The passing of wood through glass is a remarkable feat. There are those who believe that royalty can perform miracles – there is a well developed cult around the vain and vicious Charles I, for example. It now appears that the presence of the future Charles III also has the ability to suspend the laws of physics.
The police have now issued extensive CCTV footage of the attack on the vehicle of Charles and Camilla on the fringes of the anti-tuition fee demonstrations, and the media have been replete with more nonsense about Camilla being poked with a stick. Yet of all the CCTV footage and numerous photographs, there is no evidence at all of this attack and all the images show the car windows to be closed – as they would be. One gets cracked but not holed.
There is in fact no evidence at all of any intent to harm the persons of the expensive royal layabouts, as opposed to discomfiting them and damaging their vehicle. It is fascinating that the media continually repeats the “Camilla attacked with a stick” line when it is so blatantly untrue. There appears to be a closing of ranks by the whole Establishment to perpetuate the myth – both the Home Office and St James Palace have deliberately fostered the myth by refusing to confirm or deny.
Personally I would not touch Camilla with a bargepole. I dislike violence at demonstrations. Demonstrations, good, riots, bad is my basic mantra. Attacks on people in a civil demonstration are always wrong, including attacks on the police unless in self defence. I did not join in the outrage at the prosecutions of violent demonstrators after the big Lebanon demonstration in London, because I personally witnessed the group hurling dangerous missiles at police who were neither attacking, threatening nor kettling them. That is absolutely unacceptable.
But a policy as appalling as the withdrawal of state funding from university teaching, carried out by Nick Clegg by one of the most blatant political breaches of fatih with the public in history, , is bound to provoke huge anger. The government reaps what it sows. Demonstrators should not set out to hurt people. But all the evidence shows they had no intention of hurting Charles and Camilla.
I have personally worked closely with the royal family’s close protection officers in organising two state visits abroad, and plainly they too could see there was no intent to injure – that is why weapons were not drawn. They deserve commendation rather than the crap spouted out by Sky News, who seem to think they should have gunned down the odd student.
All of which serves to take the focus off vicious police attacks on students and the use of kettling to detain people who were seeking peacefully to express their views. Kettling people in extreme cold and with no access to toilet facilities raises questions on illegal detention which genuine liberals in government would wish to address. What is it? Is it a form of arrest? What is the status of the fenced pens into which people are herded? Should they not be formalised as places of police detention, and individuals booked in and given access to lawyers? If that is not possible, this detention – which can be for many hours – is not lawful.
“there are NOT enough nurses…” it should have read.
Very recently, I spoke with two senior consultants from entirely different parts of the country and from different specialities and both said the same thing: too much management, not enough nurses. It’s blindingly obvious. Nursing cuts = reduced patient care. It really is imperative that the students are not left to fight the Govt on their own.
It’s becoming tedious.
They raise the level but say that there is no threat of an attack.
I haven’t copied in the Correra crap amd at least we were spared the Gardner garbage…. this time.
7 January 2011
UK terrorism security threat level raised at airports The security threat level to the UK as a whole was raised to “severe” a year ago Continue reading the main story
Related stories
Terror risk ‘at three-year high’
UK travellers warned over Europe
MI5 head in terror attack warning
The terrorist threat level specific to major UK transport hubs has been raised from substantial to severe, the BBC understands.
The move includes airports and London railway terminals, although there is no suggestion of any intelligence of an imminent attack.
The threat to the UK overall remains where it has been for the past year at the second-highest level, “severe”.
Security officials are stressing the change is precautionary.
Visible presence
The overall national threat level at severe means a terrorist attack is highly likely.
Beneath this are a series of threat levels for specific sectors of the national infrastructure which are not normally made public.
But it is understood the threat level for major transport hubs, including airline terminals and major railway stations in London, has been increased from substantial to severe.
Officials say if there was any intelligence of an imminent threat or a plot under way the threat level would be raised to its highest level, “critical”.
There have been concerns in recent months over the possibility of Mumbai-style gun attacks in Europe and the intelligence that led to this change is believed to cover Europe as a whole.
In practice, the move means more police are likely to be visible at airports and railway stations from Friday.
/…..
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12133290
Yes indeed somebody, the first 2011 seasonally adjusted terror scare, yawn.
Meanwhile a FoI request by Alex Deane from Big brother watch has thrown up these figures for Norfolk and Suffolk.
