Like A Circle in A Circle, Like A Wheel Within A Wheel

by Craig Murray on July 9th, 2011    Find Article Here:-

For those of us who experienced a surge of naive hope that News International have been referred to Ofcom for a ruling on the “Fit and Proper Persons” test, here is a bucket of cold water. Rather than being disinterested public servants, the Board of Ofcom represent the political and financial establishments which are so irreversibly penetrated by the spores of News International. Many of them hold directorships of companies – like banks and insurance companies – which have a direct interest in seeing no further plunge in News Corp/News International share price. They are also beneficiaries of the policies Murdoch has championed – private equity firms and privatised utilities, for example.

Bluntly, there is no chance that a body of which the Chairman, Colette Bowe, is a Director of Morgan Stanley and of Electra Private Equity is going to pull the rug on News Corp.

Here is but a selection of some of the Directorships held by Ofcom board members:

Morgan Stanley
Electra Private Equity
Thames Water
Axa
Betfair Group
JJB Sports
Pace Plc – supplier of set top boxes to Murdoch’s Sky
Nujira Ltd – defence contractors to US military
Standard Life

That is just a selection. In addition, the Chairman is a director of the Wincott Foundation, a “charity” whose purpose is to spread the far right economic doctrines of Milton Friedman in Eastern Europe – to the benefit, ultimate if incidental, of Morgan Stanley and Electra Private Equity, in which she also holds directorships.

She is most unlikely to find the Murdoch influence pernicious, wouldn’t you say?

How on earth did we come to have a regulatory body for the communications industry composed of these kind of parasites? Why is it so overpacked with businessmen and so devoid of intellectuals? Again, to put that simply, why the Chairman of JJB Sports and no Eric Hobsbawm?

Our entire fabric of government is a sick fucking joke.

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The Ofcom Board    Find this Info Here and also through Craig’s Link Above:-

Members are required to disclose interests (including shareholdings,directorships and employments) they, their partners or minor children have in companies whose core business activities (and hence share price) could be affected by Ofcom’s decisions. Also included in the register are company directorships, offices held in charitable bodies, and other public appointments.

Ed Richards (Chief Executive)

• Member of the Centre for Economic Performance (CEP) Policy Committee, London School of Economics
• Director of Donmar Warehouse Projects Limited
• Director of Donmar Trading Limited
• Director of Donmar Films Limited
• Director of Donmar in the West End
• Part-time independent non-executive director of Thames Water Utilities Limited
• Trustee of The Teaching Awards

Colette Bowe (Chairman, Appointed 11 March 2009)

• Board Member, Morgan Stanley International (2010 – )
• Chairman of Electra Private Equity plc (Board member from 2007, appointed Chairman 25.5.2010).
• Board Member, London and Continental Railways Ltd, (2008 – )
• Board Member, Camden Peoples’ Theatre (2002 – )
• Trustee, the Wincott Foundation (2003 – May 2011)
• Board Member, UK Statistics Authority (2010 – )
• Member of the Supervisory Board, Axa Deutschland GmBH (2008 – )
• Governor of Bancrofts School (2009 – )
• Trustee, Tablet Trust (2010-)

Jill Ainscough (Chief Operating Officer, Appointed August 2007)

• Member of the Board of Sport England

Philip Graf (Deputy Chairman, appointed 1 January 2006)

• Chairman of the Gambling Commission and Chairman Designate of the body to be created by merging the Gambling Commission and the National Lottery Commission
• Trustee of Crisis (charity)
• Director of Urban Village Limited, a charitable company associated with Crisis
• Associate, Praesta Partners LLP

Mike McTighe (Appointed 1 September 2007)

• Non-executive Director of Pace plc*
• Chairman, WYG plc
• Chairman of JJB Sports plc
• Chairman, Frontier Silicon Holdings Limited
• Chairman, Nujira Limited
• Director, Traitrealm Limited
• Chairman of Volex Group
• Senior Independent Director of Betfair Group plc
• Director, Arran Isle Ltd Group – representing the banks involved in its UK banking syndicate (Lloyds Banking Group and National Australia Bank)
• Chairman, Jerrold Holdings Limited
• Commissioner of Postcomm

Stuart McIntosh (Partner, Competition)

• On retirement entitled to a pension from BT
• Commissioner of Postcomm

Tim Gardam (Appointed 6 September 2005)

• Principal of St Anne’s College, Oxford
• Director of St Anne’s College Services Limited
• Chair of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford University

Norman Blackwell (Appointed 1 September 2009)

• Lord Blackwell sits as a Conservative Peer in the House of Lords
• Chairman, Interserve plc
• Senior Independent Director, Standard Life plc
• Board member of the Centre for Policy Studies
• Non executive Director of Halma plc.
• Commissioner of Postcomm

* Mike McTighe is the Non-executive Director of Pace plc which, among its other activities, supplies set top boxes to Ofcom-regulated companies. In line with the Board’s Conflicts of Interests policy, Mike McTighe will not see papers on or take part in Board discussions in relation to those companies or any other matter which could reasonably be expected to affect the share price of Pace plc.