An example of what he used to be able to get away with. From Woodrow Wyatt’s diaries:

Wednesday 1 October [1986]. A message to speak to Downing Street urgently. The Prime Minister wanted me to know before the official announcement that Duke Hussey was to be the new chairman of the BBC … I was shattered.

… Rupert rings in a great state: ‘Has she gone mad? What a disastrous appointment. He was quite useless here and the only thing he was fit for was to run things like Hampton Court entertainment. They will make rings round him. The BBC Mafia must be absolutely delighted.’

So Wyatt calls Thatcher:

When I told her that the Duke Hussey appointment was a bad one, disastrous like the two previous ones, she said: ‘I wouldn’t have done it if I didn’t have such a strong recommendation from Rupert.’ I was amazed and said: ‘But he rang me up asking whether you’d gone mad.’

‘Good Lord,’ she said. ‘Well, he told me he was a very strong man, what had happened at the Times was not his fault … Otherwise I wouldn’t have made the appointment.’

So Wyatt calls Rupert:

I tackle him about his having recommended Duke Hussey. Strange. He denies it, says he didn’t mention his name … I said: ‘Are you sure you didn’t say anything about Duke Hussey?’ He seemed evasive and giggled a bit … I think [Thatcher] is telling the truth and not Rupert.

That giggle.

via @LondonReviewofBooks