Egyptian revolution: watch this space
Just as Vietnam was widely characterised as history’s first ‘television war’, so Egypt will surely be remembered as the first television revolution.
Yes, there were cameras recording what happened in eastern Europe in 1989, but that was in the long gone days before rolling news.
The scenes from Midan Tahrir are live on CNN and Al Jazeera and BBC World, and watched by hundreds of millions of people around the world.
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Big Society: the gift that keeps on giving
The Conservative Big Society is the gift that keeps giving:
It could become the allegory of the “big society” age. The man appointed by the prime minister to kickstart a revolution in citizen activism is to scale back his hours after discovering that working for free three days a week is incompatible with “having a life”.
Lord Wei of Shoreditch, who was given a Tory peerage last year and a desk in the Cabinet Office as the “big society tsar”, is to reduce his hours on the project from three days a week to two, to allow him to see his family more and to take on other jobs to pay the bills…
The role is voluntary and Wei had to to give up jobs in the charitable sector when he was appointed to avoid a conflict of interest. Whitehall sources said that when he was invited to take the role he had expected it to be remunerated but was told only the night before that it was a voluntary post and there would be no salary.
Meanwhile, Lord Wei has decided to use some of his free time to concern troll lefties on his blog:
There remain however risks ahead for this new consensus on society. First is Ballsonomics, that lingering belief that high spending and a big state in parts of Labour which has the potential to crush good society. The second is that in the move to decentralise power as part of the big society you simply recreate local versions of big government or other overweening institutions.
The third is that Good Society ultimately becomes a cover for Big Government – direct (web-enabled and/or street-based) action that leads not to self help and mutual support but to a form of lobbying in which the assumption remains still that government should do everything.
Those wicked lefties, crushing the good society with their lingering belief that funding charities and community groups is preferable to taking away their funding!
How dare the people come together to demand that councils keep libraries open rather than using the powers which we give them to do exactly what we want them to!
Why the bankers must pay more
contribution by Owen Tudor
The FT’s excellent Philip Stephens reached the conclusion in the FT yesterday that bankers will have to accept that they must contribute substantially more to the public purse before the public accept that justice has been done.
He also says that politicians will have to make sure that happens.
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Obama calls for a ‘peaceful transition’ in Egypt, starting… now
The Hill reported last night that President Obama has called for a transition of power in Egypt following Mubarak’s decision to step down.
The whole episode has always been problematic for the US administration from the start.
But it’s interesting that they did actually push him from behind the scenes.
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Amnesty urges UK action on Bradley Manning
Amnesty International has today called on the British government to help ease the “harsh and punitive” detention conditions of Bradley Manning, the US soldier suspected of leaking information to WikiLeaks.
It has emerged that Manning is of Welsh heritage from his mother’s side.
Under the British Nationality Act of 1981, anyone born outside the UK after 1 January 1983 who has a mother who is a UK citizen by birth is British by descent, according to the Guardian.
Amnesty’s UK director, Kate Allen, sent a statement to the press last night saying:
His Welsh parentage means the UK government should demand his ‘maximum custody’ status does not impair his ability to defend himself.
We would also like to see Foreign Office officials visiting him just as they would any other British person detained overseas and potentially facing trial on very serious charges.
Amnesty are calling on the government to ensure that the army private’s detention conditions adhered to international standards.
Isn’t it time to ditch our uneasy alliances for Palestinian rights?
contribution by Danny Williams
Would you stay friends with someone who was racist, homophobic and blatantly disparaged women’s rights simply because he bought you gifts? My friend is a ‘movement’ I’ve knowingly associated myself with, despite these faults, because our friendship might get me what I want.
What I want is an end to the enduring, pitiable Israeli/Palestinian conflict. I’ve believe it is possible get Palestinians the justice and recompense they’ve sought since 1948, but I’m beginning to have some doubts about the process.
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Why even Conservatives should support Stella Creasy this Thursday
This Thursday a motion from Stella Creasy MP and Justin Tomlinson MP will be moved in the House of Commons calling for Government to give regulators the power to cap the total cost for credit.
In brief, the consumer credit (regulation and advice) bill seeks to integrate credit services with the post office network, impose a levy on consumer credit agencies to fund debt counselling and advice services, and give councils greater powers to regulate the amount of credit agencies in their local area.
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How left wing are you?
YouGov has come out with a fascinating survey on how left/right wing people think they are.
Inevitably they’ve chosen a scale where being on the right takes you up to +100 and being a lefty is -100 but, despite this outrageous bias I think there’s something quite valuable about asking people upfront where they see themselves on the political spectrum.
So the headline news is that 25% of people see themselves as left of centre and 24% see themselves as right of centre. Hurray! We’re winning, let’s move on…
Although another way of saying that would be that the majority of people do not describe themselves as left or right-wing, even a bit.
The other number that jumps out at you is that women are twice as likely to be less certain of their political direction. Seeing as most men think they know everything I guess this fits.
Although, the big thing for me is that so many people simply did not know how to answer the question which, as ever, is probably for a whole number of reasons. Come on, let’s look at the regions (and Scotland, which is not a region but a country).
Would it shock you to find out that Scotland and the North were the most left wing parts of the UK? No? Me neither.
There is an interesting difference between them though in that Scotland’s 33% left, 23% centre and 15% right is not identical to the North’s 31% left, 19% centre and 20% right. The North’s lefties are more likely to see themselves as harder left but, unlike in the North, Scots are more than twice as likely to see themselves as on the left than the right.
While London is to the left of the sea of right wing South surrounding it, it is still the place where a ‘person’ is most likely to describe themselves as on the far right. I bet loads of that is Essex.
I should point out that 2% of the South thought David Cameron was very left wing. Who’d have thought? I guess you can show anything with statistics…
Call for public inquiry into UKuncut CS spray
Update: In a statement to Liberal Conspiracy, Libdem MP Tom Brake has also condemned the practice. He said
Sir Hugh Orde, the President of ACPO, has recently said the police could adopt more extreme tactics to counter the growing wave of protests.
The use of CS Gas in a public demonstration, unless officers’ safety was at risk, is an extreme tactic and would break a long-standing British tradition of policing public protest with minimal force. This is a road we do not want to go down.
—
Labour MP John McDonnell will today table an Early Day Motion in Parliament calling for a public inquiry into the CS spray incident at the weekend’s UKuncut protest.
He said on Twitter last night that it would call on the Home Secretary to look into usage of CS spray by a Met Police officer at the London / Boots demo.
Guidelines by ACPO state that CS spray should not be used at a distance of less than one metre from the target, “unless the nature of the risk to the officer is such that this cannot be avoided”.
In such cases, officers must be prepared to justify not only their use of the spray but also their decision to use it at a distance which may cause damage to eyes due to the discharge pressure of the liquid.
But a video unearthed by the Guardian (below) shows that the spray was used by Officer Cw2440 from less than a metre away, and ended up affecting him too.
On Newsnight last night the Met Police claimed medical assistance was offered to all those affected by the CS spray. But this was flatly denied by all that attended the London demonstration.
A Facebook campaign has also been launched calling for Officer Cw2440 to be prosecuted for the incident.
A formal complaint is also being prepared by Green and Black Cross, who have been collecting evidence.
Guardian video
Could judicial reviews be the best way to oppose local cuts?
A little-noticed piece of news from Friday could have huge implications for the battle against localised cuts.
A High Court judge quashed a decision by London Councils to cut £10m from their £26.4m grants scheme to voluntary organisations.
Mr Justice Calvert-Smith ruled that consultation process was flawed and that they had not met their statutory equality duties.
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