BBC run by organised crime, 21st Century Banksters?

[Whitehall_Bin_Men]

ORGANISED CRIME, 21st CENTURY BANKSTERS ARE KILLING THE BBC
What a rare moment of razor-sharp clarity this week as a spotlight was shone deep into the rotten heart of Westminster, Whitehall and the City of London.
The Daily Mail revealed, one day after her appointment, that new BBC chief, Rona Fairhead, is being sued for supervising the laundering of billions of dollars for the Mexican drug cartels.
From the Establishment dominated corporation there was not a hint of repentance, instead a secret gagging edict was issued to BBC staff not to mention or discuss the fact anywhere, specially on social media.
Rather than running the BBC as HSBC 'Head of Risk' Ms. Fairhead has just been appointed to do, the bank's crooked bosses should be being investigated by the corporation and prosecuted by Scotland Yard. Not only have the bank that was built on the illegal Hong Kong Shanghai opium trade committed every fraud in the book, they are also fleecing rail passengers in a cartel of three Rolling Stock Operating Companies (ROSCOs).
HSBC's rent seeking 'Eversholt Rail Group', has a virtual monopoly in leasing trains to privatised operating companies which mean British commuters pay up to ten times more than their continental counterparts to get to and from work every day.
Millions of Brits await the BBC Panorama documentary exposing Rona's firm's crimes but we better not hold our breath if she is allowed to take up her post.

LONDON AS MONEY LAUNDERING CAPITAL OF THE WORLD
Just last week former Scotland Yard Fraud Squad detective Rowan Bosworth-Davies revealed senior figures at the annual 'Cambridge Conference on Money Laundering' (CCML) presenting shocking evidence that the City of London is the money laundering capital of the world. The Cambridge revelations went entirely unreported in the London media revealing that, far from speaking truth to power, their role is now to prop up the City's dying reputation. Immunity from any laws has quietly, since the sabotaged 1992 "Blue Arrow" trial, become the City's "unique selling point".
The BBC and Parliament are aware of the poison senior bank executives bring. The chairman who dragged Barclays through billions of LIBOR fraud, Marcus Agius was forced to resign from the BBC Executive Board in 2013.
Worried banksters are sinking their teeth into top BBC committees like Komodo Dragons killing a great old Wildebeast.

CAN TV JOURNALISTS DISH DIRT ON THEIR BOSSES?
It's a tale eerily reminiscent of Channel 4's classic 1980s cyber punk series 'Max Headroom' which portrays the weekly adventures of beleaguered TV news reporter Edison Carter. Week after week Carter battled to tell stories of corporate corruption, often within his own ruthless 'Network 23' and their biggest advertiser, the 'Zik-Zak Corporation'.
Organised crime's biggest fears are to either be jailed, or outed on national television which is why bankster wealth has been desperate to buy the BBC off for decades.

CIVIL SERVANTS PAID BY THE PUBLIC TO WORK FOR THE ELITE
But the real devils of this perfidious litany are parliament's Culture Media and Sport select committee who appointed Ms. Fairhead. Not only did these MPs sign up to the trashing of the public interest putting a bankster fox in charge of the newsroom henhouse represents, they failed to notice Rona has no relevant experience whatever for the job.
DCMS civil servants who prepared papers for the committee must have known what crooked favours for crooked friends were passing across their desks, so they too are culpable.

TWENTY YEARS TO BRING A GREAT INSTITUTIONS TO ITS KNEES
Ever since Victor Rothschild and Margaret Thatcher conspired in 1987 to remove the brilliant Director General Alasdair Milne the move toward privatisation has been inexorable. When DG John Birt brought in 'Producer Choice' in 1990s the writing was on the wall. All BBC departments were 'marketized' with all contact between the corporation's compartments, eg. sport, local radio, continuity or reference library tracked and charged for. It was a control freak's charter.

HER MAJESTY'S OPPOSITION, NOTABLE BY ITS ABSENCE
Recently resigned BBC Chairman Chris Patten had a big personal financial finger in Bridgepoint, one of the private healthcare vultures currently devouring the National Health Service. Patten is a former chairman of the Conservative party who was roundly voted out as an MP in the 1990s by the good people of Bath in Somerset. Slated to replace him was another Tory, the former Olympic runner Lord Coe.
So where have Labour been while the Tory party have made the BBC their private property over the last decade? Silent.
Even when "the people's DG" Greg Dyke was sacked in 2003 for telling the truth about the "sexing up" of the Iraq "WMD" dossier we heard nothing from Labour. How, after all, could Tony Blair be wrong?

BBC - A TOOL OF THE TITANS
British journalism is already on its knees because of sweeping newsroom cutbacks, so a BBC controlled by banksters will see UK social justice dealt what may well be a final body blow. Pre recorded broadcast 'news' and newspaper desktop publishing also mean managers control what journalists are allowed to tell us like never before.
Post 9/11 'war footing' excuses for secret NSA/GCHQ hacking means the military can track journalists research as we prepare stories. Then the military can watch, word by word, in real time as we write and act to censor publication like never before.

