More than Murdoch revealed by hacking

Murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler had phone hacked

 

The Haze has been astonished by the thunder rumbling around the media and Westminister in recent days.


Not surprised by the activities of the News of the World, more the targeting of Rupert Murdoch - this challenges some 'facts' of British politcal life that have dominated our democracy for decades:


(a) No Political party can get elected without the support of the Murdoch tabloids.

(b) No political party or politicians can dare to stand against the Murdoch tabloids. (see above)

(c) News Internmational must not be obstructed when they want certain policy decisions in their favour.

(d) Murdoch must be courted as an absolute priority by leading politicians.

But suddenly, every politican who can grab a microphone can't wait to stick the boot in to the Murdoch empire. What's changed? Has the political class of this country suddenly remembered they are supposed to represent the PUBLIC interest ? Have the politicians suddenly realised they have a backbone and some morals?
We doubt it.


But at least ONE of the poisonous deals that our politicans observe to gain and retain office has been cancelled. But why?

One can look at it in terms of simple maths.
The Murdoch tabloids provided political parties with editorial support - or attacked them. As long as titles like the News of the World and The Sun were able to sway populist opinion - our spineless politicians would not stand up to them.

But now the dreadful phone hacking and blagging scandals has turned public opinion - and suddenly the smart political move is to attack the Murdoch empire.

So the sum is:

the value of A (the moral authority of the Murdoch papers)

the value of B (the ability to drive public opinion)

the value of C (the need to curry the favour of Rupert Murdoch)

the value of D (the public opinion advantage to be gained by attacking News International)

the value of E (the damage of being seen to be associated with The News of The World etc)


so...

When A is no longer enough to generate much of B - then the impetus for C is greatly diminished.


When the value of B is less than D - there is a short / medium term advantage for politicians to be had in attacking Murdoch.


Critically for David Cameron (who employed a deeply implicated former News International man as his own communications director) the value of E > A+B+C which = sudden attacks on the social set he dines with in West Oxfordshire (Rebekah Brooks et al)

In the medium term it may be that the Murdoch papers can repair some of the damage to A & B and re-establish the status quo - but for now the traditional deal between all political parties and the tawdry rags of News Corp is well and truly stuffed.


But this doesn't represent a new moral dimension in our politicians - in fact it illuminates starkly the astonishing lack of morals and ethics in public life today.

It was not government or politcal pressure that has outed the disgusting antics of the Murdoch red tops (and now it seems even The Sunday Times) - it was dilligent and persistent journalism from The Guardian newspaper that eventually overwhelmed government indifference and police complicity in colluding with a grubby cover up of their actvities.


Now that the truth is out, David Cameron has been FORCED to abandon his chums at News International and Labour's Ed Milliband (who attended the last News International garden party) has suddenly found his voice of moral outrage.
Not since Michael Foot has a politician really stood up to Murdoch.

The nation has endured decades of poisonous 'journalism' from News International that had no interest in the truth - hacks fom The Sun and News of the World have trampled on the lives of countless ordinary people who couldn't afford to hire expensive lawyers to protect them from smear, innuendo and outright lies.
It was only when News International was PUBLICALLY CAUGHT hacking the phones of murdered children and fallen soldiers - paying police officers to hide the truth and invading the security and privacy of the royal family - that any action has been taken.


Murdoch has shamelessly used his papers to bully the political class in this country to undermine democracy and to serve his own agendas - and hardly a single politician has had the gumption or the courage to speak out against it. Instead we have endured a cosy and unholy deal between the politcal establishment and the media.

The closed society that includes both politicians and the vast majority of the media has no morailty from either side.

With rare but deeply refreshing candour Janet Daley in The Telegraph writes:

The truth is that for all its adversarial and investigatory strengths – which are considerable – British political journalism is basically a club to which politicians and journalists both belong

George Monbiot riffing off the Daley article was at his brilliant best :

Most national journalists are embedded: immersed in the society, beliefs and culture of the people they are meant to hold to account. They are fascinated by power struggles among the elite but have little interest in the conflict between the elite and those they dominate. They celebrate those with agency and ignore those without...

...so the right-wing papers run endless exposures of benefit cheats, yet say scarcely a word about the corporate tax cheats. They savage the trade unions and excoriate the BBC. They lambast the regulations that restrain corporate power. They school us in the extrinsic values – the worship of power, money, image and fame – which advertisers love but which make this a shallower, more selfish country.

Most of them deceive their readers about the causes of climate change. These are not the obsessions of working people. They are the obsessions thrust upon them by the multimillionaires who own these papers 

The Haze couldn't have put it better!


We doubt that anything will really change in this system of insular patronage - it is the way this nation functions - a pretence of democracy to protect an oligarchy based on wealth, power and vested interest.
This phone hacking scandal merely has the politicians scrambling to repair the gaping holes in the facade of government in the public interest.


But - at least for a few weeks the fall of Murdoch's hate rags has a kind of Berlin Wall feel to it. Even the Haze is enjoying this whiff of an 'Arab Spring' in the air of British life.