CCTV costs us a lot and non of the proponents have managed to offer any evidence and/or justification from these systems.
His request was for all 500 councils, these are Norfolk and Suffolk figures alone.
Norwich City £1,680,304
Breckland £1,540,366
King’s Lynn and West Norfolk £1,045,028.85
Waveney £930,000
North Norfolk £621,359
Suffolk £262,930
This at the same time when politicians use CCTV to smear protesters and gather evidence in support of their drastic measures, when information which should be in the public domain, is kept secret for their reasons alone.
For gods sake North Norfolk and Suffolk, although harboring an unusual amount of ex army and Government plods, is a tourist spot, a tranquil backwater, how paranoid can they be?
How far have we gone down George Orwells blueprint?
@CD, @glenn, calm down – issues, not commentators! 🙂
Suhayl, yes, too much management and too few medical staff, certainly. But we’re seeing a conflation of several difficult problems, PFI being another.
The unions are going through power struggles too – there’s been some high-profile victimisations +from+ the union. Recently there’s been two in particular, I think in the mental health sector, harassed and sacked, with the connivance of the people meant to be defending them.
Bianca Jagger replies to The Grauniad’s hatchet job on Julian Assange:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bianca-jagger/the-julian-assange-trial_b_805299.html?ref=tw
Interestingly, The Grauniad would only agree to publishing an edited version of her reply so she went with The Huffington Post instead.
Re. terror scare
Pure co-incidence, of course, about the
debate and pending announcement over control orders.
Re. terror scare
Pure co-incidence, of course, about the debate and pending announcement over control orders.
Strange isn’t it that with London being equipped with more CCTV cameras than any other city on Earth, no CCTV images of the four alleged suicide bombers have ever been released showing all four of the accused in London on July 7th 2005.
Strange isn’t it that with London being equipped with more CCTV cameras than any other city on Earth, no CCTV images of the four alleged suicide bombers have ever been released showing all four of the accused in London on July 7th 2005.
Technicolour- the links to Indymedia’s reporting of the protests were interesting, in particular this one:
‘Not much later another gang of youths appeared but this time there were about twenty of them. They were picking people out and beating them with sticks. When there victim fell to the ground they continued to kick them. They only stopped for three reasons. 1) Their victim escaped 2) their victim had stopped moving or 3) someone had tried to stop them and had then become their new target. These weren’t protesters. They were animals looking to hurt the weaker. If they were brave men they would have fought the police on the frontline. But no, they attack their peers instead, the people they’re meant to be united with. I witnessed them do this to five people, including two people that I know. It was distressful and one of the most shocking and upsetting things..”‘
This looks like a description of a textbook exercise in ‘steaming’ to me. Other incidents described by the Indymedia correspondents could have involved agent provocateurs, but this one looks like something different altogether.And Ayden Lowther’s assumption that the attackers might see their prey here as ‘peers’ is blinkered leftie wish fulfilment at its worst.
Jon: You’ve seen this master baiter Larry at work before. We all know Suhayl has never made any such comment. Please do your duty and wipe his racist baiting messages off the board. There’s no point in discussion with the likes of this dishonest creep.
Jon, yes, I know that there are a host of issues to do with health provision in the UK. As you say, PFI = big scam. I hadn’t heard of the union ones to which you allude; I’ll check these out. Thanks for that info.
Links dug out for those cases, Karen Reissmann and Yunus Bakhsh:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2007/dec/05/mentalhealth.nhs
http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=16866
I think where a union fails to assist activist workers, support is lent to the theory that some unions are comfortable with the hierarchical status quo.
Larry, deleted your comment. Against popular request, I intend to let your comments normally stand – but every unsubstantiated and deliberately provocative comment you make will incrementally persuade me to delete your comments on sight.
Any thoughts on royalty, student demonstrations, civil unrest linked to ‘austerity’ policy, the role of the police in the state?
Ingo – what a lot of council tax is being spent on this nonsense.
Any chance of a link so that we can look up our own neck of the woods.
