Nightmare on Fleet Street

Now there’s an ominous title for a post. What’s started this post is the blogstorm over an article by Paula Murray. Read this, this, this and this. In short, Murray ran an article on the front page of the Scottish Sunday Express that attacked survivors of the Dunblane tragedy for using social networking sites like any other teenager. There are some slightly crude comments and some photos of them being teens. It would appear that a quote from Elizabeth Smith MSP was grossly taken out of context and that the article was deliberately run shortly after the survivors reached majority.

It is merely the latest, and a particularly egregious, example of the tabloids running stories that are not news, not fit to print, go after people who are unlikely to respond with content that seems designed to titillate the sense of moral outrage that a section of society – sadly, this is not an exclusively British phenomenon – seems to have permanently turned all the way up to eleven. It helps to shift newspapers and therefore increases advertising rates.

Let me describe a hypothetical situation. An increasing number of articles of this type (that is to say, of no public interest but of a salacious nature and for the most part aimed at people who do not have the means to take legal remedy) lead to an increasing amount of comment and dissatisfaction amongst what I am going to call the liberal elite, the political class, certain journalists and the media. This is increasingly picked up at Westminster, with Westminster Hall debates. Brought into these debates are the twin evils of reporting good science badly and reporting bad science – quack remedies and so on – at all. There is a public outcry after a child’s death is partially attributed to a particular newspaper article saying that such-and-such a disease can be cured by eating goji berries. Eventually, the PCC steps in and sets new guidelines for science reporting as an EDM condeming the poor levels of science reporting receives much support at Parliament. However, shortly afterwards, some poor sod ends up feelings so hounded by the media that they tragically commit suicide and it is felt that self-regulation is failing; not only are the papers reporting non-news, they are not reporting actual news. A Ten Minute Rule Bill is introduced by the MP whose constituent committed suicide calls for the PCC to be made a statutory body.

Perhaps this is all a bit unlikely; perhaps not. I think that state regulation of the newspapers would be A Bad Thing; however, the current, irresponsible manner of the exercise of free speech by some parts of the media could make that more likely.

xD.

For posterity…

Norm ‘Normblog’ Geras is running a posterity collection poll.

The story is that, civilization approaching its possible doom (not really, but it’s the premise of the poll), the normblog readership has been assigned the task of assembling for posterity a representative collection of the Arts of Humankind, to be preserved in a sealed container so that some future beings of intelligence, discernment and taste can discover it and be impressed. That’s you and me, and also you. What we all have to do is to nominate under the following 12 headings those artists whose work we would like to see going into the sealed container.

Well, here we go. Continue reading “For posterity…”

Connecticut Avenue, Washington, DC, 22 February

I lived, for a short time, on Connecticut Avenue in DC and it was with a few hours of layover and a profound sense of nostalgia that I took a very familiar train journey, on the red line from Union Station to Cleveland Park.

Things there have both changed and not changed. The Uptown Theatre is, of course, still there and a few of the shops – Uptown Opticians, Magruder’s Farmers’ Market, Ireland’s 4 Provinces (now called Ireland’s 4 Fields), Nanny O’Briens and the 7-Eleven – that I used to frequent are still there. The Park & Shop by Cleveland Park metro station was one of the USA’s first strip malls; fortunately, it was still enough of a novelty for people to give some consideration to making it attractive and it is vastly more pleasant that some of the shopping parades you might see in the USA today. Some have gone; the coffee shop I used to stop at almost every day has been replaced by a health food store and a couple of bars have gone.

That much is to be expected; business close, people move on and areas change. What surprised me was that Cleveland Park – a relatively well-heeled neighbourhood – seemed to be suffering. Even on Sundays, it used to be busy and it was always well-kept. Now, there are a few empty shops and the streets are a little shabby. I suppose that the recession means people aren’t painting the storefronts and the District can’t pick up the trash as often; I don’t know. It was terribly sad to walk around. Don’t get me wrong; I’m sure that Cleveland Park is still a lovely place to live and it’s still pretty well-to-do; my memory is probably adding a goodly amount of gilding as well. If there is one part of the USA that I know better than any other, it is Cleveland Park. That little part of Washington is suffering.

