Democracy Speaks - Unhelpfully

Israel's elections next Tuesday will be closely watched by the new Obama administration. The last thing they will want is a firebrand government determined to up the ante of Middle-Eastern tensions by calling for more all-out war against the Palestinians. Which is why Avigdor Lieberman must be causing a few headaches for the new foreign policy team. He's the Russian born West Bank emigre who leads a right-wing party ("Israel our Home") that manages to out-tough the notoriously tough talking Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu, and it looks as if he might just sweep to a powerful electoral position next week. Such is Israel's current temperature that Lieberman, who called for the execution of any member of the Knesset (Israel's Parliament) who spoke to Hamas, is riding a wave of positive public opinion. Despite launching the recent Gaza offensive, the governing Kadima and Labour coalition's leading figures seem to have failed to capitalise on the Israeli public's desire for strong action. By ending the offensive relatively quickly, Defence Minister Ehud Barak (Labour) has weakened his position.

This is an interesting conundrum for the West. While we salute the seeming triumph of a nascent democracy in Iraq, it is worth remembering that the people's voice is rarely exercised in favour of moderation. Not only could Netanyahu and Lieberman be in an unholy alliance come next Tuesday, but their theocratic near neighbour Iran could well re-elect well known Israel hater Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as president as well. Democracy may be the 'least worst' system of government as Churchill suggested, but combined with the bitter historical memories of different peoples it is never easily conducive to good diplomacy.

Are the Media Willing Dupes, or Something Worse?

On Wednesday the Sun newspaper carried a report about a British colonel passing military secrets - being civilian casualty figures - to a woman he met in Afghanistan. The article - the product of two journalists' efforts, the paper's Chief Reporter and its Defence Editor - implied a relationship between the colonel and the woman he met. It is an interesting way of seeking to blacken both the motives of the officer involved, and the morals of the woman to whom he passed the information. The article also spends much time on the 'anger' of the Americans and the sensitive nature of the information passed on.

In fact, the woman in question, one Rachel Reid, is a worker for Human Rights Watch in Afghanistan, who met he Colonel only twice. She writes a fascinating piece for the Guardian today, defending her actions, and asking why the Sun - and its informant for their article, the Ministry of Defence - should have sought to drag her reputation through the mud, concocting false allegations about her. She says,

"Living in Afghanistan, where democracy, a free media, freedom of information and freedom of expression are still a faraway dream, I have developed a deep appreciation of the freedoms I grew up believing I had in Britain. I expect better from my own government and from the British media that I used to be a part of."

It is an eye-opener of a story. A reminder, again, that too much of what appears in our newspapers - and on our television screens - is merely a partial truth, and sometimes even worse, a deliberately manufactured innuendo. For reporters, the best of whom spend huge amounts of time sifting through sources and searching for stories to illuminate the world we live in, the behaviour of the Sun's willing dupes is surely utterly reprehensible, an action that degrades what is in essence a genuinely noble calling. For the rest of us, we realise that truth comes at a premium, and that we should always have our eyes wide open. And if you think this is a one-off example of poor reporting, or perhaps deliberate bias, then go to Nick Davies' website, Flat Earth News, for more comprehensive coverage of both deliberate and accidental media distortion.

A Tory Safe Seat in Pennine Country

David Curry MP may not be a household name, but he has been a distinguished and significant Tory representative in the Commons for many years. Unlike many colleagues, he has decided, a the age of 64, to stand down gracefully at the next election from his seat of Skipton and Ripon - set in beautiful Yorkshire pennine country. Curry was a consistent Tory left-winger; a sterling member of the Tory Reform Group and supporter of Ken Clarke, he was respected by many on the right despite his 'wet' economic views and pro-European approach. Michael Howard briefly made him one of his 'super spokesman' in his trimmed down shadow cabinet, while he also served as a minister under Margaret Thatcher. Curry's farewell notice is enthusiastic about current leader David Cameron, and it will be interesting now to see which way his constituency goes in choosing his successor. Whether local or national is of less importance than whether the new candidate - and putative MP - represents a reversion to a more right-wing, euro-phobic character, or maintains the progressive Toryism of Curry himself. I suspect Cameron would be better off if it was the latter; the temper of the Tory Party today leads me to believe it will, however, be the former. Such a choice will continue to raise the spectre of a reforming leadership seeking to govern an unreformed party.

