This is music for Halloween with Marilyn Manson

The things that go "bump in the night" are stirring preparing to wake for their annual feast of terror on the unwitting.

Witches brew and their familiars mewl.

So make sure you have your treats ready for the knock on the door or fear what tricks may haunt later tonight.

Meanwhile some music to get you in the mood! Take it away Marilyn

At last a General Election: The people yawn...

The news that there is finally to be a General Election may have excited the politicians and their followers and given the keyboard warriors something to rant about  other than Brexit but the world around us remains unimpressed. Who cares anymore.

Do politicians think of anyone except themselves and who do we vote for? Boris may be bad but the alternative Corbyn? A leftover from the 19th Century let alone the seventies. Then there Jo Swinson if anyone on the street remembers her name. Nigel Farage probably has a higher profile but he's just a bar propping politician.

Will the election solve anything anyway? The polls suggest a large lead for Boris but they did the same for poor old Theresa May who blew an opportunity to rid the nation of old Compo Corbyn through sheer incompetence.

Then there's the Nationalists snapping at everyone's ankles demanding this or that. Not just the Scots the DUP want their pot of gold for every vote. There's more than a few independents in Parliament including a small group around Change UK or whatever they call themselves this week (and I'm a paid up member).

Voting in this election is not going to be straightforward. Most people are sick of the "B" word. I certainly and when meeting up with a group of people I hadn't seen for years we all agreed at the start that , the unmentionable was to be exactly that.

Relief all round.

Sky even has a news channel sans news about Brexit so sick of it people are, yet so many of the political establishment will be making promises around Europe. In or out just get it done. We've had a vote. You lost let's just go. We've become the laughing stock of the world with our failure to deal with this crisis. So much for "Great Britain".

The "Mother of Parliaments" is broken.

I blame all of them. 

The General Election will now start in earnest as the parties strt vying for your vote. It's going to be more wide open than people think because old party loyalties have started to meltdown. The nation is divided and polarised more than anytime since the Civil War.

Unless a new Oliver Cromwell rises from the fray then the slogan must revolve around a very basic ABC.

Anybody But Corbyn.

Nuff said?!! 

Support the new LGB Alliance against Homophobia and Misogyny

The news that a large number of Gay, Lesbian & Bi-sexual activists and their supporters have broken from Stonewall (despite the latter's denials) to set up a new organisation that specifically campaigns on their major concerns of rights for those attracted to the same sex should be no surprise.

Over the last few years there has been a growth in the "gender" agenda, in particular demands by a very aggressive wave of of trans activists whose demands have detracted from the core purpose of Stonewall and in particular have attempted  to undermine not just women's sex based rights but in particular those of lesbians.

Sex and gender are different and it's not possible to actually change sex only "gender". The main dispute that I have been following and campaigning against (mainly on Facebook) is the question of "Self-ID" which women see as a direct threat to their sex based rights.

It's become impossible to have a sensible debate on this issue as the hard line trans activists and their supporters simply shout "bigot" or "transphobe at everyone who queries the practical consequences of this. The no-platforming of women's rights speakers by the new wave of so-called "woke" activists in universities has suppressed not just discussion but research and education itself.

These activists have become a threat not just to women and lesbians but to free speech.

In particular many are disturbed by the argument of the "cotton ceiling" in which trans "women" who retain (and have no plans to change) their male genitals claim lesbians who refuse to sleep with them are bigots. This is nothing but a sense of male entitlement and frankly quite a perverse attitude. No one has the right to demand anyone sleep with them.

It's called rape.

The foundation of the LGB Alliance has been met with fury by the bullies of the  modern trans-movement.  Biologically they remain males regardless of gender declaration.  There has been an attempt to prevent the new group from fund raising. They have been attacked as a hate group by the trans-fascists and their allies when they are nothing of the sort.

Women's Rights activists have new allies in the form of the LGB Alliance. They should be supported by all of us who seek reasoned debate about the issues of Women, Gay and Lesbian Rights.

LGB Alliance on Facebook: LGB-Alliance-UK

LGB Alliance on Twitter: AllianceLgb

Hawkwind - All Aboard The Skylark Out today!

Over 50 years Hawkwind have released 30 studio albums, had countless lineup changes and had problems with drugs yet here they are still going strong with their latest album All Aboard The Skylark.

This is a 2 CD package with a bonus acoustic disk of previously released material. The main album brings back memories of the seventies. Space Rock at it's best.

Top marks guys!

The usual tricks in PCS election deployed?

One of the candidates has issued a statement that reflects a problem that happened every year there was an election. The house press would feature all the candidates who were in situ and people you never heard from suddenly issued circulars to members and reps. During one general Secretary Election in particular the number of photos of Mark Serwotka appearing in the PCS View Magazine was so excessive it even embarrassed some of the man's supportrs.

