3 February 2021 After 26 years editing the Daily Mail, Paul Dacre will be bored to tears by Ofcom red tape If he does go to Ofcom, Dacre will have far less sway over the news agenda of the BBC than he used to have in his old job. It is not known whether Boris Johnson is an enthusiast for Louis Althusser’s critique of Antonio Gramsci’s idea of cultural hegemony, but it looks as if he might be. The prospect of Paul Dacre, the former editor of the
Daily Mail and editor-in-chief of Associated Newspapers, becoming the next chair of Ofcom, the communications regulator, is the latest indication that the Prime Minister is keen to fill the ideological state apparatus with fellow travellers who will carry on the cultural struggle. The defining idea of British broadcasting, which is its neutrality, seems to be in the dock.