Comments on Guy Fawkes' blog of parliamentary plots, rumours and conspiracy: Further Reflections on that Blair Speech

Guido, dear chap, is there any reason that Morland...

2007-06-16T11:29:00.000+01:00

Guido, dear chap, is there any reason that Morland depicted you in your birthday suit?

Surely he's not suggesting a case of 'The Emperor's new clothes'?

I think it's time someone pointed out that Paxman ...

2007-06-14T18:07:00.000+01:00

I think it's time someone pointed out that Paxman stole that quote from Hugh Cudlip

Journalism? in the dead tree press? Surely you je...

2007-06-14T12:41:00.000+01:00

Journalism? in the dead tree press? Surely you jest?

The dead tree press gave up with journalism some time ago. Too expensive you see. They prefer to employ people that can be relied upon to make controversial comments about the news that everyone has already heard about on the TV. It's more cost effective you see - fewer employees creating more column inches. If you had to dig up proper stories on your own you would need to employ a lot of proper journos. Best leave that to the local papers. Alternatively you can rely on "leaks" from the government. And if you suck up to the PMs office like Rick Nobinson, you can be guaranteed a steady supply of such carefully crafted "leaks", just for you. The PMs press secretary will do your job for you! Perfect!

The government has the papers by the balls, because without the government filling their news pages with tripe and carefully crafted leaks, there wouldn't be any news for them at all - they would have less access to real news than the BBC, because they have far fewer employees working on news. Paul Dacre admitted that in a recent speech.

The owners of the dead tree press haven't the wit to realise what everyone else knows - that people only really buy the papers for the sport pages anyway. They used to sell gossip but now the celeb obsessed buy "Hello" and "OK". It will only be a matter of time before someone releases a magazine dedicated to sport that takes away the sports readership too.

The problem many of us have with politicians is th...

2007-06-14T12:02:00.000+01:00

The problem many of us have with politicians is that most of them go into politics to make more and more laws and regulations telling us how we can and cannot live our lives. We don't want to be told who our business has to hire, what substances we can smoke and what we have to give money to. We just want to be left alone.

Vivat Guido Maximumus semper[Guido rules, OK]

2007-06-14T11:39:00.000+01:00

Vivat Guido Maximumus semper

[Guido rules, OK]

Scary biscuits says too many national journos just...

2007-06-14T11:24:00.000+01:00

Scary biscuits says too many national journos just reprint what they are given, which is true but there is also a self-serving culture among political journalists to agree a common line among themselves.

It's not uncommon for political journalists from different newspapers to gather around after a government press conference (yesterday's paedo announcement being one example) and agree together what the angle of the story will be.

The reason? So none of them scoop each other and their bosses don't hang them out to dry for failing to run with the same angle as in the other papers.

These journalists are conning both their readers and their employers and helping to stifle deabte. But why should they care as long as they can keep their cushy jobs?

Seems to me that the speech was directed mostly at...

2007-06-14T10:29:00.000+01:00

Seems to me that the speech was directed mostly at the dead tree press. Blair implied that wider sources of news (on TV) had caused the dead tree press to become more extreme and vindictive. Following this trajectory, with news sources widening still further due to the internet, this might force the dead tree press to become even more vindictive.

I think all Blair was trying to do was say "Hey, you've given me a really hard time over the last few years, but could you please reset your hate counters before the new guy comes in and give him a chance". Well, that would be fair comment, if it were not for the fact that Brown is up to his neck in the same shit. It could be that Blair also knows that the Levy scandal shit is about to hit the fan, and wants to minimise the fall-out.

Better than your first attempt, but you are still ...

2007-06-14T08:48:00.000+01:00

Better than your first attempt, but you are still muddled about who you are attacking, or whether you just want to justify your own limitless power. Look up "feral" and "untamed" in a dictionary and you might understand why the final sentence of your summary doesn't make any sense.

