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Showing posts with label Olympic. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Olympic. Show all posts
Saturday, 11 August 2012
Friday, 10 August 2012
Battered Irish Husbands Increase as Katie Taylor Wins Olympic Gold
Battered Irish Husband
The Man Rules At last a guy has taken the time to write this all downFinally , the guys' side of the story.
( I must admit, it's pretty good.)
We always hear ' the rules ' From the female side.Now here are the rules from the male side.
These are our rules!
Please note.. these are all numbered '1 '
ON PURPOSE!1. Men are NOT mind readers.
1. Learn to work the toilet seat.
You're a big girl. If it's up, put it down.
We need it up, you need it down.
You don't hear us complaining about you leaving it down.
1. Crying is blackmail.
1. Ask for what you want.
Let us be clear on this one:
Subtle hints do not work!
Strong hints do not work!
Obvious hints do not work!
Just say it!
1. Yes and No are perfectly acceptable answers to almost every question.
1. Come to us with a problem only if you want help solving it. That's what we do.
Sympathy is what your girlfriends are for.
1. Anything we said 6 months ago is inadmissible in an argument.
In fact, all comments become Null and void after 7 Days.
1. If you think you're fat, you probably are.
Don't ask us.
1. If something we said can be interpreted two ways and one of the ways makes you sad or angry, we meant the other one
1. You can either ask us to do something
Or tell us how you want it done.
Not both.
If you already know best how to do it, just do it yourself.
1. Whenever possible, Please say whatever you have to say during commercials..
1. Christopher Columbus did NOT need directions and neither do we.
1. ALL men see in only 16 colors, like Windows default settings.
Peach, for example, is a fruit, not A color. Pumpkin is also a fruit. We have no idea what mauve is.
1. If it itches, it will be scratched.
We do that.
1. If we ask what is wrong and you say 'nothing,' We will act like nothing's wrong.
We know you are lying, but it is just not worth the hassle.
1. If you ask a question you don't want an answer to, Expect an answer you don't want to hear.
1. When we have to go somewhere, absolutely anything you wear is fine...Really .
1. Don't ask us what we're thinking about unless you are prepared to discuss such topics as Motorcars ,or Football
or golf, or Darts etc.
1. You have enough clothes.
1. You have too many shoes.
1. I am in shape. Round IS a shape!
1. Thank you for reading this.
Yes, I know, I have to sleep on the couch tonight;
But did you know men really don't mind that? It's like camping.
Pass this to as many men as you can -
to give them a laugh.
Pass this to as many women as you can -to give them a bigger laugh.
Thursday, 26 July 2012
YANKEE DOODLE TO WHIP LONDON 2012 OLYMPICS INTO SHAPE
Yankee Doodle came to town
A-riding on a pony
A feather in Mitt's Presidential hat
Calling Olympic Brit baloney.
Y
Yankee Doodle, keep it up
Yankee Doodle dandy
Mind the radioactive Olympic site
The Old boys and the brandy.
Mitt Romney came to London Town
Olympic expert of Salt Lake city
Looked at the British army there
Declared Olympic security shitty
Yankee Doodle, keep it up
Yankee Doodle dandy
Mind the radioactive Olympic site
The Old boys and the brandy.
There was Mrs. Mitt Washington
Upon a slapping stallion
A-giving orders to British men
I guess there was a million.
Yankee Doodle, keep it up
Yankee Doodle dandy
Mind the radioactive Olympic site
The Old boys and the brandy.
U.S. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney questions British on the Olympic Games during a visit to London, questioned on whether Britain was up to the task, said it was hard to know 'just how well it ...will turn out' The Indian Prime minister also tweeted that athletes think their London accommodation is worse than the Commonwealth Games in Delhi. After less than two days in London, the American Presidential candidate questioned whether Britain had what it takes to host an Olympics.
He said there were 'disconcerting' signs about whether Britain can handle the event, and called into question the commitment of the British people.
Mr Romney with Foreign Secretary William Hague in London today further questioned whether Britain is ready to 'celebrate' the Games and says there were 'a few things that were disconcerting.' He further said that, 'There are a few things that were disconcerting, the stories about the private security firm not having enough people, supposed strike of the immigration and customs officials, that obviously is not something which is encouraging. Because in the Games, there are three parts that makes Games successful. Mr Romney is an expert on Olympic matters and was chief executive of the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City in 2002 which he successfully managed.
Mr Romney said, 'Number one, of course, are the athletes. That’s what overwhelmingly the Games are about. Number two are the volunteers. And they’ll have great volunteers here.But number three are the people of the country. Do they come together and celebrate the Olympic moment? And that’s something which we only find out once the Games actually begin.' He met Mr Miliband the head of the Labour party who also criticized the Games amid concerns raised ever since private security firm G4S said it would have to provide thousands fewer staff than they originally promised.
Thousands of soldiers many of whom have just returned from Afghanistan to plug the gap. There are alsoproblems with Border Agency staff threatening to go on strike during the Games, although it was called off yesterday. There was chaos
During a meeting with Mr Miliband, Mr Romney was asked by the British media about Olympic security issues and the error over the North Korean team flag. He tried to be diplomatic by replying: 'It is impossible for absolutely no mistakes to occur.
'Of course there will be errors from time to time, but those are all overshadowed by the extraordinary demonstrations of courage, character and determination by the athletes.
Meanwhile Indian government minister Ajay Maken said on Twitter that his country's athletes think the Commonwealth Games in Delhi two years ago were better than the the London 2012 complex. Athletes are upset about toilet facilities which have been converted into sub-standard housing for over 16,000 athletes and officials from more than 200 countries. They also say up to six athletes are forced to use one filthy toilet in London, forcing some of them to change their training schedules. There are shocking pictures exposing the filthy state of London's bedrooms and bathroom. Many nations are complaining that facilities are not fit for human habitation with evidence of animals using the beds, wash basins, toilers and showers.
Wednesday, 25 July 2012
Animal Rights Not Human Rights Olympic London 2012
The Irish Times
Detention of Marian Price
Sir/Madam,
We wish to draw your attention to the continued detention of Marian Price, which we feel constitutes an alarming breach of human and civil rights.
Ms Price had previously served a long jail sentence in England and in the North and was released and pardoned in 1980 due to ill-health resulting from force-feeding over many months in 1973 and 1974.
Ms Price was arrested in May 2011 on the basis of charges, which have since been dismissed. At the time she was granted bail for those charges and has also been granted bail on subsequent charges brought against her, yet she remains imprisoned by order of Owen Paterson, British Secretary of State, who claimed to revoke her licence.
Ms Price’s health and welfare are at the forefront of this campaign and she has been declared too ill to attend court after spending more than a year in isolation. Ms Price is the victim of psychological torture and internment without trial, and as a result of this her mental health and physical health has deteriorated rapidly. Given concerns about her very poor health, we are calling for her immediate release based on humanitarian grounds. – Yours, etc,
Tuesday, 24 July 2012
Olympic Internment London 2012 Condemned by Nobel Peace Winner
Julian Assange is politically interned in London 2012 just like Marian Price and other political dissidents are interned without trial in British Occupied Ireland. The British Government are political hypocrites and war criminals waffling on about human rights overseas, while being found guilty of torture and human rights abuses in British Occupied Ireland and interning political prisoners of conscience, even in their own Olympic city of London 2012, which all non-infiltrated human rights activists worldwide, are calling to boycott !
By Mairead Maguire who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1976.
The British courts shamefully refused Mr. Assange’s appeal against extradition to Sweden, where he is wanted for questioning in response to accusations of sexual molestation (no criminal charges have been made against him). Mr. Assange has said he is willing to answer questions relating to accusations against him, but to do so in the UK. He has good reason not to want to be extradited to Sweden, as he could find himself imprisoned in solitary confinement, and then very likely extradited to an American prison.
The American media has reported that the U.S. Justice Department and the Pentagon conducted a criminal investigation into “whether WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange violated criminal laws in the group’s release of government documents, including possible charges under the Espionage Act.” Mr. Assange’s only crime is he cared enough about people to respect their right to the truth, and he had the courage and bravery to print the truth, and in the process he embarrassed powerful governments.
The WikiLeaks release of thousands of State Department cables, and of the video footage from an Apache helicopter of a 2007 incident in which the U.S. military appears to have deliberately killed civilians, including two Reuters employees, revealed crimes against humanity. For this “truth telling,” he has incurred the wrath of the U.S. government, and has been targeted in a most vindictive way (as has Private Bradley Manning). (I support WikiLeaks right to publish leaked information, as it is in the interest of the public and their right to know. WikiLeaks were not the leakers or whistleblowers but an on-line news media).
