Back on-line with a Eurovision Preview

No blogging until now due to a problem with the electrics taking down my Internet connection. I will be posting later today but in the meantime here's a preview of a couple of entries to the Eurovision Song Contest in a few weeks time.

I've heard just over half and these were the only two that caught my attention.

First from Macedonia:



And next up is my favourite from Belgium.

Facebook capitulates to religious bigotry

Photo: By Presidência do México

Pakistan has some of the most oppressive and abused laws about blasphemy in the world. Insult the religion of backwardness and the penalty is death. Not just atheists, but Christians and all manner of minorities and freethinkers are constantly under threat from this barbaric Islamic regime.

We are told ISIS does not represent Islam and yet the Clerics whenever they gain any power immediately set about enforcing a ban on criticism of the mediaeval faith. One Pakistani Minister demanded that facebook help their regime suppress "blasphemous" content.

And guess what? The open and liberal minded executives of Facebook seem to be doing just that. Can't let a little freedom get in the way of a large profit to be made in Pakistan.

The Pakistan Today website reports:

Interior Minister Ch Nisar Ali Khan has stated that 45 websites and 65 Facebook pages containing blasphemous content have been blocked in Pakistan in the last two days.

Addressing a press conference here on Tuesday, Nisar said that social networking giant Facebook has agreed to address Pakistan’s concern on the issue of blasphemy. “We are going to find a permanent solution for this issue. There is nothing more precious to us than our faith,” he claimed.

Permanent solution? Sounds ominous to me. A holocaust of non-believers?

“Anyone can turn violent after seeing the sacrilegious content,” he asserted. The minister said that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has commended the efforts being made to block blasphemous content. “We have also written a letter to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in order to evolve a consensus among Muslim nations on blasphemy,” he said.

Consensus amongst "Muslim" nations. Sure the dictators and clerics that use Islam as a weapon by which to control the masses will agree on that even if it's the only thing they can agree on while their own internecine conflict continues.

Have a word with yourself Mark Zuckerberg. Your dollar profits will be based on murder of innocents for just expressing an opinion.

When the first Facebook user is executed for blasphemy the blood will be on your hands as well as that barbarian Nisar Khan.

It is a basic human right to say no to religion. God does not exist and is a superstitious remnant of early man's inability to explain the world in unscientific terms. Over time it has become a form of social control. 

The leaders of Islam are afraid their power will wane if people are able to think freely because then they cannot use a false god to threaten them.

From Tasmanian Tigers & Lizardmen and back to Cats again

A number of stories have caught my attention over the last couple of days. The first was that some Tasmanian Tigers have been spotted in the outback. Not verified of course and the poor creature has been officially extinct since 1936 when the last known example died. But it's not beyond the realm of possibility that there remain a handful alive somewhere. I certainly hope so.

Another story that appeared in the Aussie media, albeit briefly, well for about an hour before the report was taken down reported that Justin Bieber (that spoiled brat who abandons his pets) was seen to turn into a lizard in front of fans which sent the girls running to the toilets in shock.

UFOmania, one of those You Tube channels that promotes the nutters alternative views of the world used this story to remind us that this was "the golden age of lizard sighting" and told us of the conspiracy by these creatures to control the world and the fate of mankind.

Load of bollocks tosh of course but they need the clicks to make money from advertisers to make more videos to tell us more nonsense. Except that some of this revenue may have been effected by the withdrawal of advertising from Google following the revelation that these ads are funding extremists.

And since the main promoter of the Lizardmen theory is one former "godhead" and completely deranged David Ike he may well come into that category. His channel promotes somewhat unsavoury views of Zionists (and they do mean Jews) on a fairly regular basis.

Don't mention the Rothschilds.

What a world we live in. Hate Preachers, people who think Lizards rule the world and there may be Nazi UFO bases under Antarctica all mad in one way or another. But some are definitely more dangerous than others.

Still there was one good news story today. Cats are now officialy "nice" according to studies by scientists. Well I knew that. My cats treat their human well.

Hit it boys!

Save Ayaz Nizami! For Freedom from Religion!

Whilst eyes have been focused on the latest Islamist atrocity in London and so many seem to wonder as to his motives and how Masood got "radicalised", there is a tendency to let the theology of Islam off the hook.

Let's face it. The language of the modern terrorists is based on the sayings of the false prophet Mohammed, a man who became a warlord. A faith that was imposed by the sword across the Middle East and North Africa. One that tried breaking into the Christian strongholds of Europe but was finally stopped in Spain and more famously at the gates of Vienna.

Of course Christianity at the time and for a long period after was no less savage. There was the inquisition and the hunt for witches. But these were medieval times. Christianity has moved on. considerably.

