How very appropriate

It must be being away from home I suppose, but I tend to check out the sports news (OK, I mean the footie) more often than I would back home. I spotted this headline at the BBC site... but it turned out to be a bit of a let down.

Homage to Catalonia

What a fantastic City Barcelona is. Me and Mrs P. have walked our legs off, and there are wonderful things to see round every corner. Took a tour of the Camp Nou stadium and the sense of importance of the football club to the Catalans seems to breath out of the walls. The Museum and Art Gallery in the main stand has got Dali originals for christ sake! It´s baking hot and I´m going to soak me plates of meat in the bath and get ready for a visit to the Museum of Catalan History before a night on the Sangria.

Is this news?

Apparently, according to a columnist for the Springfield News-Leader, who just so happens to be a woman, men get more pleasure than women from snake whacking. Can you believe it?

Also, for those who thought the US did not enter (and win) the war until after Pearl Harbour, according to On This Day (click next to the date above) today is the 63rd anniversary of the US invasion of Iceland... a full five months before Pearl Harbour. However it doesn´t give any details of the Iceland resistance movement´s response, nor whether an Interim Icelandic Government was established.

At least Tom knows where it is!

Thanks to Tom Watson for pointing out that one of Sandwell´s two leading Liberals (the other one´s his missus) doesn´t actually realise the election is in Hodge Hill. The poor sod has been desperately searching the map for Hidge Hill. The only other reference I could find for Hidge Hill in Google was on the Liberal Democrats for Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender Action website, so perhaps there is a Hidge Hill by-election the rest of us haven´t been told about, or the Lib-Dems are preparing for defeat by claiming they won in Hidge Hill!

Be afraid... be very afraid

If you want to look at the sweet side of what is laughingly described as 'President Bush's Compassionate Agenda' just take a look at these comments about Independent journalist Robert Fisk.
Will the last one off the planet please switch the lights out.

And there are no sins inside the Gates of Eden

How much is a limb worth do you reckon. How about £13,000?

Though you might hear laughin', spinnin', swingin' madly across the sun

OK... after working my tabs off all weekend, and presenting a case in a hearing for hour upon hour, in an ungodly hot box of a room all day to-day... it's time to relax. Mrs P. won two airplane tickets in a raffle, and, leaving the sprogs behind, we're heading off to Barcelona for four days rest and relaxation. So, I'll try to track down an Internet Cafe and keep an eye on my blog mates... but for now it's Hasta La Vista, Baby.

'Nokia' Davies put on silent mode

Lib Dem Watch reports on the latest embarrassing episode in the Nokia Davies mobile 'phone saga. Local residents in Winchester have issued the following:

Press release from Byron Avenue phone mast protesters. 2 July 2004

LIB DEM RED FACES IN BIRMINGHAM BY-ELECTION

The row that has erupted over the Lib Dem choice of candidate in the forthcoming Birmingham Hodge Hill by-election comes as no surprise to Winchester phone mast protesters. Given the large number of ongoing Midland phone mast campaigns, they were amazed to learn of the selection of Nicola Davies, Council Liaison Officer for the Mobile Operators Association, whom they got to know well in her previous job with telecom giant Orange.

The long running battle to prevent the company erecting a thirty-nine foot mast in Byron Avenue, a leafy Winchester cul-de-sac, close to a primary school, will be approaching its fourth anniversary when campaigners head back to the High Court in November. They will be hoping to overturn last year's appeal decision in favour of Orange. Ms. Davies appeared as one of the chief witnesses for Orange at the public hearing, which lasted for nine days in total and spanned eight months.

Winchester MP, and Lib Dem frontbencher, Mark Oaten has supported campaigners from the start and spoke on their behalf at the hearing. He has not had a happy relationship with Orange, who had rebuffed his numerous attempts to get the company to find a less contentious site. Byron Avenue campaigners are not expecting him to be rushing up to Birmingham to endorse Ms. Davies' campaign. They believe that Ms. Davies' continuing involvement in promoting telecom companies is at odds with Lib Dem statements about tougher controls on the industry.

People talk of situations, read books, repeat quotations, draw conclusions on the wall

John Pilger offers some summer reading which balances the scales weighed down by those who have been eulogising about Clinton and Reagan in recent weeks, finishing with a plug for "Heller's satirical masterpiece Catch 22 which tells us something about the madness of America in Iraq."

On the subject of Pilger, from next Sunday, 11th July, ITV are starting a series of documentaries by Pilger, kicking off with "Paying the Price: Killing the Children of Iraq" first shown in 2000, and moving on to films about Vietnam, Burma, South Africa, Palestine and others.

The Godfather is dead. In my opinion one of the greatest acting performances in one of the best movies of all time.

O.I.L. (Operation Iraqi Liberation)

There's gold in them there sand dunes. The Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA - not to be confused with the CIA) certainly knew how to find it.

Pondlife

Is there a lower form of pondlife on the planet than Richard Perle. I've just listned to the Zionist, right-wing reactionary on the BBC (why is he still allowed airspace?) putting up a robust defence of Ahmed Chalabi, the hawks' own choice to replace Saddam until his fingers were found to be very sticky, and very near the till. Not that this would present a problem to Perle, whose own dealings make Jeffrey Archer look like Snow White.

