The Times They are a Chargin' - The Musical

When my Uncle first found out I was learning guitar my Christmas present that year was a Bob Dylan songbook. It didn't get much use from me before, I think, I swapped it while at University for a couple of tickets for a new up-coming band called Seymour, you may know them better as Blur. However, one of those songs, indeed it is probably the only one I actually learnt how to play, does seem rather appropriate for a little Stephen Glenn alteration today.

Come gather 'round people
Wherever you roam
A click on a Times link
Will soon make you groan
And accept it that soon
You'll be charged to the bone
If your Times to you
Is worth skimmin'
Then you better start spendin'
Online your news fix to own
For the Times they are a-chargin'.

Come writers and critics
Who spread the news with your pen
>Keep keyboards active
And news free from the pain
And don't link from blogs
For the readers won't win
And there's no tellin' who
That it's readin'
The Times loser now
All the others will win
If the Times they go a-chargin'.

Come Guardian, Telegraph
Please heed the call
Don't charge for your content
Don't put up paywalls
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who installed
A charge to look inside
And it is ragin'
And we'll not open windows
For others we'll fall
When the Times they start a-chargin'.

Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the world
And don't charge what's free
That's so very absurd
Your sons and your daughters
Are being charged for words
Your old way is
Rapidly agin'
Please get the new way
Where you widen web's world
But the Times they are a-chargin'.

The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
Backward step now
Will later be blast
As the present row
Will later be past
The order is
Rapidly fadin'
The Times of London
Is stuck in the past
So the Times they are a-chargin'.

Music of Bob Dylan, words rearranged by Stephen Glenn (with no assistance from William de Worde*)

* A little mention to the editor of the Anhk-Morpork Times for all my Discworld fan readers. Actually I'd like to see Terry Pratchett's take on this whole situation of the online media overtaking the as yet young and fledgling newspaper industry. A sort of Web 2.0 version of Moving Pictures.

The Times They are a Chargin'

Or why the Times Online business model is turning me off

Or after 22 years readership the grand divorce

Younger readers may not realise this but when I first attended an institute of Higher Education my day started in the University Library in the newspaper and periodical sectio scanning the newspapers. Back then they were all broadsheets none of this Berliner or Tabloid format. The reason being that 22 years ago the papers were not online. Their archives where available on microfilm or microfiche after a few months, or in a filing cabinet in the Library until they were available.

I was studying Economics and in our first week we were told, no instructed, no make that ordered to read the Financial Times plus at least two other papers from different parts of the political spectrum. I chose all three of the The Times, The Guardian and The Independent but for the one I used my student discount to buy and have as my own I chose The Times. One of my shelves in my bedroom became my own catalogue of the back issues for that year and I had a card index or relevant stories. Oh how Google would have made my student days easier.

The reason I'd chosen the Times was not because of its 'balanced' reporting, nor was its political view closest to my own, but because it had the fullest sports section. I even got to see the Northern Irish football results on a Monday morning, almost collapsing one morning in my first year when Bangor where third in the league. I called home to clarify this wasn't an early April Fool joke.

Therefore as Caron has pointed out the news that News International are going to charge for their online edition is making me rethink. I still buy a morning paper every morning and skim the others online. My morning blog post in usually inspired from what I have read or seen on the early BBC breakfast news.It normally gets written up on the bus, it usually includes some quote or other. Obviously I'm cutting and pasting those and linking to the source material

Now if I'm already paying a pound a day for a paper copy of the Time I'm loathe to pay an additional pound a day or £2 a week for an occasional (actually frequent) quote. I only visit the pages online I generally have read in the paper copy for the reason of capturing a quote. I'm also not going to direct my readers to a subscription only service.Therefore now that the Time is not cheaper than the Guardian, and is actually more expensive than the Scotsman now in paper form I'm likely from June to switch my reading habits.

You will have already seen a shift in my linking habits as New International have flagged this potential online charging service. I suspect many other bloggers will follow suit and you wonder just what sort of impact that will have on the Times' online footfall. Knowing the number of out clicks that I get that go to the news sources quoted multiplied by the number of blogs out there it would be quite high I imagine, plus the casual reader will not be willing to chip a pound for browsing.

