Masked Police Thug's Sickening G20 Brutality

A masked police thug has been caught on camera in a sickening act of brutality during last week's G20 protests in which London man, Ian Tomlinson, died. 

In a disgusting spectacle of unprovoked violence, the video footage reveals newspaper seller Ian Tomlinson, who was not a protestor, being viciously attacked from behind by a masked baton-wielding police officer. 

The video, obtained by the Guardian, along with eye-witness accounts, directly contradicts the official version of events given by police at the time.

Exclusive footage obtained by the Guardian which can be seen here, shows Tomlinson was attacked from behind and thrown to the ground by a masked baton–wielding police officer in riot gear.

Moments after the assault was captured on video, he suffered a heart attack and died.

In a completely different version of events to that given by police, the video clearly shows the man sauntering home, hands in pockets, in a submissive pose, not making eye contact, before he's viciously attacked.

What is equally disturbing is that the officer is heavily masked with no shoulder number and only the words "MP" for Metropolitan Police on his helmet. The  tactic of using balaclavas to hide the identity of specialist riot control officers from prying eyes, is recent and was also evident during the BJ4BW protests. 

Police then stand round making no attempt to help and only a protester comes to Tomlinson's aid. 

In a frame by frame account of the attack the Guardian reveals: 

• As he walks, with his hands in his pockets, he does not speak to the police or offer any resistance.
• A phalanx of officers, some with dogs and some in riot gear, are close behind him and try to urge him forward.
• A Metropolitan police officer appears to strike him with a baton, hitting him from behind on his upper thigh.
• Moments later, the same policeman rushes forward and, using both hands, pushes Tomlinson in the back and sends him flying to the ground, where he remonstrates with police who stand back, leaving bystanders to help him to his feet.
  

The video footage and eye-witness accounts contradict the official version of events given by police and strengthens calls for a criminal investigation and full jury led inquest into Tomlinson's death.  

In an official statement on the night of Tomlinson's death, Metropolitan Police made no reference to any contact with officers and simply described attempts by police medics and an ambulance crew to save his life after he collapsed.

The police complaints watchdog, the IPCC is only managing an investigation by City of London police into the circumstances of Tomlinson's death after the Guardian published photographs of him on the ground and witness statements indicated he had been assaulted by police officers.

At the time, IPCC commissioner, Deborah Glass, said: "Initially, we had accounts from independent witnesses ... who told us that there had been no contact between the police and Mr Tomlinson when he collapsed."

"However, other witnesses who saw him ... have since told us that Mr Tomlinson did have contact with police officers.

The Guardian is due to hand a dossier of evidence to the police complaints watchdog along with a full report and investigation in tomorrow's newspaper. 

Pictures: Stills taken from Guardian video footage

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Brown On A Wing And A Prayer

Three homes Hoon has joined two homes secretary Smith exposed with their snouts in the trough of the MP's expenses scandal. Brown's G20 summit swindle is being unpicked and unmasked as a con. And his hapless chancellor has admitted he got it wrong about the recession. Brown 'bounced' but now he's fallen flat on his face and hanging on by a wing and a prayer. 

It's starting to look dangerous for a beleaguered Brown as his cunning plans backfire and he faces the wrath of voters. It's all down to trust. Something that is sadly lacking in every twist and turn of the dying days of the now defunct and discredited New Labour brand. 

The Orange Party was among a few brave souls on Thursday/Friday who put their heads above the parapet and slammed Brown's $1 trillion boast as a smoke and mirrors sham. His deceitful G20 promises were exposed as a lie. 

That was reinforced in a devastating demolition job by Peter Oborne which came with a stark warning to the PM that you always get caught out in the end: "Hubris, hoopla and claims that were false, cynical and very, very dangerous".

Today it's the turn of Dominic Lawson in the Sunday Times: 'Gordon Brown's Gang pulls $1 trillion con trick'.

Despite all the hype and spin and the combined might of the White House, Downing Street and the BBC, Brown could only manage a pathetic little itsy bitsy 'bounce' - and that was at the expense of the LibDems not the Tories. 

The YouGov poll was the first test of public opinion since the G20 meeting. Public opinion that was blinded by the spin and hype of the news headlines and often fawning coverage, as Brown basked in his artificially created glory. 

The sad old tired Mirror stands alone milking it for all it's worth but all that happened was some Labour voters who protest against the government when in trouble, returned when, thanks to some of the media, Brown and the gang seemed to be doing OK.

