<TD WIDTH=460 ><B><FONT COLOR="#EE3300">Read the following extract and weep. It is the strongest argument yet for an Internet free from interference by government regulators. Or is it? Julian Patterson gives his ill-considered opinion</B></FONT><BR>
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MPs call for<BR>
Bottomley to<BR>
rule Internet<BR>
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Virginia Bottomley, the National Heritage Secretary, should be given responsibility for the Internet, a report by MPs said yesterday.<BR>
They also said her department should be renamed the Department of Communications and Heritage.
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The National Heritage Committee said that the "Information Superhighway", which connects millions of computer users around the world, was so important that it needed a Cabinet minister to control it.<BR>
The department should be expanded, with more ministers and civil servants dealing with "communications and broadcasting", the MPs concluded. <BR>Their report stated: "Because of the importance we attach to the Superhighway, we do not believe that the allocation of responsibility for it as just one of many assigned to junior ministers...gives it anything like sufficient weight." <BR>
The findings will infuriate Mrs Bottomley, who advised against transferring responsibility for the Internet away from the DTI. <BR>
The report, <EM>The Structure and Remit of the Department of National Heritage</EM>, also recommends that the new department should be responsible for the BBC World Service.<BR>
(Reprinted in full from The Daily Telegraph, 3 July 1996.)
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<FONT SIZE="7"><strong>Why this woman mustn't be stopped</STRONG></FONT><BR>
