Keith Vaz: Videogames Should Have Health Warnings

It’s been a hectic week in the world of videogames. With the most anticipated game of the year Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 hitting the shelves to the joy of thousands of gamers, (and retailers) world wide. The game looks set to break all records as the fastest selling game in history and looks like its going to break the previous record that Grand Theft Auto 4 set a year ago.


Modern Warfare 2 had the biggest launch day sales of a videogame ever in the UK generating £64.7 Million, beating GTA 4 which in 2008 made a paltry in comparison £39.9 million.


So in these times of economic strife a product being so successful and loved by millions should bring a bit of cheer? Unfortunately not all see Modern Warfare 2’s success as a good thing. MP Keith Vaz was one of the first to lash out at the game for a level that appears early on called “No Russian”. In it you assume the role of an undercover CIA agent who has infiltrated a Russian terrorist cell who then massacre an airport full of civilians. The player is given the choice to play the level and can skip at any time however the level does play an integral part to the games plot as becomes evident later.


The scene is shocking, but should it not be seen in context? Terrorists are not known for being merciful when targeting those they feel deserve their wrath and this game reflects that. However it has reignited the controversies that have dogged the videogame industry for years.


Keith Vaz spoke in the Daily Mail of his displeasure: "I am absolutely shocked by the level of violence in this game and am particularly concerned about how realistic the game itself looks." Mr Vaz later raised the matter in Parliament to which he was given rather short thrift by his colleagues Tom Watson and Sion Simon.

Sion Simon the minister for Culture, Media and Sport has this to say in response to Vaz’s concerns. "The clearest recommendation of the Byron Review is that content suitable for adults should be labelled as such and sold as such, that it should be an offence to sell such content to children,"


"That's the case under current law, it will be the case with the law when it changes under the Digital Economy Bill. This game the honourable gentleman refers to is a certificate 18 game, it should not be sold to children and the government's job is to make sure that adults, clearly labelled, can get what adults should be able to, and that children are not in danger of being subjected to adult content. "

Tom Watson, a former government minster also took offence at Keith Vaz and the daily mails attack on videogames and formed the group Gamers Voice. The group has grown enormously since its inception and now stands at over 14500 members on Facebook


Keith Vaz when questioned on our latest edition said videogames should carry health warnings in a similar fashion to cigarettes. Here is the full quote here: If you look to the packaging of an 18-rated videogame, it's [the size of] a tiny 10p coin. What it should be is the same as cigarettes - it should be splashed across the front: 'This has the potential to damage your health' - and that is not happening.

But is a game really that damaging to your health? Vaz insisted he was not anti videogames and that his crusade was to protect children from harmful games but in the same instance he was also unsure what videogames his own 14 year old son played. Vaz also mentioned that parents also have a responsibility for what their children view or play but does that then mean if it is found the child has an unsuitable game should the parents be punished? Would Keith Vaz be punished under such a system depending on what his son has been playing?


There is always the argument why should adults be forced to loose out when an 18 rated game is played by a child who by law should have never have been able to get hold of the game. It doesn’t look any time soon that violent games are going to be banned but the risk of a whole medium being tarred is there.

It would certainly seem that the videogame industry has an image problem though Richard Wilson CEO of TIGA doesn’t seem to think so. But when a game such as Modern Warfare 2 is met with such a hail of controversy when many violent films are praised as art in some cases, is there a case of double standards?



For every Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 there is a Portal, for every Manhunt there is a Shadow of the Colossus. It is easy to forget that videogames are a social medium that involves family, friends and people from around the world. But is that message lost in the hysteria?

Scientists versus Politicans

The problem with being interested in politics and current affairs is this nasty habit it has of never stopping. It might be a slow news day but you can bet that somewhere in the world there is something of interest going on.

Which is why I am still up at quarter to one on a Tuesday morning after doing research into the Professor Nutt sacking debacle. It's caused some amount of disquiet and it looks like its going to get uglier as the week goes on. Two other members of the ACMD, (Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs) have resigned in protest and more may follow. It's scientists on one side and politicians on the other.

