Yes, the headline shamelessly mashes two current political news stories – and justifiably.
Last weekend, the Twitter account of a Conservative councillor from Yorkshire, Paul Nickerson, tweeted a faked photograph of Jeremy Corbyn laying a wreath next to the taxi that exploded outside Liverpool Women’s Hospital that day, with the comment: “Unsurprisingly”
No, I’m not going to post it again. If you really want to see it, read This Site’s previous story, here.
Nickerson himself has apologised for the tweet, which he claimed was a prank by others using his account, and the tweet has been deleted.
Whoever put it up, it is possible that they thought Mr Corbyn would take it on the chin. After all, he never took court action over all those anti-Semitism/terrorism support allegations, so he wasn’t likely to do anything about this, right?
In a short statement, Mr Corbyn said: “My solicitor has been notified and we are taking legal action.”
This takes me to the reference to second jobs – the hot topic among MPs, many of whom reckon they simply can’t survive on their salary of £82,000 (three times the national average) plus the most generous expenses scheme anybody can think of.
Nickerson isn’t a member of Parliament and, as far as I know, may not have a second job to supplement whatever allowance he receives as a Yorkshire councillor.
But, as I suggest in the headline, he may certainly wish he had one, if Mr Corbyn wins his case.
One does have to question whether anybody will employ him, though. Even his local Conservative group has suspended his membership.
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At a time when Tory corruption – their insistence on following their own interests rather than those of the nation – is under the spotlight, this Conservative councillor’s attempt at diversion is in particularly poor taste.
After taxi driver David Perry averted a tragedy at Liverpool Women’s Hospital by foiling a terrorist bomb plot, Cllr Paul Nickerson tried to use it to make a bad joke about former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.
He posted a Photoshopped image of Mr Corbyn laying a Remembrance wreath by the burning taxi – presumably for the terrorist.
It was a callback to the days when Mr Corbyn, as Labour leader, had been falsely accused of sympathising with terrorists. There was absolutely no truth in these smears; the former Labour leader is a pacifist.
I’ve been blocked by this Tory councillor for saying this isn’t acceptable for someone in elected office. @councillorpaul_ is mocking events in Liverpool where innocent people could have been killed. Too many idiots like this in local government. pic.twitter.com/ZmM67dlUu0
There is truth in claims that Conservatives are corrupt.
Only yesterday – the same day Cllr Nickerson was posting his grotty attempt at ridicule, his Parliamentary colleagues were learning about the corruption practised by now-former MP Owen Paterson.
Approval of the standards commissioner’s recommendations with regard to this misbehaviour was only prevented by the intervention of filibuster king Christopher Chope.
Some might describe this as a further act of corruption.
Is Cllr Nickerson proud of MPs like these? Or was he so ashamed he tried to take some of the heat away from them? I ask merely for information.
UPDATE: Cllr Nickerson has subsequently apologised for the image. But something doesn’t ring true…
When people with integrity take responsibility for things, I don't preface it by shunting the blame onto others. Unless you're lying, of course, but that would be behaviour that would be unbecoming of a councillor, right? pic.twitter.com/aqkcLKBJRK
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Paul Dacre: if he’s the Tory choice, then he certainly shouldn’t get the job.
The Conservatives are trying to rig the selection of a new chairman for communications regulator Ofcom.
They want to install former Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre, even though he has already been through the selection process and was rejected.
The interview panel deemed him “not appointable” a few months ago – so the Tories have taken time out to appoint a new panel member: Michael Simmonds, a former Conservative Party advisor who is married to Conservative MP Nick Gibb (and therefore brother-in-law to BBC board member Sir Robbie Gibb, himself a former Downing Street comms chief under Theresa May).
In fact, the interview panel’s connections with the Conservatives are multiple (and therefore extremely suspicious). See the Guardian article (link below) for further details.
They have also rewritten the job description.
Nothing to see here. Just a former Tory adviser married to a Tory MP and brother-in-law of former Tory communications chief installed on panel to interview Tory candidate Paul Dacre for Ofcom. #ToryCorruptionhttps://t.co/dwDRqd15H1
The intention seems clear – as the Good Law Project states in its article (link below): “When Boris Johnson doesn’t like the outcome of an official process, he tries to rip up the rules and start again.
“Ministers… are now shamelessly pushing to appoint Mr Dacre by adjusting the requirements of the role and re-running the recruitment process with a different interview panel.”
