EU Public Affairs Monitor - 24/10/08

Two Arrested in Japan Over Illicit Mobile Music Site 24/10/08
"The Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ) announced this week that two men have been arrested for operating an unauthorized mobile music download site that attracted more than a million users, Ars Technica reported. Daisan Sekai ("The Third World") was "one of the most popular illegal mobile music sites" in Japan, according to RIAJ. Japan's digital music market is dominated by mobile, as most Japanese have advanced handsets and many are avid mobile music consumers." [DWMMedia]

Music News Bulletin - 24/10/08

MySpace Music Struggles to Hit the Right Pitch With Indie Labels 10/24/08
"When it first launched, MySpace Music had support from major record labels as well as The Orchard, a strong independent distributor. Largely left out were smaller independent labels not associated with The Orchard. A month later, MySpace is attempting to grow its stake in the indie field by cutting a deal with another large distributor for independent music, IODA.

A month after irking part of the independent recording community by launching its online music service mostly with major labels, MySpace Music Latest News about MySpace has made a deal to almost double the amount of indie tunes available through the service." [HeutePopMorgen]

Digital music and ‘the recession’ October 3rd, 2008
"So what’s going on? A recession? A real one or just one that gets newspapers excited? I’m too cynical to get get concerned about these issues until they really effect me or I can see other people affected.

Then I looked at my schedule for the upcoming Popkomm conference in Berlin and noticed it is still strangely open. Either I am becoming less popular or the companies I normally catch up with at this conference are not attending this year. The latter seems to be the case: lots of emails from people saying that they will not make it this time. Those are often Americans and it looks like they want to safe a few dollars by not making it over to Berlin. Will be interesting to see if the American companies that brought over 30+ people and took out huge stands the last few years will do the same next week." [HeutePopMorgen]

Music News Bulletin - 23/10/08

Sony completes buyout of Bertelsmann's stake in music label October 2, 2008
"Bertelsmann AG's planned divestiture from the Sony BMG Music Entertainment Inc. joint venture is now complete, as Sony Corp. [SNE] announced that it had bought out the German media giant's 50% stake. The sale, rumored for months and announced Aug. 5, was approved by EU regulators in mid-September.

The newly renamed Sony Music Entertainment Inc. will be a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sony Corp. Bertelsmann's stake was valued at $900 million, but an additional $300 million in cash on the company's balance sheet pushed the value of the deal up to $1.2 billion." [TheDeal]

Play.com Steps Up Music Download Battle With 3 Million DRM-free Tracks From All Four Majors 10 Oct 2008
"UK e-tailer Play.com has stepped into the music download battle by signing the four major music labels to its PlayDigital online store to offer more than 3 million DRM-free MP3 tracks that can be played on any device. In a move directly aimed at iTunes, tracks and albums currently being sold at a cheaper price than at the Apple- owned store. More details at sister site paidContent.co.uk." [PaidContent]

Baidu Unveils New Internet Song Channel October 22, 2008
"After Google (GOOG) launched a free genuine music search service, Chinese search engine Baidu (BIDU) has now also taken action to resolve the problems brought by pirated music and the search company ahs launched a channel for newly published songs and music.

The new channel, which is entitled "New Song Debut", is a cooperation with seven record companies, including Emperor Entertainment Group, Ocean Butterflies Music Group, EMI Music, Music Nation, Rock Records & Tapes, Huayi Brothers and B in Music." [ChinaNews]

Blip.fm raises funding, CEO Yasuda discusses reorg October 23, 2008
"Fuzz Artists Inc. chief executive Jeff Yasuda revealed to me Monday at the SanFran MusicTech Summit that his company has raised additional funding in support of its Blip.fm social music playlisting service. We followed up that brief conversation with a longer one, in which he offered additional details on the fundraising and his plans for the company.

