Reviews & News

Undercover: The True Story of Britain’s Secret Police by Rob Evans & Paul Lewis

As a former Scotland Yard detective, I was curious to read the book Undercover: The True Story of Britain’s Secret Police by Rob Evans and Paul Lewis and today finished it. Fundamentally, it is an investigation by The Guardian’s two journalists into the UK’s undercover policing operations and whether we as the British public consent to…

LGBT Lives Matter too …

I read with dismay and saw the horrendous pictures yesterday of Veronica Bolina, a Brazilian transgender woman, who was stripped, had her head shaved and face disfigured by the police in the South American country. I tweeted about this, and it went viral throughout the world and is still going. This got me thinking about…

I am Albert Woodfox

Like many since watching the documentary In The Land Of The Free, I have followed the progress of the Angola 3. Three inmates placed in solidarity confinement, after the 1972 killing of a prison guard. I guess the obvious question is, why waste any breath on three men who killed a prison guard? Like so many things…

I’m Riding with Sydney …

When I woke up this morning, news started to come in that there was a siege in Sydney. There was commentary that it was linked to terrorists, and one of my first thoughts was a Muslim backlash. I left, and went about my business. When I returned, well, what happened I didn’t expect. Australians had decided…

We are all Eric Garner

Like so many, I watched the video of Eric Garner’s death in New York over and over again. Like so many, it still haunts me. On July 17 2014, Eric Garner‘s life was taken from him after an NYPD officer put him in a ‘chokehold’. Something, banned by the police department. Banned, because rightly this compression of…

Black Lives Matter America, by Ryan Centner

I came across a powerful article earlier from my American friend Ryan Centner who is an Assistant Professor of Urban Geography within the Department of Geography and Environment at The London School of Economics, about the troubles in Ferguson and beyond. With his kind permission, it is published below. – Far from America for the last year…

Emily Thornberry is as much a snob as I am

As a man from inner-city Liverpool living in the former Shadow Attorney General’s constituency for the last four years, I know personally her views on the working class. I was angry when I heard she had resigned from Labour’s front bench, and more so when all the parasites jumped on the bandwagon including some from…

Pariah … the film *****

Last night, I watched the film Pariah written and directed by Dee Rees. It’s a 2011 contemporary drama telling the story of Alike, a 17-year old African-American teenager embracing her identity as a lesbian. It premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival and was awarded the Excellence in Cinematography Award, which I can see why. I had…