Posts Tagged ‘Britain’

A great little ‘Number Crunching’ feature in the latest issue of Private Eye;
“7 Months since Gordon Brown boasted in speech on global economy that ‘Britain is better placed to benefit as the storm passes, as pass it will’
7- Countries which have emerged from recession ahead of Britain since then.”
Private Eye was released last week and [...]


Although I try to avoid the news these days and keep away from such reactionary bastions as CNN and FOX News, I’ve read in the blogosphere that there is currently quite a storm surrounding president Barack Obama’s plans to introduce a NON-national/single payer healthcare system, which has nevertheless been dubbed ’socialist’.
According to a report in [...]


The past week has witnessed another damaging row for the PM Gordon Brown, this time regarding the number of helicopters British forces in Afghanistan have at their disposal.
The outgoing Foreign Office Minister Lord Malloch-Brown claimed “we [the UK forces in Afghanistan] definitely don’t have enough helicopters”. This caused an immediate riposte on the part of [...]


Torture Tony

18Jun09

Tony Blair was aware of the ­existence of a secret interrogation policy which ­effectively led to British citizens, and others, being ­tortured during ­counter-terrorism investigations, the Guardian can reveal…
British intelligence officers were given written instructions that they could not “be seen to condone” torture and that they must not “engage in any activity yourself that [...]


Last month the most senior police officer in the country in charge of keeping ‘civil order’ claimed that Britain was facing a ’summer of rage‘. He claimed that middle and working class victims of the current deep recession would become ‘footsoldiers’ in a wave of mass violent protests, reminiscent of those around the country during [...]


A very interesting blog post by Nir Rosen on The Guardian website today encompassing the nature of terrorism, universal laws, the Israel-Palestine conflict and the British/American occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan.
Below are some excerpts… I especially like the way Rosen highlights the legal, social and political relationships between weak and powerful peoples everywhere. It has [...]


I was interested to read this story reporting on declassified British government documents from the 1970s in which officials made clear that the UK was virtually defenceless to an attack by the Soviet Union;
“Documents marked “Top Secret, UK eyes only” which have just been de-classified by the National Archives, show the Labour government of 30 [...]


The British public and international community have regularly been subject to Gordon Brown’s high and mighty moral rhetoric concerning the tragic situation in Zimbabwe in recent years and the country’s fruitcake dictator. Although like Mugabe Brown was personally not elected to Britain’s highest office (although no Prime Minister is), he isn’t in the same league of [...]


US Barbarism

10Nov08

US Admits to Killing 37 Afghans in Attack on Wedding

In Afghanistan, the US has admitted to killing thirty-seven civilians and wounding dozens more in a military attack last week. The victims were bombed as they attended a wedding party outside the city of Kandahar. The Pentagon says the US bombed the area after coming under [...]


Australia
12 days

Canada
1 day

Denmark
3 days

France
6 days

Germany
2 days

Italy
4 days

New Zealand
2 days

Norway
3 days

Ireland
7 days

Russia
5 days

South Africa
2 days

Spain
5 days

Turkey
7.5 days

United Kingdom
28 days, see below

USA
2 days

According to this article, Number 10 is backing away from plans to increase the time terror suspects can be held without charge from the current 28 to 42 days.
As is obvious in the table to the [...]