Top Stories – 8th April
Nationwide
How police view of Ian Tomlinson death changed
Witnesses tell of dogs, batons and police attack
Now it’s time for justice, says family
Tamils bring their fight to Westminster
International
Obama presses Iraqi leader to unite factions
Protests in Moldova, with help of Twitter
15 years later, Rwanda remembers massacre
Afghanistan ‘rape’ law raises women’s rights issue
DAILY BLOG REVIEW / coming later
So who will excuse police brutality now?
Shocking as it is, the Guardian video showing Ian Tomlinson’s treatment at the G20 protests shouldn’t come as a surprise. Rowenna Davis and I said on the day that police behaviour and strategy was completely counter-productive. Stuart White illustrated how the peaceful Climate Camp was turned into a warzone thanks to them. They said protestors hurled bricks at them as they tried to help Tomlinson (and the gullible media bought it). Why are we even surprised? The Met police lied during the Charles De Menzes inquiry remember? And this is why the police don’t like videos and pictures taken of them.
Despite all the first-hand accounts and concerns raised about civil liberties, right-wingers have been furiously trying to protect the police from criticism all this week. And now? Complete silence.
As James Graham points out – they can’t even bring themselves to comment. The stench of hypocrisy is over-whelming because the right only get exercised about civil liberties when one of their own gets into trouble. They’ll happily point and laugh when lefties get kettled and beaten at a demo just for protesting, because their concern for civil liberties is soundbite-deep.
As Guy Aitchison says, Britain has a ‘policing problem’ – but neither the media nor the establishment want to have that discussion or admit to it. At least New Labour doesn’t pretend its concerned about civil liberties.
More blog comment:
Laurie Penny – Fuck
Sunder Katwala – The death of Ian Tomlinson
Tom Miller – Assaulted by police shortly before his death
Labour Left Forum – Police Murder
Harry’s Place – Horrendous
Bloggerheads – Ian Tomlinson assaulted
Prog Gold – Police murdered Tomlinson
Bristle’s blog – How many laughing policemen does it take…?
LibdemVoice – Ian Tomlinson – video footage emerges
More links
Two Doctors – The death of Ian Tomlinson
Lee Griffin – The day I lost all faith in my country’s authorities
Mental Nurse – The death of Ian Tomlinson
Mark Reckons – Ian Tomlinson
John Q Publican – Feast of Fools II: Foot in Mouth
The Big Blog – G20 Police Brutality
Paul Sagar – Evan Davis: Apologist for Police Brutality?
Andrew Hickey – The British Police Are The Best…
Neil Harding – Finally Caught On Camera Lying…
Dan O’Huiginn – Turning people against the police
Curly’s Corner Shop – Met. Police must answer…
Mr Eugenides – a libertarian blogger reacts
An Englishman’s Castle – Out of Control Policing
Justin McKeating – Police medic in job creation scheme
Another update
Harpymarx – Cops reaction: making the usual excuses…
Hagley Road to Ladywood – Law and Order
Ecomonkey – The Evidence
Will Rhodes – Conservative: Wearing plain clothes antagonised…
In My Humble Etc – Police violence at Climate Camp
Sim-O – You vicious bastards
5CC – Ian Tomlinson and the tabloids
A new challenger appears – Death in the city
Janus face – We must establish the truth…
There’s a protest at Bethnal Green Police Station on Saturday 11th April 11.30am
Video shows police assault on Ian Tomlinson
Post by Guy Aitchison of Our Kingdom
A video has just been published on The Guardian website showing Ian Tomlinson (the man who died at G20 protests) being pushed and beaten from behind by a baton-wielding police officer as he tried to walk away. The police offer no assistance as he lies injured on the ground. He died shortly after.
Ex-leftist rightists: why turncoats switch sides
It is usually found that the most articulate and convincing rightwingers have never been anything but out-and-out rightwingers. Such people – the native language speakers of conservatism, if you will – are those best equipped to deliver mellifluous little platoons of uninterrupted Burkean platitudes in an immaculate RP accent.
I am not here discussing the comfortable drift from the hard left to the right wing of the labour movement that has characterised the career of so many New Labour politicians. This is, in some sense at least, staying within the family. Nor do I have in mind those that adopt de facto neocon positions but still regard themselves as somehow ‘being on the left’.
continue reading… »
Top Stories and Blog Review Tuesday 7th April
Nationwide
Dead G20 man was ‘confronted by police’
Westminster Bridge closed after Tamil protest
G20 protestors plan new march Saturday
Smoothie operators sell out to Coke
International
US announces major defense spending shifts
North Korea seeks gain fromrocket launch
Iranian candidate calls Ahmadinejad an extremist
Empire State building goes green
DAILY BLOG REVIEW / by Jennie Rigg
Think you’ve spotted a blog we should be linking to? Email
and let us know!
