Leveson Report

In a move that has angered much of the public, the Prime Minister David Cameron had rejected proposals put forward by Lord Justice Leveson. To make matters worse for Cameron, he looks set to experience another humiliating defeat in the House of Commons as Labour will force a vote on the proposals. The vote should get the support of most of Labour and the Liberal Democrats as well as about 70 Conservative backbenchers. Unfortunately the vote will be non-binding as Labour does not have the power to introduce legislation.

So what is in the report causing such political angst? Well basically, Leveson calls for the setting up of a regulatory body that would be independent of both government and industry with the ability to fine organisations up to £1 million! The report castigates much of the press for their activities Leveson wrote that they have "wreaked havoc on the lives of ordinary people." Throughout the months that Leveson was listening to hundreds of testimonies, there were a number of specific stories that stood out. When Joanna Yates disappeared in 2010 her landlord, Christopher Jefferies was, in Leveson's words "the victim of a very serious injustice perpetrated by a significant section of the press". Leveson described the hunger of news organisations for stories on Madeleine McCann and her family as "insatiable." In most people's minds, it was the revelation that Milly Dowler, a murdered schoolgirl, had had her phone hacked by News of the World that started the avalanche of public anger that led to the Leveson inquiry. In July last year it seemed that barely a day went past when more people weren't added to the list of hackees. The families of 9/11 and 7/7 victims were hacked as well as those of dead soldiers and murder victims. The public revolution for the tabloids grew everyday.

The report was also critical of Jeremy Hunt and his handling of the BSkyB takeover bid. Hunt was at the centre of wider criticism of politicians' closeness to the press, particularly Murdoch titles. Leveson said that the huge amount of contact between Hunt's special advisor Adam Smith and News Corp lobbyist, Frédérick Michel was a serious problem that Hunt failed to address. Yet overall politicians were not heavily criticised notably Leveson cleared the government of being unfairly influenced by News Corp during the BSkyB takeover bid.

What happens in the next couple of moths will be of paramount importance to the nature of our press for the next generation. Parliament has a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to stop the unethical and unnecessary excesses of the British press without harming free speech and with the support of the public. If Cameron rejects the idea, it will only be a matter of time until the 2011 press scandal returns in a new form.

Fiction Marauding as Fact

Everyone lies. Lying is a simple fact of being human, some people lie to protect others' feelings, some people lie to protect themselves and others just like to lie. Everyone is also guilty of being ignorant, to varying degrees. Some are ignorant when it comes to politics or science or any other area of life. The fact is we all think we know things when we actually don't.

This post is about a website that combines lies and ignorance into one stupid mess, the website is called Conservapedia. Conservapedia was founded by a Tea Party activist, Andrew Schlafly in 2006 as he believed that Wikipedia was biased towards Liberals. Just like Wikipedia anyone can edit, the only difference is you have to register to edit Conservapedia. The website is rife with inaccuracies and opinion presente as fact. It is incredibly biased, for much of the past four years Barack Obama's birthplace has been listed as "Honolulu, Hawaii or Kenya", even after Obama released his birth certificate. The first line of the article of global warming reads "Global warming is the liberal hoax...", no debate, just a lie. The fact of the matter is global warming is accepted by 99.9% of climate scientists, the debate over its truth is in politics, not science. According to Conservapedia, evolution is another lie and homosexuality is a choice, oh and gays molest children. Stupid, right? But the most bizarre page I have found so far is the one on the London Olympics. Rather than focussing on what actually happened at the Olympics such as medal tables, the preparations or the athletes; editors chose to focus on atheism. Seriously. Atheism. One of my favourite lines in the 'article' is this: "Underachievement by atheistic nations will be particularly evident in team sports, where spiritual motivation is virtually non-existent." Throughout the whole piece I was laughing at the sheer stupidity of what I was reading, I don't think I've read anything more unintelligent in my entire life.

On a more serious note, it's ok for me to laugh. The people who edit this website are mostly American, Tea Party, Republicans, they have zero influence over politics in my country. It is more worrying for Americans, these editors really believe what they are writing, all facts on the contrary. And these people have power in the US, they control governorships, state legislatures, federal House and Senate seats. They even have their eyes on the Presidency. The fact of the matter is something needs to be done about fiction marauding as fact. Conservapedia is far from the only website spewing this hatred and lies, there are thousands of blogs, talk radio shows and the king, Fox News. Although Fox is not as extreme as Conservapedia, it still contributes to the conservative bubble in America. Never have I seen a better argument for investing in education.

Palestine state no. 194

Palestine has succeeded in upgrading its position in the UN to 'non-member state' in a historic vote I. The UN General Assembly. The measure was passed 131 votes to 9, with 41 abstaining. What is particularly notable is the way in which countries did (or did not) vote. Importantly, old allies of Israel such as Germany, Australia and the United Kingdom all decided to abstain rather than back Israel. Other allies such as France, Spain and Italy actually voted for the measure!