THE 9/11 EFFECT: TARGETING DOMESTIC THOUGHT CRIMINALS
US newspapers exposed last week that there was "no legal basis" for George W. Bush's secret 2001 extension of the NSA's mass surveillance powers. Western governments have been using the "9/11 effect" to discard civil liberties right across the West. The real agenda of course is to increase military spending and destroy the very civil liberties our leaders pretend to hold dear.
In a "State of Emergency" the BBC Agreement provides for producers and journalists to be shut out of the corporation. Their jobs being done by Defence Ministry employees.
Freelance expert writers such as former ambassador Craig Murray and author of "Shredded" the expose of RBS, Ian Fraser have, since 9/11, found interviews cancelled at the last minute. Perhaps this is how the post 9/11 "war footing" BBC operates today? If GCHQ snoopers don't like an interviewee they simply tell the BBC to cancel it?

THE NERVE GAS OF RUPERT MURDOCH
As we found out from the 50 year long suppression of the Jimmy Savile paedophile story the establishment stranglehold on British journalism was already pretty tight.
As Pink Floyd's Roger Waters wrote in his Orwellian opera "The Wall", which still echoes round the world as an ambassador for British culture, "The [news]paper holds their folded faces to the floor. And every day the paper boy brings more". Yes indeed. There are indeed too many rich and ever more powerful people in the Western world, many of them criminals, who want the public to stay ignorant.
When the job of running Britain's national nervous system can go to someone with such an obvious personal interest in pumping it full of sarin gas, there can only be a few convulsions left, between here and tyranny.
The hour is late. Some creative oxygen must be pumped into Auntie's system before she keels over, leaving the English speaking world clear for the cancer that is Rupert Murdoch.
And yes, I am available

[Whitehall_Bin_Men]

Public appointments process needs major shake-up
http://t.co/Ny76u8jupK

[TonyGosling]

Revealed: Tax scandal-hit HSBC is paying an astonishing £513,000 in fees to BBC Trust chairman
Rona Fairhead paid '£10,000 a day' by bank accused of helping tax avoiders
Chairman of the BBC Trust was paid more than £500,000 by HSBC last year
Dwarfs the £110,000 she is paid to oversee BBC on licence fee payers' behalf
MPs have called for her to quit one of her posts due to 'conflicting interests'
By MILES GOSLETT and MARTIN BECKFORD and SIMON WATKINS FOR THE MAIL ON SUNDAY

PUBLISHED: 23:46, 28 February 2015 | UPDATED: 13:44, 1 March 2015
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2973908/Tax-scandal-hit-HSBC-p aying-astonishing-513-000-fees-BBC-Trust-chairman.html

The woman who leads the BBC is being paid a staggering £10,000 a day by the scandal-hit bank accused of helping millionaires to avoid paying tax.



The Mail on Sunday can reveal that Rona Fairhead – chairman of the BBC Trust – was paid more than £500,000 last year by HSBC for non-executive roles carried out working the equivalent of one day a week.

Last night MPs said the astonishing payment from the bank raised questions about her priorities, as it dwarfs the £110,000 salary she is paid to work the equivalent of three days a week to oversee the BBC on behalf of licence fee payers.

Scroll down for video


Salary: Rona Fairhead (pictured) – chairman of the BBC Trust – was paid more than £500,000 last year by HSBC for non-executive roles carried out working the equivalent of one day a week

And Mrs Fairhead's earnings don't stop there. She also earns £130,000 to be a non-executive director for American soft drinks giant PepsiCo.

The 54-year-old businesswoman was last night under pressure to quit one of her high-profile roles because of the competing demands on her time and fears over conflicts of interest.

Mrs Fairhead has faced criticism for her role as a non-executive director at HSBC after BBC1's Panorama programme broadcast damaging allegations that the bank's Swiss arm helped wealthy clients dodge millions of pounds in British taxes. HSBC then faced claims that it tried to influence media coverage.

Mrs Fairhead has so far declined to answer questions about what she knew about the Swiss bank's activities when she was the chairman of HSBC's audit committee.

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But she has also faced a grilling from MPs over allegations that HSBC allowed terrorists and Mexican drug cartels to launder millions of pounds, for which the bank was fined a record £1.2 billion in the US in 2012.

Last night the BBC insisted she had not taken part in any discussions about its coverage of the bank. But the tax evasion claims have been discussed at board level within HSBC. And if the bank complains about the BBC's reports, the Trust could be asked to adjudicate.

Critics said that Mrs Fairhead should choose between working for HSBC or the BBC Trust, which could be scrapped along with the licence fee by MPs.

Tory MP Andrew Bridgen said last night: 'Mrs Fairhead may claim she can cope with all these responsibilities but I think the licence fee payers will expect her to choose where her loyalties are ahead of the most important BBC charter renewal in its history.'