A baby Brown 'bounce' but very short-lived. More importantly, despite all the spin, there wasn't a significant bounce at all. Now that does look bad. 

This was the first poll taken after Smith’s two homes expenses racket and her husband’s penchant for taxpayer porn, not forgetting unemployment minister McNulty. 

The Orange Party reckons the disillusionment with the government because of that sleaze would have been much higher and only the media manipulation of the G20 sham pulled it back from the brink. 

Now, to cap it all, another of the government's  greedy ministers has been exposed in a cheap second homes swindle in another nice 'n sleazy Sunday. This time old greybeard Geoff Hoon. 

In what must take the biscuit of bare-faced cheek, Hoon claimed a second home allowance for his Derby home while letting out his London home and, here's the rub, at the same time the transport secretary was living in a taxpayer-funded Whitehall flat which came with his then job of defence secretary. 

You can't make it up. It just all beggars belief. And the only question remaining is how long will the country have to suffer this fag-end of a government? 

It was and always will be the domestic economy stupid, not grandstanding on the world stage, so now all eyes are on the April 22 Budget.  

But chancellor Darling has told the Sunday Times: "You must not build up any false hope." Too right. But it was Darling who built up the false hope in last autumn's pre-budget report, egged on by a deluded Brown who had the audacity to continue the build up and exactly that "false hope" at his G20 save the world summit sham. 

The Orange Party takes one crumb of comfort. Darling has admitted he sees no green shoots and played down the recent Nationwide 'house price recovery' as a blip. More than a blip old chap. That was a priceless piece of shameless Housepriceballs, deliberately talked up on the day of G20. 

Both Brown and Darling are running out of wriggle-room. The April 22 Budget was put back to allow the spin of G20 to take centre stage. But they'll have to face the music sometime. 

The Budget had been billed as a jobs budget. But the cupboard is bare with just a large IOU note inside and the Bank of England boss is breathing down Darling's neck. There'll be no big deal about a New Deal so there will be no real deal. 

It's looking increasingly like the Budget is the last throw of the dice on the pre-election grid and that, like everything else, will turn out to be a damp squib. 

Brown could well feel the hand of history on him. 'Sunny Jim' Callaghan returned from an economic summit to a vote of no confidence in the commons. He lost the vote, his premiership and the trust of country. 

UPDATE 9pm: Putting angry taxpayers firmly in their place, an arrogant Brown says he has more important issues than MPs' expenses to deal with, according to the BBC. 

  

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Bishop Is Right to Blast 'British' Bull

Spring is in the air and a young man's fancy turns to - England. But will St George come on down from the terraces and return to his rightful place at the heart of the nation? The Archbishop of York reckons the time is right. 

The flag of St George is hidden, buried, defiled and downcast in a crusade against the nation. Time to do more than just lie back and think of England. 

The country is being force-fed a diet of Britishness, with only the occasional outing for the nation in the sports stadiums and on the towers of the churches of England. 

The Orange Party has never bought into this Britishness thing and suspects some nasty little political motives at work behind the scenes. 

But St George isn't dead. He's the proverbial Monty Python parrot. He's only resting. Trotted out as English pride in football and ruby and holding its own alongside similar Welsh, Scottish and Irish pride in the sporting arenas of England and everywhere else. 

Now the Archbishop of York, John Sentamu, has heaped praise on the England football team and fans for rescuing the flag of St George from the bigots, turning it into a banner of unity. A symbol of modern Englishness.

Once a year it's begrudgingly let out of its Britishness box for St George's Day. But the Bishop reckons England’s patron saint is now such a positive national symbol, it could be time to recognise his day as a public holiday.

Not too long ago anyone flying the flag for England was instantly branded a racist as the wave of misguided multiculturalism swept the country and anyone whispering Englishness branded a bigot. 

The Orange Party does not, cannot and will not accept that argument. Why can't an old leftie have a dose of English pride in a liberal democracy? Britishness doesn't exist. Never did. It's a figment of the politically correct NewLabourspeak imagination. And so-called "Britishness" is as illeberal as the pseudo-liberals can get. 

Nothing to do with Britishness, it was spun to bolster Brown, as New Labour's support evaporated in swing English regions. New Labour's cack-handed attempts to resuscitate a British 'national' identity were desperate, motivated by self-interest rather than national pride. 