Meanwhile the rise of Islam, especially in it's intolerant and fundamentalist form continues unabated across the world. The fight against ISIS may be well and truly on but many of those involved are not much better than the Islamic State themselves. Saudi Arabia is a gender apartheid state.. Iran is a brutal dictatorship. Libya remains torn apart by internecine warfare and religious lines as does Iraq and Syria.

In Egypt Christians remain second class citizens preyed upon by Muslim zealots who kidnap their women and forcibly convert them to Islam for marriage. It's been going on for years. In Malaysia the Prime Minister wants to enforce Sharia Law on non-Muslims.  Thats already happened in Brunei where the Sultan enforces Sharia on all his subjects. Christmas in public is banned. Woe betide the Christian who dares to flaunt these barbaric laws.

In Bangladesh Islamists have hacked to death atheists just for expressing an opinion on-line.

The there is Pakistan.

A country where a law of blasphemy is used to maim murder any who would dare to criticise the religion of Islam. Christians have been persecuted under these laws just because some want to rid themselves of other religions.

The latest atrocity is the threat to the life of Ayaz Nizami for the crime of blasphemy. An act of criticism that would be shrugged off by any civilised person, but here we are talking about those who want to take the world back to the dark ages.

Tolerance is not a word in the Islamist dictionary. They love death more than they love life. Savages. There can be no other word for these men and women who have been tweeting for Nizami to be hanged.

The 51 Islamic nations in the United Nations want to impose a blasphemy law on the whole world.

The reason?

Those who hold power and use the religion to maintain their hold over the masses are afraid. Islam does not stand up to scrutiny. What's more there are other ways of living life that are far more attractive. If people were free to change or lose their religion then Islam would decline just as Christianity has done in the West.

More to the point women would also be free.

The pious old men and misogynists would lose their hold. Fear drives their violence and it is ordinary Muslims who suffer. Not the Linda Sarsour or her Western feminist lickspittles who wear hijabs in ignorance of the oppression these garments represent.

The left and so-called liberals of this world have abandoned reason to tailgate an Islamist agenda. Islam is the oppressor NOT the victim.

The world must be free from religious compulsion.

Socialist Party (Militant) & Terrorism

The history of Communism in all it's various forms has been a violent one. Despite attempts by Trotskyists to claim this all began under Stalin who then created a "degenerated" workers state is a falsehood. Both Lenin himself and their false messiah Trotsky were prone to the use of violence to achieve their aims.

Yes they opposed the "individual terrorism" used mainly by anarchists at the time, but the use of force was never far behind the rhetoric. 

There was no Bolshevik  "revolution" to take state power. It was a coup d'etat. The first actions of Lenin and his right hand man Trotsky was to outlaw and ban all opposition parties. Trotsky then turned his attention to all opposition inside the Communist Party itself. 

During the Russian Civil War Trotsky forced unwilling soldiers to fight by having hard-line cadres with guns pointed at their backs to ensure they did not retreat.

Stalin simply bided his time and utilised the same methods (plus a little bit of anti-Semitism) to undermine, isolate and exile Trotsky. The "Left Opposition" founded by Trotsky was rounded up and well, basically murdered.

The "Red Terror" began.

Millions died and in places like North Korea continue to suffer and die in the same of Communism.

Fast forward to today and the various Trotskyists continue to make their claims about how different things would be "if only" Trotsky had been in power. All continue to adjust to a so-called anti-imperialist agenda tailing Islam and claiming every oppression in the world is the fault of the West.

They grudgingly condemn acts of terror but even this statement from the Socialist Party shows their underlying ideological commitment to violence. It's "OK" if it is the "establishment" that attacked in their twisted little world:

The attacker's choice of Westminster - and the fact that he ran towards Parliament - suggests anger against the establishment and government, but the victims were ordinary people, especially tourists viewing the Houses of Parliament. People of ten different nationalities were indiscriminately hit. Three people plus the attacker died and seven are critically injured.

In any case, whoever is targeted, acts of individual terror should always be opposed. They are not an effective means to struggle against the establishment.

But who is the establishment and where does such justification take them. Look to the Soviet, the Chinese experience. Communism is mass murder.

As Stalin once put it "One death is tragic. Millions are just a statistic".

Thats' all right then.

Act Now! Djibouti: Free jailed teacher trade union leaders

A Labourstart Campaign



Omar Ali Ewado and Ahmed-Kadar Nour, respectively Deputy General Secretary and General Secretary of the teacher union SEP (Syndicat des Enseignants du Premier Degré), were arrested on March 19th and 20th 2017 by Djibouti's Security Services. 

