LURCHING FROM CHRISTMAS INTO THE NEW YEAR

What Christopher Gill has identified in his address, reported above, is the Ideological Struggle of World Revolution, as carried on in Western societies by the forces of Cultural Communism. Although the philosophies and politico-military methodology were developed in meticulous detail in the Soviet Union and Frankfurt-am-Main from the 1920s, this "virus" continues today in the form of Fabian, International Socialism. The serious battle is on for our very existence as a Nation, for the survival of our culture and traditions. It involves the degree and nature of, and any control over, further integration into and association with a federal European State. It involves essentially the progressive dissolution of national boundaries, in all contexts, under the pressure of International Socialism as this has evolved in the United Kingdom from traditional Labour Party values in the form of "New" Labour. This also embraces a confusion of national identity and interests all too often identified with, as well as a consequence of, inadequate perceptions of what are traditionally defined as Right-Wing, "conservative" ideals. In the end it is about Power exercised by an Elite, an Elite of global dimensions which remains conveniently amorphous and riven by its own undercurrents. The November, 2003, edition of On Target⁽¹⁾ was a tour de force as a record of the debate on our Sovereignty in the House of Lords; one institution which, despite attempts at reform, so far remains a forum relatively free from the evil constraints of the party-political whip system of the Lower House. At eighty pages this two-part On Target was certainly value for money for any subscriber; five months-worth as a nominal 2x8-page subscription deal.

As memories of Christmas ebb away, we turn from monumental exchanges in Westminister to Chinese toys and grandchildren. Grand-children are a phobia of your Deputy Editor as established subscribers to On Target will be aware. But take heart we are not about to lighten the darkly geo-political debate of Westminster. Nor, surprisingly, are we yet going doolally. We take the story back to Christmas about five years ago and the purchase of a glitzy toy American police car, billed as remotely controlled, from a well-known chain store. L.A.P.D. (the Los Angeles Police Department) here we come! In practice the remotely controlled steering functioned as an uncertain deviation no more than 2 or 3 degrees to left or right. Complete with new batteries, the headlong progress of this 12 (Imperial measure) inches long monster towards an imaginary Clint Eastwood style shoot-out was barely perceptible and bore no discernable relationship to the speed "control". In real time our money was at least returned in good faith, but the essential point here is that box bore the legend "Made in China". We now reel the story forward to Christmas, 2003, and plastic fish.

First, the matter of grandchildren. Progress from rug rat, to ankle-biter to yoblet (for the uninitiated, a yob is a backward boy), is a precarious
affair for those grandchildren who are allowed to survive officially to become "humans" at the age of 18. From those nerve wracking days when rug rats would crawl for the bookshelves to grasp for one's precious tomes by the dust jacket the eldest, one Henry Pratwinkle, currently awaiting a brain transplant under the National Health Service, has now reached the critical age of fifteen and G.C.S.E examinations that will determine his future as a plasterer's mate or a football hooligan. Fortunately, he has lately developed a taste for political cartoons and indications are that he is at last convinced that the sixth form and the world at large need his genius. Thus it came to pass that, for Christmas, 2003, "Pratters" and his siblings presented their 71-year-old grandparents with a set of half-a-dozen plastic fish. Each about 2-3 (Imperial) inches in length, the fish wind up by the tail and, with luck, swim furiously for as much as a dozen (Imperial) inches in water; that is, apart from two in the packet that proved to be faulty ("inop" as the technical jargon goes). Moreover, the advanced technology is such that a small hole in the body enables the remaining serviceable four plastic fish to take on water as ballast in order to give them stability. What is the point of all this? Firstly, like the police car, they were made in China. Secondly, as a grandparent in his dotage practices his skills with the four surviving fish in the bath this allows scope concurrently for serious reflection on matters of state.

We have explained from time to time that we do not take our position on any issue on the basis of any single source at any one point in time - what may or, equally significantly may not, be published in one's chosen magazine or daily newspaper, and the way or slant in which it is presented - or what may be included, or excluded from news transmissions or serious discussion or analytical programmes. Equally important, too, are the profiles of the participants. As frequent listeners in the middle of the night - symbolic of septuagenarian sleeping patterns - it is interesting to compare coverage in the silent hours with what is presented or omitted during later peak listening and watching hours. We periodically undertake the immensely daunting and repetitive task of collating, photocopying and filing press cuttings and other material from our own sources, along with material generously supplied by a handful of loyal and discerning contributors. Others draw our attention to carefully selected material on the Internet. The process of maintaining the archives can take days and even weeks. This consists to date of about 80 ring binders and twice that number of folders containing loose cuttings, supported by a reference library of books and pamphlets numbering into the thousands. It is, of course, impossible to read more than a small fraction of this accumulation, which is being added to all the time, but we do know where to look with the aid of a skeleton index and innumerable little yellow "Post-it" flags.

