I have repeatedly said that Peter Oborne is the best journalist working in the UK today.
Left and right are issues of economics over which well-meaning people can legitimately have a discussion and disagreement. A much more fundamental political divide is between those who serve the establishment of the super-rich who are mulcting the people, and those who oppose them. That is a question of right and wrong, not of the best way to achieve the general good. And on that vital measure, Oborne is firmly on the side of the angels.
Oborne has an important article in the Telegraph here on Cage Prisoners. I would only add to this that I have spoken at fund-raising events for Cage before, and will without hesitation do so again.
Hideous comments below as usual – if they are a reflection of the country as a whole, it is so scary and depressing.
Agree re. Oborne, and that’s a useful distinction between economic and what can perhaps be called class divisions. Certainly looks as if the fix is in against Cage, and it has the hallmarks of some kind of old-boy-network fix. Eton? Oxford? Mitteleuropa?
I would say the ‘only’ journalist working in the UK and he is not afraid to take on the Israel lobby in parliament. The rest are stenographers to power.
We are living in a fascist state. Just look at what is going on today in the HoC and there are very few MPs in attendance considering the importance of the ‘debate’.
@ Mary, Yes we do live in a fascist state. I would say 12 of the following ‘Fourteen Defining Characteristics Of Fascism’ apply in the UK: http://www.rense.com/general37/char.htm I’d say only 5. and 14. don’t apply, but still not so sure about no. 14 as there is definitely manipulation of the media.
It would have to be a secretive court wouldn’t it. Strange timing. Of course we must never know any truths.
Secretive Court Probes GCHQ’s Snooping Powers
The UK’s most secretive court is hearing a challenge into the legality of alleged mass-surveillance conducted by GCHQ.
4:02pm UK, Monday 14 July 2014
It’s an odd sort of investigation, one about facts that have been agreed upon only for the purposes of the investigation.
The Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT), the UK’s most secretive court, is hearing a challenge from various organisations and charities, including Liberty, Privacy International and Amnesty International, into the legality of mass-surveillance conducted by GCHQ.
/..
http://news.sky.com/story/1300824/secretive-court-probes-gchqs-snooping-powers
The IPT members. Remember to keep all you hear under your wigs ladies and gentlemen.
http://www.ipt-uk.com/sections.asp?sectionID=22&chapter=2&type=top
I agree, Oborne is a very good journalist. More importantly he is incorruptible. He was there at the recent “Putting Birmingham Schoolkids first” assembly as an observer, and he was encouraged to speak. After the event I made a special effort to thank him for his honest journalism in a what I consider to be a tainted industry.
Good of you to post this link Craig and show your support for Cage, which, together with Reprieve is doing tremendous work in areas where others fear to tread.
I fully endorse what Craig and others have said about Peter Oborne. The Telegraph deserves credit for having him as a regular columnist, especially as his views often are far from the paper’s own editorial positions.
AnnaP’s link to the 14 defining characteristics of Fascism is useful as long as each characteristic is treated as being on a sliding scale. Yes, on a scale of zero to 10 the UK does score more than zero on most, but on most it obviously scores less than China, Equatorial Guinea or Syria. I expect there would be rather a wide range of markings for the UK by contributors here, never mind the markings for other countries such as Germany, Argentina, the Netherlands, Brazil, the USA, Russia and Algeria, just to take a few World Cup finalists.
Re fascism, agree with Iain Orr. It’s a question of degree. The state tends towards absolute fascism as the exceptions to the rules disappear in it. And I’d demur at:
9.Corporate Power is Protected – The industrial and business aristocracy of a fascist nation often are the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a mutually beneficial business/government relationship and power elite.
10. Labor Power is Suppressed – Because the organizing power of labor is the only real threat to a fascist government, labor unions are either eliminated entirely, or are severely suppressed.
The manipulation of government by corporate power is pretty well universal, and the suppression of labour power and rights is a corollary of unconstrained corporate power wherever it occurs. Which is not to say that fascism doesn’t favour and closely incorporate big business. There is a temptation to redefine the market – motivated state as fascist, but I’d argue that its evolution from a nominal democracy is pretty well inevitable, and defines it. Greed is not confined to fascists, and fascism is not its only manifestation.
How about this one I heard on fascism and its effect?
Fascism – the subjugation of an individual’s will and freedom by an overweening state. Humanity withers, freedom of speech is stifled and the soul dies. Self preservation then becomes the dominant drive.
a police-state fascist ecosystem would feature heavy censorship,
at present this start-up US academic project only shows a handful of UK censored items, admittedly the UK related items are 67% of the EU totals, This piece of user-generated-content welcomes any further input and/or corrections..
Merrill-Lynch, Daniels-Dwyer, Post-it notes?, Sim, Baxendale-Walker, Osborne (yes, relation!), Sayer, Silvino are some of the random names chosen by the researcher, Afaq Tariq.