Problem is control of a unions bureaucracy can so easily be manipulated and one sees it in a lot of organisations not just the PCS union. It's become part of the "game" so to speak but should it be? Shouldn't all communications during an election be anonymised or signed and issued by other officials. Serwotka does have an Assistant General Secretary.

Bev Laidlaw's statement: 

I won’t appear in every single PCS press release

One of the big changes that PCS needs to enact is an overhaul of its communications.

We need a communications strategy thatis more vibrant and flexible, making efficient use of all available technologies and media platforms. This includes everything from making our

leaflets and briefings stand out more to better use of things like textbroadcasts to social media content not being decided by committee.

We also need to give local branches more control of their own communications, allowing them to get out messages without needless bureaucratic hurdles or attempts to over-manage the content that in effect strip out the local flavour.

The most basic change that I will implement if elected is that I won’t insist on being front and centre of every single communication that the union puts out. Of course, I will comment and respond to the issues where necessary, but I will also be conscious of when to step aside and let others in our union take the spotlight. The members directly affected by an issue, the reps doing the work, the officials to whom credit is due on whatever issue we’re talking about.

I want to build a truly mass movement to change our union, and as part of that I want to be a General Secretary who realises that it’s not all about me.

Go to: bev4gs.com for more information.

Doctor Who: Interstital/Feast of Fear (Big Finish Audio)

The latest Doctor Who audio adventure from Big Finish arrived yesterday with a double feature of the Fith Doctor with Nyssa & Tegan in tow. The continued popularity of these monthly adventures is amazing as this is release number 257! I collected these in the years that there was no Doctor Who on TV until the one-off Paul McGann film was shown and flopped.

The audio adventures not only reprised the roles of Colin Baker, Peter Davison and Sylvester Mcoy but gave whole seasons to the Eighth Doctor and a life and presence of his own. There's all sorts of spin offs and there are now audio adventures featuring David Tennant and seemingly everyon'es favourite Tom Baker.

  

There's even companion chronicles featuring all sorts of actors that have appeared in Doctor Who since the sixties including Fraser Hines (Emmerdale) who plared Jamie alongside Wendy Padbury and the second Doctor my personal favourite Patrick Troughton.

Billie Piper has begun her own solo adventures on audio as has "Missy" the fun female incarnation of the Master. I understand John Simms is to make a comeback on TV but more on that next year I'm afraid.

 

Frankly if you miss Doctor Who or fancy a little light entertainment these audios are well worth buying. Usually these audios are one story 4 parters (except for the special series which have different formats) to reflect the TV show. This CD is different in that it has two seperate adventures. Interstitial where the Doctor finds a research centre using time as a weapon. The other is set in the Irsish famine and something evil is arriving in a carnival.

Go to: www.bigfinish.com

On my other blog: Doctor Who Magazine 40th Anniversary

Socialist Party underhanded tactics in PCS election

The election for the General Secretary of PCS has begun in earnest as untoward suggestions are made to the candidate from the Independent Left, Bev laidlaw.

In a statement released yesterday Bev writes:

I want to clarify something. I am not standing as a PCS General Secretary candidate to unseat anyone or gain control over our union. Several people have asked or implied that as there are now 3 candidates I should consider stepping aside so there is only 1 candidate opposing Mark Serwotka and that is the best way to get rid of him.

The reason I have stood is because that I and other IL members/supporters believe in the platform I am standing on and the principles I have had since becoming a member of PCS over 27 years ago.

Given the only other candidate other than the vainglorious one himself is the Socialist Party candidate Marion Lloyd it doesn't take any effort to guess where this proposal came from.  Hell hath no fury like scorned lovers or comrades in this case as the say!

Marion has more nominations than Bev due to residual SP activism in the union and her group Presidency but given the recent election of John Maloney as Assistant general Secretary and the decline of Serwotka's base (he got far less nominations than in previous years) the contest would seem more wide open than in the past. A lot of Serwotka and Marion's support will come from the same camp whilst others will be looking for an alternative.

A three way split makes Bev a reasonable bet, though still an outside chance. Perhaps members will go for a different leadership. If they bother to vote that is. So few do.

Meanwhile another bunch from what was Militant  known as Socialist Appeal and still buried deep in the Labour Party have interviewed Mark Serwotka though only the hardcore activists will bother their sycophancy which is more down to their sectarian desire to further isolate and humiliate their former partners in the Socialist Party.

PCS has declined in size and influence under Serwotka and the Socialist Party's joint disastrous leadership over the years. PCS became a tool for their political desires and agenda's. PCS ceased being a representative union and became by design an "activists led" union.

Both Serwotka and his former Socialist Party allies have failed their members. Their disagreement comes down to both simply wanting control over the largest of the civil service unions. Neither have ever had the members interests at heart.

Despite my substantial disagreements with Bev Laidlaw she would seem the better choice and is certainly a decent individual.

Bev Laidlaw's campaign can be found here: bev4gs.com