It is a pity that the Times don't seem to get the media in the 21st Century. The Scotsman only have some articles that premium subscribers have to pay for. Thinks like editorials and comments and certain columnists for example, the bulk of 'the news'is freely available online.

Maybe the Times are wanting us all to go back to that image of huddling in the library to read our newspapers in the online sections. Instead of wrestling with broadsheets and newsprint struggling with the indexing system.

Cider House Rules Maybe

I think the operator of the Official SNP Twitter account has been quaffing too much cider before the tax increase at midnight.

First all seemed normal and a policy I actually agree with.


I mean the differential in fuel pricing between those with good public transport provision and those that don't, and therefore need to use their own vehicle, most notably in rural Scotland is grotesque.

But then soon after the SNP seemed to want to have their cake and eat it too.

So it appears that Darling can raise the 3p extra on fuel if he wants to as long as he gives it to Scotland!!! Yeah I think if I'm following that train of thought correctly the SNP fuel policy is:

Fair fuel is want we want but if we can't get it, it's Scotland oil so give us the money.

But the cider drinking continued with the result of secondary school elections (not sure if these are mock election of SYP ones [not clear in the press release]) in Aberdeenshire earning the headline and tweet.


Reading the actual story it turns out to be ab epic fail. On the day of the UK budget this is your first story after the event! They later actually look at a real benefit for Scotand's computer games industry but to release this as your response when everyone else is looking at the budget and the fall out is an epic fail.

The headline is a question "Jim Murphy on Facebook?" So you would expect that the object of the question being on the subject would be in question and therefore the epic fail of the hashtag. But no it is poor grammar, something that the winners of the elections in Aberdeenshire I expect would like to put right. Although I do love one quote in the piece which I have taken and changed to make a true statement (my changes in red)

"It is the Lib Dems which trust Scotland's young people to have their say - that's why we've consistently supported giving the vote to 16 and 17 year olds.

"It is the Lib Dems which is introduc promising record more apprenticeships and paid internships, more college places, guaranteed training or education after 3 months unemployed and more investment in youth-services. It is the Lib Dems who care about young people, and it is only with Lib Dems MPs that we can block cuts ensure further investment to the services young people cherish."

The SNP will block cuts in investment in youth the Lib Dems though the Barnett formula differential will be providing more for that end. I believe it is protected for that purpose and might well be in agreement with a Scottish government.

So there you have it, either a cider induced afternoon in the SNP media centre of a somewhat epic fail. I'll let you decide.

Robinson Reaction

The BBC Spotlight programme looking into the dealings of Iris Robinson and her teenage lover has led to all sorts of reaction.

First up as the BBC Report Ulster Unionist leader (and the Minister of my old department under devolution) Sir Reg Empey says Iris's position as MP, MLA and councillor are all untenable.

The Independent look at the sex, money and bigotry that surround the Robinson's as the revelations have come out. Looking at how the revelations we have only just heard about affected his ability to perform as first minister they say:

"For many months, Peter has been curiously inactive as First Minister, holding back on moves to devolve policing powers to Northern Ireland in a way which has puzzled most at Stormont. The most frequently advanced explanation for this was that he was, as Sinn Fein claimed, "spooked" by the fear of losing seats to hardline opponents in the Westminster election.

"But now, an alternative explanation is emerging: he has been grappling not just with political complications but with personal ones – struggling to deal with the behaviour of his colourful wife."

The Belfast Telegraph both use the image of Ann Bancroft seducing young Dustin Hoffman, as I did last night, how Iris is now paying for her lust and greed. But also look at the wider implications for the Democratic Unionist Party. Saying:

"Revelations about sexual indiscretions and questions over financial dealings can be damaging for any politician and any political party.

"But the DUP is not just any party. Its roots lie deep in fundamentalist conservative Protestantism and a brand of religion personified by Ian Paisley, who founded it and towered over it as leader until 2008.

"The key question now is: will the crisis facing the Robinsons impact on an already tarnished brand? The party has already had some tough times. Part of its traditional base was left in disarray by the 2007 decision to form a coalition with Sinn Fein."

