News of the World in Royal Security Blunder ? - How stupid do journalists get?

A rare weekend off, for me, a reminder of what life use to be when I had a proper job, anyhow. The Sunday papers are the highlight of any weekend, the politics, scandal and best of all "Stories" that entertain and enrage.

A classic weekend for Royal "stories" most of which appear to me to be facts embellished with spin and fantasy. That section owned by Murdoch seem to have their own agenda, skewed as I see it the Times and News of the World put forward an opinion poll that suggest that most would prefer William to be the next King, however the NOTW also has poll in which the public accept that Prince Charles should be the next King, a bit like, being a queue and thinking I'd like to be next and accepting that person in front has a prior claim.

Anyway all the above is just the sort of dross you'd expect from a foreign owned press, particularly with a proprietor who likes to  involve himself and has access to top knobs whether its inviting Blair half way round the world for a chat or indeed entering through the back door to visit our current Prime minister David Cameron.

SECURITY BLUNDER?

Excuse the preamble, in todays News of the World, on page 7, I noticed an item I consider, assuming it's true, both dangerous and stupid. Lucy Panton (Crime Editor) in a piece with this headline "SECRET TRACK DEVICE ON HER" the tale starts with this "Kate has been given a piece of jewellery fitted with a secret James Bond-style tracking device which she must wear at all times to foil any kidnap attempts" It waffles on a bit more and then the Crime Editor, Lucy Panton adds this gem "The exact location of the tracker will remain a closely guarded secret" surely I'm not the only one, thinking no it wont since your first sentence identifies where the tracker will be hidden.

Either Lucy Panton's story is complete bollix or she has just given useful information to criminals and terrorists, you'd like to think that editors and even crime editors would be more responsible. 

Although I view the Royal Family as an anachronism, they are an important part our country and whether we like it or not, provide our nations head of state and therefore ought to be shown a bit more respect than Murdoch's news organisation can muster.

I view Murdoch's influence in the British media, as a danger to this countries interest, which is why I hope his plans to strengthen his grip on the media are stopped.  This country is one of the few that would allow its media to be dominated in the way Murdoch does, which might sound good and liberal but its crap at representing the national interest, assuming we still have one.

Finally its worth reminding ourselves that this country has a considerable number of supporters and sympathisers of Al-Qaida and the press have some duty to think before they print.

POLICING TODAY - shame on Kent police

CLICK HERE FOR GUARDIAN VIDEO

Policing at the Kingsnorth climate change protest last year, has already been subject of much public criticism.

The latest scandal concerns two women arrested for merely observing the conduct of officers at the climate change camp.

It is difficult having seen the film available on the Guardian website, of the arrests of Val Swain and Emily Apple, how policing here in Kent, appears to differ, little from many tin pot regimes around the world.

I can well understand how irritating it must be for police officers to have their work, scrutinised by activists who in this case are members of a protest group called Fit Watch, who, whether we like it or not have a reasonable and legitimate concern over police forward intelligence teams.

Police forward intelligence teams, are officers who are tasked with monitoring demonstrations and meetings and taking photographs and film of activists, on the off chance, one presumes that they might be terrorists or have some similar criminal intent.

Like me, you are probably, reassured that our police force are checking up on dangerous, animal rights protesters, religious extremists, fascists and Marxists.

Clearly Kent police leave no stone unturned, in their search for dangerous citizens, just how far they'll go to intrude in people's lives was highlighted earlier in the year by the BBC a radio four documentary, which told the story of magistrate Richard Knox-Johnson. Click here for BBC story

Mr. Knox-Johnston who also happens to be Chairman of Kent branch of the Campaign to Protect Rural England, had attended a public discussion prior to the Kingsnorth climate change protest and spoken about climate change throughout the world, for his troubles, his photograph was taken and number plate noted.

Allyn Thomas Assistant Chief Constable of Kent police excused intrusive surveillance as per this quotation from the BBC "Because we know people feel very strongly about these environmental concerns, there is the possibility that there will be some outburst, whether it's just unpleasantness or criminality.

"So to be on the prudent side, we do collect information in a discreet way so if there is some problem we know who to investigate," he added.

