How Sez Sees It

There seems to be a shift in global politics at the moment. Everything seems to be shifting to the right and this is something we should probably be scared of. UK I guess there has always been a slant to the right (certainly reasserted itself in 2010) but things have gathered pace over the last few months. First of all there was the referendum that, in my opinion, should never have been which led to a vote for Britain to leave the EU. This was led by groups from the far right of the Tories and UKIP mostly. The main concerns are that there were some Labour strongholds that voted to leave too where voters cited concerns with immigration as a main factor in making a decision. The big problem might be the rise of the right wing press in the UK. Papers like the Daily Mail, Daily Express, etc. all pushed for 'Brexit' (which to me sounds like the sort of thing an unimaginative teen would come up with when trying to 'ship' things together). These papers have a wide reader...

I used to have a subscription to the largest British weekly music magazine dealing with rock and metal. I stopped that subscription and I had some very good reasons for doing so. The main reason was that I had just moved house and I couldn't justify the subscription fee every few months. I just figured that it might be better to buy it on a weekly basis if there were any articles I liked. For example, a wonderful human I know was in the magazine a couple of weeks ago because his new band were in a feature on the 'New Grave' scene. Regular readers will know that I have been supporting Solace in Nightmares for about a year now and it was this band being featured. As I lead their street team I kind of figured that I should buy the mag just for that article. The other reason is basically around the content. I had already decided to cancel my subscription but I was fed up that my favourite bands were not getting the coverage. Just as I cancel they all start getting featured...

I have decided that I shall do a more light hearted blog for a Friday.  It may turn darker, let's see how it goes. BB users are defecting to Apple.  The timing of the new iPhone 4s and the new iOS 5 couldn't have come at a better time for Apple.  It just so happens to have coincided with the failures of RIM's systems for the BlackBerry.  Are Apple the luckiest company?  Or is Steve Jobs looking down on them from the iCloud in the sky...? Live WWII weapons put outgoing flights and train services at Gatwick on a 15 minute delay.  The fact that they had been there for years is funny in itself.  I think the passengers were probably more annoyed there was a delay than the safety issue.  I had a 15 minute delay at Palma the other week...that was because of a dispute in the control tower at Bournemouth... Oliver Letwin has been seen dumping paperwork in a public bin.  I bet he thought it would be alright to do this as who would go through a pu...

This has been a week full of stories so I like a round up with my personal twist. Hackgate continues on.  The Murdochs gave evidence to the select committee and a foam pie was thrown.  I think we learnt more about Wendi Deng Murdoch than anyone that day.  Since then two former NOTW employees have said James Murdoch bent the truth when talking about payments to various people when he faced the committee.  David Cameron denied any wrong doing in appointing Andy Coulson and played down his friendship with the Murdochs and Rebekah Brooks...hmmm....seems like a lot of people denying responsibility and passing the buck.  Will we really ever find out where it stops? As of today, five people have died from having saline drips contaminated with insulin at Stepping Hill Hospital in the Manchester area.  A nurse has been arrested and questioned but this will carry on for a while due to investigations.  This is such a scary story that you really don't want to t...

Yesterday PM David Cameron faced MPs in Parliament regarding his appointment of Andy Coulson.  His claims included that Chancellor George Osborne had suggested Coulson but that the decision to appoint him was entirely his own.  On top of that he was either unable or unwilling to answer the questions put forward to him by MPs such as the level of dealings he had with the Murdochs and Brooks or any discussion about the BSkyB takeover bid. I do believe that when he says the BSkyB decision was one for the Culture and Media Secretary Jeremy Hunt (I got that one right...http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/audio/2010/dec/06/james-naughtie-jeremy-hunt-radio-4) he was telling the truth.  I do think though that surely there must have been some detailed discussion between Cameron and Hunt over the BSkyB bid as this would have given Murdoch a huge stake in the British Media and it is something that Cameron would have had to have spoken about at some point, even if it was just to Andrew...

