Prisme workers of Dundee have occupied their factory after they were made redundant with 1 day's notice. Send messages of support to 07882804212 or email christinaf1956@hotmail.com

PASS THIS INFO ON!

Craig Murray, former British Ambassador to Uzbekistan, whistleblower on torture and all-round hero, MAY have the chance to present evidence to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on human rights on the 10th March, IF they decide his evidence is worth hearing.

Convince them it is. Craig says:

The government is lobbying hard for my exclusion. I need everybody to send an email to jchr@parliament.uk to urge that I should be allowed to give evidence. Just a one-liner would be fine. If you are able to add some comment on the import of my evidence, or indicate that you have heard me speak or read my work, that may help. Please copy your email to craigjmurray@tiscali.co.uk.

Please also pass on this plea to anyone you can and urge them to act. Help from other bloggers in posting this appeal would be much appreciated.

Thanks.

There's a petition to ask the EU to break off it's trading relations with Israel until they agree to abide by human rights law.

It's being backed by such worthies as Alexei Sayle, Mordechai Vanunu and Clare Short. Yes, really. Anyway, link here:

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/Suspend-EU-Israel-Trade-Agreement

The petition will be physically delivered to the parliament in Brussels by some enthusiastic cyclists. No, really.

Sign it for the oddity alone, why dontcha?

Bravo! Just, bravo. Direct action we can all be proud of.

Over 150 supporters of Scottish Stop the War Coalition and Palestinian groups have occupied the BBC headquarters in Glasgow. They say they will not end their occupation until the BBC has reversed its decision not to broadcast an emergency aid appeal for Gaza. The protesters are demanding to meet with a senior representative of the BBC.

Edit:
In an unforgivable breach of blogiquette, I did not give a hat-tip to Lenin. Sorry.

Update:
Intriguingly the Beeb isn't covering this, and nor is the Graun, but Sky is. Wonder why? After all, Sky aren't showing the DEC's campaign either...

Update Updated:
Switching to Sky News to see what's what, I saw Samantha Morton make a very strong and unexpected statement. Apparently, during Children in Need, Lenny Henry made a funny joke. This is pretty unprecedented, as anyone who's seen his Premier Travel Inn adverts will know. Or of course, anyone who's seen him in anything ever. Chef, anyone?

Samantha also said something about not working for the Beeb ever again unless they changed their minds, but I wasn't really paying attention after that bombshell, as you can imagine.

Updated  Update Updated:
The Beeb has finally acknowledged that the occupation did take place - it was mentioned in passing at 6:35 am on the Today show. I take it all back....

I know I'm well behind the curve here, as you can get the story from any of these excellent news nodes:
Socialist Unity
Septicisle
Enemies of Reason
Lenin's Tomb
Beau Bo d'Or
Stop the War
Tony Benn
and of course weirdly, the BBC.

Anyway, for anyone who did miss - this apart from wondering where you've been living, in a chinese pipe? - here's roughly what's happened:

Palestinians who've had their hospitals, schools, universities and UN aid buildings reduced to rubble, who've suffered the loss of 1,400 of their fellow countrymen, women and children and trying to treat 5,400 wounded. People who've seen their medical workers attacked. People who in their hundreds of thousands have no access to drinking water and food, and most of whom do not have a stable electricity supply, apparently don't constitute 'humans' enough to have their situation called a 'humanitarian crisis'.

The Disasters and Emergency Committee wanted the Beeb to carry adverts launching an appeal for Gaza, and the Beeb said that it wouldn't because it might be seen as biased. The other networks promptly used this as an excuse not to carry it either.

Presumably, in order for the Beeb to carry the ads, Hamas will need to inflict a comparable level of damage on Israel. (Note, comparing population figures for Israel to those in Gaza, I estimate that Hamas would have to kill around 6,500 Israelis and injure 25,000. Current civilian casualties in Israel from Hamas stand at 3. Time to get busy with the rockets I'm afraid, if you want any money for reconstruction!).

It is interesting to note that even the government, who have actually supplied some of the weaponry that made this disaster possible, have criticised the Beeb on this one.

