So successful has the prison been that, after a century and a half of ‘failures’, the prison still exists, producing the same results, and there is the greatest reluctance to dispense with it. – Michael Foucault, 1975.
Just got back from a protest outside the Danish embassy, in solidarity with the climate prisoners. This week, the [...]
After 4,500 submissions and 100,000 votes, the POWER 2010 pledge has finally been revealed.
1. Introduce a proportional voting system.
2. Scrap ID cards and roll back the database state.
3. Replace the House of Lords with an elected chamber.
4. Allow only English MPs to vote on English laws.
5. Draw up a written constitution.
I, and others writing for [...]
Peter Tatchell’s is – perhaps understandably – pissed off. The Press Complaints Commission has failed to uphold a complaint against Jan Moir’s despicable attack on late boyzone star Stephen Gately. Yet he is wrong to demand – along with many others - that the PPC, a “discredited, feeble institution” be “replaced by an independent statutory [...]
Like most people I like to think of myself as more complicated than one particular social, philosophical or political theory can pigeonhole. I am full of contradictions and exceptions. As Chris Rock said:
“I got some shit I’m conservative about, I got some shit I’m liberal about. Crime – I’m conservative. Prostitution – I’m liberal.”
Even my [...]
So the Tories want to incentivise marriage? Who says romance is dead?
I got married two years ago (please contain your disappointment…). Contrary to popular belief I did this by choice. It hasn’t made one iota difference to our relationship, it does however change how others treat you (I now get patronised even more by bank [...]
You may remember the furious reaction that set in some time ago, when a group of Muslim protestors in Luton gathered to oppose – in pretty strong terms – a parade of soldiers returning from war. Well it appears that public denunciation is not the only response that have attracted. Today 7 people appeared in [...]
Hey, remember that time a couple of months ago when Trafigura tried to stop the Guardian from reporting what was said in Parliament? Want to stop the rich and powerful from using the threat of expensive court cases to bully writers, scientists and academics into censoring themselves? PEN and Index on Censorship have teamed up [...]
Gabriel Tabar will not be allowed to lead a normal life any time soon. Under the terms of an ASBO he is banned from goin within 50 metres of some 38 schools dotted around his locality. To put it another way he is banned from setting foot within a whole multitude of areas which between [...]
Victory! The injunction’s been lifted, and the Guardian is allowed to report the Parliamentary question for itself. Good fucking work everyone.
Earlier this evening The Guardian was served with a gagging order forbidding it from reporting parliamentary business. To quote the article in the paper itself:
Today’s published Commons order papers contain a question to be answered by a minister later this week. The Guardian is prevented from identifying the MP who has asked the question, what [...]
