• Jacqui Smith: I’d never run a thing before the Home Office – Dear Jacqui, maybe you should have mentioned this *before* you took the job? Just saying. Lots of love, Just xxx
• Model schoolgirl and family ‘terrified’ as MPs fail to halt deportation to Nigeria where her father was murdered | Mail Online – When the bastards like the Daily Mail are highlighting the abuse of refugees you know something has gone badly wrong with our asylum system…
• Ministers renege on Dungavel child pledge – Another dispatch from the frontline of New Labour's fairness agenda
• Beau Bo D’Or » MPs’ Expenses Revisited – BBDO redoes the ending of his masterpiece, 'Financial Gain Plotting'.
• London mayor Boris Johnson dismisses £250,000 second salary as ‘chicken feed’ – Boris feels your pain.
• Energy white paper is set to shake up green industry – Memo to Ed Miliband: The West Wing is not real, dickhead.
• Blood & Treasure: call the cops – Making Afghanistan safe… for paedophile rapists
• Inject some sense into immunisation – Labourlist joins the counter-Enlightenment and goes anti-science.
• BBC NEWS | Ex-Pentagon chief McNamara dies – I own the documentary about him – 'Fog of War' – on DVD. Had it for years. It's still in the cellophane. There's a metaphor in there somewhere. Probably.
• Clubland bouncers given power to issue on-spot fines – What could possibly go wrong?
• Phone hacking allegations are irresponsible, says Wade – Irresponsible? Ooh, get her! She works for Rupert Murdoch, for pity's sake. I bet she thinks morality is Sherlock Holmes' arch enemy.
• Between the Hammer and the Anvil: In Which The Author Drinks Seven Beers Then Makes Strategic Proposals For Concluding The War In Afghanistan – 'Anybody else notice how the word Vietnam stopped cropping up in the press since President Obama got elected?'
• Surprise guest at the G8 – What the hell is Gordon Brown doing meeting with Mickey Rourke?
• Empire: Movie News – David Tennant Joins St Trinians II – Wow, that's the way to follow being Doctor Who. Way to go, David.
• BBC NEWS | Politics | Blair’s black eye at awards event – It wasn't me. Alas.

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Plus, the fair Victoria finally married me a couple of Saturdays back. And it only took fifteen years of pleading, begging and threatening suicide on my part to get to her to do it. Learn from the master, lads, learn from the master.

• David Cameron in trouble for fake German accent Video – Yahoo! News UK – What a cock.
• BBC NEWS | Wales | Tories to end free prescriptions – Doesn't sound like a vote-winner to me.
• Alastair Campbell: not in my name! « Harpymarx – 'Again, when it comes to mental health, not in my my name Alastair Campbell!'
• ‘I feel sick with myself when he touches me’ – Guardian Weekly – Who needs the BNP? part 35,353…
• Spielberg "Cracks Story" For Indiana Jones 5 – Den of Geek – Haven't we had enough bad news this week?
• Questions for the BNP: part four | Pickled Politics – Social and legal impact of a BNP government (cont…)
• The Curmudgeon: The English Progressive Tradition – 'We mustn't change the voting – FPTP is such fun, And causes such hilarity concerning how we're run…'
• Carol Ann Duffy leaps into expenses row with first official poem as laureate – Finally a poet I could get into. I haven't enjoyed a poem since 'Why Patriots Are a Bit Nuts In the Head'.
• How 10p-a-minute government helplines cripple those most in need – New Labour: helping the most vulnerable once again. Did I tell you the Kinnocks have six state pensions between them?

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Mr Justice Eady… , who is known for establishing case law with his judgments on privacy, has struck a blow in favour of openness, ruling that blogging is “essentially a public rather than a private activity”.

Bloggers, ‘can no longer be sure that their identity can be kept secret’, it seems. I was wondering if there were any other enterprises which were ‘essentially a public rather than a private activity’. And then it hit me – of course there are – politics and journalism.

