Taking photos of police officers could be considered a crime
The British Journal of Photography
January 30, 2009
Set to become law on 16 February, the Counter-Terrorism Act 2008 amends the Terrorism Act 2000 regarding offences relating to information about members of armed forces, a member of the intelligence services, or a police officer.
The new set of rules, under section 76 of the 2008 Act and section 58A of the 2000 Act, will target anyone who ‘elicits or attempts to elicit information about [members of armed forces] … which is of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism’.
A person found guilty of this offence could be liable to imprisonment for up to 10 years, and to a fine.
The law is expected to increase the anti-terrorism powers used today by police officers to stop photographers, including press photographers, from taking pictures in public places. ‘Who is to say that police officers won’t abuse these powers,’ asks freelance photographer Justin Tallis, who was threatened by an officer last week.
Tallis, a London-based photographer, was covering the anti-BBC protest on Saturday 24 January when he was approached by a police officer. Tallis had just taken a picture of the officer, who then asked to see the picture. The photographer refused, arguing that, as a press photographer, he had a right to take pictures of police officers.
According to Tallis, the officer then tried to take the camera away. Before giving up, the officer said that Tallis ’shouldn’t have taken that photo, you were intimidating me’. The incident was caught on camera by photojournalist Marc Vallée.
Tallis is a member of the National Union of Journalists and the British Press Photographers’ Association. ‘The incident lasted just 10 seconds, but you don’t expect a police officer to try to pull your camera from your neck,’ Tallis tells BJP.
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Thursday, January 29, 2009
"Facebook Group - Sid The Sniper - No Job Too Small"
"Yeah admittedly Facebook tried to stop a group who were advocating the assasination of some corrupt Bolivian President, but Big Paws want to see how corrupt Facebook are and how much it will take before they close down this group too!!!!!"
Join Now!!! We Need an American to wreck our Peace Process!!!!
Join Now!!! We Need an American to wreck our Peace Process!!!!
"FACEBOOK BANS ASSASSINATION GROUP"
"Well - lets see if we get banned for advertising our mate Sid "
"Ok Conckers - how do they get in contact with Sid The Sniper?"
"Talk to Mat The Cat - he'll let Sid know"
"Mat just reminded me Big Paws..."
"What's that Jason?"
"Sid loves climbing up trees!"
"David Mayer de Rothschild - you've been warned!!!"
"Ok Conckers - how do they get in contact with Sid The Sniper?"
"Talk to Mat The Cat - he'll let Sid know"
"Mat just reminded me Big Paws..."
"What's that Jason?"
"Sid loves climbing up trees!"
"David Mayer de Rothschild - you've been warned!!!"
Friday, January 23, 2009
USAF moves ahead with UAV training plans
The US Air Force (USAF) is making progress with its plan to establish an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) weapons school and specialised career tracks for UAV pilots, according to Lieutenant General Norman Seip, Commander of the 12th Air Force and Air Forces Southern (AFSOUTH). "Over the next five years we'll buy more unmanned vehicles than manned vehicles," the general told reporters on 13 January at a Pentagon briefing
Nice little earners for top Tory team
From The Times
February 3, 2004
Nice little earners for top Tory team
By Greg Hurst, Political Correspondent
MICHAEL HOWARD faced criticism that his MPs lacked commitment yesterday as a union-funded magazine revealed that a third of his frontbench team have paid directorships or consultancies outside Parliament.
Analysis of the Register of Members’ Interests by Labour Research found that 31 of 84 Opposition spokesmen declared outside incomes. Some of those with the most extensive business commitments are in the Opposition economics team, despite the decision by Oliver Letwin, the Shadow Chancellor, to resign two directorships with NM Rothschild, the City investment bank.
David Willetts, the Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, is an economic adviser to the merchant bank Dresdner Kleinwort Benson and chairman of Universal Biosensors.
Howard Flight, the Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, has paid directorships with seven companies, four of them linked to Investec Asset Management.
Mr Flight is also paid as a consultant to the Pep and Isa Managers Association.