Anyone watching me wander round must have thought I was quite mad but, in the end, there didn’t seem much to do other than head back to Union Station. I guess that Peter de Vries was right – “nostalgia isn’t what it used to be”.

xD.

CCTV, s76 of the Counter-Terrorism Act and private prosecutions

As various people have noted (not least Septic Isle), s76 of the Counter-Terrorism Act is somewhere between barmy and 1984. The relevant section reads

58A Eliciting, publishing or communicating information about members of armed forces etc

(1) A person commits an offence who—

(a) elicits or attempts to elicit information about an individual who is or has been—

(i) a member of Her Majesty’s forces,

(ii) a member of any of the intelligence services, or

(iii) a constable,

which is of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism, or

(b) publishes or communicates any such information.

In fairness, the following paragraph says that “It is a defence for a person charged with an offence under this section to prove that they had a reasonable excuse for their action”; as ever, our laws are ‘laboriously built about a mythical figure – the figure of the reasonable man1. What is not clear is what is ‘reasonable’. Is CCTV reasonable, as, presumably, the primary intention is not to take pictures of the police. I rather doubt that would apply to tourists; if a photo showing where the police stand outside (say) the Palace of Westminster were posted on Flickr, it could conceivably be of use to terrorists.

u14_policemanThis rather unfortunate law, amongst other things, will sour things for tourists. The distinctive uniforms and headgear mean people want to take photos of themselves with the British bobby. Making it harder – in reality or in perception – to photograph and to see photographs of constables will widen the gap between the police and the public. It could be argued that the ‘reasonable’ clause is an effective catch-all as it is clearly reasonable for (say) a family to want to take a photograph with a police officer, perhaps with one of the children wearing the custodian helmet. There is also the issue of taking photographs and video footage at demonstrations. In this and many other instances, it is easy to see how an individual constable2 could act in a manner that is not in accordance with the spirit of the law. I expect that the Home Office will issue guidance in due course.

One wonders what would happen if we started having a little bit of fun with this law by taking out private prosecutions against, say, the BBC (because video footage of Central Lobby or Scotland Yard that shows where the police do or don’t stand could be of use), CCTV companies or tourists.

xD.

1 – With apologies to A.P. Herbert
2 – A constable is not just someone with the rank of Police Constable, but anyone who has been sworn as a constable; in other words, a police sergeant (or whatever) is also a constable.

George Monbiot gives whinging lefties a bad name

In an open letter in yesterday’s Guardian, George Monbiot attacks Hazel Blears for being, well, Hazel Blears. I have no objection to whinging lefties. Indeed, I often whinge and (definitional objections notwithstanding) have been called a leftie. Monbiot gives us a bad name. Not only that, he makes what he wants to achieve and what I think I want to achieve less likely.

Last week you used an article in the Guardian to attack my “cynical and corrosive commentary”. You asserted your political courage, maintaining that “you don’t get very far in politics without guts, and certainly not as far as the cabinet table”. By contrast, you suggested, I contribute “to the very cynicism and disengagement from politics” that I make my living writing about. You accused me of making claims without supporting evidence and of “wielding great influence without accountability”. “We need more people standing for office and serving their communities,” you wrote, “more people debating, engaging and voting; not more people waving placards on the sidelines.”
Quite so. But being the placard-waving sort, I have a cynical and corrosive tendency to mistrust the claims ministers make about themselves. Like you, I believe opinions should be based on evidence. So I have decided to test your statements against the record.
Courage in politics is measured by the consistent application of principles.

Ah, using a metric with an emotion. Interesting line of attack…

The website TheyWorkForYou.com records votes on key issues since 2001. It reveals that you voted “very strongly for the Iraq war”, “very strongly against an investigation into the Iraq war” and “very strongly for replacing Trident” (“very strongly” means an unbroken record). You have voted in favour of detaining terror suspects without charge for 42 days, in favour of identity cards and in favour of a long series of bills curtailing the freedom to protest. There’s certainly consistency here, though it is not clear what principles you are defending.

