Keep right on... there is something about the colour blue that gets my back up.

I was there – Gigs that changed the world

That’s the title of a book just released by Mark Paytress. Well, I can’t claim these changed the world, but they made a bloody big dent in me.

Van Morrison and The Caledonian Soul Orchestra, Birmingham Town Hall (about 1970) - I had never heard anything like this before. Sulky old Van, out of his moody blues and into Californian gypsy soul music.

Bruce Springsteen and the East Street Band, Old Traffic Cricket Ground, 2003 – I had seen Bruce before, over 20 years before, but for his sheer energy and entertainment value made this one stick out.

Pink Floyd, Mothers Club, Erdington, 1969 - Recorded for part of the live Ummagumma set. Introduced by Peel, Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun, Careful With That axe, Eugene. Sheer magic… it was another 20 years before Floyd recorded another live album.

Bob Dylan, Liverpool Odeon, 1966 - THAT tour.

Youssou N’Dour, Essaouira, Morrocco, 2005 - Not the greatest concert ever, but I will always remember it for that fantastic festival and that's the point. The experience is often more memorable than the music.

Jimi Hendrix, Some club in North London, 1967 – I was dossing around in London and someone at the hostel mentioned this bloke who had just come over from the States and could really play the guitar. I got there early and stood near the front (a mistake). Jimi was magnificent, and my ears were whistling for three days afterwards.

The Beatles, The Odeon, Birmingham 1964 - We queued up all night for tickets and with all the screaming I barely heard a word… but I could say I had seen them.

The Spencer Davis Group, The Alley outside Mothers, Erdington - We were queuing up outside to get in and Stevie Winwood was doing the soundcheck solo. He played a heartachingly good 'Georgia on my Mind' which he never played in the set but prompted spontaneous applause outside in the rain.

Steve Bell is ready for David Cameron.

IOU £7 million. Some people rob you with a fountain pen.

Was the 80's the worst ever decade for popular music? This says so to me. (via New Links)

We all know that "we've got to change" is the theme for this week's Tory Conference. Well, thanks to Phil who sent me this. Pimp My Party is your chance to send the Tories to the knackers yard. Apparently based on some sort of MTV programme, Pimp My Ride, he said, sounding like a High Court Judge.

If you think the standard of the Tory opposition in Parliament is bad, you should try sitting through a Sandwell Council meeting. It has been months since anyone heard the Conservative leader, the lovely Karen Bissell, (Councillor for Old Warley and Express and Star Central) say anything at all. She sits through most Council meetings like a rabbit caught in the headlights whilst her deputy tries out his stand-up comic routine. I had been intrigued about Kas Bissell's inactivity, until I scrolled down this!

The hits on my blog seem to have been boosted largely by people google searching for Cuddles massage parlour, including one nice chap from the Express and Star newspaper (there see, I said I would 'out' you). So much for me thinking people were coming here for my sharp witty comments and deep political insight. Bummer eh! (That should up the hits)

Tom Watson invites comments on an article by Patricia Hewitt, Secretary of State for Health, in which she states, "The NHS is, as Aneurin Bevan put it, 'the most civilised thing in the world.'" Personally, I suspect Nye got it right when he said, "It is an axiom, enforced by all the experience of the ages, that they who rule industrially will rule politically"..... except those were the days when we had industry. These days you can substitute 'financially'. Which leads us to.... this!

A wonderfully affectionate piece about Paul Foot, The Gnome Years, by Richard Ingrams.

Tribute to Walter:
"That's the trouble with old people today - no respect." - Letter in The Guardian

I read the news today, oh boy!

We went to Bearwood Jazz Club last night and we heard the police sirens screaming out on our way down there. But it wasn't just the usual panda bobbies looking to separate the bruisers punching each other's lights out on payday, as happens from time to time. No, this was over 50 of the finest the boys in blue could muster, including a number of armed officers. Suddenly, the whole world's news media now seems to have descended on to our sleepy suburb. Instead of a peaceful out of town commuter spot, we find ourselves host to an international sex trafficking trade with girls from across Europe locked into the Cuddles massage palour during the evening to work, and taken away during the day and locked in a house. The excitement continued through to this morning when a man claiming to be the 'cleaner' arrived in a 4x4 Mercedes and found himself "assisting the police with their enquiries." Interestingly enough, although The Birmingham Evening Mail carries banner headlines about last night's raid headed "Police swoop in battle to stamp out vile trade" in the same edition they carry their own advertisement for.... Cuddles Massage Parlour!

Funnily enough, Cuddles isn't the most notorious brothel in Bearwood. Local people have been complaining to no avail to the police for years about the nocturnal activities of The Fun Place in Bearwood. They also openly advertise their 'venue' in the local press, and they have even got their own website (not for the more sensitive of you to view, unless like Pete Townsend and myself you are carrying out research into this "vile trade"... and certainly inadvisable if you are connecting at your place of work).

I wrote that last piece about intolerance in the Lib Dems before I had seen this on tonight's news. What an absolute disgrace. When you consider the behaviour of MPs in the House of Commons week in, week out, baying at each other and behaving like public schoolboys on a day out, to eject an 82-year old man from the Conference Hall for shouting out "nonsense" when Jack Straw was speaking is just disgusting. Is that the sort of freedom and democracy we are 'giving' the Iraqis. Who told the 'bouncers' to throw him out? We should be told if it was a Party Official or politician.

Lord protect us from... "Haughty conduct!" It just goes to prove what Tom Watson said last week, the first sniff of power from the (somewhat less than) Liberal Democrats, and it all goes belly-up. In the mid 1980's under Kinnock and the unreconstructed version of Roy Hattersley, life in the Labour Party was not easy on the 'left'. But to find yourself purged for .... haughty bloody conduct, that's a cracker! Given the shambolic state of the Birmingham Lib Dems, it is no wonder John Hemming, normally so quick to comment to anyone and everyone on anything at all, is concentrating on..... toilets!!!

Is this the most gruesome adaptation of google maps? Satoogle. I like that x-ray though. (Via New Links)

"Some MPs believe that Mr Clarke's chances could be fatally damaged if the party reject a proposal to strip local party members of the final say over the choice of leader and return it to MPs." Toby Helm, Daily Telegraph Chief Political Correspondent (6th Sept. 2005).

"Kenneth Clarke's hopes of becoming Conservative leader were boosted last night after plans to strip grassroots members of their right to vote for the leader were thrown out." Daily Telegraph after the decision.

So, that's clear then, whatever happens, the Daily Telegraph has got someone who will say it benefits Kenneth Clarke. What I cannot understand is why Clarke's supporters keep repeating the message that he is 'a big man'. Trailing someone's main qualification for the job is that he is a fat sod doesn't strike me as doing him any particular favours. In any event, if being a scruffy fat bloke was the qualification for political leadership, Charles Clarke would be way out in front of Gordon Brown and Ken Clarke!

One of the major justifications for the invasion of Iraq was the fact that in Saddam Hussein we were faced by an undemocratic tyrant, who ruled with fear and cruelty, and who was in possession of the infamous weapons of mass destruction. So, on what basis are we currently trying to woo the Saudi's into a £40bn arms deal? Money doesn't talk... it swears.

How about: Ministers must reconnect with Party for starters?

There really isn't anything that anyone can do to convince Ian Paisley that the IRA have called it a day. Let's face it, without the fear and loathing of the IRA, why would anyone want Ian Paisley?

Never mind the Blunkett of blondes and babies. Hattersley hasn't forgiven him for his most blatant lie 10 years ago.

My Back Pages

Tonight's Scorsese documentary about Bob Dylan's early career through to 1966 is an absolute must watch. The two most memorable experiences of my teenage years took place within a couple of months of each other in the summer of 1966. In May I hitch-hiked to Liverpool with a ticket in my pocket for Bob Dylan’s concert at the Odeon Liverpool. It was Cup Final day, Everton were in the Final and they beat Sheffield Wednesday 3-2. These were the days before wall-to-wall footie on tv, and I never missed a cup final. It was also in the days before all-day pub opening, so I watched the match with a dozen others, obviously desperate scousers who hadn't got a telly, through the showroom window of Currys.

