Yesterday Gordon Brown said that the worst offenders of the MP expenses scandal ’should be prosecuted.’ However it turns out that he well may have to look at prosecuting himself. The BBC claim that it is ‘highly likely’ that the Prime Minister will have to pay back money that he has wrongly claimed.

With sources at Whitehall saying that ‘the majority’ of MPs’ will have to pay back something or be asked for justification this is the last thing the Government wanted to hear. With several MPs’ already stepping down after the first round of scandals, perhaps come election time the public will make that decision for him, as this latest bit of news will only lessen his already low standing in the people’s eyes.

Reading in today’s Times  I was staggered to see a story relating to the ending of training for the Territorial Army. Drill based work at the various units up and down the country will cease, the compulsory two week summer training course will not be run and the weekend exercises will be shelved in a bid to cut about £20 million worth of costs.

This news comes when the TA is already below the required number. Today there should be about 39,000 soldiers ready for combat should they be required however those with the full and correct training only number 19,300. Now as a previous TA soldier I can confirm that the speed and accuracy in which training was delivered was somewhat unreliable, however the answer can not be to simply stop it altogether.

Instead perhaps the administration of The Land Force could look at actually running the organisation in a correct and efficient way. Despite leaving 103 Battalion of the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers a few years ago, I continue to be sent pay slips and literature despite the fact that im no longer a member and thus no longer attend falicitating the need for payment. With the cessation of training comes the cessation of pay for those men and women that do make up the Reserve Army but do the administration intend to keep sending them all blank pay slips.

The turmoil that this could cause in Iraq and Afghanistan is incalculable as huge numbers of TA units have been involved since both wars inception.  With pledges coming from the Conservatives that they would address concerns regarding troop numbers and equipment many may be looking to the Government to be pledging more money to the armed forces not less in what is a clearly controversial topic.

The duck house, the moat and the mortgages for properties that didn’t exist, we all remember the headlines that topped the entire British press for weeks regarding the bizarre world of the MPs’ expenses saga.  The media men could not believe their luck, it was as if Christmas had come early and this time Santa had been swapped for a Tory who thought his ducks needed somewhere to sleep at night and a Labour MP who argued that Southampton was too far away from London to commute.

The headlines wrote themselves and circulation for many papers were at an all time high. Yes, admittedly some pushed it too far and the stories became stagnant and old with rehashing of the same information creeping into copy. Quickly editors acted and began to push the few new breakthroughs further back into the dead pages of their respective papers.

However Murdoch and his fellow media moguls will be rubbing their hands with glee this morning amid the news that MPs’ are facing further investigation into their claims when they return from their summer break. Those that are under suspicion will be sent a letter from an official investigator and be expected to prove their claims were genuine and legitimate.

As Brown and his cabinet already scramble to distance themselves and claim that those responsible of the most heinous claims should be prosecuted, the hacks are waiting in the wings to see what new revelations will emerge when Parliament reconvenes.

 

What is permitted (courtes of BBC)

£24,000-a-year Additional Costs Allowance, which covers the running of MPs’ second homes

£22,193-a-year Incidental Expenses Provision, which pays for running an office

£10,400-a-year Communications Allowance, which funds websites, newsletters, stationery and postage

As I am writing this David Cameron’s stomach is doing more back flips than the Russia Olympic gymnast team and what is more unlike most of the Russian Olympic gymnast team he is old enough to buy the champagne that he will surely be quaffing when election day roles round in 2010.

The introduction from Bono, himself previously a Labour guest, left a somewhat sickening taste in the mouth as Cameron continues to betray much of the dignity supposedly symbolised by the Conservative Party in an attempt to garner the votes of the working class public. He talks about a ’steep climb ahead’ but in reality the only sort of climbing I can see him doing would be into a stair lift whilst sipping his pims on a skiing holiday. Apparently Cameron understands about ‘broken Britain,’ obviously he has to dodge the chavs, the muggers and addicts when he goes out at night. It must be a real problem for him on his estate at home having to make sure he doesn’t leave his bike unattended for five seconds. This farcical attempt to make himself a ‘man of the people’ is as believable as the fighting in America’s WWF.

