Top post at Ofcom awarded

The government is expected later today to wheel out Lord (David) Currie of Marylebone as the chairman of upcoming super-regulator Ofcom.

The post, rumoured to be worth over £150,000 per year for a four day week, is a central part of the overhaul of media and communications regulation in the UK.

Ofcom will pull together telecoms watchdog Oftel, the Independent Television Commission, the Radio Authority, the Radio Communications Agency and the Broadcasting Standards Commission.

Those likely to be unhappy about the appointment include David Edmonds, the current DG of Oftel, who is thought to have applied for the job, and those who will see Lord Currie as the personification of cronyism.

He is the dean of City University's business school and has close links to the financial sector but will be known to most as a Labour peer and confidante of Chancellor Gordon Brown.

We'll be bringing you more on this story later today.