The executioner's face is always well hidden

The first US Ambassador to Iraq after Operation Iraqi Liberation (OIL) is the delightful John D. Negroponte, a man who was as widely feared in Central America as Saddam was in Iraq. Negraponte has pledged to wage war on the insurgents in Iraq... presumably under the auspices of the 'sovereign' Iraqi Government, of course. If his past performance of promoting death squads in Central America is any measure of what can be expected, it is more than just the 'insurgents' who have got something to worry about.

Don't think twice.. It's alright

Byker is back from Glastonbury, muddied, knackered and happy. And why not? Personally I think I'd rather have my private parts fried in chip fat than spend all weekend up to my neck in muck in order to listen to McCartney sing his back catalogue (if ever there was a lucky bloke on this planet it was him the day he met John Lennon) and Morrisey, Oasis or most of the others on show. But I find it totally depressing and nauseating to read all those posers and yoghurt-weaving hippies who are upset because the masses have discovered "their" festival and are ruining it for them. If they don't like it, shove off and find another festival of your own to go to, where no-one will bother you... and we don't have to put up with your whining. Me... I'd go to WOMAD or Cambridge anyday, and if you want a real festival... this is THE one.

On this day...

Thanks to New Links for this dead cool feature. If you now click on 'Click it' next to the date above each post it tells you all sorts of things that happened on this day in the past. For instance today would be Queen Victoria's 174th anniversary as queen if she had only lived to see it, Innocent IV became Pope in 1243, it's Jean Jacques Rousseau's birthday, only 226 to-day, and Franz Ferdinand got himself shot in 1914... the consequences of which led to millions of other people getting shot over the next thirty odd years.... and much, much, more besides.

Oooh dear...

Just back from Stechford Ward in Hodge Hill. Lib Dem supporters in the local elections seem pretty upset that their vote has resulted in a Tory Council, and they give every indication of voting Labour in the by-election.

Sometimes even the President of the United States has got to stand naked

Well, not quite, but Dubya in Ireland took the opportunity of doing his Ralph C Nesbitt impersonation in his vest... but the Irish Government banned publication. Well, this site goes one better and has a clip of George strutting his stuff in his boxers.

Should Denmark find themselves involved in a penalty shoot-out tonight, I suspect Aston Villa players Martin Laursen and Tommy Sorensen will be tossing a coin to see who takes the 10th and 11th penalties.

A real warm brummie greeting

Liberal Democrat candidate in the Hodge Hill, Birmingham by-election, Nicola (Nokia) Davies is a lobbyist for the mobile phone industry. Nicola defends the mobile industry against residents who are opposing the siting of masts near hospitals and schools. Thanks to Lib Dem Watch for the pictures of the generous reception given to Nokia's boss when he visited Lib Dem HQ in Hodge Hill.

Charlie looks uncomfortable as he meets Hodge Hill residents.

A troubled mind

So, for all of those of you who suggested unkindly that the lad couldn't score in a brothel... he proves you wrong.

We all liberals now!

Thanks to Underblog for the reference to this very funny site.

Deja vu

England were knocked out of Euro '96 when Aston Villa player Gareth Southgate missed a penalty. Last night, Villa striker Darius Vassell found out what it feels like. But at least he stood up... which is more than you can say for the Ugly brothers, both of whom have over 50 international caps. I missed the whole thing myself. I went to a concert by one of the greatest living Irishmen... and he was magnificent!

Bloody good question... bloody lousy answer

Mr. David Amess (Southend, West) (Con): When the Prime Minister next discusses working-class issues with his Health Secretary, will he consider the widespread concern around the country about the siting of telecommunications masts? Will the Government consider altering the planning laws, so that applicants will have a duty to prove that there is a need for a mast, and that there are no associated health risks?

The Prime Minister: What we should do is make sure that we proceed carefully, according to the scientific evidence. Experts in the field prepare reports and reviews for the Government, and we must take account of them, but it would be foolish for us to make a decision that was not based on the scientific evidence. Therefore, I will proceed very carefully—as the Government are doing—but the decision that we reach will be in the interests of all the community, and it will be based on proper scientific knowledge and expertise.

The Governor

"The Continental Op first hear Personville called Poisonville by Hickey Dewey. But since Dewey also called a shirt a shoit, he didn't think anything of it. Until he went there and his client, the only honest man in Poisonville, was murdered." The opening lines of Dashiell Hammet's first book, Red Harvest, written in 1929. The summer holidays are coming... and I'm stocking up on pulp crime fiction. But I bet no-one will drag me into a story better than Hammett with those fantastic opening words.

Southampton(H), Albion(A), Charlton (A), Newcastle(H). It looks like the lads will be top going in to September. (Somehow I feel these words may be taken down and used in evidence against me at a later date).

Whoops!

My old mate Dave Hallam has got in to a spot of bother over a website he has designed. Dave is a methodist lay preacher and he has set up a site related to Francis Asbury, who emigrated from the UK to to America in 1771 and was influential in the development of the Methodist Church over there. Unfortunately, David mentioned the Black Country delicacy of faggots on his site and various search engines in the US picked it up and interpreted it slightly differently.

