“Farce”, education union funds Muslim charity that publicised Batley teacher’s name

FROM 'The Foxhole' website

1 April 2021

A teacher’s union has given £3,000 to a controversial Muslim charity linked to the Batley RS teacher’s ongoing suspension, the Telegraph reveals.

Batley Grammar School hit the headlines last week after angry members of the local Muslim community amassed outside the school’s premises calling for the teacher’s dismissal after he had shown his class images of the Prophet Muhammad. Caving in to pressure, the teacher was suspended and the school issued a grovelling apology.

Purpose of Life caused astonishment on the back of the events in revealing the teacher’s name. He and his family then went into hiding, fearing jihadist reprisals. The charity’s leader, Mohammad Sajad Hussain was invited onto Talk Radio and asked whether he did not think he had a responsibility to avoid inflaming the situation, having accused the teacher of “terrorism” and “insulting Islam”.

Asked five times by host, Julia Hartley-Brewer whether he thought showing images of the Prophet was worse than beheadings, Hussain only said no at the fifth and final time of asking.

Earlier this week, the father of the teacher said his son’s life was in danger. “Eventually they will get my son and he knows this. His whole world has been turned upside down. He’s devastated and crushed,” he told the Daily Mail.

The distraught father also said the school had thrown “him under a bus”. Purpose of Life continues to call for his sacking.

Now it has been discovered the union representing Batley grammar gave a generous donation to the charity, which then posted a video on social media thanking the now-disgraced union.

Reacting to the contribution made by its Kirklees branch, the National Education Union admitted the West Yorkshire charity should “never have published” the teacher’s name. The NEU spokesperson pointed out that Purpose of Life had “now withdrawn the name and apologised”, adding: “We would ask all media and all other organisations to refrain from naming names. We believe this to be a major breach of privacy with serious repercussions for our member.”

A spokesperson for the Charity Commission said: “We are aware of this matter. We have contacted the trustees of Purpose of Life for further information and their response to our regulatory concerns – this will inform our next steps. We cannot comment further at this time.”

Dr Paul Stott of freedom and democracy think tank, the Henry Jackson Society was much more forthright: “There is now a real question mark about the ability of the NEU to represent its members at Batley Grammar School. That the Kirklees branch of the NEU has funded an organisation that calls for the sacking of a schoolteacher for doing his job is lamentable.

“The NEU now needs to review the organisations it funds and works with to avoid a repetition of this farce.”

****************************************************************

Spain launches criminal investigation

into 37 care homes after thousands of elderly coronavirus victims 'were left to die'

By Rita Sobot In Spain For Mailonline

Published: 18:27, 17 April 2020 | Updated: 01:34, 18 April 2020 

Spain has today [17/O4/20] launched criminal investigations into 37 care homes after grieving relatives of thousands of elderly coronavirus victims claimed 'they were left to die'.

The Public Prosecutor is also looking into 124 private cases whilst the country's 'Patient Ombudsman' is investigating another 200 complaints. 

These claim that the elderly in care and nursing homes were not tested for COVID-19, were not provided with health care and their families were not allowed to take them home.

One relative told the Spanish press: 'They have been left to die.'

If negligence is found, charges of manslaughter or criminal neglect could be filed against owners, local authorities or staff.

However, health chiefs say the prosecutor would have to take into account the exceptional circumstances of the coronavirus health crisis, the lack of previous experience and the pressures staff were under before deciding to take any court action.

More than 19,000 people have died from COVID-19 in Spain. It is being estimated that at least 11,000 old folk in care, nursing or residential homes have been victims but it is not known how many of these are included in Spain's official death toll.

The Ministry of Health has asked all regions to supply precise details of how many people have died in nursing homes but admits that not all of the information has yet been supplied.

Dolores Delgado, Spain's attorney general, says the investigations are being carried out in eight autonomous communities, including Madrid (19 investigations).

The others are Catalonia (seven) with five in Castilla-La Mancha, two in Castilla y León and Murcia; and one each in the Canarias, Valencia and Cantabria. 

The probe follows confirmation that the Military Emergency Unit had found the abandoned corpses of elderly residents when disinfecting care homes.

The establishments under investigation have not been named.

The shocking toll of deaths in nursing homes has included more than 20 in one centre alone in Madrid.

The Ministry of Defence says it has so far disinfected 3,800 care homes across Spain.

Tory Debates: 'Words have consequences'

Power Politics Smelling Around a Lampost

by Brian Bamford

DURING the Tory leadership debate on the 30th, June, the BBC was accused of bias and the Daily Mail ran an headline: 'BIASED BRAZEN CONTEMPTABLE' and an editorial entitled 'A farrago of deceit and naked BBC bias'.  The editor Geordie Greig wrote:  'One questioner was an imam ('Abdula from Bristol'), who took Mr (Boris) Johnson to task over his use of Islamaphobic language.'  

What the Imam questioner from Bristol asked was did Boris accept that 'words have consequences?'

Boris then admitted that some of his remarks might occasionally have caused some plaster to off the ceiling, but added that people sometimes chose to 'escalate' his comments. 

Ludwig Wittgenstein was once quoted as saying:   'A philosopher who is not taking part in discussions is like a boxer who never goes into the ring.'

