Threat levels, who declares them and the nature of the threat

By Dude Swheatie of Kwug, now resident in Hereford

Today, in trumpeting the biases of the mainstream UK press, the BBC (British Broadcasting Company) summarises today's Daily Mail 'Web giants with blood on their hands' front page:

Daily Mail, 16 September 2017: "PM to confront web giants with blood on their hands"

Prime Minister Theresa May will order internet bosses to crack down on extremism in the wake of the Parsons Green attack, says the Daily Mail. It reports Google, Facebook and Microsoft could be in the firing line after instructions to make the bomb were "still available online". The paper adds Mrs May will warn technology companies they need to do more to stop extremists at a summit with the French president next week.  (1)

For the 'threat terror level' declared by UK Government to be 'critical' is nothing new. Why though do the BBC etc not broadcast the lowering of the 'threat terror level' that occurs? And what impact does that have on the mainstream public psyche?

Over three months ago, the BBC website reported on "What is the 'critical' terror threat level and what [it means]":(2)

The UK terror threat level has been raised to "critical", following the Manchester Arena bombing which killed 22 people.

This is the highest terror threat level possible and means an attack is "expected imminently".(2)

The announcement of 'critical terror threat' level leads to knee jerk reactions

It was against that sort of backdrop that on Wednesday 14 June the news came out on televised and Internet news channels, of a blaze that consumed a North Kensington tower block in a matter of hours, before 'Grenfell Tower' became a 'household name' — ie, a label that required no introduction.(3) It was also against that backdrop that the 40 year old woman who accompanied me to my Housing Benefits registration interview in Hereford declared instantly that it was obviously the work of 'Islamic terrorists'.

I had heard however in the early hours of that day in 'live' reporting from the Grenfell Tower site that a Grenfell survivor had reported their neighbours issuing the warning, "My fridge has just exploded! Get out now!" or words to that effect. Indeed, I recalled having heard that a Southwark tower blaze a few years ago had been the result of a faulty Beko fridge component (4) and so I was more skeptical about my companion's 'knee jerk' response that was obviously linked to the post-Manchester bombing raising of terror threat level to 'critical'.

After an enquiry into the cause of Grenfell Fire too, it was confirmed that white goods were yet again to blame.(5) Of course, there is also the fact that the Grenfell Action Group had been campaigning on the matter of fire safety in the Grenfell Tower area since at least 2012.(6) This was despite a five-year London Fire Brigade campaign regarding the safety of white goods.(7) LFB reports:

"Nearly one fire a day in London involves white goods. Most fires caused by these appliances are not down to the owner but by faults beyond the control of the householder." (8)

The solution to this problem, the LFB concludes, involves total recall of dodgy white goods.

The solution to the problem of wide availability of information about how to make 'home made bombs', Theresa May and the Daily Mail declare, is to clamp down on 'web giants with blood on their hands' for helping to service Internet searches in responses to queries about how to do terrorism. In that 'solution', I am reminded of the collusion that such 'web giants' engaged in with the Chinese government in order to suppress freedom of information as they 'broke into the Chinese market' as a new territory.

I would argue that it is in their tax dodging practices and resultant denial of support to the UK economy for essential services to vulnerable people that the 'web giants have blood on their hands', and that in reality Theresa May and her crew have raised the threat level to economically vulnerable people from 'severe' under Labour to 'critical'. This fact can currently be gleaned from perusal of such sites as Disability News Service,(9) especially with regard to its coverage of UK Government reneging on its United Nations Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities duties.(10) There is also Kate Belgrave | Talking with people dealing with public sector cuts,(11) and Taxpayers Against Poverty.(12)

Prospective Kwug placard design: T May & Co, State Terrorists

May's government caused a "human catastrophe" by cutting disabled people's support, the Committee of the UN Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities has stated,(13) while the Chairperson of the UNCRPD has gone even further in unpublished interview comments.(14)

In conclusion, by colluding with the suppression of information about the State Terrorism that occurs under Theresa May's government, under a State of Theresa May & Co-mandated Internet, 'web giants' really would have 'blood on their hands' through the suppression of such information, just as the BBC's subservience to denial of the statutory abuses to benefit claimants lays the taint of 'blood on their hands' to that establishment.

