Lord Rees-Mogg
Main Page: Lord Rees-Mogg (Crossbench - Life peer)
Lord Razzall
My Lords, as the noble Baroness indicated, when we debated this issue in November, with the possible exception of my noble friend Lord Lloyd-Webber there was an overwhelming feeling that this merger should not be allowed to go through. Having read the Ofcom letter and having listened to the Statement, my overall concern, which was expressed from the other Benches, is that nowhere in the Statement or in the Ofcom letter is the question addressed of the overall media power that this organisation will have following the BSkyB merger. That seems to be a huge lacuna in the Statement and the Ofcom letter, which is dealt with simply by reference to the fact that the European Union competition authorities have looked at this issue and have passed it, and that therefore we do not need to worry about it. Looking at the faces and nods around this House, it is something that we should worry about. However, as the noble Baroness has rightly said, these undertakings are now going out to consultation, and the devil, as always, will be in the detail.
Various noble Lords have indicated their suspicion about independent directors. I noticed the noble Lord, Lord Rees-Mogg, grinning at the comment about the independent directors of the Times. I am not sure which way he was grinning, but he was certainly grinning.
Lord Rees-Mogg
I am not an independent director of the Times and have no business connection with the Times other than writing a column.
Lord Razzall
I understood that. Perhaps I should move on swiftly. There clearly is suspicion about the role of independent directors. Various people have mentioned the Times and the Observer, but even going back to the takeover of the News Chronicle by the Daily Mail, the record was rather poor. Undoubtedly, these undertakings will be looked at with huge scepticism.
Apart from being very light on the issue of overall media power, both the Statement and the letter from Ofcom are extremely light on how the new Sky News will be financed. My question for the noble Baroness is: is it intended that all the money will be put up by News Corporation for the next seven to 10 years? If so, will we have satisfactory undertakings that, despite the fact that it is retaining only 40 per cent of the business, it will continue—