After reflecting on last week, I realised that I had panicked and did not think that the best thing that I could of done was to of came in and seen if I could of salvaged anything out of my shots to meet my deadline. Well a lesson learnt and a new week to make amends, the only problem I had across the weekend was finding a story.
the start of a new week at WINOL began with the news meeting on Monday and I had found a story where Winchester City Council had announced a budget deficit of £825,000 and was looking at a story with the angle of where the money had gone and who was to blame. However, Chris Horrie suggested I went with a different angle and look at who may be affected by the deficit and the potential resulting budget cuts.
I took this advice and contacted the Winchester Church Nightshelter, a charity that had it's funding cut twice in the last three years by the city council who agreed to an interview the following afternoon. I had already arranged a interview with Councillor George Beckett, the leader of Winchester City Council to get his views on the matter.
Tuesday was straightforward as I was able to conduct both of my interviews with relative ease and gain some interesting quotes, which could be used in the story. I filmed a variety of different shots that would be used as cut away for my interviews and used throughout the story. I finished the day with recording my piece to camera and taking Angus's advice from week one, I ensured that I finished the story with my PTC and not at the beginning.
Then it came to the part of the week I am not a fan of in the slightest, editing. I was able to cut my footage down and structured the story and realised that I could finish the last few bits on Wednesday morning, so I decided to call it a night. I had noted down that I needed to film a couple more shots and record my voice over again in the morning as some of the audio in my initial voiceover was either distorted or my speech was slurred.
Wednesday morning I was able to film my last few shots and record my voice over again and thought that I had finished the story. However, I encountered a couple of legal issues as in two of my shots where number plates on cars were visible and I would have to edit the footage to ensure they were not visible. Thanks to Gareth and Will who helped me cut the shots down and delete the number plates from the clips.
This did leave me with a lack of usable shots, therefore I had to reuse a couple of my shots again, but I was able to complete my story on time and without any major problems. I was now looking forward to the bulletin at three, full of optimism and looking forwards to the comments of WINOL's guest editor for this week: Rachael Canter from BBC South.
Debrief
Rachael felt that I had a very good voice and delivery and told the story well. She advised that I could of taken further hold on my angle, I could of tried and planned ahead and tried to of filmed an interview with one of the homeless people affected as that could of possible made it the top story.
She also advised that in my piece to camera that I ensure I always keep my eyes centre down the camera as there was a moment where I looked down to check my script. This is key as I need to ensure that I am engaging with my audience and always keep constant eye contact with the camera.
Angus Scott then gave his feedback on my story and felt again that I had an interesting, engaging voice and quoted that he can could definitely see me as "A regional BBC reported in 6 to 7 years." That was an encouraging piece of feedback, but I know not to get carried away as there is much more I have to do and I need to try and make every story better than the previous one.
He also advised that I ensure that I gain a variety of different shots in able to gain a varied aspect of the story and keep the viewer engaged. I also was told I need to ensure that when interviewing someone that I am at the same height and level as my interviewee. This was evident when I interviewed Michele Price as she was looking up at me and I need to make the interview look as natural as possible.
Other key points that I picked up from the debrief from the bulletin as an whole was to use the skill of favouring in interviews. This is where you point the gun mic to yourself when asking questions that you want to be heard. We also had another banned phrase to be added to the list and this was be the last time I will type "Only time will tell."
This week has been a much more encouraging week, but I need to ensure that I do even better with my story next week and take the feedback on board and make the changes they have advised happen.
Sunday, 16 October 2011
Sunday, 9 October 2011
Seminar paper on Tabloid Nation
Tabloid Nation is the story about the history of The Daily Mirror. Albert Harmsworth created The Daily Mirror on 2nd November 1903 and was seen as the first Tabloid newspaper. Harmsworth, who was later to be known as Lord Northcliffe had already established himself as a media mogul thanks to the creation of his successful newspaper The Daily Mail in 1896.
However, Lord Northcliffe wanted to create the first newspaper, which was “produced for and by gentlewomen.” There were two key problems he had identified and that was Women in the early 20th century could not write and did not have the desire to learn to read. Northcliffe wanted to change that and he hired Hamilton Fyfe, the editor of The Morning Advertiser to help make his vision a reality.
The paper was initially a disaster and Fyfe’s first job was to fire the female staff, including the Daily Mirror’s first editor, Mary Howarth who had been a close alley to Lord Northcliffe as she has wrote for the women’s page of The Daily Mail.
Lord Northcliffe learnt from an early age that the key to gaining a reader’s attention is to entice to their greatest desires and treat them as common folk by entice them with prizes, but with questions that were near enough impossible to answer.
This was achieved with the creation of his first Magazine, Answers where he would create ridiculous competitions and offers, this included where in one edition he offered reader’s £200 of free “life insurance”, which would be paid to the family of anyone killed in a railway accident. This was smart because in the beginning of the 20th century poverty was rife and £200 was a lot of money to many people and resulted in Answers having over 700,000 for one competition and increased circulation dramatically.
Northcliffe because known as “The Chief” and he hired Kennedy “KJ” Jones to spearhead the written format of the mission. KJ had previously worked for William Randolph Hurst’s premier newspaper, The New York Morning Journal and was a very experienced journalist who was not afraid to speak his mind and this was constant throughout his stay at The Daily Mirror.
