THE WORD EDITION 46

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Issue #46, Mid October Edition

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Equality Democracy Truth Courage Marcus wore boots signed by school kids for the England 2 – 1 win over Belgium

HUMPTY DUMPTY BORIS For $100 dollars you can get a commemorative medal celebrating Trump’s ‘defeat’ of that virus. Aside from the ever so slightly awkward problem that he has yet to defeat it, my mind wandered to the origin of the word ‘dollar’. We are told that it derives from Thaler but I am not so sure. Especially reading that story I think it is Latin, from the root that gives us ‘dolorous.’ OK that was a roundabout way of saying that the man makes me PAGE 7 weep. More tear-making...

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LIVERPOOL AND MANCHESTER’S FURY

MURMURS OF

MUTINY

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Manchester United forward Marcus Rashford has accepted an MBE in the Queen’s birthday honours list. He succeeded in forcing the government to provide free school meals to children throughout the summer holidays. He has now called for the meals to be provided over the half term.

Poverty threat to region with new Covid crackdown

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Probe in to mum’s death from ‘starvation’ SOLICITORS have announced plans for a legal investigation into the Home Office and its contractor following the death of refugee Mercy Baguma.

son, Adriel, was discovered malnourished but alive in his cot next to her. Neighbours were alerted to the tragedy by the baby’s cries of hunger.

Ms Baguma, a 34-year-old Ugandan mother was found dead in her Glasgow flat on August 22 — days after she had passed away. Her toddler

Ms Baguma is believed to have starved to death.

Therese Coffey, Secretary of State for Works and Pensions

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failed four times to offer any kind of personal response to the tragedy during an interview on Sky TV as report in the Word.

Ms Baguma was due to move into a new flat several days before. However, she did not complete the move and solicitors are investigating the circumstances of Mercy’s death and any failings in processes that may have contributed to this.

Positive Action in Housing has also called for a fatal-accident investigation to be carried out into the deaths of those in the Home Office’s care. Ragout pic included

How the Word covered the story

Double standards over ‘joint enterprise’ and deportation

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n article in the Guardian caught my eye this week because it dealt with the use of what it termed “controversial and discriminatory joint enterprise law.” It also involved the order to deport the person involved in a crime.

I will outline the case first but then look at how double standards seem to be involved when it is a ‘black’ person rather than a ‘white’ or ‘brown’ person involved.

Osime Brown is a 21 years old Jamaican born man who came to the UK when he was four.

He is autistic and was slow as a child even in learning to walk.

He had behavioural and learning problems at school and that resulted in him being excluded when he was 16. It appears his problems had not been medically diagnosed until then

so he never received adequate support, but was merely labelled as being disruptive.

He had been engaged in low level criminal behaviour and the latest crime involved the robbery, the theft of a mobile phone.

Although he was part of the group who took the phone witnesses said he had asked the others to stop the mugging, but he was convicted under the Joint Enterprise law by which anyone considered complicit in a crime can be arrested even if they played no part in the crime.

Critics say this law has disproportionately criminalised and inprisoned many young black men.

Our local Campaign Group, have been following up the way the local authority have appeared to ‘sweep under the

carpet’ the conviction of only four out of nearly 20 men present when a workman nearly lost his hand when he was attacked with an axe. He suffered three broken ribs, a punctured lung and and severe injuries to his hand.

The attack happened after the victim tried to break up a fight between a man and a woman driver.

The judge called the robbery ‘gangsterism’ and the local MP agreed with this description.

Councillors and the Local Authority were urged not just to label the attack as gangsterism but to work with the police to reduce it, no one was prepared to comment.

In contrast the police have been very open and forthright with our group about how they are working on the issue.

Being found guilty means

a double punishment for Osime who faces deportation to Jamaica when his prison sentence.

Prison has already had a considerable effect on Osime who has suffered racial abuse and bullying. Without a mentor or support worker his health has deteriorated and he is self harming., his mother says. He does not fully comprehend how he would cope in Jamaica.

He still thinks he will be able to catch a bus to visit his mum!

I have over time felt that those now termed Immigration Enforcement Officers will use easy targets to boost their figures for deportations. Now I come to another very worrying comparison again from my town Rochdale.

Few people will not have knowledge of the grooming scandal involving vulnerable

young girls in Rochdale. Three members of the grooming gang remain in the UK more than 18 months after they lost an appeal against losing their British citizenship. The Independent reported it as ‘Home Office accused of prioritising offenders with Jamaican roots over sex abusers.’

Osime has been involved in low level crime, but deportation would be extremely cruel for him with no family support in Jamaica and a medical condition which will make him even more vulnerable there.

It is known that at least 11 people died as a result of the unjust deportations involving the Windrush scandal, and it is likely that Osime could become another unnecessary death.

If you can please sign the Change.org petition for Osime Brown.

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‘WE CANNOT DO EVERYTHING’ SAYS GOVERNMENT

CITY MAYORS’ FURY AS EXTRA CASH SUPPORT REJECTED B oris Johnson is set to reveal new three-tier system of restrictions which is expected to force pubs and restaurants to shut across the north of England.

Regional leaders have accused the government of treating the area as “secondclass” and did not rule out possible legal action.

The new clampdown comes as Deputy Chief Medical Officer Jonathan Van-Tam warned: “We are at a tipping point similar to where we were in March. We can prevent history repeating itself if we all act now.”

But Professor Peter Horby, who chairs the Government’s New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threat Advisory Group, feared a second national

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Mayors and local authorities in the north of England were given until mid-day on Sunday to submit their proposals for Covid-19 restrictions as swathes of the country prepare for stricter lockdown. lockdown could be needed.

The number of people in hospital with coronavirus increased across every part of England on Saturday – rising to 1,167 in the north-west from 725 the week before.

Separate figures show there have been 58,000 deaths registered in the UK where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate.

The mayor of Liverpool, Joe Anderson, said he expects the city to face the harshest restrictions.

If this was down in the south-east, in London, it wouldn’t be tolerated

“We’ve got very little powers or influence over this and we are being done to rather than being collaborated with or talked to.

“It is going to have huge economic damage that will take us back to whee we wee in the 80s with high levels of unemployment. It will set us back a long time.

“Let me make this absolutely clear, the people in the North West won’t stay on their knees and tolerate the government that is actually dictating in a way that is going to damage our economy for many, many years to come.”

He added: “If this was down

in the south-east, in London, it wouldn’t be happening. It simply wouldn’t be tolerated.”

Greater Manchester metro mayor Andy Burnham said he demanded ministers improve the two-thirds wage support for shutdown businesses to the 80% of wages paid by the state in March.

But, he admitted officials h a d already made it clear on Friday

that “they weren’t prepared to have any further negotiation on the financial package.”

“This is people’s lives, this is people’s business, this is the future of our region. If you expect us to go quiet and accept our fate we’re not going to do that.”

Tory Local Government Secretary Robert Jenrick batted aside calls to increase cash support saying: “We can’t do everything.”

Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Jonathan Reynolds, a Greater Manchester MP, warned: “There is resentment about the North/South divide. Unless the Prime Minister gets a grip of this, it will get more difficult.”

Health secretary accused of drinking after 10pm pub curfew Matt Hancock has been accused of breaking his own coronavirus curfew by drinking in a Commons bar beyond 10pm.

The Health Secretary is then

also claimed to have made a joke about the Government’s test and trace failings.

According to the Mail on Sunday, Mr Hancock arrived at the bar just before a 9.40pm vote

earlier this week and ordered a glass of white wine.

He then announced: “The drinks are on me – but Public Health England are in charge of the payment methodology so

I will not be paying anything.”

His joke came after he had tried to explain to the Commons why nearly 16,000 positive coronavirus tests had been lost.

An unnamed senior Tory

MP claimed that Mr Hancock remained in the Smoking Room bar until at least 10.25pm.

Other Tory MPs said Mr Hancock left the bar before 10pm to vote.

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ACCUSES COUNTRY OF COMMITTING CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY

SHADOW FOREIGN SECRETARY JOINS

PROPAGANDA WAR AGAINST CHINA W

ith the government facing accusations of confusion over its relationship with Beijing, Nandy will join other organisations in calling for Britain not to support China’s place on the council until the UN is allowed to conduct an independent investigation into its treatment of the Uighurs.

In a letter to foreign secretary Dominic Raab, Nandy cites UN guidance that countries should “take into account the contribution of candidates to the promotion and protection of human rights” when voting for membership of the human rights council.

“Labour is calling on the government to oppose China’s

Britain “must oppose giving China a seat on the UN’s human rights body” in protest at its abuse of Uighur Muslims, says Lisa Nandy, shadow foreign secretary election to the UN human rights council … until such time as access is granted – and make clear to the world the reasons for doing so,” she writes. “In the current circumstances, China cannot be regarded as meeting the required standards.”

such horrors will be seen by some as complicity. The UK must take this opportunity to show solidarity with the Uighur people and demonstrate that we can still be trusted to defend human rights around the world.”

forced sterilisation and slave labour” emerging from the region. “The UK government must step up and lead international action to provide the UN with immediate, unfettered access to Xinjiang,” she told the Observer.

She asserts that the treatment of the Uighurs in Xinjiang is “prima facie, a crime against humanity” and also “appear to share features of genocide within the meaning of the 1948 convention”. She continues: “You know, as well as anyone, that international law matters and that silence in the face of

It comes after Raab last week suggested that Britain could boycott the Beijing Winter Olympics in 2022 if evidence mounts over the abuse of Uighur Muslims. He said that the attendance of prominent figures such as the Duke of Cambridge at the games would also have to be “looked at very carefully”. He added that China was guilty of gross and egregious human rights abuses against the Uighur people in Xinjiang.

