Demonstraties in Europa: Engeland. nr2

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Op zondag 27 maart 2011 22:52 schreef betyar het volgende:

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Dus als je 60.000 euro verdient en daar belasting over moet betalen heb je het recht om bestellingen achter te houden en bedragen niet op te geven? Dan ben je in mijn ogen slechter dan een uitkeringstrekker.
En het is nog altijd zoals rechts graag zegt de keuze om te gaan ondernemen groei je niet en verdien je "maar" 60.000 euro ben je niet in staat te ondernemen blijkbaar want dan neem je legale maatregelen die ervoor gaan zorgen dat je niet meer hoeft te klagen. Dat doe je niet door te frauderen.

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Op zondag 27 maart 2011 23:23 schreef betyar het volgende:

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Waarom heeft rechts er niks aangedaan dan? Ze hebben kansen genoeg gehad.

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Ooh wacht het valt allemaal wel mee.Van mij mag een ondernemer best veel verdienen niks mis mee, maar het belastingstelsel is hier nog altijd zo wanneer je meer verdient je lktijd meer overhoudt.

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En voor degene die weggaat komt wel weer een ander hoor, iedereen is te vervangen.

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So Saturday I packed my bag and went to the protest, I have written a report of what went on here, together with a video of when the Police attacked the peaceful party at Trafalgar Square.

http://forum.davidicke.com/showthread.php?t=163442

The day was like a carnival, there was far more people than the media reported, i'd guess well over a million. I'm basing that estimation on carnivals I have attended, so it's pretty accurate. There were people singing dancing and generally being happy.

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Op maandag 28 maart 2011 14:45 schreef truepositive het volgende:
Maar weer even over de demonstraties:

[..]

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A sixth police officer has been unmasked as an undercover spy in the protest movement

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Op maandag 28 maart 2011 16:45 schreef Tijger_m het volgende:

De thugs zijn anarchisten in deze, jouw clubje dus.

Oh wacht, dat zal wel weer propaganda zijn

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Op maandag 28 maart 2011 17:00 schreef Tijger_m het volgende:

de relevantie te kennen als weerwoord?

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Op maandag 28 maart 2011 18:06 schreef eriksd het volgende:
Ah joh, die anarchistische mongolen hebben het toch mooi weer verpest voor de gewone mensen die wellicht nog enigzins welwillend tegen dit gebeuren stonden.

Waarom heb jij trouwens zo'n hekel aan de overheid, papierversnipperaar?

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Frontline police moved into office jobs as part of cuts

Serving police officers are being taken out of frontline roles and moved to cover the "back-office" functions of civilian staff who have been made redundant, according to leaked memos which show the perverse side-effects of budget cuts.

The decision by Warwickshire police authority – one of the smaller forces in England and Wales with 1,800 officers and staff – to draft up to 150 frontline officers into civilian desk jobs is expected to be followed by other forces grappling with a 20% cut in their Whitehall funding.

Police officers are Crown-appointed warrant holders and cannot be made redundant. They can only be "compulsorily retired" through an obscure regulation after more than 30 years' service, but civilian support staff do not enjoy such job security.

The leak comes as a second survey of police authority intentions carried out by Labour confirms that the police are heading for 27,500 job losses, including 12,500 police officers, over the next four years. Ministers have vowed to protect frontline policing from the impact of the cuts and a report by Her Majesty's Inspector of Constabulary to be published on Wednesday is expected to clear up the confusion over where the "frontline" can be drawn in the battle against crime.

The shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper, said the Warwickshire situation showed that chief constables had been put in an impossible position: "It is now clear that when there is not the staff to help plan, co-ordinate or forensically investigate the fight against crime, then police officers will have to be taken off the streets to do this work.

"The government needs to take responsibility and recognise that the loss of 12,500 police officers and 15,000 police staff across the country is taking risks with public safety and the progress on crime and antisocial behaviour that was made over the last decade."

The decision by Warwickshire to redeploy frontline officers to roles such as staffing inquiry offices and control rooms and conducting routine visits to crime scenes was disclosed in a leaked memo by Richard Elkin, the force's human resources director.

He has written to all 860 back-office staff inviting those with more than two years' service to apply for voluntary redundancy: "Whilst the force manages the required reductions in the number of police officers, it has been agreed that some will be temporarily posted into police staff posts which are currently vacant, or which will become vacant following voluntary redundancy," says the memo.

The Warwickshire force faces losing 450 jobs out of its 1,800 strength to find savings of £23m in its £100m budget by 2015. The home secretary, Theresa May, and the police minister, Nick Herbert, have repeatedly said it is possible for savings to be found through cutting bureaucracy and back-office functions without hitting the frontline.

Ian Francis, chairman of Warwickshire police authority, has said that there are too many police officers in the county force for the new model of policing which is being implemented. "We don't like it, they [Warwickshire police federation] don't like it, I don't think the public like it, but at the end of the day we have no option," Francis has said.

Francis has predicted that other forces are also likely to draft frontline officers into support roles: "The simple matter is yes, we are going to lose policemen from the front line."

Simon Reed, vice-chairman of the Police Federation, said Warwickshire's example would be followed by other forces: "What is happening in Warwickshire will happen elsewhere simply because of the sheer amount of money being cut from budgets.

"When we lose staff in inquiry offices, control rooms or going to scenes of crime then this will happen."

Reed said the cuts would reverse a 10- year process of getting uniformed officers back into mainstream police roles: "It is a question of teamwork. We all depend on each other. The frontline depends on the back-office function."

But a Home Office spokeswoman insisted savings could be achieved without cutting the frontline. "We believe that police forces can make the necessary savings while protecting frontline services and prioritising the visibility and availability of policing," she said.

"Forces must focus on driving out wasteful spending, and increasing efficiency in the back-office. The effectiveness of a police force does not depend primarily on the number of staff it has, but rather on the way they are deployed."

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Cuts protesters claim police tricked them into mass arrest

Campaigners for the tax-avoidance protest group UK Uncut have claimed senior police officers "tricked" them into a mass arrest after a peaceful protest inside Fortnum & Mason's in London on Saturday.

Activists say they were given repeated assurances by a chief inspector from the Metropolitan police that they would be shown to safety after the protest, which she described as non-violent and sensible. However, when protesters left the luxury Piccadilly store on police instruction, they were kettled, handcuffed and taken into custody.

Their claims are backed up by footage, obtained by the Guardian, [filmpje!] showing that, rather than being asked to leave, the protesters inside the luxury food retailer were told they were being kept inside for their own safety.

In the video, shot by observers for the legal volunteer group Green & Black Cross, a police officer can be seen telling protesters they would be directed towards "the safest parts" once they had left the building.

In all, 201 arrests were made during protests in London on Saturday, at which shops, banks and hotels were attacked by demonstrators who had broken away from the main, union-organised march down Whitehall to Hyde Park.

A total of 149 people have been charged with offences, including 138 charged with aggravated trespass in connection with the Fortnum & Mason protest.

The video also shows the officer agreeing with protesters that a breach of the peace had occurred outside the store, but not inside, and that Uncut protesters were being held inside so they did not become "wrapped up" in that disorder.

"As people leave, they're going to be asked to go left," she can be heard telling protesters. "They're just going into a safe environment because there's some disorder [outside] ... so we're trying to keep it sterile, safe, so people can get away to the tube station.

"People here are non-violent. It's sensible – we don't want them getting involved in stuff that makes it difficult for them," adds the police officer in the footage. Another officer also assured the protesters no one would be kettled if they left the building. A spokesman for the Metropolitan police said it would be inappropriate to discuss the matter while proceedings are active.

One Uncut activist, Jack Winstanley, who was held in a cell in Plaistow for 17 hours, said: "I feel totally betrayed by the police. They communicated the message fairly clear that we'd be released. And our protest had been totally peaceful. We then walked out into a kettle with police with riot helmets on. Not only could we not get home, we got arrested one by one."

Winstanley, a 26-year-old graphic designer from Brighton, said the Fortnum protest had been just like other UK Uncut protests. "It was creative and fun and exciting. There was a bit of cheering [and] whooping when people put up banners, and then things settled down and people were reading books and chatting and some people were talking to the staff about why we were there."

Several of those arrested said they had clothes and phones removed to be used as evidence.

Another Uncut activist, who was arrested for 20 hours and preferred to be known only as Jim, said: "There was this policewoman, and she spoke to the legal observers and said that all we had to do is turn left and we'd be free to go.

"But when we got out, they began arresting us. People in the crowd told a second female officer: 'You've lied to us. You said we could leave and now you're arresting everyone.' She replied: 'Yes, you're free to leave – to the police station. You're going to be arrested.'"

"Because we were at a peaceful protest, which had been the same as all UK Uncut actions to date, it really shocked me that they would arrest all 150 protesters. I feel tricked. Perhaps I shouldn't expect the police to tell me the truth," he said.

Also in the video is a 24-year-old female legal observer Jules Martin, who says customers in Fortnum & Mason are able to go about their business. Afterwards, she said: "The protesters never interfered with customers who wanted to browse. According to my notes, the cafe at the back was still open with waiters still moving about until after 5pm."

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The Dutch have showed us the way. I've said it before that whilst the financial markets and institutions are supported by taxpayer guarantees and capital injections, the banks and their employees should desist from awarding themselves bonuses. They are a bunch of junkies high on their own self importance and in denial about the crucial role they played in bringing the whole pack of cards crashing down. By all means close your accounts and make them sit up and take notice. Afraid I closed my account with Lloyds a decade ago when it became obvious they were no longer interested in dealing with little people. Nationwide are far superior. Infuriating thing is that Nationwide are now paying levies designed to support rotten institutions like Lloyds/HBOS

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http://www.guardian.co.uk(...)cut-arrests-protests

A lawyer at a leading civil liberties firm has expressed fears for the future of direct action protest after the mass arrest of UK Uncut activists during last Saturday's anti-cuts demonstrations in London.

