e-Petition pillow fights at 10 Downing St

Petitions

This is either democracy in action or a fad of activism that is the hallmark of the era of Tony Blair's reign.

In the last 2 weeks I have signed petitions on the 10 Downing Street e-Petitions site, whilst none have yielded the kind of response we the undersigned have desired, there has been some movement indicating that the petitions do have some effect.

The first was pertaining to an administrative error by the AFC Wimbledon football club which lead to them being penalized 18 points in their league. The petition garnered over 1,000 signatories and eventually there was reconsideration and a clemency to just a 3 point deduction and a 400 Pound fine.

Reactions

That first petition was rejected, but it spurned other petitions, one to reconfirm the original 18 point penalty and the other to reinstate the club in the Football Association Trophy competition which reads like the first and has since been rejected.

Basically, we have created turfs for opposing activism on the e-Petition site. The principle was that this punishment was too draconian considering other clubs with greater influence and resources have hardly been sanctioned for similar errors.

The club accepts they were wrong and pleaded for leniency, something that has now been achieved to the satisfaction of many and the chagrin of the few who would prefer to win the league by other means than by playing football.

Petition to: PLEASE Stop AFC Wimbledon being deducted eighteen points

Petition to: Stand by and confirm the 18 point deduction on AFC Wimbledon

Petition to: Bring pressure to re-instate A.F.C. Wimbledon

Those Naval cretins

Then as I have written in recent blogs about the Naval Personnel News Stories debacle, I came across an e-Petition which called for the Prime Minister to first name and then sack the official who allowed the naval personnel to sell their stories.

That gathered quite a few signatures and whilst I am no budding activist, I felt so strongly about committing my name to that petition because the whole episode is just so shameful.

The e-Petition was not that well worded but it had its purpose and the many who supported it identified with its particular message.

The petition read - We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to name and sack the person responsible for declaring that members of the armed services can sell their stories to the media.

The details read - We the undersigned consider the statement to allow members of Her Majesty's forces to sell their stories to the media to be a major government failure -and PR disaster for the Royal Navy - and "heads should roll" at the highest level.

It was a definitely a propaganda disaster but it was a bit of wishful thinking that heads would roll.

Our petition was rejected with the following statements indicating the stories were sold in good faith.

11 April 2007

Tony Blair says the decision for the seized Royal Navy personnel to take money from the media was a response to a "wholly exceptional" situation.

In an interview with Sky News, the PM said the situation wouldn't occur again but insisted that the decision had been taken in good faith.

The MOD decided to allow the sailors and marines to sell their stories but has since ordered a review of the decision.

The 15 Britons were seized by Iranian gunboats in the Gulf on 23 March and freed last Thursday.

The PM's words in full

Look, I didn't actually know about the decision until after it was taken but really that is not the point. The Navy were trying to deal with a wholly exceptional situation in which the families were being pursued by the media to sell their stories and the Navy took the view that it was better to manage the situation rather than let it happen.

Now with hindsight was that a good idea? No, precisely because people would then misrepresent that as somehow the Navy encouraging people to sell their stories, which they weren't doing at all. Do I believe it will happen again? No. But were people acting completely in good faith and honourably so far as the Navy was concerned? Yes, they were.

Now I think we've had days of this now and really it's time to move on.

Well, I am not sure it is time to move on till the people who allowed this shameful situation to manifest are accorded both deserved opprobrium and requisite sanction.

Then we can all move on.

Seeking my next petition - this is fun stuff.

© All references to the e-Petitions are quoted in full or excerpted from the 10 Downing Street e-Petitions website and I acknowledge their ownership of the quoted and excerpted parts that appear in this blog.

The Brit babes do cry in Persia

It will get worse

I had just left a comment on Chxta’s World that this saga of naval personnel selling their stories could not get any worse. On reflection, I did somewhat anticipate this media frenzy in my first write-up on this matter.

Here is what I said then in Stripping the “Great” out of Britain on the 4^th of April.

The naval personnel would return and be made to recant all their recorded confessions of having trespassed on Iranian nautical territory; the tabloids would lay out full spreads of the gallantry of the lady and the men in the midst of enemy territory …

However, by the time the tabloids have unravelled this saga and milked every ounce of newsworthiness out of this farce, nothing great would have been achieved for Great Britain.

Well, I was wrong with my comments on Chxta's World; as we race for the lowest pits of ignominy; the Iranians are now going to oil up the paths that we do reach ignominy faster than anticipated.

They are now going to release their film of the capture of the personnel to counteract any inkling that any of the personnel were treated in anyway but nicely and humanely.

It would appear that the Iranians are still gong to trump the British in this propaganda game as it goes to expose the rank incompetence in both the Defence Ministry and Foreign Ministry, that of the naval personnel is a foregone conclusion.

In releasing both a CD and a book, I can almost bet on the editor of the film becoming the toast of film festivals around the world for best editing. Sadly, in this case, the naval personnel would have no mobile phone footage of their saga to challenge Iran’s sound and vision documentary of events.

