Taking Out The Trash

You can't do that, I'm one of you

Iain Dale writes with regard to the arrest of Damien Green: "We don't yet live in a Police State, but one be forgiven on nights like this from wondering if we are headed that way."

Marvellous how the Tories get so worked up when they find themselves on the wrong end of the police.

Trade union members who get involved any significant disputes suffer this all the time and have done for decades. I remember my stepfather going on strike when he was at BT. He was one of the local organisers. Since he worked for the phone company he knew taps were placed on the phones of union activists. The strike threatened to shut the city of London exchange and so had to be undermined.

The low level harassment of union members going about their lawful business is common - but you never hear much from the Tories about police state and civil liberties then.

Does that mean I think Green should have been arrested? Absolutely not, and if government ministers were involved it shows gob smacking stupidity and arrogance.

Do I think Green is some civil liberties martyr? Definitely not. He gets the luxury of TV crews recording his release, many others do not.

PS: Hopi Sen has some measured words on this (particularly comparing it to the cash for honours arrests). Tom Harris similarly has put some perspective on it.

I don't think journalists should be arrested for getting leaks so why should Green be nicked? The cops must have known how this would play... it feels like we're missing a part of the puzzle.

Clear blue water

Forget the transatlantic differences...read the following report on how Obama spent Thanksgiving and imagine, if David Cameron ever got in to power, how would he handle it?
I believe his glib PR comments would be shown to be woefully inadquate.
This isn't natural territory for Brown either as he obviously feels uncomfortable with such displays.
Yet, I think Cameron's almost genetic inability to empathise with people at the sharp end would be clear.
So, can we have a few more human moments in our political pantomime please? It's where the clear blue water lies.

Observer withdraws eco terrorist scare article

I'm grateful to Calvin for letting me know that The Observer has now withdrawn an article ran ran a couple of weeks back reporting that the police fear a lone eco terrorist from Earth First! might launch some sort of atrocity.

I criticised it at the time and there were a numer of other complaints.

Now the paper's readers' editor has published an adjudication which concludes:

While the paper had no intention of suggesting that every activist was a potential terrorist, several climate campers wrote to protest. 'If a journalist is told by a single anonymous source that a movement of people has among it individuals who would take the lives of men, women and children in a terror attack, what standard of evidence does that journalist require? In this case: no evidence whatsoever. The claim itself was the story.'

We've been here before. Other newspapers reported on a predicted 'summer of hate' at climate camps that never materialised and the Press Complaints Commission found against the Evening Standard at climate campers were planning attacks at Heathrow.

Environmentalist Keith Metcalf explained that Earth First! supported direct action against property, but not against people. He believed that the debate around sustainable population size had been twisted to imply that environmentalists wished to kill people.

He also repeated the belief of several others that Nectu was briefing in this manner in order to make prosecutions easier and to boost its funding, which is at risk owing to the decline in animal rights campaigns. I can't verify that or the fears about mass murder because, despite repeated requests, Nectu won't respond. Accordingly, The Observer has decided to withdraw the story.

You can read it in full here.

Good: a swift result and no messing. Score one for the readers' editor.

But aren't there subs and news editors whose job it is catch such shoddy work in the first place?

In other news: Henry Porter's column for The Obs today is, shock, not about how we're all on the verge of becoming a Gulag. True, it's still about himself, but it's actually a nice little tale about the Baader Meinhof gang. Porter, as others have pointed out, is a bit of a bore - but what with this sudden ability to write an atricle on something new and the retraction above there's hope for my Sunday reading yet.

 

The only fascists in the village

Inbetween finishing off an article for the group Scientists for Global Responsibility this morning I had to have a look at the BNP membership which everyone's been talking about.
I found three people in my village on the list. A husband and wife and a soldier from the Royal Signals.
Three (one of whom is only 'passing through') out of about 1,500 potential members, in a white, rural, conservative area, is pretty good (or absolutely awful if you look at it from their point of view).
Then had a very interesting talk with my journalism students researching the list and discussing the ethics of it as a news source.

But it doesn't have to be all serious. We can laugh at fascists too. This is very funny. (Hat Tip Bob Piper)

Update: a thoughtful post on this story from A Very Public Sociologist.

