johnpeeleveryday.blogspot.com is where all the action is right now.
Domestic Empire is being overhauled and will be back soon - bigger, louder and more incensed.
Domestic Empire is being overhauled and will be back soon - bigger, louder and more incensed.
SOCPA Consultation:
17th January is the closing date for comments on the government's consultation about the right to protest around parliament. Please take 5 minutes to respond. Have a look at the consultation document (pdf file, approx 400 Kb). You can send you comments in either by post or via email to this address.
- source: www.markthomasinfo.com
The law has seen Maya Evans arrested and convicted for reading out the names of Iraqi and British war dead by the Cenotaph.
- source: BBC News
Remind Me What This Is All About Again:
A recent law has made it illegal to demonstrate anywhere near Parliament without official police permission. The law: Under section 132 of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 (SOCPA) it is an offence to organise or take part in a demonstration in a public place within the "designated area" (up to 1 km around parliament) if authorisation has not been given by the Metropolitan Police Commissioner.
And on Red Nose Day I had to apply and receive permission from the police to wear a red nose in Parliament Square. The police advised me that if I wore a red nose without permission I could be arrested for an having unathorised demonstration.
- source: Mark Thomas BBC Radio 4
Sources and Further Reading:
| My Life in Serious Organised Crime (Mark Thomas' BBC Radio 4 Programme)
| My Life in Serious Organised Crime (Download mp3: From Multply Blog)
| My Life in Serious Organised Crime (Download mp3: From YouSendIt)
| My Life in Serious Organised Crime (Download mp3: From Rapidshare)
| repeal SOCPA(Campaign website)
| SOCPA consultation re-opened (Indymedia UK)
| Consultation Document (The Home Office Documents Page)
| Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 (Wikipedia)
| The Death of Freedom (John Pilger)
| Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 (Office of Public Sector Information)
| (Parliament Protesters Lose Appeal) BBC News
| Maya Evans Interview (ZNet)
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The Strange Death of David Kelly by Norman Baker
At least half the readers of this book will suspect Kelly was murdered; for them, Baker provides plenty of support. For those who share my scepticism, however, it’s still an important work. You don’t need to be a conspiracy theorist to conclude that something murky was going on behind closed doors in Whitehall. Hutton’s remit was too narrow ever to get to the bottom of it. As an exploration of what happens when politicians bend the evidence to fit their aims, hoping that the end will justify the means, Baker’s book is hard to beat. - by Nick Rufford
Sunday 4th November 2007
In some countries a journalist can be thrown in prison for years for a single offending word or photo. Jailing or killing a journalist removes a vital witness to events and threatens the right of us all to be informed. Reporters Without Borders has fought for press freedom on a daily basis since it was founded in 1985.
Reporters Without Borders:
"Don’t wait to be deprived of news to stand up and fight for it"
Wednesday 31st October 2007
Guidelines on safe alcohol limits introduced 20 years ago were no more than an "intelligent guess", it has been reported.
The Department of Health continues to recommend that men should drink no more than 21 units of alcohol per week, and women should drink no more than 14 units. But the guidelines, first introduced in 1987, had no firm scientific basis, according to a report in The Times newspaper.
Richard Smith, a member of the Royal College of Physicians working party that produced the recommendations, told the paper the limits were prompted by "a feeling that you had to say something". He said: "Those limits were really plucked out of the air. They were not based on any firm evidence at all. It was a sort of intelligent guess by a committee."
The committee's epidemiologist had confessed that "it's impossible to say what's safe and what isn't" because "we don't really have any data whatsoever", Mr Smith said.
The former editor of the British Medical Journal said members of the working party felt obliged to produce the guidelines because of concerns over growing evidence of the chronic damage caused by heavy, long-term drinking.
Mr Smith said he was concerned that this news might prompt some drinkers to ignore the alcohol consumption guidelines. He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "Perhaps we should have been more honest about (the lack of data) instead of being in the paternalistic doctor mode."
sources:
The Times
mentalhealth.org.uk
Tuesday 2nd October 2007
"Information about every call from the UK's mobile phones and landlines will have to be logged by operators for one year under an extension to the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000. The Home Office has stressed that only information about the calls and texts, including the location in the case of mobile calls, will be logged and not the content. The information will be made available to 652 public bodies, including the Food Standards Agency, district and county councils and the Gaming Board, on request to a senior police official."
Related link : Liberty
September 28, 2007
The question of normality is meaningless until one has something with which to compare it. And the question of morality exists only when one has somebody with whom to confide in. Mortality allows us just enough time to work this out.
- Gary Walsh September 2007
September 26, 2007
Imagine ships crewed by doctors, nurses, water engineers and agriculturalists visiting some of the world’s poorest countries. Now imagine their life-changing services offered free of charge. Right now dedicated volunteers from around the world are bringing hope and healing to thousands of people who could never have believed it possible. Welcome to Mercy Ships, a compassionate response to a world where many have lost hope.
September 25, 2007
Brave young activists are documenting the anti-government demonstrations in Burma on digital cameras. These pictures, taken by Htein Win, were emailed to me from inside Burma this morning....
September 25, 2007
OneBigTorrent.org is a new place for sharing material that deals with or is relevant to issues of social justice, progressive and radical politics, independent media, ecology...
::: domestic empire ::: never knowingly part of the mainstream :::