16*

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NEWS BRIEFING
Gardening talk
PORT CARLISLE: Janet Wheatcroft will give a talk to Solway Gardening Society on Thursday, November 15 at 7.30pm. Her talk will be at Port Carlisle Bowling Club and is called From The Himalayas to South West Scotland.

Pop-up vintage
CARLISLE: A Goodbye Norma Jean pop-up vintage designer boutique and henna tattoo parlour will be held at Foxes cafe bar in Abbey Street on November 29 at 7.30pm.

Caroline favourite to be new BBC chief

News & Star
A BROADCASTING boss with Cumbrian connections has been named one of the favourites to become the new director general of the BBC. After George Entwistles resignation at the weekend, bookies are quoting Caroline Thomson, the BBCs former chief operating officer, as the favourite to replace him at 5/2, followed closely by Ofcom chief executive Ed Richards at 3/1. The BBC chairman, Lord Patten, said privately that he expected to speak again to Ms Thomson, who lost

LOCAL NEWS

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Bookies give pipped-to-the-post former applicant best odds

BY VICTORIA BRENAN
out on the job to Mr Entwhistle, Ed Richards, Ofcoms chief executive, and one or two other names in a bid to rapidly recruit a new leader for the crisis-hit broadcaster. Another BBC executive with Cumbrian connections Helen Boaden, whose brother Michael is a Labour councillor in Carlisle stepped down as head of news. Mrs Thomson, married to Cumbrian Baron Roger Liddle, left her 300,000 post in October after missing out on the top job. She spent 25 years with the BBC and said it had been an immense privilege to be part of the leadership. Ms Thomson, whose family home is in Abbeytown, began her long and distinguished career at the BBC as a journalism trainee in 1975, going on to produce a range of BBC radio and television series, including BBC Radio 4s Analysis and BBC Ones Panorama. She left the BBC in 1984 and joined Channel 4, where she become head of corporate affairs. She returned to the BBC in 1996 as deputy director of the BBC World Service and held a series of posts before becoming the BBCs chief operating officer in 2006. email vbrenan@cngroup.co.uk

Shopping night
HIGH HESKET: A night of Christmas shopping takes place at Refunkd in High Hesket on November 16. Those going can make their own wreaths, 22 payable in advance. Festive food and mulled wine available between 5pm and 9pm. Phone 07939 107976.

SCANDAL
Mr Entwhistle stepped down after it emerged that he had not known about the Newsnight report which wrongly implicated the former senior Tory Lord McAlpine in a child abuse scandal.

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In the running: Caroline Thomson

INSIDE TODAY: TV guide

SEE PAGES 22&23

Haggis thrives in the wet

Record sales: Rhona Henderson of the Blacksmiths Shop

ONE of the wettest summers in history has hoisted haggis sales to record levels. A ton of the national Scottish dish double the normal amount went through the tills at Gretna Greens Blacksmiths Shop between April and October. The more it rained the more haggis we sold. Ive never known

BY SUE CRAWFORD
anything like it, said Rhona Henderson, manager of the foodhall at the shop. Our customers have been saying no salads to us all summer long! British visitors tend to buy fresh haggis and overseas tourists opt for a tinned version.

Sex was not inappropriate

A NURSE who confessed to an affair with a patient insisted he never had inappropriate sex. Andrew Wilkinson admitted having a seven-month relationship with patient A when he was investigated over similar claims involving a second woman. Wilkinson yesterday admitted
engaging in an inappropriate relationship with patient A while working for the Drug and Alcohol Rehabilitation Team in south Cumbria in 2010. But he told the Nursing and Midwifery Council in central London: I dont want it to sound like we had inappropriate sex. The hearing continues.