Repression in the UK

When the police are seen acting like thugs, often we hear the defence that it's only a couple of bad apples.

The policing operation at Kingsnorth last year had already raised doubts about the bad apple theory. Kingsnorth revealed a systemic culture of repression towards demonstrators, with police officers regularly abusing the law and using violence to shut down protest, under the watchful and no doubt approving gaze of senior officers.

The same contempt towards civil liberties was repeated this year in London at the G20 protests, when without provocation police charged peaceful protesters at the Climate Camp in Bishopsgate. People were beaten by those who are meant to defend the law, and one man who wasn't even involved in the protest died after an encounter with violent police officers.

Today's revelations in the Guardian show that the Kingsnorth story isn't over. Thanks to the police's forward information team (FIT) recording the demonstrations and Freedom of Information requests aquiring the video footage, we are able to see a police eye view of what went on, and through hearing their own words, get into the minds of the people who are supposed to be entrusted with protecting our persons and our civil liberties.

The language used by the FIT officers, the hiding of police identification and the violent behaviour towards someone who simply asked for their numbers illustrates that these police have nothing but contempt for the public.

It's easy to blame it on the bad apple theory, but it doesn't wash. There are too many examples of anti social police behaviour now to defend that argument. A quick search on YouTube is all it takes.

In Kingsnorth, these officers were supervised and this video footage has probably been examined already by senior police, but nothing has happened to these men who put innocent people into dangerous neck grips and hog tied them before throwing them into a police van, arrested on manufactured charges.

These police are not our defenders. They have no care for civil liberties and clearly get off on violence. They are enemies freedom and democracy. They have been given too many powers by successive governments through laws which are constructed in such ambiguous terms that the law can mean whatever a police officer says it means. We rightly agonise over the corruption of the law makers in Parliament, but the abuses by the law enforcers on the streets should meet similar ruthless scrutiny. At the minute, how can we trust the law with either body?

There needs to be a serious reform of the police and a new system of accountability, and offences investigated by a body with more powers than the pathetic and toothless Independent Police Complaints Commission.

There needs to be a start to regain public confidence. These officers at Kingsnorth need to be brought to justice. Watch the video. Every single one of them involved should be dismissed.

Aiming high

Ah, the art of spin. A super new school is ahead of schedule - despite the fact that the old school is still standing and the local residents who will be impacted by the works haven't been informed of the changed timetable.

But more worryingly, why will the new school have a frickin hair salon? Is this some new policy where students will be encouraged to keep their career expectations low? Will the economy need hairdressers and beauticians?

And I thought Mortimer's enforced dance curriculum was bloody stupid.

As long as our kids can do a jig and do their highlights then the future must be bright. I suppose we should all thank Labour and South Tyneside Council for the next generation of X Factor hopefuls.

Come fly with me

If you have to fly somewhere, which airline do you fly with?

Personally, I would choose the one paying their staff, particularly the aircraft maintenance crews.

Sweet smell of ermine

Roy Sydney George Hattersley, aka Baron Hattersley of Sparkbrook, has had a go at the hereditary monarchy, in particular Prince Charles, for committing the cardinal sin of criticising one of (Lord) Richard Rogers' proposed works.

There's a sweet irony when folk like Hattersly and Rogers complain about the very establishment that has ratified their titles.

If Hattersley and Rogers have such a problem with the interference of priviledge and patronage, perhaps they should abandon their seats in the Lords?

European Election Results for South Tyneside

BNP	4433
Christian Party	401
Conservative	5147
English Democrats	957
Jury Team	548
Lib Dems	4313
NO2EU	699
Libertas	185
Socialist Labour Party	743
Green	1999
Labour	9263
UKIP	5449

Brown's Sugar

The clever rats don't join sinking ships, so why is Alan Sugar joining Brown on the bridge? I can see why Brown chose Sugar - Susan Boyle is having some problems at the moment.

Sugar was already in the engine room of Gordon's business brain trust, and as his company Vilgen won a £30m government contract to supply computers to the NHS, association with Brown so far has been painless.

Of course, as someone who enjoys the 'Suralan' tag, a peerage must be very attractive, especially since the telly bully will only have to tip his forelock to Brown for another year at most.

It seems only right that a wealthy man, who is given a job to help the rich stay rich, will be called a 'Tsar'. Now what happened to the last Tsar?

Labour's inaction on climate change

Joan Ruddock's hilarious defence in the Guardian of Labour's complete failure to get to grips with climate change, and the following responses, illustrates two important points:

1. Joan Ruddock is off her trolley.

2. Everyone knows it.

True, there'll be more than two points, but on every issue that Ruddock has tried to claim victory, Labour has failed miserably or fallen short of the required standard. The craven dishonesty even goes so far as to imply that Friends of the Earth's Big Ask campaign was somehow a Labour idea:

It's a model that Friends of the Earth campaign for other countries to adopt in their Big Ask, a sign perhaps of greater optimism and ambition than the Green party demonstrates.

Utterly utterly dishonest. The Climate Change Act was a result of FOE's Big Ask campaign, not it's progenitor. Parliament set about watering down the original Big Ask aims to such a point to make a Climate Change Bill just about toothless, except as PR fodder for Ruddock's rancid propaganda.

Dishonest. Fail.

Gone to pasture

That's the Dairy Farmers of Great Britain. That's the cooperative that is contracted to supply most of the North East's primary schools with milk.

Back in 2007 South Tyneside Green Party reported that the cooperative had stopped supplying school milk in the traditional 'third' glass bottles because its bottling machine was broken, instead supplying the milk in 'tetra' cartons. When the company decided not to repair the bottling machine, South Tyneside parents were handed an increase in the cost of milk as supplying the milk in cartons was more expensive. Essentially the council tax payer was subsidising the company's change to a less sustainable mode of milk distribution.

But this wasn't just a problem in South Tyneside - schools and parents all over the region were affected.

The loss of Dairy Farmers is seriously bad news for farmers. The loss of the cooperative will increase the power the large supermarkets can exercise over the farmers.

In hindsight, it seems like the cooperative's decision not to invest in repairing or replacing the machine may have been an indicator of much more serious financial problems within the cooperative.

No longer walking the earth

Goodbye to the king of kick ass kung fu coolness David Carradine, found dead in a hotel room in Bangkok. A generation of 70s kids like me were brought up with his chilled 'Grasshopper' Caine in Kung Fu and reintroduced to Carradine as the icy and ruthless Bill in Tarantino's brilliant Kill Bill. Ostensibly an action tv series, Kung Fu was threaded with an absolute ethical imperative and displayed a model of personal social responsibility.

An unconventional life ended equally unconventionally.

Cameron taking the PiS

There's an aphorism that says something like you are known by the friends you keep. Now that David Cameron has taken the Tories into a political bloc with Polish right wing party PiS and is wooing other East European parties, we are given an insight into what's really eant by 'compassionate Conservatism'.

Punkscience has already called shenanigans on Cameron's trustworthiness.

Now Cameron has got into bed with folks who are no strangers to homophobia, climate change denial, rabid nationalism, racism and religious fundamentalism.

These guys make the BNP look moderate.

Allen and Miliband: South Shields' Arse n Elbow experts

After her obviously heartfelt sympathy for those suffering from bingo tax, Tory hopeful Karen Allen has picked another populist target in beer tax, but I would bet that she has never been in the Cranny. If she had she would know the real reason why it's losing business.

It's a shit hole.

Decent people don't drink there. It's windows are regularly smashed. On sunny days like today it's customers will be standing outside intimidating passers by and laughingly casting sexual innuendo at children.

Complaints have been made to local councillors and the police so it's surprising that our local MP David Miliband is also equally clueless to the Cranny's shortcomings when he says that the pub is the lifeblood of the community.

Obviously local knowledge is neither candidates' strong point, but at least as a former resident of South Shields Allen should know something or know someone who does.

