Check out this video of war criminal Condoleezza Rice passing the buck when questioned by some students about torture. Student: Waterboarding. Is waterboarding torture? War crim: Er, the President instructed us that nothing we would do would be outside of our obligations, legal obligations, under the Convention Against Torture. So that’s … and by the…
On 18 March 2009 Sean Hodgson walked free after his conviction was quashed, having spent 27 years in prison. … when compensation is finally paid out, the government, unbelievably, docks room and board, or “saved living expenses” calculated on the basis of what a frugal person might have spent on their own upkeep if they…
What I find so great about the findings in The Spirit Level is that they completely change the rules of the debate on income equality. No longer does one need rely on grounds of fairness and justice, which fall on the deaf ears of a world succumbed to the fallacies of social Darwinism, or “survival…
U.S. finally comes in from the cold, so to speak: Clinton addressed the complaints of developing countries such as India and China that America and the EU, by demanding binding emissions cuts, want to saddle them with the burden of climate change; they argue they did not cause the problem and must prioritise growth. She said…
Boris Frankel in Melbourne’s The Age: Here is some good news. Just as the Great Depression inspired significant social reforms, so the current “great world recession” is producing a spate of overdue reform proposals. Some of these proposals have emerged in Britain, one of the most unequal societies in the developed world. While Australia ranks…
Bindmans, a London law firm, is preparing to launch a legal challenge against the UK police’s use of kettling: Bindmans is … preparing to launch a legal challenge against the use of “kettling”, the police tactic used to pen in 5,000 people during the G20 protests and a strategy which led to protesters suffering asthma…
Jeremy Paxman: What is the difference between Zionism and racism? Peter Gooderham: Well we see the two as being quite distinct, um, Zionism is clearly a … Jeremy Paxman: Yeah what’s the difference? Peter Gooderham: Well Zionism is a political movement, um, relating to the establishment … Jeremy Paxman (queitly): So are some forms of…
Marina Hyde on New Labour’s relationship with money: It is difficult to think of a more perfect testament to New Labour’s intellectual shallows. On the eve of the most deadly serious budget in decades, Gordon Brown posts a YouTube video in which he announces he has scheduled some inquiry — pre-empting debate about MPs’ expenses. It might…
This Bill was to have its second reading in the UK’s House of Lords today. The Bill would make pubic companies publish the difference between top directors’ pay and the average wages earned by the lowest paid 10% of their workers. While a small step it’s laudable when you consider the amount of damage income…
Doesn’t look like the UK police are going to get a clean up afterall. Instead what appears to be a propaganda campaign begins, first up: how “astonishingly” good the G20 police actually were. And all those videos of police runing amok, well they were just a few bad eggs, we’ll sort that out don’t worry.