Tommy Robinson & Anthropological strangeness in the Green Room

  Panorama’s John Sweeney puts his foot in it!

BILLY Holiday sang 'Strange Fruit on the Poplar Trees' about the hangings by the Ku Klux Klan of negros in the Deep South in the USA.  Similarly, Panorama journalist John Sweeney in an moment of gay abandon described how he encountered a proletarian in the Green Room while he was working on 'some film on Newnight'.  And it was so rare, he says, 'to meet a white working class male in the newsnight green room' that he and one of his mates 'went down there to have a drink with him'.

Pity Mr. Sweeney didn't realise that curiousity killed the cat.  For the tedious Tommy Robinson, who fancies himself as an investigative  journalist, was then able to entrap poor John by the short and curlies.  Somehow Tommy Robinson caught him out as saying 'it was so unusual...in the way that you would do with somebody, from the, you know a CANNIBAL from the Amazonian, erm Amazonia or maybe a CREATURE from OUTER SPACE'.


The footage was posted to Robinson’s social media accounts on both Facebook and Instagram over the weekend and shows the former English Defence League leader confronting Sweeney over his comments.

As a consequence of  this the The Unity News Network now reports that 'over the last few weeks the internet has been ablaze with chatter as to how Tommy Robinson managed to snare the senior Panorama reporter John Sweeney.  In a further teaser trailer Tommy posted tonight it reveals that his ex-employee Lucy Brown was playing a double bluff with Panorama.'

Mr. Sweeney on these social media videos, cuts a Rumpole of the Bailey figure, treating a young woman to a largely liquid lunch of champange rather than red burgundy and flaming Sambuca as a digestive with the desert course.  All for £220 with or withour service charge, pressumeably all on BBC expenses.
 
Robinson has also said that the full footage will be compiled into a documentary that will be shown in Manchester on February 23rd outside of the BBC’s offices in the city. He has also revealed that he will post further footage from the documentary every 72 hours, starting on Tuesday evening.
So far, neither Sweeney, the BBC, nor HOPE Not Hate have addressed Robinson’s released footage or claims of further revelations, although HOPE not HATE senior researcher Joe Mulhall briefly locked his Twitter account following the release of the footage.

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Patriotism versus Nationalism.

by John Wilkins

I THOUGHT there needed to be a discussion about how people interpreted nationalism as opposed to patriotism after campaigning in the referendum last year.  A member of the public did not agree with my views he called me a traitor.  This annoyed me as I could not see why I could not be both patriotic and still stay in Europe.  I told him that my father, who was shot down over France a month before I was born, could definitely be called a patriot.
The recent outburst on twitter by President Trump over the 'kneeling protests' by NFL players, seemed to echo the views and anger shown by the right wing extremist I had met.
I was impressed by the calm and eloquent way Osi Umenyiora, ex NFL star and tv pundit spoke on the subject prior to tv coverage of a game.  Osi is a Nigerian American who said he valued the opportunities given him in the USA and claimed he would be prepared to give his life for his adopted country.  Commenting on Trump's tweet when he referred to the protesters as 'sons of bitches', Osi said he did not remember Trump using such language about white supremacists, one of whom killed a woman and injured others by driving his car into the counter protesters at a fascist rally in Charlottesville.
NFL players knelt for the national anthem in a respectful manner to highlight the numbers of black lives that had been lost to police violence.
The sport's national association issued a statement saying 'Sports are a unifying influence in our society, bringing people of differing backgrounds and beliefs together.' and 'Our respect for the national anthem has always been a hallmark of our pre-match events.'
Osi claimed that Trump had behaved contrary to the values of the founding fathers of the country with regard to the First Amendment of the Constitution.  This states there should be no 'abridging the freedom of speech,.....or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.'  He therefore argues it is the President who is unpatriotic in not upholding citizen’s rights under the Constitution.
To help me distinguish between concepts of nationalism and patriotism I turned to dictionary definitions.
Nationalism. 'Extreme pride in the history, culture and successes of one's nation'. Chambers.
'Identification with one's own nation and support for its interests, especially to the exclusion or detriment of the interests of other nations'.  (Oxford.)
'Advocacy of, or support for the political independence of a particular nation or people'. Oxford.
Patriotism. 'Loyalty to one's nation'.  (Chambers.)
'The feeling of loving your country more than any others and being proud of it'.
(Cambridge.)
Groups like The English Defence League take the first two definitions of nationalism to an extreme. President Trump does also in pushing through protectionist legislation on the economy and in his attitude to refugees.
Much of the world seems currently to reject the third definition when we see current struggles for independence of Catalonians, Biafrans, Kurds and Palestinians.
Patriotism comes into play when a country experiences war, takes part in sporting events, or celebrating achievements.  It needs to be shown now in the UK as we move out of Europe, whether we voted to leave or not, it is important that we show loyalty to our nation.
Patriotism can soon turn into a tribal form of nationalism in sport though.  It is possible to be loyal and patriotic to country or club without insulting, or showing aggression towards the opposition.
It is worth pointing out that November 2nd. is the 100th. Anniversary of the Balfour Declaration which led later to the creation of Israel.  The UK soon lost sight of their promise in 'the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine'.  Here I struggle to define myself as a patriot except that it should, like a true friend, be possible to point out mistakes our country has made.
I will finish by looking at our National Anthem, some verses contain some of the worst examples of nationalism.  We usually only sing the first verse but I remember Billy Connolly pointing out the sixth verse which is an example the first of the Oxford Dictionary definitions of nationalism.
Lord grant that Marshall Wade
May by thy mighty aid
Victory bring
May he sedition hush
And like a torrent rush
Rebellious Scots to crush.
If we have to have this outdated anthem I prefer Verse 4 and would be happier if that was retained and Verse 6 taken out.
Verse 4.
Lord make the nations see
That men should brothers be
And form one family
The wide world over.
It is our duty as citizens to be patriotic to our country but curb the excesses of nationalism. The world is shrinking as travel becomes easier and as 'no man can be an island unto himself', no nation can survive without creating relations with other

