On September 7 a court sitting in the Old Bailey in London resumed the task of extraditing Julian Assange to the US. Reports of earlier proceedings by Craig Murray, Your man in the public gallery, have been vital in exposing the judiciary’s capricious and partisan conduct of the process and its utter disregard for Assange’s right to a fair trial. Continue reading
Maistry v BBC
Exit Notes – bile from the bench
There is a smug claim that camouflages a political economy of exploitation, deception, criminality, plunder and war. It goes like this. Democracy and the rule of law are fundamental to the freedom and sovereignty of the people of the US and the UK. These ideals are zealously guarded by a vigilant press which exposes skulduggery, holds power to account and enables the public to see that justice has been done. Continue reading
The personal is political
Baroness Chakrabarti – the British human rights activist who joined the Labour Party last year and is now shadow attorney general – claims “austerity is a feminist issue.” Henceforth women, disproportionately punished by cuts in social spending, must press for ‘gender neutral’ government budgets. Regrettably, throwing a hijab over the class struggle is unlikely to end exploitation. Continue reading
Wild is the wind
The High Court in London will hand down a judgment of more than passing interest today. Mr Justice Foskett’s interpretation of a Labour Party rule will decide whether Jeremy Corbyn remains leader of Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition in Westminster. Democracy hangs on the decision. The political elite – and the mainstream media – would like nothing better than to see the back of a man who threatens a comfortable consensus. Continue reading
Shooting the messenger
Two independent investigations – in the space of three years – have exposed a ‘culture of fear’ at the BBC. Dame Janet Smith and Dinah Rose QC found staff are deterred from reporting bullying, harassment and the abuse of power by the threat of victimisation or dismissal. The corporation intends to restore public trust in Auntie Beeb. It would benefit from reviewing Maistry v BBC, a claim of discrimination it defended unfairly and recklessly. Continue reading
Truth to power
The BBC has been cleared of complicity in serial rape and predatory sexual abuse at the corporation. Staff were afraid to report the behaviour of star presenters Jimmy Savile (deceased) and Stuart Hall (convicted) leaving clues trapped in pockets at the bottom of the hierarchy. But the case for plausible deniability only highlights the cordon sanitaire that appears to conveniently isolate the top brass from the shop floor and the BBC from reality. Continue reading
Je suis Hilary
Foreign Shadow Secretary, Hilary Benn and a coterie within the Labour Party voted with the government for air-strikes on Syria. To do so they blackmailed their leader into giving them a free vote. Plumping for conscience outside parliament is not so easy. There is no right to freedom of thought and conscience in the British workplace. An application to the European Court of Human Rights to remedy this violation – and breach of the UK’s treaty obligations – dead ends this month. Continue reading
A question of belief
A spate of ‘freedom of thought and conscience’ cases have rippled through British employment tribunals. The courts have laboriously scrutinised beliefs about the London 7/7 bombings, fox hunting, global warming, public broadcasting, humanism, ‘left-wing democratic socialism’ and so on. Overwhelmed by the excitement no one has noticed that claimants are wasting their time. Continue reading
Along came Jeremy
For a generation a cartel of career politicians has been engaged in transforming Britain into a corporate state and its citizens into serfs. They’ve launched wars of austerity and imperialism from Westminster, asset-stripped the nation and embedded economic insecurity. They’ve been merciless, smugly kicking-ass for unfettered capitalism.Then, even as they mounted a final assault on the welfare state, along came Jeremy. Continue reading
No reply
Press TV’s accusation that the BBC has been withholding vital information about 9/11 and effectively shielding terrorists deserves dispassionate consideration. The BBC’s refusal to respond – on an issue which has led to the deaths of millions of people and the destruction of entire societies – completely undermines the corporation’s journalism. The documentary shows that BBC journalists live in fear of Israel and of losing their jobs. Continue reading
Drowning Witches 