1855 [1820] Hrs GMT London Tuesday 3 March 2009
Why Max Hastings, who was nicknamed ‘Hitler’ when he was in place as the editor of the London daily Telegraph in the early 1990s, is deriding G* Brown meeting B Obama this afternoon?
Hastings is a jobbing reactionary paid for being so by the Daily Mail these days. So he is doing that in his item posted just before 4 PM by the D Mail on their web site. Since then, pictures of the much-peddled event have been shown on the BBC news channel. Both the words and the body language will be commented on for some time from now. on
The video pictures broadcast on the BBC clearly show that it was Brown who was leading the way on the economics front. Obama obliged by referring to the few headlines items. But the event was almost frosty. Despite Brown’s initiative at bringing about a thaw Why the chill?
Even Hastings appears to be catching up with the Khoodeelaar! analysis of Gordon Brown's racism.
Hastings says,
“But all the evidence, notably including Obama's own books, suggests that the President has no instinctive affection for Britain, which as a colonial power lorded it over his Kenyan forebears. As for influence, the world's economic salvation will be much more strongly affected by the policies of China, Germany and Japan than by our own.”
This is the only ‘mainstream’ ‘british media’ ‘writer’ acknowledging brown’s racist ‘past’.... Khoodeelaar! has been referring to brown’s racist empire boast's during his trip to africa ....
Ironic that of all sources, it should be the racist DAILY MAIL group that should find it commercially and 'strategically' profitable to pose as being 'detached from' and 'even critical of' 'Gordon Brown's Brown’s racism in such a way....at a moment like Brown’s meeting with a USA President whose father was from Kenya....
BOTH the Guardian and the BBC continue to pretend that Brown did not make the racist empire boasts that he did make when he toured Africa before getting into No 10 Downing Street
[To be continued]
33rd year AADHIKAR
0225 GMT Thursday 06 June 2013
AADHIKAR Media Foundation Editor © Muhammad Haque
Founding News Editor
Shah M Azizul Haque
AADHIKAR Media Foundation established with the publication of AADHIKAR the weekly on Monday 19 December 1980 from London E1 UK.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
KHOODEELAAR! TOLD Brown so! Even Max 'Hitler' Hastings scorns Gordon Brown 'meeting Obama'
1755 Hrs GMT London Tuesday 3 March 2009
From the website of the London Daily Mail Tuesday 3 March 2009
"Let's hope these two know what they're doing - but I fear they're as clueless as the rest of us
Last updated at 3:59 PM on 03rd March 2009
Comments (38)
Add to My Stories
On December 22, 1941, Winston Churchill landed in the United States from the battleship Duke of York for his first great wartime visit to the U.S., after Pearl Harbour made America Britain's ally. From the White House, Churchill wrote euphorically to his wife Clementine: 'All is very good indeed; and my plans go through. The Americans are magnificent in their breadth of view.'
Britain's Prime Minister now knew that, whatever pain and sacrifice lay ahead, Allied triumph in the historic struggle with Nazism was thereafter assured.
Successive British leaders have been striving ever since - and unsurprisingly in vain - to match Churchill's impact upon the greatest of all democracies.
Head to head: Brown and Obama at Downing Street last year
Yet if the personalities have become diminished, the gravity of the challenge is once more immense. As Gordon Brown meets Barack Obama in Washington today, the world confronts its gravest crisis since 1945.
What is at stake is not mere money. The stability and political fabric of entire societies are imperilled by the meltdown of capitalism's institutions.
To say this does not represent alarmism. On the contrary, it is dismaying that some nations still do not acknowledge the magnitude of the threat. In their anxiety to protect their domestic political positions, national leaders strike attitudes, like France's President Sarkozy, or strive to continue business as usual, like Germany's Chancellor Merkel.
Gordon Brown arrives in Washington with two objectives. The lesser is to revive his own political fortunes. He will posture with the most powerful man on Earth. In his desperation to revive some hope of winning the next British election, every photo opportunity with America's superstar will be precious.
