Sue Gray report portrays No 10 as a louche drinking den!

 

Surely, Boris Johnson must now be drinking in the last chance saloon. Anyone who's read Sue Gray's report, can clearly see that Boris has turned No 10 Downing Street, into a shebeen. Wine stains on the walls; 'Wine Time Friday' in the Downing Street Press Office; puke-splattered bins thrown into the skip; boozed up stragglers surreptitiously ushered out of the back door to avoid CCTV cameras. Cleaners and security staff who raised objections, insulted and demeaned by a bunch of inebriated Toffs. 

In true Boris style, he says he feels humbled by Sue Gray's report but also terribly let down by his staff. The parties that he attended were so good, that he couldn't even remember having been to them. 

Multi-millionaire, little Rishi Sunak, is now being accused of coming up with a £15bn bailout package to deflect attention away from 'Partygate' and to pull his beleaguered boss out of the shit. Once again, Rishi has found the magic money tree and has stolen Labour's 'Windfall Tax' on energy companies.

Despite the show of contrition, Boris has been telling people on the quiet, that Britain wouldn't have won the last war, if  Winston Churchill hadn't been a piss artist like himself.  Some call him showman and others the consummate politician. A man interviewed in the former solid Labour seat of Bolsover, thought differently. He told a reporter that Johnson was a clown who ought to be in a circus, a right berk. Partygate is just of many scandals that have plagued the sleazy government of Boris Johnson.

Boris accused of rewriting rules to get off the hook!

 

Sleazy Boris Johnson has been accused of rewriting the rule book on Parliamentary standards to 'save his own skin'. Critics says he's rewritten the forward to the ministerial code to remove all references to honesty, integrity, transparency and accountability.

Labour's Deputy Leader, Angela Rayner, said: "This prime minister is downgrading and debasing the principles of public life before our very eyes." Wendy Chamberlain, the Lib Dem chief whip, said it was an "appalling attempt by Boris Johnson to rig the rules to get himself off the hook."

The Government say that the rules have been changed to "avoid incentives for trivial or vexatious complaints, which may be made for partisan reasons."

Ukrainian Anarchists invoke the spirit of Makhno!

 

Ukranian Anarchist - Nestor Makhno

Anarchists in the Ukraine have joined the war effort to oppose Vladimir Putin's invasion of the country. They say that Putin's regime is an ultraconservative rightwing dictatorship that represses anarchists in Russia, the free press, LGBT networks, and animal rights activists.

For the Ukrainian anarchists, the war between Russia and the Ukraine is a conflict between "a more or less democratic state and a totalitarian one." They accuse Putin of having appropriated the term anti-fascism to justify his war and say that the Russian-speaking parts of southern and eastern Ukraine, which Putin supposedly came to liberate, have been the areas that have been hardest hit by the war. They say that Russian ultra-rightists have carried out extrajudicial killings in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

Historically, parts of southern and eastern Ukraine were once under the control of the 'Makhnovist' Army', led by the Ukrainian anarchist, Nestor Makhno. During 1917-21, self governing communes existed across most of southern and eastern Ukraine under the protection of Makhno's army. Makhno's base was in Huliaipole, a town in Ukraine's Zaporizhzia region.

Government blocks access to Lebedev files!

 

Lord Lebedev of Hampton & Siberia

The sleazy Tory government of Boris Johnson, are being accused of a cover up and contempt of Parliament after they blocked the release of papers concerning the peerage of Russian-born, Evgeny Lebedev.

It is known that the security services wrote to Boris Johnson expressing security concerns, if Lebedev was awarded a peerage and elevated to the House of Lords. Boris Johnson and Evgeny Lebedev are close friends. Lebedev owns both the Evening Standard and the Independent newspapers. He also owns a wolf called Boris. Lebedev's father, was a former intelligence officer with the KGB.

In March, a motion was passed in the House of Commons that directed Ministers to release all relevant paperwork including the advice of the security services. Tory MPs abstained on the issue. The Government have declined to provide the information on the grounds of confidentiality and that it would lead to "political point scoring." They say that the government remains committed to "openess and transparency" but not on this occasion, and will not abide by the Commons request. Labour called the decision a "cover up" and say that if there are security concerns about Lebedev, then it is in the public interest that this be disclosed.

Cabinet Office minister, Michael Ellis, told the Commons, that Lord Lebedev of Hampton and Siberia, "is a man of good standing."

Tory MP who claimed you could knock up a meal for 30p, claimed thousands in expenses!

 

Lee Anderson MP 

The ex-miner, Lee Anderson, the MP for Ashfield, was a Labour Party member and councillor until March 2018, when he defected to the Tories. Anderson, a controversial figure, was suspended by Labour in 2018 when he dumped boulders to block access to a traveller camp site. The Ashfield Labour councillor, was given a community protection notice over the action and instructed to remove the boulders.

Anderson was a vocal supporter of Brexit and supported the Vote Leave campaign in the 2016 E.U. referendum. He was criticized by the Labour Party when he said that council tenants who caused a nuisance, should be compelled to do forced labour as seasonal agricultural workers in labour camps. As a Conservative Party candidate, Anderson was also investigated over claims of anti-Semitism and his links to a Facebook group that supported Tommy Robinson. 