Voters of Hodge Hill beware - Vote Lib-Dem = Vote Tory

If the electorate of Hodge Hill needed any further warnings after John 'give-us-a-seat' Hemming's decision to join a Tory Cabinet, Lib Dem Watch reveals:

May 2004: Lib Dem councillor and London Assembly candidate in Barnet and Camden Jonathan Simpson says: "It is a campaign we are fighting to win. The electorate want to get rid of what they see as a right-wing liability. Brian Coleman’s various comments prove he is not fit for public office."

June 2004: The Lib Dems agree a deal to run the GLA with the Tories and help to get the very same Brian Coleman - deemed "not fit for public office" - elected Chair of the Assembly.

Something fishy

Maggie Thatcher's underpants do not appear to have been changed for nearly a fortnight. What's up there then?

The Last Goodbye

Tim signs off from Bloggerheads with this magnificent Parting Shot

Steve Bell shows Labour united around the leadership over Europe.

Hodge Hill, Birmingham and Leicester South are now both set for parliamentary byelections. Labour are defending relatively large majorities in both seats and they are likely to provide a greater indication of where the party is heading than the June 10th elections where multi-seat voting and the Euro elections led to everyone claiming virtually everyone but UKIP had lost. The Abbey Ward leafletting team will be soaking their feet in warm milk (and drinking warm beer)in preparation for the task ahead.

Rest assured... Our day will come.

Over at Bloggerheads, Tim is laying down his mighty sword for a while. Easily the most entertaining and informative Blog on the block, he will be sorely missed during his sabbatical. The sheer volume of material he has directed people towards to inform them about the Bush-Blair axis has been phenomenal, and there are many bloggers out their who have been inspired by Bloggerheads.

Principles... who needs 'em

Remember this...

Well those radical Liberals are at it again.
Just look who they are getting into bed with now.

Come writers and critics who prophesize with your pen...

According to this column in the Guardian, "Politicians lie for a simple reason: they want to keep their jobs." And journalists do it for what... money?

"If the great Phil Ochs were to come back from the dead tonight he'd probably be hailed as the new David Rovics."

Next weekend is Glastonbury. Having done my share of muddy fields and foul toilets, I don't particularly envy those who are going. Apart from the fact that David Rovics is appearing (according to his website, although he's not listed in the Glastonbury one). Rovics is my favourite American on the planet (except my sister-in-law Lisa who doesn't count). He is currently on tour in the UK with Attila the Stockbroker - go see them if they're in a town near you. David Rovics also has a pretty nifty blogsite too (access via his website) and he is currently blogging around Britain on his tour. If you are going to Glastonbury, go see David in the Leftfield.

I am the man, the very fat man, who waters the workers beer

I am indebted to Nick for this. Apparently our glorious leader is strutting his stuff on the European stage, this time protecting UK employment laws from interference by Johnny Foreigner. Before anyone feels too grateful, they should be aware that Blair is actually trying to STOP the EU from giving workers more rights under the EU constitution.

"We are not prepared to have anything that takes away our ability to make sure our industrial laws in this country remain as flexible as they are now.", Blair told his Downing Street press briefing.

Thanks... for nothing. Over to you.

Momentum is building

It looks like The Big Intervention bandwagon is starting to roll as Balders and Tim are joined by the mainstream media.

Money doesn't talk.. it swears

"The uptick in the bio defence spending has really allowed us to expand our technology into a market we hadn't been into before, so it is a nice upside for us" says the Chief Executive of Biolog, one of the numerous US 'defence' contractors watching their profit graphs rise in the country which owns and controls the world's largest supply of Chemical WMD.

I heard the sound of a thunder, it roared out a warnin'

Fidel Castro explains the impact of globalisation on the Third World.

Meanwhile, the refugees of Darfur experience the situation at the sharp end.

Oh... and in Britain legal firms make millions out of human misery.

Perhaps they should have an early morning visit from the Specialist Crime Directorate who seem keen to crack down on organised gangsters operating immigration rackets.

I know everyone is probably fed up with Ronnie Reagan stuff, but Greg Palast's article is well worth a read.

If two people make the same choice... who chooses who gets what?

One of the philosophical problems about 'giving people choice' is that it is not really as simple as it sounds. The freedom for parents to 'choose' to send their children to the school of their choice was a nonsense, because the places at the 'best' schools would be oversubscribed and you didn't get that choice. If one hospital can carry out so many hip operations quicker than the others, can everyone choose to go there. No... because they would not have the capacity. So, when this man talks about choice, he really means leaving these things to the law of the jungle.

It's a record

Tomorrow I am taking part in a world record attempt. Sarah Marshall (the woman with the red sweater at the back of the walking bus photo on my masthead), is organising a world record attempt for the number of children participating in a walking bus, and afterwards we all get a certificate to validate our attempt. Go for it kids!