While I don’t necessarily agree with Blears’ stance, they would be in support of the Iraq war, concluding British deployment there before having a post mortem, in support of Trident and in support of a particular view of the security situation in the UK. Just because you don’t share the principles doesn’t mean they’re not principles.

Other threads are harder to follow. In 2003, for instance, you voted against a fully elected House of Lords and in favour of a chamber of appointed peers. In 2007, you voted for a fully elected House of Lords.

Here is the first problem with Monbiot’s argument. People’s opinions can, legitimately, change over time. In 2003 and 2007, Blears also voted to scrap the Lords entirely  and, presumably, was convinced in the intervening period that, if a unicameral system was not an option, a fifty-fifty split was the best option.

You have served without public complaint in a government which has introduced the minimum wage but blocked employment rights for temporary and agency workers; which talked of fiscal prudence but deregulated the financial markets; which passed the Climate Change Act but approved the construction of a third runway at Heathrow; which spoke of an ethical foreign policy but launched an illegal war in which perhaps a million people have died. Either your principles, by some remarkable twists of fate, happen to have pre-empted every contradictory decision this government has taken, or you don’t possess any.

I will be the first to admit that the Labour government has made some grievous errors. However, there are two fundamental problems with the arguments Monbiot puts in those paragraphs. Firstly, although I and Monbiot might disagree, there is no necessary contradiction between minimum wage & temporary agency workers’ rights or between fiscal prudence & financial deregulation1. Monbiot forgets that the government gestalt considered the war on Iraq not only a good idea but a moral imperative. There is hence no contradiction. The situation with the third runway is more tenuous, but not fatally so if you assume that the carbon emissions are maintained.

You remained silent while the government endorsed the kidnap and the torture of innocent people; blocked a ceasefire in Lebanon and backed a dictator in Uzbekistan who boils his prisoners to death. You voiced no public concern while it instructed the Serious Fraud Office to drop the corruption case against BAE, announced a policy of pre-emptive nuclear war, signed a one-sided extradition treaty with the United States and left our citizens to languish in Guantánamo Bay. You remained loyal while it oversaw the stealthy privatisation of our public services and the collapse of Britain’s social housing programme, closed hundreds of post offices and shifted taxation from the rich to the poor. What exactly do you stand for Hazel, except election?

The only consistent political principle I can deduce from these positions is slavish obedience to your masters. TheyWorkForYou sums up your political record thus: “Never rebels against their party in this parliament.” Yours, Hazel, is the courage of the sycophant, the courage to say yes.

And your article is a ‘tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury / signifying nothing2‘. Voting against the government means leaving the government in the system we have in place at the moment. It is entirely possible that Blears has opposed particular decisions but has been in agreement with the bulk of them and therefore felt it worthwhile to stay within government. This could be called the Short defence or, if you’re not being cynical, pragmatism. After all, The Guardian runs adverts from travel companies and yet Monbiot takes, albeit indirectly, the thirty pieces of carbon.

Let me remind you just how far your political “guts” have carried you. You are temporarily protected by the fact that the United Kingdom, unlike other states, has not yet incorporated the Nuremberg principles into national law. If a future government does so, you and all those who remained in the cabinet on 20 March 2003 will be at risk of prosecution for what the Nuremberg tribunal called “the supreme international crime”. This is defined as the “planning, preparation, initiation or waging of a war of aggression”. Robin Cook, a man of genuine political courage, put his conscience ahead of his career and resigned. What did you do?

Will you be issuing a writ against Clare Short? I would add that the legality of the war is contested, not that presence of legality affects its being a good or bad idea.

It seems to me that someone of your principles would fit comfortably into almost any government. All regimes require people like you, who seem to be prepared to obey orders without question. Unwavering obedience guarantees success in any administration. It also guarantees collaboration in every atrocity in which a government might engage. The greatest thing we have to fear in politics is the cowardice of politicians.

Actually, I’d have said it was either “the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex”3 or the cumulative effect of a lack of political education and the mendacity of the tabloids leading to poor decision-making because of the over-importance of certain totemic issues and the lack of appreciation of the complexity of government.

