- Rude Dude With Tude
- Apr 19, 2007
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Your President approves this text.
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Turns out the government's new Extremism Analysis Unit have been working really, really hard to monitor the UK universities they accused of supporting extremist speakers. They worked so hard, they pressed both ctrl+c AND ctrl+v on a neoconservative thinktank report. https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/no-10s-extremism-report-mirrors-text-thinktank-study
Times Higher Education posted:No 10’s extremism report mirrors text of thinktank study
Sections of a Downing Street statement that accused universities of hosting hate preachers are identical to those featured in a report by a controversial thinktank, Times Higher Education has learned.
As new rules on how universities monitor events by outside speakers came into force last month, the prime minister said that institutions had a “duty to protect impressionable young minds” and to ensure that “radical views and ideas are not given the oxygen they need to flourish”.
“At least 70 events featuring hate speakers were held on campuses, according to the government’s new Extremism Analysis Unit”, the Downing Street statement added.
But four universities – Queen Mary University of London; Soas, University of London; King’s College London; and Kingston University – that were named as hosting the most events involving extremist speakers said that they were perplexed by the accusation, which Soas insisted contained “inaccuracies”.
Queen Mary’s principal, Simon Gaskell, complained that his institution had had no contact from the Extremism Analysis Unit, which seemed to have produced the figures.
THE has now learned that the source of much of the data is likely to be a recent report by Student Rights, an arm of the Henry Jackson Society.
Written by Student Rights director Rupert Sutton, the Preventing Prevent report lists the four London universities mentioned by Downing Street in its own table of the most-visited universities.
It also includes a list of former students later convicted of terrorism-related offences – of whom eight are also mentioned in the Downing Street statement using terms that are identical or almost identical to ones used in the Student Rights report.
For instance, both reports state that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab “had repeatedly contacted extremists who were under MI5 surveillance” while he was a student at University College London, before being “convicted in 2012, of attempted murder and terrorism, after trying to bomb a passenger flight to Detroit in 2009”.
An independent inquiry commissioned by UCL later found no evidence to suggest that the Nigerian student had been radicalised on campus or that he had exhibited any signs of a propensity to radicalisation.
THE has repeatedly tried to contact Downing Street to establish the source of information contained in its 17 September statement, but it has not received a response.
However, THE understands that only the figure about the 70 events came from the Extremism Analysis Unit, with the source of the remaining material remaining unclear.
The seemingly unattributed use of the Henry Jackson Society material is likely to concern many within the sector, with several students’ unions accusing the organisation of pursuing an Islamophobic agenda.
David Miller, professor of sociology at the University of Bath, who co-authored a book on the origins of the Henry Jackson Society and its funding from pro-Israel supporters, called for the government to publish the source of its data to show that they were “not of dubious provenance”.
“The Prevent duty depends on having objective information and clear evidence about how universities are responding to it – information must be transparent and unimpeachable,” Professor Miller said.
“HJS is not an academic body, but a campaigning thinktank with a neoconservative...agenda, so the notion that it could set the agenda on extremism is staggering,” he added.
In response, Mr Sutton said that Spinwatch, with whom Professor Miller published his book, had itself received funding from controversial sources such as the Cordoba Foundation, which has been labelled the “political front for the Muslim Brotherhood” by David Cameron.
“Spinwatch is funded by the very extremists Prevent seeks to challenge. So it is no surprise to us to see it working to undermine Prevent, as well as labelling those organisations actively working to challenge extremism with scurrilous accusations of Islamophobia to distract from its own insidious agenda,” he said.
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Oct 1, 2015 11:19
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Apr 29, 2024 06:26
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- Rude Dude With Tude
- Apr 19, 2007
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Vice have attacked Corbyn for his weak stance on global annihilation http://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/nukes-are-good-for-the-british-economy-578
quote:Reasons Why the Nuclear Destruction of Life on Earth Is Good for the British Economy
It's been a great week for the end of the world. At the Labour party conference in Brighton, delegates – including, prominently, those from Unite, GMB, and other major unions – have voted against debating the party's position on the Trident nuclear weapons programme. Of course, this is a small victory: the motion wasn't for Labour to oppose Trident, but for them to have a debate about the possibility of opposing it, and with a Tory majority in Parliament it's likely that the programme would have been renewed anyway. For the next five years, at least, the lives of every single person on the planet will remain where they belong, in the hands of whoever has been chosen to lead the Conservative Party. But for those of us who eagerly await the fiery destruction of all human life, it's a victory nonetheless. Because, as we know, the end of the world is good for Britain's economy.