Agenda for change

Although the Labour vote in the West Midlands Council elections seem to have held up reasonably well, the situation nationally is looking grim. Something must be done. If The Big Intervention only gives us Jack Straw as Leader, it will not be worth the effort. It has got to be about Labour members re-claiming the Party from the social democrat careerists who have stolen its heart. Blair has maintained an iron grip on Labour by winning elections. That grip will loosen pretty quickly as we start to see the trend reverse. To paraphrase The Godfather, "Nothing personal Tone, it's just business." There's an interesting database at Dumpblair.

So... it's all OUR fault again..

I know we didn't support the illegal invasion of Iraq, nor the broken manifesto pledge on tuition fees, nor the massive increase in the PFI'ing of the NHS, nor the wholesale privatisation of local authority housing... but as usual, when it all goes tits-up, if the Oily Howard wins the next General Election, its all our bloody fault again!

Da Do Ron Ron

Thanks to Tim at Bloggerheads for this brilliant 'tribute' to the late Ronnie, who's bloody funeral took up hours of live friggin' television in this country. Would the US TV stations do the same thing for Thatcher? We wait in eager anticipation of an answer to that question.

And it's still 'Councillor' Bob Piper

Yes, about an hour ago the Abbey Ward result in Sandwell was announced, and it finished:

Dr. Ann Jaron (Labour) 2007
Steve Eling (Labour) 1941
Bob Piper (Labour) 1850
Roger Prior (Lib-Dem) 840
Ewart Johnson (Tory) 801
Roger Hickman (Tory) 793
William Shipman (Tory) 706

A fantastic result for us... and for Sandwell overall (although the fascist BNP still have one seat) but although Labour lost three seats we still have a 53 Labour seats and a good overall majority on the Council.

The candidates take the plaudits, but I would like to thank Liz, Pam, Cait, Andy, Lesley, Sian, Richard, Sita, Jim, James, Clare, David, Patrick, Alan, Hazel, Adrian, Carolyn, Damien, Annie, Phil, Carol, John, Letty, Joyce, Ceri...and the 1,849 people who voted for me.

Hasta La Vista

Tomorrow I'm attending the Public Inquiry into this dreadful bloody casino in my Ward. After that... it's 100% attention to getting out the Labour vote on Thursday, so I don't expect to blog again much before the result is announced on Friday afternoon. I'll be back in full flow then, whatever the result, although the blog name might have to change to Citizen Bob!

Selective memory

The media are gushing in their tributes to Ronnie. Surprisingly little reference, however, to this, and this, and this.

since John Wayne was no longer available, so they settled for Ronald Reagan

Like BykerSink, I can find no sense of loss for the passing of Ronnie Reagan. Byker's tribute via Gil Scott Heron seems entirely appropriate.

Who or what is Al Qaeda

Thanks to the consistently brilliant Pete for this superb piece.

Don't abstain, but don't let in the Tories either

I've had another half an hour 'phone call from a friend this morning who says she is still voting Green in Birmingham, even though that sort of voting will probably hand the City Council over to the Tories. It reminds me that in 1979 various Trot groups urged people not to vote Labour because, "Thatcher would attack the unions and it would lead to a mass uprising by the working class." Bloody good strategy that turned out to be!

You'll find God in the church of your choice

The Guardian reports that His Holiness gave Dubya a 'tongue-lashing'. Is that sort of thing allowed these days in the Catholic Church?

Ingrid has been screaming literally blue murder about the tragedy unfolding in Sudan for weeks on Me and Ophelia, and at last some of the lazy-arsed editors in the media have started to move the story up the agenda. If you haven't done so already, go to Ingrid's site and read her Sudan posts (we differ quite a lot on most other things) and you'll find the best coverage and links on there. Help spread the word... put a link on your site to Me and Ophelia. Let's face it, it beats Belle De bloody Jour!

Are they by any chance related?

I know the Tory candidate in the London Mayoral elections has a dodgy background with transport companies, but do the Renault, Saab and Seat dealers in Co. Meath, Ireland, in this list have any connection with their man?

Every cloud has a silver lining.

Now how much confidence would this US Treasury Secretary fill you with?

Plonker!

I've just watched the biggest 2004 registered 4x4 super jeep roar past me on the M6 with a giant poster in the rear window screaming out 'Fuel Protest NOW' - Say no to fuel duty. What a complete tosser!

Its dirty work... but someone's got to do it.

I don't know how Austin Mitchell or Tom Watson feel about it, but I find it somewhat disconcerting to find out that Margaret Thatcher's underwear has got my name on it.

