Media regulation: what should be regulated, and how?

If we discount the outriders of the press regulation debate – those who believe everything is fine and no regulation is needed; those who want tabloid editors subjected to tortures that would make Torquemada blanch – a polarity emerges. Most … Continue reading

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Media regulation: A press regulator without teeth is no regulator at all

One of the inherent paradoxes that must be addressed if future press regulation is to be effective is that any regulator needs to have the ability to impose sanctions. The problem is that any voluntary regulator able to impose strong … Continue reading

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Media regulation: Health reporting – the case for change

As part of our media regulation project, we’ll be publishing a series of draft articles on media issues over the next couple of weeks, in advance of a discussion event on media regulation and democracy in April. If you want … Continue reading

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Anger v. Debate

I want to like an article that claims to argue “we should rely more on respectful debate”, but unfortunately Matthew Taylor in today’s Observer spends most of his piece disappearing down rabbit holes. He’s certainly right to say: the welcome retreat … Continue reading

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Gay marriage support? It’s a question of questions

Fascinating piece by Anthony Wells of YouGov on his UK Polling Report site. He points out the different numbers flying around about public support for gay marriage are linked to polls asking very differently-phrased questions. This question (in the Sunday … Continue reading

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Speech at Conservative Councillors’ Association Conference 2012 (#cca12)

I gave a speech at the Conservative Councillors’ Association conference earlier today, on a panel with Cllr Stephen Greenhalgh, the leader of Hammersmith & Fulham, and Cllr Chris Hayward from Three Rivers district near where I grew up in west … Continue reading

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If Social Justice™ were a breed of cat…

Oh, here’s a hideous survey. It invites you to tell the DWP what you think about Social Justice – the capital letters are clearly important. On the second (final) page of the survey you can opt in to hear more about … Continue reading

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Thucydides or Aeschylus?

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, who is as Eurosceptic as you would expect a former Telegraph Europe correspondent to be, has a piece comparing the treatment of the Greeks to that of the unfortunate Melians massacred at the hands of the Athenian army … Continue reading

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Media regulation: Members of the Fourth Estate are not exempt from the law

This post is part of our media regulation project, and comes from Charman-Anderson.com.  After the phone- and email-hacking and the illegal payments to police and other public officials scandal currently engulfing the British press the key question is, What needs to … Continue reading

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@fhollande (hearts) Gov1.0

I’m not sure whether political manifestos really describe the state of a nation’s politics, but they give strong hints. Reading François Hollande’s “60 commitments for France“, it’s a shame to see no echo of the discussions about new models for … Continue reading

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