大象传媒

"a government plan of action...

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Laura,

It's a real surprise to know that you actually looked over the comments under yesterday's blog. I'm sure you'll get bored!

It really does seem odd that the Fiancial Secretary to the Treasury has enough time on his hands to assume the responsibilities from another of the ex-Ministers parachuted into the Lords. I'd have thought he'd be busy enough counting all the funny money being pumped into the economy...

Is there a paucity of talent within the government? Will Harriet get upset? After all, it seems that a male minister may be considered capable of multi-tasking!!!

I was always fascinated that the good Lord Carter recommended that a special tax would be levied on people with fixed-line telephones to subsidise the extension of high-speed broadband.

Since he recognised that broadband to mobile phones or other mobile devices was rapidly becoming more widespread, why should tax only apply to landlines?

Why not spread the tax burden to cover every mobile and PC sold?

'This also means that Mr Timms will have to contend with not one, not two, but three bosses - Mr Darling at the Treasury, and Ben Bradshaw at Culture and you guessed it, Lord Mandelson.'
No Gordon Brown?

He could end up spinning like the proverbial top.

As it's only a PR job for no-one expects this lot to really do anything worthwhile anymore I'm sure he'll be quite capable at towing the three line whip.

Shows they aren't really taking the economy seriously though. It's obviously no longer a full time job. A bit like Des Brown and his part time job at the Ministry of Defence and his other part time job as Minister for Scotland. At least they only gave him two jobs.

I hope the moderators have read this blog and recognise that it covers a number of issues.

Firstly, I think Alastair Darling should be explaining why the Bank has increased QA by 拢25bn or is this amount considered too unsubstantial for him to be worrying about? What on earth is going on?

Does this mean that the MPC, like the Ernst & Young Item Club and others, are predicting a double dip recession for the UK economy?

If so, can we expect Mervin King et al to make a public apology (Mervin King seems to have taken a shine to 'public' recently) to David Blanchflower for rubbishing his MPC stance for so long.

Secondly, with regard to the Carter Report, when it comes to plans of action, this government calls in the management consultants at enormous expense who come-up with a solution that involves using them implement the plan at even greater expense. As the Treasury is 'consultant heavy', Stephen Timms must have experience in paying their bills so he's probably the right man for the job - it'll probably also provide him with a nice job when he leaves parliament if he wants it.

As for reporting to Lord Mandelson in particular, well surely it can't be difficult. I would imagine just about everyone in government has a dotted reporting line into him as he appears to be in charge sort of.

Finally, I must be one of the few people who's on the fence when it comes to Harriet Harman - I don't feel threatened by her yet I'm male and I don't think she's wonderful either. I actually find her one of the least offensive in the cabinet.

That's what we need to sort this mess out; another government initiative. Someone call Gordon and ask him to schedule a review to be completed after the general election.

"This also means that Mr Timms will have to contend with not one, not two, but three bosses - Mr Darling at the Treasury, and Ben Bradshaw at Culture and you guessed it, Lord Mandelson, the second two will overseeing the work relating to our digital future."

===

The mere fact that Timms is happy to have those three as his bosses should automatically disqualify him from holding office!

It's all getting a weird and Mr Timms might well have a role to play in the Adams house hold.Now! without lurching too much of topic' hello fairlyopenmind, hope your enjoying your summer time.

More yeast the ale makers cry! and less tongue from the Harman?.

Seeing as many Labour MPs and supporters object to (mainly Tory) MPs holding second jobs outside of Parliament, how can this man have three portfolios AND be a constituency MP?

More Labour hypocrisy.

If I come up with a few ideas like "Lord" Carter, will I get a peerage?

The song lyrics "... and it was over before it began!" spring to mind. "Lord" Mandelson will no doubt have one of his buddies that he wants to be involved. could involve another peerage or knighthood as part payment.

It's all talk talk talk by this incompetent clan. We already are lagging behind other countries. Take France for instance with their fibre optique network!! We can only look and long. The French have out performed us digitally (not only fibre optic but also domains ending in .fr can only be bought by registered French businesses and citizens), in their energy (Nuclear energy frees them of ridiculous dependence on Russia et al for gas supplies) and even their trains (The TGV leaves us looking rather amateur in all things railway!).

It is no wonder that anytime anyone in Gordon's "Lorded" team say anything they are showered with derision rather than applause.