Controlling Our Perceptions And Thought Processes

In 1992 Professor Noam Chomsky, the distinguished American linguist and campaigner against oppressive geopolitical Power, expressed very clearly the intention and methods by which public opinion was kept under control; in other words, "conditioned"⁽²⁾. In 1996 J.J. Goldberg wrote of the power and control of the Media in the United States, with particular reference to presidential and congressional elections and foreign policy⁽³⁾. We may go back, however, to 1992 and the two-part edition of On Target in which we considered the Mass Communications Media in the United Kingdom⁽⁴⁾. This is inevitably somewhat dated, but it does offer a datum from which to understand subsequent developments. There has also been further coverage since, information on which will be found in the Indexes to On Target, details of which are given on the last page. We quote from 1992:

* Concern over the power of the Media to determine what the public see and hear in the United Kingdom gave little cause for alarm through two Royal Commissions in 1947-48 and 1961-62 and beyond limited newspaper amalgamations and dual newspaper and television interests. In the United States neither [Thomas R.] Dye⁽⁵⁾ nor David Halberstam⁽⁶⁾ made any bones about the concentration of power, or the individuals in whose hands that power was vested. . . . Then, in June, 1988, the Financial Times reported: "The battle for television's soul - How satellites will shape TV in Britain". In May 1999 a House of Commons debate found "members united in opposition to media empires". Only three months later, The Independent newspaper reported that Porn was "set to be beamed at Britain". The concentration of power that had progressively taken place, and that continues apace at levels of investment and support far beyond that accorded domestic industries that create genuine wealth, demonstrates clearly the impotence of political shadow boxing about networks that are, in the words of Dye " . . . probably now beyond the check of any institution in our society". The palpable absurdity, the illusion of political will, and dishonesty towards the electorate, were encapsulated in the platitude of the then Home Secretary, The Rt. Hon. Douglas Hurd (now Lord Hurd), that "Broadcasting will not be ruled by tycoons". Why only broadcasting.

If we roll the record on to the 1990s we find "Proprietors At The Gate - Newspaper groups hammer at the door of television as government launches review of media ownership rules" (The Sunday Times, 9th January, 1994). We read that Frank Barlow of Pearson, owners of the Financial Times, and Clive (later Lord) Hollick are bidding for control of Channel 4 Television. Hollick's M.A.I. already had a stake in Meridian and Anglia Television (The Daily Telegraph, 11th February, 1994). On to 1999 and we read in the Annual Report of broadcasting and entertainment group United News and Media, formerly United Newspapers, that Hollick is now Chief Executive. A former Chairman was Lord Stevens of Ludgate of Express Newspapers fame. Lord Stevens is also associated with the Drayton, later the INVESCO financial group. These groups have been woven closely into the Ruling Establishment and were also involved in Southern Africa during the Lonrho regime of the late Tiny Rowland⁽⁷⁾. On another year to 2000, and Trinity Mirror plc., and we find Joe Sinyor, Chief Executive Newspapers, also on record as a non-executive director of Channel 4 Television. This record has been drawn from only a cursory glance through an eight hundred-page record compiled since 1986. It is the reason we have compiled these records, and this is only the tip of a vast iceberg. Since 2000 amalgamations have continued to create massive Media and entertainment empires, involving such as Time-Warner and Walt Disney in the United States, from where Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation has a global outreach from the United States, to the United Kingdom, the Far East and Australia. The Hollinger Group of Lord Black of Crossharbour, P.C., until the recent implosion, controlled newspapers and magazines in North America, the United Kingdom and Israel. Lord Black is currently under scrutiny for potentially fraudulent multi-million pound transactions. Yet he has been elevated to the House of Lords and is a Privy Councillor (Canada), which involves the absolute integrity implicit in an oath of Loyalty to The Monarch.

We stress that this is no more than the tip of the iceberg, which involves inter alia countless billions of pounds and offshore tax havens. Worse still, British Governments - after all, these are the institutions that pass the enabling legislation - have allowed much of the British Communications Media to fall into foreign ownership. Even three of the four leading, influential, broadsheets are now foreign-owned. That political parties and politicians can be "bought and sold" is open knowledge and bears no relationship to the interests of the people who elect governments to represent them. The late Robert Maxwell pillaged the Maxwell Communication Corporation pension funds. This could only have occurred with the connivance and collusion of elements in the City of London, yet those involved still walk free and mix in government circles. The pronouncement of Douglas Hurd in 1989 after successive commissions and parliamentary opposition, that "Broadcasting will not be ruled by tycoons" is rendered farcical if not downright dishonest; certainly it utterly discredits the so-called democratic party political system as representative of the wishes of the electorate. Why only the Mass Communications Media in the United Kingdom on such a scale? From where comes the impetus? Open markets dictated by the World Trade Organisation that facilitate widespread cross-border investment? The leap-frogging drive for profit at any price? An unprincipled scramble for financial survival? Or the information control factor in the hands of a Ruling International Elite?

Whom Should We Heed?

