Afghans illegally imprisoned by British forces

This video from the USA is called Americas Secret Afghan Prisons: Investigation Unearths New US Torture Site in Afghanistan 1 of 2.

This video is called Americas Secret Afghan Prisons: Investigation Unearths New US Torture Site in Afghanistan 2 of 2.

From the BBC:

29 May 2013 Last updated at 04:00 GMT

Afghans ‘unlawfully held’ by UK forces at Camp Bastion

By Dominic Casciani and Clive Coleman, BBC news

British forces are detaining up to 85 Afghan nationals in a holding facility at Camp Bastion, in what could amount to unlawful detention and internment, documents obtained by the BBC suggest.

UK lawyers acting for eight of the men said their clients had been held for up to 14 months without charge.

They compared it to when the public became aware of Guantanamo Bay and want the UK High Court to free them.

…

Camp Bastion in Helmand province is the largest British military base in Afghanistan, housing nearly 30,000 servicemen and women.

Legal documents seen by the BBC suggest that an estimated 85 suspected insurgents are being held at the base in a temporary holding facility.

‘Exceptional circumstances’

British forces in Afghanistan, operating as part of the International Security Assistance Force (Isaf), are allowed to detain suspects for 96 hours.

However, in “exceptional circumstances” – for example, to gather critical intelligence to protect lives – they can hold them for longer periods.

The Ministry of Defence has previously said that Isaf neither has the power nor the facilities to intern detainees in Afghanistan.

But nor can the British pass them to the Afghan authorities, after Defence Secretary Philip Hammond imposed a ban on handing over suspects to Afghan forces last November because of fears over ill-treatment.

UK lawyers acting for eight of the men said their clients were arrested by British soldiers in raids in villages in Helmand and Kandahar provinces and have been held for between eight and 14 months without charge.

They claimed it amounted to unlawful detention and internment.

Lawyers for the men, whom the BBC has chosen not to name over fears for their safety, launched habeas corpus applications at the High Court in London on 18 April, with a full hearing due in late July.

Habeas corpus, in this context, argues for the right to be brought before a court to determine whether their detainment is lawful or not.

The lawyers argue that the MoD should release the men because the British army has no power to continue holding them.

‘Perfect storm’

A senior government lawyer, James Eadie QC, described this situation in court as a “perfect legal storm” because the Army suspects each detainee of links to insurgents.

The families of two of the men who appear to have been held the longest said they were arrested in spring last year and interrogated in the weeks that followed.

But legal papers state their interrogation ended “many months ago”.

Last week, the two were allowed access to lawyers but they have still not been told why they are being held and they have not been charged with any crime.

The families only established where the men were being held with the help of the International Committee of the Red Cross.

One, a teenager, has been held for 14 months, while the other, a 20-year-old father, has been held for 12 months.

In legal papers Dan Squires, a barrister for the 20-year-old, told the High Court: “He has not been granted access to lawyer nor brought before a court.

“He does not know how long he is to remain detained or for what purpose. He has asked whether he will be transferred to Afghan authorities but had been told they do not consider that he has committed any criminal offence and so do not want to receive him.”

‘Suspected killers’

In preparatory legal arguments at the High Court on 22 April, Mr Justice Collins told the government that the case raised serious questions about the British army’s power to hold suspects in Afghanistan, because the UK could not operate a Guantanamo Bay-style prison – referring to the US facility in which enemy combatants can be held indefinitely without trial.

UK forces operate in Afghanistan as members of Isaf.

Isaf was established by a UN Security Council resolution which “authorises the member states participating in Isaf to take all necessary measures to fulfil its mandate”.

The Security Council resolution does not include a power to intern detainees on the basis that they are regarded as a threat to national security or otherwise.

…

Detention procedures

Phil Shiner, lawyer for eight of the men, said: “This is a secret facility that’s been used to unlawfully detain or intern up to 85 Afghans that they’ve kept secret, that Parliament doesn’t know about, that courts previously when they have interrogated issues like detention and internment in Afghanistan have never been told about – completely off the radar.

“It is reminiscent of the public’s awakening that there was a Guantanamo Bay. And people will be wondering if these detainees are being treated humanely and in accordance with international law.”

