The Tory confusion over NHS laid bare
Here’s some text from the Conservative NHS manifesto
British patients should be among the first in the world to use effective treatments, but under Labour they are among the last. The current system lets Ministers off the hook by blaming decisions on unaccountable bureaucrats in NICE, the agency which approves drugs for the NHS.
That’s right, damn those ‘unaccountable bureaucrats’ at NICE! The Tories will ensure that accountable ministers will instead make decisions so you can punish them if necessary.
Quite uncharitably, Alex Massie at the Spectator says to that: “The best one can say about this is that it’s total gibberish.” Doh!
But let’s assume we want these decisions to be more accountable. A good idea in theory right? But what’s this?
With less political interference in the NHS, we will turn the Department of Health into a Department of Public Health so that the prevention of illness gets the attention from government it needs.
Less political interference? But I thought that was more ‘accountable’ surely?
Can we file this under the Steve Hilton award for ‘Progressive Gobbledegook’?
BBC agrees TPA not an impartial body
The BBC’s Helen Boaden has admitted that the TaxPayers’ Alliance is not an impartial body and would do more to avoid giving that impression in the future.
She was replying in a letter to John Prescott MP, who had earlier complained about the way BBC News described and covered the right-wing lobby group.
In the letter, published on John Prescott’s blog, she said:
I do accept that the TPA’s publicatons and policies come from a distinctive political position and think we should try to avoid our output giving the impression that it is an impartial body.
I’ll be discussing with senior colleagues how we might do that in the same way that we discuss all the wider editorial issues that I have to deal with as Director of News.
The BBC’s changed position will be welcome news to many who have constantly pointed out the TPA’s close links to the Conservative Party.
The TPA has also failed to comment on Tories wasting taxpayer money in the past.
More bizarrely, Helen Boaden also said:
I do not think it would be accurate or fair to describe it on air, as you suggest, as “a group with close links to the Conservative Party.”
… despite admitting it had many close links with the Conservative Party.
Cameron speech: pure (fridge magnet) poetry
Ever seen those fridge magnet poetry sets? I refer, of course, to the tasteful novelty items widely available in kitsch gift shops nationwide, where they typically sit alongside the double entendre coasters designed to appeal to camp sensibilities and endless racks of ‘world’s greatest dad’ mugs.
Well, I’ve just worked out who actually buys them. I defy you to look at David Cameron’s Conservative general election campaign launch speech yesterday and then tell me that his speechwriter does not own a SMEG adorned with hundreds of the damn things.
Oh, and for the benefit of working class readers with incorrigibly dirty minds, SMEG in this context refers to a range of posh retro style domestic appliances that are currently de rigueur in W11. OK?
continue reading… »
‘The trouble with Tories and Twitter…’
Labour MP Kerry McCarthy has had an unobtrusive career since she entered parliament in 2005, voting along party lines with relentless loyalty. Her parliamentary expenses are a bit more interesting, if you’re keen on interior design – McCarthy furnished her London home from Habitat – but even then, she’s a fairly middling figure. TheyWorkForYou gives her claims for 2007/2008 a ranking of 215th out of 645 MPs. That leaves plenty of more spectacular receipt-flashers ahead of her.
If you’ve heard of McCarthy, it’s probably in her capacity as Labour’s new media campaign spokesperson, or (even more likely) as “Twitter tsar” – encouraging her colleagues to embrace the communicative powers of technology, and maintaining impressively open channels through her own blog and Twitter account. Well, open apart from a few exceptions.
In mid-December last year, she blocked blogger Iain Dale after a minor tweet-spat. And, shortly after, McCarthy was elevated from the Labour mass to become a key target for online Tory campaigners, with Dale promoting a #kerryout campaign set up by fellow right-wing blogger Tory Bear and citing “her behaviour on Twitter” as a compelling reason to push her out. Because social media etiquette is always hovering just above education, immigration and employment in a voter’s mind.
…read Sarah Ditum’s full article here
What happens now to Guantánamo?
Back in March, I published a four-part list identifying all 779 prisoners held at Guantánamo since the prison opened on January 11, 2002, as “the culmination of a three-year project to record the stories of all the prisoners held at the US prison in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.” Now updated (as my ongoing project nears its four-year mark), the four parts of the list are available here: Part One, Part Two, Part Three and Part Four.
The first fruit of my research was my book The Guantánamo Files, in which, based on an exhaustive analysis of 8,000 pages of documents released by the Pentagon (plus other sources), I related the story of Guantánamo, established a chronology explaining where and when the prisoners were seized, told the stories of around 450 of these men (and boys), and provided a context for the circumstances in which the remainder of the prisoners were captured.
I’ve also been tracking the Obama administration’s stumbling progress towards closing the prison, reporting the stories of the 41 prisoners released since March, and covering other aspects of the Guantánamo story.