Since venting his spleen against travellers, anti-social council tenants, and the Black Lives Matters movement, he's now turned his attention towards food banks, home economics, and the poor. The former miner believes there's no need for food banks and that they're only necessary because poor people can't cook properly or budget. He says that a substantial meal can be knocked up for 30p.

Many people have condemned his comments as ludicrous and have pointed out that in 202O-21, he claimed over £222,000 in expenses in a year, on top of his MPs salary of £84,144, and £4,100 for travel and subsistence.

The food charity Sustain, say that food banks are overstretched to breaking point and that in April, "Seven million adults in this country have gone without food."

Is the extradition of Julian Assange a threat to freedom of the press?

 

The investigative WikiLeaks journalist, Julian Assange, has spent the last 3 years incarcerated in Belmarsh Prison. For most of that time, Assange has been in solitary confinement. Assange has not been convicted or charged with any crime but he's challenging an attempt by the U.S. authorities, to extradite him to America, where he will be charged with espionage and put on trial.

Supporters of Assange say that he's an investigative journalist who published classified information, because it was in the public interest to do so. If he's convicted in the U.S. of spying, he could spend the rest of his life in prison.

In the next few days, the Home Secretary, Priti Patel, will decide whether to approve the extradition of Julian Assange. In 2021, District Judge, Vanessa Baraitser, blocked the extradition over concerns about the mental health of Julian Assange and that he was at risk of committing suicide, if he was extradited to America. The U.S. authorities appealed against this judgement.

The journalist Peter Oborne, believes that extraditing Assange to the U.S. would be a gift to all secretive and oppressive regimes throughout the world. He also says that it would seriously impair investigate journalism and make journalist wary of publishing anything that might incur the wrath of the U.S. authorities, even if it was felt to be in the public interest.

Many people feel that Assange has been punished enough by spending years in prison and that it's now time to stop the extradition proceedings and the inhuman treatment and torture of Julian Assange.

Get A Job Says Boris!

 

Boris Johnson says the way out of the cost of living crisis is to get a job. But critics point out that the official figures show that 41% of people on Universal Credit, are in work.

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation, say that 68% of families living in poverty, include at least one working adult. The government say that there are more vacancies than people to fill them and that employers are having difficulty in finding people to do the jobs.

But what sort of jobs are we talking about? The gig economy, zero hour contracts, casual and temporary jobs? In Brexit Britain, having a paid job is no guarantee that it will lift a person out of poverty. Trying to get a decent paid regular job in Britain today, is a struggle for many people.

What also seems curious, is why wages are stagnating and failing to keep up with a 9% inflation rate, when we're told there's an increase in demand for labour, and bosses can't fill the vacancies. You'd expect a situation like this to be driving up wage rates.

Cloth cap Tory MP says poor don't need foodbanks!

 

Some well-heeled English Tories have form when in it comes to lecturing the working classes on home economics. They say that poor people go hungry not because they lack money, but because they can't cook properly.

However, the Tory MP for Ashfield, former coal-miner, Lee Anderson (see picture above), recently caused outrage when he said that food banks were unnecessary and that you could knock up a substantial meal for 30p. The former Labour councillor, who defected to the Conservatives and was elected the MP for Ashfield in 2019, said that food poverty was not due to a lack of income but due to a lack of cooking skills.

Similarly, in 2014, the Tory peer, Baroness Jenkin of Kennington, claimed that a poor person could eat well for pennies and that the big issue is that poor people don't know how to cook. At the time, the Baroness, was compared to Marie Antoinette.

But do the Labour turncoat and Noble Baroness have a point, or are they just being patronising?

In 1971, the writer and journalist, Jocasta Innes, published the bestselling book called the 'Paupers Cookbook'. The book aimed to show how you could make delicious food for pennies. The book was reprinted almost every year for 12 years.

The ‘non-binary’ food writer, Jack Monroe, became famous and successful after she began writing a blog called 'Cooking on a Bootstrap'. The single mother from Southend-on-Sea, shared with her readers her knowledge of 'austerity recipe's'.

But Jack Munro also campaigns against food poverty and works closely with organisations like The Trussell Trust and Oxfam. She's also commenced legal proceedings against the cloth cap Tory, Lee Anderson, who has accused her of making a "fortune from the poor."

 

There can be no better example than the political crisis in Northern Ireland, to show that Britain is governed by a bunch of clowns. Boris Johnson got elected on the promise that he would get Brexit done. He then told the people of Northern Ireland that there would be no hard border with the Republic or a border in the sea, between Britain and Northern Ireland.

The Brexit Agreement and the Northern Ireland Protocol his government negotiated with the European Union resulted in a border being placed in the sea which effectively led to the annexation of Northern Ireland and left it in the E.U. single market. The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), are now demanding that the border in the sea be removed because it impedes trade between Britain and Northern Ireland and have blocked the election of a new Speaker to the Stormont Assembly, to force the issue, leaving it unable to function.