See also here.

20 percent of Afghan children never reach the age of five: here.

Related articles

• UK admits long detention of Afghans (bbc.co.uk)
• New US torture in Afghanistan accusations (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
• UK ‘abandoning’ Afghan interpreters (rinf.com)
• ISAF: Seven Nato soldiers killed in Afghan – BBC News (americanbulwark.com)
• UK set to return up to 90 Afghans held without charge at ‘secret’ facility in Camp Bastion (independent.co.uk)
• British forces are detaining dozens in Afghanistan, Philip Hammond confirms (guardian.co.uk)
• Camp Bastion: Britain to hand over 85 Taliban suspects to Afghan authorities within weeks (mirror.co.uk)

British bedroom tax making people homeless

From daily News Line in Britain:

Tuesday, 28 May 2013

BEDROOM TAX EVICTIONS!

FAMILIES failing to pay their rent because of the ‘bedroom tax’ are already being threatened with eviction, just weeks after it came into force.

Thousands of people are at risk of losing their homes as councils and housing associations clamp down on those in rent arrears.

Data from 107 local authorities shows that 86,000 households have been forced to look for one-bedroom homes, of which only 33,000 have become available in the past year.

False Economy, the trade union-backed campaign, used freedom of information laws to get the data.

A spokesman said: ‘The disparity between the demand for one-bed housing and a whole year’s worth of supply is so severe that there is little hope of plugging the shortfall.’

The False Economy spokesman went on: ‘Tens of thousands are facing a crisis’.

Councils in many areas began sending notice of arrears letters within weeks of the Bedroom Tax coming in on 1st April, many of which threaten eviction in the long-term if rent is not paid.

The Bedroom Tax has so far affected around 600,000 families nationwide.

They have seen an average of £14 a week cut from their housing benefit.

14 per cent of a tenant’s housing benefit is removed for having one ‘spare’ bedroom and 25 per cent for having two or more.

David Orr, Chief Executive of the National Housing Federation, said: ‘For some the only option is to move into homes for private rent, which in many parts of the country are much higher than social rents.’

He went on: ‘The Bedroom Tax is an ill-thought-through and unfair policy that will cause distress for hundreds of thousands of people forced to move from homes and communities in which they have lived for years.

‘It must be scrapped now.’

Homeless charity Crisis Chief Executive Leslie Morphy said: ‘Without enough one-bedroom homes to move into, tens of thousands are powerless to avoid the anxiety, debt and arrears caused by the Bedroom Tax.

‘Our fear is that many, through no fault of their own, will in the end become homeless as a direct result.’

Foodbank volunteers are facing empty shelves and Blitz-era rationing as the number of starving Scots surges due to the bedroom tax: here.

The head of Scotland’s human rights watchdog appeared lost for words today as he recounted the bedroom tax’s impact before MSPs: here.

UK’s “Bedroom Tax” drives grandmother to suicide: here.

Related articles

• Bedroom tax ‘could make thousands of poor people homeless’ (guardian.co.uk)
• Bedroom tax ‘could make thousands of poor people homeless’ (ukhomelessnessblog.wordpress.com)
• Ten lessons landlords should learn about the bedroom tax (guardian.co.uk)
• Blind widow threatened with eviction from home over £117 unpaid bedroom tax bill (dailyrecord.co.uk)
• Bedroom tax picnic protest planned (24dash.com)
• Council apologises over tenant ‘bedroom tax’ eviction letter (local.stv.tv)
• Councils send out eviction letters, but face resistance over bedroom tax (socialistworker.co.uk)
• British bedroom tax kills a grandmother (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)

Mosque opens doors after fascist threats

This video from Britain is called EDL nazis.

From daily The Morning Star in Britain:

Mosque fights racist threat by throwing open doors

Monday 27 May 2013

A Yorkshire mosque has responded to racist threats by throwing open its doors and inviting in the public, writes Peter Lazenby.

The mosque in Bull Lane, York, learned that fascist English Defence League (EDL) thugs planned to target it following the murder of off-duty soldier Lee Rigby in Woolwich by two self-proclaimed “jihadists.”

