Filed under: ethical consumerism, politics | Tags: arms-trade, clarion, dsei, the-baby-show, uk, unicef
UNICEF have pulled out of The Baby Show after links were exposed between the shows organisers and the arms trade. The Baby Show is owned by Clarion Events, who recently extended their portfolio to include several defence exhibitions, including Defence Systems Equipment International – the world’s largest arms fair.
UNICEF were due to receive donations from The Baby Show as part of a one ticket/one vaccination promotion this week. On hearing news of the links between Clarion Events and DSEi, Kate Morrison, a UNICEF spokesperson stated, “We have taken the matter very seriously and can confirm we will not be accepting any donation from Clarion Events.” Furthermore, Pampers who are running the vaccination campaign with UNICEF, have agreed to donate the additional money expected to be raised from ticket sales to the vaccination campaign.
The Baby Show runs at Earls Court between 17 and 19 October and is advertised as, “a great day out with the chance to try and buy all the essentials you need to give to give your baby the best start in life.” The arms trade has been described by Oxfam as “out of control” and state that “as well as prolonging and intensifying conflicts, the poorly regulated arms trade causes huge levels of waste, corruption and debt.”
Since hearing the news regarding UNICEF’s decision, many exhibitors and sponsors have pulled out of the event or expressed concerns about the integrity of ongoing relations with Clarion. Bounty, the “UK’s favourite parenting company” and one of the major sponsors, have withdrawn from the exhibition. Other exhibitors have given statements and are “appalled” and “shocked” by the news.
Vitabiotics, makers of Pregnacare and vitamin supplements, described the link between Clarion Events, The Baby Show and DSEi as “incompatible”. They said that it “will certainly make a difference as to whether we continue to exhibit at future show whilst the DSEi link is maintained.”
Charities have been particularly concerned about the news. Westminster Children’s Society stated, “by no means consider our involvement with this particular event an endorsement in any way of the company behind it, let alone their involvement – direct or otherwise – in such an abhorrent ‘industry’.”
This is not the first time DSEi has come in for criticism. The previous owners of the arms fair, Reed Elsevier, were forced to sell the exhibition after concerns from leading academics and writers from their publishing interests. Their Chief Executive, Sir Crispin Davis declared that the business was no longer “compatible” with their other business concerns.
The Good Agency, a PR company representing The Baby Show refused to make any comment about the links. However, other charities they represent, including Action Aid, have been assured that Good have resigned from the contract with The Baby Show.
A spokesperson for DISARM DSEi, an umbrella organisation who campaign against the arms fair said: “This is fantastic news. DSEi is a marketplace for dealers profiting in death and destruction and this is clearly not compatible with The Baby Show. These companies must, and will, be held accountable for their actions.”
Despite several opportunities to comment on the situation, Clarion Events have refused to make any statement.
Filed under: democracy, environment, peak oil, politics | Tags: activism, bills, bp, campaign, compass, economy, gas, injustice, oil, petition, profits, renewables, uk
Compass starts a very sensible campaign – read more here and sign the petition…
Rising energy and fuel prices are affecting everyone but its the poorest and those on fixed incomes who are paying the heaviest price. The warm summer weather will not mask the anxiety and anger at dramatically rising bills for the essentials of life – light and heat. We believe that the moment is right for the government to levy a sensible one off windfall tax to guarantee social and environmental justice both now and in the future. This is why.
The average annual spend on domestic energy per household has now breached £1200. Since 2000 we have faced gas price rises of 100% and electricity price rises of 61% – with further increases including British Gas raising its gas bills by a record 35%. Simultaneously the main energy providers have seen their profits rise from £557 million in 2003 to now over £3 billion. This alongside the recent news of profits made by oil companies – BP is now making £37 million a day with a 23% increase in profits to £6.7 billion for the first 6 months of 2008.
Filed under: democracy, digital revolution, politics | Tags: human_rights, politics, uk
As many of you will know, the government’s proposal to increase the pre-charge detention limit to 42 days – six weeks – has scraped through parliament by a majority of nine. Not that the politics is important to us, but it means that it only passed with the votes of the Ulster Unionists.
