To all media critics out there, I’m investigating the impact on journalism of professional journos being asked to blog as well as write for the more traditional channels.
Give me your thoughts on everything from the affects on ‘impartiality’ to audience.
And please feel free to quote your favourite theorists on the subject.
Ian Tomlinson died during the G20 protests in London at which he was an innocent by-stander. The Metropolitan Police at first tried to cover up their involvement in the death of an otherwise healthy man by saying Mr Tomlinson had had a heart attack, unrelated to the serious head trauma he received when Met officers pushed the unarmed man to the ground. A second post-mortem revealed this was a lie. Mr Tomlinson’s family have since had to suffer a third post-mortem on Ian’s body, at the request of the Met who are contesting the previous result. The police tactics at the G20 were beyond heavy handed. They were brutal. As yet no police officers have been brought to justice over Ian Tomlinson’s murder or any of the other crimes perpertrated by the Met during the G20.
See this article from The Guardian for more details: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/blog/2009/apr/07/g20-protest-death-police-assault.
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By Laura Miller. George Osborne skipped up onto the stage at the Policy Centre full of the joys of a man who can say what he likes about “effective economic …
www.politics.co.uk/analysis/economy-and-finance/the-lost-art-keeping-secret-rediscovered–$1259709.htm |
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By Laura Miller. Former chancellor and habitual Tory leadership contender Kenneth Clarke will again bring his boisterous brand of politics to Britain’s …
www.politics.co.uk/analysis/legal-and-constitutional/profile-kenneth-clarke-$1261806.htm |
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By Laura Miller. Justice minister Jack Straw has reintroduced government plans for closed door inquests, held without a jury, in cases involving aspects of …
www.politics.co.uk/news/legal-and-constitutional/secret-inquests-back-on-the-table-$1260879.htm |
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By Laura Miller. Boris Johnson will receive his second call to give evidence over the arrest of Damian Green today, after failing to attend the first time …
www.politics.co.uk/news/legal-and-constitutional/boris-avoids-green-inquiry-$1264351.htm |
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By Laura Miller. Gordon Brown and David Cameron have both begun tours of recession-struck Britain in a move unheard of outside election season. …
www.politics.co.uk/news/legal-and-constitutional/party-leaders-on-uk-tour-$1258822.htm |
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By Laura Miller. Government departments frequently waste taxpayer’s money on useless and expensive regulations, a report has said. …
www.politics.co.uk/news//news//domestic-policy/govt-regulations-without-purpose–$1264688.htm |
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By Laura Miller. Jacqui Smith was forced to make a climb-down today over claims “considerable damage to national security” forced her to involve police in …
www.politics.co.uk/news/legal-and-constitutional/smith-faces-grilling-over-home-office-leaks-$1261980.htm |
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By Laura Miller. MPs and peers have won their battle to keep their expense claims for the last three years secret. The retrospective exemption, expected to …
www.politics.co.uk/news/legal-and-constitutional/mps-to-be-let-off-foi-$1261281.htm |
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By Laura Miller. Powers to raid political candidates’ homes and offices without a warrant broke human rights law and were right to be dropped, according to …
www.politics.co.uk/news/legal-and-constitutional/search-powers-right-to-be-dropped-$1265004.htm |
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By Laura Miller. The prime minister is a “one-eyed Scottish idiot,” according to Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson. Made during a promotional visit to …
www.politics.co.uk/news//news//culture-media-and-sport/clarkson-in-hot-water-for-brown-comments-$1266895.htm |
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By Laura Miller. The home secretary has stepped away from controversial government plans to use intercept evidence in UK trials. …
www.politics.co.uk/news//news//legal-and-constitutional/smith-climbs-down-over-phone-tap-evidence-$1268846.htm |
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By Laura Miller. Government moves to completely nationalise banks already under partial state control would be supported by the British public, …
www.politics.co.uk/news//news//economy-and-finance/public-want-failing-banks-nationalised-$1271234.htm |
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By Laura Miller. Binyam Mohamed’s lawyers will fight to re-open his case on the grounds that the UK government misled the highest court in the land when …
www.politics.co.uk/news//news//legal-and-constitutional/govt-misled-high-court-in-torture-case-$1266890.htm |
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By Laura Miller. Average British families are paying £297 more a year in food and tax bills due to EU fisheries policy, claims a report published today. …
www.politics.co.uk/news//news//opinion-former-index/environment-and-rural…/eu-fisheries-policy-costs-uk-families-297-each-$1264706.htm |
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By Laura Miller Commenting on reports that Gordon Brown is to order Labour MPs to vote to exempt MP’s expenses from the Freedom of Information Act …
www.politics.co.uk/mps/press-releases/party-politics/liberal-democrats/brown-s-secret-expenses-call-disgraceful-$1262632$452057.htm |
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By Laura Miller. David Blunkett, former home secretary, is to remarry, his spokesman said today. The Sheffield Brightside MP has announced he will wed …
www.politics.co.uk/news/party-politics/labour/blunkett-gets-new-bride-$1264060.htm |
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By Laura Miller. Some patients will soon be able to choose where they buy their healthcare using money paid to them directly, the government announced today …
www.politics.co.uk/news/health/patients-manage-own-health-budgets-$1261387.htm |
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By Laura Miller. The British public is set to come under even closer scrutiny during 2012 from an advanced CCTV system specially designed for the London …
www.politics.co.uk/news/policing-and-crime/big-brother-intensified-olympics-$1260869.htm |
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By Laura Miller. The Scottish government today faced criticism from Labour MSPs over its failure to secure a budget for Scotland next year. …
www.politics.co.uk/news//regions/scotland/scottish-politics-in-disarray-over-failed-budget-$1264613.htm |