You have the basis for some good ideas, but you let yourself down by reacting first and thinking later. I think you muddle up how you feel about a particular player with the ideas they express. This is why I can only give you a C- for this piece.

The wisest prophets make sure of the event first.H...

2007-06-14T08:36:00.000+01:00

The wisest prophets make sure of the event first.
Horace Walpole.much as i hate bliar i think this is apt

Joe,More to the point the koran does induce religi...

2007-06-13T23:50:00.000+01:00

Joe,

More to the point the koran does induce religious hatred.

Ban it.

The Bible could induce racial or religious hatred....

2007-06-13T22:14:00.000+01:00

The Bible could induce racial or religious hatred.

Has the All-Party Parliamentary Inquiry commissioned a suitable censored edition?

Short of going down the Iranian/Chinese route of c...

2007-06-13T20:02:00.000+01:00

Short of going down the Iranian/Chinese route of censoring the internet there is nothing they can do but bluster.

Kites have been flown for a while now about taking the internet away from the naughty boys -- and it IS always boys -- who misuse it to say things Nanny disapproves of. There was this last year:

The All-Party Parliamentary Inquiry into Anti-Semitism proposes that it be made an offence to download material from the internet that could incite racial or religious hatred. (The Times, 7th September 2006)

Yasmin Alibhai-Brown hopped aboard the bandwagon this year:

Child abuse, violent porn, racism, religious fanaticism and political extremism grow ever more virulent on the net. Not everybody who is burning to say or show things is worth it. And people who endanger the lives and peace of others should not be spreading their demagoguery without checks and balances. The lunatics own the asylum now, and everyone wants to be a shareholder in the new business of making abusive mayhem. (The Independent, 30th April 2007)

Show-trials are now being arranged to persuade the public that free speech is too precious for people who say things the liberal elite disagree with. How can you ruin, sorry, run a country when people are allowed to point out what you're doing? Caring leaders like Stalin and Mao didn't have to put up with it when they were doing their best to build a brighter future, so why should all the caring ex-communists in New Labour?

I believe Tony Blair is an out-and-out rascal, terminally untrustworthy and close to being unhinged. I said from the start that there was something wrong in his head, and each passing year convinces me more strongly that this man is a pathological confidence-trickster. To the extent that he even believes what he says, he is delusional. To the extent that he does not, he is an actor whose first invention — himself — has been his only interesting role. (Matthew Parris, The Times, March 18 2006)

a thoughtful, reasoned and balanced post.

2007-06-13T18:33:00.000+01:00

a thoughtful, reasoned and balanced post.

The only thing that may slow down the encroaching ...

2007-06-13T17:16:00.000+01:00

The only thing that may slow down the encroaching regulation of the internet is the vanity of politicians. They will not want to be seen as the first western democracy to introduce draconian measures. It will be acheived through stealth as ever the case with this lot.

I strongly suspect that the postings by fOul and n...

2007-06-13T17:11:00.000+01:00

I strongly suspect that the postings by fOul and nom show which way the wind is blowing, and the true intentions behind comments made by several of the usual suspects over the past few weeks. The power after all rests with these smug bastards.

Spare some cash for a splendid libertarian project...

2007-06-13T16:57:00.000+01:00

Spare some cash for a splendid libertarian project?

You should consider another possibility - that thi...

2007-06-13T16:37:00.000+01:00

You should consider another possibility - that this speech was a pre-emptive strike.

That some news organisation has (or is expected to get) a tale to tell of very dirty deeds indeed that will cause wide-spread disgust and vilification of senior politicos.

The explosion will be followed by Blair whining "Told you so. They're so unfair and nasty. Ignore everything they're saying."

Nice article.Like Mrs Thatcher, AB has found the a...

2007-06-13T16:29:00.000+01:00

Nice article.

Like Mrs Thatcher, AB has found the absolute power of a UK Prime Minister distorts his view of the world.. ("WE are a grandmother", Poll Tax etc).

I liked AB's "it is rare today to find balance in the media."

