Sequin Ties - Sequins what an invention

If your wondering where to buy a sequin tie, look no further. Caprilite UK is glad to present our sequin skinny tie range suitable for men and women, available in a range of colours.Sequins - a great invention for fashion. Light reflecting, blinging, glitzy showbiz look.  Most popular colours black sequin ties and silver sequin ties, I guess they go with everything. Bold colours in red purple gold and blue if you want to stand out. These sequin ties are popular all over the world, we've even had someone buy them from our shop as a gift to John and Edward (Jedward), I haven't managed to find a pic of it but if you see them wearing a sequin tie it is probably from us.

Available at Caprilite UK

Millinery Courses in London

A milliner is a hat or fascinator maker, millinery is the trade or profession of a milliner. Millinery is an art form in itself dating back to ancient times. These days millinery is a classy skill, usually creating unique one-off items that are sold at high prices. They deserve to be bought at a high price because the product of a milliner is like a piece of art.

There are various millinery courses around, as I'm based in London I've done a bit of research on what millinery courses are available. It's a skill that may or may not lead you into a long lasting job/career (depending on your skill, contacts and business sense), but it is popular enough for artistic fashion minds to have a dabble,most people just enjoymaking their own fascinator hat when attending a wedding or the Royal Ascot.

Here's my list which will be updated as I find more:

1) Rose Cory Millinery Course 

This lady used to be the milliner for the late Queen Mother, if that doesn't convince you of her skills then I don't know what will. She seems to do courses all year round and comes top in a google search so her course must be popular. Rose Cory does 5 day millinery courses, price only available on request if you contact by phone or e-mail, course times are from 3:00 to 10:00 held in South East London at:

Shrewsbury House
Bushmoor Crescent
London SE18 3EG

More details can be found on her website - http://www.rosecory.co.uk/

2) Kensington and Chelsea College

http://www.kcc.ac.uk/fashion-and-millinery/

They do various courses and you'll end up with a qualification at the end of it from BTEC to a Higher Diploma. This college also has great links with the fashion and retail industry with some top students exhibiting there fascinators for sale at Fenwick. Location of the course idea if you are in South West London, but should be easily commutable.

3) London College of Fashion

http://www.fashion.arts.ac.uk/shortcourses/by-subject/millinery/millinery-3/

The London college of fashion is called that for nothing, they cater for all sorts of fashion courses and no doubt has our favourite subject of fascinators and millinery.

Please let me know if anyone knows of more reputable courses available as I want to make a list that everyone can reference.

Gothic Red and Black Fascinator Corsage - Moulin Rouge

Caprilite are proud to announce new colours to our feathered flower fascinator corsage. These combined colours are fuller, bigger and more beautiful than our single colour range. They are custom made by our milliner to ensure quality and the most beautiful product that we can provide.

To showcase our new range let's start of with our Moulin Rouge Gothic Red and Black corsage fascinator corsage, this will suit all kinds of saucy outfits, this is a Caprilite only design, so if you see it anywhere else they have copied us.

How To Blog Anonymously (and how not to)

Dr Brooke Magnanti tenderly fondling a fine malt

This is an unusual post for me in that it is not my own but rather the content below is that of Dr. Brooke Magnanti, a research scientist and writer sometimes known as Belle de Jour, from her blog of her time as a sex-worker in London. She is an incisive character and her Blog 

http://sexonomics-uk.blogspot.co.uk 

is always worth catching debunking as it does many myths of our civilisation, well OK then, mainly the Media and sound bite prone politicians. Her Blog is on the Blogroll on my Blog sidebar and I have previously written in support of her.

http://daithaic.blogspot.co.uk/2009/11/belle-de-jour.html

The reason Brooke has requested a re-blog of this content is her blog is ported on Blogspot, owned by Google and was temporarily taken down because the received a DMCA complaint. This bit of jargon stands for the Digital Media Copyright Act passed in the USA in 2006 whose original aim was to protect copyright holders. However in practice (and I have had a similar experience of DMCA to Dr. Magnanti) it is frequently used by cranks to harass blogs and bloggers they don’t like because the platforms fall over themselves to demonstrate compliance once they receive a complaint so they won’t be vicariously liable for any claims. Also Google don’t comply with their obligations to the Blogger by sending details of the complaint and complainant to you as they are required to by law and their rebuttal procedure is not transparent or quick. Brooke’s original (and much accessed article) is based on her own direct experience and is here, although she is moving her Blog to a UK platform later in the week to avoid this harassment.

http://sexonomics-uk.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/how-to-blog-anonymously-and-how-not-to.html

Further to yesterday's post, this is a list of thoughts prompted by a request from Linkmachinego on the topic of being an anonymous writer and blogger. Maybe not exactly a how-to (since the outcome is not guaranteed) as a post on things I did, things I should have done, and things I learned.

It's not up to me to decide if you "deserve" to be anonymous. My feeling is, if you're starting out as a writer and do not yet feel comfortable writing under your own name, that is your business and not mine. I also think sex workers should consider starting from a position of anonymity and decide later if they want to be out, please don't be naive. Statistics I made up right now show 99 out of 100 people who claim 'if you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear' are talking out of their arses.

The items in the list fall into three general categories: internet-based, legal and real-world tips, and interpersonal. Many straddle more than one of these categories. All three are important.