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By Laura Miller. Some secondary school pupils will be asked to look at the co-ordinated suicide bombings on London’s transport system from the standpoint of …
www.politics.co.uk/news//news//education/pupils-taught-to-see-7-7-from-bombers-perspective-$1271201.htm |
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By Laura Miller. Jacqui Smith will launch the largest ever cross-government public consultation on violence against women and girls today, …
www.politics.co.uk/news/equality/smith-to-tackle-violence-against-women-$1275213.htm |
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By Laura Miller. Deputies live out life in the shadows, waiting and desperately hoping the boss falls from grace before they themselves are too old to take …
www.politics.co.uk/analysis/policing-and-crime/profile-sir-paul-stephenson-$1264424.htm |
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By Laura Miller. Councils’ failure to curb a 500 per cent rise in litter through education and fines loses taxpayers £500 million a year in clear-up costs, …
www.politics.co.uk/news/environment-and-rural-affairs/govt-blamed-as-litter-rises-500–$1275240.htm |
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By Laura Miller. Current government skills and learning policy is inappropriate now the country is in the middle of a recession, leading politicians have …
politics.co.uk/news/opinion-former-index/education/govt-skills-plan-doesn-t-fit-recession-$1261321.htm |
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By Laura Miller. Chancellor Alastair Darling was today forced to rein in his hopes for a recession-beating “new global deal” next month, after Washington …
politics.co.uk/news/economy-and-finance/us-will-talk-but-not-act-at-g20-$1280146.htm |
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By Laura Miller. MPs will meet representatives from Premier league football clubs today to discuss the plight of the working poor in one of sport’s …
www.politics.co.uk/news/culture-media-and-sport/premier-league-poverty-wages-$1280158.htm - 22 hours ago |
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By Laura Miller. Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg today called on Gordon Brown to stop the flow of arms from Britain to Israel and criticised his lack of …
www.politics.co.uk/news/foreign-policy/clegg-suspend-arms-israel-$1259058.htm |
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By Laura Miller and Alex Stevenson. Downing Street has abandoned a controversial vote to keep MPs’ expenses private. The government had said Labour MPs …
www.politics.co.uk/news/legal-and-constitutional/labour-mps-forced-vote-secret-expenses-$1262526.htm |
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By Laura Miller. Gordon Brown and his Cabinet met in Liverpool today to discuss urban regeneration and the government’s latest plans to spend its way out of …
www.politics.co.uk/news//economy/employment/unemployment/brown-show-reaches-liverpool-$1259422.htm |
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By Laura Miller. Unemployment will escalate and consumer spending will continue to plummet well into 2011, according to an “optimistic” financial report out …
www.politics.co.uk/news/economy-and-finance/-optimistic-financial-report-the-worst-yet-come-$1261941.htm |
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By Laura Miller. Government failure to deport foreign criminals quickly costs taxpayers £10 million a year in extended detentions, a Tory immigration …
www.politics.co.uk/news//news//opinion-former-index/policing-and-crime/foreign-criminals-cost-taxpayers-10-million-$1264842.htm |
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By Laura Miller. In a rare interview with the Guardian newspaper, Jonathan Evans warned of a direct link between events abroad and security risks at home. …
www.politics.co.uk/news/foreign-policy/policing-and-crime/mi5-israeli-attacks-will-provoke-uk-extremists-$1259139.htm |
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By Laura Miller. Simon Hughes (energy and climate change spokesman). Hughes has significant experience with environmental issues. …
www.politics.co.uk/analysis/legal-and-constitutional/who-s-on-new-lib-dem-front-bench–$1259457.htm |
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By Laura Miller. The government has been accused of failing to respond to demands from the public for a “better alternative” to the motorway. …
www.politics.co.uk/news/transport/calls-rail-investment-prevent-motorway-hell-$1260607.htm |
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By Laura Miller. British graduates lack the skills to succeed in the jobs market, according to a report published today. …
www.politics.co.uk/news/education/education/uk-awash-with-unemployable-graduates-$1261237.htm |
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By Laura Miller. A report outlining the true cost of the Gaza war will be published today by a strategic research group. Lord Alderice, a leading expert in …
www.politics.co.uk/news/foreign-policy/true-cost-gaza-israel-conflict-be-revealed-$1262633.htm |
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By Laura Miller. Anglo-French relations took a knock last night after Nicolas Sarkozy publicly criticised Gordon Brown’s handling of the economic crisis. …
www.politics.co.uk/news//news//economy-and-finance/sarkozy-critical-of-brown-s-mistakes–$1266951.htm |
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By Laura Miller and Richard James. Billionaire and former KGB agent Alexander Lebedev is poised to buy a majority stake in the London Evening Standard, …
www.politics.co.uk/news/culture-media-and-sport/ex-kgb-spy-set-buy-london-evening-standard-$1261040.htm |
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By Laura Miller. Litter is an eyesore for everyone, and figures show the ugliness has significantly increased in the last thirty years, …
www.politics.co.uk/analysis/environment-and-rural-affairs/analysis-a-mountain-of-rubbish–$1275714.htm |
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By Laura Miller. David Cameron has promised to give MPs more chances to quiz him in greater detail about his policies if he becomes prime minister. …
www.politics.co.uk/news/cameron-pledges-tv-debates-if-he-becomes-pm-$1263871.htm |
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By Laura Miller. Gordon Brown will today outline his ‘green new deal’ as part of efforts to kill two birds with one stone using a low carbon economic …
www.politics.co.uk/news/environment-and-rural-affairs/labour-embarks-on-green-revolution–$1275186.htm |
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By Laura Miller. Demonstrators are planning nationwide protests today to boycott the sale of Israeli goods on UK high-streets. …
www.politics.co.uk/news//news//business-and-industry/uk-activists-boycott-israel-$1266992.ht |
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By Laura Miller. Major lobbying groups would be forced to disclose who they are working for and the MPs and Lords they meet under proposed new anti-sleaze …
www.politics.co.uk/news/legal-and-constitutional/lobbyists-facing-tighter-control-laws-$1275159.htm |
