A particularly damning example of New Labour’s Stalinist approach to propaganda. The FCO website carries news of the High Court judgement in the Binyam Mohammed case. If you click on the headline, it gives you an utterly mendacious statement by Milliband attacking the High Court judgement – but nowhere on the website does it give you the High Court judgement, any kind of objective summary of the High Court judgement, or even a link to the High Court judgement.
The FCO, having just lost a court case and been heavily criticised by the High Court, on a taxpayer funded website is hiding the facts while spewing out pure propaganda that we are paying for.
Absolutely fucking disgusting.
http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/news/latest-news/?view=News&id=21042723
Luckily the new series of Thick of It starts on BBC2 on Saturday 24th Oct, at 10.10pm – just don’t expect fiction!
Craig,
Firstly happy birthday for Saturday!
Secondly, whilst I agree with your disgust at this blatant propoganda on the FO website I feel the need to ask – are you truely suprised at this?
You worked for the FO from 1984 and surely have past experience of how cynical the machinations of the FO are? Whilst this can almost be characterised as audascious, is it really that much worse than done by previous Foreign Secretarys throughout the years?
With respect,
Control.
agreed, but what course of action?
Here in Norwich the crooks have started to renovate the war memorial in front of City Hall.
For crooks, enter Carter, one of the builders fined by the SFO two weeks ago, so far they havemanaged to put two containers up, closed off the motorbike parking and shut half of the road in front of City Hall.
Not unlike the Israeli’s they also errected a fence to shut off the preying eyes of bystanders and every morning, up to now, they show us how to open a container and move real slow, all day long.
Not a single stone has been moved in two weeks, another fraud in the making, alledgedly, as they are charging 4 million to do the job, bargain, eh.
Our two newest shopping malls resemble ghost walks, the castle mall has more shops closed than open and small businesses are going bust left right and centre, the smell of a roasted, receeding recession is in the air, as the great X mas ripp off is going into reverse, ‘lelujah’
The propaganda we are receiving from the FCO is also eminating from our strawmen in the cabinet, the good news is not that good, a new local ‘community infrastructure levvy is planned and so I hear, a nuclear tax to help the French build and own our national energy sources.
This morning I went to the bank to put a cheque in and guess what, their charges have put me over the limit of my overdraft, another extra charge to come from these nice men in suits.
They need holding up/tarring/feathering,……… please fill in your personally prefered punishment, no blood please and no torturing.
Maybe then they get a little taste of their own message, their clawing back is reprehensible and unaffordable to a large part of the population.
Anybody need any stones carved? (:-)
Craig, the democracy died a long time ago as I think my story demonstrates (death threats, defamation, government cover-up).
My story could not happen in a democracy. Either my complaints would be honestly investigated, or I would be prosecuted for making false accusations. In fact the Authorities in 2 countries have done nothing except launch a huge cover-up conspiracy. Those involved in the cover-up must know who the criminals they are protecting from justice are.
I wish Mr. Mohammed all the help he can get – But a double standard is being applied. Many of those victimized by the establishment at home, and its zerzetsen tactics, would be delighted if they had just had a fraction of the help that Mr. Mohammed has had. You will excuse me if I just state that when I look at the involvement of our press and human rights industry with these issues, and know the double standard that is going on, the word that comes to my mind is – Bloody Hypocrites !
Roderick Russell
http://www.bailii.org/cgi-bin/markup.cgi?doc=/ew/cases/EWHC/Admin/2009/2549.html
Craig,
Could you give use the URL to the judgement?
