Trouble at Tommy Robinson event in Oldham

Muslim Defence League Confront Tommy Robinson in Limeside Oldham.

(Picture Joel Goodman/LNP)

Tommy Robinson, ex- leader of the English Defence League, who is now an adviser to Gerald Batten, the current leader of UKIP, was today expected to appear in Oldham just as social media showed conflict between his supporters and opponents of his views. 

The Greater Manchester Police said a 'number of objects were thrown' and there was damage to two police vehicles.

Police said there were no reported injuries and rumours someone had been stabbed were false.

It is uncertain where Mr Robinson,  who is campaigning for the European elections as an independent candidate for north-west England, was during the trouble.

 Tommy Robinson is running as an independent candidate to become an MEP for North West region of England, one of 11 candidates in the constituency.

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Tommy Robinson in Heywood, Lancashire

TOMMY Robinson is campaigning in Heywood today.  Various political and regious bodies are putting on a peaceful counter demonstration.  It is not peace group led, nor Labour, just people who are very concerned by what they regard as his racist views, etc - people who say they 'don't want the shame of seeing him represent the north west in the European Parliament'.

Tommy Robinson, who has campaigned for Brexit, is an adviser to UKIP, but is standing as an independent candidate in the North West in the Euro elections.

His local critics are meeting at Heywood Civic Centre at 1pm.  A journalist from the Guardian is expected to be present for the event.

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A statement signed by Heywood and Middleton MP Liz McInnes, eight priests and vicars and seven councillors says: "We want to express our deep concern about the visit to Heywood of Tommy Robinson. 
"As civic and faith leaders in Heywood, we believe that racism, intolerance and hatred are no way to build a civilised and peaceful society. Such views have no place in our political conversations."
 They reminded us that:
 "In the middle of the nineteenth century the Irish, escaping from famine, settled here to work in the mills; in the 1960s Heywood was enriched by the many Mancunians who settled on Darnhill."

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TOMMY ROBINSON AT MEDIA CITY

Editorial note:  At last Saturday's Tommy Robinson event reported below. an editor from Northern Voices and an editor from 'The Word' went into the Tommy Robinson enclosure to cover the story as presented by the Robinson contingent.   Our view was that based on the material released prior to this event by Robinson in his You Tube excerpts neither the BBC or the Panorama presenter, John Sweeney, had covered themselves with glory in their approach  in producing a proposed Panorama program entitled 'Tommy Takedown'.  As such the screening of the Robinson film purporting to document the BBC's research methods used was a newsworthy story.

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YESTERDAY up to 5,000 people supported the former English Defence League leader Tommy Robinson in a protest against the BBC's allegedly unethical methods of producing a forthcoming program entitled 'Tommy Takedown'.

The theme of the event was to criticise the Panorama journalist John Sweeney's conduct and alleged use of fake news to discredit Mr. Robinson.  The demonstration took place in Media City in front of the BBC's Salford offices.  Only some 500 people attended a counter-protest by anti-fascists.

The BBC has insisted that the proposed episode will follow its 'strict editorial guidelines'.

Mr Robinson said the aim of the protest was to make a stand 'against the corrupt media' and effectively called for people to withhold the BBC licence fee.

During the protest, undercover filming of BBC Panorama journalist John Sweeney, carried out by 'a mole' and a supporter of Mr Robinson, was broadcast on a large screen.  This all presented Mr. Sweeney in an unflattering light.

At one point Sweeney is heard saying 'one of my political heroes is the former head of the IRA Martin McGuinness', which the BBC says was taken out of context as Mr Sweeney was referencing Mr McGuinness's role in the peace process.

Mr McGuinness, who, as a prominent Sinn Fein politician, became Northern Ireland's deputy first minister, had acknowledged he was a member of the IRA. He died in 2017.

Mr Sweeney was also recorded making remarks which Tommy Robinson has described as racist, homophobic and anti-working class.

In response, a BBC spokeswoman said:
'The BBC strongly rejects any suggestion that our journalism is "faked" or biased.
'Any programme we broadcast will adhere to the BBC's strict editorial guidelines.
'Some of the footage which has been released was recorded without our knowledge during this investigation and John Sweeney made some offensive and inappropriate remarks, for which he apologises.  BBC Panorama's investigation will continue.'

At yesterday's event the UKIP leader Gerard Batten told demonstrators that Mr Robinson 'speaks up for things that are right, he tells the truth and he can mobilise lots of people like you, and that's what they fear'
.

The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) has said they 'roundly condemn Tommy Robinson... and his fellow, far-right thugs who intend to intimidate staff at the corporation, particularly those working on Panorama.'


The case of Tommy Robinson has been a long running affair, and in October 2018, the judge retrying Robinson for contempt of court referred the case to the government's top legal adviser.  Mr Robinson faced an allegation that he had committed contempt by filming people before a criminal trial.  But now Judge Nicholas Hilliard QC has ruled that the case needed to be referred up to the attorney general to decide and that is the current position.  Robinson is still awaiting his decision.

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Squaring the Brexit Circle Revisited.

by Les May

THE political system of the United Kingdom (UK) is a representative or parliamentary democracy.   Apart from the 1998 referendum in Northern Ireland on the Good Friday Agreement, the only attempts at direct democracy that I am aware of are the 1975 referendum and the 2016 referendum.   Neither of these took place to determine ‘the will of the people’.  Both were attempts to prevent the political party which formed the government of the day from tearing itself apart. In 1975 it was the groupings around Tony Benn and Roy Jenkins who had differing views about the UK being a member of the Common Market.  In 2016 it was the European Research Group (ERG) and the rest of the Tory party which had, and have, differing views about remaining a member of the European Union (EU).  Each of the treaties which transformed the Common Market into the European Community was voted on by the parliament of each of the member countries, including the UK House of Commons.  That is the way a representative democracy works.

