Sri Lanka: supporting tyranny

I was lying awake in the small hours a couple of nights ago trying to drift back to sleep. ‘From Our Own Foreign Correspondent’ came on the radio. FOOFC is a beacon programme from the BBC, which radiates professional journalism of the highest calibre allied to values of decency and humanity. Drifting off was out of the question as the journalist - sorry, did not catch her name - outlined a catalogue of horror from Sri Lanka. 

The coverage of the mainstream BBC News media has been to challenge the Sri Lankan government about events that took place towards the end of their 30-year civil war with the Tamils. The item is introduced in guarded terms, “both sides did terrible things to each other,” etc to which the government spokesbod invariably replies indignantly that the Sri Lankan government have never been involved in torture and similar flat denials.

The 5 minute catalogue of terror in the small hours was not about events towards the end of the war. It was about what is happening now. Today. In Sri Lanka. Police and security officials behave with impunity knowing they have the support of those in the highest positions in the government. Torture, beating, rape, disappearances, mutilation and mock executions are an everyday occurrence. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have called for an Inquiry into events which took place as the war ended and they have also put on record the testimonies of the many victims who are still suffering. 

None of this is unknown. Teams of journalists in Sri Lanka to cover the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting have been threatened by mobs of ‘government loyalists.’ The campaign of harassment broke pledges given by the Sri Lankan President before the event. The Chief Justice was been forced out of office by the Sri Lankan government. Journalists and editors have been killed for opposing the government. Police and security services have powers of unlimited detention. There has been a growing campaign of attacks and threats towards minority religions backed by the regime. 

Our government could have followed the lead of Canada, Mauritius and India and refused to give these torturers and abusers the fig leaf of respectability craved by despots throughout the ages. That they didn’t is perplexing. Do Hague and Cameron know what they are doing? By their very presence they are endorsing the abuse of the rule of law in the country. Cameron claims that he will raise the issue of an Inquiry into the end of the war but has said nothing about what is happening today. Cameron’s approach was dismissed in unflattering terms by a different Sri Lankan spokesbod. 

One thought: as the Arab Spring was in its infancy, Cameron and Hague set off on a small tour of the Middle East - flogging arms.

Watch this space.

John Major: he is the boy eh?

Just after throwing a well-aimed spanner into Cameron’s PR machine with his call for a windfall tax on greedy energy companies, Major’s gone and done it again. This time he has pointed out what most sentient beings had noticed - that our government is dominated by posh toffs from public schools. That this has taken so long to hit the headlines is largely down to a media who feature a significant number of chinless charmers themselves. Even when Nadine  ‘LOOK AT MEEE!’  Dorries described Osborne and Cameron as being ‘two posh boys who do not know the price of milk’ the fuss lasted barely a day. 

Then up pops one of the few politicians to merit ‘elder statesman’ to state the obvious. And lo! There is concern around the land. Scribes scribble and pundits ponder...

Or not. 93% of our population did not attend public school. 

To be judged by your ability, your performance and your character is the norm for most of us. The idea of relying on relationships, contacts and networks established before you were fully formed is not only weird, it is also anti-meritocratic. A glance at the loathsome picture of the Bullingdon boys says plenty about their values too. 

It is not just that we are run by a cosseted elite. Many of them have never had what is commonly known as ‘a proper job.’

“In recent years, we have witnessed the 'rise of the spad' - the special advisers who went from carrying ministers' bags to becoming MPs and then ministers themselves. The leaders of all three major political parties - prime minister David Cameron, deputy prime minister Nick Clegg and leader of the opposition Ed Miliband - were all spads prior to securing seats in the Commons.

So, how many cabinet and shadow ministers can claim to have worked in the 'real world', rather than the cosy political bubble of Westminster?

A HuffPost UK analysis of the employment backgrounds of the 33 people who attend cabinet found that 11 of those ministers (33%) worked, at some stage, as special advisers, political researchers or speechwriters before being elected to parliament. For Labour, it's an even higher proportion: the current shadow cabinet consists of 32 people, of whom 14 (44%) worked in politics, as spads or researchers, before joining the Commons or the Lords.” Huffington Post 14/11/13

For many of these bright young things, politics is a jolly game and the differences between public school educated tories and public school educated labour politicians is slight. 