You demanded evidence that consultations and citizens’ juries have been rigged. You’ve got it. In 2007, the high court ruled that the government’s first consultation on nuclear power was “seriously flawed” and “unlawful”. It also ruled that the government must commission an opinion poll. The poll the government launched was reviewed by the Market Research Standards Board. It found that “information was inaccurately or misleadingly presented, or was imbalanced, which gave rise to a material risk of respondents being led towards a particular answer”.
As freedom of information requests made by Greenpeace reveal, the consultation over the third runway at Heathrow used faked noise and pollution figures. It was repeatedly pre-empted by ministers announcing that the runway would be built. Nor did the government leave anything to chance when it wanted to set up giant health centres, or polyclinics, run by GPs. As Dr Tony Stanton of the Londonwide Local Medical Committees has pointed out, “a week before a £1m consultation on polyclinics and hospitals by NHS London closed, London’s 31 primary care trusts were issued with instructions on setting up polyclinic pilots and GP-led health centres”. Consultations elsewhere claimed that there was no need to discuss whether or not new health centres were required, as the principle had already been established through “extensive national level consultation exercises”. But no such exercises had taken place; just a handful of citizens’ juries engaging a total of a thousand selected people and steered by government ministers. Those who weren’t chosen had no say.

So your problem is with citizens’ juries? I can see that, to be honest. Unfortunately, the corrosive effect of the media (tabloids rather than broadsheets) gives people a biased set of facts, making it hard to do surveys; equally, surveys can be rather self-selecting as people with a bone to pick will be represented disproportionately.

Fixes like this might give you some clues about why more people are not taking part in politics. I believe there is a vast public appetite for re-engagement, but your government, aware of the electoral consequences, has shut us out. It has reneged on its promise to hold a referendum on electoral reform. It has blocked a referendum on the European treaty, ditched the regional assemblies, used Scottish MPs to swing English votes, sustained an unelected House of Lords, eliminated almost all the differences between itself and the opposition. You create an impenetrable political monoculture, then moan that people don’t engage in politics.

There is a problem with our polity. It’s caused by a mix of factors. Politicians of all sides are riding on the tiger’s back in that attacking the system will end up reducing their ability to change it and, I’m afraid, Paul Flynn is not going to change things by himself. By over-simplifying the problems and making it pretty abundantly clear that whatever people from the government say will be met by unwarranted skepticism, articles like Monbiot’s open letter make reform harder.

It is precisely because I can picture something better that I have become such a cynical old git. William Hazlitt remarked that: “Man is the only animal that laughs and weeps; for he is the only animal that is struck with the difference between what things are and what they ought to be.” You, Hazel, have helped to reduce our political choices to a single question: whether to laugh through our tears or weep through our laughter.

I’ll put you down as a ‘don’t know’, shall I?

Edit 1623: Tom Harris and Hopi Sen weigh in.

xD.

1 – PFI would have been a better line of attack
2 – Hamlet V v
3 – Eisenhower’s Farewell Address

The bully pulpit, or, why I’m Ben Goldacre

Teddy Roosevelt referred to the Presidency of the USA as a ‘bully pulpit‘. He used the former word in the (Famous Five) sense of ‘bully for you’. In other words, it’s a great platform from which to promote an idea or ideology. Any elected representative can, eventually, be removed from office in a reasonably-functioning democracy. In the USA, the occupancy of the bully pulpit is limited to eight years. However, the Presidency of the United States is not the only bully pulpit; many others have no check or balance from an electorate, reality or vague sense of decency to contain them.

Enter, stage left, Jeni Barnett. Jeni has a radio programme on LBC and used it to suggest that the MMR triple vaccination was unsafe. While my understanding is that the overwhelming consensus is that the MMR jab is not only safe but a very good idea (CDC, IoM, NHS) and that there is, at least, a prima facie conflict of interest in the originator of the research, Barnett has the right to broadcast these opinions, even if they do contribute to declining rates of measles vaccinations. This right is contigent, IMHO, on a sensible provision in copyright law (based, I believe, on earlier Common Law principles) called fair dealing that allows you to criticise and review what people have broadcast (CDPA 1988 s 30 as amended). In other words, the fact that you’re on the radio doesn’t give you immunity from people pointing out your errors.