I sit here waiting for an opportunity to vote!!

I never take any Wiki entry as "fact". Nor any reports from The Sunday Times or a variety of newspapers. Sometimes evidence mounts.

The Sunday Times did publish, in January 2008:

"Stephen Carter, who was last week appointed the prime minister鈥檚 chief of strategy and principal adviser, is said in the documents to have told a fellow executive who feared he had misled shareholders: 鈥淲hat I tell them is nine-tenths bullshit and one-tenth selected facts.鈥�

Carter was then a senior executive of NTL, a cable television firm based in America. Soon after his alleged remarks the group - dubbed NTHell by disgruntled customers - went bankrupt with debts of 拢12 billion.

It was one of the largest corporate bankruptcies in American history. But in a move that outraged investors, Carter walked off with 拢1.7m in compensation, including a 拢600,000 bonus."

There was apparently no law suit for libel.

(Now, Moderators, I think I have protected every angle, so there's no reason to delete this post. Had the good Lord chosen to, he could have gone to the courts to protect his name. I haven't even inferred that Carter's comment reflects the way that the electorate think we are treated by government.)

What has dismayed me in recent years is the plethora of people being dropped into the House of Lords, so they can take up roles in government without being engaged in the real political process. Of itself, I can understand it. Sometimes governments need specific talents to identify, define and drive through policy to the point of delivery.

However so many simply do a year or two then quit for pastures new. But their letterheads (or those of the companies they join) still carry all that "Lord So and So of Wherever"... That's very different from actually delivering real outcomes.

Could Stephen Timms handle the workload? Probably. He seems like a competent minister. Having to report to three other senior Ministers is a bit of a burden, though!

Linking the recent blogs, I'd have thought Harriet was a bit cross. Surely there's a female MP (or minor cog in the administration) who could have handled this?

Sion Simon. its unbelievable.. This is the man who did the infamous U tube video




Talk about scraping the barrel.

Laura:

From the information, It looks like a massive agenda and, what is the
outcome of the stuff on the agenda going to look like...

~Dennis Junior~

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

A tax on mobiles is a very good idea, given that there's a good chance that they can be taxed for health benefits, the same as my fags. We'll be grateful for the Apple Itumour treatment in the future!

eugh, I've just said that they had a good idea. In the tradition of commenting on this blog, I should scrub myself down with some blue Etonian soap. :)

Though not a fan of the current administration, having met and spent some time with Stephen Timms I think he is both massively capable and also more than up to the task as long as he is allowed to get on the job of delivering. Given who he has to report to and the current financial situation (= cut costs where ever possible so digital Britain will almost certainly be affected) that's a very big as long as.....

#8. At 4:17pm on 06 Aug 2009, derekbarker wrote:
It's all getting a weird and Mr Timms might well have a role to play in the Adams house hold.Now! without lurching too much of topic' hello fairlyopenmind, hope your enjoying your summer time.

Hello Derek,

Tried several times to wish your lads good fortune in the Championships, but I seem to have been moderated out a lot. Also suggested that with their music and surfing ability, you have the core for a UK Beach Boys combo!

I hope that Timms doesn't get torn apart, having too many bosses. I've had two genuinely concurrent bosses before and it's hard to reconcile the demands each imposes for what may be common overall goals, but requiring very different time and effort-use strategies.

I wish Timms well. He seems like a decent and competent type. I'd just reflect that, a while back, the government auctioned bandwidth and took GBP 20BILLION from telephone companies. No other country in the world followed that approach! If they had then paid the companies to deliver specific services (on top of the telecoms companies own huge investments in technical developments) - we wouldn't be struggling so hard to get high-speed broadband across the UK.

It seems that in most places the internet and connectivity grew and managed on its own. Why are governments providing infrastructure for what have been private ventures that have worked well. The business end of the business must be happy that their users will have access to higher speeds yet the companies can charge for the access. Sounds like a private initiative would produce jobs and help the economy, but why do they want to pay for something the government will do for "free."

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

The reason they will not tax mobile phones is that gordon throws them
around like confetti.

Anyway we have vat and a whole load of other taxes why more

just add a few extar bits to the QE figure of 25 billion nobody will notice

nice to see laura getting the stories out to comment on.