More from Max Hastings...
MAX HASTINGS: Torture is wrong but why, in the name of sanity, should we allow those who hate us to live here?24/02/09
MAX HASTINGS: Hanging bankers from lamp posts would do no good - but this bonus gravy train is an insult to us all27/01/09
MAX HASTINGS: Now it is time for Barack Obama's moment of truth16/01/09
MAX HASTINGS: No one admires high-achievers more than me - but you'll never get social mobility by passing laws against middle classes13/01/09
MAX HASTINGS: 2008's a year we'll never forget, however much we want to30/12/08
MAX HASTINGS: Meet the REAL Mrs Credit Crunch26/12/08
MAX HASTINGS: Greedy bankers, clueless police, lying politicians. Why the leader of Britain's Catholics is so right to ask... Is there no one we can trust any more? 25/12/08
MAX HASTINGS: What Posh Ed's sacking tells us about the BBC's hang-ups over class 15/12/08
VIEW FULL ARCHIVE
Brown's second purpose is virtuous, but extravagantly ambitious. He wants to associate himself with Obama in a crusade to save the world.
The world indeed needs saving. Leadership of the highest order is needed. Scepticism focuses upon the ability of any British Prime Minister, least of all this one, to play a top-table role.
Brown is not Churchill in December 1941, and Britain is no longer the empire which defied Hitler. Instead, the Labour leader presides over a country which is expected to suffer more severely from the recession than any other leading industrial nation, largely because of his own decade of mismanagement.
Not only does he remain in denial about this: he insists that the catastrophe has been caused by an outbreak of American financial plague, which to our misfortune has infected us.
As for Barack Obama, he will be civil as butter to Brown, because this is the custom of U.S. Presidents towards almost all British Prime Ministers. Moreover, the new leader is committed to multilateralism, as George Bush was not. Obama wants to show himself a listener who consults with allies rather than merely telling them what America intends to do.
But all the evidence, notably including Obama's own books, suggests that the President has no instinctive affection for Britain, which as a colonial power lorded it over his Kenyan forebears. As for influence, the world's economic salvation will be much more strongly affected by the policies of China, Germany and Japan than by our own.
More...
PETER MCKAY: Barack Obama and the wizard of Kirkcaldy
RICHARD LITTLEJOHN: Fred the Shred, found guilty by the court of public opinion
Small firms hit by fresh blow as Mandelson lifeline is delayed for weeks
Wall Street stocks hit 12-year low as insurer AIG unveils recordbreaking £43.8bn loss
Obama's doing things my way on economic crisis, boasts Brown as he flies to Washington
Company behind Oasis, Karen Millen and Principles forced into administration by Iceland bank collapse
FTSE plummets to six-year low after HSBC reveals £12.5bn share sale
How top five HSBC bankers pocket £32m... despite 60% plunge in profits
Brown slaps down Harriet Harman over pledge to strip Fred the Shred of pension pot
The TRUTH about Fred the Shred's pension: Now banker is accused of misleading MPs over £700k a year deal
America values us as one of its few allies willing to fight, but U.S. soldiers are underwhelmed by our performance in Iraq and Afghanistan. In the past week I have read two authoritative new American books on those wars. The British Army scarcely rates a mention in either. The U.S. certainly wants us to hang on in there in Afghanistan. But we should not delude ourselves that we are gaining much admiration or bankable gratitude.
Britain and America have common values and purposes, especially in security. But we should ignore worn rhetoric about a special relationship, of which the usual quota will be dispensed in Washington this week.
Our two nations get along best when both recognise that their policies towards each other, like those between all states, rest upon respective perceptions of national interest. The U.S. media will give no more attention to Brown than to a visit by Sarkozy or Merkel, which means most Americans will not notice Mr Brown is in town.
