THE WORD EDITION 56

THE

WORD WAR CRIMES

Issue #56, Early March Edition 2021

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Equality Democracy Truth Courage

BACK COVER

Rangers win Title

THE PEOPLE’S PAPER

thewordmedia.org

NHS staff kept us alive

Justice at last for Palestine?

INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT LAUNCHES PROBE INTO DEATHS OF 2,200 PALESTINIANS AND 73 ISRAELIS IN WAR ON GAZA PAGE 3

PAY ’EM THE

MONEY!

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Early March 2021

POLITICS AND EVENTS

TIME TO PLAN AND WORK FOR OUR FUTURE

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No return to normal after Covid WE HAVE POLITICIANS WHO WISH US TO REMAIN UNEQUAL

Do we need a new party? How about a movement or two? Not quite a party but enough to get us thinking about our values. But be warned, they to can also be infiltrated.

number of economists are suggesting that Life After Covid will not bring back the Roaring Twenties unfortunately as I can still manage a Black Bottom. When the First World War ended ‘turmoil’ described our condition. Some had made a fortune, others suffered and died. The return to ‘normality’ meant a widened gap between rich and poor. Britain came close to revolution as Churchill gave the workers longer hours and lower pay. Today we have a Prime minister who thinks it is blasphemy to criticise him. The government believes that Post Covid normality can be achieved by a slight tax rise here and a welfare cut there. All we have to do is stay calm and wait for teacher to tell us what to do.

Even if the doom-saying economists are wrong and we are not about to enter an economic recession or worse, we need to think and talk about the values of a post Covid society. We are in the fix because of far more than the mishandled Covid and even Brexit. It has been created by politicians who wish us to remain unequal. Simpering Hancock would sell our NHS to the Americans this minute if he could get away with it.

If our economy goes south, should we still look to Labour. Sir Keith has shown no indication he is eager to narrow the gap between rich and poor, especially if those poor also happen to be Palestinian. His disastrous leadership has turned the party into an insurance Write-Off. With a huge number of supporters, he selected reverse gear and crashed. The bodies lie everywhere. For me, it is ‘Goodbye Labour’.

I loved the Daily Mirror. I loved the Guardian. Both have been infiltrated and so I support The Word Newspaper. It is not for me to define it but the Word constantly asks questions of itself and reminds us that no useful future shall come about without an extra dose of cooperation in society. Shall my mental state recess or depress? At university, fellow student Tim Beech, wrote this song for a party: “It might become a bore, you might resort to the bottle, but always remember that Natural Law began with Aristotle.” Black Bottoms up! By Cliff Jones

Starmer should not expect Liverpool to stay Labour for ever Not so long ago the Tories could count on a strong base in Liverpool. The grand poshness of Liverpool we should attribute to the slave trade. Such people are natural conservatives. Gladstone the Liberal social reformer began as a High Anglican Tory. Add to this sectarianism.The Orange Lodge still marches in Liverpool. If you were Irish Catholic you voted Labour - Protestants voted Conservative. Even into the mid sixties it was usually the case that half of Liverpool’s MPs were Tories. Now there are none. What happened? The Liberals happened. The Liberals , led by my brother Trevor was driven by the way that so-called slum clearance did not take account people’s feelings. Sectarianism has also lost its venom. If a Catholic boyfriend knocks on the door of his Protestant girlfriend the father no longer slams the door in his face. My grandfather would have done that. The City of Liverpool often comes together to share anxieties, concerns and values. At my brother’s funeral the leader of the Labour Party, speaking in praise of him, announced that Heseltine had asked him to speak on his behalf. When Starmer seeks to stifle democracy within the Liverpool Labour Party by banning the three Mayoral women candidates it is not just Labour that is angry. No matter your political leanings there is a general sense of shared outrage.

The ever changing role of women in our society Women, Monday is your international day, – just get used to the fact that there are 364 following days that are not yours.

that it was not until 1988 that pension arrangements were also equalised. I receive 10 per cent of her teacher’s pension. She would have had 50 per cent of mine.

I began as a school teacher just after women were granted the right to be paid the same as male teachers doing the same job. Among those women was my wife.

All that is because as a woman she was not expected to be a provider. That was deemed a male role.

After she died I discovered

In 1974 I began to work in a girls’ school. It took part in a wonderful educational

programme called The Childwall Project. It was also the year when the Equal Pay Act of 1970 was due to come into effect.

I was asked to write what we might call a chapter on it. I was happy to do so and proud to have done my bit. But can we say that the Act has ever been implemented in full? More important perhaps than pay, can we say official

attitudes have changed? It took a campaign to prevent Nick Gibb, then Schools Minister, so altering the A-Level Politics syllabus that women were demoted to a subsidiary role. Here’s my review of a book that I recommend to everyone concerned about the social, the financial and the political decision-making roles that women play.

CJ, Liverpool h t t p : / / w w w. criticalprofessionallearning.co.uk/ assets/MainstreamOrTributary.pd f?fbclid=IwAR3VJh13f1dV1APfo9 RD11cHJmILEVl8iSnHVzqB1HU4 KpBl-PIiUirFON4

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PALESTINE AND WORLD HUMAN RIGHTS GROUPS WELCOME INQUIRY

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he International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor has launched an investigation into alleged war crimes in the Palestinian territories. The decision dealt an embarrassing blow to the Israeli government, which had conducted an aggressive public relations and behind-the-scenes diplomatic campaign to block any investigation. It also raised the possibility of arrest warrants being issued against Israeli officials, making it potentially risky to travel abroad. The decision by Fatou Bensouda, the outgoing prosecutor, had been expected after the court last month decided she had jurisdiction. A preliminary probe by Bensouda in 2019 found a “reasonable basis” to open a war crimes case.

2,200 PALESTINIANS KILLED

Middle East rocked by WAR CRIMES PROBE DECISION

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embarrassing blow to the Israeli government, which campaigned to block it

In a statement, Bensouda said the investigation will look into “crimes within the jurisdiction of the court that are alleged to have been committed” since June 13, 2014.

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She said the ISRAEL’S investigation will KILLED be conducted “independently, impartially prosecutor in June. and objectively, without fear The court will focus on two or favor.” That task will now Israeli policies of recent years: be handed to Karim Khan, its repeated military operations the British lawyer who is set against Palestinian militants in to become the court’s chief the Gaza Strip, and its expansion

US rejects probe but offers no alternative US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said: “The United States firmly opposes and is deeply disappointed” by the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) decision to open a war crimes investigation in the occupied Palestinian territories. “The ICC has no jurisdiction over this matter. Israel is not a party to the ICC and has not consented to the Court’s jurisdiction, and we have serious concerns about the ICC’s attempts to exercise its jurisdiction over Israeli personnel,” Blinken added.

During the war, more than 2,200 Palestinians were killed, and 67 Israeli soldiers and six civilians. of Jewish settlements in east Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank. Palestine has pushed for a war crimes probe against Israel since it joined the court in 2015.. The Palestinian Authority, said: “This long-awaited step serves Palestine’s vigorous effort to achieve justice and accountability as indispensable bases for peace,” the Palestinian Foreign Ministry said. The Palestinians chose June 2014 as the start of the investigation to coincide with the run-up to Israel’s devastating Gaza war that summer.

Bensouda also said her probe would look at Hamas, which admits firing rockets into Israel during the war. In Gaza, Hamas welcomed the investigation and said it was confident that its rocket attacks had been legitimate under international law. The ICC is

meant to serve as a court of last resort when countries’ own judicial systems are unable or unwilling to investigate and prosecute war crimes. Israel claims it has an independent, world-class judicial system. After the war, the military opened dozens of investigations. There were only a handful of convictions on minor charges Settlements are widely viewed as illegal based on the Geneva Convention principle that an occupying power is barred from transferring its population to territories captured in war. Today, some 700,000 settlers live in the two areas Palestinians claim. International human rights groups praised the court decision.

ICC CHIEF PROSECUTOR FATOU BENSOUDA

Probe sparks outrage and panic within Israeli right All political leaders other than a left party, have denounced the International Criminal Court decision to probe alleged Israeli and Palestinian war crimes. MK Nitzan Horowitz, head of the left-wing Meretz party, blamed settlement construction and right-wing lawmakers for “dragging” Israel to the ICC. He called for a resumption of IsraeliPalestinian peace talks, warning that in their absence Israeli leaders may “be exposed to legal proceedings.”

Rights groups and Palestinians also hailed the ICC move. ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda’s investigation, will focus on suspected war crimes around Operation Protective Edge, in June 13, 2014. All the opponents of the inquiry claimed Israel was the only democratic middle east country and that the decision and the court were antisemitic. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel was “under attack” from “undiluted anti-

Semitism and the height of hypocrisy.” “This court, that was established to prevent the repetition of the Nazi horrific crimes committed against the Jewish people, is now turning its guns against the one and only state of the Jewish people,” he said in a video statement. President Reuven Rivlin slammed the decision as “scandalous”, and Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi called on all countries to not cooperate with the investigation adding: “That

the murderous terror group Hamas is praising the decision indicates more than anything else that it lacks any moral validity,” Opposition leader Yair Lapid called it an “antiSemitic disgrace,” that would “deepen the conflict and encourage Palestinian intransigence.” Yamina, yet another right-wing party, said: “The court in The Hague is an anti-Semitic body immersed in hatred of Israel that encourages terrorism instead of fighting it.”

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POLITICS AND EVENTS

TORIES HOPE CLASH WILL SPLIT INDEPENDENCE CAMPAIGN

Civil war exposes the ROT WITHIN THE SNP

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parliamentary committee of enquiry into the Scottish government’s handling of sexual harassment allegations against former first minister Alex Salmond has driven Covid off the front pages. In his testimony Salmond, who has accused the Scottish government, the legal establishment and the civil service of a witch hunt against him, claimed: “The Scottish civil service hasn’t failed, its leadership has failed. The Crown Office hasn’t failed, its leadership has failed. S cotland hasn’t failed, its leadership has failed.”

Based on a report by the Scottish Socialists independence movement as sides have been taken.

The majority back Sturgeon. Salmond, however, has significant minority support. The catalyst for the bloodletting dates back almost three years. In 2018, the Scottish government had investigated complaints about Salmond from two female civil servants who had accused him of sexual harassment during the time when he was first minister and SNP leader.

TORIES HOPE LONG TERM DAMAGE WILL HAVE BEEN INFLICTED AND THE SNP WILL BE A WEAKENED

A n internal investigation was held under a new procedure for dealing with “inappropriate conduct”.

Sturgeon, in return, said it was an “absurd suggestion that anyone acted with malice or as part of a plot against Alex Salmond”. Salmond has accused the SNP leadership of seeking to have him jailed.

It allowed for former ministers to be investigated, not just current ones. The investigation led to a report being handed to the police who began their own inquiries.

This civil war (hough Salmond is no longer an SNP member) has split the

Salmond took the Scottish government to court over the investigation and the way it

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The majority back Sturgeon. Salmond, however, has significant minority support

was handled. The civil servant who conducted the inquiry had previously spoken to the two women and was aware of their claims. This meant the Scottish government has acted illegally.

him not guilty on 12 counts, not proven on one charge, the last charge had been dropped. It was clear during the trial that he had acted in a sexist, predatory and unacceptable manner.

The case was collapsed and Salmond was awarded around £600,000 costs.

Sturgeon is primarily accused of “breaking the ministerial code”, and there is a separate inquiry led by a judge into this which is due to report next month.

In her evidence to the 2021 parliamentary inquiry, Sturgeon admitted her government had made a “dreadful, catastrophic mistake” by appointing a person who had prior knowledge of the allegations. This did not prevent her government trying for months to defend the case in 2018, even after the Scottish government’s legal team were telling them it was “unwinnable”. Their lawyers complained that the government had withheld key information from them. Alex Salmond was charged in 2019 with 14 counts of sexual assault against nine women, i n c l u d i ng attempted rape. At the trial in March 2020 the jury found

The SNP government have been under intense criticism a f t e r

refusing for months to release key legal documents which has still not been fully done. Any result remains possible but both sides have been damaged. Polling evidence shows support for independence has fallen. The Tories hope long term damage will have been inflicted and the SNP will be a weakened political force as a result.

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Early March 2021

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A STRIKE IS THE ONLY WAY TO DEAL WITH THIS GOVERNMENT CAMPAIGNING GP BOB GILL SAYS IT’S PART OF THE TORY NHS SELL OFF PREPERATIONS

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PAY ’EM THE MONEY JOHNSON!

s nurses’ unions Heist film exposing consider calling creeping privatisation a strike the of the NHS, said the government is facing pay offer is an insult to a backlash from a nurses who are facing broad range of the loss of pay between 15% public over the 1% pay and 20% when inflation rise offered to NHS PAY OFFER is taken into account. IS AN workers in England INSULT in the wake of the He said a strike by pandemic that has claimed NHS staff was was “the only way more than 120,000 lives. to deal with this government.”

1%

Dr Bob Gill, a GP who helped make behind The Great NHS

All the Tory talk of being unable to afford it was simply

a rehash of their discredited a u s t e r i t y economics he said, adding that he believed the government w a s deliberately suppressing NHS pay to make it a more attractive package to potential

American buyers.

corporate

believe the pay deal should be more generous.

With senior Tories already predicting that the government will be forced to rethink the offer, a poll released on Sunday revealed that 72% of the public

The Tories are also facing a backlash from their own supporters, as the Opinium poll found a clear majority of Conservative voters (58%) believe the increase is too low. More than a third of the public (35%) said they were angry about the offer.