For those who might not have been following the case here is a bit of background. Professor David Nutt, (who works both at the University of Bristol and Imperial College, London) last week gave a lecture at Imperial College stating both alcohol and tobacco were more deadly than many illegal drugs. You can also read his paper on the subject here.

Days later Professor Nutt was rather unceremoniously sacked by an email from Home Secretary Alan Johnson. Ouch.

Alan Johnson's decision sparked off fighting both within the government as well as out as Lord Drayson: the science and innovation minister who has overall responsibility for all scientific advice given to the government went nuclear at being left out and initially sided with Professor Nutt. One email message read "Alan did this without letting me know and giving me a chance to persuade him it's a big mistake. Is Gordon able to get Alan to undo this? As 'science champion in Government', I can't just stand aside on this one."

Unfortunately for David Nutt this stance didn't last long and Lord Drayson sided with the Government after Prime Minister Gordon Brown stepped into the fray stating that he had received reassurances from Alan Johnson and that his earlier response had been an initial reaction.

But is there any truth to what Professor Nutt says? Well lets look at some statistics for deaths in Scotland and see what it looks like.

In Scotland there were 574 drug-related deaths in 2008, but we need to be careful as these figures also include alcohol as a drug but strangely not tobacco, cannabis or LSD.

Breaking that figure down makes it appear like this:

Heroin/Morphine-336
Methadone- 181
Total of all Benzodiazepine related deaths- 364
Diazapam- 317
Temazapam- 12
Cocaine- 79
Ecstasy- 7
Amphetamines- 12
Alcohol- 273

Unfortunately as far as I can find there are no similar figures regarding tobacco related deaths for 2008 so we have to make do with 2004.

In 2004, there were almost 13,500 smoking-related deaths in Scotland - over 1 in 5 of all deaths.

That would make it appear however that David Nutt is vindicated and that deaths related to Alcohol and Tobacco vastly outweigh deaths due to drugs. With that in mind and the fact that and advice given to a government is never free lets take a look at how much the ACMD has cost for advice that was ultimately ignored. Here is a parliamentary question from last year regarding the committee's finances.

Home Department
Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs: Finance

James Brokenshire: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much her Department spent to support the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs in each of the last five years. [223151]

Mr. Coaker [holding answer 10 September 2008]: The Home Office allocated the following sums of money in each of the last five years to support the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs:

Sum allocated to the ACMD (£)

2003-04 £80,000

2004-05 £135,000

2005-06 £165,000

2006-07 £152,000

2007-08 £152,800

In addition the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs secretariat staff and other civil servant costs have not been allocated as such costs are subsumed within normal salaried remuneration and within existing budgets.

29 Sep 2008 : Column 2314W

So in total the ACMD has cost the taxpayer well over half a million pounds over 5 years if my rather poor maths skills are right. That's a lot of money for a group of advisors whose advice and recommendations you are going to ignore...



Perhaps after being very public in his outburst Professor David Nutt should have expected a very public response that might have been as embarrassing to him as his recommendations were to the government. Rest assured we will be working to have him on the show and ask him personally over the next couple of weeks.

Upcoming guests

Here is the list or our upcoming guests over the next wee while so you can get your questions and comments in. Please note a date for airing for all the interviews have not yet been confirmed.


Jim Murphy- Secretary of State for Scotland
Iain Gray- Scottish Labour Leader
Annabel Goldie- Scottish Conservative Leader
Tavish Scott- Scottish Liberal Democrats Leader
Shami Chakrabarti- Director of Liberty
Vince Cable- Liberal Democrat Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer

Keep your comments coming in!

This weeks show

Come on all you politics buffs. We have a Glasgow North East special coming up this Sunday; the party campaigns are in their final days as we approach polling day on November 12th.

