Thank you very much. Some of those people are here with us in the room, and have heard what you have very kindly said.

Thank you.

Well, I think the only thing I would add is if you look at paragraph 5.6 of our advice to you, page 0861 of your papers, you'll see that we're saying there the importance of different regulatory bodies working together, common and consistent principles. You'll recall ...

I don't think we think that they are. To be honest we're just making this point here because we know it's a point which concerns a large number of people and we're adding it to our advice in the interests of completeness.

Indeed.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes, yes, yes, yes, that's exactly how I would see it. I'm sorry, Ed, I --

Exactly.

I completely see -- sorry, Ed, I know you want to say something here, but I just want to -- this seems to me to go absolutely to the role of how the chairman of this body will perform, because on any board people bring into that board a range of different ...

-- you'll recall I said a few minutes ago, when we were talking about governance, the important thing that the people who come in to sit on the board of the regulator, wherever they have come from, come and exercise that role with commitment to the public purposes of the ...

There is, and if we could just spend one more minute on this --

Yes.

Indeed.

I think it's a rather light remark to make.

I think probably everybody in this room has got an agenda, actually, if I could treat that point a little bit lightly, perhaps. But if by that he means that, let us say, the person who currently chairs the Ofcom content board, who was formerly the director of programmes at ...

No, I just wanted to add one little further note on that. The main place where this happens in Ofcom is the content board, about which Tim Suter spoke to you at length earlier this morning. The content board is both chaired by and comprises people with very substantial experience ...

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

That's exactly right.

Exactly.

Yes.

Yes.

Okay.

I'm sorry to make a slight meal of that.

Could I just inject a small note here, which is we don't have a preferred position, and what we think we are doing is advising the Inquiry about what we think works.

There's also a small clarificatory point to make which is the Ofcom licensing regime doesn't licence individuals, doesn't bear on individuals. We licence companies. As I understand it, the debate around journalistic accreditation, press cards, et cetera, is about individuals and their freedom or not to participate ...

No.

Yes.

You hope.

No.

Yes.

Yes.

Exactly.

And that is why, if I may just come back to -- I think the question you were asking in a way was why are you even bothering to start at the self-regulatory end of the spectrum in the analysis we've offered? I think it is worth looking at what ...

Yes.

Yes, exactly, and I'm trying to sort of unpack what I mean by that word.

I think you've discussed with Lord Black at considerable length the detailed arrangements that might be made in terms of numbers of people and their provenance, as it were, in order to try to deliver independence. I think what one always has to have regard to is that the ...

Yes.

We wanted to raise this because we do feel that a clear acknowledgement of the importance of the independence of the governance is of the utmost importance. We spoke about this last time we gave evidence to the Inquiry, and I don't want to reiterate what we said there ...

I'm interested that you say this is all relatively uncontroversial, because it does seem to me that what is said at paragraph 2.3, first bullet point, is something on which there has been a very great deal of discussion. It may well be that what you mean by ...

No, I just wish to underline that and take you back to the text. We've said key elements of the public purpose of press regulation could include, and this is where this comes up, so yes, we've thought carefully about this and we wish to give you this ...

Yes.

Yes.

Could we just mention one housekeeping point, which is we don't have any bundles, so when you mention tabs, you will find us looking through our own papers to find what you're talking about.

Yes.

We have indeed seen it, thank you.

Thank you very much for the invitation. You are correct in your assumption that Ofcom is not seeking to regulate the press. You could not be more correct in that assumption. But of course we're very happy to try to help this Inquiry in any way we can, and ...

Everything.