I just watched a movie called Dark Waters for the second time. It’s a legal drama, telling the true story of a lawyer who takes on one of the world’s biggest chemical corporations, DuPont, for knowingly poisening people and planet. In the vein of the Erin Brockovich movie, there’s a bit of feel-good at the end when the bad guys pay out huge sums and the little guy gets some recompense. Probably too little too late, as the movies take us through stories of shattered lives and homes; some pain ain’t to be fixed.

Rob Bilott – the lawyer in question – seems quite an exception, particularly coming from a law firm that more usually defended the corporate giants against just this kind of complaint. The screenplay writer gives him one particularly striking soliloquy:

The system is rigged. They want us to believe that it’ll protect us, but that’s a lie. We protect us. We do. Nobody else. Not the companies, not the scientists, not the government. Us.

Russia Today (RT) was banned, pulled from British airways, in 2022. Ofcom revoked its UK broadcasting licence, saying it was not a “responsible broadcaster”. To be more precise, the ban came “amid 29 ongoing investigations by Ofcom into the due impartiality of RT’s news and current affairs coverage of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine” (my emphasis). The investigations were ongoing; no evidence or specific details were given to support Ofcom’s conclusions.

Particularly of note, Ofcome was concerned about “RT’s relationship with the Russian Federation .. funded by the Russian state, which has recently invaded a neighbouring sovereign country”. Ofcome also notes “new laws in Russia which effectively criminalise any independent journalism that departs from the Russian state’s own news narrative, in particular in relation to the invasion of Ukraine.”

Well, it comes as no surprise that, if a country has enough money to fund their own international broadcasting operation, they will want it to put out their side of the story. In fact, why else would governments go to all the bother?

The world community doesn’t pay taxes in the UK, doesn’t vote in the UK, so why do we spend millions aiming to inform or entertain? Well it’s simple – this is more about influence, soft power, than anythying else.

BBC World and World Service (TV and radio, respectively), along with any other state-funding international broadcaster, seeks to convince others of our narrative. We’re the goodies, they’re the baddies. To suggest that RT was in any way more guilty of this than any of the others is flapdoodle.

But controlling the narrative – to maintain a compliant and docile population – is the be all and end all. The danger of allowing impressionable ears and minds to hear different versions of events, different histories (or any history!), different perspectives and sufferings, seems for some in power to be just too much of a threat.

Forget the Enlightenment – we’re living as if it never happened. Has the ability and motivation to think critically about what we’re told ever been so low? Worse than just fading away, people who practice critical thinking, going as far as challenging mainstream perspective, are derided, deplatformed, debunked. Pulled off the airways.

None of this has anything to do with tolerance, free speach or democracy. The next time I hear a politician talk about ‘our values’ I shall gag just a little harder than usual.

In Ofcoms hazy justification for revoking RT’s broadcast licence, it’s also concerned about “new laws in Russia which effectively criminalise any independent journalism that departs from the Russian state’s own news narrative, in particular in relation to the invasion of Ukraine.” And, here in windswept Britain, bastian of press freedom and justice, even the generally sedate National Union of Journalists is raising the alarm about the use of anti-terrorism legislation to arrest and intimidate independent journalists in the UK:

The National Union of Journalists has condemned the rising use of counter-terrorism legislation against journalists as an intimidatory measure harmful to public interest journalism and press freedom.

Source

We’re no different to them. They’d just like us to think we are.

On the bright side, we are truely lucky to still be able to access tons of fresh, alternative media, many with excellent links to voices, nations, regions and perspectives that the mainstream/legacy media just won’t touch.

(A shout-out here to Craig Murray, Jonathan Cook, UK Column, Redacted, Dialogue Works, and Judge Napolitano. The list changes, and I’m sure there are many more fine voices I’ve not yet stumbled upon. I never agree with all of these, or with all of what they say but – in the spirit of free thinking – I’m happy to hear different views, and be allowed to make up my own mind.)

It’s wonderful that the mainstream has falling numbers of viewers/readers/etc. whilst more people are getting other perspectives, hearing histories and balanced analyses. But our politicians and corporate leaders – who can tell the difference? From the logos on their headed paper? – still act as if their ‘truth’ is the one and only.

The new New New Labour MP for Swindon South replies to my emails in the same tone and with the same evasiveness as the old but still new in many ways Tory who’d held the seat up until the last election. I asked for specific action she could take to bring a halt to the Israeli onslaught in Gaza; lot of nice words came back – but not a single concrete action my MP would proffer.