The Daily Mirror was to be written in a way to ensure that everyone would be able to read the paper and understand, which was key to Northcliffe's vision. It was not just the words that were key to the operation as Northcliffe hired Hannen Swaffer, who would save the paper and was the first photo Journalist. The Daily Mirror became the first British newspapers to show photographs on the front page.
The April 2 1904 edition was the first edition of “the photo paper” and a picture of King Edward VII and his family trebled circulation to 71,000. Fyfe and Swaffer played to the reader’s emotions and used “tear-jerking” photos to move the reader’s and drawn their interest in. This would change in 1907 when Fyfe left The Mirror to be replaced by another former employee of Hurst; Alexander Kenealy.
It was the words of Kenealy and the pictures of Swaffer that drove The Daily Mirror’s success forward. This included a story about a pony that was living in poor living conditions and a Mirror reporter was sent to buy the pony and rescue it. This was financed by Northcliffe and was then purchased by the Lord Mayoress of London. Again playing to the reader’s emotion, which is still the same today as any news story, which involving innocent groups like children and the elderly will sell newspapers.
Other successful tactics included Kenealy writing ridiculous stories, which any educated person would know was not true and knew that the majority of the readership would believe his every word. The defining moment of The Daily Mirror would be on 14th May 1910 when Swaffer had obtained photos of the body of King Edward VII and decided to use them on the front page and this resulted in a then world-recording breaking 2,013,000 copies of The Daily Mirror were sold that day.
Swaffer and Kenealy knew that they were to face severe backlash from the Royal Family, but they both liked the prospect of being held in a tower, but Queen Alexandria reacted by saying that she allowed The Mirror to print the photos as it was her” favourite paper.” This expressed two key elements of today’s Tabloid newspapers, which are the press’s fascination with the Royal Family and the duty to never reveal your sources even if it means you end up in prison.
Lord Northcliffe was starting to dislike the newspaper he founded and the tactics of Swaffer who he felt was damaging the paper reputation. This was never more so than on April 15th 1912 when Swaffer wanted to use the every page in the newspaper to show pictures of The Titanic, which had sunk the previous evening. However, Northcliffe felt that it would be more respectful to have a well written-news story, but Swaffer had his way and every page of The Mirror had pictures of the ship, apart from the back page. This strained relationship is similar to the relationship of Charles Foster Kane and Jebediah Leland in Citizen Kane, which is ironically based on the life of William Randolph Hurst.
After another scandal Swaffer “sacked himself”, but throughout the rest of his life he portrayed himself as “The Pope of Fleet Street” as he claimed he was “The Journalist with 20 million readers.” He will still be seen as the person who invented and established photojournalism.
Lord Northcliffe finally cut his ties from The Daily Mirror in 1910, but it was not until late 1914 on the eve of World War One where he sold his remaining shares to his Brother Lord Rothermere for £100,000. Northcliffe was to try his hand at politics, much like his American namesake Hurst, but much like Hurst his attempted failed and he was to be greatly affected by mental problems throughout the rest of his life until his death on August 14 1922.
Unlike his brother Lord Rothermere did not care for Journalism and was only interested in making money out of his latest business acquisition. World War One would turn out to be his benefactor as sales of the paper grew from 1.2 to 1.7 million copies daily and thanks to Hannen Swaffer’s apprentice, Guy Bartholomew the pictures in The Daily Mirror painted the true picture of the war for the eyes of the British People.
After the war, The Daily Mirror suffered under the cost-cutting measure of Rothermere and was neglected, lost it’s northern premises and was again seen as the forgot member of Rothermere Media Empire.
The Free Gift War in 1922 damaged The Daily Mirror as their rival The Daily Herald try to obtain readers by any means necessary and this included giving free gifts to draw readers in at any cost. This tactic would be copied by all of the other national newspapers in The United Kingdom and for Rothermere this meant protecting his key investment, The Daily Mail and left The Daily Mirror neglected.
Rothermere started to invest his money in paper mills across the Atlantic in Canada, but in 1929 The Wall Street Crash demolished all of his profits and William Randolph Hurst was forced to close many of his newspapers. Rothermere was also affected and realised he had to keep his money direct towards The Daily Mail.
The reputation of The Daily Mirror was changed in 1931 when Lord Rothermere started to broadcast his fascist views in his newspapers and formed the United Empire political party. He had been influenced by several trips to Germany where he attended the rallies of Nazi leader, Adolf Hitler, who he also befriend. Rothermere would reflect these views to his political propaganda, which he foliated in The Daily Mirror and The Daily Mail.
It was not until 1934 when The Daily Mirror was given a true burst of life when Harry Guy Bartholomew created the “Bartland”, which was a system that allowed photos to be sent through radio wires and established links between Britain and America. This was the groundwork for what would be the restoration of The Daily Mirror in the vision of “Bart.”
Lord Northcliffe, Lord Rothermere, William Randolph Hearst and Charles Foster Kane were all men who were at one time or another was a leader of mass media empires. They all strived to be the voice of the people and too have their political vision made reality. However, all of them even though one is fictional would realise that this dream was simply just that and that all they wanted was to be respected by everyone. What they have all done thought in film and reality is establishing the Tabloid newspaper that we read today.
