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Extended notes

Volcanos

Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull volcano, usually referred to as E15, mainly because no one can pronounce the name of the thing. cost aviation a small fortune in 2010. The volcano has erupted relatively frequently since the Last Glacial Period, most recently in 2010,when, although relatively small for a volcanic eruption, it caused enormous disruption to air travel across northern and western Europe for a week.

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The Tamil Tigers

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), were a guerrilla organization that sought to establish an independent Tamil state, Eelam, in northern and eastern Sri Lanka. The LTTE was established in 1976 by Velupillai Prabhakaran The Tamils were based in northeastern Sri Lanka. engaging in a terrorist war against the Sre Lankancan government for 30 years.

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War Poets

"If I should die, think only this of me: 
That there's some corner of a foreign field 
That is forever England." 

Rupert Brooke

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The Past

"The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there."

This is one of the most famous opening lines in modern literary history from The Go-Between (1953) by L. P. Hartley. It sets the stage for a story about class differences, sexual mores and love in England during the early Twentieth Century. The novel is written as the reminiscence of Leo Colston, a British man in his sixties. In looking through some of his old possessions, Colston comes across a diary he wrote in 1900 when he was thirteen. This sparks memories of the role he played as a fairly clueless “go-between” who carried messages back and forth for an older, upper class girl who was having a socially taboo affair with a “lower class” tenant farmer.

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Glorious Revolution 1688

Parliament invited the Dutch Prince of Orange to pop over a sit on the throne, this finally put the barons in the driving seat. That is, as long as they were protestants. So, the Revolution of 1688 was Glorious because it did away with the absolute power of the monarchy and heralded the beginnings of parliamentary democracy.

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Orgreave June 1984

An eagle-eyed reporter noticed that the bags stored in police coaches were army issue.

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Cressida Dick

The Met Chief has always claimed that she never gave the 'shoot to kill order' the day Jean Charles de Menezes died.

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John F Kennedy

Kennedy was shot in 1963 by Lee Harvey Oswald. That's horse manure, the best bet is that he was shot by the secret service.

Churchill quote

He delived his famous speech to Parliament in 1940, so only MPs would have heard it.

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Murder in Omagh

15 August 1998

A bomb, set by the Real IRA, killed 29 people and injured more than 200 others.

No one was hung for the atrocity

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Child Protection

Childline was set up in 1986 by Esther Rantzen. 121 children in 1987 were taken from their parents in Cleveland, based on the views of two paediatricians. There is some suggestion that the clinicians were influenced by articles they had read in US journals on child abuse.

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The man waiting was Jimmy Greaves.

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The Shooting of Mark Duggan

Duggan was shot by police in August 2011 and it took the IPCC two years to conclude its investigation. Initially, the IPCC said it would take three months to produce its report.

An inquest judge ordered the IPCC to produce provisonal findings for a May inquest. Duggan's family's barrister, Michael Mansfield QC, told a hearing that the delay showed the "magnitude - not just of delay - but of incompetence". 

What exactly happened the day Mark Duggan died is not known but it seems clear that the police involved have a lot of explaining to do. Like why didn't they arrest Duggan as soon as he took possession of a gun, why didn't they arrest the man (Kevin Hutchinson-Foster) in possession of the gun before it was passed to Duggan, why follow him across London and shoot him. And if Duggan had a gun in his hand, aimed at police, (the reason we are told he was shot), why was the gun, over a fence, six yards away, inside a sock and none of Duggan's DNA was found on the gun or the sock. Had the gun been fired? We don't know but its about time someone told us what happen the day Mark Duggan died.

IPCC: incompetence and sloth

When the IPCC finally announced its findings in the Duggan case, they said the police killing of Duggan was lawful and the police have no case to answer. 

However, we now know that the 11 police officers involved were not interviewed by the IPCC because they refused to give verbal evidence. Instead they were allowed to provide written evidence of the day Duggan was shot. We also know that these officers were allowed to spend three hours in a room together compiling their reports for the IPCC. Even the officer who fired the fatal shot was allowed not to give a verbal statement to the IPCC.

September 2013: The Duggan Inquest finally begins

There's something rotten going on here and we do not expect this inquest to supply answers to the questions posed above.

Update: October 2013

A police marksman, known only as B53, says that after he shot Duggan, Duggan's gun just vanished? The judge sent for Fox Mulder and Dana Scully!

The IPCC finally announced its findings in the Duggan case, they said the police killing of Duggan was lawful and the police have no case to answer.

Duggan Update

10/01/14

Now we know, Mark Duggan was "lawfully killed" by a police marksman who thought he had a gun in his hand. Is that it then, is there nothing more to know? Will we discover why the taxi was removed from the scene and then returned? Will we discover how the gun ended up in a sock fifteen feet away, that Duggan was said to be brandishing at police? Why did the IPCC brief the press that Duggan had fired on police? Why didn't the IPCC directly question the police invovled in the incident? Why did the police talk to the press but not to the family for over a month after the killing? Why were police so concerned to put out a constant stream of negative reports about Duggan and his life-style? Why were all the policeman involved on the day allowed to sit down in the same room and write their reports?

