Most-Complained of Ads of 2008

The Guardian has an interesting article in its Media section today: the adverts that had the most complaints in 2008.

They range from adverts on child protection to sandwich spread to glasses.

The Grauniad has copies of every TV advert, but unfortunately two of them are poster adverts, which aren't listed. However, a copy of the Cargiant ad is on Richard Herring's website and you can find a copy of the poster for "Zach & Miri Make A Porno" on t'internet.

I've had a look at each one and I cannot see anything that any normal, reasonable and intelligent person would complain about.

Some people clearly have nothing better to do with their lives. Tweet

Craig Murray to speak on Torture 28/04/09

From Craig Murray:

I am very busy now preparing for my appearance before the Parliamentary Joint Human Rights Committee. This will be at 1.45pm this Tuesday 28 April, in the Thatcher Room (!), Portcullis House. It is a public hearing and moral support would be welcome.

I have prepared the following press release:

ORIGINAL DOWNING ST SMEARS VICTIM
RETURNS TO HAUNT NEW LABOUR

Thatcher Room
Portcullis House
Tuesday 28 April 1.45pm
Formal Evidence Session on UK Complicity in Torture
Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights
Witness: Craig Murray, former British Ambassador to Uzbekistan
(currently Rector of the University of Dundee).

In 2004, Craig Murray told us that:

- The British Government was complicit in the most vicious forms of torture
- He had been the victim of a lurid smear campaign initiated by New Labour
- The government was lying about all this

In 2004, much of the public and media was not willing to accept that the government would cooperate with torture or with false allegations against an innocent man. Many still had trust in the basic honesty and decency of government.

The evidence that Craig Murray was telling the truth about torture has now become overwhelming, including from the case of Binyam Mohammed. The UK “benefited” continually from intelligence passed on from the CIA waterboarding programme and from torture in countries including Uzbekistan, Pakistan and Egypt.

Craig Murray suffered the most high profile sacking of any British Ambassador for a century. But in 2005 the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee refused to hear him in evidence, despite allowing Jack Straw to appear and attack him.

Astonishingly, this is the first time Craig Murray will ever have been allowed to give formal evidence in the UK on his grave allegations, and be questioned on the truth of his testimony.

As the Scotland Yard investigation proceeds into MI5 and MI6 collusion in 16 cases of torture, Craig Murray will argue that it is not the security service operatives, but the Ministers who set the policy – and specifically Jack Straw – who should be facing criminal charges.

Contact: Craig Murray on 07979 691085 or craigmurray@mail.ru
Transcript of Craig Murray's formal evidence statement is at http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2009/03/trying_again_my.html

I need help to get this out to the mainstream media. Can you spare half an hour on Sunday or Monday to do that? Things you might do are:

- Find email addresses or fax numbers for newsrooms at newspapers, press and broadcast media and news agencies
- Send them a copy of the press release, and then telephone to make sure that somebody reads it
- Research on the internet reporters who have covered torture and extraordinary rendition, and send copies to them
- Speak with any journalist you have any contact with, alert them to the story and get them to pass it on to a suitable colleague
- Do not forget the Scottish media, political magazines and journals, specialist broadcasters, regional media and international correspondents in London
- Send copies to relevant NGOs - again following up with a phone call
- Rope in anyone with media experience and contacts you know to help
- Spread the news on the internet

Do not worry too much about duplication - it may be helpful, and there is much greater danger of too little being done than too much. I am sorry I am always asking you for help, but there is only one of me!

The parliamentary TV service is filming the hearing, so there will be footage and pictures available. It will also be webcast by parliament, though whether live or not I do not know.

You can cut and paste the press release, or it should be available in word and pdf here.

Download file

Download file

Tweet

Economic-Collapseballs

Just checked my email and I noticed this marketing email:

Dear Customer [D-Notice],

To help stimulate the global economy, until midnight on May 15, we [misc online CD shop] are offering 1/2 price shipping to United Kingdom.

Anyone have other examples of companies trying to cash in? Tweet

"(Il)legal Highs"?

From the Observer:

The government is considering outlawing a range of legal drugs that apparently mimic the effects of substances such as ecstasy and cannabis.

The move follows concerns in the US about a drug called Salvia divinorum, a hallucinogen that has been blamed as a contributory factor in teenage suicides.

*sighs*

Drugs are a public health issue, not a law and order issue. You don't deal with this sort of thing by making things illegal and leaving them to criminals; you have a legal and regulated system.

Phil Woolas, the Home Office minister, confirmed to parliament last week that the government had asked the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD), the independent expert body that advises ministers on drug-related issues, to look into the "legal highs" market and that he expected it to pay close attention to the side-effects of salvia.

