UPDATE on Spycops inquiry from Blacklist Support Group.

 

After 8 years of demanding to see our police files, blacklisted union activists represented by the Blacklist Support Group and Imran Khan KC have finally started to receive some disclosure from the public inquiry. Restriction Orders mean we are not allowed to tell anybody what is in the documents until they are discussed at the evidence hearings. But we are allowed to say that 100s of pages of Special Branch reports and police witness statements have already been disclosed, relating to our trade union and political campaigning. Much more disclosure is expected to be drip fed out over the next few weeks.

The inquiry has also sent a list of questions for each core participant to answer. The current inquiry imposed deadline for the written responses is March. It is expected that each witness statement is likely to be a 10-20,000 word count. This is clearly going to take some time. The BSG has a stand-alone witness statement of its own. We thank all those who have contributed with suggestions of what should be in it.

Finally, the Campaign Opposing Police Surveillance is the umbrella campaign set up & supported by BSG and our sister campaigns & the vast majority of non-police core participants. https://campaignopposingpolicesurveillance.comCOPS has a financial appeal to assist with costs for reporting the inquiry. This is especially important given that most of the mainstream media has barely published or broadcast a word on the recent evidence hearings. If your union committee (or any individual) wants to support the work of the COPS campaign, please donate via this link:

https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/BWSTSWTMH2ZV8

 

 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

 

Did banning corporal punishment in English schools lead to a lack of discipline and respect?

 

Summerhill School

I doubt you can run a school without some form of discipline but there have been exceptions. Summerhill which was founded in 1921 by A.S. Neil, in Leiston, Suffolk, is a progressive school that believes that children should be taught without force. The school's basic principle was to replace authority with freedom. Children at the school are not forced to attend lessons and they have a say in the running of the school on democratic lines. The British government have tried to close it down on a number of occasions and there have been a number of investigations and scandals.

At my secondary modern school in the 1960s, there was plenty of discipline but not much teaching or education. My primary school was much better and the teachers were dedicated and very good and I had respect for many of them because they took an interest in you. The discipline at secondary school didn't teach me respect because I had no respect for many of those teachers at all because they didn't teach. Many were a waste of taxpayers' money. I've always believed that you earn respect and are not entitled to it. What was knocked into me at secondary school, was an intense dislike of teachers and intense dislike of authority.

Corporal punishment was banned in state schools in 1987 and in private schools in England and Wales in 1998. Many people thought that was a bad decision that would've serious consequences and I think they've been proven right. Nowadays, the English state schools seem to turn out foul-mouthed uneducated louts who know neither discipline or respect. Many of them act like wannabe gangsters who mimic the accents of the Gallagher brothers, Bez and Sean Ryder.

I remember talking to man from Afghanistan who was with his children in a public park during the COVID lockdown. We were talking about the way in which some addlepated malcontents want to nihilistically vandalize property in public parks. He said to me that he thought the problem arose because the English don't teach their children discipline and respect. Pointing to his little children, he told me, "These don't mess me about because they know who the boss is." When I was growing up, we knew who the boss was in our house and you didn't mess him about.

 

Over 20 years ago, the Labour MP Ann Cryer, was shunned when she spoke out about Asian grooming gangs.

 

Ann Cryer

One of the first people to draw attention to Asian grooming gangs, was Ann Cryer, the Labour MP for Keighley. In 2002, she became one of the first public figures in Britain to talk publicly about allegations of "young Asian lads" grooming underage white girls for sex in her constituency in West Yorkshire. As a result of what she said, Ann was shunned by many members of her own party - who considered what she said as racist - the police, imam's and social services. She received death threats and Nick Griffin of the BNP, stood against her in Keighley, claiming that she hadn't done enough as the local MP to protect young white girls from sexual exploitation.

Some politicians like the former Conservative Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, who is of Indian origin, have claimed that Pakistani men were predominantly involved in grooming gangs. There have been a number of very high-profile cases involving Asian grooming gangs in places like Rotherham and Rochdale and there were allegations of Asian gangs, grooming young girls for sex in Oldham. In all these places it has also been alleged that there were cover ups involving the police and local politicians.

