Thursday, 27 April 2023

Labour's double standards. Why can some sin while others can't?

 

Steve Reed MP

In 2020, Labour's Shadow Communities Secretary, Steve Reed, referred to a Jewish Conservative donor, Richard Desmond, as a "puppet-master'. He later deleted the tweet and apologised.

Despite using what many considered to be an anti-Semitic trope, Sir Kier Starmer, the leader of the Labour Party, didn't withdraw the whip. Although Reed Tweeted: "Is billionaire former porn-baron Desmond the puppet master for the entire Tory cabinet?", a spokesperson for Sir Kier said: "Steve deleted the tweet and did not mean to cause any offence."

There seems to a curious double standard in Starmer's Labour Party. Why is that some can sin and others can't?  Some like Steve Reed get defended while others like the Labour MP, Rupa Haq, who called the Conservative MP,  Akwasi Addo Alfred Kwarteng, "superficially black", get suspended and sent for anti-racism and bias training, after they apologised.

Sir Kier has now suspended Dianne Abbott for a letter she wrote to the Observer in which she said that the Jews, the Irish, and Travellers, were not victims of 'racism' but of 'prejudice'. Starmer quite rightly criticised her stance of there being a hierarchy of racism which he said was not the view of the Labour Party.

Although there's nothing remotely anti-Semitic in Abbott's letter to the Observer, which most people understand to be a hatred of Jews as Jewish people, Starmer has also accused her of anti-Semitism. Since writing her letter to the Observer, Abbott, has now unreservedly apologised for any offence caused and now accepts that the Jews, the Irish, and Travellers, can be victims of racism.

Abbott accused of anti-Semitism and suspended by Labour!

 

Dianna Abbott

Labour have withdrawn the whip from Dianne Abbot after she claimed in a letter that Jewish people had not experienced racism.

Abbot was responding to an article in the Observer with the title, "Racism in Britain is not a black and white issue. It's far more complicated", but she later retracted her comments and apologised. Abbot said that the Irish, the Jews, and the travelling community, had undoubtedly suffered prejudice which was similar to racism and the two words were often used as though they were interchangeable. She wrote that the Irish, the Jews, and the Travellers, had not been required in pre-civil rights America to sit at the back of buses, could vote in apartheid South Africa, and had not been put in manacles and placed on slave ships. She said that white people can experience prejudice but are not a subject to racism all their lives.

Under Kier Starmer's leadership, there doesn't seem to be much appetite for free speech in the Labour Party. Whether you agree or disagree with Dianne Abbot, she should be entitled to an opinion and be able to express it. The Conservative energy minister, Grant Shapps, who is Jewish, has accused her of "casually spouting hateful anti-Semitism” and Starmer has accused her of antisemitism.

While I don't necessarily share Ms Abbots point of view on what constitutes racism, to accuse her of anti-semitism, is utter nonsense and idiotic. Admittedly, the Jews and the Travellers didn't have to sit at the back of the bus in Mississippi, but they finished up in the gas chambers in Auschwitz and were considered sub-humans by the Nazis. Is this racism or prejudice? I would say that it’s murder and genocide.

The Conservative Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, has been criticised for making racist and inflammatory remarks about British-Pakistani men and refugees and asylum seekers. She recently claimed that the majority of perpetrators who sexually abuse children in grooming gangs are "almost all British-Pakistani." This isn't backed up even by the Home Office's own research. A Home Office review in 2020, concluded that the majority of group-based child sex offending is perpetrated by white offenders and noted that "while some studies suggest an over-representation of Asian and black offenders compared with the overall population, it is not possible to draw general conclusions because this data is not representative."

The Home Office have also been unable to confirm assertions made by both Braverman and her predecessor, Priti Patel, that the vast majority of refugees arriving in the UK by small boats or by other means, are "illegal economic migrants."

Britain opposed slavery in 1807, but in common with most major nations in Europe, had been involved in the Atlantic slave trade. At the time of Oliver Cromwell, in the 17th century, we'd also transported some Irish as indentured slaves to the British colonies in the West Indies. Dianne Abbot fails to mention black complicity in slavery. Since Egyptian times, Black Africans had sold countless thousands of other Black African's into slavery, first to Rome and then to Arab traders and then to the Europeans, who transported them to the Americas. The Ottomans and Barbary pirates also had their own slave trade and would sell white captives in the slave markets of Tangiers.

