Murdoch’s gutter press

I agree with Cath Elliott’s post about the right-wing Murdoch press and their conduct in this General Election (I am can just see the re-run, ‘It was the Sun wot won it’…). The power of the media with them trying to dictate and control the outcome. Now that’s scary.

And Cath reminds us of Wapping. Oh yes, Fortress Wapping. The dispute between printers and the might of the Murdoch press lasted for 1 year. I too like Cath went to Wapping. It was a steep political learning curve especially on the first anniversary in January 1987 where the police indulged in an orgy of unrelenting violence, riot cops smashing anyone and anything up (they destroyed the temporary ambulance where people were being treated further traumatised by this level of police brutality). I remember that night. Listening to the speakers on the platform while people were running from the mounted police and riot cops, it was surreal as many were taking refuge on the stage from the violence. I witnessed friends, comrades and strangers being beaten up. I was lucky… I was saved from some comradel who pushed my head forward and saved me from being whacked by the police.

The lies as well peddled by the media, protesters were demonised while the saintly police were just doing their job against these rowdy bunch of troublemakers (and that’s how the right-wing press liked to portray principled activists and trade unionists fighting for their rights).

My parents swallowed the lies as we watched the news televising a car being pushed over by protesters towards the cops, a real distortion of what really happened. I remember my parents condemning the protesters I just sat their overwhelmed by shock as I stuttered, ‘But that didn’t happen like that, they’re lying’! What really happened was the cops overturned a car pushing it towards protesters and the protesters pushed the car back to stop people being hurt. The media were economical with the truth…..

So to this day I detest Murdoch….

Remember the sensationalist and screaming headlines of The Sun at the time of the arrests especially the racist bile towards Winston Silcott. Half a front page had a headline along with a police photograph of Winston Silcott leaked to the tabloid back in early 1986.

“Face of a man in riot PC murder charge”.

As David Rose points out in his excellent bk, The Murder of PC Blakelock and the Case of the Tottenham Three (1992), “In a case where identification, or the lack of it, was certain to be a substantial issue, a more serious contempt of court could hardly be imagined’.

”The Sun had spat in the face of the legal process. It had utterly disregarded the principle that material of this kind should not be published while a case remains sub judice.”

Hillsborough…some choice headlines from The Sun

The Truth: some fans picked pockets of victims; some fans urinated on the brave cops; some fans beat up PC giving kiss of life (front page of The Sun, 19th April 1989)

POLICE were battered with beer bottles and cans as they desperately tried to save a dying man at the height of the G20 riots in London last night. (The Sun, 2nd April 2009).

Don’t let the Murdoch press control this election!

I am a product of immigration… and proud of it!

Gillian Duffy reminds me of my mother. Same kind of bigoted language with the emphasis on those ‘damned foreigners’. But the big contradiction was that my mother was a product of immigration. If similar immigration laws were in place at the time my grandparents and great-grandparents came to this country I wonder if they would’ve gained entry. My mother wouldn’t have existed if it wasn’t for immigration. And that’s what really deeply concerns me, why is immigration used a tool to oppress some of the most powerless in this society? The right-wing populist media and successive governments (Labour and Tory) have fanned the flames of racism with the emphasis placed on immigrants (nobody is illegal!)

The damn awful lies I hear (and that was part of my argument the other day) about, ‘they’re taking our jobs, homes, and benefits’… etc etc. I then react with my language dripping in sarcasm by highlighting the fact that people who come to this country for various reasons sometimes end up a racist hell-hole like Yarl’s Wood, and if that doesn’t happen then they are treated like they are at the bottom of the pile, and if a migrant gets a job which entails them wanting to join a union and get active then they are ‘rewarded’ with a trip by the UKBA! Some bloody paradise. And let’s put this damn lie out of it’s misery, asylum seekers can’t get benefits…so how can they be milking the system? But then again, it is easy to blame the powerless as a distraction from the real economic mess, indeed let’s point the finger at benefit scroungers and immigrants not at the neoliberal agenda of NL. Back to the subject of Ms Duffy…. I take David Semple’s points in his post especially as Brown decided to criticise the woman when he was safely in his car as as opposed to taking on Gillian Duffy’s arguments face to face. The hypocrisy coming from Brown especially considering many of the immigration removal centres appeared under NL! She may be a bigot then so is Brown.

And last night’s leader debate discussed the ‘hot potato’ issue of immigration, all the leaders clamouring about who can be tough. Again, that’s what worries me is what kind of society is being created? A little Englander island all narrow minded and bigoted…welcome to the future world of biometric ID Cards, language tests and caps. If you want to see how extreme anti-immigration laws can go then take a look at Arizona:

The new measure, Senate Bill 1070, instructs police across the state to stop and question anyone they “reasonably suspect” of being an undocumented immigrant. If that person cannot provide documents proving they are entitled to be in the US, they will be arrested and fined. If their immigration status cannot subsequently be confirmed, they will be swiftly deported.

