April 20, 2011 · 6:41 pm

#oneaday39: There but for the grace of God

They say life is full of ups and downs and you only really appreciate the ups when you have had plenty of downs, but sometimes things happen that give you a glimpse of what life could be like. When you see those things, if you have an ounce of humanity, you will be shaken to the core and will want to seek the warmth of your family and the comfort of your friends.

I have just experienced one such jolt, a massive wake up call. On Tuesday night, I along with another mate went to see another mate, both will remain nameless for the sake of this story, but the mate I travelled with is mate 1 and the mate we went to see is mate 2. I travelled down to the Docklands in London, not to the new ubiquitous swish developments that are a familiar sight to any London marathon runner who has run the race in the noughties, but to an old set of what we used to call ‘buildings’ – those 2 and 3 storey tenement blocks that were built in the 1920’s. This one was called Naval House and had ‘1927’ proudly chiselled into it’s brickwork. I rang the bell a few times and there was no answer. I called  mate 1 who was en route to see if there was anything unusual. My mate 1 had mentioned that we really did need to get to see our friend (mate 2)  rather soon as he had ‘got worse’. I had fudged around and broken the date twice, much to my chagrin.

My mate 1 phoned mate 2 and within a minute I hear his familiar dulcet tones from within an open window on the ground floor. Seconds later I was greeted by the man who I had not seen for about five years (mate 2). We subsequently agreed it must have been 5 years since we met up in a boozer on Fetter Lane, as I had taken a call that very night about travelling to Germany for the 2006 World Cup. 5 years, a long time and yet actually quite short as it turned out.

It was the three of us united again, 5 years on. Except this time it was very different. My friend let me in and was a very different man from the one I had last seen. We’ve all put a bit of weight on down the years, indeed I have led the way, but my friend was the finest figure of a man we knew. Fighting fit, literally at a moments notice, he was honed and hard. Years of semi pro fighting had made him almost indestructible, aside from the flattest nose this side of the Repton Boys Club. Fearless and distinguished, controlled and noble, this man was an exponent of the Chinese Martial Arts like few others. Yet the man who greeted me tonight had that same face, flattened nose and wolf like eyes, sharp as pins and almost glowing, but his body had become twisted and awkward. He was like a puppet who had got his strings terribly tangled mid dance. LikeAction Man with twisted internal rubber bands.

I was shocked. I had heard that he had been in a bad way and was getting worse, indeed that night 5 years back he had baled early citing that he had some illness which was effecting his energy levels, something he and we had laughed off. Little did we know that he would contract a rare and seemingly incurable muscle wasting disease that would render this once indestructible man, almost crippled.

He told us of his daily life of powerful painkilling drugs, endless DVDs, terminal tiredness and the debilitating realisation that he could no longer take a stroll down the shops, pop out for a drink or lead the high life that we used to lead such a short time back. The endless pain, the depression and the lack of contact with the outside world had taken a toll. Even typing on his laptop became exhausting and frustrating in equal measure.

This gave both of us a horrible and brutal window in what it must be like to get old, lose touch with the outside world and never be able to revisit the times when you were fitter and more able to enjoy the good things. The really shocking layer however, was that our mate is only a few years older than us, and has literally become an ageing man in a couple of years.

We discussed old times, the boxing scene, the fights we went to see, the football matches abroad, the capers, the good times and the bad. We laughed a lot and we listened. We both came away feeling helpless, a tad depressed and above all gutted that our very good friend was in this physical state. Indeed I am actually quite angry. The social services have been less than brilliant, the medical profession have let him down, his ex business partner has treated him like a mug and most of all his friends have gone missing. That includes us.

If you ever get down about your lot life, spare a thought for those who are worse off. There are millions and millions and yet it is only when you see someone you know really down on their luck do you actually wake up and realise how lucky we all are. Look out for your friends and family, they are the ones who need you most and we all need to support each other before it is too late. You can never roll back time. Never.

