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The road to a totalitarian state ? A dangerous milestone on the road to a totalitarian state, was the warning given on June 16 by the distinguished lawyer Anthony Scrivener, QC, on the Blair government's proposal to establish thousands of public officials as national monitors - or snoopers. Writing in the Observer before the new restrictions, expected to be announced in Parliament by the Home Secretary, David Blunkett, on June 18, Mr Scrivener summarised the recent history of government restriction. He explained that during an over-heated debate fuelled by the BBC and the Mail newspaper group about a supposed breach of royal protocol by the Prime Minister at the funeral of the Queen Mother, and demands that he should make a special statement to the House of Commons: "Big Brother is being quietly ushered in, not by the dreaded Conservative Party responsible for a whole raft of other illiberal measures, including their Investigation of Communications Act 1985, but by New Labour, the self-styled party of human rights. Snooping is to become official. "Soon we shall all be able to sleep easier in our beds in the knowledge that seven government departments, including transport, work and pensions and health, all local councils and authorities, the Postal Services Commissions, the Office of Fair Trading, the Environmental Agency, the Financial Services Authority, the Health and Safety Executive, to name just a few, as well as the police, will be able to demand communication data on any one of us from telephone companies, internet service providers, and postal officers." Mr Scrivener said the proposed new measure would mean that all of those public bodies and many more would be able to obtain, on demand, without a court order, details of any phone call we have made or received, the source and destination of our emails, the identity of all websites visited "and - best of all - all mobile phone location data which will reveal our whereabouts at any given time within a few hundred metres." He concludes with a reference to Labour's position and principles as expressed in opposition, up to the 1997 election victory: "New Labour, which promoted human rights so vigorously in Opposition, has shown itself willing to cast aside those proud principles now it is in power." ------A.J.Sinclair, Fairplay UK staff writer. Parliament's watchdog to check PFI claims A comprehensive report on private finance initiative contracts, compiled by the Liberal Democrats, and another from the GMB union on PFI in hospitals, are to be examined by House of Commons select committees. The Lib Dems say contracts on seven out of eight PFI road-building deals have been broken, but complain that information has been withheld. The government has authorised 405 PFI deals so far, but the departments responsible have given the Lib Dems information on only 23. Liberal Democrats email: libdems@cix.co.ukHave journalists been unfair - twisted truth ? One of the UK's senior social and political commentators has questioned the role of journalism, and the work of journalists, in the country's general election campaign (writes Tom O'Grady, a member of the London-based foreign press corps). Hugo Young is a regular columnist in the Guardian, and also chairman of the Guardian Trust, which ensures the paper's independence and its policy of putting its editorial purpose and policy before profit. He begins: "Journalism is meant to be a trade that tells large as well as smaller truths, and for much of this election it has failed.... The failure is a noble one. It comes about for decent democratic reasons. But it has carried the audience towards a picture of reality which, had the same thing happened in a war, would be regarded as a travesty of reporting worthy of an editor's court martial." The main point, as most non-British press people in London have long recognised, is the pretence that "the election is a race that either side might win." Young continues: "We have been accomplices in some kind of national hallucination." He also refers to the broadcasters, "operating under formal rules of 'balance,' (with) a statutory duty to spend four weeks perpetuating this kind of delusion. " As he adds, the newspapers had no such excuse but still felt obliged to do the same. This observer, like other "outside" journalists, has to spend a lot of time checking radio and television. I have some experience of rough and sometimes intellectually-challenged interviewers in other countries, but the level of performance in the UK (mainly the London outlets) has been a surprise. The long and potentially enlightening interview of Tony Blair by Jeremy Paxman on the BBC's prestigious Newsnight programme was marred by inept, time-wasting, and even childish questioning by an over-ripe hack who should be given a refresher in Dundee, Derby or Dunstable. Journalism tutors should get tapes of this for the benefit of the BBC's new generation in time for the next election. Also seen by many observers to be stuck in that same groove of phoney balance deplored by Hugo Young were such interviewing idols as John Humphreys, James Naughtie, Nick Clarke and others whose voices I have been unable (disinclined) to memorise. Le fairplay still rules in France A fierce attack on the "sudden" shedding of 4,000 jobs by Marks & Spencer with the closure of its European branches underlined the difference in government protection for workers across the Channel compared with that in Britain. There was a one-day strike in Paris against the decision, which includes the company's flagship branch on Boulevard Haussman. Our Fairplay Business Correspondent comments: "It is easier to hire and fire in the UK, but M&S found it was mistaken in assuming that it could get away with the same easy firing in France." The French media supported the workers. In the UK, defenders of restrictions on workers' rights argued that it was "simply market forces - a business decision - global competition," and there was no alternative. Can fair play, as between UK and French regulations, come into this ? Feedback welcomed, by the editor@fairplayuk.com
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