// API callback
numberOfPosts({"version":"1.0","encoding":"UTF-8","feed":{"xmlns":"http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom","xmlns$openSearch":"http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearchrss/1.0/","xmlns$blogger":"http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008","xmlns$georss":"http://www.georss.org/georss","xmlns$gd":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005","xmlns$thr":"http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0","id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1786438112933136892"},"updated":{"$t":"2019-09-17T06:53:25.691+01:00"},"category":[{"term":"Politics"},{"term":"Policing"},{"term":"Newham"},{"term":"Campaigns"},{"term":"Olympics"},{"term":"Environment"},{"term":"Personal"},{"term":"Racism"},{"term":"Anti-war"},{"term":"United States"},{"term":"Film"},{"term":"Wanstead Flats"},{"term":"Photography"},{"term":"Books"},{"term":"Lazy Friday"},{"term":"Activism"},{"term":"Climate Camp"},{"term":"Trivia"},{"term":"Media"},{"term":"Religion"},{"term":"Music"},{"term":"Cuts"},{"term":"India"},{"term":"Films of the Year"},{"term":"Iraq Inquiry"},{"term":"Freedom of Information"},{"term":"Sport"},{"term":"Travel"},{"term":"Queens Market"},{"term":"Arms Fair"},{"term":"Art"},{"term":"Forest Gate Raids"},{"term":"Science"},{"term":"Writing"},{"term":"Cycling"},{"term":"Poetry"},{"term":"Work"},{"term":"Football"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"Random Blowe"},"subtitle":{"type":"html","$t":"If you don't like what's in the news today, go out and make some of your own"},"link":[{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#feed","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blowe.org.uk\/feeds\/posts\/default"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/1786438112933136892\/posts\/default?alt=json-in-script"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/www.blowe.org.uk\/"},{"rel":"hub","href":"http://pubsubhubbub.appspot.com/"},{"rel":"next","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/1786438112933136892\/posts\/default?alt=json-in-script\u0026start-index=26\u0026max-results=25"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"Kevin"},"uri":{"$t":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/profile\/00003057501738525190"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$image":{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail","width":"32","height":"29","src":"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_QI1gRwFYn-k\/SU-lkDcQ99I\/AAAAAAAABHE\/miuQVEB5xqE\/S220\/rioter.jpg"}}],"generator":{"version":"7.00","uri":"http://www.blogger.com","$t":"Blogger"},"openSearch$totalResults":{"$t":"1106"},"openSearch$startIndex":{"$t":"1"},"openSearch$itemsPerPage":{"$t":"25"},"entry":[{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1786438112933136892.post-4004621335906171819"},"published":{"$t":"2019-01-01T00:30:00.000+00:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2019-01-01T00:30:00.372+00:00"},"category":[{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Film"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Films of the Year"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"Films of the Year 2018"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"\u003Cdiv dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\" trbidi=\"on\"\u003EFor the sixteenth consecutive year, this is my annual\u0026nbsp;list of films I've watched over the last 12 months and in 2018, that meant 73 trips to the cinema (down from 83 in 2017).\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003EOverwhelmingly, these visits were to my local Stratford Picturehouse and according to the \u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/letterboxd.com\/copwatcher\/year\/2018\/\"\u003Estats on Letterboxd\u003C\/a\u003E, overall this amounted to 138.6 hours of film watching.\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003EThis has been an exceptionally great year for film: there have been so many I have absolutely loved. The ten I have picked below are not necessarily the ones I admired the most but are my favourites. It was a tough choice. Others, like \u003Cb\u003ERoma\u003C\/b\u003E, \u003Cb\u003ECold War\u003C\/b\u003E,\u0026nbsp;T\u003Cb\u003Ehe Miseducation of Cameron Post\u003C\/b\u003E and\u003Cb\u003E I'm Sorry To Bother You\u003C\/b\u003E just missed the cut.\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003EAs always, this does not include anything watched on DVD or BluRay and as in previous years, I've arbitrarily rated the films I've seen. You can find ratings for the last 15 years \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.blowe.org.uk\/search\/label\/Films%20of%20the%20Year\"\u003Ehere\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003C\/div\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cb\u003ETen favourite films of the year: \u003C\/b\u003EA Quiet Place \/ Leave\u0026nbsp;No Trace \/ Isle of Dogs \/ Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri \/ Lucky \/ The Post \/ The Breadwinner \/ First Man \/ Dogman \/\u0026nbsp;Black Panther\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cb\u003EWorst films of 2018:\u003C\/b\u003E\u0026nbsp;American Animals \/ Downsizing \/ The Meg \/ Tomb Raider\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cb\u003EGreat documentaries in 2018:\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/b\u003ENae Pasaran \/ Three Identical Strangers\u003C\/div\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003ERatings:\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E★★★★★: Unmissable!\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E★★★★☆: Definitely worth seeing\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E★★★☆☆: Decent film\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E★★☆☆☆: Disappointing\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E★☆☆☆☆: Pants\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E☆☆☆☆☆: Why was this released?\u003C\/div\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003EMary Poppins Returns ★★★★\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003C\/div\u003ERoma\u003Cspan style=\"white-space: pre;\"\u003E \u003C\/span\u003E★★★★\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u0026nbsp;Nae Pasaran\u003Cspan style=\"white-space: pre;\"\u003E \u003C\/span\u003E★★★★\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E1Sorry to Bother ★★★★\u003Cspan style=\"white-space: pre;\"\u003E \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003EDisobedience ★★★★\u003Cspan style=\"white-space: pre;\"\u003E \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003EThe Girl in the Spider's Web ★★★\u003Cspan style=\"white-space: pre;\"\u003E \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003EThree Identical Strangers ★★★★\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003EFantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald ★★\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003EWidows ★★★★\u003Cspan style=\"white-space: pre;\"\u003E \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003EOverlord ★★★★\u003Cspan style=\"white-space: pre;\"\u003E \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003EThe Hate U Give ★★★★\u003Cspan style=\"white-space: pre;\"\u003E \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003EWildlife ★★★\u003Cspan style=\"white-space: pre;\"\u003E \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003EOutlaw King ★★★\u003Cspan style=\"white-space: pre;\"\u003E \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003EThe Guilty ★★★\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003EBohemian Rhapsody ★★★\u003Cspan style=\"white-space: pre;\"\u003E \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003EDogman ★★★★\u003Cspan style=\"white-space: pre;\"\u003E \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003EFirst Man ★★★★\u003Cspan style=\"white-space: pre;\"\u003E \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003EThe Wife ★★★\u003Cspan style=\"white-space: pre;\"\u003E \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003EA Star Is Born ★★★★\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003EVenom ★★★\u003Cspan style=\"white-space: pre;\"\u003E \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003ESkate Kitchen ★★★★\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003EA Simple Favor ★★★\u003Cspan style=\"white-space: pre;\"\u003E \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003EThe Rider ★★★★\u003Cspan style=\"white-space: pre;\"\u003E \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003ELucky ★★★★\u003Cspan style=\"white-space: pre;\"\u003E \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003EAmerican Animals ★\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003EYardie ★★★\u003Cspan style=\"white-space: pre;\"\u003E \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003EBlacKkKlansman ★★★\u003Cspan style=\"white-space: pre;\"\u003E \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003EThe Miseducation of Cameron Post ★★★★\u003Cspan style=\"white-space: pre;\"\u003E \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003EApostasy★★★★\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003ECold War ★★★★\u003Cspan style=\"white-space: pre;\"\u003E \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003EThe Meg ★★\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003EAnt-Man and the Wasp ★★★\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003EThe Apparition ★★★\u003Cspan style=\"white-space: pre;\"\u003E \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003EMission: Impossible – Fallout ★★★\u003Cspan style=\"white-space: pre;\"\u003E \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003EFirst Reformed ★★★\u003Cspan style=\"white-space: pre;\"\u003E \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003EHotel Artemis ★★★\u003Cspan style=\"white-space: pre;\"\u003E \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003EA Prayer Before Dawn ★★★★\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003ESkyscraper ★★\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003ELeave No Trace ★★★★\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003EThe Happy Prince ★★★\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003EIn the Fade ★★★★\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003EJurassic World: Fallen Kingdom ★★★\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003EMy Friend Dahmer★★★\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003EThe Breadwinner ★★★★\u003Cspan style=\"white-space: pre;\"\u003E \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003ESolo: A Star Wars Story ★★★\u003Cspan style=\"white-space: pre;\"\u003E \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003ETully ★★★\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003EDeadpool 2 ★★★★\u003Cspan style=\"white-space: pre;\"\u003E \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003EAvengers: Infinity War ★★★★\u003Cspan style=\"white-space: pre;\"\u003E \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003ELean on Pete ★★★★\u003Cspan style=\"white-space: pre;\"\u003E \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003EThe Wound ★★★\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u0026nbsp;The Deminer\u003Cspan style=\"white-space: pre;\"\u003E \u003C\/span\u003E★★★\u003Cspan style=\"white-space: pre;\"\u003E \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003EThe Guernsey Literary \u0026amp; Potato Peel Pie Society ★★\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003EA Quiet Place ★★★★\u003Cspan style=\"white-space: pre;\"\u003E \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003EReady Player One ★★★★\u003Cspan style=\"white-space: pre;\"\u003E \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003EIsle of Dogs ★★★★\u003Cspan style=\"white-space: pre;\"\u003E \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003EThe Third Murder ★★★★\u003Cspan style=\"white-space: pre;\"\u003E \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003ETomb Raider ★★\u003Cspan style=\"white-space: pre;\"\u003E \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003EYou Were Never Really Here ★★★★\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003ESweet Country ★★★\u003Cspan style=\"white-space: pre;\"\u003E \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003EI, Tonya ★★★\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003EThe Nile Hilton Incident ★★★\u003Cspan style=\"white-space: pre;\"\u003E \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003ERed Sparrow ★★★★\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003EV for Vendetta ★★★★★\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003ELady Bird ★★★\u003Cspan style=\"white-space: pre;\"\u003E \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003EBlack Panther ★★★★\u003Cspan style=\"white-space: pre;\"\u003E \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003EThe Shape of Water ★★★\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003EEarly Man ★★★★\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003EDarkest Hour ★★★\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003EDownsizing ★★\u003Cspan style=\"white-space: pre;\"\u003E \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003EThe Post ★★★★\u003Cspan style=\"white-space: pre;\"\u003E \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003EHostiles ★★★★\u003Cspan style=\"white-space: pre;\"\u003E \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003EThree Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri ★★★★\u003C\/div\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E"},"link":[{"rel":"replies","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blowe.org.uk\/feeds\/4004621335906171819\/comments\/default","title":"Post Comments"},{"rel":"replies","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/comment.g?blogID=1786438112933136892\u0026postID=4004621335906171819","title":"0 Comments"},{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/1786438112933136892\/posts\/default\/4004621335906171819"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/1786438112933136892\/posts\/default\/4004621335906171819"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/www.blowe.org.uk\/2019\/01\/films-of-year-2018.html","title":"Films of the Year 2018"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"Kevin"},"uri":{"$t":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/profile\/00003057501738525190"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$image":{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail","width":"32","height":"29","src":"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_QI1gRwFYn-k\/SU-lkDcQ99I\/AAAAAAAABHE\/miuQVEB5xqE\/S220\/rioter.jpg"}}],"thr$total":{"$t":"0"}},{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1786438112933136892.post-9172605089442285798"},"published":{"$t":"2018-01-07T03:39:00.000+00:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2018-01-07T03:39:31.019+00:00"},"category":[{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Film"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Films of the Year"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"Films of the Year 2017"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"\u003Cdiv dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\" trbidi=\"on\"\u003ESomewhat belatedly (because I am abroad), this is my annual list of films I've watched in 2017 and, in keeping with the close of every year since 2003, it's  time to review the ones I've seen over the last twelve months.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EIn 2017, I made it to the cinema on 83 occasions - down from 96 in 2016. Overwhelmingly, these visits were to my local \u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/www.picturehouses.com\/cinema\/Stratford_London\" target=\"_blank\"\u003EStratford Picturehouse\u003C\/a\u003E and according to the stats on \u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/letterboxd.com\/copwatcher\/year\/2017\/\" target=\"_blank\"\u003ELetterboxd\u003C\/a\u003E, this amounted to 159.4 hours of cinema.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EAs  always, this does not include anything watched on DVD or BluRay and  as  in previous years, I've arbitrarily rated the films I've seen. You can  find ratings for the last decade \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.blowe.org.uk\/search\/label\/Films%20of%20the%20Year\" target=\"_blank\"\u003Ehere\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ESince I started going to the cinema regularly and keeping track of the numbers, I now make this 826 visits since 2003. Onward and upward.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cb\u003EFilms of the year: \u003C\/b\u003EDunkirk \/ Moonlight \/ La La Land \/ 20th Century Women\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cb\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/b\u003E\u003Cb\u003EWorst film of 2017: \u003C\/b\u003EThe Mummy\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cb\u003EGreat documentaries in 2017:\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/b\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ELA 92\u003Cbr \/\u003EI Am Not Your Negro\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cb\u003ERatings\u003C\/b\u003E:\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E★★★★★: Unmissable!\u003Cbr \/\u003E★★★★☆: Definitely worth seeing\u003Cbr \/\u003E★★★☆☆: Decent film\u003Cbr \/\u003E★★☆☆☆: Disappointing\u003Cbr \/\u003E★☆☆☆☆: Pants\u003Cbr \/\u003E☆☆☆☆☆: Why was this released?\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"western\" style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"western\" style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"western\" style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\"\u003EStar Wars: The Last Jedi ★★★☆☆\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"western\" style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\"\u003EStronger ★★★☆☆\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"western\" style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\"\u003EBrigsby Bear ★★★☆☆\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"western\" style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\"\u003EDolores ★★★★☆\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"western\" style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\"\u003EWonder ★★★★☆\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"western\" style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\"\u003EBattle of the Sexes ★★★☆☆\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"western\" style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\"\u003ENo Stone Unturned ★★★☆☆\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"western\" style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\"\u003EThe Florida Project ★★★★☆\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"western\" style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\"\u003EThelma ★★★★☆\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"western\" style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\"\u003EMurder on the Orient Express ★★★★☆\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"western\" style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\"\u003EBreathe ★★★☆☆\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"western\" style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\"\u003EThor: Ragnarok ★★★★☆\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"western\" style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\"\u003EHappy Death Day ★★★★☆\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"western\" style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\"\u003ECall Me by Your Name ★★★☆☆ \u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"western\" style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\"\u003EThe Death of Stalin ★★★★☆\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"western\" style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\"\u003EThe Snowman ★★☆☆☆\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"western\" style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\"\u003EBlade Runner 2049 ★★★★☆\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"western\" style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\"\u003EThe Breakfast Club ★★★★★\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"western\" style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\"\u003ELogan ★★★★☆\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"western\" style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\"\u003EBorg vs McEnroe ★★★☆☆\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"western\" style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\"\u003EIt ★★★☆☆\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"western\" style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\"\u003EThe Ghoul ★★★☆☆\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"western\" style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\"\u003EGod's Own Country ★★★★☆\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"western\" style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\"\u003EWind River ★★★★☆\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"western\" style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\"\u003EPatti Cake$ ★★★★☆\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"western\" style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\"\u003EThe Limehouse Golem ★★★★☆\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"western\" style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\"\u003EDetroit ★★★☆☆\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"western\" style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\"\u003EAmerican Made ★★★☆☆\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"western\" style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\"\u003ELogan Lucky ★★★★☆\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"western\" style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\"\u003EA Ghost Story ★★☆☆☆\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"western\" style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\"\u003EAtomic Blonde ★★★☆☆\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"western\" style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\"\u003ELand of Mine ★★★★☆\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"western\" style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\"\u003EKedi ★★☆☆☆\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"western\" style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\"\u003EEngland Is Mine ★★★☆☆\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"western\" style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\"\u003EClash ★★★★☆\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"western\" style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\"\u003EDunkirk ★★★★★\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"western\" style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\"\u003EWar for the Planet of the Apes ★★★★☆\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"western\" style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\"\u003ESpider-Man: Homecoming ★★★☆☆\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"western\" style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\"\u003EThe Student ★★★☆☆\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"western\" style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\"\u003EBaby Driver ★★★★☆\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"western\" style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\"\u003ERisk ★★★☆☆\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"western\" style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\"\u003EGifted ★★★★☆\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"western\" style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\"\u003EMy Cousin Rachel ★★☆☆☆\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"western\" style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\"\u003EThe Mummy ★★☆☆☆\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"western\" style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\"\u003EManhattan ★★★☆☆\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"western\" style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\"\u003EWonder Woman ★★★☆☆\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"western\" style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\"\u003EGraduation ★★★☆☆\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"western\" style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\"\u003EColossal ★★★★☆\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"western\" style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\"\u003EMiss Sloane ★★★★☆\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"western\" style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\"\u003EAlien: Covenant ★★☆☆☆\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"western\" style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\"\u003ENeruda ★★★☆☆\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"western\" style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\"\u003ELady Macbeth ★★★☆☆\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"western\" style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\"\u003EGuardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 ★★★☆☆\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"western\" style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\"\u003EThe Handmaiden ★★★☆☆\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"western\" style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\"\u003ELA 92 ★★★★☆\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"western\" style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\"\u003ETheir Finest ★★★☆☆\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"western\" style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\"\u003EPersonal Shopper ★★★★☆\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"western\" style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\"\u003EFree Fire ★★★★☆\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"western\" style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\"\u003EGhost in the Shell ★★★★☆\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"western\" style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\"\u003EThe Lost City of Z ★★★☆☆\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"western\" style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\"\u003ECertain Women ★★★☆☆\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"western\" style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\"\u003ELife ★★★☆☆\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"western\" style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\"\u003EElle ★★☆☆☆\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"western\" style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\"\u003EGet Out ★★★★☆\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"western\" style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\"\u003EI Am Not Your Negro ★★★★☆\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"western\" style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\"\u003EKong: Skull Island ★★☆☆☆\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"western\" style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\"\u003ELogan ★★★★☆\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"western\" style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\"\u003EMoonlight ★★★★★\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"western\" style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\"\u003EHidden Figures ★★★☆☆\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"western\" style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\"\u003EFences ★★★☆☆\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"western\" style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\"\u003EThe Lego Batman Movie ★★☆☆☆\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"western\" style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\"\u003E20th Century Women ★★★★★\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"western\" style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\"\u003ELoving ★★★★☆\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"western\" style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\"\u003ET2 Trainspotting (again) ★★★★☆\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"western\" style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\"\u003ET2 Trainspotting ★★★★☆\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"western\" style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\"\u003EHacksaw Ridge ★★★☆☆\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"western\" style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\"\u003ELion ★★★★☆\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"western\" style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\"\u003EJackie ★★★☆☆\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"western\" style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\"\u003EA Monster Calls ★★★★☆\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"western\" style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\"\u003ELa La Land ★★★★☆\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"western\" style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\"\u003EManchester by the Sea ★★★★☆\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"western\" style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\"\u003EAssassin's Creed ★★★☆☆\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"western\" style=\"margin-bottom: 0cm;\"\u003ESing ★★★★☆\u003C\/div\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E"},"link":[{"rel":"replies","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blowe.org.uk\/feeds\/9172605089442285798\/comments\/default","title":"Post Comments"},{"rel":"replies","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/comment.g?blogID=1786438112933136892\u0026postID=9172605089442285798","title":"0 Comments"},{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/1786438112933136892\/posts\/default\/9172605089442285798"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/1786438112933136892\/posts\/default\/9172605089442285798"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/www.blowe.org.uk\/2018\/01\/films-of-year-2017.html","title":"Films of the Year 2017"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"Kevin"},"uri":{"$t":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/profile\/00003057501738525190"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$image":{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail","width":"32","height":"29","src":"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_QI1gRwFYn-k\/SU-lkDcQ99I\/AAAAAAAABHE\/miuQVEB5xqE\/S220\/rioter.jpg"}}],"thr$total":{"$t":"0"}},{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1786438112933136892.post-7605554455104031666"},"published":{"$t":"2016-12-20T09:11:00.000+00:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2016-12-20T09:11:00.592+00:00"},"category":[{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Film"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Films of the Year"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"Films of the Year 2016"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"\u003Cdiv dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\" trbidi=\"on\"\u003E\u003Cdiv dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\" trbidi=\"on\"\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/-LZ7wh71jME8\/WFjxNTzwRHI\/AAAAAAAAFHE\/49FEo9rx1hoTz3H_GWOg4wcVlpH7l9a8QCLcB\/s1600\/arrival-meme.png\" imageanchor=\"1\" style=\"margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\"\u003E\u003Cimg border=\"0\" height=\"273\" src=\"https:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/-LZ7wh71jME8\/WFjxNTzwRHI\/AAAAAAAAFHE\/49FEo9rx1hoTz3H_GWOg4wcVlpH7l9a8QCLcB\/s400\/arrival-meme.png\" width=\"520\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EWe are drawing closer to the end of 2016, one of the worst years in living memory: the year of Trumpian fascism, Europe-wide xenophobia and the deaths of so many inspirational figures in music and cinema.