Tales of Hoffman: Part Two

FURTHER to our post 'Tales of Hoffman:  Part One' on this Blog last week, Northern Voices was sent another  commentary from the photo-journalist, Mr. David Hoffman, on his involvement with Freedom Press and his subsequent claim which resulted in Freedom paying him £4,000.   Here is what he has to say on reflection; in some of this he repeats what he has already said in 'Tales of Hoffman:  Part One':

Dear xxx,
'I found the [copyright] saga depressing, a Greek tragedy.  Entirely foreseeable, entirely avoidable and entirely inevitable.  If Freedom had had the respect that I might have expected for what is my lifetime's (well over 36 years so far) work against racism none of this would have happened.  Dozens of left publications ask me for my pics, pay at an appropriate rate and we all work together generously and honestly.  Freedom pissed in the soup to save a few bob and out of a feeling of arrogant entitlement.  Just like a banker.

'This is a roughly pasted together e-mail that I've been adding to, that's why you'll find it a bit disjointed.  At some point I might flesh it out with specifics like times and dates for the numerous attempts I made to get Freedom to settle for a few hundred (NUJ rates) and the return of my stolen prints used for a book.  And there's a lot more  that I did trying to avoid this slow motion train wreck.

'I have 104 items in my "Freedom" robbers folder, that's 10 times what there should be and because I bust my balls trying again and again to find them a cheap easy way out.  I've never worked so hard trying to save an infringer from its own death wish.  Freedom just ignored me, made promises they didn't keep, wasted my time, lied repeatedly and dug themselves deeper and deeper in their own poo.

'That's why it became so expensive.  Mind you, if it had been Getty's pics they'd nicked it would have likely been five times as much.

'It seems that the current collective hasn't sufficient conviction in their own case to allow any of this on their site, so I'll leave the handful who have been cursing me to get on with it on their own.  I've had my teeth knocked out by cops, had my life threatened by a (now serving life) BNP murderer (and by a dozen others from '70s NF to 2012 EDL) and I've survived every major riot in the UK in my lifetime.  I can probably cope with a few rude tweets from people who lack the courage to use their own names.

'There's a lot more to this than Freedom are putting into the public realm.  Unfortunately you are unlikely to see it, as a response alongside the allegations on their site would expose their deceit.

'I've been a fan and supporter of Freedom since 1970.  I've been asked to speak at the Book Fair and have been to many of the events in Angel Alley.  I've rather lost touch with them over the last decade as the collective has become inward looking, defensive and irrelevant.

'I put 3 months into trying to to get a cheap, amicable resolution.  Twice, neutral, independent friends of theirs tried to resolve this.  Both said Freedom should settle.  At the start it would have been a few hundred to cover the standard NUJ recommended fees and they could have had time to pay if needed.  They were ignored.  Freedom stonewalled, lied, obstructed, refused to make any offers at all, claimed they had permission, blamed others and accused good people I know of some seriously treacherous behaviour - all lies.  They left me no choice but to walk away or go in hard.  It was Freedom who ruled out an amicable solution.