Matt Foot, a criminal defence solicitor at Birnberg Pierce, said the detention of 145 activists during an occupation of luxury food store Fortnum and Mason in Piccadilly was "unprecedented". He has questioned the police's motivation.

After being arrested for aggravated trespass and criminal damage, scores of Uncut campaigners were dispersed to police stations around London as far apart as Harrow, Ilford and Romford and were held for up to 24 hours. The next day, the accusation of criminal damage was dropped but 138 activists were bailed on the charge of aggravated trespass.

Foot, son of the campaigning journalist Paul Foot, said: "It is unprecedented to arrest so many people for simply protesting peacefully in a building. And then it is intimidating to keep peaceful protesters for so long at the police station and then charge them so quickly without reviewing the evidence first.

"To rush to treat people in this way and charge them on such a scale suggests the police want to make a statement. This is going to threaten the right to peacefully protest through direct action."

Commenting on video footage obtained by the Guardian, in which a senior officer inside Fortnum's was captured telling Uncut campaigners they were "non-violent" and "sensible", Foot said: "It's fascinating that the police clearly took a view that these were peaceful protesters."

He added: "Given the police's public comments about violence on the demonstration, it is extraordinary that the overwhelming numbers of arrests and charges have been for non-violent protesters. One has to question the motivation behind this."

Replying to a Commons question on Monday about whether UK Uncut activists had been "misrepresented", the home secretary, Theresa May, said the police were right to make the arrests. "I say to them [UK Uncut] that they certainly have not been misrepresented and I think that what we need to do at this point in time is make it absolutely clear; the police are right in what they were doing in trying to prevent violence for taking place in our streets," May said.

The Guardian has published further footage from the event showing that senior officers on the ground at Fortnum and Mason were confused as to whether UK Uncut activists would be arrested or not.

Luke Heighton, a 32-year-old trainee journalist from East Dulwich, saw the exchange between police officers outside the store as he stood beside police lines with his girlfriend.

"I was within a couple of feet of a police officer in a fluorescent standard issue jacket who I took to be one of the more senior officers there and I overheard what was being said. Speaking to an officer in black riot gear and a peaked cap, he said: 'It's you that's stopping me from letting them out. What's the problem?'"

Heighton said a second officer in black riot gear and a peaked black cap replied: "We don't want them let out yet. We want them detained and arrested."

"The officer [in the fluorescent jacket] didn't contradict that. He looked baffled by the decision," Heighton said. "You got the sense that he was being overruled but he immediately issued that order to other members of the Met. The whole conversation probably took less than two minutes."

A Guardian video producer, Cameron Robertson, who was at the protests with officers from the Met's public order unit, the Territorial Support Group, captured a pre-demonstration briefing that made it clear senior officers wanted to draw a "line in the sand" over legal and illegal occupations.

Adam Ramsay, a campaigner with UK Uncut who was detained for more than 20 hours, said the arrests might have been politically motivated or to faciliate information gathering on the group. "At the time, the chief inspector at Fortnum and Mason effectively told us there we had committed no criminal damage – that we were all 'non-violent' and 'sensible'. But moments later we were all arrested for criminal damage – a charge later dropped. This certainly looks to me like political policing.".

"Perhaps they did this because it's easier to catch people sitting peacefully in a shop than people running round the streets outside. Perhaps they wanted to gather intelligence on a network of peaceful protesters. Either way the Met have serious questions to answer."

In a statement the Metropolitan police said: "The matter is now sub judice. It would be inappropriate to discuss further whilst proceedings are active."

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The British government has announced controversial plans to ban protestors from taking part in public gatherings following the weekend anti-cuts rallies, which were marred by violence.

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Jobcentres tricking people out of benefits to cut costs, says whistleblower

The Guardian has been told that unemployed people are being tricked into breaching the rules so that benefits can be held back Link to this video

Rising numbers of vulnerable jobseekers are being tricked into losing benefits amid growing pressure to meet welfare targets, a Jobcentre Plus adviser has told the Guardian.

A whistleblower said staff at his jobcentre were given targets of three people a week to refer for sanctions, where benefits are removed for up to six months. He said it was part of a "culture change" since last summer that had led to competition between advisers, teams and regional offices.

"Suddenly you're not helping somebody into sustainable employment, which is what you're employed to do," he said. "You're looking for ways to trick your customers into 'not looking for work'. You come up with many ways. I've seen dyslexic customers given written job searches, and when they don't produce them – what a surprise – they're sanctioned. The only target that anyone seems to care about is stopping people's money.

"'Saving the public purse' is the catchphrase that is used in our office … It is drummed home all the time – you're saving the public purse. Feel good about stopping someone's money, you've just saved your own pocket. Its a joke."

The claims came as the big businesses handed contracts to get the long term jobless into worktoday said the government should privatise jobcentres so that their firms could work with people who have been jobless for less than a year.

Statistics from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) show the total number of cases where people have lost their benefits has soared since the beginning of 2010 to 75,000 in October, the latest month available. The figures also reveal the number of claimants with registered disabilities being cut off has more than doubled to almost 20,000 over the same period.

This follows a change in the rules in April last year where sanctions were extended to claimants who were late for jobcentre interviews and other less serious offences.

When a claimant is sanctioned their jobseeker's allowance is stopped. They then have to apply for hardship payments, which are usually about half the allowance, or just over £30 a week. John, in Wigan, has been sanctioned for six months and says he has to rely on food parcels and must sleep on his friend's couch. "It's left me in a state of depression. I've lost weight, I'm tired … I feel like I've been attacked for no reason."

The whistleblower blamed the targets. "We were told suddenly that [finding someone to sanction] once a week wasn't good enough, we were far behind other offices, and we went to a meeting where they compared us with other offices, and said we now have to do three a week to catch up. Most staff go into work and they're thinking about it from moment one – who am I going to stop this week?"

The DWP denies there are specific targets, but the Guardian has seen email evidence of referral targets in one office, and the issue of targets has been raised by employees on online forums.

The DWP said: "To say that we are targeting vulnerable people is ridiculous. We only sanction people if they do not adhere to their agreement. We are massively expanding the help and support that jobseekers will receive to ensure that they get the right help and support to get into work. If someone is incapable of work, they will continue to receive unconditional support."

But the whistleblower said the policy hit the vulnerable instead of hardcore benefit cheats, who he said were a small group. "The young often fall into it, because they haven't been there long enough, they are generally a major target. The uneducated are another major target. I've seen people with … seriously low educational standards and it's easy to exploit them."

He said staff had different ways to ensure they could stop benefits for a set amount of people. "So, for example, if you want someone to diversify – they're an electrician or a plumber, they may not want to go into call centres or something. What you do is keep promoting such and such a job, and you pressure them into taking it off you, the piece of paper. Then in two weeks you look at the system, you ask them if they applied for it … they say no – you stop their money for six months.

"You very rarely see the hardcore taken because they know the forms – they know it better than the staff, the system."

Shirley Cramer of the charity Dyslexia Action warned that the true impact on people with learning difficulties was likely to be higher because in many cases it was a hidden disability. "Because we know there are large numbers of them, and that they are hidden, and that they are over-represented in disadvantaged groups, they are very much at risk. And we know that with a bit of help they can be terrific employees."

Martin John, national officer for the Public and Commercial Services Union, said ministers had demanded a tougher approach since the general election. "We are against the use of targets for labour market sanctions, and are worried about the financial impact on people."

Citizens Advice has reported a significant rise in clients who have had their benefits cut. Andy Robertson, a caseworker in South Tyneside, an area with 13% unemployment, has a huge pile of paperwork for appeals, and says his casework has more than doubled in the last year. "What's happening at the moment is possibly the worst thing I've ever seen with regard to practice from the DWP. Clients seem to be getting sanctioned for next to nothing," he said.

Robertson worked for eight years as an adviser and financial assessor at jobcentres. He has also seen the changes affect many vulnerable clients, such as those with dyslexia or mental health problems. "Advisers were previously exercising their discretion … now the client-adviser balance doesn't seem to exist any more."

Yvonne Fovargue, the Labour MP for Makerfield, raised the issue of sanctioning in parliament during a reading of the new Welfare Reform Act. She is worried that at a time when funding to support groups such as Citizens Advice is being cut, an even stricter regime is being introduced.

Fovargue said the situation would only get worse with the drive to bring people off incapacity benefit and on to the jobseeker's allowance, where they are suddenly exposed to these sanctions.

The whistleblower also thinks there will be an impact. "A lot of them haven't been in work for a number of years. So I'm not expecting them to understand the system … which will make for easy sanctions.

"This cannot be right that we are using a department that's supposed to help people into work to stop them getting benefit that a lot of them are entitled to."

In Wigan, John said he first found out he had been sanctioned when the money did not appear in his account on the usual day. His jobcentre told him it was because he had missed the deadline for three jobs. He said his Jobcentre adviser said he would send application forms in the post, but they arrived too late. "It's outrageous … to leave someone with no money for six months. It's totally hindered my jobsearching, I spend all of my time dealing with these problems now."

The whistleblower says his office has been told there is no more money for back to work training from April. "From April, we offer no provision … nothing, no training course, nothing. The funding ends at the end of March.

"[Now] your office can shine through one of two targets. You can either shine through getting people into work, but that's really difficult. Or you can stop their money, and that's really easy."

Case study John Robson, 53, South Shields

"It never seems to go away. Every day you're thinking: 'I haven't got a letter today, so obviously there isn't a sanction going against me.' Another day there's a brown envelope from the DWP and you think: 'What's this for?' There's always that cloud hanging over you."

Robson was made redundant from his job as a delivery driver 13 months ago. "I was 17 when I started work so I've been working for 35 years. I'm not Jack the lad who's never been in a job and is trying to con the government. I want to work, I just can't get a job.