+1
Eclipsed: The massive fee HSBC paid Fairhead dwarfs the £110,000 salary she is paid to work the equivalent of three days a week to oversee the BBC on behalf of licence fee payers

Rona Fairhead answers questions at her pre-appointment hearing

And Labour MP Steve Rotheram, who sits on the Culture, Media and Sport Committee that quizzed Mrs Fairhead before her appointment, said: 'It's going to be very difficult for her to have two such high-profile jobs at the moment.

'Both institutions need to have a real focus on scrutiny.'

Mrs Fairhead, who was made a CBE in 2012 for 'services to industry', joined the board of HSBC in 2004. The married mother of three was chairman of its audit committee in 2007, when its Swiss subsidiary is alleged to have been involved in a tax-dodging scheme that deprived the British Government of millions of pounds.

She was then head of HSBC's risk committee in 2012 when the bank was fined £1.2 billion for breaching US money-laundering laws.

This newspaper can reveal that her pay packet from HSBC rocketed last year after she was appointed non-executive chairman of HSBC North America.

She received £494,000 in pay and £19,000 in benefits, including travel expenses to fly to chair meetings of the North American arm, despite only working 'maybe 50 days a year' by her own estimate.

She attended seven board meetings and four gatherings of the nominations committee last year.

Analysis of accounts published last week show the businesswoman also holds shares worth about £441,000 in the bank.

Mrs Fairhead took up another American boardroom role with PepsiCo a year ago, which takes up 25 days a year, and will receive annual pay and shares worth about £130,000.

Last June she was approached by head-hunters to apply for the vacant position of chairman of the BBC Trust, which is meant to set the broadcaster's strategy and hold TV executives to account, after Lord Patten of Barnes stood down following heart surgery.

Mrs Fairhead has taken over at a critical time for the future of the BBC. It must agree with the Government a new Royal Charter setting its size and purposes by the end of 2016. Just last week the cross-party Culture, Media and Sport Committee said the £145.50-a-year licence fee is outdated and that the BBC Trust should be replaced by a tougher external watchdog.

When Mrs Fairhead was grilled by MPs last September about where her priorities lay, she insisted the BBC position would not be a 'full-time executive role' but that she would put it ahead of her corporate interests if it came to the crunch.

HSBC documents show she intends to keep her role at the bank, and will stand again as a non-executive director at the bank's next annual general meeting next month.

A spokesman for Mrs Fairhead said: 'Rona was not at any time involved in any discussions at HSBC specifically about the bank's dealings with the BBC.' The BBC Trust said: 'Rona Fairhead has had absolutely no discussions with the BBC, either the executive or the editorial teams, about the HSBC coverage.' HSBC declined to comment.

Margaret Hodge, chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, called on Mrs Fairhead to say what she knew about the tax-avoidance claims. 'She's been very silent since the HSBC debacle broke, and I think she has got to answer questions.'

[TonyGosling]

BBC Trust vice-chair criticised over role in defence company
Campaigners say Sir Roger Carr should be ousted from corporation’s governing body due to his chairmanship of BAE Systems
BBC Trust vice-chairman Sir Roger Carr has been criticised over his role at BAE Systems
Rob Edwards
Friday 24 April 2015 11.40 BST Last modified on Friday 24 April 2015 11.42 BST
http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/apr/24/bbc-trust-vice-chair-sir- roger-carr-bae-systems

The head of a £16bn defence company accused of arming dictatorships should be ousted from the governing body of the BBC, say campaigners.

Sir Roger Carr, chairman of Europe’s biggest arms dealer, BAE Systems, is due to start work as vice-chairman of the BBC Trust on 1 May. But a campaign has been launched to get him sacked because of fears that he could influence BBC coverage of the arms trade.

A petition demanding his dismissal has been signed by more than 5,500 people, and is due to be handed in to BBC Broadcasting House in London on 30 April. “Arms industry executives have no place in public service broadcasting,” it says.

BAE Systems has sold weapons to Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Libya, United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, which have all been criticised for poor records on human rights. Saudi Arabia has reportedly used the company’s Eurofighters in recent attacks on Yemen.

“BAE Systems has made its money through arming dictatorships and human rights abusers around the world,” said Andrew Smith from Campaign Against Arms Trade, which is organising the petition.

“Carr is the public face of the company and is the last person who should be given the legitimacy of a role at the heart of public broadcasting. Not only does his appointment send out a terrible message, it also raises serious concerns about how the appointment might impact on the BBC’s coverage of the arms trade.”

Carr was appointed to the BBC Trust post, which pays £70,610 a year, for four years by ministers. He is a member of David Cameron’s Business Advisory Group.

As chairman of BAE Systems he earns £650,000 a year. He has previously chaired Thames Water, Cadbury and Centrica, and been deputy chairman of the Bank of England as well as a past president of the CBI.

The BBC Trust’s job is ensure that the BBC delivers its mission to “to inform, educate and entertain.” It sets strategic objectives and is “the guardian of licence fee revenue and of the public interest in the BBC”.