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By Laura Miller. Police deliberately intimidated protesters and obstructed legal observers during protests at Kingsnorth power station, a report has said. …
politics.co.uk/news/policing-and-crime/-repressive-and-disproportionate-policing-at-kingsnorth-$1280104.htm |
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By Laura Miller. Premier League football is no stranger to pay controversy, functioning, as it does, as a mirror of wider trends in society. …
www.politics.co.uk/analysis/culture-media-and-sport/analysis-football-is-a-mirror-to-the-nation-$1280711.htm - 12 hours ago |
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By Laura Miller. Chancellor Alastair Darling was today forced to rein in his hopes for a recession-beating “new global deal” next month, after Washington …
politics.co.uk/news/economy-and-finance/us-will-talk-but-not-act-at-g20-$1280146.htm |
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By Laura Miller. Over three quarters of British adults rate social care as importantly as the NHS, a survey has revealed. Eighty-six per cent adults would …
www.politics.co.uk/news//news//communities-and-local-government/social-care-as-important-as-nhs–$1271250.htm |
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By Laura Miller. Strained relations between the government and the Bank of England reached a head when the central bank issued a rare public reproach to …
politics.co.uk/news/business-and-industry/govt-blames-boe-as-car-industry-nose-dives-$1280059.htm |
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By Laura Miller. The government will be forced to publish two reviews into the controversial ID card system after a four year battle to keep them secret, …
www.politics.co.uk/news/legal-and-constitutional/govt-forced-to-publish-id-card-reviews-$1271160.htm |
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By Laura Miller. Education, education, education, went the Blair mantra in 1997. Droves of able students have passed through the university system in the 12 …
www.politics.co.uk/analysis/education/analysis-is-education-for-business-or-knowledge–$1261240.htm |
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By Laura Miller. Buses which carry the slogan “There’s probably no God” do not breach the advertising code, a watchdog has ruled. …
www.politics.co.uk/news//news//transport/atheist-buses-do-not-break-advertising-rules-$1262650.htm |
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By Laura Miller. Westminster MPs should not enjoy special privileges when it comes to disclosing how they spend public money, according to David Heath, …
www.politics.co.uk/news/legal-and-constitutional/lib-dems-mps-must-comply-with-foi-$1261370.htm |
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By Laura Miller. George Osborne today told the public that times are tough with only hard work on the horizon and no quick fixes to the economic problem. …
www.politics.co.uk/news//news//economy-and-finance/osborne-tells-voters-home-truths–$1275175.htm |
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By Laura Miller. Gordon Brown faced accusations he is the ‘King of Spin’ today, after a report revealed he has more press officers than any PM in the last …
www.politics.co.uk/news/culture-media-and-sport/brown-the-king-of-spin–$1263808.htm |
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By Laura Miller. Primary school children in England are being failed by a national curriculum that focuses too much on core subjects like maths and English, …
www.politics.co.uk/news/education/children-impoverished-by-poor-education-$1271075.htm |
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By Laura Miller. The London mayor and the Met’s new assistant commissioner will finally speak out about their involvement in the arrest of shadow …
www.politics.co.uk/news/legal-and-constitutional/boris-will-finally-talk-about-damian-green-$1264959.htm |
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By Laura Miller and Ian Dunt. The economic downturn is deepening at an alarming pace, according to new findings published today. …
www.politics.co.uk/news/business-and-industry/economic-downturn-deepens-at-alarming-pace-$1260298.htm |
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By Laura Miller. Lord Taylor. A Labour peer since 1978, Lord Taylor of Blackburn was described in 2007 as “the primary conduit between the defence industry …
www.politics.co.uk/analysis/legal-and-constitutional/profile-spotlight-on-the-labour-lords-$1263720.htm |
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By Laura Miller. Strikes over Italian workers at the Total Lindsey oil refinery were rooted in a toxic mix of job insecurity and the unfairness of the …
www.politics.co.uk/analysis/employment/analysis-an-age-of-insecurity-$1269715.htm |
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By Laura Miller. The slogan ‘British jobs for British workers’ has split opinion between those who agree with the phrase, and those who believe it smacks of …
www.politics.co.uk/news/equality/-british-jobs-slogan-splits-the-public-$1269028.htm |
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By Laura Miller. Plans to allow people’s confidential details to be shared across public and private agencies around the world have been attacked by MPs in …
politics.co.uk/news/opinion-former-index/legal-and-constitutional/mps-condemn-outrageous-data-sharing-plans-$1264010.htm |
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By Laura Miller. People around the world will come together today in remembrance of those killed by the Nazis during World War Two and other genocides. …
www.politics.co.uk/news/culture-media-and-sport/genocide-victims-remembered-on-holocaust-memorial-day-$1264042.htm |
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By Laura Miller. Low paid workers are often closer to the bread line than those who have lost their jobs due to the recession, a report published today has …
www.politics.co.uk/news/employment/employed-no-better-off-than-jobless-$1258840.htm |
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By Laura Miller. Gordon Brown has tasked Alan Milburn with improving the life chances of Britain’s poorest children, as a report published today reveals …
www.politics.co.uk/news/children-and-family/milburn-back-in-govt-help-disadvantaged–$1260205.htm |
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By Laura Miller. A catalogue of failures in the government’s massive NHS IT project has led health service staff to lose confidence in the records system, …
www.politics.co.uk/news/health/failures-over-nhs-it-systems-hit-crisis-point-$1263910.htm |
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By Laura Miller. Caroline Spelman will not be dropped from the shadow cabinet in the latest Tory reshuffle, despite being under investigation for her use of …
www.politics.co.uk/news/legal-and-constitutional/spelman-stays-despite-nannygate-investigation-$1261955.htm |
