Today is Good Friday so it’s nearly Easter and (in the UK at least) it’s a Bank Holiday. This week’s round up of stuff I thought was interesting.
1) Alan Rushbridger on Leveson and press reform. What’s really puzzled me about this is that a significant amount of the Press seem not to understand what has so outraged people. If you misuse your toys at some point someone will decide to take them away, the Press really needs to sit down and remember that with rights come responsibility, they can’t shout about press freedom and not take on the responsibility of reporting the truth without hacking into dead girls phones.
So, no one has the monopoly of principle. But this much is clear: the old system of regulation was feeble. Leveson uncovered much that was shameful about significant parts of the press – with more dismaying allegations doubtless soon to emerge in the courts. The most powerful newspaper group in the country was – on the kindest interpretation – out of control. The police and parliament were cowed.
We badly need reform. We also need a free press. Achieving both can’t be done at speed or in the dark.
2) Prayers and protests. I’m very pro-choice, which is not the same as pro-abortion and 40 Days for Life set up in Ealing this year, they drive me bananas because they lie and telling someone they’re a murderer is not helping..
A Marie Stopes spokesperson says that their main concern is targeting the “misleading information … given to [women] by protesters”. Flicking through a 40 Days leaflet, it’s clear that this is a problem. Saturated in emotive language about “your tiny baby”, its pseudo-medical statements imply that abortions often cause “serious physical complications” – a tactic that has earned them the moniker 40 Days for Lies among counter-protesters.
3) George Monbiot on the dividing line between public and private.
When the threshold is crossed, everything changes. Money spent in the private sector is deemed by politicians and the media to be a good thing. Money spent in the public sector is deemed a bad thing, even though (or perhaps because) it is more effective at distributing wealth. If you are on the right side of the line, the government will deregulate your business. If you are on the wrong side of the line (schools and hospitals, for example), it will subject you to ever more draconian regulation, with cruel and unusual punishments for the slightest resistance to its crazy targets and intrusive inspections.
4) A legal challenge about where Richard III’s remains should be buried. I thought York because that was where he wanted to be buried. However, for distant relatives (very distant) to claim that not being consulted on this is a breach of human rights is ridiculous, they didn’t know where he was buried at all until recently..
The licence stipulated that the king’s remains should be “deposited in [Leicester’s] Jewry Wall museum or else be re-interred at [the city’s] St Martin’s Cathedral or a burial ground in which interments may legally take place”.
That latitude of interpretation has stirred up a popular debate over the location of Richard III’s final resting place. Any site is likely to attract significant tourist business.
5) 100 rules of dinner. I like 87.
87. If you care about what other people thing about you and your parenting abilities, it is important that your kids only ask for their water “on the rocks” at home.
6) The problem with foodstamps/vouchers/payment cards. The only thing that kept me sane when I was unemployed was that I could control my household expenditure for the occasional treal, I could live on lentil soup for a week so I could afford a night out, not an expensive night out, just a couple of drinks with a friend.
I see those pragmatic arguments now as a Maginot line, and food stamps marched in over the undefended territory of human dignity. When you relegate people to a world outside money, you create a true underclass: a group of people whose privacy and autonomy are worth less than everyone else’s, who are stateless in a world made of shops.
Nic Dempsey 