We now need another inquest, this time into the miserable conduct of the police and the IPCC in this case.

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The death of Ian Tomlinson

Have you forgotten Ian? Perhaps you've forgotten police thug Simon Harwood who attacked Ian on the day he died. Have you ever wondered what happened to Harwood?

Two years after Ian Tomlinson died, following an attack by Simon Harwood, the Met Police sacked Harwood, it was judged that his actions against Tomlinson amounted to gross misconduct; he will keep his police pension. Although, Harwood's attack was filmed for the world to see, police officers who witnessed the assault first hand, backed up Harwood's version of events leading to the attack, insinuating provocation and a policeman in fear of his life. It took two years to reach this judgment on Harwood, police reports were fabricated, and evidence was destroyed by the pathetic Freddie Patel, now struck off the medical register. With Harwood's track record of violence, what was he doing at a G20 gathering, and why was the autopsy given to Patel, he too had a poor past record. Looking for answers to these questions will be unfruitful, unless one day someone involved has an attack of conscience.

Tomlinson: The details

1 April 2009, PC Simon Harwood, struck Mr Tomlinson with a baton and pushed him violently to the ground, during G20 protests in London. Mr Tomlinson was not a protester. The incident was caught on camera by an American tourist. The whole world has seen the footage of the assault numerous times. The assault and Harwood's role in it is beyond doubt. Sadly, after being shoved to the ground Mr Tomlinson died. 

Outrage but did Harwood's assault lead to Tomlinson's death. Idiot pathologist, Freddy Patel, who threw away evidence from the autopsy, said no; having decided that heart failure was the cause of death. Subsequent medical examinations by more capable doctors suggested that internal bleeding was a more likely cause of death and which might have been precipitated by Harwood's attack.

20 June 2011, Harwood appeared in court, charged with manslaughter. Note the two year gap between the summons for Harwood to appear in court and the attack on Tomlinson. Testament to the lack of will on the part police and politicians to pursue justice, they just wanted the whole mess to go away.

July 2012, another year rolled by, the jury at Southwark crown court cleared PC Simon Harwood of manslaughter.

Sept....2012, the Met Police sacked Harwood, it was judged that his actions against Tomlinson amounted to gross misconduct; he will keep his police pension. Update: See below

PS. Freddy Patel has been 'struck off' the medical register; that's all right then?

Freddy Patel: pathological idiot

The pathologist who claimed Ian Tomlinson died of a heart attack was investigated by the General Medical Council after an inquest jury disputed his findings.

Quack, Freddy Patel's post-mortem examination differed with that of two experts who said Ian died of internal bleeding.

Patel was accused at Mr Tomlinson's inquest of making blunders which made it all but impossible to conclude with any certainty how Ian died on the fringes of the G20 protests in London on April 1 2009.

A GMC source confirmed investigations into Dr Patel's conduct were under way. This of course means bugger all, since the whole world knows how the GMC likes to look after its membership, however woeful.

An inquest jury concluded Mr Tomlinson died of the bleed as a result of Pc Simon Harwood's "excessive and unreasonable" force in shoving him to the ground. (Let's not forget that Harwood also struck Tomlinson with his baton before 'shoving' him to the ground).

Patel's notes were said to be ambiguous and he did not order tests on three liters of fluid found in Mr Tomlinson's abdomen to confirm whether it was pure blood or - as he maintained - largely made up of a substance called ascites produced by liver disease.

This question was crucial because fellow pathologists Dr Nat Cary and Dr Kenneth Shorrock disputed Dr Patel's findings that the cause of death was coronary artery disease, consistent with natural causes.

An inquest jury which delivered an unlawful killing verdict earlier this week agreed with the other experts' conclusions.

Where's Harwood Now?

Well, we were told he sailed off into the sunset with his pension. Not true. They shifted him to the Sussex force and then after the passage of time, he's been shifted back into the Met! You have been warned.

3 May 2011: An inquest rules that Tomlinson was unlawfully killed by PC Simon Harwood. 19 July: Harwood is found not guilty of the death of Tomlinson

Who's Freddy

Freddy Patel, the pathologist responsible for Ian Tomlinson's autopsy, made such a mess of things that it wasn't possible to determine how he died.

Guinea Pigs

Between 1957 and 1962, Britain and the US detonated 31 devices over Christmas Island. More than 12,000 British servicemen and about 1,000 civilians witnessed the explosions. America has paid compensation, Britain refuses to acknowledge responsibility for the effects of nuclear fallout on the guinea pigs.

E = mc2 says you can go forward into the future but you can never go back in time

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