The white-washing of Labour’s defeat must be challenged
Narratives are clever political devices. You take a particular event, particularly one that has confused or traumatised people; and, before anyone else gets there first, stamp on a story explaining why it happened.
Repeat it enough, pass it off as commonsense, and soon it will become received wisdom. You can then cleverly use it for political purposes: as either a warning about what to avoid, or a prescription of what must be done next time around.
That’s what the Labour Right have been trying to do with Labour’s devastating general election defeat in 2010.
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EXCL: BBC journalists told to use ‘savings’ instead of ‘cuts’ in news
BBC journalists have been instructed by senior editorial staff to use ‘savings’ instead of ‘cuts’ in their news coverage, Liberal Conspiracy has learnt, in order to offer a “rosy” picture of government announcements.
The move has drawn outrage from journalists and led to heated editorial meetings and arguments. It is also likely to attract accusations of bias towards the Conservative-led coalition.
In particular, BBC London journalists have been told by senior management that they should use ‘savings’ as much as possible for on-screen graphics and the big plasma (the screen which sits behind the presenter).
Staff were told by senior management that ‘cuts’ made the news coverage appear too negative. New editorial guidelines have not been issued to staff by email, only to senior editors by BBC executives.
A source told us: “People in the newsroom are angry about it and several producers and correspondents have challenged the [BBC London] editors about it.”
Staff from other parts of the corporation, when contacted by this blog, painted a more mixed picture. Some said they had heard nothing about it, while others said that there had been editorial discussions on whether using ‘cuts’ was biased against the government.
There are definite concerns that the BBC is bowing to pressure from the government over its news output.
Another source told us: “This is just a ludicrous example of bureaucracy and the goverment throwing its weight [on the BBC].”
Two separate journalists confirmed that the editorial decision at BBC London had been challenged several times this week in evening meetings. Journalists from the political unit had also raised objections yesterday morning.
“It’s very frustrating for the journalists who feel [that] the true picture isn’t being told and we’re being told paint a rosy picture,” a source told Liberal Conspiracy.
We’re waiting on the BBC press office for a comment.
Update: a BBC spokesperson has sent us this terse comment:
We are reporting impartially on reductions in council and government spending and no instructions have been issued about terminology to be used in our coverage.
…which is flatly contradicted by people working at BBC London.
Update 2: The NUJ have sent us a statement from general-secretary Jeremy Dear:
Government attempts to influence the language journalists use should be strongly resisted. NUJ members want to do their job at the BBC without political interference. Any attempts to mask the reality of the situation will be challenged by our members.
We will continue to dig into this story. If you spot examples of BBC broadcasts using ‘savings’ instead of ‘cuts’ when they are clearly not, please get in touch.
More good news for those worried about global warming
contribution by Climate Sock
It’s not so long since I argued that the economy was bringing down concern about the environment. The data indicated that, across a range of countries, people were becoming less worried about climate change (and other environmental issues) at around the same time that national GDPs were falling.
This suggested an explanation for the recent fall in concern about climate change, since it didn’t assume that people spend much time pontificating about climate change, as the other explanations do. But the last two climate polls I’ve seen suggest that maybe things have started to change.
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Watch: The Barclay 1% scam comedy skit
Jimmy Carr on 10 o’clock Live. Not his biggest fan but this is ace.
via @AsimHaneef
The British press and rise of the far-right
contribution by James Bloodworth
The British press have been dirtying themselves for quite some time in the mucky sewer of anti-immigrant rhetoric. Dave Osler believes the influence of the Daily Mail, the Sun and their ilk is exaggerated in this respect by the left, and not as influential as many like to believe.
He says the media caters to and feeds off an ample amount of already-existing prejudice. For reasons other than the fact that I find such thoughts incredibly depressing, I disagree.
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Tory council plans to outsource ALL services
A town hall could hand control of ALL its services to private companies, charities, and voluntary groups as the spending cuts bite.
Council chiefs in Bury have drawn up the radical plan to tackle the financial crisis. They are already making redundancies in a bid to save £32.4m by 2014-15.
Now the Conservative leadership has thrown its weight behind making Bury an ‘enabling’ council – that buys and co-ordinates services but doesn’t provide any.
The plans would affect everything from parks and libraries to social services for vulnerable adults and children.
Some would be handed over to private companies, some to voluntary groups or charities, and some to other councils. Some are likely to be cut altogether.
One Labour MP has branded the plan ‘wholesale privatisation’ – but council leader Bob Bibby said it would make the town hall more efficient.
…more at Manchester Evening News
Is the Sun becoming more mature in covering suicides?
Reporting suicides is without doubt one of the most difficult subjects to cover as a journalist. Where the method is unusual, this is even more hazardous: studies have shown that copycat attempts have risen dramatically in the aftermath of their portrayal in the media (PDF).
In September last year the press was understandably interested in the apparent pact formed by Steve Lumb and Joanna Lee, who died together in a car on an industrial estate in Braintree.
The two had, according to police, met online and killed themselves using a relatively recently discovered method involving gas, placing warning messages on the vehicle alerting the emergency services to the potential danger of opening it without proper precautions.
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Greens accept duty to set balanced budgets
This weekend’s Green party conference reaffirmed our manifesto commitment to “protect basic public services, which are the foundation of an equitable society”.
The motion reads:
The Green Party of England and Wales is opposed to cuts in essential local government services.
Conference calls on GPEX [the national executive], within existing resources, to offer support (e.g. policy and external communications support) to Green Party councillors and other publicly elected Green Party representatives not to vote for such cuts, support them in refusing to do so.