This is written for a general audience because most people who blog now do not have extensive technical knowledge, they just want to write and be read. That's a good thing by the way. If you already know all of this, then great, but many people won't. Don't be sneery about their lack of prior knowledge. Bringing everyone up to speed on the technology is not the goal: clear steps you can use to help protect your identity from being discovered are.

Disclaimer: I'm no longer anonymous so these steps are clearly not airtight. Also there are other sources of information on the Web, some of which are more comprehensive and more current than my advice. I accept no responsibility for any outcome of following this advice. Please don't use it to do illegal or highly sensitive things. Also please don't use pseudonyms to be a dick.

This is also a work in progress. As I remember things or particular details, I'll amend this post. If you have suggestions of things that should be added, let me know.

1. Don't use Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail et al. for your mail.

You will need an email address to do things like register for blog accounts, Facebook, Twitter, and more. This email will have to be something entirely separate from your "real" email addresses. There are a lot of free options out there, but be aware that sending an email from many of them also sends information in the headers that could help identify you.

When I started blogging, I set up an email address for the blog with Hotmail. Don't do this. Someone quickly pointed out the headers revealed where I worked (a very large place with lots of people and even more computers, but still more information than I was comfortable with). They suggested I use Hushmail instead, which I still use. Hushmail has a free option (though the inbox allocation is modest), strips out headers, and worked for me.

A caveat with this: if you are, say, a sex worker working in a place where that is not legal and using Hushmail, you could be vulnerable to them handing over your details to a third party investigating crimes. If you're handling information some governments might consider embarrassing or sensitive, same. Google some alternatives: you're looking for something secure and encrypted.

There are a few common-sense tips you can follow to make it even safer. If you have to bring people you know in real life in on the secret, don't use this email address for communicating with them even if only about matters related to your secret (and don't use your existing addresses for that either). Example: I have one address for press and general interactions, one for things related to my accountant and money, and one for communicating with my agent, publisher, and solicitor. I've also closed and opened new accounts over the years when it seems "too many" people are getting hold of a particular address. Use different passwords for each, don't make these passwords related to your personal information, and so on.

I unwisely left the Hotmail address going, and while I did not use it to send mail, I continued to read things that arrived there. That led to this failed attempt by the Sunday Times to out me. It was an easily dodged attempt but something I would have preferred to avoid.

Over the years I have had about two email account changes every year and have changed my mobile number five times (eventually, I just stopped having one). If you change email addresses it's a good idea to send people you need to stay in contact with a mail from the old and the new address so they know it's not someone else trying to impersonate you. And to have a password so you know the response is from the right person - a password you did not exchange via an email conversation, of course. Example: you might send an email to your editor from old_address@somedomain.com and from new_address@somedomain.com at the same time, and the one from new address contains Codeword1. They respond with Codeword2, indicating they acknowledge the change.

It sounds silly, but people can and do scam personal info all the time. Often they do so by pretending to be in on a secret so someone reveals something they did not mean to say. Play it safe. It can feel a stupidly cloak-and-dagger at first, but you soon get over it.

You can register internet domains while staying anonymous but I never did. Some people registered domains for me (people I didn't know in person). This led to a couple of instances of them receiving harassment when the press suspected they were me. In particular Ian Shircore got a bit of unwanted attention this way.

Because all I was ever doing was a straight-up blog, not having a registered domain that I had control over was fine. Your needs may be different. I am not a good source for advice on how to do that. But just in case you might be thinking "who would bother looking there?" read about how faux escort Alexa DiCarlo was unmasked. This is what happens when you don't cover your tracks.

Not Dr. Brooke Magnanti

2. Don't use a home internet connection, work internet connection, etc.

Email won't be the only way you might want to communicate with people. You may also want to leave comments on other blogs and so forth. Doing this and other ways of using the Web potentially exposes your IP address, which could be unique and be used to locate you.

Even if you don't leave comments just visiting a site can leave traces behind. Tim Ireland recently used a simple method to confirm his suspicion of who the "Tabloid Troll" twitter account belonged to. By comparing the IP address of someone who clicked on to a link going to the Bloggerheads site with the IP address of an email Dennis Rice sent, a link was made. If you go to the trouble of not using your own connection, also make sure you're not using the same connection for different identities just minutes apart. Don't mix the streams.

The timing of everything as it happened was key to why the papers did not immediately find out who I was. The old blog started in 2003, when most press still had to explain to their audience what a blog actually was. It took a while for people to notice the writing, so the mistakes I made early on (blogging from home and work, using Hotmail) had long been corrected by the time the press became interested.

Today, no writer who aims to stay anonymous should ever assume a grace period like that. It also helped that once the press did become interested, they were so convinced not only that Belle was not really a hooker but also that she was one of their own - a previously published author or even journalist - that they never looked in the right place. If they'd just gone to a London blogmeet and asked a few questions about who had pissed off a lot of people and was fairly promiscuous, they'd have had a plausible shortlist in minutes.

After I moved from Kilburn to Putney, I was no longer using a home internet connection - something I should have done right from the beginning. I started to use internet cafes for posting and other activities as Belle. This offers some security... but be wary of using these places too often if there is a reason to think someone is actively looking for you. It's not perfect.

Also be wary if you are using a laptop or other machine provided by your workplace, or use your own laptop to log in to work servers ("work remotely"). I've not been in that situation and am not in any way an expert on VPNs, but you may want to start reading about it here and do some googling for starters. As a general principle, it's probably wise not to do anything on a work laptop that could get you fired, and don't do anything that could get you fired while also connected to work remotely on your own machine.

