LOVE IT!!!

BoingBoing has a great posting from London resident Cory Doctorow here.

Basically, if you’re under 16,  in a public place after 9pm, and a police officer decides they don’t like the look of you and your mates, they can tell you to go away. Even if you are doing absolutely nothing wrong.

London and the UK’s inexplicable slide into a half-arsed, amateurish Orwellian future continues.

I can’t wait to vote in the next General Election.

Actually – can we skip that and proceed straight to the revolution?

………From the bringers of the Undie 500, International Optimism Day , and Happy Wednesdays

Group aim to set new “Conga Line World Record” in support of Red Nose Day

http://www.justgiving.com/congaworldrecord
Optimists to raise money by dancing through central London

On Red Nose Day, Friday 13th March, a group of Optimists Society members will attempt to break the Guinness World Record for a Conga Line, by distance travelled. They’ll be doing it to raise money for Comic Relief, get some exercise, have fun and cheer up Londoners along the 17km route.

\Its not to late to take part mail James @ – james@eternaloptimist.net
The attempt has already been “accepted as a New Record Category” by Guinness World Records, who await details of a “Suitable Claim”. Society members will use Guinness standard rules for endurance dance routines. Bringing together a lead “Conga” and 10 team members to follow. Of course the public will also be welcome to join at the back wherever they like along the route.
The route takes in many of Londons top tourist sites. It will start in London Bridge, take in the sights of the Southbank, head past Comic Relief’s offices on Embankment then head up through Westminster into the Royal Parks, through St James Park, Green Park, Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens turning down Notting Hill to Shepherds Bush, through the new Westfield Shopping Centre and ending at BBC Television Centre in the early evening. The proposed distance will be 17km. It will take an estimated 5 hours to complete. Though we might continue to conga into the night if people sponsor us to…

The Optimists Society, is a social-action group promoting positivity and helping people make a difference to themselves and others through simple actions.

Please visit our fundraising page… http://www.justgiving.com/congaworldrecord

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So – I took this pic of a pair of jeans in the window of a clothes shop in Dalston.

WTF??!!

One gets used to seeing mangled English on T shirts and jackets of cute Japanese tourists.

But what local English-speaking person would want to be seen wearing this load of bollocks? You’d do better to print out some Spam and wear that instead.

Major demo, on Tues 31st March. Protesting against Westminster Council’s cash-grabbing and opportunistic fees. The scheme to make you pay to park your bike isn’t permanent yet. If enough people kick up an inconvenient fuss, they will quietly bin the scheme. So – protest!!!

Meet in Trafalgar Square at 5.30ish, Tues 31st March.

It’ll be noisy, shouty and fun!

Full details here

Ha! This sign, by the counter in Soho’s best pizza place, Maletti, in Noel St.

I’d love to see some inattentive customer get “humiliated” by one of the staff. Preferably some git in a suit.

No to the Bike Parking Tax

You may have noticed that motorbike parking bays in central London have suddenly sprouted new signs, demanding payment for what has always been free.

This is Westminster Council’s latest bright idea. They admit, in writing, that this is nothing more than a method for extracting cash. So – a new tax on motorcyclists. No doubt, cyclists will be next, and then – who knows? – pavement tolls!

What London needs is a transport infrastructure that works better – and a vital part of that is heterogeneity. You need a mix, people on buses, people on tubes, people who cycle, people who walk, and people who ride scooters and motorbikes. Motorbike riding has been on the rise lately, to London’s benefit. So what do Westminster do? They think “Aha! Money!!”

Right now, the scheme is a test. Here is a video, from last night, of what Westminster Council can expect more of, if they don’t cease and desist with this idiotic plan.

Jail for photographing police?

The relationship between photographers and police could worsen next month when new laws are introduced that allow for the arrest – and imprisonment – of anyone who takes pictures of officers ‘likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism’.

Set to become law on 16 February, the Counter-Terrorism Act 2008 amends the Terrorism Act 2000 regarding offences relating to information about members of armed forces, a member of the intelligence services, or a police officer.

The new set of rules, under section 76 of the 2008 Act and section 58A of the 2000 Act, will target anyone who ‘elicits or attempts to elicit information about (members of armed forces) … which is of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism’.

A person found guilty of this offence could be liable to imprisonment for up to 10 years, and to a fine.

The law is expected to increase the anti-terrorism powers used today by police officers to stop photographers, including press photographers, from taking pictures in public places. ‘Who is to say that police officers won’t abuse these powers,’ asks freelance photographer Justin Tallis, who was threatened by an officer last week.

This government’s contempt for civil liberties continues…

Will this “anti-terror” law be used by the police to harrass anyone they want to? Of course it will.

Complete story, from the British Journal of Photography here.

Love it.

I want a T shirt of it.

Would it be bad of me just to make one? I mean – they put the pic up in the street, so it’s kind of public domain, right?

OK Londoners, scary-time. BBC news site has this story:

Russian ex-KGB agent Alexander Lebedev is to buy the London Evening Standard newspaper for the sum of £1.

The paper’s publisher – the Daily Mail & General Trust (DMGT) – said it had agreed to the sale of a majority interest in the paper to Mr Lebedev.

The billionaire businessman is believed to have made an offer for approximately a 76% share of the paper.

He has previously revealed that he used the paper to find out information when he was a young spy based in London.

The Evening Standard has vied with the Daily Mail for the “most odious rag in Britain” award for some time. The fact that it is out of step with so many Londoners’ views has left the good freebies (eg Metro) with a clear run. Personally, I think Metro is a far better paper that the Standard, in every way. And now the Standard has its very own Murdoch, in the shape of an ex-KGB Russian oligarch owner. Be afraid!

Full story on BBC news here.