The consequences of something as brutal as the bedroom tax are way beyond their ken.

Power4Islay

Islay had the first wave-power machine in the world which, for a prototype, worked reasonably well but it ‘died’ principally for lack of public funding. It was built in 2000 and was shut down in 2012. 

                          Wave Machine - now closed

Given the huge amounts of public money currently directed towards ambitious renewable projects, the experience with the wave machine has been salutary. Politicians who came to laud the wave machine soon dropped it and turned instead to wind.

Scotland’s First Minister, ‘Wee Eck’ Salmond, has stated that he wants Scotland to be self-sufficient in renewable energy by 2020. He went on to say that he thought Scotland could become ‘the Saudi Arabia of renewables - exporting energy to other parts of Europe.” Hmmm. Granted there has to be some seedcorn spent in developing new technologies but – and it is a huge BUT – the subsidies should be realistic and not over-egg the development. Huge power companies like SSE(R) have seized the opportunity for risk-free investment. 

Marine Scotland Map showing Offshore developments planned for Islay

The map (above) from Marine Scotland, shows the extent of potential offshore development off the west coast of Islay. The Tidal Energy project is well on the way with a formal planning application due to be handed in on the 13th December. The SSER Wind Array scheme application is due in by August 2014. As this has already slipped by a year it will be interesting to see whether the deadline is delayed further. 

It was the shenanigans of SSER, in alliance with Argyll & Bute council, not forgetting the ineptitude of SNH (Scottish Natural Heritage), to get a ‘met mast’ built for their offshore wind development, that stirred Power4Islay into being.

The Islay Offshore Wind Array is scheduled to have 138 massive turbines, 7 miles off the coast. They will be easily visible from Islay’s wild west coast. There are considerable difficulties to be overcome. The sea area is adjacent to some of the roughest waters in the UK. When the wind direction is opposite to the tidal flow, enormous overfalls develop which are potentially very dangerous for shipping. Conditions at sea will test the structure and build quality of the turbine towers. Any power generated then has to be transported by special cable to the mainland - a very expensive process. Maintenance and repairs will not be easy, particularly in the winter months. 

As for wave power there are no plans as yet put forward. A lot of this technology is in its infancy and is still being developed as is the tidal turbine technology. The Tidal Turbine ‘Farm’ planning application from D P Energy has plenty of ‘maybe’s’ and ‘probably’s’ as they honestly accept they are proposing to do something that has not been done before. All the prototype turbines currently in use are single machines. The difficulties of linking 15 - 30 turbines out at sea, and then transporting the power to the mainland will be considerable. D P Energy have estimated they will need 20km of undersea cable just to link up their turbines. These cables will be laid in an area of fast-flowing tidal current - precisely the reason the site has been chosen - and their electro-magnetic presence will create as yet unknown consequences. If successful, D P Energy plan to extend the number of turbines to 400. They are currently swithering between having all undersea turbines (which Power4Islay prefers) to turbines with towers sticking well out of the water, or a mixture of both. A similar planning application to build a house would not grant the time of day to an application which said ‘we may build a bungalow or a block of flats - we are not sure yet!’ 

Power4Islay are in the process of lobbying Marine Scotland to ensure that all decisions made concerning renewable energy in the Islay area are clear and transparent. The deadline for submissions to Marine Scotland is this Wednesday (13 Nov. ’13). Comments, observations and concerns can be sent to offshorerenewableenergy@scotland.gsi.gov.uk 

Marine Scotland are a relatively young body tasked with the job of overseeing the administration and authorisation of the offshore development schemes. 

As a government department they will be under pressure to do the First Minister’s bidding. As concerned citizens it is our role to ensure that this is not done at any price - financial or aesthetical.