The women I mentioned earlier as being arrested at last years climate change protest have made a complaint to the Independent Police Complaints Commission, after being held in custody for four days released with no court case.

No doubt after many months the IPCC will reach a conclusion about this complaint, and maybe they'll also at some time reach a conclusion over that other extraordinary bit of policing when a police officer hit Ian Tomlinson from behind which may well have resulted in his death a minute or two later.

As we are aware, it's not possible for the Chief Constable Mr. Fuller, to comment on specific cases which is probably also true of Ann Barnes the chair of the Kent Police Authority but wouldn't it be nice if they could both make a general statement condemning police officers from abusing their authority, as might well be the case, in this instance.

Police officers are highly paid public servants, who in my experience are always professional as one would expect, however this doesn't seem to be the case at Kingsnorth, and given some of the evidence about surveillance, the chances are that some Kent copper is wasting his time, keeping tabs on me, because I happen to think I live in a democracy and write about it, its a worry!

Chief Constable Fuller, is reported as saying that the majority of residents of Kent " have been very supportive of our actions" in preventing climate protesters from interrupting power supplies, a sentiment that I wouldn't disagree with, except of course where it involves roughing up irritating protesters a couple of miles from the actual power station.

Kent police can be as tought as they like and use as much reasonable force as is necessary to protect life and property but beating up citizens is just not on, in a democracy. I feel sorry for the majority of Kent Police Officers who I'm sure are embarrassed at such events.

Guardian Story includes video of arrest

Kent police give their side of the Kingsnorth story

BBC report click here

Taking Liberties and talking rubbish

This morning I had occasion to make a telephone call to Thanet's District council regarding their waste disposal services, you see I'm one of the beneficiaries of their wheelie bins and this week was the first time, we were unable to find enough space, in the bin to put all the crap and debris from Flaig Mansions.

This prompted a chit chat with TDC, as with all calls to the council, the familiar and sinister "calls may be recorded" messages is played, which I have always found most irritating, and if I think think of it, then I generally inform them that anything I say, I consider to be copyright, and not for disclosure to a third parties without my explicit permission.

As you can imagine it was the usual frustrating telephone call, it seems Thanet Council will only remove rubbish from your wheelie bin and not take anything else, and the helpful advice was to put the rubbish in the bin and await a further two weeks for its removal, all well and good of course assuming that every fortnight I don't have an additional bag of rubbish that won't fit, which of course in the long run, at the end of the year would leave you with 26 black bin liners for crap and presumably rodents.

Our conversation eventually reached a stalemate, in which I reminded, the poor unfortunate recipient, that Thanet council have a legal obligation to remove domestic waste from my house. I finished the call with something like this, " I'm sorry I will have to terminate the call if you continue to stick to your unreasonable policy of refusing to remove household waste".

Anyway after this conversation, it got me thinking about current reports, concerning local councils having powers to mount covert operations under anti terrorism legislation, they can use to poke around in your life, as much as they like, the thing is if they cannot collect my rubbish just how would they manage running their own secret service.

If you walk round Thanet, you cannot miss all the surveillance cameras, but honestly how often have we heard of anyone actually being arrested as a result of these cameras.

As someone whose recently dealings with a local authority found them, more concerned about face saving than acknowledging my personal liberties, I have severe reservations about local councils being trusted with the amount of surveillance they have, and feel there must be circumstances when local dibdobs haven't the competence or the maturity to exercise such powers in a proper manner.

Maybe it's too late, I'm probably already under surveillance from Sessions House Maidstone. And despite the fact I occasionally vote conservative, I believe quite a few local bureaucrats have me confused with some fruit cake militant left wing looney because having an independent libertarian mind, is something they cannot comprehend.

I can just imagine council leaders, having late night discussions with their heads of security, "M, just what we do know about Flaigy?" The answer being something like this " We've managed to come up with several 100,000 words, on this website Bignews Margate, but we think that's just a cover for something far more sinister, and think his ultimate aim is to see competent democratic and efficient local services, delivered at minimum cost". "SHIT! That is dangerous!"

