Britain
Frances O鈥橤rady, head of the British Trade Union Congress (TUC), set the tone in the opening session of the People's Assembly in London on June 22, declaring: 鈥淭he Bullingdon boys are waging class war against ordinary people. We will retaliate, it is time to fight back against a government of millionaires.鈥
To listen to its advocates, there is little shale gas won鈥檛 do: bring down energy prices, cut carbon emissions, support renewables and bring us out of recession.
The 鈥渃limate-sceptic鈥 Global Warming Policy Foundation even claimed that 鈥渂ecause of shale gas, wealth and health will be distributed more equitably over the planet鈥.
Add to this newspaper stories with misunderstood numbers saying that there is enough shale gas to heat British homes for 1500 years and you can see why some people are getting excited.
Martin Corey is a 63-year-old man jailed in the six counties of Ireland's north still claimed by Britain. He has been held for three years without trial.
On April 16, 2010, Corey鈥檚 house in Lurgan was visited by members of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) and Corey was arrested.
When he asked what the charges were, Corey was told that the police officers 鈥渄id not know鈥. All they were told was to arrest Corey.
Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams accused the British government on May 24 of breaching commitments given during peace talks over a decade ago. Adams' comments came after the arrest of leading Donegal Sinn Fein member John Downey.
The 61-year-old was brought before Westminster Magistrates Court to face charges over a 1982 IRA attack in London鈥檚 Hyde Park in which four soldiers were killed.
Adams said an agreement forged with the British government at the 2001 Weston Park talks about republicans still pursued over outstanding prosecutions had been breached.
The People's Assembly is electrifying the movement against austerity in Britain. Hundreds of new people are flocking to People's Assembly meetings around the country to hear speakers like author Owen Jones, comic Mark Steel, anti-war activist Lindsey German, trade unionists and local campaigners outline the need for coordinated national resistance to the government's plans.
The May 22 attack in Woolwich yesterday was horrific. There can be no justification for a murderous attack on an individual soldier in the streets of London. It must have been awful, too, for the local people who witnessed it.
Unlike with most terrorist attacks or indeed other crimes, we have been able to see film footage of the perpetrators, hear testimony from the witnesses who saw or talked to them. So we know what these men say motivated them.
The impact of austerity has thrown politics in Britain into turmoil. Both parties of the ruling coalition government 鈥 the Conservative Party (Tories) and the Liberal Democrats 鈥 lost heavily in municipal elections in England on May 2 to the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP).
The UKIP is a right-wing, populist, anti-immigration party that is pulling all the main parties to the right. Labour鈥檚 performance was better but poor, since its answer to austerity is its own brand of austerity and it has pandered to anti-immigrant sentiment.
In the wake of Margaret Thatcher's departure, I remember her victims. Patrick Warby's daughter, Marie, was one of them.
Marie, aged five, suffered from a bowel deformity and needed a special diet. Without it, the pain was excruciating. Her father was a Durham miner and had used all his savings. It was winter 1985, the Great Strike was almost a year old and the family was destitute.
On April 2, 1911 women all over Britain were holding all-night parties, staying out at concerts and late-night restaurants, skating at ice rinks until the morning and generally having a very good time.
But this was also a huge act of civil disobedience because the April 2 was Census night and these women staying out all night were refusing to have their details recorded in protest at the government鈥檚 refusal to grant votes for women.
Margaret Thatcher is dead. Her policies as prime minister ruined the lives of millions of people.
Now, her political heirs are trying to extend the damage she did in ways she only dreamed of. The political task is to ensure they fail. We need to make sure Thatcher鈥檚 legacy dies with her.
Those who will mourn the death of Thatcher include the bankers and get-rich-quick speculators in the City. She pioneered the neoliberal casino capitalism that enriched them.
So will Rupert Murdoch's newspapers, which have done so much to champion her rotten values.
English Premier League team Sunderland FC has sparked outrage by appointing Paolo Di Canio, who has publicly identified as a fascist, as its coach. The local Durham Miners' Association, with longstanding links to the club, has condemned the move.
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