FOLLOW THE MONEY...

Barely a few weeks ago, President  Viktor Yanukovych’s authoritarian government fell to a popular revolution and hundreds of ordinary Ukrainians swarmed into  the 140-hectare grounds of the luxurious Presidential estate. Here they caught a glimpse of the stunningly luxurious lifestyle that their former President had been enjoying at their expense. Shocked Ukrainians found evidence of an extraordinary self  indulgent (if somewhat tacky) opulence came with gold bathroom fittings, marble floors, a private zoo and a full size galleon (for parties) in the grounds.  

In the chaos that followed the revolution a small but dedicated group of journalists have been chasing down thousands of hastily dumped documents that were found in the presidential estates lake. The recovered documents contained proof (of the former Presidents extravagant tastes) and also documented the systematic bribery, corruption, nepotism and state sponsored violence that have scared the Ukraine in recent years.

The paper trail continues to grow, stretching across Kyiv, the Ukraine and elsewhere (including perhaps to the doors of many large European banks) as other incriminating papers keep turning up. These waterlogged documents may provide crucial evidence for potential future criminal proceedings. Investigative reporters have been working around the clock to dry and sort out the mountains of damp paperwork.

The relatively rapid collapse of the corrupt  oligarchic regime in Kyiv no doubt set alarm bells ringing in Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and the other corrupt self serving oligarchies. Not so much for the loss of President Yanukovych and his ruling clique, but, because it provides an example of what is possible to people in Belarus, Russia and elsewhere when it comes to overthrowing their own oppressive and corrupt governments.

The revolution has triggered a no doubt long planned (but hastily enacted) series of events in the Crimea and delivered President Putin a convenient military and strategic success for Russia. The Kremlin sponsored events in Crimea (and now eastern Ukraine) have been augmented by a Russian media frenzy. This serves to distract the Russian people from making any potentially awkward comparisons between elite corruption in Ukraine and the systematic corruption that lies at the heart of President Putin’s Russia.

TEN LONG YEARS

The BBC liberates Kabul in 2001

The rout of the Taliban and their flight from Kabul (and most of Afghanistan) following NATO's invasion of Afghanistan (back in 2001) and the relative ease of victory was it turned out somewhat deceptive. If someone had told us ten years ago that some of our service personnel (including some of my relatives) would be effectively commuting to Afghanistan to fight the Taliban insurgency many people might well have doubted their sanity.

Yet NATO's war in Afghanistan War will be 10 years old this Friday (7th October), a pro-US government sits in Kabul, Osama Bin Laden is (admittedly somewhat belatedly) dead (and won't be missed by most)and NATO plans to leave in 2014. Job done? Not quite, the rules of the game and the objectives have changed. Despite the best efforts of the US and NATO the war shows no sign of drawing to a satisfactory conclusion however that will finally be measured.

No wonder that there will be no official commemoration or recognition of this anniversary in the USA. NATO casualties continue to mount and victory whatever that is may be as elusive as ever. The elusive nature of success in Afghanistan is partially down to the ongoing Taliban insurgency and its support and sanctuary from Pakistan, not to mention the Afghan government's spectacular corruption and incompetence.

CIA statistics record that Afghanistan has the world's second-highest infant mortality rate with 149.2 of every 1,000 children die before they reach their first birthday. At five years of age some 26 percent of them are dead. For those Afghan children who make it through childhood, six of every 10 will grow up stunted, ending up short in stature and mentally challenged as a result of malnutrition during the early years of life. Over 70 percent of Afghans are illiterate and life expectancy stands at 45 years of age (Angola's is worse).

Few impartial observers doubt that after NATO departs the Taliban and their militant allies will stream back into Afghanistan from their sanctuaries in Pakistan. By 2014 if Afghanistan's standing army is not ready and the Afghan government is not ready to support it then some thirteen years of war, thousands of lives, and billions of dollars will have been squandered for nothing and the country will fall will some pretty grim consequences, even by Afghan standards, especially for Afghan women.

Let's be honest, the US and NATO took their eye of the ball by invading Iraq, serious efforts to build up a serious Afghan army did not really begin until 2009. Before the Taliban insurgency began NATO's intention was to create a small Afghan force to deal with internal disorder of a domestic variety rather than a full scale insurgency. The new Afghan army would also provide the Afghan people with a visible sign of unity after several decades of conflict and civil war.

NATO training mission began in earnest around two years ago, at that point the Afghan army's desertion rate stood at around 85 percent. There have been some significant improvements from January to June (2011), NATO figures, show that around 24,000 soldiers, some 14 percent of the 170,000-man force, deserted.

