Sorry Piers, but we already have a best-selling children’s newspaper (complete with a picture of Mummy’s milk-jugs on Page 3). Speaking of this rag (and those boobs) here’s Matthew Norman on Murdoch’s Turn and some developments he may have missed.
Related link: First News
Over here. All the main action this week is over here.
You have a clear choice (if you want to keep me happy, that is):
or
(Note – The Sofa Search competition has mainly received entries for Best/Worst Sofa. With just over a month to go, a prize goes begging for the ‘Best Project’ category. Bloggers and amateur/professional webmasters should take note, then take advantage.)
Or, rather, Trevor Kavanagh has an unwieldy collection of sequential entries with no comments, no trackback facilities, and no outbound links.
Jebus… don’t come down from your ivory tower on our account, Trevor.
CNN – Fox anchor named Bush press secretary
DailyKos – Tony Snow: the first Freeper in the executive branch?
Washington Monthly – Tomorrow’s weather: Light Snow, followed by frisson
(Speaking of Jeff Gannon… here’s his thoughts on this appointment.)
UPDATE – At times like this, the related Fark thread is always worth a look.
The latest issue of Private Eye (1157) reports that Rupert Murdoch has – after a decade or so of dodging – finally paid some tax in this country. They report: The recently filed accounts at Companies House for his British holding company, News Corp Investments, reveal that Murdoch’s UK business paid 52 million pounds in corporation tax for the year ended 30 June 2004 and 48.9 million pounds in 2003.
PS – I still want my meeting with Ian Hislop.
I want you to look that this from the following point of view….
For many years now, the Sun newspaper as operated shamelessly as a mouthpiece for Downing Street… up to and including propaganda on Page 3.
(If you’re new here, you may want to read the latter link for added background on placement of said propaganda and editorial priorities.)
Currently, many of Murdoch’s newspapers, rather than pushing Blair’s message and/or soft-pedalling bad news, are actually targeting the carotid artery (1, 2).
So those who think they are still dealing with the invincible Blair of yesteryear really should take a close look at editor Rebekah Wade’s total commitment to a kill-shot this morning (front page, double-page spread, page 3, lead editorial *and* cartoon) and know that his days are numbered.
Today, Page 3 stunna Ami (19, from Birmingham) is ‘outraged’ that so many foreign criminals were left to roam the streets instead of being reported and ‘says’: “It really is a shocking state of affairs. Sun readers will be absolutely furious. How can you possibly feel safe?”
The editorial – right down to the headline – is pretty unequivocal…
The Scum – Clarke must go: HUNDREDS of ex-cons who should have been kicked out of Britain are loose on our streets – and police haven’t a clue where to find them. They include three murderers, nine rapists and five child sex fiends. Others were banged up for manslaughter, thuggery, drugs and robbery. All were candidates for deportation. A flushed and sweating Charles Clarke admits people are entitled to be “concerned, possibly angry”. That’s not good enough. People are entitled to the Home Secretary’s resignation – or instant dismissal for rank negligence. Incredibly, 288 criminals have gone missing since he was first warned about the crisis. Labour’s “tough on crime” boast is a joke. Key staff do not talk to each other. As a result, dangerous hardmen are rated “low risk” and set free to kill and rape again by officials who don’t read their records. Probation staff – when they are not off sick – can’t be bothered to keep tabs. Now, almost by accident, we learn hundreds of foreign crooks have disappeared without trace. Mr Clarke, the government’s “Captain Chaos”, shrugs it off as a communications breakdown. But there is a theme to these government “blind spots”. Ministers are desperate to avoid enraging the Left by cracking down on illegals. Deportations are rare. Yet jails are bursting at the seams because 10,000 inmates – one in eight of all prisoners – are foreign-born, most of them asylum cheats. Is it possible the Government would prefer killers to disappear without trace rather than be seen loading them on the next plane home? The Home Secretary insists he is not in the “blame game”. Well, we ARE. And we blame YOU, Mr Clarke.
I remain determined to see Rupert Murdoch’s shrivelled arse nailed to a wall and Rebekah Wade’s poisonous tongue tied to a moving vehicle, but today the primary message is that Blair can no longer rely on Murdoch’s newspapers to maintain the grand illusion. He is finished.
UPDATE (27th April) – more below the fold:
I meant to blog this article (below), but at the time I was too busy offering to build Simon Carr a website (so, just for example, he could go head-to-head with the Safety Elephant instead of having his argument hidden behind a subscription wall)…
Independent – Simon Carr: If you still think you live in a liberal and democratic society, then please read on (15 April 2006)
Charles Clarke goes on the offensive today, mainly because – as the Independent points out before giving him space for his rant; “Labour wants to make its record of legislation on issues such as antisocial behaviour and terrorism a central plank of its campaign for the local elections next month.”
So, without further ado, here is Charles Clarke exploiting the terrorist threat and wasting taxpayers’ money with a political broadcast for the Labour Party on a government website…
Oh… wait… it’s not live on the Labour Party campaign Home Office website yet. We’ll have to make do with the edited version. No matter; there are only two points I wish to raise this morning beyond the use of the widely discredited ‘people have a right not to get blown up’ mantra…
1. Oh, not it’s not. Oh, yes it is!
Charles Clarke: Or what about this statement: “People wearing satirical T-shirts in a ‘designated area’ may be arrested under the Prevention of Terrorism Act. The City of London is a permanently ‘designated area’.” Wrong again, Mr Carr. There is no such provision in any Prevention of Terrorism Act.
