THE WORD EDITION 48

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Issue #48, Late October Edition

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Tories urged to cut the elderlies’ benefits now Many elderly hit by a cut to the winter fuel allowance might “not be around” at the next election, said Alex Wild of the ultra-right Taxpayers’ Alliance. And others would forget which party had done it, he added. He said the Tories could not wait until a year before the next election to make the necessary cuts to the winter fuel allowance, free bus passes, the Christmas bonus and other pensioner benefits.

Mr Wild, research director of the think tank which campaigns...

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THE PEOPLE’S PAPER LOW PRICE FOOD AND DRINKS FOR £82,000 A YEAR MPs

Equality Democracy Truth Courage

HEARTLESS

BASTARDS

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LEEDS RHINOS WIN THE CHALLENGE CUP

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Secret privatisation of 40 GP practices

Cheap food for rich MPs, nothing for

our kids!

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Patients in Ramsgate, East Kent are baffled as to why their GP Surgery has recently changed hands, with all services now being provided by Invicta Health CIC. The senior partner at the East Cliff Practice, Dr John Neden, is on the Board of Directors of the CIC as well as being on the board...

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Late October Edition

POLITICS AND EVENTS

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THINK TANK SAYS SOME WILL HAVE DIED AND OTHER WILL FO

TORIES URGED pensioners’ ben

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any elderly hit by a cut to the winter fuel allowance might “not be around” at the next election, said Alex Wild of the ultraright Taxpayers’ Alliance.

And others would forget which party had done it, he added.

He said the Tories could not

The government should waste no time to cut pensioner benefits, a think tank director urged the Conservative conference in Manchester wait until a year before the next election to make the necessary cuts to the winter fuel allowance, free bus passes, the Christmas bonus and other pensioner benefits.

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Mr Wild, research director of the think tank which campaigns for lower taxes, said the cuts should be made “as soon as possible after an election for two reasons.

“The first of which will sound a little bit morbid – some of the people… won’t be around to vote against you in the next election.

So that’s just a practical point, and the other point is they might have forgotten by then.”

He added: “If you did it now, chances are that in 2024 someone who has had their winter fuel cut might be thinking, ‘Oh I can’t remember, was it this government or was it the last one? I’m not quite sure.’

“So on a purely practical basis I would say do it immediately.

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That might be one of those things I regret saying in later life but that would be my practical advice to the government.”

Former minister, Liam Fox, told the meeting that the government had to act now to make further cuts to benefits and welfare.

“We have a broken opposition.

We have just won a general election and we need now to take the tough decisions we believe are right.”

We have a broken opposition. We need now to take the tough decisions we believe are right

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POLITICS AND EVENTS

Late October Edition

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ORGET BEFORE NEXT GENERAL ELECTION The first of which will sound a little bit morbid – some of the people… won’t be around to vote against you in the next election

Burnham sees the Word and says it’s great

D TO CUT nefits now Now that Labour is no “great threat”, this was a “great opportunity for us to do some of the more difficult things, however unpalatable they will be in the short term are what we need to do for the country,” said the backbencher, a leading voice on the right of the party.

“moral” case for reducing public spending further.

“We are borrowing from the next generation to spend today.

That is otherwise known as a Ponzi scheme,” he said.

the era of low inflation would not last forever, meaning economic growth on its own was not enough to balance the books.

Older people would understand the need for cuts to their benefits to help the next generation, he suggested.

“It’s what we are operating as a national financial policy.”

“We have got to start to get really honest with people because this is not a sustainable position,” he said.

He added: “If you continue to overspend there will be a day of reckoning.”

“We can’t afford it now, we can’t afford it in the future, why don’t we try to get a longer-term plan put in place so that people can make the adjustments they will need to make for us to be able to get back into balance.”

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He added: “We need to do what we all know deep in our hearts to be right.”

L WINTER FUEE ALLOWANC ON THE HIT LIST

Mr Fox added that the government had to make the

He said this was because borrowing costs would rise and

In the beginning, Andy Burnham was an unreconstructed Blairite who was oily in name and deed. He helped to sell off the NHS by bringing in the private finance initiative schemes which meant the NHS will be paying huge sums of money to the private sector for years to come. He voted for the war in Iraq and was a loyal henchman to Tory Blair. Then, on the road to Manchester came a sudden change. A startling conversion to Socialism. Burnham, as Mayor of Manchester, stood up to the party of big business. He stood with the poor rather than against them. He told the clown in Downing Street that the workers of Manchester starving was unacceptable. He fought against a new lockdown without workers being provided for. Could it have been Burnham reading the word that made the change?

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POLITICS AND EVENTS

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INFAMOU KILL-ANDpolice are back in N

RIOTING AND DESTRUCTION BY YOUTHS AS INEQUALITY HAS

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heir murderous violence came as no surprise to Sowore Omoyele, a Nigerian journalist, human rights activist, founder and publisher of Sahara Reporters.

In an interview with Andy Goodman on TV channel Democracy Now, Sowore talked about the way SARS operates.

He said: “It was formed in 1992 apparently to fight armed robbery. But it was formed after the demise - well after a unit of the police known as Kill-and-Go was kind of rested because they were committing the same type of atrocities in those days.

“They were used by oil companies to suppress villagers and protesters in the Niger Delta region. So, SARS is the nephew,

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Earlier I wrote that Nigeria was on the Brink.

The recent killings and other violence by the police Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) in Nigeria’s capital, Lagos, against peaceful protestors, proves my fears were well founded cousin or brother, a tactical unit that has unleashed on the young in particular. They have a license to do the same, Kill-and-Go: to kill, decimate, extort, invade.”

Rioting and destruction has now broken out as young people vent their anger on property. This anger is borne out of frustration that the majority, the poor, have not been listened to and inequality has reached obscene proportions.

These figures speak for

The Kill-and-Go were used by oil companies to suppress villagers and protesters

themselves.

A Nigerian Senator’s receives a basic pay of Nigerian $78,240 annually – nearly 138 times more than the

minimum wage of $567 a year.

With expenses a Senator has been known to get more than $2 million in a year!

Stop Press – Lagos protests The Lagos State Governor, Sanwo- Olu has revealed that a Nigerian $200 million fund has been set up to compensate families of victims

of Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) killings. This is in contrast to his initial statement that it was an ‘unfortunate shooting incident’.

THE WORD NEWSPAPER NEEDS YOUR HELP THE We are a non-profit making cooperative but still have our outgoing costs such as design, website hosting and software. Please help us maintain this left wing tabloid by going to our website at www.thewordmedia.org and subscribing. By joining together let us all fight back against the rich and powerful.

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He has also called off the curfew in the city. Furthermore he pledged to convey the requests of the protesters to President Muhammadu Buhari, as well as justice for those killed by the Police.

Critical comments have come from UK Shadow Foreign Secretary, Lisa Nandy, and Presidential candidate, Joe Biden. The latter stated ‘The United States must stand with Nigerians who are peacefully

demonstrating for police reform and seeking an end to corruption in their democracy.’

Actor Idris Elba, boxer Anthony Joshua and footballer Odion Ighalo also condemned the actions of SARS Manchester United player Ighalo, who has played 35 times for Nigeria, said he was ‘sad and heartbroken’ by the violence and called the country’s government a ‘shame to the world’.

Even so, many living in Lagos earn far less than the minimum.

In 2017, people with disabilities, usually on the lowest income, took to the streets to protest.

For daring to do that they were arrested and imprisoned, and some died.

This February a peaceful gathering of over a thousand protested outside the Governor’s house. A spokesperson for the beggars and the Co-ordinator for the Physically Challenged Empowerment Initiatives (PCEI), Mohammed Zanna, said the ban on the use of tricycles in the capital had reduced mobility for many.

He said: “We cannot enter buses because we cannot fight and struggle. We are seeking an audience with the governor.

Let him tell us what he wants to do with us. We need skills and empowerment. We are tired of sitting at home.”

Elba called on Africans to ‘unite in protest’ after hearing of the killings. In an Instagram video he said he said ‘What’s happening is an atrocity, a murder, and I’m calling to the leaders of the ECOWAS countries [a West African alliance] to African Union to all African leadership to say something to the Nigerian government.

‘You have the power and the reach and you should do

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POLITICS AND EVENTS

US -GO Nigeria

S REACHED OBSCENE PROPORTIONS

Late October Edition

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ON THIS DAY

THE WALL STREET CRASH AND THE GREAT DEPRESSION On October 29, 1929, Black Tuesday hit Wall Street as investors traded some 16 million shares on the New York Stock Exchange in a single day. Billions of dollars were lost, wiping out thousands of investors. In the aftermath of Black Tuesday, America and the rest of the industrialized world spiralled downward into the Great Depression (1929-39), the deepest and longest-lasting economic downturn in the history of the Western industrialized world up to that time.

After October 29, 1929, stock prices had nowhere to go but up, so there was considerable recovery during succeeding weeks. Overall, however, prices continued to drop as the United States slumped into the Great Depression, and by 1932 stocks were worth only about 20 percent of their value in the summer of 1929. The stock market crash of 1929 was not the sole cause of the Great Depression, but it did act to accelerate the global economic collapse of which it was also a symptom. By 1933, nearly half of America’s banks had failed, and unemployment was approaching 15 million people, or 30 percent of the workforce.

Hooverville Nigerians living failure to control outside the country the excesses of For daring need to call Felani herdsmen, to protest on the British the spread of disabled people Parliament Sharia law, to debate the G o v e r n m e nt were arrested problems corruption and imprisoned, and the gross of fanatics and some infiltrating inequality most of Subaffecting all died Saharan Africa, the regions.

Nigerian church leaders, imams and civil rights groups have spoken about this, it is time for countrymen and women living here to call on our Government to voice concern.

To echo the Black Lives Matter message “white silence equals violence” and so does silence from Nigerians! basically murdered so I’m calling for the other African leaders to say something to the leadership of Nigeria right now.

When though will the UK Government speak out and the Commonwealth too?

Baroness Scotland, Commonwealth Secretary General, was warned by a concerned group from the Lords over a month ago about the slide of Nigeria into even greater bloodshed.

something, you should say something.

‘People should not be persecuted for protesting and

Can another Rwanda be avoided!

As the Depression worsened and millions of urban and rural families lost their jobs and depleted their savings, they also lost their homes. Desperate for shelter, homeless citizens built shantytowns in and around cities across the nation. These camps came to be called Hooverville’s, after the president.

Democratic National Committee publicity director and long-time newspaper reporter Charles Michelson (1868-1948) is credited with coining the term, which first appeared in print in 1930. Hooverville shanties were constructed of cardboard, tar paper, glass, lumber, tin and whatever other materials people could salvage. Unemployed masons used cast-off stone and bricks and in some cases built structures that stood 20 feet high. Most shanties, however, were distinctly less glamorous: Cardboard-box homes did not last long, and most dwellings were in a constant state of being rebuilt. Some homes were not buildings at all, but deep holes dug in the ground with makeshift roofs laid over them to keep out inclement weather. Some of the homeless found shelter inside empty conduits and water mains.

John Maynard Keynes The British economist, Keynes argued that expansionary fiscal policy represented the surest tool for bringing the economy back to full employment. In other words a program of employment by stimulating the economy through the building of infrastructure. This was followed in the USA by a rearming before WW2 which showed that any massive Government backed work would stimulate growth.

Parallels with today The stock market crash of 2008 was also the biggest single-day drop in history up to that point. The aftermath of this catastrophic financial event wiped out big chunks of Americans’ retirement savings and affected the economy long after the stock market recovered. Again the crash was caused by lying, cheating, gambling with people’s lives. As always the poor were the ones to suffer. Capitalism recovered from the 2008 crash but living standards continued to fall. In 2019 Capitalism needed another reset. How would they fool people into abeyance this time?

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POLITICS AND EVENTS

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BEST OF THE WEB PALESTINE Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Friday slammed the announcement of a normalization deal between Israel and Sudan, saying no one else had the right to speak on behalf of the Palestinians.

Abbas “condemns and rejects” the normalization of ties between Israel and Sudan which was announced earlier

by US President Donald Trump, following similar deals with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain in recent months.

“No one has the right to speak on behalf of the Palestinian people and the Palestinian cause,” the statement from Abbas’s office said.

DURHAM The US law enforcement officers joined Durham City CID and the National Crime Agency (NCA) into child sexual abuse linked to Robert Benjamin Johnson as they investigated child pornography. Today, Friday, October 23, he has been handed a 27-month prison sentence after being found guilty of two charges relating

to the distribution of indecent videos of children.

The 38-year-old, of Kells Buildings, in Neville’s Cross, Durham, appeared at Durham Crown Court for sentencing.

During the FBI investigation, agents identified links between Johnson’s home computer IP address and a file sharing site being used to distribute indecent imagery.

This was referred to the NCA who then picked up the investigation alongside Durham Constabulary.

Officers seized a total of 15 electronic devices from Johnson’s home in March last year, with the 19-month investigation covering complex digital examinations and several police interviews.

SCOTLAND Protesters belonging to the climate change activism group Extinction Rebellion have attempted to blockade access to an oil refinery in Grangemouth, Scotland, claiming that the plant’s operator is the country’s biggest polluter.

