Simon Everitt Murder Verdict.

Today in the news three people have been convicted of the murder of a 17 year old student called Simon Everitt. Apparently the two men and a woman kidnapped the victim, doused him in petrol and then set fire to him in a crime the judge described as being purely motivated by sexual jealousy. For slightly better coverage of the murder and the trial you can check out the BBC's website; http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/norfolk/8073886.stm

Once you know that my real first name is Simon the metaphor behind this story becomes quite obvious. I'm dead and the people who killed me are going to be punished. Of course like every word that comes out of the British States mouth the metaphor is inaccurate and the story is a work of fiction. The two main factual inaccuracies in the story are;

• Clearly I'm not dead. That's purely wishful thinking on the Brits part. In fact no-one in my situation is dead and there is nothing about the situation that cannot be changed just as soon as the will to do so exists.

• No-one's being punished. Quite a few of the people who are responsible for my situation have found their careers ended by events but none of them have been punished. In fact a number of them have been rewarded with either promotion or soft-landings.

It is interesting that the judge has labelled the motive for the crime to be sexual jealousy and this element of the story appears to be pushed to the fore. This is an attempt by the British Establishment to lay the blame for my current situation firmly at the gay communities door. This will no doubt lead to howls of homophobia but is actually fair comment because it is the gay community that holds full responsibility for all events post 2006. You will also notice that three years on they are still to disavow the Bristol Abuse Case as unacceptable behaviour.

Normally I wouldn't waste my breath commenting on Britan's propoganda efforts but this morning my grandmother's sister died of old age so the word dead especially wrankles with me today.

Luton Squabble.

As I briefly mentioned yesterday there was a little bit of trouble in Luton, Bedfordshire on Sunday May 24th when around 500 people went on the rampage attacking Asians and clashing with the police. This is not the first bit of trouble Luton has seen in recent months. Back in March there were angry scenes when a group of pro-Taliban protesters picketed a welcome home parade by the Royal Anglian Regiment who had just returned from a tour of duty in Afghanistan. This has already been commented on by everybody and anybody including myself who covered it in a series of post entitled National Bullshit Month.

In April a group of local football hooligans, casual racists and some ordinary Luton residents who were pissed off by the events in March staged a small, impromptu demonstration. This led to some minor scuffles with the police as the group meandered through Luton town centre with no clear purpose. I've found this video of that days events.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpDrgrxrR3c

Looking at that footage I don't think any of the demonstrators are involved in politics full time or affiliated with any political party. The tone of the placards would suggest that some of the protesters loosely follow a far right/racist ideology specifically that of the British Peoples Party (BPP). The BPP are a small and relatively new group mainly made up of people who have either been thrown out of or denied membership of the British National Party (BNP) for being too racist, too violent or just too odd for the BNP

While the April protest went largely unnoticed by people outside of Luton it clearly came to the attention of the British far-right movement. A pressure group called March for England http://marchforengland.awardspace.co.uk/blog/ who are connected to both the BNP and the BPP soon set about organising another, larger march on May 24th. Initially Luton's Labour controlled council granted permission for the march to go ahead. Then March for England pulled out of the demonstration presumably because they realised that being associated with violence so close to the European and local elections in June would discourage people from voting forfar right parties. With the association with the BNP broken Luton council withdraw permission for the demonstration.

This didn't stop the locals who took part in the April demonstration and a small number of people from outside Luton who follow the British Peoples Party ideology going ahead. The march started at 17:00. At around 17:15 a group of about 500 broke off from the main march and charged into town looking for a fight with any Asians it encountered. During this time one Asian man was assaulted, three cars had their windscreens smashed and an Asian owned restaurant had it's windows broken. By 17:30 the police had deployed mounted units and officers in riot gear. By 18:30 the group had been contained and then dispersed. As you can see from this video although there seemed to be plenty of people willing to get stuck in it can hardly be called a riot.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A37CQTyVRV4

In conclusion while the protests at the Royal Anglian Regiment parade contributed to Sunday's events I think it was just the work of 500 or so local hooligans engaging in what the Territorial Support Group would call a quiet afternoon at the football. If there was any hidden agenda it was being orchestrated by the local Labour party who were trying to associate the BNP with violence in an attempt to get the people of Luton to vote Labour in the local elections of June 4th.

Trouble in Luton.