It's not entirely clear why Jeremy Corbyn is so opposed to Britain's nuclear deterrent. (After all, in 2004 he sponsored a motion in Parliament to officially welcome "the day when the inevitable asteroid slams into earth" and wipes out humanity forever. Maybe it's the means, not the ends, that he's concerned about.) His anti-Armageddon stance certainly isn't making him many political allies. He's recently come under attack from senior Labour party figures for claiming on Radio 4 that, were he Prime Minister, he'd refuse to push the big red button. According to shadow defence secretary Maria Eagle, "a potential prime minister answering a question like that in the way that he did" is not "helpful." At least someone's saying it how it is: what's the point of spending £20 billion on nuclear weapons if you're not going to use them?
This is a critical moment for the party: how can they win the trust of the electorate if they're not seen to be grunting and drooling at the prospect of instantly annihilating millions of people? Power is ultimately more important than principle, and Labour needs to be a party of government, not of opposition, even if what it ends up governing is a big mutant-strewn stick of charcoal in a sea clogged with ashes and bones. But nuclear weapons aren't just good for Labour, they're good for the country. Here's why.
TRIDENT KEEPS BRITAIN WORKING
This was the line taken by many union delegates when they voted against any debate on the nuclear issue. For Len McCluskey, the general secretary of Unite, while there's "a moral case and the huge cost of replacing Trident, especially in this era of austerity," these concerns are outweighed by "jobs and the defence of communities." 520 civilian employees at the Faslane naval base in Scotland – and their families – depend directly on the continuation of Britain's nuclear deterrent. While it's true that, were Trident to be scrapped, the £20 billion of savings would be enough to compensate each former worker with a redundancy payment of just under £38,461,538.50, their new lives of unimaginable wealth and luxury would soon start to feel like a hollow sham; without good honest work they'd soon become bored and restless, wishing for a nuclear apocalypse just to save them from the sheer ennui, and tragically impotent to bring it about.
In any case, laying off British workers just because what they do has the potential to kill every living thing on the planet is a slippery slope. The British arms industry is one of the few manufacturing concerns that this country still has, and much of its output is exported to repressive states like Israel and Saudi Arabia. Should that be scrapped too, along with the thousands of jobs it provides? What about the BBC, which makes a significant profit selling Top Gear and Doctor Who around the world, subjecting millions to programmes so terrible that any honest tribunal would class them as war crimes? Some countries base their economies on oil or minerals; Britain's is based on monstrous, inexplicable evil. Nobody likes it, but any attempt to change that is just not feasible.
NUCLEAR DEVASTATION HELPS THE WIDER ECONOMY TOO
It's not only those workers directly employed by Trident that might feel its benefits. For decades, there's been a severe lack of good, dependable, unionised industrial work available in this country. This has been the result of numerous factors, but by far the most significant is the industrialisation of the Global South. It's simply cheaper for British employers to open up factories staffed by Malaysian slave-labourers than it is for them to invest in communities at home. Our attempts to deal with this historical shift haven't been entirely successful – while there's been some investment in the formation of a high-tech workforce, and an effort to drive down wages to competitive levels through zero-hours contracts and other mechanism for casualising labour, unemployment is still high and productivity is still flatlining. Trident offers an effective alternative. It'll be much easier for hardworking British people to compete with workers overseas when those workers have been turned into gently drifting clouds of dust by the ungodly heat of a thermonuclear explosion.