Despite Geordie Greig's protestations about BBC bias in the Daily Mail, the Imam was justified in asking his question which was of interest to the public.

more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/ludwig_wittgenstein_147252

A philosopher who is not taking part in discussions is like a boxer who never goes into the ring.
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/ludwig_wittgenstein_147252

The roots of this question stem from a column in the UK’s Daily Telegraph newspaper on 5 Aug 2018, in which Johnson wrote that while he doesn’t support a burqa ban in Denmark, he does think they’re 'ridiculous' because they make women look like 'letter boxes' and 'bank robbers.'

But Johnson was also perfectly entitled to describe the effect the asthetic style of the burka had on him:  'If you say that it is weird and bullying to expect women to cover their faces, then I totally agree,' Johnson wrote.  'I would go further and say that it is absolutely ridiculous that people should choose to go around looking like letter boxes.'

Months later in December 2018, Boris Johnson was cleared by an internal Tory Party internal inquiry of breaching the Conservative Party’s code of conduct by comparing veiled Muslim women to letter boxes and bank robbers when an independent panel decided the former foreign secretary was 'respectful and tolerant' and was entitled to use 'satire' in his newspaper column in August.

When I worked at Arrow Mill in Rochdale in the early 1970s, the Pakistani textile spinners there told me that at that time their women-folk wouldn't wear the veil because we natives would laugh at them.  At that time there were less Asian women in the UK, and what shocked most people was that the women usually trialed behind their men-folk when they where out walking in the streets.  It was years later when the fashion of the burka became more commonplace among Muslim women in the UK.

From a logical point of view  'words have consequences' because words are tools to shape meanings in the way a chisel would impact an impression on a piece of wood.  Polemics is the art of throwing eggs or delivering blows in the businesslike manner of a boxer (see Wittgenstein reference above).

In response to this we are told that the critics of Boris will tell us that they are offended and that what Boris writes is a form of 'hate speech'.  Well they may well make this claim as such people often do as they are very vocal.  Yet, others may thus equally respond, as Queen Gertrude did in Shakespeare's play Hamlet:.  'The Lady Doth Protest Too Much, methinks'. 

Most writers on Northern Voices have been clearly committed to libertarian anarchism as rooted in free speech, and question the squeamishness of those who make claims that they are perennially offended by something or other.  The squeamish are now categorised as 'snowflakes'. 

Yet are the squeamish simulating their 'offence' to close down free speech in the way that is available to any human being?  Here we are dealing with something like a private language or the philosophical 'problem of other minds'.  We have words that refer to sensations like being 'offended' or being 'in pain', but we have no way of knowing if these sensations are fake or not.

To throw into relief the possible artful practices of squeamish human 'snowflakes' let us consider what Wittgenstein asks about a dog:

'Why can’t a dog simulate pain? Is he too honest? Could one teach a
dog to simulate pain? Perhaps it is possible to teach him to howl on
particular occasions as if he were in pain, even when he is not. But the
surroundings which are necessary for this behaviour to be real
simulation are missing.'

We can however go further and distinguish between the artful human snowflake and the dog by what Russell B. Goodman writes about in his essay 'Thinking about Animals:  James, Wittgenstein, Hearne': 

'Dogs can be sneaky or deceptive, and that there are stories of
dogs pretending to be injured and doing other clever things. So
perhaps a dog can simulate pain. Would the dog then be dishonest?
Wittgenstein is making a revealing little joke here, based on the
incongruity of saying that dogs either are or are not honest. They
do not have a form of life in which honesty is a major component
in the way that for example, hiding bones and smelling lampposts
are.'

Thus honesty, hypocrisy, sincerity and what could be called human decency, do not form part of the dog's universe.  What could be said about Boris's comments on the Burka and the claim of his alleged Islamophobia is that he is there to entertain and is simply attention seeking when he talks about letter- boxes.  After this week's latest debate with Jeremy Hunt, Eamonn O’Domhnaill, 48, a finance manager from Ireland, was unimpressed with both candidates but said:
'I don’t believe Boris Johnson is taking this seriously - there has been far too much buffoonery.'.

We all know Boris is believed to have favoured remain in the run-up to the referendum.  It is tempting to suggest that there is a certain Fastaffian amorality about his politics which places him closer to Russel B. Goodman's dog smelling round a lamppost as he seeks the Tory leadership..

*****************."

Boris Johnson & Bottom on a Midsummer Night!

Spot the difference?

by Brian Bamford

IT is difficult not to compare Boris Johnson's current plight and his lover's 'tiff' to that of the weaver Nick Bottom in Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream. Jan Moir in yesterday's Daily Mail wrote: 'Amid this velvety foliage, the star crossed couple sat at a teak table, one that was as weathered as time itself.' Of Boris and his lover Carrie Symonds, who following their altercation posed photographed playing footsie under the green wood trees in Sussex, Ms. Moir adds: 'Their secluded garden was suitably fecund with 50 shades of green, in a sanctuary that had grown as wild as their crazy stupid love.'

The scene is so remarkably reminiscent of the famous Shakespeare play!

