Does Murbarak deserve the death penalty?

On the day that President Barack Obama and David Cameron discuss the revolts in the Middle East at Westminster Hall was very keen to keep updated with the story that has dominated the newspapers.

However my sister Lollipop doesn’t seem the least bit interested.

“It’s as if he’s on holiday,” she says. “Not on an actual business visit to discuss politics.”

“Yeah he and Michelle Obama do seem to be enjoying themselves.”

“I saw him on TV playing table tennis yesterday with pupils from the Golden Globe Academy and then meeting with Catherine and Prince William.”

“I know. He had a barbecue with the Prime Minister as well.”

“Seriously they might as well just say he’s on holiday.”

“Today it gets serious though Lollipop. In his speech at Westminster Obama believes it could be years before true democracy in the Middle East is established and said: “What we saw in the Middle East is a longing for the freedoms we take for granted,” He also added that the protests were a “rebuke to al-Qaeda” and “We stand on the side of those who long to be free, but must now prove those words with deeds.”

With Egypt’s former leader, Hosni Murbarak facing trial over the killings of protesters during the uprising that ousted him from power, which could see him face the death penalty if found guilty, conflict in the Middle East should be the main issue.”

My sister nods absent-mindedly, too engrossed in her Twitter page to even care about the ex president’s charges.

Today’s Guardian explained that Murbarak’s sons Alaa and Gamal would also face the same criminal charges including premeditated killing.

Deputy head of Egypt’s appeal court, Judge Ahmed Mekky told Reuters the prosecution could request the death penalty. He warned: “If those were crimes were proven on the former president he could face the penalty the law has for such crimes, which includes the death penalty.”

If the former president is put to death it could impact hugely on the Middle East. Analysts believe it could deter other leaders from stepping down. Therefore a lot of the regimes will be looking carefully at the regimes of Egypt and Libya making Obama’s speech on the conflict even more significant.

Earlier today he said “It would have been easy at the outset of the crackdown in Libya to say none of this is our business.”

“That argument carries weight with some, but we are different”.

He believes our involvement in the Middle East is justifiable. Which it certainly is. However no matter how influential our alliance is or what Obama thinks about the Middle East conflicts we cannot decide whether Murbarak deserves the death penalty or not.

My Lollipop believes he should definitely be severely punished for what he did.

“He was questioned on his role in a crackdown that led to the killing of more than 800 protesters yesterday sis. If he is found responsible for this than he deserves everything he gets.”

“Yeah, but does he deserve to be killed?”

“I don’t know,” shrugs my Lollipop. “I’m not the judge.”

Of course she is right. We’re not the judges. We’re just the ones reading the headlines. Even Obama can’t call this one. We’ll just have to wait and see if the Murbarak finally get what he deserves.

“Wow! Justin Bieber is going to be launching his new perfume on June 20^th called Someday. I will have to order it from America. Let’s watch the advert sis.”

“Let’s not Lollipop.”

Have the Lawrence’s really been given hope Lollipop?

When Stephen Lawrence was stabbed to death by a racist gang who “targeted” him because he was black in 1993, Eltham, south-east London my Lollipop was not even born and I was just five years old. Now 18 years on newspapers have stated that his parent’s campaign for justice has now resulted in a court ruling that two men will stand trial for the murder. However the fact that it took this long for a retrial of Gary Dobson, 35 and David Norris, 34 to finally be announced is not justice. Instead my Lollipop believes it is devastating that no one has been charged for such a high-profile murder case.

“I just don’t understand why it took so long for this to finally happen sis.”

“I know Lollipop. But you have to remember that this case revealed institutional racism within the Metropolitan police. The law was even changed in 2005 which states that under the new rules a person can now be prosecuted twice for the same offence and be placed on trial as long as there is new and compelling evidence. The brutal murder became the driving force to improve race relations in Britain.”

“So the police should have been doing even more work on this case to prove that the service wasn’t institutionally racist.”

“Well at least this new scientific evidence has produced evidence that is compelling enough to quash Dobson’s acquittal and see him stand trial for a second time.

The court of appeal said: “If reliable, the new scientific evidence would place Dobson in very close proximity indeed to Stephen Lawrence at the moment of and in the immediate aftermath of the attack; proximity, moreover, for which no innocent explanation can be discerned.”

