Leave yourselves on the righteousness of the sun

News International is currently reeling from righteous anger over its mismanagement of the now defunct News of The World newspaper; an anger threatening to engulf its other titles, The Sun (itself not averse to righteous indignation) and The Times, as well as obstruct the attempted takeover of BSkyB by its parent company. However, like the MPs expenses scandal, I worry it may reach the point (if it hasn’t already) of criticising from a general animosity rather than over any illegal activity. For example, the tail-end of the expenses scandal saw criticism of claims for biscuits which, given how many offices across the country can claim for milk and sugar, hardly seemed a valid complaint. The result was IPSA; a ludicrously over-the-top, ineffective and inefficient waste of millions of pounds of taxpayers money. And journalism is a more difficult profession to regulate if (and I used to think this a safe assumption) we also believe in the freedom of the press.

Therefore if we’re considering travelling down this dangerous path, let’s not distract ourselves with a personal dislike for this newspaper or that, this political party or that; let’s concentrate on the specific issue of phone hacking and who (if anyone) is at fault. Much as we may want to question David Cameron’s judgement in appointing Andy Coulson, the relevant question is whether Andy Coulson did anything illegal in his previous position as editor of that paper. Likewise we may be tempted to query the cosy relationship between News International and the Conservative party, and before them Labour who were in government at the time of these events. We might be upset to find that when Gordon Brown was Prime Minister, The Sun newspaper obtained details relating to his son's medical condition - which he understandably wished to keep private. These are worthy concerns, and the speed with which politicians are distancing themselves suggests a long overdue adjustment is already taking place. They are however distractions from the question we ask; who is responsible for the phone hacking and why wasn’t it stopped?

In answer we find not a failure of regulation, but people who engaged in unlawful activity and others who didn’t do their job. It is not the fault of the Press Complaints Commission when journalists break the law and the police - for whatever reason - fail to uphold it. It is this failure of the police - who knew what was happening yet took no action, some of whom were themselves corrupt - which should be our greatest concern. Tighter regulation of the press would have made no difference. We should also remember, though unpleasant, the actions of The Sun in obtaining private medical records may be no worse than those of The Telegraph in obtaining details on MPs expenses, or The Guardian in scooping this latest story. It’s mucky stuff, the truth; do we really want to stop it?

Alarmed

Saturday afternoon, despite being switched off the house alarm malfunctioned, and has been sounding off ever since; every few hours to keep me on my toes. I’d remain on my toes if I weren’t so tired; so tired I can’t even write a lucid sentence. Thanks to the internet I know the problem is a rechargeable battery, or a faulty control panel, or... I do know that it will cost at least £75 to fix. After being woken up at around 6am on Sunday morning and disturbed throughout the day, the ‘rechargeable battery’ hint prompted me to part-set the alarm last night, which seemed to work though by then it was too late. Not knowing when (or if) you’re going to be troubled by a sudden loud klaxon puts you on edge for those quiet moments in between. I’m so tired I even gave up on Michael Clayton, which was shaping up to be a great film; so tired I’ve started to repeat myself.

Firebreak

Yesterday James Murdoch blind-sided everyone with a contrite apology, announcing the closure of The News of The World in the process, and was grudgingly - and temporarily - declared a genius. Immediate joy was soon tempered with the realisation that hundreds of presumably innocent people were being made redundant for the actions of those who had worked there before. One of whom, Rebekah Brooks, is now chief executive of News International, which in addition to owning the defunct newspaper also owns The Times and The Sun. Earlier this week Rebekah was tasked with, or gave herself the task of, leading the internal inquiry into the dodgy activity that went on at the time when she was editor… insert your own sarcastic comment here. The rest, as The News of The World can no longer say, is history. But she must be really good at her job.

The barbarian horde

What do you think of someone who would mug a man wearing a pacemaker?

It's not the dumbest question I’ve heard from a reporter, it’s a personal favourite; and as you can imagine that’s up against some stiff competition. However I’m a believer that our press is a reflection of its readership, and you’re an ugly bunch. I’m not even sure where to start; the soon to be defunct News of The World newspaper in hacking the voicemail of missing (and subsequently it was discovered, murdered) schoolgirl Milly Dowler, or the public’s failure to react until presented with this more sympathetic victim. Our munificence is not measured by the protection we give to our own, but to those whose values and lifestyle we do not share.

It’d also help if people could refrain from dodgy moral relativism such as “Hari doesn’t look so bad now” or even (and I’m not kidding here) a comparison I saw for the Ross/Brand nonsense of yesteryear. It’s what appears to be a systemic bribing of the Police that should worry us most, but there are millions who should share responsibility for these nefarious activities. Breaking into something digitally should be no different to breaking into something physical; yet such action is effectively green-lit by an insatiable appetite for gossip. Tut-tutting when they overstep the mark, and then paying for the product, means it’s inevitable that something or someone we do care for will one day be targeted.

