Digital Economy Bill [HL]

My Lords, I will respond generally to what seems to be the Lib Dems’ rallying cry in this process about the wash-up being a stitch-up. Inevitably, during the wash-up process I cannot help thinking of that quote from Hobbes about life being "nasty, brutish and short". There is an element of that to the wash-up, but I do not think it is any different from how it has been previously. We had that debate yesterday so I do not want to reiterate that. I think there were two comments about the Bill not having received adequate debate from the noble Lord, Lord Clement-Jones, and then the noble Viscount, Lord Bridgeman. I cannot help smiling and thinking about the many days we have enjoyed each other’s company in this Chamber as we went through approximately 750 amendments to a 48-clause Bill. There are many things that one could say about the Bill but that there has been a lack of scrutiny in this Chamber is not one of them. Maybe it would have benefited from pre-legislative scrutiny; my inner jury is still out on that, having seen the process elsewhere, but I bow to others with more experience. Maybe they are right. Inevitably, compromises have been made. It is no secret where this Government stood on the question of IFNCs in relation to the points made by the noble Lords, Lord Fowler, Lord Clement-Jones, and others. It was a good move on the part of the Government. We would have been able to establish some effective pilots in an area where competition would certainly be beneficial. Following that bit of dialectic between my noble friend Lord Maxton and the noble Lord, Lord Fowler, in one respect I agree with my noble friend: we are not going back to the 1950s. There is a different media landscape. Nevertheless I also agree with the point made by the noble Lord, Lord Fowler. I do not dismiss the quality of professional journalism quite so readily. I think the question was, does this mean that IFNCs are dead? It means that securing the plurality of local and regional news becomes even more difficult, and that the risk of a decline of local and regional television news is even more acute, as the noble Lords, Lord Fowler and Lord Clement-Jones, drew to our attention. While IFNCs may still come together in some form as a market-based proposal, the question of whether public funding should be used will need to be dealt with by whichever Government are in office after the election. Reference was made to the costs of the parties who bid for the pilots. Throughout the procurement process we have made it clear that the Government will not fund, nor are liable for, third-party costs associated with the bidding process.