Googledave

Posted on September 1, 2007 by The Bristol Blogger

Google - Tories

“Ordinary” Dave pretty much left no stone unturned in apportioning blame for the recent shooting of 11 year old Rhys Jones in Liverpool. The Daily Mail tells us:

Mr Cameron blamed the rise in gang culture and yobbish behaviour on ministers, feckless parents, a tax and benefit system that punishes stable families, human rights laws that defy common sense, retailers that sell alcohol to youngsters, and music and film bosses who celebrate violence.

Wow. Who wasn’t to blame then?

Well… It does look like Dave completely forgot to mention video sharing website Youtube or its parent company Google in the course of this crazed “broken society” old Tory-style rant against everything.

This is despite the fact that the two gangs apparently at the centre of Rhys’s murder – the “Nogga Dogs” and “Croxteth Crew” – both used Youtube to allegedly upload masked-up videos of themselves waving their guns and willies around.

Obviously Cameron’s reticence over Youtube could in no way be related to the fact that the queen of the Notting Hill Set, Rachel Whetstone, is now Google’s director of European corporate communications and public affairs could it?

And the fact that Whetstone, a former chief advisor to Tory boss Michael Howard, is godmother to Cameron’s eldest child and is the partner of Dave’s key adviser, Steven Hilton – at least when she’s not shagging Cameron’s father-in-law – played no part in Dave’s decision not to criticise Youtube either. Did it?

As for the rumours that it was only thanks to Whetstone’s intervention with Michael Howard on Dave’s behalf that the recent Tory “grammar school wobble” didn’t become a fully fledged leadership crisis… Well that’s just nonsense isn’t it?

As are any claims that Cameron now owes Whetstone big time and will continue to give Google and Youtube an easy ride in the future.

This article also appears on the Bash the Rich blog.

Posted in Bash the rich, Conservatives, Media, Politics, Toffs | | There is 1 comment

On the web this week

Posted on September 1, 2007 by The Bristol Blogger

There’s an excellent piece by Fat man on a keyboard responding to John Pilger’s call for a boycott of Israel in the New Statesman in particular and the “pro-Palestinian left” in general.

The Palestine/Israel conflict is not easily reducible to categories, it has a unique and complex history. However, it is not about what this section of the left says it is. It is a struggle over land, self-determination, security and human rights. It is rooted in trauma – for one people genocide, for the other dispossession – and has been mediated by war and terrorism. The choice of peace means a de-escalation of violence, mutual recognition and continuing political engagement. It is hard to see that coming from the rhetoric of the left, as they act as cheerleaders for one side, rather than for the painful, slow and difficult processes that confront violence and seek reconciliation. By apologising for the worst, they betray the best. The Palestinians are ill served by such friends.

Fat Man tries to remind the left that it needs to be supporting progressives of any race, nationality or religion in the middle east not the Islamists, reactionaries, bigots, holocaust deniers, insurgents and murderers it currently favours. This call will, as usual, fall on deaf ears.

It’s interesting that the views Fat Man is promoting now consistently come out of blogs and the internet while the well-heeled liberals at the Guardian and the New Statesman, despite the best educations money can buy, continue to unquestioningly support reactionary elements in the middle east.

On a lighter note Ministry of Truth is less than impressed with this supposed Norris Green-based gang the ‘Nogga Dogs’:

What the fuck is a ‘Nogga Dog’ if its not a character from a pre-school TV show on CBeebies?

Posted in Blogging, Journalism, Media, Middle East, Politics | | There are no comments yet

Praise be! It's another one

Posted on August 31, 2007 by The Bristol Blogger

PR Officer - Bristol City CouncilAs the city council quietly plots to deprive the sick and elderly of their free “Lifeline” emergency alarms (Blogger passim) to save a few quid, we can at least rest assured that they’ll have no problem spinning the excuses for the inevitable deaths that follow to the local press.

Because – yessss!!! – they’ve got yet another PR job going. This one’s only part-time but – as usual – it’s paying well over the odds.

Now they’re prepared to hand over yet another £30k a year for someone to knock together a couple of press releases each week for The Evening Cancer’s reporters to type out verbatim.

For this money they’ll also have to produce some articles for PR boss Carole Caplan’s various in-house corporate propaganda sheets such as the staff bulletin – The Twisted Bureaucrat (look out for this month’s special staff offer – enjoy a cheap, relaxing holiday in the Bahamas after a hard year sat on your backside in an office ruining people’s lives and trashing their services).

Yet again as our public services are gradually run-down, communications bureaucrats appear to fill the vacuum and take the spare cash. Ain’t life grand?

Posted in Bristol, Local government, Media, Middle class wankers | | There are 2 comments

Kerry: Madchester for it

Posted on August 30, 2007 by The Bristol Blogger

MadchesterDoes Bristol East MP Kerry “Rave On” McCarthy hate her constituency and this city? The Labour MP, parachuted in to the safe seat from Luton at the last minute for the general election in 2005, certainly doesn’t spend much time in Bristol East or have much to say about the place that’s for sure.

Since Parliament’s summer recess at the end of July, Kerry – having spent yet another hard year blatantly building her career in Westminster – has singularly failed to mention her constituency or anyone in it on her blog . Indeed the only mention of Bristol in over a month was a sentence long comment describing the Balloon Fiesta as “highly surreal”. Which it isn’t.