BBC censor Saudi News

That may well be an over reaction to their report of Fawza Falih, an illiterate innocent woman who has been convicted of witchcraft under the Saudi Arabian barbaric and clearly corrupt justice system.

Human Rights Watch have highlighted, this example of systematic brutality towards women, which unfortunately is a regular occurrence in Saudi Arabia.


Just what puzzles me, since this story revolves around religious bigotry, and the story refers to religious police, is why this BBC report doesn't think it necessary to name the religion involved. I bet it's those blimin pesky Quakers at work again.


In a world of hypocrisy cowardice and multi cultural bull it was pleasing to see the Swedish Press making a stand against, I think it was Buddhists though I'm not sure.


Click here for the BBC's story and make your own judgement.






PS Is it me or do BBC hacks quickly bury these stories

Perspective

Some things that start as enjoyable diversions can become obsessive, takeing over your life, blogging might well fall into that catergory.

Last week I found myself on holiday, sitting in the back of a bike hire shop which also doubled as an Internet Cafe, adding yet another post, now although I get bored easy, surely I could have spent more time on the beach.



I always have plenty to say, but since returning on Saturday afternoon I have made a conscious decision to put this (blogging) on the back burner (sometimes two hours a day cannot be healthy unless your earning from it).



One experience from last week, occurred when walking down a busy street in a Majorcan resort, mid-day I felt ice cold despite the heat, it took a second or two for me to realise why. I had just walked passed the bar which a couple of years previously, I'd seen the first reports on the London bombings on the telly.



This week saw the sixth anniversary of Bin Laden's, attack on America, and when you see how one man's sick and twisted vision of politics and religion, results in the death of thousands and a lasting fear for millions it makes you think.



Seeing Bin Laden's image in the media this week, it's difficult for me not to blog, apart from being a sick twisted individual, looking at him with his dyed hair & beard, you cannot help think that despite the fact, he is a cold blooded murderer, as a man he also must be complete tit.



At some point Bin Laden didn't have the depth of charactor to realise, when his beliefs past those limits where humanity was more important than obsession. I shall not be adding much to this blog if anything this week.

Protect civilians wherever they are
This is the heading given to an open letter to the Prime Minister published in today's Times endorsed by leading Islamic organisations. This is clearly a sentiment that no one can challenge.

But I have some reservations as to the motives and timing behind this, the letter opens with this sentence

''As British Muslims we urge you to do more to fight against all those who target civilians with violence, whenever and wherever that happens.''

And continues :

''It is our view that current British government policy risks putting civilians at increased risk both in the UK and abroad.

To combat terror the government has focused extensively on domestic legislation. While some of this will have an impact, the government must not ignore the role of its foreign policy.

The debacle of Iraq and now the failure to do more to secure immediate end to the attacks on civilians in the Middle East not only increases the risk to ordinary people in that region, it is also ammunition to extremist who threaten us all.

Attacking civilians is never justified. This message is a global one. We urged the Prime Minister to redouble his efforts to tackle terror and extremism and change our foreign policy to show the world that we value the lives of civilians wherever they live and whatever their religion.

Such a move would make us all safer.


So let me get this right, because of a handful of criminal terrorists, we as a nation have to change our our foreign policy, according to the signatories of this letter. How changing our foreign policy at this point in time would make us safer is beyond me and most rational people, as it is generally accepted that once you give in to one terrorist group you only encourage the next.

Along with many people I concur that our involvement and that of America has been a bloody disaster in Iraq, some how George Bush has managed to clutch disaster from the jaws of victory. The reality is that our forces are embroiled, in the middle of a nasty sectarian war, and to withdraw now, would more than likely increase the slaughter, carried out not by American or British forces but the indigenous Muslim population.

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This letter to the Prime Minister, if nothing else seems to be naive in the extreme, and does little or nothing to censure extremist terrorist elements of our own nation by which I mean whatever race, religion or non-religion.