Muslims across Britain were among those who condemned the killing, but the soldier’s death has been exploited by the EDL, British National Party, National Front and other fanatics to attack mosques, make racist attacks and fight with police.

When users of the York mosque heard of the EDL threats they decided to stage an open day.

Around 100 local people responded, dwarfing a tiny gathering of EDL supporters nearby.

Mosque elder and York University Professor Mohamed El-Gomati said: “Rather than have a shouting match outside we invited people in to have a discussion and show solidarity over a cup of tea with us.”

See also here.

Related articles

• Activists stand up to racism after Woolwich attack (socialistworker.co.uk)
• Attacks on Muslims spike after Woolwich killing (guardian.co.uk)
• Racism in wake of Woolwich terrorist attack (1ncredible.wordpress.com)
• Attacks on Muslims rise in wake of Woolwich killing (telegraph.co.uk)
• Islamophobic hate crimes running at 10 times usual rate after Woolwich murder of soldier Lee Rigby (belfasttelegraph.co.uk)
• Newcastle united against the racists and Nazis (socialistworker.co.uk)
• Far-right marchers rally amid tensions over Woolwich killing – CNN International (edition.cnn.com)

Illegal British badger killing threatens

This is a video about young badgers in the Netherlands.

From daily The Guardian in Britain:

Culls risk illegally exterminating badgers, animal expert warns

Campaigners for badgers are mobilising to disrupt night-time shoots, as the 1 June start date approaches

• Damian Carrington
• Monday 27 May 2013 14.19 BST

England’s highly controversial badger culls risk illegally wiping out every badger in the cull zones because the animals‘ numbers are so poorly known, according to one of the UK’s leading badger experts.

The culls, intended to curb tuberculosis in cattle, are authorised to begin on 1 June but could prove unworkable because of the uncertainty over badger numbers, said Prof Rosie Woodroffe, at the Zoological Society of London.

The government is determined to have an impact on the disease which in 2012 meant that more than 37,000 cattle had to be slaughtered at a cost to the taxpayer of £100m. But the costs of carrying out and policing the culls will mount as animal rights campaigners mobilise to disrupt the night-time shoots and last-minute legal challenges loom.

The two pilot culls in Gloucestershire and Somerset were postponed in October after farmers’ low estimates of badger numbers were rejected in favour of higher government numbers. Now the population estimates have been reduced again, after further government study.

Sources have told the Guardian that David Cameron has made clear to the environment secretary, Owen Paterson, that another U-turn on the culls is unacceptable and that Paterson’s job is at stake. An insider said that key officials in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) are “pale with worry”.

Paterson has remained steadfast on the cull and told the Sunday Times that it could run for decades: “We want to reduce the incidence of disease to less than 0.2% of herds a year. It will take 20-25 years of hard culling to get to that.”

Woodroffe said: “The difficulty of counting badgers is the Achilles heel of the policy.” Woodroffe was a key member of the team that spent a decade and £50m culling 11,000 badgers before concluding that culling could make “no meaningful contribution” to reducing bovine TB. She said: “Badger numbers halted the cull in October and could still be the thing which makes the cull unworkable. That is completely plausible.”

…

The government has approved two pilot culls to determine whether the untested method of shooting free-running badgers can kill sufficient numbers and do so safely and humanely. Killing at least 70% of badgers in a cull zone is crucial, as the previous decade-long trial showed, otherwise fleeing badgers cause TB in cattle to rise.

But, according to Woodroffe, there are serious uncertainties in the population estimates in the two cull zones. According to the government’s own figures, farmers in Gloucestershire must kill between 2,856 and 2,932 badgers, but the estimate of the population ranges much more widely, from 2,657 to 4,079. Even worse, according to Woodroffe, is that there is a 40% chance the real population lies outside even that range.

If the real population is below the minimum cull target of 2,856, farmers could kill every badger in the area – breaking the strict condition of the licence that forbids local extinctions – while simultaneously failing to kill enough badgers to satisfy the terms of that same licence. The situation is the same in Somerset, where between 2,061 and 2,162 badgers must be culled, but the population estimate ranges from 1,972 to 2,932.