Demonstrators used two boats

to block two roads leading to the Ineos plant and the company’s headquarters. A small group of protesters also chained themselves together at the gates of the refinery, telling local media that they plan to block the entrance to the plant until at least the end of the day.

Photographs posted to social media by the group show demonstrators marching down a road holding large banners reading “Climate justice = Social justice” and “Stop Ineos ecocide.”

IRELAND An “acrimonious” Brexit could have further ramifications for Ireland, if Britain proceeds with its plans to override parts of the Withdrawal Agreement, which had been agreed to avoid creating a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

A hard border would cause political tensions between the two countries, as well as creating issues around export documentation and state aid.

Beyond the impact on Ireland, Makhlouf warned of

potential changes to Europe’s financial services sectors.

While he stated that most countries “would rather” London remain the dominant city, with a no-deal Brexit, that title is likely to move to Amsterdam, Dublin, Frankfurt or Paris. Makhlouf highlighted how Ireland could look to take advantage of this situation by making itself more attractive, compared with the UK, to companies that want to set up a base from which to do business with the EU. Any Brexit deal that is agreed by the end of the year would have little impact on this, as the current negotiations do not include discussions about financial services.

DERBY A Derby husband admitted to stabbing his wife in the back, despite her arriving at court and swearing on oath the wound was self-inflicted.

Derby Crown Court heard how Darlington Masunda plunged a kitchen knife into the victim with a “hard punch” in the kitchen of their Littleover home. The 36-yearold then insisted on being

with her in the ambulance to the Royal Derby Hospital.

The hearing was told that without intervention the wife could have suffered “catastrophic blood loss” from the knife wound, which narrowly missed her kidney.

USA US President Donald Trump has cast an early ballot in the presidential election as he geared for another grueling day of campaigning ahead of the vote on 3 November.

Mr Trump, who is trailing Democrat Joe Biden in the polls, voted at a library serving as a polling centre in West Palm Beach, Florida. He has a home in that state and switched his residency there last year from his native New York. “I voted for a guy named Trump,” he said with a smile as he emerged. While voting, he wore a mask, which is rare for the president, who has played down the pandemic.

Nearly 55 million Americans have now cast early votes as the coronavirus has made in-person voting more problematic.

ON THIS DAY 25th. October 1415 – Henry V of England and his lightly armoured infantry and archers defeat the heavily armoured French cavalry in the Battle of Agincourt.

1940 – Benjamin O. Davis, Sr. is named the first African American general in the United States Army.

Deaths.

1400 – Geoffrey Chaucer, English philosopher, poet, and author (b. 1343) 1895 – Charles Hallé, German-English pianist and conductor (b. 1819) 1921 – Bat Masterson, American lawman, buffalo hunter, and sport writer (b. 1853 1992 – Roger Miller, American singer-songwriter and actor (b. 1936) 1993 – Vincent Price, American actor (b. 1911) 2002 – Richard Harris, Irish actor and singer (b. 1930)

26th. October. Events 1863 – The Football Association, the oldest football association in the world, is formed in London.

1947 – The Maharaja of Kashmir and Jammu agrees to allow his kingdom to join India.

1999 – Britain’s House of Lords votes to end the right of hereditary peers to vote in Britain’s upper chamber of Parliament.

Deaths.

899 – Alfred the Great, English king (b. 849) 1764 – William Hogarth, English painter and engraver (b.

1697) 27th. October. Events 1956 – The nuclear power station at Calder Hall in the United Kingdom was connected to the national power grid becoming the world’s first commercial nuclear power station to generate electricity on

an industrial scale.

2003 – Mars makes its closest approach to Earth in nearly 60,000 years, passing 34,646,418 miles (55,758,005 km) distant.

2003 – The first six-party talks, involving South and North Korea, the United States, China, Japan and Russia, convene to find a peaceful resolution to the security concerns of the North Korean nuclear weapons program.

Deaths.

1576 – Titian, Italian painter and educator (b. 1488) 1963 – W. E. B. Du Bois, American sociologist, historian, civil rights activist PanAfricanist, author, writer, and editor. (b. 1868) 1965 – Le Corbusier, SwissFrench architect and urban planner, designer, painter, writer, and one of the pioneers of what is now called modern

architecture. 1967 – Brian Epstein, English businessman and manager (b. 1934) 1975 – Haile Selassie, Ethiopian emperor (b. 1892) 28th. October. Events 1833 – The Slavery Abolition Act 1833 receives royal assent, abolishing slavery through most of the British Empire.

1957 – U.S. Senator Strom Thurmond begins a filibuster to prevent the Senate from voting on Civil Rights Act of 1957; he stopped speaking 24 hours and 18 minutes later, the longest filibuster ever conducted by a single Senator.

1963 – March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom: The Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. gives his I Have a Dream speech Deaths.

632 – Fatimah, daughter of Islamic prophet Muhammad died, with her cause of death being a controversial topic

among the Sunni Muslims and Shia Muslims.

1987 – John Huston, Irish actor, director, and screenwriter (b. 1906) 29th. October. Events 1863 – Eighteen countries meet in Geneva and agree to form the International Red Cross 1888 – The Convention of Constantinople is signed, guaranteeing free maritime passage through the Suez Canal during war and peace.

1923 – Turkey becomes a republic following the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire.

1991 – The American Galileo spacecraft makes its closest approach to 951 Gaspra, becoming the first probe to visit an asteroid.

1998 – In South Africa, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission presents its report, which condemns both sides for committing atrocities.

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Late October Edition

The Peers

Here am I, very opposed to the existence of a nonelected legislative chamber, celebrating our Peers.

Today we must accept honesty, decency and probity wherever we find it.

GOVERNMENT WITHOUT POLITICS GENERATES EITHER APATHY OR UNRULY SUBJECTS Government without politics was Thatcher. Major less so. Blair deffo.

Brown less so. And since 2010 it has been a constant. My definition of politics is that it is the inclusive discussion of and consensual arrival at public values. Policies should follow such values.

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e are constantly told that we are a democracy.

Our passports award us the title of ‘citizen’.

The UK is in fact a monarchy and we are subjects. When a government eschews politics two things can happen. We can resign ourselves to being ruled or we can resist, sometimes passively and sometimes actively.

Boris and his courtiers believe that their role is to do things TO us, not WITH us. They have relied heavily upon our apathy. But now they are encountering unrest.

When, ten years ago, Osborne said that we were all in it together we ought to have become unruly.

He lied but we allowed him to get away with it. Many people today are suffering and dying because of his choice of austerity.

When he took over the economy was recovering. He threw that recovery into reverse.

Today we are ruled by unintelligent autocrats. Remember Boris playing touch rugby in Japan when he flattened that little lad? He thinks that is how you do government.

This government is not only lacking intellect, it is corrupt

But now he is encountering much bigger lads.

For many years central government has de-funded local government so it has come as a surprise to Boris and co. that in order to enact its policies it must fund local government.

But this government is not only lacking intellect, it is also corrupt. It gives millions of our money, yes our money, to its cronies who then fail to deliver.

More than ever we need a sharply contrasting official opposition. We do not have one.

What we do have is a myri-

ad of small groups, networks, a few noble journalists working in mainstream and The Word Newspaper.

Northern local government opposes. So does London. Or should I replace the word ‘oppose’ with the word ‘resist’?

Whatever, Boris is not getting his own way.

His entire life has been dependent upon and devoted to getting his own way. Might he take his ball home sometime soon?

Like Trump, should he lose, I think he will draw the conclusion that the country was neither good enough nor grateful enough to benefit from his wisdom.

Despite slightly democratic stirrings from within some of the elected Tories in the Commons, Boris knows that ultimately he can count upon Starmer keeping on his gloves.

Someone has to articulate, to give expression to the values by which we claim to live in society.

If the elected chamber won’t do it I am very happy to accept this from the Lords.

An exaggeration perhaps but it sometimes feels to me that there are many more revolutionaries among the Peers than there are in the Commons where Party whips are so powerful; on reflection, no, not an exaggeration.

So the House of Lords’ vote against Boris should be celebrated. I shall definitely hold the coat of anyone that politically punches him. I did say ‘politically’ didn’t I?

By Cliff Jones

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There are many more revolutionaries among the Peers than in the Commons

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Late October Edition

Are NHS patients at dentists being phased out?

One does wonder if the covid-19 situation is being used to privatise dentistry.

Why are NHS dentists being penalised, prevented from carrying out the full range of treatment for NHS patients, being told they will have to wait until the pandemic guidelines are changed?

This could be in a month’s time, or a year’s time, so for many NHS patients it is a case of enduring dental problems & possibly great pain for who knows how long.

Yet there are certain procedures that are available privately. These are only for those able to pay,

often several hundred pounds, leaving less well off patients who cannot afford private dentistry disadvantaged and abandoned.

Of all branches of medicine, dentistry has always had to maintain the highest standards of hygiene. It should be possible to make NHS dental treatment more accessible safely..

Does Matt Hancock realise how divisive his policy is regarding dentistry, or isn’t he bothered because he has private medical insurance? Is this a way of privatisation by stealth and to hell with the health of the poor?

Maurice Bethell/Ashtead, Surrey

I witnessed PFIs destroying our NHS Lots of people are concerned and will comment about the loss of the NHS. However, when it comes to standing side by side marching and protesting with the NHS staff (I have been to many protests), the general public support is rarely to be seen.

I certainly owe my life to the NHS, I’ve needed them many times so far, and they were and are always there, but who knows when we will finally have to say goodbye to the NHS we know and love? It is very scary, and especially at my age I feel vulnerable. Losing it would be like the loss of a very dear friend.

Having had the pleasure and privilege of working with the best consultants, doctors and all the many support staff in hospitals, but now to lose all this and be replaced with just a bank accounting guru and an end figure on a bank statement is truly sad.

I witnessed at first hand the way the PFIs (Private Finance Initiatives) shamelessly drained NHS budgets, how they weeded out NHS staff in-house cleaners, porters and IT support services. Charging the individual wards £10 for a cheese sandwich, when before the PFI I would just pop to the cafe, costing

me £2.50. The PFIs would charge £75 to empty just one bin on the wards. Normal bins and clinical waste bins on wards always need to be emptied. So the PFIs are laughing all the way to the banks! If I was caught by the PFI staff emptying a bin the ward was fined £50. There are so many examples of how the PFIs are milking NHS budgets.

It is a huge crime taking place but it is still happening and it’s allowed!

Nothing can be done about it since it’s all been agreed by this manager or that manager. There is no accountability, and sadly it is happening in every PFI run hospital.

Jacqueline Robinson / Ex-NHS worker from Wakefield, West Yorkshire

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PATIENTS WANT TO KNOW WHY 40 NHS GP PRACTICES WERE MADE PRIVATE

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atients in Ramsgate, East Kent are baffled as to why their GP Surgery has recently changed hands, with all services now being provided by Invicta Health Community Interest Company.

The senior partner at the East Cliff Practice, Dr John Neden, is on the Board of Directors of the CIC as well as being on the board of the Kent and Medway CCG. Local campaign group Save Our NHS in Kent (SONiK) point out that he also voted in favour of drastic cuts to acute stroke services in Kent, even though it would leave residents in the deprived area of Thanet with an ambulance journey time in excess of one hour.

Invicta Health CIC’s website reveals that a total of forty GP surgeries in east Kent are now being provided via this community interest company. Patients at the surgery say that they have not been consulted or even notified about the change.

A spokesperson for SONiK said “We are trying to find out why this happened without any prior warning to the patients at the East Cliff surgery in Ramsgate.

We have also heard from a patient at the Aylesham surgery who says they have not been informed about the change at any point. We have asked to be given sight of the new contract, and we are looking into the legal process that should have been followed in this case, as we are concerned that correct procedures may not have been adhered to”.

“We also have reason to believe that certain members of the East Cliff Patient Participation Group may have been excluded from meetings where this change was on the agenda. We will be following up with patients from as many of the forty surgeries as possible, and trying to understand what the implications of the change are. We are worried about privatisation by stealth, continuity of patient care and issues regarding budgetary control among other concerns”.

In the picture, from left to right Dr Bob Gill (producer of The Great NHS Heist documentary), Colin Crilly, Christine Lightbody (Isle of Wight Save Our NHS), and Dr Paul Hobday (retired GP and author of the book The Deceit Syndrome).

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MOTHER DIED OF OLD AGE, I’D RATHER NOT

PATIENT.I

MUSES ABOUT DEATH AT THE HANDS OF OUR SMALLEST ENEMIES When I began on my savage regime of cancer treatments I was told that despite the seriousness of my condition, the idea was that I should live long enough with the inoperable, incurable, and aggressive strain of cancer that I’d die of ‘something else’

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t is true in Life that ‘no-one gets out of here alive,’ but how would I like to go?

Flippantly I’d reply that ideally I would like to die of old age. My mother died of old age and I’d rather not follow her.

My dad had six horrible months in hospital and lost all dignity, many organs, but not the love and respect of everyone around him.

Old age is not for the faint hearted.

I never thought I would die of something as ridiculous as coronavirus, yet here it is a possibility. I’ve had coronaviruses many times in my life – all varieties of the common cold are coronaviruses, and lead to respiratory difficulty, sore throats, loss of taste and smell, headaches, running noses, and eventually dreadful coughing. I didn’t die of them.

