Paxo - BBC obsessed with the copper wire and not about the electricity

The Daily Telegraph have very sensibly printed in full the James McTaggart memorial lecture by Jeremy Paxman.."Never mind the scandals: what’s it all for" at the MediaGuardian Edinburgh International Television Festival

"...We have become obsessed with how the copper wire is organised, and forgotten about the electricity"

"Now this is new. For most of the media, most of the time, the motivation has always been pretty simple: you grab as much of the potential audience as possible, in order that you can screw the maximum amount of money out of them. Television was different because those who made it had a different sense of intention. In those more innocent days – and it applied to both the BBC and the commercial sector, producers made programmes because they were passionately engaged with the world and wanted to communicate what they’d found out. Too much of the time now they simply pick things from the world which look as if they might make good television, regardless of whether they do anything other than meet the demands of a format. To put it simply, people at the top are less concerned with content and a lot more concerned with bottom lines. There are too many people in this industry whose answer to the question what is television for? is to say ‘to make money.’


"Of course, the BBC’s got problems of its own, and they also come down to money. It was comprehensively outmanoeuvred by the Treasury in the last licence fee settlement, so that it is now committed to spending nearly one and a half billion on things – whether they be the cost of digital switchover, on-demand, building office blocks in Salford – which have nothing much to do with sole purpose of its existence, which is to produce worthwhile programmes. Even so, quite how these obligations produce a budget crisis in an organisation with an assured income of three and a half billion pounds is still something of a mystery to me.

"But the bigger question is whether the BBC itself has a future. Working for it has always been a bit like living in Stalin’s Russia, with one five-year-plan, one resoundingly empty slogan after another. One BBC, Making it Happen, Creative Futures, they all blur into one great vacuous blur. I can’t even recall what the current one is. Rather like Stalin’s Russia, they express a belief that the system will go on forever."

No great admirers of Paxo or his cast of late night entertainers but at least one of the cast has finally found a voice to expose (some of) the failures of the Televisual media ... You Tube, Blinkx, finally opening a few people's eyes ?

A must read for anyone interested in understanding how the public view Television...although he failed tomention the squillions spent by the BBC on "idents", those irritating Chanel identities that save making programmes but fill air time.

See also Independent Guradian and The Rest / Pic is of Newsnight's . Emily Maitlis who outshines Paxo in every department. We had a toss up between her and Mark Urban for which pic to use.

Where do the terrists begin and the forces of Laura Norder end ?

It is quite evident that when Deputy Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke of the Metropolitan Police "The Sphincter of the Yard" entered the quaintly named "The Ideas Space" at the Policy Exchange on Tuesday night at 6.30pm this was part of a carefully hatched and well executed publicity coup.

A large Press element thronged the place and BBC were filming this curious event which had not been advertised nor appeared in the events lists of the Policy Exchange ... even more curiously a thorough site search for said Plod yields, Zero, nada, nothing.

He spoke for approximately one hour, as the first of annual lectures to commemorate Colin Cramphorn (pic), a former Chief Constable of West Yorkshire (Died Dec 1st 2006 aged 50 of prostate cancer) known by has men as "The Gazelle" - Clarke and Cramphorn worked together on the 7/7 bombings - a somber and wide-ranging assessment of the threat facing his country according to the New York Times today ,which must have been the equivalent of Valium - because the assembled throng of Press picked up only on the one item to report. (Full text only available here courtesy Lord Patel)

Petulantly the scourge of Terrists remarked on unidentified persons leaking “highly sensitive operational intelligence, often classified.”

He cited as an example police raids in Birmingham last February when reporters in London knew details of an alleged plot to behead a British Muslim soldier “almost before the detainees had arrived at the police stations to which they were being taken for questioning.”

Well, well, well, the Press have sources ... Mr Clarke ...... do Bears shit in the woods ?

