time you had a conversation about a movie? Ever since 24 and The Sopranos — not to mention Breaking Bad, the best of them, I’d say — TV box sets have become big talking points. 

It would be a shame if the cinema died, and I’m sure it won’t. For the young, it’ll always be a refuge from childish  TV-watching parents. And for watching rubbish movies that aren’t available for streaming or downloads.

 

Who doped TV presenter Ben Fogle, turning him into ‘a ranting, raving lunatic’? He says it happened after dining at a pub in the Cotswolds where they had ‘delicious food and a little wine. Nothing untoward or strange’.

He’s telling us about it because, ‘where  a singer  might include their heartache and pain in a song, I need to put it into words’.

As a weekend sojourner in the Cotswolds, it would be handy to know the name of the ‘small country restaurant where we had a lovely evening’ though.

Fogle, pictured with son Ludo, now three, says he was doped after dining at a pub in the Cotswolds

  A credit to the party?

Having failed to preside over an economic recovery and lost the nation’s  so-called triple AAA credit rating, mutinous voices in the Tory Party are calling for David Cameron to dump George Osborne.

Cameron loyalists say he’ll never do it. He and George are too close.

Leaders should never be dependent on subordinates, even if they are friends. There are no friends at his level in politics. Only colleagues who are useful to you.

Osborne must be asking himself if he’s harming the party’s chances of victory in 2015. If the answer is Yes, he’s honour-bound to resign. And not leave it to the last minute.

  Your Bali HighnessPrince Harry’s recent skiing companion, Cressida Bonas, isn’t in a rush to marry, a so-called friend informs the Sunday People. ‘Her mum divorced four times, so she’s not about to rush into anything.’ 

However, if she was going to get hitched, ‘she would like to do it barefoot on the beach at Bali with just her closest family and friends’.  

Including the Duke of Edinburgh, I hope. Wouldn’t you pay to see his Victor Meldrew visage on this happy occasion?

 

Former drug dealer Olufisayo Ogundimu, 28, was successful in persuading a court that he should not be deported to his native Nigeria because he had fathered a child here and has another on the way by a second woman. 

The rule of law is more important than politics. Is this the exception?