"You try your best, and the minute you do something wrong, they're on you like a ton of bricks."

Robson has been sanctioned three times. First he was ill and missed a jobcentre appointment. Next he was sanctioned for not applying for one job. "I was sure I had applied for it but I couldn't find evidence that I had. If you apply for job after job after job, and you get nowhere with it, you can lose track."

Robson turned to Citizens Advice for help. He won the appeal, but his financial situation remains precarious. "It reached the point where I'd visit my mother and sit there for hours just to get warm, use her shower and cooker, because I couldn't afford the gas and electricity."

Recently he was sanctioned for a week, again for not applying for a job. "Because of all the hassle with them I thought, 'What the hell,' and just gave up on it. I shouldn't have accepted it, but you get ground down so much. So many things go wrong when you're unemployed, and you just get so disheartened.

"It's actually quite frightening being out there. And nobody seems to care. It's like a lot of things of life – things are set in place by people who don't actually experience it themselves."

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'Rally against debt' activists call for more cuts in Westminster protest

Pro-cuts groups, including Ukip and the TaxPayers' Alliance, look to US Tea Party movement for inspiration as anger grows over EU bailouts

It was never going to rally the nation, but the pro-cuts demonstration outside parliament did manage to attract about 350 people, who carried placards demanding more spending cuts and cheered the burning of an EU flag.

The Rally Against Debt was organised in response to the TUC protests in London in March, in which hundreds of thousands marched against the government's austerity measures.

Despite being the butt of derision on many social media websites, from where the idea for the rally originated, the small but determined group insisted they were speaking for the silent majority who believe that the cuts are needed.

Organisers compared the rally to the US Tea Party movement, but the turnout was far lower than had been pledged – more than 1,400 people had indicated on Facebook that they would attend – and it finished earlier than planned.

Even one of the most vocal supporters of the rally, the author Toby Young, apologised for missing it because he had a previous engagement at a pirate exhibition.

Annabelle Fuller, a former adviser to Ukip, said that it was a significant demonstration "highlighting the importance of tackling the huge public sector deficit, and the need for substantial spending cuts".

At one point, people chanted: "What do we want? Cuts! When do we want them? Now!"

Speakers at the event included Paul Staines, a rightwing political blogger who uses the pseudonym Guido Fawkes, Matthew Sinclair, director of the TaxPayers' Alliance, and Nigel Farage of Ukip.

Sinclair said that cuts to state spending were essential: "There have been lots of chances for other groups to register their protest, and we want to give a voice to people who represent quite a heavy majority who think spending cuts are right and necessary.

"But some areas aren't being cut at all while spending is rising elsewhere, with contributions to the EU and international development spending."

The organisation's debt clock, mounted on a lorry, was driven past the protest several times.

Priti Patel, Conservative MP for Witham, said: "This government is all about deficit reduction. I don't think enough people realise the extent of the debt facing this country. It is totally unsustainable.

"This is a wake-up call that debt is here to stay unless we deal with it in a serious way."

Mark Littlewood, director general of the Institute of Economic Affairs, told the rally: "We won't put up with this. We are the selfless movement. We're not asking for money, we're asking for cuts to make sure our children and grandchildren don't have to foot the bill."

One protester, James Dighton, a 24-year-old accountant from Leeds, said: "It's very important to get the message out there that not everyone in the country thinks the cuts are unnecessary – quite the opposite, in fact."

A handful of protesters opposed to cuts were also present, with one waving a sign mocking the rally that read: "Libraries suck."

The action comes amid growing interest among rightwing groups in learning from the US Tea Party movement, which has mobilised hundreds of thousands of activists to march against Barack Obama's policies. Electoral commission records show that in March, Ukip activists registered the name Tea Party as a political party. It is not yet active, but they said they could field candidates in general elections, byelections and local elections.

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Biggest strike for 100 years – union chief

Pensions revolt won't be like the miners – because we'll win, says Unison general secretary Dave Prentis

The leader of the largest public sector union promises to mount the most sustained campaign of industrial action the country has seen since the general strike of 1926, vowing not to back down until the government has dropped its controversial pension changes.

Dave Prentis, general secretary of Unison – which has 1.4 million members employed by the state – described plans for waves of strike action, with public services shut down on a daily basis, rolling from one region to the next and from sector to sector.

He said there was growing anger over a public sector pay freeze that could trigger more disputes further down the line and that the changes would unfairly penalise women, who form the majority of low-paid public sector workers. "It will be the biggest since the general strike. It won't be the miners' strike. We are going to win."

In an interview with the Guardian, Prentis – who also chairs the public sector group at the TUC – repeatedly insisted that he still hopes to negotiate a settlement with the government through talks that are currently under way.

But the prospect of a resolution looks increasingly remote after the government unilaterally set out details of the new public sector pension scheme on Friday, pre-empting the conclusion of the talks. Brendan Barber, the general secretary of the TUC, called the move "deeply inflammatory".

Prentis said: "I strongly believe that one day of industrial action will not change anyone's mind in government. We want to move towards a settlement. The purpose of industrial action is not industrial action, it is to get an agreement that is acceptable and long-lasting. But we are prepared for rolling action over an indefinite period. This coalition has got to open its eyes and see that in just reacting to a Daily Mail view of the public sector they are walking into a trap of their own making."

Prentis also called on the Labour party to support the unions' battle against the pension changes, saying that remaining silent will "become an issue".

The government has confirmed that it will raise pension contributions by 3.2 percentage points, increase the retirement age to 66 and move to a career average scheme to replace the more generous final salary version. Ministers argue it is unfair for other taxpayers to pay for more generous schemes for public employees than they might get in the private sector.

The unions say it amounts to an additional tax on public sector workers, with their additional contributions – a de facto pay cut – being used to reduce the deficit rather than fund pensions. It comes on top of job cuts, a pay freeze and controversial plans such as those for the NHS.

Prentis said that while pensions were the focus of the unions' industrial dispute – and the only issue that they could legally jointly strike on – his members were equally angry about the coalition's deficit reduction programme and its effects on the public sector.

"You can't just look at what's happening around pensions as a single issue. All our members provide public services. You look at what this coalition has decided to do to reduce the deficit and it's decided that most of the deficit reduction programme will be at the expense of our public services," he said.

"The people that we represent are facing redundancy, a two-year pay freeze, while inflation is 5% and gas prices are going up 20%, and they are desperately worried about privatisation of the services they have committed their working lives to."

He accused the government of trying to "soften up" public sector workers' rights to pave the way to privatising elements of the state. Referring to a consultation that could remove state employees' rights to keep their public sector pensions if their service is outsourced to the private sector, he said: "It means that cowboys that we used to have in the 1980s can put in bids that will always undermine the public service bid and they will get the contract not on the quality of work but because they are cheapest. It's just to soften the way for privatisation."

Turning to Labour, to which Unison is affiliated – individual members have an opt-out – he said: "We want our Labour party to be the voice of opposition. We're worried that some of the senior people in the party still have to make statements as if they are in power, not opposition."

Prentis added: "I've got a lot of time for Ed Miliband. He's new, he's only been there for eight months and he will improve – and we've got to give him time to do that – but the way in which certain elements in the party are not uniting where we need them to be is not helping. If the Labour party stays quiet that will be an issue. This isn't a kneejerk reaction, this will be a long programme of action and we will expect the Labour party to support that."

Unison is one of Labour's largest donors, giving £423,000 in the past year alone.

Prentis said he had full support from his members and they were now recruiting support for the campaign outside the workplace, sending representatives into community groups to garner support. A motion at the union's conference next week would formalise this campaign, recognising that traditional workplace union recruitment is falling.

Angela Eagle, Labour's shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, said: "What we are seeing today is the latest calamitous episode of this government's completely chaotic way of running the country.

"Today, Danny Alexander [the Treasury chief secretary] has made an announcement about the retirement age whilst they are in the middle of negotiations with the trade unions. If they are serious about reforming public sector pensions and serious about getting this proposal agreed then Danny Alexander has gone about it in the most incompetent way imaginable."

She added: "Strikes are always a failure on both sides. Everyone agrees public sector pensions need to change as people live longer. But the government should be getting round the table and talking changes through. Instead we have got another bout of mismanagement and chaos."

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School walkouts planned to coincide with public sector strikes

Thousands of school and college students prepare to join public sector strikes against cuts on 30 June

Thousands of school and college students are expected to stage walkouts this month as part of a growing wave of occupations and demonstrations planned to support the co-ordinated strike action organised by trade unions.

Students behind last year's demonstrations against cuts to post-16 education are mobilising in schools and further education colleges as part of a wider campaign to turn 30 June into a national day of action against the government's austerity programme.

The move follows the announcement this week by the direct action group UK Uncut that it would be joining picket lines and staging a "public spectacular" in London to coincide with the industrial action.

Michael Chessum from the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts, one of the student groups behind last year's protests, said: "It was the student movement before Christmas that really kicked many of the major unions into action, and we'll be there again in force on 30 June. One of the successes of the student movement was that we abandoned passive, A-to-B marches in favour of direct action in the streets and on campuses. Mass strike action is the logical extension of that. We're not here to protest; we're here to actively resist."

More than 750,000 public sector workers from major unions including the Public and Commercial Services Union, the National Union of Teachers and the Association of Teachers and Lectures are expected to take part in this month's industrial action. The strike, which will be the largest in the UK for several years, is expected to bring schools, colleges, universities, courts, ports and jobcentres to a standstill, and comes as millions of staff face pay freezes, job losses and pension reforms.

Activists say the wider campaign of demonstrations, occupations and walkouts will build a broad coalition of people opposed to the government's programme of cuts and has been inspired, in part, by protests across Europe over recent months – particularly those in Spain and Greece.