The tourism sector is another vital component of the British economy that could be helped out by the irradiation of much of the world's surface. As things stand, our traditional seaside resorts are in steep decline, thanks to a combination of cheap air travel and the fact that they aren't very good. Rather than doing their bit for the economy by pretending to have fun as the rain lazily spits its displeasure at Weston-super-Mare, thousands are instead choosing to fly out to more enticing destinations overseas. It's very likely that targeted nuclear strikes on popular holiday destinations, turning pristine beaches and charmingly rustic hotels into a silent span of black glass that bubbles underfoot as the radiation-burned survivors pathetically crawl for the sea, will be a much-needed boon for our traditional hospitality industry. Many voters in seaside towns have abandoned Labour for UKIP, and a newfound commitment to the systematic eradication of all foreigners might be what it takes to lure them back. A fairer, better, full-employment economy is almost within reach: all we need to do is push the button.
THE ANNIHILATION OF ALL LIVING THINGS CAN SOLVE THE DEFICIT CRISIS
All this is assuming that Britain itself emerges unscathed from any nuclear war, which isn't likely. But if a future Prime Minister's decision to deploy Trident ends up being the last decision anyone ever makes, it could still be great news for our economy. The millions we're currently spending on welfare payments to scroungers, smackheads and the rest of the undeserving poor can finally be put to better use. Unemployment will instantly be wiped out, at the small cost of the unemployed. Overcrowding at NHS hospitals will, admittedly, briefly become an extremely serious problem, but within a few days it will recede into utter insignificance. Britain's balance of payments will be perfectly even and its debts will fall to zero. There'll be no inflation, no credit crunches, no dropping share prices. And the Labour party will never lose another election.
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Oct 1, 2015 13:05
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- Rude Dude With Tude
- Apr 19, 2007
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Your President approves this text.
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Cameron's anecdotes factcheck: FALSE. http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/david-camerons-new-convert-bernard-6590565
The Mirror posted:David Cameron's 'new convert' Bernard Harris has voted Tory since 1987
David Cameron's conference speech has been tainted by an embarrassing blunder, after it was revealed a 'new convert' he mentioned by name has voted Conservative since 1987.
Bernard Harris, an 82-year-old man from Leicester told the Mirror he was turned Tory not by smooth Dave, but by the Iron Lady Margaret Thatcher. Before that he had voted Labour, but hasn't voted anything but Conservative in almost 30 years. It's an embarrassing moment for Cameron, who made Bernard a key point in his speech - implying he was a new convert to the Tories. In his speech he said:
"It’s never too late. Bernard Harris from Leicester wrote to me before polling day and said this.
“Aged 82, this is possibly my last election. In my life I have foolishly voted Labour, believing it served the working class. How wrong I was. Labour is against all I aspire to. I am 100 per cent for a United Kingdom, a sound economy, free enterprise, a trading Europe and a decent standard of living. Only a Conservative Government will achieve this.”
Bernard, you found the right party – and I want many more to follow in your footsteps."
Mr Harris got quite a surprise when he heard his name used by Mr Cameron during his speech. He said: "They asked me for permission to use the letter, but didn't tell me it was for the Prime Minister. I'm a humble person and I was happy for them to use it, because I meant every word I said."
Asked why he had chosen to stick with the Tories over the years, he said he was thinking of his children and grandchildren. "It's not for me, I'm at the end of my life," he said.
Asked whether he'd be swayed back to Labour by Jeremy Corbyn , he said no. He said: "I don't doubt he's a very sincere man, and believes what he says. But I think he's misguided. Mostly over the nuclear deterrent. He's entitled to his opinion the same as everyone else is. Maybe he'll take the Labour party in a good direction."
"I think we should keep the nuclear deterrent for my grandchildren to know the fear and uncertainty of nuclear proliferation, just like my generation"  
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Oct 7, 2015 15:37
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- Rude Dude With Tude
- Apr 19, 2007
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Your President approves this text.
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Turns out the glorious powerhouse of our economy is also ruining our economy because of shirkers not saving and getting on in life. http://www.theguardian.com/money/2015/oct/12/soaring-london-house-prices-sucking-cash-out-of-economy-study-says
grauniad posted:Soaring London house prices sucking cash out of economy, study says
Soaring London house prices are costing the economy more than £1bn a year and preventing the creation of thousands of jobs, as individuals plough money into buying and renting instead of spending their cash elsewhere, a report has claimed. London’s housing market recovered quickly from the financial downturn of 2008-2009 and in recent years rents and house prices have rocketed. House prices are more than 46% above their pre-crisis peak, at an average of £525,000 according to the Office for National Statistics, while rents in the private sector have risen by a third over the past decade.