“Let me read it,” says my Lollipop as she grabs today’s Daily Mail from my hands. She always does this!

“His father Mr Lawrence is “elated” but believes they still “have a long way to go,” reads my sister.

“Yeah the trial is not until November Lollipop.”

“Perhaps we’ll get justice at last, says his mother.” I should hope so!” exclaims my Lollipop as she read the two page spread. The Daily Mail has always been passionate about this high-profile case. On 14 February 1997 the newspaper labelled all five of those believed to have attacked and killed Lawrence”murderers” on their front page, challenging them to sue the newspaper for libel if they were wrong. The headline read “Murderers: The Mail accuses these men of killing. If we are wrong, let them sue us.” Underneath this headline appeared pictures of Gary Dobson, Neil Acourt, Jamie Acourt, Luke Knight, and David Norris. To date the men have not sued, but they have used appearances in the media to protest their innocence. The Attorney General later cleared the Daily Mail of contempt of court.

The paper have practically followed this story religiously and described the news yesterday as a “landmark judgement.” Whether they feel as strongly as my Lollipop does about this case or whether they’re just focused on increasing the paper’s readership is hard to tell. But the publicity this case has garnered over the last 18 years is unreal. My Lollipop truly believes justice will be done this year. However after so long can we truly be this naïve? Can we truly be sure?

As usual with this harrowing case only time can tell. But of course like the Crown Prosecution Service and the Metropolitan police said:

“Our thoughts at this stage go to Stephen’s family, who have never given up their quest to see justice for Stephen.”

“Oh my gosh sis did you know that Justin Bieber made the top ten in the  Forbes’ “Celebrity 100” list? He’s ranked number three. How exciting!”

Yes. How exciting Lollipop. I’m so happy for him.

What do you think of extra university places for the ‘wealthy’ Lollipop?

As I trawl through the various news websites I skip past the stories on Royals, Prince William and Princess Catherine’s attempts to avoid the paps and escape to a secret honeymoon location. It just makes me insanely jealous and depressed that I am just a commoner. However I also notice that once again MPs and University representatives are criticising the government proposals over tuition fees.

As I read the article from the Guardian I become even more depressed. The universities minister, David Willets has defended proposals to create extra places on degree courses that would not be publicly funded. British students who take the extra places could be charged the same fees as overseas undergraduates.

Although employers and charities will also be encouraged to sponsor places outside the quota that English universities are set every year candidates who these places would not be eligible for publicly funded loans to pay tuition fees or living costs. Therefore this limits this option to the most privileged households who could pay fees up front.

I am outraged and show my sister Lollipop the article who is still trying to find out where Catherine and William have jetted off to. “Have you seen this Lollipop? Teenagers from the wealthiest families could be able to pay for extra places at the most competitive universities under government proposals.”

“Move sis, I’m trying to find out if Catherine and William really are in the Seychelles. Did you they had a week-long break in August 2007 on the island of Desroches, a paradise just four miles long, about 150 miles south-west of the Seychelles’ main island, Mahe?”

“Why are you suddenly more about the Royal couple than Justin Bieber?”

“Since I realised I don’t want to be a commoner my entire life sis. I want to be a princess!”

“Whatever this new government proposal is important. It could affect “social mobility and your chances of getting at university.”

“Ok let me see,” replies my sis as she quickly reads the article.

“So they’re allowing rich families to fund their children’s education by offering creating off-quota places for them. Great. I am going to be surrounded by even more rich snobs if I actually go to university.”

“Well if you become a princess you will be surrounded by them anyway so it doesn’t really matter Lollipop. But it is unfair.

Shadow business secretary, John Denham also believes this is unfair and argued: “Ability and ambition should be the only factors that determine which students can get into the most sought-after universities. This Tory government believes that access to wealth and privilege should trump ability.

“Middle-class, middle-income families whose children don’t get into selective universities at first shot are going to feel terrible pressure to raise private finance, to take out bank loans, to remortgage their homes or feel that they’ve betrayed their children.”

Chairman of the Sutton Trust, Sir Peter Lampl also disagreed with Willet and said that the proposal would deal “a serious blow to social mobility”.