I voted to leave the Common Market in 1975.  About 60% of the people who took part voted to remain.  I considered this was an overwhelming endorsement and accepted the result.   I voted to remain in the EU in 2016.  About 52% of those who took part voted to leave.  I did not, and do not, think this is an overwhelming endorsement, but I accepted the result and its logical consequence, that we leave the EU.

What I do not accept is that I, and others, can have no say in what relationship the UK has with Europe and the rest of the world after the UK leaves the EU.  It is simply a fact that the only question on the ballot paper was whether the UK should continue to be a member of the EU.   I am not willing to accede to every item on the shopping list drawn up by the ERG and those who think like them.

For two years we have had a situation where many of the people who voted to leave the EU have been unwilling to accept that many people who voted to remain were and are genuinely concerned about the consequences which would follow and have a right to say so.  Many of the people who voted to remain have spent their time in attempting to overturn the result of the referendum.  They would have been better employed in looking for ways of mitigating the worst effects of leaving the EU and attempting to influence the nature of our future relationship with Europe.

For some people leaving the EU has become an end in itself.  Calling them ‘Little Englanders’ seems entirely appropriate because they are unwilling to recognise that a majority of people in Scotland and Northern Ireland do not want to leave the EU or that the British-Irish agreement of 1998 has the status of an international treaty ratified by the UK parliament. 

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Rochdale Election Result:

 Tony Lloyd - Labour 29,035
Jane Howard - Conservative 14,216
Andy Kelly - Liberal Democrat 4,027
Christopher Baksa - UKIP 1,641
Simon Danczuk - Independent 883
Andy Littlewood - Greater Manchester Homeless Voice 242

ROCHDALE ONLINE report at the election count:

 'Rejected by Labour as its candidate, Danczuk [Rochdale's former MP] was well and truly rejected by the electorate of Rochdale attracting an embarrassing 1.76% of the votes cast - losing him his deposit.

'Rubbing salt into Danczuk's monumental ego, his attempt to cost Labour's Tony Lloyd the seat with a despicable smear campaign backfired as Mr Lloyd won with the largest majority ever recorded in the constituency.

'Churlish to the very end, Danczuk refused to be interviewed and stormed out of the count hours before the result when it quickly became obvious he had failed in a quite spectacular fashion.

'The people of Rochdale can now rejoice that Danczuk is finally history, no more sex scandals, no more expenses scandals, no more milking the system for every penny he can get, no more lurid headlines in the national media dragging Rochdale through the mud time and time again.'

Corbo will engage in tonight's BBC debate

JEREMY Corbyn has announced he will take part in the live TV General Election debate tonight on the BBC, and he has challenged Theresa May to join him.
The Tories will be represented by Home Secretary Amber Rudd, after Mrs May made clear that she would not take part in a face-to-face showdown with any other party leaders during the campaign.

The Labour leader will take part with the leaders of the Liberal Democrats, UKIP, the Green Party and Plaid Cymru, and the SNP's leader at Westminster, at the BBC event, which is now being boycotted by the Prime Minister.

Mr. Corbyn tweeted:

Jeremy Corbyn‏Verified account @jeremycorbyn

.@Theresa_May come & debate me. Any time. Any place. Britain deserves to see the only two people who could be the next Prime Minister debate

Meanwhile, the Labour Party issued the following statement on behalf on Mr. Corbyn:

'I will be taking part in tonight’s debate because I believe we must give people the chance to hear and engage with the leaders of the main parties before they vote.

'I have never been afraid of a debate in my life. Labour’s campaign has been about taking our polices to people across the country and listening to the concerns of voters.

'The Tories have been conducting a stage-managed arms-length campaign and have treated the public with contempt. Refusing to join me in Cambridge tonight would be another sign of Theresa May’s weakness, not strength.'

ROCHDALE ONLINE BREAKS STORY OF FRAUD PROBE

ACCORDING to the website ROCHDALE ONLINE the police have begun an investigation into a report of electoral fraud in Rochdale, concerning to the 2015 local elections.

A Greater Manchester Police spokesperson has said:
'On Tuesday 7 February 2017, police received a report of electoral fraud, which relates to the 2015 local elections in Rochdale.'

A spokesman for Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council has said: 'We are aware a complaint has been made.'

We have no idea of which ward or wards that the police are investigating, but Northern Voices was always concerned about the apparent statistical anomaly of the odd results in Central Rochdale ward, and particularly in the Milkstone and Deeplish ward seen below: 

Milkstone & Deeplish

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Labour	Mohammed Zaman	3,335	77.7	+10.5
	UKIP	Rifat Mahmood	364	8.5	+2.4
	Liberal Democrat	John Swarbrick	260	6.1	+2.0
	Conservative	Keith Taylor	211	4.9	-9.0
	Green	Sarah Bibi	120	2.8	+2.8
Majority			2,971	69.2	+17.6
Turnout			4,290
	Labour hold		Swing	+4.1

Labour Leadership Like Death Warmed-up!