Let’s be honest for a minute Cameron would have to go to some lengths to actually lose the next election as Brown’s faulting Labour Government looks set to suffer one of the biggest defeats in living memory. If Tony Blair’s legacy was tainted by the Iraq war then Brown’s will be the handling of the recession the full effects of which we may not know for several years.

With claims circling that the Tories have little hard policies, Cameron announced recently the controversial news that he would withdraw from the Human Rights Act which in one fell swoop would give far more power into his own hands as his government would have to draw up another similar bill.

However it’s not just about Cameron, he is surrounding himself with ex-Conservative leaders. This will win over many of the backbenchers some of which snorted at his appointment yet now are acknowledging the likelihood of them claiming power next summer. Ian Duncan Smith has now joined William Hague as a close aide to Cameron and the whole Conservative Party will be hoping that he is more succesful come election time than either of his deposed wing-men.

The former director of children’s services at Haringey Council is today seeking a judicial review into her dismissal following the death of Baby P and the ensuing public outcry.

Sharon Shoesmith was removed from her post following severe criticism levelled at her and her department by child secretary, Ed Balls.  Despite the fact that she was in charge of the department that repeatedly failed to protect an innocent little boy and missing many warning signs, Shoesmith still feels that she was ousted due to a ‘media hate campaign.’ Attempting to direct attention away from her own utter incompetence that led to the youngster’s death in 2007, she claims that the tabloid press forced the Government’s hand into giving her the boot.

No you foolish woman you did that yourself, in terms of incompetence and utter arrogance you rank up there with disgraced former banker Sir Fred Goodwin who walked away with a ludicrous pension after leading one of the country’s biggest banks to utter ruin.

Shoesmith herself chaired the investigation into the cases failings and surprisingly enough decided that although ‘lessons should be learned’ no body deserved to lose their jobs. However the resulting public outrage made her position untenable and millions signed petitions both in papers and online and radio and tv phone in shows phone lines were busier than ITV’s on X Factor final night.

As one of the only mediums that is accessible and unites the country in terms of access the media will always be a rallying point for public opinion. Furthermore the press have that legal right to declare this sorry wretch as an incompetent fool under the defence of justification and fair comment. The facts whether Shoesmith likes it or not remain, she was the head of a department that despite many visits and warning signs permitted a toddler to suffer over 50 injuries and die, when Ofsted inspected her department they filed a damning report and a panel of Haringey councillors dismissed her without compensation.

That is all that matters. No one is saying she is directly responsible for the tragic loss of Baby P however it was the utter incompetence of HER department that failed to prevent it and therefore her squawking of unfair dismissal and prattling about not being able to defend herself actually just adds further insult to the injury caused by this horrendous case and her lack of ability to act decisively.

 

Not so long ago thousands of people took to the streets in countries across the globe all declaring that their very essence of being had been tortured, their souls ripped from their bodies and their rights trampled by a demonic beast. Take the all encompassing doom of swine flu add the personal touch of Harold Shipman sprinkle on the insensitivity of a teacher who dared do name a teddy Mohammed and you have got close to understanding the apocalyptic type disaster facing the world only a few short years ago. What was this threat you may ask? It was this   . . . .

 

Yep, that’s right kids, a cartoon published in a Danish newspaper depicting the prophet Mohammed with a bomb in his turban.

Now I know this is all old ground and i’m not going to harp on about boring intellectual rubbish like the interpretations of the Qu’ran. However while the British media clamored to proclaim their utter disgust of such things many of Europe’s papers reprinted them to defend free speech and freedom of expression. Something that does need addressing is the profoundly limp wristed approach that the British media take towards the religions that make up the now multi-cultural society we live in. Just take a look at this report from the BBC regarding large families of Christian ‘fundamentalists’ in America.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8287740.stm

Now the position of the media with regards to faith, in a legal sense, is a very difficult one with more potential pitfalls than Madonna does adoptive children. The usual defences that a journalist may call upon to defend ones self are somewhat ineffective in this instance, as the simple fact of the matter is that both the Danish Muhammed cartoons and the ‘Quiverful’ family are ridiculous to the majority of media consumers.  If this were not the case then, certainly in the Christian story, the pieces would not be reported.