Saturday, 1 October 2011
WINOL dummy edition..... We are experiencing some technical difficulties
Well it has been nice to have a chance to relax as it's the weekend and the weather is the best I've seen it all summer.... The bulk of this week has been learning and getting to grips with the experience of Winchester News Online and this week I have learnt a lot of lessons.
My overall experience of my first week is to take nothing for granted and everything that could of possibly gone wrong this week went wrong. However, it was a positive as it allowed me to feel what it is like to be a news reporter under pressure and I have realised how fast-paced and demanding the role is. I knew that my role as Political Correspondent would be very demanding and luckily my background knowledge into local politics helped me out.
I think was overall news package was below-average, but I did not expect to come shooting out the blocks on my first week and needed to make the mistakes to show where I needed to improve. I felt that the interview was the strongest part of the story and would like to thank Julie for helping me film. Councillor Stephen Godfrey was very helpful as he was straight to the point and explained the true extent of the parking permit issue. The wind did effect the sound quality, but then you can not always control the weather sometimes, but it is key that the gun mic is used in most instances as it can guard from certain weather conditions.
The main problem I had was with my choice of camera shots as most of my shots were either out-of-focus or were blue, which was down to me not correcting the white balance for every shot. This stopped me from using many of my shots and left me to use only a few of the shots, but I did not get the key shots and the subject of the new story. Therefore, I need to ensure that I use a variety of key shots, which establish the story for the viewer to understand when they are watching.
The camera problems I had meant that I had to increase the duration of my piece to camera. I felt that my piece to camera was very weak in the fact I felt that I should of looked more closely at the camera and needed to keep my eye focused and not squinted. The positive from the piece to camera I felt was my voice over as I felt I explained the story and that the voice training I did over the summer had worked as have tried to remove my voice of it's regional tone and accent.
After the first "dummy" edition of WINOL we all went back into Tab where Angus gave his overall opinions on the first edition and gave the reporters some key advice on what not to do in our next news story. This included:
* Do not start your story with a piece to camera.
* Don't say "I talked to".
* Ensure the white balance is sorted and the focus is settled before you film your shots.
* Use a range of different camera shots and keep them relevant to the topic of your news story.
* Do not use more than 12 seconds of footage per interview.
* Keep your audio constant throughout.
* Get another member of the WINOL team to read direct quotes.
This week has been a challenge and I hope that I have learnt from the mistakes and will ensure my story for next week is nailed on and will impress the first guest editor.
My overall experience of my first week is to take nothing for granted and everything that could of possibly gone wrong this week went wrong. However, it was a positive as it allowed me to feel what it is like to be a news reporter under pressure and I have realised how fast-paced and demanding the role is. I knew that my role as Political Correspondent would be very demanding and luckily my background knowledge into local politics helped me out.
I think was overall news package was below-average, but I did not expect to come shooting out the blocks on my first week and needed to make the mistakes to show where I needed to improve. I felt that the interview was the strongest part of the story and would like to thank Julie for helping me film. Councillor Stephen Godfrey was very helpful as he was straight to the point and explained the true extent of the parking permit issue. The wind did effect the sound quality, but then you can not always control the weather sometimes, but it is key that the gun mic is used in most instances as it can guard from certain weather conditions.
The main problem I had was with my choice of camera shots as most of my shots were either out-of-focus or were blue, which was down to me not correcting the white balance for every shot. This stopped me from using many of my shots and left me to use only a few of the shots, but I did not get the key shots and the subject of the new story. Therefore, I need to ensure that I use a variety of key shots, which establish the story for the viewer to understand when they are watching.
The camera problems I had meant that I had to increase the duration of my piece to camera. I felt that my piece to camera was very weak in the fact I felt that I should of looked more closely at the camera and needed to keep my eye focused and not squinted. The positive from the piece to camera I felt was my voice over as I felt I explained the story and that the voice training I did over the summer had worked as have tried to remove my voice of it's regional tone and accent.
After the first "dummy" edition of WINOL we all went back into Tab where Angus gave his overall opinions on the first edition and gave the reporters some key advice on what not to do in our next news story. This included:
* Do not start your story with a piece to camera.
* Don't say "I talked to".
* Ensure the white balance is sorted and the focus is settled before you film your shots.
* Use a range of different camera shots and keep them relevant to the topic of your news story.
* Do not use more than 12 seconds of footage per interview.
* Keep your audio constant throughout.
* Get another member of the WINOL team to read direct quotes.
This week has been a challenge and I hope that I have learnt from the mistakes and will ensure my story for next week is nailed on and will impress the first guest editor.
Thursday, 15 September 2011
I can't believe it every day and every night....got caught queue jumping at Gatwick and Britain's racist slurs were in sight.... Kelis, an old man and Britain pull of a UN Racism event.... Britain again promotes itself in a negative light to the worl
So today I am going to take a sidestep from politics and refer to a topic, which has caused me to think of how our national pride and identity may have suffered two damaging blows in the space of 24 hours. First we will focus on what has turned into the main trending topic on Twitter, involving American R&B singer Kelis which had claimed she was racially abused and discriminated against at Gatwick airport when she jumped the queue at passport control.