Overall, as it stood at December 31, 2009, 574 prisoners had been released from Guantánamo (42 under Obama), one — Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani — had been transferred to the US mainland to face a federal court trial, six had died, and 198 remained.
continue reading… »
How Anjem Choudhary uses the media
Anjem Choudary is brilliant at professional media trolling. He knows exactly what to say, what to do and who to talk to, and also when to do it.
As strokes of genius go, nothing is more likely to wind up the nutters outside of his own clique than a half-baked supposed plan to march through Wootton Bassett, which may as well be our current Jerusalem, a holy place which cannot in any way be defiled, such is how it’s been sanctified both by the press and politicians.
As for his rather less amusing supposed plan for “sending letters” to the families of those bereaved through the current deployment to Afghanistan, urging them, according to that notoriously accurate source, the Sun, that they should embrace Islam “to save [themselves] from the hellfire”, it seems more likely that this would only be through the “open letter” which appeared on the Islam4UK website, which is currently 403ing.
Calling for a sense of perspective is of course a complete waste of time. It doesn’t matter that Islam4UK, the umpteenth successor organisation to Al-Muhjarioun.
continue reading… »
Obama makes first trans-gendered appointment
President Barack Obama has appointed what is believed to be the first transgender woman to a senior government role.
Defense industry veteran Amanda Simpson of Tuscon, Arizona, who really is a rocket scientist, was just appointed by President Obama to the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security as a senior technical advisor.
Her job will include managing exports of dual use technology as well as conducting press and media liaison work for the agency.
In a statement she said:
I’m truly honored to have received this appointment and am eager and excited about this opportunity that is before me,” she said in a statement.
“But as one of the first transgender presidential appointees to the federal government, I hope that I will soon be one of hundreds, and that this appointment opens future opportunities for many others.
More at The Huffington Post.
Unsurprisingly, several conservative Christians in the US described her appointment as ‘political correctness’ (gone mad?)
Evening Standard finally turns on Boris over fares
This was the front page of the Evening Standard yesterday.
We pointed out on 1st January:
From January 4th, millions of Londoners will return to work to find they have been hit by Mayor Boris Johnson’s huge fare increases:
- A single bus journey by Oyster up 20% to £1.20
- A weekly oyster bus pass up 20% to £16.60
- Six-zone peak single Tube fare by Oyster up 10.5% to £4.20
- A five-zone off-peak single Tube fare (outside zone 1) up 18.2% to £1.30
- Most Oyster pay-as-you-go Tube fares up by 20p per trip.Overall tube fares will rise 3.9% and overall bus fares up by 12.7%.
It seems the Evening Standard has finally decided to hold Boris to account.
Picture posted by @politic_animal on Twitter.
We’re giving terrorists what they want
Something doesn’t quite add up over the security panic that followed last week’s failed terror attempt to blow up a transatlantic airliner.
Britain has joined the US and other countries in toughening up checks at airports. Full body scanners, hand luggage checks and no toilet access an hour before landing are amongst some of the measures introduced to tame the new wave of psychosis that is hitting the western world.
Now. Let’s say that your house was broken into once and, hypothetically, you decided to take extra security measures to protect it. Iron bars on the bedroom window, armoured glass fitted with welded steel hinges, a special 24/7 CCTV guarding the room and a 10st stainless steel padlock to round it all off, are all concrete measures that would set your mind at rest.
However, with the initial excitement out of the way comes the realisation that all of the above may just be an expensively futile exercise. The bedroom may be safer than a fortress, but front door, living room, kitchen and all other entry points are as vulnerable as they were before.
continue reading… »
Muslims to counter-protest extremist march
The group British Muslims for Secular Democracy (BMSD) has today issued a press release stating it was “alarmed and disappointed” to learn that the extremist group Al Muhajiroun, in the guise of “Islam4UK,” were planning a procession through the streets of Wootton Bassett.
The choice of venue was deliberately designed to cause maximum offence and distress to friends and families of fallen servicemen.
Dr Shaaz Mahboob, Vice Chair of BMSD, said:
We stand shoulder to shoulder with the people of Wootton Bassett and the Armed Forces. The vast majority of British Muslims accept our Armed Forces are doing an admirable job under exceptionally difficult circumstances.”
“It is only because of the sacrifice of these brave soldiers that extremists like ‘Islam4UK’ are able to protest freely. Anjum Choudary and his followers betray everything this country stands for and the very constituency they claim to represent, which is ordinary British Muslims.
We plan to hold a counter-protest to demonstrate that ordinary Muslims are deeply opposed to the values of Islam4UK.
BMSD will also write to “Islam4UK” later this week, urging them to cancel their protest and respect both the neutrality and military tradition of Wootton Bassett.
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