There’s been a lot of discussion about the upcoming presidential elections on a forum I am a member of, ever since the Iowa caucus results this week. And to this point, I’ve found myself shying away from jumping into any particular camp. I feel like I’ve been fairly disengaged from the campaigning thus far – which is probably not a bad thing, considering there’s still 11 months left to go. But I’m at a point where I want to feel like I have an idea of who I’d put my vote behind, if I had to choose.

So I’ve been thinking a lot about this the past few days, and doing some background reading. Unfortunately, I’m a bleeding heart liberal and pacifist (I know!! shock! surprise!! pick your jaw up off the floor!! ) so the only candidate whose platform really jibes with all my own personal views is Dennis Kucinich… who won’t make it out of the first round of primaries. He’s the only candidate I could ever enthusiastically support as a champion of my brand of peace and social justice.

Which leaves Clinton and Obama – both extremely intelligent, diplomatic, capable people, who I think could restore some international good will. Who could probably surround themselves with smart support and reasoned experience to make up for their own lack thereof.

Til recently, I suspected that I’d probably end up voting for Hillary – while I’ve never been happy her more centrist views, she has a commanding Thatcheresque quality about her. She’ll never give people the warm fuzzies, but I thought, “Okay, she seems like she could run a country, even if I might not like the way she’d run it.”

And disappointingly, both of them refuse to take a stand against the death penalty. Both of them have refused to support gay marriage (or alternatively, taking the state out of marriage entirely and giving everyone civil unions). Both of them have voted for the Mexico/US fence Both are staunchly pro-Israel, though that’s completely unsurprising (i’m not anti-israel as much as I’m against blindly supporting a country and leadership which has plenty of its own failings).

More worryingly, Hillary has said stated that she believes national security always trumps human rights – which is how we ended up with Guantanamo Bay. And she supports making flag-burning illegal – something which to my mind, directly seeks to undermine the most fundamental principles of the First Amendment.

So I think I’m beginning to lean towards Obama, for a few salient political reasons (he supports a guest worker programme [on of the only things I have ever agreed with Dubya on], he wants to begin ending our involvement in Iraq *now* as opposed to some nebulous future date, his anti-lobbyist stance, and his belief in a tolerant, religiously diverse nation/government which does not seek to impose its religious beliefs on others [and perhaps I believe this more since his father became an atheist and his mother was "spiritual but skeptical of organised religion"])… but mostly because I’m beginning to realise I want to believe in somebody’s enthusiasm.

I know it’s just my wide-eyed idealism shining through. But I think more than anything else, what I really want is to believe in somebody that believes. Someone who is really passionate about their vision, someone who wholeheartedly thinks that they can effect change. I’m tired as hell of cynicism and jaundiced opinion. I’m tired of backpedalling and non-committal evasiveness. I want some backbone and outspoken resolution. I want someone who refuses to pander to influence. I want to have someone speak with conviction and have people believe it. I want idealism and optimism and someone who can make me hope again. I want something that resonates.

I once heard Ralph Nader say that unless people start voting for leaders they want and believe in, instead of against people they don’t want out of fear and cynicism, the system will never change. I’ve really taken that to heart – since the 2000 elections, I have made a conscious decision to stop voting out of the the “least evil” principle. And while many would say that means that I am “wasting” my vote by sometimes voting for people who have no realistic chance of winning, it’s the only basis on which I want to engage in the electoral process anymore.

If I can’t vote from my heart, I don’t want to vote at all.

I’d love it if Kucinich ran as a 3rd party candidate so I could vote for him. (And if Hillary gets the Democratic nod, I may just have to write him in.) But in the absence of that unlikely ballot scenario, I think I want to be able to vote for someone who has the audacity to hope.

Because if you’re not going to vote for someone you *want to lead the country*, what the hell is the point?

Count me in.

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more punitive immigration measures from the home office, and liam byrne – the same mp who doubled the cost of spousal visas this year, and introduced the ridiculous points-based immigration proposal.

Tourist visa times ‘to be halved’

The government is consulting on new visa restrictions. Visitors to the UK would have to leave after three months instead of the current six under new visa proposals being considered by the government.