We have an interview with Tommy Sheridan the co-leader of Solidarity and candidate in Glasgow North East. As well as short interviews with Willie Bain where we ask him after Labour being in power in Glasgow North East how do they defend their record in the city and the constituency? Ruth Davidson, what should happen to MP's such as Derek Conway, Should they be prosecuted? And Eileen Baxendale, what happened at the Lib Dem conference this weekend and will they support an independence referendum in the future?

We will have the SNP's David Kerr, the Green's David Doherty, and the SSP's Kevin McVey on next week.

So tune in to hear us live tomorrow (Sunday) morning from 0945-1030 only on http://www.subcity.org/listen.

You can interact with the show while its on air by Studio: 0141 341 6222 / debate@subcity.org Studio SMS: "subcity" followed by message to 07766 40 41 42

Or contact us anytime by posting on the blog or emailing debate@subcity.org.

Debate is Free interviews Tommy Sheridan

This week we will be interviewing Tommy Sheridan co-leader of Solidarity as part of Debate is Free's series on the party leaders in Scotland. Sheridan has had a controversial and colourful past especially in the past couple of years. The former MSP has been jailed three times in the past once for his opposition against the Poll tax and twice for his protests against Trident at Faslane Naval Base.

Tommy is one of the most recognisable politicians in Scotland and the UK and makes numerous appearances across the country. Tommy Sheridan has been a councillor for the city of Glasgow, MSP and recently stood to be an MEP in the European elections this year.

He has also appeared on Celebrity Big Brother and at the Edinburgh Fringe

We will be talking to Tommy Sheridan as he is on the campaign trail in Glasgow North East so get your questions in quickly before 4pm today (29th October) either to the blog page or via email on debate@subcity.org.


Check us out here http://www.subcity.org/shows/debateisfree/


Spread the word about Debate is Free and join in.Got a point to make then email debate@subcity.org or while the show is on air or contact us on the following Studio: 0141 341 6222 Studio SMS: "subcity" followed by message to 07766 40 41 42

Labour's Cabinet Reshuffle

It’s been a bit of a muted day on the politics front on this rather dreich day. But there has been one thing of interest. There was a shadow cabinet reshuffle of Scottish Labour. With the now former education spokeswoman Rhona Brankin being booted out perhaps it is the curse of an education brief biting and Brankin not being seen as effective in tackling the SNP’s Education Minister Fiona Hyslop.
Iain Gray issued the following statement regarding her departure.

"Rhona has taken Fiona Hyslop to task as the worst education minister since devolution began, with broken promises on class sizes, school buildings and teacher numbers."

Though considering that out of the six education ministers there has been since devolution began back in 1999 and that Fiona Hyslop is the first to be non Labour perhaps it pays to be cynical as to why Gray would be calling her the worst out of the lot.

The new shadow cabinet is as follows;
Iain Gray- Leader
Johann Lamont- Deputy Leader
Cathy Jamieson- Housing and Regeneration
Jackie Baillie- Health Spokeswoman
Andy Kerr- Finance and economy
Michael McMahon- Local government spokesman
John Park- Elections and campaigns
Des McNulty- Education
Paul Martin- Parliament Business Manager
Richard Baker- Justice
Sarah Boyack- Environment & Rural Affairs
Pauline McNeill- Culture and Constitution
David Stewart- Chief Whip

Both Jackie Baillie’s and Cathy Jamieson’s new appointments are both very interesting.

Jackie Baillie has been very prominent on attacking the SNP on the C diff outbreak at the Vale of Leven Hospital. However there are still a lot of unhappy constituents in Dumbarton who remember who axed A&E services at the Vale and Baillie is sure to come under fire once more now she is charge of health for the shadow cabinet.

Cathy Jamieson taking over the housing brief may indicate that Labour see Alex Neil, the SNP’s Housing and Communities Minister as more as a threat than they let on if Jamieson is to take him on in future.

The BNP and Question Time

As you know there is nothing Debate is Free likes more than a good passionate discussion on the things that matter and what has people getting fired up. So as you can imagine I have been watching the furore over the BNP being invited to Question Time with a great deal of interest over the past few weeks.