Few politicians! The rest may sound like a variation on a well-worn theme, but it is a vital one. The most important source of information remains the printed word; on a daily basis the newspaper. Radio and television are there and gone again; useful for systematically conditioning social and moral perceptions through the soap opera. Some years ago the B.B.C. protested that homosexuality was not being promoted, but that this reflected society as it was. This of course was quite untrue, as became plain during our correspondence with the B.B.C. Like images of mixed race relationships, it was the "chicken-and-egg" process of deliberately promoting certain perceptions before a captive audience, whose wide-spread mute acceptance could then be claimed to reflect the true social position. Newspapers and magazines, including pornographic teenage magazines, however, can be handed on and revisited at leisure any time, in the home, in waiting rooms and so on. Prolonged study shows how selective and superficial coverage is. What serious on-going coverage do we receive today on the Balkans or Afghanistan, except for a major incident? Internal ethnic or factional conflict has not gone away - or has it? When Western-inspired military invasions appeared to cease, occupation followed and imposed administrations followed. So, too, did economic and financial exploitation under the auspices of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (I.M.F.). This is called "reconstruction", "privatisation" and "economic aid". Exactly the same process takes place routinely in Latin America and the Third World. After all, who has heard anything of the fate, the ownership and control of, the vast mineral deposits of the Trepca Mines in Kosovo since the invasion to "protect" Albanian Kosovans from Serbian genocide?^{(8) (9)}. Who has since read anything of the reconciliation of the original statistics for "thousands" of Kosovans allegedly slaughtered, or of the carcinogenic after affects of the Depleted Uranium (DU) weapons used by so-called Nato forces on the civilian population, the infrastructure - or on their own servicemen?⁽¹⁰⁾. Do you begin to get the point?

Page three and the topless images of Rupert Murdoch's Sun newspaper have been around for several years, successor to the post-war Daily Mirror's bikini-clad Jane cartoon strip. So where does one draw the line and who draws it? As we write, the term "sexed-up" has become a popular cachet associated with the undoubted corruption of intelligence information employed to justify the invasion of Iraq in March, 2003. But the same creeping process has also infused the dry pages of the business supplements of the weekend broadsheets. Any financial report on a fashion house or the introduction, say, of a new range of beachwear or female undergarments by Marks & Spencer, seems to be an excuse for accompanying pictures of suitably attired "dolly birds". The advent of photogenic female executives and entrepreneurs must have been heaven-sent! Much press coverage smacks of Parkinson's Law in that the amount of rubbish expands to fill the space available. We notice that each of the broadsheets capitalises voluminously on topical issues such as the Taliban and Al-Qa'eda, or the alleged indiscretions of B.B.C. journalist Andrew Gilligan in reporting the corruption of intelligence information on Iraq. For the brief period and attention span that such items remain topical the competitive "we can now reveal" approach to 2, 3 or 4-page exclusive "candy floss "analyses shows on closer examination that these contain little of genuine substance in practice. Grossly overpaid sporting stars - entertainers - are accorded front page treatment, and their personal profiles are exploited, such that they and the public feed on this publicity instead of the former being relegated to a more appropriate obscurity. The same applies to copious coverage of the most bizarre ladies' fashions and their grossly overpaid "celebrity" international models; parading in impractical attire much of which is so bizarre that it could never be worn by the ordinary individual. Thus "high fashion" has become no better than a form of expensively popular entertainment and what must surely be one of the most vulnerable "bricks without straw" businesses in a Western world awash with easy money, albeit based on debt. Another example of an inane and feckless enterprise is the "I'm a celebrity . . . Get me out of here" competition in the Australian jungle. We have to ask why a superficially serious, superficially establishment newspaper like The Daily Telegraph devotes a full illustrated half-page to the sexually titillating antics of yet more inconsequential "celebs"? What we do know is that all this absorption of newspaper space serves to anaesthetise the mind of the reader and distort the quality and balance of public perceptions and divert attention from serious issues of national and international importance.

Whom Should We Trust?