As for the global crisis, President Obama will be mindful that he has just introduced an economic stimulus package worth £560 billion ($787 billion), while Brown's comparable injection is so far worth just £20 billion ($28 billion). The scary part is that many economic pundits question whether even the huge U.S. initiative will suffice.
US President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill in 1941
We must go further, and recognise widespread doubts whether Obama, Brown or any other important leader in the world yet possesses a coherent economic policy vision. What is happening - the relentless fall in value of everything save gold - is so far beyond their own or their advisers' experience that they are groping and fumbling like the rest of us.
They deserve sympathy in their predicament. Winning wars is difficult. But the issues involved are perversely simpler and more readily grasped than those of confronting an economic meltdown. I have read the minutes of all the great wartime summits between Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin. Any of us can understand what they talked about.
By contrast, I hope it is not unduly cynical to suggest there will be plenty of waffle in Brown's talks with Obama, just as there was at the recent EU summit, and will be again at the forthcoming G20 economic meeting in London.
At a time when a co-ordinated global response is desperately needed, every national leader is struggling to determine how to protect his or her domestic position, to salvage their own nation's banks and industries.
We must continue to pin our hopes on President Obama, first because he is a remarkable man, and second because U.S. action must be decisive in determining the fate of the rest of us. His oration to Congress last week was brilliant in its frank admission of the mistakes which have landed us where we are - an admission in stark contrast to Gordon Brown's stubborn obfuscations.
'Those of us gathered here tonight,' Obama said, 'have been called upon to govern in extraordinary times. It is a tremendous burden, but also a great privilege - for in our hands lies the ability to shape our world for good or ill.'
Obama possesses the big advantage that he does not bear blame for past follies, such as that which causes our own Prime Minister to travel everywhere with overweight baggage. If the problems of the U.S. are huge, so too is its wealth.
Britain, by contrast, is mortgaging its national revenues for years ahead merely to bail out the banks and fund Brown's existing public spending commitments. This country will reach the limits of its ability to borrow long, long before America does.
The best that Brown can hope from this week's meetings is that he achieves sufficient rapport with Barack Obama for the two men hereafter to talk to each other with the mutual sympathy of comrades in adversity.
Roosevelt said to Churchill before they parted in Washington in January 1942: 'Trust me to the bitter end.' Barack Obama might less ambitiously say to Gordon Brown: 'Let us hope we both know what we are doing.' And so say all of us.
More...
PETER MCKAY: Barack Obama and the wizard of Kirkcaldy
RICHARD LITTLEJOHN: Fred the Shred, found guilty by the court of public opinion
Small firms hit by fresh blow as Mandelson lifeline is delayed for weeks
Wall Street stocks hit 12-year low as insurer AIG unveils recordbreaking £43.8bn loss
Obama's doing things my way on economic crisis, boasts Brown as he flies to Washington
Company behind Oasis, Karen Millen and Principles forced into administration by Iceland bank collapse
FTSE plummets to six-year low after HSBC reveals £12.5bn share sale
How top five HSBC bankers pocket £32m... despite 60% plunge in profits
Brown slaps down Harriet Harman over pledge to strip Fred the Shred of pension pot
The TRUTH about Fred the Shred's pension: Now banker is accused of misleading MPs over £700k a year deal
From the website of the London Daily Mail Tuesday 3 March 2009
"Let's hope these two know what they're doing - but I fear they're as clueless as the rest of us
Last updated at 3:59 PM on 03rd March 2009
Comments (38)
Add to My Stories
On December 22, 1941, Winston Churchill landed in the United States from the battleship Duke of York for his first great wartime visit to the U.S., after Pearl Harbour made America Britain's ally. From the White House, Churchill wrote euphorically to his wife Clementine: 'All is very good indeed; and my plans go through. The Americans are magnificent in their breadth of view.'
Britain's Prime Minister now knew that, whatever pain and sacrifice lay ahead, Allied triumph in the historic struggle with Nazism was thereafter assured.