3. There is software available that can mask your IP address. There are helpful add-ons that can block tracking software.

I didn't use this when I was anonymous, but if I was starting as an anonymous blogger now, I would download Tor and browse the Web and check email through their tools. If you do use Tor or other software to mask your IP address, don't then go on tweeting about where your IP address is coming from today! I've seen people do this. Discretion fail.

I also use Ghostery now to block certain tracking scripts from web pages. You will want to look into something similar. Also useful are Adblocker, pop-up blockers, things like that. They are simple to download and use and you might like to use them anyway even if you're not an anonymous blogger. A lot of sites track your movements and you clearly don't want that.

4. Take the usual at-home precautions.

Is your computer password-protected with a password only you know? Do you clear your browser history regularly? Use different passwords for different accounts? Threats to anonymity can come from people close to you. Log out of your blog and email accounts when you're finished using them, every time. Have a secure and remote backup of your writing. Buy a shredder and use it. Standard stuff.

Sometimes the files you send can reveal things about yourself, your computer, and so on. When sending manuscripts to my agent and editor, they were usually sent chapter by chapter as flat text files - not Word documents - with identifying data stripped. The usual method I used to get things to them was to upload to a free service that didn't require a login, such as Sendspace. When writing articles for magaznes and papers, the text was typically appended straight into the body of the email, again avoiding attachments with potentially identifying information. This can be a little irritating... having to archive your writing separately, not altogether convenient to work on. But for the way I worked, usually not sharing content with editors until it was close to the final draft, it was fine.

When exchanging emails with my agent and editor, we never talked about actual meeting times and locations and threw a few decoy statements in, just in case. Since it has been recently revealed that Times journalists were trying to hack bloggers' email addresses after all, in retrospect, this seems to have been a good thing. Another thing I would do is install a keystroke logger on your own machine. By doing this I found out in 2004 that someone close to me was spying on me when they were left alone with my computer. In retrospect what I did about it was not the right approach. See also item 7.

5. Be careful what you post.

Are you posting photos? Exif data can tell people, among other things, where and when a picture was taken, what it was taken with, and more. I never had call to use it because I never posted photos or sound, but am told there are loads of tools that can wipe this Exif data from your pictures (here's one). The content of what you post can be a giveaway as well. Are you linking to people you know in real life? Are you making in-jokes or references to things only a small group of people will know about? Don't do that.

If possible, cover your tracks. Do you have a previous blog under a known name? Are you a contributor to forums where your preferred content and writing style are well-known? Can you edit or delete these things? Good, do that.

Personally, I did not delete everything. Partly this was because the world of British weblogging was so small at the time - a few hundred popular users, maybe a couple thousand people blogging tops? - that I thought the sudden disappearance of my old blog coinciding with the appearance of an unrelated new one might be too much of a coincidence. But I did let the old site go quiet for a bit before deleting it, and edited archived entries.

Keep in mind however that The Wayback Machine means everything you have written on the web that has been indexed still exists. And it's searchable. Someone who already has half an idea where to start looking for you won't have too much trouble finding your writing history. (UPDATE: someone alerted me that it's possible to get your own sites off Wayback by altering the robots.txt file - and even prevent them appearing there in the first place - and to make a formal request for removal using reasons listed here. This does not seem to apply to sites you personally have no control over unless copyright issues are involved.) If you can put one more step between them and you... do it.

6. Resist temptation to let too many people in.

If your writing goes well, people may want to meet you. They could want to buy you drinks, give you free tickets to an opening. Don't say yes. While most people are honest in their intentions, some are not. And even the ones who are may not have taken the security you have to keep your details safe. Remember, no one is as interested in protecting your anonymity as you will be. Friends and family were almost all unaware of my secret - both the sex work and the writing. Even my best friend (A4 from the books) didn't know. 

I met very few people "as" Belle. There were some who had to meet me: agent, accountant, editor. I never went to the Orion offices until after my identity became known. I met Billie Piper, Lucy Prebble, and a couple of writers during the pre-production of Secret Diary at someone's house, but met almost no one else involved with the show. Paul Duane and Avril MacRory met me and were absolutely discreet. I went to the agent's office a few times but never made an appointment as Belle or in my real name. Most of the staff there had no idea who I was. Of these people who did meet me almost none knew my real name, where I lived, where I was from, my occupation. Only one (the accountant) knew all of that - explained below under point 9. And if I could have gotten away with him never seeing a copy of my passport, I damn well would have done.

The idea was that if people don't know anything they can't inadvertently give it away. I know that all of the people listed above were absolutely trustworthy. I still didn't tell them anything a journalist would have considered useful. When I started blogging someone once commented that my blog was a "missed opportunity" because it didn't link to an agency website or any way of booking my services. Well, duh. I didn't want clients to meet me through the blog! If you are a sex worker who wants to preserve a level of pseudonymity and link your public profile to your work, Amanda Brooks has the advice you need. Not me.

Other sources like JJ Luna write about how to do things like get and use credit cards not tied to your name and address. I've heard Entropay offer 'virtual' credit cards that are not tied to your credit history, although they can't be used with any system that requires address verification. This could be useful even for people who are not involved in sex work. Resisting temptation sometimes means turning down something you'd really like to do. The short-term gain of giving up details for a writing prize or some immediate work may not be worth the long-term loss of privacy. I heard about one formerly anonymous blogger who was outed after giving their full name and address to a journalist who asked for it when they entered a competition. File under: how not to stay anonymous.

