UK : East : HM Revenue and Customs to investigate "earnings from illegal raves" Definitely looks like the end of Norfolk's "tolerance" of parties..
incidentally HMRC have a lower "burden of proof" for their investigations. The Police have only been around (in their present form) since 1823 or so.
HMRC were set up in 1066..
Minister backs police over rave riot
07 September 2007 05:52
Home secretary Jacqui Smith last night called for a "robust response" to mass public disorder like the Yarmouth riots - on the same day that ravers responsible for the violence were let off with fines by magistrates.
Ms Smith praised the "measured" reaction of Norfolk police to the rave-related trouble in Yarmouth last month. Speaking at a Westminster engagement, she rejected Tory leader David Cameron's claims that there was "anarchy in the UK" but said "we need to have a very robust response" to such incidents.
She also endorsed the response of Norfolk police authority chairman Stephen Bett who had earlier insisted "we are not tolerating this sort of behaviour at all, and we are going to meet it aggressively".
Meanwhile force insiders remain confident that further arrests will be made as they hunt the event's ringleaders.
Yesterday, five ravers who were part of the 100-strong mob which threw bottles, swore at police and made obscene gestures pleaded guilty to disorderly behaviour at Yarmouth Magistrates' Court.
But the group escaped with fines totalling less than £900, despite magistrate Angie Scott telling the court: "The town needs to be protected against this kind of behaviour - in fact the whole county needs to be protected."
Mr Bett said he could not comment on the sentences handed out but pledged that the police would be exploring all possible avenues to bring those responsible to account.
He added that details of those convicted and others suspected of involvement in raves would be passed to Inland Revenue to investigate their income from such illegal parties.
"I am pleased that the Home Office is taking notice of how Norfolk deals with crime and perhaps if it did so more often policing in this country would be much more effective," Mr Bett said.
"We will continue to do everything possible to stop this nonsense once and for all and are exploring all possible ways in which this can be done.
"One option is to collaborate more closely with the fire service and the health and safety executive because often, on occasions when police powers aren't sufficient to close down raves, they have other powers which can be used.
"But also we are looking at ways in which we can target those who run these raves such as passing their details to Inland Revenue and Customs and Exercise. This will be in addition to pursuing them through the courts and should hit them in the pockets.
"Everybody who comes into this county to organise these events will be photographed and will have their details circulated so that every course of action open to us can be taken."
At the time of the riots Mr Bett said the police operation had been handled brilliantly, and he congratulated the officers for disproving the rave organisers' belief that "mob intimidation was going to win the day".
Ms Smith also said that the government was continuing to keep an eye on the laws and procedures covering raves "to see if there is something more we need to do".
wtf.America. I traveled Europe this summer with a couple of friends, and I can officially say that Europeans are all around more educated than Americans. I was surprised by how many people in Europe can speak a second language fluently, while American's can barely speak English. We were actually stopped, mid-street, by a man who tried to speak Italian to us. We apologized for not speaking Italian and he shrugged it off and started telling us about how he felt bad because our president was a douche.
It makes me think about how cut-off we are from the rest of the world. And it surprised me that a lot of the people across sea's know more about our government and problems than we do.
Just thought I'd let you know that I'm very envious. :cry:
Headroom last weekend I managed to get to Lowestoft eventually (no thanks to One Trains, their sketchy timetable displays and trains only every two hours)..
it was definitely worth the wait - the rig was sounding crisp (despite not being run at full whack due to sound restrictions), there was a lot of effort put into decor and visuals and a friendly atmosphere... Producer played a wicked set as well...
Its a shame it was a bit quiet - people need to support these local underground nights as promoters often have to deal with a lot of local opposition due to the prejudice against underground dance music events in Suffolk.
Was good to meet up with Biotech, Jay, Southey, Honeypot and Syco for the afterparty session as well - and a refreshing change for once not to have to be paranoid about names/places etc!
Definitely going to be at the next one...
