Remember Libya? You could be forgiven for having forgotten about the revolution taking place in Libya, what with our current voyeuristic obsession with a scandal involving amoral media, pwned politicians and corrupt police officers. I realise that one is supposed to prefix such charges with the word “alleged”, but for the sake of narrative flow I think we can dispense with such minor details.

Diplomats may be meeting today with Hillary Clinton to discuss the Libyan crisis, but it must be said that the Libyan people’s struggle for freedom has so far received only lukewarm support from the international community. That, despite NATO’s considerable investment in bombs dropped from on high on the Gaddafi regime’s forces. Revolutionary fighters are reportedly making ground, but it is a slow, painful and costly process.

The Libyan revolution is costly in terms of human sacrifice, but also money – an issue discussed in some detail in a report broadcast last night on the BBC’s Newsnight programme. Paul Wood’s field report is worth watching in full, but I was especially struck by the attention given to the matter of financing the Libyan revolution. At around 41 minutes into the programme, Wood interviews Transitional National Council finance minister Ali Tarhouni, who shows all too clearly his frustration with the situation on the ground, and the prevarication of the international community…

“We’re not asking anyone to give us money. This is our frigging money, and I’m tired of saying that.”

The minister has a point. It is a question of releasing to the TNC resources that already belong to the Libyan people, but are currently frozen as a result of international sanctions. We are not talking about western charity, but rather political decisions that should be made by the international community. For whatever reason, they are not being made in a timely fashion.

Tarhouni has every reason to be tired of repeating himself, for he has made the same point on numerous occasions. Take, for example, an interview in May with MSNBC, in which the finance minister spoke of the war economy he is charged with running…

"We’re faced with the same sanctions as Gaddafi. I don’t have access to any foreign exchange to cover any purchases, open lines of credits to merchants, so that’s a very challenging aspect to what I do."

It is difficult to understand why the international community has failed to give the Libyan revolution its full and unequivocal backing. Going by what journalists have revealed (real journalists – they still exist!) about the balance of forces opposed to the Gaddafi regime, the TNC offers real hope for genuine and stable liberal democracy in the region.

Worth noting is a news story in this week’s edition of Nature which looks at radioactive contamination of the local environment following a series of equipment failures, partial nuclear fuel meltdowns and reactor explosions which occurred earlier this year at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant. The nuclear emergency was a result of the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, which led to the deaths of tens of thousands, and laid waste to many towns and villages in the area.

Nature’s Tokyo correspondent David Cyranoski reports on a study led by Tokyo University plant physiologist Tomoko Nakanishi, who next month will publish his team’s findings in the Japanese journal Radioisotopes.

Looking at the impact of the Fukushima radiation release on plants, animals, fisheries and forests, Nakanishi and his colleagues found only low levels of radioactivity in crops harvested during May, and that the contamination is of a type which can be washed off. The radioactive particles had settled on the plant leaves, and were not absorbed through the soil in significant amounts. As for the amount of radiation involved, around nine becquerels per kilogramme of wet plant mass were detected, which is less than one-fiftieth of the accepted safety limit for human consumption.

In practical terms, what this means is that the current harvest will have to be discarded, but the soil will be safe for replanting once a thin surface layer is removed. That will be a costly task, but it is a long way from the worst-case scenario painted by many following the disaster.

On a less positive note, a separate study from a group led by Tomoya Yamauchi at Kobe University found a number of radiation hotspots in Fukushima city, some 60 kilometres from the power plant, where radiation levels of up to 47,000 becquerels per kilogramme were measured. These sites should be evacuated immediately, as the radiation there greatly exceeds the 10,000 becquerel exposure limit set by the Japanese government.

Media hyperbole surrounding the various and escalating News International scandals is subject to innumerable superlatives and generally over-exaggerated adjectives. Take, for example, the BBC’s business editor Robert Peston…

“It’s a huge humiliation. This was [News Corp's] biggest investment plan of the moment. It was one of the biggest investments they’ve ever wanted to make.

"It is an extraordinary reversal of corporate fortune… And questions will now be asked whether this is the full extent of the damage to the empire."

It is impossible to humiliate Rupert Murdoch, for the man has no shame. To Murdoch, business is all, and he appears to be rather good at it. I suspect that Murdoch’s fortune and empire are quite safe; it is colluding politicians and police officers who should be most worried.

So Murdoch’s News Corp is dropping its bid for a takeover of BSkyB. This hardly amounts to a “huge humiliation”, to use Peston’s words. BSkyB and News Corp are commercial concerns, and as such they can, subject to certain laws and regulations, trade as their shareholders see fit. The BSkyB bid could quite easily be revisited in the not-too-distant future, if shareholders were to continue to view the proposal as being in the companies’ business interests.

The rest is just political piss and wind. The only thing that could bring down News Corp is an international para-economic task force tasked by state entities with stripping the media group’s assets. But if governments were to join forces and attempt such a move, then we would see humiliation. Murdoch knows where the bodies are buried.