This is where it is claimed that a man took offence to the queue jumping and according to Kelis on her Twitter was alleged to of been called a "disgusting Nigerian" and "kunta kinte", which is a character from the slavery novel Roots by Alex Haley. This was said in front of Kelis's two-year old Son Knight and over 50 people also queuing at passport control. Over the course of today more details of the story have been released through Kelis's Twitter, which have included that the racist remarks seemed to have happened after the flight from Gatwick to Spain where Kelis has claimed that the man continued to call her a "slave" and obliged that she called him "sir", but this occured at passport control in Spain, not at Gatwick.
With all this information being released and the Home Office announcing they will take no action into the matter because the incident that took place was from a "member of the public" and because Kelis did not make a formal complaint. This could be seen as the Home Office following formal rules and regulations, but I think this is another example of an old fashioned way of thinking because even though it is only one individual it seems that we are trying to forget that any form of racism is wrong and should not be treated with contempt and should be treated with the most highest severity.
Then we can look at the other part of today's news that I feel has shown once again that sometimes Britain can be seen as part of the problem, even though we do help fight to bring a solution. Today was the beginning of events commemorating 10th anniversary of the United Nations World Conference on racism in South Africa and Prime Minister David Cameron announced that the UK would not be sending anyone over the commemorate the occasion and have "withdrawn" their invitation. This has been done due to the events of the original conference 10 years ago, which the Prime Minister felt was overshadowed by the immoral acts of "deplorable anti-semisitsm."
Now I fully agree with the Prime Minister when the conference took place days prior to the events of 9/11 and that the event was overshadowed by protests of Israel treatment of the Palestinians people by the Arab nations and the anti-semistic world of the draft documents, which led to the original withdrawal of the United States and Canada from the original conference, but the world has moved on since. I think that it would show a sign of unity that the UK agrees and joins the UN's stance on not tolerating any form of racism or abuse against human rights.
The conference has again been boycotted by the United States and Canada, as well as Australia, Italy and Israel, but the argument here is it a show of unity boycotting an event that was overshadowed by forms of racism or is it ignorance where these countries should be uniting in the continued fight against racism and equality across the world. It would show a sign that our government, as well as other are united in this cause and that any problems that the world face's is tackled in an united cause and not ignore the problem by boycotting an event.
We live in one of the most diverse multi-cultural societies in the world and racism is not something that is a problem with the majority, it is only the minority that cause this issue. What we need to realise those is sometimes it takes a twitter rant from a famous singer to spark an debate that will also be rife in society and I felt I needed to comment about something that gets on my nerves when you see something you want to speak up.
I am also not saying that the government do not tackle the problem of racism at home and abroad because we do, but I do not feel ignore chance to show a sign of united solidarity is the way to do it.
Tomorrow we will be back to normal with my political views of the day, but I just needed a forum to vent my opinion on something that is not right.
Kelis who today felt that the UK showed how they are "racially decades behind progression."
This is where it is claimed that a man took offence to the queue jumping and according to Kelis on her Twitter was alleged to of been called a "disgusting Nigerian" and "kunta kinte", which is a character from the slavery novel Roots by Alex Haley. This was said in front of Kelis's two-year old Son Knight and over 50 people also queuing at passport control. Over the course of today more details of the story have been released through Kelis's Twitter, which have included that the racist remarks seemed to have happened after the flight from Gatwick to Spain where Kelis has claimed that the man continued to call her a "slave" and obliged that she called him "sir", but this occured at passport control in Spain, not at Gatwick.
With all this information being released and the Home Office announcing they will take no action into the matter because the incident that took place was from a "member of the public" and because Kelis did not make a formal complaint. This could be seen as the Home Office following formal rules and regulations, but I think this is another example of an old fashioned way of thinking because even though it is only one individual it seems that we are trying to forget that any form of racism is wrong and should not be treated with contempt and should be treated with the most highest severity.
Then we can look at the other part of today's news that I feel has shown once again that sometimes Britain can be seen as part of the problem, even though we do help fight to bring a solution. Today was the beginning of events commemorating 10th anniversary of the United Nations World Conference on racism in South Africa and Prime Minister David Cameron announced that the UK would not be sending anyone over the commemorate the occasion and have "withdrawn" their invitation. This has been done due to the events of the original conference 10 years ago, which the Prime Minister felt was overshadowed by the immoral acts of "deplorable anti-semisitsm."
Now I fully agree with the Prime Minister when the conference took place days prior to the events of 9/11 and that the event was overshadowed by protests of Israel treatment of the Palestinians people by the Arab nations and the anti-semistic world of the draft documents, which led to the original withdrawal of the United States and Canada from the original conference, but the world has moved on since. I think that it would show a sign of unity that the UK agrees and joins the UN's stance on not tolerating any form of racism or abuse against human rights.
The conference has again been boycotted by the United States and Canada, as well as Australia, Italy and Israel, but the argument here is it a show of unity boycotting an event that was overshadowed by forms of racism or is it ignorance where these countries should be uniting in the continued fight against racism and equality across the world. It would show a sign that our government, as well as other are united in this cause and that any problems that the world face's is tackled in an united cause and not ignore the problem by boycotting an event.
We live in one of the most diverse multi-cultural societies in the world and racism is not something that is a problem with the majority, it is only the minority that cause this issue. What we need to realise those is sometimes it takes a twitter rant from a famous singer to spark an debate that will also be rife in society and I felt I needed to comment about something that gets on my nerves when you see something you want to speak up.
I am also not saying that the government do not tackle the problem of racism at home and abroad because we do, but I do not feel ignore chance to show a sign of united solidarity is the way to do it.