Obama has described this law as ‘racial profiling’ and ‘draconian’. It certainly is! What’s ‘reasonable’? The cops, whose ideology is steeped in racism,  will stop someone they don’t like the look at based on a law that is ambiguous combined with definitions that are elasticated and stretched beyond meaning.

Is that the kind of society people want?

A tale of two fillings

I have been distracted for the past few days mainly due to a temperamental temp crown that has fallen out twice within 2 days (and the drilling felt like the dentist was embarking on an archeological dig…though they are, in my opinion, impressive sculptors of the enamel…it is a real art mastered by those teeth doctors!!). There are now bets whether this one will stay the course for the week or fall out (another dentist has, it feels like, packed the pulp of the tooth in a kind of flexible cement).

Amazingly I have been bombarded with tips regarding how to deal with a loss of a temp crown, DIY style, such as supergluing it back into place or sticking chewing gum to protect the dentin, the pulp of the tooth, from further exposure. Actually, it reminded me of Michael Moore’s film Sicko where people talked about DIY surgery and medical procedures because they couldn’t afford the treatment. And my dentists are passionate defending of the NHS though demoralised by the lack of funding NHS denistry receives.

And due to the fact that the 3 main parties want to launch measures of the austerity kind on the public sector and welfare state, who knows what kind of DIY dentistry people will be forced to take or indeed are already forced into!  The fact as well you have to pay (if you are not exempt from charges)  a standard level charge based on 3 bands. And yes, that’s what ‘hard choices’ and ‘tough decisions’ are about in the real world such as whether you can afford to pay for your treatment as opposed to 3 main party leaders bleating about the ‘tough decisions’ and ‘hard choices’ (or that fantastic euphemism known as ‘efficiency savings’….) they have to make in cutting the public sector and the welfare state to the bone. And it will be working class people will suffer the consequences of these ‘tough decisions’….

Interestingly enough, this specific tooth (yes, dear cyber readers I know you are rooting for more…bad pun…nevertheless) has caused me a wretched time and it was time to bite (oh, c’mon…) the bullet and get a crown. During the past 18 mths the tooth has had many a temp filling and usually it fell out after 6 mths. I had an emergency appointment at another out-of-hours-dentist who used the latest private up-to-date-new-invention sticky style filling on my tooth (you couldn’t get it for some gawd damn reason on the NHS). It lasted longer than other fillings, over a year, but the fact this newer and better filling was just too expensive, seemingly, for the NHS (he charged me at the NHS  Band 1 level). And that sucks! It truly bloody does. Why shouldn’t everyone get a level of care that includes better and more up-to-date medical expertise…and not just for the select few who can afford it! And don’t get me on the issue of private medical ‘care’….. as I can’t think of any polite language to express my feelings..

Defend the NHS! Universal free health care for all!

Workers’ Memorial Day

Workers' Memorial Day 2009

It is the first year that Workers’ Memorial Day has been officially recognised. I couldn’t make Workers Memorial Day march today, first time in some years. But if you want to see the reality of deaths in the workplace (and not just in the UK but globally) see Hazards magazine . Deaths in the workplace are underestimated, along with enforcing safety in the workplace (and we also have toothless legislation as well).  The bosses get away with corporate negliegence and manslaughter. It also exposes how capitalism devalues lives, how lives are expendable and that we are just cogs in a wheel who don’t matter too much. It’s bad enough already fighting the uphill struggle  for justice over a death in a workplace it will get even worse if a Tory government is elected: 

Rather than repairing a tottering regulator, the Tories appear intent on dismantling the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). A Conservative government would permit firms to opt-out from HSE inspections, with qualifying firms allowed to bar the watchdog from their premises. 

A Tory policy document, ‘Regulation in the post-bureaucratic age’,a Green Paper announced by shadow business secretary Ken Clarke at the party’s October 2009 conference, says “the powers of government inspectors will be drastically curbed” with firms allowed to arrange “their own, externally audited inspections instead.” Its aim of “taming regulators” would include “replacing regulator-run public teams of inspectors with a model closer to financial controls and audits.”

 

 Here are some figures about global deaths in the workplace.

 The UK is ranked the 30 safest nation, placing it at the mid-point of the “low risk” group. Among the 30 OECD nations, the UK is ranked at a lowly 20th – although some other major OECD nations have worse still rankings, including the USA, France, Germany, Italy and Spain. 

Asbestos-related deaths – the ticking timebomb- are increasing it is  known that at least 5,000 people a year are dying.

“Remember the dead, fight for the living”!
 

