Subversion, sabotage and spying: Political policing and state racism in the UK

This was the title of the extraordinary conference I attended at South Bank Uni in early April. Over 2 days speaker after speaker spoke about appalling cases of racism, subversion, dishonesty, criminality and violence by the…

Those who read my blog at the time will be familiar with the fact that back in October BBC Newsnight ran an astonishingly biased piece about the Tory government's U-turn on contracting to help the Saudi dictatorship run its prisons. [I know the BBC is routinely right-wing and anti- Corbyn but this really took the biscuit.]

For…

Heathrow 13: British Justice 0

Judge loses plot in high stakes climate change battle

As a former civil rights lawyer I've seen a fair…

Blireana plum (Prunus × blireana) on Shakspeare Walk in full flower yesterday (8 JANUARY 2016).…

Last night (13.10.15) BBC Newsnight reported the government decision to withdraw from a £6m British bid to provide prison services to the Saudi regime. According to the BBC the change of mind was down to Secretary of State Michael Gove (“Michael Gove had thought that and got his way”) and Tory concerns about Saudi regime's harsh treatment of a British citizen imprisoned…

Expulsions, Lies and Manipulation – the Right's Reaction to a Resurgent Left

Right-wing ridicule is turning into panic as Jeremy Corbyn's remarkable mass movement threatens to return the Labour Party to its socialist…

Abney Orgies to Racist Government

Censorship, Propaganda and Political Branding

Manufacturing Your Consent

One of the main reasons why…

We are creating an excellent local model but ....

The SH AGM was another well attended, top networking event with over 50 people from all across the Hackney spectrum. We are doing really well and the network grows steadily everyday (over 600 networking on the SH website).…

Remember whoever you vote for the government always wins.

Which means what is misrepresented to us as 'democracy' is in reality nothing of the sort. Whether the control comes from Capital, corporate, State, Media or other institutional or private POWER,…

A new year. It would be nice to start it with a message of hope. Alas that's not very easy in a country dominated by a secret state, rich crooks and coward politicians. To be fair to myself I did start the year with my usual hopeful NYD nature walk around Abney Nature Reserve. Remarkable nearly 40 people braved the cold, wind and rain to join me. It was surprisingly lovely.

But having foolishly glanced at Tweets on the …

Funny how that's not a question that was asked very often. Even though there are fewer and fewer people alive today who can actually remember the day US democracy was assassinated 50 years ago it seems to me an event worth remembering. If you are at all unsure about how or why JFK was murdered then it's not very hard to educate yourself. In fact it can be fairly entertaining since Oliver Stone's 1993 movie is based on a pretty good balance of fact…

Exiled from Hackney

Do you know anyone exiled from our corporate police state? My best friend has just fled…

Protest

&…

HEN representatives Anna O'Brien and I attended a meeting of the Community Empowerment Network (CEN) last Weds (21 July).  The CEN pulls together a wide variety of people in Hackney working for charities and the voluntary sector. It is an amazing diversity of committed organisations and individuals working to alleviate many of the worst consequences of our selfish, individualist society. Unfortunately Weds meeting was dominated by the cuts already hitting vital services like the Womens'…