Boris Johnson did not get Brexit done and he lied to the people of Northern Ireland about the border. He now wants to scrap or overhaul the Northern Ireland Protocol he negotiated with the E U. because of the problems it's causing in Northern Ireland.

Despite this balls up, of their own making, the Brexit Opportunities Minister, Jacob Reese-Mogg, says it's all the fault of the E.U. who are punishing Britain for Brexit. The incompetence of Boris Johnson and his government, could lead to a trade war with Brussels or a potential civil war in Northern Ireland and a return to the troubles if this political impasse is not sorted out. There's also the possibility that the E.U. will impose tariffs on trade with Britain if Johnson unilaterally revokes the Northern Ireland Protocol pushing up the cost of living further. Who was it that told us that getting a Brexit deal with the E.U. would be a 'walk in the park' and was 'oven ready'?

PM to award Honours to senior Met officers who investigated 'Partygate'!

 

Legal experts are asking how Boris Johnson managed to get fined only once for breaking COVID Regulations, but is known to have attended five other events, including one, where he poured the drinks. Others who attended some of these events, were fined by the police. The lawyers say it defies logic and to many voters, it defies common sense too.

To make matters worse, the journalist Laura Kuenssberg, has just posted on Twitter, that, "Boris Johnson has announced that senior Metropolitan Police officers will receive honours in return for their totally impartial Partygate investigation."

Labour Leader, Brenda Warrington, throws in the towel!

 

BREAKING NEWS: Although the Labour Leader of Tameside Council, Brenda Warrington, said she would defy any moves to depose her, by Labour plotters, and would not be "bullied, harrased, or intimidated" into standing down, we understand that the former cigarette worker, announced on Saturday evening that she was resigning and would not be opposing Councillor Ged Cooney's bid to become the next Labour Leader of Tameside Council. 

In the recent local elections, Labour lost two seats to the Conservative Party - Ashton Hurst and Hyde Godley. The controversal issue of the Godley Green development seems to have lost Labour the seat in Hyde Godley. The Tory opposition on Tameside Council, dubbed the Labour Leader, "Brenda the Bulldozer", and she angered many people when she declared that she would ram the development down their throats. 

Councillor Warrington, was elected the Labour Leader of Tameside Council in 2018, following the sudden death of the former Labour Leader, Kieran Quinn. After being the Labour leader for such a short while, and being unable to rally support around her, some have speculated that she may have come to the fag end of her political career.

Liverpool fans accused of lacking patriotism!

 

Liverpool fans have been criticised for booing Prince William at the F.A. Cup Final between Liverpool and Chelsea. Nobody seems quite sure why they booed him, but some have suggested that it's because of a perceived establishment cover-up over Hillsborough and hostility towards the former Conservative Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher. 

 

If anybody is at fault for bringing the monarchy down, it's not Liverpool's football fans, but Prince William's uncle, Andrew Windsor. He's Republicanism's greatest asset and the biggest threat to the British Royal Family. The man is a total disgrace to the country and his own family. Not only was he the friend of a convicted sex offender, Geoffrey Epstein, and a woman convicted of the sex trafficking of young girls, Ghislaine Maxwell, he also paid around £12m to a woman, Virginia Giuffre, that he claimed to have had no recollection of meeting, while also denying her allegations. 

 

She recollected meeting him, and said she'd been forced to have sex with him on two occasions, once in London and once in Florida, at the homes of Ghislaine Maxwell and Geoffrey Epstein, when she was 17. That's why she started legal action against him in New York, which he settled out of court, while still denying her allegations. 

 

Not only is sex trafficking a crime but the age of consent in Florida, is 18. To have sex with some under 18 in the state of Florida, is statutory rape. Prince Andrew might be totally innocent of the charges made against him, you're innocent until proven guilty, but in the court of public opinion, many people do wonder, why an innocent man didn't choose to have his day in court, and would pay millions of pounds to a woman that he had no recollection of meeting.

Getting into bed with the enemy. Police spies uncovered!

 

                                       

We know that the Stasi in East Germany and the KGB in Russia spied on their populations. We were told that this is what totalitarian Communist States do. However, State surveillance of the British public is something that the Security Services have always been reluctant to talk about or to disclose. The emphasis has always been on counter terrorism and counter espionage to protect the State and the British public. 

The Mitting inquiry into undercover police surveillance in Britain, has now disclosed that at least 24 undercover police officers had infiltrated and were spying on the Socialist Workers Party (SWP), between 1970 and 2007. Secret files were even compiled on a 15-year-old boy who was buying the SWP's newspaper. Some of these undercover police officers, such as Robert Lambert (see above), are known to have entered into sexual relationships with women they spied on, and to have fathered children with them. Talk about getting into bed with the enemy.

'Deep Deception' - Book Review: By Richard Turner

 

Helen Steel with John Dines

“Deep Deception: The story of the spycops network by the women who uncovered the shocking truth” by ‘Alison’, ‘Belinda’, Helen Steel, ‘Lisa’ and ‘Naomi’. London: Ebury Spotlight: 2022. ISBN: 9781529108316. 386 pages hardback.