Dylan was stunning. In the first half he played a familiar acoustic set, and then after the interval he came on with the band and they blasted through a rock set of songs, many of which Dylan had revamped from the acoustic versions he had released on record. Where upon lots of the ‘folkies’ in the audience who had cheered to the rooftops in the first half, went ballistic. They were booing and throwing their programmes, and dozens, if not hundreds walked out screaming in protest at the stage. They wanted THEIR Bob Dylan back. I was in a state of shock. Firstly by the sheer volume of the band… and then by the vitriol of these louts ruining the concert. I must confess to also preferring the acoustic side of Dylan. Visions of Johanna in that first set was absolutely spellbinding and you could have heard a pin drop in the Odeon… as opposed to the second half, when you could barely hear yourself think. But having said that, the electric versions of One Too Many Mornings and the stunning Like a Rolling Stone were quite breathtaking.

There was a commotion outside as I left the Odeon, and I headed on down to the crowd to see what was going on. It was the stage door, and a baying mob had gathered waiting for The Man to appear. He did… to a chorus of booing and shouting, dressed in a green corduroy suit (I always wanted a green corduroy suit after that). He looked like a rabbit in the headlights as he jumped into the waiting limo and away in a flash.

I set off to try and find the East Lancs Road to thumb my way back home… with the sound of ‘Rolling Stone’ still pounding through my head. It had been a weird experience watching the audience idolise someone, and then turn on him and spit venom at him in the space of an hour.

A couple of months later I set out to hitch-hike to Wembley… with two tickets for the World Cup final in my pocket. What a summer that was.

Next week Britain's most incisive journalist on the Middle East for the last twenty-five years publishes a book, 'The Great War for Civilisation: the Conquest of the Middle East'and it will be serialised this week in The Independent. Read this extract: On Finding Osama. In the meantime, in the land of the brave, land of the free, they have banned Robert Fisk from entering the country. Seems that, as Woody Guthrie said, some people can kill you with a fountain pen.

This story reminds me of a story the late Brian Johnson used to tell. Johnners was commenting in a test match in Kingston Jamaica when he reported the site of an ugly black cloud behind the pavilion. Suddenly there was a commotion around the ground, with people gesticulating and shouting up at the press box. Apparently, with many in the crowd listening on transistor radios, they misheard his commentary and thought Johnners had said 'crowd', not 'cloud'.

I was at a school governors meeting last night where the teaching unions confirmed their opposition to government plans that could result in some teaching staff taking pay cuts. Their main concern, which I fully agree with, is that with so many teachers in their 50's, a reduction in pay could have a major impact on their pension entitlement. By the look of these proposals, they need not worry too much because they're going to have to work until they die anyway! If any government thinks they can escape the wrath of an electorate, many of whom are busy making plans to travel the world or buy a gite in Normandy on the strength of their property equity and pension lump sum, they must be living in cloud cuckoo land.

There is a subway which leads from my Ward under the main Hagley Road out of Birmingham, to Harborne in Birmingham on the other side. Hundreds of schoolchildren have to cross the road at that junction every day to get to the two large secondary schools on the Birmingham side of the road. Do they use the subway? Not if they've got any sense they don't, unless they are looking to score supplies of illegal substances, of course. It's not only children either. The subway isn't safe for anyone, and last year the whole thing was taped up with scene of crime tape whilst police in white overalls scoured the floor for evidence. Despite the fact that the Hagley Road junction hasn't got a pedestrian phase on the traffic lights, hundreds of people daily take a chance on the traffic rather than risk the subway. So... you're the bloody councillor, I hear you say, why don't you do something about it? The answer is, the junction is controlled by Birmingham City Council... not Sandwell. and despite the Council Leader Mike Whitby having his Ward on the other side of the road in Harborne, the City Council won't do anything about it. Before the 2004 Council Elections the City were committed to doing something about filling in the subway, and fitting a pedestrian phase to the lights. In come Whitby, Hemming and co. and the plans are put on indefinite hold. One of these days I am convinced we will get headlines like this about the subway, and you just listen to the whimpering coming from Councillor Mike Whitby when it does! And when Charles Kennedy tells the Lib Dem Conference, "I want a society that tackles crime – but really does tackle the causes of crime. I want a Britain where older people again feel safe to answer their doors. Where parents can let their children walk to school – or play in the park – without the incessant worry. Where our streets and town centres are free from fear at night." the people of my Ward scuttling across a six lane highway will know it is simply empty rhetoric.

My fellow Ward councillor, Dr Ann Jaron, has just returned from a visit to her homeland, Poland. She brought back a leaflet advertising 'Communism Tours' which invites you to 'Experience Stalin's gift to Krakow in a genuine Eastern Bloc Trabant automobile.' They offer, for instance, at only 119 Zlotych - about 20 quid - a tour of the Nowa Huta district and steelworks where you can see the sights and architecture that made communism famous. Initially I thought it was a spoof, but, no, They've got a website.

Birmingham - It's not shit! Official

Sandwell is a borough with many immigrant groups, and relatively few racial tensions. It is one of the borough's strengths. Perhaps the shame of being associated with the Tory "If you want a nigger for a neighbour, vote Labour" election campaign 30 years ago has got something to do with the way new communities are received. Now, I'm not saying everything is perfect, but community relations (or social cohesion, to use the modern jargon) in Sandwell seem pretty good. However... there is one group who, no matter how long we have been here, no matter how hard they try to integrate and adopt the local customs, are never fully accepted. Brummies. It is over 25 years since I moved from Birmingham, three miles across the City, to Sandwell. But still you feel the almost vitriolic dislike and mistrust when people realise you are a Brummie. A former Leader of Walsall Council used to say, "You can always tell a Brummie when you enter a factory. If you see people working, they are from Walsall. If you see a bloke with his hands in his pockets, he is a Yam Yam (A colloquial name for inhabitants of Wolverhampton). If you see a bloke with his hands in someone else's pockets... he is a Brummie.

So, I suppose this site will be wasted on my local readers. Still, at least the people behind it are not as parochial as Sandwellians. Famous 'Brummies' listed include Frank Skinner, Noddy Holder... and Stan bloody Collymore (who is from Cannock, which is up North somewhere), and songs on the site are sung by Bearwood Ted, from my own adopted neck of the woods. Why, they've even got a flikr group with some 'exciting' shots of things happening in the City.

U.S. 'leftie' Greg Palast pours liberal doses of bile on to George Galloway... "Friends and comrades, this is not about George Galloway. He's just another self-promoting fart. Six months from now, even his smell will be gone."

George Galloway gives Palast a taste of his own medicine... with interest. How many times do I have to respond to the ravings of guttersnipes?

Charles Kennedy welcomes John Hemming's contribution to the Lib Dem Leadership debate.

The yellow tories are meeting

So... all those radical ronnies and lefty lizzies who voted for the real left alternative... was this what you were urging people to vote for?

Or was it this?

Or perhaps you just wanted to privatise the post office?

Oh no.... just look who's swinging left. Please, no, no, no.

The exit poll

It would appear the very unlovely Angela Merkel (portrayed here in a German carnival) has, according to the exit polls, narrowly won the German general election.

The anniversary of the death of a victim of the other 9/11 terrorist act... the one the U.S. politicians don't like to talk about.

If you like clouds (as I do, except when I'm on holiday) there are some terrific photographs of clouds in Birmingham here.

If Adolf Hitler flew in today, they'd send a limousine any way.

Jim Naughtie on Radio 4’s Today programme this morning put it to the Prime Minister that the definition of terrorism was a legal minefield, and therefore ‘encouraging terrorism’ in the Government'latest draft legislation was even more difficult to define. Tony Blair said the definition of terrorism was easy, “It’s killing innocent people indiscriminately” he said.