We've written to Government saying it should expect to get sued if it shoehorns its own man in as 'independent' regulator of broadcast media. https://t.co/Sjn458o5JR
Lawyers acting for the Good Law Project have written to the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, who has the ultimate say over the appointment, stating that this “second competition raises very serious concerns, in particular as to whether it has been held, and designed, in order to favour Mr Dacre’s candidacy”. And they have a point.
Ofcom should be independent of both the Government and the services it regulates. The appointment process must follow the rules of the Governance Code for Public Appointments: whoever is hired should be selected on merit, through an open and fair process.
The Governance Code for Public Appointments does allow for Ministers to appoint someone who is not deemed “appointable” by the Assessment Panel. But there are safeguards built into the Governance Code: they must first consult the Commissioner for Public Appointments, and they are required to explain their reasons and justify their decision publicly.
“The reason why Ofcom must remain independent of Government is the same reason the media must remain independent of Government: neither can do their job if they are in the Government’s pocket,” states the GLP in its article.
“We’re asking the Secretary of State to explain why the competition for Chair is being rerun and why Mr Dacre is being allowed to reapply.”
Unfortunately, the Culture Secretary is Nadine Dorries.
The GLP says it wants proper answers but is hardly likely to get any from her.
It is threatening court action if it doesn’t get them.
You can help… try… to change Dorries’s mind – by signing a petition calling on Dorries not to appoint Dacre.
In honesty, this will probably end up in court. The Tories want to dismantle the BBC – despite having stuffed it with their own people – and they know Dacre will help them do it.
But this would be blatant government interference in an organisation that should be independent.
And it needs to be fought.
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It really is one rule for us and a completely different one for them, isn’t it?
Peterborough Tory MP Paul Bristow is a triple-offender when it comes to speeding in his car – even though he has campaigned for tougher measures against drivers who break speed limits.
But despite this aggravating factor, when he appeared before magistrates for his latest offence, in which he was caught driving at 76mph in a 50mph zone, he was disqualified for only half the maximum amount of time.
So his total sentence was a 28-day disqualification, a ‘Band C’ fine of £667, a victim surcharge of £68 (10 per cent of the fine value, that goes into a pooled fund for victims of crime) and court costs of £110.
He already had six points on his licence for the two previous offences. More would have put him very close to a permanent disqualification.
Put it all together and it really is worth questioning why he got off so lightly.
What sentence would an ordinary member of the public have faced in exactly the same circumstances?
Peterborough MP Paul Bristow was caught out three times in two years, despite campaigning for tougher speeding restrictions
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Ventilator: people with long-term illnesses, disabilities and learning disabilities are still being denied resuscitation by the NHS – and one nurse, at least, has denied the existence of this scandal.
I can’t let this pass.
At Prime Minister’s Questions on June 16, Peterborough’s Tory MP Paul Bristow asked an important question about “Do Not Resuscitate” (DNR) orders that have been made on NHS patients during the Covid-19 crisis.
Having reported on this scandal many times on This Site, I tweeted in response:
Ah! A question about Do Not Resuscitate orders – from a Tory. Does Johnson agree that these orders should have no place in NHS care?
He doesn't. The reason DNR orders are allowed is POLITICAL. There has been huge controversy about this, but it still happens. #PMQs#PoliticsLive
I was surprised and saddened when this provoked the following response from a Twitter user who identifies as a nurse (I won’t reproduce the tweet here because I do not wish to identify that person):
“Are you a healthcare professional?
“No.
“Then do not spread false theories about something you obviously know nothing about.”
I attempted to put my critic straight – as politely as possible, in the circumstances:
“I am a news reporter of nearly 30 years experience and have been covering this story from the start. I DO know the facts here. And I see that, since you provide no information to support your insult, you probably don’t. Go well.”
Sadly, this person would not take the (rather overt) hint and came back at me:
You have confirmed it.
It is a story.
I do not have the time, inclination or room on twitter to “provide you with information” only to say that I have 30 years experience as a nurse and have a postgraduate qualification in Professional Practice
Then this is a person who ought to have known better. The claim, “It is a story,” was an attempt to downplay the DNR deaths as fiction, and I wasn’t having that. Also the refusal to support a claim with factual information is a classic tactic by trolls who don’t have any facts to offer.
So I responded (again):
“And how does that better qualify you to comment on this? I’ve done the research so I know my facts. It isn’t fiction.”
And again this person came back at me:
Ok then would you attempt CPR on a five stone frail old woman? Am not going to carry on with this because I’m afraid you just don’t know what you’re on about
This is misleading, and a lie. Allow me to explain.
Mr Bristow’s question is available to read in Hansard, here. He said: “Last year, doctors and care settings issued an unprecedented number of “do not resuscitate” orders to patients with learning disabilities and mental illness. Many were unlawful and caused avoidable deaths.
