Details of rule of law
What is parliamentary immunity? Who is covered by it? Why?
Russian lawmaker detained in parliament for 2010 murders
A Russian lawmaker has been arrested on murder charges while inside Russia's upper house of parliament on Wednesday, state media report.
 |
| Arashukov |
Rauf Arashukov is accused of being involved in the 2010 killing of two people and other crimes, said the Investigative Committee of Russia.
The senator for the North Caucasus republic of Karachay-Cherkessia was detained in a parliamentary session.
He has previously denied the accusations against him.
His parliamentary immunity has now been revoked, Ria Novosti news agency reports.
He was arrested while in a parliamentary chamber as it was feared he would try to flee, a source told the state news agency.
Investigators believe the 32-year-old senator is involved in two contract killings in Cherkessk, the capital of the semi-autonomous region of Karachay-Cherkessia.
Aslan Zhukov, the leader of the youth movement Adyge-Khase, was shot dead in March 2010.
Two months later, Fral Shebkhuzov, an adviser to Karachay-Cherkessia's president, was beaten and shot dead…
The lawmaker, who became a senator in 2016, is also accused of "document fraud that allowed him to become a senator", Russia media reports say.
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Labels: parliament, rule of law, Russia
Separation of powers
The president suspends the chief justice. A top court suspends the proceedings against the judge.
Separation of powers?
Onnoghen - Court of Appeal Suspends CCT Proceedings
The Court of Appeal in Abuja has suspended the proceedings of the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) on the alleged false asset declaration against the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Walter Onnoghen…
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Labels: judiciary, Nigeria, rule of law
Nigerian President and the Supreme Court
Nigeria's president suspends the chief justice, who is under investigation for corruption. But, if there's a challenge to upcoming election, the chief justice would have been in charge of the case.
Nigeria’s Leader Suspends Chief Justice 3 Weeks Before Vote
Nigeria’s president on Friday suspended the country’s chief justice just three weeks before the presidential election and an expected court challenge to the results…
The decision by President Muhammadu Buhari, who seeks a second term in the Feb. 16 vote, sent Africa’s most populous country into a constitutional crisis. It was not immediately clear whether the president has the authority to suspend a chief justice…
 |
| Buhari |
The chief justice, Walter Nkanu Samuel Onnoghen, faces trial on charges of failing to declare his assets. Mr. Buhari said his suspension will continue until the case is concluded. This is the first time a chief justice is standing trial in Nigeria, where corruption is widespread. Justice Onnoghen said the charges are meritless.
Beyond the charges, “security agencies have since then traced other suspicious transactions running into millions of dollars” to Mr. Onnoghen’s accounts, the president said in a statement.
Justice Ibrahim Tanko Muhammed will act as Nigeria’s most senior judge, Mr. Buhari said. Mr. Muhammed, like the president, is from Nigeria’s largely Muslim north while Mr. Onnoghen is from the largely Christian south.
Mr. Buhari’s top election challenger, Atiku Abubakar, called the suspension illegal. “This act of desperation is geared towards affecting the outcome of the 2019 presidential elections,” he said in a statement.
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Labels: elections, leadership, Nigeria, politics
Queen's politics
The monarchy in the UK is officially head of state, but not, in theory, politically active.
Did the Queen Just Weigh In on Brexit?
Over the last few years, as Britain has divided into warring tribes over its exit from the European Union, Queen Elizabeth II has retained a sphinxlike neutrality, imperturbably getting on with the business of conveying knighthoods and hosting garden parties.
 |
| QEII |
But this week even the queen was drawn into Britain’s constitutional turmoil, after a prominent lawmaker suggested she employ a royal prerogative that has not been used for centuries: the right to tactically adjourn, or “prorogue,” a rebellious Parliament.
The 92-year-old queen then made a veiled reference to Brexit in a speech on Thursday, delivering a plea for “respecting different points of view” and “coming together to seek out the common ground.” In line with her constitutional obligation to remain neutral on political matters, she revealed nothing about her views…
Commentators spent much of Friday morning deconstructing these words for signs that the queen was recommending a particular course of action, with many concluding that she was throwing her weight behind Mrs. May’s deal.