That simple, eh? So where does that leave, for instance, Churchill after Dresden, Truman after Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Sharon after Sabra and Shatlia or even George W. Bush after Fallujah? There is probably not room on this server to list all of the other names of those who have either directly ordered the killing of innocent people indiscriminately, or encouraged others to do so (Kissinger’s relationship with Pinochet over the murder of Allende, for instance). In fact, Churchill seemed to define himself as a terrorist when justifying using mustard gas against the Kurds he said it should be used “against recalcitrant Arabs as an experiment.” He dismissed objections as “unreasonable.” “I am strongly in favour of using poisoned gas against uncivilised tribes to spread a lively terror."

So, thinking about this definition, I thought perhaps terrorism should be more correctly labelled as “the indiscriminate killing of civilians by those not in power.” With that definition, surely we can get around the legal problems of the UN dragging Tony forward to answer charges of collaborating with George W. before the courts on charges of encouraging terrorism, and all of those other brutal regimes whose Heads of State regularly sip out of Buckingham Palace’s best China.

Talking of China… it tells me that there are still problems with this definition. Mao, for instance, and Uncle Joe Stalin, are now almost universally regarded as having conducted large scale acts of terror against their own people…. and yet they were actually in power at the time. So Stalin is a “terrorist”, but Vladimir Putin isn’t? Gerry Adams used to be such a dangerous “terrorist” we were not even allowed to hear his voice in case it encouraged us all to go around making semtex parcels (my spellchecker just tried to get me to change that to semen, but I’m sure it was semtex) and Nelson Mandela was a “terrorist” before he was declared a saint.

So, here goes with Bob Piper’s latest definition of terrorism: Terrorism consists of acts of violence against innocent civilians by those people we don’t like or who disagree with us. Any problems with that, you pinko, commie liberals?

After a couple of months blogging break, Baghdad Burning (could ever a title be more appropriate) has returned with a recollection of the events of September 11th 2001 from an Iraqi perspective. I remember almost immediately, Western media began conjecturing on which Islamic group it could have been. I remember hoping it wasn’t Muslims or Arabs. I remember feeling that way not just because of the thousands of victims, but because I sensed that we’d suffer in Iraq.

I got to this via Skuds. It is a map of the world showing all the countries I have visited.




It really highlights how little of the world I have actually been to. You can do your own by visiting world66.

"Well, all I can say is that when we do finally catch Osama Bin Laden, we can all thank God that al-Qaeda is a terrorist gang rather than a corporation. Were al-Qaeda found to be a registered company, what would the Crown Prosecution Service do? All they'd manage to charge Bin Laden with would be a couple of breaches in the health and safety regs. Would Osama get done for murder and crimes against humanity? Don't be daft. The most he would get done for is sending suicide bombers to work without proper goggles and a mask. Mark Thomas on the Government's as yet unfulifilled manifesto pledge(s) to introduce a law on Corporate Killing.

George Galloway's US Tour started last night... and he has published a book about his appearance on Capitol Hill. For more, read When George Galloway Channeled Rocky Marciano.

If you want one of those snazzy 'Make LabOUR Party' banners on your blog,(as displayed above left) and designed in the style of the Make Poverty History ones, I suggest you get the script from The UK Today site.

Tonight was the Abbey Ward selection meeting and I extend a warm thank you to the comrades who came out and unanimously selected yours truly to fight the Council elections next May. Warm beers all round.

"It's funded by the billions leeched by private profiteers
From Soviet oil resources built up over the years
So take a walk to Stamford Bridge and soon you'll plainly see
The universe's most exclusive donkey sanctuary!"
From Abramovitch's Donkey Sanctuary.... by the splendid Attila the Stockbroker.

While I'm talking football, this proposal by the EU Commissioners may on the face of it appear to be welcome. The prospect of wiping the smug smirk of Murdoch's mug is a delightful notion. However... I suspect the proposal will not see an influx of free-to-air footy. Much more likely is the prospect of the BBC and ITV, not to mention cable providers like NTL or Telewest, using their digital platforms to also charge for matches. Not just one subscription then, but two or three maybe.

Yesterday we went to an open day at Lightwoods House in Bearwood. Inside the hall they make, and renovate stained glass windows in the John Hardman studios, and many of the country's churches, as well as the rebuilt House of Commons have stained glass windows made by the Hardman Studio. It was a terrific place. I had always wondered what it looked like inside, and although the house is badly in need of repair and restoration, the museum and studios are tremendous.

Amongst the stained glass windows in the studio, this one caught my eye...


Apparently this image of Fidel is one of a number of stain glass images created by a Russian émigré

It looks like Banksy has been to Bearwood. This morning I spotted this on the way to Lightwoods House in my Ward (more of which will follow).

A couple of mates of my from Wolverhampton recently visited Venezuela to see the Bolivar revolution in practice. Andy Goodhall, Co-ordinator of Venezuela Solidarity UK and Nick Kelleher from Wolverhampton Trades council, have written a report of their visit.

The local woodland near our house is plagued by... well, what shall we call it, dog shit! I've no objection to people exercising their dogs, and I recognise the dogs have to resort to the call of nature, but surely the owners could pick this mess up afterwards before kids (and adults) find themselves smeared with the stuff. This particular invention (watch the video) seems a tad intrusive for walking about with... perhaps what we need is a bigger version so that we could scoop up the owners of these beasts.

All three main political parties are losing members. The fact of the matter is, by and large, they have failed to engage with the public and those in power, although anxious to listen to people when they are on the way up... become more remote and distant the higher they climb up that greasy pole. It is easier for the Lib Dems because they exercise such little power they can present themselves as everything to everyone, but even they have a situation whereby the Party leadership will ignore the party membership if they don't like their decisions. Within days of the election Chat-Show Charlie was making noises about dropping the local income tax policy, and they are all over the place on issues like anti-social behaviour and drugs. The Tories are busy trying to take away power from the membership to choose the Party leader, under the misapprehension that this was the reason for their last three election drubbings.

But really, I don't much care about the Tories and their Lib Dem friends. However, I am concerned about the 200,000 or more Labour Party members who have walked away in the last few years. The scrapping of Clause 4 may well have been popular with the 'New' Labour luvvies... but where are they now? And on a whole raft of policies, the Party leadership has ignored the decisions of the Party Conference, particularly on major policy issues like Foundation Trust NHS organisations and PFI. Despite various initiatives about being a listening party, as far as the membership are concerned they want to be in a position to influence policy, not just ever 4/5 years in a General Election, but at internal Party meetings, Party Conferences and policy forums. If they feel they have no more influence than the average voter... they will walk away and use their energies in other ways, most notably pressure groups and single issue campaigns. I am not just moaning about national government. I think local councillors up and down the country have to give some thought about how we engage local party members in the formulation of our policies.

Anyway... Michael Meacher and others are starting the process by setting up a commission to enquire into the fall in party membership. Party members can also sign Peter Kenyon's Pledge to support the Commission.

Last night I went to the inaugral meeting of Unite Against Fascism in Smethwick. An interesting meeting and a good opportunity to launch a non-sectarian anti-fascist organisation with trade union and labour movement support. Even our local MP turned up! One interesting little footnote: A few of us were having a swift half in the pub round the corner afterwards, as you do, when a burly geezer popped his head round the door, lifted his mobile phone, took our photographs, then scooted back out of the door. When one of our number jumped up, followed him, and asked him why he had done it, he used the full extent of his mental powers before replying, "Why, it ain't against the law is it? I just like taking photos." Highly likely, mate, very believable.

"Oh, Lord, if I must die today / Please make it after the close of play"



After the shambolic performance by the overpaid prima donnas in the England football team last night... today there's a chance for Michael, Freddie and the lads to put things right. Go get those Ashes lads. Whip those arrogant Aussies and we will gloat for at least two years. (Arrogant... moi?)

Steve Bell... genius!

Yes, well, if you were living in a rat infested swamp with your relatives dying around you, you wouldn't want to be treated by no Cuban doctor, would you?

No... don't hit the back button. This is good.