Many believe there are those in high places who not only wish to punish Assange for outing them, but want to make an example of him so others will remain silent. They will not rest until Assange is behind bars in the USA and there are even some American politicians who have put Assange’s life in grave danger by calling for him to be assassinated.
It is ironic that Assange’s basic human rights have been breached since he is a journalist working for people’s rights to a free press and the freedom of speech.
The Australian, Swedish and UK governments have a responsibility to see that this man of courage be treated fairly and with justice. He ought to be allowed to tell his story in the UK when he can prove whether the incompetent and contradictory accusations against him are true or false.
It must also be remembered if Assange ends up in an American prison for a long time, in grave danger to his life, and maybe even face the death penalty, we all have to ask, “Who next?” and “Where goes freedom, human rights, and justice?”
We, as world citizens, need to support Julian Assange, who tried to protect the innocent by outing the perpetrators of war crimes and crimes against humanity. It is they who should, one day, be made accountable for their crimes.
Saturday, 21 July 2012
Militarized Olympic Zone Tramples on Civil Liberties
Olympics 2012 Militarized Zone : Lockdown London an Orwellian Parody Police State Developed in British Occupied Ireland
Olympics: Kabul. Baghdad. London. Three to avoid this summer
The missile batteries, fighter jets and VIP lanes are what happens when a world agency blackmails a city aching for prestige
There seems to be no limit to the efforts of Lord Coe and his friends at the International Olympic Committee to bring this summer's London Games into ridicule and contempt. A week-long "military exercise" is currently under way in the capital. RAF Typhoon jets are to scream back and forth over the Thames. Starstreak surface-to-air missile batteries are being set up in East End parks and on flats in Bow, with 10 soldiers manning each one. Army and navy helicopters will clatter back and forth, with snipers hanging from their doors "to shoot down pilots of terrorist planes".
Machine-guns will for the first time be toted by guards on the London tube. Police special forces, "trained to kill", will wear balaclavas to avoid identification. There are to be naval landing craft roaming the coast off Weymouth and submarines at the ready. The Olympics have become a festival of the global security industry, with a running and jumping contest as a sideshow. No one in government dares call a halt. Nero in his prime could not have squandered so much money on circuses.
The Olympics have become an Orwellian parody of what happens when a world agency blackmails a government aching for prestige into spending without limit. Not one defence spokesman has come up with a plausible scenario for the jets and missiles. The latter have a range of just three miles and are said to be usable "only at the express instruction of the prime minister". What will they shoot down, and on whose head will it crash?
These boys-with-toys are costing taxpayers £1bn yet they cannot add an iota to national security. They have nothing to do with deterringterrorism, even supposing there to be any such threat. The modern terrorist uses suicide tactics, by definition immune to deterrence. All the government has done is raise the politico-military profile of the Games and tempted some crackpot to have a go. Even at the street level, Occupy London and the cycling militants must regard Lord Coe's VIPlanes as a golden opportunity. The Olympic organisers are planning to close the Mall, Horse Guards Parade and most of St James's Park from June onwards, for fear someone might plant a bomb near the volleyball contest, crazily located behind Downing Street as a sop to Tony Blair. This is despite the prime minister and the mayor's office specifically countermanding the decision. Computer firms eager for contracts place regular stories about the "threat to the games from cyber-attack". One firm has been hired to deploy 450 "IT wizards" to guard the Games from hackers.
This means that, for the rest of the summer, London will effectively be "ruled" by the IOC. Enthusiasts for world government should take note. An unaccountable, self-validating body expects five-star hotels, chauffeur-driven BMWs, Soviet-style Zil lanes and all-green light phases for its thousands of "officials" and corporate hangers-on. It not only expects them, it gets them. It demanded and got its own legislative powers, under the 2006 London Olympic Games and Paralympic Games Act. Lord Coe does what the IOC tells him and passes the bill to George Osborne, who pays it. When the opening ceremony alone was £30m short (on a staggering budget of £60m), the cheque was promptly sent round.
The IOC is ever vigilant for its sponsors. Inspectors are to fan out across the capital, arresting anyone who uses the words "2012 Olympics" or any other associative phrase, for not paying Coe and the IOC a fortune in sponsorship fees. Jamie Oliver cannot hold an Olympics party in Victoria Park as he is a non-sponsor. Blogs, pictures or videos on YouTube or Facebook are banned. Anyone who so much as carries an unapproved bag, hat or shoe in a venue is banned. The Chinese politburo is Liberty Hall compared with this authoritarianism.
Transport for London has been reduced to a gibbering wreck. It has warned Londoners to get out of the city for the duration – at what cost to the economy? Citizens have been warned that central London roads will be closed, tube drivers may go on strike, and hospital casualty departments will be short of blood. How this will make money for London, as promised by Coe and others, is a mystery. As a tourist destination the place is being put on a par with Baghdad or Kabul.
There is no civic dividend from this sum and never has been. August in London is always a light month and, as the empty rows at Athens and Beijing showed, Olympic sports are not people draws. The irony is that the chief success of the London Olympics organisers has been the chief source of criticism. They have undoubtedly generated domestic enthusiasm. By making ticket sales a national lottery they achieved what appears to be the first sold-out Olympics of modern times.
However, roughly 85% of these buyers are Britons, few of whom will stay in London hotels. The crowds will be concentrated at the venues. It is the government, through its hospitality for the IOC "family", that will sustain the luxury hotel market this August. For the non-games districts of the capital, I would be surprised if shops, buses and tubes are not half deserted, taxis unused, theatres, cinemas and concert halls empty and any royal park not fenced off for a commercial sponsor pleasantly uncrowded.
The London Games began in a spirit of economy and popular enthusiasm. At the considerable cost of £2.4bn, they were to answer the state gigantism of the Beijing Games and fuse modern sport into the urban fabric. London would prove that cities did not have to be rich to host the games. It would be "the people's games".
The IOC put a stop to that. It drove a pliant British government to the present paranoia, budgetary incontinence and corporate greed. If the image of the London Games is to be rescued this summer, it must rely on diverting attention to the sincerity of young athletes and spectators, on somehow restoring the dignity of the sporting spirit. For now, a noble movement has been hijacked by a monster that is plainly out of control.
Wednesday, 4 July 2012
Olympic Games London 2012 Without Human Rights
10. Domestic Law ...(c) We have received both written and oral representations from many legal bodies and individual lawyers from both England and Northern Ireland. There has been no dissent from the view that the procedures are illegal alike by the law of England and the law of Northern Ireland. ... (d) This being so, no Army Directive and no Minister could lawfully or validly have authorized the use of the procedures. Only Parliament can alter the law. The procedures were and are illegal.
On the same day the Prime Minister Edward Heath stated in the House of Commons:
The Government, having reviewed the whole matter with great care and with reference to any future operations, have decided that the techniques...The statement that I have made covers all future circumstances."As foreshadowed in the Prime Minister's statement, directives expressly prohibiting the use of the techniques, whether singly or in combination, were then issued to the security forces by the Government."[3] These are still in force and the use of such methods by UK security forces would not be condoned by the Government. The leading nationalist party of that time, the SDLP took a principled stand and resigned from Stormont, "the sectarian parliament for a sectarian people," as boasted by Unionist leaders.
Last year the British once again have broken their promises with the re-introduction of internment without trial and torture once again. One of those interned is Marian Price who has been tortured now in solitary confinement for more than year whom the British refused to allow UN monitors into the prison to independently research exactly what was happening untile they moved her to a hospital so they could not see her torturous conditions. Marian Price now a mature woman with considerable years as a political activist on behalf of Sinn Fein is in both physical and psychological daily agony but the British agents who have infiltrated Sinn Fein have abandoned her.
A United Nations expert on torture has already called on Britain and all countries to ban the solitary confinement of prisoners except in very exceptional circumstances and for as short a time as possible, with an absolute prohibition in the case of juveniles and people with mental disabilities.“Segregation, isolation, separation, cellular, lockdown, Supermax, the hole, Secure Housing Unit… whatever the name, solitary confinement should be banned by States as a punishment or extortion technique,” UN Special Rapporteur on torture Juan E. Méndez told the General Assembly’s third committee, which deals with social, humanitarian and cultural affairs, saying the practice could amount to torture.Segregation, isolation, separation, cellular, lockdown, Supermax, the hole, Secure Housing Unit… whatever the name, solitary confinement should be banned by States as a punishment or extortion technique
“Solitary confinement is a harsh measure which is contrary to rehabilitation, the aim of the penitentiary system,” he stressed in presenting his first interim report on the practice, calling it global in nature and subject to widespread abuse.Indefinite and prolonged solitary confinement in excess of 15 days should also be subject to an absolute prohibition, he added, citing scientific studies that have established that some lasting mental damage is caused after a few days of social isolation.Considering the severe mental pain or suffering solitary confinement may cause, it can amount to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment when used as a punishment, during pre-trial detention, indefinitely or for a prolonged period, for persons with mental disabilities or juveniles,” he warned.
