The sight of Gove defending a man who accused him of a "lamentable performance" highlighted the mixed feelings senior Tories have about Ashcroft, who has been a generous donor to the party for the best part of 20 years.
Others attribute the increase in anti-Polish feeling to senior political figures.
Mr Marren's opinions reflect a growing feeling among senior conservationists that protection of wildlife is falling by the wayside.
The strength of feeling among senior BBC figures comes at a difficult time for Acting Director-General Mark Byford, who has been attacked for agreeing to the inquiry.
Cameron, who left London shortly after the Queen's speech for the G7 summit in Brussels, has asked for a full briefing on all the contacts between May and Gove to be placed on his desk by the time he returns home later this week, amid a feeling at senior levels that there was fault on both sides.
The Top Gear presenter, whose 23-year BBC career is littered with controversy as a result of his forthright views and robust sense of humour, is not thought to be facing any disciplinary action despite a feeling among senior BBC staff that his comments were "beyond the pale".
After the inquiry, there was a feeling that senior managers had managed to escape responsibility and that only junior staff members were punished.
The sound of marital friction, or the mind bending around itself trying to decide when to intervene, when to let them fail, or fight, or go to that kids house you have a bad feeling about?" Senior Columnist, The Huffington Post.
"Nobody is leaving the room with any hard feelings," the senior Iranian official said.
But he acknowledged that Mr. Smith had been "upset and frustrated" with the Air Force and conveyed those feelings to senior officers.