So what is a journalist to do?  The BBC could not have ended their piece with ‘these crackpots will continue to breed until judgement day or their kids are sleeping in hammocks in the garden, whichever comes sooner.’  This would have opened the family to ridicule and thus would have been breaching regulation guidelines.  I understand this and the standard practise of the BBC to report impartially and objectively however if they refused to show images of the Mohammed cartoons and other type religious information then why show this?

Is it time for the BBC to take a stance on religion? Were they right to refuse to broadcast the Gaza appeal? In my opinion the answer is yes to both. The BBC and other media outlets are there to essentially represent the feelings of ‘right minded’ people in the same way that they can be sued for defamation for damaging someones reputation amongst those exact same ’right minded’ people.

If media corporations can be prosecuted for influencing the thoughts of the public then surely they are representative of said public and should behave accordingly.

Religion, science, natural history and many other realms of news are absolute no go zones it seems however as sure as the impending privacy law will arrive, the British media will very soon have to make those difficult questions and make those difficult decisions.

Ousted former Newcastle United manager Kevin Keegan has been awarded £2 million in compensation for constructive dismissal and this has opened the flood gates as accusations of corruption rain down upon the already sodden head of Magpies owner Mike Ashley.

 

With the finger pointed squarely at the unpopular henchman Denis Wise it emerged that Keegan had been forced to buy Ignacio Gonzalez in order to keep a couple of dodgy agents happy. The tribunal went on to reveal what many of Fleet Street already believed but where unable to print for lack of hard proof;

 

1. That Denis Wise and former Chairman Chris Mort had lied during interviews to make out as if all at the club was ok.

2. That Director of Football, Wise, forced Keegan to watch the Uruguayan on YouTube and sign the player on this basis alone purely to keep two South-American agents sweet.

3.Keegan was regularly undermined by Ashyley and Wise throughout his reign being fed incorrect information about the club and its ambitions.

 

Once the midfielder had been brought into the club against the manager’s best wishes Keegan had put up with enough and walked out four days later. He had claimed £25 million in loss of earnings however i’m sure he will be sleeping a little better knowing that his footballing honour has been restored, meanwhile Ashley is still struggling to find a buyer for the now problem stricken club.

 

The somewhat cringe worthy series of exclusive that The Sun have secured with their new favourite public school boy, continued today and the pages of David Cameron’s life are slowly being turned.

With the first section of the discussions focussing on the history of the Torie leader he makes a vain effort to assure people that his well off Etonian background is nothing negative and that he still understands the issues of the ‘common’ man. The fact of the matter though is that The Sunwant him to be what he is not, they want him to relate to their readership, but how can he? Does Cameron know what it’s like to raise several children as a single parent living in Burnley? Does he worry about whether his tyres will be slashed on his car or whether his bike will still be where he left it? No of course he doesn’t, by the papers own declaration he has ‘an impressive office overlooking the Thames.’ I neither like nor dislike the man but to attempt to present him as what he is not is both patronising and insulting to the people who spend their 30p every weekday.

The 42-year-old has suffered and the loss of his son, Ivan, clearly has massively hurt him as should be expected however Jane Moore has clearly written this in as a subversive effort to garner sympathy and thus votes. This isn’t Cameron’s fault he is answering the questions put before him and only dodges a potential bullet when asked what his wife calls him, cue cringing. Moore even provides him with a platform from which to denounce his previous membership to the ultra elitist and often ill-tempered Bullingdon Club that both he and Boris Johnson were members of. The Sun are perfectly within their legal rights to side with one party or another but this blanket support for anything Cameron is starting to go too far and they must be careful that they do not start to alienate some of their readership.