Press coverage of public services raises another angle. Health Care and the Railway System are in disarray and in economic straits; Health Care not least because of diseases arising from sexual perversion, toxic pollution and Immigration-Asylum rates, about which there is much public and political obfuscation; usually excused as "debate". This is compounded by massive bureaucratic and political dishonesty, ineptitude, incompetence and corruption as in the field of Biotechnology. We may recall official attempts to further the interests of the United States conglomerate, Monsanto, by foisting Genetically Modified (G.M.) agricultural methods and produce on the British electorate. From the Prime Minister down as we have seen in the case of the Balkans, Afghanistan and Iraq the electorate are kept at well-spun arms length from the reality that, apart from an absence of strategic acumen, impractical ideologies and political expediency, almost none seems to have the personal ability or experience to run much more than a street corner store. These problems have much to do with the indiscriminate and misapplied Materialism of the Thatcher era. We thus have crises of function and conflicting ideologies on the one hand; on the other we have the provision of essential public finance. Maintenance of Law and Order is typical of this dichotomy, which tends to be the bottom line of what ought to be serious and open public debate. It is compounded by a lack of political will on the part of governments to issue into the public domain government created money interest-free or at low interest, to finance public commitments. This is further complicated by a debt-usury based geopolitical economy that can only be sustained as long as indebtedness ranging from the individual, to the nation to multinational corporate interests continues to chase its own tail. Thus we stall the day of reckoning with the General Agreement on Trade in Services (G.A.T.S.), privatisation of state functions and so-called "partnerships" or Private Finance Initiatives (P.F.I.s), as escalating debt inches ahead of the ultimate resolution of the problem⁽¹²⁾. In other words this endlessly spiralling problem can only be resolved under current practises by creating yet more debt. We are permitted no critical analysis of the arguments for resolving this situation. It is at this point that we must consider whom we can trust and whom we are to believe. Immediately we come to the question of vested interests, and interlocking international as well as national appointments to boards of directors, and advisory, regulatory and consultancy bodies. Ownership and control of the Mass Communications Media are organic to this scenario as names are traced from one body to another, to the Government and to the Civil Service. We see that regulation is a farce in the face of the ceaseless flow of pornographic, violent and sexually explicit material into the country, to say nothing of its domestic promotion. As usual letters to Members of Parliament are invariably a waste of time. So, too is much of the Media. But who was told that a few years ago the Chief executive of EMAP, publishers of the pornographic teenage magazine ("Position of the fortnight"), More! magazine was Sir John Hoskyns, or that one of the directors was also on the board of The Daily Telegraph? It is also the point at which we come to questions of Cultural Communism and Political Correctness as specific mechanisms for destabilising the social and moral order for the purpose of controlling public perceptions and suppressing public reactions ^{(13 (14) (15))}. In other words, to neutralise the Cognitive Classes as a potential threat to the Ruling Elite - the Global Power Brokers.

Whom Are We To Read?

Where are we to break through the invisible information barrier? We must know where to look and what to look out for. We are not in the business of advertising, but inevitably we must indicate reliable sources, mainly in the United Kingdom. We will deal with newspapers and magazines as the accessible hard copy. We must also accept that whilst the geo-political conflict is currently a key topic we must consider national and international questions generally, although it is only possible here to identify one or two main areas of concern. Every publication regardless of ultimate ownership must cater, if only nominally, for the social and political allegiances of the readership for which it professes to cater. Thus we find the satirical, but pithy and penetrating "Peter Simple" taking his own line in The Daily Telegraph in defending the national traditions and culture. All newspapers must purvey news - a statement of the obvious - but with this goes the slant of the presentation. The Daily Mirror campaigned vigorously against the invasion of Iraq in 2003. This was an event known to have been planned by the United States some five years beforehand, and was justified on false evidence and in defiance of United Nations procedures. Full weight was given to the severely critical commentary of John Pilger. The ritual "Left" Wing connotation was invoked with the intention of marginalising both the newspaper and Pilger. Why? We may now see that this was wholly irrelevant; the unpalatable truth for the critics was that the Mirror and Pilger had got it right! Who would be swayed by the support of The Daily Telegraph for the invasion? The Telegraph is strongly Zionist, as one may see from a study of the Hollinger-Telegraph board of directors and recruited leader writers like neoconservative hawk Richard Perle (also then a director!). Perle's ties to Tel Aviv are a matter of record. Independent Newspapers have been excellent on the Middle East (the editor of The Independent is Anglo-Jewish). Their Journalists, of whom Robert Fisk is the best known, are genuine experts on the region who do not fabricate their reports by using the wire services in the comfort of hotels. On the other political "wing" the Morning Star (formerly the Daily Worker), regularly features John Pilger and another expert on the Middle East, Felicity Arbuthnot, along with Jeremy Corbyn, M.P., and Tony Benn. Much of their writing on Western military adventures gives cause for reflection on the futility and intellectual mediocrity of inflexible party political positions. The Communist antecedents of the former Daily Worker are more evident in commentary on moral and social issues, on Education and Industry, opposition to Privatisation and general hostility to the United States.

The Jewish Chronicle reports Middle East affairs with an obvious Israeli slant, and some leader writers are unequivocally supportive of the actions of the present hard line Israeli Government. Suggestions of Jewish influence in public affairs are instinctively denied when alluded to and greeted by the customary riposte of anti-Semitism. Much has been made of anti-Semitic or anti-Israeli bias in the Mass Communications Media in reporting Middle East affairs. Conversely, this tends to be negated by frequent profiles of Jewish figures holding leading positions in the Media and, similarly, in Finance, the Law and Public Service. Jewish sources are openly proud to declare strongly disproportionate representation in political circles. Labour Friends of Israel and Conservative Friends of Israel are both more powerful and vocal than groups that support the Palestinian cause or the Arab cause in general. Influences within the hierarchy of both major political parties are easily identifiable by a simple roll-call of names. This has also been evident in frequent appearances at Anglo-Jewish charity dinners, speaking engagements and other occasions, of which Margaret Thatcher, John Major and Iain Duncan Smith have been prime examples. A fairly healthy balance is maintained by certain leader writers such as Jonathan Freedland and Anne Karpf who are moderate and objective. Gerald Kaufman, M.P., has even gone on record on television as severely critical of the treatment of the Palestinian people, as have many other leading Jewish figures both inside Israel as well as in the United Kingdom such as the late Professor Israel Shahak, Professors Steven and Hilary Rose and actor and comedian Alexei Sayle. When the Chief Rabbi, Dr Jonathan Sacks, was attacked by Orthodox Rabbis for daring to advocate an impartial and rational line between major religions, this was fairly reported by the Jewish Chronicle. The correspondence columns, too, are impartial and contain an interesting contrast of Anglo-Jewish opinion.

