It all bottles down to.

"Notting Hill Housing Trust".

It made me smile.

:)

Oh yeah and everything else too...

By voting you endorse a sham democracy and encourage a bunch of self-interested power freaks. The present government has a mere 21% support of the electorate. The Prime Minister is a serial dictator who has the power to take the country to war without even the consent of Parliament, under the Royal Prerogative. You are not even allowed to vote on matters of foreign policy or on matters of State secrecy. The State is like a play which cannot be changed merely by changing the players. Give them the lowest turnout ever on the 3rd of May to show your dissent.

I encourage everyone to vote against Tony Blair. It might not help but it can't hurt, at least for us in the celtic countries it is the most pragmatic peaceful way to end the British state and save our troops from being IED fodder. I was recently coerced to sign a police statement saying I wasn't intending on burning down Labour party premises after being set-up by a MI5 agent posing as an IM anarchist, I would like to both educate CID while also asking you to consider voting. Where I live, I have no need to burn anything, labour are history.

Being an impartial journalist I should include quotes from both sides though. The first are from the apolitical Red Cross / Red Crescent, who are selflessly risking their lives to allievate the suffering caused by war. And , in the interests of balance, I'd like to repeat in full Downing Streets broadcast to Iraq from four years ago, from both our 'Great Leader' and our 'Dear Leader', who risk their countrymens lives to bring suffering in a war for their profit.

First, the Red Cross is a short, apolitical report. I guess they have to choose their words carefully to protect their 1500 employees and 9000 volunteers active in Iraq. I suppose they may be trying to get acces to some of the many Iraqi, Iranian, Afghan and internationals currently held and tortured by our governments. The title of the report though, and the emphasis in it of international humanitarian law, they are fairly heavy pointers from such a tightly lipped organisation to the fact that occupying powers have a clear legal duty of care to provide security for the occupied country. As well as a legal duty to provide basics such as water.


CIVILIANS WITHOUT PROTECTION : the ever worsening humanitarian crisis in Iraq
 http://www.icrc.org/Web/eng/siteeng0.nsf/htmlall/iraq-report-110407/$File/Iraq-report-icrc.pdf

"Once I was called to an explosion site. There I saw a four year old boy sitting beside his mother's body, which had been decapitated by the explosion. He was talking to her, asking what had happened. He had been taken out shopping by his mum." Saad, a young humanitarian worker from Baghdad.

"You're lucky if you get a warning to leave your home. If you do, it means at least you have a chance to survive. You must be ready to flee your place at any moment" An ICRC employee in Baghdad.

"The ICRC - a strictly humanitarian organisation committed to the principles of neutrality, independence and impartiality - strives to monitor and promote respect for international humanitarian law and other legal standards applicable to the current situation in Iraq."

"Water is often contaminated owing to the poor repair of sewage and water supply network and the discharge of untreated sewage into rivers, which are the main source of drinking water. Electricity and fuel shortages and the poor maintenance of infrastructure mean that there is no regular and reliable supply of clean water and that sewage is often not properly disposed of."




"PM's message broadcast to Iraqi people

10 April 2003

Prime Minister Tony Blair has told the people of Iraq that a new and better future beckons for their country. Mr Blair's message was carried via 'Towards Freedom TV', which broadcasts in Arabic direct to the people of Iraq. The programme also carried a message from US President George Bush.

Mr Blair said:

"We want to give you the chance to rebuild your country; to rebuild your lives; to give your families a chance of a better future. It is in the spirit of friendship and goodwill that we now offer our help."Mr Blair said:

"We want to give you the chance to rebuild your country; to rebuild your lives; to give your families a chance of a better future. It is in the spirit of friendship and goodwill that we now offer our help."

Prime Minister Tony Blair:

I am glad to be able to speak to you today, and to tell you that Saddam Hussein's regime is collapsing; that the years of brutality, oppression and fear are coming to an end; that a new and better future beckons for the people of Iraq.

We did not want this war. But in refusing to give up his Weapons of Mass Destruction, Saddam gave us no choice but to act. Now the war has begun, it will be seen through to the end. We will continue to do all we can to avoid civilian casualties. Our enemy is Saddam and his regime; not the Iraqi people. Our forces are friends and liberators of the Iraqi people, not your conquerors. They will not stay a day longer than is necessary.

I know that some of you feared a repeat of 1991, when you thought Saddam's rule was being ended, but he stayed, and you suffered. That will not happen this time. This regime will be gone. And then, we will work with you to build the peaceful, prosperous Iraq that you want, and you deserve. This Iraq will not be run by Britain, or by the US, or by the UN. It will be run by you, the people of Iraq.

Our aim is to help alleviate immediate humanitarian suffering, and to move as soon as possible to an interim authority run by Iraqis. This will pave the way for a truly representative Iraqi Government, which represents human rights and the rule of law and spends Iraq's wealth not on palaces and WMD, but on you and the services you need. Saddam Hussein and his regime plundered your nation's wealth. While many of you live in poverty, they have lived lives of luxury. He became one of the richest men in the world; his money stolen from you, the Iraqi people.