POOR PAY MAKES NHS A MORE ATTRACTIVE PACKAGE TO AMERICAN CORPORATE BUYERS

For more on the fight to keep our NHS turn to page 8

Rampant corruption over Lebanon’s vaccinations Only a red carpet was missing, otherwise the celebrations would have been complete. Pfizer, the guest of honour, was welcomed by a formal delegation including the minster of health, the Covid committee, the army and the logistical support system. It was on every local TV channel with viewers watching in anguish as containers were dispatched in special convoys and sent to special minus 70C storage. This eagerly awaited arrival was preceded by plans to ensure a smooth transition into vaccinating the people. One important criterion was to give priority to the elderly and medical workers. On paper it looked sound. In practise the preparations fell, one after another, all victims of LebanonÕs deeply corrupt way

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of life.

Politics and favouritism had their way. News leaked of a bunch of members of parliament who jumped the queue receiving their jabs well ahead of many older and more deserving citizens. The minister of health, Hamad Hassan, had the audacity to issue a statement saying it was a Òthank youÓ gesture for their efforts in drafting a law to bring the vaccine into the country! The minster also intended to run a vaccine Òhome delivery serviceÓ for religious figures and his partyÕs high officials. Outraged by such irresponsible behaviour, the World Bank threatened to freeze funding for the project if similar violations continued.

The minister of health said it was a “thank you” gesture for their efforts

One parliamentarian had the nerve to hold a press conference to justify their corruption and attack the World Bank. This drove one elderly, sick citizen to sue the ministry of health for his right to receive the vaccine. The judge ruled in his favour. Yet a day later, another scandal hit the news. The octogenarian head of state, his wife, their daughters, son-in-law and aides were all vaccinated inside the presidential palace, away from the public. A number of politicians and wealthy citizens, scared this corruption would literally lead to their deaths took the three and a half hour flight to Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, to buy their life-saving Covid jabs. Some key politicians even brought the vaccine with them to be given to their entourage and supporters and has become the very best bribe of all to buy

One truly respectable doctor, head of the committee threatened to tend his resignation unless these anomalies were stopped.

Health minister Hamad Hassan says vaccine was a ‘gift’ votes in the upcoming elections. Deviation from the norm didnÕt stop here. Hospitals hiding behind the Òwalk in basisÓ vaccinated people whose age category did not meet the set priority criteria. So if a certain doctor happened to know a certain couple and happened to have some Òleft overÓ vaccine his friends were in luck.

In an attempt to vaccinate employees, the private sector sought to privately import the vaccine. Yet again nepotism and corruption can be smelt. The minster of health is allegedly setting the regulations to suit his goals. Where one might believe men of duty should work for the good of the people you would be surprised to discover a certain way of life still operates in a society corrupt to its core. By Mariam Labban

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POLITICS AND EVENTS

BORIS OUTDOES HITLER 6:1 IN KILLING OFF OUR CITIZENS

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o, it is a point of empirical note now that Adolf Hitler was responsible for the premature deaths of around 40,000 civilians during the blitz here in the UK, and also the extermination of 250,000 of his own sick and disabled citizens via Aktion T4, the Nazi program designed to get rid of those that they considered unworthy of any kind of support or worth. The Nazis referred to those people as the ‘Untermensch’, physically and mentally subhuman, otherwise known as ‘Worthless Eaters’, living ‘Burdensome Lives’.

SLEEPWALKING INTO FASCISM!

Has anyone heard of Lügenpresse at all? This is another Nazi program that was designed to allow the German people access only to state sanctioned news. It translates to ‘Lying Press’, or in words that might sound familiar today, Fake News. And it’s seemingly back. Or how about Johnson’s new private TV studio, a 2.7m taxpayer funded, closed broadcast entity designed for God knows what, but scarily reminiscent of the personal studios of Adolf Hitler and Benito Musollini, who used them primarily for propaganda

purposes and brainwashing? Today, Boris Johnson and his government are likely now responsible for over 200,000 deaths amongst those that they consider unworthy of support by way of their welfare reform policies

(they stopped counting in 2011 when the total exceeded 100,000), and now another 121,000+ due to their flawed, ‘Take it on the Chin’ herd immunity approach to the Covid-19 pandemic. Indeed, in any other country Johnson and

his unsavoury cohorts would be languishing behind bars or swinging by their necks from a scaffold by now, and yet here in the UK there are still those that doggedly insist that he is doing a ‘Fantastic’ job (himself mainly), and that no other government could have possibly done better, seemingly forgetting about the likes of Jacinda Ardern’s New Zealand and their 26 deaths amongst a population of 5,002,100, or China with 4,636 deaths amongst a population of 1,439,323,776. But, nobody could have done it better, Johnson? I guess that depends on what

your goal is. The bottom line here though is that someone is responsible for all this unnecessary loss of life in our country and the buck as they say always stops with the one in charge, namely Boris Johnson himself. Seriously though, just how much worse does this man have to become before people finally wake up to what is happening here? Indeed, Boris Johnson could quite literally drop his trousers in front of the Queen and take a dump on her shoes whilst she’s still wearing them. And there would still be those out there saying what a fantastic and great job he’s doing. Words fail me… Adrian Angel

Ex-Tory MP branded a ‘sexual predator’ loses appeal Former Conservative MP for Dover, Charlie Elphicke’s attempt to appeal against his two-year sentence for sexual assaults against two women has failed. Appeal court judges ruled that the disgraced MP who was labelled “a sexual predator” by the trial judge who also rightly concluded that Elphicke was someone prepared to exploit women for sexual purposes. Elphicke, was convicted in July last year of the charges, two

in relation to a parliamentary worker in 2016 and one in relation to a woman at his family’s central London home in 2007.

His barrister advanced an application at the Royal Courts of Justice for leave to appeal on the grounds of harm, culpability, mitigation and suspension. Rachna Gokani told the appeal judges that the trial judge had not fully taken the impact of Covid-19 into account. The 49-year-old ex-

MP had spent 47 hours inside his cell on one occasion and had caught Covid-19. He also had not seen his 13-year-old son for six months. The judges rejected her arguments, including that one of the two women he assaulted should not have been categorised as vulnerable at the time.

In the case of one of the women, who was assaulted by him in 2007, the judges said he had perpetrated a “hard, deliberate grope” involving a mixture of contact with her bra

and breast. It was an “aggressive” assault while she was vulnerable and she had to push him off. “We asked ourselves whether, standing back, there is any arguable basis to contend that

the overall sentence of two years’ immediate imprisonment is manifestly excessive,” she said in the judges’ conclusion, which found the original trial judge was right to pass consecutive sentences for offences that involved separate victims and that took place years apart. There was no realistic basis for impugning the custodial terms that were arrived at, the judges said, which reflected the “undoubted seriousness of the offences”.

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The fragility of muscular dave

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he Council on State Fragility- heard of it? It is determined to bring electricity to places without it. Co-chair? David Cameron. Today that job gives him a platform to do a Blair and offer advice to our current Prime Minister. It amounts to Be Like Me / Be Like Thatcher. He wants Boris to be ‘muscular.’

with the enthusiastic support of the worst Chancellor of the Exchequer since Churchill and with the full co-operation of No Tuition Fees Clegg, the recovery that was already underway was thrown into reverse by Austerity.

WHEN HE LOST THE REFERENDUM, MUSCULAR DAVE RAN AWAY

With the co-operation of naive Guardian journalists he wishes to give the impression that as Prime Minister he oversaw an economic recovery. In fact, as he took over in 2010,

Muscular Dave pushed like mad for the invasion of a very stable Libya - now it is fragile. His actions led directly to a huge multiplication of refugees crossing and drowning in the Mediterranean.

Muscular Dave pushed like mad for the invasion of a very stable Libya - now it is fragile

Muscular Dave decided to have a duel with the UKIP Wing of the Tory Party and hold that referendum. Did you think there was any other reason for it? Having drafted and passed an Act of Parliament for an advisory referendum Muscular

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Old and new Green deputy leaders clash Current co-Leader Sian Berry, addressing a campaign briefing for Jews, bemoaned that the Green party had twice refused to adopt the International Definition of Anti-semitism. One possible reason other than it is unfit for purpose, is that it has left the Labour Party smouldering ruin of McCarthyte repression. At this week’s online spring conference members will vote on a motion supporting the Boycott Divest and Sanctions aimed at combating the illegal occupation of Palestine by Israel

Dave decided, on no-one’s authority but his own, that he would treat the referendum as binding. Muscular Dave then did what? When he lost he ran away. Theresa May then took on the impossible task of assembling a jigsaw puzzle with the wrong pieces and too many missing.

and opposing once again the adoption of the corrosive IDA. The pro BDS motion is sponsored by former deputy leader Shahrar Ali. It calls on the party to “reaffirm its support for free speech on Israel and Palestine and for The Green Party to campaign against adoption of the International Definition of Antisemitism (IDA) and in support of the Boycott Divestment Sanctions (BDS) campaigns.” The Labour Party rued the day it took onboard the IDA which fuelled the fake antisemitism witch hunt.

muscle.

Clearly, insufficient

And now we have Bungalow Bonce Boris. We also have, a phrase I coined in 2010 when the Coalition took over, SOCIAL FRACKING. I used ‘fracking’ in order to emphasise that we had a government that was very deliberately damaging social foundations in order to extract a profit for a few people. I also wanted to point out that

eventually those few people would also suffer. Muscular Dave, like Blair, has a desperate need to restore, well, patch over, his

damaged reputation. In his book he blamed ever ything on Gove and on Boris. Yes, they both are what he said they are but if he wanted us to think well of him the book was a failure. My F-Word is Fracking. Muscular Dave and, today, Bungalow Bonce, have Fracked an entire country. By Cliff

FATBERG GOVERNMENT A ‘Huge and disgusting’ FATBERG has been removed from London.

Does mean that Boris has gone? I do apologise, I just could not resist it. But if we put his appearance to one side and think about him as a politician there are, I believe, good reasons to picture him as a blockage preventing real politics, real democracy, taking place. His Brexit campaigning merely demonstrated that truth was only ever, at best, an option for

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His Brexit campaigning merely demonstrated that truth was only ever, at best, an option for him.

him. The Commons? By-pass it. The Lords? Pack it with donors. He is corrupt. He has surrounded himself with people that are so appalling that they do not threaten his position. From time to time Risky Sunak is talked up as a successor, but his first instinct when Covid 19 hit was to implement Corbyn’s manifesto. His second was to multiply it. The difference between him and Corbyn was that he did not think about where he should throw the money. He is a hedge funder: a gambler with the money of other people. Fatbergs are not noted for their yearning for knowledge. Starmer’s approach to the political fatberg? A few drops of political Dettol might do the job. They won’t.

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POLITICS AND EVENTS

NHS PRIVATISATION HAS BEEN LARGLY BEEN IGNORED

Public has to wake up to the Tory plot to sell-off our NHS

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e must urgently wake people up to what has already happened to our NHS.

of publicly provided health and care set up in 1948 has already been restructured and reshaped from within, and private interests are already i nte g rate d into the system. W h i l e principled staff still carry out their duties and the public’s

foundations and structure of the NHS continue their heist of our most valued public service.

OUR NATIONAL SYSTEM OF PUBLICLY PROVIDED HEALTH AND CARE HAS BEEN RESTRUCTURED AND RESHAPED

Campaign groups like KONP call for the public to join the fight for the NHS as if privatisation is a future threat, but the reality is that our principled national system

attention is directed to their heroic efforts on the wards, the politicians, civil servants and

senior management who are continuing the decades-long process of chipping away at the

Privitatisation under cover of Covid crisis

Government Loses Plot

Plausible changes under current emergency situation avoiding scrutiny.

Will the infected person get in touch please

NHS England’s Chief Executive, SIR SIMON STEVENS, has described these changes as ‘silver linings.’ Under cover of COVID19 the destructive plans to privatise the NHS have speeded up in the following ways:

The Brazilian mutation of possibly vaccine resistant Covid variant has now been found in the UK. £20+ billion spent on Track and Trace and the government is reduced to “Will the infected person please get in touch with us?”

1. Replacing staff with volunteers - previously stated as a goal. 2. Risk stratification of patients by identifying the sickest patients to offer shielding advice - a key requirement for the private health insurance industry 3. Bailing out private hospitals by paying for extra bed capacity (without this intervention, many of them would have suffered crippling losses) 4. Planned hospital cuts and closures have not been cancelled 5. Acceleration of telemedicine – a previously stated aim which will reduce access to doctors. 6. De-skilling the workforce and diluting safe staffing regulations.

One known infected person cannot be found because they didn’t complete the form correctly when they were tested. Others travelled on an internal flight from London to Scotland after returning from abroad. That’s two plane loads of passengers and two airports where risks were run. In other news, 10 million people will all take a Covid test with about 50% accuracy, before returning to rooms containing 30 plus people with variable ventilation and optional masks, mixed up to five times a day to share germs around, crushed onto corridors where up to 2,000 people will move around, just to ensure further germ mixing. This government has lost the plot.

Never waste a crisis.

Successive government ministers from all parties have seen a corporate plan move steadily forward, in recent years aided by the leadership of NHS England itself at Board Level, with US insurers, management consultants, and data companies already given roles in behind the scenes functions like commissioning and training, largely unseen, mostly unreported. They’ve already been paid millions, but are poised to close in on more of the £ billions of public funds in the NHS budget, the unique, comprehensive, valuable NHS patient data and the acres of prime NHS estate. The Government’s latest white paper must not be allowed to ease the transition of our health and care system into a replica of the US system, but instead must be resisted, and a way found to reverse all the damage already done, and to renationalise our NHS, so that it is once again wholly publicly funded and publicly provided. By Jo Fisher

United Health must be forced to leave Covid will pass but another serious danger is very much here.

What with Covid, the many public restrictions, the mass testing, the vaccine programme, and the pressure on the NHS, there is much confusion and particularly division amongst health campaigners and staff. However, we should all be united on one issue.

The main threat of Covid will pass, and it looks like the end is in sight, but another serious danger, private interests running our health system is very much here, and could be much harder to see the back of. The trouble is, few are actually focusing on it. In fact, Covid has been the perfect cover for the dismantling to go into overdrive.

hospitals, positive tests and death figures, and the vaccine roll-out, the fact is that many other treatments have been suspended, and some have been removed for good. On-line treatments are being introduced (with a view to staying), and millions of patient’s health records have been handed to private companies.