Paul
Sorry for being boring. Here is a ‘crooks cam’ directed on to the meorial site and beautifull Norwich market.
drop in if you feel like it.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/norfolk/content/webcams/norwich_market_webcam.shtml
Here’s a link to the full text of the judgment:
http://www.judiciary.gov.uk/docs/judgments_guidance/mohamed-judgment5-16102009.pdf
Evidently (see para 104) the justices do not agree with the government’s position that there is a real risk that the U.S. would stop sharing intelligence with the UK if the evidence relating to Binyam Mohamed were made public.
utterly prolific today
have a look at this unfinished business of the FCO, they should go and f…themselves.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRLZjMyCbSo
And for anybody who wants to really bsee why Blair is incompetent as a diplomat, try one of his blatancies here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-KH-QtH40Y
enjoy him squirm, got this from EI
http://www.judiciary.gov.uk/judgment_guidance/judgments/mohamed210808.htm
Gordon Brown’s bank bail-out is costing £6 billion a month in interest alone. Presumably paid to banks.
This is very good news for banks and they said as much on Radio 4’s P.M. In particular they are looking forward to Gordon Brown selling off our share in the banks now that they have been re-capitalised by us the people of Britain.
What has this got to do with the Foreign Office? It is not in the UK’s interests to torture Muslims, or fight a war in Afghanistan. The bank problem and the torture/war problem are both driven by Zionism. How to undo the Gordon knot? Challenge Zionism.
Brown and Miliband have got more loop the loops than the Book of Kells. They need sympathy not criticism.
The era, which, for the sake of argument, we’ll characterise as, Western Democracy, is definitively over, and it won’t be coming back in our lifetime.
We now, more or less, live in the era of the corporative state, where business interests have become the core interests of our entire society. The state, which was never really neutral in the history of capitalism, has now clearly become the instrument and the vassal of capitalism.
This has profound implications for the future of society.
The mythology and dogma of market ideology and utopianism, is now, for various reasons, coming apart at the seams, and is being rapidly replaced by something far harsher and much more violent.
Having crushed the organised working class, it’s now the turn of the middle class. The success of the infinite growth paradigm has run its course, at least for us in the West. Future growth will be focused on other areas of the world. Most of us have become redundent to the needs of the system, and it’s leaving us behind as it moves to newer and richer pastures in China, India and Brazil.
So if we are no use as rampant consumers anymore, what are we good for? We can no longer finance our consumption by borrowing anymore, so what are we going to live on?
Society, both in the UK and the US, increasingly resembles semi-fuedal France in the decades before the revolution. Time is reversing for us, and we are in for a harsh awakning, if we ever do wake up.
Dear Craig
A while ago, you thought about chucking blogging.
Your articles speak volumes of why that would have been a bad decision.
Keep up the good work.
Yours sincerely
George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University
The current dispute between the state and the postal workers is, of course, another example of ‘new democracy’ in action. At heart it’s a conflict as important as the Thatcher government’s attack on the mineworkers union. The defeat of the miners had a profound effect on how society developed, or regressed, over the last couple of decades.
Now it’s the turn of the public sector workers to be crushed and their terms of imployment radically altered for the worse. The state is starting with the postal workers, and if they are successful they will take on the rest of the public sector, like smashing a row of peas in a pod.
This has to be done, seen from the perspective of the state, because the terms and conditions enjoyed by the public sector are deemed to be far to generous, especially now that everyone is going to have to pay off the gambling debts of the ruling elite.
The state wants to go after public sector pensions and reduce wages across the board, to do that the unions and any semblance of organised resistance, have to be crushed first.
The only real power, aside from free elections, most people ever had, was their ability to strike. Now that we have finally degenerated into a, de facto, one party state, voting has lost real meaning, and now the time has come to take away even the possibility of organising to defend ones standard of living against attack, using organised labour as a platform of resistance.
Well the whole thing stinks to high heaven, and it seems clear, that the stink has been significantly amplified, by the idiot trying to protect his war criminal mates. Talk about digging your own hole, and incriminating yourself. Anyone for obstruction of justice as a starter for 10? If he’d just let the bleedin thing go through, it would probably have been largely ignored. Now people will wan’t to know exactly what was done with his testicles.
