Repent ye sins

There's hope for Howard yet as Catholics elect a reactionary old conservative! According to the BBC the new Pope is a former member of the Hitler youth.

Hell's teeth

Grace by Jeff Buckley... no.61, Blood on the Tracks at 55, Born to Run at 37, ... and worst of all, Van the Man's classic Astral Weeks and Tom Waits' Rain Dogs, absolutely bloody nowhere. Totally unbelievable and discredited methinks.

I'm wary of the politics of the last atrocity, but... car bombs, like cruise missiles, don't ask questions about the people they kill. Marla Ruzicka's name joins the death toll.

Thanks to Christine (Supermum) for this. Ouch!

I shall vote labour, by Christopher Logue (written 1966)

I shall vote labour because
God votes labour
I shall vote labour to protect
the sacred institution of the family
I shall vote labour because
I am a dog
I shall vote labour because Labour tolerates
the traitor Ian Smith
I shall vote labour because
I am on a diet
I shall vote labour because Ringo votes labour
I shall vote labour because
upper class hoorays annoy me in expensive restaurants
I shall vote labour because if I don't
somebody else will

And

I shall vote labour because if one person does it everybody else will be wanting to do it.
I shall vote labour because
my husband looks like Antony Wedgewood_Benn
I shall vote labour because I am obedient
I shall vote labour because if I do not vote labour
my balls will drop off.
I shall vote labour because there are too few
cars on the road
I shall vote labour because
Mrs Wilson promised me five pounds if I did
I shall vote labour because I love
Look at Life films
I shall vote labour because
I am a hopeless drug addict
I shall vote labour because
I am a Wincarnis shareholder
I shall vote labour because
I failed to be a dollar millionaire aged three
I shall vote labour because labour will build
More maximum security prisons
I shall vote labour because I want to see
Nureyev and Fonteyne dance in Swansea Civic Centre
I shall vote labour because I want to shop
In a covered precinct stretching from Yeovil to Glasgow
I shall vote labour because I want to rape an air hostess
I shall vote labour because I am a hairdresser
I shall vote labour because
The Queen's Stamp collection is the best in the world
I shall vote labour because
Deep in my heart
I am a conservative

In the aftermath of the death of Pope John Paul I (August 26 1978)and the election of Pope John Paul II (September 28 1978), Birmingham City Football Club created the legend of being the team that failed to win a match during the reign of a Pope.

Good news.... we're two matches in and counting. Let's all hope they take their time to elect the new fellah!

A sobering thought for someone who has to submit themselves for election, according to this test, only 1.7% of the population have the same political views as me... and only 2.5% of Labour voters! I hope the 2.5% bother to vote! Thanks to Pete.

I smell a bid for the 'yoof vote'....
Alan Milburn used to listen to German '60's hippie outfit Tangerine Dream... George Galloway and Milburn are Dylan freaks (is that the only thing they have in common), Lemit Opik is a Led Zep fan and Oliver Letwin boogies on down to the last movement of the Fourth Symphony and the Kindertotenleider by Mahler, much of Beethoven's Ninth, and Strauss's waltzes.

The new membership of the House of Lords is now being recruited as compliant senior backbenchers agree to give up their seats in return for becoming Baron Blatherskyte of Betrayal in the next Honour’s List. I’ve not been sounded yet, except at a lower level, but every time my phone rings the humorists say “House of Lords calling”.

Austin Mitchell's amusing end of term report.

Over at Harry's Place there's a post which uses an interview with former UN weapons inspector and anti-war campaigner Scott Ritter to prove conclusively that the war wasn't all about oil

That elicited this comment from a computer generated blue hedgehog.... which offers an alternative explanation for motive behind the US/UK war in Iraq:

Guys you are missing Gene's point, it's obvious that it was not about oil (despite the fact Iraq has the second biggest known reserves in the world) and we know it was not about WMD's so that leaves.....Sand!

yes it's a little known fact that Iraq has one of the biggest reserves of high quality sand known, sand that can be used for many things like sandblasters and beach creation and, er, well lots of good stuff.

After all surely no-one is seriously expecting us to believe that Bush and Cheney lay awake at night crying at how Iraq was not free and how poor arabs were being tortured by Saddam and therefore spent $200 billion to save these poor people.

So if it's not oil, or WMD's and it was certainly not about freedom I put it to you that all is left is my groundbreaking Sand theory!

More Lib Dem lies...

Baroness Shirley Williams was on Radio 5 this afternoon. She was asked whether, as she had got Crosby in her title, she would be keeping a lookout for the Liverpool v Juventus score this evening. A pretty banal question, I grant you, but not as banal as the answer... "I'm doing an election thing tonight, but I will be trying to keep in touch because I think Liverpool United is a good team." Slightly embarrassed, the interviewer pressed on... "Have you been to Anfield lately" he tried. "No" said the noble one, "I haven't been for about 18 months. I like the Grand National and I've been in the past, but I suppose I just watch it on TV like everyone else now."

Roll on an elected second chamber, and meanwhile, God preserve us from politicians who think they have to impress us with their love and knowledge of football, when really they couldn't give a toss.

The mind boggles

Big news in Brum as the Lib Dem Deputy Leader of the Tory run council John Hemming meets Deepthroat! How very distasteful.

Photo fit

Via The Guardian election blog

(via Cheeks)

"As far as Rover is concerned, it is hard to see how a workers' co-op could have made a bigger cock-up of the business than its bosses did."
George Monbiot on the Rover fiasco.

Hugo Chavez.... Capitalism is Savagery. How long before the war against terror starts to focus on oil rich Venezuela?

Chancer

I wouldn't call Birmingham City Council Leader Mike Whitby an opportunist.... but... to ask central government for a £140m commitment for the redevelopment of New Street Station on the back of a request for assistance to Rover smacks of a chancer at work!

Tall tales (but good, all the same)

J.A.M. Hemming (the Max Clifford of self-publicity) was, according to Talk Politics, beaten in an election by a dog!
(Please refrain from tasteless comments about his Labour opponent in Yardley).

Are you thinking what I'm thinking?

"We believe in devolving power down to the lowest level so that local people are given greater control over their own lives."
Page 22 of The Conservative Party Manifesto 2005

"A Conservative Government will... review all speed cameras to ensure that they are there to save lives and not make money."
Page 22 of The Conservative Party Manifest 2005

That's empowerment?

It is easy to be cynical about politicians promises and sloganising. Things can only get better, though, wasn't just a slogan. It has taken time for investment to start showing results, but certainly on the issue of anti-social behaviour and crime, the feedback I get is that people really do think we are making progress after the Tory years of under investment and the running down of public services. Certainly these people in Sandwell seem to agree that efforts to stop low level crime and anti-social behaviour are beginning to have an effect.