Like many people, I read the startling stories of women who were deceived by undercover police officers who went on to have to intimate relationships with their political targets as the stories were gradually uncovered, in the newspapers. Most readers would have been shocked and angered by the actions of police officers which shattered the lives of the women involved. This extraordinary and powerful book of testimonies by five of the women shines a brilliant spotlight on the role of the police, their utter contempt for the women they used and abused, and the devastating effects on individual lives.

When the manipulative actions of the police began to be revealed, solely due to the bravery of the women, it was initially passed off as rogue officers. However the determination, resilience and perseverance of the women led to a slowly developing pattern of male police officers who used their relationships with women as part of their surveillance of perceived radical groups. This was very obviously not a case of rotten apples but a pre-conceived policy to purposefully inveigle trust from women who were seen as a disposable resource and a means of gathering intelligence with scant regard for the physical and mental well-being of the targets.

The key spycops involved in this scandal were: Bob Robinson (real name Bob Lambert); John Barker (real name John Dines); Mark Cassidy (real name Mark Jenner); Mark Stone (Mark Kennedy). There will indubitably have been others.

The remarkable detail that the spycops went to in order to establish their credentials is at times staggering. Each of these women are intelligent, they are not easily duped or blinded by love. They were deceived by the most elaborate of state agents who had created a completely convincing deep cover persona that fooled even the most cynical and hardened of activists. The lies told were astonishing and the brutal abrupt endings to relationships / surveillance were breathtakingly cruel.

The tenacity of the women to track down the men they had loved and then who abruptly disappeared are the keystones of this book. The book opens with the story of Belinda who was not really an activist at all but was targeted as a way to gain access to campaigners she knew. The testimonies of Helen Steel and Alison are remarkably similar stories until they finally met each other in 2003 and started to understand how their life stories had intertwined. It was that same year, 2003, that Lisa’s story starts; she was an environmental activist living in Leeds when she met a man called Mark Stone. In the same Cornerstone housing cooperative in Leeds, Naomi knew Lisa and also began a relationship with Mark Stone. At this stage, the book really does become hypnotic and difficult to put down as the depths of the police subterfuge become at times wincingly painful even to read.

The threads of the stories come together to start to reveal a network of undercover police officers based at the Special Demonstration Squad, part of Special Branch and the Metropolitan Police. The idea that undercover police officers could not only have sexual relationships with the women they were essentially grooming, but also develop long standing relationship and even have children together, as in the case of Jim Sutton, is difficult to comprehend even after the truths were exposed.

Among the grimmest stories was Helen Steel’s revelation about a woman called Rosa who was one of Jim Sutton’s victims. Rosa actually realised that Jim was an undercover police office but was manipulated and gaslighted by the most odious methods as she tried to believe his expressed contrition, became pregnant and was mentally abused to abandon her previous life to marry him … though he was still in the police force at that time. It was all about power and control.

One interesting aside throughout the book is the role of the legal team, including the very positive contribution of Keir Starmer who was one of the first legal to believe and support the women.

Stories about the spycops had begun to appear on Indymedia and in 2010 a trial of campaigners involved in the Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station collapsed after the Crown Prosecution Service dropped charges rather than have to reveal evidence of undercover officers. The Guardian wrote about Mark Kennedy (Mark Stone) and the media began to quickly unveil the nature of spycops and the breadth of its operations.

After the public exposure of the undercover police actions in 2010, the victims, rather than finally seeing justice, were then faced with media intrusion, public scepticism at their naivity and anger at the cost of the collapsed trials and investigations, as well as vicious attacks by right wing journalists. Mark Kennedy (Stone) even sold his story to the Mail on Sunday newspaper, using Max Clifford as his agent.

Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) became involved in 2010 and in December 2011 proceedings began against the Metropolitan Police for sexual and psychological abuse. This meant the women had to go through psychological testing and again had their character repeatedly questioned. The Met finally admitted that Mark Kennedy was a police officer until 2010 but denied liability for his actions.

The final part of the book details the protracted legal battles against a police service that sought to hold hearings in secret, and myriad delaying and denial actions. Only in 2015, after several years, did the police offer to apologise and pay compensation on the proviso that the women could continue to campaign for the whole truth of the undercover policing exploitation of women.

The testimonies clarify the nature and impact of the exploitative relationships and gross abuse of power.

The Undercover Policing Public Inquiry has faced several delays and is not expected to be completed until 2024 at the earliest.

The five women who write this book are a small representation of the women who were cruelly, and often illegally, deceived. The scale of the police operation and their victims may never be fully revealed. Alison, Belinda, Helen, Lisa and Naomi were victims of the spycops, but their strength and survival means they have ultimately emerged triumphant. Their bravery and determination has uncovered a web of deceit that even the most cynical observer of police behaviour would have struggled to accept. Deep Cover is not only an extraordinary and at times heartbreaking book, but is destined to become a significant resource in challenging police accountability and behaviour.

'Brenda the Bulldozer' defies Labour plot to oust her from leadership of council!

