David Morrison, 3 November 2010

The negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians are equivalent to allowing a thief to negotiate with his victim about the amount of stolen goods he is going to give back, while he keeps his boot on the victim’s throat.

In May 2003, Israel agreed to freeze all settlement activity prior to the start of negotiations, when it accepted the Road Map (aka “a performance-based roadmap to a permanent two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict”) [1].

Drawn up by the Bush Administration, it is the internationally accepted framework for negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, endorsed by the Security Council in resolution 1515 [2]. The EU and the Quartet (the US, the EU, Russia and the UN Secretary-General) have regularly called upon both sides to fulfil their obligations under the Road Map (see, for example, a recent Quartet statement of 21 September 2010 [3]).

Greg McLaughlin and Stephen Baker, 5 November 2010

Extract from Greg McLaughlin and Stephen Baker. The Propaganda of Peace: The Role of media and culture in the Northern Ireland peace process. Bristol: Intellect Books. 2010.

Political opponents Ian Paisley and Martin McGuiness were confirmed as First Minister and Deputy First Minister of a new executive in May 2007, closing yet another chapter in Northern Ireland’s troubled history. A dramatic realignment of politics had brought these irreconcilable enemies together and the media played a significant role in persuading the public to accept this startling change. The Propaganda of Peace places their role in a broad cultural context and examines a range of factual and fictional representations, from journalism and public museum exhibitions to film, television drama and situation comedy. The authors propose a distinctive theoretical and methodological approach to analyzing the role of such representations in communicating what they call ‘the propaganda of peace’. They go on to explore whether it simply promotes conflict transformation or if it actually underwrites the abandonment of a politically engaged public sphere at the very moment when debates about neo-liberalism, financial meltdown and social and economic inequality make it most necessary?

The propaganda of peace, as defined and identified in this book, has been reproduced in different media and cultural forms, supported and sponsored by various political, social and cultural agencies. Nevertheless, it has demonstrated a remarkable unity, narrowing the terms of political debate and shrinking the cultural imagination to promote two complimentary narratives about Northern Ireland’s bright new future. The first, most explicit and immediate narrative was about the need for an end to violence and the achievement of a political settlement between Catholic and Protestant, nationalist and unionist. The second, implicit and far-reaching narrative was about making Northern Ireland fit for integration into the global capitalist system or, as Tony Blair preferred to call it, the ‘civilised world’.

Tom Griffin, 1 November 2010

Lord Saville's Report into Bloody Sunday will be debated in the House of Commons on Wednesday. No doubt the length and cost of the inquiry will feature prominently in the debate. 

The process might arguably have been less protracted had it not had to overcome a Ministry of Defence campaign to obscure the truth. Central to this campaign was 'The Knocking Game' an army document produced within three months of the 1972 massacre, which claimed that the victims were 'amateur gunmen'.

Former army information officer Colin Wallace testified to the inquiry that this document was used to brief the press.

In contrast, the former head of the Information Policy Unit at Headquarters Northern Ireland, Colonel Maurice Tugwell, claimed that the document was intended for circulation solely within the army.

Niall Meehan, 24 October 2010

The Newfoundland historian Peter Hart, who died recently at the age of 46, stimulated a debate on sectarianism within Irish nationalism and on the nature and conduct of the Irish War of Independence (WoI).

He provoked controversy and subsequent research that has helped to clarify differences over the interpretation not only of Irish history but also of Irish society.

Professor Paul (now Lord) Bew of Queen's University Belfast (QUB), said of Hart’s landmark The IRA and its Enemies (OUP, 1998): ‘The first work on the Irish revolution which can stand comparison with the best of the historiography of the French Revolution: brilliantly documented, statistically sophisticated, and superbly written’.[1]

The weight of academic opinion afforded Hart numerous prizes and plaudits. Critics emerged, also, however, who concluded that Hart’s methodology was quite often slipshod, unreliable, and, in places, unbelievable.

4 October 2010 

"Grassroots" think tank favoured by Health Secretary, Andrew Lansley, has strong links to the private health insurance industry

2020Health, the centre right think tank with close links to Health Secretary Andrew Lansley is out in force at this week’s Conservative Party conference. It is chaired by the CEO of a huge global network of health insurers, at the same time as arguing for a greater role for the private health sector.

2020Health Chairman, Tom Sackville – a former Conservative minister – is CEO of the International Federation of Health Plans, which represents one hundred private health insurance companies in 31 countries. 

Anna Minton, 10th August 2010

Councils are to curtail their use of lobbyists, following changes in the rules announced by Communities Secretary Eric Pickles.

All bodies that receive funding from the Department for Communities have been ordered to sever their contracts with lobbying firms.

Pickles said “taxpayer-funded lobbying and propaganda on the rates weakens our democracy” and his statement announced that “the practice of local authorities hiring lobbyists to press-gang Government into pet funding projects” is to stop.

The new rules take the form of an amended statutory Code of Recommended Practice on Local Authority Publicity, which is intended to stop campaigns being run from public funds.

By David Miller 7 August 2010

Renewed attempts to remove censor the website Powerbase are being made by terrorism researcher Sagit Yehoshua.

A few weeks ago our website Powerbase (or rather its predecessor Spinprofiles) was temporarily removed from the internet after a complaint by neoconservative think tanks operative Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens.

At the time we noted that Meleagrou-Hitchens attempt to have the entire page on him removed from our website was not the first. Back in February this year, Sagit Yehoshua complained to 1 & 1 Internet with which we had registered the domain name, that the page on her was defamatory. 1&1 refused to tell us the precise text that was alleged to be defamatory and insisted that the whole page be removed. At the time we did so, hoping to get clarity from the company.

It was not forthcoming, although the issue appeared to hinge on the question of ‘personal’ information; 1 & 1 told us that ‘Ms Sagit Yehoshua has expressly stated in a phone call to us that they do not want their personal information placed on the website.’ Now however we have reinstated that page, leading to further, ongoing, attempts to have the material removed. This time Yehoshua has targeted our ISP