GPEW deplores the Coalition Government’s huge reductions in government grant to each local authority but recognises that each local authority has a legal duty to set a balanced budget.
Green councillors will be supported in putting forward imaginative alternatives that will protect jobs and services.
Such alternatives could include the following:
- cutting senior pay for top council executives
- reducing the millions spent on expensive private sector consultants
- cutting down on glossy PR and council spin
- reducing council fuel bills by making schools, libraries and other buildings more energy efficient
- introducing workplace parking levies
Such a stand will facilitate the effective participation of such representatives and members in the local campaigns against cuts which are required, and will provide a lead for other councillors, trade unionists and community activists.
The Green Party now has a Science policy I can be proud of
contribution by Alasdair Thompson
At Spring conference last year we re-worked much of our health policy, removing references to homoeopathy and other ‘alternative medicines’, reversing the, frankly bizarre, opposition to embryonic stem-cell research and supporting an evidence-based approach to funding for treatments on the NHS.
This year it was the turn of our science and technology policy section to face review and we made some, really quite substantial, progress, stripping out unnecessary detail and bluster and adding in policy which I think will actually attract us votes from the scientific community.
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European arms sales to Libya, in figures
contribution by Dan O’Huiginn
There’s no doubt that European weapons are today being used to kill Libyans.
Journalists across Europe are now fleshing out the details, figuring out whodunnit and how. Here’s a summary of what they’ve found so far…
Start with the official figures: €343 million of weapons sold in 2009 alone. The EU Observer, Deutsche Welle and Der Spiegel summarize those numbers and examine what is behind them. They speculate, for example, that the €43m of German electrical exports includes jamming equipment used to block the mobile phone and GPS networks.
Italy is the biggest exporter: they officially sold Libya €111m of weapons, but are also responsible for €80m of firearms dubiously licensed through Malta. The Corriere della Sera has found a government report detailing the Italian companies involved, which Sky News summarizes in English:
Missile systems maker Mbda Italia signed a deal worth 2.5 million euros ($A3.42 million) in May 2009 to supply Libya with ‘material for bombs, torpedoes, rockets and missiles’, the interior ministry report was quoted as saying.
Helicopter maker Augusta Westland signed two contracts with Libya in October 2010 worth 70 million euros ($A95.88 million). Also last year, Selex Sistemi Integrati signed a 13 million euro ($A17.81 million) deal to provide Libya with gun targeting equipment.
…
This year, military shipmaker Intermarine Spa started negotiations with Libya for contracts worth a total of 600 million euros ($A821.86 million). Selex Sistemi Integrati, Augusta-Westland and Oto Melara are also in talks with Libya for contracts totalling 150 million euros ($A205.47 million).
In Britain, the Campaign Against the Arms Trade reports that “the UK Government had approved the export of goods including tear gas and crowd control ammunition and sniper rifles to Bahrain and Libya“. The arms-promotion wing of the UK government counts Libya as a “priority market”, and says “high-level political interventions” have supported UK weapons sales there. Last November, over half of the exhibitors at the Libyan Defence & Security Exhibition (LibDex) were UK companies.
Belgian sales to Libya consist mostly of small arms made by FH Herstal. Le Soir is doing a fantastic job of investigating this. Last Monday they were already reporting contracts for guns. By Thursday they’d identified spent ammunition from the libyan city of Al-Bayda as manufactured by FH Herstal.
In France, web outlet Rue89 interviews Jean Guisnel, whose recent book on the arms trade has a chapter devoted to Libya. He names French politicians involved in weapons deals with Libya: president Nicolas Sarkozy, minister of defence Michèle Alliot-Marie and her husband, and the Libyan middle-man Ziad Takieddine. As for companies:
Involved in recent contracts were MBDA, subsidiary of EADS, for the Milan anti-tank missiles, EADS Defence and Security for telecommunications networks, and the Dassault-Thales-Snecma Sofema consortium for renovation of the Mirage jet. In my opinion, these are the most important.
Then there are are ongoing negotiations not yet concluded: military and civilian Eurocopter helicopters, the renovation of Rattlesnake missiles sold by Thales, or renovation of Combattante boats.
A few journalists are starting to look beyond pure arms sales, examining training and other collaboration.
I highlighted reports from 2008, claiming that former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder had brokered a deal for elite German commandos to train the Libyan security services:
The German officers would receive €15,000 each, paid by a private security firm which in turn got a €1.6m cheque from Libya. They would take time off from their elite anti-terrorist unit. Their superiors thought they were vacationing in Tunisia, though the German embassy in Libya knew their real purpose. The officers set up shop in a barracks in Tripoli, where for 6 months they taught their Libyan counterparts how to storm buildings, board ships and operate out of helicopters.
Finally, openDemocracy weighs in on a big story not yet getting enough attention: arms deals aren’t the only link between Europe and Gaddafi’s military. The tyrant has also been a conveniently ruthless border guard, keeping refugees away before they become Europe’s problem. The EU’s €50m funding for Libyan border controls is just part of the problem:
We, the citizens of the EU, should also be reminded that for over three years now, we have relied on Gaddafi and his state apparatus to keep asylum seekers and other migrants away from our doors.
The Gaddafi Government’s treatment of migrants has been known to undercut human rights for a long time. In the past week, matters have escalated further. Human rights groups have reported atrocious racist violence against Sub-Saharan Africans in Libya, including those removed there by Italy on the basis of bilateral agreements with Libya designed to combat illegal immigration to Europe. Eritrean, Somali, and Sudanese refugees, accused of being mercenaries on the payroll of the government are summarily executed with knives and machetes.
What have I missed? Please send me further links, by email (daniel at ohuiginn.net) or twitter (@danohu).
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