Rupert Murdoch, Private Eye

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SUMMARY

* National Vaccine Policy comes in for severe criticism from experts

The National Vaccine Policy, announced by the Union health ministry last year, has come in for severe criticism from experts. They have termed that the government has fallen trap to the same ‘global’ slogans of the World Bank that has pushed the world into recession and the aid politics of Gates Foundation, WHO and Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI).In an article in 'Current Science', Dr N Raghuram, associate professor, School of Biotechnology, GGS Indraprastha University, New Delhi and Dr Y Madhavi, NISTADS, Pusa, New Delhi have said that the government policy pays lip service to several important issues such as criteria for new vaccine introduction into UIP, including the Grades of Recommendation Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) system, strengthening the surveillance of Vaccine Preventable Diseases (VPD) and Adverse Events Following Immunization (AEFI), operational efficiency, etc. “Clearly, this vaccine policy is not designed to enhance national public capacities for public immunization programmes, but to justify spending public money on privately produced vaccines in the name of protection from diseases, whose incidence figures and public health statistics are dubious and industry-manufactured. In its eagerness to push vaccines, this policy completely missed the very idea of selective immunization and implies that all immunization is universal,” the article says.
Ramesh Shankar, Pharmabiz
Related Links:
* India Serves Up Deadly Vaccines Cocktail
Ranjit Devraj, IPS
* Polio programme: let us declare victory and move on
(FULL TEXT)
Neetu Vashisht & Jacob Puliyel, Indian Journal of Medical Ethics
* Open letter to DG, WHO - Pentavalent vaccine related deaths
All India Drug Action Network (AIDAN)
* GAVI funding fatal polio vaccines
Shahbaz Rana, International Herald Tribune

* Daughter's illness linked to Gardasil vaccine

Jessica Lock, 13, and her mother Shelley at their Aberfoyle Park home.
Two months ago, Jessica Lock was a typical 13-year-old - outgoing, healthy and happy. Yet now she is a stranger in her own home, racked by an array of mysterious ailments. A week after being administered in February with the anti-cervical cancer vaccine Gardasil at her school, the teenager began fainting and experiencing strong head pains - and her parents say she has lapsed into a semi-permanent, child-like state. Mother Shelley Lock believes her daughter suffered a severe reaction to Gardasil but said public hospital staff had been unwilling to examine a link, with one doctor inferring Jessica's condition was psychosomatic. "It is frustrating because she was completely healthy before this, she had no stress, had just started Year 8 and was meeting new friends, has a good family, so to have it inferred that it was just stress or psychological was very frustrating," Mrs Lock said. Exhaustive tests ruled out other potential causes such as brain tumours. However, Jessica's condition continued to deteriorate.
Andrew Dowdell, Adelaide Now
Related Links:
* Gardasil Vaccine Warnings Ignored Says Researcher
Julie Smith, Scoop Independent News, New Zealand
* Gardasil®: The HPV Vaccine
Judy Wilyman, PhD Candidate, Murdoch University

* Here Comes OpenLeaks: How It Won't Be WikiLeaks

Daniel Domscheit-Berg
Almost exactly a year ago I spoke via email with ex-WikiLeaks spokesman Daniel Domscheit-Berg. He and the four or five others who'd defected from WikiLeaks in September of 2010 were already at work on OpenLeaks, a successor organization with the same basic goal: to maintain a secure platform where sensitive documents of interest to the public can be uploaded by whistleblowers and anonymously distributed to the press. I was able to meet and speak at length with Daniel, and learned a ton about OpenLeaks and the future of whistleblowing. Domscheit-Berg's presentation on the second day of the conference was mobbed, and the audience was focused, attentive and respectful. This makes quite a change from his circumstances eighteen months ago; when he left WikiLeaks, he was almost instantly pilloried in the media and in the hacker community, owing in large part to the high regard in which Julian Assange, the original founder of WikiLeaks, was held at that time. But what if the "former employee" had very good reasons for being disgruntled? To my mind, the real upshot of the Cablegate debacle was that it put paid to the likelihood of anyone's sharing so much as the contents of a fortune cookie with Julian Assange ever again. Now OpenLeaks is just about ready to launch.
Maria Bustillos, The Awl

* BRING A TENT - Occupy London strikes back - 12 May

12 May, global day of action, 1pm, St Paul's Cathedral. Bring a tent. The 'Map of the 1%' by Occupy London will be available on the day. A draft list can be found here. On 12 May, the Occupy, indignados and take the squares movements all over the world have called for a global day of action. In London we'll be visiting the '1%', those who: gambled with our pensions and savings, created financial nonsense to make money out of thin air, brought the global economy to the brink of ruin and forced ordinary people to pay for their mess, paid hundreds of thousands to wine and dine with our ‘elected’ representatives, have taken more than £1tn in bailouts from the taxpayer and continue to pay themselves exorbitant bonuses, evaded billions in taxes, are benefiting by the crisis by grabbing fat privatisation contracts of our public services. The day will see citizens using peaceful, creative ways to deliver their own messages to the financial and corporate elite of the City. We will continue to exercise our right to peacefully assemble in public spaces and develop the democratic processes to address the problems we face. Important: To receive free notifications on the day via sms text `follow @occupymay`to 86444. (Do not include the quotation marks`).
Information Release, Occupy London

* Security Guards Short-Listed For DLA To PIP Medical Contracts

In this edition we have news that international security companies are fighting for the chance to do your disability living allowance (DLA) to personal independence payment (PIP) medical and win a share of a billion pound pot.  We can also reveal the outrageous lack of digital tape machines for recording employment and support (ESA) medicals and we learn what IDS really thinks of Remploy workers. PIP is due to begin replacing DLA for working age claimants from spring next year, with all current DLA claimants having to be reassessed for the new benefit. The contracts for PIP medicals are worth up to a billion pounds in total and have attracted the attention of many multinational companies. Many thanks to everyone who has sent in news stories over the last fortnight, including: Beverley Hymers, John Pring, Jim Allison, papasmurf, Crazydiamond.
Steve Donnison, Benefits and Work

* Welfare Reform Bill Scandal

As the utterly callous ConDem government forces the disabled and disadvantaged in Britain to pay for the mistakes of the politicians and bankers, human death and destruction follows the progression of the Welfare Reform Bill. From writer Paul Reekie driven to suicide, ghastly errors made by Atos to Britons on the breadline, the consequences of having price-of-milk ignorant posh boys running the country into the ground mount daily.
Information Release, The One Click Group

* Crowd-funding legal actions (Metropolitan Police)

