“We’re all in it together!” by Christopher Draper

ASDA was packed today – the woman on the till reckons it’s because we’re about to get the full lockdown treatment in Wales – “but at least we’re all in it together”. I beg to differ…

1) April 2020, Dominic Cummings visited Barnard Castle despite lockdown regulations

2) September, Tony Blair photographed leaving Mayfair restaurant in breach of compulsory 14-day quarantine on return from trip to USA

3) September, SNP Rutherglen MP Margaret Ferrier travelled from Scotland and back on public transport to speak in Parliament despite having covid. She also preached in St Mungo’s Church, Glasgow

4) March, Stephen Kinnock, Labour MP for Aberavon journeyed to father’s birthday party despite ban on all but essential travel

5) September, Jeremy Corbyn MP defied “rule of six” to attend larger dinner party

6) July, The Prime Minister’s father (and former MEP) Stanley Johnson defied travel ban to visit his holiday home in Greece. On return to England photographed entering shops without wearing mask

7) October 5th Parliamentary authorities confirm that MP’s (allegedly including Matt Hancock) continued drinking alcohol in Parliament bar after the 10pm deadline imposed on the rest of us. Parliament refuses to identify the guilty individuals.

8) April, Government Housing Minister, Robert Jenrick MP, defied lockdown and travelled 150 miles to his parents’ Herefordshire home

9) April, Dr Catherine Calderwood, Scotland’s Chief Medical Officer, ignored lockdown regulations and on two weekends travelled from Edinburgh to her Earlsferry holiday home

10) August 19th, EU Commissioner, Phil Hogan, defied ban on group meetings by attending a golf dinner in County Galway, along with other politicians and an Irish Supreme Court judge

None of the above individuals were prosecuted although tens of thousands of ordinary folk have been fined and on October 4th five Doncaster welders authorised to work on the Isle of Man Electric Railway were imprisoned for two weeks because they unwittingly breached regulations by visiting Tesco on their brief journey from the ferry to their hotel. Ironically they were singled out because they wore masks which aren’t required on the IOM.

As far as our political class are concerned, “Laws are evidently for the Little People!”

Christopher Draper, Llandudno

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Don Pedelty, socialist and anarcho-syndicalist dies

In loving memory of Don James Donovan Pedelty

7th March 1926 – 12th October 2020

“Was the earth made to preserve a few covetous, proud men to live at ease; Or was it made to preserve all her children?”

— Gerrard Winstanley, 1649 (founder of the True Levellers)

Hay Meadow Burial Ground, Glascwm, 12pm, 24th October 2020

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Why 'Black Lives Matter' Will Fail!

by Les May

THE proximate factor in the murder of George Floyd is that the USA has militarised police forces; the notion of ‘policing by consent’ is absent. Trump does not want any international legal oversight of the actions of the the US military with regard to possible ‘war crimes’; should we be surprised that strong legal oversight of US police officers is resisted?

As of 30 June 2020 a total of 506 civilians were shot in the US, 105 of whom were black. In 2018, there were 996 fatal police shootings, and in 2019 this figure increased to 1,004.  For comparison the rate of shootings per million of the population was: black 31, hispanic, 23, white 13, other 4.  These figures speak for themselves.   By comparison the average number of fatal police shootings per year in England and Wales in the 15 year period 2004/5 to 2018/9 was less than 3 in a population of about 60,000,000, that is about 0.05 per million.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/585152/people-shot-to-death-by-us-police-by-race/

https://www.statista.com/statistics/319246/police-fatal-shootings-england-wales/

Faced with a fatality rate from police shooting which is 200 to 600 times higher than in the UK one might have thought that saving lives, black, brown and white, by demilitarising US police forces, would be central to any widespread response to the murder of George Floyd. Seemingly it isn’t.

Instead of attempting to attain measurable objectives like improving police training and making officers accountable every time they use a firearm, the emphasis is on ‘racism’, something for which there is no objective measure and having all the explanatory power of asking ‘how long is a piece of string?’ It’s a popular badge to display because it allows the wearer to get a warm glow of satisfaction from ‘calling out’ racists. If by chance the murder of George Floyd causes anyone to remember their humanity and dare to say they think all lives matter, you can call that racist too!

https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2016/07/13/why-saying-all-lives-matter-opposite-black-lives-matter/87025190/

And if you have any time left over from combating racism you can always spend it ‘dismantling cisgender privilege and uplifting Black trans folk’ or ‘disrupting the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure’ or you could ‘dismantle patriarchal practice’ or even ‘foster a queer‐affirming network’. You will find the quotes by scrolling down the page at:

https://blacklivesmatter.com/what-we-believe/

But if all this is too much for you then why not buy the tee-shirt for a mere $25* and get back to denouncing someone on Twitter?

https://blacklivesmatter.com/

Things are not much better in the UK. Check out the website at https://www.blacklivesmatter.uk/ and you will find the disclaimer, ‘We are not affiliated with either Black Lives Matter USA or the political arm of the Black Lives Matter (Activist Coalition) UK who are purported to be affiliated with BLM USA.’

In the UK the response to the murder of George Floyd has been to facilitate the rise of groups of ‘activists’ who think that symbolic gestures like tearing down statues actually achieves something which will improve the lives of real people, and the energising of self promoting academics.

