Not many Londoners can be happy as they grope through the frozen murkiness of the commute to their first days back at work after the winter break. Adding to their misery is London’s mayor, Boris Johnson, who has made their journey much more expensive with huge fare rises.
Critics of Johnson’s transport policies have highlighted how these massive increases – 20 percent for single bus fares alone – would not have been so high if Johnson hadn’t trashed other sources of funding for London’s transport. Continue reading →
News International announced last week that it planned to close its afternoon freesheet, the London Paper having lost £12.9m in year to end of June 2008. The last edition will likely be printed on September 18th 2009.
The announcement signals an end to the London freesheet wars, which began almost exactly three years ago in August 2006. Continue reading →
Exclusive footage obtained by the Guardian shows Ian Tomlinson, who died during G20 protests in London, was attacked from behind by baton–wielding police officer
Dramatic footage obtained by the Guardian shows that the man who died at last week’s G20 protests in London was attacked from behind and thrown to the ground by a baton–wielding police officer in riot gear.
Moments after the assault on Ian Tomlinson was captured on video, he collapsed to the ground and despite attempts by fellow protestors was pronounced dead shortly after*.
This was not an isolated incident. The police operation on 1st April was a disgrace.
Watch this short film of the police operation in Bishopsgate where the police attacked peaceful protestors demonstrating against climate change measures.
The footage clearly shows the campers calling out “this is not a riot” and holding their arms in the air, while riot police surge forward wielding batons and shields in an unprovoked attack.
Bikes, tents and personal belongings were damaged and lost in the attacks. Several people were injured. There were reports of several arrests. At one point a small group of people are trapped between riot police coming in from a side entrance on the east, and more pushing up from the south.
This footage must be seen by the justice committee on ‘policing protests’. Almost every one of their recommendations are broken.
The Guardian is preparing to hand a dossier of evidence to the police complaints watchdog on the death of Ian Tomlinson.
It sheds new light on the events surrounding the death of the 47-year-old newspaper seller, who had been on his way home from work when he was confronted by lines of riot police near the Bank of England.
The submission to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) includes a collection of testimonies from witnesses, along with the video footage, shot at around 7.20pm, which shows Tomlinson at Royal Exchange Passage.
The film reveals that as he walks, with his hands in his pockets, he does not speak to the police or offer any resistance.
A phalanx of officers, some with dogs and some in riot gear, are close behind him and try to urge him forward.
A Metropolitan police officer appears to strike him with a baton, hitting him from behind on his upper thigh.
Moments later, the same policeman rushes forward and, using both hands, pushes Tomlinson in the back and sends him flying to the ground, where he remonstrates with police who stand back, leaving bystanders to help him to his feet.
The man who shot the footage, a fund manager from New York who was in London on business, said: “The primary reason for me coming forward is that it was clear the family were not getting any answers.”
The Guardian’s dossier also includes a sequence of photographs, taken by three different people, showing the aftermath of the attack, as well as witness statements from people in the area at the time.
A number of witnesses provided time and date-stamped photographs that substantiate their accounts.
Some said they saw police officers attack Tomlinson.
Witnesses said that, prior to the moment captured on video, he had already been hit with batons and thrown to the floor by police who blocked his route home.
One witness, Anna Branthwaite, a photographer, described how, in the minutes before the video was shot, she saw Tomlinson walking towards Cornhill Street.
“A riot police officer had already grabbed him and was pushing him,” she said.
“It wasn’t just pushing him – he’d rushed him. He went to the floor and he did actually roll. That was quite noticeable.
“It was the force of the impact. He bounced on the floor. It was a very forceful knocking down from behind. The officer hit him twice with a baton when he was lying on the floor.
“So it wasn’t just that the officer had pushed him – it became an assault.
“And then the officer picked him up from the back, continued to walk or charge with him, and threw him.
“He was running and stumbling. He didn’t turn and confront the officer or anything like that.”
The witness accounts contradict the official version of events given by police.
In an official statement on the night of Tomlinson’s death, the Metropolitan police made no reference to any contact with officers and simply described attempts by police medics and an ambulance crew to save his life after he collapsed – efforts they said were marred by protesters throwing missiles as first aid was administered .
The force said officers had created a cordon around Tomlinson to give him CPR.
“The officers took the decision to move him as during this time a number of missiles – believed to be bottles – were being thrown at them,” it said.
Yesterday, the IPCC began managing an investigation by City of London police into the circumstances of Tomlinson’s death after the Guardian published photographs of him on the ground and witness statements indicated he had been assaulted by police officers.