Despite a number of public inquiries into grooming gangs and child sex abuse, some people continue to believe in cover ups and conspiracies. What these inquires have often found is not cover ups as such, but an unwillingness to take victims and their allegations seriously or an unwillingness to act because it was considered culturally and politically sensitive.

Home Office data that Braverman must have been aware of, does suggest that most of the people convicted of child sex abuse in Britain, have been white people. There have also been white people, including women, who have been jailed for being members of grooming gangs set up to sexually exploit children. It's also known that most children who are subjected to sexual abuse in Britain, are not abused by strangers or grooming gangs. Very often the child knows the perpetrator and the abuse often takes place in the family home.

 

Blacklist Support Group New Year message: 2025 – the year when justice finally arrives?

 

Happy New Year to all our supporters. It is more than 15 years since the Consulting Association blacklist was exposed. Yet despite a select committee investigation, a public apology in the High Court and new legislation, union members who were repeatedly denied employment are still fighting for truth and justice. No senior executives from the multinational construction companies who oversaw the secret conspiracy, nor the police and union officials who colluded with the employers have been held accountable for their actions. 2025 is set to be a year where at least some elements of the hidden underbelly of the blacklisting scandal are brought into the public domain. Here’s what to expect:

 Independent Collusion Investigation

The independent investigation into collusion by officials from UNITE and predecessor unions that was set up by Sharon Graham is set to publish its findings early in 2025. Nick Randall KC and John Townsend, assisted by solicitors from the Public Interest Law Centre have gathered oral and documentary evidence from around 90 individuals, searched the union’s electronic archive and sought permission from the High Court to use documents never before placed in the public domain. 

 The Blacklist Support Group and the Construction Rank & File publicly fought for an investigation that was independent from UNITE to be set up, and three blacklisted activists have acted as an oversight committee throughout the investigation. Neither BSG nor the oversight committee have any knowledge of what will appear in the final report, but we have faith in the independence of the lawyers, and in the robustness of their investigation. 

 Spycops Inquiry

Core participants in the union strand of the undercover policing public inquiry, the Blacklist Support Group (BSG), UNITE, FBU, NUM, and seven individual activists (Steve Acheson, Frank Smith, Dan Gilman, Steve Hedley, Lisa Teuscher, John Jones, Dave Smith) were scheduled to give evidence in April 2025. This has now been pushed back to a date later in the year. Spycops who infiltrated and gathered intelligence on trade unions, plus the managers and politicians who oversaw the political spying operation will also be giving evidence.   

 The BSG opening statement made specific allegations that the police and security services passed on intelligence to major employers and the blacklisting organisations; the Consulting Association and the Economic League, and about undercover officers acting as agent provocateurs, and state interference in the internal democratic processes of trade unions (in breach of ILO conventions).

 The public inquiry has already published an interim report that slated the human rights violations of the Special Demonstration Squad, concluding that the police unit should have been closed down in the 1960s. However, blacklisting was specifically omitted from the interim report. The evidence hearings in 2025 will be the first time the judge led inquiry properly considers the BSG and union concerns.  

 Retraining Fund

As part of the settlement of the High Court trial, the major blacklisting employers placed over £220,000 in a fund administered by UNITE, to be used to pay training costs for blacklisted workers who were claimants in the litigation. For the first few years, those overseeing the fund turned out multiple applications. But in late 2023, the fund was relaunched and in 2024 tens of thousands of pounds has been paid out to blacklisted workers. The money has been spent on updating certificates for work on the railways, offshore and in the High Voltage sector, but also in costs for career changes such as teaching. If any High Court claimant has paid out for any training since 2016, please claim the money back from this fund.

 Labour government pledges 

The government has announced proposals for new laws on blacklisting. You might think that as the primary victims of the UK’s biggest blacklisting scandal ever, that the BSG might be consulted on the proposals. Yet, despite having directly contacted Angela Rayner on this subject, and despite BSG secretary, Dave Smith having co-authored a pamphlet published by the Institute of Employment Rights about the need for new legislation on blacklisting. To this date, the BSG has not been contacted to be part of the consultation on the new blacklisting laws. Its hard to imagine politicians not talking to the victims of the Post Office scandal about possible new legislation. Perhaps it takes a TV drama before MPs take notice.

