Will British Conservatives lose election?

This is a British Labour party election video against the Conservatives.

From Lenin’s Tomb blog in Britain:

The Sunday Times‘ latest poll has the Tory lead down to 2% which, even if not reproduced uniformly in a general election, would produce a Labour minority government. The change is produced by a drop in the Tories‘ support from 39% to 37%, and a rise for Labour from 33% to 35%, thus cutting a six point lead to a 2 point lead.

A sense of panic gripped the Conservative Party over the weekend as the latest poll revealed that they have just a two point lead over Labour: here.

The Tories have pledged to speed up the march towards education privatisation with a fresh push towards academy schools: here.

Haughty Tory leader David Cameron has brushed aside demands to repay millions of pounds received in donations from tax-dodging Lord Ashcroft: here.

Confidential letters which indicate that a House of Lords vetting committee twice rejected Lord Ashcroft, the Tory donor, for a peerage because of his position as a “tax exile” have been revealed: here.

Belizean trade unionists have called on top Tory donor Lord Ashcroft to reinvest a portion of his personal £1,100 million fortune in the developing country if it transpires that some of it came from his business interests there: here.

Tory peer Lord Ashcroft was accused today of millions of pounds worth of tax avoidance: here.

Tony Blair was in such despair over the aftermath of the Iraq war that he told Gordon Brown and John Prescott that he intended to stand down as prime minister, according to a new book: here.

The Tories have never liked the travelling community. At the last general election in 2005, then Tory leader Michael Howard made a point of attacking Irish travellers and Gypsies: here.

Gay Tory minister Nick Herbert to challenge party allies’ homophobia at Europride: here.

Controversial Tory backer Lord Ashcroft is to quit as deputy chairman, the Conservatives said on Sunday: here.

Iraq peace movement film

There is a video, the trailer of film We Are Many by Amir Amirani.

From Waging Nonviolence blog:

New documentary on the largest global demonstration for peace in history in the making

by Eric Stoner | February 26, 2010, 10:20 am

Where were you on February 15, 2003? If you were a part of the biggest global demonstration in history against war, which took place that day, I’m sure you remember well.

I was in the streets of Castellon, a small town on the Mediterranean coast of Spain, where I was studying for a master’s in Peace Studies, with some 20,000 other Spaniards protesting the impending war against Iraq. It was really very moving to be a part of such a large gathering.

Now a team is working on a full-length documentary, called “We Are Many,” about that historic day. Although it’s not set to come out until late 2011 or early 2012, they have already completed a very nice trailer for the movie (above). …

However, the hard truth is that we never should have expected one day of protest, no matter how big, to stop a war. That’s not how nonviolence works. If we actually wanted to stop the imminent attack on Iraq, we would have had to come back the next day, and every day after that, until the administration listened. Almost all nonviolent campaigns that have been successful against such a powerful, determined opponent required this type of sacrifice and perseverance from participants.

Protesters would also have needed to try other, more aggressive tactics – like civil disobedience or even a general strike – that more directly disrupt business as usual. If millions of people indefinitely refused to go to work, blocked roads around the country and filled the jails, then Bush may have perhaps faltered.

Rather than simply celebrate February 15, I would encourage the filmmakers to include some discussion along these lines, so that their very promising documentary can contribute to the building of a more effective movement in the future.

Blair warned in 2000 Iraq war was illegal: here.

The European Court of Human Rights has issued a damning criticism of the British government for serious breaches of the European Convention on Human Rights regarding its conduct in Iraq: here.

Britain: Politicians at the highest levels of government could be summoned to testify at the al-Sweady inquiry into the alleged torture and murder of at least 20 Iraqis in British custody in 2004: here.

Last week, President Obama’s out-of-control military brass once again leaked a statement contrary to the president’s position. This time the statement came from Army Gen. Ray Odierno, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, who officially requested to keep a combat brigade in the northern part of the country beyond the August 2010 deadline: here.

Amphibian spring migration in the Netherlands

According to the Dutch herpetologists and ichthyologists of RAVON, amphibian spring migration in the Netherlands has started, now that the worst of the winter cold seems to be over.

In the northern province of Friesland, volunteers have already helped over 300 amphibians to cross dangerous roads safely.

During the first round, the volunteers found 62 amphibians in their buckets: 55 great crested newts, five common newts and two common frogs.

Later, they helped 157 animals to cross; including 124 great crested newts.

In the rest of the Netherlands, the amphibians’ spring migration seems to start more slowly. Only a few common frogs have been seen.

March 2010. Volunteers are gearing up to rescue over 40,000 toads from potential death on the UK’s roads in the coming fortnight, setting a new record: here.

ScienceDaily (Mar. 1, 2010) — Atrazine, one of the world’s most widely used pesticides, wreaks havoc with the sex lives of adult male frogs, emasculating three-quarters of them and turning one in 10 into females, according to a new study by University of California, Berkeley, biologists: here.

Each spring, thousands of species begin an annual return to their breeding grounds. Here are some of the more extraordinary example: here.

Leftist woman cannot get German passport

From The Scotsman:

No, you can’t be a German citizen, you’re too left-wing

Published Date: 25 February 2010

By Stephen McGinty and Allan Hall in Berlin

THE daughter of a former Scots soldier has been refused German citizenship because the government has declared her to be “too left-wing”.