The media are for now superficially supportive, but this is all too reminiscent of the #MeToo movement. Dr David Starkey has unwittingly managed to contribute a couple of ways of keeping BLM in the news, but eventually the media will move on to another story.  Unfortunately it won’t be the one about inequality in the UK and the US. Getting a few black faces in the boardroom won’t solve that.

*$25 would pay for one sixth of an operation to correct cleft palate, or all of an operation to correct ingrowing eyelashes plus 40 doses of antibiotic to treat an eye infection of children and adults in Africa.

https://smiletrain.org.uk/sightsavers uksmile train

https://www.sightsavers.org/

AUTHOR'S FOOTNOTE:

In the article I mentioned a disclaimer which read ‘We are not affiliated with either Black Lives Matter USA or the political arm of the Black Lives Matter (Activist Coalition) UK who are purported to be affiliated with BLM USA.’

If you check out the website https://uk.gofundme.com/f/ukblm-fund which appears to be the group referred to in the disclaimer, you will find passages like ‘a commitment to dismantle imperialism, capitalism, white-supremacy, patriarchy and the state structures that disproportionately harm black people’ and ‘we lift up the experiences of the most marginalised in our communities, including but not limited to working class queer, trans, undocumented, disabled, Muslim, sex workers, women/non-binary, HIV+ people.’

You’ll also find the group have been given £1.2 million by 35,000 donors. At the risk of being tedious I will mention that this sum would change the lives of almost 7500 black children in Africa who were born with a cleft palate and face a lifetime of ridicule and social isolation, or pay for nearly 75,000 ingrowing eye lash operations or nearly seven and a half million doses of a drug to cure trachoma and prevent this many black people going blind.

Clearly all those donors have different priorities to mine.

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From whence did social welfare come?

 State Control or Social Initiatives?

 by Brian Bamford

LES MAY engaging with Carl Faulkner's comment and considering the founding of the NHS, writes:

'As my Libertarian friends endlessly remind me there were other schemes in operation even before the NHS was a gleam in anyone’s eye.

'Bevan would have been familiar with the Tredegar Medical Aid Society as he was the local MP. In return for contributions from its members it provided health care free at the point of use. (my emphasis)

'This model of funding was rejected by Bevan.'


Les clearly admires the Attlee government of 1945, which formed the first Labour majority government and in particular he favours its Keynesian approach to economic management aimed to maintain full employment, a mixed economy and a greatly enlarged system of social services provided by the state.  This amounts to a supreme faith in what in the 20th century amounted to Fabian managerialism.  It is a view that after the Second World War prevailed in which it was considered that as George Orwell observed in 1946:  'For quite fifty years past the general drift has almost certainly been towards oligarchy'*   (James Burnham & the Managerial Revolution [1946]).

At that time after the war it must have seemed that big government was onto a winner, and Orwell then felt able to write:  'The ever increasing concentration of industrial and financial power; the diminishing importance of the individual capitalist or shareholder, and the growth of the "managerial" class of scientists, technicians, and bureaucrats; the weakness of the proletariat against the centralized state; the increasing helplessness of small countries against big ones; the decay of representative institutions and the importance of one-party regimes...'

The problem with this approach is that it represented a shift from the capitalist and the dividend grabbers to a 'new boss class' of the technical elite functionaries blessed with cushy jobs and all on a generous state stipend.  As Orwell observed above it became 'the weakness of the proletariat against the centralized state'.  There was still the spirit of entitlement of the elite and the dependency of the working-class.

The difficulty is still that this analysis is too mechanical as well as managerial and top-down.  It lacks an evolutionary grasp of how the concept of social welfare entered and developed inside our culture.

Colin Ward described how the social concepts permeated sociologically:  'Anarchists are frequently told that their antipathy to the state is historically outmoded, since a main function of the modern state is the provision of social welfare.  They respond by stressing that social welfare in Britain did not originate from government, nor from the post-war National Insurance laws, nor with the the initiation of the National Health Service in 1948.'   **
 

Rather as Mr Ward argues:  'It evolved from the vast network of friendly societies and mutual aid organizations that sprung up through working-class self-help in the 19th century.'

This is what is implied by Carl Faulkner in his perceptive comment on this Blog:  'It could be argued that is was predictable that the NHS was established by a Labour government due to it being elected in 1945 - when plans for what was to be called the NHS were well advanced but lost in the mists of time.'

Indeed it was 'lost in the midst of time', as the anarchist Mr Ward explains:
'The founding father of the NHS was the then member of parliament for Tredegar in South Wales, Aneurin Bevan, the Labour Government's Minister of Health.  His constituency was the home of the Tredegar Medical Aid Society, founded in1870 and surviving until 1995.'

It gave medical care for the local employed workers, who were mostly miners and steelworkers, but also (unlike the pre-1948 National Health Insurance) for the needs of dependents, children, the old, the non-employed: everyone living in the district.

A retired miner told Peter Hennessey that when Bevan initiated the National Health Service, 'We thought he was turning the country into one big Tredegar.'  Alas, it was not to be, and as Mr. Ward observes in his brief book:  'In practice the Health Service has been in a state of continuous reorganization ever since its foundation, but has never submitted to a local and federalized approach to medical care.'

More seriously Ward argues 'ever since full employment and the system of PAYE (automatic deduction of tax as a duty of employers) was introduced during the Second World War, the central government's Treasury has creamed off the cash that once supported local initiatives.' 