…

The Badger Trust, which unsuccessfully attempted to stop the culling through judicial review in July 2012, is concerned about the uncertainty in badger numbers. In a letter to the government’s licensing body, Natural England, the trust’s lawyers noted that badger populations vary through the seasons and from year to year. “There has been a fatal failure to factor this into the cull targets,” their letter said. Ministers had ignored advice from own independent expert panel to repeat October’s surveys this spring. “The Badger Trust is continuing to consider its legal options,” said Jeff Hayden, a director of the trust.

The trust’s legal letter also said it was “reckless and irrational” to proceed with culling when the costs used in the government’s original cost-benefit assessment had been far exceeded. The initial assessment had concluded that the costs actually outweighed the benefits, and at least £1m of additional costs for badger surveying has been incurred since then. The Defra spokesman said: “The pilots will test our and the farming industry’s cost assumptions [and] this will inform our decision on wider roll-out of the policy.”

Activists are gearing up to disrupt the pilot culls, using vuvuzelas and bright torches to frighten badgers away. “Whenever it happens we’ll be ready – it’ll be like an army,” said Joe Thomas of Bristol Hunt Saboteurs. “The number of new volunteers has been astronomical and they are not your normal animal-rights people, it’s everyday, ordinary people who are preparing to help.”

Related articles

• Environment Secretary Owen Paterson faces squatting threat over badger cull (independent.co.uk)
• Cattle transport, not badgers, really causes bovine tuberculosis (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
• Badger cull ‘could last 25 years’ (telegraph.co.uk)
• £4 million bill and rising to police badger cull (telegraph.co.uk)
• Counting the cost: fears badger cull could worsen bovine TB crisis (guardian.co.uk)
• Badger patrol set up ahead of culls (bbc.co.uk)
• Brian May-inspired badger flash mob protests against culls outside Defra (metro.co.uk)

Beatles’ secretary in documentary film

This video is called Good ‘Ol Freda – Interview with Freda Kelly, Head of the Beatles Fan Club.

By Joanne Laurier in the USA:

27 May 2013

Good Ol’ Freda

Good Ol’ Freda is a charming documentary by filmmaker Ryan White about the Beatles’ fiercely loyal secretary, Freda Kelly. The title comes from the group’s 1963 Christmas message, aimed at their fans, in which George Harrison first thanks their secretary in Liverpool and the four shout, “Good Ol’ Freda!” The Beatles—Harrison, John Lennon, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr [whom Freda affectionately calls “Richie” in the film]—was the most successful pop group in history, selling more than one billion records.

In 1962, Freda, then a shy 17-year-old Liverpudlian, was asked by the band’s manager Brian Epstein to serve as its secretary. A devoted fan since the musicians’ early days performing at the city’s famed Cavern Club, Freda held the job for 11 years, until after the Beatles ended their 10-year relationship.

Freda arranged bookings, did the payroll and diligently answered fan mail, which at the height of Beatlemania escalated to between 2,000 and 3,000 letters a day. She not only had a personal friendship with the legendary artists, but also with their families. During the closing credits, Ringo says in a video testimonial, “Freda was like part of the family.”

Director White comments in an interview: “The amount of personal attention and true affection that she served the Beatles’ fans with—teenage girls, mostly—will probably go unmatched throughout music history.” A number of amusing anecdotes prove the point.

Freda, who neither made money nor sought notoriety as a Beatles’ insider, explains in an interview: “I didn’t want to talk about it [her experiences with the group]. I was in a different life then. I closed the door.”

The unassuming woman, now in her late 60s, has for the last 20 years worked as a secretary for a law firm in Liverpool. Wanting to explain the Beatles’ chapter of her life to her grandson, Freda approached filmmaker White, a family friend, whose uncle Billy Kinsley had been in the Liverpool band, The Merseybeats. Like the Beatles, the group performed early on at the Cavern Club. White’s aunt also worked with Freda for the Beatles fan club.

“I could have been a millionairess if I had kept things like photographs and autographs,” she says at one point in the film. Instead, she handed them out to fans, always cognizant that she had been one herself.

Good Ol’ Freda also functions as a lively and straightforward account of the relatively humble origins of the British pop music scene in the 1960s. The film’s touching moments speak to the solidarity and generosity of spirit that characterized working class Liverpool at that time.