Disillusioned words like bullets bark

So, why Labour? In view of the number of people, on this site and on the doorstep, who have challenged me to say why they should vote Labour next week, I thought I would use this post to justify why I am in the Labour Party and why I think people should vote Labour rather than Lib-Dem, Green or Respect.
For people of my age, and those a damn site older, the disillusionment people are currently feeling with the Blair Government is nothing new. Ralph Milliband, father of the New Labour Project’s Edward and David, wrote the classic book called Parliamentary Socialism in 1961 which explained why Labour would never deliver socialism (and the joke goes that his sons are proving his father’s words).
Inspired by Milliband I resigned my Labour Party membership in 1968 over Harold Wilson’s tacit support for LBJ in Vietnam and Callaghan’s Commonwealth Immigration Act introduced to stop East African Asian’s fleeing persecution from seeking asylum in Britain.
In spite of my pithy letter to Wilson, he never resigned, the bombing didn’t stop, and Callaghan was so wounded he went on to become Prime Minister. A few years later, after I had decided they had suffered enough, I rejoined the Party. However, substitute Blair and Blunkett for Wilson’s craven support for a US President and Callaghan’s hard line on asylum, and you will probably appreciate why I do not share the same degree of disillusionment as those who thought Blair was going to introduce a bright new dawn.
After I left Labour I toyed with some of the other leftist groups, but I usually found that whilst they were strong on rhetoric, they were weak in practice. They wanted democracy in South Africa, but imposed a Leninist control freakery over their own members. They argued for women’s sections in the trade unions, but didn’t have a women’s section themselves “because we are socialists and don’t need those.” Not being one to kow-tow, I didn’t hang around.
So, why Labour? Whatever the merits of the Greens, and I think there are many, they haven’t got any links with the trade union movement, and in any event they won’t get power, and I suspect if they did most of them would be terrified and leave. So, in reality, not voting Labour means you either throw people to the Tories, or the Liberals. Given that you probably still wouldn’t be here if it was the Tories, I’ll discount that option.
The Liberals want to be all things to all people. More extreme than the Tories in the Shires, and more radical than Labour in inner city Birmingham, where currently they are running a ‘Save our Post Offices’ campaign… without ever telling the electorate that their official party policy is not to save them but privatise them. Its anything for votes. But where they are in power, they privatise with the best of them. Kinnock in his famous anti-militant speech said you can have all of the principles in the world, but without power they count for nothing. For the Liberals, its reversed, you can give them all the power in the world, but they have no principles.
So, why Labour? As Tony Benn says there are socialists in the Labour Party, just as there are some Christians in the Church. We are the only political party with a mass link to the working class through the trade union movement, and like the unions, we have our share of careerists, arselickers, and reactionaries. But we also have some bloody good members…socialists, councillors and even MPs (believe it or not), who do not subscribe to the ‘what’s in it for me’ philosophy that the media try to brand all politicians with… and far too many people out there believe.

End of whinge

Welcome to UKIP.... you're welcome to UKIP

In a move which will have rocked the foundations of our society, Charles Henry John Benedict Crofton Chetwynd Chetwynd-Talbot (that's one person, not our Euro 2004 squad) has announced he will be throwing his weight behind UKIP in the European elections. Charlie was elected to Parliament on a 100% turnout by Henry VI in 1442 at a time the name Talbot sent fear into the hearts of Frenchmen everywhere. Now over 550 years later, he's at it again. Charlie has announced he will be ditching the Tories for UKIP (never trust a man with the same name twice I say, just look at Eric Djemba Djemba, Jay Jay Ockocha). Within hours Charlie has been flushed down the Tories 'memory hole'.

"I can think of no more unprincipled stand than to say the war is unjust but we support it anyway"

Charlie Kennedy, in his more sober (sorry, somber) moods, likes to take the plaudits for being the only major party against the War in Iraq. but as this article in the Independent points out, this was just the usual Lib-Dem fudge. Less backbone than a jellyfish!

New links

I've added two new links to the sidebar. Maggie Thatcher's Underpants deserves inclusion for such a fantastic name, but it's also a good read. Also Paul, at Is this A Good Idea? has been added. He lives in Sandwell and despite his Glory hunting tendencies and his revolutionary abstentionism, its a good site!

And you thought we had problems with Kilroy-Silk

Czech porn star Dolly Buster - née Katerina Bochnickova - has been campaigning in a low-cut blouse as a milkmaid who does not want her country to be "milked" by Brussels.

So, who's the big threat?

Thanks to the good Doctor for referring me to Daniel Brett who poses the question What is a greater threat: Jihadism or Islamaphobia, and then answers it pretty damn good!

It's all about oil

Thanks to Tom Watson MP for the reference to his namesake which dishes the dirt on the Haliburton/Dirty Dick smoking gun.

Cheesy Cheney

It's all over now, baby blue

So, after months of speculation, Chelsea Football Club has sacked Claudio Ranieri. What a contrast between the dignity of Ranieri (never disputed a referee's decision, never moaned about 'bad luck, always had a smile for the cameras, win or lose) with the despicable crawling creeps Kenyon and Abramovich who employed him. All the best Claudio, you should have been Sports Personality of the Year... if it hadn't been for this one serious bloody error!

Of war and peace the truth just twists

Pilger on Morgan, The Mirror and subtle media censorship.

Residents in Abbey Ward were out this morning protesting about plans by Blue Chip Casinos to turn a pub near their homes into an all-night casino.

And this is the monstrosity they want to turn it into!

Everything passes, everything changes

At a time when a lot of good friends are telling me they won't vote Labour because 'they're the same as the Tories' it is with great sadness from 4Glengate I learnt of the death of Jim Marshall, MP for Leicester South. If you want to know why I'm sad, and punch a hole in that daft theory, check out Jim's voting record.

