Police ‘pre-emptive strike’ against protest
Police have carried out what is thought to be the biggest pre-emptive raid on environmental campaigners in British history, arresting 114 people believed to be planning direct action at a coal-fired power station. The arrests – for conspiracy to commit criminal damage and aggravated trespass – come amid growing concern among protesters about increased police surveillance and infiltration by informers.
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Last night campaigners said police were photographing and stopping people entering and leaving public meetings and the offices of the lobby group Greenpeace.
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Last month a Guardian investigation revealed police were targeting thousands of political campaigners in surveillance operations at events including the Climate Camp, and storing their details on a database for at least seven years.
More: John Sauven on CIF / Indymedia.
So what’s this ‘blogosphere’ thing anyway?
Readers from the real world may have been perplexed by the attention given to the so-called ‘blogosphere’ this past weekend, and left wondering why they should care about it. The short answer is they shouldn’t.
The British blogosphere is comprised entirely of frustrated writers bitter about their inability to land jobs at real newspapers, sitting in their mother’s basement, stabbing endlessly away at their computer keyboards in the middle of the night writing cretinous, infantile forums of abuse dressed up as argument in the hope that people will read their inconsequential, misinformed diatribe.
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What do we do about Pakistan?
In the wake of the recent anti-terror raids around Manchester and Liverpool, we’re back to a question which has flummoxed pundits and politicians ever since 9/11: what do would-be terrorists want from us, and, if we give it to them, will they then stop plotting to blow us up?
Returning from a recent fact-finding trip to discover what’s turning young Pakistanis to terror, Labour MP Sadiq Kahn reports a rather unusual grievance; they blame Britain for the deaths caused by the US’ drone attacks in the country’s remote border regions. The problem with this is that Britain isn’t involved in the US’ bombings, and even if we were to openly criticise the American policy of sending unmanned drones to kill members of Al Qaeda, I’m not sure this would have much of an effect on people who’re evidently too lazy to find out which country is doing the bombing.
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Hypocrisy Rules Okay
As adverts for political blogging go, the whole Guido vs Draper thing has been somewhere on a par with promoting a cage fight between Stephen Hawking and Helen Keller as an advert for mixed martial arts, which is why I’ve got no hesitation in respond to Draper’s appeal for a fresh start…
Maybe this affair will encourage the whole blogosphere, right and left, to commit to a new start, where offensiveness and personal attacks are avoided and debate is elevated not dragged down into the gutter? Maybe this can be a turning point at which we all redouble our efforts to tap into the internet´s positive potential rather than allowing its more peurile [sic] aspects to come to the fore?
…with a clear, unquivocal and heartfelt ‘FUCK OFF, DEREK’. continue reading… »
Smears: down memory lane
Paul Linford, 3rd October 2006:
It wasn’t all Osbourne’s fault. The word was put into his mouth by the Blairite journalist Mary Ann Sieghart who has penned her own piece justicative HERE. Sieghart, who was once so close to Mr Tony as to aspire to a job in the No 10 policy unit, gaily reassures us that “autistic” is an epithet that “plenty of politicians and journalists” have used about the Chancellor. “He does, after all, have an obsessive personality and rather low emotional intelligence. That is why the audience laughed: Mr Osborne’s joke resonated with them.”
In other words, because it’s Gordon Brown we’re attacking, that’s okay then.
I have finally found a column by Mary Ann Sieghart that I can’t disagree with. It was she who interviewed George Osborne at the Tory conference when he made his quip about Gordon Brown and autism. Read her column HERE. Paul Linford, however, seems to have had a sense of humour failure HERE.
Anyone who knows George Osborne knows he has a wicked sense of humour and is also a great mimic. Let’s hope this experience won’t have put him off being spontaneous. This whole episode was manufactured by bored journalists wh had nothing better to write and love a bit of faux outrage. Again, the lesson for the Conservatives is to keep the media beast fed and watered. If you don’t, don’t be surprised if it turns round and bites you.
Some may see this as a schoolboy spat between two bloggers with egos the size of a mountain. Maybe. But my experience is important as it demonstrates how the Number Ten lie machine will target anyone whose reputation it wishes to damage.
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Perhaps this sort of affair is symptomatic of something more deep-rooted at the heart of government. All administrations flag after a while. They become gaffe- prone. People go off-message more frequently. A sense of malaise is almost palpable. It’s what happens when empires crumble.
hat/tip: Chicken Yoghurt
Top Stories & Blog Review – 13th April 2009
Nationwide
BT says 10,000 job cuts “speculation”
Cost-cutting blamed as violent mob wrecks jail
Labour’s assault on the blogosphere backfired
Hillsborough: how stories were altered
International
Thailand in turmoil; protesters rise against PM
Pakistan in danger of collapse within months
Ceasefire to allow civilians out of Tamil enclave
Pirates vow revenge against USA and France
DAILY BLOG REVIEW / by Sarah Ismal
Claude Smeargate is a distraction from real problems
Tom Miller Red Rag and Guido Fawkes
Paul Sagar writes about Right wing schizophrenia
Angela Saini Says Science Fiction should stay fictional.
