29 OCTOBER

ROYAL NAVY DESTROYS LAGOS – ‘AN IMMENSE NUMBER OF NATIVES BEING KILLED’ [ 26 December 1851 ] On 26 December 1851, British naval vessels began a three day bombardment of the coastal town of Lagos on the west coast of Africa, reducing it to rubble, at a cost, to quote a British press report, of ‘an…

MINISTER – PUBLIC BACKING FOR SHOOTING PRISONERS WOULD BE “AWKWARD” [ 21 June 1900 ] On this day in 1900, opposition was voiced in the British cabinet to General’s kitchener’s ruthless war against Boer insurgents in South Africa, including the destruction of entire villages and the shooting of prisoners on sight. However, it was not…

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BRITAIN BLOCKS SFO INVESTIGATION INTO HUGE BRIBES PAID TO SAUDI PRINCE 14 December 2006 – The Attorney General Lord Goldsmith announced that it was not in the public interest for the Serious Fraud Office to be allowed to continue its investigation into allegations of enormous bribes paid to Saudi officials and royals to secure an…

  MI6 AGENTS NOT REQUIRED TO INTERVENE TO PREVENT TORTURE. 12 January 2002 – London sends a note of legal clarification to MI6 agents in Afghanistan, who had been sent out to interview Afghan prisoners and might witness signs of abuse or torture on anyone held by the Americans. “Given that they are not within…

UK REFUSES TO PROSCRIBE THE UDA EVEN AFTER FINDING A LARGE CACHE OF WEAPONS On 26 May 1981, the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) raided the headquarters of the loyalist paramilitary Ulster Defence Association (UDA) and discovered a large cache of lethal weapons including a Thompson sub-machine gun, six Sten guns, a revolver and 550 rounds…