Don't you know who I am?

A curious development in the BBC-Carol Thatcher rumpus. Norman Tebbit weighed into the debate today in his usual measured and balanced view, claiming the BBC took the decision to "sack" Carol Thatcher from The One Show because she is Margaret Thatcher's daughter.

It would certainly be an ironic twist for Thatcher Jr to be denied work because of her mother, as I always thought it was the other way around - her modest talents enjoyed exposure beyond any reasonable expectation because mummy was PM.

Leaving aside the absurdity of the BBC waiting until now for 'revenge' (for what, I am not sure, and having broadcast at least three fawning programmes about her premiership in the intervening years), I can think of at least two reasons why this can't be true:

1) Most people who work in TV, it seems to me, are about 21 years old. So the most likely response when faced with such an accusation would be "Margaret who?"

2) Thatcher Sr. now has dementia, as Carol is ever-keen to tell us. If the BBC was going to stick the knife into the old girl, via the proxy of her daughter, you'd think they have done it when she could at least remember it long enough to matter.