The Queen of England ordered her release many years ago with an unconditional pardon, witnessed by the head of the Catholic Church in Ireland, which the British now say they have lost or shredded, without conducting any investigation. Two judges have already ordered her release based on the same evidence as and unelected Englishman overuling everyone in Ireland, including the judiciary and his own Queen on the matter. It is generally accepted that his motives are bigoted in conjunction with his sectarian colleagues and personal as he is a close ally to several loyalist extremists, whom he in the process of co-opting into his British Tory party, along with much of the elitist colonial horsey set of fox hunting Tories in British Occupied Ireland.
For the above reasons we ask those who care about human rights, peace and justice to protest at the Olympic Games in London 2012 is the same way that the hypocrites of the British Government protested the Olympic Games in Beijing !
Tuesday, 12 June 2012
USA PROTESTS BRITISH TORTURE OF MARIAN PRICE BRITISH OCCUPIED IRELAND
No Dissent Will be Tolerated"
The Torture of Marian Price
Marian Price has been imprisoned in Northern Ireland for more than a year on the basis of secret evidence neither she nor her lawyers have been allowed to see. She is effectively interned without a trial, sentence, or release date. Unless the courts intervene, she will only be released by order of a British Cabinet Minister, Owen Paterson, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.
Overruling the Courts
Twice she has been arrested and brought before a non-jury Diplock Court. Twice a judge ordered her released on bail.
Each time Owen Paterson overruled the judge and ordered her back to prison. He said that he was revoking her license (parole in American terms) because he had “confidential information” against her. This “information” could only have come from MI5.
In May 2011, she was charged with “encouraging support for an illegal organization” after she held up a piece of paper from which a masked man read a statement. Northern Ireland must be one of the very few places where holding up a piece of paper can constitute a crime.
On May 11, 2012, almost exactly a year after these charges were filed, they were dismissed because the British government hadn’t produced any evidence. But Marian Price remains in prison.
In July 2011she was charged with “providing property for the purposes of terrorism”. She was accused of giving a cell phone to someone who participated in the killing of two British soldiers. She had been questioned about this and released 18 months before being charged. Her solicitor, Peter Corrigan, told the BBC that there was no new evidence against her.
Once again she was released on bail, and, again, Owen Paterson said he was revoking her license and ordered her back to prison.
The Vanishing Pardon
But Marian Price and her legal team insist that she was never actually on license. They say that after being convicted of IRA bombings in Britain, she received a full royal pardon (the “Royal Prerogative of Mercy”) when she was freed in 1980 after she appeared to be on the brink of death from severe anorexia nervosa.
The British Government now says the pardon “cannot be located” – that it has been lost or shredded and that no copy exists. Peter Corrigan told a public meeting in Belfast that this is the only time in the entire history of the Royal Prerogative of Mercy that a pardon has gone missing. The veteran Irish human rights campaigner Mgr. Raymond Murray said that “You can draw your own conclusions.”
There is good reason to be concerned about Marian Price’s health and well being. She was unable to appear in court on May11th, even by video link. Prison doctors have said that she should either be in a hospital or home with her family.
She was held in solitary confinement for more than a year. The UN Special Rapporteur on Torture has called for a ban solitary confinement of more than 15 days.
Marian Price’s Health
Marian Price’s health was permanently damaged when she was force fed over 400 times while on hunger strike in a British prison. She described the force feeding in an interview with the Dublin magazine The Village. “Four male prison officers tie you into the chair so tightly with sheets you can’t struggle. You clench your teeth to try to keep your mouth closed but they push a metal spring device around your jaw to prise it open. They force a wooden clamp with a hole in the middle into your mouth. Then, they insert a big rubber tube down that. They hold your head back. You can’t speak or move. You’re frightened you’ll choke to death.”
Marian Price’s husband, Jerry McGlinchey, said in an interview with “Radio Free Eireann” on WBAI, the New York Pacifica station, that he is “very, very worried” about her health. He says she never recovered from the force feeding which caused tuberculosis that had to be treated as recently as 2010. The anorexia has returned and she suffers from such severe arthritis that she can’t even open her hand.
McGlinchey believes that her health will get steadily worse as long as she is in prison. He said that “My fear is that Marian will slip into a deep depression that it would take her years to come out of. I believe that is what the government intends.”
Her prison conditions have contributed to the decline in Marian Price’s health. Male prison guards shine a flashlight in her eyes throughout the night. Protestant prisoners in nearby cells sing anti-Catholic songs at the top of their lungs all night long, making it impossible for her to sleep.
Support for Marian Price
Very few people agree with Marian Price’s politics. She is a “dissident” Irish republican who believes in the necessity of an armed struggle to end British rule. Nevertheless the Irish Congress of Trade Unions and the two major nationalist parties in Northern Ireland, Sinn Fein and the Social Democratic and Labor Party, have all called for her release.
But what is at stake is more than Marian Price or her politics. The Irish civil rights leader Bernadette Devlin McAliskey has said that her treatmenrt, “Is a clear signal to everybody who is not “on board” and who is not of the same mind as the government: that no dissent will be tolerated. No dissent will be tolerated and you challenge the status quo at your peril.”
Sandy Boyer is the co-host of “Radio Free Eireann” broadcast Saturdays at 1pm on WBAI, 99.5 FM or wbai.org. He has helped to mobilize support for political prisoners in Ireland and the US.
Monday, 11 June 2012
TOP PROVO QUITS WITH McGUINNESS SET TO RESIGN AS GFA FALLS
Sinn Fein is set to split into two political parties with republican Sinn Fein in the ascendancy. Martin McGuinnes is to lead a party to be known as British Sinn Fein splitting with New Sinn Fein headed by Gerry Adams, while traditional republicans remain with Republican Sinn Fein.( see video). Differences on a McGuinness policy of bringing Ireland back into the British Commonwealth, along with his secret support for internment without trial by his continued presence in the British parliament. While he did call for the release of Interned prisoners, his record of duplicity on matters such as insisting on Derry to be British and calling it Londonderry, has enraged Nationlists across the North. He has also been linked with a major sex scandal known as the 'Hotel Stormont Orgy.' There are continuous accusations of him being a longtime informer for the British, responsible for the murders of thousands of Irish people.
When Internment without trial was introduced in British Occupied Ireland 40 years ago, the SDLP took a principled stand and resigned from Stormont, "the sectarian parliament for a sectarian people," as boasted by Unionist leaders. The British then flew leading Provos who were interned in Long Kesh concentration camp, to talks in London which came up with an agreement that was eventually called the Good Friday Agreement. Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness who led those talks, were vetoed by their republican leadership. The British then mentored them into the ascendancy withIN the republican movement.
Britain once again broke the terms of the peace agreement and is again interning political activists who oppose the British Occupation in Ireland whether the support armed struggle or oppose it. One of those interned is Marian Price who has been tortured now in solitary confinement for more than year. The British refuse to allow UN monitors into the prison to independently research exactly what is happening. Marian Price now a mature woman with considerable years of political activity on behalf of Sinn Fein is in both physical and psychological daily agony but the British agents who have infiltrated Sinn Fein have abandoned her.
When Britain introduced internment 40 years ago their techniques of subjection to noise, deprivation of sleep, and deprivation of food and drink were investigated by the European Court of Human Rights. In a trial "Ireland v. the United Kingdom" the European Court ruled that techniques amounted to a practice of inhuman and degrading treatment.
In response to the public and Parliamentary disquiet on 16 November 1971, the British Government commissioned a committee of inquiry chaired by Lord Parker, the Lord Chief Justice of England to look into the legal and moral aspects of the use of "Sensory Deprivation."
In response to the public and Parliamentary disquiet on 16 November 1971, the Government commissioned a committee of inquiry chaired by Lord Parker, the Lord Chief Justice of England to look into the legal and moral aspects of the use of the five techniques.
The "Parker Report"was published on 2 March 1972, and found the techniques of "Sensory Deprivation" to be illegal under domestic law:
10. Domestic Law ...(c) We have received both written and oral representations from many legal bodies and individual lawyers from both England and Northern Ireland. There has been no dissent from the view that the procedures are illegal alike by the law of England and the law of Northern Ireland. ... (d) This being so, no Army Directive and no Minister could lawfully or validly have authorized the use of the procedures. Only Parliament can alter the law. The procedures were and are illegal.
