Star strewn sky

Update: Carter-Ruck have backed down.

The absolute right of the UK press to report on parliament was hard-won and is normally upheld in all matters.  However, the Guardian is reporting that lawyers Carter-Ruck have placed a gagging order on the paper.

Today twitter is awash with the trending topic #trafigura.  Trafigura is the company that recently settled a case after it was alleged to have dumped toxic waste in the sea near the Ivory Coast, and then to have attempted to cover up these actions.

Journalists have focused their attention on a particular Parliamentary question:

Paul Farrelly MP: "To ask the secretary of state for justice, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of legislation to protect (a) whistleblowers and (b) press freedom following the injunctions obtained in the High Court by (i) Barclays and Freshfields solicitors on 19 March 2009 on the publication of internal Barclays reports documenting alleged tax avoidance schemes and (ii) Trafigura and Carter-Ruck solicitors on 11 September 2009 on the publication of the Minton report on the alleged dumping of toxic waste in the Ivory Coast, commissioned by Trafigura."

The Guardian was previously injuncted by Barclays to prevent the publication of documents relating to tax avaoidance services, the Press Gazette reports.

Oil is dark and opaque.  It stains everything it touches.

The right wing in America is attacking President Obama's healthcare reform initiatives with reactionary vitriol. A man best described as ugly, by which I mean in spirit not just in terms of his river-corpse bloated physical presence, Rush Limbaugh, compared Obama to Hitler.

Protesters wave placards that feature Obama with a Hitler moustache, or that read 'FREE MARKET' or 'NO TO SOCIALISM'

The Nazis were overwhelmingly right wing, of course.  They did adopt seemingly 'left-wing' economic policies, but these were in reaction to a perceived world order of Jews and Masons, so were actually racially motivated rather than an attempt to distribute means of production in an egalatarian fashion. They were obviously anti-Marxist, and demonstrably anti-socialist, for instance the Social Democratic Party (SPD) was outlawed by Hitler in 1933.

Sarah Palin, well known for her intelligence and insight, has branded the reforms as 'evil' and has referred to Obama as chairing a 'death panel'. 

The essential argument is over universal vs individual (insured) healthcare. Amongst the furore, An American magazine , the Investor's Business Daily, went with an editorial (now amended) that read:

"People such as scientist Stephen Hawking wouldn't have a chance in the U.K., where the National Health Service would say the life of this brilliant man, because of his physical handicaps, is essentially worthless."

Professor Hawking was born in the UK and lives here, as he has done his entire life. He has recently been a patient at an NHS hospital.

His response appeared in the Guardian:

"I wouldn’t be here today if it were not for the NHS. I have received a large amount of high-quality treatment without which I would not have survived."

There is room for debate, but the hyperbolic and disingenuous rubbish of the right is just idiotic.  And there are ulterior motives in some cases, a US lobby group attacking the reforms is funded by a private health insurance lobby.

In other health news.  Rabbis are flying over Israel playing trumpets to ward off swine flu.