The authorities have not commented on the reasons for these arrests. We are concerned for their physical and psychological well-being while in detention, especially as Mr. Ewado has started a hunger strike in protest at his arrest. These arrests of two union leaders are only the latest developments in the ongoing harassment and repression of teachers and trade unionists seeking to exercise and enjoy their legitimate rights and freedoms in Djibouti. 

For many years, teacher union members and leaders have been targeted for arrests, salary suspensions, harassment, forced early retirements, or forced transfers. Last year, Mr. Ewado, who is also President of the Human Rights League of Djibouti, was arrested for denouncing human rights abuses by the authorities. 

We call on you to urgently demand that the authorities of Djibouti free Omar Ali Ewado and Ahmed-Kadar Nour, and stop the persecution and harassment of teacher unionists and human rights defenders in the country.

Send a message: www.labourstartcampaigns.net

An attack on democracy

Despite the best efforts the police and security services who have done remarkably well in preventing terrorist attacks in the UK one was bound to get through eventually.

And it has.

A "lone" terrorist driving a car, ploughing through innocent pedestrians just as the Palestinian terrorists of Hamas have done in Israel.

People have died and others remain critically injured.

Our thoughts and sympathies go with the victims, their families and friends tonight.

The fact this was aimed at the Houses of Parliament shows the complete contempt these people have not just for democracy but also for life itself. Of course at the time of writing there is no confirmation of the motives behind the attack, but I would be more than surprised if it wasn't motivated by Islamism.

How much longer will the establishment and the left not face up to the real enemy that exists in our midsts. Hate Preachers in Mosques and on-line, "Trojan Horses" in our schools, Labour Councillors attending pro Khomeini rallies all add to the promotion of an undemocratic agenda.

Add to that the lack of integration of so much of the Muslim community it is hardly surprising that such extremism has grown within these isolated individuals.

Remember the lack of tolerance shown towards the Ahmadi newsagent who was murdered in Glasgow. "Wrong type of Muslim".

Sounds like ISIS doesn't it. These ideas are inherent within even so-called mainstream Islam. It doesn't make all Muslims terrorists but it does make enough to threaten life and limb.

The danger to democracy is real.

Islamism is a threat to all our freedoms.

Stand up for democracy. 

We'll Meet Again

Vera Lynn, the forces sweetheart and voice of probably the most famous to songs in British history We'll Meet Again and The White Cliffs of Dover reached the grand age of 100 today.

This seems a fitting time to remember all those who fought for and died for our freedoms in an age where growing intolerance, conflict and even genocide is abroad. Today's Nazi's and Fascists don't come from Germany, Italy and Japan but they exist and they may express their hate in a different format but their victims still suffer the same tortures and die the same deaths.

Even the spectre of anti-Semitism raises it's ugly head again.

But the Yazidis, the Christians, the Kurds and all those that live in fear of the fundamentalist heel know full well the consequences of appeasing the enemy.

Peace can only be built by being prepared. A lesson that should have been learned in 1939. But still the politicians have failed us.

The world is full of fools and maniacs from Trump and Putin to Kim Jong-Un and the Mad Clerics of Iran & Saudi Arabia.

Our only defence is free speech, the root of all human rights. Use it don't lose it to the fools and sycophants of the far-left, far-right and religious fundamentalists.

Our ancestors stood up and paid the price. We cannot casually throw away our freedoms to those who would lord over us.

Stand up to the despots at whatever level of life you find them.

The bullies are cowards who can and will be beaten.

Tribute to Chuck Berry - My Ding-A-Ling

Chuck Berry, the father of Rock & Roll has sadly passed away. Tributes to the man have been pouring in all day and music posted all over my Facebook wall but the song I remember the most from my schooldays was My Ding-a-Ling.

An amusing little ditty which still sits in my music collection to this day from 1972.

Remember kids, Mary Whitehouse wanted to have this banned. She always was a stupid cow..

RIP Chuck. Thanks for the music.

Defend Blasphemy! (There is no "god" anyway)

Beheading in the presence of Mohammed whose face has been blanked.

Scrolling through Facebook a couple of days ago I came across an article in which Theresa May had been said to have "talked to God" according to headline. There were only two comments but the thought of a Christian Prime Minister, even in this modern age is of no major concern so long as she (or he) does not seek to impose the rule of religion on others. The Prime Ministers religious beliefs are not secret nor of major concern even to me as an ardent atheist and secularist.

Those of us who do not believe in the various religions mankind has invented for itself do not seek to stop others believing what they will no matter how misguided. Our campaigning role is simply to ensure the separation of religion and the state.

Many people I know and work with are committed Christians and they are well aware of my disdain for imaginary deities and yet we get along fine. The nearest I come to conflict with anyone of the Christian denomination is on a Sunday morning when occasionally evangelicals bang on my door far too early for my liking and get told to go away.