What is novel about this Covid19 is that it is a ‘novel’ virus. Made of RNA, not DNA, as are common cold viruses, it is not a human virus. We believe it originated in bats, perhaps a pangolin, maybe a laboratory full of evil scientists in USA or China, or fell from the skies as

5G radiation, but it is entirely consistent with coronaviruses that it begins to wipe out our old, our sick, our brave, and those who try to stem its relentless march through humankind.

We introduced coronaviruses to the Māori of New Zealand, such that it is a popular belief that there are no ‘pure blooded’ hokopapa or whakapapa people remaining, and that those who call themselves such are simply survivors of genetic dilution with European settlers. That whole discussion is not worth persisting with. The truth is that disease was introduced to these Polynesians and that coronaviruses played their part in decimating them.

Now New Zealanders of all colours and heritage catch colds and recover. Will this be the same for the people of the world with regard to Covid19? With a range of vaccines we might be able to set our bodies up to deal with infections as we do with common colds. Or we might all die, beginning with the old, the weak, the sick and the very brave

who try to treat us while we die.

Is it our government’s belief that the old, the weak, the sick, and the brave can be sacrificed in this way? It feels like it, is all I can say on that score.

We wiped out, or nearly wiped out many other indigenous populations with a combination of alcohol, warfare, nasty disease, and economics. We were truly enemies of humankind, whether the ‘we’ is the UK or our breakaway USA or our colonial settlers everywhere around the globe. We cannot be surprised if a plague of some kind takes many of us too; we are none of us immune to Death.

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TROJAN HORSE 2

EDWARD CASE

identifies our potential descent into fascism One sunny morning some 2,500 years ago, smoke drifted over the city of Troy as word spread that the besieging Greek army had burnt their tents and gone, leaving just a giant wooden horse. As the Athenian Daily Mail would have reported – “Troy honoured with gift of wooden horse”.

Of course we all know what happened. When soldiers hidden in the horse let-in the returning Greek army, Troy was destroyed and its inhabitants enslaved. “Troy accepts financial restructuring”.

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t has been said that traditional democracies have a weakness towards the acceptance of political movements whose ultimate goals can be anti-democratic.

Would we recognise the subterfuge of such a Trojan Horse today? and know how to prevent or counteract this?

Current evidence suggests that our democracy – in urgent need of reform anyway – has been infiltrated by such a movement, its media champions and funders, using tactics that fascists of old would recognise.

We now have a government whose leader believes in the superiority and natural fitness to govern of a chosen few. He appears to be ill-informed and makes vague references to ‘the need to rebuild’, and a ‘lost pride’. He claims ownership of nationalism and has portrayed

the opposition as enemies of the state (and communists).

Socialism has been described as ‘the hard left’ and conflated with communism.

The leader has selected a cabinet on the basis of adherence to his views. He rejects detailed discussion of issues, resorting to trivialised messages, with slogans (mostly 3 words) that

Mussolini, fascist dictator of Italy the populous can remember and repeat. He is known for his demeaning description of chosen sections of society, claiming later that it was just a jest, that no offence was meant.

Weakening the rule of law is encouraged by identifying members of the legal system as opponents, and blatantly bending laws and rules. Democratic conventions are undermined by blatantly overriding or ignoring them.

That social media facilitates a multitude of opinions on all subjects sows a confusion that our leader can utilise by uttering apparently decisive,

but meaningless statements. His policy is to never answer a direct question, but to impugn the motives of the questioner.

Democracy is repeatedly undermined by claiming that its processes are too slow and are dogged by red-tape. This necessitates the centralisation and deregulation of powers, and the allocation of finance to private corporations.

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TROJAN HORSE 3

EDWARD CASE

IDENTIFIES WAYS TO AVOID MAKING THE OLD MISTAKES T

o prevent our eventual descent into a capitalistic usury, we need to confront and negate the actions identified. Here’s a starting point, to repeatedly put the following ideas before the media and the peo-

ple, and to reject labels of left and right – to take ownership of key ideas away from the ‘far right’; Campaign for a streamlining of parliament – get the idea embedded before the next election.

Encourage reviews, discourse and ideas.

Review and discuss devolution of powers and the inclusion of Scotland and Wales. Convene a national conference (easy now we have zoom).

Identify that the central ground includes a renewed pride in nationalised industries – particularly infrastructure.

Form an alliance of local community and volunteer groups, and identify that these groups are the

basis for national pride.

Ensure that policy statements are simple and yet vague so that they are difficult to undermine.

Ban the building of wooden horses.

The UK isn’t the World’s Messiah And it has been far worse than a Naughty Boy When our children were small, my dad, their grandfather, would play a game for their amusement. He’d put his slippers on the wrong feet, he’d wear grandma’s hat, or he’d unset all the knives and forks on the table.

The kids would laugh, and as Grandma appeared from the kitchen she’d ask what ‘Andrew Bothercauser’ had been doing. This would cause more mirth, but really and truly it was hardly funny at all.

I think it was his naughty face that creased the grandchildren up. That or the way he waggled his legs.

The UK has been at the centre of mischief internationally since Pope Alexander Bothercauser VI decided to carve the world up between Spain and Portugal. England as a result became a Pirate nation. “That ship looks like it’s loaded with gold; we’ll have it.”

Cut out of the deal, England and its successor the UK have been Pirates ever since. Massive slave traders, invaders of North America, “discoverers” of Australia and New Zealand, and oppressors of Scotland, Wales and Ireland, the English have pretended to themselves that their Empire was a Good Thing, on balance Not A Bad Thing, or latterly, All In The Past.

Whatever we’ve touched, Africa, the Middle East, Gibraltar, the Falkland Islands, the East and West Indies, we’ve messed up lives and livelihoods. We wiped out indigenous peoples by giving them the common cold, alcohol, and Palestine by setting up a ‘Protectorate’ and flooding it with European Jews who had no interest or intention of respecting its peoples.

By far the biggest mischief we’ve

played has been in Hong Kong; a small edge of vast China which was for 99 years British. The UK ran it for profit and influence. Never was there a whiff of interest in the views of the native population.

Then it was time to leave and the UK entered into negotiations with China. Why? To cause bother.

Britain couldn’t bring itself to clear off and take its boxes and files and staplers with it. Instead the Hong Kong Chinese were promised ‘Democracy,’ something they’d not experienced in 99 years under the British, who proved in 2017 that they didn’t even have democracy at home when it held a General Election where one side tried to cling on to power and the other side tried their best not to take it from them.

Meanwhile pro-democracy activists clash with police and authorities in Hong Kong. Who told

them they could have a democracy?

Who led them to believe that democracy was attainable. It doesn’t happen anywhere else in the world, so why Hong Kong?

It is all down to Andrew Bothercauser and yet again it isn’t funny.

Seymour Bothercauser

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FORGOTTEN BANDS

THE PRETTY THINGS

An ironic name for an iconic group The nineteen sixties were notable for a large number of excellent bands, playing the new ‘Beat’ music, which quickly morphed into ‘Rock,’ a variant of Rhythm and Blues, Rock and Roll (not the same thing) and would you believe it Doo-Wop.

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he nineteen sixties were notable for a large number of excellent bands, playing the new ‘Beat’ music, which quickly morphed into ‘Rock,’ a variant of Rhythm and Blues, Rock and Roll (not the same thing) and would you believe it Doo-Wop. The Beatles were at the front of this wave of musical entertainment.

The Rolling

Stones, whose initial ambition was to be the best R&B band in Dartford, soon had a Top Ten Hit like, well, everybody else seemed to be doing. Beatles John, Paul, and George were definitely good looking lads, and Ringo was actually handsome with his strong nose and lovely eyes, but The Rolling Stones were just, well, horrid, unless you dug their music, which a lot of people did.

They were actually drop-dead attractive; Charlie and Bill were lovely in a manly way, Brian Jones was pretty, and Keith Richards was as cute as George Harrison. Mick Jagger, though, was beautiful.

Look again at early photos and weep for the old wallet he has become.

away from fans. The papers always caught their worst sides, and wrote about their worst behaviour. Until about 1968 nobody really looked in detail, and their changing clothes, hairstyles and whiskeriness were able to disguise the swapping out of Paul McCartney for a near-lookalike (for whatever reason) between the end of 1966 and the beginning of 1967. Where were you in 1966?

What papers did you read? How

closely did you look at the TV if you had one? How big was the screen, for that matter?

Much uglier than most bands, even Lindisfarne, were a group of fellas called The Pretty Things, which was surely some sort of joke.

They had a few successful singles, despite their looks, and then released an album which qualifies as the First Rock Opera. It was called “S F Sorrow” and described the life of a sad young man. The Who followed very quickly with their Opus “Tommy” which had the advantage of being actually performed, and featured their easy-on-the-eye band members.

Next time I shall examine what makes a Rock Opera and what is merely a themed album, such as Sergeant Pepper, or Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake from the Small Faces.

Seymour Griffiths

Observing 60s bands closely was a bit of a luxury. Newsreel showed them running, mainly

A MESSAGE FROM ONE OF MY FACEBOOK ‘GUITAR FRIENDS’

It’s very sad when a whole industry has totally imploded The live music business has collapsed totally with no time scale when we can start earning a living again.

I am having to think of a new direction away from guitars and pickups. So far Mark Knopfler has trialled my pickups, David Gilmour recommends his friends in Scotland to buy their pickups from me. I have guitars all over the world; I have

had a ‘how to’ video shown by a streaming service in the US going out to 1.8 million viewers. But I have made many new friends who either play guitars for fun but mostly it’s their living, and they have had their living taken away from them due to Covid rules with no support from Government like other businesses get, which has left some destitute and left me with stock I cannot sell.

What I don’t understand is why they haven’t had support from anyone. Musicians are special people who can stand in front of audiences and perform. I will post what I intend doing as a new challenge, or challenges, but for now please think about a profession who have been left destitute through no fault of its own.

Robbie

And a reply Cheers Robbie. Nicely put!

Musicians of all categories: professional, semi-pro, sing-foryour-supper, amateur, enthusiast, bedsit ... we will always need our toys to play with, so your skills will always be wanted.

But for those of us who thrive on performing and rely

on an income from gigging and merchandise this is torture!

Allied to the fact our work can be seen and heard free on-line means it’s gonna be a long hungry winter. New platforms required ...

New ideas very welcome !

Bill

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HOPE AND GOOD NEWS

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ales: Following Scotland 16 and 17 year olds will be officially allowed to vote in non Westminster elections.

Around 65,000 young people will be added to the electoral register as a result. Campaigners claim this as a victory for the Welsh electoral reform but will give hope to youngsters in England as the government there is looking increasingly out of touch on this issue.

Nigeria: It is a great pleasure to

report some good news coming out of Nigeria for a change! An historic milestone has been reached as Africa has been declared polio free.

This has been finally accomplished by a thorough, coordinated vaccination drive which immunised over 45 million children. There have been no recorded cases for three years which means Nigeria can be officially recognised as being free of polio.

This milestone has been reached through the Global Polio Eradication Initiative was spearheaded by national governments, WHO, Rotary International, the US Centres

for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and UNICEF, and supported by key partners including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Back in 2012 Nigeria accounted for more than half of all polio cases worldwide but it has not been achieved without loss of lives of health workers in remote regions, such as the last reservoir of polio in Nigeria, Borno State in the north east, where the Boko Haram insurgency prevented health workers from vaccinating children.

Barcelona: In an effort to end the city’s affordable housing

shortage the city’s council has told landlords sitting on empty properties to find tenants or face repossession. 14 companies have been written to who between them have 194 apartments which have been empty for two or more years.

This will allow the council to use some as emergency accommodation for key workers during the pandemic and homeless.

It extends the work being done across Catalonia which from 2016 which allowed municipalities to take control for of properties and rent them as affordable housing for

a period of between four and ten years before returning them to their owner’s control.

Since 2016, it has been legal for municipalities in the Catalonia region, which includes Barcelona, to take control of properties that have been left without tenants for more than two years. However it only allowed them to rent them as affordable housing for a period of between four and ten years before returning them to their owner’s control. Now Barcelona will have expanded power to actually buy the apartments outright by compulsory purchase, at 50% of market rate.

HEADS FUME OVER MEALS REMINDER Head Teachers are “fuming” at an “unbelievable” letter from the Department for Education reminding them to provide pupils with nutritious food, just two days after the government voted against extending the provision of free school meals over the holidays.

This week MPs including education secretary Gavin Williamson, schools minister Nick Gibb and children’s minister Vicky Ford rejected a campaign started by footballer Marcus Rashford to provide food to those in need while schools are closed – a majority of 61.

Sharing the letter to social media, headteacher Andy Byers

said: “Without a hint of irony, Headteachers have received a letter today from the children’s minister reminding us about food standards and our responsibilities to provide students with... nutritious food and hot meals.

Honestly!”

The letter states: “Dear Headteacher, As the Minister responsible for school food I

wanted to write to you all to thank you and your catering teams for all the efforts you’ve undertaken to get your kitchens up and running again. TheThe government encourages all schools to promote healthy eating and provide healthy, tasty and nutritious food and drink and to support children to develop healthy eating habits.”

