Our Prime Minister is Public Enemy Number One!

by Cliff Jones

ON TODAY's date in 1998 we had the Good Friday Agreement. Have you heard of that Prime Minister? Does it mean anything to you? Might you, perhaps, ask us to stand on our front door steps and clap for it?

I do not believe that you have the remotest notion of the harmfulness of your lack of concern. Your entire life has been a self-indulgent one. For you Brexit was a jolly jape. Telling big lies and getting away with it was so much fun.

Covid 19? You gleefully told us that you shook hands with it. Have you been on the phone to the prime minister of New Zealand to ask her the number of their dead?

You keep waving the Union Flag as the Union disintegrates. In other words, the more disunity that you create the louder you shout about unity. We are, most definitely, not all in it together. The privileges of your life are unknown to the vast majority.

As for Ireland, I suppose that to you it is no more than a slight irritant. I mean, does the Republic have Trident submarines? Can't be taken seriously then.

The Telegraph paid you £275k p.a. for a weekly column that I believe you said took one and a half hours to knock up (what a phrase) on a Sunday morning. You told us that was 'chicken feed'.

You, Prime Minister, are an irrelevance, a dangerous irrelevance!

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“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.”

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What A Farce by Les May

A RECENT article in The Telegraph claimed that the Kirklees branch of the National Education Union (NEU) gave £3,000 to Purpose of Life, a charity based in West Yorkshire, which later published online the name of the teacher at the centre of the row at Batley Grammar School.

As well as accusing the teacher of 'terrorism' and 'insulting Islam', the group's chief executive, Mohammad Sajad Hussain, said that the charity would not work with the school again until the Religous Studies teacher is 'permanently removed'.

The Kirklees branch is, of course, the one ‘supporting’ the teacher through the disciplinary process initiated by the school. Quite why this NEU branch thought that this donation was an appropriate use of its members’ union fees is unclear.

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Come Back Dominic All Is Forgiven by Les May

WHILST the strategy of attempting to argue that Mr. Cummings' conduct was within government guidelines is insulting and distressing to those who have made terrible sacrifices by staying indoors away from family, it also clears the "we're all in this together" smokescreen to reveal a political plane where different rules apply.

These are the words of Kirsty Brimelow QC in late May 2020. Whilst apologists like Boris Johnson, Grant Shaps and Matt Hancock took a different line these words are probably a good reflection of the feelings of a majority of people in this country.

On 6 January this year protesters at an anti-lockdown demonstration outside the Houses of Parliament were arrested. The day after, page 10 of the Daily Telegraph carried a large picture, 30x20cm, of an Asian lady being handcuffed behind her back by two police officers wearing surgical type masks. The male officer was wearing a body camera.

Above it was a six column wide article headed ‘Breach the rules and face fine, police warn’. Below it was another article also over six columns by Martin Hewitt who chairs the National Police Chief’s Council which included the words ‘… everyone should understand the rules in their area. We know, for example, that large gatherings should not be happening. Forces will continue to bear down on that very small minority who flagrantly and selfishly breach the regulations.’

Even the editorial in the Telegraph, which largely speaking opposes the lockdown, could not manage to produce an argument against this which went much further than complaining that it might penalise old people who might find the need to sit down on a convenient bench whilst taking their exercise.

On Saturday a bunch of women congregated on Clapham Common and four people were arrested for public order and coronavirus regulation breaches. They had gathered after an event organised by Reclaim These Streets was cancelled following talks with the Metropolitan Police, which said it would be in breach of coronavirus rules. In other words they knew exactly what they were doing and now are complaining they were badly treated, though it is difficult to see that they were being treated any differently to the lady at the demo on 6 January. As the character Fletcher said in the BBC TV series Porridge, ‘if you can’t do the time, don’t do the crime’.

Let’s not confuse what happened at Clapham Common with the very real threat to our right to use our streets and open spaces to protest. Since the murder of Sarah Everard ego-centric women have exploited what, by its very rarity, the random killing of a young woman walking home after dark, is a devastating and momentous crime, in order to pursue their own agenda against men and trying to spread a of fear of us amongst women. Would it have been even a nine day wonder if it had been a young man killed in a similar circumstances?

If those who support the idea of making misogyny a ‘hate crime’ get their way the same force that is now watching calls for its Commissioner to resign for the way that the Clapham Common incident was was dealt with, will be handed the job of policing the interaction of men and women in London’s streets. Will there be similar outrage if men find themselves faced with on the spot fines, and being handcuffed if they get stroppy, for an overheard comment that a touchy woman takes exception to?

If we are going to swallow the story that the police were wrong to intervene at a gathering when the people there knew it was in contravention of coronavirus rules, then we should be prepared to say we are sorry for all the nasty things we said about Dominic Cummings. The same rules that apply to me apply to women!

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When Edward Colston Plaque was ammended

THE Daily Telegraph reported on the 25 March 2019 that a plaque paying homage to the reputation of the 17th century merchant and Member of Parliament Edward Colston, under what was then his statue in Bristol has been scrapped after the Mayor complained it watered down his links to slavery.

