International Law

The bullshit house of cards that Jack built

Posted on December 13, 2008
The bullshit house of cards that Jack built[Text of a letter in pdf which I am unable to display in its original format for some unknown reason, perhaps because its an image which Blogger does not recognise]Ministry of Justice The Rt Hon Jack Straw MPJulie WrightDeputy Chief ExcutiveUNLOCK35a High StreetSnodlandKentME6 5AJ 10 December 2008Dear Julie WrightTHE UK GOVERNMENT'S RESPONSE TO THE ECtHR GRAND CHAMBER JUDGMENT IN THE CASE OF HIRST V UKThank you for your letter dated November 8 in which you have expressed concerns about the UK Government's delayed response to the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) judgment in Hirst v UK (No2)in October 2005...

Monkey Queen

Posted on December 13, 2008
Monkey QueenThe PG Tips puppet Monkey, who will issue an alternative Christmas speech this yearPicture: PA

Cameron scores own goal

Posted on December 12, 2008
Cameron scores own goalMiddle image: Beau Bo D'OrConway family Christmas card image: JHL and RonKnee

Immigration centre 'is unsafe'

Posted on December 12, 2008
Immigration centre 'is unsafe'Inspectors have delivered a damning report on an immigration detention centre, saying it has "lost direction and purpose" and inmates feel unsafe.

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Lawyers made millions from sick miners

Posted on December 12, 2008
Lawyers made millions from sick miners? Pair to be struck off for serious misconduct? Firm earned £115m after misleading ill clientsThe men who became two of the highest-paid solicitors in Britain by mishandling the claims of almost 100,000 sick miners will be struck off after being found guilty of misconduct yesterday...

Paedophile found stabbed to death at home

Posted on December 12, 2008
Paedophile found stabbed to death at homeA murder hunt is under way after a man thought to be a former child sex offender was found stabbed to death.The victim, found at business premises in Wandsworth, south London, also suffered "non-fatal injuries" to other parts of his body, police said...

Brown saves the world but fails to save Woolworths

Posted on December 11, 2008
Brown saves the world but fails to save WoolworthsBrown pledges Woolworths support Woolworths closure sale kicks offUpdate: I have just popped into Woolworths to see if there is a bargain and to pay my last respects. There are notices stating closing down sale, and everything must go, and yet there was shelf after shelf full of tins of sweets and boxes of chocolates with notices offering 10% off...

Brown adviser: Labour's rights record dismal

Posted on December 11, 2008
Brown adviser: Labour's rights record dismalOne of the eminent outsiders brought into Gordon Brown's "government of all the talents" has revealed that he quit in disgust at what he describes as Labour's "dismal" lack of political leadership on human rights...

Prison moves takeaways off menu

Posted on December 10, 2008
Prison moves takeaways off menuAn investigation into a £3,500 bill for takeaway food for prisoners at a Cambridgeshire maximum security jail has led to the meals being banned.Comment: I wish somebody would take away Bridget Prentice...

Freedom is taking a battering under kneejerk New Labour

Posted on December 10, 2008
Freedom is taking a battering under kneejerk New LabourJack Straw's attack on the Human Rights Act is sly populism of the worst kind, and in keeping with his party's statist traditionBy Nick CleggToday is the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights...

Judge "devastated" that robbery case costing £22 million collapses for third time

Posted on December 10, 2008
Judge "devastated" that robbery case costing £22 million collapses for third timeA Heathrow robbery trial has been abandoned for the third time at the Old Bailey, at an estimated cost to the public of £22 million.John Twomey, 60, the alleged robber, has been bailed and will now face a fourth trial over the hold-up of Menzies World Cargo warehouse at the airport in February 2004...

Muslim lawyer Anjem Choudary brands Christmas 'evil'

Posted on December 10, 2008
Muslim lawyer Anjem Choudary brands Christmas 'evil'Muslim preacher Anjem Choudary has branded Christmas "evil" in a sermon posted on the internet.The lawyer, who recently praised the Mumbai terror attacks, urged all Muslims to reject traditional Christmas celebrations, claiming that they are forbidden by Allah...

Move to suspend inmate vote ruling

Posted on December 10, 2008
Move to suspend inmate vote rulingNickkita LauWednesday, December 10, 2008The government will ask the High Court to suspend its ruling giving prisoners the right to vote while it considers how to implement the judgment or whether to lodge an appeal.Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Stephen Lam Sui-lung said the government will make their submissions for temporary relief within 14 days...

Don't buy a turkey this Christmas, roast a Muslim instead

Posted on December 10, 2008
Don't buy a turkey this Christmas, roast a Muslim insteadClick on link below...Don't buy a turkey this Christmas, roast a Muslim instead.

Happy birthday UDHR and a warning for Jack Straw

Posted on December 10, 2008
Happy birthday UDHR and a warning for Jack StrawToday the 60th birthday of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights should be cause for celebration. However, I am in no party mood. This is because both Jack Straw and David Cameron are seeking to rip up the Human Rights Act 1998, and deny citizens of this country the human rights enjoyed by most of the rest of Europe since 1948...

Diary of a trainee prison governor

Posted on December 09, 2008
Diary of a trainee prison governorRunning a prison is one of the toughest jobs going. Traditionally governors have worked up through the ranks, but now graduates are fast-tracked into senior roles to broaden the profile of the Prison Service.Aged 26, and standing not much more than five feet tall, Isabel Taylor defies the stereotype of the distinctly male prison governor...