Thinking outside the box

Judging by the response in the Gazette you'd think the old police phone box was a holy relic, not a neglected and rusting piss post for dogs. If Councillor Gibson and the local people thought this was such an important feature, why did they allow it to deteriorate and not raise money for it's upkeep? Why do many people expect the council to do everything for them?

What happened to taking the initiative and taking responsibility?

Beam me up

I've not long returned from seeing the new Star Trek movie, a 're-imagining' of the original series. Loud, fast, colourful, tons of action and with a hefty pinch of tongue in cheek. The science is nonsense, so is the plot and the skirts are back in the Sixties. After the tedium of last week's Wolverine, the new Trek is a real hoot.

It won't win any Oscars and will offend some die hard Trek fans, but the general consensus of people leaving the cinema was positive. It's fun and doesn't mess too much with the original franchise despite some slight changes to the Trek universe.

Best thing? Something that hasn't happened after a movie for a while - I'm still grinning like an eejit.

Flying off the handle

Reactionaries of all colours will be spewing self righteous rage after it has been revealed that the Foreign Office has asked for tenders for a contract to provide charter flights for the Foreign Secretary. Some of the perennially offended will play the environment hypocrisy card, hand-wringing over the damage to David Miliband's climate karma by choosing to fly instead of sending a hemp-powered email. Others will agonise over the expenditure.

And as if by magic, Matthew Elliott of Tory black ops propaganda front group the TaxPayers' Alliance, said:

"David Miliband would do a better job if he remembered he is there to serve the people, not live a life of luxury at our expense."

This cynical approach illustrates the utterly partisan position of the Taxpayers Alliance. By the time such a contract comes on stream there's a fair chance that David Miliband may not be Foreign Secretary, either through reshuffle or change of government. Perhaps the Taxpayers Alliance think the Foreign Secretary would better represent our country by arriving on a cheapoflights.com flight after being packed in with drunken stag and hen bender tourists?

It's no fun working away from home and family for any length of time, and a job like Foreign Secretary will no doubt require a lot of hours in hotels, airports and on planes. No matter how luxurious the trolls at the Taxpayers Alliance think it is, being away from your family for extended periods can be soul crushing.

I'm no fan of David Miliband. His role so far as Foreign Secretary has proven to be one of ethical corruption and dishonesty. To be fair though, I doubt we have ever had an honest and moral Foreign Secretary, which suggests that the role could be something of a poisoned chalice.

But he's our Foreign Secretary with a job to do for a nation which has always punched above it's weight, no matter how much we disagree with his moral vacuum. I don't begrudge flying our representative around if it means he is fit to fight in the shark tank of foreign politics, and can quickly get back home to his family afterwards.

Happy Birthday Pete Seeger

JG Ballard

Great writer. Intelligent, provocative and thought-provoking stories. A sad loss.

Rossinisbird's rubber rage

This is one of those small things that wazzes me off. It shouldn't, but like shitty Ocean Finance adverts it does. These red rubber buggers are an elastic litter on pathways and pavements, like little red worms kissing their own arses.

But now the authorities are planning to make posties pick them up under fear of a short stretch, or a fine at least.

My plan for the rubber band ball world record is now in jeopardy.

From the mouths of babes

Sixteen years ago this impassioned plea was made at the Rio Earth Summit. Judging by the G20, the leaders still aren't listening.

How fucked are we?

The geniuses at the MIT Global Change Program have looked at the scenarios for climate change - what kind temperature change we can expect if we do something and reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, or what we are looking at if we don't.

Take a gamble on the wheel of misfortune here.

An interesting analogy used on the site is one of taking personal responsibility to mitigate risk:

Human-induced climate change is a problem of risk management. It can not be proved that the outcome will be dire or shown with certainty that it will not. As with other problems we face in private life and public policy, from controlling your cholesterol level to defense against epidemic disease, uncertain dangers can warrant reasonable measures to reduce risk.

The answer - take care of the biospshere, like taking care of your heart - do something about it.

Uppity Curly

Motherfuckin cracka!

Troops dying for phony war

Many British soldiers have lost their lives in Afghanistan. Osama Bin Laden hasn't been caught, and now the Afghan people are again to be made subject to oppressive theocratic laws to bolster Karzai's position. It looks increasingly like the Taliban never really left.

If we're not helping, what are we doing there?

Back to Year Zero

The start of the trial of Kaing Guek Eav, known as 'Duch', is a timely reminder of one of the most shameful episodes of the Thatcher years.

Unpublicised by her army of misty-eyed apologists, is her disgusting collaboration with the Khmer Rouge and its cronies, providing them with both political and military support.

Whilst Thatcher's brutal fiend friend Pinochet escaped justice, Duch will probably face execution for his part in the Killing Fields. Gordon Brown rewards Thatcher with tea at number 10 and a state funeral.

Torturous

Thanks to Punkscience for the alert on Craig Murray's attempts to be heard by the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights. Sent an email. If you want the truth then please do the same.

The great coal con

I wonder if the Gazette is being paid for advertising space, when I read tonight's shamelessly biased article calling for the return of coal mining. It's not the first such article to appear in the Gazette. When South Tyneside Green Party tried to respond to the last piece on carbon capture and storage (CCS) with this press release, the Gazette spiked it.

Tonight's piece is one of the most shocking examples of industry PR masquerading as journalism that I've seen for a long time. Claims are unsubstantiated and hyperbolic terms such as 'trailblazers' indicate an uncritical approach to coal. And frankly, the Gazette is wearing out the 'King Coal' brand.

Bryan has already covered the excellent U.S. this is reality campaign highlighting the simple reality: there is no such thing as clean coal.

Here is this is reality's new video, created by film gods the Coen Brothers:

Speaking of local-ish MPs

It's been awhile since I've been actively involved with Friends of the Earth, but I still get mail.

Friends of the Earth have run several campaigns, where constituents fill out postcards to send to their local MP on eco issues from the Climate Change Bill to the Marine Bill, to a call for a moratorium on biofuels. It can be hard work for the FOE volunteers to encourage people to get sign up but they do, in all weathers. So far it's proved a successful campaign technique.

Unfortunately, not all MPs are that interested in their constituents' concerns. Step forward Hexham's Tory MP Peter Atkinson. After several such campaigns 'Postcard Pete' wrote to Friends of the Earth asking them to stick their postcards where the ballot box don't shine, and instead has asked FOE to send Atkinson's constituents a letter he has drafted.

The letter, instead of directly addressing the concerns of the campaign just spews standard Tory greenwash.

Such arrogance is breathtaking.

It's difficult to imagine clearer evidence for the often heard accusation that many politicos only care about your opinion at election time.

Then I suppose since he's leaving the job at the end of this term, why should he care what his constituents think?

Speaking of local MPs

As I said in the previous post, there's been little support for Jim Cousin's EDM. Perhaps it will come.

However, whilst others are trying to save Tyne & Wear's public transport, Jarrow MP Stephen Hepburn has been busy sniffing out information for accidents on the A1. It's no secret that Hepburn is one of the cheerleaders for dualling the A1 in Northumberland, and his enquiry through Parliamentary questions over accidents and deaths on the A1 looks like a continuation of his campaign of sucking up to the Journal.

Normally, his Parliamentary questions precede one of his regular Gazette propaganda pieces so don't be surprised if one on A1 dualling turns up soon.

Hepburn dimissed the government's own studies as "multi-modal rubbish", so it looks some like barrel scraping is going on to build a case.

Looking at the figures he's been given, it looks like there's nothing for Hepburn to use to justify dualling the A1 in safety terms, unless he takes a creative view to interpreting them. The figures given broadly support the European Road Assessment Program's (EuroRAP) assessment of the A1 as low to medium risk. The A1 doesn't even appear on the last 2006 report of Britain's most dangerous roads.

