PARCA/Nosey: Difference between revisions

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<[https://draytonmark.substack.com/p/news-release-3 #3]> (17th April),
<[https://draytonmark.substack.com/p/news-release-3 #3]> (17th April),
<[https://draytonmark.substack.com/p/news-release-4 #4]> (18th April).
<[https://draytonmark.substack.com/p/news-release-4 #4]> (18th April).
<[https://draytonmark.substack.com/p/news-release-5 #5]> (30th April).
<[https://draytonmark.substack.com/p/news-release-5 #5]> (10th May).
<[https://draytonmark.substack.com/p/news-release-6 #6]> (1st May).
<[https://draytonmark.substack.com/p/news-release-6 #6]> (12th May).


=====END of archive=====
=====END of archive=====
Line 114: Line 114:
> Fort Will= iam Inverlochy and Torlundy Community Council
> Fort Will= iam Inverlochy and Torlundy Community Council
>
>
>
> = ----- Original Message -----
> From:
> "E. M. Drayton" = <eddiemdrayton@gmail.com>
>
> To:
> "Ms Barbara Grieve" <barbara@sra.scot>
> Cc:
> "Office of the chair of FITCC" <chair@fitcc.o= rg>, "FITCC
> Secretary" <secretary@fitcc.org>
> Sent:
> Wed, 16 Mar 2022 13:20:37 +0000
> Subject:
> Re: Fw: SRA Members Meeting - invitati= on
>
> Yes, I'd like to participate on Friday please, Barbara. Zoom is
> fine. -Ma= rk D
- Hide quoted text -
>
> PS: OK, boss(es)? As always, I neither undertake nor shall presume to
> speak on behalf of FITCC. Who wants that kind of responsibility
> anyway? It's gotta suck.
> --
> Mr E M ('Mark') Drayton
> Community Councillor (Fort William, Inverlochy & Torlundy)
> 6 Morven Pl. PH33 6HY, UK <EddieMDrayton@gmail.com>
> Or (quicker) text me on +44 (0)7933 760031 (SMS only)
> See also <https://DraytonMark.SubStack.com/p/latest-news>
>
> --
> On 3/9/22, Patricia Jordan <patricia.jordan@hotmail.co.uk> wrote:
> > FYI
> > ________________________________
> > From: barbara@sra.scot <barbara@sra.scot>
> > Sent: 04 March 2022 13:15
> > To: barbara@sra.scot <barbara@sra.scot>
> > Subject: SRA Members Meeting - invitation
> >
> > Members Meeting
> > NATIONAL PLANNING FRAMEWORK 4 (NPF4)
> > Friday 18th March 11:30am-12:30pm
> > or
> > Tuesday 22nd March 6:30-7:30pm
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Dear SRA Member
> >
> >
> >
> > Ok, so we're kicking off our first Members' Only event of 2022
> with a = bit of
> > a dry subject but NPF4 is such an important policy and
> it=E2=80=99s st= ill in draft
> > form which means we still have time to influence it.
> >
> > The consultation period closes 31st March 2022 and, like many of
> you, = SRA is
> > currently drafting a response. We=E2=80=99ve made a good start,
> inform= ed by a
> > parliamentary event we organised last month =E2=80=93 see the
> attached= briefings =E2=80=93
> > but we want to give our members a final chance to share their views.
>>
> > This is an online, informal event* so get yourselves a cup of
> tea and = join
> > us for a blether. Please email barbara@sra.scot<mailto:barbara@sra=
> .scot>
> > with the date you wish to attend and we=E2=80=99ll send you a zoom
> lin= k.
> >
> > We look forward to seeing you there!
> >
> > *We know that the online format doesn=E2=80=99t work for
> everyone so i= f this applies
> > to you please get in touch and we=E2=80=99ll work with you to
> make sur= e your views
> > are included.
> >
> >
> > Barbara Grieve
> > Research and Finance Officer
> > Scottish Rural Action
> >
> > barbara@sra.scot<mailto:barbara@sra.scot>
> > w: www.sra.scot<http://www.sra.scot/>
> > t: @ScotRuralAction
> > i: scottishruralaction