REPORTS suggest that Jeremy Corb, the Labour Party leader, Jeremy Corbyn is coming under more pressure to pack it in, as the results of the defeat of Labour in Copeland in Cumbria began to circulate.  Meanwhile in Stoke Central in Staffordshire, Gareth Snell defeated Paul Nuttall by 7,853 votes to 5,233, giving him a majority of 2,620. 
Looking like death-warmed-up Jeremy Corbyn this morning told Sky News that Labour is in 'good heart' despite losing a safe seat ibn Cumbria to the Tories.  The Copeland constituency is an area held by the party since 1935.
Mr Corbyn told Sky when asked whether he would step down:  'I was elected to lead this party, to oppose austerity and oppose the redistribution of wealth in the wrong direction, which is what this Government is doing.'

Jeremy Corbyn has claimed Labour is in 'good heart' despite losing a safe seat to the Tories, in an area held by the party since 1935.

The Labour grassroots group Momentum this morning said the loss of Copeland was the 'result of 40 years of neglect by political establishment. Labour must win back the trust of those who have been left behind.'
Mr Corbyn said last night that the party needed to do more to reconnect with voters.

Trade Unionists in Uproar over Council Pay Rise

TRADE UNIONISTS, at  last Saturday's meeting of the Greater Manchester County Association of Trade Union Councils, were spitting blood about the decision last month to agree a rise in Councillor's allowances of some 34% at the Rochdale full council meeting.  The feeling was that this plays into the hands of Ukip and is a kick in the teeth to  the trade unions and rank and file workers. 
A delegate from Manchester TUC said that he thought the councilors generally were so cynical that other Councils like Manchester City Council would have rubber-stamped the rise in the same way as the Rochdale councilors did.
It seems that local politicians round here are on a race to the top, which most of the rest of us are on a race to the bottom.  Not only do we have Simon Danczuk MP for Rochdale, almost boasting about coining-in his expenses, but he has also a side-line with a photographic company FameFlynet Pictures to grab more. 
Now, according to  Lib Dem activist, David Hennigan; the Rochdale Council Leader and cynic-in-Chief Richard Farnell, has told his Council Group that people will 'forget this very quickly' Is there an unholy alliance on Rochdale Council with the Tories voting with the Labour Party on the race to the top in councilor's stipends?
Not all Tories it seems are in agreement with what's going on and Rob McLean, a Conservative member in Healey has come up with the idea of writing to all councillors in the Borough with a list of questions. See: http://www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-features/2/news-headlines/107424/pressure-increases-on-councillors-to-justify-34pc-allowance-increase
Meanwhile, Dave Hennigan writes:  'As you may or may not know - the Lib Dems in this Borough are leading the campaign against this.  You can sign our petition' : here: https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/stop-34-rmbc-councillor-s-allowance-rise-until-reduction-of-councilors

Cyril Smith on the Council Stipend

TODAY's Rochdale Observer has letters attacking last week's decision by Councillors to increase councilor's allowances.  Both the Vice Chair of UKIP in the Rochdale area and Dale Mulgrew a former Liberal Dem. Councillor have letters in the paper condemning to decision.
Years ago councilors got only allowance for expenses, and at that time they had greater responsibilities.  Today many of the tasks they use to hold have been eroded by central government.
Yet today some of them treat it like a career, and as a consequence have lost touch with the people they serve.
About quarter of a century ago in the Rochdale Observer on the 30th, May 1992, Rochdale's former MP, Cyril Smith suggested that all payments to councilors should be abolished.  He then said:
'ABOLISH all payments to councilors except to reimburse them for expenses incurred. 
'Why?
'I believe the concept of voluntary services is being swiftly eroded.  Society is worse off for that.  This is especially true in local government.  It used to be an honour to be of service as a councillor to one's fellow citizens.  Sadly, that is no longer the case.'
Furthermore, Cyril Smith added:
'I would decree that all councilors cease being administrators, and abolish titles such as "Leader of the council".  That would expose it for the nonsense it is.  The office bestows false authority whose only base is the regimentation of fellow councillors in the leader's political party.'*
It is suggested that Richard Farnell threatened to withdraw the party whip from any Labour Party councillors who failed to support the proposal to increase councilor's allowances last week.  Perhaps because of this, some Labour councillors sent their apologies and didn't attend the Council meeting to give their vote.
*  Cyril Smith served more than 40 years as a councilor, alderman or MP for Rochdale.  He served as a Labour councilor in Rochdale from 1950 and became mayor in 1966, then he subsequently switched parties again and entered Parliament as a Liberal in 1972, and won his Rochdale seat on five further occasions.

'Populism', Imagined Communities & Nations

by Brian Bamford

ROUTINE elections in European countries in 2016 have ushered in a mercurial quality to the political landscape.  Jon Bigger in a thoughtful article on the Freedom Blog about the recent by-election in Richmond wrote:   

'The recent Richmond by-election victory for the Lib Dems shows that the Brexit split can make a very real difference to British politics.  It isn't inconceivable to see the British public split along the lines of the referendum for years to come, with the conservatives and UKIP on one side and the Lib Dems, Greens, and SNP on the other.' 

Mr. Bigger then writes: 

'Note that as things stand there isn't any real role for the Labour Party in this scenario.' 

On the 'libertarian communist' website libcom, commenting on Brexit, someone wrote in what appeared to be an editorial: 

'In the UK context it was clearly a vote against foreign “others” and anybody who can be labeled as such...  Nigel Farage (former leader of UKIP and important leader of the Leave campaign) said on more than one occasion that he would be able to sacrifice economic growth to see less immigrants.'

This seems to have been the case and François Heisbourg, chairman of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said:

' In Britain, one of the campaign slogans for Brexit was “Vote Leave, Take Control”.' and the idea seemed to be that being in 'the EU was preventing Britain from doing that.'

