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Scott2006
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The Herald politics coverage - Labour bias and slantMAIN POLITICS - 9th March 2009 -
Of the articles from the last few days mentioned on the website main politics section the
Labour bias and slant of the articles is beyond farcical.
I normally wouldn't bother mentioning something so obvious - but as I don't believe
the Herald will be able to sustain its political positioning beyond the next UK General Election
without sacking more staff - it seems promoting the line of incompetent corrupt
politicians might finish off the Herald altogether.
11 articles
UK Labour spin - 6 articles
Scottish Labour spin - 3 articles
Tory slant - 0
Lib Dem slant - 0
SNP slant - 0
Anti-banker spin - 1 article
Anti-torture neutral/almost anti-government - 1 article
Bank nationalisations ‘not inevitable’ UK Labour spin
The Business Secretary, Lord Mandelson, insisted yesterday that full
nationalisation of Lloyds and RBS was not "inevitable" as the backlash
grew over the cost of Lloyds' takeover of HBOS.
Gray announces experts to shape Labour policy Scottish Labour spin
Iain Gray used his first conference speech as Scottish Labour leader to
announce the first four experts who have agreed to help the party craft
policies for the next Holyrood election.
Government accused of inaction over torture complicity claim
The government was yesterday accused of dragging its feet in dealing
with allegations that British intelligence were complicit in the torture of
Guantanamo Bay prisoner Binyam Mohamed.
RBS chief given use of £1.6m house for free
Royal Bank of Scotland, which is being bailed out
with £45bn of taxpayers' money, is continuing to provide a £1.6m, five-storey
Edinburgh townhouse free of charge to its new chairman.
Mandelson raises spectre of Tory return against Royal Mail rebels UK Labour spin
Labour's Royal Mail rebels should back down because the Tories may
return to power and impose a tougher deal,
Business Secretary Lord Mandelson has warned.
Hain warns of ‘disaster’ for Labour UK Labour spin
Former Cabinet minister Peter Hain warned yesterday that Labour faced
electoral disaster unless it came up with a "very different" agenda.
Forest lease plan ‘to be dropped’ Scottish Labour spin
Plans by the Scottish Government to lease-off public forests are to be
dropped, Labour claimed yesterday.
Labour plans its own attack on infections from hospitals Scottish Labour spin
Labour are preparing their own Bill to create an independent
commissioner to lead the fight against hospital-acquired infections,
claiming the Scottish Government's response to the issue has
been "complacent and piecemeal".
Ovations in short supply as Brown comes down to Earth UK Labour spin
Sketch: Maybe the Prime Minister had jet lag, or maybe he just couldn’t
make up his mind when to take time out from being an international
statesman to get down and dirty attacking Alex Salmond.
Editorial: The test for Brown UK Labour spin
Security concerns after Mandelson custard attack UK Labour spin
Scotland Yard last night launched an inquiry into a green "slime" attack on
Lord Mandelson by a climate change protester. (With video)
http://www.theherald.co.uk/politics/
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jamesieboy
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I agree 110%.
We've stopped buying the Herald in our household and a number of my mates have too.
As its out-dated pro-Labour bias takes on joke proportions its circulation will continue to slide.
I heard a political observer on the radio recently saying that the atmosphere at the Labour conference in Dundee was like a morgue.
When Jim Murphy went up to speak he says there were around 100 jobsbodies, mainly overweight trade union, monosyllabic numpties in the hall, which has a capacity of 600.
A lack of young people, a lack of activists. They are a party in decline.
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Aventinian
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It's really beginning to strike me how much Scottish Nationalists are like the British Nationalists of UKIP and associated movements. This sort of stuff could almost have been written by them.
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jamesieboy
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And your point is...?
In other words what newspaper do you suggest we read?
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Lord Pitsligo
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| Aventinian wrote: | | It's really beginning to strike me how much Scottish Nationalists are like the British Nationalists of UKIP and associated movements. |
Well, it makes a change from the Tories being like them!
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Scott2006
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Bank nationalisations `not inevitable'
| Quote: | As the government took a controlling stake in Lloyds Banking Group, chairman Sir Victor Blank and chief executive Eric Daniels were under pressure from shareholders angered by the latest multi-billion-pound rescue deal, which raised the government's stake from 43% to at least 65%.