“The government must show the Chinese government that there are consequences for these actions by taking a public and active stance against China’s election to the UN human rights council this week. Anything short of this would be a complete failure of our responsibility to the Uighur people and call into question whether the UK can be trusted to uphold human rights.”

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Nandy said, however, that such gestures were inadequate in the face of the “disturbing evidence of mass detention,

She said the government’s approach to China had been “deeply confused”, with diplomats criticising Beijing over human rights, while another wing of government

was considering “handing over significant control of our nuclear energy to a Chinese state-backed company”.

Human Rights Watch and the Chinese Human Rights Defenders network have both already called for China’s place on the council to be opposed this week. Elections will be held for 15 three-year terms on the council. The UK is already backing a call from an alliance of 39 countries for an independent inquiry. A resolution has been laid by Germany.

A Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office spokesperson said: “As the foreign secretary has said, the international community will not turn a blind eye to egregious human rights violations and abuses in Xinjiang.

“This week at the UN general assembly, we and 38 other countries expressed our deep concern, calling on China to allow unfettered access in the region, including for the UN high commissioner for human rights.”

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POLITICS AND EVENTS

Mid October Edition

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SECOND UNION CONCERNED ABOUT PARTY’S DIRECTION

STARMER’S LABOUR FALLS FURTHER BEHIND

THE INCOMPETENT TORIES Nodding-dog Opposition has no bark never mind a bite as MPs are muzzled

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eir Starmer’s widely lauded f o r e n s i c Opposition led to the majority of Labour MPs being instructed not cast any votes about the government’s highly controversial plan to give numerous state organisations legal cover to commit crimes, including murder and torture.

Only 20 Labour MPs, led by Jeremy Corbyn, ignored the party whip and voted against this proposed new law. If all Labour MPs had voted there would have been enough to throw out the bill.

Not only has Starmer’s nodding-dog acceptance of much of the government’s policies and inept actions failed to enthuse party members it has also confused TV and newspapers who are increasingly asking hapless party spokesman when the official Opposition will actually start doing some opposing.

Concerned about the direction Starmer is taking the party Unite the Union announced this week it is cutting funding by £700,000.

On Saturday the Baker’s Union president Ian Hodson announced: “We have been concerned with recent decisions internally and by the failure of the party to stand up and oppose.”

And this disenchantment To add insult to injury has percolated through to after Chancellor Rishi Sunak the public as the latest announced furlough opinion polls show. payments will be cut While this government by a third and those makes an almighty without a job, surviving mess of just about on miserly Universal everything it touches Credit, can expect to its opinion poll lead over lose £20 a week next April, Starmer’s Labour has more than £1,000 a A YEAR INCREASED! year in virtually the PAY INCREASE same breath MPs are FOR MPS Supporters of the giving themselves a “new management” are quick £65 a week pay increase. to gleefully point out that the public prefer him over bungling Richard Burgon MP has and blustering Boris but they already opposed the pay keep quiet that the party has increase saying if it goes ahead never once overtaken the he will donate his unwanted useless Tories, and has now pay increase of £3,360 a year to slipped further behind. a food bank.

£3,300

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LEN McCLUSKEY TO REVIEW UNION’S CASH SUPPORT

UNITE THE UNION SLASHES £700,000

SHOT ACROSS THE BOWS FOR STARMER! U

NITE the Union has slashed funding to the Labour Party by £700,000 in what is being seen as a shot across the bows for Keir Starmer’s as he steers the party to the right.

A Unite source said the decision was because Labour’s leadership is ‘just not listening’.

Unite general secretary Len McCluskey had warned two months ago that funding was

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to be reviewed, after Starmer handed out £600,000 to fifth column ‘whistleblowers’ in a case Labour’s lawyers said the party was likely to win – and that the union’s support must not be ‘taken for granted’. The warning has not been heeded.

Unite is biggest donor but members affiliated to the party have halved, down by 50,000.

This reflects the exodus of members appalled at the party’s direction under Starmer, Labour had already begun

handing round the begging bowl to wealthy former donors echoing Tony Blair’s funding style. The rich are waiting to see the price ticket on knighthoods and peerages.

The prospect that further cuts will follow if Starmer continues his swing rightwards is a very real one, with McCluskey telling the BBC’s Newsnight: I have no doubt if things start to move in different directions and ordinary working people start saying, ‘well, I’m not sure

what Labour stand for’, then my activists will ask me, ‘why are we giving so much money’?

The money cut from Unite’s donations to Labour is expected to be rerouted to left-wing grassroots organisations.

With contests underway for the leadership of GMB and Unison, until now dominated by the right, Labour’s new centrist regime could be facing a serious crisis if the left succeeds in rallying behind good candidates.

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HUMPTY DUMPTY BORIS F

or $100 you can get a commemorative medal celebrating Trump’s ‘defeat’ of that virus. Aside from the ever so slightly awkward problem that he has yet to defeat it, my mind wandered to the origin of the word ‘dollar’. We are told that it derives from Thaler but I am not so sure. Especially reading that story I think it is Latin, from the root that gives us ‘dolorous.’

OK that was a roundabout way of saying that the man makes me weep. More tearmaking is the thought of so many Americans celebrating this insult to humanity. MAKE AMERICA WHAT AGAIN? GROAN?

Meanwhile, the most important event on the planet is now taking place. That is right, you guessed correctly, the annual Conference of the Conservative and don’t forget

it, Unionist Party. Becoming ’virtual’ it has reached its apotheosis. Substantiality has been consigned to that far too full and heavy container: the dustbin of history.

Boris will just have to imagine those standing ovations for every subordinate clause; for every rhetorical flourish leavened by Latin; for every pause prior to bullshit. That Conference used to be a total celebration of the

Leader. In the Good Old Days the leader only attended on the last day to make a speech to the worshippers. Standing Ovation guaranteed.

Now that it is a virtual conference I suppose that guarantee is stronger than ever. Boris only has to tell himself that he is loved in order for fiction to become fact. Or FAKE as Trump would have it. We live through the looking glass of politics. Boris

in Wonderland. Humpty Dumpty Boris decides what all the words mean. Verbs, he admits, are sometimes unruly.

Nouns, no problem. Ovation is a noun. Ovating is a verb. It gets a red wavy line.

Efficient governance should also get a red wavy line but our wonderful FREE PRESS does not seem bothered.

Was the Conference a success?

It was always going to be.

‘Risky’ Sunak is a gambler A GOVERNMENT OF NO ACCOUNT RISKY SUNAK IS being careful with his language but edging closer to the language of Osborne.

Remember the phrase, ‘We are all in this together’? We never were and never have been. Risky was a hedge funder. In other words, his skill is gambling with the money of other people.

Work for SPIES R US and you will soon be able to commit crime with impunity if it suits them.

When we took the Covid hit his first thought was to have a look at Corbyn’s Manifesto.

Banks were also told to lend without due care because government would cover any losses.

I understand politicians trying to box a bit clever from time to time, thinking a few amendments at the Committee Stage will suffice but a bill like this challenges fundamental values. The difference between the values of Starmer and Corbyn is stark. Government simply throws around the word ‘terror’ and thinks we will ask

But that word ‘government’ does not mean that Risky et al have to empty their personal

stick on labels.

‘Radical’ has not always been a pejorative term. I am thinking of the First Earl of Durham, Radical Jack. You look radical only in comparison to the controllers of the status quo.

Starmer wanted Labour to do no more than abstain on the government bill setting this up. Corbyn and others voted against.

pockets. It is the poor, the disadvantaged, the disabled and, that old phrase, the poor bloody infantry, who will have to empty their pockets.

no questions. It also uses the phrase ‘right wing’ as a label to stick on people and groups as it wishes. The phrase fits them perfectly. I won’t go into detail about the Prevent Programme which government claims is to counter the ‘radicalisation’ of young minds but for me it, once again, allows government to

I am sure that public values such as a belief that human rights are important are coming under sustained attack.

Government does not wish to be scrutinised. It wishes to control without criticism.

Human rights provide a framework that helps us hold government to account. This is not an abstaining matter.

By Radical Jack

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ealth care is now classed as an industry, and people’s welfare appears to be the least important factor. Here in Grantham, Lincolnshire, our services have been cut, privatised and centralised.

We do not have an A&E now, the nearest is 26 miles away; 1hr

POLITICS AND EVENTS

CUTS AND CLOSURES IN GRANTHAM

40mns travel time to Lincoln hospital by public transport which stops running at 7.30pm.

Travel by car is just under an hour, in the winter, if it snows, it can be impossible to get out of Grantham. Paramedics can only sustain life in the back of an ambulance for 20mns, not long enough to reach specialist

We must unite to protect NHS I think we can all agree that the government’s handling of the Covid 19 situation has been utterly shambolic.

Their messaging has been contradictory, and often nonsensical. We are also very aware of the private interests capitalising on the situation, and pushing for measures that benefit them ahead of the population’s needs. Then of course there are the hundreds of MPs who have direct links with private health organisatons.

Having said that, an unfortunate trend is unfolding. A division is appearing, and needs to be resolved asap. Many campaigners, including myself are very sceptical about the mandatory wearing of facemasks, as well as the lockdown measures and various restrictions imposed by that same government. In short, we don’t trust them.

We continue to totally support NHS staff of course, and understand their positions

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care in an emergency.

Doctors rarely hold face to face appointments; the preferred method is telephone consultation. The main victims of these changes are patients with mental or physical disabilities. They are classed as vulnerable, but are getting little help. I have helped with booking

appointments, transport etc, they are frightened and confused.