Powerful picture of the aftermath of the storm. Just one of the thousands of pictures of the hurricane on Flikr.

Tom Wolfe's Bonfire of the Vanities exposed what you find when you scratch beneath the surface of United States society. The Superdome: Monument to a Rotten System says the same thing.

Meanwhile, in The Times, they run rubbish like this. I particularly like the bit where he says it can cope with flooding. Now all those residents of the New Orleans projects will know what to do in future. But this is a serious newspaper, The Thunderer, and this quote shows just how far it has sunk under Murdoch: "There are advantages to having a truck like this. Like pulling up alongside beautiful women in convertibles. You get that cleavage shot that you can’t get in a normal pick-up."

Michael Moore's Letter to George W. Bush.

Prison works, Michael Howard once said. Well, does it. Judge for yourself.

The Today programme's John Humphrys is to be investigated by the BBC about remarks he made to an audience of PR people. The remarks, which were part of a lighthearted speech, included saying about Peter Mandleson: "I said to somebody once, ‘why do you all take an instant dislike to Mandleson?’ and he said ‘well, it saves time’. He said, ‘he’s a hard man to dislike but it’s worth the effort’." Humphrys also said " I do get to interview Gordon Brown a lot, oh joy. He may or may not, we have yet to see, be a great Chancellor of the Exchequer, but by God he is quite easily the most boring political interviewee I have ever had in my whole bloody life, without any exceptions." Apparently not the sort of remarks the Beeb wants to hear from their 'impartial' political inquisitor. Still, given the fact that Louise Casey appears to have been promoted by Blair after making similarly offensive remarks, perhaps Humphrys could come out of it all unscathed.

First we lost John Arlott, truly the voice of cricket and a man who knew the value of silence as part of television cricket commentary. Then Johnners joined the great umpire in the sky. His hilarious 'leg-over' commentary with 'Aggers' recently won a Radio 5 competition for the best sporting commentary.... (you can listen to it here). Now the third 'great' in cricket's commentary team is packing away his microphone after next weekend's Test Match. Richie Benaud was a great Aussie spin bowler when I was a kid, and I mean great. But as a commentator he has become a legend in his own lifetime, and three cheers to him for turning his back on Murdoch's money.

3 wheels, 2 guys, 1 country - Help them to make a difference

Those of you who have been following the exploits of Steve, Our Main in Hanoi will already know about the work he has being doing for a year with VSO on the KOTO project in Vietnam. The aim of the project is to train young Vietnamese people, many of them former 'street kids', in the skills needed for working in and running a restaurant. As part of the fundraising effort for KOTO, two guys from Extreme Charity are riding (cycling?) a cyclo for over 1,000 miles from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City. YOU can help out by donating a few quid to support Marty and Adam and help to give an opportunity to another 23 traineees in the coming year. You can download the donation form on the Extreme Charity webpage.

"If cricket says something about race, it says more about class." A fascinating piece about this new game the tabloids have invented..

I don't actually believe it... but it's fun. You must have pondered where you would emerge if you dug a great big hole in the ground in your back garden.... and just kept going! (Via New Links who also give us a link to this shocking news!)

Tom Watson is, quite rightly, taking up the case of one of his constituents who has an O2 mobile phone mast overlooking their house.


Well... the picture of this bloody monstrosity is taken from the bedroom of a one-year-old child in my Ward, and it was erected despite the opposition of local residents. It is an absolute disgrace that this is allowed by Government... and before you ask, yes, I have got a mobile phone, but I would gladly accepted a reduced service if it meant avoiding this sort of thing.

Livingstone to face the Standards Board

As regular readers of these pages will know, there are many things I will gladly argue with Councillor John Hemming about. Not surprisingly really, because he is wrong about so many things. However... on the issue of the Standards Board, I agree with him almost 100%.

Yes, there are instances of councillors ‘bullying’ officers…and there are instances of councillors showing ‘a lack of respect’ for colleagues and others. But it cannot be right that (with as much respect as I can muster) a team of faceless bureaucrats can have the right to overturn the democratic wishes of the electorate and dismiss or suspend a politician. I do believe there should be rules governing issues relating to corruption or other illegal practices, but I can think of no greater act which would bring the post of Mayor of London, or the Standards Board of England and Wales into disrepute, than for these people to take action against Ken Livingstone.

"Yorkshire all out 232, Hutton ill! I'm sorry.Hutton 111" - BBC news announcer

We used to go to Scarborough for our holidays when I was a nipper, and tales of derring-do by the great Yorkshire cricket side of the 1950's and 1960's led me to supporting the Yorkshire County Cricket side. I suppose I was the cricket equivalent of the 'glory-hunter' Manc fan from Devon... or is it Chelsea these days? Anyway, for my sins I have ended up supporting Yorkshire through thin and thinner over the last 40 years or more. So... I was puffed out with pride to see big Matty helping the King of Spain to guide England home on Sunday afternoon. Why, even curmudgeonly old Boycs is claiming the credit. To understand just how helpful Boycs can be, you have to hear this tale from Basil D'Olivera that sums him up perfectly. D'Olivera came out to bat on a sticky wicket with England a four wickets down for very little, and Boycs was still in on about 6 not out. After a few balls Dolly realised that if you took a large step down the wicket you could nullify the spin and batting became easier. He walked down the wicket to Boycott and explained his theory to the great man. "I know" said the world's most selfish Yorkshireman, "but don't tell the others!"

...."Chávez, now 51, is the same age as Tony Blair, and after nearly seven years as president he has been in power for almost as long. But there the similarities end. Chávez is a man of the left..."

Richard Gott on Hugo Chavez.

(hic)

Says millionaire Lib Dem MP Lynne Featherstone:

...Drunk and disorderly behaviour amongst under-18's is still a significant problem.

Many of our town centres are becoming no-go zones on Friday and Saturday nights. While the majority of young people behave responsibly the fact that over 31,000 under 18's were prosecuted for being drunk and disorderly will be a major worry for parents everywhere.

Binge drinking can cause significant health problems for young people and it is now clear it is a major social problem in our communities.

So why is it Lib Dem policy to lower the legal drinking age to 16?

(via Lib Dem Watch)

I wonder if, under the British Government's latest proposals to outlaw crazy clerics, they would do anything about Nutty US evangelist Pat Robertson. He has called for the United States to assassinate Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez because... "a whole lot cheaper than starting a war ... We have the ability to take him out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability." Somehow, I feel that it is extremely unlikely that the Bush/Blair doctrine of The War against Terror will be applied to this sort of dangerous religous lunatic. Perhaps the worrying thing is that 7 million sad people are supposed to watch this tripe!


Interestingly, Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld felt moved to comment, that..."Our department doesn't do that kind of thing. It's against the law,".

Oh yes, of course. "I don't see why we need to stand by and watch a country go communist due to the irresponsibility of its own people. The issues are much too important for the Chilean voters to be left to decide for themselves." — Henry Kissinger following the coup of 9/11 which led to the death of Chilean President Salvador Allende.

Steve Bell on the Irakey Constitution.

Arsene Wenger: Pot to kettle, pot to kettle, come in please.

“When the earth becomes a common treasury again, as it must, . . . then this enmity in all lands will cease.” The English Revolution.

Hattersley intrudes on the Tory Party's private grief.
David Davis's irresistible attributes are said to be a broken nose, membership of the Territorial SAS and a birth certificate which confirms that he was born in a council house. If that is what it takes to become Tory leader, potential Conservative prime ministers are to be found in most job centres.

Theme Park Death. Robert Fisk on the horrors of Baghdad. Also on ZNet: Has Bush reached the tipping point?

Cover up? Not me guv, honest.