The News International scandal continues apace, with powerful individuals and interest groups fearful that they are next in the firing line. Yesterday, in a humiliating cave-in, the government bowed to demands that the Murdoch empire’s bid to buy the bit of BSkyB it doesn’t already own be referred to the regulators. Today, former prime minister Gordon Brown has stepped in to accuse the Sunday Times of being in league with the devil.

Will Murdoch now close the Sunday Times, I wonder? Like broadsheet newspapers in general, the Sunday Times haemorrhages money, so there would be no further loss, save for the jobs of a few hundred journalists and ancillary staff. But BSkyB, on the other hand, is booming. More than 10 million households subscribe to the service on top of paying their statutory television licence fee, and the number is rising fast.

What if anything does this tell us about the moral compass of the United Kingdom? Being the nations of curtain twitchers we are, we love a good scandal, but forget about taking a moral stand against media corruption by refusing to fill the Digger’s coffers. No wonder Rupert is always pictured with a massive grin on his face.

The Tory mantra of “We’re all in this together” has taken on a whole new meaning.

One thing that was confirmed for me yesterday is that being a government minister responsible for “Culture, Communications and Creative Industries” does not necessarily mean that the individual concerned knows anything about the creative arts.

My Sunday was spent in the company of cycling friends on a ride from Greenwich Pier to the Whitechapel Gallery in Aldgate, east London. This is a splendid building, and well worth a visit, whatever is on display. The frontage is classic Art Nouveau, and looks straight out of Darmstadt.

My friends and I were at the Whitechapel Gallery to view a small exhibition of government-owned artworks, normally kept in embassies and other UK government buildings around the world. The exhibition, which runs until 4 September and to which entry is free, features works selected by seven public figures: Paul Boeteng, Nick Clegg, Samantha Cameron, Peter Mandelson, Anne Pringle, John Sawers and Ed Vaizey.

There are a few interesting works on display, but I was underwhelmed by the experience as a whole. Paul Boeteng gives prominence to an oil on canvas work by Osmund Caine depicting a subtly homoerotic scene within a racially-mixed WWII army barracks in Aldershot. Samantha Cameron’s favoured works include a Lowry painting and a statuette by Elisabeth Frink, while Nick Clegg’s chosen pieces are depressingly reflective of the cultural dark age in which he grew up. For example, the deputy prime minister includes a hideous acrylic on canvas painting by David Tindle of a 1970s thermos flask. Study this image for more than a minute, and you may lose the will to live.

Mandelson is rather grand and classical, with Flemish sculptor John Michael Rysbrack among his chosen artists. And to show that he is still hip and groovy, despite the ermine stole and haughty manner, Mandelson also includes an “edgy” painting for the 1950 Festival of Britain by Cecil Stephenson. What is it with this obsession with artistic ‘edge’?

Moving on to the diplomatic corps, Anne Pringle, who is currently Britain’s woman in Moscow, focuses on the 17th and early 20th centuries, while Britain’s spy chief John Sawers, whose art selection I found the most interesting, features an Albert Goodwin night scene in late 19th century Cairo, a reinterpretation by Claude Heath of two aerial views of the Scottish mountain Ben Nevis, and a very nice 1971 oil on board painting by Norman Blamey, featuring the artist and his wife Margaret viewed through a mirror. Going by his aesthetic, John Sawers is a clearly man of culture and discernment, though his choice of a Bridget Riley stripe painting left me feeling a bit queasy.

And finally we come to the title of this exhibition review. The art critic and media tart Brian Sewell may be a pompous arse, but when it comes to that clichéd enfant terrible Tracy Emin, he is right on the ball. Tory minister Ed Vaizey selected two inane scribblings by the celebrated artist whose “cunt is wet with fear”, commenting that she charmed him at a recent dinner party, and that he spent his childhood holidays with an aunty and uncle in Emin’s home town of Margate. Stellar.

You have to admit, he’s a bit slow on the uptake, our prime minister. Along with countless others with opinions on the great matters of state, I warned David Cameron that hiring Andy Coulson as his director of communications would be a terrible, terrible mistake.

Coulson’s a cunt, I warned young David. But would he listen? Oh no.

Silly boy.

My trade union, the NUJ, has condemned the Murdoch empire’s closure of Britain’s longest running Sunday newspaper, the News of the World – the paper that died of shame.

Extracts from NUJ general secretary Michelle Stanistreet’s statement today…

“The shocking revelations this week show beyond doubt the systemic abuse and corruption at the top of the operation ran by both Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson. Yet News International has persistently lied about the extent of this scandal and tried to pass it off as a problem created by a couple of rogue reporters.”

“Closing the title and sacking over 200 staff in the UK and Ireland, and putting scores more freelances and casuals out of a job, is an act of utter cynical opportunism. Murdoch is clearly banking on this drawing a line under the scandal, removing an obstacle to the BskyB deal, and letting his senior executives off the hook. That simply won’t wash. It is not ordinary working journalists who have destroyed this paper’s credibility – it is the actions of Murdoch’s most senior people.”

“James Murdoch was absolutely right when he said in his statement today that ‘Wrongdoers turned a good newsroom bad.’ Yet those wrongdoers are still there today, at the top of the News International empire and ordinary staff at the paper are paying with their livelihoods.