The feeling is that the motivation driving many voters in Britain, the USA and now in Italy's referendum over a week ago, is to impress upon the politicians that the status quo and the establishment elites are now unacceptable. 

The Italian electorate threw out a constitutional overhaul that would have increased the power of the prime minister by cutting the number of senators and decreasing their power.  This wouldn't have mattered so much, but for the fact that it gave a political opportunity to the Five Star movement to gain political prestige by opposing it. 

What makes things worse is the lasting consequences of the global recession in 2008 in both Europe and the USA, and the underlying frustration of the pain still being suffered in many European countries. 

In France, economic growth only reached 1% last year, and youth unemployment is still close to 25%.  In Italy, Spain and Greece it's higher. 

Alexandra de Hoop Scheffer, the director of the Paris office of the German Marshall Plan, said recently:  'The Rust Belt isn't just in America – there's a Rust Belt in the north of France, ... they feel they are dispossessed, dispossessed of their countries sovereignty and their economy.' 

Ms. Scheffer added:

'The way Washington is perceived by many American people is the way many French or Germans or Italians perceive Brussels... they perceive Brussels as almost an illegitimate entity.'

Jon Bigger in his Freedom essay prudently argues that the 'changing [political] landscape may be something we don't fully understand for years and I don't think anyone has got the definitive vision yet (and you shouldn't expect to see it here either).'

And, he suggests:  'Think for a moment about how this anti-Establishment feeling has manifested around the world since it started:  the Arab Spring, Occupy, Brexit, Bernie Saunders, Donald Trump, Momentum and Corbyn...  The response to a disaster within global capitalism hasn't been one of simply global revolution.  Instead people have responded in ways that reject a simple left / right ideological perspective.  When things settle at home and abroad there will be a new alignment, a new politics which which may well conform to a clearer ideological split.'

Geert Wilders, the leader of the right-wing Freedom Party in the Netherlands and regularly rated as the most popular politician, also has said:  'Right verses left doesn't exist anymore'. 

Clearly politicians who look to nationalism and promote worries about disenfranchisement are in vogue. 

The lib-communist website editorial is at pains to stress that they are against nationalism and claim they are 'indifferent towards any national question'.  They stress that 'for us, all nations (small or big) are fake communities.' *

The dogmatic thinking of the 'communists' on their website tract seem in a bit of a muddle between what is the 'state' and what is the 'nation'.  They even finish off with an exit platitude taken from the 1848 'Communist Manifesto' by by Marx and Engels: 

'The working men (sic) have no country.  We cannot take from them what they have not got...' 

Yet then it goes on 'the proletariat must ... constitute itself the nation... though not in the bourgeois sense of the word.' 

What are 'fake communities'? *  Are nations and nationalisms invented?

Or would we be better-off embracing Benedict Anderson and his now his famous study entitled 'Imagined Communities'?**

Put crudely what seems to have happen according Mr. Anderson, is that when peasant face-to-face communities declined from the 18th Century onwards people have felt a psychological need to replace the everyday communities of the village with the 'imagined community' of the nation state in which though people can't possibly know all of the members of the nation they come to feel an affinity with the other citizens through the national media and other cultural forms of identity. 

The 'libcoms' or 'communist libertarians' of small organizations like the so-called 'anarchist federation' are inclined to use a cookbook approach in such a way that their analysis almost writes itself.  Unlike Jon Bigger on the Freedom Blog who modestly admits the 'changing [political] landscape may be something we don't fully understand for years...', while the libcom gang for their part have the dreary dogma of a party-line don't even try to get to grips with the anthropological emergence of nationalism.***  It is so much easier to simply dismiss the whole phenomena of 'popularism' and resurgent nationalism with a grim guffaw and a quote from the 19th century Communist Manifesto to give their statement gravitas. 

 

*    Ernest Gellner has written:  'Nationalism is not the awakening of nations to self-consciousness: it invents nations where they do not exist'

**  An imagined community is different from an actual community in that it is not—and, for practical reasons, cannot be—based on everyday face-to-face interaction among its members. It is a concept coined by Benedict Anderson to analyze nationalism. Anderson depicts a nation as a socially constructed community, imagined by the people who perceive themselves as part of that group.

Anderson's book, Imagined Communities, in which he explains the concept in depth, was first published in 1983, and reissued with additional chapters in 1991 and a further revised version in 2006.

***  Benedict Anderson has explained his now influential concept thus:

'In an anthropological spirit, then, I propose the following definition of the nation:  it is an imagined political community – and imagined as both inherently limited and sovereign. 

It is imagined because the members of even the smallest nation will never know most of their fellow-members, meet them, or even hear of them, yet in the minds of each lives the image of their communion.'

Relevance of Immigration in the UK Referendum

by Les May

YESTERDAY the Home Affairs Select Committee chaired by Yvette Cooper launched an inquiry into developing a consensus on an effective immigration policy. 

She said, ‘Immigration is one of the most important issues facing our country and will be central to the Brexit deal. Britain voted for change, especially on free movement, but there has been very little debate about what kind of reforms or immigration control that should now mean or how we get the best deal for the country.’   

Which isn’t strictly true.  In the recent referendum the only question that was asked was whether or not we wanted to leave or stay in the European Union.  There was no question about immigration, the single market, or about the wider question of free movement of people, good, capital and services, so no politician has the right to infer anything from the vote other than that a majority of people voted to leave the EU. This isn’t sophistry, it’s just a fact.   

Fixating on immigration ignores all the other reasons why people may have chosen to vote ‘leave’. Is immigration a significant factor in the growth of inequality? Is it really the reason why some people are paying out a third of their disposable income to rent a house for which they have little security of tenure?  Is it really the reason why some people have become reliant on food banks to ward off starvation?  Is it really the reason that some people feel they have been ‘left behind’ by globalization?  

