Cultureteca 25.10.15

Cultureteca this week looks over the announcement of YouTube Red, the video site’s new subscription service, and parliamentary elections in Poland, which resulted in a new party of government, the centre-right Law and Justice. It considers the variously troubling nature of England’s Football Association, before coming to a close with a brief roundup of GIFs.

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YouTube Announces YouTube Red

On Wednesday, YouTube announced the imminent introduction of YouTube Red, a subscription service which will allow members to watch videos ad-free, while also offering exclusive content starring some of the website’s most famous creators.

YouTube Red will be available from Monday in the United States, promoted courtesy of a one-month free trial. Subscription thereafter will cost $9.99 a month, with international release and pricing information to be unveiled at a later date. The service will also enable members to save videos for offline viewing; and it will come complete with YouTube Music, a new personalised music discovery app. YouTube Red will work with Google Play Music, so that subscription to one automatically provides access to the other.

The service’s exclusive content will debut in the new year. Featuring Lilly Singh, Joey Graceffa, Toby Turner, CollegeHumor, a scripted comedy singing show, and a reality-based zombie apocalypse, the first batch of original content will be headlined by ‘Scare PewDiePie’, a reality adventure series inspired by the favourite video games of YouTube’s most subscribed uploader. PewDiePie recently spent a month filming towards the series in Los Angeles.

While the fate of the service will rest on the size of the uptake, YouTube Red has the potential to offer content creators increased revenues, while expanding the scope and production quality of their projects. The move combats the rise of video on Facebook, which has been criticised for ignoring the rights of filmmakers. And it brings YouTube into increased competition with video and music streaming services such as Netflix, Apple Music, and Spotify.

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Law and Justice Win Power in Poland

In Polish parliamentary elections on Sunday, the opposition party Law and Justice won with 37.6% of the vote. Beata Syzdlo is set become Prime Minister, ousting Ewa Kopacz and Civic Platform, which had been the major coalition partner in Poland’s government since 2007. Law and Justice’s success marks the first time since the establishment of democracy in Poland in 1989 that a party has attained sufficient votes for an absolute majority.

37.6% of the vote is enough for 235 seats in the Sejm and 61 seats in the Senate. In Poland’s bicameral legislature, the Sejm, the lower house, consists of 460 members; while the Senate, the upper house, consists of 100 senators. The Sejm is the leading legislative body, as it can overrule Senate rejections or amendments. The term of office in both houses is four years, with the last elections held in 2011.

Civic Platform laboured to just 24.1% of the vote, enough for 138 seats in the Sejm and 34 seats in the Senate. Over the past year, the party has been beset by scandal after senior figures were recorded making disparaging comments about colleagues, and discussing an illicit deal with Poland’s central bank.

Elsewhere, Kukiz’15, a recently formed anti-establishment party led by the singer Pawel Kukiz, surged towards 42 seats in the Sejm, taking 8.8% of the vote. Another new party, the liberal, pro-business, pro-Europe Modern, achieved 7.6% of the vote, enough for 28 seats. And the agrarian Polish People’s Party, with 5.1% of the vote, will claim 16 seats.

There is a 5% parliamentary threshold in Poland for single parties, which rises to 8% for coalitions. Therefore by taking just 7.6% of the vote, the United Left – a coalition formed in July of the Democratic Left Alliance, Your Movement, Polish Socialist Party, Labour United, and The Greens – find themselves without a seat, leaving Poland’s political left unrepresented in parliament.

Both Law and Justice and Civic Platform were founded in 2001, amalgamations of several pre-existing parties of similar persuasions, and they established themselves between 2005 and 2007 as the two dominant parties in Polish politics. While both are of the centre-right, and share many social policies, Civic Platform boasts a pro-market focus on the economy, while Law and Justice has offered a mix of protectionism and increased welfare spending. Moving away from an emphasis on political corruption, Law and Justice centred its campaign this time round on pledges to reverse the retirement age and increase child benefit. More Eurosceptic than their opponents, Law and Justice is a member of the Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformists, while Civic Platform is a member of the European People’s Party, the largest group in European politics.

Law and Justice is lead by Jaroslaw Kaczynski, an outspoken figure who has recently drawn controversy for suggesting that immigrants are bringing infection to Europe. Looking ahead to Sunday’s elections, back in June the more moderate Beata Szydlo was nominated as the party’s candidate for Prime Minister. It is unclear whether Kaczynski will have a role in Szydlo’s new government.

Poland also held a presidential election earlier this year, in two rounds on 10 and 24 May. An initial field of eleven candidates was narrowed down to just two, before Andrzej Duda of Law and Justice emerged victorious with 51.55% of the vote, ahead of the incumbent Bronislaw Komorowski.

Duda, previously a lawyer and a Member of the European Parliament, won much of his support in eastern Poland, having expressed concern with Russia’s involvement in Ukraine while stating his desire for closer Polish ties to NATO. He also campaigned on a platform of continued welfare spending and tax cuts for the low-paid, while taking a conservative Catholic stance on issues including abortion, euthanasia, and same-sex marriage.

The role of President in Poland is largely symbolic, but as well as representing Poland on the international stage and standing as Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, it allows the proposal, approval, and veto of legislation. In accordance with the practise of political neutrality, Duda resigned from Law and Justice before being sworn in as President at the beginning of August. He has since expressed his opposition to compulsory EU migrant quotas. And on 2 October, he vetoed a Gender Accordance Act which had passed in both houses of parliament, and would have afforded the legal recognition of transgender people.

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A Conceited and Unaccountable FA

Newcastle United‘s 3-0 derby defeat at Sunderland on Sunday proved not only another dismal day for the Magpies: their record-breaking sixth loss in a row at the hands of their north-east rivals, leaving them second from bottom in the Premier League. It also further exposed the corruption and incompetence which rules the Football Association, the governing body of English football.

The oldest and already the richest national association in world football, eager to claim its share of FIFA’s loot, only recently and reluctantly disavowed its support for Michel Platini, who remains a candidate for the role of FIFA President despite a 90-day suspension on suspicion of bribery and embezzlement. These are the same allegations which finally resulted in the suspension of disgraced outgoing President Sepp Blatter, a figure with whom the FA have hardly acted more responsibly over the years, welcoming him in support of their failed 2018 World Cup bid, and later accepting £314,000 from a FIFA project designed to aid developing nations.

So the FA seems a body fond of bribery in addition to xenophobic quotas and the persecution of marginal groups, and when it comes to matters on the football pitch, it continues to impose an obtuse and draconian set of fines and punishments. The FA remains responsible for regulating Premier League matches, and as a special shareholder retains the power of veto over the appointment of the league’s Chairman and Chief Executive. Sensible viewers have long suspected that the leading authorities in English football systematically favour England’s biggest clubs, with the brazen evidence visible every weekend supported by the assertion that Premier League Chief Executive Richard Scudamore warned referees that sending off top players was ‘bad for the brand’.

On Sunday, a shoulder charge from Fabricio Coloccini resulted in a penalty and a red card which changed the course of the game. At issue is less an isolated decision, more a pattern of inadequate and inconsistent refereeing, which fluctuates from game to game and from club to club; typical only in so far as the officials involved tend to be overzealous and self-aggrandising, and roundly protected by the FA who arrogantly dismiss valid complaints while ruining the sport for the paying audience who sustain it. That referees are never called to account for inexcusable mistakes only intensifies the level of discontent shown towards their profession.

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And Finally Some GIFs

To conclude such an informational and politically-minded Cultureteca, here are some of the week’s best GIFs. First up, a prank with falling boxes: