I equate spinning with lying as you cannot do one without the other. Some famous spinners in history,
“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”
Our task, your task... is to try to connect the dots before something happens. People say, 'Well, where's the smoking gun?' Well, we don't want to see a smoking gun from a weapon of mass destruction.
Donald Rumsfeld
There are a lot of people who lie and get away with it, and that's just a fact.
Donald Rumsfeld
The Unknown
As we know,
There are known knowns.
There are things we know we know.
We also know
There are known unknowns.
That is to say
We know there are some things
We do not know.
But there are also unknown unknowns,
The ones we don't know
We don't know.
—Feb. 12, 2002, Department of Defense news briefing.......Rumsfeld Classic.
Pity he has a Scottish first name.
FROM TODAYS MEDIAWATCH.
Mediawatch2009@aol.com
The big question surely is:
Their remarks were echoed by Conservative leader David Cameron, who said only a change in government would transform the culture at the heart of No 10.
Mr Field, who was social security minister under Tony Blair, launched the most scathing attack, saying:
"There are two sides to the Prime Minister's character – there is this very civilised, generous, informed side, and there is this other side which is about controlling people.
"And I find it amazing that somebody who puts so much emphasis on controlling people was not more in control of Downing Street."
Damian McBride, Mr Brown's former special adviser, resigned on Saturday. Mr Field said: "Mr McBride thought he was doing his master's bidding."
The senior back-bencher also said MPs had nothing to do as the government had no legislative programme to speak of. He asked how, ahead of a general election, "you can smear your opponents rather than put all your effort going into reviewing what we have done in last 12 years".
Meanwhile, Mr Milburn, a former health secretary, said he felt "sick to his stomach" about the contents of the e-mails. "It is morally unacceptable and it has inflicted huge damage on the Labour Party and the Labour government," he said.
"In politics, we are all used to cut and thrust … (but] what has happened really does plumb new depths."
Former transport secretary Mr Byers said it was "time for Mr Brown to demonstrate that he is focused on developing and implementing policies that will meet the challenges that face us".
He went on: "To dismiss the incident as juvenile, which was the first reaction of Downing Street, totally missed the point and failed to recognise the extent of the hurt and offence caused."
Mr McBride, a close adviser to the Prime Minister for almost a decade, resigned after admitting that he had sent "juvenile and inappropriate" e-mails from his Downing Street account to former Labour spin doctor Derek Draper.
In the private messages, the two men discussed setting up an "attack blog" called Red Rag that would spread unfounded gossip about senior Conservative figures and their families. The Prime Minister wrote to all those smeared in the e-mails, expressing "deep regret" over the affair. Mr Brown accepts all the suggested gossip was untrue.
He also promised to tighten the rules for special advisers but failed to offer the sort of personal apology those involved felt they were owed.
The intervention by three former ministers, who have all fallen out with the Prime Minister over the past decade, signals a breaking of the ceasefire between Labour's two "tribes".
It also underlines the tensions behind the scenes between them and Mr Brown. Another ex-minister, Charles Clarke, a former home secretary, was first to call for Mr McBride to go.
There has been widespread Labour dismay over the e-mails, with back-benchers lamenting that they had brought the whole party into disrepute.
Meanwhile, Downing Street again tried to draw a line under the scandal yesterday.
Mr Brown's official spokesman said the Prime Minister had been "furious" when he found out about the breaking story last Friday, and added that Mr McBride had received no severance pay.
"There is a huge amount of frustration that the way this story has panned out has made it more difficult for the government to explain the action it is taking to deal with the big issues facing the country," the spokesman said.
"We had the G20 meeting just a few weeks ago, we have an important Budget coming up next week, and that is the focus of the Prime Minister's attention."
Mr Cameron intensified the pressure on Mr Brown by suggesting he was personally caught up in the e-mails scandal.
"What this whole episode demonstrates is the need for change," the Tory leader said. "Not change in the special advisers' code but change in the culture at No10 Downing Street.
"I do not think we will get a change in culture until we get a change in leadership, and we won't get a change in leadership until we get a change of government."
Angus MacNeil, the SNP's Scotland Office spokesman, said:
"Gordon Brown needs to find his much trumpeted moral compass, issue an unreserved apology and draw a line under Downing Street's dirty politics."
But Ed Miliband, the Energy and Climate Change Secretary, jumped to the Prime Minister's defence, denying that he had a "dark side" and insisting that he came into politics for the "right reasons".
"He's not someone who thinks that the politics of innuendo is how you win elections," he said.
He also said he had never seen any sign of Mr McBride being a mastermind of dirty tricks when he worked with the former special adviser at the Treasury.
• SENIOR Conservatives are pushing for an inquiry by the country's top civil servant into the "smeargate" affair.
Sir Gus O'Donnell, the Cabinet Secretary who is head of the civil service, was yesterday considering calls for an investigation.
Francis Maude, the shadow Cabinet minister, has also demanded to know whether any ministers knew about the plans for an attack blog from Labour called Red Rag.
Tom Watson, the Cabinet Office minister and prolific Labour blogger, last night issued a statement through lawyers insisting that he had no knowledge or involvement about the proposal.
15 Apr 2009
As runs of form go, the Labour government is having "a Hamilton Accies".
Look at these recent results:
Chancellor Alistair Darling's expenses on his FOUR homes.
The outrage of Speaker Michael Martin and wife flying club class to Dubai on our money - and the even bigger outrage of someone letting them back into the UK.
And the husband of Jacqui Smith having to endure the shame of publicly admitting to reporters that, yes, he is indeed the husband of Jacqui Smith.
All very humiliating.
This weekend, a new low for Gordon Brown. Newspapers found emails from the Downing Street account of Brown's now ex-spin doctor Damian McBride to New Labour online lackey Derek Draper, with nasty stories about George Osborne and David Cameron. McBride quit.
Normally, when New Labour high heedyins are on the internet, they're hawking peerages on eBay. This was different.
Osborne and Cameron are two powderpuffs who should crumble in the face of any kind of scrutiny.
But by training the attack dogs on the Oppposition, reporters have stopped asking questions about the Opposition and are asking why Brown keeps attack dogs.
McBride, known as "Mad Dog" to his friends (his enemies are ruder) is not the kind of company a Prime Minister should be keeping. Hardie, Attlee, Bevan didn't have spin doctors...they all managed.
Surely Brown can, too.
Damian McBride, at 34, is possibly the oldest looking person for his age since Lady Gaga was listed in the papers as 23. He's a spin doctor who should come with a government health warning. A spin doctor, who IS a government health warning. Indeed, his antics suggest a government in very poor health. On its last legs.
This Friday sees the release of In the Loop, the brilliant film version of Armando Iannucci's political spin-com The Thick of It.
In the Loop's two Scottish spin docs, Malcolm Tucker (sample comment: "Don't you ever call me a bully. I'm so, so much worse than that.") and Jamie McDonald ("It's a pub fight - Motherwell rules!") are scary because they remind us of New Labour's recent history of odious spin doctors.
In fact, they seem preferable for those of us who remember Alastair Campbell's disgusting bellowing on C4 News just days before the death of Dr David Kelly.
With McBride falling on a sword he was all too keen to wield, you hope this resignation, plus the film, might mean the last days of the New Labour spin monster.
That's why you have to laugh at Malcolm Tucker and Co. If you thought there were more Damian McBrides to come, you'd cry.
The London Press Moves In
Evening Standard (West End Final)
14 Apr 2009
Evening Standard (First Edition)
14 Apr 2009
THE Downing Street dirty tricks row deepened into a full-scale attack on Gordon Brown’s leadership this afternoon.
In a searing critique, former minister Frank Field said unfounded smears contained in emails written by a Brown aide had exposed a lack of moral leadership and policy substance under the Prime Minister.
Labour, he said, should be considering its policies for the recession. “Instead of this debate, we see the energy at the heart of No 10 going into trying to smear the opposition.
“It is this contrast between how we should be behaving and what has been exposed, that is the real killer.” Widening his attack, Mr Field said: “There is a wish among all sections of the Labour Party for the Government to start governing. We wouldn’t care too much whether the ideas were Blairite or non-Blairite, as long as we could give the impression of supporting a government that was using the next year to mark out why we should stay in office.”
Two other former Labour ministers Stephen Byers and Alan Milburn joined in the attack today.
Mr Field said supporters were “bewildered” by the “corruption”. And he went on: “Week after week MPs have been turning up but with almost no serious work to do. There is the odd Bill to be sure. But there is no legislative programme to speak of. Even the debates that are put on to fill in time are ones that deny
Great British Freedom
The Independent
15 Apr 2009
'Big Brother' state comes under fire as European Commission launches inquiry into secret surveillance of web users
Wednesday, 15 April 2009
The legal action is being brought over the use of controversial behavioural advertising services which were tested on BT's internet customers without their consent.
Yesterday, the EU said it wanted "clear consent" from internet users that their private data was being used to gather commercial information about their web shopping habits.
Under the programme, the UK-listed company Phorm has developed technology that allows internet service providers (ISPs) to track what their users are doing online. ISPs can then sell that information to media companies and advertisers, who can use it to place more relevant advertisements on websites the user subsequently visits. The EU has accused Britain of turning a blind eye to the growth in this kind of internet marketing.
Yesterday, the EU telecoms commissioner, Viviane Reding, said: "I call on the UK authorities to change their national laws and ensure that national authorities are duly empowered and have proper sanctions at their disposal to enforce EU legislation."
Last year, BT tested the Phorm technology to track its customer's internet searches without their knowledge, provoking complaints from users and from UK members of the European Parliament.
Because it is considered lawful to intercept data when there is "reasonable grounds for believing" there is consent, the issue falls outside the UK's wiretapping laws. Linda Weatherhead of Consumer Focus said: "While phone tapping is clearly illegal and unacceptable, it seems that spying on the digital communications and activity is not." Richard Clayton, treasurer of the Foundation for Information Policy Research (FIPR) – which described Phorm as "illegal" last year – said: "The laws are fit for purpose, but it seems that Whitehall have misunderstood their own laws." He said that users at both ends need to have consented to the system, which is not the case here and so contravenes the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act from 2000.
