Eamonn McCann On The Irish Church & State Collusion In Child Rape

An excerpt-

…There’s scarcely a bishop in the 26 Irish dioceses who hasn’t issued a statement in the past fortnight explaining how dismayed/distressed/shocked/bewildered he’s been to discover the extent of the depravity perpetrated by priests and the failure of some of his fellow bishops to alert the civil authorities. Some of the more plausible performers have been wheeled out to widen their eyes for the cameras in displays of wonderment….“I cannot begin to understand the mentality…” They still take the people for fools.

Complaints of clerical abuse of children in Ireland have been in the public arena for at least 25 years. Occasionally, flurries of allegations have resulted in spates of publicity. But these tended to be short-lived. The local bishop might even apologise in the local paper. The response of the Northern as well as the Southern Irish State ranged from the inadequate to the inert. But you could bet the Lenten Collection that the Church itself was paying attention throughout, tracking every complaint, monitoring reaction, clucking with satisfaction that the faith of the people remained strong and resistant to any radical conclusion.

Now they ask the people to believe that they didn’t have an inkling of the full extent of the criminality until very recently. They never discreetly enquired of one another during prayer breaks at their conclaves at Maynooth or All Hallows, How’s that business with Fr. So-and-so going? Any more word about that wee girl from such-and-such? Is the mother in that other case still on-side?

Pull the other one, your Lordships, it’s got church-bells on.

The Church’s enmeshment with the State helps explain this confidence. On December 1st, Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Brian Cowan claimed in parliament that the Vatican had “acted in good faith” in refusing to cooperate with Judge Murphy. The authorities in Rome and their representative in Ireland, the Papal Nuncio, had refused even to answer letters from Murphy asking for access to their files on abuse allegations.

A State which had genuine concern for its children would have responded to the report by taking decisive action to remove the Catholic bishops as patrons of primary schools. Three thousand of 3,200 primaries in the Republic have bishops as patrons – with the power to hire and fire and complete control over the school’s “ethos”. No less appropriate category of men could be imagined to have such power over the moral formation of children. But not a single member of parliament – not one! – has urged the Government to take this obvious action.

Control of education is at the heart of the matter. A ferocious determination to secure the right to train the consciousness of the next generation dictated the Catholic hierarchy’s attitude to the emerging Irish State in the early years of the last century. Give us your children and we’ll give you our backing against the British and help shore up your State. The State was born in the embrace of the Church and hasn’t fully recovered from its origins

In the North, the Church did its dirty deal with the anti-Catholic Unionists. Control of the education of the children of Catholic parents in return for a commitment to keep the Catholics as docile as possible. The arrangement lasted at least into the 1980s, when the Northern bishops told the British government that if it proceeded with a plan to integrate teacher training the Church would be unable to restrain the anger of the faithful. That is, Lay a finger on our control of teacher training and we’ll stop condemning the IRA from the pulpit. And it worked.

Not that the IRA – now transmogrified into Sinn Fein – has proven any more useful that the other useless parties to the raped children of Ireland.

Consider a case from the North: A priest is transferred from the South into a Derry parish. The night before he arrives, the priests in the parochial house are visited by an emissary from the bishop who tells them to “keep an eye” on their new colleague, and specifically to ensure that he is not left alone with children. Over the next few months, despite two curates taking turns to follow him around, he rapes two little girls. The family of one of the girls informs the bishop. He ignores them. They then write to the Cardinal, the most senior Churchman on the island, describing the assault on their daughter in heart-rending terms and the shattering effect both on her and the family. The Cardinal acknowledges the letter, expresses sympathy – and assures the family that he will remember them in his prayers. The rapist is moved out of the parish and hidden in a monastery in the South. When he is traced there and exposed, the bishop lies in public that the Church had earlier informed the civil authorities of the allegations. The priest is eventually jailed.

The bishop concerned has been among those seen on television in the past fortnight explaining that the situation in his diocese regarding the handling of allegations of child sex abuse has always been tickedy-boo.

