Kamal Ahmed v John Sweeney

The BBC aren't so much having an embarrassment of riches at the moment, rather a richness of embarrassments.

Having been largely out of action for the past week, I half-missed the headlong fall into the Slough of Embarrassment suffered by Kamal Ahmed, the BBC's £205,000-a-year editorial director, but it's well worth catching up with. There was an outcry after it was revealed that he took a £12,000 speaking fee for addressing an Aberdeen Standard Investments (ASI) event. He then apologised and waived his fee.

Fascinatingly, the man leading the charge against him was none other than 'Roaring' John Sweeney who christened his former colleague 'Mr Bung'.

Here's a very small sample of 'Roaring' John's output on the matter:

• While BBC colleagues are losing their jobs, Kamal Ahmed trousers £12,000 from hedge fund. He is the Editorial Director of the BBC and is paid £200,000 a year. This is wrong, a kind of soft-core corruption and he should repay the money, then resign.
• Thread: #Kamalbunggate. TV's Mr Bung reverse-trousering of £12,000 from hedge fund is not the end of the story. There is a conflict between BBC's and Mr Bung's version. On Sunday BBC told Mail that @bbckamal "had not broken any rules..." /1
• "... because he agreed to appear when in his previous role of BBC Economics Editor, where he could receive payment for outside work." Mr Bung emailed BBC bosses today: "Some months ago I accepted a paid-for event to speak at a conference entitled “Investing for the Future”... 2/
• ..hosted by Aberdeen Standard Investments. As the former Economics Editor..." The discrepancy is that The BBC said the bung was offered b4 he became Ed Director in 2018. But now Mr Bung admits the offer was made after he was BBC Ed Dir. Liar, liar, pants on fire, Mr Bung. 3/

Ouch!