The Irish Times point out that questions are being raised about Peter's dealings in this. Pointing out that on Wednesday in his interview whilst providing no further detail about his wife encouraging friends to support her lover Kirk McCambley he had said:

"In all of my public life I have acted in the most professional and ethical way. There is nothing that anybody will produce."

An interesting turn of phrase 'there is nothing that anybody will produce' why not the word 'can' or 'could' instead of 'will'. Also why use 'produce' why not just "There is nothing that anybody has to prove otherwise"?

Their print edition had also running with the story of how yesterday the fundamentalist Christians in Northern Ireland, not normally backward in defending 'morality', had held fire over Iris Robinson's fall from grace.

"It's easier to understand the warmth of feeling towards the wronged husband, rendered suddenly gaunt, fragile and uncharacteristically emotional. But there has been little hellfire and brimstone rhetoric towards Iris from the fundamentalist Protestant community that is the natural constituency of her party, the Democratic Unionist Party founded by Ian Paisley.

"You might think that this would be the perfect opportunity for a spot of thundering about the sins of scarlet women. Instead, the response from that sector has largely been quiet, muted and empathetic."

So that is just a taste of the spectrum of opinion among the broadsheets to last nights revelations the red tops of course took great delight in the age difference, with only passing reference to the financial or political implications.

Today the World Speaks as One

With all eyes turning to Copenhagen this morning the world is hoping for a result that the planet can live with coming out of the Climate talks. 56 papers in 45 countries covering 20 languages (incudung Chinese, Russian and Arabic) including our own Guardian have taken the unprecedented step of carrying a common editorial, many have also moved it to their front page.

I'll let you read it for yourself, but I'll also direct you to the story of how this project came about.

Blogging Bias of the Times - Or Ignorance of @JoanMcAlpine?

I see that Joan McAlpine has done a write up of the Scottish Blogosphere in light of recent events that have seen a bit of a decimation of the politic blogs here in recent weeks. Understandably Jeff is quite pleased about it:

Who can blame Jeff from her comment:

"Scotland is different in that our bloggers are highly individualised. They often link to each other’s sites, even when they are on opposite sides of the political fence.So you can access Scottish Tory Boy and Soapbox, by Labour’s Kezia Dugdale, from Jeff Breslin's SNP Tactical Voting, the most widely read political blog in Scotland."

Which may well be true but only in last month's Wikio rankings he was only one place ahead of me, although with technical difficulties mid month I floundered slightly. So by one measure we are pretty close as is Caron and was Subrosa. But it is far to say that there is an interconectiveness between all the blogs. I remember on my return from hiatus at the end of 2007 gently getting relinked to back on opposition blogrolls and pulling a few others along with me.

Joan went on the say comment about the colour that makes up the 'tartan blogosphere' but in all the various examples of blogs that she mentions fails to mention any of the Lib Dems who make up three of the top ten Scots in this month's Wikio rankings as I blogged yesterday.

Following the recent dropping of Jo Swinson from Question Time with just over 24 hours to broadcast. Caron set up a group on Lib Dem Act*which looks at media underepresentation of the Lib Dems. This is just another case and indeed one which cannot be justified, even the other bloggers from other parties emphasis the input that myself, Caron and Andrew in particular bring to the MacBlogsphere, not bad for a Englishman, a Scotswoman and an Irishman.

This is not a rant brought on by sour grapes, but is one that looks at the wider issue of media representation. It is also one of the reasons that Lib Dems blog in the way they do. We have to get our party message across in an accessible way and for us the controlled media that is blogging is one gateway to do so. Maybe Joan, who blogs at Go Lassie Go, merely made an omission in error, maybe it was just ignorance.

Some will say I'm getting pent up about an opinion piece. But we are within six months of a General Election and the only main Tory blogger and the two main Labour Bloggers as well as several Nats all get mentioned in a piece with deals with politics. Ignoring the not insignificant presence of Lib Dem Blogs in Scotland.

All in all she gave a balanced piece as far as the woes facing blogs has been in recent times as indeed I myself did pointing out not all anonymous bloggers or commenters are nasty following the sad demise of Subrosa. Indeed seeing as that was a major conduit of news to a large number of people it may well have been one other example of the Blogosphere looking out for and policing their own. The sad fact is that in this piece which is in a national paper seems to demise the influence of all but three parties, and a couple of non-aligned commentators.

