I am deeply concerned about pre-emptive policing, or arresting people who might be going to do something wrong. I frankly don’t believe the BBC’s claim that intelligence indicated that anti-G8 protestors in Soho had weapons, or at any rate I do not believe it was honest intelligence. I note there are no reports of these weapons actually having been discovered.
The rounding up, arresting and beating of groups of protestors before they had even begun to protest is so taken for granted in London now that I can find no reflection in the media of the outrage I feel. If an old duffer like me feels completely alienated from the authoritarian state in which I find I now live, how do younger, more radical people feel? There seems a terrible divide between the corporate-political elite surrounded by their massive Praetorian guard at Bilderberg, and everybody else. Society is not stable.
The BBC has lost all sense of self-knowledge. Yesterday it displayed scenes of police beating protestors for no apparent reason on the streets of London, which was presented as protecting innocent shoppers on Oxford Street. This immediately followed very similar scenes of police beating protestors on the streets of Istanbul, which was portrayed as a terrible act of anti-Western suppression. Irony is dead.
lwtc247
12 Jun, 2013 – 10:34 am
“I would love to see British people spontaneously form their OWN parliament, made up of ordinary people who participate debate and implement its findings, totally ignoring rotten Westminster.”
I agree, that is one reason I support Scottish independence; perhaps then the English and Welsh will wake up.
Jemand –
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/06/17/snowden_rally_hong_kong_extradition/
Wouldn’t want him spoiling the fun at the G8, would we?
Komodo,
Snowden was criticized(?) for choosing HonKers as a launchpad for his new career as a fugitive but this HK rally might be evidence that he is smarter than others give him credit for. If he is allowed to move freely by Chinese intel, he can enjoy great food, entertainment, cheap shopping, beautiful women and lots of friends. British instructions to airline carriers to bar his boarding on flights to the UK was just a perfunctory measure in avoiding a very unlikely journey by Snowden in their direction. The only thing I read into it is that the UK govt wants to avoid a dilemma. The UK has no real interest in helping the US in a prosecution of Snowden despite the awkwardness of its complicity with US surveillance. Any prosecution will make the UK govt look even worse than it does now. G8 might have amplified the embarrassment of the dilemma but I think the timing is otherwise unremarkable.