A Jungle No More

I’ll never learn. Ask people if you should blog about something, and like all my great friends, those that answer will mostly pour out the encouragement. Thanks guys! I’m sure you all know about the dire situation going on down in Calais, where  hundreds of asylum seekers are being made homeless, despite having only tarp shelters to call home in the first place.

Avoiding an Immigration Debate

Anyone who read my last blog posted learnt of my use of Bloglines to martial potential stories for inclusion in my blog. Right now there’s a bunch of stories, ranging in location from Scotland to Greece, that cover a topic I rarely, if ever, manage to set about typing up my ideas on: Immigration.

UK establishment unashamed to admit brutality?

I’ve been having a slow realisation over a period of some months that the UK government seems to be quite happy to receive small amounts of condemnation for policing tactics, if it makes the risk of injury and inconvenience in taking part more widely known about. It seems the police in particular are hoping that events like the G20 will just serve as a lesson, as people who feel outraged also consider their own interests in getting involved.

Getting men on board

Owing to a mess up, there wasn’t a guest blog yesterday, so I thought I’d write down thoughts of my own today. A while ago a friend posted a link to a hard hitting blog post on the subject of rape, in the hopes some of their male friends would read it and do something about it.

Good and bad Church action to help Migrants

In the last 24hours a news story has broken concerning a vicar in East Sussex alleged to have carried out “sham marriages” to save asylum seekers from being returned. Last week I was in Copenhagen, where a church is giving sanctuary to about 80 asylum seekers. The two actions might have similar intentions, but I can’t help thinking the former is more damaging than anything else.

Government seeks showdown with Unions over Israel

A friend pointed me to a press release on the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (read, Foreign Ministry), in which the Foreign Secretary attempts to put Trade Unions in line on policy towards Israel. I find this problematic on several levels, not least, in that it shows what a Labour government will demand from Unions.

A few personal observations about women’s status

In a break from the excellent series of guest posts on gender issues that have appeared on this blog recently, I’m going to step in and put up some of my own thoughts on recent appearances of gender issues in the media, some positive and some negative.

Australia: a hidden hive of racism

This news story hasn’t been covered as much as the protests in Iran or indeed the financial, parliamentary or any other crises recently, but an uglier side of one of Britain’s favourite friendly countries was on display lately in the form of a spate of attacks on Indian students studying in Sydney and Melbourne.

Russia, Eurovision and LGBT rights

I was planning a post on Trans Visibility and Eurovision. But this has sadly been pre-empted by the response of Moscow police to a protest by Queer/LGBT activists in Moscow, with almost immediate arrests being made and a deliberate show of force against human rights, whilst another, nationalist march, was allowed to continue on the other side of the city.

How deep the roots of injustice?

It was somewhat inevitable I might get around to writing something about the world post-April 1st. It has taken a little getting used to, with the sudden swathe of differing activities and events, campaigns and legal cases, and the sudden fascination of Evening Standard with police not displaying their numbers.