LBC is another case of corporate UK media culture and its sinister agenda

Successful radio giant LBC has a tried and tested media business model. Pick sensational topics while pandering to bigoted simpletons to manufacture outrage then reap the benefits as the hysteria goes viral. In this way LBC mimic hard-right US shock-jocks like redneck Rush Limbaugh and the bombastic conservative agendas of Fox News. It may not seem quite as vitriolic with its 'British' accent but underneath the methodology is the same. Also bear in mind that many politicians make this outlet their home.




Owners

They are owned by Global Radio who are every bit as corporate as they sound. They own multiple UK stations including Galaxy, Smooth, Capital, Heart and Xfm

Firstly in May 2015 they were found to have engaged in an Orwellian act of self-censorship by protecting scandal-hit HSBC - a bank which seems to go from scandal to scandal  Very worrying then a director of the bank sits on the board of the BBC

Members of the public were so concerned that a complaint was made to regulatory body Ofcom. This was not only rejected but requests for transparency in the decision-making process were denied by the government body.

Later the same year they were finally held accountable by Ofcom for running ads resembling news stories


LBC tax avoidance

In 2013 a story broke that LBC's top parent company Global Worldwide is registered via complex arrangements in the British Virgin Islands, a tax-haven featured heavily in the Panama Papers.

Ed Miliband even appointed GW chairman Sir Charles Allen to review Labour's governance and finances. A former chief executive of ITV and chairman of EMI, Allen has since become chairman of Labour's Executive Board.

This also explains their reluctance to publish negative stories about HSBC being enablers of tax avoidance.


LBC 'personalities'

Katie Hopkins

Can you imagine what your employer would do if you used her rhetoric in a place of work. If any extremist muslim or someone without her privilege had her platform their treatment would be quite different and expose the double standards of a corrupt media.

Nick Ferrari

• "Racist shock-jock"
• friend of disgraced hard-right  Sun hack Kelvin McKenzie
• Almost tory candidate for mayor of London 

Iain Dale

• Ex-tory candidate
• like Hopkins and Ferrari supported Brexit
• Attacked a protester because they were upsetting his right-wing PR stunt

Other regular right-wingers include:

• Daily Mail's Andrew Pierce
• ex-Sun now Times Stig Abell

LBC follow the Fox News formula with a token 'lefty' regular, James O'Brien. Their roster is heavily biased towards middle-aged pale males with only 3 regular female presenters and have only just recently added 1 single non-white presenter who has made a good career pandering to the right-wing

Tory turmoil will grow in 2016, if only Labour could pull together and capitalise

2016 needs to be the year tory turmoil is exposed and fought

Flooding

This Christmas has seen the worst flooding in the North for several decades. It's obvious tory governments aren't too concerned with vital regional flood defences because it doesn't profit their donors or benefit the tory-voting South. The 'plebs' will have to suffer while they continue to spend billions on trying to bomb democracy into the Middle East.

The spending figures since the tories came to power are damning - yet too many turkeys (those hurt by cuts) keep voting for Christmas (the tory government)?

NHS winter crisis

The NHS is in crisis we're constantly told by the tory activists in the mainstream media, especially during the cold months. Could it possibly be because the current government with ties to predatory healthcare companies are simply de-funding it so the public accept privatisation as an inevitable improvement?

Lying & Bullying

The tragic case of a conservative youth member committing suicide due to the actions of a rogue tory campaigner has thankfully seen some punitive measures with Grant Schapps' resignation. Yet little pressure for Cameron's old school friend, Lord Feldman to resign despite a clear line of accountability in the matter. The elite are closing ranks.

Lord Feldman and David Cameron, close allies since their privileged school days

Lucy Allan, MP for Telford faked death threats, something that any without the self-entitlement and privileged of elites would be sacked for. Not only that but she was involved in another bullying scandal, in documented abuse of her employee. Again the media have protected her by ignoring a story that would be front page news if she was Labour.



EU referendum

This massive decision could happen as early in 2016 to maximise the chance of the staying in. An issue which has caused splits in the tories since the big bang. David Cameron uses weak little Britain rhetoric pretending to influence an institution that has lost respect him. This is symptomatic of the superficial PR man he is. Luckily for him his media cronies are shielding his desperate empty posturing from the public. The reality is this will tear the party apart whatever the result.

