How to Get Away with Murder

1. Join Her Majesty's Constabulary

2. Lose control in a high-pressure situation and, directly or indirectly, lead to the death of at least one innocent, law-abiding citizen

3. (Key step) Slander and libel those whose death you have been responsible for.  (Do not worry,  they won't be able to defend themselves)

4. Get your mates in the judiciary to limit the terms of the 'independent inquiry' (snigger)

For some fine examples of this technique, see Hillsborough, Menezes and Tomlinson.

Written on the 20th anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster.

You May Take the P*ss, but You Will Never Take Our Freedom

Nick Huhne and Chris Clegg have both pledged to lead a campaign of civil disobedience against the dreaded ID card should they be elected leader of the Liberal Democrats, but according to the Stirrer fellow Birmingham Yardley MP and failed prospective leader candidate John Hemming is planning a rather different form of civil disobedience against a particularly vicious attack on our civil liberties. He is planning a pub crawl to protest against police spying on pubs where they make astonishing claims that people are breaking the law - by getting drunk.

In a letter to the landlord of the Prince of Wales in Moseley, where JRR Tolkien reputedly used to court his wife, the police confirmed

"there is clear evidence in the premises…of numerous people who are drunk/intoxicated."

People getting drunk in a pub? Never!

Now, recently we have been getting used to the police taking the p*ss. But getting p*ssed to take on the police? Only on Broad Street on a Saturday night.

H&S Training for Office-rs Overdue

The Metropolitan Police have been convicted of breaching Health and Safety Law when they killed Jean Charles de Menezes in the wake of the failed July 21st bombings.

I propose we send Gareth from the office give them some much needed Health and Safety training. Learning how to correctly place a hot cup of coffee next to a monitor will clearly reduce the probability of accidentally shooting an innocent person in the head seven times.

An excellent summary of the court case has been presented here.

Personally, I think anyone who defends the police on the grounds of stopping potential suicide bombers in future is advocating legalised terrorism. By the police. On anyone they do not like the look of.

Ian Blair has so far refused to resign.

Time for democratically elected Police Chiefs?

Birmingham or Baghdad?

Birmingham was once again the centre of a terrorist plot in the land that has become Al-Qaeda's number one target as a result of our glorius leader's "prescient" (spelled president?) foreign policy. A plan hatched by disillusioned muslims to kidnap a Muslim British soldier and behead him on television was allegedly foiled by the police, leading to 9 arrests and numerous houses across the city being searched. Leaving Big Brother to fill a gap in the market.

The media is full of angry muslims or so the national press would have us believe. On a local report I saw a lot of Muslims supporting the police action, but presumably this would not go down well in the rest of the country. So instead we are treated to the assorted cranks and nutters you can find in immigrant communities, who presumably would vote UKIP or Conservative under Michael Howard if they were white and middle-class (maybe the latter is a bit harsh).

One such nutter unfortunately is chairman of Birmingham Central Mosque, Dr Mohammed Naseem. In a previous post I took his side against Khalid Mahmood, but I was glad to see I did not support his views unequivocally. In his latest outburst he compares treatment of Muslims to that of Jews in Nazi Germany, and claims that the arrest were an example to the government justifying its political agenda.

Not quite Dr Naseem. Although I am no fan of this government, I am also no fan of those who seek to exploit their idiocy with their own brand of tomfoolery. These were not comments that helped the community, and not a great advert for British or Birmingham Muslims. Perhaps Khalid Mahmood is right after all.

A Tale of Two Blairs

It certainly is a bad time to be a Blair. Prime Minister Tony, fresh from winning an education bill with the help of the Tories, has walked straight into a row over party funding as Jack Dromey, the Labour Party treasurer, claimed he knew nothing about the multi-million pound loans that prospective peers have given to the party. Referring the problem to the Electoral Commission, he said "It's wrong that Downing Street thinks it can run the Labour Party: we are an elected party, a democratic party."

He doesn't mince his words does our Jack, firmly blaming the Prime Minister where others would have alluded and waffled. Give him the freedom of the People's Republic.

Meanwhile it has been revealed that Ian Bliar may (as I understand it) have known that an innocent man had been shot dead as little as six hours after the event, which means he would have known it at the press conference where he seemed to understand he posed a direct threat to the public (that is the innocent man, not the Chief of the Metropolitan Police).

The Blairs are a joke. They should both go now.

Police Murder Suspect Arrested in Birmingham

They struck the first blow after July 21st and they have done it again. Earlier this week the West Midlands police arrested one of the three suspects believed to be involved in the shooting of PC Sharon Beshenivsky. This time however it was down to dumb-luck; a routine enquiry over an unrelated sexual assault uncovered the address Yusuf Jama was staying at.

Birmingham is an obvious place for many criminals on-the-run to come to due to its central location and good(!?) transport links to the rest of the country. Independence would allow us to control our borders, preventing such unwanted guests entering Birmingham in the first place.

It would also allow us to bar the other main criminals attracted to the area; known as politicians, they often come here to garner our support in this politically significant region, and then do very little for the city in return.

The Party Line

82-year-old hitherto Nazi-fleer Walter Wolfgang received a hero's return to the Labour Party conference after being ignominiously man-handled out of the arena yesterday by over-zealous party stewards. To add insult to injury, he was held under anti-terror legislation. I gather he was very lucky not to have been shot dead on site by the Police as he clearly bore the hallmarks of a suicide bomber - at 82 he could have given up the ghost at any moment (the fact he probably wouldn't have taken anyone else with him is a moot point). It was interesting to hear the Prime Minister apologise, stating he was not in the centre at the time (and thus implying it had nothing to do with him). The incident came a day after Mr Blair's speech, in which he talked about changing the law's emphasis from making sure the innocent are not wrongly convicted to protecting law-abiding citizens.

