Skip to main content
Donate to the 95 years appeal
The BBC’s elitism problem
Auntie’s offices are still packed to the rafters with private school-educated appointees, says STEPHEN ARNELL
BBC Broadcasting House in London, January 21, 2020

DATA taken from Independent Schools Council’s 2023 census records 554,316 pupils currently attending private schools in the UK, around 5.9 per cent of all school attendees in the country.

Privately educated BBC staff now occupy at least a third of Auntie’s highest-paid posts, including ex-Tory council candidate director-general Tim Davie and chief content officer Charlotte Moore.

Davie attended Croydon’s elite Whitgift School, while Moore boarded at Grade II listed Wycombe Abbey, an independent girls’ boarding school in Buckinghamshire.

New face, same suit

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
More from this author
Roosevelt mixing ideologies in his speeches in this 1912 editorial cartoon by Karl K Kneecht (1883–1972) in the Evansville Courier; (below) Cover of the 16-page 1912 campaign booklet with the platform of the new Progressive Party
Features / 13 August 2025
13 August 2025

STEPHEN ARNELL casts a critical eye over the sudden rash of challenges to the two-party system on both sides of the Atlantic, noting that today’s performative populist politics sadly lacks Roosevelt’s progressive ‘Bull Moose’ vision of the early 20th century

Party leader Nigel Farage speaks during a Reform UK press conference in Royal Horseguards Hotel, London, July 21, 2025
Features / 26 July 2025
26 July 2025

While Spode quit politics after inheriting an earldom, Farage combines MP duties with selling columns, gin, and even video messages — proving reality produces more shameless characters than PG Wodehouse imagined, writes STEPHEN ARNELL

Crowds watch Kneecap performing on the West Holts Stage during the Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm in Somerset. Picture date: Saturday June 28, 2025
Media / 8 July 2025
8 July 2025

The fallout from the Kneecap and Bob Vylan performances at Glastonbury raises questions about the suitability of senior BBC management for their roles, says STEPHEN ARNELL

The Channel 4 logo outside offices in Horseferry Road, London
Features / 25 June 2025
25 June 2025

With the news of massive pay rises for senior management while content spend dives STEPHEN ARNELL wonders when will someone call out the greed of these ‘public service’ executives

Similar stories
Crowds watch Kneecap performing on the West Holts Stage during the Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm in Somerset. Picture date: Saturday June 28, 2025
Media / 8 July 2025
8 July 2025

The fallout from the Kneecap and Bob Vylan performances at Glastonbury raises questions about the suitability of senior BBC management for their roles, says STEPHEN ARNELL

The Channel 4 logo outside offices in Horseferry Road, London
Features / 25 June 2025
25 June 2025

With the news of massive pay rises for senior management while content spend dives STEPHEN ARNELL wonders when will someone call out the greed of these ‘public service’ executives

A group of people thought to be migrants, including young ch
Features / 9 November 2024
9 November 2024
RAVISHAAN RAHEL MUTHIAH condemns Labour’s £75m border security plan as deaths in Channel reach record highs, arguing that instead, Britain should reopen safe, legal routes for migrants