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By Laura Miller. Ken Clarke has reportedly branded David Cameron’s tax plan for married couples as tantamount to “social engineering”, and an ill-advised …
www.politics.co.uk/news/children-and-family/ken-clarke-calls-cameron-s-marriage-policy-social-engineering–$1264388.htm |
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By Laura Miller. Gordon Brown will meet the German Chancellor today to discuss the need for co-operation in tackling the economic crisis. …
www.politics.co.uk/news/economy-and-finance/brown-and-merkel-in-talks-to-end-recession-$1261012.htm |
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By Laura Miller. Lib Dem shadow home secretary Chris Huhne has written to home secretary Jacqui Smith urging police vigilance in areas with large Jewish …
www.politics.co.uk/news/policing-and-crime/politicians-coordinate-jewish-protection-initiative-$1259108.htm |
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By Laura Miller. Police have introduced a new ‘three strikes’ regime to target cannabis users following the government’s reclassification of the drug to …
www.politics.co.uk/news/health/police-to-use-three-strikes-rule-against-cannabis-users-$1263769.htm |
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By Laura Miller. David Cameron has promised to make public any secret files on UFOs if he becomes prime minister. Responding to a question about cover-ups …
www.politics.co.uk/news/legal-and-constitutional/tories-we-will-come-clean-over-ufos-$1264157.htm |
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By Laura Miller. Councillors will soon be allowed to stay at home instead of attending meetings and vote by remote control - but still claim thousands in …
www.politics.co.uk/news/communities-and-local-government/absent-councillors-can-claim-10-000-for-nothing-$1264871.htm |
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By Laura Miller. Hamas must be part of talks to secure peace in the Middle East, former PM Tony Blair said today. Speaking in his role as Middle East peace …
www.politics.co.uk/news/foreign-policy/blair-hamas-must-be-part-of-peace-talks-$1262627.htm |
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By Laura Miller. People in Britain no longer trust financial institutions, the markets or the government’s ability to manage the economy, according to a new …
www.politics.co.uk/news/economy-and-finance/shortage-of-trust-in-british-economy-$1260814.htm |
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By Laura Miller. Ex-servicemen involved in British nuclear testing in the 1950s are to launch a legal bid against the government at the high court later. …
www.politics.co.uk/news/legal-and-constitutional/govt-face-legal-action-from-nuclear-test-veterans-$1262556.htm |
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By Laura Miller. Salaries of the BBC’s highest paid talent should be revealed to encourage greater transparency within the media industry, according to the …
www.politics.co.uk/news/culture-media-and-sport/bbc-stars-pay-should-be-made-public–$1262832.htm |
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By Laura Miller. Mental health problems are on the rise as more people struggle to deal with the effects of the economic crisis, a new survey reveals. …
www.politics.co.uk/news/health/recession-ruining-britons-mental-health-$1260598.htm |
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By Laura Miller. Dozens of senior civil servants enjoyed free lunches, days at sporting events and evenings out paid for by top companies, including failed …
www.politics.co.uk/news/legal-and-constitutional/civil-servants-wined-and-dined-by-failed-banks-$1268806.htm |
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By Laura Miller. A pro-Christian advert that claims a vaccine to prevent cervical cancer in young women increases teenage infertility has been banned by the …
www.politics.co.uk/news/health/christian-advert-banned-by-watchdog-$1264170.htm |
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By Laura Miller. The star spangled banner will flutter high over City Hall today as the London mayor celebrates the inauguration of Barack Obama as American …
www.politics.co.uk/news/communities-and-local-government/london-city-hall-flies-stars-and-stripes-$1262005.htm |
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By Laura Miller. Unemployment looms for many public sector workers, the Local Government Association (LGA) warned today, as one in seven councils axe jobs …
www.politics.co.uk/news//domestic-policy/local-government/recession-hits-local-councils-$1260838.htm |
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By Laura Miller. The home secretary must “use her best endeavours” to bring back a gay asylum seeker illegally deported from the UK, a High Court judge …
www.politics.co.uk/news/legal-and-constitutional/jacqui-smith-ordered-to-return-gay-refugee-$1271126.htm |
By Laura Miller. Shadow business secretary Alan Duncan could be the first casualty of a Conservative cabinet reshuffle rumoured for next week. …
www.politics.co.uk/news/children-and-family/employment/alan-duncan-could-join-britain-s-2-million-unemployed-$1259731.htm
CleverZebra, a company that, “advises its members on the use of virtual worlds technologies within enterprise”, thinks so; its website asks coolly, “Why fly when you can teleport?”, as if reality has become a bit of a bother. Virtual worlds are helpfully exempt from the realities of death and taxes, though probably not the latter for much longer. Fuelling debate at Sepember’s Virtual Policy Network’s Virtual Policy ‘08 in London were talks on taxing revenues generated in virtual worlds. Exciting the regulators is the destructive effect of virtual spaces on distance; users separated by national borders, and laws, at home are jurisdiction free neighbours online. Virtual conferencing embraces this destruction. Meetings can go ahead without a single delegate becoming encased in traffic on their way to take a carbon heavy flight, plus everyone gets to sleep in their own bed at the end of the day, in a coup for both environmental and work/life balances.
There are other benefits. A video conference is cramped at a 4-way split screen; in multi-user virtual world conferences speakers can address scores of attendees (well, about 80), while displaying numerous visual aides (oh joy) before basking in the glory of a rapturous standing avatarvation (sorry). Delegates can break off into discussion groups then bring feedback to the whole, enabling greater participation. A lavish, bespoke surrounding for this love-in is the other main feature on offer, ranging from the exotic to, bizarrely given the possibilities, the mundane.
Experiments in holding online events continue with varying success by another group for whom simulating ‘being there’ is important, musicians. In-world concerts play for one audience with two bodies, the second a swaying self-projection on screen. Conferences could certainly benefit from what virtual spaces like Second Life (the platform used by CleverZebra) do well, when they’re not doing bad; bringing people together around a common interest like music or politics.
