So Gordon Brown has said he is willing to use anti-terrorism legislation to freeze the assets of Icelandic companies operating in Britain. He wants to recoup money lost by public bodies and charities here who invested in the Icelandic banks.
Which confirms the suspicions of the sceptical among us that the "anti-terrorist laws" are seen as a useful tool more easily to control the already over-controlled population. It's already been used for local offences against parents and people careless about their litter. What next? The proposal to bring in 42-day detention without trial? (Now, happily, that has been defeated!)
Pity, in that case, that Gordon didn't use the handy anti-terrorism laws to bring those reckless speculators in the City into line. It might have helped to avoid the crash?
Friday, 10 October 2008
Sunday, 3 August 2008
More laughter in church
At the Lizard in Cornwall, on the very tip of England, a joint Anglican and Methodist church service was held this morning.
It was in a small marquee flying the black and white flags of Cornwall in the centre of a rally for veteran steam engines and cars. The rally had opened at the same time as the normal church services, so the ministers moved their service to the rally.
Sylvia, the Methodist minister, wore highly coloured patterned Wellington boots with her dog collar. Bill, the Anglican rector, brought a small kettle to demonstrate on a camp stove how a head of steam could be brought to personal faith as well as to the steam engines outside. There were guitars and wind instruments to accompany the hymns. The kettle took a very long time to boil. One of the guitarists gave a whistle which seemed to come from the kettle - but it hadn't. When it did, there was applause. The mike broke out with an explosive noise just as Sylvia was talking about powerful expression of faith.
The result was laughter. Instead of the usual small group of Sunday worshippers, at least 100 were crammed into the tent and more came in as the service went on. They sang and laughed until the tears ran down their faces. They stayed totally silent for prayers and personal thoughts.
So why can't Church services often be like this? How about holding question times instead of giving sermons so that people can ask about their doubts and dilemmas? And why, in most churches, is there no laughter? This is may seem all Revivalist in concept, but laughter and music and participation in church could be the solution to bringing back the congregations.
It was in a small marquee flying the black and white flags of Cornwall in the centre of a rally for veteran steam engines and cars. The rally had opened at the same time as the normal church services, so the ministers moved their service to the rally.
Sylvia, the Methodist minister, wore highly coloured patterned Wellington boots with her dog collar. Bill, the Anglican rector, brought a small kettle to demonstrate on a camp stove how a head of steam could be brought to personal faith as well as to the steam engines outside. There were guitars and wind instruments to accompany the hymns. The kettle took a very long time to boil. One of the guitarists gave a whistle which seemed to come from the kettle - but it hadn't. When it did, there was applause. The mike broke out with an explosive noise just as Sylvia was talking about powerful expression of faith.
The result was laughter. Instead of the usual small group of Sunday worshippers, at least 100 were crammed into the tent and more came in as the service went on. They sang and laughed until the tears ran down their faces. They stayed totally silent for prayers and personal thoughts.
So why can't Church services often be like this? How about holding question times instead of giving sermons so that people can ask about their doubts and dilemmas? And why, in most churches, is there no laughter? This is may seem all Revivalist in concept, but laughter and music and participation in church could be the solution to bringing back the congregations.
Wednesday, 23 July 2008
Karadzic
Ed Vulliamy's account of the tragedy of the massacres of Srebrenica, the "ethnic cleansing" of theBosnian Muslims, his memories, obviously unextinguishable, of the stories of tortures and suffering inflicted by the Serbs on the Muslim and Croation populations in the Guardian's G2 moved me like nothing since the findings of the Nazi death camps.
This was not only because of the almost unbearable accounts of the ,,
sufferings he described, in a detail possible only because of the great attention to detail and interviewing he carried out as a reporter, but also because of the feelings of guilt they inspired in me. How could I - and come to that, so many others - have responded so inadequately at the time to these reports in the early 1990's? What was so distracting at the time? What minor day-to-day concerns were blotting out these reports?
One explanation may be that a postwar generation thought that it was "those Balkan people, at it again" as they had been at the end of the war. The tales of murder, of people strung up and hanged in fields, of Serbs fighting their neighbours, had been brought back by colleagues working or reporting from there at that time. Tito had brought Yugoslavia under totalitarian control and stopped it. Once he and the system had gone, it started again.