Tomorrow we will be back to normal with my political views of the day, but I just needed a forum to vent my opinion on something that is not right.
Kelis who today felt that the UK showed how they are "racially decades behind progression."
Wednesday, 14 September 2011
The day that the trade unions realised that they picked the wrong Miliband for the job
The relationship between the Labour Party and the trade unionists has always been close, dating back to the formation of the Labour Party during the late 19th century by the trade unions. The keynote speech from the Labour leader during the annual TUC conference is usually compared to a best man speech at a wedding. A speech full of rapture and applause with a few jokes thrown in as well. However, this was not the case yesterday when the next chapter of “Red Ed” took place yesterday afternoon.
During Ed Miliband’s speech he was heckled and jeered when he admitted that the strikes taken by public sector workers over the summer was a “mistake.” The Labour leader was referring to the on going saga between the trade unions and the Coalition Government in respect of the changes to pension reform. This was not seen as the best move by the audience at the TUC conference as trade unions currently provides 80% of Labour's funding.
Today it has been announced that the four leading trade unions in the United Kingdom will consult members over the possibility of strike ballots over the pension reform. If the strike action is passed them potentially over 1.5 million public sector workers on strike, starting in November. The changes to pension reform would see public sector workers having to pay more money each month into their pension fund.
This has been met by fierce opposition from the trade unions who feel it is unfair that their members must pay more money at a time when public sector wages have been frozen and many public sector workers are losing their jobs or are being made redundant as a result of budget cuts. In theory, the Labour Party would normally back any action made by trade unions, however in this case they feel that it is unfair to the general public who would suffer from days of no transport or for students whose education could suffer if their teachers are on strike.
David Prentis, the leader of Unison, the biggest trade union in the public sector who had today announced the possible is a strike action has said to the TUC conference that “Now is the time to make our stand” and has admitted that the trade unions could potentially be “vilified” by the general public. The government response has stated that the impending strikes would make the general public “angry” and that the increase in pension contributions is needed to support an ageing population. This has been expressed in the increase to the retirement age with people potentially working until the age of 70 by 2020.
Unison has stated that they have amassed a war chest of £32.4 million to help finance any impending strike action, which would be similar to the strike action that has taken place across Southampton over the summer. With having first-hand experience of how the strikes have affected the quality of the living in the Southampton area where wheelie bins have overflowed and the streets in Southampton have amassed a level of rubbish, which was close to becoming a health and safety hazard.
Now imagine this on a nationwide scale, imagine weeks without your bins being collected, the streets overflowing with rubbish and the increased possibility of transport networks being brought to a standstill with millions of commuters unable to get home… This is not the impending future we want to be living in.
I do agree that we have to save money on a nationwide scale, however I feel that the government should find different ways to save money or to have closer consultation with the trade unions to find a better solution to the problem. It is not just the workers who suffer, it is the general public as a whole whose livelihoods will be affected and may be brought to a complete standstill as a result of the impending strike action.
However, I feel that Ed Miliband and the entire Labour Party should work more closely with the trade unions, supporting the consultation process between them and the Coalition Government because ultimately he would not have been made Labour leader if it was not the change of votes from the trade unions in the final round of voting against his brother David earlier this year. In a time where there is high political unrest and where phone tapping and expense scandals have scarred the reputation of the British government, Ed Miliband needs to remember that it is not just the general public he needs to impress, it is the company's who support and fund his political vision.
In British politics you will never be able to please everyone, but in the case of the trade unions and the impending strike action that could affect the entire British nation it is up to the Coalition Government and the Labour Party to try and find a compromise, which will leave both parties happy and stop risking the tarnished reputation of which British politics has found itself in. If this is not the case then potentially we could see another Miliband taking the trip down from Sunderland in the foreseeable future and the final chapter of the tell of “Red Ed” may not be a happy one.
The strained relationship between the trade unions and Ed Miliband has turned a darker shade of Red
Tuesday, 13 September 2011
Have you seen the new map of the United Kingdom? It is painted Blue
Well it has been a long and turbulent summer and I thought it was finally time that I did a blog. With my impending role as Political Correspondent on Winchester News online drawing ever closer, today's events was the perfect excuse to begin my own form of political satire.
The General Election of 2015 will see the biggest change in the Commons in over a century. The proposed plans to slash the number of MPs by 50 to 600 in 2015 and will see each constituency have nearly the same number of voters. The proposals will see a radical shakeup in constituency boundaries with some seats being merged, some new seats being created and some lost altogether.
The proposed changes have seen some of the leading members of the Coalition Government positions come under threat. These include Chancellor George Osborne for the Conservatives, Business Secretary Vince Cable and Energy Minister Chris Huhne for the Liberal Democrats and Shadow Cabinet members Ed Balls and Tessa Jowell for Labour.
I will come back to the changes to the political landscape in the South later, but I would like to focus on one MP whose constituency boundaries have not changed, Prime Minister David Cameron. It is not surprising that the Prime Minister’s constituency, Witney is not affected by any of the changes proposed. However, it is The Liberal Democrats within the coalition government who are who are the worst affected in these changes. For the 77 MPs whose seats are not affected it is another day at the office, but for the remaining 583 MPs it is time to reapply for their own job.
