http://nds.coi.gov.uk/environment/fullDetail.asp?ReleaseID=387861&NewsAreaID=2&NavigatedFromDepartment=True

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Wednesday 17 December 2008 16:30
Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform  (National)

Ofcom Chairman-elect announced


Following a recruitment exercise conducted by the Department for Business and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, the Government has chosen Colette Bowe to replace Lord Currie as the next Chairman of Ofcom.

Bowe has significant Chairmanship and Board level director experience in business, finance, regulation and the Public Sector. She is currently Chairman of Council at Queen Mary College and a Board Member of Axa Framlington, Morgan Stanley Bank International, Electra Private Equity plc and London and Continental Railways. She was the founding Chairman of the Telecoms Ombudsman Council and the Ofcom Consumer Panel and is a former Executive Chairman of Fleming Fund Management and Chief Executive of the Personal Investment Authority. Bowe has also worked in central government and has been a Director at both the Independent Broadcasting Authority and the Securities and Investment Board.

Culture Secretary, Andy Burnham, said today: "I am delighted to announce that Colette Bowe is our choice for Chairman of Ofcom. Colette has the right mix of skills and experience for this role and I'm confident she also has the vision necessary to take Ofcom forward and tackle its future challenges."

Business Secretary, Peter Mandelson, said: "The communications industries have huge significance for our economy during these challenging times, and Colette's knowledge and experience across business, regulation and Whitehall will be invaluable at Ofcom in helping deliver greater choice and innovation across the sector."

The Government today invited the Business and CMS Select Committees to hold a public scrutiny hearing with Dr Bowe, in line with Parliamentary procedures for public appointment. The Committees will report back to the Government after the hearing.
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Note to editors:
Ms Bowe did precisely nothing to curb NTS rip-off when she was chair of the Ofcom Consumer Panel, and presumably such lethargy will continue.

I was tempted to send an email to Ms Bowe and ask if, given her credentials as former Ofcom Consumer Panel Chairman, she would now be shaking Ofcom out of its shameful record of lethargy on failing to prevent massive telco consumer ripoffs whilst also desisting from acting as an organ of the New Labour propaganda machine via its recent banning of nearly all tv advertising of so called junk food (i.e. food that you might actually want to eat and not consisting only of lettuce leaves).

But then of course I realised that Ofcom has only appointed her because of her several year apprenticeship in which she has carefully proved that she does not in fact have a single consumer centric bone in her body and that the only consumer who she is actually concerned about the welfare of is Ms Bowe as the consumer of Ofcom's large and generous allowances for its board members and various other hangers on (eg so Chairman of its called Consumer Panel).

I must beg to differ with the previous contributor. Ms Bowe, as a creature of Ofcom, is highly focussed on "consumerism", a principle which demands that the market be allowed to work in the alleged interests of all, with only "light-touch" intervention.

The work of the Consumer Panel, under Ms Bowe's chairmanship (a gender neutral term), has been to press for the maximum opportunity for people to consume the greatest possible amount of telecommuncations products and services. That is true consumerism.

This appointment does however cast a cloud over the absurd idea that the Ofcom Consumer Panel represented an independent view from that of Ofcom. This was said to be the basis for a decision not to absorb it into the National Consumer Council when this body was re-constituted earlier in the year. The NCC no longer has any responsibility for telecommunications.

I have always understood that the Ofcom Consumer Panel, or rather the "Communications Consumer Panel" as it is now known, provides a useful adjunct to Ofcom's management team, undertaking functions that are better performed by non-employees with some continuing external expertise on specific matters. To pretend that this alone gives it any true independence is absurd, its function and proven role is to support Ofcom. What is totally lacking is any capacity to undertake the role of a one-eyed advocate considering only the consumer interest, quite separate from the holistic market view that Ofcom is required to take.

Ms Bowe will doubtless see her new role as nothing more than a continutation of the work that she has been doing, rather than a complete switch into a position to which she was previously required to be in opposition. This would confirm that whilst the CCP is useful to Ofcom in the performance of its duties, it has no other value whatsoever.

Consumerism marches on.

SilentCallsVictim wrote on Dec 18^th, 2008 at 8:11pm:

I must beg to differ with the previous contributor. Ms Bowe, as a creature of Ofcom, is highly focussed on "consumerism", a principle which demands that the market be allowed to work in the alleged interests of all, with only "light-touch" intervention.

