IPNAs PSPOs and Dispersal Orders

Hello, rabid readers, and welcome to my first blog of 2014. I love the start of a new year, don't you? It feels like a fresh start and the beginning of something new. Does anyone have any New Year resolutions? I don't usually bother with them, as I think resolutions have to be implemented when they come to you... but it happened that this year I actually had some good ideas that coincided with the New Year, so I thought they'd fit nicely. One is to finish my political novel, which has the working title Perseverance, though that might change... and second is that I want to stop thinking about who I want to be, and actually be that person. I analyse myself a lot. Sometimes that's a good thing, but at other points I think I overanalyse, and that gets in the way of actually getting on with the things that I want to do in life. Also, I had one written for me during a New Year's Eve game that I have to eat sweets every day, which so far I have been pretty successful in keeping up!

I have quite a few things I'm going to talk about in this one actually, and while we're on the subject of New Year, I think I may as well start with that. I went to a friend's house for New Year, and we watched the countdown to 2014 on television, and it made me think that these celebrations are really over the top. The amount of money that must be spent on fireworks and music and all the other things that are part of the celebration is astonishing, and it isn't as though anyone will remember it in the future. It is exactly the same every year; in five years time, no one will remember the countdown to 2014 specifically. I think for a really big event, like for the new Millennium, such a huge celebration would be very appropriate, but just for an ordinary New Year, I think that it is incredibly disproportionate. I had a rather interesting conversation with my mum about this; she said that she went to the celebrations in London once, a long time ago, and it was much less glamourous - just a group of people in Trafalgar Square, counting down and then walking home, and there were none of the big musical acts or anything. I wonder when it all started the way that it is? I suppose it was probably around the new Millennium. Once you have a big event like that, then anything less becomes an anti-climax in future years. You cannot have an event that wasn't as glamorous as the year before. I just find it pretty sickening that we spend this much money on foolish New Year celebrations that help pretty much nobody, given the amount of poverty and debt that we have in this country. I recently learned that our debts are so huge, we owe nine times what we are worth. Why are we spending money on utterly useless celebration events?

For a while now, I have been planning to blog about IPNAs (Injunctions to Prevent Nuisance and Annoyance) and PSPOs (Public Space Protection Orders). These are the new behaviour orders which are being rushed through Parliament, and for all intents and purposes, they are the new ASBOs. According to Scriptonite Daily, IPNAs are applicable where on the 'balance of probabilities', a person has or might engage in behaviour 'capable of causing annoyance' to another person. Personally, I think that that is absurd, as that could pretty much apply to any of us at any time. It makes no sense; you can't say or do anything that might annoy someone, even if no one is actually annoyed. Besides which, you could argue that the Injunction itself annoys people, so it entirely contradicts itself.

The orders can be issued to anyone aged 10 or over, and there is no limit to how long an IPNA can be applied for. Hypothetically, a person could receive an IPNA aged ten and retain it for their entire life. The subject of an IPNA can be found in breach not simply for doing things that they have been banned from doing, but also from not doing things that the IPNA states that they must. An IPNA can be applied for by Local Authorities, police, some transport bodies and some NHS authorities. The consequences of breaching an IPNA are serious. The breaching of an IPNA has been added to the conditions for securing possession of a home - meaning a ten-year-old child breaching an IPNA could result in the entire family being evicted from their council house. Breaching the orders can also result in jail time for anyone over fourteen.

PSPOs are, for me personally, even more worrying. According to Scriptonite Daily, they will replace Public Space Orders, Dog Control Orders, Gating Orders and a host of other orders intended to keep aggressive drunken people, drug dealers and dog poo off our streets. But it is plain that the actual targets are people like myself; people who carry politically challenging ideas. These new present a huge threat to the freedom of lawful assembly.

PSPOs will be granted where ‘activities carried on or likely to be carried on in a public place will have or have had a detrimental effect on the quality of life of those in the locality’ (p21). They can be used to restrict an activity or require people to perform an activity in a certain way. They require substantially less consultation than current alcohol free zones or dog control zones and rather than applying to everyone, they can be applied to specific groups of people (the homeless, the unemployed, racial/religious groups etc.) – opening the door for discrimination. These rules could see homeless people or young people lawfully excluded from public spaces. These orders could apply for up to three years, and be extended by another three years at the end of their term.

