Sarah's Law review skewed by handpicked sample
Home Office jubilation over the "success" of its sex offender disclosure scheme may be premature amid yet more evidence of the Home Office twisting research to suit its own agenda.
That is the conclusion of sharp-eyed blogger, Hawktalk, who also questioned whether the way the scheme works in practice might create problems for wholly innocent individuals through the creation of misleading audit trails and over-zealous public officials applying the rule that "there’s no smoke without fire".
Tony-gate: Blair Strikes Oil in Iraq
Here in the States when someone mentions "UI," most of us think of Unemployment Insurance, but not former UK prime minister Tony Blair.
Late last week came word of a major scandal from the UK Daily Mail. In the three years since he stepped down as prime minister, Blair pocketed more than $30 million in oil revenues from his secret dealings with a South Korean oil consortium, UI Energy Corporation. Despite all his best efforts to keep his connection to UI secret, word is spreading like wildfire throughout the U.K.
New poll: About 1 in 3 Americans thinks 9/11 was “a big fabrication”
A new poll has shown that about 1 in 3 Americans — roughly 100 million people — think 9/11 was “a big fabrication.” The poll was evidently commissioned and/or conducted by anti-9/11-truth forces, as demonstrated by the headline: “Americans Disagree with Iranian President on 9/11 ‘Fabrication.’” By framing the issue as one of agreement or disagreement with media-demonized Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and focusing on those who disagreed, Angus Reid Public Opinion was spinning the story as hard as it could possibly be spun. But all the spin in the world can’t hide the fact that these are the biggest MIHOP* numbers yet!
Police Recruit Internet Cafe Owners To Spy On Users
As part of the lurching advance towards the kind of society that we thought had been consigned to the darkest days of the 20th century, the Nazi-fication of Britain continues with the news that the police are working with Internet cafe owners to spy on users who visit “extremist websites”.
“The intitative is part of the Prevent strand of the government’s counter-terrorism strategy, which aims to stop radicalisation by winning the “battle of ideas”. Café owners are asked to use their own judgement as to what amounts to extremist material
Police use of Taser weapons doubles in three months
Official figures show the electric shock device was used 402 times between July and September, up from 169 in the previous quarter.
Review all anti-terrorism laws, say MPs
All counter-terrorism laws passed since 11 September 2001 should be reviewed to see if they are still necessary, says a committee of MPs and peers.
Russia's top weatherman's blow to climate change lobby as he says winter in Siberia may be COLDEST on record
In a new blow to the climate change lobby, Russia's top weatherman today announced that the winter now drawing to a close in Siberia may turn out to be the coldest on record.
'The winter of 2009-10 was one of the most severe in European part of Russia for more than 30 years, and in Siberia it was perhaps the record breaking coldest ever,' said Dr Alexander Frolov, head of state meteorological service Rosgidromet.
Scotland's Pedophile Protection Policy:
It appears that the Holly Greig pedophile ring isn't the only group of sexual deviants to avoid justice in Scotland under Lord Advocate Angiolini. Stuart Usher, from "Scotland Against Crooked Lawyers" has sent us the following:...
The World's Next Credit Crunch Is About to Strike
Tom Dyson writes: One of the largest economies is about to declare bankruptcy: Japan.
If you thought the U.S. government was heavily in debt, you should see Japan. The Japanese government's debt has now reached $10 trillion... almost the same debt load as the U.S. government, except America's GDP is almost triple Japan's. Japan now has the world's highest debt-to-GDP ratio of any country in the world except Zimbabwe, according to the CIA World Fact/book.
Uncovered letters reveal strength of Digital Britain opposition
A new report has revealed the strength of opposition to the Digital Economy Bill, referencing citizens who have written to their MPs voicing serious concerns over the government's plans to disconnect illegal file sharers from the internet.
Now it's CowGate: expert report says claims of livestock causing global warming are false
It is becoming difficult to keep pace with the speed at which the global warming scam is now unravelling. The latest reversal of scientific “consensus” is on livestock and the meat trade as a major cause of global warming – one-fifth of all greenhouse gas emissions, according to eco-vegetarian cranks. Now a scientific report delivered to the American Chemical Society says it is nonsense. The Washington Times has called it “Cowgate”.
Are Americans a Broken People? Why We've Stopped Fighting Back Against the Forces of Oppression
A psychologist asks: Have consumerism, suburbanization and a malevolent corporate-government partnership so beaten us down that we no longer have the will to save ourselves?
Just change the word Americans to 'the British'
Regulated or Not, Nano-Foods Coming to a Store Near You
For centuries, it was the cook and the heat of the fire that cajoled taste, texture, flavor and aroma from the pot. Today, that culinary voodoo is being crafted by white-coated scientists toiling in pristine labs, rearranging atoms into chemical particles never before seen.
Metropolitan police officer hit Ian Tomlinson protester 'in self-defence'
Sergeant tells court he feared for colleagues safety and felt threatenend by activist Nicola Fisher in protests following G20.
The Future Will Be Medicated
Surfing the net over my cup of coffee, I dug up a mainstream article that painted a grim picture of American mental health. According to USA Today, the number of Americans taking antidepressants in 2005 was 27 million people, or 10% of the entire population of our country – and this was five years ago, before the government looted our economy. The 2005 number doubled from 1996, so I hesitate to imagine what it’s at now.