7. Trust your intuition.

I have to be careful what I say here. In short, my identity became known to a tabloid paper and someone whom I had good reason not to trust (see item 4) gave them a lot of information about me.

When your intuition tells you not to trust someone, LISTEN TO IT. The best security in the world fails if someone props open a door, leaves a letter on the table, or mentally overrides the concern that someone who betrayed you before could do so again. People you don't trust should be ejected from your life firmly and without compromise. A "let them down easy" approach only prolongs any revenge they might carry out and probably makes it worse. The irony is that as a call girl I relied on intuition and having strong personal boundaries all the time... but failed to carry that ability over into my private life. If there is one thing in my life I regret, the failure to act on my intuition is it.

As an aside if you have not read The Gift of Fear already, get it and read it.

See also point 9: if and when you need people to help you keep the secret don't make it people already involved in your private life. Relationships can cloud good judgement in business decisions. There is a very droll saying "Two people can keep a secret if one of them is dead." It's not wrong. I know, I know.

Paranoid. Hard not to be when journos a few years later are digging through the rubbish of folks who met you exactly once when you were sixteen. Them's the breaks.

8. Consider the consequences of success.

If you find yourself being offered book deals or similar, think it through. Simply by publishing anonymously you will become a target. Some people assume all anonymous writers "want" to be found, and the media in particular will jump through some very interesting hurdles to "prove" anything they write about you is in the public interest.

In particular, if you are a sex worker, and especially if you are a sex worker who is visible/bookable through your site, please give careful consideration to moving out of that sphere. Even where sex for money is legal it is still a very stigmatised activity. There are a number of people who do not seem to have realised this, and the loss of a career when they left the "sex-pos" bubble was probably something of a shock. I'm not saying don't do it - but please think long and hard about the potential this has to change your life and whether you are fully prepared to be identified this way forever. For every Diablo Cody there are probably dozens of Melissa Petros. For every Melissa Petro there are probably hundreds more people with a sex industry past who get quietly fired and we don't ever hear from them.

If I knew going in to the first book deal what would happen, I probably would have said no. I'm glad I didn't by the way - but realistically, my life was stressful enough at that point and I did not fully understand what publishing would add to that. Not many bloggers had mainstream books at that point (arguably none in the UK) so I didn't have anyone else's experience to rely on. I really had no idea about what was going to happen. The things people wrote about me then were mainly untrue and usually horrendous. Not a lot has changed even now. I'd be lying if I said that didn't have an emotional effect.

Writing anonymously and being outed has happened often enough that people going into it should consider the consequences. I'm not saying don't do it if you risk something, but be honest with yourself about the worst possible outcome and whether you would be okay with that.

9.  Enlist professional help to get paid and sign contracts.

Having decided to write a book, I needed an agent. The irony of being anonymous was that while I let as few people in on it as possible, at some point I was going to have to take a leap of faith and let in more. Mil Millington emailed me to recommend Patrick Walsh, saying he was one of the few people in London who can be trusted. Mil was right.

Patrick put me on to my accountant (who had experience of clients with, shall we say, unusual sources of income). From there we cooked up a plan so that contracts could be signed without my name ever gracing a piece of paper. Asking someone to keep a secret when there's a paper trail sounds like it should be possible but rarely is. Don't kid yourself, there is no such thing as a unbreakable confidentiality agreement. Asking journalists and reviewers to sign one about your book is like waving a red rag to a bull. What we needed was a few buffers between me and the press. With Patrick and Michael acting as directors, a company was set up - Bizrealm. I was not on the paperwork as a director so my name never went on file with Companies House. Rather, with the others acting as directors, signing necessary paperwork, etc., Patrick held a share in trust for me off of which dividends were drawn and this is how I got paid. I may have got some of these details wrong, by the way - keep in mind, I don't deal with Bizrealm's day-to-day at all.

There are drawbacks to doing things this way: you pay for someone's time, in this case the accountant, to create and administer the company. You cannot avoid tax and lots of it. (Granted, drawing dividends is more tax-efficient, but still.) You have to trust a couple of people ABSOLUTELY. I'd underline this a thousand times if I could. Michael for instance is the one person who always knew, and continues to know, everything about my financial and personal affairs. Even Patrick doesn't know everything.

There are benefits though, as well. Because the money stays mainly in the company and is not paid to me, it gets eked out over time, making tax bills manageable, investment more constant, and keeping me from the temptation to go mad and spend it.

I can't stress enough that you might trust your friends and family to the ends of the earth, but they should not be the people who do this for you. Firstly, because they can be traced to you (they know you in a non-professional way). Secondly, because this is a very stressful setup and you need the people handling it to be on the ball. As great as friends and family are that is probably not the kind of stress you want to add to your relationship. I have heard far too many stories of sex workers and others being betrayed by ex-partners who knew the details of their business dealings to ever think that's a good idea.

So how do you know you can trust these people? We've all heard stories of musicians and other artists getting ripped off by management, right? All I can say is instinct. It would not have been in Patrick's interest to grass me, since as my agent he took a portion of my earnings anyway and therefore had financial as well as personal interest in protecting that. If he betrayed me he would also have suffered a loss of reputation that potentially outweighed any gain. Also, as most people who know him will agree, he's a really nice and sane human being. Same with Michael.