There is one more new power which I need to blog about. I am talking of dispersal orders for groups of two or more people thought to be antisocial. Under the current Direction to Leave powers, anyone over 10 years of age can be asked to disperse from a ‘locality’ and stay dispersed for a period not exceeding 48 hours. Current Dispersal Orders mean a Police Superintendent (or an officer with specific written authority from the SI) can disperse groups of two or more people in areas where there has been ‘persistent anti-social behaviour’ or take home any young person under the age of 16 who is in a dispersal zone between 9pm and 6am. Anyone failing to comply with a Dispersal Order faces a fine of up to £2,500 or up to three months in prison.

Under the new Dispersal Powers, police constables and even Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) can issue dispersal orders if they think a group of two or more persons might harass, alarm or distress others in the vicinity (p16). The PCSO or constable can specify how long the person/group must remain out of the designated area, and by which route they must leave, and also confiscate any items of their property which they deem anti-social. Failure to comply with any element of these orders results in a fine of up to £5,000 or three months in prison.

I find these things to be entirely erroneous actually. I feel that the technicalities behind them all are so incredibly broad that they could ultimately be brought in to silence anyone for pretty much anything. For me as a political activist and architect of social change, this is obviously very worrying. If I'm being completely honest, Bills such as this make me genuinely quite frightened of what the future has in store for me. Whilst political campaigning is a huge part of my life, I have a separate life to lead outside of this, and I worry that the consequences for me if I carry on the line of campaigning that I have been involved with since 2010 may prevent me from having the freedom to do the other things with my life that I want to do. On the other hand, this is exactly how these things are supposed to make me feel, and I'm not willing to be intimidated into keeping myself quiet about such things. They can take my civil liberties if they want to - although I'd really rather they didn't! Ultimately, while I obviously want to feel safe and secure, there are people like myself in this world for a reason, and if everyone let the powers that be dictate their lives over and above what is right - well, then no progress would be made.

Whilst writing this blog, I have had quite a long online chat with an acquaintance of mine who I have worked with on social change issues in the past, and I feel that I understand it a lot more now than I did when I started typing this out. As the Bill has now got as far as the House of Lords, there is very little that can be done to prevent it, and we'd be wasting our time to try. However, all is not lost. Here is the list of the things that I intend to do to sort this out in the future months and possibly years:

1) I will make sure that as many people as possible actually know about this. It seems to me that this is rather little-known - possibly as a deliberate strategy - and I think that the more people know about this, the easier it will be to create an outcry.

2) I will contact the police forces in the areas where I live (Colchester, and possibly my hometown of Bristol) and determine what their policies are regarding this, if they intend to implement these powers, and if they do, to what extent. I will put pressure on them to use common sense regarding people's individual freedom over and above all else. I recommend everyone does this in their own neighbourhood.

3) I will read through the legal material concerning this legislation, and determine which parts I want to change. There is no point focussing on repealing the entire Bill, but it can be changed so it is not so broad.

4) Having done the previous three things, I will focus as much of my attention as I am physically able to do petitioning Parliament to amend the Bill with regards to the sections that I will by then have specified.

I will of course continue to blog about this issue throughout.

I'd just like to say one more thing about this. There is a song that I sing to myself sometimes. I saw it in a theatre production of Franz Kafka's The Trial by the theatre company Splendid, and it is The Ballad For The Blissfully Ignorant. It goes like this:

They tell me when

They tell me how

I never question why

I trust what I read

I trust what I hear

Why would our leaders lie?

I'm all right, Jack

Though I don't know Jack

But one thing I have found:

If we know our place

And we don't speak out

They'll keep us safe and sound!

I find this song quite comforting, because I never want to be that person, and singing it reinforces that notion. I may personally be able to keep myself more comfortable by following that mantra, but it ultimately does not help anyone. I could not live with myself knowing that I had things that I could do to help people, and didn't do them. I will never lose my enthusiasm and optimism for social change. I think that's an attitude that I can be proud of, and I'd encourage everyone to look on things with the same viewpoint. After all, if you don't, who will?

