David Cameron has declared his interests in Common Purpose. Suddenly the press and media realise he was part of the same Common Purpose that founded the Leveson Inquiry. Was it an oversight? State control of the press is not an appointment…
The UK government’s direct control of the press through the Leveson Inquiry has never been more clear to anyone prepared to look. This is only the beginning. Control over the wider television and web-based media will surely continue as night follows day. Let’s focus on the press for now, and the rest should become clear. First, acknowledge that the mainstream press is not actually free in any sense. Whatever the title – Telegraph, Mail, Sun, Guardian, whatever – the publication is controlled by people who control the funds and their legal teams, which are in turn controlled by a loyal bar association. But history has shown that despite this control, the truth tends to bubble up to the surface as competing journalists and titles publish their wares. Certainly, the centralisation of newspaper titles in the hands of a few corporations is a dangerous precedent, but at the moment it is a secondary threat to freedoms and rights. It is Leveson’s common cause that is the real and present danger.
Built on the big lie that media phone tapping cannot be controlled under current law, the Guardian and its common cause tentacle, the Media Standards Trust, have deliberately created and fanned a press, media and government furor. The Guardian even cynically sought to exploit an emotive family tragedy and lie by falsely claiming that Milly Dowler's texts had been deleted.
By the time the phone hacking scandal flared up, UK Column and CP Exposure The Daily Mail has been warning for several years about the dangers of the political charity Common Purpose and its destructive aims to destroy both British freedom and democracy. Using key information gleaned from the UK column, the Daily Mail finally connected some of the dots in December 2012 with an expose on the Common Purpose network surrounding Leveson. The Telegraph and the Sun followed suit, as did the Guardian, who ran a disingenuous article that ignored the fact that its parent company, the Scott Trust, had funded the Common Purpose Media Standards Trust in the first place. To their credit, the Daily Mail, Telegraph and Sun also covered the role of the Hack Off campaign launched by Common Purpose, but none of the media outlets noticed a major danger to press freedom, namely the influence and control of David Bell (Common Purpose Trustee Chair) and Julia Middleton (Common Purpose CEO), both of whom are already deeply embedded in the Cameron government.
The UK column held insider talks with the Conservative government's “transparency” guru, Frances Maude MP, to investigate and expose the role Bell and Middleton played in the secret effort to win the contract to train the top 200 civil servants. This blatant insider dealing, coupled with an email from Middleton to Maude signed Love Julia, revealed that their political charity had gained more power within Cameron's Conservative government than it had when it was operating directly from the office of Labour's Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott. It is worth emphasizing here that Middleton comes from the Marxist Demos.
Turn to the Leveson Inquiry. David Bell, of Common Purpose and the Media Standards Trust, who led the campaign for the hacking inquiry, was appointed as a senior member of Leveson's committee. Note the word appointment. This word will come up again and again as a web of state control is spun over the UK mainstream media. With Bell's support, Leveson did the dirty work, relying heavily on the “evidence” of “witnesses” who were widely praised and flaunted by Common Purpose, the Media Standards Trust and Hacked Off. Witnesses included pillars of morality such as Hugh Grant, Max Moseley and Chris Bryant MP, people associated with MST and Hacked Off, and satellite organisations of Common Purpose such as the Goldsmiths University Media Reform Coalition and Full Fact. Leveson, who was appointed to the inquiry by Cameron, did not seem worried about conflicts of interest among his team or witnesses, nor did he seem worried about the huge conflicts of interest posed by undisclosed Common Purpose people and associated organisations. At this stage, the media revelations, whether by design or incompetence, failed to highlight the close ties that Cameron's government already had with Common Purpose.
Leveson's inquiry naturally led to recommendations for increased monitoring and control of the press, with heavy fines. The press was to have no say in the “independent” appointees to the body set up to impose his recommendations. Notably, he refused to appear in person to answer questions about his work. He must have realised that he could not defend his inquiry, which was obviously riddled with conflicts of interest and vested interests. As the true impact and dangers of his recommendations became clear, finally a few journalists began to sound the alarm and several newspapers joined forces to propose a press counter to Leveson's fraud. The cry that Cameron himself was deeply involved in Common Purpose, notably through their “Dishaa India” initiative, and had not declared his interests, was too little, too late. The press failed to fully realise the danger of the Common Purpose conspiracy aimed against them. Predictably, the Privy Council rejected the press's proposal and supported Leveson's recommendations under Royal Charter control. The Royal Charter would appoint an “approved” committee consisting of an “independently appointed” committee to oversee “regulatory bodies” dealing with complaints, industry codes of conduct and arbitration services.
It is worth mentioning here Leveson witness Paul Andrew Vickers, who was group legal director at Trinity Mirror and who later drafted IPSO's structure and rules – and, coincidentally, Common Purpose CEO Julia Middleton's husband also worked at Trinity Mirror for many years.
To get to the point, let me identify the attack on press freedom (and ultimately our freedoms) in just one paragraph: Common Purpose created the call for the Leveson inquiry, Common Purpose supporter David Cameron appointed Leveson, Common Purpose leading figure Sir David Bell sat on the Leveson Commission to act as witness, judge and jury, and Common Purpose witnesses gave their accounts at Common Purpose's urging. Cameron passed Leveson's proposals to a secretive Privy Council chamber under the control of Deputy Prime Minister and President of the Privy Council, Nick Clegg. Who appointed Clegg? David Cameron. Within the Privy Council, far from the eyes and ears of the public, Clegg appointed Privy Councillors Lord McNally (Minister of Justice), Jeremy Hunt MP (Minister of Health) and Maria Miller MP (Culture, Media and Sport) (both Common Purpose users) to decide Privy Council decisions and Royal Charters. Having achieved their desired result, they appointed Privy Councillor and former Chief Justice Lord Worth Matravers as Chair of the Foundations Group, which would appoint the Appointments Committee. Phillips would appoint former top civil servant Sir Hayden Phillips as Chair of the Appointments Committee. This committee would “independently” appoint the accreditation committee and regulator. Meanwhile, Common Purpose continues to campaign for greater press control, and has deep roots in government, local government and the public sector, including the police, NHS, education, social care, the Information Commissioner's Office, the Audit Office, the Treasury and Government Communications Headquarters. Further afield, it also exerts influence over the banking sector, law and accountancy firms and their trainers. The UK column will continue to warn about Common Purpose's creeping control. Contrary to recent covert claims by MI5, MI6 and GCHQ that Al-Qaeda is the greatest threat to the UK, Common Purpose's subversive activities within the UK are a real and immediate danger.