In February, 2019 Bristol City Council agreed to affix a new plaque under the statue of the controversial figure, to inform visitors of the slave trafficking he was involved in.

The current plaque was made when the statue was erected in 1895.  It makes no mention of the slave trade and reads:  'Erected by citizens of Bristol as a memorial of one of the most virtuous and wise sons of their city'.
A new plaque was commissioned and made after debate.  Bristol historian Francis Greenacre, on behalf of the Merchant Venturers, the organisation Colston belonged to, made changes to it before it was sent to be cast.

For example, rather than writing that he 'trafficked' slaves, the proposed plaque read that he 'transported' them.

The inscription read:  
'He supported and endowed schools, almshouses, hospitals and churches in Bristol, London and elsewhere. Many of his charitable foundations continue. This statue was erected in 1895 to commemorate his philanthropy.
'A significant proportion of Colston’s wealth came from investments in slave trading, sugar and other slave-produced goods.

'As an official of the Royal African Company from 1680 to 1692, he was also involved in the transportation of approximately 84,000 enslaved African men, women and young children, of whom 19,000 died on voyages from West Africa to the Caribbean and the Americas.'

At that time the Mayor Marvin Rees deemed this 'unacceptable', and his office said in a statement:
'It was extremely naive of the Merchant Venturers to believe they should have the final say on the words for a new plaque for the statue of Edward Colston without reference to the communities of descendants of those Africans who were enslaved and treated as commodities by merchants like Colston.
'It’s an oversight to put it mildly not to even have had a conversation with Mayor Marvin Rees, Europe’s first mayor of African heritage and the mayor of a city whose wealth has been inseparable from slavery and plantations and who is himself the descendant of enslaved Africans.
'The proposed words are unacceptable. We will pick this back up as part of our wider work on improving our cultural offer around the transatlantic slave trade.'

Today however, following the dismantling of the Colston statue yesterday, the same Bristol Mayor Marvin Rees, while refusing to act as 'cheer leader' for the police inquiry into possible criminal damage over the dunking of the Colston statute in the Bristol Harbour, he did admit that he was not sorry to see the monument to Edward Colston was no longer in situ.  

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Baffling Ballot Box Probe

Editorial Note:  IN May 2017, Northern Voice produced the piece of investigative journalism below in which we tried to shed light on the shady goings on in the Spotland and Falinge ward.  That was at a time when mysteriously a marked ballot register disappeared without adequate explanation.  Since then the voting irregularities of the new Councillor Faisal Rana has further damaged the image of Rochdale.

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In Rochdale, a lack of curiosity at the top?

Written up by Les May based on research by Carl Faulkner and Brian Bamford

THERESA May’s ostensible reason for calling a General Election is that her slender majority of 12 was an obstacle to passing the legislation needed to cope with the fallout from the UK leaving the EU.  The cynical amongst you might wonder if it was not also an opportunity to distract attention from the fact that criminal charges are being considered by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) against at least 30 individuals in the Conservative party.  Some have been MPs in the 2015 parliament and contributing to Theresa’s slim majority, some will be candidates in this election and could be re-elected.   Electoral fraud isn’t just something that happens in other countries it happens here too.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electoral_fraud 

It’s not just the Tories who have played fast and loose with the rules on election expenditure.  In recent years Labour and the LibDems have both been fined by the Electoral Commission for breaking election expense rules.  What makes the Tory case different is that the CPS is investigating whether there is evidence that candidates and their agents may be guilty of filing false spending returns. If they are both could be charged with fraud.

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/alexandra-runswick/election-expenses_b_16146174.html
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/tory-election-fraud-prosecutions-cps-election-campaign-result-overturn-battle-bus-a7689801.html

This type of fraud is easy to detect once you are alerted to what is happening.   There’s always a ‘paper trail’.  In fact a year ago as part of its ‘Check a Tory’ campaign the Daily Mirror put the election expenses of Tory MPs on line and invited readers to scrutinise them.  What’s much harder to detect is when a small group, with or without the tacit agreement of local party bosses, exploit weaknesses in the system to rig the ballot.  Having a system which ‘on paper’ is foolproof, is fallible if the people who are supposed to implement it fall down on the job.

In August 2015, the government put out a press release announcing that, ‘Sir Eric Pickles, the Government’s Anti-Corruption Champion’, was to review the question of electoral fraud.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/sir-eric-pickles-to-examine-electoral-fraud

A year later it was published.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/sir-eric-pickles-publishes-report-into-tackling-electoral-fraud 

So far so good.  But as I noted above any system is only as good as the people who implement it. This is what the Electoral Commission have to say about those people:

‘Local Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) and Returning Officers (ROs) manage elections, and are uniquely placed to detect and prevent electoral fraud.  They should have robust plans in place to identify any suspicious behaviour and should work with the police to investigate any potential electoral fraud.’  (my emphasis)

But what actually happens when something ‘suspicious’ does occur.   Just how easy is it to get anyone to take notice?  Things seem to have changed in Rochdale since 2011 when ex-council leader Colin Lambert was outspoken about what needed to be done.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-13192008 

Over a year ago Northern Voices was sent the extremely well documented correspondence between a candidate in the Spotland and Falinge ward at last years Rochdale Council elections, and the various bodies which are supposed to deal with questions of electoral fraud.  It runs to some 22 pages.