Furthermore, in keeping with the spirit of local spontaneity Colin Ward suggests:   
'If the pattern of local self-taxation on the Tredegar model had become the general pattern for health provision, this permanent daily need would not have become the plaything of central government financial policy.'

There is a price to pay for the pattern of State funding medical care applied by Nye Bevan and approved by Les May, and it now being played out as different governments enact various outsourcing schemes promote what Ward called 'the virtues of profit-making private enterprise.'


What follows from this debate is what will be the consequences of the pandemic for the psychology of the general population?  Will people look to the state for salvation in fear of a repeat performance of another potential pandemic threat or second wave?  If so, I suspect it will represent a reactionary response to the politics of the pandemic.




* Oligarchy, government by the few, especially despotic power exercised by a small and privileged group for corrupt or selfish purposes. Oligarchies in which members of the ruling group are wealthy or exercise their power through their wealth are known as plutocracies.

**  'ANARCHISM: A Very Short Introduction' by Colin Ward (Oxford) 2004.

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Unions welcome Welsh social distancing rule

forwarded to NV by Joe Bailey

UNIONs have welcomed the decision by the Welsh Assembly to enforce new social distancing rules at work. Peter Hughes, Unite Wales regional secretary, said: “Unite in Wales applauds this move. We have been repeatedly raising our members' safety concerns during this health crisis, and airing our fears that some employers are not respecting the two metres distance, so it is good that the Welsh government is listening.”  He added: “We hope that employers will understand the intention behind this law and act now to take every possible step to keep workers safe at work, rather than wait to be hit by a fine. Unite will work with our members to promote this new law and with employers to ensure that they adhere to these new regulations.”    

Howard Beckett, Unite's assistant general secretary for legal affairs, added: “This law will send a clear signal to bosses that they are now required by law to put their workers’ safety first.  Our members are putting themselves on the line to keep public services and businesses functioning during these extraordinary times, so we say to employers, keep them safe, provide them with the protective and sanitation equipment they need, or find yourselves in legal conflict with Unite because we have vowed to do whatever it takes to keep our members safe.” 

Dan Shears, GMB health, safety and environment director, said many employers have been ignoring the 2-metre stipulation.  “Those companies will now need to fall into line or fear the consequences,” he said.  Nick Ireland, a divisional officer with the shopworkers’ union Usdaw, said:  “Our communities need shops, but we need to keep all workers in the food supply chain safe so they can stay open. So we are pleased that the Welsh government recognises the heroic efforts our members are making and have introduced these new social distancing rules.” David Evans, Wales secretary for the teaching union NEU Cymru, said “we would urge our members to stick as closely as possible to the 2-metre rule where practicable.  It will be difficult, but ultimately, we need to ensure educators and learners are as safe as possible, and of course we should continue to ensure that as few students and staff as possible are in school.”

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NHS: Protecting Community Assets

by Donovan Pedelty 

SIMPLY to let my fellow creatures know that (like Professor Stephen Hawking, among others) a Tir Celyn contingent is supporting a crowdfunding campaign to safeguard community assets of the NHS from the depredations of private profiteering, and to wish us all a Happy New Year.  For more information search for JR4NHS.

I just pledged to this case: https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/jr4nhs-round2/?utm_reference=49aa68cb2a606c722bab0f7aeb3b3941&utm_medium=email&utm_content=post_pledge_page_flat_v1&utm_campaign=jr4nhs-round2&utm_source=backer_social 

Duke of Westminster: Who Owns the North?

by Christopher Draper (formerly published in Northern Voices 15)

 TO be fair, Gerald Cavendish Grosvenor, the sixth Duke of Westminster doesn’t own all the North but 11,500 acres of Cheshire, 23,500 acres of the Forest of Bowland, 42 acres of “Liverpool One”, 1,800 acres of north Wales and 96,000 acres of Scotland is enough to be going on with. That’s not all, for Gerald Cavendish Grosvenor also owns 300 acres of central London comprising the top-drawer districts of Mayfair and Belgravia. When the United States sought the freehold of their London (Grosvenor Square) Embassy, Gerald counter-claimed with a demand that the U.S. hand back to the Grosvenors Florida and Virginia which he alleges the Americans stole from his ancestors after the War of Independence. The Americans backed down and now plan to relocate from prestigious Belgravia to a freehold site at Nine Elms, Wandsworth. Such is the power, wealth and influence of Gerald, Duke of Westminster, Britain’s richest landowner (not to mention his extensive landholdings in 17 other countries around the globe).

 Currently estimated at about £8.5 billion, Gerald’s wealth comfortably exceeds that of the poorest 10% of the British population (£7.0 billion). In other words, Gerald Cavendish Grosvenor is worth more than 6.3 million ordinary people. 

 Ill-Gotten Gains

 He might not be handsome, clever or strong but Gerald certainly selected the right ancestors. Gilbert Le Gros Veneur (spot the connection) came over in 1066 with the Conqueror (“William the Bastard”) and shared the spoils of Norman rape and pillage. The “Gros Veneurs” were rewarded with vast tracts of rich farming land around Chester that, to this day, continue to provide the family with their magnificent country seat of Eaton Hall.