Seeing that it has ignored the ACMD's previous consultations on ecstasy and the cannabis debacle, I'm expecting their advice only to be followed if it agrees with the government's plans.

I'm expecting a further Drugs Act to be passed just-in-time for the next election, like last time which criminalised the sale of magic mushrooms. This was done simply to appear "hard on drugs" for the 2005 General Election: no-one said it was required, the ACMD had said that the then-existing law was confusing and businesses had appeared for the harvest and sale of mushrooms! Tweet

Happy Birthday!

Today (25/04) is the 4th birthday of this thing.

Let's see what's changed:

• 2005: Poverty-stricken, ranting, anti-New Labour, anti-Tory law student living in Chester
  
• 2009: Poverty-stricken, ranting, anti-New Labour, anti-Tory lawyer living in London

So in other words, not much... Tweet

"Family Guy in drugs hell" shocker!

Via Drugs War Rant comes this clip from Family Guy:


A Bag Of Weed - Click here for funny video clips

If this doesn't convince people to end prohibition, nothing will!

UPDATE: Video link changed because it was removed from You Tube. Tweet

Freedom of Information request

I've just been looking at the TfL fares guide (pdf).

Page 3 states that their Oyster pay-as-you-go system has time limits for various tube and train journeys, but they don't say which journeys fall within the time limits. Due to this I've made the following FoIA request for details:

I've just been looking at the latest version of your fairs guide (http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/downloads/fares-and-tickets-zones1-6.pdf). I note that on page 3 it states the following:

"Your Tube, DLR, London Overground and National Rail pay as you go journey must be completed within a time limit from when you touched in at the start of your journey. The time limit varies between 70 minutes for the shortest journeys on Monday to Friday and four hours for some longer journeys on Sunday. If the time between touching in and touching out at the end of your journey is more than the time limit you will be charged more than the Oyster single fare for your journey. If this happens, you will need to call the Oyster helpline for assistance."

I consider that it is unfair to make such a statement and for it to be unreasonable to expect people to contact the helpline without giving details as to which journeys fall within each time limit.

Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, I request that you make available the time limits so that people are able to know and so make appropriate plans.

I'll let you know how I get on. Tweet

Twitterers vs the Daily Torygraph

For about half an hour this afternoon, the Daily Telegraph was publishing ANY Twitter hashtag that was labelled #budget or included Alistair Darling.

Naturally I and numerous other Twitterers took advantage of the situation and used it wisely...











Unfortunately they then stopped allowing them. Will they re-instate it later? Will they now be moderated?

See also Anton Vowl's piece...

UPDATE: The Guardian has more as does the Financial Times, both of which have screen grabs of my "constructive" submission...

UPDATE: See also Journalism.co.uk's editorial blog.

UPDATE(21/4): The Guardian has a full write-up in today's issue, which includes one of mine sweary Tweets. Yay! Tweet

Ian Tomlinson's cause of death

You may have seen this on the TV or radio.

If not, it's now being reported that the original post-mortem that was carried out into Mr Tomlinson's death at the G20 protest was incorrect.

A further one has been conducted which states that he died of an abdominal haemorrhage, not a heart attack. The police offer who was show beating him is also being questioned regarding possible manslaughter.

Craig Murray shows how the version of events has changed.

Is it any wonder that people don't trust the official version of events? Tweet

Daily Mail vs Daily Mail

I mentioned this on my Twitter thingy (a re-Tweet of Ben Goldacre), but didn't get around to writing summat "proper" about it.

Thanks to the Lay Scientist for spotting this:

Daily Mail in the UK:

How safe is the cervical cancer jab? Five teenagers reveal their alarming stories

Daily Mail in Ireland:

Join the Irish Daily Mail's cervical cancer vaccination campaign today

Yep, that's the Daily Mail campaigning both for and against the same vaccination!

I wish I had the ability to hold completely contradictory positions...

UPDATE: Ben Goldacre goes into this - and other bits - a lot more depth in his Bad Science column. Tweet

Daily Police Photo: video special

The Guardian have managed to obtained further video footage of the police beating people up at the G20 protests.

Due to the fact that there are 9 different videos, I won't list them, but instead simply advise people to go direct to the Guardian's website.

Tweet

Daily Police Photo: video special

A few days ago over on Daily Police Photo I did a special post in light of video footage that had been obtained of the police's assault on Ian Tomlinson.

Unfortunately, I now have to do a further special post showing the police beating the crap out of more protesters at the G20 march:



If further video footage turns up - including any other police misbehaviour - I'll show it over here. Tweet

The Sun Lies: It's not a matter of life and death..