South America I'm in the very beginning stages of planning a trip to South America with my friend in January, we're hoping to have ourselves about 3-4grand each saved up by that point, then we're just going to stay out there until we run out of money... hopefully be able to last half a year
I was hoping for any advice or stories from people who've travelled out there, best places that cant be missed and places and things to avoid? we're mainly interested in seeing the mountains, the history and the coastlines... but also some cities... im most looking forward to Peru
we're going to try and learn either Portugese or Spanish, does anyone know which is most spoken?
whats the best way to travel around? we're open to hitchhiking, trains, buses, buying a second hand car... were considering getting a cow to carry our stuff, we would call her Floss, paint her psychedilc colours and love her like a child...
any words of wisdom and advice for how to start planning our trip would be greatly appreciated! cheers!
:bounce_fl12
Relationship Advice Required Please! Hi peeps, I seldom ask for advice but this womans got me all confused !!
She finished it with me about 3 weeks ago, I said i did not want to be mates (as i have never done that) - she didnt like it but everytime I am out she always (according to my mates) seems to hover close by...
As far as I am concerned I just wish she would leave it alone, she never says anything but my mates always comment on the fact that when we are both in the same pub/club etc she always seems to be lookiing over and hovering...
Its annoying to be honest.
a - Why do you think she is doing it ?
b - Should I ask her to pack it in ?
thanks for reading and for the advice if you gave any !!!123
Peace, Propaganda and the Promised Land: Media & the Israel-Palestine Conflict [GOOGLE]-6604775898578139565[/GOOGLE]
Peace, Propaganda & the Promised Land provides a striking comparison of U.S. and international media coverage of the crisis in the Middle East, zeroing in on how structural distortions in U.S. coverage have reinforced false perceptions of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This pivotal documentary exposes how the foreign policy interests of American political elites--oil, and a need to have a secure military base in the region, among others--work in combination with Israeli public relations strategies to exercise a powerful influence over how news from the region is reported.
http://mediaed.org/
The Power of Nightmares The Power of Nightmares, subtitled The Rise of the Politics of Fear, is a BBC series of documentary films, written and produced by Adam Curtis.
Watch it here - Parts 1, 2 & 3...
This documentary argues that during the 20th Century politicians lost the power to inspire the masses, and that the optimistic visions and ideologies they had offered were perceived to have failed. The film asserts that politicians consequently sought a new role that would restore their power and authority. Writer Adam Curtis, who also narrates the series, declares in the film's introduction that “Instead of delivering dreams, politicians now promise to protect us: from nightmares”. To illustrate this Curtis compares the rise of the American neoconservatives and radical Islamists, believing that both are closely connected; that some popular beliefs about these groups are inaccurate; and that both movements have benefited from exaggerating the scale of the terrorist threat.
Distribution
The Power of Nightmares was first broadcast on BBC Two in three hour-long parts on consecutive Wednesday evenings in the autumn of 2004. The series was rebroadcast in late January 2005 on three consecutive nights, with the final part updated to reflect the Law Lords ruling from the previous December that detaining foreign terrorist suspects without trial is illegal.
Although the series has not been shown on U.S. television, its three episodes were shown in succession on 26 February 2005 as part of the True/False Film Festival in Columbia, Missouri, USA. After the film, Curtis made a public appearance and led a discussion in which he expressed pessimism about an eventual American TV airing or DVD release. It has, however, played in some small independent theaters.
Curtis has also stated: "Something extraordinary has happened to American TV since September 11. A head of the leading networks who had better remain nameless said to me that there was no way they could show it. He said, 'Who are you to say this?' and then he added, 'We would get slaughtered if we put this out.' When I was in New York I took a DVD to the head of documentaries at HBO. I still haven't heard from him."
An edited two and a half hour version was screened at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2005, with Pathé buying up distribution rights to exhibit this version in cinemas worldwide.
The Power of Nightmares was aired in Canada in April 2005 by CBC Newsworld.
