How the BBC is repeating Tory narratives about the Euro crisis
The narrative across much of the Westminster media, who know little about economics, is that Greece and Italy are in a downward spiral because they spent too much and now must bear the austerity to come out of the crisis.
Far too many BBC commentators repeat this every day without even questioning basic assumptions.
Not only is the analysis rubbish, but it will lead to more ruin across Europe.
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How Barnet tried to criminalise all bloggers
Tory-run Barnet Council made a complaint against a local blogger that, if set as precedent, could criminalise the work of citizen journalist/bloggers across the country.
The council has already been criticised in the past for trying to restrict local bloggers from reporting on its activities.
It recently went a step further by reporting a blogger critical of its activities to the Information Commissioner, arguing it had to register as a Data Controller in order to carry on monitoring its activities.
Derek Dishman writes at the Mr Mustard blog on issues relating to Barnet Council.
He regularly makes FOI requests and recently discovered the council had appointed ‘change and innovation manager’, Jonathan Tunde-Wright, for around £50,000 a year. The job description included phrases like “delivery of system thinking interventions”, was ridiculed here.
As a result the Council complained to the Information Commissioner that he had broken the law (worth a £5000 fine) because he had “processed personal data unfairly” and had no protection under the Data Protection Act.
The Information Commissioner rejected that. So Barnet Council came up with another wheeze
Journalist David Hencke, who uncovered the story, explains what happened next:
Initially rebuffed the council then came up with an extraordinary description of what Mr Dishman was allowed to blog without being forced to register or be prosecuted for unfairly processing data.
According to Barnet the only things bloggers can write about is their own personal data, their own family defined as people related by blood or marriage and their own household, anybody living in their house or flat.
Everything else requires registration and can be subject to legal challenge.
Imagine that! Such a restriction would put this blog out of business.
Thankfully, the Information Commissioner rejected that definition by Barnet Council too.
If Barnet had succeeded it would have had enormous implications and costs for bloggers across the country. As Conservatives who are committed to transparency, the council should know better. They need to put up and shut up!
Barnet Council did not respond to him for any requests for a comment. So much for Conservative dedication to transparency… and not wasting money!
Why Vince Cable’s plan for investment should be welcomed
If it turns out to be true, this is probably the best economic news in the UK for four years:
Ministers are finalising a radical plan to boost investment in UK infrastructure and stimulate the economy, with proposals to pool the vast assets held in British pension funds and use them to back an ambitious programme of road and house building.
Pension and insurance funds are to be encouraged to invest up to £50bn in improving infrastructure, including private and social housing, power stations, super-fast broadband and motorway toll roads.
The plan was pushed by Cable at BIS earlier in the year, but knocked back by the Treasury.
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An alternative to the current system? It can be created
contribution by Tim Gee
“But what do you expect to replace the current system with?” – this is the question I have been asked over and again in the past few weeks in light of the rise of the Occupy movement. The phrasing sometimes varies.
I believe that too much power is concentrated into the hands of too few people. I believe that the further power is distributed in society the better that society will be. And I believe that that route to such a society is for mass movements to challenge and ultimately remove the power of illegitimate elites.
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How the Daily Express invented another EU-storm on houses
Both the Mail and Express are equally hostile to the EU. Both are also alert to any threat to house prices.
So a story that coupled both the EU and a threat to house prices would be a perfect storm of frightening. Yesterday, the Express did just that as its front cover thundered ‘EU Rules To Slash House Prices’.
Except – no surprise here – it’s not true.
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Veterans join #Occupy; Vince Cable sympathetic
This is a potential game-changer and a big publicity disaster for their critics; the Observer reports today:
At least 15 former service personnel have now pitched up outside the cathedral and at nearby Finsbury Square, many in protest over treatment of veterans or the conflicts that have burdened them with mental or physical scars.
Their presence is an indication of the evolving support base of the anti-capitalist Occupy movement, which has been endorsed by a senior figure at St Paul’s, just weeks after the protests led to the resignation of three of the cathedral’s leading clerics.
Among the veterans is Michael Brandon – known to friends as Ace – who left the army 20 years ago.
…
Other veterans at the Occupy sites also claim to suffer from problems linked to their service. Matthew Horne, 23, served in Iraq with the Scots Guards for eight months, until June 2008, and his experiences left him pondering the “futility” of war. He left the services 18 months ago, and says the Occupy movement has provided a platform to campaign for veterans who fought for a democracy but were denied support.
Even Vince Cable admits they have a point!
Business Secretary Vince Cable has said he sympathises with the feelings of protesters outside St Paul’s Cathedral.
He told BBC’s Politics Show that the anti-capitalist demo reflected feelings about those who had prospered in the economic crisis, as many more suffered.
Mr Cable added that legislation could be introduced to curb executive pay.
Cable will obviously be ignored by the government. But the addition of military veterans may change the reporting the #occupy movement is getting.
Leftists cannot deal with immigration just as an economic issue
contribution by Marley Morris
Like it or not, for significant numbers of people across Europe, immigration is a major concern.
In the past two decades a new wave of European populist parties and street movements have had considerable success. Rather than expounding anti-Semitic rhetoric like the inter-war right-wing extremists, this new breed focuses on immigration.
A common response on the left is to extol the economic virtues of immigration, hoping that they will realise it is in their economic interest after all and come back into the fold.
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Democracy in every colour, as long as it’s black
Well, well. I’m hardly the first to note the irony that a vague and nebulous concept – “markets” – has unseated the Italian Prime Minister, a feat that innumerable opposition politicians, crusading journalists, police and prosecutors couldn’t achieve after years of hard work.
Funny, that a general air of international unease and an outbreak of unlovely, nasty thoughts about interrupted cashflows have brought Berlusconi crashing down out of the sky, while his epic reign of misrule, corruption and venality was like a big, fat baggie of high-grade fairy dust for world finance.
What lessons can we draw from this, do we think?
continue reading… »
Too politicised? The poppy is a symbol of peace, not war
contribution by Luke Denne
I have always worn a poppy since a school trip to the battlefields of Northern France made me acutely aware of the shocking waste of life that took place in the name of European militarism and imperialism.
To me, the poppy is purely a symbol of remembrance to those wasted lives; it is not political and it is not nationalistic.
But this isn’t really the case anymore.
continue reading… »
Watch: James Murdoch testimony gets animated
Surely their best yet?
James Murdoch as the mafia boss:
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