Costs of scandal

Published on 19/11/2012 00:00

SO Lord McAlpine is to be compensated for defamation. The former Conservative Party treasurer and party fundraiser acknowledges that it will be the BBC licence payers from whom his £185,000 payback will come.

Maybe a more magnanimous reaction would have been to decline this sum or redirect it to compensate the victims of the care homes abuse.

Admittedly, the temporarily defamed ennobled member of the McAlpine building empire family was himself a victim. As such, he is deserving of sympathy at least.

However, the BBC licence payers have become victims too in all this scandalous maelstrom.

While high earners in the BBC quit their posts, there has been no high-level demand that victim recompense should be funded by any erring high earners.

Former director-general George Entwhistle exits with what even David Cameron deemed a lavish overpayment. The legal people have probably bolstered already big bank accounts. Some are saying Britain is in a fiscal crisis.

It certainly isn’t suffering from a surplus of magnanimity.

Ian Johnstone

Forman Drive

Peterhead