Social, Moral and Education questions may be read across the spectrum of relayed press opinion and analysis. The maxim is to read as widely as possible and be aware of the sources, and of the political, specialist and journalistic provenance of those sources. For example, an article in the New Statesman advocated the popular Fabian Socialist philosophy of "higher education for all", with the caveat that the "Middle Classes" should subsidise the less privileged. One needed no particular political stance to know that the "Middle Class" connotation was not defined socially or economically as a basis for such a statement. No account was taken of the requirement for Education to be geared to the needs of the real world, and there was a total absence of any understanding or realism of the current financial or economic system as a major constraint. Independent newspapers, The Guardian and The Observer take a more liberal line on social and racial issues, but seem to have tightened up recently on Drugs and on Law and Order; perhaps in the face of crumbling social and moral standards precipitated by decades of challenge to conventional disciplines, and governments and political parties chasing electoral advantage by condoning this decline. The Guardian Weekly offers a concise tabloid summary, with articles from The Washington Post and Le Monde. All are fairly good on Biotechnology, Agriculture, commercial and industrial injustice - Big Business and Globalisation - and the Environment. We have noticed far less objective coverage of these areas in the other broadsheets. This may be attributed to closer ties to the financial and economic interests of the Establishment network. The Financial Times is an excellent source across the board on current affairs with no obvious political position. One must recognise, however, that the roots are in the conventional economics of the Establishment. Financial Times Associate Editor Martin Wolf attends Bilderberg conferences, and contributors are drawn from such organisations as the Brookings Institution and the Council on Foreign Relations (C.F.R.). Nevertheless amongst the dry "Commodities" reports one is likely to find, for example, details of the ravages of Agrichemical giants, like Monsanto and Aventis in the Third World, such as theft through patenting of traditional crops, or "agreements" for the introduction - imposition - of Genetically Modified cotton and soya crops.

We have warned about the presentation of press coverage. In other words, items may be "sexed-up", in popular parlance, played up out of proportion or context, to suit whatever the purposes; commercial competition, political ends, expectations of a given readership, factional or vested interests. This may be undertaken by placing, space allotted, the size and style of headlines and captions, selection and juxtaposition of photographs, tables and charts, phraseology, selectivity and so on. Years of observation suggest that, given the dry reliability and consistency of the Financial Times, virtually no newspaper campaigns actively, systematically and co-herently against elements of national decline that result from the destabilisation wrought by Cultural Communism, or against abuses of Power. The press in Scotland appears relatively free of the constraints exercised South of the border, if exposure of large-scale industrial pollution in Scottish editions of The Sunday Mirror and News of the World were anything to go by. The Sunday Herald, too, readily exposes political and other corruption where other newspapers fear to tread. The Daily Mail, perhaps with the advantage of a tabloid format, is the only newspaper that remorselessly exposes those issues which may be seen to occur with convincing frequency seriously to concern a Cognitive society. The self-hating Middle Classes have been heard to dismiss the Mail as a "rag", as they contemplate the decay brought about by their own liberalising ideologies. This newspaper is also too easily identified with the so-called "Middle" Classes generally, and with Conservative Party policies and social order rather than traditional conservative values, erosion and decline of which, together with an increasingly oppressive Socialist bureaucracy are of major concern to a large and growing swathe of the population. The "Middle" Class connotation offers an easy target; dodging the less vulnerable exclusivity associated with the so-called Upper Classes, and safe from patronising associations with Working Class Socialism. The essential characteristic of coverage by the Mail is that serious problems associated with Asylum and Immigration, for example, such as governmental impotence and drainage of Health Care resources, have occurred, and do seriously concern people in those areas affected. Schoolteachers recruited from abroad have given up and returned home as a result of serious indiscipline in state schools. Public concern with Police conduct and preoccupation with Politically Correct priorities, remunerative purge of motorists, failure to protect victims and investigate crime, and internal bureaucracy, is a matter of record. Government policies and corruption on triple M.M.R. vaccine, the Environment, Pornography, Promiscuity and Drugs liberalisation are likewise a question of serious public concern.