What legitimate authority does a Government with blood on its hands have to dictate what information should and should not be available on the Internet? Who are they to do the prescribing of truth?

Link references

1. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs/the_papers
2. http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/40027916/what-is-the-critical-terror-threat-level-and-what-does-it-mean 
3. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-40274519
4. http://www.health-safety.net/News/Warning-on-fridge-freezer-fire-risk-after-tower-block-blaze
5. http://www.london-fire.gov.uk/news/LatestNewsReleases_Brigade-reissues-essential-safety-advice-on-white-goods-following-Grenfell-fire.asp#.Wb0TDcbjIkI
6. https://grenfellactiongroup.wordpress.com/2013/01/28/fire-safety-scandal-at-lancaster-west/
7. http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/820566/Grenfell-tower-fire-London-hotpoint-FF175BP-london-fire-brigade-campaign-five-years-safety 
8. http://www.london-fire.gov.uk/total-recalls-white-goods-campaign.asp
9. http://www.disabilitynewsservice.com/ 
10. https://www.disabilitynewsservice.com/?s=uncrpd 
11. http://www.katebelgrave.com/  
12. http://taxpayersagainstpoverty.org.uk/
13. https://www.disabilitynewsservice.com/prime-minister-lies-on-benefits-spending-in-response-to-un-human-catastrophe-claims/
14. https://www.disabilitynewsservice.com/portraying-disabled-people-as-parasites-could-lead-to-violence-and-killings-says-un-chair/ 

UK benefit cap, party conference season, BBC, Russia and hegemony

Blogger Johnny Void reports that when the overall benefit cap is lowered this Autumn, it will be for the third time in just five years. What does that all mean? How about, as JV writes, Hunger, Homelessness and Despair, The Stark Reality of the Benefit Cap?

Of course that is not the analysis we shall be hearing trumpeted this October when BBC News reports from Conservative & Unionist Party Autumn Conference 2016. What will other political parties have to say about this third lowering of the benefit cap in five years? And if they do say anything about the benefit cap at those Autumn conferences, will the BBC report it? 

Oh, no! What have I done now? I've probably sown the seeds for more and more page viewings of Kwug Blog from Russia, where it seems their larger population are dead keen to seek out reports of how nasty the UK Government is to poor people within the UK. (For the past month or two, there have been about four times more page viewings of this blog from Russia than from within the UK, until my health forced me to cut back on my output — reducing the number of page viewings of this blog per week to practically zero from Russia.)

Needless to say, while internal debate is potentially healthy, as a Green Party member too poor to attend party conference and very restricted by the agendas of DWP regarding how much money the law says I need to live on and what I need to declare, and the timetabling of Green Party of England & Wales Conference Arrangements Committee etc, I hope the Green Party Autumn Conference discussions about 'progressive alliance' politics do not entirely overwhelm matters of how nasty 'austerity government' is to poor people.

Dude Swheatie of Kwug

5-party-welfare-debate Tuesday 5 May 2015

Tuesday May 5th Daily Politics debate BBC2 2pm BBC News 8.30pm(1)

Presenters Andrew Neil and Alison Holt 

Participants — in alphabetical order of surname

• Jonathan Bartley Green Party
• Suzanne Evans UKIP 
• Rachel Reeves Labour
• Iain Duncan Smith Conservative 
• Steve Webb LibDems

See also

Election watchdog's Easy-Read 'insult to disabled people'(2)
Election 2015: ‘Jury’ backs Greens, as Tories ignore invite(3)

.... I watched question time last week and the only person that mentioned the worry and concerns of people with disabilities and Carers was Natalie Bennett. It was brief and the subject wasn't continued!.... (Comment Posted Mon 12 April 2015)

Source: http://www.carersuk.org/forum/support-and-advice/carer-and-disability-benefits/daily-politics-show-welfare-debate-may-5th-22708?p=304562 (4)

Vote for Policies online interactive portal (5)