I've heard some reports that the police in Luton, Bedfordshire have clashed with protesters after a march to protest against Muslim extremists who staged a protest at a welcome home parade for soldiers of the Royal Anglican Regiment back in March. It's a holiday weekend and the events only happened 6-7 hours ago so all the information I really have at the moment is this rather short BBC report;

Nine men were arrested after trouble broke out at a march through Luton.
Police said up to 400 people set off on a planned peaceful protest held
against demonstrations at an Armed Forces homecoming parade earlier this year.
Officers said an Asian man was assaulted, a shop window was smashed and
several cars were damaged in the town centre on Sunday evening.
In March, a group of anti-war protesters demonstrated at a parade for the Royal Anglian
Regiment.
Bedfordshire Police said officers were studying CCTV footage and
said further arrests could be made in the coming days.
A spokeswoman said Sunday's march started in Manor Park at 1700 BST
They added that by 1730 BST
several groups had peeled off from the main protest and had started causing
problems in the town centre.
The situation was under control by 1830 BST.
The nine men were in custody after being arrested on suspicion of a variety
of public order offences, criminal damage and assault, officers said.
The spokeswoman said: "The peaceful marchers formed up in Manor Park - however,
other large groups who had been in the town centre pubs all afternoon did not
join the march.
"It was clear that some were determined to cause trouble and
broke away from the main march in several groups and up some of the side streets
running off George Street."
About 10,000 people were expected to take part
in the Luton Carnival on Monday. Police said about 250 officers would be there.
Story from BBC
NEWS:http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/england/beds/bucks/herts/8066515.stmPublished:
2009/05/24 23:23:54 GMT© BBC MMIX

I'll try and have a closer look at things tomorrow but phrases like "The trouble started at 17:30" and "the trouble was brought under control by 18:30" make me think this was just a small local ruckus of the sort you occasionally get after football matches rather then something more serious and orchestrated.

Disgusting

Regular readers of this blog will already be familiar with the Baby P case. It is the case of a 17 month old boy who was beaten and tortured to death by his mother and her boyfriend while Haringey Social Services and the Metropolitan Police sat back and watched. In November 2008 Baby P's mother and step-father were convicted of causing or allowing his death. On Friday 22nd of May 2009 the pair, along with another man, were finally sentenced for that lesser offence.

In his closing statement the trial judge, Stephen Kramer, described the crime as one so severe that no decent person could help but be appalled by it. He then spent the next five minutes detailing the 22 injuries that Baby P sustained in the last 8 months of his life. These include a broken leg, a broken spine a fingernails that had been torn from the nail beds. Turning to the defendants Judge Kramer described the step-father's role in the crime as extraordinary and abhorrent. Of Baby P's mother he said that she was a manipulative and self centered person with a temper. Having listed the severity of the offence and the unquestionable guilt of the defendants Judge Kramer then handed absurdly lenient sentences.

For Baby P's step-father, Steven Barker, the Judge could have awarded a maximum sentence of 34 years. Instead he automatically reduced the sentence by two years because Barker had also been convicted of anally raping a two and a half year old girl. He then ordered that the sentences to the two crimes could be served at the same time rather then one after the other. As a final insult the judge ordered that the sentence could further be reduced by half in return for good behaviour leaving a total sentence of just 10 years. Given time already served on remand Steven Barker will be released in just 7 years.

For Baby P's mother, who had a second child whilst on remand, the judge could have awarded a maximum sentence of 14 years. Instead he automatically reduced the sentence by a third for entering a guilty plea even though she plead not guilty throughout the trial. Judge Kramer again allowed the sentence to be furthered reduced by half in return for good behaviour. That leaves a total sentence of just 5 years and with time already served Baby P's mother should be out of jail in time to be the guest of honour at the 2012 Olympics.

To make matters worse Baby P's mother won't serve her sentence in the general prison population. Instead she will serve her time in Holloway Prisons Life Sentence Unit. This is a specialist unit to house prisoners who will never, ever be released from prisoner. To keep these women with nothing left to lose under some sort of control the LSU is more luxurious then a normal prison wing with each inmate being given their own cell and special privileges like money, TV's and games consoles. Holloway's LSU made the headline last year when it emerged that it had spent £3000 throwing a Christmas party for the inmates. With only a five year sentence I'm not sure how Baby P's mother qualifies for this special treatment.

5 years and 10 years. If that's all the punishment you get in Britain for torturing and killing an infant I'm not expecting much to come from the MP's expenses scandal.

Lucy Gordon Suicide.

Today (21/5) a British actress named Lucy Gordon committed suicide at the Canne film festival. Ms Gordon, 29, was most famous for her appearance as a news reporter in the Spiderman film(s). I must confess that I've not actually seen Superman, hell I only today got to see Hot Fuzz but I did in my time once meet a woman called Lucy Gordon although I'm sure it was not the same woman.