No! It’s not that ‘they’ have come here to steal our jobs, its that our companies have exported jobs to ‘them’ to line the pockets of CEOs.

In the 1980s the ‘Chicago school’ of economists argued that companies should be run for the benefit of the ‘owners’.  The natural consequence of this was that the proportion of money going to wage earners fell and that to shareholders increased.

 http://www.oecd.org/els/emp/EMO%202012%20Eng_Chapter%203.pdf  

One way of boosting profits still further is to export manufacturing jobs to low wage economies in the Far East.  Check out where your Dyson vacuum was made.   

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/2752100/800-jobs-to-go-as-sad-Dyson-moves-factory-to-Far-East.html  

Whether you think that Cooper belongs to it or not there is a strand in the Labour party the best way to fight off a challenge from UKIP for the so called ‘Labour vote’ is to emulate UKIP and start parroting ‘something must be done about immigration’. The effect of this will be to let the Tories off the hook as architects of our present era of ‘casino capitalism’ where a few winners take all and the rest of us squabble about what is left. 

I’m told that Corbyn has never said anything to indicate that he has any time for ‘populism’.  The indications are that he, and Diane Abbot, will tackle UKIP’s populist policies head on.  But that could bring them into conflict with those in the Labour party who think the best way forward is to become a kind of ‘UKIP Lite’. 

In summer the writers of ‘think pieces’ were speculating that the Right and Left wings would end up fighting over the carcase of the Labour party.  But if the recent referendum told us anything it’s that people do not always feel bound by those traditional allegiances.  How long before those same writers are predicting the death of the Labour party as its splits into those who are willing to scapegoat immigrants to garner votes and those who are not?

'Brexit and the Wars of the Roses'‏

by Les May

IN five weeks time I am going to be asked to vote in a referendum which I did not want and have about as much enthusiasm for as a medieval peasant must have had for the Wars of the Roses.  But on this occasion it isn't the Plantagenets that have fallen out but another bunch who reckon they have a God given right to run the country for their own benefit, the Tory party.  It's not Yorkist and Lancastrian branches of the Plantagenets, but the Nasty and the Very Nasty wings of the Tory party.

 

Just as the battle of Bosworth was the end of the line for the Plantagenets, June 23^rd could prove to be the end of the line for the Tory party as we know it.  UKIP has already suggested that if the result is in favour of staying in the EU, but not decisively so, we should be made to carry on voting until UKIP gets the 'leave' result it wants.

 

I am one of the 33% of people who voted to leave the European Economic Community (EEC) in the 1975 referendum.  So why have I changed my mind and joined the 'Remain' camp?

 

I am a Socialist.  That means I want to see a more equitable, less hierarchical, society and I want less income inequality. I don't want to see things like health and education monetised and traded as commodities.  I'm 'Green' enough to know that the pursuit of never ending economic growth is a futile quest and we have got to find a different way.

 

But whichever way I vote, when I wake up on the 24^th of June I am not going to see any of those things.  I am not going to see even the tiniest step on the way to these things. Voting for Brexit on the grounds that the EU is a 'capitalist conspiracy' is just gesture politics or as I am inclined to call it, 'Resolutionary Socialism'.  It might make me feel better, but it will change nothing of consequence.

 

So far as I am concerned you'd struggle to insert a fag paper between the Cameron camp and the Boris camp in terms of their overall politics. But that fag paper of difference is the EU.

 

The Brexit camp go on about, 'setting Britain free' and 'getting rid of Red Tape'. But my 'Red Tape' is your protection against an excessively long working week.  It's your protection against your nearest river being polluted because it's cheaper to dump stuff in the nearest watercourse, rather than treat it properly before disposal.

 

Because in the end that is what the EU is about.  It's about creating a 'level playing field' and making sure that no country can gain an advantage by 'a race to the bottom'.  You may not like the game that is being played in the EU, but if it offers a bit of protection from rapacious employers why not take it?

 

In spite of their liberal pretensions the printed media like to stereotype old folk like me as being particularly ill at ease with immigration and so more likely to be in the Brexit camp.  Whilst the Brexit people have not actually promised an end to immigration they have done little or nothing to dispel the notion that such a scenario is on the cards.

 

But just because we are old doesn't mean we can't see through this particular ruse.  We were having our kids in the sixties when the birth rate was high averaging about 17 per 1000 for the ten years after 1960. In the 1980s it was about 13.3 per 1000 and since 1994 it has been about 12.3 per 1000.  Our kids will become pensioners themselves in the years after 2030.  There will be a lot of pensioners being supported by a smaller proportion of workers who were born here.  Raising the pension age still further may offset some of the problems but would not be popular or practicable.  It's fine if you are an office worker but not much good if you work on a building site.

 

So how to square that particular circle?  By immigration of course.  Let in lots of young able bodied workers and let their taxes pay the pensions bill.

 

In other words if you are thinking of voting for Brexit because you don't like all these foreigners taking 'our' jobs, forget it.  All governments are committed to immigration to make sure the sums add up, even if they don't want to tell you so.

http: //www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-15390884  

 

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

Independent Comes Second in Denton South

Insurgent candidates Carl Simmons & Ukip make progress in

Tameside Labour Party's One Party State!

ELECTION RESULT 2016 - DENTON SOUTH

LABOUR

(George Newton) - 1559 

INDEPENDENT (Carl Simmons) - 1001

UKIP (Adrienne Shaw) - 354 

CONSERVATIVE (Carol White) - 197

Well done George Newton! 