At that election a 'marked register' went missing.   It should have been handed to the Returning Officer at the point at which the ballot box and other official documents were delivered by the Presiding Officer at the close of poll. It was either accidentally lost or deliberately stolen.  There can be no reason why one of these alternative explanations should be favoured over the other.   If we are to take the fight against electoral fraud seriously the ‘precautionary principle’ suggests that in the absence of evidence to the contrary it should be assumed that it was stolen, the police should be informed to that effect and a full investigation launched.   It did not happen.

What is clear from this correspondence is that, in spite of Pickles bluster in The Telegraph:
'We should never be frightened to look under the rock when what is crawling underneath threatens us all. It is time to take action to take on the electoral crooks and defend Britain’s free and fair elections', when a complaint is made, no one wants to shoulder the responsibility for making sure that a proper investigation is launched.  It seems that Pickles was right about one thing, ‘the authorities are in a “state of denial” and are “turning a blind eye” to election fraud.’

Equally worrying is that the complainant, Carl Faulkner, who stood as an independent candidate, claims that he was not informed of the loss of the missing register as he should have been and that he was told ‘all candidates were informed about the missing register'.  Northern Voices made an effort to contact the other candidates to find out if and when they were told about the missing register.

Mick Coates, the Green candidate, was quite clear that he had not been officially informed that the mark register was missing.

Enquires with the Lib-Dems suggested that this was also the case with their candidate Matthew Allen, and Ian Duckworth, Deputy Leader of the Conservative Party, was unable to confirm that their candidate, Steven Scholes, had been informed either.

Wendy Cox the Labour candidate did not answer the question directly but said:  
'Thank you for your email. I have passed this to the electoral officer.'  

Quite why she felt she had to ask the electoral officer whether she had been informed, is unclear at this point.  A week later she was asked if there had been any response and replied suggesting that NV should contact the electoral officer directly.  On the 10th April the joint editor of NV wrote to the RMBC Chief Executive, Steve Rumbelow for clarification.

(His reply to the NV joint editor, Brian Bamford, is printed below together with the response of the original complainant, Carl Faulkner.  Copies of the full correspondence between the complainant and the various bodies which are supposed to deal with questions of electoral fraud can be made available by e-mail from Northern Voices.  It shows clearly that it was the complainant who initiated the contact with the Cabinet Office, Electoral Commission and Police not RMBC.)

The possibility that the register was in fact stolen has been excluded from consideration a priori, even though at the time an exhaustive and unsuccessful search was made at the polling station, and even of people’s cars.   The consequence of deciding that a register was ‘definitely lost’ not ‘possibly stolen’ is that there is a convenient ‘fall guy’ in the form of whoever was in charge of that polling station. They are deemed to have ‘lost’ it and their reputation must suffer as a consequence.

In all this the one thing that is very clear is that whoever told the complainant that ‘all candidates were informed about the missing register' was telling a porky pie. And these are the people we have to trust when it comes to combating electoral fraud.  Robust plans to identify potential electoral fraud?   I think not.

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Dear Mr Bamford
Thank you for your recent enquiry.  Please accept my apologies for the delay in response.
To clarify, the marked register is the copy of the electoral register used in polling stations. It serves as the record of who has voted in the election, and it is kept for a year after the election. The marked register does not indicate who electors voted for, nor does it contain ballot paper numbers. 

Legislation provides that a variety of parties are eligible to access copies of the marked register after an election. Anyone can inspect the marked register, but only certain people can purchase a copy. 

This includes individual candidates and political party representatives.  Usually, copies are requested by and provided to party representatives who would then disseminate the information to their colleagues, including candidates. 

All those who requested copies of the marked registers were informed that a register had not been returned following the close of poll and the steps that had been taken in an attempt to locate it, both immediately after the close of poll and in the days following the election. 

In addition, the Council has been in contact with the Cabinet Office, Electoral Commission and Police on the matter who were satisfied with the steps that had been taken and the measures put in place to prevent any future issues of a similar nature. 

Yours Sincerely
Steve Rumbelow

And here are Mr Faulkner’s observations:
1) Without him actually stating it, it is clear that people were only going to be informed if and when a copy of the register was requested. That is not the same as informing all candidates as a matter of course. It reiterates my position that there was a concerted attempt to conceal the incident by keeping quiet about it.

2) I feel he is attempting to downplay the importance of the marked register, by portraying it as nothing more than a post-election tool for political parties /candidates / interested persons.  This is not the case - it’s primary purpose is as an anti-fraud document - but one which can be utilised by political parties etc.

3) All contact with the police, Cabinet Office and Electoral Commission was initiated by me. They contacted RMBC - not the other way round as his response could be taken to mean.

4) What are the ‘steps’ put in place that did not exist before? The issue is not about how, who, why or exactly when the register went missing but that no candidates nor the police were informed at the time or during the following 21 days.