Britishness can be viewed just as much a sign of exclusion tinged with racism, as the flag of St George, the saltire of Scotland or the Welsh dragon. 

Sentamu offers a ray of hope. The Orange Party has a lot of time for the Uganda born archbishop. He wears his Christian heart on his sleeve, speaks with humility about humanity. Most of all he's not afraid to speak out. Even if that does get up the nose of the pseudos. 

Go along to any football or rugby game. The songs on the terraces are sung by children and adults, men and women, minority and majority ethnic groups belonging to all faiths and religions. You cannot get more inclusive than that. A "shared narrative" if you like the New Labour lingo.

The penny finally dropped when Brown's half-baked plan for a British Day was declared dead in the water. There never was such a thing as Britishness, expect in an ad man's dream and in the minds of smart alecs who dream up television programmes and political soundbites.

Sentamu, the most senior black Anglican, warned that it was vital for the country to find a sense of identity by looking deep into its largely Christian history using symbols such as St George.

It was vital he said “not to forgo our appreciation of an English identity for fear of upset or offence to those who claim such an identity has no place in a multicultural society. Englishness is not diminished by newcomers.”

Those who smell a scent of nationalism and the destruction of the United Kingdom in Sentamu's sentiments have nothing to fear. This has nothing to do with the constitutional monarchy of a United Kingdom. No one is arguing that should change. But the danger it is may not be united for much longer. 

Without this, Sentamu warned, more dangerous influences could fill the vacuum, “whether it be the terror of salafi-jihadism or the insidious institutional racism and bigotry of the British". 

A liberal democracy? Brown's plan to celebrate Britishness had nothing to do with national identity or pride. It was motivated by pure self political interest, an attempt to recreate Blair's 'Cool Britannia', a nostalgic throwback to days of Empire and a belated attempt to get naturalised UK citizens 'on side'.

The Orange Party has long argued that St George's Day should be a national holiday, sitting alongside a St David's Day national holiday for Wales. Scotland and Ireland already have one for their patron saints. 

Shakespeare placed St George at the heart of the national conscience, Spenser too in the Faerie Queen. As St George's Day approaches, the calls will be made once again for a St George's Day but will fall on deaf ears. 

With a twisted irony, the biggest stumbling block to Englishness is the English themselves. That English temperament prefers to sit back, fall down and let political correctness trample all over us, do nothing, look awkward and hope it will all just go away. 

Lie back and think of England but do nothing about it while the country is raped and ravaged and the English heart is ripped out. 

It's time for the English to wake up and take a lesson from Sentamu's heartfelt plea.

The Bishop rounded off his English sermon with the words of 'Land of Hope and Glory' and everyone joined in singing a verse of 'Jerusalem'. Now that's pure Heaven.

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Brown's Smoke And Mirrors Magic Trick

The spin over Brown's summit swindle is in overdrive. Media handlers must be feeling chuffed. But the $1 trillion masterstroke is an economic sleight of hand trick from the master conjurer of smoke and mirrors accounting. 

The G20 charade had to be a huge success and the brow-beaten public had to get used to Brown's $1 trillion sham to save the world. The big media manipulators at the White House and Downing Street would make sure of that. He may have a spring in his step now but any Brown 'bounce' will be short-lived.

The summit was a pointless and meaningless waste of time and money. The Franco-German split with the US and UK much deeper than some would wish to believe. 

Sure the beginning of a thaw between the US and Russia was tremendously significant. But that happened well away from the summit at another time and in another place. 

But this was blown up by Brown as an economic summit. That's how it was billed and that's what deluded Brown was pinning his hopes and dreams on for an election victory. 

The build up to $1 trillion has been hailed as some kind of 'victory' but it is simply not true. At best it's window dressing of old promised money, dressed up as new. 

The problem with a promise is that it can raise false hopes. There's a huge difference between what's promised and what's delivered to people worried about homes, jobs and businesses. That will be laid bare only in Darling's budget in a few weeks time. The jury will be the voters. A point made by an astute Peter Riddell over at the Times.

This is not the $1 trillion 'fiscal stimulus' Brown had been wandering around demanding over the last few months. In fact 'fiscal stimulus' barely gets a mention at all. It's a funding increase for the IMF and World Bank - something that had already been agreed by world finance ministers.

Burningourmoney  dubs it 'funny money'. Frazer Nelson over at the Spectator has also produced a detailed forensic analysis concluding: "The world is about to learn how illusory a Brown promise really is." The Orange Party reckons it's all a big fat lie.