While we’re bombarded with stories of under-pressure

At this critical time, both staff (not management) and

campaigners must be united, and focus their fury towards the real enemy - United Health (America’s biggest health

insurance corporation), and their British subsidiary Optum. Along with their former employer Simon Stevens (current CEO of NHS England), they have drastically restructured our system from one that meets the requirements of the public’s health needs, to one that is a profit-making bonanza. We must stop them, and soon! Colin Crilly / S. London NHS campaigner

POLITICS AND EVENTS

Early March 2021

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VACCINATION BLUES - THE PATIENT’S EYE

How the World sees powerful white people

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y good friend, a local councillor and a black woman, was vaccinated recently against Coronavirus. An older black lady in the same vaccination queue indicated that she wished to speak with her, confidentially. My friend the councillor replied that even masked they could only speak from a distance of two metres.

friend confirmed.

not be got away with if the subjects had been white.

To encourage others, my friend allowed herself to be photographed being injected; she received negative messages suggesting that as she’d turned her face away so as not to look at the needle, the woman in the photo might not even have been her.

I’m talking about a history of malpractice, from Guatemala in the 1940s to Malawi in the 21st Century and all points in between. The perpetrators have ranged from the US to the WHO. People hear, they talk, and they remember. ‘Whitey’ does not have a whiter than white reputation and it seems that this bad rep is based on real life experience of medical people with needles. Google it.

MY PEOPLE ARE DYING,” SAID MY FRIEND

“I wish to whisper,” said the elderly lady. My friend allowed her to approach a little nearer but no closer than a metre. The lady asked her to watch carefully and tell her whether the vaccination staff were giving the same vaccine to the white people as the black people. They were, my

“My people are dying,” the Councillor told me; take up of the Coronavirus vaccine in her electoral ward is much lower than in other, whiter areas of the city. The issue is one of trust and mistrust. BAME communities hold a residual memory of dreadful things done to people like them, deliberate infection

»

I wish to whisper,” said the old lady

of black people, inoculations given as part of surreptitious trials in developing countries, experiments on lives considered cheap when such things would

All groups of people have their good and shameful histories, but the healthy and wealthy of the world talk about “winning over hearts and minds.” I think that means through acting beneficently and being on their best behaviour when the world is watching, but people are not as stupid as the powerful believe we are.

Funny pain in the arse is a must see You should know about Mark Thomas. He’s an activist, investigative journalist, and all-round pain in the arse for anyone who embraces, or profits from, the blandly neoliberal consensus that is suffocating our country.

He’s also very funny and cares about our NHS as much as you and me. In short, the man is a legend. In 2018, he toured the country with his show, CHECK UP: OUR NHS @ 70. It’s now on YouTube and was recently streamed at The Everyman Theatre. In it he interviewed doctors and nurses to ask if the NHS was in better health since he first interviewed staff and concluded that the NHS was

in a battle for its existence as a “world-beating” healthcare provider, free at the point of use.

stand out from his righteous anger. Referring to the fact that we spend £23 billion treating obesity (a huge problem), he poses the question: “So Bake Off is like a middle class Trainspotting?”

Dr Jackie Appleby and Professor Michael Arnott (and other experts) gave him their honest response – a resounding no. NHS@70 is a visceral, angry performance, punctuated with real stories of creeping privatisation, chronic understaffing, and underfunding by a Tory government that would sell it off in a heartbeat if it didn’t lose them any votes and helped the MANY Tory MPs who have investments in private

About Theresa May offering more money to the NHS: “Only the Tories can give our money back to us and call it a gift”.

A BLAND NEOLIBERAL CONSENSUS IS SUFFOCATING OUR COUNTRY

healthcare.

There was humour here (because it’s Mark Thomas) and some brilliant one-liners

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NHS¤70 is a visceral, angry performance, punctuated with real stories

If you haven’t already, buy the DVD and his book Check up, and after reading it pass it on to family and friends. It’s a wonderful and accessible way to understand what is happening to an institution that Bevan said “is there to be in place of fear”. By James Corbett

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POLITICS AND EVENTS

HOW WE CAN STOP THE BLAIRITE MENTALITY FROM CONSUMING US

The age of self needs to end F

rom its foundation in 1900, until Starmer took over as leader in 2020 the Labour party has never been a Socialist gathering. From time to time Socialists have been allowed in it. Especially welcome have been those leaders from the safe middle class. Ones who instinctively knew their place in society. Understanding how to be kept in order was a prerequisite of their rise. Left leaning waves were ridden at the right time into an ocean of rhetorical obscurity.

politicians always surf on the wave of personal ambition. This is no surprise; this is why they are professionally attracted to a career with an inbuilt hubris of believing they know better than the rest of us.

Attlee, Wilson, Foot, Kinnock, Blair, and saddest of all, Corbyn, were all crushed under their own conundrum of squaring political careers with integrity. Sadly, professional

The Wilsonian price for keeping us out of Vietnam was constant Mi5 plots against him. Although far more courageous than the rest mentioned here no one could ever accuse Wilson of

Attlee is lionised for being P.M. when the NHS was set up. It can be easily argued that the welfare state was more to do with tens of thousands of ex-service personnel having their eyes and ears opened by experience. The establishment were frightened into giving a little to stop more being taken.

taking the side of the lowly paid against the highly paid.

So to the eighties, starring, Jeremy Corbyn as Michael Foot, Chris Williamson as Dave Nellist and Keir Starmer as a plank of wood that even Real Pillock would have been ashamed of in his pre Lording it days. Why has it always been like this and how, if we were starting again, could we change things? Here are proposals for setting up a Socialist party that careerists would want to avoid: All elected representatives would stand for one term only. All elected representatives would need to attend yearly reselection meetings. All elected representatives would only take the national average

pay for any elected position.

All staff paid by the party would only be paid the national average wage and be in their position on a fixed 3 year short term contract. Any money made from interviews, TV appearances, book sales or any other media activity pertaining to politics by any party representative will be paid straight to the party. No elected representative or paid party official will take any other paid position outside the party. Each constituency party will hold regular bi monthly open to the public meetings. Any

complaints

against

party members would be dealt with by their own constituency party with a right of appeal to a central party panel. The central party panel will be made up of members randomly selected the party membership who are not at the time holding any other party positions. This panel will be changed on a monthly basis and would meet monthly. The party policy shall be voted on by the members with everyone no matter how important only having one vote.

The party shall, upon its formation, agree 6 guiding principles that can only be updated or overturned by a 75% majority of party members.

Judge ‘Oldknows’ best Labour Staffer loses bid to force Labour to name whistleblowers Former Labour staffer Emilie Oldknow has lost her bid to force Labour to release the identity of the former staff it thinks might have leaked the infamous internal report revealing WhatsApp conversations among senior HQ figures. The judge ruled that the attempt to force disclosure ‘smacks of a fishing expedition’. Labour is seeking costs related to her application.

The party doesn’t know who leaked the documents, despite spending around £160,000 on ‘forensic’ computer specialists last year to pursue the whistleblowers, but Oldknow and her team wanted the names of people it thinks might be in the frame, presumably in order to pursue them legally. The former staff implicated in the report have claimed that the WhatsApp messages, which included phrases such as ‘fuck off pube head’ and a discussion

hoping a Corbyn supporter might die in a fire, as well as talk of channelling campaign funds to a secret kitty staffers wanted to conceal from Corbyn’s team and right-wing staff’s horror at the 2017 general election ‘surge‘, were misleadingly presented. Skwawkbox.org

Read more here: https://skwawkbox. o r g / 2 0 2 1 /0 3 /0 1 / b r e a k i n g oldknow-loses-bid-to-forcelabour-to-disclose-uncertainidentity-of-report-leakers/

North West Mafia fails An attempted coup by an ‘unholy alliance’ of fixers known as the ‘north-west mafia’ and right-wing councillors to install their preferred candidate by scrapping the mayoral model has failed, with two-thirds of councillors voting against it at a special council meeting this week. Councillors were warned by lawyers that the move to scrap the model before a referendum of voters was unlawful and

ahead anyway. In a secret ballot, 66% voted against the move.

subject to legal challenge and could result in sanctions against councillors, but the right-wing cadre still tried to dismiss the legal advice and move

The mayoral race is still on, as is Anna Rothery’s fight to overturn the party’s groundless decision to bar her from the contest after she was shortlisted. Popular leftwinger Rothery

would become the UK’s first black woman mayor if she succeeded in her legal battle after the party’s scandalous and widely-condemned move to block her candidacy.

Read more here: https://skwawkbox. org/2021/03/04/labour-blacksocialists-accuse-labour-oftreating-rothery-as-wrong-typeof-black-woman/

POLITICS AND EVENTS

Britain Is Not Broke On February 23rd Channel 4 Dispatches promoted the “Britain is broke” idea again. This lie will figure hard in the austerity cuts and pay restraint the will inevitably trotted out. We have no choice, the government will cry. The Labour leadership will remain silent or this time possibly agree. Last time Rachel Reeves MP was among some Labour politicians who wanted to outdo the Tories in cutting expenditure.

We are close to £900 billion

so far and we are not out of the woods yet, so we may see yet another round of money creation. The logical question is why have cuts? Why not print some more? After all, it’s clearly not inflationary. Now, I’m no economist. There may be good reasons why this is not possible. But it’s kind of odd that there’s no public discussion about it. Tiff

Paradoxical ideology Chancellor Rishi Sunak intends his furlough scheme to remain until the end of September 2021 but interest rates could rise. It’s a strange time, with a Conservative government overseeing massive state spending and a Labour Party opposing it in a switch of ideologies.

This is equally true for the UK and all countries that are monetarily sovereign ie use a fiat currency.

The Labour Party is facing a legal challenge over its recruitment of former Israeli spy Assaf Kaplan by leading law firm Bindmans. corporation tax rise that Sir Keir Starmer pledged in his leadership ‘ten pledges to implement’ a year ago. Sunak

appears

to

be

appropriating the 2017 and 2019 Labour Manifestos bit by bit. Starmer shows he’s pretty much a one-trick pony and it’s not a very good trick anyway. Watch this space

disruption to services may sue if their cancer subsequently spread.

planned time, or a scan, or see their GP because of Covid-related

Many NHS trusts postponed even urgent cancer surgery during the recent second wave after running out of intensive care beds for patients to recover in because wards were full of people with Covid-19.

Recycling really is rubbish

Freedom of information requests reveal that, on average, 11% of rubbish collected for recycling is incinerated. In some areas the figures are far higher: 45% in Southend-on-Sea and 38% in Warwickshire.

As Ben Bernanke a former head of the US Federal Reserve said; “Tax doesn’t pay for anything. It’s not tax money. We simply use the computer to mark up the size of the account.” cannot become insolvent with respect to obligations in its own currency. A fiat money system, like the ones we have today, can produce such claims [money] without limit” Charlie

Legal difficulties after Labour hires an Israeli military eavesdropper its Social Listener.

The NHS is facing what doctors fear is “a legal storm” of claims for compensation from patients who could not get cancer treatment during the pandemic.

An investigation by Channel 4’s Dispatches into where our recycle bin rubbish goes, and the role played by energy-fromwaste incineration plants, has found that millions of tonnes of our carefully sorted empties are simply being burned after they are collected from the kerbside.

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Party in Trouble

Legal fears over cancer delays Leading cancer surgeons are warning that patients who could not have surgery at the

WORD

We need your money to pay for all the money we’ve given you because COVID stopped you from earning.

Alan Greenspan another head of the Fed said something very similar, “Government

The two main political parties play a game of leap-frog.

Last week’s Budget offered both Labour and Tory supporters an unusual paradox. Sir Keir Starmer has vowed not to back any immediate tax rises including the corporation tax rise the Tories have said they will introduce, which is exactly the same

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The logic of taxation

Well, what Dispatches argued simply is not quite true. The Bank of England does have a magic money tree - it used to be a printing press, now it just presses a computer button. The government issues bonds to borrow money. The bank of England creates the money to buy the bonds. The government has money and, here’s the kicker, there’s nobody to pay back.

Early March 2021

The Dispatches team also found a direct correlation between regions tied into incineration contracts and low recycling rates. In England, more waste is now burned than recycled – 11.6 million tonnes was incinerated in 2019 while 10.9 million was sent for recycling. There are 48 energyfrom-waste incinerators across the country, and industry figures show 18 more are planned.

Despite householders’ enthusiasm for recycling, rates in England remain in the doldrums – at 45%, according to government figures, the same level as in

2017, and a long way from the revolutionary shift in waste and recycling promised by the environment bill (postponed to the next parliamentary cycle).

Acting on behalf of a British Palestinian member, Adnan Hmidan, it is demanding answers about the controversial hiring of a former Israeli ex-military intelligence officer employed in a role of ‘social listening.’ This role raises ‘serious concerns’ about Labour’s position on Palestine, its recruitments process, and its data security. There are also questions on what exactly ‘social listening’

is after the recent revelations contained in the #Labourleaks report that if proved true show Labour staffers created a program designed to trawl comments on social media by party members without their knowing or having given permission in what is becoming known as a witch hunt. Read more from Paul Knaggs on Labour Heartlands: https://labourheartlands.com/ lawyers-challenge-the-labourpartys-recruitment-of-ex-israelispy/

Free ‘spy’ mum to face new charges Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been released from house arrest on the completion of her five-year sentence, but the BritishIranian dual national will have to go to court to face a second set of charges on 14 March, according to reports citing her lawyer. The second set of charges long threatened by the Iranians include involvement in propaganda activity against the Islamic Republic by attending a demonstration outside the Iran embassy in 2009 and speaking to BBC Persian.