The report, by business group London First and consultancy CEBR, found that workers in many sectors were now priced out of the capital, while companies were being forced to pay more to attract staff and help them meet living expenses. The report said there was a knock-on effect on consumer spending, with money being spent on expensive mortgages and rents rather than other goods. It said as much as £2.7bn could have been spent elsewhere in 2015 if housing costs had kept in line with inflation over the past decade. This additional spending could have supported almost 11,000 more jobs, and meant a boost to the economy of more than £1bn this year.
Workers in shops, cafés and restaurants, and those performing administrative office roles would have to pay their entire pre-tax salary to rent an average private home in London, the report found, while social workers, librarians, and teachers faced rents equivalent to more than half their salaries. It said only the best-paid workers, including company directors and those working in financial services, earned enough to rent in central London “affordably”; that is paying less than one-third of their salaries on housing. “The housing crisis is making it difficult to attract and retain staff in retail, care and sales occupations,” it said. “Even if they spend a limited amount on other goods and services, they are effectively priced out of living independently in the capital. They need to co-habit with partners, friends or family, or be eligible for social housing in the capital.”
To compensate for high housing costs, employees expected higher salaries, which meant firms were paying an average of £1,720 a year more to workers than they would have had accommodation costs risen only in line with inflation since 2005. This meant an extra wage bill for firms of £5bn this year, and the figure was set to grow to £6.1bn by 2020.
London First will join forces on Tuesday with other business groups and the housing charity Shelter to launch Fifty Thousand Homes, a campaign that challenges the London mayor to reach an annual housebuilding target by the end of the decade. Baroness Jo Valentine, chief executive of London First, said: “This needless housing shortage needs urgent action. If we carry on as things stand, in 10 years’ time London will be a no-go zone for employees across sectors and at almost all levels. I want the next mayor of London to wake up each morning thinking about how to increase housebuilding – because only doubling our current levels of housebuilding to 50,000 a year will we solve this crisis.”
Scott Corfe of CEBR, which conducted the research, said the housing crisis “risks undermining the capital’s position as a global centre of enterprise, talent and success”.
In September, the accountancy firm Deloitte announced it had set up an initiative to help graduate employees into housing in the capital, after a survey of last year’s new staff found that finding affordable accommodation London was a major concern. It said 5% of its graduate intake in 2014 found the city’s housing costs so prohibitive they had to share a bedroom, while others lived in property where communal living space had been converted into an additional bedroom to make renting affordable. Last week, a report by property firm Savills found that London was the most expensive city in the world for companies to rent residential and office space.
Surprisingly it looks like if people can't afford to live somewhere then they won't live there and then there's less jobs. Well done The Invisible Hand Of The Free Market, another great success proving a rising tide crushes boats against the rocks.
Rude Dude With Tude fucked around with this message at 10:56 on Oct 12, 2015
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Oct 12, 2015 10:43
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- Rude Dude With Tude
- Apr 19, 2007
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Your President approves this text.
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Good news lads, the Met's done a big investigation and they've discovered that they're the most progressive organisation in the country http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/oct/12/no-racial-discrimination-complaints-upheld-met-police
quote:No racial discrimination complaints against Met police upheld
Metropolitan police officers faced more than 240 complaints of racial discrimination over a year but none of these was ultimately upheld, according to figures released under the Freedom of Information Act.
A freedom of information disclosure shows that it was concluded there was no “case to answer” in any of the complaints submitted – a figure that the chair of the body representing black police officers said was implausible.
DS Janet Hills, chair of the Metropolitan Black Police Association, described it as “an awful scenario”.
“It’s not credible. It is disappointing that the Met are not learning from previous lessons,” she said. “The fact that not one [officer] has been sanctioned, I don’t think they are getting what they have been asked to look at.”
The force defended the blanket exoneration, saying complaints were often due to “a simple misunderstanding or poor communication”.
Privately, some Met chiefs wonder how the disproportionately white force can retain its legitimacy while using coercive powers to police a city with a growing ethnic-minority population. Just 11% of Met officers are from an ethnic minority, compared with 40% of Londoners.
