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Issue #66, Late June Edition 2021

£1

DAME HODGE IS STRANGELY QUIET ON THE MATTER

Starmer only comments after Hancock has gone REASON HANCOCK WENT WAS MASSIVE FRAUD BY A USELESS PRICK

HANCOCK USED PRIVATE EMAIL ACCOUNT FOR GOVERNMENT BUSINESS

It means that the government does not hold records of much of Hancock’s decision-making, including negotiating multimillion-pound PPE contracts, setting up the £37 billion test and trace programme and overseeing the government’s care homes strategy. Equality Democracy Truth Courage

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Late June 2021

POLITICS AND EVENTS

WOEFUL WALES WIPED OUT WORD EDITORIAL In a week where another Tory Minister cheated on, his wife, the public’s trust and covid restrictions, are we to believe that the right wing establishment puppet that leads Labour had nothing at all to say? The MSM in the guise of channel four tried to smear George Galloway but came away with a bloody nose from the encounter. The wily old politician is standing in the Batley and Spen By – election against the Labour party. Labour hopes a “popular” local candidate here will help it retain the seat – current majority: 3,525 – at the 1 July by-election. Kim Leadbeater is the younger sister of Jo Cox who was the sitting MP for the area when she was murdered by a right wing extremist. Leadbeater was imposed by the Labour party hierarchy with scant regard for democracy. A ruse that looks likely to backfire. With 20% of the electorate made up of Muslim voters, it looks like the false anti – Semitism claims used by right wingers in and out of the Tory party to attack Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour left, may oust the party from this constituency. Perhaps a loss in Batley may well show that we really do need to talk about Palestine and the injustices of the Israeli Government. Meanwhile, in the football world, players are still being pressured into taking “the knee.” When establishments use extreme publicity for any cause then beware. They always will have a hidden agenda. By all means take the knee. Do it before the powers that be make it a compulsory gesture to salute the union flag whilst indoctrinated school kids sing their new patriotic anthem. When you “take the knee” wear a black glove and proudly pump your fist in the air. Do this as you wave your Palestinian flag and show your “free Assange T –shirt. If our egregious Tory masters really want social justice they will support you in doing this. Or, do they simply want you all to be supine?

ales started well then went into hiding as deadly Denmark dug in. Bale was non-existent and Ramsay ineffective. Backed by a fervent and almost exclusively Danish crowd, Kasper Hjulmand’s side led as Kasper Dolberg curled in a fine 27th-minute strike from the edge of the penalty area. Dolberg struck again in the 48th minute as he seized on a defensive error from Wales substitute Neco Williams to smash in from close range. That goal deflated Wales, who never looked like clawing their way back into the game as Joakim Maehle added a late third for the jubilant Danes. Substitute Harry Wilson was then shown a straight red card for a late foul on Maehle before Martin Braithwaite struck a fourth goal in added time as Wales’ cam-

paign ended miserably. Interviewed after the game,

Bale walked away when asked about his retirement plans.

POLITICS AND EVENTS

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MEET MATTY! HE’S ALL MAN, WITH JUST A HINT OF RODENT THROWN IN! PHWOOOAAARRRR! Get a load of the conkers on THAT!!!!

HEY, LADIES, DROOL OVER this week’s Page 3 boy! “H

i, ladies. And any gents this way inclined. I’m Matt, and I’m your own, your very own Secretary of State for Health. Want to join me at the Ministry for some hot, steamy fun fiddling Serco track-andtrace figures? Well, tough, Gina Coladangelo got there first. But let me give

you a sneaky peek at what might have been!” “I’m 19, I do charity work as a hobby by funnelling funds off-shore for obscenely rich Private Healthcare Providers, and in my spare time I like violating my own lockdown rules, recruiting friends to public office at the expense of the taxpayer, and

SHAGGERS ANONYMOUS “I am resigning to spend more time with my conscience”. And so farewell to The Man In The Paper Mask. He simply followed his leader, did what he thought de Piffle would approve. And now we await his memoirs. A title? How about...... “Goodbye to Downing Street. I am a camera”. Must look up Christopher Isherwood. Political Life Is A Cabaret. It was said that Lloyd George never let his braces dangle but at least he was an achiever, inside and outside the sheets. Hancock? Does a peerage await him? Lord Cack Hand? Oh, I am already fed up imagining. You tell me.

dressing in kinky underwear while having extra-marital affairs with millionaire lobbyists!” “Sorry for doing what you always do, Boris...” says saucy Matt.

PIC OF A VERY FAT NAKED MAN WITH MATT HANCOCK’S HEAD SUPERIMPOSED

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Late June 2021

POLITICS AND EVENTS

FROM 20TH JUNE

THIS WEEK IN HISTORY under the same law for another 90 days. 2018 Women drive for the first time in Saudi Arabia after ban is lifted

20th June 1942 – The Holocaust: Kazimierz Piechowski and three others, dressed as members of the SS-Totenkopfverbände, steal an SS staff car and escape from the Auschwitz concentration camp.

25th June 1903 The birth of George Orwell, English novelist of ‘Animal Farm’ and ‘1984’.

1972 – Watergate scandal: An 18½-minute gap appears in the tape recording of the conversations between U.S. President Richard Nixon and his advisers regarding the recent arrests of his operatives while breaking into the Watergate complex. 21st June 1948 1st stored computer program runs on Manchester

Goal of the Century. Argentina wins 2–1 and later goes on to win the World Cup. Mark I at a laboratory in Manchester University, England

1964 Three civil rights workers, Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman, and James Chaney, disappear after being released from a Mississippi jail, later found murdered by members of the Ku Klux Klan

23rd June 1868 – Christopher Latham Sholes received a patent for an invention he called the “Type-Writer”.

22nd June 1948 – The ship HMT Empire Windrush brought the first group of 802 West Indian immigrants to Tilbury, marking the start of modern immigration to the United Kingdom

2016 – The United Kingdom votes in a referendum to leave the European Union, by 52% to 48%.

1986 – The famous Hand of God goal, scored by Diego Maradona in the quarterfinals of the 1986 FIFA World Cup match between Argentina and England, ignites controversy. This was later followed by the

24th June 1964 In South Africa, the 90-Days Act commences, providing for any person to be detained, without trial, for 90 days; further, the person could be re-arrested

2014 Britain’s best-known payday lender, ‘Wonga’, was ordered to pay more than £2.6m compensation after it was found to have sent threatening letters to customers from nonexistent law firms. 26th June 1826 The death, in Bolton of Samuel Crompton, the inventor of the ‘spinning mule’ a machine that revolutionised the industry worldwide. His grave is at the parish church of St Peter’s, in Bolton. 1991 After campaigning to prove their innocence for 15 years, the ‘Maguire Seven’ were cleared by the Court of Appeal of running an IRA bomb factory in England.

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ANOTHER MISCARRIAGE OF JUSTICE

THE MAGUIRE SEVEN

The results came back as them all having been in contact with nitroglycerine, which had been used in explosives on the Guilford pub bombings. Thereafter, Anne and her husband Patrick, Vincent and Patrick Jr, Sean Smyth, Guiseppe Conlon and Pat O’Neill were all charged with possession of nitroglycerine.

n the evening of the 3rd of December 1974 Seven people were wrongfully arrested in Kilburn, North London by officers from the Surry police. Armed Police crashed through the front door bringing with them dogs, shouting, and screaming as they went and wrecking the family home. They were being charged with terrorist offences. In their home that fateful evening was Anne Maguire, her husband, her 6year old daughter, Anne-Marie, and her second eldest son John. Also, there, visiting was her brother Shaun Smyth, Giuseppe Conlon, the husband of Anne’s sister and Pat O’Neill. They had just finished an evening meal. Pat was there because he needed Anne to look after his children so he could go to his wife who had been admitted to hospital as an emergency. Anne’s other children, Vincent, and Patrick Jr were out. Vincent was attending classes at college as a trainee gas engineer and Patrick was at the local youth club. Shaun, who lived in Belfast, was working in London as a labourer and had

come home from work earlier. Giuseppe had arrived in London that day having travelled from Belfast to speak to the solicitors representing his son Gerry Conlon. As Vincent and Patrick Jr returned home, they too were arrested along with the rest of the household. On arrest they were split up and sent to two North London police stations where they had their hands swabbed and scrapings taken from under their fingernails which were then sent off and tested by a young trainee forensic scientist.

Many innocent lives were ruined because of these terrible miscarriages of justice. Childhoods cut short, children left without parents many suffered from mental health problems, PSTD, families torn apart.

