'Where To?' at the London Literature Festival 2009.

I'll be making an appearance and reciting my poetry live at this FREE spoken word and music event at the prestigious Southbank Centre. The line-up is inspiringly varied, check the Facebook event and add yourself here: 

COME TO THIS

The BBC vs John Hill.

This article caught my attention today and I have to comment:

The John Hill story

A man called John Hill has made a documentary presenting what he believes is the truth behind the 7/7 bombings in London. I do not want to debate whether what he says is true or false. I do however want to defend his right to say it and question the rationale behind the BBC approaching him in the way that they did.

“You have made a film that is damaging trust in the British Government…” - Mike Rudin BBC

Why are the BBC door-stepping people for being critical of the government? If this man is simply a misguided crackpot, a crazed “conspiracy theorist” who is way off the mark why should anybody be worried about his 7/7 documentary (it is certainly not the first to be released on this topic). Why should he not be allowed to peacefully exercise his right to free speech and then have his message scrutinized by the critical thinking of the public who view the documentary?

If what he says is easily debunked then it will be rightfully ignored, if there is as much overwhelming evidence to support the official version of 7/7 events as BBC reporter Mike Rudin states then surely most intelligent people will laugh his work off as demented fantasy. The BBC are not certain you’ll be smart enough to make up your own mind however, so rather than deny this supposed nut job the oxygen of publicity they pursued and harassed him on national television, complete with spooky soundtrack. 

Interestingly, not only is the lunatic conspiracy theorist behind '7/7 Ripple Effect' being named and shamed in our media, he is now facing extradition for sending his video to people related to the criminal investigation of 7/7. He is charged with perverting the course of justice...How? By sending a video of “conspiracy theory” rubbish? – this is an odd scenario isn’t it. The crackpot who must be silenced and publicly denounced. 

Should our media harass an individual for presenting material that questions the political establishment? Is it not our duty as citizens to keep our minds open and enquiring to detect hypocrisy, deceit and betrayal by the people we elect to represent our interests. If anybody who asks such questions (popular or not) is to be bullied into silence or if those who question logical gaps in the government's actions or statements are to be flippantly branded “conspiracy theorists” we have a problem with our democracy. 

The truth is that more and more of my intelligent friends are questioning the actions of our government and they are not basement dwelling loons, they are people with serious careers who have the respect of their peers. We can’t all be crazed conspiracy theorists, we can’t all be making the same mistakes and seeing inconsistencies when there are none. So maybe that is why these documentaries suddenly seem so dangerous to our leaders. They know the truth will out.