Her lawyer Hojjat Kermani told the Iranian website Emtedad on Sunday that her five-year prison sentence for plotting to overthrow the clerical establishment was complete. “She was pardoned by Iran’s supreme leader last year, but spent the last year of her term under house arrest with electronic shackles tied to her feet. Now they’re cast off,” Kermani told the website. “She has been freed.” Iran’s judiciary officials have yet to comment on the release.

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POLITICS AND EVENTS

FORGOTTEN BANDS THE BEST BAND TO COME OUT OF GERMANY

FRUMPY

Y

ou might wonder who would make such a claim, and indeed if this column has now become merely an exercise in digging up the obscure and the arcane. That would be a comment on yourself, for Frumpy, if you dare to look them up, deserved that title: the best of krautrock.

The icing on the cake was Inga Rumpf, hailed as the greatest vocal talent at the time on the German Scene. Her name was appropriated and scrambled into the band name, and between 1970 and 1972 or 3, Frumpy made four iconic prog albums. Members worked together on and off and around 1990 some of the band reformed for a couple more years, eventually disbanding for a second time in 1995.

FRUMPY HAD ONE OF EVERYTHING

You’d forgotten, perhaps believed that great rock was a UK/USA thing, but be prepared to be enlightened, or to remember. Fire up that laptop and click into YouTube.

Frumpy had one of everything, colossal bass playing, rock heavy drums, an organist who could fill (or empty) an auditorium on his own, a guitar player who fully understood when to hold them and when to play them.

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They deserved that title - the best of krautrock

The core of the band was the Hammond Organ and Rotating Leslie Speaker Cabinet of Jean-Jaques Kravetz. The lead vocal of Inga and the songwriting of them both were crucial as the band took off as a quartet. Guitarist Rainer Baumann was recruited in 1971. Like a lot of bands, people come and go, but unlike most bands, the central part of this band left. Kravetz was replaced for a few months by another organ player before he pushed his way back in, but the die was cast.

The Pedal Board Beyond the Wah-Wah There is much more to the Wah-Wah than a pedal that goes up and down; in the hands of an already sensitive guitar player it is almost another instrument he or she can use to talk with their feet. Other players have sought out their own version of the effect; the pedal left in one position (cocked Wah) is the simplest. You leave the pedal on a setting where one band of frequencies is boosted throughout the song. Various manufacturers have produced for example a combined fuzz pedal with a cocked wah that is set by means of a control knob. EHX, one of my favourites have “Cock Fight” pedal for just under £100, and Volture (of Portugal) do a great sounding Fuzz/Cocked

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You leave the pedal on a setting where one band of frequencies is boosted throughout the song

Wah. I might just take a nibble at one of these. Other manufacturers have produced so called “Auto Wah” where the rate of up and down (wahwah-wah) can be adjusted to go faster (wowowowowow,) or more slowly (waa ohh ooo ww.) Then there is a ‘dynamic’ kind of auto wah. As you pick at the strings, or play a chord, the pedal goes “Wah,” and doesn’t wah again till you hit another note or chord sufficiently hard.

resembles something you’d stick under an electric organ. In a sense it is. The fact remains that any old volume pedal or disused wahwah that you have can be modified to make a passive tone control. If you want to control both tone and volume, then you might have to seek out an

I MIGHT JUST TAKE A NIBBLE AT ONE OF THESE

I’m not going to choose between these quirky offerings. I’m up for looking at any new revision of the old Tone and Volume Pedal though; there is a lot to be said for subtlety. DeArmond, the original makers of the pedal, are now owned by Fender. You can buy something like it from Fender, and it

old DeArmond. Ernie Ball seems to have some. Beavis Audio has an interesting range of projects for people who are interested in solving a problem, or even just experimenting; they supply schematics in the Internet so you can do just that. I know people who’d build me any pedal I can think up, but I’ve got much more exciting ideas to go through with them, and people love excitement.

POLITICS AND EVENTS

Early March 2021

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STATES PUSH FOR CHANGE TO MAKE IT EASIER TO ELECT TRUMP IN 2024

Different words but the same foreign policies

U

S President Joe Biden has come under fire for various foreign policy decisions during his first months in office, leading to concerns that that renewed popular anger against Establishment foreign policy could lead to a second Trump presidency after the country turned against the Democrats four years ago in part for similar reasons.

America’s overseas conflicts by bucking Establishment policies in some countries, such as Syria, even as he oversaw several coup attempts in Latin America and ratcheted up the use of economic sanctions against so-called “rogue states” (often just countries that pursued economic policies independent of US conglomerates) to previously unheard-of levels.

A GIANT GOLD STATUE OF THE EX-PRESIDENT PARADED THROUGH THE HALLS

Biden’s bombing of Syria against allegedly Iranian-backed proxies was illegal under international law, as well as under the U.S. constitution, which requires Congress to approve all wars. This rule has, however, been flouted by presidents since the Cold War era. The move makes a return to the nuclear agreement promised by Biden on the campaign trail much less likely, and as a result escalates the potential of a war between Iran and the U.S., only narrowly avoided under Trump. During his presidency, Trump was able to pose as an enemy of

Biden refused to punish Saudi Crown Prince Muhammed Bin Salman for orchestrating the medieval murder of Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi reporter who wrote articles mildly critical of the regime’s war policies for the Washington Post, even though he didn’t question the monarchy itself. This didn’t stop Bin Salman from sending a hit squad to the Istanbul consulate to chop up the journalist, an act that

»

outraged press freedom and human rights activists globally. Trump refused to recognize the obvious reality that Bin Salman had ordered the murder, Biden admitted it but he has neglected to take actions sanctioning or placing travel restrictions on the Crown Prince himself. Such developments perhaps shouldn’t be surprising to those who are aware of the role that the Saudi monarchy plays in upholding the petrodollar system, or the “dollars-for-oil” scheme that gives American government and corporate elites immense geoeconomic control. In recent years, Saudi Arabia has also cozied up to American business executives at companies like JP Morgan Chase in its socalled “Davos in the Desert” summits. Bin Salman has also cuddled other pet interests of U.S. policymakers by partnering with Israel to combat Iran. With all this wealth, Saudi Arabia has financed Sunni extremism, giving rise to

Conference saw Trump in total control, Biden ... escalates the potential of a war between Iran and the US

organizations such as alQaeda and ISIS that have killed European and American citizens to promote their values, including the murder of Charlie Hebdo cartoonists, a French schoolteacher, and practicing and secular Jews. Disgust and fear at such attacks led Americans to turn to Trump in 2016, who at once attacked his predecessors’ wars while promising to protect U.S. citizens from threats real and imagined. Right-wing populists have already sought to goad the Biden administration over its actions, which took place as Trump returned for the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), an annual event which acts as a party conference for the Republicans. Although some on the moderate right hoped to see t h e

party move past the Trump era, this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference saw Trump in total control, with a giant gold statue of the ex-president paraded through the halls of a Hilton hotel hosting the event. In a fiery speech, Trump attacked the Democrats for refusing to open schools for in-person learning, a move promised by Biden during his campaign, and propagated the lie that the 2020 election had been fraudulent. Republican lawmakers in several key U.S. states are using the lie to push for

referendums changing the courts and voting systems to make it easier to elect Trump in 2024.

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POLITICS AND EVENTS

COUNTRY IS RAPIDLY BECOMING A ‘FAILED STATE’ CASE FOR TEXT BOOKS

Lebanon is headed for Hell OFFICIAL!

W

hat is an inferno? Following these irresponsible Men of religion will statements inflation sky offer their Almighty’s rocketed, and the value of the doctrine, men of literature local currency, the lira, went will summon Dante’s Divine down the drain, along with Comedy. Lovers of the purchase power mystery novels will of everyone’s wage refer to Dan Brown’s packet. Inflation is now books, but ask a approaching 500%. Lebanese and you’ll be surprised by the This schizophrenic vast array of definitions state of affairs forced the after hardships have INFLATION citizens to again fend for fallen like rain this THREATENED themselves, a skill honed tiny country without even during the 1975 to 1990 civil war. counting Coronavirus! Hence began the daily burden A year ago ageing President to find life’s basics. Every week Aoun, inaugurated the search sees another product in short for oil in the Mediterranean. supply. One week it’s petrol, then He promised his baffled and meat and another medicine. battered subjects a future of oil wealth and prosperity. The valuable dollar was no where to be seen except on A week later, the never the the black market which is ageing Prime Minister issued controlled by known cartels and a diametrically opposite political parties. statement. Lebanon was destitute, unable to fulfil its The people had to make financial obligations and had sure they have enough petrol to been relegated to a failed state. run the car, enough water and

500%

sufficient food supplies in their homes.

A PERSON CAN LIVE WITHOUT WATER BUT NOT WITHOUT MEDICINE

shelves but prices tripled, then quadrupled. The government announced it would financially back some “basic products”. Needless to say the scheme failed miserably.

The sick, worried they would die from shortage of medicine rather than their illness, rushed to the pharmacies. The latest saying is “A person can live without water but not without medicine.” as the new saying goes.

Unfortunately the train of unfortunate events continued to roll.

Supermarkets refilled empty

A few months ago during a

Dachau 9th March 1933 Days after the Nazis in Germany moved into Bavaria, Heinrich Himmler, Chief of Police for Munich, eyed up Dachau as a concentration camp for enemies of the Third Reich. First it was for political prisoners, social democrats,

communists, also Jehovahs Witnesses and homosexuals, and as always the most persecuted people in Europe, the Sinti / Roma were also sent there as soon as Hitler began his ruthless campaign against anyone who wasn’t part of his / Master Race.’

The travellers of Europe have been mercilessly treated since at least 1899, but by the end of the 1920s campaigns against them in Germany were hotting up. Interestingly, until about 1938, Jews were allowed to leave

press briefing when asked where the country might be heading, the geriatric president affirmed without hesitation: “Hell”. And he wasn’t lying. Well functioning government is expected to cease to exist. Lebanon is doomed to become a text book case study... at our expense. Inferno is the mental state the Lebanese live in with little or no prospect of escape. By Mariam Labban as though they were enemies of the state too. The gypsies (or ethnic travellers as we call ourselves) are largely forgotten, a sort of hidden shame that does not get mentioned.

Germany if they had somewhere to go, but before the end of the 1939 to 1945 Second World War, they were being treated

Hatred for us is called antiziganism, something you won’t find in the Labour Party Rulebook.

POLITICS AND EVENTS

Early March 2021

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15

Mad Madge Talks Across Oceans Of Time

FROM BEYOND THE WALL OF LOST SPIRITS, LOOSED TEMPORARILY FROM THE HORRORS OF ETERNAL TORMENT, AUNTIE MAGGIE ANSWERS YOUR LETTERS. A VERY MAGGIE CHRISTMAS Dearest Maggie I decided I would vote Tory in the coming elections now it seems that a lot of old friends are upset with me. What shall I tell them? G Galloway Well if it’s not Gorgeous George the reality show Pervy cat. You were always a contrarian weren’t you and you definitely like the attention such statements attract. It could be even more controversial to declare your support for Sir Keith Stammerer’s New New Labour, who it has to be said is doing as

THE

much for Thatcherism as I did myself. Maybe that was your point. Or you really have lost the plot you mad bastard.

place in heaven, it’s full of the souls of dead illegals from the internment camps in Kent. I have an inkling you are:

Dearest evil one There’s a lady who’s sure all that glitters is gold And she’s buying a stairway to heaven. How can I kick her out of the way and get there first? Priti Patel You are starting to repeat yourself dear, too much Heavy Metal, Snakebite and Black and Jamaican Woodbines will do that to you. If I were you I wouldn’t set my sights on a

On the highway to hell Highway to hell You’re on the highway to hell (Highway to hell) You’re on the highway to hell (Highway to hell) highway to hell (Highway to hell) highway to hell (Highway to hell) And you’re goin’ down All the way...............................

..Boom! Dear Margaret How did you get away with it and I did not? Nicolas Sarkozy Your big mistake is that you made enemies on the way up and they are kicking you on your way down. What you should have done is put a controlled opposition in place, then there’s no need to bribe people to appoint Judges as the leader of the opposition will do it for you. In the UK we still have the House of Lords to reward all

the corrupted, you Frogs are a republic so you don’t have that option. We were happy as a double act but now my partner, Alex has left me for someone else. Should I continue to get my revenge? Yours, wee Jimmy Kranky Well Ms Sturgeon you have really pissed on your chips this time. You Scots do love a bit of in-fighting don’t you and are you always named after fish? Salmond, Sturgeon who next Hamish McKipper or Anne Chovy?

March 8th is International Free Enterprise capsizes killing hundreds Socialist Women’s Day On Friday March 6th in 1987 a vehicle ferry capsized just outside the harbour at Zeebrugge in Belgium drowning 193 passengers and crew. Because the company was so busy, partly as a result of UK ‘Newspaper’ The Sun selling tickets for £1 each, the crew and that of other ferries were working flat out to get as many crossings done as they could in the limited time they had.

Although it was proposed in 1910 for the 28th February, when Russian women gained universal suffrage on March 8th 1917, the day became a national holiday, then was celebrated internationally. On 9th March 1959 the Barbie Doll was launched. March 9th is better remembered as the birthday of the first human in space, Yuri Gagarin, of the Soviet Union. He looked out of his window and didn’t say “Mother Earth is Blue; there is

nothing I can do,” but he did say that it was wonderful, amazing.

The ferry was a Roll on / Roll off type where vehicles could be loaded from the front or the back. Standard practice was that all

doors were to be closed before the ferries began to move. The aptly named Herald of Free Enterprise set off before the bow doors were closed and as it picked up speed and left the harbour, a flat sea with a slow ferry became a less flat sea with a quicker moving craft, and water began to fill the hull, destabilising it, and within minutes it had collapsed. An inquest found the company Townsend Thorsen culpable, and the term Culpable Homicide came into legal parlance. The crew had caused the disaster by a combination of negligence and tiredness, and

cutting corners where safety was concerned. Within half a week, UK Government hatchet man Nicholas Ridley, known to some as ‘Ridiculous Nidley’ spoke up in the House of Commons on another matter, saying that although he was a pilot of the bill he had not got his bow doors open. He didn’t get any laughs.