In fairness to Dianne Abbot, the Jewish population of the UK - if you can identify them - are not subject to stop and search in the way that black people are in this country and neither do they tend to finish up in prison. The anti-Zionist political activist, Tony Greenstein, says that Britain's "Jews have become the most privileged section of the white population. It is this that has led them to move to the right politically." Although Greenstein believes that Britain's Jews tend to be better educated, more affluent, have better jobs, and live in better housing, compared to other white sections of British society, this doesn't mean that they never experience anti-Semitism.

Both England and Scotland are now led by Asian men, one a Muslim and the other a Hindu, but this doesn't mean that some people of Asian origin or descent, do not experience racism.

Abbot had taken issue with a survey that found that high numbers of Irish, Jewish, and Travellers, had reported suffering from racism. Despite being a black woman, in a racist society, Dianne Abbot, has managed to get to Cambridge and into the House of Commons, following a similar trajectory to the former Conservative minister, Michael Portillo, who knew her at Cambridge.

Clearly, racism in Britain is far more complicated and complex than Dianne Abbot believes. Labour have condemned her comments calling them "deeply offensive and wrong." She will now have to sit as an independent MP pending an investigation. After unreservedly withdrawing her remarks, Abbot blamed the errors in her letter, to "an initial draft being sent." She said:

"There is no excuse, and I wish to apologise for any anguish caused. Racism takes many forms, and it is completely undeniable that Jewish people have suffered its monstrous effects, as have Irish people, Travellers, and many others."

I suspect that Abbot won't be treated as leniently as the Jewish MP Margaret Hodge, who called the former Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, a "fucking racist and an anti-Semite." Corbyn is also being hounded out of the Labour Party.

Southey advised the Bronte's to stick to cooking and darning.

 

The Bronte sisters

I visited the Bronte Parsonage in Howarth many years ago and St Peter's Church, at Hartshead, where Patrick Bronte, had once been the Minister.

There are no known photographs of the Bronte sisters that can be verified, but there are picture portraits and descriptions of them. The author Elizabeth Gaskell met Charlotte Bronte when she was 34 years old and Charlotte stayed with her at her home in Plymouth Grove, Manchester, on three occasions. I think she also knew the other two sisters. Charlotte was under five-foot-tall, very shy, and Mrs Gaskell said she had teeth missing. I read somewhere that one of the sisters stayed with Mrs Gaskell, possibly Emily, and had hit Mrs Gaskell's dog with her fist and had knocked the dog out, because it had soiled the laundry. On another occasion, Charlotte fled from a room at Plymouth Grove, because she was far too shy to meet a stranger who was visiting the house. Their father, Patrick Bronte, came to Manchester with Charlotte for an eye operation, and stayed at what became the Salutation pub near Manchester Polytechnic.

Before embarking on a writing career, the sisters had sent copies of their work to the poet Robert Southey, who advised them to stick to cooking and darning. Thankfully, they ignored his advice. All three of those sisters are better known today than he is.

Anne, Emily and Charlotte, were all ripped off by publisher's who made a lot more money from their literary efforts than they ever did. Charlotte Bronte's second novel, Shirley, is about the Luddites and is based on the attack on Cartwright's, Rawfolds Mill, near Cleckheaton in April 1812.

When I visited the area some years ago, the Shears Inn at Liversedge, a meeting place for Luddites, was still open as a pub. The landlord of the pub, Andrew Mitchell, had wanted to demolish the pub which dates from 1773 and replace it with four houses because he said the pub wasn't a viable business. This was opposed by some on Kirklees council who said the building was a spectacularly important piece of local history. The building is still functioning as a pub today. 

Thursday, 20 April 2023

Russian dissident Vladimir Kara-Murza gets 25 years in jail.

 

Vladimir Kara-Murza

The journalist and Kremlin critic, Vladimir Kara-Murza, 41, who holds both British and Russian citizenship, has been sentenced to 25 years in jail after having been convicted of treason for spreading false information about the Russian army and for criticising Putin's war against the Ukraine. The trial, in Moscow, which Kara-Murza likened to a 1930s Stalinist show trial, was held behind closed doors.

Since the Russian army invaded the Ukraine in February 2022, Vladimir Putin has introduced strict wartime censorship laws to silence dissenting voices in Russia. "Discrediting" the army is now punishable by up to five years in jail and spreading false information about the army, can lead to fifteen years’ imprisonment. Vladimir Kara-Murza has described the Kremlin as a "regime of murderer's."

Like other Kremlin critics and Russian dissidents who have been imprisoned, Kara-Murza, could now be at risk of poisoning by heavy metals. His supporters say that he's already survived being poisoned twice. Before being shot dead in 2015, his close friend Boris Nemtsov, nearly died from poisoning which he blamed on the Kremlin. The Russian opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, who is currently in prison, was poisoned with the nerve agent Novichok and hospitalised in August 2020. Navalny, says he's also being poisoned in prison. 