The recent decision by The Sun to change allegiance from the Labour Party to that of the Conservative raises some interesting questions. Firstly, to what extent to national papers hold the keys to Downing Street and secondly, is it right for a newspaper to report news in an opinionated and non-objective manner?

 The dramatic headline earlier this week of ‘Labour’s Lost It,’ was about as surprising and unexpected as yet another year of talentless hopefuls performing like monkeys on the X Factor. The move was quickly followed by the insistence that the paper was standing up for the people and the following day’s headline of ‘Labour’s Lost Us,’ in the midst of a selection of photos of people who are miffed at Brown’s administration.

 Plain and simply The Sun will not decide who the next Prime Minister is alone, and they can not force people to vote, however as the most widely read daily in the country it holds huge importance as a propaganda tool. Today’s paper dedicates several pages to David Cameron including ‘David Cameron’s Vow to Sun Readers,’ followed by 10 pledges that are as mainstream as his army of spin doctors and advisors could bring themselves to write. Surrounded by headlines such as ‘Now The People Speak,’ and ‘Jail Taunt Yobs,’ The Sun is clearly aligning itself with the man they expect to be the next PM. The fact of the matter is that they have chosen a not altogether surprising time to make this announcement with latest polls showing Brown’s administration less popular than ever and supporters of Labour turning to the Dark Prince Mandelson for any sign of hope or optimism.

 With the BBC and other TV broadcasters in this country unable to take a political stance the undeniable character assassination that the British tabloids seem to pride themselves on seems to be more important now than perhaps ever before. The celebrity obsessed public crave more and more gossip to the extent that when this week Katie Price, aka Jordan, was kicked off a breast cancer awareness campaign for comments she made relating to her own peculiar bust there was not a mention of the actual campaign but a Z list glamour model making herself look even more foolish, now that’s what the people want to hear about. This leaves editors little choice but follow the public opinion and taste, if they went a breakdown of what Sarah Brown is wearing that’s what they get, if they want to know which cheeky girl Lembit Opik is currently shacking up with a centre spread is afforded. The personal attacks or at least as important as the news itself and in many cases more so.

 

Cross the pond and it’s a very different story for the TV broadcasters.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouKJixL–ms

 

The TV networks openly support whoever they like and this simply leads to a wider and more accessible version of what we see in the tabloid press of today. This isn’t against the law in America whereas here it would breach the regulation set out by OFCOM that TV news channels have to report in an impartial manner.

With the newspaper industry slowly falling and the rise of the internet and new modern media the chances of this situation remaining solely in the realms of the British tabloids are slim. Many people now access their news online where the restrictions and regulations are a lot harder to enforce therefore the betrayal of news and the rise of celebrity politicians is regrettably in its infancy.

This week has seen yet another attack on the smoking industry and another step by an elected political body to attempt to control every aspect of our lives. Liverpool City Council have decided that too many children are forced to watch people smoking in films and that they will naturally want to follow suit. So what is their master plan to combat this? What is their genius idea that will have the film directors scratching their heads and writers thinking twice? They are simply going to make every film which features a single lit cigarette an 18. Yep, that’s right the proposal would mean that ‘an “18″ Classification will be given to most new release films exhibited in Liverpool if they depict images of tobacco smoking and do not already carry an “18″ Classification.’ The certificate is normally reserved for films with high levels of violence and drug abuse or severe bad language however the latest idea seems like one step too far in the latest crusade to eventually ban the sale of tobacco and cigarettes.

Perhaps the most bizarre issue is that the Council actually seem to think that this will have any effect what so ever. As this is a city initiative not a national one, families will simply drive ten minutes out of the city to see the latest movies and then return afterwards meaning that the entire scheme would be utterly pointless and serve no purpose except that of costing the council tax payers a huge amount.

Perhaps these council busy bodies should try living in the real world as opposed to fighting for column inches with more ludicrous suggestion supposedly in our interest.