Anthony McIntyre's Blog, page 683

A Morning Thought @ 1308

Julian Assange And The Day Democracy Died

Fra Hughes ✒ The travesty of Justice which we have witnessed in the persecution of Julian Assange has proven beyond all shadow of a doubt that there is no press freedom in the Western world.18-December-2021The real losers in the Julian Assange case are Julian Assange, his family, freedom of the Press, truth, and justice.Britain's decision to grant America's appeal, to have Julian Assange

Kazakhstan ✑ An Eyewitness To The Uprising In Almaty

People And Nature ✒ This text was written by Aidar Ergali on Thursday 6 January in Almaty. It has been circulating on Russian-language social media (e.g. here and here) and was translated into English yesterday. Please copy and paste, please circulateThis Will Be A Long Read, But Please Read ItThis is what happened yesterday [Wednesday 5 January] in Almaty’s main square. Please tell the whole

Nine Dart Finish

Peter Anderson 🏅 Last week saw the finals of the World Championship of Darts at Ally Pally. In a thrilling final Peter "Snakebite" Wright beat Michael "Bully Boy" Smith 7-5. As much as I love Wright, I was hoping Smith would lift his first trophy. He has been runner up in all the big finals but never won one. If he keeps playing the way he is then one is surely just around the corner. A few

A Morning Thought @ 1307

Institutional Sectarianism ✑ FICT Commission Offers Nothing

Harry Hutchinson ✒ The final report of the Commission on Flags, Identity, Culture and Tradition in Northern Ireland was published last November but it has offered nothing we didn’t already have or told us anything we didn’t already know.The political career of Mike Nesbitt, once leader of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), shows the extent to which sectarianism is built into the political

Kazakhstan, Ten Years After The Zhanaozen Massacre ➖ Oil Workers’ Fight To Organise Goes On

People And Nature ☭ Ten years after police massacred striking oil workers at Zhanaozen, Kazakhstan, human rights organisations and trades unionists are demanding an international inquiry into the killings.Simon Pirani15-December-2022Even now, the number of victims is unknown. State officials admit that 16 were killed and 64 injured on 16 December 2011 – but campaigners say there were dozens,

Sir Keir, Not Sir Tony, Has The Real Knighthood Problem!

Dr John Coulter ✒Short-term fury at former Labour Prime Minister Sir Tony Blair getting a knighthood from the Queen in the New Year Honours will be nothing compared to the long-term political fallout for current Labour boss Sir Keir Starmer in any future Westminster General Election, maintains TPQ's contentious political Monday columnist.Based on the findings of the Chilcot Inquiry into the 2003

A Morning Thought @ 1306

Inventing Secularism

Anthony McIntyre 🔖 writing in Being Human, a new humanist magazine, reviews a book on a prominent secularist.George Holyoake, through a mixture of persistence and privation, became a standout figure in the twin traditions of humanism and secularism in the 19th Century. In the 125th anniversary year of Humanists UK, the body has been keen to promote Holyoake whom it describes as “a towering