Of Nick Bottom see what one pundit writes:

'Whereas Puck’s humor is often mischievous and subtle, the comedy surrounding the overconfident weaver Nick Bottom is hilariously overt. The central figure in the subplot involving the craftsmen’s production of the Pyramus and this be story, Bottom dominates his fellow actors with an extraordinary belief in his own abilities (he thinks he is perfect for every part in the play) and his comical incompetence (he is a terrible actor and frequently makes rhetorical and grammatical mistakes in his speech).  The humor surrounding Bottom often stems from the fact that he is totally unaware of his own ridiculousness; his speeches are overdramatic and self-aggrandizing, and he seems to believe that everyone takes him as seriously as he does himself.  This foolish self-importance reaches its pinnacle after Puck transforms Bottom’s head into that of an ass.  When Titania, whose eyes have been anointed with a love potion, falls in love with the now ass-headed Bottom, he believes that the devotion of the beautiful, magical fairy queen is nothing out of the ordinary and that all of the trappings of her affection, including having servants attend him, are his proper due.  His unawareness of the fact that his head has been transformed into that of an ass parallels his inability to perceive the absurdity of the idea that Titania could fall in love with him.'

Nick Bottom and Boris Johnson are, it seems, like as two peas in a pod.

*************

Kate Middleton's Uncle: a Chip off the Old Block?

THE DUCHESS of Cambridge's wealthy uncle, Gary Goldsmith, 52, was almost legless last Thursday night.  Together with some mates, he was wearing a Willy Eckerslike flat cap and careering around Regent Street in an decidedly unsteady manner.

The brother of Kate Middleton's mother Carole, who is reckoned to be worth £30 million, was later according to the Daily Mail reporter Dam Greenhill, spotted 'relieving himself on the road before heading to McDonald's'.

Last November,  Mr. Goldsmith received a 1-year community order and ordered to take rehabilitation sessions following an incident in which he socked his wife Julie-Ann, 47, to the ground in front on their house as they came back from a charity auction.

Alas, Mr. Goldsmith is not the first in his family to show signs of inebriation.  Another of Kate Middleton's ancestors, was a radical supporter of a dozen Women’s Suffrage Societies called Edith Lupton, who in the 19th century was commited to anarchism being picked up, charged and occasional found guilty of disorderly conduct being the worse for wear in drink.

The Northern Voices' historian Chris Draper on this Blog wrote at length about the anarchist Ms. Lupton's exploits: 
'Described in court as, 'well-educated, 56, an artist and social reformer', Edith denied spitting in the policeman’s face but explained "that it was her custom to show her contempt for the force by going into the middle of the road and expectorating on the ground whenever she met a policeman".'

Some may now be wondering if this kind of odd behaviour runs in the family of the Middletons.  It is not unknown for aristicrats to be anarchists particularly in Russia, think of Prince Kropotkin and Michael Bakunin's ancestors, though not perhaps in Spain.  

Rather than being concerned about how he holds his drink, I'd be more worried about Gary Goldsmith wasting his time going in a McDonald's.

See more  Www.ln.is/blogspot.co.uk/EWQ8g

Farnell’s Danczuk Moment?

by Les May

AFTER the publication in April 2014 of the book which Matthew Baker appears to have written and Simon put his name to, Danczuk was the ‘go to’ man for all things to do with sexual abuse.  No-one bothered to check whether his stories were true or just so much hot air. Leicestershire police discussed aspects of the investigation into Greville Janner with him.  Aspects which later appeared in a national newspaper. (see Appendix)
Once he got into his stride he was ‘Mr Rent-a-quote’ for comments on the Labour leadership and when Corbyn became leader in September 2015 he had a lucrative sideline dishing the dirt in articles in the Daily Mail.  And then on the last day of the year after a few ill considered ‘tweets' it all unravelled.  From then on it was downhill all the way.  The slow slide back to the bottom of the heap had begun. In just 2 years he converted a 14,000 majority into a vote of less than 900.
The problem for politicians is that once the ball starts rolling downhill the once friendly press is happy to give it an occasional push to keep it moving.  The stories may have nothing to do with the job of being a politician, but they go to build a picture of someone who dos not deserve the voter’s trust.
Now I don’t think that Richard Farnell was entirely fairly treated at the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA). It appeared to me that he was treated as a hostile ‘witness’ which did not seem to be necessary if the intention was to elicit the facts.  But that being said, his claim that he knew nothing of the unsavoury events at Knowl View special school is, to say the least, implausible. But was it his Danczuk moment?   Is it enough to start the downward slide to being an electoral liability?
How long before the press notice that Knowl View wasn’t the first time that things went badly wrong on Farnell’s watch.  As Oscar Wilde put it in ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’,  ‘To lose one parent may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness’.
Those with long memories will recall the Middleton Ritual Satanic Abuse scandal which resulted in 21 children being taken into care and in 2006 a substantial payout by Rochdale MBC.  Northern Voices pointed out in 2016 that this occurred when Farnell was Labour Leader in an article dated 21 January, but no-one seemed to notice.  Perhaps it is time for someone to ask him what he knew about this fiasco.
http://northernvoicesmag.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/councillor-farnell-relaxed-about-danczuk.html 
Farnell has a choice he can ‘fall on his sword’ and go gracefully, or he can face the prospect of a less than favourable report from IICSA just before the 2018 local elections.  If he decides to stay he may face the prospect of some Labour members feeling unable to campaign whilst he is still Leader.