If this setup sounds weirdly paranoid, let me assure you that journalists absolutely did go to Michael's office and ask to see the Bizrealm paperwork, and Patrick absolutely did have people going through his bins, trying to infiltrate his office as interns, and so on. Without the protection of being a silent partner in the company those attempts to uncover me might have worked.

I communicate with some writers and would-be writers who do not seem to have agents. If you are serious about writing, and if you are serious about staying anonymous, get an agent. Shop around, follow your instinct, and make sure it's someone you can trust. Don't be afraid to dump an agent, lawyer, or anyone else if you don't trust them utterly. They're professionals and shouldn't take it personally.

10. Don't break the (tax) law.

Journalists being interested in your identity is one thing. What you really don't want are the police or worse, the tax man, after you. Pay your taxes and try not to break the law if it can be helped. If you're a sex worker blogging about it, get an accountant who has worked with sex workers before - this is applicable even if you live somewhere sex work is not strictly legal. Remember, Al Capone went down for tax evasion. Don't be like Al. If you are a non-sex-work blogger who is earning money from clickthroughs and affiliates on your site, declare this income. In summer 2010 the HMRC started a serious fraud investigation of me. It has been almost two years and is only just wrapping up, with the Revenue finally satisfied that not only did I declare (and possibly over declare) my income as a call girl, but that there were no other sources of income hidden from them. They have turned my life and financial history upside down to discover next to nothing new about me. This has been an expensive and tedious process. I can't even imagine what it would have been like had I not filed the relevant forms, paid the appropriate taxes, and most of all had an accountant to deal with them!

Bottom line, you may be smart - I'm pretty good with numbers myself - but people whose job it is to know about tax law, negotiating contracts, and so on will be better at that than you are. Let them do it. They are worth every penny.

11. Do interviews with care.

Early interviews were all conducted one of two ways: over email (encrypted) or over an IRC chatroom from an anonymising server (I used xs4all). This was not ideal from their point of view, and I had to coach a lot of people in IRC which most of them had never heard of. But again, it's worth it, since no one in the press will be as interested in protecting your identity as you are. I hope it goes without saying, don't give out your phone number.

12. Know when les jeux sont faits.

In November 2009 - 6 years after I first started blogging anonymously - my identity was revealed. As has been documented elsewhere, I had a few heads-ups that something was coming, that it was not going to be nice, and that it was not going to go away. We did what we could to put off the inevitable but it became clear I only had one of two choices: let the Mail on Sunday have first crack at running their sordid little tales, or pre-empt them.

While going to the Sunday Times - the same paper that had forcibly outed Zoe Margolis a few years earlier, tried to get my details through that old Hotmail address, and incorrectly fingered Sarah Champion as me - was perhaps not the most sensitive choice, it was for me the right move. Patrick recommended that we contact an interviewer who had not been a Belle-believer: if things were going to be hard, best get that out of the way up front.

So that is that. It's a bit odd how quickly things have changed. When I started blogging I little imagined I would be writing books, much less something like this. Being a kind of elder statesman of blogging (or cantankerous old grump if you prefer) is not an entirely comfortable position and one that is still new to me.

But it is also interesting to note how little has changed: things that worked in the early 2000s have value today. The field expanded rapidly but the technology has not yet changed all that much.

As before, these ideas do not constitute a fool proof way to protect your identity. All writers - whether writing under their own names or not - should be aware of the risks they may incur by hitting 'publish'. I hope this post at least goes some way to making people think about how they might be identified, and starts them on a path of taking necessary (and in many cases straightforward) precautions, should they choose to be anonymous.

An innocent man walks?

The face of innocence - PC Simon Harwood, a member of London's Finest

The innocent man who didn't walk was Ian Tomlinson, an alcoholic and occasional rough sleeper who held down a part time job as a newspaper vendor in the City of London. He was wearily minding his own business trying to wend his way home through police lines during protests at the G20 Summit in London on 1^st April 2009 when he his hit with a baton by PC Simon Harwood when he was walking away from the police and engaging in no threatening behaviour. He collapses in the street and dies. Days later on the fourth April the Metropolitan Police issue a statement saying the post-mortem examination shows he died of "natural causes."

PC Simon Harwood, 45, of south London, denied the manslaughter, in April 2009, of Mr Tomlinson, 47, on the grounds that he used reasonable force. Last year a Coroner’s Inquest ruled that Ian Tomlinson had been unlawfully killed by PC Harwood and his death (caused by haemorrhaging of his diseased liver and a heart attack of his diseased heart) was as a direct result of the Police assault.

Ian Tomlinson being helped by a member of the public just after he was assaulted

by PC Simon Harwood circled in the background. Police initially claimed they went to 

his assistance when he became ill and they had no previous contact with him

PC Simon Harwood who hit Ian Tomlinson with a baton and pushed him to the ground at the G20 protests has today been found not guilty of manslaughter. He had previously resigned from the Metropolitan Police (on medical grounds with a full pension as if he had completed 30 years service) to avoid facing serious disciplinary charges on a Friday and was reemployed through the Masonic back door as a civilian on the following Monday as a civilian computer operator. Less than two years later he is appointed as a uniformed PC by Surrey Police (no doubt his Brother Masons helped) and despite his previous record of violence towards a member of the public he rejoins the Met less than a year later joining the TSG (Territorial Support Group). They used to be known as The Riot Squad and who are universally referred to by their colleagues as “The Filth.”

