UK politics

Maintaining Impartiality

BBC Bias, Manufacturing consent, Media, Merkins..., Uh? WTF?, UK politics, Wingnuts
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I know the BBC has shot itself in the foot a number of times this weekend what with Gaza and all, but this beats everything yet.

Jonah Goldberg has a gig on on Andrew Marr’s Radio 4 discussion programme, Start The Week. Yes, really.

He’s going to discuss his new book, apparently;

The Los Angeles Times columnist JONAH GOLDBERG calls for a re-evaluation of fascism. He argues that by using the word as a synonym for anything that is undesirable, we are blinded to the examples around us of real fascism from both Left and Right wing governments. Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the Left from Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning is published by Penguin.

New? WTF? Someone at the beeb was wilfully misinformed.

Either that or Justin Webb’s been given editorial control. He must’ve met the Pantload on the Koolaid aisle in Safeway.

Must Read

Funny, UK politics
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Daniel Davies, trolling his own column at Comment is Free:

Working class people, as the trust report shows, have to put up with discrimination on the basis of ” their accent, their style, the food they eat, the clothes they wear, the social spaces they frequent, the postcode of their homes, possibly even their names”. They have to put up with people, including in the comments section of this blog, trying to draw a distinction between a mythical, idealised “decent working class” and actually existing “chavs and scum”, in order to rationalise this bigotry (there simply isn’t such a fine dividing line, just as there isn’t really a fine distinction between the “decent middle class” and a bunch of tax-evading snobs and bigots).

Then watch his commenters prove his points for him.

So nice of you to (finally) notice

Policing, UK politics
Published on 1 Comment on So nice of you to (finally) notice

As police turn out to have stopped and questioned some 150,,000 or so trainspotters under the Prevention of Terrorism Act 2000, the Daily Telegraph warns against the dangers of Britain turning into a police state:

The Prevention of Terrorism Act 2000 has been used to stop 62,584 people at railway stations and another 87,000 were questioned under “stop and search” and “stop and account” legislation.

Liberal Democrat transport spokesman Norman Baker, who uncovered the figures, warned that Britain was heading towards a “police state”.

He said: “Law-abiding passengers get enough hassle on overcrowded trains as it is without the added inconvenience of over-zealous policing.

“The anti-terror laws allow officers to stop people for taking photographs and I know this has led to innocent trainspotters being stopped.

“This is an abuse of anti-terrorism powers and a worrying sign that we are sliding towards a police state.

Even if we still want to believe the police have our best interests at heart and are genuinely doing a difficult job protecting “the public” (excluding Brazilian plumbers), there’s a perverse incentive in giving them far ranging powers to stop terrorism. Because the cost of not stopping a terrorist because you’re hesitant about using your powers is so high, both for your career and in general, it’s far better to harass a 1,000 random people just because they may be doing something that might just be something that could be used by terrorists…

Morning Star now free online

Socialism, UK politics
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The Morning Star, the only daily old school communist English language newspaper still in existence, has finally made its online presence free. As to why this is important, a few excerpts from the paper’s history will make clear

Founded on January 1, 1930, it is still the only English-language socialist daily newspaper published in the world.

[…]

Over the next 15 years it fought its way into the consciousness of trade unionists and progressives throughout the land, always fighting for the cause of working people and battling against an Establishment which moved heaven and earth to extinguish it

It survived crippling court cases and the imprisonment of staff, harassment and even censorship by the police.

It survived a 12-year boycott (1930-1942) by wholesalers, during which the paper’s readers delivered the paper to newsagents.

It outlived an 18-month ban (1940-41) by a vindictive Home Secretary, Herbert Morrison, which was only called off after a grass-roots protest movement involving millions of people.

And it rose above the bombing of its offices in 1941, which destroyed both the building and the new presses which had been bought with cash raised by readers’ collections.

[…]

In 1966 the honourable name of the Daily Worker was replaced and the paper relaunched as the Morning Star – a change of name that was hotly debated throughout the trade union and labour movement.

[…]

A continuous ban on advertising by commercial firms has left the finances of the paper permanently on a knife-edge and the ban’s effects have only been offset by the commitment of the trade union movement to advertising in the Morning Star and the efforts of thousands of readers in raising and pledging money to the paper’s Fighting Fund – another unique part of the Morning Star, which ties it to its readers in a way that no other daily newspaper would dare to attempt to emulate.

[…]

It has been a long, rough, road that the Morning Star has been forced to travel, but the paper of the working class is still fighting and still campaigning. It has matured and has even grown through this difficult period.

And it still carries proudly the claim on its masthead.

For peace and socialism.