David Morrison for SADAKA: The Ireland-Palestine Alliance, 12 June 2010
“If an armed group of Somali pirates had yesterday boarded six vessels on the high seas, killing at least 10 passengers and injuring many more, a Nato taskforce would today be heading for the Somali coast. What happened yesterday in international waters off the coast of Gaza was the work of Israeli commandos, not pirates, and no Nato warships will in fact be heading for Israel. Perhaps they should be.” (Guardian Editorial, 1 June 2010)[1]
Israel claims it had compelling reasons for hijacking the Free Gaza ships in international waters and kidnapping their passengers. All of them are bogus:-
First, Israeli spokespersons have been saying that there is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza, that Israel is allowing sufficient humanitarian aid into Gaza already – and therefore the Free Gaza ships were not on a humanitarian mission, but were "an armada of hate and violence" (to quote Israel’s deputy foreign minister, Danny Ayalon).
In 2005, ahead of the G8 summit in Gleneagles, Irish rock star and philanthropist Bono dedicated a concert to Harvard economist Jeffrey Sachs for his services to global poverty alleviation. Time magazine twice named Sachs one of its 100 Most Influential People. His 2005 book “The End of Poverty” was a New York Times bestseller. He has served as a special advisor to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on the Millennium Development Goals. In 2007 Vanity Fair was moved to declare him the “savior of Bolivia”.
From the fawning sobriquets it would be hard to tell that Sachs was the architect of the “economic shock therapy” which in Russia during the transition years (1991-1994) contributed to a 42 percent rise in male deaths, and 56 percent in unemployment. His Bolivian “reforms” brought inflation under control but unemployment, inequality and the cost of living soared.Following a decade of unrest, Russia was only saved by an authoritarian nationalist leadership and Bolivia by economic populism. The neoliberal experiment was a failure.
David Morrison for SADAKA: The Ireland-Palestine Alliance, 10 June 2010
The Free Gaza flotilla set out to draw attention to Israel’s blockade of Gaza and to deliver much needed humanitarian aid. Israel’s killing of at least 9 innocent civilians in the course of hijacking of the ships in international waters and kidnapping their passengers has ensured that worldwide attention is, at last, focused on ending the blockade.
Governments around the world are calling upon Israel to do so. When the Security Council met on the evening of the hijacking, that was the clear message from all members of the Council, apart from the US, which described the situation “unsustainable” and went on to say:
“We will continue to engage the Israelis on a daily basis to expand the scope and type of goods allowed into Gaza to address the full range of the population’s humanitarian and recovery needs.” [1]
Nearly fifteen per cent of all new Tory MPs elected on May 6th come straight from lobbying backgrounds.
Nineteen of the 143 newly-elected Conservative MPs worked as lobbyists, including close allies of David Cameron. George Eustice, formerly associate director at Portland PR and Cameron’s former spokesman, is the newly elected MP for Camborne and Redruth.
His colleague at Portland, Charlotte Leslie, took Bristol North West.
A new poll today by ComRes finds that a clear majority of the lobbying industry supports the coalition government’s commitment to introduce a statutory register of lobbyists. The exclusive poll, which was commissioned by industry magazine Public Affairs News, found that almost two thirds of lobbyists support a statutory register.
The finding is significant as it suggests that the sector’s three associations – the Association of Professional Political Consultants (APPC), the Public Relations Consultants Association (PRCA) and the CIPR Government Affairs Group (CIPR GAG) – are out of step with industry opinion. All three groups favour self regulation - which the Public Administration Select Committee inquiry into lobbying concluded was inadequate.
Two prominent members of the UK Food Standards Agency’s GM public dialogue have resigned, accusing the initiative and FSA chair Jeff Rooker of pro-GM bias.
On 26 May 2010, GeneWatch UK's Director, Dr Helen Wallace, resigned from the Steering Group for the FSA’s GM dialogue. The Steering Group met on 27 May to agree a GBP450,000 bid and GBP50,000 evaluation for its public dialogue on GM crops and food. Additional money will be spent on paying the civil servants and consultants who will be managing the exercise.
Wallace's departure was followed within days by a second resignation, that of Professor Brian Wynne, who cited a "dogmatically entrenched" pro-GM position on the part of the FSA.
The GM public dialogue budget was approved by the former Government and is overseen by the FSA, which is chaired by the former Labour agriculture minister Jeff Rooker.
A Genewatch press release said Freedom of Information requests and internal documents show that the dialogue is an integral part of the GM industry's PR strategy. This involves claiming non-existent future benefits ('GM will feed the world') whilst portraying step-by-step contamination of GM-free shipments into Britain and Europe as inevitable and lobbying to weaken regulation.
This weeks’s Queen’s Speech made no mention of the Coalition Agreement’s pledge to introduce a statutory register of lobbyists. While the Alliance for Lobbying Transparency welcomes the commitment to a register, we are very concerned that the failure to include it in the Queen’s Speech will lead to delays in bringing forward the necessary legislation.We will be maintaining pressure on the government to bring forward detailed plans for a statutory register and will be continuing the campaign at a grassroots level.ALT will be publishing its own detailed statement on what an effective statutory register needs to include.
24 May 2010 David Miller The Duchess of York’s willingness to offer access to her ex-husband Prince Andrew for £500,000 is the latest in a long line of “cash for access” scandals that has undermined our trust in politics and those who supposedly represent our interests.
The true scandal remains that we still do not routinely have access to information on who is meeting / lobbying government ministers, officials and even junior Royals dispatched on our behalf.
The Coalition Government has now promised to introduce a statutory register of lobbyists but as yet no detail has emerged. An effective lobbying register should include financial disclosure.
Guardian comment piece on industry anger at statutory code for lobbyists
Spinwatch published a comment piece in this weekend's Guardian on the Coaltion's plans for a statutory register for lobbyists, which immediately sparked anger in the industry, which counts the Tories amongst its traditional allies. You can read it here:
The Alliance for Lobbying Transparency has welcomed the move by the new Conservative and Liberal Democrat Government to introduce a statutory register of lobbyists. Its Coalition Agreement says on the issue of political reform: "The parties will tackle lobbying through introducing a statutory register of lobbyists.”
David Miller of the Alliance for Lobbying Transparency said: "This is a good first step in opening up government decision-making to greater public scrutiny. A statutory register of lobbyists will, for the first time, allow people to see who is influencing whom and about what. The new Government must now work to introduce the measure as soon as possible and not allow the inevitable lobbying from the industry to water-down or unnecessarily delay their plans."
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Andy Rowell, June 3rd 2010
Anna Minton 2nd June 2010
The Duchess of York’s willingness to offer access to her ex-husband Prince Andrew for £500,000 is the latest in a long line of “cash for access” scandals that has undermined our trust in politics and those who supposedly represent our interests.