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EIn cinematic terms, however, this hasn't been a bad year for watching films and so, in keeping with the close of every year since 2003, it's time to review the ones I've seen over the last twelve months.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EIn 2016, I made it to the cinema on 96 occasions - up from 81 in 2015. Overwhelmingly, these visits were to my local \u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/www.picturehouses.com\/cinema\/Stratford_London\" target=\"_blank\"\u003EStratford Picturehouse\u003C\/a\u003E and according to the stats on \u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/letterboxd.com\/copwatcher\/year\/2016\/\" target=\"_blank\"\u003ELetterboxd\u003C\/a\u003E, this amounted to 177.8 hours of cinema.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EAs always, this does not include anything watched on DVD or BluRay and  as in previous years, I've arbitrarily rated the films I've seen. You can find ratings for the last decade \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.blowe.org.uk\/search\/label\/Films%20of%20the%20Year\" target=\"_blank\"\u003Ehere\u003C\/a\u003E. Since I started going to the cinema regularly and keeping track of the numbers, I now make this 743 visits since 2003. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EI know. That's a lot.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cb\u003EFilm of the year: \u003C\/b\u003EArrival\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cb\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/b\u003E\u003Cb\u003EWorst film of 2016: \u003C\/b\u003EThe Legend of Tarzan\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cb\u003EGreat documentaries in 2016:\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/b\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe Eagle Huntress,\u003Cbr \/\u003ELife, Animated\u003Cbr \/\u003EBobby Sands: 66 Days\u003Cbr \/\u003ETickled\u003Cbr \/\u003ENotes on Blindness\u003Cbr \/\u003ESpeed Sisters\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe Fear of 13\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cb\u003ERatings\u003C\/b\u003E:\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E★★★★★: Unmissable!\u003Cbr \/\u003E★★★★☆: Definitely worth seeing\u003Cbr \/\u003E★★★☆☆: Decent film\u003Cbr \/\u003E★★☆☆☆: Disappointing\u003Cbr \/\u003E★☆☆☆☆: Pants\u003Cbr \/\u003E☆☆☆☆☆: Why was this released?\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ERogue One: A Star Wars Story ★★★★☆\u003Cbr \/\u003ELife, Animated ★★★★☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe Eagle Huntress ★★★★☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe Birth of a Nation ★★☆☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003ESnowden ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EPaterson ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003ESully ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EA United Kingdom ★★★★☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EArrival ★★★★★ (and even better on second viewing)\u003Cbr \/\u003EFantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EArrival ★★★★★\u003Cbr \/\u003ENocturnal Animals ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe Accountant ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EIn Pursuit of Silence ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EDoctor Strange ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EJack Reacher: Never Go Back ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EQueen of Katwe ★★★★☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EAmerican Honey ★★★★☆\u003Cbr \/\u003ELo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003ESwiss Army Man ★★☆☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe Magnificent Seven ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EI, Daniel Blake ★★★★☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EMiss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EDeepwater Horizon ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe Girl with All the Gifts ★★★★☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EHunt for the Wilderpeople ★★★★☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EHell or High Water ★★★★☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EThings to Come ★★★★☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe Confession ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003ECaptain Fantastic ★★★★☆\u003Cbr \/\u003ECafé Society ★★☆☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003ETickled ★★★★☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EJulieta ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EWiener-Dog ★★★★☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe Shallows ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EBobby Sands: 66 Days ★★★★☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EEmbrace of the Serpent ★★★★☆\u003Cbr \/\u003ESuicide Squad ★★☆☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EMaggie's Plan ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EJason Bourne ★★★★☆\u003Cbr \/\u003ECouple in a Hole ★★★★☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EStar Trek Beyond ★★★★☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe Legend of Tarzan ★☆☆☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe Hard Stop ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003ENotes on Blindness ★★★★☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EElvis \u0026amp; Nixon ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EIndependence Day: Resurgence ★★☆☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EMile End ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EAdult Life Skills ★★★★☆\u003Cbr \/\u003ETale of Tales ★★☆☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe Keeping Room ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003ESing Street ★★★★☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe Club ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe Nice Guys ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EX-Men: Apocalypse ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EMoney Monster ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EA Hologram for the King ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EEverybody Wants Some! ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EMustang ★★★★☆\u003Cbr \/\u003ESon of Saul ★★★★☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EArabian Nights: Volume 1, The Restless One ★☆☆☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EDemolition ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EGreen Room ★★★★☆\u003Cbr \/\u003ECaptain America: Civil War ★★★★☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EJane Got a Gun ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EMiles Ahead ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EEye in the Sky ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe Absent One ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EDheepan ★★★★☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EMidnight Special ★★★★☆\u003Cbr \/\u003ESpeed Sisters ★★★★☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EVictoria ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe Here After ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003E10 Cloverfield Lane ★★★★☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EDisorder ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EHigh-Rise ★★☆☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EAllegiant ★★☆☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EChronic ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EHail, Caesar! ★★★★☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EBone Tomahawk ★★★★☆\u003Cbr \/\u003ETriple 9 ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe Survivalist ★★★★☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EDeadpool ★★★★☆\u003Cbr \/\u003ETrumbo ★★★★☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe 33 ★★☆☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003ESpotlight ★★★★☆\u003Cbr \/\u003ECreed ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe Assassin ★★☆☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe Revenant ★★★★☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe Big Short ★★★★☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EBlack Souls ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003ERoom ★★★★☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe Hateful Eight ★★☆☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EJoy ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe Fear of 13 ★★★★☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EIn the Heart of the Sea ★★★☆☆\u003C\/div\u003E"},"link":[{"rel":"replies","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blowe.org.uk\/feeds\/7605554455104031666\/comments\/default","title":"Post Comments"},{"rel":"replies","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/comment.g?blogID=1786438112933136892\u0026postID=7605554455104031666","title":"0 Comments"},{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/1786438112933136892\/posts\/default\/7605554455104031666"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/1786438112933136892\/posts\/default\/7605554455104031666"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/www.blowe.org.uk\/2016\/12\/films-of-year-2016.html","title":"Films of the Year 2016"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"Kevin"},"uri":{"$t":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/profile\/00003057501738525190"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$image":{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail","width":"32","height":"29","src":"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_QI1gRwFYn-k\/SU-lkDcQ99I\/AAAAAAAABHE\/miuQVEB5xqE\/S220\/rioter.jpg"}}],"media$thumbnail":{"xmlns$media":"http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/","url":"https:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/-LZ7wh71jME8\/WFjxNTzwRHI\/AAAAAAAAFHE\/49FEo9rx1hoTz3H_GWOg4wcVlpH7l9a8QCLcB\/s72-c\/arrival-meme.png","height":"72","width":"72"},"thr$total":{"$t":"0"}},{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1786438112933136892.post-8767963497841345860"},"published":{"$t":"2016-01-01T17:49:00.004+00:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2016-01-01T17:49:24.827+00:00"},"category":[{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Film"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Films of the Year"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"A Year in Film 2015"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"\u003Cdiv dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\" trbidi=\"on\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EAs 2015 draws to a close, I'm back for an increasingly rare update to this blog and, in keeping with the previous 12 years, to review the films I've seen over the last twelve months.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EYou can find more stats than you'll ever need and the occasional review\u0026nbsp; over at \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/letterboxd.com\/copwatcher\/year\/2015\/\" target=\"_blank\"\u003ELetterboxd\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EAs always, I only count actual 81 trips I made to a cinema - not films on DVD or BluRay - and as usual I've arbitrarily rated the films I've seen. You can find ratings for the last decade \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.blowe.org.uk\/search\/label\/Films%20of%20the%20Year\" target=\"_blank\"\u003Ehere\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cb\u003ERatings\u003C\/b\u003E:\u003Cbr \/\u003E★★★★★: Unmissable!\u003Cbr \/\u003E★★★★☆: Definitely worth seeing\u003Cbr \/\u003E★★★☆☆: Decent film\u003Cbr \/\u003E★★☆☆☆: Disappointing\u003Cbr \/\u003E★☆☆☆☆: Pants\u003Cbr \/\u003E☆☆☆☆☆: Why was this released?\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EStar Wars: The Force Awakens ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003ESherpa ★★★★☆\u003Cbr \/\u003ECarol ★★★★☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EBridge of Spies ★★★★☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003ESteve Jobs ★★★★☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe Lady in the Van ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe Lobster ★★☆☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EListen to Me Marlon ★★★★☆\u003Cbr \/\u003ESpectre ★★★★☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe Program ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003ESuffragette ★★★★☆\u003Cbr \/\u003ECrimson Peak ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe Walk ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003ESicario ★★★★☆\u003Cbr \/\u003ERed Army ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe Martian ★★★★★\u003Cbr \/\u003E3½ Minutes, 10 Bullets ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe Martian ★★★★★\u003Cbr \/\u003ELife ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003ECartel Land ★★★★☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EEverest ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe Wolfpack ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EMaze Runner: The Scorch Trials ★★☆☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe Salt of the Earth ★★★★☆\u003Cbr \/\u003ELegend ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EMe and Earl and the Dying Girl ★★★★☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EMistress America ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EPaper Towns ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe Man from U.N.C.L.E. ★★★★☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EInside Out ★★★★★\u003Cbr \/\u003EMission: Impossible - Rogue Nation ★★★★☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EMinions ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EAnt-Man ★★★★☆\u003Cbr \/\u003ELove \u0026amp; Mercy ★★★★☆\u003Cbr \/\u003ESlow West ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EAmy ★★★★☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EGoing Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief ★★★★☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EJurassic World ★★☆☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EMr. Holmes ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe Dark Horse\u0026nbsp; ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe Look of Silence ★★★★★\u003Cbr \/\u003ETimbuktu ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe Connection  ★★★★☆\u003Cbr \/\u003ESan Andreas ★★☆☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe New Girlfriend ★★☆☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003ETomorrowland ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EWe Are Many  ★★★★☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EPitch Perfect 2 ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EMad Max: Fury Road ★★★★★\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe Beat Beneath My Feet ★★★★☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe Falling ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EAvengers: Age of Ultron ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EA Little Chaos ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe Salvation ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EJohn Wick ★★★★☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EGood Kill ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EWoman in Gold ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EWhile We're Young ★★☆☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EBlade Runner ★★★★★\u003Cbr \/\u003EWild Tales ★★★★☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EPride ★★★★★\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ERobot Overlords ★★☆☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EInsurgent ★★☆☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003ESuite Française ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EA Brilliant Young Mind ★★★★☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EStill Alice ★★★★☆\u003Cbr \/\u003ECatch Me Daddy ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EChappie ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EBlackhat ★★☆☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EMaidan ☆☆☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003ETrash ★★★★☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EKingsman: The Secret Service ★★★★☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EEx Machina ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003ESelma ★★★★☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EWild ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EFoxcatcher ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EWhiplash ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EExodus: Gods and Kings ★★☆☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe Theory of Everything ★★★★☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EUnbroken ★★★☆☆\u003C\/div\u003E"},"link":[{"rel":"replies","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blowe.org.uk\/feeds\/8767963497841345860\/comments\/default","title":"Post Comments"},{"rel":"replies","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/comment.g?blogID=1786438112933136892\u0026postID=8767963497841345860","title":"0 Comments"},{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/1786438112933136892\/posts\/default\/8767963497841345860"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/1786438112933136892\/posts\/default\/8767963497841345860"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/www.blowe.org.uk\/2016\/01\/a-year-in-film-2015.html","title":"A Year in Film 2015"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"Kevin"},"uri":{"$t":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/profile\/00003057501738525190"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$image":{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail","width":"32","height":"29","src":"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_QI1gRwFYn-k\/SU-lkDcQ99I\/AAAAAAAABHE\/miuQVEB5xqE\/S220\/rioter.jpg"}}],"thr$total":{"$t":"0"}},{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1786438112933136892.post-5213776136518908417"},"published":{"$t":"2015-09-25T22:59:00.000+01:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2015-09-25T22:59:47.962+01:00"},"category":[{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Football"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Newham"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Politics"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"The Clapton Ultras v Strike!"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"\u003Cdiv dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\" trbidi=\"on\"\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: left;\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/-0I5IxqOnffk\/VgXClnun5NI\/AAAAAAAAE3U\/CaK3kFUCV8o\/s1600\/Football-for-all.jpg\" imageanchor=\"1\" style=\"margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\"\u003E\u003Cimg border=\"0\" height=\"355\" src=\"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/-0I5IxqOnffk\/VgXClnun5NI\/AAAAAAAAE3U\/CaK3kFUCV8o\/s400\/Football-for-all.jpg\" width=\"500\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cb\u003EThis article appears in the current edition of \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/strikemag.org\/\" target=\"_blank\"\u003EStrike!\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/b\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ci\u003EA football club where minorities not only feel welcome, but get involved, can never really be a bad thing, no matter how much gushing, middle-class wankery gets written about them. Wankery that they aren't responsible for, remember... \u003C\/i\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003E\u003Cb\u003EComment on 'When Saturday Comes' message board\u003C\/b\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003EBefore 2012 there were no Clapton Ultras: over the space of only three seasons, a group of left-wing anti-fascist football fans have, with their passion, noisy songs and a fondness for smoke flares in support of Clapton FC, a club in Forest Gate in east London, shaken up the staid, parochial county league that the team plays in. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003EIn doing so, Clapton fans have also attracted increasing outside interest and often unwelcome attention. One senior left-wing union official tried unsuccessfully to use the terrace where the Ultras gather as a stage for some shameless personal grandstanding, whilst far-right groups have repeatedly complained to an indifferent London FA about the Ultras 'political' flags (something we are entirely guilty of). Last year, as numbers grew to over 200 and more and more people headed east to find out what all the fuss was about, the Ultras also started to face attempts to pin one label or another onto us. We have been described both as saviours of the left and condemned as an insufficiently hard-case anti-fascist 'firm'. Memorably, someone even called us 'metrosexual Palestine hipsters', an insult so brilliantly hilarious that it is destined soon to feature on a supporters' banner. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EWhy it's always seen as necessary to fit everything new into a preconceived and largely pointless category is a mystery to me. Still, none of it has come close to explaining the phenomenal rise of the Clapton Ultras or the upsurge of support – over 500 supporters at the end of last season - for a lowly non-league club long overshadowed by its rich and popular neighbour, West Ham United, who are based less than a mile away. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EIn reality, what is happening in Forest Gate is a reflection of a growing trend amongst an increasing number of football fans who are tired of paying £50 or more for a match ticket, or simply cannot afford to, just to watch a game with no atmosphere or spectacle. At Clapton FC, most fans also support a League side, but have adopted a local team, one with a long and rich history but forever at the fringes of football, because it means watching with friends for only £6, a beer in hand, without oppressive policing or officious stewards insisting everyone remains seated. For many, this is what has attracted them to switch to non-league football, or to return to the game after often years away from regular attendance at overpriced Premiership and League fixtures.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThere is something else, however, that makes the Clapton Ultras noticeably different from other groups of football supporters: their absolute opposition to the often boorishly sexist, homophobic and right-wing sentiment and behaviour tolerated at many larger clubs. This has been coupled with the adoption of the best elements of a continental anti-fascist Ultras' culture that is strengthened by the presence of many Italian, Spanish and Polish fans. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EWhat I love so much about attending a home game at the Old Spotted Dog Ground and standing with other Clapton Ultras is not just having a few cans of Tyskie and singing daft chants throughout, but the recognition that the people around me are socialists and anarchists, that at any moment the Italian partisans song 'Bella Ciao' may erupt from the Scaffold (the ramshackle stand made of scaffolding poles and corrugated iron where the Ultras congregate), or a banner might appear in support of anti-fascists in Greece or Germany. It's the fact that we produce all our own merchandise, just like Ultras in clubs across Europe, and that our stickers pop up randomly all over the country. It's knowing that someone might shout out a reminder that Maggie Thatcher is definitely still dead, but no-one is about to start calling the referee a 'poof' or claiming that opposing fans are 'gypos' or 'chavs'. Try that kind of shit at a Clapton game and you'll quickly find out what a crowd turning on you feels like!