Enter, stage right, Ben ‘Bad Science‘ Goldacre. Goldacre posted, with some pithy remarks, the relevant bit of Barnett’s remarks; he has since removed the audio because of a legal threat (ish) from LBC. You can read Goldacre’s reactions here; Barnett has thoughts here; interestingly, that particular page no longer appears in her archive or on the front page of her blog.

You can read more about all of this, including some interesting insights on the legal position, over at the Wardman Wire.

Three things come out of this. Firstly, given that Wakefield’s research has been gutted by the peer review process and that the peer review process has consistently supported the safety and efficacy of the MMR jab, I am not minded to give much credence to Barnett’s comments; I just hope that other people do the same.

Secondly, as Goldacre puts it,

without being too Billy Bragg about it all: this is a law that apparently works a bit better for wealthy people.

Thirdly, quite a lot of the denizens of the internet in general and blogosphere in particular get really annoyed when freedom of speech is impinged upon. They’ll have a robust debate with positions they don’t agree with, but if you don’t play by the rules, they kick up a stink that can bring you a lot of negative publicity. The Times has picked it up as did Radio 4’s Start the Week and there’s an EDM in the offing from Paul Flynn MP. It would seem that people need to learn about the Streisand Effect.

You may insert the usual hand-wringing rant about the ‘meedja’ here.

xD.

London snow

Evidently, the UK has come to a halt because of the snow. As I mentioned in my previous post, I’m in Oslo. Suffice to say that ten or fifteen centimetres of snow isn’t a problem for Norway.

Looking at Facebook, lots of people are complaining that the snow brings London to a halt. Ten centimetres of snow lying on the ground, up here, can be counted on consistently during the winter. In the UK, it’s a once in fifteen or twenty year event. It’s simply not worth building the transport system to deal with events that happen so infrequently. It would make as much sense as Norway preparing itself for sand being blown in from the Sahara.

Stop complaining, build a snow person and enjoy the day off work.

xD.

Oslo, ten degrees below freezing

Actually, it’s rather colder than that now.

My travels have brought me to Oslo, which is a pleasant city with more than a few sights to be seen. Unfortunately, I only had today to wander round. I arrived relatively early this morning and the combination of the hour, being a Sunday and the cold meant that hardly anyone was about, despite it being a bright, clear day. The effect was rather eerie; everything is either clean and well-maintained or clean, well-maintained and covered in snow and with so few people about, it felt as if the city was too big for its population. It wasn’t quite 28 Days Later, but it did feel as if it was circa 2045 and the population had declined somewhat. I fully expect tomorrow to be busier.

As I was saying, Oslo is a very pleasant city to walk around. I wish I’d brought a camera; as it is, you will have to make do with a mobile phone photo of the rather wonderful new opera house.

Oslo opera house

It seems that Oslo is following in the footsteps of cities like Cardiff and Bilbao in using a cultural centrepiece to regenerate waterside areas. The Operahuset is, I’m told, meant to look like part of an iceberg, something that we might suddenly find to be in short supply, although the ships in the harbour made me think more of the prow of a ship. Either way, the roof slopes down to ground level, meaning that you can walk right up to the top, affording yourself a lovely view of the top of the Oslofjord. I really like the building; its use of glass to open up the foyer, offices and, at the back, the props departments combined with the public space created around and on top of it, are, at a guess, something to do with demystifying or opening up the opera; its unusual shape certainly encourages people to wander round and see what’s going on.

Oslo lying at 59° 56? 58? N, this is the furthest north I have ever been; it edges out my previous boreal approach, St Petersburg, by a few arcseconds. It is two-thirds of the way from the Equator to the North Pole.

xD.

The succession to the British monarchy

Seeing as everyone’s talking about the monarchy in general and Prince Harry in particular, it’s worth pointing out that history only gives William slightly better than even odds of ascending the throne and acquiring all sorts of other fun titles.