The Lucy Gordon I used to know was a high school teacher in Brighton. She decided to have sex with a friend of mine in front of his girlfriend breaking up that relationship and causing me a whole end of stress. Because I needed her out of the game I made the mistake of accidentally leaking intimate details of her sex life to the students in her form room.

While I have little idea what happened to Canne's Lucy Gordon I have three theories of why she died;

1. She only got the job because she shared the name of my Lucy Gordon. In the stress and the heat of a Canne summer she realised she wasn't up to her job and decided to take her own life.
2. MI6 decided that because she shared a name with my Lucy Gordon killing her would cause enough stress and panic to confuse people about the more important issues of the day.
3. Another agency decided that killing her would cause me so much stress that I would spill all the details of my Lucy Gordon.

Right now I'm trying to find the time to go to bed before I have to wake up at an ungodly hour tomorrow to go and speak to a builder so I'm off to take a piss.

Un - Burgled.

As I think I've mentioned, in quite colourful language, my father has been in contact with Croydon Council. On Tuesday, 19/5 he invited members of Croydon Council's "Stay put. Stay Safe!" team round to discuss certain jobs he wanted doing in the property. During the course of this conversation he presented them with a task list that included; #12. Tree over Playroom and #14. Secure Bathroom Window.

Within minutes of the Council team returning to the office the neighbour whose tree was mentioned in item#12 received harassing phone calls in order to get them to cut the tree themselves. Then today, 21/5, my- father's window cleaner turns up of his own accord and proceeds to spend the next hour going over every inch of every window in the property. Sadly this was so big, so loud and so obvious that my father realised that for once it might be his shit under threat and got into a panic telling the whole Internet about it so we remained un-burgled.

Even without a criminal offence being committed this unfortunate turn of events would normally give the police probable cause to open a serious and organised crime investigation. The purpose of that investigation would be to examine if a tax payer funded and council run operation set up to protect retired people from burglary was instead being used by burglars to identify pensioners that would be easy targets for robbery.

Depending on how much time I have tomorrow I might bring the matter up with the Croydon branch of Her Majesties Constabulary. I'm not sure I can be bothered though because, as we've already established, there is more then enough evidence to bring Croydon Council under emergency measures.

Queen Backs Down Over Ghurkas.

Since the collapse of the British Empire in the 1950's the Ghurka's, a regiment of Nepalese soldiers who've fought with the British Army for almost 200 years, have been fighting for the right to come and settle in the UK with their families. Their campaign scored a massive victory in 1997 when the return of Hong Kong to China forced the newly elected Labour government to grant an automatic right to remain to any solider who signed up to serve as a Ghurka. While this was a significant victory it still left the problem of what would happen to those men who served with the Ghurkas before 1997. Since then the remaining Ghurka's have been campaigning, without much success, to get the right to remain extended to those who left the regiment prior to 1997.

In April 2009 the British Establishment suddenly threw their support behind the campaign meaning it started getting lots of media attention and Joanna Lumley, the campaigns photogenic spokesperson was able to have lots of dramatic showdowns with the Labour governments immigration minister.

The problem the Ghurka's faced was the immigration law that grants foreign citizen's the right to remain in the UK makes no distinction between those who had served as sworn soldiers in the British Army, like the Ghurka's and those who served as civilians working in support of the British Army on overseas operations. This second, much larger, group includes all those who worked as translators in Iraq, those who did the laundry on British bases in Afghanistan and those who performed similar roles in the former Yugoslavia and every other theatre the British Army has operated in since the second world war. So if the government were to allow the first group they'd have to allow the second group in as well are there in lies the catch 22 for the labour government. If they refused entry to the Ghurka's they'd face outrage for turning their back on those who are prepared to die for the country. If they'd allowed the Ghurka's in the government would face outrage for allowing millions of new immigrants, many of them Muslims, into the country at a time when the UK is experiencing a fierce recession and rising unemployment.

Fortunately for both the Ghurka's and Gordon Brown the Queen decided to relent. This has allowed the government to make an exemption in the law for the Ghurkas so they can be allowed to stay without opening the floodgate to all those dirty Arabs.

You Bloody Fucking Bollocking Bastards.

Vol 3979.

I leave the house for one day and all of sudden Croydon Council and their affiliates swarm on my home. It turns out while I was out the "Stay safe!" project sent a two person team made up of a construction worker and a manager to discuss some building work with my father. On their arrival he presented them with the following list of work that needs to be done;

The key item on the agenda I would like to draw your attention to is #12: Tree over playroom.