Bastards.

And then some. I was listening to an Irish radio call in show (we receive some here on the edge of the Irish sea) while waiting to drive my mother back from a hospital appointment and 99% of the calls, emails, texts were disgusted at the church, but what was interesting was the DJ tried to moderate the rage and people were calling for resignations, few made the conceptual leap to demand prosecutions (and given the state collusion this might mean an international court as the domestic legal system is less than open). Most callers were middle aged and older, I think the church is dreading when they have to rely for support on a younger generation, that bigoted old vampires at the top are probably hiding away the money even now. One caller had an idea for direct action for parishioners, simply stop putting money in the collection until the church’s conservative pro-abuse ruling faction is removed, all the way to Rome. So it was interesting that although they were rightly outraged the limits of the reaction were not too radical (was that how the show screened?), although what is radical about demanding a paedophile rapist and the people who covered up for him be tried I don’t know. Unless we define radical as demanding the same standards be applied to the powerful as to the powerless, it’s clever when we are convinced of that definition by the elite, works out just great for them.

BNP’s Sleazy Expense Scam

Admittedly not unexpected, they are using their funding from the European parliament to enrich their party machinery, Searchlight reports–

The British National Party is using money it receives from Europe to support its two MEPs to bankroll the leadership of its organisation. Of the 14 people employed by the two MEPs only five actually live in the two regions they represent and most fulfil national posts for the party. In the latest abuse of the parliamen-tary expenses system, the British and European people are funding the BNP.

As MEPs, Nick Griffin and Andrew Brons, are entitled to claim a combined £382,000 a year to pay for their colleagues’ salaries. The two share five members of staff, who all happen to be national party officers and only one lives in either the North West or Yorkshire. They are Simon Darby, the party’s deputy leader, Eddy Butler, the national organiser, Emma Colgate, the national administration officer, John Walker, the deputy press officer, and Martin Wingfield, who lives in the North West and until recently was the editor of the party newspaper, Voice of Freedom.

Each MEP also has some staff of his own. One of Nick Griffin’s is Martin Reynolds, a bodybuilder from Leeds who acts as his personal minder. When asked about what “specifically” he does for his EU salary, Reynolds said: “I honestly don’t know”. Andrew Brons employs three people. One happens to be the new BNP Yorkshire organiser while the other two, Adam and Mark Walker, both live in County Durham, which is in a different region. Searchlight has long argued that if elected the BNP would use public money to fund the party rather than helping the people they are supposed to represent. This is proving to be the case.

More.
This is a challenge for those who claim that they voted for the BNP not because they were racist (good luck with that Egyptian river) but that they were not like the debauched mainstream parties. Hmmmm.

Untouchable

Scotland Yard said on Thursday that there was insufficient evidence to reopen inquiries into allegations that journalists for some of Rupert Murdoch’s UK newspapers paid for the illegal hacking of mobile telephones belonging to high profile figures.

Assistant Commissioner John Yates also cast doubt on the extent of illegal breaking into personal mobile phone accounts owned by UK celebrities, politicians or other targets of journalistic inquirites.

Mr Yates had been asked to investigate by Sir Paul Stephenson, the Metropolitan Police commissioner, after politicians, police officers and senior News Corp executives had been drawn into allegations that thousands of such cases had been unveiled.

The IPCC’s Inexhaustible Supply Of Whitewash

The police officer, who was granted anonymity at the inquest (because who wants an accountable non secret police force) did these things-

Before he gave evidence, he revealed that he had made a note on the Metropolitan police computer in late July 2005, before he made his original statement in November 2005. He had then accessed and altered the note in October 2008 before handing it to the Met’s lawyers.

Owen had been present in New Scotland Yard’s room 1600, which was under the direct command of Commander Cressida Dick on 22 July 2005, although he was not within the nucleus of senior officers commanding the operation, the IPCC said.

The text he deleted read: “Management discussion. CD [Cressida Dick]: can run onto Tube as not carrying anything. Persuaded otherwise by UI [unidentified] male amongst management”.