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April 19, 2011 · 1:15 pm

#oneaday38: Alternative Votester

I am actually really gutted that I have not made the consistent effort to keep up with the #oneadayproject, there are loads of excuses but none of them really matter at all. It has been a really busy and rather interesting time between March 9th and today, April 19th. Forty one, yes forty one days of being lazy, however interesting things have been.

So here is my attempt at getting back on track, well sort of. I am attempting a daily blog about the Alternative Vote referendum that is set to take place on May 5th. Very much the battle of the  #Yes2AV or #No2AV camps. At this juncture, I will declare that I am instinctively supportive of the Yes2AV team, although that is based on my sometimes fanciful and romantic view of democracy.  But there are loads and loads of pros and cons for both arguments, not least that it seems that no one ACTUALLY really believes in the AV system! Even Nick Clegg, leader of the Liberal Democrats and Deputy Prime Minister who is a key figure in the #Yes2AV campaign referred to AV as ‘a miserable little compromise’ 2 weeks before last May’s General Election.

So, by way of the first short but sweet ‘things to consider about AV’  how about this one. If no one really believes in the AV system surely it is a shoe-in that the #No2AV campaign will walk the vote and few will actually turn up to vote in the first place?

So given that we should all use our vote, something that is our democratic right and our responsibility, it seems like we are turning up to vote on an issue and that is a waste of money, right?

Well wrong actually. The ConDem Coalition like to think that they know a thing or two about cost cutting and they cunningly agreed to run the Referendum on electoral reform which was a key cornerstone of the Coalition negotiations on the same day, May 5th,  as local elections will take place on in 279 English local authorities. Elections will also be held on the same day to the Scottish Parliament, National Assembly for Wales and Northern Ireland Assembly. In Northern Ireland, elections to the existing 26 local councils are also due to be held the same day. So at least extra cash has not be spent allowing us to cast our vote.

Any money spent will be spent by the respective campaigns on advertising literature both on and off line and broadcasts that attempt to sway the undecided. I am reliably informed the Government will not be paying for any of this.

So conclusion number 1 is:-

The Referendum on AV will not cost the country any extra cash. This feels right to me. A tick in the box and we are off to a flyer.

That is not to say that either side will not use economic arguments to get their point across though. More on Baroness Warsi’s ‘Election Counting Machines’ next 😉

Until tomorrow. Hopefully.

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March 9, 2011 · 3:19 pm

#oneaday 37: Diamonds on the soles of his shoes

Monday’s  news that Barclays Bank chief executive, Mr Bob Diamond has had his bonus of at least £6.5m which rises to twice that with other perks, should surprise no one. Despite all the talk of restraint, bankers like everyone else, are programmed to get what they can as fast as they can. No amount of money is ever enough, and these boys and girls need to earn as much as possible. Don’t blame the people, blame the system. Actually scrub that, the people make the system, so blame them.

When most of us are gearing our spending downwards and cutting back, for some out there, this is just not a feature of their daily lives. We can get angry, indeed I am surprised that we are not angrier, but we could also use our teeny weeny amount of individual power and band together to make a difference.

For most of us the choice of bank for  most of us is a question which few of us really think about. Indeed we rarely change banks, unlike our insurance company, mobile phone supplier, supermarket, energy supplier and pub, most of us perceive very little between the banks. I read Mervyn King, the Governor of the bank of England, has made comments that call into question the real value banks put on their customers. He is right. When was the last time you ever got anything positive from your bank? If they ever send you a letter it normally tells you of a change in terms and conditions. If you have the mind of a lawyer you may actually be able to spot the difference between the ‘before’ and ‘after’, good luck with that little puzzle. Most times letters from banks cost you money!

 But we do have a choice. All banks rely on the capital deposited by customers being lent out to other customers, with a margin difference in interest rates representing their profits. If they can’t get access to the money from savers, it can be tricky for banks.