Thank you to everyone who voted in this election - and especially to everyone who voted Independent. All your support over the last few years is greatly appreciated.

Carl Simmons

'No Comment'! by Les May

I don't 'do' Facebook, and my scanty knowledge of it is confined to what I have gleaned from watching 'The Big Bang Theory', but I came across this page from 12 October 2014 which was headed 'WAG - Women Against Groomers (Men Welcome)':  
'I have just watched Simon Danczuk on Sunday Politics BBC1 and I can say I'm disgusted how he used the grooming scandals to attack a UKIP candidate.  Since when has Simon Danczuk had the ownership on raising awareness of grooming?  I find it a bit of a joke how he makes out that he does so much to stop further grooming but when I went to see him he did nothing of any substance.  Once in the office I spoke to an employee and explained who I was and what we [did], he was very rude and began to shout at me in quite an aggressive manner then along came Simon Danczuk after I mentioned we were having a tv interview where I would state he had not helped us.
I gave Simon information on suspected grooming dens and cars of interest, I told him how the Police were not listening and asked if he could support us in getting some sort of action.
I had to keep telephoning his office for an update which finally came from the very rude employee who had shouted at me before, we were expecting some kind of support but all we got was "Annette Anderson does not want to meet with you and there's nothing further we can help you with" and then we were told via email if we wanted further dialogue we needed a Rochdale address as the address for WAG is a different area.
We have been brushed aside even though we had information regarding Rochdale grooming and a 14 year old girl being sold for sex from a flat in Rochdale, even though we have information on cars that are approaching under age girls and even though we speak to some of the victims and act as a voice for them.
This is further proof that Simon Danczuk is all mouth and no action, he is aware of this page and will hopefully see this status but we wont hold our breath for a response.'

P. S. If the link does not work as expected try copying it and pasting it into your browser.

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?id=178373032248389&story_fbid=711974922221528&_fb_noscript=1

Triumph of the Right!

THE National Shop Stewards Network (NSSN) has just announced in a recent e-mail that:
'In the splendour of the unelected House of Lords, through the mouthpiece of a hereditary monarch, the Tories who were elected by 24% of the electorate have announced plans for new anti-union laws.'


Indeed, the Government's Queen's speech did state plans to introduce more anti-union laws, but if recent history is anything to go by the establishment will have little to fear from the body which entitles itself the National Shop Stewards Network.  In fact the above quote just shows just how much the far left as well as the Labour Party delude themselves. 


The Tories may well have cornered merely 24% of the overall electorate; yet the figures show that combined vote share of the parties of the right (Conservatives, UKIP and the Ulster Unionists) increased to 50.5% of all votes cast.  And if the Liberal Democrats are included as a right-wing party then the figure is 58.4%.  The parties that may be classed as on the left (Labour, SNP, Greens, Plaid Cymru and the SDLP) got 39.8% of all the votes cast.


Years ago, the NSSN demonstrated its political impotence after the General Election in 2010, when it split-up, formed itself into an anti-cuts campaign, and became essentially a front for the Socialist Party.  At that time under the influence of some independent socialists, the then Chair of NSSN, Dave Chapple, and some independent syndicalists, many genuine trade unionists left the NSSN when it developed into a political runt supported by the RMT.  Since then it has failed to prevent any Government cuts.


The NSSN has shown itself to be a political irrelevance by participating in the recent elections in May 2015:
TUSC stood 135 parliamentary candidates across England, Wales and Scotland, and it had 619 candidates in the local elections.  The party gained 36,327 votes in the election, or 0.1% of the popular vote. No parliamentary seats were gained and no deposits were saved.


But if TUSC is a political irrelevance, the main stream Labour Party is now being describe as being in 'existential crisis'.  That means that the Labour Party ought to be questioning the very foundations of its own existence.  Thus we have a far left that is virtually non-existent, and a main-stream left in the Labour Party that has as I, and others, have said has outlived its mission.


Part of the problem, which needs further examination, is that the left in this country is patronizing towards the white working-class.  Left-wing politics here is based upon crude formulas, lazy analysis and cookbook thinking.


In The Observer, Nick Cohen wrote:
'The universities, left press, and the arts characterize the English middle class as Mail-reading misers, who are sexist, racist and homophobic to boot.  Meanwhile, they characterize the white working class as lardy Sun-reading slobs, who are, since you asked, also sexist, racist and homophobic.'


The trouble with the English left is that it has got itself stuck in a kind of idée fixe, a mind-set or what Mr. Cohen calls a trance from which it needs to escape if it is going to have any impact on society. 

Internal Report Showed Up Ukip Danger

AN internal report written by Alison Spencer-Scragg, the Regional Political Officer for Unite the Union in the North West of England last October, argued that in last year's by-election in Heywood and Middleton  '(Ukip) managed to poll over 11,000 votes with very little activity on the ground.'  Ms. Spencer-Scragg wrote that:  'Apart from initial leafleting and flying visits from Nigel Farage, actual campaigning on behalf of UKIP activists was minimal.'


This finding suggests that the threat to the Labour Party from John Bickley, the UKIP candidate in Heywood and Middleton, may be significant tomorrow.  Some Labour supporters have even privately admitted to me that they wished that Mr. Bickley was standing for the Labour Party. 


After their close result in the by-election last year Alison Spencer-Scragg wrote:
'The 36-point increase in UKIP support is itself one of the biggest surges ever recorded in a by-election.  Only in six previous contests in Great Britain has a party enjoyed a larger increase in vote share than UKIP managed in Heywood and Middleton.'


