As the legal aid bill reaches its final stage, Britain’s welfare state is set to take another debilitating blow. In this extract from ‘Public Service on the Brink’, Rebekah Carrier considers the obstacles that prevent lawyers working in the system from acknowledging the uncompromising reality of t
Today marks the final reading of the legal aid bill in the Lords. If - as seems likely - the bill goes through, 'ordinary people' in Britain will be shocked to discover how thin is their access to law when things go wrong. Deborah Padfield, whose work has for several years been funded by legal aid
Sometime between 11-16 March, the two men accused of planting a bomb on the Minsk underground were executed with a bullet to the back of the head. Amid suspicions that the Belarusian authorities may in fact have been behind the original explosion, their show trial and subsequent killing leave us w
Chris Bava is a former heroin trafficker who served 8 years in Federal prison following a worldwide sting operation in the late 1980s. Chris also struggled with addiction before and after his stint in prison, which eventually motivated him to move to Tijuana, Mexico, to seek out ibogaine, a variat
The coalition’s Health and Social Care Bill is enacted despite deep public unease and unprecedented opposition from medical professionals. Campaigners fight on
This week we take in the "Branson Follies" as The UK's most fun-loving Billionaire goes on the offensive with President Obama, challenging the US to seriously consider decriminalization of drugs. Meanwhile, more reports emerge showing the criminally disproportionate nature of the racial disparitie
Of course squatters are up in arms against the passing of a law that would criminalize squatting in residential properties. But will parliament also ignore opposition from legal experts, homelessness charities and the police?
More than one in four Conservative peers - 62 out of the total of 216 - and many other members of the House of Lords have a direct financial interest in the radical re-shaping of the NHS that is perilously close to being enacted. These peers have been able to vote on the crucial divisions that wil
In the new competitive market for healthcare created by the Health and Social Care Bill it will become increasingly difficult to know what exactly is being done with public money.
It's hard to know these days which way the proverbial worm is turning when it comes to shifts in drug policy. Election years tend to do that. Despite an historical turn of events in Central America which saw Presidents of drug trafficking nations come together to call for world wide decriminalizat
Julie Falco and Dan Linn are two of the leading drug policy reform activists in the State of Illinois. They have spent the better part of the last 10 years attempting to pass a medical cannabis bill, and have found themselves consistently thwarted.
