JODY

The debate about what has been happening to Jody McIntyre and this subsequent Ben Brown interview is very interesting. I must admit I am siding with Jody about the F.I.T. squad -not surprisingly but I am siding with this geezer in The Telegraph about the interview.

As a representative of the BBC the guy had to robustly interview Jody. It helps Jody. Put it this way- what would the right wing press be saying about the BBC if he didn't? For Jody to be able to answer questions like this on TV helps his case, should he choose to pursue one.

Obviously I have seen the enthusiasm of the F.I.T. squad before, its not been a secret here that they know who I am and ask silly questions because they think they are leaning on me for something which is DEFINITELY in their own heads. They also do this to people known to be violent. Jody says he believes in revolution. the F.I.T squad should ask him what he means by this. I am sure they will get all the information they need without pulling him out of his wheel chair and dragging him across the street. Or they could read his blog.

They aren't very good at distinguishing actual threats from those they or their bosses perceive are they. Leaning on someone with cerebral palsy like this they have no fucking excuse whatsoever. The anti terror squad asked questions politely and calmly. Mind you that is probably because I am a honky. The F.I.T squad are a bit thick and exceed their remit. They behave like demented paparazzi. Pushing it too far and being caught on camera should be good for them. I hope they learn something for once. Jody can answer, and the way he answers is a lesson to all of us. Tomlinson couldn't.

Personally I have seen a valiant attempt from the Beeb, in a BBC manner of course- to pursue issues of Police brutality and issues of disorder involved in these protests. Maybe I am getting old or something. I have noticed white bits in my beard.

I hope this generation achieve change, and aren't distracted by policemen with these attitudes like so many of my generation were.


Jody's version of events is here
Richard Littlejohn here

Some curiously extensive stuff from The Daily Mail. Including an image of just how frontline Jody was.

...More than 180 people have been arrested by police investigating rioting during the series of protests against rising student tuition fees, it emerged today.

Senior officers said the vast majority of the 182 suspects were aged between 17 and 25 and have never been involved in violence or criminal acts before...


also breakfast news


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More Fighting Talk...

from Inspector Gadgets blog:

Metcountymounty-

‎...Even with force mobilisation we would have had a problem clearing it, it would have been brilliant but messy, and no good news would come out of it. Back to the days of mass raves now, they’ve tried and won, and we’re now screwed....

This was his response to being present at the Scumoween Rave over the weekend reported in the paper.

Rave hordes in 18-hour spree of destruction at former Royal Mail depot in central London

Illegal Holborn Rave Was A Smokers’ Revolution And Against State Control

I used to read Metcountymounty's blog and I must admit I was disappointed when he stopped blogging. I am very much in favour of Police blogs. It is a sort of accountability which is more realistic than press releases or "on high" officers with no direct experience of what they are talking about making measured statements which mean fuck all.

What's not been mentioned-

This was the third time this building has been partied, there may have been more. The idea that anyone could do any more damage to it isn't very credible.

I've heard various stories of what happened. The ITN piece about raves "coming back" was hilarious.



I think this was the fifth scumtek over the last couple of years, with over thirty rigs at each. Not really my scene. Obviously this one was reported cos it was in the West End and because there was trouble for a while. My band were playing at a fairly large squat party in a slightly more secluded place elsewhere in London.

I make no comment on what I didn't personally witness but I will say-

The sort of squat parties we get booked at charge a fair bit of money and attract a different crowd. They also put a load more money into decor and sound equipment but they are about the same size as skumtek. They are basically everything you could ask for from a professional nightclub (except for bloody toilets) with security who can look after security rather than having to steal peoples drugs from them to give to the council. They never ever have any problem with the Police because they talk to them in a polite and professional manner.

I used to do some of the more hairier Hackney parties where I used to specialise in talking to the cops to convince them not to bust us. I think I might have written about them somewhere. It was just such a damn interesting cultural barrier to cross at whatever level of inebriation I was on at the time.

(Just found one- see POLICE OFFICER NO GIVE ME PRODUCER)

There are loads of comments about the Police throughout this blog.

...Back to the days of mass raves now, they’ve tried and won, and we’re now screwed....

I am sorry Metcountymounty feels this way. For one thing, what is "back to the days"? When have mass raved ever stopped? We have been playing at raves of between 2 and 4 thousand people for years now with no trouble from or given to the Police. How are they screwed? They make the same decisions every weekend all over London. If they get to a party which is setting up they can bust it and stop it. If the building already has thousands of people out of their heads inside, its better to leave it and do what needs doing on Saturday night surely.

