A UN accuses Britain of creating laws that have a chilling effect on freedom of expression — including anti-terror legislation, libel laws and the use of the Official Secrets Act. Â

Big Apple is turning into Big Brother warn civil liberties groups about a plan to photograph every vehicle entering Manhattan and hold details on a massive database. It’s called Operation Sentinel and will erect a 50-mile surveillance buffer zone the city, partly based on the ring-of-steel erected in London against Irish republican terror bombings in the 1990s.

Welcome to the world of SECURITY BREACH

 

Police would be given greater powers to conduct surveillance operations on people suspected of crimes such as burglary and vehicle theft under plans announced by Britain’s Conservative Party — The Guardian. 

They will amend the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act so that police no longer need to secure authorisation to conduct surveillance on those suspected of non-terrorist offences.

The changes would mean that the police would automatically be able to:

· Use covert video or listening devices in premises or vehicles.

· Watch premises to identify or arrest suspects.

· Conduct visual surveillance of public locations.

· Patrol, in uniform or plain clothes.

· Use thermal imaging and X-ray technology.

· Conduct surveillance using visible CCTV cameras.

In my fictional Third World War, world leaders meet at Camp David to try to stop the spread of conflict. This is some of what the Russian President Andrei Koslov had to say. 

“If our love-in with America over the past twenty years had managed to seep wealth deep into the countryside, then perhaps I would not now be in office. But it didn’t. Perhaps, after so much suffering, the Russian people are too impatient. Perhaps they know I will return a little bit of their own soul to them”

The Third World War
 

Kosovo’s independence declaration in February and the August war between Russia and Georgia will be seen over the coming years as the markers as to how close we get to a fully-fledged new Cold War.  This time, though, a measure of power could rest, not only in Washington and Moscow, but also with the rulers of these tiny states. Whether running South Ossettia, Kosovo, Narva, Transdniester or the dozens of other societies created from the ebb and flow of history, they can impress upon those who wish them to become client states that there is only one path that will deliver living standards and good governance. It is not nationalism, nor is it necessarly democracy and Nato, but trade. The success of these communities should be measured not on how they dig their fox holes, pack their sandbags and care for their refugees, but on how they are able to fling open their borders, build their factories , make investors feel safe and give their citizens a long term stake in and vision for their future. 

The Third World War
 

The Third World War has now gone up as an e-book on Amazon Kindle and immediately began selling well.   

The story tells what happens when an American president tries to make peace with those who only want catastrophe. Every attempt at conciliation leads to more conflict. One by one, the powers that America once counted as allies become enemies, and the comfortable lives of citizens in modern societies verge of physical and emotional collapse.

It begins with a near-simultaneous attack by North Korea on a US base in Japan and by Pakistani-sponsored terrorists on the Indian parliament.  As the US tries to avoid all out conflict, no one is aware that all out war is already unstoppable.  I re-read The Third World War the other day and it it is even more right on the button of a catastrophe in waiting while new powers such as China, India and Russia jostle against a post-Iraq America and the status quo. 

 

The European Commission is about to announce the compulsory fingerprinting of all visitors to the EU, both visa holders and non-visa holders, along with automated border checks of EU nationals through the analysis of fingerprints and facial scans.

Privacy International

The British government earns US$400 (£200) a minute from traffic speed cameras – more than US$200 million a year.  The Daily Mail.

By chance, I was able to compare the Bombay Indian Brassiere in Plains Rd, Nottingham to Quilon’s in Buckingham Gate, London. Bombay is wedged between Chinese takeaways and shopfronts to let, but inside the atmosphere is discreetly upmarket. With the staff decked out in  flowing Mughal gowns, you could suddenly be walking into the Imperial Hotel in Delhi.  Quilon’s is the south Indian cuisine of choice for ministers and royalty. But which is the better restaurant – a tough one. I’d pick neither for a special date. When it comes to good food for honest travellers, I’d opt for the Bombay because it serves real Popadoms. Quilon cuts them up fancy-like the size of crisps. Bombay, probably catering to more northern England tastes, uses creamier yoghurts that take longer to settle.  The best Indian food used to be served by my very excellent and ebullient friend once Deputy High Commissioner to Britain. Alas, he was posted elsewhere — and the Star of Bengal in Leiston, Suffolk, is now closed down. God knows why, it was delicious.   

      Â

Totally, without doubt, the most incredible Japanese meal…and where is it, in Tofino, British Columbia, about the most remote place you’d expect a fully-aproned and bandannered Sushi artist behind the counter in a log cabin with views over an inlet that runs into the Pacific Ocean. They even serve Asahi extra dry.   http://www.toughcity.com/