Families might also have to pay a financial deposit to ensure relatives from outside the EU whose visit they were sponsoring left the UK on time.

The government said the bond, put out to consultation, was “not for everyone, but where we think there’s a risk”.

But immigration groups said it would be “unfair” on poorer families.

The proposals are aimed at those who deliberately overstay or work illegally in the UK.

The government has not revealed how much families would be asked to pay to sponsor an overseas visitor, but press reports suggest it could be a £1,000 bond.

Wow – treating people like probable criminals before they’ve even arrived. Nice.

Isn’t it the I.N.D.’s *job* to figure out who’s likely to become an illegal immigrant BEFORE THEY ENTER THE COUNTRY??!! So instead of doing their jobs *better*, they just want to place the burden on families.

For someone who’s desperate to enter the country, £1000 is absolutely nothing. And for everyone else, it’s just prohibitively punishing.

And where most visa arrangements with countries are reciprocal, does this now mean other countries get to do the same to British citizens?

like so much else in this country, rather than just enforcing the laws which are already in effect, they try to put yet another layer of counterintuitive legislation in place, which doesn’t actually address the problem at hand.

mr byrne seems awfully good at that.

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for all those of us whose lives have been touched by hiv/aids – and there are far too many of us.

another year, another post about world aids day.

i’ve been observing world aids day here on this blog for four years now.

since last year, another 2 million people have died.

320,000 people died in south africa
220,000 died in nigeria
180,000 died in zimbabwe
140,000 died in kenya
140,000 died in mozambique
140,000 died in tanzania

by comparison, 16,000 died in the u.s.

twice as many people die of flu in the u.s., as do from aids.

it’s become the forgotten epidemic only because westerners with good healthcare stopped dying.

but 95% of those infected live in the developing world, and for those living in areas without access to antiretroviral drugs, hiv is still a cruel death sentence. people in those countries are not “living with hiv” – they’re dropping like flies.

then consider that another 2.5 million people became infected this year, and nearly one half million of those were children. how many of them have to die before we stop this madness?

we continue to let this happen, year after year. next year i’ll be reporting on another 2 million dead, maybe more. it’s so overwhelming, no wonder we try to push it out of out minds.

so this year, i’m asking you to please read a blog post by charlotte – a south african expat living in germany, who helps tell just one story about just one person with aids, in a country where almost half of all deaths are from aids.

if 2 million is too hard to wrap your brain around, this year remember just one person.

and then do something for them.

guided by voices – hold on hope

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world aids day

you know, i attended the “reclaim the night” march the other evening because i find it appalling that in a western, democratic country with one of the most developed judiciaries in the world, only one in twenty rapists are ever convicted.

and then i read about the 19 year old saudi girl who was gang-raped and will be punished by 200 lashes and six months in prison.

i suppose i should reflect, once again, on how lucky i am. but i’m tired of always trying to find some measure of solace in comparing my fortune with women elsewhere. i’m tired of trying to assuage the guilt of privilege by telling myself i’m standing up for them as well. i’m tired of the complete and utter lack of surprise when i read about women being punished, tortured and killed for the crime of being born the wrong sex in the wrong place at the wrong time.

i’m tired of being angry and i’m tired of being sad, and i’m tired of feeling compelled to write the same damn shit over and over again and i’m tired of feeling so completely helpless to change a fucking thing. tiring to think of throwing grains of sand into the winds of history and religion and soul-crushing hatred.

i wouldn’t want to trade being a woman for anything in the world. but fucking hell – some days it’s so bone-deep, grind-you-down, hollowly, dispiritingly, tiresome, a body could just lay down and cry from weariness.

bob dylan – just like a woman

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i’ve written here a few times about how appalling the rape statistics for britain are. so tonight, i’m doing something i haven’t done in over twelve years, since way back in my uni days: participating in a “take back the night” march.

it’s known as “reclaim the night” in the u.k., and though these marches to end violence against women first became well-known during the late 70s, it is thought that they may have originated as far back as 1877, here in london.

the fact that it is still necessary, more than a hundred years later, to make people aware of the ways in which women are violated, not only by the perpetrators, but also by the justice system meant to protect them, is deeply saddening. and infuriating.

from the organisers:

In Britain, there are an estimated 47,000 rapes every year. And each year, an estimated 300,000 women are sexually assaulted (British Crime Survey 2001).