“Trustees have no influence over the editorial decisions taken at the BBC”, said a spokeswoman for the trust. “All decisions about editorial output are taken by the BBC executive.”

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport pointed out that candidates for the BBC Trust were asked to flag any conflicts of interest. “Where raised, these are discussed with the selection panel,” said a department spokesman. “There were no concerns in relation to Roger Carr.”

A spokeswoman for BAE Systems described the company as world class. “We are proud of the vital role we play in helping our customers safeguard national security,” she said.

“We operate to high standards of ethical business conduct as a responsible and trusted partner to legitimate governments following all applicable international defence export regulations.”

[TonyGosling]

Rona Fairhead: Friends in high places
City Insider 1 May 2015
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/2a1f556e-ef1d-11e4-87dc-00144feab7de.html
She might miss the £500,000 pay packet. But Rona Fairhead won’t miss the flak. HSBC announced at last Friday’s annual shareholder meeting that Ms Fairhead, a former CEO of the Financial Times group, will step down from her non-executive role at the bank next year. Until a few months ago, she had been expected to stay on. Then she got caught up in HSBC’s Swiss tax avoidance row. Parliament’s public accounts committee savaged her for failing to spot what was going on a decade ago. Committee chairwoman Margaret Hodge called her “either incredibly naive or totally incompetent” — a portrayal that has lost some of its sting since Ms Hodge was criticised over her family’s offshore tax arrangements. It was too late for Fairhead, though. Shareholders had been calling for her head, too.
Chairing the BBC Trust now becomes even more of a priority. Assuming no more skeletons emerge, she looks like she has fended off Hodge’s most barbed comment: “You should think about resigning [from the BBC too] and if not, I think the government should sack you.” Just as well. City Insider hears that her incoming vice-chairman, City veteran Sir Roger Carr, simultaneously chairman of BAE Systems, was only persuaded to take up the role on the assurance that Fairhead was secure in her job. A defence expert may make a handy sidekick, though.

[TonyGosling]

BBC is my priority, says trust chair Rona Fairhead
BBC Trust Chair and HSBC Director Rona Fairhead tells Cathy Newman the corporation is her priority "and that has been clear from the beginning".

http://www.channel4.com/news/bbc-is-my-priority-says-trust-chair-rona- fairhead

Ms Fairhead, who became chair of the BBC Trust in 2014, said "I am spending significant time with the BBC, helping get the BBC into this charter discussion, and absolutely at the heart of what I'm doing is focusing on the BBC as my primary focus."

The BBC charter is up for renewal at the end of 2016.

The HSBC director told Cathy Newman she thought it was right and appropriate that people have other areas of interest "because it keeps that sense of independence, otherwise you get into a little bit of 'group think'. But she stressed again that her focus was the BBC.

On her relationship with the HSBC bank, Ms Fairhead said she had extended her term there for one more year, until next April. "I've said I'm progressively stepping down."

And on the corporation's position, she thought the BBC enjoyed enormous support. "I don't think the public would be happy if the BBC were taken away from it," she said.




Channel 4's Cathy Newman Apologises After CCTV Footage Emerges Of Mosque Incident
The Huffington Post UK | By Jessica Elgot 06/02/2015 10:41 GMT Updated: 27/03/2015 20:59 GMT
Channel 4 presenter Cathy Newman has apologised after CCTV footage obtained by The Huffington Post UK appeared to contradict her claim that she was "ushered out of the door" of a London mosque on the weekend.

The South London Islamic Centre, where Newman claims she was turned away despite turning up wearing a headscarf, says surveillance video shows the reporter arriving at the mosque, being directed by a male congregant, but leaving alone through the courtyard.
#

[TonyGosling]

Mexican Drug Cartels – Money laundering – HSBC – New BBC Trust Chair Appointment Akin to Putting Bankster Foxes In Charge Of The BBC Henhouse

November 15, 2014 caltonjock ExposesBBC
BBC Trust chairman scandal – money laundering – HSBC $1.9bn fine – deferred prosecution agreement – What Next?
http://caltonjock.com/2014/11/15/mexican-drug-cartels-money-laundering -hsbc-new-bbc-trust-chair-appointment-akin-to-putting-bankster-foxes-i n-charge-of-the-bbc-henhouse/


1. Rona Alison Haig – Her career before the BBC trust chairman appointment

a. Rona Haig was born in Cumbria in 1961. Her parents are Scots who hailed from Edinburgh where their families were well connected in Scottish society. Educated at Yarm Grammar School, near Stockton-on-Tees, North East England before attending St Catharine’s College, Cambridge; she was president of the University’s law society before graduating with a double first in law (LL.B). She later obtained a Masters in Business Administration from Harvard Business School.