* You don't need to be a party member to join act.

Is Now the Time for Balanced Election Coverage?

The bias of the media towards two party politics has been highlighted and condemned by Chris Huhne writing in the Independent today. It comes after Jeremy Hunt, the Conservative Party's media spokesperson accused the BBC of Labour bias and demanded they employ more Conservative-inclined reporters.

Chris point out:

"A hiring policy that sought out particular views in people who are meant to be professionally impartial would be a dangerous step towards a Berlusconi-style system. It would probably be illegal under anti-discrimination law."

What is needed is not a biased load of journalists for one of the big two parties but to a genuine impartiality. As Chris points out in all bar one election since 1979 the Liberal Democrats have climbed in support from the opinion polls one month out; the average increase being 3.9%. This is due to the media at that point having to drop their two-party view of politics in the UK and becoming more impartial. If the same happens again this time, on current opinion polls it would result in 22 more Lib Dem MPs.

At the heart of Chris's piece is the message that the media are already prejudging, indeed helping to ensure that General Elections in this country will return one of two parties as the main party and the other as the main opposition. He says in conclusion:

"Britain's broadcasters should not prejudge the voters, let alone the electoral system. The only fair approach, at a time of heightened political sensitivity, is to apply the rules as they would be applied in the general election.

"After all, both Labour and the Conservatives have recently announced their election campaigns have begun. It is time for broadcasters to begin election-style fairness too, and let the contest of ideas begin."

There has been a lot of discussion lately about the fairness of not of the proposed leadership debates prior to the next Westminster election. Alex Salmond even says it is unfair to exclude him from such a meeting.

However, one thing that Salmond doesn't have to contend with is being sidelined or excluded from mainline political discussion in the years between elections, here in Scotland the SNPs views are widely covered on Scottish news and politics shows. Yet the Lib Dems are often fighting for a voice on the national stage.

How often do you find Labour or the Conservatives not having a representative on Question Time? Never, but the same applies to the Lib Dems on a regular basis. Following that every Thursday you get This Week which has Michael Portillo and Diane Abbott as the two main foils to Andrew Neill, the Lib Dems get the even more infrequent guest slot on that.

It is an issue that Alex Salmond and his SNP don't really encounter, they are included on Newsnight Scotland and the Politics Show Scotland and therein lies an essence against Alex's argument to be on the UK-wide debate. The BBC already does make allowances for the SNP here in Scotland, indeed to some extent here too they focus on two party politics only this time between Labour and the SNP, there is however less exclusion of the others but it still occurs subliminally on the amount of airtime or positioning of the parties.

So with the main two parties, and for that matter the SNP declaring at the weekend that the General Election race is now on, why must we wait until the election is called to get fair representation of views in the media. For five months the Lib Dems could, on past evidence, be losing ground where they have been so close in recent times to overtaking Labour in the popular vote.

It's not the Champagne that is the Story

I agree with Mark who reckoned this morning that the fact that David Cameron had a full champagne flute in his hand last night at a Spectator fringe event was largely a non-story. At least I agree that supping the champagne in itself is a non-story, I trust it was a decent example of the vintner's art.

What made the whole thing a story is that the Tories have been trying, and failing, to control the media agenda at this, which for them, is a crunch conference.It is the conference before a General Election and as a party looking to take over the UK the Conservatives want to get their message across. Yet they are trying to do just what Labour did in the run up to 1997 and thereafter control the beast that is the fourth estate.

A flute of champagne at a Conservative Party Conference would never have been a front page headline and full page story apart from the fact that Eric Pickles had ordered, yes the Tories can be authoritarian too, all the front bench spokespeople not to be seen with champagne. The Alistair Campbell impersonation that the Tory media machine is attempting is where the story actually lies.However, that media machine is failing whole heartedly. Last night on Channel Four news the Tory Conference story was Ben Summerskill, director of Stonewall not turning up at the LGBTory Conference Pride event, it was backed up by Stephen Fry being interviewed about the open letter that was sent. The morning the papers ran with the champagne storied and Europe continues to hang like the sword of Damocles over the whole shebang. We've all seen the panels on Newsnight in which the PPCs are even not allowed to say 'anything' when the Europe question is posed, how different from the Lib Dems at Bournemouth.