So what other cosy relationships would we love to see rattled?

Well - the big one is the revolving door between Westminister, the City of London and the media.

How about busting this cosy relationship!

(a) The scandal of a nation that borrows its own money supply at interest from private banks

(b) The annual subsidy of at least £30 billion pounds provided by the taxpayer to the financial servcies industry

(c) The licence to print debt money afforded to private banks.

(d) the media and 'expert'' economists who refuse to discuss alternatives fractional reserve banking or even name it as the problem.
(e) A conservative party that has its election campaigns funded by banks

(f) A quiet procession of top civil servants and politicians who shuttle backwards and forwards between the big financial companies and Westminster.

Will our politicians ever find their moral backbone about any of this? Not unless they are forced to!

The great campaign @ Positive Money is the way to go for Monetary Reform.


and as the last few weeks have shown - the cliques and unspoken power deals can be brought down - but we can't wait for our politicians to find their moral compass, they have to be pointed (shoved) in the right direction...

...and if we don't insist that our politicians represent the public interest - then perhaps we will only get the government and the newspapers we deserve.

South Sudan - new nation - new hope?

Huge crowds attended a ceremony to raise the flag of the new South Sudanese nation today.


After decades of civil war within Sudan the partition represents the best hopes for peace for several generations in this deeply troubled state.


So what are the prospects for the newest nation on earth?


Perhaps the most realistic thing we could say is 'mixed'.


In this interestung article for the Oxford Student - Sam Richardson spells out some of the problems afflicting the new South Sudanese administration.

Southern Sudan has one of the worst humanitarian standards on the planet. One in ten children won’t see their fifth birthday and 90% of the population live on less than a dollar a day. The same type of war-induced trauma which terrorised Sierra Leone is rife and weapons abundant. Southern Sudan is bordered by a number of failed states: Ethiopia, the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Sadly, there is a reason Central Africa is rarely held up as a model of nation building.

The Los Angeles Times brings the problems into sharper focus

The country, roughly the size of France, has , one of the lowest rates of elementary school enrollment, and profound poverty, with nearly 1 in 5 people chronically hungry, according to the United Nations; only about a third of the population has access to safe drinking water, and only a fourth are literate.


Questions also have been raised about the new country's leaders, most of them former rebel fighters united by a foe that, on peace declarations at least, no longer exists.


And devilish issues remain unresolved, such as the status of the oil-rich Abyei region claimed by both the mostly Muslim and Arab north and the Christian and animist south; insurgencies across the south that Juba officials claim are fomented by the north; and how to divide the abundant oil revenue – the south has the oil, and the north has the pipes to carry it to market.

Oil can be a mixed blessing. Nigeria is sadly a classic example of exploitation by western multi-nationals being violently aided and abeted by corrupt government officials .


The omens are not good - the country is traumatised by war and the nation is littered with weapons. The leadership are rebel fighters with distinct tribal loyalties and no enemy to unify them anymore.


The Guardian reflected in an editorial today that:

...the future is a very uncertain place. Relations with the north are an abiding difficulty, and internal relations are unpromising too. The Dinka majority has grasped such levers of power as exist – the government and the army – leaving the non-Dinka fifth of the population feeling shut out of senior positions and denied access to development funds.


Despite promises made during the period of co-operation that secured the triumphant referendum result, proposals for a more federal structure of government that might lead to more geographically even development are beginning to look worthless. Juba is determined to stay in control.

But there are opportunities. Oil is still wealth and with it the prospect of funds to build much needed regional infrastructure and the structures of a functioning civic society.


South Sudan will need to grow quickly beyond the central african curses of violence, corruption and poverty - and this new nation will need help.


We hope South Sudan gets help - and not exploitation from foreign oil companies like Shell.


We earnestly hope that this new nation can steer clear of the international banking cartels who will be all too happy to lend this new nation (rich with agricultural and mineral resources) debt money - and then care little if it heads for bank accounts in Zurich.


We hope that more developed nations can offer appropriate aid and technical assistance - it is in everyone's interest that they do, failed states are hiding places for terrorists and Sudan has been a train wreck for decades.


Most of all, we wish South Sudan and all of the members of the human community who reside there, our very best wishes as they struggle to build a happy, healthy and prosperous nation.

Note : The all new SODIUM HAZE is over at http://www.sodiumhaze.org/ - this is a mirror blog now. Why not check out the shiny new Haze?

Ten stories more important than phone hacking

This phone hacking thing IS important – immoral and criminal activities have been exposed in a major UK media organisation and the political landscape of the UK has changed as the Murdoch empire has lost its grip on the politcal class of this country…

…and much more important things are happening all around the world that don’t involve the media’s obsession with itself and the tabloid drama of the UK westminister village. Here are just 10 examples.

1. DEC East Africa Crisis Appeal – [DEC UK]



LEADING UK humanitarian agencies are launching a joint appeal to help more than 10 million people in East Africa parts of which are suffering their worst drought in over half a century.