I mean, what about these Times journalists relying on anonymous ’sources’ for stories about Labour party donors, tax powers in Scotland, MPs’ expenses, and Sir Alan Sugar’s new job?

And these Times journalists relying on anonymous ‘insiders’ for stories about Peter Mandelson, the resignation of Lord Carter, and the latest cabinet reshuffle.

Or these Times journalists relying on anonymous ‘friends’ for stories about Alistair Darling, James Purnell, and even the Prime Minister.

Now, I don’t know about you but I have the nagging suspicion that something isn’t quite right here. Would I be wrong in thinking that anonymous sources, insiders and friends are conducting the business of democracy in the media with the willing collusion of journalists? If nothing else, it’s in direct contravention of the ‘different type of politics’ promised to us by Gordon Brown – a politics promising a ‘more open and honest dialogue‘.

It would seem to me that some kind of public interest challenge in the courts is in order. Imagine the story in The Times…

Thousands of ’sources’, ‘insiders’ and ‘friends’ churn out opinions daily — secure in the protection afforded to them by the cloak of anonymity lent to them by obsequious journalists.

From today, however, they can no longer be sure that their identity can be kept secret, after a landmark ruling by Mr Justice Eady.

The judge, who is known for establishing case law with his judgments on privacy, has struck a blow in favour of openness, ruling that democracy is “essentially a public rather than a private activity”.

What could be more in the public interest than that? It’s should certainly interest the public more than the identity of a blogger who’s been hunted down for little more reason than to satisfy the personal curiosity and vanity – sorry, deduction and detective work – of a journalist who clearly had nothing better to do.

Of course it would mean that many journalists’ sources would dry up and they’d have to get off their arses and do some proper reporting instead of trading in gossip and acting as proxies and useful idiots in Westminster turf wars. But there’s probably a downside as well.

Who’s for setting up a legal fund?

(Anton Vowl’s thinking along the same lines…)

Update 17 June: Nightjack writes about being outed by The Times in The Times. (Not sure what the hell that’s all about, but anyway…)

Then one morning I heard a rumour that The Times had sent a photographer to my home. Later in the afternoon came the inevitable phone calls from The Times, first to me and then to Lancashire Constabulary asking for confirmation that I was the author of the NightJack blog. That was easily the worst afternoon of my life. I knew that it was serious and quite rightly my employers have investigated it as a matter of misconduct. With that under way, I went to court to stop The Times from publishing my name, my photograph or any personal details about my home and my family. Over the years, I have dealt with some unpleasant characters. I know that some of them have made determined but unsuccessful efforts to find me and I believe that some of them are still looking. I didn’t want their task made easier. I also wanted to provide some breathing space for my employers so that they could try to limit the damage that my exposure will do to their deserved reputation as one of the best police forces in the country. In the event, I failed at court as it was decided that the public right to know about me outweighed any claim to personal privacy.

‘Over the years, I have dealt with some unpleasant characters.’ Not least, I’ll wager, journalists working for The Times newspaper.

In parliament today he was unable to say whether the inquiry will have the power to compel witnesses to appear before it or whether they will have to give evidence under oath. Brown did his best to blame the Tories for the way the inquiry will be conducted. ‘The opposition wanted a Franks style inquiry [the inquiry into the Falklands war] and that’s what we’re having,’ he said making it sound like a generous concession to Tory lobbying. You’re all in this one together, lads.

One of the members of the inquiry’s committee is Sir Lawrence Freedman, professor of War Studies at King’s College, London. Writing in the Independent in 2003 at the outbreak of the war, he had this to say…

Even if it takes time to dislodge Saddam’s regime, the US – and also Britain – will emerge from this conflict hardened in their power and ready to exercise far greater influence over not only the development of Iraq but also the wider Middle East.

Let’s hope Sir Lawrence is better at recording history than he is at predicting it.

