Taking Out The Trash

Giving and taking away

The Guardian published a piece by me this week on how one an Irish Traveller will be getting an MBE one week - and a battle at the High Court the next.

Bridgette Jones will be at Buckingham Palace next month to collect an MBE for service to her community.

A week later she will be at the high court hoping that her home outside Canterbury will not be taken from her.

"They give you a medal with one hand and they try and take your home away with the other," she says.

Jones, known to everyone as Bridie, has championed Traveller rights for the last 15 years. During that time she says that overt racism against Gypsies and Travellers may have diminished in the UK but discrimination still exists - nowhere more so than in planning regulations. Since 2001 she has been fighting to stay on the plot of land that she, her son, daughter and seven grandchildren call home.

"It has been seven long and depressing years," she says. "We have been given planning permission by the county council and by two inspectors but some villagers have set up a group to stop us and they keep appealing. It is very aggravating. You have children born and bred on that land."

Through her work with the Canterbury Gypsy Traveller Support Group, Jones gets a lot of calls from Travellers about similar planning problems.

"In some cases it is just ethnic cleansing," she claims. "In Basildon the council is spending £3m on bailiffs to evict Travellers from a site. There are 300 children on that site and some are sick and some are dying. We're supposed to be in a credit crunch and yet they spend all this money to put people off their own land."

Jones began volunteering back in 1992, working with young people in Kent. She found then that ethnic minority children didn't access traditional youth services so she tried to open up the services to the whole community.

"I've always tried to break down barriers and build bridges," she says. "When I get a phone call now I try to make sure they get the right services and go to the right people. It's about bringing people around a table and discussing problems."

When Jones got the letter in the post back in October with the royal motif on it, asking if she would accept an MBE she thought it was a joke. A follow-up letter inviting her to the palace in March was met by "complete out-and-out shock".

Jones has been to Downing Street to petition for Traveller rights on several occasions, but she just plans on enjoying this trip. She is saving her energy for the high court battle.

"People get very angry when they see what is happening in Italy with [Roma]Gypsies," she says , "but I don't think people know that it [discrimination] is on their own doorstep."

ENDS

That downfall video

Views on the Downfall Wiltshire mashup are edging towards 500 which is about 495 more than I expected.
Back in the office on Monday after a week at Disneyland so will find out if the CX would like a word in my shell-like. Update: I've moved it to here.

I caught a food bug at Disneyland so my last 48 hours were spent throwing up and feeling grey. Perhaps everyone should now indelibly link Disney with the feeling of nausea and that we we wouldn't have to put up with High School Musical 3.

Big brass balls get kicking

Bristol Evening Post Watch gives both barrels to a particularly inviting target.
The city's premier only evening paper has been running a campaign called bristol Fights Back which is supposed to be abot how the city is refusing to be crunched by the credit crisis.
And meanwhile it's sacking 45 members of staff.
That's some brass balls.
Sometimes when you have such a juicy target you get a bit of blood lust and start trying to make too many bullseyes at once.
BEPW nicely, methodically and deliciously rudely rips apart the banal and hypocritical campaign. It's not the idea of it - it's a great idea - it's that the Post is too hamstrung by its outlook: suck up to business and smack down the workers.

Dishing it out big time

The world has fallen in on Jeni Barnett and LBC after they tried to pick a fight with Ben 'Bad Science' Goldacre.

To recap: Jeni hosts a phone-in on LBC where she prattles on about so-called MMR fears without the slightest idea what she is talking about. Simply being a parent is, it seems, excuse enough to give someone airtime to talk crap and scare other parents. So when Ben posts an extended clip ofthe show to prove how awful it is, LBC suits start talking about copyright infringement.

Now everyone has decided to have a pop at LBC and Jeni and take their excuses and operation apart. Not living in London, I didn't even know Jeni existed before a couple of days ago but now she is indelibly linked in my mind with a particular kind of selfishly irrational behaviour. You know, the one where people drive their kids to school in 4x4s and park in the no parking zone while talking on the telephone.

Ben provides an extensive update here.

And now another one here. The world falling in Jeni and LBC means Ben Goldacre and his supporters are now being accused of bullying. Ben's temperate response to that accusation is well done; even if my comments above are more about playing the man rather than the ball.

