And so it comes to pass. Some days the ironies of history hit with the force of a hammer. For the past decade or two the firmest advocate of globalisation has been Rupert Murdoch, his papers pushing the agenda of outsourcing may find that it is this which will provide the evidence to bring his organisation down.

How did we get to this situation? Well it turns out to be raising questions for any company that wants to sail close to the wind on the oceans of legality.

Just a quick one while I'm at slave

Today a group of disability rights campaigners have turned up with a thorough analysis of the governments changes in Disability benefits.

It turns out that the government entirely misrepresented the result of the public consultation, which has been discovered by an analysis of public responses gained the FOI requests.

Crowdsourced research reveals strong opposition to disability benefit reform | Blog | False Economy

The report, Responsible Reform (pdf), was entirely researched, written and funded by disabled people, and coordinated Sue Marsh and Kaliya Franklin of the blogs The Broken of Britain and Diary of a Benefit Scrounger. It is based on the responses to the government's own consultation on its planned DLA reforms, which were only made public once disabled people requested them under the Freedom of Information Act.

Findings included:

• 98 per cent of respondents objected to the qualifying period for benefits being raised from 3 months to 6 months 
• 99 per cent of respondents objected to Disability Living Allowance no longer being used as a qualification for other benefits 
• 92% opposed removing the lowest rate of support for disabled people

Here is the lethal blow

Annually I end up helping with a local Music societies fund raising craft fair. for which i end up directing traffic,  into and out of the car parking facilities,  being up at an obscene  hour of the morning to help stallholders set up, and be overnight security.

The site used for this is in the gardens of a local country house. a walled garden of which is used as one of the car parks.  In part of the walled garden there is a miniature railway track, which it has been suggested will be running each year, but up till now hadn't happened.

finally this year it did.

and over the next few hours we also had a range of 1940's aircraft passing on their way to nearby air displays.

the second day I was however more likely to see submarines rather than trains or aircraft. Horizontal rain being the main feature of the day.

suggests that in the past several days we have seen a variety of causes suggested for the English riots ranging from cuts to single mothers, from social media to welfare dependence, from racism to weak policing from video games to consumerism, from rap music to social exclusion. As of yet nobody knows, research has not been done and anybody who tells you any of the causes is certain is speaking from personal prejudice rather than knowledge and so can be laughed at. So let me suggest some alternative causes, after all I've as much a chance as any other halfwit commentator of being right.

front-paged with a slight edit by afew

One of the most regular questions asked is when did the phone hacking start?  Now the initial story, on which the police had no choice but to act happened in 2005, the reason they acted was that the one group of people more important and with more influence than the Murdochs is the Royal Family. Since then we've been staggering between the police not examining, and a very narrow group of politicians and newspapers holding the investigation together. The recent cases have pushed the boundary of when things began first to 2003 and then to 2002, but how far back does it actually go?

news coming in of a huge explosion at the building housing the prime ministers office in Oslo

Picture here

Reports of injuries, this doesn't look good.

[UPDATE 23 July by afew] As many as 80 young members of the Labour Party were shot dead on an island where they were holding a summer congress by a man posing as police sent to guarantee security after the bomb attack. A man of 32 was arrested last night. An extreme-right anti-Islamic nationalist, his name, according to leaks, is Anders Behring Breivik. The bombing, in which 7 died, is suspected to be also his work.

Today looks like being a big day in the Murdoch Investigation. First up we have a selection of Police members and retirees, before the home affairs committee, then we have the two Murdochs and Brooks before the Culture Media and sport committee.

so here's somewhere to place comments and  other things about todays circus.

In the past few months we have seen a sudden return to prominence of the News International phone hacking scandal after the New York Times published a magazine article.  This isn't the first time that this story has hit the streets in the UK and here's a brief rundown of the history up to the state of play roughly a month ago.  (I've been promising this for ages, but there have been things constantly getting in the way, by which time entire re-writes have been needed through new information have the first part of it.)

