or some vegetables are more equal than others
By Andrew Wastling
______________________________
BY way of reply to yesterday's piece Beggars Opera or Comic Opera? - Strangling Civil Liberties on a United Front, I'd like to raise a few points.
I don't doubt for a second that the
nauseating culture of palpable nepotism and political cronyism was once
again alive and flourishing at Rochdale Town Hall :It was like
viewing a tribe of back-patting gangsters as both the Tory and Labour
politicians vied with each other to heap on the praise ' writes the
articles author. I can almost picture it now. All we are really lacking
is a corrupt City Mayor, a few more henchmen in double breasted suits
with Fedora hats carrying violin cases ,a couple of high profile payola
busts with a snazzy Bix Beiderbecke soundtrack piped into the council
chamber. Retro Gangsterism - its the new rock'n'roll !
Or maybe a more toned down theme more akin perhaps to a scene from Brecht's famous play The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (1)
portraying as it does the rise of a fictional 1930s Chicago mobster -
Arturo Ui - and his attempts to control the cauliflower racket by
ruthlessly disposing of the opposition to become chief vegetable
gangster. The parallels are sometimes striking .We really should have a
copy in the Library at The Ministry of Truth as No1. Riverside is to be
shortly renamed.
Whichever is closer to the truth
our town hall has of late become an almost absurdist theatrical
experience where some of the performances would not be out of place
delivered in Al Capone pin stripe suits accompanied by gangsters molls
with a mobsters getaway car revving up round the Town Hall - just in
case anyone has to do a quick runner!
In this fevered political atmosphere its perhaps not surprising that bashful Councillor Blundell did not intervene to challenge Councillor
Sullivan and Councillor Howards motion to extend Public Space
Protection Orders to the gates of local schools. Those well known haven
for anti-social & criminal elements across the Borough ! Makes no
difference , as Woody Guthrie said : ' Some will rob you with a six-gun, And some with a fountain pen'.
After all it was only at the beginning of the
month that Councillor Blundell was loudly proclaiming across the
air-waves of Key 101 radio station News on 8 March that unless you were an 'aggressive beggar'
you had ' absolutely nothing to fear from PSPO's. The Council 'is not
the Gestapo' the Councillor responded slightly nervously . Quite right
Councillor and we are here to ensure it never becomes anything close to
resembling it. Even if some members of our council would rather forget
it those opposed to PSPO's maintain that : 'the price of Liberty is
eternal vigilance.'
When it was pointed out that the proposal document for Rochdale Council does not use the word aggressive beggar but only beggar in the text I was accused of 'splitting hairs' and promoting 'fake news' .I'll leave it to Councillor Blundel to justify to the Public precisely how a PSPO initially proposed for use against aggressive beggars
in the town centre ( in the councillors own words) has transformed
itself less than four weeks down the road into a one size fits all
quick fix for a multitude of issues the Council have failed utterly to
get to grips with?
At this rate by Palm Sunday we can no doubt
look forward to the reintroduction of Prohibition, unlicensed
Speakeasy's on The Butts, local Protection Rackets & wholesale
counterfeiting & gangsters across the entire Borough. Ah, the joys
and pitfalls of turbo charged capitalism combined with a soon to be
almost unregulated neoliberal global economy.
Just for the record PSPO's outside schools can
in a matter of hours after a chat with a senior Police Officer be
transformed by a single council official into a ban on parents holding a
'Save Our School Rally' at the school gates in opposition to future
closure plans . Don't say you haven't been warned folks.
Recent Twitter comments from bashful Councillor Blundel hardly instil widespread confidence such as :
( 24 March 2016 )
Or the equally strident if slightly pompous :
Elected local representatives are making this decision. @libertyhq load of London liberal elites looking down their nose at northern towns
( again on 24 March 2016)
Segments of this Twitter feed
appear to not only fly in the face of reality but seems to fly directly
in the face of Council claims the PSPO proposal was being put out for
consultation and not be a decision made by 'elected local representatives'
for a start - not to mention fly Icarus style into the truth of the
Sun. They are indicative of the kind of juvenile responses some of our
local councillors resort to when caught bang to rights with their
trousers down by people outside the Rochdale 'bubble', who not only
quite obviously know what they are talking about , but are able to run
circles round our local 'Alpha-Councillors' with those awfully annoying facts and the even more despised evidence
which even our local Rochdale decision makers have to reluctantly
number crunch from time to time. People who have an in depth
understanding of the Law & the Legal System are often problematic
for Rochdale Council .Just refer back to the embarrassing public
thrashing our council got in the national media from those with a
crystal clear understanding of the Health & Social Care
Sector. Liberty after all have only been advocating on British Law since
1934 so I'm sure we'd all defer to Councillor Blundel's greater breadth
of legal working knowledge & experience on the complex intricacies
of PSPO's than actual British Lawyers, (2).
It would be illuminating to know precisely which part of Liberty's PRESS RELEASE is not factual, scaremongering so we can all reset our thought processes from 'thought crime' to acceptable Council approved cognitive dissonance immediately ?
Perhaps Councillor Blundell can clarify for us
lowly proles how we should think sometime soon . So none of us get
ideas above our station or get into the annoyingly bad habit of asking
tricky questions of our betters?
______________________________
(1). The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui or That Well-Known Racket .The
scenario that Brecht presents is recognisably possible at other times,
past, present and future. He points to a time of recession: people are
suffering increasing hardship in deteriorating circumstances. Crime is
on the increase, unemployment soars, street violence erupts. An enemy is
at work, the people are told; a scapegoat is sought and hounded, while
the well-off, anxious to preserve their position, join in the hunt or
merely look the other way.
Under similar circumstances Chicago
produced Al Capone, and Germany produced Hitler, who rose to power on
the backs of the wealthy establishment, which thought it could both
control and use him, but which was blinkered by its fear of the "enemy
within"
(2). Liberty is also known as the National
Council for Civil Liberties. Founded in 1934, they are a cross party,
non-party membership organisation at the heart of the movement for
fundamental rights and freedoms in the UK.
They promote the values of individual human dignity, equal treatment and fairness as the foundations of a democratic society.Liberty is entirely independent. They're not affiliated with any political party and they receive no Government funding – which means they're free to fearlessly and robustly criticise Government policy and truly hold the powerful to account. They promote the values of equality, dignity, fairness and accountability in all that they do.
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