The playroom in question is the Black Lion pub that my grandfather had the good sense to build in the bottom of the garden. The tree belongs to the aforementioned Linda who lives in a housing association property funded by Croydon Council. When the Stay Safe managers attention was drawn to this item she advised my father to contact the land registry to find out who the property belong to so they could take care of the offending tree.

Within a few hours someone had been on the phone to Linda to inform her that the tree was causing a problem. This resulted in her spending most of the evening cutting up other trees in garden and burning their remains in a big fire. This created a lot of noise and a lot of smoke which, if I'm honest caused her more stress then it caused me. However I feel the moral of the story is;

No-one from Croydon Council ever needs to consult the Land Registry ever again.

The Moatman Prophecies.

With everyone in the UK calling for the dissolution of Parliament and an early general election I woke up today facing a simple choice. I could either go shopping or write a long and tedious polemic on why an early election would allow MP's with dodgy expenses but safe seats to escape punishment. As an example I was going to use Douglas Hogg the Conservative MP who claimed £2000 to have his moat cleaned yet held a seat in Sleaford & North Hykeham a constituency which is only ever going to vote Tory. While I was pondering this conundrum Douglas Hogg resigned so I went out shopping safe in the knowledge that I only need to think of something and it would happen.

While I was out shopping and possibly having a little drink the Speaker of the House of Commons rather sensibly decided that he was going to resign of his own free will. After his dreadful performance yesterday this was hardly a surprise because apparently there's a whole mile of green carpet between the speakers chair and his commons office. The resignation means that there will be a by-election in Speaker Martin's constituency of Glasgow North-East which the Labour party will lose. The only question is will they be beaten by more then they lost by in the Glasgow East by-election.

Meanwhile in New York scientists are apparently examining the worlds oldest fossil. I think that's a bit harsh on the Bristol contingent especially as they apparently can't afford a TV between the pair of the them and have to rely on the much harder knocks of having things filtered to them through their friends and colleagues. A broken cipher if there ever was one.

As for the shopping I'm not really sure what I brought but how does everyone feel about Gordon brown having a heart attack?

I'm So Bored Of British Politics.

The British MP's expenses scandal is still throwing shock waves across the country because the revelation that politicians are greedy, self-serving slime is apparently considered news by some people. With no new earth shattering allegations today's twist was a statement by the Speaker of the House of Commons on the issue. In his role as a sort of Parliamentary referee the Speaker holds ultimate responsibility for the expenses system which has allowed the MP's to line their pockets. This statement was given extra significance after the Liberal Democrat back-benchers threw their support behind a motion of no confidence in the Speaker that was tabled by a Conservative back-bencher. This was presumably a response to unconfirmed rumours that the Speaker intends to use the remaining time in the Commons term to pass new laws that would further criminalise protest outside of the the Houses of Parliament. The prospect of Speaker being forced out of the House of Commons has got everyone misty eyed over the last time this happened some 300 years ago under the reign of King William of Orange.

As you all know William of Orange was the Protestant, Dutch King who was awarded the English Crown by Parliament after he invaded England to depose the Catholic King James II who succeeded the Protestant King Charles II who became King after the collapse of Oliver Cromwell's republic.William of Orange is probably most famous for introducing the English Bill of Rights which provided the foundation for the American Constitution and his genocide of Irish Catholics. For the former he's largely forgotten but for the latter he is considered the theological leader of the Orange Order, an all Protestant version of Freemasonry that still cause sectarian havoc to this day.

Meanwhile the rest of the world have been concerning themselves with some more current events;

• In Sri Lanka government forces have declared victory over the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam. The Tamil Tigers have not yet formally accepted defeat but have announced that they will silence their guns. In the next phase of the Sri Lankan governments peace plan the country's Tamil population will now be interned in so-called re-education camps which are said to be worse then the shelling. Conditions in these camps will form an important part of the IMF's decision to what, if any financial support they will provide to the Sri Lankan government.

• US President Obama has floated the idea of introducing a cap and trade carbon trading scheme to combat global warming Although no details of the scheme have been announced the political right have already attacked the idea for being too Communist while the political left have attacked the idea for being too Capitalist. Obama was also barracked by Catholics at Notre Dame university by addressing that mainstay of Internet bickering - the abortion debate.

• The European Commissions offices in Brussels were today evacuated after a fire started in the basement and spread throughout the building. No cause for the fire has yet been found but if it does turn out to be arson I wouldn't be too surprised if it was all just a publicity stunt to raise awareness of the institution ahead of July's European elections.

Oh and of course the new Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, today met with President Obama on his first official visit to Washington.