Many Russian journalists and human rights activists, including those who have already fled the country,  have called on the Russian authorities to free Kara-Murza insisting that the charges against him are baseless and politically motivated. In a letter to the Russian authorities, they said: "Prosecute murderers and criminals rather than honest and responsible citizens who dare to speak the truth...Stop Russia's new slide towards Stalinism and a totalitarian system."

The authorities regard many of the signatories to the letter as traitors who desire Russia's defeat on the battlefield. Those Russian citizens who dare to question Putin's actions in the Ukraine, are regarded as a "pro-western fifth column trying to undermine the military campaign."

In a final speech at his trial in Moscow, which was made available to his wife and lawyer, Kara-Murza, said:

'I only blame myself for one thing. I failed to convince my compatriots and politicians in democratic countries of the danger that the current Kremlin regime poses for Russia and the world...For me as an historian, this is cause for reflection. Criminals are supposed to repent of what they have done. I, on the other hand, am in prison for my political views. I also know that the day will come when the darkness over our country will dissipate."

He declined to ask the court to acquit him and said he stood by everything he had said. The British ambassador in Russia, Deborah Bronnert, said the verdict was "shocking" and called for Kara Murza's immediate release. Amnesty International have designated Kara Murza a "prisoner of conscience."

The Two Ronnies: The Ministry of Sexual Equality




British social attitudes are not cast in stone. Political opinions and social attitudes change over time, sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse.

Ronnie Barker did this sketch in 1976 on the BBC. How prescient it was. At the time, many British people thought it hilarious, bizarre, burlesque, a comedy satire, that no serious-minded, sane, educated person, could ever endorse. How wrong they were. I wonder if the BBC would dare to show this now? If they did, it would have to be accompanied by a trigger warning.

As the French say, "comme les moutons de Panurge", or like a flock of sheep. 


Trade Unions banned and union leaders jailed in Belarus.

 

Alexander Lukashenko - Dictator of Belarus

The Communist Party of Belarus (CPB), part of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), claims to rule the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic in the name of the proletariat - the working class. Yet many union leaders have been arrested and imprisoned and democratic unions under the dictatorship of Alexander Lukashenko, the first and only President of Belarus, have been liquidated and banned. Under this odious regime, jailed trade unionists are denounced as extremists and terrorists. As trade unionists, we must stand by our fellow workers in Belarus and oppose the vile dictatorship of Lukashenko and the repression of workers 'rights and the jailing of trade unionists. As Karl Marx said in the Communist Manifesto, "Workers of the World Unite!" Please read and circulate this appeal from Labourstart.

 

"Trade union activity is not extremism.

One year ago, on 19 April 2022 dozens of union leaders and activists of the Belarusian Congress of Democratic Trade Unions were arrested.

The reason for the arrests was the public anti-war trade union position and criticism of the Belarusian authorities for violations of fundamental human rights.

More than 30 trade unionists were sentenced to up to 9 years on trumped-up charges.

All democratic trade unions were liquidated and trade union activity was banned.

Union activists and workers seen participating in the 2020 protests were dismissed.

Fired workers cannot find jobs, and their families are left without a livelihood.

Jailed union leaders are listed en masse as extremists and terrorists.

This is unacceptable.  It must stop.

Unions have the full right to operate freely and to defend the rights and interests of their members.

Please take a moment to add your name to the global protest demanding that the government of Belarus release the trade union and political prisoners, end repression of trade union activists, and restore of guarantees of legal activities of independent trade unions."

 

Click here:

 

http://labourstart.org/go/belarus23

 

Thank you -- and please spread the word!

French publisher arrested under Terrorism Act by British police.

 

French Publisher - Ernest Moret

A French publisher was arrested by police in London on Monday evening, after he refused disclose the passwords to his confiscated iPhone and MacBook.

Ernest Moret, 28, who works for the French Publisher La Fabrique, had travelled to London to attend a book fair but finished up being interrogated by British police under the Terrorism Act. Moret's lawyer, Richard Parry, of Saunders solicitors, who attended one of the police interviews, says that his client was asked about his support for President Emmanuel Macron and whether he'd attended demonstrations against Macron's pension reforms. Moret was also asked to name anti-government authors in the catalogue of La Fabrique, where he works as the foreign rights manager. He refused to answer all these questions.

