OfCom chief: we're in politics; too easy to appeal

The Tories have never been happy with Ed Richards as Chief Executive; he was previously a senior policy adviser to Tony Blair and, later, Gordon Brown, and is viewed with suspicion by them as a Labour 'placeman'. Media regulation is meant to be non-partisan (above party politics), but since assuming office in 2010, the Tory-led coalition have overseen a number of Conservative Party members being moved into senior regulatory posts, not least at the BBC.

You can find links to, and brief analysis of the contrast between, several Mail/Guardian articles below on Richards stepping down from his OfCom role at the end of 2014.
His appearance before the House of Lords communications committee highlighted some useful/interesting points...

OFCOM IS UNAVOIDABLY INVOLVED IN POLITICS?
OfCom is a quango - theoretically independent from government, although government can set the parameters it operates within (the formally independent BBC is highly dependent on government who set the license fee - or even threaten to scrap it altogether!)