\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThis attitude extends to the club's place in its local neighbourhood, one of the poorest in London and the most ethnically diverse in the country. Acts of solidarity organised by the Clapton Ultras include distributing rights cards on the powers of immigration enforcement teams, organising food donations for a local project supporting asylum seekers with no access to public funds, raising cash for local group supporting victims of domestic violence and turning up in numbers to support campaigns around homelessness and evictions. At the end of the last season, on a truly magical day involving rainbow-coloured smoke flares, we helped launch an appeal that eventually succeeded in raising funds to keep open Newham's only LGBT youth group, which faced closure because of council cuts.  \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EFor many of us, this kind of community organising is just as important as the football: the Ultras bring together, in significant numbers, a group of like-minded activists with years of campaigning experience who can make a real impact locally. This extended to encouraging more local people so Clapton FC better reflects the community where it is based: just recently, we held a stall at the local Forest Gate Festival simply to remind local people that the club still exists and is far more welcoming and family-friendly than many might imagine. It's a real necessary because, perhaps unsurprisingly, the majority of working class football fans remain white, straight and male. Constantly reaffirming our opposition to all forms of discrimination is slowly encouraging a greater level of diversity as the number of supporters increases, but not as fast as we would like. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EFundamentally, though, the Clapton Ultras remain just football fans, who happen to have created a safe, supportive space for others like themselves on the radical, largely unaligned left. It's somewhere to have a laugh, make new friends, temporarily forget what a massive cockwomble David Cameron is and still enjoy an outpouring of emotion at away game in a tiny village somewhere out in the wilds of Essex.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EDisappointingly, we are not saviours of the left and definitely not a hard-case 'firm', no matter how much outside observers might want this to be true. As for 'metrosexual Palestine hipsters'? Well, as the fantastic film 'Pride' said, if someone calls you a name, you take that name and you own it. Look out for the banner in the coming season.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cb\u003EYou can find the Clapton Ultras online at claptonultras.org, on Facebook at \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/facebook.com\/ClaptonUltras\"\u003Efacebook.com\/ClaptonUltras\u003C\/a\u003E and on Twitter at \u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ClaptonUltras\" target=\"_blank\"\u003E@ClaptonUltras\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/b\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cb\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/b\u003E \u003Cb\u003EThe Clapton Ultras fanzine, Red Menace, is at \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/redmenacefanzine.wordpress.com\/\"\u003Eredmenacefanzine.wordpress.com\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/b\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cb\u003EThe Clapton Ultras podcast, The Old Spotted Dogcast, is at \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/theoldspotteddogcast.wordpress.com\/\"\u003Etheoldspotteddogcast.wordpress.com\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/b\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cb\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/b\u003E \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E"},"link":[{"rel":"replies","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blowe.org.uk\/feeds\/5213776136518908417\/comments\/default","title":"Post Comments"},{"rel":"replies","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/comment.g?blogID=1786438112933136892\u0026postID=5213776136518908417","title":"1 Comments"},{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/1786438112933136892\/posts\/default\/5213776136518908417"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/1786438112933136892\/posts\/default\/5213776136518908417"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/www.blowe.org.uk\/2015\/09\/the-clapton-ultras-v-strike.html","title":"The Clapton Ultras v Strike!"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"Kevin"},"uri":{"$t":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/profile\/00003057501738525190"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$image":{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail","width":"32","height":"29","src":"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_QI1gRwFYn-k\/SU-lkDcQ99I\/AAAAAAAABHE\/miuQVEB5xqE\/S220\/rioter.jpg"}}],"media$thumbnail":{"xmlns$media":"http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/","url":"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/-0I5IxqOnffk\/VgXClnun5NI\/AAAAAAAAE3U\/CaK3kFUCV8o\/s72-c\/Football-for-all.jpg","height":"72","width":"72"},"thr$total":{"$t":"1"}},{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1786438112933136892.post-7546516035909446794"},"published":{"$t":"2015-07-18T20:00:00.000+01:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2015-07-19T12:22:35.409+01:00"},"category":[{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Newham"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Policing"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"Newham Labour nominates  the 'Prevent' candidate for London Assembly selection battle"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"\u003Cdiv dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\" trbidi=\"on\"\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-4kroKQXunLE\/TgdOz6O9_0I\/AAAAAAAACuM\/wDLWoBZPJhU\/s1600\/UnmeshDesai_149.jpg\" imageanchor=\"1\" style=\"clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;\"\u003E\u003Cimg border=\"0\" src=\"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-4kroKQXunLE\/TgdOz6O9_0I\/AAAAAAAACuM\/wDLWoBZPJhU\/s1600\/UnmeshDesai_149.jpg\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/div\u003EThere were extraordinary scenes at East Ham Labour Party last Thursday evening, as a veritable chorus line of the usual party loyalists stepped up to support Newham councillor Unmesh Desai (right), Cabinet Member for Crime and Anti Social Behaviour. Desai desperately wants to become the Labour candidate to replace new Tower Hamlets Mayor, John Biggs, as the City and East constituency London Assembly member.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EOne of those who spoke at the meeting was the Dear Leader himself, Sir Robin Wales, who in an surprising intervention praised Desai as a community activist who had “founded Newham Monitoring Project” (not true, he was the group's first worker, but let's move on) and who fought against the British National Party in the south of the borough. This has been the message featuring strongly in Desai's campaign for local endorsement: in emails to Party members, he has promoted himself as an 'activist' with 'a solid track record of three decades of community campaigning'.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EStrangely, there was no time to mention of how Desai, with Wales' support, was personally responsible for ruthlessly engineered the removal of council funding for Newham Monitoring Project (NMP) in the late 1990s, because he saw the group as an obstacle to his political ambitions. Nor did Wales mention his own unsuccessful attempts to pressure the National Lottery to try and stop NMP from receiving funding from it in 2000.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EI have had cause to remark on Desai's staggering hypocrisy before. In 2011 I \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.blowe.org.uk\/2011\/06\/journey-from-young-radical-to-old.html\" target=\"_blank\"\u003Epointed out the irony\u003C\/a\u003E of a man who was kicked out of the Socialist Workers Party over allegations of 'violent extremism' becoming the \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/commentisfree\/2011\/jun\/14\/violent-extremism-tackled-london\" target=\"_blank\"\u003Ecouncil's foremost cheerleader for 'Prevent'\u003C\/a\u003E, the government programme for tackling signs of alleged extremism -amongst young Muslims. If nothing else, Desai is living proof that the 'Prevent' strategy is based on a lie: there is no inevitability about an 'escalator of radicalisation' and youthful rebellion is never a guarantee of genuinely radical politics in later life. In Desai's case, quite the opposite.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EOne obvious question is this: why, after all these years, suddenly bring up NMP now? I suspect one answer is that the hardline, right-wing Blairite politics that dominates Labour in Newham has considerably less attraction and potential support among party members in the wider City and East constituency, which includes both the boiling cauldron that is Tower Hamlets and the London borough of Barking and Dagenham. \u0026nbsp;That may explain why Desai, who has held no job other than Newham councillor for years, is mythologising a colourful community activism that in reality he cynically abandoned decades ago.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ELabour members outside of Newham should therefore have absolutely no illusions, whatever they hear otherwise. Desai is the most definitely the 'Prevent' nominee – the front man for a counter terrorism strategy that even a senior police officer has called a '\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/uk-news\/2015\/mar\/09\/anti-radicalisation-prevent-strategy-a-toxic-brand\" target=\"_blank\"\u003Etoxic brand\u003C\/a\u003E' – in this candidates' selection.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EIf the kind of candidate you decide to choose is someone the security services would happily endorse, then don't say you weren't warned.\u003C\/div\u003E"},"link":[{"rel":"replies","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blowe.org.uk\/feeds\/7546516035909446794\/comments\/default","title":"Post Comments"},{"rel":"replies","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/comment.g?blogID=1786438112933136892\u0026postID=7546516035909446794","title":"3 Comments"},{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/1786438112933136892\/posts\/default\/7546516035909446794"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/1786438112933136892\/posts\/default\/7546516035909446794"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/www.blowe.org.uk\/2015\/07\/newham-labour-nominates-prevent.html","title":"Newham Labour nominates  the 'Prevent' candidate for London Assembly selection battle"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"Kevin"},"uri":{"$t":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/profile\/00003057501738525190"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$image":{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail","width":"32","height":"29","src":"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_QI1gRwFYn-k\/SU-lkDcQ99I\/AAAAAAAABHE\/miuQVEB5xqE\/S220\/rioter.jpg"}}],"media$thumbnail":{"xmlns$media":"http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/","url":"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-4kroKQXunLE\/TgdOz6O9_0I\/AAAAAAAACuM\/wDLWoBZPJhU\/s72-c\/UnmeshDesai_149.jpg","height":"72","width":"72"},"thr$total":{"$t":"3"}},{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1786438112933136892.post-1462739077598366683"},"published":{"$t":"2015-01-30T23:56:00.002+00:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2015-01-31T08:28:02.026+00:00"},"category":[{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Newham"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Politics"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"Newham Mayor Guilty of Breaching Members Code of Conduct  "},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"\u003Cdiv dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\" trbidi=\"on\"\u003E\u003Ciframe allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/gsPxancNiqk?rel=0\" width=\"640\"\u003E\u003C\/iframe\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EPublic accountability proceeds, it seems, at its own solemn pace. Newham council's constitution says a standards committee investigation into the conduct of an elected member should take no longer than three months.\u0026nbsp;However, six months has passed since a complaint was made against Mayor Sir Robin Wales, and only now has the committee published its groundbreaking decision - that the Mayor \"breached the members' Code of Conduct by failing to treat a member of the public with respect\".\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ESome background: in July 2014, a video [above] emerged on YouTube showing the Mayor losing control of his temper at the presence of Focus E15 Mothers campaigners at an event in Central Park in East Ham. He was so angry that the footage shows a member of council staff physically restraining him. In the week that followed, a formal complaint was made about the Mayor's behaviour, alleging that Wales had breached the Members' Code of Conduct by failing to observe the statutory principle of “always treating people with respect, including the organisations and public engaged with and those worked alongside”. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EI'd met the young activists from the Focus E15 campaign for the first time only the previous weekend, when volunteering as a legal observer for a march they had organised though the borough. Appalled by the Mayor's behaviour, I gave them some advice soon after the video began to circulate about how to make a official complaint. Eventually I decided to submit a complaint myself and so, ever since, I've had a ring-side seat as the formal 'complainant' to the glacial process that has followed.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe complaint was about the conduct shown in the video, which was essentially the only evidence. However, after a meeting of Newham's Standards Advisory Committee on 31 July recommended a formal inquiry, an independent investigator was appointed. In August she interviewed me and some of of the campaigners who appear in the  footage. The committee did not meet again until early October and then decided set up a Hearing Sub-Committee to consider the investigator's findings and determine whether a breach of the code of conduct had taken place. It met on 21 October and asked the investigator to rewrite her report with new recommendations. A meeting planned for December was cancelled and the Hearing Sub-Committee did not make its final decision until 15 January – but was unable to announce it because the council's constitution insists it was first checked off by its appointed 'Independent Person' (a requirement under the Localism Act 2011).\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe procedure for investigating a complaint is clearly convoluted, slow and in need of reform. I have no idea either how an investigation within three months is even imaginable if evidence is more complex than a short video. I must stress, however, that the independent chair of the Standards Advisory Committee seemed just as frustrated by it as everyone else and was always as helpful as circumstances allowed. What probably hasn't helped was Wales' refusal to cooperate with the formal investigation – to this day, he has not even bothered to deny the accusation against him. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EIt is, nevertheless, hard to understand why there was a delay in early October to excise references to “the Mayor’s failure to deny the allegation upon which he chose not to comment at all”, when this rather embarrassing detail appears in minutes released this month. This decision was in all likelihood the work of some of the Mayor's slavishly loyal lieutenants on the committee, but as the discussions were held in secret, it is impossible to know for certain. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EEven before the committee's decision was made, the question of what sanction it might recommend was always, of course, largely irrelevant. It was never likely they would adopt my tongue-in-cheek suggestion of 'anger management classes' and anyway, apart from a letter to Wales with advice on his conduct, which the\u0026nbsp;Hearing Sub-Committee has asked the council's Monitor Officer to write,\u0026nbsp;there are always few options available when a complaint involves an elected Mayor.\u0026nbsp;His unwillingness to engage with or even acknowledge the investigation suggests any advice will disappear straight into the waste basket.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ENevertheless, what is significant is the decision itself: one of London's most powerful and imperious Labour politicians has received his first slap on the wrist in recent memory. For years, Wales has cultivated the idea that he is completely unassailable and therefore someone whose displeasure people should fear. It has worked too, I've seen it for myself both internally and amongst those who have to deal with the council. Even recently, I've been told by sympathetic insiders of threats that are a variant on “you'll never work in this town again”.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe trouble is, the notion of Sir Robin Wales' impregnability has been successfully undermined: amongst the many impressive achievements of the wonderful Focus E15 Mothers, this is perhaps the most unlikely, but it's true. It may only represent a first step, but I hope it encourages others in future who believe they have been poorly treated by the Mayor or those surrounding him to feel that it is finally worthwhile making a complaint that someone will listen to.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EMaybe, too, if the Mayor ever decides to bang the table, shout down local people, issue threats or browbeat members of staff, he'll start to wonder whether his words have been secretly recorded, as evidence for a Standards Advisory Committee that has actually displayed some backbone. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cb\u003EThe Investigation Report remains a (local) state secret, but you can see the Decision Notice \u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/drive.google.com\/file\/d\/0B5fYrDXduCuRUzkzZWRjOEZMdFk\/view\" target=\"_blank\"\u003Ehere\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/b\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E"},"link":[{"rel":"replies","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blowe.org.uk\/feeds\/1462739077598366683\/comments\/default","title":"Post Comments"},{"rel":"replies","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/comment.g?blogID=1786438112933136892\u0026postID=1462739077598366683","title":"6 Comments"},{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/1786438112933136892\/posts\/default\/1462739077598366683"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/1786438112933136892\/posts\/default\/1462739077598366683"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/www.blowe.org.uk\/2015\/01\/newham-mayor-guilty-of-breaching.html","title":"Newham Mayor Guilty of Breaching Members Code of Conduct  "}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"Kevin"},"uri":{"$t":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/profile\/00003057501738525190"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$image":{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail","width":"32","height":"29","src":"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_QI1gRwFYn-k\/SU-lkDcQ99I\/AAAAAAAABHE\/miuQVEB5xqE\/S220\/rioter.jpg"}}],"media$thumbnail":{"xmlns$media":"http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/","url":"https:\/\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/gsPxancNiqk\/default.jpg","height":"72","width":"72"},"thr$total":{"$t":"6"}},{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1786438112933136892.post-1830041617245927826"},"published":{"$t":"2014-12-31T12:50:00.000+00:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2014-12-31T12:50:05.927+00:00"},"category":[{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Film"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Films of the Year"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"A Year in Film 2014"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"\u003Cdiv dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\" trbidi=\"on\"\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/-DSezTrs6akk\/S2XCfiwX3hI\/AAAAAAAACCc\/_ppI3q8KL5U\/s1600\/films-of-the-year.jpg\" imageanchor=\"1\" style=\"clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;\"\u003E\u003Cimg border=\"0\" src=\"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/-DSezTrs6akk\/S2XCfiwX3hI\/AAAAAAAACCc\/_ppI3q8KL5U\/s1600\/films-of-the-year.jpg\" height=\"200\" width=\"166\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/div\u003EAs 2014 draws to a close, it is time once again, in keeping with the previous eleven years, to review the films I've seen over the last twelve months.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EAccording to \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/letterboxd.com\/copwatcher\/year\/2014\/\" target=\"_blank\"\u003Emy summary on the brilliant Letterboxd website\u003C\/a\u003E, I've seen 93 films over\u0026nbsp;173 hours (not counting the trailers). Apparently, the \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/world-us-canada-25958176\" target=\"_blank\"\u003Einfamous Sodastream sales-rep\u003C\/a\u003E Scarlett Johansson is the actor I've seen most often and, in all honesty, have been the most disappointed with - 'Lucy', 'Her' and 'Under The Skin' were all two star films in my view, whilst 'Chef' and 'The Winter Soldier' won't make it onto my top five of the year. What will are:\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E1. Grand Budapest Hotel\u003Cbr \/\u003E2. Interstellar\u003Cbr \/\u003E3. Boyhood\u003Cbr \/\u003E4. Pride\u003Cbr \/\u003E5. Dallas Buyers Club.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThese aren't necessarily the best films - '12 Years a Slave' is extraordinary - but the ones I've enjoyed most and look forward most to watching again.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EAnyway, here's the 2014 list in full: in keeping with previous years, I only count actual trips to a cinema - not films on DVD or BluRay - and as usual I've arbitrarily rated the films I've seen. You can find ratings for the last decade \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.blowe.org.uk\/search\/label\/Films%20of%20the%20Year\" target=\"_blank\"\u003Ehere\u003C\/a\u003E. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ERatings\u003C\/strong\u003E:\u003Cbr \/\u003E★★★★★: Unmissable!\u003Cbr \/\u003E★★★★☆: Definitely worth seeing\u003Cbr \/\u003E★★★☆☆: Decent film\u003Cbr \/\u003E★★☆☆☆: Disappointing\u003Cbr \/\u003E★☆☆☆☆: Pants\u003Cbr \/\u003E☆☆☆☆☆: Why was this released?\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EBig Eyes ★★★☆☆: \u003Cbr \/\u003EBirdman ★★★★☆: \u003Cbr \/\u003EThe Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EBlack Sea ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003ESt. Vincent ★★★★☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe Homesman ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EKajaki ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EWhat We Do in the Shadows ★★★★☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 ★★★★☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EMr. Turner ★★☆☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe Imitation Game ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EInterstellar ★★★★★☆\u003Cbr \/\u003ENightcrawler ★★★★☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EFury ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003ECitizenfour ★★★★☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe Maze Runner ★★☆☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003E'71 ★★★★☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EStill The Enemy Within ★★★★☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EGone Girl ★★★★☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EIda ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EDracula Untold ★★☆☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003ETony Benn: Will and Testament ★★★★☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EMaps to the Stars ★★★★☆\u003Cbr \/\u003ESmart Ass ★★☆☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EA Walk Among the Tombstones ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EA Most Wanted Man ★★★★☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EPride ★★★★★\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe Keeper of Lost Causes ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EFinding Fela ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EDinosaur 13 ★★★★☆\u003Cbr \/\u003ENight Moves ★★★★☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe Congress ★★☆☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003ELucy ★★☆☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003ETwo Days, One Night ★★★★☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EInto the Storm ★★☆☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EGod’s Pocket ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EFinding Vivian Maier ★★★★☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EGuardians of the Galaxy ★★★★☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe Search For Simon ★★☆☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EJoe ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003ECamille Claudel 1915 ★★☆☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EDawn of the Planet of the Apes ★★★★☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EBoyhood ★★★★★\u003Cbr \/\u003EBegin Again ★★★★☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe Breakfast Club ★★★★★\u003Cbr \/\u003EIlo Ilo ★★☆☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared ★★☆☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003ECold in July ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EChef ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe Fault in Our Stars ★★★★☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003E12 Angry Men ★★★★★\u003Cbr \/\u003EEdge of Tomorrow ★★★★☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EFruitvale Station ★★☆☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EX-Men: Days of Future Past ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EJimmy’s Hall ★★★★☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe Lunchbox ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EBlue Ruin ★★★★☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EGodzilla ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003ETom at the Farm ★★★★☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EFrank ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003ETracks ★★★★☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EChronicle of a Disappearance ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003ELocke ★★★★☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EA Matter of Life and Death ★★★★★\u003Cbr \/\u003ECalvary ★★★★★\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe Past ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe Raid 2 ★★★★★\u003Cbr \/\u003E20 Feet from Stardom ★★★★☆\u003Cbr \/\u003ENoah ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EDivergent ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003ECaptain America: The Winter Soldier ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EStarred Up ★★★★☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe Double ★★★☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EUnder the Skin ★★☆☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe Zero Theorem ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe Book Thief ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EStranger by the Lake ★★☆☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe Armstrong Lie ★★★★☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EHer ★★☆☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EOnly Lovers Left Alive ★★★★☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe Patience Stone ★★★★☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe Monuments Men ★★☆☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe Lego Movie ★★★★☆\u003Cbr \/\u003ERoboCop ★★☆☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EDallas Buyers Club ★★★★★\u003Cbr \/\u003EAugust: Osage County ★★☆☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe Missing Picture ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe Wolf of Wall Street ★★★★☆ \u003Cbr \/\u003EJack Ryan: Shadow Recruit ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003EAmerican Hustle ★★★☆☆\u003Cbr \/\u003E12 Years a Slave ★★★★★\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E"},"link":[{"rel":"replies","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blowe.org.uk\/feeds\/1830041617245927826\/comments\/default","title":"Post Comments"},{"rel":"replies","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/comment.g?blogID=1786438112933136892\u0026postID=1830041617245927826","title":"0 Comments"},{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/1786438112933136892\/posts\/default\/1830041617245927826"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/1786438112933136892\/posts\/default\/1830041617245927826"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/www.blowe.org.uk\/2014\/12\/a-year-in-film-2014.html","title":"A Year in Film 2014"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"Kevin"},"uri":{"$t":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/profile\/00003057501738525190"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$image":{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail","width":"32","height":"29","src":"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_QI1gRwFYn-k\/SU-lkDcQ99I\/AAAAAAAABHE\/miuQVEB5xqE\/S220\/rioter.jpg"}}],"media$thumbnail":{"xmlns$media":"http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/","url":"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/-DSezTrs6akk\/S2XCfiwX3hI\/AAAAAAAACCc\/_ppI3q8KL5U\/s72-c\/films-of-the-year.jpg","height":"72","width":"72"},"thr$total":{"$t":"0"}},{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1786438112933136892.post-4936401630288886907"},"published":{"$t":"2014-05-24T20:53:00.000+01:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2014-05-24T20:54:37.688+01:00"},"title":{"type":"text","$t":"Newham, Sprung"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"\u003Cdiv dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\" trbidi=\"on\"\u003EThe local elections In Newham are over and the result, once again, is No Overall Surprise: Sir Robin Wales is back as Mayor after 12 years in power and every councillor is still a Labour representative. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ESo much for the delusional optimism \/ monumental bullshit of  this comment on\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.blowe.org.uk\/2014\/04\/whatever-happened-to-newham-revolution.html\" target=\"_blank\"\u003E my last post\u003C\/a\u003E about local politics, from a supporter of the horrendously misnamed Newham Peoples Alliance (NPA):\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cblockquote\u003ENewham finally has a credible opposition..... The efforts of The Newham Peoples alliance have not gone to waste... Be prepared for a historic defeat to Robin wales.... The online Newham recorder poll alongside the NPA Mayoral poll are both indicative of the climax Of the newham spring\u003C\/blockquote\u003ERegime change, my arse.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe NPA's political journey from \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.newhamrecorder.co.uk\/news\/hundreds_turn_out_to_hear_respect_mp_george_galloway_in_newham_1_1933602\" target=\"_blank\"\u003Eendorsement by \"left-wing\" MP George Galloway\u003C\/a\u003E to an alliance with the party of bankers, private equity managers and Old Etonians has been an object lesson in breathtaking political opportunism. The willingness of the Tories to at least tolerate\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.pinknews.co.uk\/2014\/05\/20\/met-police-investigate-muslim-pro-tory-anti-gay-election-leaflets\/\" target=\"_blank\"\u003E vile homophobic messages\u003C\/a\u003E and \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/Breitbart-London\/2014\/05\/16\/tory-party-leaflet-east-london\" target=\"_blank\"\u003Edeliberate religious sectarianism\u003C\/a\u003E by its new allies offers another lesson too, about what happens when you enter into what I shall mischievously call a \"civil partnership\" with reactionary communal interests in the borough.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EBut the situation facing the left alternative in Newham isn't really anything to take comfort from: the combined Mayoral vote for the Greens and the Socialist Party dominated TUSC was just 4763 (6% of votes cast) and nothing screams \"there's no serious left alternative\" like the latter's seventh place behind pretty much everyone, other than the mercifully deceased Christian Peoples Alliance.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/-A-SEFpxJYow\/U4D2J2g-NfI\/AAAAAAAAEz0\/RS-A1RUxq4c\/s1600\/vote-nobody.jpg\" imageanchor=\"1\" style=\"clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;\"\u003E\u003Cimg border=\"0\" src=\"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/-A-SEFpxJYow\/U4D2J2g-NfI\/AAAAAAAAEz0\/RS-A1RUxq4c\/s1600\/vote-nobody.jpg\" height=\"320\" width=\"228\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/div\u003EI was one of those who, faced with a Green Party 'paper candidate' and a Trot group parachuting in with the hope of recruiting some new members, decided not to vote on Thursday. For this sin, someone on Facebook said in a private message that I was providing \"succour to the racists in UKIP\". In the circumstances, unfriending him was the very least I could do - a punch in the canister seems more appropriate - but it is systemic of a irritating fetishism about the electoral franchise that I find simply incomprehensible.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EFor leftwingers, voting is tactical and like all tactics, its value lies in bundling it together with other tactics into something resembling a strategy. Organising a national demonstration in central London, for example, in order to galvanise a growing movement or motivate supporters in advance an crucial date or decision, makes complete sense. On its own, it's just another \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.blowe.org.uk\/2012\/10\/mostly-harmless-pictures-from-saturdays.html\" target=\"_blank\"\u003Estroll through town\u003C\/a\u003E. The same applies to voting: if there's a growing momentum for radical change, either locally or nationally, then maybe it's a potentially useful tool. Of course all the other tactics, like building local support and engaging the wider public, take time: at least four years or, if UKIP's trajectory is any indicator, more than twenty. That's why it's tempting to skip these tactics, but on its own, voting turns out to be an ineffective waste of time and resources. No matter how they try to spin it, the Greens and the TUSC in Newham have demonstrated how having no strategy just shows up the chronic weakness of the left locally.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThere is still hope. Others, like the new\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/leftunity.org\/\" target=\"_blank\"\u003E Left Unity party\u003C\/a\u003E, do seem to understand that short cuts simply don't work. But in Newham, creating a progressive alternative in 2018 to the political bankruptcy of both Robin Wales' Labour and the kind of faith based opportunism that backed the Tories probably needs to start immediately.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EI'm happy to leave this to others: I'm hoping to get out of Newham before Sir Robin Wales' next re-election in four years time, when I suspect the cohesiveness of the borough will have been finally destroyed by slum landlords, vicious cuts and more of the kind of nasty, reactionary communalism we have seen over the last few weeks.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EAnyway, to borrow from a very old joke, \"if you want to find your way there, you really wouldn't want to start from here\".\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E"},"link":[{"rel":"replies","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blowe.org.uk\/feeds\/4936401630288886907\/comments\/default","title":"Post Comments"},{"rel":"replies","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/comment.g?blogID=1786438112933136892\u0026postID=4936401630288886907","title":"1 Comments"},{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/1786438112933136892\/posts\/default\/4936401630288886907"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/1786438112933136892\/posts\/default\/4936401630288886907"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/www.blowe.org.uk\/2014\/05\/newham-sprung.html","title":"Newham, Sprung"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"Kevin"},"uri":{"$t":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/profile\/00003057501738525190"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$image":{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail","width":"32","height":"29","src":"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_QI1gRwFYn-k\/SU-lkDcQ99I\/AAAAAAAABHE\/miuQVEB5xqE\/S220\/rioter.jpg"}}],"media$thumbnail":{"xmlns$media":"http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/","url":"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/-A-SEFpxJYow\/U4D2J2g-NfI\/AAAAAAAAEz0\/RS-A1RUxq4c\/s72-c\/vote-nobody.jpg","height":"72","width":"72"},"thr$total":{"$t":"1"}},{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1786438112933136892.post-1621799567279167850"},"published":{"$t":"2014-04-23T22:59:00.001+01:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2014-04-24T19:01:31.862+01:00"},"category":[{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Newham"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Politics"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"Whatever Happened to the 'Newham Revolution'?"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"\u003Cdiv dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\" trbidi=\"on\"\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-fxWwyJouZA8\/U1g3azGvRYI\/AAAAAAAAEzg\/x9tW1LlLp3I\/s1600\/democracythumb.jpg\" imageanchor=\"1\" style=\"clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;\"\u003E\u003Cimg border=\"0\" src=\"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-fxWwyJouZA8\/U1g3azGvRYI\/AAAAAAAAEzg\/x9tW1LlLp3I\/s1600\/democracythumb.jpg\" height=\"300\" width=\"305\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/div\u003EAt a local event last week, I found myself making small talk with one of Newham Labour's candidates for councillor positions at this May's elections. I've never been very good at small talk, especially with someone I know only vaguely, which is why the conversation started with the inevitable:“so how are things?” The candidate, who I shan't name, explained how busy everyone was canvassing their wards. As this is Newham, where 60 out of 60 councillors are Labour,  I jokingly said, “surely you don't have to worry? I mean, you guaranteed to win, right?”\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E“Well as Sir Robin says,” came the reply. “We're really fighting the election after next. The cuts that are coming are that bad.” Incredible.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ELabour candidates in this borough effectively become councillors-elect as soon as they are selected: the lack of any credible opposition makes victory a certainty. They also know that between their election and May 2018, they are expected to provide unquestioning support to cuts of £41million in 2015\/16 and another £53million in 2016\/17 – and evidently Mayor Sir Robin Wales isn't terribly confident his own party nationally will reverse the cuts if it wins the General Election next year. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ESo is Newham Labour really worried that the devastating impact of cuts could trigger a change in local politics? Casting an eye over Labour's current opponents, it would represent less a shift and more a major seismic event. What's really noticeable is just how barren and marginal municipal activism has become in the borough, after years of control by a single party dominated by a powerful Mayor. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EAt one time Newham had the Respect Party, which \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.newhamrecorder.co.uk\/news\/george_galloway_re_launches_respect_party_in_newham_after_rejection_of_mega_mosque_1_1755669\" target=\"_blank\"\u003Ewas relaunched\u003C\/a\u003E at the end of December 2012 by its divisive, opportunist leader, the MP George Galloway. It has since vanished without trace: Galloway's pledge to field a Mayoral and councillor candidates in 2014 has failed to emerge. He \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.newhamrecorder.co.uk\/news\/hundreds_turn_out_to_hear_respect_mp_george_galloway_in_newham_1_1933602\" target=\"_blank\"\u003Ewas back in February 2013\u003C\/a\u003E in support of the woefully misnamed Newham People's Alliance (NPA), essentially an attempt to organise a distinct Muslim voting block. “This is the beginning of the Newham revolution,” blustered Galloway. The following month, the NPA announced its intention to\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.blowe.org.uk\/2013\/04\/how-credible-is-call-for-referendum-on.html\" target=\"_blank\"\u003E trigger a referendum\u003C\/a\u003E on Newham's mayoral system. That failed to emerge too. It hasn't updated its website since August 2013.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EMeanwhile, the \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/newhamtusc.wordpress.com\/\" target=\"_blank\"\u003ETrade Unionist and Socialist Coalition\u003C\/a\u003E (essentially the Socialist Party) became the latest in a long line of far-left groups to parachute in, launch themselves on the electorate six weeks before the election and hope for the best. Around the country, the TUSC has barely attracted more than 5% of the vote (you can look \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.tusc.org.uk\/candidate\" target=\"_blank\"\u003Ehere\u003C\/a\u003E for their own analysis if you're so minded). Even though I personally quite like their Mayoral candidate Lois Austin, who I'm working with on a campaign concerned with police surveillance of activists, the stubborn perseverance involved in repeating the same failed tactic over and over again frankly amazes me. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EAs for the Greens, Newham is one of the few London boroughs that has no local party. Its Mayoral candidate Jane Lithgow, who \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/janesprobablyknitting.blogspot.co.uk\/\" target=\"_blank\"\u003Eseems like a nice person\u003C\/a\u003E and encouragingly describes herself as a Green Socialist, stood in the General Elections of 2005 and 2010 in West Ham but \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/politics\/person\/9447\/jane-lithgow\" target=\"_blank\"\u003Esaw her vote drop\u003C\/a\u003E to just 1.4% - coming in \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/politics\/constituency\/1424\/west-ham\" target=\"_blank\"\u003Eeighth place\u003C\/a\u003E behind both UKIP and the National Front (quite an achievement in multicultural Newham). This May, she will count herself lucky not to lose her deposit.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EWhat does this tell us? Perhaps that the opposition to cuts in Newham, if it emerges at all, will not happen through the ballot box but through dozens of small acts of resistance. I hope so. But it also suggests that Sir Robin's rhetoric about “fighting the election after next” is really about scaring some discipline into future councillors for when the cuts start to bite hard, as well as encouraging some of the more complacent candidates to turn up for door-knocking now there's an election approaching.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EAnd given the calibre of most of them, it will probably work too. No wonder local politics is so depleted and dysfunctional.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E"},"link":[{"rel":"replies","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blowe.org.uk\/feeds\/1621799567279167850\/comments\/default","title":"Post Comments"},{"rel":"replies","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/comment.g?blogID=1786438112933136892\u0026postID=1621799567279167850","title":"3 Comments"},{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/1786438112933136892\/posts\/default\/1621799567279167850"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/1786438112933136892\/posts\/default\/1621799567279167850"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/www.blowe.org.uk\/2014\/04\/whatever-happened-to-newham-revolution.html","title":"Whatever Happened to the 'Newham Revolution'?"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"Kevin"},"uri":{"$t":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/profile\/00003057501738525190"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$image":{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail","width":"32","height":"29","src":"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_QI1gRwFYn-k\/SU-lkDcQ99I\/AAAAAAAABHE\/miuQVEB5xqE\/S220\/rioter.jpg"}}],"media$thumbnail":{"xmlns$media":"http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/","url":"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-fxWwyJouZA8\/U1g3azGvRYI\/AAAAAAAAEzg\/x9tW1LlLp3I\/s72-c\/democracythumb.jpg","height":"72","width":"72"},"thr$total":{"$t":"3"}},{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1786438112933136892.post-6304265895854471453"},"published":{"$t":"2014-04-18T12:15:00.002+01:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2014-04-18T12:15:50.409+01:00"},"category":[{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Newham"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Policing"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"Local Police Back Out of Radio Debate With Newham Monitoring Project"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"\u003Cdiv dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\" trbidi=\"on\"\u003EYesterday I joined the Director of \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.nmp.org.uk\/\" target=\"_blank\"\u003ENewham Monitoring Project\u003C\/a\u003E, Estelle du Boulay, on local community radio station \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.nusoundradio.com\/\" target=\"_blank\"\u003ENuSound Radio 92FM\u003C\/a\u003E, which is based at Durning Hall in Forest Gate, to discuss policing in Newham. Originally we were supposed to debate the issue with the local Borough Commander, but unfortunately, after agreeing at first to participate, Newham police backed out completely from joining us on-air.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ESome background: at the start of April, NuSound's \"Community Hour\" presenter \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/radiopete.org\/\" target=\"_blank\"\u003EPete Day\u003C\/a\u003E suggested to Chief Superintendent Tony Nash, Newham's new Borough Commander, that he come on and talk with NMP about policing in east London. Initially Nash accepted, but within a day, the local police seemed to start getting cold feet, offering instead his number 2, a Superintendent, and placing conditions that insisted discussions should focus just on policing in Newham. They also wanted a list of topics that would come up. We were happy to comply if it meant that an interesting debate might go ahead. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EHowever, NuSound was then contacted again, this time by a Detective Chief Inspector, who said Newham police “didn't think it was a good idea” to appear on-air with us. It's a shame – but the offer remains open to the Borough Commander ever changes his mind.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EAnyway, Estelle and I went on the show anyway - here's the recording of what we said:\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ciframe frameborder=\"no\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/145286967\u0026amp;auto_play=false\u0026amp;hide_related=false\u0026amp;visual=true\" width=\"100%\"\u003E\u003C\/iframe\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E"},"link":[{"rel":"replies","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blowe.org.uk\/feeds\/6304265895854471453\/comments\/default","title":"Post Comments"},{"rel":"replies","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/comment.g?blogID=1786438112933136892\u0026postID=6304265895854471453","title":"0 Comments"},{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/1786438112933136892\/posts\/default\/6304265895854471453"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/1786438112933136892\/posts\/default\/6304265895854471453"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/www.blowe.org.uk\/2014\/04\/local-police-back-out-of-radio-debate.html","title":"Local Police Back Out of Radio Debate With Newham Monitoring Project"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"Kevin"},"uri":{"$t":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/profile\/00003057501738525190"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$image":{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail","width":"32","height":"29","src":"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_QI1gRwFYn-k\/SU-lkDcQ99I\/AAAAAAAABHE\/miuQVEB5xqE\/S220\/rioter.jpg"}}],"thr$total":{"$t":"0"}},{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1786438112933136892.post-3379908291590551914"},"published":{"$t":"2014-03-21T23:34:00.000+00:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2014-03-21T23:56:01.092+00:00"},"category":[{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Activism"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Racism"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Sport"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"Proudly Anti-Fascist - An Open Letter to Clapton FC's Chief Executive"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"\u003Cdiv dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\" trbidi=\"on\"\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-_pzPKtVieIk\/UyzRYSUZo4I\/AAAAAAAAEyk\/wRcGrhII7uE\/s1600\/nmp-clapton.gif\" imageanchor=\"1\" style=\"margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\"\u003E\u003Cimg border=\"0\" src=\"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-_pzPKtVieIk\/UyzRYSUZo4I\/AAAAAAAAEyk\/wRcGrhII7uE\/s1600\/nmp-clapton.gif\" height=\"390\" width=\"520\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/div\u003EYesterday, Forest Gate based amateur football club Clapton FC \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/claptonfc.com\/word-from-the-spotted-dog-20\/\" target=\"_blank\"\u003Eposted a statement\u003C\/a\u003E from its chief executive Vince McBean on its website saying that “over the last 48 hours” it had “received several emails from individuals stating their concerns about some of the supporters at Clapton” - notably, that Clapton's fans are left-wing, anti-fascist and that as a result, they might provoke “EDL style demos” at the club's home ground. McBean's response is completely appalling and so this is  the letter I emailed to him this evening.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cblockquote\u003EDear Mr McBean\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EToday I saw the 'AntiFa' statement posted on Clapton's website and I was so appalled by it that I felt I had to write to you.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EI am one of the new supporters who, as you mention, are joining the club all the time. I've lived in Newham, within walking distance of the Old Spotted Dog, for nearly 25 years but my first game was only a month ago. Like so many others, I found my way to the club through word-of-mouth, after pressure from an old friend who raved about the brilliant atmosphere created by the supporters. When I eventually made it to a match, it turned out that everything I'd been told – about how welcoming the fans are, about their principled stand against racism, homophobia and fascist extremism, about the wit and lack of bigotry in the chanting  – turned out to be completely true. That's the reason why I now have a Clapton FC scarf hanging up the front door of my flat.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EYour statement issued yesterday mentioned the club's “strong ethos... of not tolerating discrimination or racism of any kind”. It is an ethos I share: since 1992 I have been a management committee member of the Newham Monitoring Project, east London's oldest anti-racist organisation based just down the road from Clapton FC on Harold Road. Our work involves the kind of community-based advice and support for local people suffering racist hate crime that rarely receives enough publicity but it does mean that discrimination and racism are issues I feel extremely qualified to talk about. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EAnd I can tell promise you this: when a bunch of far-right keyboard warriors start making unsubstantiated e-mail threats intended solely to provoke a reaction, the last thing you want to do is take them at their word and issue an apology over some non-existent 'offence' or inappropriate conduct you haven't even investigated.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EActually, that's not entirely correct – the last thing you want to do is to damage and debase your club's reputation by insulting, supposedly in the name of intolerance to “discrimination or racism of any kind,” your loyal and genuinely anti-racist supporters in an desperate attempt to try and appease some obnoxious right-wing extremists. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EAt the very least, your statement needs removing immediately and amending so that it makes clear that, as far as the club is aware, there is no basis for any of the malicious claims made in the emails you have received. However, I think you also owe an apology to Clapton FC's fans, old and new – the implication that there might actually be some foundation to these ludicrous allegations is an affront to all of us.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EI look forward to the removal and amendment of the website statement as a matter of urgency.\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E"},"link":[{"rel":"replies","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blowe.org.uk\/feeds\/3379908291590551914\/comments\/default","title":"Post Comments"},{"rel":"replies","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/comment.g?blogID=1786438112933136892\u0026postID=3379908291590551914","title":"0 Comments"},{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/1786438112933136892\/posts\/default\/3379908291590551914"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/1786438112933136892\/posts\/default\/3379908291590551914"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/www.blowe.org.uk\/2014\/03\/proudly-anti-fascist-open-letter-to.html","title":"Proudly Anti-Fascist - An Open Letter to Clapton FC's Chief Executive"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"Kevin"},"uri":{"$t":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/profile\/00003057501738525190"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$image":{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail","width":"32","height":"29","src":"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_QI1gRwFYn-k\/SU-lkDcQ99I\/AAAAAAAABHE\/miuQVEB5xqE\/S220\/rioter.jpg"}}],"media$thumbnail":{"xmlns$media":"http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/","url":"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-_pzPKtVieIk\/UyzRYSUZo4I\/AAAAAAAAEyk\/wRcGrhII7uE\/s72-c\/nmp-clapton.gif","height":"72","width":"72"},"thr$total":{"$t":"0"}},{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1786438112933136892.post-7762895116608384902"},"published":{"$t":"2014-02-13T23:05:00.003+00:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2014-02-13T23:06:37.282+00:00"},"category":[{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Activism"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Olympics"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Policing"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"Olympic Domestic Extremist - An Interview on NuSound Radio"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"\u003Cdiv dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\" trbidi=\"on\"\u003EThis is an interview I gave today to Pete Day of east London community radio station NuSound 92FM, on the recent release of my 'domestic extremist' police surveillance file.