But it was no excuse to say that this was just the end of the last World War finally fighting to its end. The people Vulliamy lists as having had serious diplomatic talks with Karadzic - Peter Carrington, David Owen, Douglas Hurd among others - the "siege of Sarajevo played out on television almost nightly, Karadzic's hand eagerly clasped by the world's diplomatic leaders beneath the chandeliers of London, Paris, Geneva and elsewhere" contributes to his bitter sorrow at the way this disaster and suffering were allowed to continue.
His mind clearly will never be free of it, even when Karadzic is before the Hague international tribunal. If it is of any comfort to him (and I don't see why it should be) mine now won't be either, because of his piece.
This was not only because of the almost unbearable accounts of the ,,
sufferings he described, in a detail possible only because of the great attention to detail and interviewing he carried out as a reporter, but also because of the feelings of guilt they inspired in me. How could I - and come to that, so many others - have responded so inadequately at the time to these reports in the early 1990's? What was so distracting at the time? What minor day-to-day concerns were blotting out these reports?
One explanation may be that a postwar generation thought that it was "those Balkan people, at it again" as they had been at the end of the war. The tales of murder, of people strung up and hanged in fields, of Serbs fighting their neighbours, had been brought back by colleagues working or reporting from there at that time. Tito had brought Yugoslavia under totalitarian control and stopped it. Once he and the system had gone, it started again.
But it was no excuse to say that this was just the end of the last World War finally fighting to its end. The people Vulliamy lists as having had serious diplomatic talks with Karadzic - Peter Carrington, David Owen, Douglas Hurd among others - the "siege of Sarajevo played out on television almost nightly, Karadzic's hand eagerly clasped by the world's diplomatic leaders beneath the chandeliers of London, Paris, Geneva and elsewhere" contributes to his bitter sorrow at the way this disaster and suffering were allowed to continue.
His mind clearly will never be free of it, even when Karadzic is before the Hague international tribunal. If it is of any comfort to him (and I don't see why it should be) mine now won't be either, because of his piece.
Wednesday, 16 July 2008
Questions from the edge.
My neighbour had mislaid his carving knife. He had six people coming for a roast dinner and he was panicking. I offered to lend him mine, took it out of the kitchen drawer and went down the path to his house.
On the way I happened to meet a policeman (a rare event, true). "What's that you're holding?" he demanded. "Well, it's a knife," I said.
"Then I have to arrest you," he said, taking me by the arm. "Don't you know you could get two years in prison for this?"
I protested slightly as I was dragged off to the station. "But if it isn't illegal to buy a knife, how can it be illegal to carry one? You can't carry guns without a licence. But buying knives is legal; shouldn't we start to have licences for them?
So, you might need 10 licences to run a normal kitchen drawer.
A partly invented incident of course. But it could happen.
......................................................................................................................................
So, the government is producing money so that we can choose where we die. Not many people are going to choose hospital, because hospitals are only too eager to get their patients to quit their beds, so it might not be a safe choice.ds Most people would prefer home, but would newly-promised State helpers turn up on time? My favourite place to die would be Capri in summer: must remember to tell the government.
.............................................................................................................................................
We hear very often about the problems of obesity in this country. So mightn't it be a good thing if the price of food is going up? And if the price of meat is too high to buy, then let's stop eating it and help to rescue the climate as well as the unfortunate animals exported live or dragged up and down the country in a search for cheap abbatoirs. And stop drinking milk altogether, we don't need it. Then the cows would be spared a hideous life inside sheds with stone flooring forced into endless calving to produce huge amounts of milk for sale. The calves are taken away soon after birth, and put into trucks to travel for many hours. The UK exports around 100,000 calves each year and regulations allow them to be transported for 19 hours. It is time this trade was stopped - it's vile, not tasty veal.
.......................................................................................................................................