The BNP is full of the worst of our society, it can boast of rapists, murderers, paedophiles and a range of thugs in its membership. All suited and polished in order to adhere to the party’s recent family friendly make-over.


But no amount of polish can hide what the BNP really stand for and what they seek to do to this country if they ever got the chance.


One of the BNP’s beliefs is that the holocaust was a hoax and that Hitler in words of Nick Griffin the BNP’s leader, "went a bit too far".


Well its nice to know that the murders of Jews, Communists, trade unionists, the disabled, gays and lesbians, gypsies and a variety of people who proved to be inconvenient to the Third Reich totalling 17 million massacred in death camps and the deaths of over 50 million people worldwide was just going a bit too far.


Then there is also the delightful misogyny of a Mr Nick Eriksen; a former BNP London Assembly candidate and party organiser for London, who in his blog wrote the following regarding rape.


"I've never understood why so many men have allowed themselves to be brainwashed by the feminazi myth machine into believing that rape is such a serious crime ... Rape is simply sex. Women enjoy sex, so rape cannot be such a terrible physical ordeal.


"To suggest that rape, when conducted without violence, is a serious crime is like suggesting force-feeding a woman chocolate cake is a heinous offence. A woman would be more inconvenienced by having her handbag snatched."


Charming. But this is what you can expect from Mr Eriksen and others like him in the BNP, despite the fact that he was removed from the BNP’s London Assembly list for his comments, many senior figures rallied around him saying his comments were “taken out of context”. So as long as that man at the bar you say no to in the first place adds some rohypnol to your drink while your back is turned before dragging you off to a quiet spot to get his way rape is a-ok. As long as you are not beaten black and blue that makes rape condonable in the eyes of Eriksen and his ilk.


But these are not the worst of the BNP, for that you have to look to David Copeland, now also known as the London Nail Bomber. In 1999 Copeland was responsible for the deaths of three people including a woman expecting her first child and the injuries of nearly 130 people, four of whom lost limbs. A toddler also had a nail embedded in the brain which required extensive surgery to remove.


In the end the BNP were not tough enough for Copeland so he joined the Neo-Nazi group, the National Socialist Movement. A group known for their extreme violence and desire to terrorise the UK’s Asian, Black, Gay and Jewish communities.


I could go on, but to be honest I could be here for days listing the convictions and faults of BNP members both past and present.


Whether you like the BNP or not they should be allowed on Question Time tonight. To refuse them sets a dangerous precedent that could be abused against other smaller parties when they say or do things that the three big parties don’t like. Are we now going to stop the Green party who also hold two seats in the European Parliament speaking out on controversial issues?


Hysterical screaming will not make the BNP go away, they must be taken on face to face with both rational debate and serious action. To try and hide them makes them appear like martyrs for their cause and underdogs in the political process.


The BNP are capitalising on the failures of successive governments and their failure to address the fears of a large proportion of the population be they unfounded or not. Fear is the most corrosive emotion; it makes normally rational people lash out against the things they don’t understand. And what people are scared of now is the unknown, do they have jobs tomorrow, will their children have jobs in the future. There are many people out there who are scared that now the world is going too fast for them to keep up with.



But there are also those who understand what the BNP really are and support it. I have the suspicion that the UK is not nearly as enlightened as it likes to think it is. With more hate crimes reported than ever before are we now fooling ourselves into thinking that the BNP’s support are simply frightened of the future rather than people who support the BNP’s racist policies?


But as for would Debate is Free ever interview Nick Griffin? Yes, we would. Its time for someone to ask questions of the BNP’s leader. Questions like; does the BNP still believe that ethnic minorities should be sterilised? What happens to the voluntary removal of immigrants and anyone with the wrong colour of skin when they refuse to move? Will they be forced out the country? What will happen to the children of mixed-race couples? Will the marriages of mixed race couples be nullified?


These questions need asked, and chances are it’s not going to happen on this night’s edition of Question Time, but its time to see what Griffin is saying and start fighting against him.