Even when it comes to policy they are seen as stealing and then not too well. Millennium Elephant points out the plagarism of a poor student that Osborne has perpetrated to fill the void of a lack of substantive Economic ideas that his party had before the crunch started to bite. Like any mediocre student he went to the library and looked up what the master had written, taken some key points out of it, tried to pass it off as his own work, but fell short as the whole thing doesn't fit right together. The comments in the side when Osborne receives his work back would probably say 'you have grasped some of the key principles but failed to understand the mechanics behind them to create a coherent, comprehensive answer'.

As Millennium wrote:

"At the Liberal Democrat conference, just a fortnight ago, we were having debates and arguments and even out-and-out scraps about which of our MANY well-established, long-standing, democratically approved, POPULAR policies we could STILL AFFORD to place front and centre in a manifesto.

"It was PAINFUL. It was DIFFICULT. It was what REAL "tough choices" actually looks like.

"The Conservatories, by contrast, have NOTHING.

"There are NO policies that they have had to say "we can't do that"; there were NO polices there in the first place."

So while the age of spin spins inexplicably out of control under the Conservative masters the lesson learnt from that flute is that the media is an uncontrollable as the bubbles in the glass. They will always be there ready for the fresh excitement of being unleashed. While you think you have control as you hold the glass however, the bubbles themselves will do whatever they want.

Why McWhirter is Wrong Seeing Pirates Everywhere on the Online Superhighway

You'd half expect us all to heave to and fly the skull and crossbones on our masthead looking at some of the comments from the MSM since the weekend about us bloggers. Will, Yousuf, Jeff, Malc and Alex Massie have already pointed out some misguided and sloppy generalisations in Iain McWhirter's piece in yesterday's Herald. The fact that I feel the need to add my voice should be one way of showing just how wrong he is when he says, "New frontier of the blog hijacked for ugly politics". Simply looking at the diverstiy of the opinion raised against his turn of phrase makes that self evident.

That diversity across Scottish blogosphere of those who have taken up keyboard in agreement against McWhirter will show him one thing. One bad apple, no matter how large, does not ruin the orchard. Like Will I've been around this blogging lark for many years, but Yousuf, Jeff, Malc et al have also caught one fundamental of the medium that Derek Draper and LabourList have failed to recognise, the blogopshere is a community. As Will put it " I can squabble with Caron on matters of policy one minute, then compare notes with her about Strictly Come Dancing the next?". Just like me and Jeff, or whoever, can dispute policy from different view points or from the same depending just what is the subject of the day and now he's on Twitter we may well settle down to an evening exchanging views on the sport or TV just like me and Malc.

A wee while ago I was having a very public spat with Iain Dale online about his use of language in a particular situation. While at the same time behind the scenes when we both realised enough was enough a friendly agreement was being hatched, to try and tune down the voice of others that was overtaking the dispute. The political blogopshere does indeed tend to have it's own sort of Privy Council terms at times.

Scottish Roundup is a prime example of this. There is a site where the various political hues in Scotland work together to round up the best of the political blogs on a weekly basis. The usual suspects aren't always being nominated by the usual suspects either. I have often nominated the counterpoint to the Lib Dem story of the week, sometimes breaking a new blog in the process, because it is about balance. I had to write up the week that Nicol Stephen resigned as leader, (bad) luck of the draw, I didn't shirk from including pieces that criticised him from elsewhere.

It's not all ugly in the world of political blogs and as the others have also pointed out it isn't all poorly written or badly analysed. It is only when someone refuses to engage with the rest of the blogosphere, wants to set up almost overnight a beacon and try and control its use that things can become ugly. This is what the McBride/Draper scenario attempted to achieve by foul and ugly means.