Because the music was an organic part of life, it would have never occurred to Freda to cash in on her “dream job.” It is Kelly, with her many fascinating stories told with modesty and authenticity, that makes the documentary so endearing. She is cast from solid stuff, truly uninterested in celebrity and ego-boosting. Many friends and even family members were unaware of her unusual past: that, at one time, she was the world’s most envied clerical worker.

In a recent interview with the Daily Beast, Freda was asked what she hoped would be achieved with the film. “Clear the debt,” she said, speaking about the cost of making the film. “Seriously, I would like to walk away and have everyone get paid for what they’ve done, because they’ve all worked for nothin’ and worked flippin’ hard. They’ve worked so many hours, and you should be paid however much an hour—not a fantastic rate, but the going wage!”

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Wallace and evolution at London Natural History Museum

This video is called Operation Wallacea Indonesia forest research assistant.

By Theo Arrowsmith in Britain:

Wallace – evolution’s man of mystery

Sunday 26 May 2013

If you visit London’s Natural History Museum you will see gracing the main staircase an imposing statue of the legendary naturalist Charles Darwin.

But what you might not notice, off to the left, is a far less prominent, and only recently installed, portrait of natural selection’s often forgotten co-discoverer, Alfred Russel Wallace.

Wallace hailed from modest circumstances and left school at age 14 to work as an apprentice railway surveyor.

Throughout his life he was always short of funds, financing his researches by collecting exotic species from abroad and sending them home to paying collectors.

He also variously worked grading government examinations, writing scientific papers for modest sums and was paid by Darwin to help edit some of his own work.

By contrast the young Darwin, from a privileged background, was able to dither about whether to enter the clergy or pursue some other comfortable profession.

In fact, the offer of a berth on HMS Beagle most probably rescued him from a life of relative idleness.

Darwin went on to become extremely wealthy by careful dealing in the stocks and shares of the developing railway system.

None of this should be seen as reducing Darwin’s status as a scientist, nor as a humanitarian – he was anti-slavery and anti-racist – but out of the pair Wallace is arguably the more intriguing.

Not only did he discover the mechanism of evolutionary change, he was a prominent advocate of the socialist ideas that were then occupying the thoughts of a German economist named Karl Marx and English mill-owner Robert Owen and also campaigned for the public ownership of land.

So this year’s celebrations of the centenary of Wallace’s death are not to be missed.

A team of enthusiasts and scientists are running a programme of lectures and events centred around the Natural History Museum, but also incorporating a range of venues across the country.

A talk on June 6 at the museum is the next opportunity to discover more about this great thinker.

This fifth talk, titled Making Livings: Why Darwin’s and Wallace’s Theories Were Worlds Apart, will “explore how different the Victorian naturalists … were in their socio-economic backgrounds and in their thinking about evolution.”

The speaker will be Professor James Moore, who coauthored Darwin’s Sacred Cause: Race, Slavery And The Quest For Human Origins and has an interesting academic background, with degrees in science, divinity and history.

Even comedian Bill Bailey has been getting involved in the centenary project, describing Wallace as “the greatest field naturalist of the 19th century – perhaps ever.”

Indeed, he is such a fan that he produced a pair of recent TV programmes on the scientist, in which he points out that “a huge swathe of Indonesia,” where Wallace carried out much of his research, “is named after the great man himself” – the 350,000 square kilometres of Wallacea.

To date, it seems that Indonesia has more respect for this evolutionary titan than has his homeland.

Admission to the Natural History Museum talk is free, but seats must be booked via the museum’s website at www.nhm.ac.uk.

Related articles

• Visit to the Natural History Museum in London (alicehocker.com)
• He Helped Discover Evolution, And Then Became Extinct (richarddawkins.net)
• Darwin quote-mining in latest book from the Discovery Institute (thedispersalofdarwin.wordpress.com)
• Bill Bailey’s Jungle Hero, ITV, review (telegraph.co.uk)
• \”The Origin of Species\”: The Musical (logicalmisery.wordpress.com)
• House Built by Evolutionary Theorist Alfred Russel Wallace Up for Sale – £1.5 Million (oddonion.com)
• LA’s Natural History Museum turns 100! They are… (rivalanimus.com)

Save British wildflowers

This video from Britain says about itself:

The bee orchid, Ophrys apifera | Natural History Museum

18 July 2012

Join Museum botanist Fred Rumsey as he goes in search of some wildflowers that go to extreme lengths to lure pollinating insects. He finds the bee orchid, Ophrys apifera, and its close relative the late spider orchid, Ophrys fuciflora.