“Students from privileged backgrounds are already way overrepresented at our top universities and this will make matters worse,”

However vice-chancellor of Bedfordshire University and chair of the university think tank Million+, Les Ebdon said: “There is one very obvious pro, and that is, it’s a source of additional money at a time when the sector is being squeezed very hard.

“We’ve been very successful in this university in recruiting full-fee international students, and because you can recruit for the full fee you can create another place for them. It’s a tragedy, when there are people who are qualified and want to go to university that they can’t do it here.”

Therefore the proposal isn’t entirely unfair. However it does incline that the Government are desperate to rectify the changes they made to tuition fees and that British universities are still looking for more funding.

Higher Education Policy Institute member, Bahram Bekhradnia also added: “This kind of proposal does exist in other countries, generally developing countries, where the government doesn’t have the money to provide places for a growing young population. It would be unusual in a Western country.”

“What do you think sis?”

“I think too many people seem to be against this proposal for it actually go ahead. Even David Cameron and Business Secretary Vince Cable don’t seem to be big fans.”

“Yeah, the Guardian said that Whitehall sources confirmed that a version of the proposal will still appear in the universities white paper, due to be published in June. So maybe by the time it’s finally written they’ll be a lot of changes.”

“Let’s hope so sis,” replies my Lollipop as she looks to see if they are any long-lens shots of William and Catherine on the beach during their honeymoon.

“So pathetic, Lollipop.”

“You won’t be saying that when I’m a princess, sis.”

Who will get your vote Lollipop?

Just one day before the elections and the yay or nay to AV that could change British politics forever and yet still the UK’s papers are more obsessed with Osama Bin Laden’s death. A death that former foreign secretary, David Miliband deemed as, “more a symbolic and ideological hit on al Qaeda than it is operational on them.”

Therefore the  alternative vote is much more important however the papers and my sister Lollipop still don’t seem to understand this.

“Who will get your vote on AV Lollipop?”

“What even is the AV anyway sis?”

“Well according the BBC Under the alternative vote system, voters rank candidates in their constituency in order of preference.

Anyone getting more than 50% of first-preference votes is elected.

If no-one gets 50% of votes, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated and their backers’ second choices allocated to those remaining.

This process continues until one candidate has at least 50% of all votes in that round.”

“Whatever sis, no one will get my vote anyways because I’m too young stupid. So sorry but I really don’t care.” Says my Lollipop as she turns to look at the latest tweets on Justin Bieber’s page.

“Well you should care sis. This could really influence which party has the most power in British politics. Why do you think Ed Milliband admitted to Radio 4’s Today programme that his own party had been split over the issue of AV for “about 80 years”?

“Still don’t care sis.”

“Labour party figures like former deputy PM Lord Prescott, ex-cabinet ministers Margaret Beckett and Lord Reid and the current shadow health secretary John Healey are among prominent No to AV campaigners.

Beckett even told the BBC that the campaign had been “more bad-tempered than she would have liked” but rejected suggestions that opponents of change had been unduly negative in their tactics and their focus on the estimated cost of any switch.

“Oh I see. So instead of being a campaign over AV these MPs have turned it into a chance to diss other party members and leaders. How sad sis?” says my Lollipop as she swoons over Justin Bieber.

But as usual her sarcastic comments do make a good point. A ComRes survey for the Independent suggests the No campaign’s lead has grown – with 66% of people polled saying they would vote no, 34% yes. ComRes telephoned a random sample of 1,033 adults across the UK between 28 April and 1 May. Therefore the results seem to have already been verified. So maybe this is just a slugging match where leading politicians like Cameron and Milliband attempt to exacerbate each others weaknesses as they did today in the PMQs.

Or maybe like my Lollipop most people just don’t care. Anti-AV campaigners have warned supporters not to become complacent as a low turnout is expected in London and other areas of the UK where no local elections are taking place. Experts predict just 14% will make it to the polls.

Whatever the surveys or experts say we will find out tomorrow when the elections finally take place. “Won’t we sis?”

“Whatever sis did you know Justin has won his first ever Webby? The Baby hit-maker won the prestigious People’s Voice Award for his comedy video ‘Justin Bieber Takes Over Funny or Die’ in which he took over the website founded by Will Ferrell and Adam McKay.

“Wow, how exciting Lollipop.”