A journalist of fifty years standing offers a personal and independent assessment of the often troubled relationship between public figures and the British news media.
My aim is to try to monitor events and issues affecting the ethics of journalism and the latest developments in the rapidly-changing world of press, television, radio and the Internet.
Expect too an insight into the black arts of media manipulation. So spin-doctors, Beware!
A journalist of fifty years standing offers a personal and independent assessment of the often troubled relationship between public figures and the British news media.
“Don’t panic” is the advice to car workers from Len McCluskey, the Unite union general secretary, as Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt step up their Brexit No Deal preparations, amid further evidence of the precarious nature of the British automotive industry.
In response to questioning on the Andrew Marr Show (30.6.2019) about warnings that jobs and investment in the car industry could take a 20 per cent hit in the event of the UK leaving the EU without an agreement on October 30, Mr McCluskey insisted six times that there was no need for car workers to panic.
But when Marr pointed to a YouGov opinion poll of trade union members that showed that 65 per cent of Unite members wanted to remain, Mr McCluskey denied that was the case.
Trade Union ReportingRead more...
While post-Brexit job losses continue to mount in the wake of the accelerating downsizing of the British car industry, the workforce lacks the support of a coherent or cohesive voice speaking up on their behalf.
Motor manufacturing is just one of many industrial sectors where employees are being let down by the failure of the labour and trade union movement to mount a vigorous campaign to safeguard [ ... ]
Trade Union ReportingRead more...
Unlike the breakaway SDP of the early 1980s, the Independent Group of former Labour and Conservative MPs has an unparalleled chance to campaign in a way that might well prevent them being squeezed to extinction by the UK’s all-powerful two-party electoral system.
Traditional party loyalties have been well and truly shattered by the European Referendum. The trauma of Brexit has left the support of [ ... ]
Political SpinRead more...
The sight of Labour MPs from former mining constituencies expressing a readiness to accept cash for their localities in return for a vote in favour of Brexit is a haunting reminder of how easily the Conservatives bought off miners in the past.
Offers of ever-higher redundancy payments enticed many miners back to work during the 1984-85 pit strike, and finally it was these cash incentives that helped [ ... ]
Trade Union ReportingRead more...
David Cameron’s 2010 pre-election pledge to cut immigration by the “tens of thousands” had the unintended, but perhaps inevitable, long-term consequence of stiffening opposition to the European Union within the Conservative Party, and of supercharging the Leave vote in the 2016 EU Referendum.
By putting a figure on his promise, Cameron created a yardstick against which he would be held to account, [ ... ]
Election CampaignsRead more...
Just as MPs are having to shoulder an unprecedented responsibility following Theresa May’s historic Brexit defeat, broadcasters should rise to the challenge and find a more informative and representative way to test local opinion.
News coverage in the immediate aftermath of the crushing rejection of May’s EU withdrawal agreement displayed yet again all the faults of the tired and repetitive formula [ ... ]
BroadcastingRead more...
The role of the British press in campaigning to swing the Brexit vote – and the failure of broadcasters to hold either Remain or Leave to account – dominated a conference in London organised by the Association of European Journalists.
An array of tabloid front pages – including the Daily Mail’s “Enemies of the People” and more recently, the Sun’s “EU Dirty Rats” headline after the [ ... ]
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- Enoch Powell and the exploitation of immigration for political advantage
- 1992 Cabinet records reveal government chaos and confusion over death knell for coal industry
- Corbyn’s vulnerability: his “benign grandfather” image
- BBC must be fearless in the face of Project Deception over Brexit fall-out
- Will the Brexit cheerleaders become tomorrow’s heroes or hate figures?
- Teflon Corbyn? Labour Party leader has survived – even thrived – on press demonization
- Jeremy Corbyn ends Labour’s Blair-induced fear of Tory tabloids
- Theresa May duped by anti-Corbyn bile of Conservative-supporting press
- Hard Brexit being downplayed? A calculated pre-election strategy by Tory press
- Ultra-Brexiteers putting frighteners on BBC
- Hunt continues for secrets of the Battle of Orgreave
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