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A Symbol of Global Repression

by Les May

THE title of this piece is that used by the ‘i’ newspaper to preface two extracts, one from The Times and the other from the Daily Telegraph.  Both relate to the case of Asia Bibi the Pakistani Christian woman who was held on death row for eight years accused of blasphemy before finally being acquitted by the Pakistan Supreme Court.   The acquittal resulted in mobs taking to the streets demanding that she be hanged.  The rioting mobs were only placated when the president of Pakistan Imran Khan said that her acquittal would be ‘reviewed’.  Since then she has been in hiding and her defence lawyer has fled to the Netherlands of fear of his life.

A report in The Telegraph quoted Jeremy Hunt the Foreign Secretary as saying:  ‘So often, the persecution of Christians is a telling early warning sign of the persecution of every minority. But I am not convinced that our response to the threats facing this group has always matched the scale of the problem’.

A Times editorial said ‘Asia Bibi’s case symbolises the fate of persecuted Christians around the world. It is welcome that the Foreign Secretary has clarified the Government’s stance whilst acknowledging the UK’s failings with regard to safeguarding Christian’s overseas.’

What is both surprising and disappointing is that it has been left to a Tory cabinet minister and two Tory supporting papers to take up the Asia Bibi case. The normally very vocal so called ‘liberal left’ with its obsession with identity politics has ignored her plight.  I am also aware that some time ago one of the Northern Voices editors contacted Jeremy Corbyn’s office for a response to the Asia Bibi case.  A reply is still awaited.

As I have mentioned before I have no axe to grind on this as I am an atheist.   But I cannot help noticing that all too often, because some Christians express views about homosexuality and abortion that some people do not like, Christians are seen only as persecutors of others and never as victims of persecution.

So far as I am concerned Christians are free to believe that they know what God thinks about homosexuality or abortion and to tell the rest of us if they are minded to do so.  I am free to ignore them. It’s called tolerance and stems from the belief that freedom of speech is having the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.

Given that Asia Bibi is in fear of her life, yet her plight is ignored by the so called ‘liberal left’, puts into perspective the constant whingeing from assorted self interest groups about trivial incidents which they claim are ‘offensive’. A stray hand on someone’s knee or calling someone with full set of wedding tackle ‘he’ when they claim to be ‘she’, doesn’t really compare with having mobs on the street determined to hang you from the nearest lamp post.

The Goalie and the Nazi

by Christopher Draper

CHANCES are you’ve never heard of Jack Kirby but he deserves public recognition as a bona fide Northern Hero.  The North was never short of footballers with scoring ability and popular appeal but Kirby had neither.Jack was a quiet, modest goalkeeper who in 1934 defied the concerted might of his Derby County Management, the British Government and his Nazi hosts and alone refused to salute fascism.

(insert amended Derby County Shield here)

Nazi Football

Hitler hated football but saw the game’s potential for showing off Nazi physical prowess.  When he assumed power in 1933 Germany was a weak footballing nation that hadn’t participated in the 1930 World Cup but Hitler was determined to remedy that.  The head of the German Football Association, Dr Otto Nerz, the man who brought Jack to Germany, shared Hitler’s view and not just on football. Nerz was a devoted member of the Nazi Party long before Hitler’s accession and was as determined as the Fuhrer to make the national team a model of Nazi success.  To this end he travelled extensively studying successful foreign teams, including periods 'living-in' with Aston Villa, Glasgow Rangers and Arsenal.
Nerz similarly shared the Fuhrer’s rabidly anti-semitic prejudices and subsequently detailed his struggles,  'Jews and their bondsmen continually made the lives of the leadership (of the football association) very difficult, particularly with regard to the issue of professional players. During the crisis before 1933, there was a great danger that football would also become Judaized. The major clubs were always deeply in debt and the creditors frequently were Jews.  The drive towards professional football was very strong and the state at that time could not give the leadership of the sport any support because the state itself was dependent on the Jews.'
With Hitler running the state and Nerz running the F.A., German football was swiftly 'cleansed' of racially unacceptable players and managers but this didn’t concern the English F.A .

New Best Friends

The leaders of English football admired Hitler’s commitment to the game and were keen to cooperate in raising Nazi Germany’s international profile.  Within a year of Hitler’s take-over Dr Otto Nerz had secured the agreement of the English FA for top team Derby County to tour Germany playing exhibition matches against a German FA XI.  The British Government and almost all elements of the English Establishment were delighted at this public demonstration of our two nations’ shared values.
In February 1934 Dr Otto Nerz announced details of the Derby County tour to the international press telling reprorters,  'They play very attractive football and their style of play is likely to make a big appeal to Germany.'  The tour awaited the English close season when Derby would play successive matches at Frankfurt, Cologne, Dusseldorf and Dortmund with the first kicking-off on 10 May.