MP's Expenses Scandal: There's the Sweet Spot.

The scandal over the expenses British Members of Parliament (MP's) claim for doing their job has been a long running one. It first began back in January 2007 when a journalist used the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to request some of the documents relating to the expenses claims of a few MP's. The MP's did not like this one little bit and tried to argue that they were exempt from the FOIA leading to a year long legal battle. In May 2008 the High Court ruled that MP's were covered by the FOIA and ordered that the details of all MP's expenses must be made available to the public on request. With little choice the MP's decided that they would comply with the court's ruling but would need another full year to sanitise the documents by removing home addresses, bank details and details of suppliers. This was scheduled to happen in July 2009.

Then in May 2009 someone, presumably a civil servant, leaked an unsanitised version of the expenses data to the Daily Telegraph newspaper a publication so much part of the British Establishment that it is still outraged the latest uprising in Ceylon. Crucially the data they received contained personal information such as the home addresses of MP's which not only let people know who was claiming what but at what address they were claiming it for.

The Telegraph went public with this information on Friday May 8th with a story that focused on Labour MP's and their widespread practice of "flipping" where the address of the second home is frequently changed in order to maximise the amount that can be claimed under the second home allowance. The paper also published details of the sort of things the MP's had claimed back on expenses including the scurrilous accusation that immigration minister Phil Woolas (of Gurkha's fame) had used his allowance to buy himself a lot of women's clothing. That story ran for the entire weekend until Monday when, in the interests of political balance, the Telegraph decided to focus on the Conservative party. It turned out that the Conservatives had been up to exactly the same things as their Labour colleagues but being Tories they're claims were far more lavish including an MP who claimed for the maintenance of his swimming pool, another who claimed for having helipad built in his garden and one who billed the taxpayer for the cost of having his moat dredged. The Telegraph followed this up on Tuesday by concentrating on the Liberal Democrats who rather sweetly promised to repay the £18.44p they'd accidentally claimed for personal telephone calls. On Wednesday the paper didn't publish any further revelations leaving the day clear for political point scoring at Prime Minister's Question Time and acts of contrition from MP's of all parties who made it clear that although what they'd done was morally indefensible they'd not broken any rules.

Today (14/5) the Telegraph published probably the most shocking revelations about both Labour and Conservative MP's. These included Andrew MacKay, a Conservative, who was forced to resign his post after it was revealed he had his MP wife were both claiming for two separate homes. Most shocking though was the story of Elliot Morley, a Labour MP who allegedly claimed £16,000 in mortgage interest payments for a mortgage that didn't exist. This appears to be a criminal act of fraud and the matter has already been reported to the police by the Tax Payers Alliance a right-wing pressure group. That will be especially useful to the Conservative party because even if the police decide there is no case to answer the story of Mr Morley will still be making headlines long after the sins of Conservative MP's have been forgotten. This will help the "MP's Expenses Scandal" become the "Labour MP's Expenses Scandal" and help build an association in the public mind between the Labour party and sleaze. The Labour party also took a second body blow from the Establishment today when two Labour peers were found guilty, by a standards committee, of accepting money in exchange for helping to change British law. They each now face a six month suspension from the House of Lords something which hasn't happened since the 17th century.

On a related note the police in Luton today made a number of arrests over an incident in March when some less then convincing "Islamic Extremists" protested at a parade marking the return of British Soldiers from Afghanistan. Anyone would think the European elections are coming up in three weeks time.

London's Tamils Do It Again.

Yesterday (11/5) Tamils who had been protesting on the green in Parliament Square saw there numbers swell to 700 and swamped police lines. At around 10:30 they spilled out on to the roads blocking traffic across the four main roads and Westminster Bridge. By 16:30 the police, using a labour intensive softly softly approach, had cleared the side of the square around Whitehall and Westminster Bridge allowing some traffic to flow. By 19:30 the number of protesters had dwindled allowing the demonstration to be contained on the grass and the square was fully re-opened to traffic. A small group of protesters climbed Westminster Abbey, hung a banner and occupied the roof.

This latest protest comes in response to events this weekend in the Tamil homeland which saw over 400 people killed in shelling by the Sri Lankan army. This led to an emergency, informal meeting of the United Nations in which the situation in the supposed "safe zone" in northern Sri Lanka was described as a bloodbath. The Sri Lankan government rejected the claim and described the situation as a humanitarian operation before accusing the Tamil Tigers of killing their own civilians in order to win a propaganda war. At the same time the Sri Lankan's began expelling foreign journalists from the country after they began reporting that Tamil civilians being held in Sri Lankan internment camps were being subjected to a lack of food and water, physical and sexual assault and even rape. The Sri Lankan army describes these camps as humanitarian centres being used to house Tamil civilians the army has rescued from the Tamil Tigers.