Here is a quick picture of the Parliamentary road safety stats:

The long term accident trend is downwards, but what I would find disconcerting is the proportionately higher number of deaths to accidents in Northumberland compared to Tyne & Wear, although this may have something to do with emergency services response times and distances to hospitals in rural areas. If an argument was to be had here it would be for an expansion and public funding of the Great North Air Ambulance Service, instead of it having to rely on charitable donations. That I would support.

But on terms of dualling the A1, nothing much here to see.

Keep Metro public

One of the few Labour MPs with any principles, Jim Cousins, has raised an Early Day Motion, EDM 792, calling for the Tyne & Wear Metro to avoid the greedy clutches of privatisation. The interesting thing about the EDM is the remarkable dearth of North East MPs - only three North East MPs have signed up to the EDM.

The PR bods at Nexus have been desperate to deny there's privatisation afoot, but any effort to move a function of the Metro infrastructure from the public to the private sector is privatisation.

I fail to see any benefit privatisation of the Metro would bring for the people of Tyne & Wear. Given the current economic climate, presumably the financing would have to come from government, either directly or roundabout via bailed-out banks. As the EDM describes, bidders include corporations from Hong Kong, the Netherlands and Germany, which means a key part of our local transport infrastrucure will be in the hands of board room directors in other countries.

Our national rail system is a shambles and the disastrous Metronet farce in London illustrate just how poor privatised rail can be.

Given that public transport systems like Metro also feature heavily in policies aimed at reducing car use and reducing climate changing emissions, it's irresponsible to hand it over to external bodies.

I'm back

After an odd week - a few days poorly feeling sorry for myself and a couple of days away on holiday, I'm catching up with the world. If I haven't replied to you yet - I promise I will!

Police, camera, action

So our cops are getting cameras. The timing couldn't be better. From Monday 16 February 2009, a police officer could arrest you under anti Terrorism laws for photographing them.

This yields a huge irony. They can film you, but after Sunday try to film or photograph them and you could end up having a very bad day.

It's not just police officers. Armed forces personnel and spies are covered too.

Technically, it could mean that at Remembrance Day marches, the Great North Run or any other events where police officers and/or armed forces personnel may be in attendance, photographers are fair game for the cops with cameras. Photographing the army recruitment van at the Sunderland Air Show or on King Street could get you your collar felt.

Given that the identity of those in the intelligence services is secret, you could photograph one of our spooks and not even know it. But publishing an image of them could technically land you in clink.

I'm sick of using the phrase 'police state'. It sounds paranoid, overwrought and emotive, but I can't think of a better term for what our government has taken us into. We've seen similar laws, like the Protection from Harassment Act, worded so vaguely that they can be used and abused by the police time and again.

This needs to be reversed. No government or police force should have these kind of powers.

DUP creationist cretin

Well, I suppose finding douchebags and dumbasses in the DUP is like shooting fish in a barrel. First there was mad Iris Robinson and her Christian 'cure' for homosexuality, and earlier this week we had numbnuts Sammy Wilson (an environment minister no less) joining the climate change denial cult.

The ignorant anti science muffins have now got another contender for the Dumbest DUP Dickwad award. Mervyn Storey chose Darwin's 200th birthday to make a holy scene. He wants creation myths given a platform alongside evolution at Belfast's Ulster Museum. And if it doesn't happen, he's going to sick the law onto them.

There's a host of things that make creationists look stupid, but this is classic theodiocy. Instead of bothering with the earthly courts he should go straight to the big guy; pray for his god to smite, send thunderbolts or a nasty rash to see those pesky scientists and their facts off. Yes. Pray to your god. That's bound to work.

Fuckwit.

Happy 200th birthday Chuck

Darwin's 200th birthday seems to have generated some interest. As well as the Darwin Day website, the BBC has an excellent resource to follow their BBC natural history series and even a huge Facebook group is in on the act. Even the Vatican is joining the 19th Century and getting in on the evolution loving.

This year is a Darwin double whammy as it also sees the 150th anniversary of On the Origin of Species, which had the most profound and fundamental impact, not just on biology, but for many people on the perception and relevance of a belief in a god.

There's some freebies too. You can download the ebook here, and Open University is giving away Tree of Life posters.

Evolve!

Tory rottweilers

Today seems to have been a day for Guardian commentators to take apart the dishonest and the dodgy. Polly Toynbee, who I normally can't stand, has done a reasonable job of lifting the stone to uncover the Taxpayers' Alliance. The group is used by the Tories as a kind of off-balance-sheet PR group to bash the civil service or just moan about anything where tax is spent on stuff they don't like.

Often, their claims are repeated in the news media and on blogs without the kind of intelligent skepticism that should be employed with such narrowly focussed special interest groups. Their tactics closely follows those used by similar groups linked with the Republicans in the US. Their purpose is to generate media outrage and provide an opportunity for Tory spokesbods to get their mugs on the telly.

Whilst they rightly challenge public sector profligacy, they are relatively silent when it comes to tax evasion. Don't want to get off message with those donors do they?

It's no surprise that the Taxpayers' Alliance has aligned itself with fundamentalist road group the Association of British Drivers. The ABD, another group not unfamiliar with getting itself in the press, is pretty much against anything they consider to be anti driver. The ABD has bought into the religion of climate change denial and rabidly challenges any road safety initiatives which could slow down drivers.

Like the Taxpayers' Alliance, the ABD is named so as to give the impression that they represent a body of society, when in reality they have no such remit. Like the Alliance, their press releases are treated with undeserved reverence and unquestioned trust by the media.

Lobby groups like these are formed, or used by, political interests to build an angry and outraged consensus. They offer simple messages which are easily picked up and cut and pasted into articles, where real context, too complex to fit into the average news story, is lost.

Perhaps many journalists and bloggers don't want to, don't have the ability or don't have the space, to critically examine the output of these groups to an adequate extent. Or perhaps they are so blinded by political allegiances that such material, no matter how badly manipulated, is too good to waste.

Go George go!

Gah! Punkscience and Bryan beat me to it!

This response by George Monbiot to Hazel Blears is probably the finest and most articulately angry piece of political writing I've read this year, and reminds me why the Guardian, for all its weaknesses, is still the best newspaper in the UK.

I follow our local MPs Stephen Hepburn and David Miliband's Parliamentary action on theyWorkForYou.com. George's comments could equally be applied to our lot here in South Tyneside for their continuing ability to put party before principle and ethics.

And if that wasn't enough, in the same day George reminds us why micro wind turbines are useless on the urban home, and how the Tories tried to sex up their green credentials by putting so much store in them.

Silvio Berlusconi is an evil bastard

The Sunday papers sometimes prove to be excellent source material for illustrating the insanity and immorality of organised religion. In this story of Eluano Englaro I wish it wasn't the case.

Silvio Berlusconi's rationale to keep Englaro alive is terrifying, claiming that she is "in the condition to have babies".

After 17 years in PVS, it's unlikely that Ms Englaro would be in a physical state to carry a child, and will never regain consciousness to give consent anyway. Berlusconi is favouring rape, and possibly borderline necrophilia.

His position is based on advice from the Vatican, although I wouldn't be surprised if Berlusconi's real objective was to leverage other legislative changes to his benefit as part of a package. Yet Italians keep voting for the evil corrupt twat, and he remains a hero of the right.

Many ignore religion on the assumption that it's harmless and doesn't really effect our lives. The influence of the Vatican on this case, which could see a hurried change in Italian law, shows that the Medieval ethics of the stupid and the ignorant is turning Italy into a theocracy, forcing the dogma of faith on those who don't want it.

The UK is different, yet here religion also constantly vies for influence. Constitutionally religion has power. Bishops sit in the House of Lords and our head of state is ordained by God. Our national anthem is God Save the Queen.

Religionists regularly claim that their religion gives them a moral code. The evil bastards that favour such suffering as inflicted on Eluano Englaro and her family can keep it.