 

 

‘We need an equal society’ say charities and academics

From Richard Wilkinson, co-director of the Equality Trust

We’re asking all party leaders to assess the impact that their policies will have on income inequality and ensure that the rich, rather than the poor, shoulder the main burden of reducing the deficit.

Reducing the deficit could be the perfect opportunity to narrow the record gap between rich and poor in the UK. But if the wrong policies are chosen, inequalities will widen still further, damaging peoples lives and the social fabric of our society.’

A letter signed by charities and academics have called for the main party leaders’ commitment that tax rises and spending cuts will not hit the poorest hardest. Groups including the Child Poverty Action Group, Gingerbread, Barnardo’s, the TUC, and the Equality Trust, call on the leaders to commit to a ‘Fairness Test’ on any action needed to reduce the deficit. The test, undertaken by the government, would measure the likely impact of any policy to ensure it did not increase income inequality and, as well as better informing government decisions, would allow greater scrutiny by independent bodies.

And as we know neoliberalism is about inequality and oppression. In contrast to the rich list which the Sunday Times likes to revel in, we need to understand that these huge concentrations of financial power in the hands of private individuals who are dedicated to their own self advancement damages the whole fabric of society.

Police killed Blair Peach

“reasonably be concluded that a police officer struck the fatal blow”

So the Cass Report into the death of Blair Peach has finally been published, the contents kept secret and suppressed by the Met during the past 30-odd years has finally been made public. Cass’s finding include: Peach was almost certain to have been killed by an officer from its elite riot squad, known as the Special Patrol Group (SPG). A number of witnesses said they saw him being struck by a police officer, and the report found “there is no evidence to show he received the injury to the side of his head in any other way”;

I don’t think anyone was under the illusion that he wasn’t killed by the SPG. Though reading the edited highlights and redactions the phrase, “insufficient evidence” occurs a lot especially in relation in bringing criminal charges against any police officers.

This bit as well chilled me to the bone: He [Cass] defined Peach as a member of a “rebellious crowd” in his terms of reference, adding: “Without condoning the death I refer to Archbold 38th edition para 2528: ‘In case of riot or rebellious assembly the officers endeavouring to disperse the riot are justified in killing them at common law if the riot cannot otherwise be suppressed’.”

So that gives them license to kill??!!

This also chilled me to the bone as well: It was already known that when Cass raided lockers at the SPG headquarters he uncovered a stash of unauthorised weapons, including illegal truncheons, knives, two crowbars, a whip, a 3ft wooden stave and a lead-weighted leather stick. One officer was caught trying to hide a metal cosh, although it was not the weapon that killed Peach. Another officer was found with a collection of Nazi regalia.

It caused Cass ‘grave concern’… But you guessed it, ‘insufficient evidence’ to prosecute the cops….

The reason this report was published because of the parallels between Blair Peach and Ian Tomlinson which eventually led Met commissioner, Sir Paul Stephenson to support release of the report.

But what now? Will there any further investigations, criminal proceedings? Or with the passage of time will the state conclude… ‘insufficient evidence’?

Deborah Coles from INQUEST says this: The whole police investigation into what happened on 23 April 1979 was clearly designed as an exercise in managing the fallout from the events of that iconic day in Southall, to exonerate police violence in the face of legitimate public protest,” she said. “The echoes of that exercise sound across the decades to the events of the G20 protest and the death of Ian Tomlinson in 2009.”

The cover-ups continue today, where deaths on demonstrations and in police custody still continue along with excuse after excuse that is used to defend the actions of violent police officers where accountability and transparency do not exist.

Put simply, where’s the justice?

As said in the comments Brendan names the cops here (Btw I really like the poster!)

Rich get richer…poor get shafted

So while the next government faces brutal choices (we’ve moved on from ‘hard choices’) over cutting the public sector to the bone which includes slashing welfare benefits, freezing public sector pay, mass redundancies and job losses…and anything else they can destroy… you’ll be pleased (like I was) to discover the rich are getting richer. Yes, wealth emerges from the ashes of the recession and for the select few.

Fortunes in Britain are soaring as the world recovers from the 2008-09 crash. Stock markets are up, the banks are back from the brink and economic confidence is blossoming. As a result, the collective wealth of the 1,000 multimillionaires in the 2010 Sunday Times Rich List has climbed to £335.5 billion, up £77.265 billion on 2009. This is a 29.9% increase, easily the biggest annual rise in the 22 years of the Rich List.

The Times take of course is that it is wealthy that create value. The unstated assumptions are those of Ayn Rand’s “objectivism”. The truth is rather the opposite. These people and the system that sustains their huge accumulations distort economies and destroy lives and the environment. Britain will do a service to the rest of the world by learning to live without the super-rich. Remember the super-rich exist thanks to the super-poor.