In a world of crocodile tears and amoral, self-serving ruling class, sentiments like “We must redouble our efforts to achieve an immediate ceasefire in Gaza” or “We must do more to provide relief to the civilian population in Gaza” sound nice but ring hollow.

For the sake of transparency, here’s the full reply I received:

Dear Jol, 
 
Thank you for contacting me about the conflict in Gaza and recent events in the Middle East, and for sharing the video showing the dire situation on the ground.  
 
The death and destruction in Gaza is intolerable. The war must end with an immediate ceasefire, complied with by both sides. The fighting must stop. The hostages still cruelly detained by Hamas terrorists must be returned immediately, and aid must be allowed to reach the people of Gaza without restrictions.
 
We must redouble our efforts to achieve an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and in Lebanon, complied with by all sides and to pursue diplomacy. It is the best way to get the hostages released and to end the devastation for all.
 
No matter how difficult the circumstances, the Government is clear that it is incumbent upon all parties to act in accordance with international law. International humanitarian law must be upheld, and the independence of international courts must be respected. I recognise the International Criminal Court’s jurisdiction over Gaza.
 
As you may know, the UK Government recently suspended approximately 30 of the 350 arms export licences in place to Israel following a rigorous review. The UK Government had concluded that for certain UK arms exports to Israel there existed a clear risk they could be used to commit or facilitate a serious violation of international humanitarian law. These suspended licences effectively cover all arms exports for use in the current conflict in Gaza.
 
However, I do not support a total ban on arms exports to Israel. This would include a ban on arms used for defensive purposes which would be inappropriate, especially when considering the recent Iranian attack on Israel.
 
We must do more to provide relief to the civilian population in Gaza. There is no excuse for the Israeli Government’s ongoing restrictions on humanitarian assistance. Jeopardising the mandate of the United Nations Relief Work Agency and its subsequent ability to carry out lifesaving work is not only unacceptable, but also wholly counterproductive for Israel. These aid restrictions fly in the face of Israel’s public commitments and risk violating international humanitarian law. The UK Government condemn these restrictions in the strongest terms and will continue to work closely with international partners to ensure every lever is pulled to put pressure on the Israeli Government to let aid reach the people of Gaza unrestricted.
 
Finally, let me assure you that I support the recognition of a Palestinian state as an undeniable and inalienable right of the Palestinian people and as a contribution to a renewed peace process to achieve a two-state solution. I oppose the expansion of illegal settlements and consider them a barrier to this two-state solution.
 
I hope this helps to set out my views on this very difficult issue. 
 
Kind regards,
 
Heidi Alexander MP
Member of Parliament, Swindon South (Labour)

They’re all liars & theives / want us on our knees / we’re all refugees in their game … They preach democracy, I hear hypocracy / it’s plain to see they’re all the same … A vote for one was a vote for the other / there ain’t no difference between one another / it’s a slight of hand – a Punch and Judy show … They got you by the short and curlies / come home late and leave home early / it’s a trap it’s a trick – and no one wants to know.

And so on, dark waters, getting darker.

(Side note – interesting how the slow, dark original recorded version of this song has evolved into a toe-tapping country sing-along! See below!!)

I blog rarely. There’s just too much bad stuff to comment on, words don’t seem enough, and many others say it well enough anyway.

But I do sometimes share correspondence I’ve had with my MP, another spineless and in-the-mould Tory – but could equally be Labour or any of the others these days. Truthfully, I hardly know why I bother – we’re always exhorted to write to our MPs but, really, they’re so controlled, bought and whipped, what the heck’s the point?

This latest set of emails was prompted by a mail from the Palestine Solidarity Campaign on the eve of the vote on an SNP motion calling for a ceasefire in Gaza; we were asked to write to our MPs asking them to support the motion.

What happened at that debate (a way too generous term for the bawling hypocrisy that took place that day in the House of Commons) is now history – some kind of shameful, dirty history that reflects clearly the lack of any moral decency, honesty or compassion proudly exhibited by most of our so-called elected representatives.

The bombs still fall and the murders of innocents in Palastine go on, even as the International Court of Justice’s ruled for Israel to take all measures to prevent acts of genocide in Gaza. Another international ruling ignored.

George Galloway’s success in the Rochdale by-election is a glimmer of hope, although the blanket bias across all mainstream media and political classes will make it hard to turn a spark into a blaze. Galloway hopes that this kind of thing could be replicated in constituencies around the country at the forthcoming general election, and we can but hope. And, in the meantime, do our best to connect and create action locally.

Galloway ain’t everyone’s cup of tea but Craig Murray – as usual – nails it. (George kicks off this recent broadcast in fine form with some on-the-nail observations about all the above.)

