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31p per day…
Steve Barnett is a media academic and a prominent defender of British broadcasting’s mythic quality and distinctiveness – and, of course, the licence fee. In his response to Barry Cox’s provocative free market demolition of the BBC’s protected status Barnett clings to the status quo. Since digital TV is a mess and analogue switch-off now…
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The Nelson Mandela International Peace Force…
David Aaronovitch finds good reasons for liberals to support the war in The Observer.
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Air-heads?
Azeem alerts me to Tony Perkins’ latest project. Perkins is an interesting figure: a glamorous member of a Sand Hill Road tech VC dynasty, founder of the Silicon Valley bible The Red Herring (and certainly the most prominent supporter of Steve Forbes for President that I can think of). Always On is in trendy blog…
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Vàclav Havel
If you were brought up in Britain and on the left, like me, the Vàclac Havel of Soviet-era Czechoslovakia was an exotic and quite difficult figure. By the time I became aware of him, at the tail end of the cold war in the 1980s, it had long been impossible to defend the Eastern bloc…
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Nice weather…
…if you didn’t actually have to go anywhere.
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Barry Cox again
On the strength of Barry Cox’s first provocative and wide-ranging lecture on the future of television, I’m looking forward to the next three. I don’t agree with everything he says but this is thoughtful stuff and timely. Here’s some news coverage of his call for the abolition of the licence fee.
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A self-perpetuating department of state
Barry Cox, commercial TV old-timer, says we should get started on the long slog to an open market for television now: “Does a mature liberal democracy such as the UK really still need an institution such as the BBC in its present form? It is, in effect, a self-perpetuating department of state but without an…
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World Trade Center replacements
A useful and funny critique of the candidates to fill the WTC’s footprint. Thanks to Gawker for the link.
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Steam-rollered?
Felix Velarde – or at least his business < shouldn't exist. Underwired is a successful independent web design studio. Businesses like Felix’s are supposed to be extinct