From the queen’s words it was hard to tell. But one thing was clear: She is worried enough to get involved…
Some complained that she had overstepped her constitutional powers. “I don’t think Her Majesty should be wading in,” wrote Sean O’Grady, an editor of The Independent, who supports a second referendum…
Journalists… braced for another round of frantic interpretation. “If anyone else came out with these sort of cliché-ridden, impossible-to-disagree-with, back-of-a-greetings card platitude, they would be ignored,” complained Adam Bienkov of Business Insider on Twitter. “But this is Queen talking in Britain in 2019…
The queen was criticized in 2014 for telling a well-wisher on the eve of a referendum on Scottish independence that “I hope people will think very carefully about the future.” The remark was seen as aiding the unionist side…
She is also being urged, by a few, to be more involved. Jacob Rees-Mogg, a hard-line Brexiteer sometimes referred to as “the honorable member for the 18th century,” suggested on Wednesday that the queen might have a role in resolving the country’s constitutional dilemma…
Stephen Laws… a senior fellow at Policy Exchange, a research organization in London… described the prospect of the queen’s involvement as “unthinkably awful.”
“There is always the likelihood that people will question whatever she does,” he said. “It is the responsibility of politicians to arrange their affairs so that there is never a need to involve herself in a controversy.”
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Labels: monarchy, political culture, politics, rule of law, UK
Campaign detour or innovation?
A former Nigerian president may be campaigning in a novel way. Or maybe his opposition is acting in unprecedented ways.
Protest In Lagos Over 'Obasanjo's Plans To Install Interim Government'
A pro-democracy group has staged a rally in Lagos State against an alleged plot by former President Olusegun Obasanjo to install an interim government.
The protest was led by the Coalition for Defence of Democracy in Nigeria (CDDN)
The group claimed it had credible intelligence that Obasanjo's political allies were hell-bent on making the country ungovernable…
Speaking on behalf of the coalition, Rachel Okpara, the Executive Director of CDDN… said: “We are telling the world that there is credible intelligence that a former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, is the one that hatched the plan to destroy the country… It was for this reason that Obasanjo released his so called 'Points for Concern and Action', a document that has now been confirmed as intended to incite Nigerians as a precursor to the orgy of violence that his co-planners will unleash on the country.
“We are also asserting that more than the emergence of an interim government that the Federal Government refers to, Obasanjo, Atiku Abubakar who is the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, and other opposition elements have their sight on an outright coup to overthrow Nigeria’s democracy…
“We appeal to the international community to call Obasanjo, Atiku and other incendiary members of the opposition to order… The international community must make it clear to these elements that any contraption that emerges from truncation of Nigeria’s democracy will not be accepted. They should prevail on Obasanjo and his ilk to desist from the plot to throw Nigeria into chaos.”
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Labels: elections, Nigeria, political culture., politics
Beware of "black swans" and "grey rhinos"
President Xi warns party leaders of an anticipated rough time ahead
Be vigilant about threats to China’s stability and reforms, Xi Jinping tells top cadres
In an opening address, Xi told provincial bosses, ministers and top generals that although China’s economy was generally performing well, they must not let their guard down and they should be aware of potential turbulence and disruption ahead.
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| CPC Study Session |
“[We are] confronted with unpredictable international developments and a complicated and sensitive external environment. Our task at hand is to maintain stability as we continue our reform and development,” Xi was quoted as saying by state news agency Xinhua.
“We must maintain a high degree of vigilance. We must keep our high alert about any ‘black swan’ [or unforeseen] incident, and also take steps to prevent any ‘grey rhino’ [highly possible yet ignored threats].” …
According to Xinhua, the session, which emphasised how China could resolve the major risks it faced, was attended by hundreds of senior officials from all provinces and autonomous regions, top ministers and heads of party organs. It is expected to last for four days…
In his speech, Xi called for all officials to pay attention to controlling the risks facing Beijing in the areas of politics, economy, ideology and technology.
