The outpouring of evidence about Jimmy Savile shows that scores of people working in the BBC, Hospitals, childrens’ homes and even the police knew – not had heard gossip, really knew – about Savile’s paedophilia, but did not blow the whistle.
To me this correlates with the fact that scores of people in the FCO, MI6, MI5, Cabinet Office and other government agencies knew about extraordinary rendition, but did not blow – indeed still have have not blown – the whistle.
Savile had come to be seen as a big and peculiarly “Establishment” figure. The extreme rarity of whistleblowing in society is a strange phenomenon it is worth taking a few minutes to consider. Why did none of those now coming forward with their stories – not the victims, but the eye-witnesses – come forward at the time? Fear is probably the main answer, in particular fear of losing your job if you rock the boat. One problem in modern society is that people’s job is too central to their identity – most people when asked who they are, will reply what work they do. It is not just the need to earn money; your social status and personal relationships are often dependent on your position at work. To lose your job, or to become a social pariah within the organisation where you work, is too much for most people to contemplate.
That is why BBC producers who knew about Savile, saw him at it, did not blow the whistle on one of the Corporation’s biggest stars. It is why so few whistleblowers spontaneously come forward who have seen corruption in local government planning departments or defence procurement, to give an example. For most white collar crime there are people who are not directly involved bu see it and keep quiet. There is also the deterrent of self-incrimination – after a time silence becomes complicity.
In my own case of blowing the whistle on the international torture network, I know for certain that many other Ambassadors and diplomats knew just what was happening, most of them didn’t like it, but nobody but me blew the whistle. One Ambassador sent me a cheery “Rather you than me!” Some were actively complicit by being involved in rendition arrangements, others passively by not trying to stop it. This is why the Gibsom Inquiry into Complicity in Torture was shelved – it could not have proceeded without revealing that scores, possibly hundreds, are guilty, many of them still high-ranking civil servants. It was to protect them and the institutions in which they work, rather than to protect the high profile war criminals like Blair, Straw and Campbell, that the Establishment closes ranks. I always knew I would never be allowed to testify before an Inquiry into Complicity in Torture.
Whistleblowers are not just thrown out of their jobs. They almost never find new employment, as the one quality every employer values above any other quality is loyalty to the employer, right or wrong. Nobody wants a “disloyal” employee, whatever their motives. And if your whistleblowing involves the world of war and spying, they will try to set you up on false charges, like me, like Julian Assange, and not just sack you but destroy you.
Whistleblowers are rare because it is a near suicidal vocation, and everyone else is too scared to help. The Savile case teaches us far more important lessons than the prurient detail of a lurid life. Think about it.
What I meant to say Nuid that they were an English family from Liverpool. My grandfather had gone over to Limerick to work. He took the family back to England in 1921 at the height of the Black and Tan atrocities against the Irish people which he abhored. My father was 15 at the time and he told us of some of the terrible things that went on. Those experiences of injustice formed his radical thinking I suppose.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_and_Tans
We also heard a lot about the beautiful country there and in the Clare mountains? and about the sound of the corncrakes which he used to hear in the meadows.
Jives,
It is a dark world yet fear can be traced to deliberate confusion.
Fear mutates to betrayal and causes depression as Gary tells us here, however, maybe it is better to have ‘cold feet’ than a cold heart.
BTW; HST fans may enjoy the documentary ‘Gonzo’ wherein interviews of George McGovern shine.
It’s on Netflix, so….cost effective.
I hope to banish some precursors to fear in a section of my site I have called ‘subterrestrial’ that will contain a pile of stuff mostly subliminal although I have to reveal some work involving the emerald tablets and the connection between ulterior man and the unusual; this to prepare for temporal enlightenment.
“anyone who wants to be a politician should be banned for life from being one”.
It may be worse than you think. Having been very politically active at one point in my life I saw many who I knew well move through the party ranks and become elected to council or parliament. There were many around them who were more able and better suited (IMO) but they didn’t want to do it – they already had careers, or doubted their own competence and suitability. Based on this experience I’d say the single most important ingredient for success in a political career is a seriously defective faculty for self-criticism.
A friend who deals with ADHD sufferers tells me that at one time society might have needed such people – they were the risk-takers, the nutters, the adrenalin junkies – the eedjits happy to run after a mammoth armed with a sharp stick. Career politicians may be of the same stripe: ambition far outstripping ability. Dunning-Kruger springs to mind.
I had a look at the much publicised ITV documentary on Jimmy Savile earlier and I can’t say I was impressed by their lax standards of investigative journalism.
Several of the interviewees were so heavily disguised and stage managed that the whole thing could have been completely made up. It dealt more with speculation and association and not with hard facts. An emotional response by Rant-zen and a “considered legal opinion” by a slimy barrister (who apparently deals in both prosecution and defence and who presumably was being paid for it by ITV) was thrown into the mix to add gravitas. I am not so convinced now after seeing this. Where is the hard evidence and not just testimony by people with axes to grind.
