Anti-abortion group wins NI case

“Abortion is not health care. In Northern Ireland it is a criminal offence”.

Indeed the SPUCer is correct and 40 women each week leave the North to obtain an abortion elsewhere.

And that costs between £600 to £2,000. Access to abortion is very much a class issue and if you can’t get the money then a woman is pushed into a desperate situation that include backstreet abortions. Women also end up buying RU486 aka abortion pill over the web, taking pot luck as they don’t know what they are buying. Desperate circumstances bring desperate measures.

Instead of criminalising women for making a choice and forcing them to obtain an abortion elsewhere it should be free safe legal abortion in the North of Ireland…

‘Not the church, not the state….’ you know the rest..

The wonders of keyword searches

My latest keyword search was ‘things not to do as a leader’… Team leader? Leader of the NL gang?

Wonder if the Miliband bros are doing some research …just in case..

Here’s some helpful hints for Miliband senior and younger…

1. ‘War, war is stupid’… Wars are bad, bad, bad (including proxy wars) Capice?

2. Neoliberalism baaaad Socialism good. Repeat after me… (I am sure Ralph would concur if he was alive).

3. Stop blaming, attacking, stigmatising and shafting the poor.

4. Progressive taxation system.

5. Ditch this obsessive social authoritarianism and attacks on civil liberties using the War on Terror as an excuse.

6. Social housing programme

7. Real work done over climate change and green jobs….

Ooo… there’s more to include but that should be enough for them to think about..

Taking a photo of a sunset gets you stopped by the cops now!

Brighton sunset

Thanks to Twitter (specifically Copwatcher) I discovered this gem.

A BBC photographer was stopped by the cops for photographing a sunset over St Paul’s Cathedral. This utterly beggars belief! The number of times I have wandered around the South Bank armed with a camera taking photographs of views over the Thames….there are some wonderful views to behold especially early evening as you get some beautiful sunsets. And Jeff Overs pic encapsulates sunset along with the lights and reflections. It is richly stunning…

And yet…he was stopped because:

They said you could be doing a recce for a terrorist attack. which would have been a joke if it was not so sinister.

On what grounds? That he may be a terrorist on a recce.

Reminds me of when I was in Brighton during LP conference where I was stopped by a cop who asked me what pix I was taking ‘cos there were loads of armed police around. I said I was taking pix of buildings (which I was cos I like the juxtaposition of modern 20th century architecture to 19th…ok, a very sad but true explanation) and she let me go. It didn’t occur to her that I was taking pix of buildings instead she let me go after I explained my own displeasure at being stop for no reason whatsoever! And this is another issue, the cops are not consistent with this.

The problems with this anti-terror legislation is that it is loose, and ambiguous. And gives the agents of state any excuse to stop an individual. This attacks civil liberties and freedom of expression. The freedom to take a bloody picture of a sunset. This exposes further the authoritarianism of NL. It is more akin to a lousy tin-pot dictatorship than a democracy.

Wish I had my camera on me now as I would, after work, wander over to the South Bank, and with countless of others armed with camera and videos take a pic of a bloody sunset….

Carpe diem!

I have been mulling this over for some time mainly due to lack of confidence and worry… and the ‘am I doing the right thing’… The carpe diem (though every time I think of that phrase I think of the saccharine coated yuck factor…Dead Poets Society film) kicked in and finally, finally and finally have decided to do study a short course in reportage photography early next year and hopefully if that goes well then I will sign-up (*holds her breath*) to study a part-time BA in Photography and the courses I have been looking at allow flexibility and a chance to study other courses/modules. The downside is that blogging will be very light from next year and not the usual conveyor belt style of posting…..

With photography, I have to admit I feel confident with this and actually enjoy photography, and experimenting with the whole process. It also gives me the chance to study photography theoretically as well (Ha! A good start as I have 2 out of  the 3 intro. books!).

The downside to these courses is how phenomenally expensive they are a deterrent from studying if ever…absolutely appalling these financial constraints serve as a class barrier to stop people from studying…. The annual course fees for the p/t degree are something around £3,000… Better start saving now and hope Father Xmas leaves me wodges of cash under the Xmas tree…..

Stop the executions in Iraq!!

What has the “liberation” of Iraq brought to the women of Iraq apart from the usual miseries of war and occupation? Justice and freedom perhaps? I don’t think so!

The Iraqi government are looking to execute at least 100 women based on a stitch-up. These women need socialists and feminists to contact both the UK, Iraqi and international authorities to stop the judical murder of these women.

Without a fair and just judicial system and under the rule of corrupt thugs there will be no freedom. This should be something that even those who supported the invasion and the occupation can insist should end.

A new Mac

Spent day in the Apple Store at Regent Street, very very very….did I say very…crowded. Drooled over the iPhones and Macs. Got some great advice from Matt regarding Macs. Now a proud owner of a Mac that I will pick up next Friday. Very excited…. (Oh Dear!!) and can’t wait to play around with it.

Was gonna see Paranormal Activity but didn’t get around to it, will see it tomorrow.

Peter Bradshaw on Paranormal Activity

Mark Kermode on same film …explaining why he wasn’t scared!!

Gary McKinnon: the making of a miscarriage of justice

So Alan Johnson stills wants to extradite Gary McKinnon (interesting piece as well by Henry Porter).

Where is the justice in extraditing Gary McKinnon, what purpose will it serve? McKinnon has been diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome, and surely the terror and anxiety of extradition will cause further distress. This is indeed a very cruel punishment for a man, who became a DIY hacker to find out how much the American state knew about UFOs. Pure and simple, that was the method in his madness.