In Australia, the programme was to be screened on SBS commencing 2005-07-12 [1], however this screening of the series was cancelled. An e-mail response enquiring as to this cancellation was worded "SBS Management made the decision that in light of the recent London bombings it would not be appropriate to screen the series at this time." SBS rescheduled the series and it was screened over three nights commencing 2005-12-06 [2].
The programme has been widely distributed for download on the Internet.
Documentary
The documentary consisted of three parts.
Part 1 - Baby It's Cold Outside
In the 1950s Sayyid Qutb, an Egyptian civil servant turned revolutionary, and Leo Strauss, an American professor of political philosophy, both came to see western liberalism as corrosive to morality and to society. Qutb had been sent to the U.S. to learn about its public education system but was disgusted by what he saw of its society. They each argued that radical measures, including deception and even violence, could be justified in an effort to restore shared moral values to society, and their arguments heavily influenced radical Islamism and American neo-conservatism, respectively. Senior American civil servants and politicians influenced by neo-conservatism came to believe anti-communist propaganda and saw communism as an evil force against which the U.S. should be presented as a force for good. This propaganda included Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney's formation of Team B, which over-estimated Soviet military technology, and the William Casey-led CIA assertion that various terrorist organisations were backed by the Soviet Union. Meanwhile, Qutb became influential in the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and was then jailed after some of its members attempted to assassinate President Nasser.
This was first broadcast on Wednesday 20 October 2004. Its title is taken from a popular song which Qutb heard played at a church-organised dance for young people, which he saw as symptomatic of the immorality of American society.
Part 2 - The Phantom Victory
In the 1980s the Islamist mujaheddin and the neo-conservative-influenced Reagan administration temporarily cooperated in fighting a common enemy, the Soviet Union and the Soviet-backed regime in Afghanistan. Although the Soviet Union was already on the verge of collapse, both groups came to believe that it was their actions in Afghanistan that had caused it to fall. However, other attempts by Islamists to incite popular revolution failed, and the neo-conservatives lost power in the U.S. as the presidency passed to George H. W. Bush and subsequently to Bill Clinton. Both groups, having failed to achieve lasting political influence, identified new targets to attack: the neoconservatives sought to demonise Clinton while the radical Islamists decided that those who had not aided their cause were legitimate targets for violence.
This was first broadcast on Wednesday 27 October 2004.
Part 3 - The Shadows in the Cave
In the late 1990s the Taliban set up military training camps in Afghanistan for Islamist fighters. Most were only interested in fighting in their home countries, but Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri, leader of Egyptian Islamic Jihad and follower of Sayyid Qutb, paid the Taliban to allow them to recruit volunteers for attacks on the U.S. from these camps.
Prosecutors for the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings believed bin Laden organised them and wanted to convict him in absentia by showing that he headed a criminal organisation. Jamal al-Fadl, a former associate of bin Laden, conveniently described just such an organisation to them, which the investigators called al-Qaeda. While bin Laden apparently aided the attacks he had no organisation through which he could command and control them; al-Fadl seems to have told investigators what they wanted to hear in return for money and witness protection. Similarly, while bin Laden provided funds and volunteers to carry out the September 11, 2001 attacks, they were actually planned by Khalid Shaikh Mohammed.
Following this attack, the neo-conservatives were able to convince George W. Bush to begin a War on Terror and to paint al-Qaeda as an international network of terrorists. The war in Afghanistan removed bin Laden's main source of recruits, but the U.S. military and the Afghan Northern Alliance also captured and killed many people in the Taliban camps that had nothing to do with him. The story circulated that bin Laden and the core of al-Qaeda had retreated to an underground complex in Tora Bora, but an exhaustive search revealed no sign of this. Al-Qaeda could not be found because it never really existed; Islamist terrorists are connected only by ideology and not by an organisation that can be cut off at its root.
