flakes of nuisance » scofflaws, tolerated crime and hypocrites http://mcneillfamily.com paying attention to distractions since 1958 Sat, 19 May 2012 17:09:20 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.2 An INTENSE moment of TRUTH with MAINSTREAM Media – YouTubehttp://mcneillfamily.com/2011/10/16/an-intense-moment-of-truth-with-mainstream-media-youtube/ http://mcneillfamily.com/2011/10/16/an-intense-moment-of-truth-with-mainstream-media-youtube/#comments Sun, 16 Oct 2011 11:41:20 +0000 admin http://mcneillfamily.com/?p=6649

An INTENSE moment of TRUTH with MAINSTREAM Media – YouTube.

]]> http://mcneillfamily.com/2011/10/16/an-intense-moment-of-truth-with-mainstream-media-youtube/feed/ 0 The Stolen Screamhttp://mcneillfamily.com/2011/03/16/the-stolen-scream/ http://mcneillfamily.com/2011/03/16/the-stolen-scream/#comments Wed, 16 Mar 2011 15:31:52 +0000 admin http://mcneillfamily.com/?p=6549

The Stolen Scream: A Story About Noam Galai from FStoppers on Vimeo.

]]> http://mcneillfamily.com/2011/03/16/the-stolen-scream/feed/ 0 To us, it’s an obscure shift of tax law. To the City, it’s the heist of the centuryhttp://mcneillfamily.com/2011/02/08/to-us-its-an-obscure-shift-of-tax-law-to-the-city-its-the-heist-of-the-century/ http://mcneillfamily.com/2011/02/08/to-us-its-an-obscure-shift-of-tax-law-to-the-city-its-the-heist-of-the-century/#comments Tue, 08 Feb 2011 13:01:24 +0000 admin http://mcneillfamily.com/?p=6497 Our political system protects and enriches a fantastically wealthy elite, much of whose money is, as a result of their interesting tax and transfer arrangements, in effect stolen from poorer countries, and poorer citizens of their own countries. Ours is a semi-criminal money-laundering economy, legitimised by the pomp of the lord mayor’s show and multiple layers of defence in government. Politically irrelevant, economically invisible, the rest of us inhabit the margins of the system. Governments ensure that we are thrown enough scraps to keep us quiet, while the ultra-rich get on with the serious business of looting the global [

continue reading To us, it’s an obscure shift of tax law. To the City, it’s the heist of the century

]]]> http://mcneillfamily.com/2011/02/08/to-us-its-an-obscure-shift-of-tax-law-to-the-city-its-the-heist-of-the-century/feed/ 0 Eilidh Cairns – Campaign – See Me Save Mehttp://mcneillfamily.com/2011/02/04/eilidh-cairns-campaign-see-me-save-me/ http://mcneillfamily.com/2011/02/04/eilidh-cairns-campaign-see-me-save-me/#comments Fri, 04 Feb 2011 10:50:30 +0000 admin http://mcneillfamily.com/?p=6493

SEE ME SAVE ME

It’s nearly two years since Eilidh was run over by a truck that failed to see her. Her mum Heather has been working with their local Member of European Parliament to try and get an EU declaration signed to get HGVs fitted with sensors and cameras to remove their blind spot.

4000 people, mostly unprotected road users such as cyclists, motorcyclists and pedestrians are killed each year in Europe because of HGV blind spots.

This declaration needs to be signed to be signed by half of the 736 MEPs before it lapses on [

continue reading Eilidh Cairns – Campaign – See Me Save Me

]]]> http://mcneillfamily.com/2011/02/04/eilidh-cairns-campaign-see-me-save-me/feed/ 0 Egypt’s Revolution: Coming to an Economy Near Youhttp://mcneillfamily.com/2011/02/03/egypts-revolution-coming-to-an-economy-near-you/ http://mcneillfamily.com/2011/02/03/egypts-revolution-coming-to-an-economy-near-you/#comments Thu, 03 Feb 2011 16:02:11 +0000 admin http://mcneillfamily.com/?p=6491 All of which brings me back to Egypt as the canary in a very large coal mine. It’s hard to overstate just how unexpected a transformation is occurring in Egypt. Death, taxes, and Hosni Mubarak — they were the three great certainties in modern Egyptian life.

But just underneath the surface, the tectonic pressure of dumb growth was steadily mounting. Bogus prosperity’s like magma, filling the volcanic chamber of a society: you can bottle it up for only so long before it erupts, and spectacularly. Today, the world’s gaze is fixed on the pyroclastic flow: never-ending demonstrations, protests, people [

continue reading Egypt’s Revolution: Coming to an Economy Near You

]]]> http://mcneillfamily.com/2011/02/03/egypts-revolution-coming-to-an-economy-near-you/feed/ 0 TUNISIA and OPEN SOURCE REVOLThttp://mcneillfamily.com/2011/01/21/tunisia-and-open-source-revolt/ http://mcneillfamily.com/2011/01/21/tunisia-and-open-source-revolt/#comments Fri, 21 Jan 2011 14:15:29 +0000 admin http://mcneillfamily.com/?p=6462 DK Matai has a great little outline on how the open source revolt spread in Tunisia.