Successive British leaders have been striving ever since - and unsurprisingly in vain - to match Churchill's impact upon the greatest of all democracies.
Head to head: Brown and Obama at Downing Street last year
Yet if the personalities have become diminished, the gravity of the challenge is once more immense. As Gordon Brown meets Barack Obama in Washington today, the world confronts its gravest crisis since 1945.
What is at stake is not mere money. The stability and political fabric of entire societies are imperilled by the meltdown of capitalism's institutions.
To say this does not represent alarmism. On the contrary, it is dismaying that some nations still do not acknowledge the magnitude of the threat. In their anxiety to protect their domestic political positions, national leaders strike attitudes, like France's President Sarkozy, or strive to continue business as usual, like Germany's Chancellor Merkel.
Gordon Brown arrives in Washington with two objectives. The lesser is to revive his own political fortunes. He will posture with the most powerful man on Earth. In his desperation to revive some hope of winning the next British election, every photo opportunity with America's superstar will be precious.
More from Max Hastings...
MAX HASTINGS: Torture is wrong but why, in the name of sanity, should we allow those who hate us to live here?24/02/09
MAX HASTINGS: Hanging bankers from lamp posts would do no good - but this bonus gravy train is an insult to us all27/01/09
MAX HASTINGS: Now it is time for Barack Obama's moment of truth16/01/09
MAX HASTINGS: No one admires high-achievers more than me - but you'll never get social mobility by passing laws against middle classes13/01/09
MAX HASTINGS: 2008's a year we'll never forget, however much we want to30/12/08
MAX HASTINGS: Meet the REAL Mrs Credit Crunch26/12/08
MAX HASTINGS: Greedy bankers, clueless police, lying politicians. Why the leader of Britain's Catholics is so right to ask... Is there no one we can trust any more? 25/12/08
MAX HASTINGS: What Posh Ed's sacking tells us about the BBC's hang-ups over class 15/12/08
VIEW FULL ARCHIVE
Brown's second purpose is virtuous, but extravagantly ambitious. He wants to associate himself with Obama in a crusade to save the world.
The world indeed needs saving. Leadership of the highest order is needed. Scepticism focuses upon the ability of any British Prime Minister, least of all this one, to play a top-table role.
Brown is not Churchill in December 1941, and Britain is no longer the empire which defied Hitler. Instead, the Labour leader presides over a country which is expected to suffer more severely from the recession than any other leading industrial nation, largely because of his own decade of mismanagement.
Not only does he remain in denial about this: he insists that the catastrophe has been caused by an outbreak of American financial plague, which to our misfortune has infected us.
As for Barack Obama, he will be civil as butter to Brown, because this is the custom of U.S. Presidents towards almost all British Prime Ministers. Moreover, the new leader is committed to multilateralism, as George Bush was not. Obama wants to show himself a listener who consults with allies rather than merely telling them what America intends to do.
But all the evidence, notably including Obama's own books, suggests that the President has no instinctive affection for Britain, which as a colonial power lorded it over his Kenyan forebears. As for influence, the world's economic salvation will be much more strongly affected by the policies of China, Germany and Japan than by our own.
More...
PETER MCKAY: Barack Obama and the wizard of Kirkcaldy
RICHARD LITTLEJOHN: Fred the Shred, found guilty by the court of public opinion
Small firms hit by fresh blow as Mandelson lifeline is delayed for weeks
Wall Street stocks hit 12-year low as insurer AIG unveils recordbreaking £43.8bn loss
Obama's doing things my way on economic crisis, boasts Brown as he flies to Washington
Company behind Oasis, Karen Millen and Principles forced into administration by Iceland bank collapse
FTSE plummets to six-year low after HSBC reveals £12.5bn share sale
How top five HSBC bankers pocket £32m... despite 60% plunge in profits
Brown slaps down Harriet Harman over pledge to strip Fred the Shred of pension pot
The TRUTH about Fred the Shred's pension: Now banker is accused of misleading MPs over £700k a year deal
America values us as one of its few allies willing to fight, but U.S. soldiers are underwhelmed by our performance in Iraq and Afghanistan. In the past week I have read two authoritative new American books on those wars. The British Army scarcely rates a mention in either. The U.S. certainly wants us to hang on in there in Afghanistan. But we should not delude ourselves that we are gaining much admiration or bankable gratitude.