By Peter Lazenby in Britain:

Councils face call to protect wildflowers

Sunday 26 May 2013

Conservation charity Plantlife laid into local councils today for destroying wildflower-rich roadside verges by mowing them when they are in full bloom.

The charity said verges and hedgerows were home to hundreds of species of flowering plants and provide food for wildlife ranging from bees to birds and mammals.

But repeated mowing when plants are flowering is destroying them and leaving them smothered by cuttings or sprayed with herbicides, said Plantlife.

The charity called on councils to manage almost 600,000 acres of roadside verges to protect native flowers and the pollinators and other wildlife that rely on them.

Plantlife said the roadside vergs on support as many as a thousand plant species across the country and were important for rare species such as long-leaved helleborine and bastard balm, which are among 33 wayside flowers threatened with extinction.

“The A30 and A38 roads in Devon and Cornwall alone support more than 1,000 acres of flower-rich grassland, with just one junction home to six orchid species including bee orchids and 1,100 greater butterfly orchids,” said Plantlife.

“In Warwickshire, one road verge has the county’s largest population of pyramidal orchids and rockrose, as well as the regionally scarce brown argus butterfly which feeds on the rockrose.

“The huge loss of meadows from the UK makes roadside verges and the habitat they create even more important, with verges providing twice as much grassland as is left in the countryside.”

Plantlife said the verges should be managed in the same way meadows historically were, with a cut early in the year and another in late summer, and cuttings removed.

But three-quarters of councils surveyed by the charity cut their verges multiple times over the summer and none collected the cuttings.

Dutch orchids: here.

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• Wildflowers : Of verges and vergers (sticktoplanbee.com)
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Suffragette Emily Davison did not intend suicide

From weekly The Observer in Britain:

Truth behind the death of suffragette Emily Davison is finally revealed

Hi-tech film analysis suggests Emily Davison’s motives when she collided with the king’s horse in 1913 were misunderstood

Vanessa Thorpe

Sunday 26 May 2013

As an emblem of women’s emancipation Emily Wilding Davison has always been controversial. The suffragette who was fatally injured at the Epsom racecourse during the Derby 100 years ago under the hooves of the king’s horse has been saluted by some as a brave martyr and attacked by others as an irresponsible anarchist. Now detailed analysis of film footage of the incident has shed new light on the contentious moments on 4 June 1913 that were to go down in the history of political protest.

Despite the fact that film technology was in its early days, the incident was captured on three newsreel cameras and a new study of the images has shown that the 40-year-old campaigner was not, as assumed, attempting to pull down Anmer, the royal racehorse, but in fact reaching up to attach a scarf to its bridle.

The analysis, carried out by a team of investigators for a television documentary to be screened tonight on Channel 4, also indicates that the position of Davison before she stepped out on to the track would have given her a clear view of the oncoming race, contrary to the argument that she ran out recklessly to kill herself.

Presenter Clare Balding and investigators Stephen Cole and Mike Dixon returned to the original nitrate film stocks taken on the day and transferred them to a digital format. This was done so that they could be cleaned and so that new software could cross-reference the three different camera angles.

“It has been such an extraordinary adventure to discover more about her, about what she stood for, about the suffragette movement,” said Balding this weekend on her work with the team making Secrets of a Suffragette.

“It is hugely significant as a moment in history, a moment that absolutely sums up the desperation of women in this country who wanted the vote.”

Historians have suggested that Davison was trying to attach a flag to King George V‘s horse and police reports suggested two flags were found on her body. Some witnesses believed she was trying to cross the track, thinking the horses had passed by, others believed she had tried to pull down Anmer. The fact that she was carrying a return train ticket from Epsom and had holiday plans with her sister in the near future have also caused some historians to claim that she had no intention of killing herself.

In 2011 the horse-racing historian Michael Tanner argued that as Davison was standing in crowds on the inside of the bend at Tattenham Corner it would have been impossible for her to see the king’s horse.

But new cross-referencing between the cameras has revealed, say the C4 programme makers, that Davison was closer to the start of Tattenham Corner than thought and so had a better line of sight. In this position she could have seen and singled out Anmer.

Historians have suggested that Davison and other suffragettes were seen “practising” at grabbing horses in the park near her mother’s house and that they then drew lots to determine who should go to the Derby.

After colliding with Anmer, Davison collapsed unconscious on the track. The horse went over, but then rose, completing the race without a jockey. Davison died of her injuries four days later in Epsom Cottage Hospital.

At the funeral of the leading suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst in 1928, the jockey who had ridden Anmer that day, Herbert Jones, laid a wreath “to do honour to the memory of Mrs Pankhurst and Miss Emily Davison”. Jones had suffered a mild concussion in the 1913 collision, but afterwards claimed he was “haunted by that poor woman’s face”.

In 1951, his son found Jones dead in a gas-filled kitchen. The jockey had killed himself.

Related articles

• Suffragette Emily Davison DIDN’T plan to die in Epsom Derby protest, documents reveal (mirror.co.uk)
• British suffragettes, 1913-2013 (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
• Did suffragette who died under the King’s horse mean to kill herself? Historian believes return ticket shows she just wanted to make a stand (thisismoney.co.uk)
• Did suffragette who died under the King’s horse mean to kill herself? Historian believes return ticket shows she just wanted to make a stand (dailymail.co.uk)
• Emily Wilding Davison (stephaniegeorgeblog.wordpress.com)
• Suffragette Emily Davison: The woman who would not be silenced (independent.co.uk)
• Today’s News: Suffragette Emily Davison didn’t intend to kill herself new book claims (journallive.co.uk)
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G8 in Ireland, police state ‘security’

This video from Ireland says about itself:

11 May 2013

Sinn Féin MLA for Fermanagh & South Tyrone Phil Flanagan speaks in favour of a motion calling for a moratorium on fracking (hydraulic fracturing) in the north of Ireland.

By Lynda Walker in Ireland:

Countdown to an imperialist jamboree

Friday 24 May 2013

Some say the old gang of industrialised nations, the G8, is less relevant than it was now most of its members are dragging down a global economy kept afloat by the rising Brics countries.

But you wouldn’t know it from the ramped-up security state throwing its weight around in Ireland three weeks before this year’s summit in County Fermanagh.

As you read this Ireland is being turned into a boot camp to ensure the rich and powerful can have their imperialist jamboree at Lough Erne resort.

This week we heard that Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) Chief Constable Matt Baggott had made an unannounced visit to the resort to discuss security arrangements with the Irish police.

He was accompanied by Assistant Chief Constable Alistair Finlay, local district commander Chief Superintendant Pauline Shields and the Garda Siochana‘s Commissioner Martin Callinan and Assistant Commissioner Kieran Kenny.

Baggott said he was confident they could “deliver a safe and secure event, and this will be in no small part due to the professionalism and commitment of my colleagues. We will as always also be working closely with our colleagues in An Garda Siochana.”

The confidence comes from the knowledge that 3,600 police will be drafted in from forces across Britain.

They’ve been given extra training with water cannon and armoured Land Rovers, both of which are used routinely only in Northern Ireland.

US security forces and the British army will be on the ground and in the air.

If that’s not enough, the infamous G4S is to form part of the “guard of honour” to protect the “leaders” of the world.

G4S has earned itself a reputation second to none – as rip-off merchants and thugs, that is.

Northern Ireland public-sector union Nipsa‘s latest research shows that British-based G4S operates in 125 countries with more than 650,000 mostly low-paid employees. This makes it one of the world’s largest private-sector employers.

Despite this might it hasn’t much of a reputation for competence. During the London Olympics the British government was forced to draft in the police and army to deal with security when G4S failed to do the job.

Or maybe this “drafting” was just practice for the forthcoming G8?

Police are certainly being drafted in here. In an act reminiscent of the 1970s, police intend to occupy hundreds of vacant premises in Belfast.