 Another great wodge of the Westminster’s wealth was acquired through the 1677 strategic marriage of Sir Thomas Grosvenor to the 12-year old Mary Davis. Mary came with 300 acres of Ebury Manor that the Grosvenors shrewdly developed to create Britain’s most valuable real estate, Mayfair and Belgravia.

 Two Brain Cells or One?

 Expensively educated at public school (Harrow), Gerald managed to pass only two O-levels (his daughter, Lady Edwina, says one) yet, surprisingly, this limited academic success didn’t prevent Gerry’s elevation to the Chancellorship of the University of Chester in 2005. Nor did it stop him reaching the rank of Deputy Commander Land Forces of the Territorial Army, despite suffering a nervous breakdown in 1997 and a blizzard of damaging publicity in 2007. Fortunately Gerald’s lawyers forced the genie back into the bottle and details can now only be discovered from overseas sources.

 Gerry hates unpleasantness and prefers to promote his academic credentials; Pro-Chancellor Keele University 1986-93, Chancellor Manchester Metropolitan University 1992-2002, Fellow Liverpool John Moores University 1990, Honorary Fellow University of Central Lancashire 2001, Honorary LL.D. University of Keele 1990, Honorary LL.D. University of Liverpool 2000 and D.Litt. University of Salford 2000.  Not bad for a man with two O-levels.

 Not What You Know…

 Gerald is a personal friend of Prince Charles and his wife Natalia, a descendant of George II, is the godmother of Prince William. The Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh and the Princes William and Harry all attended the 2004 Chester Cathedral wedding of the Grosvenors’ oldest daughter, Lady Tamara Katherine (b.1979). According to the Financial Times, Daddy gave Lady Tamara £10 million as a wedding gift.

 The second daughter, Lady Edwina Louise Grosvenor (b.1981) is married to broadcaster Dan Snow, author of “Death or Victory – The Birth of the British Empire”. The youngest daughter, Lady Viola Georgina Grosvenor (b.1992) remains, as yet, unmarried.

 Gerald’s only son and heir apparent, Hugh, Earl of Grosvenor (b.1991), celebrated his 21st birthday in 2012 with a £5 million “black tie and neon” party in the grounds of Eaton Hall. The 800 partygoers naturally included Prince Harry and entertainment was provided by Michael McIntyre and Rizzle Kicks.

 “The Field” country pursuits magazine identifies Hugh as, “the cream of the crop of younger shots”, “Hughie’s a great shot on the grouse”. Fortunately there are several shooting estates at hand and overseas there’s the Grosvenor’s beautiful 37,000 acre Spanish, Finca La Garganta Estate near Seville. “Teeming with stags and wild boar”, La Garganta is, “one of the largest and most exclusive hunting estates in Western Europe” where Princes Wills and Harry, Hughie G and King Juan Carlos frequently enjoy killing sprees. The facilities of La Garganta include a luxuriously appointed ten-bedroomed hunting lodge, a private railway station and a staff of one hundred.

 Three Cheers for Hitler

 The first Duke of Westminster was Hugh Lupus Grosvenor (1825-1899) who was gifted the title by Queen Victoria. Elected MP for Chester at the tender age of 21 he played little part in parliamentary politics until 1866 when he campaigned against the Reform Act. His real passions were horse racing, deer stalking and shooting.

 The passions of the much married second Duke of Westminster, Hugh Richard Arthur Grosvenor (1879-1953), were more varied. A notorious womaniser, anti-semite and Nazi sympathiser he was in his element indulging in a ten year affair with French traitor and Nazi agent Coco-Channel. An all-round, selfish, insensitive brute, Hugh Grosvenor long remained an open-admirer of Hitler. Fiercely anti-gay, in 1931 he “outed” his homosexual brother-in-law, William Lygon, Lord Beauchamp to King George V and Queen Mary. “I thought men like that shot themselves”, was the King’s response. Lygon was rapidly despatched abroad and died an exile in America.

 Gerry, the present Duke of Westminster, acquired his astonishing wealth directly from Hugh “the fascist” who bypassed three intervening Dukes to entrust the Grosvenor fortune to the one year-old Gerald who inherited on his eighteenth birthday.

 Rebellion Below Stairs

 The sixth Duke of Westminster is a socially aware, sensitive man who’s President or patron of more than 100 organisations and charities. His servants at Eaton Hall don’t seem entirely convinced and according to Mrs Frances Hewson the Duchess is a harsh task master with an obsession about the disposition of toilet rolls. Sacked by the Grosvenors in 2001 for “gross misconduct” their former housekeeper was blamed by the Duke for provoking staff to “a stage of rebellion”.

 For her part Mrs Hewson claims “the Duchess sent back the sheets, adorned with their “W” monograms, if any bore a single crease…the lavatory rolls in each of the 20 en-suite bathrooms had to be positioned so that precisely two sheets hung down” and the housekeeper, “was not allowed to return from walking the family spaniel at 5.30 each morning until he had done two poos and a wee”.

 Before dismissal Mrs Hewson was employed to serve the Grosvenors at Eaton Hall from 5.30 am until 3pm before returning for two hours each evening “to turn down the beds”. After sacking her, solicitors offered Mrs Hewson £5,000 to keep quiet and abandon an action for unfair dismissal, she refused but lost anyway. The lawyers then obtained a legal injunction to prevent Frances Hewson publishing a book revealing more about life at Eaton Hall.