Right, I think that this blog has been quite negative, so I'll leave you on a really positive note. 2013 was a great year for the LGBT community. The below link will bring a smile to your face as you read about the amount of progress that was made in securing people's freedoms. May the good work continue across 2014, and the years to come.

http://www.policymic.com/articles/76835/46-most-iconic-lgbt-moments-of-2013

Thanks for reading this! I think it was one of the most exhausting blogs I have ever written - but possibly one of the best. Having finished it, I think it was well worth the time I spent!

Watch this space for more political blogs soon.

Food banks and Arctic 30

Merry Christmas!

This blog was going to be written on Christmas Eve. Then I was tired and left it until Christmas Day, and now finally on the evening of Boxing Day I'm actually doing it. (Okay, so I'm a little flaky about updating this sometimes... what can I say?)

I knew that I wanted to write a blog about food banks, but I wasn't really sure how to phrase it. I feel that the most appropriate way would be to bring to your attention a woman named Jack Monroe. She is someone who I have recently grown to admire, as this Christmas she successfully ran a petition to ask Parliament to debate hunger and the causes of it in the UK. I will quote her petition text below:

'On Christmas Day 2011, I sat on my sofa by myself in a freezing cold flat, with no television, no presents, no food in the fridge that had been turned off at the mains. I had no tree, no decorations, nothing to mark the day as any different from any other.

I was unemployed, broke, and broken. I hadn't bought a single present for my one-year-old son, and instead let him go to his father’s for the day, knowing I could not give him a Christmas myself.

This year, I’m lucky that things are different for me. But I am outraged that for 60,000 other people are facing the same situation. How can it be that in 2013, 20,000 children face Christmas with empty cupboards and no presents? And why is that figure three times the number that faced a hungry Christmas last year?

I don’t think this is acceptable in the seventh richest country in the world – and I’d really like to know the reasons why it’s happening so we can stop it.

That’s why I’m launching this petition calling for parliament to debate the causes of UK hunger – and to ask why, in modern Britain, foodbank use is escalating so rapidly.

This December, I’m backing the Daily Mirror and Unite the Union’s ‘Give Our Kids A Christmas’ Appeal for the Trussell Trust to raise money for Foodbanks. But we want to do more than just raise money to help – we also want get to the root of UK hunger.

I know what it’s like to turn the fridge off because it's empty anyway. To unscrew the lightbulbs to alleviate the temptation of turning them on. I spent countless mornings sitting across the breakfast table from my son, envious of his small portion of cereal mashed with a little bit of water, or his slice of toast with jam. "Where's Mummy's breakfast?" he used to ask. Mummy wasn't hungry. Mummy hadn’t been hungry the previous night either, and I used to wonder how long it would take him to notice that Mummy wasn’t very hungry at all any more.

I was referred to my local foodbank for help by a Sure Start children's centre, after staff noticed that my son and I always had seconds and thirds of the free lunch they provided.

This Christmas, my son and I will have food on the table. But 60,000 others won’t. It’s not just the festive season – 350,000 people received three-days emergency food from foodbanks between April and September this year. Yet supposedly the economy is recovering, and banker’s bonuses are back?

Please join me by signing this petition calling for a Parliamentary Debate. Make politicians confront what is happening. We need to stop turning a blind eye.

In the words of Desmond Tutu: "There comes a point where we need to stop just pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they're falling in."'
Anyway, I signed this petition, and it worked - to an extent -, because food banks and hunger were debated in parliament. Over 60 Labour MPs requested to speak at the debate and they took turns to tell the stories of their constituents. They talked about the ex-serviceman who turned to a foodbank while waiting for four weeks for Atos to deal with his appeal; the story of two hungry young boys who came to ask for one packet of cereal and one packet of drinking chocolate as a treat; and the man whose benefits were sanctioned when he couldn't attend an assessment interview because he was in hospital with his wife who was seriously ill with cancer. Unfortunately, no legislation has changed as of yet. Iain Duncan Smith left the debate halfway through - although he did turn up in the first place, which is according to Jack, a victory in itself.