A Wiltshire mashup

I particularly liked the mashup where Hitler found out his BNP membership details had been leaked so thought I'd give it a go.
A little download of the Downfall clip, a little playing around in Windows Movie Maker, a little saving the film, then a lot of cursing because it won't save so have to reimport the video. You know, the usual Microsoft fun.
Anyhow: Hitler finds out about the new unitary authority for Wiltshire. Remember, don't phone in; it's just for fun.

Update: moved it to here.

It's the way we tell 'em

Interesting post from Alison Gow over at the Liverpool Daily Post on the difference between bloggers and journalists.
Apparently it's the similarities that are important.
I'm not convinced by Alison's argument simply because millions of people shouting out their experiences requires filtering and assessment otherwise you drown in a sea of noise. That editorialising is stil done best by journalists. It's just not that quick.
But it's a good argument and well put by someone who does web 2.0 journalism far far better than I can.

On dishing it out and taking it

Rather marvellous post from Ben Goldacre about LBC getting all shirty because he dared post a long clip of one of the presenters getting the MMR issue, how shall we say, completely arse and about face.
The LBC lawyers have written to Goldacre asking him to cease and desist because he's infringing their copyright (and nothing at all to do with writing embarassing things about them, oh no).
It's always very dodgy when journalists resort to libel lawyers. They really ought to know better.
One of my first ever libel threats (you remember them like you do the first time you realised Santa wasn't real) was from a Sunday Times journalist. This venerable hack was annoyed because I'd written that his speculative musings on who would be selected for a particular parliamentary seat were wide of the mark. They were, but we still wrote an apology.
It is quite possible that LBC's Jeni Barnett didn't want the suits involved and is mouthing "that's not the way to handle it".
What sympathy I have is tempered by the fact that on her blog she shows no contrition, no understanding and little empathy. She writes:

 "I am not a scientist, I would not claim to be a scientist. When tested on the contents of the MMR vaccine I told the truth. I did not have the facts to hand. Was I ill informed? Yes.As a responsible broadcaster I should have been better prepared as a parent, however, I can fight my corner. I don't know everything that goes into cigarettes but I do know they are harmful."

The difference with her and other parents is that she is in a postion of authority and her programme sets the terms of debate for the public.
That last sentence is beyond belief. The reason you know that cigarettes are harmful, Jeni, is because Richard Doll and many others carried out a huge amount of research to prove the link between smoking and lung cancer. That was then, slowly, reported by the media. There is no evidence to back-up your belief in the MMR scare; just the media storm.
Next we'll have Jeni on why the Earth is flat ("I don't know much but it's obvious all the water would just keep washing away from you.")
And as figures produced just recently show; falling vaccination rates cused by the wholly wrong and media-led MMR scare are having real and debilitating effects on children today.
It's not good enough to be a little ignorant and a bit fluffy and think you're just helping confused parents take control. You need to take this stuff seriously or you need to go and find a job where you can't cause damage to other people.

In the diary

First it was below, now one of Roger Helmer's musings has made it into The Guardian Diary. I do really want to see what people think abotu his 'tanks-on-the-streets-of-Britain' warning though.

Some morsels from Helmer

Some months back I posted about the climate change denying efforts of Conservative MEP Roger Helmer.

It seems my interest has led to me to get on the mailing list for his electronic newsletter. It's the second Tory newsletter I've suddenly started receiving. My MP James Gray has also been sending me one. I wrote to him asking for his support for a couple of freedom of information EDMs (which he gave).

Must be an election in the offing soon (certainly June 4 for the euros).

Anyway Mr Helmer's newsletter has so many delightful little morsels that I’ve cut them out to form a stream of conservative consciousness. (elipses show where I've edited stuff out).

My favourite is the bit where he warns that the EU could send tanks onto the streets to enforce its will. A variation on America's black helicopter conspiracy theory. "Am I being alarmist?" asks Roger. OF COURSE YOU ARE.

In the interests of fairness the full missive can be found via www.rogerhelmer.com

STRAIGHT TALKING

Welcome President Obama

Despite my well-known Republican sympathies, it would be churlish not to welcome in-coming US President Barack Obama.  But I did notice that both the Dow Jones Index and Senator Ted Kennedy collapsed on Inauguration Day.

