British Police Equipped With Thumbcuffs?

I was filming a protest a couple of weeks ago outside the International Chamber of Commerce where some activists had come along and locked/superglued themselves to the entrance in protest to the ICC representing corporate interests at the Copenhagen climate change talks. Whilst there I noticed one of the officers had on him what looked like thumbcuffs. I asked one of the officers, whom I presumed was the most senior officer on site at the time as the others were defferring to him, what they were, after a short conversation about whether the Met uses thumbcuffs during which he said “I shouldn’t think so, I haven’t seen them for years” (when did the Met use thumb cuffs?) he told me that it was a device for cutting seatbelts. Hmm, here’s some photos, decide for yourself.

I passed this on to a friend, who passed it on to a colleague who passed it on to a journalist who did some investigating. He contacted Scotland Yard for comment on this and an explanation into the thumbcuffs. Scotland yard said the unit these Police staff (not officers) are from are called the Method of Entry unit and are specialists in removing activists and entering locked premises. They had been on a training exercise that morning that had been about removing protesters that had locked themselves together using thumbcuffs when they were called to the action at the ICC. The officer should probably not have had these on him, but they are not used in normal service.

So there we are, not a scandal about British police using torture equipment on protesters, but a mistake by a specialist police unit and an interesting insight into the Met’s structure and training systems.

**Update 13-01-10**
The activists arrested during this demonstration were yesterday found guilty of aggrevated tresspass and fined £200. Their protest against the biggest corporate lobby group in Copenhagen highlighted the influence of corporates over the climate conference. If you can, please help them to pay their fine and legal fees, join the Facebook Group.

Charter Schools in the UK are a VERY BAD IDEA

I was listening to Women’s Hour this morning and they were discussing the introduction of a 10 hour school day in the UK, as has been tried in some schools in the US, specifically aimed at lower income families. They start off discussing the virtues of this, the extra hours enabling time for reading, art, music etc, the types of non-traditionally academic subjects that children from lower income families are more likely to miss out on. They then give a startling figure that the schools where this has been tested in the states college admissions has risen dramatically from 10% to 80%. At first this seems absolutely incredible however what comes out in the discussion is that this is a deeply flawed statistic.

The schools that have introduced the 10 hour day in the US are a type of private school called a Charter School. They receive funding from the state (through a voucher scheme), but are run by private sponsors that can control the curriculum and management of the schools (anyone familiar with Academies in the UK will recognise this). A huge number of Charter Schools have recently been set up in the US, particularly in New Orleans following hurricane Katrina. The reason that the 10 hour day system has been successful in increasing the percentage of people going on to college is quite simply that they are highly selective. They either only take very bright kids or, as is talked about on Women’s Hour, it is only the particularly active and engaged parents that will send their kids to these schools ie. the ones most likely to go on to college anyway.

Private education is such a bad idea already, the Conservatives plan to increase the number of Academies, or as they have imaginatively re-monickered them New Academies, will only make it worse. Allowing private companies to sponsor education, to effectively run the schools will increase the cost of education for the state and take decent education away from lower income families. Imagine if your school was sponsored by Coca Cola, or even worse BAE Systems – they’re slogan could be “Your child’s education, paid for by 392,979 Iraqi civilian deaths since 2003“).

Francis Beckett explains how private sponsorship of Academies works in the UK (taken from the Guardian extract of his book The Great City Academy Fruad)

Back in the dying days of city technology colleges, the Conservative government invented a system of smoke and mirrors which the academies programme has been swift to build on. In Lewisham, south London, the sponsor, the Haberdashers Company, a city livery company whose charter goes back to the 16th century, did not actually part with a single penny. Since it was already running a state school on the site, it “gave” the site to the new CTC. The CTC Trust valued a new 99-year lease on the land and buildings at more than £2m, and, magically, another generous and public-spirited sponsor had come forward.

The local education authority had put a lot of money into those buildings over the years, but they got not a penny to spend on Lewisham’s other schools. While the CTC was given £5.5m from the government for further improvements, Lewisham’s other 16 schools had £1.2m to share.

Today, that city technology college is to become a city academy, owned and controlled by the Haberdashers, benefiting from another large dollop of taxpayers’ cash, and taking over another local school. Just before Charles Clarke left the Department for Education, the new academy went up on the department website. “The main sponsor,” it said, “is the Haberdashers’ Livery Company.”