Wow. A lot of people want to see the Met police in court. I had an unpleasant surprise on Wednesday night that my legal excess bill was not small change. (The rest is covered by legal aid, but this bit is non-negotiable) and I need to pay £550 before the end of the month. Sarah J from the Bad Reputation suggested crowd funding, so I put together a Facebook group called ‘I’ll Give Hannah a Tenner to see the Met in Court‘. I was looking for 55 people to pledge a tenner, which would be refunded (as all my legal fees would be) if I win – but if I lose the case then, sorry, thank you for your charity. It went to a good cause. I made a group with this copy: Hannah was arrested, handcuffed and held in a police station on the day of the royal wedding because she was dressed like a zombie (for a flashmob) which police had decided was an anti-royalist statement. She hadn’t broken any laws and was in a Starbucks, queuing to buy a coffee at the time. She and fourteen others arrested pre-emptively (i.e. illegally) have won the right to a Judicial Review. However, even with legal aid she’s got a few costs that can’t be shirked. She’s looking for 55 people to donate a tenner – which will be refunded if she wins the case. And I tweeted and Facebooked it – as did my friends. I was expecting some friends to support it, and maybe even a couple of activists with… ahem… history with the Met. I was thinking even half the costs would be a huge help. You, good people, did not disappoint. Within 24 hours I had more money pledged than I was asking for. Thank you so much, you have no idea. It’s a huge help financially, obviously – it’s also hugely heartening and touching that so many people want to help so much. From the bottom of my heart, thank you everyone.
Hannah 'Chutzpah' Eiseman-Renyard, Firing from a Double-Barrel

* ME is comparable to AIDS, so why do so many people still deny it ...

Like millions of others, I have seen M.E. through the eyes of the medical establishment, the Government and the Media. The picture has not been good. Here is what I have previously understood about M.E. and those who have it. M.E. sufferers are workshy malingerers. They whine, constantly, about feeling tired. They are annoying sympathy seekers. Oh, and mostly, importantly, M.E. is 'all in the head' and can be overcome with a bit more determination and a little less of the 'poor me' attitude. That, generally, is what I thought about M.E. Until, that is, a reader sent me a DVD of a British-made film about the illness titled 'Voices From The Shadows'. So, for M.E. Awareness Week, let us be clear. M.E. is comparable to AIDS and cancer and all the other vicious and uncompromising diseases that savage the body and, in some extreme cases, kill it completely. The fact that it is still so widely misunderstood is a modern day travesty that must be addressed without further delay. Or is it convenient that we still view M.E. as being 'all in the mind'? I believe that we, as a nation, deserve to know the truth. Not only for those still battling the disease, but for those poor souls who have already been lost to it.
Sonia Poulton, Daily Mail
Related Links:
The ME/CFS Canadian Guidelines
Dr Bruce Carruthers et al

* Demand the right to know what you are eating

Unfortunately, genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are currently in many of our staple foods such as soybeans, corn, and sugar beets.  Therefore, the foods you are presently buying at your local grocery store do contain genetically engineered ingredients.  A genetically modified organism is an organism whose genetic material has been altered using genetic engineering techniques. The genetic material from one species is taken and then inserted into the permanent genetic code of another. These techniques, generally known as recombinant DNA technology, use DNA molecules from different sources, which are combined into one molecule to create a new set of genes. The safety of humans, animals, and our environment are threatened by this untested manipulation of foods produced for consumption and contaminating our food supply and environment.  There have been many studies showing the harm that genetically modified organisms can cause, such as cancer, allergies, impaired DNA function, and accumulated toxins, to humans and animals. Consumers have the right to be fully informed about the foods and drinks they consume. Demand full disclosure of all food products sold in America. Put pressure on the U.S. FDA to require mandatory labeling domestically and to represent U.S. consumers’ wishes at Codex by correcting FDA’s position and ending its close alignment with industry groups.
Cheri Tips, News Release, National Health Federation

* Government promotes companies set to profit from disability

Atos has been shortlisted for the PIP contract, despite being criticised for its handling of work capability assessments.
The Department for Work and Pensions has just announced the 10 private companies on the shortlist to deliver the personal independence payment (PIP) assessments, which everyone receiving disability living allowance will have to undergo from next year when DLA is replaced by PIPs. With 3.2 million captive customers, not to mention a monopoly on all new claimants, it's not hard to see the appeal of the contract for profit-hungry companies untroubled by the ethics of slashing 20% from the money provided to disabled people to help them meet some of the basic expenses that living with a disability inevitably incurs. Take Atos, for example, the French multinational, responsible for handling the deeply flawed work capability assessments. Despite huge levels of criticism from individuals and charities that the test is not "fit for purpose", widespread inaccuracies in the assessment process (40% of appeals against Atos decisions are successful), and extensive anecdotal reports of farcical levels of incompetence on the part of the assessors, the DWP has shortlisted Atos for the contract to deliver PIP assessments in every available region. And then there's the outsourcing giant, Serco, excluded from the Norwegian government's investment portfolio because of its involvement in nuclear arms. Serco is shortlisted by the British government to provide "independent" assessments of disabled people. Personally, I'd very much rather my contributions went towards supporting some of the poorest and most vulnerable people in society than into the coffers of companies such as these.
Clare Allan, The Guardian
Related Links:
* The sick cost of cuts to benefits
Tricia Phillips, Mirror
* Backlash against benefits ‘shame’
Ilkeston Advertiser
* Grimsby man told he is fit to work despite blood clots, septicaemia and ulcers
Grimsby Telegraph

* Murdoch not fit to run an international company

It’s been 10 years, 1 month and nine days since the News of the World hacked Milly Dowler’s phone. Five days ago Rupert Murdoch admitted there was a cover up at News Corporation. We found that News Corporation carried out an extensive cover-up of its rampant lawbreaking. It’s most senior executives repeatedly misled Parliament and the two men at the top, Rupert and James Murdoch – who were in charge of the company – must now answer for that. In the view of the majority of committee members Rupert Murdoch is not fit to run and international company like BSkyB. I’m disappointed that some members didn’t feel sufficiently convinced or confident to hold the most powerful to account. It is my personal view that we should embark on an investigation into the relationship between ministers, special advisers and lobbyists working for News International and BSkyB. They brought shame on our police force and our Parliament. One Click Note:  Tom Watson says that the media has brought shame on our police force as if it is no fault of their own, that when the police were bribed they simply couldn't help themselves despite having taken an oath to uphold the law. Such bollox. The electorate will never wear it.  Although Murdoch's activities are being meticulously exposed, the Establishment is deluded if it believes that hanging Murdoch companies out to dry will be sufficient to douse what all the rest of the media and those in public office have been up to for years. WHY are the Motorman files not being placed in the public domain? This is the Establishment cover-up scandal that refuses to die.
Tom Watson MP
Related Links:
* Malignant British police force must be held to account
Ellie Mae O'Hagan, New Statesman
* Rebekah Brooks becomes principal “sacrificial scalp” but far worse is coming with Operation Motorman
Simon Tomlin, News Alliance UK
* Motorman: Britain's biggest establishment cover-up
Information Release, Guido Fawkes
* Operation Motorman Blue Book (download)
Information Release
* Operation Motorman, the corrrupt establishment story that will not go away
Inforrm's Blog
* Britain's corrupt police are at war with the people
David Gilbertson, The Guardian
* Leveson must publish the Motorman Files
Hacked Off press release
* Police corruption, Murdoch and the Leveson Inquiry
The One Click Group