I like David James. OK, he's not the greatest goalkeeper who ever trod the turf, but in my book he's a good guy. In 2000 Aston Villa lost 1-0 in the FA Cup Final to Chelsea, the goal coming about largely because of a howler by James. The newspapers the next day laid the entire blame for our woeful performance on 'Calamity' James. No headlines about the fact that the forwards hadn't mustered a shot on goal throughout the whole 90 minutes (strangely familiar yesterday at Old Trafford too) or that the midfield was non-existant, or that no defender cleared the corner which James actually came for. No, the whole debacle was down to 'Calamity' James. The next day, through 'contacts' in Birmingham City Council, I managed to wheedle the family into Birmingham City Council House, where Doug Ellis had managed to get the Council to organise a Civic reception, presumably in anticipation of our great victory. The players trooped in, and didn't they just troop. OK, they didn't have anything to celebrate, and they should have looked sheepish about their shambolic performance the previous day. Also... a Civic Reception... for losers? No wonder they were embarrassed. If anyone should have wanted to hide away it was the giant goalkeeper who had been scapegoated by the media. But whereas Billy Bigtimes like Gareth Southgate and Lee Hendrie and most of the other multi-millionaires just sulked in the corner, Jamesey was everywhere, posing for photos with the kids (and, shamefacedly, their dads in some cases) signing autographs and chatting amiably with anyone and everyone. Benni Carbone and Merse, at least one of whom probably didn't have the faintest idea what was going on, also joined in I'm pleased to say. The sulky Southgate, who demanded a transfer to a 'bigger club' and then moved to those football giants Middlesboro, continued to sip his Britvic juice and hide in the corner.

Anyway... as I say, he ain't the greatest, but I like David James, and I felt for him this week when the cliche-ridden media pygmies got their spears out again to prod him mercilessly. Still, it all finished happily... he was back in Brum yesterday and had a smile as wide as the Bull Ring at the end of the match. And so did I.

If anyone finds out exactly which 'apartment' Mr Wilson is living in overlooking the rat infested canals of downtown Walsall, let me know please... but watch out for flying pigs while you're looking for him.

In the report to Sandwell Council's Planning Committee two weeks ago the local police said they had no problem about establishing a casino in a quiet residential area, because if anything, casinos can lead to a reduction in crime. Thankfully, the Planning Committee still rejected the ridiculous casino proposal... and in the meantime, two miles away, the police can get to work on this.

Stop stealing our F****ing signs! Must be worth a bob or two on Ebay.

Tony Woodley is right. The law on solidarity action should be changed by a Labour Government. Workers should be allowed to stand up for weaker colleagues being attacked by a third party employer. Currently Tory controlled Walsall Council is proposing to "hive off" over 2,000 staff to three different employers. The new employers, Fujitsu, Vertex and United Utilities, although acting as a single consortium, are adamant that the transferred workers, although being transferred under the same TUPE conditions, will work for individual and separate employers, with distinct and separate bargaining 'rights'. Thereby making any solidarity action taken by employees from across the companies immediately unlawful, and the workers will find their action will be be "repudiated" by cowering union full-time officials anxious not to have their company cars sequestrated. These are all workers carrying out work for what is, fundamentally, the same employer: Walsall Council. Any action should be considered in that light, and employers shouldn't be able to hide behind the labels of privatisation.

Letter in The Guardian
I am mystified by the fuss Israel is making over the removal of 2% of its illegal settlers from the Occupied Territories. Israel managed to ethnically cleanse half a million Palestinians from their homes during the 1948 war. In recent years, it has destroyed thousands of Palestinian homes. So are we supposed to be so impressed by the "trauma" of removing 8,000 squatters from Gaza, that we no longer expect Israel to abide by 30 years of international laws demanding the removal of the other 98% of settlers from the Occupied Territories?
Chris Webster
Abergavenny
That should be enough to get the loathsome Melanie Phillips spitting blood.

.....more ominous, perhaps, than the occupation of Iraq is the occupation of the US.
It is not only Iraq that is occupied. America is too

Best holiday read to date this year, by a million miles, has got to be Robert Lewis' splendid 'The Last Llanelli Train'. Try to imagine a gumshoe from Bristol, played by Shane Macgowan, and you've got Lewis' spaced out Robert Llewellyn. How anyone 26 years of age can write a book so full of drunken, debauched, degenerate, degraded, dissipated and dissolute experience, I do not understand. I know Pete doesn't usually read British crime fiction... but this is different and right up his street.

I have just been shocked by a banner headline in a Sunday newspaper in France. Robin Cook Dead. What a shock, and bad news for all of thus who oppose the Blairite faithful. It is strange, thinking back, how much it seemed to hurt Cook to have to oppose his former Leader. I had many difference with Cook, not least his support for the daily bombing of Iraq (the war didn't start in 2003, whatever myth the BBC continue to peddle) when he was Foreign Secretary. However, this letter in The Guardian struck a nerve with me.

No one is more dangerous than a politician who will put principle before ambition. Robin Cook, rest in peace.
David Whalin
Annandale, Virginia, USA

Hattersley on Robin Cook is also worth a read.

Well done the Express and Star! Here is an amusing little tale about wife beating. Man knocks woman senseless because he can't find his cans of ale. What a hoot!

Madeleine Peyroux's Careless Love is one of my favourite albums of the year. Imagine Billie Holliday singing Bob Dylan's "You're going to make me lonesome when you go" and you've got it. Perfect. Also, anyone who refuses to kow-tow to that toerag Parkinson, is OK with me.

Lots about tornados around the world from John Hemming in the last week, but very little about the growing band of people unhappy with his Tory/Lib Dem coalition's response to their plight. It seems they were less than impressed with the performance of John's Leader, Mike Whitby, on local television (very well described by UK Political Hack on Tuesday).

Another benefit gig for local blues and jazz musician Steve Ajao last night. Nearly £1,000 raised... and a surprise appearance from the man himself, in a wheelchair. That didn't stop him jamming with a 10 piece band in a tremendous finale. Welcome back Steve.

As we left for work this morning the road was packed with police and the woods opposite the house were sealed off with 'scene of crime' tape. I went over to ask the police what was happenning to be met with a stonewall response that 'we are investigating an incident'. Brilliant! I would never have guessed that without police assistance. What sort of incident? A bomb making factory in the bushes? An explosive device found? An arms cache revealed by the provisional IRA as part of their deal with the Government? Who knows? As it turned out, someone amongst the local constabulary felt able to reveal to the local newspaper that they were investigating a mysterious death after a body had been found in the woods. Only a few weeks ago there was an alleged sexual assault in the woods, and following that the police undertook to keep Councillors informed so that we could try to stop incorrect rumours spreading, and as elected representatives we would have some idea of what was happenning in the neighbourhood. Fine policy that turned out to be!

Last night the Planning Committee once again through out (unanimously) the odious plans by Blue Chip Casinos to turn a local pub in a residential area into an all-night gambling den (see 26 July posting). Congratulations to all the residents who turned up to the Planning Committee with their banners and placards... who says people aren't interested in politics! Hopefully, now, the owners of the pub, who I understand to be Enterprise Inns, will put in some investment and turn The Barleycorn into a decent pub with good beer and food that will be a benefit the local community. If they're not going to do that, let's flatten it and build some homes in what is one of Sandwell's better areas (and that, believe me, is not a big claim).

Apparently the M6 in the West Midlands has been described as Britain's most hated piece of road. It is called the 'Highway from Hell' which is a polite way of saying it comes out of Walsall. As someone who commuted to this dismal little town for longer than I care to remember, I can confirm that Walsall is most definitely the part of Britain that God forgot to throw away when he finished the earth.

John Pilger on why we should pay tribute cherish the memory of the International Brigades.
Impeccable gentlemen now invade defenceless countries in our name, destroying hospitals, shooting doctors, rounding up thousands and writing a number on their forehead or forearm, then imprisoning and torturing them. They speak of freedom and democracy, and our way of life and our values, and they deride those who reason why. They do not wear armbands and they do not strut. They are different from fascists. But their goals are not different: conquest, domination, the theft and control of vital resources.

Poster adapted from the excellent Micah Wright Propaganda Remix site.

Weapons of Mass Destruction

As George Monbiot points out, this weekend marks the 60th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima, and Bush and Blair are commemorating it in their own special way: by seeking to ensure that the experiment is repeated.