On the same day the Prime Minister Edward Heath stated in the House of Commons:
The Government, having reviewed the whole matter with great care and with reference to any future operations, have decided that the techniques...The statement that I have made covers all future circumstances.
"As foreshadowed in the Prime Minister's statement, directives expressly prohibiting the use of the techniques, whether singly or in combination, were then issued to the security forces by the Government."[3] These are still in force and the use of such methods by UK security forces would not be condoned by the Government.
A United Nations expert on torture has already called on Britain and all countries to ban the solitary confinement of prisoners except in very exceptional circumstances and for as short a time as possible, with an absolute prohibition in the case of juveniles and people with mental disabilities.
“Segregation, isolation, separation, cellular, lockdown, Supermax, the hole, Secure Housing Unit… whatever the name, solitary confinement should be banned by States as a punishment or extortion technique,” UN Special Rapporteur on torture Juan E. Méndez told the General Assembly’s third committee, which deals with social, humanitarian and cultural affairs, saying the practice could amount to torture.Segregation, isolation, separation, cellular, lockdown, Supermax, the hole, Secure Housing Unit… whatever the name, solitary confinement should be banned by States as a punishment or extortion technique
“Solitary confinement is a harsh measure which is contrary to rehabilitation, the aim of the penitentiary system,” he stressed in presenting his first interim report on the practice, calling it global in nature and subject to widespread abuse.
Indefinite and prolonged solitary confinement in excess of 15 days should also be subject to an absolute prohibition, he added, citing scientific studies that have established that some lasting mental damage is caused after a few days of social isolation.
“Considering the severe mental pain or suffering solitary confinement may cause, it can amount to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment when used as a punishment, during pre-trial detention, indefinitely or for a prolonged period, for persons with mental disabilities or juveniles,” he warned.
The practice should be used only in very exceptional circumstances and for as short a time as possible, he stressed. “In the exceptional circumstances in which its use is legitimate, procedural safeguards must be followed. I urge States to apply a set of guiding principles when using solitary confinement,” he said.
He warned of an increased risk of torture in these cases because of the absence of witnesses and said some detainees have been held in solitary confinement facilities for years, without any charge and without trial, as well as in secret detention centres.
“Social isolation is one of the harmful elements of solitary confinement and its main objective. It reduces meaningful social contact to an absolute minimum,” Mr. Méndez told the committee, noting that a significant number of individuals will experience serious health problems regardless of specific conditions of time, place, and pre-existing personal factors.
Marian Price has now been interned for more than a year of solitary confinement, was force fed by the British for 6 months as political prisoner of conscience. The Queen ordered her release many years ago with an unconditional pardon witnessed by the head of the Catholic Church in Ireland which the British now say they have lost or shredded, without conducting any investigation. Two judges have already ordered her release based on the same evidence as and unelected Englishman overuling everyone in Ireland, including the judiciary and his Queen on the matter. It is generally accepted that his motives are bigoted and personal as he is a close ally of certain sectarian unionists he in the process of co-opting into his British Tory party along with most of the horsey set of fox hunters in the orange state.
Below are several articles detailing the resignation of another leading Sinn Fein member, coupled with many calls for Martin McGuinness to resign because of his Olympic collaboration for British Occupation in Ireland
Councillor Anita Cavlan
Comhairleoir Anita níCabhláin
Independent – Bushvale
Oifigí pháirtí Sinn Féin
11 Páirc Fassagh
Dún Lathaí
Co. Aontroma
BT44 9AL
Telephone: (028) 2765 7198
Elected to Council - 2005
Voluntary Advice Centre worker - Women’s Aid
Representative to Tribunals
Serves on: North East Partnership Interreg IVA Joint Committee, North East PEACEIII Joint Committee, North East PEACE III Partnership, Ballymoney Borough Fuel Poverty Steering Group, National Association of Councillors, Northern Ireland Local Government Association (NILGA), District Policing Partnership, North East Rural Development Partnership LAG.
Committee Membership 2011/12: Consultation Committee, Corporate & Central Services Committee, Development Committee, Health & Environmental Services Committee, Leisure & Amenities Committee, Audit Committee.
“Sinn Féin in my opinion has been slowly sedated…”
Pete Baker, Thu 24 May 2012, 2:49pm 24
In light of Mick’s post, and now Brian’s follow-up, it’s worth noting an Irish News report today of Ballymoney Councillor Anita Cavlan’s resignation from Sinn Féin ”over concerns it is failing prisoners”. From the Irish News report
The Ballymoney councillor said she believed Sinn Féin had “lost direction” and “should be doing more to represent the prisoners”.
“Sinn Féin in my opinion has been slowly sedated and now has been rendered unconscious by the intoxication of an illusionary power to govern,” she said.
According to the report the councillor intends to remain as an independent member of Ballymoney District Council.
“It is not that I support dissident activity. I would hate it to go back to the way it was. There were a lot of lives lost in all sections of the community.”
“There are those still amongst us who will insist that continued military action is the only way to achieve a united Irish republic.
“I disagree with them but I will not torture and abuse them if they are imprisoned.”
She said Sinn Féin’s calls for the urgent release of dissident republican Marian Price have been “weak”.
It’s what happens when “the guerillas” become “the people in power”…
But, as I noted in the comment zone earlier, other parties are free to ask questions.
Tags: Anita Cavlan, Ballymoney District Council, dissent, Government, Human Rights, Ireland, Media, NI Executive, Northern Ireland, Parties, Policing, prisoners, Society, Terrorism, UK
Topic: Government, Politics, Society and Culture
Region: Ireland, Northern Ireland, UK
Posted: Sun Jun 10, 2012 9:40 am Post subject: Cllr Anita Cavlan resigns from Provos
Cllr Anita Cavlan resigns from Provos
by Shan Van Vocht
Ballymoney Councillor Anita Cavlan resigned from Sinn Féin last month. An article in the May 24 Belfast-based Irish News quoted her as saying her resignation arose “over concerns it is failing prisoners” and the failure of the party leadership to address those concerns. She felt Sinn Féin “should be doing more to represent the prisoners” and that Sinn Féin’s calls for the urgent release of Marian Price have been “weak”.
More broadly, she expressed criticism of the way in which Sinn Fein has been incorporated into the British political structures in the six counties and the effect this has had on what SF used to (and some members claim still does) stand for. The party, she said, had “lost direction” and this is what happens, when “the guerrillas (become) the people in power”.
According to Cllr Cavlan, “Sinn Féin in my opinion has been slowly sedated and now has been rendered unconscious by the intoxication of an illusionary power to govern.”
I think it might be added that, while a significant number of veterans have departed the Provos, many have accustomed themselves to being sedated by the Provo leadership. This is one of the problems that arise not only in a military-led movement like the Provos but quite widely on the left whether we’re dealing with Stalinists, Maoists, Trotskyists or whoever – often a lot of people chose to be primarily loyal to a particular oorganisation or set of leaders rather thanj being loyal to first principles. One result is that it’s quite easy for leaderships to sell out; the other result is that a section of revolutionaries become enablers of the sell out and sacrifice their own principles for shabby people peddling shabby politics.
So, hopefully, others will do what Anita Cavlan has done and stop acting as enablers for New Sinn Fein and its collaborationist leadership cabal.
In relation to anti-GFA armed activity, she told the paper, “It is not that I support dissident activity. I would hate it to go back to the way it was. There were a lot of lives lost in all sections of the community. There are those still amongst us who will insist that continued military action is the only way to achieve a united Irish republic. I disagree with them but I will not torture and abuse them if they are imprisoned.”
Cllr Cavlan told the Irish News that she will now be an independent member of Ballymoney District Council. Independent socialist-republicans sitting on local councils are a good thing, but what is desperately needed is some moves to bring the various socilaist-republican groups and unaffiliated individuals together and develop the kind of party that is needed to take the whole struggle for national liberation and socialism forward.
(The parts of this item which deal directly with the resignatioon and quote Cllr Cavlan are mainly taken from snippets on Slugger O’Toole, as you can’t view Irish News articles on-line without being a paying subscriber.)
Cllr Anita Cavlan resigns from Sinn Fein
JUN 9
Posted by Admin
by Shan Van Vocht
Ballymoney Councillor Anita Cavlan resigned from Sinn Féin last month. An article in the May 24 Belfast-based Irish News quoted her as saying her resignation arose “over concerns it is failing prisoners” and the failure of the party leadership to address those concerns. She felt Sinn Féin “should be doing more to represent the prisoners” and that Sinn Féin’s calls for the urgent release of Marian Price have been “weak”.