The relationship of the Press / Police might be benignly describe4d as symbiotic or more ma;ignly incestuous. Editors love a good murder / rape / paedophile attacke and memebers of the force are not averse to the odd pint or two. Evidently knowledge of this relationship has come rather late in the life of "The Sphincter of the Yard".

From this oracular, remark, loaded with zero information and devoid of substance David Cameron hounded the Prime Minister - the papers nudge nudge wink wink that one of John Reid's myrmidoms or maybe even a top cop had spilt the beans.

Yet the public are public are reminded again of a case where it was alleged without a scrap of evidence, in which no charges were laid, that the taking of a Muslim UK member of the armed forces was to be kidnapped was planned. It is to be hoped that no ambitious amateur drama company re-surrect Brendan Behan's comic tragedy, "the Hostage" lest they be charged with fomenting and supporting terrism.

All this display of naivete is quite charming when one considers his counterpart (as they say in these circles) at MI5, Mr Evans in the 80's and 90's armed, guided, supplied arms to and arranged for destruction of evidence in supporting terrorists (both Catholic and Protestant) who killed, maimed, sold drugs and bombed, all with the support of the State.

Which is, let us face it, somewhat more serious than someone letting slip to their favourite newdesk some gossip.

But of course it all helps us take our eye off the activities of the Lady Dame Pauline Neville Jones Fan Club.

It may be of interest that at Colin Cramphorn's funeral mourners were led by Sir Ronnie Flanagan, Chief Inspector of Her Majesty's Inspector of Constabulary and former Chief Constable of the then RUC, under which Mr Cramphorn served as Deputy 1998 to 2001 and took over when Flangan became an Inspector of Constabulary in 2002. The Guradian obituary spoke of Cramphorn's grasp of the bigger picture which was completed by his interest in religion and faith communities. He studied theology and law as a mature student at King's College London, and"was a voracious reader, especially of work which engaged with ethics and the impact of religious belief on the secular world".

UPDATE Mid Day

Radio 4 "World at One" spent 20 mins (out of 30 mins) on this topic and revealed onlythat ex Home Office Employee Shami Chakrabarti, the gamin , doe eyed Director of Liberty had asked John Reid in a letter at the time of the raid about leaks, which he said were "nuthin to do with me guv", Liberty have and outstanding Freedom of Information request with the Home Office which they have sought 2 delays on responding on the same matter.

The BBC report that it is also alleged that a national newspaper sent 3 journalists to Birmingham (which they no doubt saw as a great trial) the evning of the raid after having been tipped off by a nameless source.

The Guradian today make one of those worthless claims that they have been told that an aide to John Reid, the home secretary, was responsible for one of those leaks, and has also learnt that there is strong suspicion among the highest-ranking police at Scotland Yard that one of their own officers also briefed the media.

(Full text of Peter Clarke's lecture is only available here, courtesy Lord Patel - WARNING only for those with high boredom threshold and a fondness for the banal - eg " He (CC) realised that if the public are to have confidence, it is vital that policing is properly understood by those who represent the interests of citizens at both local and national level, by local and central government, by the judicial system, and of course by the media. " or "But it is important to understand that this analysis of the changing nature of terrorism did not come to us in a flash of inspiration on 12th September 2001. It came about as a result of us doing exactly what the title of this lecture suggests we should do – Learn from Experience. ) Not having learnt presumably that you do not begin sentences with a conjunction presumably.

Lord knows how many hours of Radio / TV time and acres of forests were felled to print the story that the Press were alerted to a Police raid on alleged terrists and the boss is upset. More veiled references and unpointed innuendoes than a post match briefing by Mourinho.

The Karaoke King's Rabbi sees Red ...

BBC Newsnight tonight covered the seemingly endless saga of the lies and deceit about how the Labour Party not only sold Peerages, but failed to disclose the payments made in the form of sleazy loans (of many millions of pounds) as gifts - and even concealed them from the Party Treasurer - and naturally the rest of the Party.

