First, a word from the late, great Miriam Makeba. You can get it here.
Yeah, sometimes there’s something you want to say, but it turns out someone else has already said it. Here’s a letter in the Guardian newspaper that spells out what’s been on my mind. I’ve dropped a couple of links in.
On the eve of the G20 summit in London five young people were arrested in the Plymouth area under the Terrorism Act. Their arrest took place after one young man was caught spraying anti-capitalist graffiti, a tiny act of dissent which resulted in police raids on several premises. Despite large servings of media sensationalism, not even the police claimed that those arrested posed a credible threat to the leaders of the G20. They were accused of possession of “material relating to political ideology”. The state now finds the ownership of anti-capitalist books suspicious.Last week, just as the Metropolitan police were pressed to explain their role in the death of Ian Tomlinson, came the news that the police had broken a very convenient “terror plot” in the north-west. Initial media hysteria about a “bomb plot” has dwindled away. The “plot” is clearly less apocalyptic than the public were encouraged to believe.
On Easter Monday came the astonishing news that 140 people were arrested in Sneinton Dale, Nottingham, on suspicion of conspiracy to commit aggravated trespass and criminal damage over a “suspected plan” to target a power station. Now you don’t even have to carry out a protest to be arrested.
New Labour has slaughtered the people of Iraq and Afghanistan in the name of “liberty” and “democracy”. At the same time it has enabled the essentials of a police state to be built in Britain.
Not sure if it’s 1984 yet? Check out the police billboards now appearing in various locations on this septic isle. The image up the top was made by that james. But it is based on a real police billboard with the same photograph of an overflowing dustbin on a residential street. The original text reads:
These chemicals won’t be used in a bomb because a neighbour reported the dumped containers.Don’t rely on others.
If you suspect it, report it.
As James Holden, maker of a truly fab DIY anti-terror billboard remix machine, explains:
This odious billboard appears in my town, encouraging me to rat on my neighbours because I don’t understand what they throw away.
Quite. A nice slideshow of alternative adverts has been provided by the wonderfully named Flickr group, They must think we’re all morons.
It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.
Do pop-political commentaries by people like Noam Chomsky and Naomi Klein even count as thoughtcrime these days? Probably. Yikes. Better get that discreet bonfire on the go.
I might do a citizen’s arrest on the entire Cabinet too actually, as I suspect them of impure thoughts. 42 days in the clink should sort it.