Yet Britain’s conviction rate is the lowest ever, at just 5.3 per cent.

When Reclaim The Night marches were started in the 1970s, women were appalled that only 1 in 3 rapists were ever convicted; today that figure is 1 in 20.

so i’ll be out there (along with amity), raising our voices in anger, demanding that people take notice.

it can only get better when people are no longer afraid to speak out and make themselves heard.

stars – the night starts here

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I was gonna rant about the 25 million child benefit records lost by the government

Two computer discs holding the personal details of all families in the UK with a child under 16 have gone missing.

The Child Benefit data on them includes name, address, date of birth, National Insurance number and, where relevant, bank details of 25m people.

but andy beat me to it. as he says:

This, quite simply, is one of the big practical reasons why the government shouldn’t be relentlessly collecting information about us. If the government, or a company for that matter, creates databases with huge amounts of private and personally-identifiable information, then at some point that information will escape. Someone will lose a laptop, or backup tapes, or fail to erase a discarded hard disk properly, and voila! — the bad guys have got it. Not to mention that hackers get into every system eventually, given sufficient motivation. When the politician says “but this system will be totally secure” he’s either lying, or else foolishly believed the vendor who lied to him.

and this is precisely why i vehemently disagree with the dna database, the nhs database, and i.d. cards. because the safeguards surrounding your information are only as trustworthy and secure as your government is.

as it turns out, not very.

the ataris – losing streak

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i consider myself a fairly well informed citizen, keeping up with the news, thinking critically about politics and policy… yet so often, it is my weakness in history which lets me down and keeps me from seeing the fuller picture when it comes to complex, multi-layered situations such as those surrounding the middle east. so i am always grateful when i find comprehensive, intelligent coverage which illuminates the issues and connects the dots in a way I can understand.

which is why i was really engrossed in listening to this piece from npr’s “fresh air” programme the other day. two journalists from the guardian have come out with a new book which outlines the history of pakistan’s nuclear programme, their involvement in nuclear proliferation and development within the “axis of evil” countries, how the u.s. has not only turned a blind eye, but been complicit in this sordid tale, and why that should make us very nervous about the current instability in mussharaf’s regime. for those of us who have been a bit muddled about whole situation, it’s an incredible eye-opener – and it highlights how, once again, short-sighted american foreign policy has served to turn us into perhaps the most meddlesome and hypocritical nation on earth. although it paints a very bleak picture, i highly recommend giving it a listen.

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david cameron, leader of the conservative party, will call for tougher rape laws.

i’ve written about the sickening rape statistics in this country here before:

– About 80% of rapes are never reported
– One-third those reported are not recorded by the police
– Only one fifth of those recorded reaches trial
– Only half those tried result in conviction

The bbc is reporting that he will say too many rapists believe “they can get away with it”.

gee, i wonder what would give them that impression?

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j went to the local tesco express to get some bread and milk this morning. he came home and told me that they actually have chocolate *easter bunnies* out already, displayed right next to the xmas chocolates.

one holiday bleeding into another before the first has even arrived yet…fuck it man, let’s just do away with the calendar altogether! it can just be holiday free-for-all, all the time! anarchy, woo hoo!

what is wrong with people!!??!

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this is what i get for watching daytime television.

a u.k. ripoff of “the view” where a bunch of women sit around nattering, takes on the weighty question: “should women propose?”

which leads to a discussion about how they *shouldn’t* propose, but should instead manipulate the guy into proposing by thinking it’s his idea.

sometimes i find it hard to believe i live in the 21st century. sigh.

and for the record, i proposed to j first.