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BIZARRE NEWS A round up of Internet News you didn’t need to know..... now been ordered to leave their compound near the village of Leap in West Cork. They have until June. Murderer All Heart

Holy Moly

A pair of nuns from County Cork are in trouble for breaching COVID-19 pandemic orders. The sisters, belonging to order of the Carmelite Sisters of the Holy Face of Jesus, travelled to attend an exorcism and a mass. At the time, travel was banned due to pandemic restrictions. But that didn’t stop Mother Irene Gibson and Sister Anne Marie.The Nuns weren’t the only people in attendance. Roughly 70 people congregated in Dublin’s Herbert Park at a time when public meetings were restricted to 15 people. As a result, the sisters have

Bojo’s Diary

A daily insight into the mind of the former Daily Telegraph comedy act... Saturday 27th Feb – Well that’s torn it. Had a few Lagers and watched the Rugger on the old Gogglebox. Bloody French Referees coming over here with their rulebooks and pedantic Video Analysis gifting it to the Taffs. It’s that sort of thing we left the E.U. over. Followed the Beers with some Jack Daniels, a couple of ‘E’’s and some Toot to lighten the load. Left Carrie in charge.

A 42-year-old Oklahoman man is under arrest, suspected of committing three murders. During the investigation, authorities have revealed gruesome details of the murders, including attempted cannibalism. The victims include his uncle, his granddaughter and neighbour. Lawrence Anderson broke down during his arrest and confessed to the murders. In his confession, he detailed how he murdered three people, stopping only to cook his neighbours heart. The murders have sparked outrage in Oklahoma, and not only because of their depraved nature. Anderson has behind him a long criminal history, and was in fact just released from prison in January.

firm’s ambitious plans, the commercial space station could open as soon as 2027. Titled the Voyager Station, the hotel’s Star Trek-ish name promises to boldly take travellers to where no tourist has vacationed before. The planned space station lives up to its science fiction-inspired name even in its looks. The circular space station resembles a giant wheel. To provide artificial gravity for its guests, Voyager will slowly rotate around itself. “Voyager Station is a rotating space station designed to produce varying levels of artificial gravity by increasing or decreasing the rate of rotation,” the project’s official website reads. If that sounds somewhat familiar, it might be because you’ve seen something similar in movies. For example, Space Station V from 2001: A Space Odyssey used this exact same technology.

Out Of This World

Orbital Assembly Corporation, a California-based futuristic construction company, is planning the world’s first space hotel. According to the

Sunday 17th Jan - Took little Thingy out for a breath of fresh air in the No10 garden only to find my trousers, half a kebab and some soiled Boxers in a hedge. Security seemed to think there was no outside threat. I think little Wotsisname had seemingly urinated on the doormat, Carrie clearly hasn’t been keeping on top of the toilet training. Monday 1st Mar – Spent the morning at a Primary School in Stoke. Did some finger painting with the little working class ragamuffins. I was quite proud

of mine but the teacher insisted I took it home to show Mummy. It’s on the fridge, a marvellous, glittery dirty protest. Matty Wanksock and ‘Penfold’ JVT did the Press Conference, didn’t watch it as Patsy Kensit was on House Of Games, always top totty, lovely and thick as a brick. Tuesday 2nd Mar – Noticed a trans contestant on Richard Osman’s House Of Games. Puts me in mind of my Eton crush Sebastian Ffoulks-Klèft, sort of girly, yet boyish with the key to the dorm and sapphire blue eyes. Still I’ve more than

overcompensated since and have been neck deep in Fanny for decades.

mugwump is seriously in the pocket of some chaps I was with at Prep-school.

Wednesday 3rd Mar – I spent absolutely zero time worrying about Sir Keith Strimmers Yemen questions at P.M.Q. The damn chap is having a bloody crisis trying to be more Tory than me! He would probably vote against a Corporation Tax increase when Riski put it up in the Budget. The

Thursday 4th Mar – Spent the morning watching ‘Interior Design Masters With Alan Carr’ on iPlayer to get some ideas for the flat makeover. What the hell is MDF? It’s not like I’m paying for it and Carrie is busy running the country, I’ll just throw taxpayers cash at the problem.

POLITICS AND EVENTS

Early March 2021

THE

WORD

17

MANDY, PRINCE OF DARKNESS, KNOWS ALL AND TELLS ALL

MYSTIC MANDY

Horrorscopes Aries, There could be some trying times in store, Aries. If you’re a parent, the children will ask for luxuries like food and air every five minutes, and you more than likely just cannot be arsed. Not even your love life is immune from the mess in your head, what with social distancing, unless you’ve got a Hazmat suit. No compromise is possible for you, Aries. Just sit tight and know that hornier days are coming once we are delivered from the Plague. Lucky drink Gin. Lucky horse ‘Butchers Dog’ 3 O’clock Doncaster. Taurus, Today rethink all the social values you take at face value. Like the other 11/12ths of the human race, you learned them at an early age and accepted them, after all you believe that Stars dictate your every personality trait. Established concepts of propriety are especially deserving of consideration. After hearing for years about all those things that “just aren’t done,” isn’t it refreshing to think that maybe they should be done after all. F*** ‘em all Taurus you Bull headed b*****d. Lucky number 7. Lucky car Nissan Qashqai. Gemini- Today is an ideal day to shop for a new wardrobe. You may find your usual style too conventional or uncomfortably trendy. Sometimes you reject flat pack furniture you really like out of fear they’re too suggestive, old fashioned, or something else.

Perhaps you should listen to your flaccid gut judgment for a change instead of being so concerned about what other people might think. Just get IKEA Plancktüm in disturbed pine. Lucky narcotic Heroin. Favourite gas Argon Cancer, topic of the day is knowledge and learning. Did you study the field you really wanted to or just go into Accountancy? Do you feel bad about not having attended such-and-such school or college? If these issues are uppermost on your mind today, remember that your creativity has little to do with the degrees you hold. It has everything to do with your obvious lack of personality and sex appeal. Your Guardian Angel’s name Mitzi. Aura colour mostly beige. Leo, Planetary alignment is favourable, and you’re in the process of fiddling Welfare benefits, Leo. It was only a matter of becoming aware of and settling certain matters related to your need for social recognition and cold hard cash. Don’t be so hungry for approval, Leo. Everybody contains a stern inner Nazi and can survive comfortably in total selfsufficiency. In fact, it’s your greatest strength you self-

centred scum. Avoid miniature Schnauzers and pretzels. Virgo, You may feel hemmed in by the role models society currently offers. As you struggle to reach your own definition of the truly innovative achiever, other people sometimes criticize your rather liberated attitude. Just because your ideas aren’t in sync with theirs in no way invalidates them. If your ideas are too radical, theirs are too conventional. There’s room for both viewpoints, once you remove the rod up your arse. Lucky laxative stewed prunes. Avoid white underwear. Libra, The results of the recent planetary influence are coming home to roost, Libra. If everything went according to plan, you gained some balance into your egomania. Buddhist wise men say that the path to spiritual fulfilment lies in

knowing how to build a healthy ego while developing a part of oneself completely foreign to immigrants. You are such a Ponce. Lucky knitwear twin-set in pastel shades. Footwear D.M.’s Scorpio, You will probably be in front of the T.V most of the day eating Pringles. You will pop and not stop many times. A small crisis is still a crisis, isn’t it, Scorpio? You can expect one in your personal life today. Since you aren’t the kind of person who lets issues go unresolved, you won’t be able to put off dealing with your problems any longer. Are responsibilities shared equally with your partner? Are you each making an equal effort to maintain harmony? Asking the questions is the first step to answering them. Like ‘Where the f*** did you put the remote?’. Lucky limb Left arm. Lucky knitwear socks. Sagittarius, longoverdue work has piled up, today is the day to dig in. Added strength and mental acuity are in the air, and the projects that you couldn’t get to before will be readily accomplished. Make the most of the energy provided by the planetary aspects. Don’t put anything off. If you procrastinate, the pile will just get bigger. Do what needs to be done and you will feel great afterward you lazy, feckless Arse. Lucky Underground Station Green Park. Lucky Transexual Eddie Izzard.

C a p r i c o r n , Something has to change. You knew it as soon as you woke up this morning. Your mirror provides the impetus for important resolutions today. Is it time to begin a diet, commit to exercising more, or strengthen your resolve to quit smoking? Anything you do to improve your appearance will make you feel a lot better about yourself. Buy some new clothes or get a haircut. People will notice, even if you are hideously ugly. Buck yourself up with some Cocaine. Aquarius, You might want to check your alarm clock to be sure it really woke you up this morning. Your tendency today will be to stay in the cocoon of your little dream world, deep in your own thoughts. Obsessive thoughts, in particular, will try and drown out some more pressing issues from the past that need resolution once and for all. Lucky Antidepressant Fluoxitine, lay off the Weed. Pisces, There’s something in the air pushing you toward change or renewal. Is it time to change your wardrobe or redecorate your home? If so, today’s the day. If you have a budget, you will find it just as fulfilling (and a lot cheaper) to rid your home of all the things that just aren’t “you” anymore. Surround yourself with things you love. Basically spend your way out of despair, it works for me and Alastair Campbell. Lucky salve Ralgex, avoid masturbation.

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Early March 2021

POLITICS AND EVENTS

HOPE AND GOOD NEWS

Democratic Republic of Congo The rights of indigenous groups of forest people such as the Batwa and Bambuti will be recognised for the first time. It will enshrine land rights to 150 indigenous and ethnic minority groups as well as unlocking healthcare, and secondary education to up to three million Congolese people. It is hoped that the Senate will pass into law the the bill passed in November 2020. Read more at https:// tinyurl.com/ybjxqjre Argentina The country has legalised elective abortion and this may lead to others in Latin America following them in this matter (only three others do currently). The bill was passed on December 30th last year allowing women to voluntary

end their pregnancies up to 14 weeks after conception. This is the culmination of a campaign started by Dora Coledesky in 1988 to create a Commission for the Right to Abortion.

This victory was also celebrated by grass roots women’s movement against gender violence that used the hashtag #NiUnaMenos (“Not one less” – meaning no more women lost to gender violence). They adopted a green scarf – worn as a bandana, head-scarf, or around the wrist – as a symbol of their movement, that has spread to other Latin American countries, to symbolise the broader fight for women’s rights. Mexico Environmentalists, peasant and consumers convinced

Dumb and Dumber Boris’s shambolic Tory party has a chalked up 23 per cent LEAD over Starmer’s Labour party according to a YouGov survey, released on Sunday. It found 45 per cent would vote Conservative in a general election and only 32 percent would give their backing to a Starmer-led Labour Party.

Even worse the survey found that 52 percent of working-class voters, and the jobless, would back the Tories, and only 27 per cent picking Labour, a shameful result for any Labour Party leader. Among middleclass voters Labour trails the Conservatives by four per cent.

STOP PRESS – GOOD NEWS Venezuela: The country is presently making progress to make a society free of gender violence reports Government spokespersons. Venezuela’s National Assembly (Parliament) passed on Tuesday the reform of the Organic Law on the Right of Women to a Life Free of Violence, which is geared to expanding the scope of legal instrument adapted to present situation. Deputy Pedro Infante said that since the approval of the 1999 Constitution, Venezuela took up the principle of equality of men and women, as part of the construction of a democratic society. The Venezuelan Prosecutor´s Office said that little more than 600 femicide cases were reported from August 2017 to the end of 2020, of which over 50% already have been acted on by prosecutors.

the government to phase out the herbicide glyphosate and genetically modified corn for human consumption by 2024. Malaysia The Malaysian bank CIMB has said it will phase out its financing of coal by 2040. As the fourth biggest company

in the country it had invested $2.6 billion in coal in the last decade and financed at least 5 coal powered power projects in Malaysia and Indonesia. Kazakhstan The central Asian country has finally abolished the death penalty having paused

executions in 2003 whilst courts continued to pass death sentences. New Zealand This year New Zealand has committed NZD 6.8 million (£3.54 million) in The Farm to Market Alliance in supporting smallholder farmers across Africa. The bulk of the support has gone to Rwanda supporting, over the next three years, 200,000 smallholder farmers in rural areas, while working to sustainably transform agricultural markets to become more efficient, resilient and profitable. Note Africa is recognized as the future breadbasket of the world, but the continent is remins a net-importer of food.

Right gets it’s wish as foreign workers abandon UK Britain’s economic recovery from the pandemic risks being seriously damaged by thousands of “missing” overseas workers who have left the country and will not return, senior figures from across industry are warning Boris Johnson. Executives from hospitality, social care, construction and manufacturing all raised concerns that a lack of overseas workers after the pandemic will

put a “handbrake on the recovery”. Some warned that the success of some of the government’s own flagship targets, such as an aim to build 300,000 homes a year, was being put at risk. The warnings come after the issue was raised by the Office for Budget Responsibility this week. It said that the future population may be “substantially smaller” than official estimates suggest as people leave Britain, causing a “scarring impact”.

POLITICS AND EVENTS

Early March 2021

THE

WORD

19

WOMEN WHO MADE A DIFFERENCE

Like many girls of her class she was educated at home. Although from a privileged background the family experienced financial problems in 1906. So Victoria, along with her three sisters, worked as children, growing vegetables and flowers to sell and keeping poultry. From an early age, she showed an interest in mechanics. She surprised her family by wanting to make her career as a marine engineer. The First World War provided many new employment

opportunities for women. Victoria began her career as an apprentice in the Northern Garage, Perth, moving in 1918 to the Caledon Ship Works in Dundee, where she stayed until 1922.