It will be interesting to see how Mr. Bickley  and UKIP performs tomorrow in Heywood and Middleton, and whether he can close the gap on the current Labour MP for the constituency, Liz McInnes.  Ms. McInnes is a member of the Unite union.
 

On the stump with Ashton's prospective parliamentary candidates. Elections 2015!

A series of election events known as ‘question time hustings’, have been organised by Community & Voluntary Action Tameside (CVAT), to take place in Ashton-under-Lyne, Hyde and Denton, prior to the General Election in May. On Tuesday evening, I attended the first of these meetings at the Holy Trinity Centre, Dean Street, in Ashton.

Angela Rayner, the Labour candidate for Ashton-under-Lyne, - who was selected from an all women’s short-list - was the first to speak. She began by paying tribute to her predecessor David Heyes, who is retiring at the next election. Ms. Reyner is a socialist but doesn’t believe that people should get something for nothing. Although she is now a trade union official with UNISON, she began her working life as a home help and didn’t go to university. Referring to the financial cut- backs she told the meeting that Tameside Council had lost 50% of its budget and that over 1 million people, were relying on food-banks in Britain in order to feed themselves and their families. “I’m not here to manage the decline she told the meeting.” She also told the meeting that public services should be defended and should remain in the public sector.

Charlotte Hughes, the Green Party candidate, is a single parent who was born and bred in Ashton. She believes that because of this, she is fully aware of the needs of her constituents. Unlike many of the other mainstream parties, who are only interested in ‘hardworking families’, Hughes believes that everybody should be helped, not just those who are in work. She told the meeting that she was sick of the way in which the Labour controlled council in Tameside were using people as guinea pigs to pilot Tory government projects, such as Universal Credit and the so-called ‘Troubled Families’ phase 2 initiative, which is bullying and harassing  single-mothers who are unemployed. She told the meeting, “So far there has been no consultation with the public” about these schemes or the way in which, the Labour council in Tameside, are implementing Tory policies. A community activist, Ms. Hughes, can be seen on a regular basis protesting outside Ashton Jobcentre against unfair and illegal sanctioning. She told the meeting that this year, she had stopped two people from committing suicide.

Another candidate who was born and bred in Ashton is bungling Maurice Jackson, the UKIP (Kipper) candidate. A former Tameside Labour Party member, he was hopelessly out of his depth on the night. Jackson declared that he would not be making a three-minute speech but was happy to take questions. At times, he was barely audible or coherent and struggled to even string a decent sentence together. For most of the evening, he could be seen reading from what presumably, was a UKIP leaflet, in order to check what the party’s policies were. Judging from his performance on the night, he had obviously drawn the short straw.

A Canadian study that was published in January 2012, in the Journal of Psychological Science and reported in the Daily Mail the same month, stated that people with conservative beliefs, were likely to be of ‘low intelligence’ and were receptive to ideas that appealed to their basest and stupidest impulses. 

As right-wing Thatcherites, UKIP seems to draw their fair share of English cranks into their ranks. The former UKIP MEP, Godfrey Bloom, resigned from the Party after calling women ‘sluts’ and after complaining of foreign aid going to ‘bongo-bongo land’. Another UKIP member declared that the floods which brought havoc to parts of Britain two years ago were caused by the Wrath of God, after the introduction of ‘Gay Marriage’.

Most of the evening was taken up with questions from the floor. One questioner complained about a lack of political leaflets through the door. All the candidates said it was either down to lack of funding or resources. Bungling Morris said that UKIP didn’t have any money to back the candidates and that he was a paper candidate.

Ms Rayner, was asked how she would retain public services in Tameside when the Labour Council was a privatizing council? She responded that it was all about giving adequate funding to local government. Asked if she thought the number of councillors could be reduced as they now had less to do, since many public services had been hived-off to the private sector, she said she didn’t believe in reducing things to their lowest common denominator. 

For the Green’s, Ms Hughes said there was a lack of transparency in Tameside Council and that the council leader was getting an ‘obscene amount of money’. She believes that councillor’s allowance should be on a fixed ratio vis-à-vis council workers wages and salaries.

A questioner asked the candidates if they agreed that volunteering should stay voluntary and asked if the voluntary sector should be participating in the Government’s workfare (work-for-your-dole) schemes.  

Ms Hughes said that she was against workfare and was a member of Boycott Workfare. She thought people should be paid a decent wage for a decent day’s work. The UKIP candidate said his party didn’t believe in workfare. (UKIP have branded claimants a ‘parasitic underclass of scroungers’ and have plans to stop them buying tobacco and alcohol). Ms Reyner said that she didn’t want to bring back the work-house and opposed workfare (which the last Labour government introduced with their work-for-your dole schemes). She favours more apprenticeships as a way of getting people back to work.

Another questioner asked -  “If elected would your government remove the market principle from the NHS?” 

The Green Party candidate said yes. The Labour candidate said her party would repeal the Health & Social Care Bill. The UKIP candidate said his party would remove car-parking charges and was against the privatization of the NHS.

From the floor, another questioner asked: “Do you agree with Nigel Farage (UKIP leader) that the NHS should be replaced with an American style health system? Bungling Morris, denied that Farage had ever said this, whereupon, the questioner offered to show him where the quote had come from.  Ms. Reyner then said that both the leader and deputy leader of UKIP had said they wanted to privatize the NHS.