Despite this relative good news ongoing problems with literacy and competence remain. Aside from fighting the insurgents, now NATO has got into the education process and operates numerous elementary schools. NATO estimates that Afghan security forces will reach around fifty percent overall literacy rates by 2012.

Another significant problem to be faced in 2014 is the Afghan government, which by most estimates is probably the most corrupt on earth. At present the levels of corruption show few signs of abating. Doctors working in government hospitals have been noted to leave wounded Afghan soldiers to expire in their hospital beds if bribes are not paid. For ordinary Afghans the medical infrastructure in the country could be best described as fragile.

Vast amounts of aid are being poured in Afghanistan, yet the Afghan government does not have a transparent, workable budget, at least not in the normal sense. For 2001 the Afghan budget is nominally $14.3 billion dollars over 90% of which comes from foreign aid, much of it purloined on the way to its intended purposes.

Once Afghanistan (just like Iraq) is out of sight and out of mind will the money keep flowing in. Or will the West make the same mistake is made in the late 1980s and drop any interest in the country? The last time that happened the Afghan people were abandoned following their effective defeat of a faltering Soviet Union, they paid the butchers bill in spades. After the civil war the Taliban swept into power...appearing reasonable in comparison with the warlords (who are NATO allies this time around) and we are all painfully aware of what followed.

SLEEPING WITH HEDGEHOGS

The sadly painfully short demise of the News of the World (soon no doubt to be replaced by the Sun On Sunday (coincidently both www.sunonsunday.com and www.sunonsunday.co.uk were registered a few days ago) within a few months) has little to do with bringing any measure of comfort to those ordinary decent people (Celebs to one side for the moment) who have had their lives violated for the sake of tabloid headlines. It has everything to do with the Dirty Digger's desire to gain complete control of BSKYB and perhaps a little to do with the fall in the value of News Corp's share price.

I have to be brutally honest, personally I am not interested in the petty unimportant lives of celebrities or who or what they are sleeping with - as far as I am concerned they can sleep with consenting domestic livestock or even consenting hedgehogs - I honestly don't care! That aside as far as I am aware the pretty public breaking the Telecommunications Acts and the payment of money to police officers for information remain criminal offences.

Celebs aside, the final straw in the whole sorry business for most reasonable people's was no doubt the revelation that some tabloid journalists had been hacking the voice mails of murder victims (and their families), the victims (and their relatives) of the 7/7 terrorist atrocities and the widows and family members of service personal killed on active service in Afghanistan (and elsewhere) if that was not enough to make most people wonder what moral cesspit the journalists inhabited then nothing else would (a rough estimate suggests that there could be at least 4,000 hacking victims). No wonder a host of advertisers pulled their adds from the News of the World and various organisations from Mums Net to the British Legion began severing their connections with the Murdoch media empire.

More than a few serious issues have emerged - the fact that for the last twenty years some tabloid journalists no doubt encouraged by their editors have run riot and certainly broken various Telecommunications Act's is one key issue, the fact that Press self regulation has proved to be almost worthless along with the Press Complaints Commission which has proved to be almost entirely toothless. The exposure of the scale of the hacking of voice mails which in itself is serious and which also may have directly or indirectly interfered with serious police investigations (including murder enquiries) is worth of serious police investigation to say the least (not to mention a full and extensive public enquiry).

The spotlight light also needs to be shone on the relationship (commercial or otherwise) between the press and the police, especially as it appears that money may have changed hands for information. While we are at it the relationship between police press and communication staff and the press is also worth investigation as I colleague said to me 'let me know how that one goes!'Here I think in the interests of transparency it would be worth bringing in a Scottish Judge and a Scottish Police Force to investigate the admissions made by the now almost defunct News of the World. Why this has not been seriously investigated previously is one question that needs to be asked, especially as Rebekah Brooks admitted to the House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee in April 2003 that police officers had been paid for information.

David Cameron and friend (Photo: Dafydd Jones)

What's also been exposed is David Cameron's judgement not to mention his choice of friends, spin doctors (Andy Coulson) and his fairly limited social circle (the Chipping Norton set), even the Daily Telegraph has in this case correctly questioned his judgement:

"In the careers of all prime ministers there comes a turning point. He or she makes a fatal mistake from which there is no ultimate recovery. With Tony Blair it was the Iraq war and the failure to find weapons of mass destruction. With John Major it was Black Wednesday and sterling’s eviction from the Exchange Rate Mechanism. With Harold Wilson, the pound’s devaluation in 1967 wrecked his reputation. Each time the pattern is strikingly similar. Before, there is a new leader with dynamism, integrity and carrying the faith of the nation. Afterwards, the prime minister can stagger on for years, but as increasingly damaged goods: never is it glad, confident morning again."

