Appalling Portrait Does Kate No Justice
What a dreadful result! It puts at least 20 years on her, captures nothing of her personality and beauty and deserves only incarceration in the Tower.
Perhaps, mercifully, the artist, Paul Emsley, may retain his head but have his hands removed so that he can never commit such an atrocious act again! The National Portrait Gallery should take it down immediately.
Not All Our Police Are Wonderful
Ex-Detective Chief Inspector April Casburn
Some are corrupt, self-serving scumbags who deserve exemplary punishment. See here.
Sixth-Form ‘A’ Level Course In PR Omnishambles
Utterly humiliating, amateur, empty, ridiculous, incompetent, shameful.
Barclay Bros Tax Avoidance Inc (Offshore) #taxcheats
Great Panorama expose on the scumbag Barclay brothers this evening.
The Ritz has paid no tax whatsoever in 17 years!
A disgrace.
Of course, Cameron and Osborne wouldn’t comment. They reserve their condemnation of tax avoidance for Jimmy Carr.
The Barclay Brothers. Tax Avoiders.
All Over The World The Media Are Self-Serving, Out of Control Renegades
‘Freedom of the press’ has nothing to do with the crass and irresponsible behaviour of two scumbag Australian DJs. Nor is it anything to with the Daily Mail’s intrusive and tasteless 20 page feature on the 12 week pregnancy of the Duchess of Cambridge. Nor has it anything to do with the Independent’s publication of false science and sensationalism about cannabis and exploitation of those with mental illness.
These are the self-serving calculations of an out of control media that has politicians in its pocket or terrified to confront its immoral and disgraceful practices.
It seems they can drive a woman to such international humilation that she takes her own life, a princess at high speed into the walls of a Paris tunnel or government policies in any direction they want based on their proprietor’s personal agenda.
They can break the law with impunity, bribing and blackmailing police to leave them alone.
Then, when their actions are challenged and they are called to account, they launch their well-oiled machine of deception, untruth and propaganda and try to seize the high moral ground as if they are protectors of freedom. In fact, mostly, they are exactly the opposite.
We need an independent media that is required to report truthfully, to moral standards that are enforced by law.
Nothing else will do. Dacre, Murdoch and their cronies cannot be trusted at all, anywhere. First we need freedom from the press enforced, strictly, by an independent regulator free from the state by force of law.
Reefer Madness In A Final Frenzy
“In years to come, the attitudes that now prevail towards people that choose cannabis will be as politically incorrect as racism, homophobia or denying women the vote.
Cannabis is one of God’s greatest gifts with which mankind has had a symbiotic relationship since the dawn of time.
The prohibition experiment of the last 80 years has been a disaster. A rational approach will bring enormous benefits to our country, save billions in wasted expenditure, create thousands of new jobs, cut crime and disorder, provide tremendously safe and effective relief to millions in pain and disability.
The time has come to embrace cannabis as the miraculous plant that it is.”
An Open Letter To My MP, Richard Drax, On The Leveson Report
Dear Richard,
You suggested in your speech in the House this evening that implementing the Leveson report would mean legislating on ethical standards for the press.
This is nonsense and I find it difficult to believe you could advance such an idea in good faith. What Leveson recommends is legislating to create an independent regulator which would set ethical standards based on consultation and agreement. This is exactly what we need.
I could not disagree with you more when you say “non-statutory, self-regulation” is the only option. I believe precisely the reverse is the case. The press has been given seven ‘last chances’ in 70 years to put its house in order and without fail has returned to abusive, corrupt and unacceptable conduct.
You will recall, I hope, that I too am a journalist and real ‘freedom of the press’ is something I value highly – but with freedom comes responsibility. It is preposterous, as you seem to suggest, that there should be no rules and all journalists must be trusted without question!
I regret that in your speech I found you pompous, apparently completely detached from the reality of most people’s day to day lives and, most of all, out of touch. You appear to be a caricature of an MP from an age that is long, long past..
