Milton, of all people, is being invoked in the cause of liberty. Milton was a high-ranking official in the only true tyranny in English, never mind Irish, history.
The line is being trotted out that was tried over the hunting ban, a ban to which I was and remain opposed, but the answer is the same now as it was then: you are only "criminalised" if you break the law, in defiance of the Crown in Parliament.
And there continues apace the hysteria of bullies to whom someone has finally stood up. Suddenly, they love the ECHR. Beyond parody. Miliband has called this right: winning elections now means siding against the lawless, sadistic, sociopathic, foreign, pseudo-Tory press. It would take a heart of stone not to laugh.
The line is being trotted out that was tried over the hunting ban, a ban to which I was and remain opposed, but the answer is the same now as it was then: you are only "criminalised" if you break the law, in defiance of the Crown in Parliament.
And there continues apace the hysteria of bullies to whom someone has finally stood up. Suddenly, they love the ECHR. Beyond parody. Miliband has called this right: winning elections now means siding against the lawless, sadistic, sociopathic, foreign, pseudo-Tory press. It would take a heart of stone not to laugh.
However, get beyond the (largely foreign) corporate
giants with the broadcasters (the largest of which is also foreign - yes, that
means Sky, not the BBC) and the politicians in their pockets, and the
Parliamentary Lobby lists 53 of what are therefore State-licensed print
newspapers and magazines.
The most diverse press in the world, based on that list. That list of State licensees, most of which would probably or certainly not survive the loss of such State licensing. The problem is that we are never allowed to hear from most of them.
The most diverse press in the world, based on that list. That list of State licensees, most of which would probably or certainly not survive the loss of such State licensing. The problem is that we are never allowed to hear from most of them.
There is already the Parliamentary Lobby. There is
already the registration of newspapers with the Post Office. There is already
publication by limited companies and by trusts, both of which are defined in,
and regulated pursuant to, the Statute Law. What is all the fuss about?
What has become of Toryism stands
exposed again: a vicious hostility to all civic life and institutions,
including Parliament, and therefore to all public activity. Apart from wars for
Israel. Of course.
Even papers that are not owned by Rupert Murdoch pretend that they are. National sovereignty, of which Murdoch's ownership of British newspapers is a material breach of the highest seriousness, can go hang. Meanwhile, competition is only for the likes of steelworkers.
If Government policy on this were being determined by anything other than Cameron's penis, then the only votes against the full implementation of Leveson would be those of a few Murdoch loyalist MPs, a position with a wide range of policy implications and all of them thoroughly pernicious, whom both parties could thus identify in order to deselect them. Probably not 50 in the entire House. Certainly not 100. And certainly not including the Prime Minister, of all people.
Even papers that are not owned by Rupert Murdoch pretend that they are. National sovereignty, of which Murdoch's ownership of British newspapers is a material breach of the highest seriousness, can go hang. Meanwhile, competition is only for the likes of steelworkers.
If Government policy on this were being determined by anything other than Cameron's penis, then the only votes against the full implementation of Leveson would be those of a few Murdoch loyalist MPs, a position with a wide range of policy implications and all of them thoroughly pernicious, whom both parties could thus identify in order to deselect them. Probably not 50 in the entire House. Certainly not 100. And certainly not including the Prime Minister, of all people.
But instead, we have this. We can all see why. A dog's dinner is being made of a country supper.
The fact that a Labour Party which spent 13 years in bed with Murdoch and an Alistair Campbell who lied and bullied the BBC to take the country to war with Iraq, are in love with Leveson should tell us everything we need to know.
ReplyDeleteAdd to that disreputable list of Leveson fans, the disreputable millionaire Max Mosley (named by Leveson as the driving force behind state regulation) a Labour MP and Common Purpose member who is bitter that the press exposed his adventurous antics on gay dating sites, a gang of expenses-fiddling MP's and celebrity hypocrites who got caught with their trousers down, and that tells you all you need to know about Leveson.
The only people who support or want regulation of the press are disreputable millionaires, Government PR men, expenses-fiddling MPS's and totalitarian Leftists
Plus at least 40, and possibly 70, Tory MPs.
ReplyDeleteAnd the general public.
Oh, and while I am no New Labour fan, it was never "in bed" with Murdoch in quite the way that Cameron has been in bed, without quotation marks or very much else, with a high-ranking functionary of that Empire.
Wow, what a surprise, MP's want to silence the press! Who would have thought it?
ReplyDeleteNow why might that be?
The majority of the public oppose state regulation.
According to Hacked Off's own polling, fewer than 29% back it.
Their most recent poll was fiddled to produce the opposite result.
Blair was more in bed with Murdoch than Cameron ever was. He flew to Australia just to meet him.
I wonder why Alistair Campbell would want the press regulated.
If I had allies like yours, I'd be worried about my cause.
I would never have "allies" like yours in the first place.
ReplyDeleteI can't imagine why you think that I would defend Tony Blair. He did everything that Rupert Murdoch ever told him. Mind you, at least Blair never rode the horse.
This is going to happen. There is Commons majority, with or without Cameron. Get over it.
ReplyDelete"There is a Commons majority behind it"
That tells us what exactly? Erm, that Governments like to control the press. Which rather reinforces my point.
As Peter Hitchens said this morning, those MP's and their Parties have done worse things to this country than any newspaper.
It's them we need protection from, not the press.
The newspapers are the only thing in Britain NOT run by the liberal establishment. The social services, the quangos, the LEA's, the Charity Commission, Ofcome, the BBC etc are all opposed to every cause you and I support.
With regulation the newspapers would become just like them.
Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah.
ReplyDeleteIt tells us that it is the sovereign will of Parliament, that is what it tells us. More, please. Against the City. And also against the Executive and the Judiciary, against the EU and the US, against Israel and the Gulf monarchs, against China and the Russian oligarchs, against separatists and communalists.
"that it is the sovereign will of Parliament"
ReplyDeleteAh, that same "sovereign will" that gave us the Iraq War, mass immigration,EU membership, gay marriage, useless police, mass welfarism and social services that persecute parents with conservative opinions.
You put your faith in the "sovereign will" of a bunch of clapped-out liberal expenses cheats who have ruined this country for the last 50 years?
I agree with you on all the other issues.
But a state-regulated press would ensure nothing would ever be done about those issues ever.
Those things were and are the results of not standing up to media moguls and to money men, to Ministers and to judges, to overmighty party functionaries and to shadowy party funders, to Brussels and to Washington, to Tel Aviv and to Riyadh, and so on.
ReplyDeleteLet the fightback begin. This is as good a place as any. Indeed, considering the role of the Murdoch Empire in most or all of the things that you describe, it is the very best place to start.