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i can’t wait to be a citizen so i can vote.

gordon brown outlines his proposed bills in a speech to the queen, including more “hate crime” laws. i’ve mentioned how i feel about “hate crime laws” before: a crime is a crime. attacking someone because of their disability (while repugnant) is not any more or less tragic than people attacked for other reasons. motivation for a crime is irrelevant to the outcome. it only serves to make us feel better to punish certain people more because we find them more morally reprehensible, when in fact, we should have done more as a community before the crime – not after. if the laws already in place can’t deter people from attacking people with disabilities, then our society is broken, and no legislation is going to change that – it only assuages our conscience.

brown also proposed the “citizenship and immigration bill”, introducing a points-based visa system and forcing immigrants to do community work. i’ve already made my views abundantly clear on this: this is an ineffectual kneejerk response to the problems of *illegal* immigration and *legal* economic migrants from the e.u. it has absolutely nothing to do with “british jobs for british workers” (a slogan the daily mail helpfully likens to xenophobic bnp propaganda).

and lastly in this dispicable triumvirate, brown puts forth the counter-terrorism bill, which calls for doubling the period they can hold a suspected terrorist without charge to nearly 2 months, a sex-offender type register which will track them indefinitely, and a ban on ever leaving the country. oh, and they’re allowed to draw “adverse inferences” from what a suspect does *not* say, natch. in effect moving the u.k. towards becoming its own private guantanamo.

show me the ballot. in the grand scheme of things my vote may not change anything, but it’ll sure make me feel a helluva lot better.

…and you will know us by the trail of dead – mistakes & regrets

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while running today i was listening to an interview with an old skool feminist activist, one of the early second wave bra-burning radicals. and boy was she angry – angry at the failure of following generations to build on the momentum of their work, angry at what she views as the luxury of indifference.

i admit to feeling guilty as i listened. i admit to often feeling too complacent. in my own life, i encounter few challenges – i have career mobility, a husband who sees me as his equal, full and free access to reproductive choice. and while i still find myself surprised by many sexist cultural norms over here (prospective employers asking women about their plans for family, topless women in newpapers, patronising attitudes by older generations of men) there are few things to rouse me from my stupor. so much of the feminist agenda is politically polarised in the u.s., that here, where conflict over these issues is far more subdued, it’s easy to slide into daily apathy.

i talk the talk, but don’t often walk the walk. i’ll bitch about my younger counterparts embracing stereotypes tarted up as “choice”, or rail against those women who definitively reject feminism as being unfeminine. i’ll spout off about pejorative terms like “femi-nazi” and “man-hater”. but what do i actually do to change any of it?

i’ve always felt that a significant part of my identity as a woman is bound up in feminism – and yet somehow i’ve become one of those women the interviewee was directing her ire and disappointment at. i’ve never intended or aspired to be a gloria steinem – but it’s definitely time for a wakeup call. just what form that will take remains to be seen.

kate bush – this woman’s work

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this morning i participated in the london demonstrations in support of burma.

there is nothing so moving to me as being part of a show of numbers, taking to the streets in force, demanding attention from the government on behalf of a cause you feel in your bones to be right. to be passionate and vocal and strident, and to be surrounded by others who feel the same.

it’s a beautiful thing.

a few photos (though it is difficult to march and snap pics at the same time!)

more photos here

the go! team – we just won’t be defeated

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Information about all landline and mobile phone calls made in the UK must be logged and stored for a year under new laws.

Data about calls made and received will also be available to 652 public bodies, including the police and councils.

fuck me – pretty soon they’ll be logging the number of toilet flushes per household.

sigh.

something corporate – watch the sky

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“please use your liberty to promote ours” – aung san suu kyi

images courtesy of the guardian

democracy is such a precious thing that people all over the world would lay down their lives for it.

i find that a powerful and humbling reminder of how lucky i am.

and compelling motivation to do something.

i urge you to do something too.

nil lara – i will be free

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i may have mentioned here before my complete and utter obsession with dave grohl, and my love of the foo fighters. so i was very excited about the release of their newest album – pre-ordered from iTunes for immediate download gratification.

as i was listening to it, i started to google around, to get the correct album order (as my iTunes decided to alphabetise it by song title) and i came across the wiki entry for the foo fighters.

and this:

In 2000, the band generated controversy through their public support of “Alive & Well”, an organization that denies the link between HIV and AIDS, questions the validity of HIV tests, and advises against taking medication to counter the disease.[3] Foo Fighter bassist Nate Mendel learned of “Alive & Well” through “What If Everything You Thought You Knew about AIDS Was Wrong?”, a self-published book written by Christine Maggiore, the organization’s founder. Mendel passed the book around to the rest of the band, who supported his advocacy.[3]

In January 2000, the band played a benefit concert for the organization, which Mendel helped to organize.[3] The band also contributed songs to “The Other Side of AIDS”, a controversial documentary film by Maggiore’s husband Robin Scovill, which questions whether HIV is the cause of AIDS.[4] The band’s position caused alarm in the medical community, as “Alive & Well”’s advice ran contrary to established medical wisdom about HIV and AIDS.[3][4] In a 2000 interview, Mendel spoke of using the Foo Fighters’ popularity to help spread the group’s message and of holding more benefits for the organization.[3] No further benefits have taken place and the band no longer continues to list “Alive & Well” as one of its causes on its website.[5]

in fact, the band *did* have “alive and well” linked as a cause from its website, as recently as tuesday. because i checked.

i know we tend to build up celebrities in our heads. i know we unfairly idealise our rock stars, when they’re just ordinary, sometimes misguided people. i know it’s unrealistic to expect that they live by the same principles you do, or believe the same beliefs.

and so i know i shouldn’t be surprised at how disillusioned i felt when i discovered this. how very crushed i was, as if it was a personal hurt. a suckerpunch to the gut.

the thing is, i do take this personally. hiv/aids issues have been very near and dear to my heart since my days in new york. it’s something any regular reader of this blog knows i feel very passionately about.

i understand that rock stars are not astrophysicists. and i understand that, to a layperson, the kind of information put out by the “alive and well” site (which i will not link to here), looks like it might be somewhat plausible. i understand how people with no scientific background can get confused and sucked into believing the aids denialists.

what i don’t understand is how using their international fame to promote a “cause” which promulgates a course of action that virtually all of the world’s most esteemed doctors, scientist and research foundations agree is wildly dangerous, can be seen as anything but egregiously irresponsible. what i don’t understand is why a group of rock stars think they are in *any* position to advise people on life and death medical decisions.

you don’t have to know better – just know what you don’t know.

this is different than just having political views i don’t agree with. this is different than say, for example, finding out that dave grohl was a bush supporter, or rabidly pro-life, or a religious evangelical. because even if i vehemently disagree with those views, his *personal espousal of them* wouldn’t directly cause someone to jeopardise their life. but his reckless endorsement of “alive and well” and their dangerous message easily could.

and i am even more distressed to know that i have (albeit unwittingly and indirectly) helped support this message by buying their albums. i’m not generally one to automatically boycott stuff on principle – but once i know where my money is going, i can’t in good conscience continue to spend it.

i know a lot of people would say i’m being sanctimonious. maybe i am overreacting. after all, they seem to have taken down the link now. maybe that means something, maybe it doesn’t. maybe it’s this particular topic, or maybe i’ll feel differently with time. i guess i’m just sad that the innocence of my fandom has been ruined for me. my little balloon of idyllic love has been popped. it has cast a pall over their music for me. it’s like realising santa isn’t real – or more aptly, like discovering santa encouraging little kids to go play in traffic.

i’m going to be writing to them and asking for my money back for the album i just bought. i don’t expect a refund or an answer, but it will make me feel better to ask.

dar williams – the mercy of the fallen

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and after all that… they’ve denied my citizenship application.

they “normally disregard” absences of up to 180 days in the previous 12 months for applicants married to british citizens, (provided you’ve shown substantial ties to the uk otherwise – i.e. job, bank accounts, etc.)

i was absent for 182 days, and while they “have discretion to waive absences in excess of the permitted maximum”, they are “not prepared to do so in this particular case”.

needless to say, i’m gutted. i was *so* ready for this whole rigamarole to be over. i feel like the last four years, all i’ve done is worry about bloody immigration requirements. organising papers and filling out forms and paying money and jumping through hoops and having to ask which immigration queue to go through and being nervous and answering questions at the fucking border every time i come and go about the one stupid time i was refused entry.