Many doctrinal, social and moral questions suggest a deadly "ping-pong" struggle between resolutely polarised positions. Often this may be identified as a conflict between Nationalism and Internationalism; between libertarian values and social and moral responsibility against a scale of authoritarian discipline; between perceived interests and right and wrong; between the scale, possession and control of power, and social justice. Publication of three excellent newsletters ceased with the deaths of their sponsors; Hilaire du Berrier's Monaco-based HduB Report, and from South Africa Ed Cain's Rocca Report and Aida Parker's APN Newsletter. For those able to subscribe, the Swiss-based monthly tabloid newsletter, Current Concerns offers an excellent continental overview of political and geopolitical questions⁽¹⁶⁾. The Ecologist magazine is published in ten monthly issues by Zac Goldsmith, son of the late Sir James Goldsmith. It covers a wide range of environmental, medical, agricultural and humanitarian issues, with pungent exposures of the abuse of Power⁽¹⁷⁾ . The New Statesman and The Spectator are available from major outlets. Each features reputable authors and tends to reflect opposite ends of the philosophical spectrum. The American Free Press, AFP, is the fortnightly tabloid successor to The Spotlight. This reflects an American position outside that of the controlled Establishment Media(18). Private Eye is published fortnightly. Although basically satirical, contributors have a long record of putting a finger unerringly and pithily on corruption in Public Life; in Business, Local Government, the Media, Medicine, Agriculture and the Environment. Special Reports have been published on the Foot and Mouth Disease Epidemic⁽¹⁹⁾ and the triple MMR Vaccine⁽²⁰⁾. The London Review Of Books contains stimulating articles on topical questions and comprehensive letter pages as well as book reviews. It is not inhibited by sensitive issues⁽²¹⁾. The World Today is published by the Royal Institute of International Affairs (R.I.I.A.)⁽²²⁾. The Washington Report On Middle East Affairs is a magazine that claims to "interpret the Middle East for North Americans" and "interpret North America for the Middle East"⁽²³⁾. The EIR Executive Intelligence Review magazine is published weekly. Although associated with Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr., whose credibility some question, EIR has world-wide coverage, and contains comprehensive and well-researched articles on a range of important national and international topics⁽²⁴⁾. Sovereignty and Prosperity are both concise newsletters published monthly in Glasgow by Alistair D. McConnachie. Sovereignty deals with National questions and Europe; Prosperity reflects the position of the Bromsgrove Group for Monetary and Economic Reform⁽²⁵⁾.

NO (TOBACCO) SMOKE WITHOUT DIESEL

One of the first books published by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, in 1972 before the foundation of the Institution's own company, Mechanical Engineering Publications, Ltd, was a beautifully produced record of steam locomotives around the world. It was based on paintings made by a widely-travelled former member, the late H.M. Le Fleming⁽²⁶⁾. Descriptions of two North American steam locomotives contained intriguing statements. In the case of the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railway 1600 Class 4-8-2 this ran:

The 1600s survived the Second World War, but were then overwhelmed by the flood of diesels which swept throughout the land.

That concerning the massive Class Y5 2-8-8-2s of the Norfolk and Western Railway was even more specific:

With its superb servicing facilities, the N & W recorded higher monthly-engine mileages with its steam power than many railroads obtained with their diesels, and as a result, new steam engines were being built at the Company's Roanaoke shops until the mid-1950s. However, all good things come to an end, and with most of its shares held by outside interests, this highly profitable railway was pressurised a few years later into abandoning its steam policy. Internal-combustion engine manufacturers were supposed to make the profits - not the railroads! Amongst the fine and powerful locomotives consigned with indecent haste to the scrap heap were the compound 2-8-8-2s of various classes, such as the Y5 shown here.

This calls to mind massive parallel cutbacks in the railway network, and dieselisation, carried out in the United Kingdom during the time of Sir Richard, later Lord, Beeching, C.I.Mech.E, as Chairman of the British Transport Commission (1961-63) and the British Railways Board (1963-65). The enormous Power of the oil and motor manufacturing industries is also relevant to what was in effect a process of transferring transport from the railways to the roads. The FT Global 500 Index for May, 2003, shows Esso-Exxon(3), Royal Dutch Shell(8) and BP-Amoco(9) in the first ten largest corporations. We may well understand, therefore, the real significance of United States-United Kingdom-NATO-led military incursions into the Balkans, into the former Soviet states that border Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan, and into Iraq itself, in 2003.

We now come to the question of tobacco and a campaign against cigarette smoking that has been waged relentlessly for 20-30 years. In March, 1993, The Times reported: "Habit even more dangerous than feared - Smokers three times more likely to die in middle age". Following a "40-year study of smoking", the newspaper quoted "New results" to justify the sentence "The most important difference is a significant increase in lung cancer among the smoking group, but heart disease, bronchitis and emphysema, pneumonia, peptic ulcers and hernia are also increased". Why hernia was not explained; perhaps from coughing. Otherwise just about everything apart from ingrowing toe-nails! We do not for a moment defend the practise of smoking, which can seriously harm one's health, especially if indulged in to excess - we have been the target of such emotive accusations in the past. We are concerned simply to seek evidence of the substance behind anti-Smoking publicity from a comprehensive press record going back some 16 years. The first question to be asked of the Times report is "Why now?" The date, 1993, is well into the period of the campaign, yet was this the first time such claims could be made with medical, scientific and epidemiological evidence that had presumably already been available for several years? This has been the obvious pattern; of a classic manipulation of, or by the Media; of sweeping unsubstantiated claims and generalisations, selective use or omission of statistics, absence of detailed justification of statistics and selective use of epidemiological factors.

