It’s not just the well-reported antics of Mark Kennedy that call in question the activities of undercover policing against political and protest groups. It’s the almost total lack of accountability about the clandestine operations of police spies over the last 40 years. The HMIC report on this episode draws attention to Kennedy’s failure to “follow [...]
Posts under ‘Civil Liberties’
Has the Metropolitan Police really changed?
Jan 4th, 2012 by David Osler.Sir William Macpherson’s famous observation back in 1999 that the Metropolitan Police was ‘institutionally racist’ did not come as any particular revelation to me. That is because the Met is the closest thing I have to a family business. My grandfather and two uncles were all London coppers in decades gone by, and there have [...]
Ahmed Faraz case: when selling books equals ‘priming people for terrorism’
Nov 23rd, 2011 by David Osler.Vincent Tabak often looked at online strangulation pornography prior to his murder of Joanna Yeates. Despite that, the operators of the websites that cater for this particularly repulsive fetish are not on trial as accomplices to murder. Nor is anyone suggesting that Christian retailers should be jailed for selling the Bible, even though twisted organisations [...]
Fortnum 145: guilty of protesting sensibly
Nov 17th, 2011 by Jon Lansman.This morning 10 protesters have been found guilty of “aggravated trespass” at Fortnum & Masons. Laurie Penny commented “this is bloody ridiculous. I was there, it was a peaceful protest.” They were given a 6 month conditional discharge, with a£1000 cost order each, and one person got a £215 fine. This was for an action [...]
Lord Hanningfield’s Guantanamo experience
Nov 11th, 2011 by David Osler.Tory peer Lord Hanningfield is just out after a couple of months in HMP Standford Hill, a minimum security open prison of the type that the newspapers which support his party routinely characterise as ‘holiday camps’. True, he still has to wear one of those electronic tags, and is subject to a 7.15pm curfew, which [...]
OccupyLSX: vicars in a twist
Nov 1st, 2011 by David Osler.The OccupyLSX protest outside St Paul Cathedral seems to have boosted the rate of attrition among senior Anglican clergy to levels last seen in the mid-1550s. Given that the Church of England is factionally riven to the point that exposes the far left as wilful amateurs in the backstabbing stakes, we probably do not know [...]
The British (Tory) Establishment opts for secrecy & repression, again
Oct 21st, 2011 by Michael Meacher.The news about the police is unremittingly oppressive. Firstly, for the first time ever in crowd control they used a taser at the Dale Farm evictions, amid sickening scenes of unnecessary violence. Secondly, we now discover that senior police officers authorised undercover officers to conceal from the courts their real identities when giving evidence under [...]
Where Fox goes, is Gove far behind?
Oct 20th, 2011 by Michael Meacher.The Government has set great store on claiming that the Fox saga was a one-off. He had broken the Ministerial code, he had refused to heed warnings from his Permanent Secretary that his behaviour was outside the constitutional guidelines for such a sensitive position, and in effect he was running a privatised foreign and defence [...]
Gay-Muslim unity against hate in Tower Hamlets
Sep 26th, 2011 by Lutfur Rahman.I had the opportunity to speak at the East London Gay Pride event on Saturday. Taking to the stage, I made it clear that our LGBT residents are part and parcel of the Tower Hamlets Community. I talked of how important our togetherness, and our unity in diversity, is in our efforts to remain One Tower Hamlets – a [...]
Docking benefits: the ugly Tory face of retribution is now coming out
Sep 8th, 2011 by Michael Meacher.Have they taken leave of their senses? Has their moral compass got jammed? There was always an element within the Tory party which was vindictive, but to punish people twice for the same offence and to dock benefits or tax credits or even evict which affects everyone else in the family (and not just the [...]