and i got my hopes up and thought i’d finally done enough to be done. i wanted so very badly to be done. so badly. i wanted this weight off so badly. it’s so stupid, but i can’t seem to even stop crying over it.

and instead, i have to do it all. over. again.

i can’t bear the thought right now.

which i just perfect, since i can’t even reapply until october anyway. another £600. another application with forms and copies and signatures and grovelling. another 4+ months of watching the post. waiting.

waiting for it all to be done.

fuck.

zero 7 – in the waiting line

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fugazi – waiting room

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woke up to this travesty that got my blood boiling this morning:

barry bonds breaks hank aaron’s record

what a farce. and i am *angry* – not at barry bonds, but that the people who matter have knowingly allowed this record to be tainted, allowed the sport to be tainted in this indelible way. who stood there like ostriches, and let it happen.

this was, of course, a long time in coming – anyone who watched baseball’s last home run chase in 1998 knew the record was soaked in steroids.

the difference is, they had the chance to put this one right. the difference is, this record is unlikely to ever be surpassed – people just don’t have 20+ year careers anymore. the difference is, this equates hank aaron’s lifetime of dedication and craft – all that is good and noble about the sport – with something mean and cheap and dirty.

that everyone know’s bonds is a cheat, just adds insult to injury. because it’s the generations of fans who care about the game who’ve been cheated – they’ve been handed tarnished fools gold and expected to show veneration. it’s a shabby imitation of achievement, and it makes a mockery of whatever pretext of purity the sport had left.

and the league have allowed it to happen, in deliberate, willful ignorance of what every baseball fan knows to be true – that record does not belong to bonds. that record rightly belongs to the fans who make the game possible – and they’re angry that what has long been lauded as the most hallowed record in american sports history, has been allowed to be defamed in this shameful deceit.

let’s lay the blame squarely where it belongs – at the feet of the commissioners and vips who’s sole job it is to elevate the sport to the best it can be.

the biggest, most blatant asterisk of all has just headed into the hall of fame – and they let it happen.

pretty girls make graves – all medicated geniuses

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Partners to get marriage-style financial rights

Change of law would allow claims for property and pensions on separation

Unmarried couples who split up will be given the right to make divorce-style claims for financial support from their partners, under final recommendations unveiled today.

The Law Commission has concluded that couples with children, or those who have been living together for a minimum period – they suggest between two and five years – should be able to seek most of the same financial remedies as people going through a divorce.

Partners would be able to claim lump sums, the right to live in the family home and possibly a share of their partner’s pension, under the new rights recommended by the independent body which advises the government on law reform.

at the risk of alienating my co-habitating friends, i’m not sure i agree with this.

let me state upfront that i’m in full support of couples who elect not to marry or become civil partners (an option here in the uk for couples of any gender pairing), for *whatever* reason – whether that be because they neither need nor want the state to “legitimise” their relationship, whether that be because they don’t believe humans are naturally monogamous creatures, whether they’re of the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” camp…. whatever the reason, it’s cool with me. i’m married and will absolutely agree that it’s not for everyone.

i do, however, think this is one of those instances where you can’t expect to have your cake and eat it too. if you choose not to have the government involved in the beginning of your relationship, why should the government then be required to get involved at the end? one of the more obvious practical reasons that people choose to get married or become civil partners, is because it offers them both legal advantages and protections – along with a concomitant level of risk should they split. and while i don’t believe this new proposal in any way serves to undermine the “institution of marriage”, i do think that co-habitating couples who’ve decided not to get married or civilly partnered, do so knowing that they then take on a whole different set of risks – one of which is an understood lack of available avenues of recourse if the relationship should fail.

and from a different perspective: if you have *deliberately opted out* of the available legally binding commitments, should you then be able to be held by law to the same level of financial entanglements?