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Teen wins $25k for finding molecule that may disarm

ith the COVID-19 pandemic still raging, a 14-year-old from Texas has won a national science competition for identifying a molecule that can bind to the virus and potentially disable it.

Anika Chebrolu, who hails from Frisco, used computer modeling to search for a compound that binds tightly to the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein — a structure that juts off the coronavirus surface and plugs into human cells to trigger infection. In theory, such a compound should prevent the virus from infecting cells. When designing new antiviral drugs, scientists often perform computational studies, just like Chebrolu’s, as a critical first step.

For her impressive work, Chebrolu earned first prize in the 2020 3M Young Scientist Challenge, a U.S.based science competition for middle-school students.

“Her work was comprehensive and examined numerous databases,” Cindy Moss, a judge for the 3M Young Scientist Challenge, told CNN. “She also developed an understanding of the innovation process and is a masterful communicator. Her willingness to use her time and talent to help make the world a better place gives us all hope,” added Moss, who is the senior director of global STEM initiatives for Discovery Education, which runs the competition with 3M. Chebrolu received a $25,000 prize for winning this year’s competition.

Identifying a molecule that binds to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, took tremendous work.

CORONAVIRUS

Nature Image 01 is a Blackcap,

Image 02 is a Sedge Warbler

while 03 is back to the Blackcap.

Image 04 is a Bluetit.

Image 05 is a Nuthatch

Image 06 is a Nuthatch,

and 07 is a Greater Spotted Woodpecker

Image 10 is the most gorgeous Robin I’ve ever seen. which appears again in Image 08

Along with a Bluetit.

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FROM THE RECESSES OF HELL, THE EVIL YOU KNOW SO WELL.

Mad Margaret Thatcher answers your problems

Dearest Mags Now we are out of the EU is it alright to kick Johnny foreigner in the Ghoulies?

Yours. Jordan Pickford, from Liverpool Jordan young man, It has always been accepted that ‘Little Johnny Foreigner’ only truly understands a good kick in the arse from the mighty British. Just take me for example, those Argentinians were all strutting about like tooled up pigeons until I sent a torpedo up the back end of the Belgrano as it sailed away. That’ll learn ‘em. In your case you were just asserting yourself against the ‘Red Shite’. And what sort of name is Virgil Van Dijk anyway especially for a brown person? I would have sent the bastard home in an Ambulance too!

Dear agony Aunt Have I now redeemed myself from being a fan of Blair?

Andy ( I lived up to my name and cut the fire service) Burnham Andy, you are just the sort of Labour opposition my Tory

offspring admire. If you oppose us we will just accuse you of playing party politics. If we fail to negotiate a deal with you, we will accuse you of being a hard left ideologue. And if you start to win the argument we will

just get our pals in the media to smear you as an anti-Semite, although as a member of Labour Friends of Israel that might not be possible. You do have very pretty eyelashes, so maybe some unsubstantiated claims

of you being a bit of a tanktop wearer might do it.

Dear Thatch Was I right to apologise to a lying, cheating, greedy, thieving Tory bastard for calling him scum?

Angela from Manchester Yes, that’s a badge of honour for today’s One Nation Conservatives. There is nothing we value more than a bit of dirty dealing, spouting the party line and taking the food out of the mouths of poor Chavvy kids. I started the ball rolling with free milk in the seventies, now the current batch are still at it. I starved Miners, Boris starves Minors!

At least you didn’t drop the ‘C’ Bomb, that wouldn’t have been ladylike, even for a rough sort like you.

Dear Margaret I have recently taken on a new job but I don’t know what to do. I feel tired all the time and make silly mistakes. I have heard my bosses in Jerusalem are thinking of replacing me.

Rodney Starmer from London.

You Plonker! You’ve got more to worry about than Netanyahu. Have you seen the opinion polls? You’re as popular as a fart in a wetsuit. Boris could literally slaughter a whole classroom of kids, whilst having an affair with Hitler’s Granddaughter and you would forensically apologize for not actually being in the Tory Party and then abstain anyway.

And stop putting so much gel in your hair, your quiff is a cross between Kirk Douglas and bloody Tintin, you look a right Berk.

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BIZARRE NEWS The Name’s Rob A burglar has been caught after leaving a rucksack containing his name and address at the scene of a crime. Malcolm Pyke broke into a garage in East Herrington, Sunderland, and stole £150 of cleaning equipment. Police found a bag he had left behind which contained letters featuring both his name and address. When officers visited his home, they found the stolen equipment.

Airline Grub at Home An airline in Finland is offering those who miss the taste of airline food the chance to enjoy it at home. Finnair has announced that Taste of Finnair meals will be available to buy at supermarkets across Finland. “We want to offer the opportunity for a Finnair experience and everyday luxury at home, now that travel has been restricted in many ways,” a spokesperson said.

Pizza Boxing Record A pizza delivery driver has unofficially broken a Guinness World Record by folding 18 cardboard pizza boxes in one minute. Randy DeGregorio, from New Jersey, said he discovered his skill during downtime at work. “You kind of compete with

other drivers and say who can fold them the fastest. And over time, I started to realize that, hey, I’m pretty good at this,” he said.

Get Out And Walk A man who broke wind in the back of an Uber and then attacked the driver has been handed a sixmonth jail term, suspended for 18 months. James Mallett, 35, let one go when Aleksander Bonchev was driving him to Chasers nightclub in Bristol. When he was ordered to leave the car, Mallett attacked the driver – who then knocked down Mallett in self-defence.

QAnon Render Queen Anonymous QAnon conspiracy theorists are claiming that Queen Elizabeth II has no right to the throne. They argue that the true monarch is a man named Joseph Gregory Hallett – referred to by some as King John III. Hallett says that the “illegitimate conception of King George V” means that every monarch since 1840 has been what he calls a “flat lie royal.”

Chilly Willy A 74-year-old man in India was rescued after he was put into a freezer by relatives who were

under the impression he had died.

The family of Balasubramanian Kumar ordered a large freezer box and placed his body inside so it could be kept for the performance of the last rites. However, it was then noticed his hand was moving.

Hogging Facetime Bacon fans can now have a facemask that smells of sizzling pork.

The company behind the product said the Black Label Breathable Bacon mask uses the “the latest in bacon-smell technology” to give the wearer the experience of smelling a sizzling rasher as they use the coronavirus protection garment. It promises it will be a “heavenly aroma”.

Raccoon Raid Two young raccoons have broken into a bank in California. The Peninsula Humane Society says the rascals were found running around inside the Redwood City bank that was closed to the public at the time. “It’s not every day an animal organisation gets called to deal with a bank break in, but since the bank robbers were masked bandits of the wildlife kind, we were indeed the appropriate responders,” said a spokesman.

Is This Art An artist has created a grocery store in which every product is made entirely of plastic. The store, in New York’s Times Square, is stocked with items from fruit to deli meats that are made from discarded, single-use plastics. The Plastic Bag Store is described as a “visually rich, tactile, and humorous experience that hopefully encourages a different way of thinking about the foreverness of plastic”.

Bound To Happen The televangelist Pat Robertson claims God has told him Donald Trump will win next month’s election. The multi-millionaire and former US presidential candidate also forecast that there will be at least two attempts on Trump’s life and a war against Israel that will be “put down by God.” Then an asteroid will end the world, he says.

Miley Cyrus Stoned UFOs Miley Cyrus says she was once “chased down by some sort of UFO”. The pop singer said that the encounter “fucked me up” and that she now can’t “look at the sky the same”. Recalling the incident in San Bernardino, she said “I’m pretty sure about what I saw”. However, she admits: “I’d also bought weed wax from a guy in a van in front of a taco shop, so it could have been the weed wax.”

Expectant Runs A woman in California has run a mile in under six minutes while nine months pregnant. Makenna Myler, 28, said her husband, Mike, bet her $100 (£76) that she could not run a mile in under eight minutes, and she decided to take on the challenge only one week before her due date. “I think pregnancy is a beautiful thing and it’s not an injury or a sickness, that you’re still really capable,” she said.

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WHAT’S THE POINT OF

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ell as I understand it, the theory goes that Billionaires spend (invest) their capital in order to make more (profit).

This then fuels the economy, as all the little people work and make the money for their employers (productivity) who get income from customers (consumers).

BILLIONAIRES?

- The most common first jobs for billionaires were salesperson, software developer, stock trader and analyst.

The consumers and the workers are the same people, the majority of the population who’s money has ‘trickled down’ from on high. As well as spending it on goods and services they pay tax to Governments to make their Country work. Billionaires have the means to avoid paying tax so their Capital is free to invest to make more and more. When investing becomes to risky they don’t move their cash about and that causes recession, when that happens Governments restrict their spending and there is less cash for the workers.

- The world’s richest woman isn’t Queen Elizabeth II, its Walmart heiress Alice Walton with a net worth of $46 billion.

- Only 21% of the top 400 richest American billionaires are self-made, in other words Daddy left it.

How rich is billionaire rich?

Imagine you are an immortal Pharaoh of Egypt at the time of the building of the Great Pyramids 4500 years ago. So imagine you saved $10,000 every single DAY since then until now. Today you’d still only own 20% of the wealth of 1 of the 5 richest billionaires. ere’s some facts and H figures to get your head around; - The 22 richest men in the world have more wealth than all the women in Africa.

- If the world’s richest one percent paid just 0.5 percent extra tax on their wealth for 10 years, it would equal the investment needed to create 117 million new jobs in elderly and child care, education and health.

- Numbers show All 2,153 billionaires now have more wealth, a total of $10 trillion or $10,000,000,000,000, which is more than the 4.6 billion poorest people on the planet combined.

- The world’s richest person makes $2,489 a second.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos makes twice as much money every second as the average US worker makes in a week.

He’s worth $117 billion.

history, with a combined net worth of $350 billion. The family’s wealth started with banking in 1744, when Mayer Rothschild set up a financial centre and gave his five sons control of different branches.

- In 2015, Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel became the world’s youngest billionaire, at age 24.

- From 2006 to 2015, most people’s wages grew by about

2% a year. Billionaires wealth increased by about 13% a year.

- The inheritance that the world’s 500 richest people will pass down (over the next

twenty years) is estimated to be about $2.4 trillion ($2,400,000,000,000).

- The Rothschild family are the richest family in modern

ONALD TRUMP ISN’T A D BILLIONAIRE, NOT EVEN CLOSE In 2011, Donald Trump attempted to sue Timothy O’Brien, because the author called him a millionaire (instead of a billionaire). The suit was dismissed by lower court and Trump also lost the case at appeals court. Three “unnamed sources” in the book, Trumpnation: The Art of Being Donald, cite Trump’s net worth as $150 million to $250 million (with inflation that’s less than he inherited). However, Trump’s lawyer has claimed the net worth is more than $7 billion.

Trump says his net worth depends on his daily mood.

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TV SCHEDULES

Spending does not follow taxation in countries with a sovereign currency

Every Tuesday 1pm to 3pm “Community Voice” on sound radio wales https://www.soundradio.wales/ Also live on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/search/ top/?q=sound%20radio%20wales Paul Toal and I present a radio show that celebrates our diverse communities. We give a platform to individuals and groups who are active in their communities and have a positive effect on their community. From activists who campaign to change policy to improve the lives of those living in their community to leaders providing much needed support and advice in times of trouble.

Tune in every Tuesday.

Andrea Faulkner Sound Radio Wales The UK Column The UK Column story began with local residents in Devonport, the historic Royal Navy dockyard area of the city of Plymouth in South West England. The website is https://www.ukcolumn.org/ UK column broadcast a live television news show The UK Column News is streamed live at 1pm every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and is available on demand soon afterwards.

The Joe Solo Show is broadcast on www.radioscarborough. co.uk The Joe Solo Show is broadcast on http://coastandcountyradio. co.uk/ every Monday from 10-11pm. You can get us on DAB in North Yorkshire.

Each show is available to stream on Mixcloud soon after.

I

f you have trouble getting your mind wrapped around that you have not truly accepted that taxes do not fund the central government’s spending.

We tax the rich to recapture the surplus money in the economy and shift spending priorities to more publicly desirable goods.

A more progressive marginal tax rate ‘encouraged’ the rich to avoid the taxes by investing in more socially desirable spending.

Taxation does not provide income to federal government.

Taxation is the way that some state, county, and city government spending is paid for, because those entities are not fiat currency

issuers. We tend to forget about local government, but it has much of the net receipts that national government receives each year.

High taxes make the plunder of the corporation by executives not worthwhile. So the best way to do better in a high tax regime is to plough money back into research and product development, put money into new locations and so forth. Back in the 50’s and 60’s there weren’t taxes on corporation perks; executives got rewarded that way and those perks were owned by the corporations. This also incentivised good behaviour by executives.

Taxation also stabilizes societies. Using the tax rate is one way

to force companies to invest in the company, either through increased wages or by expanding. A big company which can’t expand much now would be given the choice of raising wages without increasing prices or give the money to the government - a no-brainer really. (gleaned from Facebook conversations) Weller, C.E. – Rao, M. (2010) Progressive Tax Policy and Economic Stability, Journal of Economic Issues, 44:3, pp 629659, DOI: 10.2753/JEI00213624440304 Link: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.2753/jei00213624440304

This week’s comment from Joe I have been repeating it all year, the battleground of tomorrow is Food Poverty and this country is FINALLY waking up to the true scale of the coming crisis.