Moret was later released on bail, but his iPhone and laptop remain seized. He's been ordered to report to the police in four weeks' time. Parry, a human rights lawyer and author, believes that the British and French police may be working in cahoots and he's demanding full disclosure of any involvement of the French authorities in the arrest of his client. Questions have also been raised in the National Assembly in France about the treatment meted out to Monsieur Moret by the British police. Parry told the press:

"He is here to attend a book fair. What legitimate interest is it for the British police to ask about his attendance at demonstrations in France?"

La Fabrique and the British Publisher Verso Books, condemned Moret's treatment as "chilling" and demanded the dropping of all proceedings against Moret, and the return of his iPhone and laptop.  

Monday, 17 April 2023

One-in-eight Britons now paying private for health treatment!

 


As more people in Britain are faced with delays in getting urgent NHS medical treatment or are finding it almost impossible to get a face-to-face appointment with a highly-paid GP - which is most acute in socially deprived areas - they're going private and paying to get access to adequate medical treatment.

Research carried out by YouGov, has found that one in eight Britons have paid for private health services in the last year and another 27% of people, had considered going private for themselves or for a loved one, but decided against it, because they often couldn't afford it.

NHS campaigners say that if paying for private medical treatment becomes normalised, then there is a danger that we will create a "two-tier" health service of those who can and cannot afford to pay. They blame government underfunding, staff shortages, and a lack of planning, for the NHS being unable to provide timely care.

In October 2022, the Economist magazine reported that one in ten NHS jobs were vacant, including 11,000 posts for doctors and 47,000 in nursing. Yet, for those wealthy middle-class Brits who have private health insurance, or the money to pay, ‘waiting list’ is a foreign phrase. For the vast majority of the British population, paying for private medical treatment is not an option. Over a third of people in the UK have less than £1,000 in cash to cover unexpected expenses, which increases health inequalities. The number of Britons using crowdfunding and GoFundMe appeals to pay for private medical expenses, has surged in the last five years. Many people opt to go abroad for surgical treatment where the cost of operations in parts of Europe such as Lithuania and Hungry, can be as little as half the price of the equivalent treatment in the U.K.

The research conducted by YouGov, found that the average spend for those who had paid for private medical treatment was £500. Some 23% had spent between £1,001 and £5,000 and another 4%, had spent between £5,001 and £10,000. It has been reported that many NHS Primary Care Trusts, have been alerting people to the option of going private and paying for medical treatment, in order to circumvent NHS waiting lists so they can jump the queue.

Although Labour and the Conservatives say they are committed to maintaining the NHS and cutting waiting times, they also favour more private sector involvement in delivering NHS funded health care. Operose Health, a UK subsidiary of the U.S. health insurance group the Centene Corporation, is now the biggest GP provider in the NHS. It now runs 70 surgeries with nearly 600,000 patients. An undercover investigation found that the company uses less qualified staff known as "Physician Associate' to see patients.

In the U.S. many Americans are unable to access medical care or pay for the high cost of medication because they cannot afford to pay for it. Failure to pay medical bills, is the biggest cause of middle-class bankruptcy in America. Although the U.K. is said to be the fourth biggest spender on healthcare in Europe, it routinely comes near the bottom in terms of outcome. The World Health Organisation (WHO), considers the French state run health service, the best in the world.


Musk outwits BBC journalist on free speech.

 

Elon Musk and James Clayton

I haven't watched the full interview between Elon Musk and the BBC North American technology reporter James Clayton. What I've watched is a short snippet of the interview where Musk, who owns Twitter, asked him to give an example of 'hateful content' and Clayton struggled to do so.

What really gets the goat of many politicians and mainstream media types, is the very ubiquity and accessibility of social media. It allows Joe public, and dare I say, social cranks and misfits, to publish their views and opinions subject to some constraints, and breaks down the barriers when it comes to having a public voice.

Some journalists like Jonathan Freedland of the Guardian, certainly find this irritating and annoying. In an article that he wrote some time ago, Freedland boasted that there had been a time when the commentariat, elite career journalists like himself, could deny someone like the racist and Islamaphobe, Tommy Robinson, a public voice, because they would see to it that he was never published. With social media, that's not so easy to achieve and many young people now turn the internet and social media sites to access information rather than turn to the newspapers.

Jonathan Freedland reminds me of King Henry VIII, who was opposed to William Tyndale publishing the Bible in English. Why? The King said, "because every pot boy will now have an opinion" and that notion was seen as threating to the monarch. He later changed his tune, and in 1538 authorized an English translation of the Bible in his name.

