UK
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The endgames of our empire never quite finished – just look at Bahrain By Madeleine Bunting
It has all the ingredients of a John le Carré novel. For decades there are allegations of terrible abuse during the Mau Mau rebellion; historians are baffled by missing documentation. A court case finally prompts the Foreign Office to discover hundreds of boxes of previously hidden papers stored in a house, Hanslope Park, in Buckinghamshire.… Continue reading
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UK Uncut’s Chartist parallels By Keith Flett
The UK Uncut occupation of Fortnum & Masons over tax avoidance concerns and the more robust attacks on West End shops that took place in the wider context of the 500,000 strong TUC March for the Alternative last month have provoked quite a political debate. Continue reading
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FT journalist accuses press warmongers
A leading Financial Times journalist accused the British media today of ‘buttering up’ the population to support the war on Libya. Continue reading
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Ignoring its imperial history licences the west to repeat it By Seumas Milne
The reporters who heard David Cameron tell Pakistani students this week that Britain was responsible for ‘many of the world’s problems … in the first place’ seemed to think he was joking. But it’s a measure of how far Britain is from facing up to its own imperial legacy that his remarks were greeted with… Continue reading
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The Secret History of Violence By Dan Hind
On Monday Verso ran a piece about the ambiguities of violent protest. You can read it here. The piece was prompted by this BBC footage, which seems to show someone leaving a crowd of protesters, showing his ID to the police and moving through their lines. The key section begins at around 5 mins 50… Continue reading
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Arrest warrant plans make a mockery of universal jurisdiction By Daniel Machover
Giving suspects from ‘protected countries’ immunity from war crimes arrests would turn the UK into a safe haven for suspects Continue reading
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Cuba50.org culture news & events 30 March 2011
Welcome to the Cuba50 newsletter – for Cuban cultural events in the UK. Continue reading
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March for the Alternative By Dan Hind
The 26th March demonstration in London was billed by its organizers, the TUC, as a ‘march for the alternative’. The march did, as the unions hoped, ‘give a voice’ to those affected by the cuts and it showed that ‘people reject the argument that there is no alternative’. Perhaps 500,000 people showed that, in time-honoured… Continue reading
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New Left Project interviews Ed Balls & John Denham By Jennifer O’Mahony
Readers may of course take it as read that NLP is not granting space to Balls and Denham because we share their politics. The value of the piece is that, whether or not we agree with the Labour leadership on a given issue, the parties’ policies will always be a matter of direct concern to… Continue reading
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Book Marks Talk, March 15, 2011 By Dan Hind
Media coverage does not conform to a rationally defensible order of priorities – it focuses neurotically on the inconsequential and ignores matters of pressing common concern. Furthermore what coverage there is of important matters is disastrously inadequate Continue reading
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CCTV: When Criminals Control the Cameras
CCTV: When Criminals Control the CamerasFollow my videos on vodpod Today CCTV cameras are ubiquitous, with Londoners estimated to be caught on camera 300 times a day. CCTV cameras in England are now being equipped with loud speakers so that “anti-social behaviour” can be rebuked in a child’s voice. Continue reading
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Britain’s Failed Intel Operation in Libya: Her Majesty’s Bungling “Secret Intelligence Service” By Felicity Arbuthnot
Even by the standards of a near bankcrupt island off Europe, run currently, largely, by a bunch of seemingly gung-ho, out of touch millionaires, the gun boat diplomacy of Messrs Cameron, Fox and Hague (Prime Minister, Defense Minister and Foreign Minister respectively) was a monumental farce of historic proportions. Continue reading
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Stop Murdoch — Round Two
Murdoch’s friends in government have given him approval to buy out our media. Avaaz is launching an all out campaign to stop the Murdoch deal during the 10 day consultation period, with a national opinion poll, hard hitting ads and legal challenges. Small donations from 5,000 of us will make it happen: Continue reading
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Books: The Return of the Public (space) By Dan Hind
With the destruction of our traditional forms of political expression, we have no collective voice, no public space that we can call our own. Instead, at best we have ‘single issues’ but no sense of the collective. ‘The Return of the Public’ explains how this came to be and offers a way out. Important and… Continue reading
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What the Sky Decision Tells Us About Media Reform By Dan Hind
The purchase by Murdoch of the shares in Sky currently owned by Pearson and others won’t mean that a viable media system will become the plaything of unaccountable interests. The media system won’t suddenly turn into a conduit for commercial propaganda, an instrument of state manipulation. It won’t become a fatally unreliable source of information… Continue reading
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Stop Rupert Murdoch – incredible response!
In 24 hours, nearly half our commercial media could be owned by Rupert Murdoch. Continue reading
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J7 Update: The final week of 7/7 Inquests hearings
Today saw the start of the last week of the 7 July Inquests hearings. For anyone following proceedings at the inquests in detail it’s been a tough 20 weeks. Continue reading
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STOP THE WAR’S 10 YEARS: THE BOOK AND THE MOVIE
STOP THE WAR COALITION Newsletter No.1188 14 February 2011 Stop the War will be 10 years old this September. We will be producing a graphic history book of the work of the Coalition and a film of Stop the War’s history is also in development by the Islam Channel. Over the 10 years we have… Continue reading
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Election 2011 By Dan Hind
In May of this year the Coalition will hold a referendum to decide on a new voting system. The British have never been much concerned about voting reform, for good and bad reasons. There are good reasons not to care much about what is currently on offer. Continue reading
