England is two countries. One is dominated by London, the other remains in its shadow. When I first arrived from Australia, it seemed no one went north of Watford and those who had emigrated from the north worked hard to change their accents and obscure their origins, and learn the mannerisms and codes of the southern comfortable classes. Some would mock the life they had left behind. They were changing classes, or so they thought.
Britain
Anti-austerity protests hit Britain
Westminster was at the centre of a tornado of anti-austerity protest on November 5 that began in the early hours and tore across Britain as the day went on, The Morning Star said the next day.
The day of action co-ordinated by the People's Assembly movement swept small-scale guerilla activism through northern and southern England.
Obama boasts he is 'really good at killing people'
鈥淭his will not go over well for the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize winner.
鈥淎ccording to the new book 'Double Down,' in which journalists Mark Halperin and John Heilemann chronicle the 2012 presidential election, President Barack Obama told his aides that he鈥檚 'really good at killing people' while discussing drone strikes ...
The growing resistance to fracking 鈥 the 鈥渉ydraulic fracturing鈥 of deep level shale rocks to extract natural gas 鈥 promises to reignite the climate movement after the failure of United Nations climate talks in 2009.
A feature of the recent march and blockades at Cuadrilla Resources鈥 drilling site near Balcombe in West Sussex was the diversity of the people involved, as well as the numbers. Local residents were central to the protests, as they have been at Fylde, near Blackpool, where two Cuadrilla fracking operations led to minor earthquakes.
Comedian, Hollywood star and former host of MTV and Big Brother's Big Mouth Russell Brand in a Newsnight interview subsequently viewed millions of times on YouTube.
The journalist, veteran of many bruising encounters with politicians of all stripes, decisively lost.
Campaigners vowed today to challenge the use of 鈥渆xtreme鈥 pressure-point tactics to break the anti-fracking blockade tagretted operations of energy giant Cuadrilla in Balcombe, Morning Star said on August 22.
Sussex Police used the 鈥渕andibular angle鈥 technique to drag people away from a peaceful sit-in on the road to the site on August 19, the article said. The martial arts-style move involves applying force to a pressure point just behind the ear and delivers excruciating pain but no lasting injury.
South Korea: Hyundai workers strike
About 46,000 Hyundai workers will launched a four-hour strike over two days in order to press the South Korean car-maker for higher wages and benefits, union officials said on August 20.
Spokesperson Kwon Oh Il said that talks had made little progress, Morning Star reported that day. The union has demanded increased wages and benefits during three months of annual negotiations.
UPDATE: Green MP Caroline Lucas was one of more than a dozen people arrested on August 19 after police broke an anti-fracking blockade of a West Sussex drilling site.
Snatch squads were seen dragging demonstrators from the front gates of energy giant Cuadrilla's Balcombe site after police declared the picket a breach of public order, alleging that it could potentially block emergency services from reaching the site.
The protest's organisers No Dash For Gas reported 19 arrests.
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I have known my postman for more than 20 years. Conscientious and good-humoured, he is the embodiment of public service at its best. The other day, I asked him, 鈥淲hy are you standing in front of each door like a soldier on parade?鈥
鈥淣ew system,鈥 he replied. 鈥淚 am no longer required simply to post the letters through the door. I have to approach every door in a certain way and put the letters through in a certain way.鈥
鈥淲hy?鈥
鈥淎sk him.鈥
What a week! Oh such boundless joy that transports us to the very heavens! It began with BBC royal correspondent Nicholas Witchell gasping statements such as: 鈥淚 am informed the royal cervix has currently widened to 9cm, and the Queen is said to be 鈥榯hrilled鈥 at this level of dilation.鈥
鈥淭he world waits鈥 were the words the BBC put up, and indeed the whole world was thinking of nothing else. Somali fishermen abandoned their nets, saying: 鈥淭oday I cannot concentrate on mackerel to feed my village, as we pray that Nicholas Witchell soon brings us news of the royal head emerging.鈥
August 9, 1971 is a date firmly etched in the minds of many people in six counties in Ireland's north occupied by Britain. It was the date of the start of the occupying British Army's Operation Demetrius 鈥 more commonly known as the start of internment.
Internment was the military response to a popular uprising against a politically bankrupt Stormont regime. As part of Operation Demetrius, thousands of British soldiers descended on nationalist areas, smashed into homes and dragged hundreds of men away to be incarcerated in prison camps without charge or trial.
Kate Hudson is a veteran British left-wing activist and former chair of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. Hudson was a candidate for the left-wing Respect party in last year's Manchester municipal by-election, but stood down after Respect leader George Galloway made 鈥渦nacceptable and unretracted statements about the nature of rape鈥.
Since then, Hudson has joined other left-wing activists, including film maker Ken Loach, in pushing the Left Unity initiative for anew left-wing party, which has received support from thousands of people across Britain.
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