* Britain's Tory Party government still terrified of Murdoch

Well, well, well. The Commons Select Committee on Culture, Media and Sport has issued its report on phone-hacking and it’s very critical of the Digger. But guess what? The MPs on the Committee are divided, with the Tories balking at attacking the Sun King. The Guardian has a lovely infographic which nicely captures the extent of their terror.
John Naughton, Memex 1.1
Related Links:
* Tom Watson smacks down Guido Fawkes
Sunny Hundal, Liberal Conspiracy

* Investment Banks & Financial Maths

Investment bankers are to blame for the credit crunch that has beggared nations, but what about financial mathematicians? As the result of the credit crunch, most workers in the UK are watching their real incomes fall and their pension rights eroded. Those out of work have little prospect of finding a job in the foreseeable future. There is a big squeeze in expenditure on education, health, welfare, and almost every essential service we have come to expect the state to provide. Worst of all, young people finishing their education are finding it very hard to get started in the jobs market. By the end of the first quarter in 2012, UK is back in recession. Meanwhile, the bankers largely responsible for what has happened, and who would be out of business if the taxpayers hadn’t handed over £90 billion to bail them out continue to draw huge salaries with bonuses on top. Why should those who are the most responsible for the financial disaster continue to see their standard of living rise year by year when the rest of us get poorer and poorer? Ever since the deregulation “Big Bang” of 1986, the UK economy has become more and more dependent on financial services. Successive governments have talked about promoting industry but it has been the City that got what it wanted, including the “light touch” regulation that encouraged the bubble to expand so dangerously. However much the doyens of financial mathematics like to absolve themselves from blame, they bear major responsibility for providing the tools that enable one group of people (themselves included) to get prodigiously rich and beggar the rest of society. It is time for aspiring mathematicians to wake up and consider their social responsibility and ideals as well as the beauty of mathematics. If financial bankers are losing their jobs, there certainly are not going to be many more jobs in financial mathematics either.
Prof. Peter Saunders and Dr. Mae-Wan Ho, Institute of Science in Society

* Protest: Abolish the Corrupt IPCC – Resounding Success

Coffin reserved for the corrupt IPCC
I had the privilege to attend the protest – Abolish the Corrupt IPCC. By some standards, it was attended by only a small crowd of people, but I felt that despite the size it was the most effective I’d attended. It was a resounding success. Speeches were made by numerous people who were victims of criminal police and who then testified that they received no satisfaction from their complaints to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC). These included: deaths in custody, beatings, failure to investigate effectively, corruption and falsifying evidence. Victims of rape were represented, women and girls who despite experiencing this heinous crime, received no justice. After being failed by the police they were subsequently failed by the IPCC. Imagine it, being violated in that way, fighting for justice and yet the fiend walks free!
Dave Knight, Human Rights Blog
Related Links:
* Protest: Abolish The 'Independent' Police Complaints Commission
Press Release, Campaign4Justice
* Malignant British police force must be held to account
Ellie Mae O'Hagan, New Statesman
* Britain's corrupt police are at war with the people
David Gilbertson, The Guardian
* Police watchdog admits IPCC useless
The Bureau of Investigative Journalism

* Bow resident seeks to evict London Olympics missile base

Lisa Simpson gives Bart a blow job:
official London Olympics logo
(Caption courtesy of One Click)
The owner of a flats complex to be used as an army missile base during the London Olympics is facing a legal challenge over its decision to lease roof space to the military. A resident of the Bow Quarter estate is challenging the legality of a deal between the company that owns the freehold and the Ministry of Defence to site a battery of surface-to-air missiles to guard against potential airborne terrorist attacks. "We have appointed lawyers with a view to making a legal challenge to the management company's decision to allow the MoD to install the rockets here," said Brian Whelan, a resident. "They didn't consult with us and they have neglected their duty to ask the residents' opinions about this." Some residents fear the high-velocity missile system, to be fitted on a water tower with clear views of the skies above the Olympic park, could make the complex more vulnerable to attack. Ten soldiers will operate the weapons at all times, possibly with armed police protection. In all, 51 different police forces are now sending officers to support Olympic security; 12,500 police will be involved in the Games, and 13,500 members or the armed forces.
Robert Booth and Nick Hopkins, The Guardian
Related Links:
* Lockdown London: how the Olympics will turn London into (more of) a police state
Cory Doctorow, boingboing

* One Click Stats, April 2012

We provide our readers with the top fifteen documents and articles read/downloaded by thousands of people from all over the globe during April 2012. The News Archives are the most regularly accessed item on this site. This website not only contains the News Archives that carry the topical published items of the day, it also carries many, many documents.  From academic papers, articles, case histories, legal issues, government documents, video links and more besides, we carry a great deal of information that grows every day. Although only very recently published, storming up the ranks this month have been Treating sinusitis: Politically incorrect drug resistance due to Pneumococcal vaccine followed by Polio programme: let us declare victory and move on. Happy reading to all.
Information Release, The One Click Group

* American Medicine--No Trace of Compassionate Care

Three reports in this week's New York Times document the magnitude of harm produced by America's profit-driven, healthcare system affecting--not only the uninsured poor--but affecting all but today's Robber Barons, the .001% of Americans--who are being mistreated and pick-pocketed. The commercialization of American Medicine has obliterated medicine's humanitarian mission, adopting a rapacious business model. Medical institutions are now being run as disreputable for-profit businesses. Patients entering a hospital emergency room in need of medical care are being abused, detained and grilled, as if they were criminal suspects. Healthcare providers and insurers, in the pursuit of increased profits, have resorted to ruthless tactics befitting Mafia enforcers or loan sharks, when interfacing with patients. Insurance carriers are denying insured "middle class" taxpayers their paid-for entitlements by changing the reimbursement rates. Hospitals, in turn, are demanding pre-payment from patients at the point of admission--the Emergency Room. And, hospitals are hiring mercenary collection agencies--such as Accretive--whose agents run amok on hospital floors indistinguishable from hospital staff, terrorizing patients with demands for payment. The Times reports that:  Accretive is one of the few companies specializing in hospital debt collection that is publicly traded. Last year, it reported $29.2 million in profit, up 130 percent from a year earlier.
Vera Sharav, AHRP