This is bad news for human rights. The government didn’t make a convincing case that this would make anyone safer and in fact, by further alienating the Muslim community with measures that will inevitably affect them most, it may make things worse. This is a lesson that should have been learned from Northern Ireland, and clearly hasn’t been.
The ‘concessions’ that have been granted are basically meaningless: parliamentary scrutiny won’t be any use as MPs won’t have any detailed information on individual cases. The judicial safeguards that have been put in place are nowhere near strong enough.
The Bill now has to go before the Lords – and as it only scraped through by nine votes in the Commons, they may well be inclined to ’savage’ it. That’s where we’ll be focusing our attention now and you’ll be hearing a lot more from us soon.
As unsubscribers, Amnesty will be getting our view across on phone-ins, message board and blog posts. The public is being robbed of its basic human rights and we need to make sure that everyone knows what is at stake.
BTW: you don’t have to be a member of Amnesty International to unsubscribe from human rights abuses in the ‘war on terror’ but you might want to join them
The High Court ruled today that the Serious Fraud Office acted UNLAWFULLY in ending their investigation into corruption allegations against BAE systems, Britain’s largest arms company.
BAE Systems had been under investigation from July 2004, after allegations that it had bribed Saudi officials to win contracts for arms deals. The ‘Al Yamamah’ contract, signed in the 1980s under Thatcher’s government, was for BAE to supply Saudi Arabia with dozens of military aircraft, despite the country’s unenviable human rights record.
In December 2007, just as the investigating body were getting somewhere – the SFO were just about to get access to Swiss bank accounts – the investigation was suddently terminated. (This was after BAE had already leant on the attorney general to halt the inquiry in October 2005.)
The SFO are supposedly an independent prosecuting organisation. Despite this, the Blair government directly intervened to stop the SFO continuing its work, saying that it had already cost a lot of money, it would mean job losses at BAE, and most importantly that it could hurt relations with the Saudi government. It was claimed that the Saudis had tried to blackmail them, by threatening to withhold intelligence on terrorists.
Whether this was true, or whether the decision was made to cynically protect BAE’s corporate interests, is a matter for you to decide.
Campaign Against the Arms Trade and Cornerhouse anti-corruption publishers launched a David v Goliath legal battle to challenge the SFO’s decision. Today the judges were scathing of the government and the SFO, and ruled that they had acted unlawfully in halting the investigation.
Ruling: http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-files/Guardian/documents/2008/04/10/judgment_corner_house_100408.pdf
Today’s High Court victory confirms the fact that BAE Systems is a corrupt and extremely powerful company, which is able to manipulate the government at the highest level. It shows that the government are also perfectly willing to sacrifice their supposed democratic mandate, to assist the fat-cat bosses in their aim to fatten their already bulging wallets on the backs of those killed by BAE’s products.
The British government remain under investigation for corruption by international OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development). The repurcussions for the government as a result of that, and today’s ruling, remain to be seen.
Filed under: palestine, politics | Tags: gaza, israel, middle_east, mp, politics, uk
Please write to your MP asking them to sign Early Day Motions 305, 624 and 698 on Gaza
On Sunday 20 January, Gaza ’s only power station was forced to shut down, after Israel cut fuel supplies to the Gaza Strip.
Israel has imposed a total closure on the Strip’s border crossings, even preventing the delivery of essential humanitarian aid. Over 80 per cent of Gaza ’s population rely on food aid from the United Nations or other agencies. Over 70 Gazans have died as a result of Israel preventing patients with serious medical conditions from accessing treatment outside the Gaza Strip.
This catastrophic cutting of fuel supplies is already seriously affecting hospitals, supplies of fresh water and sewage systems, has removed heating and lighting from 800,000 people, and making it impossible for those few factories which have managed to remain open despite the blockade.
In carrying out these actions, the Israeli government is violating the strict prohibition on collective punishment of a civilian population in the Fourth Geneva Convention.