I'm so proud of everyone who came together to make this petition work, especially Jack who started the whole thing. I think that 2014 will be a year in which a lot more will be done to tackle hunger, both here in the UK and internationally. I will continue to blog about it, so please keep your eyes posted on here, and on things run by Jack Monroe and other people involved with similar campaigns.

There is just one more thing I'd like to update you all on - the Arctic 30 have been released! Now, I don't think I've blogged about the Arctic 30, but I have been following their case very closely. Essentially, they are 30 people from Greenpeace who were imprisoned for two months in Russia, along with their ship, Arctic Sunrise. After a great deal of petitioning, trials and campaigning, all thirty have been released and allowed home. It is not over as many still have charges against them, but currently at least one of them has had charges dropped, and I am very much hoping that the same will happen for the others. So what with this and Pussy Riot finally being released, I think we can all have a little positivity at the end of this year.

So peace out, all have an amazing New Year and I'll do some more blogging soon.

The Mandelas of the world

The significance of poppies

Hello!

Now, it has been almost three months since I last updated this, which I think is my longest gap since I started doing this. I feel awful about this. I have had a lot of things going on, such as leaving home to go to University, but even so I feel that I should have found more time for my blog. I think the longer I leave it to update this, the harder it gets to do it again; I still come across things that I want to blog about, but then I think 'Why am I blogging about this and not that thing that happened last week?' and that destructive domino effect continues. The way to make this run smoothly is to update it frequently and regularly, which I always try to do; just sometimes it doesn't work out like that.

I'm going to start out with an article I read in the Guardian last week by Harry Leslie Smith, which explains why as of next year, he will no longer wear a poppy on Remembrance Day. I think that he makes some very valid points:

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/nov/08/poppy-last-time-remembrance-harry-leslie-smith

I very much agree with his position here. While I am too young to remember the significance of it, I feel that Remembrance Day is very politicised. I don't entirely see the point of wearing a poppy, and I generally tend not to wear one myself; not because I don't appreciate the sacrifice that the soldiers made, but because in my opinion people generally wear them to make a point to the world. Politicians and celebrities wear them, and it is almost a badge to show that you know how to care. It's not that I don't respect people who wear poppies, but at the same time I think that you have to wear them for the right reasons; if it's just to be seen to be doing what is politically correct, then you may as well not bother. For the same reason, I don't really see the point of having two minutes' silence. I don't think it really achieves anything. Maybe other people will have a different take on this, but when I have taken part in silences, I have never felt in any way closer or more respectful of those who have died; I tend to feel more that way while reading, or talking to people about this kind of thing. Of course I'm aware and grateful for the sacrifices made during wartime, but I prefer to ponder this in a personal way, rather than taking part in a celebration which actually, when it comes down to it, actually equates to another attempt to be politically correct and to keep up with the Joneses.

I have also been thinking a lot about the concept of 'absolutism' - which in a war, is a step up from being a conscientious objector. A conscientious objector refuses to fight; an absolutist refuses to help the war effort in any way whatsoever. I think if our country is caught up in another war, I may declare myself one. I was talking about this recently with a friend, who said that it very much depends on the intentions behind the war in the first place; the First World War was rather unnecessary, whereas the Second World War was a fight for something that was actually important. I thought about this, and I said that of course I'd do something if I felt that a war was necessary; however, I tend to feel that it rarely is. I can't comment on the Second World War, as I wasn't born then and I feel strongly that I am not qualified to judge the necessity of something political that I wasn't even around to see.

I do feel though that in today's society, while the sacrifices of soldiers during wars are honoured, there is a suggestion that fighting is a brave and admirable thing to do. Well, it undoubtedly is brave, but I would not say it was admirable. I very much object to the idea of the army; I feel that the way to resolve things is through discussion and negotiation, and not to go in all guns blazing. This is a rather idealist viewpoint, but I think if more people thought like me, there would be a lot less sadness and depression in this world. I also question why, in an age when we are being constantly told that there isn't enough money to keep the NHS free for all and when we hear of people who are unable to heat their own homes this winter, we are spending so much money on the hundred year anniversary of World War I. Yes, it is important to remember it and learn from it, but you don't need a huge event with thousands spent on it to do that. I feel that it can be added to the list (with the royal wedding, the Queen's jubilee, the Olympics and Margaret Thatcher's funeral) of things that, while important to some people, we seem to have lots of money to spend on, whilst the level of poverty in this country is going up. Why can we not spend money on things that will benefit people who are still alive today, instead of those who are dead and gone?