The relationship between News Corp and the Politicians has also been exposed (and the desperate desire on the part of those who want to obtain or retain power) and the length to which they will go to appease News Corp (it is worth remembering that Blair flew half-way around the world to get the Dirty Digger on board) and this is no bad thing. Although incidentally at the last Westminster General Election the Sun certainly did not win it for Cameron or entirely batter fading New Labour into complete electoral oblivion.

David Cameron's links in employing ex-News International staff such as Andy Coulson and his friendship with other high ranking officials in the company needs investigation. There is a need for an explanation of how David Cameron came to hire Mr Coulson (a then employee of News Corp), not to mention what checks were made, and what advice was taken before the appointment. They raise a fair point when asking for a check-list of those no longer so innocent social meetings with Rebekah Brooks (an employee of News Corp).

So far Downing Street has been more than a little reticent about Mr Cameron's meetings with Rupert Murdoch (owner of News Corp) who is thought to be one of the very first visitors that Cameron received once he emerged as Prime Minister. All these things have a different context because of the Dirty Digger's attempts to secure monopoly control over the British media by purchasing the remaining 61% of the satellite broadcaster BSkyB that he does not yet own.

No doubt there will be much continued speculation on the survival time of Rebekah Brooks the former editor of the News of the World and the Sun and currently chief executive of News International - it was she who edited the newspaper during some of its most controversial years and who must surely by now have moved from being an asset to that of a liability for News Corp. Yesterday we all saw the sacrifice of the the News of the World and its staff at the News of the World - possibly in a desperate effort to save the BSKYB deal and also Rebekah Brooks. Never have so many been sacrificed to save so few is one phrase that comes to mind.

Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson (Photo: BBC)

Before we get too carried away some words of caution, we must be very warry of over regulation (or over regulation) of the press as the forth estate serves a useful purpose as does investigative journalism, while no doubt some of those MPS who were caught with their hands in the till may think otherwise. The News of the World is now doubt merely on of the more prominent tabloids and its spectacular misdemeanour's (and ultimate demise). Not all newspapers are the same as the News of the World - we need a vigorous free press. We should remember that there is a world of difference between honest investigative journalism and the world of illegality and sleaze that has grown up (and been encouraged by editors and sub-editors) amongst certain sections of the tabloid press.

One final thought, one thing is certain New Labour's almost joyful attacks on Cameron (and News Corp) should be taken with a significant pinch of salt as it was New Labour spin that laid the groundwork for the war Iraq and sent too many of our service personnel to their untimely deaths. This has been going on for over twenty years politicians of all parties were desperate for coverage in the tabloids, promises were made blind eyes turned in return for tabloid support in election campaigns. The police looked the over way for similar media coverage of investigations (or for cash) and all of this gave a degree of entirely unacceptable protection from the law to the tabloid press.

ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST... PERHAPS?

Just when you thought it was all over it turns out that another MP is in trouble over his expenses. Bill Wiggin (a Conservative MP) has been told to repay £4,294 and apologise to House of Commons after he over-claimed on his expenses. The Standards and Privileges Committee (the Westminster Parliament's sleaze watchdog) has told him to say sorry for wrongly designating his second home in London as his main home. The Committee made reference to his “serious” breaches of the rules and “disappointing” failure to co-operate with the inquiry by providing invoices. Just to rub some salt into his wounds he may lose his job in the Chief Whip's Office and lose the Conservative Party whip...watch this space!

ANY NEWS ON THE FAT LADY?

With news that the long arm of the law is continuing to investigate a handful (so far) of politician’s questionable expense claims, and other than further MP’s questionable claims yet being subject to further investigation the impression given is that this sorry story is going to run and run.

So far five politicians have been under investigation including Labour MPs David Chaytor and Elliot Morley, who claimed for "phantom'' mortgages. Sleazy MP's aside, so far we are only talking about three peers (including Baroness Uddin and Lord Hanningfield) who are also under investigation by Scotland Yard.

With another potential 27 MPs facing the possibility of investigations by the tax authorities, as some of them may have broken tax laws – there appears to be little inclination that the fat lady plans to sing anytime soon.

While justice may yet sent to be done, the damage done by greedy Labour and Conservative MP’s will only truly be measured on polling day…when a measure of electoral punishment may be dispensed by the electorate.

By now most people are probably thinking - Bring it on!