Weak stuttering growth

Worst. Recovery. Ever ... well since the Victorian era. Hardly a reason for George Osborne's perpetual smugness. The ONS have even revised down growth forecasts.

Food banks

Usage is rising in one of the richest economies in the world (see also billions spent bombing the Middle East):

U-turns on 

• tax credits
• forests
• pasty tax
• Ongoing saga of 3rd runway at Heathrow rumbling on ad infinitum

All costing time and money that could be spent on ... hmmm eliminating the need for food banks or flood defences .. back to square one.


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Tory tactics on voter registration are eroding democracy

Firstly, please register to vote here if you haven't done so. It's as important as it's ever been:

In 2009 the tories changed the way voters are registered so it is up to the individual rather than the head of a household. It was done under the pretence of stopping electoral fraud despite hardly any cases of this. This means that millions will drop off the register. Millions who wouldn't vote tory.

Electoral Reform Society campaign

For such an important democratic change there has been no TV campaign. A recent pension campaign saw Iain Duncan Smith spend £8.5 million of tax-payers money advertising it. 

As a student I was not informed enough to know about the voting process - a complete failure of the school system in a supposedly proud democracy. Being only just past 18 I had never voted before. Luckily universities would register students on mass. Under these rules there is a huge risk that many will be too busy to remember while studying, worrying about finances and generally being students. Those who move house or don't have mortgages with the insecurity of private rented accommodation are also at massive risk. The trend is that it's poorer people who are disproportionately affected. Facts reveal the tories' ulterior motive to gerrymander elections

Voters must be registered by December 1st 2015. The original date for registration was December 2016 but opportunistic self-serving tories rushed the date forward in the summer to deny a voice to those they care little about. Even the independent Electoral Commission has attacked these government manoeuvrings.

The conservatives want to rig their chances at elections next year by introducing the new system when there was no great call for it. This means registered voters will have to re-register if they want to choose the new London Mayor and Scottish & Welsh parliament next year. Why the haste? Of potentially even greater concern are boundary changes, rejected under the coalition (missing the Lib Dems yet?) but since a tory majority they are to become law in 2018 for the following election. These will be based on the electoral register of next month and therefore favour Cameron & co. if non-tories have dropped off the list. These changes are to make each constituency equal size yet shockingly they disregard non-registered voters.

Now to counter blatant tory manipulation the race is on register as many as possible before the coming in a matter of weeks. Labour are leading the charge here. With our antiquated broken voting system it is more important than ever to get involved in the democratic process while vested interests try and engineer a monopoly of power.

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The tories want the tube strikes to sway public opinion against working people

Many London commuters today and tomorrow are upset that tube workers are inconveniencing them. As a local resident I am in this position. Personally I refuse to react in a way that simplifies a complex issue into one tweet-sized rant sent while we struggle to exploitative jobs we probably hate anyway.

The tories have a union reform agenda and aided by the usual media they are playing politics with working people's lives.

Firstly some misconceptions:

• Tube workers agree to work nights - it is about the implementation

• It is not just well-paid drivers on strike. Unions are have other tube staff as members too, including low paid workers.

• There are serious health and safety concerns about the roster proposals of TfL.

• There are politics at play - and it is coming from the top:

So it appears that LU are encouraging the strike by with unrealistic demands. Such tactics raise suspicions of a tory strategy (via Boris Johnson) to solidify a lot of misinformed public opinion against workers to push through 'union reform' (destroying workers' rights). 

They also want to automate the tube. It's a possibility as long as some money saved go towards helping the many made unemployed, having dedicating their lives to one job. Tory governments are not known for compensating those whose lives they ruin - ask any miner. 

Commuters should remember that every job lost to technology means another individual not paying tax and probably on benefits undermining the fabric of families and communities. We never seem to recognise or measure the human cost.

But never mind because tube strike is preventing you getting to work - maybe working on another great tech tool that will probably put you and your loved ones livelihoods in jeopardy.

Automation has limitations. How long until a robot can help save lives in an emergency like 7/7?

This government have proved at every stage to be ideological game-players from austerity to the welfare bill. They are shaping society to their advantage to a degree that no other government has done. Any government including 'politically astute' (conniving) George Osborne clearly has agendas beyond the issue itself.

And as for a wider reading of our society:

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