Kerry has, however, found time on her blog to issue a an obit to Tony Wilson – apparently referred to as Anthony H Wilson among her middle class professional set – that also includes a glowing eulogy to the greatness of the North West of England. She’s also managed to plug Manchester-based singer Ian Brown’s new – and hopelessly gormless – anti-war single.

And she’s even found time to get excited about an article in The Guardian on the fundamental decency and common sense of criminal justice approaches to the drug problem by none other than drummer Dave from Blur who’s now training as a barrister. What next? Dermo from Northside on NHS modernisation?

Then, over the last ten days or so, the Brit Pop fan cleared off to Uganda on a working holiday where we’ve been treated to regular dispatches from the frontline of international charity do-gooding.

But of Bristol or Bristol East we hear nothing. How strange…

Posted in Bristol, Labour Party, MPs, Politics | | There are no comments yet

Blog the rich!

Posted on August 30, 2007 by The Bristol Blogger

Bash the Rich

From the people that brought you the Bone blog and The Bristol Blogger and featuring a cast of thousands, a whole new blog dedicated to Bash the Rich.

Posted in Toffs | | There are no comments yet

The great Arnolfini cover-up

Posted on August 29, 2007 by The Bristol Blogger

A local art gallery is set to disappear behind a controversial temporary art installation. The temporary artworks – partly funded by the city council – would cover the walls of a gallery on Narrow Quay dedicated to contemporary art.

Called paintings, the artworks are part of an event to celebrate what used to be called art. They are scheduled to be erected in March, and be in place for five to six weeks.

On each of the four sides of the gallery there would be eight paintings all of which would feature representations of people with links to modern times.

Artist Pablo O’Picass, 38, said the project was being funded by Bristol City Council and the Arts Council South West, and was backed by the Merchant Venturers.

O’Picass, who lives in Montpelier and is based at Jamaica Street Studios in Stokes Croft, said: “The gallery we look at now was put up last year by different people with different values. They look at galleries in another way. I am not saying we should get rid of galleries like this but I am asking how we should think about them.

“This work is about making the idea of painting more accessible in the 21st century.

“This is not something that has come out of the blue, it has been 18 months in the planning. Everyone is very positive about it.”

Mr O’Picass said: “It is a controversial project and in the meetings I have had about it some very strong views have been expressed. You would think the Merchant Venturers would be against it but they have been a strong influence behind it.

“People want something that shows the city has grown up and is forward thinking.”

He would not reveal the total cost of the project.

After it has been on display in Bristol, Mr O’Picass said the plan was to transport the work to London, to be placed in a gallery there.

The Great Colston Cover-up 

Posted in Bristol, Bristol Evening Post, Race | | There are 2 comments

Media Guardian joy

Posted on August 28, 2007 by The Bristol Blogger

The city council’s new strategic communications post for the education department is being advertised exclusively in the Media Guardian.

Doubtless this is to attract some media creative from London looking to make a stress free £33k a year and improve their lifestyle and property ownership prospects by downshifting to an easy life in Bristol paid for by… Us!

Posted in Bristol, Education, Local government, Media | | There are no comments yet

Art watch

Posted on August 28, 2007 by The Bristol Blogger

Bush

This new portrait of Bush by Jonathan Yeo is interesting. Look close up and you’ll find it’s made up of photos. Have a look at his right ear and you’ll clearly see what kind of photos.

Posted in Middle East | | There are 3 comments

Fisk this!

Posted on August 27, 2007 by The Bristol Blogger

I was reading The Independent by mistake on Saturday and came across an article by their, um, “controversial” Middle East Correspondent Robert Fisk saying he was “increasingly troubled at the inconsistencies in the official narrative of 9/11.

Has Fisk finally lost all reason? You decide:

http://news.independent.co.uk/fisk/article2893860.ece 

Posted in Conspiracy theories, Journalism, Middle East | | There is 1 comment

Back for good

Posted on August 27, 2007 by The Bristol Blogger

I see my question to Andy Bennett on his police blog has got a reply:

Q:

Perhaps you could explain what your thinking is on the Dispersal Order on College Green imposed by Avon & Somerset Police?

Particularly could you explain why something that has been condemned by our elected representatives is still in place because you lot, who are unelected, say so?

What’s the point in us voting if the police can just do what they like in this city regardless of our views and the people we choose to represent us’ views.

Not very democratic is it?

A:

We work with local Councillors as part of the Safer Bristol Partnership. We don’t just pluck dispersal orders out of thin air, they are put in place for a reason, normally responding to public requests for them. The dispersal order in College Green was actually put in place to prevent people urinating on Bristol Cathedral, drunken abusive behaviour and making the public feel generally unsafe when they walk across the green. We need time to break this offending pattern and target offenders. I have seen no evidence that our intention was/is to prevent all skate-boarding in that area. We encourage people to share open spaces but in a way that is considerate to everyone. The police may not be elected but we have legal and moral responsibilities to tackle crime and disorder. Finally, what is reported in the media is not always accurate!

I’ll return to this in a day or two when I’ve recovered from the weekend.

Posted in Bristol, Local government, MPs, Policing | | There is 1 comment