Clairwil Tony Blair’s converted to Catholicism.
Faith In Society A New York Church streamed the story of the Passion on Twitter on Good Friday. Easter Weekend Fun.
Happy fifth Birthday, dear Feministing, Happy Birthday to you.
Indigo Jo Asks ‘Should Women de-feminise for the office?’
The F Word Blog A Feminist’s review of Being Human.
If that’s not enough, you can browse through previous netcasts.
Blogging will only increase the sleaze – unless we stop it
It is undeniable that many within the Westminster bubble use Guido Fawkes to push their agendas by sending in tips and rumours. It is also undeniable that Paul Staines has an anti-politics libertarian bent that is pro-Conservative party. He shamelessly campaigned for Boris Johnson as Mayor for example, regardless of the poor barbs he threw at Caroline Spelman during ‘nannygate’.
A lot of newspapers have focused on how New Labour has always been about spin and briefings and back-stabbings. Perhaps. But it’s naive to pretend the Conservative party is immune from this – after all they’ve always looked towards the Republicans for strategic and ideological guidance and they are the original masters of this strategy.
Blogs, you could say, will only accelerate this deterioration of civility in the political culture. During the American election we saw right-wing bloggers (and Melanie Phillips in the UK) continuously try and throw mud at Obama by raising questions about his religion, his birth certificate, his family, his ‘heritage’ and more. Some were even convinced there was a Michelle Obama ‘whitey tape’ that would kill the campaign a week before election. The Democrats had to fight back online: Fights the smears & Truth fights back, and relied heavily on supporters to fight those rumours.
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VAT cut ‘remarkable’ and working
The government’s much-criticised cut in VAT is working and has led to a big boost in consumer spending, according to a leading economics consultancy. The Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) says that the cut, which took effect on 1 December 2008, has led to £2.1bn of extra sales.
The centre says the growth in retail spending is “remarkable”. It argues that the temporary cut of 2.5%, which expires in January 2010, should be extended for six months.
A Saturday morning vigil
Yesterday, I walked from Bethnal Green to Bank in the rain, and laid flowers at the spot where Ian Tomlinson was attacked. So did hundreds of others. It was a solemn and subdued march, apart from the obnoxious ratty-haired man with a pink radio sellotaped to his head blasting out swing band music (there’s always one). I found myself profoundly moved and had to go and have a smoke and a small pathetic sniffle round the side of the bank, out of sight of all the news cameras in the world.
And then something extremely depressing happened.
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Top Stories and Blog Review Easter Sunday 2009
… and six arrested
Nationwide
Tomlinson: man who was trying to get home
Pakistan pledges UK terror arrests help
Darling to offer £2,000 reward to scrap old cars
MPs earn rent while claiming home allowance
International
“I’m a successful Somali pirate”
Obama brings truce in culture war
U.N. Council may rebuke North Korea
Thailand cancels Summit after protests
DAILY BLOG REVIEW / by Jennie Rigg
Lets get the self-referential, Westminster-centric circle jerk between a gaggle of despicable frauds out of the way first, shall we? If you actually WANT to read about it, HopiSen‘s entry is the one I would go for.
Now, onto things that are actually important:
Stephen Glenn remembers Hillsborough.
Pink Dog has a roadsign for our times.
Bad Conscience wonders why something which seems a straightforward moral issue (policemen shouldn’t attack innocent bystanders) has split along left-right lines.
Charlotte Gore on why Labour talk up the BNP.
David A MacIntee reviews last night’s new episode of Doctor Who.
And if you still crave really vitally important stuff, Lay Scientist has a very serious health and safety video.
If you’re sensible, though, you’ll head on over to AMCTV, and watch one of their many totally legit classic movies which are now online for your pleasure (hat-tip MatGB), or you can browse through previous Netcasts
You can read articles through the front page, via Twitter or RSS feed. You can also get them by email and through our Facebook group.
» Revealed: govt to restrict abortion counselling despite Nadine Dorries vote
» Would raising the tax threshold actually help the poorest?
» To win London, Ken Livingstone has to step outside his comfort zone
» This trade agreement with India will destroy thousands of lives
» UK debt hasn’t hit £1 trillion – mostly because of QE
» The benefits of being a “burden” on society
» Today’s economic figures will simply confirm UK’s “lost decade”
» Have Labour realised the election is more than three years away?
» Violence in the office
» Want a more responsible capitalism? Reform how pensions work
» The world is entering the third phase of the crisis, warns ILO
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