Anyway, please protest to the Beeb about this. 03700 100 222.
Update: or here http://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/complaints_stage1.shtml

If Palestinians try and feed themselves,

'Israel has warned of renewed military strikes on Gaza if tunnels used for
smuggling in goods from Egypt are reopened by Palestinians.'

But uh-oh,

'some of the tunnels are already back in operation, with fuel being
smuggled in.'

But hang on, I thought

'the three week campaign had achieved all of its objectives. '

But how do we really know? How do we know that Israel has failed?

'TV images on Wednesday showed a truck being filled with petrol, apparently
smuggled in through a tunnel.'

That's right. We know that Israel has not achieved it's objectives because Palestinians are able to get trucks moving in their own country.

Hum.

By way of a postscript, remember: if an elected Palestinian government buys arms, that's smuggling. If the Israeli government buys arms, that's a valuable contribution to the British economy.

Update to PS: what Mark said. Hey, I never said it was an original point or anything...

In the wake of Obama's ascension yesterday, anyway.

I was browsing through a book on Catholicism, as you do, and was struck by this description of one of the Spanish Inquisition's many interesting habits:

'Prisoners' hands would be tied behind their backs and their bodies then hoisted off the ground. They would be left suspended for hours or days until they were ready to 'confess' their sins. In another [torture method], the accused would be strapped to a trestle table, with their feet higher than their heads, while the priestly inquisitors would pour water down their throats.'

Go and see Moazzam Begg speak next week, I urge you.

Those who know me, and those who just read this travesty of a blog, will know/ have guessed that I am to popular culture what Richard Littlejohn is to the serious novel. But this is good:

Pinder is evicted from CBB house

David Cameron take note: everyone still hates a Tory.

I like good news like this, really I do.

'Does the British media have an anti-Israel bias?'

Seriously. Whence did this fear of an evil pro-Hamas media come from? Why, the Zionist editor of the Jewish Chronicle, who's said some nasty (but fortunately, clearly ludicrous) things about Guardian journos over the last couple of days.

This is an excuse for a lengthy piece of navel gazing from the twits who front t'Graun's Media Talk podcast, and professional dullard Jonathan Freedland. Apparently the reason the Beeb is being so nice to the murdering Israeli government at the moment is because they were so nasty about the equally murderous Israeli assault on the refugee camps of Lebanon in 2006. Riiiiight.  'Cos normally wouldn't use the same tactics on the Palestinians as they do for Trades Unionists when there's a strike on*, normally they'd be ruthlessly reporting the facts on the ground.

I love the way the entire discussion takes place without anyone mentioning that the reason that Israel might look quite bad despite the best attempts of our media to suggest otherwise is the unseemly pile of bodies that is growing at an equally unseemly rate. No matter how many times you lie and claim that Hamas broke the ceasefire, no matter how little you mention the wider context of the conflict, so it looks like a bunch of uppity brown people with rocket launchers' fault, people are going to look at all those bodies and say 'seems a bit much, don't you think?'

Shorter the above: Twunts.

*Roughly, "we gave you a 30 second interview clip, so there's nothing untoward about asking the CBI to provide in-studio analysis about why your action is futile".

http://heathlander.wordpress.com/2009/01/06/about-those-hamas-targets/

'We’re hearing a lot about Israel’s supposed assault on “Hamas targets”, or what Israel – together with the more vulgar of its apologists - likes to term “terrorist infrastructure”. Let’s have a quick - and by no means exhaustive - look at what that phrase in fact refers to.'

'Hospitals, ambulances and medical workers'

The below details of upcoming demos have been shamelessly nicked from: http://www.palestinecampaign.org/Index7b.asp?m_id=1&l1_id=3&l2_id=62&Content_ID=374

National Demo Saturday 10th January, 12.30. Speaker's Corner, Hyde Park.

Book your place on the coach down from Tyneside - stopthewarcoalition@gmail.com. £25 waged, £10 unwaged.

Scotland-wide Demonstration
Edinburgh   Saturday 10 January 2009
Assemble 12:30pm E. Market Street (behind Edinburgh Waverley Train Station)
Visit Scottish PSC website for details.