Hills added: “It’s not good for community confidence. We’ve got to start getting it right. We need the community to trust us.”
The figures show that of 245 complaints of racial discrimination that were concluded from March 2014 to February 2015, no action was taken in 240 of the cases. In the remaining five, the Met took “management action”, which it says is “not a formal misconduct outcome but is considered to be part of the normal managerial responsibility of managers in the police service”.
The figures show that several officers had more than one complaint against them – with five unnamed officers each facing three or more allegations of racism in the 12-month period – none of which resulted in any action.
Great news there's no systemic racism there, trebles all round!
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Oct 12, 2015 13:43
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- Rude Dude With Tude
- Apr 19, 2007
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Your President approves this text.
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BTW the war in Afghanistan has seen our coalition partners, and presumably UK forces, turn a blind eye to child abuse by our local allies:
KABUL, Afghanistan — In his last phone call home, Lance Cpl. Gregory Buckley Jr. told his father what was troubling him: From his bunk in southern Afghanistan, he could hear Afghan police officers sexually abusing boys they had brought to the base.
“At night we can hear them screaming, but we’re not allowed to do anything about it,” the Marine’s father, Gregory Buckley Sr., recalled his son telling him before he was shot to death at the base in 2012. He urged his son to tell his superiors. “My son said that his officers told him to look the other way because it’s their culture.”
Rampant sexual abuse of children has long been a problem in Afghanistan, particularly among armed commanders who dominate much of the rural landscape and can bully the population. The practice is called bacha bazi, literally “boy play,” and American soldiers and Marines have been instructed not to intervene — in some cases, not even when their Afghan allies have abused boys on military bases, according to interviews and court records.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/21/world/asia/us-soldiers-told-to-ignore-afghan-allies-abuse-of-boys.html?_r=0
Yeah this is common as hell out there because they're all repressed: https://info.publicintelligence.net/HTT-PashtunSexuality.pdf tl;dr gently caress pashtun culture
Human Terrain Team (HTT) AF-6 posted:
Upon arrival at Camp Leatherneck in Helmand province, HTT was initially limited in its ability to conduct research with foot patrols and therefore sought to engage Afghan truck drivers who came on to the base for general atmospheric information. For the most part, such drivers are staunch allies whotake enormous risks, as it is publicly evident that they assist American and Coalition Forces, and they frequently face reprisals from insurgent fighters. Also to be noted is the fact that truck drivers are highly cosmopolitan in comparison to most rural Afghan populations, as they have seen and traveled within many regions, to include western-influenced metropolitan areas. It should be anticipated that they would be therefore less likely to display local Pashtun resistance to the open and public presence of women.
On day one, HTT met only a group of four or five truck drivers, all of whom were from Helmand, living approximately 50 miles away from the camp. The most striking interviewee was a boy, about 12-14 years old, traveling with a group of older men. He spoke English beautifully, Dari beautifully, Pashto with apparent fluency, and when asked about other languages he knew, said he also spoke Urdu.
This was an absolutely brilliant child.
Asked why he was traveling with the other men, they identified him as their 'little mechanic' and said he could repair any problems they had on the road. This added greatly to the already very strong impression of the intelligence of this child.
The boy told HTT that he was traveling with his brother, an older truck driver, and that their truck had been hit by an insurgent rocket on their way in. (He was proud to point out the location of impact.) The referenced brother was not present. The boy also explained that while their time on the road could be shortened, they take a circuitous route to the FOB, lasting about 10 days, in an attempt to throw off or avoid Taliban attacks.
I was deeply impressed with the boy, yet experienced a sense of wariness from the men who combined looks of distaste among themselves with slightly-too slow requisite politeness toward the two female HTT members present. They had no such apparent problem with the male Human Terrain Analyst or Team Leader. The latter of the two approached in a U.S. Military uniform.
Therefore, the reaction of the interviewees appeared to be an issue regarding females, rather than an issue regarding Americans or the American Military. Nevertheless, I left the interview uplifted thinking that the future of Afghanistan was in the hands of brilliant, brave children like this.