[..] He confirmed that his SubStack (at <https://DraytonMark.SubStack.com>) would be the "centre of operations" for this, but also that other social network platforms would be "drawn into the circle," enabling questions to be posed publically (as comments below the master copy of this very news release at <https://DraytonMark.SubStack.com/p/news-release-4>, or privately by email, NextDoor message, or even SMS (to 07933 760031).
[..] He confirmed that his SubStack (at <https://DraytonMark.SubStack.com>) would be the "centre of operations" for this, but also that other social network platforms would be "drawn into the circle," enabling questions to be posed publically (as comments below the master copy of this very news release at <https://DraytonMark.SubStack.com/p/news-release-4>, or privately by email, NextDoor message, or even SMS (to 07933 760031).
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== ==
======Wed-Head xxxiv======
======Wed-Head xxxv======

Marking Wednesday Headway's patron's day tomorrow

Tomorrow is a BIG day: not only is it election day here, it's also what I call 'Niesewand Day', because one of my personal heroes, the 'protean' journalist Peter Niesewand (see below), who was solitarily confined on 20th Feb 1973, was released, 73 days later, on 5th May - leading Time magazine to report that:-

> "In a stunning setback for Ian Smith's authoritarian regime, the
> appellate division of Rhodesia's high court last week overturned the
> conviction of Journalist Peter Niesewand for violation of the Official
> Secrets Act. Chief Justice Sir Hugh Beadle, in announcing the
> unanimous ruling, twitted the Smith government's case against
> Niesewand: 'Factual evidence as opposed to opinion was never given.'
> The court found that Niesewand's reports on guerrilla activity against
> Rhodesian forces near the Mozambique frontier last year had not
> damaged the state, but had merely embarrassed the government."
>
> "For two days after the verdict, Niesewand, 28, remained in jail—where
> he had been since Feb. 20 under an order sanctioned by the
> government's emergency powers (TIME, March 19). Until his detention,
> Niesewand had been a protean freelance, representing the BBC, the
> Australian Broadcasting Commission, U.P.I., Agence France-Presse and a
> number of London and South African papers. His determined digging into
> Rhodesian affairs consistently angered Smith's white-supremacist
> government. Under unaccustomed fire from the Rhodesian press,
> officials promised to 'review' the detention order. Late last week,
> Niesewand was released and immediately deported—an act that turned the
> reporter's personal triumph into professional defeat."

[[ source: <https://web.archive.org/web/20070930073726/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,907255,00.html>, linked to from webpage <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Niesewand> which, as it happens, (yonks ago) I was priviledged to create. Gotta love 'protean' though, too, no? Protein I know. Protean? Not so much. ]]

In November 2019, Ms Lucy Cooke, then employed by Highland TSI (she's now running Kinloch CT, see <https://www.kinlochleven.org.uk/about-kinlochleven-community-trust/>) arranged for me to attend a three-day workshop the Scottish Universities Insight Institute in Glasgow designed to "reclaim collective knowledge, overcome separation and isolation, towards transforming our working, community and family lives." I still have no idea what the first part is supposed to mean, and I bloody went to it! But I met and made a true friend there, a US-born Glasgow-based academic researcher called Jennifer Seitz. We discovered that we shared a deep admiration and gratitude for fearless investigative reporting based on a conviction that liberal democracy rests upon a free press. (I was amused to learn than Americans, too, call this the 'fourth estate' - see eg <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_Estate#The_press>; quite how this quintessentially British expression ever ended up crossing the pond I can't imagine.) We agreed, too, that the political hue of a given investigative journalist was far less important than their courage, diligence, and 'nose' - the almost uncanny ability to smell a story common to the best. Excellent examples are (to my left) the late Paul Foot** and (to my right) Fox News's Tucker Carlson.

[[ **Foot's finest hour was arguably his 'Not The Scott Report' published by Private Eye. ]]

Inevitably, Jennifer and I rarely get to meet up because Glasgow's a hell of a hike, and we don't even converse much, either, because neither of us much likes talking on the phone (OK: that's probably more me than her). We both see ourselves as keyboard warriors, basically. At that workshop I proposed that, if we started working together online, say, that we adopt Peter Niesewand as a kind of secular patron saint. So that's how our community news bureau came to be called the Niesewand Room.