Finally unpalatable and offensive as it is to the Muslim community, the media has given much voice to concerns of Muslims that only Muslims are being targeted as suspects, in this war against terror and Al-Qaeda it's unlikely that any of the suspects will be Buddhists. Obviously the signatories to this letter are honest decent citizens of this country making a contribution to what is a sensitive and difficult period in our history but I think the timing of and emphasis of this letter are wrong, coming two days after an almost unimaginable plot to murder hundreds of fellow British citizens has been foiled.


Now the facts as I believe are that two days ago we were informed by the Metropolitan police deputy commissioner, Paul Stephenson, "This was intended to be mass murder on an unimaginable scale." talking about the plot to bomb nine planes and murder without compunction hundreds of innocent civilians. With this in mind I think we should support our security services and concentrating on education all sections of society that we are one nation and incorporate many faiths and cultural backgrounds but wont tolerate terrorism fullstop or make any allowances for bullies.


* * this letter was apparently endorsed by many leading Muslim organisations including Muslim Council of Britain, Muslim Parliament, Muslim Women Society, Islamic Society of Britain etc

Airliner terror plot

Our security services have done well and acted in a timely fashion to thwart an horrendous cowardly attack on civilian travellers. Already concerns have been expressed in media reports about the effects on neighbourhoods where suspects have been seized and whether any consultations have been held with security services and community leaders and it just makes me wonder what sort of world our politically correct journalists live in. I hope that consulting local communities about arrests of terrorists is the last thing on the mind of our security services.

Along with past terraced groups, members of Islamic fascist groups such as Al-Qaeda merge in with communities as part of their cowardly game and I'm fairly sure that they will never apologise to their community or their faith.

As one of their potential victims purely on the basis that I travel and like to visit America I frankly don't care what our security services do to stop these people. Should I be lucky enough to travel again to America, I will most likely choose an American airline and wont give a thought to deranged evil Al-Qaeda scum.

Wrong to criticise Israel ?

I am frequently told, in chat rooms and various forums that I am anti-Semitic or the suggestion is made. Why you might ask, well, in line with many other people with the exception of our government, Israel has taken a disproportionate stand against the Lebanon, which at this point has resulted in hundreds of civilians being killed needlessly in the last few weeks.

My view is that Israel has a right to defend it itself, and without question has a right to exist, now this view, is frankly not good enough, for many Israelis for they will not allow Palestinians their right to exist as a nation, neither will they consider giving back to Palestinian families lands and homes that they have taken in the last few years.

My view of equality, does not sit well with the Israeli government or its supporters, so frequently one is slurred, and called anti-Semitic not for any religious opinion but for holding a modest sensible political view.

There is no question, that Israel has had to fight hard in the past to maintain itself, and frequently Israel as had the unequivocal support from Western nations and rightly so but times change and so should Israel.

I find it ironic, when supporters of Israel descend into cheap and offensive insults of the type I've already described, particularly as I consider why I am no Christian or any other religion for that matter and part of the reason is the knowledge of the Holocaust, and other war-crimes which unfortunately have recurred during my lifetime in Cambodia, Yugoslavia, and Rwanda.

There is no justification, for terrorism and I don't think that terrorism has ever resulted in winning an argument. It is a pity that neither party in the Middle-East have the will to pursue their aims in a strictly political way.

It is difficult to equate one situation with another but maybe Israel and the Palestinians should draw some inspiration from South Africa, here you had a minority government which eventually faced the inevitable and did a deal.

Good news for Thanet

In today's Gazette, news of a new budget airline, deals apparently been done on the Turner centre, what can you say, nothing you were not asked.

On Monday there will be a chance to hear Paul Carter consult with, us at the Theatre Royal.
Nationally Blairs flown off to consult with the great chimp, I don't think Michael Jackson ever took orders from his.

Understand that Blair will be staying the weekend with Rupert Murdoch possibly to discuss media business such as Sky Television, I just wonder if anyone has noticed how similar Sky TV is to a monopoly particularly in Thanet where we have no cable service.
Presumed Israel will continue its attacks against Lebanon, still with no criticism of any consequence.

I have no problem with Israel defending itself, but when dealing with terrorists you cannot bomb indiscriminately and against innocent civilians and peacekeeping forces. For anyone who disagrees with me, to give you some perspective, look at our recent history in Northern Ireland at no time did any sane person suggest we bomb the homes of members of IRA or UDA or any of the other terrorists gangster mobs.