Expect this film to enter the Guinness Book of Records as the most bootlegged film ever.

For once, even I cannot wait to see the footage as the foolish British media find out that they have paid out large sums of money for piffle at first and that now they cannot get exclusives to the snippets of new Iranian film – The Brit babies do cry in Persia.

If the naval personnel had any dignity left, they would go quietly into obscurity before their private shame becomes a public stock and rotten eggs show.

A row the MoD cannot row out of

To sell or not to sell

It has now transpired; the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has reversed the decision to allow the naval personnel to sell their stories, which many thought was part of a covert rehabilitation process. However, this was not before the lady and the youngest captive had spilled their hearts and fears to the papers and television for filthy lucre

There is no doubt that these people were in some way in fear for their lives and security, but the whole fear of rape and sexual abuse talk is beginning to sound like the sensationalism anyone would expect the moment the media decides to fabricate public interest in a non-story.

The about-face of the MoD is really a cack-handed mishandling of a rather sensitive situation in the quest to wreak a reciprocal propaganda war against Iran without due consideration of the effect it would have on families of those have not been fortunate enough to return to their local pubs to tell their stories. It is sickening to the extreme.

No heroes just naval serfs

One must reiterate, that these naval personnel were no heroes, they acquiesced to every entreaty, they succumbed to every threat, they submitted to literally every suggestion and basically were in a situation of being conveniently blackmailed into saving their skins at any cost, in the end, they subserviently genuflected to the President of Iran and were overly effusive in gratitude for their release.

They allowed themselves to be in such a vulnerable setting that they were taken advantage of without much coercion, the hoo-hah about their family attachments became part of the enemy’s strategy for interrogation and mental torture, these people were just too chicken to be where they were and when they were caught, they just blabbed like hens and bawled like babies.

This apologia to service in the British forces is now a story worthy of hearing? Indeed the glory of Britain departed its shores and its people.

The only thing that might redeem this situation is to find the really gallant and courageous amongst our forces and celebrate them with honour and reckoning that has been subsumed to the despicable cult of the stupid personality.

Foolish MoD

In the end, the MoD attracted deserved opprobrium, condemnation and vilification, the incompetence of all concerned from the politicians through the civil service to the forces themselves was laid bare for the world to see, there must be a redeeming factor somewhere, if only someone can see it and get it going.

References

Heseltine joins furore over sailors' stories | UK News | News | Telegraph

BBC NEWS | UK | Browne under fire in sailors row

Selling their discretion, dignity and honour

The death of discretion

It is now institutionalised; our armed forces do not have to live by the old English tenets of honour, courage, discretion, dignity and valour.

In fact, this might as well be the whole sum of 10 years of Tony Blair in government, the fact that everything that was traditionally British in terms of conduct and decorum has been jettisoned for the cult of personality.

After the naval personnel were released and had flown back to motherland, they lamented the fact that they were blindfolded, kept in isolation and interrogated.

The fact of captivity

One is left quite gob-smacked about what else was to be expected; surely, if anyone captures a group of military personnel in seemingly criminal activity like in this case allegedly plying the waters of Iran.

Any self-respecting intelligence outfit would isolate the members, disorientate the individuals and introduce elements of mental anguish and disinformation to discover in reality what that team was up to.

This is serious business, and what was to say that the British personnel under the guise of UN inspections were not trying to gather other intelligence about Iran?

The Iranians having captured the seeming enemy had to ensure beyond reasonable doubt that not one of all those captured had a specific assignment to do something different from what the team as a whole believed was their purpose and assignment when they presumably strayed into Iranian waters if that really was the case.

Preventing group-think

Beyond that, isolation was necessary to prevent a case of group-think where the captives would parrot out an agreed view rather than allow the intelligence people to piece together each story to see if they indeed match up.

It is something used everyday in crime-fighting, evidence gathering and basic interviews or interrogation, there is no reason for the Iranians to have been foolish about this.

That aspect of group-think came out in one of the interviews when some of the personnel said they all agreed that they would confess that they had crossed into Iranian waters - this is the kind of thing isolation and disorientation through blindfolding is supposed to prevent.

Smart and dumb

The supposed outrage at this treatment is a bit over-stated, we are at war in that region, and some really hard things are happening there just as we learnt of the death of four of our soldiers in Iraq on the day the naval personnel flew in to be reunited with their loved ones.

The only really smart thing the naval personnel did was not to adopt the folly of bravado in resisting the overwhelming power of the force that took them captive in the Iranian/Iraqi waters a few weeks ago.

Sell, sell, sell

Now, this is where I have abandoned hope about the discretion of the English, however, one must say, this more the exclusive preserve of the well-bred and properly schooled; that sort of breeding seems to have been exhausted at the Ministry of Defence when they gave permission to the naval personnel to sell their stories to yellow journalism newspapers, village rags and tabloids.