Britain and America have common values and purposes, especially in security. But we should ignore worn rhetoric about a special relationship, of which the usual quota will be dispensed in Washington this week.
Our two nations get along best when both recognise that their policies towards each other, like those between all states, rest upon respective perceptions of national interest. The U.S. media will give no more attention to Brown than to a visit by Sarkozy or Merkel, which means most Americans will not notice Mr Brown is in town.
As for the global crisis, President Obama will be mindful that he has just introduced an economic stimulus package worth £560 billion ($787 billion), while Brown's comparable injection is so far worth just £20 billion ($28 billion). The scary part is that many economic pundits question whether even the huge U.S. initiative will suffice.
US President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill in 1941
We must go further, and recognise widespread doubts whether Obama, Brown or any other important leader in the world yet possesses a coherent economic policy vision. What is happening - the relentless fall in value of everything save gold - is so far beyond their own or their advisers' experience that they are groping and fumbling like the rest of us.
They deserve sympathy in their predicament. Winning wars is difficult. But the issues involved are perversely simpler and more readily grasped than those of confronting an economic meltdown. I have read the minutes of all the great wartime summits between Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin. Any of us can understand what they talked about.
By contrast, I hope it is not unduly cynical to suggest there will be plenty of waffle in Brown's talks with Obama, just as there was at the recent EU summit, and will be again at the forthcoming G20 economic meeting in London.
At a time when a co-ordinated global response is desperately needed, every national leader is struggling to determine how to protect his or her domestic position, to salvage their own nation's banks and industries.
We must continue to pin our hopes on President Obama, first because he is a remarkable man, and second because U.S. action must be decisive in determining the fate of the rest of us. His oration to Congress last week was brilliant in its frank admission of the mistakes which have landed us where we are - an admission in stark contrast to Gordon Brown's stubborn obfuscations.
'Those of us gathered here tonight,' Obama said, 'have been called upon to govern in extraordinary times. It is a tremendous burden, but also a great privilege - for in our hands lies the ability to shape our world for good or ill.'
Obama possesses the big advantage that he does not bear blame for past follies, such as that which causes our own Prime Minister to travel everywhere with overweight baggage. If the problems of the U.S. are huge, so too is its wealth.
Britain, by contrast, is mortgaging its national revenues for years ahead merely to bail out the banks and fund Brown's existing public spending commitments. This country will reach the limits of its ability to borrow long, long before America does.
The best that Brown can hope from this week's meetings is that he achieves sufficient rapport with Barack Obama for the two men hereafter to talk to each other with the mutual sympathy of comrades in adversity.
Roosevelt said to Churchill before they parted in Washington in January 1942: 'Trust me to the bitter end.' Barack Obama might less ambitiously say to Gordon Brown: 'Let us hope we both know what we are doing.' And so say all of us.
More...
PETER MCKAY: Barack Obama and the wizard of Kirkcaldy
RICHARD LITTLEJOHN: Fred the Shred, found guilty by the court of public opinion
Small firms hit by fresh blow as Mandelson lifeline is delayed for weeks
Wall Street stocks hit 12-year low as insurer AIG unveils recordbreaking £43.8bn loss
Obama's doing things my way on economic crisis, boasts Brown as he flies to Washington
Company behind Oasis, Karen Millen and Principles forced into administration by Iceland bank collapse
FTSE plummets to six-year low after HSBC reveals £12.5bn share sale
How top five HSBC bankers pocket £32m... despite 60% plunge in profits
Brown slaps down Harriet Harman over pledge to strip Fred the Shred of pension pot
The TRUTH about Fred the Shred's pension: Now banker is accused of misleading MPs over £700k a year deal
KHOODEELAAR! TOLD Brown so! He is NOT solving the world's economic problems. He is clueless as even Darling is now screaming!