Sputnik Orbiting the World, looking behind the stories which made the news, as well as unearthing the ones that didn’t.

Expect debate and discussion between George Galloway and authoritative, influential, but most importantly, informed guests. https://www.rt.com/shows/sputnik/ Saturdays at 9:30 am Mark Windows LIVE here every Sunday 9.30pm GMT. Sign up for the chat room and contribute your ideas and information. https://windowsontheworld.net/live-shows/ RESISTANCE TV https://resistfest.co.uk/category/resistance-tv/ live broadcasts on a Wednesday and Thursday from the group led by ex MP, Chris Williamson. Debates from a leftwing perspective.

NHS social media broadcaster by doctors for patients. We educate, entertain & inform via content designed to promote discussion. http://www.watmed-media.com/ RICHIE ALLEN Listen to the stream live!

The stream is live 24/7 and live shows can be heard: Mon – Thurs 5-7pm GMT Sun 11am GMT https://richieallen.co.uk TyskySour by NovaraMedia.

The presenter, Michael Walker, is more often than not joined by his sidekick Aaron Bastani and Ash Sarkar, who famously humiliated Piers Morgan on his GMB TV show by pointing out what a political ignoramus he really is. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=JD7Ol0gz11k

While it is great to see small businesses offering free food for kids going without School Meals, and councils offering to provide those meals without help from central government, the whole thing needs to be dragged out into the light and the process at work here called what it is- Class War. There is money enough on this island for no-one to go without, and while they are happy to carp on about working together to get through this, I’m not seeing any millionaires going without or dipping their hands in their pockets for hungry kids.

Monthly radio show with host Andy Bungay and Colin Crilly, discussing things campaigning, social, and political.

To listen, please click on this link http://www.mixcloud. com/.../the-colin-crilly-takeover.../

Al Jazeera https://www.aljazeera.com/watch_now/epgschedule.html SWP TV https://www.youtube.com/user/swpTvUk

The People feeding The People is a poignant act of unity and solidarity, but it is an emotional response from OUR class rather than a political response from

THEIRS, and it should NEVER have to come to this.

And what you are seeing here is just the start.

Joe Solo

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A CHANCE FOR THE GUARDIAN TO RECLAIM ITS HERITAGE

The once favourite of the left has gone from hero to zero In his latest book Owen Jones airbrushes out the Guardian newspaper’s part in pulling down Jeremy Corbyn, its attacks on Julian Assange and its indifference to the abuse heaped on Assange by the US lap dog, the British state.

Ten years ago the Guardian happily joined with Assange and his Wikileaks whistleblowing organisation in an international publishing phenomena - the release of the Iraq war logs which dramatically exposed US war crimes.

The newspaper cashed in on the explosive revelations Assange provided, then threw him under the bus.

Since then its treatment of Assange has plumbed the depths. It has perpetuated fabrications about him and breathtakingly failed to accurately report on his show-trial and prison condition torture which all took place in Britain.

Traditionally, much of the left turned to the Guardian as the only island of responsible, fearless journalism in a quagmire of propaganda.

Before the double-cross, it was inconceivable that the Guardian, of all papers, would be the one culpable for his current plight, facing the wrath of the US state.

It’s the Guardian’s Judas kiss that is central to the efforts of the US to silence Assange, destroy Wikileaks and crush all future attempts to expose its abuse of power.

The paper’s mealy-mouthed efforts to absolve itself of blame is probably the most egregious example of its betrayal and a complete abdication of the core principles of journalism: truth and accuracy, independence, fairness and impartiality, humanity and accountability.

The Guardian has failed every one of them - Julian Assange embodies every one of them.

As parliament is about to introduce legislation authorising criminal conduct by the security services at home, and absolving war crimes overseas, there has never been a more important time for the kind of fearless journalism that Julian Assange represents.

The way it’s dealt with Assange has besmirched the Guardian’s once proud heritage. If it’s ever to regain its reputation, it must stop acting as a poodle for the UK and US administrations, admit it has wronged Assange and speak out for a genuine free press.

»

The newspaper cashed in on the explosive revelations Assange provided, then threw him under the bus.

POLITICS AND EVENTS

thewordmedia.org

COVID, CONSERVATIVES AND CARNAGE

THE DEATH THROES OF THE BRITISH MUSIC INDUSTRY

The UK music scene is now virtually non-existent “W

hen l hear the word culture, l reach for my gun”, so said

the Nazi.

This attitude seems to be a common trait of those on the right wing of politics. Any activity that appeals to the senses, to the inner soul, to that which affects contemplation and imagination is to be derided and of no worth. It has no value.

In goosestep with this right wing mind set, marches our government (using the term in its loosest sense, of course), led by Johnson, Cummings and Sunak.

The £1.25bn funding for the ‘Arts’ has gone somewhere but where that somewhere is, is a mystery.

It certainly hasn’t been given to England’s many working musicians who now find, because of Covid restrictions their livelihoods have been annihilated.

Why should this be? Is it because those who tend to be artistically gifted, those with empathy to be able to convey thoughts and feelings to others, those that can reach the depths of the human soul through literature, music or painting are inexorably drawn to the politics of the left?

This is the culmination of an assault by the Conservatives on what they see as a deviant, free thinking, radical tendency in the UK. An assault that began in the Thatcher years and now, under the excuse of Covid, the Tories have seen their chance to snuff out this candle that belongs almost exclusively to the Left.

undertaking as many gravitate to a saturated market instead of performing, and who now wants to be a musician?), have at a stroke been robbed of their careers with little or no compensation and told to retrain.

The music scene in the UK is now, and will probably be for many years to come, virtually non-existent.

Musicians in particular, unless on YouTube or in teaching (increasingly a perilous

As for me, I’m re-locating to France where l can gig and be a musician and where the government dare not forsake their artistic sector for fear of serious upheaval and political unrest and is

supporting the artistic community and venues accordingly.

(See my YouTube channel

‘Dave Simpson’ to hear my rant against this shambles of a government).

Dave Simpson.

thewordmedia.org thewordmedia.org

POLITICS AND AND EVENTS EVENTS POLITICS

Late Late October October Edition Edition

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21 21

THE REVOLTING KNEWDO A THING TWOREFUSES BUSINESSES ANDPEASANTS TORY COUNCILS WHATOR BORIS

A

s the Government is sent reeling by the surge of support from all political corners to provide free school meals for children until Easter Labour has promised to force another Commons vote if it does not U-turn on its refusal to provide the meals.

MPs have no qualms about scoffing subsidised quality meals in their posh ‘canteens’

End to EU subsidies seems certain

Senior Conservative MPs admitted the government has misjudged the country’s mood over the issue.

In a fresh intervention that will boost the campaign being led by the footballer Marcus Rashford, the Labour leader, Keir Starmer, said on Sunday his party would push for another vote if there is no change of course before Christmas. Labour was defeated in a vote last week, prompting businesses and councils – some of them Tory-led – to step forward to offer to feed children in the October half-term break, but the government has so far dug in to defend its position.

U-TURN OVER KIDS’ WHAT OUR MEDIEVAL ANCESTORS MEALS TOOK WARNING FOR GRANTED

In an apparent softening of tone after a No 10 spokesman newrefused term now exists last week to praise amongst our farmers. councils and firms offering help, It isIreland ‘Regenerative the Northern secretary, farming’.

ThisRashford type of Brandon Lewis, said farming beencredit” aroundforforhis a deservedhas “huge several years, but now as a loss of work on the issue although he EU subsidies is almost certain, stood

by Downing Street’s line. it

A

one school in Mansfield 75% of kids have a social worker, 25% of parents are illiterate. Their estate is the centre of the area’s crime.

is the new buzzword in farming circles.

Pressure is mounting on Tory

“One kid lives in a crack den, another in a brothel. These are the kids that most need our help, extending (free school meals) FSM doesn’t reach these kids.”

costs of cultivation but keep the same yields. This achieved by Bradley said is the sinceimproving the soils by a variety deleted post had been taken out of methods,Inminimum ground of context. it, he wrote: “At

Deputy Labour leader, Angela Rayner, said: “The fact that the vouchers in summer could only be used to purchase food, this stigmatisation of working-class families is disgraceful and disgusting.”

MP Ben Bradley to apologise for is ‘Regenerative his What Twitter tirade in which the Farming’?

It is primarily an he linked free school meals with attempt by farmers to reduce the “crack dens” and “brothels”.

The shadow children’s minister, Tulip Siddiq, (see page 23) has written to the co-chair of the Conservative party, Amanda Milling, Bradley’s comments as “crass stigmatisation” and “ask you to request an apology from Mr Bradley to the millions of children from lower-income households who benefit from free school meal support.”

Schools in the area have since rejected his comments. St Edmund’s C of E primary school in Mansfield Woodhouse wrote an impassioned message to parents on Facebook.

The post said: “We know the

disturbance, directwho drilling, truth about families qualify continuous cover, diversity for free school meals and it in is rotation and use of livestock nothing crops like what he suggests. as a natural fertiliser. This will enable the farmer to you reduce his I strongly suggest let him inputs (diesel, chemicals, and know the truth too. He is your fertiliser) and in stillour becountry’s able to representative achieve comparable yields. parliament after all.”

Sound as asked a farming In turn,familiar Bradley the method? certainly does.

Cast school to Itremove “this partisan your mind back to your school nonsense”, insisting that an years and remember your history attached screenshot of his lessons the enclosure andand the tweets on “entirely misses open field system and commons misrepresents the context of the of peasant farming and how the conversation”. farming ‘progressives’ (who just

Selaine Saxby, the Tory MP

happened be thealso people who for North to Devon, sparked would benefit from the theft of the anger over comments she made commons), deemed it ‘wasteful, about local businesses giving outdated and food away foruneconomic’. free.

And the methods peasants A screenshot of the a Facebook (our ancestors) were using? post in her name, since removed, That’s right, minimum ground said: “I am delighted our local disturbance, drilling, businesses havedirect bounced back continuous cover, diversity crop so much after lockdowninthey rotation of livestock as are ableand to the giveuse away food for afree, natural andfertiliser. very much hope they

will not be seeking any further We reallysupport.” have progressed, government

haven’t we?

She later said her comments Revolting Peasants hadThe been taken out of context.

Women (&men) who might make a difference The following report is from a Refuser Solidarity Network original article published just a week ago.

Although this is about one particular conscientious objector, Hallel Rabin, she is one of many young men and women who have been imprisoned for their views.

Add to that those serving soldiers who have refused to be on the front line in the conflict with Palestinian militants. Can young people make a difference to the hard line politics of their government?

Hello, my name is Hallel Rabin.

I’m an 18 years old refuser from an Israeli kibbutz and tomorrow I’ll be sent to prison by the Israeli military.

Just before Rosh Hashanah, the

Jewish New Year, I refused to join the Israeli army and was held in military prison over the holiday. I’ve already been jailed for 14 days, because I don’t want to become a soldier for the occupation of Palestine. I tried to ask for exemption on the grounds of conscience, but the military refused to grant it. Instead, I’ve been sent to prison time after time in order to break my spirit. Tomorrow I’ll be incarnated for the third time in a month.

In another statement she said: I was raised on the values of freedom, compassion and love. Fighting to keep another nation enslaved contradicts these values.

For too long, the good people

of Israel have agreed to participate in the atrocities committed by the occupation.

While I know my refusal is small and personal, I wish to be the change I want to see in the world, and to show that another way is possible.

Little people make big changes.

It is time to shout: There is no such thing as good repression, no such thing as justifiable racism and no more room for the Israeli occupation.

A Refuser Solidarity Neworker said: ‘We are living in a period of both change and struggle. Everywhere in the world, young people are fighting for real democracy, and are using civil disobedience to combat racism

and injustice. But for Palestinians the injustices of the past continue to prevail. In the territories occupied

by Israel, basic human rights and liberties are constantly denied, while the Palestinian are deprived of the freedom to live freely.’

Postscript: ‘Hallel is receiving ongoing media, personal and legal support so she can make her voice heard and share her message loudly.

Many young Israelis have shared their support and encouragement for her act on social media, but many others oppose and attack her for I speaking against the military. Her action has stirred a debate over the role of Israeli youth in the struggle for democracy and peace. It is a difficult public battle as no one knows how long the Israeli

military will continue to imprison Hallel.’

I salute your bravery, Hallel, and hope the sacrifices, you and other young people like you are making, can move Israel to become a more tolerant society.

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POLITICS AND EVENTS

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Q.E FOR THE MANY, NOT JUST THE CITY

WHAT IS ‘QUANTITATIVE EASING’ AKA QE? QE

Q

uantitative easing is a modern monetary policy executed by central banks. Central banks print new money, they then use this money to purchase government bonds and financial assets as well as lending money to banks via the ‘discount window’.

In a nutshell, quantitative easing is the policy of printing money.

QE saved us from an economic depression in 2008 and it saved

us from a much deeper economic crisis during the corona virus pandemic. For the last 11 years the UK has been printing money since the financial crash. If a person or a business received a grant or furlough money from the government during the pandemic, that money most likely come from the BoE QE covid package.

So, how can quantitative easing help us create a better economy?