 “Virtue not Ancestry”

 In 1381, when the ascendancy of the Grosvenors was but three centuries old the English peasantry rose up and cast off the yoke of aristocratic oppression. Tragically, they accepted the written guarantees of young King Richard II to then right their wrongs. Once dispersed the rebels were easily overcome by well-armed knights and noblemen as Richard vindictively declared, “Serfs you were and serfs you will remain!”

 Six centuries on we’re still subjects not citizens yet many continue to bend the knee and applaud these pompous, pampered drones. If we look up to them it is unsurprising that they, most assuredly look down on us. 

 It’s rumoured that in his heart of hearts even Gerald Cavendish Grosvenor, the sixth Duke of Westminster KG, CB, CVO, OBE, TD, DL, CD knows his vast wealth and status is undeserved. His aristocratic power and prestige is all smoke and mirrors. With his two O-levels and a lawyer-suppressed personal life Gerald knows he’s not worth more than six million ordinary folk and his family motto, “Virtue not Ancestry” is an ironic joke.

 As long as Gerry grinds the organ, the likes of Michael McIntyre, Rizzle Kicks, and assorted solicitors are suitably employed as performing monkeys but independent-minded Northern folk can see the Duke has no clothes.

'Houses under Threat' Newsletter

* Politicians call for inquiry into Welsh merger

NHS needs EU employees to avoid collapse, says think tank

‘What am I waiting for?': child refugees trapped in Calais appeal to MPs

Concerns over Welsh universities pay ‘inequality'

Labour leadership: Corbyn and Smith to stage Glasgow debate

Immigration: Brexit an opportunity to fix ‘broken' system

Charter a success but leave it as it is, says GWSF

Homeowner Survey 2016

UK house prices:three-year forecast predicts price falls in 2017 - with recovery starting by 2…

Brexit latest: Investors pull £5bn from UK stock market funds after EU referendum

4,500 cases of homelessness prevention in Wales

Slump in mortgage approvals following Brexit vote

Demand for buy-to-let mortgages and loans boosts OneSavings Bank profits but lender set to sla…

Almost 80,000 families a year could be homeless by 2020, warns former Labour housing minister

‘Barriers must be overcome’ for Scotland’s housing

Six figure boost for more co-operative homes in Wales

How much damage has Brexit caused? Listen to economists instead of journalists if you want the…

Controversial housing scheme on the agenda

Housing associations should fight harder to end the abuse of women

‘Potential conflict of interest' after minister backed firm

Councils hope for recycling rate rise to avoid fines

Research suggests DIY can be a false economy for UK home owners

Brexit having more of an effect on Greater London property than rest of UK

Live Retrofit Project Blog: Follow Hanover HAs first Kensa GSHP Scheme

Land and Lakes buys Anglesey land for £120m leisure park

PDF: Energy Planning - Greater London Authority guidance on preparing energy assessments - Mar…

Zero carbon homes – changes to the London plan requirements

Brexit research shows economic risk to Scotland

Nicola Sturgeon to appoint Brexit minister

Fall in hospital mortality

Empowering our islands

UK government told: ‘You can borrow for free, so get spending’

UK house prices set to slow in 2016 and fall slightly in 2017 then recover in 2018

Prime central London lettings market subdued in second quarter of 2016

Majority of UK buyers and renters would pay more for ideal home

Deyan Sudjic: Whatever happens to Britain, London will remain a city state

Housing associations organisation criticises lack of affordable homes in UK

UK employers in low-skilled sectors concerned over Brexit future

RLA calling for mandatory CMP schemes to protect landlords

Government prepares multi-billion pound housing stimulus

Housing complex could move to Swansea City’s old home to make way for city centre redevel...

Alarmed residents claim construction of 450 new houses could leave their own homes flooded

What’s wrong with private landlords collecting £9bn in Housing Benefit? - David Orr

PDF: Ashfield District Council - Cabinet Minutes, Thursday, 14th July, 2016 6.30 pm

First time buyers bounce back on to the property market as stamp duty changes take effect

John Spencer-Davis on the Owen Smith Bid

John Spencer-Davis July 26, 2016 at 18:32

I received an e-mail from Owen Smith MP today, and I publish it and my response below.

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E-mail from Owen Smith MP dated 26th July 2016 Labour’s future, radical politics

John,

I grew up in South Wales during the miners’ strike. That’s when I came alive politically.

I saw the power of politics to change lives, for better and worse. We are seeing it again with a Tory government inflicting such damage through austerity. That’s why we need a radical, united Labour Party and why I am standing for Leader.

Jeremy Corbyn has reconnected our party with its radical principles. But it’s now time for a new generation with the energy and ideas to turn those principles in to action.

Under my leadership, we will be a powerful voice for social justice.

Together we can defeat this government.

Owen

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John Spencer-Davis:

Please be so kind as to share as widely as possible, and show to every member and supporter of the Labour Party that you can think of or reach. Many thanks, John

Reply dated 26th July 2016 to Owen Smith MP’s e-mail of the same date

Mr Smith,

No, I will not click here to watch your election video. I am not interested in your leadership challenge. You should not be running for the Labour leadership at all. The Labour Party already has a leader, elected less than a year ago with a vote so far above that of his nearest challenger, that you should be heartily ashamed of what you and your colleagues in the Parliamentary Labour Party have done. Given the ridiculous antics that you and your fellow MPs have indulged yourselves in over the past month, I am astounded that you have the temerity to e-mail the membership at all.