CAMPAIGNING FOR TRANSPARENCY                              AG OBAIR AIRSON EOLAS

Chilcott Scandal

“When it was set up in 2009 by Gordon Brown, the inquiry chaired by Sir John Chilcot into how Britain went to war in Iraq was supposed to take a year to complete. Four years later, it appears no closer to drawing to a close, with some wondering whether it will ever report. The inquiry, which has cost £7.4m so far, was designed to examine the run-up to the Iraq war in 2003 and its aftermath, and covers an eight-year period between 2001 and 2009. At the heart of the latest delay is the refusal by the cabinet secretary, Sir Jeremy Heywood, to release records of some 130 conversations between Tony Blair, his successor, Brown, and then US president, George W Bush.

Included among the records being sought, according to a letter sent to David Cameron and published on the inquiry's website, are "25 notes from Mr Blair to President Bush" and "some 200 cabinet-level discussions", which are also being withheld.” Observer 10/11/13

Government shenanigans and rampant hypocrisy are vomit-inducing. Today at 11-00am our third-rate leaders will put on their solemn face, stand gravely to attention and ‘honour’ the dead of two world wars - not forgetting numerous other ‘engagements.’ There will be talk of 'dying for freedom.' There will be talk of 'not dying in vain.' There will be talk of 'the debt we owe.' Anyone within earshot of one of our duplicitous leaders spouting such garbage should be entitled to pour a bucket of said sick over the offender. 

Judge them by what they do.

“There is an ugly irony in the British government repeatedly telling us if we have nothing to hide we have nothing to worry about in relation to their widespread surveillance of citizens, but when it comes to the former leader of the country this espousal of transparency and accountability is not required.

The hypocritical shield for the perpetrators of what was a war of choice and therefore surely illegal has naturally contributed to the disillusionment and cynicism of the electorate. There is something rotten in the State of Denmark and forefront and centre stands Tony Blair. The deep state is still working against the interests of the people and anyone who cares about democracy should be deeply worried.

Blair is tarnished beyond repair and his latest incarnation as the PR spinmeister for some of the most despotic tyrants of the world indicates that the hubris and folie de grandeur that enabled Blair to tell us that God was informing his every decision has remained the hallmark of this dangerously superficial and deceitful man. Everything that he touches is shredded: from his expense accounts to his relationship to the truth and the lives of hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians and the British troops too that he sent into battle with substandard equipment. The messianic and grotesque actions of this charlatan will be his abiding legacy- and must never be forgotten.

What is also indicative of a deep malaise at the heart of our system is the knowledge that there has been no admission of guilt for the illegal rendition of Libyan informants by the Blair regime and yet they were financially compensated. We are in a mess.

I was hoping against hope that Chilcott would contribute to the definitive search for truth, but now things are looking like the archetypical inquiry of this kind- a hat trick. What price democracy? Ineluctable2u Observer 10/11/13

What price democracy indeed. 

Paxman lights the fuse

The Graham Norton Show last week was unusual for the interlude towards the end of the programme when a serious discussion broke out. This followed the usual showbiz banter and the puffing of the latest disc/movie/tour by Elton John, Dame Judy Dench and John Bishop. At this point Paxman arrived to promote the book he has written about the First World War. Not being an easy subject for jokes, the mood swiftly changed. Discussion centred on the ‘lions led by donkeys’ line which Paxman argued was mainly a creation of the 1960’s, particularly arising from ‘Oh What a Lovely War.’ 

The focus veered onto modern UK politics and Paxman gave vent to his feelings. He had recently interviewed Russell Brand and had been energised by the encounter. Brand had poured torrents of disdain on our political system. He despised our politicians and urged revolution. This, in turn, had provoked the bubble-dwelling chattering classes to circle their wagons and pour scorn and derision on Brand. Paxman expressed himself less than content with our current politics and politicians. John Bishop interjected that no-one should become a politician until they have had at least one proper job. This brought a roar of recognition and agreement from the audience. 

So far a storm in a teacup. Then yesterday, the PM programme under its intelligently astute presenter Eddie Mair, turned up the volume. Paxman has written an article in the Radio Times about his meeting with Brand. 