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ciframe frameborder=\"no\" height=\"166\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/134650075\u0026amp;color=0066cc\u0026amp;auto_play=false\u0026amp;hide_related=false\u0026amp;show_artwork=true\" width=\"100%\"\u003E\u003C\/iframe\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E"},"link":[{"rel":"replies","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blowe.org.uk\/feeds\/7762895116608384902\/comments\/default","title":"Post Comments"},{"rel":"replies","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/comment.g?blogID=1786438112933136892\u0026postID=7762895116608384902","title":"1 Comments"},{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/1786438112933136892\/posts\/default\/7762895116608384902"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/1786438112933136892\/posts\/default\/7762895116608384902"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/www.blowe.org.uk\/2014\/02\/olympic-domestic-extremist-interview-on.html","title":"Olympic Domestic Extremist - An Interview on NuSound Radio"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"Kevin"},"uri":{"$t":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/profile\/00003057501738525190"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$image":{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail","width":"32","height":"29","src":"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_QI1gRwFYn-k\/SU-lkDcQ99I\/AAAAAAAABHE\/miuQVEB5xqE\/S220\/rioter.jpg"}}],"thr$total":{"$t":"1"}},{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1786438112933136892.post-4247067836084567578"},"published":{"$t":"2014-02-05T10:00:00.000+00:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2014-02-05T10:05:28.089+00:00"},"category":[{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Activism"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Olympics"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Policing"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"Secret Diary of an Olympic Domestic Extremist"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"\u003Cdiv dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\" trbidi=\"on\"\u003E\u003Cb\u003EThis article first appeared on the \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/netpol.org\/2014\/02\/05\/olympic-domestic-extremist\/\" target=\"_blank\"\u003ENetwork for Police Monitoring website\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/b\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EAfter \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/uk\/2013\/jun\/24\/metropolitan-police-spying-undercover-officers\" target=\"_blank\"\u003Ereports in June\u003C\/a\u003E last year that Newham Monitoring Project, the east London community group I've been part of for over 20 years, was spied on during the 1990s by undercover Metropolitan police officers, I've wanted to find out if information about me is held on secret police databases. The \u003Ci\u003EGuardian\u003C\/i\u003E \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/uk\/2013\/jun\/25\/undercover-police-domestic-extremism-unit\" target=\"_blank\"\u003Ereported estimates of up to 9000 people\u003C\/a\u003E classified by police as potential 'domestic extremists' and so to find out if I'm one of them, I \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.blowe.org.uk\/2013\/06\/how-to-find-out-what-secret-police.html\" target=\"_blank\"\u003Esubmitted a 'subject access request'\u003C\/a\u003E under data protection legislation.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe Met were supposed to comply within 40 days but it has taken over six months and the intervention of the Information Commissioner's Office to finally receive a response. If the details provided are complete, they confirm that the National Domestic Extremism Unit (NDEU), part of the Met's SO15 Counter Terrorism Command, began logging my activities in April 2011 because I spoke at Netpol's 'Stand Up To Surveillance' conference - ironically, an event debating the rise of unaccountable police intelligence gathering on protests and local communities.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EWhat is a 'domestic extremist'? There is no legal definition: it's a term invented by the police. The \u003Cspan id=\"goog_1434023657\"\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.acpo.police.uk\/NationalPolicing\/NCDENationalCoordinatorDomesticExtremism\/Default.aspx\" target=\"_blank\"\u003EAssociation of Chief Police Officers (ACPO)\u003Cspan id=\"goog_1434023658\"\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E says\u003C\/a\u003E it is \"generally used to describe the activity of individuals or groups carrying out criminal acts of direct action to further their protest campaign\". ACPO also claims that because the majority of protesters are peaceful, they are \"never considered 'extremist'... The term only applies to individuals or groups whose activities go outside the normal democratic process and engage in crime and disorder in order to further their campaign\". In 2012, HM Inspectorate of Constabulary said in \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.hmic.gov.uk\/publication\/review-of-national-police-units-which-provide-intelligence-on-criminality-associated-with-protest-20120202\/\" target=\"_blank\"\u003Ea review of police intelligence units concerned with protest \u003C\/a\u003Ethat \"the term 'domestic extremism' should be limited to threats of harm from serious crime and serious disruption to the life of the community arising from criminal activity\".\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EHow, then, does someone who has never been charged or convicted of any criminal activity - I've never even been arrested - end up on the 'domestic extremist' database? The answer seems to involve speaking and writing about the security preparations for the Olympics. The NDEU was evidently obsessed with the \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/counterolympicsnetwork.wordpress.com\/\" target=\"_blank\"\u003ECounter Olympics Network\u003C\/a\u003E (CON) and I was covertly photographed speaking at its conference at Toynbee Hall in January 2012. However, my police file also records a Olympics-related talk I gave at Netpol’s \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/kettlepolicepowers.wordpress.com\/\" target=\"_blank\"\u003E‘Kettle Police Powers’ conference\u003C\/a\u003E in May 2012 and recounts, in some detail, the comments I made on behalf of Newham Monitoring Project at a \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.blowe.org.uk\/2012\/06\/we-are-all-simon-moore.html\" target=\"_blank\"\u003ESave Leyton Marsh public meeting\u003C\/a\u003E the following month. As a result, I was logged entering the Olympic Park with a day ticket at the end of July, with a thorough description and the comment “believed to be a member of CON”.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EHowever, the ‘intelligence’ gathered at these events and or subsequently pulled from posts on my blog was either hugely inaccurate or simply fictional: at no time, for example, did I ever become CON’s ‘Security Advisor’ or ever suggest ‘shutting tube stations by triggering fire alarms’. The NDEU file also suggests I “openly stated that the Olympics are likely to be targeted by smaller, unpublicised affinity group style actions”, which is an mischievous spin on \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.blowe.org.uk\/2012\/07\/counter-olympics-protestors-to-defy.html\" target=\"_blank\"\u003Ea piece I wrote in July 2012\u003C\/a\u003E, on how the problems facing anti-Olympic campaigners who had bent over backwards to negotiate with the police had probably given the case for DIY affinity group protest “a tremendous boost”.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EHaving made it onto the police intelligence-gatherers’ radar, my file includes my email and phone details and an old photo taken in 2010 by my friend Louise Whittle (lifted from her \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/harpymarx.wordpress.com\/2010\/01\/23\/im-photographer-not-a-terrorist-mass-gathering\/\" target=\"_blank\"\u003EHarpymarx blog\u003C\/a\u003E) at the Trafalgar Square flashmob organised by “I’m a Photographer Not A Terrorist” – yet again, coincidentally, an event concerned with oppressive police surveillance. It also makes repeated mention of involvement in Netpol and records my participation in the ‘Save Wanstead Flats’ residents’ campaign that opposed the siting of a temporary Olympic police base on public land close to where I worked. Involving public meetings, lobbying MPs and even a legal challenge in the High Court, this must surely represent activities that are quintessentially within “the normal democratic process” and yet details of my employer, a respected Newham charity that supported local people to set up the campaign, were added to the file.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe thing that angers me the most, though, is that the Metropolitan Police had no compunction in sharing information with the NDEU that was received when I became the victim of a crime, after criminal damage to my home. The file notes that this confirmed my mobile number and address and added my landline telephone number.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EAs this information was gathered, the file notes: “there is no suggest (sic) that BLOWE has actively engaged in any Direct Action” but “takes up many forms of left-wing activism” and “is known for his involvement in Counter Olympics Network, Save Wanstead Flats and Network for Police Monitoring”. This, apparently, was enough to justify continuing surveillance (I get a mention for attending the UK Uncut bedroom tax protest in April 2013) but it’s a very, very long way from “threats of harm from serious crime and serious disruption to the life of the community arising from criminal activity”.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ELet’s face it: if I can end up with a National Domestic Extremist Unit database entry then almost anyone involved in any kind of ‘left-wing activism’ can too. That’s why I’m urging other campaigners to pursue the \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/netpol.org\/campaigns\/dont-be-on-a-database\/subject-access-requests-an-introduction\/\" target=\"_blank\"\u003Earduous process of their own subject access requests\u003C\/a\u003E – and why the only way to stop the police from relentlessly gathering unnecessary 'intelligence' is to shut down the domestic extremist database completely.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E"},"link":[{"rel":"replies","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blowe.org.uk\/feeds\/4247067836084567578\/comments\/default","title":"Post Comments"},{"rel":"replies","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/comment.g?blogID=1786438112933136892\u0026postID=4247067836084567578","title":"0 Comments"},{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/1786438112933136892\/posts\/default\/4247067836084567578"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/1786438112933136892\/posts\/default\/4247067836084567578"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/www.blowe.org.uk\/2014\/02\/secret-diary-of-olympic-domestic.html","title":"Secret Diary of an Olympic Domestic Extremist"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"Kevin"},"uri":{"$t":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/profile\/00003057501738525190"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$image":{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail","width":"32","height":"29","src":"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_QI1gRwFYn-k\/SU-lkDcQ99I\/AAAAAAAABHE\/miuQVEB5xqE\/S220\/rioter.jpg"}}],"thr$total":{"$t":"0"}},{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1786438112933136892.post-3367345884315763752"},"published":{"$t":"2013-12-31T08:00:00.000+00:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2013-12-31T08:00:00.275+00:00"},"category":[{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Films of the Year"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"A Year in Film 2013"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"\u003Cdiv dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\" trbidi=\"on\"\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/-DSezTrs6akk\/S2XCfiwX3hI\/AAAAAAAACCc\/_ppI3q8KL5U\/s1600\/films-of-the-year.jpg\" imageanchor=\"1\" style=\"clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;\"\u003E\u003Cimg border=\"0\" height=\"200\" src=\"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/-DSezTrs6akk\/S2XCfiwX3hI\/AAAAAAAACCc\/_ppI3q8KL5U\/s200\/films-of-the-year.jpg\" width=\"166\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/div\u003EThe close of 2013 approaches and, in keeping with previous years, it is time to review the films I've seen over the last twelve months.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EAs you can see, I let things get a little out of hand... I blame the unexpected free time provided by redundancy and part-time work, along with the gift by former colleagues of BFI membership that meant access to the London Film Festival. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThis is an anniversary – the tenth year I've been posting an annual list after successfully completing the challenge to watch and review one film a week back in 2003 (see \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/onefilmaweek.blogspot.com\/\"\u003Eonefilmaweek.blogspot.com\u003C\/a\u003E). Last year's total of \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.blowe.org.uk\/2012\/12\/films-of-year-2012.html\" target=\"_blank\"\u003E74 films\u003C\/a\u003E, up from \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.blowe.org.uk\/2011\/12\/films-of-year-2011.html\" target=\"_blank\"\u003E47 in 2011\u003C\/a\u003E, looked like a tough target to beat – but this year I went to the cinema a staggering 98 times.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EIncidentally, over the last decade I've paid to see 473 films. Blimey. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EAccording to the wonderful \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/letterboxd.com\/copwatcher\/year\/2013\/\" target=\"_blank\"\u003ELetterboxd\u003C\/a\u003E, this year's film-going represents 182.6 hours of screen time, an average of 1.9 films a week (and believe me, around 14 this year were rather less than the full integer). This doesn't include the adverts and, for the record, if I never have to see that \u003Cb\u003Eteeth-gratingly awful\u003C\/b\u003E \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/youtu.be\/Hf1qCAb1FRw\" target=\"_blank\"\u003EVolkswagon 'Silence of the Lambs' ad \u003C\/a\u003Eever again, it will still be soon. Seventy four of the films I saw were at my local \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.picturehouses.co.uk\/cinema\/Stratford_London\/\" target=\"_blank\"\u003EStratford Picturehous\u003C\/a\u003Ee, which does insist on showing this ad all the time – please, you guys are brilliant, but just stop now.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EIn keeping with previous years, I only count \u003Cb\u003Eactual trips to a cinema\u003C\/b\u003E - not films on DVD or BluRay - and as usual I've arbitrarily rated the films I've seen. You can find ratings for the last decade \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.blowe.org.uk\/search\/label\/Films%20of%20the%20Year\" target=\"_blank\"\u003Ehere\u003C\/a\u003E. Here's the 2013 list: \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cb\u003ERatings:\u003C\/b\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cb\u003E5 stars:\u003C\/b\u003E Unmissable!\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cb\u003E4 stars: \u003C\/b\u003EDefinitely worth seeing\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cb\u003E3 stars: \u003C\/b\u003EDecent film\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cb\u003E2 stars: \u003C\/b\u003EDisappointing\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cb\u003E1 star: \u003C\/b\u003EPants\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cb\u003ENo stars: \u003C\/b\u003EWhy was this released?\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"western\" style=\"font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;\"\u003EThe Impossible (***)\u003C\/div\u003EGangster Squad (**)\u003Cbr \/\u003EDjango Unchained (****)\u003Cbr \/\u003EFalse Trail (***)\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cb\u003ELincoln (*****)\u003C\/b\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EZero Dark Thirty (****)\u003Cbr \/\u003EBeautiful Creatures (**)\u003Cbr \/\u003EWarm Bodies (****)\u003Cbr \/\u003ENo (***)\u003Cbr \/\u003EFire In The Blood (***)\u003Cbr \/\u003EHansel \u0026amp; Gretel: Witch Hunters 3D (*)\u003Cbr \/\u003EStoker (****)\u003Cbr \/\u003EMea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House or God (****)\u003Cbr \/\u003EUnder the Cranes (**)\u003Cbr \/\u003ERobot \u0026amp; Frank (***)\u003Cbr \/\u003EWelcome to the Punch (***)\u003Cbr \/\u003ETrance (***)\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cb\u003EGood Vibrations (*****)\u003C\/b\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ECloud Atlas (****)\u003Cbr \/\u003EOblivion (***)\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe Place Beyond The Pines (***)\u003Cbr \/\u003EPromised Land (***)\u003Cbr \/\u003EOlympus Has Fallen (**)\u003Cbr \/\u003EIron Man 3 (****)\u003Cbr \/\u003EByzantium (****)\u003Cbr \/\u003EBest Friends Forever (**)\u003Cbr \/\u003EStar Trek Into Darkness (****)\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe Great Gatsby 3D (***)\u003Cbr \/\u003EMud (****)\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe Stone Roses: Made of Stone (****)\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe Purge (***)\u003Cbr \/\u003EVillage  at the End of the World (****)\u003Cbr \/\u003EBehind the Candelabra (****)\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe Iceman (***)\u003Cbr \/\u003EMan of Steel (*)\u003Cbr \/\u003EWorld War Z (***)\u003Cbr \/\u003EMuch Ado About Nothing (***)\u003Cbr \/\u003ENow You See Me (***)\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe Act of Killing (****)\u003Cbr \/\u003EIn The Fog (***)\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe Bling Ring (***)\u003Cbr \/\u003EPacific Rim (***)\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe World's End (***)\u003Cbr \/\u003EWe Steal Secrets: The Story of Wikileaks (***)\u003Cbr \/\u003ELeave to Remain (***)\u003Cbr \/\u003EWadjda (****)\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe Wolverine (***)\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cb\u003EStories We Tell (*****)\u003C\/b\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EOnly God Forgives (**)\u003Cbr \/\u003EFrances Ha (****)\u003Cbr \/\u003EBefore Midnight (***)\u003Cbr \/\u003EAlan Partridge: Alpha Papa ((****)\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cb\u003EThe Night of the Hunter [1955] (*****)\u003C\/b\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EElysium (***)\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe Mortal Instruments: City of Bones (**)\u003Cbr \/\u003ELovelace (***)\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cb\u003EThe Kings of Summer (*****)\u003C\/b\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cb\u003EThe Way Way Back (*****)\u003C\/b\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ERiddick (**)\u003Cbr \/\u003EAbout Time (**)\u003Cbr \/\u003ERush (****)\u003Cbr \/\u003EHawking (****)\u003Cbr \/\u003EInRealLife (***)\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cb\u003EWhat Maisie Knew (*****)\u003C\/b\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EPrisoners (****)\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cb\u003ENothing But a Man [1964] (****)\u003C\/b\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EIn a World... (****)\u003Cbr \/\u003EBlue Jasmine (***)\u003Cbr \/\u003EHow I Live Now (***)\u003Cbr \/\u003EPhilomena (****)\u003Cbr \/\u003EStand Clear of the Closing Doors \u003Cbr \/\u003E[\u003Ci\u003Epart of the London Film Festival\u003C\/i\u003E] (**)\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe Fifth Estate (***)\u003Cbr \/\u003EKon-Tiki [\u003Ci\u003Epart of the London Film Festival\u003C\/i\u003E] (****)\u003Cbr \/\u003ELet The Fire Burn [\u003Ci\u003Epart of the London Film Festival\u003C\/i\u003E] (****)\u003Cbr \/\u003E11.6 [\u003Ci\u003Epart of the London Film Festival\u003C\/i\u003E] (***)\u003Cbr \/\u003ETrap Street [\u003Ci\u003Epart of the London Film Festival\u003C\/i\u003E] (****)\u003Cbr \/\u003EDrones [\u003Ci\u003Epart of the London Film Festival\u003C\/i\u003E] (***)\u003Cbr \/\u003EDrinking Buddies [\u003Ci\u003Epart of the London Film Festival\u003C\/i\u003E] (**)\u003Cbr \/\u003ECaptain Philips (****)\u003Cbr \/\u003EEnders Game (***)\u003Cbr \/\u003ENosferatu {1922] (***)\u003Cbr \/\u003EThor: The Dark World (***)\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cb\u003EShort Term 12 (*****)\u003C\/b\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EGravity (****)\u003Cbr \/\u003EFilth (***)\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe Counsellor (**)\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe Butler (**)\u003Cbr \/\u003EUtopia (***)\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe Hunger Games: Catching Fire (****)\u003Cbr \/\u003EParkland (***)\u003Cbr \/\u003EComputer Chess (*)\u003Cbr \/\u003ENebraska (****)\u003Cbr \/\u003ESaving Mr Banks (****)\u003Cbr \/\u003EInside Llewyn Davis (****)\u003Cbr \/\u003EKill Your Darlings (***)\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (***)\u003Cbr \/\u003EBlue is the Warmest Colour (***)\u003Cbr \/\u003EMandela: Long Walk to Freedom (***) \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E"},"link":[{"rel":"replies","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blowe.org.uk\/feeds\/3367345884315763752\/comments\/default","title":"Post Comments"},{"rel":"replies","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/comment.g?blogID=1786438112933136892\u0026postID=3367345884315763752","title":"0 Comments"},{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/1786438112933136892\/posts\/default\/3367345884315763752"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/1786438112933136892\/posts\/default\/3367345884315763752"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/www.blowe.org.uk\/2013\/12\/a-year-in-film-2013.html","title":"A Year in Film 2013"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"Kevin"},"uri":{"$t":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/profile\/00003057501738525190"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$image":{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail","width":"32","height":"29","src":"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_QI1gRwFYn-k\/SU-lkDcQ99I\/AAAAAAAABHE\/miuQVEB5xqE\/S220\/rioter.jpg"}}],"media$thumbnail":{"xmlns$media":"http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/","url":"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/-DSezTrs6akk\/S2XCfiwX3hI\/AAAAAAAACCc\/_ppI3q8KL5U\/s72-c\/films-of-the-year.jpg","height":"72","width":"72"},"thr$total":{"$t":"0"}},{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1786438112933136892.post-2505837714011947823"},"published":{"$t":"2013-12-18T09:29:00.000+00:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2013-12-18T09:29:03.610+00:00"},"category":[{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Newham"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Olympics"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Policing"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"NMP Olympics Policing Report Highlights Reality of Stop \u0026 Search"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"\u003Cdiv dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\" trbidi=\"on\"\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/-onN7yT5cQl4\/UrFp4h6aVlI\/AAAAAAAAEms\/ydGTmFod5IY\/s1600\/Report+cover.jpg\" imageanchor=\"1\" style=\"clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;\"\u003E\u003Cimg border=\"0\" height=\"320\" src=\"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/-onN7yT5cQl4\/UrFp4h6aVlI\/AAAAAAAAEms\/ydGTmFod5IY\/s320\/Report+cover.jpg\" width=\"224\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/div\u003EThis morning, Newham Monitoring Project published a report setting out\u0026nbsp; how it deployed close to a hundred 'community  legal observers' (CLOs) during last summer's Olympics and how the experiences of these  volunteers can help other organisations, both in  the UK and abroad, to consider using a similar community legal observation model in the future. You can download a copy \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.nmp.org.uk\/2013\/12\/nmp-publishes-report-on-community-legal.html\" target=\"_blank\"\u003Ehere\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EI contributed to writing the report and recommend reading the daily 'timeline' appendix summarising some of the feedback from CLOs who were out on the streets. Amongst the stories is one incident, similar to so many others we heard repeatedly during the Olympics, that involved a young Asian man who chose to assert his rights when he was stopped and searched in Stratford. It illustrates how, even when someone is confident and knowledgeable about their rights, this is not enough to prevent a frustrating and intimidating encounter with the police:\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cblockquote class=\"tr_bq\"\u003EWhile waiting for my partner at Stratford station, I was approached by three officers yelling 'take your hands out of your pockets'. As they gathered around me, I asked what they wanted and was told they had planned to just ask me some questions but because I was being ‘aggressive’ and ‘anti-police’ they were now going to carry out a stop and search. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EOne officer began the search without any explanation, so I asked why they were failing to follow ‘GOWISELY’ (an acronym \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/scontutor.wordpress.com\/2012\/11\/16\/sneak-preview-of-sc-resource-centre-post-stop-and-search\/\" target=\"_blank\"\u003Eused in police training\u003C\/a\u003E as a reminder of information officers must provide when they perform a stop and search1). The officer was very unhappy I asked this and after consulting his colleagues, he said I was suspected of placing drugs in my socks. Officers were very rude as they then began the search and asked many questions, which I chose not to answer. They also threatened me with arrest when I refused to provide my name and address.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EMy partner arrived as the search was almost completed. As I explained what had happened, one of the officers called out to her: 'does he lie like this to you all the time?' They then said I was free to leave but I reminded them that they had forgotten to offer me a record of the search and I wanted one. The officers kept insisting to my partner 'he is free to go, he is a free man' but she politely said, 'I think he wants his receipt, even if we’re late'. One of the officers then filled in a search record and handed it to me, which said I had been seen pulling up my socks and had appeared agitated around a sniffer dog – which hadn't even arrived until after the search had begun. I immediately challenged the search record and said it was false. One officer again told my partner that I was a liar and walked away to write up his notes. Luckily I had paper and a pen with me and was able to note the officers' badge numbers. I am now pursuing a formal complaint. \u003C\/blockquote\u003EWhat makes this young man different from many of his peers is that he happens to be a caseworker for Newham Monitoring Project and somebody who provides advice and training on police stop and search powers. He also has a law degree, but all the officers saw was a someone young and black, which was enough to make him a suspect.