Have we stopped caring about the real workers in this country? The most regularly important people for me are the guys who are out collecting my throwaway black plastic bags before I'm even out of bed in a morning, the ones making sure the lights work, the water stays flowing and clean, the streets cleaned. Yesterday I met two guys toiling away, clearing the overgrown ditches and hedges in the heat of the day. One of them was at least 60. I wondered whether they were among those whom Gordon Brown includes in his list of people realising their "full potential." New Labour has never stopped sermonising about people needing to rise up the ladder, and work hard to better themselves. We never seemed to hear about the workers, the ones doing the hard and unseen jobs which keep the country going. Whatever happened to praise for the proletariat? Instead, among politicians and journalists as well as almost everyone else, a firm line is drawn between "middle-class" and "working-class" with an obvious implication of which one is superior. For example, the emergence of a "middle-class" in China is taken as indicative of a rise in China's prestige, even in spite of its executions, imprisonments of writers for unideological thoughts, and totalitarian government.
Could someone please explain to me what defines a middle-class person and separates that person from a working-class one, particularly now most of our factories and mines have closed down? I'd really like to know.
Now workers have come out on strike, quarter of a million of them making only £6 an hour while they see public service bosses get huge salaries.
And it's just possible that some of this united mass are middle-class. They include librarians. Are they middle-class? And, if so, why?
.......................................................................................................................................
On the way I happened to meet a policeman (a rare event, true). "What's that you're holding?" he demanded. "Well, it's a knife," I said.
"Then I have to arrest you," he said, taking me by the arm. "Don't you know you could get two years in prison for this?"
I protested slightly as I was dragged off to the station. "But if it isn't illegal to buy a knife, how can it be illegal to carry one? You can't carry guns without a licence. But buying knives is legal; shouldn't we start to have licences for them?
So, you might need 10 licences to run a normal kitchen drawer.
A partly invented incident of course. But it could happen.
......................................................................................................................................
So, the government is producing money so that we can choose where we die. Not many people are going to choose hospital, because hospitals are only too eager to get their patients to quit their beds, so it might not be a safe choice.ds Most people would prefer home, but would newly-promised State helpers turn up on time? My favourite place to die would be Capri in summer: must remember to tell the government.
.............................................................................................................................................
We hear very often about the problems of obesity in this country. So mightn't it be a good thing if the price of food is going up? And if the price of meat is too high to buy, then let's stop eating it and help to rescue the climate as well as the unfortunate animals exported live or dragged up and down the country in a search for cheap abbatoirs. And stop drinking milk altogether, we don't need it. Then the cows would be spared a hideous life inside sheds with stone flooring forced into endless calving to produce huge amounts of milk for sale. The calves are taken away soon after birth, and put into trucks to travel for many hours. The UK exports around 100,000 calves each year and regulations allow them to be transported for 19 hours. It is time this trade was stopped - it's vile, not tasty veal.
.......................................................................................................................................
Have we stopped caring about the real workers in this country? The most regularly important people for me are the guys who are out collecting my throwaway black plastic bags before I'm even out of bed in a morning, the ones making sure the lights work, the water stays flowing and clean, the streets cleaned. Yesterday I met two guys toiling away, clearing the overgrown ditches and hedges in the heat of the day. One of them was at least 60. I wondered whether they were among those whom Gordon Brown includes in his list of people realising their "full potential." New Labour has never stopped sermonising about people needing to rise up the ladder, and work hard to better themselves. We never seemed to hear about the workers, the ones doing the hard and unseen jobs which keep the country going. Whatever happened to praise for the proletariat? Instead, among politicians and journalists as well as almost everyone else, a firm line is drawn between "middle-class" and "working-class" with an obvious implication of which one is superior. For example, the emergence of a "middle-class" in China is taken as indicative of a rise in China's prestige, even in spite of its executions, imprisonments of writers for unideological thoughts, and totalitarian government.
Could someone please explain to me what defines a middle-class person and separates that person from a working-class one, particularly now most of our factories and mines have closed down? I'd really like to know.
Now workers have come out on strike, quarter of a million of them making only £6 an hour while they see public service bosses get huge salaries.
And it's just possible that some of this united mass are middle-class. They include librarians. Are they middle-class? And, if so, why?
.......................................................................................................................................
Wednesday, 9 July 2008
women in politics
Women in politics.