I was going to do this blog about the committees meeting today, but I think that things have changed somewhat and so I am going to do things a little differently now. I want to start by getting the events of the pie/shaving foam attack out of the way.  I am hardly Rupert Murdoch's biggest fan, but the man was there to answer questions to a serious parliamentary commission and on top of that is a man in his 80s.  He does not deserve to be hit in the face with shaving foam or whatever it was, by some dick who thinks it is big and clever.  In fact this could have been detrimental.  As US citizen's Rupert and James Murdoch did not have to even be there and could have refused to come back after the interval.  On top of that people will have some sort of respect for both of the Murdochs for coming back.  I want to state that no matter what I say today in this blog I could never condone the behaviour of the man that did that act. Ok, on to the other stuff. ...

Just a quick update.  The Assistant Commissioner to the Met, John Yates, has resigned over his failings as part of the Hackgate scandal.  It is currently unclear whether he was pushed politically or this is a case of him going of his own free will, however, he is going to be held accountable for his actions either way and that can only be a good thing.  The big question will be over how many more people will have to jump ship.  This is the most exciting thing to happen for a long time. The reason it is so exciting I think is that it encompasses many areas of life.  Politicians, police officers and media moguls have all been drawn into this issue and it is so widespread that it makes for exciting reading and times.  People we are supposed to be able to trust have come under the spotlight as bad boys and girls and this is something that people want to read and hear about.  I for one am guiltlessly engrossed.

Twitter seems to have named the events Hackgate and it seems like a good name to me so I will borrow it when talking about the events in future. Not only was Rebekah Brooks arrested as part of a pre-arranged arrest yesterday but Sir Paul Stephenson stepped down as head of the Met Police.  If the Met thought that the arrest of Brooks would take the focus off of Sir Paul then they are mistaken.  Wherever you look today the newspapers and television shows are full of the news of his resignation and connections with Neil Wallis at NOTW.  Of course this is also a test for Cameron.  He is stuck between losing the loyalty of his friends as he is forced to cut ties with them and finding himself in the first situation he has been in where he has no real power and has to watch events play out.  Not only this but Ed Miliband has come out of this looking better than him and Cameron has to hope that Miliband doesn't know what to do with his new power. Whateve...

Today Rebekah Brooks has been arrested.  This is a good thing as if it is proved that she was responsible for allowing and enabling the hacking by News International papers then she does need to be held to account. There is one issue that is not really an issue though.  Thoughts being bandied around at the moment suggest that she was pre-warned by the police that she was going to be arrested and this gave her a chance to resign.  I am not so sure about that.  It was a pre-arranged arrest so it is hard to tell what she knew. As far as I can see the only problem is that over the next week she is due to stand before the select committee and this may effect two things.  The first is that she may not be able to appear now as she has to give information to the police over the committee.  If she does appear then the second problem is that she may be restricted over what she can say to the committee because anything she says could go for or against her in the p...

It is with regret that Rebekah Brooks has tendered her resignation as head of News International.  Let me get this straight though.  Last Sunday the News of the World closed down and made around 500 members of staff unemployed and yet there was no apology from Brooks.  Then she resigns herself now and there is still no apology. The ghastly thing is that Brooks and the Murdochs keep denying any wrong doing.  It just feels like Brooks was in the firing line as the public face of the scandal and so she had to be seen to go.  The Murdochs appear to be hiding behind this woman.  When are we likely to hear that James Murdoch is to go as well?  I doubt very much that we will see that happen. If the Murdochs think that by sacrificing Brooks the baying for blood will quell they are much mistaken.  It transpires that today the FBI are looking to investigate the possibility that families of victims who died 11/09/2001 were hacked by News Corporation owne...

So Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller has called for an investigation into whether News Corp (owned by Rupert Murdoch) is guilty of breaching US law.  This is the first time the US Senate has looked at something like this. Apparently there are concerns over how News Intl gained information in the UK around the hacking of murder victims' families and the information gained about Gordon Brown's son.  The Senate wants to find out if the same thing has happened in the US, specifically surrounding the families who lost loved ones in the attacks on the World Trade Centre 11/09/2001.  If it is discovered that hacking has taken place or any other illegal activity then News Corp will be held accountable and this is not something that is taken lightly in the US.  Their journalism does not cover the sort of in depth investigation that ours does and the people and other news companies will simply not stand for it.  This could be the beginning of the end ...

Today we learn another sickening side of what News Intl is capable of.  Yesterday we learned that The Times had got hold of Gordon Brown's bank details, etc. and today we learn The Sun got hold of his baby son's medical details.  The worst part of that is that Brooks warned the Brown's that The Sun had this information and when the Browns tried to put out a pre-emptive statement Brooks was not happy. Honestly, who would want to search through the records of a new born child?  It doesn't matter who the parents are, you simply do not go down that route!  The other thing that got to me are the accusations of a former journalist for NOTW.  This journalist claims that on 11/09/2001 Brooks said she wanted said journalist to dress up as Harry Potter for a press conference.  After the attacks on the World Trade Centre began, said journalist called the offices and asked if the Harry Potter thing was still going ahead in light of the horrific events unfolding....

This week we found out just what News of the World have been up to.  Ironically the paper that used to pride itself in reporting scandal has become embroiled in scandal of its own.  Sadly it is some of the most disturbing stories that I have ever heard. Firstly it was the tapping of the phones belonging to Milly Dowler's family, then the families of the Soham girls and then the families of service personnel killed in action.  It just got more and more sickening as the revelations came out.  According to Rebekah Brooks and NOTW staff there is worse to come.  I dread to think that there may be worse and cannot begin to imagine what that may be.  In fact I am not sure I want to know. Brooks claims that she was unaware of the phone hacking taking place under her watch as editor of NOTW.  If anyone believes that then there are serious problems.  How this woman has been allowed to keep her position at News International is beyond me, it is not enoug...

In the last week there have been lots of stories about the sexualisation of children.  Several high street chains have pledged to stop selling clothes that would be inappropriate for young children such as padded bras and t-shirts that say slogans like 'Porn Star in training'.  The trouble is we still see examples in the media every day...but not of the sexualisation of children but of hypocrites. I remember reading a story a few months back about two young mothers who let their eight year old daughters dress up as Lady Gaga every weekend to perform at children's parties.  These costumes are hardly the sort of thing you would want your child to wear normally and yet these parents seem to think it is the norm.  Underneath the story there were many comments saying how bad this was, but there were others saying that the children were enjoying it so why stop it?  These are the same commentators who go the comments pages of stories about underage sexual assult...

Today the Guardian had a response from the Readers Editor about the accusations that the Guardian employs too many Oxbridge graduates as reporters and therefore they have a biased view and should not be allowed to comment on politics, benefits, etc. I posted the following comment and thought more people should see it.  Please keep in mind when reading it that I am playing a little of devils advocate and also explaining an uncomfortable truth, we are all shaped from our socio-economic backgrounds and this includes where and how we were educated: 'The point is that the 'best' person for the job should be employed.  The problem is that where we come from can form our views on politics and how we view other people in a situation different from our own.  Oxbridge isn't really the issue, rather public education as this can form the individual's view on other people who are 'less fortunate' than themselves. Even here there is an issue though.  The school I att...

So Gadaffi is insisting on staying on in Libya.  He is effectively holding the country to ransom as innocent men, women and children suffer.  He is one of the most dangerously delusional men of our times.  Unfortunately there is an agreement with the rebels that the UN will not provide ground force or peace keepers as they want to do the job themselves.  I can see where they are coming from. Unfortunately there are some casualties that cannot be helped from the media as we insist on 24/7 updates of events in dangerous places.  This time it is Guardian correspondent, Ghaith Abdul-Ahad and his travelling companion from a Brazilian paper, Andrei Netto, who have gone missing.  If anyone can help with the finding of these men their friends, families and colleagues will be so happy.  http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/10/guardian-correspondent-missing-libya