The big file-sharing hoo-ha

A lot has happened in the world of media piracy since our interview with the Swedish Pirate Party's MEP Christian Engstrom. First the music world seems to be in a state of civil war at the moment with multiple factions disagreeing upon what should happen to file-sharers once they are caught illegally downloading and sharing music. On one side you have artists such as Lily Allen and Gary Barlow supporting the recent government proposals to fine and ban persistent file-sharers from the Internet. They argue that filesharing is destroying British music and stops young bands making it in a competitive industry.

While on the other, you have Billy Bragg and Ed O'Brien of Radiohead condemning the proposals. They worry that they run the risk of alienating their fan-base with the high profile law suits that would surely follow and which have already damaged several bands reputations in the eyes of their fans after past cases. Metallica are a band who are often spoke of in hissing tones after the Napster case in 2001 which some argue they have never recovered from.

To add to the fray, three music groups decided to weigh in on the action earlier this month when the government announced it's plans in the Digital Britain report which originally came out in June 2009 with an added consultation dedicated to the file-sharing dilemma that was released in August. The Featured Artists Coalition along with the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors and the Music Producers Guild all issued a joint press release stating that they "vehemently oppose" the proposals to punish file-sharers. A big turn around from the music industry's previous stance however it was not a sentiment shared by the record labels themselves who along with the film industry and trade union organisation the Creative Coalition Campaign welcomed the Digital Britain's consultation suggestions with open arms.

In the end a meeting was arranged between the artists and they came to an agreement that perhaps it was best to simply slow down serial music file-sharers Internet connection rather than disconnect them from the Internet. However there is still some unease amongst music artists that even this toned down suggestion would still have a detrimental effect on them.

Internet Service Providers have also been wary of the proposals as it would mean added work for them policing their networks and loss of revenues as they would have to cut off their own customers as well as the cost of catching file-sharers. And no one wants to risk their bread and butter. Talk Talk shared the worry of many digital rights campaigners, that cutting people off from the Internet would breach human rights legislation as well as open them up to law suits in the future as file-sharers fought back.


Although if one loser of the week had to be chosen it had to be Lily Allen as she didn't exactly come out the argument shining after it was revealed she was doing exactly what she was demanding be shut down - sharing other artist's music without permission on her website. File-sharing campaigners reacted with glee at the revelation that Allen was sharing mix tapes on her site with her own songs as well as other artists material many of whom where not associated with Allen's own record label EMI. Lily Allen has since announced she intends to give up making music in what can only be described as throwing a tantrum after being caught out. The offending mix tapes have also been taken down from the site, presumably after EMI executives had a heart attack at the possibility of getting what they wished for and a large bill from other rival record labels. A classic throwing stones in glass houses incident depending on where you stand on the whole argument

Its a tightrope for all, as the artists, record companies, film industry, ISP's and the file sharers all have a lot to lose as it all boils down to one thing: money. So the question to be asked now is. Is it time to legalise file-sharing in the UK? Should the UK have a system like Canada where personal use file-sharing is tolerated? Who knows but this fight looks set to rumble on and get uglier as time goes by.

Debate is Free: Upcoming show guests

Debate is free is Subcity Radio’s only political debate and interview show. We interview the political movers and shakers of the country and put your questions to them so you ask the questions.

Here are our guests for the upcoming few weeks in order of air date.

27th September- David Lonsdale, Assistant director of CBI Scotland and Head of policy

4th October John Watson- Head of Amnesty International Scotland

11th October- Anne McLaughlin SNP MSP for Glasgow.

25th October- Patrick Harvie, Glasgow MSP for the Scottish Green Party

1st November- Tommy Sheridan, Leader of Solidarity

8th November- Rose Gentle, Anti War campaigner

If you want to submit any questions for our guests then send an email to debate@subcity.org with the name of the guest in the subject title and your question.

Feel free to comment on the new Debate is free blog http://debateisfree.blogspot.com/ about any of our guests or what’s in the news. We will have regular updates on the blog about what we are doing on the show and comment about the weeks events both in the UK and around the world.