Hopefully I will find time to post more frequent updates in future. Thanks for reading.

Sleeping out on College Green, and the latest about Chelsea Manning (formerly known as Bradley Manning)

Hello!

It's been a little while since I blogged again, hasn't it? I've been meaning to blog about The Sleep-Out for a while, but things happened and I ended up not getting around to it until two days it was over.

So. Two nights ago I slept on College Green in Bristol. Not in a tent or anything, just me, fully dressed, in a sleeping bag covered in a bin liner, with the remains of my supper of custard creams and bottled water tucked in at the bottom next to my toes. And it wasn't just me, there was a whole host of other people there. The intention for this was to play at being homeless in opposition to the horrendously unfair Bedroom Tax, which I have talked about on previous blogs. It was a good experience actually. I met some cool people, increased my own understanding of the bedroom tax, talked to some guys who had actually been made homeless because of it, and most importantly of all, gained more signatures for our petition.

Our petition needs to get 3,500 signatures by the end of September. It's only Bristol-based, but is part of an overarching campaign that is going nationwide. The aim of our petition is to persuade the council and Mayor Ferguson to support a No Evictions policy, and to refuse to implement the Bedroom Tax. The link is here, so if you have a Bristol postcode, please sign it if you have not done so already:

http://epetitions.bristol.gov.uk/epetition_core/community/petition/2322

Some people have said to me that it doesn't affect them. They don't understand that the Bedroom Tax is part of a movement of austerity that will affect everyone at some point. Cuts are being made to everything that is there to help people, and this is part of that. There is no intention to it either; it won't solve the financial crisis because it actually costs the taxpayer £6,000 to evict someone. All this does is target those who are less fortunate.

There is one more thing I want to talk about, and that is the soldier who I have talked about in the past under the name Bradley Manning, but will henceforth be referred to on this blog as Chelsea Manning. You may or may not have heard that she is now identifying as a woman, and will be starting hormone treatment as soon as possible. Anyway, she was sentenced to 35 years. Not good.

However, I do feel that from this point, the Free Chelsea campaign can only go up. It might not be for a while, but I feel confident that if there are enough like-minded people (and there are) Chelsea will be freed and one day, will be honoured as the hero that she is. I have in the past referred to her as a modern-day Mandela, with one exception: South Africans often think of Mandela not just as being a great hero, but also as a personal friend or a member of their own family. With Chelsea, we go a step further. Her supporters are literally her. We all feel her pain, and we will all do what we can to achieve her freedom. Please sign this petition (you need to make an account on the White House website first):

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/restore-united-states’-human-rights-record-and-grant-clemency-pvt-bradley-manning/L7zHZv4r (for the record, Chelsea has requested that her former name of Bradley continue to be used on petitions, which is why this petition still refers to Bradley Manning.)

I will leave you with a rather humbling letter by someone called Aura Bogado about how she feels that she failed Chelsea Manning. I think all of us have felt like this at some point, but it is always possible to make up for it, I feel:

http://www.thenation.com/blog/175877/open-letter-how-i-failed-chelsea-manning#

Take care, everyone. Peace out x

What makes you proud to be British?

Hi everyone.

Yesterday I went to a socialist meeting in Bristol, discussing predominantly the Monarchy and whether they have a place in Britain today. Now personally, I don't support the Monarchy, for the following reasons: a) I don't like it that the Queen has a say in legislation without earning that role; b) I don't like it that they all have to be within the Church of England, as I believe that within secular Britain, no religion should have any value over any other belief or faith; c) In an age where people are struggling to stay afloat, there aren't many jobs around and people are having their benefits cut, I don't know how we can justify spending the amount of money that we do on the Monarchy. I'd be fine with having them there if all of these points were sorted out, because then they wouldn't affect me. However, I do think that the best idea would be to discontinue the Monarchy, because in my opinion they are the ultimate example of rich, middle-class families being more important than the common folk. I think that this is an idea that has largely been abolished in this country, yet we still have the Royal Family, who keep that idea going.

