By Gerry Hassan, Anthony Barnett - 2009-01-05

In an extract from: 'Breaking Out of Britain's Neo-Liberal State [1]' published as a Compass Thinkpiece [2] today, and based on their original openDemocracy essay in OurKingdom, Gerry Hassan and Anthony Barnett identify seven key steps towards the renewal of British democracy.

By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS - December 30, 2008

Israel’s excuse for its violence is that from time to time the Palestinian resistance organization, Hamas, fires off rockets into Israel to protest the ghetto life that Israel imposes on Gazans. The rockets are ineffectual for the most part and seldom claim Israeli casualties. However, the real purpose for the Israeli attack is to destroy Hamas.

By Nigel Morris, Ben Russell and Alistair Dawber - December 25, 2008

Britain faces an unemployment "bloodbath" in the new year with many tens of thousands of jobs axed in the public and private sectors...Senior government figures are braced for a dramatic lengthening in [unemployment lines] in the first quarter of 2009, as employers delay announcing redundancies until after Christmas...Thousands of civil servants and town hall workers will share the pain as government efficiency savings bite, while struggling retailers and manufacturing industry are heading for heavy redundancies.

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 - Ainfos

It was in some way appropriate that a demonstration in support of Greek anarchists provoked by the Athens police killing a 15 year old youth should end up with a stand-off between demonstrators and police...What completely changed the course of events was a decision by the police present to take action against people wearing scarves across their faces.

By Haaretz Service - 11/12/2008

"Twelve assassinations/Eleven homes demolished/Ten wells obstructed/Nine sniper towers/Eight gunships firing/Seven checkpoints blocking/Six tanks a-rolling/Five settlement rings. Four falling bombs/Three trench guns/Two trampled doves/And an uprooted olive tree."

SchNEWS - Friday 12th December 2008 | Issue 659

Police arrested one man after he attempted to board a train at King’s Cross Station. Police have taken to converging on London, [England] station platforms in the hope of catching fare dodgers...This particular traveller...actually had a ticket, however the ticket inspector said it wasn’t valid till after 6pm. A few heated words ensued. As this was happening five plain clothes police pounced on the ne’er do well, thinking he was one of those pesky fare dodgers, and manhandled him.

BBC NEWS - 2008/11/21

Ministers should rethink or delay plans to force lone parents, disabled people and the long-term jobless to seek work, a senior government adviser has said...Those on incapacity benefits will be expected to prepare themselves for finding work while non-working mothers with children as young as one will be encouraged to return to the workplace when feasible...Only severely disabled people and single mothers with babies under one are likely to avoid any benefits conditions.

More than half of people imprisoned at the Detention Center of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in Arusha, Tanzania, declare themselves "Political Prisoners of the UN".

By John Pilger - December 02, 2008

Today (December 1), a surreal event will take place in the centre of London. The Foreign Office is holding an open day "to highlight the importance of Human Rights in our work as part of the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights". There will be various "stalls" and "panel discussions" and Foreign Secretary David Miliband will present a human rights prize. Is this a spoof? No. The Foreign Office wants to raise our "human rights awareness". Kafka and Heller have many counterfeits.

SchNEWS - Friday 21st November 2008

Here’s a data loss we can all be happy about. The [British National Party's] entire membership (around 12,000 people) has gone online...Those exposed include social workers, prison officers, police, military officers, [lawyers] and even teachers.

By John Pilger - November 27, 2008

During the 1960s and 1970s British governments, Labour and Tory, tricked and expelled the entire population of the Chagos Archipelago, more than 2,000 British citizens, so that Diego Garcia could be given to the United States as the site for a military base. It was an act of mass kidnapping carried out in high secrecy.

By Deepak Tripathi - November 28, 2008

The arrest and interrogation of Damian Green, one of Britain's leading opposition politicians, by the counter-terrorism police (November 27, 2008) on 'suspicion of conspiring to commit misconduct in a public office' is an extraordinary event. Counter-terrorism officers searched his homes and offices in London and his constituency. He was questioned for nine hours and released on bail without charge, but must return next February for further questioning. The police action happened when the world's attention was focused on the terrorist attacks in the Indian city of Mumbai.

October 18, 2008 - Znet

As individual Jews come under increasing pressure to unite behind their 'leaders', Brian Klug puts the case for disunity..."Either tolerate having your Jewish identity taken from you - or take it back...Breaking ranks is an ancient Jewish custom."

By John Pilger - Znet Commentary

Reality can be detected...by applying the Orwell Rule and inverting public pronouncements and headlines, such as "Aggressor Russia facing pariah status, US warns", thereby identifying the correct pariah; or by crossing the invisible boundaries that fix the boundaries of political and media discussion. "When truth is replaced by silence," said the Soviet dissident Yevgeny Yevtushenko, "the silence is a lie."

By John Pilger - September 12, 2008

Try to laugh, please. The news is now officially parody and a game for all the family to play...Why are "we" in Iraq? Answer: To "plant a western-style open democracy". Who says so? Paul Wood, the former BBC defence correspondent, and his boss Helen Boaden, director of BBC News. To prove her point, Boaden supplied Medialens.org with 2,700 words of quotations from Tony Blair and George W Bush. Irony? No, she meant it.