Supporters of the death penalty often claim that it’s a way of achieving “closure” for relatives of the victims of the crimes concerned. I know, “closure” is a terrible Americanism but let’s not get into that right now.Of course, there...

The ability, or failure to protect women from all violence is on the news agenda today. China’s patting itself on the back as a new law has recently resulted in the first successful prosecution in a sexual harassment case. This is...

I signed up to Blogcatalog today, to try to get more people to see us. They require us to include a link from our blog to their site, so here it is: http://www.blogcatalog.com/directory/politics Interestingly, Amnesty USA is already...

Im old enough to remember the first pop video. Or at least the first really popular one. Vienna, Ultravoxs ice-cold classic (This means nothing to me / Ohhhh, Vienna!) might not be quite as a cool as it was in 1981 ok, it hasnt been...

Issues around freedom of expression and the right to protest have been in the news more and more recently, from the brutal clamp-down in Burma witnessed by the world to the erosion of civil liberties in the UK, with the right to...

It can’t be denied that the International Criminal Court’s move to accuse Sudan’s President of committing war crimes in Darfur is a very bold step as it's the first time the ICC has issued charges against a sitting serving head of...

Gordon Brown recently asked members of the public to pose questions tohim on Youtube, which he’s then responded to in a Youtube clip. Rathera nice idea. One of those selected was a colleague of mine who askedabout 42 days pre-charge...

Two things today, neither nice. Rape and racism. Yesterday the Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police John Yates (“Yates of the Yard”!) called for all police forces to set up a specialist unit to investigate rape allegations...

It seems that the “people want 42 days pre-charge detention” argument may have been punctured somewhat by the Rowntree Reform Trust’s survey , released today, showing 60% against 42 days. Sky News kindly reprinted the poll results...

Beijing is failing to honour the promises it made when bidding for the Olympics in 2001, says the BBC , that air quality would meet World Health Organisation standards. The beeb has done its own (scientific?) tests using a hand-held...

Lord Ahmed has a piece on the Telegraph website today, setting out the reasons why he's going to vote against 42 days pre-charge detention when the Lords debate it tomorrow. Good for him. But he's getting a bit of a barracking from...

Sometimes you’ve got to love living in the UK – and Saturday was one of those times. I’ll freely admit that I was not feeling all that well when I headed up into London for Pride London – the annual celebration of sexual diversity –...

I went to the Guardian/Observer’s debate at Westminster last night, “Liberty in Peril?” starring David Aaronovitch (in a dazzling pink shirt), Denis McShane, Henry Porter and (headlining) David Davis. DD will have been pleased to look...

The next few days will see Amnesty’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender campaign go into overdrive. This Saturday is Pride London , where our float will once again be on the streets of the capital highlighting the problems of...

Say what you like about the “odd couple” journalistic brothers Peter and Christoper Hitchens – they are “up for it”. Peter, for example, renowned mauler of all things liberal, will always go on the radio to debate, for example, why the...

Phew, that’s that out of the way then! The football. Now it’s just the tennis, the cricket (remainder of), the Olympics, the start of the new football season …. Your non-sport-loving correspondent didn’t watch any football these past...

We released the second of our viral animations on the China Olympics today, highlighting the repression of peaceful protesters (using the medium of cute animated animals). You can see and download the films, and get the code to embed...

Just bought a car recently. (I’ve already mentioned my car in an earlier post – apologies bike-lovers!). Anyway, we’re getting rid of the clapped out left-hand drive Italian one (pictured) that we’ve been knocking about in for the last...

The Maori people have had a bit of good news recently as the New Zealand government agreed to an historic land deal that would give the Maoris almost £161 million in forestry assets. This deal comes after a long-running history of...

So what exactly does Heinz meanz these days? Gone it appears are the halcyon days of simple messages about warming cups of soup and the beauty of Tomato Ketchup. Instead the global brand has gone and got itself embroiled in a saucy row...