Leave 'Digital Britain' alone

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Our latest briefing paper (available online here) attacks the government’s Digital Britain white paper – the inspiration for the Digital Economy Bill currently working its way through Parliament – describing plans to intervene in the digital communications industry as “both mad and bad economics". The report’s author, digital communications expert and ASI fellow Eben Wilson, puts his case bluntly:

“Over the past twenty years, this thriving commercial sector has very rapidly created a vast engineering infrastructure at no cost to the taxpayer, and has generated large amounts of tax revenue in the process. It is hard to think of a better example of something the state should simply stay out of."

The report – Digital Dirigisme – covers the full range of issues addressed by the Digital Britain white paper, arguing throughout that the digital communications industry is characterized by rapid and unpredictable change, which governments and regulators simply can’t keep up with. As a result, their interventions will invariably do more harm than good. Instead, the report urges that:

"Government should restrict its activities to establishing a clear legal framework of ownership in which private entities trade privately, within a similarly clear legal framework on the use of individual identity data."

The report goes on to criticize the government for not taking public concerns about the security of personal data seriously enough, describing their approach to this issue as “bland" and “disappointing". The report suggests that personal identity and all data associated with it should be defined in law as private property owned by the individual. Any use of that personal data without the owner’s consent would thereby become unlawful.

The report also accuses the government of ignoring a “dinosaur in the room" by failing to address the taxpayer-funded BBC’s market dominance, which it says crowds out other commercial players. It proposes a radical programme of phased privatization of the BBC, coupled with progressive cuts in the licence fee.

Dr Pirie on the BBC

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"Auntie" was not the type of person who stayed in Las Vegas hotels, clocked up taxi rides at £200 a time, or who went to town on expensive lunches and dinners.

Read the article in full here.

Farewell christmas tree?

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Walking through Oxford Street and looking at this years Christmas decoration is dispiriting. You immediately get the feeling something is missing. The overhead street decoration has no Christmas symbolism anymore; a boring umbrella has replaced the Christmas tree. I kept scratching my head: are there people out there who bother about this stuff?

Well, it seems the PC brigade has struck again. There will be no proper Christmas decoration anymore. I want everybody to be aware that the PC people are now finishing in this erstwhile free country what the Jacobins started and the Nazis took over in the 1930. They were very keen to ban all Christian symbols in public places because they wanted their swastika to be displayed in their place.

These days, we often hear that crosses and other Christian symbols must be tucked away because they might offend the faithful of other denominations, particularly Muslims. And yet I wonder what offends Muslims more: the Christmas trees and Christianity-inspired decorations in our shopping malls, or the politically correct (and often taxpayer-supported) Gay Pride parades which take place in our major cities every year? But I guess that as far as our political elites are concerned, the latter symbolizes multiculturalism, and is therefore acceptable, while the former evokes traditional values, and is not.

It’s a strange world we’re living in.

What do you think of BBC Television?

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Click here to let the BBC Trust know what you think about BBC Television. Don't hold back...

The empty fourth plinth

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Over the past 100 days, for every hour, a person has stood on the Fourth Plinth. They've come from all sections of society and have either been championing some cause or merely following some desire to become a 'living' statue. They've become a lasting memorial to the diverse nature of the British society but failed to move from the project from the ordinary to extraordinary.

Coming next to the Plinth is a fibreglass statue of Sir Keith Park, the RAF hero from World War Two (an actual statue of him will be erected in Waterloo Place in London in 2010). After him will come Nelson's flagship, HMS Victory, in a bottle. The plinth and Trafalgar Square should be put out of it's misery of suffering at the hand of some high minded arty elite as yet another pointless and insipid piece of modern art is foisted upon us. It should be used as was originally intended, or for a statue that has equal merit on residing there along with Nelson et al.

The major question that was raised by this project was: was it art? The Fourth Plinth, as the politically conceived concept that it is, has a primary use of the installation of modern art. Gormley's project was consumed by the daily, mundane life of the Square. Gormley's previous work with figures in London, Event Horizon, was a huge success with the life size figures imposing themselves on both the skyline and life of London as something out of the ordinary. Whereas the scale of those upon the plinth in comparison to the Square and it's buildings meant that they were overwhelmed. The 2,400 human statues will swiftly become a footnote in the Square's history.

Roll on the next installation. Shame on the Mayor for not making it permanent.

Spendthrifts

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This week the British government – which is now borrowing upwards of £20m per hour just to pay its bills – decided to splash some cash on the arts world.

According to the BBC, it will provide £45m to fund a National Film Centre, which will house the British Film Institute (clearly their existing offices will no longer do), host key film events (because obviously London lacks appropriate venues), and contain 5 digital cinemas (something the private sector plainly doesn't provide). Then there's £50m for an 11-storey extension to the Tate Modern, another £22.5m to expand the British Museum, and £10m for a new visitors' centre at Stonehenge.

Frankly, it beggars belief that the government can claim that they are cutting public spending to the bone, that any cuts beyond the pathetic ones they've planned will result in abject destitution, and that anyone who suggests such a thing must be an evil, heartless brute, while simultaneously lavishing £127.5m that they don't have on vanity projects that we don't need.

Couldn't the British film industry pay for a national film centre if they really wanted one? Couldn't the Tate Modern just build a more modest extension with the £75m they've already raised privately? If the British Museum is running out of space, couldn't it loan some of its exhibits to other museums? And as for Stonehenge, does a mysterious pile of rocks next to a dual carriageway really warrant a £10m visitors centre?

Spending taxpayers' money on 'arts and culture' is questionable at the best of times. When you already have the biggest budget deficit in the developed world, it is nigh-on indefensible.