This incident was later re-examined in conversation with a group of American interviewees who together and individually spoke with many, many years experience working directly with the culture in country.
They reminded me that one of the country’s favorite sayings is “women are for children, boys are for pleasure.” One the interviewees shared stories of how groups of men, ie. shepherding parties, would always travel with one boy “for fun.” Sadly, the talented young mechanic came immediately to mind. HTT produced a picture of him with the group of drivers, and the interviewees were quite confident that their worst suspicions were correct. One interviewee then told the story of a time he found a 14-year-old boy quite literally in the hands of a group of Afghan security guards under his command. He physically fought the guards to free the boy and drove him back to Kabul, hours away, returning him home to his family, from whom he had apparently been forcibly taken in order to travel with the guards.
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Oct 13, 2015 17:48
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- Rude Dude With Tude
- Apr 19, 2007
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Your President approves this text.
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ah poo poo I forgot PMQs and am now doing a bit of catch up. Meanwhile GMP have called out the Tories for being a bunch of tossers. http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/gmp-police-chiefs-fury-tory-10250958
MEN posted:GMP police chief's fury at Tory MP who criticised police handling of 'hate crimes' against Tories in Manchester
A top police chief has blasted a Tory MP who criticised GMP for its handling of protesters at the Conservative Party conference in Manchester.
Insp Ian Hanson, chairman of the Greater Manchester branch of the Police Federation, which represents rank-and-file officers, said he found it ‘absolutely incredible’ that Ribble Valley’s Nigel Evans chastised officers during a House of Commons debate. Mr Evans, highlighting that delegates were subjected to ‘vile abuse tantamount to hate crimes’, spat at and pelted with eggs during the four-day conference in Manchester, said GMP’s response was ‘totally inadequate’. He demanded answers from police chiefs and Minister of State for Justice, Mike Penning.
Officers made just 19 arrests over the course of the conference. Police chiefs said the ‘incredibly complex’ operation - in the face of a huge amount of ‘protest and direct activism’ - was one of the most difficult in a decade. Insp Hanson, telling MP Mr Evans to ‘get over himself’, insisted officers managed the conference well.
He added: “I find it absolutely incredible that Nigel Evans has launched such a ferocious attack on GMP after a week where we worked tirelessly to keep him and his colleagues safe. An enormous amount of work went into the operation, which saw the biggest ever demonstration in the history of Manchester take place, with 70,000 protesters descending upon our city. Mr Evans makes no mention of the long hours worked by the men and women of GMP and the months of planning that went into the policing effort. Instead, he focuses in on what affects him.”
Insp Hanson highlighted the severe cuts GMP has suffered under the Tories - and told Mr Evans he is ‘no more important than everyone else in Manchester’.
“Yes, there were some protesters who overstepped the mark and arrests were made,” he added. “GMP managed to do this against a backdrop of having lost nearly 2,000 police officers since 2010 – something he makes no mention of. Mr Evans has had a glimpse into the real world of what policing looks like in 2015, which is the fact that we do not have the police officers to provide a ‘ring of steel’ around him as we once did. Perhaps he would like to tell the communities of Greater Manchester which neighbourhood he thinks should have had the few police officers that are left taken from their streets to provide additional private security for him? Things got a bit uncomfortable and we dealt with it – get over yourself Mr Evans, you are no more important than everybody else in Manchester who gave up their police officers to keep you safe – you should be thanking the communities and police officers of Greater Manchester – not attacking them.”
e: 80 - Legio secunda adiutrix decides that Lincoln is a pretty nice place to retire.
Rude Dude With Tude fucked around with this message at 12:49 on Oct 14, 2015
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Oct 14, 2015 12:45
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- Rude Dude With Tude
- Apr 19, 2007
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Your President approves this text.
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What's that noise? Oh it's the sound of a literal truckload of cash being backed up to Mark Hanna's house http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/oct/19/rebekah-brookss-former-security-chief-withdraws-threat-of-sun-revelations
Guardian posted:Rebekah Brooks’s former security chief withdraws threat of Sun revelations
Rebekah Brooks’s former head of security who threatened to go public with “shock” revelations about the Sun publisher has said he no longer believes the allegations to be true.