All three candidates were asked about their views of Europe. Ms Rayner said that she was pro-Europe but it needed reform. “I don’t believe immigrants come here just for housing and benefits. We’ve been enriched by Europe. It would cost us £6.5 billion if we came out of Europe.” Ms. Hughes said that it was Green Party policy to stay in Europe but the party favoured a referendum. “Immigration is positive. The NHS would not be what it is without immigrant workers.” Mr Jackson said that UKIP wanted a referendum. “We have an Islanders mentality”, said gaffe prone Morris, “I think we should come out of Europe.”

A questioner asked: “What do you think of fracking in Tameside, even if Tameside Council supports it?” 

Ms. Hughes said that the Green Party was against fracking. “You wont be able to insure your house if it is near to fracking. Fracking leads to pollution. Fracking is being rolled back in America.” The UKIP candidate said that his party were in favour of fracking. Ms Reyner said that Labour was not entirely against fracking but that it must be safe and the decision should be taken locally.  “I’m not going to rule fracking out.”

The outcome of the Parliamentary elections in Tameside next month, is probably a foregone conclusion even though Jonathan Reynolds is defending a 2,700 majority in Stalybridge. Labour has held all three seats for as long as I can remember.

Although UKIP have gained support from the blue-collar, male, working-class former Labour voter in the North, who struggle financially, and feel left behind and alienated from the political class, they are unlikely to get elected in Tameside. UKIP has virtually no support among the financially secure and the thirty-and-forty age group of university graduates. Support for UKIP is also weak among women, white-collar professionals and the young.

The Green Party, who will probably struggle to retain their deposits in the Tameside elections 2015, do have some good policies such as the citizens basic income, renationalisation of railways, a living wage, a wealth tax, and a maximum pay ratio (no executive should receive more than ten times the salary of the lowest paid worker). However, these policies tend to get overshadowed by wackier policies like banning sporting events such as the Grand National and dog racing.

Ukip run Labour close

Farage Hopes to be Kingmaker after General Election

 

AFTER a recount,  Labour held the Heywood and Middleton seat by just 617 votes.  Nigel Farage said Ukip was 'ripping lumps' out of the party in its northern heartlands.

 

The Labour Party had thrown a lot at this by-election with its minor celebrities like Jim Murphy, Harriet Harman and Ed Balls coming up North to give their support to Liz McInnes.  In the end Ms McInnes held off the challenge of John Bickley, with 11,633 votes to the Ukip candidate's 11,016 - a swing of 17.65 per cent swing from Labour to Ukip.

 

Ms. McInnes appeared tongue tied when Andrew Neil asked her on Sky News why Ukip was 'so attractive to voters'.  She said rather feebly:  'You will have to ask Ukip' why!

 

The leader of Ukip, Nigel Farage, was more smooth and he told Sky News: 

'We are ripping lumps out of the old Labour vote in the north of England. The truth of what has happened in the North today is that if you are anywhere north of Birmingham, if you vote Conservative you get Labour.'

 

This poll was brought about by the death of Labour MP Jim Dobbin, who had held the seat since 1997.

Ukip has been campaigning strongly in the Lancashire constituency, in an effort to make inroads into Labour's northern rump.  But Ukip still lacks something of a true northern image, with some of its supporters seeming a bit too much like smartly dressed southerners.  Earlier in the campaign Northern Voices did have an interview with John Bickley the Ukip candidate, and he impressed me as intelligent, thoughtful, forensic, and well mannered.  Unfortunately, when I rang the phone number on the Ukip leaflet I was put through to a well spoken lass who could well have been a Devonshire milkmaid's daughter who thought that Mr. Bickley was fighting his campaign in somewhere called 'Lancs.', and because I have a strong northern accent she proceeded to spell the word out for me letter by letter:  'L'-'a'-'n'-'c'-'s'.  Only someone from down South would assume their was a place called 'Lancs.'  Eventually I got her to understand that the election was in Heywood in Greater Manchester or the county of Lancashire.  Last week, I told John Bickley of my experience with the Devonshire lass from Ukip's head office on the phone and he grimaced. 

 

Liz McInnes is a natural Northern bumpkin and trade union functionary, and in some ways that may have given her the edge in parts of Heywood and Middleton.  But she will have to shape up better than she did on Television last night if she is to keep this seat in the General Election next May.  On the basis of her performance last night, I would have hated to see her in a confrontation with the much more acticulate Mr. Bickley.

This morning Nigel Farage suggest that on last night's performance Ukip could be as crucial as Nick Clegg and Lib-Dems were after the last General Election in 2010, in determining the complexion of the next government.



NHS or Immigration in Heywood & Middleton?

LABOUR is trying to make the NHS the core issue in the Heywood and Middleton by-election up here, but Ed Miliband has been accused of 'shying away' from immigration.  Some people regard the issue of immigration as what the Guardian this week described as the 'number one bugbear of many voters'.


In a café in Alkrington in Middleton on Tuesday, voters pledged support for Ukip as Farage toured the room shaking hands.  Tony Sheehan, a 41-year-old electrician, said he was a former Labour voter and had simply 'had enough – of immigration.  I want British jobs for British workers.'  Sharon Capps, 56, said: 'We want our country back.'

This week put Labour’s share slightly lower, on 47%, with Ukip second on 28%.  Some 49% of those who said they will vote for Ukip wanted to 'send a message that I’m unhappy with the party I usually support'.


Nigel Farage insisted a win remained possible:  'We’ve got terrific momentum. You’ve got to remember where we started from – 2.6% in the last election, and yet one of the  opinion polls had us in the 30s at the weekend.  I do think turnout will be key...'


Up here in Heywood it seems to be a toss up as to what will most excite the electorate between the NHS and immigration at the moment.