Welcome to the site for all things activist and vegan in and around Oxford - and sometimes further afield.

Brian Haw Back in Court

Brian is in the High Court at present, contesting with London Mayor and ex-Bullingdon Boy Boris that he and the Peace Village in Parliament Square are not trespassing - nuisance by just being there and making the place look untidy, possibly, but not trespassing. Of course, no-one has been charged from the original arrests just so the area could be made tidy for Parliament opening.

Why All the Excuses for Israel?

The Gaza Freedom Flotilla tragedy has provided too much information, too fast, for us to even contemplate putting anything on this page. Tragic that the Israeli government could even contemplate doing this, even more tragic that Tony Blair (ex St John's - please let them never invite him back) now seems to think that the blockade should be lifted - shame on him that he didn't act when in power, but meekly did the bidding of George W. And still does; his interview in the Independent simply reflects Obama's latest thinking - nothing new, just criticism of Hamas and how Israel must be treated fairly. When an elephant is stood on a mouse's tail, the mouse doesn't thank you for checking the elephant's ok

The 'Must Have' Counter For Animal Suffering

Get this counter for your website. Or just sit and watch this one with a non-vegan and ask them why.


Number of animals killed in the world by the meat, dairy and egg industries, since you opened this webpage. This does not include the billions of fish and other aquatic animals killed annually.

Based on 2007 statistics from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations' Global Livestock Production and Health Atlas.

Get this counter »

News

Incredible Veggie Cookery Show - Viva! and Heather Mills

Heather Mills Cookery Demonstration for Viva!

Viva! is running a series of roadshows countrywide, with talks and a cookery demonstration by Heather Mills. Coming to Oxford on Wednesday 9th June. Book in advance - it's cheaper! See here for more details.

US starts to find its moral compass...

Earlier this week, unreported by the British media (dontcha just love election coverage, any excuse...), the US dropped 10 missiles from a drone in West Pakistan and killed at least 14 civilians.

Good news, if that's what you can call it, is that this managed to prompt a debate on breakfast tv in the US. See it here and believe it:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

BBC Gets Something Right - a good read...

BBC Gets Something Right - a good read...

Radio 4 Start the Week had an interview today with Jonathan Balcombe. You would never guess from the write-up on the BBC website that he is vegan as well as an animal behaviourist. Listen again at the main link, and visit Balcombe's site here.

For years Jonathan Balcombe has studied animal behaviour. Formerly a Senior Research Scientist with Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine in Washington, his latest book, Second Nature: The Inner Lives of Animals, argues animals are no less sentient than human beings, from the signature whistle of a dolphin to the empathy of higher moral feelings such as altruism, grief, trust, optimism, forethought and empathy. We may be the more powerful predator but Jonathan argues it is time for us to stop feeling superior and adopt instead a more humble, less oppressive relationship with animals.

Jonathan is giving a talk at the British Library on Monday 29 March and his book, Second Nature: The Inner Lives of Animals, is published by Palgrave Macmillan.

Check out this story on www.bbc.co.uk.

Mel Broughton Conviction Overturned

Great news that Mel's conviction for possession of sparklers has been overturned. However, reflecting the way Animal Rights activists are treated in general, he remains in prison as they have ordered a retrial. The pharmaceutical companies and research communities spend millions each year on research involving animals, resulting in drugs that kill hundreds of people. Individual protestors such as Mel are villified by the establishment, have specific laws passed because of the perceived 'threat' (SOCA for example) and the greater harm to our lives is ignored. Also ignored is this news story, published below and first seen on Indymedia and (good grief, they managed to get something right, how long will it stay there) the BBC. So there will be a third trial for sparkler possession - must be some kind of record.

AN animal rights campaigner jailed for 10 years for plotting a fire bomb attack on Oxford University has had his conviction overturned.

Mel Broughton 48, of Semilong Road, Northampton, was jailed at Oxford Crown Court in February last year after he was found guilty of conspiracy to commit arson.

He appealed against his conviction earlier this year and, after taking more than a month to consider the verdict, Lord Justice Thomas returned to the Court of Appeal today to quash the conviction.

The judge, who heard the appeal with Mr Justice Kitchin and Sir Geoffrey Grigson, said an error in the way the trial judge summed up the evidence to the jury meant the conviction was "unsafe".

After an application by crown prosecutors, the judge ordered that Mr Broughton, who was not present in court, be retried on the allegation as soon as possible.
  • Pancreatic Cancer Linked to Dairy Atom Heart Mother

    H-Pylori in Milk Causes Stomach & Pancreatic Cancer

    On February 24, 2010, the Journal of the National Cancer Institute reported that the H. Pylori bacterium is associated with:

    "...a three-fold increased risk of pancreatic cancer."