 Lee Fowler employment tribunal 

Blacklisted construction union activist, Lee finally gets his day in court in January for his discrimination claim against Cargill following a dispute at the Liverpool site in late 2023. 

Lee Fowler -v- Cargill PLC

15th -17th January 2025

Liverpool Employment Tribunal

35 Vernon Street

Liverpool 

L2 2BX

Unless there is a last minute offer, the Blacklist Support Group will be at the court.

SOLIDARITY PROTEST 

9am Wednesday 15th January 

Show your support - Bring your banners

 

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

 

Sir Keir Starmer-oid - Britain's absent Prime Minister.

 

Peter Mandelson

The Labour government have just appointed Peter Mandelson as the UK Ambassador to America. The newspapers are now reporting that in desperation, Mandelson has offered to work with Nigel Farage the leader of Reform UK to win over Donald Trump and his administration. They might as well as make Nigel Farage our man in Washington. A member of Donald Trump's team recently described Mandelson as a "moron."

The Labour Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer-oid, is increasingly looking like he's out of his depth and out of touch with the British electorate. This former Trotskyist now seems to spend much of his time absent from Britain and flying around the world. The Deputy Prime Minister, Angie Rayner, has been given the nuclear codes in the event of war. Labour have alienated many voters by withdrawing the winter fuel allowance from the elderly and refusing to pay compensation to the WASPI women. Starmer-oid is facing a possible backbench rebellion by Labour MPs over the issue.

Labour swore to grow the economy but since the budget, economic activity in Britain has been stalling, inflation is rising, and there is talk of an economic recession. Politically, Starmer seems clueless and lost. He's now less popular than Liz Truss who lasted just fifty days in office. Labour have now been in power five months, but I doubt that Starmer-oid will last five years as Labour leader.

Tony Blair must be already eying up a replacement for Starmer-oid. The man is a total jerk! Farage and Reform UK must be rubbing their hands with glee at the mess that Labour and the Tories are in as they're likely to benefit from it politically. It's been rumoured that Labour are now trying to change the law to prevent Elon Musk making a huge financial donation to Reform UK. That will make them even less popular with the Trump administration and the British voter.

 

Is the Assisted Dying Bill open to misuse?

 

I can't quite understand why it was necessary to have an Assisted Dying Bill. I have known a number of people who have been terminally ill and all of them were receiving end of life palliative care. They were given opiates to help with pain relief.

What concerns me about this Bill is the potential for misuse. There have been a number of scandals involving assisted dying already. We know that families have often been told that an elderly loved one is coming to the end of their life and would they agree to putting them on palliative care. Some refused to do so and took their relatives out of the hospital and they have lived for several years longer. A friend of mine told me that this is what happened to his elderly father who was an in-patient in a Manchester hospital. He was told his father was dying and would he agree to putting him on palliative care. He refused to do so and took his father home with him. He lived another three years.

Not many years ago there was the scandal involving the Liverpool end-of-life Care Pathway (LCP).  An independent review led by Baroness Neuberger, recommended discontinuing the use of the LCP. The review found that the LCP compromised patient autonomy, was used to "free up hospital beds" and was even used by financial trusts for financial gain. I think this means that NHS trust were given financial inducements to put people on palliative care. We also know that there were at least 456 patients who died at Gosport War Memorial Hospital in suspicious circumstances after being given powerful opiates when it wasn't medically necessary. The police are still investigating the matter.

Have the English working-class been depoliticised by cultural debasement?

 

I know George Orwell's book 1984 very well. The proles were depoliticised by cultural debasement but don't forget that Winston Smith believed that all hope rested with the proles.