The reason the Maguires were arrested, was because Gerry Conlon and Paul Hill (part of the Guilford four) had said in their false statements, which had been made under threats, intimidation, violence, and abuse, that Conlon’s Aunt Anne Maguire had taught them how to make bombs. The Maguire seven never made any confessions. The scientific evidence from the Royal Armament Research and Development Establishment (RARDE) that was being used to charge the Maguire seven, was inaccurate and unreliable. There were also well-known problems with cross contamination at that laboratory even prior to the Guilford bombings, but this did not seem to worry them. There was wide scale lying and perjury on an industrial scale. The Maguire Seven were sentenced to 14years imprisonment for Anne Maguire and her husband, Guiseppe, Shaun and Pat were given 12 years, Vincent received 5 years and Patrick Jr 4 years and Patrick O’Neill had his

There were also well-known problems with cross contamination at that laboratory even prior to the Guilford bombings, but this did not seem to worry them. There was wide scale lying and perjury on an industrial scale.

reduced to 8 years because of mitigating circumstances at Court of Appeal. Guiseppe Conlon died in prison from Emphysema caused by damaged lungs and recurrent TB. I believe the terrible lack of medical care on a seriously ill man, the lack of food because he was too weak to walk down three flights of stairs to get it and no one else was allowed to get it for him was also a key factor in his death.

The home office, despite knowing he was dying, refused to let him go home. Many innocent lives were ruined because of these terrible miscarriages of justice. Childhoods cut short, children left without parents many suffered from mental health problems, PSTD, families torn apart. https://www.thejusticegap. com/a-great-british-injusticethe-maguire-seven-revisited/

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POLITICS AND EVENTS

BEST OF THE WEB Assange’s partner Stella Moris says she plans to marry WikiLeaks co-founder in Belmarsh prison

Stella Moris, the partner of Julian Assange, has said that she and the WikiLeaks co-founder will tie the knot while he is in Belmarsh prison, and expressed hope he will be released soon so that there can be a proper celebration. Moris, a lawyer who began her relationship with Assange during the years he spent claiming political asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, told German news agency DPA that the couple has been engaged since 2016 and will press ahead with their wedding plans, even if it means getting married in the maximumsecurity London prison. Moris and Assange have two sons, aged four and two and a half. She acknowledged, however, that the “bureaucratic process” to obtain permission for the ceremony would take time, and that the ceremony has been further complicated by Covid-19

restrictions. Apart from needing to obtain relevant documents from their respective home countries, there is concern that the marriage could be hampered by the fact that Assange’s UK visa has expired. It’s also unclear if any guests would be allowed to attend the prison ceremony due to the health crisis. In theory, Assange could be let out of Belmarsh for a day so that he could get married, but there is already a large backlog of delayed weddings due to the country’s lockdown. Boris Johnson’s food policy calls for meat tax After the UK’s government climate change advisers urged it to implement policy to reduce meat and dairy consumption, Boris Johnson’s hand-picked food strategy planner reportedly says a meat tax “may be necessary” in the future.

Restaurateur Henry Dimbleby, chosen to lead Downing Street’s ‘National Food Strategy’ formulation body, believes that a levy on processed meat staples like burgers, steaks, ham, sausages, and chicken nuggets could be needed in order to tackle climate change, according to media reports. Citing unnamed sources familiar with a draft document due to be released next month, the paper noted that ministers fear street protests over food prices similar to those conducted by the ‘Gilets J a u n e s ’ (Yellow Vest) movement in France in recent years.

One Britain One Nation Day T h e Department f o r Education has caused a stir after it announced its backing of the One Britain One Nation campaign and encouraged kids to take part in its June 25 celebration – including singing “strong Britain, great nation.”

full days after the 12-storey condominium collapsed while many residents slept.

Rescuers search around the clock for survivors of Florida building collapse Prospects for recovering survivors from a Florida high-rise diminished with each passing hour today, two

Aided by dogs, cameras, sonar and heavy equipment, rescuers looked for any spaces that may have formed in the debris, leaving any possible survivors air to breathe.

Even so, search-and-rescue teams worked around the clock through an unstable mountain of debris looking for signs of life from any of the 159 people still unaccounted for, while smoldering fires filled the air with smoke. The death toll of four was certain to rise with one floor of the high-rise stacked atop another like pancakes.

POLITICS AND EVENTS

Late June 2021

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POLITICS TODAY IS A COMEDY SHOW

Government And Politics

WHO IS LAUGHING?

eeking to make sense of government and politics as carried out by the leaders of our two most prominent parties today, in search of inspiration, I am wearing my Sergeant Bilko T-Shirt. Do you r e m e m b e r Doberman? He represents the electorate.

say. “You owe me five dollars”. Doberman paid up.

By Cliff Jones

Dear Julian Assange,

Watching Brexit-voting farmers complaining that they have only just realised how they had been fooled I could not help thinking of Doberman.

Why did you not join the Tory Party? Why did you not devote your considerable talents to shoring up the Establishment? Why did you not suppress uncomfortable news? Why did you not endorse and promote official, lying narratives?

INFORMATION IS WITHHELD FROM US

Bilko would fan out a pack of cards, face downwards, ask Doberman to take a card, not look at it and replace it. “What was it?” he would ask. Doberman would make a wild guess, “Ace of Spades?” “Wrong”, Bilko would

For decades we have had a series of Bilko governments gradually turning the electorate into Dobermans. Information is withheld from us. The pack of government cards is shown to us face down. We are encouraged to sign petitions that can lead to debates but the debates

I am seeking to make sense of government and politics as carried out by the leaders of our two most prominent parties today

Letter to Assange

decide nothing. They have zero impact upon policy-making. What they do is to make us believe that we are participating in democratic decision-making. We are not. Bilko made us laugh. Yes, government and politics today is a comedy show but who is laughing? They are, at us. By Cliff Jones

Just think of all the Tory garden parties you have missed, mixing with the toffs, becoming one of them. By now an OBE would have been the least of your honours. A peerage would definitely be in view. Just pen an article for the Daily Mail extolling the virtues of our great prime minister and all will be well. After all, you would not be the first to have discarded worn out and useless so-called virtues such as ‘truth’. Think of yourself kneeling before Her Majesty being dubbed. Think of yourself in ermine in the House of Lords. A coat of arms? How about a double cross? You have devoted your life to revealing truth. Where has that got you? Come on, embrace deception and greed and corruption. These are the values that, today, will get you to the top. Happy birthday, and well done for being exactly who you are.

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POLITICS AND EVENTS

JOIN THE FIGHT TO FULLY RESTORE OUR NHS

Take back our NHS- Stop the NHS bill

The ICS model aims to spend less on health & care, fixed annual budgets won’t be based on need, resulting in more rationing and postcode inequality, fewer services, downskilling and more outsourcing of jobs, moves to local pay deals and further cuts.

his Tory bill announced in the recent Queen’s Speech aims to disintegrate and privatise the NHS at all levels. They spin it as reversing the 2012 act which opened up the NHS to more privatisation. Bad as other reorganisations have been, this bill is an express train about to crash through any idea of one National Health Service. GPs, hospitals, community

These systems aren’t about care or joined up thinking, they’re based on USA health insurance systems

health, all primary & secondary care in England will be handed to 42 health regions called ‘Integrated Care Systems’ but these systems aren’t about care or joined up thinking, they’re based on USA health insurance systems. The head of NHS England Simon Stevens knows because he spent 10 years working for them in the USA! Major corporations will be on decision-making bodies and

their decisions will be binding. Under cover of Covid, hidden by the NHS logo, the crony privatisers won’t just be stealing the cakes they’ll take the whole bakery - unless we stop them! If football fans can make their US owners think again, so can we.

THE ICS MODEL AIMS TO SPEND LESS ON HEALTH & CARE

Ongoing plans to reduce services in Grantham Grantham was gifted a hospipandemic has given the Trust tal at the end of the 19th century when Earl Brownlow donated the land. A cottage hospital was built in Gothic style from Ancaster stone which is quarried locally. The building had unusual T-shaped wards and was used to provide medical and maternity care. Further buildings were added over the years, and were passed to the NHS (1948). In 2000 the newly formed United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust took over. Since then, things have gone drastically downhill. This beautiful building has been left derelict through deliberate lack of maintenance. In 2014 the Trust attempted to demolish it to make way for a car park. In 2021 they’ve renewed their plans to demolish the

building. Attempts have been made to make it a Listed Building without success. Enquiries to the Land Registry fail to produce proof of ownership of the building. The townspeople feel that it belongs to them, not the trust. This original hospital building stands in the middle of a large site, so campaigners fear that were it to be demolished the surrounding buildings would quickly follow, especially as the existing services have been drastically reduced. The