Update (2): Labourhome overlays areas where BNP support is strong with parliamentary constituencies and concludes the BNP is Labour's problem.

This post was proof read by James Barlow.

More on demonising environmental activists

I posted about The Observer's shoddy story last week on how the police reckon Earth First! might be harbouring an environmental terrorist.
SchNEWS has done a nice hatchet job on the piece here.

Update: The Observer today published a couple of letters attacking the news story. As Kevin Smith from the Climate Camp media team points out:

We want to highlight that no Climate Camp has resulted in a conviction for any offence of violence. Every year since the inception of the Climate Camp, the police have warned about lone mavericks with dangerous intents. They have never materialised.

More on hitchiking

Some weeks back I posted about an initiative we're considering in the village to solve our lack of public transport - hitchiking.
It follows on from a scheme in Washington State in America.
Liza has from San Juan Island has just sent me a ncie email commenting on this which is below.
I really think this could be adopted in different places. For one thing people in Britain are generally polite and helpful - which is what you need if this is to work.
For another I think it would help break down some of those fears that have grown up that this country is dangerous and you can't go out without putting your life on the line. A bit more social interaction instead of us isolated in our cars is no bad thing.

Just noticed your comments when I googled our website. The sjRideshere program is going well here on San Juan Island, Washington state. Our county council and town council are behind us 100%.
 If you would like any support materials or if yoyu think your local councils would like a guest speaker on this program let us know!!! England is not really far away..
 Also i enjoyed seeing a similar program underway in Golden bay new Zealand last year.... It Works!!

Update: Liza adds "...there is a similar program called Go Geronimo in Marin Co California."

Black, white and not read all over

I'm about half way through my first term teaching journalism at UWE and I'm getting a little better at the teaching while the students are (mostly) getting the hang of the basics of journalism.

But this week two people independently told me the same, rather depressing story, about a group of journalism students they spoke to last year.

They asked them where they got their news from and a significant proportion said Newsround. We're talking people of average age 20 folks.

It's an improvement on what a friend who works for the Daily Mail found out when he addressed anther group of journalism students - none of them read newsapers.

Pitch and deal

Utne report on an interesting way San Francisco freelancers are getting commissions:

The new website Spot.us is experimenting with an innovative business model for freelance journalists. The idea is simple: Journalists pitch stories to the site’s community, and if people like an idea they can contribute money to make the reporting possible. Users are also able to submit news tips that freelancers can pick up on and craft into pitches that they will seek funding for through the site.

It could work the other way - perhaps by linking pressure groups and writers to work together. The group suggests an area it thinks needs investigating and freelancers might sign-up if enough other backers put money forward.

Is that a rise in the polls or are you just pleased to see me?

Latest posting on the Total Politics blog is here:

Following on from Ben's post about TV personalities who become politicians (and vice versa) Hopi Sen has a rather marvellous story from Louisiana about entertainment and politics.

It seems that the incumbent Republican senator David Vitter has tested the patience of some in his party enough having been involved in two prostitution scandals but refusing to quit.

So they've advertised on craigslist for a porn star to run against him in the primary. Of course the adult entertainer must be a registered Republican. You can insert your own jokes here.

As a stunt to embarrass Vitter it's great.

So why can't we see more of it over here? Rather than Sir Anthony Meyer types, if you're a local or national party and sick of your incumbent then get on to eBay and hire yourself a decent stalking horse.

Increasing the 150 club

Just had this posted up on the Total Politics local government blog (although it was written a few days ago and so doesn't mention Trevor Phillips intervention on this issue or some of the rebuttals such as this from the Guardian's Michael White).

Obama might have shown than a black man can become president but over here the most basic rungs of local government appear to be out of reach to most minority ethnic candidates.

Harriet Harman this week pointed out that only around 150 out of 19,000 councillors across England are minority ethnic women. This is actually a fall on two years ago when the figure stood at 164.

It means minority ethnic women make up less than one per cent of all local authority representatives.

Sure there are all sorts of reasons for this beyond racism (women of all backgrounds often have to cope with the demands of caring for home, family and career while men concentrate on the latter).

But it's still a pathetic figure and it doesn't bode well if we are looking for a minority ethnic woman to fill senior local government or central government roles.