Friday Update

The Tories' Education spokesman, Michael Gove, is giving a speech today outlining his party's education agenda. More pay for able teachers, and the ability to confiscate ipods and mobile phones are amongst the ingredients reported in the Times and the Guardian. Thought we already had the power to confiscate ipods and mobiles actually.....

Tony Blair's old political magic is still standing him in good stead. Despite his previous closeness to George Bush, he has still managed to be the first British leader to meet Barack Obama, who showered him with praise in Washington at a prayer breakfast yesterday. Gordon Brown must be gnashing his teeth at his old foe's success - yet again.

Our fundamental freedoms are under threat from the extent of the surveillance conducted in Britain today, according to a House of Lords report published today. After the furore of the Four Labour Lords a Charging, it is useful to be reminded of what the upper house contributes to the political debate, with more independence than is found in the Commons.

Grammar Schools and the 11+ remain a controversial issue in Northern Ireland, with the Sinn Fein Education Minister having to resurrect the exam it tried to abolish, according to a report in the Guardian.

The Media and the Weather

Let's face it, everyone was delighted with yesterday's unexpected day off. So much so, that many are continuing it today. The glorious media, of course, needed to find a sensational angle, a depressing analysis, and so naturally have latched on to that old favourite of how Britain isn't ready for anything. The worst snow for eighteen years, and good old GB inc couldn't cope. John Humphreys on the 'Today' programme was busy berating Transport for London's Peter Hendy by referencing eighteen years ago and saying "Presumably then we did cope - what's gone wrong?". Actually, we didn't cope any better then than now, but that didn't stop Humphreys moving to his even more fatuous next point - that if we kept going during the Blitz how come a bit of snow has stopped us. Er, because we want it to John, that's why.

Buses and trains are busy running again today, but with only a 30 to 40% take-up apparently. Most schools are still shut. And why? Because we don't want to look the gift horse of another day off in the mouth. It makes a nice change to se everyone out and enjoying the snow on a work day. Normally the media is full of "aren't we an over-stressed nation, working too hard" type stories, urging us to take a leaf out of the Italians' commendably laid back book. When that suddenly happens, our gloriously inconsistent media reverts to its "we're never as prepared for a crisis as the Europeans" line, although that didn't stop last night's news reports veering wildly between both the "nation in grip of collapse" and "nation enjoys the snow" lines.

And where would the BBC and Sky be without the snow? Suddenly they found a use for all those regional reporters in the north and east. Wonderfully, they could fill their schedules with cheap domestic reportage instead of the expensive foreign kind. An average of 20 minutes was spent by the Beeb in its top of the hour news bulletins on the weather alone. A God-send, truly.

We already know we shouldn't believe anything we read in the newspapers. We should also steer well clear of taking TV analysis as gospel as well - but then we did know that, didn't we?

[Teachers wander away from their empty school, disappointed that pupils prefer snow to lessons]

Tuesday Update

Are the BNP a left-wing or right-wing party? A little debate on some blog sites has been provoked from an initial post by Iain Dale. A further contribution by someone called Longrider supports the contention that the BNP are left-wing authoritarians (just get past the first sentence where he refers to odd people called Chicken Yoghurt and Flying Rodent - that's the blogging world for you!).

See what China's visiting prime minister thinks of the financial crisis. Good communist that he is, he considers greedy bosses and their large salaries to be the cause.

Is Gordon Brown's "British Jobs for British Workers" phrase an echo of earlier European socialist attempts to ally with the forces of nationalism? It may be a bit of a stretch to see Gordo as another Mussolini, but Dominic Lawson in the Independent looks again at the problems of getting domestic workers to see solidarity with foreign workers, as the strikes at the Lindsay fuel refining plant over just this issue continue.

It may be a little risky to defend the House of Lords at the moment, but Rachel Sylvester in the Times today tries just that, and is rather convincing.

Britain + Snow = Closedown

There is a bit of a sense of togetherness amongst Britons battling against what they fondly imagine to be extreme weather. I came across some of this as I trudged through the suburbs' quietened roads into school this morning. For the hardy/foolish few who tried to drive, there was never a shortage of willing car pushers, while cheery "good mornings" and resigned comments about the weather were made by people who would normally pass in determined silence. Whether or not a well predicted snow shower is good cause for much of Britain to enter closure status is another matter of course, but at least Gordon Brown has got one reason to be positive - the snow may just deter today's Free Tibet protestors as the Chinese premier continues his programme of visits.