Guardian censor attempt fails

An interesting story broke this morning.

The Guardian, in essence, were to report proceedings from Parliament which would have revealed the existence of a hitherto secret injunction.

The injunction stopped the media reporting a story unfavorable to oil traders Trafigura.

The question, which the Guardian attempted to report, was:

Labour MP Paul Farrelly,

"To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of legislation to protect (a) whistleblowers and (b) press freedom following the injunctions obtained in the High Court by (i) Barclays and Freshfields solicitors on 19 March 2009 on the publication of internal Barclays reports documenting alleged tax avoidance schemes and (ii) Trafigura and Carter-Ruck solicitors on 11 September 2009 on the publication of the Minton report on the alleged dumping of toxic waste in the Ivory Coast, commissioned by Trafigura."

This questioning would, through Hansard and wider reportage, therefore reveal the existence of this injunction and the secret Minton report.

Urgent questions seemed to have been bound around Parliament this morning, eventually seeing the law firm representing the oil company withdraw its opposition to the Guardian reporting the story.

It is interesting to see the actors in civil society at work here, with the press once again bolstering their claim to be the guardians (excuse the pun) of democratic ideals.

Maybe the producers of the BBC's new series of The Thick of It should consider Carter-Ruck as publicity agents rather than a bog-standard law firm...

Politics from a different sport

One Brown is sorting the numbers while the other is seemingly fiddling them.

Other rumours have it that anti-depressants are free-flowing across Whitehall, causing effects such as muscle seizures, rapidly mood alterations and a habit for awful photo opportunities... Now I wonder who that could be...

But, for the purposes of this post, I wish to turn attentions to something far more scandalous than the bubbling antics of Team Brown. Rather, 'crash-gate'.

Allow me to explain a little for those not up to speed of this latest 'gate' gate. Primarily it involves an accusation of foul play, cheating, endangering life and greed oh and a formula one car and driver.

Nelson Piquet Jr., formerly of Renault F1, has accused his former team of cheating; ordering him to crash during the 2008 Singapore grand-prix causing a deployment of the safety car. This deployment allowed his former world champ. team-mate Fernando Alonso an advantage, being pitted moments before the accident.

Tonight, as things stand, an ugly exchange of words have emerged. The Piquets (Dad and Son) maintain that Jr. was acting under team orders whilst Renault, for their part, deny the claim and have launched legal action. The FiA is due to told a trial on Monday 21st Sept to apportion blame.

Perhaps what recent stories of cheating, both in F1 and Rugby League, best demonstrate is a determined ability to win by what-ever means. It's a political quality all to apparent at the moment, particularly if the words of the former Farming Minister Jayne Kennedy are to be taken as a whole.

One thing is 'for sure' though (a phrase you'll hear an amazing amount of in F1), the ensuing fireworks from F1 shall provide slightly more attractive viewing than the current wranglings over budget responsibilities...