That seems about right, though “ordinary working journalists” have certainly contributed to the culture of cynicism and loose ethics which afflicts Britain’s red-top press.

Closing the News of the World makes no commercial sense, and in this case politics factors more highly than money in Rupert and James Murdoch’s cost-benefit analysis. Rebekah Brooks is worth more to NewsCorp than any number of expendable hacks in Wapping, or the hurt feelings of those directly affected by the phone hacking scandal. Brooks is valuable as she is the conduit between NewsCorp and the prime minister. And NewsCorp has a pretty secure lease on the PM.

Multinational media corporations are fundamentally amoral entities. As are governments.

The political tectonic plates may be shifting within the UK, but one should never underestimate the political power of NewsCorp, and the Chipping Norton set to which Rebekah Brooks, Andy Coulson, and, by extension, David Cameron belong. This is Britain’s new ruling class: the final victory of the petite-bourgeoisie over the old-school Conservative Party. Brooks, Coulson and others of that clique are synonymous with Cameron’s cuddly new Conservatism, and the Murdoch family’s attempt to control all of BSkyB is but one political factor among many.

Andy Coulson has this morning had his collar felt, and is currently in discussions with Inspector Knacker. Coulson’s arrest is most likely the result of Metropolitan Police chiefs calculating that going on the offensive is better than being torn apart by their state masters as a result of alleged police corruption surrounding the phone hacking scandal. That said, an arrest will not necessarily lead to a prosecution; the act in itself has political value.

Will Cameron and his associates now wash their hands of NewsCorp and the Chipping Norton set? Not if they have any sense. Rupert Murdoch is a de facto member of the British government, just as he was during the previous Labour administration. But unlike those here today, gone tomorrow ministers who sit around the cabinet table and have to work for their supper, Rupert Murdoch cannot be sacked.

There are a number of interest groups here with a lot to lose should things go horribly pear-shaped, and they will look after their own. It is all frighteningly rational.

A farewell to Barry Mason (1950–2011)

Barry makes his entrance to Honor Oak Crematorium in south-east London…

…with pedal power provided by son Sam, and an escort of scores of Southwark Cyclists.

Waiting outside the crematorium were another few hundred of Barry’s family and friends. Far too many to fit inside the building, so some were forced to stand outside.

Inside the chapel, those who had come to celebrate Barry’s life were seated wherever they could find a few square centimetres, and Barry himself took centre stage. This Barry did also in life, tempered with characteristic humility and selflessness.

The funeral form was humanist, with the ceremony following a pattern defined by the British Humanist Association. This secular liturgy allows for the proceedings to be dominated by input from family and friends, in the form of personal reflections and tributes, poetry and music. Barry Mason’s funeral was an uplifting experience, in which personal grief was unified with community spirit.

Barry’s partner Cheryl read a poem by Joanna Clarke – The Astonishing Bird – and this was followed by contributions from several friends, and a eulogy from Sam. A recording of the song Casadh an tSúgáin (Twisting of the rope) by the Irish group Rún came next, along with another poem, Do not stand at my grave and weep, by Mary Frye…

Do not stand at my grave and weep
I am not there. I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow.
I am the diamond glints on snow.
I am the sunlight on ripened grain.
I am the gentle autumn rain.
When you awaken in the morning’s hush
I am the swift uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circled flight.
I am the soft stars that shine at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry;
I am not there. I did not die.

After words of farewell to Barry, all left the chapel, after first placing flowers and sprigs of pungent herbs on the coffin. The exit was accompanied by a solo fiddler playing in the gallery, and the coffin remained throughout. There was no final curtain for Barry Mason.

spEak You’re bRanes, Guardian style…

“Even prison sentences seem to lenient for this twisted and sinister behaviour. Rebekah Brooks should be burnt at the stake. Who do these people think they are?”

Or is that a News of the World reader holding forth on a matter of great public import? I get terribly confused at times.

Actually, the News International board may view burning the Brooks creature as a way out of its current mess. After all, we all love a good crucifixion.

Perhaps we could do a two-for-one, and immolate that other witch Arianna Huffington while we’re at it. Huffington was part of a round table discussion on Newsnight yesterday, talking about the News of the World phone hacking scandal. She may not have transgressed the law, but the darling of the American dinner party left is hardly a shining light when it comes to journalistic integrity and respect for intellectual property.

News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks says she is “sickened” by the thought that murdered teenager Milly Dowler’s mobile phone had been hacked by a private investigator retained by her News of the World ‘newspaper’.

Says Mr Brooks, in a statement to News International staff, copied to the BBC…

"I hope that you all realise it is inconceivable that I knew – or worse – sanctioned these appalling allegations."

I have no doubt that these words, as written, are entirely correct. She may once have been married to ‘actor’ Ross Kemp, but Ms Brooks is not stupid.

News International chairman Rupert Murdoch, who is said to back his chief executive “100%”, could soon exert Berlusconiesque control over Britain’s commercial broadcast media.

I wear my job title of “journalist” with shame, but that is nothing when compared with the shame of a government prepared to sanction Murdoch’s dominance of the UK media, and worse, those millions of Britons who fill the Dirty Digger’s coffers with their patronage.