Who knows what is said between consenting adults in corridors

The government is set to rule whether to approve News Corporation's bid for complete control over BSkyB. The culture secretary, Jeremy Hunt, has it on his head to navigate the crevices of this particular conundrum.

It is right that such important decisions - ones that could widely affect the balance of power in the media - are made off the back of cold, hard deliberation. The decision falls on Jeremy Hunt's shoulders after Vince Cable's position became untenable by his overt bias in opposition to News Corp.

Let us hope that Hunt's positioning does not suffer equal bias; albeit one on the opposite end of the political divide. This could be a difficult one to sell however when Cameron has recently been spotted accepting party invitations from Mr Murdoch himself.

We cannot watch Mr Hunt 24/7 so it would be mere wild speculation to suggest that Mr Cameron is intercepting his cabinet colleague on occasion to beg a small favour for a friend...

YOU'RE NOT THE ONLY ONE THAT TIME HAS GOT IT IN FOR, HONEY

A NOISY, SCRUFFY AND COLOURFUL CHALLENGE TO THE WAR-WAGING TENDENCIES OF THREE PRIME MINISTERS.

Brian Haw, 1949 - 2011

YOU CANNOT HAVE A SITUATION WHEN HUNDREDS AND THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE DIE BECAUSE THEY ARE EXERCISING THE RIGHT TO PROTEST

Do you still feel younger than you thought you would by now?

Bonus points for spotting whose advert I have appropriated for this - rather unnecessary - Love Is A Laserquest lyrics poster.

BRIAN SHOWED US WHAT A QUIESCENT AND SUPINE COUNTRY WE'VE BECOME

Mark Wallinger on Brian Haw, the peace campaigner, who died on Saturday.

On social media as a double-edged sword to spur political and social change.

I need to be able to find a positive arising from the Syrian "Gay Girl in Damascus" blog hoax fiasco. It's too upsetting to see the good-nature of people being exploited without some good coming from it. For every ounce of effort made in this particular case, the same has been denied from a cause of genuine worth.

Is it enough to rely on the generosity and inherent goodness in people to involve themselves time and time again in appeals that they cannot be certain are genuine? No, it is not.

The real progress will be in seeing this particular case in a wider context. It will involve closer scrutiny of our own international actions and convictions. Given the amount we have already invested into helping the people of Libya liberate themselves; is it not correct that we continue to hold our intervention up for questioning, testing our belief that we are truly helping enact the will and aim of the majority?

Would it also be correct to suggest that part of this process would involve our own media's ability to report truths? Given the sway they command, it is right that they install more robust controls on what they send to the front page unqualified.


(Regarding the poster: allow me the "Irrelevant Actor" visual joke.)

THERE'S NOTHING PAST THIS

My original concept for the recent Death Cab For Cutie inspired poster.

THE ROLE THAT THOUSANDS PLAYED IN THIS DISGUSTING EVENT NEEDS TO BE SCRUTINIZED

I would normally shy away from using remarks that strongly convey an abject opinion. I fear a cementing of subjectivity as fact. Sometimes it becomes a necessity, especially when human behavior breaches through into the undeniably wicked.

I sat with mouth agape as the news reports filtered through on Wednesday evening and Thursday morning. It appears that many of the ice hockey fans who had gathered in downtown Vancouver to watch the Stanley Cup final laid waste to the city following the Canucks' defeat to the Boston Bruins.

The images of shopfronts being smashed and looted; cars upended and set alight; police trying to contain the situation; all seemed very familiar. These were identical examples of the mob mentality that has frequently marred many a day's political activism in Central London over the course of this past year.

I find Wednesday's destruction much more contemptible. Regardless of the sinister nature of much of London's recent violence, it remains - in the most part - politically motivated (however stretched this definition becomes). Mass criminality in the name of sporting losses has no justification. It is mindless, and in cases where innocent people were injured: evil. I wholehearted support the sentiments of Gary Mason printed in The Globe and Mail on Thursday.

POLITICS SHOULD NOT BE LEFT ONLY IN THE HANDS OF POLITICIANS

These words, made yesterday by Nobel laureate Mario Vargas Llosa, were removed from Chinese state media broadcasts.

It is a simple statement that should resonate for everyone, regardless of nationality or political culture and ideologies.

IF THE DAILY MAIL IS SO WORRIED ABOUT THE SEXUALISATION OF CHILDREN, ALL THEY HAVE TO DO IS HIT 'DELETE'

Charlie Brooker makes some interesting points in a piece in today's Guardian. Whether one can be quite as blasé as he about the dangers posed by exposing children to images of a sexual nature is a matter of opinion; his comments regarding the hypocrisy of the Daily Mail are undeniably true however.

How the Daily Mail can point fingers at broadcasters and celebrities while its website openly contains graphic examples of the type of image they object to is a clear case of double standards (putting it lightly). The sinister issue of the Mail's false accusations directed at ITV for broadcasting material that it did not is simply icing on the cake.