As for ugliness on the Internet perhaps Mr McWhirter is loathe to venture further away than the comments pages on the online editions of the MSM. Admittedly this is an ugly place where vitriol, sheer volume and anonymity can shield commenters from direct challenge. Debate is spurious at times and acid tongued often, it regularly roams far and wide from the subject matter at hand and often leads to insult trading from across the political divide. While this can occur in the Blogosphere is somehow seems to be better managed as the writer of the piece takes a direct concern in the comments posted, will answer back, and if needs must challenge an individual who is lowering the tone or taking things too far.

The blogopshere is far more hands on and the writer can decide just how nasty or clean they want to make and keep it. Once a bloggers baby is released to the Interweb is is more cared for by its parent than most pieces written by journalists in the MSM. Largely they tend to keep track on what is being said, both on their own blogs and on comments they post elsewhere. If anything the interconnectiveness and interaction on the blogopshere is more direct, more personal and more well Web 2.0 really than the 'dead wood press'.

Of course there are exceptions to that generalisation about the MSM journalists, just as the blogs McWhirter picks up are the exception rather than the rule, but Mr McWhirter would appear to not be one of them, yet.

Therapist Headline Exposes Ignorance

On Thursday I reported that the Metro was carrying on its front page the news that 17% of our country's therapists have attempted to 'cure' gay patients. Well today in the Scottish editions letter page we find this response which I quote in full apart from the senders name.

If homosexuality is a mental illness then, obviously, little credibility should be given to the opinion of homosexuals - like most mentally ill people they will deny that there is anything wrong with them. Homosexuality clearly is a mental abnormality - because it isn't 'normal' - but then so is having an IQ of 150. It doesn't necessarily mean that it is malevolent or dangerous, but to suggest it is normal is wrong. The vast majority of normal people find homosexuality unnatural and offensive. Legislation has not changed these opinions a though it has eroded the freedom to express them.

Well there are a few points that have been cleared up, firstly you have to right to express those opinions, they were published in the Metro. However, if you start to use those opinions to discriminate, or incite hatred or violence then you are in difficulty.

As for the majority finding it offensive I'll refer her to one poll that found a strong case on homophobia in Israel this month. Even though 32% in that opinion poll found homosexuality disgusting 56% had no problem with it. I'll also refer her to a poll amongst protestant church members in the US which said that 70% felt that homosexuality should be accepted by society. In the UK this 2007 poll said that 92% had no problem with a work colleague or a player on their supported football team being gay. Far from being a majority finding it offensive it is actually quite the opposite.

She also ignored the fact at the end of the Metro report which said that the BMA and Dept of Health both agree that homosexuality is not a mental illness and does not require treatment. Pity she seemed incapable of reading to the end of such a short article before writing off her letter.

But then with my sexuality and IQ being as high as it is I'm obviously too abnormal for her to take my opinion from reading these views of others credibly.

Rachel Sylvester: Fail

Rachel Sylvester's column in today's Times really wound me up as I walked from the bus stop to work. First her headline drew me in then wound me up as she quoted Oliver James, but more on that later.



What really got me exacerbated was her daring to comment on politics when she clearly has no idea of opposition "parties" (yes plural) or at least of the English language. She says:

"At the very moment when leadership is required to deal with the economic downturn, politicians of all parties are frozen in the headlights of the recession. The Government is now the majority shareholder of several banks but seems to have no control over the bankers.The opposition parties are quick to criticise Labour's decisions but find it hard to say what they would do instead.

"The political elite has been neutered by the collective failure to predict and prevent the credit crunch and their apparent powerlessness to reverse it now."

Scathing comments if they were 100% true. She mentions parties, Rachel that is the plural of party yet you only mention the Tories as an opposition party. The reason that this really grates is that one party did predict what might happen, did call for measures to be tightened to prevent the banks having carte blanche and are now suggesting what to do different to get out of it. Yes, folks surprise, surprise the MSM, or at least Ms Sylvester, have overlooked the Liberal Democrats.



Strange then that she should have used Oliver James's quote about Tweeters:

"Twittering stems from a lack of identity. It's a constant update of who you are, what you are, where you are. Nobody would Twitter if they had a strong sense of identity."

Strange that as Ms Sylvester calls for a party to have a sense of a identity, by her own definition it would seem, had over 1000 uses of the #ldconf hashtag over their conference weekend. Top trended during the leaders speech as well as souring when Howard Dean was speaking. I think that overturns both what Ms Sylvester tried to propagate and disproves what Oliver James has said.