Which world has he lived in? Anyone who read Pope or any on the 18th ?century satirists knows there has NEVER been balance in the media. Just because he has the Sun and Richard Murdoch on his side.. does not mean he has the right to uncritical acclaim.

This is from the man who denied and still denies that invading Iraq meant the UK was more at risk from terrorism.

In reality any attempt to censor blogs is going to fail and be counterproductive - because how can you censor what people think?

Yes there are lots of unbalanced (from the mental sanity viewpoint) opinions.. but also genuine comment.

All AB's speech proves is the UK constitution (which does not exist of course) allows PMs to do anything which is not specifically forbidden by law and even then the bastards try to get round it (Anyone for a peerage?).

The man's leaving in disgarce and realising that now: When his Scottish treason trial starts , he'll find out what people really thought of him.

Mitch, don't talk soft. The Eye still has by far a...

2007-06-13T15:36:00.000+01:00

Mitch, don't talk soft. The Eye still has by far and away the best exposes of any magazine, and good as Guido is, it has a much broader frame of reference and investigative abilities than any blog. Some partisan pols tend perhaps not to like it cos it slags their team off too?

Is that little guido I can see?

2007-06-13T15:10:00.000+01:00

Is that little guido I can see?

PCC can't touch Guido et al becuase they can only ...

2007-06-13T15:07:00.000+01:00

PCC can't touch Guido et al becuase they can only deal with newspapers as they fund the self-regulation.

What Blair is hinting at is something different - government regulation of the internet either directly or more likely via OFCOM.

At the moment that is very possible as EU legislative movement is away from country of Origin (ie where your server is based) and towards Country of Destination (ie where it is read)

That is why this speech (and the thinking behind it) is very worrying.

Private Eye hasn't exposed anything for years. OK...

2007-06-13T14:55:00.000+01:00

Private Eye hasn't exposed anything for years. OK, it slags off the government and big business, but when was the last time it REALLY picked a fight with anybody?

It's a combination of the dwarf having better things to do e.g. telly, and the owner (Cook's widow) being completely off her trolley and refusing to let them do anything.

So that’s it then, it’s all about accountability a...

2007-06-13T14:52:00.000+01:00

So that’s it then, it’s all about accountability and the “news” and “new media” reflecting the required accuracy to be measured by some yardstick. So after years of reading about items such as Bernie Ecclestone’s donation to the Labour Party, the so-called 45 minute warning on W.M.D’s, the Hutton whitewash Enquiry, and the alleged selling of peerages to favoured Labour Party donors Tony wants to see some new sorts of regulators to ensure we tell it as it is with the required accuracy. In other words let’s control the media (newspapers, broadcasters, and the new media) and ensure that all voices of dissent are well controlled, it’s the New Labour way isn’t it, just ask any party member!

"Short of going down the Iranian/Chinese route of ...

2007-06-13T14:50:00.000+01:00

"Short of going down the Iranian/Chinese route of censoring the internet there is nothing they can do but bluster. So feral and untamed Guido will happily stay."

Actually, I think you are going to find that censoring the internet will be quite easy - and they are already putting the law in place to make it so. It goes live next week!
The Electronic Commerce Directive (Terrorism Act 2006) Regulations 2007
That, combined with BT's Cleanfeed (which every UK ISP is 'voluntarily' joining by the end of the year) will get you off the internet in less than 24 hours!

Big Brother Brown will be happy! :)

A man in denial or someone who is suffering from t...

2007-06-13T14:46:00.000+01:00

A man in denial or someone who is suffering from the advancing symptons of a major disease.

Otherwise one suspects that the Popes boys have turned his brain and he thinks he is some sort of saintly saviour, suffering the slings and arrows of his enemies, who of course will be damned, whilst he propounds his legacy and fights the daemons; (of those opposed). Clearly he feels he will be sacrificed on the altar of expediency, so must make haste.

To be charitable to the blighter, he should take himself of to Afghan and get a bullet, it might just rehabilitate some of his memory.