Wind Farms

Whatever view you take of the Great Carbon Myth, wind farms are simply unsustainable, in either economic or environmental terms.  There are many things we need to do to reduce our dependence on imported fossil fuels, but building wind farms is not one of them.  We saw earlier this year, during the long cold snap, the way that wind farms produced scarcely any power at all, just at the time when we needed it most.  Wind farms are the worst kind of gesture politics.  They may salve the consciences of the chattering classes, but they blight lives and villages and local communities.  They further reduce property values.  They pose health risks to nearby residents.  We should not build them at all, and especially not within two miles of existing dwellings.

Travellers' camp sites

Friday Jan 16th saw me, along with David Tredinnick MP, in a packed protest meeting at the Plough Inn in Earl Shilton.  Local residents are up in arms about a proposed travellers' camp in the village.  We have the EU seeking to earn our gratitude with a succession of Declarations and Charters of Human Rights, but the good people of Earl Shilton feel that while we all have equal rights, some minority groups are more equal than others. ... was told that during a consultation on a similar proposal in Bedfordshire, 4000 objections were sent in, but 3,900 of them (including one from the Police) were rejected as "racist".  I don't know what the powers-that-be regard as "racist" in this context, but I guess it would include observing that around travellers' sites, crime tends to increase and property values tend to go down.  But these are facts, proven time and again, not racist comments.

Pennbury "Eco-Town"

On the evening of same day, Jan 16th, I spoke alongside Edward Garnier MP at another packed protest meeting, in Oadby, Leics, this time against the proposed Pennbury eco-town...One priceless insight: the plans assume one parking place for every two dwellings.  That's right, you get half a parking place.  They say that residents will use buses and bicycles, and will walk.  And presumably pigs will fly.  We need to reduce our dependence on imported fossil fuels, and it may well be that in ten years we shall all be driving electric cars, or hydrogen cars.  But you can bet that half a parking space per dwelling will be less than half of what's needed.

The BBC and the Gaza appeal

 ...we might have greater respect for the BBC's independence and impartiality had they not spent the previous few weeks of the conflict acting as unashamed cheer-leaders for the Palestinians, and as the primary accusers of Israel. 

Could the EU invade Britain? Lessons from history

In recent months my historian colleague Rupert Matthews has been looking at the political and constitutional debates that took place in the USA in the build-up to the attempts by some states to secede from the Union – a move that sparked the American Civil War. He wondered how they look compared to the position of Britain and the EU today.... look at the current EU. Could the EU deploy military forces to try to stop Britain seceding? The answer lies in the Treaty of Lisbon (aka the EU Constitution).

First, the newly created High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy will also head the European Defence Agency (EDA) and have a right of initiative for proposing EU-led military operations. Second, Article 28b allows EU armed forces to be used to deal with any “crisis”. An event will be defined as a crisis by the Council and Commission. Article 28a allows the EU armed forces to be used to protect the strategic interests of the EU; again these are to be defined by the Council and Commission. Finally Article 188r allows armed forces to be deployed to any part of the EU without the agreement of the government of the member state in whose territory they are deployed.

These provisions are scattered widely through the Treaty (probably deliberately), but taken together they create an EU armed force that can be deployed anywhere in the EU for any purpose decided upon by the EU Commission and Council.  Never mind getting Ireland to vote again – the tanks might be on the streets. Are we being unduly alarmist? Well maybe. So perhaps somebody could tell us why the EU wants these powers?

...Red Hot Lies, by Chris Horner of the Competitive Enterprise Institute,Washington...  I should declare an interest: Chris Horner is a friend of mine who has worked with me on climate-related issues....To give you a flavour of the book, I can do no better than to quote from the blurb on the dust jacket: "The global warming lobby, relentless in its push for bigger government, more spending and more regulation, will use any means necessary to scare you out of your wits -- as well as your tax dollars and your liberties -- with threats of rising oceans, deadly droughts and unspeakable future consequences of 'climate change'.  In pursuing their anti-energy, anti-capitalist and pro-government agenda, the global warming alarmists -- and unscrupulous scientists who see this scare as their gravy train to federal grants and foundation money -- resort to dirty tricks, smear campaigns, and outright lies, abandoning scientific standards, journalistic integrity, and old-fashioned notions of free speech and open debate".

pigs: an update

As James Barlow points out; my pig rearing letter has history.
A swift response, extra information and nicely put.
The blogosphere in action.