Update: Jamie: ‘Let the assistant gravedigger bury the dead‘. There aren’t any words, really. Not longer than one syllable at any rate.

Update updated: A good point from Bob:

But at the end of the day I suspect few will change their opinions because of the inquiry, in public or private. And I’m one of those. To me, Blair either lied on WMD or was conned by the US. Fool or Knave, it makes no difference, both were things for which he should have been made to resign, and if he had some evidence which would persuade me otherwise I’m damn sure he would have put it in the public domain by now.

Updated update updated: Here’s inquiry committee member Martin Gilbert comparing Bush and Blair to Roosevelt and Churchill.

In this case, I defer to Steven Poole in his indispensable book, Unspeak.

Also a threat to the fictionally homogeneous ‘community in Britain were ‘asylum seekers’, those seeking to stay in the country on the grounds that they were persecuted in their place of origin. The term ‘asylum seeker’ had gradually replaced ‘refugee’, shifting the emphasis from what a person was fleeing to the demands he was making on the country he arrived in. It was safe to call people ‘refugees’ as long as they remained elsewhere in the world (as, for example, those displaced by the 2004 Asian tsunami); but as soon as they arrived on British shores they became ‘asylum seekers’.

It’s a process of dehumanisation. You strip any element of compassion by painting refugees as scroungers which has the double effect of obscuring any possible mention of what benefits – cultural and economic – that refugees can bring to Britain. It’s simple, elegant and horribly effective.

- Part 1: Role models, affiliations, and policies of senior members of the BNP
- Part 2: The medical, economic and military impact of a BNP government
- Part 3: The social and legal impact of a BNP government

(With more to come)

Yesterday, on BBC1’s Big Questions programme, Jonathan Bartley of the thinktank Ekklesia asked the first one…

No, the Tories are just desperate to rob Labour of its little publicity coup because Sir Alan Sugar comes across on TV as exactly the sort of cock who Tory voters like. His brand of “no-nonsense” nonsense and second-hand rhetoric, and his public affirmation that wealth makes what you say more important, are perfectly judged to appeal to the sort of idiot who thinks David Cameron talks a lot of sense, even though all he does is repeatedly bleat “change” like a tramp in a doorway, and his only stated policy is “to become prime minister”.

[...]

The real problem with Sugar’s new appointment is that it’s such an obvious and grim attempt at populism. Gordon Brown is either so short of ideas or so despises the electorate that he thinks the best way to demonstrate that the government is coping with the biggest business crisis in a century is to make it the responsibility of a man whose day job is telling self-regarding mediocrities that they should take off their Mexican hats before trying to put on their jumpers. A man who has made himself rich, but whose career as a tycoon has gone sufficiently quiet that he’s got time to do TV.

Read the rest…

• Primeval dropped by ITV – At last, some good news.
• Stephen Grey on how the MoD is restricting access to conflict zones such as Afghanistan – "We have been lied to and we have been censored."
• Blogoir: Britblog Roundup 226: UK and Europe Edition – Chunky bloggy goodness…
• I’m a Labour sycophantic cock sucker – Don't take my word for it…
• Profile: Nick Griffin – All you need to know about Nick Griffin: he owns two rottweilers named Anne and Frank.
• Beau Bo D’Or » Hazel Blears pleads to keep seat – 'Back to images for a while. And back with a Manchester cliché too…'
• Between the Hammer and the Anvil: You’ll just have to trust me on this… – Farewell to the Encyclopedia Of Decency whose job is done. I think there should be a print version for posterity.
• UK Indymedia – Radioactive Tritium with your Tea? Yes, More Please say Sellafield Ltd – The radioactive Lake District as Alfred Wainwright might have seen it…
• D-squared Digest: Political campaign endorsement – DD names his favourite for Speaker of the House of Commons
• BNP Deputy Simon Darby suspended from City Hall | Tory Troll – What the BNP get up to when given a sniff of power…

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