However, I am very glad of the opportunity to tell you exactly what I think of you and your colleagues, and why. I am also going to formally request a response to this e-mail. First of all, I would like to draw your attention to a report in the Times dated 28th November 2015, of which I am certain you will be perfectly aware, titled “Secret bid to oust Corbyn” which describes senior Labour figures and MPs as “desperate to keep Corbyn off the ballot paper” in the event of a leadership challenge, and states that the firm GRM Law has issued legal advice on the matter at the request of these senior Labour figures and MPs. Secondly, I draw your attention to a report in the Telegraph dated 3rd May 2016, titled “Revealed: plot to oust Jeremy Corbyn by using veteran Labour MP Margaret Hodge to spark leadership contest”, which includes the following: “A plot to oust Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader has emerged, with veteran MP Margaret Hodge said to have been persuaded to stand against him to spark a leadership contest…The veteran MP could be used as a stalking horse before dropping out to allow moderate MPs to remain unscathed as they launch their leadership bids”. Thirdly, I draw your attention to a report in the Telegraph dated 13th June 2016, titled “Labour rebels hope to topple Jeremy Corbyn in 24-hour blitz after EU referendum” which includes the following: “Labour rebels believe they can topple Jeremy Corbyn after the EU referendum in a 24-hour blitz by jumping on a media storm of his own making… By fanning the flames with front bench resignations and public criticism they think the signatures needed to trigger a leadership race can be gathered within a day”.

I assume that in the light of what began on 26th June 2016, you are not going to insult my intelligence by suggesting that these newspaper reports, and a number of others like them in newspapers and social media, were fantasy, and I assume that you will not likewise insult it by suggesting that you were unaware of these reports and the movements behind them. One of the two MPs who submitted a vote of no confidence to the Parliamentary Labour Party Chairman on 24th June 2016 was Margaret Hodge. A series of front bench resignations began after Hilary Benn MP deliberately invited his own dismissal in the early hours of the morning of Sunday 26th June. Among those front bench resignations was yours from the Shadow Cabinet. You participated in the vote of no confidence in Jeremy Corbyn as leader of the Parliamentary Labour Party. I will be pleased to be more specific about other similar reports if necessary.

In the light of what I have stated above, it is impossible to credit that the events of the 24th to the 26th June 2016, and subsequently, did not take place in order to force the resignation of Jeremy Corbyn from the Labour leadership and thereby assure that he was not able to garner sufficient support from the PLP and MEPs to be eligible to seek re-election, as per the legal advice provided by GRM Law in November 2015, two months after his emphatic victory in the leadership election. It is also impossible to credit that an intelligent person with your political connections and experience could fail to be aware of what was going on during those days, and therefore, whether you care to admit it or you do not, it is as plain as day to any objective observer that your resignation from the Shadow Cabinet and your participation in the vote of no confidence make an utter mockery of your assertion, as reported on 13th July 2016, that you were not part of any plot or coup against Jeremy Corbyn MP. That assertion is flatly and obviously false. I also draw your attention to the tweet by Andy Burnham MP on 26th June 2016, which honourably stated: “I have never taken part in a coup against any Leader of the Labour Party and I am not going to start now.” Mr Burnham evidently knew what was going on. Do you seriously assert that you did not? You are taking all of the members and supporters of the Labour Party, including myself, for mugs, Mr Smith, and I do not like it. I also draw your attention to the tweet by John Mann MP on 13th July 2016, which stated: “I was approached six months ago to back Owen Smith to be Labour leader. I politely declined the offer”. I quote again the Telegraph from May 2016 regarding Margaret Hodge MP: “…could be used as a stalking horse before dropping out to allow moderate MPs to remain unscathed as they launch their leadership bids”.

I don’t need to know any more about your leadership bid than I have outlined above, Mr Smith. Unlike Andy Burnham MP, you have acted in the most dishonourable and disgraceful way, and have enthusiastically participated in a wholly undemocratic attempt to deny the members and supporters of the Labour Party their right to choose, again, the leader that they overwhelmingly chose in late 2015. You have also had the hypocrisy to state that you will fight a clean leadership campaign, when your campaign has been dirty and tainted from the very beginning, for the reasons I have summarised. Your subsequent actions have also been so, but that is no surprise given the way you started, and there is no need to go into that: what I have said is enough. You should be ashamed to show your face at any leadership husting, and I urge you to do the honourable thing even now, at this late stage, and say that you will have no further part in this cynical affront to Labour Party democracy and to the members and supporters.

I will be publicising your e-mail to me and my answer to it as widely as possible, so that as many members and supporters of the Labour Party I can reach can see the sources I have cited and what an ordinary member thinks of you and your e-mail and your leadership bid. I will also be copying it to my own MP.

I await your reply.

Yours sincerely,

John Spencer-Davis

Pale-faced Reply by Irrelevant Old Man!

Dear Adam Lawrence-Barr,

NICE to hear from you.  I only became aware of you after someone drew my attention to your spat with Nick Heath over your interview with the Catholic Worker.  I think he accused you of returning to the 'Big Tent' approach to anarchism, and you humbly said that Freedom had no intention of returning to the 'Big Tent' approach.  I don't know what the alternative is perhaps it amounts to proclaiming what Orwell called the 'smelly little orthodoxy' of left wing politics.  Whatever is the case, Northern Voices would be more than happy to publish your ideas on the NV Blog.