One of the strangest aspects of politics is the way some politicians grab every opportunity to make events fit into their particular worldview. So, when David Blunkett is asked about voting fraud in Birmingham, quick as a flash our Dave is able to translate the question into an answer about the benefits of a national ID card scheme. Equally, when my favourite Lib Dem John Hemming spys a problem "spiralling out of control" at MG Rover, he instantly identifies the DTI (that, coincidentally, the Lib Dems are pledged to abolish) as the main cause of the problem. David... John... the public are not as daft as you perceive, please stop this blatant opportunism and have a bit of respect for them.

When it comes to election time, there is a case for brightening up the process through publicity seeking eccentrics like the Monster Raving Loony Party who would lighten up the news with a series of ridiculous stunts. In the absence of the late Screaming Lord Sutch... it is good to see that the Lib Dems have found a publicity seeking eccentric egomaniac to fill the void.

Ebay, obviously aware of ace election sleuth John Hemming, have decided not to accept votes for sale on ebay.

Following numerous requests over the years we have finally got Sandwell Council to install one of those continental-style Superloos in the main Bearwood shopping centre. This is my nightmare. Our Superloo has been installed following an arrangement the council reached with advertisers JC Decaux.... who were the masterminds behind this. Please, please don't let this happen to us!

A few weeks ago Tony Benn suggested that national newspapers should ask election candidates a series of questions to give the electorate some idea of where they stand on certain key issues. Well, now The Guardian has done something like it (albeit only for sitting MPs... and many, including, shame on him, blogging MP Tom Watson, do not seem to have responded). Should George Galloway be elected as Respect MP I wonder if he would turn up to vote more frequently.

Neo-con Paul Wolfowitz, newly appointed President of the World Bank could, according to some, emulate his predecessor Robert MacNamara and move from a White House hawk to a succesful World Bank President. Oh yes? George Monbiot in The Guardian has a different view of MacNamara "He bankrolled Mobutu and Suharto, deforested Nepal, trashed the Amazon and promoted genocide in Indonesia. The countries he worked in were left with unpayable debts, wrecked environments, grinding poverty and pro-US dictators."

John Hemming, Lib Dem partner of Birmingham's Conservative controlled Council, claims that electoral fraud has been reported in Sandwell. By whom... and with what evidence? I cannot find anyone who can verify this story... apart from this twunk who makes the claim that he has "considerable experience in the current political arena" (he spent a year on Sandwell Council, only spoke once, and then supported a Labour Group resolution to welcome the cultural diversity brought about by immigration into the country). Is this man Hemming's witness? Or is Hemming so gullible he believes everything he's told. No... that can't be the case, because he forgot to mention this one.

For more on Hemming, self-publicist supreme and failed Parliamentary candidate (must have been postal voting fraud that did it) I refer you to the excellent UK Political Hack.

The Pope... from a different perspective

"The greatest crime of his papacy, however, was neither his part in this cover up nor his neanderthal attitude to women. It was the grotesque irony by which the Vatican condemned - as a "culture of death" - condoms, which might have saved countless Catholics in the developing world from an agonising Aids death."
Terry Eagleton in The Guardian

Apparently Birmingham City Council has spent £2.35m on a park in Birmingham. Meanwhile, a park in my Ward which is perversely owned by Birmingham City Council and supposedly maintained by them, is a bloody disgrace. Despite the fact that the City Council Leader lives within yards of the park, he seems content to allow Lightwoods Park to deteriorate.

I wasn't sure exactly what it is about David Aaronovitch that really gets up my nose. Certainly his so-called "polemic dynamite" can be provocative, but the article in today's Observer really sums up what it is I despise about the nation's most high profile ex-communist come Blairite (or is that Sue Slipman). It's the way he describes the working class as male, right-wing and saloon bar intellectuals... and those who think differently to him as "the British intelligentsia" who are living "in shuttered dining-rooms in Holland Park, Highbury and Kennington, in converted barns in Herefordshire and flagged kitchens in Brittany, in the pages of the London Review of Books and at publishing parties". So, perhaps we should have a little feature in the Observer colour supplement, a sort of "At home with the Aaronovith's" number, where David can show us round his little two up, two down terraced house, coal in the bath, whippet warming up outside etc, just before our Dave gets ready for his Sunday trip down the boozer for a few pints of mild before his roast beef and an afternoon of farting in the armchair watching the footie. Patronising fat get!

Dave Lambert at Talk Politics, (2/4/05) raises some interesting points in response to my question about the problems of a local income tax. I await the flood of comments from the Lib Dem intelligensia.

An April Fool

OK... it was 1st April... but surely Oliver Kamm was having a laugh when, in this article on human rights under Fidel Castro, he quotes Donald Rumsfeld attacking "Old Europe" as some sort of justification. If you really want to look for human rights abuses in Cuba, surely you need to look no further than Guantanamo Bay.

Fear the yobs. Toryscum.com.

Is there anyone out there with information on how a local income tax would work? If my constituents in Sandwell work in Birmingham and pay their local income tax through PAYE, who gets the payment... the borough with a business, or the borough where they live? If it is the area where you live... wouldn't those captains of industry in the leafy lanes of Worcestershire benefit over the working class areas of Sandwell where the factories are?

There must be serious personality problems amongst Sandwell's Liberal Democrats. Lib Dem Councillor Margaret 'Mad Max' Macklin has become the sixth Lib Dem Councillor to defect from the Party in the last five years.
Given there are only an average of half a dozen Lib Dems at any one time... that is quite a defection rate.

I love Dingle. It is one of the only places I know where you can have a pint and buy some amazing things in the same place. At Foxy Johns Pub and Hardware you can buy a Guinness, hire a bike for the day, and purchase a range of tools, screws and even rat poison over the counter. The toilets are a tourist attraction on their own. Outside Dick Macks just round the corner in Green Street they have their very own Hollywood style pavement, with stars set in paving stones identifying their star customers, and in the pub window today they're selling a second hand pair of Dr. Martins for only 12 euros! Then there's the food. The Dingle Peninsula has some restaurants to die for... especially the fish.... and Doyles is one of the best!

Right... I'm off for a couple of pints of the black stuff.

Tom Watson waxes lyrical about Jim Callaghan. As you will see, Jim, in his dotage, blamed the unions for his downfall. That is Jim, who made massive public expenditure cuts to appease the International Monetary Fund, who then warned people like Tom not to let "the unions call the shots" and paved the way for the Thatcherite onslaught on the British people. I have always been fascinated by those who made a complete cock-up of the economy during the Wilson/Callaghan/Healey years and many of whom thankfully buggered off later to the SDP (and to form the germ of the Lib Dems), who re-write history to blame the trade unions and the working class, who never for one second had any real power, for their own failings. Still, at least Jim could comfort himself in the company of the likes of Ken Jackson.... Thank God I've got a lot of the second rarest commodity in politics.

I'm pleased to see that the Spirit of Easter has shed no holy light on the Occupied Country. Steve back to his blistering best!

I'm off to Dingle, and I'll try to post at the Internet cafe if I get the chance.