Yasuda hit up Fuzz's existing angel investors for the company's fourth installment of capital since 2005, although the total funding for his operation remains less than $10 million. He declined to name the investors. The entrepreneur said in May that unidentified individuals connected with Google Inc. [GOOG] have invested in the past. The round remains open, with room for first-time backers to participate, Yasuda added." [TheDeal]

Heron's Eye: 21/10/08

Three men in a boat (to say nothing of the media mogul) 21/10/08
Michael White examines the rumours behind the allegations that Peter Mandelson and George Osbourne have been courting the Russian aluminium tycoon Oleg Deripaska, politely widening the net of intrigue in the world of schmoozing to discuss Rupert Murdoch. [Guardian]

Seven things you might not know about Gordon Brown's reshuffle 09/10/08
Andrew Sparrow provides interesting observations on Gordon Brown’s recent cabinet reshuffle. [Guardian]

Two key Blairites say government could have done more to avert financial crisis 21/10/08
Andrew Sparrow shines light on evaluations from key Blairites on how (and how well) the Government has effected the financial crisis. [Guardian]

Amid the rubble of global finance, a blueprint for Bretton Woods II 21/10/08
Jeffrey Sachs on the need for a Bretton Woods II and how it should look beyond financial regulation and address world development goals and environmental issues. [Guardian]

Wasteful job creation schemes 21/10/08
The Guardian letters page, providing differing interpretations on the benefits of full employment. [Guardian]

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Grimsdale's Ire: 21/10/08

The government must sort out council tax 08/10/08
Chris Leslie and Sunder Katwala write on the need for Labour to grab the mantle of council tax reform, in order to avoid being outmanoeuvred by recent Conservative taxation policy. [Guardian]

Wealth gap narrows faster in UK than other developed countries 21/10/08
“The gap between rich and poor since 2000 has narrowed faster in the UK than any other developed nation, according to a major international study released today. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development said the decline of inequality in Britain between 2000 and 2005 was "remarkable"” [Guardian]

Straight to the specialist: Johnson cuts GP referrals 21/10/08
“Patients with back pain will be able to access free treatment from NHS physiotherapists without having to go through a GP, under plans to be unveiled today by the health secretary, Alan Johnson. In a substantial extension of patient choice, he also wants to give people an opportunity to book appointments with speech therapists, dietitians, podiatrists and other health professionals.” [Guardian]

Lloyds chief tells staff: you'll still get bonuses 21/10/08
“The chief executive of Lloyds TSB, one of the banks participating in the £37bn bank bail-out, has promised staff they will receive bonuses this year despite Gordon Brown's promise of a crackdown on bankers' pay following the investment by taxpayers. Eric Daniels has told employees that the historic government intervention will not change the behaviour of Lloyds, which is in the throes of the rescue takeover of HBOS brokered by the prime minister.” [Guardian]

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In The Loop: 21/10/08

Jam yesterday, debt today 21/10/08
Ashley Seager puts the level of current and future national debt into perspective. [Guardian]

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Heron's Eye: 20/10/08

How drugs laws compound race inequality 08/10/08
Sebastian Saville on how drugs laws disproportionately effect minorities and those on low income. [Guardian]

Hard times: The myth of public v private has now been exposed
Peter Beresford muses on the shift in opinion between private and public organisations and whether it is a ‘Berlin Wall’ moment. [Guardian]

Hard times: Can PFI deliver hospitals and roads during a credit crunch?
Alison Benjamin considers whether PFIs have any place in current and future public investment projects. [Guardian]

Below is my response:

I agree with the above posters view that PFIs need close scrutiny, especially given that we are in a period of political economic introspection at the moment. The last thing desired is to perceive PPPs as some solution to our present and future challenges. Successive governments since the 1980s have colluded with private interests to carve out the public realm. This needs to be reversed, with more decisions to be put in the hands of local regions and local professionals, with a greater emphasis on encouraging grounds up initiatives.

PFIs and PPPs have acted as a conduit for introducing neo-liberal practices into the public sector, practices that in my opinion have lacked both equitable and efficiency benefits. By some it also was seen as a method of destabilising the public sector and strengthening centralisation. Its ‘architects promised a new solution, training the public sector to become a better, faster, stronger champion. Unfortunately, the coach has been forcing its athletes to train in the wrong event.

