The threat of terror attacks is bad enough without the twin issues of authorities and media over reaction.

Admittedly the police have a very tough job but even they have to be careful that they don’t act prematurely or just over react with little evidence of an actual threat. The most recent example being the two school boys. They were exonerated but what about the Pakistani students who were recently arrested in a very public way and then released without charge but were then promptly thrown out of the country.

No apologies, no refund of the fees or expenses the students families had spent, nothing but silence from the authorities. No apologies either from the politicians who gleefully went on numerous TV programs talking about the “success” of the operation. Most vocal was the infamous Phil Woolas who kept on talking of “clean skins” – terrorists who with no previous record. He seems to forget the possibility that they may be “clean skins” because they are actually “clean”.

This fear can be amplified by the hysteria whipped by irresponsible reporting by the media. Which then of course builds to pressure on authorities to act etc……

I was involved in a “workshop” where the scenario was put to us of an Asian mother being disturbed by the company his son was keeping; what would we do? I said I would talk to the boy, talk to his friends and try and to get the family talking. The moderator seemed shocked and said “….and you would tell the police?” I said no, he asked why not? Fairly simply because I would have to be convinced that the police would not jump in all guns blazing. The number of arrests that lead to actual charges for terrorism are minute (3 out of 701 according to the BBC) and I told the moderator of some cases including the student who left a stressed message on his mums answering machine; she immediately called the police who promptly seized all his stuff including his PC. The student called a few days later to say hello, his mum explained her distress, he just said he had been stressed out by exams and had gone to stay with friends in another university. He directly went to the police where for his pains he was arrested on terrorism charges based on things he had been looking at on the internet.

It took him over two years to clear his name! We must not forget the “lyrical terrorist” a 20 year misguided young woman convicted for the stuff she had downloaded from the internet or the poor researcher at Nottingham university who was arrested while writing a MA dissertation on Al Qaeda! Again cleared of all charges but then re-arrested on “immigration” charges.

I fully accept that there is a real and present danger from terrorism and that everyone, especially the security services have a tough job but if we want to keep a society free, which after all is what the terrorists are trying to destroy, then we all have to be measured in how we act, re-in forcing our belief in due process, innocent until proven guilty and the rights of us all to be enquiring citizens.

We had originally arranged a low key visit to the local Police to re-establish contacts. He had been interviewed by Newsnight and suddenly he was conducting interviews all day. He had an extensive interview broadcast that night outlining the conflict currently taking place in Pakistan

He is directly in the front line, having felt directly the consequences when his cousin and my friend was killed by a suicide bomber even though he had 24 bodyguards around him. Consequently his life is severly curtailed with little or no social life because his being somewhere is not just a threat to him but to all those around him, he pays a heavy price for doing his duty.

What annoys me most about the West’s reaction to Pakistan’s efforts is the price the people of Pakistan are paying. He told of us of nearly 2 million internally displaced people! Imagine that in Britain! Pakistan a relatively poor country has to cope with that while a terrorist threat kills indiscriminately from former Prime Minister Bhutto to poor people going about their everyday business. I was there in March and missed two bombs going off by the good fortune of good timing.

Scores of police have been and are being killed and yet they are still relatively poorly paid and equipped. I have asked Thames Valley Police to help by offerring their redundant equipment that may be of help. Also in the week that saw the conviction of the “liquid” bombers from this area, just exchanging communication links maybe of help.

Pakistan is not helped by a kleptocratic ruling elite but there are people like the Inspector General who are trying their best in the worst of circumstances and we should be doing our outmost to help.

This will do wonders for the American tourist industry.

Recently there is some hope that with a popular new US president willing to, at best, be firmer with Israel on its obligations that there may be some space to start the peace process proper. The Islamic Conference has re-iterated its support for the Saudi plan for the full recognition of Israel and its territory if it accepts it as The Haaretz said…”……The plan offers Israel recognition and permanent peace with all Arab countries in return for Israeli withdrawal from lands captured in the 1967 Six Day War. It also calls for setting up a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital and a just solution to the issue of Palestinian refugees.
Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah called at the summit for an end to the international blockade on the Palestinian government and to revive efforts to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict”.

