Who'd be a reporter? - by Richard... Thursday, October 22, 2009

Who'd be a reporter? - by Richard... Thursday, October 22, 2009

Well, someone's got to do it - releasing valuable resources to cover the global warming crisis - with only 47 days left to save the planet, and all that.

I ended up with the New York Times, almost in desperation – having trawled the British media for story ideas to make up the overnight post. 

There, it is almost unbelievable to find that the single most important event in the world – according to our gifted hacks – is the BBC/Griffin affair, covered as lead items by The Times,The Independent, The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph and many more.

One of the few sensible commentaries to come out of all that is from an unusual coupling, Frank Field and Nicholas Soames, who say: "Cowardice on immigration has allowed the BNP to flourish". They are dead right, of course, but it isn't going to make any difference.

Reviewing the foreign media, by far the most important issue – to judge by the number of outlets that are covering it – is the Pakistani operation in Waziristan, but with the PAK Army blocking media access, there is very little for us to add that we have not already covered on Defence of the Realm.

Without doubt, this issue is important for, as one newspaper puts it, the strategic focus in the region has shifted from Afghanistan to Pakistan, and events there have all sorts of ramifications for us here, both domestically and in terms of our international relations and security.

It is a reflection on the media though – certainly in this country, and most probably elsewhere – that the profile given to a story is determined these days not by the inherent importance, but by proximity, what interests the editorial teams, and – crucially, accessibility and the availability of photographs. It will come as no surprise to learn that Waziristan is given very short shrift in today's British media.

A few old-time hacks that I know, still in employment in a shrinking industry, are sick to teeth of it, and the venality of the media is often a topic of conversation with friends and acquaintances. It really is quite remarkable how few people these days actually buy newspapers.

So it is that we end up featuring an unusual story from the NYT. It was interesting for what it said about the media industry, one which can no longer find the time to attend executions – but is witnessing its own.

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What are they worried about? - by Richard... Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Having enlisted a number of retired generals and Andy McNab, "the renowned SAS hero" in arather dubious campaign against a registered (and therefore legal) political party, the "Nothing British" campaign against "extremism and racism" is organising a "Breakfast Meeting" tomorrow.

At the breakfast will be "leading experts in the fight against extremism", namely James Bethell, Andy McNab, Andrew Roberts and Tim Montgomerie (of Conservative Home fame). They will announce the next stage of its campaign, to draft a manifesto that addresses the bona fide issues "of those thinking about abandoning mainstream political parties and voting for the BNP."

Says the blurb, "These are often voters who feel so pessimistic about the future and so disillusioned with Westminster that they are prepared to overcome the stigma of the BNP's neo-fascist origins and support BNP candidates, many of whom have a dubious past."

The current crie de coeur, of course, is their objection to the BNP "hijacking" military symbols in support of their own campaign, most notoriously their "Battle for Britain” initiative which featured a photograph of a Spitfire, invoking the World War II patriotic spirit.

It did not take long to identify that Spitfire, marked RF-D, as a MkVb flown by 303 Kościuszko Squadron (pictured), pilot S/Ldr Jan Zumbach, who scored eight kills during the Battle of Britain, with 13 in total. 

Picturing an aircraft from a famous Polish squadron was inept enough, but the ignorance of the BNP also allowed it to feature an aircraft mark which was not issued to squadrons until early 1942, well after the Battle of Britain had ended.

A political party which claims to support the military, yet which displays such obvious ignorance of such matters, is not one to be taken seriously. As with much of its outpouring, they are – or should be – the object of derision. The BNP's campaign should have been howled down in a gale of mocking laughter.

The only problem for the established political parties is that they are unable to do so, being so compromised on the numerous issues on which the BNP campaigns, that they are left fulminating at the voters rather than the party they so detest.

What they cannot bring themselves to acknowledge is that the reason many voters actually tick the box for the BNP is precisely because the BNP is as loathsome as they claim. Such votes are a statement that, however abhorrent the BNP may be, the established parties are worse.

The answer to that, of course, is for the established political parties to up their game, for them seriously to address the issues of concern to real people rather than the denizens of the Westminster bubble. 

But, lacking political nous, as my co-editor has observed, they have made the classic error of descending into the pit and scrapping with the chimney sweep. This gives the BNP a huge publicity bonus and reinforces the impression that the political classes have lost the plot.

The only thing positive they have done is reveal quite how worried they are about "those thinking about abandoning mainstream political parties and voting for the BNP." These Tory-dominated "experts" would not be acting so stridently unless they perceived a threat to their electoral prospects. Unwittingly, therefore, they have played into the hands of the BNP.

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Another rant - by Helen...

Long overdue, this one. I just hate sensitivity. Here it is on Your Freedom and Ours.

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The real cost - by Richard...

While the warmists and their political groupies are happily chuntering about increasing the cost of energy, all to combat their obsession with the vanishing global warming, the Citizens Advice Bureauhas come up with some daunting information.

The number of people seeking assistance with fuel bills, is says, has "soared" by nearly 50 percent during the past six months to the end of September, compared with the same period of the previous year.

Undoubtedly, that is a reflection of the economic crisis, the effects of which are filtering through the system, but it also illustrates the impact of higher energy bills, which are set to go even higher as the warmist creed takes an increasing grip of energy policy.

Furthermore, these figures do not reveal one of the industry's closely-guarded secrets – the number of households now fitted with pre-pay meters. These enable companies to avoid the politically sensitive enforced disconnections, effectively forcing people to "self-disconnect" when they run out of cash to buy their tokens.

Such is the "disconnect" of a different kind, exhibited by our political classes, that they can happily prattle on about "saving the planet" from global warming, piling on costs to an already over-expensive energy system, without being in the least aware of the downstream effect.

While they prattle on, however, fuel poverty - as the Citizens Advice Bureau is showing – has already become an issue and is set to become an even bigger issue as the effects of the continued mismanagement of energy policy take hold.

What needs to be made clear – but probably will not be – is that this is a politically-generated and wholly unnecessary problem, stemming from the failures of not just this but successive governments, made infinitely worse by the fatuous obsession with global warming. 

In many instances, it is too easy to blame the politicians for societal ills but, in this case, the blame should fall squarely in their lap. They are to blame and, as they sit in their centrally-heated House of Commons, they would do well to reflect on the misery caused by their failures.

They might also reflect that their continued preaching on the need to curb global warming does nothing more than incite thoughts of perpetrating the most foul violence on their persons.

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One small setback for man ... - by Richard...

EU finance ministers failed to agree on the funding it will give the developing world to cope with global warming, "a setback for the deal negotiators hope to deliver in Copenhagen."

A call from the chancellor, Alistair Darling, for the EU to commit to €10bn, of which Britain would contribute €1bn, went unheeded. The European Commission has proposed €15bn a year by 2020. The European parliament's environment committee this week put the figure at €30bn, but environmental lobby groups talk of €35bn.

"It's a disappointing outcome," admitted Anders Borg, the Swedish finance minister, who chaired the meeting. "There's obviously been a lack of commitment."

They're throwing figures around like confetti. Who is this Anders Borg to talk "about lack of commitment"? When he starts spending his own personal money, that will be the time to listen. 

But then, there's only 48 days to save the planet ... when we have one giant leap ... backwards for mankind, if the greenies have anything to do with it.