Effective governance and public policy should be based upon the balancing out of differing strengths and weaknesses of private, public and third sector organisations. Through taking the positions that the private sectors motivation will be able to secure efficiency savings like a pig searching for truffles and that the flow of money should be the overriding factor to decide investment decision. However, private investment decisions are likely to be different to public or third sector decisions, as the emphasis in our current hyper-capitalist economy is geared to short-term investment decisions to maximise share value.

There is a high degree of moral hazard from large scale PFI projects, as the contracts tend to offer high rewards for success but minimal risk for downturns. This means that once the contracts are signed contractors are free to skimp and save on long term investments (such as painting tube stations rather than installing air conditioning), place emphasis on quick or easy fixes (such as 3 road sweepers governing an area rather than 4 to boost efficiency(meant as an innocent example but question it if you may)) which a competent public servant should be able to initiate, and try to lobby for extra funding, due to unforeseen spending requirements and the need to sustain vital public infrastructure (cant see the wood for the trees).

PFIs have a tendency to be a drag on investment decisions, pernicious as I mentioned previously. Most PFI schemes tend to be greater in budget than initially expected. This usually results in other services being cut, as they do not have the security of 30 investment contracts.

It should be emphasised that economies of scale are not necessarily everything. Doing the right thing badly is usually better than doing the wrong thing well. In the case of PFI contracts the ability to streamline is neutered, as there are very complex rules, procedures and formulae to navigate before any changes are made. Sometimes natural economies have been ignored by politicians, carving up infrastructure to create false competition (e.g splitting the London Underground into two).

Who will save us from this dilemma? To address the Little Otiks the government needs to step in, wearing the mask of regulation. They spend their time exchanging lawyers and civil servants in the process of accountability. The system has been at the expense of local democracy and professional influence, as PFIs tend to be made at the big table. The UK has had a generation of politicians who can only think large. They walked past local experts, went to big organisations and signed long-term deals that guaranteed Westminsters involvement in decision-making in return for private sector action. Remember Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling forcing through the PPP of the London Underground all those years back despite Ken Livingstones alternative of a publicly financed and publicly upgraded Tube(2002?).

This blurring between the public and private sphere is ugly. Residency in the UK is like living on a road with two violent gangs. You have to pay each gang off to buy protection from the other gang. They promise you that you will be safe and they are going around to the others to sort things out to keep the peace. I swear I could here laughter last time I was passing by, last time they met. The optimist in me is hoping that some of the recent positive press from the part privatisation of the banking system is cause for improvement. I just cant held thinking that its the same suspects demanding greater public trust in larger government, larger finance companies and greater public appropriation of future tax decisions.

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Heron's Eye: 20/10/08

Labour fails to win poll boost from banking crisis 20/10/08
Gordon Brown is winning praise but not votes for his handling of the financial crisis, according to a Guardian/ICM poll published today. It shows the Conservatives maintaining a double-digit lead, enough for a Commons majority, despite the transformation of the prime minister's reputation at Westminster. [Guardian]

Gordon Brown defends level of national debt 20/10/08
Gordon Brown today defended the level of Britain's national debt – claiming it is "considerably lower" than a decade ago. The prime minister told MPs that it was because the government had repaid so much of its debt in previous years that it was able to borrow more now. [Guardian]

Financial crisis leaves David Cameron with few options 20/10/08
Last week, in an article about what David Cameron and his circle were thinking about the political consequences of the global financial crisis, ConservativeHome reported: "The Tories are not worried about being largely out of the news." [Guardian]

David Cameron is back - but he's storing up trouble for himself with this speech 20/10/08
“Is David Cameron at liberty to attack Gordon Brown's economic record as chancellor and prime minister? Of course he is. That's what we pay an opposition for: to oppose. He also produced a joke I hadn't heard.