 

In the recent May local elections, the Tories lost many council seats to Labour, including control of Westminster, Wandsworth and Barnet. In Tameside, the Tories gained two council seats from Labour - Hyde Godley and Ashton Hurst.

The controversial issue of the Godley Green development which entails building 2,150 homes on green belt land, has proven to be a cause celebre in Hyde. It certainly is the main reason why Labour lost the seat to the Conservatives, who have dubbed Brenda Warrington, the Labour leader of Tameside Council, 'Brenda the Bulldozer'. The former cigarette worker, seems to have antagonised a lot of people when she declared of the development that she would "ram it down your throat." You might call it Brenda Warrington's, 'Gerald Ratner Moment'.

Now there are opponents within Tameside Labour, who are to plotting to oust Warrington as the Labour leader at the next AGM. One of the plotters, Councillor Ged Cooney, says he's been approached to challenge Brenda Warrington for the leadership. The council leader says she will not be "bullied, harassed or intimated " into standing down from the position she has held since 2018.

The Labour leader claims that her long time ally, Councillor Oliver Ryan, has been forced to switch allegiances by a prominent MP, to avoid his political ambitions being destroyed. According to Labour sources, the MP is Angela Rayner. Councillor Ryan, who some believe, wants to be selected as the prospective Labour candidate for Burnley at the next General Election, denies the allegation.

The Man Who Invented The Lock-On Protest - By Christopher Draper

 

The Curious Case of the Man who Invented the Lock-On Protest

by Christopher Draper

For more than a century lock-on protests have proved an effective non-violent way of publicising and challenging injustice. That’s why the current government is so determined to imprison practitioners. Most people assume suffragettes came up with the idea but twenty years before they first chained themselves to railings a now forgotten anarchist invented and enthusiastically practiced the technique…

The Metropolitan Police were so struck by Robert Whittall Harding’s ingenuity that for many years his locks, chains and political manifesto were exhibited in Scotland Yard’s “Black Museum”. As a middle class, individualist, pacifist associate of Henry Seymour, Auberon Herbert and Albert Tarn, Harding was exceptional in his fearless law-breaking. Born in Peckham, south-east London to Henry Harding and his wife Mary Ann, Robert initially worked in his father’s Southwark Bridge Road timber yard. Although never wealthy and employed as a clerk for most of his life, Harding was fortunate enough to inherit a trust fund when his father died in October 1880. From his youth, Robert was a dissenter, active in the “Freethought” movement. Called as a witness in a September 1881 court case, Harding refused to swear on the bible, “on conscientious grounds”, but agreed to affirm. He briefly dabbled in business, partnering David Shea in a Southwark “Glass Works” enterprise but this was dissolved in August 1882, a few weeks before Robert married, in Brixton, Clarice Annie Madeline Jaques, an engineer’s daughter. They had no children of their own but soon after marriage adopted Irish orphan, Maude Whayman.

During 1886-7, when Harding was living in the East End and employed as an “engineer’s clerk”, he discovered anarchism through his involvement with the National Secular Society (NSS) which regularly hosted political dissidents at its lecture halls. Proclaiming himself a devotee of “the Quaker belief in, “Resist not evil but overcome evil with good””, every Saturday night over the summer of 1887 he lectured outside Limehouse Town Hall on, “Why I am an Anarchist”. Disturbed by the plight of “the Chicago Anarchists”, in October he unsuccessfully appealed to H A Barker, Secretary of the Socialist League, to be included as a speaker at the SL’s forthcoming London rally for the men’s release. Robert appreciated the irony of his request as he was certainly no socialist. His brand of ethical anarchism emphasised individual liberty and rejected compulsory socialisation of private property. The following month he again explained, “Why I am an Anarchist”, to an audience at the Secular Hall, Newington Green Road followed by an identical address delivered at the NSS Hall, Turnpike Lane. From these quiet beginnings Harding burst into public prominence “in defence of free speech” on Sunday 4 December 1887 with an imaginative response to police persecution of street corner agitators. The press provided extensive coverage of this historic event;

