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Archive for the ‘The Media’ Category

Although it started with a piece by by John Rentoul in the Independent on Sunday and him contemplating the shortly to open film on Margaret Thatcher starring Meryl Streep, it did set me to thinking about the whole concept of “Leadership” in a modern democratic society. http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/john-rentoul/john-rentoul-a-missed-chance-to-tell-the-truth-about-mrs-t-6283694.html

It was a good article but if anything and looking at some of the comments posted to it which seemed to be rooted in past battles long since lost by the Left, my feeling is that it is far too soon to even make a half decent attempt to judge the significance of Margaret Thatcher or indeed any other recent politician. The reality is that if you try to do so, you are not debating “facts”, just unproven myths…

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I was slightly amused by Chris Huhne giving an opinion on the motives of the “Tory Right Wing” with regard to the EU the other day but more than that, I also read a number of articles on Der Spiegel http://www.spiegel.de/international/ with regard to the current Euro Crisis which gives an interesting insight to some German thinking on the whole thing.

What struck me about these articles and however ‘reasonable in tone’ they are, the authors completely miss any basic understanding of a “British Perspective” which has been shaped over a long period of time and is largely influenced by us being “island races”. By the same token, I don’t suspect that we can easily understand Continental Europe with its contiguous land borders either that have shaped their present day views in both peace and war.

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For all the fuss over the EU, we really must concentrate on more important things like Christmas because the farce over last Friday, is emerging into a Pantomime in it’s own right. There was a LibDem MEP called Sharon Bowles who is chair of the European Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, declaring that she wished she could change her nationality to Irish to show support for the Euro – daft cow !

What made it all the funnier was she both looked and sounded like Julie Walters playing her role as “Mrs Overall” in the mock soap “Acorn Antiques”, I almost wet my pants watching the woman being interviewed, it was hilarious…if also slightly sad too.

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As a sign that this Country is on the verge of terminal insanity, there can be no clearer indication than the nonsense and furore surrounding an appearance by Jeremy Clarkson on the “One Show”.

The “One Show” is an indifferent “chat show” BBC TV programme that goes out around 19:00 in the evening and is fronted by a couple of totally colourless people who clearly have had their brains sucked out through their bottoms before being given the ‘gig’. What followed was embarrassing, if the chat show host had even been ‘Parky’ who was never the sharpest tool in the box, the result might have been different but with this simpering pair of nobodies…

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As someone who updates this personal blog fairly frequently and “follows the news”, I can understand to some extent, just how difficult life must be for a professional journalist tasked to deliver “opinion pieces” for the national dailies at set intervals. But all that said, sometimes it might be better to ‘not deliver’ than to deliver half baked tripe as Peter Oborne did today in The Telegraph, check it out for yourself: http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/peteroborne/100120951/george-osborne-should-be-looking-after-the-purse-strings-not-the-politics/

My ‘objection’ to this piece was nothing to do with whether or not I agreed with the author, it was quite simply down to what in substance was a really stupid stance to take so for me, it was not one to ‘let pass’…as it were.

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With the fall of Sirte and more importantly the death of Gaddafi, this phase of Libya’s past ends and a promising if difficult future beckons. Yes, it could all go horribly wrong but providing the Libyans keep their heads cool, a small population of 6 million, substantial oil based income and therefore the money to rebuild their infrastructure, if corruption can be avoided, their future will be very bright indeed.

David Cameron was quite rightly very businesslike in what he said following the news concerning the death of Gaddafi but I have been quite amused by some of the comments and their undertones which have been made by some that can be summed up as: “Now like Tony Blair, he has got a successful war under his belt, he might get a taste for it…” I have to wonder just how perceptive or sober some of these people are, these are very silly words.

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It has become all too common regardless of which political party is “in power” to see the BBC as their “enemy” when it comes to reporting the ‘News’ But and to be fair, there may well be some justifications in such claims and a not too bad example is the following: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-15199000

The “Story” comes from a supposed row over ‘Pussy Cats’ and illegal immigrants given ‘leave to stay’ under the ECHR. Ms May stated that the illegal was allowed to stay because of a ‘pussy cat’. The reality was likely that in considering whether the person could appeal further up the legal food chain, said pussy cat figured but thereafter got not a further mention in subsequent proceedings.

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The following I write without any intention of intending  ‘sounding superior’ in anyway but as a statement of fact: I don’t read the Red Tops, Heat, OK magazine, watch TV Soaps or Big Brother and some may say that I am probably ‘missing out’ on things by not doing so. The truth is not whether I think them good or bad, it is just that they don’t interest me and the endless list of minor ‘celebrities’ they seem to generate is frankly confusing, I just don’t know who these people are or even “what they are for”.

Eventually though, what I suspect is the “meat and drink” of this trade, will percolate through even to someone like me and I refer of course to the case before the Courts concerning a lady called Carina Trimingham who is the “partner” of Chris Huhne, suing Associated Newspapers and if the outline that I’ve read is correct, I find the whole thing astonishing at pretty much every level…

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With headlines such as “Hollywood vs BT” (British Telecoms), because of a court case brought against BT as an Internet Service Provider, the High Court in London has ordered BT to block access to Newzbin2 at the behest of Hollywood film studios, who say it is a “notorious pirate website”.

In fact and as I understand it, the particular site only acts as a “pointer” to other web sites from which material can be downloaded although whether it actually stores the data or acts as a conduit for it must be considered a technicality, that it is knowingly enabling the theft of intellectual property, is the reality. But all that said, is this the right approach ?

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Inevitably and as is the way of all ill considered media stories “It is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing. ” starts to inevitably fade away, the newspapers and politicians who fancied that there was blood in the water and tried to be seen as “leading the charge”, have become strangely quiet. Rather like sulky children, try to change their emphasis without apologising for their previous stupidity. This Editorial from the Independent is a prime example:

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/leading-articles/leading-article-the-dangers-of-ranging-too-widely-2318297.html

To start with and instead of the “hacking” being a News International only phenomena, it appears that many other newspapers have “been at it too” which rather changes the game completely from the “Get Murdoch” and “Get Cameron” to the “Oh dear we have shot ourselves in the foot…” reality as if the symbiotic relationships between the Media, Politicians and Celebrities was ever newsworthy.

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