The other Day, Dr John Reid stood on stage with David Cameron and in the middle of his speech made an utterly false claim. Now that may be par for the course with politicians, especially during the current AV debate where honesty has been particularly lacking, but for once it was provably false.

Earthquake/Tsunami news appears to be all that exists tonight.So to save overwhelming every other diary, here's your single stop for everything related.

Massive quake unleashes tsunami on Japan

A massive 8.9-magnitude earthquake hit Japan on Friday, unleashing a monster 10-metre high tsunami that sent ships crashing into the shore and carried cars through the streets of coastal towns.

Many injuries were reported from Pacific coastal areas of the main Honshu island and the capital Tokyo, police said, while TV footage showed widespread flooding in the area. One person was confirmed dead.

A powerful 10-metre (33 feet) wall of water was reported in Sendai in northeastern Miyagi prefecture, media reported after a four-metre wave hit the coast earlier.

Helicopter footage showed massive inundation in northern coastal towns, where floods of black water sent shipping containers, cars and debris crashing through towns.

Mud waves were shown racing upstream along the Natori river in Sendai city, blanketing farm fields.

This Friday appears quite intense in the middle east, reports are coming in from several countries of clashes  So here's a place to drop general stories

Having seen Helens description of the impending visit to the local office,  I decided to throw up something that has been kicking around for the last few days, half completed,  showing the mind numbing problems of dealing with the UK social security system. This is my last couple of weeks  of paperwork and phone calls.

So you have broken glasses, Normally not a disaster, but frequently a major expense.  But how does that go when you're in receipt of benefits?

Today this has been posted on Twitter. (order reversed  to make readable)

Gaijin San (Gaijinsan21) on Twitter

clears throat steps up on to soapbox

A lot of what is going on this week, Aung San Suu Kyi, #twitterjoketrial, @baskers, all comes down to one thing. Freedom of speech.

Now we have members of the London Assembly saying they will suspend the right to protest because they can't afford to police it.

So I just wanted to say this. My name is David Wales. That doesn't mean a thing to any one of you.

My name is Gaijin-san. I have a right to freedom of speech. It is not a gift you may revoke if you find it inconvenient or costly.

It is my right and it is guaranteed to me by Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights. It therefore supersedes your authority.

I will not use disclaimers. Article 10 does not require that I use disclaimers.

I will not tell you when I am making a joke. Article 10 does not require that I tell you when I am making a joke.

I will not moderate my language. FUCK THAT SHIT. Article 10 does not require that I moderate my language.

I will not be intimidated out of my rights by poor application of the law. Article 10 protects me from poor application of the law.

I will not allow you to propagate bullshit about terrorism to keep me scared. I will use my Article 10 rights to inform myself and others.

Freedom of expression is my right, guaranteed to me by Article 10. If you want it you can take it from my cold dead hands.

But if you try, remember #IAmSpartacus. Because my name is Legion, and I am many.

And so the Coalitions Comprehensive Spending Revue has arrived, with all the subtlety of a Viking longboat, burning and looting the social provision in the UK. The greedy and stupid have been put in charge and the lacklustre and ineffectual are providing cover. Johann Hari in his article today has hit the nail right on the head.

Johann Hari

Margaret Thatcher is lying sick in a private hospital bed in Belgravia - but her political children have just pushed her agenda further and harder and deeper than she ever dreamed of. When was the last time Britain's public spending was slashed by more than 20 percent? Not in my mother's lifetime. Not even in my grandmother's lifetime. No: it was in 1918, when a Conservative-Liberal coalition said the best response to a global economic crisis was to rapidly pay off this country's debts. The result? Unemployment soared from 6 percent to 19 percent, and the country's economy collapsed so severely that they lost all ability to pay their bills and the debt actually rose from 114 percent to 180 percent. "History doesn't repeat itself," Mark Twain said, "but it does rhyme."

George Osborne has just gambled your future on an extreme economic theory that has failed whenever and wherever it has been tried.

