Free Speech under attack in......Scotland?

Photo: CC: "TommySheridan2007" by D. Natanson - Self-photographed.

A disturbing report has appeared in the Scottish Daily Mail about the Tories having to abandon having a meeting due to threats of possibly violent unrest from the hard left:

In an unprecedented victory for extremism, fears for the safety of Conservative members triggered the 'depressing' decision to abandon the Conservative event.

Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson, Scottish Secretary David Mundell, former leader Annabel Goldie and MEP Ian Duncan were among those due to address the annual West of Scotland conference in Largs, Ayrshire, next month.

Whilst I am no friend of the Tories the idea that a small meeting of any party has to be cancelled due to the presence of the far-left hate mobs is disturbing. Only 75 people were due to turn up to this local event.

This comes at a time when there is growing censorship in British universities which have banned speakers over perceived threats to the comrades inability to face ideas other than their own.

This time the culprit is Solidarity the organisation headed by that paragon of virtue Tommy Sheridan. Him of the visit to the "swingers club" that left him in gaol for perjury. Now I've never understood why he even had to lie about that. Most people wouldn't have cared and the joke would have worn off eventually. It's a free country for consenting adults after all.

Trouble is the hard left and "safe spaces" mob are far from being adults. They have blinkered views and in the case of the Marxist left quite an inherently aggressive attitude towards those with whom they disagree.

Protest is one thing. What happened outside the Tory conference in Manchester (which a repeat of was feared in Largs) is another. 

Censorship exists in many forms. Violent protest is unacceptable in a parliamentary democracy and will only backfire on the abusers. 

Some of the victims of the comrades ire are the very people they claim to represent. If the right to protest is abused it will only become more difficult to take up a banner. After the pensions march several union members said they would not march again after witnessing the anarchist wreckers use the protest as cover for their vandalism

The "comrades" always try to blame the police for trouble but that doesn't wash when groups of people turn up determined to cause trouble. The anarchists always seem to have masks and are tooled up for confrontation.

Democracy is under threat from all corners of the extremist political and religious milieu. The right of free speech is too important to lose.

Everyone, even local Tories have the right to meet.

Not a good sign for the future.

Defend Free Speech Campaign launched in Parliament

Cross post from the National Secular Society

A new campaign to oppose the Government's controversial plans for Extremism Disruption Orders (EDOs) has been officially launched in Parliament.

Described as Britain's 'most unlikely campaign group', the Defend Free Speech Campaign group is supported by the National Secular Society, the Christian Institute, the Peter Tatchell Foundation, English PEN and other organisations who are concerned that legitimate freedom of expression could be criminalised under the Government's counter-extremism proposals.

Speaking at the launch at the House of Commons on Monday Keith Porteous Wood, executive director of the National Secular Society, said: "Free speech and defending it, is the most basic civil right".

He said proposals to crack down on ideas the authorities regard as extreme could be used against those who "have not broken a single law" and "had to be resisted".

The Christian Institute's Simon Calvert, campaign director of Defend Free Speech, said: "The complete absence of safeguards and any clear definition of what is deemed to be extreme will have a chilling effect on free speech and campaigners."

He said the legislation was "badly conceived and will be bad for society."

Human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell commented: "Heavy-handed legal restrictions and sanctions on free speech undermine the democratic, liberal values that extremists oppose and that we cherish."

He added: "Free speech is one of the most precious of all human rights and should be defended robustly. "It can only be legitimately restricted by the law when it involves harmful libels, harassment, menaces, threats and incitements to violence."

Also speaking at the campaign's launch was David Davis MP who has criticised EDO's for "eroding basic principles of freedom without making us any safer".

He said: "Restricting free speech, and forcing those who hold views inimical to our own out of public debate and into the shadows, is an authoritarian act that will only serve to further alienate those who are susceptible to extremist views.

"Only by engaging with extremist views, opposing them and defeating them through debate can we hope to deal with the threat of extremism."

He said he lesson of centuries of British history is that the "best defence of freedom is freedom itself".

The campaign is also being supported by the Green Party's Caroline Lucas MP who warned:

"This kind of draconian crackdown lacks a credible evidence basis, represents an infringement of basic rights, and may well actually be counterproductive."

She said she would be taking "every opportunity to oppose Extremism Disruption Orders when the relevant legislation comes before the House of Commons".

The Government is expected to introduce Extremism Disruption Orders as part of a new counter-terrorism bill which will be published later this year.

The Defend Free Speech campaign reunites the same organisations that successfully campaigned together to remove the word "insulting" from Section 5 of the Public Order Act and to force the Government to scrap plans to outlaw "annoying and nuisance behaviour" in public.

Stephen Evans, National Secular Society campaigns manager, said: "It's incredible that here we all are again trying to prevent the Government from restricting people's right to freely express themselves. Extremism poses a very real threat to British citizens but existing laws prohibiting threats and incitement of violence are sufficient. Bad ideas need to be countered by better ideas, not by legislation that could be used to criminalise ordinary people and silence inconvenient, unfashionable and unpopular opinions.

"This campaign aims to ensure these ill-considered and dangerous proposals do not become law."

Stop the renewed flogging of Raif Badawi!

Photo: "Raif Badawi cropped" by Ensaf Haidar

The Independent reports today:

The wife of jailed Saudi blogger Raif Badawi said she has been told the flogging of her husband is due to be resumed soon.

Ensaf Haidar said in a statement she was told by a source that the “Saudi authorities have given the green light to the resumption of Raif Badawi’s flogging”.

Campaigners have written to the Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond requesting he intervenes:

We are extremely concerned by the statement issued by the Raif Badawi Foundation on behalf of Mr Badawi’s wife Ensaf Haidar yesterday, 27 October. According to the statement, Ms Haidar received information from an ‘informed source’ that the Saudi Arabian authorities plan to resume flogging her husband. This information appears to have come from the same source that correctly informed her of the first flogging in January 2015.