Let us now pause and toy with a remarkable statistic. Despite over 1,000 people dying in police custody or due to police action since the late 1960s PC Simon Harwood is the first police officer to have been (unsuccessfully) charged with manslaughter. Ask yourself the simple question - what is the statistical possibility that these over 1,000 human beings who died in police custody or as a result of police action were all killed lawfully?

Ian Tomlinson being treated by Paramedics - Scotland Yard wrongly claimed 

on their website that police were pelted with rocks and glass as he was being treated 

- They later took down the claim

They include Blair Peach killed (according to the police’s own investigation) by a TSG member at an anti-racism demonstration in 1979, Jean Charles de Menezes shot with 3 bullets in the brain 5 years ago, Sean Rigg and Joy Gardiner who died in police stations and Harry Stanley, 46, from Hackney, East London, was shot in the head and the hand by the Met officers in 1999 carrying a chair leg in a plastic bag which the two officers thought was a sawn-off shot gun.

Let us think how it would have happened if it was the other way around? If a police officer had been assaulted by a protestor and died minutes later. Would there have been “mistakes” in collecting evidence which meant charges were time expired? Would they have waited 16 months to decide not to prosecute?

The police are paid from our taxes to protect us not to kill us. They must operate with our consent and within the Law and they must be held accountable.

For the full details of the assault on Ian Tomlinson and its aftermath see;

http://daithaic.blogspot.co.uk/2010/07/ian-tomlinson.html

For more on Policing issues see "Plod Blogs" in my blog sidebar;

West Garden – Castle Caldwell

The original Castle Caldwell, Co. Fermanagh, Ireland

Hortus Praetorius

There was a time before this year’s Great English Monsoon (aka summer) when the West Garden at Castle Caldwell was a temple to Floribunda. However, the weather this year has been dreadful with June the dullest and wettest on record. Weather forecasts contain the key phrase “a month’s rain will fall in 24 hours” and at the end they broadcast the public service announcement “if you have been affected by the issues in this weather forecast, help is available ………”

Indeed according to Thames Water, our rapacious German owned water company which leaks like Whitehall and has trousered £5 Bn profits from its ill gotten monopoly since privitisation, during this time we have been experiencing a drought. I can only observe more people have died from drowning during this drought than all previous recorded droughts.

In the past, each June the garden would be an explosion of colour as roses bloomed, lilies jumped towards the sky and clematis entwined trellises. It would be filled with fragrance, butterflies greeting the salvia and bees the catmint. Alas, this wet summer and strange winters has made these halcyon days a distant memory.

For the garden as it used to be, see;

http://daithaic.blogspot.co.uk/2008/06/blooming-june.html

After last winter with the warm wet summer and mild winter it all got just impossible having to cut back the growth at the end of the season and we also had a dead tree and very little colour left in the garden. We also had a proliferation of weeds which were getting impossible to control because of the clutter.

Mr Squirrel at Breakfast

The deck and pergola

The pot garden on a pebble base

So I decided on a drastic change, had all the beds cleared out and turfed over. We then constructed two squares at the back of the garden (which gets the sun in the evening) - one a deck and pergola to use as an outdoor dining area and the other a gravelled area centred around the bird table where we have cleared all the pots off the patio and added some extra to make a display. 

We have also put two large bamboos in the corners to frame the view. The bottom line is the only things left planted in the ground is the grass and a single conifer! It is still a work in progress - table and chairs for the deck have still to arrive and grass has still to regrow - it is subject to intensive TLC by the Head Gardener or Hortus Praetorius as he is called at Castle Caldwell.

I have perhaps over- reacted to being fed up with the wilderness that passed for a garden. When we bought the house it was already landscaped and we kept adding things so it got cluttered and there were clematis, roses, honeysuckle on trellises on the fences which made 

them impossible to paint. I cleared off the patio by removing the pots and compost bin (it's now behind the shed) and built the arbour to act as a quiet area to read the paper and installed a water butt (The Great Butt of Castle Caldwell) with an interceptor on the down pipe to save water. As our water supply from said rapacious German owned monopoly is metered I note with some satisfaction it holds the equivalent of 40 watering cans. Out front everything was cleared out leaving only the cherry tree and the border hedge. There is a clean look to it all with plum coloured slate chippings laid over a membrane and just two hardy date palms in rather nice glazed pots to give a structured effect. Other than that there are two box trees by the front door and a hanging basket (actually on a rigid bracket) to give some visual interest and composition.

The front

The patio and arbour with The Great Butt of Castle Caldwell on the left

There you have it, a reduced garden we might actually use (when summer arrives!!!!) which is low maintenance and won't need to be added to or cleared out each year. We will miss our old garden but, as is common in broken relationships, it had stopped speaking to us some time ago. Blooming June is a fond but distant memory.

For more gardening Blogs see “Hortus Praetorius” in our Blog side-bar 

A Walk on Part; The Fall of New Labour

Theatre in London is not all it is made out to be. Firstly the majority of shows are musicals and old reliables aimed squarely at the tourist and corporate entertainment markets. Go to New York and you see the same money spinning shows on Broadway. Secondly the bulk of the 60 odd theatres in Central London are controlled by a small number of companies who have rather quaint and somewhat spivvy attitudes, such as ludicrous booking fees when you use their websites (i.e. they charge you to do their admin for them) and silly discount schemes to maintain high headline ticket prices.

