There is a slight sense of being overwhelmed this morning.
We have lived through a tumultuous week.
Through it all, attention has been paid to the wrong things.
Mandelson is not the victim here, as he implies in a notice issued to the press yesterday, which The National published despite explicit instructions not to do so. Mandelson enabled his own fate.
So, too, did Keir Starmer. His claim that he was conned is as laughable as Mandelson's demand for privacy. Starmer knew what he was doing. He showed indifference to the victims of Epstein by apppinintg Mandelosn. All the links were known. He revealed his indifference through his actions. Ignore his words.
And to shift scene, let's also be clear that Trump revealed through his actions this week, by portraying the Obamas as monkeys, his own deep-seated, innate and politically charged racism, which he also denied, saying people had misunderstood him.
The reality is that no one misunderstands anything here.
Powerful (but clearly morally inadequate) men want to play the game of power for their own advantage and then plead immunity from responsibility for the consequences. That is what we are seeing. And what they obviously still think is that they can get away with it.
What is also clear is that whilst they might have done so at one time, precisely because most of the 'fourth estate', or mainstream media, is too spineless to hold anyone to account for what they do any more, social media is not, and that is where the anger has swelled.
The need for this alternative media has never been stronger. Without it, the corruption we can all see would be very much worse.
But then ask three questions.
First, who owns most of the social media platforms?
Second, how easy would it be to turn them off?
Third, when is that likely to happen?
The link between people, politics, power and accountability hangs by a perilous thread right now. It is that threat that I find overwhelming. Those who might politely be called the bastards are so close to winning because can we really rely on the Tech Bros to let us critique what is happening in the political sphere? I don't think so. Bezos is already gutting The Washington Post. These people will seek to gut social media next.
And that's one reason why I continue to blog independently of other platforms, and might need to think about where I host this site. I need to preserve the opportunity to publish for as long as possible. The noise from social media, which might just be all we have to hold the powerful to account, has to be preserved in a perilous world. My question is, how do we ensure that happens?
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Much to agree with. Being distracted by Mandelson and some American partying ebebophile we have not been paying proper attention to the situation here in the UK, in particular the housing crisis.
Many people will have read comments like this on the new record housing price: The average price of a home stood at £300,077, above £300,000 for the first time. Amanda Bryden, head of mortgages at Halifax, said: “While that’s undoubtedly a milestone figure, and activity levels show a resilient market, affordability remains a challenge for many would-be buyers.”
And then stopped reading as they were distracted. But there’s more:
“Wage growth has been outpacing property price inflation since late 2022, steadily improving underlying affordability. That’s a positive trend for buyers, and the long-term health of the market.”
So the price to wage ratio is down, interest rates are down, but affordability is also down as any walkabout economist can tell you. These things can only be true if a big organisation which isn’t mentioned is taking a greater cut than before on the wage side and a greater cut on the price side. But no-one is thinking this far.
I don’t see these issues as a distraction but as connected. The same political and financial networks that have shaped housing policy for years are also the ones operating at the centre of the current scandal. That overlap is worth paying attention to when we talk about who benefits from the current system.
I’m sure you are doing this – but have “redundancy” and “distribution” built in to the blog system, with no single point of failure and choose jurisdictions carefully.
Study what others do including some of the less reputable. Guido Fawkes/ Staines is an example.
Look at the money side, money transfers, banking, payment systems. How easily and by what methods can FTF be turned off by those who object to your output?
How will you respond to smears (sort out that before it happens). Have a “press/PR” policy for the whole team. I once carried round a prepared, never used press release for 6 months, when a pastor – a lesson learned from a press workshop led by a local paper editor.
One lesson learned by former “victims” of smears, fight back, robustly, loudly and publicly (but carefully, not in the heat of the moment).. Corbyn didn’t do this – big mistake. Daylight is very effective in countering darkness, which prefers secrets – abusers’ favourite phrase is, “let’s keep this as our secret”.
I am reflecting on all such things….
No wonder the population is looking at the Reform/Conservatives. As the Epstein files unfold just how corrupt those in positions of power are. Norway is another country now looking at it’s ex prime minister. Ours says he sorry, whilst Rayner, her of the i was misinformed is in the backgound looking to a potential PM role. Streeting is possibly linked to a private health organisation etc, etc. The trump family are now claimed to have used the presedentcy to enrich their assets, potentially in unlawfull way.
