New video footage showing an innocent bystander being thrown to the floor by a policeman at last weeks G20 demos in London highlights how police brutality towards peaceful protests in the UK has become more widespread. The bystander died 10 minutes later.
As the video below shows, this was not an isolated incident, as riot police used the demo as an excuse to act like state paid thugs, subjecting thousands to battering ram techniques, and enclosing thousands of others through a bottleneck technique in the streets, denying them access to food, water and toilet facilities for over 6 hours.
Once the public enquiry into Ian Tomlinson’s death has been concluded, an enquiry into police tactics and brutality is urgently needed too.

Sir Bob Geldof was at the G20 summit in London today, calling on the leaders of the world’s most powerful countries to cough up more cash for Africa.

And yet nearly 4 years on from Live 8, not one of the artists who performed in Hyde Park and consequently filled their pockets with cash from the resulting sales of their music the following week have made an significant donation to Africa, despite knowing that the huge publicity would drive their sales.

Bob would earn the respect of more people if he had run Live8 in a morally correct way. As it turned out, an event organised to raise international awareness and money for Africa was so majorly lacking in any African music talent that a rival event was set up at the Eden Project to showcase them, whilst the good and mighty of the tailor trash pop world paraded themselves in Hyde Park.

It’s seems that now would be the perfect time for Sir Bob to make a rallying call to the likes of U2, Madonna, Robbie Williams and the rest of them, and remind them of their moral obligation to cough up their cash for Africa too.