The independent investigation found Owen had acted alone both in failing to disclose his note, as required by the IPCC in 2005, and in redacting it on 7 October 2008.

So today the IPCC concluded-

But the IPCC said today there was no evidence of deliberate deception in this instance by the Met as a whole or any individual within it.

Bear in mind he is a Special Branch officer, they liaise with the intelligence services, they are literally secret police, he gave evidence anonymously and is now found to be blameless while Dick has been promoted. What does this note suggest? That prior to Jean Charles de Menezes being shot at point blank range multiple times the officer in charge was thinking he was not carrying anything, ie. not a bomb threat. The common refrain of the killers (the coached and rehearsed testimony they were able to collude on) was they were acting in self defence because they claim to have believed he could have been a suicide bomber.

That she was dissuaded or failed to communicate her judgement to the armed personnel means the ‘UI [unidentified] male amongst management‘ bears great responsibility for the killing, as does Cressida Dick who is shown to make weak & faulty judgements and bad communication shows up these professional paramilitaries to be utter chumps. Clearly evidence was concealed then altered to protect senior officers. But no such issues will be addressed because the IPCC doesn’t think it important or that any malfeasance has occurred in relation to the note. They are as capable at investigating abuses of power by the police as Tony Blair is at not lying a country into war.

Best case: The armed security forces, licensed to employ state violence couldn’t organise a piss up in a brewery.

Worst case: Execution by state paramilitaries protected from legal responsibility by the establishment.

Yasmin Khan, spokeswoman for the Justice4Jean campaign, accused the IPCC of failing to hold police officers to account. She said: “It doesn’t matter if you are a policeman fiddling notes after a shooting or a politician fiddling expenses on the sly, no-one should be above the law. This latest decision is one of a long line of IPCC decisions which have led every police officer involved in the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes off scot-free. This weak and woefully poor excuse of a watchdog must now be overhauled and replaced with a robust body that can actually hold police officers to account.”

District Attorney Involved In Majaz Torture Gets Off

It’s not just corrupt US and UK elites who get away with torture, when a public prosecutor is caught on film at a mass kidnapping and torture he has all the charges dropped for lack of evidence. This is the Monterrico Metal’s Majaz mining camp incident (covered previously here, here and here) where 29 protesters assured a meeting to have their grievances heard, instead were held and tortured under the auspices of corporate officers with police and state approval. A planned ambush to torture protesters and silence them, a terrorist tactic by state and corporate forces, not to mention the UK ambassador Richard Ralph who helped cover it up and then became chairman of the company!

Piura region district attorney Sofía Milla has dropped all charges against her colleague, former DA Félix Toledo Leiva, who was accused of witnessing the torture and kidnapping of 29 anti-mining protesters in 2005, but doing nothing, daily El Comercio reported Tuesday.

Milla cleared her colleague, currently jailed in a Piura prison on charges of corruption in an unrelated case, arguing that the plaintiffs offered insufficient evidence. But, according to the National Human Rights Coordinator, or CNDDHH, there are four photos in which Toledo can be seen in the mining camp when the torture took place, standing nearby some of the victims. And, several victims have testified that while in the camp, they told Toledo that they had been tortured.

As Otto @ Inca Kola News makes clear-

• all 29 victims testified he was there

• all 29 victims said he was an eyewitness to the brutality

• there is photographic evidence that shows, without a shadow of a doubt, that he saw what was going on

• the photos show him in the presence of injured and tortured individuals

• various of the tortured individuals, including the women victims, testify that he shouted insults, made physical threats and even violently pulled the hair of one of the women

A Statement On My Expenses

Released today via my solicitor NAME REDACTED

As I’m sure many of you know it’s not all lavish parties and hedonistic excess for a blogger, the money one makes is paltry. If you choose to be paid to blog (ticking the –Pay- box in your WP dashboard) you receive a mere £65,000 annually, this is barely helped by £100,000 or so in expenses the average blogger claims. All in all most of us squeak by on a miserly annual figure below £200,000 (below– for tax purposes, not ‘below’ as in the accepted meaning of the English word, all further enquiries should be directed towards- TP Holdings, Suite 87,349, Cayman Islands, Jupiter. *note this address does not correspond to an actual postal address and no phone, fax or email details will be given). Of course outside directorships and other ancillary jobs, sometimes requiring as much as 1 day a month can provide some extra cash, a few hundred thousand here and there but who can live on that?