Appendix
25 August 2015
Chief Constable
Leicestershire Police Force Headquarters St Johns Enderby Leicester. LE19 2BX
Dear Sir,
I refer to statements made by Simon Danczuk MP in the House of Commons on 23 June 2015 and recorded in Hansard Column 214WH. I have extracted below the portion of his statement which I believe raises matters of concern about the actions of your force.
Quotation starts:
'I know the police are furious about this, and rightly so. Anyone who has heard the accusations would be similarly outraged. I have met Leicestershire police and discussed the allegations in some detail: children being violated, raped and tortured, some in the very building in which we now sit. The official charges are: 14 indecent assaults on a male under 16 between 1969 and 1988; two indecent assaults between ’84 and ’88; four counts of buggery of a male under 16 between ’72 and ’87; and two counts of buggery between 1977 and 1988. My office has spoken to a number of the alleged victims and heard their stories.'
Quotation ends.
Taken at its face value this suggests that Leicestershire police discussed with a third party, who though an MP, does not represent a constituency within the Leicestershire police area, matters of a confidential nature relating to a police investigation. I draw attention to the fact that Mr Danczuk specifically used the word 'discussed' suggesting that information was passed to him by the police service rather than that he was simply questioned about information which he might hold which was relevant to the police investigation. The detailed information regarding the nature of the charges in the remainder of the statement suggests that this interpretation is correct.
Even if it is considered appropriate to discuss these matters with Mr Danczuk the question arises as to why he was apparently not instructed that these matters were confidential. Mr Danczuk's choice of words in the first two sentences of the above extract could leave the impression that by not instructing him that the matter was confidential the police service was attempting to use an extra-judicial method to bring pressure to bear upon the
Director of Public Prosecutions. I stress that I am not making such an allegation.
The apparent failure to instruct Mr Danczuk that the discussions were confidential extends to an article in the Sun newspaper of 24 June 2015 headed 'Lord Janner "Raped kids in Parliament" claims Labour MP Simon Danczuk', and in which the matters discussed with him by Leicestershire police were repeated. As Mr Danczuk had made his claims under Parliamentary privilege he gave himself, and the Sun, protection against being sued for libel. On 24 July 2015 Mr Danczuk received a payment of £10,000 from the owners of the Sun for an article he had contributed to. He declined to say which article the cash related to.
If this payment does relate to the Sun article I believe it raises further questions about the wisdom of discussing material relating to the Janner case with Mr Danczuk without instructing him that the matter was confidential.
I am arranging for a copy of this letter to be sent to the Home Office because I think the concerns raised are applicable to similar discussions between other police forces and MPs who may use parliamentary privilege to make the discussions public.

Yours sincerely,

Dr Les May

‘Of the Left’ or wrap around economics?

by Les May

SPEAKING to students at the Cambridge Union during a book promotion tour of the UK earlier this year Bernie Sanders said 'If I give a speech about combatting racism people would say ‘that’s great we cannot tolerate racism or sexism or homophobia’ and people respond to that. But what is harder for a variety of reasons for people to deal with is the fact that increasingly in this country, and Corbyn makes this point, and in my country, we are looking at oligarchic forms of government where the people on top have increased power, increased wealth, while the middle classes shrink and why many people live in desperate poverty.  That is an approach that makes certain people uncomfortable. They feel uneasy about that, but I applaud Jeremy Corbyn for raising those issues”.

At the Oxford Union he said, 'There is an area which is not nearly so sexy as dealing with race, as dealing with gender, as dealing with homophobia and that is the economic struggle and in that struggle we are not only not making progress, we are losing ground'.  As if to emphasise his point the applause came when he made reference to ‘gay’ marriage in the UK.

He had said much the same thing in his own country. On the campaign trail in 2015 he said 'Once you get off of the social issues — abortion, gay rights, guns — and into the economic issues, there is a lot more agreement than the pundits understand.'

Both Sanders and Trump announced their bid for the presidency in that year so saying that there was ‘agreement’ on economic issues seems strange.  But as Trump went on to show millions of voters were ready to listen to someone promising to reverse the long time decline in their economic prospects. Trump may be a phony but he won the Republican nomination and the election by saying he could do just that. And it was Hillary Clinton not Bernie Sanders who was nominated by the Democrats.

Sanders it seems did not ‘connect’ with ‘women,  Latinas and Blacks’ in the way that Clinton did, or so we are told.   If that’s true it tells you more about the priorities of some members of the Democratic party and their journalist friends than about the priorities of voters.

The response to Sander’s 2015 comment from one Destiny Lopez was to say he had ‘set economic issues against reproductive health’ and he was ‘throwing abortion rights under the bus’.

But as Sanders told his Oxford audience the economic issues ‘wrap around’ all the social issues.  If you are on a zero hours contract, living in a lousy house for a rent which takes a third of your income, are always one pay packet away from being penniless, working but having to use a food bank, it’s not because you are black/white, male/female, gay/straight, cis/trans, keto/enol, it’s because the people who run the system want it that way.  They and their even richer friends benefit from running the political system along neo-liberal lines.  And you will find some of the beneficiaries in all the categories listed above.

It’s not just the Sun and the Daily Mail in their efforts to present Corbyn and his supporters as dangerously left wing which bolster the status quo. At least these have the merit that they are focused on Corbyn’s political and economic policies.   The supposedly liberal papers play the same game and are equally opposed to radical change.  A few week ago the news that one Holly Willoughby was getting a pay rise found its way onto three pages of the ‘i’ culminating in an article by Jessica Barrett with the heading ‘Why stars pay matters to all of us’.  It seems that Ms Willoughby had been given a pay rise of £200,000 taking her pay from a measly £400,000 to £600,000. It also seems that Jessica Barrett was using a different dictionary for her definition of the word ‘all’ than the one I use.