The case for the elimination may indeed be strong for social and environmental reasons alone, but the question remains, "Has somebody something to hide in waging the campaign?" Another curious aspect of the anti-Smoking campaign is that of litigation. This was reported in America in the same year, 1993, by The Daily Telegraph, the same time that the problem of passive smoking was raised in the newspaper. Several cases of litigation have been reported since, in that lung cancer occurred because the victims were inveigled into smoking by the manufacturer and advertising. Motor vehicles are commonly designed to be capable of speeds far in excess of legal limits. Sales are promoted by a massive advertising industry. Accident rates in Western countries are a constant cause of concern. Innocent passengers and bystanders - passive participants - are killed, injured and maimed. Yet we do not read of motor manufacturers or advertising corporations being brought before the courts. Why not? A study of company annual reports suggests one reason; a complex network of directorships that spans the Media, the Oil Industry, the Banks, the Pharmaceutical and Advertising Industries. Passive Smoking has been a major feature of the anti-Smoking campaign. Yet if we watch films from the 1940s and 1950s, the cast are commonly seen to be smoking "like chimneys"; the atmosphere wreathed in passive smoke! Cigarettes were an important provision for the Armed Forces in war. In 1992 we examined this question on the basis of a book by the Danish Dr Tage Voss⁽²⁷⁾. The cover carried the byline "It has been proven beyond any shadow of doubt that smoking is the cause of statistics"⁽²⁸⁾. Dr Voss argued the absence of genuine danger from Passive Smoking. He was brought before the Danish Medical Ethics Council to answer a complaint, but was exonerated after a study of the scientific evidence. Even so, the campaign against Passive Smoking has continued. At this stage it is therefore worth considering a handful of press headlines on smoking in general:

* 20 cigarettes a day 'treble death risk' (The Daily Telegraph, 13th October, 1980)
* Children seek to sue parents over passive smoking (The Independent on Sunday, 31st January, 1993)
* Smoke clue to mutation in lungs (The Daily Telegraph, 1st February, 1993)
* Passive smoking link to cot deaths (Shropshire Star, 19th November, 1993)
* Warning to Saturday night 'binge drinkers' Doctors warn that 'part time' smokers are as much at risk as those on the weed all week (The Independent on Sunday, 30th November, 2003)
* Smoking 'kills up to 5,000 foetuses a year - B.M.A. links cigarettes to infertility, miscarriages and cervical cancer (The Daily Telegraph, 12th February, 2004)

The late Dr Kitty Little postulated convincingly many years ago diesel exhaust emissions as the real link with lung cancer⁽²⁹⁾. Smoking issues then tended to lose impact as Mad Cow Disease, Biotechnology and the Foot and Mouth Disease epidemic monopolised attention. The huge growth of road transport, the widespread use of chemicals in Agriculture, waste disposal, toxic waste used as industrial fuel and toxic emissions involving new chemicals from modern industrial processes have brought about an increase in birth defects, miscarriages, asthma and cancers. The effects on densely populated and industrial regions mean that the United Kingdom has become increasingly gridlocked between industries organic to the economy, Public Health and the destruction of the Environment. Smoking is losing impact as a "catch-all" diversion to explain away the situation. Gradually public awareness has forced the issue of the diesel connection. The Times wrote in September, 1993, that "Fears grow of health risks in diesel fuel". The anti-Smoking faction continued to counter with "Smoking linked to mastitis", which was typical of bizarre attempts to divert attention (The Daily Telegraph, 24th September, 1993), and "No need to fear 'deadly diesels" (Financial Times, 27th August, 1994). In January, 1994, The Times reported work on air pollution by the Birmingham Chest Clinic that indicated diesel exhaust to be a greater threat to health than smoking. Other headlines appeared:

* Petrol stations pose cancer risk (The Guardian, 18th May, 1994)
* Pollution linked with asthma (The Guardian, 13th July, 1994)
* Suburb 'poisoned' by plutonium (The Sunday Times, 8th July, 2001)
* Birth defects found to be higher near landfill sites (Financial Times, 17th August, 2001)
* Cancer in children on the increase (The Daily Telegraph, 18th December, 2001
* How diesel takes its toll on children's lungs (Daily Mail, 16 November, 2001)
* What lies beneath - Homeowners living on 'decontaminated' brownfield sites run the risk of ill health (The Sunday Telegraph, 9th December, 2001)
* Traffic fumes may cause babies to be born with heart defects (The Sunday Times, 30th December, 2001)
* Study ties air pollution to risk of lung cancer (The Washington Post, from the Guardian Weekly, March, 2002).
* Child asthma rates are the highest in Europe (The Daily Telegraph, 23rd December, 2003)

There is a message here for those who take what they read at face value. We have yet to come across a proper assessment of all the possible factors that should have been taken into account in so-called epidemiological studies to justify the anti-Smoking campaign. Only when it became impossible to hold the lid on the diesel link did the truth begin to break. Thanks largely to the work of Dr Dick van Steenis and his colleagues we are poised to learn the wider and even more dangerous implications of industrial pollution. But beware, the cover-up will continue to be enforced, by fair means or foul, at the highest levels of Government.