 Therefore, if you are a customer of a bank, look carefully at what they do for you. Are their charges competitive? Do they value you as a customer, do they have any ethics, do they pay their staff excessive bonuses? We all have a choice. We can work collectively to force change. Don’t think for a moment that any bank will make life easy for you, they won’t. Our account number is not portable, unlike our mobile phone number. You have to set up all direct debits and standing orders, and that is hassle. Making informed choices about which bank is the right one is not exactly easy. Banks spend millions of Pounds, Dollars and Euros building their brands to make them look attractive. Lewis Hamilton, The Premier League and the Six Nations may earn a few quid extra, but don’t be fooled. Look at the ethical behaviour and track record of these institutions. Most of them have a shocking record, Barclays are as good or bad as the rest. Maybe consider an organisation like the Co-Operative Bank who don’t seem to believe that their senior staff are ‘Masters of the Universe’, and appear to be a little more normal, if that is possible of course.

 So there is one way that those of us who are Barclays customers can make a difference. We can simply close our accounts and take our business elsewhere. Yes there maybe some work to do along the way, but how can true progress be made without effort?

 Maybe then Mr Diamond will wake up and smell his coffee, he may even jump on one of his lovely bikes and cycle off into the evening mist. Or maybe that will be idealistic wishful thinking, let’s see if we can make a difference. Spread the word. Change? We Can.

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March 3, 2011 · 6:03 pm

#oneaday 36: Small is beautiful

I wrote this in December 2009…..I still think we are in amazing times, no matter what the President of Nintendo says 😉

I consider myself lucky enough to be born in the 1960’s, at school in the 1970’s and started my career (or job as we used to call it) in the 1980’s. I lived through two great British phenomena, Punk and Home Computer Games, although both had their parallel roots in the USA.

Rock ‘n’ Roll was the original disruptive modern youth movement, landing in a cold, paranoid and austere post World War 2 world and it ignited the power and the profit potential of recorded music sales. The music business rose up to rival the film business and by the mid seventies was spawning the much derided, but often purchased and sometimes enjoyed, concept album. Punk smashed that model up in 1976 and brought Low-Fi, DIY music to the ‘blank’ generation. It was an antidote to the excess of the seventies.  The DIY mentality of punk and the emergence of the synthesiser brought us electronic music, and with it a fascination with newly emerging home computers. Suddenly boys had options. Not everyone wanted to make their own music and wear their own fashion indeed the feelings of isolation often manifested themselves in boys taking to their bedrooms and spending hours and hours with their new fangled  home computers,  whether it be the Sinclair ZX81 or BBC Micro, getting off on making sprites ‘move’ on screen.

As these machines started to become popular, so demand for games started to rise and in the early eighties, these home computers, complete  with their cassette tape players and portable televisions spawned the beginnings of the games industry as we know it today. Games were obviously simple, but they were also cheap to buy and had what has now become known as ‘mass market appeal’.  They took their lead from the games hosted on coin op arcade machines, and every boy’s dream of an arcade in their bedroom looked like becoming a reality. The barriers to entry were modest and anyone capable of programming in BASIC could make their very own game. Soon companies who specialised in packaging, marketing, financing and selling the games started to appear and shops such as WH Smith and Boots (the chemists!) sold classics such as Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy by the thousand.  Hardware companies flocked to the festival of creativity, Apple and Commodore being two of the prominent players from the US to put their ten gallon hats in the ring. Down the line Nintendo, Sega, Sony and Microsoft all entered the home hardware fray and the rest as they say is history.

Fast forward to 2008 and the launch of the Apple’s App Store as an update to the digital distribution genre defining  iTunes.   With the worldwide sales of packaged recorded music sales falling like a Led Zeppelin, the music industry has seen the threat and opportunity of online distribution and most of that with Apple and iTunes.  Traditional sales of CDs have been replaced by digital delivery and storage of music, whether paid for by the consumer, given free by the owner or simply ‘shared’ by consumers without payment.  Artists have been able to connect to their audiences through the internet and no longer have to rely on promoters or radio networks to get voice. Apple have given consumers the power to buy lifestyle applications, including games, quickly and simply which can enhance their iPhone or their iTouch further.  They have also made the barrier to entry lower for creatives and consumers. Add in the phenomenon of ‘social networking’ and the places where people network socially, and you have browser based games that are compelling, free or cheap to play and above all entertaining. And this surely is the key. The applications (whether games or otherwise) are both entertaining and innovative. The successful ones are above all, addictive and profitable to their makers.