“Shortly before two o’clock an extraordinary scene took place in St Martin’s Lane. An apparently respectably dressed man of about 30 years of age was seen carrying several yards of iron chain and proceeded to the front of St Martin’s Vestry Hall, which is protected by some strong iron palings. The man was Robert Harding, a clerk, residing at 42, Gough Street, Poplar and who described himself as a “peaceful anarchist and humanitarian”. He was accompanied by a friend who set to work in a very businesslike way and chained Harding to the palings. The chain was passed over his shoulders, down his middle and around his legs, and finally the ends were passed round Harding’s hands and locked. These singular proceedings for a time only attracted the attention of a few passers-by but a number of the E Division police constables came up and asked the meaning of what was going on, “Surely you are out of your mind” said Sergeant 11E. “Oh no, I’m not”, said Harding; “I came here from a sense of duty to protest against the way the rights of Englishmen are taken away. I have done this to illustrate how Englishmen are chained. My object is to give you some idea of the principle of peaceful anarchism”. The police sergeant told Harding that he was obstructing the roadway and he would have to remove him. “That you may do”, replied Harding, “if you can”. The crowd were much amused at the difficult position in which the police found themselves, for on their endeavouring to remove the chains they found they were most firmly fastened. The sergeant shook them and brought from Harding the observation, “Your object is to hurt me” and this caused a few of the bystanders to shout, “Don’t hurt him.” Harding seeing he had some few sympathisers in the crowd said he particularly asked the attention of those present to what was going on. The police continued their efforts to try and sever Harding’s chains and after a short time forced one part of the chain over the top of the palings, whereupon Harding said as the police had succeeded in doing this he would undo the other part; and the key was searched for with which to open the lock. Harding said he would make a speech while the police were endeavouring to release him. He said Government was tyranny and popular Government was no less a tyranny than any other Government. The police told him he must desist from speaking and Harding answered that if the lady of the house to which the palings were attached told him to go away he would do so. That was a bye-way in which they were in and he asked the crowd to stand aside and let people pass. That lock was at last opened and the chains were removed from Harding who exclaimed, “Mind I don’t give in; understand that I am ready to die for free speech with a smile on my face.” Harding was then taken into custody by Sergeant E11 and Police Constable E342 and removed to Bow Street police station. Police constable E231 followed, carrying the chains and was accompanied by some of the crowd. Harding’s friend also went to the station, stating it was his intention to offer bail for him. The prisoner, when brought before a magistrate, was dismissed.”

Harding’s tactic worked. He publicised the free-speech cause, attracted the support of bystanders and readers and his prosecution was dismissed. The police got their revenge the following February when Harding repeated the stunt in Trafalgar Square, as Inspector Joseph Peters of A Division “illegally retained the chains, three locks and copies of Harding’s manifesto”. Magistrates then refused to instruct police to return Harding’s equipment which they triumphantly exhibited in their “Black Museum”.

Despite police persecution, fines and short periods of imprisonment Harding repeated similar street protest for years, with various innovations introduced along the way. Sometimes he wore boards bearing slogans, sometimes he distributed leaflets but always he amused onlookers and upset the police. The authorities attempted to lock him up as a lunatic but, “he was examined by a doctor who failed to find any signs of insanity and he was allowed to go”. He never bowed to authority and appearing once more in Bow Street Court in December 1888 “defendant entered the dock with his hat on his head and turning his back on the magistrate placed his right foot on the seat and faced the public in the court”. Refusing to comply with court etiquette Harding was forcibly removed from the dock. As the police gave evidence, “the defendant, with his face turned towards the public in court, was apparently engaged in reading a newspaper”. He never agreed to magistrates’ requests to go quietly and typically replied, “As soon as I am at liberty I shall hold a meeting”! Harding gave his last high profile demonstration outside Parliament in December 1893 when he was prosecuted by his old tormentor, Inspector Peters who, “deposed that the prisoner walked up and down in front of the House carrying cardboards, sandwich-fashion (produced). On one side was written “No coercion either by bomb throwing or majority voting”, and on the other “Stop the bomb shop at Woolwich and the other fools will stop their miserable tricks””. Harding denied obstruction but Mr Shiel, the magistrate was unimpressed, “It is not the place to parade with nonsense and tomfoolery of this sort…I will fine you 40s. or 14 days.”

Harding was a compelling and entertaining “itinerant street lecturer" who in 1888 produced a number of persuasive anarchist tracts for direct distribution and the following year contributed closely argued essays to Henry Seymour’s “Revolutionary Review”. One leaflet revealed “Mr Harding is in Politics a peaceful Anarchist; in Religion, a Humanitarian; on the Drink Question, a Teetotaler; and in the Food Reform Movement, a Vegetarian”. Harding regarded socialism as inherently forceful and became an outspoken critic. In 1893 he toured England on behalf of the “Anti-Compulsory Taxation League”, in August asking a South Shields Free Library audience, “Can we have Freedom under Socialism?” Whilst his prime target was state socialism he also sniped at the naïve optimism of anarchist-communists. He insisted the ethical dimension of politics mustn’t be displaced by mechanistic materialism. He feared the pursuit of equality could be gained at the cost of individual liberty. In Bradford, Sheffield, Leicester and Loughborough he argued “Individualism versus Socialism” with spirited socialist opponents but it was growing increasingly difficult to continue the debate within the British anarchist movement which had largely gone over to anarchist communism.” 

On Sunday 9 September 1894, Harding mounted the Deptford anarchist group’s soap box on the Broadway during an ILP election meeting, and proceeded to present the, “Fallacies of Voting - counteracting finely the rubbish that was being spouted at the vote-for-the-right-man-that-is-me meeting. Audience enthusiastic”! Harding’s activism declined with the nineteenth century but WWI revived his pacifist instincts and in June 1916 he lectured at the Southgate Road, Brotherhood Hall on “Hymns of Hate; or the Religion of Love” and the following month on “Spiritual Life from a Rationalist Point of View”. His lectures at the hall continued into 1918 and in December 1923 Freedom published his essay, “What is Anarchism and Why are we Anarchists?” By then Robert and Annie were living at and running a newsagents shop at 41, Elthorne Road, Upper Holloway. Robert moved round the corner to 19, Prospero Road after Annie died in 1934 and handed the shop over to their adopted daughter Maude who’d by then married gent’s hairdresser, Thomas Dayson. There was no obituary when Robert Harding died, aged 80, at Prospero Road on 9 September 1940, his unique contribution to pacifist tactics and libertarian ideas already forgotten.

