Questions on Bristol - by Richard... Monday, April 25, 2011

Questions on Bristol - by Richard... Monday, April 25, 2011

In contrast to the lacklustre reporting from The Sunday Times, we are seeing The Independent take the issue seriously.

Kerry McCarthy, the MP for Bristol East, is cited, saying: "What I can't understand is why, if the police wanted to arrest four people, they need dogs and more than 10 riot vans? If you come in with such a show of strength into a peaceful area of Bristol where the majority of people were sitting on the road with bongos and bicycles, of course it's going to spark antagonism.

"It would be interesting to see exactly what intelligence the police were acting upon that required such a fierce response. I have met with the chief constable and voiced my concerns."

Sam Barnard, 21, a student who was in Stokes Croft during the riots, said: "The police handling of the situation was overly aggressive and totally unclear. Police made the case of petrol bombs in a bid to evict the squatters but no one has been charged, and we are yet to see any evidence that petrol bombs even existed."

Predictably, Stephen Pollard in The Daily Telegraph, is pathetic. Long on rhetoric and short on facts, this is the MSM at its worst: idle, vapid and superficial – a total waste of space.

What is interesting here, though, is the gullibility of the readers on the comment thread. Pollard just has to do his "man-in-pub" routine and they all pile in, without the first thought as to whether the underlying premise is correct. One is reminded of the Grand Old Duke of York. How easy it is to march the gullible sheeple up to the top of the hill and back down again.

And therein is an illustration of the problem. Only rarely does one see the slightest trace of scepticism. Thus can the "crowd" be manipulated, demonstrating how it is that politicians can prosper. Far too many people will believe exactly what they are told, without question.

COMMENT: BRISTOL THREAD

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A last word - by Richard...

On top of our comments on The Sunday Telegraph piece, Biased BBC has waded into the debate:

I don't want to be churlish, and I am pleased that the Telegraph is finally looking at the rat's nest of establishment money-down-the-drain activity that supports climate change hysteria. But if investigative ace Jason Lewis properly read blogs such as EU Referendum and B-BBC, he'd truly be ahead of the pack. The real scandal here is that the BBC is not only involved in COMplus, but also directly part of a huge related network of climate change activism.

I've taken a little flak for my own comments – which is fair enough – but I do believe there are underlying issues here, so humour me. I've added a comment to the Telegraph site, endorsing Biased BBC, and noting the following:

The activity of the Sunday Telegraph is to be welcomed, but as B-BBC points out, if instead of reinventing the wheel and pretending it owed it, Mr Lewis had looked at the other work, he could have taken the story on further, instead of just offering a weak rehash of the salient issues.

This "dog-in-the-manger" attitude of The Sunday Telegraph typifies the attitude of the MSM to the alternative media. They are happy for us to link to them, and benefit hugely from the enhanced hit-rate they gain as a result, and they are happy to steal our work. But then to pretend that we do not exist is not only offensive, but stupid.

This is not a zero-sum game. The infosphere is effectively unlimited, but by trying to colonise a tiny corner of it and pretend it is all yours is to cut yourself off and restrict your own opportunities to expand. It is for this reason, probably more than anything, that the MSM is a failing industry. It does not understand the net, and will not listen to the people who do.

The physical and emotional investment we have in the blog is evident for anyone who reads it. I feel passionately about the role of the media and the "new media" in the functioning of democracy, and am convinced that the MSM is no longer pulling its weight.

What the media does (or does not do) is still important. For instance, if the police continue to go off the rails, it will not be the politicians that come to our rescue, but the media – so garbage like thisis actually quite worrying.

Hence, when the media is not performing, I believe it is a valid and necessary function of a blog such as ours to point it out. We have enough problems without adding to our list, but if the media continues on its death spiral, we all lose. It may be beyond saving, but it is worth a little effort.

COMMENT: HAIL THE MSM THREAD

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Missing a trick? - by Richard... Sunday, April 24, 2011

David Rose, in what is described as a "powerful piece" in the Mail online, lambasts DFID for supporting the growing of jatropha in Indian Madhya Pradesh, with British aid amounting to £45 million. The plant, "a strange, pale-stemmed plant with livid green-and-yellow leaves, native to Central America", is to be used for the production of biodiesel but, after sketching out how unpopular the scheme is with local Adivasi tribespeople, Rose tells us that "DFID now seems to find its sponsorship of jatropha embarrassing".

He cites Michael Anderson, until last year DFID's India head, who had told a Delhi magazine: "We are definitely not pushing for jatropha", claiming that DFID had never been involved in any scheme to encourage it. A DFID official assured Rose that planting of the toxic shrub has been on a very small scale, and that it has only been used to mark boundaries between fields.

Rose then claims that these assertions are not borne out by the facts. Rather, jatropha cultivation has been heavily pushed by DFID's "Madhya Pradesh Rural Livelihoods Project", which, like almost everything DFID does in India, he says, is managed on the ground by a contracted consultancy firm, Reading-based Coffey International Development. In May 2008, a DFID Vision Document said the project had earmarked 2.5 million acres of land in the tribal areas of Madhya Pradesh for jatropha. Another report in 2009 said 63,000 shrubs were already flourishing.