Campaign groups and unions across the Cheshire & Merseyside ICS footprint, are working together to build a mass movement to put public pressure on politicians both nationally and locally to oppose the imposition of ICS & the Bill which will be brought to

the excuse to further downgrade services as a “temporary” measure. Instead they are improving and expanding Lincoln Hospital which is planned to become the “Super Hospital” for all of Lincolnshire. A local councillor was quoted in a local news outlet that the current site would be ideal for building houses on, if a new hospital (or “Health and Care Campus”) could be built on the nearby site of the local Army barracks (due to close in next few years). And now, there is a renewed call for this new “Hospital” to be built (with thousands of houses) on the site of the barracks. By Nicky Griffiths / Lincolnshire NHS campaigner

parliament in the near future. Join the fight to fully restore our NHS, free at the point of need for all, fully funded as a public service providing all treatments required with well paid, well trained & valued staff. Contact TakeBacktheNHS@ protonmail.com By Lesley Mahmood of Save Liverpool Women’s Hospital and the Cheshire & Merseyside Stop the NHS Bill – Restore the NHS campaign

White Paper for health is a serious threat The government’s White Paper for health is extremely dangerous, and if passed, will rapidly speed up the complete privatisation of health care in this country. Having had decades of so-called reforms, successive governments have left us all at greater risk. Covid has highlighted just how much our NHS has been deliberately dismantled, by those who are supposedly meant to represent and protect us. An important part of these latest reforms is to remove Section 75. This was part of the appalling Heath & Social Care Act of 2012 that flung the doors wide open for every new contract to include being offered to private providers. Section 75 states that the contracting must be open and competitive. The White Paper calls for its removal, and as a result those safeguards will be no more. The recent corrupt contracting we’ve seen will become the norm. Our government have tried misleading us by portraying this as slowing down privatisation, but what they’re really doing is creating the climate for a monopoly, that (America’s) United Health (and Optum) will fill. United Health have been permitted to quietly restructure our health system for many years. Campaign groups must not be fooled, we must keep section 75 (until private interests are removed), oppose the White Paper, insist that any reforms are suspended, and actively push for re-nationalisation NOW!

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VISIT A PRIVATE ESTABLISHMENT FOR CATARACTS REMOVING

AT THE Optician’s T

he Patient’s Eye hasn’t gone into any great detail about Opticians’ practices, though the column originally got its name from a panicky visit to the Eye Hospital and finished a little bit more calmly at the Optician’s. A letter arrived last week for me and Mrs Eye telling us they’d not seen us for 30 months. This

was not exactly true, but we had been avoiding going anywhere since March last year, and ignoring any letters for a while before that. Opticians are private businesses that get a certain amount of their funding from the NHS but charge their clients as much as they can per visit. This is as it has been for many decades.

I was charged £177 for two pairs of spectacles I cannot now see through

Mrs Eye got her free test and a referral to an Eye Hospital in our City at a private establishment paid for by the public. It cost us a tenner nevertheless because she’d needed a scan on a special machine not available on the NHS. I was charged £177 for two pairs of spectacles I cannot now see through; my main problem is that I have cataracts, and no end of specially coated plastic lenses in my spectacles can make me

legal to drive.

A LETTER ARRIVED LAST WEEK FOR ME AND MRS EYE TELLING US THEY’D NOT SEEN US FOR 30 MONTHS

I’m to visit the same private establishment for cataracts removing and synthetic lenses putting in. This will be free of charge.

the most reassuring of all, possibly not, is that when I reach the age of 70 next birthday, I don’t have to surrender my driving licence if I can truthfully fill in a form claiming that I can see, and I am in regular contact with my Optician.

So the visit, expensive though it seemed, had a number of positive outcomes,

By Patient.Eye

Politics in Britain is broken Tories during the pandemic: we must keep our schools open, their education is critical. Catch up money provided to schools to help kids who’ve fallen behind: £2,500 per child in the Netherlands, £50 per child in the UK. It was never about education. It was about the economy. About keeping schools open to provide child care for workers. As a consequence of keeping schools open many thousands of people died. Schools became spreaders of Covid when 30 or more people are in a room as the infection was spread through the air. The problem is we cannot simply blame the Tories. Whilst some Labour MP’s were demanding a zero Covid strategy Sir Keir was demanding schools stay open, “no ifs, no buts”. If it wasn’t for the magnificent decision made by primary teachers not to return to work in January tens of thousands more would be dead. As it was the second wave killed more than the first. Had schools been open we can only imagine the consequences. And meanwhile in a By-

election near you Let’s be clear here, it’s not George Galloway that Party members should blame if we lose Batley and Spen on Thursday. The fact is he’d become a political irrelevance and should have remained so. The question we need to ask is, why are Labour voters who

voted for Corbyn twice - vastly increasing our vote in 2017 before losing many of them in the Brexit election in 2019 - deserting us? The alternative is not the issue, the desertion is. Galloway is a reflection of the problem, not its cause. I expect no acknowledgment of this from the right or the

It was never about educationit was about the economy

leadership. Early indications suggest blame will be subtly Islamaphobic and blame Muslims.

either through rule changes or by emptying the Party.

AS A CONSEQUENCE OF KEEPING SCHOOLS OPEN MANY THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE DIED

T h e r e will be no r e s i g n at i o n s no matter how big a disaster. Sir Keir will have his shoes nailed to the floor by the right until they feel confident they can win a leadership election,

Best hope that their plan doesn’t mean they leave it too late to try and rescue the Party else we will be yet another European social democratic Party languishing in the dustbin of history. EH

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POLITICS AND EVENTS

DAME HODGE IS STRANGELY QUIET ON THE MATTER

Inappropriate practices return TO LABOUR

eir Starmer’s Labour party has resumed its old practice of accepting free staff as a ‘non-cash’ donation from giant accounting firm PWC, according to the latest Electoral Commission returns. The entry, first highlighted by Private Eye, shows that Labour accepted free staff to a value of more than £33,000 from the firm.

Such donations were com-

Such donations were commonplace in Labour from 2010-2014

monplace in Labour from 2010-2014, ending in 2015 only after one Margaret Hodge MP, then-chair of the Public Accounts Committee, said it was ‘inappropriate’ for Labour to accept the donations in kind from PwC, whom she accused of ‘selling tax avoidance on an industrial scale’.

known to have objected to the new donations.

The party’s finances are said to be in a dire state, after a dramatic fall-off in the mass small donations Labour received under Jeremy Corbyn, a reduction in funding from the Unite union and an exodus of members disgusted with its direction under Keir Starmer. An attempt to court wealthy donors appears to have done little or nothing to plug the gap.

THE PARTY’S FINANCES ARE SAID TO BE IN A DIRE STATE

Current Starmer front-benchers such as Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves and Wes Streeting took similar support from PWC during its earlier phase. Margaret Hodge is not

Read more on The Skwawkbox

We may not talk of anything involving Israel UK Labour officials have prevented a party debate on sanctions against Israel, which had been planned for last Thursday night. The officials claimed that the discussion could lead to “anti-Semitic behaviour.” A motion, passed by a local Labour branch, calls for Israel to “end its violation of the human rights of Palestinians” and for the UK government to “impose legal sanctions on Israel,” specifically an end to arms sales and “trade with illegal settlements.” The motion also

called for “an end to the illegal occupation of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.” But Kim Bolton – chair of the Hove and Portslade Constituency Labour Party (CLP), near Brighton in the south of England – ruled that members would not be allowed to even discuss the motion. The discussion “would undermine the party’s ability to provide a safe and welcoming space for all members, in particular Jewish members,” a regional party officer had advised her, Bolton stated.

The motion also calls for “an end to the illegal occupation of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank

A motion, passed by a local Labour branch, calls for Israel to “end its violation of the human rights of Palestinians”

she claimed, without explaining what the alleged “anti-Semitic behaviour” had been. That officer was Scott Horner, Labour’s South East regional officer. “I support that view,” stated Bolton of Horner’s advice.

“The motion from Goldsmid and Hove Park branch requesting sanctions against Israel risks opening a debate that will stir up internal conflict in our CLP and may lead to further anti-Semitic behaviour,”

Neither Horner nor Labour Party headquarters replied to requests for comment. Read more from electronic intifada.net By Labour Heartlands

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PARALLEL UNIVERSES GIRLS SINGIN’ IT LARGE

ON THE JUKEBOX TONITE!

n my Jukebox tonite are girls singing it large. I’ve been set a challenge to write about music by people under the age of 40 and/or in the decades since 1990. This is not difficult as The Jukebox contains all recorded music, and I listen faithfully to the lot. The Wildflowers track is my top listen, as it uses “that” chord change used in Time After Time by Cyndi Lauper. The minor chord rises a semitone and changes to a major chord.

with multi tracking of her singing/talking and whispering the opening lines. “Ooh you get me ready in your ’57 Chevy,” is as strong a first line as I’ve ever heard.

Regina Spektor - The Call

I can’t remember where I first heard the Regina Spektor song ‘The Call’ but it knocked me out then and still does. I think Christina Perry’s ‘A Thousand Years’ might be about Vampires but who knows. Unicorns, Vampires, Reindeer, Dragons, they all do it for me. It’s all a bit parallel universes isn’t it?