YouKnowMyName the “heavy censorship” is subtle and creeping to make it hardly discernable, like the extra weight you put on. They hope you will fail to notice. Mostly it is achieved through what we are not told. The majority is content to watch and listen to stories about how fat we are getting in the west rather than this.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=811918985545432&set=a.175192485884755.43904.133880733349264&type=1&theater
http://therightstuff.biz/2014/01/22/fascism-no-one-a-response-to-dr-laurence-britt/
Rule No.1
Not looking good for Scotland.
http://img.thesun.co.uk/aidemitlum/archive/01991/Scottish_flags__1991646a.jpg
There is something very rotten in the state of Denmark.
15 July 2014
Metropolitan Police officer was moved ‘from child abuse inquiry’
By Laura Kuenssberg
BBC Newsnight
Clive Driscoll: “I passed the names on that had been passed to me as potential suspects”
A former senior Metropolitan Police officer says he was moved from his post when he revealed plans to investigate politicians over child abuse claims.
Clive Driscoll says his inquiry into 1980s London children’s homes was “all too uncomfortable to a lot of people”.
He also believes there were “disruption tactics” within the Met during his inquiry that led to the conviction of two of Stephen Lawrence’s killers.
The Met defended its murder inquiry and said Lambeth investigations continued.
/..
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-28316874
Newsnight – http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04b2s08 At the start
I read somewhere someone saying something about this DRIP law the govt has just rushed through that’s supposed to catch terrorists and paedophiles, that they themselves seem to run and cover for most of the terrorists and paedophiles, so why don’t they just tell them to stoppit and stop bugging us.
Made sense.
Much more sense than the twisted lying crap coming from Cameron, the BBC etc.
The biggest threat to the security of all of us comes directly from the govt, its murderers, liars, rapists and buggerers.
And of course its banker friends, causing mayhem since 1694.
Chomsky has quite a good article dealing with the “national security” trope these filthy parasitic maggot liars continually trot out:
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/World/WOR-04-030714.html
British civil rights activist Moazzam Begg was refused to enter Canada at Monteal airport by the orders of Stephen Harper’s immigration minister Jason Kenney.
http://rehmat1.com/2011/10/15/kenney-blasts-ai-for-demanding-bushs-arrest/
WARNING:
The ultimate goal of GCHQ and this coalition government is total population control.
At least 80% of all audio calls, not just metadata, are recorded and stored in the UK/US, said whistleblower William Binney – that’s a ‘totalitarian mentality’ – GCHQ/NSA are able to collect 966 exabytes a year, the total of internet traffic annually.
Former Google head Eric Schmidt once argued that the entire amount of knowledge from the beginning of humankind until 2003 amount to only five exabytes.
‘http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/07/14/isps_blindsided_by_ukgovs_rushed_data_retention_and_investigation_powers_law/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/07/14/isps_blindsided_by_ukgovs_rushed_data_retention_and_investigation_powers_law/
“Not looking good for Scotland.”
Not looking good at all.
http://www.inverness-courier.co.uk/News/A-row-outside-McDonalds-Send-the-gun-squad-16072014.htm
pointing out that there are 40,000 guns in private hands across the Highlands and Islands.
Mostly for vermin control, clay pigeon shooting and stalking, locked up and legal, though there may still be the odd Home Guard .303 on the loose. Probably more than there are in London. Now compare the gun crime stats.
Trouble is police increasingly want to be Robocop or Judge Dredd.
On the DRIP vote, I have posted a list and and analysis of those who voted against the bill (33 plus the two No tellers) where it belongs, as a comment on Craig’s 11 July blog on “The Absence of Liberalism”.
Yes, Oborne’s pretty good and fair; I like some of the stuff he’s written and one or two of the pieces he’s done for T.V. I’d baulk a bit at adjectives like ‘best’ or ‘only’, though. ‘Best’ is particularly subjective. Hitchens and Pilger are pretty darned good, though the latter doesn’t seem to get much main-stream work these days. That’s hardly a reflection on him, though. I can also see that the tribalists won’t like him much, since he’s ripped into some of their favourite icons like O’Bomber and Bobby Kennedy. Hitchens’s travellogues can be very interesting (Iran a few years ago) and I have read them with the same interest that I read ‘Murder in Samarkand’. I don’t share his enthusiasm for Israel – far from it – but he thinks and writes for himself and in these days of the P.R.-man journalist, that in itself is refreshing.
Christopher Booker is also prepared to swim against the tide and beyond Britain there are Howard J Kunstler, Matt Taibbi, Nomi Prins (financial), Chris Hedges and the like. Greg Pallast (on Youtube) can be interesting too (if you don’t find the swearing tiresome, as I do).
Edward Snowden: ‘If I end up in chains in Guantánamo I can live with that’ – video interview……..http://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2014/jul/17/edward-snowden-video-interview
Like many things: sometimes I agree with Oborne but most of the time I think he is just another establishment lackey.
I prefer John Pilger.
Bert.
I agree that if Cage have done nothing illegal, they shouldn’t be harassed. If they are suspected of doing anything illegal, then they should be investigated, but not by illegal means.
But what were they doing inviting Anwar al-Awlaki to speak?