Naturally Lord Levy, the New Labour Party fundraiser was involved in all this secret, corrupt and venal boondoggling... and his name has popped up yet again featuring in a fantasy "document" that Truth Turner wrote but apparently never sent to anybody , alleging that Lord Levy had encouraged her to lie to the Police and she wanted to unburden herself to Tony and Jonathan..

Anyway who should they wheel on in support of the blameless Lord Levy the Karaoke King, and tennis playing Toff of Totteridge who has done nothing "wrong" but the jew who approaches every problem with an open mouth. Rabbi Yitzchak Schochet.

Rabbi Who ?

Well he is a fascinating mouthpiece for the chosen race - Rabbi Yitzchak Schochet was born in Toronto in 1965 wher his dad is a famour Rabbi. He received his semichah (Rabbinic ordination) in 1988, and an MA in Jewish philosophy in 1994. He was Rabbi of Richmond Synagogue from 1991-1993, before becoming Rabbi at United Mill Hill Synagogue in 1993.and is a high profile rabbi in England, frequently appearing on national TV and radio, and in the newspapers, to present the Jewish views on social and other topical issues. He has organised events with high profile speakers such as Yitzchak Shamir, Morris Abraham (UN-ambassador of the USA), "An Evening with the Lords" (addresses by England's most renowned Jewish lords).

He is in the Cabinet of the Chief Rabbi with a special interest in family issues, he is the scion of a family of famous rabbis that have centuries of history behind them.

BBC Online have, sound, video and a transcript of remarks he made about the illegal invasion of Iraq on March 21st 2003. "Peace is certainly a hallmark of the Jewish faith .... if you do not attack evil, evil will eventually attack you."

".....we are not pacifists who do believe in turning the other cheek and bending over backwards to the extreme. There is a fundamental principle in Judaism that if somebody is recognised as posing a potential threat, where they are likely to attack you, you can initiate attack in the first instance - that is an unquestionable right of every human being."

So this is the moral foundation of the pre-emptive strike, so alien to the British tradition. Mind you it's not original, Hilter and Stalin were pretty keen on that line as well. Remember of course that Lord Levy enjoys an office next door to the Foreign Secretary in the Foreign Office as Tony Blairs representative on Earth.

"Civilians are not just collateral damage, they have to be taken into far more consideration than that. But notwithstanding that, nevertheless, from a Jewish perspective it was always the case that you gave civilians the option of getting out..."

He is also Principal of the Rosh Pinah Primary School in Edgware, is a columnist for the Jewish News and Diary Rabbi for The Guradian. Busy man, but not a shy one, he has paraded his views on the Kabbalah cheder which fascinates, Madonna, Britney Spears and Demi Moore as "a farce."..."it's just a cult,"... "The movement has one primary objective, that of generating cash."

Of Mel Gibson's "Passion of Christ" he said "This film should not be shown. I hope they ban it” (Daily Telegraph, 27 February 2004). "The cinematography was fantastic, the acting was brilliant - but the content was deplorable in the extreme."

In May 2006 it was announced that Northern & Shell Ltd., Chairman Richard Desmond , publisher of the Daily/Sunday Express, and various pornographic magazines and X rated TV channels was to be the next president of Norwood, the community’s leading child- and family-welfare charity. Mr Desmond has been a supporter of the charity for more than 20 years and donated £2 million to its Annie Lawson School in 2004. He also owns and operates RHF Productions Limited which has Red Hot TV ,Red Hot Rears, Red Hot 40+ Wives, Red Hot Amateur, Red Hot Raw, Red Hot Wives, Red Hot Clima, Red Hot All Girl, Red Hot Reality available on subscription only (Red Hot website here)

Red Hot Rears, we learn, is "Rammed with peachy girls" while the Raw service promises "amateur sluts...all night, every night." ...With feisty fanny action for 7 hours per day, we have the dirtiest girls doing the naughtiest things to keep you hard all night long. Red Hot All Girl - does exactly what it says in the tin.

