Wednesday 8/05/2002

It's certainly not twitching today, as the government's Communications Bill appears. The headline aspects -- relaxation on media ownership and creation of a one-size-fits-all regulator, OFCOM -- get picked up, but nobody in the mainstream media seems to notice the sins of omission over broadband. Complaints that BT has pretty much got Oftel cowed -- and suggestions that OFCOM is a chance to change all that and take broadband out of the hands of the troubled telco -- have fallen on deaf ears.

Mind you, BT still gets an easy ride all over the place. A report earlier this week that points out the huge new emergency services radio network is late, over-budget and not working properly completely misses the prime mover behind this disaster in the making -- yes, guess who again. I suppose it's BT's old connections right at the heart of power, due to their long-term involvement with the security services and governmental communication, but it's not doing anyone any good. It's all very well looking over at the overt corruption that goes on elsewhere in Europe and feeling smug, but the best you can say about UK Plc's bad habits is that the politicians themselves are usually too incompetent to either spot it happening or enrich themselves in the process.

Gah.