Jackie Asley writes in The Guardian that she will be voting Lib Dem to keep the Tories out. Interestingly, one 'positive' reason she advances for the Lib Dems is that they do not have a 'leadership cult'. It is highly debateable whether it is beneficial to have a political party, or a country, whose leadership consists of "a gaggle of engaging characters" led by a man who looks "about as comfortable as a man arrested for stealing pies." What I find interesting about the Lib Dems is that the one thing they have been passionate about since their formation has been their dogmatic euro-fanaticism and their willingness to pursue a federal europe at the expense of almost everything else. It is a policy that clearly divides them from the Tories, who adopt the exact opposite position, and much of the Labour movement which also has a healthy dose of euro-scepticism. So.... given that they are pronouncing their 10 good reasons to vote Liberal Democrat.... why no mention of this distinction? Surely it couldn't possible be related to the fact that the public in general are overwhelmingly opposed to the Lib Dem position on this?

Gareth Davies tries to savage Tim Ireland. Tim Ireland hits back. This could get tasty. A bit of advice to Gareth from Denis Healey: First law on holes - when you're in one, stop digging!

My worst nightmare....

Apart from the recurring nightmare of Howard as PM, I really, really, would not like one of these to be made about Birmingham.

Have you ever pondered the question How are Maltesers Made? These sad buggers have!

Rhodri Morgan - Tree Monster !

People in my Ward, (Bearwood in Smethwick) are extremely concerned about the fate of their local shopping centre. Morrisons bought the successful Safeways store as part of their takeover of the Safeways group. Actually, Safeways had been so successful they had managed to force out virtually all of the small grocers and greengrocers in the area. Now Morrisons, having overstretched themselves buying Safeways, have decided to close down their Bearwood store and make the staff redundant, and at the same time close down the central post office located in their store. So, there are unlikely to be many tears shed in Bearwood over the news that Morrisons have had £40m knocked off their profits. Still, their shareholders can comfort themselves with the knowledge that they will only make a profit of about £320 million.

So the people of Bearwood and surrounding areas, together with those traders who have survived amongst the charity shops, building societies and kebab houses, are anxious to ensure a replacement supermarket is found. Personally I have a great deal of sympathy with George Monbiot's cry of Shut Down The Supermarkets! Unfortunately, as people have adapted to supermarket consumerism, I suppose we had better press on and seek an alternative chain to move in to the shell of Morrisons deserted store... and Morrisons can set about ripping the guts out of someone else's community.

The Tories are prepared to stoop to appealing to the most base instincts in order to close the gap on Labour and even Tony's friend Rupert is edging back to Howard's camp (if we can use that word). I know those "backing Blair" still think this is not credible, but sooner or later people must get the message... or live to regret it.

Our Man in Hanoi is trying to raise sponsorship for Vietnamese kids to work on the KOTO project. Take a look at his blog, particularly the posting 'Angels with Dirty Faces', and if you are in a trade union, ask your branch or district to consider helping out. If you work for a corporate body that wants to feel good about "giving aid to the Third World", don't be shy, ask them too. Or if you know someone who just would not miss that sort of money (about £50 a month for 18 months) tug at their heartstrings too. Even if you can't do any of those things... link to the OMIH blog and give it a plug because someone else may know someone.

We will get...."the usual solemn warnings about apathy - as if the real problems in Britain were caused by the inactivity of the people, rather than the activity of the parliamentarians." Tony Benn suggests you may want to ask your MP 20 key questions.

On a related theme, Robin Cook 24 hours later warns of voter apathy... or should that be alienation.

Now, let me see if I've got this right. In order to maintain credibility, the British government have to split with the army hard men who ordered the torture of Iraqi prisoners.

Mark Seddon on how New Labour has manipulated selection procedures to weed out the awkward squad.

Chavez in Venezuela makes the case for socialism.

Balders returns after a short break with a sharp analysis of the anti-terror legislation which is as effective as all the words in the Sunday papers I was able to get over here. Anyway, I'm off for a stroll down the beach....

I'm off to Portugal for a short break, so things may be quiet here.

Never mind the Middle East... apparently we're fed up with democracy.

I'm confused. I've been listening all this week to Government Ministers complaining about the "unelected and unaccountable" House of Lords. So... just exactly whose fault is it that we've got a House of Lords consisting in its entirety of those who got there on the back of patronage or priviledge. In 2003 the House of Commons rejected proposals by the then Leader of the House, Robin Cook, to reform the Lords and create an all-elected chamber. The elected ones threw out the plans and plumped instead for an appointed "unelected and unaccountable" second chamber, with luminaries such as Gerald Kaufmann stating that the voters were "already fed up with electing." This from the Mother of Parliaments that lectures the world on democracy. Of course, the cynical amongst you might think that the elected ones might prefer an appointed system so that when they didn't get their way they could challenge the mandate of the second chamber by calling them "unelected and unaccountable."

Letter in The Guardian...

Like Martin Kettle, I remember the "unelectable" Tories winning the 1970 election. It's hard to forget watching a man having to paint extra segments on the BBC's swingometer because the experts had got it so wrong.
Brian Hughes
Cheltenham, Glos

Of course, for the Tories to win they will also have to beat off the Lib Dems in the South and the South East. The danger for the Lib Dems though is that at some stage someone is going to raise the issue of their euro-fanaticism, which they have so far managed to hide away in a corner.... but which is a deeply, deeply unpopular part of their programme to the overwhelming majority of those very same Tory/Lib Dem swing voters.

Tim, over at Bloggerheads, in a Delia type moment says, Now, Bob's at it! Now, leaving aside the connotations (it sounds as if I've been receiving stolen goods or having a sly legover) what exactly is it that I'm at. I mean, Labour Councillor says Vote Labour is hardly a shock. If Tim means, by illustrating the fact that disillusionment with a Labour Government can lead to voter apathy or protest voting, as it did in 1979, and lead to a Tory Government... I plead guilty. But I don't want to be accused of threatening people with Howard if they don't vote Blair, because if that is what they want, that's democracy, that's the first past the post system, that's how it works.

I would want to point out that, if it is not apparent to regular readers, I don't want Blair either, but then, I never did, and voting Labour for me doesn't mean voting Blair, or even my local MP. I'm not a jump-on-the-bandwagon anti-war anti-Blairite. I disliked him from the start; I was suspicious when he was a CND supporting shadow Home Secretary, I think he has ripped the heart out of my Party, I resented his campaign against Clause 4 and his attack Ken Livingstone, whilst at the same time giving jobs to Kenneth Clark, Paddy Ashdown and Woy Jenkins, and his whole attitude to the trade unions. But it's not a boxing match 'Bruiser Blair v Horrible Howard' and what's more, it is not his Party. Labour is the only political party with integral links to the trade unions, and therefore the organised working class. That is why I'm a member, that is why I'll vote Labour and campaign for Labour... and if that means I'm at it, so be it.

Perhaps Americans just don't do irony. When George W. Bush tells the Syrians they must pull out of Lebanon because... "The Lebanese people have the right to determine their future free from domination by a foreign power" you would really hope he was doing so with his tongue firmly in his cheek. Unfortunately, I doubt it.