The Paula Cole song begins

By Jack in the Jukebox

Paula Cole Where have all the cowboys gone

Clean Bandit and Mabel - Tick Tock

Wildflowers featuring Emmi - Nobody like you Christina Perri - A Thousand Years

Simone White The Beep Beep Song

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POLITICS AND EVENTS

TRACY CHAPMAN – TALKIN BOUT A REVOLUTION I’VE SEEN AND MET ANGELS WEARING THE DISGUISE OF ORDINARY PEOPLE WEARING ORDINARY CLOTHES

LEFT LEANINGS “Talkin’ Bout A Revolution” Don’t you know They’re talkin’ ‘bout a revolution It sounds like a whisper Don’t you know They’re talkin’ about a revolution It sounds like a whisper

racy Chapman, born 30th March 1964, is a multiplatinum, four-time Grammy Award winning American Feminist singer-songwriter known for her political and social activism, her on-going support for Human Rights and Amnesty International in particular, playing Folk, Blues Rock, Soul, and Pop. Chapman writes songs that are unmistakably infused with love, humanity, and the love for humanity, indeed the very things that affect us all throughout our lives put to music, and channelled in the sincere and heartfelt hope that they’ll resonate and lead people away from the seemingly endless drive towards material gain that dominates lives, and perhaps even to help them realise that the only things that really matter in this life, are already right there, inside them. ‘I’ve seen and met Angels wearing the disguise of ordinary people living ordinary lives’ wrote Chapman, epitomising her core ethos and ideology, and also many of the songs she has written and performed, perhaps none more so than her 2nd hit ‘Talkin Bout a Revolution’ taken from the self-titled album, ‘Tracy Chapman’, released in 1988.

While they’re standing in the welfare lines Crying at the doorsteps of those armies of salvation Wasting time in the unemployment lines Sitting around waiting for a promotion Don’t you know Talkin’ ‘bout a revolution It sounds like a whisper Poor people gonna rise up And get their share Poor people gonna rise up And take what’s theirs

About the song… ‘Talkin Bout a Revolution’ was a big hit for Tracy throughout Europe and charted at Number 75 in the US on the Billboard Hot 100. It was awarded a Silver Award from the British Phonographic Industry, and ran the unmistakeable message that the oppressed and the poor, downtrodden by the relentless drive of capitalism and greed, would inevitably rise, albeit from an initial whisper at first, to become a revolution that would come to be reckoned with.

‘Poor people gonna rise up and get their share. Poor people gonna rise up and take what’s theirs’, is the core message here, which once again is just as pertinent today in the UK under our current vicious and cruel Tory regime, as it was under Thatcher’s immoral rule at the time of its initial release. You can find the song on YouTube if you wish to give it a worthwhile revisit. Or perhaps it’s in your collection already. Either way, it’s well worth another listen. By Adrian Angel

Don’t you know You better run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run Oh I said you better Run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run ‘Cause finally the tables are starting to turn Talkin’ bout a revolution Yes, finally the tables are starting to turn Talkin’ bout a revolution, oh no Talkin’ bout a revolution, oh While they’re standing in the welfare lines Crying at the doorsteps of those armies of salvation Wasting time in the unemployment lines Sitting around waiting for a promotion Adrian Angel

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GOVERNMENT DOES NOT UNDERSTAND MMT

Inflation and MMT

here has been the existence of an inbuilt form of inflation 4,000 years ago in Mesopotamia. Throughout time there have been varying systems which might affect interest rates. A decree by Pope Innocent IV that Usury (loaning money for interest) was sinful, and the Fair Price doctrine of Thomas Aquinas (pricing goods to production cost plus just enough to live off) led to stability of the market. Belief in God was nearly unanimous, people wished not to be seen as insulting God, any misfortune would be blamed on them, or polite society shun them. The development of technology should lead to a process of gradual deflation in prices, the cost to produce reducing with each new invention or method. However, in the 1300s, to avoid the sin of Usury, a system of investments became common. From the 14th Century those with expendable income invested, and without working expected to profit. This expectation meaning it was fair to price the goods with the need

to repay your silent partner investor, and prices therefore gradually increased. Investment of excess capital, Capitalism, generally failed until the industrial revolution in the mid18th Century created excess profits making it viable. The growth of Protestantism also led to differing ideas of salvation. This coupled with argument that ways to circumvent religious restrictions were dishonest and usury was less devious than other alternatives, the Banking system, which had been barred by Roman Catholicism became a growing industry in Christendom. Now interest is controlled by government policy in terms of returns on investment, and with shortages of available resources. There is more than enough for no real needs for any sector of society, or any part of the world. Economic decision making of those in power leads to the inability for everyone to be comfortable. There’s never been a period of uncontrolled inflation due to excess production of moneys.

There’s never been a period of uncontrolled inflation due to excess production of money

The often cited cases when this has happened are Germany in the 1920s, and Zimbabwe under Mugabe. The Treaty of Versailles demanded that Germany pay reparations for the War in a foreign currency, the US Dollar, and also by means of exports of specific quantities of goods and foodstuffs every year. Foreseeably, Germany by 1923 was in full employment and working flat out, only to find increasing shortages in the necessities of life. Shortage began a process of uncontrolled inflation in late 1922, which then exploded into hyperinflation in 1923. The Germans began producing higher and higher denominations of currency, though that was not a solution to shortage. It was only when a Democratic Socialist government renegotiated the debts, nationalised industry, and invested in infrastructure, that they regained control over their economy.

the land from those he saw as white colonial exploiters, and give that land to black indigenous people. It may not have been quite as bad had the people he chose to give the land to been black farm workers, with some knowledge of farming. He instead gave the farms to political allies, who mostly sold the first crop then let them lie fallow, and ex-guerrilla fighters who despite many of them making an effort, still could not maintain efficiency. Average yield dropped 70% and the nation became a net importer. Prices rocketed, hyperinflation led to the largest denomination notes in history. Not until the land was reclaimed by the state did it began to return to productivity. There’s a theoretical situation where inflation might occur in an uncontrolled manner, and it requires a number of factors:

THE DEVELOPMENT OF TECHNOLOGY SHOULD LEAD TO A PROCESS OF GRADUAL DEFLATION IN PRICES

Zimbabwe’s agricultural sector had been a net exporter of food. Mugabe decided to take

A, People have enough money to satisfy their needs, but as is only human, and the reason we no longer live in caves, they begin wanting things B, There is full employment

C, There is maximum productivity by means of maximum use of the correct use of technology D, With this maximum possible usage of the workforce, and maximum productivity it is still impossible to satiate the wants of the population for particular items. In this situation price restrictions on the items in question are likely to lead to Black Markets and spiralling prices. The solution in that situation, is to begin taxation to remove the excess money in the sectors of society which will fuel that black market. As long as they still have their needs met, they are to be restricted in driving inflation for their wants. That however, is only theoretical, since the situation has never arisen. By: Robert Price

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SCIENCE PAGE Baby dinosaurs hatched in the Arctic 70 million years ago

Baby dinosaurs toddled around the chilly region that is now the Alaskan Arctic about 70 million years ago, according to the “unexpected” discovery of more than 100 baby dinosaur bones and teeth there, a new study reports. It was surprising to find evidence of a prehistoric nursery in such a cold place, the researchers said. Even during the warm Cretaceous period (145 million to 66 million years ago), Alaska had an average monthly temperature of about 43 degrees Fahrenheit (6 degrees Celsius), and for about four months of the year, the dinosaurs would have lived in permanent darkness and dealt with snowy weather, they said. The Prince Creek Formation of northern Alaska, where the fossils were found, is “the farthest north that dinosaurs ever lived,” study co-lead researcher Gregory Erickson, a paleobiologist at Florida State University, told us. “I don’t think it was pos-

Visitor from outer space sible for them to live any farther north,” as what is now Alaska was shifted closer to the North Pole than it is today. “It’s right up there with Santa Claus,” he said. Oumuamua and the UFO’S

First, the interstellar object discovered in 2017, ‘Oumuamua, was inferred to have a flat shape and seemed to be pushed away from the sun as if it were a lightsail. This “pancake” was tumbling once every eight hours and originated from the rare state of the local standard of rest—which averages over the motions of all the stars in the vicinity of the sun. Second, the Pentagon is about to deliver a report to Congress stating that some unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) are real but that their nature is unknown. If UAP originated from China or Russia and were a national security risk, their existence would have never been revealed to the public. Hence, it is reasonable to conclude that

the U.S. government believes that some of these objects are not human in origin. This leaves two possibilities: either UAP are natural terrestrial phenomena or they are extraterrestrial in origin. Both possibilities imply something new and interesting that we did not know before. The study of UAP should therefore shift from occupying the talking points of national security administrators and politicians to the arena of science where it is studied by scientists rather than government officials.