"There is a huge sense of disillusion out there. At the next election we shall have a choice between the people who've given us five years of austerity, the people who left us this mess, and the people who signed public pledges that they wouldn't raise student fees, and then did so – the most blatant lie in recent political history," wrote Paxman.

"It won't be a bombshell if very large numbers of the electorate simply don't bother to vote. People are sick of the tawdry pretences," said the presenter who dubbed the "whole green-bench pantomime in Westminster … a remote and self-important echo-chamber". Guardian 5/11/13 (my emphasis)

Mair trailed the item throughout the show giving snippets occasionally. It concluded with three Westminster worthies, Ming Campbell, Margaret Hodge and Tim Lawton, navel gazing together. The only one with anything of note to report was Hodge who had been threatened by the BNP in her Barking constituency and had taken them on by going down to pavement level and engaging with people on local issues and concerns. The other two typified the problem. Ming was back to his patrician best although he did admit that all three parties had shared values nullifying any sense of difference.  

The Falkirk fiasco has lifted a lid on the wheeling, dealing and downright skullduggery that takes place at constituencies up and down the country. Under our archaic system, barely 150 seats make a difference. 500 seats are in effect ‘safe’ and the selection process of the main parties candidate is everything. This at a time when party membership is collapsing. One of the outcomes is the flying in of ‘bright young things’ who left uni, went straight into Westminster as a researcher or adviser, crept, licked and crawled up the greasy pole, then became eligible for a safe seat. We are drowning in mediocrity. Perhaps not quite as bad as the old Rotten Borough days .....but there is not a lot in it.  

In last week's Newsnight interview, Brand asked Paxman: "Aren't you bored, aren't you more bored than anyone? Ain't you been talking to [politicians] year after year, listening to their lies, their nonsense, then it's this one gets in, that one gets in, but the problem continues? Why are we going to continue to contribute to that facade?"

Revolutions rarely turn out as hoped for. Egypt and Tunisia are two recent examples. But Reform, that is something else. A group of people united under the banner of Reform could surf this wave of disgust and throw out a great many placeholders and selfservers. 

There is plenty of time. Mair has promised a regular return to this subject.

Nick Cohen nails IDS

“Men lie for many reasons: to boost their ego, to hide their failings and to advance their ambitions. The sole impressive characteristic of Iain Duncan Smith – the winch that lifts him out of his otherwise incurable mediocrity – is his ability to lie for every reason imaginable, even when he knows his audience must find him out. If he told me that two plus two made four, I'd ask for a second opinion.

Last week, the work and pensions secretary announced on his department's website that he was "very pleased that the supreme court unanimously upheld" his programme to force the unemployed to work without pay or lose their benefits. "Ultimately, this judgment confirms that it is right that we expect people to take getting into work seriously."

If the judges had Duncan Smith before them, they could accuse him of the old misdemeanour of suppressio veri: the suppression of a truth he was duty bound to disclose. Nowhere in the government's propaganda did Duncan Smith admit that the supreme court had, in fact, found against him on every ground of appeal he had raised. Even though he had protected his department's hard line on the young by rushing through retrospective legislation, the supreme court still hammered him. The government had not provided "sufficient detailed prescribed description" of the work placement schemes on offer, the judges said. The unemployed could not make an informed decision on how best to find work. Their ruling will help young people Duncan Smith's department had pushed into quack schemes on pain of losing their benefit. As Public Interest Lawyers, the rather inspiring firm of solicitors that took on the test case said: "You should not believe the DWP when it says that the judgment makes no difference. Jobseekers who have not been provided with adequate information can now seek the repayment of their benefits."

Without a shred of hope of receiving a coherent answer, I asked a flak-catcher in the Department for Work and Pensions press office to explain his master's behaviour. Why had Duncan Smith just said that the supreme court had ruled that he was not guilty of pushing the young into "forced labour", but failed to add that it had condemned him on every other point? The wretched man blocked, stammered, dodged and weaved. I almost felt sorry for him. There must be better ways of making a living, even in these hard times.