* India Serves Up Deadly Vaccines Cocktail

Ignoring widespread concern over the safety, efficacy and cost of pentavalent vaccines, India’s central health ministry has, this month, approved inclusion of the prophylactic cocktail in the universal immunisation programme in seven of its provinces. Pentavalents, produced by several manufacturers and promoted by the Global Alliance on Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI), has had a history of causing adverse reactions and deaths in India’s neighbouring countries like Bhutan, Sri Lanka and Pakistan. Pentavalents were launched in Kerala and Tamil Nadu in December 2011, but the results were not encouraging. Kerala recorded four infant deaths following vaccination, with symptoms similar to what were seen in other South Asian countries. But despite infant deaths and two pending PILs (with yet another being heard in the Delhi High Court) against pentavalents, the health ministry announced on Apr. 16 that pentavalents would be introduced in five more states - Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Goa, Jammu and Kashmir and Puducherry in October. "Going by what we have seen in the neighbouring countries and now in the state of Kerala, pentavalents can, without warning, cause children (to suffer) hypersensitivity reactions and death," Jacob Puliyel, an eminent paediatrician at St. Stephen’s hospital in New Delhi and member of the NTAGI, told IPS. Puliyel likened the situation to penicillin sensitivity and said it bordered on criminality to be administering pentavalents without first testing a child for hypersensitivity. "Every child that is being given a dose of pentavalent vaccine is a potential victim of the adverse reaction," he said.
Ranjit Devraj, IPS
Related Links:
* Open letter to DG, WHO - Pentavalent vaccine related deaths
All India Drug Action Network (AIDAN)
* GAVI funding fatal polio vaccines
Shahbaz Rana, International Herald Tribune
* Baby killed by Pentavalent vaccine
Dr Rajiv Mittal
* Sudden Deaths After Unsafe Pentavalent Vaccine
S.K. Mittal, British Medical Journal
* Children In Bhutan Sacrificed For Corrupt Pentavalent Vaccine Research
Govinda Rizal, APFA News
* Sri Lanken Deaths Following Pentavalent Vaccine - Unacceptable Collateral Damage
Jacob Puliyel, British Medical Journal
* Pentavalent Vaccine Suspended As Children Die
Sonam Pelden, Kuensel Online

* Ethical concerns on Roca et al vaccination in Gambia study

The study by Roca et al of the effects of community wide vaccination with PCV-7, on pneumococcal nasopharyngeal carriage in The Gambia, raises a large number of ethical concerns. In addition there is concern that the long term beneficial effects of pneumococcal conjugate vaccines (PCVs) may be reduced by proliferation of non-vaccine (NV) strains. The study involved the administration of PCV-7 to a population of adults and children over 2 years (groups who are not the primary target for vaccination and who are not likely to benefit much from the vaccine) to determine the community-wide impact of PCV-7 vaccination of the population on pneumococcal carriage in rural Gambia. The benefits to the study participants from the vaccine are minimal, while at the same time it exposed the population (at least hypothetically) to some risk from the increased proliferation of NV strains. As discussed in the subsequent paragraphs, this study apparently breaches each of the basic ethical principles of clinical research. There are grave concerns about the ethics of this study. We hope all concerned including the ethics committees involved will take responsibility for what has happened and draw appropriate lessons from it, so that the continued exploitation of poor and vulnerable communities ceases to be perpetrated in the name of medical research.
Dr Amitav Banerjee, MD Professor, PLoS Medicine

* Polio vaccine induced paralysis soars

New Delhi: The Pulse polio program may be a success, but are experts focusing too much on vaccination? Perhaps even overdosing some children? Shortly after being vaccinated for polio, four-year-old Ansh developed paralysis. In a study published in the Indian journal of ethics, Dr Jacob Puliyel collates data to find cases of what's called non-polio related paralysis have gone up in states where there have been intense immunisation rounds. So is the government overdosing some children with these vaccines? "Pulse polio was a good program. You started this to reduce the incidences of paralysis because of polio. Polio is a water-borne disease and if we clean up the water and sanitation in the state, polio will automatically come down. With a small number of doses of oral polio vaccine we could have eradicated the disease," said Dr Puliyel. He further said, "But somebody got a very bright idea. Instead of cleaning up the water supply and sanitation, they decide that instead of giving five doses of polio (vaccine). If you give 50 doses of polio, we can get rid of polio without cleaning the water system and this is where the problem arose."
Shalini, CNN-IBN
Related Links:
* Polio programme: let us declare victory and move on
(FULL TEXT)
Neetu Vashisht & Jacob Puliyel, Indian Journal of Medical Ethics
* The only way to eradicate paralytic poliomyelitis is to stop vaccinating
Dr Viera Scheibner (PhD), British Medical Journal
* Polio Vaccines Now The #1 Cause of Polio Paralysis
Sayer Ji, Activist Post
* WHO scandal: India announces polio vaccines are paralysing children
The Telegraph, Calcutta

* Protect Vaccine Choice & Freedom

The same Pharma-backed medical trade lobby that eroded parental informed consent rights in California and Washington state last year are back again working with public health officials to attack the personal belief exemption to vaccination for religious, conscientious and philosophical beliefs. NVIC is providing information and working with families in Vermont, California, Arizona, South Carolina and other states to defend the legal right to exercise non-medical exemptions to vaccination. Many pediatricians are denying medical care to children if parents choose to use fewer vaccines or exercise caution when re-vaccinating children, who have already suffered vaccine reactions. This makes non-medical vaccine exemptions even more important to defend in America. Federal and state public health officials are also trying to persuade employers to force health care workers to get an annual flu shot or be fired! Who will be next? Don't let YOUR vaccine choices be taken away. Get involved! As NVIC marks its 30th Anniversary in April of 2012, we are so blessed to have a wonderful humanitarian benefactor, supporting NVIC's historic efforts to prevent vaccine injuries and defend vaccine freedom of choice in America. Like last year, he is offering NVIC a $3 for $1 Donation Challenge Grant. For every $1 you donate, your gift will be matched with a $3 donation from our generous benefactor!! If you donate $50 or more, NVIC will send you a complimentary DVD copy of the groundbreaking, award winning film THE GREATER GOOD. THE GREATER GOOD features families impacted by life-altering vaccine reactions, the perspective of vaccine experts and NVIC's three decades of public education and advocacy work. Stand up for vaccine freedom and donate $50 in April to receive your copy of this critically acclaimed and powerful documentary.
Information Release, National Vaccine Information Center