I doubt the lady who cleans the toilets at the ITV studios gave a whoop of joy at the news. I suspect that like me she would be more likely to ponder what qualities Ms Willoughby has which makes her worth £600,000 a year.  If she did, she was more astute than Jessica Barrett to whom it does not seem to have occurred that the ratio between the pay of women at the top and the bottom of the pay hierarchy is much, much, greater than the ratio between men and women. The same is true of the pay hierarchy for men.

In the world that those journalists who characterise themselves as being ‘of the left’ inhabit, Holly Willoughby’s pay rise was no doubt seen as a blow for gender equality. The fact that in Rochdale we now have two ladies who work as loaders when our wheelie bins are collected each week probably wasn’t. It’s not a high status job so it doesn’t count.   Call it snobbery or the antics of the liberal elite the effect is the same. They and their male counterparts are marginalised. The likes of Jessica Barrett aren’t going to write articles telling us that what wheelie bin loaders are paid matters to us all.

Thirty years ago in his book ‘Choose Freedom: The future of democratic socialism’ Roy Hattersley pointed out that there isn’t such a thing as a ‘socialist’ foreign policy. By the same token there isn’t such a thing as a ‘socialist’ view about gender, sexual orientation, racism, abortion, nuclear weapons, women only railway carriages, or whether transexuals should be allowed to enlist in the military or use women’s toilets. But there is room for a nuanced debate about all of these things. And if you don’t accept the possibility of debate you are headed down the road signposted totalitarianism.

Bernie Sander’s question needs to be answered. Why is it that people, and not just young people with their demands for ‘safe spaces’ and the like, cannot resist sniffing out and condemning anything they think smells of racism, sexism or homophobia, yet don’t show the same enthusiasm for combatting the rise in vast inequalities in both income and in wealth, the growth of zero hours contracts, the receding possibility that they will be able to live a dignified and not poverty filled old age, the demonisation of the poor as work shy
scroungers, the lack of social housing and the increasing proportion of household income that is going to a new rentier class?


You can find video recordings of Bernie Sanders talks to the Oxford and Cambridge Unions on YouTube

*******

War of the Words: Guardian vs Mail

ON June 22nd, this year, Dominic Ponsford writing in the PRESS GAZETTE remarked that 'The Daily Mail has launched its most savage ever editorial attack on long-time critic The Guardian accusing it of “fake news” and being a “purveyor of hatred”.'
Mr. Ponsford claimed at that time that:
'Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre appears to have been spurred into action by a Guardian cartoon which depicted the van which attacked mosque worshippers at Finsbury Park with the words: “Read Sun and the Daily Mail” on the side of it.'

 It seems that the Guardian had run a few stories in which it had compared the Daily Mail to an 'open sewer' and a reader’s letter which said it was an 'organ of hate speech'.

The Mail editor Paul Dacre responded that it wouldn’t matter if The Guardian’s 'infantile lies' were confined to the pages of a 'little-read dying paper'.

'But in this age of social media, they are spread and amplified through the great distorting echo-chamber of the internet, where the mob really does rule…'

In May, The Observer, from the same stable as the Guardian, had run a piece by the journalist Tim Adams in which he asked 'Is this the most dangerous man in Britain?' in an headline over a photo of Daily Mail editor, Paul Dacre. 
Mr Adams claimed that 'Paul Dacre had never had much time for what he christened Cameron’s “chumocracy”.'
Tim Adams describes the intensity of Dacre's work ethic thus: 

'Each weekday evening between about seven and 10pm he leaves his office to sit on the paper’s back bench and remorselessly rehash that day’s offering, all the while delivering what staff call “the vagina monologues”, heated critical assessments of his journalist’s efforts, with scattershot use of his favourite word, “cunt”.  Though the Mail’s website, with its sidebar of celebrity shame, is the most visited news site in the world,  Dacre has little interest in technology.  He edits with a blunt pencil, often apparently with enough vitriol to shred his page proofs.'

Meanwhile, the current issue of Private Eye's 'Street of Shame' column describes how the great dictator Dacre seeks to deliver a 'style guide' to his paper's sub-editors on how to use the English language 'to ensure that [his] readers will perceive the world the way editor Paul Dacre prefers to see it...'.  The Eye asks 'DO YOU SPEAK DACRE?'.

Professional Politicians & Political Gravy Train

by Les May

A week or so ago a someone who has no liking for politicians rang me to say that he had come across a ‘tweet’ saying the Liz McInnes would no be standing as a candidate for the Heywood and Middleton seat at the general election.   The reason she gave was that she is not a ‘professional politician’.  But as my caller pointed out we need more MPs like that.  That is more MPs who are not ‘professional’ politicians.

You have only to look at McInnes’s Wikipedia page to see that she became an MP after nearly 35 years working in a quite different sphere of life.   And why she chose to stand for Labour.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liz_McInnes

If you want to see the consummate ‘professional’ politician in action look no further than the MP in the neighbouring constituency of Rochdale.  Ever since Danczuk was elected in 2010 he has ‘milked’ his position for all it’s worth.  It’s not just the pay-offs from the Daily Mail for his contribution to articles attacking Corbyn or the cash he has received for revelations about his private life which have appeared in The Sun which are part of this process.   His book about Cyril Smith is so full of fanciful assertions masquerading as ‘facts’, so repetitious, so full of ‘flowery flannel’, that it is unlikely that it would have found a publisher had he not been an MP.

http://northernvoicesmag.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/our-long-running-crique-of-smile-for.html

http://northernvoicesmag.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/nv-review-of-smile-for-camera.html 

Whilst his predecessor Cyril Smith was an apologist for the asbestos industry he does not seem to have taken ‘freebies’ such as Danczuk has taken from another killer industry, tobacco.   No one has ever suggested that Liz McInnes has ever behaved like that.