1732 Hrs GMT London Tuesday 3 March 2009
KHOODEELAAR! TOLD THEM SO! Now BOTH couriers of Big Business agenda Crossrail are exposed as being at fault..on the economy....
[To be continued]
The following is taken fro the web site of the London DAILY MAIL Tuesday 3 March 2009
KHOODEELAAR! TOLD THEM SO! Now BOTH couriers of Big Business agenda Crossrail are exposed as being at fault..on the economy....
[To be continued]
The following is taken fro the web site of the London DAILY MAIL Tuesday 3 March 2009
KHOODEELAAR! Updater analysis and dissection of the fabricatory role and contents of the Guardian on transport and on Crossrail-touting
0920 [0045] Hrs GMT London Tuesday 3 March 2009:
KHOODEELAAR! No to “Crossrail hole scam…” CAMPAIGN TOLD YOU SO!
For over five years we have been saying that the EXISTING transport infrastructure – and all aspects of it – is more important than building an excessively wasteful and crassly conceived semi-railway line called Crossrail... We have investigated and argued the case against Crossrail more frequently than the London Guardian has carried items on transport needs, and we have done so with evidential consistency unmatched by anything that the Guardian can demonstrate. We have noticed that the Guardian has at the same time published fabricated claims to boost the image and the petty and personal and career interests of the touts, peddlers and promoters of CrossRail...
We have in that same five years of campaign against Crossrail hole scam agenda so far also exposed the Guardian’s role.
Three years ago, when it [the Guardian] published a deeply untruthful pre-emptive attack against Rod Eddington, hours before Eddington was due to publish his ‘transport study’ [that Gordon Brown had commissioned]. The Guardian was untruthfully critical of Eddington because Eddington had refused to endorse Crossrail..
The Guardian therefore acted as part of the Big Business lobby that was pushing for CRASSrail
Now, in a second piece published during one single day, the Guardian has run an alleged argument talking about the due maintenance and use of the existing trains network…. Factors that it persistently denied and suppressed whenever it peddled Crossrail… We shall examine the vacuity and the duplicity of the Guardian…
[To be continued]
AADHIKARonline quoting the second of the two articles published by the Guardian on their web site during 2 March 2009:
"
Network Rail urged to publish damning report on line delaysCompany accused of tolerating 'systematic weaknesses'
Nicholas Watt, chief political correspondent guardian.co.uk, Monday 2 March 2009 13.43 GMT Article history
Photograph: Christopher Thomond
Network Rail was today urged to publish a secret report which accuses the not-for-profit company of tolerating "systematic weaknesses" after the west coast mainline was severely disrupted last year.
The Cooperative party, which launched the People's Rail group to campaign for greater openness, accused Network Rail of adopting a "Basil Fawlty" approach to management and of suppressing the critical report.
Network Rail came under fire today after the Guardian revealed that it is refusing to publish a secret report by PricewaterhouseCoopers into its corporate governance. This reveals that Network Rail regarded the disruption to the west coast mainline last year as a "trivial" matter that should not have led to a fine.
Michael Stephenson, the general secretary of the Cooperative party, told the Guardian: "The evidence compiled by PWC for this report reveals an organisation imbued with the Basil Fawlty school of customer relations: 'This rail system would run much better if it wasn't for the passengers.'
"Network Rail's determination to suppress this evidence further vindicates the People's Rail campaign for passengers and the public to get real control over their rail network."