So it is refreshing to see new and innovative drama and as a Labour activist I eagerly looked forward to seeing A Walk on Part; The Fall of New Labour brought to the West End by the ever lively Soho Theatre but performed at the small 350 seat Arts Theatre near Leicester Square. Its subject, Chris Mullin, was well known as a journalist before becoming a Labour MP for his pivotal role in campaigning for the Birmingham Six, who were convicted and imprisoned on false evidence.They were sentenced to life imprisonment in 1975 in England for the Birmingham pub bombings. Their convictions were declared unsafe and unsatisfactory and quashed by the Court of Appeal on 14 March 1991. 

In 1986, Mullin's book, Error of Judgment: The Truth About the Birmingham Pub Bombings, set out a detailed case supporting the men's claims that they were innocent. It included his claim to have met some of those who were actually responsible for the bombings.

Chris Mullin was first elected as a Labour MP in 1987, and was returned at every subsequent election until 2005. He did not seek re-election in 2010. Michael Chaplin’s A Walk on Part dramatises the fall of New Labour as documented by his diaries. It is an insider's view of the last and most turbulent decade in politics; this is a fast, funny and furious theatrical ride based on his critically acclaimed diaries. With a huge host of well-known characters including John Prescott, David Cameron, George Osborne, Tony Benn and Tony Blair.

Tony Blair entering Downing Street as Prime Minister in 1997

Blending gossip, insight and details of the frustrations of ministerial and backbench life alike, the show is excellently performed under Max Roberts's direction. John Hodgkinson, with his awkwardly buttoned-up jacket and air of inquisitive bemusement, admirably captures Mullin's mix of decency and self-doubt. The other 60-odd characters are also evoked with lightning skill by the top class cast in a piece that shows political theatre at its entertaining best and leaves Mullin asking "Was anything done?"

It was an excellent evening’s theatre which kept the audience right there with its wonderful blend of insight and wit. John Hodgkinson plays Chris Mullin brilliantly with his bad buttoned up suit echoing the description of the subject as "looking like a deck chair which had been left out over the winter." As a narrative on New Labour it covers a lot of ground really well and I suspect with its pace, cast and complex weaving of references is a far more reliable guide to those halcyon years when Tony Blair led Labour to a historic three General Election victories, an achievement never equaled by any other Labour leader. A must see both for the political aficionado and for those who enjoy good new writing and excellent acting.

John Hodgkinson as Chris Mullin.

With Tracy Gillman, Hywel Morgan, Andi Osho & Joe Caffrey.

http://www.sohotheatre.com/whats-on/walk-on-part/

Arts Theatre

6-7 Great Newport Street

London Chinatown

WC2H 7JB

Channel 4 Political Correspondent Michael Crick quizzes the ex-PM over the recent West End transfer of A Walk On Part; the hit political comedy adapted from the diaries of Chris Mullin.

Panda-monium on the Tube

Pandas performing Tai-Chi in Covent Garden

Many Tube passengers who think their commute to work is too much to bear should paws and take a look at these black and white photos. Over 100 costumed characters caused panda-monium on the streets - and the transport network - of London to highlight Panda Awareness Week. This panda posse performed a tai-chi inspired dance in the middle of Trafalgar Square and on the Piazza at Covent Garden and travelled on the London Underground.

Pandas haven't got the hang of standing on the right at Charing X
(Photo; PA)

Panda Awareness Week (PAW) aims to raise interest and support for the protection of one of the world's most-threatened - and cutest - species. PAW highlights the work of the Chengdu Panda Base in China, a not-for-profit organisation that plays a leading role in fostering continued growth of the giant panda population, as well as rescuing and rehabilitating pandas so they can return to the wild. In total there were 108 of the faux furry things in London yesterday - the same number of pandas that are living in a special breeding centre in China's Chengdu base.

Why is the conservation of the giant panda such an urgent priority?

• ·         The giant panda is an endangered species and without help from conservation projects like the Chengdu Panda Base its future is uncertain.
• ·         The giant panda is the rarest member of the bear family and among the world’s most threatened animals.
• ·         Panda survival is threatened by loss of habitat and poaching.
• ·         There are less than 1,800 pandas left in the wild.

Tourists always clutter up platforms on The Tube  (Photo; PA)

If you are interested in panda conservation, take a look at the Chengdu Panda Base site for more information.

http://www.panda.org.cn/english/

You can follow them @ChengduPAW on Twitter and by the #Hugapanda hashtag.

Ellan Vannin

It was a sad day today in our neighboring town of Thame at Robin Gibbs funeral. He had lived for 30 years in the Old Rectory across from St. Mary’s Church and was well known and liked in the town. His casket was draped in the flag of Ellan Vannin, the name in Manx Gaelic of The Isle of Man, where he and his brothers were born. The Bee Gees adapted a poem of the same name as a song which ends with the words which seem so appropriate today;

“And in all my times of sorrow

And on some lonely shore

I'll go back to Ellan Vannin

To my childhood days once more”

The Isle of Man in the middle of the Irish Sea is a truly unique and beautiful place inhabited since 6,500 BC and never incorporated into either the Roman Empire (Julius Caesar referred to it as Mona in 54 BC) nor is it part of The United Kingdom, the Commonwealth or the European Union (EU). ). Its parliament, the Tynwald is of Celtic / Norse origin and over 1,000 years old, and is the oldest parliament in the world with an unbroken existence.