So how much, I wondered, was the sponsor putting in this time, in return for control of two schools instead of one? The council told me it did not know; the school said no one there could discuss it; the Haberdashers’ Company said only the school can discuss it. The relevant paragraph in the funding agreement is secret, and the government successfully blocked a request to see it under the Freedom of Information Act. Local rumour puts the figure somewhere in the region of peanuts. Lawyer Richard Stein managed to get it. Haberdashers is putting in just £295,500 out of a total cost of just over £38m.

Filmmaker Sentenced to 6 Years in Tibet

I suppose one more year would have been too much to ask. But seriously, Tibetan film-maker Dhondup Wangchen has been sentenced to 6 years in prison for crimes as yet unknown. His trial was held behind closed doors and he was not allowed independent legal representation as the Chinese government stopped his lawyer from being able to attend. His family was not told of the trial nor of the verdict.

Leaving Fear Behind

Dhondup Wangchen was originally arrested in March 2008 after making his film Leaving Fear Behind, in which Tibetans inside Tibet spoke out against the occupation and how they believed the Olympcis being in China would imapct on Tibet. It is a very powerful and moving film which you can watch on Free Tibet TV.

If you want to do something about this, Students for a Free Tibet have a campaign calling for his release.

Sea Shepherd Trashes the Bat-Boat

Ok, I am not exactly a huge supporter of Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (SSCS) (I am in fact a member of their mortal enemy, ~~the Judean People’s Front~~, sorry, Greenpeace), I agree with their aims but I’m not sure I entirely agree with way they carry out their tactics. I am not opposed to direct action, I have been arrested more than once for protesting myself, but I do take issue with the way they take action.

I don’t particularly agree with their interpretation of the non-violent part of non-violent direct action, this is, however, something that activists will argue about until the end of the earth (doom-laden irony intended). I don’t disagree that property destruction, in and of itself, is a valid tactic for non-violent direct action; Greenpeace cut through chains and locks to access sites and Swoopers at Ratcliffe pulled down sections of fencing in an attempt to shut down the power station. My issue with Sea Shepherd is that they consistently come across as reckless, childish and often incompetent, and these are very dangerous characteristics for people in their position and characteristics that will be attributed to other activists and protesters.

Let’s have a look at this recent incident. Fully 16 days after arriving in the Antarctic on its first mission they, by all accounts willingly, put their 26 ton, $1.5m fibre-glass powerboat the Ady Gil in the path of the 491 ton, steel Japanese security ship the Shonan Maru 2, and failed to act to move out of the way. Now whether the Shonan Maru 2 actually deliberately steered into them or not becomes somewhat a moot point, theirs being the smaller, faster, more maneuverable boat, they should have been able to move out of the way preventing the Ady Gil’s total destruction. This seems the equivalent of a fly playing chicken with a rhino, of course they were not going to come out of it well. The fact that they did this really has to make you wonder about how much is planned and how much is them acting on reckless impulses. And of course there is no place for reckless impulses at sea, especially not the in Antarctic. Advocates of SSCS will always argue that yes they use drastic tactics and yes it is dangerous but they get results. Well yes, they do get results, despite nearly killing several crew members in this recent incident, despite the numerous accidents shown during their TV show Whale Wars where someone almost died every episode due to incompetence and despite the fact that Cpt Paul Watson seems to value human life less than those of whales (evidenced by the incident during Whale Wars where when his first mate failed to lower a RHIB properly he nearly drowned 4 crew members Cpt Watson took no action against the First Mate but alienated those who complained about this). And as if to add insult to injury, each of those people whose lives Cpt Watson is so ready and willing to risk, has had to pay $100 for the privilege (to ‘volunteer’ on the boats one must be a member of SSCS, minimum donation to be considered for the crew: $100/year).

The issue about Japanese whaling in the Antarctic is a complex one. SSCS say that methods of Greenpeace – applying pressure for socio-political change in Japan – is not stopping the death of hundreds of whales every year. They are right, but by only attacking whaling fleets and saving a few whales every year they are not addressing the problem in any comprehensive way. Both tactics are needed, but only legislation from Japan itself will actually solve this problem once and for all, and maybe put an end to this ridiculous bickering between GP and SSCS.

Ban Ki-Moon makes a mistake about how much CO2 is emitted in a year

No wonder the negotiations are stalling in Copenhagen when the UN Secratary General Ban Ki-Moon doesn’t even know how much CO2 is emitted in a year.

In this video he states “This cube represents 1 ton of carbon dioxide, 80 million tons are emitted every year…”. The UK emits 560 million tons on it’s own every year!