So here we go with the emails:

Hi Robert

Hope you’re keeping well.

Please vote for a ceasefire in Gaza today – it’s your chance to do the right thing for peace and justice, to be on the right side of history.

With the international court ruling that there’s a case to be made that Israel is committing genocide and, indeed, insisting that Israel desists from its military operations (which ruling Israel is blatantly ignoring), the British parliament must stand up for justice and the rule of law.

Please reply post haste to confirm you will be supporting, voting and arguing for and immediate ceasefire.

Many thanks and beset wishes

Dear Jolyon,

Many thanks for your email.

The situation in Gaza is incredibly worrying, and I echo the calls of the Foreign Secretary for both sides to reach a ceasefire deal, as they did in November, which includes the release of all hostages.

It is by urging both sides and key third countries to work towards this type of deal that the UK can play a positive role. Demanding a unilateral ceasefire is not helpful. Hamas started this conflict and continue to fuel it by keeping the hostages – the onus must be on them just as much as it’s on Israel to bring hostilities to a close.

I am glad that the United States has now adopted this position, coming in line with what has been UK policy for a number of months.

The SNP motion does not recognise the nuance which is necessary in this matter, so I will not be voting for it today.

Given that the UK has been calling for a proper bilateral ceasefire for a while now, such a motion is unnecessary.

Thanks again for contacting me about this important issue. I will continue to follow the situation in Israel and Palestine very closely.

Kind regards,

Robert

Hi Robert

Thank you for the reply – I’ve mailed you several times about the appalling and unjust treatment of Julian Assange being meted out by your governent and received no reply, so I was pleasantly surprised.

I wonder if your email is, in fact, a government template provided for such correspondence: do you really believe that this conflict started on October 7th last year? To state that “Hamas started this conflict” suggests a level of historical (recent and ongoing) ignorance that I hardly expect from someone of your education.

Do you have any idea how many hostages – prisoners held with no charge and no due process – are being held by the Israeli state? Again, your lack of any basic understanding of both the inequities and the historical context of the current slaughter of innocents is somewhat shocking; these facts are hardly hidden.

Perhaps your failure to engage with the international court’s finding on potential genocide is, therefore, less of a surprise. Shame on you.

Regards

Jol

Dear Jolyon,

No, these are my views – which are very similar to the Government’s, but not identical.

I do not deny the longevity of this conflict, but this recent war was clearly started by Hamas when they intentionally slaughtered Israeli civilians on October 7th.

Regards,

Robert

I could have gone on, but there’s no opening eyes of people who will not see.

How many times do you have to write to your MP to get an answer? Other than some auto-response via email.

But perhaps I’m asking too much. Why on earth should the representative of my local contituency bother with what I have to say? I probably need to re-read the meaning of ‘representative democracy’. No doubt, Google and Wikipedia will put me right.

My MP is not only my MP. He is Robert Buckland, Secretary of State for Justice and Lord Chancellor. So I’d like to think that justice would be his bag. Darn, maybe I need to check with Wiki about that one too.

The lack of justice in the case of Julian Assange – it’s hard to call it anything other than persecution – is something that vexes me deeply. And I want my MP to acknowledge that, at the very least.

So I emailed. Twice. But no reply. I even tried a proper letter, actually shoved through his office letterbox in Old Town, Swindon. Nothing, nada – not a squeak. Buckland’s email auto-respond finishes “Please be patient with us over other matters at this time.”

Well, my first email was sent in October 2019 – that was already six months after Julian had been forcebly removed from the Ecuadorian Embassy and bundled into a black maria, Belmarsh bound; the start of another phase in his ordeal. So I don’t think I’m being impatient.

So I’m sharing my latest letter, below. As you’ll see from the update from Stella Morris – Assange’s partner – at the bottom of this crowdfunding page, the US has no intention of letting UK justice get in the way of extradition and further torture of this splendid journalist.

So, if you’re minded, please take the time to write or take your own action to raise awareness and get some action and this innocent man released. Thank you.

Dear Robert

I am writing to you as my Member of Parliament on a matter of great importance.

I know that mental health is a subject close to your own heart, and I hope you read this letter with an open heart and mind.

You know that Julian Assange is still being held in solitary confinement in Belmarsh high security prison, despite not having been charged with - let alone found guilty of - a single crime (excepting a single bail violation).

You know, too, that the Central Criminal Court in January ruled that Assange cannot be extradited to the US - his mental health, the judge ruled, is too vulnerable.