Is it wonder that the population is,like you, overwhelmed and can see no way forward. The news informs us of corridor care and junior doctorts stricking. But there is no mention of WHY. Is it because there are fewer bed, fewer nursing staff or the fact that a hospital has a disportionate number of admin staff to medical staff. Maybe successive government have ignored an aging popuation whilst cutting social care. Maybe they, ministers, government don’t care or give a damn.
Personally, I’m sick to the back teeth of the corruption that is allowed to continue and after 14 plus years of austerity the people, the country is no better for it.
End of rant keep going Richard a voice of reason.
I will keep going.
What to do?
1. Restore media viability and plurality by breaking up the Google/Facebook duopoly control of advertising spend.
2. Legislate to have media owners tax and domicile resident in the country. (If you shit the bed, you sleep in it.)
3. Make the media owners criminally liable for what is published on their platforms. And enforce that strongly.
That’s a start
Agreed. Why can’t I share this?
Ni idea…you should be able to…
No problem. My fault. I altered my browser settings and all ok now.
You have told us where the next battlefront will be just now: online. The thing is, the internet is such a Klondike sort of place we have to remember that even though it is the tech bros who dominate it, it is still a place at the moment we can all use. If other users and opinion platforms are forced out, I can just see the level of inventiveness going up to protect it. But the threat you mention is real.
I have seen evidence of this threat on (of all places) terrestrial TV this week already.
ITV is showing the Rugby Union 6 Nations and has seen fit to – whilst there is a break in play – split your TV screen in two and show an advert (rather loudly) next to a screen image on the pitch at the same time.
Obviously, I object to this – are breaks in play deliberately slowed down to accommodate this unwelcome intrusion? – I don’t know. I’m going to time the them against the few that are on BBC.
But back to my point. This whole escapade is not about choice – what do you want to do – concentrate on a complex game or buy stuff? It’s another example of the authoritarianism in inherent in capitalism – ‘You’re having it whether you want it or not. We say so; we are paying’. I never received any questions about my preferences at all. This is what you are going to get.
It is this authoritarian streak in capitalism that you speak of that is the threat to online life and alternate media. It is the authoritarianism of monopoly. That is why alternative media outlets and opinion platforms will come under threat.
So, to fight back, we must point out the dangers of monopoly and lack of choice and freedom, and lobby hard to be heard and even be devious. There is a digital commons that is there for all of us. And we have to support the other outlets as well I’m afraid with coffees or subscriptions.
Monopolies. I hate them. F**k them. But that is what people like Blair and Mandelson think should be happening with government – it should be an extension of the market – which cannot be trusted to act in anyone else’s best interests but its own.
Much to agree with. Although, I don’t watch rugby. I played. Too many bad memories.
One of the most disgraceful things is that Trump is placing sanctions on Francesca Albanese the UN Rapporteur as though she was a terrorist.
She informed a number of companies they were in danger of complicity in war crimes ( as 800 officials from the EU, Uk and US warned their governments in February 2024 ) Some appealed to the White House and this was the result. \https://www.amnesty.org.uk/latest/usa-sanctions-against-un-special-rapporteur-francesca-albanese-are-disgraceful/
“All the links were known.”
Jonathan Freedland makes quite an interesting point on that today
“He could say that what has enraged so many, including among his own MPs, was his admission on Wednesday that he had known, when he appointed him, that Mandelson had continued his relationship with Epstein. But, Starmer could say, pointing his finger at the benches in front of and behind him, so did all of you. It had all been laid out, in detail, two years before Mandelson was posted to the US, in a JP Morgan report covered in the Financial Times. Why did so few of you protest at the time? Why, on the contrary, did the Westminster village, including Farage by the way, along with most of the media, support the appointment, declaring it a masterstroke?”
The simple answer is that with Mandelson coming up in the recent release of ‘Epstein files’, the media decided to run with it – they had enough when Mandelson was appointed to do a similar story but didn’t, and this is a government that follows the media more than most as well as chasing (and failing to catch) the polls, so the appointment passed the test at the time.
I think that is Freedland doing a deliberate cover up. Much of the Guardian is.
I happened upon Polanski’s party-political advert last night. The Greens may well not have all their policies finalised, but the video nails the situation of many Britons. They too must be thinking about how they maintain their communication channels. I imagine radio is overlooked by those who favour modern tech, but broadcasters still need licences, and the internet is involved in much delivery as we listen on demand.
Tim Berners Lee and other founders of the www seemed to have a vision that it would make us all equal – to communicate , to learn, to exchange to have some leverage, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contract_for_the_Web
But as it turns out its not ‘people to people’ its people to Musk/Zuckerberg algorithmic propaganda manipulation machine to people’.
