UK needs to decriminalise drugs to reduce crime

by Guest    
August 21, 2010 at 1:05 pm

contribution by Sirena Bergman

One of the UK’s leading doctors made the news on Tuesday when he said that drugs should be decriminalised as a way to improve the current situation of illegal drug use in the UK.

This may have seemed like a radical idea, with conservatives and Conservatives all around the country preaching the dangers of having liberals in government, but the proposal has nothing to do with Sir Ian Gilmore’s advocacy of civil liberties; it comes from a realisation that few battles are won by building more prisons.
continue reading… »

75% of Americans follow paranormal activity

by Newswire    
August 21, 2010 at 10:38 am

About three in four Americans profess at least one paranormal belief, according to a recent Gallup survey. The most popular is extrasensory perception (ESP), mentioned by 41%, followed closely by belief in haunted houses (37%). The full list of items includes:

	Believe in
	%
Extrasensory perception, or ESP	41
That houses can be haunted	37
Ghosts/that spirits of dead people can come back in certain places/situations	32
Telepathy/communication between minds without using traditional senses	31
Clairvoyance/the power of the mind to know the past and predict the future	26
Astrology, or that the position of the stars and planets can affect people's lives	25
That people can communicate mentally with someone who has died	21
Witches	21
Reincarnation, that is, the rebirth of the soul in a new body after death	20
Channeling/allowing a 'spirit-being' to temporarily assume control of body	9

* * * * * *

A special analysis of the data shows that 73% of Americans believe in at least one of the 10 items listed above, while 27% believe in none of them.

A Gallup survey in 2001 provided similar results — 76% professed belief in at least one of the 10 items.

Number of paranormal items people believe in	Percent	Cumulative percent
10	1%	1%
9	2	3
8	3	6
7	3	9
6	6	15
5	7	22
4	10	32
3	11	43
2	14	57
1	16	73
None	27	100

More at the Gallup website

Isn’t it right to prosecute someone for passing on HIV?

by Jennifer O'Mahony    
August 21, 2010 at 9:50 am

Zoe Williams wrote this week that not informing your sexual partner you are HIV positive should not be a criminal offence, taking her evidence from the current trial of Nadja Benaissa in Germany.

Her main reasons were that HIV doesn’t kill anyone in Western Europe, and that trials like Benaissa’s risk prosecuting promiscuity rather than crime.

The irresponsibility of this attitude undermines the work in sex education and public health that has taken years for the the general population to absorb, and which remains a major challenge in the fight against what is still a modern epidemic.
continue reading… »

Elected police commissioners: an opportunity for the left?

by Don Paskini    
August 21, 2010 at 9:00 am

Over the next couple of years, the government are planning to introduce directly-elected police commissioners. It is easy to see the problems that this might cause. It will politicise the police, and could open the door to authoritarian right-wing populists or even fascists being elected to run police forces. After all, fighting crime is traditionally perceived as an issue where people favour right-wing solutions, with right-wing newspapers promoting fear of crime and ever more authoritarian policies.

But I think there is an opportunity here, and that lefties should develop strategies to win these elections and show how our ideas are better at reducing crime. There are several reasons why this might be possible. continue reading… »

Sir Philip Green: tax avoider gets job on the side

by Dave Osler    
August 20, 2010 at 2:02 pm

Put the firm in the name of the missus, set the old girl up with a nice little gaff down in Monaco, and then pay her a dividend of well over a billion quid. Tell the taxman to go swivel.

That’s essentially what Sir Philip Green did in 2005, so ensuring that not a single one of those 1,200,000,000 spons got unnecessarily spent on schools and hospitals and that sort of stuff. All 100% legit, natch.

The thing is, the Topshop boss has got an expensive lifestyle to maintain. Not only does he have to find the upkeep of the standard super-rich trimmings, like a £20m superyacht and a £27m private jet, but he has actually got a solid gold monopoly set. Pure class, that geezer.

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Spending Challenge is back!

by Clifford Singer    
August 20, 2010 at 12:28 pm

George Osborne is nothing if not persistent. First his much-derided Spending Challenge website was taken down after being swamped with racist and other offensive statements.

Then his Spending Challenge Facebook page – announced via a much-trailed web conference between David Cameron and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg – was deleted after it was beaten by a goat.

And, finally, Robin Hood Tax launched their own, much more sensible, alternative. But now Spending Challenge is back for more.
continue reading… »

Clegg needs to back up his talk with action on education

by Guest    
August 20, 2010 at 11:30 am

contribution by Aaron Porter

Whilst David Cameron is away Nick Clegg has seized his moment in the spotlight and made a speech espousing the Government’s commitment to social mobility and to decry a “poverty of opportunity”.

The Universities Minister, David Willetts, has said himself that 3,500 straight A students missed out on a university place last year, a situation that will only get worse.

The inevitable result of this is that applications will be judged on peripheral achievements only available to the privileged few – extra curricular activities, personal tutors, application coaching, etc.
continue reading… »

How Pakistan’s floods compare to size of UK

by Sunny Hundal    
August 20, 2010 at 10:09 am

The floods in Pakistan now cover an area that is bigger than the whole of the UK.

Here is how they would look super-imposed:

via the How Big Really? site.

You can donate to the DEC from this page. So far, the deluge have killed over 1,600 people and displaced some 20 million people.

Treasury plans will ‘cut off 400,000 vulnerable’

by Newswire    
August 20, 2010 at 10:02 am

More than 400,000 vulnerable people, including pensioners and victims of domestic violence, could lose their homes and see care entitlement scrapped if the Treasury carries out its threat to lop 40% from a £1.6bn government support programme, campaigners warned today.

The National Housing Federation (NHF), which represents England’s housing associations, said that the “Supporting People” budget, which aims to allow the disadvantaged to lead independent lives and is paid through local authorities, is likely to face substantial cuts in the upcoming spending review.

The cash, which had previously been ringfenced, could see a range of the country’s poorest groups affected by shelters closing and caring support services shutdown.

…

Unlike the NHS or education, which have been protected to some degree, the chancellor has asked the Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG) to plan for cutbacks of between 25% and 40% of its spending. Under the deepest cuts, 438,000 vulnerable people could see outreach support reduced.

…more at The Guardian

Britain, a soft touch on asylum? Not exactly

by Guest    
August 20, 2010 at 9:30 am

contribution by ‘Alien from zog’

I don’t know if any of you have ever received the following chain email, I got sent it a few months back:

If you cross the North Korean border illegally you get 12 years hard labour.
If you cross the Iranian border illegally you are detained indefinitely
If you cross the Afghan border illegally you get shot
If you cross the Saudi Arabian border illegally you will be jailed
If you cross the Chinese border illegally you may never be heard from again
If you cross the Venezuelan border illegally you will be branded a spy and your fate will be sealed
If you cross the Cuban border illegally you will be thrown into prison to rot.

continue reading… »

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