As part of the preparations, anti-cuts groups have held a series of "J30 assemblies" across the country under the "generalise the strike" slogan, to plan events and mobilise support.

Over the next few weeks, assemblies will be held in Birmingham, London, Leeds, Newcastle, Norwich, Sheffield and Sunderland. Another group, Right to Work, says it has organised more than 40 events to coincide with the strikes.

One of the organisers of the J30 assemblies, Alex Long, said they had been strongly influenced by protests held in Spain last month. "We want to approach this whole 30 June strike day in a more general way, to use it as a general day of action against the cuts," he said.

In London, activists say they are planning a number of direct action campaigns on 30 June, with events in the City of London and Westminster, including Oxford Street. There is also a call to occupy Trafalgar Square and a Facebook page calling for people to join a "black bloc" protest (the black bloc being the group blamed for smashing up shops during the TUC demonstration in March).

Tens of thousands of students from further education colleges and schools took part in last year's demonstrations against the rise in tuition fees and the scrapping of the education maintenance allowance, and activists hope many will walk out of classes at the end of this month.

Campaigners have been leafleting colleges and schools, calling on students to hold meetings, make contact with teachers who are union reps and organise walkouts on the day.

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Occupy protesters vow to stay at St Paul's cathedral

Demonstrators say they are prepared to remain at London landmark until the government changes direction

Protesters in London remained in defiant mood, insisting that they would not be forced from their tented village outside St Paul's Cathedral.

A week on from the start of the protest, the Occupy London Stock Exchange group said on Saturday it was prepared to stay at the landmark "until there is a change in direction from the government".

The demonstrators' latest pledge came as senior officials from St Paul's met City of London Corporation (CLC) officials to discuss the decision to close the cathedral for the first time since the second world war.

Protest organisers said they had complied with every request the cathedral had made and would continue to obey any further demands to ensure the camp stayed.

A volunteer for the Occupy movement, Peter Vaughan, 24, from Hackney, east London, said: "We feel we have addressed all their health and safety concerns. We don't want a battle with the church."

Attempting to explain why the cathedral had appeared to backtrack from its support of the occupation earlier in the week, Vaughan speculated that church officials may have been under pressure from those with financial interests in the City.

The Reverend Canon Dr Giles Fraser, chancellor of St Paul's, dismissed claims that the cathedral had been shut for commercial reasons and defended the decision to close.

"I remain firmly supportive of the right of people peacefully to protest," he said.

"But given the strong advice that we have received that the camp is making the cathedral and its occupants unsafe then this right has to be balanced against other rights and responsibilities too.

"The Christian gospel is profoundly committed to the needs of the poor and the dispossessed. Financial justice is a gospel imperative. Those who are claiming the decision to close the cathedral has been made for commercial reasons are talking complete nonsense."

The dean of St Paul's, the Rev Graeme Knowles, said the closure was necessary because health and safety, and fire officers had identified unknown quantities of flammable liquids, along with smoking and drinking in tented areas, which compromised fire exits.

He also cited public health issues such as sanitation and food hygiene.

"The decision to close St Paul's Cathedral is unprecedented in modern times," Knowles said.

"We have done this with a very heavy heart, but it is simply not possible to fulfil our day to day obligations to worshippers, visitors and pilgrims in current circumstances.

"I hope that the protesters will understand the issues we are facing, recognise that their voice has been legitimately heard, and withdraw peacefully."

OccupyLSX estimated that hundreds would swell the camp on Saturday for a series of talks and demonstrations, potentially taking the number of demonstrators up to 2,000.

A wedding at St Paul's nevertheless went ahead on Saturday despite its closure to the general public.

Natasha Ighodaro arrived at the cathedral to marry Nick Cunningham against a backdrop of dozens of tents and a banner reading "capitalism is crisis".

Leaving the service, the bride said: "There hasn't been any disruption at all – it's been wonderful, really amazing."

Wedding guest John Giles, from Godalming in Surrey, offered his support to the demonstrators. He said: "I think there are valuable comments being made and it seems to have been done in a peaceful way. They have a democratic right to protest."

A spokesman for the cathedral said it would lose about £16,000 in visitor donations for every day it is closed. It will remain shut on Sunday and it is unclear when it will reopen.

Despite the closure of the cathedral, which is a major tourist attraction, most visitors to the site said they believed the presence of the camp, comprising around 200 tents, enhanced the building's exterior.

Earlier, Eqyptian activist Nawal El Saadawi, who was celebrating her 80th birthday, addressed the crowd on the steps of the cathedral. Hours after flying in from Cairo, she likened the tents around St Paul's to those that occupied Tahrir Square during the uprising: "All over the world it's a global revolution. We must fight together."

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Londense Occupy-ers slapen 's nachts 'gewoon thuis'

De politie in de Engelse hoofdstad Londen heeft voor heel wat beroering gezorgd in het Britse Occupy-kamp. Volgens infrarood-beelden, waarop lichaamswarmte detecteerbaar is, is de meerderheid van de tentjes rondom Saint Paul's Cathedral 's nachts onbewoond.

Het Occupy-kamp is overdag erg druk, en de menigte tentjes rond de beroemde kathedraal hebben het monument al genoopt tot sluiting. Maar de warmtebeelden die de politie maakte, duiden op een heel ander sfeertje na zonsondergang. Namelijk dat van een verlaten terrein, waarvan de 'bezetters' gewoon lekker warm in hun Londense huizen de ochtend afwachten om verder te protesteren. Dat meldt de Huffington Post vandaag.

De Londense politie besloot de beelden niet openbaar te maken, maar het dagblad The Daily Telegraph had lucht gekregen van het verhaal, en besloot zelf op onderzoek uit te gaan. Gewapend met een eigen thermische camera begaf een journalist zich in het kamp en kwam tot eenzelfde conclusie: nauwelijks één tent op tien is 's nachts bewoond. Toen een aantal demonstranten de reporter bezig zagen, werd hij gedwongen het terrein te verlaten.

Ultra-modern
De Occupy-organisatie heeft zich verdedigd met het argument dat de meeste demonstranten in het bezit zijn van ultra-moderne tentjes, waaruit nauwelijks warmte ontsnapt, zodat een infrarood-camera niet kan achterhalen of er iemand binnenin ligt.

Lokaal politicus Mark Field stelde in de media schertsend voor dat de nacht dus het ideale moment is voor de politie om het kamp te ontruimen. 'Ik heb niets tegen mensen die protesteren, maar dit kamp begint semi-permanente trekjes te vertonen en weerhoudt toeristen ervan om Saint Paul's te kunnen bezoeken', aldus nog Field.

Het bestuur van Saint Paul's Cathedral besloot eerder uit veiligheid de deuren te sluiten toen het Occupy-verzet rondom de kathedraal exponentieel toenam. Het is de eerste keer sinds de Tweede Wereldoorlog dat Saint Paul niet open is voor publiek.

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Op maandag 28 maart 2011 18:09 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:

[..]

Omdat overheden voor zichzelf beginnen, omdat ze misbruikt worden voor het opdringen van voorkeuren, omdat ze misbruikt worden door bedrijven.

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Op dinsdag 25 oktober 2011 17:07 schreef eriksd het volgende:

[..]

Ik heb om die eerste reden die je noemt ook een hekel aan de overheid.
Eigenlijk zijn het alle drie vrij legitieme opmerkingen

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Op dinsdag 25 oktober 2011 17:11 schreef KoosVogels het volgende:

[..]

Haha, Erik is het eens met PV.

Homily given by the Dean of St Paul's Cathedral at Eucharist - 28th October 2011

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Homily given at the Eucharist service marking the reopening of St Paul's Cathedral after a week of closure. Rt Revd Graeme Knowles, Dean of St Paul's Cathedral, discusses the building of the holy temple in the Lord and engagement with social issues.

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Occupy London could be protected by Christian ring of prayer

Coalition of Christian groups plan to prevent forcible attempts to remove tents outside St Paul's Cathedral

Christian groups have drawn up plans to protect protesters by forming a ring of prayer around the camp outside St Paul's Cathedral, should an attempt be made to forcibly remove them.

As the storm of controversy over the handling of the Occupy London Stock Exchange demonstration deepened on Saturday, Christian activists said it was their duty to stand up for peaceful protest in the absence of support from St Paul's. One Christian protester, Tanya Paton, said: "We represent peace, unity and love. A ring of prayer is a wonderful symbol."

With senior officials at St Paul's apparently intent on seeking an injunction to break up the protest, the director of the influential religious thinktank Ekklesia, Jonathan Bartley, said the cathedral's handling of the protest had been a "car crash" and predicted more high-profile resignations from the Church of England.

The canon chancellor of St Paul's, Giles Fraser, and the Rev Fraser Dyer, who works as a chaplain at the cathedral, have already stepped down over the decision to pursue legal action to break up the camp.

Meanwhile, it has emerged that Shami Chakrabarti, director of the human rights group Liberty, is attempting to mediate in the dispute.She said she had contacted the corporation, cathedral and protesters to offer a "neutral space" to sort out the impasse. The corporation had not yet responded , she said, although St Paul's had acknowledged her offer. She said the protesters had been enthusiastic in their desire for dialogue and a peaceful resolution.

She said : "It would have been easy to opt for a line of action that would have led to images of police dragging away protesters, but they want to talk."

Christian groups who have publicly sided with the protesters include one of the oldest Christian charities, the Fellowship of Reconciliation, and the oldest national student organisation, the Student Christian Movement, Christianity Uncut, the Zacchaeus 2000 Trust and the Christian magazine Third Way. In addition, London Catholic Worker, the Society of Sacramental Socialists and quaker groups have offered their support.

A statement by the groups said: "As Christians, we stand alongside people of all religions and none who are resisting economic injustice with active nonviolence. The global economic system perpetuates the wealth of the few at the expense of the many. It is based on idolatrous subservience to markets. We cannot worship both God and money."