How then can you justify Assange’s continued incarceration in these harsh, damaging and - for a non-violent extradition case - completely inappropriate conditions? 

Over 100 British doctors have published in the Lancet a letter entitled End torture and medical neglect of Julian Assange. Their letter, enclosed, references other expert testimony - including that of UN Special Rapporteur on Torture - that supports the call for fair and human treatment of this political prisoner.

Do you not support these calls for humanity and fairness, Robert - particularly for someone whose mental health is on a knife edge?

The High Court is currently considering the US application for leave to appeal the extradition ruling - but bail during this process has been denied. 

There is no end in sight. And each day you keep Assange in these inhumane and unjust conditions is another day of solitary psychological attack that Assange faces in a British jail under your watch as Justice Secretary.

If his health was too vulnerable to be extradited to the US, how do you think he is fairing under these conditions? 

Reading the enclosed open letter and related reports, you can only conclude that Assange’s continued incarceration in these conditions represents a direct and deliberate attempt to further debilitate him, both mentally and physically. 

His death, whether by his own hand or from other health causes, gets ever more likely due to the treatment you are overseeing.

Robert, please get back to me with your responses to these questions as a matter of urgency. Many thanks.

Yours sincerely

Find out more, stay in touch, get involved:

Check out my last blog post about Julian, with a bit more background and the song, We are the dead, dedicated to the man.

Words spoken by Winston, the protagonist in George Orwell’s 1984. He’s with Julia, his lover and partner-in-thoughtcrime, staring out over the courtyard below their rented room, their hideaway.

In an age where every room in every building has a telescreen – a two-way communication device that watches, that listens, and that drip-feeds a steady stream of propaganda, they think they’ve found some respite – a musty room above a junk shop in the proletariate side of town. Free from prying eyes of the Party, perhaps.

But he knows, they both know, there is no escape. The system is too pervasive, too complete in its myriad of spies, informers, cameras, microphones. Party officials and Thought Police and neighbours and children, all waiting for a sign to turn them in. And then …

We are the dead.

It was Julian Assange I had in my mind when I wrote my song, We are the dead, which you’ll find on the latest album, Welcome to Zombieland. (If the lyrics aren’t clear enough, the live version has a little homemade video that kinda pushes the point too.)

The parallels are there.

As Winston knew would happen, they are arrested (turns out that the room was rented to them by a member of the Thought Police – all along there was a telescreen hidden behind a picture in their room).

As with Julian Assange, they are kept in solitary confinement. We follow Winston as he is tortured. And whilst Winston’s torture still feels in the realms of sci-fi, with buttons, machines and intangible but excruciating pain, that of Julian Assange is the banal drip, drip of isolation, psychological attack, insecurity and debasement. Torture tried and true, nonetheless.

Assange’s extradition trial, a sure-footed mockery of justice, due process and any concept of fairness, was completed with scarce a comment from the mainstream: big business, corporate media, the security state and captured politicians – the perfect recipe for public apathy as British justice and values are swept, with little ado, over a still and silent cliff edge.

Any of Craig Murray’s reports from the trial – he was virtually the only reporter to get access to the public gallery and observe the trial first-hand; video-links were denied, too, to NGOs, MEPs, and most media organisations – are worth the read: to the point, stark in their honesty. Here’s his last report, day 21, and a video interview with RT if you prefer it face to face.

Winston was broken; he came to know that two plus two equals five, and his love for Big Brother knew no bounds.

Reports from concerned people with expertise, for example a group of doctors whose letter was published in the Lancet, make it clear that Julian Assange is, in similar fashion, being destroyed; if not in front of our eyes, at least within reach of our keyboard and monitor.

If extradited, he faces the rest of his life in a US Supermax prison. We’re kept at bay. Black-out on news. Communications cut off. Gentle demonstrators trashed. Julian knows, we are the dead.

In a previous blog I quoted from Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Now at the end of that book, another passage that seems more than relevant:

The Church of Reason, like all institutions of the System, is based not on individual strength but upon individual weakness. What’s really demanded in the Church of Reason is not ability, but inability. Then you are considered teachable. A truely able person is always a threat.

And as we watch our rights being put on hold, temporarily we’re told, and our movements as well as our thoughts watched, weighed and measured, as we spend our waking moments living in virtual spaces devised by algorithms and implented by blindmen, as we sleepwalk clutching to the straw that it will all be OK, as we watch our leaders grin and sign treaties and bury the starving and bomb the poor, as we learn to hate and to forget or to ignore or disdain, as dystopia becomes the new normal, how those words ring true.

The schools might be open for the time being, but minds are closed. We are the dead.