As you are aware, Raif Badawi is currently serving a ten-year prison sentence in Saudi Arabia in violation of his right to freedom of expression. Mr Badawi was also sentenced to 1000 lashes: the first 50 of these were administered on 9 January 2015. According to our information, he was due to receive 50 lashes each week for a further 19 weeks.

Ms Haidar understands that her husband’s case is under review by the Supreme Court. If the Foreign Office has any further information on the progress of Raif Badawi’s case, we would strongly urge you to share this with his wife and children, and with the general public.

Of further concern is the news that the Supreme Court has confirmed the death sentence against Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr. Sheik Nimr al-Nimr’s nephew Ali al-Nimr is also among those sentenced to death for his involvement in anti-government protests. An urgent protest calling for the release of both men and others facing the death sentence was held outside the Embassy of Saudi Arabia London today, Wednesday 28 October.

Earlier this month, we warmly welcomed the news that the government had cancelled their bid to sell prison training services to the Saudi government. We hope that the government will take an equally strong position on the concerns outlined in this letter, and use your influence to urge Saudi Arabia to put an end to human rights abuses domestically and to its complicity with human rights abuses in the region.

weareraifuk.org

Given the underhanded role that the Cameron Government played in helping Saudi Arabia onto the laughably named United Nations "Human Rights" Council, that's the least Hammond should do.

Saudi Arabia, like the vast majority of members of this misused body are abusers of human rights not supporters.

Meanwhile please write to your MP, raise this issue in your trade unions, political parties and wherever you can to campaign to get this man freed and the punishment stopped now.

Remember his crime was Free Speech.

Without freedom of speech there will be no human rights.

Free Raif Badawi Now!

Musical Interlude: Band Maid

Something a little different from Japan tonight with the group Band-Maid.

Here's a single from their new mini album New Beginning.

In defence of bacon

Listening to the morning news I was surprised to learn that yet another staple favourite food of mine - bacon is a potential, if not actual threat to my health. This "threat" includes sausages and ham. Not so central to my dietary needs but yet another nail in my continuing consumption of "unhealthy foods.

This comes at a time when Jamie Oliver is trying to get me to pay more for my sweet tooth. Mostly chocolate (especially Cadbury's) but that's high in this apparently addictive substance. It's in my coke to (as if I didn't know) but I prefer sugar to artificial sweeteners.

Then I discover more bad news in the New York Times who report:

Eating processed meat, like hot dogs and corned beef, can raise the risk in humans of getting colon cancer, a report by the World Health Organization said on Monday.

There was also some evidence that eating red meat, including beef, pork and lamb, can cause cancer in the colon, prostate or pancreas, the W.H.O.’s International Agency for Research on Cancer said in the report.

The report was released after a team of 22 public health, cancer and other experts from 10 countries, reviewed 800 studies on the disease in humans, and sifted through epidemiological data on the consumption of processed and red meats.

The findings, which are meant to help governments make dietary recommendations, linked increased risks of developing certain cancers to the amount of meat consumed.

Consumed daily, each 50 grams of processed meat, equal to about two slices of ham or a sausage, increases the risk of colon cancer by 18 percent.

The rest of the article is very depressing.

My only query is exactly how Pork counts as "red meat", but I'm a pedant at heart.

Still it seems the bulk of my diet is unhealthy. One suggestion on the telly this morning was to "plan our meals around vegetables". Sounds reasonable to me:

Broccoli, roast potatoes & carrots and beef.

Sounds good to me, though I'm not entirely sure that's what the dietitian chappie wanted me to do.

It seems every so often there's some scare about our food and health that's not related to horse meat or salmonella that should be of concern by the nannying state. I freely admit to being a food hedonist. They may be right, they might not. Either way I like my food and I'm not giving up the bacon.

So on tonight's menu was eggs and smoked molasses spiced streaky bacon from Sainsburys.

Mmm. Delicious.

Just don't tell my Rabbi.......

Trotskyists expelled from Labour

Four Trotskyists have been excluded from the Labour Party. The Guardian reports:

The most senior political figure in the Unite union, Jennie Formby, intervened after Labour’s national executive this week recommended that four members of the Alliance for Workers Liberty (AWL) be barred from party membership.

According to two accounts, Formby, Unite’s political director and a Labour national executive member, argued that the AWL had dissolved itself by deregistering with the Electoral Commission two days after Corbyn was elected party leader and that its members should now be entitled to join the party. Her challenge was rejected.

The four people were Vicki Morris from Nottingham East, Daniel Randall from Hampstead and Kilburn and Ed Maltby and Liam McNulty, both from Hornsey and Wood Green.

The AWL is the new name for Socialist Organiser which was excluded from the Labour Party back in 1990. It is a small but long standing Trotskyist organisation that is a distinct and separate organisation just in the same way the Militant Tendency was in the eighties when it was kicked out of Labour.

Whilst a hundred or so people that make up the AWL might not seem like much of a threat, this does send a message to the organised hard left that their presence is unwelcome. In a separate move the main Corbynista organisation has taken measures to ensure Momentum is not disrupted or used by the Socialist Workers Party who have made public their intention to get involved,

At the same time one small but highly influential Trotskyist organisation seems safely ensconced inside Labour. The Socialist Action group (once part of the long gone International Marxist Group led by Tariq Ali) remains highly placed not just in Labour but also in Unite which might explain the intervention of McCluskey's union.

Socialist Action remains an affiliate of the United Secretariat of the Fourth International (USFI) along with Socialist Resistance, a slightly larger group that also had it's origins in the IMG. Several of Socialist Actions leading figures were appointed as Ken Livingstone's aides during his reign as London Mayor.

John Ross their guru and leader recently wrote that China had made huge contributions to human rights and poured scorn on the West's version of democracy. Ross describes himself as having been a friend of Corbyn for thirty years.

The AWL's exclusion is likely to hit members of other groups trying to worm their way into the Labour Party such as Ken Loache's misnamed Left Unity Party. Even the old Militant Tendency under their new name, the Socialist Party are making attempts to link up with the new current emerging around Corbyn's base.