But finally Simon’s antics have caught up with him and he will not be a Labour candidate for Rochdale in the upcoming election. That doesn’t mean the ‘pay days’ are at an end of course but no one is going to be dishing out heaps of cash for his views on the Labour leadership. But it’s worth pointing out that contrary to the stories coming from some sources he has not been ‘banned’ from standing as a Labour candidate.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/general-election-latest-simon-danczuk-banned-labour-party-rochdale-karen-danczuk-a7712241.html

www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/may/01/labour-bans-rochdale-mp-simon-danczuk-from-standing-in-election

http://zelo-street.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/exclusive-labour-expels-danczuk.html

What the NEC actually said is ‘After considering the case of Simon Danczuk in detail and speaking to him in an interview, the Labour party’s NEC endorsement panel today unanimously recommended that he should not be endorsed as a Labour candidate.’  This would seem to neatly get round the question of a ‘legal challenge’.  Natural justice would seem to have been served.  And if he does decide to stand as a candidate in opposition to Labour he will have sacked himself neatly resolving the question about whether his suspension from Labour should be lifted.

So it seems that there is only one bit of unfinished business yet to be resolved.  That’s the investigation by the Metropolitan Police into the little matter of the £11,000 Simon had to repay because he was not entitled to it.

Official Opening of 'Simon Danczuk Toilet Block'

 

 Picture of toilet block dedicated to Rochdale MP, Simon Danczuk

A charity has named a toilet block in Gambia after MP Simon Danczuk in a tongue-in-cheek swipe following a row over donations.

London-based Sohm Schools Support dubbed the facilities the 'Simon Danczuk Toilet Block' as part of their programme to improve two schools in a tiny village.

Charity founder and trustee John Walker had initially vowed to name a more prestigious school building in Sohm after the Labour MP for Rochdale.

It came after they met in 2012 to discuss background information for Mr Danczuk's book 'Smile for the Camera: The Double Life of Cyril Smith'.

But the 69-year-old claims he never got a charity donation in response for his help - and chose to name the school's toilet after the MP following the disagreement.

Mr Walker, who lives in London, said:

'I never had any financial interest in Simon's book but I would have appreciated a charitable donation as recognition for my work.

 'I told Simon if he put a couple of grand our way I would be happy to name a building after him.

'But I never received a donation from him – so, given the way I felt about it, I thought that toilet block would be appropriate instead.

'It's great that these toilets are up and running and very much appreciated by the students and you can see it on their delighted faces - they are flushed with pride. 

 'It's a hard squeeze getting money to help these schools but Mr Danczuk's small deposit was a movement in the right direction.

'One of the students told me that when they go to the toilet they now ask if they can "go to the Danczuk".'

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4245200/Charity-names-TOILET-block-Gambia-Simon-Danczuk.html#ixzz4ZMG0u8iQ
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/www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4245200/Charity-names-TOILET-block-Gambia-Simon-Danczuk.html#ixzz4ZMEC1D4E
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Loose Women Hero Scapegoat's Brother

AIDED by the Murdoch press through The Sun and the local press Karen Danczuk, and occasional panelist on the program 'Loose Women', has claimed that, according to the Rochdale Observer:  'all five of the "targeted" attacks (on her Range Rover) have happened since her brother was jailed for raping her as a child'.
Ms. Danczuk has shown an interest in becoming a member of parliament and since serving as a Labour councillor on Rochdale Council now sees herself as a public figure or minor celebrity.  Hence, she seems to be seizing every opportunity to promote herself, especially since she was the prime witness in a successful case against her own brother for child abuse involving rape.
The latest chance to get noticed was when she Tweeted:
'These attacks are either linked to the trial or a sheer coincidence. They are clearly targeted at me for whatever reason and I can only speculate.' 
It seems the vehicle's paintwork has been scratched and the petrol cap somehow tampered with, the last straw being last Friday when nail were sprinkled before her Range Rover.  The media and TV celebrity has said she has contacted the police.

The media which has been fulsome with its praise for her public promotions has only thought fit to send gossip columnists, rather than their crime or political correspondents, to cover the latest story of Karen Danczuk.
The Daily Mail sent Isobel Frodsham some of whose international stories have appeared on /muckrack.com/isobel-frodsham, and include juicy titles like  

Armed raider frogmarched out of shop empty-handed By Isobel Frodsham dailymail.co.uk

 Man storms into restaurant with a meat cleaver in Malaysia By Isobel Frodsham dailymail.co.uk

Jesus gets his cross stuck in metro ceiling in CologneBy Isobel Frodsham dailymail.co.uk

Meanwhile, the journalist Amanda Devlin from The Sun, who last week covered the Karen Danczuk story of damage to her car, has gone on Twitter to express sycophantic tweets about her own employer among other investigative reports below from both Ms. Devlin and Ms. Frodsham.  We leave it to our readers to judge the quality of this journalism:

Round-up of some of my stories in @TheSun this week

8. Amanda Devlin‏Verified account @JournoDevs Feb 21
   

   The Sun overtakes Mirror to be second biggest UK newspaper website

   
   

   Armed raider frogmarched out of shop empty-handed

   By Isobel Frodsham

   dailymail.co.uk — Cashier was filmed ignoring a man who pointed a gun in her face at a shop She carried on working at the Russian supermarket in Serebryanye Prudy Another worker is seen holding his sleeve and forcing him out of the shop The man was arrested and has been charged with attempted armed robbery An armed raider was frogmarched out of a shop empty-handed after a cashier completely ignored his threat to shoot her.
   

   a day ago Who shared?
   