Notes
(1) https://carerwatch.wordpress.com/2015/04/20/daily-politics-welfare-debate-tues-5th-may/
(2) http://www.disabilitynewsservice.com/election-watchdogs-easy-read-insult-to-disabled-people/
(3) http://www.disabilitynewsservice.com/election-2015-jury-backs-greens-as-tories-ignore-invite/
(4) http://www.carersuk.org/forum/support-and-advice/carer-and-disability-benefits/daily-politics-show-welfare-debate-may-5th-22708?p=304562
(5)  https://voteforpolicies.org.uk/

What Green Party votes stand for

A Personal View By Dude Swheatie of Kwug

In the face of not only BBC cenorship of the Green Party leader's involvement in last Thursday's 'leaders debate' but also BBC news broadcast non-reporting of the Green Party in daily broadcasts of 'what the main parties are doing in the run-up to Thursday's poll', I offer the following clues, some of which have clickable links to manifesto entries on the Green Party's website.

There are alternatives

 Margaret Thatcher's infamous saying, "There is No Alternative," gave her the nickname 'TINA'. Perhaps the BBC News editors should be described as Auntie TINAs?

Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group is non-party-political and contains members of various political parties and none. Outside of the options presented by the BBC as the only valid options, the main parties of interest to Kwug members seem to be TUSC (Trade Union & Socialist Coalition)(1) and the Green Party of England & Wales(2). Some Kwug members while being keen on TUSC advocate voting Labour as a lesser evil than letting in a party that promises or threatens '£12bn further [and unspecified] welfare cuts' even where Hampstead & Kilburn Green Party candidate is making an excellent stand and getting electoral support as a result. I disagree with that stand point, not only on the grounds of making a stand for Proportional Representation.

Green Party votes acknowledge the level of internal democratic process that has led to the formulation of a real alternative electoral platform and the elections of Green Party Members of the European Parliament, London Assembly Members and a Green Party MP.(3)

What Green Party votes stand for

No ifs, no buts, the Green Party stands for no benefit sanctions

---

We have everything we need to build a fair economy: natural resources, skilled people, modern technology.

But the Westminster Establishment has built an unfair [economy] where those at the top gain while those at the bottom suffer.

We can transform our economy if we have the courage to challenge the vested interests and close the gap between the righ and the poor.

[Read on... ](4)

---

We all want somewhere warm, safe and secure to call home.

But we have a housing crisis with soaring private rents while social housing is being sold off left, right and centre....

[Read more....](5)

---

We have world class universities, brilliant teachers and talented students.

But by putting a price tag on education, running schools as businesses and making them exam factories we are wasting children's potential and stifling creativity....

[Read on]....(6)

---

Outline continued on special blog page....

---

Notes

(1) http://tusc2015.com/
(2) https://www.greenparty.org.uk/
(3) See 'What Difference Can a Green MP make?' short film accessed 4 May 2015 https://youtu.be/Uq31QIMjVtU
(4) https://www.greenparty.org.uk/we-stand-for/fair-economy.html
(5) https://www.greenparty.org.uk/we-stand-for/decent-homes.html
(6) https://www.greenparty.org.uk/we-stand-for/free-education.html

BBC rejects Green Party leader involvement

Petition update

Alex W just posted an update on the petition you signed, BBC: Invite the Green Party to the TV Q&A programmes on 30 April.(1)

Well, we tried... May 03, 2015 — Unfortunately, despite nearly 7000 of us adding our voices to this petition, and the BBC being aware of it, the BBC didn't invite Natalie Bennett to last Thursday's Q&A. The Green... Read more Read more

Notes (1) https://www.change.org/p/bbc-invite-the-green-party-to-the-tv-q-a-programmes-on-30-april (2) Read more link https://www.change.org/p/bbc-invite-the-green-party-to-the-tv-q-a-programmes-on-30-april/u/10663637

Petition BBC for transparent democracy

Uploaded by Dude Swheatie of Kwug(1)

Tell BBC to invite the Greens to the TV Questions and Answers on April 30

On 30 April, exactly one week before the 2015 General Election, the BBC will air an evening of programmes allowing audiences to question party leaders "one on one", including Prime Minister David Cameron, and Nigel Farage, leader of UKIP. The Green Party has not been given the same opportunity to face the public on that date.