I phoned the Surrey poluce today to complain about persistent and complete blocking of the only pavement along a very busy A road by builders’ vehicles. They are renovating a house and have been causing this nuisance for three weeks or more. I gave all the details and the helpful call centre person was consulting a map as I spoke so that the location and details were clear. That was this morning. This afternoon the phone rings and it is the ‘coordinator’ for the local police asking me again when, where and what. Said that he would get a PCSO onto the matter on Monday am!. Good job it wasn’t an emergency although it could become one as pedestrians are forced to step out into the traffic either facing or behind them.
‘somebody’ – you should have said these builders were obstructing the road as part of a protest. The old bill would have been around in 5 minutes, and given the builders a hiding they’d never forget!
@Ruth
‘Strange isn’t it… no CCTV images of the four alleged suicide bombers have ever been released showing all four of the accused in London on July 7th 2005.’
Yes, and here’s few more famous CCTV ‘failures’ to add to the list:
Bus no 30 at Russell Square
Jean Charles de Menezes
Pont de l’Alma tunnel
Pentagon ( although admittedly they did work only too well at the Pentagon, so we are not allowed to see the footage.)
These cameras do seem to be notoriously unreliable.
I was going to post this piece in ‘Happy New Year’ as a follow-on to my ‘2011 Year of Redemption’ however as the thread title here is ‘The Laws of Physics Disproven’ I hope to be forgiven for posting here.
The George W Bush targeting of Iraq was based in part to the evil calculations of Congressman Richard Cheney, dating back to the Reagan White House, who deliberated “Start a small war, pick a country where there is justification you can jump on, go ahead and invade.”
New Hampshire Primary Event – December 3rd 1999
Bush had been enamored by the fame Margaret Thatcher received after the Falklands war, a perfectly legitimate conflict after the invasion by Argentina of British sovereign land.
In an early statement Bush said, “I’d take em out” “..take out the weapons of mass destruction…” – David Nyhan Boston Globe December 1999 – planning for 9/11 had already begun!
Interestingly and I urge you to do some lateral thinking, in 2008 in memory of of George HW Bushes invasion of Panama, Barack Obama (a close friend) praised HW Bush for his “prudent foreign policy.”
David Brooks – NYT May 16th 2008
The Rev. Pat Robertson, an evangelist revealed that ‘born again’ Bush in 2001 assured him the Iraq invasion would yield NO casualties. According to Robertson, God was in the White House having made way to a new leader of the religious right in America: George W. Bush.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A19253-2001Dec23?language=printer
Pat Robertson agreed with Jerry Falwell in an interview when he said God may have allowed what the nation deserved because of moral decay and said Americans should have an attitude of repentance before God and asking for God’s protection. He specifically listed the ACLU, abortionists, feminists, gays, and the People For the American way as sharing in the blame.
Bush knew the invasion of Iraq would produce oil and an expanded military. The Carlyle Group enjoyed substantial investments from Saudis bin-Laden family specialising in buying and selling defense companies that did business with the government. Cynthia McKinney, pointed a finger at Carlyle after the 9/11 attacks, claiming that “persons close to this administration are poised to make huge pro?ts off America’s new war” and that despite “numerous warnings,” they did not alert the “people of New York who were needlessly murdered.” She asked, “What do they have to hide?”
http://www.carlyle.com/Media%20Room/Fact%20Sheet%20Files/item9959.pdf
Naomi Klein revealed in ‘Shock Doctrine’ that ‘a ‘war on terror’ forms an unbeatable economic proposition’ ..a new and permanent fixture in the global economic architecture.’
Naomi Klein: New york Metropolitan 2007
Naomi said, PNAC required a catalysing event [9/11] from PNAC 2000 and Halliburton would become the cash coffer receiving at least $24billion by 2008 of which Cheney received a bundle and the Bush Dynasty would sit pretty in retirement.
Halliburton is corrupt to the core, flaunting breach of trust, bribery, crime, crookedness, exploitation, extortion, jobbery, misrepresentation and nepotism.
Stephen J Glain – Boston Globe Jan 4th 2004
Don Van Natta Jr. – NYT Dec 10th 2003
Joel Grinkley
Eric Schmitt – NYT Feb 3rd 2004
James Risen – NYT July 18th 2008
A secret energy task force had already been convened to map ALL Iraqi oil fields.
Dana Milbank – Washington Post Nov 16th 2005
A million people had died in the Iran/Iraq war, both sides had been provided with WMD and intelligence by America to achieve a ‘balanced of terror’ according to Rumsfeld. Unknown to the world, Saddam was a CIA asset, part of a six man team tasked with assassinating Iraq PM General Abd al-Karim Qasim.
