DEMOCRACY v AUTHORITARIANISM Hungary and Poland

Two EU nations that have been steadily eroding basic elements of democracy under ultra-conservative (see Poland's abortion ban and both countries' homophobic laws) populist nationalists, who use EU warnings to whip up resentment against 'foreign' interference. Their attacks on democracy are striking in the weakening of judicial independence and media freedom.

Feb 2021 saw both countries take further steps to radically undermine - even force into bankruptcy - independent media. The Guardian reports:

Commercial TV channels, radio stations and web portals have gone off air in Poland in protest at tax proposals that critics say threaten independent media, a day after Hungary’s leading private radio station lost its broadcasting licence.

The European commission on Wednesday expressed concern for media freedom in the two countries, both of whose governments have been accused of acting to stifle opposition outlets and are under investigation for alleged rule-of-law violations.

Polish private media, much of which is highly critical of the nationalist ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party, ran slogans such as “This used to be your favourite show” and “Media without choice” to highlight the planned tax on their advertising revenues.

4 KEY POLICY AREAS: immigration

THE 4 POLICY AREAS TO TRACK

Education

Environment

Economy

Immigration

Keep up to date notes on the major NI (SDLP, Sinn Fein, Alliance, UUP, DUP) and UK (Lab, Tory, Lib Dem) parties policies on these specific areas.

COURTS RULE HOME OFFICE ACTING ILLEGALLY AGAIN. SECRET NEW POLICY?

Guardian.

HOME SECRETARY TO BLOCK VISAS FOR COUNTRIES REFUSING TO ACCEPT RETURNED IMMIGRANTS

Guardian

UK THREATENS TO SEND IMMIGRANTS BACK TO EU COUNTRY THEY TRAVELLED FROM ... BUT THAT BREAKS INTERNATIONAL LAW + NO EU NATION WILL ACCEPT THEM (BBC)

Note also the return to a quota system; specific number limit/target which Blair brought in and Tories have kept repeating in manifestoes despite consistent failure to meet their targets.

UK insist that the first safe country a migrant reaches must be where they claim asylum.

UK PULLS OUT OF MEDITERRANEAN RESCUE SHIP SCHEME (Guardian)

There have been other such policies which lead to international condemnation: initially refusing to take in refugees from Calais (750 children were eventually taken in)

The left-wing v right-wing split on this is very simple, and very clearly reflected in newspaper coverage too. The 'hostile environment' that Theresa May brought in when Home Secretary (before she was PM), to make things as tough as possible for asylum seekers to put them off from coming here, is a big, ongoing story.

The UK government has repeatedly been found guilty of illegal practices linked to this, notably their deportations of many of the Windrush generation of Carribbean immigrants originally invited here

LEFT-WING

Broadly supportive of the right of asylum seekers to claim refuge in the UK

Support the right of foreign family members of immigrants to join them in the UK

Emphasize the positive economic benefit of immigrants

Celebrate multiculturalism as another positive impact

Oppose integration requirements like compulsory English and citizenship (knowledge, attitudes)

- reject the extent (if not the general need) of police/secret service scrutiny of Muslim communities for extremists/terrorists

Oppose immigration limits or links to income

- BUT concerned about economic migration from eastern European migrants undermining wage levels and working conditions

- BUT former leader Ed Miliband is typical of more 'centrist' Labour leaders (like Starmer???) with his notorious Controls on Immigration mug (condemned by the left-winger Diane Abbott)

-- Labour strategists argue they need a tougher line on immigration to win popular support, as demonstrated by the Brexit defeat

RIGHT-WING

Seek to restrict and undermine rights under international law to claim asylum in the UK

- aggressive policy to stop migrants from crossing UK borders (especially from Calais, France)

- restrict asylum seekers' right to work OR claim benefits OR use public services (especially healthcare: NHS)

- opposed EU efforts to divide Syrian asylum seekers through national quotas

- work with authoritarian regimes like Erdigan in Turkey to prevent migrants from reaching the EU

Opposed to allowing family members of legal immigrants to join them in UK

Emphasis on immigrants as an economic drain, putting strain on public services (schools, NHS)

See multiculturalism as wrong and harmful expression of political correctness, celebrate and promote a notional traditional British identity

Support compulsory integration measures like English lessons (oppose use of translators as waste of public money) and citizenship tests

- particularly concerned about the separatism/failure to integrate or accept/adopt British values of Muslim communities

- linked to this, strong police/secret service powers to monitor these communities for extremists or terrorists

Support annual limits on immigration (though consistently fail to meet these targets)

- much controversy over how this impacts the NHS, farming, universities and the sporting/cultural sectors

- favour income/wealth tests

NEWS STORIES 2021

TORIES LOVE IMMIGRATION!