Unknown human ancestor unearthed in Israel. A previously unknown group of ancient humans discovered in Israel may have coexisted alongside modern humans and Neanderthals, interbreeding with both groups and sharing knowledge and tools with them as well, new studies find. The new fossils were unearthed in 2010 near the city of Ramla in central Israel, after quarrying in the mining area of the Nesher cement plant re-

vealed what is now known as the Nesher Ramla prehistoric site. After digging down about 26 feet (8 meters), the researchers found stone tools and human bones, as well as large quantities of animal bones, including the remains of horses, deer and extinct cattle known as aurochs. It took scientists a better part of a decade to figure out what they had. “People think it’s simple to quickly analyze fossils, but it takes a lot of time,” Israel Hershkovitz, a paleoanthropologist at Tel Aviv University and lead author of one of the two studies on the discovery, told us. “Once you find the fossils, you have to clean them and reconstruct them and then collect comparable material around the world to properly understand them.” Gold coins from the Black Death A metal detectorist in England has unearthed two rare gold coins that date to the mid14th century, a time when Black Death was ravaging the country.

Both medieval coins depict Edward III, who tried to introduce gold coinage to England starting in 1344. One of the newfound coins — a leopard coin (also called a half florin), issued from January to July 1344 — was considered «failed» because the mint charges were too high and the value assigned to the leopard coins overvalued gold against silver, according to a June 17 statement from the Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS). Edward III tried to rectify these monetary problems by introducing new coins from July 1344 until 1351, when the other newfound coin was minted. This coin, called a gold noble, weighed nearly 0.3 ounces (7.7 grams), more than twice as much as the 0.12-ounce (3.5 g) leopard.

POLITICS AND EVENTS

Dear Maggie I have heard the Germans don’t like it up em, especially when they are taking penalties. Is this true? G Southgate from Wembley Gareth you gammy legged, bottling, penalty scuffing, cry baby Muppet. A lot has

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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.

Dear Maggie I am tired of all the ugliness in the world. I just want it to stop. Can YOU help? Mr. D variant, Porton Down, Wiltshire Well Mr Variant it’s important for you to be flexible and to adapt to your environment. As a biblical plague hanging around the laboratory in Petrie dishes and test tubes with your family and friends such as Miss Sarin and Mr Novichok just won’t do. Get out into the world of mankind and socialise a bit, get yourself out there and party like it’s Armageddon. Hands, Face, Space clearly didn’t work. All hail Lucifer.

Late June 2021

changed since you disgraced the nation in Euro 96. We’ve had 25 years of Thatcherism with Blair and all the official Tories and we’ve even managed Brexit. Participating in Uefa contests must surely end soon. As for the German’s

they used to treat us with polite indifference, whereas these days they despise us, just look at the Eurovision song contest. One thing the Germans did get right was the Hitler Youth and Boris getting kids to sing “One Britain, One Nation” is a step

BOJO’S DIARY Ahhhhh. Well had some early summer Hollibobs down in Cornwall with The Wife and little Will-thingybob. Managed to get a flight down there, avoiding all the Little Chefs and traffic jams on the A303, pissing off the Greta brigade. But the main thing was I was not inconvenienced. Sleepy Uncle Joe was there with his Mrs, she and the present Mrs Johnson hit it off and spent the time doing childcare for errrr Junior Johnson. I must say with his big head, floppy hair and clumsy gait he’s clearly a chip off the old Johnson block. No need for a paternity test there. It’s remarkable that you can holiday in Cornwall and not even meet a single local. Everyone I met was a world leader of some kind or a state funded, a royal or a down-from-London bootlicker. Modern post Brexit Britain at its finest.

Dear agony aunt Can you put me in touch with those leftie buggers from The Word? They are two million and fifty quid better Dearest Margaret off than me. It’s working, all your Rupert Murdoch, The Sun beautiful wickedness…is Isn’t it remarkable that the working. How can I thank you Trots at The Word haven’t enough? lost all that money with their Keith Starmer, from worthless version of your nowhere. ‘flagship’ worthless rag. Darling little Of course you won’t Rodney you are be paying any tax MAGGIE doing a marvellous will you. At some THATCHER, job in the great point people will MORE AGONY scheme of eternal start to ask what AUNT ANSWERS Toryism, you even FROM THE LONG you are getting for managed to come your money apart DEAD DEVIL fourth behind the from spreading Tories, Libdem’s and misinformation and Greens in the Chesham Populism. But all those and Amersham by election phone bugging and social and no-one batted an eyelid. media hacking Nazis you Roll on Batley and Spen. Is it employ don’t come cheap possible to get negative votes these days do they? How’s and come behind the Narnia Jerry Hall, I would have Liberation Front? I’m sure thought she’d have worn you will forensically set about you out by know, or is she achieving that on your path to spending a lot of time with her Hell! Tennis Coach? in the right direction. Think about that when you ‘take the knee’ you Marxist, Woke, waistcoated Traitor.

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SATIRE AND HUMOUR

BIZARRE NEWS

LOVE WILL CUFF US APART (AFTER 3 MONTHS) The couple ‘Vika’ and Sasha’ literally hooked up together, with a set of handcuffs on Valentine’s Day to test their love. It turned out that the experience only took its toll on their relationship. The pair used cutters to finally free themselves from each other this week and Vika could be heard celebrating as she was released. She said: “I want to live my own independent life, and grow as an independent person.” Sasha added that the pair were happy to have shared the experience together but feels they are better off going their

Weird stuff from the internet that you didn’t need to know separate ways. He said: “Thank you all for supporting us. Look, we are now at a distance from each other. We were happy, and we are now happy to have had this experience in our lives.” PIRANHA BITES SWEDISH BALLS The pacu is a type of piranha known for its fierce teeth and reports have been made that one has been caught by a fisherman off the coast of Sweden. Henrick Carl, from Denmark’s Natural History Museum, told local media: “The pacu is not normally dangerous to people but it has quite a serious bite. There have been incidents in

other countries, such as Papua New Guinea where some men have had their testicles bitten off.”

legation that he has denied. Davidson said “Pablo swears a lot. I call her mucky mouth. But she is only copying things she hears on the television or around the house. I’m not actually training her to swear at anyone.”

Pacu fishes are largely vegetarian and nip away at those in the water only because they are hungry. Mr Carl said: “They The neighbour has bite because they’re been at loggerheads WEIRD hungry, and testicles with Davidson afSTUFF FROM sit nicely in their ter they clashed THE INTERNET mouth.” over an extension THAT YOU he planned for his DIDN’T NEED WHO’S A DIRTY home in Hartlepool TO KNOW POLLY but says she isn’t anA neighbour claims gry at the parrot. She that the bird, a female Afsaid: “He didn’t like us rican grey named Pablo, was challenging the extension. It’s taught by her owner Stephen him we have a problem with, Davidson to swear at her, an al- not the parrot.

Mystic Mandy Horoscopes

AQUARIUS January 20 - February 18 The recent solar eclipse in the most dynamic area of your chart makes this the sort of day when you can turn your hand to anything and make a success of it. But you must be selective. Being able to do anything does not mean you should do everything. Kick someone in the gonads or something, live a little. Lucky social designation – Proletariat.

PISCES February 19 - March 20 The time has come to accept that a loved one’s point of view is not going to change and you must find ways to live with it. Start by accepting that different people have different personalities and that there is no “right” or “wrong” attached to it. Drink heavily. Avoid Vegans. ARIES March 21 - April 19 You really don’t care if other people agree with what you believe, the only thing that matters to you is that you know you are right. The recent eclipse in the

mind area of your chart will do wonders for your self-belief – not that it’s ever that low you arrogant bastard. Lucky condiment – HP Fruity Sauce.

TAURUS April 20 - May 20 If someone stops you from following your chosen course today you will have to accept they have the right to do so. Find a new way to reach your goal. The recent bloody solar eclipse in the money area of your chart suggests the effort will be worth it, although you won’t notice you Bull headed Muppet. Avoid direct marketing. GEMINI May 21 - June 20 Predicting the recent sodding solar eclipse in your sign will bring massive changes in its wake and your first priority must be to stay focused so you are ready to make the most of them. Be logical in your outlook at all times – only losers get emotional, the bloody pant pissing leftard Snowflake nonces. Lucky ethos – Totalitarianism.