“Despite urgent Care Quality Commission and NHS guidance, shockingly, this practice has continued. Last week, The Telegraph reported that Sonia Deleon died unresuscitated. Her family said she was given a DNR without them knowing, and with her learning disabilities and schizophrenia stated as reasons.
“Does the Prime Minister share my alarm about these cases, which should have no place in our care, and does he agree that they should be independently investigated?”
I won’t bother to repeat Boris Johnson’s response as he made no undertaking to prevent further abuses of DNR orders.
It was clear that the issue here was not the safety of attempting cardio-pulmonary resuscitation on a person who may suffer as much harm in that attempt as by the condition that had caused them to need reviving.
It was a political choice to deny health care to people dying with Covid-19, because they have learning (or other) disabilities. It seems to have been considered an opportunity to clear many thousands of so-called “useless eaters” from the UK’s benefit books.
Sonia Deleon’s story is a classic example; you can read about it here.
In brief, almost a year after it was revealed that a policy was in place to deny NHS Covid-19 care to people with long-term illnesses and disabilities – and NHS bosses then claimed to have warned hospitals, GPs and NHS managers not to make such orders on these people, Sonia Deleon was deliberately allowed to die because a DNR order on her had been made.
Hospital authorities claimed that it the order had been agreed with Ms Deleon’s family but they deny this strenuously.
Ms Deleon had learning disabilities and the circumstances of her death are not only a scandal in themselves but are a continuation of a national disgrace.
And I was criticised for highlighting this atrocity – by someone claiming to be a nurse.
I won’t take this matter further by seeking to identify the NHS trust for which this person works and requesting that they be reminded of the facts and properly disciplined for trying to mislead the public. I may change my mind if any further attempts at deception result from this article.
But I will take the opportunity to request that anybody who has relatives living with a long-term illness or disability, or a learning disability, should contact the NHS and ensure that orders equivalent to death sentences have not been applied to their loved ones without their knowledge.
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This Writer is a big fan of comic books – or graphic novels, if you prefer. They have an immediacy that mere words on paper (or screen) sometimes fails to evoke.
When it comes to political ideology, I’m surprised that comics haven’t been employed to get the points across more often before now.
So I think writer/artist Paul Fitzgerald’s bid for funding to support Tom Paine’s Bones – his graphic retelling of the story of the radical human rights and political reform advocate whose work inspired the American Revolution and the formation of a democratic United States – is well worth supporting.
Here’s a quick description of the man and his career:
Through his strong and vocal stances on human rights and political reform he became a key figure in the American Revolution. His pamphlet Common Sense, which advocated for independence and an egalitarian government for the Thirteen Colonies, became the most widely read pamphlet during the American Revolutionary War (1775 – 1783).
His work reached an international audience and Paine’s The Rights of Man, which defended the French Revolution, so infuriated locals in Didsbury and Deangate, in 1793 that they carried out mock trials and executions, burning effigies of Paine in the process.
Even after his death in 1809, Thomas Paine continued to be a thorn in the side of those in power. His bones were unearthed from his grave in America by the radical William Cobbett and carried to the outskirts of Manchester and Salford, just after the Peterloo massacre had occurred in 1819. Fearing the presence of Paine’s remains would foment rebellion amongst a populace still raw from the massacre, troops prevented Cobbett from entering with the bones.
That’s an influential man; his power extended beyond the grave.
Paul Fitzgerald, an artist from Hulme in Manchester also known as Polyp, has been busily working to take Tom Paine out of stuffy lectures on politics and philosophy and onto the illustrated novel page. You can see an example of his excellent work above.
He has launched a Kickstarter campaign for £15,000 to get the project published and I would urge you to help out if you can. Just click on the link and make your donation.
Hopefully this could become part of a series exploring the origins of modern political thinking.
As editor of the Daily Heil, Paul Dacre spent decades misleading the general public with an increasingly right-wing slant on the news, for a sadly increasing proportion of the public with increasingly stiff right arms.
That’s This Writer’s opinion. If Boris Johnson appoints him to chair Ofcom, the communications watchdog organisation, then he will have an opportunity to impose his bias across all of the UK’s media organisations.
I know. Ofcom is supposed to be impartial. But that’s in a properly-run United Kingdom and ours is being run by Boris Johnson. A majority of people wanted it and the rest of us have to just get used to it while we wait for the chance to get rid of it.
According to The Guardian, his first task – handed down by Johnson – will be to target the BBC, despite the fact that Auntie has bent over backwards for him and the Conservative Party since it slithered back into public office in 2010.