Caught up in the crisis are thousands of families trekking for days across parched scrubland from Somalia to Kenya – including barefoot children with no food or water.
DEC Chief Executive Brendan Gormley said: “Slowly but surely, these people have seen their lives fall apart – crops, livestock and now their homes have been taken by the drought.

2. UN Peacekeepers stand by as Sudanese forces kill Civillians [Independent]

The UN mission in Sudan stands accused of serious failures in its duty to protect civilians who have been killed in their hundreds during a month-long campaign of violence by the Khartoum government on its restive
southern border.

Eyewitnesses described to The Independent how they saw peacekeepers standing by while unarmed civilians were shot dead outside the gates of a UN base before being dragged away “like slaughtered sheep”. They also said that local leaders have been handed over to government forces after seeking shelter with UN officials.

The violence has driven tens of thousands of civilians into hiding in the Nuba Mountains, which are controlled by rebel fighters and where public anger at the UN has left peacekeepers afraid to leave their bases, according to officers from the mission’s Egyptian contingent.

3. Less than one third in France, UK support Nuclear Power [NHK English]

A survey in 5 European countries shows that less than one third of French and British people support nuclear power generation.

On Saturday, the French newspaper Le Monde reported on the results of the survey.

Support for nuclear power was the highest in France and Britain –each at 32 percent. The figure was still below one third of the total despite the countries’ policies to promote the use of nuclear energy.

The lowest support was seen in Germany and Italy, whose governments have decided to break with nuclear energy. 17 percent of Germans and 20 percent of Italians approved of nuclear energy.

Those who oppose nuclear power totaled 58 percent in Italy, 55 percent in Germany, 28 percent in Spain, 21 percent in Britain, and 20 percent in France.

4. My Children have been poisoned [Human Rights Watch]

A 75-page report draws on research in heavily lead-contaminated villages in Henan, Yunnan, Shaanxi, and Hunan provinces.

The report documents how, despite increasing regulation and sporadic enforcement targeting polluting factories, local authorities are ignoring the urgent and long-term health consequences of a generation of children continuously exposed to life-threatening levels of lead.
.

5. Denying reality and demonising scientists [Irish Times]

THE RECENT removal of some of Australia’s leading climate scientists to safer accommodation, to protect them against death threats, was a shocking illustration of the virulent campaign now being waged by climate change deniers — often the same people who want the biblical story of creation taught in schools as a counterpoint to evolution.

After all, hadn’t that scary right-wing US media star Rush Limbaugh called for all those promoting the “global warming hoax” to be “named and fired, drawn and quartered” while Britain’s Lord Monckton branded them as “evil pseudo-scientists [who] should stand trial alongside Radovan Karadzic” because they were equally “guilty of genocide”?

This demonisation of climate scientists, as James Lawrence Powell writes, is not dissimilar to what Galileo faced when he endorsed the “heretical” thesis that the Earth moves around the sun. It is a “modern inquisition conducted . . . on the front pages of newspapers, on right-wing radio and television, on the blogosphere and on denier websites”.

6. Bond Vigilantes’ Could Trigger U.S. Sovereign Debt Crisis [IBT]

Economist Ed Yardeni, who now runs Yardeni Research Inc. of Great Neck, N.Y., coined the term 'bond vigilante' in the 1980s to describe the institutional investor practice of selling bonds and shorting bonds of governments when they see unsustainable fiscal policies and/or other actions by governments or companies that the institutional investors believe will lower the value of the bonds issued.

Further, the decline and fall of financial giants Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers, although without question rooted in dubious, high-risk business practices and extreme leverage, were nonetheless pushed to quicker demises by the bond vigilantes. In the financial crisis that reached its acute stage in the fall of 2008, they shorted those infamous subprime mortgage-backed securities, many of which were vastly overvalued prior the waves of vigilante selling and shorting.

Now it's the selling/shorting, and in some cases the failure to 'rollover' investments in sovereign debt -- the bonds issued by the debt-plagued governments of Greece, Portugal, and Spain.

7. Bahrain's soccer stars tortured in custody [The Times via BCHR]

BAHRAINI footballers, including stars of the national team, were tortured while in custody during a crackdown on anti-government protesters this year, The Times has learnt.
The testimony given to The Times directly contradicts assurances given to FIFA, football’s governing body, by the Bahrain Football Association that no players had been suspended or mistreated.

In fact, friends and relatives said a number of players were subjected to beatings in prison after they were arrested for taking part in a demonstration against the ruling al-Khalifa family in March.

Other sportsmen have told of long interrogations and ritual humiliation in jail. The victims included A’ala Hubail, a striker, his brother Mohammed and goalkeeper Ali Saeed, all members of the Bahraini football squad.

Sitting in a community centre in the Shia village of Sitra, near the capital, Manama, they were too afraid to speak about their treatment and would say only that they did not know whether they would be allowed to play football again. The Hubail brothers had had their heads shaved. Mohammed had bruises on his feet.

