Bbc

David Owen said it was time for Britain to leave the EU. Speaking this morning, the SDP founder said Brexit was a way of restructuring Europe in the way it needed to be. Owen went on to say there was no need for Britain leaving behind the EU to be a damaging process: Dame Janet Smith published her review into Jimmy Savile at the BBC. She said the management structure of the BBC was deeply referential. Janet Smith - whose report was criticised as an 'expensive whitewash' - said staff didn't speak out 'because they felt it was not their place': The BBC's Lord Hall said it was a 'grim period' of the corporation's history.

Trying to navigate your way through the internecine wars in the Conservative Party over the referendum? Please allow the BBC’s Political Editor Laura Kuenssberg to help. This was her intro on the BBC website yesterday: Silence abhors a vacuum, and forgive me if you are not a fan of political conspiracy, and on a day like today you don't have to look very far for huge ideological disputes, even if they're not quite yet punch-ups. Good, glad that’s clear, then. A sentence which is a string of non-sequiturs kicked off with a remarkable image. Does silence abhor a vacuum? I suppose it might abhor a vacuum cleaner, because they can be terribly noisy. This fabulous piece of illiteracy was spotted by Jim, a friend of mine. Credit where due etc.

Over the weekend a number of Brexit activists walked out of an anti-EU Grassroots Out rally after George Galloway was revealed as the guest speaker. Although the Respect party leader was introduced by his new chum Nigel Farage at the event, even Ukip supporters voiced opposition to his involvement. So when Galloway appeared on today's Daily Politics, it wasn't out of the question that the presenter Jo Coburn might bring up the incident. Alas her attempt to ask him about whether his involvement could prove to a divisive issue fell flat, as Galloway took issue with her line of questioning. An excruciating exchange between the two followed: JC: But are you worried that you might be turning off some people who would like to support Grassroots Out?

Since Robert Peston departed the BBC to join ITV as their new political editor, he has taken a relaxed approach when it comes to workwear. Earlier this month he raised eyebrows when he wore a cap and a faux fur coat for a news broadcast. Now the Tory MP Nicholas Soames has called him out over his casual fashion sense. The incident occurred after Peston attempted to compliment Soames on a disparaging tweet the Tory grandee had written about John Redwood, the Conservative MP: https://twitter.com/Peston/status/699254208785162241 Alas Soames -- who is Winston Churchill's grandson -- wasn't having any of it, and soon replied telling Peston to 'get a haircut, put on a tie and generally smarten up': https://twitter.

In 2000, the then Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown, accused Magdalen College, Oxford, of class bias in failing to admit a student called Laura Spence, a pupil at a Tyneside comprehensive. This was grossly unfair — how could the Chancellor know the details of a particular case? It was also outrageous in principle: why should a politician tell a university whom to admit? This Sunday, David Cameron did much the same thing. In the middle of his EU negotiations, the migrant crisis and the other genuinely important things the Prime Minister must deal with, he found time to offer an article to the Sunday Times, headlined ‘Watch out, universities; I’m bringing the fight for equality to you’.

While Hilary Benn has been called a lot of names in recent months by hard-left activists after he voted in favour of airstrikes in Syria, Mr S suspects that the moniker given to him on tonight's episode of Newsnight will be a first. Introducing an interview with Benn on the war in Yemen, Newsnight's Evan Davis appeared to be feeling creative with regards to the shadow foreign secretary's name -- referring to him as 'Hilary Big Benn': 'And a little earlier I spoke to the shadow foreign secretary Hilary Big Benn and I began by asking him what he wants the British government to do now in light of the criticisms in the report.' Mr S commends Davis for managing to keep a straight face until the end.

Even though Robert Peston has only been in his new job as ITV's political editor for little more than a week, he has already managed to slip-up. On top of experiencing difficulties getting into the ITV building, the former BBC economics editor -- who Marr once described as a man ‘crippled by a sense of his own lack of self-worth’ -- managed to refer to Liz Kendall as 'Liz Corbyn' during one of his first broadcast interviews. However, should any of his former BBC colleagues struggle to take him seriously, they may now need to reconsider. With relations between Labour and the BBC at an all-time low over accusations of anti-Corbyn bias, ITV look set to cash in on their rival's ongoing feud.