CANCER June 21 - July 22 You must not let your fears get the better of you today. Because you have such a strong and vivid imagination that won’t be easy but you have the power to redirect your thoughts in more positive directions – so use it. Lucky Antidepressant – Fluoxitine. LEO July 23 - August 22 The more someone bombards you with facts and figures to support their point of view the more certain you can be that their point of view is way off the mark. The truth is right there in front of you – open your eyes and recognize what it is, who needs bloody science and mathematics anyway. Avoid the Celtic nations and Dairy products. VIRGO August 23 - September 22 Because there is so much upheaval taking place at the moment you may think you have done something wrong, but that

isn’t the case. That f***ing eclipse will in some way make it clear that you are being far too negative in your thinking. Don’t think so much. Intact start chinning strangers who ‘look edgy’. Lucky fish – Sea Bream. LIBRA September 23 - October 22 You need to tell a few home truths to a friend or colleague who seems to have their head stuck in the clouds. Your words may hurt their feelings, but it’s better they get real now rather than later when the truth could hurt even more. Steam in like the colossal Gobshite you really are. Avoid Androgyny. SCORPIO October 23 - November 21 With no hint of irony the bleeding, all powerful, solar f**ing eclipse in the wealth area of your chart warns that pushing yourself to the limits of endurance could count against

DETECTORIST PLAGUE HOARD The Edward III 23-carat leopard was found with another gold coin in Norfolk of which “hardly any have survived”. Finds Officer Dr Geake added that the leopard was withdrawn just months after being minted in 1344 and said that they were the equivalent to £12,000 in modern money. She said they would have been owned by someone “at the top of society”. She told BBC News: “The royal treasury might talk in terms of pounds, shillings and pence, but the physical reality was sacks of silver pennies. Then Edward III decided to reintroduce the first gold coins in England since the Anglo-Saxon era - and no-one knows why. you financially as well as physically. Yes, of course, you are determined to do a truly excellent job, but think quality rather than quantity. Join a Union. Avoid Complex Carbohydrates. SAGITTARIUS November 22 - December 21 You seem to be in one of those typically Sagittarian moods when you can’t see the point in making much of an effort. However, your laidback attitude does not mean you can just abandon your responsibilities to loved ones and others who rely on you. You feckless dolt. Lucky car Fiat Punto. CAPRICORN December 22 - January 19 If there is something that needs to be said you must not hold back – give it everything you’ve got and don’t worry about the consequences. If what you say is true, and well-intentioned, others will thank you for it further down the line. Although it’s also likely they will think you are an Arse. Avoid Greeks bearing gifts and Zoroastrianism.

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Hope and Good News Panama: 160,000 hectares of ancestral lands of the Naso Tjer Di people have been legally recognised after years of wrangling. Panama is rich in biodiversity being 60% forested largely due to the stewardship of the country's half

million indigenous people. The people's monarch says the increased control will improve the Naso people's lives and enable them to lead conservation efforts.

Courtesy of New Internationalist

Gerry O’Gorman Book Review

‘32 Counties - The Failure of Partition and the Case for a United Ireland’ Book Review

llen’s ‘32 Counties’ appears, fittingly, during the 100th anniversary of the division of the island of Ireland in 1921. The book reminds readers of how and why Ireland was partitioned by advocates of British imperialism such as Edward Carson and Walter Long, following the Irish War of Independence. The author considers partition’s troublesome legacy, providing key historic detail and context. He also cites examples of Catholics and Protestants transcending traditional divisions, including the 1798 uprising of Wolf Tone’s ‘United Irishmen’, several labour disputes, and mass protests. Chapters include ‘Managed Sectarianism’ ’The Return of the Northern Question’ ‘The Left & Irish unity’ and crucially, ‘What Kind of United Ireland?’ Discussing the nature of British imperialism and its role in present day Northern Ireland, Allen casts doubt on Britain’s claims to have no selfish, strategic or economic interest there, arguing that Britain’s direct interest in the north includes a need to project itself as a global power, able to extract financial advantage for its corporations on a world stage. He sees the post-‘Belfast Agreement’ north as mirroring southern Ireland as an enclave for multinational companies, with lowwages and tax rates advantages. Allen argues that a shrunken, post-Brexit UK may ultimately weaken Britain’s control, further. Readers might find Allen’s wideranging notes and index invite further interest. His previous work includes ‘The Politics of James Connolly’ and it seems unsurprising

To learn more about their work go to: saveourstories.info

Indonesia: Pongamia pinnata is a member of the pea family that is being considered by Indonesian forestry experts for potential landscape restoration and the future of bioenergy. The government has to find ways in which it can restore 14 million hectares of degraded land to keep its promise to the UN, while also developing a green energy sector worth 23% of total grid contributions in just 5 years. The country’s natural gas and oil reserves are projected to dry up by 2030, even while energy demand, currently served by fossil fuels, is increasing. The pongamia tree grows well on degraded land in both wet and dry climates. For centuries, its seeds have been pressed into oil for leather tanning, soap making, wound healing, and more.

Kieran Allen (Pluto Press)

that ‘32 Counties’ evokes Connolly’s ideas, to call for a grass-roots movement to bring the north and republic into a secular, socialist and united Ireland. Ultimately, Allen regards partition as ‘a disaster which helped to keep Ireland enchained in two conservative regimes for decades.’ Although Allen’s writing is accessible and clear, I found it quite a challenge to consider so many historical strands and perspectives over such a large time-span, whilst trying to process the author’s ideas and arguments, also. My inadequacies aside, I found it refreshing to read a book on a familiar subject, which considered a future Ireland from beyond a traditional Republican perspective, which included the working class as a whole, despite of, and beyond, sectarian divisions. Allen’s book has had critical endorsements including from Eamonn McCann, journalist, longtime Derry activist and author of ‘War in an Irish Town’. ‘Irish history seen anew, from below, bristling for working class struggle today.’ Such a testimony demands that Allen’s work is read as widely as possible.

Indonesia’s Ministry of Forestry and Environment’s Research believes mass planting of this tree and its special oil can be used to power a biomass energy revolution, as well as offering a new crop for local communities to thrive off of economically, and even use as food. One of the fastest growing trees, it can thrive in arid and wet land, from sea level to 1,200 metres above it and it improves the quality of the soil as it’s a nitrogen fixer. Modern extraction methods confirmed the oil’s potential as a biofuel crop, with one study finding 44% more oil per seed extracted than traditional methods. When combined with 5% gasoline it can power diesel engines in vehicles without compromising performance. Netherlands: Foam insulation or packaging to protect sensitive electronics, it becomes almost impossible-to-recycle. However a new plant is set to change that in Europe. The PolyStyreneLoop plant in Terneuzen, Netherlands, has just opened. It was built to prove the technical and economic feasibility of a large-scale, closed-loop solution for the recycling of EPS (expanded polystyrene waste). Though the PSLoop plant will recycle EPS building and construction waste, later, it will also recycle extruded polystyrene, also known as Styrofoam, used to make cups, plates, and packaging.

Demonising I

was hesitant in starting this article because what has happened in the last two years alone would fill several chapters of a book. It centres on one's views on the term 'woke'. Do we take a dictionary definition such as 'to be alert to injustice in society. especially racism' or what many interpret it as 'political correctness gone mad'. Simon Kelner in the I Paper praises England's supporters loudly supporting their team 'taking the knee' even though a lot of people object to this .Simon says Piers Morgan has written a book on it largely critical as many populist newspapers are in denigrating protest movements placing them in the 'woke' bracket. Similarities between the antiwokers and McCarthyism after WW II which was an extension of more conservative politicians in the United States had referred to progressive reforms like child labour laws and women's suffrage as "communist"' trying to raise fears against such changes as they had during and the Great Depression when opposing the New Deal policies of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Today many politicians and journalists lump all protests and protesters together in a similar way as just noisy dissidents. As example I will quote from personal experience. It comes from an unlikely source, the soon to be come leader of the Liberal Democrats. As an alternative to Tony Blair's Labour Party I mistakenly thought Liberal Democrats might be the answer. I attended a hustings in Manchester for Clegg's successor as leader though I had hoped to attend a large austerity protest in London Austerity Protest in London but failed to get a seat on a coach. No

problem with the candidates until until Tim Farron was asked a question which was, had the hustings not been on would you have supported the austerity protest. He almost dismissed the event as a 'Trotskyist inspired campaign'. Needless to say after that I resigned after telling him what I thought of his answer. Signs of a British form of McCarthyism # was reported by Anna Fazackerley in The Guardian in October 2017 when universities were questioned over how the Brexit debate was addressed. 'Academics are accusing a Tory MP and government whip of “McCarthyite” behaviour, after he wrote to all universities asking them to declare what they are teaching their students about Brexit and to provide a list of teachers’ names.' One response from a spokesman for the LSE strenuously denied allegations of political bias. “The freedom for academics to study the major issues facing society, reach their own conclusions, and engage in public debate is essential for the health of our universities and the UK’s world-leading research base,” Deeply felt concerns about the environment, treatment of women, racial inequality and institutionalised racism have all received large public support with rallies and marches being attended by all age groups. They have been played down by the anti-wokers with accusations of anti-social behaviour and left wing troublemakers.

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WORD

Women who made a Difference A

ugusta Ada King-Noel, Countess of Lovelace, was born Ada Byron on 10 December 1815. She was the only legitimate child of the poet Lord Byron and his wife Anne Isabella Milbanke, usually known as Annabella. However, Byron only ever knew his daughter as a baby.