More broadly, she expressed criticism of the way in which Sinn Fein has been incorporated into the British political structures in the six counties and the effect this has had on what SF used to (and some members claim still does) stand for. The party, she said, had “lost direction” and this is what happens, when “the guerrillas (become) the people in power”.
According to Cllr Cavlan, “Sinn Féin in my opinion has been slowly sedated and now has been rendered unconscious by the intoxication of an illusionary power to govern.”
I think it might be added that, while a significant number of veterans have departed the Provos, many have accustomed themselves to being sedated by the Provo leadership. This is one of the problems that arise not only in a military-led movement like the Provos but quite widely on the left whether we’re dealing with Stalinists, Maoists, Trotskyists or whoever – often a lot of people choose to be primarily loyal to a particular organisation or set of leaders rather than being loyal to first principles. One result is that it’s quite easy for leaderships to sell out; the other result is that a section of revolutionaries become enablers of the sell out and sacrifice their own principles for shabby people peddling shabby politics.
So, hopefully, others will do what Anita Cavlan has done and stop acting as enablers for New Sinn Fein and its collaborationist leadership cabal.
In relation to anti-GFA armed activity, she told the paper, “It is not that I support dissident activity. I would hate it to go back to the way it was. There were a lot of lives lost in all sections of the community. There are those still amongst us who will insist that continued military action is the only way to achieve a united Irish republic. I disagree with them but I will not torture and abuse them if they are imprisoned.”
Cllr Cavlan told the Irish News that she will now be an independent member of Ballymoney District Council. Independent socialist-republicans sitting on local councils are a good thing, but what is desperately needed is some initiative to bring the various socialist-republican groups and unaffiliated individuals together and develop the kind of party that is needed to take the whole struggle for national liberation and socialism forward.
Sinn Fein calls on Cavlan to vacate seat
11 June 2012 in an príomhbhóthar | Tags: Anita Cavlan, Ballymoney, Sinn Féin
Ballymoney Times
10 June 2012
**Via Newshound
SINN Fein has called on a Ballymoney councillor to vacate her seat after she walked away from the party.
Veteran councillor Anita Cavlan resigned last month over concerns it is failing republican prisoners.
She said she believed Sinn Fein had “lost direction” and “should be doing more to represent the prisoners”.
“Sinn Fein in my opinion has been slowly sedated and now has been rendered unconscious by the intoxication of an illusionary power to govern,” said the 62-year-old.
Ms Cavlan said the decision had left her “heartbroken” but she felt she had been left no option but to walk away from Sinn Fein and become an Independent member of Ballymoney Borough Council.
“It is not that I support dissident activity,” she said.
“I would hate it to go back to the way it was. There were a lot of lives lost in all sections of the community.
“There are those still amongst us who will insist that continued military action is the only way to achieve a united Irish republic.
“I disagree with them but I will not torture and abuse them if they are imprisoned.”
Ms Cavlan also dismissed Sinn Fein’s calls for the urgent release of dissident republican Marian Price as “weak”.
In a statement released on Friday Sinn Fein called for Ms Cavlan to vacate her Ballymoney seat.
“We are disappointed at the decision of Ms Cavlan to resign from Sinn Fein,” it said.
“We are particularly surprised at her criticisms of our approach to resolving the ongoing situation in Maghaberry Prison.
“Sinn Fein has visited the prison and met with the protesting prisoners and prison officials on many occasions. We have made and continue to make representations for an immediate end to strip searching and controlled movement within the prison.
“Anyone who was at the Sinn Fein Ard Fheis last weekend left in no doubt what our position is and what the party is doing to resolve the situation in the prisons.
“In common with all other party representatives when elected as a Sinn Fein councillor Ms Cavlan signed a pledge to give up the seat in the event of resigning from the party. Anita Cavlan should honour this pledge and stand down from Ballymoney Council and allow a Sinn Fein co-option in line with the wishes expressed by the electorate in the Bushvale electoral ward last year.”
Anita Cavlan Resigns from Sinn Féin: They are Failing the Prisoners
Seachranaidhe ― Posted 18 days ago
Seachranaidhe1 ― Sinn Féin Councillor Anita Cavlan has resigned due to concerns that the party is failing the prisoners. “Lost direction…should do more…slowly sedated…rendered unconscious…intoxication of an illusionary power…she received no acknowledgement about concerns raised…Sinn Féin calls have been weak” These are the words of a now former Sinn Féin Councillor
2012 Olympics, Armageddon, Big Ben, British Occupied Ireland, Internment, John Bullscutter, london 2012, London Olympics Games, Olympic, Olympic Games, Olympics, Olympics 2012
BRUTISH OLYMPIGS & PROSTITUTES
The Olympics will cost £40bn ! Who will pay for them ?
Britain's banks are sitting on a £40bn black hole of undeclared losses ! Who will pay for that ?
Royal Bank of Scotland has £18bn of undeclared losses ! Who will pay for that ?
The 82pc state-owned lender back to the taxpayer for another rescue ?
Controversial international accounting standards introduced in 2005 that prevent companies are deeply flawed. PIRC said the rule was "masking the true position of the accounts by including fictional assets and fictional profits".
Dividends and bonuses are being paid out on inflated profit numbers, when they should be retained to boost the banks' capital cushions.
Tim Bush, head of governance and financial analysis at PIRC, claimed the undeclared losses meant banks have not been clearing their balance sheets of bad debts and releasing the funds to support viable businesses and households.
"The scandal is the fact that banks are delaying de-risking and de-gearing due to the accounting standards," he said. "The funds are being tied up, rather than being put to work elsewhere."
Pat Gallagher
06/09/2012 02:09 PM
We, the people (taxpayers) by order of the Government bailed out the main banks in 2008. If the Government had not done this the banks would have been thrown out onto the streets (bankrupt). Now that the banks have been bailed out...what do they do? They repossess the homes of the same taxpayers whose tax money bailed them out in the first place.
The question that needs to be asked is...does the Government care more about the people they govern or more about the people who profit from the people they govern???
robbie777
06/09/2012 12:14 PM
And no doubt these losses will never be realized for the banks involved, they will be subsidized yet again by government and the bill passed on again, to the taxpaying public, or muppets, as goldman sachs, and politicians like to call us.
With banking, it's only the customer who always gets screwed. and nnce you take it out, the interest is all gone ! So from the second oldest to the oldest profession in the world prostitution, word on the street has it that Britain having nationalized some its worldwide second-oldest profession.i.e banking that they will now proceed to nationalize the oldest, prostitution? The British governments will use the huge revenues that its prostitutes generate from phucking the people, to bail out even more pf its banks. Prostitution as well as being the world's oldest profession it is probably the most honest, given the recent shenanigans by all those involved in the City of London.
Of course prostitution and banking go hand in hand. One former City worker says that while working for a top international investment bank in the City of London, she witnessed a senior manager looking for A brothel to entertain some clients. Kat Banyard of a gender-equality pressure group says that there is a growing trend in the CitY of London to use prostitution to entertain clients. No doubt a lot of taxpayers bailout monies will find their way into the accounts of the prostitutes as well as the organizers of the Games.
Then there is the young young Irish woman who went to the City of London to work as a secretary and began sending home money and gifts to her parents. After a few years they asked her to come home for a visit, as her father was getting frail and elderly. She pulled up to the family home in a Rolls Royce and stepped out wearing furs and diamonds. As she walked into the house her father said "Hmmm - they seem to be paying secretaries awfully well in London." The daughter took his hands and said "Dad - I've been meaning to tell you something for years but I didn't want to put it in a letter. I can't hide it from you any longer. I've become a prostitute."
Her father gasped, put his hand on his heart and keeled over. The doctor was called but the old man had clearly lost the will to live. He was put to bed and the priest was called.
As the priest began to administer the sacrament of extreme unction, with the mother and daughter weeping and wail!ing, the old man muttered weakly "I'm a goner --killed by my own daughter! Killed by the shame of what you've become!""Please forgive me", his daughter sobbed, "I only wanted to have nice things! I wanted to be able to send you money and the only way I could do it was by becoming a prostitute."Pushing the priest aside, the old man sat bolt upright in bed, smiling. "Did you say prostitute?....I thought you said you joined Sinn Fein ans became a PROTESTANT!!"
Sunday, 10 June 2012
The Year of the Sex Olympics with S&M British Occupied Ireland
Sadomasochism refers to pleasure often sexual involving inflicting or receiving pain or humiliation. While the terms sadist and masochist refer to either enjoying or giving pain (sadist) or one who enjoys receiving pain (masochist), many sadomasochists switch to someone who can both receive pleasure from either inflicting or receiving pain.