In February 2019, after extensively researching Harding’s life I wondered if history might belatedly acknowledge his pioneering role by relocating his three padlocks, chains and manifesto from police custody to the “Peoples’ History Museum”, Manchester. As a first move I submitted a Freedom of Information request to the Metropolitan Police requesting copies of any documents they held relating to these historic artefacts. Initially the Met offered nothing but on appeal confirmed that, “We do have a very small entry confirming that the exhibits were in the museum” and provided a copy of this original catalogue entry card, “However, they are no longer in the collection and we have no record of when or how they were disposed of”!

  

Wiil the election of Sinn Fein lead to the break up of the UK

 

With the election of Irish nationalist, Sinn Fein, as the biggest party in the Northern Ireland Assembly at Stormont, and the prospects of a future Sinn Fein government in Dublin, demands for Irish unification will increase. 

Given that Brexit has led to the annexation of Northern Ireland (N.I.), from Britain by putting a border in the sea, which has left N.I. in the E.U. single market, while Britain has left it, it seems likely that at some time in the future there will be a referendum on Irish unification on the island of Ireland. Already, many people in N.I. hold both British and Irish Citizen passports and there is no real physical hard border between the two countries to speak of. Even the hard-line Unionist, Ian Paisley jr, the D.U.P. MP for North Antrim, who opposes unification, is advising his constituents to apply for a Republic of Ireland passport. Following the Brexit referendum in 2016, he said on Twitter: "My advice is if you are entitled to a second passport then take one. I sign off lots of applications for constituents." In the 2016 Brexit referendum, N.I. voted 55.8% to remain in the E.U. and the Republic of Ireland is in the E.U. Scotland also voted by a majority to remain in the E.U. 

 In May 1998, a referendum in the Irish Republic led to the removal of the 62-year old territorial claim to Northern Ireland. Article 2 of the Constitution of Ireland, as amended, now grants the right to be "part of the Irish nation" to all those people born on the island of Ireland." The Belfast Agreement recognises the right of the people of the island of Ireland, to bring about a united Ireland subject to the consent of both parties. With election of Sinn Fein, complications over Brexit, and demands for Scottish independence, are we now witnessing the inevitable break up of the United Kingdom.

Spycops public inquiry restarts

 

As the much delayed public inquiry into undercover policing restarts hearings this week (Mon 9th May), those spied on by the UK Spycops met at the weekend at the the ‘Undercover Policing: Trade Unions and Social Activism’ conference held at the HQ of UNITE the Union to demand action on the glacial progress of the UCPI, seven years after it began. Photos available via Jess Hurd: https://jesshurd.com/clients/2205UndercoverPolicingGallery/

Dave Smith from the Blacklist Support Group (both core participants in the public inquiry) opened the conference by stating that "institutional racism, institutional sexism and anti-union bias is central to the worldview of those at the top of the UK's political policing units". 

Veteran anti-racism campaigner, Mark Wadsworth was interviewed by Suresh Grover from the Monitoring Group (both core participants in the inquiry)

Wadsworth told the conference how he was spied on while campaigning with the family of Stephen Lawrence, including when he arranged the meeting with Nelson Mandela to meet Doreen and Neville Lawrence. Wadsworth concluded: "We do not expect justice from the British state investigating itself, but we will be using the public inquiry as a platform to shine a light on the undemocratic nature of the British secret state". 

The disgraced undercover policing units are being investigated for highly abusive conduct ranging from the theft of deceased children’s identities and instigating sexual relationships with activist women, to spying on members of Parliament and grieving families of murder victims - often victims that died at the

hands of uniformed police. The next round of evidential hearings in the Undercover Policing Inquiry (UCPI) will begin on Monday, hearing evidence from unit managers for the period 1968-1982. The inquiry has been plagued by delays resulting from the obstructive and secretive approach taken by the police[1] Nevertheless, there is a growing body of evidence that units such as the Special Demonstration Squad (SDS) and the National Public Order Intelligence Unit (NPOIU) were running unlawful, anti-democratic, secret political policing operations without proper oversight or control.

Kate Wilson, who recently successfully sued these units for Human Rights violations commented:
“The Investigatory Powers Tribunal findings in my case included violations of the rights to privacy, freedom of expression and freedom of assembly. The evidence coming out of the UCPI shows that those practices were not the exception, they were the rule. Thousands of people had their rights violated in this way during five decades of secret political policing. We need to understand how and why that was allowed to happen and to go on for so long. We must not forget that he police are a hierarchical organisation. The problems start at the top, and we should therefore be paying very close attention to what the managers have to say.”