There can be many ways where we can reform the current relationship between the Bank of England and the treasury but there must be two main goals in mind. The first goal would require an expansion of our current QE programs through creating a new scheme that serves all parts of the economy. This scheme will be based on creating infrastructure investments, a sovereign wealth fund and a ‘green new deal’ bond.

The second goal would be to build

a more active relationship between the BoE and the treasury. We would need to preserve independence in order to reduce risk of a volatile currency and a disruption of liquidity into the UK economy, the BoE and the treasury. If these two goals are met then we could acquire the ability to effectively service both the UK real and market economies. The creation of a sovereign wealth fund that can utilize the market in order to grow the British peoples pensions pot.

SAVED US FROM AN ECONOMIC DEPRESSION IN 2008

Investments into infrastructure that will modernize our economy, create jobs and produce tax receipts. And a green new deal where we can reform our economy and move away from fossil fuels, plastics and the reliance on oil. All three good things for the economy, the British people, the banks and even the markets.

Losing our heritage: Guardians Or Land Grabbers?

Former mining communities are losing their community assets sold by the trustees of their heritage.

As a child living on the council estates of a coal mining village, you were educated early on about the importance of collectivism, mutuality and the need for solidarity. As a child, I was lucky to benefit from huge playing fields, sports clubs and even an outdoor lido built by a group of people who had experienced great poverty, hardship and brutality of early mining. At the turn of the century, the ‘black diamond’ was discovered in abundance in South Yorkshire. It brought thousands of workers to the area in scenes reminiscent of the gold rush in the Klondike. This brought great wealth to the colliery owners and harshness for the workers. The tin shanty towns and makeshift homes were a common sight near the fledgling collieries.

These communities grew and

a mutual bond developed around their communal workplaces. The history of the Labour movement and trade unionism grew with it.

It was through the experiences of lockouts, brutal treatment by the colliery owners and the dangers of work that saw the need for unity amongst the men in the mines. They wanted secure safe workplaces, better living standards for their families and above all a better future for their children. These are the pillars of which our communities grew from shanty towns to the places we now live in.

It was these people that saw the power of community, how acting collectively could bring about the change that they hoped for. The slums and ‘tin towns’ didn’t magically transform into decent, affordable rented homes.

The schools, parks and sports fields, clubs, public libraries, and swimming pools didn’t appear by chance. Everything was fought for and won by collective action and

organising at the collieries. The Miner’s union was a key driver in organising candidates to stand in elections and gain political power which in turn helped them build from the ground up communities that everyday workers and their families could be proud of and enjoy a better standard of life.

They needed roses as well as bread, as the song goes.

Marking the end of coal mining, The Maltby Miners Welfare band led a parade through the town to a cemetery, where two wreathes were laid and a lump of coal buried. LINK These early political pioneers had no precedent to follow. They were the first working-class politicians to gain the levers of power. They used it wisely, in the interests of their class. They used this power to build homes with secure tenancies, not the ‘tiedcottages’ which could be used as a tool by the colliery owners.

Throwing families out during

strikes to put pressure on men to return to work. These homes were community built and owned, secure family homes in place of fear of retribution from the unscrupulous landlord class.

class people in the first decades of the 20th century. That chance of social mobility for one’s children was, and still is, the hope and dream for many working-class people.

These early pioneers also built the recreation facilities such as football grounds, cricket fields and bowling greens. They built social clubs and welfare halls so as to give a community hub for social activities such as annual trips to the seaside or galas. They were central to the community and many still are. Every municipal act had the goal of improving the lives of the families and citizens in that community. This was democracy in action, bringing emancipation from hardship to the local people.

This history is important. It is important for us as workingclass communities to be aware of and proud of our history, culture, and heritage. We stand on the shoulders of giants. Those who built, founded and endured through tremendous hardship, personal suffering as well as personal sacrifice so the next generations (meaning us) could enjoy lives and living standards that they could only dream about.

They were the dreamers who became the builders and should inspire us all to fight for those gifts that they left to us. The things that we now take for granted. But these are swiftly being taken from us at an alarming rate, right from under our noses – on the majority of occasions against the wishes of the community.

Education was the key to ‘break the chains of poverty’ for many in these communities.

It was viewed as gifting future generations a chance of a better life in the professions, which was a route barred to many working-

THE

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23

Aberfan

T

his Wednesday, 54 years ago, 116 children and 28 adults drowned or were crushed in a filthy black sea of a collapsing slag heap that engulfed Pantglas Junior School.

The tragic events could have been foreseen as there had been many previous incidents of slag heaps slipping but the warnings went unheeded and the National Coal Board (NCB) continued to dump slag on slopes over water courses with the full knowledge of the dangers involved.

At the time 12 and my family lived in

a mining area. I can still clearly remember the events and the subsequent dispersal of all slag heaps following the disaster.

The coal industry has always been an extremely dangerous occupation with many thousands of miners losing their lives over the generations in mining accidents, but this disaster was foreseen and avoidable.

The slag heap which had started in 1958 had risen to a height of 111 feet (34 metres), it had been built over porous sandstone and underwater springs. In 1963 it slipped but the NCB ignored the

warnings and arrogantly threatened to close the mine if the community continued to make a fuss. .

After a lengthy 76 day Inquiry the NCB eventually admitted culpability but not before they had tried deny responsibility claiming the disaster was an act of God, had they done so earlier they would have spared the surviving victims and relatives of those who died immeasurable anguish.

The eventual conclusion of the

Inquiry was that the disaster was due to incompetence and failure to heed warnings and a total lack of direction from those at the head of the NCB. None of the officials responsible were disciplined in any way and nobody lost their job.

Had the warnings been heeded at the time an entire generation wouldn't have needlessly been killed and the community of Aberfan wouldn't have

spent the last 54 years mourning the loss of 144 innocent lives.

We must not forget those who lost their lives that terrible day. Remember the children of Aberfan who were looking forward to half-term and never came home.

Remember the parents grieved an entire generation.

who

Nick Clarke Unity News

Labour Members Condemn Spy Cops Bill Abstentions

H

ampstead and Kilburnbour Labour Party members has sent a letter to the local MP challenging her to explain why she abstained on a bill that will allow the Government to undermine unions and blacklist their activists as well as permitting crimes up to and including murder, torture and rape by security forces and even their civilian sources:

While these injustices remain, there is no peace, too often this is the case for decades after. Not only will this bill permit such injustices to continue burning, it ‘spits in the face’ of all those still awaiting some form of justice, as this bill would prevent victims of state spying and crimes, from seeking redress; by protecting those who commit authorised crimes from civil liability forever.

Letter to Tulip Siddiq MP

In the year 2020, when the message of the Black Lives Matter movement went Global after the murder of George Floyd at the hands of USA police, for many, trust in policing is already at an all time low, at home and abroad; in particular for black communities and others who are disproportionately targeted, harmed, over-policed and or spied on.

As members of The Labour party and or Trade Unions we are shocked and angered at the fact our MP Tulip Siddiq, along with the majority of the PLP abstained on and allowed the Covert Human Intelligence Sources Bill, to pass through parliament with ease. This bill was opposed by 14 Trade unions and dozens of campaigning organisations, but, for reasons unclear, the vast majority of the PLP did not oppose it.

As our MP, we ask that you offer an explanation as to your decision not to vote against this abhorrent legislation.

With the values of the Labour Party at stake, as well as people’s lives, we ask why on this occasion, you felt unable to defy the whip?

We are also at a loss as to why Keir Starmer, Leader of the LP and a former Human Rights barrister, has been intent on supporting this bill. We applaud the principled decision of Labour MPs who voted against the bill, such as Dan Carden MP, who resigned from his position as Shadow Financial Secretary on a matter of principle.

The “CHIS” Bill would allow state spies to commit crimes in the UK and overseas with impunity, without exempting crimes like murder, torture, and sexual offences. These extreme powers would be handed to a broad range of agencies, including MI5, the

Department of Health, and even the Food Standards Agency. Many well-regarded experts on Human Rights, including those in the legal profession, have expressed their grave concerns about this bill becoming law, including Shami Chakrabarti, The Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers, Liberty, and Amnesty International.

often essential. However, the CHIS bill is a massive attack on our civil liberties. We warn against the danger of its political application, and how it can be used to undermine any opposition, as proven by the surveillance of Jeremy Corbyn MP and at least eight other Labour MPs, under the Met Police’s now disbanded ‘Special Demonstration Squad’.

inquiry. While two convictions have been secured in relation to this murder, others involved have yet to be convicted, many closely informed on this scandal, firmly believe the decision to spy on the grieving family, has contributed to the lack of convictions for all involved: therefore a lack of justice for Stephen and the Lawrence family remains.

There are too many examples of blacklisted workers surveilled unionists and LP members have ended up blacklisted because undercover police officers were directed to infiltrate their organisations.

Michael Mansfield QC, an eminent barrister and leading Silk in civil liberties and human rights, recently described as “The king of human rights work” by The Legal 500, has also expressed his concerns. Mansfield worked on many prominent cases, including representing families and survivors of the Hillsborough disaster, Jean Charles de Menezes, and Stephen Lawrence, all of whom were surveilled by the police or suspected of. As a result of his work on Orgreave, Hillsborough, and the Shrewsbury pickets, Mansfield stated he himself is “under no illusion as to the extent to which agencies in the state have taken an interest in me.”

One child is known to be born through the common practice of spying on activists by the Met Police Special Demonstration Squad and the National Public Order Intelligence Unit.

The bill enshrines in law the state’s capacity to commit these acts, making it even more difficult for victims or suspected victims of police spying such as Environmental, Animal Rights and Anti War activists, to hold the state to account.

Many others express their immense concerns such as the Campaign Opposing Police Surveillance, the Hillsborough Justice campaigns, the Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign, Justice4Grenfell, Police Spies Out of Lives, The Blacklist Support Group, The Pat Finucane Centre and many more.

We understand the need to protect citizens of this country from criminal elements and that undercover work is

In 2014, The Ellison inquiry found Scotland Yard had spied on the grieving family of Stephen Lawrence, who was murdered by a racist white gang. Both Theresa May and David Cameron described the revelations as “profoundly shocking” and, shortly after, May launched the Undercover Policing

Now an adult, descibed by some as a product of ‘state endorsed rape’ and in absolute violations of his and his mothers human rights, such as Article 8 ECHR right “to a private and family life”‘.

Both he and his mother, have endured psychological trauma, from when an undercover police officer suddenly abandoned the animal rights activist and their two year old son, to the discovery of the true nature of her ‘relationship’ with police spy Bob Lambert, the fight to find out the true identity of his father, not having a relationship with his father for most of his life, to having no choice to take the Met Police to court to ensure that they finally admit wrongdoing, make an apology and finally get all of their questions answered.

Furthermore, in making this bill law, the implications of it in practice, alongside the severe funding cuts to legal aid and legal aid services, are far reaching and will likely compound injustice, for some of the most powerless members of society.

We call on our MP and branch to work towards reflecting on the actions of the PLP, who failed to vote against this under scrutinised rushed through bill, then seek to reverse it and oppose it, under Labour policy; democratically as members.

Siddiq is understood to have excused herself from the meeting about an hour after the letter was circulated.

Other CLPs and branches around the country are preparing their own motions of condemnation, including some pledging not to campaign for any candidate who does not support the immediate repeal of the bill and condemn the abstention.

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Tory MP for Bolsover Mark Fletcher enjoys subsidised meals in the House of Commons and is happy for your children to go hungry

#EatNowtToHelpOut

Hunterston Nuclear

Reactor Is It Safe?

R

unning an ageing nuclear reactor at Hunterston in North Ayrshire for another year could cause cracks in its core to rise by 65 per cent to nearly a thousand, according to the plant’s operators.

But that won’t breach the reactor’s operating limit for cracks because the limit has been increased fourfold by the power company EDF Energy – and agreed by the UK Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR).

Campaigners describe the rising number of cracks as “alarming� and “reckless�, criticising EDF and ONR for “continuously moving the safety goalposts�. They accuse ONR of becoming “EDF’s pet poodle� rather than the public’s safety watchdog The French multinational, EDF, counter-attacks campaigners for “scaremongering� and defends ONR as “the world’s strongest

regulator�. ONR says that EDF has shown that the reactor can tolerate more cracks “because of improvements in the analysis methods�.

Technical reports released by ONR also reveal that a credible earthquake could trigger “overloads� and 500 more cracks, further eroding safety margins.

ONR describes some of EDF’s safety analysis as “inherently subjective�, and suggests that its methodology for demonstrating that the reactor is safe is “approaching its limit of viability�.

In August ONR gave the company permission to restart the reactor for six months after being closed for two and a half years. But it still has to decide whether to allow a second six months’ operation, as EDF wants.

The Ferret. Scot

https://theferret.scot/hunter ston-nuclear-reactor-cracks1000-safety/

We spammed this mps page with a Facebook post and by the evening Plymouth City Council had decided to help . .