Chance meeting results in accidental attack on Cat*

I’ve had a long day, starting at 5.45, then restarting at 5.55am having returned home to pick up my, mobile phone where I left it by the front door. Work, work, work, home from Corydon around 5.00pm. Then surf, surf, surf then, Mrs me reminds me its my Sisters Birthday, shop, shop, shop, its now gone 8pm, Oh forgot to give wifes best wishes, she will never know. Then down to Margate sea front Petes Fish Factory, on way out I am challenged “Man eating sausage” (reference to link on that fictional character ECR site) pardon I check my flies, look up at my interrogator, the man explains and introduces himself as Stardusted also known previously as kev, we had both worked @ Steelcase in Margate a few years ago, before we found fame and fortune on the Blogging circuit. I never miss an opportunity to talk about myself, feign interest in Skin of Stars weblog, (actually I do read this quite often), although I do not begin to understand the oonagi site (Strictly for young whippersnappers). Can see eyes glazing over, and feel my fish supper going cold, shake hands, just in time as it happens, drive away as incoming fire starts up, my brain tells me its Margates regular firework display, but my mind thinks innocent civilians/UN peacekeepers and I know Israel already has a buffer zone in Downing street but you never know, irrational as it is.

Anyhow, normally hot meal now cold, upshot is get dinner in microwave, take out, trip over our harmless cat and now Mr Puss is not talking, hope he doesn’t become alienated. If he wasn’t on an expensive diet, for medicinal reasons, I’d crack open a tin of Tuna.

Thank god I’m not Tony Blair or Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, and don’t have to worry about the bigger issues.

* Mr Puss would like to point out these are the sole views of the author and neither he or anyone else endorses this rubbish.

PS once again his photo has been disguised

Sunday morning, one line sermon

As you now know if you’re a regular, I have views on just about everything, so many in fact that I don’t get around to writing about them, so here goes one-line opinion.

Government develops Middle East backbone?
News that Kim Howells, appears to have criticised the Israeli conduct, in Lebanon, it would be nice if the rest of the government could, consider innocent civilians.


Bishop of London declares air travel as sinful
Good, I never like to see priest or nuns on my flight, it reminds me of those disaster movies and yet another reason not to go to church, mosque, temple or synagogue religious types talking profound rollocks.

Fifth 7/7 bomber pulled out day before blasts
Pity a change of heart was not accompanied by a telephone to the security services if true lets hope the authorities get hold of this person.

Party Chairman must go Roger Gale
A more “robust” and “well known” person should be chairman, I reckon the Tories need a leader of substance, with a little more to say than giving hoddies a cuddle what does Cameron think about Europe the Economy or even the Middle East not a lot, so far.

Agree with Canterbury and Whitstable MP Julian Brazier
This is a rare thing, me concurring with Mr. Brazier perhaps a one & only occasion but according to Kent on Sunday he is urging the West to intervene stop bloodshed and destruction of the Lebanon saying Israel had “bombed it back into the Dark Ages.

John Reid to introduce uniformed boarder force
What for, seems a little to late, our home office servants, haven’t got a clue who’s in this country, legal migration is limitless unlike every other major EU country, why not save money and get rid of passport control, and let me get to my luggage without the farce, of making us queue for ten minutes whilst, an un-civil servant exercises the power to make me stand in line.

Britons evacuated from Beirut

I’ve not had much chance to follow the news in detail but having watched the Six O’clock News reports, on the evacuation of British citizens from the Lebanon, Israel is blockading the port “allowing” the Royal Navy to rescue our nationals, and what are our politicians doing well nothing.

One can only assume the government is condoning Israel’s hostile actions, which whilst they may have been provoked seem to be totally disproportionate. Israel has a right to defend its self but not to bully a whole region. Our government has a duty to protect our nationals and perhaps make this clear by telling Israel to stop bombing innocent civilians. Could not the Royal Navy could have the authority to clear any Israeli blockade that interferes with humanitarian efforts.