Oppose Censorship In Venezuala

To prevent another anti-democratic move, I am backing this campaign to protect the freedom of the press in Venezuela. By inciting violence against the media in Venezuela, Hugo Chavez has already undermined the workings of the press and caused self-censorship. The growing coalition backing this campaign includes the European Parliament, the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations (including Senators Lugar, Dodd, Clinton, Obama, Kennedy, and McCain) and organizations as diverse as Reporters Without Borders, the Committee to Protect Journalists, Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International.

Disgusting Hypocrites

Meanwhile, certain so-called democrats from the British Labour Party and the "liberal elite" stand side-by-side with Chavez. First this from Labour MP Colin Burgon in the Guardian and then this letter in the same rag.

For all of Cruddas' blather of democracy as he pitches for the Deputy Leadership, don't forget that he is strongly in favour of ID cards - 3 million Venezuelans are discriminated against for signing a petition in 2004. It is deeply worrying that Cruddas and others on this list are influential within the UK's governing party. Turns out that both MPs on this list have previous with Chavez. Still unsure? More on Chavez here. And don't forget the price that Chavez put on the cheap oil that he supplies to London's Mayor - Ken Livingstone. Genetic scanning and fingerprinting and cctv technologies. Source.

Rather puts the grammar schools debate into perspective. Well it ought to.

The Beeb Reports On First Round Of The French Elections

Nicolas Sarkozy storms into the second round of the French presidential elections with a significant advantage over Segolene Royale. Despite the fact that of the top four contenders, Royal is the most left-wing and Sarko is not the most right-wing, the Beeb manages to attack them both - from the left.

Both are controversial figures who have divided the French.

Mr Sarkozy is hated by the left as a reformer who many fear would change the French way of life by making the nation work harder and longer and by cutting back on its generous welfare state.

Ms Royal is also regarded with suspicion, seen as too authoritarian and conservative by some Socialists.

Source

Nice to see a high turnout of 85%.

Name To A Handle & A Face To A Name

I've been pencilled in for an 18 Doughty Street appearance in early May. Like many bloggers, I am probably more eloquent in writing than in person (which in my case means I'm really in trouble). Just to dampen visual expectations, I'm a short, pasty-faced bloke with a whiny Brummie accent - if I wasn't balding I'd look younger than 32. My enthusiasm can come across as hyperactivity. Otherwise, I'm just a normal bloke.

I harbour fantasies of a verbal jousting with Alex Hilton, but the truth is that the topic for discussion is going to be local election results which will bring out the not-so-inner political geek in me. I'm slightly concerned about all the things that I disagree with Iain Dale about coming to the surface live on air. I'm by no means experienced with the medium of TV so any well-meaning practical advice would be gratefully received (should I wear my McLenin T-shirt?). On-topic, I'm going to a conference on arguing this week.

BBC Budget Calculator Needs Fixing

There has been a load of rubbish spouted by the MSM about this budget. Nick Robinson and Evan Davis on the Beeb's "expert blog" are amongst the worst. But the prize for the worst example of kindergarten incompetence is the BBC's budget calculator. Everyone's a winner, baby. They say that their calculator can not yet reflect the proposed changes to the income tax regime (why not?), but type in that you're earning £7k (in other words you will be paying tax at 20% instead of 10%) and it shows you as being £20 better off due to income tax!!! BBC lies or BBC incompetence. You decide.

Guest Poster - Danny Dewsbury

Dear Praguetory,

I am so grateful for you and your friends' help. I think the Labour Party
would have just ignored me otherwise, but you guys made them listen.

I know winning these awards will help me in the future and possibly highlight the documentary to people who might not have watched it. If anything I hope it's a comfort for people to know that incidents like these will never go unheard as long as there are people like yourself to highlight and question the things the party wants to hide.

For this reason alone I owe a lot to you.

All the best,

Daniel

Danny Dewsbury Wins Film Award

Danny Dewsbury is a talented film-maker. I got to know him a little after a cross-party group of bloggers banded together to try to get the Labour Party to honour their obligations towards him.


On Saturday Danny Dewbury won Best Documentary and the Grand Jury Award (given to the best film) at the National Student Film Festival for his film Slave Labour - which is about Danny's time working for the Labour Party.


I've seen the 25 minute film and it is excellent. The Prescott speech at the end was my favourite bit. Danny's not a political animal, but his film raises many important political issues. Danny has accepted my offer to do a guest post here. I don't know what he'll decide to cover, but I am delighted to observe his well-deserved and continuing success. Congratulations.

Muck-Raking Again

Possibly as a result of the ongoing cash for peerages and ongoing Home Office travails, I think that the blogosphere didn't do enough analysis on the conviction of Clive Goodman. Clive Goodman was News of the World royal editor and he and a "co-conspirator", Glenn Mulcaire were sentenced to prison for crimes related to intercepting phone messages.

