The Press and the Establishment. Part Three.

Part three of The Press and the Establishment

My feelings about "The Establishment" were born as I realised that I had developed an in built sense of respectful awe, this being on account of the honour and implication earned by the right to use the title SIR in front of one's name. I wish to stress that point, I most decidedly felt that starting a letter with Dear Sir, when the "Sir" meant that I was writing to a Knight of the Realm was rather a daunting and awe inspiring challenge.

This sense of awe faded as deep feelings of injustice took very firm root in my mind. As I felt that Knights of the Realm were automatically linked with "The Establishment" I came to think harder and harder as to what degree a person's thinking is affected, consciously or not, by their perception of "The Establishment".

As I pondered as to what is "The Establishment" I felt that somewhere and somehow a person
or group of people could define, in point form, what distinguished a person as a member of the "true" Establishment". Could one of these points be that the person was a member of the traditional "ruling class"? This raises a question as to whether a person not "born" into it can ever become a member of the traditional ruling class. Note that ruling class does not imply that MPs, on account of their role, are automatically members though, of course, some of them may qualify on account of being "born" into it.

In defining"The Establishment", that I am concerned with, care has to be taken that one is referring to to the ruling class establishment. This because there are many mini and/or specified establishments linked with various callings or professions. Some that spring easily to mind are medicine, education, law, publishing, science, engineering,art, finance, international politics and religion. Many of the persons who qualify as top members of a mini establishment may also be members of the true or ruling class "Establishment"

I consider it rather an anomaly that political parties, in the House of Commons, can create Life Peers to serve in the House of Lords, and that the titles of Lord or Baroness so awarded tend to assure that the person so honoured is well on the way to becoming a member of "The Establishment". This facet disturbs me and I would like to see a different system created, to ensure that brilliant minds, tuned in and trusted by virtue of experience and exposure to the public, can be called on to advise MPs on any matter.

This blog about "The Press and the Establishment" will be continued in part four.

Frederick W Gilling. Sunday 01 November 2009.

The Press and the Establishment. Part Two.

Part two of The Press and the Establishment.

A few of the reasons for my deep sense of injustice with regard to a decision by the Press Complaints Commission are given below.
A Press Complaints official informed me , in a letter, that there would be no further correspondence from the PCC to me.
This same officer had "amalgamated" two emails from the Editor into one for "the sake of convenience", one of the emails from the Editor was not even addressed to her. There was no indication on the "amalgamated" email that it was anything other than what it appeared to be.
That " amalgamated" email may have been presented to the Commission Members, by the complaints officer, in support of a draft ruling to help them come to a decision regarding my complaint.
If I had not seen a reference to "emails" [inferring more than one] I would not have known that two emails from the Editor had been sent to the PCC on that particular day.
I wrote to both the Chairman and the Independent Charter Commissioner of the PCC and expressed my feelings of injustice, I did not expect and did not get a reply.
As a result I wrote, individually, to the 17 members of the PCC and explained my feeling of injustice, among other things. Three of them replied and stated that they were no longer Members of the Commission, a fourth replied that he felt sure normal channels for a complaint were in place , he had completely missed the point of my writing to him directly.
Comparatively recently a new Chairperson of the PCC been appointed, I wrote to her and asked her to review my complaint, I did not receive a reply.

As far as I am aware there is no method of appealing against a decision by the PCC and they are not subject to the Freedom of Information Act. I understand that a Chairman at the time did not favour the appointment of an Ombudsman in connection with the PCC.

For a body that sings the praises of Self Regulation and of Fairness they are extremely autocratic.

This blog about "The Press and the Establishment" will be continued in Part Three.

Frederick W Gilling Friday 30 October 2009.

The Press and the Establishment. Part One.

Part One of "The Press and the Establishment"

The first thing that I must make very clear is that I have an axe to grind. When it is ground to a very fine edge I wish to use it, figuratively, to cut through the defensive wall that surrounds the Press Complaints Commission. [PCC]

The second thing that I must, hand on heart proclaim, is that until three years or so ago I never, even lightheartedly, thought about "The Establishment".

Strangely the growing need for a sharp axe to attack the wall around the PCC fostered and directed my thoughts about "The Establishment". The reason being, that at that time, two of the top men in the PCC were "Knights of the Realm" and, trustingly naive that I was, through my rose tinted spectacles I could see them charging, on snow white steeds, to the aid of a common man. How wrong I was.

Very briefly:
I "self" published "An Adult Stocking Filler", a book of short stories.
A local paper in West Sussex reviewed it.
There was a major inaccuracy in the review.
Played for or not the inaccuracy supported a sarcastic theme of the review
I delivered a letter by hand to the office of the paper. In the letter I pointed out the inaccuracy to the Editor.
Two weeks later, by the same method, I again pointed out the inaccuracy to the Editor.
The next day I received a reply, from the Editor, to my first letter. It stated, simply, that my remarks had been noted.

Purely by chance, in a free local paper, I saw a notice informing readers about the PCC. I wrote to the PCC and complained about the inaccuracy.

A very long and protracted correspondence then followed, I must shoulder some of the blame for this. Initially I was very impressed with the modus operandi of the PCC and their proclaimed aims, I commented along those lines to them. When, eventually, the Commission came to a decision I was totally amazed with it and, consequently and subsequently, developed a very deep sense of injustice about several aspects of how my complaint had been handled.

This blog about "The Press and the Establishment" will be continued in Part Two.

Frederick W Gilling. Thursday 29 October 2009.

Moved to Dorset

I am sorry for long delay but we have moved to Dorset and met all sorts of communication problems. The first was getting a phone line re-coupled and the second was getting connected to broadband. For reasons which I am never likely to know it took over a month to reconnect to broadband. One phone call to the provider lasted over 100 minutes!! There are times when, as one goes around and around in circles, one could subscribe to thinking "Can a system be so efficient that it is inefficient"?

I hope to get part one of "The Press and the Establishment" on line within a couple of days

Frederick W Gilling 23:50hrs Tuesday 27th October 2009.