Give me humanity and compassion any day.

Pied Piper Peston

Today, BBC journalist Robert Peston sat before MPs and denied any responsibility for the start of the run on Northern Rock.

Bollocks.

The BBC reporter's breathless exclusive of Northern Rock's application for a loan facility from the Bank of England started the media frenzy and subsequent run on the Newcastle bank. I remember the Newsnight and early morning Radio 4 Today programme where Peston was wetting himself with glee at the attention. I'd never heard the word 'unprecedented' used so much by one person. And to think the shit the Today programme got for the 'sexing up' Iraq affair.

From then on, if there was bad news in the finance industry, Peston was the man to deliver it.

There's no doubt that Northern Rock's board and executive ran a risky and ultimately unsustainable business model. Borrowing short to lend long is always going to come unstuck, especially when borrowing from the developing basket case that was the US financial sector. But while the money rolled in and share prices were healthy no-one complained.

Peston's mealy mouthed excuse that the run was exacerbated by what he claimed to be poor branch capacity and website infrastructure doesn't stand up to scrutiny. Few, if any, retail banking organisations could stand the sudden onslaught of a media driven panic that Peston wrought. I remember on the morning after that first report television journalists hanging around outside Northern Rock branches asking customers if they were worried and thinking of closing their accounts. This was wag the dog reporting in action.

Peston's evasions in the committee today suggest that he was fed the Northern Rock loan story. He's certainly not facing the possibility that his exclusive was intended to bring Northern Rock down to be picked up by another hungry bank at a bargain basement price.

There needs to be a full accounting of the whole debacle, from the lax regulation, over confident boardrooms and fickle and greedy investors, to the media panic machine fed by the likes of Peston, and the people who fed Peston his exclusive.

Peston wasn't responsible for the run, but he holds some responsibility.

Poopy power

Whilst our local councils are trying to get 'value' from our waste stream, Treehugger has reported on this research for the National Grid which proposes harnessing sewage, animal and food wastes to produce biogas.

Biogas is nothing new. I've got a book from the 1970's by self sufficiency guru John Seymour where he described a design for a home anaerobic digester to produce your own biogas, and he tells of farmers using such simple designs since the Second World War. As well as producing the gas, the digesters also leave solid and semi-solid materials which can be used as fertiliser.

Much of our natural gas comes from foreign lands so such an initiative would be ideal to reduce our reliance on gas imports; a win in political, sustainability and economic terms.

Given the billions budgeted for ID cards, foreign wars and nuclear weapons, not to mention the welfare payments given to the feckless banking and car industries, £10bn seems like a small price to pay and with a tangible return.

North East Top Guns

I've been busy over the last few days so this is a bit belated, so respect to North East Labour MPs Jim Cousins, Newcastle upon Tyne Central, and Chris Mullin, Sunderland South, for having the cojones and principles to vote against the government in last Wednesday's Heathrow debate. Top blokes.

Asshats to those other North East Labour MPs, like our own Stephen Hepburn and David Miliband, who voted for a project intended to increase London's economic dominance at the expense of the regions.

Common Sense

It seems timely that so soon after the inauguration of a new US president we have the anniversary of the birth of one of the fathers of the American Revolution. Thomas Paine, born 29th January 1737, left Britain, a country riven with the corruption of class and monarchy, to helped to inspire the American colonies to revolution. A hero of reason, democracy and individuality.

Over 200 years later and here in the UK we are not citizens, but still the subjects of a tribal chieftain class, stained by the perversion of an unelected upper house.

Nineteen

For a government with a working majority of 63, winning tonight's vote, on the Tories' motion that the government should rethink the Heathrow plans, by only 19 votes is a thin margin indeed, and is another illustration how far out of touch with people this government is - and how close to BAA. Yet again, this Labour government has no doubt whored itself out to the sectarian fuckwits in the Democratic Unionists to win a close vote.

This isn't helped by some Labour MPs who claimed to be against the third runway but stayed away from the vote to avoid being seen supporting a Tory motion. Where's your principles you fucking cowardly hypocrites?

Whilst the Tories will claim a kind of moral victory, there are still some in Cameron's ranks who support the third runway.

Oh, and Geoff Hoon is a complete tool.

Oh Lord!

The really surprising thing about the crooked lords story is that everyone appears to be surprised. For some reason there seems to be a meme which says that all those who get into the top house do it through hard work and sacrifice and for purely altruistic reasons.

Not shy of grabbing an opportunity to bash the opposing teams, Blair clone Nick Clegg demands that peers caught with their trousers around their ankles should be kicked out. Not to be outdone, Tory toff leader David Cameron wants the peers behaving badly expelled. The lords must be shitting themselves. These guys call themselves leaders for change?

If these bozos really want change then let's bin the House of Lords. Being based on favour and reeking with priviledge, the concept of the lords is corrupt. Democratise the seats in the upper house and force it's members to be selected through trial by election instead of seats passed on by papa or given for favours and cash.

What more fitting way to start introducing proportional representation than by removing the least representative body in Parliament?

DEC for Gaza

These folks, an umbrella group of aid organisations, were instrumental in the recovery after the Asian Tsunami, and this is the video which the douchebags at the BBC and Sky refused to air.

The blame game

The Guardian presents a list of "25 people at the heart of the meltdown", listing those thought culpable in providing the environment for the economic tits up we're all enjoying.

One question, where's the prophet of profit Milton Friedman? Just because he's dead we shouldn't let the evil bastard off the hook.

Supermarket weep

Years ago I worked for ASDA, at the flagship store in Boldon, when it was still part of Associated Dairies. Staff were part of the organisation, sharing in its success with annual dividend bonus payments. The union recognised by ASDA, the GMB, was generally respected and staff felt safe in their jobs.

Shortly after I left ASDA however, things changed. There was a management cull, where all middle managers had to reapply for their jobs. Those who had a history of sick leave, were in disciplinary measures, or were considered to be difficult could say goodbye to their jobs. The atmosphere had changed and the feeling of family and mutual respect had gone.

Friday night I was with some ASDA employees from the current South Shields store who were worried that they weren't guaranteed a job at the new Coronation Street store opening in the summer; victims of the same technique used all those years ago.

South Tyneside Council has been very close to ASDA. The Boldon store has been permitted to expand to the point that it's the company's biggest store. The new store in Coronation Street is the Council's retail jewel in the crown, with a lot of hopes resting on the store's success. And political reputations.

Forcing employees to reapply for their jobs is unjust. Don't expect the Council to worry about this - as long as councillors can share in the glory and get their mugs in the Gazette they're unlikely to demand that ASDA respect their employees and guarantee each of them their jobs in the new store.

Gazette photographer strikes again

The Gazette's photographers have an expert knack of getting pictures of people from unusual angles or timed to snap just at an inopportune moment for the subject. Some photographs or images have a habit of following people around for years. Remember Neil Kinnock's dash in to the sea?

Hopefully, Gazette reporter Angela Reed won't suffer too much gyp from tonight's feature photograph... but a few teas must have been spluttered in South Tyneside tonight.

Brrr, it's cold in the Antartic

But not as cold as it used to be. To many in the church of climate change denial ("climate scientologists" I think Curly calls them), Antarctic cooling has been the elephant in the room. To many deniers, a gap in scientific knowledge on the issue discredits anthropogenic global warming. Even climate scientists have acceded the point that there was a gap. Honestly reviewing the issue, the IPCC concluded in 2007 that:

"It is likely that there has been significant anthropogenic (human-induced) warming over the past 50 years averaged over each continent - except Antarctica."

Whilst some parts of the Antarctic have been getting cooler, the average across the continent shows a warming trend over the last 50 years. But those pesky scientists at RealClimage.org who prepared the work and have submitted their paper to Nature have been cautious in pointing out that:

"Our paper — by itself — does not address whether Antarctica’s recent warming is part of a longer term trend."