Depending on who you ask, however, there are also some negative numbers involved. Iyan Writer in Second Life® is unconvinced by the return on investment of using virtual world spaces for conferencing, pointing to a series of potential real world flaws; “major problems are the unwillingness to invest human resources in SL; the complexity and immaturity of Second Life as a business platform; and the biggest one of all, the difficulty of forging lasting and valuable relationships with Second Life community.” (A zebra and its stripes, 11.04.08) ZDNET blogger Oliver Marks echoes this last point, warning that no virtual venture can forget the very human need for “careful planning and integration into existing personnel and partner hierarchies” (It’s the economy stupid - collaboration ROI, 22.05.08).
Greenness and life-friendliness video conferencing currently achieves without the new investment virtual conferencing demands, and with the benefit of seeing who you are talking to. In a virtual conference colleagues’ confusion/boredom/disgust at what you’ve just said won’t be detectable. Although potentially a bonus if your spine is as sustantive as that of your avatar, these emotional indicators are important components of one of the main aims of conferences, relationship building.
The success of virtual conferencing rests on its capability for enhancing communications by recreating, if not augmenting, the essential reciprocity of a live event, in a way that perhaps staring face on into a webcam at your associates while alone in a grey box meeting room can not. The risks are depersonalised or fragmented relationships and, initially at least, the problem of getting people to actually stay and listen to what you have to say despite the fact that they can teleport and and you are wearing butterfly wings. Funny CleverZebra don’t mention that on their website.
The joke is part of American comedian Emo Phillips’ stand-up. It is a papraprosdokian, Greek for ‘beyond expectation’; an ostensibly innocuous build up guides us in, a sinister punchline swings out of a shadowy corner. Known in comedy circuits as the ‘garden path gag’ its a favourite amongst satirists, and it seems, bankers.
For a decade since the last decade in which the economy imploded, as consumers we have been encouraged down ill advised financial paths to unmanageable debt. Meanwhile, well-dined bodies in bespoke suits have been racing from London’s Square Mile and New York’s Wall Street in Porsches for second homes in the country. Now, as the global economic down turn tightens its grip millions of people are choking on the credit spoon fed to them by high street advisors, credit mustered out of thin air by the big stock market players enjoying massive profits by risking our security to satisfy their own greed. Individuals eager to safeguard their futures with home ownership are suffering if not repossession crippling debt as banks demand contractual obligations be met regardless. But as the recent trend towards state bail outs of private lenders, and their insurers, is demonstrating, financial institutions are exempt from the accountability they impose on the rest of us. The grim reality is galling; we now have no choice but to pay the poison sellers for their antidote.
Banks and the transactions that pass through them penetrate too deeply into our lives for governments able to prevent their bankruptcy not to do so, if it comes to that. Even if we are not in debt they hold our savings; cheques and debit cards are worthless if the bank whose name they carry can’t guarantee a release of funds. With that level of immunity, and therefore power, must come the highest level of responsibility. But banks are private corporations, not elected governments held accountable by voters. Despite assurances during the boom years that our power as consumers to tart around from one interest free credit card to another, transferring our steadily increasing negative balances, would act as the best, and only necessary, watchdog of financial practices, it seems the total power invested in banks was corrupting them totally. And we have to pay for their excesses. Interest on what were sold as low rate loans and mortgages has rocketed as lenders try to fill holes they have created by over speculation from our pockets. Millions have been wiped off the value of pension funds joined by the prudent, and gambled by the reckless. Money we have given up to the government as tax to educate, heal, rehabilitate, and keep us during old age is being sucked into state sponsored rescue packages and nationalisation.
Lucky for us we still have free banking.
Back in 2005 some British customers rebelled against the banks’ practice of charging up to £40 a pop for unauthorised overdrafts, failed cheques or returned direct debits, and demanded reimbursement. To silence these initial trouble makers, the banks gave in. By spring 2006 the media had got hold of the story. The resulting publicity encouraged tens of thousands of account holders to write to their banks asking for money paid in exorbitant fees back. Faced with the prospect of laying out billions in reclaims, the industry threatened that if campaigners were to succeed in their attempts to claim back up to six years of past charges it would spell the end of ‘free banking’.
Around the same time a similar, longstanding insurgence against the all powerful banking cartels was rising to a head across the Atlantic, and American account holders were also told they had never had it so good. Fritz Elmendorf, VP of Communications for the not-for-profit Consumer Bankers Association, (a US trade organisation representing financial institutions offering retail lending and services like credit cards, mortgages, student and small business loans) said: ‘Banking was never free because [prior to deregulation] consumers were not getting a market rate on their savings and were paying a lot more for loans.’ Elmendorf was quoted in 2002, in a CNN Money article highlighting fees as a product of the increased competition faced by US banks after deregulation. Fees, argued advocates, represent a fairer banking model; those who cost the bank money through unauthorised borrowing pay penalties, while everyone else enjoys current accounts at no cost.
Stephen Rotella, President and Chief Operating Officer of Washington Mutual, the largest savings and loans association in the US, disagrees. Speaking to USA Today in March 2006 he warned: ‘A lot of banks are claiming to have free checking. What you’ve found is there are a lot of barriers and hooks for consumers.’ Barriers like minimum balance requirements and hooks like temporarily low interest rates on overdrafts or balance transfers to their credit card; enticements to buy now and worry later, when whatever you bought is costing you significantly more in repayments than the price paid by people able to pay outright that day in cash.
For UK customers at least, Rotella’s concern has since been upheld by the British judiciary. Far from being intrinsic to the fabric of fairer banking, in late April 2008 a British High Court judge confirmed that UK banks’ penalty charges are subject to the same fair practice rules as the rest of their products, services, terms and conditions. The banks have been given leave to appeal the decision. Currently the UK Office of Fair Trading is determining whether the fees are actually unfair.
Pre-emptive of an unfavourable decision, banks are now saying that if they can’t take money out of the pockets of those who exceed their agreed limits, often by as little as £5, via a series of hidden charges they will take money from all our pockets. The move seems designed to divide those in credit against those in debt (or who simply forgot to cancel a direct debit). What our financial institutions neglect to mention is that our global banking system is anything but free. And as usual the poorest pay the most.