 You mention a few groups or tenants of Freedom that are doing 'work', implying that by offering rooms or collecting rents and standing in their shadows Freedom is somehow made more significant by its proximity to these bodies.  It's a curious argument to pursue, especially when at the last meeting of the Friends of Freedom you revealed that the inmates at Freedom had managed to 'squander' a large sum of money left to Freedom by a benefactor some 7-years ago.  You did say 'squander' didn't you?  And did you go on to absolve yourself by saying:  'It was before my time'?  Also, is it true that a member of the Friends has been financing the Collective out of their own pocket? 

None of these misdemeanours seems to inhibit you from taking that moral high ground in your e-mail and accusing Northern Voices an 'attempt to steal away the means of production from the workers using it by a bunch of old irrelevant white men'.  I'm glad you raised the matter in this for it suggests that you have not read a word of the Freedom archives or even of Northern Voices.  By couching your profound critique in such terms I suppose that you are claiming that you are more in touch with the shop-floor and the world of work?  And that your record in anarchist politics is somehow superior to mine and the other three supporters of the 'Modest program'?

Well, that is interesting:  how long have you been involved in Freedom?  The problem is that you seem to be representing the Metropolitan elite, and apart from David Goodway from Yorkshire, who is on the Friends of Freedom to represent the provinces?  Your own name sounds like something from the Home Counties and the middle-class, it doesn't have a proletarian ring to it does it?  It doesn't sound owt like someone who has been apprenticed in a factory, or has worked in the shipyards in Gibraltar like me, or has been a weighman in a Lancashire textile mill.  Or someone who has done time in Strangeways, or been detained in a dungeon in the province of Segovia in the summer of 1963, before even Stuart Christie went to Franco's Spain.  I'll not mention about the interviews I did for Freedom during the pyramid sales riots in Albania in 1997, and in Belgrade during the general elections there in December 2000.  What today seems to be held to be 'irrelevant' on the left of politics is the concerns of the blue-collar worker:  take the lack of interest in many quarters in the recent High Court case over blacklisting - that is the elephant which has somehow been left outside the room.  Where are the representatives of North & South Wales on the Friends of Freedom?  Where is the Scottish connection?  Where are the Northerners?  Where are the genuine Proles and blue-collar workers? 

 Come-on Adam Lawrence-Barr, who are you kidding? 

 Kind regards, 

 Brian Bamford

Chris Draper's Answer to 'What did the EU do for Manchester?'

WONDERFUL!

Let's have more examples of how governments are really good for us on this allegedly anarchist website!

Or perhaps readers might instead consider a few facts, for example this list illustrating how the EU helps corporations transfer production to where the workers come cheapest!

Cadbury moved factory to Poland 2011 with EU grant.  Ford Transit moved to Turkey 2013 with EU grant.  Jaguar Land Rover has recently agreed to build a new plant in Slovakia with

EU grant, owned by Tata, the same company who have trashed our steel works and emptied the workers pension funds. Peugeot closed its Ryton (was Rootes Group) plant and moved production to

Slovakia with EU grant.

British Army's new Ajax fighting vehicles to be built in SPAIN using SWEDISH steel at the request of the EU to support jobs in Spain with EU grant, rather than Wales.

Dyson gone to Malaysia, with an EU loan.  Crown Closures, Bournemouth (Was METAL BOX), gone to Poland with EU grant, once employed 1,200.  M&S manufacturing gone to Far East with EU loan.  Hornby models gone. In fact all toys and models now gone from UK along with

the patents all with with EU grants.

Gillette gone to eastern Europe with EU grant.  Texas Instruments Greenock gone to Germany with EU grant.  Indesit at Bodelwyddan Wales gone with EU grant.  Sekisui Alveo said production at its Merthyr Tydfil Industrial Park foam  plant will relocate production to Roermond in the Netherlands, with EU funding.

Hoover Merthyr factory moved out of UK to Czech Republic and the Far East by Italian company Candy with EU backing.  ICI integration into Holland’s AkzoNobel with EU bank loan and within days of the merger, several factories in the UK, were closed, eliminating 3,500 jobs Boots sold to Italians Stefano Pessina who have based their HQ in Switzerland to avoid tax to the tune of £80 million a year, using an EU loan for the purchase.

JDS Uniphase run by two Dutch men, bought up companies in the UK with £20 million in EU 'regeneration' grants, created a pollution nightmare and just closed it all down leaving 1,200 out of work and an environmental clean-up paid for by the UK tax-payer. They also raided the pension fund and drained it dry.

UK airports are owned by a Spanish company.  Scottish Power is owned by a Spanish company.

Most London buses are run by Spanish and German companies.  The Hinkley Point C nuclear power station to be built by French company EDF, part owned by the French government, using cheap Chinese steel that has catastrophically failed in other nuclear installations. Now EDF say the

costs will be double or more and it will be very late even if it does come online. 

Swindon was once our producer of rail locomotives and rolling stock. Not any more, it's Bombardier in Derby and due to their losses in the aviation market, that could see the end of the British railways manufacturing altogether even though Bombardier had EU grants to keep Derby going which

they diverted to their loss-making aviation side in Canada.  39% of British invention patents have been passed to foreign companies, many of them in the EU The Mini cars that Cameron stood in front of as an example of British engineering, are built by BMW mostly in Holland and Austria. His campaign bus was made in Germany even though we have Plaxton, Optare, Bluebird, Dennis etc., in the UK. The bicycle for the Greens was made in the far east, not by Raleigh UK but then they are probably going to move to the Netherlands too as they have said recently.