It had a unique Gaelic-Norse culture and the motto on its three legged (Trie Cassyn) flag is; “Quocunque jeceris stabit” – loosely translated as “wherever I’m thrown, I will stand” – probably a fair summation of Robin Gibbs life and achievements.

Harrods - Hats and Fascinators

If you're featured in Harrods then you can say you cater for the rich and high class. So who is in the Harrods hats and fascinator department? Designers such as Nerida Fraiman, Peter Bettley, and Victoria Grant. Never heard of them? Even though their prices are astronomical, they are the innovators in fascinator design and guarantee the highest quality, there's no doubting that! Simple and classy, flamboyant but elegant, it's amazing how they do it, but that's why they are the best at what they do, and thats why people are willing to pay (if you got the money, why not). However, if you can't afford to pay for the top designers or be advertisers for these designers at the Royal Ascot then there are still plenty of good quality fascinator retailers that can provide you with beautiful designs. We at Caprilite put our own fascinators for comparision and in my opinion we didn't do too badly.

NERIDA FRAIMAN

Starburst Feather Spray Fascinator

£155.00

CAPRILITE

Black Bow Feather Fascinator

£9.99

NERIDA FRAIMAN 

Starburst Feather Fascinator

£229.00

CAPRILITE

Red Full Feather Fascinator

£8.95

Tolpuddle Martyrs'

Leafy rural Dorset in the West Country of England seems an unlikely place to associate with many things we take for granted in the developed world these days – weekends, no child labour, 5 day week, healthcare, pensions, safe places to work, being paid in real money, employment rights etc. etc. – you know the things which organised labour has won for us all through sacrifice, struggle and solidarity. But it was here that six farm labourers changed the way we all work today. On 24th February 1834, six labourers from Tolpuddle were arrested on a charge of taking part in an illegal oath ceremony. The real offence was that they dared to form a trade union to defend their livelihoods. For this they were sentenced to seven years' transportation to the penal colonies of Australia. The sentences provoked an immense outcry, leading to the first great mass trade union protest. The campaign won free pardons and the Martyrs' returned to England. It was an historic episode in the struggle for trade union rights in Great Britain and around the world.

As the sun rose on 24th February 1834, Dorset farm labourer George Loveless set off to work, saying goodbye to his wife Betsy and their three children. They were not to meet alone again for three years, for as he left his cottage in the rural village of Tolpuddle, the 37-year-old was served with a warrant for his arrest.

Loveless and five fellow workers – his brother James, James Hammett, James Brine, Thomas Standfield and Thomas's son John – were charged with having taken an illegal oath. But their real crime in the eyes of the establishment was to have formed a trade union to protest about their meagre pay of six shillings a week – the equivalent of 30p in today's money and the third wage cut in as many years.

With the bloody French Revolution and the wrecking of the Swing Rebellion fresh in the minds of the British establishment, landowners were determined to stamp out any form of organised protests. So when the local squire and landowner, James Frampton, caught wind of a group of his workers forming a union, he sought to stamp it out.

Workers met either under the sycamore tree in the village or in the upper room of Thomas Standfield's cottage. Members swore of an oath of secrecy – and it was this act that led to the men's arrest and subsequent sentence of seven years' transportation. In prison, George Loveless scribbled some words: “We raise the watchword, liberty. We will, we will, we will be free!" This rallying call underlined the Martyrs’ determination and has since served to inspire generations of people to fight against injustice and oppression.

Transportation to Australia was brutal. Few ever returned from such a sentence as the harsh voyage and rigours of slavery took their toll. After the sentence was pronounced, the working class rose up in support of the Martyrs. A massive demonstration marched through London and an 800,000-strong petition was delivered to Parliament protesting about their sentence.

After three years, during which the trade union movement sustained the Martyrs' families by collecting voluntary donations, the government relented and the men returned home with free pardons and as heroes.

Main stage at the festival

Tolpuddle Festival 2012 13-15 July

The Tolpuddle Festival is an annual gathering of trade union members to celebrate the work of the trade union movement. It is an opportunity to celebrate victories and push on going campaigns. It is also a chance to meet new people and catch up with old friends with the social events. And, as ever 2012 will have a great mix of music to suit all tastes.

With family friendly events throughout the weekend Tolpuddle is an ideal event to take the kids to.

For full listings for the weekend visit;

http://www.tolpuddlemartyrs.org.uk/index.php?page=2012-festival-and-rally

I’ll probably be in front of the RMT stand enjoying the free cider, say hello!

Whilst in the village visit the Tolpuddle Martyrs Museum tells the harrowing tale of the Martyrs' arrest, trial and punishment, leading to the foundation of modern day trade unionism.

The museum is a modern, informative, and educational exhibition; using interactive touch screen displays new graphic panels telling the story in text and images. The museum sets out the Martyrs' story in four sections: Before the arrest, The Oath and Betrayal, Transportation, and the Homecoming.

Tolpuddle Martyrs Museum

http://www.tolpuddlemartyrs.org.uk

We can never take for granted what we owe to these six ordinary labourers who stood together for the rights of workers. Nor in modern Britain can we cease the struggle against the reactionary ideological heirs of Squire James Frampton who constantly belittle the role of labour as the source of honest values in Society and constantly seek to attack workers hard earned rights.