Just a few figures:
It is estimated that 188 million people lost their lives as a consequence of war and genocide in the 20th century.
Roughly nine civilians are killed to every soldier by acts of war (stick that where it hurts, John Humphrys).
$1,034 billion was spent on military expenditure last year. $455 billion by the US, $47.5 billion by Britain.
The value of arms sales by the top 100 producers in 2003: $236 billion.
Providing three years worth of basic food HIV/AIDS medication, childhood immunization and clean water and santisation for the world's neediest people = $230 billion.
"The only groups who win in armed struggle are the arms manufacturers." - President of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez

Blowin' in the wind

It is 50 years this month since a young black man named Emmett Till was beaten, tortured, shot, tied in barbed wire and thrown in the Tallahatchie River. His crime, in the land of the brave, was to wolf-whistle at a white woman. Fifty years later a young black man is brutally murdered by racists in Huyton, Liverpool. His crime, in the land of the free, well, he was walking to the bus stop with his white girlfriend.

What a waste.

Inclement weather in Birmingham.... but apparently, no storm!

The Tory/Lib dem coalition are kicking up a fuss over the storm. Perhaps using it as a good week to bury the bad news that they have wasted £150,000 of the electorate's money and 12 months carrying out a feasibility study into a Birmingham underground system that the world and its dog could have told them was a total non-starter.

He may appeal to somebody, but surely Lee, it's time to grow up. Don't be a jerk all of your life.

If you were wondering why the Reverend Ian Paisley doesn't welcome the IRA's recent statement that it is committed to peaceful means, don't rule out enlightened self-interest. As many a Council leader will tell you, it pays to keep an eye on the payroll vote. When many of your supporters earn their living from the 'security' forces, you have to try to keep the threat alive or they might get their redundancy checks.

On the today programme this week John Humphrys repeatedly interrupted a Sinn Fein spokesperson who had described the IRA volunteers as seeing themselves as 'soldiers' with the challenge: "But soldiers don't blow up children, do they?" Well, do they? Max Hastings asks 'What would you have done?' about Hiroshima and of Nagasaki. On a similar theme... "Give us your bombers and you can have our baskets." Why the Battle of Algiers was ahead of its time.

Apparently there are more than 600 Polish bus drivers employed as bus drivers in the West Midlands (so be careful with your pronunciation when asking for a ticket to Walsall... although personally I could find a minimum of a thousand better reasons for going to Warsaw rather than Walsall). Anyway, looking at The Guardian travel, Gdansk looks well worth a visit. The article, by way of a neat link, is written by Niall Griffiths, a scouser who lives in Wales and writes graphically about both, and often with a tad too much violence for my squeamish stomach. Griffiths is often described as the Welsh Irvine Welch and it is easy to see why. I have just finished his latest book, Wreckage, but the characters since his first book, Grits, have become interwoven. Well worth reading, but not too soon after breakfast I would suggest.

Go ahead punk, make his day

Be ashamed you wooly-minded, wish-washy do-gooding Guardian readers. Dirty Harry and his mate Lee are going to make sure the streets of Bloxwich are safe.

However, just to show that not everything in the Express and Star is reactionary nonsense ... this is an interesting piece. I bet that got right up our Lee's nose.

I am getting increasingly concerned about how the news is presented to us. I appreciate that the requirement for 24-hour news channels and internet newspapers constantly updated means that everyone is searching for a new 'angle' on the news. But this requirement seems to be at the expense of accuracy. For instance, the 'terrorist with a padded jacket' who 'ran away when challenged' and 'vaulted the ticket barrier' story that we were peddled for days last week, was swallowed wholescale by the news media and repeated endlessly. So, on Sunday lunchtime in the pub there was no discussion amongst the bar room Jeremy Paxman's about the fact that this innocent bloke had been gunned down without someone adding the rider that 'he must have been up to no good, otherwise why run away, why jump the ticket barrier, and why wear a padded jacket in the July heat?' Of course, all this will be forgotten next Sunday when the entire thing seems to have been dismissed as a complete load of cobblers. Is all this misinformation being fed to a news hungry media who are so keen to file a story that they have become 'embedded' to the Metropolitan Police media centre? Or is it simply lazy journalism, with one reporter saying something and all the others piling in behind? Why, for instance, didn't someone ask the Met. about the 'padded jacket worn by a Pakistani' in the immediate aftermath of the shooting... before trotting the story out as if it were a fact. Now we are being told that the London bombers on July 7th may have been preparing to attack a nightclub or football match? Or perhaps it was a bomb to be placed up the backside of the next lazy bugger of a journalist who posts a story based on pure speculation

Advice from one Texan to another:
"The biggest downside to a war in Iraq is what you could do with that money," Armstrong said through gritted teeth. "What does a war in Iraq cost a week? A billion? Maybe a billion a day? The budget for the National Cancer Institute is four billion. That has to change. Polls say people are much more afraid of cancer than of a plane flying into their house or a bomb or any other form of terrorism."

The level and standard of opposition within Sandwell Council plumbed new depths last night.The Tories are the largest opposition party and they failed to make a single point throughout the whole meeting. In fact, the Tory leader actually left the Council Chamber during "questions to Cabinet members". It was the equivalent of Michael Howard nipping out for a smoke during Prime Ministers' Questions! The Smiths, (he's the one on the left... physically, that is) for the Lib Dems made a few interventions on minutes of Cabinet meetings, but really it was all pretty desperate. The whole meeting lasted less than an hour and a half... and that despite the fact it was the first full council (other than the Mayor-making jamboree) for months. Surely they must have SOMETHING they want to make a point about.

Still, unbeknown to most of us in the Chamber, deeds of great skullduggery were taking place involving Councillor Macklin, who has recently thrown her rattle out of the pram and deserted the Lib Dem Group. I will put to one side any thoughts I might have had about Mrs Macklin's 'nether regions' but I would love to be a fly on the wall when her complaint goes to the Standards Board.

I am reminded by Mick Davies that I am remiss in failing to mention that today is the anniversary of the attack on the Moncada Barracks near Santiago de Cuba that marks the start of the Cuban revolution. I suppose it is a sign of the times, but Fidel would definitely have been the subject of a more concerted attack under the guise of the war against terrorism if such a thing happened today.

Darius Vassell had such a turn of speed he would terrify defenders. Unfortunately his finishing meant that goalkeepers had few such fears.

Just when the people of Bearwood thought it was OK to relax, Blue Chip Casinos are back with their proposal to convert a local pub in a residential neighbourhood into a round-the-clock casino. They have had their plans kicked out by the Planning Committee. They have had their appeal turned down by the Planning Inspectorate. They came back to the Planning Committee with a modified proposal which was kicked out again by the Committee. Now, for the fourth time in 18 months they are subjecting the local residents to another bout of mental torture by submitting yet another slightly modified application. It is difficult to know which part of "sod off and leave us alone" that these people do not understand. The Government are apparently trying to introduce an amendment to the law to prevent these companies from submitting endless numbers of slightly amended planning applications. The sooner the better! In the meantime, the residents in the north of my Ward are preparing to do battle again on 3rd August.

An artist's impression of the ridiculous Blue Chip Casino

Introducing.... Prezza the Planner.

An interesting slant. Boycott The Sun for being too left-wing (and anti-English!)

Perfectly safe, these mobile phone masts. What on earth is the fuss about? So they say....