The EU was designed and exists to coordinate STATE legal power to compel with the predatory power of corporations to exploit. The varied court-jesters (Union Bosses, Labour Politicians, Green Apologists etc) who take money from the EU and see a good career in toadying are predicatbly lining up to sing the praises of their erstwhile masters.  I would expect anarchists to look beneath such exhortations and examine the underlying power relationships. The EU is fundamentally designed to oil the wheels of globalisation, why on earth do you think it is so keen to covertly tie up TTIP?

Of course there is a window dressing of concern for the environment, workers rights etc but if you were mugged and your assailant handed you back a tanner for a cup of tea would you be grateful?

Don't vote for any politicians ever and for anarchy's sake don't endorse the EURO SUPER STATE but DO VOTE "LEAVE"!

Local election results

THE Shadow Scottish secretary and Labour's only MP in Scotland, Ian Murray, said:  'I don't think that the public see the UK Labour Party led by Jeremy Corbyn at the moment as being a credible party of future government in 2020.'

Last night, the Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson became the main opposition party leader at Holyrood as Labour slumped into third place in Scottish Parliament polls. 

A symbolic result in Wales, meant that Labour lost the Rhondda seat in the Welsh Assembly to Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood, and saw the Scottish National Party pull off a clean sweep of seats in its one-time working-class stronghold of Glasgow. 

Labour also lost seats in England and Wales, while avoiding the catastrophic defeat some had suggested.  There was little change for the ruling Conservatives in England and Wales.

At this stage in the life of a parliament it might have been expected that the main opposition party would be gaining seats from the governing party.

Addressing supporters in Sheffield after a dismal night for Labour, Jeremy Corbyn has confessed that the party has 'a lot of building to do'.

Despite the excitement of some in the Labour Party over Jeremy Corbyn's leadership Northern Voices' still hold to the view that the Labour as a progressive party has outlived its mission.

Some Thoughts on the Scottish Referendum

by Paul Saveson

SCOTLAND is changing dramatically – and it will drag the rest of the UK along with it, one way or another.  The outcome of the Scottish referendum is that Britain will have changed, and changed quite utterly.

As a northern Englishman who spends some time in Scotland, it’s impossible not to be amazed by the political ferment north of the border. Scotland is buzzing with ideas and radical thinking, and most of that – all of it to be honest – is coming from the ‘yes’ campaigners.

In contrast, the ‘Better Together’ parties have relied on fear rather than any positive argument for Scotland remaining part of a reformed United Kingdom. The panic reaction of the last few days are more about politicians saving their skins than any meaningful commitment to change. But even then, it’s just more of the same 'we know what's good for you' politics.

Scotland will make its mind up this week. But what of radicals and democrats in England, and for that matter Wales: should we welcome an independent Scotland or see it as a slightly discourteous goodbye, consigning us to decades of Tory rule?

There’s no doubt that Scotland leaving the UK would result in a boost to the Tories, giving them an ill deserved boostal based on current arrangements. Wales has a degree of protection through its own (Labour-administered) Welsh Government and further powers are likely to be devolved.

The huge democratic deficit is in the English regions, particularly the North and Midlands which have remained staunchly anti-Tory.

An independent Scotland could, you may argue, mean that the Tory-voting South will consign the Labour-inclined North and Midlands to permanent political exclusion.  That’s the conventional ‘Labourist’ view which sees politics as being about seats and 'majorities' in Westminster.

But there is a broader issue for the radical democratic left. Scottish independence will send shock waves through the British political system resulting in consequences which we can only speculate upon. It would potentially open the way for an independent Wales – a nation which, if anything, is even more anti-Tory than Scotland. It would certainly strengthen the position of Plaid Cymru, whose politics are way to the left of Labour's.

A re-constituted Labour/Plaid coalition government which edges towards independence based on radical left of centre politics would further isolate England. And England is the big issue. It is not
comparable in size or power to either Scotland or Wales. It has a population of over 53 million, compared to Scotland’s 5.3m and Wales’ 3.1m.

Its economic and political power, increasingly concentrated in the south-east, is enormous. It’s laughable when the pro-English parliament lobby complains about ‘poor little England’ being bossed
around by the horrid Scots and Welsh. We’ve been bossing them around – and much of the rest of the world – for centuries.

Perhaps we are seeing the beginning of the end of John Bull’s Great Britain. This is something that radical socialists, be they English, Welsh or Scots, should welcome.

A ‘yes’ vote for Scottish independence would have forced the pace of change south of the border. We are already seeing it start to happen. The current centralised governance, with power concentrated on London and the South-East, would not continue indefinitely.  Change will come, and quicker than we imagined only a few months ago.

And that change, potentially, could lead to a democratic, federal British Isles in which not only England, Wales and Northern Ireland form part, but possibly Scotland and – who knows? - the Irish
Republic. And London would no longer rule the roost.

Fundamental change must come to England, based on directly-elected regional assembles and a reformed and re-energised local government.  The two are closely related and the last three decades have seen the withering of local democracy across the UK.