Politics – Page 3 – John Leach

Principles, Software and Freedom

Benjamin Mako Hill has written a great post over on his blog titled “Principles, Software and Freedom”. It’s something I’ve been trying to put into words for a while and he does it very well.

“Sure, everyone uses Firefox. Sure, everyone uses Apache and GNU/Linux for their web servers. Sure, everyone uses Drupal, Mambo, Plone, or another free CMS. But one can’t help but notice that Firefox, Apache, and free CMSs are higher quality, more featureful, and easier to use than the proprietary alternatives.”

“People arguing for free software from a principled position need to remember that principled positions are sometimes inconvenient. Free software is no exception. It’s frequently different, sometimes incompatible and a bit more work. In some situations (dare I say it?), it’s not as good as the proprietary alternatives.”

Free software isn’t always easy and isn’t always the best solution. Personally I believe freedom is important enough to weigh in heavily in the face of this.

15/1/2006 Add Comment

Mass murderer death race

And they’re OFF!

And remember folks, it’s not the winning that’s important, it’s that they all die as soon as possible (ensuring they never face war crime trials)

9/1/2006 Add Comment

Leeds Unite Against Fascism Protest

People came together in Leeds on Wednesday to Unite Against Fascism. We protested outside Leeds Crown Court where Nick Griffin, the leader of the British National Party, was up on charges of inciting racial hatred (well, the preliminary hearing). Louisa has written a much more in-depth commentary of the day, go read it. But in summary, it was a very positive day and we outnumbered the BNP supporters almost ten to one.

I took lots of photos, some of which you can find on my Unite Against Fascism Protest gallery.

UPDATE: ROFL. I just read that the BNP claim, on their website, that 350 supporters turned up and only 300 protestors. The way I saw it (and the mainstream media) they had, at most, 200 people and we had between 800 and 1000! Such hilarious misrepresentation of the facts is worthy of a FOX news piece.

4/11/2005 8 Comments

ID cards to become law

Just a reminder that the UK National ID card threat has not gone away. The government is still planning to get this piece of police state legislation implemented. The whole scheme is going to cost an estimated £19 billion. That’s over £300 per card. And it won’t make us more secure. It won’t prevent the majority benefit fraud. The technology doesn’t even work. It seems to achieve nothing but invade our privacy and provide fat contracts to private technology firms.

The world is not a different place since 9/11. The “rules of the game” have not changed. Reject the ID card.

Read more at “Our World Our Say” and No2Id.

Please donate something to the “Our World Our Say” campaign against ID cards. They have various projects to raise awareness and are currently raising money for an advertising campaign.

30/9/2005 1 Comment

Criminal Robin Cook dead

Throughout his politcal career Robin Cook repeatedly attacked the opposition for their inhumane foreign policy, yet perpertrated the same crimes the moment his party took power. He has an about turn at the last minute, resigning over the illegal war in Iraq, then dies and suddenly he’s remembered as an angel of integrity. The guy was no better than the rest of them: catering to power and profit at the expense of human rights and lives.

23/8/2005 Add Comment

London bombs

Over 50 people died in the explosions in London last week. I don’t think it’s right to surrender freedoms to fight terrorism when that many people die every week in road accidents. I should have to surrender my car before I surrender my privacy and my freedom.

This terrorist act is being used, as 9/11 was, to push through privacy-busting legislation that the government has been gagging to implement. The mouth of the home secratery must have been watering in anticipation.

Within hours, both Tony Blair and George W. Bush were using news of these attacks as vindication for their own illegal and considerably more brutal attacks on Iraq. Knowing the opposite to be true, as the Joint Intelligence Committee did before the war even began, this is sickening.

15/7/2005 Add Comment

Saddam behind 9/11

Tony Blair is joining in the latest spate of FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt) and helping blur the connection between the illegal occupation of Iraq and the attack on the World Trade Center buildings in September 2001.

In a BBC article entitled “Troops must stay in Iraq – Blair”, the government funded news corporation quotes Blair’s free word association experiment:

“Mr Blair argued the 11 September 2001 atrocities in the US upset the balance”

“Defeating “insurgents and terrorists” there would lead to the destruction of terrorism across the globe, he said”

“He said that 11 September 2001 changed his perspective on the world.”