But it does address that gap in the IPCC's 2007 assessment.

It looks more than ever that the denial position is to climate science as the desperate "God of the gaps" philosophy is to physics and biology.

Shields Gazette: inaccurate and misleading

Part 1 of the Press Complaints Commission's Code of Practice states:

"The Press must take care not to publish inaccurate, misleading or distorted information, including pictures."

In this article in tonight's Gazette they've clearly broken this guideline with this statement:

"A CALL to expand Newcastle Airport has been given cross-party support by all South Tyneside's political groups"

Note "all South Tyneside's political groups". Well, that's quite a bold claim since only three local political groups, Labour, Tories and Alliance have been quoted in the article. Nowhere to be seen are the Lib Dems, Progressives or the Green Party. I don't know about the Lib Dems, they're schizo on matters environmental, the Progressives would probably love the idea but the Green Party definitely doesn't support the expansion of Newcastle Airport. Quite the opposite.

Plans to increase flights at Newcastle fail on both environmental and economic grounds.

The "sustainable jobs" and "more efficient and cleaner types of energy" claims from Coun Anglin are laughably nonsensical and stand up as well as used toilet paper. And smell as shitty too. David Potts may love the idea of flights to New York, but shouldn't expect many New Yorkers to come to the North East on lavish shopping trips. Ahmed Khan, as spokesman for the party that's not a party, is spouting the same development and trade bullshit that framed the arguments for concreting Fellgate. It's touching that all three councillors were so quick to jump together into the palm of professional lobbyist and Labour old boy Brian Wilson.

So much for opposition.

But given the Gazette's current editorial embargo on dissenting press releases, and careful news management for its chums, don't expect any real voices of opposition to appear in its pages any time soon.

WOT a copout

South Shields MP David Miliband says that it was rather bad show to use the old 'War on Terror' brand. Anyone reading this blog in August 2007 will know that the brand was dumped some time ago.

Few Tories will be in a position to criticise Miliband's about-turn without a severe bout of hypocrititis. Most Tory MPs voted for the war in Iraq and even Conservative Home still uses the 'War on Terror' tag, so they've clearly bought in to the whole paradigm.

Yet the relentless erosion of our liberties with so-called anti-terror laws continues, with police officers down to litter enforcement officers given powers to harass ordinary folk whose only crime is going about their lawful business. Peaceful demonstrators, photographers and even an OAP at a Labour conference have all felt the cold hand of Labour's anti liberty laws.

But it's not just the brand that needs dropping, but the real harm caused by attaching our nation to this morally corrupt philosophy: the rendition flights, the torture, the killing of innocents, the anti-terror legislation, the breeding of hate.

But most of all, will Miliband call for a real reckoning for the architects of the War on Terror, Bush and Blair in front of a war crimes court?

Justice? That's too much for Labour.

Oh Gaza, Oh Gaza

That's what local writer Lalon Amin wrote in his poem of the same name in yesterday's Shields Gazette. Amin's poem was used to publicise a 'gathering' outside the South Shields Town Hall tomorrow.

Next to his smug photo Amin grandly calls this a "remembrance day for all the children that die during wars, and specifically the Gaza conflict." All very commendable. However, the location of the event leaves me feeling a little disquieted about the real purpose behind it.

The Holocaust Memorial Garden at the Town Hall has been chosen for a reason. Mr Amin and his friends want to compare Israel's actions with the Nazi's methodical elimination of Jews and other people who didn't fit in with the Nazi ideology.

There is little doubt that some of Israel's actions are cruel and brutal, but both sides of this conflict have behaved barbarically. The world has not just failed to act to bring these events to a halt, but has been involved with supplying both sides with weapons.

But a holocaust it is not.

Using the holocaust to frame the demonstration at the Town Hall shows the real prejudices of Amin and his chums, and the message they want to send. This technique is nothing new - it's an attempt to dehumanise your opponents whilst at the same time turning them into bogey men.

It looks like, like some of the demonstrations across the UK that have been hijacked by radical and religious groups, the Holocaust Garden event will not cast light on the situation, but generate plenty of heat.

Gordon Brown Is a Murderous Two Faced Cunt

That's right. Freedom of speech meister Craig Murray has the measure of Gordon Brown.

Whilst the UK weapons industry is doing very well thank you supplying Israel in it's Palestinian school blasting campaign, PM Gordon Brown's diplomats on the UN Security Council help the US attempts to block hopes for a ceasefire.

Hat tip to punkscience.

Welcome to 2009

Happy New Year! 2009 is a year to celebrate two key anniversaries in science history - Charles Darwin's birthday (200th) and the publication of his groundbreaking and meticulous On the Origin of Species (150th).

A major event in history with probably the most influential scientist ever, it would be a shame if our government and schools failed to take the opportunity to celebrate and educate, particularly at a time when science is under attack from the religious fundamentalism of creationist myths and paranoia of climate change denialism.

Science education also seems worryingly at risk from a generation of teachers who have a flexible approach to creation myths. Hopefully the polls overrate the problem.

A recognition of Darwin and his achievements and science in general would go a long way to challenge ignorance, and celebrate, not flying a painted piece of cloth or a mythical saint, but a real person who has provided such a valuable addition to our rich heritage that the British can be proud of.

Troops come home

And they still haven't found WMD. No doubt more vote winners are on their way. I smell and election coming... unless Brown plans to just move them to Afghanistan.

Massaging the pain

And the figures. As part of their stormtrooper fest at the Kingsnorth power station demonstration, the police manipulated a pliant media to paint a picture of participants hell bent on violence and terrorism.

Lib Dem MP David Taylor unearthed a list of horrific injuries police received during the event, which tells a chilling story of ruthless hippy demonstrators and of real courage under fire by our brave boys in blue:

"stung on finger by possible wasp"

"officer injured sitting in car"

"officer succumbed to sun and heat"

"pain in lower back"

"toothache"

Absolute carnage.

The horror, the horror.

Klaatu barada nikto

Among the the many sci-fi films in my extensive collection, 1951's The Day the Earth Stood Still is one of my most treasured. Thought provoking, intelligent and civilised, they just don't make them like this any more. It was one of those movies that I had to get on DVD when the video format changed (plus I'd worn out the VHS tape).

So when I heard that The Day the Earth Stood Still had been remade my thoughts were mixed.

Remakes are often a mixed bag. The Coen brothers' remake of The Ladykillers was okay, but they shouldn't have touched such a classic which couldn't be bettered. Same with I am Legend (The Omega Man). Get Carter I couldn't bare to watch more than thirty minutes. The Italian Job was a mild diversion, but ultimately pointless.

But then there's Scarface, Eldorado and Ocean's Eleven which bettered their predecessors.

Charley and the Chocolate Factory, The Magnificent Seven and Fistful of Dollars (both remakes of Kurosawa classics) equalled their forbears.

The Day the Earth Stood Still comes under the best left alone category. It missed the original's anti war message and 1950s optimism out of adversity ethos that has survived the passage of time. Robert Wise's 1951 film is what the term 'classic' was invented for.

This new version won't be joining my dvd collection. Keanu Reeves as Klaatu just does his wooden thing, with none of the measured compassion and cold reason of Michael Rennie's Klaatu. Although it starts well as a re-imagining of the story, the new film tries too hard to be current, with climate change (although not mentioned) being the reason for our destruction. Klaatu comes to our planet to kill us off, to save the planet and all the other species living here from our excesses. Some great special effects as robot Gort starts taking apart the fabric of human civilisation, the manner of which is slightly remiscent of Spielberg's War of the Worlds.

Ultimately though, it's disappointing, the ending morally ambiguous with a preachy paternalism that bordered on dictatorial.

At least it's not as bad as Indiana Jones crystal skull whatever.