   Wrong byline?

   Man storms into restaurant with a meat cleaver in Malaysia

   By Isobel Frodsham

   dailymail.co.uk — The 37-year-old man was seen waving a meat cleaver in a restaurant in Malaysia He threatened to cause a gas explosion which led to customers running to safety Emergency services were called and the man was eventually taken away A man went on a rampage with a meat cleaver in a restaurant after losing his phone.
   

   a day ago Who shared?
   

   Wrong byline?

   Jesus gets his cross stuck in metro ceiling in Cologne

   By Isobel Frodsham

   dailymail.co.uk — The man was seen carrying the huge crucifix on an escalator in a metro station Suddenly, as he made his way to the top, the cross was jammed into the ceiling 'Jesus' is seen swearing as he tries and successfully removes it from the hole The man was heading over to the annual street carnival in Cologne, Germany A man dressed as Jesus accidentally jammed a large crucifix into a ceiling of a metro station in Germany. a day ago Who shared?

   1 reply . 1 retweet 4 likes
     Amanda Devlin‏Verified account @JournoDevs Feb 20
   

   Amanda Devlin Retweeted Press Awards

   The Sun shortlisted for Website of the Year at the National Press Awards

   Amanda Devlin added,

   
   

   Press Awards @PressAwardsuk

   Shortlists announced for the National Press Awards for 2016 http://pressawards.org.uk/page-view.php?pagename=Shortlists …
10. Amanda Devlin‏Verified account @JournoDevs Feb 20
    
Amanda Devlin Retweeted Press Awards
The Sun shortlisted for Website of the Year at the National Press Awards
Amanda Devlin added,


Press Awards @PressAwardsuk
Shortlists announced for the National Press Awards for 2016 http://pressawards.org.uk/page-view.php?pagename=Shortlists …
0 replies . 1 retweet 2 likes


13. Amanda Devlin‏Verified account @JournoDevs Feb 19
    
Round-up of some of my stories in @TheSun this week





0 replies . 0 retweets 4 likes

Self-styled ‘Selfie Queen’ or Publicity Seeker?

by Les May

I live in Rochdale.  It’s not difficult to find people eager to give you their opinion about our very own self-styled ‘Selfie Queen’, Karen Danczuk formerly Karen Burke.  Older people, and especially older ladies, tend to be less than impressed by her past enthusiasm for flaunting her cleavage.  Those of a political bent use words like ‘deluded’ when talking about her pretensions to becoming an MP and point to her not altogether successful spell as a local councillor when she gained a reputation for being less than assiduous in attending to some of her duties.

But never have I come across anyone, nor do I expect to, who would suggest that vandalising her car, or indeed any of her property, is acceptable behaviour.

You do not have to be one of her Twitter followers to empathise with Karen over the problem of damage to her car. But that does not preclude us from taking a closer look at this story.

http:  //www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4257178/Vandals-target-Karen-Danczuk-s-car-trial.html

She is quoted as saying:
'Since trial I've had five attacks on car (slashed tyres, diesel, nails, paintwork) I'm sure its coincidence but remember, I travel with two boys.'

'These attacks are either linked to the trial or a sheer coincidence. They are clearly targeted at me for whatever reason and I can only speculate. 
'But these incidents are another example of why victims are too scared to come forward.  I want to remind these people that I travel with two young boys and it is putting their lives in danger as well as my own life.' 

Now no one can object to the last of these four statements.  It is manifestly true. But when I read the first three I began to wonder if we were not seeing here the beginnings of a narrative into which every subsequent happening could be fitted.   
Why mention ‘the trial’?  
Why mention a link to ‘the trial’?
Why write ‘these incidents are another example of why victims are too scared to come forward’?

I have seen this tactic adopted before.  It is what I complained about in 2014 in my Amazon review of her ex-husband’s now discredited book ‘Smile for the Camera’ where I wrote ‘The writing style adopted is to let the narrative drive the evidence not the evidence drive the narrative.’ 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/review/R3A7XZP51EW0A6
 
The problems which arise when this approach to story telling is adopted are highlighted by the fact that when Northamptonshire police investigated one of the stories in ex-husband Simon’s book it was found to have no basis in fact.

A good story was enough to get it a place in the book because it fitted into the narrative the authors had constructed for Cyril Smith.

Adam Simmonds, Northamptonshire Police and Crime Commissioner, ended up asking for an apology from Danczuk and said ‘Everything in that book's got to be evidence-led and -based, otherwise you are alerting people to the wrong information.’  

 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-northamptonshire-33716982

Until such time as the police arrest someone, he or she is convicted of damaging Karen’s car and shown to have done it because they were disgruntled about the outcome of ‘the trial’ I see no reason to fall in line with Karen’s narrative.

