The Common Purpose - State Control of the Press by Appointment

How a shadowy leadership network is influencing media appointments and state control of the press—Brian Gerrish, 2013

// Politics

By Brian Gerrish - November 2013

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Nothing could be so obvious, for those that are prepared to look, that the British State is taking direct control of the press via the Leveson Inquiry. This will only be the start. Controls for the wider TV media and Web based media will follow, as sure as night follows day. For now we will concentrate on the press - the follow on should then be obvious. Firstly, we recognise that the Mainstream Press is not really free in any sense. Whatever the title, Telegraph, Mail, Sun, Guardian or other, the publication is controlled by those that control the finances and their legal teams, who are in turn controlled by the Bar Council, to whom they pledge their allegiance. History demonstrates however that despite this control, truth has a habit of bubbling to the surface, as competing journalists and titles publish their wares. True enough, the increasing centralisation of newspaper titles in the hands of a few corporations is a dangerous precedent, but at the moment that is a secondary threat to freedom and liberty. The Common Purpose of Leveson is the real and present danger.

Created on the back of a massive lie, that press phone hacking was not controllable by existing laws, the Guardian and its Common Purpose tentacle, the Media Standards Trust, deliberately created and fuelled a press, media and government furore. The Guardian was even prepared to cynically use an emotive family tragedy and a lie, by falsely claiming that Millie Dowler’s texts were deleted.

By the time the phone hacking firestorm was burning, the UK Column and CP Exposed had been warning for several years of the danger of the political charity Common Purpose, and its subversive objectives to destroy both liberty and democracy in the UK. Using key information taken from the UK Column, the Daily Mail eventually joined some of the dots in December 2012, to publish an exposé of the Common Purpose network wrapped around Leveson. The Telegraph and Sun followed suit, as did the Guardian with a disingenuous piece ignoring the fact that its parent, the Scott Trust, had funded the Common Purpose Media Standards Trust in the first place. To their credit, the Mail, Telegraph and Sun exposure also covered the role of the Common Purpose created Hacked Off campaign, but none of the press identified the critical danger to press freedoms - the influence and control of David Bell (Common Purpose Chair of Trustees) and Julia Middleton (Common Purpose CEO), already deeply embedded in Cameron’s government.

The UK Column investigated and exposed the role of Bell and Middleton in their secretive efforts to win contracts to train the Top 200 Civil Servants by insider meetings with Tory Cabinet ‘Transparency’ guru Francis Maude MP. This blatant insider dealing, coupled with emails from Middleton to Maude signed love Julia, revealed that their political charity had achieved even greater power within Cameron’s conservative government than it had working directly from the offices of Labour Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott. We should highlight here that Middleton comes from a Marxist Demos background.

Jump forward to the Leveson Inquiry. Common Purpose and Media Standards Trust David Bell, having led the campaign for a hacking inquiry, is appointed as Leveson’s senior panel member. Please note the word appointed, which will arise repeatedly as the state control net closes around Britain’s mainstream press. Supported by Bell, Leveson did his dirty work, relying heavily on the ‘evidence’ of ‘witnesses’ widely praised and flaunted by Common Purpose, the Media Standards Trust and Hacked Off. They included pillars of morality such as Hugh Grant, Max Mosley and Chris Bryant MP, and those involved with MST and Hacked Off, and other Common Purpose satellites such as Goldsmith’s University Media Reform Coalition and Full Facts. Appointed in his inquiry role by Cameron, Leveson did not appear worried by conflict of interest amongst his team or witnesses, nor was he worried by the huge conflict of interest posed by the undeclared Common Purpose people and associated organisations. At this stage the press exposures, either deliberately or through incompetence, also failed to highlight that Cameron’s inner Cabinet was already heavily in bed with Common Purpose.

Leveson’s inquiry duly led to recommendations for greater press monitoring and control, backed by draconian fines. The press were to have no say in appointments of ‘independent’ appointees to the bodies created to impose his recommendations. Significantly, he refused to appear in person to answer questions on his work - no doubt realising he could not defend his inquiry blatantly riddled with conflict of interest and vested interest. As the true impact and danger of his recommendations emerged, a few journalists finally began to raise the alarm and a number of titles joined forces to propose a Press counter response to Leveson’s scam. Cries that Cameron himself was deeply involved with Common Purpose, not least through their Dishaa India initiative, and had failed to declare his interest, was too little much too late. The press completely failed to understand the danger of the Common Purpose conspiracy ranged against them. Predicably, the Privy Council rejected the press proposal and backed Leveson’s recommendations under the control of a Royal Charter.... comprising an ‘Independent Appointments’ Panel, appointing a ‘Recognition’ Panel to oversee a ‘Regulator’ dealing with Complaints, Industry Code of Conduct and an Arbitration service.

Perhaps we should also mention here Leveson witness Paul Andrew Vickers, Group Legal Director of Trinity Mirror Plc, the man later to draft the IPSO structure and rules. Coincidently the husband of Common Purpose CEO Julia Middleton is also a longstanding Trinity Mirror man.

Cutting to the quick, let’s identify the attack on press freedom (and ultimately our freedom) in just one paragraph. Common Purpose created the call for Leveson’s inquiry, David Cameron Common Purpose supporter appointed Leveson, Common Purpose guru Sir David Bell acted as witness, judge and jury by sitting on the Leveson panel, Common Purpose witnesses said what Common Purpose encouraged them to say. Cameron passed Leveson’s proposals to the highly secretive Privy Council, under the control of Deputy Prime Minister and Lord President of the Privy Council, Nick Clegg. Who appointed Clegg to his positions? David Cameron. Within the Privy Council, far from the eyes and ears of the public, Clegg appointed Privy Counsellors Lord McNally (Justice Minister), Jeremy Hunt MP (Health Secretary) and Maria Miller MP (Culture Media and Sport) (both departments being Common Purpose users), to determine the Privy Council decision and Royal Charter. Achieving the outcome they desired, they appoint Privy Counsellor and former President of the Supreme Court Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers to Chair the Foundation Group which will appoint the Appointments Panel. Phillips duly appoints former top Civil Servant Sir Hayden Phillips to Chair the Appointments Panel - the very same panel that will ‘independently’ appoint the Recognition Panel and Regulator. Meanwhile Common Purpose continues to campaign for tighter press controls, and is deeply embedded in the government, local government and public sector, including the Police, NHS, Education, Social Services, Information Commissioners Office, Audit Office, Treasury and GCHQ. Further afield it wields influence within the banking industry, law firms, accountancy firms and their trainers. The UK Column will continue to warn of the creeping control of Common Purpose. Contrary to the recent squealing claims of MI5, MI6 and GCHQ that Al Qaeda forms the biggest threat to UK, Common Purpose subversion within Britain is the real and present danger.

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Originally published on UKColumn.org by Brian Gerrish - November 2013

https://www.ukcolumn.org/article/common-purpose-state-control-press-appointment

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