Thread by @Anoosh_C

After 60 years at the BBC, David Dimbleby seems to be relishing speaking his mind - he tells me:

- He was going to apply for BBC chairman to "stop Boris Johnson" appointing Charles Moore, and challenge him to "a public debate about the role of the BBC"

newstatesman.com/politics/uk/20…

- Dimbleby says it's "anti-democratic" for ministers to avoid news programmes, and this led to a “slight decline in the quality” of his Question Time panels

- Slams Boris Johnson for a "dereliction of duty, & an ignorance about the job of a politician"

newstatesman.com/politics/uk/20…

- Dimbleby calls Dom Cummings & co "the clever clogs who know how to win by deceit", & "propagandist forces around people who crave political power, like Johnson clearly did"

- Says voters should "mark down" politicians like Johnson who avoid interviews

newstatesman.com/politics/uk/20…

- Dimbleby says the government is “floundering and incompetent in all kinds of ways” over Covid-19 response, and was “slow off the mark”.

- Mocks "world-beating" rhetoric and predicts voters will be "weary of cheery flag-waving" come the next election.

newstatesman.com/politics/uk/20…

- Dimbleby is sceptical of new director-general Tim Davie's intention to make BBC less "metropolitan".

- Calls it "lunacy" and "tokenism" when they moved Question Time to Glasgow.

- Says the real diversity problem is "white hegemony" in BBC management

newstatesman.com/politics/uk/20…