See ITS THE SMOKE- the last one a couple of weeks back including a picture of a lone Policeman being taken for a tour of the venue as everything was winding down. I sat eating chips with the TSG in Camden one time when they inexplicably bust the trance party next door and left ours alone.

I am sorry Metcountymounty is so enthusiastic to fight with people. He sounds just like some squatters I used to know.

More interesting comments from Metcountymounty

...What pisses me off is the fact that they had the gall to do it in central london, in the middle of a high residential population KNOWING that our spineless as fuck bosses would ultimately let them. They KNOW that the media hate us and will slate us no matter what, they KNOW that most of the population who will speak up are left wing pussies who will take any opportunity to have a go at us and they KNOW that ultimately they will get away with it....

Obviously I am hoping Scumtek hasn't Castle Mortoned our ventures in London. I am not in favour of rubbing "their" nose in it just because you can. That's how the CJB came about. Wake up. We are a minority. They don't understand us. I don't buy any of this shit about "parties should be free" either. in my experience the people who used to shout this the loudest used to make shit loads from selling drugs.

another retired officer-

..All sounds like a return to the 90′s when I was on the TSG, spent innumerable lare turn commissioner’s reserves dealing with raves and pay parties. Must say though, that the illegal S&M rave in an archway under the railway bridge in Brick La...ne in Bethnal Green was more than compensation for all the aggro. I’ve never seen so many females in leather and rubber in one place in my life…..

The Policeman is right. I was at this party and it was amazing. I forget who the people who organised it were but it's a real shame they don't do stuff any more as they were seriously forward thinking people.

Reality check for anyone who is interested- Why am I against parties in legal venues? A certain huge South London venue which was recently closed down used to have to pass the council a box full of drugs to the value of x pounds every month to keep their license. Do you think they collected this amount of drugs on hardcore drum and bass nights or fluffy trance nights? I got totally sick of getting into a frame of mind where I was enjoying myself and causing no harm to anyone and then suddenly seeing the person next to me assaulted by wankers wearing black. I voted with my feet along with everyone else.

I take a very dim view of causing the Police problems on Saturday night when they have serious stuff to attend to, the law is not their fault and I have no influence on how they enforce it. We just do what we do. My interest is in understanding why we do it.

More on the spot footage from Skum'oween break in



UPDATE: Police bust party as it is setting up. Cheers Scum'oween! Nice one guys! Any more bright ideas?
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CONSPIRACY OF HOPE

I am not big into the conspiracy theories these guys shout about but there is something quite wonderful about what they do

POLICE STOCKTAKING

From Alex Thompsons Snowmail earlier:

POLICE, PUT THE KETTLE OFF?

Is it the end for our cops using their batons against protesters? Possibly so, for two reasons. First, they've been told to lay off the likes of climate change and G20 demonstrators by the Chief Inspector of Constabulary, Denis O'Connor.

He says in a report that officers risk losing public support if they're seen as aggressive and unfair. Second, the female senior officer put in charge of recent climate demos showed herself to be adept at keeping public order and allowing protests.

She deserves more recognition and we'd like to ask her tonight how she succeeded - but the police won't let her come on.

Curiously the key contentious issue of "kettling" - coralling crowds for hours on end and not letting them disperse until they are utterly bored and exhausted - is not overtly touched upon in this investigation. Odd, because that's the issue which has aroused more debate than probably any other aspect of street disorder policing.

Police methods ‘could erode public support’: http://bit.ly/5qyzOY

READY FOR A RIOT

Do watch Channel 4s Dispatches program about public order training in the wake of Tomlinson and the G20. I thought it was a very good programme. I have written a lot about my feelings towards all this, if you have missed my great wisdom click the police tag below.

There are some good blog reviews at
The Tone of Our Oppression
Random Blowe
Ramblings of a Scottish Student
and Paul Lewis in the Guardian

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I PWOTEST

There is a bit of a hoo har about todays Guardian front page which has pictures from Police "Spotter cards" of activists who were well known in 2005. This is old news which I can't take too seriously.

These guys used to take pictures of me, which I have been a bit indignant about here on occasion but I am not really too bothered. I can totally justify everything I am doing, it is all within the law and with the intentions of making the world a better more informed place, so if "intelligence" people in uniform who exhibit limited intelligence want to behave like paparazzi, you know, fuck them. I don't care.