S.D. is disabled, totally relies on his mobility scooter, had a fit outside of our then A&E, they would neither help nor let him wait for an ambulance. He was taken to Lincoln, discharged at 3am, and had to pay £60 for a

taxi back to Grantham. Second time, they arranged transport with TASL to take him home at 3.45 pm. He gave his bed up for a young patient because they had run out, was put in a wheelchair until TASL finally arrived at 4am.

Just one story of many.

By Bernice Cullimore / Grantham. Lincs.

Test and Trace app trialed on the Isle of White plagued by problems ‘Where the Isle of Wight goes, Britain follows’ was the snappy soundbite Matt Hancock used to launch the trial of a pilot track-and-trace app.

on the pandemic front line. I feel that our positions are not necessarily at odds with one another. After all, the health service is struggling because of government policy over recent decades to gut it.

Campaigners and NHS staff are united in caring for all patients with all conditions, and we oppose any government, political party, or private interests who undermine the effectiveness of our health service. Now is not the time to argue amongst ourselves. Combined we need to hold power to account.

By Colin Crilly / NHS Campaigner, South London

From the onset, the project was plagued with problems.

Some phones were not compatible, there were legitimate privacy and data protection concerns, low uptake possibly due to a significant proportion of elderly island residents, and government failure to recruit enough ‘contact tracers’.

The app was supposed to be rolled out across the country mid-May, but by June, and at a cost of £10.8 million to taxpayers, it was scrapped.

In an embarrassing U-turn, the government decided to use technology offered in an unprecedented collaboration between Google and Apple, technology that was available from the outset. The app is ready to download nationally, but the problems continue.

We have only one hospital

for all 140,000+ of us. Patients are already routinely sent to the main land for various procedures, at a cost of their own comfort, and sometimes wellness. The Island is one of only 5 areas in the country where a covid-19 outbreak could overwhelm local hospitals. Ours routinely faces staffing issues; at one point spending over £1 million a month on agency staff to plug staffing gaps.

We have a test centre on the Island, but there have been several reports of people not being able to get a test, or being sent to the mainland on a ferry for a test, increasing

risk of spreading infection. The combined effects of the virus, covert privatisation and cuts to services are visible here.

GPs can be extremely hard to access, and waiting lists for surgeries grow ever longer. The consequences for public mental health could be particularly severe.

As public and local services are facing yet more cuts, help is becoming sparser, and with winter approaching, I can’t help but feel very apprehensive about the coming months.

Colleen Brannon / Isle of Wight Save Our NHS

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THE PATIENT’S EYE

GOES TO THE NIGHTINGALE

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his week the North is in serious lockdown again.

My personal self-shielding is now into its thirty first week.

For over 210 days I’ve not been to a shop, a pub, a friend’s house, or even to Poundland.

I attended my local cancer hospital ten weeks ago dressed up like Darth Vader. A nurse told me I’d received the wrong letter; my appointment should have been by telephone.

This Saturday I will visit a Nightingale Hospital where they’ve never had any patients but did manage to get hold of a CT-Scanner. They’ll be looking for two things: has the secondary in the lower lobe of my lung grown so big that they might perform a triangular

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I come from a family of long livers; some died young but they had really long livers

resection and take something away for biopsy; are there any more secondaries anywhere else in my torso?

months before that they told me it was too small to be definite about.

The big issue is this: might it I used to have tumours pretty be one of those nodules I tend much everywhere, then to grow on the right for a while they side of my body? could not be seen Or is this growth FOR 210 except through the beginning of DAYS I’VE NOT a microscope. another wave of BEEN TO A SHOP, colonisation?

Drugs and a fair amount of A PUB, A FRIEND’S ra d i o t h e ra py The Third HOUSE, OR had zapped Wave of Cancer EVEN TO them. Then a is legendary, POUNDLAND load of the little a bit like the blighters began nineteenth nervous to grow back and we breakdown. It either added another drug to heralds the final struggle the cocktail; once more they where you go down fighting receded. Now I have at least and people write “in hospital, one again. Nobody has looked bravely, after a long battle with at it for over a year; for twelve illness” or else something they

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»

The Third Wave of Cancer is legendary, a bit like the nineteenth nervous breakdown

do gets rid of the immediate threat and the cancer gives up for a while and though it could get you ultimately, you might die of something else first. Now there’s a thing to look forward to. Nobody gets out of here alive.

I come from a family of long livers; some died young but

they had really long livers.

I’m just hoping that chemo won’t be offered just yet; all it can do now is make me a bit more comfortable, temporarily shrinking Mr Nodule.

You will hear about the results as soon as I do.

Patient.I

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CHERNOBYL FALLOUT

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he Chernobyl disaster, considered the worst nuclear disaster in history, occurred on 26 April 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the Ukraine. Radioactive fallout drifted from the exploded reactor and fell as rain over parts of England, Wales, and Scotland.

PUBLISHED: 11:51, Mon, Jun 17, 2019 Background radiation readings in these areas rose by as much as 10,000 percent. Livestock was culled as grasslands, animals, and milk were contaminated and emergency measures brought in. Official figures put the number of deaths linked to Chernobyl at 4,000.

Newer figures from Greenpeace put the figure at more than 200,000 – and a research study showed a huge spike in unexplained infant mortality in Britain in the three years following the Chernobyl disaster. Studies in Scotland and Wales found links between the Chernobyl accident and increases in infant leukaemia.

John Urquhart, a statistician based in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, estimated that between 1986

A nuclear disaster is to blame for the deaths of at least 200 BRITISH babies as deadly radioactive fallout drifted from its exploded reactor core

and 1989, at least 200 more British children than normal died before their first birthday. He also highlighted more than 600 extra cases of babies born with Down’s syndrome, spina bifida, cleft palate and other abnormalities in the same years – with a seeming explanation being radiation from the accident having damaged the immune systems of the children or their parents, rendering them more vulnerable to harmful viruses.

The British government’s shambolic response to this

disaster is detailed in newly released documents by Samuel Osborne@SamuelOsborne93 Friday 29 December 2017 01:21 Radioactive fallout from the Chernobyl disaster started arriving in the UK during a bank holiday weekend, plunging Whitehall into chaos, newly released official files show. The catastrophic explosion at the Soviet nuclear reactor on 26 April 1986, the world’s worst nuclear accident, released radioactive plumes high into the atmosphere.

With Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher out of the country, government files released by the National Archives at Kew suggest the immediate response was shambolic. Phone lines were overwhelmed and advice issued to calm public fears only inflamed them. Officials were dismayed to discover they did not have a contingency plan for dealing with an incident involving an overseas nuclear facility.

In one moment of pure “farce”, William Waldegrave, the Environment Minister, mistakenly gave out the telephone number for the Department of the Environment (DoE) drivers’ pool instead of Whitehall’s technical information centre during a radio interview.

Ms Thatcher complained the government had given the “appearance of disarray” in her absence, while a scathing postmortem by the No 10 policy unit concluded Whitehall finally gained control only after the bank holiday. In his report to the prime minister, John Wybrew, of the policy unit, wrote: “Over the bank

holiday weekend, when the fallout first occurred, you (Foreign Secretary) Geoffrey Howe and (No 10 Press Secretary) Bernard Ingham were away in Tokyo.

Whitehall lacked a firm lead.”

Anxious telephone callers inundated the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries and seriously hampered communications. Not until after the weekend did ministers take charge of the government’s response.

I live in a part of the UK which had radioactive rain, I lost a friend who was 49 of throat cancer, I am 68 and have had tongue, neck and bowel cancer, another friend aged 64 had tongue and lymphomas cancer, another aged 68 has prostate and skull cancer, and three more have brain tumours. Don’t ask your doctor if it could be as a result of the Chernobyl disaster as there is nothing listed for illnesses resulting from Chernobyl.

BY Robbie

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WHITBY

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LOOKING FOR THE OCCULT IN DRACULA’S PLACE

Kippers

A KIND OF CURED FISH WHICH HADN’T EVEN BEEN POORLY

A PERFECT STAYCATION Y

ou could go on holiday, travel on a plane next to someone who looks a tad unwell, and by the time you arrive at your destination is coughing. The government instructs you to return to the UK immediately.

You comply, and have to quarantine for fourteen days;

not only that but getting yourself tested for coronavirus proves to be a challenge.

While our kids were young, we couldn’t afford to go on holidays, so our passports lapsed and we had ‘days out’ to the nearby Yorkshire Coast. The jewel of the North East is Whitby, with blue-flag beaches, fish and chips,

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a steam railway, and a semiprecious stone called Jet lying around on the beach waiting to be picked up. It’s part of the ‘Fossil coast’ or ‘Dinosaur Coast,’ which stretches for miles.

Whitby is a working fishing town; with kippers – a kind of cured fish which hadn’t even been poorly, and twice a year a Goth Festival, where girls with black makeup on chalk-white faces walk next to profoundly tall guys in long coats, looking like they’d not be impressed even if a cat on a wall spoke to them in perfect English.

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There are wonderful shops where you can buy occult paraphernalia: fairies’ skellingtons, dragons’ teeth, bones, scales and so on, and scary books about Dracula, who arrived in Whitby as a black dog and then shape-shifted to become a bat.

The featured photograph looking from the harbour was taken by a friend who worked on pirate radio in the 1960s.

My scariest memory of that harbour is my wife positioning me on it for a special photo with the sea behind me.

Dracula arrived as a black dog and then shape-shifted to become a bat

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A forty foot high wave crashed down on the spot where I’d been standing

Snap, got it.

As I walked towards her to take the camera and put it in my pocket, a forty foot high wave crashed down on the spot where I’d been standing; my wife thought she could have got a series of shots of me being dragged out to sea, partly as proof that she hadn’t mysteriously done me in.