And now the American state want to punish him for exposing their sloppy security and to make an example, a sacrificial lamb, by using the convenient excuse of the century ‘War on Terror’. An excuse that gives the state a right, in their eyes, to shed civil liberties and freedoms.

And people like Gary McKinnon are collateral damage.

Feminism: isn’t it about solidarity and unity for all women..?!

I have been mulling this over for a couple of days as the Reclaim the Night demo last Saturday had kinda profound and demoralising impact on me. Suppose I just want to add a few more thing and said quite a bit at Helen’s blog (thanks as well for the solidarity).

Being shouted at and witnessing other women being shouted at for supporting rights of sex workers, also many of these women were questioned at the start of the demo by the police, why the hell were the agents of the state set on these women? It is utterly outrageous, it just seemed a way of silencing these women and criminalising them. Wrong, utterly stupidly wrong!

It also took me back 20-odd years ago at a LP women’s section meeting where we were discussing having a meeting on pornography and violence against women. My intervention consisted of suggesting that we should debate the various different views regarding pornography and censorship rather than just having a conference predicated on one line i.e. pro-censorship and that it is up to make up their own minds. The reply, literally, blew me away as I was told (and has been inscribed in my psyche) that feminists like myself who live in their ivory towers don’t understand violence and that if I had experienced violence then I would support a pro-censorship position. I remember sitting there feeling powerless wanting the floor to swallow me up. I couldn’t grasp what precisely I had said to warrant this level of personal outburst. It hurt and the words stuck especially as it had been only 8 mths previously that my then boyfriend had hit me for the last time.

So then 1989 onwards to 2009, that’s was what I was reminded me while being shouted at. Our material experiences shape our politics for sure but we still need critical analysis/politics not where everything is reduced to the personal. That’s not debate. What I am trying to say, to articulate is debate me on my views, my politics instead of throwing personal insults at me or making assumptions of my life experiences.

Debates, fundamentally, need counter-balanced arguments which are unfortunately left out of the political equation and therefore if you don’t hold a certain line on sex work and pornography then you are marginalised, silenced and no platformed. It is about controlling the debate which stymies debate and openness. I admit my politics are contrary to these given prescriptives as I am anti-censorship of porn (certainly oppose state censorship) and support the decriminisation and unionisation of sex workers.

Those are my views and I believe I have every right to argue them within the feminist movement and everyone who opposes me has every right to argue against me. That’s debate, that’s democracy.

Finally, I define myself as a socialist feminist and last weekend just made me realise how the feminist movement seems lost in the past unable to move on. The feminist movement is about highlighting, campaigning, challenging and fighting against patriarchal norms that exist in a capitalist society,  Twenty years ago and twenty years on it all seems stuck in the same repetitive groove. Being a feminist is part of my political make-up, it is all about solidarity, unity and making alliances that will create a strong vibrant and dynamic movement that is open to debate and differences of opinion. It is also about solidarity with sex workers and trans women. Solidarity and unity for all women is the key.

Reminder: Candlelit vigil to remember Ian Tomlinson

Eight months after Ian Tomlinson’s death, his family invite you to a

CANDLELIT VIGIL
to remember Ian Tomlinson

As well as Ian’s family, speakers include:

Samantha Rigg David – Sean Rigg Justice & Change Campaign
Deborah Coles – INQUEST
John McDonnell MP

Tuesday 1st December
from 6pm – 7.15pm

At: Royal Exchange by Threadneedle Street, London, EC3V 3LL
Nearest tube: Bank

Ian died in tragic circumstances, an ‘innocent passerby’ trying to get home, after a police assault at the G20 protests on April 1st 2009.

Eight months on, our family are preparing for our first Christmas without him and still waiting for justice.

We have been grateful for public support this year and would like an opportunity to hold this public memorial gathering to remember Ian, with our friends and supporters around us.

We ask that those who attend please wear black as a mark of respect and remember that this is peaceful event.

PLEASE LET US KNOW IF YOU ARE COMING so we can estimate numbers and please send messages of support – a number of these will be read out at the vigil.

RSVP to iantomlinsonfamilycampaign@gmail.com

And…

On a separate but connected topic climate camp protesters win judicial review of G20 police tactics (via Random Blowe)

Wake-up call for the cops..??!!

So British policing needs a wake-up call…says Denis O’Connor

Laughably ACPO argues:

The Association of Chief Police Officers welcomed the report, but argued it was already taking steps to balance facilitating protest and balancing human rights.

Its lead on uniformed operations, Chief Constable Meredydd Hughes, said the report would “shape the future of public order policing”.

“The service has a clear commitment to ensure peaceful protest can take place and balance the rights of everyone involved – whether taking part in protest or going about their daily business,” he commented.

Human rights? I thought we were all domestic extremists?

And talking of Acpo, the report recommends that they should be more ‘transparent’ and ‘accountable’… And there is something quasi-paramilitary about their whole set-up especially regarding how secret and covert they are. The report also raises the issue of surveillance in relation to spotter cards and covert photography along with privacy…. Big Bro’ watching.

Yet it seems that senior cops got rather edgy about O’Connor’s recommendations that some hired lawyers to oppose them.

Acpo state that this report will ‘shape the future of public order policing’… Yet O’Connor says little about kettling.

“If individuals are lawfully exercising their rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, the justification for police gathering their personal information is unclear, and it is not at all obvious under what powers the police are acting in these circumstances,” the report said.

The report (and these are my own initial impressions will look fully at the report later) is an examination of public order policing and the tactics deployed but it needs to look at the ideology that underpins the police, what they stand for, and their training is inter-linked to that ideology.

 Update: The reality of policing