Now let's take a closer look at how the proposed changes will affect the political landscape in the South. Across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight there will be many changes to political constituencies these will include the formation of the new seat for Hamble and Hedge End, as well as the lost seats of Romsey and Southampton North and Meon Valley to be replaced by the new constituencies of New Forest East and Romsey and Fareham and Horndean. This means that MPs like Caroline Noakes and George Hollingbery may lose their jobs. In the case where two political constituencies will merge into one, MPs who lose their seats will have the chance to contest to be representative of the newly formed constituency in the next General Election.
There are also MPs who will gain and lose political wards in the boundary change. These include the Eastleigh constituency, which is currently held by Chris Huhne. The changes will see Huhne lose nearly half the voters in the Eastleigh seat and will gain around 39,000 from the surrounding Southampton Itchen and Winchester constituencies. This has made Chris Huhne one of the MPs most at risk of losing their seats in the next General Election.
In Hampshire one of the major changes, which has baffled me, is the change to the structure of the two Southampton seats and the newly formed seat of Hamble and Hedge End. In my constituency of Southampton Itchen the proposed changes would see the loss of the Bitterne ward, which includes the Thornhill area Southampton and the inclusion of the Bevois ward.
This is where I feel the proposed changes will have a negative effect because it will see areas of the city being represented by a completely different area outside of the city boundary and with these changes will it mean that the next changes will be the boundaries to local councils and unitary authorities.
What is clear is that the bias, which has affected the political landscape of the United Kingdom for over half a century, has still not been changed. The pledge of the government to have a fairer boundary limit were all MPs constituencies would be represented by roughly the same amount of people has not been changed. The government has said that the changes will say £12 million a year but in reality it is the equivalent of a large-scale restructuring plan and Conservative corporate takeover.
MPs who are most at risk and are now staring defeat in the face will now have to decide whether to contest the proposed changes in the 12 week consultancy period up to the end of December or face having to reapply for a new constituency. However, this could see MPs moving to an area where they can beat their fellow colleague to a “safe seat."
If this is the case then I would advise that all Conservative MPs that Devon and Cornwall may be a nice place to move house from within the foreseeable future and any Labour MP that is looking to secure their job in the next General Election to set their Sat Nav to find the quickest route to Sunderland as soon as possible.
Within the next 12 weeks we will see arguing and moaning of every MP who feels that these changes could see them out of a job and joining the unemployment line. These changes were laid out to ensure there was a less biased political structure within the House of Commons, but it looks as if the real winners are the Conservatives who are likely to take a stranglehold within the House of Commons if the boundary commission's plans to England put in place.
If I was David Cameron then I would not be worried about losing his job at the next general election as it may be the case that the Conservatives will become the sole party in charge at 10 Downing Street. For many MPs today, their future may be summed up in the words of Conservative MP, Andrew Percy who has joked “I’m looking for a job.” If I were Andrew Percy, I would hope I’m not eating those words in a year’s time.
The futures bright, the future is Conservative... Possibly a steal of copyright, but this is what we could be waking up to the morning of the General Election in 2015.
Sunday, 29 May 2011
HCJ: The Dreyfus Affair and J'Accuse you of having to read this blog (Anything is worth reading when there is an affair involved)
Now I am afraid to say that this affair will not involve any sex, but it does have plentys of scandal. This scandal in particular involves a Captain in the French army, A corrupt governments and a journalist who wrote one of the most signifcant pieces of journalism in history.
Before we go any further into the scandal, it is time we open the classroom door and divulged into another history lesson. The year is 1871 and the French army have just been defeated by the Prussians in the Battle of Sedan. The Franco-Prussian war was brought about the Prussians and their leader Bismark who was trying to unify the Prussian and German states. The French army were led by Napoleon III, who unlike his namesake was not as ruthless a leader or a tactician.
This led to the eventual defeat of the French at Sedan and this lead to the provisional French government signing a armistice, but this came at a heavy price. They lost the Alsace Lorraine, which would become part of the newly formed German state and they had to pay a vast amount of money to Germany. This did not go down too well in Paris, who felt that the French government had let them down. However, there was a problem, the Germans had surrounded Paris and eventually seized control of the French capital, prior to the signing of the agreement.
This led to the Paris Commune where the landlords returned to Paris and demand the rent that they had missed out of and with interest on top. The new French national government had established control of the country, but this did not sit well with the proletariats who rebelled and this lead to the formation of the Paris commune between March and May 1871. The Commune had a strong female influence, as well as a combination of moderate socialists, left-wing activists and anarchists.
Karl Marx celebrated "the dictatorship of the proletariats" and had introduced social reforms, which separated the church and the state. At the same time it established better working rights and conditions for the proletariats. This did not sit well with the French government who returned and ruthlessly slaughtered the Commune and between 20,000 and 30,000 people were executed. Even though the Paris Commune was short lived it had a huge impact on the future of European politics.
Now that the history lesson if out the way, we can go back to why we are all reading this blog (seeing as the Alexa ranking competition has now ended and I finished with a Europa League spot). The Dreyfus Affair started in 1894 with the French still trying to rebuild their stature within Europe after the humiliation of 1871. They had begun to build a empire throughout Africa and Asia, but they were still concerned that they were still humiliated and decided to blame the defeat of the Jewish population of France.