(Publication suspended indefinitely due to authorial work commitments)
Accordingly, when, about a month or so ago, NoseyPARCA (see <NoseyPARCA.WordPress.com>) entered a period of frenetic near-hyperactivity during the current election campaign, I was soon drafting emails to all five election candidates for Jen to polish and send out**. Here's a recent example:-


== ==
[[ **Equally, she drafts stuff she wants me to polish and send. The trick is to write something entirely factual that the other person is therefore willing to put their name to, and to pack the opinion - especially the all-important ridicule ("man's most potent weapon" -Saul Alinsky) - into the quotations. We call this 'journactivism'. ]]
=='''Scratch-spaces'''==


======The CGA 16-color palette======
> Dear Ward 21 candidate,
>
> I am writing to reassure all of you that we at the Niesewand Room
> operate to the highest standards of journalistic ethics. We maintain
> a 'Chinese Wall' between our news journalism and our opinion
> journalism and journactivism. We respect confidences and we protect
> sources. Our eponymous exemplar in this respect served seventy-three
> days in solitary confinement for reporting the truth; Niesewand (see
> <https://web.archive.org/web/20070930073726/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,907255,00.html>,
> linked to from, inevitably,
> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Niesewand>) is one of my personal
> heroes and I for one would rather serve a prison sentence than reveal
> a source.
>
> This has arisen because one or two candidates have shared confidences
> with me recently, and one felt obliged afterwards to say that if I
> made use of the information, they would deny ever having revealed
> it**. So I want to make abundantly clear to all of you that, going
> forward, any and all such confidences will absolutely be respected -
> no ifs, no buts.
>
> [[ **or, as a theorist of acts of speech would put it (see my
> <https://DraytonMark.SubStack.com/p/wed-head-xxxii>), they asserted
> that, in the event of my violating the fulfillment condition of a
> commissive utterance, they would retaliate by violating the sincerity
> condition of a further assertive one. Two wrongs may not make a
> right, but apparently they can dodge an electoral bullet - sometimes,
> anyway. ]]
>
> [...]
>


{| class="wikitable" style="float:center;"
A functioning free press is essential to liberal democracy. Without it, you cannot cast your vote on the basis of truth, only propaganda. This can have catastrophic consequences, witness: Vladimir Putin. But even when it does not, other, more insidious dangers lurk. I am fond of reminding Scots of the deeply troubling household survey finding that the proportion of their number who felt they could influence decisions in their local area decreased significantly from an unimpressive 24% of adults in 2015 to only 18% in 2019. Or, to put it another way, each group of eleven Scottish adults would break nine-two, which is truly pathetic. Gaining meaningful civic influence absolutely requires knowing what the hell is going on locally and, crucially, it's the duty and responsibility of regional press and media to discover and to publicise exactly that.
! colspan="4" | The CGA 16-color palette
|- style="color:white;"
| style="background:#000;" | 0
| style="background:#000;" | Black<br />#000
| style="background:#555;" | 8
| style="background:#555;" | Dark gray<br />#555
|- style="color:white;"
| style="background:#00a;" | 1
| style="background:#00a;" | Dark blue<br />#00A
| style="background:#55f;" | 9
| style="background:#55f;" | Light blue<br />#55F
|-
| style="color:white; background:#0a0;" | 2
| style="color:white; background:#0a0;" | Dark green<br />#0A0
| style="color:black; background:#5f5;" | 10
| style="color:black; background:#5f5;" | Light green<br />#5F5
|-
| style="color:white; background:#0aa;" | 3
| style="color:white; background:#0aa;" | Dark cyan<br />#0AA
| style="color:black; background:#5ff;" | 11
| style="color:black; background:#5ff;" | Light cyan<br />#5FF
|-
| style="color:white; background:#a00;" | 4
| style="color:white; background:#a00;" | Dark red<br />#A00
| style="color:black; background:#f55;" | 12
| style="color:black; background:#f55;" | Light red<br />#F55
|-
| style="color:white; background:#a0a;" | 5
| style="color:white; background:#a0a;" | Dark magenta<br />#A0A
| style="color:black; background:#f5f;" | 13
| style="color:black; background:#f5f;" | Light magenta<br />#F5F
|-
| style="color:white; background:#a50;" | 6
| style="color:white; background:#a50;" | Brown (NOT dark yellow)<br />#A50 (NOT #AA0)
| style="color:black; background:#ff5;" | 14
| style="color:black; background:#ff5;" | Yellow (ie light yellow)<br />#FF5
|- style="color:black;"
| style="background:#aaa;" | 7
| style="background:#aaa;" | Light gray <br />#AAA
| style="background:#fff;" | 15
| style="background:#fff;" | White<br />#FFF
|-
| colspan="2" |<small>''NB: These are 12-bit RGB colours but''</small>
| colspan="2" |<small>''CGA is 4-bit RGBI (arranged as IRGB)''</small>
|}


