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Digital Economy Bill [HL]

The noble Lord, Lord De Mauley, made his point extremely eloquently, and it leaves me fairly conflicted. My experience of 20 years at Anglia Television makes me realise how difficult it is to create a financial model that works in this area. I thought long and hard about something that the noble Lord, Lord Howard, said in Committee. He talked, rightly, about something that will permanently remain in the quasi-public sector. I am not in favour of that. What attracts me in the Government’s proposition is the idea of getting a new shape, a new player, into the marketplace and then finding a mechanism whereby it can move off into private hands. I may be being Pollyanna-ish about it, but there is a lot in what the noble Lord, Lord De Mauley, said and in the points made by the noble Lord, Lord Howard, in Committee. On balance, I support the Government on this, with some concerns.