b. Haig’s early business career was spent at consultants Bain & Company. She was one of the 100-plus “Bainies” who worked on the notorious Guinness acquisition of Distillers. “It was a huge success aside from the scandal,” she says. http://fortune.com/2012/01/15/bain-a-consulting-firm-too-hot-to-handle -fortune-1987/ The business exposed one of the all-time financial scandals which resulted in Ernest Saunders, Chairman of Guinness and three other senior financial movers being jailed for corruption and fraud. Full report here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/1723136.stm


c. She also worked for Morgan Stanley, again in the 1980s, before she moved to British Aerospace as an independent consultant in 1991. Later in 1991 she moved to Short Brothers shortly after it was bought by Bombardier Inc. She rose to become vice-president for corporate strategy and public affairs in 1994 and then vice-president, UK aerospace services in 1995.

d. In 1996, she became director of planning and acquisitions for Imperial Chemical Industries before joining the company’s executive management team as executive vice-president for planning and communications in 1997, and continuing as executive vice-president for strategy and control from 1998 to 2001. From 2002 to 2006, Haig served as chief financial officer for Pearson PLC.

e. As Fairhead she moved to the Financial Times Group (a subsidiary of Pearson) in 2006 as chief executive. She oversaw the sale of several of the group’s other titles during her tenure. She also serves as a non-executive director on the boards of several large corporations, including HSBC Holdings and PepsiCo and as a “business ambassador” for UK Trade & Investment.

Rona Fairhead

f. She stepped down from her Financial Times role in 2013 after being overlooked for the position of Chair of the Pearson Group when the post was vacated by the previous incumbent, Marjorie Scardino. Her leaving package was estimated to be worth over £1 million in addition to stock options estimated at over £3 million—a contributing factor to a shareholder revolt at Pearson’s annual general meeting in April 2014. Comments in the press at the time:

“It’s unusual—rare, even—for the CEO of a major financial news and information concern to serve on the board of directors of a giant global bank. There’s a reason for that. Rona Fairhead, who heads the Financial Times Group, the unit of British publishing and education giant Pearson PLC that owns the Financial Times newspaper, sits on the board of HSBC, the banking behemoth now engulfed in a money-laundering and corporate-governance scandal.


Long story short, a Senate report this week found that HSBC let Mexican drug lords launder billions in blood money, intentionally helped rogue states, especially Iran, get around U.S. sanctions, and did business with an Al Qaeda-connected Saudi bank. That’s quite a list, and it’s just a partial one for the sake of brevity. So, the FT has to cover the HSBC scandal, while the CEO of its parent is on the board responsible for the bank’s oversight. Not helping matters, Fairhead chaired the board’s Audit Committee, which at the time, was broadly responsible for making sure management’s internal controls were adequate. Those systems failed, and amidst several law-enforcement investigations into its anti-money laundering controls, the bank created a Risk Committee, which Fairhead heads. The FT hasn’t mentioned its boss’s position in its coverage, though to be fair, no one else has either. But it’s the FT reporters who must report on a company that includes the boss on the board. – See more at: http://www.cjr.org/the_audit/when_a_news_executive_sits_on.php

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g. She and her husband Tom are close friends of George Osborne, his wife and the Tory party inner circle. They also readily mix with the Downton Abbey estate set in which they have one of their homes.

Downton Set

2. July 31 2014: The hunt for a new BBC Trust boss has become a mess

a. Two more leading candidates have pulled out of the race to become the new head of the BBC Trust amid accusations that the process has descended into a “mess”. Sir Howard Stringer, the former Sony chief executive, and Michael Portillo, the former Conservative defence secretary, were both approached about the role but decided not to apply. A total of nine candidates have now pulled out including Lord Coe, the Olympics chief who had been the Prime Minister’s preferred choice, Dame Marjorie Scardino, the former chief executive of Pearson, and Sir Peter Bazalgette, chairman of the Arts Council.

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b. Despite the setbacks Sir Jeremy Heywood, cabinet secretary, and leader of the UK’s civil service exercising his power decided to press on and will begin interviewing the remaining shortlisted candidates today. Sajid Javid, the Culture Secretary, believes that the shortlist remains “strong”. However Greg Dyke, the former director general of the BBC, said that the job is “unattractive” because the trust is likely to be abolished under the royal charter review in 2016.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/bbc/11001396/Greg-Dyke-H unt-for-BBC-Trust-boss-has-become-a-mess.html

money-graphics-2006_971205a

3. August 31 2014: Rona Fairhead named as the government’s favoured candidate to take over as BBC Trust chairman.

a. Fairhead, a non-executive director of HSBC and PepsiCo, (she chairs the bank’s North American board and sits on the nominations and risk committees) will be questioned by the Commons media committee before ministers make the final decision. If selected, she would make history by becoming the first female chairman of the trust.

bbc-trust_logo

b. Announcing the selection of Mrs Fairhead yesterday, Mr Javid appeared confident she had all the necessary attributes to take on the job. He said: “Rona Fairhead is an exceptional individual with a highly impressive career history. Her experience of working with huge multinational corporations will undoubtedly be a real asset at the BBC Trust. “I have no doubt she will provide the strong leadership the position demands and will prove to be a worthy champion of licence fee payers. “I am sure that under Rona’s leadership the BBC will continue to play a central role in informing, educating and entertaining the nation.”

c. Fairhead has strong Conservative Party political connections serving as a non-executive director at the Cabinet Office, a role she will be required to relinquish if her appointment is confirmed. Awarded a CBE in 2012 and appointed as one of the Prime Minister’s business ambassadors earlier this year she, at the start of her tenure of office will take on the difficult task of renegotiating the corporation’s funding agreement ahead of the new royal charter being granted in 2016. There is also likely to be a heated debate over the future of the licence fee, with many complaining that they should not have to pay the £145.50 annual levy.

