Shooting the tory fox

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The 56 SNP MPs at Westminster are to vote against the proposed relaxing of the current legislation on hunting foxes with dogs in England and Wales. This appears to break the SNP’s self-imposed rule on not voting on devolved matters which have no effect on Scotland. The reason that they give is that there is a review being conducted at Holyrood into whether the existing Scottish ban, which allows for the flushing out of a fox with a pack of dogs instead of the permitted 2 in England and Wales, is strong enough. This seems a fairly minor Scottish interest to me. Others of a more English bent would probably say that there is no Scottish interest whatsoever. Like the BBC for instance.

Disengenuous BBC headline

Disingenuous BBC headline

Notice how the headline states “English” yet the body of the story says “England and Wales”. The folks at the BBC know that the majority of people won’t read past the headline. This a risible attempt to inflame anti Scottish opinion by our national broadcaster. But this a relatively minor issue compared to the others which are continuously spewed out by the government’s main propaganda organ.

So what’s afoot? Well there is a possibility that the combined efforts of the SNP, Labour (if they bother to vote), the Lib Dems, a few tory backbench rebels and assorted others could inflict a defeat on the tories. After all their majority is wafer thin, like those wee chocolate coated mints that you get after Christmas dinner. That would anger the tories no end, Boris would go so scarlet with apoplexy that he would look like a giant strawberry and cream lollipop.

There could be another reason for the apparent U-turn by the SNP and it is this. By voting on what appears to be and England and Wales only matter the SNP will enrage the tory back benches to such a degree that they will assuredly vote for EVEL. It’s almost as if the SNP want to be made second class in the UK parliament. Then they could say, “Himmin, see fit yon tories huv din. They’ve cut us a oot o the decision makin. Fit kind o parliament is is en? Fit we deein here onywy? Lets hae a wee indyref tae sort is oot.”

The tories’ plans for EVEL are quite bizarre, for while they move the fulcrum in Westminster to the English advantage they also move the fulcrum in Scotland to the separatists’ advantage thus providing extra leverage in their pursuit of an independent Scotland. So maybe that’s it?

Or it could be a chance to shove a hunting horn up some posh tory jacksees. Either way I’m happy.

The featured image at the top of the page is courtesy of Fox in Parliament.

 

Torygraph Frenchgate Headline

IPSO facto

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On the day when the First Minister welcomed “today’s unequivocal verdict by IPSO on the Daily Telegraph’s story,” the story being Mr Toad’s leaking of a memo then lying about it, I thought it would be interesting to take a look at how our press is regulated.

The Independent Press Standards Organisation, IPSO, is a body which was set up to replace the ineffectual Press Complaints Commission, PCC, after the damning indictment of our press following the phone hacking revelations. Its job is to “promote and uphold the highest professional standards of journalism in the UK.” So far so grand. IPSO touts its standards in the “Editor’s Code of Practice.” The code is divided into 16 clauses which include Accuracy, Opportunity to Reply, Privacy and Harassment. Now anybody who knows our press could probably think of a few instances where at least a couple of these clauses have been broken. But that’s OK, because there is a very useful caveat within the code called “The Public Interest”, which handily allows the press to wriggle out of any aspect of the code should they wish.

For instance, look at what IPSO had to say about Frenchgate, “The Committee required the newspaper to publish an adjudication upholding the complaint. The adjudication should be published on page 2 of the print edition of the newspaper.” Not the front page where the original headlines screamed at all who looked, no hidden away will do. What about an apology? Nae chance.

But that’s what happens when a “code” is breached, it’s not like a criminal offence you see. After all it’s voluntary to follow the code and some of the press haven’t even signed up to IPSO’s code. All codes are optional, like the Ministerial Code, the Banking Code of Practice and The Financial Conduct Authority Code of Conduct. Codes are there to be broken, it’s not like they’re criminal laws after all, they’re just gentleman’s’ agreements which were devised in smoky members only clubs in Mayfair. The most that anyone will get for not following one of these codes is a wee slap on the wrist as IPSO’s pronouncement on the Daily Telegraph shows.

But what of IPSO, who are they? They consist of a Chairman, a Board, a Complaints Committee,  and an Appointments Committee who hand out all of the jobs. There is also an Executive department who ensure things run smoothly.

The Chairman is Sir Alan Moses, a former Lord Justice of Appeal. He chairs the board and the complaints committee. He sent the Soham murderer to jail.

The Board is made up of 12 members including the Chairman, with 7 supposedly “independent” members and 5 from the press. However the IPSO website only lists 10 members of the Board with the Chairman being the eleventh. A quick tally of the incumbents shows a split of 4/7 between supposedly “independents” and media figures. Hmm, so far so old boys club.

So what of the vaunted Complaints Committee? Again the Chairman sits on this and there are supposed to be 7 “independents” and 5 media figures. But a quick look at their website shows that the Complaints Committee has a ratio of 4/8 of independents” to media figures. That’s an even worse ratio than the Board.

So what we have with IPSO is a Board, which is biased towards the media, governing a Complaints Committee which is even more biased towards the media. Both of which aim to uphold a “Code” which has no legal standing. Now wonder Hacked Off calls IPSO a “fake regulator” and a “sham.” I totally agree.

Confessions of a Vile Cybernat

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Once upon a time there was a political party which stood up for the rights of the workers. It stood shoulder to shoulder with the men and women who strove every day against poor pay and poor working conditions. And the people were glad.

Then came Blair who wanted power above all else, he cosied up to big business and left the people behind. He brought us illegal war with sidekick Brown. Brown went on to bring us the biggest bust since the 1930’s along with Better Together’s Alistair Darling. And lo the people were sad.

Then they climbed into bed with the tories during the Scottish Independence referendum. It was the penultimate act from a party which had lurched so far to the right that Adolf would have blushed. The people despaired. Even a big hitter from London couldn’t save them with promises of booze at football and a bigot’s hymn sheet.

Their final act before they get completely annihilated at the Scottish Government elections is to produce a list of every Tweet which they didn’t like and publish it in the right-wing press, they have become the tories’ bag carriers. Instead of trying to re-engage with their former voters they have decided to alienate all of them. Kezia Dugdale’s dad must be so proud of what his daughter has become, a stooge for the Daily Mail.

What on earth do they think they are doing? Trying to attack the SNP with a list of dodgy Tweets isn’t going to work, the people who they are listing already vote SNP (probably). All they will succeed in doing is ensuring that those voters will never return. All for what? A few column inches on their masters’ organ. This really is the end.

I’m sure that we are all looking forward to our names in the papers again. If that is the price to be paid for being politically active, bring it on.