In today's Britain, which is a bit like living at Butlin's holiday camp, one of the most popular TV programmes is about baking a cake, so don't expect too much. The Marxist historian Raphael Samuels wrote in the New Left Review, "A dozen vanguard parties and as many tendencies and groups, compete for the honour of leading a non-existent revolutionary working class."

The Trotskyist Paul Mason, seems to agree. In his book 'PostCapitalism: A Guide to Our Future', he wrote: "Marxism got it wrong about the working class. 200 years of experience shows it (the working class) was preoccupied with 'living despite capitalism' not overthrowing it."

Friedrich Engels was often driven to despair by the English workers because of their imaginary sense of national superiority and their narrow-mindedness and bourgeois ideas and viewpoints. In general, British people have a low level of political awareness and have been softened up by years of Labour reformist politics. In addition, the education system in Britain does a cracking job on them. Politically, they know fuck all and Winston Churchill was well aware of it. Churchill said that the best argument against democracy was a five-minute conversation with the average voter.

U.S. tells Syrian de-facto ruler he's no longer a terrorist.

 

U.S. officials have met with the de-facto rulers of Syria, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham(HTS), and told its leader Abu Mohammed al-Jolani that they have dropped the $10-million-dollar reward for information leading to his capture. Barbara Leaf, a top State Department official for the Middle East, said "it's a little incoherent, then, to have a bounty on the guy's head."

Until recently the HTS leader, who was a former member of al-Qaida, was considered a terrorist by the U.S. HTS was one of a number of Syrian rebel and terrorist groups that brought down the regime of Bashar al-Assad. Upon taking control of Syria, al-Jolani declared it a great victory for the Islamic nation whatever that is. Britain has declared HTS a proscribed organisation but both the Labour Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer-oid and the Deputy Prime Minister, Angela Rayner, have welcomed the overthrow of Assad by Syrian rebels and designated terrorist groups.

President-elect Donald Trump, who will take control of the White House on January 20, says he's not interested in getting involved with a fight with Syria. A Trump official recently described Peter Mandelson, who has just been appointed the British Ambassador to Washington, as a "moron". The Labour Government’s National Security Adviser, Jonathan Powell, believes that it's the job of the British Ambassador to Washington to get as far up the arse of the White House as they possibly can, so Mandelson will be well qualified for that job.

In Damascus, demonstrators were seen chanting, "No to religious rule”, and "we want a democracy, not a religious state." The caretaker government in Syria have been urged to respect the rights of all Syrian's and in particular Syrian women. Abu Mohammed al-Jolani was filmed recently telling a female journalist to get her head covered, raising fears that he's intending to introduce Islamic rule.

Labour renege on promise to introduce Scottish-style right to roam.

 

Labour's Tory-lite, Prime Minister, free gear, Sir Keir Starmer-oid, is known for his ability to turn on a dime and for broken promises and pledges. When Labour was in opposition, it promised a Scottish-style right to roam in England.

There's currently a right to roam over just 8% of English countryside. The Dartmoor National Park is said to be the only place in England where you can engage in wild camping and that's under threat. Labour's previous shadow environment team led by Jim McMahon, had committed to a Scottish-style right to roam where there would be an assumed right to walk round the English countryside. A Labour Party spokesman has now said: "Let me be clear that under Keir Starmer's leadership, Labour has never committed to a Scottish-style right to roam."

What many people forget is that it was mass trespass and civil disobedience in 1932 by Manchester ramblers like Benny Rothman, that gave people the right to walk in the Peak District and which led to the formation of the Peak District National Park. Benny and other ramblers were imprisoned for the trespass and risked being beaten up by thugs employed by the Duke of Devonshire. Benny Rothman served four months in jail for leading the Kinder trespass.

Can you tell the difference between a terrorist group and a liberation movement?

 

This is a question from my Christmas quiz. What's the difference between a 'terrorist group' and a 'liberation movement'? 

The proscribed terrorist group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), have just deposed the Syrian leader Bashir al-Assad in Syria. Both the Labour Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, have welcomed the overthrow of Assad by Syrian rebels and terrorists.  