Not a penny of cold hard cash has been pledged. The  IMF would print this money. No one has stumped up any new cash. It’s printing money for the cash-strapped countries on the verge of going bust after their borowing boom binge left them with crippling debt. All part of the "pure Brown-style fiscal conjuring."

A crack-down on tax havens is not a G20 initiative, it's been kicking around for a while. Banning trade barriers has already been agreed but most countries have actually increased trade barriers as the recession depression kicked in. Hedge funds should be regulated. We know that already but not a word on how.

Brown’s gold selling advice to the IMF is the most mischievous to get him off the hook. After all this was the man who single handedly sold the UK's gold reserves at a knock-down price.

Both Brown and Obama had staked their reputations on trying to get the world to sing to their hymn sheet and cough up new money. Both failed. No wonder it's been spun as a huge success. 

It all looked and sounded so good on the telly but it was supposed to. That's what media managers are for. And it looks good in some of the newspaper headlines. That's what the spinners are for. 

When reality kicks in, people struggling in a rotten economy will ask: Whatever happened about that G20 summit and the $1 trillion? What's in it for us?  The  Paul Daniels magicians answer is - not a lot. 

It was all a con. The $1 trillion sham won't save the world, won't save Brown's skin and won't save him from the unforgiving wrath of voters.  

As the clear-up begins and taxpayers are left to pick up the massive tab, Brown is just left facing the same old piles of trials but with more practised smiles. It's still the domestic economy, stupid. 

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Brown Faces Piles Of Trials With Smiles

The G20 charade is going to be a huge success and the brow-beaten public better get used to it. The big media manipulators at the White House and Downing Street will make sure of that. Away from the G for Gordon summit, the Supreme Leader face piles of trials with smiles. 

Amid all the hype and unprecedented security, little things out of sight are not out of mind. 

Obama is living up to his handle as the boring teleprompter president and he didn't disappoint but in the US it's his meeting with the Russian president which dominated the media.

That mini US-Russian summit between Obama and Medvedev, could mark the beginning of a thaw in relationships and that is highly significant. 

But all that happened behind the closely guarded walls of the US embassy and, apart from a stock press pic, well out of sight. 

The Times splashed with the meeting because it is so significant. (The Times did the same when King met the Queen - another highly significant event). Mike Smithson over at politicalbetting too has picked up on it. 

But the US-Russian meeting happened as an aside to Brown's G20 and it is not to Downing Street's advantage to push it. 

The Orange Party flagged up the hope for a much needed breakthrough in a G20 pre-piece yesterday and it may well prove to be a godsend.  

Meanwhile, as the G20 leaders meet for four and a half hours in fortress Docklands, a little piece of good news and green shoots is needed to brighten up the day. The spinners didn't disappoint. 

That came in a shocking piece of recovery 'news' with a "surprise rise in house prices", based on a piddling little spurious survey from the Nationwide which is set to gobble up Brown's Building society.

That Housepriceballs is reported with glee by the BBC. No surprise there. But under normal circumstances it wouldn't be given house room elsewhere. 

In a miraculous piece of media engineering, the spun 'good news' to help the medicine go down, hit the international wires, picked up and reported globally by Bloomberg and Reuters. Some good news from dear old Blighty for the leaders to chew over at breakfast. 

Buried in the 'good' news: "The Nationwide warned against concluding the market had turned."

So not much of a story, then?

Top prize for the biggest gaff of Brown's Best Bits goes to the deluded prime minister throwing caution to the wind and getting all carried away, proclaiming: "We are within a few hours of agreeing a global plan for economic recovery and reform". 

That was yesterday afternoon and the Orange Party is still waiting. 

Meanwhile Sarko and Merkel were staging their alternative show down the road, showing up an almighty split between US and Europe. Many at Westminster share their views. But part two's instalment today may be a kiss and make-up for the cameras? 

Love-struck Brown made a complete fool of himself drooling over the Chosen One. 

But it was the split second when Obama told the Queen he'd had breakfast with Brown that took the tea and biscuit. Her face was a picture - you could almost taste the displeasure. 

Mandleson is on top form in spinning overdrive but back in the real world, Smith, Myners, the Royal Mail sell-off and the rotten state of the economy are not dead. They are just resting. 

