Petrol protests

[Sput]

Anything can happen if you wait long enough. Infinity's a tricky concept! That's not to say the BBC News isn't misleading, but it's usually through journalists being morons.

[Lorns]

That's how I should have said it! Good work Lorns

Everyone stop and take a breath. I've just peaked.

[Stuart*]

The BBC........blah.......

You've gone a bit further than saying they lean left! That's not to mention the frankly paranoid ramble you went on in the second half of that post.

Nice to see you've laid off me since I've been camped outside your flat Sput

[rdobbie]

Indeed, thin coverage if any at all on the subject. I wonder which Downing Street bod has been briefing editors, urging "caution" and not wanting to cause "alarm" or "panic" amongst the public. Well, they're the three buzz-words I would pick if I was a spin doctor.

That's exactly how it works. Especially when you have a culturally biased news organisation like the BBC which is happy to tow the left-wing government line and its pursuit of an anti-capitalist agenda.

It's all part of population mind control and social conditioning. It's probably worse now than anything under Hitler albeit executed much more shrewdly and gradually than anything that occurred in Nazi Germany. It won't be long before 'thought crime' is with us. Some argue that it's already here.

I quite agree with this.

A perhaps more sinister example of the government's control over the media is the virtual blackout on the story of the 5 British hostages held in Iraq since May.

It's quite remarkable when you consider that this story could, and perhaps, should have been THE story of the year. Remember the Ken Bigley capture? That was just one British hostage in Iraq and it was big news. We got involved not just through our knowledge of the situation, but on an emotional level, because his tearful family were stuck in front of the cameras like minor celebs.

Now of course the government would have us believe the blackout has been for entirely honourable, strategic intelligence reasons - i.e. by starving these terrorists of the oxygen of publicity, they are starved of their only weapon. Whether this tactic will work remains to be seen.

But, the flip side of the coin is thus: these kind of stories are enormously damaging to the popularity of the government of the day. Blair's reputation took a further knock and probably reached its lowest ever point during the Ken Bigley capture/execution. Now imagine the effects upon the public mood of not one - but FIVE - British men pleading for their lives, stooping in orange jumpsuits with rifles to their heads, condemning the occupation of Iraq, blaming Brown for their predicament, demanding that Britain arrange the release of Iraqi POWs (or whatever the demands are), and begging for the British people to put pressure on Brown. Worse still, imagine if their headless bodies were then found in a back alley (sorry to be morbid, but this could still happen) if Brown refused to cave in to their demands.

I reckon that would have been disastrous for Brown. He wants to distance himself completely from the Iraq war and for it to go down in history as Blair's mess (even though Brown signed a blank cheque for it in our name). We've also seen what a spineless coward Brown is - first he chickened out of a general election when he lost a few points in the opinion polls, then he didn't have the balls to attend today's ceremony to sign away our rights to Europe. He simply can't take the heat of tough situations. At least Blair could act his way out of them.

Are we to believe this blackout has been for wholly innocent and honourable reasons, or that it's a cynical piece of media management by Number 10? Given the record of New Labour I'm starting to fear it's the latter, although I think we'll find out more in the fullness of time.

But most worryingly, there was never any court injunction to ban coverage of the story. (If there had been, at least we'd know a judge had granted it hopefully for non-political reasons). No, the media simply followed the 'wishes' of the Foreign Office. To me, that is not the behaviour of a free press.

You have to wonder where this is all leading to. What will the media 'fail to mention' next time the government politely tells them to keep schtum? Will a blackout be imposed for 'strategic reasons' the next time that dangerous prisoners are accidentally released, or data records are lost?

Incidentally, the family and friends of these 5 men disagree with the government's blackout approach. They are desperately trying to get the story into the public awareness by setting up websites and campaigns, but the media is obeying the government like a nodding dog and largely ignoring the story. The blackout also appears to have infuriated the captors who are now threatening to kill the hostages one by one to bring more attention to their plight.

Oh bugger, we were talking about petrol protests. Sorry.

[Lorns]

I reckon instead of blockading petrol stations we should all unite together and refuse to pay our car tax ( when its next up for renewal - mines due soon btw).


Anarchy!!!

[Sput]

Nice to see you've laid off me since I've been camped outside your flat Sput

About that: It ends NOW. This AND the PMs. I'm not pissing around - you're being entirely inappropriate.

[Lorns]

Aha the stalker becomes the stalked
( The J.Christie thingy)

[Sput]

Aha the stalker becomes the stalked
( The J.Christie thingy)

The difference is we knew I was kidding. Stu is just coming off as desperate.