So, are what we still refer to as ‘next-gen’ games (perhaps we should rename them now-gen) the equivalent of the ‘70’s concept album? Has the games business become over bloated and inefficient, serving only derivative and ‘safe’ subject matter? Do the games take too long to make and cost too much money to sell?  Has the chain between creative and consumer become too long, defocused  and ultimately irrelevant to the consumer?  Indeed is there a parallel universe where new ’can do’  game makers exist without the knowledge, experience and safety first approach of the ‘traditional’ games industry?  Have we become tired by the old models? The model whereby developers are encouraged against taking risk, where the brief is to make a product that is a little bit like Grand Theft Auto, has the shock factor of Modern Warfare 2, is an online experience similar to World of Warcraft and the family appeal of Mario Kart? Last year it was all pink pony games on DS and look where that ended up, this year it is hidden object and puzzle games, what will it be next year?

Even if you do actually manage to develop the game of your dreams, you then have to put up with all the usual rubbish from publishers and the rest. Deductions, marketing initiatives, inflated budgets, ‘you need a minimum of two hundred and fifty grand to get meaningful and ‘seen’ TV ads’ ‘retail is a nightmare’ and so on.  Then specialist retailers will join the party and tell you that ‘the supermarkets and online are killing their traditional business’ and those same supermarkets will point out that it is a ‘competitive market place and our customers come first for price and value’.  The online retailers cite ‘catalogue, choice and value’ but get accused of ‘exploiting tax loopholes, shipping early and giving no customer service’ by their rivals. The same old sales people sell to the same old buying contacts and the same old anecdotes get trotted out, day in day out. ‘Unless you spend thousands on in store marketing and offer full sale or return, no product can be a retail success’. Meanwhile the consumer gets choice and above all, with packaged goods, can trade these in, or simply take them back for full refund, just like they have always done.  Sounds like chaos? Sounds like the business model is badly flawed? Sounds to me like it is.

So consider a world whereby the investment required to make compelling games is perhaps measured in the hundreds of thousands of Pounds/Euros/Dollars and not in the millions. Maybe original ideas gain ground over derivative ‘me too’ products. One where console manufacturers don’t control the manufacturing supply chain and charge inordinate amounts for packaged goods? A world less controlled by multi nationals and more influenced by connected consumers.  People playing games with each other over the internet, 24/7.  People able to build, market and trade their own wares to like minded individuals. That world is here and it is full of very small and nimble footed companies. Being mid-sized is no longer an option, be specialist and make it your business to seek out as many like minded people as you can find and trade with them as best you can.

 The key of course is gaining commercially for what you make or the service you provide. In a world where Britain was known for innovation and trade we have had latter success in making compelling entertainment.  Next to the US, we are the best in the world and everyone wants our products. Making quirky, innovative, entertaining and commercially viable entertainment is in our DNA, think music, TV, film, literature and computer and video games. All we need to do is remember the spirit of the late 1970’s and early 1980’s when our manufacturing industries were on their last legs, when workers were tied to one factory or office and creativity had to fight to get noticed.  In this technology enhanced, digitally connected world, co-operation across geographical, religious and cultural borders is normal and there has never been a better time to be an individual and a consumer, creative or otherwise. Small is beautiful.

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March 3, 2011 · 2:49 pm

#oneaday 35: Cooking the classes

I have not done my homework for weeks, just look at my #oneaday performance – we are on day 62 of 2011 and I am posting my 35th blog – so I am almost 50% behind the curve.  I think the phrase would be ‘could try harder’. Maybe I need to go back to school, in seach of further learning and inspiration.