== ==
Here in Lochaber our polity is weak because our fourth estate (Lochaber Times, Press & Journal) is not doing an important part of it's job properly. No doubt both those publications are under serious financial strain making it near-impossible to fund good investigative reporting (which is bloody time-consuming). OK, I accept that. But we're paying a terrible price: solid, dependably punchy civic journalism improves people lives by holding officials and officialdom to account. That's why we need free, independent news bureaux like the Niesewand Room. And that is why I'll be thinking of our heroic patron and exemplar, Peter Niesewand, when I cast my vote tomorrow.
======Scala (was: YTs4NxD)======
No I don't know why this doesn't bloody format either -Hx
<nohtml>
<br/> <html>
<br/> <body>
<br/> <a href=https://www.scala-exercises.org/scala_tutorial/terms_and_types>https://www.scala-exercises.org/scala_tutorial/terms_and_types</a>
<br/> <script src="https://scastie.scala-lang.org/28U2aGjHTJC9fjMQaAPr3Q.js"></script>
<br/> </body>
<br/> </html>
</nohtml>


== ==
PS: Loyal readers expecting this week's Wed-Head to be the concluding half of XXXIII rather than the XXXIV they're actually reading will have to wait until next week now, I'm afraid. Having (deservedly) trashed the Scottish Green candidate Kate Willis last week it felt excessively negative and bad karma to lay into the almost equally self-indulgent candidacy of the Lib Dem's Angus MacDonald today. I am much more proud of the positive work that Jen and I have done over the last month, and today's column is a much more fitting note for us to end our parallel election campaign on. I'd also like to express our sincere gratitude to the two candidates who engaged with Nosey the most: the greatly experienced Mr Thomas MacLennan (Indep) and, most especially, the convincing and compelling Dr Fiona Fawcett (Cons).
====== ======

Latest revision as of 19:58, 1 April 2024

NoseyPARCA is an online newsfeed about Plantation, Fort William

Nosey press releases are typically issued by Jennifer Seitz and published on EMD's (=Mark Drayton's) eponymous 'Download' on SubStack - see link (in subheading) below. Most releases are drafted, or at least pre-drafted, by Mark, mercilessly edited by Jennifer, and subsequently released by her if she's prepared to put her name to them. (This is by no means guaranteed, but we usually get there eventually.)

2022 Archive (NB: This is usually updated first)

April/May 2022

<#1> (11th April), <#2> (13th April), <#3> (17th April), <#4> (18th April). <#5> (10th May). <#6> (12th May).

END of archive

NB: Occasionally, entries are added to the above list a few days or so in advance of the scheduled publication of a release.

Style and process

Nosey house style for press releases is, first, to refer to them as 'press releases' rather than 'news releases' because that's the vernacular. However, 'NEWS RELEASE' is used in the heading of the release itself because it is more accurate and genuine editors are familiar with both terms. Other than that, Nosey house style is basically Mark's own, and other contributors are encouraged to adapt theirs to his, within reason.

