Anti-fascists slam Daily Star; “fuelling hatred”
The anti-fascist campaigning organisation Hope Not Hate today sent out a missive to its supporters slamming, unusually, a media organisation – the Daily Star.
The group calls for “responsible journalism”, and says the paper is “fuelling hatred” through its journalism and portrayal of Muslims.
An extract of the email:
Last week Det Supt John Larkin, head of the West Midlands Counter Terrorism Unit, told the BBC that the activities of the English Defence League were pushing young Muslims towards Islamic extremist groups. His words echoed my recent blog where I said that the EDL and Muslims Against Crusades needed each other to justify their own existence – they were two sides of the same coin. It is a position you agreed with. Over 1,100 of you filled in our survey last week and 96% agreed with my analysis. Only 2% disagreed.
If extremism breeds extremism it is also important to identify those who are fuelling this hatred in the first place and 73% of you told us it was the media. As a result we are launching a campaign for responsible journalism and have identified the Daily Star as our first target.
I have written a letter to the newspaper’s editor Dawn Neesom and I want you to co-sign it with me.
http://action.hopenothate.org.uk/page/s/responsible-reportingWe have gone through back copies of the Daily Star since Dawn Neesom became editor in 2003 and found hundreds of articles that portray Muslims in a negative way and very few where they have been portrayed positively. Many of these articles over-exaggerate the importance of tiny Muslim extremist groups while ignoring more mainstream Muslim opinion and use the words of these extremists to smear an entire faith. On other occasions they print inaccurate or slanted articles that whip up fear and mistrust.
I conclude my letter by saying: “Freedom of speech is correctly the cornerstone of British society but with freedom comes responsibility and we fear that your reporting is actually encouraging a growth in Muslim extremism in this country”.
The letter relates to the Daily Star’s front-page story today stating: “Muslims Teaching Kids of 6 To Hate”.
As Anton Vowl points out:
Now I’m no fan of teaching kids to hack off people’s hands, but as ever it’s Muslims being brainwashed against Brits, as if the two things are incompatible. It’s us and them; it’s them and us. They are being brainwashed against us; they are being taught to hate us.
You’ll remember, also, the delight with which the Stormfront regulars greeted the Daily Star’s coverage of the EDL threatening to ‘close down towns’ that weren’t Christian enough. They were amazed that a mainstream paper should have treated them so well.
I’m sceptical that the newspaper’s editor Dawn Neesom will bother responding, but let’s see. And well done to Hope Not Hate for taking them on, though the Daily Mail or Express or no better in many cases.
Labour policy review: not like last time, please
Most of the credit – or as some of us would see it, the blame – for the creation of New Labour typically accrues to Tony Blair. But the decisive turning point in Labour’s recent history was the 1987-89 policy review under Kinnock, the sine qua non for everything that was to come.
What we got then represents the biggest change of direction ever undertaken by a major British party, definitively shifting its paradigm away from social democracy, and tacitly conceding that the only way to fight Thatcherism was to incorporate some of its core assumptions in a drive to recapture the C2 vote.
What can Libdems and Labour learn from changing polls?
23% voted for the Libdems at the election in May. Around half that number currently say that they will vote for the party again in most polls.
The latest ComRes poll shows that remaining LibDems are equally divided over whether the cuts are too quick and too harsh, with most believing the government is failing in its promise to cut fairly. Conservatives are much happier with the government’s strategy. I look at the detail of still loyal LibDem opinion in a Next Left blog-post.
This suggests it could be useful to think about three different groups when thinking about what has happened to LibDem support in the last six months, and what it means for the future.
continue reading… »
How UK’s right-wingers got it so wrong on Ireland
The Indy’s leader writer Ben Chu said the other day:
Until very recently Ireland was the neoliberal darling, despite its membership of the euro and despite its insistence that every bondholder in its banks needed to be made whole. And the right in this country genuinely believed that Ireland could cut its way to health at a time of depressed European and global demand.
He adds: “What happens when right-wing economic ideology meets reality? The answer in one word: Ireland.”
And it’s worth showing how badly right-wingers in the UK got it wrong over Ireland, and why they’re now trying to blame the Euro.
continue reading… »
Ed Miliband’s plan: positives and negatives
The Guardian reports today about Ed Miliband’s plan on coming back (and has an interview too) after two weeks of paternity leave.
• A commission on party organisation will be launched this weekend. It will examine the rules under which he was elected party leader, including the role of the unions.
• A policy review will be conducted including commissioned work by independent thinktanks and studies by each shadow cabinet member on the issues in their field. “In terms of policy, but not in terms of values, we start with a blank page,” he says.
• The review is likely to include low pay, tough crime measures including asbos, and the “contributory principle” in the welfare state.
• His main priority next May will be the devolved and local elections and not the referendum on the alternative vote. He says the Liberal Democrats should change the referendum date if they really want to win.
• He will stand up for the “squeezed middle classes”, a group he claims Cameron does not understand.