MoS2 Template Master

d. Fairhead said: “The BBC is a great British institution packed with talented people, and I would be honoured to have the opportunity to be the chairman of the BBC Trust. “I am under no illusions about the significance and the enormity of the job but I am excited to have the chance to lead the BBC through the coming years.”. David Cameron will have a final official say on the appointment, ahead of formal approval from the Queen. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/bbc/11065639/Businesswom an-Rona-Fairhead-the-preferred-choice-for-next-BBC-Trust-chairman.html

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4. September 1 2014: Rona Fairhead to be the Chair of the Board of Trustees of the BBC – Excuse me but I am still reeling from shock

a. Rona Fairhead is Chair of HSBC North America Holdings Inc. According to Andrew Trotman in the Telegraph, at the time HSBC were fined $1.9bn in the US for money laundering, she was chair of the, “group risk committee” and was replaced in that role when the bank signed their deferred prosecution agreement.

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b. David Cameron approved her appointment (probably insisted on it). Remember it was David Cameron who made Stephen Green a Lord and trade minister, the man who was the Chair of HSBC Group at the time of the Mexican drug money laundering and sanctions busting/terrorist connections.

c. This is extraordinary arrogance by the establishment – to blatantly appoint people involved in such crimes. Laundering drug/terrorist money is not just about money and the law – it is about large scale murder, torture and human suffering. Rather than holding top positions in the establishment these people should be in prison.

HSBC-ali-baba-cave

d. I guess the appointment might help explain why 2 teams from Panorama; Newsnight, Moneybox and Radio5 Live have all looked with at the story and subsequently not reported it. They certainly won’t now.

e. I assume that Rona Fairhead will relinquish her role at HSBC on taking up the appointment, but given the arrogance of these people I wouldn’t bet on it. http://nicholaswilson.com/crime-pays-in-camerons-uk-plc/

hsbc-money-laundering-scandal-cartoon-optionsclick-blogart

5. September 1 2014: Rona Fairhead, the Government’s preferred candidate to take over as the BBC’s first female chairman faces a grilling from the Media Select Committee

a. Fairhead will appear before a Commons select committee next week before a final decision is reached over the BBC Trust role. The former head of the Financial Times group has been approved by the Prime Minister to succeed Lord Patten. If confirmed in the post, she will be paid £110,000 a year for a three-day working week.

Steve Bell 28.11.14

b. Tory MP Philip Davies, a member of the culture, media and sport select committee, said she faced questions over her role as a non-executive director on the board of banking giant HSBC. The banking group was fined £1.2billion in 2012 for breaching US money-laundering laws and was described as the ‘bank of choice’ for Mexican drug gangs. Mr Davies said: ‘I want to know what she knew about that scandal and what she did to try to prevent it and what she did to investigate it. ‘Second, there is a question mark over her lack of experience in broadcasting and the regulation of broadcasting, which are obviously key elements of being the BBC Trust chairman.’ Mr Davies added: ‘We need to ask if she only got the job because she is a woman. I am not saying that Rona Fairhead is the wrong candidate, but our job as a committee is to ask searching questions of any candidate who is put forward for this job.’

c. She could also face questions over her political links, having been appointed as a British business ambassador by David Cameron earlier this year. She is also a non-executive member of the Cabinet Office board but will stand down if her selection to chair the BBC Trust is confirmed. Cabinet Secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood was on the preliminary interview panel for candidates for the BBC Trust role. After questioning Mrs Fairhead on Tuesday of next week, members of the Commons select committee will vote on whether they believe she is a suitable candidate and their decision will be put before Mr Cameron for final approval.

Cameron Largess
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2739365/City-executive-set-BBC -s-female-chairman-face-grilling-MPs-role-HSBC.html

6.September 10 2014: Preferred BBC Trust chair candidate Rona Fairhead defends licence fee during CMS committee appearance

a. Businesswoman Rona Fairhead told MPs on the Culture, Media and Sport Committee she was not “an establishment figure” and shrugged off reports she had been offered the job because the Government wanted a woman in the role. She said she had been approached by head-hunters and had not discussed her application with anyone in the Government, saying: “I felt the process was, for my mind, a standard process.”