* Richard Branson answers questions on the drug war

Sir Richard Branson, the Virgin Group Founder, and a commissioner with the Global Commission on Drug Policy, answers Globe and Mail readers' questions about why the war on drugs has failed. Sir Richard Branson: The first thing I and the Global Commission recommend is to stop criminal penalties for people who use drugs but do no harm to others. Legalization and regulation also need to be explored through trying different policies. But the first step is to have a serious debate among politicians about the failures of the drug war. A focus on education and treatment will be much better for society than locking people up for drug use. The war on drugs is a long-standing set of global policies and I don't think business leaders have seen much value in fighting to end it. I'm fighting it because I think it has a horrible impact on society, but not because of any commercial interest.
Richard Branson, The Globe and Mail
Related Links:
* Australian report calls for rethink on war on drugs
The One Click Group / Sky News Australia
* British War On Drugs Policy Review
BBC News
* War On Drugs
Report of the Global Commission on Drug Policy

* Murdoch's Helicopter on the Roof: Don't Give Him Asylum

I've missed you guys. Though it's great to be covering the Leveson Inquiry for the DailyBeast and Newsweek, it's on the blogs in the US that I built up the support, courage and debating skills to devote these last few months to covering the Hacking Scandal and the Leveson Inquiry, and doing my bid to purge the UK of years of monopolistic media practices and abuse of power. Just so you know, the hacking scandal has finally moved into a much bigger area of illegality, which was the first reason two years ago my interest (and concern) about Murdoch's News Corp was piqued. James Murdoch's bid for BSkyB would have given News Corp. a distorting monopoly in broadcast that it already has in newspapers here (40 percent of the readership.) Now, like Saigon in 1975, the Murdoch helicopter is on the roof of News International. Last week’s revelations about back door channels between senior ministers and News Corp. over the $16 billion takeover of our pay TV monopoly, BSkyB, are a clear sign that the Murdochs are burning their bridges, and trying to take down the Coalition Government. But though he owns no more than 10 percent of any market in the US (thanks to your less suborned anti-trust and foreign ownership laws) Murdoch is a US citizen, News Corp. is registered in Delaware, and with civil cases in phone hacking on US soil pending, there's still much more to go in showing how the whole UK scandal was run from the US.
Peter Jukes, FOTHOM XLIII, Daily Kos

* Protest: Abolish The 'Independent' Police Complaints Commission

On Tues 1st of May 2012, (3pm -6pm) at the Head offices of the IPCC there will be a mass protest calling for the following; -A full & public Parliamentary enquiry into the IPCC and the wider Police Complaints system (a petition will be launched) -The abolition of the IPCC as it currently stands. Whilst it is clear that a system for police accountability is vital and required in law, the current conduct of the IPCC falls far short of what we should reasonably expect. There is mass dissatisfaction from those people who have turned to the IPCC for help and complaint outcomes are of serious concern. Our view is that it appears both misconduct of the police and their criminal behaviour is regularly covered up. It is not only the general public who have expressed concern over the IPCC. In 2008 the Police Action Lawyers Group resigned from the IPCC advisory body as a result of their serious concerns. We wish to invite you to cover the protest which starts at 3pm and closes at 6pm. There will be many interesting speakers and victims of police corruption/IPCC cover up. It is expected to be a well attended event your coverage will be most appreciated.
Press Release, Campaign4Justice
Related Links:
* Malignant British police force must be held to account
Ellie Mae O'Hagan, New Statesman
* Britain's corrupt police are at war with the people
David Gilbertson, The Guardian
* Police watchdog admits IPCC useless
The Bureau of Investigative Journalism

* The Secret Olympics?

Lisa Simpson gives Bart a blow job:
official London Olympics logo
(Caption courtesy of One Click)
In a remarkable – if not bizarre – twist to the Olympic Story, Amateur Photographer reports that it will be against Olympic rules to tweet, share on Facebook or in any way share your photos of the event. Quite how this will be policed is beyond comprehension and one would hope police officers are not going to be expected to pursue anyone seen posting photos on Instagram. Coming after moves to restrict public demonstrations, photographers being interrogated on public footpaths and concern around heavy-handed commercial restrictions on what logos you can wear inside the Olympic village, this is yet another worrying development. Rather than being the celebration organisers promised, London 2012 is rapidly risking becoming one of the most intimidating and restrictive events seen for decades. Perhaps it’s all a secret marketing ploy to boost sales of nineteen eighty four. It was set in London, after all.
Nick Pickles, Big Brother Watch
Related Links:
* Disabled activists target Olympics
Tony Patey, Morning Star
* Anti-cuts 'street parties' to rival Queen's diamond jubilee and Olympics
Matthew Taylor, The Guardian

* Londoners' fury at MoD plans to put Olympic missiles on roofs

(Pic courtesy of One Click)
Britain's military has told residents of an upscale apartment development near the Olympic Park in east London it is installing a missile battery on top of a tower within their housing complex to defend the 2012 Games this summer. The site is one of a number around the capital the army is considering as bases for surface-to-air missiles to protect the London games from an aerial attack, the Ministry of Defence said. It is the first time such missiles have been deployed in London since the end of World War Two, shocking some residents at the Bow Quarter housing development, sited in a converted red-brick Victorian match factory. "There was no consultation, no one knocked on the door," Brian Whelan, a 28-year-old journalist, told Reuters. "You just wake up one morning, there's a leaflet telling you they are going to put missiles on the roof." The measure was excessive and had upset his girlfriend, he said. "I can't imagine the circumstances that would require you to fire missiles over a highly populated area." The rooftop missile battery is one of a number of extraordinary measures Londoners can expect during the high-profile sporting festival, including restrictions on road lanes for Olympic use and a security bill of more than a billion pounds ($1.6 billion). ($1 = 0.6159 British pounds).
Reuters
Related Links:
* Lockdown London: how the Olympics will turn London into (more of) a police state
Cory Doctorow, boingboing

