08 Jan 10 | Uncategorized
Oliver Kamm responds to my post on Anjem Choudary’s proposed march through Wootton Bassett, where I asked if previous attempts to stop provocative processions, such as Oswald Mosley’s attempt to march through Cable Street, were wrong:
Yes, those who tried to stop the British Union of Fascists from marching in the East End in October 1936 were wrong. The BUF had a democratic right to march in peacetime, and the attempt to stop them did them a power of good. Mosley was looking for a way to call it off anyway, so that he could get to Berlin and secretly marry Diana Mitford Guinness in Goebbels’s drawing room (which he managed to do two days later). Support for Mosley in the East End increased after the Battle of Cable Street, as did antisemitic violence. Thugs attacked Jews and their properties, in the so-called Pogrom of Mile End, a week later.
In the end, despite an appalling failure among leaders of the main parties in the 1930s (Stanley Baldwin and Neville Chamberlain, Herbert Samuel and the ineffably foolish George Lansbury) to recognise the threat from the dictators, it was democratic politics that defeated Mosley and secured economic recovery, not opposition on the streets. When he was interned in 1940, Mosley was a permanently discredited figure.
Read the full post here
15 Dec 09 | Index Index, Middle East and North Africa, minipost, News and features
Several people have been arrested in Tehran over the tearing up of a picture of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, during anti-government demonstrations last week. State television broadcast footage of what it claimed were opposition supporters tearing up and trampling on a picture of Khomeini during an anti-government student-led demonstration. All of those arrested are currently being held in detention although Iranian authorities have refused to give names or numbers. Read more here
08 Dec 09 | Index Index, Middle East and North Africa, minipost
Iranian authorities have threatened tougher action on protesters after tens of thousands marched at universities across the country in the biggest anti-government rallies since the disputed June elections. Dozens of people are reported to have been arrested after violent confrontations. Foreign journalists were banned from reporting on the rallies, and the Iranian authorities closed down mobile phone networks and severely restricted internet access. According to The Times dozens of government agents on motorbikes have surrounded the Tehran office of Mir Hossein Mousavi, the opposition leader, to prevent him attending rallies and the country’s chief prosecutor is threatening to arrest him. Read more here
25 Nov 09 | Uncategorized
How strange to come away from an inquiry into policing feeling impressed and even a little touched.
But the report, by Denis O’Connor, the chief inspector of constabulary, into the past, present and future of public order policing, is such an exceptional piece of work that it deserves all the plaudits it will surely get. O’Connor goes at his huge task with real vigour, attacking it enthusiastically from all sides, and never hesitating to criticise the police when he feels that officers have made mistakes.
O’Connor has a very clear vision of the police force he wants to lead; it is a modern police force, making use of modern tools, but still adhering closely to the original ideals of Robert Peel that policing should be “approachable, impartial, accountable… based on minimal force and anchored in public consent”.
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