Maybe though there is more than one  major crisis in the TV production industry. Or at least there seems to be. Whoever decided to try and fuse a popular chef who happens to have a very deep a social conscience, some famous people with brains or sporting prowess, some drop out 16 year olds without any GCSE’s and an allegedly failing teaching system probably thought the result would be enlightening,  a good idea even.  Certainly whoever green lit the concept at Channel 4 was either suffering from delusion or hubris or a bit of both.

Jamie Oliver has done many, many great things and I have the utmost respect for him. He is a one man force of nature. Whether it’s creating fast proper food, training 16 year old drop outs to be chefs or indeed putting some magic into the gastronomic production in schools and communities trying to help stop some becoming 16 year old drop outs, he has always fought against the endemic status quo.

However, last night ‘Jamie’s Dream School’ was the equivalent of cold cuts with your Frosties. The concept was simple, in more ways than one.

Take a heap of kids from various backgrounds, but mainly working class, who had left school at 16 without any qualifications. Then take a variety of well known and it has to be said purveyors of excellence in their respective fields and ask them to inspire said kids, and sort of teach them at the same time. Good concept eh? In the process prove that all students need inspiration and if they get that inspiration from teachers, they may well actually engage and learn and then get some qualifications and be good citizens.

Seems fair enough. From my own childhood I experienced good, bad and ugly teachers and one or two excellent ones who genuinely inspired me to learn and achieve. Indeed I still keep in touch with one such excellent teacher today, 30 years after leaving school.

But this is TV. It feels like teaching and learning don’t really make great TV, a bit like video games, i.e you have to be in it to get it, so to speak. So the producers have to use all sorts of visual aids and stunts to keep the viewer interested or at least they think they are keeping the viewer interested.

So we see a bit of indiscipline, sparked by David Starkey adopting a quasi 1950’s approach to teaching. More Jimmy Edwards than Robert Donat and all frankly contrived and somewhat embarrassing all round.  Cue ‘the kids’ leaving class and cries of ‘disrespec’ it’s rank out of orda’. Rolf Harris is there to teach art, and unsurprisingly got mashed by the sheer weight of numbers. Robert Winston, a trained surgeon, but advocate of science (good man) tries to get the interest of his class first by dissecting large mice or rats and then goes for the jugular by dissecting a pig complete with guts and entrails being chucked around hastened by a circular saw. Cue ‘the kids’ leaving class again and this time chucking their own guts up. Dame Ellen Macarthur stuck to her core subject, and got kids aboard her yacht and got their concentration, which one must assume is down to their being no signal for their mobile phones and it being somewhat dangerous in the Solent.

All in all the whole programme was predictable and frankly trite. Celebrity culture seems to allow for citizens to get some kind of warped kudos from being trite and often stupid. I would like to know what the budget for this series actually was, but whilst I do feel that Channel 4’s output has been getting steadily worse, let’s say lacking in inspiration, I would urge all of you to seek out and invest 5 hours of your life to watch ‘The Promise’ also broadcast and commissioned by Channel 4. That really was truly inspirational work of televisual art touching both my heart and mind in a profound way whilst also educating me on the issues surrounding the Middle East.

Check out The Promise on 4OD

Maybe Jamie could buy a ticket to Hebron or Gaza and use his considerable talents and diplomatic nature to help solve that little problem. They have tried everything else, so what have they or we got to lose?

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February 20, 2011 · 7:49 pm

#oneaday 34: One nation, one society?

I am never really sure what I thought of Margaret Thatcher. Some of her values worked for me, others simply did not. But she certainly changed the way Britain was run and how all of us lived our lives.  I came across this clip of her being interviewed (check dictionary for the definition of interview) by the inimitable Robin Day on Panorama in 1987 (that was when Panorama was a serious current affairs programme). Check the incredibly patronising comment to Mr Day, but also note the passion and the anger in her eyes. You will also hear her discussing the right of everyone to own their own property, by their own efforts. Sadly, we have seen that concept evapourate somewhat, given the fact that young people cannot actually afford property right now. Building one nation? That theory seems to have gone off the edge of the map right now. Let’s hope we can get it back for the benefit of all of us.

