5 Live Drive had a poll yesterday on “Who do you trust?”, particularly with Hackgate in mind.
Emerging, blinking, from two weeks of saturation “Breaking News”, answering that question is a good way to take stock of where we are.
Who do I trust?
Vince Cable is the first person who springs to mind. He (inadvertently publicly) “declared war on Mr Murdoch”. He was then forced to be “hors de combat”. He said “I think we are going to win” and we did. Murdoch is in retreat. Well done, Vince.
Tom Watson is the second person I trust as a result of this episode. He’s a model of how a politician should behave. Patient, calm, studious, insistent.
The Guardian. OK, I could justifiably be called a “Guardianista”. But my faith in the Guardian has gone from hard concrete to immovable bedrock.
The BBC. I have always hated the Tory anti-BBC bias. I was delighted to hear Cameron acknowledge yesterday that his party had been too hard on the BBC. It is a national institution we should cherish dearly.
Who don’t I trust?
David Cameron. I was always equivocal about him. But his decision about Andy Coulson will mean I never really trust him.
News International, of course. But then, I never bought News International papers. Two weeks ago I flirted with The Times iPad app. It is technically exceptional. But, as I tried the trial version, I realized something. The Times has no soul. I abandoned it and then found out, anyway, that the Guardian are weeks away from launching an iPad app. So I’ll wait for that.
The jury is out on…
Rebekah Brooks. Most of the Tuesday spotlight was on the Murdochs and the phantom flan thrower. But after them, Rebekah Brooks was (partially) redeemingly boring.
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7 Comments
……………… still thinking ………………… paper still blank after 30 minutes.
The world has become a very unreliable and untrustworthy place at so many levels.
Know what you mean.
During several recent problems with my car, I have found that AA mechanics are geniuses. So the AA would definitely be on my short list of people/organisations I trust.
Tornado in Leamington Spa ……!!
Is the world coming to an end?
with the Murdochs at least you know what you’ve got.
I have made an attempt to answer this question, however, it is too long to post as a comment.
It can be viewed on my blog here:
http://millenniumthree.blogspot.com/2011/07/bleak-future-ahead.html
Murdoch dominance has been a blight on British politics for years. But let’s be fair Vince Cable ‘didn’t speak out’ publically – he was caught out. Though in fairness his instincts were spot on. But what happened then – he was sidelined and the Lib Dem Coalition sat on their hands. Clegg and Ashdown warned Cameron – then what? Nothing. Hardly impressive. Whereas Tom Watson and Chris Bryant have stood out and in fairness to Milliband he did publically and clearly took on Murdock.
On much the same theme, this is a remarkable article by Charles Moore, a former Telegraph Editor and staunch Tory support for many years. He too has become to realise the dreadful impact that free markets have had on the very people national politicians are elected to serve.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/8655106/Im-starting-to-think-that-the-Left-might-actually-be-right.html
@John Roffey:
And, he is indeed right on many accounts. The type of capitalism we now live under is destroying our society. We live in a society where our “obligation” to the banks comes before our obligation to care for our weakest and most vulnerable members of society. This government, Liberal Democrats in government, are removing many protections and real lifelines from people who depend on these services. It is heartbreaking to watch the Liberal Democrats become nothing more than neo-liberal apologists who are letting the Tories get away with policies they could not win a majority for on their own, all to please these all-mighty and unaccountable markets.
We have Dodgy Dave and Pinocchio Clegg telling us there is no alternative and that we have to make pensioners sit in their own piss all night long because if we give the money to carers rather than bankers, said bankers and the rich will “just go elsewhere.” We have Liberal Democrats committing to the Conservative dream of, finally, privatising everything. Well, it wasn’t the disabled who brought the economy down, yet they are the ones being punished. I don’t remember librarians overspending, but they are the ones who are paying for it with their jobs. Modern Capitalism, after all, demands it.
So when this winter comes and I am only able to afford to heat my house an hour or two at most, I’ll think about how I am benefiting from making sure these friendly bankers stay in the UK. And every time I see a LibDem or Tory politician on TV, I will redouble my will to help those who this LibDem government is punishing for the mistakes of the powerful.