Lesley Abdela has been making the case for having quotas of women M.P.'s to right the imbalance of the sexes in Parliament. It is a good case. Published on the Guardian Comment is Free service, it has attracted nearly 100 replies. A large number were against having quotas and Lesley Abdela has answered all of them. She has worked for years on bringing gender equality to many emerging governments in the world, including Afghanistan, and travelled to the most difficult and dangerous places for the United Nations. She points out that many of these countries, regarded as underdeveloped, actually now have a much better record than Britain for including women in their governments.
And of course she is right. At one time, she admits, she was herself doubtful about whether quotas were the right course to take, but now she knows it works.
When Petra Kelly was leader of the successful Green movement in West Germany, her emphasis on feminism was, she always maintained, her first priority. To attend a Green conference was a revelation. Every woman speaker was followed by a male speaker, every male by a woman, and this was regarded as an absolutely unchangeable rule. So was the one that said the top jobs in the Greens had to be shared equally between men and women. But when they finally won seats in the Bundestag, the German Parliament, it was difficult to maintain this. The Bundestag was not going to accept the idea of rotating male and female speakers.
But it has to come. Anyone who doubts this should just switch on their TV news after the latest round of world meetings - the G8, the Anglican Synod arguing about whether to allow women bishops, and the village elders in Afghanistan arguing about how to spend the Western subsidies for their villages ( surely women might have some different ideas about where that money should go.) In all those pictures of the gatherings of leaders, there is scarcely a female face to be seen. They may be half of the world's ;population, but they don't get a half share in the decision-making which affects everyone's lives. If that situation was reversed, might we see fewer wars, the abolition of nuclear weapons, the end of starvation and disease in Africa, and, at last, homes and water supplies for all? We shall never know until we try. It's time to brush aside male protests, forget about upsetting them and go for the justice the world has long been waiting for.
Lesley Abdela has been making the case for having quotas of women M.P.'s to right the imbalance of the sexes in Parliament. It is a good case. Published on the Guardian Comment is Free service, it has attracted nearly 100 replies. A large number were against having quotas and Lesley Abdela has answered all of them. She has worked for years on bringing gender equality to many emerging governments in the world, including Afghanistan, and travelled to the most difficult and dangerous places for the United Nations. She points out that many of these countries, regarded as underdeveloped, actually now have a much better record than Britain for including women in their governments.
And of course she is right. At one time, she admits, she was herself doubtful about whether quotas were the right course to take, but now she knows it works.
When Petra Kelly was leader of the successful Green movement in West Germany, her emphasis on feminism was, she always maintained, her first priority. To attend a Green conference was a revelation. Every woman speaker was followed by a male speaker, every male by a woman, and this was regarded as an absolutely unchangeable rule. So was the one that said the top jobs in the Greens had to be shared equally between men and women. But when they finally won seats in the Bundestag, the German Parliament, it was difficult to maintain this. The Bundestag was not going to accept the idea of rotating male and female speakers.
But it has to come. Anyone who doubts this should just switch on their TV news after the latest round of world meetings - the G8, the Anglican Synod arguing about whether to allow women bishops, and the village elders in Afghanistan arguing about how to spend the Western subsidies for their villages ( surely women might have some different ideas about where that money should go.) In all those pictures of the gatherings of leaders, there is scarcely a female face to be seen. They may be half of the world's ;population, but they don't get a half share in the decision-making which affects everyone's lives. If that situation was reversed, might we see fewer wars, the abolition of nuclear weapons, the end of starvation and disease in Africa, and, at last, homes and water supplies for all? We shall never know until we try. It's time to brush aside male protests, forget about upsetting them and go for the justice the world has long been waiting for.
Thursday, 19 June 2008
How Scottish is Gordon Brown?
"Is it because he's a Scot?" asked a Scottish friend in Cornwall, wondering why Gordon Brown was getting such bad publicity.
The answer,probably, is yes. The Scots, as anyone who has worked and lived there can tell you, are intelligent, generally better educated than the English, hospitable and well organised.; Both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown have surrounded themselves with fellow-Scots in their governments.
So what is the problem? "It's difficult being a Scot," one well-known arts critic from Edinburgh told me. "There are a lot of rules and you have to keep them or you are in trouble. I like Cornwall (the critic was on holiday) because it's like Scotland without the rules."
