Independent Coup 159

 in Uncategorized by

I don’t buy newspapers any more, but I strongly recommend that today everyone puts their hand in their pocket to support the Independent’s tremendous work exposing the immoral – no, evil – work of political lobbyists and the way our politicians are bought and paid for.

You can work your way through all the articles online beginning with this one, where I get a kind mention. This all follows on beautifully – and genuinely by coincidence – from my blog post of yesterday,

Allowed HTML - you can use: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

159 thoughts on “Independent Coup”

1 2 3 4 … 6
  • glenn

    Herbie: I listened to that bastard Justin Webb degenerate for some time, on his hagiographies about America before finally stepping down from “from our own correspondent”. He allowed that some had accused him of “going native” on the place, which might be fair enough, but his problem was that he couldn’t see anything wrong there. He didn’t notice that a third of the population needed food stamps to survive, that 1/6 had no health care at all, that better than 40% faced real economic difficulties, and the governing process was seriously corrupt to the significant detriment of the entire world.
    .
    Webb failed to see much past the gloss and high society, and his fawning over “insane” McCain at their last presidential election was truly awful. Isn’t a reporter supposed to do more than repeat right-wing talking points? I half expected him to break into song about how brave, mavericky and patriotic this wonderful old corrupt warmongering stooge happened to be.
    .
    You can like a place but still recognise its problems, Webb failed utterly in that respect. If he was bought off, perhaps he’s making it deliberately obvious. Regardless, it’s tough to take the BBC seriously as an independent news source when they put out puff-pieces like his and pass it off as journalism.

  • Herbie

    Glenn
    .
    To be fair, Webb isn’t an intellectual. Far from it. That’s obvious enough. The issues you’ve raised would be well beyond his capacity to perceive let alone evaluate in any serious sense.
    .
    He’s the perfect BBC employee. That’s the point. They’re all pretty much like that now.
    .
    They got rid of all the good people subsequent to Thatcher’s sacking of Director General, Milne in 1987. That was the end of the BBC as anything worth treating seriously.
    .
    It’s little more than a joke outfit today, trading on the reputation of great men and women in the 60s, 70s and early 80s who made it an immense force in critical journalism. She destroyed too the great Thames Television network which produced sometimes even better critical analysis than the BBC dared.
    .
    These things don’t happen by accident. This was a plan to denude Britain of analysis and the critical view that is so important to ensure accountabilty and better practice.
    .
    The only positive element out of all this is that the right wing goons have pushed their luck so far that there’s little left to maintain the stability that’s necessary to sustain their profits.
    .
    No one ever said they were bright.

  • Jives

    @ Herbie,
    .
    “These things don’t happen by accident. This was a plan to denude Britain of analysis and the critical view that is so important to ensure accountabilty and better practice.
    .
    The only positive element out of all this is that the right wing goons have pushed their luck so far that there’s little left to maintain the stability that’s necessary to sustain their profits.
    .
    No one ever said they were bright.”
    ,
    Spot on.
    ,

    Further reading….
    .

    http://www.bilderberg.org/mi5bbc.htm

  • David H

    Sure, the lobbyist / political influence theme brings it all together. You’ve got: Werrity in bed with Fox, Gould and Mossad;
    The banksters dictating bailouts, government support for 95% morgages and appointments of PMs in Italy and Greece;
    The tabloid media swapping political support for business favors and influence over police enquiries;
    Unsavory regimes swapping war support for trade and cash and god knows what.
    And certainly much more besides.
    All of which undermines the supposedly democratic process and makes a mockery of the cute idea that the government is serving the interests of the people.
    But the reason it’s not going to change is that they are all in it together. Left and right, there is no difference any more. Blair or Cammeron? What’s to choose?
    The old rhetoric of the left and right just perpetuates the situation as those on the right discount arguments from the left as a gut reaction and visa versa. When in fact, thinking people on both sides should be recognizing the shit that’s going down and doing something about it – like not voting for any of those slimy bastards any more.
    .
    So guys – quit some of the more outrageous loony theories. Stick to the facts of each case, clearly presented, which are damning enough already. It’s the only way to break through…

  • Brendan

    Personally I’m in favour of a vote-strike. This upsets some people, but the truth is, nobody died for our current system of neoliberal consensus; they died fighting the equivalent of their own era. Any vote just now is wasted, it’s little short of embarrassing how alike they all are, and how ignorant they all appear. So, don’t vote, for any of them. The three main neoliberal parties aren’t worth 2 minutes of my time, the rightist groups we needn’t bother even discussing, and way too many lefttist groups are infiltrated to leadership level. The games up – elections are a fraud, even when they are counted correctly. Don’t bother.
    .
    And, of course, if enough to this, the leadership cabal lose their authority. Winning an election on a 13% ballot? Do me a favour.
    .
    None of the above.

  • Dod

    Newspapers used to refer to Craig as the crazy Ambassador that goes to nightclubs.

    Good to see some increasingly respectful references in the mainstream press.