Christianity has for the most managed to move on from it's brutal medieval period of the Inquisition to a more enlightened role in the world. There remain problems around gay rights in African and Russia as backwardness seems to be on the rise again particularly with the Orthodox Church finding new life alongside nationalism.

For the most part the worst I can expect from overzealous Christians is a headache.

Not so with the religion of Islam.

All over the Middle east and parts of Asia there has been a rise in dangerous fundamentalism, much of it hidden from sight over the years as the Clerics and Mullahs find their power under threat from the growing influence of modern culture.

Their backlash has been horrific.

In Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran  women's rights have been eroded and suppressed, most obviously with the imposition of the hijab. The Wests liberals, left and feminists mostly capitulated to this Islamist development

There was even a time when one left-wing current, The Fourth International had its organisation split over the issue. One of it's sections actually supporting the veil.

Despite the protestations of these anti-imperialists women in Islamic countries do not have a choice. They are not free. Sharia law suppresses Women. Female genital mutilation continues unabated. Yet the feminist movement continues to work with Islamists like Linda sarsour and fete Muslim communities on their own terms rather than challenge conservative and backward thinking seeking their support for some illusory "anti-imperialist" struggle.

And yet while women suffer and gays are executed without a murmur in Socialist Worker or most of the left wing press it has hardly surprising to see that as Pakistan calls on Facebook to help it track down "blasphemers", even the idiots of the BBC allow a presenter on their Asia to ask the ridiculous question of what should be the punishment for blasphemy.

Oh the BBC have apologised and backtracked, but the damage is done, even some of the liberal media have capitulated to the Islamic agenda.

While this all goes on everyone who supports freedom of speech, in fact any kind of freedom at all should remember that 51 Islamic nations have been and are pushing for blasphemy to be made a crime worldwide through the United Nations.

As a democracy we must defend not just our rights but those of others who seek to gain the same rights. It is the clerics and Islamic politicians who are a danger to humanity not the "blasphemers".  

Look at the suffering of other religious minorites in most Muslim countries and you will see that it is not just women and gays who have to fear the rise of Islam and it's colonisation and imposition on others. 

Freedom is under threat. If anyone wants to criticise religion that is their right. There is no God only those whose power and influence comes from the enforced superstitious brainwashing process of praying five times a day and fasting for pretend "spiritual" experiences.

Those who threaten death are charlatans who will lose their influence. Throwing off Islam will be like throwing off chains.

Islamism is the new fascism for the twenty-first century.

An Irish Interlude

So much to consider, so much to write about but it's not just Friday night, it's St Patrick's days night so maybe I should leave the political commenting until tomorrow.

So forget about Trumps bugging, Sturgeons referendum, Hammonds backtracking and the Oxford comma......

Here's some music from an Irish Rock Band Ash with a little number called Candy from their album Free All Angels released in 2001.

The return of schoolboy politics...

Britains best known Anarchist, Ian Bone has announced the return of Class War a newspaper rag associated with the misfits and mindless vandals of the movement of the same name that became notorious in the eighties.

The comrades organised such events as "Bash the Rich" which were designed to disrupt residents of "wealthier areas" such as Kingston and Hampstead which might have proved invaluable for their ego's but had no effect on the struggle against Thatcherism whatsoever.

Fast forward to today and there are still small groups of "Anarchists" still around, usually dropouts with nothing better to do than disrupt workers demonstrations as they did during the pensions campaign for which I for one will never forgive them.

Whilst we were demanding our pensions be protected they decided smashing up shops and banks was a good idea. Distracted from our demands then and this groups seeming revival (if it really happens) may attract only disaffected Corbynites who have tired of being told their false messiah is unelectable.

Meanwhile as the children play in their black clothes and facemasks there remains no real opposition to the current government.

Blame Corbyn. I do.

Russian Eurovision Controversy (UPDATED)

The world gets a little madder each day it seems as controversy breaks out over the Russian entry to the Eurovision Song Contest which just happens to be taking place in Ukraine this year. It seems that some are kicking up a fuss over a visit to Crimea by the disabled singer Julia Samoylova in 2014.

Apparently entering the Crimea except via the Ukraine is illegal under Ukrainian law, or something. Russia has been threatening a boycott and did kick up a wee bit of a fuss of Ukraines entry which was sung by a Tartar, the minority natives of the Crimea who are none too happy with their annexation.

For just a few hours can we not all forget about politics, conflicts and just allow people from everywhere just have a bit of fun and enjoy the music together?

I suppose not given the way the voting goes......

UPDATE: Ms Samoylova has officially been banned from entering the Ukraine therefore removing Russia's entry to the Eurovision. A sad day indeed. Politics should be kept of the contest really it should.