BY Ben Rashby

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Forgotten Band

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TEACH YOUR CHILDREN WRITES SEYMOUR GRIFF

F

or a time I worked as a teacher of older children in an 11-19 Comprehensive School; I was asked to spend one hour per week with some 11 year olds, as a way of helping to make their transition to high school less daunting.

I noticed a little red-haired

girl who could not sit on a chair; instead she perched like a bird and fired bitter insults at the other children. The only way I could manage this child was through kindness, and to hope that the rest of her class saw that and followed my lead. I played music as a background some of the time; the management of the school hated my doing that, as

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they hated my scented candles and everything else I did.

victimhood; it would not Melanie Safka, Pentangle, end well as the horrors Fairport Convention, continued for her Steeleye Span, each The girl who could not sit like a into adulthood, leading on from …SONGS AR human child heard a Crosby Stills but this song the others. You E ABOUT LIFE; and Nash song as it played and made her take can take a song suddenly engaged with it; Teach notice. It enabled and build a THAT’S HOW IF Your Children. She asked for the us to build lesson out of it; NOT WHY TH lyrics; we found them. Before rapport and she songs are about E Y GET WRITTEN long she was leading the class was soon able to life. That’s how if in song and began to cooperate function in that not why they get better with them. class if nowhere else. written. If we forget this we turn our backs That song could have been I wish I had thought to on meaning, and we forget written about her and her home play those children a few more the reasons we listen to them. and family. Her personal story was songs by CSN, and for that matter one of abuse, neglect, rejection, many other bands / artists of that For over a decade I fought failure, disappointment, and era: Judy Collins, Joni Mitchell, a bitter battle with our senior management; most skirmishes I wish I had thought to play those I won, but my long run of children a few more songs by CSN promotions came to an end;

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Hope and Good News

WELL FITHS »

the management of the school hated … my scented candles and everything else I did

though OFSTED repeatedly said I was doing it right the school said I wasn’t. Then they bought in expensive motivational speakers and trainers to teach the staff how to do what I’d been doing for two decades.

Teach your teachers well, and get rid of the bureaucrats. Schools are about learning. Next week I’ll remember another band.

New Zealand: KurdishIranian journalist and filmmaker Behrouz Boochani has been granted asylum in New Zealand after being held for 6 years on a remote Pacific island under Australia’s illegal ‘offshore processing’ system.

He tweeted ‘I salute the people of New Zealand for rejecting the politics of hate and division’.

Amnesty Autumn 2020 Brazil: Brazil is a country with many ‘George Floyds’. With 55% of the population identified as black they make over 75% of killings by the police. Earlier in the year a 14 year old black boy, Joao Pedro Pinto was killed when playing in his house with his cousins. The house was raked with 72 bullets, several of which hit Joao an innocent schoolboy.

A few days later a 18 year old youth Joao Victor was killed in a flavela whilst volunteers were distributing food to Covid-19 sufferers. Brazil’s President Bolsonaro has openly stated police should not be held accountable for deaths during operations.

However a glimmer of hope is that Brazil’s Supreme Court has banned police operations in flavelas during the pandemic.

Flavelas are poorer areas of cities in Brazil.

New Internationalist October.

Sudan: Last year the strong man ruler of Sudan for 30 years, Omar al-Bashir was brought down in a revolution which was to large part orchestrated by women. Before the revolution women had been organising collective voluntary work and co-operatives, and becoming more involved in political parties.

Since the revolution women have gained more respect in the country particularly from the young. The leader of a tea co-operative helped feed protesters during the revolution was told ‘Thank you, you are the mother of the revolution’.There is now a move to a more tolerant form of Islam, Sufism, than Bashir’s conservative brand of religion.

The transitional government has made important reforms.

Religious laws on apostasy, male guardianship and flogging for homosexuality have been repealed’. Sudan’s public order laws have been repealed which were used to largely restrict women’s freedoms. However the public order articles of the Criminal Code remain.

Let us hope that with more women in positions of power can continue to bring more positive changes in the country.

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IS MENTAL HEALTH A CAPITALIST INVENTION?

I

n the 1960’s profit-driven capitalist psychiatry learnt how to expand its reach. Any experience or thought that stood out from the social norm could become a pathology: “nothing of human concern is really outside psychiatry,” proclaimed Dr. Karl Menninger, the profession’s unofficial dean.

Today, university fellowships in psychiatry are financed by the capitalist drug industry.

problems or understand new perspectives. While laughter and crying have not entirely escaped pathologisation, hyperventilation and flashbacks or “PTSD” are much more powerful healing mechanisms, yet they have been strenuously pathologised.

There is some light on the horizon. Many patient groups and some doctors, such as Stanislav Grof are rejecting the pathology model of “mental illness”. Catharsis, flashbacks, hyperventilation, and psychedelics are being explored again as potential healing solutions, not pathologies.

These people are, in effect, taking human nature out of the hands of the capitalist.

There were some notable academic dissenters who fought against the massive psycho-pathologising of human nature for profit.

Dr. Thomas Szasz was one such dissenter: “these things called mental illnesses are not diseases at all but part of the vicissitudes of life.”

He dismissed the idea that psychiatric “symptoms” had a medical cause. He is right, for the concepts and arguments used by psychiatry can never be based on a physical observation.

Mental health and mental illness are social judgements made against behaviours that do not meet the expectations of western culture and the needs

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of its capitalist machine, for which impressive “brain data” are merely after-the-fact.

The capitalist pharmaceutical industry has its own memes.

One is “chemical imbalance”.

Yet no such concept or term exists in the academic or industrial physical chemistry lexicon. Another term is

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“nervous breakdown”. Though nothing is breaking down; rather “breakdown” is marked by a lack of support for a healing catharsis.

Western capitalist psychiatry has little knowledge of the human body’s own natural healing processes and instead has imposed a world-wide drug regimen. Millions of lives have been lost or debilitated. Drug zombification and its associated premature deaths are routine in care homes.

Natural healing The body uses deep breathing in laughter, crying and hyperventilation to resolve its

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MAD, BAD AND DEFINITELY DEAD. MARGARET THATCHER IS YOUR AGONY AUNT

Mad Madge Talks Across Oceans Of Time

Dear Maggie I have been working for the British Government since the early 1960’s. I have had a really specific and important job with lots of responsibility. I now find that recent legislation means that any Government agent, law enforcer or even those a Government Minister meets in the pub can do the same job as me.

J Bond Well Jimbo the world has changed so much in the last 60 years not least in the world of espionage. Back then we had Secret Agents such as yourself driving around pissed up on Vodka Martini’s, smoking, shagging and slapping women about whilst trying to foil foreign,

mainly Russian, Billionaire Villains, all whilst wearing bespoke tailored suits and handmade shoes. The thing is these Billionaires got sick of all the alcoholic, misogynistic Agents and started funding the Governments directly in return for financial deregulation and tax loopholes. I’m proud to say this used to be called ‘Thatcherism’.

And still should.

Hello Margaret I gave my friend Rishi lots of money for a business deal we had going between us and in return he gave me half of everything I sod (sorry, typo.)

Now he wants to close me down again for a while. What shall I do?

Tim Martin Weatherspoon The thing with Rishi is he gets confused between ‘People In The Arts’ and ‘Piss Artists’.

Now Tim you have a bit of a niche for ‘Piss Artists’, where you indulge their Pissant tendencies from “Full English Breakfast, Double Jack Daniels and a pint of Old Thumper” to “Time Gentlemen Please”.

Rishi actually meant to say your ‘Piss Artists’ should refrain but instead said people in the Arts should retrain. No one noticed, you’ll be fine I have been infected with a terrible and deadly condition that will not go away. All my colleagues in Washington seem to have had the same trouble. Please help?

Yours, Covid 19 I’m assuming you are referring to the deeply unpleasant and virulent condition that is Donald Trump. Now I have it on the highest authority, all hail Satan, that the Donald strain (unpleasant image, soz) is currently rife in the United States. It seemingly affects poorly informed white folks who follow that Biblical Trot Jesus and who don’t like strangers. The only cure seems to be a dose of ‘Biden’, which may seem preferable but you might want to lock up your pre-pubescent daughters, just in case.

We are so sorry that we are late as we have been partying since 1999. Is it OK to join in

now?

Yours Truly, Conquest, War, Famine, and Death.

Well my Demonic colleagues you seem to have missed all the fun, ‘Pestilence’ has singlehandedly broken Capitalism and the bloody human race, rather than stop the rot and collaborate in caring for everyone, has decided to veer to the rightwing and nationalism. This will continue to isolate the powerful, who in order to rescue Capitalism from global recession will fund some projects such as ‘War’. War will leave the door wide open for Conquest, Famine and obviously Death. And I want to take this early opportunity to wish you all a very Merry Christmas.

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BIZARRE

NEWS

From Poo To Pee via Sharts

A man has cycled more than 2,500 miles from Poo Poo Point, Washington to Pee Pee Creek, Ohio, to raise money for the humanitarian crisis in Yemen.

Ruben Lopez says he travelled exactly 69 miles each day of his journey – “not a mile more, not a mile less”. He remembers passing Sharts Road during his journey, which raised more than $7,000 for the Yemen Relief and Reconstruction Foundation.

Pakistani Nutcase

A man in Pakistan broke a Guinness World Record by cracking hundreds of walnuts with his head in a showdown with his Indian rival. Muhammad Rashid of Pakistan and S. Navin Kumar of India went head to head in the nutty showdown on television.

Rashid won, cracking 254 walnuts in one minute, compared to Kumar’s 239.

Orlando Boom

A US airline is offering free flights in the month of October to Orlando for people called Orlando.