This is a definition of the word Consumerism only to be found in the personal dictionaries of Ofcom and SCV it would appear.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consumerism


Quote:

The work of the Consumer Panel, under Ms Bowe's chairmanship (a gender neutral term), has been to press for the maximum opportunity for people to consume the greatest possible amount of telecommuncations products and services. That is true consumerism.

I think you mean that consumers have been given the maximum possible opportunity for the telecoms industry to charge them the highest possible prices for consuming their services and the least possible opportunity to actually realise the real total price they are paying for those services so that the normal principles of competitive markets no longer apply or exist.


Quote:

This appointment does however cast a cloud over the absurd idea that the Ofcom Consumer Panel represented an independent view from that of Ofcom. This was said to be the basis for a decision not to absorb it into the National Consumer Council when this body was re-constituted earlier in the year.

On that point you and I can by exception agree. ::) :-X


Quote:

What is totally lacking is any capacity to undertake the role of a one-eyed advocate considering only the consumer interest, quite separate from the holistic market view that Ofcom is required to take.

I applied for a job as a member of the Ofcom Consumer Panel on more than one occasion in an attempt to change it from within but perhaps my known previous form with Ofcom mysteriously ensured that I was not even called for an interview despite being excellently qualified for the role in many other ways.  Of course Ofcom claimed that the appointment process was independent of Ofcom but I believe that to be a form of economy with the truth.


Quote:

Ms Bowe will doubtless see her new role as nothing more than a continutation of the work that she has been doing

Since she has been a main board director of Ofcom for quite some time now since she gave up her role as Chairman of the Ofcom Consumer Panel they have no doubt had time to make sure that her thought processes do not contain any possible dangerous consumerist strands. ;) ::) >:(

It should not be forgotten that Ms Bowe's credentials as one to always do the bidding of her bosses in order to ensure the smooth progression of her own career path rather than to ever fight a stand of principle of any kind were well established at the time of the Westland DTI leak incident.

See www.guardian.co.uk/public/womeninpublic/story/0,,1605571,00.html

and

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/media/article5361553.ece

Perhaps little surprise then that she cheerfully took the job of the boss of Ofcom Consumer Panel to enhance her own burgeoning directorship CV whilst doing absolutely nothing at all to help the rights of the citizen consumer, especially as that clearly pleased her real political masters at both Ofcom and in the government and thus ensured the smooth progress of her career path onwards to become Ofcom Chairman. ;) ::) :o

I can't see the real problem, we are essentially in agreement.

The wikipedia article seems to be an appropriately broad discussion of what is understood by the term "consumerism". This  more than encompasses the interpretation that I offer and apply to Ofcom and Ms Bowe. It also rightly covers the situation where providers charge the highest possible prices and deny the opportunity for recognition of total price. That is a quite normal feature of a competitive market, where providers and consumers battle with one another and their respective competitors in pursuit of personal advantage.

Perhaps our only difference may be over the definition of a word, and which of us is using it correctly. This may come down to the narrow, but to me very important, distinction between the general interests of all those who consume a particular type of service, and their interests when acting (properly) as consumers in open markets for those services. It is probably not worth developing this much further, unless we are ready to conduct a rather narrow debate about the philosophical principles underlying the role of Ofcom and its performance of that role.

For me, this would have to start with how what is seen as being "Reagan/Thatcher" view of the world gained complete supremacy, being carried forward by New Labour and Clinton and thereby firmly embedding the roots of the economic crisis currently being experienced (with Major and the Bushes being largely irrelevant). As many commentators think that we are now ready to move on to something different (or will have to) and this is not a political discussion forum, perhaps we had better leave it here. I do not however claim the right to have the last word.

The Government today confirmed the appointment of Colette Bowe as Ofcom’s new Chairman. She will take up the position on 11 March 2009.  

The confirmed appointment follows a public scrutiny hearing by the Business and Culture, Media and Sport Select Committees which took place on 13 January 2009 in line with Parliamentary procedures for public appointments.

[Source: Ofcom email update]

idb wrote on Feb 20^th, 2009 at 1:42pm:

The confirmed appointment follows a public scrutiny hearing by the Business and Culture, Media and Sport Select Committees which took place on 13 January 2009 in line with Parliamentary procedures for public appointments.

I seem to recall members of this Select Committee asked about her enormous Fat Cat salary for a part time job, especially at a time when it has been proven that allowing Fat Cats to pay themselves as much as possible is not in the public interest.  However I doubt they also asked her about here persistent recod of failure in forcing Ofcom to fulfil its principal duty during her time as Chairman of the Ofcom Consumer Panel. :o >:( :'(