Andrew Mitchell, another member of the Tory economics team, has five directorships with Lazard and Co, the investment bank, and is a strategic adviser to Accenture, the management consultancy and services company, for which he receives up to £25,000.
Andrew Tyrie, Shadow Minister for Economic Affairs, is a director of the publicly quoted investment management company BWD Rensburg and the property firm Rugby Estates.
Kevin Brennan, a Labour MP, said: “It becomes very difficult to accept that there is no conflict of interest when people who are supposed to be speaking on behalf of the country from the Opposition front bench have very considerable financial interests in businesses directly affected by their portfolios.”
A Conservative spokesman said: “The Labour Party has got to learn that experience of the real world is what is lacking from Parliament at the moment and having interests outside politics can be a positive thing.”
IT SHOULD BE NOTED THAT OLIVER LETWIN NEVER KEPT HIS PROMISE - IF YOU LOOK AT THE REGISTER OF MPS INTERESTS 2009YOU CAN SEE THAT HE IS STILL A NON EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
February 3, 2004
Nice little earners for top Tory team
By Greg Hurst, Political Correspondent
MICHAEL HOWARD faced criticism that his MPs lacked commitment yesterday as a union-funded magazine revealed that a third of his frontbench team have paid directorships or consultancies outside Parliament.
Analysis of the Register of Members’ Interests by Labour Research found that 31 of 84 Opposition spokesmen declared outside incomes. Some of those with the most extensive business commitments are in the Opposition economics team, despite the decision by Oliver Letwin, the Shadow Chancellor, to resign two directorships with NM Rothschild, the City investment bank.
David Willetts, the Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, is an economic adviser to the merchant bank Dresdner Kleinwort Benson and chairman of Universal Biosensors.
Howard Flight, the Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, has paid directorships with seven companies, four of them linked to Investec Asset Management.
Mr Flight is also paid as a consultant to the Pep and Isa Managers Association.
Andrew Mitchell, another member of the Tory economics team, has five directorships with Lazard and Co, the investment bank, and is a strategic adviser to Accenture, the management consultancy and services company, for which he receives up to £25,000.
Andrew Tyrie, Shadow Minister for Economic Affairs, is a director of the publicly quoted investment management company BWD Rensburg and the property firm Rugby Estates.
Kevin Brennan, a Labour MP, said: “It becomes very difficult to accept that there is no conflict of interest when people who are supposed to be speaking on behalf of the country from the Opposition front bench have very considerable financial interests in businesses directly affected by their portfolios.”
A Conservative spokesman said: “The Labour Party has got to learn that experience of the real world is what is lacking from Parliament at the moment and having interests outside politics can be a positive thing.”
IT SHOULD BE NOTED THAT OLIVER LETWIN NEVER KEPT HIS PROMISE - IF YOU LOOK AT THE REGISTER OF MPS INTERESTS 2009YOU CAN SEE THAT HE IS STILL A NON EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Wednesday, January 07, 2009
Mayer Amschel Rothschild and Prince William:
The early fortunes of the Rothschild family were made through a conjunction of financial intelligence and the wealth of Prince William. In 1785 the Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel died, leaving his immense wealth (largely gained through the loan of Hessian mercenaries,not least to Great Britain during the American Revolution) to the young Prince William. During the Napoleonic wars the Prince saw necessary to have his fortune hidden from Napoleon by using his long standing Jewish friend's home in Frankfurt. This money then saw its way through to Nathan Mayer, (N.M.) in London, where it helped fund the British movements through Portugal and Spain. The interest made from this venture was reaped by the budding Jewish bankers, who used it to swiftly develop their fortune and prestige in Europe and Britain. It was not long before their riches outweighed that of their benefactor, the Prince William of Hesse-Kassel. Taken from: Rothschild family
Friday, January 02, 2009
So Gordon Brown sold the UK gold through Rothschilds Gold Bullion Market
GATHERED around a table in one of the Bank of England’s grand meeting rooms, the select group of Britain’s top gold traders could not believe what they were being told.
Gordon Brown had decided to sell off more than half of the country’s centuries-old gold reserves and the chancellor was intending to announce his plan later that day.
