Archive for category Security
Turbulent Flight Plan
Posted by Carolina Bracken in America, Civil Liberty, Crime, European Union, Human Rights, Security on 01/06/2011
Justice Secretary Ken Clarke has defended a US-EU data retention agreement as “crucial” to improving international security. “Given the threats we face are global in nature,” he said in Brussels, “we cannot provide the protection we all wish to see without working with our non-EU partners”. However, far from being equal negotiators, the EU has submitted to belligerent US demands, leading to an inconsistent, disproportionate and expansionist scheme.
Arrested Development
Posted by Carolina Bracken in Civil Liberty, Crime, European Union, Human Rights, Security on 20/04/2011
The European Commission has published its third report on the European Arrest Warrant (EAW), and has catalogued a series of failures. During the course of its research, the Commission received complaints about the EAW not only from dedicated NGOs and lawyers, but also from national legislatures and even the European Parliament itself. Yet, while the report is the most critical to date, many of the criticisms should come as no surprise.
Reoffending Prison(Provid)er
Posted by Carolina Bracken in Crime, Education, Security on 18/01/2011
After a year of industrial unrest, damning assessments, and accusation of falsifying records, the country’s largest further education college has once again come under fire. The Manchester College (TMC) now faces an investigation by the Skills Funding Agency over its offender learning at HMP&YOI Reading, after a whistleblower alleged that the education provider regularly receives overpayments of public money.
Mister Very Important Prisoner
Posted by Carolina Bracken in Civil Liberty, Crime, Human Rights, Political Correctness, Security on 21/12/2010
In 1981, the then Governor of HMP Wormwood Scrubs, John McCarthy, composed a damning letter in The Times bemoaning the inadequacies of the prison system: “From my personal point of view I did not join the Prison Service…to be a member of a service where the staff that I admire are forced to run a society that debases.” How times have changed. Not only will (some) prisoners be re-enfranchised, but it seems that drugs barons and murderers can admonish the Prison Service for failing to meet the standards they themselves have set.
The complexities of censorship
Posted by Stephen Clarke in Civil Liberty, Human Rights, Political Correctness, Politics, Security on 13/12/2010
The last couple of days have witnessed three very different events that have led to calls for action to be taken against controversial individuals. The cases of Julian Assange, Frankie Boyle and Pastor Terry Jones share the common theme of censorship, and demonstrate the difficulty of deciding when censorship is justified.
One Small Step for a Convicted Terrorist, One Giant Blunder for a Country
Posted by David Conway in Politics, Security on 25/08/2009
Last week’s release on ‘compassionate grounds’ from Scottish jail of convicted Lockerbie bomber Abdul Ali al-Megrahi must surely go down as one of the most disgusting acts of political ineptitude ever perpetrated by anyone to hold any kind of ministerial office in Britain.