Rams on Tour

Jack Kirby along with sixteen team mates and half-a dozen officials, including a photographer from the Derby Telegraph left Derby station late on Sunday evening, 6 May 1934.  Sailing from Dover at noon the following day the party didn’t finally arrive at their hotel until the early hours of Tuesday. Everyone was in good spirits although, as the Derby Telegraph reported from Frankfurt, everything hadn’t entirely gone to plan,  'The Derby County party arrived here this morning in very happy mood in spite of a lengthy hold-up at one a.m. at the German frontier.  We were requested to produce all moneys in our possession.  This is an innovation since Herr Hitler’s regime.  The same procedure takes place when the traveller leaves Germany.  The German authorities thus have a check on one’s purse, the motive being to make sure that travellers do not leave Germany with more money than they had in their possession on arriving in that country.'
As soon as were met at their Frankfurt hotel by Otto Nerz they experienced no further obstructions as he chaperoned them around Germany ensuring that everywhere they were enthusiastically received. Specially translated English language menus were provided at eating places, dedicated guides provided and relaxing river trips on the Rhine organised.

A Rum Do

By May 1934 German football had already been thoroughly Nazified with both teams expected to stand and deliver a formal 'Hitler salute' before kick-off.  The Derby County men weren’t keen to comply and made this clear to club officials well before the Frankfurt match, as George Collins much later recalled, 'We told the manager, George Jobey, that we didn’t want to do it.  He spoke with the directors, but they said that the British Ambassador insisted we must.  He said the Foreign Office were afraid of causing an international incident if we refused. It would be a snub to Hitler…'
Despite Herr Nerz’s cosseting the players were beginning to realise that they were pawns in a wider political game and the Germans were determined to win.  As the Telegraph reported, 'The German pivot was playing very unorthodox football…he repeatedly played the man instead of the ball…
Bowers was badly fouled and injured…he came around after about three minutes (although) still appeared dazed…Kirby was the next to receive an injury.'  Even the referee seemed to be under orders from Nerz, 'It is interesting to note that the second half lasted 55 minutes and Herr Otto Nerz had to send a message to the referee by a linesman to remind him that it was much past time.'
The jubilant Germans won 5-2 although the Telegraph reporter claimed, 'Even the German authorities doubted two of the side’s goals.'  What he didn’t report was the Derby team’s instructions to salute.(pic of Derby team giving Nazi salute – except Jack!)

The Quiet Man and the Nazi

Jack Kirby was a Derby man through and through. Born at Overdean in South Derbyshire in 1910 there were Kirby’s all over the area and for generations they’d worked down the pit. Jack’s grandad was a miner, his dad was a miner and he never forgot his roots,  When instructed to salute fascism Jack adamantly refused.  As the photo shows, whilst the rest of the team followed orders, defying 35,000 chanting German football supporters Jack Kirby stood his ground and kept his arms by his sides.  It was a gesture every bit as brave and powerful as the iconic Black Power salutes of the 1968 Olympics although in 1934 nobody mentioned it.  This picture, taken by the accompanying Derby Telegraph photographer wasn’t published in the paper, nor was the incident reported.  There was no protest from the Nazis, no apology from the British F.A. and simply no mention of Jack’s defiant gesture in any media outlet.  It was fake Non-News, a conspiracy to keep quiet about an astonishingly brave public act of opposition to Hitler. Only after Jack Kirby’s death in Derby in 1960 did his old team mate George Jobey reveal Jack’s astonishing bravery, 'We did what we were told. All except our goalkeeper, Jack Kirby'.
Jack died as he had lived, a quiet unassuming hero. Satisfyingly, his 1934 bete noire Dr Otto Nerz eventually received his come-uppance.  Much admired by fawning English sports reporters as the, 'virtual dictator of German Football,' in 1945 Nerz was captured by the invading Red Army. Identified as an irredeemable Nazi,  Dr Otto Nerz was interned in Sachsenhausen where he died of meningitis on 19 April 1949.

Christopher Draper (February 2018)

How Danczuk Judges Others by own standards!

by Les May

DANCZUK's response to the story which appears in today's Rochdale Observer about a toilet block being named after him: 

'The publisher paid John Walker £250 in error,  it should never have been paid to him.  He contributed nothing to the book written about Cyril Smith.  It's not for me to pay for his flights to Gambia.'

is typical Danczuk bluster, displays a total ignorance of why the money was paid and is libellous by implication.  Clearly Danczuk judges others by his own casual approach to entitlement to expenses. 

When I put this to John Walker he replied:  

'And, of course the charity does not pay my flights to The Gambia.  I have never drawn a penny from it and it costs me, at a conservative estimate c £2k per year.' 

If you don’t know who to believe in this exchange you might remember that Danczuk has never told us how many men he interviewed before writing his book.  I wrote to him in 2014 asking him this very question and he has never replied.  When a Northern Voices editor put the same question to Danczuk and Baker at the Rochdale Literary and Ideas Festival in the same year he was summarily ejected by the ‘fragrant’ Karen Danczuk. 

When Danczuk and Baker’s book appeared in 2014 reviewers fell over themselves to denounce Smith and praise the book.  Almost the only sceptical note was sounded by Nicholas Blincoe in review in the Telegraph.  But Blincoe was from Rochdale and knew all about Smith from the story which appeared in May 1979 in Rochdale’s Alternative Paper (RAP).  Walker was one of the two co-editors of RAP.   As Blincoe said in his review. ‘Everyone in Rochdale read the RAP story.  I pored over it as a 13-year-old.’.  Which means of course that everyone in Rochdale over about 55 knows the just how big is the debt Danczuk and Baker owes to the dogged efforts of Walker and co-editor David Bartlett. 