The Media

Now recently the jealous sorts in the traditional media have been making a fuss that we are paid too much, well au contraire mes ami as the Norwegians say…they are merely jealous of our immense power and the high regard we are held in by ‘The World’. While many mainstream journalists were gently running their tongues over the nether regions of leading politicians, bloggers pointed out the New Labour Government had committed a huge war crime and the evil offenders are now all safely in jail for life. Can you imagine the slaughter if they were still roaming free? Oh it just doesn’t bear thinking about. It is this vital work that commands the rewards, that while clearly a mere pittance, are according to the muck raking press- a huge and unearned pot of lovely moolah that we are abusing fraudulently in a show of utter disdain for 99% of the population who have nothing like that level of wealth, power or opportunity.

Apparently The Telegraph is a socialist newspaper.

My Innocence

Some mileage is made out of the second home payment I claim, they allege as the two houses in question are mere metres apart surely one would get pretty well much the same geographical advantage from just one house and for half the cost. Well that’s easy for them to say, the rules clearly state that where a blogger resides too far from their keyboard for daily commuting they can claim for the expense of a second house. As my keyboard when angled a certain way (on the shared patio with hot tub adventure playground and pro size driving range) is slightly nearer the second house than the first, it is therefore much more convenient to have this second house to work from. But their pedantry does not stop there, apparently claiming £27,059 for nude finger massages is somehow not a work related expense, well duh, typing is not easy and without this essential medical intervention I could become crippled for life. Smears that I dictate my posts to an indentured Balinese servant and hence this payment is for some other service are wildly overstated, they can buy themselves out at any time. There are also claims I have evaded tax on sales of ‘multiple second homes’ 83 times in the last 14 months, what nonsense! With a dedicated satellite wireless hub and platinum plated Mac Book Pro encrusted with emeralds, rubies and diamonds, my freedom of movement means many houses qualify for temporary second home eligibility and as far as I know there is no law against not paying tax, and if you doubt me ask a senior member of the government! They make the law (and are predominantly legally trained) so I don’t think you can find a better authority than that!

Furthermore it is essential we are paid at a certain level to attract the best talent and to provide a disincentive for bribery (which is why I will shortly be leading the charge for a 73% increase of our basic wage with attendant expenses increase in line with inflation – in 1920’s Weimar Germany). Apparently the newspapers have not noticed the stunning success of this strategy with a solid 100% of Britain’s best talent and every one a paragon of the utmost ethical standards and integrity. An inarguable triumph!

A ‘People Person’

Another issue that has been brought up is something termed inequality, I am told it is Marxist in concept and has something to do with fairness (I’m afraid my eyes just glazed over at this point with all the Bolshevik jargon). But allow me to explain for the benefit of those non-corporate types. I am paid 10 times (ten not meant in a literal or legally binding way) more than an average worker, that is because I am ten times better, as a person, as a professional, if I was murdered the perpetrator would get ten times the sentence than if they killed a fellow peasant, my life is ten times more important. Conversely if I was thought guilty of a crime the standard of evidence has to be ten times higher and the suspected crime ten times more severe. For instance only after killing 100 average workers (or 400 ‘jobseekers’) should I even be looked upon as a possible subject of an investigation and yet these irrelevant financial matters are seen as reason to impugn my Good Faith ™. Apparently the rabble have forgotten the rigid caste system our wonderful capitalist system enforces. Where is the innocent until proven powerless-or-foreign principle that has made our Ruling Class country so great?