We're Liberal Democrats, we have an identity, and we're going to speak, Tweet, blog and make a fuss about it because it will make a difference.

Lynne Featherstone MP agrees.
Footnote: Proof positive that she doesn't get Twitter she says Nick Clegg Tweets but has fallen for the unofficial Nick as it even says in the profile.

Facebook Join Censorship Over Gaza

Overnight I recieved the following message on Facebook from Abbas Goya creator of the Group A note from Jerusalem -- We need to STOP Israeli assualt NOW!! It looks as if along with the MSM Facebook is trying to hide the world from the facts of what is going on in Gaza at the behest of Israel.

Warning if you follow on the link below you may find it disturbing. However I make no apology for that, this is the reality of what is going on. This is why the assault on Gaza must stop now and not be allowed to escalate further.

"Facebook has issued a warning to me relevant to our cause. You might be
interested to know.

"I uploaded and posted a news video clip on my wall, a clip produced by
Reuters - found @ http://www.rowzane.com/0000_2008/e_m12/gaza-1.wmv - displaying the hospital crew taking care of injured children in Gaza. The length of
video was 45 seconds and I appropriately called it "Gaza in 45 seconds".
Facebook considers it a " hateful, threatening, graphic, or that attack an
individual or group", has sent me the following warning asking me to approve
the warning. I request to either provide specific proof as to Facebook
accusing warning OR remove the warning and reinstate the video clip.

"If you too agree that the warning is unjust object it by
sending an email to "Facebook" warning+yf64oz=c@facebookmail.com

"Facebook warning:

"You uploaded a video that was reported for violating Facebook's Terms of
Use. After reviewing the video, we have decided to remove it. Facebook removes
reported videos that are hateful, threatening, graphic, or that attack an
individual or group. We also remove videos that are not of a personal nature,
meaning they were not created by and do not feature either you or your friends.
Continued misuse of Facebook's features could result in your account being
disabled.

"If you have any questions or concerns, you can visit our FAQ page at http://www.facebook.com/help.php?topic=wvideoI acknowledge I
have read this information."

The Steamie

There is a new MSM Blog up here in Scotland. The Steamie is part of the Scotsman's production and it has a blogroll.

However, despite notifying them of my existance on the 3rd of December they have yet to add me to their blogroll. Other blogs have been added in the meantime so I'm musing why the ommission. It is not because I'm a Lib Dem they have one of those already nor is it because I may be a future parliamentary candidate they also have links to a number of those.

So I'm at a lose and won't pursue it any further. They have been told and it is at thier discretion who they add to their blog roll. But as I do seem to be the highest ranked (according to Total Politics) of the currently active Scottish Political Bloggers not to warrant a link I could fume a little if I wanted. Consider the fuming over though.

The Tweeting Twit

Earlier I Tweeted about Sathnam Sanghera's article in the Time's 2 Section this morning about Tweeting and Facebook. On reading it I though woo hoo here is a MSM journo who Tweets with impunity.

That was until I visited his Twitter profile to find he's protected his updates is only following 21 people and has only posted 8 updates. Reckon he logged on yesterday merely to write his article at the behest of his editor. What a Twit? Both he and his editor if that is the case.

The "Colonial" Times

Picking up my daily read this morning I was horrified to see on the Times front page the sub headline (since not searchable in the online archive):

At least 125 dead in Bombay [sic] violence spills into second day.

I'd not picked up yesterday's paper as I was walking to the newsagents on a day of when the express bus pulled up at my bus stop, so it may well have been the same yesterday. However, over 10 pages 7 of news, the leading article, the opinion piece of Maria Mistra and even the letters page, every single mention of Mumbai (the official name of the city since 1996) it is instead called Bombay.

Clearly the Times is still living in colonial Times.

Update: In the comments DG has tried to excuse the Times by saying they have used this because most British people now the city as Bombay. This is not much of an excuse as the Times being a broad street is generally read by the upper socio-economic groups. This is especially true when the equivalent MSM The BBC, The Independent and The Grauniad are all using Mumbai. Even the tabloid press the Daily Fail, the Scum* and the Daily Express have not deemed it necessary to so dumb down. The Times stands alone in its ignorance or deliberate editorial policy of using a rejected name of foreign imposition for the native name of the city making such sad news headlines over the past couple of days.