Highlighting the importance of science within national security, Xi called for more Chinese innovation and technology. “[We] must strengthen strategic judgment and deployment in major innovation sectors, and speed up setting up national labs,” he said…
Xi also called for better protection of China’s interests overseas. “[We] must strengthen protection of our overseas interests, and ensure the security of major overseas projects and personnel,” Xi said. “[We] must complete a security system for the ‘Belt and Road Initiative’.”…
Chen Daoyin, a Shanghai-based political scientist, said the focus of the session underlined Beijing’s challenge after events that have affected stability in the country over the past year.
“Beijing was presenting the image of a superpower during the 19th party congress and [its confidence] has fallen from its peak to a low point in the past year,” Chen said…
“The party needs to rally its support and set the tone for the upcoming National People’s Congress meeting in March,” Chen said. “And maintaining stability will be its top priority.”
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Labels: China, Communist Party, leadership, political culture
Measuring standard of living
It's not just GDP or GDP per capita that measures standard of living.
China pushes for rural "toilet revolution"
Chinese authorities will press ahead with a "toilet revolution" in rural areas to provide standard and regulated facilities and improve rural residents' living quality, according to the latest policy document.
Toilets for rural households in the country's eastern regions and mid-western city outskirts should "basically" go through pollution-free renovations by 2020, with toilet waste to be "effectively" treated or utilized by 2022, according to guidelines released by the office of the central agricultural work leading group, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs and six other departments.
By 2020, around 85 percent of rural households in mid-western areas where conditions permit should have access to sanitary toilets.
The coverage of sanitary toilets in remote and underdeveloped regions should be increased "gradually" by 2020 and "markedly" by 2022, according to the guidelines.
China launched the "toilet revolution" in 2015 to increase the number and sanitation of toilets at tourist sites. The campaign expanded to improve public toilets in cities and build better private toilets in rural areas.
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Labels: China, standard of living, UK
Cartoon pig as soft power
Not all soft power comes from planned political action.
https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-china-blog-46954179
She's unlikely to feature on many lists of the all-time top British cultural icons.
But Peppa Pig - the UK-made children's cartoon character - is right up there with the best of them, at least in China.
With the series racking up 18 billion online views since its launch here seven years ago, the story of Peppa and her unfeasibly English middle class family is, arguably, doing more for Brand Britain than the Beatles, Manchester United and any of the culinary delights - for which the UK is rightly so renowned - put together…
It is then no surprise that, when a Peppa-shaped opportunity came knocking, the British powers that be seized the moment.
After watching an episode in which the precocious piglet and her friends visit the Queen in Buckingham Palace - and encourage her to join them jumping in muddy puddles - two Chinese twins posted a video message online, addressed to none other than Her Royal Majesty.
They too, like Peppa, wanted to visit her in her palace, they said.
And it worked.
Well, sort of.
The British ambassador to China, Dame Barbara Woodward, posted her own video message in reply.
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| Ambassador Woodward with Me Ni and Me Ai |
"Hello Mi Ni and Mi Ai," she said. "I'm the British ambassador, so I'm the Queen's representative in China.
"I'd like you to come and visit me in my house in Beijing," she went on, "and we can perhaps have tea and scones in a British style."
The post has been viewed more than nine million times in China - a multiple of 10 times more views than anything else Dame Barbara has posted in her entire four years as ambassador.
And so it was that two slightly bewildered five-year-olds found their way to her residence and munched on scones and chocolate cake, and sat colouring in pictures of Peppa Pig, in front of the assembled media.
The whole experience may not have been quite the same as the real deal, but they have also been promised a trip to the UK where they will, at least, get to see Buckingham Palace.
And the British embassy has launched a competition along with Youku - the online channel with the Chinese rights to Peppa Pig - the young winners of which will also join the twins for the trip…
A new Peppa Pig movie - made especially for the Chinese market - is due to be launched this coming Chinese New Year.
It is a collaboration between China's Alibaba Pictures and Canada's Entertainment One; although still made in the UK, Peppa Pig is now owned by the Canadian company.
The viral trailer for the film - which artfully grafts the story of Peppa onto seasonal themes of Chinese family and belonging - has received more than 300 million hits to date…
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Labels: China, soft power, UK
UK: Speaker of the House
Don't let the terminology confuse you. The House of Commons has a speaker too.