8. ‘The true cost of Chevron’ [LINKS]

2010 was not an outstanding year for the communities where Chevron operates.
The campaigns undertaken by communities around the world to hold Chevron accountable for its actions were outstanding.

The acknowledgements of Chevron’s wrongdoings by government entities in locations around the globe were outstanding. The hard fought victories achieved by citizens uniting to change the Chevron Way were outstanding.

After nearly 18 years of litigation, the Indigenous people and campesinos of the Ecuadorian Amazon achieved a critical milestone in 2010. An Ecuadorian court ordered Chevron to pay $9.5 billion for cleanup, clean water, health care and other reconstruction efforts for the tens of thousands of people affected by the company’s widespread contamination in the region.

Environment Texas, the Sierra Club and the National Environmental Law Center reached a settlement in 2010 with Chevron Phillips Chemical requiring the company to pay a $2 million penalty and implement major changes at its chemical plant in Baytown, Texas. The plant had violated its clean air permits hundreds of times since 2003, leading to more than one million pounds of illegal emissions.

In an unprecedented victory for the community of Richmond, California, in 2010 the State Court of Appeals upheld the majority of findings in a lower court decision that the Environmental Impact Report for the expansion of Chevron’s Richmond refinery violated state environmental law.

After decades of campaigning against Chevron’s highly polluting coal operations, communities in Alabama, New Mexico and Wyoming welcomed — with cautious optimism — Chevron’s announcement that 2010 would be the year the corporation would exit the coal industry.

We celebrate these triumphs and the many courageous individuals whose refusal to be silenced has been instrumental in bringing Chevron’s egregious actions to light.

Even so, there is much work to be done. Chevron is vigorously contesting the landmark verdict in the Ecuador case and is continuing flagrant violations of environmental and human rights around the globe. As Luis Yanza, coordinator for the Affected People’s Assembly in Ecuador, writes, “the struggle will continue today stronger than before … to ensure that justice triumphs over impunity.”

We invite you to read our report of the true cost of Chevron’s operations in communities from Alaska to Thailand, to decide for yourself if Chevron displayed an outstanding record in 2010, and to join with the growing international movement to hold Chevron accountable for its abuses around the globe.

Download the full report HERE

9. France becomes first country to ban Fracking [ukprogressives]

This week, France, believed to have some of the biggest natural gas reserves in Europe, has become the first country in the world to put an outright ban on Hydraulic Fracturing (fracking).

France’s bill to ban fracking, but not shale gas exploration itself, was drafted by the country’s ruling UMP party after months of protests by environmental activists concerned that the process contaminates drinking water. Earlier this year, France’s government granted energy giants exploration permits for work without public consultation, but announced a temporary freeze on shale gas exploration in February.

A report by Scientific American said, the French vote was split along party lines, but the opposition largely came from the Socialist Party, which did not think the ban went far enough because it contains loopholes that allow the exploitation of oil shale deposits by other means.

France’s ban on fracking came on the heels of reports that the US state of New York was about to lift its de facto moratorium on fracking, which has had an informal ban on the process since 2008. In a surprising move, New York is soon expected to lift the ban in most places. New York’s new rules will ban the practice in state parks and watershed areas, but otherwise allow it. Andrew Cuomo’s office is thought to be on board with the plan, but has not said so publicly.

Hydraulic Fracturing, involves injecting water and sand mixed with a cocktail of poisonous chemicals, dangerous to human health and polluting drinking water, deep into underground oil shale deposits, to force out hidden reserves of natural gas that cannot be extracted any other way. Pioneered in the early years of the twenty-first century by companies like Halliburton, fracking has dramatially increased estimates of the amount of natural gas that could be recovered for fuel in the US and other countries throughout the world.

Most energy companies in the US are not required to disclose what chemicals they use while fracking, and widely use compounds include the carcinogen benzene, and more than sixty other chemicals that cause cancer or other serious health problems. Fracking also frees underground deposits of methane gas that can seep groundwater or escape into the air. In some parts of the US where fracking is widespread, water from an indoor tap can actually become flammable due to methane released by nearby fracking projects. The image of water from a faucet being lit on fire with a match has become a rallying point for environmentalists concerned with the dangers of fracking.

10. Rights groups push U.S to apply pressure on Burma [Washington Post]

Seeking to capitalize on recent developments in the perennially thorny U.S.-Burmese relationship, a coalition of more than 20 human rights organization is sending a letter to President Obama today, calling on him to apply more aggressive pressure to push the country’s leaders toward democracy.

After a lull in the U.S.-Burmese relationship, the past few weeks have seen the defection of a top-ranking Burmese diplomat to the United States, the confirmation hearing of a new U.S. envoy to Burma, and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s first travels outside Rangoon since her release from house arrest last year.
According to Aung Din, a former Burmese political prisoner who helped draft the letter to Obama, the coalition of human rights activists hopes to push U.S. officials toward a tougher stance against the military-controlled government.

