What we’ve done with today’s research is that we’ve actually spoken to audiences, rather than presenters of various programmes or commentators, and what the audience told us is what we’ve what we’ve published today Cristina Nicolotti Squires, Ofcom’s broadcasting director Source link
Read More »Sending a package to Northern Ireland is the signal for a near riot in an obscure committee
“It’s bent!” shouted Mark Francois. “Bent!” And with that verdict, the Second Delegated Legislation Committee descended into a wild riot of affronted dignity and unparliamentary language. How did we get here? This obscure committee was set to wave through something thrilling called the Postal Packets (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2023 – …
Read More »The DUP’s reunited Ireland, Andrew Neil’s revenge channel, and academic espionage
Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionists, being old-fashioned British patriots, didn’t want to stay in the EU or even settle for a soft Brexit. They didn’t want a hard border with the Irish Republic because business demands “seamless and frictionless” trade. They certainly didn’t want anything resembling a border in the Irish …
Read More »After 26 years editing the Daily Mail, Paul Dacre will be bored to tears by Ofcom red tape
It is not known whether Boris Johnson is an enthusiast for Louis Althusser’s critique of Antonio Gramsci’s idea of cultural hegemony, but it looks as if he might be. The prospect of Paul Dacre, the former editor of the Daily Mail and editor-in-chief of Associated Newspapers, becoming the next chair …
Read More »The Covid-19 crisis and the virtues of an active state
In 2014, as the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer sought to take over AstraZeneca, the UK’s second largest pharmaceutical company, the British government insisted it would not intervene. David Cameron and George Osborne suggested that the bid was purely a commercial matter for shareholders and refused to apply a “public interest test”. …
Read More »Platforms as publishers, UK Covid deaths and the radical history of Essex
It is all very well for Twitter to ban Donald Trump after years of profiting from the millions of eyes drawn towards his frequently incendiary tweets. But the argument for making Twitter and other social media sites accountable for their content is compelling. They contend they are platforms or channels …
Read More »Letter of the week: The sovereignty sham
Philip Collins writes that “sovereignty-obsessives” are “the sponsors of Brexit” (The Public Square, 4 December). One day after 1 January 2021, once we have left a trading partnership with the EU, they will wake up and look around. Hoping to find a free, unfettered England, they will see that Royal …
Read More »The coronavirus crisis has shown why we need a universal basic food service
As panic sweeps the UK, supermarkets are consistently running out of … the Royal Mail, which already has the necessary logistical infrastructure, … Source link
Read More »British voters’ stark choice over the kind of country they want
The coming British Election is showing up two radically different angles about how democracies should work. Lee Duffield writes on the stand-off between the “reactionaries” and the “socialists”. THE FIRST BRITISH POLLS for the 2019 Election suggested we prepare for a Tory victory, then Prime Minister Boris Johnson forcing through …
Read More »At this election, voters can reclaim their workplace rights
For our union, Labour's plan to renationalise Royal Mail could not be more relevant given our current dispute with the employer. Whether it be the … Source link
Read More »