Bartley said: "There are some very unhappy people within the CoE. The protesters seem to articulate many of the issues that the church has paid lip service to. Many people are disillusioned with the position St Paul's has adopted. To evict rather than offer sanctuary is contrary to what many people think the church is all about. The whole thing has been a car crash."

On Saturday afternoon, more than 20 religious figures gathered on the steps of St Paul's to support the occupation, which began two weeks ago.

The bishop of London, the Right Rev Richard Chartres, has promised to attend St Paul's tomorrow morning in an attempt to persuade activists to leave.

But protesters say they have no intention of packing up, many reiterating their intention to stay at the cathedral to Christmas and beyond. A spokesman for Occupy London urged the City of London Corporation to open a dialogue with protesters to avoid a lengthy legal battle that could prove expensive for the taxpayer.

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The protesters seem more adult than politicians and plutocrats

With a few nylon tents and some amateurish banners, the Occupy movement has rattled the establishment

The mayor of London demands a law against it to stop tent villages "erupting like boils" across the capital. If you lived like Boris, you too might be a bit paranoid about boils. The prime minister interrupts a trip to Australia to announce that the government is poised to intervene. Meantime, the Church of England is split down the aisle about whether the Christian thing is to embrace the protesters encamped on the doorstep of its cathedral – after all, St Paul was a tent-maker and Christ had a robust approach to moneychangers – or to join forces with the mammonites who run the City of London and have the protest camp evicted. Much of the mainstream media side with the establishment by dismissing them as an incoherent and unrepresentative fringe. Well-paid television interviewers sneer that the protesters are spoilt brats while grand columnists scoff that they will achieve nothing.

Yet they have already done something fairly remarkable. My congratulations to the encampment outside St Paul's for sending almost the entire British establishment into a tizzy every bit as confused as some of the protesters themselves. Amazing what you can achieve by occupying a small, albeit famous, patch of the capital with a few nylon tents and some amateurish banners expressing well-mannered rage about capitalism. You have brought a frown to the forehead of the prime minister, hyperbolic froth to the lips of Boris Johnson, attracted the disdain of a pomposity of pontificators and thrown the state church into something approaching a constitutional crisis. It is twisted knickers time among pundits, politicians and prelates. Imagine what might be achieved if this movement can get really serious and starts taking its protest more directly to the avaricious bankers, corporate larcenists and crony capitalists who are the central source of their discontent with how we live now.

The protest at St Paul's is just one example of an international phenomenon. What began in the Spanish springtime with demonstrations by the splendidly named los indignados has turned viral and global. It is just over a month since the first thousand people turned up at Zuccotti Park in New York to express their rage at Wall Street. Since then, similar movements have come to life in more than 900 cities around the globe. They have camped in front of the European Central Bank in Frankfurt and on the Plaza del Congreso in Buenos Aires.

The default response of establishment opinion is glibly to dismiss these protests as a passing spasm which cannot achieve anything because the movement is either wildly unrealistic in its aspirations for a new world economic order or too vague in its demands. It is true to say that the protests vary in their tactics and are disparate in their goals. Movements like this are often woven from multiple threads of grievance, a tapestry of dissent which can be both a source of initial strength and an ultimate cause of weakness. But they are loosely united by common themes: fury at corporate greed, resentment at lack of economic opportunity, concern about social inequality and alienation from a conventional politics that appears incapable of doing anything serious to address and redress public discontents.

The anarchic end of the protesting spectrum do indeed sound naive when they cry "smash the system", especially when they are either muddled or utopian about what would take its place. More realistic are those protesters who see their role as "raising awareness". That is a very valuable purpose in itself. Simply by existing, they push these issues up the media agenda and towards the front of the public mind. If it makes it just a little bit harder for financial interests and their friends among politicians to put the argument to sleep, it is a little bit worth doing.

The protesters over-claim when they say they speak for "the 99%", but some of their themes do resonate very potently with mainstream voters. The occupation movement is succeeding where conventional politics of both left and right have badly failed. It articulates a profound public resentment with over-mighty finance and the failure of government to do anything about it. The protesters strike a resounding chord when they complain that financial elites are getting rewarded with special treatment while the punishment for their mistakes is meted out on the rest of society.

On top of the billions of taxpayers' money already committed to rescuing the banks, the eurozone leaders have just signed up to providing billions more. Yet from the nabobs of finance there is still not a whisper of a hint of a scintilla of humility or penance. The Institute of International Finance, the main industry organisation, reports that banks are handing more guaranteed bonuses to new employees than they were before the financial crisis. Governments have neither punished those who wrecked the economy nor taken adequate steps to ensure that they will be more accountable and responsible in future. Sir Fred Goodwin – why the hell is he still Sir Fred Goodwin? Three years have elapsed since the bubble burst in 2008 and yet we are still waiting for the fulfilment of promises of systemic reform. The wonder is not that people have been provoked to occupy parks and squares in every continent but Antarctica. The wonder is that this did not happen earlier.

The composition of the demonstrations is interesting. A rough survey of the occupation movement in New York found that about two in three of the protesters are under 34. This is not just because protesting may be more attractive to people with unfurred arteries, but because the young are suffering disproportionately from a crisis not of their making. Youth unemployment in Britain is at record levels: 20% of the under-24s do not have work. In Spain, youth unemployment has surged to a staggering 46%. These protests are an alert to explosive issues of inter-generational unfairness which most politicians have yet to wake up to, probably because their trade is dominated by the middle aged. Their generation often did well enough during prosperity to cushion them from present austerity while the less fortunate young are asked to pay the price.

A big mistake is to think that because the protesters tend to be youthful it follows that they should be treated like children. Richard Chartres, the Bishop of London, has made that error by suggesting to the campers that they ought to leave in return for a debate under the dome of St Paul's – gosh, thanks my Lord Bishop. He further asks them to go on the grounds that: "I am involved in ongoing discussion with City leaders about improving shareholder influence on excessive remuneration."

I am sure that the bishop is well-meaning, but that is not going to cut it. There has been "ongoing discussion" for years. The result, according to the latest report by Incomes Data Services: Britain's top executives gave themselves a 49% increase in their salaries, benefits and bonuses in the past year. It does not even occur to the business and financial elite that it might be good old cynical public relations to moderate their greed while so many of their fellow citizens are suffering the consequences of corporate follies.

Who is truly the more adult: the protesters or an establishment that regards itself as older and wiser? The protesters have largely been very decorously behaved. They have thus far displayed no propensity to riot or to loot. Their tents are erected in rather neat rows. They hold laboriously consensus-seeking meetings at which they keep minutes and take votes. Their spokespeople are polite and articulate. If they do not have all the answers, they are at least posing some of the right questions. I don't see why they should be criticised for the absence of a manifesto when the leaders of Europe spent months quarrelling and flailing over the euro crisis before scrabbling together an expensively botched compromise.

The protesters shun formal leaders and hierarchies – and I also don't see why they should be criticised for this at a time when conventional leaders and hierarchies have been so conspicuously useless. Here are some recent scenes in establishment politics. Silvio Berlusconi displays his incomparable charms by describing Angela Merkel as "culona ichiavabile" ("an unfuckable lard arse"). Rick Perry, contender to become Republican candidate for the great office of president of the United States, questions where Barack Obama was born five months after the White House released his long-form birth certificate, and excuses himself by saying: "It's fun to poke at him." A punch-up breaks out on the floor of the Italian parliament between one right-wing member of the government and an even more right-wing member. Nicolas Sarkozy tells David Cameron to "shut up" because he is "sick" of him. David Cameron elevates the tone at prime minister's questions by shouting: "Complete mug!" at Ed Miliband.

Protesters or leaders? I know who looks the more grown-up

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Met police using surveillance system to monitor mobile phones

Civil liberties group raises concerns over Met police purchase of technology to track public handsets over a targeted area

Britain's largest police force is operating covert surveillance technology that can masquerade as a mobile phone network, transmitting a signal that allows authorities to shut off phones remotely, intercept communications and gather data about thousands of users in a targeted area.

The surveillance system has been procured by the Metropolitan police from Leeds-based company Datong plc, which counts the US Secret Service, the Ministry of Defence and regimes in the Middle East among its customers. Strictly classified under government protocol as "Listed X", it can emit a signal over an area of up to an estimated 10 sq km, forcing hundreds of mobile phones per minute to release their unique IMSI and IMEI identity codes, which can be used to track a person's movements in real time.

The disclosure has caused concern among lawyers and privacy groups that large numbers of innocent people could be unwittingly implicated in covert intelligence gathering. The Met has refused to confirm whether the system is used in public order situations, such as during large protests or demonstrations.

Nick Pickles, director of privacy and civil liberties campaign group Big Brother Watch, warned the technology could give police the ability to conduct "blanket and indiscriminate" monitoring: "It raises a number of serious civil liberties concerns and clarification is urgently needed on when and where this technology has been deployed, and what data has been gathered," he said. "Such invasive surveillance must be tightly regulated, authorised at the highest level and only used in the most serious of investigations. It should be absolutely clear that only data directly relating to targets of investigations is monitored or stored," he said.

Datong's website says its products are designed to provide law enforcement, military, security agencies and special forces with the means to "gather early intelligence in order to identify and anticipate threat and illegal activity before it can be deployed".

The company's systems, showcased at the DSEi arms fair in east London last month, allow authorities to intercept SMS messages and phone calls by secretly duping mobile phones within range into operating on a false network, where they can be subjected to "intelligent denial of service". This function is designed to cut off a phone used as a trigger for an explosive device.

A transceiver around the size of a suitcase can be placed in a vehicle or at another static location and operated remotely by officers wirelessly. Datong also offers clandestine portable transceivers with "covered antennae options available". Datong sells its products to nearly 40 countries around the world, including in Eastern Europe, South America, the Middle East and Asia Pacific. In 2009 it was refused an export licence to ship technology worth £0.8m to an unnamed Asia Pacific country, after the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills judged it could be used to commit human rights abuses.