  • Komodo

    @Jives:
    True, the Torygraph has got the story. But just see how they have trashed it. Bellpot is just a con. You can get access just by asking. They’re not doing anything against the national interest. Then look at the author of the piece, Stephen Pollard:
    {http://normblog.typepad.com/normblog/2004/02/the_normblog_pr_1.html}
    .
    (You may add to his list of achievements, editor of the Jewish Chronicle. Excellent paper, supports Israel to the hilt..)
    .
    Pollard admires Melanie Phillips’ blog. Irving Kristol is one of his intellectual heroes. And If he could effect one major policy change in the governing of your country, he would introduce education vouchers, and have no state involvement in the running of education. So, hooray for private enterprise.
    .
    And he never, never tries to influence politicians himself. Perish the thought:
    http://www.thejc.com/comment-and-debate/comment/50077/why-david-cameron-and-community-got-it-so-wrong.
    .

  • Jives

    @ Komodo
    ,
    “True, the Torygraph has got the story. But just see how they have trashed it. Bellpot is just a con.”
    ,
    Yes understood.However it’s still important that the subject is being opened up and,judging by the comments of readers,Pollard’s puff-piece is back-firing spectacularly.

  • Jives

    @ Dod

    “Newspapers used to refer to Craig as the crazy Ambassador that goes to nightclubs.”
    .

    Yep,and that cowardly little game is becomingly increasingly hard for them to play or justify.It’s about time too.

  • Rose

    Half-listening about an hour ago, I caught the tail-end of someone on Today promising an interview with “a former ambassador of —–istan” so I stayed tuned until 8.35 thinking that Craig had been rehabilitated. Silly me!

  • ingo

    Ahh, Bell Pottinger… we can polish turds into finest crystal, from shite (Uzbekistan) to sparkle (clearly fake Svarovsky)in one swift move, just ask the PM, he’s our mate we know him well.

  • Komodo

    @Ingo;
    “There are more than one lobbying companies and we need to know the others.”
    .
    I’m getting the impression that big, formally constituted lobbying companies per se are just one facet of the industry. Ex- MP’s or failed candidates or people who know their way around Parliament, who have multiple directorships of their own £1 companies with maildrop addresses – just like Werritty – are also of interest. Where the current company (they often seem to be wound up before accounts are due) shares an interest with a much larger company which wants the ear of a minister, then a dig seems to be worthwhile.
    .
    The Halls of Life are bright and fair
    The Waiting-Room is full;
    And some get in through the door marked Push
    And some through the door marked Pull.
    (Winston S Churchill)

  • ingo

    I know Komodo and they are all swinging around the big dick like pole dancers.
    I can see no hope in scracthing about, seeking oinky little victories when the whole edifice is rotten and in need of scrapping.
    Nobody in the cabinet should be accessed by lobbyists and Camerons lies at the last election, whether its lobbying or the £210,- supposedly to be given as a one off to the poorest workers, its all forgotten by our Guardinista’s, old news as they call it.

  • Franz

    Herbie:
    “Oh yeah, and by the way. The Independent is owned by that ex-KGB bloke wotsisnamev.
    .
    So don’t be getting your hopes up about any new era of sweetness and light.
    .
    He’s just giving Cameron a slap for his own reasons.”
    .
    Never mind the reasons, we have to make do with the media we have. If some outlets are challenging the supine attitude of the others, that’s better than nothing. You still have to read between the lines, but at least they are offering different lines to read between.
    .
    The only TV news I watch now is Russia Today, for this reason. It questions Western policy in a way that BBC or Channel 4 News don’t dare. (E.g. I’ve never even heard it suggested on the latter that we might be in Libya for its oil.)

    Of course RT is biassed, but on international affairs less so than our news shows.

  • Azra

    Jives, and Jack looks exactly like a rat..and what a rat he is really! ( but there again I am sure rats will be offended if they knew JS is compared to them).

  • Komodo

    “Top lobbying firm Bell Pottinger prepared a presentation for Bureau undercover reporters, believing they were representatives of the Uzbekistan government seeking to promote the Uzbek cotton industry.

    The slide show on ‘Changing Perceptions of Uzbekistan’ shows how the company would run a £1m plus campaign to drown out negative content”. Here:
    http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/BellPottpresentationtoAzimovGp1.pdf
    .
    Names to watch:
    Richard Ottaway, MP
    James Arbuthnot, MP
    Rory Stewart, MP
    Peter Lilley, MP
    Andrew Rosindell, MP
    Lord Waverley
    .
    And see “Trade Engagement” for other sympathetic ears.

  • havantaclu

    Azra – if I were a rat, I’d be insulted by being compared to J Straw.

    ‘You’ve seen those kind of eyes
    Looking out from underneath a rock.’

    Poisonous, slimy, invertebrate eyes …

  • Mark Golding - Children of Iraq

    This is a fresh look at why the same powerful Jews who support Israel as a “Jewish State” do everything they can to create a fractured society in nations they live in outside of Israel. Why Zionists preach one thing for Jews and the direct opposite for Gentiles.
    .
    Mass immigration, multiculturalism and diversity makes any society vulnerable to the most organized, aggressive, ethnic people on earth. Their leaders know that that their team effort gives a huge advantage over a fractured, atomized society. Diversity is a weapon. in this video I give direct evidence of the Zionist technique for dominating a society.
    .
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJjSzXkm55o

1 2 3 4 … 6

Comments are closed.