In her previous lives, Marian Shinn has tackled journalism and PR, which in a way both involve reporting or supporting activities that you aren’t actively doing for yourself.

Those days are long gone. Now Shinn is the Shadow Minister of Communications with the Democratic Alliance (DA). She despairs as much as any of us over the parlous state of Icasa, telecoms legislation and the SABC. Yet unlike most of us, she’s now actively able to do something, although the ability to force real change may only come in 2019, or 2014 if the DA puts in an astonishing show at the elections.