I really feared this development in an earlier blog but against hope really thought that reason and discretion would prevail on those in authority that was not to be the case. Publicists are now working overtime in an auction to determine who would pay the most for stories that were neither heroic nor commendable.

This is going to end up worse than some Big Brother tripe, the first to get their story in might get the most views and who better than the propaganda bait Leading Sea(wo)man Faye Turney to break all records and precedents of serving military personnel set lose to tell tales?

Nothing good will come of this

Each consequent story from other personnel would have to trump the previous till the whole thing becomes too incredible to believe because it is unlikely that each story would be interesting without suggestive prompting and reckless analysis as they egged on by editors without conscience or restraint.

The worse case scenario as I have already predicted is if and when anyone else gets captured anywhere in the world by our enemies, beautiful smiling faces would we not see, that is if they end up living to tell the tale - it could really become that serious, because no enemy would want to be portrayed a fool after their captives are released.

The clear and present danger to those left on the battle field cannot be exaggerated, not to talk of the possible recklessness of others who might see being guest of the Islamic republic as a ticket to earning a cool big packet of cash - at last reckoning Mrs. Turney was being offered GBP 100,000.

Even if the fees were to go to charity, the damage would have been done and it would have done irreparable damage.

No Great in Britain anymore

I am sick to the stomach not of the opportunity and the benefit, but of the fact that the whole infrastructure behind our military personnel could not provide emotional, mental and financial succour to the victims of a seeming injustice and captivity that they think being able to sell their stories would provide the best treatment for their trauma.

The ones who then have nothing interesting to sell would probably be left more damaged for not looking good enough to be fed to the British public as the next "Jade Goody" of ignoramuses who are in cahoots with Tony Blair in taking the Great out of Great Britain.

References

Dismay as crew told they can sell stories | Breaking News | News | Telegraph

Woman sailor sells her story in lucrative deal | Uk News | News | Telegraph

BBC NEWS | UK | Captives' media fees spark fury

Taking the "Great" out of Britain

Stripping the "Great" out of Britain

Returning home for Easter

And so the naval personnel would return home just in time for Easter and the UK-Iran Crisis of 2007 is over.

Well, many would assume it is, the people are free, and the Iranian diplomat who was abducted in Iraq suddenly materialised at the Iranian embassy yesterday and it appears another consular official would be able to see the 5 Iranians who have been in American custody since January.

They were granted their freedom as a gift to Great Britain by Dr. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the firebrand, hard-line President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the adjectives the West has bestowed on this man become almost irrelevant in the face of this humanity and kindness.

Agree to disagree

We can as well agree to disagree that our naval personnel were arrested in Iraqi or Iranian waters depending on whose map you are viewing, or basically, it was fair game on either side. As for the patrolling of Iraqi waters with a UN mandate, let us not plumb the depths of the dishonesty that has brought us thus far in the Middle East.

We can however recall that this time 25 years ago, Mrs. Margaret Hilda Thatcher, the Prime Minister then was busy putting the Great back in Britain and with it sowed the seeds that kept the Conservative Party in power for another 13 years.

Then, the territory under dispute since 1830 but deferring to the British was overrun by the military junta of Argentina; the 3 lions roared and thumped the Argentines out of the Falkland Islands with the loss about 1,000 lives however, leaving Great Britain beaming with patriotic fervour - Rule Britannia! Britannia rule the waves was the waking call of anyone who deigned to be British.

Nothing great going on

Today, we cannot say great diplomacy was at play, no great satisfaction that we have proven our point, no great triumph having been overwhelmed at sea by Iranians who have suffered sanctions for decades.

It is arguable that tepid warnings from the UN, the strident support of the EU and the bluster of the US did nothing to help the situation; our diplomats had to relearn the principles of bilateral negotiations rather than the failed US policy of international isolation.

Them and us

The naval personnel would return and be made to recant all their recorded confessions of having trespassed on Iranian nautical territory; the tabloids would lay out full spreads of the gallantry of the lady and the men in the midst of enemy territory.

And whilst making a public show of these detainees could have been against the Geneva Conventions, they were portrayed in places that no one could fault as being inhospitable or uncomfortable.

We, the stricter adherents of the Geneva Conventions would probably not even provide that quality of facility to those in our Western detention centres; at least, recently, we have heard more of their people being tortured and mistreated amongst us and seen lots of our people being well treated amongst them, except in Iraq of course amongst the insurgents.

However, by the time the tabloids have unravelled this saga and milked every ounce of newsworthiness out of this farce, nothing great would have been achieved for Great Britain.

The future can be bleak

In fact, the danger is if any of our people do end up trespassing in Iranian territory again; their treatment may not be as lovely as we have once seen and then a trial on the tenets of Sharia Law might just be the trigger for another poorly fought war in the Middle East.

Surely, this is all has just stripped the Great out of Great Britain; one wonders what great adventure our leaders might seek to repair the damage done, in the near future.

Welcome Home! But heroes would be too strong a word to use in any context.