If that is the case, then perhaps Mr Clarke can explain this:
The Guardian – When a slogan equals terrorism (3 October 2005): John Catt was wearing a T-shirt proclaiming “Bush Blair Sharon to be tried for war crimes torture human rights abuse” and, lower down, “the leaders of rogue states”. The stop-and-search form filled out by the police officer stated, under grounds for intervention, “carrying plackard [sic] and T-shirt with anti-Blair info”. The purpose of the stop and search was stated as “terrorism”. So now we know. For the Sussex police, at any rate, an anti-Blair slogan is a ground for suspecting terrorism.
2. Look out! Behind you!
Charles Clarke: In some instances, however, Simon Carr is broadly right. For example, as he says, “People can protest in Parliament Square only with the written permission of the police. Where ‘reasonably practical’, six days’ notice must be given. “In some cases 24 hours notice is sufficient. He also doesn’t bother to say that since the legislation came into effect last August, 157 demonstrations have taken place in Parliament Square, on issues ranging from human rights in Burma to a protest about the right to protest itself. Organisers of demonstrations must give prior notice to the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, who is then obliged to authorise the demonstration although he may attach conditions where it is necessary. This is more or less the same as the situation that prevailed in the 1970s when I organised demonstrations in Parliament Square. Maybe Simon Carr attended some of them…
On the latter comment; we’ve played this game before, where people like Jack Straw dust off their activist credentials and/or do their best to suggest that they have done far more to protect the rights of others than any damn know-all journalist/activist and therefore must surely be in the right now. After all, they only seek to restrict our right to protest in order to protect our right to protest.
On the nature of authorisation versus exclusion, the suggestion that all you have to do is ask for permission and you’ll be on your merry way is downright dishonest. Police can (and do) dictate the path you take, restrict the number of protestors allowed, restrict the use of placards and more. Given the past behaviour of this government, I think it’s fair to say that this passage should be rewritten to read; “attach conditions where it is necessary to protect Tony Blair from embarrassment.”
Charles Clarke also neglects to mention that the use of electronic megaphones (a vital tool required to address, enliven and marshal crowds) is forbidden altogether. I stood there on the 22nd of August 2005 and watched as a relative of Jean Charles de Menezes sought to thank the attending crowd for their support after they had delivered a petition asking for a public inquiry to Downing St. The poor woman was near to tears and struggling to be heard until someone handed her a megaphone. She got maybe a dozen words out before the police stepped in and reminded her that – while the gathering was authorised – her use of an electronic amplification device was not. (I’ll try to be fair here… she was already crying, so this brave police officer did not make her cry… he only made her cry *more*…)
But I think I’ve identified the real whopper here:
Charles Clarke: (Carr) also doesn’t bother to say that since the legislation came into effect last August, 157 demonstrations have taken place in Parliament Square, on issues ranging from human rights in Burma to a protest about the right to protest itself…
But *Clarke* doesn’t bother to say how many of these protests have been authorised.
Charles Clarke would look pretty fucking stupid if he appeared to be defending this legislation by using those who risked arrest to defy it as a statistic working in its favour.
UPDATES:
Witness Tony Blair using the same sleight of hand.
Read Simon Carr’s initial response.
Check out this comprehensive fisking.
Ask why media response to this issue is being carefully scrutinised while black propaganda over Iran is not.
Read many comments and try to work out which ones come directly from anonymous flunkies at Labour HQ.
REALLY IMPORTANT UPDATE:
Charles Clarke didn’t make clear how many of those 157 demonstrations were of the authorised variety… and doesn’t even KNOW how many of those 157 demonstrations were of the authorised variety! Incredible!
Hey everyone! Dennis Paul has a brand new weblog! It contains two lovely ‘Edit Me’ links, and he still hasn’t learned to resize images, but Dennis clearly shows that he’s still got what it takes when it comes to local photo opportunities and he has recently graduated to writing in first-person. So good for him.
However, a comment under this post caught my eye; where a ‘clever’ chap with the ‘clever’ profile name LegaliseAllDrugs^Vote_LibDem cack-handedly attempts here to pass himself off as Chris Ward (a well-known local Lib Dem activist).
This is the same guy who posted here on the Anne Milton weblog… using an IP address belonging to the Learning and Skills Council.
Normally I wouldn’t ‘take it offline’ and mess with a man’s livelihood, but all bets are off when I catch someone engaging in party politics when they should be doing their taxpayer-funded job.
‘LegaliseAllDrugs^Vote_LibDem’ is the second local Tory activist that I have caught wasting taxpayers’ money in this way. The first was… Dennis Paul.
I’d love to tell you all about that, but first I want to give Dennis a chance to deny it.
Any time you’re ready, Dennis…
(PS – Folks may not be aware that there have been recent updates to my Anne Milton weblog. Cheers all.)
UPDATE – I must be getting old. It had completely slipped my mind that Dennis Paul’s partner in crime Mike Chambers works for the Learning and Skills Council (click here and scroll down to first update). Life is full of strange coincidences, isn’t it?
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