Jannine Menger-Hamilton, 29, grew up in Germany as the daughter of a Scottish army father and an Italian mother, which gave her dual British and Italian citizenship.

However, two years ago, and after marrying a fellow German, she applied to become a citizen of the country in which she has lived since birth.

Yet as she acts as spokeswoman for the Left Party, the country’s most left-wing political party, which was formed from the rump of the old Socialist bloc in former East Germany, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution is understood to have ruled that she is “not suitable” for a passport.

Although passport requests usually take three to six months to process, Ms Menger-Hamilton has still not received official confirmation or rejection after almost three years.

Last night her father, Thomas Hamilton, 58, who is originally from Stranraer and who left the army many years ago and now works for an American company, said he was disappointed that his daughter was being treated so unfairly. “She is bright, attractive, works hard and pays her taxes, and in any other country they would be delighted to welcome her in. Yet because this area is controlled by a conservative party, they are blocking her. She wants to further her political career in Germany.”

The Left Party is the fourth biggest political party in Germany, with 76 MPs in parliament and strongly represented in the EU. It is also under permanent surveillance by the country’s intelligence agencies in certain regions, in case any of its members have links to terrorists.

Mrs Menger-Hamilton used to belong to the more mainstream Social Democratic Party (SPD), but left it when she became disillusioned with its welfare reform programme and other policies. She was not alone, however, as hundreds of thousands of people also left the party, many of them finding sanctuary with her with the Left Party.

Yesterday, a German newspaper reported her case and said: “Officials believe a German passport for Hamilton would endanger the constitutional order.”

When Mrs Menger-Hamilton had not received her passport after two years she asked to see her official records and found numerous letters from Germany’s domestic security agency stating that she was too political.

“I am utterly perplexed,” said Mrs Menger-Hamilton, who has never been in trouble with the law, has never supported terrorist activity and has lived in Germany her whole life. “It sounds pathetic, but it hurt me to be rejected.” Yet she is determined to fight on. She said: “In the state of Brandenburg, the Left Party is in government. Are they all a threat to the German way of things too?”

Last night a spokesman for the German embassy in London said: “Mrs Menger-Hamilton’s application is still being processed by the federal state of Lower Saxony. We cannot comment on ongoing cases at federal state level.”

See also here.

Meanwhile, neo-nazis, originally from Russia or other countries, including at least one racist murderer, have managed to obtain German passports. How many nazis have managed to get what Ms Menger-Hamilton did not get, in Lower Saxony or elsewhere?

Related articles

• Left Leading: Interview with Die Linke leader Katja Kipping by Katja Kipping (zcommunications.org)
• Unusual Shredding and Worrisome Polling by Victor Grossman (zcommunications.org)
• German Greens avoid split by re-electing leftist (news.terra.com)
• German right won’t snub Merkel in Greek vote -ally (uk.reuters.com)

Best songs by women poll

Comments from British daily The Guardian about the song performed in this video:

I’m Gonna Be an Engineer Peggy Seeger 1973

Avoiding the aggressive dogma and ranting soundbites that dulled political doctrines in later eras, Peggy Seeger constructed a folkie story song of such cogent morals and lyrical wit it proved the perfect soundtrack for the march of feminism and a telling anthem for the international women’s movement. Beneath the jauntily engaging narrative about one woman’s quest to break into a man’s professional world, she takes a scathing scalpel to society’s sexist indoctrinations. CI

From the Resistance Facebook group in Newcastle, Australia:

Poll – Hottest 100 songs of all time by female artists (for IWD 2010)

In 2009, radio station Triple J ran a poll to find the Hottest 100 songs of all time… Only 2 of the songs in the final list were sung by female guest vocalists, and only 3 bands had females in them.

Come on people – we can do better than that!

In honour of International Women’s Day, we’re calling for a poll of YOUR Hottest 100 songs by female artists of all time, and we’ll hold a listening party on IWD to celebrate!

So vote now, and pass this along to all your friends.

Anyone can vote, for up to 25 songs each, but vote only for each song once.

Songs can be by a female artist, a female vocalist in a band, or a band with at least two female band-members.

Email your votes to IWDhottest100@gmail.com or post them on the comments section on this page…

Check out the Triple J list here:

http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/hottest100_alltime/countdown/cd_list.htm

http://www.defamer.com.au/2009/07/a-nation-deals-with-the-hottest-100-songs-of-all-time-result/

I have just found out that someone awesome ran an alternative poll last year, so if you’re curious to check out the results.. go here:

http://hottest100women.blogspot.com/2009/08/top-110-final-list.html

International Women’s Day is on Monday 8 March 2010.

Check out info about IWD here: http://www.internationalwomensday.com/first.asp

***

thanks for voting, and if you’re in Newcastle, come along to our listening party – Monday 8 March, Resistance Centre, upstairs, 472 Hunter St… from about 7ish.

Poll results: here.

This music video from the USA is called Joan Jett -Bad Reputation.

Anti-Berlusconi demonstration in Rome

From the BBC:

Ten of thousands of Italians have demonstrated in Rome against Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, over what they say are attempts to evade justice.

Thousands of people demonstrated at the weekend in Rome against Italy’s Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi after the leader attacked judges preparing to try him for corruption: here.

Several tens of thousands of immigrants in 60 Italian cities engaged in strikes and demonstrations March 1 to protest against the racist policies of the Berlusconi government, and for equal rights for all: here.