At this meeting, a lot of ideas and thoughts were thrown around concerning this subject. One of the most prevalent ones was that in an age when most people have very different values to how we did fifty or sixty years ago, how is it that we still have this Royal Family as a big part of British culture? It was actually pointed out that more people seem to care about the Monarchy now than they did ten years ago. My answer to that is the way that the Royals have been portrayed by the media. Maybe it's just because I'm quite young and have only become aware of these things in recent years, but before Prince William and Kate became engaged, no one seemed to care one way or the other about the Royal Family. At that time, the media portrayed them as Britain's Next Big Thing. Kate has the Girl Next Door story about her, with the idea that any girl could marry her fairytale prince (which of course isn't true; she is from a very wealthy and notable family) and the two of them seemed to represent an idea for the future of everyone. For some reason, everyone seems to like young, attractive people who represent something; sometimes it's a pop star or a reality TV show contestant, and this time it was a young prince and his partner.

I pity the newborn prince, I really do. I question what sort of life he is going to have. In the photos of William and Kate as they leave the hospital, they are waving at the cameras and smiling at the public, and it all looks very superficial. Neither of them appears especially fond of or interested in their child. I think that over the last twenty years or so, it has become clear that these people care more about their own reputation with the public than about their personal relationships with one another. So long as they look fantastic on the surface, none of the rest of it matters. I imagine that Prince George will be brought up predominantly by staff, and not have a particularly close emotional bond with his parents. He'll grow up having to perform Royal duties, and then one day become the Head of State and Head of the Church of England, and probably have a perfect wife and a few children of his own, and the whole ghastly thing will start all over again. In a society that has more important things to worry about, why is this still relevant?

There was one specific question that came up at this meeting which fuels the title of this blog. Apparently recently there was a television programme about what makes people proud to be British. I haven't seen it (though I may watch it just to see what I am dealing with), but apparently it was all to do with Union Jacks and afternoon tea and all that nonsense. I'd just like to say that personally, I am very proud to be British, but I am proud to be British for a totally different reason. I am proud to live in a country where there is basic democracy (although I know that that can be improved), where there are a variety of different cultures, ideologies, faiths and beliefs. I was lucky to have gone to a secondary school that had a huge variety of people with different backgrounds, and a high number of ethnic minorities. I think this has made me a very open-minded person, and stopped me from becoming a middle-class pseudo-snob (a pseudo-snob is someone who on the surface does not appear to be snobbish, but deep down is more so than they would like to be. A lot of my friends would fall into that category.) I'd like there to be a lot more integration, and a lot more awareness of the differences and similarities between people. I love interacting with people, and also watching people interact with one another. Sadly, I feel that in recent years, this is something that is being driven out of Britain, as we seem to be getting back to a state where the rich are more powerful than the poor. I find this very disappointing; I'm going to do what I can to get back to how it was a few years ago, when less people cared about such things.

One more thing... I heard about this at the meeting, and I can't believe that I missed it at the time, but it was on the same day as Bradley's trial, so I was probably focussing on that. A group of disabled people have gone to Court protesting that the new 'bedroom tax' discriminates against them, because many of them have to sleep in a different room to their partner, for one reason or another. They claim disability discrimination, and the judge said that it wasn't disability discrimination. There will be an appeal, and now that I know about it, I will be following this case avidly. At the moment, I am going out quite a lot trying to raise more awareness of this bedroom tax and get more signatures on our petition; hopefully, it can be stopped for good. I think that people power is often underestimated. The more people there are willing and committed to fighting this cause, the less chance there will be of it being forced through.

Take care, everyone! More blogs soon.

I Am Bradley Manning

Good evening everyone!