Bald patches in Grassroots Momentum

Photo: By Malene Thyssen

The long awaited votes for the alternative leadership of the new "Grassroots Momentum" have now been published. With a grand 137 votes Matt Wrack, General secretary of the FBU topped the poll. Commiserations must go to the leader of the interplanetary trotskyists tendency Gerry Downing who came bottom of the poll (and was therefore not elected) with a grand total of 11 votes. A major achievement for this ideologue supreme who persuaded 10 other fools to vote for him.

And so we see a new development on the left. Not so new really it's just one of their inevitable splits as an unholy alliance of the lefty celebrity couple Jackie Walker & Graham Bash found a new tendency in the workers movement along with their arch critics from the Alliance for Workers Liberty (AWL), Jill Mountford and Pete Radcliffe.

The leader of the grandly named Labour Party Marxists, Stan Keable of Hammersmith CLP managed to obtain a whopping 16 votes. The efforts made by this string-pullers in the Communist Party of Great Britain (Weekly Worker) have obviously increased in his undoubted influence on events within the Labour left.

Oh and I haven't forgotten Tony Greenstein Vilestein who despite his best efforts of labelling anyone he disagrees with as a (shock, horror) Zionist sadly fell short of crossing the finish line to take his well (un)deserved seat on the leadership of the left of the left.

Sarcasm aside (which is difficult when it comes to these people), it just shows the total incompetence of the far-left that they are unable to co-exist in one faction long enough to take advantage of what was an upsurge in support following the election of Jeremy Corbyn as leader of the Labour Party.

All now clearly blown and everyone who is not one of them can say "we told you so".

Now the bets are on for how long it will take the Walker faction to split with the AWL......

Erdogan exports Islamist violence to Holland

Photo: By © Raimond Spekking

When Recep Tayyip Erdogan became Prime Minister of Turkey in 2003 many observers saw this as a positive move despite his Justice & Development Party being an Islamist formation. It was hoped that this would begining the process of merging conservative Islam with the modern notion of democracy.

And after all Turkey was foremost founded as a secular state by it's found Kemal Ataturk after the Ottoman Empire collapsed at the end of the first world war.

Today no one is under any illusions about the man now president of Turkey, or his movement. Political opponents are imprisoned or exiled, Journalists are rounded up and the press censored and minorities under armed siege. The country is slipping backwards towards the new fascism of Islamism.

A failed coup bolstered Erdogan's power base and his conservative movement has the upper hand across the country. Laughably he seeks more power in a referendum to be "more like the US President" with strengthened political powers.

The difference between even a madman like Donald Trump and Erdogan is clear. The USA has not just a free press but an independent judiciary all the "checks & balances" that are required to safeguard the country's fundamental freedoms.

Not so in Turkey. The Judiciary, the civil service and even the armed forces have been purged of thousands upon thousands of potential opponents to Erdogan.

Erdogan is a dictator, and a dangerous one.

Having had rows with both Austria and Germany in his attempt to campaign in their countries now violence has erupted on the streets of Holland as a thousand of his thugs rampage around the streets. Such behaviour smacks of Hitlerism, a man whom Erdogan admires.

Erdogan is a threat to peace in the Middle east and Europe.

Turkey now joins Iran and North Korea as a pariah nation whom cannot be trusted. However there is still time, there is still hope that the remaining democratic and secular forces in Turkey can rid their country of this dictator.

Insidious developments in Labour

There have been some disturbing revelations about the Labour Party over the last couple of days. First off was an exclusive report from the Jewish Chronicle:

Three members of the Unite union with close links to Len McCluskey and Jeremy Corbyn “ran rings around the room” at a Labour National Executive Committee hearing into claims of antisemitism and bullying at Oxford University’s Labour Club......

A source who was present at the NEC meeting said there was clear evidence of co-ordination among the three left-wing Unite members to over-rule the Compliance Unit’s recommendations.

“The three Unite reps ran rings around the rest of the room,” confirmed the source. “They had co-ordinated their response very well.

“At one stage Jim Kennedy suggested ‘these two gentlemen have been through enough’. Martin Mayer actually went so far as to say ‘these two need an apology, not a warning’.

The Unite union, whose General Secretary, Len McCluskey runs his union with a wee bit of an "iron fist" and would have been well aware, if not directly involved in this cover-up which came hot on the heels of Chakrabarti's whitewash of a report on anti-Semitism in the Labour Party.

"The Israeli Government are acting like Nazi's in Gaza." http://t.co/57tg8Uz4DP via @wordpressdotcom

— Afzal Khan MEP (@akhanmep) August 2, 2014

Next up Afzal Khan who wrote compared Israel to Nazi's has thrown his hat into the ring to replace the late Gerald Kaufman in Manchester Gorton. Labour refused to investigate this man who with views like this is not someone who should be in the party. 

