TOP 100 ENGLAND SITES
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| Submission to Iraq inquiry from Philippe Sands QC The Iraq war inquiry has asked international lawyers for their analysis of the arguments relied upon by the UK government as the legal basis for the military intervention in Iraq. Here is the submission made by Philippe Sands QC, barrister at Matrix chambers and professor of international law at University College London.Philippe Sands guardian.co.uk |
Anatomy of a welfare cut: How the Child Benefit row unfolded The decision to remove child benefits from higher rate taxpayers has drawn howls of protest since it was announced by Chancellor George Osborne. Here The Telegraph pieces together a full account of how and why the decision was made. telegraph.co.uk |
Violent London: 2,000 Years of Riots, Rebels and Revolts by Clive Bloom – review The rights of revolting LondonLast week Zoe Williams reminded us that "There is nothing inherently good about taking to the streets in the furtherance of a belief." This is one of the lessons we learn from this enormous book. If it seems to be infuriatingly London-centric, then the excuse is this: if you're going to organise a demonstration, you're going to make much more of an impact if you do it in the capital city than if you do it anywhere else in the country – although this may no longer be so true: Williams was writing about last Saturday's proposed march in Leicester by the distinctly unpleasant English Defence League.Which brings us neatly on to the fact that bigotry has over the centuries played a significant part when it comes to mass agitation. You could argue that racial intolerance has been a factor in London violence for two millennia: Clive Bloom's book begins with an enjoyably grisly description of the scene as it would have been after Boadicea and her army had massacred the town's largely Roman inhabitants. As he remarks of the statue of her on the approach to Westminster bridge, "Boadicea and her chariot would for ever come to defend the very heart of a city she despised." (Although when protesters against the M11 in Wanstead in 1994 produced fliers with the headline "ROMANS GO HOME" they were not, as Bloom asserts, invoking the spirit of Boadicea so much as referencing, surely, the spirit of Brian Cohen's contribution to the efforts of the People's Front of Judea in The Life of Brian.) This paper's readership is presumably broadly in favour of Wat Tyler and the Levellers; but presumably not in favour of the contemporaneous Fifth Monarchists, who were "committed not to an egalitarian tolerant republic under the army, but to an intolerant religious republic ruled by a religious elite and with no army to interfere." Nor does London cover itself in glory when we contemplate the anti-Catholic Gordon riots, or the numerous uprisings against various groups of immigrants, be they Huguenots, Germans or West Indians.It is London's very cosmopolitanism, then, that helps make it such a focus for popular insurrection. But now this cosmopolitanism is something to celebrate, defiantly, and the people behind the Anti-Nazi League (beneath whose banners I was proud to march in the late 1970s) would be pleased to note the way that ordinary Londoners rallied around the very mixed racial bag of the victims of the 7/7 bombings, a point Bloom makes well.This book first came out in 2003; it has since been updated to include "kettling", the 7/7 bombings, the killing of Jean Charles de Menezes, and the G20 riots in 2009, which resulted in the death of Ian Tomlinson. Bloom gives the impression that he doesn't mind a civil disturbance when there is good reason for it (he notes that the placing of a strip of turf on Winston Churchill's statue in Parliament Square, giving him an impromptu mohican, was quite a conceptual coup by the anarchists), but he can be scathing about the "real theoretical ignorance" of many modern protesters. This level-headedness is welcome in a book which deals with collective hot-headedness.There is plenty of ground for him to cover, which accounts for this book's length – 577 pages, including appendices (very good), notes and index. This isn't just a history of riots and revolts: because each disturbance has to be placed in context, this is a political history which is made all the more interesting because it concentrates on the flashpoints, and the events which caused them. Both the TLS and JG Ballard used the word "exhilarating" to describe it. And there is something about the British that likes to let off steam like this from time to time (didn't Byron make this very point in Don Juan?). As he quotes Daniel Defoe, writing in 1710: "Passive obedience, Non-resistance, and the Divine right of hereditary succession are inconsistent with the rights of the British nation", something of which it would seem our rulers are still uncomfortably aware.Jean Charles de Menezes7 July London attacksIan TomlinsonJG BallardNicholas Lezardguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Police return to A90 death scene Detectives return to the spot on the A90 where a police worker died after being hit by a vehicle a week ago. bbc.co.uk |
Spending review: The 'cuts' that mean public spending soars Britain's £800m a year to India helps to pay for its space programme, writes Christopher Booker. telegraph.co.uk |