UFO Info Week-End

No wonder the splinter parties BNP Ukip Greens and Respect are gaining support and only half the

No wonder the splinter parties, BNP, Ukip, Greens and Respect are gaining support and only half the electors are expected to vote.And what a pity we are left to guess whether the taping of Howard Flight was an Alastair Campbell operation or the work of a left-leaning Conservative journalist on The Times?Norman Tebbit, now Lord Tebbit, is a former chairman of the Conservative Party. He was Secretary of State for Trade and Industry between 1983 and 1985. The royal wedding is being blessed by a new genre of political syntax. It is, however, so banal, it so lacks the lustre of spin’s sheer cheek, that it is scarcely noticeable That is its mission: to create a culture of not-noticing.

That is its mission: to create a culture of not-noticing.
It was enunciated in an exemplary form in the wake of confessions by both Downing Street and Clarence House that Camilla will be Queen.Not-noticing is the accomplice of not-knowing. We have been invited to believe that all the Queen’s men, all of Downing Street’s courtiers, and all the constitutional experts in the land, didn’t know that Camilla didn’t have a choice: it is the law of the land; the King’s spouse must be a Queen.It has been incorporated into our constitution since the great revolution failed to finish the democratic project and the Restoration reinstated the lore of supremacy, sectarianism and sexism as the spires of our constitutional compromise.It was embedded in the 1772 Royal Marriages Act and it was reiterated in the 1936 legislation on the royals and their successions. Establishing democracy, justice and improved living standards is the other half. This next chapter of the Tulip Revolution is now being written.icnc nonviolent-conflict The writer is Vice President of the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict.

The draft Mental Health Bill was from the start unworkable, unethical and inhumane. The MPs and peers who last week concluded it was “fundamentally flawed” are to be congratulated on their unequivocal verdict. It united the church, medical and legal professions and patients’ organisations in a unique alliance against it. After the coming election, ministers must re-think its most controversial aspects.The Bill revealed the authoritarian instincts of the Labour Government, with its emphasis on incarcerating dangerous psychopaths. Ministers sought to capitalise on the public alarm caused by random attacks, such as those by Peter Bryan and the fatal attack on victim Denis Finnegan in Richmond Park last year, by proposing a heavy-handed law to deliver a safer service billed as the biggest change to mental health legislation for 40 years.By focusing on the tiny numbers who pose a risk, ministers have helped to foster a treatment culture that places public safety above individual care. The ensuing years of carnage in the south, and now Darfur, are the legacy.It is encouraging that the new leaders are co-operating with police to control night-time marauders.

Moreover, there’s a distinction between using violence as a strategic tool, versus the actions of angry protesters, agent-provocateurs or just opportunistic looting, as is occurring in Kyrgyzstan.People power is more than protests. It consists of large numbers of civilians withdrawing co-operation from an oppressor and refusing to obey. Non-violence is used strategically to erode the loyalty of the opponent’s sources of support and control and encourage defections from security forces. If the Kyrgyz authorities fear they will be physically harmed or collectively punished, they may react badly The strategic ramifications are enormous. Even with Akayev sidelined, unrest could provide the pretext for a military coup or, possibly, Russian intervention.Ending oppressive rule is only half the battle. Rather than vulnerable street protests, lower-risk activities can be staged, including leafleting, graffiti and mass public actions such as co-ordinated horn honking/headlight flashing, or walking/driving at half speed. The latter was brilliantly used to launch a campaign at the height of Pinochet’s brutal regime in Chile.If the Tulip Revolution in Kyrgyzstan flops, it could diminish hope for democratic change in other countries, and there could be a tendency to blame the method rather than flaws in its execution.