If you are reading this, you probably have some knowledge of what has happened tonight regarding the ongoing Bradley Manning case, but I'm going to reiterate it anyway. Tonight, Judge Lind finally passed the verdict on Bradley, and he has been found guilty of 19 charges, including five charges of espionage and theft. Crucially however, he was acquitted of 'aiding the enemy'. His sentence hasn't been passed yet; there is no minimum sentence, but the maximum sentence is 136 years (why they apparently expect him to live that long is beyond me, to be honest.)

Obviously this is quite disappointing; we were all hoping that he would be acquitted, especially given the appalling way that he has been treated up until now. While I did not think it was particularly likely that he would be acquitted, it does not stop me from being disappointed and angry with this decision.

However, I do think that some progress has been made. The one drop of hope in a stormy sea is that the authorities have admitted that Bradley Manning did not aid the enemy. I feel that this is the clincher; once something like that has been conceded, it restores hope that there is more progress to come. I think that Bradley's defence lawyer David Coombs spoke it best when he said, 'We won the battle, now we need to go win the war.' I'm not going to stop campaigning. There is so much more that can be done (some suggestions of how you can help below). We are Bradley's supporters. Together we stand as one on his behalf. He will not stop fighting, and neither will we.

Bradley's family released this statement this afternoon

'While we are obviously disappointed in today's verdicts, we are happy that Judge Lind agreed with us that Brad never intended to help America's enemies in any way. Brad loves his country and was proud to wear its uniform. 

We want to express our deep thanks to David Coombs, who has dedicated three years of his life to serving as lead counsel in Brad's case. We also want to thank Brad's Army defense team, Major Thomas Hurley and Captain Joshua Tooman, for their tireless efforts on Brad's behalf, and Brad's first defense counsel, Captain Paul Bouchard, who was so helpful to all of us in those early confusing days and first suggested David Coombs as Brad's counsel.

Most of all, we would like to thank the thousands of people who rallied to Brad's cause, providing financial and emotional support throughout this long and difficult time, especially Jeff Paterson and Courage to Resist and the Bradley Manning Support Network. Their support has allowed a young army private to defend himself against the full might of not only the US army but also the US government.'

So, what can I do to help, do I hear you ask? Well to start with, you can get in touch with Major Jeffrey Buchanan. He is the Convening Court Martial for Bradley's trial, and has the authority to lessen Bradley's sentence, whatever he is charged with. You should remind him of the following points:

-That Bradley was held for nearly a year in abusive solitary confinement, which the UN torture chief called 'cruel, inhuman and degrading'.

-That President Obama has unlawfully influenced the trial with his declaration of Bradley Manning's guilt.

-That the media has been continually blocked from transcripts and documents related to the trial, and that it has only been through the efforts of Bradley Manning's supporters that any transcripts exist.

-That under the UCMJ, a soldier has the right to a speedy trial, and that is was unconscionable to wait three years before starting the court martial

-That absolutely no one was harmed by the release of documents that exposed war crimes, unnecessary secrecy and disturbing foreign policy.

-That Bradley Manning is a hero who did the right thing when he revealed the truth about wars that are based on lies.

I have already been in touch with Major Buchanan, and I'd request that anyone reading this does the same. His email address is jeffrey.s.buchanan@us.army.mil.

The other thing that you can do is to assist RootsAction with their petition to award Bradley the 2013 Nobel Peace Prize. At the moment, they are taking donations to deliver their petition in person to the Norwegian Nobel Committee. I admit that this is something that I have not done - I'm not earning, so am not currently in a position to be able to donate - but anyone who is able to, please chip in what you can. Receiving this prize will be a key stepping-stone to ensuring his freedom. Bradley is counting on you.

In my opinion, Bradley Manning is today's incarnation of the heroism which was once served by Nelson Mandela. Apart from the obvious things, there are two things in particular that strike me as things that Nelson and Bradley share. Firstly, Nelson was not demotivated by his time in prison, and came out as strong as ever and ready to fight. From what I've heard, Bradley is still the same man he always has been. The other thing is that many South Africans feel a personal bond with Mandela, almost as if he was a member of their own family. With Bradley, we go a step further than that. We feel that we are literally him. We share his suffering and his pain, and we will share his relief when he is released and hailed as the hero that he is. Please join me in holding him in your thoughts, and remembering that he is Bradley Manning. I am Bradley Manning. You are Bradley Manning. We are Bradley Manning.