And in other news:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2220780/Alps-shooting-Schoolgirl-orphaned-massacre-standing-father-killer-struck.html
Saturday – Wrath of the Chimera in London – at 2:21 we see the actual picture.
‘Pushing’ to the ground is not noted in the hand-book and must be stopped – you *are* an ‘inspector’ because you have the intelligence to prevent this by education.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hml4_zppOrM
Ben Franklin, a safe play on 9/11, the odious topic of yesteryear, I would say. What about the whistleblowers? Sometimes confused with the prickblowers of the sir james entourage. I suppose that in your opinion, Clark has to be right at least 50% of his valuable time. Fine game but no goals.
Vronksy,
As you know my son was diagnosed with ADHD – politicians have a fire in the belly – not in the head!
“Tony Blair as the next EU president, it’s not so far-fetched
12 September 2012”
http://www.publicserviceeurope.com/editor-blog/175/tony-blair-as-the-next-eu-president-its-not-so-far-fetched#comment
Seems like a fortean gamer is playing with Mark’s nick above.
Vronsky, i was thinking the other day how personality should be removed from political work. That political discussions should be translated to strip them of rheotoric and accent and irrelevant charms, the opposite of what we see in parliment. And then recalled a documentary on translating work in the EU parliment and how members often prefer to listen to the translations even when they are fluent in the sources language. A good thing so very far removed from what our politicians specialise in, which is a detatched barricade of summary posturing.
Karel – odious to the American people? Loyalty is to life – not to a nation and yesteryear is time elapsed by less than a second..
For anyone not familiar with him, that is not Mark who is posting above, its someone gaming his nick. Admin will remove it some time.
Shame on you.
Vronsky, i was thinking the other day how personality should be removed from political work. That political discussions should be translated to strip them of rheotoric and accent and irrelevant charms, the opposite of what we see in parliment. And then recalled a documentary on translating work in the EU parliment and how members often prefer to listen to the translations even when they are fluent in the sources language. A good thing so very far removed from what our politicians specialise in, which is a detatched barricade of summary posturing.
Karel;
I am responding to Clark on one issue. I haven’t been peering through the tall weeds of your disagreement.
I will say he is quite tolerant as an administrator. Try honey instead of vinegar.
Vronsky, i was thinking the other day how personality should be removed from political work and that political discussions should be translated to strip them of rhetoric and accent and irrelevant charms.
I recall a documentary on translating work in the EU parlaiment how members often prefer to listen to the translated track even when they are fluent in the original. It is so very far removed from what our politicians specialise in, which is a detatched barricade of summary posturing.
“We are no longer accepting comments on this article.”
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2218790/Put-1-100-patients-death-list-GPs-told-Frailest-asked-choose-end-life-care.html?fb_action_ids=10151461001863976&fb_action_types=og.likes&fb_source=other_multiline&action_object_map=%7B%2210151461001863976%22%3A156286931179756%7D&action_type_map=%7B%2210151461001863976%22%3A%22og.likes%22%7D&action_ref_map=%5B%5D
“Atos, Unum, Mp’s, Norman Lamb, Democracy & Trust ?”
http://www.theoneclickgroup.co.uk/news.php?id=6491#newspost
ThatCrab/Varonsky;
How are UK election campaigns funded, public or private?.(think I know)
I have been advocating Publicly Funded Elections online for some time now.
Until you get the private money out, nothing will change. The wrong people will seek office, for the wrong reasons. It’s why we can’t have nice things.
“Shame on you.”
Sock-puppets have no shame, crab.
“SNP conference 2012: Pledge to help English police after independence”
“”Mutual aid will continue to be given by Scottish police as with supporting the Olympic Games or tackling rioting in English cities.”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-20022531
“Mutual” must mean that English police will be used in Scotland AFTER independence!!!, what kind of independence is that!!!.
What you heard about tasers Nuid was correct. This is an Israeli newspaper.
‘Estelle’ activist: We were tasered
Pro-Palestinian activist accused INF soldiers of using stun guns while seizing Gaza-bound vessel http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4294718,00.html
Those whatnots have searched the ship and have said: “found no aid on board.” Bastards. Flogged it in the market already or whereever, have they just like some of the Mavi Marmara possessions? The same has happened with other boats and ships.
This is an earlier entry on e-mail from Free Gaza medialist received yesterday:
Sat, Oct 20, 2012 at 6:33 PM
Nurit Peled-Elhanan
YOnatan Elik and Reut were taken from the Estelle boat to prison, hand cuffed and leg cuffed at 02:00 this morning. They were severely tyzered. We waited 15 hours for them and saw them for five minutes. By the order of the chief of staff they are charged with: incitement, encouraging revolt, violating the law of disengagement and lying about cargo. Otherwise they look well and are in very high spirit. Yonatan captivated all the policemen who promised to join him next year. The trial is due tomorrow. Nurit
Guest above. I will put that up in full if you don’t object. It is terrible.