‘Order! Order!’: Parliament Speaker Is Brexit’s Surprise Star and Villain
In the wretched purgatory that was Westminster last week, there was precisely one person who seemed to be having fun.
From the silk-canopied speaker’s chair of the House of Commons, John Bercow looked out over Britain’s squabbling Parliament and brayed, “Order! Order!” in that undrownoutable voice, something like an air-raid siren with postnasal drip…
The outside world rarely takes much notice of the speaker of the House of Commons, a nonpartisan and typically low-profile figure who presides over parliamentary debates. But Britain’s last-minute paralysis over exiting the European Union, or Brexit, has made Mr. Bercow into a kind of celebrity.
With less than 10 weeks left before the country is set to leave the bloc, he has broken precedent by wresting some control over the Brexit decision-making from Prime Minister Theresa May…
 |
| The speaker heading toward Commons |
It is an extraordinary moment for Mr. Bercow, the 56-year-old son of a cabdriver from North London. An outsider sometimes mocked for his short stature (he is 5 foot 6½), he propelled himself through the Oxbridge-educated upper reaches of British society by sheer determination and is viewed, variously, as a sharp-elbowed bully and a champion of the rights of Parliament…
Even in the hyper-loquacious environment of British politics, Mr. Bercow stands out for his love of ornate language and withering insult.
“He could never say, ‘It’s great to see you’ ”; instead he would say, ‘It gives me inestimable pleasure to meet you for the finest condiments created by Mrs. Twinings,’ ” a colleague told Mr. Friedman, his biographer…
Mr. Bercow has made a career out of annoying his conservative colleagues. Some are still seething over his decision not to wear the traditional speaker’s regalia, including wig and knee-breeches, which he said created “a barrier between Parliament and the public.” …
But nothing has approached the fury that followed his decision to allow lawmakers to amend a business motion — effectively curbing the government’s powers….
Crispin Blunt, a lawmaker from the conservative Tory party, protested that Mr. Bercow could no longer claim to be a neutral arbiter on the issue of Brexit and should step down…
Ian Dunt, a political commentator who opposes Brexit, said the government has sidelined Parliament throughout the process, claiming that the referendum had provided the executive with a more direct form of sovereignty…
He compared this moment to 1642, when King Charles strode into the House of Commons and demanded that five lawmakers be arrested for treason. The speaker at the time, William Lenthall, refused his orders, telling the king in a famous speech that he acted solely on behalf of the House of Commons…
His precociousness and small stature did not ingratiate him to schoolyard bullies. Mr. Friedman said they threw him into a pond, laughing and saying, “Bercow can be in there with the other amphibians.” In university, “we’d quote Monty Python and he’d quote” the 19th-century Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, Andrew Crosbie, a fellow Tory activist, told Mr. Friedman.
He found his tribe in politics, a profession where his verbosity was an asset…
The events of the last week have won him praise from unusual quarters. The Times of London, calling him “hardly a sympathetic individual,” wrote approvingly of his actions, saying the government’s treatment of Parliament “has appeared drawn from the 17th century, frequently invoking the will of the people, much as the early Stuarts used to assert the divine right of kings.”…
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Labels: parliament, parties, political culture, UK
As promised, a new police force for Mexico
A new police force made up of soldiers. Will it be better at respecting citizens' rights than the army?
Mexico's crime-fighting national guard wins lower house approval
Mexican legislators have overwhelmingly voted for the creation of a new 60,000-member national guard, a proposal embraced by leftist President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador as a crucial tool in the fight against organised crimes.
The proposal was approved on Wednesday by about three-quarters of the lower house of Congress, 362 votes in favour and 119 against, with changes to Mexico's constitution requiring a two-thirds vote in both the chambers.
Obrador's MORENA party teamed up with smaller leftist allies and legislators from the centrist Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, to ensure the house's approval…
In the first phase, the national guard will be composed of some 60,000 members transferred from the existing military and federal police forces, but it was not clear when it might include new hires…
The proposal must still be approved by the Senate, and then a simple majority of state legislatures, but both are seen as likely because of the political strength of MORENA and its allies across Mexico.