Although this does not go as far as many Palestinians would like and create a fully fledged state with all the same rights and responsibilities that its neighbour Israel has, it is still hugely important. The vote will strengthen the hands of the Palestinians in future talks and will allow for Palestine to join some UN institutions. One of the more direct benefits, that even Israeli supporters can agree is advantageous, is the boast it will give to the Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas. Abbas has been losing support to the more militant Hamas, a group the US and Israel label as terrorists. The successful vote in the UN should bolster support for him and help avoid a radical government.

In many way this vote can be viewed as the world's increasing frustration with Israel. It is losing many countries that were once steadfast supporters. Of the countries who did support it, the only two with serious power are Canada and the US. It's not hard to believe that without the unconditional support from the US to Israel, that Palestine would already be a UN member. One of the most contentious Israeli tactics is the building of Jewish settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, which the UN has condemned as illegal. Even the USA has grown tired of Israel on this front, during his first term in office Obama said that the settlements must be stopped

As I've said before, there is a long way to go until peace is achieved in the Middle East, but this is a step in the right direction.

Surprise Choice for Bank of England Governor

George Osborne took the financial and political worlds by surprise yesterday when he announced his decision for the next Governor of the Bank of England. The two perceived frontrunners were current deputy governor, Paul Tucker and chairman of the Financial Services Authority, Adair Turner. Instead Osborne decided to look outside the UK for his choice, turning instead to the leader of Canada’s central bank, Mark Carney. Although Carney is hardly a household name here, the decision to appoint him was welcomed by much of the political world, including by the Labour Party! In a rare glimpse of unity amongst the parties, Ed Balls, Labour’s shadow Chancellor, greeted the decision to appoint him with warmth saying he is more than qualified for the job.

When Carney took over as Governor of the Bank of Canada in 2008 the world was about to enter the ‘great recession’ in which Canada emerged largely unscathed, an outlier amongst Western nations. The success of Canada was credited to two things, the regulations Canada had placed on its banks before the crisis and the actions of Carney during the crisis. This is why Carney’s appointment was greeted with much happiness. It is also important to note that the Bank of England is being given new powers of regulation to help prevent a repeat of 2008. Carney will be tasked with helping create structural reforms to help the system cope with the massive irregularities in the British financial system.

Carney’s job will be far from easy, Britain’s economy was one of the worst damaged by the recession of the major economies. Our massive dependence on the financial sector helped destroy the economy, if we were in the Eurozone we could be in the position of Greece. Unfortunately we’re haven’t begun repairing, the country has just come out of a double dip recession and could enter into a historic triple dip! Our output is still below what it was in 2008, that’s five years of declining living standards. Carney will have to get banks lending to help stimulate the economy whilst making sure they don’t take stupid risks. We don’t want Casino banking anymore.

No Deal on EU Budget!

European leaders failed to reach an agreement on the EU budget as tensions flared over whether to increase or cut the budget. Originally the European Commission wanted an increase in the budget to €1025 billion, David Cameron was less than pleased with this as he wanted a cut to €825 billion. This did not bode well for Cameron who, when it comes to EU proposals, tends to struggle to find allies. Yet on this occasion he may have found some friends, the Netherlands, Sweden and Finland are all firmly on the British side and Germany is sympathetic to the British viewpoint. Incidentally all of them contribute more than they get. Under this pressure, Herman Van Rompuy, the President of the European Council offered a new budget of €973 billion, still above what Cameron had hoped for.

The debate over the EU budget focused on a number of areas, spending on developing poorer areas of the EU seemed to be largely a non-issue and an agreement seemed closer on the issue of the farm subsidies. The lack of progress on cutting EU administration costs angered Cameron the most, although cutting the sky-high pay of some ‘eurocrats’ would make no meaningful dent in the budget, for Cameron it is important symbolism: European taxpayers should not have to suffer austerity at home whilst paying for ridiculously high EU civil servants’ pay. Britain’s rebate was not brought up, which is surprising considering the strong feelings of certain leaders. It could prove to be a flash point in the next round of debates as France’s President, Francois Hollande, is determined to have it reduced whilst David Cameron says that the rebate is non-negotiable.

A deal will be difficult to formulate as a budget needs to be approved by all 27 member states, with the wide range of opinions this will not be easy. David Cameron is under immense pressure back home, with Conservative backbenchers demanding a cut or a rebellion. They could succeed if Labour also opposes the budget proposal, at the moment Labour seems intent on opposing whatever the government suggests.  Yet blocking a budget could produce more problems that it would solve. The nature of EU budgets is that if a budget is not agreed then the old budget would roll on, with added spending. The results would be the budget rising even higher than what the EU Commission asked for in their original proposal. An agreement must be reached or the UK will much more than it wants. 