It will be a betrayal of the public service broadcaster. But what did anybody at the BBC – even its new Tory-donating chairman – expect? A news organisation with even the briefest brief to actually inform the public impartially is anathema to a political party that survives on propaganda and outright lies.
Remember: seven-eighths of the Conservatives’ election campaign in 2019 was found to be lies.
There is a lot wrong with the BBC, it’s true – but that is mostly caused by the overt Tory influence exerted at its highest levels. Impose impartiality and these problems may disappear.
But that will never happen under a Conservative administration.
Instead, your BBC is likely to be dismantled; your licence fee divided between Tory-donating businesspeople.
That is what appointed Dacre to chair Ofcom means. To me.
And I don’t think I’m alone:
Poll shows that the British public would be revolted by the idea of ex Mail editor Paul Dacre becoming the head of Ofcom. Truly the nail in the coffin of a once great and admired country. https://t.co/Gg0jIfPpKZ
There is only one way to stop this – and all the other elements that mark out Boris Johnsons wholesale corruption of public life.
He hates adverse publicity.
If you think this should be stopped, then get on the social media and say so. Write to your local (and national) newspapers and say so.
You could even try to get yourself on Points of View, Any Answers or Question Time – Richard Sharp (he’s the Tory-donating BBC chair I mentioned above) will hate you for doing it but you have every right to!
Or you could just sit back and sink into lockdown-derived depression. It’s up to you but personally I’d rather try to do something than be blamed for apathy by the future.
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Charles Moore and Paul Dacre: One doesn’t believe in public-service broadcasting, so he has been put in charge of the BBC; the other doesn’t believe in impartial, statutorily-regulated media so he has been given the media regulator Ofcom.
There was no process about these appointments; they are a gift from Boris Johnson to flunkies he wants to do his will.
He knows Dacre will ensure that far-right propaganda gets an easy ride from the broadcasting watchdog because Dacre published far-right propaganda every day in the Daily Heil and gave it an easy ride when he was in charge at the Press Complaints Commission (now IPSO).
This Writer is less familiar with Charles Moore, which tends to indicate that I had a taste of his work and turned away in disgust. From the words of others, I understand there will be no attempt at political balance while he has any say in what goes on at Broadcasting House.
Paul Dacre, former editor of the Daily Mail, has been asked to run the national broadcasting regulator, Ofcom, while Lord Moore, the former editor of the Daily Telegraph and biographer of Margaret Thatcher, is believed to be considering accepting the role of chairman of the BBC.
The provocative choice of two such hardline anti-BBC voices has prompted anger and dismay across the broadcasting and entertainment industry. Speaking to the Observer on Saturday evening the Labour peer Andrew Adonis summed up the response of many to the news. “If true this is Cummings operating straight out of the Trump playbook with the intent to undermine our democratic institutions.”
The former government minister continued: “These would be really disgraceful appointments. Neither Paul Dacre at Ofcom nor Charles Moore at the BBC would believe in the mission of the institution they are running. Dacre demonstrably doesn’t believe in impartially and statutorily regulated media and Moore doesn’t believe in public service broadcasting, as his refusal to pay the licence fee demonstrates.”
This man refuses to pay the TV licence fee and Boris Johnson puts him in charge of the BBC!
If you’re still wondering why it’s a big deal, it means Johnson will control the media through these two puppets – and will get away with more of this:
Now over 1.1 million views. This is what Boris Johnson does not want you to see. This is why he’s trying to control the media. This is why we now need to work together to expose him https://t.co/CpdpT6J3Bk
Jesus Christ. Charles Moore to run the BBC and Paul Dacre to run broadcasting regulator Ofcom. They're not even being subtle about it anymore. A hard right coup orchestrated by Cummings and Johnson
Paul Dacre to run @Ofcom Ofcom, Charles Moore to run the BBC. Because Boris wants them. No process. No joke. This is what an oligarchy looks like pic.twitter.com/JB5chFBXFg
An oligarchy is a small group of people running an entire country. That’s what Johnson wants and that is what he is getting. See this, also:
Will it is meant to be a one party state it is the Cummings plan to remove all liberals and labour sympathisers and what he sees as the Establishment Blob and replace them with Brexiteers. https://t.co/SpKcWkp2Ot
Charles Moore at the BBC and Paul Dacre at Ofcom. Favours like confetti to the political cronies. It’s the Berlusconi, Erdogan, Orban, Bolsonaro, Chavez, Perón, Putin playbook. The end of days.