Blog theme tune

I have been tagged by comrade Phil on blog theme tune. Now that’s a tough one. What does this blog signify? Nah, don’t answer that. Thinking of the Mission Impossible theme tune, The Avengers, intro to the Partridge Family, Space 1999, Dr Who, UFO…. yes, classic television from the 1960s and 70s…

And as a chirpy chipper kinda person I was gonna plump for Heaven Know’s I’m Miserable by The Smiths or some leftie right-on dirge from the 1980s. I think as well you are only allowed to choose one…sod that..junk those rules. So I have chosen 4 tunes.

One being the Queen is Dead by The Smiths (c’mon I have to one) as it appeals to my republican sensibilities.

Blondie’s Dreaming….well, cos I am a bit of a dreamer (both asleep and awake) and I adore Debbie Harry.

Also, as I was brought up on musicals I love Judy Garland and ‘Get Happy’ appeals to my atheism.

Finally, Sweet Charity’s ‘There Gotta Be Something Better Than This’ is, for me, a statement about being stuck in a rut and feeling isolated/alienated…fighting against it by trying to get up, get out and ‘live it’ . Also, I love the dancing….ok, tenuous I know…

I was also of thinking of including a psychologically disturbing composition from Bernard Herrmann (another favourite) but hey, leave that for another time/meme….

Looking back at Reservoir Dogs

First time I watched ‘Reservoir Dogs’ in 16 years last night. I saw it on release at the cinema in the summer of 1994. Probably what compelled to go and see it was the furore over the graphic violence  (similar reaction a couple of years later to Oliver Stone’s ‘Natural Born Killers’) from the media and right-wing moralists, arguments for banning the film because of the glorification of violence, and the talking heads bringing up the issue of real life violence imitating screen violence (though the outrage and hype meant that ‘enfant terrible’ Tarantino had arrived).

I thought it was a great film with flaws but it’s inventive and an original spin on the typical heist movie. And yes, the infamous violent and rather surreal scene of Michael Madsen aka Mr Blonde dancing to Stealers Wheel’s ‘Stuck in the Middle with You’ while attempting to torture a cop.

Quentin Tarantino being the film buff he is pays homage to many cult and iconic films and he always has damn fine soundtracks.

And I do really like the iconic intro to the film which does set the scene, Tarantino originally wanted to use the track Money by Pink Floyd but changed his mind to Little Green Bag by George Baker.

The problem is that you will have to look at Youtube yourself to see the classic intro as it is the darn ‘embedded by request’ when you try and use it on the blog.

Kynodontas (Dogtooth)

Dogtooth won the Prix Un Certain Regard at Cannes in 2009. And what can I say about the film other than it being a psychologically disturbing. It’s as if Michael Haneke has been crossed with Todd Solondz with a smattering of David Lynch and the end result is Dogtooth.

The film is set in an anonymous Greek town, 3 young siblings (we never know their names) brought up in a sprawling house with added swimming pool that acts as a fortress and a jail where the 3 of them exist never experiencing the outside world. The parents have devised an educational programme which surreally involves changing words and definitions. They think ‘zombies’ are flowers, the word ‘phone’ means salt cellar and ‘sea’ is a chair. They think the planes in the sky are toys. The 3 of them are infantilised and have never been allowed to grow up. So you witness 3 teenager/early twenty-somethings acting like children, squabbling, fighting and arguing. Very curious about the world and react like children. That’s the unnerving and disturbing aspect of the film, these young people have never been socialised nor allowed to interact with the real world. Orders are barked, their lives regimented with military precision best described as a dystopian version of the von Trapp family!

We get no explanation as to why the parents have decided to create a jail for their children. The only member of the outside world to visit is a security guard called Christina from their dad’s workplace. It is a macabre watching Christina being driven to the house blindfolded again this highlights the desire by the parents to keep their lives a secret. Christina is brought into the house to ‘service’ the sexual needs of the son. She is paid by the dad though she also starts to have an impact on the lives of the two sisters. The film exposes the sexually abusive and casual violence that exists in this family, where the parents manipulate and control their teenage/twenty something children.

They have no conception of the ‘real world’ the parents have made damn sure that nobody really knows of their existence and Christina’s influence is quickly quelled violently. The elder sibling discovers film and starts to mimic (realistic and impressive are the scenes where she acts out what she has seen along with dialogue from the film) what she sees and hears, which counterposes the teachings of the parents. You kinda know that this abusive and controlling existence will collapse at some point. The parents tell them that they will be able to leave once their ‘dogtooth’ falls out and unknown to them (but to us) they have been sold a lie. But the siblings are desperate to escape their surroundings.

I found the film odd yet compelling. Kinda wondered what the underlying issues are central to the theme and think that control, combined with wealth and class, and the strange desire for prefect families are at the heart where no outside communication or engagement exists. Where life is based on fear, coercion and containment and the fact that these young siblings are tabula rasa.