22 April 2010

You know, I think the British press think you and I are fools, unable to distinguish fact from rhetoric, bias and innuendo. UK politics has been land-locked in a two-party system for as long as I can remember, and certainly over the last twenty years has resulted in reducing a once great nation to a pale shadow of its former self, and badly broken. Part of the fault lies in an electoral system which even on the lowest turnout and minority share of the vote secures a a strong working majority - in effect an elected dictatorship. Another part of the fault lies in newspapers supporting one party. Nick Clegg’s performance in the recent three-cornered leadership debate has lead to a substantial surge in Liberal Democrat party popularity in numerous polls, which has scared the two ‘major’ ruling parties shitless. If you go to the www.voteforpolicies.org website you’ll see that nearly 200,000 people have chosen the Green Party and Liberal Democrat policies ahead of those of Labour and the Conservatives (not a single policy selected). So what happens? The Daily Express, Daily Telegraph, Sun and Daily Mail (so far) with a wink wink, nudge nudge to the Conservatives said, ‘don’t worry lads, we’ll fix it for you…’ The result is an unprecedented attack on the Liberal Democrat leader ahead of the next debate being held tonight.

To my knowledge only one national newspaper, The Independent, has declared its intention to offer ubiased political / election coverage, and in so doing has angered the Murdoch Empire prompting CEO and Editor to storm the offices of The Independent. The BBC has added fuel to the fire by giving Vince Cable the most vicious grilling I have ever seen of a senior party figure on BBC 2 TV, at one point accusing him (rather cleverly) of being dishonest, and featuring the aforesaid newspaper headlines in some detail on its extended news programmes. I have never before witnessed the bias I am now seeing against a legitimate and popular political party and its leader.

To add fuel to the fire, a senior and experienced Conservative (who should know better) has warned the country at large in no uncertain terms that a ‘hung’ parliament (i.e. no political party gaining absolute control) would panic the city’s financial institutions, money-lenders and ultimately force the IMF (International Monetary Fund) to intervene in the UK’s financial affairs. Then one of the UK’s most biased political journalists (who promoted Labour during the last few elections, and is now promoting the Conservative boat - a Murdoch dictat) interviewed by the BBC accused the Liberal Democrats of knowingly accepting substantial party donations from a crook. In the first week of the election campaign the Conservatives received £1.2 million, Labour £700,000 and Liberal Democrats a princely £20,000 in total individual donations of over £7,000…. I smell a huge rat and I just hope that the British people will see through it and cause the biggest political upset of the last 50 years, which could ultimately lead to a 21st century election system which is fair, just and great for the country.

To add to our 4-hour show every Sunday night, we have been asked to host another 2-hour show every Wednesday night. Now this is really exciting for us as it provides the opportunity to create ’specialist’ hour segments/features revolving around specific artists and genres, incorporating interviews and music. Initially we will be including acts that we have featured on Shakenstir, completing the picture with audio. Nobody else is doing this and feature important acts that struggle for airplay. JJ will compile an hour and I will probably be starting with a John McLaughlin instrumental session featuring a rare interview, his own diverse range of music together with music from artists who have influenced him, and vica versa. The beauty of it is that we can feature a wide range of genres including jazz and classical. I CAN’T WAIT…