Opening shots

After her letter in the Gazette last night, it looks like Tory Karen Allen is positioning herself as Tory candidate for South Shields (or elsewhere in Tyneside) for the next general election.

The letter is the usual Tory tosh - build more roads, Labour useless, yada yada yada. She earnestly even tries the jobs joker card while blissfully forgetting which party ruthlessly destroyed the region's industries.

It's interesting that in the letter she gives her address as The Kingsway. Although being Shields born, her blog gives her location as Stepney Green in London. A Lloyds broker presumably working in London, why would she mislead readers about her home address, if not to give the impression of being a local? Is she ashamed to use her London address? And why didn't she mention she is a Tory?

Pitifully, despite this looking like a first move to gain local exposure and garner notice from local Tories, she doesn't really say much different from Hepburn and Miliband; there is little ideological difference between the Labour and the Tories. In fact there is nothing of substance. Even the 'give a man a fish' proverb is just space filling, devoid of any context.

Looking at her blog, the Gazette letter was originally posted as a blog entry back in November. It looks like the blog is going to be used as a campaign tool, given that despite blogging since 2006, she only started blogging (ie giving a shit) about North East issues last month. Expect more.

Oddly, the South Shields Conservative website doesn't mention Karen Allen or her letter, and other bloggers haven't picked it up either.

Telling the truth is wrong

Fortunately, parents have subsequently managed to lie well enough to their children to convince them that Santa does exist.

That was close.

God?

Unbelievable or what!

In England, justice belongs to the establishment

The outrageous decision by the coroner at the inquest for Jean Charles de Menezes, Sir Michael Wright, to rule out a verdict of unlawful killing is

Police officers collaborated over their statements, which didn't match those of bystanders, CCTV footage went missing, de Menezes faced a smear campaign in the press and now a judge has moved the goalposts of justice.

Like Jailhouselawyer, I think there's little doubt that de Menezes killing was unlawful and that Wright's ruling is a blatant display of judicial prejudice.

Common sense prevails in Europe

The Telegraph, Daily Mail and their followers regularly criticise human rights legislation and it's arbiter the European court of human rights. Often it's portrayed as a lawyers' gravy train or an unacceptable interference in UK law.

But this is what it's for. Protecting individual rights from an authoritarian and illiberal state, policed by an increasingly powerful and militarised police force.

Our parliament (that's our MPs folks) couldn't/wouldn't stop this DNA farming, and the House of Lords refused to do anything about it.

The creeping authoritarianism we've seen in the UK since the 1970s shows a growing illiberal tendency among the British political elites. I suppose we're not alone, the USA has its Patriot Act, we have the Terrorism Act.

The DNA and fingerprinting rules adopted by the police are mostly for the investigation of the commission of crimes not yet committed. In effect, this means that the police consider everyone on the database as a potential criminal, which is contrary to the ethos of presumed innocence. The fact that our police are happy using this mandate gives rise to the argument that the police are already too far drunk on their power.

Tonight I'll be opening a bottle of malt to mark this, it's something worth celebrating. I hope those who normally slag off interfering European institutions as pc liberal lefty bureaucratic monsters are humble enough to accept that European intervention can work.

However, it's a tragedy that this should ever have gone to a European court. We should be able to defend our basic rights here in the UK. Even though the UK is signatory to European and UN conventions on human rights, unfortunately we don't have a specific bill of individual rights here in the UK. Given the growth of police powers, and the unwillingness of our MPs to protect our interests, we need an inalienable bill of rights to help protect us from the state.

It's all gone quiet...

...at the South Tyneside Alliance website. The website has been down for at least a week now with a 404 Not Found error. The whois lookup says the address is still registered until June 2009 so possibly it's a technical fault.

Although perhaps a cynic might say that given the coverage that the Gazette lavishes on the Alliance, and the proxy smear tactics of the monkey, they don't need a website.

Pottsy the red

I'm gutted. I have yet to reach the giddy heights of the BNP's very own x-factor, Redwatch. I've tried my damnedest to piss off the knuckle-dragging nazi fuckers, but it's all been in vain. The nazi hate site, which is designed to intimidate opponents of racism and facism, posts photographs, names and addresses of those it considers to be "red puppets of the state".

And top of the pops for the North East section? Cleadon and East Boldon Conservative councillor David Potts.

One piece in the Gazette and the wrath of the homophobic monkey blog is all it took Cllr Potts to go to number one. Jammy bastard.

Kudos David. You are now an honorary red. You join other South Tyneside anti facism heroes such as Peter Murray, Merv Butler and Tom Brennan.

Green groans

A few Greens will be spitting their teas out tonight after reading today's Private Eye hatchet job on the Green Party, after it was revealed that two former members, one a parliamentary candidate, turned up on the BNP list. The article, Green Grow the Bigots, tried to construct a picture of a Green Party rife with conspiracy theorists, racists and homophobes. Wow. Heavy shit.

However, despite Private Eye's desperate attempt to discredit, I won't be one of those who regularly write in to the paper to publicly cancel their subscription in offence.

In the real world, I've yet to meet a green racist homophobic conspiracy theorist sun worshipping tree hugger, but I guess whilst some folk with beliefs I don't agree with exist in the Greens they'll be the minority. After all, David Icke started his political career with the Green Party when it was known as the Ecology Party. Not sure that's a great example though...

Talking to Bryan on the phone, he was as usual quietly circumspect about the names on the BNP list:

"Good riddance. I hope the cunts burn in hell."

Indeed.

State of the media

Punkscience covered the original article, which has now been removed from the Observer/Guardian website. The article was another example of the media in bed with the state, the piece painting a menacing picture of a 'growing threat from eco-terrorists', despite there being no evidence to back the story.

However, it's unfortunate and telling that the Observer's retraction didn't have the same exposure and sensationalist headline as the offending article.

It's more disquieting than you might at first suppose. By using the brand label 'eco-terrorist', the government has manufactured a framework for the police to arrest demonstrators using the Stalinist laws they've been provided with. Couple that with the issue of taser guns, and you have more ingredients for a police state with not just the laws, but the PR and the weapons with which to control the populace.

Rock, paper, spinners

This is a fine and practical example of how South Tyneside Council's spin machine works in tandem with a supine local newspaper.

Nowhere in the article is it mentioned that the revetment works were needed because of the toxic waste buried at Trow Quarry. Indeed toxic waste and leachates are mysteriously absent. Nor does it mention that courageous whistleblower Peter Collins lost his job with the National Trust because he thought the people of South Tyneside should be made aware of Trow Quarry's toxic legacy, whilst NT and the council wanted it kept quiet.

Also missing is the whitewash inquiry held by South Tyneside Council with 'evidence' from people who walked at Trow sometimes.

This isn't news, it's PR.

Gordon's class bribe

It may be satire, but there's more truth in this twisted insight than anything that will be reported in the mainstream press.

Eagle Eye

I went to see this movie last week, by accident, as I was too late for my intended Burn After Reading. Think of this as a kind of dumb Enemy Of The State meets a dumber The Forbin Project meets needlessly wordy and clumsy 2001.

I love movies. This year, easily the worst and most disappointing movie I've seen is Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the... whatever. Who cares. I'll never get that time back. Perhaps the hype was too much, but for me it's become this year's lowest bar and so far I haven't seen a new release which matches the utter crapness of Indie.

Spoiler!

So Eagle Eye is not as bad as Indie. By a long mile. Neither is it excellent. A standard popcorn action thriller with CCTV society paranoia thrown in. The twist is guessed early on and Shia LaBeouf (also in Indie) does what he does. He plays a kind of harmless genius slacker who is pulled into a plot by a nasty supercomputer to kill the president and his cabinet . The female-voiced supercomputer is miffed that the president and his poodles are randomly bombing innocent villagers in foreign lands against the pissed-off pc's advice.