Both Cameron and Clegg can see that a mile off. Brown is so wrapped up in his own ego, it's beginning to hurt. 

UPDATE 5pm: As expected, after all the big talk G20 ended - in a "giant con". There was no big deal about Brown's New Deal. The $1 trillion is not the 'fiscal stimulus' Brown had been banging on about for months. It's funding for his pals at the IMF and World Bank, so cash-strapped countries can borrow from it and get deeper in debt.  

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G2 Likely Lads On Road To Nowhere

The Chosen One has landed and don't we know it, dropping by for a cup of tea and chat with the Queen, while Europe’s leaders give him the cold shoulder and voters here are preparing to give Brown the boot. 

London's locked down as the Likely Lads polish their egos in a money wasting charade, amid unprecedented hype and security. 

The Popular One is packing a weighty agenda as well his teleprompter, on his first journey across the Pond since the American public were duped into staking all their hopes and dreams on a slick snake-oil salesman from the Windy City. 

For the White House, both China and Russia are the key reasons for the London stop-over and a quickie show-case summit is neither the time nor the place to look for magic economic solutions.

Meeting Her Maj is a chance to go global with media coverage. But there will be no time for spin or a teleprompter at that meeting. Anxious about the state of the economy and her people's dire future, the Queen has already been briefed by her King. 

There'll be no manufactured and manipulated mass adulation for the Superstar this time. This is the real world. Something which the president is finding hard to come to grips with. 

In London, all police leave is cancelled, hospitals on stand-by, drains and sewers checked for pesky protestors in a £7 million lock-down. The Beloved One brings with him two aircraft, two helicopters, two bulletproof road-beasts and a 500-strong army of special agents and advisors. And a present for the Queen. And a teleprompter. And for what? 

G20 has dwindled to G2. He stands alone with his new Brown poodle and a painful fiscal stimulus, with France's Sarkozy threatening a walk-out and Germany's Merkel giving a resounding Nein.

Obama's rapid-fire tour comes with a Depression begging bowl. Brother can you spare a dime? More help in Afghanistan? A co-ordinated fiscal stimulus? Sorry, we're out of cash. And troops.

Desperate but divided on ways to lift their countries from economic misery, the London summit was doomed before it started, overshadowed by a US-European row about how to respond to the economic crisis. 

Europeans want institutional reform. The Deluded Ones want a fiscal stimulus, with trillions of dollars of borrowed money on borrowed time threatening to bankrupt their economies. 

The two students of Keynesian economics prefer to concentrate on the Master's borrow and spend economic science solution for a recession, neatly skimming over the first half, where Keynes was adamant that only came after squirrelling away cash during the boom years for that inevitable rainy day. 

Setting just the right tone for the EU-US summit in Prague at the weekend, deposed Czech prime minister Mirek Topolanek, helpfully warned that US economic policy has put the country on the “road to hell”. 

Away from the love-in, Obama and his Brown have split Europe, wanting to borrow and spend their way out of a recession depression. Europe wants to concentrate on regulation and controls which would not go down well with Brown's banking buddies. China, which holds the purse strings, may lend to dodgy countries but only if you ask them very nicely. 

For Obama, wearing his Bush neocon hat, it's off to meet Nato chiefs to bully them into sending more troops to kill more muslims in his Vietnam war in Afghanistan, with a dangerous expansion inside Pakistan. Then swapping for a pseudo-liberal hat, swinging over to reach out to muslims in Istanbul. Crazy guy, crazy policies.

Fresh from his sermon on the mount at St Paul's and staking everything on a vanity save the world summit, no doubt G20 minus 18 will be spun as an amazingly wonderful success for the Supreme Leader. 

But with his eye on the chance and knowing which side his bread is buttered, Obama has found time to squeeze in a meeting with Cameron, waiting in the prime ministerial wings. 

Any real breakthrough, particulary a much hoped for thaw with Russia, will happen behind closed doors. A skilfully worded and totally meaningless communiqué will be issued but there'll be no big deal about a New Deal. One of the few things world leaders are likely to agree on is that Brown's borrowing plan is not the answer. 

Deluded Brown has staked his political future on the G for Gordon summit and the endorsement of the Popular One. But the president has four years of wriggle room left. 

When the dust settles, love-struck Brown will be left alone in the world with egg on his face, with only his Downing Street photograph album and a boxed set of unplayable DVDs. And taxpayers will be left with up to a £50 million bill. 

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