Rowan Williams to meet Pope Benedict

The Arcbishop of Canterbury is to meet Pope Benedict to discuss the Catholic offer to accept Anglicans disaffected by issues like female and gay bishops and same sex unions.

When it comes to joining a church I think I would rather go with the women clergy than a church renowned for its acceptance (in terms of coverups at the cost of a few Hail Mary's) of large scale buggery of choir boys by  priests.

BBC News.

Brown defends Afghanistan policy

Gordon Brown is due to mount a robust defence of Britain's military policy in Afghanistan by warning al-Qaeda is the biggest threat to UK national security.  BBC News.

I do not agree. I think Labour - with Blair's arrogant, warmongering foreign policy - is our biggest threat. Bring our troops back now and patch up the divide that exists here at home.

Christopher Booker on why we will lose in Afghanistan.

Private security....

Former Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair has also said there should be no role for the private sector in Britain's law enforcement.  BBC News.

There are other countries where this kind of thing is happening, including South Africa which had more private policemen than real ones in 2006.  There is concern about some of these as well, given that they are paramilitary forces, prone to taking ther law into their own hands.

However, the bottom line is that this kind of organisation can only exist where normal policing does not work, as seems to be increasingly the case in the UK where Plod spends too much time sitting on his butt filling out forms (online these days) and raising stealth taxes by targetting motorists doing 36 mph in a 30 mph zone. I would not be interested in signing up for a service like this but am lucky to live in a secure area. I have had only one incident of theft in 7 years, which was my own fault in that I forgot to lock my car.

BBC executive greed

Mark Thompson, the Director General, who receives an overall pay package of £834,000 a year, billed £648 to stay in a five-star hotel in Las Vegas, and made 63 claims – some as little as 70p – for parking meter fees. 

After massive disclosures about politicians and their dubious expense claims, it is now the chance of top executives at the BEEB to enjoy public displeasure. Personally, I find it just about impossible to believe that someone earning £834 000 a year would stoop to claiming 70p for parking. I mean... just how GREEDY can you be?

I am now beginning to understand those who are opposed to paying the TV licence. Perhaps government will do us a favour by abolishing the fee in revenge for the Beebs willingness (and joy) to embarrass them.

I can't wait for revelations about banker's expense claims, and while we are about it, the claims of generously paid university VCs.

SA police shoot three year-old

Three-year-old Atlegang Phalane was shot dead in Midrand, near Johannesburg, as he sat in the back seat of a car next to his uncle. The police officer is reported to have said that he thought the boy was carrying a firearm, though according to Moses Dlamini, from the Independent Complaints Directorate, no gun or object which could have been mistaken for a firearm was recovered from the car.  BBC News.

One of the first victims of SAs draconian 'shoot to kill' policy has been a three year old boy. Government and police are adamant that they will continue the policy in an attempt to combat the highest violent crime rate in the world. President Jacob Zuma said that the sheer level of violent crime in South Africa made it very different to other countries and said that many police have died as a result of cornered criminals opening fire on them.

Deputy police minister Fikile Mbalula said: "Yes. Shoot the bastards. Hard-nut to crack, incorrigible criminals. Where you are caught in combat with criminals, innocent people are going to die - not deliberately but in the exchange of fire. They are going to be caught on the wrong side, not deliberately, but unavoidably."

Opposition parties have condemned the policy.

What interests me most is the ease with which the so called rainbow nation has reverted to the policies which they vowed never to repeat. A shoot to kill policy was never openly discussed in apaprtheid SA, but was very much part of the way in which the Afrikander elite kept the black population under control. In 2006, The Regulation of Interception of Communications and Provision of Communication-Related Information Amendment Bill was passed, allowing police to monitor communications between people - supposedly to fight crime.

What is worrying is the way this kind of policy can spiral out of control. Who is next? The 'criminal' who is doing 160 kph mph in a 120 kph zone and who is unable to stop at a police check point? Someone is a hurry running down the street who just might be a bag snatcher? Communications workers protesting about pay? Booze fueled football hooligans fighting in the street during next year's world cup?

Other related issues:

Can Zuma rein in his spies? |:| Foreigners in fear |:|