"I ain't Sofisticated"

I blagged this off Pete, who got it off Plep. A time consuming and wonderful history of Punk at Punk '77. It's sites like this that get you the sack!

Don't miss this

Tonight at 9.pm Channel 4 will show a drama reconstruction of the Omagh bombing by the Real IRA which claimed the lives of 28 people and injured over 220 others. The worst terror attack of the conflict in Ireland. It happened under the current Government. Under Tony Blair's watch. For five and a half years the relatives of the victims of Omagh have been requesting a meeting with the Prime Minister. Although he has "felt the hand of history on his shoulder", and his government have introduced a Terrorism Act (which does not outlaw the Real IRA), it would appear that our PM has been too busy pursuing The War Against Terrorism (T.W.A.T.) to donate any of his precious time to meet with these families.

Another badge kisser moves on

Glory Hunter

Who's fooling who

Tony Blair and his partner in the coalition of the willing seem to be at odds about who will control military operations after the 'transfer of sovereignty' takes place in Iraq. Will Blair now, having been reminded by Colin Powell about what he should have said,have a change of heart? As that old fixer Jim Callaghan used to say when he was reminded Party Conference had voted on contradictory motions, "If you can't ride two horses, get out of the bloody circus".

The new Juve

BykerSink, who is always worth a read anyway, is also contributing to a site supporting the development of a team in Peru, on the banks of the Amazon, in a city called Iquitos. In Iquitos there is a small parish called Bellavista which has a local under-21 football team called Bellavista Juventud. There is a North-East connection and the good people up there have set up a supporters club, and you can follow the events at The Bellavista Social Club. It also appears that wee Nobby Solano is also lending his support, so that's another good reason for backing them.

Down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean

Now I'm no great art expert, but I know what like, and I love this picture by Edward Hopper. Anyone who follows US crime novels from a line through Dashiel Hammett, Phillip Marlowe etc. will surely identify with the guy at the bar on his own. And who are the other two punters?


Hopper's first exhibition in this country for 20 years is due to open at Tate Modern on Thursday.

Anti-Casino Demo

On Saturday local residents in my Ward are preparing to demonstrate against the obnoxious Blue Chip Casinos' plan to open a round-the-clock gambling house from a pub right next door to their homes. Pictures will follow next week.

Where's Tom gone?

Suddenly, with no warning, Tom Watson MP seems to have vanished from the blogosphere. In some of his final postings before he vanished Tom was talking about Fathers 4 Justice somehow attacking his site. Has Tom been kidnapped by blog terrorists?
Questions must be asked in the House!

Zapatistas

BykerSink last week posted a reference to Subcomandante Marcos of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation. Co-incidentally, this morning I have received an e-mail from the folks at Philosophy Football who do a neat Zapatista t-shirt in their 'dissenters' section, and the proceeds of the sale have raised $700 to assist the Zapatista's. The e-mail carried a message of thanks from the Zapatistas:


"Thanks ever so much for this donation. This really is tremendous and will help
support much of the work that we are doing now to get satellite internet and
wireless connections into the caracoles. Three of the five now have internet
and one has a wireless network setup that Indymedia, Promedios and Comppa have
helped to set up. This will also be hugley helpful for upcoming forums for
which we have been asked to help coordinate an alternative media space and a
communications table.
Thanks again and a huge hug of solidarity to all of you there,
Best,
Timo and all of here at the Chiapas Indymedia Center."

So, you not only get a cool t-shirt, you're giving the money to someone a damn sight more constructive than Nike!

Shock - Tory tells truth about public spending cuts!

Conservative Shadow Chancellor Oliver Letwin has let the cat out of the bag about Tory plans to cut public expenditure. In spite of continual denials of Labour's accusations that the Tories would slash public expenditue, Letwin revealed they would cut £23bn a year in their first term and a further £135bn if they won a second term of office. All we need Oliver to own up about now is which areas of education, health, policing, the armed forces etc he would axe. Don't just say "bureaucracy" Ollie, we had 18 years for you to sort that out.

Another one bites the dust...

Yet another Conservative sees the error of his ways. This time it is the Party's only elected Muslim who has quit the Party claiming a "number of his fellow politicians and senior party figures are racist!"

'scuse me while I kiss the sky

We went to see Birmingham's very own Steve Ajao last night. Terrific. Steve plays superb guitar a la Jimi Hendrix. In the little back room of the Church Inn, volume cranked up to maximum, Batham's bitter flowing freely. Great, great fun.

You cover up the truth with lies.

As someone who opposed the invasion of Iraq, I deeply regret the fact that this might mean being associated in some way with the political chameleon that is the Liberal Democrats. As I posted on Thursday, in spite of saying they would not use the war in their local election materials, that has been revealed as yet another Lib Dem lie. Tom Watson refers you to Lib Dem Watch which reproduces their gutter leaflet.

Let's have more like Harry

I sympathise with Mr Harry Sas of Clevedon. One of the first things I raised when I was elected was that a chap with a little sweeping machine came down the road every week, about 7.00am in the morning, when all the cars were parked in the street. He swept the white line in the middle of the road, did a quick about turn, and swept the white line again going the other way. An exercise in total futility because the gutters were still as clogged up with litter and leaves as they were before he came, and the white line was wearing thin.