Backing up his assertions, Rose tells us that DFID's own publications offer few clues. Its website lists each project that Britain funds and the sums allotted, but gives no details, he says. So the only way to find out is to go to India and look, not in DFID's air-conditioned New Delhi headquarters, where all but three of its 103 India staff are based, but in the hinterland of crowded cities and the vast countryside.

Rose, however, may be looking in the wrong place. The "Madhya Pradesh Rural Livelihoods Project" is not DFID, but a state government project, supported by DFID. The difference is more than academic, as the project is entirely managed by the state. The state, rather than DFID, provides the details.

Those details are, in fact, quite comprehensive, and although the latest report does refer to jatropha plantings, with just under 63,000 plants financed, this represents a tiny fraction of total agricultural support. Overall, millions of plants have been financed (on a co-funded basis), including 2.3 million bamboo plants and rhizomes, and 1.1 million mulberry bushes.

Thus, the big culprit behind the jatropha hype in India, it would seem, is not DFID, or even the Madhya Pradesh government. More likely, it is our old friend TERI-India, prop. Rajendra Pachauri. In 2006, his Institute signed up with BP for a $9.4 million project , aiming to plant 8,000 hectares in three districts of Andhra Pradesh.

Subsequent to that, however, we learn that TERI is working with the Indian government on a detailed project report for the National Mission on Biodiesel, and claims to have established plantations in Madhya Pradesh, bringing the total jatropha plantations under its management to 0.6 million, possibly with national funding.

This was despite early indications that suggested the crop was being over-hyped. There has since been a progressive realisation that widespread jatropha cultivation is not really feasible. The production model so far proposed is now recognised as not viable.

While many sins can be laid at the door of DFID, therefore, it seems that the problem of jatropha plantations in Madhya Pradesh is not one of them. That seems to be a home-grown disaster, aided and abetted by that man of such very great judgement, Nobel prize winner Rajendra Pachauri. And one should always give the Devil his due.

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This is really funny - by Richard...

The thief Elliot Morley on the BBC website setting out reasons why the current financial crisis offers a unique opportunity for us to clean up our act. The date is 21 October 2008. I guess if he asked to do a guest slot now, he wouldn't get exactly the same response.

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A wilful lie? - by Richard...

The Sunday Times, cowering behind its paywall, does us all a favour by limiting the reach of its distortions. And that is being kind. In its coverage (print edition) of the Bristol riot on Thursday night, it tells us:

A protest against a new Tesco Express outlet in the Stokes Croft area of Bristol erupted into a seven-hour riot as police clashed with 300 demonstrators. Eight officers were injured and tens of thousands of pounds worth of damage was done to the store.

Readers will find that the copy has been produced by Dipesh Gadher, with additional reporting by Claire Hayhurst and Gemma Meredith. So an ethnic and two girlies combine to write something which is completely untrue. This is way beyond distortion, or getting it wrong. The first, all-important sentence is simply not true. It is a lie.

Then we have the clever-dick comment from Rod Liddle, who piggy-backs on the false story and delivers his own dollop under the heading, "Trust me, you idiots, every little Tesco riot doesn't help". Well, we don't trust you ... because your piece is crass. You haven't done your homework and you are talking out of your backside.

The worst of this though, is that the real story is not being told. In as neutral a way as possible, it can be asserted that the police, on the basis of flawed intelligence, grossly over-reacted to a perceived threat, mounting an ill-considered and provocative action which sparked a completely avoidable riot in which a number of people were hurt and much damage was done.

In the way of things, the police are now covering up their own incompetence, and trying to evade the responsibility for their actions, blaming everybody else except themselves. And, instead of reporting this, the great Sunday Times writes a fictional account, missing the point completely.

Mind you, The Daily Mail headline and the opening to its story is just as crass, although it does give you enough detail for you to be able to read between the lines. But that is the MSM for you – when it comes to serious issues, it is completely unreliable. They are taking money under false pretences.

COMMENT: BRISTOL STOKES CROFT THREAD

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Hail the MSM - by Richard...

There is a shadowy organisation called Globe International, doncha know. Among its principle (sic) backers are a charity set up by the Swedish multi-millionaire Niklas Zennstrom, founder of the internet phone service Skype, and British-born wealth fund manager Jeremy Grantham, whose personal clients include Dick Cheney and John Kerry.

We now know this because of Jason Lewis, Investigations Editor. And there is real glory for you. I wonder if he gets a special badge. Anyhow, the great Jason Lewis tells us all about it in today's edition of The Sunday Failygraph. How lucky we are to have a real, live "Investigations Editor" on the job.

But for his brilliance and his stunning tenacity, we lowly plebs might have had to make do with theBooker column of 27 Mar 2010. Even worse, to eke out our miserable existence, we might have been driven to The Register on 24 March 2010, or even a lowly blog on the same day.

Fortunately, we don't need to rely on such low-grade, derivative sources. Thanks to the brilliance of MSM editors of the likes of Jason Lewis, our meagre lives our now made whole. How can we possibly express sufficient gratitude to him and his wonderful newspaper for reaching down to tell us a fraction of the story, over a year later?

What would we do without the MSM? How could we survive? We should all kneel down and offer a silent prayer, in recognition of our good fortune.

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