The money from Iraqi oil will be yours; to be used to build prosperity for you and your families.

I know too from my meetings with Iraqi exiles who live in Britain that you are an inventive, creative people. You should be free to travel, free to have access to independent media, free to express your views, free to develop your culture.

My experience of people the world over is that we all want to be able to live our lives in peace and security; we all want to give our families the chance of a decent life. For years, that chance has been denied to you. Millions of your countrymen and women have been forced to leave.

Many thousands have been murdered, tortured, brutalised by the regime.

We want to give you the chance to rebuild your country; to rebuild your lives; to give your families a chance of a better future. It is in the spirit of friendship and goodwill that we now offer our help.

President George Bush:

This is George W Bush, the President of the United States. At this moment, the regime of Saddam Hussein is being removed from power, and a long era of fear and cruelty is ending. American and coalition forces are now operating inside Baghdad - and we will not stop until Saddam's corrupt gang is gone. The government of Iraq, and the future of your country, will soon belong to you.

The goals of our coalition are clear and limited. We will end a brutal regime, whose aggression and weapons of mass destruction make it a unique threat to the world. Coalition forces will help maintain law and order, so that Iraqis can live in security. We will respect your great religious traditions, whose principles of equality and compassion are essential to Iraq's future. We will help you build a peaceful and representative government that protects the rights of all citizens. And then our military forces will leave. Iraq will go forward as a unified, independent and sovereign nation that has regained a respected place in the world.

The United States and its coalition partners respect the people of Iraq. We are taking unprecedented measures to spare the lives of innocent Iraqi citizens, and are beginning to deliver food, water and medicine to those in need. Our only enemy is Saddam's brutal regime - and that regime is your enemy as well.

In the new era that is coming to Iraq, your country will no longer be held captive to the will of a cruel dictator. You will be free to build a better life, instead of building more palaces for Saddam and his sons, free to pursue economic prosperity without the hardship of economic sanctions, free to travel and speak your mind, free to join in the political affairs of Iraq. And all the people who make up your country - Kurds, Shi'a, Turkomans, Sunnis, and others - will be free of the terrible persecution that so many have endured.

The nightmare that Saddam Hussein has brought to your nation will soon be over. You are a good and gifted people - the heirs of a great civilisation that contributes to all humanity. You deserve better than tyranny and corruption and torture chambers. You deserve to live as free people. And I assure every citizen of Iraq: your nation will soon be free.

Thank you.
"

Vote for peace????you're having a laugh - that is a meaningless slogan and flawed logic if any at all - this is not a democracy - you think there is any diference between Labour, Lib Dem, Tory et al??? all they do is police and legislate against us. You vote and you arre voting for the fascist police state -you are voting for the protection the square mile so that global capital can and is shitting on people and planet

Everything else is run by and for the unnaccountable corporates ( who like to employ pet politicians ). You don't vote for the toff civil servants either. You are therefore implicitly backing Bae Systems, BP, Tesco, Sainsbury, Siemens, Laing, Cargill etc.etc

get real. It still amazed me when people were arguing to vote Lib Dem to get Labour out. Cowardly. Bunch of property obsessed fucking crooks.

bring on the guillotine

the unions giving money to labour are unions giving money to fascists and thus aiding worker repression:- power to workers not to unions and fat union bosses.

Is indymedia becoming overun by liberal idiots - why don't they stick to their mainstream grauniad/sun/ ( and hippy ) propaganda as they don't seem to be able to overcome ( or want to) their programming.

I am an anarcist and I've got the scars to prove it. I've been fighting fascists in my own town instead of just waiting someone else to turn up with a guillotine. And I travel too. I also have more a single-celled brain and have read as much anarchist literature as any of you feeble lot. Go on, Bakunin, name thirty anarchist assasins off the top of your head ? Doughball. You've lived under Blairs war-state for how long and you are still just hoping someone will come along and kill him for you - build your own freaking guillotine or shut the fuck up.

I live in Scotland. Up here a vote for the Liberals is effectively a vote for the Labour party, not something I'd recommend. But voting for a party dedicated to ending the British state is hardly a vote for the state. Up here we have a choice of pro-independence parties. And because a lot of us are sick of Scottish troops getting sent to kill to profit US corporations, and of US nukes being stored in Scottish lochs, we are being pragmatic. And it is getting some small results already - the MoD are planning to move Trident down south now. Maybe to Wales, maybe to the south coast.

What you don't seem to understand is you don't have to be for something to vote against something. Once we are in an independent Scottish state, I will take the most pragmatic and quickest route to breaking tht down into smaller and smaller chunks. What you do in England, I don't know. If I lived in England I wouldn't recommend voting, suicide or emigration seem your best electoral options. It's got to be better than a life of snippy and empty sloganeering.