    In early February, 2010, New Jersey's 86-year-old Senator, Frank Lautenberg was diagnosed with stomach cancer. Many scientists, researchers, and doctors accept the fact that the H. Pylori bacteria can infect the stomach and lead to ulcers and stomach cancer.

  • Breast Cancer - Just Stop Drinking Milk! Atom Heart Mother

    "Everyone should know that most cancer research is largely a fraud, and that the major cancer research organizations are derelict in their duties to the people who support them."
    - Linus Pauling

    Another great post, as usual, by our friend the NotMilkMan. Some information to get you wanting more and then the research that has found evidence backing a non-dairy diet to prevent cancer.

    A February 16, 2009 visit to the Susan Komen website reveals that YOPLAIT YOGURT is a member of Komen's "Million Dollar Council Elite" and the "National Presenting Sponsor" of the Komen organization.

    YOPLAIT is there at every Susan Komen walk and event to distribute complimentary portions of breast cancer fuel (yogurt) for those women who ignorantly donate their time and dollars to a self perpetuating organization of doom.

    Faced with scientific evidence linking dairy consumption to breast cancer, who in their right mind would purchase yogurt to prevent breast cancer? American women, that's who.

  • So When are You Going to Make War on Israel, Gordon? So When are You Going to Make War on Israel, Gordon?

    Great piece by Alan Hart. For those not in the know, Gordon Brown is an honorary patron of the Jewish National Fund, as are David Cameron and (still) Anthony Blair.

    There could not be a more graphic illustration of the double-standard that drives Western foreign policy and has prevented a resolution of the Israel-Palestine conflict than Prime Minister Gordon Brown's explanation to the Chilcot Inquiry on why he, when he was Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer and wrote the cheques for it, backed the war on Iraq.

    He said, "It was the right decision for the right reasons."

    What were they?

    Not 9/11 or the WMD assertions.

    In an effort to distance himself from America's neo-cons and their soul-mate in London, Prime Minister (at the time) Tony Blair, Brown said: "I never subscribed to what you might call the neo-conservative proposition, that somehow, at the barrel of a gun, overnight liberty or democracy could be conjured up. What I believed was that the case for intervention was that international law had to be observed."

    Putting some flesh on that bone, Brown said his view was that if the international community could not act together over Iraq, he feared that "the new world order we were trying to create would be put at risk."

    Meaning?

    "Aggressor states that refuse to obey the laws of the international community" have to be confronted. Iraq was a "serial violator of the rules of the international community."

    There is, of course, some truth in that, but not nearly as much truth as in the statement that for 62 years the Zionist state of Israel has been, and continues to be, the biggest single violator of international law. No state on Planet Earth has been allowed to get away with defying UN resolutions for so long. And, I say, no state poses a bigger threat to the peace of the region and the world than Israel on its present course.

    As I have previously written, the double-standard which allows Israel to behave as it likes with impunity was effectively put into place when the major powers, all of them, refused to condemn Israel as the aggressor in 1967 and demand that it withdraw from occupied territories without preconditions.

    If Mr. Brown means what he says, and if by chance he remains prime minister after Britain's imminent election, logic suggests that he will take the lead with President Obama in putting together a coalition to require Israel, by war if necessary, to comply with "the rules of the international community."

    Of course he won't because logic, like truth and reality, has no place in politics, domestic or international.

  • Alan Dershowitz Defends Israel, Attacks Student 'Extremists'

    Delighted to link across to an anti-Israeli Apartheid Week post (sorry, make that selective propagandist rant) on the Huffington Post. Read all about it here, and watch this space for an article to come deconstructing pretty much every word. If Oxford only knew it was being described like this...

  • Israeli Apartheid Week Israeli Apartheid Week

    Thanks to New Profile for this digest of related news concerning the abuse of Palestinian human rights that is Israel. And thanks to an Israeli, Ilan Pappe, for calling during this particular week for the West to throw off its chains, ignore the Israeli propaganda claims of anti-Semitism, and call a "spade a spade". The UK has a debt to pay and an obligation to honour in restoring justice and peace to the Middle East - it can do that simply by recognising the wrongs that the Israeli Government perpetrates on the Palestinian community and doing something about it. And what can we do? Hear the call of Israeli Apartheid Week - Boycott (don't buy Israeli goods), Divestment (urge everyone not to invest in Israeli firms) and Sanctions (don't deal with Israel, don't deal with people who persist in dealing with Israel)