“The U.S. has been trying this same policy of engagement for two years already,” said Aung Din, director of U.S. Campaign for Burma. “But such engagement should be time-bound and with clear benchmarks and combined with stronger pressure.”

The letter was signed by organizations including Human Rights Watch and the Carter Center, as well as pro-labor and pro-student activist groups such as the AFL-CIO and the American Federation of Teachers.
It calls on the Obama administration to support two specific measures against Burma, also known as Myanmar: banking sanctions against similar to those that were imposed against Libya and a United Nations commission of inquiry to investigate war crimes and human rights abuses.

Note : The all new SODIUM HAZE is over at http://www.sodiumhaze.org/ - this is a mirror blog now. Why not check out the shiny new Haze?

Will Cameron resign?

The Haze is no fan of David Cameron and his Conservative Party - their 'Big Society' nonsense is an absolute affront to everything we stand for @ Sodium Haze - its just a PR scam to hide attacks on democracy.

So the idea that Cameron has been mortally wounded by this scandal with his chums at News International is rather appealing to The Haze and doubtless many of our readers - but is it a realistic prospect?

Peter Oborne in the Telegraph was quick to start wrting his obituary yesterday - even before the latest arrests.

The Haze thinks this day is the beginning of the end for Cameron - and the end is nigh.

Consider this!

Question:
Why did the tories elect Cameron in the first place?

Answer:
To de-toxify the Tory brand - he was seen as warm, modern, family orientated, PR savvy and quick on his feet. Most of all Cameron was seen as the man who could change the public's perception that the tories are rich and in league with big business.

Answer:
Because he was seen as winner - a man to end the tories run of wilderness years.

.

Question:
So how has Cameron been doing?

Answer:
Mediocre success only in the general election. The circumstances of which just couldn't have been more favourable for him and yet he still couldn't get the tories over the finish line without the help of their hated 'partners' the Lib Dems. This has been followed by a series of embarrasing policy U-turns that led to the disastrous NHS 'reforms' put forward by Andrew Lansley. Every professional medical body in the UK rose up against the tory plans and once again the tories are seen as wreckers and privatisers of the NHS.

Answer:
Now with Labour ahead in the polls during what should surely be the tory honeymoon period - his reputation is being dragged into the sewer by his close association with Murdoch's News International. The scale of the damage cannot be overstated. the News of the World was hacking into the voicemail of murdered children, terrorist victims and fallen british soldiers. This won't easily be forgotten or forgiven by the tory heartland - many of whom had misgivings about him anyway.

Question:
What may lie ahead for Cameron?

Answer:
Weeks and months of damaging allegations emerging bit by bit about people that the prime minister is linked to. To say that hiring Andy Coulson was 'an error of judgement' is the political understatement of the century! It may be a knife through the heart of Cameron's leadership of the Conservatives.

Answer:
The party may think that Cameron has become more trouble than he is worth and ditch him.

If he is no longer:

(a) a winner

(b) Seen as being quick on his feet (his response to this whole phone hacking debacle has been slow and inadequete)

(c) De-toxofying the tory brand (an association with Murdoch and his lowest slimeballs, great!) -if anything he is re-toxifying it.

(d) No longer warm cuddly, PR savvy and an asset to the tory brand...

... then why keep him?

Indeed as the allegations drag on inside what is bound to be a media firestorm - it will surely dawn on someone in the 1922 committee that Cameron is damaged goods - damaged beyond economic repair in fact and the smart move will be to ditch him sooner rather than alter.

Cameron is not AT ALL popular with the tory right... and he if isn't going to WIN anymore then all bets are off.

or perhaps all bets are ON!

Good ole Mike Smithson @ Politcal Betting never misses a trick! We clearly had exactly the same thoughts over our breakfast toast this morning.

As retoxification continues apace, it is now worth examining if the Conservatives can actually win their first parliamentary majority since 1992 at the next election? At some point MPs will begin to wonder this out loud too. If at some point they conclude it is not likely, they could be forgiven for asking ‘what is the point of David Cameron?

Hmmm - what are the odds on him going then? Turns out Mike has already stuck a few quid on it.

.

Before I went to bed I got £25 on with Ladbrokes (the most that the bookie would allow) at 100/1 against David Cameron being the next cabinet minister to leave. That’s now moved in to 33/1.

I’ve also managed to get on the same bet at 150/1 with Stan James. They wouldn’t let me put much on but at those odds the winnings would be quite nice anyway.

The Haze reckons that Mike has got a bargain there!

Cameron is the walking dead politically - it may take a while, but he is finished and the tories will do to him what Murdoch did to the News of the World.

[Update 1: Ladbrokes briefly suspended betting on Cameron being next out of the cabinet - then re-posted odds of 33/1 - the same as Nick Clegg]

[Update 2 - Rebbekah Brooks apologies to News of the World staff but defies calls to resign]

Note : The all new SODIUM HAZE is over at http://www.sodiumhaze.org/ - this is a mirror blog now.

