Why has Saudi Arabia been welcomed into the UN's Human Rights Council ?

Saudi Arabia  a country with appalling notorious woeful reputation  for human rights abuses has been welcomed to the UN Human rights council, facilitated in part by our own PM, David Cameron, has himself looked at curtailing many of our own personal freedoms, indeed he has already eroded many. I think I see a pattern emerging.
Saudi Arabia continues to try convict and imprison political dissidents and human rights activists solely on account of their  peaceful activities. Still subjecting hundreds of people to unfair trials and arbitrary detentions. People  daily being curtailed carrying   out  their beliefs. Saudi Arabian judges routinely sentence detainees to floggings with hundreds of lashings, the use of torture an every day occurrence. Women's rights  hardly in existence at all.
It is a mockery of humanity, when  a country that carries out  cruel inhuman punishments, that shackles its media, who in the last 20 years  has had over 2,000  people executed can be welcomed  by the UN in this way.  last year alone 175 people executed, for crimes that were hardly capitol offences. Saudi Arabia executes more people than any other country except China and Iran.
But the fact  that Saudi Arabia sits on the  world's largest  reserves of oil, could have been a contributing factor.
This decision by the UN  mocks the pain off dissidents currently languishing in Saudi Jails.

Tories not welcome in Manchester, and are definitely not welcomed here.

Tens of thousands of demonstrators are descending on Manchester this weekend to protest outside the Conservative Party Conference - and feeling are  justifiably running high, since  the Tory's cruel  policies are leaving a lot of ordinary people in desperate poverty and misery, so  people are resisting and standing against austerity  and public spending cuts.
Too many people are now suffering under their discredited ideology of austerity. Two thirds of leading UK economists say they blame George Osborne's austerity policies to be damaging to the economy.
Austerity is not necessary,  there is another way, a better way. The ideology of austerity must  be exposed for the life destroying lie that it is. It is  just an ideological obsession being used by the Tories and their friends in the media to pick on easy targets that cannot fight back,   to scapegoat and pick on the poor, the vulnerable, the unemployed,  to distract us from the real wreckers of our society the bankers and the corporate world, as they continue to try and suck the last vestiges of hope from us all.
The Tories are  currently obsessed  with the concept  of shrinking our welfare state, privatising services and  reducing the public sector to virtually nothing. Attacking our human and Trade Union Rights, combined with their unrelenting attack on those who desperately need the support of the welfare state, we must remember those who have been  treated with brutality, incompetance and indifference, with many sadly having losit their lives.
So now is the time to fight back, not just in Manchester, but across the country, we simply cannot afford more years of Tory misrule, if we do not, we will lose everything, so we must  keep up the pressure, standing in solidarity in order to defeat the  government. We must start building alternatives, to their supposedly comfortable capitalist consensus, send out clear messages, saying no to austerity,  outside parliament, in our communities, in our workplaces.
They have gatecrashed into power, and are simply not welcome anymore.
It is time now to kick the Tories out of power.

Newtown Neurotics - Kick out the Tories.

Don't bomb Syria, it's the last thing they need at moment..

Grateful Syrians have spoken of their relief that so many friendly bombs are now blasting them towards peace. A few weeks ago it was Assad bombing them from the air and ISIS, shooting them from the ground. Now the Americans and Russians have joined in too.
The Syrian civil war has already left more than 240,000 people dead and created millions of refugees. We should not make matters on the ground even worse, just to show a largely futile show of force. 
Tell your MP to stand against any further military escalation in Syria. Another destructive  bombing campaign, will do no good at all. It will only lead to more death and destruction, leading to the death of innocent civilians, which will only serve to increase resentment, leading possibly to more acts of terrorism, and will not make Britain a safer place. The UK will be dragged into a deeper complex cynical game played  out in Syria by foreign powers and the Assad regime. We need to start helping the victims of wars that our governments so enthusiastically pursue, building roads to peace, and try fostering a more humane policy towards refugees.
Please tell your MP to stand against any further military escalation in Syria and prevent another disastrous intervention.