We are particularly appealing to medical staff to join us in uniform to visibly express their opposition to the medical impact of the blockade.
this has hit me particularly hard, it doesn’t matter who’s ’side’ you might be on, what is disgusting is the collective punishment of a group of people – women and children who are trapped. There is no way out of Gaza, and the fact that Israel is carrying out nightly bombing attacks is even more scary. what do they want? Peace feels like a far away concept when faced with this reality, and to think that it won’t lead to more violence is also delusional. How did we let it get this bad? And why aren’t our politicians doing something? Please find 5 minutes to cut and paste this letter and send it to your MP, we apparently live in a democracy – lets find out whether that is true…
the video is a clip of a very good documentary called Occupation 101. Listen to the little girl….
and if you want to find out more check out:
Palestinian International Campaign
PSC
end gaza seige
This is your chance to make MPs live with the consequences of laws they pass. All you have to do is snap a photo of an MP when they are doing TV or radio interviews on College Green opposite Parliament and send it in to gotcha@shopanmp.com. Or if you spot an MP being interviewed on the news let us know what channel, what time it was on and what they were talking about. We will then try and get them investigated by the Director of Public Prosecutions. Here is why and how….
In August 2005 it became illegal to demonstrate in and around Parliament Square without prior police permission under the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act (SOCPA). So far Maya Evans has been prosecuted and found guilty of an offence under this law for reading out the names of the British an Iraqi war dead by the Cenotaph in Whitehall. People have been threatened with arrest for wearing T shirts with political slogans on them and for having cakes with the word PEACE iced upon it on display in Parliament Square. Mark Thomas had to get permission to wear a red nose on Red Nose Day or run the risk of arrest. He even had to get permission to stand by himself with a banner saying “Support the Poppy Appeal’. The law is stupid.
According to SOCPA one person can constitute a demonstration, other than that there is little definition in law as to what a demonstration is. But if a person breaks the law by reading the names of the war dead and the Oxford English Dictionary lists a definition of a demonstration as : an expression of opinion, then surely each time an MP gives a TV or radio interview about politics or politicians on College Green tthen they are demonstrating- and if they are demonstrating without permission that is illegal.
Mark Thomas with lawyers Leigh Day and Co (advised by Tim Owen QC of Matrix Chambers and Tom de la Mare of Blackstones Chambers) delivered a letter to the Director of Public Prosecutions Wednesday 12 December 07 calling for an urgent investigation into allegations that MPs had broken the law- including the Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Any new evidence of MPs giving interviews on College Green will be forwarded to the Director of Public Prosecutions.
Here is how you can help. If you live, work or are visiting London and walk past College Green (opposite the House of Lords entrance) and you see an MP giving an interview then:
(1) Photo them with your phone (make sure we can identify them)
(2) Send it in to us with details of time and date
(3) If you hear any of the interview then send us the details.
If you spot an MP being interviewed in the SOCPA zone on TV then let us know:
(1) The channel it was on
(2) The time you saw it
(3) What they were talking about
Send it in to us at gotcha@shopanmp.com.
We will follow up the interview and shop them to the D.P.P.
All this legal help doesn’t come cheap so if you can spare some dosh please buy a badge or make a donation by clicking on the links below. You will pay via Paypal.
Lets get them in the dock! Happy Snapping!
Filed under: ethical | Tags: eco-warriors, ethical, skaters, skating, thinking, uk
Skateboarders aren’t exactly obvious eco warriors, but Pierre Andre Senizergues is no ordinary rider: he’s the CEO of Sole Technologies, the parent company of Etnies. New Consumer caught up with him to talk about the outfitter’s new 12-strong SEED eco range in the UK, how he turned Etnies green and why he doesn’t get high on shoe glue anymore.
there are also some eco-discounts to be found if you are slightly sick about the number of useless presents being marketed to you at extortionate prices this christmas…spend a little on the right things, that make you feel better, not guilty at the idea of the small hands used to make the cheap clothes you are wearing to your xmas party…it’s hard for all of us, but we can all make a small difference. 
