File spoon-archives/marxism-thaxis.archive/marxism-thaxis_1998/marxism-thaxis.9803, message 15


From: "Russell Pearson" <r.pearson-AT-clara.net>
Subject: M-TH: What the papers say
Date: Sun, 1 Mar 1998 21:42:44 -0000


A delightfully boring British Sunday, but interesting things reported in
the the press stir the old anarchist in me:

Firstly we have the countryside march. Part of an unholy mix of
'country-folk' (as they like to be called), the ruralists are campaigning
for the right to hunt, (asserting that this is their right to difference
_and_ heritage); the right to stop poor townies trampling on their land
with a right to ramble ('Get Orff My Land' is a cliched farmer chant,
whilst said townies worry sheep with cries of 'Mint Sauce'); and to stop
new houses being built in the 'green-belt (land supposedly set aside for
pastoral usage and now threatened by the Labour Govt and that bete noir but
land-owner, Earl Spencer). 
The Murdoch owned  Sunday Times portrayed the march in London today (said
to be attracting 250,000 and thus the largest protest since the Poll Tax
debacles) as a backlash against Blair's nannyish authoritarianism:
"The marchers are convinced that they have harnessed a new national mood of
scepticism and defiance towards arbitrary legislation and the arrogance of
authority." 
Fat chance I say, but I like the sentiment.

Not quite celebrated in the Times is the Chris Patten affair. Patten was
the last British Governor of the former colony of Hong Kong. His
autobiography is reputed to be excellent, at least that's what one of
Harper Collins' employees reckons.  Harper Collins is owned by the Rupert
Murdoch, who, as is well known, has extensive interests in China. When the
BBC's World Service broadcast disparaging news of events in China, Murdoch
promptly dropped the service from his Star satellite system. Thus with the
hapless Patten: sent to Hong Kong after losing his seat in the commons by
friends of M Thatcher, whom he opposed, his biog is to be 'sent East' too.
His book is said to be less than kind towards the Chinese and Harper
Collins decided to axe it, claiming it was sub-standard. Not so, cried an
equally hapless Harper Collins employee, Stuart Proffitt- it's the best
piece of political writing I've read in 15 years. The poor fellow was
sacked for his crimes. The S Times now presents the whole event as a bitter
and twisted attack against their owner in chief by an unholy alliance of
anti-Murdochites. The Independent newsaper meanwhile cries 'liar'.

And finally, London Greenpeace are back in the news. Their last claim to
fame was in the McLibel case brought against them by McDonalds. Now they
are taking on another multi-national: Anita Roddick's Body Shop. The
apparent defender of inigeneous rights is to be accused of less than
wholesome green practices, in an aptly entitled pamphlet called 'What's
wrong with Body Shop'. Let's hope that the anarchist crusaders win this
one.
NB The S Times reports that the share price for Roddick's implausible
emporia is at an all time low and the company is coming under what it calls
'increasing pressure'...

Russ.


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