News of the World - last one out turn off the lights

So the announcement has been made - this Sunday's edition of the News Of The World will be the last. Hurrah!


The Haze reagrds the demise of the NOTW as good riddance to bad rubbish.


But what happens now?


Commenting on our headline story yesterday Peter wisely pointed out:

I agree and could not be more then [sic] delighted at the NOTW going under but I have a feeling that News International will just publish a Sunday version of the Sun.

Also, they have managed to shift all the blame away from the top players to the lowlier journalists proving that Murdoch and his crew will happily sell out their own if it means they can get what they want.

The loss of the paper may help their bid to buy the rest of BSKYB being as they can cite a loss of a paper as a loss of their power.

I am under no illusion that this isn’t over yet. As one person said: We have only cut off one of the hydra’s heads.

There are some key questions now:


(a) Will News International be allowed to complete their deeply unpopular takeover of TV channel BSkyB? Surely this cannot be allowed to go ahead at this time. The Guardian provided a useful summary of recent developements concerning News International:

The police operation has already led to several arrests and there is a distinct possibility of such charges.

Indeed, some lawyers have even mentioned the possibility of charges against company directors under section 79 of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act which can be levelled if it can be shown that directors have been guilty of "neglect, consent or connivance".

Knowing of these possible outcomes, it would be extraordinary for Mr Hunt to wave through the merger now.


We have suggested that Mr Hunt should pause for a period while the police find out who did what, and who knew what, when – and at what level in the company.

That suggestion met with broad all-party support in the Commonson Wednesday. In the intervening 24 hours we have learned of NoW journalists bribing police officers; that News International's chief executive was warned by police in 2002 about the behaviour of private investigators; and that her paper hacked the phones of the relatives of 7/7 victims.

These people are not a fit and proper bunch to be running a national TV channel.


Under no circumstances should they be allowed to. As the campaign organisation 38 degrees rightly point out:

We can't trust Murdoch's “promises” about respecting UK democracy and media plurality if he takes over BSkyB, while his newspapers stand accused of immoral and criminal activities

You can join two campaigns against the takeover:


Avaaz - 24 hours to stop Murdoch's UK media takeover


38 degrees - No time to give Murdoch more power





(b) What has yet to emerge about David Cameron's relationship with this bunch of sewer rats? David Oborne writing in the Telegraph can't abandon him quickly enough saying:

Mr Cameron allowed himself to be drawn into a social coterie in which no respectable person, let alone a British prime minister, should be seen dead.

David Cameron's relationships with NOTW Editor Rebbekah Brooks and fomer NOTW senior journalist Andy Coulson (the man Cameron employed as his own communications director) will come under particular scrutiny. Andy Coulson is about to be arrested as the police investigation gathers momentum.


(c) Will the demise of the NOTW finally break the stranglehold that Rupert Murdoch and News Internationak have had over British Politics for decades?


Remember this?


 

Neil Kinnock's election campaign savagely attacked and some say mortally wounded by Murdoch's media empire in the run up to the 1992 general election. Kinnock blamed the papers for his defeat and it was a lesson that a generation of politicians learned well.


Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and of course David Cameron did all they could to gain and retain the coveted support of the News International tabloids, so it was no surprise to see Cameron socialising with the NOTW and employing former News International staff in senior roles.


The pattern was always the same - Steve Richards writing in the Independent remembers the extraordinary lengths which politicians would go to to gain Murdoch's favour:

As a BBC political correspondent, I was the only journalist who travelled with Tony Blair in July 1995 for his famous meeting with Rupert Murdoch at a conference in Australia. The investment of political and physical energy was staggering. Murdoch issued an invitation at relatively short notice to Blair, a summons that could not be ignored. Blair, Alastair Campbell and Anji Hunter dropped all plans, flew for 24 hours, taking sleeping pills to manage the jet lag, attended the conference and returned in time for Prime Minister's Questions.

Neither was it any surprise that News International's takeover of BSKyB would go through on the nod but there is enormous public pressure to stop that now - pressure that has fresh impetus and momentum because of the NOTW debacle.


The real question is - will anything actually change?


News International will surely just reinvent the NOTW under a less tainted brand name - perhaps the 'Sun on Sunday'.


Murdoch's tabloids are still a powerful and influential force in British politics and do any of our politicians have the gumption to stand against them?


Well maybe - just maybe.


Labour's ailing leader David Milliband was quick to exploit David Cameron's close relationship with key figures at the NOTW and News International - relationships he wanted for himself but it is now very convenient he doesn't have.


If Milliband continues to demand public enquiries into the antics of NOTW then his relationship with Murdoch may be stuffed forever - not least because he couldn't be seen to be flirting with News International anymore.


The relationship between News International and the tories looks even more vexed - London's tory Mayor Boris Johnson led the cavalry charge against the 'dirty digger' Murdoch.

"I certainly think there should be a judge-led inquiry and I think it should be immediate," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme, adding that the hacking allegations had left him with a "burning outrage".

