GOOD SPEECH BY HANNAN IN AMERICA

SOURCE

ACTA: The new threat to the net

OVER 2 MILLION PEOPLE HAVE ALREADY SIGNED.

ACTA - a global treaty - could allow corporations to censor the Internet. Negotiated in secret by a small number of rich countries and corporate powers, it would set up a shadowy new anti-counterfeiting body to allow private interests to police everything that we do online and impose massive penalties -- even prison sentences -- against people they say have harmed their business.

Europe is deciding right now whether to ratify ACTA -- and without them, this global attack on Internet freedom will collapse. We know they have opposed ACTA before, but some members of Parliament are wavering -- let's give them the push they need to reject the treaty. Sign the petition -- we'll do a spectacular delivery in Brussels when we reach 500,000 signatures.

It's outrageous -- governments of four fifths of the world’s people were excluded from the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) negotiations and unelected bureaucrats have worked closely with corporate lobbyists to craft new rules and a dangerously powerful enforcement regime. ACTA would initially cover the US, EU and 9 other countries, then be rolled out across the world. But if we can get the EU to say no now, the treaty will lose momentum and could stall for good.

The oppressively strict regulations could mean people everywhere are punished for simple acts such as sharing a newspaper article or uploading a video of a party where copyrighted music is played. Sold as a trade agreement to protect copyrights, ACTA could also ban lifesaving generic drugs and threaten local farmers' access to the seeds they need. And, amazingly, the ACTA committee will have carte blanche to change its own rules and sanctions with no democratic scrutiny.

Big corporate interests are pushing hard for this, but the EU Parliament stands in the way. Let's send a loud call to Parliamentarians to face down the lobbies and stand firm for Internet freedom. Sign now and send to everyone you know.

Last week, we saw the strength of our collective power when millions of us joined forces to stop the US from passing an Internet censorship law that would have struck at the heart of the Internet. We also showed the world how powerful our voices can be. Let's raise them again to tackle this new threat.

Sign here

Musings of an Insomniac

I'm lying here awake as usual and the TV is still on. I'm watching events happening somewhere on the other side of the world which I really don't care about. The Middle Eastern Awakenings don't interest me. As far as I'm concerned, we should not get involved AT ALL. These are internal conflicts that have nothing to do with democracy. These societies are tribal and these are third world civil wars declared by savages. If the West hadn't invented modern weapons, they would still be throwing spears at each other.

That we particularly interfere, irks me. All it means is, that another group of nutters will be invading our country to either sponge from our benefits system as asylum seekers while another will try to blow us to kingdom come. In the process, the British Taxpayer has the privilege of paying for wasters like William Hague sticking his nose in where it is not wanted. Ultimately it might mean sacrificing more of our troops in the name of "giving the savages democracy" while we have ours ripped away by the Soviet Eutopia.

The EU is "appalled" and "slams" the government for killing its own people. It doesn't occur to them, they are indirectly doing the same to their own people. Using warfare is not the only way to ethnically cleanse a "tribe".
The UK Government has been doing it to the English for decades.

The Eurocrats are slowly driving many Europeans to the point of poverty and suicide while systematically stripping us of any rights we have left. They control the media, so most ordinary people don't even know what is happening. Where is the outrage at the way Greeks are being treated on Sky News? Where is the footage of Greeks queuing at soup kitchens on the BBC? You won't see it. It's not the "truth" they want you to see.

We have yet another deadline for Greece. 11 o'clock Monday morning. The Greek Government have to agree to make life even worse for their people. The troika are even insisting that wages are curbed in the private sector. What on earth have private companies' wages got to do with them?

Update : Goalposts changed again "Greece must tell the European Union by the end of today" SOURCE

Update : Goalposts changed again : "A government official, , who declined to be named said the parties did not have to respond by today and there was "no deadline" SOURCE

Secretly the Greeks must know, the EU can't let them default. Why?

It will do considerable damage to European Banks, especially French and German ones but Merkozy made the decision to keep throwing money at Greece. If the Greeks default and reinstate a national currency, they will be able to apply to the IMF for help. The IMF helps countries in distress but not currencies (so Georgie keeps telling us).

Things will be very rough for a while but then they will begin to recover ....... and that's one thing that the EU can't risk everyone witnessing.

Huhne!

I HOPE THEY HANG HIM OUT TO DRY!

CLICK TO ENLARGE

The Wrath of Schulz: Gruppenführer

Good to hear somebody else speaking out!

A Speech for the People of Ireland : Part 2

The Light is Rising



'A hard light of anger & shimmering beauty'. Nothing distinguishes we English from the Irish in this plea. Please donate if you can.

via @WildIrishPoet
The Spirit of Ireland

"A Speech for the People of Ireland"

The rest of us could do worse than listen to these words and take them to heart too.

"An ordinary, beautiful life"



Via @WildIrishPoet on twitter

A position of responsibility?

Diane Abbott 'fell asleep in key Westminster debate on abortion laws'

Tory MP brands her conduct on the committee 'appalling'

She denies ‘storming off’ the committee 

  

Labour health spokesman Diane Abbott was caught up in a new row last night over claims that she fell asleep during a Westminster debate on abortion laws.

Really shows how interested our politicians are in their jobs. No doubt, she's tweeting.

Genus: Laborous Hippopotamoidea Abbutus

This is the Shadow Public Health Minister

WORDS FAIL ME!

Source : DAILY MAIL

Meh!

I imagine that's what the majority of the country will be thinking when they tune into this evening's six o'clock news and hear that Martin Schulz has replaced Jerzy Buzek as El Presidente of the European Parliament.

Schulz is a nasty piece of work, often to be seen laughing and smirking as others speak in the EP in his role as leader of the Socialists*; he's a German replacing a Pole; he's also a bully, an arch-federalist and a shoo-in.

In 2008 he was famously compared to the Commandant of a Nazi Concentration Camp by Berlusconi and in 2010 Godfrey Bloom, a UKIP MEP, was ejected from the Chamber for calling out "Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Fuhrer" during a Schulz speech. Compared to Schulz, Buzek was a pussy-cat.

* Full title is the Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists & Democrats - the authoritarian bastards.

Here's what Nigel Farage had to say about him earlier today (and please, do click through to the other videos that pop up in the captions - you can never know too much about your enemy):

"Anti-British to his fingertips"

With thanks to Captain Ranty for the Farage video

Jolly old chap isn't he? I imagine that he'd be in demand as Santa Claus at children's parties in another life - if it weren't for his black, Spinelli heart.

UPDATE: I wouldn't normally reference Wikipedia but in this instance I am because it's interesting to see the lack of background information available on Schulz compared to other politicians.

Give Them Enough Rope

Here are some things that should be more widely known:

Goodbye Sale of Goods Act, 1979. Hello Common European Sales Law

French farmers will have to pay to use their own seeds. Can't see that going down too well but at least they won't be burning live animals in protest this time.

If you don't take a job as a prostitute, we'll stop your benefits. The result of the legalisation of prostitution in Germany.

Make good use of your water butts while you have them: Collecting and using rainwater is illegal in Utah. It's only surprising if you've never heard of Agenda 21.

BBC Financial Statement 2010-2011. See how they take the EU's shilling - and have been doing so since, at least, 1972.

Germany & France send political players to ECB Executive Board

We've certainly given them enough rope and I wonder how long that rope has to be before the Great British public decide it's long enough to do a good job.