It’s not the first time she has tried to construct a narrative which suits the image of herself she is keen to project. She tried to pull off the same trick in January when on ‘Good Morning Britain’ the story was that her ‘prolific use of social media is 100% linked to being abused as a child’. Evidence for this? None! Just a bit of wishful thinking.

http://www.itv.com/news/2017-01-03/karen-danczuk-my-selfies-were-100-linked-to-being-abused/

And how about the two year old story from February 2015, ‘Selfie-mad councillor Karen Danczuk is auctioning herself off this Valentine's day’?  What’s her excuse, sorry explanation, for this bit of self publicity? Or the story of a similar vintage which informs us that on first meeting her Harriet Harman told her 'You're too pretty to be interested in politics and should be in Girls Aloud' 

http://www.itv.com/news/granada/update/2015-02-11/a-valentines-date-with-danczuk/ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2950535/Harriet-Harman-told-Labour-MP-s-wife-Karen-Danczuk-pretty-interested-politics-Girls-Aloud.html

Karen’s attempts to construct a narrative to project a particular image of herself will not doubt continue.   But we don’t have to buy into it.  The findings of the court stand because they have been tested under our adversarial system of justice.  What Karen is quoted as saying in the media and what she posts on Twitter have not, so we are free to believe as much or as little as we like.

She seems to me not to have ‘waived her right to anonymity’, but to have massacred it.  A figure of about £20,000 was mentioned in court for a newspaper story from 2015 almost two years before the verdict. It was no doubt coincidence that this story came out at much the same time as the ‘Valentine dinner’ and the Harman story.  Whether the spate of post trial media stories have been a ‘nice little earner’ I don’t know, but I cannot help having noticed how often the images which accompany them are attributed to agencies which are not unknown to the Danczuk duo.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/archives/news/39912/i-was-raped-age-6-by-a-family-friend/

If Karen has any serious pretensions to a career in politics she will stop trying to be famous and aiming to be a celebrity, drop her smart phone in the canal and get a proper job.
I’m not holding my breath.

Mr. Danczuk's Misleading Us Again

by Brian Bamford

THIS week, Simon Danczuk the current MP for Rochdale, claimed in the Daily Mail that he met John Walker only twice before Danczuk's book 'Smile for the Camera' was written and he said Mr. Walker had nothing to do with the book - and so did not receive a donation from him or his colleague and co-author, Mr. Matthew Baker.
As a former journalist, Mr Walker had previously worked for the Rochdale Alternative Paper (RAP), which first exposed the then LibDem Rochdale politician Cyril Smith back in May 1979.
It ought to be noted that when Walker and his joint-editor David Bartlett made their revelations in RAP in 1979, they did so at great risk to themselves:  their jobs were vulnerable, as they worked as lecturers for the local authority at a time when Cyril Smith had great local influence and he did take legal advice which produced a solicitor's letter but this only ultimately resulted in the threat of injunction against their paper RAP and some modest legal costs to them, which as anticipated frightened off the weak-kneed main-stream press.  Only Private Eye went on to publish the story based on the RAP revelations.
Last week, following the dedication of a toilet block at a school Mr Walker, in a tongue-in-cheek gesture told the Daily Mail that he and his wife, Sandra, of the London-based Sohm Schools Support had dubbed the facilities the 'Simon Danczuk Toilet Block' as part of their programme to improve two schools in a tiny village in Gambia.
In an attempt to justify the £250 to Mr Walker's Charity rung out of the publisher, Mr. Danczuk told the Daily Mail this week:
'... that Mr Walker was acknowledged in its foreword because of the part he played in helping uncover Smith's wrongdoing.'

But Mr Danczuk said:

'I am sorry for Mr Walker who is clearly confused about his involvement with authoring the book, which evidently has contributed an awful lot to raising the issue of child abuse and continues to help victims deal with their traumatic past.'

Some doubts have now been thrown upon this Danczuk's story after Northern Voices' has contacted John Walker, who is still out in Gambia until March working for the Charity.  It now seems that Mr. Walker had much more contact with Danczuk and Baker in to the run-up to the publication of their book.
Yesterday, John Walker confirmed 'I certainly met Danczuk 4 times'.
Mr. Walker then went on to detail the four occassions on which they met in the run-up to the publication of Danczuk's book:
1 - at my request, in the Strangers' Bar of the House of Commons, to discuss my idea of a book. He consumed rather a lot to drink over a couple of hours - so I can understand if this meeting slipped his memory. This would be Nov 2012.

2 - at his request, in his tax/payer funded Pimlico flat, in the week between Xmas and New Year, to discuss my draft outline for the book.

3 - at his request. 10 days later in Portcullis house, Westminster, to discus the book with the literary agent he found.

4 - at his request, and my cost, a meeting in his Rochdale office to discuss how "Matthew Baker" could line up local contacts to be interviewed for the book. (Brian, you will remember this, as we met for a meal and drink afterwards.) Basically, Danczuk and Baker had decided to go ahead without me, and effectively told me so. Thus wasting a day of my time and travel costs to Rochdale (unlike Danczuk, whose fares are met by the taxpayer, I footed my own bill).
This account would seem to be enough to discredit the Danczuk story in itself as Mr. Walker and  Rochdale's Alternative Paper is regarded with great respect in, but there is also evidence of indirect contact through the former Westminster blogger, Paul Waugh.  Two of the young  inmates from Cambridge House, Barry Fitton and Edward Sharrock, both complainants who Danczuk referred to by in his speech in the House of Commons when he first took up this cause in November 2012, were provided for him through the good offices of Mr Walker and Northern Voices.