Support the uprising in Libya – no to Gaddafi and no to NATO airstrikes.

The frontpages of the Sunday papers could have been taken from a Chris Morris sketch – IT’S WAR, TOP GUNS 1 – MAD DOG 0, and HUGE STRIKE ON GADDAFI (where they also reveal the shock news that a black person has been on Midsomer Murders). After years of feeling a bit dodgy and awkward [...]

The good, the bad and the leaky

The publication last week of the first few batches of leaked US embassy cables has brought whistleblower website WikiLeaks – as well as the fate of its founder and editor in chief Julian Assange – dramatically to the front pages and top bills of news media around the world. As this article was being drafted, [...]

Really remembering the consequences of war

Today is Remembrance Sunday, a day when we stop for a moment of silence, or watch veterans’ parades, or wear red poppies on our tops “to commemorate the contribution of British and Commonwealth military and civilian servicemen and women in the two World Wars and later conflicts”. It was originally named the Earl Haig Appeal [...]

Cops go on the rampage in Ecuador

Yesterday police in Ecuador tried to seize control of the capital Quito as part of a failed attempt to overthrow the left wing President Rafael Correa. Most of the mainstream media has reported the rebellion as being a protest at “austerity measures”, but there’s lots of evidence that something more sinister is going on. On [...]

Congo: 50 years of independence, centuries of oppression

Yesterday marked the celebration of 50 years of independence for the Democratic Republic of Congo. In 1960, Congo was finally able to free itself from one of the most brutal regimes in all of colonial Africa: Belgian control. Of all the European colonial powers, the Belgians were notorious as the worst for their ruthless exploitation [...]

We shouldn't celebrate the British military

Today the city I call home didn’t feel like home for me. The city centre of Glasgow, like towns and cities all over Scotland, played host to a massive display of weaponry, Union Jacks, and mass recruitment to the British military. Today is armed forces day, the second time that an annual “celebration” has been [...]

Tory candidate in homophobia shocker

A wannabe Conservative MP for North Ayrshire and Arran, Philip Lardner, was today suspended from his party for expressing extreme right-wing views for the SECOND time in less than two years. Lardner, a primary school teacher in Erskine, Renfrewshire, was thrown out of his party today by embarrassed Tory party chiefs after homophobic comments published [...]

US Army caught on camera.

A while ago I did an article about violent videogames, where I jokingly made reference to accidentally shooting civilians in a helicopter gunship. Watching this footage thats been leaked on the internet of insurgents and civilians (including a reuters cameraman) being slaughtered makes you wonder how far war is from a videogame today. The gunship [...]

Zuma mania!

Jacob Zuma, the President of South Africa, has been in the UK meeting the Queen and causing a stir. The Daily Mail has whipped itself into a frenzy, calling Zuma a “vile buffoon” and a “sex-obsessed bigot”, as well as repeatedly calling him “Zulu Boy”. The Telegraph is appalled that he has been invited after  [...]

Map of drone attacks in Pakistan

I found the above map via boingboing. It shows attacks by unmanned robotic drones committed by the US within Pakistan. The analysts who produced it write: “Our study shows that the 114 reported drone strikes in northwest Pakistan, including 18 in 2010, from 2004 to the present have killed approximately between 834 and 1,216 individuals, [...]

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