Burma / Bermondsey

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Burmese riot police attack monks



It will be interesting to see how many 'decent Left' bloggers link to the marches and demonstrations in Burma as evidence of the popular will of the Burmese people when the largest ever protests and demonstrations in the UK, against invading Iraq, were ridiculed and dismissed   by most of them as nothing but a rabble made up of of the 'usual suspects' and not worthy of serious consideration.


Same old, same old.

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Europe will not divide us, says Miliband
David Miliband today warned against "institutional navel-gazing" in Europe as he made clear the government would refuse to bow to calls for a referendum on the EU draft treaty.

The foreign secretary used a keynote address to the Labour conference to tell delegates that Europe would not divide his party as it had divided the Tories.

The foreign secretary said Europe should focus its sights on the problems beyond European borders "that define insecurity within" rather than worrying about its internal workings.
WTF! Unbelievable and utterly depressing.


Stunning future for police

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Have Taser, will torture...


The stun gun, the single most savage addition to police arsenals since the back-alley interrogation, has done the opposite of its intended purpose. Rather than lowering the level of violence necessary to subdue dangerous individuals, the stun-gun has lowered the threshold of excusable police violence by making the use of brutal force seem protective.

Briefly shocking someone, the story goes, is better than shooting him. But before that choice between two brutalities, there was a choice between brutality and reason -- between Rambo with a shield and good policing.

A cop who'd never dream of unholstering a firearm against a lout or a big-mouthed student isn't hesitating to unholster the stun gun and use it repeatedly under the guise of restoring control.


Ahmaindenial

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It was during a short period for questions at the end of Mr Ahmadinejad's university appearance yesterday that he was challenged over the persecution of gay people. "In Iran, we don't have homosexuals. In Iran we don't have this phenomenon. I don't know who has told you we have it," Mr Ahmadinejad said to laughter and cries of disbelief from the audience of students and university staff.

OMG! I agree with both Guido and The Sun, on the same day!

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Sun Says: Greatest threat since WW2
Gordon Brown is about to sign an EU Constitution that would change for ever the way we are governed. Brown promised us a referendum in his campaign to become PM. Now he’s giving two fingers to Britain. In 1940 Winston Churchill said of the Battle Of Britain: “Never was so much owed by so many to so few". Today The Sun launches a battle to win a referendum on the Constitution. And we echo Churchill by declaring: Never have so few decided so much for so many.
As Guido says: It is The Sun at its finest, politics with humour, accessible and witty. Kelvin Mackenzie would be proud...


Who says violence doesn't solve anything?

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Poor pay, no rights: UK's new workforce

Sacked after 19 years to be replaced by migrant labour and being asked to train them before you go!

But it's all good for Britain according to Tim Worstall, the three hours a week metals-dealer writing from...Portugal.

And it's their own fault anyway according to commenter Kay Tie
The unskilled are unskilled by choice. There are dozens of programmes for education and training that can help people escape this trap. I cannot rustle up any sympathy or pity for feckless people whining about “them immigants comin’ here, gettin’ free houses and cars and money innit.”
Cunt. Get me a gun, a rope, a blindfold and a wall, quick!

Not so much a pissing contest as a blood shedding one

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Crooked Timber -  Shedding blood for liberty
A brawl has erupted over a statement in the stump speech of our favorite Republican candidate Fred Thompson, who asserts that the US has “shed more blood for other people’s liberty than any other combination of nations in the history of the world” As the WaPo points out, our Russian allies lost millions in WWII alone, as did Britain and France in WWI which (at least nominally) they entered ‘that small nations might be free’...

The problem now is that most people in Europe and elsewhere have learned from experience that war is always bad, and usually worse than even bad alternatives, but many Americans have not. For the Republican core, war is a positive good, and victory the manifest destiny of the United States. The myth of American invincibility is modified only by the possibility of domestic treason, which accounts for the defeat in Vietnam and is already being used as a pre-emptive explanation for defeat in Iraq.

Via P. O'Neill, who adds his own observations on claims that Irishmen were stolen 'by force' to fight in the two world wars.


The Body Politic

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Ellee Seymour - MCIPR, PRESS CONSULTANT, JOURNALIST, POLITICAL AND PR BLOGGER.   The Brown’s body language

We were used to seeing the Blairs holding hands while they beamed for the world’s media.

There is no doubt they were devoted to each other. And while it is true that not all couples are tactile, what does this picture say about the Browns?








About as much as this one says about the Blairs -

FUCK ALL!