Watch: Olbermann makes fun of Glenn Beck
Whatever happened to the Guardianista ‘summer of rage’?
Remember this front page lead story from the Guardian in February this year?:
Britain faces summer of rage – police
Middle-class anger at economic crisis could erupt into violence on streets
Police are preparing for a “summer of rage” as victims of the economic downturn take to the streets to demonstrate against financial institutions, the Guardian has learned.
Britain’s most senior police officer with responsibility for public order raised the spectre of a return of the riots of the 1980s, with people who have lost their jobs, homes or savings becoming “footsoldiers” in a wave of potentially violent mass protests.
Superintendent David Hartshorn, who heads the Metropolitan police’s public order branch, told the Guardian that middle-class individuals who would never have considered joining demonstrations may now seek to vent their anger through protests this year.
Climate campers in action against companies
Activists from Climate Camp held a series of direct action protests today.
One action was targeted at PR company Edelman. PR Week reports:
The agency has been targeted for its work with client EON, which owns the controversial Kingsnorth power station, the planned site of a new coal-fire power station.
The Climate Camp activists said they wanted to ‘expose the naked truth behind Edelman’. Activist Alice Fielding said: ‘Edelman are nothing more than new coal spin doctors, intent on making profit out of EON’s activities at the expense of the global climate.’
Another group targeted the Royal Bank of Scotland on Bishopsgate. Elsewwhere, indigenous Canadian activists protested against the exploration of tar sands by oil companies.
Another action targeted the Shell company headquarters and defaced their logo.
via @AdamBienkov
Bibi van der Zee writes on the Guardian blog:
But what does the last week tell us about Climate Camp? They said that this year, building and education would be the priority. In this they have succeeded. Attendances were at record levels, workshops were all full, everyone I’ve spoken to said that the atmosphere was inspiring and informative. Several of today’s protestors had never really protested before, but after spending a week with like-minded people were more willing to risk their necks (or arrest) in the cause of getting action on Climate Change.
On the downside, the camp has not succeeded in getting people outside the camp talking about climate change, as it has done brilliantly in the past. Once it became clear that there was no huge action planned (not even secretly) the media, largely, lost interest. Small actions like the ones above may be inspirational to the participants, but they are of little use to the wider aim of garnering support and jolting politicians into action; showing politicians that the world is moving on and that they need to move with it.
For that you need to be ambitious, you need to plan and research meticulously; the result can be actions such as Greenpeace’s climbing of the Kingsnorth chimney or Climate Camp’s occupation at Heathrow, which genuinely created a buzz.
A big bang needed for next time perhaps?
Feminists aren’t letting down Muslim women
For some reason, these past few weeks have seen a great deal of attention paid to the relationship between Islam and western feminism. The latest issue of Standpoint features lengthy essays by Clive James & Nick Cohen who both argue that feminists have let down their Muslim sisters by failing to protest with sufficient vigour at the atrocities carried-out in the name of Islam.
Meanwhile, The Guardian’s CiF ran a series which asked “can western feminism save Muslim women?” To this, The Heresiarch acidly replies:
No. Western feminism is too bogged down in its own limitless self-regard, arguing ad nauseam about the evils of sexually stereotyping adverts, or why female bankers don’t get quite such enormous bonuses as their male equivalents, to care about anyone else. Least of all the millions of subjected women living in conditions they cannot begin to understand.
Now, I have a huge amount of respect for Heresiarch (as well some for Clive James, and a little for Cohen), but this kind of statement reminds me of the folks who run around lazily claiming that hip hop’s only about violence and misogyny. Sure, there’s plenty of hip hop which is violent & misogynistic, but if you think that’s all there is, then you’re clearly not listening to enough of it.
continue reading… »
Brown pledges bonus clampdown
Gordon Brown has pledged tough action to clamp down on excessive remuneration for bankers as part of an international effort to rectify the systemic weakness that led to the global financial crisis.
The prime minister said in an interview with the Financial Times that pay and bonuses should be based on long-term success not short-term speculative gains; banks should “claw back” bankers’ rewards if their performance suffered in subsequent years; and regulators should be able to impose higher capital requirements on financial institutions.
“We have to move faster,” Mr Brown said.
…read more at the Financial Times
The danger that Murdoch poses
Finally then, we learn some of the identities of those who were targeted by various national newspapers and magazines via Steve Whittamore, the details of which have previously been kept back by the Information Commissioner’s office.
And what an obvious collection of searches in the wider public interest they are. Whether blagging their way into BT’s databases to get home addresses and ex-directory numbers, the social security system, the DVLA or the police national computer, these are names to conjure with.
Some of these uses of a private detective to obtain information could have been in the public interest: politicians from all the main parties are also represented, among them Peter Mandelson, Peter Hain, Chris Patten, Peter Kilfoyle, a couple of then union leaders. Most though are just scurrilous attempts to back up gossip.
The other thing that Guardian’s obtaining of the information signifies is that it also knows exactly which journalists or even editors were themselves requesting information, as Whittamore also kept their details, maybe in case he was caught and so he could attempt to bring them down with him.
continue reading… »
Mail lionises Doncaster’s hapless mayor
Remember this interview?
Toby Foster: “You’re gonna cut the Gay Pride funding?”
Peter Davies: “Yup”.
TF: “Erm… how much does Doncaster council fund Gay Pride?”
PD: “Haven’t got a clue, haven’t looked into it, haven’t got the details, haven’t even started”.
TF: “Right… so how much was it worth Doncaster?”
PD: “How… how much… what?”
TF: “Gay Pride march. Eight thousand people in town for a day”.
PD: “…I dunno, they can still come, nobody’s stopping them coming…”
TF: “So you don’t know what it costs, don’t know what it earns, but you’re bangin’ it”.
PD: “…I’m saying… that hard-pressed taxpayer’s money should not be spent on promoting any type of sexuality, whether it’s straight or gay”.
TF: “But… but for all you know, it could be making a fortune for the town, you don’t know, you haven’t looked into it”.
PD: “Well… it may, or it may not”.
That was the Mayor of Doncaster, Peter Davies, interviewed on Radio Sheffield not long ago.
Joel Sport writes:
Over the weekend The Daily Mail had a double-page spread entitled, “A Breath of fresh air” about the wonders of Doncaster’s new “superMayor”, Peter Davies. Alarm bells started to ring at this, because that’s a name I recognised instantly: It’s the chap who made such a tit of himself on Radio Sheffield not too long ago!
The Mail starts with a few vague, populist facts about Mr Davies. He has a “contempt for diversity”. He’s “gloriously un-PC”. He’s a “keen devotee of the birch and the noose”. Of course, in the real world, this translates as narrow-minded, intolerant, and authoritarian, but in the Mail they’re treated as the greatest of virtues.
But let’s take a closer look at some of the claims the Mail makes for their new hero.
Read further on the Angry Mob blog.
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