OFCOM's judgement day (or one of them anyway)

There is some news that the so called 'whistle-blower' Bob Winsor will get his judicial review heard in court in early September.

Bob bravely tried to bring attention to the scandal that was the participation TV fiasco run by all of the terrestrial broadcasters (to a greater or lesser extent) about 4-5 years ago.

Along with some deception there was some action that looked pretty shady - hopefully some light will be thrown on what went wrong.

(For those who are not aware of what went on there's some background on the case here ).

Way out west

Last w/e we visited my brother in Cardiff, now Cardiff is a city that I thought I knew as it was where I studied Electrical and Electronic Engineering many years ago but it has undergone the change that so much of Britain has in the last quarter century or so.

Cardiff has been for some time a place of paper pushers rather than manual labour but now with the docks gone there is even less of an industrial landscape and gentrification is the name of the game.

There are some fantastic shops a bright new John Lewis shopping centre and many cultural attractions - we visited the Wales Millennium Centre where we had a fantastic meal and enjoyed Calendar Girls (a play adapted from the earlier film featuring Jennifer Ellison - right) we also had a great curry the previous night at Mint and Mustard.

What does this mean for the UK and Welsh economy? Are we placed to compete with Germany (or even France) - I fear not, will dramatic spending cuts help? Again from me a 'no' I don't believe they will.

From Cardiff we went on to Bath a city I know less well and probably one that does not have a great industrial past, but a city now very much based on tourism and services - worrying.

has ITv a pay strategy?

I was interested to read that Adam Crozier might have a pay TV strategy for ITV - but somewhat puzzled by what it will deliver for ITV.

Much as the UK has been labelled as the junior partner in the US/UK special relationship it appears that ITV is becoming a junior partner in a SKY partnership - as what it is bringing to the table is somewhat questionable I would worry - ITV2, 3 and 4 have slightly downmarket viewers of oft repeated or generic content (often at the low end of SD)how it will work remains to be seen. Certainly didn't help the share price short term.

Perhaps their new CTO Paul Dale will have some brighter ideas (that's chief technology officer if you hadn't guessed)?

Edna and The death of Labour Plus Ealing Festival

A couple of things (particularly) bring into focus the demise of the British left..

the first is the death of Edna Healey at the age of 92, are there any Labour women who will be remembered as Edna Healey was (by Harriet Harman) as
"a remarkable woman and a true friend to the Labour Party." - I an afraid not for the current list includes women like Hazel Blears and Jaclyn Smith who appear only care to be friends to themselves.
Is it worth asking why this is the case, what has happened that means that so little value is given to the pillars of what was once the Labour Party's ambitions for the UK?

The other topic which has reviled me is Mandelson's book 'The third man' described by many as self seeking it hits a further nail into the coffin of principled Labour - what is the benefit away from the man's vanity and his bank balance?

Will this be rectified by any of the candidates for leadership - I hope it does, but I'm not sure that any have the zeal or principle of Brown (or even Wilson or Blair).

Ealing Festival

Couple of events we've managed to enjoy this year:

1) Tosca - quite impressive that you can have Opera in a tent but the problem with this one is that for Debbie and I no memorable tunes, we'd done some homework and knew roughly what was happening. Despite it being in Italian and with limited orchestral support the show was fun and I stayed awake. Well done to the Opera A La Carte compay.

2) Ealing Comedy festival

Wednesday night we went and sampled a comedy night which featured Emo Phillips, Ardal O’Hanlon and Jo Caufield amongst others.
Emo was well received, part of his act seemed to be taking off items of clothing and putting them in his pockets and then later putting them back on again.