The autocratic British pervert, ruling British Occupied Ireland Owen Paterson besides overruling the British Fox hunting laws, also overrules the local sectarian mentored Stormont Parliament on the matter, thus preventing a ban an attempted ban on foxhunting. This unelected Tory despot is guilty of perverting the course of justice in not just overruling two judges, ordering the release of Marian Price but also has overruling his Queen Elisabeth who ordered the release of Marian Price with a full royal pardon. Claiming to have either lost it or shredded without any investigation.
Besides torturing and then killing defenceless animals he has kidnapped this highly respected Irish woman keeping her in solitary confinement for more than a year having been previously force fed for over six months while on hunger strike as a political prisoner, protesting British inhumanity and abuse of human rights.
Below is an articles from Wikipedia on the, The Year of the Sex Olympics:
" The Year of the Sex Olympics is a 1968 television play made by the BBC and first broadcast on BBC2 as part of Theatre 625. It stars Leonard Rossiter, Tony Vogel, Suzanne Neve and Brian Cox. It was directed by Michael Elliott. The writer was Nigel Kneale, best known as the creator of Quatermass.
Influenced by concerns about overpopulation, the counterculture of the 1960s and the societal effects of television, the play depicts a world of the future where a small elite control the media, keeping the lower classes docile by serving them an endless diet of lowest common denominator programmes and pornography. The play concentrates on an idea the programme controllers have for a new programme which will follow the trials and tribulations of a group of people left to fend for themselves on a remote island. In this respect, the play is often cited as having anticipated the craze for reality television.
Kneale had fourteen years earlier adapted George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four as a classic and controversial BBC broadcast and the play reflects much of Kneale's assimilation of Orwell's concern about the power of the media and Kneale's experience of the evolving media industry.
In the future, society is divided between 'low-drives' that equate with the labouring classes and 'hi-drives' who control the government and media. The low-drives are controlled by a constant broadcast of pornography that the hi-drives are convinced will pacify them, though one hi-drive, Nat Mender (Tony Vogel), believes that the media should be used to educate the low-drives. After the accidental death of a protester during the Sex Olympics gets a massive audience response, the Co-ordinator Ugo Priest (Leonard Rossiter) decides to commission a new programme. In The Live Life Show Nat Mender, his partner Deanie (Suzanne Neve) and their daughter Keten (Lesley Roach) are stranded on a remote Scottish island while the low-drive audience watches. Mender's former colleague, Lasar Opie (Brian Cox), realising that “something got to happen”, decides to spice up the show by introducing a psychopath, Grels (George Murcell) to the island. When Grels goes on a murderous rampage, Ugo Priest is horrified when the audience reacts with laughter to the slaughter and The Live Life Show is deemed a triumph.
[edit]Background
[edit]Origins
Nigel Kneale was a Manx television playwright who had come to prominence in the nineteen-fifties thanks to his adaptation of Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four and his three Quatermass serials, all of which had been made by the BBC. Kneale had since become disenchanted with the BBC, mainly because he had received no extra money when the BBC sold the film rights to The Quatermass Experiment and had turned to freelance writing, producing scripts for Associated Television and for Hammer Films.[1] When approached by the BBC for a script for the BBC2 anthology series Theatre 625, Kneale, still upset over the sale of the film rights to The Quatermass Experiment turned them down. The Director General of the BBC, Hugh Carleton Greene intervened and arranged a £3,000 ex gratia payment to Kneale in recognition of Quatermass' success.[2] Kneale accepted a commission from Theatre 625 producer Michael Bakewell on Friday, 7 April 1967 for what would become The Year of the Sex Olympics.[3]
Kneale's concept concerned "the world of the future, and a way of keeping the population happy without being active".[3] According to Kneale, the notion for the play came from the "worldwide dread of populations exploding out of all control"[4] leading him to devise a world where pornography hooks the population "on a substitute for sex rather than the real thing and so keeping the population down".[5] Kneale was also influenced by the dropout counterculture of the late nineteen-sixties, recalling "I didn't like the Sixties at all because of the whole thing of 'let it all hang out' and let's stop thinking [...] which was the all too frequent theme of the Sixties which I hated".[6] Dissatisfaction with the youth culture of the time was a preoccupation of Kneale's: in the mid-sixties he had worked on an unmade script, The Big, Big, Giggle, about a teenage suicide cult and following The Year of the Sex Olympics, returned to the theme of youth out of control in his 1969 play Bam! Pow! Zapp! and in the fourth and final Quatermass serial in 1979.[1] Many cultural icons of the youth movement including members of The Beatles, Pink Floyd and Monty Python, were fans of Kneale's work.[7] For The Year of the Sex Olympics Kneale extrapolated the possible consequences of the youth movement's desire for freedom from "traditional" cultural inhibitions, asking as the academic John R. Cook puts it, "In a world of no limits, will the result quickly be apathy if there is nothing any more to get excited about, nothing precious or illicit to fight for in the teeth of the censor?".
Kneale also sought to make "a comment on television and the idea of the passive audience",[9] depicting a world where the media is controlled by an elite who feed the population with a diet of low quality programmes and echoing the Orwellian concept of language reduction, where vocabulary has been eroded through exposure to advertising slogans, mediaspeak and predominantly visual media.[5][10][11] He later recalled, "I thought people in those conditions would have very, very, reduced language - they wouldn't be really a verbal society any more, and I think we're heading towards that. Television is mainly responsible for it, the fact that people are now conditioned to image. The pictures they see on television screens more and more dominate their thinking, as far as people do a lot of thinking, and if you had a verbally reduced society, you would get the kind of language - possibly - that you did get in the play".[12]
Production
Kneale's script was accepted on 25 October 1967 by Ronald Travers, who had taken over as producer from Michael Bakewell on Theatre 625. Production began in early 1968 with Michael Elliot as director. Elliot initially asked Leo McKern to take on the key role of Co-ordinator Ugo Priest but with McKern unavailable he turned to Leonard Rossiter. Writing to Rossiter, offering him the part, Elliot described The Year of the Sex Olympics as "the most important play Nigel Kneale has written since Quatermass".[13] Cast as Lasar Opie was Brian Cox who would go on to have a distinguished career in film and television.[14]
The Year of the Sex Olympics proved to be a difficult production when television decency campaigner Mary Whitehouse of the National Viewers and Listeners Association obtained a copy of the script and attempted to block the production. Her objections were overruled by Hugh Greene.[15] Location filming – for the outdoor scenes set on the island that appears in The Live Life Show – took place on the Isle of Man between 8 and 10 May 1968. A mishap occurred during the shoot when Tony Vogel slipped and broke his wrist. Filming continued at Ealing Film Studios between 13 and 15 May covering the elements that would be played into the screens on the set during studio recording such as the Sportsex, Artsex and Foodshow programmes as well as the audience reaction shots. The scene where Kin Hodder falls to his death was also shot at Ealing. Following rehearsals, the production moved to BBC Television Centre between 12 and 14 June. Industrial action by BBC electricians interrupted the production and by the end of the recording session, the final ten minutes of the play remained untaped, leading to a remount on 23 June to complete the outstanding scenes.[16]
BBC2 was the only UK television station broadcasting in colour at the time. The Year of the Sex Olympics presented a production with gaudy sets, costumes and makeup. In a contemporary review of the play for The Sun newspaper, Nancy Banks-Smith commented that, "If you didn't see it in colour, you didn't really see it".
