Non-Welsh speaker appointed as Wales’ BBC Board member for first time in 60 years
Martin Shipton
A row has blown up over the appointment of a new BBC board member for Wales who cannot speak Welsh.
The appointment of businessman Michael Plaut is the first time for nearly 60 years that a non-Welsh speaker will have held such a role on the BBC’s governance body.
In his book Broadcasting and the BBC in Wales, the historian John Davies wrote about how the last non-Welsh speaker to be appointed as Wales governor for the BBC was Rachel Jones, a Conservative from Brecon, who held the post from 1960 to 1965.
The wife of the Dean of Brecon, she had lived mostly in Australia. When she was appointed all members of the Broadcasting Council for Wales bar one announced it was unacceptable, and three resigned in protest.
Political appointment
It has also been alleged that his arrival amounts to a political appointment, with the Privy Council having approved it on Wednesday May 22 – the day before the general election was called.
Mr Plaut has been appointed for a four year term from June 1 2024 to 31 May 2028. A statement issued by the UK Government’s Department of Culture Media and Sport said: “Michael is a Welsh business leader with extensive executive and non-executive leadership experience in the commercial and non-profit sectors.
He has advised governments in both Westminster and Cardiff Bay on the Welsh economy and Welsh business. Michael has appeared regularly in the media commenting on business and economic issues pertaining to Wales. A global exporter, Michael is widely travelled and brings an international perspective.
“He is a former Chair of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) Wales, he is Chair of the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama and a Governor of the University of South Wales. Michael was born and brought up in Wales. He started his career as an investment banker in London before returning to Wales to lead a Wales based company. He was awarded an OBE for services to business and entrepreneurship. By invitation of the Secretary of State for Wales, he chaired Building a More Prosperous Wales, a report for the UK Government on the Welsh economy. Michael lives and works in Wales.”
The statement added: “The base fee for all BBC non-executive directors is £33,000 per annum. A committee chair fee of £5,000 is paid on top of the base fee for chairing one of the permanent committees of the Board.
“This appointment has been made in accordance with the Cabinet Office’s Governance Code on Public Appointments. The appointments process is regulated by the Commissioner for Public Appointments.
“Under the Code, any significant political activity undertaken by an appointee in the last five years must be declared. This is defined as including holding office, public speaking, making a recordable donation, or candidature for election. Michael Plaut OBE has not declared any significant political activity.”
‘Thrilled’
BBC Chair Samir Shah said: “I’m thrilled to welcome Michael Plaut to the board. His experience across business, governance and the arts in Wales will make him a valuable addition, and I look forward to working with him.”
The BBC Board consists of 14 members, including the Chair. Four non-executive members are appointed by the UK Government to represent each of the nations of the UK.
The BBC appoints a further five non-executive members and the four BBC executives including the BBC Director-General, Tim Davie.
The board is responsible for ensuring the BBC fulfils its mission and public purposes as set out in the Charter. This includes setting the strategic direction for the BBC; the creative remit; budgets for UK public services and the World Service; a framework to assess performance; standards for editorial and creative output and services; a framework for handling complaints; a policy on the distribution of UK public services; and a strategy and governance arrangements for the BBC’s commercial activities.
The board also considers any proposals for material changes to UK public services or trading activities and commercial activities.”
Outspoken
In the past Mr Plaut has made outspoken criticisms of the Welsh Government from a right wing perspective. In 2021 he told the Daily Telegraph: “Wales has to stop depending on England to ‘bail us out’.” He said that the decision not to continue with the project to build the M4 relief road in Newport showed that there was no desire within the Welsh Government to ensure that Wales could pay its own way.
“We’re not heading in the right direction if we want to build a prosperous future for the nation,” he said. “At the moment, Wales is becoming less and less attractive as a destination to either run a business or to relocate a business.
“For many years, Wales hasn’t stood on its own two feet, economically. So business has become irrelevant to the politicians in Wales.
“We can’t rely on money from England. If you look at the Welsh budget, Wales spends far more than we get. We can’t continue expecting England to bail us out.
“It’s just an attitude change to actually welcome business. To not see business as the enemy, but to see business as the answer to producing a prosperous future.”
There appeared to be a discrepancy between statements issued by the Welsh Government and the UK Government.
‘Strong knowledge’
A Welsh Government spokesperson said: “We are part of the advisor assessment panel. Applicants for the role of Wales board member must be able to demonstrate a strong knowledge of the culture, characteristics and affairs of the people of Wales; an understanding of views of audiences and public opinion in Wales; an understanding of media production in Wales in both the Welsh and English languages, as well as the ability to bring an external perspective to the BBC’s partnerships in Wales, including with the Welsh language broadcaster S4C.”
Yet the DCMS said: “Mr Plaut was found appointable for the role by an Advisory Assessment Panel, including an Independent Panel Member and representative from the Welsh Government. The role specification did not specify Welsh language skills.”