This computer is no ordinary nutty HAL; it uses the US Declaration of Independence as it's moral compass and concludes that killing innocent folk breeds terrorism and attacks on the US so the government is failing its duty to keep its people safe. Realising that the electoral system is ill-placed to resolve the situation, the supercomputer decides to bin them with extreme blowingupedness.

After a lot of running around by LaBeouf and his screen squeeze, I got to a point where I couldn't care less for them. I started rooting for the bady guy. Or girl, computer, whatever.

In the end the computer gets it's plug pulled, the Pres is saved by LaBeouf after a ridiculous chase and everyone was happy. Except me.

I'm not sure if there was supposed to be a message or moral to this story. If there is, it's that governments should be allowed to get away with murder and it's every American citizen's responsibility to defend that right.

It's fast, plenty of action, fun stunts and enough explosions to keep any popcorn muncher happy.

I just wish the too-cute kid got wasted.

Energy: Techno-Fixes

Over at corporatewatch, they've produced an overview report on energy technologies which could see us through a low carbon future called Techno-Fixes. It makes interesting reading, and oddly many of the conclusions match the government's first energy white paper in 2003 which questioned the sustainability of nukes. Here's what Techno-Fixes had to say:

The nuclear industry has jumped on climate change as a last ditch attempt to survive in the face of long-term public opposition, cost escalation and the intractable issue of what to do with nuclear waste. The industry has orchestrated a well-executed spin campaign and has succeeded in putting ‘the nuclear option’ back on the table. However, nuclear power is not carbon neutral, would not be on-stream in time to plug the energy gap or avoid dangerous climate change, and has huge environmental impacts - not least from the huge quantities of radioactive waste created, which no country has yet developed an effective way of dealing with.

On Carbon Capture & Storage, their conclusions are close to mine: too much wishful thinking and corporate (and union) interests driving a technology which would be too late.

You can download the report here.

The blackshirt list

Curly beat me to it, but it looks like a disgruntled BNP stormtrooper has finally released the BNP's membership list to the world. Hosted on a server in the USA, the BNP's attempt to stifle the release through the courts seems in vain, unless the site owner considers the posting inappropriate. Anyhow, the information is now out there.

Although I don't have a copy of the list (having a copy may be considered to breach the injunction and several criminal laws), I've had a quick look through it online and it looks like a few people will be embarrassed and at least one may lose her job. Hilariously, one of those listed is a lecturer on Human Rights/Data Protection. Locally, my suspicions about the affiliations of a number of letter writers to the Shields Gazette have been confirmed.

Given the number of people on the list who registered themselves as pagans druids and cosmic folk line dancers (okay, I made that one up) it seems that odd belief structures coexist happily in the brains of these folk.

There is an irony in this. The BNP uses hate site Redwatch to publish the names, addresses and photos of its opponents in an effort to intimidate. Now many BNP members are pooping themselves that they've been outed.

Not irony, karma. I'm sure the BNP's new-age, tree-hugging members will appreciate the beauty of the cosmic balance.

Burn After Reading

I've long been a fan of the work of the Coen brothers, and find most of their movies hard to fault. Their new movie Burn After Reading is excellent.

Funny, brilliant characters and sudden acts of violence. Typically Coen brothers. They really know how to merge comedy and tragedy.

The film follows a familiar Coen theme: ordinary dumb schmoes (played by Frances McDormand and Brad Pitt) get into a situation way too deep for them. A disc with spook data, a bed hopping bodyguard (George Clooney) and a dirty divorce are ingredients in a recipe for disaster. In an almost Shakespearean prophesy, disaffected spook John Malkovich predicts repercussions the schmoes are unable to comprehend.

Go and see it. After the bleak No Country For Old Men this is a pick me up. If you're a fan of the Coen brothers you won't be disappointed.

Nuclear featherbedding

If any further evidence were needed that our government is a corporate whore, then the get out of jail card provided for the consortium running Sellafield is it.

A private company will run the site and make a hefty profit. If they make a mistake, irradiate Cumbria or the Irish Sea, or kill someone, then the tax payer foots the bill. If the taxpayer wants to find out what's going on, tough, as the government has ruled that as a private company the consortium is exempt from Freedom if Information requests. This is despite the fact they will be carrying out a function of the state.

To hide this public liability this Malcolm Wicks broke parliamentary procedures.

There is no UK plc, just a minor and pliant subsidiary.

Kind heart and Kerr nets coverage

Councillor Alan Kerr must have taken a leaf out of David Miliband's PR book.

There's nothing like a bit of modest charity to help your media profile. Well done Alan!

Heroes on handouts

As everyone knows, tomorrow is the 90th anniversary of Armistice Day. The powerful icon of remembrance for our war dead, the poppy, is used to raise funds for the Royal British Legion for their excellent work for veterans and their families.

This symbol of honour and sacrifice also silently represents a shame upon our nation. Few dare speak of it.

Our heroes rely on charity.

According to the RBL,

"38% of ex-Service pensioners report an income below the minimum required for healthy living"

That's a national disgrace.

Until our governments recognise the sacrifices made by our service men and women and properly support them and their families, the selling of remembrance poppies will be stained by our country's failure to properly honour our heroes.

Bad Company

It's been a busy week for me this week. On Tuesday I went to see Queen featuring Paul Rodgers at the Metro Radio Arena in Newcastle. I wasn't expecting much to be honest, but apart from a slightly limp middle it was a great gig.

Whilst they only covered a couple from Paul Rodgers' back catalogue it was great to hear him sing live. Brilliant.

Legal rendition

Of all the stupid and pointless screwing over our government has taken from the USA over the War On Terror TM, the tale of computer hacker Gary McKinnon would be funny if he wasn't facing imprisonment by a government which loves to torture and kill people.

The US government, and by poodle extension ours, considers Gary a terrorist and evil genius who cleverly outwitted the mighty US Department of Defense and NASA by accessing their computers in the "the greatest military hack in history". He was trying to find out information on UFOs. When he successfully accessed the computers he left messages saying 'your security is crap'. Hardly public enemy number one.

There's no doubt he's been a very naughty boy and justice must be done. But why not here in the UK, where we don't execute or torture people?

Some MPs want a guarantee from the US that McKinnon will be allowed to serve any sentence imposed in Britain in special consideration that he has been diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome. Requiring guarantees from a government which executes people with mental problems seems a little optimistic.

But this is our government. They meekly excuse the human rights abuses of the US.

If only McKinnon had been a Chilean dictator responsible for the death and torture of thousands, instead of a UFO saddo, he would have been laughing.

Dumb luck

Mark Steel is cool. Intelligent. Funny. No, I don't want to have his babies but I almost laughed my latte over myself when I read this over breakfast this morning:

...the Republicans have had the worst campaign that could ever be possible. The candidate looked like there couldn't possibly be anyone in the country more idiotic, but he scoured the continent, found someone who was and made her his deputy.

And this:

One reason why it remains closer than it should be is obvious. Before the election's over, there'll be at least one Republican supporter on Fox News who'll say, "I think that one of the areas in which McCain scores heavily over his opponent is he's proved himself far more adept and capable, over the years, at being white. And for all Senator Obama's flair and charisma this is a skill he clearly lacks."

Although on reflection, I think this comes under the "Many a truth spoken in jest" category.

Through luck, stupid voters and theft, the dumb-looking Repub guy won the last two elections. The evil bastards could win it again.

Number 14

This is scary stuff. Worried that the US may get a black president, two skinheads decided to try to kill him, along with 88 other innocents. 14 of them would have been beheaded. 14, because this holds a mystical power with neo nazis as the number of words in the phrase:

"We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children."

Couldn't happen in this country you say? Then what about BNP bad boy bomber Tony Lecomber? Infamous BNP blogger Green Arrow has acknowledged the "The 14 Words" as an article of faith for the far right.

This is what drives the BNP - white supremacy and hate.