John Sawyer, a former head of MI6, recently told Sky News that the government should review its proscription of HTS because it had cut ties with al-Qaida over the past decade. Sawyer argued that it would be "rather ridiculous" not to be able to engage with the rebels who had taken control of Syria because of the group's proscription. Sawyer said: 

"I think Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, the leader, has made great efforts over the last ten years to distance himself from those terrorist groups and certainly the actions we've seen of HTS over the last two weeks have been those of a liberation movement, not a terrorist organisation."

A person commits an offence under s.12(1) A of the Terrorism Act 2000, if they express an opinion or belief that is supportive of a proscribed organisation and in doing so is reckless as to whether a person to whom the expression is directed will be encouraged to support a proscribed organisation. 

I know of a number of people, journalists and political activists, who have been charged and arrested under section 12 for comments and opinions they have expressed on social media in relation to the Israeli bombardment of Gaza. 

The British government have designated HTS a proscribed organisation and its leader, Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, is considered a terrorist with a price on his head. In expressing support for HTS and al-Jolani, is John Sawyer committing an offence under s.12 of the Terrorism Act 2000?

 

Britain's obsession with social-class.

 

In England they talk a lot of cant and humbug about social class. England always has been a very class divided and snobbish society, but you will find that many politicians and the elites that run this country, will often try to deny this in public because inequality has to be justified. We're told that people get on because of their ability.  

Prince William has been seen selling the Big Issue and campaigns against homelessness to justify his privileged lifestyle. The Royal Family have numerous under occupied homes but I don't think that they will be opening them up to house the homeless. We've been told that Britain is now a classless society and that all political parties are utilitarian in that they want the greatest good for the greatest number. They will tell you that Britain is a meritocratic society and that it isn't where you come from that matters but where you're going - worth not birth, they will say.

Only around 7% of people who live in Britain, have ever attended what are called public schools, but you will find them disproportionately represented in most of the top jobs in the country such as in the judiciary, government, civil service, journalism and the legal profession. Many of Britain's Prime Ministers have been drawn from one public school called Eton.

There was probably more upward social mobility in the 1950s and 1960s, but this was linked to the vast expansion of the state and the economy after the war. People were needed to fill the jobs in the NHS, education and in government services, and there weren't enough middle-class people to fill them. In today's Britain, the social bank of mum and dad opens as many doors as the financial bank of mum and dad. The social class into which you're born, will very much determine your outcomes in life.

The TV historian, Dan Snow, who married Lady Edwina Grosvenor, has called himself a "Nepo Baby" because he says people believe he owes his success in life to nepotism. The writer and Guardian journalist, Polly Toynbee, has frequently said that her success in life was helped by having the name Toynbee and a famous father and grandfather. White privileged old Etonians, like David Cameron and Boris Johnson, owe everything in life to the social class that they were born into and family connections. Cameron and Johnson will never need to use a jobcentre.

 

Britain joins CPTPP

 

Britain left one trade bloc called the E.U. and has just joined another one called the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). It wasn't long ago that the British government were trying to join the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

 In 2016, many British voters voted to leave the E.U. having been persuaded that they were taking back control of their country and its borders. Although it's not mentioned in this article, the CPTPP agreement contains the Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) provision that allows corporations to sue states if government policies are seen as likely to affect future profits. This might arise from concerns about environmental protection or human rights. A tobacco company might invoke the ISDS if they thought a ban on tobacco advertising was likely to have an adverse effect on profitability. A company might sue the British government if it had a ban on the use of certain chemicals used in food production.

Are we really a society of self-interested individuals pursuing our own personal greed?

 

Lionel Barrymore 

Frank Capra's 1946 film called "It's a Wonderful Life", is a Christmas classic and one of my favourite films.

The Russian-born American writer Ayn Rand, who wrote the pro-capitalist dystopian novel called 'Atlas Shrugged', told the FBI that Capra's film starring James Stewart, Donna Reed and Lionel Barrymore, was communist propaganda. Rand had worked in Hollywood as a scriptwriter and had written the Hollywood guide to making pro-capitalist movies - a sort of Ten Commandments. When the film was initially released it wasn't a great success and Capra lost money on it. Some of the actors didn't even watch a screening of the film. I believe that Donna Reed didn't watch the film until the 1970s. Nor was the film made as a Christmas classic even though the action takes place on a Christmas Eve, in a place called Bedford Falls.