She and her parents were introduced to a director of Blue Funnel Line. She was offered a position as an engineer at sea on completing her apprenticeship at Caledon. Blue Funnel employed Drummond in its engineering record office in Liverpool but she was soon signed on the passenger liner Anchises as an assistant engineer. On its next voyage she was signed on as Tenth Engineer. In total she served on 4 voyages to Australia and one to China. She left Blue Funnel in April 1924 having experienced some prejudice, but supported by second engineer Malcolm Quayle, whom she called her ‘protector’.

Literature Quiz Questions 1. Who collaborated with his daughter Lucy, in 2007, to write the children’s book George’s Secret Key to the Universe? 2. Which author’s breakthrough book was decribed by Salman Rushdie as a ‘book so bad it makes bad books look good’? 3. Who declined the 1964 Nobel Prize in Literature because he had consistently declined all official honours? 4. Which author’s books include Coming Up for Air, and Homage to Catalonia? 5. Whose book The Minpins was published in 1991, a few months after the author›s death in 1990? 6. Which Italian novel for children has been adapted in over 240 languages? 7. Which famous novelist was Governor General of Canada? Peter Mark Roget, a nineteenth century British physician, is best known for what type of book? 8. Whose fourth novel featuring Robert Langdon, is a mystery thriller called Inferno? 9. Who wrote the 2012 Booker Prize winning book Bring Up the Bodies? 11. In literature and films whose father was the Earl of Dorincourt?

Drummond began study for her Second Engineer’s qualification which she passed in October 1926 becoming Britain’s first certificated woman marine engineer. This was only because of her ‘bloody minded’ determination. She sat, and failed, the examination 37 times! She became convinced that this was because she was a woman. This was confirmed by a Mr Martin at Dundee who in 1936 tackled the examiners, who privately admitted to him that they always failed her because she was a woman. After qualifying, she was only able to find as a Fifth Engineer, signing on the liner Mulbera on 14 April 1927. She served on the ship until 4 December 1928, sailing to E. Africa, Ceylon and India. Apart from being victimised by the second engineer she was accepted by most of the ship’s company and passengers! During the Depression of the 1930s, there was little demand for marine engineers so she found it difficult to get work. For much of this period she lived with in Lambeth near her sisters Frances and Jean. Frances and Victoria opened a business trading goldfish and in March 1938 attended a Trade Fair in German occupied Austria. The situation there was volatile but they took it upon themselves to enable several Austrian children to enter the UK as refugees and sponsored them by finding them schools, accommodation and paying for their expenses for a year. At the beginning of the Second World War, Victoria

worked as an air raid warden in London also setting up the Victoria Drummond canteen in Lambeth to provide food for families bombed out of their homes. By 1940, she was serving at sea again, and in August 1940 joined the SS Bonita. The ship was attacked by enemy aircraft in the mid-Atlantic and Victoria Drummond was commended for her bravery and leadership. She was on duty when the attack took place although the ship had never previously exceeded 9 knots (17 km/h)she managed to increase its speed to 12.5 knots (23 km/h). This helped save the ship and the crew. Her friend, First Mate, Mr Warner, described Drummond as “about the most courageous woman I ever saw.” In February 1941 Warner and Drummond signed on as Captain and Second Engineer of an old Panamanian steamship, Czikos. This ship also survived a Luftwaffe attack. She went on to serve on 4 more ships during the war often encountering prejudice and bullying because of her gender. Despite this on her last trip Captain Charlton of the Karabagh proposed to her, but she rejected him saying it was because they both had short tempers. In 1946 she was appointed by Blue Funnel to supervise the completion of two cargo ships. She might have preferred to stay supervising ship building, but returned to sea serving as Chief or Second engineer on several ships before retiring in 1962.

She went back to live in Lambeth with her two sisters and wrote her life story. Her health and that of her sisters deteriorated. After breaking her leg, her mental state led to her being placed in St George’s Retreat in East Sussex. She died there on Christmas Day 1978, and is buried at Megginch Castle beside her parents and sisters. Over 40 years she made 49 voyages enduring hardship and often discrimination. However, she won acceptance and support from most of her fellow-officers and near-universal support and loyalty from crewmen. For her courage aboard Bonita Drummond was awarded the MBE and the Lloyd’s War Medal for Bravery at Sea in July 1941. Her MBE was presented by George VI. The Times wrote ‘Her conduct was an inspiration to the ship’s company, and her devotion to duty prevented more serious damage to the vessel’ A ‘tough cookie’ indeed and one of Scotland’s finest!

Answers:

V

ictoria Alexandrina Drummond MBE (14 October 1894 – 25 December 1978), was the first woman marine engineer in the UK and the first woman member of Institute of Marine Engineers. In World War II she served at sea and received awards for bravery under enemy fire.

1. Stephen Hawking 2. Dan Brown 3. Jean-Paul Sartre 4. George Orwell 5. Roald Dahl 6. The Adventures of Pinocchio 7. John Buchan 8. Thesaurus 9. Dan Brown 10. Hilary Mantel 11. Little Lord Fauntleroy

Victoria Alexandrina Drummond

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20

Early March 2021

POLITICS AND EVENTS

A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ICONIC FISHERMAN’S SWEATER

The Fisherman’s Gansey

T

heganseyisbestdescribed as the traditional seagoing fisherman’s sweater. With the origin of the word shrouded in mystery, the term gansey is known and used in all parts of the UK with perhaps the best explanation being a derivation from the Gaelic word for a woollen garment being pronounced ‘gansey’, supposedly the Irish name for Guernsey (note the neighbouring island of Jersey also being a name for a woollen sweater).

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The traditional, working class ganseys, (copies of which have now achieved iconic fashion status with some selling for many hundreds of pounds), were originally knitted by the womenfolk of the fishing communities to particular patterns reputedly unique to coastal areas (Yorkshire, Cornwall, etc.), particular ports or even individual fishing families. The reasons for these unique patterns has been ascribed to the wearer’s body being able

It is estimated to take 150 hours of knitting to make a single gansey

to be identified after being lost at sea and to be returned to his family or ‘lost’ after a drinking binge in another port, so they could be returned safely to their boat.

is wind and waterproof. The heavy patterning on the front, back and sleeves, which gives the gansey its unmistakable character, provides an extra layer of protection from wear and the weather and is also reversible so that areas of heavy wear could be alternated. Other features of the traditional gansey were the gussets in the armpits for extra movement and plain un-patterned lower sleeves which when worn out and holed, could be unravelled and reknitted.

A SKILL TO BE INTENSELY PROUD OF

The traditional ganseys were made from ‘raw wool’ – unprocessed wool, still containing the natural, waterproofing lanolin – twisted into a tightly spun 5-ply worsted yarn, tightly knitted (to turn water), ‘in the round’ on five steel needles. Knitting ‘in the round’ produces a garment with no seams which

So ganseys aren’t the garish, outsize sweaters knitted for you by your grannie as a Christmas present but items of incredible ingenuity, incalculable skill and devoted energy. It has been estimated to take 150 hours of knitting to make a single gansey. lt was a skill that ensured the survival and success of generations of fisherman, provided by the womenfolk of the fishing communities. of.

A skill to be intensely proud By Julie Speed

The Gansey Girl At the side of Bridlington harbour stands, our rather sits, a statue that to some may seem a somewhat surprising, even odd, way to celebrate the town’s fishing heritage, for here sits a woman knitting Known as ‘The Gansey Girl’, she not only celebrates industrial heritage but also cultural heritage and importantly community. To me, she puts right many wrongs and points us to

possible lessons we could learn as we search for a way forward beyond the ‘me’ culture that modernism and neoliberalism have blighted us with. The roles of women and the skills they developed were crucial to such working class communities. It is for shame that society seemed to feel it necessary to denigrate both women and their tremendous skills, mockingly and condescendingly referring

to them as ‘the little woman’, and their work became looked upon as worthless drudgery. Hardly surprising then that within time that it would follow that working class men of such communities were also denigrated and deemed worthless. Whole communities swept to the scrap heap by the insatiable greed of those pursuing individual status and wealth. Our true heritage lies within

those towns and villages and it is to them that we should look for our local and national identity. It is the skills, true life skills, developed over centuries, that defines us. The stately homes, grand estates and flags we are encouraged to view as the jewels of our nations are nothing more than trinkets, the real treasure has always been and should once again be the people that make our own and any nation special.

POLITICS AND EVENTS

Moray firth pennant pattern There have been several regional projects regarding Ganseys, each adding to the information available. The one I’d like to draw attention to as an excellent starter point is the Moray Firth Gansey Project. Included in their website are several patterns for those wanting to try some hands on work. They range from a full gansey sweater through several small useful/decorative items. Among them is a simple pennant which I would like to try. I’m not a charted pattern sort myself and for others like me, I’ve written out the pattern for it, so any can give it a go. I’ve chosen the diamond pattern as it reminded me of those seen on the Gansey Girl’s knitting. I’m going to play around with a different yarn but still attempt to keep it to a fine gauge by using a couple of sizes down for needles. We’d absolutely love to see any gansey related items you may knit so why not have a go with me, there’s a fair choice on the Moray Firth site (www.gansey-mf.co.uk) you want something different. Cast on 45 stitches Rows 1 to 10 knit Row 11 K2 tog,K8,(P1,K11) X2,P1,K8,K2 tog Row 12 K2,P7,(K1,P11) X2,K1,P7,k2 Row 13 K8,(P1,K1,P1,K9) X2,,P1,K1,P1,K8 Row 14 K2,P6,(K1,P1,K1,P9) X2,K1,P1,K1,P6,K2 Row 15 K2tog,K5,(P1,K1,P1,K1,P1,K7) X2,P1,K1,P1,K1,P1,K5,K2tog Row 16 K2,P4,(K1,P1,K1,P1,K1,P7)X2,K1,P1,K1,P1,K1,P4,K2 Row 17 K5,(P1,K1,P1,K1,P1,K1,P1,K5) X3 Row 18 K2,P3,(K1,P1,K1,P1,KI,P1,K1,P5) X2,K1,P1,K1,P1,K1,P1,K1,P3,K2 Row 19 K2 tog,K2,(P1,K1,P1,K1,P1,K1,P1,K1,P1,K3) X2,P1,K1,P1,K1,P1,K1,P 1,K1,P1,K2,K2 tog Row 20 K2,P1,(K1,P1,K1,P1,K1,P1,K1,P1,K1,P3) X2,K1,P1,K1,P1,K1,P1,K1,P1 ,K1,P1,K2 Row 21 K2,P1,K1 to the last stitch K1 Row 22 K3,P1,K1 to the last 2 stitches K2 Row 23 K2 tog (K1,P1) X5 K2,(K1,P1) X5,K2,(K1,P1) X5, K2 tog Row 24 K3,(P1,K1) X4,P3,(K1,P1) X4,K1,P3(K1,P1) X4,K3 Row 25 K3,(P1,K1) X4,K4,(P1,K1) X4, K4,(P1,K1) X4, K2 Row 26 K2,(P1,K1) X4,P4,(K1,P1) X4,P4,(K1,P1) X4,K2 Row 27 K2 tog,K1,(K1,P1) X3,K6,(K1,P1) X3, K6,(K1,P1) X3,K2, K2 tog Row 28 K2,(P1,K1) X3,P6,(P1,K1) X3,P6,(P1,K1) X3,P1,K2 Row 29 K4,P1,K1,P1,K9,P1,K1,P1,K9,P1,K1,P1,K4 Row 30 K2,P2,K1,P1,K1,P9,K1,P1,K1,P9, K1,P1,K1,P2,K2 Row 31 K2 tog,K3,P1,K11,P1,K11,P1,K3,K2 tog Row 32 K2,P2,K1,P11, K1,P11,K1,P2,K2 Row 33 Knit to end Row 34 K2,P29,K2 Row 35 K2 tog,K14,P1,K14,K2 tog Row 36 K2,P13,KI,P13,K2 Row 37 K14,P1,K1,P1,K14 Row 38 K2,P12,K1,P1,K1,P12,K2 Row 39 K2 tog,K11,(P1,K1) X3,K10,K2 tog Row 40 K2,P10,(KI,P1) X3,P9,K2 Row 41 K11,(P1,K1) X4,K10 Row 42 K2,P9,(KI,P1)X4,P8,K2 Row 43 K2 tog,K8,(P1,K1) X5,K7.K2 tog Row 44 K2,P7,(KI,P1) X5,P6,K2 Row 45 K8,(P1,K1) X6,K7 Row 46 K2,P6,(KI,P1) X6,P5,K2 Row 47 K2 tog,K7,(P1,K1) X5,K6,K2 tog Row 48 K2,P6,(K1,P1) X5,P5,K2 Row 49 K9,(P1,K1) X4,K8 Row 50 K2,P7,(K1,P1)X4,P6,K2 Row 51 K2 tog,K8,(P1,K1) X3,K7,K2 tog Row 52 K2,P7,(K1,P1) X3,P6,K2 Row 53 K10,P1,K1,P1,K10 Row 54 K2,P8,K1,P1,K1,P8,K2 Row 55 K2 tog,K9,P1,K9,K2 tog Row 56 K2,P8,KI,P8,K2 Row 57 K21 Row 58 K2,P17,K2 Row 59 K2 tog,K8,P1,K8,K2 tog Row 60 K2,P7,KI,P7,K2 Row 61 K8,P1,K1,P1,K8 Row 62 K2,P6,KI,P1,K1,P6,K2 Row 63 K2 tog,K5,(P1,K1) X3,K4,K2 tog Row 64 K2,P4,(K1,P1) X3,P3,K2 Row 65 K5,(P1,K1) X4,K4 Row 66 K2,P3,(K1,P1) X4, P2,K2 Row 67 K2 tog,K2,(P1,K1) X5, K1,K2 tog Row 68 K2,P1,(K1,P1) X5,K2 Row 69 K2,(P1,K1) X6, K1 Row 70 K3,P1,(K1,P1) X4,K3 Row 71 K2 tog,K1,(P1,K1) X5,K2 tog Row 72 K3,P1,(K1,P1) X3,K3 Row 73 K3,(P1,K1) X4, K2 Row 74 K2,P1,(K1,P1) X4,K2 Row 75 K2 tog,K2,(P1,K1) X3,K1,K2 tog Row 76 K2,P1,(K1,P1) X3, K2 Row 77 K4,P1,K1,P1,K4 Row 78 K2,P2,K1,P1,K1,P2,K2 Row 79 K2 tog,K3,P1,K3,K2 tog Row 80 K2, P2,K1,P2,K2 Row 81 Knit to end 9 stitches Row 82 K2,P5,K2 Row 83 K2 tog,K5,K2 tog Row 84 K2,P3,K2 Row 85 Knit (7) Row 86 K2,P3,K2 Row 87 K2 tog,K3,K2 tog Row 88 K2,P1,K2 Row 89 Knit (5) Row 90 K2,P1,K2 Row 91 K2 tog,KI,K2 tog Row 92 K3 Row 93 K3 Row 94 K3 Row 95 K3 tog

Early March 2021

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OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE FUTURE

Meno-Pause to reassess life T

he menopause is nature’s way of offering women an opportunity to look to the future – who do they want to be in their second half of life? Most women have finished child rearing and, in recent history, were approaching retirement, a transition they made in better health than men. With retirement being pushed later, working women can feel obliged to continue maintaining an experienced or professional standing. The challenges of having oestrogen drop out of your life in an unpredictable off-on way,

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Challenges of having oestrogen drop out of your life

plus dealing with a radical shift to a testosterone-dominated system puts strain on the body’s ability to cope. Mood swings are exacerbated by stress and stress is exacerbated by the brain having less capacity due to the demands of dealing with the constant change.

