Have police really banned wearing England tops?
A bizarre rumour has kicked off on Facebook (thanks @gjcsouthsea for this).
Hundreds of people are copying and pasting this on to their Facebook status:
Police are going round all pubs and club saying we cant wear our england tops and we have to take our england flags down, as its offending people that arnt from england! Now im NOT racist… but this is taking the piss.. This is england and we need to make a stand!! Would you remove your turban if it offended me? NO! we need to stick together, repost this as your status and make your stand!
You can see people posting this on Facebook via OpenBook.org.
Is there any truth to this?
Searching various websites and news stories, I came to this Sun story in April: ENGLAND shirts could be BANNED at pubs screening live World Cup matches.
Apparently the Met police sent a letter to some pubs in Croydon with “guidance” notes.
Among World Cup guidance, it suggests “dress code restrictions – eg no football shirts”.
It also urges using plastic glasses and door staff. Pubs are not obliged to follow the advice, but it warns: “Police will not hesitate to use powers under the Licensing Act should we find you are not actively supporting the prevention of crime.”
This is all reported in the Sun story, but it is still titled ‘Police are trying to ban’ football shirts when that clearly isn’t the case.
It is however true that the Licensing Act gives police too much power to shut down local events. I made the same case when the Met used the Licensing Act’s Form 696 to stop black and Asian music live events across London.
Anyway, the point is that the story is bogus. There was no ban on wearing these tops whatsoever.
And yet it’s now become an urban myth travelling across Facebook at frightening speed.
Look, I have a brother who wears a turban and I have friends who wear hijabs – I’ve never once heard anyone ask for a ban on wearing England tops. I have a turbaned mate who wears England tops himself!
If you want to blame anyone, blame the police for abusing their powers.
Update: The police now deny that England tops were ever banned. A complete made-up story by the tabloids.
The case for nominating John McDonnell as Labour leader
John McDonnell represents a constituency which was Tory from 1983 to 1997. One of Labour’s key policies was massively unpopular in his constituency, involving hundreds of people losing their homes and the rest suffering a reduced quality of life.
Yet the Labour vote increased by more than 4,000 votes between 2005 and 2010, and he was re-elected with a majority of more than 10,000.
His campaign mobilised large numbers of volunteers, including many who weren’t members of the Labour Party.
He has a large personal vote in his constituency, and I’ve met people from other, neighbouring constituencies who have been helped by him when their own MP didn’t want to know.
continue reading… »
BA cabin crew: not Scargillites of the skies
Something intuitively doesn’t quite stack up about Willie Walsh’s efforts to brand British Airways cabin crew unreconstructed throwbacks to the glory years of class struggle.
Everybody knows the real industrial militants of the period were hairy-arsed engineering workers in blue overalls, ready to down tools and converge on Saltley Gate at the drop of a hat, the instant they were so instructed by Red Robbo.
Try to picture the idea of ‘massed ranks of pencil-skirted women with ash blonde highlights, accompanied by a bunch of obviously gay blokes’. It doesn’t exactly replay images of Orgreave in your head, does it?
I mean, it is shop stewards who are supposed to ringlead angry chants of ‘the work-uhs … united!’ Airline stewardesses politely put on a fake smile and softly ask ‘can I get you a drink, sir?’
FT pulls controversial Shell ad on libel worries
Amnesty International UK expressed its immense disappointment today at the Financial Times’ decision to pull a new hard-hitting advertisement at the last possible moment.
The ad was due to appear today as Shell held its London AGM.
The advertisement focused on the appalling human rights record of Shell in Nigeria. It compared the company’s $9.8bn profits with the consequences of pollution caused by the oil giant for the people of the Niger Delta.
Numerous oil spills, which have not been adequately cleaned up, have left local communities with little option but to drink polluted water, eat contaminated fish, farm on spoiled land, and breathe in air that stinks of oil and gas.
Tim Hancock, Amnesty International UK’s campaigns director, said:
The decision by the Financial Times is extremely disappointing. We gave them written reassurances that we would take full responsibility for the comments and opinions stated in the advertisement.
Both The Metro and The Evening Standard had no problems with running the ad.
Tim Hancock added:
The money to pay for the advertisements came entirely from more than 2,000 individuals online.
Amnesty International also today launched a new hard-hitting online video focusing on Shell’s illegal practice of gas flaring (the burning of gas produced as part of oil extraction) in the same region. Gas flaring is only serving to add to environmental impact on the people of the Niger Delta.
Here is the ad
Greece bailout shows how subservient we are to financial markets
Writing in Le Monde yesterday, the economist Michel Aglietta looked at the long-term implications of the Greek bailout. His assessment was damning:
Lazily imposing a crushing austerity on Greece that it will undertake alone in the context of an internal recession, a possible spiral of deflation, and with European growth which is at best very weak will create a time bomb that could cost all of Europe very dear.
Aglietta’s point was that the Greek bailout is the worst of all possible outcomes.
continue reading… »
Activists force Tate Modern to close over BP
Tate Modern was forced to close down parts of its No Soul For Sale tenth anniversary exhibition this Saturday whilst it struggled to remove dozens of dead fish and oil-soaked birds hanging from huge black balloons let loose in the Turbine Hall.