Questions 1. Which girl group performed during the opening minutes of Channel 5’s launch in 1997 in the UK? 1 2. In what year did Coronation Street first air on ITV? 2 3. Which British TV show recorded the largest audience for a single episode with over 30 million viewers? 5 4. In what year did long-running children’s programme Blue Peter first broadcast in the UK? 7 1. Who played Rodney Trotter in Only Fools and Horses? 8 6. Who became the first female presenter of Question Time in 2019? 12 7. What is the name of the prison in the popular BBC sitcom Porridge starring Ronnie Barker? 18 8. Which well-known Welsh village was the primary set for the 1960s TV show The Prisoner? 19 9. What was the first full programme to be shown on Channel 4 on the afternoon of its launch in 1982? 30 10. What is the main pub called in Peaky Blinders where the Shelby’s meet? 36 11. In The Office, what is the name of the paper company David Brent

17. Hammersmith 18. David Walliams� and �Matt Lucas 19. Buster Merryfield 20. Neil 21. Scumbag College 22. Channel 4 23. Holly 24. Eddy or Edina 25. 1983

#ToryScum #EatNowtToHelpOut

If you can, please consider donating to this fundraiser for Plymouth families in need this half term https://www.justgiving.com/crow dfunding/feeding-plymouth

https://www.itv.com/news/westcount ry/2020-10-23/council-announceshalf-term-help-for-children-inplymouth-who-get-free-school-meals

TV Special

322 mps voted for children to starve during the half term, while eating from the taxpayer subsidised canteens and bars in Westminster.

Andrea Faulkner

The Word

works for?

12. What is the name of the actor who plays Manuel in Fawlty Towers?

13. Which English county is The Vicar of Dibley based?

14. In The Catherine Tate Show, what is the actual name of the foulmouthed grandmother mainly known as 'Nan'?

15. What year did sitcom The Royle Family first air on BBC Two? 16. What is the name of The Only Fools and Horses episode where Del Boy and Rodney Trotter become millionaires?

17. In Bottom, which area of London do flat mates Richie and Eddie live?

18. Little Britain was created by

which two comedians?

19. Who plays the role of Uncle Albert in Only Fools and Horses?

20. What is the name of Smithy and Nessa's son in Gavin and Stacey?

21. In The Young Ones, what is the name of the college the four guys attend?

22. Father Ted originally aired on which terrestrial television channel?

23. What is the name of the ship's computer in Red Dwarf?

24. Absolutely Fabulous follows two women growing old gracefully called Patsy and who?

25. The Black Adder, was the first series of Blackadder, but what year did the show originally air?

8. Portmeirion 9. Countdown 10. The Garrison Tavern 11. Wernham Hogg 12. Andrew Sachs 13. Oxfordshire 14. Joannie Taylor 15. 1998 16. Time on Our Hands

#ToryScum .............

Tory mp for Grantham and Stamford Gareth Davies has a salary of ÂŁ81,392 per year plus expenses. The taxpayer pays for his pan seared duck terrine. Gareth wants the kids to go hungry ..

#ToryScum #EatNowtToHelpOut ..............

Tory mp for Plymouth Moor View Johnny Mercer, after his tax payer subsidised steak at ÂŁ9, voted to stop children getting free school meals over half term and Christmas holidays ...

Answers 1. The Spice Girls 2. 1960 3. Eastenders (on Christmas Day 1986) 4. 1958 5. Nicholas Lyndhurst 6. Fiona Bruce 7. HMP Slade

And all those people in Bolsover who voted him in and Dennis Skinner out đ&#x;˜ .... Hope you enjoy the foodbank

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Vegan recipes

VEGAN PIZZA Cooking with Chris Williamson

Ingredients e below • Pizza base – se – see below Tomato sauce usting Semolina for d rts preserved 6 artichoke hea r in oil from a ja in oil ed rv se re 1 red pepper p (from a jar) atoes 10 cherry tom atoes m 8 sun-dried to ½ red onion – see below 100g hummus – below 80g tapenade h coriander Handful of fres Wholemeal Pizza Base You can buy this readymade, but if you want to make it from scratch, here’s what you need to do.

Ingredients 500g strong wholemeal bread flour 3.5g fast-action dried yeast 1½ tsp salt, 340ml lukewarm water Method Measure the flour into a large bowl.

Stir in the yeast and salt, mixing it well.

Add the water then knead together with your fingers or use the dough hooks on a food mixer if you have one.

When it has formed into a dough

VEGAN PIZZA

T

his recipe requires a bit more work than my usual ones, but it’s worth it in the end. I found it in a new vegan recipe book (Bosh) by Henty Firth and Ian Theasby. I actually tried it for the first time myself last week.

You can either make everything from scratch, as I did, or buy some of the ingredients readymade to save time.

take it out of the bowl and knead for around 15 minutes on a floured surface.

Then lightly rub the inside of the bowl with oil after first removing any excess flour, then put the dough back in the bowl, cover with clingfilm and leave for about an hour until it has doubled in size.

Tip it back onto a floured surface and give another 60 seconds of kneading, then divide in two, cover each half with clingfilm and leave for another half hour.

This provides enough for four pizza bases. If you only want to make one or two pizza bases, you can simply cover the surplus with clingfilm and

Method Preheat the oven to 250° (230° in a fan assisted oven) gas mark 9 Dust your baking sheets with semolina (or use sifted wholemeal flour if you haven’t got any semolina flour) If you are making your own pizza base, roll out the pizza dough (see below) to create two thin bases around 25cm in diameter.

Then carefully transfer to the pre-dusted baking sheets.

store it in your freezer for up to a month.

Spoon a thin layer of the tomato sauce (see below) over the top of the pizza, spreading it all the way to the edges.

Take the artichokes out of the jar, cut them in half. Take the pepper out of the jar and wipe of any excess oil, then cut into strips.

Halve the cherry tomatoes and sun-dried tomatoes.

Method Simply peel the garlic glove and put it with the rest of the ingredients into a liquidiser and whizz them round until smooth.

Hummus To save time you can buy this

Remove the cooked pizza from the oven and spoon on about 8 dollops of hummus and tapenade around the pizza.

Chop the coriander leaves and sprinkle over the top.

Peel and finely slice the onion.

Bon appétit.

readymade, but I don’t think it’s ever as good as your own homemade hummus.

Tomato Sauce Ingredients Ingredients 1 garlic clove Small handful of fresh basil or 1 tsp dried basil, 1 tbsp olive oil 200g tin of chopped tomatoes 1 tsp red wine vinegar

Decorate your pizza base with the vegetables you’ve just prepared, making sure you leave a little space around them and put them in the preheated oven and leave for 10 minutes.

Ingredients 400g tin of chickpeas 2 garlic cloves, 2 tbsp tahini, ¾ tsp salt, 4 tbsp water 2½ tsps lemon juice 2 tbsp olive oil Method Simply drain the chickpeas, peel the garlic clove and liquidise all the ingredients together until its smooth

easy to made yourself, so if you want to have a go, here’s what you need.

Ingredients 200g black pitted olives 2 garlic cloves, 3 tbsp capers 10g fresh parsley (optional) ½ lemon, 5 tbsp olive oil Method Peel and crush the garlic then put it with the olives, capers and parsley into a liquidiser. Squeeze in the lemon juice, make sure you catch any pips though. Give the ingredients a whizz round to create a rough purée.

Tapenade Again, to save time, you can buy this readymade as well, but it is very

Then pour in the olive oil and give the ingredients another couple of pulses.

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Late October Edition

POLITICS AND EVENTS

SUDOKU

MATH PUZZLES

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“Printing money causes hyper-inflation” says you.

Says I, “That's a lie.”

2020 demonstrates that sometimes, printing money is inflation-resistant

A

n economically illiterate objection right wing types use to oppose Government spending programs we must have heard a hundred times before. They always ask; – “But how do we pay for all this?!”

These conservative types only ask this when money is spent on other people – poor people especially. Only this week, the bid to continue free meals for vulnerable children faced similar arguments from conservatives all over social media, including various Twittering Tory MPs. Such people speak up in favour of the Government’s cronyist multimillion contractual investments in Serco. But I digress.

How do we pay for free school meals? The way all Government spending is done – via the Bank Of England (BoE).

Technically, we do not even need taxation to fund it; the money will be ‘borrowed’, but only in the sense that it is money investors are seeking to lend to the country, knowing they can make a safe profit when their accounts mature.

Practically-speaking, all the BoE does is press keys on a keyboard, and ‘create’ money out of thin air. Like a commercial bank issuing you a loan, or paying interest into your account, all that will happen is that numbers on a ‘credit’ spreadsheet at the central bank will go up, which means numbers on a computer network. No physical changes happen. All manner of banking transactions are just changed numbers on computer files. It is the digital era equivalent of ‘printing money’, and has worked this way for decades.

These pay-outs by the BoE will fund school dinner vouchers.

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“Ah, but we must still pay the lenders back eventually!” protest conservatives. No. The central bank does that, as it is the ultimate source of sterling. It pays interest to lenders by inventing it 'out of thin air,' in exactly the same way as High Street banks - as above.

“But this causes inflation without taxes!” conservatives protest again. Interestingly, not all protesting voices can explain why that might happen. Either way, taxes function as an 'inflation-brake', and we will still levy them.

2020 has proven this basic aspect of Modern Monetary Theory correct, and that the notion that ‘printing money’ is ‘certain’ to cause surging inflation is wrong. Seldom mentioned in mainstream circles, but something everyone should know, is that almost all Government spending during the original pandemic lockdown was from digital ‘money-printing’.

Inflation figures for the same period were published in June. What did they show?

Interestingly, despite there being no corresponding increase in taxes to offset the expanded money

supply, far from the poundsterling depreciating rapidly, inflation in the UK hit a fouryear low.

Why? Since mid-2019, the economy has largely flatlined.

With the de-stimulus caused by years of Austerity, and the chaos of a planless Brexit, the UK economy scarcely grew throughout 2019. And in 2020, due to the lockdown, the UK is tumbling into deep recession.

During recessions, people spend less. Businesses make insufficient profits. Prices fall with low demand, potentially offsetting the depreciation effect of newly-created money. If targeted at appropriate parts of the population, the money may even help revive demand.

Ignore scaremongering comparisons with the Weimar Republic or Zimbabwe. They were hyper-inflation phenomena caused by different circumstances; printing money was not the root cause of the inflation (even if it did accelerate the problem). When demand is healthy already, enlarging money supplies is disastrous, because increased spending power across the population

increases demand still higher, pushing prices up. But thanks to the three-way crisis of Austerity, Brexit and Covid-19, demand in the UK is decrepitly low.

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POLITICS AND EVENTS

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RUGBY LEAGUE: LEEDS RHINOS

WIN THE CHALLENGE CUP

FOOTBALL RE SU LTS Premier League Sunday 18th October Sheffield United Crystal Palace Tottenham Hotspur Leicester City Monday 19th October West Bromwich Leeds United Friday 23rd October Aston Villa Saturday 24th October Fulham Liverpool Manchester United West Ham United

1-1 1-1 3-3 0-1

Fulham Brighton & Hove West Ham United Aston Villa

0-0 0-1

Burnley Wolverhampton

0-3

Leeds United

1-2 2-1 0-0 1-1

Crystal Palace Sheffield United Chelsea Manchester City

4-2

Hamilton

0-1 4-0 0-0

Hibernian Ross County Dundee United

FA WOMEN'S SUPER LEAGUE: Sunday 18th October West Ham United Everton Bristol City Reading Arsenal

2-4 2-2 0-4 1-1 6-1

I

n one of the best, most closely-fought Challenge Cup Finals in decades, Leeds Rhinos beat Salford Red Devils at Wembley, thanks to a late drop goal by Luke Gale. For the Rhinos, it was a sixth appearance at the 13-player code's showpiece occasion in just eleven years. They were really made to fight though by a Salford team making the club's first appearance at the final since the late-1960s.

The Rhinos started well, opening the scoring through Tom Briscoe, scoring his seventh try in Challenge Cup Finals.

SCOTTISH PREMIERSHIP: Tuesday 20th October Aberdeen Saturday 24th October Kilmarnock Motherwell St Johnstone

Leeds edge past Salford by a single point

Manchester United Brighton & Hove Birmingham City Manchester City Tottenham Hotspur

But six minutes later, a quick, sudden breakaway move by three Salford players from behind their own twenty-metre line set Rhys Williams clear down the right touchline, and once he was up to full speed, no one was ever going to catch him.

On the half-hour, Leeds were back in front after a slick passing move along the backs eased Ash Handley in for a 12-6 half-time advantage, but the Devils were far from beaten yet. SamoanAustralian, Pauli Pauli, burst through some uncertain Leeds tackling early in the second half to touch down near the right flank

and reduce the deficit to 12-10.

Then, really catching the Rhinos cold, Salford struck again just short of the hour. Leeds made a mess of trying to tidy up a high Salford kick on the fifth tackle that was dropping inside the 20-metre line.

The ball broke to Kevin Brown of Salford, who gathered cleanly with three team-mates in support, and hardly any opposing tacklers to worry about. The ball was quickly worked left until James Greenwood was able to stroll in next to the posts. Suddenly, Salford were leading by 16 points to 12.

The lead did not last long however. Around six minutes later, Leeds pierced the middle of the Salford defence through a burst by Richie Myler, who crossed the Salford 20-metre line before being tackled. It was the fifth tackle, but Leeds decided to chance their arm, and produced another smooth passing move into a very crowded left corner, where Handley received the ball at the touchline with a small but decisive overlap, and he quickly darted over the line for the equalising score. The try was unconverted.