And just to show how hospitable we are, an entire prison block at Maghaberry jail in Northern Ireland has been set aside for those protesters who are “disobedient.”

The former Lisanelly army barracks near Omagh will also be used as a temporary holding centre for those arrested.

In the meantime ordinary folk here will be subject to restrictions and attacks on civil rights extending beyond those used during Britain’s miners’ strike in 1984 – or indeed when Elizabeth Windsor visited Dublin last year.

Speaking in Dungannon last week Tommy McKearney, a spokesman for the Fermanagh protest group, said: “Anybody who thinks the security measures being put in place for the G8 will simply be lifted when the G8 goes away is naive. All precedent suggests otherwise. This is a serious invasion of the right to protest which should be resisted.”

It’s almost certain that employees in the hotel industry will be vetted. They’re being given training whether they want it or not.

A senior PSNI officer briefed Fermanagh hoteliers on how to act during the summit. “Is the item or object obviously hidden, has it been deliberately concealed from view? Is it odd, out of the ordinary – maybe it is showing wires, batteries or even has a strange chemical-like odour?”

At the Killyhevin Hotel last month officers told hotel owners and staff “not to touch any package or item you believe may be of evidential benefit to police.”

And in a document given to hotel staff about the exercise procedures the PSNI outlined the steps it thinks hotel workers should take in the event of discovering a suspicious object.

Hotel staff are being asked to look out for strange or strong smells, stains or dampness on outer or inner packaging, warning notes and “vapour clouds.”

A guide for businesses was also handed out. “The police will not normally search your premises for you,” it warns. “This is your responsibility and can be achieved much more quickly by staff who are familiar with their surroundings.”

Thanks!

As the hotel industry is notorious for poor conditions and low pay it remains to be seen whether or not workers are going to get danger money for this extra work.

And will “suspect” workers be suspended for the duration of the event? And if they’re not in a union, who will speak up for them?

Well, if our rulers are busy so are we. Preparations are being made for legitimate protests and meetings in Belfast and Fermanagh.

In Belfast the Communist Party of Ireland has organised public meetings inviting speakers from the Communist Parties of Britain, Portugal and Greece.

These parties are no strangers to police brutality on demonstrations.

…

A major demonstration with support from trade unions and civic organisations will take place in Belfast on June 15, two days before the G8 begins.

Belfast and District TUC is taking the lead in organising four days of “events to challenge the imagination and fire the mind” from June 13 to 16.

There’ll be a demonstration in Enniskillen organised by anti-fracking groups among others, though many feel there will be severe restrictions placed on it. But that’s never stopped civil rights activists.

As a friend of mine from Sligo says, there will be other acts of civil disobedience but people won’t want to talk about details over the phone.

In typical Spike Milligan fashion, as the ears go to the ground and to the walls we must remember what Patrick Magill once said. “Tell a secret to a friend at night and it’s across seven fields in the morning.”

Many demonstrators are afraid there will be violence from the state and other quarters. And if there is violence from a handful of protesters – which is pretty predictable – you may be sure the media will focus on that alone.

Still, we aren’t going to lie down and let them have their party. At the end of the day we don’t want the G8 in town, and British PM David Cameron has made a big mistake bringing it here.

Only 15 years after a tenuous peace settlement he is resurrecting the conditions for increased violence, attacks on civil rights and sectarianism.

An opportunity to spread mayhem for martyrs and masters alike.

In this respect we must be sure we keep our eyes on the prize – solidarity with each other, and opposition to the leaders of the capitalist world system.

People living near the luxury resort that will host this month’s G8 summit have complained that thousands of pounds have been spent on a superficial facelift for the conference: here.

Related articles

• £50 Million: the True Psni Cost of Policing G8 Summit (belfastdaily.co.uk)
• G8 summit in Fermanagh will put Northern Ireland under security lockdown (belfasttelegraph.co.uk)
• G8 Summit will cost £50million (newsletter.co.uk)
• £1 Million Psni Drone Planes for Fermanagh G8 Summit (belfastdaily.co.uk)
• G8 Summit: 3,600 Extra Police to Guard World Leaders (belfastdaily.co.uk)

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