Art activists from Liberate Tate, a growing network dedicated to ensuring the museum drop its sponsorship deal with BP (British Petroleum), infiltrated Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall and released dozens of helium-filled black balloons with dead animals attached.
Crowds of tourists and art lovers gathered to watch the balloons rise up in the air until they filled the ceiling of the Turbine Hall.
Josephine Buoys, who took part in the art action, said:
We took this action whilst Tate sponsor BP is creating the largest oil painting in the world. Across the Gulf of Mexico ecosystems and livelihoods are being devastated by their oil spill. Every day Tate scrubs clean BP’s public image with the detergent of cool progressive art. Yet there is nothing cool about a corporation that cares more about its profits than life or the future of our fragile world.
The activist group is promising further actions to “free art from oil” by artists and activists across Britain until Tate ends its association with BP.
It has also issued an open invitation for artists, activists, art lovers and other concerned members of the public to act to ensure that Tate ends its oil sponsorship by the end of 2011 ahead of Tate Modern’s expansion into its cleaned out underground oil tanks.
@liberatetate / liberatetate@gmail.com
[hat tip Derek Wall]
Meanwhile, the oil spill in the US is becoming a hotly debated topic on US news networks
Reasons why Ed Balls is also a good Labour leader candidate
Ed Balls MP is a widely reviled figure in the right-wing press and right-wing blogs. But it’s more unfortunate that many on the left have also bought into the narrative that ‘Ed Balls is a bully‘ or that he is unelectable simply because the right-wing press don’t like him.
As far as I’m concerned the latter is a plus point: the last thing Labour now needs is a leader desperate to please right-wing tabloids and play the ‘policy by headline’ game that Tony Blair did for years.
But Ken Livingstone last night on Newsnight made a point about Ed Balls that I’ve heard repeated several times.
continue reading… »
Ken sets out six points for Labour leadership
Former London Mayor Ken Livingstone set out six points last night which he wants Labour’s post-election debate to focus on:
One, Labour must recognise that the party lost five million votes after 1997, four million of them under governments led by Tony Blair, during times of economic growth. Therefore our assessment must go deeper than just this election. We have to connect with everyone Labour lost touch with.
Two, Labour must be a coalition that includes both middle and low income earners. Labour cannot win by limiting itself to either or taking any part of its electorate for granted. We need a policy that leads the whole of society.
Three, protect investment, defend public services. Bankers, not the public, must pay for the economic crisis. Bankers were paid £8.5bn in bonuses in the four months to April, compared with £7bn during the same period last year. For the bankers, nothing has changed, yet public services are going to be slashed. And for the British economy to revive investment must be defended.
Four, we must draw a line under the military adventures abroad that revolted many electors and saw trust break down, even before the expenses scandal. Labour must recognise that the Iraq war was a disaster, making us closer to Bush’s America than Obama’s. The public must know Labour will not make this error again.
Five, Labour must show it is looking to the interests of the next generation and the future of the planet, which means applying progressive levers of investment and planning to tackle the challenge of climate change.
Six, Labour must defend its relationship with the trade unions from any attempt to demolish this vital link with the largest civil society bodies in our country, democratic organisations that enable Labour to counter the vested interests of multi-millionaire donors like Ashcroft.
The six benchmarks were laid out yesterday at the Next Steps for Labour event hosted yesterday evening by CWU, Progressive London; and Tribune magazine.
Do you agree? What else would you add to this list?
Jon Cruddas rules himself out of Labour leadership
Jon Cruddas writes for the Guardian in an article to be published tomorrow.
Since the election many people have urged me to stand for the leadership of the party. I have been humbled by the enthusiasm people have shown for my possible candidacy. I have given it serious thought.
The role of leader is one of the greatest honours imaginable – but it is not a bauble to aspire for. It is a duty to fulfil. I do not feel that I am in a position to deliver on the hopes and expectations that will be placed in the next leader.
Standing at the count for my seat in Dagenham almost two weeks ago, I watched as Labour won both parliamentary seats in a borough targeted by the BNP. The council elections saw the BNP wiped out in a borough where they had high hopes. I also saw results come in from Oxford East, Blackburn, seats in Birmingham, and stunning local election results in places like Camden and Islington on the Friday.
Those results, in an election that was supposed to deliver a hammer blow to the Labour party, made me more determined than ever to help create a national party rooted in the culture of organising that these local examples signify.
He has ruled himself out of the race.
Osborne is following ‘Chancellor for Dummies’ to the book
A few months ago, I wrote that any idiot could be Chancellor, as long as he obeyed a few rules. Well, any idiot has become Chancellor, and he’s following the rules. He’s told the FT:
We are finding all sorts of skeletons in various cupboards and all sorts of decisions taken at the last minute. By the end the previous government was totally irresponsible and has left this country with absolutely terrible public finance.
But as I advised him:
Kitchen sink the bad news. Every finance director knows this trick. Your first announcements should be about how bad things look, and how there are probably many gremlins you haven’t yet discovered which your incompetent predecessor left you.
It’s hard to give the impression that you’re good at the job. But you can exploit the framing effect, by making your predecessor look bad.
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