Also as I said earlier, the USA for the first time since President Bush Senior have sought to put pressure on the Israeli administration to stop the enlarging of present settlements and the establishment of new settlements called initially “outposts”.

So how as the Israeli government reacted? Well as usual with total disdain. As far as it is concerned it can do what it wants as reports come of new laws being proposed to further discriminate against Israeli Arabs. The foreign minister of Israel is proposing that no Israeli Arab can be allowed to serve in the diplomat corps, hardly a problem as there are only a handful but even that handful is an affront to Mr Lieberman it seems.

While on settlements, this report in the UK newspaper The Guardian illustrates how new “facts on the ground” are being established with the full connivance of the military. The report tells of a new outpost beyond even the land grab of the “security wall” . What is quite telling is the unrestricted access given by the military and how close the new outpost is to Palestinian homes. The usual process is to then provoke a demonstration or even a violent backlash from the Palestinians then to demand protection from them by the Israeli army – then to demand a “buffer zone” then of course they need land for expansion, roads to connect and of course water and where does that come from but from the Palestinians of course – and so a new settlement is established where NONE existed before.

A good article on the modus operandi of successive Israeli administration on scuttling any peace plans is this article by Uri Avnery. It shows how the Israelis have torpedoed every peace plan since its creation as a state even to the extent of assassinating people. The one “peace” plan that succeeded The Carter/Sadaat/Begin plan only succeeded for three reasons 1. Sadaat turned the tables and went to Jerusalem. 2. It left out/fudged the Palestinian problem as the Israelis wanted 3. An American president wasn’t prepared to let it go down. Not to mention it neutralized a serious military threat for the price of a desert where it had no interest.

The question is this time is how much is the American President prepared to push especially in his first term? With the destroyer of the Oslo accords as Prime Minister and Avigdor Lieberman as Foreign Minister has Israel ever been less serious about peace?

This was seen as an internal struggle between the President and his Republican detractors, until that is they start defaming other country’s health systems by, basically, lying about them. What is worse some British MEPs, namely a Mr Hannan has been on nearly every Fox show to decry the British National Health System (NHS), even to the point calling anyone stupid for even thinking of the NHS as a viable system.

This was ok until the British press woke up and started reporting his comments which are very embarrassing to his leader. As the Tory have done a great job (so far) in changing the public perception of them as the “nasty” party to a caring sharing party with “progressive” ideals. Step up the leader to support the NHS only to have another Tory MP say the same thing.

Oh oh, is this an indicator of what the Tory party “really” think or is it just the usual right wing mavericks?

I think it is nearer to what the Conservative party really thinks. Just look at its recent history. After the break up of the post war consensus by Margaret Thatcher, the Tory party has had antipathy towards public services running through out its body politic. It spent most of its 18 years in power privatising, splitting up or “marketising” every aspect of public services while starving them of investment for so long that they were on the point of collapse when the Labour party came in to government.

I don’t believe for a moment that this new found fondness for public services will last if they are re-elected. You can write the headlines now “accounts in worse state that we thought” ” Have to be radical” “cuts painful but necessary” etc.

As to the USA right wing media they should concentrate on their own system not trying to compare our NHS to a “Nazi” system. For a comparison of outcomes and cost look a this on the BBC website.

I can’t be the only person who, when telling someone that he was visiting the USA always the gets the same warning not against crime, but to make sure we were fully insured otherwise we could be bankrupted if we fell ill or had an accident.

The funniest and most blatant lie was a right wing website editorial; IBEditorials.com on August 3rd arguing that if Professor Stephen Hawking had been born in Britain he would have never been allowed to live, forgetting that he is actually British and until he started making money from his books he was cared for by 24 hour nursing by the NHS. They have now taken down the incorrect article but instead of just admitting their mistake the IBD go on to berate the NHS and who do they quote, why no other than Mr Hannan!

The reason I have put “request” in quotation marks is because at this level of activity there is a tendency for the request to become routine and allowed rather than the whole point of the process which is to ask if it is really necessary; therefore instead of acting as a hurdle the process is just something that has to be done with the result unaffected by the content of the request.