* India: Paralysis cases soar after oral polio vaccine introduced

A boy is given an oral polio vaccine.
A new report by two Delhi pediatricians suggests that the sharp rise in childhood paralysis in India is due to the increased usage of the oral polio vaccine. Dr. Neetu Vashisht and Dr. Jacob Puliyel of St. Stephens Hospital created the report after analyzing data from India’s 10-year-old National Polio Surveillance Project, which is available online. Their findings, which were published in the Indian Journal of medical Ethics, revealed that rates of non-polio acute flaccid paralysis (NPAFP) have increased 1200% since the oral polio vaccine was introduced to India a decade ago. The oral polio vaccine contains a live polio virus and has been linked to polio-like paralysis.
Elliott Freeman, Digital Journal
Related Links:
* Polio programme: let us declare victory and move on
(FULL TEXT)
Neetu Vashisht & Jacob Puliyel, Indian Journal of Medical Ethics
* The only way to eradicate paralytic poliomyelitis is to stop vaccinating
Dr Viera Scheibner (PhD), British Medical Journal
* Polio Vaccines Now The #1 Cause of Polio Paralysis
Sayer Ji, Activist Post
* WHO scandal: India announces polio vaccines are paralysing children
The Telegraph, Calcutta

* Britain on the breadline as thousands face food poverty

Two new food banks are opening in Britain every week as people struggle to make ends meet. The impact of Britain’s economic downturn is forcing tens of thousands of ordinary families to queue up for food handouts. The news that two new food banks are opening in Britain every week as people struggle to make ends meet should make each and every one of us pause and think. In one of the world’s wealthiest nations, it proves that more and more people are asking for help to feed themselves and their children, and that’s shocking. But is the exponential growth of food banks evidence of a new type of food poverty? Proof that the poorest in our country are going hungry? The Trussell Trust, a Christian charity which runs the vast majority of the food banks, thinks so. They now help more than 120,000 people by giving them food, and a more than a third of them are children. They believe half a million people could need their assistance in three years as the recession and the benefit changes hit, and hunger bites.
Penny Marshall, Chill4Us carers
Related Links:
* More children go to school hungry, warn teachers
Richard Garner, The Independent

* Government persecution of disabled is waste of time and taxpayers' money


The programme of reassessing incapacity benefits has been condemned as degrading and humiliating by a woman in North Devon. The woman, who suffers from the degenerative Parkinson's disease, is in her late thirties and lives on the outskirts of Barnstaple. She takes daily medication and says she is unable to hold a pen. She says she is too frightened of the Department of Work and Pensions to give her real name and asked to be called Angela. She said: "It's humiliating and degrading. I have a degenerative illness and it has no cure, so I'm not going to get better. It is hard enough to face up to that." Angela did not condone benefit fraud, but said official figures showed that only 0.5 per cent of all benefit fraud related to incapacity benefit. She said: "The Government is just picking on a minority." She said the assessments, carried out by private company Atos Healthcare under a £100 million contract, were a waste of taxpayers' money.
this is North Devon

END SUMMARY

National Vaccine Policy comes in for severe criticism from experts

Ramesh Shankar, Mumbai
May 07, 2012

The National Vaccine Policy, announced by the Union health ministry last year, has come in for severe criticism from experts. They have termed that the government has fallen trap to the same ‘global’ slogans of the World Bank that has pushed the world into recession and the aid politics of Gates Foundation, WHO and Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI).

In an article in 'Current Science', Dr N Raghuram, associate professor, School of Biotechnology, GGS Indraprastha University, New Delhi and Dr Y Madhavi, NISTADS, Pusa, New Delhi have said that the government policy pays lip service to several important issues such as criteria for new vaccine introduction into UIP, including the Grades of Recommendation Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) system, strengthening the surveillance of Vaccine Preventable Diseases (VPD) and Adverse Events Following Immunization (AEFI), operational efficiency, etc.

“Clearly, this vaccine policy is not designed to enhance national public capacities for public immunization programmes, but to justify spending public money on privately produced vaccines in the name of protection from diseases, whose incidence figures and public health statistics are dubious and industry-manufactured. In its eagerness to push vaccines, this policy completely missed the very idea of selective immunization and implies that all immunization is universal,” the article says.

Questioning the hurry in which the Policy was announced by the government, experts questioned about the hurry under which the entire drafting exercise done and intriguing secrecy, when the government has been having its way with the national immunization programmes all these decades despite the lack of a clearly articulated policy? Unlike the policy drafts for National Health Policy, National Health Research Policy, National Biotechnology Policy, etc., which were kept in the public domain for discussion among stakeholders, this vaccine policy draft was not kept in public domain.

The policy does not provide an uncompromising scientific basis on which a vaccine can be introduced in Indian UIP based on its proven ‘need’ (actual disease burden in relation to other diseases), suitability (for local strains and variants etc.), safety and efficacy, cost-benefit and risk benefit analyses based on evidences from India.

Thus, the policy is not only putting the cart before the horse, but also taking a philosophically or ideologically different approach; it is the difference between adopting suitable vaccines to control serious diseases and finding disease burden to suit available vaccines. In other words, it is the difference between finding solutions to problems and offering solutions to imaginary or insignificant problems.

Criticizing the PPP model adopted by the government for this policy, the article says that this circular model would collapse if any link is broken. The government’s fanatical adherence to PPP despite the recent history of dubious PPPs highlighted in the media, parliament and courts is another area of concern. The report of CAG on the Commonwealth Games 2010 noted that Suresh Kalmadi converted the government owned organizing committee into a body outside governmental control despite full funding from the government.

The new PPPs being envisaged for vaccines will be no different, except that now this is no longer the sleight of hand of a minister, but a matter of national policy of public spending and private profiteering! The policy rightly recommends expansion of NTAGI to include public health researchers, academicians, epidemiologists, etc. but does not say who will select them or how and for how long, or how to ensure a composition that prevents conflicts of interest and promotes rational decision-making.

http://pharmabiz.com/NewsDetails.aspx?aid=68851&sid=1

**********
Related Links:
* India Serves Up Deadly Vaccines Cocktail
Ranjit Devraj, IPS
* Polio programme: let us declare victory and move on
(FULL TEXT)
Neetu Vashisht & Jacob Puliyel, Indian Journal of Medical Ethics
* Open letter to DG, WHO - Pentavalent vaccine related deaths
All India Drug Action Network (AIDAN)
* GAVI funding fatal polio vaccines
Shahbaz Rana, International Herald Tribune
**********

Mother links daughter's mystery illness to vaccine

May 8, 2012

Here Comes OpenLeaks: How It Won't Be WikiLeaks

Daniel Domscheit-Berg

ONE CLICK EXTRACTS

Almost exactly a year ago I spoke via email with ex-WikiLeaks spokesman Daniel Domscheit-Berg. He and the four or five others who'd defected from WikiLeaks in September of 2010 were already at work on OpenLeaks, a successor organization with the same basic goal: to maintain a secure platform where sensitive documents of interest to the public can be uploaded by whistleblowers and anonymously distributed to the press. Now OpenLeaks is just about ready to launch. Domscheit-Berg gave a presentation on the project some days ago at the Share 2 conference in Belgrade, and I just had to get over there to hear it. (I don't know! All of a sudden I was in Belgrade narcoleptically passing out in my soup, and also attending this surprisingly inspiring tech conference.) I was able to meet and speak at length with Daniel, and learned a ton about OpenLeaks and the future of whistleblowing.