The Parliament square protest was so significant it caused to emergency questions being asked on the floor of the House of Commons during the debate on the expenses scandal. The MP's could have used this as an opportunity to discuss the support the British government has been giving the Sri Lankan army in it's war against the Tamils. They could have used it as an opportunity to discuss the way the police deal with political demonstrations. They could even have used it as an opportunity to condemn the actions of the Sri Lankan army. Instead the MP's decided to complain that the protest had delayed them getting into Parliament. Apparently some were so late that they were unable to file that days expenses claims.

Today the demonstration in Parliament square is reported to be growing by the hour. This could provide an interesting backdrop to coming weekend. On Saturday an unknown number of people are expected to gather at London's Heathrow airport to take part in the Euro flash mob in protest against airport expansion http://www.euroflashmob.com/ At the same time 10,000 - 15,000 people are expected to take part in a march against the Israeli blockade of Gaza http://stopwar.org.uk/content/view/1179/1/ If there is another large Tamil demonstration in Parliament square it dramatically increases the chances that there will be a break out group from both demonstrations heading to either the Israeli of Sri Lankan Embassy.

The "There is Nothing Going On" Post.

It's been brought to my attention that I haven't posted in a massive four days. The simple reason for that there's not really been much going on. Of course the process by which the British New Labour government will be erased from the political landscape is ongoing and will continue until the 2010 general election. I think that New labour represent and indefensible ideology so have no incentive to stop this happening. I am a little disappointed though that the way the British Monarchy are going about the process lacks flair and creativity.

There is also the ongoing story in Bristol where the police are looking for a woman called Hannah who is accused of killing and 11 year old boy called Sam Riddall in a hit and run car accident. I know little about the reality of the story but Hannah is a name that has appeared all over the map in relation to the Bristol Abuse Case although I can't work out why. The main protagonist in the BAC is a woman called Anna without the H's so I think this "Hannah" is an entirely fictitious character created by MI5 to help spread confusion by starting a wild goose chase to find a MI5 handler that never really existed. Riddall of course sounds a lot like riddle which is another word for a puzzle, mystery or conundrum and Sam is a former associate of mine who is causing MI5 quite some bafflement. This means the Brit's are desperately trying to find Hannah to help them solve the Sam Riddall case. Rather then acting as a guide for something that is actually happening the purpose of this story is to make a lot of noise across the Bristol region and put the residents of Bristol on edge by causing them a lot of stress. I think all this proves is that the BAC was never intended to be a warm and cuddly relationship based on love and care. Personally if I was running the MI5 operation I would never have taken this step because they've got to be on crack if they think anyone would take on a shrivelled up rape victim without serious financial remuneration.

I've also broken off all contact with my mother. This is hardly newsworthy because it happened over a month ago. The only new development is that she's sent me an unsolicited letter on the matter. I could post up the entire three page original document but there's not really much in it and it would probably only embarrass her. It starts off by assuming that I'm breaking off contact with her because she won't let me rent her flat which is inaccurate. It then goes on to complain that she has to travel really far too and from work and isn't earning as much money as she would like. That's hardly surprising considering that she gave up a £50,000 per year job close to home for a £25,000 a year job on the other side of the city. Although not mentioned in the letter there is a rumour going around that the state intends to lash out to make her and my brother's lives more difficult. I'm not sure how true that is but while it will obviously be very sad for them I'm not sure how it's really my problem. After all they've both firmly put their loyalty in the hands of the British State and I've seen hundreds of people do that over the years and I've yet to see it work out well once.

Oh and I should point out for people who rely on the BBC for their news that in the Pakistan / Taliban war metaphor Britain is cast in the role of the Taliban. You know, the bunch of religious fanatics who want to drag the world back into the dark ages. Bit of an insult to the Taliban if you ask me.

Mayday in Brighton Part 2.

I haven't really got anything new to add but I've just realised that yesterday's post didn't include any video or photographs of the days events. There's two main reasons for this;

1. There was no mainstream media coverage of the protest. This is a little strange because all the national news networks had people in Brighton to cover a teachers conference and the protest would have made good filler on an otherwise slow news day. You would think a news blackout was in operation.
2. Unlike the G20 protesters the Mayday protesters seemed more interested in actually doing things rather then filming them.