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Labels: Mexico, rule of law
Who are those "old boys?"
This opinion piece was written by Pankaj Mishra, an Indian essayist and novelist. What does it tell you about political socialization, the class system, and political culture in the UK?
The Malign Incompetence of the British Ruling Class: With Brexit, the chumocrats who drew borders from India to Ireland are getting a taste of their own medicine.
Britain’s rupture with the European Union is proving to be another act of moral dereliction by the country’s rulers. The Brexiteers, pursuing a fantasy of imperial-era strength and self-sufficiency, have repeatedly revealed their hubris, mulishness and ineptitude over the past two years. Though originally a “Remainer,” Prime Minister Theresa May has matched their arrogant obduracy, imposing a patently unworkable timetable of two years on Brexit and laying down red lines that undermined negotiations with Brussels and doomed her deal to resoundingly bipartisan rejection this week in Parliament.
Such a pattern of egotistic and destructive behavior by the British elite flabbergasts many people today. But it was already manifest seven decades ago during Britain’s rash exit from India…
Louis Mountbatten [the last British governor general of India]… was a representative member of a small group of upper- and middle-class British men from which the imperial masters of Asia and Africa were recruited. Abysmally equipped for their immense responsibilities, they were nevertheless allowed by Britain’s brute imperial power to blunder through the world…
Britain’s rupture with the European Union is proving to be another act of moral dereliction by the country’s rulers. The Brexiteers, pursuing a fantasy of imperial-era strength and self-sufficiency, have repeatedly revealed their hubris, mulishness and ineptitude over the past two years. Though originally a “Remainer,” Prime Minister Theresa May has matched their arrogant obduracy, imposing a patently unworkable timetable of two years on Brexit and laying down red lines that undermined negotiations with Brussels and doomed her deal to resoundingly bipartisan rejection this week in Parliament.
Such a pattern of egotistic and destructive behavior by the British elite flabbergasts many people today. But it was already manifest seven decades ago during Britain’s rash exit from India…
Even a columnist for The Economist, an organ of the British elite, now professes dismay over “Oxford chums” who coast through life on “bluff rather than expertise.” “Britain,” the magazine belatedly lamented last month, “is governed by a self-involved clique that rewards group membership above competence and self-confidence above expertise.” In Brexit, the British “chumocracy,” the column declared, “has finally met its Waterloo.”…
Ireland, England’s first colony, have proved to be the biggest stumbling block for the English Brexiteers chasing imperial virility. Moreover, Britain itself faces the prospect of partition if Brexit, a primarily English demand, is achieved and Scottish nationalists renew their call for independence…
Humiliations in neo-imperialist ventures abroad, followed by the rolling calamity of Brexit at home, have cruelly exposed the bluff of what Hannah Arendt called the “quixotic fools of imperialism.” As partition comes home, threatening bloodshed in Ireland and secession in Scotland, and an unimaginable chaos of no-deal Brexit looms, ordinary British people stand to suffer from the untreatable exit wounds once inflicted by Britain’s bumbling chumocrats on millions of Asians and Africans. More ugly historical ironies may yet waylay Britain on its treacherous road to Brexit. But it is safe to say that a long-cossetted British ruling class has finally come to the end of itself as it was.
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Labels: leadership, political culture, political socialization, UK
Preparing for a Nigerian election
A million temporary jobs to run an election.
INEC To Deploy One Million Ad Hoc Staff
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says not more than one million ad hoc staff will be deployed for the coming elections.
 |
| Organizing election workers |
This was disclosed by Malam Mohammed Haruna, the Commissioner for North-Central, in Ilorin, on Monday…
According to Haruna, the ad-hoc staff would be sourced from the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), federal tertiary institutions and Ministries Departments and Agencies.
“1, 886 candidates would contest the 109 senatorial districts in the country and 4,634 candidates contesting for the 306 House of Representatives seats. 14,643 candidates would contest for 991 posts in the various State Houses of Assembly," he said.
