Expenses...they are desperately close to their death in their current incarnation. While opposition to Labour have been calling for reforms to come quicker, this was mostly in response to the fact that Brown was happy to let the review on this subject drag on. What they were never asking for was the rash, ill thought out and out of touch suggestion that Brown and his government seem to want to try and push though next Thursday.

Now it turns out that Downing Street are suggesting the PM's suggestion is good because "it'll increase the turnout of MPs". The question that surely springs up from this is, like a tightly coiled spring, why exactly aren't they turning up already if £150 a day would lure them through the doors? Secondary to that, do we really want MPs that are only going to turn up to parliament so that they can pay their bills/pocket some more cash?

So the news we were all generally expecting has come, the majority of those being questioned after being arrested in haste in the north of England have been released without charge, and didn't even need the full 28 days of allowed detention before that decision was made. We are, of course, not in full view of the facts and never will be; however, as others have noted, this operation was questionable from the get go...at least in terms of the "reason" for it happening.

Let's just take a second to hear the wise thoughts from Sir Ken Jones, head of ACPO, taken from the Telegraph...

"We need to make sure we don't condemn the many for the problems caused by a few," [..]
"We need to approach this a bit more coolly, a bit more calmly and look at this through the right end of the telescope."

The stance by ACPO is the height of hypocrisy, if they'd have listened to their own mantra than perhaps they wouldn't be in this position in the first place.

Today we hear news that there is to possibly be a crack down on quite frankly disproportionate use of legislation, that was originally intended to allow the police and security services to spy on potential terrorists, by people as low in the food chain as council middle-managers to spy on whether we're putting our bins out on the right day.

The Home Office has now launched a consultation on exactly which public authorities will be able to use the powers in the future - and whether these covert operations will need to be signed off at the highest local level.

I am sure there will be the usual cacophony of Labour loyalists who will try to use this as an example of something to applaud, however this falls yet again in to the "never should have happened, so reversal cannot be congratulated" category. It was and is a tragic affront to our liberties that the Labour government, and all that supported them, took legislation that was originally intended to help fight the "threat" of terrorism and took the baby steps through watering down this legislation to broaden its scope and delimiting the authority needed to use it. The fact that they still water down our civil liberties this way just goes to show that there is a definite strategy here that *may* have started out completely innocent but has been hijacked by authoritarian wills.

Back properly from holiday, I've started my duties of updating the netcast over at Liberal Conspiracy, now on a Wednesday! Here are my extra picks that didn't quite make it in to the official review

Henry Porter is worried by the arrest of 114 protesters before they'd broken any law. They were later released, this was reported less. These are fascist tactics, that is all.
Shiraz Socialist looks at the Amazonfail situation with the delisting of gay literature. Shocking.
MKNE Political Information analyses the history of thinking on compulsory community work.
Anders Hanson notes that Green's think that flying is equivalent to knifing someone. Nice...
Mark Reckons brings to our attention that the Daily Mail is, rather immorally, campaigning against the HPV vaccine.
LibDemVoice asks if a country where people can be arrested for conspiring can be called Britain any more.
Sara Bedford reflects on the police action, and the police lies, throughout history...specifically with Hillsborough in mind.
Bridget Fox looks favourably on the idea for cyclists to run red lights, left turn only mind you.
Philobiblon has the latest Britblog roundup

Today we catch a whiff of two new policies heading our way, though in essence not terribly new just reintroduced as potential "election winning" options that may or may not ever actually be enacted. The first, cutting benefits for alcoholics (and drug addicts) that refuse to get help, and second some kind of threat of...well...something, if we don't all do 50 hours of community service by the time we're 19.

So, Alcoholics. Well, addicts in general really, that's what we're really talking about when, as James Purnell puts it,

plans to cut drug addicts' benefits would give them the chance to "turn their lives around".

I'm not a fan of no-platform policies, I didn't like them while I was involved in the NUS and I don't like them now. If you have a problem with someone that doesn't deserve the time of day then the worst thing you can do is give them credibility by stating they're worth a specific policy.

Make no mistake, the BNP are not worth our time. They might, if they are extremely organised, win one seat in parliament at the next election...and in doing so will prove exactly why they are a waste of a vote. So why is it then that Labour seem to be going for the opposite tactic of giving them absolutely free publicity?

So, last night I posted in a semi-outraged and semi-depressed state about the way in which I feel the authorities in this country have abandoned the core values upon which they were created. Today it seems that in this mood unlikely allies are to be found, in the form of the Daily Mail and the many commentators that clearly don't mind a copper kicking in the head of some cocky scrote but actually see reason when it comes to gangs of police picking on people (and I exaggerate shamelessly) Gary Newlove style.

For those that haven't seen it, here's the video, please share it around as so many have done today

This man was assaulted by police twice as he walked home (which is what eye witnesses have been saying all week), he wasn't part of the protest, he wasn't even confrontational at the stage of his second assault. He died moments later amid an atmosphere that some claim included police charging those that were actually attempting to help him as he collapsed suffering with the heart attack.

If there ever were any serious groups of terrorists I am sure they're able to kick back right about now and claim some kind of moral victory. While they only achieved one attack in the last decade the effects of this have been devestating and far reaching. Not only did they manage to kill innocent people, but they've also put the rot in to our age old system of liberties...a rot seemingly unable to be stopped, and if it is will certainly be stopped too late for the likes of Ian Tomlinson, who was attacked without provocation by the police at last Saturday's protests and then died later of a heart attack.

I've never disliked the police, I have had no reason to. I always believed that ultimately they had turned a corner from previous decades and that now there was no opportunity for the to deceive, that they had enough checks on their powers. Perhaps for a moment that was the case, but the actions by them this month...as well as the utter lack of condemnation by our government for their behaviour...shows that the reality is all too different. It's why I've lost faith in my government to take this country in a positive direction, and lost faith in my police to protect me.

You see, when I as an innocent person can be watched by the police without my knowledge, can have all my telephone conversations noted, and the websites I visit recorded...when I am facing the prospect of not being able to legally walk the street without being part of a massive database that...if our government got their way...would only be as secure as the ethics of those in control of it...when I can't even walk *near* a protest without being determined to be a problem and "accidentally" hemmed in with them for hours upon hours without food, water or sanitation and our courts actually state that this is WITHIN our human rights...I no longer have any faith in the law.

Proving that all Home Office ministers and wannabe's are really nothing more than the elected version of a teenage boy going through the throes of puberty, grappling their their inability to understand the world around them, Chris Grayling has just managed to shoot the Conservatives royally and truly in the foot in the eyes of those looking for a more liberal alternative to Labour.

Of course anyone that has any sense and wishes to find liberal politics will generally look to the Lib Dem's or smaller parties, however the Tories were in danger of actually sounding like they could be considering a liberal turn. My hat is tipped to you Mr Grayling, without people like you the Tories would definitely be able to dupe this country with ease.