More damning police revelations (updated)
- Yesterday Channel 4 had the explosive revelations that the Independent Police Complaints Commission was barred from the first post mortem examination carried out on Ian Tomlinson. The Liberal Democrats are demanding a full independent inquiry into whether there was a deliberate police cover up.
- Guardian: IPCC chief slams tactics of G20 police.
Also: how the image of UK police took a beating
- BBC: New video shows G20 protest clash. A new video released by demonstrators (video below) shows a police officer beating a man in the head with a riot shield at the London G20 protest earlier this month.
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Event: Public talk on Bill of Rights
Justice Minister Michael Wills MP gives his first public speech on Tuesday 21 April, 1-2pm, for the British Institute of Human Rights, since the publication of the Government’s Green Paper on Rights and Responsibilities.
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Tories contradict their own economic policy
George Osborne has announced a new Tory policy which I don’t understand: they want to give every household a new entitlement to £6,500 of energy saving technologies. They provide government guarantees to enable companies to borrow the money to install this energy saving equipment in homes across the country.
This money would be repaid through savings on energy bills resulting from the improved energy efficiency. So homeowners would be given the opportunity to have energy saving equipment fitted to their homes without any upfront costs. They claim this will unleash £20 billion of private investment if half of all households take this up.
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Top Stories & Blog Review – Saturday 18th April
Nationwide
G20 officer ‘hit me across face’
Police ‘should be punished for covering up ID’
This rampant executive must be under control
Faith schools fail to improve standards
International
Israel ready to bomb Iran’s nuclear sites
US declares warming gases are health threat
Obama offers Cuba ‘new beginning’
Cleric who led militants in Pakistan released
SATURDAY REVIEW / by Sunny
Guy Aitchison – Sends an email to the BBC on their “kettling” story.
Crooked Timber – Reducing inequality: what to do about the top 1%
Craig Murray – When in trouble, play the terrorism card
Men, feminism and the patriarchal con
In recent weeks, I’ve faced a lot of accusations of misandry for daring to point out that some bad things that happen are perpetrated almost exclusively by men, and for having the temerity to suggest that in some situations women get a raw deal simply because of their biological sex. I thought I’d respond to the critics with a few reasons why feminism and misandry are not synonymous, and why male and female feminists need to work together to break tired economic models of gender.
As feminists, the liberation of the y-chromosomed half of the human race has never been high on our list of priorities – historically speaking, we’ve had enough to worry about. However, it’s high time that we started a serious recruitment drive. Although the feminist movement has faced many obstacles and lost many battles, women have now won themselves enough social and economic capital that we can finally start to address the other half of the equation: the emancipation of men from capitalist patriarchy.
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Why the left should argue for a small state
David Semple thinks the left should join American tea parties, which protest against high taxes. I think I agree. The desire to shrink the state should be a leftist aim. I say so for four reasons.
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The Christian lobby strikes back
I’ve been doing a bit of digging on a curious story a couple of weeks ago that simultaneously appeared in the Sunday Telegraph, Sunday Times and the next day in the Daily Mail.
The newspaper reports essentially said: a Channel 4 programmes commissioner has been tipped as the “front-runner” as the new Head of Religion at the BBC. But oh no, he’s Muslim! Oh, and a Sikh guy makes Songs of Praise for the BBC! Ethnics are taking over! Who will think of the poor Christians?
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Tomlinson’s death not heart attack
This is breaking (and major) news.
A new post mortem says Ian Tomlinson died from an abdominal haemorrhage not a heart attack after contact with police during the G20 protests.
The statement from the City of London Coroners Court overturns the initial assessment that the newspaper seller died of natural causes.
Update: Guardian – Tomlinson officer faces manslaughter quiz
Update 2:
- NUJ considers legal action over photographers
- G20 officer quizzed after death
- G20 victim ‘died from haemorrhage’
- Disturbing parallels with Charles De Menzes
Why isn’t the left working with rural campaigners?
This week I interviewed Georgina Downs, a campaigner from West Sussex who is almost single-handedly leading the campaign against pesticides in the UK. Suffering from ill health brought on by what she believes was inadvertent pesticide exposure from local farms as a child, she has been fighting to strengthen pesticide regulation through the courts for the last eight years.
Her story is a natural leftist battle. It’s about the exploitation of power – government officials and agro-chemical industries are blocking adequate regulatory methods despite robust research showing the damage that pesticides can do to human health.
And it’s about justice. Last November the High Court delivered a landmark victory on Georgina’s case, ruling that the government had failed to comply with a European directive designed to protect rural residents from exposure to toxins. The government has appealed that judgement, and Georgina is now fighting another round with support only from her Dad (who does the “postie runs”) and her Mum who does the photocopying. Her inbox is full of stories from other rural dwellers suffering health problems suspected to be brought on by pesticide exposure, but the court battle leaves precious little time for her to connect with them all.
Why does she not have more support from the left?
The left has always suffered from an urban bias. But we cannot let rural fights like these go unsupported. This point is about more than just anti-pesticide and environmental campaigns, important as they are – it’s about connecting with rural causes and communities more generally. Rural poverty and isolation for example, are huge issues in this country and should be natural territory for the left – but we hardly ever mention it. For their sake and ours, leftist organisations need to start connecting with communities in the countryside. It’s time to build a rural-urban alliance.
Top Stories – Friday 17th April 2009
Nationwide
G20 police receive 145 complaints
Nurse struck off for secret BBC filming
Make Budget greener, say Tories
Signs of economy ‘turning corner’
International
Violence in Indian elections as rebels kill 17
Afghanistan to change controversial ‘rape’ law
CIA immunity on interrogations stirs anger
Obama seeks high-speed rail system across US
Pirate’s Bay founders sentence to jail.
DAILY BLOG REVIEW / by Douglas Johnson
Back Towards the Locus – What sort of deranged CIA briefing meeting involves plans to lock someone in a box with insects?
Peter Cranie - asks “What if?”
Patrick Harvie MSP - thinks the PM should talk less about football.
The Daily (Maybe) - The police should be less confident about their excuses.
Robin Lustig - wouldn’t want Obama’s inbox.
Pickled Politics - Would the police force beat less fewer protestors if more were Jedi?
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