This is a guest post by Matt Mahon Commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe of the Met – played excellently on Monday by Iain Glen, fresh from the set of HBO’s Game of Thrones – was supposed to explain his ‘total policing’ policy at LSE on Monday. In fact, he flannelled for half an hour about the challenges [...]
Last week’s seminar at the Frontline Club asked a very pertinent question of the Occupy London movement pitched outside St. Paul’s. What do you want? I was surprised to see from the show of journalistic hands that the majority in the room did not know exactly what the protesters are camped out for, though, given [...]
Yesterday’s news that the Met is giving its officers access to plastic bullets for tomorrow’s student demonstration is, obviously, pretty disturbing. I’d guess it’s pretty unlikely they’ll actually be used – making a big announcement to the press two days before the event looks a lot more like an attempt to warn off any would-be [...]
On Saturday one of my fellow Third Estaters (I’m assuming Reuben) tweeted: Definitely don’t think the left should be calling for a state van [sic] on the EDL march While compelling, I think this view is seriously mistaken. Granted, it’s always a good idea to be wary of calling on the State to do anything [...]
Dear Judges, In 1748, the Baron of Montesquieu singled out the English political system as an exemplary form of protection of liberties, and the avoidance of corruption and despotism. He described in The Spirit of the Laws the separation between what we would now call the legislative, judiciary and executive powers. His argument was extremely [...]
I. What follows is an account of one of the most politically interesting nights I have experienced. At 6.30pm on Wednesday, I arrived in Deptford High Street for a demonstration of unity, called by an assembly which had met the night before. An odd collection of local leftists and community activists, along with various other [...]
On Saturday, a little bleary eyed from a party the night before, I went and marched with the Campaign for Justice for Smiley Culture. Smiley Culture (born David Emmanuel) was a star before I was born. Half Guyanese, half Caribbean, Smiley became an early success story from the Afro-Caribbean music scene of South London. Pick [...]
Considering that he recently sought to place himself in the tradition of J.S. Mill, it would be interesting to know what Clegg thinks of Osbourne’s latest budget, and in particular the large hike in tobacco tax. Mill, after all, was forthright in his opposition to sin taxes. It was not the place, he argued, of [...]
The charity Liberty, a staunch defender of human rights, seems to have lost its way. Started in the 1930s to safeguard free protest and the human rights of political activists in Britain, the organisation appears to have lost touch with the activists it is meant to be supporting. A month ago, the Trade Union Congress [...]
This is a guest post by Laura Sandwell. Responses to the government’s recent consultation paper on Proposals for the Reform of Legal Aid are now available, and the potential impact of the proposed reforms is becoming clear. The consultation paper sets out “fundamental reform” of the legal aid scheme, and justifies widespread cuts on the [...]