The positives, to my mind, are:
1. Policy will be under review. The party needs intellectual renewal and nothing should be sacred, including fresh thinking on tackling inequality, taxation, foreign policy, immigration etc. This also means that some radical and interesting ideas have the potential to be floated and the party will be all the better for it. Also more preferable than a series of stunts to try and ‘detoxify’ the brand.
2. The focus on “squeezed middle classes” is welcome because it means he will stick to defending the welfare state as a universal entitlement, including on issues like Child Benefits, tuition fees, Sure Start etc.
3. Has put his foot down (on Alan Johnson) by saying the 50p tax rate for those earning more than £150,000 should be permanent, as a way of creating greater equality in Britain.
4. Left the door open to a possible Libdem alliance in the future. “There are good people in the Lib Dems”; and “my door is always open”. And for the party, there is a plan to “move beyond New Labour”.
5. He has a less statist streak:
However, I think it’s very clear that as we are reformers of the market – we should also need to be reformers of the state. I don’t consider myself a sort of statist. The top-down idea of the state is as much of a problem as an idealised view of the market and in a way they have their similarities. Both treat people not as people but as kind of objects.
6. Rejects disenfranchising union members.
The negatives:
1. That he won’t campaign for AV (though I’m not clear how much of a difference that makes)
2. Erm… and that’s about it. I know some people will be angry that he’s not fighting harder against Tories every day to oppose the cuts, but frankly I think that’s the job of activists rather than the upper hierarchy. Why Ed Miliband is right to play the long game
Boris ‘oversight’ kills London tourism funding
London’s occasional Mayor Boris Johnson is facing calls to explain the future funding of the capital’s tourism strategy.
This follows the reports that an ‘oversight’ by the Mayor resulted in the removal of funding for London’s tourism agency, Visit London.
On 29th October the Government singled out London as the first region in the country to suffer immediate cuts to its regional development agency, the LDA. The £15 million LDA funding for Visit London is due to end in March 2011.
According to the Evening Standard, “Senior staff have privately accused Mr Johnson of “taking his eye off the ball” over LDA funding”.
The work of Visit London is estimated to be worth £1.2 billion to London over 4 years.
Ken Livingstone today slammed Boris in a statement:
It is simply unforgiveable that London faces the prospect of not having a tourism organisation in the year before the world’s biggest sporting event comes to the capital in 2012.
Thousands of businesses in London rely on tourism and overseas investment. Boris Johnson’s ‘oversight’ could cost London millions in lost tourism revenue and threaten jobs at a time of great economic uncertainty and government cuts.
In a letter to the Standard last week, two dozen business and university leaders said it would be “unthinkable” to leave the capital without cash for inward investment, tourism or attracting overseas students.
(partly from a press release)
Defending the rights of people we don’t like
contribution by BenSix
Blogger Meredith Tax and activist Gita Saghal appear to believe that one shouldn’t defend a person’s rights if they’re a bastard.
With apologies to Martin Niemöller I’d like to modify his poem for the present day…
First they came for – say – David Irving and I did not speak out because the man’s the bastard.
Tories to evict council tenants after just 2yrs
Tory Housing Minister Grant Shapps will propose a “crack down” on immigrants jumping the queue on housing, reports the Mail on Sunday today.
There are nearly five million names on council house waiting lists in England. Under the system introduced by Labour in 2002, anyone can add their name, with the lack of control sparking widespread claims that newly-arrived immigrants ‘jump the queue’.
Widespread claims in the Daily Mail perhaps, because the actual evidence does not back that up.
After five years, when many immigrants get residency and become entitled to government help, just one in six live in social housing, exactly the same proportion as those born in Britain.
But hidden behind that claim is this quickly glossed-over snippet:
And he is expected to end the right to a council house for life for new tenants, with some potentially being asked to move out after two years. Existing tenants will not be affected.
Weren’t we told earlier it would be five years? Now it looks like they’re cutting that further.
Vodafone: the sequel
Being old, I’m not a great one for the latest techie news, but this story did interest me.
It seems that mobile network providers, including our friends at Vodafone, are very upset at the news that Apple have come up with its own integrated SIM card which will allow it to bypass the range of providers in Europe…
continue reading… »
Ed Balls signals shift on 28 days detention
It was one of Ed Miliband’s key points when he launched his campaign for leadership: New Labour’s push for 90 / 42 days pre-charge detention was a bad idea.
He said he would seek to change that and as I said earlier the new shadow cabinet would have to follow suit.
Shadow home secretary Ed Balls has said Labour may be ready to back coalition moves to cut the pre-charge detention period for terror suspects to 14 days.
In a major policy shift, he said he could support changes if they did not impede police and security services.
Mr Balls told the Sunday Telegraph Labour’s reputation had suffered from its attempts in government to raise detention times to 90 and then 42 days.
The coalition has also said it wants to review control orders. Home Secretary Theresa May announced a review of counter-terror legislation in June, when she said her personal view was that the limit should be 14 days, which the Liberal Democrats also support.
I’m happy to support 14 days and glad that the New Generation (TM) is accepting the importance of civil liberties.
The clip on Andrew Marr
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