Once right wingers control the Daily Mail, the Daily Express, the Sun, the Times, the Sunday Times, the Mail on Sunday, the Sun on Sunday, Spiked, the Spectator, Guido, Daily Telegraph, Sky, ITV, the BBC and Ofcom can you at least stop wanking on about left wing media bias please
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I’m just using this shot of Dominc Raab looking clueless at the daily briefing to hammer home the fact that the satirical clip (below) is right-on-the-button.
Larry and Paul (apparently that’s who they are) have got this exactly right:
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He laughed: Remember, IDS laughed at the terror he was causing a rape victim by using the Bedroom Tax to make it too expensive for her to keep a ‘panic room’. The man thrives on terrorising others.
Judges at the Supreme Court should hang their heads in shame after they gave Iain Duncan Smith another reason to laugh at the plight of a rape victim.
The woman identified as ‘A’ didn’t have a panic room fitted in her house to protect her from a “violent partner” – as the BBC report I quoted extensively below puts it. She was a rape victim who needed it to protect her against any further attacks.
When it was revealed that she was being evicted from that house because of the Bedroom Tax, Iain Duncan Smith – the man behind the policy – laughed.
He laughed.
He thought it was funny that a woman who had been raped was being turfed out of her sanctuary against further violation.
And now the Supreme Court has given him reason to laugh again.
The solicitor for ‘A’ has said her client intended to challenge the ruling in the European Court of Human Rights, for the breach of her rights and “other vulnerable women whose lives are at risk”.
On a more optimistic note, congratulations to Vox Political reader Paul Rutherford who has – at last! – won his own case against the Department for Work and Pensions.
Paul and Susan Rutherford, from Pembrokeshire, care for their severely disabled grandson, Warren, in a specially adapted three-bedroom bungalow.
They can only care for Warren with the help of paid carers who regularly stay overnight.
Lawyers said the current regulations allow for an additional bedroom if a disabled adult requires overnight care but not for a disabled child in the same situation.
The court ruled in their favour.
No doubt Mr Rutherford will let us all know the details in the near future.
Note: The BBC report, below, inaccurately states that the Bedroom Tax is the removal of a subsidy for social housing tenants deemed to have “spare” rooms in their homes. This is a false claim. There was never any subsidy. The State Over-Occupation Charge, to give its official title, cuts Housing Benefit provided to people in social housing by an arbitrary amount, for no very good reason. People are allocated social housing according to the dwellings that are available to them and have no choice over whether the accommodation allocated to them is too big.
A woman who suffers from spina bifida and a couple who look after their severely disabled grandson have won their Supreme Court appeals against the so-called “bedroom tax”.
The court ruled that the government’s changes to housing benefit discriminated against them.
But five other people had similar challenges dismissed by the court.
The court said councils should be able to decide which tenants get discretionary payments to help them.
Disability campaigners have been protesting against the system, which removed subsidies for social housing tenants who were deemed to have “spare” rooms in their homes, since it was introduced by the government in 2013.
Dubbed the “bedroom tax” by Labour, tenants affected had payments cut by 14%.
For spina bifida sufferer Jacqueline Carmichael, 44, from Southport, Merseyside, the need for an extra bedroom was medical, he said, with judges unanimously ruling that “the scheme in relation to her is discriminatory”.
Her condition means she has to sleep in a hospital bed in a fixed position. There is not enough space for a second bed so her husband Jayson sleeps in a separate bedroom.
The court … ruled in favour of Pembrokeshire couple Paul and Susan Rutherford and their 15-year-old grandson Warren. Their case focused on the impact of the policy on disabled children needing overnight care.
Speaking outside the court, Mr Rutherford said: “It’s probably the best day we’ve had in the last three and a half years and we’re just really glad that it’s all over.
“Glad that we’ve won for everybody else who’s in our situation, because there’s quite a few out there who are”.
However, the judges rejected the cases of five others who have had their housing benefit reduced as a result of the government’s changes. They were:
Richard Rourke, 49, from Bakestone Moor, Derbyshire, who said he needed an additional bedroom to store mobility equipment. He has had his housing benefit reduced by 25%
James Daly, from Stoke, the father of a severely-disabled teenage son. He and his ex-partner share the boy’s care
Mervyn Drage, from Manchester, occupies a three-bedroom flat in a high-rise tower block, and has lived there for 19 years. He suffers from mental health and physical problems
A woman identified as “A” who had a council house fitted with a panic room to protect her from a violent partner
Plus another case made by a mother who can only be referred to as “JD” to protect the identity of her disabled adult daughter
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