DON’T WORRY ABOUT IT

First published at www.selvesandothers.org Here is a thought for you… there is a certain species of man, his role being undefined or undefinable, that those in power, unsure of what to do with him, grab, put a hook through his finger and leave dangling on a line for his fellow men to grab onto. Now [...]

WHAT THEY WON’T PUBLISH

Having spent a lot of time in academia, at first a student, then a tutor and then a researcher, the one thing they won’t let you say is something I included in a list of JOKE definitions and it is this… Multiculturalism = respecting the symbols, values and idiosyncrasies of all colours, creeds and religions [...]

OPERATION SADDAM – AMERICA’S PROPAGANDA WAR

This was first published at www.spinwatch.org I wonder if when it is all finished there will have been more documentaries made about the Iraq war than there will have been soldiers killed. At any rate, if you add up every distortion, every sleight of hand and every downright lie that has been told – and [...]

EIGHT WAYS TO DEAL WITH DIFFICULT QUESTIONS

This is from the BBC programme ‘Yes, Prime Minister’ and is the best guide I have seen. Print it off and then sit and watch a politician being interviewed. In almost any interview at least one of these ploys will be used and most often several of them will be used. Eight Ways to Deal [...]

MEETING SCOTT RITTER

So you are trying to interview someone reasonably famous. You are not used to doing it and you know there is going to be a scrum to get near him. How would you like to approach such a day? It certainly wouldn’t be the way I did it, which was nursing a bad hangover. Not [...]

LYING MARXISM

This comes via some fellow spinwatchers and lobbywatch It is quite long but is a good insight into how these things work (or don’t) LobbyWatch: SMC complaint It may be useful to read this in conjunction with the George Monbiot interview we recently published at http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7748 — — Introduction to the submission Below’s an edited version [...]

ILL

I have been a little ill for the past few days and so haven’t been posting but I am on the mend now. For today, here is an excellent little video. Will post a new article tomorrow. This is not meant as an advert for the SNP. There are many pro-independence parties…none of whom I [...]

GOOD ONE FROM HUXLEY

There is, of course, no reason why the new totalitarianisms should resemble the old. Government by clubs and firing squads, by artificial famine, mass imprisonment and mass deportation, is not merely inhumane (nobody cares much about that nowadays); it is demonstrably inefficient and, in an age of advanced technology, inefficiency is the sin against the [...]

KURT VONNEGUT R.I.P.

It is a very mixed blessing to be brought back from the dead. Kurt Vonnegut What should young people do with their lives today? Many things, obviously. But the most daring thing is to create stable communities in which the terrible disease of loneliness can be cured. Kurt Vonnegut Kurt Vonnegut is no longer unstuck [...]

HOW TO RUN A COUNTRY (AND GET AWAY WITH IT) – Part 2

APPOINTING A CZAR – Appointing a Czar is a handy way of deflecting bad publicity on a difficult issue. Drugs, for example have been a hot issue for a long time and have caused successive governments major difficulties. Appoint a Czar and these problems simply go away. It’s easy – the case of Keith Halliwell [...]