Rabbi Schochet was quoted in The Jewish Chronicle

“I was especially disturbed to learn that Richard Desmond was to become president of Norwood. I don’t have a problem with the man per se and I think it is wonderful that he chooses to donate so much money to Jewish and other charitable causes. But to be official figurehead of a family charity is considerably more problematic. There are certain compromises that should never be made, no matter what the financial gain. Norwood needs to think carefully about the message it is putting out there.”

In April 2005 Chief Rabbi Dr Jonathan Sacks, decided not to change the wording of prayers read out for the royal family at synagogues which come under his jurisdiction which meant that Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall is not mentioned in Jewish prayers for the royal family, despite the fact he is mentioned by name.

Rabbi Yitzchok Schochet, head of family affairs in the Chief Rabbis Cabinet condemned what he calls the "crime" of the royal couple's adulterous relationship-The Mill Hill congregation website (you will arrive at schul in seconds!) states: "The marriage of Charles and Camilla made a mockery of all things sacred, including religion as well as matrimony." Which means he won't be on any Garden Party lists.

Anyway he reckons the diminutive stack heeled hard working Labour Party benefactor is being given a hard time ...and so does his lawyer who says he is being smeared - what with he doesn't say, but there is a gang round here who would start with some pitch and then add a few Goose feathers.

PS - His website is packed with really good stuff -

Circumcision ....

.....That the act defies logic is the very essence of what the whole procedure is about. It demonstrates a supra-rational commitment to G-d. Hence the practise is conducted when the child is a mere eight days old. At this earliest stage of a child’s life, this bond is not being established based on reason. Rather, while the infant is still intellectually undeveloped, he is founding his pristine bond with G-d.

Mysticism explains the significance of the number eight as being higher than the normative order. Seven corresponds to the days of the week – the laws of nature. Eight transcends the laws of nature. WOW!

Tattoos

The law that makes tattoos taboo for Jews is Leviticus 19:28, which states: "You shall not make gashes in your flesh for the dead, or incise any marks on yourselves: I am the Lord."

Borat and I

It was a quiet afternoon when I got the phone-call from the Channel 4 studio. Would I be willing to come in and do an interview on the theme of religion? Not one to pass up on such an opportunity and certainly not being media shy I readily agreed.... you bet.

Do you think he performs at children's parties as well ?

Lies, Damned Lies and Medical Statistics

In 1995, the Department of Health issued guidance that gave NHS Trust chief executives overall responsibility for ensuring the provision of effective infection control arrangements.

The Hospital Infection Working Group believed in 1995 that it might have been possible to achieve a 30 per cent reduction in hospital acquired infection.

Nothing very much happened until the National Audt Office reported in February 2000 , (when they were searching to control costs and not disease) - The Management and Control of Hospital Acquired Infection in NHS Acute Trusts in England (HC 230 Session 1999-00). Under the eagle eye and discerning analysis of Sir John Bourn it was noted that at any one time, 9 per cent of patients had an infection that had been acquired during their hospital stay. (Note these were called Hospital Acquired Infections HAI's)

The effects varied from extended length of stay and discomfort to prolonged or permanent disability and death. Based on American experience they calculated that in the England at least 5,000 patients a year, death. These infections were costing the NHS as much as £1 billion a year and around 15 per cent could be prevented by better application of good practice, releasing resources of £150 million for alternative NHS use.

In a a comprehensive study commissioned by the Department of Health and undertaken by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the Central Public Health Laboratory January 2000 and referred to by the NAO it was concluded (see Page 24 of the report) ;
Over the course of a 13 month period, 7.8% of patients acquired an infection during their stay in the study hospital which presented during the in-patient period.

A further 19.1% of patients who did not present with an infection during the in-patient phase, reported symptoms of, and in some cases received treatment for, an infection manifesting post discharge which may be associated with their hospital admission.


Patients with one or more infections incurred costs that were on average 2.8 times greater than uninfected patients, an average additional cost of £2,917 per case (ranging from £1,122 for urinary tract infections to £6,209 for bloodstream infections).