In South Tyneside we have seen a rash of racist graffiti matching as the BNP attempts to expand it's vote. When a taxi firm in Jarrow removed a BNP poster from it's office, illegal BNP posters started littering lamposts in Jarrow.

Extreme philosophy breeds extreme behaviour. Fundamentalist extremism breeds in the BNP's dark heart.

Fantasy Island Fuckup

As I've noted before, I keep swinging in my opinion on Miliband. Good guy? Bad guy? Well, now it's settled. The part he's played in fucking over the people of Diego Garcia and the Chagos Islands to sate US 'security' interests (read killing and maiming folk) suggests he is a sociopathic twat.

Miliband wept over sovereign rights during the Russian invasion of Georgia. Civil liberties in Zimbabwe. Expressed regret over rendition flights. After his part in perpetuating this injustice, colluding with successive governments, he has precisely ZERO credibility when it comes to human rights.

Bryan's already covered it with his dry humour. My rage is still at DefCon 1. Bryan has a point. If the British government had such plans for the Falklands, Scilly Isles or the Channel Islands there would rightly be an uproar.

Most of those folk are white aren't they? The Ilois people of the Chagos are darker.

This episode does highlight another issue. Miliband doesn't take all the blame. After all, you could argue that he's only Gordon's (and by extension Dubya's) bitch.

The decision to perpetuate this ethnic cleansing was taken by Law Lords: score line 3 - 2. That's at least three unelected, bewigged and pampered fuckwits who think violating human rights is a jolly wheeze, especially when it's on behalf of the Crown.

The Queen. Yes, whilst Queenie is busying herself sniffing fresh paint, walking on red carpets and congratulating former communist countries for clawing back to freedom, the Chagossians get royally butt-fucked on her behalf.

Okay, technically the Queen has no power, it lies in Gordon's hands. But in nearly 40 years she hasn't said a peep about these people. Her subjects. We can conclude that like all those in the power Jenga tower, she couldn't really care less.

What really matters is the law of the goose and the common.

"The law locks up both man and woman,
Who steals the goose from off the common,
But lets the greater felon loose,
Who steals the common from the goose."
Anon

Blog Action Day 2008: 2

Today I'm joining more than 9,000 bloggers in talking about poverty. I'm saying today, but around the world Blog Action Day 2008 the conversation has started already. You can see some of the posts linked here. But talking about poverty isn't just about heartbreaking stories about starving children in far away lands.

It's local and it's also about solutions. It's the guy outside M&S selling the Big Issue trying to earn a living. It's Citizen's Advice giving that vital help and hope. It's even volunteers helping children learn how to read. It's those and a thousand other stories.


During the recent problems in the banking system one sector of the finance industry has remained unscathed. Credit unions.

Credit unions don't rely on borrowing from banks or money markets. They don't buy up debt or loan books from other financial institutions. Risk is controlled very carefully. Members' interests come before profit and there are no shareholders. Credit unions operate simply, using the savings of their members to make loans to other members.

They are mostly run by volunteer members: for the community, by the community.

All credit unions exist in a limited environment called a Common Bond. It could be anything from a simple staff or union savings scheme, to larger service organisations serving a community like the excellent South Tyneside Credit Union.

Often, credit unions are a way for those who have been abandoned by the big banks to save and borrow sustainably. People have been helped out of the poverty traps of pawn shops, cheque cashing shops and doorstep loan sharks. They've avoided being ripped off by high street high interest electrical goods stores. Some even used credit unions a couple of years back to fill the funding gap after the collapse of hamper firm Farepak.

What's more, savings in credit unions are covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme in the same way as deposits held in banks and building societies.

Anyone can have a credit union savings account, and at the minute you'd be daft not to. If you haven't joined one, you can find your local one now. As well as members, credit unions need volunteers, so if you've got some spare time and want to learn some new skills (or teach some of yours) your local credit union would like to hear from you.

South Tyneside Credit Union
Central Office,
119-121 Prince Edward Road,
Harton Nook,
South Shields
Tel (0191) 454 7677

Blog Action Day 2008: 1

Three years ago last July, I joined the thousands in the Make Poverty History event held in Edinburgh. The participants in the march around Edinburgh's historic city centre were from many backgrounds, a coalition of campaign groups, charities, religious groups, trade unions and individuals who wanted to try and make a difference. From babies to the elderly, and from most, if not all, ethnic backgrounds.

The sea of people in white walking down Princess Street was something to see with your own eyes, and be part of.

But it achieved fuck all.

There was some disappointment from many who thought, like me, that Bob Geldof's Live 8 hijacked the event, focussing media attention on the televised concerts and pretty people looking concerned. His event turned the eyes away from Edinburgh to the wealthy stars who arrived in jets and limos, performing in their designer gear to a crowd consisting largely of the label generation.

This wasn't helped by MPH's own little branding tool, the white band.

The reality is, that after the events, the world's governments got on with business as usual carving up the world for their wealthy benefactors.

Despite the disappointment and lack of global action, it doesn't mean we should give up. As well as global justice, there's poverty on our streets, in our faces. But our government don't care about these people. They don't invite you to posh dinners, contribute to election campaigns. Bejaysus - most of them don't even vote! MPH was one of those things which helped politicise me and realise that the current raft of the three 'grey' political parties really don't give a shit about anyone.


I'm lucky enough not to have experienced extreme poverty. Whilst our family was one of the many thousands to exposed to Thatcher's brutal and ruthless culling of traditional Tyneside industries I was young enough not to realise or not care that we were poor. Looking back, I'm under no illusions - despite some of the hardships we encountered we had food on our table and a roof over our heads. There were many people in South Shields and on our own estate much worse off than us.

The Thatcher era heralded a me, me, me UK which is still with us today, from the rich robber bankers to the feckless hoodies and chavs, to twats in 4x4s parking on pavements. This is as much as a poverty of ethics, expectations and responsibility. No such thing as society.

Now the world is experiencing a brief blip in it's economic fortunes, partly because of greed, partly because of stupidity and partly because of the strict adherence to the religion of free market economics. Many people in the UK will suffer, but the repercussions will fall the hardest on the developing nations as the developed nations reign in aid spending.

It's a disturbing irony that since MPH western governments have kept their hands and their cash in their pockets whilst developing nations struggled, yet quickly found money to throw at the financial system.

Blog Action Day is in a small way, with thousands of people, trying to keep the issue of poverty on the agenda. If we keep having the conversation, we won't be letting anyone forget.

Goodbye Mr Wilson

This sad news passed me by. Bill Wilson, my old English teacher at Cleadon Park Comprehensive, passed away last month. He also coached me as a sprinter for a short while until we realised my heart wasn't in it.

I remember the very first English lesson, which entailed writing a contract in the back of our English books. It outlined his simple requirements - work hard, no defacing the books and homework in on time - that left us in no doubt who was the boss. Fresh out of junior school it was terrifying.

Many of his less well performing students (including me at one time) will remember "Mr Wilson's slipper". Often chalked with a target or text designed to be left on the backside in a faint chalk mirror image, the slipper gained a legendary status at Cleadon. However, pain wasn't the purpose or the effect - the sheer indignity of it all was enough to make you want to avoid a repeat performance.

But his high standards and similarly high expectations of his students' technical abilities was matched by an intuition and skill in encouraging students to nurture their imaginations. He was a great teacher.

I owe what command of grammar I have to him (which is hopefully good) and to a lesser extent his deadly slipper.

In sport, he had equally high expectations on the field and on the hills, his encouragement reinforcing a simple message: success takes hard work, but can still be fun.

And driving around in that deep purple MK3 Ford Cortina must have took some balls.

For what was a hard school, he was a suitably tough teacher when necessary, but when he smiled and laughed you couldn't help but join him.

I only knew him a short while, and it's been several years since I've spoken with him, but the image of those impish eyes and that mischievous grin will stay with me.