i’m also not entirely sure that it’s a particularly needed intervention anyway. this seems to me to be a case of inventing a solution where no problem exists. almost all aspects of the breakup of co-habitating couples are already covered under existing provisions. if children are involved, then financial responsibility for their care is already established via any custodial or paternity proceedings. if arguments over furniture or belongings are involved, that can be dealt with through the claims courts. disputes over money are easily attributed to whomever is legally responsible – if you’ve combined your finances, each person listed on the deeds and bills and bank accounts is entitled to half the savings AND half the debt. the same as if you were flatmates, or sisters or any other pair of people who chose to make a mutual financial commitment.

in the end analysis, it’s all about a delicate balance of risks, responsibilities and rewards – each couple has to decide what kind of balance is right for them. but given the number of relationships that end badly, i’m not sure it’s the job of the government to try to protect adults from the unfortunate consequences of a failure of trust. it sure as hell can’t protect them from the heartache.

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Highly sensitive information about the religious beliefs, political opinions and even the sex life of Britons travelling to the United States is to be made available to US authorities when the European Commission agrees to a new system of checking passengers.

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In a strongly worded document drawn up in response to the plan that will affect the 4 million-plus Britons who travel to the US every year, the EU parliament said it ‘notes with concern that sensitive data (ie personal data revealing racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade union membership, and data concerning the health or sex life of individuals) will be made available to the DHS and that these data may be used by the DHS in exceptional cases’.

Under the new agreement, which goes live at the end of this month, the US will be able to hold the records of European passengers for 15 years compared with the current three year limit. The EU parliament said it was concerned the data would lead to ‘a significant risk of massive profiling and data mining, which is incompatible with basic European principles and is a practice still under discussion in the US congress.’

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The new agreement will see US authorities gain access to detailed passenger information, from credit card details to home addresses and even what sort of food may have been ordered before a flight. In addition, US authorities will be free to add other information they have obtained about a passenger, leading to concerns about how the information will be shared.

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He warned that under the new system the data will be shared with numerous US agencies. ‘The data protection supervisor and the European parliament are angry that they were not consulted,’ Bunyan said. ‘But they are also angry with a number of elements of the plan such as giving the US the absolute right to pass the data on to third parties.‘

nope. nothing to worry about. no sirreee.

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One of Britain’s most senior police officers has demanded a return to a form of internment, with the power to lock up terror suspects indefinitely without charge.

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Ken Jones, the president of Acpo, told The Observer that in some cases there was a need to hold terrorist suspects without charge for ‘as long as it takes’. He said such hardline measures were the only way to counter the complex, global nature of terrorist cells planning further attacks in Britain and that civil liberty arguments were untenable in light of the evolving terror threat.

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‘We need to go there [unlimited detention] and I think that politicians of all parties and the public have great faith in the judiciary to make sure that’s used in the most proportionate way possible.’

The proposal has provoked anger among civil rights groups. ‘It is coming to the point when we have to ask serious questions about the role of Acpo in a constitutional democracy,’ said Shami Chakrabarti, director of the civil rights group Liberty. ‘We elect politicians to determine legislation and we expect chief constables to uphold the rule of law, not campaign for internment.’

And of course, the people of Britain *do* have great faith in the judiciary. Never mind that it’s a system rife with conflicts of interest. Never mind that up until last year, the head of the entire judiciary was a political appointee *and* part of the executive and the legislature. Never mind that the highest court of appeal remains the House of Lords… the second house of legislature, who are also, by the way, largely politically appointed (357 by Blair alone). And never mind that the courts *already* ruled that indefinite detention of suspects was in violation of the Human Rights Act 1998 and EU Human Rights law.

I trust the US government no further than I can throw George Bush, and even with our whole constitutionally enshrined “checks and balances” system, look at the mess we’ve managed to create. Asking the public to agree suspension of civil rights indefinitely based on the say so of the pro-war prime minister, inept police and politically entrenched judiciary, in the face of ongoing outcry over detainees in guantanamo, is egregiously arrogant. Further, given the problem of home-grown terrorism in the UK, this is law which is likely to be applied to the british citizenry far more often than any foreign nationals. Those who should be most protected by British law, will suddenly find themselves outside it.

If we’ve learned nothing else from the fiasco that is the bush administration, surely we should have learned this is one path we do not want to follow.

anti-flag – turncoat

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uk, terrorism, civil liberties