Harry's Place

Why do the British Police seem bent on causing further trauma to victims of crime? What is the origin of a ridiculous policy of arresting victims of crime who acted in self-defence?
I ask this because of two cases that have been in the media recently: one a fortnight ago, another yesterday.
In the first case, a [...]

CNN reports:
Make-up advertisements featuring actor Julia Roberts and supermodel Christy Turlington have been banned in the UK because of their controversial use of ‘airbrushing’.
Britain’s Advertising Standards Agency issued the ban after politician Jo Swinson complained about the two ads, for foundation products made by L’Oreal’s Maybelline and Lancôme brands.
L’Oreal admitted the photographs it used had [...]

In the past few weeks, Stephen Sizer has written a series of blog posts about why the UK government should ban Christian Zionist preacher John Hagee for antisemitic remarks, dealing almost exclusively with the controversial remarks Hagee has made about Jews.
Sizer writes on his blog, in direct response to Hagee’s planned visit to the UK,

John [...]

This is a guest post by Michael Weiss.
When I produced a Syrian state document showing that Bashar al-Assad orchestrated the Nakba Day raids into the Golan Heights, Richard Silverstein blogged that an unnamed source of his — supposedly a former high-ranking official in the Israeli government — had authenticated the document but nonetheless insisted that [...]

No, this is not another story about Johann Hari.
I am against unnecessary animal testing. Well, it’s easy to be against ‘unnecessary’ anything, but one has a duty, I think, to be strongly so if whatever it is causes pain, distress or death for no reason: be sure what you mete is not murder.
However, and article [...]

The US have Glenn Beck. We have Morrissey.
The Daily Mirror reports he told the crowd before singing Meat Is Murder: ‘We all live in a murderous world, as the events in Norway have shown, with 97 dead.
‘Though that is nothing compared to what happens in McDonald’s and Kentucky Fried S*** every day.’

Despite recent revelations, and although I certainly don’t agree with him about every issue, Johann Hari writes eloquently and with feeling about issues such as homophobia and poverty.  This is one article (from 2008) which stuck in my mind, particularly its observations about recent improvements in the lives of some poorer families.
But is it true [...]

Andrew Gilligan tells of unrest in the ranks of the Labour Party in relation to the forthcoming Livingstone Mayoral campaign:
There was a fascinating private meeting earlier this month at the Bancroft Library in Tower Hamlets. Paul Harrington, the operations director of the London Labour Party, came to persuade the borough’s Labour councillors to support a [...]

This is a cross post from the Ministry of Truth
If the public debate that has ensued in the wake of last weeks’ horrific act of terrorism in Norway has proved anything at all it is – yet again – that George Orwell was right on the money when he wrote the following passage of his [...]

As part of a possibly successful effort to encourage reluctant fellow Republicans to line up behind Speaker John Boehner’s debt-reduction plan (which has no chance of ultimate approval, but never mind), House of Representatives Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy showed this clip from the movie “The Town” to a GOP caucus.

Character A: “I need your help. [...]