“I took the view that if these people ever got hold of nuclear, chemical or biological capability, they would probably use it.”

This boils down to: “September 11, Iraq, Global Terrorism, September 11, Terrorism, WMD, Terrorism.”

We know there was no link between Iraq and the WTC attacks. Bush and Blair know this too, as they admitted clearly and publicly in January 2003. So why are they still telling us there was a link?

30/6/2005 1 Comment

we are paying to be lied to

March 2002

Downing Street memos: “I said [to Condoleezza Rice] you [Blair] would not budge in your support for regime change but you had to manage a press, a Parliament and a public opinion that was very different than anything in the States.”

“On Iraq I opened by sticking very closely to the script that you used with Condi Rice last week. We backed regime change, but the plan had to be clever and failure was not an option.”

November 2002

Tony Blair, in a public interview: “So far as our objective, it is disarmament, not regime change – that is our objective.”

February 2003

Tony Blair, in the House of Commons: “we are offering Saddam the prospect of voluntary disarmament through the UN. I detest his regime – I hope most people do – but even now, he could save it by complying with the UN’s demand. Even now, we are prepared to go the extra step to achieve disarmament peacefully.”

Poor old Mr. Blair having to “manage” the press, Parliment and a public opinion. Manage: (Verb) “achieve something by means of trickery or devious methods”.

28/6/2005 Add Comment

Political manifesto things of interest

Here is a list of things of interest taken from the manifestos of various UK political parties. I’ve included mainly things that are plainly and clearly stated. Anything that is suggested, implied or “worked towards” is mostly ignored. I’ve also included some things that make me laugh, and things that make me apply for Canadian citizenship.

These things are of interest to me. Luckily though, I am for good things and against bad things so everyone should, of course, agree with me.

The Green party

Cancel debt for 52 poorest countries
Oppose the hugely wasteful, flawed and insecure ID card system
Stop subsidising the aviation industry (currently to the tune of £9 billion)
Decommision our nuclear weapons
Replace WTO with something must better
Return rail and tube networks to public ownership
Replace VAT with a tax based on natural resource, pollution and waste.
Stop using GDP to assess wealth
Replace road tax with higher fuel duty. Drive less, pay less.
Ban genetically modified food
30% organic production by 2012 target

(more…)

4/5/2005 4 Comments

Sgt. Akbar gets death penalty

In Marchs 2003, American soldier Sgt. Hasan Akbar rolled two grenades into a tent of fellow soldiers and shot at them as they tried to escape, killing 2 and wounding 14. A military jury of “nine officers and six noncommissioned officers” found him guilty this week and he was sentenced to death.

And the punch line? Lt. Col. Michael E. Mulligan described Akbar as “a hate-filled murderer who waged war on troops he did not know in the middle of the night.“*

pH irony indicator level: 7.3

* I can’t find another reporting of this exact quote so it’s probably incorrect. It seems this is just a summary of what was said, which included “He is a hate-filled, ideologically driven murderer”, which is still amusing.

29/4/2005 Add Comment

BBC ignored weapons claims

The BBC has been accused of failing to investigate claims that the US used banned weapons in Iraq. Is it ignoring the story or has it done its best to seek out the truth?

Well, they’ve:

not mentioned that the US have already admitted to using modified napalm
stated (falsely) that Human Rights Watch investigated these claims and found nothing (something HRW deny, as they do not have the freedom to conduct investigations in Fallujah)
Ignored multiple media reports (rebroadcast on the BBCs very own worldwide monitoring service) stating that “the occupation forces used poisonous gas”
Ignored investigations and reports made by Iraqi medical staff and officials at Iraq’s health ministry
Stated, falsely, that their reporters had full access to all military documents and briefings and heard nothing of banned weapons

And it’s clear that they’ve only published this Newswatch article because they’ve been repeatedly pressed by Medialens.

18/4/2005 Add Comment

Savages and Cannibals

Last night it was suggested to me that when the British empire was exploiting and murdering the people of (amongst other countries/continents) Africa, we saved them from themselves as they would repeatedly war with each other. We brought stability to these “savages”.

Obviously my cynical and suspicous mind immediately suggested, perhaps, that not all was as it seemed (especially as “what seemed” had no doubt been extracted from British “history” books).
(more…)

15/4/2005 Add Comment