A document seen by the Guardian shows the Metropolitan police paid £143,455 to Datong for "ICT hardware" in 2008/09. In 2010 the 37-year-old company, which has been publicly listed since October 2005, reported its pro forma revenue in the UK was £3.9m, and noted that "a good position is being established with new law enforcement customer groups". In February 2011 it was paid £8,373 by Hertfordshire Constabulary according to a transaction report released under freedom of information.

Between 2004 and 2009 Datong won over $1.6 (£1.03m) in contracts with US government agencies, including the Secret Service, Special Operations Command and the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. In February 2010 the company won a £750,000 order to supply tracking and location technology to the US defence sector. Official records also show Datong entered into contracts worth more than £500,000 with the Ministry of Defence in 2009.

All covert surveillance is currently regulated under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (Ripa), which states that to intercept communications a warrant must be personally authorised by the home secretary and be both necessary and proportionate. The terms of Ripa allow phone calls and SMS messages to be intercepted in the interests of national security, to prevent and detect serious crime, or to safeguard the UK's economic wellbeing.

Latest figures produced by the government-appointed interception of communications commissioner, Sir Paul Kennedy, show there were 1,682 interception warrants approved by the home secretary in 2010. Public authorities can request other communications data – such as the date, time and location a phone call was made – without the authority of the home secretary. In 2010, 552,550 such requests were made, averaging around 1,500 per day.

Barrister Jonathan Lennon, who specialises in cases involving covert intelligence and Ripa, said the Met's use of the Datong surveillance system raised significant legislative questions about proportionality and intrusion into privacy.

"How can a device which invades any number of people's privacy be proportionate?" he said. "There needs to be clarification on whether interception of multiple people's communications – when you can't even necessarily identify who the people are – is complaint with the act. It may be another case of the technology racing ahead of the legislation. Because if this technology now allows multiple tracking and intercept to take place at the same time, I would have thought that was not what parliament had in mind when it drafted Ripa."

Former detective superintendent Bob Helm, who had the authority to sign off Ripa requests for covert surveillance during 31 years of service with Lancashire Constabulary, said: "It's all very well placed in terms of legislation … when you can and can't do it. It's got to be legal and obviously proportionate and justified. If you can't do that, and the collateral implications far outweigh the evidence you're going to get, well then you just don't contemplate it."

In May the Guardian revealed the Met had purchased software used to map suspects' digital movements using data gathered from social networking sites, satnav equipment, mobile phones, financial transactions and IP network logs. The force said the software was being tested using "dummy data" to explore how it could be used to examine "police vehicle movements, crime patterns and telephone investigations."

The Met would not comment on its use of Datong technology or give details of where or when it had been used.

A spokesman said: "The MPS [Metropolitan police service] may employ surveillance technology as part of our continuing efforts to ensure the safety of Londoners and detect criminality. It can be a vital and highly effective investigative tool.

"Although we do not discuss specific technology or tactics, we can re-assure those who live and work in London that any activity we undertake is in compliance with legislation and codes of practice."

A spokesman for the Home Office said covert surveillance was kept under "constant review" by the chief surveillance commissioner, Sir Christopher Rose, who monitors the conduct of authorities and ensures they are complying with the appropriate legislation.

He added: "Law enforcement agencies are required to act in accordance with the law and with the appropriate levels of authorisation for their activity."

Datong declined to comment

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Occupy demonstrators at St Paul's link up with protests in Syria - video

Occupy London protesters take part in a two-way livestream connecting demonstrations at St Paul's Cathedral with those in Damascus and Homs in Syria. They claim it is the first such event in the UK, and part of their attempts to link protest movements around the world. Around 50 UK-based Syrians took part in the protest, which streamed live to Syria

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Public sector strikes - live coverage

Live coverage of today's mass union strike action by teachers, border control staff, health workers and others over public sector pensions.

• UK transport network suffers little disruption despite biggest strike in 30 years
• Only 58% of schools closed, despite predictions of 90%
• Government denies union claims that talks are over
• Cabinet Office minister brands 2m-strong strike "inappropriate, untimely and irresponsible"

6.33pm: The Department of Health has released its estimate of how many health workers took part in today's strike- and the numbers are far smaller than those of the unions. PA reports:

The Department of Health said an estimated 79,000 workers were on strike in England. It represents approximately 14.5% of all staff in NHS trusts, foundation trusts, ambulance services and NHS Direct.

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Op woensdag 30 november 2011 22:11 schreef Bajskorv het volgende:


Begrijp me niet verkeerd, ik verbaas me al 8 jaar inmiddels over hoe gepolariseerd de Britse maatschappij is qua rijkdom.

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Op woensdag 30 november 2011 22:15 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:

[..]

Engeland heeft gewoon een klassen maatschappij, veel meer dan in NL.

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Op woensdag 30 november 2011 22:19 schreef Bajskorv het volgende:

Ik denk dat de mensen van Occupy A'dam een keer in Engeland moeten komen kijken hoe een echte "99%" leeft.

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Op woensdag 30 november 2011 22:23 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:

[..]

Genoeg Occupyers die heel veel weten. Ze weten ook dat globalisatie nagenoeg volledig is en dat we direct de gevolgen merken van gebeurtenissen aan de andere kant van de wereld. Daarom moeten demonstraties ook geglobaliseerd worden. En dat gebeurd nu.

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Op woensdag 30 november 2011 22:27 schreef Bajskorv het volgende:

[..]

Ach, als globalisatie echt zo hard gaat, zou Engeland geen zorg moeten zijn. Dan is India eerder een probleem, als je dat echt gelooft.

Daarnaast zou je ook Zweden als voorbeeld kunnen nemen, of Duitsland - volgens mij functioneren die maatschappijen prima. Waarom zouden wij hen niet volgen en wel Engeland?

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Ik weet niet of het je is opgevallen, maar Nederland volgt die trend van polarisering niet echt.

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Occupy London's anger over police 'terrorism' document

A notice sent out to businesses in the City of London has listed the protest movement among groups such as al-Qaida and Farc

Police have angered Occupy London activists after listing the movement among terrorist groups in an advisory notice sent to the business community in the City.

The document issued by City of London police, headed "Terrorism/extremism update for the City of London business community", included a detailed account of recent and upcoming Occupy London activities and was sent to "trusted partners" in the area.

The document, dated 2 December, which was passed on to Occupy London's Finsbury square encampment over the weekend by a local business owner, gave an update on foreign terrorist activities including that of Farc in Columbia, al-Qaida in Pakistan and the outcome of a trial into the Minsk bombing in Belarus.

Below that, a section headed "Domestic" was dedicated wholly to the activities of the Occupy encampments and singled out anti-capitalists as a cause for concern.

"As the worldwide Occupy movement shows no sign of abating, it is likely that activists aspire to identify other locations to occupy, especially those they identify with capitalism."

The document stated that police had "received a number of hostile reconnaissance reports concerning individuals who would fit the anti-capitalist profile", and asked businesses to be vigilant for further sign of occupation activity.

It also said that the number of protesters present at the camp remained "fairly consistent" but that demonstrations originating from the camp had "decreased and lacked the support and momentum of earlier actions".

The City of London police have as yet been unwilling to reveal how many businesses were included on the mailing but their list is thought to include large multinationals and banks.

A City of London police source admitted that the "title of the document was not helpful" and denied that it labelled or intended to label the Occupy movement as equivalent to al-Qaida.

An activist from the camp called the document "vulgar" and said Occupy London had met Church of England representatives many times in the past and were meeting the Financial Services Authority, which regulates banking activity in the UK, on Monday.

A statement from the Occupy London camp said: "The reference to 'suspected activists' seems to demonstrate a disturbing loss of perspective.

"Activism is not a crime and the desire to participate in democratic decision-making should not be a cause for concern for the police in any free society.

"An institution that confuses active citizens with criminals and equates al-Qaida with efforts to re-imagine the City is an institution in grave danger of losing its way."

Asked about the document, the City of London police said their community policing methods had been praised.

A spokesman added: "City of London police works with the community to deter and detect terrorist activity and crime in the City in a way that has been identified nationally as good practice.

"We've seen crime linked to protests in recent weeks, notably around groups entering office buildings, and with that in mind we continue to brief key trusted partners on activity linked to protests."

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Birmingham University protest ban attacked as 'aggressive and censorious'

Human rights groups say injunction flies in face of British tradition of academic dissent and right to protest peacefully

UK human rights groups have condemned one of Britain's biggest universities for "criminalising" sit-in protests, describing the move as worrying, aggressive and censorious.

On Thursday it was reported that Birmingham University had obtained a high court injunction banning all occupation-style protests on its 250-acre campus for one year. The injunction prevents "persons unknown" from staging any "occupational-style protest" for 12 months unless they obtain prior written permission from university management.

Facing fines, seizure of assets and imprisonment for contempt of court if they break the order, the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts say they are organising students from around the country to protest against the injunction on Brimingham's campus after the Christmas holiday.

The controversial move follows similar action from Sheffield University, which subsequently went back to court to have the order quashed after it faced outrage from its own students earlier this week.

A trend for higher education institutions to obtain court injunctions against protest appears to be forming after a third, Royal Holloway College in Surrey, also considered a similar order against protests, the Guardian has learned.

The college, which is part of London University, dropped its legal manoeuvre after occupying students quit the vice-chancellor's building on Thursday.

Amnesty International's UK campaigns director, Tim Hancock, said: "It is worrying that universities are attempting to curb the rights of their own students to make their views known with a blanket ban on protesting on campus without prior permission. The right to peacefully express views is one that we hold very dear in the UK and is one of the basic pillars of our society." Hancock said that limitations to protest should be proportionate, adding: "It would be wrong for those very people in power to be able to forbid protests because they find them a nuisance."