When immigration matches up to other nationalist policies, in this case trying to look strong against China, even the most anti-immigration party can suddenly find some enthusiasm. PM Johnson has announced a programme to welcome potentially 10s of 1000s Hong Kong citizens, knowing this will greatly antagonise China - but please America in doing so. Guardian.

NEWS STORIES 2020

DECEMBER

PRITI PATEL DISMISSES LETTER BY 80 BLACK CRITICS CALLING FOR JAMAICA DEPORTATION FLIGHT CANCELLATION 'DO-GOODING CELEBRITIES'

IMMIGRATION LAWYERS REPORT MORE DEATH THREATS

Guardian details on the flights, campaign letters, death threats and Labour's opposition - though very low profile. Starmer isn't making this an issue, possibly further evidence that he's avoiding anything that seems clearly left-wing and would attract flak from the press. He's planning not even to vote against any Brexit deal, which is strongly linked to anti-immigration rhetoric and sentiment, though may be forced to drop this approach with a huge rebellion likely.

You can read the utterly different Daily Mail report, which mocks "leftie lawyers", here.

NOV

EHRC DECLARES HOSTILE ENVIRONMENT ILLEGAL

Yet another blow for the Tory tough stance on immigration. 

The Home Office broke equalities law when it introduced its hostile environment immigration measures, a critical report from the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has concluded.

The department now has a legal duty to review these policies to ensure they are not racially discriminatory, and that they comply with equalities legislation, the rights body announced. 

In the latest damning report on the Home Office’s record in relation to its hostile environment policies and the Windrush scandal, the EHRC study detected “a lack of commitment” within the Home Office to the importance of equality.

The report found “there was a narrow focus on delivering the political commitment of reducing immigration, and a culture where equality was not seen as important. Identifying risks to equality was therefore not encouraged.”

A series of hostile environment policies were introduced by Theresa May from 2012 during a drive to bring down net migration; the measures made it harder for people without documentation proving their right to be in the UK to get jobs, rent properties, access healthcare and open bank accounts. Large numbers of people who had the right to live in the UK, but no documentation, were adversely affected by the policies.

(Guardian).

HOME SECRETARY FOUND GUILTY BY COURTS OF IGNORING OFFICIAL POLICY

Priti Patel is a very controversial Home Secretary, previously sacked for secret meetings with Israeli officials, facing multiple accusations of bullying, repeatedly found guilty by the courts of breaching migrants' rights.

Equally true, she is a very popular figure on the right with her tough stance on immigration and asylum seekers, and her condemnations of 'lefty lawyers' who defend migrant rights (despite the legal profession warning about death threats that this caused).

So, this is far from the first ruling against her. She was ordered to stop the deportation of 3 asylum seekers. Guardian: The deportation of hundreds of asylum seekers who arrived in the UK on small boats could be halted after a judge ruled that the home secretary was departing from her own policy on identifying victims of trafficking.

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PRESS REGULATION

If you want to know how good press regulation is just ask me about The Rock ... snowflake!

Here's a case that may well in time define the failure of the 4th attempt at self-regulation, and the ongoing success of lobbying to prevent statutory regulation.

Mail on Sunday made false claims about Labour's tax plans

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2019/dec/09/ipso-rebukes-mail-on-sunday-over-labour-movers-tax-claim?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Gmail

The erroneous article was published in June, and the press regulator ruled on the inaccuracy in November. The MoS must now publish Ipso’s ruling on page 2 of its print edition and on the top half of its website for 24 hours. But because the paper sought a review of the process by which the decision was made, publication of the correction has been delayed until after the election.

