Nothing says a country is over-policed like...British riot police (4 police cars, a riot van and a helicopter) raiding a private birthday party of 15 people at 4pm because the Facebook invites showed it as an all-night party.

The BBC report that the Metropolitan Police made more than 170 000 "terror" stops in London in 2008. This is more than double the previous year. The Police spokesman said, "The threat to London from terrorism is real and serious and these powers are a vital tactic in our counter-terrorism strategy." mmmm...only 65 of the "terror" stops lead to arrests for terror offenses...the conviction rate is not given, although it is probably quite low. (remember, taking a photograph of a policeman may constitute a "terror offense") You don't have to be Sherlock Holmes to deduce that the risk of terrorism in the UK is very low, and the police and politicians are fear-mongering (remember the fictitious Iraqi weapons of mass destruction and "sexed-up" report of their existence).

More video footage of police beating unarmed civillians at the G20 meeting in London. This follows the death of Ian Tomlinson, who was violently shoved to the ground / hit from behind (?) by police, while walking home after a day of work. Initially the "powers that be" blamed heart failure, however a second examination concluded that he died from internal bleeding. The people who were shoved and beaten (and survived) can be thankful that UK police do not carry guns.

Last week the Guardian newspaper published internal Barclays Bank documents allegedly providing information on Barclays' alleged $16 billion tax avoidance scheme. The courts instructed the Guardian to take the documents off-line, which they did. Someone should have told the management of Barclays Bank that legal action would simply draw more attention to the whole debacle and that it is impossible to remove information from the internet. You can see the documents at wikileaks.org or by following the link to Techcrunch.

Police do not like getting caught out by civilians with cameras. Solution: call them terrorists. Article has more.

In a stroke of forward-planning genius, Gary Pugh (Britain's most senior police forensics expert), has come up with a way to address "future crime".... "Primary school children should be eligible for the DNA database if they exhibit behaviour indicating they may become criminals in later life, according to Britain's most senior police forensics expert." "'If we have a primary means of identifying people before they offend, then in the long-term the benefits of targeting younger people are extremely large,' said Pugh." "...it is possible to identify future offending traits in children as young as five" TARGETING YOUNGER PEOPLE...AS YOUNG AS 5...BEFORE THEY OFFEND.

Soooo, is it kiddy porn? An interesting case. Incidentally, the IWF were forced to back down on this one after being mocked throughout the free world.  I would have thought that there professional kiddy porn viewers would have known better. For more see BBC article.

Move away from the... uuummmm....rrrrr....tomato plant. Or...you say marijauna I say tomato!

"Defendants can't deny police an encryption key because of fears the data it unlocks will incriminate them, a British appeals court has ruled."

"The Communications Data Bill (2008) will lead to the creation of a single, centralized database containing records of all e-mails sent, websites visited and mobile phones used by UK citizens. In a carnivore-on-steroids programme, as all vestiges of communication privacy are stripped away, The BBC reports that Home Secretary Jacqui Smith says this is a 'necessity.'"