BULLET POINTS
Well here’s a statement I
never thought I would commit to paper, I agree with Norman Tebbit. In a radio
interview he ridiculed the use of the word ‘affordable,’ stating correctly,
that this is merely a feel good phrase that is, in practice, meaningless. I came
across this term in a recent exhibition respecting proposals to improve Notting
Hill Gate, the council stating they would be building more affordable homes in
the area. All homes are affordable, should
* * *
Yet another radio
interview the other day in which a politician was constantly interrupted and
harangued by some BBC hack, who clearly believed that they was the star of the
show. This ‘pit bull’ technique was developed by Jeremy Paxman. At the time it
felt like a refreshing antidote to politicians obfuscating and offering up jargon
infused waffle. However the technique is now completely out of hand, with
Paxman, raised eyebrows, cynical manner and sneering riposte, increasingly
looking like a parody of his early self. Christopher Hitchens had the best
response to such a technique, “you must,” he informed the persistent
interrupter, who was punctuating the interview with contentious statements,
“have me on your show more often so I can hear your views.”
* * *
Ed Miliband’s speech at
the Labour Party Conference was impressive and the Tories are now running
scared of the populist appeal of Labour Party policies. Already the raft of
Tory supporting papers are running Red ED stories and seeking to portray Labour
policies in the most ludicrous light. You would think that Miliband’s speech
had been made at the Finland
Ed Miliband took on the Murdoch press with
real political courage and they are now out for revenge.[1]
I have previously written
that Murdoch and the rabid Tory press no longer enjoy the kind of power they
did in the 1980’s and 90’s, the advent of the internet, twitter, Facebook and
other multiple sources of information that the internet age has created, having
seen to that. My thesis is about to be put to the test. To be on the safe side
though I hope the Labour election team will be as internet savvy as the Obama
team was in the US
* * *
I have always been a
strong supporter of the BBC, and still am, though my affections are currently
being sorely tested. Following on from the Jimmy Saville fiasco and the scandal
of ludicrous redundancy pay-offs, the BBC is now under siege. Newsnight has now
become anaemic and is loosing its most talented staff; not least the excellent
Paul Mason, who has now moved to Channel Four News. (One of the reasons for
Mason’s move has been the BBC’s requirement for oversight, i.e. censorship, of
his non BBC related writings!)[2]
I believe there has also
been a discernable shift to the right in BBC news programmes recently, sometimes
involving naked editorialising, as with Norman Smith’s post Miliband comments
“Miliband must now face the accusation that he is returning the party back to
the 1970’s.”
With a new licence
settlement due in a couple of years the BBC is understandably nervous. On a
recent Daily Politics TV show, see, http://alextalbot.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/is-george-galloway-mad.html
below; George Galloway feels confident enough to assert, “you’re going to loose
your licence.”
The very fact that the
hideous Mr Galloway relishes the destruction of the BBC should give pause for
anyone concerned with the health of our democracy and the cultural life of this
country. Anyone wanting a vision of what a Galloway alternative to the BBC would look like should check out Press TV, the
propaganda station run by the Iranian government, on which Galloway has a regular show.
What the BBC really needs
is greater protection from political interference. One way of doing this would
be to take decisions about the level of the licence fee out of the hands of the
government.
* * *
I will be voting Labour at
the next election, though this might mean holding my nose for a considerable
length of time.
Buoyed by Ed Miliband’s
speech I went on to watch the law and order debate at the Labour Party
conference. Civil liberties simply did not feature. It is deeply depressing
that the Labour Party simply does not get civil liberties. So I will vote
Labour, braced for immediate campaigns for freedom of speech, freedom from
state surveillance and the right to protest; which is more than merely
tiresome.
* * *
It is now over a year
since the so called ‘pleb-gate’ affair,
http://alextalbot.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/jolly-coppers-on-parade.html.
At the time I thought the whole business suspicious and reeked of a police
stitch up.[3]
At the time, and as I commented I thought this somewhat comic, the police
stitching up ordinary citizens on a regular basis a Tory now getting a taste.
When I see, for example that
someone has been charged with assaulting a policeman, I take this with a pinch
of salt. Such a charge can be levied if you accidentally tread on a policeman’s
foot during a demonstration; the comedy in Mr Mitchell’s case consisting of a
senior politician getting the same treatment as a member of the Anarchist Bloc.
Mitchell had been annoyed with the police on duty outside number 10 and the
police had consequently stitched him up.
It now seems that
something far more sinister may have been at work, with the murky fingerprints
of the Police Federation found on a plot to unseat a government minister as
revenge for Federation demands being ignored.
As I say over a year has
passed and yet with no result, although the Head of the Met Bernard Hogan Howe
had promised a speedy enquiry into the affair. Similar foot dragging has been
witnessed over at the Hillsborough inquiry, and I want to write about this
shortly.
The police must be held to
account over their behaviour in the Mitchell case and pressure must be kept up
as the Police Federation are no doubt hoping the whole business will die out
with the passage of time. Chris Mullin, the ex Labour MP and journalist, who
knows a thing or two about The Fed, which in reality operates more like an
organised protection racket than a Trade Union. Thus Mullin on the Federation:-
"It has a long track record of
intimidating ministers, journalists and anyone else who gets in its way. It
also has a track record of defending the indefensible."
Another arm of the police
force requiring scrutiny is the Association of Chief Police Officers, ACPO. You
will not find any reference to this extraordinarily powerful organisation in
statute, yet it wields very great power in our society and is almost wholly
unaccountable. Again I will be returning to this issue.
[1] He was right to take them
on regardless,; Murdoch is simply unappeasable whilst Dacre, Desmond and co
were always going to attack Labour whatever his position on press regulation.
[2] Mason produced the
brilliant ‘Why It’s Still Kicking off Everywhere,’ which I have written about
in a previous post.
[3] ‘Stitch-up’ being English
slang for being wrongly framed for a crime.
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