Announcing the gimmick, Frontier Airlines said: “Our LOVE for Orlando, Florida - one of our most frequently travelled destinations - is HUGE. To spread the love, we’re offering anyone with the FIRST or LAST name ‘Orlando’ a free flight to Orlando.”

Strewth Bruce it’s a Blood Paradox

Australian scientists claim that they have proven that time travel is mathematically possible by reconciling Albert Einstein’s famous theory of general relativity and the grandfather paradox. Germain Tobar, who led the research at the University of Queensland, said that a time traveller could theoretically go back in time to kill the first infected person infected by Covid-19 and thus prevent the pandemic.

Student Dumps Carrots Artistically

An art student has dumped nearly 32 tons of carrots onto the street on the campus of a London university. After a photo of the carrots went viral on social media, promoting widespread curiosity, Goldsmiths, University of London revealed the pile of carrots is an installation by Rafael Perez Evans, an art student at its art college. The exhibit, titled Grounding, is part of the Master of Fine Arts degree show.

Bat’s Blackout

A bat has been blamed for a blackout that left the specialist baby units at Adelaide’s Women’s and Children’s Hospital without power for almost an hour. A hospital spokesman said the bat tripped all the power networks’ circuit breakers, and it took about 50 minutes for an electrician to arrive on site and restore power.

Adelaide’s bat colony has increased significantly over the past decade.

Irish Subs Not Bread

An Irish court has ruled that the bread served at Subway cannot be defined as bread because of its high sugar content. The ruling followed an appeal by the company’s Irish franchisee, which argued that the bread used in the sandwiches counted as a staple food and was therefore exempt from VAT. However, the court ruled that it should be classed as confectionary.

‘Shoot!’

stolen property, petit larceny, marijuana possession, as well as two citations for seatbelt violations involving children less than 15 years old.

Baba Saw It Coming

A blind Bulgarian mystic who foresaw 9/11 also predicted Donald Trump’s illness. Baba Vanga forecast that the US president would fall seriously ill during 2020. The mystic also said that during 2020 Vladimir Putin would face an assassination attempt and a meteorite would fall on Russia, so strap in for the months ahead.

A Florida man reported to the police by his neighbours for shouting “Shoot! Shoot!” was just an excited hockey fan.

Devon Garnett says he was animated as he cheered on his beloved Tampa Bay Lightning team. “I yelled out, really loud, ‘Shoot! Shoot!’” he told Inside Edition. When the neighbours realised what had happened they sent an apology note and a 12-pack of beer.

Ghost Threat at Poundland

Nippers Knicked Trump Signs

Baby Completes London Marathon

A woman in upstate New York was arrested for allegedly using six children to steal Donald Trump campaign signs from people’s homes. The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office says Deana Algarin, 45, is charged with six counts of endangering the welfare of a child, criminal possession of

A ghost hunter says demons could be unleashed and “all hell could break loose” if the general public uses the £1 Ouija boards on sale at Poundland. Paul Marsters, a member of True Paranormal Events UK, said he was “gobsmacked” when he saw the spirit board on sale in the budget store. “Ouija boards are most certainly not a toy,” he said.

A baby girl completed this year’s London Marathon after finishing the distance with her father pushing her in a buggy.

Elsie and her father Jimmy Dale were some of the 45,000 people who ran or walked their own 26.2-mile route. She was born on the original April date

for the 40th London Marathon, which was postponed due to coronavirus.

Supertrump

Coins commemorating Donald Trump “surviving Covid-19” are available for pre-order at the White House Gift Shop. The designer says the coins “include more than a hint of superhero qualities in history’s most fascinating president”. Trump yesterday made a dramatic return to the White House to continue his treatment for coronavirus after a three-night hospital stay.

A Man And 2 Geese Walk Into A Pub...

A man in Leeds has taken to visiting his local pub alongside two pet geese wearing nappies.

Sven Kirby adopted his birds, Norbert and Beep Beep, during lockdown. Speaking of the trips to his local, Kirby said: “When we went to the pub Norbert and Beep Beep just stood by my side as I drunk a pint, it was good fun and everyone there loved it.”

Man Scoops Own Record

An Italian man has broken his own Guinness World Record for most ice cream scoops balanced on a cone. Dimitri Panciera originally set the record in 2013, when he balanced 85 scoops of ice cream on a single cone. After American Ashrita Furman set a new record with 123 scoops, Panciera reclaimed the top spot, managing 125 scoops.

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How the US government destroyed F the Black Panthers ounded on October 15, 1966, the Black Panthers were perhaps the most iconic Black Power group in America, and their history shows the multiple obstacles American activists of all races have had promoting left-wing politics in a country that has, under the guise of defending democracy, crushed movements deemed “antiAmerican” and has been divided since even before independence by race.

Under the ideology of its leaders, Huey Newton and Bobby Seale, the Panthers espoused a variant of Marxism-Leninism in a "strictly American" context. Mao Zedong, leader of the Chinese revolution, and Franz Fanon, pointed to a category called the

"lumpenproletariat" that encompassed most AfricanAmericans. According to this analysis, white working-class people and unions played a reactionary and pro-capitalist role. Only black workers could be trusted as the vanguard of a socialist America.

In order to rally support among the African-American population and polish their image, the Panthers ran meal programs and other volunteer activities. The Panthers adopted a strongly militant aesthetic, marching in California to the state

capitol at the time under the control of then-governor Ronald Reagan bearing arms. The group so terrified conservative groups that even America’s powerful right-wing gun lobby, the NRA, advocated stricter regulations on arms.

Government harassment, including blatantly unconstitutional acts by the Nixon administration and the FBI, led to the downfall of the Panthers.

The FBI ran a program known as COINTELPRO against socialists, unions, Native American groups,

student activists, and other antiwar groups throughout the early 1970s, inciting division among activists, deploying counterfeit documents, and even assassinating the leaders of opposition groups.

As much as FBI director J Edgar Hoover and Nixon hated hippies, black activists, especially the Panthers, represented their main target. According to COINTELPRO documents exposed by a group of activists that raided an FBI office in the middle of the night and sent them to major American newspapers,

the FBI saw it necessary to “prevent the rise of a black messiah,” a single individual able to unite the African-American population along the lines of Martin Luther King Jr. or Malcolm X, both assassinated under suspicious circumstances.

Fred Hampton, a key Panther activist, was outright killed in an FBI operation, and Huey Newton turned to drugs and died of an overdose after a long prison sentence. Bobby Seale resigned as a leader of the party and turned towards academia and publishing after losing an election as a conventional politician.

Although the organization dissolved decades ago, young African-Americans continue to see the Panthers as an inspiration.

Company you've never heard of knows all about us

O

n October 30, 2020, Palantir, a US data technology company set up as a private contractor to the Pentagon, filed its initial share price on Wall Street. If you’ve never heard of it before, it’s certainly heard of you.

Founded by PayPal billionaire Peter Thiel and business chief Alex Karp, the company, named after a piece of dark magic technology used by the villains in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, has its hands on NHS contracts in the UK and now has access to the information of millions of British citizens as a result of an initiative by Dominic Cummings.

According the contract, the company has access to the racial origin, criminal records, mental health information, political beliefs, and religion of all UK citizens.

But the company has notoriety because of its collaboration with the American national security state - the CIA, NSA, and even the DHS, which operates Trump’s migrant detention camps at the US Mexico border. As a result, it has been the center of many protests

by Americans disgusted by the administration’s immigration policies.

Palantir as a corporation has

never been profitable, and its role in detaining immigrants has seen it rebuked by Amnesty International.

Reportedly, Cummings had the company pay just 1 pound to acquire the NHS data contract.

Palantir has also been involved in efforts to suppress WikiLeaks and Julian Assange, as CEO Thiel, part of the “PayPal Mafia,” sought to cut off payments to the whistleblowing site and sought to “spread disinformation” about Assange and also Glenn Greenwald of the Intercept.

Thiel recently acquired major US government contracts related to the coronavirus.

This

shouldn’t be surprising, given that he was among Trump’s top donors in 2016. He has previously expressed disdain for the notion of a free press by helping sue Gawker, a liberal American news website, out of existence.

also a proponent of cryogenics and blood transfusion in order to dramatically expand human lifespans.

But it’s Thiel’s views on democracy which have terrified many American observers. He has stated that “freedom and democracy are no longer compatible,” and has been alleged to support a branch of philosophy known as “neoreaction,” that aims at giving corporations feudal-like power over society and enlisting technology company executives as contemporary monarchs. He is

Palantir is closely linked to Cambridge Analytica and efforts to predict the likelihood of people getting the coronavirus based on their DNA as part of “genome research.” The obsession of Cummings with eugenics and the Tories’ herd-immunity strategy, also promoted by Trump’s new CDC head, have raised serious concern on both sides of the Atlantic.

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Poverty Is the new battlefield O

ver the coming months the post-Covid financial reality is going to hit people like nothing has ever hit them before, and with it will arrive a new sense of Class identity.

Austerity but who didn’t disappear through its cracks and instead moved debt around 0% credit cards to make ends meet.

Mortgaged to their eyeballs, posh cars leased, holidays on tick, and scraping through because there are two full-time wages coming in.

Or it SHOULD. But who will be there to agitate, educate and organise?

Millions of households are afloat on credit and credit only.

These are the people whose income was squeezed b y

Well, at least one of those wages is about to go; and with that will come bankrupcies and evictions, repossessions and unpaid debt. Living the Tory dream for years, they are about to wake up to a new reality which reminds them just how Working Class they actually are.

If we were switched on we would tap into that. We would recognise in advance that poverty is the

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next battlefield, and we would arm ourselves to the teeth to support, nurture and redirect the tidal wave of anger that poverty will unleash.