The IPCC commissioner for London, Deborah Glass, said: “Initially, we had accounts from independent witnesses who were on Cornhill, who told us that there had been no contact between the police and Mr Tomlinson when he collapsed.”
“However, other witnesses who saw him in the Royal Exchange area have since told us that Mr Tomlinson did have contact with police officers.
“This would have been a few minutes before he collapsed. It is important that we are able to establish as far as possible whether that contact had anything to do with his death.”
The IPCC added that Tomlinson was captured on CCTV walking onto Royal Exchange Passage.
“This is the aspect of the incident that the IPCC is now investigating,” it said.
It was here the video was shot. A post mortem carried out by a Home Office pathologist last Friday revealed Tomlinson died of a heart attack.
Prior to seeing the dossier of evidence, Tomlinson’s family said in a statement: “There were so many people around where Ian died, and so many people with cameras, that somebody must have seen what happened in the Royal Exchange passageway.
“We need to know what happened there and whether it had anything to do with Ian’s death.
“We know that some people who were at the protest may not feel comfortable talking to the police.
“People are putting pictures on the internet, writing on blogs and talking to journalists. But we really need them to talk to the people who are investigating what happened.”
The attack and subsequent death of Ian Tomlinson is an attack against every man and woman in the country. It could have been any of us in that position at that time. It is an attack that must be responded to. This is another example of how the government will behave when the people speak up or raise their voice. It cannot be swept under the carpet. Make no mistake, the signal from Downing Street was clearly to come down hard on protestors.
The Metropolitan police had contacted a number of protest groups in the week before warning that the main day of protest, Wednesday, 1 April would be “very violent”, and senior commanders made clear that they were “up for it, and up to it”, should there be any trouble.
Make no mistake, this was a public display of brutality and aggression aimed at getting a message across. The majority of protestors were peaceful but were met with pent up aggression and organised violence. A pumped up mob of testosterone fuelled officers in riot gear that had been given the green light to go and smash some skulls. I am amazed their is only one death to report.
R.I.P IAN TOMLINSON 2009
*It is now known that the cause of death was as a result of internal bleeding caused by the blows from the police officer’s assault. The officer has now come forwards and is being charged with manslaughter.
Veteran politician Tony Ben accused the BBC today of a “betrayal” of its public service obligations following its decision not to broadcast a public appeal for funds for Gaza.
Having spoken on the Today programme, he will address a pro-Palestine rally called by the Stop the War coalition outside Broadcasting House in central London.
The former Labour MP and Stop the War president will say: “The decision of the BBC to refuse to broadcast a national humanitarian appeal for Gaza, which has left aid agencies with a potential shortfall of millions of pounds in donations, is a betrayal of the obligation which it owes as a public service.
“The destruction in Gaza, and the loss of the lives of over a thousand civilians and children, has shocked the world as Secretary General of the UN, Ban Ki Moon, made clear, when he saw the devastation for himself.
“The human suffering that the people of Gaza have experienced over the last few weeks has appalled people who have seen it for themselves on their television screens.
“To deny the help that the aid agencies and the UN need at this moment in time is incomprehensible and it follows the bias in BBC reporting of this crisis, which has been widely criticised.
“I appeal to the chairman of the BBC Trust to intervene to reverse this decision to save the lives of those who are now in acute danger of dying through a lack of food, fuel, water and medical supplies.” Continue reading →
Boris Johnson’s cancellation of London’s oil agreement with Venezuela is a piece of rightwing dogmatism that is equally costly to the people of London and Caracas. The agreement was that Londoners on income support received half-price bus travel, subsidised via cheap Venezuelan oil, in return for London providing transport, planning and other expertise to Venezuela.
The basic principle of London-Caracas agreement was simple, reasonable and indeed a rather textbook illustration of relative advantage in foreign trade. Each side provided the other with that in which they are rich, and which for them is therefore relatively cheap – oil, on one hand, and the expertise in managing a modern advanced city on the other – in return for something which was scarce, and therefore relatively expensive, for the other side. Continue reading →
LONDON, England (AP) — The British capital’s new mayor, Boris Johnson is ending a deal that has provided cheap Venezuelan fuel for London’s transport network. Johnson was a critic of the oil deal struck by his predecessor, Ken Livingstone.
The agreement, signed last year by the Conservative Johnson’s predecessor and Labour Party rival, Ken Livingstone, provided discounted gas for London’s iconic red buses in exchange for advice on urban planning in Caracas, the Venezuelan capital.
Money saved on gas was put into a program providing half-rate bus fares for low-income Londoners. Continue reading →
Bala Fria 