We, the public, ask that Natalie Bennett, the Green Party leader, is given the same opportunity as every other party to face questions from an audience. We ask this for fairness and transparency in the run-up to the General Election.
BBC announcement: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2015-32360958

#InviteTheGreens

Letter to

BBC

Invite the Green Party to the TV Q&A programmes on 30 April

 If you would like the BBC to invite any other political parties to a Question & Answer session on April 30, why not contact change.org?(2)

Notes
(1) In uploading this petition, Dude Swheatie declares an interest in that he has been a Green Party member for over nine years now. And the BBC says, "If you love something, let it show!" Does the BBC love transparent democracy? 
(2) Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group is non-party-political, including members of various political parties and none.

Spoon-fed reporting distorts democracy

By Dude Swheatie of Kwug

Under-staffed news desks lead to superficial repackaging of Government or corporatist press-releases, leading to improperly informed voting

Watching BBC Breakfast recently I have been horrified at the lack of depth given to reporting matters important to KUWG. On not one of their news reports regarding the current General Election have I come across an item of great relevance to disabled people and their carers regarding that voting occasion in the murky gloom of skeletal plans to cut a further £12bn from the Department for Work & Pensions budget — horrific though that prospect is in itself.

Reports of the scrapping of UK involvement in the Human Rights Act does appear on the BBC website's review of the Conservative Manifesto, but only apparently in the smear story spinning terms offered by Tory HQ.(1) My late LLB (Hons) friend and McKenzie Friend for Work Capability Assessment retests Anne McArthur did warn me of Tory plans to repeal the Human Rights Act and the erosion of human rights for disabled people.(2) She also affirmed that UK involvement in the EU had been instrumental in the creation of, say, the Disability Discrimination Act (1995).

Though Anne died in October 2014 it is great that we have John Pring's Disability News Service to continue reporting on what would otherwise be reported without reference to the relevance to disabled people.(3)

And so it was at the Disability News Service website that I saw

ELECTION 2015: Conservatives confirm plans for £12 billion welfare cuts

By John Pring on April 17, 2015   

The Conservative party has made it clear in its election manifesto that it plans to make further sweeping cuts to social security spending, and scrap the Human Rights Act.

The manifesto says that the party’s approach on the economy is “focused on reducing wasteful spending, making savings in welfare, and continuing to crack down on tax evasion and aggressive avoidance.”

The party would cut social security spending by a further £12 billion a year, but has yet to say how it will find most of these “savings”.(4)

 Questioning as part of a 'right of reply'

Also at Disability News Service I saw

DWP carries out threat to ban questions from Disability News Service(5)

Disability News Service (DNS) is a major element in a form of 'early warning system' for disabled people and their carers, friends and families. Living with disabilities and caring responsibilities is time-consuming hard work and so DNS is

1. vital to such people while also 
2. a major irritant to the bullying decision-makers and only-following-orders Civil disServants who would rather such people and their potential allies — including, of course, the electorate in a General Election where a further £12bn cuts is being outlined but not really discussed — were left uninformed and therefore less able to mobilise against such cuts.

I shall leave this blog piece here for now, while pointing out that it is important to see beyond the 'spin' of the messenger. Also realise that there is a major difference between spoon-fed reporting and proper investigative journalism.