Sabina Frediani, campaigns co-ordinator for Liberty, said the move was aggressive. "The right to protest is a cornerstone of our democracy and this aggressive move hardly sits well with our best British traditions of academic dissent," she said.

"Universities should be places where ideas and opinions can be explored and they should be engaging with the students in their care – not criminalising them. How exactly will taking out court orders against protest encourage future applications from aspiring undergraduates?"

Index on Censorship also condemned Birmingham's move. Editor Jo Glanville said: "This move by the University of Birmingham shows a flagrant disregard for the principles of free expression and free assembly. Protests, including sit-ins, are legitimate parts of the political debate in this country. For any institution to attempt to pre-emptively ban protest severely impedes that debate. She added that it was an "unwarranted and censorious move".

A spokesman for Birmingham University said: "The high court injunction does not prevent any peaceful protest on campus, but specifically refers to the occupation of buildings on campus and in fact peaceful protests have continued to be held on campus since the injunction was taken out. The University of Birmingham believes that universities are places of free speech and continues to respect the rights of students and staff to protest peacefully and within the law. The high court injunction prohibiting occupation on campus was sought after a student occupation in November 2011 which raised significant safety issues."

A spokesman for Sheffield University said that it had withdrawn its own interim injunction, which placed a campus-wide ban on protests without prior permission on Tuesday. "The university took on board the concerns of representatives from the students' union regarding the wording in the injunction application which was interpreted as preventing protests across the whole of campus unless permission was granted by the university. The University of Sheffield fully supports freedom of speech and the right of students to express their views peacefully and within the law."

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Britse werkloosheid op hoogste niveau in 17 jaar

De werkloosheid in Groot-Brittannië is aan het einde van het derde kwartaal uitgekomen op het hoogste niveau in zeventien jaar. Met name vrouwen en jongeren hebben last van de banencrisis in het land. Dat blijkt uit cijfers van het Britse centraal bureau voor statistiek.

Eind oktober hadden 2,64 miljoen Britten geen baan. Dat is een stijging van 128 duizend ten opzichte van het tweede kwartaal. Sinds 1994 is de werkloosheid niet zo hoog geweest.

De Britse regering wordt stevig bekritiseerd over het stopzetten van stimuleringsprogramma's om jongeren aan een baan te helpen. Labour-leider Ed Milliband sprak van een 'verloren generatie' van mensen die geen baan kunnen vinden.

Minister van werkgelegenheid Chris Gayling reageerde ook op het rapport. Volgens hem zijn er ondanks de slechte cijfers tekens dat de arbeidsmarkt aan het stabiliseren is.

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OH COME TO XMAS RAVE AT ST PAUL'S!
PROTESTERS at St Paul’s Cathedral are planning to hold a two-week rave over Christmas.
They have vowed to party 24/7 as a legal bid to evict them gets under way.

Campers will offer live music and free food in their makeshift digs – including turkey on Christmas Day. Homeless people are being urged to join in as activists “throw open” their tents for a “big family bash”. It is seen as a parting shot of defiance as legal moves to evict the Occupy London group gather pace. Demonstrator Richard Trevan, 55, said: “We are going to have a party and throw it open to the homeless, to everyone. “At Christmas it’ll be inspirational – one big family celebrating.” The plan has been devised in the wake of claims that drug abuse, violence and binge-drinking have spiralled out of control at the camp.

City of London Corporation officials yesterday took their fight to remove the tent city to the High Court. As the likelihood of the protesters being forced to move grows, camp leaders are said to have accepted that their presence at the historic monument will have to be scaled down.

Around 150 people are still living at the anti-capitalist digs. Some want to end the main demo and simply leave a few scattered tents as a symbolic gesture. But spokesman Ronan McNern said they would not leave altogether, adding: “A symbolic tent would not be enough and I don’t think there’s any question of leaving completely.”

As the four-day hearing kicked off at the High Court, City counsel David Forsdick said the camp needed to go to “protect the rights of others”. He said: “The City is not bringing these claims to protect the banks, nor is it to prevent peaceable protest against the financial sector. “Nor is it bringing these claims to stifle freedom of speech. “It is bringing these claims solely to remove the semi-permanent protest camp because, after very careful consideration, it has concluded it is necessary to do so. “It is a pressing social need in order to protect the rights and freedoms of others.”

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The British public want business to put "people before profits" and to see politicians close the gap between rich and poor, according to a new survey.

The findings suggest growingsupport for "responsible capitalism" in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis and bankers' excessive bonuses – and public sympathy with the anti-globalisation protests such as the Occupy London camp outside St Paul'sCathedral.

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Britse overheid wil toegang tot e-mailverkeer van burger

De Britse overheid krijgt toegang tot informatie over het bel-, mail- en surfgedrag van haar burgers. Ook communicatie op sociale netwerksites als Facebook en Twitter komt ter beschikking te staan van de autoriteiten, voor zover ze al niet op gewone wijze kunnen meelezen.

Binnen de overheid leeft er zekere angst voor terreuraanslagen, zeker nu de Olympische Spelen voor de deur staan.

Een soortgelijke spionagewet was al in 2009 opgesteld door de toen regerende Labour Partij, maar die stuitte indertijd op teveel maatschappelijk verzet.

Opvallend is dat ook de huidige regeringspartijen - de Conservatieven en Liberaal-democraten - destijds felle kritiek uitten op dit voornemen en op andere privacygevoelige maatregelen van de Sociaal-democraten.

Een verschil is dat Labour de gegevens centraal wilde opslaan en dat de huidige regering de informatie laat beheren door de bedrijven zelf.

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Police officers demonstrate against cuts and 'privatisation' of force – video

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More than 30,000 officers from all over the country march through the capital in the biggest demonstration by police ever held in England and Wales. They demanded that the government halt its cuts and 'privatisation' of the service in the only action they are legally entitled to take

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Britse politie verwacht opnieuw rellen in London

De Britse politie verwacht dat er deze zomer net als vorig jaar rellen uitbreken, en dat de politie door bezuinigingen dergelijke rellen niet adequaat zal kunnen aanpakken. Dat blijkt uit onderzoek onder Britse agenten.

In het noorden van Londen braken vorig jaar op 8 augustus rellen uit. De vier daaropvolgende nachten bleef het zeer onrustig in Londen en andere Engelse steden. De relschoppers roofden winkels leeg en vernielden auto's.

Voor het onderzoek, dat werd uitgevoerd door de London School of Economics en de krant The Guardian, vulden agenten een vragenlijst in. Daarin gaven ze aan dat een herhaling van vorig jaar waarschijnlijk is vanwege verslechterde economische en sociale omstandigheden.

In totaal werden 130 agenten van acht verschillende politiekorpsen geïnterviewd. Bijna alle agenten zeiden dat de rellen van vorig jaar de grootste fysieke en mentale uitdaging van hun carrière was.

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Op zondag 27 maart 2011 22:51 schreef betyar het volgende:
Wegens groot succes van het Midden-Oosten subforum, wordt het misschien tijd voor demonstraties in Europa.

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Op vrijdag 6 juli 2012 19:03 schreef Zenato het volgende:
In Zuid-Europa begint het al te broeien.

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Glastonbury festival: how police spied on political campaigners

Stallholders' details logged in database, documents reveal as criticism mounts over surveillance operations against activists

Police carried out surveillance on political campaigners while they were at the Glastonbury Festival, newly released documents show.

Details of their activities were recorded in a clandestine database run by the secretive police operation which has infiltrated a network of spies into political groups for 40 years.

Police logged how the campaigners had set up a stall at the festival and were selling what police termed "political publications and merchandise of an XLW anti-capitalist nature". The letters XLW are understood to mean "extreme left-wing".

They were mainly selling T-shirts and badges, along with DVDs and books. The police officers also recorded the home address and mobile phone number of the campaigner who had booked the stall.

The campaigners had been in the Green Fields, a special area – described as "the soul" of the festival – which hosts stalls and speakers on political ideas.

Disclosure of the documents comes as police have faced criticism over the intrusiveness and scale of their surveillance operations against political campaigners following revelations about the activities of nine undercover officers.

Simon Wellings, one of the undercover officers who has been unmasked, infiltrated the anti-capitalist group which was spied on at Glastonbury.

Evidence of the surveillance has been obtained by Guy Taylor, a 45-year-old activist working for the group, Globalise Resistance, following a request under the data protection act.

He obtained his file from the database which shows that police identified his presence at 27 demonstrations for causes such as anti-racism, opposition to the Iraq War and climate change between 2006 and 2011. One entry records how "Globalise Resistance had a campaigns stall at the Glastonbury Festival" in 2009 and that "this stall was selling political publications and merchandise of a XLW anti-capitalist nature".

Police had established that it was Taylor who gained approval from the festival organisers to set up the stall.

Taylor said: "I can't understand what use information about what I did at Glastonbury has for the Metropolitan police.

"If they need to know the plans and schemes of anti-capitalists, the worst place to look is Glastonbury as we were rarely in a fit state to plan the downfall of a parish council let alone the world financial system as we know it."

The Green Fields, described by Glastonbury organisers as encapsulating the "spirits and ideals" of the original festival, is home each year to an eclectic mix of activities including environmental initiatives, tipis, massages and solar-powered marquees. Taylor, has a conviction dating from 1991 for spray-painting anti-war slogans, is one of thousands of campaigners whose political activities have been recorded covertly on the database since 1999 and shared with police forces across the country.

The database, currently run by the Metropolitan police, contains information from undercover officers, informants in protest groups, covert intercepts and reports of demonstrations from uniformed officers.

Another activist on the database is John Catt, an 87-year-old campaigner with no criminal record. Police recorded how he attended more than 55 demonstrations over a four-year period, detailing how he brought along his sketchpad and made drawings of protests.