He confirmed that governorship elections would hold in 29 states, excluding Kogi, Bayelsa, Rivers, Edo, Ondo, Ekiti and Osun States.
The commission urged all eligible voters who are yet to pick up their Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) to do so before the deadline, February 8, as there would be no extension.
Haruna also urged all residents to embrace peace before, during and after the elections exercise.
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Labels: elections, Nigeria
The Jargon of British politics
Although British politicians and journalists talk about many of the same things American politicians and journalists do, the language the Brits use is often unfamiliar to Americans. Can you make sense of these?
Labour backs cross-party amendment to block no-deal Brexit
Let's start with the article's title. What's a "cross-party amendment"?
In the US, you would probably hear that kind of thing referred to as "bipartisan." (But that language might be misleading if you have more than two active parties in the legislature as the British do.)
"Labour is to support a backbench amendment tabled by Yvette Cooper that could severely restrict the government’s taxation powers unless a no-deal Brexit is taken off the table.
"The Labour frontbench is likely to whip its MPs to back the cross-party amendment, significantly increasing its chances of success in the Commons. Around a dozen Tory MPs have also signalled their intention to back the amendment…"
Ms Cooper's amendment has been "tabled." In American Robert's Rules of Orders, if you table something, it is set aside "on the table," and won't be considered unless the legislature votes to take it up (off the table). In the UK, a tabled amendment is one that has been introduced needs to be voted up or down.
And, what's the Labour "frontbench?" It's the party leaders who sit on the front bench in the House of Commons. The government "frontbench" sits on the opposite side alongside the Prime Minister (or her surrogate). The people occupying those front bench seats are often referred to as "front benchers". And the rest of the party members sit on the back benches and are referred to as "back benchers." The front benchers are the powerful people in Commons.
And what happens if Labour's frontbench whips its MPs to back the cross-party amendment?
Be assured there will be no physical violence. After all Commons is designed to discourage violence. The white lines between the government and opposition benches, which MPs are not supposed to cross, are far apart enough to discourage sword fighting.
Every day, the leadership of the parties distributes an agenda for
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| An agenda with two three-line whips |
events in Commons. The agenda includes expected votes and instructions on how a good party member will vote.
Some votes are "free votes" meaning that party members can vote as they wish (or as they think their constituency wishes). Some votes on the agenda will be underlined by a single line. That's a single line whip. The party has taken a position, but it's not a really big deal if a member wishes to vote against the party.
A two-line whip is an instruction to attend Commons for the vote and to follow party policy unless given permission to abstain or vote contrary to the party's position.
If the vote on the agenda is underlined three times, it's a "three-line whip" and a big deal. An MP is expected to attend and to vote to support party policy. A violation of three-party whip is likely to lead to serious consequences. (Remember that nearly a third of the MPs hold party or legislative jobs handed out by party leaders.)
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Labels: legislature, parties, political culture, politics, UK
Can you have an elections with virtually no voters?
An election requires voters, so election officials cast votes
Two voters showed up to a county election in China. So officials decided to cast the ballots themselves
On county election day at a village in central China, officials were faced with an awkward problem: almost no one showed up to vote.
So in a bid to at least give the appearance of an election, four officials in Beiping village decided to take matters into their own hands – by filling out the ballot papers themselves.
Their election fraud has been uncovered in an investigation by the ruling Communist Party’s anti-corruption watchdog in Henan province, its official newspaper reported on Thursday.
In China, county-level members of the People’s Congress are among the only positions of public office directly elected by ordinary voters. But even those elections are tightly controlled and are often, if not always, won by candidates nominated or endorsed by the authorities. The national legislature is elected by members of the provincial bodies, who in turn are elected by those at the prefecture level.
After the 2017 election in Mianchi county, Beiping villagers reported the case to the local Discipline Inspection and Supervision Commission, since most of them had not voted. The county graft-buster then launched an investigation.
Four officials – including Huang Yuqing, who won the poll in Beiping – were found to have filled out more than 800 ballots on voting day, according to the Discipline Inspection and Supervision Daily report.
In fact, only two of the 663 villagers in Beiping were found to have actually voted in the election.