Also, for my Sheffield audience:

Wednesday 7th January:
1.30 p.m. Lobby of Sheffield City Council (outside Sheffield Town Hall)
2 p.m. Presentation of petition to Full council meeting and debate of emergency resolution on Gaza. Public allowed in and questions allowed between 2 and 3 p.m.

Saturday 10th January:
Coaches to London for demonstration.
Sheffield: protest vigil outside Sheffield Town Hall for those unable to travel to London.

*UPDATE: tickets are down to £10, £5 for concessions, apparently.*

Can't believe this is still dragging on, but it looks like (legal issues pending) Al Franken, with a whopping majority of 225 votes, may make it to the senate after all. This is a great day for people who think Saturday Night Live is cutting edge satire everywhere.

'Yesterday was a bad day for us, we lost 5 medics ... one was targeted quite deliberately, the Israelis waited until the doctor had picked up an injured man, then fired a shell into the ambulance'

- Aid worker Sharon Lock, interviewed on News 24.

Sadly, No! is a US blog I check out frequently but usually it's a bit too US-centric to be wholly understood by a Britisher like me. Nevertheless this is an absolute comedy gem...

'Ask a Sociopath Vice-President

Let’s give Erick some substantive questions to ask Mr. Cheney during those moments when the fluffing stops because the pain in his jaw overwhelms even the most sycophantic Viking’s resolve to pleasure mass-murdering psychopaths:

• What’s the proper time and setting for microwaving a live puppy?

• The gun, that guy’s face, you know what I’m talking about — didja do it because you were trying to help him shoo away a fly, or because you just wanted to see what it felt like to shoot somebody?

• Can you describe what an infant’s flesh actually tastes like? And don’t say “like chicken.”'

Check it out, I urge you.

... it's really bugging me.

To call Israel 'bullish' over it's current behaviour is obviously understating it somewhat. One senior military figure has been quoted as saying

'"After this operation there will not be a single Hamas building left standing in Gaza, and we plan to change the rules of the game," he told the YNet News website.

"We are hitting not only terrorists and launchers, but also the whole Hamas Government and all its wings."'

(As a quick reminder, the word 'Hamas' is interchangeable with the term 'democratically elected government'.)

However, the causus belli is still the 'threat to Israeli lives' from Qassam rockets.

'Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told his Cabinet on Sunday that he was well aware of the risks of the operation, but that Israel could not allow its civilians to continue to be targeted by rockets from Gaza.

'This morning I can look every one you in the eyes and say the government did everything before deciding to go ahead with the operation. This operation was unavoidable,' he said.'

A case which might be easier to make if this hadn't been deliberately provoked by the Israelis. And yes, I know it's an obvious point to make, but look at the asymmetry here. Even if you lay aside the fact that this war was, like the assault on Lebanon in 2006, pre-planned and awaiting a convenient excuse, and that Hamas were provoked into not renewing the ceasefire, the sheer, obvious weakness of this as a moral figleaf screams out at you.

'The death toll in Gaza climbed to nearly 500, with more than 2,300 wounded, according to Palestinian medical officials.

Four Israelis have died in rocket and mortar attacks from Gaza since Saturday, with around 60 wounded. Hamas launched further rocket attacks on Israel today.'

At this moment, the Beeb is saying that:

'The Palestinian health ministry says more than 500 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have now been killed since the Israelis began their assault on Gaza eight days ago. A further 2,500 have been wounded.

The Israeli military says one of its soldiers has been killed and 32 wounded in the ground offensive, at least two of them seriously. It believes about 80% of the Palestinians killed were Hamas members.

Hamas officials say that 10 of its fighters have so far been killed.'

Oh, and by the way, in case you were thinking 'perhaps Israel's right, perhaps they are all evil Hamas-ites, it should be noted that male Palestinians are not counted as civilians.

Anyway, to briefly answer a UN aid worker, who had this to say:

“I have a message to the UN Security Council in New York,” said Chris Gunness, spokesman for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, the humanitarian body. “How many innocent babies, children and other civilians have to suffer and die before you raise your hand for a peace resolution?”