The Metropolitan police said it was not prepared to "discuss individual cases nor the provenance of information held on police databases".

A spokesman added: "The Management of Police Information (MOPI) statutory code of practice provides a clear framework for the collation and retention of information for policing purposes. The National Domestic Extremism Unit (NDEU) database is maintained according to this code of practice.

"The retention and collation of intelligence reports – carried out in accordance with the appropriate statutory codes of practice – is vital enabling us to fulfil our obligations of protecting life and property, preserving order, preventing the commission of offences, and bringing offenders to justice".

He said this "important principle" was upheld when the high court recently dismissed an application by Catt to have his file deleted from the database.

Last year, Newsnight reported that Wellings's real role was revealed following a blunder. He inadvertently phoned a campaigner from the Global Resistance group on his mobile phone while analysing photographs of protesters with a police officer at a police station.

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Riot murder trial judge ordered BBC not to broadcast documentaries

Judge in trial of eight men over Birmingham riot deaths said films raised issues that 'echoed' arguments put before jury

A judge prevented the BBC from broadcasting two documentaries about last summer's riots without having watched the films – and later prevented the media from reporting his injunction.

Mr Justice Flaux, who was presiding over the murder trial of eight men who were acquitted at Birmingham crown court on Thursday, made the injunction on the grounds that the film raised issues which "echoed" arguments put before his jury.

He used an unusual power under section 45 of the Senior Courts Act 1981, which in some circumstances grants crown court judges the same powers as those used by the high court, to prevent the film from being broadcast.

On Wednesday, the BBC and Guardian and sought to challenge the ruling, on the grounds that the films made no reference to the case being considered by the jury and did not even mention rioting in Birmingham.

They also argued that under section 5 of the Contempt Court Act a publication made as or as part of a discussion in good faith of public affairs or other matters of general public interest "is not to be treated as a contempt of court … if the risk of impediment or prejudice to particular legal proceedings is merely incidental to the discussion".

However, the judge rejected the appeal, saying the films touched on issues related to his case, and if he were to allow the films to be broadcast, jurors could potentially have "social contact" with others who watched the programmes.

He also issued a second order, under section 4 (2) of the Contempt of Court Act 1981, which barred media organisations from reporting the injunction.

However, the end of the trial rendered both orders redundant.

The first documentary in the series The Riots: In their own Words, which had been scheduled for broadcast on Monday at 9pm, was a verbatim drama, based on extracts from anonymous interviews with rioters conducted by the Guardian and London School of Economics study, Reading the Riots.

The script for the film was produced by the award-winning playwright Alecky Blythe and the rioters are played by actors.

The second film, which had been due for broadcast on Wednesday, was a more conventional documentary format, with police officers talking about their experiences policing the riots.

The ruling caused a major headache for BBC executives, who had carefully timed the broadcast of the films to coincide with next month's anniversary of the riots, while trying to avoid a clash Olympics coverage. It is not clear when the films will be shown, although the corporation has said they will be aired "at a later date".

Flaux's ruling initially meant media were unable to report details such as his name, his court, or the case he was presiding over, although it considered possible to report that an order had been made preventing the BBC films from being broadcast.

Later, the media was effectively barred from reporting the issue altogether. The move led to widespread rumour on Twitter, amid concern that a film could be pulled from the BBC's schedule by an unnamed judge without explanation.

Kirsty Hughes, the chief executive of Index on Censorship, described the ruling as "disturbing". "Censoring television programmes is not in any way helpful to our understanding of the important issues and factors underlying the disturbances," she said.

Justice Flaux initially released his injunction on Monday, without having seen either of the films of having any detailed knowledge of their content.

A defence barrister alerted the judge to the films, suggesting that although they may not contain any references to Birmingham, the judge may want to take action out of "an abundance of caution".

The BBC was told about the injunction just hours before the broadcast, and tried unsuccessfully to appeal via telephone conference.

On Wednesday, the BBC made a formal challenge to the ruling, which was supported by counsel from the Guardian.

Rejecting the arguments brought by the media organisations, the judge said that although he had not watched the films, he had read part of the transcripts and seen a two-minute clip on the BBC website.

He added that in the first film, the testimony from rioters in the first programme was similar to allegations raised by prosecution in the trial of the eight men.

He gave the examples of actors talking about the "adrenaline rush" experienced during the riots, taking revenge against police and bricks being thrown at cars – all issues raised during the trial. He said there were also issues in the second film, such as police officers talking about how rioters used BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) to communicate.

The two-part film was "literally littered" with potentially prejudicial commentary that could derail the 12-week trial, Flaux claimed.

In a pointed exchange, counsel for the eight defendants said they would have made an application to discharge the jury if the BBC films had been broadcast as planned on Monday and Wednesday.

"These programmes were potentially extremely prejudicial," Flaux said. "In my very clear judgment the continuation of the order – which, it has rightly been pointed out, is an injunction – that I made on Monday is the only necessary and proportionate remedy.

"If the BBC were to broadcast now, when the jury has already gone out, there would be a serious risk that this trial and the course of justice would be prejudiced."

He repeatedly described the BBC as "irresponsible" for attempting to overturn the order, and described as "complete and utter nonsense" any suggestion he had issued a "worldwide gagging order".

Heather Rogers QC, for the BBC, questioned whether a unilateral ban on the films was necessary and proportionate. She suggested a more reasonable measure would be to warn jurors not to watch the films, but allow them to be broadcast as planned.

However, Flaux dismissed this as "completely unreal", adding that jurors could be alerted to the content of the films through social contact with friends. He said it was "absolutely staggering" that the BBC sought further clarification on the reasons for the ban.

The judge's reasoning behind the ban appeared to suggest that any general reporting of the unrest in England, including references to the mood of rioters, their experiences or their use of social network technologies, was likely to be seen as potentially prejudicial to the trial.

Flaux described the trial as the most high-profile since the disorder last August. He said the interests in ensuring justice "outweigh" the interests in not broadcasting the programme.

A spokesperson for the broadcaster said, "The BBC was of the firm view that as the programmes did not contain any reference to the incident which was the subject of the trial their broadcast could not have affected the trial's outcome."

"As makers of current affairs programmes we felt this was a critical point regarding the freedom of the media to discuss matters that are of general public interest. We were disappointed by the Judge's ruling which prevented the programmes from being broadcast until the jury returned its verdicts. Now that has happened, we are pleased to be able to show the programmes. "

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Mass arrests at monthly cycling event in London on Olympic ceremony night (VIDEO, PHOTOS)

London police used pepper spray and kettling tactics against “Critical Mass” cycle ride participants as the British capital held the opening ceremony of the 2012 Summer Games. At least 50 people have reportedly been detained.

Scuffles occurred near the Olympic Stadium on the outskirts of the Olympic Park, with participants saying they were being “kettled” or corralled. Some witnesses said police pushed the cyclists aside to get David Beckham through traffic.

A witness video uploaded to YouTube allegedly showed police assaulting and pepper-spraying a disabled man on a tricycle.

The frantaag user who uploaded a similar video has written this account: “In the early stages of the Monthly Critical mass Bike ride a British Transport Police Officer PepperSprayed a Disabled Man in a shoprider who had been apparently hit by a car along with several others [sic].”

The user added that a female police medic attempted to stop the action, but was struck back and the officer sprayed the disabled man and most the crowd. He then whipped out his telescopic truncheon and tried to apply a neck lock on the disabled man using the truncheon.

The disabled man has been arrested. The British Transport Cop was finally led away by some other officers.

"A number of people in breach of regulations imposed on a monthly cycling event have been arrested,"a spokesman for Scotland Yard said.

However there are conflicting reports on the numbers of those arrested. According to some, at least 50 people have been detained and their bicycles loaded on to special buses parked nearby. Others say more than 100 people have been arrested.

The cyclists were members of a monthly cycling event called "Critical Mass", held on the last Friday of every month all around the world. The ride participants usually meet at a set location and time, and travel as a group through city or town streets on bikes.

But a police order had prohibited the London group from traveling into the Olympic Park area in the east of the capital during Friday night's opening ceremony.

The police released a statement in which they said the conditions imposed on the ride had been put in place "to prevent serious disruption to the community and the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games."

Earlier there were reportedly calls on the internet to stage the London ride on July 27 as an anti-Olympics protest.

The Metropolitan Police said they had made arrests for Public Order offences.

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Trade unions march against cuts

Trade unionists march against government cuts in London, Glasgow and Belfast

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Op zondag 21 oktober 2012 14:13 schreef sunny16947 het volgende:
En wij Nederlanders laten ons alles door de strot duwen. Iedereen klaagt vanaf zijn toetsenbord maar doet niks. En als mensen dan initiatief nemen om de burgers te mobiliseren wordt het in de kiem gesmoord door de MSM en zelfs op Fok. Zelfs strijden voor meer democratie is not done. Dan sluit je het topic gewoon als zijnde spam. pffff Stop met klagen en sluit je aan!!

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Op zondag 21 oktober 2012 14:17 schreef Bajskorv het volgende:

[..]

De modale Brit zou een moord doen voor de rijkdom die de model Nederlander geniet. Niet vreemd dat ze dus klagen, ze hebben het behoorlijk wat slechter.

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Op zondag 21 oktober 2012 14:51 schreef sunny16947 het volgende:

[..]

Dus moeten we wachten tot ze hier ons alles ontnemen en we het net zo slecht hebben als in andere landen?

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Op zondag 21 oktober 2012 17:23 schreef Bajskorv het volgende:

[..]

Wat ontnemen ze ons? De Nederland heeft gewoon jaren op te grote voet geleefd,

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Op zondag 21 oktober 2012 22:20 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:

[..]

Hé, deja-vu! Dat zeiden ze ook tegen de Grieken.