Put 1 in 100 patients on death list, GPs told: Frailest to be asked to choose ‘end-of-life’ care
By Steve Doughty
PUBLISHED:23:24, 16 October 2012| UPDATED:08:03, 17 October 2012
Comments (237)
GPs have been asked to select one in every 100 of their patients to go on a list of those likely to die over the next 12 months.
The patients will be singled out for ‘end-of-life care’, potentially saving the NHS more than £1billion a year.
The listed patients may be asked to say where they would prefer to die and should be told they can draw up a ‘living will’ by which they can instruct doctors to withdraw life-saving treatment if they become incapacitated in hospital.
Doctors are told to pick out patients during routine consultations that show ¿indicators of frailty and deterioration¿
The ‘toolkit’ giving doctors and health and social workers new guidance on how to select candidates was launched by Liberal Democrat Care Minister Norman Lamb at a conference on end-of-life care.
It states that ‘approximately 1 per cent of people on a GP’s list [of all patients] will die each year – this equates to an average of 20 deaths a year. Around 70 per cent to 80 per cent of all deaths are likely to benefit from planned end-of-life care.’
It said: ‘Have your local practices identified the 1 per cent of their practice population who may be likely to die in the next year?’
Doctors are told to pick out such patients during routine consultations that show ‘indicators of frailty and deterioration’ and are told that ‘older people are a priority to consider’.
Guidelines were launched by Liberal Democrat Care Minister Norman Lamb
They are also told to use feedback from district nurses or hospital consultants, while patients in care homes should be ‘actively considered for your register’, the advice states.
Information for GPs on what happens to such patients said they would be ‘less likely to be subject to treatments of limited clinical value’.
It added that a quarter of all hospital beds are occupied by dying people and said that four in ten have no medical need to be there.
If each had one less emergency admission into hospital in their last weeks and months, that would save the NHS £1.35billion a year, the material said.
The advice tells doctors: ‘After several years of falling, the death rate is about to increase again as the baby boomers reach old age. This is a bad situation, which is going to get worse unless we act now.’
The register plan emerged amid a growing controversy over the Liverpool Care Pathway (LCP), the method adopted by hospitals with the aim of easing the last hours of those judged to be dying.
Health ministers yesterday endorsed the LCP – which can involve sedation and the withdrawal of food, fluids and life-saving treatment from patients – releasing a report which said it was ‘best practice’ and recommended by the NHS.
The Health Department’s latest report also backs the campaign for GP ‘death lists’.
Over the past week, some families have told the Daily Mail that they believe their loved ones were wrongly put on the LCP by hospitals when they were not in fact dying.
One senior NHS consultant, Professor Patrick Pullicino, has criticised it as a ‘self-fulfilling prophecy’.
But Mr Lamb told the conference yesterday that he was delighted with the latest toolkit, saying that while ‘end-of-life care in hospital is often not as good as it could be’, it should be ‘as comfortable and dignified as we can possibly make it’.
“Sock-puppets have no shame” – Most people know the experience of occasional gut wrenching shames though, dont they. I dont think its just me. /
I think it would be difficult to control political funding without other fundamental arrangements to advantage beneficial reasoning in politics and organisation. I think the purchasing of votes and policies should be blocked at every step and means, no permited even in the open. Currencies of ideas should be protected from currencies of competition over resources. Intellectual property law even turns good ideas into scarce resources. Our public interest should be completely protected from such needless limitation and distortion of possibility. If so, the crisis and destruction facing us would be easy to passionately dispell with all the modern technological means at our disposal. Instead we are fighting shadows while and raking sorting stealing tokens of power.
“Most people know the experience of occasional gut wrenching shames though, dont they”
Sure. Usually it’s internal, though (conscience), but for those who feel self-justification, it can be rationalized. That’s the other edge of the ‘anonymous’ sword. If people are outed, the shame comes from without, and punches through the crust. There’s no accountability, otherwise.
Your other point is not clear. Will you elaborate?
“GPs have been asked to select one in every 100 of their patients to go on a list of those likely to die over the next 12 months. The patients will be singled out for ‘end-of-life care’, potentially saving the NHS more than £1billion a year.”
A death bed lottery scheme selected to go towards bottomless public spending on the lavish salaries of useless and broken financial services industries.
Ben, I meant i dont think normal barriers to money influencing politics will be enough. Ultimate goals and should be considered priceless and someways and somehows protected as such. Our monetary systems are infinitely redesignable yet they are treated as immutable. Finances neednt ransom lifes neccessities, they should not be allowed to by advanced society.
(Ultimate goals and ..priorities)