Patients who acquired an infection remained in hospital on average 2.5 times longer than uninfected patients, an average equivalent to 11 extra days.


Patients with a hospital acquired infection were 7.1 times more likely to die in the hospital than uninfected patients (after controlling for patient characteristics such as age, sex, diagnosis, admission speciality and type and pre-exiting illness). The death rate also varied with patient characteristics (for example 38% of elderly care patients who acquired a hospital infection died compared with 8% of elderly patients without a hospital acquired infection who died).


Extrapolating the results of this study to NHS Trusts throughout England, the overall cost to the NHS of hospital acquired infection was £986.36 million comprising £930.62 million hospital costs plus a further £55.74 million costs due to infections which occurred post discharge.

It is therefore both insteresting and instructive that The Health Protection Agency FAQ's on MRSA has this helpful advice ..

Where does the figure of 5000 deaths due to MRSA each year come from?

This figure is incorrect. It comes from a very rough estimate of the number of deaths which may be attributed to all hospital acquired infections (HAI), not just MRSA. The estimate was made in 1995 by a working group of the Public Health Laboratory Health Service. It used an estimate of the percentage of deaths associated with all HAIs made in the USA in the 1980s (1% of all deaths in the USA). This percentage was applied to the total number of deaths occurring in the UK, yielding a crude estimate of 5,000 deaths from HAI.

Fast Forward to today

The National Statistical Office has today published figures for England and Wales for mention of MRSA and Clostridium difficile on death certificates. (See graph at top of post from ONS website)

The 3rd report into the number of death certificates in England and Wales that mentioned
Staphylococcus aureus infection increased each year from 2001 to 2005, from 1,211 to 2,083. The percentage of these deaths where Staphylococcus aureus was specified as meticillin resistant (MRSA) rose from 61 % in 2001 to 78 % in 2005.

The age standardised rates for deaths involving MRSA doubled for both males and females between 2001 and 2005. For men the rate increased from 12.5 to 25.0 per million population, while for women it rose from 6.7 to 14.5 per million population.

The 2nd annual report into the number of death certificates in England and Wales that mentioned Clostridium difficile increased from 1,214 in 2001 to 3,807 in 2005. Between 2004 and 2005 the number of deaths involving C. difficile increased by 69 %.

Age-standardised rates for deaths involving C. difficile among males in England and Wales almost tripled between 2001 and 2005, from 13.1 to 37.6 per million population. Among females, rates more than tripled, from 12.8 per million to 38.9 per million.

The complete statistics can be found in in Health Statistics Quarterly 33 (Spring
2007), published today.

They also point out that "Most of the deaths involving S. aureus or MRSA were in the older age groups. Mortality rates in 2005 for deaths involving MRSA in the 85 and over age group were 702 and 387 deaths per million population for males and females respectively. In the under 45 age group there were 1.1 and 0.8 deaths per million population for males and females respectively."

However the Health Protection Agency's MRSA surveillance units figures for England (Note NOT the UK) , up to November 27th 2006 show

1. There were 51,690 reports of Clostridium difficile disease in people aged 65 years and over in 2005, a 17.2% increase on 2004.

2. A total of 3,517 MRSA bacteraemia episodes was reported during the period October 2005 to March 2006. This marks a small decrease in the number of reports compared to the
beginning of the mandatory surveillance scheme and a 1.5% decrease on the previous six
months.
Pert, pretty , glamorous and gorgeous Dr Georgia Duckworth, of the Health Protection Agency, says "We're on a plateau (?)but there is some evidence that individual hospitals and departments – principally those with the worst rates – are getting better." One might reasonably ask Dr Georgina quite what a plateu is and how it applies to the graph at the head of this article. Perhaps she could be familiarised with the expression "Straws, grasping at?"

So since 1995, when the Department of Health issued guidance that gave NHS Trust chief executives overall responsibility for ensuring the provision of effective infection control arrangements.