2019 GENERAL ELECTION PPBs

This is simply the 'PPBs' (party political broadcasts) of the NI + UK parties covered in our exam. PPBs are legally required short videos broadcast on national free-to-air 'terrestrial' TV channels (mainly the BBC + ITV). (short Wiki)

Unlike the US, in the UK parties aren't allowed to buy broadcast (TV or radio) ad space. The laws were written long before social media made them look so outdated, but the tradition remains that the parties (different selections with different videos/messages in England, Wales, Scotland and NI; eg the SNP aren't broadcast outside of Scotland or the NI parties outwith NI, while the Scottish Tories and Labour are semi-independent of the London HQ).

They're easy to mock, but quite revealing and so useful to gain an understanding of where parties stand - or at least on what they'd like to focus. They're often very light on policy and also often lead on the personality of leaders...

The 2019 GE (general election) PPBs...

At the time of writing this, I don't think the UK nationals had aired yet...
They've all done lots of vids for social media though...

Tories still have 'webcameronuk' as their channel URL!

Labour's channel is more policy-focused, less on the cult of personality, and in contrast to the Tories they focus on multiple issues. But...that isn't necessarily smart marketing.










A few articles you can read:

(SOURCE: BBC)

The story of the party election broadcast (2015)
- why were a bulldog's testicles so widely discussed in 1997?!

Party election broadcasts: How have they changed and do they still matter? (2019, Oct)

- started on radio in 1924, by 1959 they were on BBC and ITV TV channels and established as normal.

Ofcom sets the rules for the broadcasts, which include the fact a party must be contesting at least a sixth of the seats in the election to qualify for a slot. They must also have a running time of either two minutes 40 seconds, three minutes 40 seconds, or four minutes 40 seconds. ... 

These traditional post-teatime news slots make up for the ban the parties face on buying other TV and radio advertising. 

However, as the Electoral Commission has pointed out, "electoral law was written long before campaigning went digital", so rather than one channel with one guaranteed audience, you are looking at internet advertising with spending on the rise across multiple platforms - especially social media.

(From the history of the BBC site)

First heard on radio in 1924, how have these broadcasts evolved and influenced the public's perception of politicians?

More recently, Party Political Broadcasts have been devised and made independently of the BBC or, indeed, any other broadcasters. Party machines have taken control of the whole process and as production styles and values have evolved, so the costs of making them have risen astronomically. But is it worth the effort and money?

(SOURCE: CAMPAIGN, the marketing industry magazine)

A strange history of the party political broadcast

Their feature picks out some of the oddest examples from the 70+ years they've been on TV...

The Green Party’s slightly bizarre ‘boy band’ election broadcast for the 2015 general election cast Farage, Cameron, Clegg and Miliband as members of an all male pop group.

(SOURCE: IRISH NEWS)
Which NI parties are winners with their election broadcasts?Can you guess which party is being discussed here in this informal analysis of the April 2019 NI PPBs?!

Play parks, the arts, the armed forces and even dog fouling gets a mention, and while there is talk of a push for a border poll the party do not refer to Sinn Féin by name, instead the spectre of the party lingers like Lord Voldermort - who must not be named.

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FACEBOOK election influencers

https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-50479877

NORTHERN IRELAND MEDIA

I'll add some brief pointers on NI media here...

Both the leading (evening) paper The Belfast Telegraph it (see Wiki) and its (morning) rival the Belfast News Letter (Wiki) are pro-unionist. The only real nationalist rival is a Southern paper, the Irish Times ...which actually is historically (Wiki) a unionist paper too! There is An Phoblacht, Sinn Fein's paper (now a magazine: Wiki). There's a v brief overall Wiki on NI media.

The shock of the GB press/public at the actual nature of the DUP - most seemed ignorant of their existence! - following the 2017 post-election Tory/DUP confidence and supply deal (the one where PM May called an early election ... and to general shock lost seats to Corbyn's Labour and her overall majority!) is rather revealing. It is an indictment of how the UK 'national' press largely ignore NI and/or cover it in very simplistic, reductionist terms.

Here's an interesting eg of NI hitting the headlines ... Ian Paisley Jr in trouble back in June 2019 (BBC newspaper review). The story led the NI editions - not the nationals.

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