Why Can't We Be Trusted With The BBC Trust?

Why has Sir Michael Lyons been made Chairman of the new BBC Trust? Is it coz he's a Sir? Well, yes, pretty much, it is.

The license-payers in Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and each of the nine English regions should elect two of their number, politically independent, as Trustees, by voting for one candidate, with the top two declared elected at the end. I used to think that the Chairman could then be appointed by the Queen on the advice of the relevant Secretary of State and having received prior approval from the relevant Select Committee of the House of Commons. But why not just let the license-payers elect him or her, too, from between the two politically independent candidates nominated by the most license-payers in the country at large?

I have also started thinking about the whole notion of the BBC as a Trust. BBC local radio, and possibly also BBC Parliament, could easily be kept going by government grant, as the World Service already is. BBC Two, BBC Four, BBC News 24, possibly BBC Parliament (i.e., unless funded by government grant), and certainly Radio Three and Radio Four could be turned into a Trust, like the National Trust or the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, and governed as above. And each of the rest could be required to raise fifty per cent of its revenue commercially, or else go to the wall. Why ever not?