*As a Liverpool fan I had to break 19 years embargo on reading the Sun to check out their website for this piece.

The Media and Glenrothes

A few days ago I got a ressponse to my letter to STV and Ofcom, but due to being too busy actually with the election I didn't get around to tell you, my readers that. As I expected when I wrote the thing they would hide behind the defence that because the writ had not been moved they were not bound at the time to give balance.

However, looking at last night's result the early nod from the media to only two parties in this race are STV complicit in the squeeze that resulted in both the Lib Dems and Tories losing their deposits. If Jim Parker the Scottish Senior Citizens' Unity Party candidate can accuse the parties of starting the campaign shortly after John MacDougall was buried, he ignores that fact that at least in the case of two of us we were already fighting the perception that the press were putting about that it was only about two parties. Two be honest of what I had seen and heard of the two candidates for Labour and the Nats they weren't the best men for the job, indeed hearing Lindsay Roy too much in the early hours of Friday morning, while waiting beside the A92, even he seems to think so.

The Nats last night claimed a positive campaign, well seeing the attacks on daily of their literature I find that hard to believe they can say that with a straight face.

I'll dig out some example later and do an update.

But if balance in election coverage in the printed press is battling to get into the final paragraphs of their coverage, which the Tories seemed to fail to do more than us, then we need to look at the rules for coverage of elections more carefully. Yes there is the letter of the regulations but the spirit of them can be breached before the campaign even gets underway and can affect the battle and the outcome ahead.

Who Do You Think You Are Kidding Biddy Baxter?

Oh dear Mid Scotland and Fife SNP MSP Chris Harvie has branded BBC's Blue Peter as 'evil' and called Adolf Hitler 'imaginative'.

He branded the 50 year old staple of children's television evil during a tirade against the BBC big earners. Probably in relation to the rigged viewer winner when their lines went down life on air one, and not due to their use of every day things you would normally bin for the makes section. He then compared Lord Reith and Adolf Hitler's use of the Radio medium claiming that Hitler was more imaginative in his use of the medium as a rabble rouser from scratch. Forgive me if I'm wrong but didn't the relative normality of the Reith era during war time give a certain amount of hope to those who lived through those years. As for using media for rabble rousing he's clearly encouraging the CyberNats hijacking of more newspaper comments sections to go off topic on their crusade.

He then rounded on the regulator Ofcom saying, "To leave Scotland in the hands of the present metropolitan munchkins of Ofcom and the BBC is like leaving one's parents watching daytime TV." You could almost hear Mr and Mrs Harvie senior (if still around) turning for the off switch instead of watching Countdown, or allowing the grandchildren to watch Blue Peter making a bunker out of sticky-backed plastic, a margarine tub and a cereal box.

In his defence Harvie said "These people have just taken jests I made completely out of context." Well how does one take out of context what Hitler actually turned German radio use to promoting Nazi propaganda from 1932 onwards to the USA, Europe and the world. It went on to play a key role in the German occupation of Europe. Imaginative it may well have been but destructive also. Maybe Harvie wants to become a modern day Lord Haw-Haw and propagate independence from a big radio antenna on Arthur's Seat.

Sunday Times Catches Up with Kezia

Well the Scottish version of the Atticus column* in today's Sunday Times is finally picking up on this post by Kezia Dugdale. They say:

Showing impeccable judgement, HBOS decided that wih its business going into meltdown and jobs on the line, it was a good time to offer customers free bubbly and flute glasses. Kezia Dugdale, a Labour researcher and HBOS customer, who recently recieved an e-mail offereing the freebie if she agreed to buy a case of wine, reckons it's taking the fizz.

Well the Sunday Times with impeccable lack of timing is picking up a blog post over 2 weeks old. As Kez posted that news on 19th September.

*Sadly not available online.

What With This Morning's Metro Endorsement

Got on this bus this morning to see that the Metro seemed to have come out for the Republican Nominee for POTUS.

Or am I just reading my fluffy friend too literally?