"I think there should be no holds barred. Get the editors, get the proprietors in and let's hear exactly what has been going on."


Mr Johnson also said there should be "external validation" of the Metropolitan Police's inquiry into its own handling of the case, adding: "There has to be confidence that this is not just the police washing their dirty linen."

Even if Cameron wanted to return his cosy relationship with News International to the status quo - it seems unlikely his party would now let him. Murdoch has become a toxic brand in the public mind and there is nothing politicians fear more than guilt by association.


It's also true that Cameron has badly damaged his reputation through his association with the NOTW crew - damage he may never recover from - he will certainly need to distance himself well away from Murdoch in the days ahead. His current response to the hacking scandal currently looks leaden footed and compromised.


So it may be that the extraordinary and criminal activities of NOTW will release News International's choking grip on British politics - lets hope so.


Let's hope that the cocky swagger of headlines like this are a thing of the past.



[This is now a mirror blog - the all new -  all shiny - Sodium Haze is at http://www.sodiumhaze.org/]

Time to take out the tabloid trash

While shocked by the suffering caused to many people by the antics of the News of The World and its phone hacking scandals - The Haze wonders if there might be a good outcome to this after all.


Let's say plainly what most of us already know about tabloid newspapers in this country - they are in the main worthless rags.


In this instance the News of the World has over stepped the mark and been caught out - but the gutter press have been walking a very fine line between legal muck raking and outright illegality for decades - by doing so, they adroitly avoid any consequences and pump out an endless stream of negative coverage that plays on the worst aspects of human nature.


The trash tabloids are not just the celeb baiting comics like the News of The World - papers with huge circulations like The Daily Mail and the Daily Express are also awful papers. They are very clever at writing basically racist articles without over-stepping the line and being actually unlawful.


If it isn't racism its hatred - with a clutch of regular targets like benefits claimants, immigrants, single mothers, working class people, Muslims and trades unions.


If it isn't hatred then its fear - with lurid headlines stoking up people's anxieties about crime, immigration, young people and the economy.


The tabloid press in this country (we exclude the new 'i' of course) are a powerful obstacle to progress in any direction - playing off the most base fears and prejudices - increasing ignorance, class / racial hatreds and fear.


So perhaps the troubles of the embattled News of the World might be a good thing in the end.


Lets hope for the best!


Perhaps this will be a wake up call to the nation and the astonishing support that the gutter tabloids receive from both advertisers and readers will start to diminish.


Perhaps we will finally get a review of the failed and toothless Press Complaints Commission which has shown time and again that is not fit for its task.


Perhaps the decision to allow Rupert Murdoch's News International to take over BSkyB can be stopped (not too late to protest - join the avaaz campaign here)


Perhaps at the very least the News of the World can be dumped in the garbage where it belongs.


Join the campaign running at Liberal Conspiracy to target the companies who advertise in the News of the World.


Here is a headline we would love to see here at Sodium Haze:

'Muck raking tabloids dumped en-masse by the nation'

wouldn't that be great!

[this is now a mirror blog - the real deal is over at www.sodiumhaze.org - why not go and look at the shiny new haze!]

Muddled Imperialism - Afghanistan

In days gone by, nations had empires that were acquired and retained through the use of military force.


In the modern age of globalisation, nuclear weapons, international terrorism and economic superpowers - surely the days of 'gunboat diplomacy' are gone forever...


...and yet the UK is fighting two wars at the moment. 


This morning Air Chief Marshal Sir Simon Bryant, the RAF's second-in-command, said "huge" demands were being placed on equipment and personnel by running operations in both Afghanistan and Libya. 


Quite aside from the cost to the UK taxpayer of these hugely expensive wars at a time of supposed 'Austerity' and budget cuts - just what is the rationale for our continued fighting in Afghanistan and Libya?


The Haze will look at Afghanistan today


AFGHANISTAN


A coalition including UK troops followed an American lead and deployed in Afghanistan as part of the oxy-moronic 'war on terror'.

Post 9/11 the idea was that this 'failed state', ran by the Taliban under Sharia law was a breeding ground for terrorists and it needed sorting out.


What was the criteria for success in Afghanistan? The right-wing Understanding War site has this criteria published on its website:

Success in Afghanistan is the establishment of a political order, security situation, and indigenous security force that is stable, viable, enduring, and able—with greatly reduced international support—to prevent Afghanistan from being a safe-haven for international terrorists. This objective is the most narrowly-constrained goal the United States and its allies could achieve in Afghanistan that would support our vital national security interests.

So has this been achieved? Given that the removal and defeat of  The Taliban in Afghanistan was obviously seen as a central component to this end -  then it doesn't look as if things are going well with violence in Afghanistan reaching record levels in 2010 with AlertNet reporting that

The Taliban are at their strongest since they were ousted...the insurgency has spread out of its traditional strongholds in the south and east over the past two years into once peaceful areas of the north and west. The north in particular has become a deadly new front in the war.