Still, Dubya cranks up the threats in the Middle East, and somebody spots a payday.

In 1979 I was a student at Warwick University camapaigning in the General Election for the late Audrey Wise, the tenacious left-wing Labour MP for Coventry. One of the small trotskyist clans at the University was urging students to "Vote Tory to bring down the Government". Their logic was that Callaghan was a reactionary Labour PM and was deeply hated by the unions. This had resulted in strikes and the so-called 'Winter of Discontent'. If Thatcher came to power, they argued, she would be even more reactionary and the unions would rise up against the Tories and a revolutionary situation would emerge. Bloody fine experiment that turned out to be! Audrey Wise lost her seat... although the truth is, Coventry lost Audrey. I'd like to meet with 'the comrades' who pushed that line back then (they are probably all New Labour or Lib Dem voting voting advertising executives now) and ask them to reflect on their advice. Reading this from Martin Kettle, I really do hope we are not all sitting back on May 6th wondering exactly what went wrong.... and watching the smarmy Howard quoting St Francis of Assisi..."Where there is discord, may we bring harmony. Where there is error, may we bring truth. Where there is doubt, may we bring faith. And where there is despair, may we bring hope." Look back in anger.

It's not just Iraqis who are abused... remember Zahid Mubarek, murdered five years ago this month.

We have got used to stories of the abuse of power in Abu Ghraib and Camp Breadbasket in recent weeks. Equally as horrifying, though, was the story on BBC last week showing the disgusting racism and abuse at Oakington Immigration Centre. The accounts by undercover reporters should be sufficient for the private company, the laughably named Global Solutions Ltd, to immediately have their contract terminated. However, a more disturbing question is: would the State sector do any better? Relatives of Zahid Mubarek would almost certainly not think so. Zahid was the victim of an horrendous series of racial taunts and attacks by his cellmate in Feltham young offenders institution. His murderer, known racist psychopath Robert Stewart beat Zahid to death with a table leg five years ago. Jack Straw initally, and then David Blunkett refused the family a public inquiry into the murder (and that should have been a bigger reason for Blunkett's resignation than some leg-over nonsense) before the Courts ordered him to do so. The inquiry is now underway and you can follow events on the Public Inquiry website. Last week the head of the Prison Officers Association said that officers deliberately placed people into the sort of situations where prisoners would be bullied, and then they gambled on the likely outcomes. I await the news of the prosecution of these officers... but I won't hold my breath.

"...outcomes can alter the balance of even a legal argument." David Aaronovitch in The Observer says we should not ask whether the Iraq invasion was 'legal' - we should ask whether it was 'good'. Or, as the Tankies used to say... "Don't ask if the Stalinist purges were right, ask whether they were good because the Russians helped to defeat fascism." A classic ends justifying the means argument.

Stop nuisance Lib Dems...

The Lib Dems are campaigning to Stop Nuisance Calls from Labour and the Tories. I don't think it is anything new though. The Lib Dems, (and their predecessors the ill-fated SDP and Liberals) seem to have been operating that policy in my Ward for the 25 years I have lived here. Not one nuisance Lib Dem phone call, not one Lib Dem nuisance knocking on my door telling me what they stand for, in fact, not even a single nuisance Liberal/Lib Dem leaflet explaining their views in more than 25 years. Idle bastards trying to disguise the fact by promising not to be a 'nuisance' if you ask me.

Two good contributions from The Guardian: Ken Livingstone - This is about Israel, not anti-semitism, and Robin Cook on the Prevention of Terrorism Bill.

If you want to know how Billie Holliday would have interpreted Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen... grab a listen if you can to Madeleine Peyroux's album Careless Love.

Andy Hamilton is a jazz legend in Birmingham. He is 87 years old, and has been leading jazz bands in the City for nearly 60 years. Before that he was musical director on Errol Flynn's yacht. Andy also encourages and nurtures young jazz musicians. Last week in Bearwood he introduced a 14-year old saxophonist and a 16-year old trumpet player, and they were terrific. Now, for the sake of a few measley quid his Sunday lunchtime jam sessions at The Drum have been axed. Come on, John Hemming... the City is proud enough of Andy to herald his achievements, so why not dip in the City coffers to keep Andy's sessions going, and who knows, he might let you on stage to jam. Anyway, tonight we're off to Bearwood Jazz to see Andy and Russian saxophonist, Oleg Kireyev.

Now this, I really like.

Google is a great search engine... but courtesy of Online Guardian, at first glance this is something else! For instance, if you type in Birmingham it gives you a mass of information which can be cross-referenced to other parts of the Web. In the left hand column it actually refers you to recent blog postings about where or whatever you have searched for. It even lists all the honours won by Birmingham City Football Club in their 130 years of trying. Now that must have taken some research.

Letter in The Guardian:
We were wondering if perhaps Hazel Blears couldn't help your overworked police force to identify terrorist suspects, by making dubious peoples wear some form of easily recognised symbol, for instance a yellow star. We have read this was highly effective previously in europe.
Cynthia Loemij
Clive Mitchell
Brussels

Worth it?

George Monbiot in The Guardian asks: How can MPs properly represent us when they are earning up to 95% of their income from outside interests? According to this, an average backbench MPs salary and expenses amount to over £175,000 a year! Well, I bet the people of Kensington & Chelsea think they are getting their money's worth out of Michael Portillo. According to the Register of Members' Interests, he squeezed them in somewhere in between this little lot.... be patient, no wonder he doesn't want to be Prime Minister anymore!