But instead we will read article after article about how they deserved it for voting Tory, or Brexit, and got what was coming to them.

Sooner or later Socialists are going to have to realise they won’t bring down Capitalism with 10,000 Guardian readers, and wake up to the fact that without the Working Class we are absolutely nowhere.

Missing Corvid

Billions

We are hiding. We should be out there.

Joe Solo “The new reality” “Sooner or later socialists are going to have to realise”

G

reen party MP, Caroline Lucas, Labour Debbie Abrahams and Liberal Democrat MP Layla Moran have launched a legal

action over the government’s failure to disclose details of its pandemic spending as it has failed to account for £3bn spent on private contracts since the start of lockdown.

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Modern society ignores the wealth of experience possessed by the ‘elderly’

Landmark s for Later Life A

s a society, we are not kind to our elderly folk. The implications of Covid19 for those in retirement homes is testament to how little consideration is given them. It was clear from the outset that the virus took its greatest toll on the older generation, yet no provision was made.

tangible, more gradual, like the growing independence of a teenager with their celebration of exam results or graduation proms.

Western culture stops marking life's progress at retirement (an interesting term). It views older folk as 'past it', doddering, a drain upon society - a capitalist stereotyping where the box you are put in reflects your present financial contribution and your value to the “A capit economy. stere alist

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It occurrs to me that our cultural milestones are, excepting birthdays, almost entirely o where thetyping focussed on the are put in box you young and Surely age, in r w o r k i n g itself, is no your preseflects e generations. indicator of financialnt contributi Some are rites of worth any more o your valu n and passage - a girl's than gender or the econo e to first period, colour or class. Folk my” marriage, the birth of a of retirement age have first child, the death of made a lifetime's your last parent. Others are less contribution to the economy

“The virus took its greate toll on thest old generateiro n”. and society through both work and rearing children. Yet we cease to recognise the experience they can offer in shaping the adaptable generation needed to respond to the challenges and uncertainties that will face us with climate change. We still have venerable elderlies who lived through times of food shortage, knew self-reliance and can tell us about community survival in the face of hardship. We could learn from this experience and use their pasts to equip our future.

Perhaps we could start to change perceptions by creating modern celebrations, for instance marking the change from that fatherhood which comes with nappies and homework to the grandfatherhood that grows on in nurturing both children and grandchildren. Perhaps it would help the aging generation to feel they still had a valued role in society if there were such rites of passage, perhaps governments would see what awesome things a complete family and an active community are and, come the next pandemic, consider the people in society who gave us an economy and not just those that fuel it today.

Prunella Sugarman

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WOMEN WHO MADE A DIFFERENCE H alimi was born in La Goulette, Tunisia to a Jewish mother and a Berber

father.

Her passionate feminist views were apparent when she was only 10! Gisele went on hunger strike in protest at customary Shephardic Jewish tradition that girls serve their brothers at meal times. After eight days her parents agreed to treat all their children equally. She described this as her first feminist victory.

Gisele Halima

She was educated at a French lycee in Tunis, and then attended the University of Paris, graduating in law and philosophy. She qualified as a lawyer and practised in Tunis for 8 years before moving to Paris in 1956. She married Paul Halimi that year but was soon divorced. In 1961, she married Claude Faux former personal secretary to Jean-Paul Sartre, partner of Simone de Beauvoir.

She joined with them and others in human rights cases over a range of issues.

In 1960 she acted as a counsel for the Algerian National Liberation Front, particularly for the activist Djamila Boupacha who had been raped and tortured by French soldiers. Even writing a book in 1961 to plead Djamila's case. Gisele represented other torture victims in Algeria and her native Tunisia. She also defended Basque separatists accused of crimes.

In 1967 she chaired the Russell Tribunal set up by Bertrand Russell and Jean-Paul Satre to investigate US military actions in Vietnam, which was to find the country guilty of multiple war crimes.

In 1971, with de Beauvoir she founded the feminist group Choisir (to choose) to protect the women who had signed the Manifesto of the 343 admitting to having illegal abortions.

In 1972 Choisir formed itself into a clearly reformist body, and the campaign greatly influenced the passing of the law decriminalising abortion in1975.

did a brief stint as France ambassador to UNESCO.

In 1981, she was elected to the French National Assembly, as an Independent Socialist.

However she found the ambient misogyny of the French parliament intolerable. She then

In 1998 she became a founder member of Attac* an international movement working towards social, environmental and democratic alternatives in the globalisation process.

(born Zeiza Gisèle Élise Taïeb; 27 July 1927 – 28 July 2020) Her later years were devoted mainly to writing. Between 1988 and 2011, she published 10 books, including Fritna, a memoir of her mother.

'Everything I am, everything I have done,’ Halimi wrote, ‘is perhaps, due to the fact that my mother did not love me.’

She was awarded the Legion d'Honneur, France's highest decoration along with other awards there, Tunisia and elsewhere. There are two petitions asking for her to be entombed in the Pantheon along with only five other women and 75 men; a life lived

to the full in service of others and a shining light to inspire other women from whatever background.

*Attac (Association for the Taxation of financial Transactions and Aid to

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Labour Trawl For Dissidents “We may well haveas just place the evide d under a runce in Labour g HQ”

E

xpelled From The Labour Party For Supporting Socialism

I first canvassed and leafleted for Labour in 1974 on the Nunsthorpe, a sprawling post war council estate in Grimsby, joined Labour Party Young Socialists and apart from the years between the 2nd Iraq War and Corbyn’s election, I have been a member and activist ever since.

But on the 4th September 2020, I was expelled from the Labour Party.

Unfortunately, members of Cleethorpes CLP knew all about this candidate and his unsuitability. He had previously tried to join he Tories after Corbyn’s second leadership win, he was at the forefront of the ‘Anyone but Corbyn’ campaign in North East Lincolnshire, had failed in a ‘no confidence vote’ in Corbyn, had failed to get 3 pro-Corbyn members expelled and there was undeniable evidence he had sent sexist and inappropriate emails to female council employees. The CLP provided the evidence of his actions to the local Labour Group, regional officials and the then Labour MP.

Why was I Expelled? What was my crime? l had tweeted support for a TUSC It was ignored. We may candidate in a as well have just placed “an area w Grimsby council it under a rug in you previo here usly ward election Labour HQ. weighed because the t h e Labour vo Labour candidate Cleethorpes CLP t e , n ow has two T had been forced to had no option but to ory MP’s withdraw after un-seat him as CLP and a Tor y having been chair and de-select council”. suspended by the him as a council party for attempting to candidate. join the Conservatives and was colluding with them to defeat the On de-selection from his ward in Labour candidate in his old ward in Cleethorpes he was rewarded with a Cleethorpes. Come election time, ‘safe’ seat in Grimsby and the with nominations closed, the inevitable happened.

Conservatives exposed him and the Tories took a safe Labour seat. Who You would have thought that could have predicted that? suitably chastened, the local right

faction would have sought to build bridges but instead, have engaged in a two year fight to cement their positions and exclude the left. My expulsion is just another attempt by the New Labour cancer at the heart of Grimsby CLP to silence any opposition from the left; Councillors have been deselected to be replaced with the defeated Labour MP’s staffers who had previously not been seen at Labour branch meetings.

Resurrection of moribund wards to select right wingers to enable the ex MP’s husband to be elected secretary of the local Labour Campaign Forum.

Left wing councillors have been starved of resources to defend their seats.

The council Labour Group leader’s wife elected as chief whip even though she has been a councillor for only two years.

The result of this is in an area where you previously weighed the Labour vote, now has two Tory MP’s and a Tory council.

Still, remember, if it wasn’t for Corbyn, we’d be 20 points ahead in the polls.

Barry Whittleton.

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ISRAEL IS MOVING AHEAD WITH THOUSANDS OF NEW SETTLEMENT UNITS IN THE OCCUPIED WEST BANK T

his represents a dramatic expansion of Israel’s settlercolonial efforts: The vast majority of the housing units are planned in “isolated” settlements outside the large blocs already eyed for Israeli annexation under President Donald Trump’s so-called “Peace to Prosperity” plan.

About 350 units will be added to each of the Beit El settlement, north of the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah, the Geva Binyamin settlement, northeast of occupied East Jerusalem, and the Nili settlement, in the central West Bank.

Almost 1,000 new housing units are set to be approved in the so-called Har Gilo settlement, sandwiched between Jerusalem and Bethlehem.

Israel is also advancing plans for almost 700 new housing units in Eli settlement in the central West Bank.

Construction has already started and some units are being approved retroactively.

Another 140 housing units will added in Shiloh, a settlement between the Palestinian villages of Jalud and Quryut, which have filed legal challenges to the construction.

The Civil Administration – the bureaucratic arm of Israel’s military occupation – is expected to give the final green light for 2,500 units on Monday and initial approvals for thousands more.

All of Israel’s settlements are illegal under international law and settlement construction in occupied territory is a war crime.

However, Israel’s expansion of settlements beyond the socalled blocs signals a new confidence that it will face no consequences whatsoever for its actions.

Spot the Difference

C

hange to map key masks real extent of second wave

The Tory government has tried to mask the scale of its mismanagement of the coronavirus crisis by making an unannounced change to the key of a map used to show the level of infection in different parts of the country.

The map for the week up to 27 September shows dark red across the north of England and lighter colours for the south to reflect a lower incidence of infection: The map

for the week

beginning the very next day, however, shows an apparently improved position, with much less red across the country and even paler colours in the south.