As well as the royal household, the investigation found that targets for tapping included David Blunkett while he was home secretary, David Miliband, Sol Campbell and Rebekah Wade.

There's something pretty rotten in a system where people will go to these lengths to get material and to bug the Home Secretary deserved a stiffer sentence in my opinion. I have a few points to make. Firstly, I hope that both these criminals' media careers are over. They ought to be shunned and if I hear that they are employed in any capacity by a newspaper, I will make a song and a dance over it.

Secondly, it was only greed and some good fortune that led to the criminals' capture after they revealed information that only a very limited number of people knew.

Thirdly, do you agree with what the Information Commissioner said?

"The current very low penalties under the Data Protection Act for "blagging" offences which do not involve telecoms interception are not a sufficient deterrent to stop the widespread illegal trade in personal information."

And finally has this legal decision opened the way to prosecution of other cases as previously blogged? Or will these other cases be dropped in the public interest?

London's Baby Tax

I think I have mentioned before that I used to be a resident of Hammersmith & Fulham council before it went blue.

Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, West London's main maternity unit, is inside the extended zone whereas most of its catchment area: Hammersmith & Fulham is not. Councillors from the borough are joining with the West London Residents Association in a go-slow protest on Saturday (17th February 2006) against the extension. This is an 11th hour attempt to force the Mayor of London to reconsider implementing the scheme.

Cllr Nick Botterill, Cabinet Member responsible for Transport, said:

"This scheme is cutting residents off from vital services, of which maternity units are just one example. Do we really expect women in labour to jump on a bus? And should they really be fined if they forget to pay the charge whilst in labour? The Mayor of London should call a halt to this costly, unnecessary and damaging tax on West Londoners."

And to link to the previous post about media bias, and whilst we're talking about Hammersmith & Fulham, I'd like to point readers to this excellent post by one of my favourite blogging councillors, Cllr Paul Bristow. He's quite right that the BBC should be ashamed of themselves.

18 Doughty Street Returns

18 Doughty Street the internet politics show returns. People have accused 18DS of being biased, but the planned debate tonight goes some way to refuting this suggestion. At 9pm GMT there will be a debate on bullying on blogs. Unafraid to air a selection of views, Alex Hilton of Recess Monkey will presumably be arguing for bullying.

Alex is on record as saying that the disabled should be targets for satirists. No holds barred for Alex. I look forward to him putting forward a consistent position tonight.

If the participants struggle to define their position in the debate, they might want to consider the acceptability of this post where Alex's looks were placed under the microscope with unfortunate results.

Back Again - Bashing The Beeb

Hello again. I think I have a blog backlog. I have finished Geoff Mulgan's book which (after a slow start) turned out to be full of blog post potential. I also quite fancy the idea of blogging about relative poverty having just spent some time in deepest Slovakia (because obviously my mere presence in the gf's village increased the levels of poverty there). I also have some 2006 review stuff to do and there's at least a few posts on Birmingham in me.

But I'm going to ease the posts out gently as I have other things to do.

Being away for a few days without access to any media was nice, but inevitably involves a bit of catch up. Not much seems to have happened apart from England losing another match in the cricket - but the BBC doesn't cease to amaze me. Leaving to one side that the Grauniad's reporting of the BBC settlement has particularly grated, I was reviewing their current web news stories and came across this.

I *love* this extract from their crap article.

Critics say President Robert Mugabe has ruined what was one of Africa's most developed economies. As well as chronic unemployment, Zimbabwe has the world's lowest life expectancy and highest inflation rate. Mr Mugabe says he is the victim of a Western plot to bring him down because of opposition to his seizure of white-owned land.

That's right. Mugabe's legacy is up for debate at the BBC - and it's neck-and-neck at the moment. Instead, I advise readers to visit Guthrum's site for some proper Zimbabwe coverage.

Also, I know it's a slow news day, but surely they can do better than a leading political story on MP opposes hospital closures in own constituency shocker. Now, I'll make political capital as much as the next man (no really), but this attack on Hazel Blears is extremely weak. As the salutary tale of one-term Labour MP David Lock demonstrates, not standing up for the local hospital is as close as you can get to political suicide, so what is the story?

And who decided that this should be the leading UK political story and why are they in that job? Just another case of the Beeb playing ball with our rulers under the thinnest veneer of even-handedness. Rant over. It's good to be back.

Dust Settling In Ipswich

The dust hasn't yet settled, but it's obvious that Tom Stephens' life will never be the same. Revealed as a lonely and immature man and a habitual user of prostitutes, who is to blame for this man's life being dissected in the full gaze of the public? And how can Stephen Wright get the fair trial he deserves?