I think the answer may lie here...

“The pattern of diplomacy in this case is a repeat of UN resolution 1701 [which ended the Lebanon war],” a senior Arab League official said. “We see the same procrastination – the US doesn’t want the Security Council to intervene to allow Israel more time. They want to get to a point where the terms of the ceasefire are favourable to Israel.”

Good gods... I mean I'm sorry to get so Sixth Form and angry about the needless death and everything, but, seriously. It's not so long ago that our own dear leader had the nerve to try and portray Iraq as anything other than a deeply shameful and tragic series of events that did great harm to millions of people through a witches' brew of realpolitik and hubris. Today, we still have people trying to pull this shit when you have the nerve to suggest that slaughtering people is bad:

'Wholly predictably one finds the Guardian's leaders and letters pages teeming with the usual unsophisticated condemnations of Israel, now it is engaged in decisive military action against Hamas in Gaza. Although Israel has undoubtedly committed many mistakes in the past 60 years, it remains the first duty of any state to protect its citizens. Not only has it learned from its mistakes, but Israel has also learned to distinguish between those interventions that are effective and those which are not.'

Note: unsophisticated means 'not as good at ignoring reality as me, Dr John Stephens of London'.

The only upside is that I've heard fewer attempts this time round to play the ludicrous 'you're an anti-semite' card that usually gets put around when Israel commits crimes against humanity. By the way, it was pointed out to me the other day that Palestinians are also semitic, so as an accusation it's even dumber than I previously thought...

(From this morning - good turnout, no?)

The best source I've found so far to provide good in-depth coverage and analysis during the horror has been Lenin's Tomb, but these particular articles on the real attempts by Hamas to make peace and Israel's lack of interest in peace, and why Hamas fight in the way that they do are worth a look.

Chicken Yoghurt has an interesting note on the way our lords and masters have behaved over this.

From the populist end, where some audiences actually still have to be reminded that Israel is the aggressor, Mark Steel's New Year's Eve column is good.

Jonathan Cook is one of the best English-language journalists reporting from Palestine - his latest articles are here, and this one's intriguing: why Israel is not sending in the tanks just yet.

The Graun, in between the usual 'well I think we're all in the wrong, aren't we?' hand-wringing, has a few good bits of reportage - here's one.

Oh, and as I post this, Bush says Hamas to blame for Gaza, says t'Beeb. It's good to know the chimp's still on the job, isn't it? Wonder if it has anything to do with this:

'Almost unnoticed, Israel and the White House signed a deal over the summer to station an early-warning missile radar system, staffed with US military personnel, in Israel’s Negev desert. The media here described the Joint Tactical Ground Station, which brings Israel under the US protective umbrella against missile attack, as a “parting gift” from President Bush as he prepared to leave office.

'The local media reported that the early-warning station would limit Israel’s freedom to attack Iran since it would be the prime target for a retaliatory strike, endangering the lives of US personnel. Or as the Haaretz newspaper noted, Israeli officials viewed the radar system “as a signal of Washington’s opposition to an Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear program”.

'Although ostensibly the warm relations between Israel and the US are unchanged, in reality recent events are forcing a reluctant Israel to submit to the increasingly smothering embrace of Washington.'

Probably not. Forget I mentioned it.

Changing the subject completely from my previous post, there's some protests going on at the latest Israeli barbarisms next weekend. Kick off the New Year in style! Any suggestions for chants gratefully received.

There's a national demo down in London - Lenin has the details, but if you know what an 'Embankment' is, it kicks off at 12.30 apparently.

Locally, meet at Monument at 12.

Edit: Sorry, that's this Saturday, 3rd January 2009, just to clarify.

'....what would happen in their own countries if a local journalist tried to hurl insults at President Mubarak of Egypt or President Assad of Syria'

Good point, The Times. What would have happened?

'Muntadar al-Zaidi has allegedly suffered a broken arm, broken ribs and internal bleeding, his older brother, Dargham, told the BBC''

Hmmm.

