The fairground attendant has stepped off the carousel. Amol Rajan, with all his honours on, is standing down from Radio 4’s Today programme, the breakfast show that sends us out into the world feeling a little bit braver, to set up his own company. What took him so long?

Many listeners may think he established that business many moons ago, for Rajan Enterprises (Me Me Me) is not exactly a secret in metropolitan media world. In the past two decades the Cambridge-educated south Londoner has plucked some of the juiciest plums in the journalists’ orchard. Editor of the Independent, BBC media editor, and for the past five years a Today host. Presenting University Challenge on BBC2 is a mere bagatelle to pay a few bills.

Talented as he is – and it would be unfair to deny he has a demotic ease – there is something of the merry-go-round about Rajan. The rings, the chain........

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