I'm going to leave you with two things. Firstly this lovely video of the Haitians standing with Bradley. Secondly, a rather beautiful quote from The Railway Children by E. Nesbit. I've used this passage before, and I think it is very appropriate here. Thanks for reading my blog. I love you all.

Later on, when the Russian stranger had been made comfortable for the night, Mother came into the girls' room. She was to sleep there in Phyllis's bed, and Phyllis was to have a mattress on the floor, a most amusing adventure for Phyllis. Directly Mother came in, two white figures started up, and two eager voices called:

"Now, Mother, tell us all about the Russian gentleman."

A white shape hopped into the room. It was Peter, dragging his quilt behind him like the tail of a white peacock.

"We have been patient," he said, "and I had to bite my tongue not to go to sleep, and I just nearly went to sleep and I bit too hard, and it hurts ever so. Do tell us. Make a nice long story of it."

"I can't make a long story of it tonight," said Mother; "I'm very tired."

Bobbie knew by her voice that Mother had been crying, but the others didn't know.

"Well, make it as long as you can," said Phil, and Bobbie got her arms round Mother's waist and snuggled close to her.

"Well, it's a story long enough to make a whole book of. He's a writer; he's written beautiful books. In Russia at the time of the Czar one dared not say anything about the rich people doing wrong, or about the things that ought to be done to make poor people better and happier. If one did one was sent to prison."

"But they can't," said Peter; "people only go to prison when they've done wrong."

"Or when the Judges think they've done wrong," said Mother. "Yes, that's so in England. But in Russia it was different. And he wrote a beautiful book about poor people and how to help them. I've read it. There's nothing in it but goodness and kindness. And they sent him to prison for it. He was three years in a horrible dungeon, with hardly any light, and all damp and dreadful. In prison all alone for three years."

Mother's voice trembled a little and stopped suddenly.

"But, Mother," said Peter, "that can't be true now. It sounds like something out of a history book — the Inquisition, or something."

"It was true," said Mother; "it's all horribly true. Well, then they took him out and sent him to Siberia, a convict chained to other convicts — wicked men who'd done all sorts of crimes — a long chain of them, and they walked, and walked, and walked, for days and weeks, till he thought they'd never stop walking. And overseers went behind them with whips — yes, whips — to beat them if they got tired. And some of them went lame, and some fell down, and when they couldn't get up and go on, they beat them, and then left them to die. Oh, it's all too terrible! And at last he got to the mines, and he was condemned to stay there for life — for life, just for writing a good, noble, splendid book."

"How did he get away?"

"When the war came, some of the Russian prisoners were allowed to volunteer as soldiers. And he volunteered. But he deserted at the first chance he got and — "

"But that's very cowardly, isn't it" — said Peter — "to desert? Especially when it's war."

"Do you think he owed anything to a country that had done that to him? If he did, he owed more to his wife and children. He didn't know what had become of them."

"Oh," cried Bobbie, "he had them to think about and be miserable about too, then, all the time he was in prison?"

"Yes, he had them to think about and be miserable about all the time he was in prison. For anything he knew they might have been sent to prison, too. They did those things in Russia. But while he was in the mines some friends managed to get a message to him that his wife and children had escaped and come to England. So when he deserted he came here to look for them."

"Had he got their address?" said practical Peter.

"No; just England. He was going to London, and he thought he had to change at our station, and then he found he'd lost his ticket and his purse."

"Oh, do you think he'll find them? — I mean his wife and children, not the ticket and things."

"I hope so. Oh, I hope and pray that he'll find his wife and children again."

Even Phyllis now perceived that mother's voice was very unsteady.

"Why, Mother," she said, "how very sorry you seem to be for him!"

Mother didn't answer for a minute. Then she just said, "Yes," and then she seemed to be thinking. The children were quiet.

Presently she said, "Dears, when you say your prayers, I think you might ask God to show His pity upon all prisoners and captives."

"To show His pity," Bobbie repeated slowly, "upon all prisoners and captives. Is that right, Mother?"

"Yes," said Mother, "upon all prisoners and captives. All prisoners and captives."