The arrests of various groups of suspected terrorists in the U.S. following the September 11 attacks failed to find any substantive evidence, but did show a lot of imagination on the part of investigators. Similarly, in the U.K., arrests under new terrorism laws have resulted in only 3 convictions of Islamists, all for fundraising. Much of the media coverage of potential terrorist attacks is also highly speculative and sensational. For instance, a terrorist attack using a radiological weapon, referred to by the media as a dirty bomb, wouldn't kill many people from fallout because the radioactive material would be spread thinly by any explosion. However, the neo-conservatives had found they could use the threat of Islamist terrorism, and the claimed possibility of sponsorship by Iraq, as an enemy against which to unite the U.S., and other politicians such as Tony Blair claimed an important role in protecting their countries from attack. Politicians and counter-terrorist agents have decided that they must be proactive in imagining the worst possible attacks and in stopping those who seem likely to carry out attacks.
This was first broadcast on Wednesday 3 November 2004. Its title appears to refer to Plato's allegory of the cave and to the belief in the complex in Tora Bora.
Accolades
"The Power of Nightmares, a three-hour BBC documentary directed by Adam Curtis, is arguably the most important film about the "war on terrorism" since the events of September 11. It is more intellectually engaging, more historically probing and more provocative than any of its rivals, including Fahrenheit 9/11."
The Nation
Criticism and responses
Various attacks have been made on the programme, its author, the BBC and the arguments presented. Curtis has responded to some of the criticism.
The programme is, or presents, a conspiracy theory
David Aaronovitch has suggested that the programme "is a conspiracy theory".
Curtis replies: "The use of fear in contemporary politics is not the result of a conspiracy, the politicians have stumbled on it. In a populist, consumerist age where they found their authority and legitimacy declining dramatically they have simply discovered in the 'war on terror' a way of restoring their authority by promising to protect us."
The programme neglects to analyse the impact of economic interests
Critics such as MediaLens, who believe that US government policy is shaped to a large extent by powerful business interests, point out that Curtis did not address this aspect.
Curtis accepts this criticism as "serious and important". However, "Both the neoconservatives and the Islamists have become powerful and influential and I chose to make a series of films that explained the roots of their ideas and how they were taken up, simplified and distorted. You want me to have made a different series [about] a perfectly good and very important subject - but different." [3]
The neoconservatives were "misrepresented"
Clive Davis in "The Power of Bad Television" at the National Review claims that the characterisation of neoconservatives' views in the programme is inaccurate. He has also suggested that the degree to which neoconservatives have been influenced by Leo Strauss is greatly exaggerated. Further he maintains that this programme suggests that "it is Strauss, not Osama bin Laden, who is the real evil genius."
the big move hey guys!
i'm Mike and am from the UK.
anyway, hope all's good with you guys.
well, things aren't going very strong for me, though they should be given that i'm considering the move of a lifetime.
i've never been much happy with my life till now, i've rather got this dream of settling down in Brazil and getting myself a nice life over there. but it's not proving as easy as i thought it would be.
i've got a job over here which i pretty much like and i have no intention of changing it so i'm considering taking up a job in the same field in Brazil.
i'm a pharmacist and i really do love my job. the contact with the people and the fact that i feel like i'm helping them really does something for me self-esteem.
however, now that i'm moving, i've been researching the possibilities of taking employment in Brazil, in the same field. i've tried locating some pharmacies, took the help of some directories of the likes of http://www.drugdelivery.ca/xx-BR-31-A-xx/Tocantins-Pharmacy.aspx which indicates the pharmacies in the regions i might consider living. but it's not proving easy.
plus the fact that i'll have to apply for work permit and all the works, i have to admit that i am getting sort of discouraged.
my life here in UK is pretty simple and easy, i've a job i like a lot even if there's nothing else that pleases me. i want to start from scratch. but is it worth it? i'd be most grateful for your reactions and opinions and please, if there's anyone this forum from Brazil, could you please tell me how hard it is to get a job in the pharmaceutical field? and if there are any options i can consider other than being a pharmacist?
thanks guys for the feedback and apologies in advance for the length of the post.
regards
M.Myers
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