14 JUNE

THE UK’S REFUSAL TO PROSCRIBE THE UDA TERROR ORGANISATION RIDICULED 19 December 1980 – An article appeared in the New York Daily News, based on a telephone conversation with Sam Duddy, the press relations officer of the Ulster Defence Association (UDA), the largest Loyalist paramilitary organization in Northern Ireland. The journalist, Michael Daly expressed his…

LORD MANSFIELD – THROWING SLAVES OVERBOARD CANNOT BE MURDER. [ 22 May 1783 ] On this day in 1783, Lord Mansfied, the presiding judge at an appeal hearing, issued his verdict on the case of  132 men, women and children thrown overboard from a British owned slave ship, the Zong, on 29 November 1871.  It…

GENERAL GASELEE SANCTIONS AN ORGY OF LOOTING IN PEKING [ 17 August 1900 ] On 17 August 1900, Major General Alfred Gaselee issued an order licensing the ransacking of Peking. Gaselee was the commanding officer of a British and Allied expeditionary force. It had arrived in the city just in time to relieve the diplomatic…

NEWSPAPER DISMISSES DANGERS OF TREADMILL, BLAMING IDLE, SULKY SLAVES [ 12 October 1823 ] On 12 October 1823, the English newspaper John Bull, disparaged the concern expressed in a letter from the British colony of Trinidad over a slave called Moses who had broken his leg while being punished on a treadmill. MASS EXECUTIONS TO…

THE UK VETOES UN INITIATIVE TO STOP ASSAULT ON THE YEMENI PORT OF HODEIDAH AND AVERT FAMINE. 14 June 2018 – In a closed session of the UN security council, the UK joined the United States and France in making it clear it would veto any attempt to halt the military assault on the Yemeni…

PINOCHET CAN’T BE PROSECUTED FOR WHAT HE DID AS HEAD OF STATE On this day in 1998, Britain’s High Court cleared the Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, responsible for the disappearance, torture and murder of thousands, on the bizarre grounds that he was head of state when he committed the crimes. Labour MP Tony Benn noted…