I've put a new article on the Sun Lies. This time the Sun decides to fear-monger about the England football team.

Tweet

Ian Tomlinson memorial march

I've just got back from the Ian Tomlinson memorial march through east and central London.

I've added photos over on my Flickr stream. I'll be adding the more police-specific shots to Daily Police Photo over the next few days.

I've also taken brief video clips of the marchers.

Firstly leaving Bethnal Green Police Station:


Secondly moving along Bethnal Green Road:


Thirdly passing along Bishopsgate (towards London Liverpool Street station): Tweet

Spam email of the day

I got this in my email. My suspicions were raised by the first paragraph.

Abcat Finance Pty. Ltd.
13 Church St, Parramatta,
NSW, 2150, Australia.

Hello,
my name is John Nguen and I am Abcat Finance Pty. Ltd. Staff manager. We have found and reviewed your CV at totaljobs.com and decided to offer this job to you.

Our services
When buying-selling operations via the Internet are concerned, the buyer and the seller don’t know each other and are placed in different corners of the world. Therefore, it is important both to the buyer and the seller for their transaction to be made safely. Escrow means receiving money, documents, goods (it might be both the seller’s and the buyer’s) concerning the transaction by a reliable, experienced, impartial person - our escrow agent. The agent will hold all the money and documents until all the terms of the deal are satisfied and only then release them to the intended receiver. Please, visit our web-site for more information. (http://www.abcatfinance.com/)

Why we need escrow agents
Having a escrow agent in every country we can quickly transfer funds inside a country without wasting time on the international bank transfers, and continue our rapid growth rather than overwhelming our own bank account with inbound and outbound transactions leading to severe hold times and possible service interruption. It is time that is of significant importance to our clients.

Career and Benefits
Your main task will be receiving money transactions to any bank account you would like to use for the purposes of this job; and then forwarding these transactions to the next party of the escrow process according to our instructions. You will benefit from the commissions, which are 5-7% of each transaction and depend on the quantity of the completed transactions and the speed of your work. Besides, you will be paid a basic salary of 1500 GBP per month.

For your convenience there will be no paychecks, your commission will remain in your account after every successfully completed transaction. The money transfer fee is not included in your commission, meaning that you will deduct it from the received amount, not from your commission. Also you receive 5-7% of the transaction amount. Normally the amounts that we process vary from 2,000 GBP to 10,000 GBP, but can go higher on special occasions.

Job details
As the financial activity in your area is not too high, an escrow agent will be processing approximately 1-2 transactions per week. Each transaction requires approximately 4-5 hours of the agent work. Our manager always calls the agent beforehand to provide all the instructions. Therefore, with the due time management, the agent is able to combine this job with other activities (e.g. primary job or studies).

If you are ready to proceed, please provide your AVAILABLE phone number to our hiring manager (Colin Kendall) at hiring@abcatfinance.com

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you need more information.

--
Sincerely yours,
John Nguen,
Abcat Finance Pty. Ltd.
visit us at http://www.abcatfinance.com/

See here for details. Tweet

Police wack protester who then dies

Remember how I said people were looking for eyewitnesses for the guy who dies at the anti-G20 protests?

Well the Guardian has managed to obtain video footage of the incident:



This completely destroys the police's version of events - that they had no contact with him prior to trying to rescue him - i.e. they lied.

It also shows why the police must be photographed and filmed because they cannot be trusted. Tweet

The Sun Lies: Cry me a river

I've got a new post over on the Sun Lies.

This time I pick apart an article about "miracle tears". Tweet

"It's too expensive to scrap them"

From the Scotsman:

SCRAPPING plans for a national identity card scheme would cost £40 million, Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, said yesterday.

In an attack on the Conservatives, who have pledged to abolish the scheme, Ms Smith said doing so would "not free up a large fund of money to spend on other priorities".

Is it me or or Labour resorting to blackmail in an attempt to enforce their ID card plans? In any event, it's still a bit less than the billions they plan to waste of the bloody things. Tweet

A Grand Day Out

If you're interested I have numerous photos and updates from today's G20 demonstration in central London over on my Twitter page. I'll also have other photos over on Daily Police Photo in the next few days.

UPDATE: Ben Six reports on a 30 year old guy dying of "natural causes". However, it doesn't appear that way and anyone who saw what happened - as well as other instances of the police being, how should I put it, less than supportive of the demonstrators - should make themselves known as witnesses. For the record, I didn't see what happened as I'd managed to escape the police cordon a while ago and so wandered off. Tweet