One of the things that fascinates me about this film is its moral strain. James Stewart, plays George Bailey, who runs a small savings and loans bank, whereas, Mr Potter his rival is portrayed as a scheming rapacious self-interested capitalist. Bailey, who faces financial ruin when some money goes missing and then contemplates suicide, isn't really an anti-capitalist, but he's a community minded person who wants to good by his neighbours. He possibly believes in a kind of ethical or moral capitalism. As a businessman, Henry Potter is far shrewder and shows far more business acumen than Bailey. Potter's mantra would be “fair is foul and foul is fair.” Yet in spite of his shortcomings, it's George Bailey that we all warm to and who we empathise with and Mr Potter who we generally despise. Bailey is rescued from oblivion by his guardian angel called Clarence and by the generosity of his neighbours in Bedford Falls who donate money to keep Bailey's bank solvent.

There's no doubt about it that this story and the film itself, was inspired by ‘A Christmas Carol’, by Charles Dickens. Ayn Rand despised altruism and compassion and saw selfishness and self-interest as the only true virtue. She railed against state welfare systems, yet in later life, as her health declined, she finished up on social security and Medicare.

There are those who would have us believe that we're all self-interested individuals pursuing our own personal greed and interests like Mr Potter. If that was the case, then why we do we have lifeboat volunteers or a RNLI that is funded and financed by public donations and why do people donate to charities? A society that's made up of an aggregate of self-interested egoists, is no society at all. No matter how much it pains free market capitalist crackpots like Ayn Rand, there always will be acts of altruism and an inner decency that resides within most human beings and that's why some many of us can identify with the fictional character of George Bailey.

When America shouts Britain jumps.

 

Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery

Field Marshal Montgomery said the first rule of war was don't invade Russia. Who in their right mind would do that? If you know anything about military history, you would know how pointless that is. You can't encircle the country or invade it without enormous logistical challenges and I don't believe that many Russians feel that they're really under threat from of an invasion by NATO forces.

I once saw Vladimir Putin being interviewed by Tucker Carlson who asked him if NATO expansionism towards the East had led to Russia invading the Ukraine. He laughed at that and dismissed it out of hand. He gave Carlson a lesson in Russia history as he sees it. Putin as a Russian nationalist, doesn't recognise the Ukraine as an independent country and he's a revanchist, who is reclaiming lost Russian territory. They've all got enough nuclear missiles to destroy one another so they don't have to invade any country.

Putin has now got his best mate in the White House. Putin is one world leader that Donald Trump doesn't take the piss out of. As for the British government, its raison d'etre is to get as far up the arse of the White House as it possibly can. When the Americans shout, they jump.

Russia offers asylum to Bashir al Assad.

 

HTS leader- Abu Mohammed al Jalani

The Syrian President Bashar al Assad has been given political asylum by Russia. It's believed that the former Syrian President and his family are now in Moscow. I wonder how much of the countries money and resources they've took away with them.

The country appears to be under the control of the Sunni Islamist militant faction called Hayat Tahrir al Sham (HTS), but this is only one of a number of insurgent factions who are fighting for power and control in Syria. Will the downfall of Bashar al Assad create a power vacuum in Syria as it did follow the downfall of Saddam Hussain in Iraq? It also led to a bloodbath between Sunni and Shia Muslims. HTS leader, Abu Mohammed al Jolani, described the fall of Assad as a "victory to the Islamic nation." I'm not sure what the Islamic nation is or if such a thing exists.

In August 2013, a Conservative government motion calling for British military action in Syria to support the 'moderate' insurgent rebels seeking to overthrow Bashar al Assad, was defeated in the House of Commons. The Conservative Prime Minister, David Cameron, was disappointed with the vote but said: "It's clear to me that the British parliament...does not want to see British military action." I think that many British MPs were reluctant for Britain to take military action in Syria, because they felt wisely, that they didn't know who they were really backing, or what Britain was really getting dragged into. They must have also asked themselves who or what was going to replace the regime and dictatorship of Bashar al Assad whose family have been running Syria since 1970, with the support of the Alawite sect.