The Year of the Sex Olympics was broadcast at 9:08pm on BBC2 on Monday, 29 July 1968. Appearing on arts programme Late Night Line Up later that night to discuss the play, Kneale said, "You can't write about the future. One can play with the processes that might occur in the future, but one is really always writing about the present because that is what we know. It's largely an image of television as I know it".[18] Sean Day-Lewis, writing in The Daily Telegraph hailed the programme as a "highly original play written with great force and making as many valid points about the dangers of the future as any science fiction I can remember – including 1984!".[19] The Year of the Sex Olympics was watched by 1.5 million viewers. Audience Research Report indicated that many viewers found the play impenetrable. It was repeated on BBC1 in 1970 with 15 minutes cut from the running time, as part of The Wednesday Play strand.[18]
As often happened in this era, the colour master tapes of The Year of the Sex Olympics were wiped some time after broadcast and the play was believed lost until the nineteen-eighties when a black and white telerecording was discovered.[18] This copy was released on DVD, with an introduction by film and television historian Kim Newman, a commentary by actor Brian Cox and a copy of the original script, by the British Film Institute in 2003.[20]
Cultural significance
One of the first to draw comparisons with The Year of the Sex Olympics and the rise of reality television programmes (soap operas without professional actors), such as Big Brother, Castaway 2000 and Survivor, was the journalist Nancy Banks-Smith in a review of the first series of the UK version of Big Brother for The Guardian in 2000,[21] a theme she later expounded upon in 2003, writing that the play "foretold the reality show and, in the scramble for greater sensation, its logical outcome".[22] Banks-Smith had long been an admirer of The Year of the Sex Olympics, having written in The Sun following its original broadcast in 1968: "Quite apart from the excellent script and the 'big big' treatment, the play radiated ripples. Is television a substitute for living? Does the spectacle of pain at a distance atrophy sympathy? Can this coffin with knobs on furnish all we need to ask?".[23] Another admirer, the writer and actor Mark Gatiss, has said that upon seeing Big Brother he yelled at the television, "Don't they know what they're doing? [...] It's The Year of the Sex Olympics! Nigel Kneale was right!".[24] When The Year of the Sex Olympics was repeated on BBC Four on 22 May 2003, Paul Hoggart in The Times noted that "in many respects Kneale was right on the money [...] when you consider that nothing gets contemporary reality show audiences more excited than an emotional train-wreck on live TV".[25]
Although the reality television of The Live Life Show is the aspect most commentators pick up on, The Year of the Sex Olympics is also a wider satire on sensationalist television and the media in general. Mark Gatiss has noted that the Artsex and Foodshow programmes that also appear in the play "ingeniously depicted the future of lowest common denominator TV".[24] This view is echoed by the writer and critic Kim Newman who has said that "as an extreme exercise in revolutionary self-criticism on the part of television professionals, who also lampoon their own world of chattering commentators and ratings-chasing sensationalism, the play [...] is a trenchant contribution to a series of debates that is still raging"[26] and has concluded that "Nigel Kneale might be quite justified in shouting, "I was right! I was right!"".[11]
[edit]Notes
^ a b Murray, Into the Unknown, passim.
^ Murray, Into the Unknown, p. 97-98.
^ a b Pixley, Flashback: The Year of the Sex Olympics, p. 46.
^ Das Time Shift: The Kneale Tapes
^ a b Nigel Kneale in The Year of the Sex Olympics BFI DVD sleeve notes
^ Pixley Flashback: The Year of the Sex Olympics, p. 47.
^ Murray, Into the Unknown, p. 98-99.
^ Cook The Age of Aquarius, p. 111.
^ Cook The Age of Aquarius, p. 109.
^ Pixley Flashback: The Year of the Sex Olympics, p. 48.
^ a b Introduction by Kim Newman. (2003). The Year of the Sex Olympics (BFI DVD)
^ Pixley and Kneale, Nigel Kneale – Beyond the Dark Door
^ Pixley Flashback: The Year of the Sex Olympics, p. 49.
^ Brian Cox at the Internet Movie Database
^ Murray Into the Unknown, p. 101.
^ Pixley Flashback: The Year of the Sex Olympics, passim.
^ Murray Into the Unknown, p. 102.
^ a b c Pixley Flashback: The Year of the Sex Olympics, p. 51.
^ Fulton, The Encyclopedia of TV Science Fiction, p. 678
^ The Year of the Sex Olympics (DVD), British Film Institute, 2003
^ Banks-Smith, Nancy (2000-08-18). "Last Night's TV: Tales of the Unexpected". The Guardian. Retrieved 2007-01-07.
^ Banks-Smith, Nancy (2003-04-24). "Big Brother with knives". The Guardian. Retrieved 2007-01-07.
^ Rigby, Ancient Fears, p. 53.
^ a b Gatiss, Mark (2006-11-02). "The man who saw tomorrow". The Guardian. Retrieved 2007-01-07.
^ Hoggart, Paul (2003-05-23). "TV Review". The Times (News Corp.).
^ Sleeve notes by Kim Newman. (2003). The Year of the Sex Olympics (DVD). British Film Institute.
[edit]References
Cook, John R. (2006). "The Age of Aquarius: utopia and anti-utopia in late 1960s and early 1970s British science fiction television". In in Cook, John R. & Wright, Peter (eds.). British Science Fiction Television: A Hitchhiker's Guide. London: IB Tauris. pp. 93–115. ISBN 1-84511-048-X.
Das, John (producer & director). (2003). Time Shift: The Kneale Tapes. BBC Bristol. In The Quatermass Collection (DVD). BBC Worldwide. (2005).
Elliot, Michael (director) & Kneale, Nigel (writer). (2003). The Year of the Sex Olympics (DVD). British Film Institute.
Fulton, Roger (1997). The Encyclopedia of TV Science Fiction (3rd ed.). London: Boxtree. ISBN 0-7522-1150-1.
Murray, Andy (2006). Into The Unknown: The Fantastic Life of Nigel Kneale. London: Headpress. ISBN 1-900486-50-4.
Pixley, Andrew; Kneale, Nigel (1986). "Nigel Kneale – Beyond the Dark Door". Time Screen: the Magazine of British Telefantasy (9): –. Retrieved 2007-03-18.
Pixley, Andrew (May 2003). "Flashback: The Year of the Sex Olympics". TV Zone (162): p46–51. ISSN 0957-3844.
Rigby, Jonathan (September 2000). "Ancient Fears. The film and television nightmares of Nigel Kneale". Starburst (265): p. 48–57. ISSN 0955-114X.
[edit]External links
The Year of the Sex Olympics at the Internet Movie Database
Theatre 625 - The Year of the Sex Olympics at the Internet Movie Database
Theatre 625 - The Year of the Sex Olympics at TV.com
British Film Institute Screen Online
Action TV
DVD Times review
In Nazi Germany, foxhunting with hounds was banned by Hermann Göring on July 3, 1934 extended to Austria after Hitler annexed the country. The director of Germany's hunting museum in Munich, said at the time, "The aristocrats were furious." It was not until the 21st century that a British Government inquiry into hunting with dogs by a senior civil servant Lord Burns, resulted in action to ban foxhunting, with the exception of British Occupied Ireland.
The Burns Inquiry committee reported that:
"There are those who have a moral objection to hunting and who are fundamentally opposed to the idea of people gaining pleasure from what they regard as the causing of unnecessary suffering. There are also those who perceive hunting as representing a divisive social class system. Others, as we note below, resent the hunt trespassing on their land, especially when they have been told they are not welcome. They worry about the welfare of the pets and animals and the difficulty of moving around the roads where they live on hunt days. Finally there are those who are concerned about damage to the countryside and other animals, particularly badgers and otters."
The main type of hunting hound are the English Foxhound, while the horses are often a cross of quarter Irish Draught, with the remainder English. Sadistic, satanic like rituals are an important part of the foxhunt tradition. For example, one important satanic like ritual, which is kept secret, away from the modern media, is the act of blooding children to foxhunt. This is an old ceremony in which the master or huntsman, smears the blood of the fox onto the cheeks of an often very young child, newly initiated into foxhunting. Hunts still cut off tail ('brush'), feet ('pads') and head ('mask') as trophies, while the carcass is still warm and alive, then they are thrown to the hounds to rent asunder. These practices are now also hidden in secret, away from the modern media and public eyes.
Hunts take young hounds out cub hunting in the autumn of every year, to rip and kill young foxes, before they are 10 months old, while still living in their family group.The purpose is to teach and cultivate young foxhounds, to get a taste for hunting foxes, who sometimes mistakenly rip cats and kittens apart instead. This activity now takes place only in the Occupied Ireland part of the UK, as the locally elected native Irish are not allowed by the unelected English Tory autocrat Paterson to ban foxhunting, as the unelected English Tory overules them, to reserve the pleasure of the cruel sport for his visiting English gentry friends. Almost everything of consequence is run by the unelected English Tory despot, while the restless Irish natives are allowed power-sharing over scraps.
Paterson's friends in the English gentry who fly over regularly to feed their blood lust addiction on this cruel blood sport, two or threes times a week initially practice "holding up"consististing of driving loyalist hunt supporters to surrounding a covert, with the English horsey set and orange foot followers, driving back any of the still suckling baby foxes trying to escape. They then "draw" the covert with their own young puppies, with a few more experienced blood hounds, in the process, teaching and cultivating the young to acquire their own blood lust to attack and rip the helpless baby foxes apart while inside the surrounded wood away from prying eyes. The young hound can be then "entered" into the pack, once it is blooded like the young hunting children, creating a blood lust and an addiction for blood thirst in both, in this manner. About 1 in 50 more more evolved foxhounds, who are not blood thirsty enough, must be removed from the pack immediately, so as not to set a bad example, similar to the internment of restless natives in Occupied Ireland presently.