I see. Tony Blair is the law-abiding citizen. Walter Wolfgang and Jean Charles de Menezes are the innocent people.

I think I preferred things the old way.

Winners and Losers of Terrorism

Last week saw the arrest on Friday of the three remaining men wanted over the attempted bombings on the 21st of July. Two were picked up in London in an SAS-style raid, while the other was tracked to Italy via his brother's mobile phone. In both cases, you have to admire the efficiency of the police in the operation (particularly how they dealt the difficulties encountered when children emerged as they tried to break into the ground floor flat).

Meanwhile the IRA have announced that they are giving up violence for good, which is great news for everyone concerned. Too many innocent lives have been lost in this conflict over the years, and quite frankly, this was a move that should have been made years ago. Credit where credit is due however, to commit to exclusively peaceful means is a massive step that shouldn't be dismissed as it has been by sections of the Unionist community despite the many crimes over the years, and credit to the Prime Minister for persevering with the peace process. The Unionist community should not forget who should get the praise for this however - David Trimble. If Ian Paisley had his way, the war would still be going on, and there would be no devolved power-sharing Government.

Which is of course exactly what he wanted.

The police have said that they will not have shy away from disproportionately stopping members of certain ethnic groups as they attempt to prevent further attacks on London's transport system (funny that, as when the IRA were bombing this currently I don't remember white people being disproportionately stopped and searched). In fact, the words I think were used were "we are not going to waste time stopping old white women".

As I am not an "old white women" in the fullest sense of the phrase I have come up with some statements that we can use to embarrass the police while they protect the country from the likes of us. After all, if four of us are like that, we must all be like that.

"Thanks for stopping and searching me, you must be one of the good ones; after all, you could have shot me in the head 8 times"

"I don't usually travel on the tube. I usually take the car but have you seen the price of petrol? There must be a war going on."

"Did you know in every young Asian/black male , there is an old white women struggling to get out?"

"Can I have a receipt for that. I've heard that if you get five, you can have a discount on a new rucksack?"

Some people may think these statements are in poor taste, and they are probably right. Just make sure we are stopping and searching based on intelligence rather than base prejudice.

Brum Strikes a Blow Against Terror

In a dawn raid in Hay Mills it appears that West Midlands Police, in conjunction with the security services and the Met have captured one of the failed bombers of 21st July. Obviously if this is confirmed, it is a massive breakthrough.

It was only a matter of time before the Islamic terrorist activity that has reared its ugly head was linked to the city. There is clearly a hotbed of discontent in certain areas of the city amongst the Muslim youth. Respect posters and others about Palestine, Afghanistan and Iraq abound in the areas of South Birmingham where I live. A poster with a picture of the battered twin towers has also been seen with the caption "A towering day in history" in Balsall Heath.

The reports suggest that police used a taser to capture the suspect. Whereas this has the obvious advantage of not bringing in the suspect on a slab (although it has been known according to some organisations), presumably they were sure that he wasn't wearing a bomb belt that could have been set of by the explosives. Apparently though, he was wearing a rucksack containing explosives.

Hopefully he will know something about the whereabouts of the other suspected bombers, and perhaps some good can come out of the latest terror attempts.

The War on Terror and Shoot to Kill

The "war on terror" is clearly being lost (of course this is not surprising, as it seems to be more about motivations rather than about actually ending terrorism). After the crazy events of Thursday where we were mercifully spared the misery of the 7th of July, Egypt also suffered a terrorist attack this weekend where as I write over 80 people have died. This takes place against the backdrop of the daily murders and suicide bombings taking place in the country that used to be Iraq (perhaps we should explain to the Islamic world that this isn't really democracy - after all, if their experience of democracy comes from Iraq since 2003 and Israel (and in particular the occupation of Palestine), it's not a surprise that they are not that enthusiastic about it).

What is just as concerning about the recent events is that the police shot dead an innocent man because he was acting suspiciously and was wearing strange clothing for the weather. Obviously we will need to wait for the full inquiry into the shooting before criticising those involved, as I'm not sure the media reports are giving a fully accurate version of what happened. The shoot-to-kill policy is undoubtedly necessary when suicide bombings are the weapon of choice of the state's enemy, but it raises real questions of how and when they can be justified in a specific instance. What constitutes suspicious activity? If a person's first language isn't English, how can this be taken into account when the police give a command, particularly if they are in plain clothes and one of them has a gun?

After all, would you like to be at the wrong end of a mistaken decision?

Birmingham City Centre Evacuated

I don't think anyone expected the events that unfolded last night which saw the entire city centre evacuated. At the time I was at home hearing reports on the radio, but the scale of what was happening grew increasingly clear as the night went on. Despite the fact nothing was found I don't think anyone could blame the Police for evacuating the area - they certainly wouldn't have taken the decision lightly and it was obviously better than the alternative. Apparently some people spent the night as Aston University.

At least it's good for something.

It is interesting to see the response to the terrorist attacks in this city. When going to work on Friday two police officers boarded the bus I was on, but didn't check any passes or anything. While walking around Birmingham City Centre on Saturday afternoon there was a noticeable police presence which seemed bigger than usual, although there are always police visible in the city centre especially on Saturday.

I had always thought that Birmingham would be an unlikely target for the current terrorist threat. This city may have been a target for the IRA, but they were making a political statement against what they saw as the English occupation of Ireland. The Islamist threat is surely more about making headlines by attacking the centres of the West and as such London would be a more obvious target.

Only time will tell if this analysis is correct.