Meanwhile the unsavoury Seamus Mine is the latest controversial appointment to Corby's team. Milne is notorious for playing the role of a "useful idiot" for Putin and railing against the West at every opportunity. He is one of those who support every tin-pot dictator that makes anti-western noises. His views on the murder of Lee Rigby make him particularly unpalatable.

The Labour Party's civil war is only in it's early stages but is likely to worsen as Momentum builds itself as a party within a party and acts as a Trojan Horse for political extremists from both the far-left and far-right "anti-imperialist" movements.

The trouble is Corbyn is not very worldly wise as Martin Amis pointed out in the Sunday Times and is not used to dealing with issues outside his comfort zone. That includes taking responsibility for the growing mess inside Labour. His appointments and allies will operate well out of his control. Corbyn's not very bright and frankly a very weak politician who should never be allowed to gain the reins of power.

Slogans and wishful thinking will not revive Labour's falling fortunes as is quite apparent from the latest opinion polls both nationally and in Scotland where Labour needs to fight back against the divisive nationalism of the SNP.

Corbyn is indeed the false messiah.

Defend Free Speech: Petition against the banning of Germaine Greer

Photo: CC "Germaine Greer, 2006" by Colin Hurst

There is something seriously wrong in our Universities these days. Small groups of blinkered and bigoted individuals are destroying free speech whenever they come across those who they simply do not like the views of and try to prevent debate.

These "students" come to University with preconceived ideas and have closed minds. You don't have to agree with everything that someone like Germaine Greer says but to ban her to prevent others from listening to alternative views just smacks of the "new fascism" amongst today's so-called radicals.

Frankly if these people do not wish to listen they do not have to go, can issue a leaflet about a specific issue they wish to raise but they cannot be allowed to continue this ridiculous and frankly dangerous campaign of censorship.

You would have thought they might have learned something from the furore over the "#killallwhitemen" tweet by the so-called "Diversity Officer of Goldsmiths student union.

But no these types do not learn. One wonders why they are at university at all, they are certainly not there to study or develop. Just impose.

Please read & sign this petition. Defend free speech

There is a petition to Cardiff to cancel Germaine Greer's talk. I find it abhorrent that I must make a counter-petition so a second wave feminist isn't silenced by those who could just as easily not go to the lecture yet instead have decided to try and no platform her, to silence her. They've given no evidence in the petition either, just slurs.

This reactionary tactic of calling a woman a 'transphobe' is no different than calling someone a 'commie' in 1960's America during the cold war. It's a slur that contains no analysis, just an emotional response that is primarily used against women who talk about women's biological realities, not gender identities.

Greer centers females/women in her work. I fail to see how anyone who centers women is encouraging violence against anyone.

Her position on gender doesn't make anyone unsafe. The very marginalized group that Greer talks to and about is women. We are a protected class. Silencing her is silencing us.

Enough is enough. Stop no platforming women who only want to talk about women's rights and women's lives.

Sign the petition HERE

Comedy Interlude: Peter Cook & Dudley Moore - Music Lesson.

Isn't the world of politics depressing at the moment. Every time I open the newspaper or look at Face Book politicians of either the right or the left have committed some new atrocity against reason. Sometimes I don't know what subject to pick and having to work all day sometimes means things have been covered more than adequately by other bloggers by the time I've settled down in front of my keyboard........

This is one of those nights where having not been able to make either of my minds up I've decided to have a break and share some comedy.

Needing no introduction are the late, great Peter Cook and Dudley Moore:

Tell the United Nations: Don't Tamper with Judaism's Holiest Site

 

Petition: Tell the UN: Don't Tamper with Judaism's Holiest Site:

A new draft resolution due to be submitted to the Executive Council of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), declares that the Western Wall is part of al-Aqsa Mosque and, among other things, that the Cave of the Patriarchs and Rachel's Tomb are part of a Palestinian state. Use the form on the right to tell the Director-General of UNESCO that this resolution renders the Israel-Palestinian conflict all the more difficult to resolve.

Find out more and sign the petition: Here

PCS members should vote NO to the political fund

The largest of the civil service unions began balloting it's members today to get their "political fund renewed. The ballot takes place against a background of the ascendancy of the extreme left political current around Jeremy Corbyn of which the PCS leadership (or most of them) either want to be part of or make political gains for their various sects.

One of the main PCS leaflets tries to assure members:

Does the Political fund mean that some of my money will be given to a political party?
No. PCS is not affiliated to any political party and does not give money to any party.

Yet, or directly it should be added.

During Jeremy Corbyn's election campaign for leadership of the Labour Party the PCS General Secretary Mark Serwotka went on record as saying he would affiliate his union to Labour if Corbyn won.

Members need to raise that question directly with their General Secretary. 

If the political fund continues will PCS be seeking to affiliate?

As for not giving money to political parties that's true if talking about direct payments. However the PCS does pay money in affiliation fees to a number of organisations that are no more than front organisations for the Socialist Party or Socialist Workers Party.

PCS is affiliated to the National Shop Stewards Movement NSSN which is not really more than the Socialist Party under another name with a few gullible hangers on. PCS is also affiliated to Unite the Resistance a front for the SWP, no one else is involved except for one or two PCS activists expelled from the Socialist Party.

  

Then there's the question of leading members of PCS lending their support through the use of their official positions to the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition that stood in a number of constituencies against Labour. The TUSC is run by amongst others PCS Assistant General Secretary Chris Baugh and Vice President John McINally, both members of the Socialist Party which was responsible for setting up the TUSC in the first place.

Mark Serwotka as General Secretary has lent his public support to not only the TUSC during the last general election but has previously appeared on platforms of the odious George Galloway's "Respect Party. Serwotka has made it clear for some years that he seeks to build an alternative to the Labour Party.

Then there's all the other tin pot outfits that PCS affiliates to such as the laughably named Stop the war Coalition and the pro Hamas Palestine Solidarity Campaign.