Mark Lazarowicz, the Labour MP who chairs the Cooperative parliamentary group, has written to Sir Ian McAllister, Network Rail's chairman, to demand the publication of the PWC report. He told McAllister: "I understand this report has now been completed but you have decided not to make it public. Further, I understand your organisation has no plans to do so.
"We find this situation unacceptable given the enormous public interest in this issue and the overwhelming importance of the needs of the travelling public in having an effective and accountable rail system. The suppression of this report is clear evidence of the gross failings in accountability of Network Rail and the corporate governance structure of the organisation."
Louise Elllman, the Labour chair of the Commons transport committee, said: "We must be assured that Network Rail will take this report and its criticisms seriously and change the way it is run. It should be published. It is absolutely essential that Network Rail improves its efficiency if we are going to get value for money in difficult circumstances."
Their comments came after Network Rail went to extraordinary lengths to suppress the PWC report, which was commissioned after a vote at its AGM last year amid fears that it had become unaccountable. To deter leaks, numbered copies of the report were sent to its members, who act as proxy shareholders, with a warning that it was confidential.
But the Guardian can reveal the report's key findings:
• The Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) had deep concerns about the disruption to the west coast mainline service over the 2008 new year. Thousands of passengers were stranded, prompting a £14m fine on Network Rail by the ORR. The ORR told the report's authors: "We have concerns as to the inconsistency of the Network Rail board's response to some of the regulatory interventions, specifically the 2007-08 new year overruns, where they responded on one level to disagree that there had been a breach, on another level that it had been a trivial breach and that even if there was a breach that a fine was inappropriate ... They took a whole series of positions."
• Sir Ian McAllister, chairman of Network Rail, is deeply sceptical about the £16bn Crossrail project, a scheme to link east and west London. One unnamed senior figure told the report's authors: "The chairman told me that he needs Crossrail like a hole in the head."
• Network Rail has packed its board with second-rate non-executive directors. The report says: "They are perceived to be weak and ineffective at carrying out their role of challenging the board."
Network Rail, whose £20bn debts are guaranteed by the taxpayer, is highly sensitive about the report. Stuart McVernon, its head of public affairs, warned members who were sent copies: "We and the members' review group would like to remind all members that ... the report is still being distributed as a confidential report and is individually numbered accordingly."
The report was commissioned after Network Rail's 101 members won a resolution at last July's AGM to undertake a review of its corporate governance.
A spokesman for Network Rail said: "Network Rail welcomes the members' review group's suggestions on further developments to Network Rail's corporate governance and its membership. The company will now work closely with its members in considering the way forward including reaching a common understanding of the detail of the proposals and the level of support for them."
"
KHOODEELAAR! No to “Crossrail hole scam…” CAMPAIGN TOLD YOU SO!
For over five years we have been saying that the EXISTING transport infrastructure – and all aspects of it – is more important than building an excessively wasteful and crassly conceived semi-railway line called Crossrail... We have investigated and argued the case against Crossrail more frequently than the London Guardian has carried items on transport needs, and we have done so with evidential consistency unmatched by anything that the Guardian can demonstrate. We have noticed that the Guardian has at the same time published fabricated claims to boost the image and the petty and personal and career interests of the touts, peddlers and promoters of CrossRail...
We have in that same five years of campaign against Crossrail hole scam agenda so far also exposed the Guardian’s role.
Three years ago, when it [the Guardian] published a deeply untruthful pre-emptive attack against Rod Eddington, hours before Eddington was due to publish his ‘transport study’ [that Gordon Brown had commissioned]. The Guardian was untruthfully critical of Eddington because Eddington had refused to endorse Crossrail..