The French believed that the Jewish had formed a syndicate which worked to undermine the French people and this led to the blaming of two Jewish businessmen in the failure of the Panama land scandal. This laid the foundation for the first example of anti-semanticism in France who were very materialistic with the army being their main symbol of identity.
The main example of this was the capture of Captain Alfred Dreyfus who was accused of treason by the French army. Dreyfus was accused of leaking secret documents from the French military, which was found in a bin in the German embassy by a French spy. Dreyfus was used as the scapegoat due to his intelligence and his upbringing, which had been in the Alsace Lorraine region.
Dreyfus was secretly trialled and found guilty of treason and was sentenced to life on Devil's Island. The trial pitted the right who were represented by the Army, the Catholic Church and the Monarchists against the left who were represented by the Socialists, the Jews and the intellectuals.
Later on a French officer looked further into the case and found that the evidence given in the trial was wrong. It showed who the real culprit was, an office called Esterhazy, however the officer's superiors dismissed the evidence. They quoted this by asking the officer "What is it to you if a Jew rots on Devil's Island?"
The stop the speculation, The French military put Esterhazy on trial and was acquitted. This did not sit well with Journalist Emile Zola who had been reporting on the trial. Zola published his feelings in the article J'Accuse on January 13 1898 on the front page of L'Aurore as a direct letter to the then French President, Felix Faure.
Zola accused the French military of being anti-semetic against Dreyfus and stated that the Faure was unaware of the truth. Lieutenant Colonel Du Paty De Clam was the office who carried out the Dreyfus affair, but Zola felt that he used Dreyfus as a scapegoat and did not take the case seriously. De Clam was described by Zola as the 1st culprit of the affair.
The memo, which was the property of Colonel Sandherr "disappeared". The memo had come from the office of the high command. Commander De Clam automatically frames Dreyfus without proper investigation. Zola claimed that De Clam had hypnotised the other officers of the high command to follow his orders. Zola also claimed the charge as "a childish affair" and "the most impudent of hoaxes."
The affair was carried out under closed doors and Dreyfus's intelligence was seen as a crime, according to Zola. All of the officers involved in the affair belonged to the war offices. Zola claimed that Commander De Clam was the clerical medium after the hunting of the "dirty jews" who was as far left politically as you could go.
The Esterhazy affair was corrupt as the memo was not mentioned and The High Command ensured he was found not guilty. Major Picquart was seen as a honest man by Zola as he pleaded that the truth was revealed, but was seen on a mission to Tunisia to keep him quiet, but was not told this otherwise. Every other general in the High Command was accused of protecting Esterhazy, when really is the Commander De Clam who was pulling the strings.
Zola praised Major Picquart as being the only honest officer in the High Command. General De Pellieux is accused by Zola by leading a investigation where "rascals are transfigured and decent people are dirtied." Zola then accuses the council of war of being corrupt and dishonest. This was expressed in the quote, "The Dreyfus Affair is the affair of the department of war."
Zola describes the French President as a "prisoner of the constitution" as he is unaware of the ongoing corruption. Zola concludes J'Accuse by accusing 7 groups of people of conspiring or being apart of the Dreyfus Affair. Zola accused them of the following:
1. Commander Du Paty De Clam for being the workman of this miscarriage of justice.
2. General Mercier of being an gutless accomplice.
3. General Billot of ignoring the evidence of Dreyfus's innocence.
4. General De Boisdeffre and General Gonse as accomplices of the same crime.
5. General De Pellieux and Commander Rovary of performing a rogue investigation.
6. The three handwriting experts of submitting fraudulent and untrue reports.
7. The officers of the war of an unfair press campaign in order to foil the public and cover up the truth.
Zola fled to London after the publication of J'Accuse because of fears of being sentenced to Prison over the article, but the article lead to Anti-Jewish riots across France. However, the French army started to recognise of the affair and brought Dreyfus back from Devil's Island a broken man, but was retried and found guilty with "extenuating circumstances."
Emile Zola article was revolutionary and was one of the first prime examples of investigative journalism and also established a new type of Journalism, which when we discussed this in the seminar we concluded that this type of Journalism is not seen as much anymore in modern western society. It is a type of social Journalism where you write or broadcast about something that you a passion for and that you want to show how something is wrong.
J'Accuse is seen today still as one of the most influential articles in the history of Journalism and is a prime example of if you express your disapproval of something and speak up, then eventually maybe the right thing will be done.
Before we go any further into the scandal, it is time we open the classroom door and divulged into another history lesson. The year is 1871 and the French army have just been defeated by the Prussians in the Battle of Sedan. The Franco-Prussian war was brought about the Prussians and their leader Bismark who was trying to unify the Prussian and German states. The French army were led by Napoleon III, who unlike his namesake was not as ruthless a leader or a tactician.
This led to the eventual defeat of the French at Sedan and this lead to the provisional French government signing a armistice, but this came at a heavy price. They lost the Alsace Lorraine, which would become part of the newly formed German state and they had to pay a vast amount of money to Germany. This did not go down too well in Paris, who felt that the French government had let them down. However, there was a problem, the Germans had surrounded Paris and eventually seized control of the French capital, prior to the signing of the agreement.
This led to the Paris Commune where the landlords returned to Paris and demand the rent that they had missed out of and with interest on top. The new French national government had established control of the country, but this did not sit well with the proletariats who rebelled and this lead to the formation of the Paris commune between March and May 1871. The Commune had a strong female influence, as well as a combination of moderate socialists, left-wing activists and anarchists.