That's what the political fund has been primarily used for over the years.

Although there is some infighting going on amongst PCS activists over Corbyn and Labour there will undoubtedly be a move for the union to head in that direction as the Corbyinstas purge Labour and move away from being a "broad church" capable of taking on the Tories and turns into a hard left sect incapable of ever achieving power.

PCS members should be aware that the unions decline is due to  more than a decade of poor political leadership and financial management by the far left activists that control the organisation.

More than any other union PCS needs to be de-politicised and returned to being a proper trade union. Only a defeat for the activists by removing their "political fund" stands a chance of achieving that.

Frankly members would be better served by joining other unions but that's a different debate and for now should reject the PCS having a "political fund" and vote no. 

Given the vast majority of members will not even bother to vote that's not likely to happen, but it should.

Labour's crisis worsens

It seems that the Corbyn effect on voting intentions is finally starting to filter through as the latest poll in the Independent on Sunday shows the  Tories on 42% whilst Labour languishes on 29%. This comes after previous polls have shown that Corbyns election has had no effect on the Scottish vote whatsoever and the SNP looks likely to dominate previous Labour strongholds for the foreseeable future.

At the same time there has been much in the news and on social media about the growing conflict inside the Labour Party. The Party, apparently on the instructions of the Marxist cadre now running Corbyn's office "named and shamed" the Labour MP's who refused to oppose the governments austerity measures. According to The Times

Email boxes of the 21 MPs who did not fall into line with John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, were deluged with complaints and abuse from hard left activists yesterday.

So much for the "nicer politics" that Corbyn allegedly wanted to start and frankly a somewhat hypocritical stance sine Corbyn himself has rebelled against the Labour whip at least 500 times in his less than distinguished parliamentary career.

While people might have criticised the man there was never to my knowledge a concerted campaign to deluge Corbyn's in-box. One wonders why Corbyn allowed his Lieutenants to act in this manner? If he pushed this himself he has shown his dark side which lies just below the surface of this "amiable man" as his supporters like to describe Corbyn. If they acted without his consent or just "persuaded " him to think this was a good idea then Corbyn is as weak as we all thought he was.

Either way Corbyn has thrown down the gauntlet against those who disagree with him over Trident by accepting the Vice President role in the outdated Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament campaign (CND). These appeasers and pro-Moscow activists seek "unilateral disarmament" leaving the country defenceless against a nuclear armed threat.

The launch of Momentum, the new "party within a party" by Corbyn's leadership campaign supporters has also attracted the attention the the far-left outside the Labour Party. The Socialist Workers Party has "encouraged" it's members to attend meetings. Even Momentum's organisers find that a step too far and are themselves seeking to block the SWP's entry. Clive Lewis MP one of the organisers has said he wants a "dialogue" with other groups in the Labour Party such as Progress.

The Corbynista's on the ground have shown through social media that they are unwilling to tolerate any "Tory-lites" as the describe anyone who does not support them and are targeting anyone and everyone who dares speak out.

The naming of the "guilty men and women" who apparently "did not have permission to abstain" by the leaders office shows the hypocrisy of the Corbyn camp. These people are Stalinists, red-fascists in plain English, makes the future of Labour bleak indeed.

The problem for the "half-percent" who back Corbyn is that they are like their leader unwilling to compromise, listen to other people and have no idea about creating the kind of broad church that Labour needs to be to defeat the Tories.

The battle for the heart and soul of the Labour Party continues.

Betrayal: Czechoslovakia then, Israel now

As the terrorist provocations continue against Jews in Israel, fuelled by the hatred of corrupt Palestinian leaders and their Hamas allies this short video albeit slightly out of date has some pertinent comparisons about the betrayal of Czechoslovakia in 1938 and Israel now.

The so-called Palestine Solidarity Campaign is protesting outside the Israeli embassy tomorrow despite the fact the violence is from the Palestinians NOT Israel. Perhaps they should change their name to the Palestine Stabbing Campaign.

These "anti-imperialists" are the same as those who opposed standing up against Hitler in the thirties.

The West must wake to the dangers of the various Islamist threats to world peace now!

Portsmouth Labour Councillor resigns from the Labour Party

Guest Post by Councillor Ken Ferrett

It is with sadness that I am writing to inform you that after 21 years of Labour Party membership, 3½ years as Portsmouth CLP Treasurer and 3 years as a Labour councillor in Portsmouth I am resigning from the Labour Party with immediate effect.

As the recent leadership election progressed I grew increasingly alarmed at the direction the party had chosen to take and horrified at the abuse relentlessly meted out to loyal, committed and long-term Labour members who held a contrary view to those enraptured by “Corbynmania”. I am not comfortable belonging to a party that now contains so many people capable of such visceral abuse.

Perhaps more importantly, I have irreconcilable differences with many of the new leader’s stated views and beliefs. I believe that, having campaigned regularly for many years, the vast majority of Portsmouth voters will share my opposition to the views of a leader who for decades has campaigned vociferously against our nuclear deterrent and membership of NATO and campaigned for drastic cuts to defence spending that would emasculate our armed forces. I also believe that the people I represent in Portsmouth, both as a councillor and trade union representative, will take a very dim view of a party led by someone who equivocates when asked to condemn the IRA and has proposed that we should effectively surrender the Falkland Islands to Argentina. Furthermore, if Labour are to regain the trust of voters in Portsmouth and elsewhere the party needs to restore its economic credibility. I am incredulous that the new leader has put this essential task in the hands of John McDonnell MP, someone who has pledged to “ferment the overthrow of capitalism”.

The voters of Portsmouth will have my full support when they reject these ideas. However, being electorally toxic is not the sole reason that I disagree with these views – I just happen to believe they are wrong. Wrong for the Labour Party, wrong for Portsmouth and wrong for the country.

Therefore, it is my view that having such fundamental disagreements with the direction and stance of the party means that it would be dishonest of me to remain as a member and local representative of the Labour Party.