PORTILLO, Rt. Hon. Michael (Kensington and Chelsea) 1.Remunerated directorships BAE Systems PLC (non-executive). 2.Remunerated employment, office, profession etc.. Speaking engagements booked through Speakers for Business: 30 March 2004, speech at National Association of Estates Agents Lunch, London. (Up to £5,000) (Registered 31 March 2004) 1 September 2004, speech at Private Finance Initiative Journal Annual Dinner (Blue Box Group UK Ltd), London. (Up to £5,000) (Registered 20 October 2004) 7 October 2004, speech at Audit Commission Dinner, Daventry. (Up to £5,000) (Registered 20 October 2004) Speaking engagements booked through DBA Speakers Agency: 19 April 2004, speech at Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales, East of England Supper, Hertfordshire. (Up to £5,000) (Registered 4 May 2004) 16 June 2004, speech at Chartered Institute Public Finance and Accountancy Conference Fringe Meeting, Brighton. (Up to £5,000) (Registered 8 July 2004) 6 July 2004, Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales, East of England Supper, Norwich. (Up to £5,000) (Registered 2 September 2004) 19 November 2004, speech at Baker Tilly Conference, Surrey. (Up to £5,000) (Registered 14 December 2004) 2 December 2004, speech at Jane's Information Group Awards, London. (Up to £5,000) (Registered 14 December 2004) Speaking engagements booked through Parliament Communications Speaking Agency: 7 May 2004, speech at British Association of Communicators in Business Dinner, Warwickshire. (£5,001-£10,000) (Registered 8 July 2004) 24 November 2004, speech at Lloyds TSB Conference, Guernsey. Fee plus return flights. (£5,001-£10,000) (Registered 14 December 2004) Speaking engagements booked through the London Speaker Bureau: 25 May 2004, speech at Cendant Lunch, London. (Up to £5,000) (Registered 8 July 2004) 26 May 2004, speech at STP Annual Benchmark Awards, London. (£5,001-£10,000) (Registered 8 July 2004) 9 June 2004, speech at EMAP Automobile Conference, Birmingham. (Up to £5,000) (Registered 8 July 2004) 14 September 2004, speech at 100 Property Club Dinner, London. (Up to £5,000) (Registered 20 October 2004) 28 September 2004, speech at IChemE Awards Dinner, London. (Up to £5,000) (Registered 20 October 2004) 9 November 2004, speech at Thomas Byrne Lunch, Dublin. Fee plus return flights. (£5,001-£10,000) (Registered 14 December 2004) Speaking engagements booked through the Speakers Corner Agency: 19 February 2004, speech at Chartered Institute of Building Annual Dinner, London. (Up to £5,000) (Registered 31 March 2004) 13 November 2004, to IOD Dinner, Jersey. Fee plus return flights. (£5,001-£10,000) (Registered 14 December 2004) Speaking engagements booked through JLA Speaking Agency: 6 February 2004, speech at Scottish Legal Awards, Glasgow. (Up to £5,000) (Registered 31 March 2004) 26 March 2004, speech at Faculty of Building Great Western Branch Dinner, Bristol. (Up to £5,000) (Registered 31 March 2004) 27 May 2004, speech at Intellect Dinner, London. (Up to £5,000) (Registered 8 July 2004) 12 June 2004, speech at HVCA Conference, Harrogate. (Up to £5,000) (Registered 8 July 2004) 2 September 2004, Gramophone Classical Awards, London. (Up to £5,000) (Registered 20 October 2004) 5 October 2004, speech at CIO Connect Dinner, Surrey. (Up to £5,000) (Registered 20 October 2004) 12 November 2004, speech at Allen & Overy Conference, Amsterdam. Fee plus return flights and one night's accommodation. (£5,001-£10,000) (Registered 14 December 2004) Speaking engagements booked through Performing Artistes Agency: 11 March 2004, speech at Legendary Dinner, London. (Up to £5,000) (Registered 31 March 2004) 22 September 2004, speech at Knight Frank Estate Agents Dinner, London. (Up to £5,000) (Registered 20 October 2004) 26 November 2004, Institute of Export annual export lunch, Gatwork. (Up to £5,000) (Registered 14 December 2004) 30 November 2004, speech at Royal and Sun Alliance dinner, London. (Up to £5,000) (Registered 14 December 2004) Sky News occasional contributor as newspaper reviewer. (Up to £5,000) 8 February 2004, book review for Sunday Telegraph. (Up to £5,000) (Registered 31 March 2004) 12 February 2004, article for Mail on Sunday. (Up to £5,000) (Registered 31 March 2004) 13 February 2004, BBC Newsnight Review (for BBC2). (Up to £5,000) (Registered 31 March 2004) 22 February 2004, article for Sunday Times. (Up to £5,000) (Registered 31 March 2004) February 2004, article for Medlife Magazine. (Up to £5,000) (Registered 31 March 2004) March 2004, article for Square Meal Magazine. (Up to £5,000) (Registered 31 March 2004) 4 March 2004, speech at PAM Awards Dinner, London. (Up to £5,000) (Registered 31 March 2004) 14 and 21 March 2004, two articles for the Sunday Times. (Up to £5,000) (Registered 31 March 2004) March 2004, article for Mail on Sunday. (Up to £5,000) (Registered 31 March 2004) March 2004, article for The Observer. (Up to £5,000) (Registered 31 March 2004) Television programme (as a participant), BBC "Dinner with Portillo" series of six programmes November 2003-February 2004 (for BBC4). (£15,001-£20,000) (Registered 31 March 2004) 7 April 2004, speech at Ceridian Lunch, London, booked through Celebrity Speakers Ltd. (Up to £5,000) (Registered 4 May 2004) April 2004, two book reviews for the Sunday Times. (Up to £5,000) (Registered 4 May 2004) April 2004, article for Medlife Magazine. Fee plus return flight to Iberian Peninsula and three night's hotel accommodation. (Up to £5,000) April 2004, four articles for the Sunday Times. (£5,001-£10,000) (Registered 4 May 2004) 8 April 2004, BBC "Parkinson" (for BBC1). (Up to £5,000) (Registered 4 May 2004) 16 May 2004, speech at Brighton Festival Literary Lunch, Brighton. (Up to £5,000) (Registered 8 July 2004) 23 May 2004, participant in panel discussion at English National Opera. (Up to £5,000) (Registered 8 July 2004) May 2004, article for Square Meal Magazine. (Up to £5,000) (Registered 8 July 2004) May 2004, four articles for the Sunday Times. (£5,001-£10,000) (Registered 8 July 2004) June 2004, four articles for the Sunday Times. (£5,001-£10,000) (Registered 8 July 2004) Television programmes (as a participant), BBC `This Week' (for BBC1) January-May 2004, weekly series (£10,001-£15,000), BBC `Dinner with Portillo' series of six programmes May-October 2004 (for BBC4) (£15,001-£20,000), BBC `This Week' for BBC1 November-December 2003 (paid June 2004) (Up to £5,000) (Registered 8 July 2004); BBC `This Week' (for BBC1) June and July 2004, weekly series. (£5,001-£10,000) (Registered 2 September 2004), 30 July 2004, BBC Newsnight Review (for BBC2) (Up to £5,000) (Registered 2 September 2004) BBC `This Week' for (BBC1) August 2004, weekly series (Up to £5,000) (Registered 20 October 2004), BBC `This Week' (for BBC1) September 2004, weekly series (Up to £5,000) (Registered 14 December 2004), BBC `This Week' (for BBC1) October 2004, weekly series (Up to £5,000) (Registered 17 January 2005), BBC, presenter of a four part series on Political Cartoonists (for BBC4) (£15,001-£20,000) (Registered 17 January 2005). July 2004, article for Medlife Magazine. Fee plus return flight to Tunis and three nights' hotel accommodation. (Up to £5,000) (Registered 2 September 2004) July 2004, four articles for the Sunday Times. (£5,001-£10,000) (Registered 2 September 2004) August 2004, four articles for the Sunday Times. (£5,001-£10,000) (Registered 2 September 2004) August 2004, article for the Times Weekend Review (Up to £5,000) (Registered 2 September 2004) September 2004, article for GB Airways Medlife Magazine. Fee plus return flights to Gibraltar. (Up to £5,000) (Registered 20 October 2004) 8 September 2004, speech at Chiron Corporation Dinner, London. (Up to £5,000) (Registered 20 October 2004) 20 September 2004, speech at Gibraltar Chamber of Commerce Annual Dinner, Gibraltar. Fee plus four nights' accommodation. (Up to £5,000) (Registered 20 October 2004) 29 September 2004, speech at JBP PR Anniversary Dinner, Bristol. (Up to £5,000) (Registered 20 October 2004) September 2004, four articles for the Sunday Times. (£5,001-£10,000) (Registered 20 October 2004) October 2004, four articles for the Sunday Times. (£5,001-£10,000) (Registered 20 October 2004) 12 October 2004, speech at 2004 Building Homes Quality Awards, London. (Up to £5,000) (Registered 20 October 2004) 18 October 2004, speech at T Rowe Price Dinner, London. (£5,001-£10,000) (Registered 20 October 2004) 19 October 2004, speech at British Businessmen's Club, Düsseldorf, Germany. Fee plus return flight. (Up to £5,000) (Registered 20 October 2004) October 2004, two articles for The Sunday Times. (Up to £5,000) (Registered 14 December 2004) November 2004, four articles for The Sunday Times. (£5,001-£10,000) (Registered 14 December 2004) 2 November 2004, speech at CDR Aldwych Dinner, London. (Up to £5,000) (Registered 14 December 2004) 11 November 2004, speech at Aeolus Lunch, Glasgow, booked through Gordon Poole Agency. Fee plus return flights. (Up to £5,000) (Registered 14 December 2004) 9 December 2004, speech at St Regis Paper Company Ltd lunch, London, booked through Catalyst World Class Ltd. (£5,001-£10,000) (Registered 14 December 2004) September 2004 and December 2004 Associate to Capgemini UK plc. (£5,001-£10,000) (Registered 17 January 2005) December 2004, four articles for The Sunday Times. (£5,001-£10,000) (Registered 17 January 2005) 5.Gifts, benefits and hospitality (UK) Complimentary membership of The Peak Health Club, The Carlton Tower Hotel, London SW7. Ex officio complimentary membership of the Chelsea Arts Club. September 2004, free Executive Medical Screen, Cromwell Hospital, London SW7. (Registered 20 October 2004) 6.Overseas visits 5-7 March 2004, to Venice, to attend British-Italian Seminar. Return flight and two nights' accommodation provided by the Italian UK Ambassador. (Registered 4 May 2004) 5-7 November 2004, to Madrid to attend British-Spanish Tertulias, who paid for return airfares to Madrid plus two nights' accommodation. (Registered 14 December 2004) 3-4 December 2004, to Potsdam, Germany for Club of Three conference. Return air fares to Berlin plus one night's accommodation paid by conference organisers. (Registered 14 December 2004)