Hospital Acquired Infections have increased

Deaths from Hospital Acquired Infections MRSA / CD have increased over all hospital admissions and especially in the elderly - plus 65 age group. (Note no-one has mentioned Multiple Drug Resitant TB (MDRTB) .... Yet)

Commenting on the figures Health Minister Lord Hunt said "... we are now starting to see significant reductions in rates of MRSA infections." ! and ..."We have also provided £50 million funding which will give a cash injection to trusts to boost infection control measures."

One might reasonably ask My Lord Hunt what he means by "significant reductions in rates of MRSA infections" Perhaps he could be familiarised with the expression "Straws, grasping at?" It should be pointed out that My Lord Hunt's NHS career began in 1972 when he joined Oxford Regional Hospital Board as a works study officer. See pic below.


A Useful history of MRSA / HAI and the threat of Multiple Drug resistant TB can be found here

Also a Daily Torygraph article 21st Jan 2007 How have we fallen so far behind in battle to beat MRSA? makes comparisons with other European countries experience and the failure to use a 2 phase policy of testing people admitted to hospital (preventing so called Community Acquired Infections) and isolation until cured used in successfully for many years in Holland.

Perhaps these two routes mught produce faster solution at lower costs than an obession with hand wringing washing and blaming the cleaners .. Lord Patel has for long and often said that of there was a Royal College of Hospital Cleaners you would never have heard of HAI's, MRSA, Clostridium.

Nose swabs and rapid MRSA testing - see New Scientist 6th February 2007 won't solve the problem but they (with 100% isolation facilities) will help.

Lord Patel reveals Tony cops a plea and no-one takes any notice

Fleet Street etc., is getting it's underwear in the mangle because the Dear Leader had a heart to heart with Plod on Friday.

Yet Lord Patel revealed this on Monday and no-one took any notice.

Clue is in the main gauche

Bush is not listening

Republican Sen. Susan Collins (R-Me), who is on the Senate Armed Services Committee has recently been to Iraq (pic) with Sen. John McCain (her third visit) where she saw Prime Minister Maliki who told her he was opposed (as she was) to the "surge" "My conclusion is that it would be a mistake to send more troops to Baghdad." - "Prime Minister Maliki did not welcome the prospect of more American troops" is how she tells her constituents on 9th Jan. A B Stottards "The Hill" blog (beautiful, blonde lissom hackette with appearances on Hardball, CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, C-SPAN, Court TV and PBS.) tells us how Susan Collins was one of 30 Senators President Bush met to pump up his emerging Kagan / Keane AEI war plan. (Collins is due for re-election '08)

This time it will be different – Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki who was over here the other day (as well as some of his Government opposition representatives) has bought in – so we can expect to find those missing benchmarks of political equilibrium, which means increasing troops actually will ...er .... help to eventually bring them home. Right?

Well according to Newsweek when she raised her personal experience Bush walked her to an advisor’s office and left her there before she could tell her story and experience. (Search in vain on the Senator Collins' "On Line Office" for any news of this meeting)

Other people talk of The President like Hitler in the Berlin bunker, not listening, hastening non-existent armies to defeat the Russians on the outskirts of the city. ( Paul Craig Roberts, Antiwar.com "The Surge: Political Cover or Escalation? ")

This is how he ends his argument ..

"Neocon godfather Norman Podhoretz set out the plan for Middle East conquest several years ago in Commentary magazine. It is a plan for Muslim genocide. In place of physical extermination of Muslims, Podhoretz advocates their cultural destruction by deracination. Islam is to be torn out by the roots and reduced to a purely formal shell devoid of any real beliefs.

Podhoretz disguises the neoconservative attack against diversity with contrived arguments, but its real purpose is to use the US military to subdue Arabs and to create space for Israel to expand.

Not enough Americans are aware that this is what the "war on terror" is all about."

Read about Senator Collins recent trip to Iraq and Afghanistan here. DO IT