Paranoia in the playground

Wednesday 28 October 2009, Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk

Listen to mayor Dorothy Thornhill. Her council has just banned parents from watching their own children at two council play areas in Watford. Quoted in the Watford Observer this evidently simple-minded woman says, "Sadly, in today's climate, you can't have adults walking around unchecked in a children's playground." 

Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk

 

 

 
The breakdown of free society

Monday 26 October 2009,  Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk

The shocking Guardian report into the surveillance operations run by the police National Public Order Intelligence Unit makes it clear that the right of free protest in Britain now hangs in the balance, and that the very expression of opinion and attendance at meetings is enough for an individual to be categorised as an enemy of society.

Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk

 

 

 
The resurrection of secret inquests

Wednesday 21 October 2009,  Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk

If there's one minister whose every action betrays the menace of the government's intent it is Jack Straw. His malicious drive against freedom and openness is phenomenal.

Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk

 

 

 
This is no innocent U-turn on DNA

Monday 19 October 2009,  Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk

The government's climbdown on proposals that the police should keep innocent people's DNA for between six and 12 years should not be mistaken for a change of heart, nor should we celebrate this as a victory for article 8, the right to privacy, of the Human Rights Act.

Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk

 

 

 
We are shockingly complacent about locking up 2,000 children a year

Sunday 18 October 2009,  The Observer

The plight of the children of asylum seekers represents a sadly unexceptional failure of public conscience

 

Read more...
 
Determining Human Provenance

Wednesday 14 October 2009,  Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk

When dealing with the Home Office you become aware of the dim, dogged nature of a primitive life-form. Last week the department which runs the UK Border Agency issued a statement which appeared to suggest that it was retreating on the issue of gene tests being used to determine race and origin. Science and Nature magazines both attacked the plan, the former by quoting scientists and geneticists who were horrified at the idea of untested science being used by unknown scientists to decide a person's race and origin, and therefore future.

Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk

 

 

 
A David for this surveillance Goliath?

Tuesday 13 October 2009,  Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk

Sometimes things go right. Yesterday Jacqui Smith, the former home secretary, rose in parliament to apologise for nominating her main home in West Midlands as a second home; and a report was published vindicating Damian Green after the MP's arrest last November.

Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk

 

 
Don't trust the Tories

Sunday 4 October 2009,  guardian.co.uk

Labour stripped away many civil liberties, and we should expect the Conservatives to do the same

Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk

 

 

 
A deeply flawed DNA test

Friday 2 October 2009,  Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk

A Home Office experiment with the DNA of asylum seekers to establish their likely race and place of origin is causing outrage and alarm among scientists.

Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk

 

 

 
Gordon Brown's sleight of hand on ID cards

Tuesday 29 September 2009,  Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk

The mildly jubilant scenes at the Labour party conference when Gordon Brown announced that there would be no compulsory ID cards in the next parliament tell you one thing: that people in the hall understand how unpopular the ID card is and what a lead weight it will be at the next election. But of course the speech makes little difference to the ID card and by no means does it signal an end to the government's ID management lunacy.

Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk

 

 

 
Football fans and police thugs

Friday 25 September 2009,  Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk

The rise in complaints against police in England and Wales by 8% to more than 30,000 individual grievances last year cannot be easily dismissed by the suggestion that people have simply become more aware of the complaints procedure. There are important underlying trends that the police and politicians would be wrong to ignore.

Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk

 

 

 
Control orders: a dying regime

Thursday 24 September 2009,  Henry Porter's blog, guardian.co.uk

One of the important elements of the government's desecration of liberty and rights – the use of "secret" evidence to impose control orders, or house arrest, on terror suspects – now looks to be in the advanced stages of decay. The home secretary, Alan Johnson, has written to lawyers representing a former imam known by the initials AE to say that in the light of the law lords' June ruling, the control order on their client will be revoked immediately.

Click here to read more at guardian.co.uk

 

 

 
prev1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10next