See also

• "checklist for careful thinking" "eleanor maclean"(6)
• "critical thinking"(7)
• Kate Belgrave | Talking with people dealing with public sector cuts(8)
• Zacchaeus 2000 — Justice for vulnerable debtors (9)
• Taxpayers Against Poverty (10)
• Reviews of Noam Chomsky's Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media (11)

Notes (all these links accessed Sunday 19 April 2015)

(1) http://www.bbc.co.uk/search?q=%22conservative%20manifesto%22%20%22human%20rights%20act%22
(2) An LLB (Hons) is a Law degree with a special Honours project attached to it.
(3 )http://www.disabilitynewsservice.com/
(4) http://www.disabilitynewsservice.com/election-2015-conservatives-confirm-plans-for-12-billion-welfare-cuts/
(5) http://www.disabilitynewsservice.com/dwp-carries-out-threat-to-ban-questions-from-disability-news-service/
(6) https://uk.search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=A9mSs2oQ3zNV_icAQvZLBQx.;_ylc=X1MDMjExNDcxNzAwMwRfcgMyBGZyA3lmcC10LTkwMwRncHJpZAMEbl9yc2x0AzAEbl9zdWdnAzAEb3JpZ2luA3VrLnNlYXJjaC55YWhvby5jb20EcG9zAzAEcHFzdHIDBHBxc3RybAMEcXN0cmwDNTAEcXVlcnkDImNoZWNrbGlzdCBmb3IgY2FyZWZ1bCB0aGlua2luZyIgImVsZWFub3IgbWFjbGVhbiIEdF9zdG1wAzE0Mjk0NjI5MzE-?p=%22checklist+for+careful+thinking%22+%22eleanor+maclean%22&fr2=sb-top-uk.search&fr=yfp-t-903
(7) https://uk.search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=A9mSs23z3zNVclgAUrNLBQx.;_ylc=X1MDMjExNDcxNzAwMwRfcgMyBGZyA3lmcC10LTkwMwRncHJpZANudkdBaUtqb1FQcXFtaDc2aWdXQUZBBG5fcnNsdAMwBG5fc3VnZwMxMARvcmlnaW4DdWsuc2VhcmNoLnlhaG9vLmNvbQRwb3MDMARwcXN0cgMEcHFzdHJsAwRxc3RybAMxOQRxdWVyeQMiY3JpdGljYWwgdGhpbmtpbmciBHRfc3RtcAMxNDI5NDYzMTU5?p=%22critical+thinking%22&fr2=sb-top-uk.search&fr=yfp-t-903
(8) http://www.katebelgrave.com/
(9) http://z2k.org/
(10) http://www.taxpayersagainstpoverty.org.uk/
(11)  http://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Manufacturing_Consent.html?id=18IWX4hxHNUC

JSA earnings disregards and GEs

Earnings disregards for Jobseekers Allowance claimants compared to outcomes of General Elections

By Dude Swheatie of Kwug

Over the past five years there has been an upsurge of Government-promoted stories about generations of families who have never worked, while the Department for Work & Pensions has itself admitted:

“Information on the number of children growing up in families where their parents and grandparents have never worked is not available, as there is no suitable data source which would allow us to produce a robust and representative estimate of this persistent multigenerational worklessness.”

— FoI 2430: DWP on 'intergenerational worklessness'

 Of course, all this has been in the context of an increasingly right wing mainstream political 'consensus' that I would describe as a highly blinkered fixation regarding a 'need to lower the benefits bill'. That consensus/fixation has reached the point where Labour's Work & Pensions Spokesperson Rachel Reeves has proudly boasted that Labour does not represent the unemployed. All these stories that seek to lower out of waged work benefits and basically hound people out of Social Security conveniently ignore successive UK governments' negligence regarding how best to support disabled jobseekers when successive UK governments have consistently failed to acknowledge how many claimants of Unemployment Benefit — now 'Jobseekers Allowance' or JSA — have a disability.

I was a disabled jobseeker for many years before claiming Employment & Support Allowance. I have also met other claimants and ex-claimants of JobSeekers Allowance and its Unemployment Benefit predecessor who have done truly voluntary work for charities rather than the more modern 'work for your benefits within 90 minutes single journey of your home' regimes. And from 1988 the 'earnings disregard' on Unemployment Benefit — now JobSeekers Allowance — has remained at £5 per week for a single, childless claimant. That means that if the claimant's weekly earnings amount to less than the £70+ that is their JSA rate, their JSA top-up will leave them just £5 a week richer before travel-to-work and other such expenses, if the DWP does not screw up on calculating the earnings from part-time earnings forms submitted when signing on.