The cuts are a shopping list of the morally indefensible and stupid of which the worst is possibly the decision to time limit payments to those suffering from illness. Friends who are suffering from depression have been driven into panic, they knew it was going to be bad, but are now seeing that it appears that they are being blamed for the financial problems of the country. The Comprehensive Spending Review also announced that residents in care homes will no longer be eligible for the High Rate Mobility component of Disability Living Allowance meaning the most disabled people face a far bleaker future and significant loss of independance. Gideon should be whipped through the centre of every town for the unnecessary suffering he's caused to some of the most damaged and desperate members of our society.

Over the last few years  we saw a huge increase in the prescribing of Antidepressants. The theory is that the downturn has caused a large increase in those effected by depression, and then  a shortage of trained people capable of giving talking based therapies, so GP's chose serotonin inhibitor based antidepressants as an alternative.

Antidepressant use soars as the recession bites | Society | The Observer

Fears the recession is affecting the mental health of the nation appear to be borne out by new figures that show prescriptions of antidepressants are soaring.

Last year in England there were 2.1m more prescriptions of antidepressants than in 2007, leading to concerns that doctors are increasingly supplying the drugs as a "quick fix" without attempting to address the underlying cause of the problems. In total, 36m prescriptions were given out, an increase of 24% over the past five years.

Call for judge investigating torture claims to resign - Home News, UK - The Independent

The former judge heading the inquiry into Britain's complicity in torture faces calls for his resignation.

In a letter copied to the Prime Minister, Reprieve has requested that Sir Peter Gibson step aside as his impartiality is fatally compromised.

We have had various comments on here, mainly from Helen displaying a degree of justifiable cynicism about the  current inquiry. Now according to the Independent we have reports of Reprieve the charity dealing with US prisoners has written a letter to The Judge involved and Cameron, Clegg, and Hague requesting that he steps down

'Big brother' traffic cameras must be regulated, orders home secretary | UK news | The Guardian

The home secretary, Theresa May, has ordered that a national police camera network that logs more than 10m movements of motorists every day be placed under statutory regulation.

Her decision means that a "Big Brother" police database that currently holds a mammoth 7.6bn records of the movement of motorists using more than 4,000 cameras across the country will have to be operated with proper accountability and safeguards.

Each entry on the database includes the numberplate, location, date, time and a photograph of the front of the car, which may include images of the driver and any passengers. These details are routinely held for two years.

So let me get this straight, The good old British police have been recording the movement of citizens for the past several years, then combining it on a large database, without ant legal authority.

The first detail of the up and coming austerity plans of the Tory government was released in the recent budget, Later this week further details on the attack on benefit claimants will be released by the Department of Work and pensions. The detail that immediately caught my eye in the initial announcement was the cuts to Housing benefit

BBC News - Budget: Housing benefit to be capped

Housing benefit payments are to be limited to £280 a week for a flat and £400 a week for a house.

The chancellor said the new caps were needed because the cost of the payments had risen 50% to £21bn in 10 years.

He said some families were receiving £104,000 a year in housing benefit and that certain awards would be reduced.

Other reforms planned included re-setting and restricting local housing allowances and re-adjusting support for mortgage interest payments.

So what are the implications of this? Well the governments claim is that this will cut the Housing benefit bill by £1.8 billion out of £21 billion an 8.6% cut into the money going to pay rent to those most in need.

A Sustainability think tank has put out a report on  population growth

Think tank urges debate on rising population - Yahoo! News UK

Britain's rising population poses a long-term threat to living standards and politicians need to begin examining how the country will cope, according to a report by think tank Forum for the Future. Skip related content

The report said the population had grown faster this decade than at any time since the 1960s as a result of increases in immigration, higher birth rates and increased life expectancy.

The Office of National Statistics (ONS) projects the country's population, currently at 61 million, will increase by 10 million by 2033, the fastest rate of increase since a post-war boom more than 50 years ago.

"Population as a discussion topic is off-limits for most UK politicians," said the report, titled "Growing pains: population and sustainability in the UK."

"Debate about how to manage any growth in the UK population is worryingly absent. Sex is used to promote consumption, selling everything from motorcars to magazines, but there is no 'health warning' about the possible consequences to the individuals involved or the planet of irresponsible procreation."