In addition, the investigation found that the Beiping officials had failed to notify most of the villagers of the election and did not hand out ballot papers, according to the report…
[V]illage head Yang Liyu… admitted to filling out ballots himself after he was shown evidence of the vote-rigging.
Yang told investigators that after only two villagers came to vote, the four cadres decided to cast the votes themselves instead of going door-to-door with the ballot papers…
Three of the officials – election winner Huang Yuqing, along with Huang Ziwei and Huang Quanqun – were given internal disciplinary punishments. Yang, the village head, was expelled from the party…
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Labels: China, Communist Party, corruption, election, politics
Get ready, park, go?
The politicians put on a brave face; the bureaucrats test out emergency options
No-deal Brexit: plan to use airfield as lorry park to get live test
The government is to use up to 150 lorries in a major test of its plans to cope with border disruption in the event of a no-deal Brexit.
A live test on Monday will examine the proposal to use Manston airfield near Ramsgate as a mass “HGV holding facility” to alleviate congestion on the roads leading to Channel ports, the Department for Transport has confirmed…
A DfT [Department for Transportation] spokeswoman said: “We do not want or expect a no-deal scenario and continue to work hard to deliver a deal with the EU. However, it is the duty of a responsible government to continue to prepare for all eventualities and contingencies, including a possible no deal…
Congestion at the Channel ports caused by the reintroduction of customs checks on goods has been one of the most commonly cited potential negative impacts of a no-deal withdrawal from the EU at the end of March.
Meanwhile, the Brexit secretary, Stephen Barclay, said a second EU referendum would “trigger a very populist reaction” and would further divide the UK…
The comments echoed those of his cabinet colleague Jeremy Hunt, after the foreign secretary said this week the consequences for democracy of another referendum would be “devastating”.
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Labels: Brexit, bureaucracy, EU, UK
Extent of censorship in China
How far do you have to go to censor people's thinking?
From 'rice bunny' to 'back up the car': China's year of censorship
China stepped up its campaign in 2018 to control what news and information its citizens can see.
While censors continued heavy handed control for any content deemed dangerous for social stability, including Peppa Pig videos and the letter “n”, regulators also deployed more sophisticated methods… to curate and shape what Chinese residents consume.
Authorities have been forcing activists on Twitter to delete their accounts and shutting down the social media accounts of university professors. Apolitical content is coming under more scrutiny. In October, almost 10,000 social media accounts for outlets publishing entertainment and celebrity news were closed.
The country’s largest internet companies have also stepped up self-censorship…
“WeChat group takedowns and news item deletions are happening with greater regularity across a shifting slate of topics,” said Rui Zhong, a programme assistant at the Kissinger Institute on China.
These were some of the banned phrases this year:
At the March annual meeting of China’s national legislature, lawmakers voted almost unanimously to abolish term limits for the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, allowing him to stay in power indefinitely.
In the leadup to the meeting and afterwards, phrases like “amend the constitution”, “I don’t agree”, “proclaiming oneself emperor” and the letter “n” were censored…
In September, Chinese economist Wu Xiaoping released a controversial commentary arguing that the utility of the country’s private sector had been exhausted and such companies should now step aside.
Commentators quickly criticised Wu’s proposal as “driving history backwards” to a time of a command economy. As a result, the term “back up the car” was also censored.
In January, a woman named Luo Xixi published allegations against a professor who forced himself on her when she was a student 12 years ago. Inspired by her account and the subsequent firing of the professor, other women began posting under the hashtag #MeToo or in Chinese version, woyeshi #我也是 .
When that phrase was censored, internet users began using a homonym mitu #米兔 or “rice bunny’. That too was blocked…
In November, officials in Quanggang in the southern Fujian province reported a spillage of C9, a crude oil that is toxic to humans, off the coast of Fujian.
Local residents posted photos and accounts online of residents being sent to the hospital, arguing that the leak was more serious than officials claimed. Internet searches for “Xiamen Quangong carbon leakage” were blocked and video and posts related to the spill were deleted…
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Labels: censorship, China, political culture
Democracy without a free press?