Check your results.

Women suffer more burn out in their mid-fifties but for men there is no driver to reassess

1. Mate in three 1. Rxf7ch NxR 2. Ne6ch Kg8 3. Ne7mate 2. Black king vulnerable 1. Ra1 (threat Rh1mate) NxP 2. Rh1ch Nh5 3. R(g2) h2 Wins piece

3. Swift end 1. Nf6ch. Kf8 2. Bh6mate 4. White to mate 1. QxBch KxQ 2. Re8ch Kd7 3. Rd8mate 5. White forces mate 1. RxPch KxR 2. Qd5ch Rc6

Pushing that dead stop into later age means less physical ability to deal with the shock of a sudden lack of purpose in life when men suddenly cease to have a role as the provider.

WOMEN SUFFER MORE BURN OUT IN THEIR MID-FIFTIES

Few GPs seem to advocate this as a healthy alternative to drug and hormone therapies for menopausal troubles but reassessing life’s path and pressures can be just as effective and more beneficial in the long term.

Did you mange to solve our issue 54 page 27 chess problems?

life until work stops and heart attacks in men in their midsixties were the consequence.

If the government took a broader view of people than of mere economic units in a monetary system and if employers started harnessing the experience of its older workers, that opportunity to review life, find new aspirations, maybe a more valued place in society might be realised for both sexes. By Thelma Goodrich

3. Rd7 Kb8 4. Ba7ch Ka8 or c8 5. QxR mate

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Early March 2021

POLITICS AND EVENTS

THE

WORD

Book 5 Book 5 Sudoku #1

4 1 4 1

Sudoku #1

7 4 5 7 4 6 5 6

SUDOKU

Intermediate Sudoku Puzzles by KrazyDad

Intermediate Sudoku Puzzles by KrazyDad

6 6

4 4 5 1 1 3 7 5 3 7

8 6 3 8 6 4 3 2 4 2

8 4 8 6 9 4 6 9

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POLITICS AND EVENTS

Early March 2021

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THIS WEEK’S POLL AS VOTED BY YOU, OUR READERS

TOP 5 EVIL RICH PEOPLE MARK ELIOT ZUCKERBURG Stole the ideas behind Facebook from university friends. Uses it to illegally collect and sell peoples data. He bans people when he disagrees with their politics.

BILL GATES

TONY BLAIR

RUPERT MURDOCH Top, and by a large majority as the most evil rich guy on the planet was, Rupert Murdoch. With a reported net worth of $20 million, Murdoch made his original pile from the lies of his newspapers. Infamously smearing Liverpool supporters. This helped Murdoch kick off Sky television. A lot of people in Liverpool still think what happened at Hillsborough were murders.

Second in our readers poll was, Tony Blair. This poor excuse for a human being managed to start wars with Afghanistan, Serbia, Iraq and, Sierra Leone. Was once a member of CND. Blair has been guilty of the murder of tens of thousands of innocent civilians. Thatcher said he was her greatest achievement.

Almost still is, and once was, the richest man in the world. Estimate wealth is $163 billion. Gates made his money by computer software as well as anti - virus software. Gate has now moved in to pharmaceuticals. Vaccinations against viruses. Thought to have killed thousands in Africa with his experiments on poor people.

JEFF BEZOS Founder of Amazon. Bezos makes billions while the staff in his warehouses are exploited. Started selling books online now sells everything. The covid pandemic has helped his wealth. Like Gates it is in his interests.

RUNNERS UP RICHARD BRANSON, Philip Green and again the evil THATCHER.

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Y home area laid claim to one of the most famous Saxon battles, long before the Norman invasion - the Battle of Hatfield Chase in 633AD.

POLITICS AND EVENTS

ARMIES OF KING FACES FACE UP TO THE POWER

It pitted the local Northumbrians led by Edwin and against the largest army of its day, an alliance of Gwynedd and Mercia. It was a decisive victory for Gwynedd. Edwin was killed and later sainted. It took generations for Northumbria to recover. from its defeat. The other battle was more recent but just as devastating. As a seventeen year old I witnessed the ‘The Battle of Hatfield main’ on Pit Lane which took place a mile or two from the original battleground. It may not have been quite as furious with thousands slain, or nearly as famous but the devastating effects on the population and the working class have lasted a generation . The area has never recovered. The battle took place during the biggest and longest mass strike in British history it ended 36 years ago this week. Around 165,000 miners struck for a year from March 1984. They were fighting Tory prime minister Margaret Thatcher’s attempts to close pits, sack tens of thousands of workers and smash one of the most militant sections of the working class. On 5 March 1985, thousands of miners lined up behind their pit lodge banners and marched defiantly back to work. Their heroic strike was over. But the battles and struggles should never be forgotten. Today, the legacy of the Great Miners’ Strike is bitterly contested. Some say that the miners were destined for defeat from the start. Others argue that Thatcher’s assault destroyed any power that the unions had and any hope of working class struggle. But we have not forgotten these struggles and like the battles before we are rebuilding and more so learning.

NEVER FORGIVE NEVER FORGET In 2015 the streets of Dunscroft & Stainforth watched a banner parade, led by Sheffield City Pipe

»

Battle took place during the longest strike in history

The Battle of Hatfie Band, march from the Broadway Hotel on a route that passed Hatfield Colliery, to the top of the old ‘pit lane’, which led to the entrance of the colliery at the time of the strike. The crossroads at the ‘pit lane’ a former battleground where the state used its power and machinery to try and smash the resistance of the people fighting to keep their jobs and community together. Stainforth is a small mining village situated near Doncaster and Barnsley, Yorkshire, showed to me in a series of episodes, the ‘civil war’ nature

of the miner’s strike of 1984. The working people around Stainforth, Armthorpe and Woolley certainly could testify to the ruthless nature of ‘the enemy within’ the capitalist state.

THE RESPONSIBLE LEFT’S LEGACY That the miners suffered a defeat that took almost a full year to play out demonstrated the creative combativity of their struggle. Capitalist grandees of business cheered on the assaults led by the police but the whole

spectrum of society knew from daily visions on the TV and in the media that this was a war, albeit often edited or ignored to lessen the impact.

The cynical but consistent failure of the ‘responsible left’ i.e. Labour Party and Communist Party leaders have, ever since left a legacy within the working class that will never be forgotten. Thirty-six years have passed since those eventful days but still, the memories have not dulled the clarity to those involved. This was a social mugging by the state that left many lessons ingrained. My recall goes back to Stainforth/Hatfield seven miles north-east of Doncaster. In itself not dissimilar in design and aspect to the housing familiar to me around the Ford factory in Dagenham, Essex. However Stainforth, and it’s adjacent coal mine of Hatfield Main, was to witness some extraordinary

sights during one sultry day in the August of ’84. The strike had been going for five months and not a single strike-breaker had dared to challenge the village population by attempting to go to work. But on the 21 st of August that changed. Three scabs, we were told, had broken the strike and had ‘gone in’ to the accompaniment of many flying missiles and protection from the armed attendance of the Greater Manchester Constabulary soon after dawn. Myself and reporter Simon Veevers* had been at Armthorpe, three miles away, another strongly supported strike village, when we were passed a message from one of Simon’s innumerable contacts in the area about the earlier goings on’ at Hatfield Main. We high tailed there to find not a standoff but a sit-off. The police lines had meanwhile been reinforced by another detachment from London’s Met, whilst the whole village, older men, women and children were behind their side –

POLITICS AND EVENTS

Early March 2021

R OF THE STATE CLOSE BY A SAXON BATTLEFIELD

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Police charged punching, kicking and truncheoning

conspiracy to validate the objectivity of the Big-Wig? No matter the judge duly found him guilty on the verbal from several of Manchester’s law enforcers. Photo evidence is obviously inferior to police testimony.

eld main at Pit Lane horses and dog-handlers rampaging through the little alleyways that criss-crossed the miners housing.

MINER STOPPED BREATHING

miners sat across the end of the pit lane in a blockade. The time was approaching when the police would move to bring out the vehicle containing the scabs through the only exit from the pit. The strike-breakers hadn’t gotten their hands dirty for pay that day. Their purpose was purely to create a psychological wedge in the remote countryside village and facilitate the use of the big city forces mobilised by the Association of Chief Police Officers to do their worst. There were no token attempts at negotiation or notification with the miners and villagers on the part of senior police officers. They knew why they were there. It mattered not to them that one of the scabs had been gently persuaded to rejoin the strike and had left the ferrying wagon with now, just two aboard for the gauntlet run through the

Stainforth’s defiant line. In fact, if a scab was limbless with a bad back and total memory loss he would still have been told: “the force is with you”. The mercury was rising and we could sense the fidgety impatience throughout the ranks of the closely packed, overdressed lines of blue.

IN AUGUST WE WERE TOLD THREE SCABS HAD GONE IN

On a simple signal, both left and right wings of police charged forward – punching, kicking and truncheoning all before them. Of course, the majority of the miners climbed to their feet and scattered to avoid the blows. Others sat their ground and were overwhelmed with hardwood sticks, steel toe-capped boots and shields. Men women and children ran. There were subsequently many days like this at Stainforth with divisions of police-

Some months after the 21 st of August I was asked to print four sets of photos for a forthcoming court case in Doncaster. A miner who had been collared immediately the police charge had started was now, we learned, being charged with assaulting the police! The fact that he had stopped breathing after his beating and had been resuscitated in the emergency room altered not the states victimisation at all. The pictures clearly showed his distinctive tee-shirt being enveloped by a sea of blue. He obviously had neither time nor weapons for assault as against the police ... I’ll not name the miner as I write this story

without his permission. On the day in court, the photographs were passed to the solitary circuit (miners strike) Judge, the prosecution counsel, the defence counsel and myself. After affirming to tell the truth with my hand raised and left foot on the bible the prosecution questioned me, not on what I had seen as a witness, but on how my exhibits could be trusted – being that I worked for a revolutionary newspaper! The judge interjected, countering the prosecutor with, “ the witness is here to confirm the validity of the photographs – do you question their truth?” The police prosecutor bowed his head and said, “No your honour.” Had the prosecution embarrassed the judge with their witch-hunt of objective t r u t h? Surely not a

The judge vindicated his ‘profession’ without a jury. The officers did their job. I and the miner had been the only unpaid attendees. He did three months. These court cases were repeated with monotonous and bangingup regularity over months. Justice is class justice, always was, always will be – better be the day when the ‘rules of court’ and judgements are passed down by the working class themselves. Convoys of police marauding through Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire left indelible memories, but standing out in starkest relief on reflection is the recall of those seemingly little but obstinate plants that grew in town and village around the pit. *Comrade Simon Veevers with me in court that day sadly died last winter. A class fighter he did everything he could do to advance miners strike in 84-85. Republished from the original article by Ray Rising– a News Line photographer and partisan.

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POLITICS AND EVENTS

Vegan recipes

PROTEIN WRAP

medium-sized tomatoes

Ingredients: l4 tortilla wraps (use GF

l 1 tin black beans, drained

l2 50g/1 packet pre-cooked

l 1 tin sweetcorn, drained

where necessary)

grains or lentils. Use quinoa for highest protein content l 1 20g cherry tomatoes or 2

and rinsed and rinsed

l 1 50-200g marinated tofu

(eg Cauldron or Taifun), diced

Cooking with Chris Williamson

l 1 avocado l 1 tbsp of runny tahini per

wrap (or use vegan mayo or hummus) l J uice of 1 lime lC hilli sauce (eg Sriricha) lD rizzle of olive oil lS alt and pepper to taste

Method:

Lay out the tortilla wrap and fill with a quarter of all of the ingredients. Drizzle or spoon over the sauce of your choice and add salt and pepper if desired. Make sure you don’t make

the wrap too full or it’s difficult to roll. It’s best to drizzle a bit of olive oil over the grains to soften them up a bit. Fold up each end of the wrap and then roll each side together, making sure it’s all tucked in.

POLITICS AND EVENTS

Early March 2021

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LIES BEHIND STARMER’S REJECTION OF MORE TAX ON PROFITS

Labour is positioning to be the next austerity party!

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inclusion/broadband network commitment to the forefront and disprove the lie that it was fantastical and a gimmick.

eft wing economists’ arguments against austerity have been hijacked to argue (with a party political broadcast no less) that we should not criticise Starmer for opposing increased corporation tax.