Each draft release begins with: 

  /*\ \*/ /*\ \*/ /*\ \*/ /*\ \*/ /*\ \*/ /*\ \*/ /*\ \*/ /*\ \*/ /*\ \*/
 DRAFT ONLY - NEWS RELEASE - DRAFT ONLY
  /*\ \*/ /*\ \*/ /*\ \*/ /*\ \*/ /*\ \*/ /*\ \*/ /*\ \*/ /*\ \*/ /*\ \*/

Each issued release begins with: 

  /*\ \*/ /*\ \*/ /*\ \*/ /*\ \*/ /*\ \*/ /*\ \*/ /*\ \*/ /*\ \*/ /*\ \*/
 NEWS RELEASE - NEWS RELEASE - NEWS RELEASE
  /*\ \*/ /*\ \*/ /*\ \*/ /*\ \*/ /*\ \*/ /*\ \*/ /*\ \*/ /*\ \*/ /*\ \*/

A typical release generally continues with something along the lines of: 

 NEWS RELEASE
 
 Community councillor announces new initiative to [...]
 
 DD MONTH YYYY FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

As yet, Nosey have never needed to embargo a press release (but you never know, right?).

A typical release generally concludes with with something along the lines of: 

 Entirely predictably, Mr Drayton couldn't resist further adding that,
 ideally, residents should join the <https://NextDoor.co.uk> social-networking
 platform/app rather than relying on Facebook, say.  "I don't trust
 that censorship-loving [Mark] Zuckerberg bastard any further than I
 could comfortably excrete him," Mr Drayton has previously explained.
 "Fuck that cunt."
 
 As we reported six days ago, Mr Drayton's views regarding Mr
 Zuckerberg are all-too-well known to readers of his 'Wednesday
 Headway' SubStack columns, part of his so-called 'Drayton Download':
 on 8th & 15th September 2021 Mr Drayton re-posted a long article by
 British-born science journalist Nicholas Wade defending the 'lab-leak'
 hypothesis of Covid-19's origin; Mr Drayton's brief introduction (at
 <https://draytonmark.substack.com/p/wed-head-xxv-pt1>) forthrightly
 condemned Facebook for censoring discussion of the theory.
 
 Mr Zuckerberg remains unavailable for comment.
 
 END
 
 NOTE FOR EDITORS
 Further information about this release can be obtained from the following:
 (for NoseyPARCA DOT WordPress DOT com)
   Jennifer Seitz (Secretary)
   that.tiresome.rationalist AT gmail DOT com
 (as a member of Fort William, Inverlochy, and Torlundy Community Council)
   Mark Drayton
   EddieMDrayton AT gmail DOT com
 
  /*\ \*/ /*\ \*/ /*\ \*/ /*\ \*/ /*\ \*/ /*\ \*/ /*\ \*/ /*\ \*/ /*\ \*/

The "Fuck that cunt" quotation is sometimes included, sometimes omitted. Kind of depends on whether it's my time of the month. -Jx


--

For office use only:-

Drafting Area

News Release #5

<https://NoseyPARCA.WordPress.com> news release #5 - 26th April 2022 

/*\ \*/ /*\ \*/ /*\ \*/ /*\ \*/ /*\ \*/ /*\ \*/ /*\ \*/ /*\ \*/ /*\ \*/

DRAFT ONLY - NEWS RELEASE - DRAFT ONLY 

/*\ \*/ /*\ \*/ /*\ \*/ /*\ \*/ /*\ \*/ /*\ \*/ /*\ \*/ /*\ \*/ /*\ \*/

NEWS RELEASE

Community councillor accuses FITCC chair of "sartorial treachery"

26 APRIL 2022 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Fort William, Inverlochy, and Torlundy Community Council chairman Mr Mark Linfield is "in serious danger of becoming a traitor to his own T-shirt collection," jokes community councillor Mark Drayton as he relaxes after another long day in front of a laptop writing emails and drafting articles for his 'Drayton Download' SubStack. Drayton, presently the only community councillor presently to live in Fort William's only high-SIMD (Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation) estate, Plantation, has had rather more time to write since last Tuesday evening because he now has much less to read. "As well as barring me from future meetings, FITCC have apparently decided to remove me from the email list because I haven't heard a peep out of [FITCC secretary] Tricia [Jordan] since. I consider that to be pretty foolish, because both she and Mark [Linfield] have readily acknowledged the quality of the analysis I've done on several documents this year alone, with comments like 'good spot' and 'I totally agree.' I'm giving them a few more days - maybe a little longer - to cool-off before I go through the archive and marshall the evidence. After all, as [hard-left US activist Saul] Alinsky's fifth rule rightly states, 'ridicule is man's most potent weapon.'"