One of those supposed moderate insurgent Islamic groups that were seeking to overthrow Bashir al Assad and which David Cameron was keen to supply with British arms, later morphed into ISIS. Most of the victims of ISIS weren't westerners, but Muslims. Time will tell whether Syria returns to some kind of stability or descends into chaos and civil war.

 

Are customers being ripped off at Tesco?

 

Tesco have a two-tier pricing policy in their supermarkets. There is one price for Tesco club card holders and another price for non-club card holders. When you pay at a checkout at Tesco, if you can find one that is staffed and available, you will always be asked if you're a Tesco club card holder.

You will notice how much more exorbitantly expensive goods are in Tesco and this is because you're subsiding the cheaper goods of club card holders. I can't believe that the competition and marketing authorities in Britain allow Tesco to get away with this. It really is much cheaper to shop elsewhere where you're not subsiding the food of loyalty cards holders. Many older people don't like using self-service tills and don't use smart phones, so they get ripped off by supermarkets like Tesco.

Trump lawyers ask judge to quash convictions.

 

Donald Trump

Lawyers for President-elect Donald Trump have called on a judge to throw out his hush money criminal conviction. In documents submitted to the court, they argue that continuing the case, would "present unconstitutional disruptions to the institution of the Presidency." They also referred to President Biden's recent decision to pardon his son, Hunter Biden, on gun and tax evasion charges.

Last week, special counsel Jack Smith told courts that he was withdrawing two federal cases against Trump - one charging him with hoarding classified documents and another charging him with scheming to overturn the 2020 presidential election that he lost. He cited longstanding Justice Department policy that shields a president from indictment while in office. Trump cannot pardon himself from the hush money convictions because it is a state case.

Trump nominates ex-jailbird as U.S. Ambassador to France.

 

Charles Kushner

What a cesspit politics is these days. They're all like pigs with their snouts in the trough. Donald Trump's team of nominees for government jobs looks more like a rogue's gallery by the day.

President-elect Trump has lambasted "crooked" Joe Biden for his decision to give a full unconditional pardon to his son, Hunter Biden, who was facing serious jail time for gun crime and tax evasion convictions. Having declared that he wouldn't interfere with the judicial process, Biden suddenly changed tack and said the charges against his son were politically motivated.

On Saturday, Trump nominated his son-in-law's father as U.S. Ambassador to France. Charles Kushner is an ex-jail bird, property tycoon and disbarred attorney. In 2005, he pleaded guilty to 18 counts of illegal campaign contributions and tax evasion as well as witness tampering, and received a 2-year jail sentence. Trump pardoned Kushner in 2020, stating that he "has been devoted to important philanthropic organizations and causes." Kushner donated $100,000 to a pro-Trump group in 2015, and $1 million to a pro-Trump super Pac in 2023. Another family member, Massad Boulos, has been appointed to serve as Trump's senior adviser on Arab and Middle Eastern affairs. Billionaire Boulos, is the father-in-law of Trump's daughter Tiffany.

When Trump takes office on January 20, 2025, he will be the first sitting U.S. President to be a convicted felon. Before the U.S. Presidential election in November, Trump was convicted of 31 counts of falsifying business records in order to conceal a hush money payment to the former porn star, Stormy Daniels.  None of these charges and convictions, which Trump also claimed were a stitch up and politically motivated, damaged Trump politically.

Here in Britain, mainstream party politics is just as corrupt, squalid and sleazy. The former Conservative Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, nominated friends and family for peerages. He put his brother Joe in the House of Lords and even nominated his father Stanley Johnson, for a knighthood. During the COVID pandemic, Johnson's government awarded millions of pounds of dodgy government contracts to VIP Tory donors and cronies.

