Imperial Party forum Forum Index Imperial Party forum
Looking from a great past towards a great future!
www.imperialparty.co.uk
 
 FAQFAQ   SearchSearch   MemberlistMemberlist   UsergroupsUsergroups   RegisterRegister 
 ProfileProfile   Log in to check your private messagesLog in to check your private messages   Log inLog in 

LEVESON ASKS BLIAR FOR HIS IDEAS TO REGULATE PRESS, CON

 
Post new topic   Reply to topic    Imperial Party forum Forum Index -> General Discussion
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
thomas davison
Party Leader


Joined: 03 Jun 2005
Posts: 4018
Location: northumberland

PostPosted: Tue May 29, 2012 11:56 am    Post subject: LEVESON ASKS BLIAR FOR HIS IDEAS TO REGULATE PRESS, CON Reply with quote

Kid gloves and the damning questions Mr Blair WASN'T asked
By Stephen Glover
PUBLISHED: 00:21, 29 May 2012 | UPDATED: 11:34, 29 May 2012

A stranger to our shores watching Tony Blair at the Leveson Inquiry yesterday would have got the impression of a reasonable and decent man who had unaccountably been abused and mistreated by a � his word � �feral� Press.

If I had not lived through the Blair years, and seen the way in which newspapers were manipulated and sometimes lied to by his formidable Press machine, I might have been persuaded by this suave and confident performance.

Much as I admire Lord Justice Leveson and the sardonic Robert Jay, QC, who asks most of the questions, I am afraid that either as a result of ignorance or excessive indulgence, their interrogation of the former prime minister was terribly lame. He was not put on the spot over many issues where he certainly has a case to answer.

Suave: Tony Blair was a confident witness at the Leveson Inquiry, and unlike other witnesses received very soft interrogation
For example, he was not examined as to why he and his turbulent spin doctor Alastair Campbell � who has inexplicably been treated with the softest of kid gloves by this inquiry � aided and abetted the bid for the Daily Express by the fool Richard Desmond in 2000. At that time, the Express was a New Labour-supporting paper, and Mr Blair believed Mr Desmond�s assurances he�d keep it so.

No questions were put about why he had permitted Mr Campbell to oversee the crucial September 2002 dossier about Iraq, which convinced many people that Saddam Hussein constituted a danger to this country. Equally, he was not required to justify his Press Secretary�s fraudulent second dossier � partly based unattributably on a long-out-of-date university doctoral thesis � published in February 2003.

More...MAIL COMMENT: A missed chance to call Blair to account
QUENTIN LETTS: His right eyebrow arched in the style of Norma Desmond

He was not asked why, in an unprecedented move, he had allowed his spin doctor to give orders to senior civil servants, and was not made to explain why Mr Campbell had connived in the politicisation of the civil service by installing Labour placemen as departmental press officers answerable to him.

His evocation on leaving office of feral newspapers � among which he bizarrely included the distinctly non-feral Independent � was left largely unchallenged. In fact, for six years, from his election in 1997 until the invasion of Iraq in 2003, Mr Blair enjoyed the most favourable Press of any modern British political leader.

Lame: The questions put to Mr Blair by Robert Jay QC failed to touch some of the key issues where he undoubtedly has a case to answer
During that seemingly endless summer of approval, despite the Ecclestone and Hinduja brothers scandals, it often seemed as though the Mail was the only newspaper that opposed his spin machine. He had the Left-wing Press and most of the so-called Right-wing Press sewn up, not to mention the BBC. Mr Blair has less cause than almost any political leader to complain about his treatment at the hands of the media.

In that period, independent-minded journalists who did not toe the party line were liable to be mocked or bullied by Mr Campbell, as the broadcaster Andrew Marr recently told the Leveson Inquiry. This evidence was dismissed yesterday by Mr Blair, who was barely pressed on the issue by the normally tenacious Mr Jay.

It was only after the lies and evasions of Iraq that some previously loyal newspapers and, for a time, the BBC began to turn against him. Even then the Murdoch Press continued to stand unquestioningly by him. None of this was probed yesterday.

Indulged? Mr Blair was spared heavy questioning about his relationship with Rupert Murdoch
Above all, Mr Blair was scarcely pressed on this close relationship with Rupert Murdoch. He implausibly claimed that the media tycoon had never asked him any favours, and also asserted that he had never changed any policy to please him.

Nor was he made to explain how it came about that in the eight days before the invasion of Iraq in March 2003, he and Mr Murdoch spoke three times on the telephone. Has such a close and mutually dependent relationship between a political leader and a Press proprietor ever existed in any other modern democracy?