Domscheit-Berg's presentation on the second day of the conference was mobbed, and the audience was focused, attentive and respectful. This makes quite a change from his circumstances eighteen months ago; when he left WikiLeaks, he was almost insantly pilloried in the media and in the hacker community, owing in large part to the high regard in which Julian Assange, the original founder of WikiLeaks, was held at that time.

But what if the "former employee" had very good reasons for being disgruntled?

To my mind, the real upshot of the Cablegate debacle was that it put paid to the likelihood of anyone's sharing so much as the contents of a fortune cookie with Julian Assange ever again.

Here Comes OpenLeaks: How It Won't Be WikiLeaks

12 May: Global Day of Action – Meet the 1%

• ·         12 May, global day of action, 1pm, St Paul's Cathedral
• ·         Bring a tent
• ·         The 'Map of the 1%' by Occupy London will be available on the day. A draft list can be found here.

On 12 May, the Occupy, indignados and take the squares movements all over the world have called for a global day of action.

In London we'll be visiting the '1%', those who:

• ·         gambled with our pensions and savings,
• ·         created financial nonsense to make money out of thin air,
• ·         brought the global economy to the brink of ruin and forced ordinary people to pay for their mess,
• ·         paid hundreds of thousands to wine and dine with our ‘elected’ representatives,
• ·         have taken more than £1tn in bailouts from the taxpayer and continue to pay themselves exorbitant bonuses,
• ·         evaded billions in taxes,
• ·         are benefiting by the crisis by grabbing fat privatisation contracts of our public services.

From banks and hedge funds to lobbyists and private equity firms, they're all in the 'Map of the 1%' that has been produced by Occupy London and will be available on the day.

Nowhere in Europe is the unequal distribution of wealth as striking as in the UK. The richest 1,000  persons, just 0.005% of the adult population, increased their wealth by  £155bn over the last three years. That is enough for themselves alone to pay off the entire budget deficit and still leave them with  £30bn to spare. [1]

 "'We're all in this together' never rang so hollow. Whilst the rest of the country is being crippled by war-time austerity, the very same people who caused the crisis are now sitting on wealth even greater than what they had before the crash", says Laura Taylor, an Occupy London supporter.

Saturday will start with a teach-out at St. Paul's at 1pm, organised by the Tent City University, the educational arm of Occupy London. It is aiming at promoting informed political action and exploring viable economic alternatives before we pay a visit to the City institutions that caused and continue to profit by the crisis.

The day will see citizens using peaceful, creative ways to deliver their own messages to the financial and corporate elite of the City.

We will continue to exercise our right to peacefully assemble in public spaces and develop the democratic processes to address the problems we face.

*** Stay in touch ***

- Important: To receive free notifications on the day via sms text `follow @occupymay` to 86444. (Do not include the quotation marks `)

- Join the Facebook event http://www.facebook.com/events/327612820626082

- DONATE to help make it bigger, louder and bolder than ever here: http://www.sponsume.com/project/meet-1-0

-Follow on https://twitter.com/occupylondon and https://www.facebook.com/ ------------------------------

[1] The Sunday Times Rich List 2012 http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/public/richlist/

8 May newsletter

SECURITY GUARDS SHORT-LISTED FOR DLA TO PIP MEDICAL CONTRACTS

IB to ESA: 0 points to Support Group with 5 minute appeal
“Many thanks to Steve, Holly and everyone else for the guides and all the excellent advice here which were a massive help in preparing all the paperwork for the appeal. This resulted in the hearing being only 5 minutes, with a similar wait for the decision notice to be prepared.”

More good news from the forum at the end of this newsletter.
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In this edition we have news that international security companies are fighting for the chance to do your disability living allowance (DLA) to personal independence payment (PIP) medical and win a share of a billion pound pot.  We can also reveal the outrageous lack of digital tape machines for recording employment and support (ESA) medicals and we learn what IDS really thinks of Remploy workers.

But first, as is seemingly becoming a tradition, the money off offer for loyal newsletter subscribers.

£3.50 OFF AN ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION - ENDS MIDNIGHT THURSDAY
If you’re not already a member, join the Benefits and Work community (open access)
before midnight on Thursday and you can get £3.50 off the cost of your annual subscription.  Just type the following code into the coupon box when you pay via PayPal:

84254

to get an annual subscription for £15.95, down from £19.45

Find out how to subscribe now. (Open access)

DLA TO PIP MEDICAL BONANZA
Disability living allowance (DLA) claimants have been  divided into four regional lots and are being sold off to ten shortlisted bidders – including multinational security companies - for the purpose of being medically assessed for personal independence payment.  

A fifth, nationwide lot is also up for grabs, but the DWP have said they do not intend to use this contract  unless things go wrong with regional suppliers.

PIP is due to begin replacing DLA for working age claimants from spring next year, with all current DLA claimants having to be reassessed for the new benefit. The contracts for PIP medicals are worth up to a billion pounds in total and have attracted the attention of many multinational companies.

Amongst the bidders through to the final round in all four regions is the increasingly heavily criticised Atos, who will undoubtedly be hoping that their LIMA software will give them the edge over their rivals.

Relative newcomers to the scene are security guards G4S, who have also been shortlisted for every contract.  Their forensic medical arm, though more used to helping catch rapists and paedophiles, won a small contract to pilot PIP assessments last year.  In 2010, three G4S security guards were bailed after the death, whilst they were restraining him, of an Angolan refugee being deported from Heathrow.

Serco, another company with a heavy security presence, have been shortlisted for Northern Ireland.  Amongst many other contracts, Serco run prisons, detention centres and immigration removal centres in the UK and abroad.  In Australia, a Serco training manual is alleged to have taught employees how to use pain, including punches and kicks, to subdue asylum seekers.  