Israel-Gaza Attacks

Violence has returned to Israel and Palestine after the Israelis killed Hamas’ top military official, Ahmed Jabari, in a rocket strike last week. The situation turned from bad to worse when both sides pounded each other with rockets and missiles. Many feared an escalation was possible when rockets from Gaza managed to reach Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, both cities are usually safe from rockets. Yet the reality is that this situation is much worse for Gaza, already 130 Palestinians have been killed, the vast majority of which have been civilians. This is significantly lower than the number killed on the Israeli side, the figure is still in single digits. Until today a ground invasion by Israel appeared imminent with Israel amassing tanks and troops on the border as well as calling up over 70,000 reservists. With the world watching the situation seemed completely out of control. Then today good news began to roll in with both sides announcing talks towards a ceasefire that would take place today or tomorrow. Unfortunately that ceasefire has not come and both sides continued shelling each other throughout today, with far more devastation occurring on the Palestinian side of the border.

The President of Egypt, Mohamed Morsi, has been an important mediator in the past few days, attempting to get Israeli and Palestinian officials talking over a deal to end the violence. Although he is a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, an organisation with many links to Hamas and he is very pro-Palestinian, he does not want to appear confrontational. He is trying to show support for Hamas whilst respecting the treaty with Israel, in trying to broker a peaceful solution he has invited regional players such as the Qataris and Turks to negotiate with the Israelis and Palestinians in Cairo. The ceasefire may not come for a while yet, but the most important thing he can do is to try and stop a ground invasion occurring. It would turn the international community against Israel, cause the death of hundreds, maybe thousands of innocent Palestinian civilians, and make it impossible for Egypt to maintain a relationship with Israel. The latter could further destabilise the Israel-Palestine relationship further and bring the whole region crashing down.

Nobody knows how long this conflict will last for; hopefully a ground invasion will be avoided. Regardless of when a ceasefire does happen, the situation in that region will not improve until Palestine is recognised as a sovereign state with all the protections and international recognition that nationhood affords. Peace in this region may be several centuries off, but it can never come if we never work for it. 

Israeli rockets land in Gaza
Source: Guardian

What is the Petraeus Scandal?

If you have been watching the news recently you have probably heard of a scandal in the US involving a man named David Petraeus, the CIA and an extra-marital affair. The short (short) story is that General David Petraeus resigned as head of the CIA after his affair with his biographer, Paula Broadwell, was made public. The reality is, the episode is much more complex/

We do not yet know what date the affair began between Petraeus and Broadwell, although this might seem like an uninteresting detail, it could be very important. The reason: it’s illegal for a member of the US military to be involved in an extra-marital affair! So if the affair began before 31^st of August 2011, when Petraeus retired from the military, he could face trial in a military court! This is pretty straight forward, the rest is like a spiders web of connexions and people extending across various arms of government. Let’s start with Paula Broadwell; she sent threatening emails to a friend of Petraeus, Jill Kelley, telling her to back off from Petraeus feeling they were getting too close. She sent the emails anonymously under the pseudonym, ‘KelleyPatrol’. Kelley was worried about the threatening letters in these emails and asked a friend at the FBI, Frederick Humphries II, to investigate. Humphries got an investigation going, but did not get assigned to it. Growing increasingly impatient as nothing was moving, he phoned two House Republicans, Eric Cantor and Dave Reichart, in the (false) belief that the Obama administration was trying to cover something up due to political intentions. As the FBI began to probe into the emails, they found another individual was in this complex web, General John Allen, Petraeus’ successor as commander of the US forces in Afghanistan. It was discovered that he had sent 20,000-30,000 emails to Jill Kelley; these emails were supposedly flirtatious and inappropriate in nature. Despite these emails, both parties deny any affair taking place! Allen wasn’t the only person Kelley was getting attention from; the FBI agent had sent her topless pictures of himself to her!

That is a summary of what happened before the information went public, what came next was a storm.

As soon as the election finished and Obama was declared the winner, the scandal fell out of control and turned into a full-blown crisis. The White House received word of the looming crisis on the 7^th of November, the day after the election. Obama’s National Security Advisor, Tom Donilon, decided to wait to inform Obama until the next day. Once Obama heard of the situation he said that he was not ready to allow Petraeus to resign and that “he wanted to sleep on it”. It wouldn’t be long before he was forced to accept the resignation, on the 9^th of November CIA director, General David Petraeus resigned. It was also immediately clear that the career of General John Allen was also in jeopardy when he was implicated in the scandal. To make matters worse, Allen was scheduled to appear before the Senate as he was going to become the top US military official in Europe. The discovery of the excessive volume of emails between Kelley and Allen caused the hearings to be suspended.

Naturally the politicians were furious; Obama had no chance to formulate a response before the public knew, nobody had even told him about the investigation being conducted or anything related to it. Many Republicans found it suspicious that the revelations occurred immediately after the election, was the Obama administration hiding something? The relevant Committees in Congress were also angry about being kept in the dart for so long about the FBI investigation. The whole mess is far from sorted, Obama has to draw up a new cabinet, sort out this mess in the military/CIA/FBI and he’s going to try and broker a deal with Republicans regarding the fiscal cliff; all in the ‘lame duck’ session of Congress. There doesn’t seem to be anything ‘lame’ about this current session.

If you still are struggling to understand this situation, I hope this spider's web of information will be of help.