Once New Labour came in, armed by Scots, I knew there would be more rules. I had lived and worked in Scotland for five years. You have to be much more careful there about the minutiae of every day life than in England.
So now we have a cascade of legislation making sure we are watched and counted and don't break any rules without being punished......proposals for ID cards (hated since they were abolished at the end of the last war) 42 days' detention for suspects before trial, cameras watching our movements from every angle. And Gordon Brown asking us to feel "British", put flags in our gardens and celebrate being British once a year. Oh, yes, and wars. The Scottish clans were always keen on those.
No, thanks, Gordon. It all feels like being back at school again. Soon they will be telling us where and when we can run and at what times we can eat. The Queen feels British, I'm sure. Gordon almost certainly secretly feels Scottish to his calvinistic backbone. And as for me, I'm Yorkshire. The Cornish don't mind that, so long as we remember than they are far superior to any of those "up country."
ends
The answer,probably, is yes. The Scots, as anyone who has worked and lived there can tell you, are intelligent, generally better educated than the English, hospitable and well organised.; Both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown have surrounded themselves with fellow-Scots in their governments.
So what is the problem? "It's difficult being a Scot," one well-known arts critic from Edinburgh told me. "There are a lot of rules and you have to keep them or you are in trouble. I like Cornwall (the critic was on holiday) because it's like Scotland without the rules."
Once New Labour came in, armed by Scots, I knew there would be more rules. I had lived and worked in Scotland for five years. You have to be much more careful there about the minutiae of every day life than in England.
So now we have a cascade of legislation making sure we are watched and counted and don't break any rules without being punished......proposals for ID cards (hated since they were abolished at the end of the last war) 42 days' detention for suspects before trial, cameras watching our movements from every angle. And Gordon Brown asking us to feel "British", put flags in our gardens and celebrate being British once a year. Oh, yes, and wars. The Scottish clans were always keen on those.
No, thanks, Gordon. It all feels like being back at school again. Soon they will be telling us where and when we can run and at what times we can eat. The Queen feels British, I'm sure. Gordon almost certainly secretly feels Scottish to his calvinistic backbone. And as for me, I'm Yorkshire. The Cornish don't mind that, so long as we remember than they are far superior to any of those "up country."
ends
Thursday, 5 June 2008
The burqua, rape and forced marriage.
The West went to Afghanistan to beat the Taliban. The Revolutionary Association of Afghan Women, who had opposed both the Taliban and its predecessors, the Soviet Union, at first cautiously welcomed the troops. RAWA helped to run refugee camps and schools, but soon the bombing drove them to take refuge in Pakistan with thousands of others, but still crossing the border again to carry on the work in their own country.
But now that has changed. Both RAWA and the former American radio journalist Sarah Chayes, now living in Kandahar and author of the book The Punishment of Virtue, reveal the corruption and oppression of women now existing in the country.
"Contrary to the aspirations of our people and expectations of the world community, the Northern Alliance, these brethren-in-creed of the Taliban and Al Qaida are again in power and generously supported by the US government It has completely shattered the dream of our wounded people for liberation from the heavy chains of the Taliban tyranny....." says their latest statement.
It is known that warlords are in the American-supported Karzai government, and Karzai himself has warned the US that Afghanistan is becoming ungovernable.
But the women are protesting that far from being rescued from the Taliban, the leaders of the Northern Alliance have no ideological difference from the Taliban. "The incidence of rape and forced marriage is on the rise again, and most women continue to wear the burqa out of fear for their safety......by reinstalling the warlords in power the US is ultimately replacing one fundamentalist regime with another."
The level of violence is rising. RAWA tell of a 29-year old woman publicly stoned to death after a charge of adultery. "Old traditions also regard women as the second sex and they are suppressed, so RAWA's mission for women's rights is far from over."
The rising to power of the Northern Alliance and the brutal suppression of women - teachers being shot in the schools and prevented from working - is something that the British government should take into account before committing any more our troops to defend the cause of fundamentalism.
Sarah Chayes, who runs a co-operative and wears men's clothes so as to be safe outside, has written what is described by Christina Lamb as a devastating indictment of the contradictions of US policy in Afghanistan. A Harvard history graduate who serve in the Peace Corps in Morocco and then returned to Harvard to specialise in the medieval Islamic period, she knows and loves the country and its people. On a visit to London, she said that the war had delivered only "lies, corruption and murder."