http://act.stopwar.org.uk/lobby/stopbombingsyria

Happy Birthday Human Rights Act

Today marks exactly 15 years  since our Human Rights Act came into force - and  it has been protected the rights of ordinary people across the UK ever since.The Act allows British citizens to raise human rights concerns in British courts rather  than have to go the European Court of Human Rights. The Tory Government has promised to repeal the act as stated in their general election manifesto. Human rights  put in place to stop corrupt Governments and to hold them to account.
Here are 15 ways the Human Rights Act has made all our lives better and 15 reasons why the Government must not be allowed to make this anniversary its last.

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/mairi-claire-rodgers/human-rights-act_b_8227590.html?utm_hp_ref=uk

Join the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement

Free Palestine - Support the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions ( BDS) movement. BDS is a strategy that allows people around the world to contribute to the Palestinian struggle against Israeli apartheid and for freedom, justice and equality. It is used as a key tactic of solidarity with the Palestinian people,  creating a pressure that cannot simply be ignored. I remember how the South African apartheid system was itself bought to an end by an effective boycott campaign. That only needs to last until Israel ends its illegal  occupation and complies with international law.

http://www.bdsmovement.net/

Goodbye Liz Whittaker ; storyteller ( 1944 -2015) R.I. P

( a post prompted by my partner Jane, this is effectively her post.)

Sad to say goodbye to Liz Whittaker, friend, author, playwright, creative advocate of the arts scene here in Wales. A magical weaver of words, who touched many peoples lifes. A dear friend to my partner, who were able to bring great comfort and joy to one another. I personally grew to respect her immensely, this  passionate individual, who touched the lives of many, with her supportive manner, passion and kindness. Whose appreciative comments and thoughts  will be missed by all who encountered her. My community has lost a creative spark.
My heart goes out to her family and her many friends.

For Palestine with Love

(today the Palestinian flag will be raised at the the United Nations for the first time, a proud and emotional day.)

I have never been to Palestine

But it is a country I have grown to love 

The scent of its soil so close

Even though as I write  it is in chains 

And its cities daily bleed, voices weeping

I cannot afford to grief, because its future cry's out

Where faces shine with hope and trust

The land from the rivers to the sea, free again 

With one soul, hand in hand, the end of occupation 

The lands fragrance, penetrates awareness

A homeland restored, to how  it used to be 

Thousands return from exile 

With kindness, humbleness and respect

Refusing to surrender ever again 

Allowed to snatch a few moments of joy 

Watch olive trees blossom, vineyards flourish

No longer uprooted or denied 

From,the desert earth, insistence grows 

Oppression banished, the people awake again to laughter

No more babies maimed, no more crying 

Air around discharge vapours of peace 

Iinfectious smiles again released 

As  suffocating walls of apartheid are destroyed

Until this freedom is returned,

I will continue to speak out 

With my pen, try to transform  darkness into light 

Keep delivering messages, for Palestine with love.
but it is a country I have grown to love
the scent of its soil so close
even though as I write  it is in chains
and its cities daily bleed, voices weeping.
I cannot afford to grief, because its future cry's out
where faces shine with hope and trust
the land from the rivers to the sea, free again 
with one soul, hand in hand, the end of occupation
the lands fragrance, penetrates awareness,
a homeland restored, to how  it used to be. 
Thousands return from exile
with kindness, humbleness and respect
refusing to surrender ever again
allowed to snatch a few moments of joy
watch olive trees blossom, vineyards flourish
no longer uprooted, or  denied 

from the desert earth, insistence grows
oppression banished, the people awake again to laughter.
No more babies maimed, no more crying
air around , breathes in peace, infectious smiles again released
as the suffocating walls of apartheid destroyed
until this freedom is returned, I will continue to speak out
with my pen, try to transform  darkness into light,
keep delivering messages, for Palestine with love.