Burns night

In the UK Carousel of Media Governance, Lord Burns has magically reappeared from a spinning tea-cup as chair-elect of Ofcom.

Baron Burns of Pitshanger, 73 (Houghton-le-Spring Grammar and Manchester University), a former long-time Treasury civil servant ('Teflon Terry'), is still a senior advisor to Santander, has a farm in Powys, is a non-exec of the Office for Budget Responsibility, and a vice-president of the Royal Academy of Music. He has been involved in a range of Government reviews - in 2005, he recommended the abolition of the BBC Governors and suggested top-slicing the licence fee; he looked at hunting with dogs and re-structuring the FA. That all went well.

He was Chairman of Channel 4 for six years, fending off Government attempts at privatisation.