IF Tim Davie has the worst job in Britain, who has the second? It must be Dame Sharon White, boss of John Lewis. In a way they’re linked, the BBC and the department store and Waitrose group. They both hark back to a bygone age of honest toil and solid values. The BBC had its Reithian mission to inform, educate and entertain which it delivered over tea to countless wireless sets on sideboards behind lace curtains, all from John Lewis, tea set included.
They’ve both got ownership models that smack more of idealism rather than harsh pragmatism. As a result, they have employees unafraid to criticise management and a public who think they have a right to attack something they regard as one of their own. The John Lewis Gazette, the staff newsletter, could sustain a regular show on BBC Radio 4, such is the level of complaint but also the accounts of dealing with the middle classes and their never-ending foibles.
