Those who, like many, question the suitability of the new British Minister of Culture, Nadine Dorries, will be advised by followers of the Prime Minister that she is, after all, a bestselling author. Her nineteen novels, drawn from her own life as a Liverpool working-class child, are certainly not Booker Prize candidates. The Daily Telegraph reviewer even described her debut as the worst novel he had read in ten years. But the 64-year-old politician earns impressive royalties, last year even more than her current salary as a minister responsible for data policy, culture, media and sport. Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said in her defense that she has sold thousands and thousands of books. The wonderful thing about herthat it produces a kind of culture that people actually want, as opposed to some of the crazy projects that have been funded by taxpayers' money in the past.

Worries about the BBC

Gina Thomas

Features correspondent based in London.

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This makes the critics of Nadine Dorries shudder, especially those who fear for the future of the BBC.

Dorries 'abuse of the station as "shrill, very left, often hypocritical and often condescending" is music to the ears of conservative culture warriors, as is Dorries' tirade against "left-wing snowflakes", which "destroy comedy, tear down statues, remove books from universities that are Dumb pantomime, remove Christ from Christmas and suppress free speech ”.

The fact that Johnson promoted the woman to culture minister who impressed the nation as an ostrich anus eater in "I'm a Star - Get Me Out of Here" stunned many.

"The satire is dead," moaned the Green MP Caroline Lucas.

Many see the appointment as a pleasurable provocation, the aim of which is to expose the left-wing liberals as elitist snobs and to let Nadine Dorries shine as the missionary of the common people.

When the MP was suspended from the parliamentary group in 2012 because she had withdrawn from the jungle camp show without permission, she justified her participation by saying that the show attracted sixteen million viewers.

If so many people saw 'I am a star', MPs should be there.

Boris Johnson defended them at the time.

While Dorries dismissed the two private students Cameron and Osborne as arrogant pissers, she likes Johnson for his ability to "connect with people's concerns".

She also shares his admiration for Churchill, whom the "criticism of cowards" did not affect.

In terms of origin and attitude, the platinum-blonde minister fits into Johnson's strategy of keeping the voters behind the so-called “red wall” of former Labor strongholds.

In this context, there is also the desire to put the BBC, which is frowned upon as the epitome of the “metropolitan elite”, in its place.

As Minister of Culture, Nadine Dorries will lead the negotiations on the future funding of the BBC.

The cabinet reshuffle coincided with the confirmation that, after weeks of wrangling, the broadcaster had transferred the editor-in-chief of the entire news production to a candidate who had been challenged in government circles as "extremely woke" due to tweets that have since been deleted.

Conservative culture warriors see the appointment as further evidence of the violation of the sacred commandment of impartiality.

She'll make fireworks

Several politically explosive decisions are pending in Dorries' portfolio, including the appointment of the chairman of the media regulator, who is delaying because the government wants to push through a candidate who is on their line.

The government is also seeking to privatize Channel 4, the commercial but public broadcaster launched in 1982.

On the day of the government reshuffle, the state minister responsible for the media, John Whittingdale, had to step in for his boss Oliver Dowden, who had already been transferred, and give a speech to the top of the television industry.

Little did Whittingdale enunciate the government's vision for the industry that he, too, was about to lose his job.

The objection, linked to the demand for more “Britishness”, that many British film and television products have “no real identity, no authentic local reference”, should, however, be entirely in the interests of the new minister. A former cabinet member predicted that she would be expected to ignite all sorts of fireworks with energy and chutzpah.