In the closing session, Lois Austin from Campaign Opposing Police Surveillance stated:

“Our people were fighting for a fairer, greener, more equal world, and they were treated appallingly by the British state. This is not just about uncovering the truth. We have a score to settle”

One of the guest speakers, John McDonnell MP reflected:

“We have exposed the terrible suffering that came from police spies that abused women activists and provided information to the illegal blacklist. Now the government has passed the Covert Human Intelligence Source Act to make the very same criminality by undercover police, and even rape, torture and murder, perfectly legal. The potential threat to democracy is even worse now. The trade unions and social movements need to respond at scale”

It is vital to keep the pressure on to ensure the truth about these unlawful police practices is subjected to proper public scrutiny. There will be a demonstration at 9am on 12th May outside the Thistle Hotel in Marble Arch, where the public screening of the witness evidence will take place. Core participants and witnesses to the UCPI will be accompanied by a digital advan, showing a short film by Police Spies Out Of Lives, pulling no punches as to their perceptions of the Inquiry to date. Video released on Twitter today: https://twitter.com/out_of_lives/status/1523559953520218112

Note to Editors:

The conference was co-organsied by: Blacklist Support Group, Campaign Opposing Police Surveillance, Police Spies Out of Lives, The Monitoring Group, The Haldance Society and UNITE the Union. 

Blacklist Support Group

book: http://newint.org/books/politics/blacklisted-secret-war/

video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNcgrNs6pB8

facebook: http://www.facebook.com/groups/blacklistSG/

blog: www.hazards.org/blacklistblog

Rail conductor sacked for questioning 'White Privilege'.

 

Article 10 of the Human Rights Act 1998, guarantees the right to freedom of expression. It says that this right shall include freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority regardless of frontiers. But it seems that this right doesn't apply if you're employed by West Midland Trains.

Last March, a train conductor, Simon Isherwood (see above), was sacked when he was overheard questioning notions based on the idea racial or skin privilege, during online diversity training. The webinar that Mr Isherwood voluntarily attended, included the controversial subject of 'white privilege'. He was overheard to say to his wife, " I couldn't be arsed because I thought, you know what, I'll just get fucking angry. You know what I really wanted to ask?... and I wish I had, do they have black privilege in other countries, so if you're in Ghana...? After some of his work colleagues, complained, Mr Isherwood (60), was sacked for gross misconduct for breaching the company's policy on equality, diversity and inclusion. He's now taking the company to an employment tribunal with the backing of the Free Speech Union.

The concept of white privilege, or white skin privilege, refers to the idea that people have basic rights and benefits simply because they're white. It suggests that they have societal advantages over non-white people. The term white privilege has become particularly fashionable since the tragic death of George Floyd and is considered by some, to be politically controversial terminology. It's seen to be particularly alienating to disadvantaged white communities who may be experiencing severe hardship and to reinforce racist attitudes.

Simon Isherwood is not the only person to have difficulty in comprehending, or to have a desire, to challenge fashionable politically correct notions such as 'white privilege'. Most English people would probably see white privilege in terms of social class privilege and not white skin privilege. What are termed concepts, such as white privilege, are really just an opinion, a way in which some people, perceive the world in which they live, and are therefore open to challenge and debate. People like Simon Isherwood, have every right to be sceptical about these types of issues and they have the right to freedom of expression, regardless of how much people dislike their opinions.

We are not nodding dogs, who are expected to bow to the whims and fancies, of a pious self- righteous clique of politically correct dipsticks. The French have a term for this, which they call 'Mouton de Panurge' or 'Panurge's Sheep'. It describes an individual or group that will blindly follow others regardless of the consequences and do the same thing as others, in order to follow the fashion. But as the philosopher Herbert Spencer, wisely pointed out, we must at times, resist the tyranny of fashion.

Boris Johnson plans to axe free prescriptions!

 

When Boris Johnson was told that a 70-year-old pensioner called Elsie, was eating one meal a day and spending most of her day traveling on the buses to reduce her heating costs and to keep warm, he told GMB TV presenter, Susanna Reid, that's why he'd introduced the 'freedom bus pass', so that people aged 60 and living in London, could travel free on the buses throughout Greater London.

Tomorrow, many OAP's will be going to the polls in the local elections. All voters should bear in mind, that under the Tories, people aged 75 or over, are no longer entitled to a free TV license unless they're receiving Pension Credit. The Tories passed responsibility for this to the BBC, who immediately said they couldn't afford it. This year, pensioners, did not see their pensions rise in line with average earnings or inflation, because the Boris Johnson's government suspended the triple lock pensions calculator which broke a Tory Party manifesto pledge to guarantee the triple lock. Pensions were increased by 3.1%, which is well below the current inflation rate of 7%, so their pensions are falling in value and not keeping up with the cost of living. 

The Tory government are also planning to axe free prescriptions for those age 60 who live in England. They currently receive free prescriptions that now cost £9.35 per item. Prescriptions are free in Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland, irrespective of age. You also receive a free bus pass at 60 if you live in Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland, but not in the rest of England, which under Johnson's Tory government, ought to be renamed MUGSBOROUGH!