Despite this lack of available footage this is some of the best I've been able to find on YouTube (sorry still no embedding);

The protest as it move up the Queens Road to Brighton Station at around 13:00 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyeqgKC4WU8

The Police trying to move the back of the protest down Trafalgar street after the cordon was broken at around 13:20 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IV9J5q3K0r4

The Police using the sectoring technique to protect the McDonald's on London Road at around 13:40 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cklB6xDyOKI

Same event from the opposite end of the street http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=laA1unF84PI

The Protest just after it had broken through the London Road cordon and moved onto Ditchling road at around 13:50 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTMrLlUIXgM

The Protest Moving up Ditchling Road at around 14:10 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6srqs3cd1pA worth noting because it appears to show the police using a fire engine as a roadblock.

Police redeploying in response to Ditchling Road Break out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUKkYtCHyRA

Protest moving down Stanford Avenue towards Preston Park at around 14:20 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KryUxlI6qhQ

Police prevent protest moving back up Trafalgar Street at around 15:15 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WIxgYtu9aw

Same incident different angles http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dd2qvABy0CQ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFTgF4uapPc

Protest moving back to Palace Pier from St Peter's Church at around 17:00 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pv45EKAOCRo

The Protest draws to a close on the seafront with kids occupying the roof of an independent, family run cafe http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGDc213skt8

If this huge list of YouTube links doesn't sate your interest the local newspaper's coverage of the protest is "unrivalled" because they were the only one's covering it http://www.theargus.co.uk/news/smashedo/

Mayday in Brighton.

This years Mayday protests focused on the arms trade, specifically the Edo MBM factory in Brighton. I didn't attend because I wasn't expecting much from the organisers. As it turns out I owe them an apology because it ended up being a very successful protest.

http://www.mybrightonandhove.org.uk/static_idtxt__googlemap.aspx

The day started at around 11:30 when 50 cyclists set out from Brighton Station in a slow moving critical mass style procession. At around 12:00 the cyclists closed the Palace Pier roundabout by cycling around it. They were quickly joined by around 400-500 protesters on foot who hoisted banners and declared the party started. They were quickly encircled by the police who were unable to prevent the protest moving up the Old Steine at around 12:35. As the protest reached the junction with North Street the police, now in Level 3 riot gear, were forced to surround a branch of the Royal Bank of Scotland in order to prevent damage to the property. This meant they were unable to protect a near by branch of Barclays Bank so the scaffold surrounding it was quickly climbed by protesters who unfurled a banner reading Arms Dealers Out of Brighton. By 13:00 the march, which was now headed by mounted police, set off up Queens Road where an Army recruitment centre and a branch of McDonalds were attacked with paint bombs.

At 13:20 the march, which had now swelled to around 1500 people, arrived at Brighton station and was forced to negotiate Trafalgar street. This is a narrow street that passes under the station concourse making it a natural choke point which has previously been used by the police to kettle unruly demonstrations. On this occasion the marchers were having no of it and broke through police lines in clashes that saw missiles thrown, batons used and a police CCTV van blinded with white paint. Untroubled by police cordons the march headed down Trafalgar street, past St Peter's Church and onto the London Road. At around 13:40 the march paused outside another branch of McDonalds which had it's windows wobbled before the police set up a sterile square across the street to protect it. During this time a police van was immobilised, re-painted and lightly damaged although attempts to set it on fire failed when a flare was lit underneath rather then inside it. This delay allowed the police to set up a cordon between London Road and Ditchling Road in an attempt to force the protest into Preston Park where it could be contained. At 13:50 the protest again showed that it wasn't going to be dictated too and smashed through police lines onto Ditchling Road. This caused the protest to effectively split into two with a smaller, fluffier group heading straight for Preston Park while the main group headed up Ditchling Road. At around 14:10 the police tried to stop the protest moving down Stanford Avenue. Again this led to violent clashes where batons were used and bricks were thrown before the police line was broken for a third time and the protest moved down Standfrod Avenue to Preston Park in order to reunite the two groups. By 14:20 the two groups had reassembled in Preston park and there were further clashes with the police in which a second CCTV wan was blinded by paint.