The Guardian therefore acted as part of the Big Business lobby that was pushing for CRASSrail
Now, in a second piece published during one single day, the Guardian has run an alleged argument talking about the due maintenance and use of the existing trains network…. Factors that it persistently denied and suppressed whenever it peddled Crossrail… We shall examine the vacuity and the duplicity of the Guardian…
[To be continued]
AADHIKARonline quoting the second of the two articles published by the Guardian on their web site during 2 March 2009:
"
Network Rail urged to publish damning report on line delaysCompany accused of tolerating 'systematic weaknesses'
Nicholas Watt, chief political correspondent guardian.co.uk, Monday 2 March 2009 13.43 GMT Article history
Photograph: Christopher Thomond
Network Rail was today urged to publish a secret report which accuses the not-for-profit company of tolerating "systematic weaknesses" after the west coast mainline was severely disrupted last year.
The Cooperative party, which launched the People's Rail group to campaign for greater openness, accused Network Rail of adopting a "Basil Fawlty" approach to management and of suppressing the critical report.
Network Rail came under fire today after the Guardian revealed that it is refusing to publish a secret report by PricewaterhouseCoopers into its corporate governance. This reveals that Network Rail regarded the disruption to the west coast mainline last year as a "trivial" matter that should not have led to a fine.
Michael Stephenson, the general secretary of the Cooperative party, told the Guardian: "The evidence compiled by PWC for this report reveals an organisation imbued with the Basil Fawlty school of customer relations: 'This rail system would run much better if it wasn't for the passengers.'
"Network Rail's determination to suppress this evidence further vindicates the People's Rail campaign for passengers and the public to get real control over their rail network."
Mark Lazarowicz, the Labour MP who chairs the Cooperative parliamentary group, has written to Sir Ian McAllister, Network Rail's chairman, to demand the publication of the PWC report. He told McAllister: "I understand this report has now been completed but you have decided not to make it public. Further, I understand your organisation has no plans to do so.
"We find this situation unacceptable given the enormous public interest in this issue and the overwhelming importance of the needs of the travelling public in having an effective and accountable rail system. The suppression of this report is clear evidence of the gross failings in accountability of Network Rail and the corporate governance structure of the organisation."
Louise Elllman, the Labour chair of the Commons transport committee, said: "We must be assured that Network Rail will take this report and its criticisms seriously and change the way it is run. It should be published. It is absolutely essential that Network Rail improves its efficiency if we are going to get value for money in difficult circumstances."
Their comments came after Network Rail went to extraordinary lengths to suppress the PWC report, which was commissioned after a vote at its AGM last year amid fears that it had become unaccountable. To deter leaks, numbered copies of the report were sent to its members, who act as proxy shareholders, with a warning that it was confidential.
But the Guardian can reveal the report's key findings:
• The Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) had deep concerns about the disruption to the west coast mainline service over the 2008 new year. Thousands of passengers were stranded, prompting a £14m fine on Network Rail by the ORR. The ORR told the report's authors: "We have concerns as to the inconsistency of the Network Rail board's response to some of the regulatory interventions, specifically the 2007-08 new year overruns, where they responded on one level to disagree that there had been a breach, on another level that it had been a trivial breach and that even if there was a breach that a fine was inappropriate ... They took a whole series of positions."
• Sir Ian McAllister, chairman of Network Rail, is deeply sceptical about the £16bn Crossrail project, a scheme to link east and west London. One unnamed senior figure told the report's authors: "The chairman told me that he needs Crossrail like a hole in the head."
• Network Rail has packed its board with second-rate non-executive directors. The report says: "They are perceived to be weak and ineffective at carrying out their role of challenging the board."
Network Rail, whose £20bn debts are guaranteed by the taxpayer, is highly sensitive about the report. Stuart McVernon, its head of public affairs, warned members who were sent copies: "We and the members' review group would like to remind all members that ... the report is still being distributed as a confidential report and is individually numbered accordingly."
The report was commissioned after Network Rail's 101 members won a resolution at last July's AGM to undertake a review of its corporate governance.
A spokesman for Network Rail said: "Network Rail welcomes the members' review group's suggestions on further developments to Network Rail's corporate governance and its membership. The company will now work closely with its members in considering the way forward including reaching a common understanding of the detail of the proposals and the level of support for them."
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