Author Archives: Martin Hoscik

As Ken and Tories go to war over London bus passes where are the LibDems?

By Martin Hoscik | Mon 11th December 2006 - 7:51 pm

This week has seen Mayor of London Ken Livingstone and Conservative Assembly Member Roger Evans trade harsh words over the policy of free bus travel for the capital’s youth.

Commenting on his blog Evans said if the eventual Tory Mayoral candidate solicited an opinion he’d recommend axing the scheme. Livingstone responded to the comments by penning an article on Comment is Free and issuing a press release.

Evans in turn wrote a rebuttal for Conservative Home and took his point of view to the wider public with a Comment is Free entry of his own.

Looking at their

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Posted in London and News | Tagged ConservativeHome, ken livingstone and roger evans | 18 Comments

A lack of ambition for the BBC?

By Martin Hoscik | Wed 11th October 2006 - 1:46 pm

BBC News Why does it so often feel as if the party has a lack of ambition for the future of the BBC? It seems that the only time we comment on it is when we’re attacking the Government or their proposals. It’s hard to recall when we last put forward imaginative plans to “secure the BBC’s status as the envy of the world”.

Actually I should probably quote that statement in full: “We can only secure the BBC’s status as the envy of the world by introducing a single, independent regulator for all public service broadcasters.” – Don Foster, 15 March 2006

The problem is the statement makes no sense. It starts from an assumption that the BBC already HAS status as “the envy of the world” under the decades old model of internal regulation but goes on to suggest that such status can only be secured and developed by handing regulatory responsibility to an outside body.

Posted in Op-eds | 29 Comments