The extent of cronyism provided a perfect opportunity to highlight by how much the cost of these cronycontracts dwarf the cost of Labour’s entire previous manifesto, and also highlights that when needed the money can be found.

There is merit in the arguments made against the ‘language of austerity/ taxation’ because as a currency issuing country Britain can, and has, simply created £895 billion in quantitative easing which it could be used to pay for a transformative socialist manifesto if it chose to. Instead, Theresa May’s money tree has been used to shower the Tory’s friends with bounty. Starmer is not coming from the left of John McDonnell and Jeremy Corbyn. He has never ever thought: “Corbyn was great but he didn’t go far enough, and McDonnell tied himself down with that fiscal credibility rhetoric - let’s get on with quantitative easing for the people”. If he had then arguments being made to defend him would have some legitimacy. But he has not, and they don’t. Quite the opposite. Starmer will never present a bold transformative manifesto, or one that is NOT fully costed. Having to justify how “we are going to pay for it” during

back from. It implies the two are linked if we don’t choose to ignore the context of his politics. Shadow Chancellor Anneliese Dodds has suggested they plan to support a rise in corporation tax in the future. (Believe that if you wish). If we really do plan to make the alternative argument in future election addresses, surely linking a rise in corporation tax with an attack on small struggling enterprises is crazy. Even making a party political broadcast to that effect!

THE CLAIM THAT STARMER IS CHALLENGING THE LANGUAGE OF AUSTERITY IS A LIE

McDonnell’s tenure was a concession to the delusion and economic illiteracy of Margaret Thatcher. One of the great things about Corbyn in 2015 was that he directly challenged that lie and the party enjoyed wonderful discussions around what were dubbed “Corbynomics” with so many leading economists, including Nobel prize winners, adding their weight to his challenge.

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Theresa May’s money tree has been used to shower the Tory’s friends with bounty

The party political broadcast claim that Starmer is challenging the language of austerity is a lie.

If we remain tied to a ‘fiscal credibility’ clause (where’s the money’s coming from) then regardless of the academic argument, where will it be found if it doesn’t come from taxing rich corporations and stopping tax evasion and cracking down on avoidance, then where?

It is also a deceit to approach this from an academic ‘what is the real worth of taxation’ when we know that Starmer would never present an uncosted manifesto. To suggest otherwise, devoid of the context BN of Starmers politics, is CREATED artificial. FROM

£895

In the context of Starmer’s politics – (and it’s not left of ‘Corbynomics’) something has to give. If we are not arguing for the wealthy to pay more are NOTHING we simply going to offer Starmer is distancing himself less in our future program? from Corbyn’s previous bold manifestoes and neglecting In his leadership pledges to make the arguments for Starmer explicitly stated he our political priorities despite would put forward a bold numerous opportunities. manifesto. He also pledged economic justice adding that The pandemic offered the rising corporation tax was a core ideal chance to move our digital principle we should not step

I suspect this is gaslighting by Starmer and his defenders. What we do see is that he finds it easy to renege on his leadership pledges. Despite what is being claimed there is no sign he rejects austerity politics. What he has has done is concede to big business while claiming to speak for struggling small business. The expectation is the Labour’s next manifesto will discard the program and policies the people need and that he lied about to win the leadership. Along with his abject failure to stand with teachers in a genuine life and death situation every party member should wake up to the fact this man does not represent us. By A Labour Party member

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Early March 2021

POLITICS AND EVENTS

THEY WANT TO SELL OFF THE NHS, WHY MAKE IT MORE EXPENSIVE?

Of course the Tories only gave health workers 1 percent!

T

he insulting one per cent pay rise for the NHS may be depressing, it may have been disgusting and stingey. But it was in no way surprising. The hypocrisy of Conservative Ministers joining in with ‘Clap 4 The NHS’ last year was equally nauseating, not least because the plastered-on smiles on the faces of Matt Hancock and Rishi Sunak, among others, were so obviously fake it was an insult to the British public

»

that they thought they were kidding anyone. By all means get angry at seeing the latest slap in the face for NHS workers, who have endangered their health and their very lives trying to fight the lethal SARS-Cov2

WHAT UTTER, LIFE-ENDANGERING CYNICISM CONTROLS BRITAIN.

The Tories would happily throw billions at COMPANIES, including those that relentlessly foul up.

Latest Good news Nigel Farage has resigned as leader of Reform UK, the renamed Brexit party, and announced he is stepping down from frontline party politics permanently, saying he had achieved what he wanted to thanks to the Conservatives’ Brexit deal.

He will take the post of

pandemic, and have not even had the most basic “reward” of adequate PPE or ventilator equipment with which to confront it.

honorary president.

Farage said in a statement on the Reform UK website that with the May local elections set to take place, he had decided to step back after “reflecting on my role and my life over the course of the next few years”. He said the Brexit party’s

But let us not pretend we expected any better. We always knew the Tories would happily throw billions at COMPANIES, including those that relentlessly foul up, like Serco. But they will not give money to PEOPLE, least of all ones in the NHS. formation and successes in the 2019 European elections had been responsible for Boris Johnson replacing Theresa May adding that the Brexit deal: “has cut off Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK and treated our fisherman terribly, but we are out and there is no going back.” A regular media pundit on UK and US politics, Farage has spent his time commenting on the arrival of asylum seekers

Hancock cannot look

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NHS workers, who have endangered their health and their very lives trying to fight the lethal SARS-Cov2

The reason is not just ideological desperation to keep the poorest and hardestworking poor and enslaved - although that is clearly an incidental pleasure for the psychopaths of the Tory Party. The real issue is that the Tories are desperate to sell off the last remnants of the NHS that are not already in private hands. Contracted wages tend to be carried over after a purchase of a company, even a Public-

sector company. So a wide pay-rise for NHS staff will... horrors... increase the liabilities of the Service as it is put on the market. And that of course will make it less attractive to potential buyers. What utter, life-endangering cynicism controls Britain, when it prioritises Big Money Buyers over people literally endangering their own lives to save thousands of other lives? By Martin Odoni from France across the Channel which he refers to as an invasion. In a newspaper interview he said his two main focuses would be the influence of China in the UK, and “the woke agenda, literally the indoctrination of our children from primary school all the way through university with now a completely different interpretation of history”.

POLITICS AND EVENTS

Early March 2021

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LIVERPOOL LEGEND IAN ST. JOHN DIES AGE 82 - AN APPRECIATION

T’ARA WELL SAINT

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A final story of Shanks. I was in a pub. In walked the entire Liverpool team. They each had a drink in their hands. It was not being lifted to the lips. Brian Hall spotted me and came over. “We have just heard that Shankly is retiring”, he said. “We are all in a state of shock.”

hirty seven thousand five hundred pounds he cost. That was the record-breaking transfer fee paid by Liverpool FC to sign him. Wow, we thought, he had better be good. He was. There will be lots of obituaries to read that are full of full of facts and figures but let me just record my impressions of seeing him for the first time and also of the Shankly approach to footy. He typified it. At school I had been taught to first trap a ball that was passed to me, then to control it, make a few yards, look around me and pass it. Ian St. John, with the great Jimmy Melia, made all of that totally out of date. The ball came over, it was caught on the thigh, rolled down the outside leg and then flicked to another team member. Suddenly the ball would be somewhere else and the puzzled opponents scratching their heads. The pace of this sort of play was very fast. Liverpool often won games in the last twenty minutes when the other side was, as we used to say, out of puff.

You will, perhaps, read of St. John’s on/off love of Shankly but, not just for me, that thirty seven five hundred pounds was transformational. In football today it would be loose change.

WOW, WE THOUGHT, HE HAD BETTER BE GOOD

Shankly demanded fitness. At university I played with and against Brian Hall. He told the

story of the team warning Geoff Strong about Shankly’s training methods when he arrived. “Oh I am fit” was his reply. Brian said that during the first two training sessions he had to go off to be sick.

only remember him on the telly with Jimmy Greaves, both of them intelligent, articulate and funny. Suddenly viewers were being forced to recognise that the brains of footballers were not simply connected to their feet. He did not simply run through a game, he thought through every game. THE COST It was not just his St. John was not OF ST JOHN’S goals that made TRANSFER supporters love simply physically fit. His brain was just as fast. He him. It was his approach was also fearless. Perhaps you and his spirit.

£37,500

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Graffiti in Liverpool asked what would happen when Christ returned – more graffiti added that St John would move to inside-right

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CASH IS KILLING THE SPORT TOP SIX CLUBS HAVE MORE WEALTH

I

MONEY

f you go down the pub to watch football, (if you could go to the pub) you’re sooner or later debating about how money is spoiling football. There is a point here, Arsene Wenger made it a couple of years ago. He argued it was clear “something is not right in our game” that “financial power… is destroying the competition.” That “when you look at the five big leagues in Europe, in December we already know four champions”.

Then there’s the cost of going to see a match and how so many working class people are priced out of the game they love, but that’s a whole different story. As a Chelsea fan with a few quid in my pocket if I was selfish I wouldn’t be stressed. We’re ‘big six’ and it’s such a buzz when a man in blue holds silverware in the air. But then I think about the 201516 season and Leicester. Be honest, wasn’t that one of the most exciting seasons in ages? Do you remember how all of a sudden Leicester seemed to be everyone’s second favourite team? That was a mid-table season for us and I certainly found myself hoping Leicester would do it.

WE NEED TO BE ABLE TO SHARE THE EXCITEMENT OF NOT KNOWING

It’s not complicated. The ‘top six’ in the UK have vastly more wealth than any other teams. They buy the best players. They win league titles.

POLITICS AND EVENTS

Early March 2021

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H THAN ALL OF THE OTHER CLUBS IN THE LEAGUE PUT TOGETHER

SPOILS FOOTBALL Liverpool FC is deeply saddened by the passing of Phil Chisnall, aged 78.

Isn’t that what football’s all about, competition? The not knowing at the start of the season which team will do it and every team in the league in with a shout? Or are we lucky to have the

money to allow some of the best players in the world to grace our pitches in a way that I never saw when I first went to football in the early 1970’s? Peter Osgood was good, for sure, but he was never a patch on

Didier Drogba

»

They buy the best players, they win league titles

Didier Drogba and it was a joy watching Drogba play. Without money in the team that would never have been possible. Selfishness aside, we need to find a way to create more seasons like 2015-16. We need to be able to share the excitement of not knowing. But please, be sure we have the Drogbas of this world play at Chelsea. By Edward Hunter

The former forward was signed from Manchester United by Bill Shankly in April 1964 – the last player to transfer directly between the two clubs – and went on to score two goals in nine appearances for the Reds. Chisnall made his debut as a substitute in the Charity Shield four months after his arrival, and then netted his first goal two days later in a European Cup win at KR Reykjavik. His final game came in the first leg of the 1965-66 Cup Winners’ Cup semi-final against Glasgow Celtic and he then departed to join Southend United, whom he represented for four years. Chisnall, who had spent six years at Old Trafford before moving to Liverpool, and then to Southend before completing his career with a short time at Stockport County. Tommy Smith talked about Chisnall in his autobiography as having a good singing voice but liking the drink a little too much. His main claim to fame was being the first footballer to be seen kicking a ball on match of the day The thoughts of everyone at Liverpool FC are with Phil’s family and friends at this sad and difficult time. RIP Phil Chisnall 1942-2021

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POLITICS AND EVENTS

STEVEN GERRARD’S RANGERS FINALLY WIN THE TITLE Ianis Hagi

RANGERS ARE SCOTTISH CHAMPIONS FOR THE first time in a decade

S

uddenly, it’s like 2012 0-0 draw at Tannadice Park by never happened. Dundee United. The original Rangers Football Club, liquidated Rangers had landed and wound-up due to its on the threshold of the inability to pay its tax bills, Championship the previous may no longer exist, but day with a comfortable 3-0 its ‘off-spring’, win over St. Mirren. ‘The Rangers Gerrard was seen Football Club,’ at the window has relived of the Rangers’ the glorious dressing history room after of the the game, original, by s i ng i ng becoming to fans Scottish gathered Champions. outside. Stevie G singalong Under the It has been a management remarkable climbof Steven Gerrard, back for Rangers, with Rangers have cantered to the Celtic almost completely 2020/21 Scottish Premiership dominating the Scottish game title with fully six matches throughout the 2010s with remaining in the season. The little competition to speak of. title, which has frankly looked Rangers, on liquidation and a formality since Christmas re-activation, were refused reanyway, was finally handed entry to the Premiership, but to them on Sunday the 7th of were allowed membership of March, when arch-enemies the Scottish Football League. Celtic, looking out-of-sorts They had to start at the as they have for much of the bottom, the Third Division, season, were held to a scrappy for the 2012-13 season, and

gradually worked their way up the four divisions, eventually returning to the Premiership in 2016. They went through various managers along the way, and continued to flirt with financial problems early on. But by the time Gerrard was made manager in May 2018, the club was starting to look stable and a workable business model. The appointment of Gerrard, himself a hero as a player at Liverpool for many years, but a novice in coaching, was quite a gamble, and he has needed the support of his former Liverpool team-mate Gary McAllister, as vice-coach, to help him through. But in just three years, Gerrard has taken Rangers from being a bit of an ‘also-ran’ in the Scottish Premiership to the undisputed best side in Scotland, and has vindicated the faith the club placed in him. He has put together a team of real ability, with players like Conor Goldson, Romanian Ianis Hagi, and Nigerian Joe Aribo forming a powerful spine,

and Ryan Kent proving an excellent attacker, providing ammunition for ageing-butstill-effective f o r m e r England centreforward Jermain Defoe. Gerrard is likely to be as big a hero in the blue half of Glasgow as he is in the red half of Merseyside after ending Rangers’ decade in the wilderness. This title is Rangers’ first, or fifty-fifth, depending on whether you regard the current club to be the same as the one that went bust in 2012. By Martin Odoni

Jermaine Defoe celebrates the title