Now I’ve ‘got form’ in attacking Danczuk’s claims about his book, but if you want an independent view check out the articles on the Zelo blog using the link I have provided below. 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/bookreviews/10796249/Smile-for-the-Camera-The-Double-Life-of-Cyril-Smith-by-Simon-Danczuk-and-Matthew-Baker-review.html 

 

http://zelo-street.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/danczuk-did-not-expose-cyril-smith.html 

 

http://zelo-street.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/simon-danczuk-prizewinning-fraud.html 

 

http://zelo-street.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/simon-danczuk-and-that-book-1.html 

 

http://zelo-street.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/simon-danczuk-and-that-book-2.html 

 

http://zelo-street.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/simon-danczuks-cyril-smith-book-3.html 

 

http://zelo-street.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/simon-danczuks-cyril-smith-book-4.html 

 

"I don't understand why he has never written a book about this himself.

He's had plenty of opportunities to do so."

 

I consider the statement " It's not for me to pay for his flights to

Gambia." a libel by implication.

--

 

The Archers: Domestic Dramas North & South

THIS week, the Telegraph's media correspondent Patrick Foster reported: 

'Rape charities have called for the arrest of Rob Titchener, the bullying husband in the long-running Archers domestic abuse plot, after his wife revealed that he had raped her "over and over again".
'Polly Neate, the chief executive of Women's Aid, said it would be "an insult to abuse survivors everywhere" if Rob, who was stabbed by his wife, Helen, as she tried to leave him, was not arrested after Tuesday's explosive episode.'

Giving evidence earlier this week, Rob's wife Helen, who stands accused of his attempted murder told the court:  'He was determined to have a baby. I told him I wasn't ready but he wouldn't listen. The first time he plied me with wine he held me down by my wrists. I told myself, he was my husband, it should be fine, but it wasn't fine, was it.'

As the trial proceeds this week the emotionally charged program has been an unfolding drama of a high level of  abuse by a middle-class husband Rob Titchener against his rather unworldly wife, Helen, in Ambridge somewhere in the Midlands. 

But giving evidence for the first time, Helen said: "He was determined to have a baby. I told him I wasn't ready but he wouldn't listen. The first time he plied me with wine he held me down by my wrists. I told myself, he was my husband, it should be fine, but it wasn't fine, was it."

Meanwhile, today the Express reported that 'After Helen revealed that her abusive husband repeatedly raped her, pleading that she stabbed him in self-defence, her lawyer Anna made a shock breakthrough.  During tonight’s instalment of the BBC Radio 4 soap, the frustrated lawyer - who has pleaded with Jess for so long to make a stance - finally delivered the good news. 

Catching Helen’s family outside the courtroom following the third day of the torturous trial, Anna beamed: “Good I’ve caught you - now, don’t get too excited by this, but Rob’s ex-wife Jessica has come forward.”  As Tom and Pat celebrated, Anne interrupted: “I can’t really say what she’s going to say, but it’s significant; She’s given a statement”.'

In the light of all this nail-biting media drama which is keeping the nation on tenterhooks one wonders what Rochdale MP, Simon Danczuk, is thinking as he awaits the outcome of a police investigation into allegations that he too transgressed while married to Sonia Rossington.   www.dailymail.co.uk/.../My-years-abuse-sex-text-MP-Disgraced-Danczu...

Labour: Conspiracy, Cock Up or Catastrophe?

by Les May

Is there really a conspiracy within the Labour party to prevent Jeremy Corbyn leading the Labour party? On the evidence available to us the answer to this question must be 'Yes!'  

So what is the evidence? Consider the following newspaper headlines since Corbyn was elected in September 2015. 'Secret bid to oust Corbyn' (The Times 28 November 2015); 'Revealed: plot to oust Jeremy Corbyn by using veteran Labour MP Margaret Hodge to spark leadership contest' (Daily Telegraph 3 May 2015):  'Labour rebels hope to topple Jeremy Corbyn in 24 hour blitz after EU referendum' (Daily Telegraph 13 June 2016):  'Labour rebels plan to elect own leader and create 'alternative' if Jeremy Corbyn is re-elected' (Daily Telegraph 30 July 2016). 

Now, Owen Smith dismissed the last of these stories by insisting he would not 'indulge in gossip'.  But given that the other two stories from the Telegraph proved to be true this hardly looks like a considered response.

Not only does this point to a conspiracy but given that no disciplinary action has yet been taken against any of the people involved it would appear that those who run the party are turning a blind eye to what is going on.

If not actually encouraging the plotters they are certainly guilty of a monumental 'cock up'.

On 15 July, Iain McNicol circulated members informing them that the National Executive Committee had decided 'to suspend all normal party meetings at CLP and branch level until the completion of the leadership election'.  The reason (excuse?) given was the by now all too familiar one of some people feeling 'threatened'.