There’s nothing funny about the current economic crisis, which is why we don’t let comedians make our financial decisions. Why then can bankers get away with telling us that we enjoy ‘free’ use of their services when the reality is that we pay them while we diligently look after their fabricated credit, and pay them even more when they piss our real money up a wall in the South of France? Bankers receive huge annual bonuses based on the number of deals they make, bonuses which are theirs to keep irrespective of how the market performs. And funding the extravagant lifestyles those bonuses afford are the family now living in at best in cramped temporary sheltered accommodation.
‘Council War To Flush Out Benefit Cheats’. It is the front page splash of the Stratford and Newham Express, my local weekly. The article reports how a local man in his fifties has ‘received a suspended jail sentence for dishonestly obtaining nearly £14,500 in benefits.’ He must pay back the money, plus £350 in court costs. The man’s name and address are included next to his crime. Justice is done; taxpayers deserve to expect that while they support the welfare state through taxation, the system must not be abused for private gain. The Plaistow man got less than £15,000, which he has been ordered to return. When will we as taxpayers be reinbursed the £50 billion it cost to nationalise the mismanaged Northern Rock?
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Banking Crisis Timeline (source: BBC): http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7521250.stm
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‘Bank failures are caused by depositors who don’t deposit enough money to cover losses due to mismanagement.’
Dan Quayle, US 44th US Vice President under George Bush (1989-93). b.1947
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‘I hate banks. They do nothing positive for anybody except take care of themselves. They’re first in with their fees and first out when there’s trouble.‘
Earl Warren (US Republican Politician and Judge, 1891-1974)
This must be a liberal blog, you’re thinking; three lines in and there’s unequivocal indecisiveness. Well by that mark, the Republican Party are going liberal too. At least on some things. Like teen pregnancy. Conveniently. Tuesday’s papers reported how party supporters - dominated by the religious right who preach no sex before marriage - are rallying round Sarah Palin and brood, with some even going so far as to say that the revelation has endeared the Alaskan senator, a largely unknown figure before McCain’s endorsement, to voters who now see her as an ordinary American facing the everyday challenges of parenting teenagers. Amongst these Bristol Palin’s defence amounts to the ever handy conservative fall back refrain, ‘at least she’s keeping it’. This applause for heroic stoicism seems more than slightly superficial, however, not least because the ferociously pro-life Mrs Palin has stated publicly that even if her daughters became pregnant through rape she would force them to continue with the pregnancy, making it highly unlikely that abortion was an option for the seventeen year old, regardless of her own thoughts on the issue. As it stands, the soon to be father, Levi Johnston, a self-described “redneck” who doesn’t “want kids”, is due to marry Miss Palin in the near future (Mrs Palin herself eloped with her high school boyfriend, Todd). So that’s alright then. And, as my housemate pointed out, who cares anyway what her and her hick boyfriend got up to behind the moose sheds? According to both McCain and Democratic hopeful Barack Obama, nobody should. In fact we are being told that we shouldn’t even discuss it. The families of Presidential or Vice Presidential candidates, we are being told, are ‘off limits’. Begging the questions, where, and since when?
Answers: nowhere and never. Pressuring the media to keep mum over Bristol’s pre-wedding bump is especially absurd in a political scene that devotes huge amounts of energy, and disgusting amounts of money, to marketing their politicians as worthy of their office by virtue of their whole ’story’, from birth (or even before) to now. In speech after debate after speech the onus is on candidates leading from the front, by example. As an important indicator of the consequences of such leadership, according to the focus of the campaigns, their domestic harmony is an integral part of this. Obama, who has publicly condemned drawing Sarah Palin’s children into the political spotlight, parades his very young daughters around the Democratic circuit, most recently at the National Democratic Party conference, where one piped up ‘I love you daddy’ in front of a crowd of 75,000, luckily with microphone in hand. Obama is often criticised for failing to connect with ‘ordinary’ Americans. Perhaps instead of this saccharine display he would have been better off getting his youngest to whinge a bit about not getting her favourite Bratz doll on her birthday. As it was, the message was clear and deliberate; a well loved father (or mother), able to raise (train?) stable, confident, articulate, children will be able to translate that private success into a public one for the nation’s young and old alike. It is a model to which the Republicans traditionally adhere even more zealously than the Democrats, positing their candidate as the nation’s father and repeating the phrase ‘the importance of family values’ like a mantra, second in holiness only to the joint firsts of nationhood and a belief in god. Bill Clinton’s lack of concern for his family, demonstrated by his extra-marital affair, very nearly got him impeached, (not his laying waste to Serbia, or his failure to secure peace in the Middle East) and almost certainly helped grease George W. Bush’s path to the Presidency, on a platform of, yes, you’ve guessed it, bringing good old fashioned family values and god back to the White House.
Yet never before in this fight to champion family values have the Republicans, or the Democrat Party for that matter, found so much compassion for unwed teenage mothers. It is painfully clear that for both parties this sudden rush of empathy has nothing to do with moving their ideological goalposts, and everything to do with their quest for power, making current displays of understanding particularly putrid in their hypocrisy. The Republicans, traditionally vociferous in their opposition to any domestic situation outside the order of marriage, kids, then death, come off worse by saying it doesn’t matter because it instantly seems they are saying that it doesn’t matter because she’s one of ours. Would Sarah Palin and her daughter be treated so well by the GOP if they were poor anonymous Latinas (who have the highest teen birth rate of all major ethnic groups in the US)?
