BBC bans presenter from hosting heat pump podcast
The BBC has banned Evan Davis from hosting a podcast about heat pumps over concerns that the appliances are too controversial.
The Radio 4 and Dragon's Den presenter, has hosted the Happy Heat Pump podcast for 20 episodes.
But now he has been forced to give it up, telling listeners: 'Essentially, I am a BBC employee and they very kindly signed off on me doing this side hustle, non-BBC.
'But as the series has gone on – in fact, as the world has progressed over the last few months – they have become concerned that anything like this trying to inform people about heat pumps can be interpreted, rightly or wrongly, as somehow treading on areas of public controversy.
'I take their shilling, they dictate the rules. They know they have to keep their presenters out of areas of public controversy and they have decided heat pumps can be controversial, so they've asked me not to be involved. So the Happy Heat Pump podcast does come to an end.
'It was a difficult decision, they're very unkeen to stop me doing things that I find rewarding … but they want us to stop.'
The co-host of the podcast is Bean Beanland, director for growth and external affairs for the Heat Pump Federation.
Beanland said he was 'gutted' by the decision and blamed it on the culture wars, adding he had been dismayed to visit the Telegraph website and read comments by readers opposed to heat pumps.
'It's quite extraordinary, really,' he said. 'You see this term 'culture war' being bandied around these days and it does seem to me that somehow the technologies that we espouse have fallen victim to some kind of culture war.'
Davis said he understood wariness about heat pumps as 'people feel they're going to be told what to do by some nannying person and it's going to be more expensive and they resent that'.
He said that the podcast was 'not here to sell you heat pumps' but joked to Beanland: 'I do slightly worry that you're here to sell heat pumps.' Beanland said he was not, and was simply trying to offer a balanced view.
But Beanland likened the transition to heat pumps to other social changes which initially met resistance but are now widely accepted. He said: 'We've been through other things like this. Everyone now wears a seatbelt, or crash helmets on a bicycle.'
A BBC spokesman said: 'The BBC editorial guidelines are clear that anyone working for the BBC who does an external public speaking or writing engagement should not compromise the impartiality or integrity of the BBC or its content, or suggest that any part of the BBC endorses a third-party organisation, product, service or campaign.'
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