Cash in Distress? Not for long…

February 10, 2010

Joanne CashAt Swordplay we rarely enter the political fray, save when an opportunity to lavish contempt on the BNP presents itself, but we find outselves unable to refrain from a gentle comment about today’s story in the Times about the ‘Tory A-lister in distress‘.

The comely Joanne Cash (for it is she) seems to have survived a fractious 24 hours during which her bid to become an MP – and reinvigorate the Tory party, to boot – by contesting the eminently winnable seat of Westminster North teetered on the brink. The Times says that a feud with another woman, Amanda Sayers, was the cause of Ms Cash’s discombobulation; indeed, that the former’s election as president of Westminster North Conservative Association even prompted Ms Cash to resign.

However, after a day of negotiations involving the great and the good of Tory high command it was announced that Ms Cash would remain as the candidate – and that Mrs Sayers would no longer be president. As the Times has it: “Insiders sought to dismiss the row as a clash of personalities but acknowledged it had been damaging.”

Damaging to whom, we wonder? Surely not Ms Cash, a good sort who also happens to be one of London’s most capable libel lawyers. If ever there was a lady who could look after herself, it’s this one. Watch this space come the election: Karen Buck, the Labour MP who is defending a notional majority of little more than 3,000, is surely looking over her shoulder.

 

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From the inside of the maze, ethically outwards

February 9, 2012

Curious times in the media; strange days at The Times.

Would ‘Dacre Cards‘ – the system of licensing journalists proposed by Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre – have prevented the embarrassment now palpable at the Times over the NightJack story?

Times editor James Harding’s evidence to the Leveson Inquiry seemed heartfelt and contrite, albeit that the paper’s former long-serving and much-respected lawyer, Alastair Brett, seems to have been, er, rather dropped in it. Clearly, mistakes were made with regard to NightJack by young reporter Patrick Foster who, once he had hacked into NightJack’s account and thus discovered his identity, then embarked on a quest to expose it via legitimate methods. This, as Inquiry counsel Robert Jay QC put it, was “rather like working from the inside of the maze out”.

But had Foster been licensed via a Dacre Card, would this unsavoury episode in the Times’s history have been avoided?

We suspect not. A raft of laws were in existence at precisely the time when many News of the World journalists seemed to believe that they were entitled to hack any phone they liked. Those laws forbade them from doing so, and yet made no difference. Aside from the obvious objection to them – that they will squeeze out freelancers and citizen journalists – Dacre Cards would simply amount to something to circumvent.

What is really required is an ethical shake-up, from top to bottom. Society generally – not just journalists – needs a sense that some things are just plain wrong.

Supreme Court on Twitter

February 6, 2012

Something remarkable happened today. Yes, the Supreme Court launched its Twitter feed. It even has a Twitter policy, one of caveats, disclaimers and little by way of illumination but regardless: who would have thought that the successor body to the House of Lords would stoop to engage with the world of tweets, hashtags and retweets?

We look forward to the day when court business will be conducted via Twitter. Meantime, check out this link for an excellent blog on the Supreme Court.

Not so right said Fred

February 2, 2012
fred hat

So Farewell, then, Sir Fred Goodwin.

Now you are just Fred.

Not Right Said Fred, but plain Fred.

The Forfeiture Committee did for you.

No one had heard of it before,

But Dave said it had to act, and it did.

Trouble is that no one knows what to think.

Is it ‘Alas, poor Fred‘,

Or ‘Hurray! Sir Fred is dead!’?

We don’t know.

Do you?

By A. Mob, aged 1,378 and a half.