Shame

On average two women are killed by it every week. The police receive over 400,000 999 calls every year reporting it. On average there are 35 assaults before the victim gets round to reporting it. Less than 13,000 cases are prosecuted every year for more than half a million offences. One in four women in the UK are the victims of it. Unlike 'football hooliganism' you hardly ever read about it in your newspapers, but the level and severity of the attacks are much worse. Count how many times you hear ANY political party mention Domestic Violence in the next two months.

Lib Dem electoral fraud. Obviously, to use John Hemming's logic, the reason the Liberal Democrats supported the extension of postal voting was to enable their members to do this sort of thing. He has highlighted some examples of electoral fraud but so far this one seems to have been missed.

West Bromwich Albion footballer Lee Hughes was given a six-year prison sentence for causing death by dangerous driving. Birmingham City loan player, millionaire playboy Jermaine Pennant is due to be sentenced today after being caught driving his Mercedes car with a lampost underneath it whilst under the influence of drink. Pennant was already banned for drink driving and had no insurance. Birmingham manager Steve Bruce said "Pennant has had a tough life". You better believe it, transferred to Arsenal for two million quid aged 15, dropped from the England Under-21 squad for staying out of the hotel all-night drinking, earning more in a month than the overwhelming majority of the country earn in a year... life can't get much tougher than that! As Stan Colleymore said, just because you are mega rich, doesn't mean you don't have problems. No, Stan, just don't expect us to give a toss.

"We are turning into a nation of whimpering slaves to Fear— fear of war, fear of poverty, fear of random terrorism, fear of getting down-sized or fired because of the plunging economy, fear of getting evicted for bad debts, or suddenly getting locked up in a military detention camp on vague charges of being a Terrorist sympathizer."
The late Hunter S. Thompson tells it like it is.

Recorded on May 5, 1959 in New York City: John Coltrane's Giant Steps, a wonderful animation by Michael Levy. Takes a while to load... but truly marvellous.


(via growabrain)

Mark Alcock (and balls)

Mark Alcock, prospective Lib Dem MP for Barking (sorry, I mean South Ribble) has done his maths and he reckons the Lib Dems are going to win the General Election... and he's got a daft bar chart (or two) to prove it!

A good night to stop in and watch TV. Following on from Faith, a drama about the Miners Strike which has got Tory knickers in a twist because it is not balanced (maybe they want us to see the heartwrenching sadness of Ian MacGregor and the wicked witch of Finchley as they too endured the 12 month strike), and then you can switch to Channel 4 and watch Torture: The Guantanamo Guidebook. Seven people subjected to the conditions experienced by those hostages illegally detained and tortured by the United States Government. Wouldn't it be a good idea if we could have our own Big Brother type show where we could all phone in and nominate people to go into the Big Brother Guantanamo House. I just don't know how I could whittle the list down to seven though.

"Another Blairite minister admitted he had been taken aback by the hostility to the leader on the doorsteps..." Just exactly where have these people been for the last three years?

Politics matters

New articles on ZNet include a piece about Bush's newly appointed Director of Military Intelligence, When John Negroponte Was Mullah Omar. Also on ZNET The Case for Socialism in the Twenty-First Century, and if that interests you, you will probably want to read Tony Benn's review of Paul Foot's posthumously published last book.

Happy Birthday

This blog is 12 months old this weekend. It was inspired initially by Tom Watson and then by Tim Ireland's 'Why Politicians Need Weblogs'. My first commentors were Ingrid, who has published more good stuff on the crisis in Darfur than the entire British media, and Christine, who continues to entertain, and Tom Watson himself. Thanks to all those who have taken the time to contribute. It's a bit like canvassing really... you get one or two people who are really rude, but most people want to tell you what they think and enjoy the banter. At least the worst I get are a few sharp words, unlike Mohamad Reza Nasab Abdolahi (via The Committee to Protect Bloggers). So, here's to year two.....

Robin Cook on Britain's new Pass Laws. The Guardian also has a review of the new album by Rufus Wainwright, whose dad Loudon produced one of the great first albums... was it really 35 years ago?

"Mr Kennedy’s office said that it was still considering how to reply to Mr Sacranie’s letter of February 4."
Perhaps the slippery sod could reply for himself?

Military.... Intelligence?

If, as the Rev. Ian would have us believe, Sinn Fein have no place in the constitutional arrangements in Northern Ireland, even if members of their military wing were acting independently of the IRA... shouldn't he also want to exclude the British Government when it's military wing are guilty of this sort of thing? Also... why were there no Iraqis called to give evidence against their torturers? Was someone frightened about what they might say was even more horrific than the allegations against these soldiers? Call me a conspiracy theorist if you want..... (don't you dare!)