I absolutely respect the result of the leadership election as representing the democratic will of the members and supporters of the Labour Party and recognise the leader has a significant mandate with which to transform the party. However, what I cannot and will not respect is the party and its leadership abdicating their responsibility to present themselves to the British public as a credible alternative government to the Conservatives. Ultimately, I have faith that the wider electorate will never elect Jeremy Corbyn as Prime Minister and will continue to show their very British and very dismissive contempt for those who indulge in the fantasy politics of the far-left.

When I joined Labour in 1994 the party recognised that seeking to represent the British public meant compromising with the electorate – that in order to improve people’s lives, create a better society and put our principles in to action, Labour would have to win elections. By abandoning this approach, for what appears to be a futile lurch leftwards to target non-voters, Labour is abandoning those who desperately need an alternative to eternal Conservative government.

Ken Ferret now sits as an Independent Councillor for Portsmouth City's Nelson Ward.

Comedy Interlude with Jesus & Mo

Get more from: www.jesusandmo.net

Class war backfires on Corbyn aide

 


More problems for Jeremy Corbyn as one his closest political allies, Andrew Fisher faces expulsion from the Labour Party for breaking the rules during the general election.

Mr Fisher a member of the Trotskyist Socialist Action group publicly backed a candidate from the Class War party in Croydon South last May. He tweeted:

FFS, if you live in Croydon South, vote with dignity, vote @campaignbeard 

This was the Twitter banner of none other than John Bigger, the anarchist candidate.

Labour Party rules specifically state:

"A member of the party who joins and/or supports a political organisation other than an official Labour group or other unit of the party, or supports any candidate who stands against an official candidate shall automatically be ineligible to be or remain a party member".

Quite clear.

The National Executive is to consider the case in due course.



No doubt the Corbynistas who are currently organising a witch hunt against sitting MPs  to deselect and remove will cry foul.

Trouble is this time there be "witches".

How the new far-left Momentum Tendency will react is not known, but watch this space....

Musical Interlude: George Michael - Freeek (2002)

The first of two posts tonight. I'm no great fan of George Michael but I do rather like this "little" number released way back in 2002. I say "little" because this is a big video to go with the song. Spectacular some might say.

And probably contains enough scenes to make the "trigger brigade" wet themselves and head for the nearest "safe space", whatever that is supposed to be anyway.

If you want to see the latest atrocity from the politically correct liberated spaces lot please see the following post. You'll get a headache trying to figure it all out and then wonder why so many student activist types disappear up their own rear ends.

TRIGGER WARNING: ‘RACIST STATUE’ STUDENT OFFICIAL ACCUSES HERSELF OF RAPE AND BANS HERSELF FROM SAFE SPACES

You might want to play the music whilst reading. Take it away George!

Momentum: The birth of a new "Militant Tendency"

 

In an extraordinary and unprecedented move Jeremy Corbyn has turned his leadership campaign into a permanent faction signalling the beginning of a major factional conflict inside the Labour Party.

Their new website declares:

Formed as a successor to the Corbyn campaign, Momentum is in the process of setting up governance arrangements to represent its supporters amongst the Labour Party membership as well as the wider social movement which is springing up. As it grows, Momentum will develop democratic governance structures at every level of the network.

At the same time it states in a somewhat contradictory manner:

Momentum is the successor entity to the Jeremy Corbyn for Labour Leader campaign but it is independent of the Labour Party's leadership. It will work with everyone who supports Jeremy's aim of creating a more fair, equal and democratic society.

Unlike existing pressure groups such as Progress and Labour First, Momentum is clearly an attempt to set up a "party within a party". According to The Times Luke Akehurst said:

We find it strange that the winning candidate in a Labour leadership election would sustain the life of the campaign after winning rather than seeing their role now as having responsibility  to unite the whole party.

Momentum are now on record as saying that they seek links with people outside the party, which will no doubt include the likes of former Militant supporters such as Dave Nellist and their hostile Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition.

Many Labour MP's see this as the beginning of a campaign to seize control of the party and purge all non-hard left elements.

As arguments erupt over the Syrian conflict in the Labour Parliamentary Party (PLP), the Corbynite appeasers will no doubt use this as the catalyst to begin the process of deselection of moderate and more mainstream MP's.

How the forthcoming internecine conflict will end may depend ultimately of the major trade union leaders. They are the ones who stymied the lefts attempt to end Trident due to the threat of huge numbers of job losses.

Once again the hard left is playing into the hands of the Tories as they will be the only ones to gain from the demise of a credible Labour Party.

Scottish Greens turn to the far-right

 

Th Green Party in Scotland has taken a dramatic turn to the far right as they adopted a motion attacking Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East. This comes at a time when the threat of Islamism in the form ISIS reaches an all-time high with crimes against Christians, Yazadi's and even Muslims that dare to differ from their version of the "religion of peace".

With Rape, slavery and genocide taking place on daily basis it's clear who the real racists and purveyors of "apartheid are in the region.  And don't forget Saudi Arabia whose treatment of women constitutes gender apartheid. In fact the position of women as second class citizens across the Islamic world is clearly appalling. Don't even mention gays.

As for Christians, just ask the Copts of Egypt how they are treated as third class citizens with their women sometimes kidnapped and forced into Islamic marriages through forced marriage.

But no as usual the only country that attracts criticism from yet another part of the so-called left is Israel.

The Daily Record reports:

The Scottish Green Party has voted overwhelmingly in favour of South of Scotland Holyrood candidate Eurig Scandrett's motion accusing Israel of "systematic infringements of international law" and of perpetuating "the racist ideology of modern day Zionism".....

The Greens will also now call for Palestinian resistance leaders Hamas to be taken off international terrorist lists, despite a last-minute attempt to have this section removed.

Delegate David McDowell, whose call for an amendment was defeated, said: "This is unnecessarily opening us to ridicule.