Now I can think of little that would be more likely to destroy cordial relationships between a sitting MP and Labour members in his or her constituency than this.  If Labour members disagree (or agree) strongly with the behaviour of their MP in the Leadership contest (or anything else) they need a way of resolving their differences.  Being unable to meet for two months to do this collectively is asking for trouble.

Three days after these instructions were issued a Labour party member asked me rhetorically, 'what does she think we are, postmen to deliver her leaflets at election time?'  Later that day at an informal meeting of his branch, complaints were voiced about the something the MP had been doing for some time.  My response when I was told this was to point out that it clearly had not bothered anyone up to the present, so why complain now?

Keeping channels of communication between Labour members and their constituency MPs is important.  Whilst I do not doubt that a number of Labour MPs have been plotting against Corbyn, I am sceptical that all those who resigned from his front bench team were active plotters.  Nor do I know what pressure was applied to them to persuade them to resign.

If, as seems likely, Corbyn is re-elected as leader of the Labour party some of the MPs who originally resigned may wish to reconsider their position and agree to work with him.  They need to have a way back without losing face.  Bridges have to be built (or rebuilt) to enable this to happen.

The alternative, that a group of MPs attempt to form a parliamentary group calling itself the 'Labour' party and with a different leader would be a catastrophe, not least because it would involve tearing up the 'one member one vote' electoral system for leader in favour of one in which members of the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) chose the leader.

Neither The Times nor the Daily Telegraph can be described as papers which support Labour.  A weak and factional Labour party suits their proprietors very well.  So perhaps we should take some of what they say about Labour's difficulties with a pinch of salt.

However that should not stop us from wondering whether the plotters are in fact puppets with someone else 'pulling the strings'.  Bankrolling a legal challenge over who has the right to use the Labour name and owns the assets would not be cheap.  But perhaps someone intent on destroying the Labour party would think it was worth it.  

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/politics/article4626500.ece http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/05/03/revealed-plot-to-oust-jeremy-corbyn-by-using-veteran-labour-mp-m/

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/06/13/labour-rebels-hope-to-topple-jeremy-corbyn-in-24-hour-blitz-afte/

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/07/29/labour-rebels-plan-to-elect-own-leader-and-create-alternative-gr/

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/07/30/jeremy-corbyn-mps-considering-splitting-the-party-should-think-c/

UK Political Class in Turmoil!

JEREMY Corbyn Twitted 2-hours ago:

'I completely condemn abuse of MPs of any kind. No abuse is carried out in my name. There is no place for this in society or in our politics.'

WHAT Jeremy Corbyn senses here is that the whole of the UK political class is now in turmoil including himself.  Yesterday, the New York Times ran an editorial entitled 'THE HOLLOW PROMISES OF BREXIT' in which the editor concluded by reviewing what Boris Johnson is now writing in a recent column in The Telegraph:

'The backtracking by Mr. Johnson and his allies has exposed the venality and cynicism of their campaign - unfortunately for Britain, far too late.'

Politicians never were held in very high esteem in England, now the backlash promises to be substantial not just against the Poles and other immigrants, but also the against whole of the political class perhaps with the exception of the SNP.

On Being Sour About Southerners

THIS morning on 'Saturday Live' Stuart Maconie promoted his book 'A Pie at Night' which is a follow-up on his earlier work 'Pies and Prejudice' reviewed in an early printed issue of Northern Voices.  James Watson in his review in the Daily Telgraph last October argued that in the current book 'Maconie [is] unwilling to hear, or write, a word against the region' and that 'his fondness for the North is now unconditional'. 

On 'Saturday Live' today, while glorifying the Stalybridge Buffet Bar on Stalybridge railway station and even comparing it to George Orwell's ideal pub, 'The Moon under the Water', Maconie said that he was annoyed by Janet Street Porter expressing her dislike for Manchester and going on about 'Women dressed-up to the Nines going out on the Town!'

Maconie said 'These are my people you're talking about!'

As Watson writes: 

'Many memorable set pieces [in the book] rely on Maconie’s rare ability to convey the sense of people having a really good time. One of the best takes place in Southport on a hot bank holiday, and includes his visit to the town’s celebrated lawnmower museum where, among the exhibits, are Nicholas Parsons’s secateurs, Vanessa Feltz’s dibbers and a mower that belonged to the hangman Albert Pierrepoint.'

For Mr. Watson, accuses Maconie:

'Far too often he breaks off to confirm, inadvertently, the biggest Northern stereotype of the lot: coming over all chippy about Southerners. (Full disclosure: I’m a Northerner too.)'

And Watson argues:

'The chippiness leads him to appropriate anything he approves of – hedonism, punk, the urban working classes, even scientific achievement – as essentially Northern. It also creates a curious double standard. If people in Halifax tuck into, say, “ox tongue spring roll with cauliflower purée”, this is proof of Northern culinary sophistication. If people in London do the same, it’s proof of their irredeemable pretentiousness. '

James Watson concludes his review:

'To expect Maconie to give a fully-rounded picture of Northern life would be like asking Romeo to give us a warts-and-all portrait of Juliet.'

