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The BBC gets what it deserved
29 January 2004
My faithful reader will be waiting for my thoughts on Lord Hutton's report issued yesterday.
 | The BBC got what it deserved. In the absence of effective political opposition the BBC had positioned itself as the de facto opposition to the government. It took news reporting into the realms of speculation. The checks and balances that good news organisations have in place were not there. |
| Tony Blair remains the best Prime Minister that Britain has. Single handedly he made the Labour Party electable. Without him they may not be electable. Without him the party may factionalise and fall apart. |
| Tony Blair still does what he believes is right. What he will have learned is to make sure that the information that he receives and uses for his decision making is reliable. I still believe he is sincere. And he states his beliefs with passion. |
| Dr. Kelly frankly got himself into a bit of a mess. He said too much to the wrong people. As Lord Hutton says Kelly was a difficult man to work for and with. A maverick. |
| The Conservatives under Howard should be embarrassed enough to be silenced for a while. Howard has used parliamentary privilege to do all but call Blair a liar. His accusations are not substantiated in any way by the Hutton report and an apology is due to Mr. Blair and other members of the cabinet. |
| The test of a well run organisation is how it manages a crisis. The BBC did not manage the conflict with the government. The governors did not investigate the government's complaints. Indeed the BBC almost relished and encouraged the battle. Hutton recognises that the government behaved appropriately while the BBC was in his words "dishonest". |
| The major problem with the Hutton report is not the report itself but its terms of reference. These were very narrow; to investigate the apparent suicide of Dr. Kelly. The Hutton inquiry was an inquiry into a particular set of events, not an inquiry into the decision to go to war in Iraq. Hutton was not tasked with investigating the accuracy of the intelligence used in the government dossier on weapons of mass destruction. |
| Predictably the conservative party and their conservative press colleagues (Mail, Independent) are calling for a full inquiry on the reasons for going to war. Hutton did not give them what they wanted. This part of the media will regard Hutton's report as a whitewash. Strange how everyone accepted a neutral referee until they found out that they did not agree with the result! |
| Should there be a further inquiry. Maybe. Should it be public. Probably not. Firstly we have had enough navel gazing for now. It really is time to move forward. Secondly there are issues of national security to consider. Did the intelligence services in Britain, the US and elsewhere, perform adequately. Probably not. But sorting out the intelligence organisations is not really a public matter. |
| In its preparation of the dossier and in its response to the BBC's report and accusations the government can feel vindicated. But it still has a lot to prove. The government has lost the support of many in its party in government and across the country. Little short of unearthing many tonnes of WMD will regain that support. The damage is done. |
Calling foul on fowl flu denial !
23 January 2004
As a leader you can choose the advisors and senior officers that you have around you. You can choose sycophants who will tell you just what you want to hear. They are self serving; and concerned with the preservation of their own secure and rewarding positions.
Or you can surround yourself with people who will tell you what you need to hear; their only fear being an argument; not retribution. People who challenge you; who give you choices; who are not self serving but are serving a greater interest.
In Thailand we appear to have the former - and that underlies the complete fowl-up of the current Bird Flu crisis. In Thailand what you read and hear is no longer what actually happens. The press is self censored and largely uncritical. Politicians sat what they think they should say; rather than what needs to be said.
Democracy depends upon trust. When you lie to or mislead the people you lose that trust.
Now Thailand looks like China but has not learned the lesson. China ignored SARS for months allowing it to spread to Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong and Canada. Now for months Thailand has ignored and denied the existence of bird flu.
This is a government that decries negative news; that is focused upon maintaining big business (including the massive chicken export business); that lacks the backbone to acknowledge and accpet criticism and to maybe learn and improve along the way. "It's not a big deal, we can handle it" said Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra on Friday. He may be right but at a cost; including the damage done to Thailand's image and tourist business.
Thai farmers had alleged for more than a week that millions of chickens were dying of bird flu and that the government was engaged in a large-scale cover-up.
But officials maintained until last Friday (23rd) that the chickens were suffering from fowl cholera - which they said posed no danger to people.
On January 14 the Agriculture Minister said "There has never been an outbreak of bird flu in Thailand. We have a programme that calls for regular checks of poultry farms to control diseases." He really should resign.
Consumer advocates, doctors and others argue that the government suppressed reports of the epidemic to protect exports. One doctor, a medical adviser to the government was reported as saying that it was national policy to deny the outbreak. If that is true it is a very alarming, but sadly nor surprising, report.
With maybe one man's death as well as a number of reported cases of H5N1 (the version of the virus found in humans) the chicken lunch that the Prime Minister held last Tuesday with his cabinet in front of invited media is looking in rather bad taste.
Thailand is among the world's top five poultry exporters and the news sent chicken producers' share prices plunging.
Despite its similarities to the influenza virus in humans, bird flu very rarely jumps species to infect people and usually only causes infections in birds and pigs.
The virus can survive for long periods in the tissues and faeces of diseased birds and in water but there is no evidence of person-to-person transmission.
Health officials however fear that the H5N1 strain could mutate to allow such infection.
Avian flu is not a significant threat.....yet. Playing with raw chicken and chicken carcasses is ill advised. But most of our contact will only ever be with cooked chicken. The risk is a mutation of the disease allowing human to human transfer.
Happy and Prosperous Chinese New Year
| January 22 2004 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The
12
Animals
of the
Chinese
Horoscope
Another
legend
relates
to the
Jade
Emperor....
Back
at the
palace
the 11
animals
tried
to
impress
the
Emperor.
The
first
to be
noticed
was
the
rat
that
sat on
top of
the
Ox’s
back
and
played
music
on a
flute
to
please
the
Emperor.
The
Emperor
was
pleased
with
this
and
gave
the
rat
first
position.
The ox
was
awarded
second
place,
as he
was
kind
enough
to let
the
rat
sit on
his
back.