Her mother, Lady Byron, had mathematical training (Byron called

her his 'Princess of Parallelograms') and she insisted that Ada, who was tutored privately, study mathematics too. An unusual education for a woman. She did not want her daughter to grow up as feckless and purposeless as Byron had been. Young Ada became almost obsessed with mathematics, but also by science. Aged 13 she conceived the idea of building a steam-powered flying machine and spent many hours

Democracy Although I reached my 70's before attending large rallies and marches I have seen little evidence of anti social behaviour, and when there are minor problems there has usually been provocation. An example being the excellent conduct of over 10,000 marching to protest the austerity measures when the Conservative Party held a Conference in Manchester was slightly marred by a handful of people who threw eggs at delegates wearing 'Margaret Thatcher' masks to provoke them. Condemnation came immediately from Labour Council Leader, Richard Leese, whilst the police spokesman praised the overall behaviour of the marchers! The Coronavirus Act, which was rushed through Parliament unopposed. It provides for unprecedented surveillance, detention and other powers which are made by way of regulations issued by the Home Secretary. Although it nominally has a time limit of two years, a minister can extend its provisions by issuing regulations. Freedom of speech is also under threat more and more. Nothing underlines this more that the conflation of criticising the behaviour of the Israeli State with anti – Semitism. The Jewish Board of Deputies seem to be the sole arbitrators on this, having managed to silence many journalists and the ability to platform certain speakers that they have labelled, without evidence, anti-Semitic. Even more worrying is the ability of

the police, in particular the MET, to cover up and deny institutionalised racism. Now they have been labelled 'institutionally corruption' by a panel investigating their failure to convict those responsible for the murder in 1987 of private investigator, Daniel Morgan. The Government have glossed over the cover ups and malpractice of the Met Police, carefully avoiding criticism of them and the Police Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick. Sadly the everyday police officer and the public continue to suffer the fall out from these systemic failings. this paper has published articles previously from two retired senior police officers each with 30+ years of service criticising the misuse of 'stop and search' and institutional racism. More damning evidence came from ex- Superintendent, Leroy Logan MBE, who felt “the 'moral compass' of police culture had moved to the right reflecting a shift to the right in many parts of society.” These views have been endorsed by recently resigned, highest ranking Asian woman officer, Parm Sandhu. She has said the Government's race report 'flew in the face of her lived experience of racism at work'. She has catalogued discrimination she faced in her memoir, Black and Blue'. Finally a plea from Simon Kelner to the 'silent majority' to continue speaking out, including those 'who believe in equality and social justice' but are afraid of the label 'woke'. # 'a mid-20th century political attitude characterised chiefly by opposition to elements held to be subversive and by the use of tactics involving personal attacks on individuals by means of widely publicised indiscriminate allegations especially on the basis of unsubstantiated charges.'

trying to work out how it might operate.

Lady Byron became one of the wealthiest women in Britain with the power and influence to ensure Ada followed her passions. In terms of marriage though Ada was given a conventional upper middle class upbringing, so in 1835, with her mother approved Ada's marriage to a pleasant, though not especially intellectually gifted aristocrat, Lord William King. Prior to her marriage Ada had met Charles Babbage at a party in 1833. He was24 years older, who made a huge impression on her. She became fascinated by his plans to build a cogwheel calculating machine, called the Difference Engine. Babbage, in turn, was flattered by the attention from a famous young lady. Babbage demonstrated the small working section of the Engine to Ada. She alternated her mathematical studies with marriage and motherhood (they had three children). In1843 she published a translation from the French of an article on the Analytical Engine by an Italian engineer, Luigi Menabrea, to which Ada added extensive notes of her own. The Notes included the first published description of a stepwise sequence of operations for solving certain mathematical problems and Ada is often referred to as 'the first programmer'. She thought the Engine 'might act upon other things besides number... the Engine might compose elaborate and scientific pieces of music of any degree of complexity or extent'. The idea of a machine that could manipulate symbols in accordance with rules and that number could represent entities other than quantity mark the fundamental transition from calculation to computation. Ada was the first to explicitly articulate this notion and in this she appears to have seen further than Babbage. Certainly she was the first to express the potential for computers outside mathematics. Babbage was impressed by Lovelace's intellect and analytic skills. He called her "The Enchantress of Number. His friend Charles Wheatstone commissioned Ada to translate Luigi Menabrea's paper Sketch of the Analytical Engine Invented by Charles Babbage. She augmented the paper with notes, which were added to the translation. Ada Lovelace spent the better part of a year doing this. These notes more extensive than Menabrea's paper and were published in the September 1843.

Ada Lovelace She describes algorithm for the Analytical Engine to compute Bernoulli numbers (a series of rational numbers which occur frequently in number theory. It is considered to be the first published algorithm ever specifically tailored for implementation on a computer. Ada Lovelace has often been cited as the first computer programmer for this reason. The engine was never completed so his program was never tested. However Babbage did publish a book of logorithms which were used for mathematical calculations for over a century. A century later in 1953 the engine was recognised as an early model for a computer and her notes as a description of a computer and software. In the late seventies, the Department of Defence in the US developed a software language called Ada, one that brought together a number of different programming languages. It’s fitting for Lovelace, a woman who rode horses and played the harp and studied poetry to tie seemingly disparate elements together. The story of Ada Lovelace and Babbage has many interesting threads. It is a story of technical prowess of Babbage meeting abstract “big picture”

thinking of Lovelace. It is a story of friendship between old and young. It is a story of people who had the confidence to be original and creative. It is also a tragedy. Firstly for Babbage, who lost so many people in his life, and whose personality pushed others away and prevented him from realising his ambitions. A tragedy for Ada, who was just getting started in something she loved when her health failed. She died at the aged 36 on 27 November 1852, from uterine cancer Now there is an Ada Lovelace Day, an annual event celebrated on the second Tuesday of October,. Its goal is "...to raise the profile of women in science, technology, engineering, and maths," and to "create new role models for girls and women" in these fields.' As of November 2015 British passports have included an illustration of Lovelace and Babbage. Another recognition of Ada, and of women in general, was made in November 2020. It was announced that Trinity College Dublin whose library had previously held forty busts, all of them of men, was commissioning four new busts of women one of whom was to be Lovelace. Her achievements were slow to be recognised partly because she was a woman. However her work stands as inspiration to other women to follow in her footsteps.

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BLOOD ON YOUR PHONE

re you a proud owner of that latest mobile phone? For as long as it has cobalt in it, you, have in your hands a gadget dripping with the blood of innocent women and children from the Congo, the "Rape Capital of the World," where child labour, rape and murder are used to extract the lucrative mineral from mines characterised by the worst human rights abuses the world has ever seen.

“Our digital society is tainted by the misery of children working in slave labour in Congo’s cobalt mines,” says James Melville. “More than 60% of the world’s supply of cobalt is mined in the

copper belt of the south-eastern provinces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC),” says Siddharth Kara, an expert on modern day slavery. “At least 20% of this supply is mined by locals of all ages under inhumane conditions, which means they are working against their will and under threat, intimidation or coercion.”

innocence as some of them have been raped, have raped and have been turned into child soldiers who have killed to protect the mines on behalf of the ruthless war loads who have lucrative connections in the developed world where cobalt is laundered, and sent to technology factories to produce what looks like an innocent product, the mobile phone. Chinese companies run most of the buying houses that purchase cobalt mined by child slaves and rape victims in Congo and which is then sold to mobile phone manufacturers around the world

At least a third of these slaves are children who have been robbed of their innocence to satisfy the mobile phone market. Children from 6 yearsold spend the entire day in dangerous cobalt mines, bent over, digging with a small shovel or bare hands to gather cobalt, while in other parts of the world their age mates are in school building their future. These children have lost their

In addition to child slavery, Unicef is concerned about hundreds of thousands of women who have

Child Solders in the DRC

been raped and sold back to their villages for ransom . “These are casualties of a war financed primarily by the electronics industry,” says Unicef. Several reports claim that there are no accurate representative numbers on the prevalence of sexual violence in the DRC because of underreporting and lack of research due to security factors. However, in 2020, the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) documented 1,053 cases of conflict-related sexual violence, affecting 675 women, 370 girls, 3 men and 5 boys in the mining regions. In a related report, BBC quotes a study by US scientists as estimating that an average of 48 women and girls are raped every hour in the Democratic Republic of Congo while another report says that an estimated 1,000 women had been raped daily in pursuit of the lucrative mineral, cobalt. “Our mobile phones continue to put the blood, sweat and rape right into our hands,” says Melville. His analysis is corroborated by Frank Paulsen, who says, “In this place people die so we can get mobile phones.”

the Internet, check social media, almost certainly it will have cobalt as a production component. It is also likely that it has been sourced from slave labour cobalt mines,” says Melville “The next time you buy that expensive phone with the best pictures sounds and apps, there is a high chance, you are brandishing the laundered blood of innocent children and women from the Democratic Republic of Congo,” says Melville.