On today's 'Saturday Live' Stuart Maconie appeared alongside other studio guests such as Saba Douglas-Hamilton,   Radzi Chinyanganya, and Frederick Forsyth.

Cecil Parkinson & Simon Danczuk's Indiscretions

by Les May

THE best description of Simon Danczuk's antics I have come across is that he is 'like a man who goes to a cocktail party and insists on drinking lager'.  A bit cruel perhaps, but even in the Labour party he gives every impression of being a 'square peg in a round hole'.

No one could possibly make such a jibe against the recently deceased Cecil Parkinson.  A favourite of Margaret Thatcher he fitted into the Tory party of the 1980s like a man born to it.  Which he wasn't.  Like Simon Danczuk his family origins were in the working class.  His father was a 'platelayer', which is essentially someone responsible for maintaining a section of the track of a railway. 

Whilst we can peruse at our leisure the history of Parkinson's fall from grace over a sexual indiscretion, the final chapter of Danczuk's sudden tumble into the realms of being referred to in the papers which once lauded him, as a 'shamed' or 'disgraced' MP, still has to be written.

Parkinson was forced to resign on 14 October 1983 after it was revealed that his former secretary, Sara Keays was carrying his child.  He decided to remain with his wife rather than divorce and keep his promise to marry Sarah.

As Allison Pearson put it in the Telegraph, 'In the moral climate of 30 years ago, Parkinson had to resign because of sex. His position was considered untenable due to his adultery and the embarrassment of his secretary being openly with-child.'  But the judgement of history is rather different.  But as Pearson noted with reference to his decision not to acknowledge the daughter Sara produced, 'What ruined his reputation was not that he was too much of a shagger, but too little of a father'.

If as Pearson suggests the moral climate has changed with regard to adultery by our leaders, then Simon Danczuk has been one of the beneficiaries.  Today we recognise that Simon's extra-marital behaviour isn't our business.  And whilst a teacher in a religious school might still struggle to keep their job if they committed adultery and got another woman pregnant, that wouldn't be the situation in a state school.

But if a teacher were found to have been sending suggestive texts to a 17 years old young woman with a nice sideline in marketing toe nail clippings and used underwear, he (and probably she) would be suspended pending an investigation. And this goes of a number of other jobs too.  It's the sleaze factor which is at work here.

The fact that Simon has been suspended from the Labour party and no one seems in a big hurry to get the investigation under way is in sharp contrast with what happened to Cecil Parkinson.  Although he had to resign his ministerial post after Sara Keays' pregnancy became known he did not fall out of favour with Thatcher or the Tory party. He had two more periods as a minister from 1987 to
1990 and was Chairman of the party 1997-1998. Not a bad record for a man who once said he wanted to remove the prefix “the disgraced” from his name.

Cecil was loyal to his party which reciprocated that loyalty, Simon isn't.  He may well have friends in the Labour party who like him style themselves as 'moderates', but even they must be wondering if he can be trusted.

Simon's problem is that from day one of his election he has been in too much of a hurry to become a man of influence within the party and hence have a role in shaping policy.  The traditional way of doing this was to make oneself known by writing Fabian pamphlets and taking up invitations to visit other constituencies to give talks to Labour groups.  Simon's preferred method was to adopt a populist stance on some aspect of policy and then have his name attached to articles about it in the Daily Mail or the Sun newspapers.

Instead of taking time to produce a well documented book about Cyril Smith he established himself as 'Nonce Finder General' by rushing into print a book which is repetitive, lacking in any systematic methodology, largely based on gossip and supposition, with substantial parts very doubtfully true and with at least one important section now known to be completely untrue.

Whether Simon will ever be able to get away from having 'the shamed' or 'the disgraced' being prefixed to his name I don't know.  Since the story of the suggestive texts with its connotations of sleaze broke on New Years Eve we've had the revelations about Simon's thoughts on politics from a former girlfriend, allegations of rape by a former wife, stories about claiming expenses for accommodation in London for children he has hardly seen, stories about the purchase of children's rail tickets and stories about his penchant for first class rail travel.

No doubt Simon will claim that some of the complaints about his expenses are politically motivated.  But given that instead of debating policy with the Lib-Dems during 2014 Labours main strategy in Rochdale was to demand that they 'apologise for Cyril Smith' that will be a bit like the pan calling the kettle 'sooty bottom'.   
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/12123559/Why-Cecil-Parkinson-was-a-prisoner-of-his-time.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3416056/Labour-MP-Simon-Danczuk-reported-fraudulent-expenses-claims.html
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/politics/6885563/Disgraced-MP-facing-investigation-over-fraudulent-expenses-claims.html
http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/simon-danczuk-expenses-police-reported-10785402
http://zelo-street.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/danczuk-expenses-police-called-in.html
http://www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-features/2/news-headlines/99331/first-class-travel-on-the-danczuk-gravy-train
http://www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-features/2/news-headlines/99104/simon-danczuk-in-economy-class-flight-snub-controversy

http://www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-features/2/news-headlines/100577/lib-dems-criticise-danczuk-rail-hypocrisy