Finding itself in the wide open space of a park the march lost momentum as the protesters sat around and had a bit of a picnic. This allowed the police to gain control of the situation and at around 15:00 they began moving the protest back down the London Road in a controlled fashion. This control didn't extend to blocking Trafalgar Street so the police escaped the police's clutches and headed up the street to Brighton station. At around 15:15 the protest hit the choke point for the second time and this time the police were much better prepared with the gradient on their side and successfully blocked the groups path. Over the course of the next hour there was an aggressive stand off while barricades were built, bricks, bottle and punches were thrown and the police responded with baton charges. This was by far the most violent part of the day and caused many of the protesters to lose interest. By 16:15 the protest had dispersed to St Peter's Church where two sound systems were set up, people chilled out and generally carried on with the party. The police retreated to the police station on John Street partly for a rest and partly to set up a protective cordon because they expected an attack on the city's main police station. At 17:00 the protest did reform but headed back to the Palace Pier roundabout. By 17:15 the police had redeployed to the roundabout leading to a small running battle along the King's Road where flares and other missiles were thrown at the police. By 17:50 the protesters had occupied the roof of a sea front cafe and remained there until the protests fully dispersed at around 20:00. Overnight there was some damage to property and graffiti against Banks and local suppliers of the Edo MBM factory.

The protest is being widely reported as the largest demonstration Brighton has seen in 20 years. This is simply not true. On the first day of the Iraq war around 3000 Brighton residents got together at dawn and blockaded all main road and rail links in and out of the city. They held their positions until the evening when they linked up with another 10,000 protesters for a protest march that brought the city to a standstill and led to the Town Hall being overrun. On that occasion the police didn't so much battle for control as hid in the police station until people got bored and went home of their own accord. On the neither that demonstration or Monday's Mayday protest the police attempted to use kettling tactics instead relying on the older public order tactic of sectoring where a large crowd is broken up into smaller groups by deploying riot officers to set up sterile squares to protect key locations.

Looking back on their Mayday operation the police will be able to identify several positives;

1. They didn't kill anyone. After the G20 protests the police were so worried about this the took to deploying Ambulance service paramedics in riot gear to work alongside the riot officers.
2. There was no large scale or serious damage to property.
3. Although the demonstration disrupted the normal operation of the city the police were able to keep traffic flowing without any serious delays.

The protesters will also be able to look back at some key successes from the day;

1. The March Was Unconfined. Up until it's arrival in Preston Park the protest was able to go where it wanted when it wanted. They dropped the ball slightly on the London Road and in Preston Park but were able to recover the initiative.
2. Property Damage. A number of windows were broken and shops were damaged alongside 3 police vehicles that were put out of action. The only restriction on more damage being done seemed to be the protesters desire to do so.
3. Resistance of Police Surveillance. Aside from the two CCTV vans that were blinded Forward Intelligence teams were frequently prevented from photographing protesters and on a number of occasions were forced to retreat by the crowd.
4. De-arrests The police attempted to effect 12 arrests throughout the day but only 3 were successful as protesters moved to protect each other.
5. The Black Bloc. This protest featured a small but organised black bloc who were prepared to wear masks and deploy protective and other specialist equipment. This is the first time I have seen this at a protest on the British mainland and is the sort of thing that will make the security services very nervous especially if the protesters learn that cycle helmets are much more effective then builders helmets.

Obviously coming so soon after the G20 protests the Mayday demonstration suffered from a lack of numbers but it was worth noting that around 2000 Mayday protesters seemed to achieve more then 9000 G20 protesters. If I had to score the event I would say that the protesters beat the police 5-3 on the day giving the anarchists a 10-4 aggregate win for the whole weekend.

Mayday Disaster.

As I've already reported this year's Mayday protests in London were little more then a joke with only 100 people gathering outside the the Bank of England with no clear purpose. After witnessing the non-event first hand I asked the obvious question of why the Baby P trial was not used as more of a theme especially as the trial was scheduled to end on either April 30th or May 1st.

After some research I've discovered that the case was discussed extensively in relation to the Mayday protest to the extent that a dry run was carried out. However those plans were shelved in favour of the shambles everyone witnessed because it was felt that opposing child abuse and torture was incompatible with the Gay Rights Agenda.

The Mayday protests are expected to continue with an event in Brighton on Monday May 4th but I won't be attending because I won't be expecting much.

Worst Riot Ever!

As they seemed to be the pivot on which most of the news turned I decided to go a see what was happening with the Mayday protests and to be honest they were rubbish. Around 80-100 people assembled on the triangle outside the Royal Exchange with a sound system and a barbecue, there was some dancing, some flag waving and some outrageous costumes before everyone went home after about an hour. Even the FIT looked bored letting there cameras flop to the ground as if to say they'd already photographed everybody four times and clearly nothing was going to happen.

To be fair it was always going to be difficult to mobilize people just four weeks after the G20 protests especially as the Climate Campers were absorbed in a post event sulk. For the life of me though I can't understand why they chose to locate the protest at the Bank of England when the Baby P trial was coming to a conclusion in the Aldwych area.