Hamas of course are beyond criticism whilst they suppress the palestinians with their version of Islamism and spend aid on war materials rather than alleviating any material poverty they claim "their" people are living under. 

Homes or rockets Mr Khan? Who are the real extremists in Gaza?

Meanwhile in Hove Labour Party now taken over by the hard left Momentum tendency, a newly elected executive officer has been kicked out of the party. Brighton and Hove News reports

Labour has expelled a newly elected member of the Hove constituency party’s executive committee after less than a fortnight. Riad El-Taher, 77, was thrown out after it emerged that he was jailed for 10 months for selling oil to Saddam Hussein....

Corbyn's Labour. Far-left Labour. Insidious to the core.

Letter from a Corbynite

If there is one thing I learnt over the years is to actually listen to opponents and those with whom you disagree because in order to fight them you must understand not just what they say stand for but can also explain the consequences of the positions they take.

With this in mind I was intrigued by the following letter from David Ellis in this week's Weekly Worker published by the Communist Party of Great Britain, the tiny sect behind Labour Party Marxists involved in the faction fighting to support Jeremy Corbyn.

If there has been a problem with Jeremy Corbyn, it is this: he has put party unity above principle, when he should have gone to war with the party right and put his own uncompromising socialist programme forward. He should never, for a start, have switched to a pro-European Union position and campaigned for ‘remain’. Forty years of Labour left opposition to the EU and its predecessors was ditched overnight to placate the Blairmainers.

Corbyn was fortunate that Brexit won anyway; otherwise Labour would already be finished and the UK Independence Party would be the popular opposition to a Cameron/Osborne Tory government.

Let’s face it: in 2020 Labour will be down to 40 or 50 seats, maybe fewer. All those seats will be held by the more leftwing MPs because nobody is going to vote for the New Labour coup plotters, knowing they would refuse to form a Corbyn-led government in any case. That is going to happen, so Corbyn might as well start fighting now and then, after 2020, the Labour Party can be rebuilt on a principled, radical socialist basis.

Where to start?

"If there has been a problem with Jeremy Corbyn.." 

We'd be here all night listing his weaknesses and inability to lead the Labour Party. Corbyn is out of touch with the working class as are the left wing radicals, self appointed commissars and social media media warriors behind him.

The author has a complete lack of understanding about what the Labour Party is and always has been. A coalition of not just various kinds of socialists and social democrats along with trade unionists and others. Labour has never been the property of an exclusive brethren.

There have always been handfuls of Marxists in Labour's ranks, a lot of them entryists from various Trotskyist organisations the fact is that as Harold Wilson once put it Labour owes "more to Methodism than Marxism".

Without this there would be no pragmatic element to Labour. The ability to compromise, negotiate and implement at least some radical ideas for the benefit of working people. In order to achieve even such limited aims Labour has to be capable of one thing.

Obtaining power.

Without power "principle" is nought but hot air.

Clem Attlee's great achievements of the 1945 Labour government would never have happened and even though times are currently dire Labour can still achieve a better deal for working people if only to stop the current Tory rot eating away at our NHS, Social Services and rights in the workplace.

Having a "principled party" of around 40 to 50 "hard socialist MP's" may appeal to the chattering comrades but those of us active in the workplace and our communities trying hard to hold the line need a more friendly government.

The Marxists of all sorts have failed and will continue to fail. Their communist millennium is like waiting for Godot.

It will never come.

And we can't wait.

Tory students censored for criticising censorship

Offending Tweet

With the budget and everything else going on today including the celebration of International Womens Day, a small but very disturbing development occurred in Lincoln University. In a small sidepiece in The Times (no link£) it was reported that:

Lincoln University's students union seized control of Twitter and Facebook accounts used by the institutions Conservative society, saying they were "out of use until further notice".

Apparently the matter is now pending a "disciplinary hearing". So what's the charge.

Breibart continues:

The Student Union (SU) at Lincoln University has forced the Conservative Society to suspend their social media accounts, allegedly because they used the platform to criticise the institution’s restrictions on free speech.

The Society disappeared from Facebook and announced a two-month hiatus in its Twitter output on Monday, with the SU confirming it had ordered censorship as part of a “disciplinary matter”.

The Student Unions decision has reportedly and unsurprisingly been met with derision. If the Tory students were critical of censorship by the SU then censoring their ability to speak seems to prove their point. 

Trouble is that the far-left and the snowflake brigade have been censorious across the student union movement and in NUS for some considerable time. The laughable banning of sombreros and Pocahontas outfits may seem laughable but were always the thin end of a rather dangerous and authoritarian  move to clamp down on ideas that these types do not agree with.