In Conclusion

I would like to state categorically that if the rules are wrong that doesn’t make me wrong for knowingly pushing them to their limits. What, am I meant to have some objective moral standards or something, are you insane?

The People Don’t Get What The People Want

AMY GOODMAN: Why can’t it happen, since polls show most people are for it?

SEN. RUSS FEINGOLD: I guarantee you. I know the members of Congress, and it’s not going to pass in this Congress. So, there are certain things that can’t happen right away, and this is one of them. But I do support a single-payer idea.

Um, democracy anyone? Anyway the fix is in, single payer healthcare is being kept off the ‘table’ (crowded out by nukes earmarked for bombing Iran or not prosecuting war criminals, there’s only so much room on ‘the table’ and we must look forward dontcha know)

Health care activists disrupted a Senate Finance Committee hearing Tuesday, standing up one after the other as Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) tried to restore order. As soon as police escorted one protester out of the room, another would stand up, criticizing the committee for convening a panel of 15 experts and excluding witnesses who support creating a Medicare system for all Americans. About eight were led out of the hearing.

Baucus’ response? “We need more police.”

Baucus eventually quieted the crowd, and said, “I want you to know I care deeply about your views.”

Is it getting boring putting the regulation sardonic Change after every example of continuity of corporate empire? Still, I guess they had to use that as- Suckers! would have blown the whole caper. Whatevs.

PS. Report from the scene-

It has finally happened right here in the United States. Citizens who believe healthcare is a human right have been arrested and are being processed like criminals through the Southeast District of Columbia police station. Their crime? Asking for single payer healthcare reform – publicly funded, privately delivered healthcare – to be discussed during the Congressional hearings on reform.

Doctors and other single payer activists were handcuffed and went to jail today speaking up for single payer to be at the table in the Senate finance Committee’s roundtable discussion on healthcare access and coverage. In stark contrast, Karen Ignagni, head of the industry lobby group American Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) was escorted into the room like royalty by staff members of the Senate committee. Clearly, the position of the United States Senate is not with the majority of Americans who support a national, public insurance system.

It made me physically ill to see Maryland pediatrician Margaret Flowers cuffed like a criminal and pushed out the door as the Senators waited to begin their staged roundtable discussion. It made me want to scream. It made me proud of them for being bold but ashamed that not one Senator spoke up for their own citizen-protestors and asked that they at least be allowed to speak. But the insistence that the citizens rising in protest be arrested continued from the chair with each incident.

City of London Police Inspector Hides Number

This police officer searched a protester using s60 powers which he then told his colleagues they should search him for ID which is an offence. April 2nd 2009. He then refused to identify himself after breaking the law. Not surprising for these lying murdering bastards really.

In this sort of amusing clip (in a grim Pythonesque way) seemingly christened the ‘Bishopsgate Police Station’ clip (watch and you’ll understand). His badge shows inspector rank and he is City of London (gold -oh the City!-  insignia, red chequerboard). So a supervising officer breaking the law, makes the bad apple get out a bit of a toughie when Inspectors are doing it.

(ht2 Bloggerheads, Chicken Yoghurt)

Update: A commenter informs me ‘Inspectors and above don`t have numbers.’ In which case why not tell the questioner that and give his rank and name? I phoned the City of London plod who say that yes Inspectors would not have their number on their epaulettes, they could however have a name on their front. So the title should be City of London Police Inspector Hides Identity.

It Was a TSG Officer

And over 48hours later still not questioned, also hilariously the Met claim they didn’t mislead the press.

…sources with knowledge of the inquiry said the officer from the Met’s territorial support group had yet to be interviewed by the IPCC, which declined to confirm or deny whether investigators had spoken to him.

As the Met released a statement insisting the force had not intended to deliberately mislead the public over the death, Nick Hardwick, chairman of the IPCC, defended his organisation’s handling of the case. He revealed the watchdog had received witness statements alleging contact between Tomlinson and police as early as Friday. But it was not until five days later that the IPCC investigation became an independent criminal inquiry, rather than one overseen by the watchdog but conducted by City of London police. The announcement came only after the Guardian handed the watchdog a dossier of evidence indicating that Tomlinson, who was not a protester, had been assaulted as he walked home from work.