During the debate in the House of Commoners to ban fox hunting, the English Iron fisted Tory ruler of Occupied Ireland, Owen Paterson, compared supporters of the legislation to ban foxhunting to Nazis. Mr Paterson said, hunts drew young people into a 'social network that will last all their lives'.He warned Labour MPs: 'Before they troop through the politically correct lobby, brimming with self-righteous bile and spiteful prejudice, they should remember the unhappy precedent of 1936 when the revolting Reichsjaeger Hermann Goering persuaded Hitler to ban hunting.
'We should not create criminals lightly. No-one gained in Germany then. No-one will now. A ban will be an ominous portent of further freedoms to be lost at the hands of an intolerant majority.'
His defence of foxhunting has been dubbed utter hypocrisy, bearing in mind his destruction of the Peace Process in Ireland, breaking the agreement with the reintroduction of political internment without trial of Irish woman Marian Price and any other Irish people who dare to oppose the cruelty of British occupation in Ireland. The autocratic Paterson besides overruling the British Fox hunting law with respect to Occupied Ireland also overrules the local sectarian mentored Stormont Parliament, thus preventing a ban on foxhunting attempted by the restless Irish natives. This unelected Tory despot has also overruled two judges, ordering the release of Marian Price who had ruled her no threat to society. He also has overruled Her Majesty Queen Elisabeth who ordered the release of Marian Price with a royal pardon. Medical professionals have dubbed this behaviour as simply insane, coupled with his recent homage to his idol, the arch-sadist Ghengis Khan by abusing horses for 10 days whipping them relentlessly onover 1,000 kilometers, in what is dubbed the Mongolian Derby.
Bill Etherington a Labour MP of the House of Commoners in Britain said: “I consider that fox hunting is as barbaric a method of destroying a fox as it would be possible to imagine.”
The vote, by 387 to 174, a majority of 213, sets up "The ‘Compromise’ option, allowing hunting to continue as a licensed activity, Paterson and his crew scuttled it, promising to make foxhunting happen in Britain again despite the wishes of the clear majority. Legal professionals have dubbed his political activity, as a most serious crime of perverting the course of justice, which carries a life sentence in prison for British commoners as they a referred to by the horsey set and gentry friends and family of Paterson.
Even Nicholas O'Hare, hunting columnist said:
"This is the key issue. Is hunting cruel? The answer, of course, is that it is. How can such cruelty be justified? The answer is that it cannot."
Like illegal activities of dogfighting, badger baiting and cockfighting, the only purpose of foxhunting is to satisfy a small minority of bored idle-rich gentry, with nothing else to do and cultivate a bloodlust killing instinct in their young, to maintain the dominance of their blood lines over ordinary, decent people, who are disgusted by such depravity both at home and overseas. This orgy of blood letting, blood thirst, blood lust, call it what you may is the rock on which their IMperial military society is built, that produces commoners as cannon fodder, to fight imperial, neo-colonial wars, at least every five years, for the easy blood money, profit of their lucrative, industrial war complex.
The English and Orange hunters in Occupied Ireland meet two or three times per week during the foxhunting "season," which is between November and April. Local collaborating landowners and some occasional sympathetic "shame fein" castle farmers will keep the English hunters informed of all fox activity, while suitable kill areas in the locality will be set up.The bloodhounds are sent to scent out a fox and force it out in the open.
The chase of blood lust and a kill, often continues for more than hour, with a crowd of frenzied gentry baying for blood. This is the part of the hunt, "field" in which they sate their idle rich boredom and cultivate their craving for blood, as they jump fences, walls and ditches chasing as a lynch mob the fox, who will go anywhere to escape the blood hounds and bloodlusting gentry. He will try to go down a fox-hole or badger sett but they are probably blocked the night before by orange or "me fein" hunt collaborators.
The fox is often chased to exhaustion when he or she will be caught and savaged to death by baying blood hounds and bloody minded gentry. Foxhounds are specially bred for stamina, not speed, to make foxhunts last, otherwise it would spoil Paterson and his friends fun by being caught too soon. Many suspect Paterson and his bigoted, sectarian friends are having the same sadistic fun currently at Marian Price's expense. She has been interned in solitary confinement for almost a year now, for no other reason than this, sick, perverted, sadistic-sexual craving to dominate.
Many agree that fox hunting is the most sadistically cruel of all the blood "sports". The purpose of fox hunting is pure sadistic pleasure, sometimes cultivating a sexual addiction, sometimes sadistically, sexually, sating an otherwise impotent older man, as horsewhipped hunters chase the fox to exhaustion for an hour or more before the animal is literally torn to pieces by the baying hounds and crowd. This long and protracted suffering is an essential element and a desired part of this blood sport in the eyes of the hunters.
If the the control of fox numbers were its aim, faster dogs would be used or the foxes could be shot. All animal welfare organisations and sane people worldwide, with the exception of Paterson and his blood junky ilk in denial, condemn the barbarity, sickness and savagery of fox hunting. It is ineffectual as a form of fox control, a false argument used as an environmental benefit, to try and give this horrific blood sport a veneer of respectability, which close scrutiny of it and its proponents like Paterson, show just how much it is flawed.
There is an alternative for those who claim to enjoy working with hounds and riding over open country, its called drag hunting, with a scent laid for hounds and riders. Drag hunting provides a test for hounds and riders avoiding, unlike fox hunting, serious damage to house pets, crops and scared sheep. However sadistic gentry and die-hard foxhunter defenders, like the unelected English Tory dictator in Occupied Ireland Paterson, ridicule drag hunting with whinging like, "it's not really hunting." Yes indeed, there is one vital difference for craving cultivated, bloody minded sadists, who are in addiction denial, there is no kill in drag hunting to give them their sick fix.
Indeed there are several hunts exclusively practicing the more civilized drag hunting in Ireland. By eliminating the unacceptable cruelty of foxhunting junkies, they ensure the long term survival of the genuine sporting aspects of "hunting" as a tradition with hounds.Many Protestants in Occupied Ireland are disgusted with Paterson too. One respected gentleman commented;
"To even consider allowing ruthless, barbaric,cruel and sickening out dated sports?suggests a man, or two..who are unfit to represent decent ,compassionate human beings. It is not just about fox hunting, although, this concerns me greatly of course, it is also about how he/they are showing the darker and sickening side of violence, aggression, and im sorry, where is the fairness?..If he/they are happy to allow this as acceptable, what is next?
I PRAY that blood sports are NOT something, that can be passed off, as necessary, when it clearly is not..it is a pompous, disgusting, old upper class tradition…farmers DO NOT NEED THIS..it is just another lie, fed to excuse a sickening habit..Did YOU KNOW, THAT THERE ARE PRO HUNTERS BREEDING FOXES, JUST TO HUNT THEM?
THE TITLE “CON DEM” IS INDEED EXACTLY WHAT WE WILL BE AS A SOCIETY, IF WE ALLOW,THIS AWFUL REPEAL IN ENGLAND AND MAINTAIN IT HERE IN IRELAND…TRUST ME, IT IS THE THIN EDGE OF THE WEDGE "
No ! Paterson will have none of it, like his sadistic, torture of poor Marian Price, he will continue with his Ghengis Khan, Draconian, Tartarean, animal, anthropophagous, atrocious, barbaric, barbarous, beastly, bestial, bloodthirsty, bloody, bloody-minded, brutal, brutalized, brute, brutish, cannibalistic, cruel, cruel-hearted, demoniac, demoniacal, devilish, diabolic, fell, feral, ferocious, fiendish, fiendlike, fierce, hellish, infernal, inhuman, inhumane, monstrous, murderous, perverse, ruthless, sanguinary, sanguineous, satanic, savage, sharkish, slavering, subhuman, truculent, unchristian, uncivilized, unhuman, vicious, wolfish politics as his political ambition attempts to surpass the Tory Margaret Thatcher who murdered Irish political prisoner Bobby Sands and his comrades numbering10 hunger strikers. Marian Price has been on 200 days of hunger strike already at the mercy of bigoted sadistic jail torturers in England. Now yet again she spent almost a year in solitary confinement without trial at the hands of sectarian jailers egged on by the sadist Paterson. Marian was pardoned by a Queen and ordered released by judges on two occasions. this madman will trigger another forty years of killing thousands of victims along with more than a hundred thousand foxes annually satisfy his cultivated lust for blood, power and dominance. People better confront this sickness, it has no place in a any remotely humane society. The sickness is best explained in the following quoted excerpts:
2012 Olympics, British Occupied Ireland, HOTEL STORMONT, Internment, london 2012, London Olympic Games, London Olympics, Olympic, Olympic Games, Olympics, Olympics 2012. SEX PARTY, Sex Olympics
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