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February 20, 2011 · 3:34 pm

#oneaday 33: 3D’s fatal attraction?

I finally got my hands on a Nintendo 3DS this week and boy, what an impressive piece of kit it is. I had the good fortune to play Pro Evolution Soccer and it was magical. Immediate thoughts were simple. I want one of those machines and I want it as soon as I can get my hands on it. Playing PES in 3D on a handheld is a dream come true. It’s like having your own little game of Lilliputian football in the palms of your hands. As I have said before, I think Nintendo will sell millions of these machines and publishers who get titles out at launch could see great sales.

But I have always been worried by the price. Not the price of  hardware though. At around £200, yes it is more expensive than the DS or DSi, but the 3DS is a different ball game and worth the money. My concern has been the content and the pricing and availability of it to consumers who are now used to having massive choice of great handheld content at low, low prices. The unique selling point of the 3DS  is 3D, but at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona  this week, it seems that 3D for Smart Phones is not far away. Like less than 12 months away. LG have a handset which displays and films in 3D. If that is not enough, the common complaint about 3D is that content is simply not available freely. Well a chip manufacturer, Movidius, claim to be able to transform all your 2D content into 3D very easily. Whilst that does not neccessarily mean that 3D gaming content will be a flick of a switch away, it does rather suggest that the mobile world will be delivering 3D devices and content some time pretty soon and prices for that content could be aggressive.

As a consumer you have to love the developments in technology that drive both our leisure and working lives into more interesting places. In a world which has always celebrated miniaturisation, faster speed and more storage space one does wonder if the old fashioned models that some hardware manufacturers insist on persisting with will survive.

It is often said that your competition comes from places you least expect. My take is that the Blue Ocean of 3D in handhelds is already full of clever technology companies swimming around in it. Let’s hope that companies with a great record of content production but who may not be aware of the new methods of distribution don’t find themselves bathing in a Red Ocean.

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February 20, 2011 · 2:53 pm

#oneaday 32: Big Joe – age will not weary him

I have praised the power of Twitter more than once recently, but on Tuesday night, I read a whole load of Tweets to do with a game of football in Milan, between AC Milan and Tottenham Hotspur in the so called Champions League (so called because the league is not actually full of champions). Far from informing me about Spurs’s magnificent victory against the odds, Twitter was full of  Tweets centred around the behaviour of Gennaro Gattuso and Joe Jordan. There had been some disagreements between the 2 firebrands. Football is a physical game and tempers can fly as testosterone and adrenaline strut in equal measure. But this was a little more spicy than usual.

So, it was with some incredulity that I sought out and watched the said incidents. First up, the tough pocket battleship that is Gattuso  decided to push Joe Jordan in the face during the match. Allegedly Big Joe, who actually played for Milan and can speak Italian, had been berating him throughout, probably in language Gattuso would comprehend. Clearly young  Gennaro does not know who he is taking on, probably assuming the bespectacled sexagenarian Scot was just some insignificant and weak member of Harry Redknapp’s Spurs backroom team.

Well I remember Joe Jordan playing professional football for Leeds, Manchester United and of course Scotland. He really did come from the hard school of knocks, the only forward of recent times that would come close to his combative style would be Alan Shearer. Jordan’s nickname later in his career was ‘Jaws’ on account of his missing front teeth and likeness to the principle henchman in ‘The Spy Who Loved Me’. Needless to say Joe was the archetypal target man.  Any ball in the air, in and around the penalty box would be fair game for Joe. He would put his head and his elbows in where it hurt. Given also that this was the age of the bustling centre half put on the pitch to ‘stop’  the centre forwards, literally with anything they could get away with, footballers were a lot more used to physical battery as opposed to athletic exertion.