It was very open much open source warfare (OSW, the dominant form of warfare in the 21st Century), but with a rapidly evolving protest/revolt twist (OSW + flashmobs). Thing is, the conditions within which the revolt spread are becoming pretty common. Here they are:

Extreme price shocks in basic commodities. Food and energy. Extreme corruption. A globally connected elite appropriating everything. Extreme connectivity. Cell phones and other social media.

Given that the global system is highly unstable (extreme leverage, concentration, tight coupling, [

continue reading TUNISIA and OPEN SOURCE REVOLT

]]]> http://mcneillfamily.com/2011/01/21/tunisia-and-open-source-revolt/feed/ 0 For sale: Britain’s forests and seas, and David Cameron’s claims to be greenhttp://mcneillfamily.com/2011/01/07/for-sale-britains-forests-and-seas-and-david-camerons-claims-to-be-green/ http://mcneillfamily.com/2011/01/07/for-sale-britains-forests-and-seas-and-david-camerons-claims-to-be-green/#comments Fri, 07 Jan 2011 13:06:46 +0000 admin http://mcneillfamily.com/?p=6439

So if you go down to the woods today, you’ll find the best metaphor for Cameronism. Change your party’s logo to a lovely green tree – then sell off all the real trees to corporations. Oh, and then say you are “empowering volunteers” by doing it. The Prime Minister has said the forest sell-off “empowers local communities” to take over the forests for themselves as part of a “Big Society.” Yet sources within the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs say that – unsurprisingly – only about [

continue reading For sale: Britain’s forests and seas, and David Cameron’s claims to be green

]]]> http://mcneillfamily.com/2011/01/07/for-sale-britains-forests-and-seas-and-david-camerons-claims-to-be-green/feed/ 0 The Hillsborough Football Disaster: Context & Consequenceshttp://mcneillfamily.com/2010/12/08/the-hillsborough-football-disaster-context-consequences/ http://mcneillfamily.com/2010/12/08/the-hillsborough-football-disaster-context-consequences/#comments Wed, 08 Dec 2010 10:16:12 +0000 admin http://mcneillfamily.com/?p=6387 Welcome to our temporary website, deliberately simple, purely functional. It will improve visually later!

This webpage enables free downloading of the updated ‘press pack’-style documentation that originally appeared here in 2008 under the name “Hillsborough For ‘Dummies’: Facts Behind The Disaster”. The updated version consists of several documents, all of which can be downloaded as separate PDF files, or as a combined package in one easy click.

We updated and changed in order to appeal to a much wider audience and the concern was that the original name would not sit well with the publishers of the “…For Dummies” [

continue reading The Hillsborough Football Disaster: Context & Consequences

]]]> http://mcneillfamily.com/2010/12/08/the-hillsborough-football-disaster-context-consequences/feed/ 0 #WikiLeaks #cablegate – Mirrors of the website & #Visa, #Mastercard transferring funds to racistshttp://mcneillfamily.com/2010/12/07/wikileaks-cablegate-mirrors-of-the-website-visa-mastercard-transferring-funds-to-racists/ http://mcneillfamily.com/2010/12/07/wikileaks-cablegate-mirrors-of-the-website-visa-mastercard-transferring-funds-to-racists/#comments Tue, 07 Dec 2010 17:03:20 +0000 admin http://mcneillfamily.com/?p=6352 As writers say, the difference between fiction and fact is that fiction has to be believable. So all those Bourne films are so believable and everything on ‘The News’ is so ridiculous. Osama Bin Laden: still at-large, Ratko Mladic: still at large, Sylvio Berlusconi: in charge of a bankrupt country – and its media, Tony Blair & George Bush doing lecture tours, the €uro bankrupt while the workers of Germany subsidise a continent, and so on.

The world changed years ago. Just ask the Book, Music and Film Industries, newspaper publishers, television companies, High-Street shopkeepers and expense-fiddling MPs, who can [

continue reading #WikiLeaks #cablegate – Mirrors of the website & #Visa, #Mastercard transferring funds to racists

]]]> http://mcneillfamily.com/2010/12/07/wikileaks-cablegate-mirrors-of-the-website-visa-mastercard-transferring-funds-to-racists/feed/ 0 ‘Strict liability’ and legal protection for cyclists « UKcycleruleshttp://mcneillfamily.com/2010/11/16/%e2%80%98strict-liability%e2%80%99-and-legal-protection-for-cyclists-%c2%ab-ukcyclerules/ http://mcneillfamily.com/2010/11/16/%e2%80%98strict-liability%e2%80%99-and-legal-protection-for-cyclists-%c2%ab-ukcyclerules/#comments Tue, 16 Nov 2010 12:51:54 +0000 admin http://mcneillfamily.com/?p=6252 I dislike conflict. This is a questionable characteristic for a barrister.

As a result there’s a sombre tone in this week’s post, as I’m tiptoeing precariously close to a shouting match.

The Guardian recently posted this article asking whether the law does enough to protect cyclists. As expected, the comments express some fruity road-related read rage.

At the same time there’s a strong debate in the cycle blogosphere on what can be done to increase the numbers of people cycling (see ibikelondon vs Carlton Reid, for example).

Lots of people talk about ‘strict liability’ as one possible solution, and [

continue reading ‘Strict liability’ and legal protection for cyclists « UKcyclerules

]]]> http://mcneillfamily.com/2010/11/16/%e2%80%98strict-liability%e2%80%99-and-legal-protection-for-cyclists-%c2%ab-ukcyclerules/feed/ 0