If you watch the second video, the Millennium Art CO2 CUBE the video was recorded for, the mistake is conveniently edited out!

Clearly this is just a verbal typo, in that he meant to say “…each day…” but you have to think that maybe, if they put a little more effort into getting things right, rather than seeming to get things right, the negotiations might be going a bit better.

Copenhagen: The Sound of Silence

Brilliant article on the Guardian’s Comment is Free section by Jubilee Debt Campaign‘s Nick Dearden about authorities in Copenhagen silencing dissent at the COP15 talks. Read it. http://bit.ly/7ug1se

Banned from Parliament!

I work for a non-profit organisation called 1 Minute to Save the World that runs a competition short film of the same name. On the 8th of December we were screening a selection of the films, the winners and some of the best runners-up, at the Palace of Westminster. As Campaigns Manager I was required to attend but was stopped from doing so by the Serjeant-at-Arms.

Back in October I was arrested near the Palace of Westminster under section 128 of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 for tresspass in a designated area. I was granted bail with the condition that I not go within 100m of the Palace of Westminster. Now this might sound like a fairly serious obstacle in the way of attending the screening this evening, however I there was a potential route around this. I applied, through my solicitor, for a bail variation, basically permission to go to Westminster for 4 hours that evening on the invitation of the All Party Parliamentary Climate Change Group.

I was told this morning that my application had been refused on the grounds that I might re-offend. After making a few enquiries it turned out that, regardless of whether I was granted a variation or not, the Serjeant-at-Arms would not allow me to enter the building. It was even offered that I would be escorted and at all times accompanied by a security guard or police officer but this was also refused.

I was then told that during the screening three “..large and burly…” police men turned up with spotter cards and scanned the audience looking for me in case I had snuck in. So much for the police changing their tactics and approach to peaceful demonstrators!

Carbon Trading video

Found this cool animation that explains carbon trading and why it is the wrong way to solve climate change.

Obama’s going to Copenhagen but will he live up to his own words?

My post on 1 Minute to Save the World

The White House announced last night that President Obama will be going to the UNFCCC conference in Copenhagen. This is good news as it means there is more chance (if only a little) that something constructive will emerge from the train-wreck that is COP15 – and that’s before it’s even started!

Well Obama, this is your chance to live up to your own words, evidenced here by Mike Erskine in his shortlisted film Our Time, “Yes we can repair this world”. We need leadership and it must come from the West. We need drastic cuts in emissions, not quick-fix solutions. We need you to keep your word Obama, repair this world.

Sometimes I think Bill Hicks really was a prophet. (It’s Bill Hicks so expect explicit language).

Campaigners Call to Kick Canada to the Curb over ‘Criminal’ Climate Catastrophe

Now THAT’s how you alliterate!

The Guardian has published an article stating a claim by “..prominant campaigners, politicians and scientists…” calling for Canada to be suspended from the Commonwealth over it’s climate change policies. Now it is often thought that the worst countries in the world for greenhouse gas emissions are places like China, India the US etc. Big industrialised or industrialising nations. This is largely true, however if you look at the per capita emissions from somewhere like China it is extremely low, around 4 tons per person per year, whereas the UK is around 9 tons per person per year or the US is around 18. Canada is currently around 16 tons per person per year but has a population around half that of the UK.

Why is this? Well in Canada they have a resource called Tar Sands. This is a very dirty and contaminated form of oil, for each barrel of synthetic crude oil produced from tar sands 80kg of greenhouse gasses are emitted and 3 barrels of water are needed to wash the contaminates out. It is estimated there are some 174 billion barrels of oil in the ground in Athabasca ( the largest region of Canadian tar sands), approximately 15% of total global oil reserves, second only to Saudi Arabia.

This uber-dirty oil has become more and more profitable int he last decade as the price for regular crude has risen. Canada, and in particular the premiere of Alberta (the state where most tar sands exists) Ed Stelmach, has sought to promote the expansion in tar sands extraction. Helping him on his way is the UK taxpayer-owned Royal Bank of Scotland who have invested huge amounts of money in companies seeking to expand tar sands extraction.

If extraction of tar sands continues we won’t just cross the 2ºC threshhold, we will a blur as we zoom passed it and look longingly back at it from a future of extreme weather, global economic collapse, billions of climate refugees, heavily armed and controlled borders, increased conflict, evaporation of human rights – a humanitarian disaster on an unimaginable scale.

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Author Archives: Pete