But Lord Mandelson said he believed that in the "longer term" taxpayers would get "quite a lot in return" for their investment.
"I am pretty confident of that, and I actually do not agree that the taxpayer should be asked to put anything into these businesses without knowing that eventually the taxpayer is going to get something back," he said.
He added: "At the moment, what the government is able to do is to exercise a great deal of influence over the restructuring, change and reform of the banks and their direction, without taking the final step of removing the shareholders." |
We are supposed to take Lord Mandelson's quotes as cast iron guarantee's the government isn't going to put several more billions of tax payers cash into more and more failed banks and other financial institutions...
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Gray announces experts to shape Labour policy
| Quote: | Mr Gray said: "In my first six months as leader we have stopped the SNP in their tracks in Glenrothes, we have exposed their record as a catalogue of failure and their manifesto as a tissue of lies, we have forced them into retreat on local income tax, futures trust and the referendum, and we have delivered 8000 apprenticeships."
Referring to the recent Brandon Muir case, the 23-month-old toddler who died from injuries inflicted by his mother's partner, he said Labour would press the Scottish Government to legislate to require the sharing of information between agencies for child protection purposes so that no child's life slips through the bureaucratic net. |
2 biased sentences - no attempt at any semblance of anything outside the 1 party Labour view.
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Hain warns of 'disaster' for Labour
| Quote: | Speaking at the Scottish Labour conference in Dundee, Mr Purnell told activists that Britain and the party were facing "difficult times".
"Amidst the turmoil we will face over the months ahead, we will have to answer a question as a country and a party," he said. "Will we stick together and use our unity to build a better world than we had before, or will we let our fears force us apart?
"Will we come through this crisis together or will people be left behind?"
Energy Secretary Ed Miliband used his speech to call for calm heads despite the "testing times".
"We need to be honest here in Dundee and say what we all know - which is that we face testing times for our party and more importantly testing times for our country as well," he said.
"These storm clouds will pass and we need to show we have a vision for the future of our environment, our economy and our society as well."
Mr Miliband went on: "Now more than ever, Labour values matter and are important.
"Because only Labour values say we're not going to let the recession take its course, we are going to intervene."
Mr Brown's deputy, Harriet Harman, has been accused of pursuing her leadership ambitions with a series of moves seemingly designed to court the party's Left.
However, the Commons Leader has denied she is running a "covert campaign", and took the opportunity this afternoon to heap praise on the Prime Minister.
She told activists: "We could not be more fortunate at this time in having as our leader someone whose values are Labour through and through, whose experience and commitment was unmatched and who is recognised as a leader on the international stage at a time when international action is necessary. I'm very proud to serve as his deputy." |
No mention of Hain in the majority of the article. Rather than give enough ammunition to disseminate Hain's alternative ideas - do the hack's trick of lumping unrelated pro-Labour comments in to water down any hint of criticism. In fact if the other newspapers hadn't run with Hain's comments he wouldn't even have made a tiny footnote in the Labour Herald.
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Forest lease plan `to be dropped'
| Quote: | Plans by the Scottish Government to lease-off public forests are to be dropped, Labour claimed yesterday.
Labour rural affairs spokeswomen Sarah Boyack said "another humiliating climbdown" was imminent for the plans, which had been universally condemned.
In a speech to the Scottish Labour conference in Dundee, she said: "For the sake of our wood-processing industries and for the sake of rural jobs I demand that the SNP admit they were wrong all along and dump these proposals this week."
The government has argued that £200m could be raised from leasing a quarter of forests, with the cash then used to speed up tree planting to tackle global warming. But Ms Boyack told the conference: "Their proposals to privatise a quarter of Scotland's public forests for 75 years have shown the SNP in their true colours. The proposals were dreamed up by the Rothschilds - Thatcher's favourite bank. So the SNP walk where even Thatcher feared to tread." |
...which had been universally condemned is that a quote from Boyack or spin from an uncritical fellow traveler?. I suppose we shouldn't complain, after all, 1 sentence out of a propaganda piece almost stated the aim of the SNP government, almost. Is that the best we can expect?