You couldn’t make it up – that we billions or people are all beholden to two or three oligarchs who ‘own’ our communications with each other. So web communication is utterly concentrated and centralised instead of being ‘networked’ .
Richard’s question of how can we ensure the noise from social media can be preserved – is so pertinent , and very telling that he is not totally reliant on the ‘platforms’
I wish there was a global non- profit platform that allowed us to tweak our own algorithms so that we could see and hear what we are concerned about and which would enable campaigns to go ‘viral’ unmediated by the techbros.
Good points. One bastion against the monopolisation of social media is clearly Mastodon, so I am glad that you have maintained a presence there.
Another is the ancient Usenet newsgroup system, which still operates, though it’s well under most people’s radar. As with the Fediverse, Usenet operates on a network of servers with no single company or institution in control. Since getting connected usually requires some technical know-how, I operate a simple free web gateway to Usenet at https://newsgrouper.org . Unfortunately the ill-conceived Online Safety Act prevents me from making this available to UK users! This reinforces the monopolisation of this space by the big players who can afford hot-and-cold-running lawyers. 🙁
Thanks, and damn!
I’m wondering whether the Mandelson debacle provides a chance to express displeasure with Trump’s latest, utterly unacceptable, behaviour by downgrading our diplomatic representation at least for a while. Charge d’Affaires instead of an Ambassador? But then again, Starmer. So I guess it won’t even be considered.
It won’t be
Richard,
If you’re looking for an alternative hosting/publishing platform I wonder if you know of Ghost:
https://ghost.org/ and see eg https://ghost.org/news/
The Edinburgh Minute moved from Substack to Ghost a few months ago – explained here https://www.edinburghminute.com/a-new-home-for-the-edinburgh-minute/
and The Ferret uses the platform [ https://www.theferret.scot/ ]
But maybe the Ghost pricing model, for example, might not suit your needs.
Hi Neil
I was thinking more about completely self-hosting rathe than using another platform
I think we try enough platforms
I might need to talk to RobertJ.
Richard
Happy to help but I dont have techie skill – but I can maybe ask some key questions. Email if you want.
Thanks
Not today!
One of the annoying things is that it continues to be framed along political lines – Labour/Tory/Ref*** in the UK, Democrat/Republican/MAGA in the US.
No, it’s the elite believing they can act with impunity and do what they want, when they want, how they want and to whoever they want.
And they distract from this by creating division and hate and anger amongst everyone else by identifying a group and pinning the blame for the ills of society on them.
Craig
Marina Hyde in the Guardian online yesterday, I think, missed the point, while telling everyone else that THEY had missed the point.
She says its about the abuse of women by men, not about politics and power.
But my concerns are:
1. I reckon young men were trafficked too, because they needed to entrap gay politicians as well as straight ones.
2. The abuse and trafficking and murder of women by men, as well as child abuse, are global, long-standing issues, way beyond the corridors of power, mostly involving ordinary families containing brutal abusers who are NOT famous or powerful. But despite the outrage of #MeToo, or isolated children’s home scandals, we aren’t making progress and have dismantled the very systems (police, courts, social services) that would make a difference to thousands of victims, who suffer right here in UK, nowhere near celebrity circles.
The scandal I want uncovered in the media, is WHY Epstein did what he did?
WHY did he target politicians and royalty?
WHO was giving him his orders?
Sufficient is already in the public domain for the press to have a field day, but they are ignoring it, just as they ignore the issue of who was pulling MacSweeney’s strings? The answer is more than Putin,so lets not be fobbed off by that.
Robert
Why? Bevause his paymasters asked hom to.
Who is becoming increasingly clear. Tyhe like;lihood that it was Israeli security services seems very high.
This is political observation. Nothing more.
Richard
Agreed, but will MSM tackle it?
Wiil BBC even dare ask the questions?
The dam of omerta is cracking badly.
They will distract us with celebs and Mandelson/Andrew for as long as they can.
But they are losing their grip.
If Epstein’s masters were to be revealed and I am sure that who they are is known the results will be interesting to say the least
If it is who we think it is then it shows the influence of and more to the point the damage caused by the state of Israel.
Interesting times
“First, who owns most of the social media platforms?
Second, how easy would it be to turn them off?
Third, when is that likely to happen?”
Your three questions triggered an image in my mind of rickety printing presses in dingy basements, posting announcements on church doors and the surreptitious dropping of leaflets etc.
If people aren’t allowed free access to the internet they’ll have to find other ways to communicate.
Theses pinned to the door.