The state of radio in Denmark

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In a country where freedom of speech has become the most important cause, commercial radio is increasingly impossible because of the concession costs the radio companies have to pay to the state.

The largest commercial radio station in Denmark “Radio 100 FM" owned by Talpa Radio Denmark. However, it is now seeking bankruptcy protection, after running large deficits over the last couple of years. The main reason is due to the fees it has to pay to the Danish state. Talpa Radio isn’t the first Radio to go out of business in Denmark, in 2005 Sky Radio had to stop their transmissions and in 2008 TV2 Radio, owned by the largest semi commercial TV operator in Denmark had to shut down as well. Just recently 100 FM was awarded “Radio station of the year" at the Radiodays conference in Copenhagen, nonetheless being the best just wasn’t enough.

The Danish minister of Culture now says that the Danish government will try and help 100 FM as much as it can, because as “she is much focused on keeping competition alive in the Radio market". It seems though that government policy is actually what kills the Radio stations, as like in the UK, free market radio competition is far from a reality.

The Danish Broadcasting Corporation (DR) dominates 4 out of 6 national FM channels and has recently finished building a new concert hall and headquarter buildings with a total budget overdraft of more than 1.4 billion Kr. (app. 170 million GBP).

Competition? I don’t think so!

Broadband tax

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Stephen Timms, the treasury minister in charge of implementing the Digital Britain plan, is pushing ahead with the broadband tax of 50 pence a month for everyone with a fixed line telephone. Utter lunacy.

Firstly it is bad form to pass a controversial finance bill so close to the general election, especially with the opposition coming out against the plans. Although this is not my greatest concern, it is suggestive of political motivations well apart from any concern for the public good. If this is all set up only for the next government just to rip out, this will be more government waste to add to the ever-increasing piles. That is if the next government has the gumption to actually cut the stealth tax.

They should. The tax is being instituted to raise money to encourage more people to have access to broadband. Economics 101: if you want people to do more of something, don’t tax it. Timms is working off the recommendations that came out of Lord Carter’s Digital Britain report. Despite its length – 238 pages – there is no plan on exactly how the £150m to £175m a year will be used to increase access to broadband. There are very real personal protestations and engineering difficulties that have not been properly investigated and given the growth of mobile broadband and dongles, many of the perceived problems are surmountable without government interference.

More tax for wasteful government policies is not exactly what is needed given the state of public finances. As Cameron rightly pointed out on Tuesday, even Thatcher failed to curb the growth of the state. However, his “more consensual" approach does not inspire hope in his ability to get a grip on it. In truth the only time politicians have been able to get us back in the black is when the economy has grown at a quicker rate than they are able to think up ways to tax and waste it. Sadly, as we are now all too aware, this growth is often on the back of government induced bubbles.

Is there a future for free-to-air commercial TV?

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In recent months, several household names have seen their share prices plunge to hitherto unseen levels. They include British Telecom, British Airways and ITV. Following the market rally, their shares have recovered somewhat but all three companies face massive challenges – from their competitors. Furthermore, all are running heavy pension fund deficits.

In ITV’s case, many developments within media-land have conspired to operate against its interests. Following its formation from Granada and Carlton in 2003, the new company was obliged to sign up to the highly complex Contract Rights Renewal (CRR) agreement, under which advertisers were given substantial financial protection to offset ITV’s market dominance. Following persistent pressure from ITV, the Competition Commission has - at long last - accepted the case to reform the CRR.

In its recent half-year results, ITV confirmed that its UK TV advertising revenues fell by a shocking 15%: many commentators wonder whether ITV’s advertising income will ever recover. After all, with the advent of digital broadcasting, there are now many more advertising outlets. For years, commercial television prospered on the back of legendary programmes such as Coronation Street, watched by massive audiences. Whilst recently ITV has sought to improve its content with such programmes as Britain’s Got Talent, this is not obviously reflected in its dire figures.

Net debt has now reached £730 million and a major rights issue is expected once the new Chief Executive - expected to be Tony Ball - has settled in. Ball would also have to consider whether ITV’s free-to-air commercial model is viable, especially since his former employer, BSkyB, is prospering on the back of its Pay-TV model - and its diet of sport and film.

Is Scottish TV’s Roy Thompson, who famously said that commercial television was ‘a licence to print money’, now turning in his grave?

UEFA 1 EPL 0

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The English Premier League have shot themselves in the foot using a pistol proffered to them by Michelle Platini. They have agreed to the implementation of a quota system on the number of "home grown" players that a club must have in their squad. Players must have had to be registered for at least three seasons between the ages of 16-21 at an English or Welsh Club to qualify as home grown. That, though, isn't the damaging part. The fact that there must be 8 of these players in a squad of 25 is the significant hindrance.

Football is a competitive sport: there has to be an open market on who you employ, how much you pay and a respect of success. Whining about a lack of young English footballers in the Premier League makes a mockery of the sport. A fair analysis of the standards of many of the players under 21 marks them down as being substandard in quality to those from outside the UK. (A fact backed up by the number of home nation players plying their trade in the lower half of the Premier League and the lower divisions who used to be on the top clubs' books). This isn't a failure of the Premier League and teams should not be punished for this. This is a failure of the FA, for a lack of support of grassroots football, and the government's for their over-involvement in education these past 30 years.

The Premier League has been running since 1992, similarly the Champions League, (the renamed European Cup) both offer adequate incentive to any youngster who wanted to play football professionally. And it has. There are now many who are 'coming through the ranks' at clubs. Most though don't make the grade when compared to others around the world of a similar age (they also tend to be on the expensive side when compared to cheaper talent from abroad). Imposing archaic and illiberal restrictions on the make-up of squads won't solve this problem, it will merely weaken all premiership teams.