Clearly both the police & IPCC were going to sit tight and ignore it, only independent video forced this into the open. A Rotten Force with a corrupted oversight body.

Hardwick also hinted at the significance of the Guardian’s footage when he revealed there were no CCTV cameras in the area where Tomlinson was assaulted.

Is this true, really? In that part of London? Does that mean the cops knew they were in a blind spot so they could crack some heads? Or is it to defuse people asking -where’s the CCTV footage? And what about police helicopter & FIT footage? And what about these-

Pic by fotdmike @flickr

About the personal video system VV3000. Any of those rolling in the vicinity?

The IPCC previously said-

“The investigation is continuing to look through CCTV footage to see whether the incident inside Royal Exchange Passage has been captured and we already have a number of witness accounts from the area.

So how can you look through footage if there are no cameras? Do they mean none in the immediate area but ones close by might have caught it in their periphery? Or do they mean- Footage Deleted.

Harriet Wistrich, who represents the family of Jean Charles De Menezes, the Brazilian shot dead by police who misidentified him as a suicide bomber, said last night that the Guardian’s video appeared to show strong evidence that a crime had been committed. “In these circumstances, I can’t reason why the officer involved could not be arrested and questioned under caution at this time.”

Money Transfer, Wealth Transfer

What clearer lesson do you want that government has been colonised by a plutocracy and used as a means to siphon off public money into the private sector and at every stage generating private profits at public expense. So here we go-

Britain’s public finances took a big hit in December from the government’s recapitalisation of Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS).

So public money going to a private bank, then-

A scheme to renovate England’s secondary schools could grind to a halt because banks are not lending money, the building industry has warned.

Oh dear the bailout has not encouraged the banks to behave for the common good, how strange it’s not like they are explicitly profit making corporations with zero moral accountability, oh wait…but you see it’s far funnier than that-

Speaking to the committee of MPs later, Schools Minister Jim Knight said the current problems with lending could have an effect on Building Schools for the Future (BSF) because the scheme used private finance initiatives (PFI). Under PFI, private companies fund the building of schools, typically with the local authority repaying the costs over the next 25 to 30 years.

But Mr Knight added: “It is not the case that the money has dried up.” He said there was still interest from banks wanting to take part in the scheme, and there were alternative sources of funding. The feedback we are getting is that this aspect of investment, in public sector projects, is the lowest risk of them all, and probably the last to feel some of the difficulty and heightened risk attached to it.”

Get it? See the government could have used our money to build our schools but…no it used our money to keep the financial sector going with few reforms, so the PFI schemes would keep going, so private corporations would profit off safe investments in public projects, investments made with, er…our money (well they will be when they start lending). Exactly how including a third party who must take a certain amount in profit is ‘more efficient’ remains a Holy Mystery that must never be discussed… Of course PFI’s are disastrous for value and public accountability but what they do do is provide long term sources of revenue to private corporations with cosy relationships with government, who also benefit by appearing to be doing stuff and hoping no one notices the decades long bill future generations will be paying. So at the end of all this banks & politician’s who helped cause the crisis under the guise of neoliberal zealotry are rewarded while ….well some schools will get built, maybe, and end up costing us far more so PFI’s remain a good source of profit. It’s all down to who our representatives really work for and just how democratic we are, can we really have a say in how and by whom the country is run? Or are we just running occasional popularity contests for middle management, and let’s face it, an awful lot of people let themselves be lied to, as long as the living was good. Yeah, that worked out.

New Labour Backs Off Hushing Up Expenses

(ht2 Harpymarx) Yep after sneaking out the news under cover of their runway bullshit they have failed to keep it sufficiently low key to pull it off, NL claim they had a deal with the tories, which the tories deny (except they ‘decided’ against it and ‘changed’ their whip so that means, er yes they were gonna help out until rumbled). One thing for sure attention paid to this, put paid to this, can’t leave ’em alone for minute-

Ministers have shelved plans to exempt MPs’ expenses details from the Freedom of Information Act, after the Tories and Lib Dems said they would fight it.