Nigerian generals are once again threatening democratic government.
Nigeria Military Raids Newspaper, Seizes Computers and Arrests Journalists
The Nigerian military stormed the headquarters and three satellite offices of one of the nation’s largest newspapers on Sunday, detaining at least two journalists and seizing computers, phones and other equipment.
The military released a statement calling its actions an “invitation” to talk to staff about a lead article on Sunday in the newspaper, Daily Trust, about a planned military operation in the town of Baga, that it said had divulged classified information, “thus undermining national security.”
The Sunday edition also included an editorial criticizing the military for its lack of progress fighting Boko Haram…
The military raid came less than two months before scheduled presidential elections in Nigeria…
Soldiers arrived Sunday afternoon at the Daily Trust office in Maiduguri, where Boko Haram was founded, and rounded up two journalists… The men were detained in a military barracks.
Later Sunday afternoon, armed soldiers in five vehicles stormed the paper’s main office in the capital, Abuja, and ordered journalists working inside to evacuate. They occupied the building for four hours, according to Mannir Dan-Ali, the paper’s editor in chief, ransacking the newsroom and carting away dozens of computers. Soldiers also entered the newspaper’s offices in Lagos and Kaduna…
Late Sunday, Mr. Buhari ordered soldiers out of Daily Trust offices, saying issues between the military and newspaper “will be resolved through dialogue.”
In its statement, the military said, “The Nigerian Army has no intention of muzzling the press or jeopardizing press freedom.” It added that the military would “not tolerate a situation where a publication would consistently side with terrorists and undermine our national institutions.”
The action was criticized by the Committee to Protect Journalists and by Amnesty International, which has also faced criticism by the military after releasing reports of human rights abuses by soldiers.
Soldiers shot and killed dozens of unarmed protesters from a minority Muslim religious group, and the military lashed out at Unicef, briefly ordering the group out of the country before relenting. Soldiers were angry about a training program by the aid group that aimed to teach people to spot and report military abuses…
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Labels: freedom of the press, military, Nigeria, politics
Nigerian history
Shehu Shagari was an important part of Nigeria's early political history.
Shehu Shagari, Former Nigerian President, Dies at 93
 |
| Shagari |
Shehu Shagari, the former president of Nigeria who sought to revive democratic rule only to be deposed by military officers impatient with his seeming inability to confront endemic corruption and economic crisis, died on Friday in Abuja, the capital. He was 93…
It was a token of Nigeria’s long tug-of-war between the barracks and the ballot box that President Muhammadu Buhari — who, as an army general, removed Mr. Shagari from power in 1983 — returned to office in the 2015 elections, the first peaceful transfer of power between civilians of different political parties since Nigeria’s independence from Britain in 1960...
Mr. Shagari was president for just over four years, winning two elections, both of them disputed by his opponents. He was criticized by his adversaries for his meekness in governing sub-Saharan Africa’s most populous nation. Indeed, with his scholarly manners, the undemonstrative Mr. Shagari, a former schoolteacher raised as a devout Sunni Muslim, sometimes seemed an unlikely figurehead for a nation that projected itself as Africa’s colossus.
While most post-independence rulers were high-ranking soldiers bent on enforcing their will with scant regard for consensus-building, Mr. Shagari… described himself as a conciliator who operated above the daily joust of Nigeria’s politics…
It was on Mr. Shagari’s watch, too, that the authorities made it a priority to proceed with the construction of a new capital in Abuja to escape the chaos and tribal affiliations of Lagos, which remained the commercial heart of the country.
In theory, the location and design of the new capital were emblems of unity among the dominant ethnic groups, roughly equidistant from the Yoruba heartland in the southwest, Ibo strongholds in the east and the largely Hausa Fulani north…
He became active in local youth politics in his 20s and held ministerial posts in the governments that followed independence, until he fled the capital to avoid arrest after the first military coup in 1966. He returned to farm in Sokoto, where he lived during Nigeria’s bloody civil war…
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Labels: history, leadership, Nigeria, politics
Just The Facts! 2nd edition is a concise guide to concepts, terminology, and examples that will appear on May's exam.