Paul Dacre not Judge Eady is arrogant and amoral

Posted on December 09, 2008
Paul Dacre not Judge Eady is arrogant and amoralPaul Dacre, the editor-in-chief of the Daily Mail and The Mail on Sunday, is in trouble with the law for paying £10,000 for copies of stolen photographs of Madonna's wedding to Guy Ritchie. The judge who ruled in Madonna's favour is Mr Justice Eady...

'Corrupt policeman blackmailed sex offenders'

Posted on December 09, 2008
'Corrupt policeman blackmailed sex offenders'A corrupt policeman tried to blackmail known sex offenders by gleaning information from a police database and threatening to tell their families and employers, a court has heard.If he gets convicted no doubt he will seek protection in prison and be living side by side with the type of prisoner he was trying to blackmail outside prison.

Civil liberties have yet to alleviate the world's misery

Posted on December 08, 2008
Civil liberties have yet to alleviate the world's miseryThe Universal Declaration of Human Rights is 60 years old this week, and just as relevant as when it was first conceivedBy Francesca KlugThe most translated document in the world is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which is 60 years old this week...

Titan jails 'will repeat mistakes made in US'

Posted on December 08, 2008
Titan jails 'will repeat mistakes made in US'Building giant "Titan" prison complexes will lead Britain towards a "American-style" justice system, a leading US civil rights lawyer will warn today.Professor Bryan Stevenson, from New York University, will say Britain risks copying the "damaging and discredited" US system...

Man fined for swearing at TV

Posted on December 08, 2008
Man fined for swearing at TVA man has been fined £80 for swearing at his own television while drunk.Well, I must admit I do this myself. And swear at Rocky when he is barking. Whilst I feel sorry for the neighbours, it does seem that state interference is creeping ever more into our private lives.

More flexibility needed on votes for prisoners

Posted on December 08, 2008
More flexibility needed on votes for prisonersLEADER: South China Morning PostDec 09, 2008 The Basic Law guarantees the right to vote to permanent residents of Hong Kong, without exception. But a law passed by the Legislative Council has long denied the vote to those in jail, again without exception...

Riot at Young Offender Institution

Posted on December 08, 2008
Riot at Young Offender InstitutionPolice called to disturbance at Aylesbury Young Offenders InstitutionUpdate: Asian inmates run riot during Eid at Aylesbury centre

God save the Queen vs anarchy in the UK

Posted on December 08, 2008
God save the Queen vs anarchy in the UKA Gordon Brown/David Cameron PMQ special with The Sex PistolsHat-Tip Iain Dale's Diary via Tom Watson

Factories of repression

Posted on December 07, 2008
Factories of repressionBy: John Bowden - HMP GlenochilJohn Bowden considers that prison revolt and protest has been rendered far from redundant.What has become of prison revolts in the British prison system? Where now are the open expressions of collective anger and solidarity that fuelled the uprisings and jail riots of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s and created the iconic images of Hull 1976 and Strangeways 1990? What happened to the spirit of revolt that used to periodically shake the British long-term prison system and engender a philosophy of prisoner empowerment and solidarity; a philosophy that situated the struggle of prisoners at the very forefront of the universal struggle for human rights and even social revolution? Has the British prison system now become so responsive to and accommodating of the rights of prisoners that revolt and protest has been rendered unnecessary and redundant? I think not...

Cold sore virus could cause Alzheimer's

Posted on December 07, 2008
Cold sore virus could cause Alzheimer'sThe virus that causes cold sores may be a major cause of Alzheimer's disease and existing drugs could be used to treat the degenerative condition, researchers have claimed.This is just what I wanted to read on a Sunday morning, seeing as I have been nursing a cold sore on my top lip for a couple of days now...

Did Santa really say "shove it up your arse"?

Posted on December 07, 2008
Ho! Ho! Ho! - A modern Christmas TaleBy: John Allen - HMP GartreeThings were not going at all well in the offices of santaclaus.com. It was already December 24th and there was still a mountain of toys and presents to deliver. Back in the summer, when the decision to go 'high tec' was taken, no-one had foreseen the enormous increase in the volume of business it would mean...

Zimmer Frame Society

Posted on December 07, 2008
Zimmer Frame SocietyBy: Winston Churchill IrvineWinston Churchill Irvine highlights an initiative that might signal a whole new way of caring for elderly and disabled prisonersThe prison population in England & Wales continues to surpass all previous records almost on a daily basis...

Muslims Rule

Posted on December 07, 2008
Muslims Rule!By: Ben Gunn - HMP Shepton MalletLifer Ben Gunn wonders whether Muslim prisoners ?organising? is solely around their religion.So the Prison Service and Prison Inspectors are worrying about Muslims ?organising? in Belmarsh and Whitemoor. This could be a profoundly good thing - anything that unsettles the balance of power has the potential for positive change...

Paperboy terrorists and OAP drug farmers?

Posted on December 06, 2008
Paperboy terrorists and OAP drug farmers?Madness...Anti-terror powers used to spy on paperboysA council used anti-terror powers to spy on paperboys to check whether a village newsagent had not obtained work permits for them.And even more madness...Police raid elderly couple's garden looking for cannabisPolice raided the home of an elderly couple looking for a drug factory because a plant in their garden smelled like cannabisJust when you thought you had heard it all...

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