Who is behind the porn-block campaign?
In an article on Ed Vaizey’s attempt to restrict web porn, the BBC extensively quotes Ms Miranda Suit.
She is described as co-chair of Safer Media, which “campaigns to make media safe for children”.
Ms Suit cited a report compiled by the US conservative think tank The Witherspoon Institute which suggested that easy access to pornography was damaging some young people.
“Children are becoming addicted in their teens to internet pornography,” she said. “They are being mentally damaged so they cannot engage in intimate relationships.”
Safer Media backed the government call to block pornography “at source”, said Ms Suit.
“What we are talking about is censorship to protect our children,” she said.
Who is Ms Suit?
Well, intrepid reader Sugar The Pill sent us a link to this page which shows Ms Suit previously stood as a candidate for the Christian People’s Alliance.
Want to know more? Here are her views:
We must not forget the influence of the media: it needs much stronger regulation so that our young people are not constantly conditioned by violent films, video games and lyrics; pornography must be outlawed so that it cannot undermine marriage and the dignity of women and encourage sex crime. All schools should teach Christian values.
In 2000 co-founded Mediamarch, a peaceful protest group “seeking stronger obscenity laws and restoration of basic decency to all media”.
And now she has co-founded Safer Media, which has come out nowhere to be extensively quoted everywhere by the media. This is the BBC’s idea of balance.
Compare that to the other side of the debate, the Open Rights Group, which has thousands of supporters and years of experience in evidence based campaigning.
It doesn’t even look like it has a website and Ms Suit’s full views on the issue aren’t disclosed anywhere either.
Pornblocking – why it would have killed me
contribution by Charlie Owen
The Conservative MP Claire Perry, representing the good constituency of Devizes, Wiltshire, recently suggested the introduction of a Great Porn Filter. Minister Ed Vaizey now says he is seriously considering a voluntary version.
This stalwart piece of software would patrol the borders of our great nation, letting in only the most virtuous, the most pure, the most clean of web traffic.
With the filter in place Britain might rid itself of the terrible addicition to pornography that has brought it to its knees (so to speak) and which has led to all the problems that we now face: student debt, benefit cuts and snow over our noble runways.
continue reading… »
MPs warn Tories to rethink ‘youth job fund’
A committee of MPs has warned the government that ending the Future Jobs Fund early risks leaving youths in long-term unemployment.
The Work and Pensions Committee made 23 recommendations to the government after studying its plan to end the scheme one year early.
The £1bn fund will close in March, with the replacement Work Programme not due in place until June.
The committee said proper transitional arrangements should be arranged.
The Future Jobs Fund was created by the previous Labour Government in response to rising youth unemployment at the time of the credit crisis
Could the NHS become the Conservative Achilles heel?
Most of the media will concentrate on Vince Cable’s usage of the phrase “nuclear option” in the Telegraph sting, and speculate whether he is now endangered. But I think this is the important bit:
There is a kind of Maoist revolution happening in a lot of areas like the Health Service, local government, reform, all this kind of stuff, which is in danger of getting out of… We are trying to do too many things, actually. Some of them are Lib Dem inspired, but a lot of it is Tory inspired. Actually, the problem is not that they are Tory-inspired, but that they haven’t thought them through. We should be putting a brake on it.
Tory led plans on the NHS that haven’t been thought through? Why yes, we’ve been saying that for months. Glad Mr Cable agrees.
Coincidentally, the Telegraph also publishes this provocatively titled article by Mary Riddell today: The NHS warning signs that should horrify David Cameron:
Short of reintroducing smallpox into the UK, Mr Lansley could not have formulated a less popular scheme. The British Medical Association and the Royal College of GPs are among those who have registered their alarm. Even those who support the structural changes warn that setting up GP “consortiums” will be an expensive and highly risky distraction from finding huge and necessary savings.
Mr Lansley’s claim that his programme is a modest evolution has been demolished by the NHS chief executive, Sir David Nicholson, who declares the change programme “so large that you can see it from outer space”. Any Martian with a long-range political telescope might also detect a looming crisis for David Cameron.
Forget about the Libdems, the key challenge for Labour and the Left will be to find ways to track what is going on within the NHS, how that is affecting services and explain why the Conservatives are to blame.
That would hurt Conservative support much harder than Libdem support.
But this is easier said than done. Will there be any big signatures issues put to the vote? Is it possible to mobilise hundreds of thousands of people on to the streets, if they’re not sure how their services have been affected? What key flashpoints would there be that can be used to generate energy? Is any direct action possible?
Is it even possible to have a nationwide campaign on the NHS? Would it be better to focus on local campaigning here? And more importantly, how do we better speak to middle class voters who would be key to this issue (i.e. the users, not just the workers)?
I’m just throwing questions and thoughts out there. I’m not sure Labour has been able to significantly break through in the national debate on the NHS.
Tuition fees has so far been the only major issue to get the whole nation talking. How can we make the NHS the next big topic?