If you think that such deceits are the normal stuff of politics, consider the story's sequel. As Duncan Smith realised he was losing the case, he went on the BBC to denounce Cait Reilly, one of the claimants who was challenging him in court. Despite receiving benefits, the 24-year old had refused to work for nothing in Poundland, he claimed. She was part of "a group of people out there who think they are too good for this kind of stuff". A "job snob", in other words; a scrounger, who was not prepared to get off her backside and put in the hours necessary to secure remunerative employment.

If he had checked his facts, a task that seems beyond him, Duncan Smith would have discovered that Ms Reilly had been a volunteer at a Birmingham museum. She worked there gratis because she hoped one day to be taken on by a museum or gallery. Reilly objected to Duncan Smith's minions taking her out of the museum and sending her to Poundland instead because they were stopping her fulfilling her ambition for no reason at all.

Maybe I am over-sensitive, but I find the spectacle of a powerful old man falsely condemning an honourable young woman distasteful in the extreme. Duncan Smith threw out any allegation that came into his head just to do her down. On second thoughts, that is more than distasteful – it is disgraceful.

As I have mentioned before , Duncan Smith has form. He claimed that around a million people have been stuck on a working-age benefit for at least three out of the past four years, despite being judged capable of preparing or looking for work. His claim was false. He claimed that his benefit cap had encouraged 8,000 people to find work. Not true either as the UK Statistics Authority pointed out in a stinging reprimand .

Why doesn't he give us a break? The short answer is that his department is falling apart and he has to spin and bluster to cover the shambles he has presided over. His once-grand plans for a universal credit to cover the whole country have shrunk to a pitiful pilot project. Hailed by Duncan Smith and rightwing London as the incentive that would propel the unemployed into work, universal credit has become Whitehall's equivalent of a layabout yob: nothing can make it work. His equally overhyped "reform" of disability welfare payments looks as if it is going the same way.

There is a danger here of seeing Duncan Smith's failures as examples of Tory dishonesty and bureaucratic incompetence. But we should not lose sight of the human suffering that accompanies them: the thousands driven to food banks because Duncan Smith's department cannot pay their benefits; the cheapskate firms that, with Duncan Smith's connivance, tell the chronically ill that they are fit for work when they are no such thing.

In Matthew D'Ancona's history of the coalition, George Osborne says: "You see Iain giving presentations and realise he's just not clever enough." He most certainly is not. Yet there is no pressure from the British right to remove him from office. On the contrary, Tories acclaim Duncan Smith and Michael Gove as the coalition's two heroes. As well as bellowing to hide his all-too evident weaknesses, Duncan Smith spins to encourage his supporters, who, incredibly, still admire him and praise him as a great reformer.

That he still wins such praise tells us much about the British right. It cannot believe any more that Duncan Smith is ending welfare dependency. It can no longer pretend that his tough love is helping the unemployed into work. His great schemes are in ruins. His reputation for probity is in tatters.

Conservatives continue to admire Iain Duncan Smith, nevertheless, for one reason and one reason only: he is cutting the money going to the poor, the sick, the handicapped and the young. That's it. That's all there is to him now. And the right loves him for it.” Observer 3/11/13   (my emphases)

Biters Bit

Cor blimey guv’nor. You couldn’t make it up. Who’d a thought it? The flame-haired harpie and Mr Smooth having an affair. Did they go to a ‘love nest?’ Were their romps ‘steamy?’ Did they cast yearning glances towards each other across the newsprint?

Thousands of victims of redtop abuse will have relished the news from the Old Bailey yesterday. For years these purveyors of prurience disguised as morality have made the lives of ordinary people a misery - and their families too. 

Nice to know the shoe is on the other foot at least for a while now. The news that they had an affair lasting about six years between 1998 and 2004, tended to skim over the fact that while this affair was alive and steaming, each of them got married. 

To other people. 

Brooks married Ross Kemp in 2002. They divorced in 2008. Coulson married his wife Eloise in 2000. 

What other collateral nuggets are waiting down the track?

Thanks to Steve Bell - again.