The press barons, owners and editors, are flexing their muscles, saturating our country with propaganda which blatantly misleads about the urgent necessity for independent regulation. Their furious disinformation, trying to frighten and intimidate with nonsensical allegations about state control of the press is the dishonesty and manipulation of Fleet Street exemplified.
Independent regulation, backed by statute, is essential. As proposed it will enshrine a newspaper industry as independent from the state. It is a necessary and progressive move in support of freedom and liberty and against the corruption and vested interests of the media megalomaniacs.
I reject entirely your position on this vital issue.
Peter Reynolds
Hacked Off’s Leveson Petition Passes 100,000 Signatures
Congratulations on this achievement. We need to go much further though.
This corrupt government has already reneged on its e-petition pledge and ignored many that have grown well past the 100,000 mark.
The people of Britain are stitched up every day by the oligarchy of Westminster, the press and the banks and we need to fight back. This is an excellent cause around which to unite.
The press barons are a self-serving, dishonest collection of owners and editors who manipulate their power and their contacts for personal political and financial gain. They and their sleazy hacks are entirely distinct from the noble profession of journalism.
At all costs we must resist any attempt to revert to ‘self-regulation’. The lunatics have been in charge of the asylum for too long.
SIGN THE PETITION HERE!
The Only ‘Freedom Of the Press’ That Fleet Street Wants Is The Freedom To Distort, Mislead And Exploit.
Bonkers
The Butcher
Please sign the Hacked Off petition here calling for the Leveson report to be implemented in full.
Mr ‘Slippery’ Cameron vowed that unless the report was “bonkers” he would see it implemented in full. Questioned by Andrew Marr in September as to whether that remained his position he said “Absolutely”. Now he’s been got at by the press barons who are flexing their muscles, saturating our country with their propaganda which blatantly misleads about the urgent necessity for independent regulation.
The Bitch
On seven occasions in 70 years the press has been given a ‘last chance’ to continue with self regulation. Every single time they have proved to be unfit to do so. Are we going to allow these self-serving bullies off the hook yet again?
The Bully
The furious misinformation and spin flooding our streets, trying to frighten and intimidate with nonsensical allegations about state control of the press is the dishonesty and manipulation of Fleet Street exemplified.
Independent regulation, backed by statute, is essential. As proposed it will enshrine a newspaper industry as independent from the state. It is a necessary and progressive move in support of freedom and liberty and against the corruption and vested interests of the media megalomaniacs.
Phoney Fleet Street Dissemblers Yanking On Mr Slippery’s Strings
The lying, cheating, self-serving, abusive charlatans that call themselves ‘Fleet Street’ editors are in raging apoplexy about the suggestion that they might be held to account.
Spineless, Mr ‘Slippery’ Cameron has flip flopped as usual. Just a little bit of pressure applied in the right place and he’d pimp his grandmother if it seemed expedient.
There’s Nothing “Bonkers” About The Leveson Report Mr Cameron But As For You…
Now comes the news that the ‘Butcher’, the repugnant, mendacious Paul Dacre of the Daily Mail is to chair a meeting of editors to consider their response to the report. Anything that Dacre touches turns to the dark side. I don’t know why he earned his nickname but it well expresses what he does to the truth.
Butcher Of The Truth
I fervently hope that the public just won’t stand for this. Fleet Street’s desperate last stand is to claim that an independent regulator underpinned by statute is a slippery slope or crossing the Rubicon and will inevitably lead to state interference in the press.
Absolute hogwash! This is the press using their unrivalled expertise to deceive, mislead and distort the truth. Why the hell should these amoral, exploitative, habitually dishonest barons be above the law?
In fact, an independent regulator backed by statute is the best possible way to guarantee a ‘freedom of the press’ that is in the interests of us all. The only freedom that Dacre and his cronies want is to be able to continue their despicable, self-serving manipulation of facts, news and people’s lives for their own ends. At all costs, the nightmare scenario of more ‘self-regulation’ must be resisted.
Hacked Off, the campaign for a free and accountable press, is running a petition calling for the Leveson report to be fully implemented.
Peter Reynolds 