The opium of the people

It has taken the media hysteria over Madrasas to focus attention on 'faith schools'. Personally, I don't think it is the role of schools to involve themselves in matters of religion. I think they should teach children about the different faiths in the world, in the same way they should give them an understanding of the world's geography or differing political systems. But to preach religion, or have schools designated for people of differing religions seems to me to be divisive, and not the role of school. I still have a feeling of fear and dread when I think back to my own religious knowledge classes. We were taught by a fierce Wesh Methodist brute, who, if there was such a thing, would have long since burnt in hell. He would make us learn whole passages of the Old Testament by rote, maybe three or four pages at a time, and then if you were chosen you were expected to stand up and recite the stuff from memory until he told you to stop and the next person had to pick up from where you left off. Meanwhile, he stood behind you with a clenched fist, waiting for you to falter... and if you stopped, he punched you in the back of the head. Though shalt not... my arse! For many parents, sending kids to 'faith schools' is just a method of selection. They are allowed to select pupils on the basis of religion. This is not necessarily confined to children of their religion, so a bright young protestant can get into a 'Catholic' school. The school's results are subsequently better because of this process of selection, and the desire to send their children there becomes self-perpetuating. In addition, there are a limited number of Catholics from the Indian Sub-Continent or white Muslims, so segregation can be reinforced. I don't often agree with Polly Toynbee, but on this I most certainly do.

The iPod cometh. I thought there would never come a time when the vinyl album with its wonderful smell and arty sleeve would be replaced by tiny plastic tapes or small silver discs. Now the whole concept is under threat. I love my MP3 player, particularly playing random tracks as a giant jukebox in the ca... but surely not to replace the LP altogether. (My daughter says... what's an LP, Dad?)

Is this Alistair Darling genuinely listening? ... or the first casualty of the London Olympics as transport cash is diverted. Can't say I'm upset about the decision... but the rest of the country should be concerned if it is the first of many plans shelved to pay for the beano in 2012.

I had some cause to be grateful to Edward Heath. In 1973 there was what was described at the time as "an energy crisis" Heath, the Tory Prime Minister had picked a fight with the NUM at the same time as OPEC started hiking up the price of oil. The Government introduce a 'three-day-week' during which industry was limited to working only on three consecutive days each week. He also introduced an incomes policy designed to stop people fueling inflation with high pay rises. As part of this incomes policy everyone received a flat-rate pay increase of £2.40 a week... with a further 40p per week rise for every 1% increase in the retail price inflation, up to a maximum increase of £6 per week. Inflation duly shot up and everyone, irrespective of who you were, ended up with a £6 a week wage increase. I was a young and fairly inexperienced ASTMS Branch Secretary at GKN in Birmingham at the time and a lot of my members, particularly the office and admin staff, suddenly found that their wages (some as low as £10-15 a week) rdramaticallyally. Of course, modesty prevented me taking the full credit for reducing the working week and doubling people's wages. Honest.

The war against terror (TWAT)

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice recently stated, what U.S.-Venezuelan relations comes down to, is “what kind of hemisphere is this going to be? Is it going to be a hemisphere that is democratic and that is prosperous and where neighbours get along, where neighbours don’t interfere in each other’s affairs, where people fight drug trade and fight terrorism together actively?”

These neo-cons really don’t do irony, do they? The United States has spent decades training reactionary right-wing military leaders for some of the most despotic regimes in central and Latin America out of their terrorist training camps at Fort Benning in Georgia. Now they have the barefaced cheek to accuse the most progressive regime in the region, Chavez’s Venezuela, of "interfering in each other’s affairs".

Well, Condoleezza, there is one terrorist trained at Fort Benning and well known to Daddy Bush when he was the Director of the CIA, namely Luis Posada Carriles, who the Venezuelan authorities would seriously appreciate a bit of that good neighbourly co-operation over. Strangely, the Bush regime seems content to allow lying dogs to sleep.

A penniless asylum seeker in London was vilified across two pages of the Daily Mail last week. Nothing new there then, says Francis Wheen.... apart from the fact that this one has been dead for nearly 150 years!

Nick Hornby interviews The Boss. I must admit I was one of those who thought Springsteen had passed his sell by date... until we went to see him with the East Street Band at Old Trafford last year. It was an absolute stormer, the genuine dogs, and at the end of the show the audience were as exhausted and drained as Brooooce himself.

I went across the border today at the invitation of the kind folk from the North West Edgbaston Neighbourhood Forum in Birmingham. It was a really good, lively meeting with over 50 residents present, all of whom seemed ready and prepared to enter into the debates. They have an issue in respect of Deers Leap wood, an area of natural beauty in their area which appears to be the target of housing developers Persimmon Homes, and the residents feel they are getting less than positive assistance in their fight from the City Council Planning Department in Birmingham.

I was there, together with an officer from Sandwell Planning, to talk about a variety of changes that have taken place in the shopping centre in my Ward, which borders the North West Edgbaston area. Although there were a number of grumbles, most of them entirely justified, we were very politely received and people seemed genuinely appreciative of the fact that we had given up a glorious hot Saturday morning to try and explain developments. It was actually quite refreshing to go to a public meeting that was not just an excuse to moan at someone, and where the crticism was so constructive. There was considerable anger about Lightwoods Park which is in Sandwell and (allegedly) maintained by Birmingham. I pointed out to the residents that they should pressurise their Ward councillors in Birmingham, particularly Councillor Mike Whitby, the Leader of the Conservative/Liberal group who control the Council in Birmingham (again, allegedly).... but like us I suspect they are wasting their time. Teflon Mike doesn't seem to listen.

During your silent vigils, spare a thought for these slaughtered innocents too.

I am the resurrection

I don't care where you've been or what you plan to do ...
I am the resurrection and I am the life
I couldn't ever bring myself to hate you as I'd like.

Mark Seddon in The Guardian on the rehabilitation of a down-at-heel Victorian gent with boils on his bum.... with some useful economic advice for Gordon Brown. On the subject of political philosophers, TalkPolitics is compiling a 'web library' of political writings around the subject of democracy. He is open to suggestions. Talking of midlands-based bloggers (I'll get a job on Radio One with all these 'related' links) the UK Political Hack has some splendid stuff about Lib Dem things... and Birmingham City Council Tory/Lib Dem Leader, Mike Whitby.

David Aaronovitch asserts that "if the jihadists weren't blowing us up, they would be blowing up someone else." It is a notion based upon the 'islamic fundamentalists wanting to take over the world theory', a close relative of 'the commies wanting to take over the world theory'and totally dismisses the notion that actions lead to reactions. Aaronovitch lists the atrocities carried out in the name of al-Qaeda and their associates over the last decade, (and who in their right mind wouldn't condemn the indiscriminate murder of civilians, both here and in Iraq). But as a letter writer to the Guardian (ah, must be a sandal-wearing wooly-minded yoghurt-weaver) today says, ....Dead people under rubble are as dead, and frightened people above it, as frightened, the world over. And the distinction between explosions caused by "a tiny minority of fanatical extremists" leaving bombs on the underground, and distinguished international statesmen ordering them to be dropped on a city from 30,000 feet, is a fine one. I for one, am perfectly willing to condemn the terrorists killing in the name of Islam... but I also condemn those terrorists killing in the name of democracy.

Bush walks the walk... a walk that brings the otherwise unusable word "akimbo" to mind.

You can take your pick on the latest bombing theories, and it seems to me you can fit the facts into your own ideological stance on the war in Iraq. So, on the one hand you have the George Galloway/Tariq Ali position, reinforced today by Gary Younge saying the bombs were an inevitable consequence of the war, and that Tony Blair allying Britain so closely to Bush placed lives at risk in this country. Alternatively, over at Harry's Place the Blair loyalists insist the bombings are the work of Islamic fanatics, and that they are encouraged and given succor by the support of the SWP, RESPECT, the Stop the War Coalition and assorted lefty, middle class liberals. They argue that al-Qaeda was in business bombing their way to paradise long before the war in Iraq. They argue that those responsible for the London bombings couldn't care less about ordinary Muslims and they are blowing up Iraqis on a daily basis in Iraq. For what it is worth, I tend towards the former view (but then, I was opposed to the war) and in the same way that internment in Northern Ireland turned into the IRA's biggest recruitment agency, the War in Iraq and the West's cosying up to Israel, provided the oxygen the fanatics need in order to survive and prosper. Terrorists don't exist in a vacuum, and they are not born terrorists.