(To be continued)

REFERENCES

Note: Prices are shown where available from Bloomfield Books, and represent only a selection relevant to the theme of this edition of On Target. Publications temporarily out of stock as annotated*. A wide range of reading may be found in the Stock Price List (S.P.L.), which may be obtained post free on request from the address on the last page. Out of print, or older works, may be obtained through the Book Search Service, or the Second-Hand Book Service, both of which are operated by Mr. T.G. Turner, for which details are available as for the S.P.L.

(1) On Target, Vol. 33, Nos. 9-11, 1st, 15th & 29th November, 2003. Can The House Of Lords Save British Sovereignty?
(2) Chomsky, Noam. Chronicles of Dissent - Interviews with David Barsamian. AK Press, 1992. £12.25*.
(3) Goldberg, J.J. Jewish Power Inside The American Jewish Establishment. Perseus Books, 1996.
(4) On Target, Vol. 22, Nos. 1 & 2, 11th & 25th July, 1992, "A Free Press In A Democratic Society" and Nos. 3 & 4, 8th & 22nd August, 1992, "Controlling Communications, or The Media And The Masses".
(5) Dye, Thomas R. Who's Running America? The Carter Years. Prentice Hall, Inc., 1979.
(6) Halberstam, David. The Powers That Be. Chato & Windus, 1979.
(7) E.I.R. Investigative Team. Tiny Rowland - The Ugly Face Of Neocolonialism In Africa. Executive Intelligence Review, Washington D.C., 1993. £10.00.
(8) On Target, Vol. 28, Nos. 23 & 24, 8th & 22nd May, 1999. The Real Battle Of The Balkans.
(9) On Target, Vol. 29, Nos. 21 & 22, 8th & 22nd April, 2000. The Shifting Geo-Political Sands.
(10) On Target, Vol. 29, Nos. 10 & 11, 6th & 20th November, 1999. The Global View Of Depravity - Political And Corporate Power Over Man And Beast.
(11) On Target, Vol. 29, Nos 14, 15 & 16, 1st, 15th & 29th January, 2000. Government Policies For Industrial Pollution And Acceptance Of The Dangers To Public Health.
(12) On Target passim.
(13) On Target, Vol. 29, Nos. 6 - 9, 11th & 25th September and 9th & 23rd October, 1999. Conspiracy, Revolution And Moral Decay. Published in 2 parts.
(14) On Target, Vol. 33, Nos 3 & 4, 9th & 23rd August, 2003. Political Correctness (P.C.) - Weapon Of Mass Mental And Social Destruction.
(15) Political Correctness and the Ideological Struggle: From Lenin and Mao to Marcuse and Foucault. Dr Frank Ellis. The Journal of Social, Political and Economic Studies, Vol. 27, No. 4, Winter 2002.
(16) Current Concerns, P.O. Box 223, CH-8044, Zurich. Tel: +41 1 350 65 50; Fax: 41 1 350 65 51; E-mail: <CurrentConcerns@zeit-fragen.ch>
(17) Subscription Hotline: 01795 414963.
(18) American Free Press, 1433, Pennsylvania Avenue SE, Washington, DC 20003. Tel: 001 888 699 6397; E-mail: <subscriptions@americanfreepress.net>
(19) Not The Foot and Mouth Report - Everything Tony Blair didn't want you to know about the biggest blunder of his premiership. Pivate Eye Special Investigation Report, November, 2001.
(20) MMR - Measles - Mumps - Rubella. The Story So Far - A comprehensive Review Of The MMR Vaccination/Autism Controversy. Private Eye Special Report, May, 2002.
(21) Tel: 020 7209 1141; Fax: 020 7209 1151. 24 issues annually.
(22) 11 issues annually. Tel or Fax:: +44 (0) 20 7957 5712.
(23) Published monthly by the American Educational Trust, P.O. Box 53062, Washington, DC 20009. Tel: 001 202 939 6050; Fax: 001 202 265 4574 or 6754; E-mail: <circulation@wrmea.com>
(24) EIR News Service, Inc., 317 Pennsylvania Avenue, SE, 3rd Floor, Washington, DC 20003. Tel: 001 202 543 8002; E-mail: <eirns@larouchepub.com>
(25) The annual subscription in each case is £15.00. Enquiries should be made to 268 Bath Street, Glasgow, G2 4JR; Tel: (0141) 353 6900 or E-mail; <admcc@admcc.freeserve.co.uk>
(26) International Locomotives - From the Collection of the late H.M. Le Fleming, M.A., M.I.M.Mech.E., M.I.Loc.E., M.N.E.C.Inst. The Institution of Mechanical Engineers, 1972.
(27) On Target, Vol. 22, Nos. 7 & 8, 3rd & 17th October, 1992. The War On Tobacco, The Truth, And A New Book.
(28) Voss, Tage. Smoking & Common Sense - One Doctor's View. Peter Owen, 1992. £10.95*
(29) On Target, Vol. 26, Nos. 3 & 4, 3rd & 17th August, 1996. Oil, Diesel And Tobacco - Smoking Out The Truth.