Excerpt:
A month ago I argued on these pages, in quite strident terms, that someone called Aaqil Ahmed should not be appointed to the new job of head of commissioning for religion at the BBC. At the weekend, he was given the post. As Ozymandias once said: "Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
I flatter myself (and, indeed, the BBC) that the interview panel read my column and selected Mr Ahmed anyway, because he was the best man for the job. An alternative view is that the BBC was obsessed with appointing a Muslim to the most powerful job in its reorganised religion department, because it was a hip and groovy thing to do.
A problem with the latter view, however, is the number of people within the BBC, with no interest in the job themselves, who have been briefing against Mr Ahmed. These are sound "meeja" people, given to being right-on and scrupulously politically correct, whose blood is likely to quicken at the prospect of a Muslim getting the job. They just didn't, it seems, want this particular Muslim.