Guess Muntadar is lucky to be in Iraq then.

A few bits today - let's start with Jean Charles de Menezes.

'He was an innocent man and we must accept full responsibility for his death,' said the Met's Commissioner.

Why bother with that, Sir Paul? I think it's quite clear the Met's responsible for his death - they shot him 7 times in the head after all. Who else was responsible - the bullet fairies? Or perhaps he suffered a fatal heart attack just seconds before he was opened fire on?

Moving on, we have a nice example of nominitive determinism - the term coined by New Scientist's Feedback section to describe the phenomenon of people whose names fit their jobs in an uncanny manner. In the row over the Government's use of incomplete knife crime statistics we find that the head of the UK Statistics Authority is called Sir Michael Scholar. The UKSA is charged with making sure that Government data is authoritative.

Changing tack again, in the wake of the rejection of the Manchester Congestion charge, here's an interesting alternative view from Complex System of Pipes from a few weeks ago.

From a commenter at Chicken Yoghurt I found this rather amusing story about a head of an investment fund with a mere 25 clients who lost $17bn by lying about how good he was:

'On Dec. 10, 2008, Madoff informed the Senior Employees, in substance, that his investment advisory business was a fraud. Madoff stated that he was "finished," that he had "absolutely nothing," that "it's all just one big lie," and that it was "basically, a giant Ponzi scheme. Madoff stated that the business was insolvent, and that it had been for years. Madoff also stated that he estimated the losses from this fraud to be at least approximately $50 billion.'

As Nelson Munz would say, Haha.


It also turns out that, according to an economist given airtime on 5 Live this afternoon that 'markets don't work efficiently'. What is the world coming to?

And finally, this laptop came with an oddly addictive tile-based game which has a marvellously poorly translated grasp of English. Here's the message you get when you complete it on the hardest setting:


I'm not sure whether to be charmed or concerned...

Finally, as soon as I finished my placement I came down with this horrible ruddy lurgy, so I will be even grumpier than usual for the next few days.

8 years ago, the American people had their democracy stolen by someone who took a shit in it, then gave it back to the grieving populace, then stole it again, whilst the world looked on. More in sadness than in anger, global civilisation said to itself, "how did they let that happen?"

I was engaging in a bit of nostalgia down at TV Go Home earlier, and I found this proof that we knew it was going to be bad before it even started:



Whatever else the New Year brings, at least that's over.

I really don't know what to think about the whole Damien Green thing. On the one hand, as septicisle says, at first glance it seems to be a disturbing development that the bizzies can arrest an MP for being in possession of leaked information, not least because I would assume that it's a bit like nicking a dog for having fleas.

But then again, this is developing to be a case where a civil servant who at one point wanted a job with Damien supplied him with information covered by the OSA - which seems like a straightforward criminal offence.

Back on the other side of the fence though, isn't the principle of protecting whistleblowers a deeply honourable notion? If there's a public interest why should it be a good thing that criminal proceedings are taking place?

One letter to the Grauniad today says:
'If a civil servant has been disclosing information to Damian Green then this is surely a matter of a breach of the civil servant's employment contract. It should not be concerned with criminality. If the police needed to be involved at all then they should have conducted their investigations in a sensitive and measured way. We are not just sleepwalking into a surveillance society as the data commissioner suggested recently. We are sleepwalking into a police state.'

But I know from when I was (in a very minor way) in the civil service that all government employees sign the Official Secrets Act - so revealing information is illegal. In that sense the police intervention makes perfect legal sense and doesn't really change the way that an investigation would normally take place, surely?

Then again, there's been all this invocation of parliamentary privilege to get Damien off the rap. As far as I'm aware though (from here and here) this only covers things said in parliament, not private constituency matters. But should it? To me, intuitively, it seems that correspondence between MP and constituent should be confidential in a way similar to lawyer-client confidentiality. If it isn't, is that a problem?

And finally of course, he's a Tory. So any arrest and/or humiliation is self-evidently a Good Thing.

It's just hard to know which way to jump on this one. In short, I'm in a bit of a kerfuffle. Can anyone help me out?