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Labour plans its own attack on infections from hospitals
| Quote: | | Labour are preparing their own Bill to create an independent commissioner to lead the fight against hospital-acquired infections, claiming the Scottish Government's response to the issue has been "complacent and piecemeal". |
| Quote: | This is too important an issue to leave to party politics. That's why we have worked with independent experts to put forward a comprehensive action plan to beat the superbugs."
She then added that Labour's proposal won cross party support in the former Scottish Parliament and that Hugh Pennington, emeritus professor of bacteriology at Aberdeen University and a leading expert in the field, said the plan would save thousands of lives.
Ms Jamieson said that to drive forward the attack on hospital-acquired infections, there had to be a focused and sustained effort in hospitals and care homes.
She said: "I call on Nicola Sturgeon to act now and appoint an independent commissioner to oversee the drive to eradicate infection in our hospitals.
"If she doesn't do this, my colleague Jackie Baillie, who has worked tirelessly on this issue, will bring forward a Member's Bill in parliament to create such a post. |
| Quote: | The appointment of an independent commissioner would help prevent this happening in any other Scottish hospital.
"This was one of the most important recommendations in Labour's 15-point action plan for fighting hospital superbugs, which was put together with two of the UK's leading independent experts on patient safety and infection control. We need somebody who can offer independent advice, co-ordinate action and drive progress against infections. This is about ensuring the absolute right of patients to be treated in safe and clean conditions."
But the government pointed out that Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon will unveil plans for random hospital hygiene inspections on Monday, when she launches a new inspectorate. She is expected to detail how the Care Environment Inspectorate will work, including the vital role of the chief inspector. |
Do you think that many people would consider it a balanced article if it takes until the 11th mini-paragraph to get to what the actual government position is? Many people would already have given up reading the one sided attack long before that point.
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Aventinian
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| Lord Pitsligo wrote: | | Well, it makes a change from the Tories being like them! |
The Tories - the party that's led by a man who called UKIP "fruitcakes", "loonies" and "closet racists" and markedly refused to apologise for it. Yes, sound like they're right on the same ideological page.
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Lord Pitsligo
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| Aventinian wrote: | | Lord Pitsligo wrote: | | Well, it makes a change from the Tories being like them! |
The Tories - the party that's led by a man who called UKIP "fruitcakes", "loonies" and "closet racists" and markedly refused to apologise for it. Yes, sound like they're right on the same ideological page. |
Young Dave is not the whole Conservative Party!
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Scott2006
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I don't see this comment in the press - perhaps the Scotsman had it somewhere - might explain the fall in standards.
http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/sto...ode=1&storycode=43249&c=1
Newsquest to ask all staff to take unpaid leave
4 March 2009
By Owen Amos
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Regional newspaper publisher Newsquest is to ask all staff to take a week's unpaid leave in a bid to cut costs, Press Gazette understands.
Management, including editors, have agreed to the leave - essentially a voluntary pay cut - and the company will ask rank and file to follow.
Newsquest employs 6,600 people, so the company could save millions of pounds. Its titles include The Northern Echo in Darlington, the Herald and Times group in Glasgow, and Brighton's The Argus.
The move is unconfirmed, as chief executive Paul Davidson – the only Newsquest executive allowed to talk to the press – is out of the office until Friday.
The unpaid leave, known as "furloughing", follows Newsquest telling staff in some areas its pay freeze, announced in December, will continue until next year.
It is expected to confirm the pay freeze, and the furlough, across all areas later this week.
Gannett, Newsquest's parent company, introduced the move in the US in January.
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Grim times ahead.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2...scottish-newspapers-in-sales-drop
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agentmancuso
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| Aventinian wrote: | | The Tories - the party that's led by a man who called UKIP "fruitcakes", "loonies" and "closet racists" and markedly refused to apologise for it. |
The views UKIP expressed by UKIP are indistinguishable from the views of a great many Tory activists and voters. Cameron was attempting to position himself to attract Lib Dem voters at the expense of loosing voters to UKIP; it's a calculated gamble, and nothing more.
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