"Hamas is a terrorist organisation, and that has got nothing to do with whether it is justified or not. It just is a terrorist organisation as it commits terrorist acts."

However delegates chose to join the alter of the new anti-imperialist religion of "Palestinianism" ignoring the inherent racism of Hamas, a group who have committed terrorist acts and themselves are guilty not only of war crimes but seek the genocide of all Jews in Israel which is written into their charter.

All this conveniently ignored by the Scottish Greens who now join the ranks of the Stop the War Coalition, Counterfire and others in the new fascism that has developed amongst the former far-left organisations.

Here's a Hamas video to remind readers what they really are. Islamist Nazi's.

Kurdish Peace Rally bombed

The battle for a the rights of the Kurdish people took a sinister twist as news that a peace rally was attacked in Ankara. The BBC reports:

Two explosions have hit a peace rally in the Turkish capital Ankara, causing multiple casualties, reports say.

Turkish news agency Dogan said that at least 20 people have been killed. TV footage shows scenes of panic and people lying on the ground covered in blood, amid protest banners.

The blasts took place near the city's central train station.

The target appears to have been a march calling for an end to the violence with the Kurdish separatist group, the PKK.

Kurdish Question adds:

One of the two explosions occurred during the passage of Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) demonstrators who had just started marching, and the other during the passage of pro- Partizan-Kaldıraç demonstrators.

Bodies of the casualties have been covered with the flags and banners carried by the people who had gathered to demand peace today against the ongoing war and conflict in the country.

In the meantime, police have fired tear gas amid the crowd at the scene where bodies of many have people have scattered around in a blood bath.

There has been a long standing conflict between the ultra nationalist Turkish state it's large Kurdish population. President Erdogan's turn to Islamic fundamentalism has exasperated the situation seeing both far-right currents coming into further conflict with the Kurds.

The regime claims that a suicide bomber was involved in one of the explosions. However the leader of the Kurdish HDP has accused the government of being involved.

This attack comes at a dangerous time in the middle east as the involvement of Russia in a renewed Assad offencive could spark further dangers in the now autonomous Kurdish areas of Syria.

The world must demand a place for Kurds to live in peace and demand the Turks cease their conflict with the PKK.

For a free independent and democratic Kurdistan! 

#MustafaMoron?

Have you heard the one about the Student Union Diversity Officer who tweeted "#KillAllWhiteMen"?

No it's not a joke.

She's for real and you may have heard of Bahar Mustafa before. She became infamous for organising a meeting where men and white women were not welcome at her students union.

Mustafa one of these trigger warning happy anti-every phobia you can list activists that seem to plague student unions these days.

Apparently Mustafa has made it clear she cannot be a racist as she is a member of an ethnic minority.

Turkish to be precise.

Turkey. Lets think about that country for a moment.

The remains of an Imperialist Empire that once dominated the Middle east and a swathe of Europe. The Ottoman Empire.

A country where the Kurdish minority is banned from using it's own language, where Kurdish activists are beaten up murdered and have their bodies dragged through the streets just because they are Kurdish.

And don't mention the Armenian Genocide. No really don't if you are in Turkey such talk can land you in prison.

I don't think Armenians or Kurds would agree with Ms Mustafa.

Racism raises it's ugly head all around the world. It is not and never has just been the preserve of whites, men or otherwise.

Last night I was directed by friends on Face Book to a talk that Mustafa took part in recently about Free Speech.

It's quite long and I freely admit I ended my listening when the questions came from the audience. I had almost lost the will to live by this point.

Also taking part was the rather odd Bea Campbell, the old Stalinist hack who Brendan O'Neill reminded us took part in the wholly untrue campaign against Satanism supposedly taking place in working class families back in the eighties which ruined so many working class families lives.

Mustafa makes it quite clear (well in between the endless use of the word "like") that she doesn't believe in free speech. Her inability to make a coherent contribution is a sad reflection on the University which is supposed to be educating her.

Have a listen, worth persevering with just to see first hand how the navel gazing student types and their fellow thinkers have degenerated.

But then again what would I know I'm only a man. White(ish) and Jewish. A double oppressor in these morons eyes...... 

What is it about some of the left and rape?

One of the most serious crimes that can be committed against a person is rape. The vast majority of victims are women and there has always been a movement campaigning for women's rights on this matter from as long as I can remember.

Yet some of the very people who you would think would be at the forefront of ensuring that such crimes do not go unpunished sometimes act in a manner that beggars belief.

The "comrade delta" affair that wrecked the Socialist Workers Party and highlighted other alleged incidents a couple of years back horrified political activists of all hues.

The leadership and substantial sections of SWP activists mishandled the whole affair to the point where neither the alleged victim or alleged perpetrator can ever get justice.

There seemed to be an overwhelming desire on some "comrades" part to protect the party before any kind of justice, natural or otherwise could be done.

An appalling state of affairs.

Now there has been yet another reported incident.

A number of allegations have appeared including this from Breitbart:

A young, female ‘No Borders’ activist working in a migrant camp on the France-Italy border remained silent about her gang rape by Sudanese migrants for over a month because “the others asked me to keep quiet.”

Colleagues are alleged to have said that reporting the crime would set back their struggle for a borderless world.

The ‘No Borders’ activist had dedicated a month of her life to helping migrants. Her group was stationed between Italy and France in Ponte San Ludovico in Ventimiglia when the atrocity occurred, according to reports from local papers La Stampa and Il Secolo XIX, and now reported in the major Italian national Corriere Della Serra.

One Saturday night, as loud music played at a nearby party, the woman was reportedly trapped in a shower block set up near the camp in a pine forest know as Red Leap.

A gang of African migrants allegedly raped her there, and her cries for help are said to have gone unheard because of the music.

La Stampa reports that the woman, around 30 years of age, would have reported the horrific crime were if not for her fellow left-wing activists, who convinced her that if the truth got out it could damage their utopian dream of a world without borders.

However Behind the News adds:

But Corriere Della Serra also reports that some of her fellow activists are now accusing the woman of reporting the rape out of “spite,” because her group was withdrawn from the camp following a separate controversy.