I wish we had more people as keen as Mr Sas though. The councillor with responsibility for the environment reckons he's got 33 people picking the litter up, and 33,000 dropping it!

Liberal Democrat Principles. A contradiction in terms

When the Liberal Democrats launched their election campaign for the local council elections, they pledged they were going to concentrate on local issues. "War is an issue, but it is not an issue for local elections" said their spokesperson, probably aware that Charlie Kennedy was hovering about whether or not to back a call to send more troops to Iraq.
As ever though, you can rely on the Liberals to show their firm principles...are a load of opportunist crap.

Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa (Sad Song)

I've had an e-mail from Gina who berates me (and my comments people) for not including anything by the legend that is Otis Redding in my sad songs. Very true Gina. Otis could have his own competition, 'A change is gonna come' 'Try a little tenderness' and my very own heartwrenching favourite 'I've been loving you too long'. Sublime.

Exhaust-ed

My car exhaust fell off as I was leaving home this morning. I've had to wait hours for the repair people to order a new 'back box' as they term it for the mechanically illiterate. So instead of sitting in a sweating conference room arguing with curmudgeonly management, I've been lounging in the garden, reading the new Pelecanos novel with the Test Match on in the kitchen. I would thank the Lord above (of any religion you like) if it wasn't for the fact that they have just 'phoned me to OK the £250 bill for the new exhaust (and to replace a ropy tyre). I'll repeat the old John Cooper Clarke adage... tyres are knackered, knackers are tired!

Sharon back on the White House lawn

As Steve Bell sees it.

Tenants say NO to housing sell-off

Congratulations to the council house tenants in Kingston Upon Thames who are the latest group to have voted to remain with the local authority and resist the threats/bribes to transfer their council houses to a so-called social housing company. Well done to the local Branch of UNISON which campaigned with tenants against the privatisation plans. In Walsall in the West Midlands the Council succeeded in 'persuading' tenants to vote for stock transfer of the Council's homes. 'Jobs are Safe' boasted the Council's Tory Leader when he was desperate for a 'yes' vote, regrettably backed by the New Labour housing spokesperson. Within weeks of the ballot result this was revealed as a cruel hoax and the newly formed Housing Association said it was aiming to cut up to 50% of the 1,000 housing staff who transferred from the Council.

Ask them!

David Aaronovitch, once a left-wing radical, now in favour of War in Iraq and student top-up fees, wonders in his latest Guardian column "Why do they hate Blair so much?" Perhaps instead of quaffing wine in Kensington he would like to plod the streets of Bearwood with me and ask "them" himself. It may not, of course, be unrelated to the war in Iraq and student top-up fees!

Welcome back

One of my mates and election canvassers, Jim, has just come out of hospital after a couple of weeks treatment and has blogged entertainingly about his 'time inside'. He's up and about now so the warm beer sessions after canvassing can be resumed.

Its my party and I'll cry if I want to

BBC Radio 4 is running a poll to discover the nation's favourite sad song. Having just left Villa Park where we were pipped for Europe by Newcastle, I thought I was in the right mood to put forward some of my own suggestions.

Judy Collins - In my Life
Maria Callas - La Mamma Morta
Leonard Cohen - Alexandra Leaving
Joni Mitchell - The Last Time I Saw Richard
Phil Ochs - When I'm Gone

I'm sure I could think of some more... late entry..( Tom Waits... Tom Traubert's Blues ?)

The riot squad are restless, they need someplace to go

It was obviously a very quiet day for crime in Hokkaido, Japan.

Honest man quits Tories

A leading Tory has quit the Party in Redditch claiming he didn't fit in because he is "an honest bloke."

Chelsea, Chelsea

Someone was whingeing over at Tom Watson's site because I had described David Mellor as a " fat slug". I wasn't sure whether they objected because it was sizeist, which it was and I unreservedly apologise, or because I referred to him as a slug. Again, I accept that I should apologise... after all, this could be deeply offensive to your common (or) garden slug. Anyway, some people do find the things revolting. (Slugs, I mean, but I suppose the same thing applies to Mellor).  

They'll stone you when you're walkin' down the street...

Nearly two weeks into the election campaign, nearly 2,000 house visited between us, and, as John Cooper Clarke used to say, "tyres are knackered, knackers are tired". The campaign isn't as bad as I thought it would be. There's quite a bit of anti-war, anti-Blair feeling, but people seem to be making the distinction between what Labour in Sandwell is, rather than Labour in Government. All three seats are up in my Ward because of boundary changes, and the Liberals are putting up a single candidate to try to benefit from the anti-war vote, and I can't say I blame them. Hopefully though we've done a not bad job over the last few years and they'll come out on the day. I suspect the voters are lining up a shock for the Euro candidates as a way of sending a message to Blair. Will he listen? Don't suppose so, he hasn't done so far!

Subtle?

Given the Thai Government's record on human rights (I know, glass houses and stones etc) I do think this headline lacked a bit of tact.

Now that's what I call ironing!