In my view these figures are just further proof how amazingly a LABOUR government has been the most draconian in British history in its relentless attack on civil liberties. Gordon Brown had a chance to distance himself and provide a fresh start instead he launched in to his failed macho rush to further increase the time someone can be held without charge.

We were in a family discussion the other day and one of my cousins was being teased about being a “fundamentalist”, he replied he had rights, he turned to me for support. I said unfortunately his rights such as they were would not protect him from being locked for 28 days, and even then he may be charged with something and not be told of what it was. If he was lucky and he was told what he was charged he could be charged for anything from “associating with” to “supporting” banned groups based on as flimsy evidence as his internet surfing records. Even if he did clear himself by then he would probably be bankrupt and unemployable.

I am afraid I am one of those lily livered liberals who believes that if one reacts to a threat by curtailing the freedoms that signify the society as a free society then the terrorists have won because we have changed for the worse.

Then absolute upheaval as a number of relatively successful organisations are smashed together under the stewardship of the head of, arguably the least successful. You don’t need to be a highly paid consultant to know what was going to happen next, a dysfunctional organisation that seemingly alienates everybody.

I’d love someone to explain how the head of any organisation that has it’s auditors refusing to sign off its accounts and have most of its board resign because of lack of confidence in that head is then re-appointed by Harriet Harman. Those of us who are political nerds all thought that John Major’s government in its latter days would be the example of a government slowly but surely committing political suicide, but Brown’s government seems to want to be best at something. This decision and the decision to appeal against a soldiers compensation claim, all within a couple of days must show that this government has lost any sense of political intelligence.

I’ve had dealings with the organisation and it’s predecessor The Commission for Racial Equality and I thought my experience was unique. A number of my constituents have stated that they get nowhere when they attempt to communicate with the Commission so I personally telephoned then emailed named individuals then emailed Trevor Phillips what I got was the standard reply of having received my communication but no replies to any subsequent emails or letters. This seems to be general experience if the case of Moi Ali is anything go by. I actually tried to talk to someone through my contacts and was told that the Commission would not take anything even mildly controversial or even faintly critical of the government.

The cynic in me feels that this is probably why Trevor Phillips has been re-appointed to his £110,000 per year part time position.
How can a Human Rights commission have had no view on British prisoners in Guantanamo Bay or the diminution in our rights under terror legislation?
How can a Commission concerned with equality not to have view on the unequal outcomes from the remaining state selective education provision.

Everyone who has an interest should write to our local MP and Harriet Harman to outline our disgust at this decision and make our feelings as public as possible.

My thoughts and condolences must be with the family who suddenly lost a loved one. Their sense of loss is unimaginable.

The police have someone in custody and apparently the murder was a random act by an individual who had just “snapped”. The police have also said that they regard the crime did not reflect the area and could happen anywhere.

Nonetheless a family have lost a loved one and all my thoughts and sympathies must be with them.

The latest reports are actually being given by actual soldiers involved in the invasion. The story tells of how the soldiers worked under so called permissive rules of engagement. To me the biggest revelation is that the wholesale destruction of the area’s infrastructure was Israeli policy.

Israel, as usual, has played this brilliantly; banning all independent reporting of the action while it was happening so allowing them to label any reporting as “propaganda” while anything that was reported by the UN or other independent bodies, was kicked in to the long grass by the simple method of stating that an “investigation” was under way.

The report can’t easily be trashed by the Israelis but of course they will try “hearsay”, “no evidence” being the first two excuses. One quote from the report is illuminating to say the least. The soldier is responding to the question as to whether some of the early reports of Israeli tactics were true…….

So you say that, from your own experience, there’s truth in these publications.
Yes. It was ludicrous to read it and then hear the response of the army spokesperson
that the matter was investigated and there are no testimonies on the ground and that
the Israeli army is a moral army. It raises doubts about the army spokesperson’s
responses in general when you know for a fact that these things actually did take
place…

Funny how the fact that there was no evidence or that the evidence was “hearsay” has never stopped the Israelis assassinating people as particularly shown in the film Munich which is based on a number of books outlining the “Operation Wrath of God”.