Joe Jordan was an icon for many of us as kids in the 70’s. He played hard, honest and with passion. He also possessed a pretty unitelligible accent (or at least unintelligible to us sassenachs) and thus when he gave post match interviews, you really needed subtitles. ‘Manchester United’ was pronounced ‘Man Chstr Neetah’ and every sentence was peppered with liberal use of ‘aye’. Just like players such as Billy Bremner, Dave Mackay, Norman Hunter, Jackie Charlton, Ronnie Harris, Billy Bonds and Tommy Smith,  there were some footballers that you just did not argue with. Add in the fact that he was the only Scot to score in 3 successive World Cups – ’74, ’78 and ’82 and you know you have a great player. I think it must have been something to do with England not qualifying for the World Cups in ’74 and ’78 that meant when we watched the tournaments on TV, BBC and ITV naturally followed Scotland and Joe Jordan, Kenny Dalglish and Archie Gemmil got increased air time.

Joe was also one of the few British players to find his fortune outside of the Football League when he joined AC Milan. Although he was part of the squad that got demoted from Serie A, he was on hand to bang and knock the goals in the following season when they came straight back up again. He loved his time in Italy and I remember seeing him on Channel 4’s Football Italia  speaking gently,  looking lean and above all talking sense about the game. Clearly his spell in Italy taught him valuable lessons in diet and physical conditioning, something pretty absent in the 70’s, 80’s and early 90’s in British football. Above all Joe appeared very Zen like, as if he had decided that all the aggression had evapourated and life was about enjoying the good things. His specs helped cultivate that image.

 At the final whistle on Tuesday, you therefore have to think that Gattuso really did not know who he was taking on.  As Mark Lawrenson said on Football Focus yesterday, ‘Joe had taken his glasses off, and I though aye aye, here we go’. It is a real pity that the little Italian stopper is now banned from the return fixture. It would have added some extra spice to epic that will take place at White Hart Lane in two and a half weeks time.  Harry Brown, aka Michael Caine would be proud.

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February 20, 2011 · 11:50 am

#oneaday 31: A Free Press?

Last weekend we had a trip to the wonderful town of Southwold on the Suffolk coast. I actually intend to blog about the wonders of this beautiful place later in the #oneaday series, but after dinner at The Swan on Sunday night, we retired to the sitting room to have a nightcap and read the newspapers in front of a roaring fire.  It was a chance to read the physical papers, something I am doing less and less nowadays given the presence of my iPhone and the Apps that help me keep up to date with the news, whether it is via the BBC, Guardian, Telegraph or indeed The Onion. All these Apps offer a free daily service(although The Guardian did cost a one off £2.49 – incredible value all things considered), but the prospect of actually reading old fashioned newsprint was mildly exciting. I almost felt wistful.

Thumbing through a copy of The Daily Mail is always fun, provided someone else has paid for it. I always liked The Sunday Times even if I did pay for it, and part 1 of their ‘Top 500 Apps in the World’ immediately caught my eye. I always love these advertising slogans that claim to be ‘The World’s Favourite Airline’ or ‘The Greatest Place in the World’. British Airways used that approach for years, I am not sure if they still do us it, but after pissing off their customers and staff with a series of strikes, I assume that they have quietly buried that slogan along the way.

Back to The Sunday Times,  it turns out that this headline ‘Top 500 Apps in the World’ referred to the fact that The Sunday Times has according to their copy ‘ found the 500 apps (sic) that will make your life easier, better and much more fun’. The guide broke Apps down into a number of categories – social networking, news, business, sport, cars, games, fashion & beauty, shopping & weddings, food, drink, reference, personal finance and babies & families. It also points out for readers to look out for Sunday Times ‘star’ Apps, presumably the star indicating  the better ones, in the opinion of the writer.

It has to be said many of the Apps I love are in the 1st part of the guide. I presume many more will be in part 2, due out today, which I will not bother with having seen part 1.  Facebok, Instagram, Skype, Tweetdeck, BBC News (although very buggy is great for content), LinkedIN, Angry Birds, Cut the Rope, Redlaser, Wikipedia, World Factbook are all there. No Guardian, or Telegraph and Daily Mail for that matter  though (not that I am a Mail fan). Which is a shame. But we do have The Sunday Times, unsurprisingly and deservedly as the content is amazing, and The Times both starred and wait for it, wait for it…..