When in opposition, the self-righteous Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer-oid, promised to clean up British politics and to end the sleaze if Labour came to power. Having berated Boris Johnson about who paid for his wallpaper in his Downing Street flat, Starmer-oid and his wife, Lady Victoria sponger, were found to have received free gear and freebies amounting to tens of thousands of pounds, from wealthy Labour donors like Lord Waheed Alli.

Labour's obsequious Business and Trade Minister, Jonathan Reynolds, actually said that freebies like free tickets to Glastonbury and Taylor Swift concerts, were not perks of the job of being in government but were part of the job of being in government. Reynolds denied any knowledge of a Labour Party gimmick to charge people £30,000 to have breakfast with him at the Ivy Restaurant in Manchester. It was dubbed by the press, "cash for croissants." His wife, Claire Reynolds, who is not an elected politician, was recently appointed political adviser to Sir Keir Starmer-oid in Downing Street. Like her husband, Claire Reynolds is also a former Tameside Labour councillor.

Biden pardons son on gun and tax charges.

 

Hunter Biden

Nobody is supposed to be above the law in America, but that doesn't seem to apply to President-elect Donald Trump or Hunter Biden, the son of U.S. President Joe Biden. Hunter Biden was facing jail time for gun and tax charges, but he's now been given a 'full and unconditional' pardon by his father.

Although Hunter was given a trial before a jury, found guilty of the gun charges, and pleaded guilty to tax evasion charges, Joe Biden says the charges brought against his son were politically motivated. Donald Trump claims that every charge brought against him was politically motivated.

American voters have just put Trump in the White House despite having been convicted of 31 counts of falsifying business records in order to pay hush money to a former porn star called Stormy Daniels. Trump will take office on January 20, 2025, and is expected to pardon many of the rioters who stormed the Capitol Building in Washington, on January 6, 2021. Any charges brought against Trump are now likely to be held in abeyance or dropped because no U.S. President has ever been prosecuted while in office.

President-elect Trump has just appointed Charles Kushner as U.S. Ambassador to France. His son, Jared Kushner, is married to Trump’s daughter Ivanka. In 2004, Charles Kushner pleaded guilty to filing false tax returns, retaliating against a witness and making false statements to the Federal Election Commission. In 2020, Trump pardoned Charles Kushner who is also a real estate developer.

Are Britain's jobcentres fit for purpose?

 

Over the years, UK Government efforts to get the long-term unemployed back into work have not been a great success. People that I've spoken to who have been on DWP courses aimed at getting them off benefits and back into work, have told me that training providers have often told them that they find it harder to get well qualified people back into work than people with no qualifications.

Some years ago, an unemployed man that I knew, told me that his jobcentre work coach had advised him not to disclose his university qualifications in business studies and economics, because it might be scaring off potential employers. He refused to do so, and contacted the newspapers. This was at a time when Tony Blair was spouting on about "Education, Education, Education."

I know of one person who is long term unemployed who has a science degree, two science masters' degrees, and spent three years studying for a PhD and she still can't get a job. She tells me that her local jobcentre offer her cleaning and packing jobs.

Another problem with so-called back to work training, is that the courses tend to be motivational and of a one size fits all type. They involve a lot of psychobabble and bullshit. They're basically trying to shove square pegs into round holes and people into dead end low paid unskilled jobs. People were frequently bullied into working for no money in order to keep their state benefits. Under Tony Blair's Flexible New Deal, the unemployed were told, "Work or lose your Benefits." Employers soon realised that the jobcentre was providing a load of free labour and they didn't have to pay anyone.

One of the biggest employers is the UK government, but I'm pretty sure that to this day, the DWP don't advertise their vacancies in the jobcentres. I think this also applies to other government departments.

Negative comments about the unemployed made by politicians often make it more difficult for people to get back into work. Boris Johnson used to talk about 'feckless Brits on the dole', but the Johnson family are so well connected that they have no need for the Jobcentre. They can always find someone to give them a leg up. Some employers don't advertise vacancies in the jobcentres because they take the view that most claimants don't want to work and are only applying for the job in order to retain their state benefits.