PJC Journal – Original

I got round to reading
today that the Press
Gazette was patting itself on the back for its campaign to stop or slow
down the legislation to change the FOI Act by putting restrictions on requests
by way of cost.

Quite right that
the Press Gazette and the Campaign for Freedom of Information along with many
other campaigners and bloggers should have taken up the issue. 

That this has had
a success in getting Baroness Ashton to agree that the original date set for
this legislation of 19^th March to be laid before the House may now well be delayed, “It will be
for the business managers to tell me what date I’ve got and that will be in the
public domain as soon as I know it”. she is quoted as saying, so this is
obviously for technical reasons but it does not change the fact that the
legislation in the form of a Statutory Instrument will still go forward, whilst
not having to admit that they had been caught out trying to slip one through
whilst parliament was on its Easter break. 

The fact that just
11 days after the end of the public consultation before laying this before
parliament shows that a) the government does not want the debate b) that it
knows that in the lead up to a break most MP’s either wont be about or will be
disinterested and c) is determined in one way or another to stop us seeing what
they are doing.

We think that the
government are happy not to labour the point as to do so would create the
debate that they wish to avoid, and to accede to the machinations of the press
and campaigners in this instance is a better route as it knows that there is
other legislation that will effectively do a far better job of gagging any FOI
requests. 

In particular I
refer to the Private Members bill raised by David MacLean, the Tory whip, which
I raised and highlighted in my blog on 15^th
Jan and more recently on the 25^th
Jan.

David MacLean’s
bill will amend the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to exempt from its provisions the House
of Commons and House of Lords
and correspondence between Members of
Parliament and public authorities 

This bill is now
in committee, and as a Private Members bill, David MacLean can choose the committee members to sit.

The effect of
this bill will be to make every government department, agency, ngo, Pfi project
and any other group that works with government SECRET.

 

Sorry to say
Press Gazette, you missed the important one, because if the MacLean bill goes through, the only copy you will have to print is the propaganda that you are given.

 

Is the BBC, Sky News, ITN and most of the print media in the pocket
of this Labour Government.? 

We do believe
that they are, and we also believe that they are heavily influenced by the
office of Gordon Brown, for it is he who is the power house in government, not
Tony Blair.

We do not come to
this conclusion because anyone has written to us with complaints, but more by
their actions, or to be more precise, their non-actions. 

In the blogging
community we watch with incredulity at the breaking of every major sleaze
story, only to see it disappear or in most cases not reported at all.

We see the collusion between media and government. 

With the arrest
of Ruth Turner was the TV attention turned on what she had been alleged to have
done, or was it focused on how the police had got the poor girl up at 6.30.

The Newspapers
and TV were full of Labour has-beens that had been wheeled out complaining
about the 6.30 raid, and how the police would be better of looking elsewhere,
perhaps for terrorists. (lets add a little scare propaganda in here as well),
and clearly designed to put pressure on the Police to back off.  We
noticed. 

We noticed that they didn’t report that the other advisors and
the PMOS had also been interviewed, albeit in a much quieter fashion.

Much the same
when Lord Levy was re-arrested on Tuesday. 
It was the bloggers who prompted the news that other No.10 staff had
been interviewed the previous Friday.

And Gordon Brown,
where was Gordon whilst all this was going on?. 
When Ruth was arrested he was in India, when Levy was arrested he was in Scotland, and today when the news broke about
Blair’s interview he was in Ireland.   

We notice that whenever negative government news breaks,
Gordon Brown is mysteriously out of town.

We notice however, whenever the bloggers find negative Brown
or Treasury stories to break, the news is just not reported at all.  Instead there is a flood of non-news.  Stupid and irrelevant stories to fill up
airtime, like a duck that survived for 2 days in the fridge. 

We noticed when the story went big today about the Charities
Commission ordering an enquiry into the workings of the Smith Institute, the TV
companies went mute, with only a very quick glossy mention on Newsnight.

The media and
No11 must by now have come to the conclusion that they can no longer guarantee total
media coverage or manipulation as they wish, as much as they may try, and that
bloggers now wield as much power as newspapers and TV.

It was a Blogger,
Guido Fawkes who originally broke the story back in November, had been chasing
it ever since, and it was he who placed the complaint with the Charities Commission. See
his blog here, and his complaint
here. 

I like many other
bloggers followed up the story from Guido, and this mornings resultant enquiry
announcement from the Charities Commission can only be seen as the power that
bloggers have now managed to acquire, taken away from traditional media, to be
used in a responsible way.

What the press
have not done is to follow the story up. They have not asked the real questions
of Gordon Brown, were any of the Smith Institute members shown preferential
treatment in contract awards, have there been any tax irregularities in the
association between the Smith Institute and No11. has Gordon Brown been using
political office for personal ends, or using collusion with big business to
shape policy, laws and contracts.   

The independent Institute for Fiscal
Studies showed this week, that after 13 years of uninterrupted growth the
country is somehow in heavy overdraft, with little scope for further public
spending. Why are the IFS findings not being put to Brown ?. Where HAS all the money gone.?

Or is it that the
press and TV, and especially the BBC, have been warned off by the Treasury and are scared
of upsetting the gravy train. We noticed. 

We see the pattern, we see the bias, and we see the put-up stories to deflect
attention.  We watch and listen, and we
know what is NOT reported, and media manipulation by politicians is just as
repugnant to the voters as cash for peerages or political collusion with big
business. 

You may not print
it but we will.

We see the propaganda, at every opportunity to push the terrorist card, almost
every government announcement is geared to either terrorism or ID cards, and
the reporting is one sided.

In the trial of
the alleged 21/7 bombers, why for instance did Sky News only apply for
permission to reproduce the trial transcripts for the first two days, the
prosecution case.  They were obviously
not interested in the defence element. 
Is this Propaganda reporting, we think it is. 