I know a couple of the people on this card. They aren't violent or dangerous, they are quite principled though. Someone on facebook was saying they were annoyed about The Guardian printing their photographs. She got this letter back:

We're sorry that you have a concern about our publication of the police spotter card today. We did consider all the issues very carefully before deciding it was the correct thing to do. The response has been overwhelmingly positive, and that feedback from people whose faces appeared on the front-page, but this email is adderssed to people who have questioned the decision.

We made it clear that no-one pictured on this card had done anything amiss other than attend demonstrations, which is their right.

It is extremely important to be able to show the general public just what the police are doing by way of stigmatising demonstrators.

These are all pictures of people who have decided to attend public demonstrations, precisely in order to make public their own political views. They are therefore people who have voluntarily gone into the public arena to engage in political action.

Naturally, we don't want anyone to suffer any detriment for their beliefs. We believe that many of the people on that card will be pleased to have now contributed towards exposing and helping stop this kind of police behaviour. They will not primarily have been thinking of themselves, but of the benefit to the causes they believe in.

It is important to bear in mind that no-one personally asked us to black out their faces beforehand, although we circulated our plans to those members of the protest community we could find. A few people claimed that unidentified third parties might object, which is not a basis on which we could proceed.

The other important factor is that the faces on this card have already been published in the media before. They were shown in detailed close-up in the film 'Taking Liberties', which was distributed in cinemas and is available to buy as a DVD. The makers of the film describe the film as a "surprise box office hit". As many will be aware, one of the people on the screen holds up the "spotter card" to the camera and there is a clear view of everybody on it.

http://www.noliberties.com/index.htm

http://www.noliberties.com/release.htm

Most if not all the people on this card would have been well aware of that.

Some on the card say there was some sort of agreement that we would not publish the "spotter card" unless there was permission from all of you and failing that, we would blur some of the images.

Some background - we have carrying out research for this series since June. A few months ago, there was an idea that we should try to contact all the people on the card and interview them. At that time, the idea was to print some biographies of the individuals on the card to draw out various points - such as - the obviously important issue of how many people had criminal records. As it turned out, seven people on the card called me. It was clear that we were not going to be able speak to all on the card. As the project evolved, we abandoned the idea. During that process, we spoke to people on the card on the understanding that we would not name people if they did not want to be. As it turned out, we did not name anyone on the card, except Mark Thomas who wrote a comment piece about the card - http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/libertycentral/2009/oct/25/doth-i-protest-too-much

It should be clear from the general thrust of the articles that we are looking to highlight the wrong-doing of the police, not the protesters. The publication of the card helps to tell many in the wider public what is actually going on here. Many in the protest community have complained that the mainstream media have ignored what the police have been doing. We hope that you will recognise that the Guardian has in the past year published a series of articles which have helped to expose police wrong-doing. The articles on Ian Tomlinson and the treatment of protesters at Kingsnorth are two examples of these.

We recognise that some of you are upset but we hope that you will have a better understanding of why we published the card.

Yours,
Rob Evans
Paul Lewis
Reporters,.
The Guardian

UPDATE: Hoo-Har here

UPDATE: Suspect "A"

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NO PHILOSOPHY

Guardian-

...Small actions like the ones above may be inspirational to the participants, but they are of little use to the wider aim of garnering support and jolting politicians into action; showing politicians that the world is moving on and that they need to move with it.

For that you need to be ambitious, you need to plan and research meticulously; the result can be actions such as Greenpeace's climbing of the Kingsnorth chimney or Climate Camp's occupation at Heathrow, which genuinely created a buzz.

The next few months are crucial. It will be interesting to see whether Climate Camp's decision to invest in movement building will pay off...


err.. Yeah anyway whilst everyone was in town ripping the S off of SHELL I was up at the camp discussing Where Now? Very difficult because it was organised by people at the front who told everyone to discuss in groups for ten or five minutes and then went off on one themselves all the time yabbering between these stunted debates. This is consensus I am quite used to and it doesn't really bother me. I still reckon it is a good thing, we just have to spend longer invovled in each others lives than your average Capitalist.

They played a game where everyone walked around in circles shouting ideas at random which the group then answered which was quite fun. How can I surmise? People wanted Climate Camp to appeal to more people. They feel a bit middle class and honky-fied. Someone said they wanted less national meetings cos they are hard to get to and distract people from creating strong local groups. They want to engage with pre-existing community groups and residents associations.