It is time our government listened to her and to the suffering Afghan women.
But now that has changed. Both RAWA and the former American radio journalist Sarah Chayes, now living in Kandahar and author of the book The Punishment of Virtue, reveal the corruption and oppression of women now existing in the country.
"Contrary to the aspirations of our people and expectations of the world community, the Northern Alliance, these brethren-in-creed of the Taliban and Al Qaida are again in power and generously supported by the US government It has completely shattered the dream of our wounded people for liberation from the heavy chains of the Taliban tyranny....." says their latest statement.
It is known that warlords are in the American-supported Karzai government, and Karzai himself has warned the US that Afghanistan is becoming ungovernable.
But the women are protesting that far from being rescued from the Taliban, the leaders of the Northern Alliance have no ideological difference from the Taliban. "The incidence of rape and forced marriage is on the rise again, and most women continue to wear the burqa out of fear for their safety......by reinstalling the warlords in power the US is ultimately replacing one fundamentalist regime with another."
The level of violence is rising. RAWA tell of a 29-year old woman publicly stoned to death after a charge of adultery. "Old traditions also regard women as the second sex and they are suppressed, so RAWA's mission for women's rights is far from over."
The rising to power of the Northern Alliance and the brutal suppression of women - teachers being shot in the schools and prevented from working - is something that the British government should take into account before committing any more our troops to defend the cause of fundamentalism.
Sarah Chayes, who runs a co-operative and wears men's clothes so as to be safe outside, has written what is described by Christina Lamb as a devastating indictment of the contradictions of US policy in Afghanistan. A Harvard history graduate who serve in the Peace Corps in Morocco and then returned to Harvard to specialise in the medieval Islamic period, she knows and loves the country and its people. On a visit to London, she said that the war had delivered only "lies, corruption and murder."
It is time our government listened to her and to the suffering Afghan women.
Friday, 23 May 2008
war criminals
We have a government of war criminals? This is what the columnist George Monbiot wrote in the Guardian this week. The 18% swing against them in the Crewe by-election certainly confirmed that they are unpopular.
Was it just the banishing of the 10p tax level, the rising petrol prices and food bills that caused this swing? The Labour Party had lost half its membership
years ago, before all these local difficulties.
The think-tank Compass rages at the government, urging it to reform. But it is too late. Gordon Brown and other members of the Cabinet were alongside Tony Blair when he launched his illegal war on Iraq and then brought bombing, corruption and misery to Afghanistan, a war Gordon Brown has proudly said he will continue to the bitter end - which will be even more bitter than it is at present. So, yes, the words war criminals might not be too strong.
So long as the economy was giving most people a better deal in life, people were prepared to put on blinkers to avoid seeing the other actions of a government which Monbiot, with some justice, described as "the most rightwing since the second world war."
The new anti-terror legislation has been used, as it was always intended to be used, to deal with minor civil offences. Children and parents have been criminalised for offences like non-attendance at school and
and we have the highest prison population in Europe.
The attack on civil liberties by a barrage of legislation is unprecedented except in times of war; real war, not the present war on a word.
Gordon Brown, in a speech to financiers, dragged in the fact that he was going to renew Britain's "independent nuclear deterrent." We already have the equivalent of 1000 Hiroshima bombs - ready for drop on whom? Now the Trident missile defence is already being updated at a cost of billions and, as before, a reliance on American co-operation. The nuclear non-proliferation treaty has been undermined. There are over 27,000 nuclear weapons in the world today, enough to destroy the planet many times over. What is the point of policies to stop global warming with that threat looming over the world?
In addition, the government is planning to bring back a nuclear power programme with its deadly cancerous effects from the nuclear waste, not to mention the diseases and harm affecting the uranium miners and their families - anyone who has been to a mining village in east Germany has seen this for themselves.
There are now many broken Labour hearts, particularly among those who admired Gordon Brown long ago - his fight against unemployment, his integrity.
