Is free speech free, or isn’t it?
Note: Further enquiries reveal that “Bethan Jones” is in fact Beth Tichbourne, and that her offence was not only to hold up the placard mentioned, but also to attempt to scale a barrier. Her...
Category: Civil liberties
Human rights are not just for other people
This Venn diagram by Paul Bernal has been doing the rounds on Twitter, and follows the announcement from the Conservative party that at the next election, their manifesto will include a commitment to changing...
Claire Khaw arrested, allegedly
Newsflash! Claire Khaw Arrested, Apparently For Blog Post Accusing Jessica Thom Of Putting On Tourettes « Same Difference Claire Khaw is the blogger best known for getting onto various radio talk-shows and online forums...
Christian persecution campaigners lose Sunday work case
Christians have no right to refuse to work on Sundays, rules judge – Telegraph This is the latest appeal in the case of Celestine Mba, a former carer for children with learning disabilities in...
Extradition decision shows double standards
On Tuesday the Home Secretary, Theresa May, announced that the computer hacker Gary McKinnon would not be extradited to the USA to face charges of hacking into NASA’s and the Pentagon’s computers before and...
Assange, Galloway and low Muslim expectations
Last week there has been a lot of discussion about people’s attitudes to rape with regard mostly to the extradition of Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, currently hiding in the Ecuadorian embassy in...
On Freedom of Information, the IRA and the Taliban
For the digital revolution, this is the Robespierre moment | Simon Jenkins | Comment is free | The Guardian Simon Jenkins is arguing that he agrees with Tony Blair who said in 2010 it...
Niqab ban reflects Islamophobia and a security-obsessed culture
Lessons in Islamophobia (from CounterFire) This is an article about a Muslim mother who was barred from parents’ evening at her son’s school because the staff insisted on her removing her face-covering for “security”...
Babar Ahmad should be freed now
Last night, BBC’s Newsnight interviewed Babar Ahmad, the man wanted for extradition to the USA on the grounds of receiving classified information and assisting mujahideen fighters in Afghanistan and Chechnya through his website, Azzam...
Young adult marriage visa ban: unjust, now unlawful
[Supreme Court overturns non-EU young spouses ban](http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-15272121) (from BBC News) The UK Supreme Court has ruled that a government ban on British citizens bringing spouses under the age of 21 from outside the EU...
Facebook troll jailed — why can’t people be adults?
BBC News – Reading man jailed for dead girl 'trolling' insults A man has been jailed for 18 weeks for posting insulting messages on Facebook pages dedicated to young people who had died, in...
Why I support banning the EDL’s march
Of late I’ve seen a number of tweets and blog articles questioning why some “good liberals” suddenly go hard-line when it comes to allowing the English Defence League to have their marches, and start...
The perils of hosting political content in the UK
Atos moves to shut down criticism | Tentacles of doom (also see Carer Watch) The above article is about how ATOS, the French company hired by the British government to conduct disability assessments, has...
Trafalgar into Tahrir?
Anti-cuts campaigners plan to turn Trafalgar Square into Tahrir Square | World news | guardian.co.uk I am planning to attend the march organised by the Trades Union Congress this coming Saturday (26th March), but...
Busybodies and common sense
BBC News – Should a teenager be left to babysit a toddler? Lately I’ve seen a few stories about parents receiving cautions or fines for “child neglect” which consisted of leaving a young child...
White guy threatens to bomb airport, gets slap on wrist, much whingeing ensues
Last week a guy called Paul Chambers was fined a total of £1,000 (all but £385 of which was either costs or a “victim surcharge”) for posting a tweet threatening to blow up an...
To extradite a bed-ridden woman
Earlier today I read that a woman from mid-Wales who is bed-ridden with fibromyalgia and also suffers from Crohn’s disease, epilepsy and depression has been refused an appeal in the High Court against extradition...
Terrorism and privacy
So, once again a terrorist associated with al-Qa’ida has nearly taken out an aeroplane, and governments are scrabbling around trying to find ways to prevent that exact type of attack from ever happening again....
Henry Porter: from war to police state
Out of Afghanistan, into a police state | Henry Porter | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk Kim Howells had an article published in the Guardian today, in which he recommends that British forces are...
Control orders: try them or release them
Bring these men to trial — or revoke their control orders, from today’s Guardian Afua Hirsch (the Guardian’s legal correspondent) on the recent change of mind regarding a British-Libyan man who had been under...