R.I.P. Terry

Terry Weir (centre), Aston Villa's acclaimed photographer for over 30 years, died today.

Acts of Faith

I am a confirmed atheist and more than a little frightened by those zealots who want to save our souls, but will condemn us to eternal damnation if we think they are talking tripe. This decision, taken after a piece of mafioso arm twisting by fundamentalist bigots, really does make you wonder about the sanity of these people. Some twerp was actually on the radio this morning saying they were making these threats "in the interests of people with cancer".

Vote for the President of the World. Bloggerheads' Tim Ireland wants your vote... but spare a thought for my man, the legend that is Sheephead.

Ken apologises? Does he hell! Good for him, and what a pity he didn't get the backing of his party leader.

Donald Rumsfeld comes to Wolverhampton

“Lets believe we can do it. Lets make the electorate, not only believe that we believe, But most importantly lets make them believe it too!”

Thanks to Tom Watson for highlighting what must be the election campaigning slogan of all time from Wolverhamton Lib Dem hopeful David Jack. Come on Charlie... give this to the nation!

Incidentally, David Jack scored the first ever goal in a Wembley Cup final... could they be by any chance related? Let's face it, to score in the Cup Final you've not only got to believe... you've got to believe you believe...

Last night we went to Warwick Arts Centre to see the African Soul Rebels tour. A terrific concert, starting with the hypnotic blues rhythms of the Toureg tribesmen (and one woman) Tinariwen. Next up were Senegalese hip hop rappers Daara J. Not entirely my cup of tea but real high energy stuff. My daughter Sian liked them best and before long she had forged her way to the front of the stage. Finally, Rachid Taha, an Algerian Rock n' Rai singer who looks like a cross between Pacino's Frank Serpico and early Bruce Springsteen, and the togetherness and fun of the band has strong echoes of The Boss. Three great acts... for less than £15, and the only sad thing was the fact the hall was nowhere near sold out. When you consider that Birmingham City want to charge £45 to watch a bunch of overpaid prima donnas ponce around for 90 minutes, the African Soul Rebels are real value for money. Still chance to catch them if you can get to Gateshead, Edinburgh,Shrewsbury, Leicester and London.

Daniel Brett, as so often, offers a thoughtful piece on Darfur, and warns of those who find simplistic solutions to complex problems. "It infuriates me that people with only a passing interest in Sudan, prompted by a few television pictures, can wade in and demand one or the other group be armed or favoured in any way."

"Labour candidates who opposed the war should not be punished;" Phew, that's a relief.

Ken Livingstone ups the anti and asks questions about the Daily Mail's Nazi theme party.

A popular local councillor... (Lib Dem chap also gets mention.)

Bloggers will rescue the right. In your dreams, Smithy!

Now that is truly shocking! Cunning stunt (via The buddah)

Regular readers of this page will know that the odious Blue Chip Casinos are attempting to convert a pub in my Ward into this monstrosity:


Local residents are up in arms over the idea of an all-night casino in the heart of a residential community. and have been blocking the proposal at Planning Committee and at a national Planning Inspectorate public inquiry. Eighteen months in, the latest battle took place this week at Planning Committee when once again Blue Chip’s plans were thrown out… to the delight of the dozens of residents in the public gallery. Once more the residents have spoken… we don’t want your bloody casino, now go away and leave us alone!

Casting the first stone...

It seems perverse to me that the man who refused to apologise to the nation for plunging the country into a war on a totally false premise, should be urging Ken Livingstone to publicly apologise for making insulting remarks to a journalist.

Rotten apples

Councillor John Hemming, Lib Dem Deputy Leader of Birmingham City Council's Conservative dominated coalition is quite rightly upset over the issue of alleged fraudulent abuse of the postal ballot system by some individuals in the Labour Party last June. Where Hemming tips over the edge of sanity though, is when he accuses the Labour Party in general, or the Government of "undermining democracy." We need to be clear about this. The Labour Party issued strict written instructions to members about the use of postal ballots which made it absolutely clear that there should not even be a suggestion of interference in how individual voters cast their vote. If Hemming is suggesting otherwise he should put up or shut up. If the Labour Party has to accept the responsibility for people who "allegedly" (and that is important) fiddled the vote... will John Hemming and the Liberal Democrats accept responsibility for the Scottish Lib Dem MEP who so 'liberally' interpreted his expenses that he claimed mileage expenses in a single year equivalent to driving "three and a half times around the world?"

Also on his blog Hemming is getting concerned about kids and anti-social behaviour. A bit rich for a Party that have opposed almost all Labour's proposals on anti-social behaviour but who's Culture spokesperson wants to to reduce the legal drinking age to 16. That should stop the kids spraying graffiti... they'll be too busy getting pissed!

Lorenzo at Blogshake has put his vote up for bids on ebay. Watch out Lorenzo, Councillor and part-time sleuth John Hemming will be on your tail.

According to The Observer's Food Awards the best place for kids food in the North East is The Italian Kitchen, 229 Three Tuns Lane in, errr.... Liverpool???

On the subject of Liverpool... I cannot recommend highly enough the Kirkby Times. An independent working class website with some cracking stuff. Look at Blair's World and the blog of Kirkby Councillor Robin Bustard No.1 on the list if you type in Blog Councillor in google). All contained alongside some seriously good stuff about issues such as the Hillsborough disaster. Magic!

"No more 'Mr I know best'" Blair tells Labour's Spring Conference, and now he wants to build a "partnership with the people." It's his partnership with the little fellah in the White House that worries me though.

Labour will win the forthcoming General Election, says Roy Hattersley, because "The Prime Minister is a better One Nation Conservative than Howard will ever be." Sad, but sadly true.

Sunny Jim, the last trade unionist to become Prime Minister (and also possibly the last trade unionist to become Prime Minister, if you get my drift), is the age of 92 years, 10 months and 18 days, Britain's oldest ever former Prime Minister.

Microsoft's new Route Planner.. this really is worthwhile Try this:

MSN Maps & Directions - Get Directions

Select Norway for the country in both start and end

Start City : Haugesund
End City : Trondheim

Click Get Directions.

(Thanks to Jim at Slave to the 11C)

I know the xenephobes want an English manager, but surely they want some record of achievement, not any old English manager. Mr Potatoehead has now decided to throw his hat in the ring!

Time to start being afraid

Values such as respect for political and human rights... "are the indispensable elements of an Iraq where the rule of law prevails, justice is served and freedom is guaranteed."... so writes John Negroponte, US Ambassador to Iraq in The Day We Defeated Fear. Unfortunately he uses El Salvador to illustrate the way fear can be defeated. El Salvador where death squads "abducted members of the civilian population and rebel groups. They tortured their hostages, were responsible for their disappearance and usually executed them." The "death squad option" was also evidenced in Honduras where the US Ambassador, one John Negroponte, looked the other way. Now the US are said to be preparing for the "Death Squad Option" in Iraq.

