What exactly will it take for Western governments to realise that the profit motive is the worst argument for outsourcing essential human services? Separate investigations into three deaths in immigration removal centres (IRC) in the past month have been launched by the police, amid growing concern about the treatment of detainees. The spate of deaths…
Showing all posts tagged Britain
Torture is us; of course Britain embraced it post 9/11
Sigh: A top-secret document revealing how MI6 and MI5 officers were allowed to extract information from prisoners being illegally tortured overseas has been seen by the Guardian. The interrogation policy – details of which are believed to be too sensitive to be publicly released at the government inquiry into the UK’s role in torture and…
Serco making money from the noble act of volunteering
A privatised future that gives us all a chill, writes Zoe Williams in the Guardian: It is pointless at this stage to pretend to be surprised that charities are facing …£100m worth of cuts to their local authority funding, although it is ironic that the sector most flattered by “big society” rhetoric should be the…
The idea of Murdoch running schools is as credible as Iraq being re-invaded
The New Statesman explains what the closeness between the Murdoch empire and Britain’s Cameron government says about the corruption of power: At last month’s Times CEO summit (…£) he called for all pupils to be provided with tablet computers, adding that he would be “thrilled” if 10 per cent of News Corp’s revenues came from…
Was Murdoch also given the nuclear codes?
Here in Australia, we need to know when our political leaders met key figures in the Murdoch empire (and other media players) and why they met: The extraordinary access that Cabinet ministers granted Rupert Murdoch and his children was revealed for the first time yesterday, with more than two dozen private meetings between the family…
How many people failed to deal with Murdoch hacking?
Far too many and the question is why: The former Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Lord Macdonald was warned by his own employees as far back as 2006 that there were a “vast array” of News of the World phone-hacking victims. Lord Macdonald, who has since been hired by the newspaper’s owner, Rupert Murdoch, was…
Poor little Murdoch hacks don’t like being challenged
Get used to it. Wendy Bacon, professor of journalism at the Australian Centre for Independent Journalism at the University of Technology, Sydney, writes today that the empire is feeling real pressure for the first time in living memory: On Thursday, with News Corporation awash in allegations of criminality and failed corporate governance, I sent an…
The Guardian’s Nick Davies on how Murdoch punishes friends and enemies
Speaking on Democracy Now!: JUAN GONZALEZ: Well, Nick Davies, many of us here in the United States who watched the hearings this week were really surprised at the extent to which the members of Parliament really were dogged in their questioning and fairly confrontational in their questioning. Could you explain to us the degree of…