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EAs NMP's report notes, \"It is hardly surprising that, in similar circumstances, someone who is far less confident about their rights would find those rights are ignored\". And in this is the basis for everything we have argued about why the police are still not trusted by young people.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E"},"link":[{"rel":"replies","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blowe.org.uk\/feeds\/2505837714011947823\/comments\/default","title":"Post Comments"},{"rel":"replies","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/comment.g?blogID=1786438112933136892\u0026postID=2505837714011947823","title":"0 Comments"},{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/1786438112933136892\/posts\/default\/2505837714011947823"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/1786438112933136892\/posts\/default\/2505837714011947823"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/www.blowe.org.uk\/2013\/12\/nmp-olympics-policing-report-highlights.html","title":"NMP Olympics Policing Report Highlights Reality of Stop \u0026 Search"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"Kevin"},"uri":{"$t":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/profile\/00003057501738525190"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$image":{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail","width":"32","height":"29","src":"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_QI1gRwFYn-k\/SU-lkDcQ99I\/AAAAAAAABHE\/miuQVEB5xqE\/S220\/rioter.jpg"}}],"media$thumbnail":{"xmlns$media":"http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/","url":"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/-onN7yT5cQl4\/UrFp4h6aVlI\/AAAAAAAAEms\/ydGTmFod5IY\/s72-c\/Report+cover.jpg","height":"72","width":"72"},"thr$total":{"$t":"0"}},{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1786438112933136892.post-7226221751849524684"},"published":{"$t":"2013-12-13T10:19:00.001+00:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2014-02-04T11:55:35.650+00:00"},"category":[{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Policing"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"Students Respond To Police Violence With Call For #CopsOffCampus"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"\u003Cdiv dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\" trbidi=\"on\"\u003EThese videos provide a good summary of Wednesday's student '\u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/copsoffcampusblog.wordpress.com\/\" target=\"_blank\"\u003ECops Off Campus\u003C\/a\u003E' protest in London against police violence, organised largely through social media.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ciframe allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"293\" mozallowfullscreen=\"\" src=\"\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/81704995\" webkitallowfullscreen=\"\" width=\"520\"\u003E\u003C\/iframe\u003E \u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Cobject height=\"293\" width=\"520\"\u003E\u003Cparam name=\"movie\" value=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/OVEqUcDGdHs?hl=en_GB\u0026amp;version=3\"\u003E\u003C\/param\u003E\u003Cparam name=\"allowFullScreen\" value=\"true\"\u003E\u003C\/param\u003E\u003Cparam name=\"allowscriptaccess\" value=\"always\"\u003E\u003C\/param\u003E\u003Cembed src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/OVEqUcDGdHs?hl=en_GB\u0026amp;version=3\" type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" width=\"520\" height=\"293\" allowscriptaccess=\"always\" allowfullscreen=\"true\"\u003E\u003C\/embed\u003E\u003C\/object\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ENot everyone was convinced it was quite the 'victory for the student movement' that \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.counterfire.org\/index.php\/articles\/education\/16869-cops-off-campus-cuts-off-campus\" target=\"_blank\"\u003Esome have claimed\u003C\/a\u003E \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E'\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.tmponline.org\/2013\/12\/12\/cops-off-campus\/\" target=\"_blank\"\u003EThe curiously all too quick 'victory' of #copsoffcampus\u003C\/a\u003E' at The Multicultural Politic\u003Cbr \/\u003E'\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/theaccidentalacnarchist.wordpress.com\/2013\/12\/12\/student-demo-a-victory-dont-make-me-laugh-well-played-university-of-london-and-the-metropolitan-police\/\" target=\"_blank\"\u003EStudent Demo a victory? Don’t make me laugh\u003C\/a\u003E' at The Accidental Anarchist\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cb\u003ESee also:\u003C\/b\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EVice - \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.vice.com\/en_uk\/read\/students-cops-of-campus-two\" target=\"_blank\"\u003ELondon students reclaimed their campus yesterday\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EChannel 4 News - \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.channel4.com\/news\/protest-students-london-university-cops-campus\" target=\"_blank\"\u003ENo arrests at #CopsOffCampus student protest\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003Eindyrikki - \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/indyrikki.wordpress.com\/2013\/12\/12\/for-once-a-huge-police-mobilisation-didnt-beat-students-up-copsoffcampus-report\/\" target=\"_blank\"\u003EFor once, a huge police mobilisation didn’t beat students up!\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EManchester Evening News -\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk\/news\/greater-manchester-news\/30-students-occupy-manchester-university-6397440\" target=\"_blank\"\u003E Students occupy Manchester University office in policing protest \u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E"},"link":[{"rel":"replies","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blowe.org.uk\/feeds\/7226221751849524684\/comments\/default","title":"Post Comments"},{"rel":"replies","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/comment.g?blogID=1786438112933136892\u0026postID=7226221751849524684","title":"1 Comments"},{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/1786438112933136892\/posts\/default\/7226221751849524684"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/1786438112933136892\/posts\/default\/7226221751849524684"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/www.blowe.org.uk\/2013\/12\/students-respond-to-police-violence.html","title":"Students Respond To Police Violence With Call For #CopsOffCampus"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"Kevin"},"uri":{"$t":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/profile\/00003057501738525190"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$image":{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail","width":"32","height":"29","src":"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_QI1gRwFYn-k\/SU-lkDcQ99I\/AAAAAAAABHE\/miuQVEB5xqE\/S220\/rioter.jpg"}}],"thr$total":{"$t":"1"}},{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1786438112933136892.post-5387375429923703579"},"published":{"$t":"2013-12-09T11:23:00.002+00:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2013-12-10T10:15:57.887+00:00"},"category":[{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Freedom of Information"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Policing"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"Metropolitan Police Fails to Respond to Seventy Percent of Personal Data Requests"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"\u003Cdiv dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\" trbidi=\"on\"\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/-Ebd2NhXYKqA\/UqWny_LxAyI\/AAAAAAAAEl8\/ebrv1GfezLI\/s1600\/Domestic-Extremist.gif\" imageanchor=\"1\" style=\"margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\"\u003E\u003Cimg border=\"0\" src=\"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/-Ebd2NhXYKqA\/UqWny_LxAyI\/AAAAAAAAEl8\/ebrv1GfezLI\/s1600\/Domestic-Extremist.gif\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/div\u003EMore on the magical mystery tour I've embarked upon to prise personal information from the hands of the Metropolitan Police.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u0026nbsp;Back in June, I wrote \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.blowe.org.uk\/2013\/06\/how-to-find-out-what-secret-police.html\" target=\"_blank\"\u003Ea piece\u003C\/a\u003E explaining how campaigners, if they believed they may have been targeted for undercover surveillance, could submit a Subject Access Request under data protection legislation to find out what personal details are held about them by the police. My own initial submission to the Metropolitan Police, whose Special Demonstration Squad targeted the Lawrence family, their supporters and police custody death campaigners  during the 1990s and who are now responsible for the National Domestic Extremism Unit, apparently went missing but a second request was formally acknowledged on 25 July.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EFive months ago, when I said that despite an entitlement under the Data Protection Act to receive an answer within 40  days, no-one ever receives a response in that time, I had little idea just how prophetic that would prove to be. After chasing the Met's Public Access Office, I finally received a letter from them three months later, on 25 October, which apologised for the delay in responding but gave absolutely no indication when, if ever, it planned to respond to my request. I therefore complained to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), who told me in early November that they had written to the Met asking them to provide me with a full response by 9 December.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cb\u003EThe ICO's deadline is today. It has been 138 days since the Metropolitan Police received my request for personal data, it has \u003C\/b\u003E\u003Cb\u003E\u003Cb\u003Estill \u003C\/b\u003E failed to respond despite repeated prompting and now it has ignored the independent regulator set up to promote openness by public bodies.\u003C\/b\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ECurious to discover whether police resistance to providing the data it holds about me is less wilful non-compliance and more staggering incompetence, I also submitted \u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/www.whatdotheyknow.com\/request\/dpa_subject_access_requests_from#outgoing-311537\" target=\"_blank\"\u003Ea Freedom of Information request \u003C\/a\u003Easking for the number of Subject Access Requests received by the Metropolitan Police during the six months from 1 April 2013 to 30 September 2013 and how many were completed within the 40 calendar day limit. Remarkably, the Met \u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/www.whatdotheyknow.com\/request\/dpa_subject_access_requests_from#incoming-457405\" target=\"_blank\"\u003Ereplied last week\u003C\/a\u003E refusing, initially, to answer these simple questions on the grounds of cost, because I had asked for the number of \u003Cu\u003Esuccessfully completed\u003C\/u\u003E requests. It claims it has no internal systems in place to     monitor this and insisted it would need to check each of the 480 submitted in the six month time period that were simply completed. Eventually, however, the Met \u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/www.whatdotheyknow.com\/request\/dpa_subject_access_requests_from#incoming-457823\" target=\"_blank\"\u003Edid manage to admit\u003C\/a\u003E that it received 1600 requests between April and September this year.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cb\u003ESo now I know my request is one of the staggering 70% (1120 out of 1600¹) that the Metropolitan Police has failed to respond to within the required 40 days during the six months from April.\u003C\/b\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThis degree of repeated failure to provide adequate public transparency by any public body is shocking but to put it into some context, it's worth remembering that\u0026nbsp; for the first three months of the period from April, \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.ico.org.uk\/news\/latest_news\/2013\/three-authorities-being-monitored-over-foi-responses-30042013\" target=\"_blank\"\u003Ethe ICO said it was monitoring the Met\u003C\/a\u003E over concerns about its timeliness.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EI have now asked the ICO to again intervene on my behalf but, when it is evident that the Metropolitan Police is neither transparent or accountable on the personal data it holds, the time has surely come for the Information Commissioner to begin regulatory enforcement action.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ci\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/i\u003E \u003Ci\u003E\u003Cb\u003EThe Network for Police Monitoring (Netpol) \u003C\/b\u003Ehas produced a detailed guide to writing and submitting Subject Access Requests to check what information is held by the National Domestic Extremism Unit. It is available to \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/netpol.org\/2013\/11\/21\/subject-acccess-requests\/\"\u003Edownload\u003C\/a\u003E or online \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/netpol.org\/campaigns\/dont-be-on-a-database\/subject-access-requests-an-introduction\/\"\u003Ehere\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003C\/i\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Chr \/\u003E\u003Cb\u003ENote\u003C\/b\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E¹ This includes any Subject Access requests received by the Met right up to 30 September: my FoI request was made exactly 40 days after that date.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E"},"link":[{"rel":"replies","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blowe.org.uk\/feeds\/5387375429923703579\/comments\/default","title":"Post Comments"},{"rel":"replies","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/comment.g?blogID=1786438112933136892\u0026postID=5387375429923703579","title":"2 Comments"},{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/1786438112933136892\/posts\/default\/5387375429923703579"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/1786438112933136892\/posts\/default\/5387375429923703579"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/www.blowe.org.uk\/2013\/12\/metropolitan-police-fails-to-respond-to.html","title":"Metropolitan Police Fails to Respond to Seventy Percent of Personal Data Requests"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"Kevin"},"uri":{"$t":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/profile\/00003057501738525190"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$image":{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail","width":"32","height":"29","src":"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_QI1gRwFYn-k\/SU-lkDcQ99I\/AAAAAAAABHE\/miuQVEB5xqE\/S220\/rioter.jpg"}}],"media$thumbnail":{"xmlns$media":"http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/","url":"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/-Ebd2NhXYKqA\/UqWny_LxAyI\/AAAAAAAAEl8\/ebrv1GfezLI\/s72-c\/Domestic-Extremist.gif","height":"72","width":"72"},"thr$total":{"$t":"2"}},{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1786438112933136892.post-6921061300489650294"},"published":{"$t":"2013-11-24T09:38:00.000+00:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2013-11-24T09:38:02.614+00:00"},"category":[{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Politics"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"United States"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"The Problem is Civil Obedience"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"\u003Cdiv dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\" trbidi=\"on\"\u003EThis is terrific - Matt Damon, a lifelong friend of the American historian and activist Howard Zinn, who died in January 2010, reads excerpts from a \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.informationclearinghouse.info\/article36950.htm\"\u003Espeech Zinn gave in 1970\u003C\/a\u003E as part of a debate on civil disobedience.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cblockquote class=\"tr_bq\"\u003EAnd our topic is topsy-turvy: civil disobedience. As soon as you say the topic is civil disobedience, you are saying our problem is civil disobedience. That is not our problem.... Our problem is civil obedience. Our problem is the numbers of people all over the world who have obeyed the dictates of the leaders of their government and have gone to war, and millions have been killed because of this obedience.\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\u003Cdiv style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Ciframe allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"293\" mozallowfullscreen=\"\" src=\"\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/48834336\" webkitallowfullscreen=\"\" width=\"520\"\u003E\u003C\/iframe\u003E \u003C\/div\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/vimeo.com\/48834336\"\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E"},"link":[{"rel":"replies","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blowe.org.uk\/feeds\/6921061300489650294\/comments\/default","title":"Post Comments"},{"rel":"replies","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/comment.g?blogID=1786438112933136892\u0026postID=6921061300489650294","title":"0 Comments"},{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/1786438112933136892\/posts\/default\/6921061300489650294"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/1786438112933136892\/posts\/default\/6921061300489650294"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/www.blowe.org.uk\/2013\/11\/the-problem-is-civil-obedience.html","title":"The Problem is Civil Obedience"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"Kevin"},"uri":{"$t":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/profile\/00003057501738525190"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$image":{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail","width":"32","height":"29","src":"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_QI1gRwFYn-k\/SU-lkDcQ99I\/AAAAAAAABHE\/miuQVEB5xqE\/S220\/rioter.jpg"}}],"thr$total":{"$t":"0"}},{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1786438112933136892.post-6270857265915295106"},"published":{"$t":"2013-10-21T18:50:00.000+01:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2013-10-21T18:50:22.108+01:00"},"category":[{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Campaigns"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Policing"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"Spies in Blue Bibs"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"\u003Cdiv dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\" trbidi=\"on\"\u003E\u003Cb\u003EThis is a comment piece I wrote for the\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/netpol.org\/2013\/10\/21\/spies-in-blue-bibs\/\" target=\"_blank\"\u003E Network for Police Monitoring\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/b\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EAre Police Liaison Officers – suspiciously friendly in their pale  blue bibs and now commonplace at marches and demonstrations – really  deployed simply to ‘facilitate protest’ and ‘ensure there are no  surprises’, or is their role rather more duplicitous? For some time,  campaigners from groups involved in the Network for Police Monitoring  (NetPol) have suspected there is more to these officers, created in  response to severe criticism by HM Inspectorate of Constabulary’s  ‘Adapting to Protest’ report of intelligence gathering at the 2009 G20  protests, than their public image suggests.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EIn March this year, NetPol \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/netpol.org\/2013\/03\/13\/police-liaison-officers-intelligence-gathering-self-policing-and-the-dangers-of-talking-to-the-police\/\" title=\"Police Liaison Officers – Intelligence gathering, self-policing and the dangers of talking to the police\"\u003Ehighlighted\u003C\/a\u003E  how Chief Inspector Sonia Davis, head of the Police Liaison Teams (PLT)  unit in the Metropolitan Police, gave evidence as a prosecution witness  in the trial of Critical Mass cyclists arrested on the evening of the  Olympics opening ceremony. Under cross examination, Davis admitted that  PLTs gather information on protesters and had even been covertly  deployed at previous Critical Mass rides to try to identify ‘leaders’.  This might sound a lot like intelligence gathering to most people,  although Davis and other senior officers deny this. However, the  standard operating procedures for the deployment of Police Liaison  Officers had never been made available. Without greater transparency, it  was difficult to been difficult to see whether the Met’s claims were  truthful.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EIn early July, NetPol was approached by a constable from the Met’s  Gateway Team, who coordinate and train Police Liaison Officers. He had  read NetPol’s concerns about the Critical Mass court case on our website  and, in the suspiciously friendly way we have come to expect, invited  NetPol to participate in forthcoming PLT training, saying this would  “offer a real insight into how we deploy Police Liaison Teams and may go  some way to alleviating your concerns”. Collectively, NetPol members  decided to politely decline, but asked for copies of the training  materials and other policies and procedures that might provide some  genuine insight without participating in what felt like a public  relations exercise.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EIncredibly, the officer told us the only way we could access  information inevitably available at training sessions we had been  invited to attend was through a Freedom of Information Act request. So  in late July, \u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/www.whatdotheyknow.com\/request\/role_of_police_liaison_officers\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Met Police Liaison Officers Freedom of Information request\"\u003Ewe submitted one\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EIn August, the Met provided a surprisingly detailed response \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.statewatch.org\/news\/2013\/sep\/uk-protest-plos.html\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Statewatch | Police Liaison Officers\"\u003E(summarised here by Statewatch\u003C\/a\u003E).  Amongst the training materials released was a presentation on Protester  Tactics that contains a hugely disingenuous definition of people  involved in protest: we know that the national domestic extremism  database contains information on a far wider range of people than those  described here as ‘extremists’:\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/-Ro2izDYU_9c\/UmVnDVJX7QI\/AAAAAAAAEiI\/pW2NHGM-qKI\/s1600\/Protester+tactics+image.png\" imageanchor=\"1\" style=\"margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\"\u003E\u003Cimg border=\"0\" height=\"276\" src=\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/-Ro2izDYU_9c\/UmVnDVJX7QI\/AAAAAAAAEiI\/pW2NHGM-qKI\/s400\/Protester+tactics+image.png\" width=\"520\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/div\u003EIndeed, with recent demonstrations like the Tower Hamlets anti-EDL  protest in September facing such intense restrictions that the Met has,  for all intents and purposes, itself become an events organiser, this is  probably far closer to the truth:\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-qvYMZfLpAyc\/UmVnKkcE3II\/AAAAAAAAEiQ\/Y_dvXagfEZc\/s1600\/Alternate+pyramid+diagram.png\" imageanchor=\"1\" style=\"margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\"\u003E\u003Cimg border=\"0\" height=\"282\" src=\"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-qvYMZfLpAyc\/UmVnKkcE3II\/AAAAAAAAEiQ\/Y_dvXagfEZc\/s320\/Alternate+pyramid+diagram.png\" width=\"320\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/div\u003EThe document released by the Met on \u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/www.whatdotheyknow.com\/request\/170321\/response\/422052\/attach\/5\/BLOWE%20Crowd%20Psychology%20and%20Communication%20v1%201.pdf.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Presentation - Crowd Psychology and Communications\"\u003ECrowd Psychology\u003C\/a\u003E  (PDF) is also interesting: it’s acknowledgement that crowds have  “multiple and separate psychological groups” that “will not always be  influenced towards violence by other groups in the crowd” is at odds  with the \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/netpol.org\/2013\/09\/09\/mass-arrest-an-abuse-of-power\/\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Mass arrest – an abuse of power\"\u003EMet’s use of mass arrests\u003C\/a\u003E  to sweep up and arrest protesters, the vast majority of whom later face  no further action (as we have seen with cases from 145 arrests of UK  Uncut activists at Fortnum \u0026amp; Mason in March 2011 to the 286 arrests  of anti-fascists in Tower Hamlets in September 2013). In both cases, the  claimed aim of PLTs to “differentiate between groups in the crowd,  particularly when using force” seems to come a distant second to  intelligence gathering. In the case of direct action at Fortnum \u0026amp;  Mason, the then Assistant Commissioner Lynne Owens \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.publications.parliament.uk\/pa\/cm201011\/cmselect\/cmhaff\/uc917-i\/uc91701.htm\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Uncorrected Transcript - Policing of TUC March on 26 March 2011\"\u003Eadmitted to the Home Affairs Select Committee\u003C\/a\u003E  that “the fact that we arrested as many people as we did is so  important to us because that obviously gives us some really important  intelligence opportunities”.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EMost revealing are the\u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/www.whatdotheyknow.com\/request\/170321\/response\/422052\/attach\/19\/BLOWE%20SOP.doc.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Standard Operating Procedure for the Operational Deployment of Protestor Liaison Teams (PLTs) in the MPS\"\u003E Standard Operating Procedures\u003C\/a\u003E  (PDF), which specifically address the intelligence, acknowledging that  “any suggestion that PLT’s are intended to be ‘intelligence gatherers’  is likely to undermine efforts to build trust and confidence amongst  protest groups and individuals”. However, it goes on to say:\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cblockquote class=\"tr_bq\"\u003E“recent experience does tell us that PLT’s do gather accurate  intelligence in the normal course of their duties. This is mainly  because, pre and post event they are engaging with protest groups and do  elicit information in the course of these duties which could be  regarded as intelligence . This could include : numbers attending, start  and finish times, route, intentions of the group, others groups likely  to associate themselves with the event, persons likely to attend, etc .  Similarly, on the day of the event, the PLT’s are likely to be working  inside or around the group in question and, as a result, \u003Cb\u003Eare likely to generate high-quality intelligence from the discussions they are having with group members [emphasis added]\u003C\/b\u003E.”\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EIt adds that “\u003Cb\u003Eall PLT officers must ensure all intelligence is recorded on Crimint\u003C\/b\u003E” (a \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Crimint\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Wikipedia | Crimint\"\u003Ecriminal intelligence database\u003C\/a\u003E)  and all intelligence obtained during an event “is passed to Bronze  Intelligence for analysis and dissemination to Silver and the rest of  the Command Team (in the same way as any other intelligence)”. The  document goes on to describe the deployment of PLTs as a “tactical  option” to deal with identified ‘threats’ to an event, an alternative to  deploying Forward Intelligence Team (FIT) spotters and photographers  that is the “least intrusive” option.