News from Scotland & Abroad
Protest over harassment of Muslims
From BBC Scotland website
A protest has been staged outside Strathclyde Police headquarters over alleged "harassment" of Muslim travellers at Glasgow Airport.
About 60 demonstrators claimed that Pakistani and Afghan passengers had been "interrogated" for up to three hours by officers from Special Branch.
They accused police of operating "discriminatory policies".
Strathclyde Police said it welcomed dialogue over the implementation of terrorism legislation.
President of the Scottish Afghan Society, Mohammad Asif, said Strathclyde Police had a duty to treat Muslim passengers like "human beings".
"Muslim community members have been singled out for questioning for no apparent reason other than being Afghan or Pakistani," he said.
The authorities treat us like terrorists, as well as putting pressure on Afghans to become informers and spies
Mohammad Asif
Scottish Afghan Society
"This treatment is unacceptable in a democracy and we are fed up with the discriminatory policies of Strathclyde Police Special Branch.
"We cannot bear the psychological torture anymore. The authorities treat us like terrorists, as well as putting pressure on Afghans to become informers and spies, but we are not going to be intimidated and pressurised."
Gail Sheridan Reinstated - BA Drop All Charges
EU to keep pushing for dead parrot treaty
EU to keep pushing for dead parrot treaty
22 June 2008
Ireland must solve its ‘problem’ and get the right result on Lisbon.
The European Union’s unique version of democratic surrealism continues unabated, it seems. In accordance with the Irish constitutional imperative, the Irish people - in sovereign referendum - reject the Lisbon Treaty. Their voting majority is large, the turnout considerable.
What is the European response? One after another, the leaders of Europe tell us that they respect the Irish decision but we will have to ‘‘think again’’. They tell us we need to take time out to ‘‘reflect’’ and that, by October, they hope that our government will have ‘‘come up with ideas to solve the Irish problem’’.
Note that we apparently have a problem, not the European Union. If the Irish electorate, fearing continued European political integration, rejects the Lisbon Treaty, that’s somehow our problem, not Europe’s. If this is the case, what was the point of the Irish referendum at all?
If I could save my readers time and cut to the subtext here, an Irish democratic No vote, as I forecast some four weeks ago, is simply unacceptable. There will be no renegotiation of the treaty; rather, we had better have another vote - and this time get the right result.
Apparently, we can also forget the notion that, if one of the 27 countries were to reject the treaty, it falls like a stone. It seems that the Lisbon Treaty is like the dead parrot in the famous Monty Python sketch. In fact, last Thursday, José Manuel Barroso himself was looking for all the world like John Cleese proudly proclaiming that the parrot is a rare Norwegian Blue that is very much alive, but just resting.
I even suspect that, for some of the older citizens of the new EU countries, like Poland and the Czech Republic - once part of the Soviet empire - the EU’s current version of democratic accountability must be beginning to ring a bell.
Once upon a time in the old days, under the close scrutiny of the Kremlin, they too had what they called ‘elections’ in their countries. They, too, had ‘democratic candidates’ (all from the same party, of course) and they too had to be very careful to ensure to get their results ‘right’.
Not that anyone was suggesting last week in Strasbourg that we might wake up one morning to find the EU’s tanks on College Green; it was more the dark hints off stage that we might find ourselves thrown out altogether if we didn’t learn our lesson.
We were biting the hands that had fed us for 30 years, and Europe’s determined federalists were not amused. The patience with the Irish - once the model European nation, we were told - is wearing very thin, it seems. Clearly this democracy business can become dangerous. After this performance, who can ever again credibly believe in any single state exercising any EU veto?
The irony of it all is as compelling as its surrealism. I seem to remember that, not too long ago, we were being asked in the Nice Treaty to vote Yes so that the old countries of former Soviet Europe could enjoy ‘‘democracy’’ in the EU. Nice, we were being told, would bring the instant solution to the ever-present threat of Russian political ambitions in Europe.
In the end, we voted Yes so that nations like Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Latvia, Lithuania and others would enjoy the umbrella of the EU’s democratic protection.
Across the map of Europe, we watched with fascination as the democracies of the new post-Cold War EU stretched for the first time from the Steppes to the Atlantic. Now, I might ask, where is Ireland’s democratic protection?
We are being told that somehow the democratic Yes decision of the other 26 trumps our No. But should not some democratic alarm bells be ringing, given that these 26 countries are affirming by simple parliamentary majority? Analysis of the Irish No vote reveals a staggering disconnect between the mood of the politicians and the mood of the people.
How else do you explain that 93 per cent of our parliamentarians voted Yes while 54 per cent of the people voted No? On that basis, who could predict that an EU-wide referendum on Lisbon would produce an affirmative vote?
But behind the staged public bonhomie and the back-slapping last Thursday, as Brian Cowen was led in funereal-like procession into the privacy of the EU inner sanctum, I suspect that the gloves are coming off. Matters as diverse as the number of commissioners, neutrality and abortion fears could conceivably be resolved in a Lisbon II by protocol or otherwise. But what will not be acceded to is what is at the core of the Lisbon Treaty - the mechanisms for the creation of the EU as a law-making political super-state.
What few seem to have recognised about Lisbon is that the treaty is not designed as a status quo document, but rather a political engine that, over the years, will create an evolution towards a European super federal state.
In particular, if ever there was a mechanism for fundamentally changing and reshaping society, it is the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.
As it says in the Lisbon preamble, this is concerned with citizens’ rights and the Charter of Fundamental Rights: the Treaty of Lisbon will preserve existing rights while introducing new ones. In particular, it guarantees the freedoms and principles set out in the Charter of Fundamental Rights and gives its provisions a binding legal force.
It concerns civil, political, economic and social rights. Where once this was the function of Ireland’s legislators in the Dáil operating under the guidance of the Constitution and the Supreme Court, post-Lisbon the situation will be fundamentally different. No wonder both Britain and Poland have opted out of this.
Europe has been patronising but firm in the face of the Irish referendum result.
Apparently, it’s all our government’s fault and they had better sort it out. In fact, I suspect that many of you who voted Yes but have witnessed the reception given to an Irish democratic decision might be regretting your choice. One day, all of this might just be a footnote in the history of the EU, but at least it will say that, at this moment in time, however in vain it was, we warned where Europe was headed.
Having put manners on us last week, Europe can now close one eye and be king.
Scottish public buildings allowed to fly the Saltire whenever they want
PUBLIC buildings in Scotland will be allowed to fly the Saltire year-round following a government climbdown in response to pressure from nationalists.
UK ministers will announce the lifting of restrictions on flag flying that have been in force since 1924. The rules stipulate that the Union Jack must must take precedence over all national flags on 18 days each year.
Scottish government buildings with only one flagpole must take down the Saltire and replace it with the Union Jack on specified national days including the Queen's birthday, Remembrance Day and Commonwealth Day. The decision to give the Saltire equal status has been welcomed by the Scottish National party. “It's a recognition that we are in charge of our flag flying arrangements,” said a senior Scottish government source.
“It's a welcome outbreak of common sense from Gordon Brown. Hopefully, he will now rule out other daft ideas such as schoolchildren swearing an oath of loyalty to the UK.”
The new policy, which will apply to UK and Scottish government buildings, is part of a package of measures designed to boost national identity by flying flags on public buildings.
Schools are expected to be allowed to fly the flag at half-mast to mark the death of a pupil, teacher or local figure. Until now flags could be flown at half-mast only after a special order from the Queen.
Christine Grahame, the Nationalist MSP, said: “Gordon Brown is back peddling. One minute he getting us to swear oaths of allegiance to Great Britain, and the next he's saying we can fly the Saltire.”