Capita, which runs the Criminal Records Bureau on behalf of the Home Office and is invariably  referred to as ‘Crapita’ by Private Eye, has also been shortlisted for all regions.  The company has been involved in  a number of less than successful public service contracts in the past, including Individual Learning Accounts which were subject to  fraudulent claims on an unprecedented scale  and which were shut down after just one year.

Other potential providers include Avanta, Ingeus Deloitte, APM UK, Reed In Partnership and Vertex.  

A4E, currently mired in fraud investigations, did not make it through to any of the shortlists.

We’ll bring you news of the successful bidders as soon as it becomes available.  More details of the contract are available from the DWP website. (External link)
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DLA high rate care and mobility on new claim
“This is better than I could possibly expect, and was due to a mixture of your wonderful advice for filling in the form, and an understanding ATOS Doctor (didn't know they existed)."
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ESA RECORDING OUTRAGE
In other news, a campaigner has forced the DWP to disclose that Atos have just 11 digital recorders (external link) to cover 140 medical assessment centres. It’s not surprising then, that asking for your ESA work capability assessment to be recorded can lead to long delays and that  DWP/Atos are very reluctant to tell claimants that they have the right to ask for a recording to be made.

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Support group award
“I have just been awarded ESA in the Support Group and found the information and advice you provided invaluable . . . I also had my medical recorded in case I needed to appeal and this was no problem.”
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ACCESS TO WORK SHRINKS
It has also been disclosed that the number of new claimants being given help via the Access to Work scheme (members only) is continuing to fall, in spite of the coalition’s claim that it is determined to help more disabled people into work.  The figures  undermine the government’s claim that closing Remploy factories was acceptable because workers could use the access to work scheme to help them find mainstream, instead of supported, employment.

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From fit to work to support group after complaint
“For this, I owe everything to B&W. Thank you all!”
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REMPLOY OUTBURST
Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith revealed in an unscripted outburst last week (external link) that he believes Remploy staff spend all their  time sitting around “just making cups of coffee”.  In which case, he’s probably sleeping soundly in spite of the fact that he knows that the majority of Remploy staff have little hope of getting work in the current economic climate, particularly if the Access to Work scheme is being slowly strangled.

OTHER NEWS
There’s more news in the members area (members only) than we can fit into this newsletter.

Many thanks to everyone who has sent in news stories over the last fortnight, including: Beverley Hymers, John Pring, Jim Allison, papasmurf, Crazydiamond.

GOOD NEWS FROM THE FORUM – OPEN ACCESS LINKS
Finally, as always,  a selection of good news from the forum:

Migrated from IB to ESA WRAG with no medical assessment
“Thank you for much for your great and very helpful website - £20 very well spent.”

DLA high rate mobility and low rate care
“together with the B&W advice I got a result”

WRAG without medical, DLA high rate mobility and middle rate care renewed indefinitely
“A big thank you to B and W”

DLA high rate mobility, middle rate care on appeal
“Thankz 4 all help and advice I got from this website”

ESA Support Group after medical assessment
“I would like to wholeheartedly thank B&W for your invaluable assistance during my preparations.”

Success at ESA appeal, moved from WRAG to Support Group
“I'm not sure I would have felt the confidence to do this if it weren't for the B&W guides”

From IB to ESA Support Group without medical
“Thanks again for the very useful guides.”

Good luck,

Steve Donnison

Benefits and Work Publishing Ltd
Company registration No.  5962666

As the utterly callous ConDem government forces the disabled and disadvantaged in Britain to pay for the mistakes of the politicians and bankers, human death and destruction follows the progression of the Welfare Reform Bill. From writer Paul Reekie driven to suicide, ghastly errors made by Atos to Britons on the breadline, the consequences of having price-of-milk ignorant posh boys running the country into the ground mount daily.

The impact of welfare cuts: Britons on the breadline

An IoS investigation: Charities warn the Government's plan to reform benefits will mean a huge rise in numbers relying on foodbanks.

**********

Benefits cut for disabled man too ill to go to test

A DISABLED man had his benefits cut after missing a health assessment – because he was too ill to get there.

Claim welfare reforms drove writer Paul Reekie to suicide

ONE of the Capital’s best-known writers was driven to suicide by the Government’s welfare reforms, a doctor has claimed.

**********

Golcar man has both legs amputated, applies for disability benefit & gets asked: 'So, how far can you walk?'

A MAN who has had both legs amputated is struggling to survive financially – because bureaucrats are still deciding if he is disabled.

Crowd-funding legal actions

Wow. A lot of people want to see the Met in court.

I had an unpleasant surprise on Wednesday night that my legal excess bill was not small change. (The rest is covered by legal aid, but this bit is non-negotiable) and I need to pay £550 before the end of the month.

(Background to the case nicely covered by the Guardian here:)

Sarah J from the Bad Reputation suggested crowd funding, so I put together a Facebook group called ‘I’ll Give Hannah a Tenner to see the Met in Court‘. I was looking for 55 people to pledge a tenner, which would be refunded (as all my legal fees would be) if I win – but if I lose the case then, sorry, thank you for your charity. It went to a good cause.

I made a group with this copy:

Hannah was arrested, handcuffed and held in a police station on the day of the royal wedding because she was dressed like a zombie (for a flashmob) which police had decided was an anti-royalist statement. She hadn’t broken any laws and was in a Starbucks, queuing to buy a coffee at the time. She and fourteen others arrested pre-emptively (i.e. illegally) have won the right to a Judicial Review.

Full details available here: http://pageantryandprecrime.wordpress.com/

However, even with legal aid she’s got a few costs that can’t be shirked. She’s looking for 55 people to donate a tenner – which will be refunded if she wins the case.

And I tweeted and Facebooked it – as did my friends. I was expecting some friends to support it, and maybe even a couple of activists with… ahem… history with the Met. I was thinking even half the costs would be a huge help.

You, good people, did not disappoint. Within 24 hours I had more money pledged than I was asking for. Thank you so much, you have no idea. It’s a huge help financially, obviously – it’s also hugely heartening and touching that so many people want to help so much.

I will spend the weekend sorting out the best method of transferring money (I’ve been warned off paypal). If anyone wants to donate to this cause but has missed the boat – the wonderful Netpol – the network for police monitoring are well worth a tenner. They’re made up of amazing organisations such as the Climate Camp Legal Team, FITWatch, Green & Black Cross, the Legal Defence & Monitoring Group and Newham Monitoring Project (NPM). These guys will be supporting protest and fighting police abuses of power long after our court case has been and gone – so click on the Netpol site where you can donate by paypal.

But in the meantime, from the bottom of my heart, thank you everyone.

http://hannahdoublebarrel.wordpress.com/2012/05/04/crowd-funding-legal-actions/