There have been bans and attempts to prevent the likes of Germaine Greer, Maryam Namazie and other secularist & humanist speakers from campuses. Now the comrades have turned their attention to a small group of some 30 Conservative students.

I am no friend of the Tories but banning them from publishing on Twitter and Facebook just shows how farce quickly becomes fascism in stopping those with different views from speaking.

The far-left in all it's forms has never understood the concept of democracy and as the various left-wing intellectuals, sectarian groups and their followers prepare to celebrate the military coup led by Lenin and the Bolsheviks we need to remember the destruction of free speech led to the most murderous regimes in history.

Freedom of speech is not negotiable, even for our opponents.

No News, No Fags and Charlie Drake

When I sat down to consider what to blog about tonight it suddenly occurred to me that for the first time in an age I had neither read a newspaper or seen the news today.  Oh I spent some time of Facebook this evening, even left a comment or two and not all about politics but unless I turn the TV on or go to the BBC website I still won't know what is going on in the world today.

Oh I could have a good guess. Corbyn, Trump and Mosul are all probably somewhere in the schedules and since the missus, a great fan of the late George Michael tells me that the coroner has finally decided that the poor man died of natural causes (and can be buried), that's probably in the bulletins.

Of course no doubt other things have happened as they do and for once I am seemingly oblivious to it all.

The reason for my switching off?

I'm tired from a rough day at work and a bit distracted by my attempt to give up smoking which has reached it's ninth day. Never thought I'd make it this far, let alone plan to continue. Tomorrow is National No Smoking Day and this will be the first time since it was inaugurated that I won't be puffing away.

At least I hope it will.....

I guess a break from the hustle and bustle of politics can't be a bad thing. It's all bad news these days, and getting worse as the world seemingly turns to extremes. But there are many good things about life that we should remember.

Humour is one of them.

I have an old fashioned (and somewhat politically incorrect) sense of humour but the following little number from 1965 shouldn't offend anyone and was also the theme tune to Charlie Drake's sixties sitcom, The Worker and is dedicated to all my co-workers.

For you young'uns this was set in a Unemployment Office.. I think it might even have been called National Assistance in those days. Not sure, but hit it Charlie!

Musings on a Monday

The news that Jeremy Corbyn managed to somehow forget that he earns forty grand more than he declared to the taxman amused me somewhat this weekend.

There's nothing corrupt about it. The extra money he earns for being leader of the opposition is something he probably forgot along with the actual role he is supposed to be. Mans a fool, nothing else. Thing is, it's such a simple matter that you wonder if he could actually ever run the country.

Well actually we know he can't, that was a rhetorical question that needs no response.

Forty grand is a lot of money to yer actual ordinary person. Much more than I or anyone I hang around with earns. But we're just, you know...working class.

Meanwhile the transphobia debate continues as BBC Woman's Hour Presenter Jenni Murray Declared her views on transgender women. They can never be real women because they grew up with all the privileges of being a man and whats more have modelled themselves on a male view of what femininity should be.

Murray has a point to make but in saying what she thinks  is hardly guilty of any kind of "phobia" that some activists have accused her of. Like most people I have no actual experience of such women having only come across one or two in a professional capacity but none at all in my circles. Met a transvestite once. Not the same I know but he/she drove me mad with constant fiddling with handbags, purse and other items normally associated with women.

Didn't make me prejudiced. Just didn't take to this one individual. Someone will probably be offended somewhere though.

Tough.

Like Ms Murray I have a view. I can sympathise with her view as I do find the actions of some transgender women bizarre but it's a free country so live and let live is my attitude. My only bone of contention is the growing move to censorship amongst upcoming activists who seem to have lost sight of the whole idea of freedom.

Which includes the right to say things other people might not like.

It's the religious types that seem to kicked this off in some ways. The whole anti-Islamophbia industry is designed to prevent any criticism of the religion of violence and prejudice. It's not racist to say so. Islam is not a race . It is a theology which can be followed by anyone if they are that gullible.

There is no god in my opinion.

Even that simple statement can upset some snowflakes and one "Christian" proclaimed to me that saying such things were offensive. At least that just gave me a headache which is far less than one can expect of the new class of religious nutters developing Jihadist ideas in their bedrooms.

Mostly in Birmingham...

Except segregated "Muslim" areas are particularly prone to extremism says a recent report that surprised no one. Or shouldn't have done.

The one thing that is most noticeable about the Muslim community is the lack of integration exemplified by the existence of Sharia courts acting outside the country's legal system denying basic rights to women.

Add to that Mosques run by deluded Clerics using medieval textbooks and now trying to take over schools, segregating girls and bullying any and all that oppose their version of the one true faith then there is every possibility extremism will grow.

Colonies of backwardness.