(TBC)

>>> > [..] I'm clear in my mind that my personal opinions on those >>> > standing for election are personal and have nothing to do with the CC >>> > or those we represent.

On 3/16/22, chair@fitcc.org <chair@fitcc.org> wrote: > > Hi Mark > > It's absolutely fine by = me if you wish to attend, I note that you > won't be speaking on our behalf w= hich is absolutely fine too. I'm > feeling awful today so I doubt I'll be att= ending anymore meetings > (online or otherwise) before next week at the earli= est. > =C2=A0 > Mark Linfield > Chair > Fort Will= iam Inverlochy and Torlundy Community Council >

[..] He confirmed that his SubStack (at <https://DraytonMark.SubStack.com>) would be the "centre of operations" for this, but also that other social network platforms would be "drawn into the circle," enabling questions to be posed publically (as comments below the master copy of this very news release at <https://DraytonMark.SubStack.com/p/news-release-4>, or privately by email, NextDoor message, or even SMS (to 07933 760031).

Entirely predictably, Mr Drayton couldn't resist further adding that, ideally, residents should join the <https://NextDoor.co.uk> social-networking platform/app rather than relying on Facebook, say. "I don't trust that censorship-loving [Mark] Zuckerberg bastard any further than I could comfortably excrete him," Mr Drayton has previously explained. "Fuck that cunt."

As we reported exactly a week ago, Mr Drayton's views regarding Mr Zuckerberg are all-too-well known to readers of his 'Wednesday Headway' SubStack columns, part of his so-called 'Drayton Download': on 8th & 15th September 2021 Mr Drayton re-posted a long article by British-born science journalist Nicholas Wade defending the 'lab-leak' hypothesis of Covid-19's origin; Mr Drayton's brief introduction (at <https://draytonmark.substack.com/p/wed-head-xxv-pt1>) forthrightly condemned Facebook for censoring discussion of the theory.

Mr Zuckerberg remains unavailable for comment.

END

NOTE FOR EDITORS Further information about this release can be obtained from the following: (for NoseyPARCA DOT WordPress DOT com) 

 Jennifer Seitz (Secretary)
 that.tiresome.rationalist AT gmail DOT com

(as a member of Fort William, Inverlochy, and Torlundy Community Council) 

 Mark Drayton
 EddieMDrayton AT gmail DOT com

/*\ \*/ /*\ \*/ /*\ \*/ /*\ \*/ /*\ \*/ /*\ \*/ /*\ \*/ /*\ \*/ /*\ \*/

Wed-Head xxxv

(Publication suspended indefinitely due to authorial work commitments)

Scratch-spaces

The CGA 16-color palette
The CGA 16-color palette
0 Black
#000 		8 Dark gray
#555
1 Dark blue
#00A 		9 Light blue
#55F
2 Dark green
#0A0 		10 Light green
#5F5
3 Dark cyan
#0AA 		11 Light cyan
#5FF
4 Dark red
#A00 		12 Light red
#F55
5 Dark magenta
#A0A 		13 Light magenta
#F5F
6 Brown (NOT dark yellow)
#A50 (NOT #AA0) 		14 Yellow (ie light yellow)
#FF5
7 Light gray
#AAA 		15 White
#FFF
NB: These are 12-bit RGB colours but CGA is 4-bit RGBI (arranged as IRGB)

Scala (was: YTs4NxD)
No I don't know why this doesn't bloody format either -Hx

<nohtml> 


 <html>

 <body>

 <a href=https://www.scala-exercises.org/scala_tutorial/terms_and_types>https://www.scala-exercises.org/scala_tutorial/terms_and_types</a>

 <script src="https://scastie.scala-lang.org/28U2aGjHTJC9fjMQaAPr3Q.js"></script>

 </body>

 </html>

</nohtml>

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