The High Court ruled last year that details of claims made under the second homes allowance, including receipts, should be published in the interests of transparency. Campaigners had denounced the planned Commons vote as effectively overturning the High Court ruling and said MPs were trying to exempt themselves from a law had they created.

Freedom of information campaigners welcomed the decision, saying the proposal to limit disclosure would have made MPs the only public officials immune from public scrutiny. But they warned it was not the end of the matter and similar plans could resurface in future. Maurice Frankel, director of the Campaign for Freedom of Information said: “Some MPs are clearly desperate to prevent the release of past expenses claims which are likely to have exceeded what could reasonably be justified to the public.”

An internet campaign by MySociety urging MPs to vote against the change attracted more than 6,000 supporters on the Facebook website. Peter Facey, of pressure group Unlock Democracy, warned if the vote had gone ahead it would have had “a catastrophic impact on the reputation of Parliament.” He urged the Commons to publish all expenses details “at the earliest opportunity”.

Blair & Murdoch (& Purnell)

Via Chicken Yoghurt. Tony really was a very businesslike leader, as in everything was for sale, but pay attention to the four horsemen of the A-Briberlypse…Up pops Work will make you Free favourite James ‘Teddy Boy’ Purnell-

A newly disclosed Downing Street memo has revealed how Tony Blair helped Rupert Murdoch overcome an official investigation which was jeopardising one of his big investments. It shows that Blair, while prime minister, immediately ordered his top officials to help the tycoon who was frustrated that a potentially lucrative scheme was being blocked by a long-running European commission investigation.

Blair told the media magnate that “he was instinctively sympathetic to what Murdoch was aiming to achieve”. The tycoon eventually won approval for the plan. BSkyB had teamed up with other big companies to develop an interactive scheme in which people could shop and manage their finances through their televisions.

The memo is the first to be disclosed under freedom of information legislation documenting the contents of meetings between Murdoch and Blair. Blair has been accused of granting political favours to Murdoch in return for support from his newspapers; Lance Price, a former Downing Street spin doctor, said Murdoch seemed to be one of the four most influential people in the administration.

The memo reveals an episode in 1998 – a year after the Sun’s conversion to Labour – in which Murdoch appears to call in one of those favours. Murdoch had privately approached Blair when he feared that the European commission investigation was hindering his business opportunities.

Blair gathered members of his inner circle to see the tycoon – his chief of staff, Jonathan Powell; James Purnell, then a Downing Street special adviser on the media and now a cabinet minister; and his press secretary, Alastair Campbell.

Funny how an adviser on the media is now an expert minster in charge of implementing the Final -Purnell- solution on welfare (now workfare, hello indentured servitude!). Media/welfare, yeah they’re pretty well much identical, totally the best man for the job (wonder where they got the idea for the Jeremy Kyle workfare show from…).

Stop Corporations Polluting The EU Climate Plan

We have until Tuesday Afternoon! (This post to be stickied to the top until then, normal service continues below this post) Here is an example –The Mystery Word Is: Bribery!– of the shenanigans capital has been pulling to subvert our environment in the name of short term greed for profit.

Far from the eyes of the media, elected representatives in the European Parliament are writing a climate and energy plan for our continent. As citizens, we’ve campaigned hard for a global deal to stop catastrophic global warming, and Europe’s negotiators have driven progress in international talks — but if big polluters succeed in watering down Europe’s own climate action plan, all our momentum will be lost. And that’s just what’s happening right now.

This Tuesday afternoon, European parliamentarians are gathering to finalise their proposals — but the whole plan is being undermined by industry lobbyists demanding they lock in massive “permits to pollute”, which would put emissions targets completely out of reach for 2020 and beyond. Before it’s too late, in the next 36 hours, let’s deluge representatives from our own countries with emails and phone calls — urging them not to give in to the lobbyists, and instead to put forward strong plans to build a sustainable future for our societies, showing the world the way forward.