Cable threaten Coalition with a ‘nuclear option’
Vince Cable has privately threatened to “bring the Government down” if he is “pushed too far” during fractious discussions with his Conservative colleagues, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.
The Business Secretary also claims that David Cameron will seek to scrap or reduce the winter fuel allowance paid to pensioners from next year.
He believes that policies are being rushed through by the Conservatives and that ministers should be “putting a brake on” some proposals, which are in “danger of getting out of control”. Mr Cable says that, behind the scenes, the Tories and Liberal Democrats are fighting a “constant battle”, including over tax proposals. Likening the conflict to a war, he says he can always use the “nuclear option” of resignation.
His departure from the Government would spell the end of the Coalition, he claims.
—
Sunny adds:
Well, at least we know what Vince Cable really thinks now, which can’t come as that much of a surprise; these aren’t huge revelations.
But what’s significant is that Cable is the first senior Libdem to make signal his deep discomfort (albeit privately) in a way that has been largely absent from the Libdem side. Only the Tory right have been crying foul about how their principles are being compromised.
Undoubtedly, these revelations will make Coalition negotiations much more fractious now. One thing is for sure: the Winter Fuel Allowance is now saved. If Cameron does indeed end up axing it, Vince Cable will have no choice but to resign.
Reactions:
Tom Watson MP says he is calling for an emergency statement.
HazeW has an intriguing theory:
why are peeps so slow on this one?! it’s clever politics. cable resigns with dignity to make way for Laws win/win
Jonathan Calder at Liberal England:
In fact it sounds as though this government is operating more satisfactorily than most in living memory. And Liberal Democrat members will be reassured to learn that our ministers are busy fighting to get our policies implemented.
Still, the Telegraph bills this as the first of several exposes of what Lib Dem MPs are saying in private, so we shall see if anything more damaging is to come.
Watch: The 12 days of ‘Cripsmas’
The 12 Days Of Cripmas is a topical take of a classic carol listing the benefits and services currently being removed from disabled people in Britain.
The lyrics were written by a user of the Ouch messageboards, sent to Where’s The Benefit and the track produced and directed by BendyGirl of The Broken Of Britain.
We’re all incredibly proud of Imana our 11 yr old singing star who is a child carer for her mum who has Multiple Sclerosis.
Via Bendy Girl
74% of business leaders back staying in EU
The incoming president of the CBI has said Britain would lose out if it were to quit the European Union.
Roger Carr, president-elect of the CBI and chairman of Centrica, said: “Economic conditions in Europe are challenging but it remains a major UK trading partner.
“Britain must strive to be more competitive and continue to press for further liberalisation. You cannot effect change from the sidelines and thoughts of abandonment should not be contemplated,” said Carr, in comments that were a reflection of his own views rather than the CBI’s.
He made his comments after a new poll found that 74 per cent of business leaders believe a UK withdrawal from the EU would be damaging.
50 groups behind 50% of Tory money since 2001
Although the Election Commission publishes information on who gives what to political parties, donors can avoid attracting attention to themselves by splitting up donations across family members or between personal and company donations.
This is legally permissable. But makes it difficult to get a broader picture of who has most helped them and whether the contribution has helped the donor.
But two academics: Stephen Crone and Stuart Wilks-Heeg, have analysed all donation income received by the Conservative party since 2001. They have written about it for the LSE Politics and Policy blog.
Their headline findings are stark:
- The Tories owe their financial survival to just 50 key ‘donor group’ sources that account for 51% of their donor income.
- The party’s top 15 sources for almost a third of the total.
- Just 224 donations, originating from fewer than 60 separate sources, accounted for nearly 40% of the three major parties’ declared donation income between 2001 and mid 2010.
- Lord Ashcroft has made cash donations of almost £2 million to the Conservatives via Bearwood Corporate Services.
- The Bamford family (owners of JCB earthmoving firm) made cash donations of around £4 million to the Tories via a combination of different family members and businesses.
They say:
The family and business networks linking these big donors mean that the parties’ true dependence on big donors is likely to be even more extensive than is immediately apparent.
The list can be viewed at the full blogpost here.
via Other TPA
Who persecutes believers? Other believers
Christians are the religious group that suffers most from persecution on account of faith, Pope Benedict XVI argues in his message for Word Peace Day. And when it comes to perpetrating that persecution, religious fundamentalism and secularism amount to pretty much the same thing, he adds.
As someone who defends religious liberty precisely on account of being a secularist, I must point out to His Holiness that evidence for either contention is somewhat flimsy.
Guardian today misrepresents unions and the fight against cuts
The Guardian today carries a comment piece by Unite union’s gen-sec Len McCluskey arguing: Unions, get set for battle. It has been turned into a rather simplistic news story title: Unions warn of massive wave of strikes.
It is also accompanied with a leader titled: Trade unions: Leading nowhere “Len McCluskey sadly sounds as if he stopped thinking in 1979. What a waste.”
I would be willing to bet money it was written by Julian Glover, because it once again misses the point and misrepresents the left and unions.
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