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThis confirms what we have suspected for some time: Police Liaison  Officers do have an intelligence gathering role and, in certain  circumstances, this may become their main role. This means that if  individual protesters chat to them, details of a conversation may end up  on a Metropolitan Police database.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cb\u003EUPDATE\u003C\/b\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EOne a final note, at least the Met provided the information we asked for. A \u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/www.whatdotheyknow.com\/request\/role_of_police_liaison_officers_2\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Sussex Police |  Role of Police Liaison Officers\"\u003Esimilar request to Sussex Police\u003C\/a\u003E  was refused. Despite the extensive use of PLTs at anti-fracking  demonstrations in Balcombe and anti-fascist protests in Brighton, the  force claims it has no agreed, formal policies, operational documents or  standard operating procedures – a claim that lacks any credibility.  Even if it is using national guidance produced by the College of  Policing, Sussex Police is legally obliged to release this: the Freedom  of Information Act covers information held by a public authority, not  just data it creates or owns. Unfortunately, a similarly opaque response  has been given by Thames Valley Police. NetPol is looking at taking  this further with the Information Commissioner.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EMeanwhile, NetPol is currently awaiting the outcome of \u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/www.whatdotheyknow.com\/request\/guidance_on_police_liaison_offic\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"College of Policing | Guidance on Police Liaison Officers\"\u003Ean FoI request to the College of Policing\u003C\/a\u003E, which is due in early November.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E"},"link":[{"rel":"replies","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blowe.org.uk\/feeds\/6270857265915295106\/comments\/default","title":"Post Comments"},{"rel":"replies","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/comment.g?blogID=1786438112933136892\u0026postID=6270857265915295106","title":"0 Comments"},{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/1786438112933136892\/posts\/default\/6270857265915295106"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/1786438112933136892\/posts\/default\/6270857265915295106"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/www.blowe.org.uk\/2013\/10\/spies-in-blue-bibs.html","title":"Spies in Blue Bibs"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"Kevin"},"uri":{"$t":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/profile\/00003057501738525190"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$image":{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail","width":"32","height":"29","src":"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_QI1gRwFYn-k\/SU-lkDcQ99I\/AAAAAAAABHE\/miuQVEB5xqE\/S220\/rioter.jpg"}}],"media$thumbnail":{"xmlns$media":"http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/","url":"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/-Ro2izDYU_9c\/UmVnDVJX7QI\/AAAAAAAAEiI\/pW2NHGM-qKI\/s72-c\/Protester+tactics+image.png","height":"72","width":"72"},"thr$total":{"$t":"0"}},{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1786438112933136892.post-768334781799501979"},"published":{"$t":"2013-10-08T19:03:00.002+01:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2013-10-08T19:03:55.321+01:00"},"category":[{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Campaigns"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Policing"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"Resisting Police Surveillance - An Overview"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"\u003Cdiv dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\" trbidi=\"on\"\u003E\u003Cdiv dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\" trbidi=\"on\"\u003E\u003Cb\u003EThis is an unedited version of an article I wrote that appears under the title \"Keeping an eye on us\" in the current issue of \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/\" target=\"_blank\"\u003ERed Pepper\u003C\/a\u003E magazine. It aims to give an overview of the complex issue of police surveillance and undercover spies.\u003C\/b\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ctable align=\"center\" cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" class=\"tr-caption-container\" style=\"margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Ctbody\u003E\u003Ctr\u003E\u003Ctd style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-P4K9fkgTM_U\/UlRH9mMSkOI\/AAAAAAAAEgQ\/PE4mRIqGl3M\/s1600\/FIT-UKuncut.jpg\" imageanchor=\"1\" style=\"margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;\"\u003E\u003Cimg border=\"0\" height=\"332\" src=\"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-P4K9fkgTM_U\/UlRH9mMSkOI\/AAAAAAAAEgQ\/PE4mRIqGl3M\/s640\/FIT-UKuncut.jpg\" width=\"520\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/td\u003E\u003C\/tr\u003E\u003Ctr\u003E\u003Ctd class=\"tr-caption\" style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003ESurveillance officers at Kings Cross station for UKUncut protest, April 2012 [Photo: \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/copwatcher\/8657743187\/\" target=\"_blank\"\u003ECopwatcher on Flickr\u003C\/a\u003E]\u003C\/td\u003E\u003C\/tr\u003E\u003C\/tbody\u003E\u003C\/table\u003EThe existence of a secret Special Branch unit that had infiltrated and gathered intelligence on political groups has been known for some time: the journalist Peter Taylor \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/uk\/2002\/oct\/23\/ukcrime.immigrationpolicy\" target=\"_blank\"\u003Espoke to\u003C\/a\u003E a number of anonymous former members of the Metropolitan Police's Special Demonstration Squad (SDS) from the 1970s and 1980s for his television series 'True Spies' as far back as 2002. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EHowever, the unmasking in October 2010 of police officer Mark Kennedy, who had worked undercover for seven years in the environmental protest movement, was unique. For the first time, a police spy had been publicly named and it led to further revelations about other undercover officers, including \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/uk\/2011\/jan\/19\/undercover-police-officer-lynn-watson\" target=\"_blank\"\u003E'Lynn Watson\u003C\/a\u003E' in Leeds, '\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/uk\/2011\/jan\/19\/undercover-police-officer-mark-jacobs\" target=\"_blank\"\u003EMarco \/ Mark Jacobs\u003C\/a\u003E' in Cardiff and \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/environment\/2011\/jan\/19\/wife-fourth-police-spy-children\" target=\"_blank\"\u003EPC Andrew 'Jim' Boyling\u003C\/a\u003E inside the roads protest group Reclaim The Streets in London. It has also triggered an internal Metropolitan police review led by the chief constable of Derbyshire, Mick Creedon, and a two year investigation by Guardian journalists Paul Lewis and Rob Evans, which has so far identified 12 police spies inside different protest movements. The publication in June this year of their book, “Undercover: The True Story of Britain's Secret Police”, with an accompanying Channel 4 Dispatches programme, has reignited public and media interest in the conduct of these officers and the lack of accountability of undercover police operations.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EUnravelling the secret identities of men like Mark Kennedy has revealed genuine individual suffering that has resulted from their lies and deception, including the cynical sexual abuse of women activists, who have \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/uk\/undercover-with-paul-lewis-and-rob-evans\/2011\/dec\/16\/legal-action-over-police-spies\" target=\"_blank\"\u003Ebegun legal action\u003C\/a\u003E against five officers, and the blacklisting of  workers in the construction industry based on information passed to private companies by the police. However, much of the headline-catching and often shocking information from former Special Demonstration Squad officer Peter Francis, the Guardian's whistleblower who is central to Lewis and Evans' book, focuses  on the period from the late 1980s to 2000 when Francis was working undercover. His exposures include the key role of one former SDS officer Bob Lambert, now an academic at the University of St Andrews, in co-authoring the London Greenpeace leaflet that led to the infamous McLibel defamations trial in 1994. Francis has also revealed the targeting of the family of murdered black teenager Stephen Lawrence and of anti-racist and black justice campaigns throughout the 1990s, including one, the Newham Monitoring Project in east London, that I was active in at the time.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EHowever, keeping the spotlight on activities involving the now-disbanded SDS during the 1990s has, to some extent, allowed the Metropolitan Police to try and distance itself from what it is portraying as 'historical allegations' that are hard to investigate: in \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/content.met.police.uk\/News\/Commissioner-statement-following-allegations-about-undercover-officers\/1400018214005\/1257246745756\" target=\"_blank\"\u003Ea statement\u003C\/a\u003E, Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe said, “finding out the truth about what happened 20 years ago is not a straightforward task”. Although the surveillance of the Lawrence family in particular is embarrassing for the Met, it has  distracted attention away from undercover officers like Kennedy,  Watson and Jacobs, who were active much later, during the last decade. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EUntil they were uncovered in 2010, all were part of a different and far bigger operation than the London-centred SDS, called the National Public Order Intelligence Unit (NPOIU), which operated undercover  throughout England and Wales. Until 2010, when it came under the command of the Met's Counter Terrorism Command, the unit was based within the Association of Chief Police Officers, a private company, which meant that it was largely exempt from any public scrutiny. As recently as 2009, Mark Kennedy's activities for NPOIU led to the arrest of 114 climate activists in Nottingham for conspiring to shut down a coal-fired power station and came close to creating a serious miscarriage of justice: evidence he had gathered that exonerated many of the arrested activists was not disclosed to the defence at their trial and 20 people were \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk\/environment\/2010\/dec\/14\/ratcliffe-coal-station-activists\" target=\"_blank\"\u003Econvicted of conspiracy\u003C\/a\u003E. These convictions were only quashed when the case against six others collapsed after Kennedy has been exposed.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EUnits like NPOIU that were created in the late 1990s represented an expansion in tactics by the police. The last decade has seen a significant shift towards gathering vast quantities of intelligence data and sifting it for patterns and connections to predict how individuals and groups will act, the basis for the National Intelligence Model originally developed in 2000 for tackling serious organised crime. The same approach has been adopted wholesale by officers monitoring protest movements and the result is that, with little democratic debate or accountability, large numbers of people who have been engaged in legitimate campaigning, many with no criminal records, are now on secret police databases for opinions or activities (like non-violent civil disobedience) that were once seen as “normal” in a free society. A \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/uk\/2013\/jun\/25\/undercover-police-domestic-extremism-unit\" target=\"_blank\"\u003Erecent estimate\u003C\/a\u003E suggests there could be as many as 9000.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ctable align=\"center\" cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" class=\"tr-caption-container\" style=\"margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Ctbody\u003E\u003Ctr\u003E\u003Ctd style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/--Xskkxrz890\/UlREulgu6UI\/AAAAAAAAEf4\/DPkFSUsJI0c\/s1600\/IMG_0554.JPG\" imageanchor=\"1\" style=\"margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;\"\u003E\u003Cimg border=\"0\" height=\"390\" src=\"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/--Xskkxrz890\/UlREulgu6UI\/AAAAAAAAEf4\/DPkFSUsJI0c\/s640\/IMG_0554.JPG\" width=\"520\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/td\u003E\u003C\/tr\u003E\u003Ctr\u003E\u003Ctd class=\"tr-caption\" style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003EPolice Liaison Officers at the anti-EDL protest in Tower Hamlets in September  [Photo: \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/copwatcher\/9703026756\/\" target=\"_blank\"\u003ECopwatcher on Flickr\u003C\/a\u003E]\u003C\/td\u003E\u003C\/tr\u003E\u003C\/tbody\u003E\u003C\/table\u003EWhilst there are almost certainly still undercover officers at work, collecting data on an industrial scale involves more visible and far more invasive methods. Forward Intelligence Team (FIT) police photographers target 'persons of interest' at protests. Officers make widespread use of stop and search powers, as was evident at the \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/news.bbc.co.uk\/1\/hi\/england\/kent\/8488613.stm\" target=\"_blank\"\u003EClimate Camp at Kingsnorth in 2008\u003C\/a\u003E, or refuse to allow demonstrations to leave a police 'kettle' until they provide their names and addresses. It can even mean mass arrests as a form of intelligence-gathering, which according to \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/liberalconspiracy.org\/2011\/04\/08\/police-admit-ukuncut-arrests-made-for-intelligence-gathering\/\" target=\"_blank\"\u003Etestimony given in Parliament\u003C\/a\u003E by Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Lynne Owens, seems to have been the main reason for the detention of UKUncut activists who briefly occupied the Fortnum and Mason store in London in March 2011. A \u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/www.whatdotheyknow.com\/request\/role_of_police_liaison_officers#incoming-422052\" target=\"_blank\"\u003Erecent Freedom of Information request \u003C\/a\u003Eabout Police Liaison Officers, the officers in blue bibs who have appeared at demonstrations since 2009 and whose role is supposedly facilitating protest and improving communication, has confirmed that they are \"likely to generate high-quality intelligence from the discussions they are having with group members\" and “must ensure all intelligence is recorded on Crimint\" [a Met police database]. During the trial of a number of cyclists arrested at a Critical Mass on the day of the opening ceremony of the Olympics last year, a \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/netpol.org\/2013\/03\/13\/police-liaison-officers-intelligence-gathering-self-policing-and-the-dangers-of-talking-to-the-police\/\" target=\"_blank\"\u003Esenior officer revealed\u003C\/a\u003E that at least six Police Liaison Officers had attended the previous Critical Mass in plain clothes and on bikes to 'identify organisers'.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ECoupled with the \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.wired.co.uk\/news\/archive\/2013-06\/26\/socmint\" target=\"_blank\"\u003Euse of technology to monitor social media\u003C\/a\u003E by the successor to the NPOIU, the National Domestic Extremism Unit, the police are aiming to build a detailed picture of individuals that involves far more than investigating and prosecuting offences. According to Val Swain of the \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/netpol.org\/\" target=\"_blank\"\u003ENetwork for Police Monitoring (NetPol)\u003C\/a\u003E, which brings together a number of groups concerned about the rising level of protest surveillance, “while ostensibly acting against criminality, intelligence-led policing of protest has the potential to disrupt and deter the act of protest itself”. Put simply, its origins in tackling organised crime mean it is almost designed to frighten people into avoiding the exercise of their right to protest and worse, says Swain, it operates “away from the scrutiny of the criminal justice system, there are no checks and balances, no public visibility, and no effective accountability”. NetPol argues that it is this lack of accountability that protected undercover officers like Mark Kennedy for so many years and ensures that almost anyone can be treated as a potential criminal if they participate in many forms of protest. It is calling for the abolition of the  National Domestic Extremism Unit saying, “we do not accept that the case has been made for the necessity of continuing the activity of a unit that has been associated with unethical and possibly unlawful behaviour, nor any other that specialises in the surveillance of dissent”.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ctable align=\"center\" cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" class=\"tr-caption-container\" style=\"margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Ctbody\u003E\u003Ctr\u003E\u003Ctd style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/-g8HUhHVMGfw\/UlRGO6ZGdVI\/AAAAAAAAEgE\/LUccALfVKeo\/s1600\/100_2862.JPG\" imageanchor=\"1\" style=\"margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;\"\u003E\u003Cimg border=\"0\" height=\"390\" src=\"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/-g8HUhHVMGfw\/UlRGO6ZGdVI\/AAAAAAAAEgE\/LUccALfVKeo\/s640\/100_2862.JPG\" width=\"520\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/td\u003E\u003C\/tr\u003E\u003Ctr\u003E\u003Ctd class=\"tr-caption\" style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003EFIT photographer at Occupy's 'Meet The 1%' protest, May 2012 [Photo: \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/copwatcher\/7182879638\/\" target=\"_blank\"\u003ECopwatcher on Flickr\u003C\/a\u003E]\u003C\/td\u003E\u003C\/tr\u003E\u003C\/tbody\u003E\u003C\/table\u003EBut while the surveillance of protest continues, what can individuals do to protect themselves? There are some simple steps: avoid talking to Police Liaison Officers, for example, would seem sensible considering what we now know about their intelligence role. The campaigners from FITwatch \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.fitwatch.org.uk\/2012\/10\/16\/stay-safe-stay-anonymous-2-masking-up\/\" target=\"_blank\"\u003Erecommend\u003C\/a\u003E using face coverings to ensure police Forward Intelligence Team officers cannot photograph you: masks are always legal to wear, although in certain circumstances a police officer may arrest you if you refuse to remove one. It is probably a good idea too to avoid carrying a mobile phone with every personal contact you have if there is a possibility that you may be arrested. NetPol is also arguing that protesters should avoid agreeing to leave a police 'kettle' in exchange for providing personal details to officers, particularly now that \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.judiciary.gov.uk\/media\/judgments\/2013\/susannah-mengesha-commissioner-police-metropolis-judgment-18062013\" target=\"_blank\"\u003Ethe High Court has ruled\u003C\/a\u003E that it is “not lawful for the police to maintain the containment for the purposes of obtaining identification, whether by questioning or by filming [and] not lawful to require identification to be given and submission to filming as the price for release.” \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EIt is important to remember, more than anything, that almost every effort to gather more and more intelligence on protesters has been successfully resisted by activists and their lawyers. Meanwhile, if you want to find out what data the police already hold on you, consider making a Data Protection Act subject access request to find out if you are on the “domestic extremist” database. Guidance on how to do so is available from \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/uk\/2011\/apr\/11\/domestic-extremist-police-databases\" target=\"_blank\"\u003EGuardian \u003C\/a\u003Eor here at \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.blowe.org.uk\/2013\/06\/how-to-find-out-what-secret-police.html\" target=\"_blank\"\u003ERandom Blowe\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003C\/div\u003E"},"link":[{"rel":"replies","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blowe.org.uk\/feeds\/768334781799501979\/comments\/default","title":"Post Comments"},{"rel":"replies","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/comment.g?blogID=1786438112933136892\u0026postID=768334781799501979","title":"0 Comments"},{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/1786438112933136892\/posts\/default\/768334781799501979"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/1786438112933136892\/posts\/default\/768334781799501979"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/www.blowe.org.uk\/2013\/10\/resisting-police-surveillance-overview.html","title":"Resisting Police Surveillance - An Overview"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"Kevin"},"uri":{"$t":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/profile\/00003057501738525190"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$image":{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail","width":"32","height":"29","src":"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_QI1gRwFYn-k\/SU-lkDcQ99I\/AAAAAAAABHE\/miuQVEB5xqE\/S220\/rioter.jpg"}}],"media$thumbnail":{"xmlns$media":"http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/","url":"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-P4K9fkgTM_U\/UlRH9mMSkOI\/AAAAAAAAEgQ\/PE4mRIqGl3M\/s72-c\/FIT-UKuncut.jpg","height":"72","width":"72"},"thr$total":{"$t":"0"}},{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1786438112933136892.post-6809505911009163890"},"published":{"$t":"2013-09-01T18:35:00.001+01:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2013-09-01T18:35:56.720+01:00"},"category":[{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Anti-war"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Campaigns"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"Photos From Yesterday's Stop The War Coalition Protest"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"\u003Cdiv dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\" trbidi=\"on\"\u003EYesterday afternoon, I ambled into central London to take some pictures of the small Stop The War Coaition (StWC) demonstration billed as a 'victory march' after Thursday's \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/politics\/blog\/2013\/aug\/29\/mps-debate-syria-live-blog\" target=\"_blank\"\u003EHouse of Commons vote\u003C\/a\u003E blocking British involvement in military intervention in Syria.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe vote may well have been, as StWC's \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/commentisfree\/2013\/aug\/31\/syria-vote-corner-turned\" target=\"_blank\"\u003EAndrew Murray puts it\u003C\/a\u003E, \"a vindication of the mass anti-war movement in this country over the last decade\", but the march was a pale imitation of the protests from a decade ago: a couple of thousand people at most, mainly the usual subjects from the far left and from CND. Within a smaller crowd, it was considerably easier to spot the people who refuse to accept that, whilst bombing Syria will make a bad situation worse, \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/commentisfree\/2013\/aug\/31\/syria-assad-war-criminal\" target=\"_blank\"\u003ESyria President Bashir Al-Assad is still a war criminal\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EAnyway, here are a few photos: there are more \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/copwatcher\/sets\/72157635310358871\/\" target=\"_blank\"\u003Eon Flickr\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/-WKodEBXApgI\/UiN415U3aZI\/AAAAAAAAEfI\/9ltH6e5JDPg\/s1600\/IMG_0487.JPG\" imageanchor=\"1\" style=\"margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\"\u003E\u003Cimg border=\"0\" height=\"693\" src=\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/-WKodEBXApgI\/UiN415U3aZI\/AAAAAAAAEfI\/9ltH6e5JDPg\/s640\/IMG_0487.JPG\" width=\"520\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/-Y3-J0lMhaWU\/UiN5F2tRdVI\/AAAAAAAAEfQ\/fcZvDTBydfY\/s1600\/IMG_0495.JPG\" imageanchor=\"1\" style=\"margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\"\u003E\u003Cimg border=\"0\" height=\"390\" src=\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/-Y3-J0lMhaWU\/UiN5F2tRdVI\/AAAAAAAAEfQ\/fcZvDTBydfY\/s640\/IMG_0495.JPG\" width=\"520\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-pOql3Tz4vKE\/UiN5HVxSpOI\/AAAAAAAAEfY\/fh5a6w0LOYQ\/s1600\/IMG_0506.JPG\" imageanchor=\"1\" style=\"margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\"\u003E\u003Cimg border=\"0\" height=\"390\" src=\"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-pOql3Tz4vKE\/UiN5HVxSpOI\/AAAAAAAAEfY\/fh5a6w0LOYQ\/s640\/IMG_0506.JPG\" width=\"520\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"\u003E\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/-P6kEG2L5bU4\/UiN5NTOVNgI\/AAAAAAAAEfg\/TzbYekIVyCk\/s1600\/IMG_0518.JPG\" imageanchor=\"1\" style=\"margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\"\u003E\u003Cimg border=\"0\" height=\"390\" src=\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/-P6kEG2L5bU4\/UiN5NTOVNgI\/AAAAAAAAEfg\/TzbYekIVyCk\/s640\/IMG_0518.JPG\" width=\"520\" \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E"},"link":[{"rel":"replies","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blowe.org.uk\/feeds\/6809505911009163890\/comments\/default","title":"Post Comments"},{"rel":"replies","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/comment.g?blogID=1786438112933136892\u0026postID=6809505911009163890","title":"0 Comments"},{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/1786438112933136892\/posts\/default\/6809505911009163890"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/1786438112933136892\/posts\/default\/6809505911009163890"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/www.blowe.org.uk\/2013\/09\/photos-from-yesterdays-stop-war.html","title":"Photos From Yesterday's Stop The War Coalition Protest"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"Kevin"},"uri":{"$t":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/profile\/00003057501738525190"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$image":{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail","width":"32","height":"29","src":"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_QI1gRwFYn-k\/SU-lkDcQ99I\/AAAAAAAABHE\/miuQVEB5xqE\/S220\/rioter.jpg"}}],"media$thumbnail":{"xmlns$media":"http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/","url":"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/-WKodEBXApgI\/UiN415U3aZI\/AAAAAAAAEfI\/9ltH6e5JDPg\/s72-c\/IMG_0487.JPG","height":"72","width":"72"},"thr$total":{"$t":"0"}},{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1786438112933136892.post-5249449711128322163"},"published":{"$t":"2013-08-07T20:58:00.000+01:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2013-08-07T20:58:01.182+01:00"},"category":[{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Newham"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Politics"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"Welcome To Zero-Hours-Tolerant Newham"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"\u003Cdiv dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\" trbidi=\"on\"\u003EIn the wake of the\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.cipd.co.uk\/pm\/peoplemanagement\/b\/weblog\/archive\/2013\/08\/05\/one-million-workers-on-zero-hours-contracts-finds-cipd-study.aspx\" target=\"_blank\"\u003E CIPD report\u003C\/a\u003E this week suggesting that up to one million workers in the UK are on zero hours contracts – where an employee is expected to be on-call and is paid only for hours worked – the discovery that Newham council uses them has been highlighted on \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/newhamnettles.blogspot.co.uk\/\" target=\"_blank\"\u003EMike Law's blog\u003C\/a\u003E but hasn't yet made it into the \u003Ci\u003ENewham Recorder\u003C\/i\u003E. The paper should probably pay more attention. This is a story that has the potential to deeply embarrass not only Newham Labour's council leadership but the national Labour Party too.