Karl Marx celebrated "the dictatorship of the proletariats" and had introduced social reforms, which separated the church and the state. At the same time it established better working rights and conditions for the proletariats. This did not sit well with the French government who returned and ruthlessly slaughtered the Commune and between 20,000 and 30,000 people were executed. Even though the Paris Commune was short lived it had a huge impact on the future of European politics.
Now that the history lesson if out the way, we can go back to why we are all reading this blog (seeing as the Alexa ranking competition has now ended and I finished with a Europa League spot). The Dreyfus Affair started in 1894 with the French still trying to rebuild their stature within Europe after the humiliation of 1871. They had begun to build a empire throughout Africa and Asia, but they were still concerned that they were still humiliated and decided to blame the defeat of the Jewish population of France.
The French believed that the Jewish had formed a syndicate which worked to undermine the French people and this led to the blaming of two Jewish businessmen in the failure of the Panama land scandal. This laid the foundation for the first example of anti-semanticism in France who were very materialistic with the army being their main symbol of identity.
The main example of this was the capture of Captain Alfred Dreyfus who was accused of treason by the French army. Dreyfus was accused of leaking secret documents from the French military, which was found in a bin in the German embassy by a French spy. Dreyfus was used as the scapegoat due to his intelligence and his upbringing, which had been in the Alsace Lorraine region.
Dreyfus was secretly trialled and found guilty of treason and was sentenced to life on Devil's Island. The trial pitted the right who were represented by the Army, the Catholic Church and the Monarchists against the left who were represented by the Socialists, the Jews and the intellectuals.
Later on a French officer looked further into the case and found that the evidence given in the trial was wrong. It showed who the real culprit was, an office called Esterhazy, however the officer's superiors dismissed the evidence. They quoted this by asking the officer "What is it to you if a Jew rots on Devil's Island?"
The stop the speculation, The French military put Esterhazy on trial and was acquitted. This did not sit well with Journalist Emile Zola who had been reporting on the trial. Zola published his feelings in the article J'Accuse on January 13 1898 on the front page of L'Aurore as a direct letter to the then French President, Felix Faure.
Zola accused the French military of being anti-semetic against Dreyfus and stated that the Faure was unaware of the truth. Lieutenant Colonel Du Paty De Clam was the office who carried out the Dreyfus affair, but Zola felt that he used Dreyfus as a scapegoat and did not take the case seriously. De Clam was described by Zola as the 1st culprit of the affair.
The memo, which was the property of Colonel Sandherr "disappeared". The memo had come from the office of the high command. Commander De Clam automatically frames Dreyfus without proper investigation. Zola claimed that De Clam had hypnotised the other officers of the high command to follow his orders. Zola also claimed the charge as "a childish affair" and "the most impudent of hoaxes."
The affair was carried out under closed doors and Dreyfus's intelligence was seen as a crime, according to Zola. All of the officers involved in the affair belonged to the war offices. Zola claimed that Commander De Clam was the clerical medium after the hunting of the "dirty jews" who was as far left politically as you could go.
The Esterhazy affair was corrupt as the memo was not mentioned and The High Command ensured he was found not guilty. Major Picquart was seen as a honest man by Zola as he pleaded that the truth was revealed, but was seen on a mission to Tunisia to keep him quiet, but was not told this otherwise. Every other general in the High Command was accused of protecting Esterhazy, when really is the Commander De Clam who was pulling the strings.
Zola praised Major Picquart as being the only honest officer in the High Command. General De Pellieux is accused by Zola by leading a investigation where "rascals are transfigured and decent people are dirtied." Zola then accuses the council of war of being corrupt and dishonest. This was expressed in the quote, "The Dreyfus Affair is the affair of the department of war."
Zola describes the French President as a "prisoner of the constitution" as he is unaware of the ongoing corruption. Zola concludes J'Accuse by accusing 7 groups of people of conspiring or being apart of the Dreyfus Affair. Zola accused them of the following:
1. Commander Du Paty De Clam for being the workman of this miscarriage of justice.
2. General Mercier of being an gutless accomplice.
3. General Billot of ignoring the evidence of Dreyfus's innocence.
4. General De Boisdeffre and General Gonse as accomplices of the same crime.
5. General De Pellieux and Commander Rovary of performing a rogue investigation.
6. The three handwriting experts of submitting fraudulent and untrue reports.
7. The officers of the war of an unfair press campaign in order to foil the public and cover up the truth.
Zola fled to London after the publication of J'Accuse because of fears of being sentenced to Prison over the article, but the article lead to Anti-Jewish riots across France. However, the French army started to recognise of the affair and brought Dreyfus back from Devil's Island a broken man, but was retried and found guilty with "extenuating circumstances."
Emile Zola article was revolutionary and was one of the first prime examples of investigative journalism and also established a new type of Journalism, which when we discussed this in the seminar we concluded that this type of Journalism is not seen as much anymore in modern western society. It is a type of social Journalism where you write or broadcast about something that you a passion for and that you want to show how something is wrong.
J'Accuse is seen today still as one of the most influential articles in the history of Journalism and is a prime example of if you express your disapproval of something and speak up, then eventually maybe the right thing will be done.
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