Multiculturalism has failed despite it's "liberal" & far-left supporters. Those who shout for women's rights, for gay rights ignore such things if the culprits are followers of some long dead desert warlord.

These are also the ones trying to silence free speech, tell us what to say and shout loudly for the fool Jeremy Corbyn.

What a world we live in.

Ditch Corbyn to Save the NHS!

Today thousands of people marched through London to protest against the cuts in our National health Service, one of the great legacies of the 1945 Labour government.  The NHS is not the only area of our our life being threatened by an unfettered Conservative government. Social housing, employment rights, disabled benefits and much more.

There is no opposition party to even begin to threaten Theresa May who can seemingly just get on with her agenda regardless of the consequences for "ordinary" people who as Brexit approaches are facing financial problems all round. A low wage economy with scandalous "Zero Hour" contracts just make people poorer.

So where is the Labour Party? Oh it's so-called leader the demented drip Jeremy Corbyn attended the rally but frankly he's all ideology, daft ideas and no trousers. The result in Copeland plus the previous by-elections should have acted as some kind of warning. perhaps it would have been better if Labour had lost Stoke as well to get the mad left to re-appraise their actions if possible.

Corbyn is a man I will never forget hiding behind a glass door from reporters after complaining he was being "harassed". It comes with the territory you old fool. How will you cope with a serious national or international incident if you can't cope with a few mouthy reporters, which in a democracy is their job.

Yesterday more bad news for Labour in what should be a stronghold in Manchester. A council seat lost to the Tories. A seat where the Jewish community had a large presence and deserted the friend of Hamas and worse.

The Times reported yesterday that:

Labour has lost nearly 26,000 members since last summer, according to leaked data that shows the tide is turning against the leadership.

The true number of people leaving Labour is likely to be higher. Labour systems record in real time the departure of members who actively resign but those who allow their membership to lapse by not renewing it are not shown for another six months.

Trouble is we don't actually know these are all Corbyn supporters. Many moderates have given up and quit at the same time. Many had left when Corbyn got elected and won't return until he's gone, if at all.

Meanwhile as two Momentums are born amid rival conferences the hard left is still in ascendancy shamefully with the support of Unite and other trade unions much against the wishes of their own members.

If people want to save the NHS then Corbyn and his rabble must go.

Sounds of the Seventies

After watching re-runs of The Persuaders with Tony Curtis & Roger Moore tonight I decided to take a detour from the mess that the world of politics is in today and return to my formative years in the seventies when most people knew where they were with politicians and politics.

And probably cared less than they do today....

So with memories of school and then having long hair, a beard and flairs here's some songs I recall and have always loved. Even music made more sense back then.

And you could sing along or hum...well mostly!

Who's Coup?

Writing in the  left-wing magazine Labour Briefing John McDonnell, Corbyn's Deputy wrote about the attempts by mainstream MP's, members and supporters to win back the Labour Party. He included the following phrases in his piece:

WE HAVE TO ALERT PARTY MEMBERS and supporters that the soft coup is underway. It’s planned, co-ordinated and fully resourced....

The coup is not being waged up front in public but strictly behind the scenes...

The aim of these covert coup plotters is to undermine...

Interestingly and tellingly this is somewhat reminiscent of what McDonell himself had to say about his own presence inside the Labour Party back in 2012:

“I’m not in the Labour party because I’m a believer of the Labour party as some supreme body or something God-given or anything like that. It’s a tactic. It’s as simple as that,”

What exactly does he mean a "tactic" and who is he working with both then and now to achieve his aims? The fact is this man, who owes more to Trotsky than the founders of the Labour Party has exposed himself as the outsider, the infiltrator, the "cuckoo in the nest" and his appeal in Briefing goes to others of the same ilk as there are many who use membership of Labour as a "tactic". 

Briefing itself was founded by a small Trotskyist group known as the Chartists and has now become the publication of the Labour Representation Committee which besides containing various Trotskyist "groupscules" and individuals also has affiliations from outside groups such as the New Communist Party, who are allowed because they do not stand candidates against Labour.

Of course the LRC has been eclipsed in size and influence by Momentum despite the latter's well publicised internecine warfare between Jon Lansman and the unholy coalition of the AWL (a small Trotskyist group), deranged Jackie Walker and other unsavoury and rumbustious elements.

McDonnell has had past associations with Labour Herald, a newspaper widely regarded as a "trojan horse" for the Workers Revolutionary Party. Both these are thankfully defunct, but Ken Livingstone also had a hand in these projects.

The various followers of Trotsky not matter what they say all stick to the dictum of Lenin that "Communists should support Labour like a rope supports a hanged man".

Just a "tactic". So who are the ones organising a coup?

And a question remains.  Whose side is McDonnell on? It's certainly not Labour's.