Mid Staffordshire NHS Trust Hospital Tip of NHS Hospitals of Death Iceberg
A lengthy report into the REAL performance of one of Britians top ranked hospitals placed The Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust as a killing field for patients that walk through its doors, this is set against NHS phony statistics on hospitals and GP surgeries that relentlessly paints a picture of everything is great, against the facts of actual patient experience
Rise in NHS managers outstrips doctors and nurses
The number of managers in the NHS has risen at double the rate of doctors and nurses under Labour, official figures have disclosed.
Ministers are exaggerating the terrorist threat, say MPs
The government's assessment of the threat of terrorism in the UK is overstated and has undermined the case for imposing tough new anti-terror laws, an influential committee of MPs and peers has warned.
'Sorry we smashed down your door... have a beer on us': Police gave innocent family alcohol after blunder
Police smashed down a terrified family's front door after mistaking their home for a drugs den, and then handed them a bottle of beer as an apology.
Financial Markets and Economic Outlook Conclusions 2010, When Hope Turns to Fear, Part V
As we near the APEX of the countertrend rallies in many markets and economies, the air is full of HIGHLY-COMBUSTIBLE situations just waiting for someone to light the MATCH. The full debacle of the next leg down in developed world economies is at the doorstep. What event will act as catalyst is unknowable, and the list of candidates is mountainous. Corruption and criminality within the public sectors, crony capitalists and banksters set the stage for an explosive cocktail, are set to immolate the private sectors that still produce wealth and the public at large.
The greatest transfer of wealth from those that hold it in paper to those that don’t is UNDER WAY! A Crack-up Boom is on the horizon….
NEW EU GESTAPO SPIES ON BRITONS
MILLIONS of Britons face being snooped on by a new European intelligence agency which has been handed frightening powers to pry into our lives.
Europol can access personal information on anyone – including their political opinions and sexual preferences – if it suspects, rightly or wrongly, that they may be involved in any “preparatory act” which could lead to criminal activity.
The vagueness of the Hague-based force’s remit sparked furious protests yesterday with critics warning that the EU snoopers threaten our right to free speech
Child Obesity in America: "Mommy, Mommy! Why Am I Fat?"
Malnutrition comes in a delightful assortment of colorful flavors nowadays. But poverty and obesity are a correlation that Americans find hard to swallow.
China Seeks Russia Alliance to Counter US Dominance
Looking to form a counterbalance to the power of the US, Beijing called on Moscow, as one of the emerging market economies, to enter into an alliance with China seeking to increase their leverage in global affairs.
Speaking after talks with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping hailed the strength of bilateral ties with Russia as a success and went on to express the Beijing government's support for Russia's growing power on the global stage.
U.S. Debt Reaches Tipping Point
Even the most statist economists can understand that a country’s debt has reached its saturation point once the change in Gross Domestic Product is less than the change in the federal debt. However, now the metrics of the American economy look even worse than the picture painted above. For each new dollar in federal debt, with productivity as measured by an increase or decrease in the GDP, 45 cents of wealth is destroyed
America’s Secret Prisons
On January 28 in TomDispatch.com, Anand Gopal headlined, “Night Raids, Hidden Detention Centers, the ‘Black Jail,’ and the Dogs of War in Afghanistan,” recounting unreported US media stories about killings, abductions, detentions, interrogations, and torture in “a series of prisons on US military bases around the country.” Bagram prison, for example, is “a facility with a notorious reputation for abusive behavior,” including brutalizing torture and cold-blooded murder.
Even worse is the “Black Jail,” a facility consisting of individual windowless concrete cells with bright 24-hour lighting, described by one former detainee as “the most dangerous and fearful place” in which prisoners endure appalling treatment.
Taxman accused of driving struggling firms to the wall
The taxman is forcing recession-hit businesses to the wall, critics said yesterday as Revenue and Customs was implicated in the collapse of the Jarvis engineering business and the Scottish airline Highland Airways.
Times and Sunday Times websites to start charging from June
Users to be charged £1 for a day's access and £2 for a week's subscription for access to both papers' websites
Labour is stealing from our children's future to buy votes
In the wake of the Budget, it's a disgrace that Labour would have Britain's national debt explode for electoral gain, argues Jeff Randall.
Interest bill on UK government debt set to soar
More than 10p in every pound of tax Britons pay will within four years go straight on the Government's ballooning debt interest bill, according to figures underlying the Budget calculations, it has emerged.
Budget 2010: 10m families have lost out in Labour’s tax changes Ten million middle-income households have lost out because of Gordon Brown’s repeated tax rises, a study has indicated.
MORE HUGE TAX RISES TO PLUG £20BN BLACK HOLE IN BUDGET A SECRET £20billion tax bombshell for Middle Britain was uncovered in the details of Alistair Darling’s Budget yesterday.
The European Union plan to control Britain's economy
European leaders last night launched an audacious attempt to create a single 'economic government'
One World Government anyone? Were the tinfoil hatters right all along?-ukws
The fleecing of the middle class: How Labour's punished any family earning over £30,000
Labour's tax and benefit reforms have raided the pockets of any family taking home more than £30,000 a year, experts have revealed.
Have a Nice World War, Folks
This is Americanism, the only predatory ideology to deny that it is an ideology. The rise of tentacular corporations that are dictatorships in their own right and of a military that is now a state with the state, set behind the façade of the best democracy 35,000 Washington lobbyists can buy, and a popular culture programmed to divert and stultify, is without precedent. More nuanced perhaps, but the results are both unambiguous and familiar. Denis Halliday and Hans von Sponeck, the senior United Nations officials in Iraq during the American and British-led blockade, are in no doubt they witnessed genocide. They saw no gas chambers. Insidious, undeclared, even presented wittily as enlightenment on the march, the Third World War and its genocide proceeded, human being by human being.
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