The fact that tiny grouplets fall out with each other is not news. But the allegation itself does need to be investigated.

Whether the truth will ever be known is not clear.

However all is not well amongst some of the refugee centres when it comes to the treatment of women (and children) by other male migrants. 

The  supposed "cultural differences" or faux complaints about racism about anyone that dare raise such problems should not be allowed to blind or deflect a urgent need to ensure the safety of these women.

John West the tuna environmentalists reject!

The dolphin is one of the most intelligent and graceful creatures that we share our planet with and despite pressure from environmentalists from around the world these wonderful animals continue to be threatened by man's greed.

In this case John West.

The Times reports today that:

Britain's biggest tinned tuna supplier has secretly gone back on a promise to save dolphins, sharks and turtles from it's nets.

In 2011 John West Foods committed to catching at least half of it's British tuna by the "pole and line method" - a sustainable technique that minimises the risk of other species becoming trapped  - by the end of last year. The company boasted that by 2017 it would source 100% of it's tuna using sustainable methods.

Turns out that only 2% of John West-branded tuna is caught by by pole and line.

This is not acceptable!

According to Greenpeace who have just published their report on tuna fishing:

The UK’s biggest tuna brand, John West, has come rock bottom, with the next biggest brand Princes not far behind. Following intense campaigning and consumer pressure in 2011 on these brands to end the use of destructive fishing methods, shockingly scant progress has been made.

Coming last, despite doing well in some areas, John West crashes on sustainability. John West’s tins contain just 2% sustainable tuna despite promising to be at 100% by 2016 – clearly now a pipe dream. This means a whopping 98% of their tuna on supermarket shelves has been caught using destructive fishing methods.

Big nets set around so-called Fish Aggregating Devices (FADs) are death traps for marine life. They accidentally ensnare a huge variety of wildlife such as sharks and endangered turtles: not #JustTuna. These creatures are often dumped back into the ocean dead.

Before you ask Princes isn't much better.

So who who's tuna can you buy? Greenpeace continue:

For their exceptional efforts to provide customers with sustainable and ethical tuna, huge kudos goes to Waitrose, Marks & Spencer and Sainsbury’s for providing a market leading product. These three supermarkets have consistently topped our tinned tuna rankings over the years and continue to find ways to improve. All are go to #JustTuna brands which you should support.

Also making it into the green for the first time is Tesco, because of its greater efforts to provide customers with more sustainable tins.

Aldi is a newcomer to the league table, alongside Lidl, but has far outperformed its budget rival: meeting its commitment to source only sustainable tuna a full year early. Well done Aldi!

How can you help?

Buy sustainable tuna from the above named suppliers, boycott John West and Princes.

The sign the Greenpeace petition:

https://secure.greenpeace.org.uk/page/s/not-just-tuna

Save the dolphin!

 

and turtles & sharks as well...

Musical Interlude: Scandal

Mondays eh?

Left it a bit late to do a blog tonight so here's a quick musical interlude from my favourite Japanese band Scandal.

Mami takes lead vocals on Hon wo Yomu..Live!

Enjoy.

So much for Corbyn's "nicer politics"

One of Jeremy Corby's much vaunted new are of politics is to make the whole thing "nicer". He told supporters to:

Cut out the abuse. Cut out the cyber-bullying, cut out the misogyny and get back to real politics.

That didn't last long. if at all.

Throughout his campaign the leftists now known as "Corbynistas" conducted themselves very badly on social media identifying every opponent as a Tory, sometimes worse. And dare differ from them on any issue and even on Labour Face Book pages the abuse became more than personal, it became visibly vicious.

And so it continues today.

A demonstration organised by the TUC and designed to raise the concerns of ordinary workers ends up being hijacked as usual. Not just shouts of "Tory scum" (way to go on trying to influence people comrades, they will not even bother to try and listen) spitting at a journalist  (way to go to influence the media) and then after the culprit is arrested a section of the crowd actually thinks it's OK to spit and shouts that for all to hear.

How nice these socialists and campaigners for the working class are not.

I'm no fan at all of the current government and like many others argued for a Labour vote at the last election. Many of these Corbynista types opposed the Labour Party and now are seemingly hell bent on making it unelectable by the day.

Nicer politics?

Problem is Corbyn is an ideologically blinkered, weak and very naive man who does not really understand the monster he has unleashed nor does he have any idea how to control it.

Too quick to make dodgy friends and support undemocratic regimes he is a man of the past and frankly not as bright as his followers seem to think.

If Labour does not purge itself of these elements the only ones who will suffer are those that the Labour Party was originally founded to represent, the workers, the poor and the disadvantaged.

The hijacking of Labour by the pretentious middle class ideologues will lead to a decade or more of Tory Government.

Sadly Denis Healy dies this week but he was an astute politician who once said:

“There are far too many people,” he declared at the party conference that followed Labour’s third successive defeat in 1959, “who want to luxuriate complacently in moral righteousness in opposition ... We are not just a debating society. We are not just a socialist Sunday school. We are a great movement that wants to help real people at the present time. We shall never be able to help them unless we get power. We shall never get power until we close the gap between our active workers and the average voter in the country.

Words that should motivate the real Labour activists in their fight against the rise of the new left-fascists that have hijacked the party.

Tories to launch trade union faction

Given that the Tories have been on an offencive to virtually emasculate the trade union movement in this country, it comes as somewhat of a surprise that they have decided to launch their own "trade union organisation" to organise "moderates unhappy with their union's leaders.

This is due for launch during the Conservative Party conference next week which will also be the target of a lot of trade union supporters demonstrating outside their annual bash. There is or should I say will be a website for this group but at the time of writing it was blank (http://www.toryworkers.co.uk/) but I'm sure this will change.

The Independent reports:

Robert Halfon, the Conservatives’ deputy chairman, said his party was now “the party of working people” and that “militant” union leaders were putting workers’ off existing structures.