Yet to hear some of this morning's talk about breaking the "political truce" during a financial crisis, you'd think he'd done something terrible like push the Brown kids off their tricycles and grazed their tiny knees.” [Guardian]

Salmond blames 'sub-prime minister' for banking disaster 20/10/08
Alex Salmond yesterday blamed Gordon Brown for the economic "calamity" that has forced the government to find £200bn to bail out the UK's banking sector.

The Scottish National party leader accused Brown of "presiding over the biggest economic reverse for a generation", deriding him as the "sub-prime minister". [Guardian]

'Insolvency arc' may influence Scottish poll 20/10/08
Michael White on the effects of the current financial crisis on the SNP’s political fortunes. [Guardian]

Darling invokes Keynes as he eases spending rules to fight recession 20/10/08
The Treasury confirmed yesterday it intends to fast-track spending planned for future years as Alistair Darling signalled that he will use next month's pre-budget report to relax Labour's long-standing fiscal rules to head off the worst effects of the recession.

Over the weekend the chancellor indicated that the government would seek to reflate the economy with a period of targeted spending on large infrastructure projects. Darling said yesterday that the economic thinking of legendary economist John Maynard Keynes was coming back into vogue. [Guardian]

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In The Loop: 20/10/08

More government data loses revealed 20/10/08
Its good to know that civil servants are as careless with their own possessions as they are with the personal data they hold on the nation.

The Liberal Democrats have today published statistics showing that Home Office employees have lost 3,492 security passes since 2001 - more than one a day. [Guardian]

UK wind farm plans on brink of failure 20/10/08
Last week Britain committed itself to cutting greenhouse gases by 80 per cent. This week Gordon Brown will claim the UK is now a world leader in wind power. An Observer investigation reveals his hopes could be blown wildly off course. No country has tried to switch so fast to renewable energy - but rising costs and technical problems mean that, without urgent action and cash, the targets cannot be met. [Guardian]

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Grimsdale's Ire: 20/10/08

Many in Ireland are wary of economic costs of absorbing Ulster 17/10/08
Henry McDonald on political deadlock in Northern Ireland not being resolved and how Dublin and Westminsters’ focus on the financial crisis is leading to political stalemate. [Guardian]

What's the point of regional ministers?
“It's not my question, but it's a good one. Andrew MacKinlay asked it in the House of Commons this afternoon. According to the Press Association report, this is how he put it:

‘I don't want to be unhelpful or unkind, but will you tell us what the regional ministers do … There is no scrutiny. I genuinely don't know precisely what they are supposed to do, and bearing in mind now we are told that there are some assistant regional ministers as well, those of us who are in the minority of never having been invited to do anything are beginning to wonder what we have done wrong.’” [Guardian]

Don't forget the third sector
Stephen Bubb on the need to continue development of the Third Sector through sheltering it from some of the more damaging effects of the economic downturn. [Guardian]

David Cameron proposes national insurance cut for small businesses 20/10/08
"David Cameron today called for very small businesses to be given a temporary tax cut of 1p on national insurance contributions to help them deal with the economic downturn.

In an interview on the Today programme on BBC Radio 4, the Conservative leader said that a tax cut of this kind — costing the Treasury £225m — could offer immediate help to small firms struggling to pay their bills." [Guardian]

Home Office trying to persuade unions to drop opposition to ID cards 20/10/08
"The Home Office is in active talks with trade unions in an attempt to persuade them to abandon opposition to the imminent introduction of compulsory ID cards for airport workers.

Meg Hillier, the minister in charge of ID cards and passports, today promised there would be no delays to the £4.7bn programme despite the threat of a UK economic recession." [Guardian]

Digital TV switchover will hit rural viewers 20/10/08
"The culture secretary, Andy Burnham, has been accused of neglecting 2.5 million households in rural areas after it emerged they would get less than half the number of TV channels broadcast to the rest of Britain after the switch to digital services.

Opposition MPs believe the government is discriminating against rural communities because ministers have refused to make sure that all the broadcasters using the digital service Freeview offer a full service for every home, once the analogue television signal is finally switched off in 2012." [Guardian]

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