'I'm not inclined to walk away from oppressive behaviour from the right or the left.  I put a great deal of time and effort into protecting the rights of my colleagues (and myself) and I'm not about to undermine that 30+ year struggle by letting a bunch of armchair anarchists deliberately pillage work that I have put together since the'70s often at considerable risk.

'Freedom also owns a secretive holding company with the building worth well over £1m (they deny that but had it valued recently - let's see the valuation?) plus significant other assets secret.  Just like the Barclay brothers.  They are in no danger of bankruptcy - other than moral bankruptcy.

'In any case the readership of the paper has been falling for years, long before this spat.  The collective has discussed whether they can or should continue to produce it on a number of occasions.  Pretending that the doubts over its future are down to this single payment is a deliberate deceit against its own supporter.

'The [Freedom] collective pretends that using my photos "was a honest mistake" that's not the case.  The question of copyright was raised at the collective meeting that decided to publish the book and [was] just brushed aside.

'Freedom are professional publishers with more than 100 years of publishing behind them.  They know about copyright.  They mark all their own books with clear copyright notices!  Some of the photos (prints stolen from another mag.) had my name and copyright notice and contact info. on but they deliberately ignored that.

'Sometimes they claim "it was a honest mistake".  But  other times they say that they thought they had permission - yet they never even told me they were publishing my work or gave me a credit.  Why?  Because they didn't want me to find out.

'There's loads more but I've wasted enough time on this.  I've been insulted and subject  to daft allegations for 30+ years.  Let them rattle on about how evil I am if it makes them happy.  Me, I'm happy to be judged on my record.

'And some of the £4K has gone to Kiva, some to the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture, some will go to other good causes and some is for me to take down to the pub with my friends.

'I might also have added that the collective were deeply split on whether to go ahead with the book (voted to publish by 1 vote).  And Dean Talent (the collective member who really pushed for publication) told me apologetically that trouble it had caused was his/ their fault.  Then they slung him out of the collective, they certainly blame him (see Dean Talent's comment disputing this beneath Tales of Hoffman:  Part One). 

'My recent claim is only the tip of the iceberg Freedom are sailing towards.  There are plenty of other photos infringed in that book and Freedom have made no attempt to head that off or try to resolve it.  There are many, many other books published by Freedom.  I'd be amazed if there were not hundreds more copyright infringements just waiting to fall in on them.'

regards,
David

'PS - The are currently 3 copyright infringements by the far right, one really major one that I'm working on.  Do you think I should just let them go?  If any of those end up in court my case would be badly weakened if it turned out that I am partisan about who I choose to take action against.'

Tales of Hoffman: Part One

Northern Voices promised to give Mr. Hoffman a fair crack, and an opportunity to put his side of the story in his dispute with Freedom Press (see post below), over their use of his photos without his permission.  Below are the ruminations and comments in an e-mail from David Hoffman about the circumstances of his copyright claim with Freedom.  Members of the Freedom Collective may well question some of his allegations here, but Northern Voices will refrain from further comment at this stage:

Sadster that I am - I am on the computer a great deal of the time.  If you wanted facts you could have had them in a 5 minute phone call.  Clearly you don't.  WGAF (Who gives a fig).  You might mention the Freedom have £1m plus asset squirrelled away in a holding company just like any City fat cat.  They don't need an appeal for money, they're just greedy.  But you won't.  You might mention that Freedom used stolen pics for the (rather crap) book ['Beating the Fascists'].  But you won't.

You might mention that I spent 3 months trying to settle this for just a few hundred quid but Freedom wouldn't negotiate.  But you won't.  You might mention that at the meeting where the publication was discussed (before they went ahead) they discussed the copyright position and knew they were ripping off myself and several other photographers.  But you won't.  You might mention that the (Freedom) collective were deeply split on whether to go ahead with this ripoff of our work (voted to publish by 1 vote).  But you won't.

I could go on but you've already decided what you want to write and have limited time.

If a handful of armchair anarchists want to be rude about me then I expect I can take it.  I've had my teeth knocked out by cops, had my life threatened by genuine BNP murderer (and by a dozen others from '70s NF [National Front] to 2012 EDL [English Defence League] ) and I've survived every major riot in the U.K..

Two more things - Jayne ... was one the best of the bunch, honest, open and a thoroughly decent woman.  And Dean Talent (the guy who really pushed for the publication [of 'Beating the Fascists'] told me apologetically that it was all his/ their fault.  They then slung him out of the collective.

To be biblical - (not my usual style) 'The giggles of fools are as the crackling of twigs under the cooking pot'.

Nobody whose opinion I care about will do anything but laugh.

David.