Queen Anne succeeded William III (who sort of succeeded himself, as he’d previously been coregnant with Mary II); however, Anne’s father, James II had previously been King. The next monarch was George I; he was the closest Protestant relation to Anne. Not, though, particularly close; counting Catholics, he was fifty-first in line to the throne. George II was actually George I’s son. George II’s son, Frederick, predeceased him, and his grandson, George III ascended the throne. George III was succeeded by his son, George IV. George IV passed the throne to his brother, William IV, who in turn passed it onto his niece, Victoria. Victoria was succeeded by her son, Edward VII, who was succeeded by his son, George V. George V was succeeded by his son, George VI, and then his son, Edward VIII, who promptly abdicated in favour of George VI. On his death, the throne passed to his daughter, Elizabeth II.

In other words, since the Acts of Union of 1707 that created Great Britain, the heir apparent has become monarch only six out of eleven occasions. Of course, things are rather less turbulent at court (and, for the most part, less important) than in the past. However, this is as much accident of history and Elizabeth II’s longevity as anything else. If, say, we had a series of general elections where there was no clear winner, the monarch, having perhaps to successively choose between the party with most seats and the party with most votes, could become really quite important. I would hope that people are considering this already; I would prefer to have a definite arrangement rather than leaving it to whim and caprice. Now, even if Prince Harry doesn’t become king, he may go for a role as Special Representative for International Trade and Investment, as Prince Andrew does at the moment. It may be a little hard for him to go to Israel, Pakistan or the Arabian world given his taste in fancy dress and nicknames.

xD.

Continue reading “The succession to the British monarchy”

Why we should take non-Brits from Guantanamo

Iain Dale asks why we should accept people who aren’t connected with Britain from Guantánamo Bay. These are my reasons why we should.

Firstly, it is in our strategic interest for two reasons. I will look at the morality and legality later, but it is enough to say that many states and people, friendly, neutral and hostile, regard both Guantánamo as immoral and the UK as very close to the United States. By acting to expedite the closing of Guantánamo, we are acting to right a perceived wrong. It also improves our standing within the EU and NATO if we can demonstrate an ability to act as an effective link or broker between the western and eastern sides of the Atlantic. I would add that there might well be (although I do not know this for a fact) people who would be repatriated to, say, Bosnia-Herzegovina. While I do not wish to impugn Bosnia-Herzegovina and am using it just as an example, I do not believe that it, or many other states, have the state-capacity to effectively monitor these people. If we look slightly more widely around the Balkans, the apparent ease with which people evaded the ICTY, I believe the point is proven. In the long-term, taking in detainees here is more secure than leaving them in limbo or Ruritania.

Secondly, it is expeditious. Whether Mr Dale likes it or not, President-Elect Obama has made it clear that Guantanamo is to be closed. As I mentioned, we are seen as close to the US in foreign policy terms. One of the big problems with Guantánamo was the lack of clarity as to what was going to happen to people held there. We now have a resolution; however, we will have to accept people who do not have an immediate connection to the US for a few reasons. One is that some states will not accept people who have a prior or stronger connection to them. We can exert more moral pressure on them to accept people from Guantánamo if we show how much we are doing; in any case, it will not work for everyone. There are some states that it would be wrong to ‘export’ these people to; they are those states that would torture them. They would go from a frying pan to a rather hotter fire and many of the problems we face because of Guantánamo would be reinforced.

Thirdly, it is morally right. Guantánamo was an abrogation of rights, poorly implemented and conceived, that took away some of our moral high ground and constitutes a serious threat to habeas corpus in the USA. Its closure rectifies at least some of those issues. Moreover, the USA is our friend and ally; if it seeks our support on this, given that the costs are minimal and the benefits great, I would have hoped it would have been a no-brainer.

If I may refer to the title of Iain’s post – “Guantánamo is a problem made in America” – I would contend that the problem may have been made there, but that does not relieve of us our obligations to justice and due process, or to our ally, or the effects its existence and the method of its closure may have on us.

In short, it is both morally right and in our strategic interest.

xD.