The Sun and The News of the World. Yep, they are in there – amongst 12 other peers in the NEWS section.  Here’s the write up:-

iPad – The Sun – free for he 1st month or trial edition for NoW

‘The iPad edition of The Sun is a brisk read that serves up the best of the print and digital worlds; a faithful reproduction of the paper, neatly navigated by scrolling thumbnails of pages, with a iEdition that breaks stories into categories and displays them as plain text, like a website. Innovations include a 360-degree pictures of Page 3 girls every Monday. The NoW plays to its strengths: agenda- setting exclusives and glamorous photography. The primary draw is likely to be video clips of celebs and politicians doing things they shouldn’t. Subsequent editions are £1.19 each.’

The writer at least has a sense of humour and I assume that he or she is under company orders. Given that News of the World, The Sun, The Times & The Sunday Times (as well as The Wall Street Journal) are all owned by the same group, headed by Rupert Murdoch, he or she probably did not have any choice as to whether these Apps should or should not be included. No one ever said the press is free,  until the internet came along that is. Many media Apps are free, but for some companies and publishers, Apps will be paid for. Time will judge if all of us readers have a free press or not.

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February 19, 2011 · 8:07 pm

#oneaday 30: People write and have a right to do so

We have had 2 examples of courts, one in the UK (The Supreme Court)  and one from Europe (The European Court of Human Rights) , who have allegedly  ‘pushed’ the UK around and made ‘us’ do things that ‘we’ don’t want to do. The first was given convicted and serving prisoners the right to vote and the second was demanding that all those on the sex offenders register, which has been portrayed in some of the media as  the ‘paedophile regsiter’, be allowed to appeal against their inclusion on it.

There are a couple of obvious things here.

First and foremost, the European Court of Human Rights stands up for human rights, very much as a last resort for the indivdual. It has been established since 1959, 14 years after the end of the Second World War, and hopefully the last world war. It is nothing at all to do with the European Court of Justice, the highest court of the European Union and therefore nothing to do with ‘Europe’ as has been suggested by some of the media and some of the politicians who are naturally Euro sceptic. If we decide to defy the rulings, and on the issue of giving prisoners voting rights I have to say I disagree with the ruling, but that is not the point. The point is, that this court has made a decision and we may be bound to follow it. Surely, rather than simply defy this rule/law, we should do what everyone who follows the law does, namely appeal? Just to defy the ruling, smacks of selective law breaking. A democracy surely needs to work within the law to change it?

Secondly, let’s not confuse the rights of individuals to appeal against legal  rulings, least of all from courts based in our own land. Thus if a sex offender (an not just a paedophile) is put on a register, for life, without the right to appeal, it does rather seem somewhat unfair. But so much is in the reporting. We have seen howls of derision from the ‘anti European’ brigade that our rights are being infringed upon, specifically the rights of Parliament to create laws. There have also been many claims from many parties (not political) who have said that sex offenders should not be allowed to come off the register and ‘who are a court to tell us otherwise’, this court often being  quoted as European! Why are these people given rights anyway? All the Supreme Court have said is that these offenders have the right to appeal. That is all. The right to appeal. Take a look at how Sky News report the whole episode. Note the narrative, starting off the feature with a victim. Eventually the report gets around to the actual issue, but the contextual framing  is at best disingenuous and at worst completely irrelevant. 

I didn’t bother seeing what the the likes of the Daily Mail, The Sun, The Star and The Daily Express had to say about this. I think I could guess. Sticking to the issue and the facts seems difficult to some of these publication. Indeed, it is always about emphasis and spin.  Just have a look at what The Daily Mail online said about the issue on the 17th of February.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1357472/Sex-offenders-register-Paedophiles-rapists-apply-remove-name.html

It takes all sorts to make a world, and ultimately people write and should have the right to say what they feel, provided it is within the law. Indeed long may we have a Media that if all of their views are put on the scales at once, in a sort of coalition, we would probably see an overall balanced and thus neutral approach. There may well be a lesson in there somewhere.

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