Richard Sale – UPI wire April 11th 2003
Now Saddam would be described as a severe threat to the West. This propaganda was designed in the first instance to take the heat off the events of 9/11 – Some secrets of the attacks had already been revealed and many more in the ‘Arc of the Covenant’ – such as the 15 Saudi ‘terrorists’ and what the Saudi government knew about them – such as the deep and personal relationship between the Bushes and the Saudi Royal family – such as the spiriting of Saudi royals and others out of the US right after the WTC and Pentagon attacks – such as the activities of Cheney in the crucial minutes and hours after the 9/11 attacks – such as the mystery of Rumfeld ‘assistance’ at the scene of the Pentagon attack rather than assume command:
Gail Sheehy – Mother Jones July 22nd 2004
Cockburn – ‘Rumsfeld’ – thank-you so much for your insight and knowledge.
The Iraq war would however take centre stage and delay investigations we witness today from eminent and distinguished scientists and engineers. Their evidence and ‘inside intelligence’ will this year reveal. Document may have disappeared, visitors logs may have been deleted, secrecy may be a guiding philosophy, but good men like Barton Gellman and Jo Becker know truth and men like Robin Cook (PBUH) who knew what Blair knows died in support of it.
Next – the conspiracy behind 9/11…
jon at 4:16pm: re. some union hierarchies, you’re absolutely right.
KingofWelshNoir: Don’t forget that other notorious mass CCTV failure, when all that expensive monitoring apparatus failed to show the police beating poor Ian Tomlinson to death. Amazing to think that in all that action, not one working camera was available, and the only evidence was provided by a passing Aussie tourist.
Mark (not golding): when you say it looks like a textbook case of ‘steaming’ what do you mean, and what conclusions do you draw?
Craig asks whether kettling is legal, in fact, there’s been an ongoing legal case against it since it was first used at the May Day festival in 2001. It was declared legal by the House of Lords, and an appeal reached the European Court of Human Rights in Dec 2009, I think. And there it seems to have stalled. Plainly it’s imprisonment without arrest, police get over this by saying ‘you’re free to leave but I’m not allowed to let you go’ and other linguistic contortions.
Frazer, if you’re still reading, it’s not a case of not being ‘impressed’ by the video showing Jody McIntyre being pulled from his wheelchair (the second time it had happened that day). Here’s a BBC interview, in which the interviewer (Ben Brown) comes out with the classic line “there were suggestions that you were rolling towards the police at the time” – to a man with cerebral palsy. McIntyre is intelligent, passionate and obviously intellectually dangerous, however:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXNJ3MZ-AUo
Yes, technicolour – I believe McIntyre is 20 or thereabouts. And a great deal more informed and intellectually maturer than most people of his age – myself at that age included.
I assume that Mark Golding’s rant will be deleted soon … right, Jon?
Larry, it’s really no extra bother for me to delete your provocative and irrelevant comments – I am here anyway. Keep commentary on topic, please.
I saw that you’re here. So you’ll be deleting Mark Golding’s irrelevant rant on 911 soon, won’t you?
“Larry, deleted your comment”
I requested over on the previous thread that there should be a placemarker where a post has been deleted (see there for the argument, which I can’t be bothered repeating). Consider doing this routinely for larry. Such a placemarker would contain at least as much information as the post that was deleted, so you could hardly be accused of over-zealous moderation.
Jon, thanks for the great job, by the way. Very cheering.
And you apparently no problem letting stand Suhayl’s comment from the previous thread, in part reading:
“So, an atmosphere of de facto self-censorship and probably also editorial censorship, is created in the USA. And this catalyses the power and influence of the Zionist lobby in a way in which no other lobby is catalysed (think, oil, arms, tobacco, pharma, evangelical Rightwing, etc. etc.). It also renders to the lobby a numinous power generated by fear, so they may even seem larger than they are. But the effect then is that their power grows.”
This is a direct appeal to the racist myth of a hidden cabalistic Jewish threat, pulling all the strings.
There certainly is a Jewish lobby, as there are thousands of lobbies in DC, but to attribute so much power to it is gullible and hateful.
It would seem that Suhayl (one of many similar folks around here) started off as a hateful racist, and then went out into the world looking for evidence to back up his racism.