14th January 2012
Count Your Blessings, and Protect Them
"Count Your Blessings." It is an age-old cry of fathers, mothers and grandparents to the disaffected and complaining child. Yet, in modern Britain, can we still manage to count our blessings?
27th October 2011
Open Letter to the Chapter of St. Paul’s Cathedral and to the General Assembly of Occupy LSX
I would want to encourage Occupy LSX on their commitment to peaceful means of protest and their many moves to facilitate a safe and peaceful environment, and I would want to encourage the Cathedral in its initial moves to welcome the demonstrators and engage in dialogue.
11th August 2011
Revolting Peasants, Violent Disorder and Authoritarian Rhetoric
The rioting in parts of the UK have brought with it fresh calls for authoritarian measures, and the rhetoric of leaders has been brutal and violent in its own way.
There are real concerns that the civil freedoms the Government promised shall now disappear.
2nd August 2011
Aggravated Trespass – It Needs To Go
In a little-publicized move, Caroline Lucas MP, the first Green Party Member of Parliament in the UK, has tabled an amendment to the Protection of Freedoms Bill that is currently passing through the House of Commons. The amendment would, if implemented, remove the criminal offence of aggravated trespass.
26th July 2011
We Need to Fight Extremism, But Remain True to Liberal Democracy
The atrocities in Norway have been roundly and rightly condemned by almost all commentators. Yet off the back of this has come the usual knee-jerk reaction: the need is for a stringent clampdown on certain sections of society, this time those who hold to far-right political beliefs.
8th May 2011
Finally Official Acknowledgement, But Mixed Emotions for Tomlinson Family
Two years. Over two years. It has taken that long before the family of Ian Tomlinson could taste that justice is being done. Anger, heartbreak, grief and frustration. Finally, relief, joy, elation, and the knowledge that a battle still lies ahead.
3rd May 2011
Protests Not Welcome – The Police Say So
With the Royal Wedding, there seems to now be a situation whereby arrests can be made for “conspiracy to cause a public nuisance”, which is disturbing. Do the police really have such power?
24th April 2011
Smart Phones - The New Surveillance Tool
Technology can be scary. Now a media storm has blown up over new revelations that smart phones, specifically the iPhone and phones running Google’s Android, record the movements and locations of the handsets, effectively becoming a continuous record of a person’s whereabouts.
11th April 2011
Religious Extremism – Would a One World Religion Be the Solution?
In recent times there has been an explosion of extremist philosophies. I say philosophies quite deliberately: whilst they hold the trappings and dogmatic clothing of religions, the very basis of true religion is starkly missing.
1st February 2011
We Need To Speak Our Mind!
In July of 2010 a leading think-tank, Civitas, released a report on the dire state of free speech in the UK. Many voices have been raised by various sections of society that the taken-for-granted right to freedom of speech no longer exists in the way that we once knew it.
Rabel is campaigning for a restoration of free speech.