Reading all that was quite a chore – so what exactly was this bit about
“# The closed judgment (as revised) contains findings which, in the light of the criminal investigation initiated by the Attorney General into the matter, it would be inappropriate to put into the public domain at this stage. It would receive considerable publicity and could prejudice any court proceedings brought after the conclusion of the police investigation. ”
What exactly are the police investigating? Is it surgical removal of testicles – and who’s exactly? Is this now standard interrogation technique for accusing our politicians of being complete wankers – which of course is much too polite a term.
This is so completely fucking disgusting it makes me want to puke.
The UK Government is no better than the Fucking German NAZI’s….
Or that is the distinct impression they are giving. Even Obama must be throwing up, at their complete and utter total lack of judgement if nothing else – and I’m not talking about the judges.
Tony
I’m ambiguous on the death of democracy prognosis. Maybe it is just that I think any government “news” outlet, or ministerial statement etc, should never be accorded any automatic credence. These bastards always find away to blur the truth. At best.
To take the a strand argument to its logical extreme, if we were able to trust that govie websites etc could be relied upon to give us all the information we needed, why would we need an independent news media?*
I know we deserve better from our government, but we shouldn’t expect to get it.
*Yes, I agree we only have one in theory.
Hey if enough people click on the above link to the FCO website, maybe they will notice where all the clicks are coming from and feature this blog in their little collection of Latest Blogs. Not. But, they do and will notice.
“The world will never be safe for democracy – it is a dangerous trade”, a quote from GK Chesterton responding to Woodrow Wilson hope that the world could be made safe for democracy.
Our democracy here in Britain is maimed, limping, but not quite on life support, not yet anyway.
Arranging torture, murder, benefit fraud and breaking laws in general:
If a member of the public does it then it’s an outrage. If a member of parliament does it then it’s an outrage when someone points it out.
I share your anger, Craig – keep up the good work. I couldn’t help but smile at how much Miliband’s halo has been shining recently:
> We made strenuous efforts to secure Mr Mohamed’s release
> from Guantanamo and we succeeded in ensuring his return
> to the UK in February this year.
Something tells me that’s bollocks, but hey, maybe I am being unfair! Nu Labour and its militarism is completely unravelling now, which is perhaps somewhat unfair, given that the worst of them, Blair, has buggered off leaving the rest of them looking shifty, and trying to whistle nonchalantly.
@Ed, I am presently reading Media Lens’ new book (linked), and it tackles the “independent news media” question head-on. Particularly interesting is how the media treated the Lancet estimates of deaths in Iraq versus other studies carried out using the same sampling techniques (e.g. deaths in Congo). I was aware of it a little at the time, but it is instructive to read a detailed retrospective.
Only 1/3 of the way through, but currently warmly recommended, as it their last book.
“…a taxpayer funded website is hiding the facts while spewing out pure propaganda that we are paying for.”
Maybe the BBC should sue on the grounds of demarcation !?
here is a little idea I could easily support, lets spread the message, because all that man wants on Thursday is to generate more publicity for himself and his rabid rabble.
Why not have a Thursday night off the telly…
There’s absolutely nothing on and I am organising a scrabble session with the neighbours.
Their son is a real soldiers, not some wannabe scrot with a hate message to spread, he has just been sent to Afghanistan, a young, ill equipped boy laying his life on the line for what he believes in.
I know he’s not political, yet, but when he comes back he will have grown up and care about his mates that died and put their lives on the line for utter shits such as Nick Griffin, a dangerous man on the taxpayers dole, eager to seed publicity via some second rate punditry.
All he wants is to make as much pre programme publicity as possible so many more people watch the programme than usual, hence todays scrap, that would give him another interview to boast, ‘see how many new supporters have watched because I was on’, dada dum.
Have a night out, go for chips, play house music, take the missis upstairs or go through your record collection, be really creative, whatever it is, its an improvement on this weeks question time. nevermind