I only arrived for the afternoon session, but in total this went on for about six hours. For the whole time one guy was standing alone with some stupid sign hassling people every so often with the facilitators trying to reason with him. Right at the end, when one chick got up and said there would be time for people to quickly publicise upcoming events to the group as a whole, another of them stood up and said she "Had to learn to say no" at these things, and then proceeded to use the time up waffling some more herself instead.

Its all quite funny really and, as I say its something I am quite used to. I like living surrealism. Will mainstream society one day embrace this non-hierarchical way of life? I think so. It is something which has been lost a long time ago which we are struggling to refind so although I felt a bit frustrated it didn't put me off any. I am only on the periphery of climate camp and if I can say anything useful I will.

Predictions? Well trying to shut down a Power Station will put the Police straight back into Kings North mode. Hassle people. Inconvenience them. Inconvenience them a lot. Provoke them. Try to discourage them from coming back. You can't just shut down Power Stations now can you? They'd look pretty silly if a bunch of people like this did shut a Power Station down eh.

But wait...

...Scotland Yard said tonight the model of policing used at Climate Camp, the week-long gathering of environmental activists that ends tomorrow, was a "really successful" approach that would be repeated at future demonstrations.

Chief Superintendant Helen Ball, a spokeswoman for policing at the campsite in Blackheath, south-east London, said neighbourhood-style tactics which included a "low-key" presence, limited surveillance of activists and almost no use of stop-and-search powers proved the Met had changed its approach since the G20 protests in April. The tactic is likely to be repeated at future demonstrations, she said, noting there had been just one arrest in seven days. "Where the opportunity arises to adopt a similar policing style in the future, we will do that, so if you are in Nottingham in October, buy some candles"...

I made up that last bit.

In the evening Martha Tilston played, which the folkies thought was a big deal. I realised as she played what was alienating me from all this. She has a great voice and beautiful songs but "Wonderful world" just isn't something I can relate to or sing along to with any conviction. Its not that I think it isn't, I just have no philosophy. This became apparent to me in a flash of inspiration in Tescos the other day. I would imagine a lot of people have shed their belief system in the queue at Tescos, this is how I shed mine.

I looked up and sitting down next to her mum was an Indian girl of perhaps fifteen with her face like the Elephant man. Sort of hall of Mirrors without the mirrors. Of course I looked away or tried not to look, or tried not to look uncomfortable. I walked on and saw a beautiful young blonde and felt my eyes and whole self attracted toward her. She opened her mouth and shattered the spell of her beauty with some proper Bermondsey attitude.

I just thought, human beings are just naturally as fickle as any other creature and I am one of them. No religion, no philosophy. I am not going to question anymore. If I can have fun, create or make the world a better place, its just because its a good idea. No belief, no goal. I think I am happy with that.

When I was hungover on Sunday some Spanish guy visiting my house was going on about Holotropic breathing. I have been giving it a go since and its made me incredibly angry very quickly to the extent that I am seriously considering finding some sort of guide rather than getting it all DIY style off of Youtube. Someone said I was "Holding on to Negativity" and had to "Breathe through it."

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WHAT TORIES

The Tories, not content with championing the NHS are turning on the fatcats.

Large City bonuses should be outlawed in banks that have received any sort of government guarantee, according to the shadow chancellor, George Osborne.

In an interview with the Guardian, Osborne delivers the strongest attack yet on the bonus culture, suggesting that a future Conservative government would act to curb pay excesses across the financial services industry.

"It is totally unacceptable for bank bonuses to be paid on the back of taxpayer guarantees," he said. "It must stop."

I am sure this is exactly what would happen were the Tories to take control of the country.

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LEFT WING BASTARDS

It's time for the left to get radical by Sunny Hundal in The Guardian.

Sunny's is the only UK left wing Political blog/forum I really keep up with. I read Rachel's and Anna's blog, but they are pals. I don't think Sunny and I agree about how to deal with mad Muslims all the time but I would imagine we'd agree about pretty much everything else and I am fairly level with the sentiment here. The conclusion is probably true too:

...More radical ideas, it seems, will only come from the Labour left once the party is out of power and they are free from the burden of political positioning...


Political positioning is probably the main thing which puts all of us of politcs in general. The article is based around the launch of the "New Left Forum" Open left. Glancing briefly across their homepage Peter Hyman, who famously gave up a top job in the New Labour machine to teach in a secondary school is the only person who would interest me.

