If passed into law as it currently stands, the Bill would allow disconnection, website blocking and could precipitate the death of open Wi-Fi.

Come to the Piccadilly Gardens, Manchester and protest against disconnection without trial and censorship on the Internet.

Meet near the Statue of Queen Victoria.

We'll have flyers; just bring something with which to gag yourself (black tape, mask, "censored" sticker etc), we will have some spare tape if you need it!

Zoran sez, "Earlier this week (12th Dec), a massive, peaceful protest of 100,000 people -- the largest demonstration for climate justice in world history -- was met with a heavy-handed response by the Danish police. Thousands of riot police swarmed the march route, blocked off streets surrounding large groups of protestors, and arrested almost 1,000 people. Arrestees were cuffed and forced to sit in rows for hours, as the temperatures dipped below freezing; numerous people urinated on themselves after being denied use of toilets."

Of course, these protests are being motivated by frustration at the incredibly weak results of the COP-15 negotiations. Last week, a closed-room group of delegates from Global North countries shocked Global South delegates and climate justice activists by pushing for a secretly-negotiated "deal" that would allow global temperatures to be allowed to rise by another 2 degrees Celsius - over the vehement protests of delegates from Africa and small island countries, argue that any increase larger than 1 degree will devastate and - in some instances - literally flood them. Then, in the past two days, the negotiations on a deal on REDD (reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation) - which are being touted as the "success" of Copenhagen - have degenerated into an incredibly weak potential deal, in which immediate targets for deforestation limits would be dropped and no financial commitments from Global North countries would be made. These failings on the part of negotiators from the Global North have been met with protests - both planned and spontaneous - by youth activists as well as delegates from the Global South.

Crackdown in Copenhagen (Thanks, Zoran!)

'There is nothing we can say to reverse the situation,' Met police watchdog tells relatives

• Paul Lewis
• guardian.co.uk, Thursday 5 November 2009 17.17 GMT
• Article history

Ian Tomlinson's widow Julia and his son Paul. Photograph: David Mansell/Guardian

The family of Ian Tomlinson, the man who died at the G20 protest after being attacked by the police, has been told it would be "inappropriate" for an official watchdog to consider whether officers were involved in a cover-up.

Five members of Tomlinson's family, including his wife, Julia, attended a public meeting at London's City Hall today to complain that events surrounding his death were being ignored by officials.

They told the civil liberties panel of the Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA), which is conducting an inquiry into the protests, that police tried to "cover up" police involvement in his death, an aspect of the controversy which they feel has been ignored.

Tomlinson, 47, collapsed and died near the Bank of England on 1 April, minutes after a member of the Met's territorial support group struck him with a baton and pushed him to the ground. The newspaper vendor, who was walking home from work when he was attacked from behind, also received suspected dog bites to his legs.

"We hope your report will look into whether police tried to cover up our father's death," Tomlinson's son, Richard King, told the panel. "We feel we were led down the garden path. We do feel it was a cover-up from the beginning. He [was struck] in front of 18 officers. Not one of the officers came forward to say they witnessed what happened. Not one of the officers went to give him first aid. Not one of the officers went to help him off the floor."

His brother, Paul King, added: "There have been four inquiries into the demonstrations and the policing of G20 and we want to know why the dog that bit Ian, the baton strike and the push to the floor have not been mentioned. He was an innocent man on his way home. We have lost our dad."

However, Victoria Borwick, the Conservative chair of the panel, told the family that she believed it would be "inappropriate" for the MPA – the body responsible for holding the force to account – to take up their concerns. "There is nothing any of us can say to reverse the situation of what happened last April," she added. "We are extremely sorry."

After the meeting, Borwick said she meant to say her committee would take legal advice on whether it could investigate the alleged cover-up.

Within 24 hours of Tomlinson's death, police became aware that their officers may have been involved in a physical altercation with him. However, in public, police refused to confirm there had been contact and resisted calls for an independent investigation until five days later, when the Guardian revealed video footage of the incident.

The officer who struck Tomlinson was suspended from duty on full pay. The Crown Prosecution Service has indicated it will decide whether to charge him with Tomlinson's manslaughter in the next two months. An inquiry by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) into complaints the Met and City of London deliberately misled the public about Tomlinson's death has yet to conclude.

Among several reports into the policing of the G20 demonstrations has been a report from the Met, two parliamentary inquiries and an official review by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary, the national watchdog. All have made just glancing references to Tomlinson's death, claiming they cannot prejudice the investigation into his death.

However Tomlinson's family point out that concerns which are separate from the criminal investigation into what caused his death – such as their belief they were "deliberately misled" by police – have not been addressed.

When an initial postmortem found Tomlinson died of a heart attack, the family were not told that the pathologist also found large amounts of blood in his stomach, bruising on his body and bites on his leg. Instead, they were told by police at an early stage that witnesses had seen him "run out of batteries". A second postmortem found he died of internal bleeding.

Spotter cards: What they look like and how they work

• guardian.co.uk, Sunday 25 October 2009 20.30 GMT
• Article history

This kind of highly confidential document – pictured above – is rarely seen by the public.

These so-called "spotter cards" are issued by police to identify individuals they consider to be potential troublemakers because they have appeared at a number of demonstrations.

The photographs are drawn from police intelligence files. This card was apparently dropped at a demonstration against Britain's largest arms fair in 2005.

H is Mark Thomas, the comedian and political activist. Asked why it was justifiable to put Thomas, who has no criminal record, on this card, the Metropolitan police replied: "We do not discuss intelligence we may hold in relation to individuals."

Thomas had been acquitted of criminal damage after attaching himself to a bus containing arms traders at a previous fair.

The Met said: "This is an appropriate tactic used by police to help them identify people at specific events … who may instigate offences or disorder."

The arms fair "is a biannual event that is specifically targeted by known protest groups, who in the past have stated their intention was to shut down or disrupt the event." As the cards are "strictly controlled", the officers who lost it were "dealt with".

On Comment is Free today Thomas writes: "Protesters – or, as the police call them, 'domestic extremists' – are the new 'reds under the bed'."