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b. Fairhead said the BBC’s governance structure was “very complex”, but added: “If I didn’t think it was workable at all, I wouldn’t have taken on the role”. She told MPs the licence fee was the “most appropriate way to fund” the corporation. She said: “When I look at the current system on a licence fee basis, I think there are some very, very, significant benefits of the licence fee. It ensures independence, it ensures a universal service for a universal fee and I think it ensures creative freedom.”

c. The former chief executive of the Financial Times group is the Government’s “preferred candidate” to head up the Trust. Asked by committee member Philip Davies MP if she was “an establishment figure”, she said: “I would not have counted myself as an establishment figure and I hope through this process you’ll see I’m independent of mind and view.”

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d. Fairhead said there was “very little doubt” the BBC “has had a tough time over recent years” but it remained “a vitally important institution in the UK”. She refused to comment on whether her immediate predecessor, a former Conservative MP, had done a good job and said she had never “been politically active”. She told MPs her husband had been a Conservative councillor, adding: “But it’s not my husband applying for this role, it’s myself.”

e. Fairhead, who confirmed she received a pay-off of more than £1m when she left her previous role at Pearson, said criticism of excessive pay-offs at the BBC had been “legitimate”. The corporation was heavily criticised over excessive payouts given to senior staff including £470,000 to former director general George Entwistle after only 54 days in the job and £680,000 to former chief operating officer Caroline Thomson. Deputy director general Mark Byford departed the BBC with a total payout of £949,000. Fairhead said her pay-off was “clearly a lot of money”, adding: “I’m not going to apologise that I came from the private sector but I think when you’re in the public sector world you have to look at funding through a different lens.”

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f. Alternatives to the BBC’s traditional funding method have been proposed by politicians, performers and former corporation staff in the run-up to the renewal of its charter, which expires in 2016. In May, Culture Secretary Sajid Javid said “everything” would be looked at, including licence fees and governance structures, when negotiations get under way. Senior Tories have previously called the compulsory annual charge made to viewers – currently frozen at £145.50 a year – out of date and warned it faces the axe but BBC executives insist a subscription system could end up costing more money. The renewal negotiations will take place on the back of a torrid few years that have seen the corporation lambasted for its handling of the Jimmy Savile scandal, massive executive pay-offs and a Newsnight investigation that led to the late Lord McAlpine being wrongly accused of child abuse. http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/preferred-bbc-trust-chair-candidate-rona -fairhead-defends-licence-fee-during-cms-committee

7. September 2014: Rona Fairhead. The BBC’s chairman-elect is being sued over her involvement in the HSBC money-laundering scandal.

a. Rona Fairhead, who is set to become the first woman to lead the corporation, had her appointment approved by MPs yesterday. But hours after the Commons hearing it emerged the 53-year-old is facing a class action lawsuit by HSBC shareholders over allegations the bank allowed terrorists and Mexican drug cartels to launder money. Mrs Fairhead chaired the bank’s ‘risk committee’ in 2012, when it was fined £1.2billion by US authorities to settle allegations that it allowed drug traffickers to launder millions of pounds. The bank was also accused of breaching sanctions against Cuba, Iran, Libya, Burma and Zimbabwe.

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b. Michael Mason-Mahon, an HSBC shareholder who filed the case in a New York court on May 7, said it would be an ‘obscene joke’ to appoint Mrs Fairhead to head the BBC given her senior role at the bank. He wants the US courts to force her and 88 other directors to repay the fines the bank incurred over the scandal. He said: ‘Mrs Fairhead’s credentials are great, as long as you ignore what she’s done at HSBC for the past ten years. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2750024/New-BBC-chief-sued-all egations-HSBC-laundered-terrorists-drug-cartels-money-time-chairman-ba nk-s-risk-committee.html

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8. September 12 2014: Putting the bankster foxes in charge of the BBC henhouse

a. What a rare moment of razor-sharp clarity this week as a spotlight was shone deep into the rotten heart of Westminster, Whitehall and the City of London. The Daily Mail revealed, one day after her appointment, that new BBC chief, Rona Fairhead, is being sued for supervising the laundering of billions of dollars for the Mexican drug cartels. From the Establishment dominated corporation there was not a hint of repentance, instead a secret gagging edict was issued to BBC staff not to mention or discuss the fact anywhere, specially on social media. Rather than running the BBC as HSBC ‘Head of Risk’ Ms. Fairhead has just been appointed to do, the bank’s crooked bosses should be being investigated by the corporation and prosecuted by Scotland Yard.

b. Not only have the bank that was built on the illegal Hong Kong Shanghai opium trade committed every fraud in the book, they were also fleecing rail passengers in a cartel of three Rolling Stock Operating Companies (ROSCOs). HSBC owned until 2010 ‘Eversholt Rail Group’, which has a virtual monopoly in leasing trains to privatised operating companies which mean British commuters pay up to ten times more than their continental counterparts to get to and from work every day. Millions of Brits await the BBC Panorama documentary exposing Rona’s firm’s crimes but we better not hold our breath if she is allowed to take up her post. http://rt.com/op-edge/187340-bbc-911-money-tv/

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9. October 9 2014: Rona Fairhead, former head of the Financial Times Group, has been officially confirmed as the chairwoman of the BBC Trust.

a. The new chair remains a non-executive director of both HSBC and PepsiCo. As the first woman to be appointed, Rona Fairhead had to answer MP’s questions about her ability to look after her children if she took on the extra workload and about her husband’s political affiliations. She also refuted the implication that she had been favoured for the role because she is a woman – Is gender important to the trust role? “No, it should be the person who has skills for role.” – If it is true that PM Cameron preferred a woman for the role he did indeed get his wish on gender and merit. Fairhead is widely accepted as a worthy choice and a strong leader.