Mr Jay did not ask Mr Blair to reflect on the way in which before, during and after the Iraq war, the Murdoch-owned Sun and Times exaggerated the British government�s apparent successes, and downplayed or even suppressed its setbacks.

Indeed, there were countless examples of this kind of tendentious journalism, which Mr Blair elsewhere deplored.

He described the relationship between the Press and politicians as �unhealthy�. What could have been more unhealthy than the intimate relationship between Mr Blair and Mr Murdoch�s News International that lies at the heart of many of our current problems? So close were these ties that the company�s executives began to behave as though they enjoyed special privileges and could do whatever they wanted to.

All these questions Mr Jay and Lord Justice Leveson failed to ask, perhaps because they were not familiar with the political background. I only hope their docility in this area is not symptomatic of the kind of neutered media they will leave us with when their deliberations have been completed!

It was not only a case of questions that should have been asked, but weren�t. Mr Blair was also allowed to get away with his extremely one-sided version of events. No mention was made of the way Blair�s No 10 and Brown�s Treasury briefed the media in order to pour bile over each other � a toxic factor that so debilitated the New Labour government.

He complained that the Press in general, and the Mail in particular, had harried his wife, Cherie. Yet what Mr Blair � who ruthlessly used his family to promote himself � did not mention was that, back in 2002, No 10 vehemently denied that Cherie Blair had a close relationship with a convicted conman called Peter Foster, who helped her buy two flats in Bristol, securing a discount of �70,000.

Absent questions: Tony Blair was not asked why he had allowed his spin doctor Alastair Campbell to give orders to senior civil servants - something considered to be unprecedented
The truth about that discreditable arrangement was only established after the Mail published devastating emails between Mrs Blair and Mr Foster. Mr Blair�s Press machine, overseen by Alastair Campbell, had lied.

Yesterday, Mr Blair also preposterously tried to blame unspecified newspapers for pressuring him into the second sacking of Peter Mandelson from the Cabinet in 2001, claiming subsequent evidence established his innocence. If so, he has only himself to blame for acting precipitately. Again, Mr Jay was apparently not sufficiently conversant with the facts to be able to deal with this.

It would be extraordinary if during his 13 years as party leader Tony Blair was never unjustly treated by newspapers. But the fact remains that until the falsehoods of the Iraq war he enjoyed a remarkably sympathetic press. I don�t think many people are likely to be convinced he or Cherie Blair or Alastair Campbell or Peter Mandelson have been badly treated.

By the way, at no stage in the proceedings yesterday was phone hacking by journalists at the News of the World discussed � hacking that was so inadequately investigated during the New Labour years. That seems to have been long forgotten.

Spin: Mr Blair presented a very one-sided versions of events, which were not sufficiently explored in depth by Robert Jay QC
No, it was the Press as a whole that was in the dock, with Mr Blair often the chief prosecutor.
Mr Blair created the most lethal Press machine ever known in this country. He sucked up to Rupert Murdoch more than was wise, seemly or necessary. It was he and his propagandist Alastair Campbell who were architects of the News International/No 10 axis � whose malign influence is still corrupting politics today � and I�m afraid his crimes dwarf any accusations he can ever level at his critics.

Put Dr David Kelly�s terrible death to one side. The spinning, the media manipulation and occasionally the downright mendacity of his administration eventually inflicted unprecedented damage to the trust between the media and the political class and in the process corrupted public discourse.

So it was with some disbelief, and a very heavy heart, that I heard Lord Justice Leveson at the end of the proceedings invite an eager Tony Blair to come back with his best ideas for the proper regulation of the Press.

How he must have blessed the innocent judge! The thought of Tony Blair and Alastair Campbell determining how newspapers should behave takes us into hitherto uncharted realms of madness.

This man is a war criminal and a liar, he is helped out by his pals in the law society, why he has never been put on trial is a mystery but one thing is for sure he WILL meet justice.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
Display posts from previous:   
Post new topic   Reply to topic    Imperial Party forum Forum Index -> General Discussion All times are GMT
Page 1 of 1

 
Jump to:  
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You can edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum


Powered by phpBB © phpBB Group. Hosted by phpBB.BizHat.com


For Support - http://forums.BizHat.com

Free Web Hosting | Free Forum Hosting | FlashWebHost.com | Image Hosting | Photo Gallery | FreeMarriage.com

Powered by PhpBBweb.com, setup your forum now!