That is not to say that Bristol and Levi should be hounded or humiliated by anyone at all, least of all politicians and the media (who finger wag at other people’s children enough). Or that Sarah Palin should be vilified as a terrible mother because her daughter has disregarded her right-wing, fundamentalist Christian stance on sex, and children - even if Bristol and Levi marry before the birth, Mrs Palin’s pro-life position affirms life begins at conception - before marriage. And arguing that if you can’t convince your immediate family of the merits of your political beliefs how are you going to convince a nation of 305 million, is not only too simplistic, it seriously misses the point. Just as the Palins should not suffer unduly because of this revelation, neither should the Alaskan governor gain political capital out of what can not have been anything other than a mistake, however much joy, as Mrs Palin was quick to point out during her speech on Wednesday night, that mistake might eventually bring. Every developed nation in the world is trying to cut its teen pregnancy rate, including the United States. While the latest figures show that the number of American teenagers becoming pregnant dropped 38% from 1990 to 2004, the US still has by far the highest teen pregnancy rate amongst industrialised nations.
But what’s wrong with being a young mum? Lots according to The National Campaign To Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy (NCPTP), a privately funded organisation, founded and operating in the US, that monitors sex education programs. Its website states, ‘if more children in this country were born to parents who are ready and able to care for them, we would see a significant reduction in a host of social problems afflicting children in the United States, from school failure and crime to child abuse and neglect.’ Kids Having Kids, a 1996 report by the Robin Hood Foundation, an organisation targeting poverty in New York City, showed that compared to their non-pregnant peers teen mothers were 60% less likely to complete high school, with only one-third receiving a high school diploma. Included in this report are findings from another paper (Jacobsen and Maynard 1995) highlighting the fact that ‘80% of young teen mothers received welfare during the 10 years following the birth of their first child; 44% of them for more than 5 years.’
These depressing statistics have barely changed in the decade since they were published. The vast majority of America’s teen mothers currently end up living on state handouts. The cost of this situation is three fold. Firstly to the parents (although generally this equates to the mother singly), who, with only a basic education and a child to raise, are subject to severely restricted job prospects, consequently limiting their chances of professional fulfilment or financial independence. Secondly to the child. ‘The poorer outcomes associated with teenage motherhood also mean the effects of deprivation and social exclusion are passed from one generation to the next.’ This is the assessment of Nottingham City Council, which in 2006 had the third highest teenage conception rate in the UK. That ’special relationship’ between America and Britain sees the two countries interests dove-tailing again; the UK has the worst rate of teen pregnancy in Western Europe.
The final cost of teen pregnancy is to society. In the US the costs incurred by the state because of teenage fertility - including welfare and food stamp benefits, medical care expenses, lost tax revenue (teenage childbearing affects the parents’ work patterns), incarceration expenses, and foster care - runs to an estimated $6.9 billion dollars annually. And even after all this the full price of becoming pregnant too early (generally defined as before the age of 17, the same age as Bristol Palin) isn’t fully calculated unless the increased physical risks to both mother and baby are also taken into account. Research by Dr Heather Dryburgh for neighbouring Canada’s National Statistics Agency cites a 1999 report stating that, ‘[c]hildren of teenagers are more likely to have low birth weights, and to suffer the associated health problems.’ Dr Dryburgh’s report continues, ‘[p]regnant teens themselves are also at greater risk of….anemia, hypertension, renal disease, eclampsia and depressive disorders. As well, teenagers who engage in unprotected sex are putting their own health at risk of sexually transmitted infections.’
Naturally governments and health professionals are keen to prevent this horror reel of consequences perpetuating. The vast majority of experts agree that the best, most reliable way to avoid teen pregnancy and its many associated problems is by delivering a comprehensive sex education and by the provision of contraception. What does Sarah Palin support? Teaching abstinence-only in schools. An extensive study authorised by the US Congress in 1997 and published last year revealed that abstinence-only sex education programmes failed to keep children from having sex. On contraception, its effects at encouraging teens to take pre-cautionary measures before having sex are zero, although the report goes on to say that an abstinence-only education did not decrease condom use amongst sexually active young people. Talking about the study’s findings to American newspaper The Washington Post Sarah Brown, executive director of the NCPTP, said the results support those of previous studies. “The most effective programs are those that say abstinence is the best choice but birth control and protection are also worth knowing about.” Martha Kempner, an official at the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States, echoed the need for more that just an abstinence-only syllabus. “Comprehensive education means teaching about abstinence and a myriad of other topics [including] contraception, critical thinking, one’s own values and the values of your family and your religious community.” Kempner’s final assessment is unequivocal: “Abstinence-only was an experiment and it failed.”
Palin is not alone in her support of this failed programme. Placing her in the second most powerful seat in US government would serve to galvanise those in favour of continuing this dangerous experiment in ineffective education on America’s children. Of course, Governor Palin can afford to ensure that her daughter and future grandchild receive the best medical care available at all stages during and after pregnancy. Bristol Palin will not be forced to live on meagre handouts from the state, and with money for home tutors and child care it is unlikely that having a child will stop her from continuing her education or pursuing a career, if she wishes. Nor will she watch her child enter into a cycle of poor opportunities and future poverty. As much as they try to sell it to voters, pregnant or not the Palin’s comfortable lifestyle does not represent that of the majority of the American public, least of all teen mothers. Instead of trying to gag discussion about Bristol Palin’s unintended pregnancy, the annoucement should be used as an opportunity to grill politicians on what they intend to do to stem this growing problem amongst the general population. In the immortal words of Salt ‘n’ Pepper, its time for Americans to demand of their politicians, ‘Let’s talk about sex, baby.’