A source in the Welsh broadcasting industry said: “This appointment is an insult to Wales. It is appalling that it was slipped through just before a general election was called. It seems clear from the criteria for the role that the person to be appointed should be a Welsh speaker. Much of the output of BBC Wales is in the Welsh language, for Radio Cymru and S4C. How can a non-Welsh speaker have an understanding of Welsh language production if they can’t speak Welsh?
“It also seems clear that the present UK Government wanted to appoint someone sympathetic to their view of the world before a general election they are expected to lose.”
Another source suggested that the advisory panel had put forward two “appointable” candidates, but that one had dropped out.
Plaid Cymru spokesperson for Culture, Heledd Fychan MS said:”While fully recognising that Mr Plaut has valuable skills for the role, it’s nonetheless surprising that it is not currently one which explicitly demands the ability to speak Welsh given the need to be a voice for Welsh language culture and S4C.
“We would expect this to be a requirement to ensure that anyone in the role is able to fully represent Welsh media and broadcasters on behalf of the people of Wales.”
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Conservative sticking the boot in at the last minute. Top down interference from and for the Tory Party is obvious across the BBC political reporting, this looks to be getting worse at a local level (already signs).
Agree with you. Time to defund the BBC. It is a relic of the past.
BBC is a fantastic organisation. UK needs a funded public broadcaster. The politcial interference is huge but then you get absolute jewels like Blue Planet and the latest offering from BBC carry the harm we are doing tp the planet. That will not land well with the far right think tank. Sorry, I mean UK government.
That’s one programme. The compulsory tax is from a bygone age. NETFLIX SKY NOW AMA,ON are the future.
No, really no. Netflix is a poor model for a good reach in the UK. The aerial distribution is far greater than IP. There are many other programs and the politics of the BBC used to be good before it was wrecked (so it can get good again). But with the BBC you get local reporting (OK, Tory led meddling is causing cutbacks, money to S4C has gamed to do this). You get news, local news, local radio, national radio, and you dont need to pay to listen to radio. You get reporters at courts and so on. You get… Read more »
S4c does itself no favours. We need pay to view.
With right-wing bigot Michael Plaut anti-Wales attitude, and how he states English money keeps us afloat as a country lie, forgetting that we as a country haemorrhage tens of billions to England with our water resource that’s syphoned from North & Mid Wales to quench the thirst of the English Northwest & Midlands, putting him on the board of BBC Wales is like employing Benjamin Netanyahu as peace envoy.
Didn’t someone employ Tony Blair as middle east peace envoy, which is probably why its in such a mess now?
Wales still has huge deposits of Gold too, but we aren’t allowed access to them unless we agree to sell it to England! And their German royals. Because we dont, they do it anyway, they are Germanics so they can get away with virtually anything.
In a land where the chattering classes of neo labour media luvies appoint each other or top media roles move from grandfather to son and then on to grandson or indeed father to daughter – this need not supprise us. This guy and his dad have been active in Welsh life and certainly far from hostile to our culture.
He however now needs to demonstrate a comitment to our needs as a nation and we deserve the same linquistic support that is given to the languages of his familys heritage.
Never heard of him. Has he any experience of the media? How can he have any understanding of Welsh language output?
He has had enough time to learn Welsh with all the Welsh jobs he’s had.
He comes across as yet another plastic Welshman desperate to talk down our nation. I thought that, in 2024, we had gone past the stage where the appointment of these stooges take place. Sadly, we are going backwards in many respects.
Defund the BBC fund Welsh broadcasting from Welsh subs riptions. Problem solved simples.
Unfortunately the last incumbent despite being a Welsh speaker did SFA to protect BBCWales which under her watch lost its autonomy , and was/is run from Bristol now. You can see the decline over the last 10 yrs – less programmes about Wales, not broadcast during peak times/ no programmes on our culture and arts/ hardly any journalism or current affairs/ and BBC production responsible for dramas that are filmed in Wales but not a reflection of life in Wales. There is no BBC Wales controller anymore, only bureaucrats. It is a shell company. Which is a pity because it… Read more »
Yes, our culture is a problem for the Anglo and their theft of our British nation hood (Wales is the inheritance of Britain when it was controlled by the Britons), We must resist as long as we can. Making sure our culture isn’t seen on screen is just one aspect of how they keep eyes off our nation. This is why they can’t stand seeing Wales qualify for tournaments in sports. They Can’t control it but they can see how we are seen, and do everything they can to put us down in the eyes of others. Another example is… Read more »
Yes that’s why we should be paying to watch our Welsh programmes. Nothing to do with thUK then. Defund the BBC.
And just like that, they have resumed their attacks on our culture, this is why the unionists don’t want to be beholden to international laws, so they can resume their millennia old attacks on the British culture, no not English! What they call Welsh is the true British culture.
Look there are more Jones’ Evanses’ and Morgan’s in England than Wales and are they not British.