Computer technology also allows you to set up your own blog - a personal website - and publish on the internet. Who doesn't carry a mobile phone these days? Everyday incidents get photographed like police brutality or crimes and video recorded and uploaded onto YouTube or some other social media site, before the journalists often get wind of it.

Average life expectancy ten years longer in Uppermill than Royton.

 

Uppermill 

It doesn't surprise me that average life expectancy in leafy Uppermill, Greenfield, Diggle and Dobcross, is ten years longer at 85 years, compared with 75 years, in the Oldham areas of Chadderton, Royton, and Shaw, which have the lowest life expectancy of anywhere in Greater Manchester and among the lowest in the country.

Some local residents attribute the longer life expectancy in Uppermill and the other surrounding villages, to better air quality, regular exercise, good schools, and a community way of life. Others point to the affluence of areas like Uppermill which is teeming with bars, restaurants, and boutique shops, and where the average house price is £305, 916 and a detached house can set you back £579,167. The cost of housing means that many local people who were born in the area, can no longer afford to live there today.

The local rail connection into Manchester or Huddersfield, means that the area is very popular with commuters working in Granada land and those working in well paid jobs in local government or the NHS. Fifty years ago, Uppermill and the surrounding villages that make up Saddleworth, were part of the West Riding of Yorkshire. They became part of Oldham and Greater Manchester following the reorganisation of local government in 1974.

To this day, Saddleworth traditionally celebrates 'Yorkshire Day' on the nearest Sunday to August and many local people still regard themselves as being a part of Yorkshire.

Thursday, 13 April 2023

Reinstate sacked electrician James Lee Fowler

 

1. Reinstate Lee Fowler - electrician sacked after raising concerns about safety on site in Liverpool (flyer attached)

PROTEST - Thursday 20th April 1pm
Cargill site
The Dock Road
Bootle
L20 8DF
SAFETY BEFORE PROFIT
2. Independent Blacklisting Collusion Inquiry launches a new website calling for more evidence.
Frank Morris & Tony Seaman, UNITE EC members for construction (and both blacklisted) commented:
"We are determined that any evidence about union officials colluding with blacklisting their own members should be uncovered. That is why we are determined that the independent inquiry should be allowed to complete its investigation. "
3. Suicide rates in construction rise again. 
“Every one of these deaths is an individual tragedy. Sadly, construction suicide rates are inexplicably tied to the way the industry operates, with high levels of working away from home, insecure employment and long hours all being obvious factors. Everyone associated with the industry needs to work harder to reduce the suicide rates but until the fundamental structural problems are resolved, this will remain a huge challenge for the sector.”
Well said, Jason Poulter
4. Wave of industrial action in the North Sea
5. Scottish construction rank & file pay campaign 
6. With everything going on in UNITE, it seems a good time to recirculate this Reel News film on the rank & file approach to union organising in construction.   
7. Stories of blacklisted workers - photography essay by Miri de Villers (Goldsmiths)

Thursday, 6 April 2023

Braverman under fire for accusing Pakistanis of being child sex abusers!

 

Midlands Grooming Gang Convicted

The Conservative Home Secretary, Suella (Cruella) Braverman, knows how to grab the headlines. This daughter of Asian immigrants to Britain, is the scourge of refugees and asylum seekers, some of whom, she wants to send on a one way trip to Rwanda. She's now come under fire for accusing Pakistani men of being predominantly involved in grooming gangs for the sexual exploitation of white children.

To be sure, there have certainly been men of Pakistani origin, who have been convicted of grooming and sexual abuse in Rochdale, Oxford, Rotherham, and elsewhere. Braverman, is also right to point out that there is some evidence that the authorities may have been reluctant to investigate further and to take victims complaints seriously, because of a fear of being branded racists or out of fear of alienating Asian voters. Yet others, such as Baroness Casey, have accused the police of being institutionally racist and complain of the disproportionate use of stop and search against black people.

But is it mainly Pakistani men who groom children for sexual abuse? Certainly not! It's known that most people on the sex offenders register in Britain are white and mainly men. It's been reported this week that some 21 white Briton's, both men and women, were involved in a grooming gang in Birmingham and Wolverhampton that was sexually abusing children of twelve years of age or under. This is certainly not an isolated or unique case.

In the next few weeks the political parties will be vying for the votes of the electorate, and Suella Braverman, is out to get the vote. As Home Secretary she's right to speak out about grooming gangs and child sex abuse, but she should get her facts right and stop trying to pull the wool over the eyes of the British public. Grooming gangs and child sex abusers, might well be a stain on this country, but child sex abusers don't all come from Pakistan.