Start your own blog. So true.

Backing Blair

If you type 'Backing Blair' into google you not only get the splendid Tim Ireland campaign way out front... but you also get a link to this unlikely supporter of the Bloggerheads campaign.

Really, really sorry

A day to remember

It took 15 years for the British Government to admit they were wrong in locking up the Guilford 4. It has taken another 15 years for them to apologise. Why? And even when they do... the Speaker fails to catch the eye of the MP demanding the apology during PMQs, so they miss out on that very public apology. I had the good fortune to be present at the Old Bailey as a trade union observer on the day the Birmingham Six were released and the combination of euphoria mixed with bitter resentment at the way these totally innocent Irish/Brummies had been treated was electric. It was also tinged with sadness for the other victims, the families of those killed in The Mulberry Bush and The Tavern in the Town, who must have felt totally robbed as the real bombers had been allowed to escape by the bungling of the police in their desperation to find a victim... any victim!

You're 'aving a larf...

If the BNP website is to believed (and I wouldn't believe them if they said today was Tuesday without checking first) they claim one of their racist councillors in Bradford may have a case for race discrimination. Apparently he was lawfully sacked by Serco, but because he is in the BNP, and the BNP is exclusively white, he may have been unfairly discriminated against because of the "ethno-specific nature of the BNP as a political party."

Nice work if you can get it....

... but I suppose it helps if you are connected!
Formerly headed by U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, parent firm Halliburton showed Iraq-related revenue of about $1.7bn and $13m of operating profit in its most recent quarterly results.
From Bloggerheads via Friendly Fire.

Operation Iraqi Liberation (OIL) - George Monbiot tells how the US occupation regime helped itself to $8.8 bn of mostly Iraqi money in just 14 months.

Steve at Occupied Country has a pretty good musical taste. OK, so we're 'of a certain age' but I find most of the stuff that works its way onto his i-pod is music that I also rate very highly. So, prompted by Steve I decided to buy the Pat Metheny Group album, The Way Up. I'm usually wary about buying anything where I've only heard one track on the radio because I often find that the track I heard was the only decent thing on it. Well... The Way Up has only got one track, and its the only decent thing on it. It's absolutely stunning. I've played nothing else for a week, and on every listening it has got better, and delivered up things I had missed earlier. Great, great jazz rock. Thanks Steve.

A documentary celebrating the 40th anniversary of Malcolm X's visit to the Black Country is to be shown at venues in the area over the next two weeks. The local Branch of Unite Against Fascism have issued this press release.

Malcolm came to Smethwick in what turned out to be the last week of his life, at a time when he already knew he was in imminent danger of assassination. His arrival in Britain came in a period when Smethwick had become notorious as the scene of racial conflict, fuelled by local and national politicians seeking election in the area (does this sound familiar?).

In 1964 a Tory MP had been elected for Smethwick under the slogan of 'if you want a nigger for a neighbour vote Labour' and, over the following winter, the legacy of that campaign continued with the local Council's attempts to prevent the sale of previously White-occupied homes to Black people from the Commonwealth.

Malcolm paid a short visit to the town as an act of solidarity with the Black and Asian immigrants to the area (many of the arrangements for the visit were made by the local Branch of the Indian Workers' Association). At a press conference he said "the worst form of human being, I believe, is one who judges another human being by the colour of his skin".
He was asked what he thought of the situation in Smethwick and replied: "I have heard that Blacks in Smethwick are being treated in the same way as the Negroes were treated in Alabama--like Hitler treated the Jews".
Asked what he would do, he said "I would not wait for the fascist element in Smethwick to erect gas ovens ...".

Malcolm flew back to the USA the following day and was gunned down as he spoke to a public meeting in New York just a few days later. Twenty-two thousand people went to view his body as it lay in a Harlem funeral home.

To different people, Malcolm's visit has been a source of curiosity, outrage and inspiration. For anyone involved in the local campaigns against racism & fascism -- both then and now -- the visit of such an international figure is a welcome reminder that we are part of a global movement. The anniversary of his visit is also a reminder that the gains we have made against racism in Smethwick and elsewhere had to be fought for.

But the campaign isn't over. The General Election expected in May or June this year will see the fascist British National Party contest several constituencies in the Black Country and Birmingham. Now is surely as good a time as any to take Malcolm's message seriously.

For more information on the showing of the film, e-mail info@thepublic.com

"....for many Labour supporters, the whole point of winning an election is to create a fair, open society that reflects our decent, humanitarian values. A manifesto that promised them such a society might give them the motivation they need to vote and secure Labour a better chance of winning." Robin Cook in The Guardian on the Labour Party Manifesto.

Whitby's Poodle

When I got on the Council a few years back the legal officers were crawling all over us like a rash to make sure we declared any interest, financial or otherwise, in any matters under discussion. They were particularly concerned in respect of planning applications, for obvious reasons. So it came as something of a surprise to read that the Tory Leader of Birmingham City Council, Mike Whitby, had participated in planning committee debates about mobile phone masts, without declaring that he had over £2,500 worth of shares in vodafone! Now I have no reason to believe that Mike Whitby intended anything by this failure to declare, and in fact he stood a couple of times for election in this Ward before he "crossed the border" into Birmingham, and everyone round here speaks well of him. The interesting thing for me is how quickly his Lib Dem Deputy John Hemming was diverted from his main political obsession of counting the cost of the carpet in the Labour Group room to jump to His Masters defence and rush off a letter to the newspapers defending his boss because "his shareholding is too small to require a declaration." I suppose if you are a millionaire like Hemming, most amounts are of little consequence.... but most right-minded people would agree with the Ombudsman who said "Where a member has got a pecuniary interest in any matter they need to declare and withdraw from proceedings."

Justice... they call it justice!

It is very satisfying to know that we have delivered democracy and civilisation to the people of Iraq. Corporal Jonathan Petrice, a colleague of Larkin, initially said he had seen him ordering the Iraqis to undress. However, under cross-examination, but without being prompted, he said he was now confused as to whether it had in fact been Larkin.

Never mind The State of the Union... this is the speech Bush should have given in 2002.

One of the most frquent complaints I receive as a councillor (apart from that bloody casino proposal) concerns the car parking charges for visitors to the Sandwell General Hospital. Although we called the issue in for scrutiny we were not succesful in getting them to reduce the charges, so people continue to block up side roads outside the hospital. It now seems in Dudley, they've got an altogether different problem.

A good mate of mine, Andy Goodall, managed to get me a copy of The Revolution Will NOT be Televised. A must see. What a fantastic film. Much of it shot from inside the Presidential Palace as the US inspired coup against Chavez takes place in fron of our eyes... and then unravels as the popular protest builds. President Chavez, this week, closed the World Social Forum in Brazil with a tribute to the people of the United States : "One day the decay inside U.S. imperialism will end up toppling it, and the great people of Martin Luther King will be set free. The great people of the United States are our brothers, my salute to them."