Compass may try to reform New Labour, but the truth is that the policies they now seek have mostly been adopted by Liberal Democrats. People who have voted Labour all their lives don't want to go down that road - but now it seems there may be no other choice.
ends
Was it just the banishing of the 10p tax level, the rising petrol prices and food bills that caused this swing? The Labour Party had lost half its membership
years ago, before all these local difficulties.
The think-tank Compass rages at the government, urging it to reform. But it is too late. Gordon Brown and other members of the Cabinet were alongside Tony Blair when he launched his illegal war on Iraq and then brought bombing, corruption and misery to Afghanistan, a war Gordon Brown has proudly said he will continue to the bitter end - which will be even more bitter than it is at present. So, yes, the words war criminals might not be too strong.
So long as the economy was giving most people a better deal in life, people were prepared to put on blinkers to avoid seeing the other actions of a government which Monbiot, with some justice, described as "the most rightwing since the second world war."
The new anti-terror legislation has been used, as it was always intended to be used, to deal with minor civil offences. Children and parents have been criminalised for offences like non-attendance at school and
and we have the highest prison population in Europe.
The attack on civil liberties by a barrage of legislation is unprecedented except in times of war; real war, not the present war on a word.
Gordon Brown, in a speech to financiers, dragged in the fact that he was going to renew Britain's "independent nuclear deterrent." We already have the equivalent of 1000 Hiroshima bombs - ready for drop on whom? Now the Trident missile defence is already being updated at a cost of billions and, as before, a reliance on American co-operation. The nuclear non-proliferation treaty has been undermined. There are over 27,000 nuclear weapons in the world today, enough to destroy the planet many times over. What is the point of policies to stop global warming with that threat looming over the world?
In addition, the government is planning to bring back a nuclear power programme with its deadly cancerous effects from the nuclear waste, not to mention the diseases and harm affecting the uranium miners and their families - anyone who has been to a mining village in east Germany has seen this for themselves.
There are now many broken Labour hearts, particularly among those who admired Gordon Brown long ago - his fight against unemployment, his integrity.
Compass may try to reform New Labour, but the truth is that the policies they now seek have mostly been adopted by Liberal Democrats. People who have voted Labour all their lives don't want to go down that road - but now it seems there may be no other choice.
ends
Tuesday, 20 May 2008
British help arrives for Burma
Survival equipment is already being distributed by the British in Burma. While Western nations hesitate over sending aid, volunteers from Cornwall are already working alongside Burmese firemen in some of the worst devastation around Rangoon.
A team carrying boxes containing strong tents for 10 people, water purification equipment, clothing and tools have been distributing them for over a week. The boxes have been specially prepared for the area, containing mosquito nets and sometimes two nets instead of one.
ShelterBox, a charity started on the Lizard peninsula near the Royal Naval Air Station at Culdrose, has become famous for its intrepid aid support in difficult areas with hostile governments, including north Korea Iran and, earlier, Afghanistan. Around 1800 boxes have already been sent to Burma and a consignment is waiting at their Helston headquarters ready to be sent off to China. Volunteers have been working day and night to pack the boxes - a highly skilful and expertly organised selection of survival equipment for at least a month.
Founders of the organisation, led by Tom Henderson, include former officers from the Culdrose naval air station.
It functions with little bureaucracy, much determination and pioneering volunteers for the disaster work. The contact with the Burmese firefighters came through one who had trained in the west country earlier.
ends
A team carrying boxes containing strong tents for 10 people, water purification equipment, clothing and tools have been distributing them for over a week. The boxes have been specially prepared for the area, containing mosquito nets and sometimes two nets instead of one.
ShelterBox, a charity started on the Lizard peninsula near the Royal Naval Air Station at Culdrose, has become famous for its intrepid aid support in difficult areas with hostile governments, including north Korea Iran and, earlier, Afghanistan. Around 1800 boxes have already been sent to Burma and a consignment is waiting at their Helston headquarters ready to be sent off to China. Volunteers have been working day and night to pack the boxes - a highly skilful and expertly organised selection of survival equipment for at least a month.
Founders of the organisation, led by Tom Henderson, include former officers from the Culdrose naval air station.
It functions with little bureaucracy, much determination and pioneering volunteers for the disaster work. The contact with the Burmese firefighters came through one who had trained in the west country earlier.
ends
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