PS pls read ALL comments it what we put them ALL there for

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

I am absolutely appalled that Stephen Timms will be taking on this extra job. It shows to me how little talent labour have left in their Government. The job of Financial Secretary to the Treasury is a significant role in itself without his eye being taken off the ball to do something else. This is particularly important at this time of crisis in our economy. I have not been that impressed by Timms whenever I have seen him interviewed, his knowledge seems very limited, so goodness knows what his performance will be like with too much on his plate.

Sion Simon, my goodness they must be awfully desperate in Government thats all I can say.

Why is Mandelson an unelected Peer allowed so much power, I cannot for the life of me understand why other Labour Ministers are putting up with it.

Great job on another well-written article, Laura, keep up the good work!

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

This is username nautonier in case the 大象传媒 are still shoiwng my username incorrectly.

>>>>>

The whole broadband thing is nonsense - UK already has one of the best national broadband/telecom networks in the developed world and does not need to be overseen by government ministers.

New Labour might do better spending more time on .. ER ..The economy?, parliamentatry reform? disengaging disentangling ourselves from a another nasty war? and many other worthy causes 'where lessons should be learned' but New Labour and the entire population have been left wanting

Another media gimmick to distract attention from their grievous incompetence so as to continue manipulating the news.

Pure Spin!

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

#24 not sure Nick did or some might along read selective bloggers comments.

with umemployement rising surly one man should not have 3 jobs.
they need sharing around.

#22 Labour MP's put up with this for the money silly

#20. At 5:29pm on 06 Aug 2009, IR35_SURVIVOR wrote:
The reason they will not tax mobile phones is that gordon throws them
around like confetti.
Anyway we have vat and a whole load of other taxes why more
just add a few extar bits to the QE figure of 25 billion nobody will notice
nice to see laura getting the stories out to comment on.

PS pls read ALL comments it what we put them ALL there for"


IR35,

I'm not really in favour of more taxes. It just seems rather odd that land-line users should bear the burden of the development of pan-UK broadband, when all users should benefit. There are millions of OAPs who don't care about broadband. There are millions of people who wouldn't think about using anything other than their mobiles (just ain't cool).

I'd have prefered that a bit of all the money sucked out of telecoms companies could have been partially re-allocated to ensure a nation-wide broadband environment.

PS: In response to your comment (which was allowed, so I hope this will be as well). I will also tentatively asked that Laura reads all the comments - including those that the mods decide cannot be allowed. I guess she may be surprised that some apparently innocuous - or at least not breaking the House Rules - posts are junked. Sometimes this occurs before publication. Sometimes after "someone" complains. We have no dea whether there are individuals who act as serial "referers", or whether there are genuine grounds for complaint.
I probably write stuff that many people don't agree with. Sometimes maybe a bit too expressively. But it's been a bit of a surprise to find stuff that was previously tolerated (and apparently still within the House Rules) being junked. So far, I've never, ever, refered any posts. But, if innocuous posts get refered, maybe I'll become a serial referral agent! It may be fun to see a completely "content empty" blog...

I've recently read stuff that seems worth responding to, then gone back and found it had "disappeared".

By the way, I still haven't received e-mails to explain why my own "disappeared" comments were removed.

Having spent some years back and forth to Moscow, it's starting to feel familiar.

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

is the plan to bankrupt the country??.
becouse the plans laid down by this government will do greater damage.

No more xxxGBP or 脗拢xxx the comment box has been fixed. 拢拢拢拢

Given this government's track record on IT projects this one is now doomed as well; I see high - level involvement in what really ought to be a purely commercial matter as being a diversion from what those we elect really should be doing rather than tinkering with other things that they do not understand. It has crossed my mind that this is an attempt to enhance the "circus" part of "bread and circuses" so that the populace is glued to one sort of screen or another rather than focussing on the managerial ineptitude of politicians and bankers alike.

Having said that if Mr Timms (whose smile suggests to me that the broom handle may be hurting a bit) wants to come round here and get me the 2Mb/s that I am supposed to be getting rather than the 1.5 that I actually get (when I'm lucky) then I will make him welcome. (I once actually got nearly 3Mb/s but that was annoyingly short lived.) And if he can put a rocket up my ISP's Help Desk (a misnomer if ever there was one) then I will offer him a drink appropriate to the time of day.

And as others have mentioned - why are fixed line users to be "taxed" while others aren't? Another swindle perpetrated by a government that has considerable "previous".