Its just not sexy is it? Politics either needs some horn or more of this. At least South Korean politicians are entertaining. We need to show where "Left" works. Happy people who are experiencing the benefits of the things in life which are truly valuable. This isn't really done by Politics anymore, it happens on TV.

If you are into left wing politics still and need a tip, I'd probably ditch the "left". It's an outmoded concept. We don't need it anymore. People just need stuff that works. England has never been about quality of life. It should be.
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WEVOLUTION

Well that was a surprise. An amazing doco on the iPlayer about Robespierre and the French Revolution. Personally I have always believed in revolution, but never been into violent protest on principle. It has always been an untested theory though, lucky as I am to live somewhere where I still feel fairly free. The people in the UK I have met protesting who do believe in violent revolution are invariably playing out bad stuff from their childhood rather than coming out with any admirable principles.

South America, from what I have heard seems to be a bit different. People I have spoken to from there talk of a leftwing principled movement and a right wing capitalist/fascist movement of peoples who grow up in no uncertain terms that the other side want to kill you, and I would imagine a non violent ideal for anyone commited to change would be severly tested.

In terms of modern revolution, the French did it first and there is as is revealed, some frightening corelartion with later attempts to create a fairer society out of an impreialist one. It was fascinating that the only guy who was continually standing up for Robespierre,Slavoj Žižek betrayed so much in his body language that he was probably the same sort of person as Robespierre. An animated angry crank who, if he had any power would be fucking dangerous.

Overall this piece is fascinating, thought provoking and has a brilliant flow edit wise. It really encapsulates the fear any sane person with a revolutionary spirit has about overthrow and idealism inevitably leading to more of the same.

..

David Shayler Challenges Babylon's Authority IN HIS UNDERPANTS!

In his fuckin underpants man! Call yourself a revolutionary? You ain't shit...

Return to Tyting from anaconda on Vimeo.

YOUNG TORIES

I was talking to someone from Conservative Futures in the Bournemouth area the other day. I was straight up about how dissapointed I was that the Tories weren't dying out and that young people today might be attracted to what we always saw as the party of the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. I was keen to ask why and the answers were very interesting.

She said she had met the Bournemouth MP who has been recently embroiled in this expenses scandal and she thought he was a really nice guy. She totally accepted that it was obvious he wasn't and she wouldn't be voting Conservative in her area anymore because of the revelations she had heard on the news. Her vote the other day went to UKIP.

She said that although some Conservatives were stuffy, there were a whole load of new people in the party who were really genuine people and interestingly most of them hated David Cameron and thought he was a slick smarmy git but there wasn't a lot they could do or many alternatives open to them- a problem I should imagine most grass roots Labour people had watching Blair on his way up.

She said that what had attracted her to the party at the time was Boris Johnson.

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YOU ARE ALL FIRED

Watching The Apprentice tonight the charade that its anything more than a reality TV show sort of fell off and it wasn't just because of Cassette Boys Youtube run through. On the subject of charades all this buisness in Westminster doesn't look anymore real.

Its all big talk, people trying to be who others want them to be, a dance around the fucking maypole and whoever you choose wont make any difference. When the standards are so questionable and so obviously heading off in the wrong direction the idea of a "Meritocracy" falls to shit. The idea of a junior Apprentice, with the world how it is now actually scares me. Capitalism is a fairy tale people teach their children.

Pedaling the same crap which doesn't work. Anyway you are all fired. And I enjoyed The Apprentice. I don't like either of the finalists but the one who mortgaged her mothers house in exchange for 1% of her buisness has great tits and the other robot one has a really sexy brummie accent.

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ANARCHY FOR THE UK

A bit anarcho-buddhist really but I am splitting hairs-

...If we truly aim to be part of making history we need to remake ourselves as an organised, pragmatic movement to become an effective part of revolutionary change. If we do not learn from the mistakes of the past we are doomed to repeat them...

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USE THE FORCE?

PERSONAL SHIT

Yeah I haven't written any personal shit for a while. I feel as if I am doing all the right things but noticing my general lack of enthusiasm about doing them. Brian posted a link to the Essene Gospels on facebook. I took a look and I must admit they focused me back onto thoughts I have been having for a long while about fasting and general clean living inducing a better state of mind.