Clearly the Taliban are not vanquished -  215 coalition soldiers have lost their lives in Afghanistan in 2011 and the Taliban launched a spring offensive with another suicide bombing in which four people were killed.


Going through the August 2010 casualty statistics listed here on The Guardian website makes for sobering reading and even a quick glance reveals a security situation which is a long way from "stable, viable, enduring, and able"


This morning was typical of many others as another terrorist attack claimed another life.


Its obvious that preventing "Afghanistan from being a safe-haven for international terrorists" has been a miserable failure - but what of the government that was installed after the invasion of Afghanistan - how is that doing?


Well the two of the oft quoted reasons for invading Afghanistan were:


(a) That the Taliban refused to handover Osama Bin Laden.


(b)  The reprehensible treatment and oppression  of women by the Taliban.


Bin Laden was never handed over and as we now know was happily holed up in a luxury bunker next to a military base in Pakistan - but what of the women of Afghanistan, has their lot improved?


This is what Afghan Malalai Joya, teacher, peace activist, and women’s rights campaigner had to say about the situation facing Afghan women back in January last year.

“The situation of women was, without a doubt, the best excuse for the US government to occupy our country underthe banner of women’s rights… But they pushed us from the frying pan into the fire.”

hardly a ringing endorsement of the new deal for Afghan women but she has harsher words for the government of Hamid Karzai.

"The NATO-backed alliance is brandishing “criminals in suits” as moderates and as proponents of democracy. they have established a puppet regime,full of people who are photo-copies of the Taliban."

Refferring to a Human Rights Watch report she said that:

“since 2001 65,000 civilians have died in Afghanistan, while only 2,000 Taliban fghters have been killed. The daily lives of the people of Afghanistan are progressively being mired in corruption, poverty, injustice, violence and joblessness.”

and just in case  the point hadn't been made...

“My people have no faith in these puppets and their government.”

How about Anissa Haddadi writing in the International Business Times:

...after the Taliban were ousted, Hamid Karzai and his government were instated and since then, the same sharia (Islamic religious) laws remain, sometimes slightly modified.


A leading Afghan judge illustrated the current situation for women when he declared that "those convicted of adultery will still be stoned to death...but with smaller stones."


Women's rights marches are still prohibited and they remain subject to purdah, forcible seclusion in the home, they are still being executed and thanks to a bill passed by the Karzai government, they cannot seek work, education and have to agree to sexual intercourse with their husband a minimum of every four days.

How about Sarah Chayes quoted in this article by Michael Winship

...the United States and its NATO allies have had to convince themselves and public opinion in each of their countries that “this is a democratically elected representative government [in] Afghanistan in order to justify the sacrifices in money and troops. But the Afghans see it differently.”


What they see instead, she said, is a restoration to power under President Hamid Karzai of the gunslinging, crooked warlords who were repudiated when the Taliban first started taking over vast parts of the country a few years after the Soviet withdrawal in 1989.


The “appalling behavior” of officials in the current government, including rampant bribery, extortion and violence, is a serious factor in the Taliban resurgence

That was back in 2009 - but this was what US diplomats had to say about the Afghan government yesterday complaining of:

"....political interference, corruption and what one official called a “narrow skill layer” of trainable people"

It seems hard to find ANY evidence that would suggest that the foreign 'mission' in Afghanistan has been anything other than an unmitigated failure. Hugely costly in terms of military and civillian deaths, money and equipment - Afghanistan represents a total failure of old colonialist ideologies to adapt to a changing world.

The UN is finally catching up. On July 17th it acknowledged the obvious difference between the perpetrators of 9/11 - Al Queda and the hardline islamists of Afghanistan The Taliban. 

This childishly obvious fact makes the whole mis-adventure in Afghanistan even more baffling - since it was supposed to be a response to 9/11 whose operatives and funding were from - Saudi Arabia.

All that is left for the defeated coalition is to find some way to cover up this shambolic excercise in 21st century gunboat dipolmacy.

Negotiations have begun between the US Govt and the Taliban and President Obama wants to pull out troops and hand things over to the Afghan army and the aforementioned bunch of warlords and drug kings (the Afghan government)

Doubtless some version of the Vietnam 'peace with honour' PR spin will emerge over the coming months with the installed Afghan government comprising of "photo-copies of the Taliban" (but with better drug connections and able to embezzle foreign aid) being held up as the shining success of the whole endeavour.

If you see the press conferences, the medal ceremonies, the applause and the flag waving - just remember:


(a) The appaling loss of life (the majority Afghan civillians)


(b) The corrupt oppresive sham of a government that is left behind,


(c) A resurgent Taliban which stands victorious and unbowed


(d) A shattered country riven by a decade of war.


The Haze thinks that the only good thing that may yet emerge from this disaster is something that it took a 27 year old peace activist who has survived four attempts on her life to say - I leave the last words to Malalai Joya.

“These occupation forces, they are victims of the wrong policy of their own government that sent them to a bad, costly war. Democracy will never come by war, by cluster bomb or by the barrel of a gun"