Mark Hanna said he has now settled a claim for unfair dismissal from his role as head of security at News International, now News UK, and was withdrawing his threat to make allegations about the company. In a statement he said: “I no longer believe the allegations I made to be true”. Hanna threatened to expose the company in September after Rebekah Brooks returned to the company, which he felt had acted immorally after telling him he was at risk of redundancy following the trial.
In June Hanna revealed he had parted company with News UK, was living on benefits, and could not get employment because of the stigma of standing trial with Brooks. He said he was suing NI for unfair dismissal and his case was listed to be heard in Croydon next month. But in September, he made an extraordinary late-night claim on YouTube, saying he knew of “confessions” made by defendants in Brooks’s phone hacking trial last year. Hanna was a co-defendant in the trial in which they were both acquitted of all charges.
In a video, Hanna said the re-appointment of Brooks was “Murdoch’s middle finger being shoved right in my face”. He added: “I’m now standing up to all those who sit back and treat us all with contempt, the Murdochs and Brooks of the world.” He was incensed by her £16m severance deal and told the Guardian earlier this year he felt “betrayed” by the company who told him they wanted to make him redundant seven months after the trial. Over the weekend, Hanna posted a statement saying he was withdrawing his claim after the company gave him fresh information about the reasons for his redundancy.
“I am pleased to say that I have settled my employment tribunal claim against News UK. I posted a YouTube video on 3 September 2015, in which I made allegations regarding illegal activity by the company and its representatives. Prior to reaching settlement with the company and making this statement, the company provided me and my representatives with documents and additional information not previously available to me that shed light on my allegations. Having reviewed this material, I no longer believe the allegations I made to be true. I am also satisfied that I was not dismissed because of any protected disclosure,” he said.
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Oct 19, 2015 18:01
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- Rude Dude With Tude
- Apr 19, 2007
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Your President approves this text.
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No don't worry the government would never misuse terrorism act powers, if you've nothing to hide you've nothing to fear http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/police-use-terror-powers-to-seize-bbc-newsnight-journalists-laptop-a6712636.html
Independent posted:Police use terror powers to seize BBC Newsnight journalist's laptop
Police have used powers under the Terrorism Act to seize the laptop of a young Newsnight journalist in a case that has shocked BBC colleagues and alarmed freedom of speech campaigners, The Independent can disclose.
Officers obtained an order from a judge that was served on the BBC and Secunder Kermani, who joined the flagship BBC2 news show early last year and has produced a series of reports on British-born jihadis.
The development has caused alarm among BBC journalists. The editor of Newsnight, Ian Katz said: “While we would not seek to obstruct any police investigation we are concerned that the use of the Terrorism Act to obtain communication between journalists and sources will make it very difficult for reporters to cover this issue of critical public interest.”
A BBC spokesman said: “Police obtained an order under the Terrorism Act requiring the BBC to hand over communication between a Newsnight journalist and a man in Syria who had publicly identified himself as an IS member. The man had featured in Newsnight reports and was not a confidential source”.
Kermani has built a reputation for making contact with Western-born Isis fighters and interviewing them online about their motivations.
The seizure of his material has alarmed press freedom organisations. Jo Glanville, director campaign group English PEN, said the current “hysteria” around terrorism was greater than in the aftermath of the 9-11 and 7-7 attacks. “If journalists go near something to do with terrorism the police can use the Terrorism Act [2000] to go after their sources.”
The media lawyer Gavin Millar, QC, warned at a conference last month of the “looming problem” of police exploiting the wide-ranging terror legislation to go after journalistic sources at various news organisations. “There’s a chilling effect – I know material has not been published or broadcast because of anxiety to protect sources,” he has said. “We are talking notes, emails, video footage, audio [being seized]. I don’t think we are hearing the accounts of why young people are going [to Syria]. The debate has not been advanced by informed coverage because the media is in fear of the Terrorism Act.”
There are also concerns that police may attempt to use the legislation to go after sources of academic research into Islamic extremism. Kings College London’s International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation has built a huge data base of Western jihadists.
Last year the Newsnight journalist secured an online interview with Jake Bilardi, the Melbourne teenager who died in a suicide attack in Iraq which killed at least 17 people in March.
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