We see today's alleged terrorist arrests are being viewed as a carefully timed
response to divert media attention away from the Downing St (both 10 and 11)
sleaze enquiries, and the emphasis in news reports is not alleged plots, innocent
until proven guilty, but the headlines screamed Al-queda, lets scare the public
propaganda.

We see the pattern that when ever there is a negative government story
breaking, the diversionary tactics begin, old news, non stories and terror
arrests.  You can only use the same
tactics so many times before everyone sees through it.

We see that the Police are also aware of what you are doing and now asking the questions publicly. Read about it here and here.

We see the pattern, we see the bias,
and we see the put-up stories to deflect attention.  We watch and listen, and we know what is NOT
reported, and media manipulation by politicians is just as repugnant to the
voters as cash for peerages or political collusion with big business.   

We see the Media of Britain currently looking like the mouthpiece of a banana republic.

 

You may not print it, but we will.

 

 

Is the BBC, Sky News, ITN and most of the print media in the pocket
of this Labour Government.? 

We do believe
that they are, and we also believe that they are heavily influenced by the
office of Gordon Brown, for it is he who is the power house in government, not
Tony Blair.

We do not come to
this conclusion because anyone has written to us with complaints, but more by
their actions, or to be more precise, their non-actions. 

In the blogging
community we watch with incredulity at the breaking of every major sleaze
story, only to see it disappear or in most cases not reported at all.

We see the collusion between media and government. 

With the arrest
of Ruth Turner was the TV attention turned on what she had been alleged to have
done, or was it focused on how the police had got the poor girl up at 6.30.

The Newspapers
and TV were full of Labour has-beens that had been wheeled out complaining
about the 6.30 raid, and how the police would be better of looking elsewhere,
perhaps for terrorists. (lets add a little scare propaganda in here as well),
and clearly designed to put pressure on the Police to back off.  We
noticed. 

We noticed that they didn’t report that the other advisors and
the PMOS had also been interviewed, albeit in a much quieter fashion.

Much the same
when Lord Levy was re-arrested on Tuesday. 
It was the bloggers who prompted the news that other No.10 staff had
been interviewed the previous Friday.

And Gordon Brown,
where was Gordon whilst all this was going on?. 
When Ruth was arrested he was in India, when Levy was arrested he was in Scotland, and today when the news broke about
Blair’s interview he was in Ireland.   

We notice that whenever negative government news breaks,
Gordon Brown is mysteriously out of town.

We notice however, whenever the bloggers find negative Brown
or Treasury stories to break, the news is just not reported at all.  Instead there is a flood of non-news.  Stupid and irrelevant stories to fill up
airtime, like a duck that survived for 2 days in the fridge. 

We noticed when the story went big today about the Charities
Commission ordering an enquiry into the workings of the Smith Institute, the TV
companies went mute, with only a very quick glossy mention on Newsnight.

The media and
No11 must by now have come to the conclusion that they can no longer guarantee total
media coverage or manipulation as they wish, as much as they may try, and that
bloggers now wield as much power as newspapers and TV.

It was a Blogger,
Guido Fawkes who originally broke the story back in November, had been chasing
it ever since, and it was he who placed the complaint with the Charities Commission. See
his blog here, and his complaint
here. 

I like many other
bloggers followed up the story from Guido, and this mornings resultant enquiry
announcement from the Charities Commission can only be seen as the power that
bloggers have now managed to acquire, taken away from traditional media, to be
used in a responsible way.

What the press
have not done is to follow the story up. They have not asked the real questions
of Gordon Brown, were any of the Smith Institute members shown preferential
treatment in contract awards, have there been any tax irregularities in the
association between the Smith Institute and No11. has Gordon Brown been using
political office for personal ends, or using collusion with big business to
shape policy, laws and contracts.   

The independent Institute for Fiscal
Studies showed this week, that after 13 years of uninterrupted growth the
country is somehow in heavy overdraft, with little scope for further public
spending. Why are the IFS findings not being put to Brown ?. Where HAS all the money gone.?

Or is it that the
press and TV, and especially the BBC, have been warned off by the Treasury and are scared
of upsetting the gravy train. We noticed. 

We see the pattern, we see the bias, and we see the put-up stories to deflect
attention.  We watch and listen, and we
know what is NOT reported, and media manipulation by politicians is just as
repugnant to the voters as cash for peerages or political collusion with big
business. 

You may not print
it but we will.

We see the propaganda, at every opportunity to push the terrorist card, almost
every government announcement is geared to either terrorism or ID cards, and
the reporting is one sided.

In the trial of
the alleged 21/7 bombers, why for instance did Sky News only apply for
permission to reproduce the trial transcripts for the first two days, the
prosecution case.  They were obviously
not interested in the defence element. 
Is this Propaganda reporting, we think it is. 

We see today's alleged terrorist arrests are being viewed as a carefully timed
response to divert media attention away from the Downing St (both 10 and 11)
sleaze enquiries, and the emphasis in news reports is not alleged plots, innocent
until proven guilty, but the headlines screamed Al-queda, lets scare the public
propaganda.

We see the pattern that when ever there is a negative government story
breaking, the diversionary tactics begin, old news, non stories and terror
arrests.  You can only use the same
tactics so many times before everyone sees through it.

We see that the Police are also aware of what you are doing and now asking the questions publicly. Read about it here and here.

We see the pattern, we see the bias,
and we see the put-up stories to deflect attention.  We watch and listen, and we know what is NOT
reported, and media manipulation by politicians is just as repugnant to the
voters as cash for peerages or political collusion with big business.   

We see the Media of Britain currently looking like the mouthpiece of a banana republic.

 

You may not print it, but we will.