Questions arising from the above

1. How many General Elections and terms of UK Government have passed without the 'earnings disregard' for Unemployment Benefit/JSA claimants being increased in line with inflation?
2. What impact does this 'earnings disregard' have on teachers, lecturers and care workers who are only paid 'contact time'?
3. The 'permitted work' earnings disregard for people on disability-related 'out of work benefits' working 16 hours or less per week has risen from £66 a week in 2002 to £93 per week for 'Contributions-Based' ESA claimants in 2010, to £104 a week for ESA claimants on Supported Permitted work at current rates. Given the DWP's consistent record of failing to recognise the plight of disabled JSA claimants while making the system for vulnerable benefit claimants ever more punitive, can the upwards shift in 'permitted work' earnings compared to JSA's stagnant 'earnings disregard' be considered a 'honey trap' to wean people off ESA that takes no consequence of the short-term nature of many 'Supported Permitted Work' projects?
4. How much worse can the chaos regarding 'earnings disregards' get when Universal Credit claimants on fluctuated work hours have to wait six MONTHS before the amount of housing-related support they get can be worked out?
5. Should not the BBC questions emanating from David Cameron's announcement that he does not intend to remain in Prime Ministerial office be more geared to the questions raised above than to the agenda of a man who will be living off 24/7 at armed policing at taxpayers' expense after just one term of office?
6. What questions would you ask arising from the above?

Misselling of IDS and his agenda

By Dude Swheatie of the KUWG

A BBC Newsnight report by Michael Crick in 2002 reveals that the CV of Iain Duncan Smith — the then Tory Party leader and now Work & Pensions Secretary — as published on the Conservative Party website contained a number of inaccuracies.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2002/12_december/19/newsnight_ids_cv.shtml

After analysing and revealing what those inaccuracies were, the BBC Press Realease concerned notes:

Notes to Editors

The Conservative Party website page can be found at: http://www.conservatives.com/iainduncansmith/biography.cfm

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites

While the relevant link no longer serves its purpose in the original context, sadly the BBC does not seem to scrutinise the utterings of the now Work and Pensions Secretary with as much rigour as Michael Crick exercised in analysing the now Work & Pensions Secretary's statements regarding the CVs of the targets of right wing welfare reformers.

Political Party branding

Report by Swheatie of the KUWG*

The party political conference season is opening, and so does the Trades Union Congress annual Congress road show this coming week. Labour, Lib Dem and Tory party conferences will be shown live on mainstream BBC TV. You won't get much of Green Party conference there, but what about on the BBC website? Do voters only vote for the political parties that Aunit Beeb says are worthy of plent of mainstream news viewing slots?

'Wembley Matters' blogger and Brent Green Party member Martin Francis wrote of the opening of Green Party Autumn Conference in Birmingham: 

In true Green Party fashion a particularly tricky debate, with lots of procedural motions, on issues of local party autonomy, was skillfully handled by a chair who while dealing with points of order was suckling her contented baby.

— Greens show why they are different on first day of conference 

Back in the House of Commons on Friday, it might be said, that while there were clear signs of the Tory-Lib Dem coalition cracking over the passing of the 'Affordable Homes Bill',Lib Dem Leader and Deputy PM Nick Clegg was conveniently out of Parliament at the Nato summit in Wales. (BBC report: Tories defeated as benefit bill clears first Commons hurdle.)

And starting on Monday 8 September in Liverpool is the Trades Union Congress annual congress, this time in Liverpool. The TUC has been fiercely criticised for backing workfare for 16-23 year olds, as previously reported on this blog, in a piece that attracted over 250 viewings. (TUC backing for workfare causes outrage.) So it will be interesting to see over the coming months how much of the TUC's agenda is geared toward re-electing Labour and sacrificing the non-waged poor. See Johnny Void's blog piece 'How the TUC Always Planned to Abandon Out-of-Work Benefit Claimants'

A separate BBC report says that Ed Miliband is due to arrive at a TUC event on Monday night.

* While the KUWG is non-party politically aligned, Swheatie 'declares an interest' in that he is a Green Party member.