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe Freedom of Information (FoI) request that reveals the number of staff on zero-hour contracts is buried deep within the \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.newham.gov.uk\/Pages\/ServiceChild\/Freedom-of-Information-disclosure-log.aspx\" target=\"_blank\"\u003EFoI Disclosure logs on the council's website\u003C\/a\u003E. So that others don't have to search for it, enquiry number 15701 on page 48 of the 228-page log for May 2013 says the following:\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cblockquote class=\"tr_bq\"\u003E\u003Cb\u003ESubject: Zero Hour Contracts\u003C\/b\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EI would like to know \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E(a) How many workers employed by the council are employed through zero hours contracts.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E- I’d like figures in the financial year ending 2012-13 and \u003Cbr \/\u003E- for the financial year ending 2009-10\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E(b) For both years, I’d like a breakdown of workers employed in this way:\u003Cbr \/\u003Ei – Directly through the council\u003Cbr \/\u003Eii – By private companies operating on council contracts\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003Ec) What percentage the figure is for each year of total council employees \u003C\/blockquote\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe council's response was as follows:\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cblockquote class=\"tr_bq\"\u003E1. A total of 1060 workers were employed by Newham Council through zero hour contracts during 2012\/2013. This represented 7.6% of all of our employees as of the 31st March 2013. These are sessional workers, or casual staff who work on an as-and-when basis. They work largely in schools and community centres delivering advice sessions, tuition and sports coaching. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThese sessional workers are not subject to a ‘mutuality of obligation’. That means they do not have to work when asked, nor are we obliged to ask them to work. All other employees are required to work to contract and we are obliged to provide them with their contracted hours.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EA total of 1044 workers were employed in the same way through zero hour contracts during 2009\/2010. This represented 7.6% of all employees as of 31st March 2010.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E2. All of the employees holding zero hour contracts were employed directly through the Council. It is not possible for us to determine whether or not any of the private companies operating on council contracts during the periods given employed any staff on zero hours contracts.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E3. As of 31st March 2013, 7.6% of all employees were on zero hour contracts.\u003Cbr \/\u003EAs of 31st March 2010, 7.6% of all employees were on zero hour contracts.\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EZero-hour contracts are the classic example of McJobs – it's no shock that \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/business\/2013\/aug\/05\/mcdonalds-workers-zero-hour-contracts\" target=\"_blank\"\u003E90% of McDonalds staff\u003C\/a\u003E are on them. Not everyone thinks they are a bad thing – the almost comically blue-blooded Etonian Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg, a man who married an heiress, took his nanny with him when out canvassing and will never, ever experience what Jarvis Cocker called a life “with no meaning or control”, thinks zero-hour contracts are \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/news\/politics\/10225661\/Zero-hours-contracts-why-do-Lefties-always-think-they-know-best.html\" target=\"_blank\"\u003Egreat for business\u003C\/a\u003E. However, people I know who have been on them describe this type of contract making their lives more precarious – slashing their previously regular wages when introduced (by as much as 50%) and often leading to dismissal when their period of employment might lead to some actual rights (usually close the two-year mark). Equally, Newham council may talk about ‘mutuality of obligation’ and that workers are not forced to work when asked, but the experience of people I've spoken to (who mainly work in home care) is that refusing to accept on-call hours when asked means an employer stops ringing: you card is marked as 'unreliable'. This places enormous pressure to accept any hours, no matter how inconvenient, which makes the idea of having anything like 'quality time' equally precarious.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EWhat makes the discovery that a significant number of Newham council staff – around one in every thirteen workers – are on zero-hour contracts so politically damaging for Labour is not just the decision of its leader Ed Miliband to highlight how “for too many people in Britain, the workplace is nasty, brutish and unfair” and to specifically condemn “the exploitation of zero hours contracts to keep people insecure” and .”using agency workers to unfairly avoid giving people the pay and conditions offered to permanent staff”. It's that this \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/labourlist.org\/2013\/06\/full-text-ed-miliband-speech-a-one-nation-plan-for-social-security-reform\/\" target=\"_blank\"\u003Ekeynote 'One Nation' speech\u003C\/a\u003E was made at Newham Dockside, the home of the zero-hours-tolerant Newham council. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EIt's damaging too because a statement that I wholeheartedly agree with by Dave Prentis, General Secretary of local government union UNISON, said:“the vast majority of workers are only on these contracts because they have no choice. They may give flexibility to a few, but the balance of power favours the employers and makes it hard for workers to complain”. Yet one Unison National Executive Committee member, John Gray. cannot possibly support his General Secretary without facing accusations of hypocrisy, because he is a Labour councillor in zero-hours-tolerant Newham council. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EAnd it's damaging for precisely the reasons  Mike Law has highlighted – that not one of the prospective Labour candidates standing for zero-hours-tolerant Newham council has had a single word to say on this issue.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EOpposition to zero-hours contracts is apparently Labour Party policy. So will the party's 100% majority of local councillors - and the candidates who face inevitable election in 2014 - make a start on their leader's concerns about \"our responsibilities to each other\" by taking a stand in their own borough?\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E"},"link":[{"rel":"replies","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blowe.org.uk\/feeds\/5249449711128322163\/comments\/default","title":"Post Comments"},{"rel":"replies","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/comment.g?blogID=1786438112933136892\u0026postID=5249449711128322163","title":"1 Comments"},{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/1786438112933136892\/posts\/default\/5249449711128322163"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/1786438112933136892\/posts\/default\/5249449711128322163"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/www.blowe.org.uk\/2013\/08\/welcome-to-zero-hours-tolerant-newham.html","title":"Welcome To Zero-Hours-Tolerant Newham"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"Kevin"},"uri":{"$t":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/profile\/00003057501738525190"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$image":{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail","width":"32","height":"29","src":"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_QI1gRwFYn-k\/SU-lkDcQ99I\/AAAAAAAABHE\/miuQVEB5xqE\/S220\/rioter.jpg"}}],"thr$total":{"$t":"1"}},{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1786438112933136892.post-9127507502270744934"},"published":{"$t":"2013-06-27T17:04:00.003+01:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2013-06-27T21:06:57.908+01:00"},"category":[{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Activism"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Policing"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"How To Find Out What Secret Police Surveillance Says About You"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"\u003Cdiv dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\" trbidi=\"on\"\u003EOn the face of it, this might seem like a very niche post. I've put this together primarily for activists involved in\u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.nmp.org.uk\/\" target=\"_blank\"\u003E Newham Monitoring Project\u003C\/a\u003E (NMP) and police custody deaths campaigners (including individual families and people at \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.inquest.org.uk\/\" target=\"_blank\"\u003EINQUEST\u003C\/a\u003E) who may have been targeted for undercover surveillance \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk\/uk\/2013\/jun\/24\/metropolitan-police-spying-undercover-officers\" target=\"_blank\"\u003Erevealed by the \u003Ci\u003EGuardian \u003C\/i\u003E\u003C\/a\u003Ethis week. It's based on my own Subject Access Request to the Metropolitan Police, submitted on Tuesday.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EHowever, the steps below are just as applicable to anyone wanting to find out what personal details are held about them by the police, for example on the National Domestic Extremism database. There is \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk\/uk\/2011\/apr\/11\/domestic-extremist-police-databases\" target=\"_blank\"\u003Ea 2011 guide on the \u003Ci\u003EGuardian \u003C\/i\u003Ewebsite\u003C\/a\u003E - note that some details (such as who to make payment to) have since changed.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ch3 style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003E\u003Cb\u003EWhy make a request?\u003C\/b\u003E\u003C\/h3\u003EThe revelation that undercover surveillance by the Special Demonstration Squad during the 1990s targeted the Lawrence family, police custody death campaigners and organisations that supported them - people involved in lawful campaigning activities - is alarming but incomplete. The \u003Ci\u003EGuardian's\u003C\/i\u003E report doesn't name of the SDS officer who targeted NMP and we have no idea how widespread the surveillance was or what was included in the so-called 'intelligence' reports.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe Metropolitan Police are likely to resist calls for the release of this information, but a flood of Data Protection Act Subject Access Requests will at least force the Met to examine their records and confirm or deny whether information was gathered. They could potentially help everyone to understand whether, as I suspect, the 'intelligence' was nothing more than gossip and rumour designed to smear campaigners.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EAs the process involves handing over a certain amount of personal information (including your address and your date and place of birth), it is only worthwhile submitting a Subject Access Request if you think there is a chance that your details are held on police records. There is no point feeding the surveillance officers with information they don't already possess.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ch3 style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003E\u003Cb\u003EWriting a Subject Access Request\u003C\/b\u003E\u003C\/h3\u003EFirst, download MPS Subject Access Form 3019 - there is a \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/content.met.police.uk\/cs\/Satellite?blobcol=urldata\u0026amp;blobheadername1=Content-Type\u0026amp;blobheadername2=Content-Disposition\u0026amp;blobheadervalue1=application%2Fmsword\u0026amp;blobheadervalue2=inline%3B+filename%3D%22660%2F778%2FForm_3019_2013_word.doc%22\u0026amp;blobkey=id\u0026amp;blobtable=MungoBlobs\u0026amp;blobwhere=1283619406318\u0026amp;ssbinary=true\" target=\"_blank\"\u003EMicrosoft Word\u003C\/a\u003E version or a \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/content.met.police.uk\/cs\/Satellite?blobcol=urldata\u0026amp;blobheadername1=Content-Type\u0026amp;blobheadername2=Content-Disposition\u0026amp;blobheadervalue1=application%2Fpdf\u0026amp;blobheadervalue2=inline%3B+filename%3D%22590%2F789%2FForm_3019_2013_word.pdf%22\u0026amp;blobkey=id\u0026amp;blobtable=MungoBlobs\u0026amp;blobwhere=1283619406442\u0026amp;ssbinary=true\" target=\"_blank\"\u003EPDF\u003C\/a\u003E on the Metropolitan Police website.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EAfter completing the personal information sections, Section 3 asks:\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cb\u003EPlease specify exactly what information you require (e.g. Crime Report)?\u003C\/b\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EI have written:\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cblockquote class=\"tr_bq\"\u003EI require any information about myself gathered by the former Special Demonstration Squad and subsequently by the National Domestic Extremism Unit.\u003C\/blockquote\u003EIn response to the question \u003Cb\u003E\"What happened to cause you to have contact with the police?\"\u003C\/b\u003E, I have added:\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cblockquote class=\"tr_bq\"\u003ERecent news coverage has indicated that undercover officers from the Special Demonstration Squad were responsible for covert surveillance on a number of groups including the Newham Monitoring Project (NMP) and justice campaigns concerned with deaths in police custody. As I have been actively involved in NMP since 1990 and was the secretary from 1997 of the United Families and Friends Campaign, the umbrella group for many of these campaigns, I wish to find out whether this undercover surveillance gathered information on me.\u003C\/blockquote\u003EThis is obviously personal to me. If you were involved in what the \u003Ci\u003EGuardian \u003C\/i\u003Erefers to as \"associated groups\", such as a family campaign, INQUEST or another organisations, then you need to add you own concerns why the SDS may have included you in its nefarious activities.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EUnder \"\u003Cb\u003EWhen did this happen?\"\u003C\/b\u003E I have said:\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cblockquote class=\"tr_bq\"\u003EPotentially between 1990 and 2008 for the former Special Demonstration Squad and from 2008 until the present date for the National Domestic Extremism Unit\u003C\/blockquote\u003EThe National Domestic Extremism Unit took over the work of the Special Demonstration Squad in 2008. If, like me, you are still a campaigner, then it is worth finding out whether there is any more recent 'intelligence' about you.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe may have \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-23083730\" target=\"_blank\"\u003Etold the London Assembly today\u003C\/a\u003E that \"we are now in a different context... the main reassurance I can offer  you is that we are aware it has been alleged in the past, I don't want  it to happen in the future... and I don't believe it is happening at the  moment.\" However, if the National Domestic Extremism Unit is prepared to gather data on \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk\/uk\/2011\/may\/03\/protester-sue-police-secret-surveillance\" target=\"_blank\"\u003Ean 88-year-old man sitting in a folding chair drawing sketches\u003C\/a\u003E at demonstrations, then it is capable of anything.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EIn response to the question \u003Cb\u003E\"Where did this happen and how was it reported?\u003C\/b\u003E\", I've have said:\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cblockquote class=\"tr_bq\"\u003EUnknown – the alleged covert surveillance most likely took place in the London borough of Newham but potentially could have happened anywhere in London.\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EAgain, this will need amending, depending on your individual circumstances.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ch3 style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003ESubmitting your Subject Access Request\u003C\/h3\u003EYou need to send a cheque, British postal order or international bankers draft for £10 payable to 'Mayors Office for Policing and Crime' and two forms of identification that \"provide sufficient information to prove your name, date of birth, current address and signature.\" This means a driving licence, medical card, birth\/adoption certificate or passport, along with a recent utility bill or bank statement.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EI sent a copy of my passport and a photocopy of a gas bill - both a bank statement and definitely a telephone bill seemed like a really bad idea!\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe form, payment and identification should be sent to:\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ci\u003EMetropolitan Police Service\u003C\/i\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ci\u003EPublic Access Office\u003C\/i\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ci\u003EPO Box 57192\u003C\/i\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ci\u003ELondon\u003C\/i\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ci\u003ESW6 1SF\u003C\/i\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EDon;t forget to keep a copy. If you do not receive confirmation that the data protection officer has  received your request within two weeks, ring the Public Access Office on 020 7161 3500  and ask to speak to the data protection unit, or email \u003Ca href=\"mailto:publicAccessOffice@met.police.uk\"\u003EpublicAccessOffice@met.police.uk\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ch3 style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003EWhat happens next?\u003C\/h3\u003EYou are entitled under the Data Protection Act to receive an answer within 40 days but no-one, it seems, ever receives a response in that time. The Metropolitan Police is so bad at responding to requests for information that in April, it was one of three public  authorities the \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.ico.org.uk\/news\/latest_news\/2013\/three-authorities-being-monitored-over-foi-responses-30042013\" target=\"_blank\"\u003EInformation Commissioner’s Office said it planned to monitor\u003C\/a\u003E over concerns about its timeliness.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe Met may decide to withhold information, but it must clearly  explain why. As the activities of the SDS relate to historic surveillance of lawful campaigning, it will be interesting to see what excuses they come up with.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EYou  can challenge any denial of information by lodging an appeal, and asking  the department to reconsider the decision. The \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/netpol.org\/\" target=\"_blank\"\u003ENetwork for Police Monitoring\u003C\/a\u003E (which Newham Monitoring Project is a member of)\u0026nbsp; is currently putting together guidance on following up Subject Access Requests and when it is ready, I'll make this available.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ch3 style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003EUPDATE\u003C\/h3\u003EThanks to Emily for this: a \u003Ca href=\"https:\/\/www.whatdotheyknow.com\/request\/info_re_sds_database#incoming-269126\" target=\"_blank\"\u003EFreedom of Information request\u003C\/a\u003E from last year confirms that Special Demonstration Squad data \"was amalgamated into a MPS system and is not held in a standalone searchable database\". This is likely to cause delays but does suggest that the data exists and was kept.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E"},"link":[{"rel":"replies","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blowe.org.uk\/feeds\/9127507502270744934\/comments\/default","title":"Post Comments"},{"rel":"replies","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/comment.g?blogID=1786438112933136892\u0026postID=9127507502270744934","title":"1 Comments"},{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/1786438112933136892\/posts\/default\/9127507502270744934"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/1786438112933136892\/posts\/default\/9127507502270744934"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/www.blowe.org.uk\/2013\/06\/how-to-find-out-what-secret-police.html","title":"How To Find Out What Secret Police Surveillance Says About You"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"Kevin"},"uri":{"$t":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/profile\/00003057501738525190"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$image":{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail","width":"32","height":"29","src":"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_QI1gRwFYn-k\/SU-lkDcQ99I\/AAAAAAAABHE\/miuQVEB5xqE\/S220\/rioter.jpg"}}],"thr$total":{"$t":"1"}},{"id":{"$t":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1786438112933136892.post-635252930406383168"},"published":{"$t":"2013-06-25T21:56:00.002+01:00"},"updated":{"$t":"2013-06-25T21:56:42.579+01:00"},"category":[{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Activism"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Newham"},{"scheme":"http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#","term":"Policing"}],"title":{"type":"text","$t":"We Must Have A Far-Reaching Inquiry Into Police Spying"},"content":{"type":"html","$t":"\u003Cdiv dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\" trbidi=\"on\"\u003E\u003Cb\u003EThis is a piece I wrote for \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/we-must-have-a-far-reaching-inquiry-into-police-spying\/\" target=\"_blank\"\u003ERed Pepper\u003C\/a\u003E on today's revelations that undercover police spied on Newham Monitoring Project and campaigns for justice for those that died custody\u003C\/b\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EToday’s new development in the long-running exposure of undercover police targeting campaigners has suddenly became very personal. The \u003Ca href=\"http:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk\/uk\/2013\/jun\/24\/metropolitan-police-spying-undercover-officers\" target=\"_blank\"\u003E\u003Ci\u003EGuardian \u003C\/i\u003Ereported\u003C\/a\u003E that covert officers from the former Special Demonstration Squad had spied on a number of organisations concerned with corruption and harassment within the Metropolitan Police, including the east London community group Newham Monitoring Project (NMP), and on justice campaigns for people who had died in custody. I have been an activist for NMP for 23 years and from 1997 to 2007 was the secretary of the United Families and Friends Campaign, an umbrella group of custody death families. It seems likely my name appeared in some of the secret so-called ‘intelligence’ reports.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EI’m disturbed that NMP was targeted but not entirely shocked. In some ways it might be seen as a positive reflection on our effectiveness in exposing cases of police misconduct and how worried senior officers had become about the damage that the actions of some of their officers was inflicting on the Met's reputation. I certainly know the police have never been able to get their heads around what motivates independent grassroots activism: how campaigns emerge from practical casework rather than, say, an attempt to recruit people to a party and how supporting individuals and families suffering injustice makes the anger that drives a desire for answers feel very personal.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EFurthermore, the fact that a decision was made to spy on an organisation whose events were open to the public and whose activities were reported in great detail in our annual reports and publicity says more about the Metropolitan police than it does about NMP: it illustrates the deep level of resistance to accountability within London’s police during the period when the Special Demonstration Squad were snooping around our activities.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EHowever, I’m appalled and angry too, that campaigns NMP advised and supported that were set up and sustained by bereaved families struggling for justice for their loved ones after a death in police custody – always in the face of overwhelming hostility from every part of the criminal justice system – may have been targeted for covert surveillance, for no other reason than to try and undermine them. I can only imagine that, in the absence of any actual ‘plotting’ by these campaigns, undercover officers were simply busy trying to find out more about families' legal strategies or looking for gossip and rumour that they could use to smear ordinary people forced into extraordinary circumstances by grief and the need to find the truth.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EOn top of the allegations of serious sexual misconduct and betrayal by undercover police and the stories of identities stolen from dead babies, the shameful targeting of the bereaved now means the case for an independent public inquiry is overwhelming. The Home Secretary’s insistence that the current investigation by Derbyshire’s Chief Constable is adequate lacks any credibility. We need a far-reaching and robust inquiry to find out what so-called ‘intelligence’ was gathered by officers, who ordered the surveillance and how it was used. Just as importantly, we urgently need to know to what extent the successors to the Special Demonstration Squad, such as the National Domestic Extremism Unit, are still secretly targeting campaigners.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EPersonally, I and other NMP activists also really want to know the fake identity and the real name of the officer that we may have inadvertently worked with in good faith. I want to know what kind of person pretends to support campaigns for justice but instead was secretly working to try and prevent the truth from ever emerging. For the sake of the transparency and accountability we have always demanded, the Metropolitan police owe all of us that, especially all the people we have supported over the years.\u003C\/div\u003E"},"link":[{"rel":"replies","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blowe.org.uk\/feeds\/635252930406383168\/comments\/default","title":"Post Comments"},{"rel":"replies","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/comment.g?blogID=1786438112933136892\u0026postID=635252930406383168","title":"0 Comments"},{"rel":"edit","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/1786438112933136892\/posts\/default\/635252930406383168"},{"rel":"self","type":"application/atom+xml","href":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/feeds\/1786438112933136892\/posts\/default\/635252930406383168"},{"rel":"alternate","type":"text/html","href":"http:\/\/www.blowe.org.uk\/2013\/06\/we-must-have-far-reaching-inquiry-into.html","title":"We Must Have A Far-Reaching Inquiry Into Police Spying"}],"author":[{"name":{"$t":"Kevin"},"uri":{"$t":"http:\/\/www.blogger.com\/profile\/00003057501738525190"},"email":{"$t":"noreply@blogger.com"},"gd$image":{"rel":"http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail","width":"32","height":"29","src":"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_QI1gRwFYn-k\/SU-lkDcQ99I\/AAAAAAAABHE\/miuQVEB5xqE\/S220\/rioter.jpg"}}],"thr$total":{"$t":"0"}}]}});