It was May 1999 and the gold price had stagnated for much of the decade. The traders present — including senior executives from at least two big investment banks — warned that Brown, who was not at the meeting, could barely have chosen a worse moment.
In the room, just behind the governor’s main office, they cautioned that gold traditionally moved in decades-long cycles and that the price was likely to increase. They added that even if the sale were to go ahead, the timings and amounts should not be announced, as the gold price would plunge.
“The timing of the decision was ludicrous. We told them you are going to push the gold price down before you sell,” said Peter Fava, then head of precious metal dealing at HSBC who was present at the meeting. “We thought it was a disastrous decision; we couldn’t understand it. We brought up a lot of potential problems at the meeting.”
Martin Stokes, former vice-president at JP Morgan, who was also present, said: “I was surprised they had chosen the auction method. It indicated they did not have a real understanding of the gold market.”
According to other sources, however, Bank of England officials told those present they had “little say” about what was going to happen and that they were “doing what they were told”. This was a decision made by Brown and his inner circle, who appeared uninterested in their expert advice.
Ian Plenderleith, the senior Bank executive hosting the meeting, is nevertheless understood to have compiled a note on the meeting for the Treasury. It is one of several key documents that are thought to disclose the warnings ignored by ministers.
Eight years on, the advice appears even more pertinent.
The price of gold has almost trebled and the loss to the taxpayer has been calculated by one leading firm of accountants at more than £2 billion.
The decision to sell 400 tons of gold is seen in City circles as a financial bungle on the scale of the Tories’ “Black Wednesday” that cost the taxpayer £3.3 billion, according to Treasury estimates.
Taken from: Goldfinger Brown’s £2 billion blunder in the bullion market
Rothschild to pull out of gold market after 200 years
By James Moore
Last Updated: 12:00PM BST 22 Sep 2005
The investment bank that has chaired the London meetings setting the world gold price since 1919 is quitting the market.
NM Rothschild will withdraw from all its commodity trading activities, which also include an oil trading business set up less than two years ago, as part of a strategic review.
The move brings to an end nearly 200 years of tradition. NM Rothschild was founded in London in 1810 by Nathan Mayer Rothschild, who helped finance the Duke of Wellington's army in the Napoleonic wars through gold trading.
The company hosts and chairs twice-daily meetings which effectively set the world's gold price. The meetings are held in a plush chamber in the bank's offices at St Swithin's Lane in the City. The other four firms involved are Deutsche Bank, HSBC, Canada's Scotia Bank and Societe Generale.
During the fixes, telephone lines are kept open to trading rooms where dealers are in touch with customers. Potential price movements are unlimited and the fix has been known to take up to two hours, although it is usually over in a matter of minutes.
The chairmanship of the meetings is likely to be rotated between the four remaining banks in future. Gold industry sources also predicted that the meetings would be replaced by telephone fixing.
NM Rothschild's withdrawal from the gold market is being seen as one of the first major strategic moves by Baron David de Rothschild.
He set in train the strategic review after taking control of the bank from his cousin, Sir Evelyn de Rothschild. Sir Evelyn has been a champion of Rothschild's gold trading although a spokesman for the bank said he understood that Sir Evelyn supported the decision.
The bank's finance director Andrew Didham, who conducted the review, said commodities now accounted for just 2.2pc of Rothschild's operating income from 8.8pc in 1999.
"There is always a sadness that a bit of history is over, but we decided that the commodities business did not really fit with our other businesses," he said.
While the gold price has surged, mining companies have become less interested in hedging and trading volumes have fallen. Observers also said rival banks tended to have better links with the hedge which now make up a sizeable proportion of the market.
Simon Weeks, chairman of the London Bullion Market Association, said: "It is very sad to lose such a long-established member of the gold market but we have lost participants before, such as Credit Suisse, and the market will continue."
Rothschild has yet to decide whether to sell or close its commodities business, which employs 40 people. The company hired a number of senior traders when it set up its oil business in 2003. The price of gold fell by $7 to $402 an ounce yesterday.
Taken from: Rothschild to pull out of gold market after 200 years
Gordon Brown had decided to sell off more than half of the country’s centuries-old gold reserves and the chancellor was intending to announce his plan later that day.
