Tory floods soundbite rebounds on Cameron

Report by Dave Sewell

Floods in Somerset (Pic: Guy Smallman)

Fierce storms with winds of over 100 miles an hour killed three people last week and left around one million without power.

Britain’s soil was already saturated with water from the wettest winter in centuries. The additional rain was enough to keep large parts of the Thames Valley, the Somerset Levels and other regions flooded.

David Cameron tried to put an end to embarrassing in-fighting by pledging that “money is no object” in the government’s response to floods.

In admitting that Britain is a “rich country” Cameron exposed the lies that he and all the main political parties have used to justify years of austerity.

But unfortunately his promise to splash the cash evaporated within 24 hours.

Tory transport secretary Patrick McLoughlin clarified that, “I don’t think it’s a blank cheque”.

Then Downing Street said any money would have to come out of existing budgets—no new funding was being made available.

Loans

So, the £31 million to rebuild rail lines in south west England was already promised last year.

And up to £750 million of the “help” for flood victims will take the form of loans from RBS, Lloyds, Barclays, HSBC, Santander and Nationwide.

Residents of flood-hit areas were furious. “All these politicians who’ve been going round welly-clad to spout their opinions, it’s all just talk,” said Duncan Williams from Chertsey, Surrey.

The reality is that the Tories slashed funding for food defences by almost £100 million a year.

Hundreds of projects that were planned after the Pitt review that followed the 2007 floods were cancelled.

These include ones that would have protected Burrowbridge in Somerset and Yalding in Kent where Cameron was keen to be photographed.

New Tory guidelines meant that flood defence projects had to guarantee they would prevent an average £8 of damage for every £1 they cost to build.

The figure was previously £5.

That effectively ruled out the river-dredging on the Somerset Levels that the Tories are now keen to champion.

It means that many homes are seen as not worth saving.

Cameron (pictured right) claimed that more has been spent on floods under the current four year period than in the previous four years. This sleight of hand only works if non-government funding is counted.

And he has refused to rule out planned job cuts at the Environment Agency.

Parliament’s committee for climate change warned that £500 million more is needed to make up the shortfall.

The real cost could be much higher.

It’s still a tiny fraction of what is wasted on bankers’ bonuses or Trident nuclear weapons.

But these are the Tories’ priorities, not the environment.

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Article first published in Socialist Worker - 22nd Feb, 2014 --

From the darker side of Grub Street to the lighter side of positive publishing: Profile of a Media Career...

Duncan Williams, tabloid dirt digger turned positive media guru : An article by Liz Hunter for theMediaNet.org

Duncan Williams has seen the very worst of the media world. Working as a tabloid ‘dirt-digger’ in the late 90s he spent his days seeking out celebrity stories in a culture where bribery, blackmail and stealing rubbish was the norm. Even born again Christian Jonathan Aitken once phoned to call him "a lying, underhanded s++t!." Now, though, Duncan owns his own ethical publishing company with a keen vision of building up struggling local and regional titles, and helping them to keep giving a voice to communities who are often drowned out in the noise of globalisation. He deliberately employs a proportion of ex-offenders and those recovering from addiction - and insists on a strongly positive editorial policy. In a nightmare market, the company is going from strength to strength. So how did he get from one to the other?

Duncan’s first contact with the media was through editing his school magazine, which he quickly renamed Bronco after a notorious brand of toilet roll. Writing gave him and his rebellious school friends a chance to let off steam, and he was hooked. At age 17 he moved from the West Country to London to attend film school, and went on to have a career in new media and film advertising throughout the 90s boom years. It was a destructive environment, with a heavy drinking culture, but even then Duncan says “writing was really a form of prayer, a way of getting in touch with my real myself when I couldn’t always express things well verbally".

A move into print at the end of the decade proved lucrative - whilst selling advertising for a series of high profile London magazine titles, Duncan realised that the real money was in sensationalist news and set himself up as a freelance investigator for all the major tabloids.

Kept on retainer, he would be given a brief by an editor and set about finding, or creating, a story about them. One well read middle England title, he recalls, would particularly like tittle tattle about society women and would pay very handsomely for insider gossip. It’s wasn’t just journalists that are paid by the papers - behind the staff whose names appear on by-lines there is a huge network of contacts receiving a monthly fee for feeding in stories, from celebrities’ close 'friends' to hairdressers and even doctors. It was not unusual to see suitcases of cash changing hands. Duncan had regular dealings with ‘Benji the Binman’ who made his fortune hunting for scandal in rubbish, and would also employ covert surveillance. Even if all that failed it didn’t mean the story was dead. “I clearly remember one day seeing a front cover of renown Sunday tabloid, a story about Robbie Williams, and knowing that 90% of it was distorted from fact, because I had engineered most of these embellishments. Robbie went on to sue and win a large out of court settlement, but most of the time, for the papers, it was worth it”. As several recent revelations about tabloid reporting practice confirm, he doesn’t think much has changed.

"Today, one rewarding amend for me, " says Duncan. " Is that I am able to commission the very celebrity targets of my past life to write positive pieces for my own publications. Obviously, celebrities have feelings too... and fortunately forgiveness is often one of them!"

Duncan says that there was no blinding light epiphany for him, just a realisation over several years that his life had “bottomed out”. He sought help with his heavy drinking and excessive lifestyle, and became a committed Catholic Christian. Not long after he made the decision to use all the money he had made to set up his own independent news company. With the support of some old tabloid colleagues, angel investors and some big hearted celebrities, this step forward seems to have worked out.

Duncan thinks it’s the most exciting time to be in papers, and that the laments over the death of journalism are misguided. Change is inevitable, but not disastrous, and can be a chance for good. There are huge opportunities for those who want to be influential people of integrity. He was able to buy shares in several large media companies after the price had dropped by 90% last year and is now on the board of five of these; “There are huge opportunities for those who want to be influential people of integrity. The digital revolution will eventually provide far more readers for local titles once they’ve embraced new platforms; Things like Kindle and the iPad provide an amazing way to get positive, ethical stories out there, and we’re showing that there is an audience for it.”

The titles owned by Duncan, and his group of positive independent news companies, are trying to make a stand against the “propaganda of negativity” that he thinks so shapes our thinking. Like many of us, and even having seen the very darkest side to the media, he passionately believes it can be a force for good.