Challenging the predictable and corporatised two-party system and imagining a different future are issues so rarely discussed in the mainstream. It’s welcoming to watch Russell Brand (increasingly becoming a witty and pointed commentator on social and political issues) tackle the BBC’s Jeremy Paxman, rather flailing here:
Showing all posts tagged Britain
Glenn Greenwald challenges puerile pro-government BBC questioning
The Guardian reporter shows how it’s done. Note how virtually every BBC “question” could have been written by the British government in relation to intelligence and Edward Snowden. Welcome to mainstream journalism (just as bad as this infamous interview with Julian Assange in 2012):
Here we go again; another Western-led war in the Middle East
The Guardian’s Seumas Milne on the seemingly inevitable war against Syria: All the signs are they’re going to do it again. The attack on Syria now being planned by the US and its allies will be the ninth direct western military intervention in an Arab or Muslim country in 15 years. Depending how you cut…
Serco and G4S under marginally tighter scrutiny
This is new positive news, if the outsourcing obsessed British government takes it seriously. Serco, G4S and a range of other vulture capitalists need to be challenged on their woeful human rights records (via the Financial Times): Security companies… G4S… and… Serco… will have to go through a process of “corporate renewal” if they are to be considered for…
Corporate complicity in drone terror
British human rights group Reprieve… on an important investigation: A number of major financial institutions are investigating telecoms firm BT over its alleged involvement in the US’ covert drone warfare programme. The firms considering their investments in BT – after human rights charity Reprieve filed a complaint with the UK Government – include Standard Life, Blackrock,…
Let’s be clear, Britain sells weapons to thugs globally
A belief in human rights? Preaching to others about improving accountability? It’s all empty rhetoric by most/all Western governments, including Britain. Evidence for the prosecution (via Independent): The Government has issued more than 3,000 export licences for military and intelligence equipment worth a total of …£12.3bn to countries which… are on its own official list…
G4S and Serco act fraudulently in UK but more contracts flowing
A key issue in my forthcoming book, Profits of Doom, is the role of multinationals in turning huge profits from warehousing the most vulnerable people in our societies, including asylum seekers. These revelations in Britain (via The Independent) are interesting but sadly history suggests that like vampires these corporations continue scoring contracts because neo-liberal politicians…
Rupert Murdoch, in his own words, showing contempt for law and decency
Great journalism by Britain’s Channel 4:
Why Prism is important; we’re watching the watchers
My following article appears in today’s Guardian Australia: Politicians and journalists ignore public opinion at their peril. Less than two weeks after the explosive revelations by former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden on the creation of a privatised,… American surveillance apparatus, a TIME poll finds a majority of… Americans support the leak, and… Snowden receives a…
Public ignorance over Iraq carnage largely due to media blindness
When countless journalists refuse to take responsibility for accurately reporting on the reality of wars in Iraq, Syria or Libya, it’s unsurprising that the effect on civilians can be so easy ignored. Medialens explains: Last month, a… ComRes poll… supported by Media Lens interviewed 2,021 British adults, asking: ‘How many Iraqis, both combatants and civilians, do you…