The Commission is also critical of the Government's implementation of the European electronic privacy and personal data protection rules. They state that EU countries must ensure the confidentiality of communications by banning the interception and surveillance of internet users without their consent.
Ms Reding said: "We have been following the Phorm case for some time and have concluded that there are problems in the way the UK has implemented parts of EU rules on the confidentially of communications."
She added that the enforcement of the laws "should allow the UK to respond more vigorously to new challenges of e-privacy and personal data protection such as those that have arisen in the Phorm case. It should also help reassure UK consumers about their privacy and data protection while surfing the internet."
The EU's intervention was welcomed by privacy campaigners. The Open Rights Group recently wrote to some of the world's biggest websites including Google, Yahoo and Facebook, asking them to block Phorm. Its executive director, Jim Killock, said yesterday: "There are big legal questions surrounding BT's use of Phorm, so we welcome the EU taking the Government to task. It's a pity our own Government haven't had more backbone and stood up for their voters' rights."
The UK has two months to reply to the EC's formal notification. Should no satisfactory response be made, the Commission could issue a reasoned opinion, before the case moves to the European Court of Justice.
Last year the Information Commissioner's Office passed the Phorm technology as legal.
Advertisers are particularly keen on this form of marketing as the more targeted it becomes, the more value for money they feel the advert offers. One consultant said: "It is basically a very fine line between advertising that helps people and those that intrude."
Phorm boss Kent Ertugrul has been increasingly forced on to the back foot over the issue of privacy, fending off a series of questions over the issue last week at a "town hall" meeting. He said that the technology does not store information to identify a user; that all participants can opt out of it; and that it complies with data protection and privacy laws. The group added yesterday that the Commission's statement did not contradict that its technology was fully compliant with UK legislation and EU directives.
It is illegal in the UK to unlawfully intercept communications, but this is limited to "intentional" interception, the EC said yesterday. This is also considered lawful when those intercepting have "reasonable grounds for believing" consent has been given. There is no independent national supervisory authority dealing with such cases.
Several bodies including FIPR have blamed the Government and the UK regulators for playing "pass the parcel" with the issue, which has left it hanging with no one wanting to enforce it.
The Commission received its first complaints over the issue in April last year following BT's trial. Other providers including Virgin and Carphone Warehouse's TalkTalk are also interested.
Users complained to the UK data protection authority and the police. The Commission wrote to the UK authorities in July and upon receiving the answers "has concerns that there are structural problems in the way the UK has implemented EU rules".
Simon Davis, director of Privacy International, believes the row has erupted more over "sovereignty than substance. It is almost entirely political".
'Big Brother' Britain: Private data under threat
* The mobile calls, emails and website visits of every person in Britain will be stored for a year under sweeping new powers which came into force this month. The new powers will for the first time place a legal duty on internet providers to store private data.
* Privacy campaigners warn that all this information could be used by the Government to create a giant "Big Brother" super-database containing a map of everyone's private life. The Home Office is expected shortly to publish plans for the storage of data which it says will be invaluable in the fight against crime.
* Facebook, one of the world's biggest internet sites, faced a privacy backlash when thousands of members signed a petition calling on the website to remove an advertising programme called Beacon, which can be used to track the spending habits of its users' visits to other websites.
* Google also courted controversy this year when it launched Street View, the controversial 3D mapping feature, in the UK. In one village householders stopped a Google vehicle from taking pictures of their street.
As Craig Murry said in his blog ”Gordon Brown's attempt to spin out of the smeargate scandal by writing a letter to Gus O'Donnell to demand that writing smears is specifically excluded in the Special Advisers' Code of Conduct, is ludicrous even by New Labour standards”. Spot on Craig.
They have all been at it OFFICIALLY for years, as I point out in my blog http://www.scottishindependenceconvention.com about the revelation that both Labour and Tory governments colluded for years, to smear and discredit the SNP. And are the Media up in arms about it? Not a word. BTW you can get the full “Diomhair”(Secret) story from the links on my blog to Youtube. Go to it and stir things up. Its time our Scottish Media were shown up for the lily livered bunch that they are.
David McCann
| |
Anne McLaughlin indygalineurope.blogspot.com (Updated 3rd April)
Anne McLaughlin http://indygalpics.blogspot.com/
BellgroveBelle: http://www.bellgrovebelle.blogspot.com (Updated regularly))
Michael Settle http://www.theherald.co.uk/politics/politicalblogs
http://www.christianjones.net/
http://the-universality-of-cheese.blogspot.com/
http://ayewecan.blogspot.com
2 comments:
Great post KW. I never read the Record these days. I know that's naughty as I should keep informed but the level of journalism is too much to swallow in the morning.
Must go and rejoin mediawatch. They used to email me regularly and it stopped. Do you think it's because I'm not a member of the SNP and just a supporter who puts her money where she thinks fit?
I hope you contacted Mediawatch. You do not have to be an SNP member, and some of their journals are pretty good if you just want a quick news brief in the morning.
They have usefull links also.
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