Just what exactly was the Prime Minister trying to say on Thursday about the bombings? He said;

In addition, I welcome the statement put out by the Muslim Council who know that those people acted in the name of Islam but who also know that the vast and overwhelming majority of Muslims, here and abroad, are decent and law-abiding people who abhor this act of terrorism every bit as much as we do.

It's the "every bit as much as we do" that puzzled me. Aren't Muslims here part of the 'we' in modern multi-cultural Britain?

I've added a new link to the sidebar, Mikedahat, or Zen and the art of guitar maintenance. I happened upon it via Steve at Occupied Country and like Steve's site it is a bloody good read. Not like all those 'politicos' sites, but entertaining, autobiographical and humorous. Well worth a regular visit.

Robert Fisk on the bombings.

Slip, slap, slop...

The Warley Woods Community Trust held their annual picnic in the park today, and as usual the weather was glorious. There must have been over a thousand people across the parkland and local bands entertained the crowds whilst Unite Against Facism circulated amongst them handing out anti-racist literature and assorted champagne socialists supped bucks fizz. (hic)

Glastonbury without the mud..



Dancing in the park

Back to the future

With every terrorist outrage the state responds with increasingly repressive legislation. ID cards, roadpricing satellites tracking every vehicle, and now the suggestion that all private e-mails and mobile telephone conversations could be monitored by the police.

Eric Blair's (no relation) vision of the Big Brother state moves another step towards the thought police. If the purpose of terrorism is to undermine our freedom and democracy... perhap's they're winning.

The events of yesterday morning brought back memories of that Thursday night in Birmingham in November 1974 when the IRA blew up two pubs in Birmingham City Centre. We had no mobile phones back then, and a shudder went through everyone wondering if one of their family members or friends had gone into Brum for a drink. Expressions of sympathy for the victims of this indiscriminate act of murder go without saying, but before the dust from the exposions settle, today’s papers not only report the events but start to speculate on the why and who.

Galloway is savaged for linking the attacks to the war in Iraq within hours of the bombings. It seems strange that Galloway is condemned as despicable, despite the fact that other commentators are equally quick to pronounce and attach the bombings to their own bandwagons.

Robin Cook in The Guardian proclaims that military means will not defeat ‘terrorism’. Whilst I agree with the sentiments, Cook fails to make mention of his role as Foreign Secretary, when the bombing of Iraq was carried out routinely on a daily basis. Gerard Baker in The Times writes..... "above all, I felt a surge of pride at the resilience and defiance of Londoners. They showed once again that fierce solidarity we have seen so many times when they have been tested; a determination to face down nihilistic terror and intimidation." Do these people think Iraqi parents don't grieve for their loved ones? Don't they understand that if the result of bombs exploding in London is resiliance and pride and defiance the same can be said of Iraqis too?


Johann Hari uses the bombings as justification for this crass piece of nonsense: Does anyone need greater evidence that these Islamic fundamentalists despise Muslims who choose to live in free societies, and they would enslave Muslims everywhere if they were given the opportunity?


As someone who remembers the blind anti-Irish backlash in Birmingham in 1974, when Irish people were attacked on the factory floor and ordinary working class Irish families had bricks thrown threw their windows, I fear for muslims who may be subjected to the same lynch mob mentality from those who don't need much excuse in the first place.

The old bat can still claim the credit for things to this day. How a decision by Mad Maggie 25 years ago contributed to the success of Britain's Olympics bid yesterday. Interestingly, the 1980 Olympics in Moscow were the subject of a boycott because of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. I wonder if the Tories now want the US to be excluded for the same reason?

One thing I do think I can agree with the fragrant Ms. Casey about is her loathing of jargon, and I can particularly empathise with her desire to 'deck' No. 10 officials over their obsession with phrases like "evidence-based policy". Only yesterday someone told me that when the Council exercises its new licensing powers in respect of applications for 24-hour drink licenses, they have to use evidence-based decision making. Apparently this means allowing pubs in quiet working-class streets to open all night because there is no evidence to show that people coming and going all night would be disruptive. The evidence has to include police and other witness statements. Of course, because the pub has never previously opened for 24 hours, there is no such evidence.... so the pub has to be granted a license to cause misery for months whilst people compile "evidence" to oppose the license.

As Joseph Heller said: you cannot get out of the US Airforce on the grounds of insanity... because you would have to be insane to join the US Airforce.

Just a few days after Blair allegedly "dressed down" Charles Clarke about being soft on anti-social behaviour, and orders Home Office hard-liner Louise Casey to report directly to him, she finds herself the subject of an investigation into remarks 'leaked' from a tape of a speech she made.... a month ago! Included in her remarks was the statement that Government ministers might perform better if they "turn up in the morning pissed", adding: "Doing things sober is no way to get things done". Could it be that someone in the Home Office was "pissed" about Clarke's handbagging by Tone. Surely not?

It is very easy for those on the left to sink into defeatism and despondency. For instance, the feeling that the trade unions are hemmed in by their bureaucracies and false loyalties, that strikes are a relic of the 1970's and the defeat of the NUM was the death rattle of 'old labour' trade unionism. The cynicism of the electorate to politicians who have arrived at a middle ground concensus is manipulated and portrayed by the media to be voter apathy, without any real analysis about why people are disillusioned. It is easy to slip into the feeling that everyone has accepted the law of the free market, that trade unions are no longer relevant because we've got a national minimum wage and that talk of socialism is confined to far off third world regimes in South America.

Well, I know the Live 8 stuff was about a rock concert, but as skuds points out, and he was there, it is difficult to imagine that the people who were there were not positively affected by the experience. Certainly the tens of thousands marching in Edinburgh are not there just because some pop star told them it was going to be fun. As for the labour movement, it is not dead, nor even sleeping. All across the world, every day, trade unions are fighting for workers' rights. As Eric Lee points out, the fact that the mainstream press and 24-hour news channels don't even murmur the word 'union' doesn't mean nothing is happening. So, if they won't tell you what's going on, get out there and look for it yourself. Go to LabourStart a couple of days a week, and while you are there, click on the UK site in the left hand column. Hopefully it will cheer up your week... it certainly lifts my spirits.

OK... it's not Live 8... but it is a charity gig all the same. Organised in Moseley (or Muesli as we usually refer to it) for one of the most popular guys in Brum. Saxophonist and blues guitar hero Steve Ajao was run down whilst crossing the road a few weeks ago and today saw the biggest outpouring of support for Steve so far from his many admirers. The crowds poured into the beer garden of the Prince of Wales all afternoon as a series of jazz and blues artists played for free the sort of music Steve plays so well. OK... Macca, Bono and Snoop Dogg didn't make it, nor Robbie, Maddona or Dido. But we still had fun in the sun for a real good cause... and someone even paid more than £50 for a special Ajao T-shirt with a zebra crossing on the front and the legend, 'Steve's Greatest Hit' emblazoned across it.

There's another benefit gig for Steve at the Birmingham Jazz Festival on Saturday Night starting at 11.pm. if you're about. Should be good.

Crowds continue to pour in six hours after the doors opened.




Michael Stipe... eat you heart out!

One of the authors of the Poll Tax claims that the ID Card Bill is Blair's Poll Tax. "...third-term prime ministers are not wise. They are too busy with their global agenda to study the detail of what their ministers have devised. A flood of testosterone dulls the messages from their political antennae. Machismo distorts their sense of proportion."

Well... could it be Tone is too concerned with his international image to be concentrating on the domestic agenda? Has Gordon thrown his not inconsiderable weight behind ID cards?

Talk Politics has a good post on His Bobness, Blair and the whole G8 business. The ever sceptical John Pilger is equally scathing. I'm ambiguous on this one. As per Gramsci, I do think culture is vitally important and that music can influence masses, and that masses can influence politicians. I also think Geldof and company are fully aware that their media embraced concert will not... in itself... change anything, but it is part of a process. On the concert itself, give me Tinariwen, Youssou N'Dour (minus Dido), Salif Keita etc at The Eden Project any day of the week.