But the ‘change’ is a mirage – one created by an unannounced change to the colour key used in the later map. While the colours for more severe levels of

infection remain the same, the numbers associated with those colours have changed by a factor of five to almost eight: Source Skwawkbox

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Vegan recipes

Vegan Mushroom Rosemary Stroganoff

Cooking with Chris Williamson

Ingredients s olive oil • 2 tablespoon • 2 shallots crimini • 4 cups sliced mushrooms ble broth • 2+ cups vegeta i • 1/4 cup tahin (sesame paste) ns brown rice • 2-3 tablespoo flour lemon juice • 1 tablespoon h rosemary • 2-3 sprigs fres to taste • Salt & pepper sta • 16 oz wide pa

B

egin warming a drizzle of olive oil over medium heat in a deep skillet, then add 2 minced shallots and 4 cups of sliced mushrooms along with a pinch of salt and pepper. Give this 5 minutes until the onions turn translucent, then pour in 2 cups of vegetable broth (to start) and 1/4 cup of tahini. Stir carefully to dissolve the tahini.

Give this another 5 minutes to simmer, then add 2-3 tablespoons of brown rice (or whole wheat) flour until the sauce thickens slightly – stir quickly so the flour doesn’t clump. You don’t want this sauce to be too thick, so feel free to add a bit more vegetable broth if necessary. Finally, pick the leaves off 2 sprigs of rosemary, discard the stalks,

and toss them right into the sauce, along with a squeeze of lemon juice (to add a hint of brightness, like the original sour cream sauce) and a generous shake of salt and pepper.

While that simmers, begin boiling a pott of water for the pasta. You can use any pasta as long as it has a wide surface

area; angel hair, spaghetti, etc. are out of the question because the sauce won’t adhere well to the thin strands. When the pasta is finished, simply use a slotted spoon to transfer the pasta right into the skillet with the sauce and toss everything together until evenly coated before serving with a garnish of rosemary.

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10 In 2010, for which film did Kathryn Bigelow become the first woman to win best director at the BAFTA awards?

11 Mother Teresa became the first Indian citizen to win the Nobel Peace Prize

in 1979, in which European city was she born?

12 Sirimavo Bandaranaike became the world's first female prime minister when she was elected head of which country in

Answers

Answers

justice everywhere”?

5) On August 24, 1981, Charles Chapman became the first black swimmer to swim across what geographical water region?

6) Which historical black nurse died in London in 1881 after saving many British soldiers during the Crimean War of 1855?

7) What year was Naomi Campbell first on the magazine cover of French Vogue?

8) Who was the first black football player to captain England?

9) Who was the first African-American to graduate from Harvard

University and become a US senator?

10) What year were the first slaves brought to North America?

11) What was the first historically black college in America?

12) What is Rosa Parks famous for?

13) In response to the acquittal of who’s murderer was Black Lives Matter founded in 2013?

14) In 2008, the US elected its first black president, Barack Obama. Who did he run against?

15) What is the name of the man who’s statue was toppled by Black Lives Matter protestors in Bristol,

UK on June 7, 2020?

16) Who was the first African-American to graduate from Harvard University and become a U.S. senator?

17) What is James St. Patrick's nickname on the show Power?

18) As a student at the Baltimore School of Performing Arts, rapper Tupac Shakur took which classes?

19) A Kiss from a Rose earned Seal three Grammy Awards.

Which film soundtrack was it on?

20) Joan Armatrading was the first ever female UK artist to be nominated for a Grammy, in what category?

1) United Nations 2) 1833 3) 2015 4) Martin Luther King Jr 5) The English Channel 6) Mary Seacole 7) 1988 8) Paul Ince (1993) 9) Hiram Rhodes Revels 10) 1619 11) Cheyney University (founded as the African Institute in February 1837) 12) Refusing to surrender her seat to a white passenger on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama.

13) Trayvon Martin 14) John McCain 15) Edward Colston 16) Hiram Rhodes Revels 17) Ghost 18) Ballet and poetry 19) Batman Forever 20) Blues

1 To which organisation was Kofi Annan appointed Secretary General in 1996?

2) What year did Britain first pass an act officially outlawing the institution of slavery, freeing more than 800,000 enslaved Africans in the Caribbean and South Africa and Canada?

3) When did British taxpayers stop paying off Government debt incurred in order to compensate British slave owners because of the abolition of slavery?

4) Who said: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to

WORD

Andrea Faulkner

Celebrating Black History Questions

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The Word

Mount Everest 8 Peter Sellers 9 Queen Victoria 10 The Hurt Locker 11 Skopje 12 Sri Lanka

1 Who was the first actor to refuse an Academy Award (Oscar) for Best Actor?

2 Who became the first woman to sail around the world solo in under 100 days in 2001?

3 Which country was the first to give women the vote?

4 Who was the first American President of all 50 states?

5 In 1954, in which city did Roger Bannister break the four minute mile?

6 Name the first American astronaut to orbit the earth?

7 What is Junko Tabei's claim to fame?

8 Which actor was the first male to appear on the cover of 'Playboy' magazine?

9 Who was the first monarch to live in Buckingham Palace?

Mid October Edition

1 George C. Scott (in 1970 for Patton) 2 Ellen MacArthur 3 New Zealand (1893) 4 Dwight D. Eisenhower 5 Oxford 6 John Glenn 7 First woman to climb

Questions

POLITICS AND EVENTS

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SUDOKU

MATH PUZZLES

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UN's chemical watchdog cannot be trusted

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27

“John Bolt threateneon, d Director-G e n e ral, José Bu repercussstani with io OPCW ns if the confirm th did not Hussein pat Saddam Weapons ossessed o Destructiof Mass n.”

OPCW has lied about gas attacks in Syria

T

he 'chemical weapons attack' on Douma, Syria, in April 2018 is in ongoing dispute. Despite a wild furore in the Western media against Syrian ruler, Bashar al-Assad, for putatively using chlorine gas in the attack, the allegation has been repeatedly denied.

US President Donald Trump, French Prime Minister Emmanuel Macron, and British then-Prime Minister Theresa May, ordered airstrikes against Syria without authorisation from the United Nations. These airstrikes, already illegal, would not even have moral grounds without the pretext of combating chemical weapons.

Robert Fisk, veteran foreign correspondent for The Independent, visited Douma in the days after the attack, and learned from local doctor, Assim Rahaibani, that there were no chlorine gas symptoms among attack victims. Instead, images

sent around the world of children choking and vomiting displayed results of hypoxia i.e. oxygen deprivation caused by breathing in brick dust thrown into the air by explosions.

Ian Henderson, an engineer from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, investigated the attack site in the weeks that followed the airstrikes, and submitted a report concluding that the 'evidence' of chlorine gas was inconsistent with an attack from the air, and had probably been planted.

This report appears to have been buried by the OPCW, who, when addressing the UN, announced that the evidence showed that chlorine gas had been used in the attack, and that Assad was behind it. Henderson, and other engineers, protested against the way their work had been seemingly ignored. The report was later leaked online to

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http://syriapropagandamedia.org/.

Since then, the OPCW has tried extensively to discredit Henderson et al. Absurd claims that Henderson was not an expert in the field, or that he was not a member of the investigation team, were briefed to the media. In the USA and the UK, all references to Henderson and his findings seem to be subject to a mainstream media blackout.

The Organisation has seemingly been compromised by the US Government, starting in the lead-up to the Iraq invasion in 2003. Neoconservative American politician, John Bolton, threatened then-Director-General, José Bustani and his family, with repercussions if the OPCW did not confirm that Saddam Hussein possessed Weapons of Mass Destruction.

Bustani was eventually forced out.

In 2010, Turkish diplomat Ahmet Üzümcü took over, and attempts to discredit Henderson happened under his leadership.

(The British Government appointed Üzümcü Honorary Companion of the Order of St. Michael and St. George in 2019, after he left the OPCW. Why exactly?)

Bustani was brought in to address the UN Security Council this week, in which he raised his concerns about the damage to the OPCW's credibility by its misconduct in relation to Syria, and spoke up in support of Henderson and other inspectors.

Bustani

Bustani said, with impressive understatement,

Map Of Syria

“At great risk to themselves, [the inspectors] have dared to speak out against possible irregular behaviour in [the OPCW]... regardless of whether or not there is substance to the concerns raised about the OPCW's behaviour in the Douma investigation, hearing “Ian He what your inspectors have to submittendderson... co nclud a report say would be an important 'evidenceing that the first step in mending the gas was in' of chlorine with an a consistent Organisation's damaged tt the air, anack from d had reputation.” proba The clear concern is that the OPCW is no longer offering objective analysis, but is instead adjusting findings to conform to US/British Government wishes, especially in relation to their main strategic target, Syria. Until total transparency is restored at the Organisation, no announcement it makes can be relied upon.

By Martin Odoni

Ian Henderson

bly b planted.”een

OPCW Director-General

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SCIENCE PAGE

Black hole-sized magnetic fields could be created on Earth, study says S

cientists should be able to create magnetic fields on Earth that rival the strength of those seen in black holes and neutron stars, a new study suggests. been repeatedly denied.

Such strong magnetic fields, which would be created by blasting microtubules with lasers, are important for conducting basic physics, materials science and astronomy research, according to a new research paper authored by Osaka University engineer Masakatsu Murakami and colleagues. The paper was

published Oct. 6 in the openaccess journal Scientific Reports.

Most magnetic fields on Earth, even artificial ones, are not particularly strong. The magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) used in hospitals typically produces fields of around 1 tesla, or 10,000 gauss. (For comparison, the geomagnetic field that swings compass needles to the north registers between 0.3 and 0.5 gauss.) Some research MRI machines use fields as high as 10.5 tesla, or 105,000 gauss, and a 2018 lab experiment involving lasers created a field of up to about 1,200 tesla, or just over 1 kilotesla. But no one has successfully gone higher than that.