10. November 13 2014: BBC Trust Chairman, (chairman of HSBC North America Holdings Inc) caught up in bank scandal

a. The new, £110,000, part-time BBC Trust chairman, Rona Fairhead – there to keep the Corporation honest – must be embarrassed by HSBC’s multi-million-pound fine for rigging foreign exchange markets. She is a highly-paid non-executive director of the bank in Britain and chairman of HSBC North America, which in 2012 was fined $1.9billion by US authorities for failing to implement money-laundering controls. I hope this doesn’t deter the BBC from opening this can of worms.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2832466/EPHRAIM-HARDCASTLE-N ew-BBC-Trust-chairman-embarrassed-HSBC-s-fine.html

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11. October 21 2014: BBC Trust chair and culture secretary give evidence to the Commons culture, media and sport committee

a. Grilled on the future of the BBC. Culture Secretary Sajid Javid says a “fresh look” at BBC governance model is needed and he is “ruling nothing out” looking at future funding options for the BBC but the Royal Charter will remain in place, other options risk threat to independence.

b. Fairhead denies “going native” after just two weeks in the role but says the controversial plan to move BBC3 online only “in and of itself good”
http://www.theguardian.com/media/live/2014/oct/21/bbc-trust-chairwoman -rona-fairhead-commons-committee-live

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12. November 7 2014: MP’s write to BBC Tust chairman asking that all Political parties be included in the 2015 election television debates. https://www.snp.org/sites/default/files/news/file/cross_party_letter_t o_bbc_trust.pdf

13. Thomas Fairhead Husband of Rona Haig. fingers in many pies.

a. His family tree can be traced back to the 13th century. Major landowners in Essex and the south East of England – Tory party – major figures in London financial markets http://www.fairhead.org.uk/histories/essexfarmers.pdf

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b. Tom is chief executive of Campbell Lutyens. a group of private companies focused on building materials and waste management and renewables infrastructure. He is an Honorary Alderman of The Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea, a London Borough which is one of the few European public authorities rated AAA by Standard & Poors, and for 6 years from 2004 to 2010 he was the Cabinet Member with responsibility for its finances. Previously he had spent ten years at Credit Suisse First Boston specialising in international mergers and acquisitions and in technical and financial engineering.

c. September 15 2014: But the neighbours are not happy. Tom Fairhead, plans to construct a huge waste centre in rural Essex, to the horror of the locals.

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d. New BBC Trust chairman Rona Fairhead, won over MPs when she was grilled at Westminster last week, but her husband Tom needs to embark on his own charm offensive. His company, Gent Fairhead, plans to construct a huge waste centre in rural Essex, to the horror of the locals. Mirroring a storyline from BBC radio drama The Archers, the plans include a controversial anaerobic digestion plant, which treats organic waste to create electricity. Opponents point to the smell and noise, as well as heavy vehicles coming in and out of the plant, which will be one of the largest waste facilities in Europe.

e. James Abbott, a Green Party councillor, leading opposition to the waste centre. ‘The Fairheads are big landowners who are trying to urbanise and industrialise this area. I own land myself, but I want to keep it countryside.’ the proposed plant, at RAF Rivenhall, a disused Second World War airfield near Braintree, will handle more than 800,000 tonnes of industrial and commercial waste. Abbott opposes the size of the plant, arguing that waste will be brought in from around the country and Europe to a location that is completely unsuitable. He claims up to 400 vehicle movements a day will be added to a busy A-road that is already a hotspot for collisions.

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f. Ex-merchant banker Tom is a former Tory councillor in Kensington and Chelsea, who lives with Rona in a £4million home in West London. They are said to be friendly with Chancellor George Osborne and his wife, Frances. They also rent a home in the grounds of Highclere Castle — where Downton Abbey is filmed — in Hampshire. ‘He is from a big land-owning family in the area and yet not one of the Conservatives who control the county council declared an interest,’ says Abbott. ‘It could be that none of them know him, but I’d be surprised.’

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g. A spokesman for Fairhead’s project team has said it is committed to sustainability. ‘The project will provide a fully integrated state-of-the-art recycling and recovery facility,’ he said. ‘Work that has been completed over the past few years has developed a design that promotes best technology and environmental sustainability.’
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2757054/SEBASTIAN-SHAKESPEAR E-BBC-chief-s-husband-stink-waste-centre-Essex.html#ixzz3IzJhJL1b

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