I am fascinated by this Hindu/Buddhist vegetarian version of Jesus, and the translation of "demons" as the worms and caked on shit which come out of your arse through colonic irrigation and boils coming out of your skin when you fast.

..."Seek, therefore, a large trailing gourd, having a stalk the length of a man; take out its inwards and fill it with water from the river which the sun has warmed. Hang it upon the branch of a tree, and kneel upon the ground before the angel of water, and suffer the end of the stalk of the trailing gourd to enter your hinder parts, that the water may flow through all your bowels. Afterwards rest kneeling on the ground before the angel of water and pray to the living God that he will forgive you all your past sins, and pray the angel of water that he will free your body from every uncleanness and disease. Then let the water run out from your body, that it may carry away from within it all the unclean and evil-smelling things of Satan. And you shall see with your eyes and smell with your nose all the abominations, and uncleannesses which defiled the temple of your body; even all the sins which abode in your body, tormenting you with all manner of pains. I tell you truly, baptism with water frees you from all of these. Renew your baptizing with water on every day of your fast, till the day when you see that the water which flows out of you is as pure as the river's foam..."

Moving from bodily functions to all this Police stuff recently I feel a bit of a plan coming on. I call it Robocop 3 theory. Have you seen it? The one where the Police and the squatters team up against evil coporations? Its going to happen. Its got to be worth a go. I'm going to try and do some digging behind the scenes to see who is up for it.

..

etc

...Mr Hardwick also said that typical complainants of police behaviour were from middle-class backgrounds, who did not previously have a jaundiced view of the police.

"If you are Mr and Mrs Suburban who have a good view of the police and think they do a good job, and they stop you and swear at you, then you are shocked and you complain." ...

etc, etc, etc

..

You don't have to watch the news anymore!

Let Charlie watch it for you. This is fucking great.

On this one week in a thousand where I can't complain about news as it is the first time to my memory a member of the TSG has been brought to book my the media for what they do ALL THE TIME.

When I started protesting it was fairly much an accepted theology that the reason the "Mainstweam media" didn't report what the TSG were doing ALL THE TIME was because they were in colusion with them and the government. That is why Indymedia was set up.

I thought this for a while. I went to a few peaceful protests and a few which turned violent, but the violence fizzled out over the years, mainly as I have said here many times before, as a result of the FIT squad taking photographs of people and spending a lot of time trying to work out who these people were and hassling them as much as possible.

With the protesters generally getting more peaceful as a result, and the TSG still stuck in the 1980s they were really ripe for being caught out, and they were caught out badly, with the mainstream media finally turning on them. Stuff I used to see endlessly on Indymedia suddenly jumped out of the goldfish bowl. You can see it happening on one historic post from a website I was frankly bored by a long time ago.

These days I am not anti-mainstweam media. I have been trying to make stuff for TV for as long as I have been writing here. I have met good and bad journalists whilst occasionally following mad Muslims around and going to court cases. I haven't asked them, but I think the reason why the sort of stuff the TSG get up to ALL THE TIME hasn't been on TV before is because most of these journalists were as bored by all this as I was.


Rachel North has a lot of good stuff to say here
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IM SURE THEY ARE QUAKING

Israel faces the prospect of intervention by international courts amid growing calls that its actions in Gaza are a violation of world humanitarian and criminal law.

The UN general assembly, which is meeting this week to discuss the issue, will consider requesting an advisory opinion from the international court of justice, the Guardian has learned...

..

Gaza demo 11th Jan

All a bit inevitable really wasn't it. People could blame this on the organizers. The thing is because a spontaneous illegal breakaway set off to the Israeli embassy last week, they had little choice but to have a legal demo there this week, as people would have gone there anyway. I can't see any point if you are angry about Gaza to direct your energy toward a Policeman. I think this energy could be directed more usefully. Rioting and the excitment of group mentality is interesting to watch for a bit but in this case it doesn't achieve very much does it.

We got bored of all the droning speeches at the beginning and disappeared into the Serpentine gallery to warm up. When we rejoined the march it was obviously huge. We stopped for a coffee in Notting hill for half an hour, came out and the march was still going past. This was the scene when we finally made it to the embassy.



Cities across the world become platform for hundreds of thousands of protesters against Gaza fighting Daily Mail (who put the crowd at 100,000)

Gaza protesters clash with police in London Telegraph

Violent Gaza protests reveal how gentle civilised Britain has changed into something very ugly indeed- Melanie Phillips