The two teams exchanged repeated sets-of-six as they focused on not being the team to make the key mistake. Then, with four-and-ahalf minutes remaining, Leeds had

the ball on the threshold of the Salford 20metre line on the fifth tackle.

The ball w a s swiftly worked to Gale in front of t h e posts, who kicked the drop goal that gave Leeds the single point they needed to take the lead again.

From there, time pressure pushed Salford into making mistakes to concede possession, and the Rhinos were able to bleed the clock down to the final hooter. It was Leeds' thirteenth Challenge Cup triumph, and they move ahead of St. Helens to go second in the all-time list of winners, behind only Wigan Warriors (19).

by Martin Odoni

THE

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United, Liverpool, this really wasn't well-timed, you know Days after Project Big Picture was derailed, another shake up scheme is leaked that casts the Premier League's Big Two in a bad light once more

A

fter all the furore of midOctober over the, thanks heavens, aborted plan to concentrate power over English football into as few clubs as possible, what the instigators really needed was a few weeks of quiet non-controversy.

It was therefore unfortunate for the likes of the Glazer family and John W Henry that details have been leaked into the public domain of a revival of an oftenmooted idea; a breakaway European Super League of the biggest clubs from the five richest leagues across the

continent.

This 'European Premier League' could kick off as early as 2022 and would effectively be a replacement for the Champions League. The competition would have a starting bankroll of some £4.6 billion, invested by JP Morgan.

The proposed competition, which Manchester United and Liverpool are reported to be backing, would be run directly by world football's governing body, FIFA, instead of by UEFA, the body that oversees the European game.

Although UEFA is officially a subsidiary of FIFA, in practise, the two organisations seldom get along.

FIFA are therefore effectively trying to repeat the trick the Football Association pulled in the early-1990's, when they took over the old 'First Division' of the Football League and turned it into the modern Premier League.

The FA had had a long, frosty and awkward relationship with the League. By taking away all the richest and most powerful English clubs from the League and placing them under its own banner, the FA finally ended the frequent gridlock that developed in the game when Association and League did not agree on key issues.

By the same measure, if FIFA can unfasten the ties between Europe's biggest clubs and UEFA, the European body would be irredeemably weakened, and FIFA would finally be able to implement its wishes in Europe without obstruction from its most powerful 'offspring'.

Paris Saint-Germain from France, Bayern Munich from Germany, Juventus from Italy, and Barcelona, Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid from Spain, are also understood to be among the

candidate clubs breakaway league.

for

the

It must be emphasised that the European Premier League is only meant to dislodge the Champions League; it would be designed to rest comfortably alongside domestic competitions, so clubs could continue to play in both their national league and in Europe. It does seem likely, however, that the schedules would be too crammed to retain competitions like the League Cup. These plans have been greeted with more disgust and hostility by fanbases, including very loudly, once again, fans of Manchester United and Liverpool themselves.

The reaction might have been less angry had it not been for the plans being leaked so soon after the power-grab proposal for

reformatting the English game.

There is therefore a suspicion that the leaks are coming from someone trying to damage the image of the two clubs.

One cannot help feeling that that is a wasted effort, as they are doing much to hurt their own image just by getting so closely involved in such schemes in the first place. The Glazers, owners of Manchester United, have long been resented by United fans for, in effect, using the club as a 'cashcow'. And for all the good things Fenway Sports Group have undoubtedly done to modernise Liverpool over the last decade, Henry is showing a lamentable dearth of respect for the rest of English and European football, by repeatedly seeking to monopolise the top stratum, and seal it off from everyone else.

By Martin Odoni

Football? Yer what?!

W

ere I heading for Dublin, I wouldn’t be starting from here. To

be sure.

Stanley Acrimonious will look at the first stages of reaching the final of whatever they’re going to call the European Cup, when Big Football has sorted itself out, and wherever the venue for it is. It begins with the national competitions.

Just like the UK Government’s recalcitrant position on school dinners for the children of the poor and hungry, there seems no appetite within English football to change any system, no matter how

ill-suited it is to the needs of clubs and supporters in 2020/21 and beyond. Today's motto seems to be, “Even if it’s broke, don’t fix it!” If not, “Just give it to Dido Harding, because Cummings says so.”

We do European football all wrong, but how do we fix it when England has such an unfit-forpurpose league structure? Two clubs whose players wear red - one has Marcus Rashford, the other doesn’t - devised a plan to revitalise football. It was rejected by the others.

My approach would be to design what we'd really like and work towards it from where we are at present. We need smaller

competitions feeding into really big ones, minimising costs to smaller ones, alongside the continuing national spectacle of the Premier League, bringing in TV cash.

We need a healthy knock-out competition, like we’ve had since Gladstone was a sperm. That bit works.

The Premier League should be expanded to twenty-four clubs, arranged in two divisions which nevertheless do get to play one another. I’ll explain that another time. We need a slimmed-down Championship division renamed; they’re not Champions, none of them, even if some once were. I’d

recommend twenty teams, leaving forty-eight clubs to play in two Regional Divisions, like the old Third Divisions North and South. If small is beautiful, then how about three sixteen club Leagues, all feeding the division not named The Championship.

Next time I shall explain why I hate the name The Champions’ League, which pits all the teams

who didn’t win their national leagues against each other, with a handful that did. We need a European Cup featuring just the champions, and perhaps the cup winners, of each country that takes football seriously.

Now back to concerning myself with my own club, Accrington, named after me.

By Stanley Acrimonious

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POLITICS AND EVENTS

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EPL teams make strong star

B u t d e fe n d i n g c h a m p i

' u n s to p p a b l e ' l o o k

A Liverp team wea ool ke by key inju ned battled w ries e Amsterda ll in m to beat Ajax 1-0

Manchest United er produce

their bestd probably what has display of been a rootherwise p to their seey start ason

T

he 2020/21 Champions League is under way, and holders Bayern Munich have immediately reaffirmed how they remain the team setting the standards.

Coman, scored twice. Coman is emerging as one of the talents in European football, and worryingly for clubs wishing to challenge Bayern over the next few years, at 24, he is not even in his prime yet.

They made breathtakingly short work of beating the usually dogged Atletico Madrid, putting four goals past their Spanish opponents without reply. Remarkably with Bayern finding the net quite freely, Europe's top marksman, Robert Lewandowski, was not on the scoresheet. Less surprising was that his French team-mate, Kingsley

It was a broadly positive start for Premier League clubs. On Tuesday, Manchester United produced probably their best display of what has otherwise been a ropey start to their season, to win 2-1 at Paris St. Germain, with Marcus Rashford scoring the late winner. United had taken the lead through a Bruno Fernandes penalty, before PSG had

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been thrown a lifeline by an Anthony Martial own goal. United were the harder-working, more efficient team on the night, and just about deserved to win.

Less encouragingly for EPL, Chelsea were held to a sadly tedious 0-0 draw at home by Sevilla. One bright point was the goalkeeping of new acquisition Edouard Mendy, who had a solid match to justify his displacement of the blunderprone Kepa Arrizabalaga.

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rt in the Champions League

i o n s h a ve t h a t

a b o ut t h e m

Not a fine performa n from City,ce but a fine result

Full results as follows; Group A FC Red Bull Salzburg Bayern Munich Group B Real Madrid Internazionale Milan Group C Manchester City Olympiakos Group D Ajax Amsterdam FC Midtjylland Group E Chelsea Rennes Group F Zenit St. Petersburg Lazio Group G Dynamo Kyiv Barcelona Group H Paris St. Germain RB Leipzig

2-2 4-0

Lokomotiv Moscow Atletico Madrid

2-3 2-2

Shakhtar Donetsk Borussia M.gladbach

3-1 1-0

FC Porto Olympique Marsellie

0-1 0-4

Liverpool Atalanta

0-0 1-1

Sevilla FC Krasnodar

1-2 3-1

Club Brugge Borussia Dortmund

0-2 5-1

Juventus Ferencvaros TC

1-2 2-0

Manchester United Istanbul Basaksehir

EUROPA LEAGUE:

Wednesday saw Manchester City recover from a bad start against Porto to register an opening day win, 3-1, with goals from Sergio Aguero (a penalty), Ilkan Gundogan, and Ferran Torres, all after Luis Diaz had given Porto an early lead. This was not a fine performance from City, but a fine result, albeit marred by a stoppage time injury to the ageing Fernandinho, who is poised to be out for a month.

Meanwhile, a Liverpool team weakened by key injuries battled well in Amsterdam to beat Ajax 1-0.

The only goal was cartoon-ish, with Sadio Mane scuffing an attempted cross, and the unfortunate Nicolas Tagliafico, anticipating good contact from Mane, diverted the ball into his own net. Star of the show for Liverpool was Fabinho, 27 this week, who produced a textbook display filling in at centre-half for long-term injury, Virgil Van Dijk.

Signature moment of the match was Fabinho's spectacular overhead goal line clearance.

Elsewhere, Internazionale needed a late goal to draw 2-2 at home against Borussia Moenchengladbach, Club Bruges were very impressive in winning 2-1 at Zenit St. Petersburg, the troubled Barcelona did themselves a lot of good by beating Ferencvaros of Hungary 5-1 at the Nou Camp, and Real Madrid went down to an embarrassing 3-2 shock home defeat by the frequentlyunderrated Shakhtar Donetsk.

Atalanta were also in fine form as they beat Danish minnows Midtjylland 4-0 in Jutland, Lazio looked a force as they beat Borussia Dortmund 3-1, and Juventus won comfortably against Dynamo in Kiev.

Thursday 22nd October BSC Young Boys Bayer Leverkusen CSKA Sofia Dundalk Hapoel Beer-Sheva Lech Poznan Napoli PAOK Salonika PSV Eindhoven Rapid Wien Rijeka Standard Liege Braga Celtic Dinamo Zagreb Hoffenheim Leicester City Ludogorets Maccabi Tel Aviv RZ Pellets WAC Slovan Liberec Sparta Prague Tottenham Hotspur Villarreal

1-2 6-2 0-2 1-2 3-1 2-4 0-1 1-1 1-2 1-2 0-1 0-2 3-0 1-3 0-0 2-0 3-0 1-2 1-0 1-1 1-0 1-4 3-0 5-3

Roma Nice CFR Cluj-Napoca Molde Slavia Prague Benfica AZ Alkmaar Omonia Nicosia Granada Arsenal Real Sociedad Rangers AEK Athens AC Milan Feyenoord Crvena Zvezda FC Zorya Luhansk Antwerp FT Qarabag FK CSKA Moscow AA Gent Lille Linz ASK Sivasspor

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Pickford walks free while Van Dijk can scarcely walk at all Mid October Edition

POLITICS AND EVENTS

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H ow d i d h e get away wit h T H IS? M

erseyside Derbies are not exactly renowned for the gentle tackling. But this week may have set a new standard for dangerous play that goes completely unpunished.

Pickford has a history of making these wild, lunging scissor tackles

Goodison Park on Saturday gave us a frantic, exciting, and much-improved-quality showdown between Everton and Liverpool, with both sides, for the first time in an eternity, producing high class football.

In particular, the anticipated midfield contest between newly recruited superstars, James Rodriguez of Everton and Thiago Alcantara of Liverpool, proved well worth waiting for, as they both provided grace, precision and poise, in amongst all of the usual hurly-burly. But the match was marred by a shocking incident in the first ten minutes.

With Liverpool a goal up early on through Sadio Mane, they were pressing for a second when a cross-ball into the area

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"Pickford went flying off his feet, very highin, late, and with both fe , scissoring around hiset opponent's vulnerab le knee."

landed at the feet of Virgil Van Dijk on the edge of the Everton six-yard box. As he tried to bring the ball under control, Van Dijk was absolutely scythed out of the match by Everton goalkeeper Jordan Pickford. Pickford went flying in, off his feet, very high, late, and with both feet scissoring around his opponent's vulnerable knee.

It was a very ugly challenge, and while it seems certain that Pickford was making a genuine attempt to play the ball, it was extremely reckless. Van Dijk's knee ligament was torn, and he will now be out for at least half the season.

Remarkably, Pickford has gone completely unpunished.

Van Dijk was deemed to be offside in the build-up, and so the ball was ruled dead before the challenge, meaning no penalty could be awarded.

Harder to fathom was that Pickford did not even get a

yellow card, due to an apparent oversight by the Video Assistant Referee.

The Football Association has ruled that it cannot 're-referee' the incident, as the officials on the day did see it.

Pickford has a history of making these wild, lunging scissor tackles. In a 6-2 defeat

by Tottenham Hotspur in December 2018, he committed an unsettlingly similar foul on Dele Alli.

One sending-off that did happen during Saturday's derby was a red card shown to Richarlison, whose wild, studsup lunge on Thiago, in the closing minutes was not missed by the referee.

The final score was 2-2, thanks to goals from Michael Keane and the very-much-inform Dominic Calvert-Lewin

for Everton, and Mohammed Salah's 100th competitive goal for Liverpool.

But it ended on another bewildering moment of controversy, when a late strike

by Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson was disallowed for an offside against Mane.

If anyone can explain convincingly how that is offside, please get in touch.

Everton remain top of the Premier League on thirteen points, although the dropped points have ended their one hundred per cent record.

Liverpool are close behind on ten points.

By Martin Odoni