The mob, the opportunist and the thief

The other day I ate a Tesco Cauliflower Cheese containing 41% cauliflower and 11% cheese; as a friend commented, this meant “48% slop”. Presumably a little more would have required its inclusion in the title of this tasteless side dish. “Slop” would be an accurate description for the last seven days too; it’s not been a good week.

After a proposed sentence reduction for guilty pleas is defeated, we have announcements for a wider rollout of a scheme to “name and shame” offenders, followed by a promised clarification of a householder’s right to maim and kill those transgressing on their property; the “hang ‘em high” mob must be in seventh heaven. I am not immune to thoughts of vengeance, but I fail to see who benefits, and lest this be mistaken for wishy-washy liberalism (though it’s true I also object on moral grounds), it makes little economic sense. The reality is that most who injure will at some point be released and such measures will have no effect on whether they re-offend; more worryingly, that doesn’t seem to be the intention. If you treat people like animals, then they’re more likely to behave as such; rehabilitate, and even if successful in only a small minority of cases, that’s a small minority that won’t be breaking into other people’s property, or worse. That’s a number who instead of draining the public finance will be making their contribution.

Not one to be outdone, Ed Miliband decided that as leader of the opposition he would oppose the public sector strikes. I don’t support them either, but then I’m not sure anyone regards the Labour leader’s stance as genuine; in supporting he gains nothing, by opposing he hopes for the votes of the undecided. It’s an understanding that those who stick to the middle ground win elections. It’s the smart move, but I'm not convinced.

Yet despite these contenders - the appeal to the thug inside, Ed Miliband’s appeal to anyone who will have him - the prize goes to journalist Johann Hari of The Independent newspaper. Johann, we discover, has a rather unique interview style, as he does definition of plagiarism, and some interesting variations on the concept of truth. There is apparently the truth, and then there is a broader “intellectual truth”; one that doesn’t let minor details such as what happened get in the way of a story that needs telling. His excuse for stealing - sorry, copying - comments from other interviews or even the subject’s own writing, is to enable us to understand what the interviewee was trying to say, rather than what was said. Thank goodness for Hari; though I’d suggest his employers add their own version of the following to any existing and future “interviews”:

Some events have been deliberately changed or left out for dramatic purposes.

If Hollywood is able, you’d think The Independent could do the same.

Whoosh!

Having had a whinge about BT, I should at least acknowledge when it works. The new hub arrived, it looks a lot nicer than the old one, it was easy to set up (in that there was very little to do) but most importantly it works. The BT Vision box needed a little coaxing, but powering everything up in the order suggested did the trick. Also it’s worth giving the hub a few hours to settle on a speed. Initially I was still only getting around 1Mb/s and - having ignored the advice about waiting before running any tests - had surrendered to the thought of needing to check all the wiring; a few hours later it had settled at just under 12Mb/s. The literature says to wait ten days for a more accurate reading, but for once I am optimistic. Assuming the hardware problem has been sorted, I now need to wonder on the user problem; somehow this month the house has averaged in excess of 1GB/day usage, and I’m beginning to think it may be less a daughter/YouTube problem and more a parent/iPlayer problem. Yes, alright, it’s my fault.

Putting all your eggs in one BT basket

This has happened to me twice already, and having come from the lovely fibre-optic world that was Telewest (now Virgin Media) it’s frustrating. On the day when BT upgraded my broadband to ‘up to’ 20Mb, I instead (or as a result) experienced a fault at the exchange leaving me without broadband or telephone for three days. And since Freeview comes with my BT Vision box, I was without that too. That was a surprise; fair enough that a loss of broadband means a loss of on-demand content, but to lose the ability to set a recording (which was my first indicator that this too was broken) and once you try rebooting the box as a result, find you’re unable to watch anything, was decidedly odd. Is this ‘bad design or ‘by design’ I wonder? I suspect a bit of both.

Last weekend the connection speed dropped so low the on-demand service stopped working again. A couple of speed tools suggested I was getting a measly 500kbps, and the diagnostic suggested by the BT engineer indicated I was configured for ‘up to’ 4Mb; so I’d found something else on which to deliberate. I suspect, but who knows, I am a victim of BT throttling; my daughter having found the delights of YouTube, corresponding with an email warning that I had used 32GB of my 40GB monthly allowance, is a clue. However, if I believe BT, since the on-demand service doesn’t contribute to the monthly allowance, I wouldn’t have thought this should make a difference and at least that part of the service should still work.

It doesn’t help that my rather creaky Home Hub instils so little confidence. I reboot it on an almost weekly basis and often get stronger signals from wireless devices other than my own; this I hope to address with the new hub I’ve ordered today. But BT, if you’re able to hear this, because with your service there’s no telling whether you’ll get the message, don’t stick “free delivery” on the image unless “free” really is one of the delivery options; it’s kind of annoying.