So farewell, then, Sid Rawle, who passed away, aged 64, at the end of his annual SuperSpirit summer camp, overlooking the River Severn near Rodley, on August 31. The “King of the Hippies,” as the press dubbed him — although it was never a title that he claimed for himself — Sid played a major part in the British counter-culture from the 1960s until his death, although he is, of course, best known for his involvement in the free festival movement, first at Windsor, from 1972 to 1974, and then at...

Ha! No sooner do we get the news that Blair won’t dare face his UK critics than news comes in that Netanyahu is to pop over here to give a keynote speech for the UK’s main hasbara outfit, BICOM - The Britain Israel Communications and Research Centre.

Here’s the Jewish Chronicle:

The JC has learned that Benajmin Netanyahu is to visit Britain in early November.The Israeli Prime Minister will meet the Prime Minister, David Cameron, and will be the keynote speaker at the annual dinner of BICOM, the Israel...

Blair has cancelled another self-promo, this time scheduled for the Tate Modern art gallery. Here’s Bloomberg:

Tony Blair cancelled a reception scheduled for tonight at London’s Tate Modern Gallery to mark the publication of his memoirs after the threat of protests.His decision marked the second public event the former prime minister has called off while promoting the book, “A Journey.” He cancelled a book-signing in London this week after he was pelted with shoes, eggs and plastic bottles in Dublin...

Under President George W. Bush, a small group of advisors tied closely to Vice President Dick Cheney argued that neither Congress nor the judiciary should attempt to prevent the President from doing whatever he felt was appropriate as the Commander-in-Chief of a “War on Terror” that was declared after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. As Sidney Blumenthal explained in an article for Salon in January 2006, the President and his advisors believed in the “unitary executive” theory —...

So I’ve noticed that whilst this is supposed to be both a ‘personal and political blog’, there’s been rather more of the latter for a while now. It’s therefore time for a little leisurely personal contemplation and a chance to say thanks to a number of friends.

Yesterday, a sizeable number of Londoners were busy arguing that, in the words of a pompous Evening Standard editorial, tube workers should willingly abandon to their plight the 5% of their colleagues facing job losses because "a re-organisation is...

Some interesting bits and pieces for your attention:

Stitched Up part 2: Fashion and the recession (Tansy Hoskins at Counterfire)

The sexual revolution: liberty betrayed? (Clive Hamilton at New Left Project)

Don’t let Michael Gove off the hook (Fiona Millar at Comment is Free)

Gombeen leprechauns, to be sure (Liam Macuaid)

Tube strike: solidarity etc (The Third Estate)


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‘Stop the ConDem cuts - Build the Resistance - Can’t Pay, Won’t Pay!

Wednesday 20 October, 5-7pm
Downing Street, London

On the day Con-Dem Chancellor George Osborne announces the results of a ‘spending review’ designed to cut £83 billion from public services, the Coalition of Resistance is calling a mass protest in Downing Street.

The Con-Dem government of millionaires, supported by their media echo-chambers, says there is no alternative to cuts in jobs and welfare. The crisis of the bankers can be...

LEADING ARTISTS SAY NO TO BLAIR'S TATE MODERN PARTYTracey Emin, Vivienne Westwood, Brian Eno and Katharine Hamnet are among the many artists and designers who are objecting to the Tate Modern art gallery hosting a party on Wednesday 8 September at which Tony Blair will be celebrating the publication of his memoir, A Journey.Stop the War's demonstration outside the gallery from 5.30, calling for no war criminals at the Tate Modern, will be joined by artists and other public figures.Art "happenings" and...

On Friday, I was delighted to take part in my 18th interview with Scott Horton of Antiwar Radio. The one-hour show is available here, and my interview begins 35 minutes in. Scott was standing in for Gustavo Arellano on Pacifica Radio’s KFPK channel in Los Angeles, and our interview follows fascinating interviews with Patrick Cockburn, the Middle East correspondent for The Independent, discussing Iraq and his new book Muqtada Al-Sadr and the Battle for the Future of Iraq, about the Shia cleric and...

In July, I discussed the story of an Arab man from East Jerusalem who was initially charged with the rape and indecent assault of a Jewish woman but who, in the end, was actually convicted of ‘rape by deception’, meaning that he had had consensual sex with the woman in question but that the consent was obtained by the Arab man falsely claiming to be Jewish. The judge in the prosecution made the racist basis of this verdict about as explicit as he lawfully could. I am now told that there has been an...

There’s Lee Hunt, a a Tube train driver who was on his break at Edgeware Road station on 7 July 2005 when the bomb attacks struck the London Underground. He crawled under the bombed train to help an injured man.

There’s John Boyle, another Tube driver, who was on his way to work that day when one of the bombs went off on the Circle Line train. He helped passengers along the track to safety. There’s David Boyce, a station supervisor at Russell Square, who ran into the smoke-filled tunnel after the...

On Friday September 3, in the District Court in Washington D.C., Judge John D. Bates handed another victory to the government in its ongoing effort to continue holding insignificant prisoners at Guantánamo, when he denied the habeas corpus petition of Shawali Khan, an Afghan prisoner. Khan was accused of providing assistance to members of Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin (HIG), an anti-US militia headed by the Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar (who, ironically, had received the lion’s share of US funding as a...

So should we all. Showing a rare sign of humanity Blair has finally got so disgusted with himself, he is boycotting his book signing at Waterstones in London. From The Guardian report, the MD of Waterstones isn’t a happy fellow traveller:

Waterstone’s confirmed that the scheduled book signing had been cancelled, "according to the wishes of the author". The managing director, Dominic Myers, said: "Our job as a bookseller is to bring books to our customers, and where possible enable them to meet authors as...

I’ve just returned from our local Stop the War group’s monthly organising meeting - we were all cheered by today’s news that Tony Blair has cancelled his London book signing with Waterstone’s. This was intended as the focus for a Stop the War protest, which now shifts to Tate Modern (where Blair is having a soiree to mark the publication of his ‘memoir’).

I visited Tate Modern when I was in London last week - there are a few depictions of human misery, the barbarism of war, etc, which might make Blair...

According to Newham council’s current Homelessness Strategy1, people sleeping on the streets is not an issue locally – in March 2008, using the previous government’s preferred methodology, there was just one rough sleeper in the borough.

Many living and working in Newham might prefer to believe the evidence of their own eyes. But for arguments sake, let’s assume this statistic is true. Now try imagining the feeling of being so desperate and impoverished that you were forced to sleep outdoors, with...