“We want to provide a voice for Conservative-minded trade unionists and moderate trade unionists and this week we will announcing a new organisation in the Conservative party called the Conservative Workers and Trade Unionists movement and that is going to be a voice for Conservative trade unionists,” he said in an interview with parliament’s The House magazine.

“We are recreating the Conservative trade union workers’ movement. There will be a new website and people will be able to join. There will be a voice for moderate trade unionists who feel they may have sympathy with the Conservatives or even just feel that they’re not being represented by militant trade union leaders.”

Problem for anyone joining such an outfit is that the Tories both have and will to continue the ability of trade unionists, moderate or otherwise to represent their members. Attacks are not just on the unions ability to strike but also the facility time that reps use to actually represent individual members with management in the workplace.

Not exactly an attractive proposition.

There are indeed many, if not a vast majority of trade unionists who could be described as "moderates", but they are mostly not well disposed to the Conservative party particularly in the hard pressed public sector where wages and conditions have been worsening over the last few years.

With the Labour Party in disarray as the Corbynistas take over the return to uber-militancy by unions such as Unite or PCS may lead to the decline of unions taking place at a higher pace. What influence if any the Conservatives will have on the ground is difficult to see. Not much I would suspect.

Nevertheless this is a development to watch over the next few months.

Cultural appropriation? The hypocrisy of the "left"

creativecommons

The student movement seems to move from one absurdity to another these days as the lefty types arrive at college to teach rather than learn which is what I always thought higher education is about.

According to some bonehead student union types it is forbidden to wear sombreros as it is "cultural appropriation" despite these being given out by a Mexican restaurant at the university freshers fair.

A non-Mexican wearing a Sombrero is a crime against political correctness and oppresses Mexican everywhere.

This was met by a concerted defence in a letter to The Times this week when a first year student (himself "half-Mexican) considered such a ban an "insult to all Mexicans". "The English eat our food, drink our tequila why shouldn't they wear our hats? "What next ban the wearing of green on St Patricks day?" Quite.

Meanwhile the most obvious "crime" of cultural appropriation is the wearing of the Palestinian keffiyeh by large hordes of the anti-imperialist brigades who are generally hold the same sort of barmy PC prejudices of the average student union commissar.


creativecommons

More than that the "left" have appropriated the whole struggle right down to adapting to Islam(ism) as a substitute for their own failings. It's why groups like the Socialist Workers Party and the Stop the War Coalition are obsessed with the new religion of Palestinianism.

It used to be the Viet-Cong, then the IRA. Now we hear the shouts of "We are Hamas, we are Hezbollah". Actually you are not comrades. You are pretentious little prats who do not have a clue about anything but your own navel gazing.  Stick to reading Lenin with one hand.

Or get a life, which would probably be better for everyone.

Mean while I'll stick to trying to remember the words to the song My Sister Belinda which I learnt from the PCLSU Rugby Club back in the seventies.

That involved a sombrero.

Too rude to print here....

Should be a song of resistance at the University of Westminster as the Poly of Central London is now called. Their students union is run by Islamists.

In my day it was the Maoists of the Communist Party of Britain Marxist-Leninist. They were all pro-Enver Hoxha, got upset by Goat jokes. Oh wait so do Islamists......

Stop the War "sort of" oppose bombing by Russia

Last week an article appeared on the Stop the West War Coalition's website arguing that "The only intervention likely to work in Syria just now is from Moscow". Trouble is the Russians have actually started bombing targets in Syria forcing the StWC to issue a statement arguing against both UK and Russian bombs.

So what are the comrades proposing to do with their campaign?

Nothing it would seem.

When the West or Israel in particular do anything the anti-imperialist brigade doesn't like they organise "emergency demonstrations" and other protest and other activities.

So is there a protest outside the Russian Embassy? Is one planned?

Nope.

The leaders of the StWC are a wee bit embarrassed. Lyndsey German and John Rees are members of a little breakaway group from the Socialist Workers Party known as Counterfire. An odd name but there's so many little groupscules on the left I think they just ran out of names....and lost their marbles.

Counterfire has adopted a strategy of adapting to the Putin agenda and has never as far as I am aware condemned the us of "barrel bombs" by Assad's forces and consider the West responsible for the war in the Ukraine even though it's only Russia that's on the ground.

Don't mention Chechnya either.

Counterfire, like most of the left also capitulated to the Islam(ist) agenda some time ago. German and Rees it should be remembered were involved in the disastrous link up between the SWP and George Galloway in Respect pandering to backwards religious conservatism in order to try and undermine our way of life.

The StWC  and Counterfire refuse to countenance any assistance to those oppressed by ISIS even at one stage absurdly arguing that the Kurds should not accept arms from the West. Where else they were supposed to get them was never outlined.

Now of course the comrades are in a difficult position. Russian intervention is likely to prolong the Syrian civil war and they are not so bothered about collateral damage (civilian casualties) as NATO forces have tried to be.

Putin is looking to prop up his allies (Assad and Iran) and get a quick(ish) victory to increase his popularity at home. The Russian Orthodox Church has already called for "holy war" against Jihad. Where this will all end is difficult to see.

Meanwhile Stop the War has failed to live up to it's name again.

There will be no demonstration outside the Russian embassy any more than there was one outside the Iranian Embassy when they intervened in Iraq and Syria.

The reason for that was the connections of StWC leaders with Press TV, the mouthpiece of the Iranian clerical fascists.

A revolutionary has to earn a living somehow.

Tehran gold? That'll do nicely.

So expect contortions and all sorts of "smoke and mirrors from the anti-imperialists over the coming weeks!

Meanwhile the old fashioned neo-Stalinists at Socialist Unity are far more honest for once.

Male model John Wight writes sternly:

"The barbarians are at the gates and Russia alone is heeding the call to intervene in order to save not just the Syrian government or Syria, but civilisation itself."

Right. Self interest and Russian imperialism has absolutely nothing to do with it then......