Over at Supermum, Christine is of the opinion, with some justification I would guess, that the reason women are disinclined to stroke the male ego (or anything else on offer) is because they are too tired after working all day and ironing all night. Now I must confess... I hate ironing, and I also get vertigo standing on a chair to change a lightbulb. So I don't think I'll try this!

Thanks Neil

I am indebted to Neil of German For Beginners for his patience and effort in helping me to re-design the masthead. Neil did it with a click of his fingers, whereas I have been peeing about half of the day 'experimenting' and usually getting it wrong.

Wanted, graduate, must be sensitive soul , apply within

I blagged this courtesy of Supermum. Presumably the existing postholders have been made redundant and a major recruitment exercise is underway. As one of the comments added, knowledge of digital photography a distinct advantage.

I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now

There are some things that people of a certain age will identify with. This post (courtesy of Normblog) is definitely one of them.

We'll raise a glass...

Off to the Civic reception to celebrate The Baggies promotion. They're not my team but I'm pleased they're being promoted, and its good for Sandwell. Geography isn't my specialist subject and I know its woeful but given a map I could only make a stab at pinpointing the whereabouts of Chorley, Kirklees, Wokingham or Redcar. They don't have a football league club, you see. I can, however, precisely locate Preston (North End), Crewe (Alexandra), Blackburn (Rovers) Hartlepool (United) and Dagenham (& Redbridge). Having said that, when I put this post through the spell checker it suggested I should 'change Sandwell to Sandal'.

I heard ten thousand whisperin' and nobody listenin'

Please read UK Today and follow the link to Me and Orphelia... and spread the word.

I'm backing Claudio

Whilst I have no particular interest in the affairs of Chelsea Football Club and its manager, and if multi-millionaires fall-out, why should I care, when I hear on the radio that the fat slug Mellor thinks Ranieri should be sacked, I'm definitely in Claudio's corner.

It was 23 years ago, today.

At a time when the Tories are wetting themselves in an orgy of nostalgia for their matriarch, spare a moment or two to remember one of those who paid the ultimate price for resisting her.

Modern Times

It is said we live in modern times,
In the civilised year of 'seventy nine,
But when I look around, all I see,
Is modern torture, pain, and hypocrisy.

In modern times little children die,
They starve to death, but who dares ask why?
And little girls without attire,
Run screaming, napalmed, through the night afire.

And while fat dictators sit upon their thrones,
Young children bury their parents' bones,
And secret police in the dead of night,
Electrocute the naked woman out of sight.

In the gutter lies the black man, dead,
And where the oil flows blackest, the street runs red,
And there was He who was born and came to be,
But lived and died without liberty.

As the bureaucrats, speculators and presidents alike,
Pin on their dirty, stinking, happy smiles tonight,
The lonely prisoner will cry out from within this tomb,
And tomorrow's wretch will leave its mother's womb!

And you could also sign this petition.

Here we go, here we go, here we go...

...Or as my daughter used to say when they started that chant, "Why are they singing about earwigs?" The local election campaign starts moving into full swing today (you can tell by the weather - its peeing down in Sandwell). Due to boundary changes the whole council is up for re-election, and as I am the newest Labour councillor in the Ward, and alphabetically the last of the three, my seat is the most vulnerable. So, from June 11th onwards I might have more time to do this blog... but the title may have to change. Optimistic? Moi?

Never mind 25 years ago... remember 1997

Whilst all the Tories are out waving their union jacks and remembering the day that wicked old crone won the general election of 1979, we also need to commemorate the day we threw the buggers out! OK, so Blair hasn't fulfilled the expectations of many of us who lived through the dark 'grabbit' years of Thatcherism, but I only have to look at my own small corner of the world to appreciate the difference. Two of my local primary schools have new classrooms (one is replacing 'temporary' huts which have been there for a dozen years), and we now talk about giving every child computer access at home instead of worrying about whether we have to make cleaners or caterers redundant. We have more police patrols, including new cycle squads, the main shopping street is swept every morning, constituents praise the hospitals and we are having new street lights fitted. I know, I know, I know, people will say what about the war in Iraq. But the Tories would still have done that as well as spent another seven years squeezing the worst off in society.

I hear what people like BykerSink say when they say they won't be voting for Labour because of the damage Blair has done to Iraq... but think of the damage a Howard Government would do to the working class in Britain. So I will raise a glass to seven years of a Labour Government... now its time - in immortal words of Adam and the Ants - to Stand AND Deliver!

Nice and sleazy does it

I see Tone managed to give a Peerage to businessman Paul Drayton who had donated £100,000 to the Labour Party in 2001. Not to be outdone the Tories showed they intend to maintain their sleazy tradition, Michael Howard nominated five new Peers, four of whom were major Tory Party donors. Irvine Laidlaw has coughed up about £1.5million to the Party, and Sir Stanley Kalms (the boss of Dixons - who two days earlier announced plans to close 106 shops and sack god knows how many workers) has given the Party £600,000. Lord Steinberg and Greville Howard make up the numbers, and they must have been lucky to be included because they had only bunged about £100,000 each. If people are allowed to buy a Peerage for this sort of paltrey amount it really will lower the standards in the House, don't you think?