OK, so it was opening night, making nerves as natural as overpriced drinks at the theatre bar. The crowd could not have been more supportive, though. Laughter and applause interrupted Dan Gordon’s stage version of Barry Morrow & Ronald Bass’ 1988 Oscar winner Rain Main in places it perhaps really shouldn’t have, as the (overwhelmingly female) audience rushed to make Hartnett feel appreciated in his theatre debut . Unfortunately, he rarely seemed able to translate this encouragement into a confident portrayal of wheeling dealing self-centred yuppie, Charlie Babbit. Despite always looking as though he was trying hard, somehow things just didn’t come together for the film actor; a lack of chemistry between him and Mary Stockley, playing the character of his on/off girlfriend Susan, (who looked both at ease on stage and in her role), didn’t help. Probably neither did a few line problems early in the first half, one of which resulted, bizarrely, in Hartnett name dropping ‘Brad Pitt’ mid rant. The Apollo is hardly cavernous, but while subtle shifts in tone and volume work fine on film, more projection is needed for a packed house, and to impact on the nose bleed section of the balcony. None of this is to suggest that Harnett has over-reached, however. His performance strengthened steadily throughout the second Act, and the scenes set in Las Vegas, where the emotional barrier between the Babbit brothers becomes thinnest, were touchingly acted by both Harnett and Adam Godley, who plays tooth-pick counting autistic savant Raymond Babbit. Godley’s perfomance was credible throughout, even if his movements bent too much towards that of a shuffling geriatric. The play’s laughter lines, most of them from Godley, consistently hit their deadpan mark, and an energetic supporting cast of doctors, hookers, waitresses and policemen hint at societal pressures beyond the immediate relationship between Charlie and Raymond. Arguably it is the strength and on stage experience of the rest of the cast which puts Hartnett’s lack of it into sharp relief. If anything he seemed just too much of a nice bloke right from the start. No doubt as the play’s run progresses and Harnett’s confidence grows - and he starts to suffer the wrath of a rain soaked British winter - that will all change.
Rain Man is at The Apollo until 20 Dec 2008. http://www.apollo-theatre.co.uk/
Of the top five most used phrases before I left Lampeter - a hill enclosed town in West Wales - for London, four included the words ‘careful’ and ‘dangerous’. Unsurprising perhaps, in light of recently released Home Office figures in which, at 124 offences per 1000 people in 2006/7, London tops their survey of regions by crime rate. The report’s authors are quick to point out that this figure is likely to be inflated by factors such as a large visiting population relative to London’s resident population, though such qualifications are easily drowned out by high profile murder cases, especially if, as has been too often the case this year, those involved are startlingly young. London’s unique position as capital, and therefore as a potential, though rare, target for extremists of all persuasions, compounds tensions otherwise felt in all urban areas, and so while the total recorded crime in the city actually fell by 6 per cent compared with 2005/6 (the largest fall for any UK region, Home Office figures), fear of crime remains largely unabated. A report just published compiled by government adviser Louise Casey has found that the majority of people believe crime is on the increase, and that the courts are too concerned with the rights of criminals. Add the longest working hours and some of the worst commuter conditions of any EU country, and more surprising is that tired and stressed Londoners talk to each other at all. Yet they do, or at least they do with me, and not just to issue some generic ‘good morning’ while rushing out the door towards the Tube, as RatedPeople.com’s poll suggests.
Flashing the hideously out of date photo on my Young Person’s Railcard I took a train to search for a room amongst the capital’s one million. With a crude sense of direction replacing an A-Z, I got lost everywhere, often, as my meagre accommodation budget ensured, in places which seemed daunting in both their unfamiliarity and their bleak grey uniformity. What I eventually did find was lots of good examples of dire living spaces, but not without the help of many obliging, friendly individuals who came across as wanting to guide around London’s labyrythine streets someone lacking their own, prized local knowledge. In Bermondsey landlord Jaime called me back time after time to make sure I found a room he could quickly let anyway. A Leyton mother with two kids in tow, not knowing the road I was looking for herself, offered to phone her husband so he could direct me. Having just finished for the day probably the last thing Slawek wanted to do was go back to his Canning Town portacabin office, restart his computer and print off maps and directions, while the reason for it stood drenched, useless, and dripping on his carpet. But he did. And exactly a week after moving down another human female spoke to me on the Tube, praising me for my choice of T shirt. Admittedly I did jump a bit, but that was only because I was reading a high up poster and didn’t notice her until she was very close and audible.
I now live in Stratford, stadium town for the 2012 Olympics and a series of sporting events that will bring together people from all over the world in a microcosm of what London manages, more or less successfully, day in day out. The visiting athletes will be united by sport, but also by high pressure jobs and strenuous schedules, so it’s unlikely that they will have time to go around borrowing cups of sugar from one another. But as with their hosts, an innate unfriendliness should not be inferred from a lack of air kisses in the Olympic Village. In fact, positivity is key to their success; in April the British Psychological Society’s Annual Conference concluded that, ‘dwelling on the negative…can disrupt [the sportsperson's] ability to perform actions that would normally be automatic’. Transposed onto the daily lives of full-time Londoners, where, according to the Louise Casey report, at least one type of anxiety, fear of crime, is a key feature, and the disruption occurs in our ability to engage in a level of congeniality that might otherwise be automatic.
In the second most expensive city in the world (after Moscow according to Mercer’s 2007 survey), cheap room hunting is more a test of endurance than a sport, but if the Sirens in Lampeter or on the front page of The London Lite had managed to distract me with their singing about how Londoners prey on the vulnerable like grannies on Werthers, I might have ended my four day odyssey without knowing how friendly London can be (or I might still be drudging through an industrial estate in Canning Town). When needing help I asked for it because I believed I would get it, and I did. That said, having spent some time living and working in this high-speed, densely populated urban sprawl, after a 50 hour week my own positivity is in short supply So is my ability to sit down without falling asleep. Maybe this is why Londoners swap fewer words with their neighbours. After work, the commute and directing the lost and hapless around the capital they just have no energy to gossip with The Jones’. Whatever the many, likely mundane, reasons why people here chat less to her-next-door that are tied up in this latest survey pointing once again to the unfriendliness of the place, from me at least, for stopping to lend a hand, a phone and a whole office to a newbie, London’s men and women earn solid gold Olympian medals for proper, off the cuff niceness.
news, current affairs & political comment: no eggs
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