Now, new simulations suggest that generating a megatesla field — that is, a 1 million tesla field — should be possible. Murakami and his team used computer simulations and modeling to find that shooting ultra-intense laser pulses at hollow tubes just a few microns in diameter could energize the electrons in the tube wall and cause some to leap into the hollow cavity at the center of the tube, imploding the tube.

The interactions of these ultra-hot electrons and the vacuum created as the tube implodes leads to the flow of electric current. The flow of electric charges is what creates a magnetic field. In this case, the

current flow can amplify a preexisting magnetic field by two to

three orders of magnitude, the researchers found.

1,200-year-old pagan temple to Thor and Odin unearthed in Norway T

he remains of a 1,200-yearold pagan temple to the Old Norse gods such as Thor and Odin have been discovered in Norway — a rare relic of the Viking religion built a few centuries before Christianity became dominant there.

Their excavations revealed traces of early agricultural settlements dating to between 2,000 and 2,500 years ago, including the remains of two longhouses that would have each been the center of a small farm for a family and their animals, Diinhoff said.

Archaeologists say the large wooden building — about 45 feet (14 meters) long, 26 feet (8 m) wide, and up to 40 feet (12 m) high — is thought to date from the end of the eighth century and was used for worship and sacrifices to gods during the midsummer and midwinter solstices.

Old Norse culture was famous and feared by some a century later, after bands of Norse sailors and warriors known as the Vikings started trading, raiding and colonizing throughout Europe and into Iceland, Greenland and Canada.

This is the first Old Norse temple found in the country, said archaeologist Søren Diinhoff of the University Museum of Bergen.

The Norse began building these large "god houses," as they're called, in the sixth century. The god houses were much more complex than the simple sites, often outdoors, that the people previously used to worship the Old Norse gods.

"It is a stronger expression of belief than all the small cult places," he said. "This is probably something to do with a certain class of the society, who built these as a real ideological show."

Archaeologists unearthed the foundations of the ancient building last month at Ose, a seaside village near the town of Ørsta in western Norway, ahead of preparations for a new housing development.

The remains of the god house at Ose, however, are from a later time when the area began to be dominated by an elite group of wealthy families — a distinction that arose as Scandinavian societies began to interact with the more stratified societies of the Roman Empire and the Germanic tribes of northern Europe.

"When the new socially differentiated society set in, in the Roman Iron Age, the leading families took control of the cult," he said.

THE

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England beat World Number 1 ENGLAND

2-1

BELGIUM

England on top of the world?

M

arcus Rashford, the hero of the English left over the summer of lockdown, was hero of the English national team against Belgium. He converted a late first half penalty to turn the tide of a UEFA Nations’ League showdown with the World’s Number 1 rated team.

It was an evenly-matched International, decided in the second half by a strike from Mason Mount that deflected off the luckless Toby Alderweireld and looped crazily over the head of

goalkeeper Simon Mignolet, sneaking just inside the far post.

It was a first defeat for Belgium in almost two years, and they will be feeling a little frustrated. They had the better of the first half, and had a deserved lead from a penalty of their own, scored by Romelu Lukaku after a poor slide-challenge on him from Eric Dier.

But England got a huge boost six minutes before half-time, when captain Jordan Henderson, playing his first match of the season, was hauled down by Thomas Meunier

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in the penalty area while trying to find space at a corner, and the referee pointed to the spot.

Henderson hardly went out of his way to stay on his feet, but there was no doubt that Meunier had grabbed his shoulder to stop him getting away from the marking.

Rashford equalised emphatically, a 1-1 scoreline England had not altogether deserved at that point.

In the second half however, England were the dominant side, and created a number of fine openings. The winning goal, when it arrived on 64 minutes, was just about merited, although it still needed an enormous stroke of luck. Mount’s shot from near the corner of the penalty area was delayed, and Alderweireld nearly blocked it. The ricochet as it flicked off the top of his foot might have gone literally anywhere, but looped over Mignolet to tuck into the corner of the net.

Belgium’s bad luck also included an early goal by Yannick Carrasco being disallowed for a very, very debatable off-side decision. But it was still a creditable English victory in the face of a very powerful opponent, and gives the team a priceless platform for the Nations’ League campaign ahead.

Sunday 11th October LINE-UPs: -

ENGLAND 1. Pickford 4. Walker 5. Dier 6. Maguire 2. Alexander-Arnold 8. Henderson 7. Rice 3. Trippier 10. Mount 9. Calvert-Lewin 11. Rashford Subs Phillips > Henderson 66 mins Kane > Calvert-Lewin 66 mins James > Alexander-Arnold 79 mins Sancho > Mount 89 mins

BELGIUM 12. Mignolet 2. Alderweireld 4. Boyata 3. Denayer 15. Meunier 6. Witsel 8. Tielemans 21. Castagne 7. De Bruyne 11. Carrasco 9. Lukaku Verscharen > De Bruyne 73 mins Doku > Carrasco 83 mins

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Martial Law

St a n l e y A c r i m o n i o u s on so m e ea r ly sea so Champions trampled

Aston Villa avoided relegation last season by a point, and might now have been playing back in the Championship division they so

recently escaped, had they not resumed last season in top form after the enforced Coronavirus suspension.

goals as well. But Villa, amazingly and delightfully, put seven goals past stand-in goalkeeper Adrian in return.

On Sunday 4th October, Liverpool arrived at Villa Park as Victores Ludorum. They had seen off Leeds United, who had hit them like a train but ultimately became derailed, then overwhelmed Chelsea and Arsenal. Nine points from nine as they walked onto the pitch in the West Midlands. They bagged two

Liverpool had not imagined such a scoreline, but funny results happen at the beginning as well as the end of every season. Liverpool their present squad can sometimes can still expect to be a dominant presence in this year’s Premiership, but so might currently high-flying Aston Villa.

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The Lampard-Barkley conundrum The high-fly in the ointment is that one of Villa’s stellar performers was Ross Barkley, on loan from Chelsea. Does his coach, Frank Lampard, want him at Stamord Bridge or not? Villa want him, and will pay Chelsea some

money - you wonder how much – to retain him. A Barkley-shaped vacuum could subsequently open up at Stamford Bridge, but that will not be Villa’s problem.

Manchester United mangled Compare and contrast Liverpool with their NorthWestern rivals Manchester United, who have had a dismal start to a season. All points so far have been dropped at home, where they endured their worst result in at least eighteen months; Tottenham Hotspur turned up at Old Trafford fancying their chances; I have seen them in action away from home over decades. However Spurs-y their present squad can sometimes be, they have the capacity to dig in and keep firing in the shots. More

than one such shot cannoned off the United defenders to be bobble past their unfortunate keeper, David de Gea. Ole Gunnar Solskjær, United’s embattled coach, could only manage a wry smile when goal after goal went in; his team had taken the lead in the second minute of the game from a penalty, but now Spurs were doing to him w h a t o t h e r teams

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Sunday 4th October PREMIER LEAGUE:

Leicester City 0-3 West Ham United Southampton 2-0 West Bromwich Albion Arsenal 2-1 Sheffield United Wolverhampton Wanderers 1-0 Fulham Manchester United 1-6 Tottenham Hotspur Aston Villa 7-2 Liverpool SCOTTISH PREMIERSHIP:

St. Johnstone 0-2 Celtic Rangers 2-0 Ross County

There a funny res re at the beg ults as well aisnning end of ev the er season y

s comment s o n u p set s normally do to Spurs at the end of a season. The match ended 6-1 to Tottenham.

There was controversy however, as Anthony Martial got an elbow to the throat early on from mime artist Eric Lamela.

Martial retaliated by slapping him back across the cheek. Lamela dramatically put his fingers in his own eyes, and fell like a man from the h i g h wire.

The referee chose to red card Martial but gave Lamela only yellow. United captain Harry Maguire accepted the injustice and instructed his angry team mates to get on with the game. Referees are famous for not taking any notice of whingeing footballers, though it seems they love a good dive to the grass.

This story is not over, but United’s manager’s might be.

Watch this space.

By Stanley Acrimonious.

FA WOMEN’S SUPER LEAGUE:

Manchester United Women 3-0 Brighton & Hove Women Manchester City Women 4-1 Tottenham Hotspur Women Arsenal Women 3-1 Bristol City Women Birmingham City Women 0-1 Chelsea Women West Ham United Women 0-1 Reading Women

Thursday 8th October INTERNATIONALS

EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP QUALIFIERS GROUP B Bosnia-Herzegovina 1-1 (AET) Northern Ireland Northern Ireland won 4-3 on penalties Slovakia 0-0 (AET) Republic of Ireland Slovakia won won 4-2 on penalties EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP QUALIFIERS GROUP C Scotland 0-0 (AET) Israel Scotland won won 5-3 on penalties FRIENDLY England 3-0 Wales

Saturday 10th October FA WOMEN’S SUPER LEAGUE:

Tottenham Hotspur Women 0-1 Manchester United Women

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Ab – S e r b te n n i s a s D j o ko v i c i s c r ush e d

Rafael producedNadal his finest one of Open disp French la Novak Djoys to stun k and equaovic Roger Fed l record oferer's Grand Sla 20 m me titles n's

Nadal cruises to the French open title R

afael Nadal produced one of his finest French Open displays to stun Novak Djokovic and equal Roger Federer's record of 20 Grand Slam men's titles.

Spanish second seed Nadal outclassed world number one Djokovic in a 6-0 6-2 7-5 win, which clinched a recordextending 13th title at Roland Garros.

Nadal sealed victory after two hours 41 minutes with a kicking ace out wide on his first match point, leaving the Spaniard laughing as he fell to his knees on the court where he has enjoyed unparalleled success.

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6-0 6-2 7-5