James Holden has a make your own terror billboard
webapp (thanks to Millennium for pointing it out to me).
Senator Stuart Svyret (he who broke the Jersey child abuse scandal) has been arrested without a warrant.
Guy Aitchison has a fabulous round-up of, and personal angle on, the G20 protests on Open Democracy.
Ouch, the BBC’s disability blog, on how the authorities deal with disability on the streets.
Helen Duffett is panicking about being stopped and searched at the airport, given the contents of her luggage. I say: Order that vegetarian meal and the consequences be damned, Helen!
Diffrent Colours wrestles with an ethical dilemma – is it right to work for a company whose morals you fundamentally disagree with?
Renegade Evolution discusses the possibility of feminist porn.
Will Rhodes has spotted possible grounds for challenging the EU Data Storage directive that allows us all to be snooped on.
And Charles Crawford has this week’s Britblog Round-up, or you can browse through previous Netcasts
What is the left’s approach to the financial crisis?
On Sunday I wrote an article for Comment is Free criticising left-of-Labour forces for failing to present a coherent economic agenda for change. In the wake of the financial crisis, economics is now on our side, but we are failing to make the most of it.
After it went up, I actually felt rather bad about the cif article. It’s a bit disturbing that the forces I criticise hardest tend to be the ones I most want to succeed. But it wasn’t intended to be an attack; it was meant to be a call to action. The left should have the courage to make the economic case for a fairer society because, ultimately, the argument is ours to win.
Please correct me if I’m missing something, but since the financial crisis the Fabians have produced just one leaflet on green economics possibly being the way forward and written a couple of articles on the crisis. Surely the Fabians’ fantastic network of intellectuals and resources can make a stronger, more coherent case than that? Similarly, Cruddas and Rutherford just published a new e-book in response to the crisis, but it feels vague and confused.
A fiscal stimulus could provide jobs and build public infrastructure and services for the benefit of all – helping private companies increase productivity over the longer term. Income could be raised by taxation on industries that pollute and destroy the environment – taking into account their negative externalities – and bringing in much needed revenue.
An increase in social housing would stop more risky lending and save money on the costly externalities of homeless and poverty that are now on the rise. Making the economic case gives the left credibility – we cannot afford to brush over these arguments because we are uncomfortable with market-speak.
Why Britons still haven’t learnt from Obama’s campaign
While Barack Obama has moved on to a serious if difficult effort to cope with the economic crisis and some real movement towards the investment in infrastructure, health care and energy independence he promised during the campaign, it feels like the British debate has scarcely moved past this nonsensical “who is the British Barack Obama” argument.
The launch of the (excellent) Fabian Society book, The Change We Need, recently brought this navel gazing to a new peak.
In recent months I’ve been meeting with a lot of British candidates and political organisers who seem to believe that if only they could copy one easy thing from Obama’s efforts, all would be well. But they also need to be careful not to learn the wrong lessons from this success.
Here are the top five things I think British left of centre politics still gets wrong:
continue reading… »
Top Stories – Tuesday 7th April
Nationwide
Dead G20 man was ‘confronted by police’
Westminster Bridge closed after Tamil protest
G20 protestors plan new march Saturday
Smoothie operators sell out to Coke
International
US announces major defense spending shifts
North Korea seeks gain fromrocket launch
Iranian candidate calls Ahmadinejad an extremist
Empire State building goes green
DAILY BLOG REVIEW / coming later
Stop storage of your web data!
You may have read that email and internet phone information now has to be stored by your internet provider. The new law – promoted and pushed in the EU by the UK government – is a first step before they try to change how they can ‘intercept’ your communications.
You can help build the campaign to stop this, firstly by inviting all your friends to our Facebook campaigning group. Secondly, sign the No 10 petition if you haven’t done so already. We need to stop this!
Make Dan Hannan Tory spokesman!
I’m pleased to see Daniel Hannan, Tory MEP, has become a regular feature on Faux News’ nuttier shows. The Conservatives should make him their spokesperson so he can tell the entire country the NHS is a 60 year mistake. (via LabourHome)
Update: He keeps digging; Sunder exposes his poor grasp of facts.
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» 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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