They suffered another scathing critique last week too, where this same publication was labelled in the House of Commons by speaker John Bercow as a "bigoted comic". Whether or not such comments should have been made in Parliament is a different issue of course; but it sure is a good quote for a poster...

WANTED FOR CRIMES IN FAVOUR OF DEMOCRACY

Self explanatory really.

Ai Weiwei is still in the custody of Chinese officials. No one has heard from him since his arrest on April 3rd 2011.

A DEGREE OF SECRECY

A report released today detailed the expected shortfall of the government's tuition fee funding budget. The Public Accounts Committee says that more universities are planning to charge students the top-rate fees of £9,000 than was originally expected. It goes on to forecast the consequences of such developments, suggesting that the government will be hit with a bill far higher than they had originally planned.

Part of the difficulties for the government comes from the fact that they have to pay the money upfront to provide students the loan. With potentially more students requiring a larger down payment on their education, and with true numbers remaining unknown until the beginning of the new academic year, there is little that can be done to find out exactly how big the deficit will be in advance.

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills says the government will not know the full cost until students have enrolled and received their loans. There are still some universities yet to declare what they intend to charge students in 2012-13.

With these uncertainties and potentially ballooning financial outgoings, it is highly suspected that the government will have to do something drastic to plug the gap. For a sector that has already received a harsh round of funding cuts recently, another might begin to crumble it significantly.

The chair of the committe, MP Margaret Hodge, has spoken this morning of her worries for the implications for students. She predicts a dark scenario which could either see budgets being slashed again or a cap being put on the number of student places.

More alarmingly, she detailed the current practice to disguise from students the financial security of institutions. At present, a struggling university is protected from its bank balance being made public by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE). If the practice of doing so continues into the following few years then the implications for individual students appears nasty.

Should students be warned of impending doom before they choose into which university they place their education, trust, and - perhaps more crucially now than ever - money? Or would alerting students as to which universities are facing difficulties simply tie the noose and create a self-fulfilling prophecy as they watch applications dry up from underneath them?

Tricky questions for tricky times.

WOMEN HAVE A RIGHT TO KNOW FROM WHOM THEY ARE SEEKING ADVICE

There would be two very unwanted effects of introducing the amendments to law that are currently being touted by certain MPs under the banner of the Right to Know campaign. These amendments primarily involve changing the process a women must undergo previous to her being allowed to have an abortion. Introducing the recommendations could easily lead a collapse in faith of patient trust and become a signifier that political agenda is covertly feeding some of the health service reforms.

MPs Nadine Dorries and Frank Field - amongst others - forward their belief that women do not currently have enough guidance or information made available to them before undergoing the operation. Under their suggestions, women would have to seek council before legally being allowed to have an abortion performed.

This amendment smacks of a sinisiter adgenda in itself. Rather outrageously, it suggests that a group of MPs have a secret moral imperitive to denote women's freedoms under a darker definition.

This last concern of mine isn't simply a fundamental opposition to the wielding of an opinion that clashes with my own (for it is true that I view a woman's right to choose as being of equal importance to the rosta of human rights that govern all of our ethical standards). No, mine is a position borne of the stipulations that accompany the proposed parliamentary bill; namely that any organisation offering guidance to women would be required in law to be seperate from any who offer the proceedure itself.

On initial glance the bill seems to wield a sickly arrogance to suppose that women do not already have the tools and effeciency to investigate the health implications under their own steam. This is not a proposition that reveals its benefits easily and requires a thorough thinking through; not least because there is an unquestionably humanitarian concern that underpins the sentiment.

I can see the obvious welfare implications in wanting women to have all of the facts to hand. I do not believe for one moment that it is worth supposing that every single woman has access and/or the impetus to investiagate themselves into the psychological and physical afteraffects of abortion. It seems entirely justifiable to patronise the majority if it means that an uninformed and at-risk few get the help and support they need.

It is in the nature of this help that my worries lie. If we remove from the equation the help and advise of groups directly involved in providing terminations (and obviously somewhat clouded by financially-vested interests) you end up with a select remainder of people who by definition do not. This pool of lendable ears - it is fair to assume - could largely be compiled from people who are involved in related dialogue from an opposing agenda. As an example of this, a group touted this week as being a potential beneficiary of patients is linked to a figure known to have both significant governmental influence and a personal commitment to the preservation of life from the moment of fertilisation.

By withdrawing the opinion of those who do advocate abortion, we might find ourselves entirely under the influence of those who do not. To give a such a stance full and unopposed reign during such a distressing and confusing time for a woman, we would be performing them a gross misservice on a personal level. Nationally we may also discover a collective hoodwinking by those advocating impartiality and responsibility, but who act under private religious or political predelictions.

(Edited Monday June 6th at 16:41 GMT)

THERE'S NOTHING PAST IT.

Beyond the newly-bolstered sonic strength of Death Cab For Cutie on their new album Codes And Keys, Benjamin Gibbard's celebrated lyrical poignancy retains its heart. On the track St. Peter's Cathedral we also are afforded a brain.