It was May 1999 and the gold price had stagnated for much of the decade. The traders present — including senior executives from at least two big investment banks — warned that Brown, who was not at the meeting, could barely have chosen a worse moment.
In the room, just behind the governor’s main office, they cautioned that gold traditionally moved in decades-long cycles and that the price was likely to increase. They added that even if the sale were to go ahead, the timings and amounts should not be announced, as the gold price would plunge.
“The timing of the decision was ludicrous. We told them you are going to push the gold price down before you sell,” said Peter Fava, then head of precious metal dealing at HSBC who was present at the meeting. “We thought it was a disastrous decision; we couldn’t understand it. We brought up a lot of potential problems at the meeting.”
Martin Stokes, former vice-president at JP Morgan, who was also present, said: “I was surprised they had chosen the auction method. It indicated they did not have a real understanding of the gold market.”
According to other sources, however, Bank of England officials told those present they had “little say” about what was going to happen and that they were “doing what they were told”. This was a decision made by Brown and his inner circle, who appeared uninterested in their expert advice.
Ian Plenderleith, the senior Bank executive hosting the meeting, is nevertheless understood to have compiled a note on the meeting for the Treasury. It is one of several key documents that are thought to disclose the warnings ignored by ministers.
Eight years on, the advice appears even more pertinent.
The price of gold has almost trebled and the loss to the taxpayer has been calculated by one leading firm of accountants at more than £2 billion.
The decision to sell 400 tons of gold is seen in City circles as a financial bungle on the scale of the Tories’ “Black Wednesday” that cost the taxpayer £3.3 billion, according to Treasury estimates.
Taken from: Goldfinger Brown’s £2 billion blunder in the bullion market
Rothschild to pull out of gold market after 200 years
By James Moore
Last Updated: 12:00PM BST 22 Sep 2005
The investment bank that has chaired the London meetings setting the world gold price since 1919 is quitting the market.
NM Rothschild will withdraw from all its commodity trading activities, which also include an oil trading business set up less than two years ago, as part of a strategic review.
The move brings to an end nearly 200 years of tradition. NM Rothschild was founded in London in 1810 by Nathan Mayer Rothschild, who helped finance the Duke of Wellington's army in the Napoleonic wars through gold trading.
The company hosts and chairs twice-daily meetings which effectively set the world's gold price. The meetings are held in a plush chamber in the bank's offices at St Swithin's Lane in the City. The other four firms involved are Deutsche Bank, HSBC, Canada's Scotia Bank and Societe Generale.
During the fixes, telephone lines are kept open to trading rooms where dealers are in touch with customers. Potential price movements are unlimited and the fix has been known to take up to two hours, although it is usually over in a matter of minutes.
The chairmanship of the meetings is likely to be rotated between the four remaining banks in future. Gold industry sources also predicted that the meetings would be replaced by telephone fixing.
NM Rothschild's withdrawal from the gold market is being seen as one of the first major strategic moves by Baron David de Rothschild.
He set in train the strategic review after taking control of the bank from his cousin, Sir Evelyn de Rothschild. Sir Evelyn has been a champion of Rothschild's gold trading although a spokesman for the bank said he understood that Sir Evelyn supported the decision.
The bank's finance director Andrew Didham, who conducted the review, said commodities now accounted for just 2.2pc of Rothschild's operating income from 8.8pc in 1999.
"There is always a sadness that a bit of history is over, but we decided that the commodities business did not really fit with our other businesses," he said.
While the gold price has surged, mining companies have become less interested in hedging and trading volumes have fallen. Observers also said rival banks tended to have better links with the hedge which now make up a sizeable proportion of the market.
Simon Weeks, chairman of the London Bullion Market Association, said: "It is very sad to lose such a long-established member of the gold market but we have lost participants before, such as Credit Suisse, and the market will continue."
Rothschild has yet to decide whether to sell or close its commodities business, which employs 40 people. The company hired a number of senior traders when it set up its oil business in 2003. The price of gold fell by $7 to $402 an ounce yesterday.
Taken from: Rothschild to pull out of gold market after 200 years
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