Just click the link below to see the names and phone numbers of the representatives from your own country — we’ve added a few “talking points” you can use in your emails and phone calls:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/save_our_future_europe/?cl=133407517&v=2243

Oh Shit

Russia are doing the Kossova shuffle and recognising Ossetia and Abkhazia, and McCain is using Georgia in his campaign, this is not good. Lots of people in the break away regions seem to be pretty pleased but I wouldn’t bet on them staying that way. But culturally I find it appalling that the old guard cold warriors are seeing the chance to do it all over again. Even today there is evidence of the military industrial power that demands it’s pre-eminent entitlement to public wealth-

FT.com– Britain risks losing its influence abroad unless it makes defence a bigger priority, according to Mike Turner, BAE Systems’ chief executive. Mr Turner also warned that his company could be forced to consider leaving the UK if military spending ever declined below a “reasonable level”.

The chief executive, who retires on Friday after 42 years with BAE, told the Financial Times in a final interview that what he would miss least was “the bloody allegations”, a reference to the corruption claims surrounding the multibillion-pound contract to sell arms to Saudi Arabia that have dogged the company for the past four years and which BAE has consistently denied.

“They are annoying and I know it’s wrong; wrong for the company, for my employees and for the country,” Mr Turner said.

The 60-year-old, who has been chief executive of BAE, Britain’s largest defence contractor, for the past 6½ years, said Britain needed to give greater priority to defence or risk losing its “say in the world”.

“I’m very concerned that the politicians, and it’s up to the politicians to decide, are not giving the priority to defence that is needed,” he said.

“It’s right for the country to keep the Armed Forces strong, you get listened to in the world . . . It’s also good for jobs, for skills, for technology and for exports,” he said.

What was lacking, he said, was investment in future programmes, which was needed if the UK wanted to continue to “have say in the world”.

(ht2 Chicken Yoghurt)

There is a market incentive towards war, cold or otherwise, and as ‘free’ market capitalism dominates the planet woohoo, the future is going to be just fucking great. And please- ‘defence’, fuck that newspeak bullshit, it’s fucking arms & war spending you murderous kleptomaniacs. D’you think maybe late at night in this guys house (one of many) the walls run with blood and the moans of the dead and dying echo down the halls. But he doesn’t wake, a smile crosses his lips, his cock gets hard and he turns over and sleeps like a fucking baby.

We’re Incredibly Corrupt, Yeah!

The OECD while a big fan of the free market and all that crap still manage to accuse NuLabour’s corporatist friendly regime of being like totally frickin’ bent guvnor (and this was before the BAE investigation was dropped)-

Leading industrialised nations have fired a stinging broadside at Britain over its failure to tackle corporate bribery overseas, at a time when other countries are pursuing big-name multinationals.

The anti-bribery working group of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development attacked London’s performance in a letter delivered to the government in June, the Financial Times has learned.

The letter – sent before the House of Lords backed the scrapping of an investigation into BAE Systems’ Saudi arms deals – is a sign of how Britain’s failure to bring cases against its multinationals is alienating European and US allies who are pursuing their companies.

The message suggests London can expect a tough time at the next meeting of the OECD anti-bribery group in October, where members could take the embarrassing and unprecedented step of pushing for Britain to be suspended.

One person who has seen the letter said it was “particularly undiplomatic” and laid out the “full menu” of criticisms about Britain’s performance on tackling bribery by its businesses and nationals overseas.

The letter attacked Britain over its failure to bring a single overseas bribery case or to deliver on a years-old pledge to update its anti-corruption laws. It also raised concerns that the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) would downgrade its commitment to tackling corporate foreign bribery, because of plans for it to focus more on public education and consumer crimes such as share scams.

Yes the all new SFO as noted before will focus on working with business, not y’know investigating them, so do you think a/. this will make us less corrupt or b/. Hey stop laughing.