“When we send an email, browse

Everette Ndlovu

Palestine / What Can Happen Next If We Stick Our Oars In

ike lots of us, I've been arrested a few times, in actions against the racist state that is Israel. And I'm sure I've not been alone, in often pondering, over where to find the weakest point, in the armour of a state, which deprives itself of legitimacy, by being a state which depends on ethnic, "cleansing". And therefore on racially motivated massacres. And therefore on genocide, (according to Article 6 of the Rome Statute, of the International Criminal Court, despite the I.C.C.'s failure to abide by their own definition), to sustain an artificially created racist majority. And yet, is still tolerated in a world where genocide is supposed to be unacceptable.

being exonerated with the defence that they were, "preventing a greater crime". It took years for big stuff, like the "Smash Edo", campaign, trashing the EDO/MBM factory, where again the activists were let off, with the same defence. But smaller protests, while becoming more frequent, seem to have had longer lasting, more widespread consequences. The Kedem protests in Manchester, when zionists demonstrated the point, when either, the israeli flag had become a, "toxic symbol", by their ceasing to use it, or they had run out of robots to wave it around. Elbit Systems, in Oldham, and Shenstone, (near Birmingham), have been targetted, suffered serious loss of revenue, and have continued to be shy of risking the attention of high profile court cases

Well, hang in there !. That very same world, really is changing around us ! The frequency was not so noticeable years back, like during the Wharton women protests smashing up BAe, "Hawke" jets, and the women

Last Saturday, we saw 50~ish, of the slightly more hardcore end of the protest community, blockading Andy Burnham's offices, in Manchester, occupying the bit of Oxford Rd. outside. The Plod stayed away. Today I've just read a notice, from

organisers of the protest against Elbit Systems. Somebody has been disrupting, "business as usual", yet again, at their murder weapons factory, in Oldham, and costing them lots of filthy lucre. The legal consequences for the heroes who've damaged Elbit property, will be another drama to enthral those who seek inspiration on how to confront the monsters of our age. I had a chat with one of their guys, after the Saturday event. I asked what would happen, if we could do a demo, where the zio-nasties would turn up, and I were to invite him / her to have me arrested, for incitement, and breech of section 4A of the Public Order Act, (racially motivated behaviour likely to cause alarm or distress), by my showing support for Palestinians willing to defend Palestinian civilians, by killing israeli politicians who have policies of bombing appartment blocks where Palestinian babies live. That might sound like pie in the sky, surely no sane zio-thug would take such bait.

Ahhhhhhh, wait on. Anthony Dennison, struck off, ex-solicitor, (who should know something of U.K. law), and devoted activist in, "N.W. Friends of Israel" tried that one on me. But then chickened out, twice. And then, despite the fact that the Crown Prosecution Service, did not need his testimony, the C.P.S. refused to continue with charges. I apparently caused him "alarm and distress", by exposing his behaviour as an accomplice, of those, "state practitioners and proponents of genocide, I mentioned earlier' Also I asked how the defining characteristics of his political group, were different to other such, "state practitioners and proponents". So the stage was set. But ex-solicitor Dennison, refused to set foot on it. Which means that if the case had gone ahead, and precedent set, with acquittal, due to facts being what they are, the whole, "anti-Semite" trope would have been deflated. That especially with the opportunity to argue in court, that it's not possible for me, campaigning for an end to israel, and thereby encouraging Jews and Semites to remain in the country

where I live, to be anti- the same people I'm encouraging to remain in the country, with me. The degree of deflation of course, also being dependant on anti-zionists spreading the news of it widely enough. So there's a growing trend. However, as has happened before, the accomplices to state terror occasionally get forced to chance their arms. Of course, people will get convicted, sometimes. But now's the time to prep ourselves, for secondary campaigns, taking off. The racially motivated state practitioners and proponents of genocide, (no matter what the numbers are), in its 73rd year, continue acting beyond pretence of rationality, To the point where they require the rest of us, also to behave increasingly beyond rationality, in pretence that a state which depends on continuing slow motion genocide for its artificial, racist majority, is, "democratic", or tolerable. It isn't.

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6 year old killed in what is believed

to be ritual killing I

n what is believed to be a ritualistic murder a 6 year-old girl was yesterday brutally murdered in Gomoza in Zimbabwe. The alleged murderer Lucky Ncube is currently in police custody assisting the police with their investigations.

The girls had her throat slit in what is believed to be a process of harvesting body parts to sell to some business people who believe that such parts will help enhance the performance of their businesses. This gruesome murder follows the murder of Tapiwa Makore, grandson of Alice Makore, a Methodist Church preacher, in

Child traumatized as Duck swallows fishing line

he impact of water pollution became evident last night when a duck found himself with a fishing hook and line in his throat. This happened at Boggart Hole Clough in Moston where recreational fishermen were busy concentrating on their hobby, unaware that a duck was fighting for dear life after swallowing one of their fishing lines. The attention of the public was drawn to the plight of the duck when a concerned little boy tried to help the duck in vain before it got into the water and swam away. The local Nature Reserve Security was called to the scene. When contacted this morning they said they were going to provide feedback on the fate of the duck. By end of day today they said they still did not have information to give us and they are going to call back tomorrow. “Regulations must be put in place to prevent recreational fishing from endangering unsuspecting aqua life in

pursuit of their hobby,” said a concerned citizen who declined to be named. “ I am really shocked. This is a tragic situation which could have been prevented had the responsible fishermen exercised due diligence,” lamented one of the fishermen. Statistics compiled by Safe Costal Wild Life indicate that each year, more than 100,000 animals die when they ingest, fishing lines, Meanwhile Daniel, the boy who tried to save the duck is still asking “Will the duck die?” Everette Ndlovu

Makore Village. A 57 year old 57-year-old Tapiwa Makore Sr., the boy’s uncle, and Tafadzwa Shamba, 40, a herdsman, were charged with the murder in what has left United Methodists in Zimbabwe shocked and grieving. “Our shock turned to horror when we realized that one of our own was among the suspects for the gruesome murder,” said Alice Makore. The murderers confessed that they drugged and mutilated the boy in order to sell his body parts to a witch doctor for $1,500 (U.S.). There is a belief that killing a child or another young person in a particular way, which can be equated to torture before the murder, and then processing certain body parts in a set-down manner will create, increase and maintain wealth. Ritual killings and human sacrifice have been happening for centuries in different parts of the world. Cases have been reported in such countries as Botswana, Lesotho, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Ritual killings or muti killings are committed for the purpose of taking human body parts which are used to

ALLEGED MURDERER LUCKY NCUBE prepare charms and other traditional medicines. These charms are believed to have supernatural powers which are greatly enhanced if the organs are removed whilst the victim is still alive.

The ritual murders are gruesome. It is scary to imagine victims' bodies being mutilated and certain body parts going missing. Needless to mention that in South Africa for instance, body parts can be sold for as little as R3000 which is £16.

In Zambia, there have been cases whereby people's heads were found in Asian owned shops whilst in some African countries, some politicians commissioned ritual killings so that they could win elections.

The Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission (ZHRC) has expressed concern over the rise in ritual killings.

In countries like Nigeria, barely a week passes by without reports of citizens arrested with human skulls, internal organs and other grisly items that have absolutely no place in a civilised and humane society.The ritual murders were once dominated by an eight member syndicate from Ilorin, Kwara State, which specialised in the sale of human skulls and bones, exhuming corpses, abduction, kidnapping and murder. They confessed to having sold 31 human heads to individuals in Ilorin and other towns in the state.

“The heinous murder and mutilation of innocent people is disheartening and should be denounced in the strongest terms by our society and nation as a whole.” ZHRC also stated that participation in ritual killings violated the basic universal human right to life, which is enshrined in section 48(1) of the Constitution and other sections of international treaties on rights to human life, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Everette Ndlovu

The British Bullet in the skull of my child

he bullet embedded in the skull of an African child was not made in Africa, but may have come from the UK which is benefiting from the lucrative conflicts which are a huge market for its weapons. This has been revealed by the Campaign Against Arms Trade (CATT) which states that the UK is the second biggest exporter of weapons to Africa surpassing Russia and France. This allegation is further supported by the analysis by Action on Armed Violence which notes that over £39bn worth of weapons were sold to conflict zones between 2008 and 2017, most of which killed innocent children. “These sales are not just numbers on a spreadsheet: for people around the world they could be a matter of life and death, says Andrew

Smith of Campaign Against Arms Trade. According to Save The Children 25 children are killed in conflicts everyday, the equivalent of a classroom full of pupils. . “A total of 93,236 children have been killed or maimed in conflicts in the last 10 years,” says Adrian Förster CEO of Save the Children Switzerland. Other estimates suggest that as many as five million children

in Africa under the age of five died as a result of armed conflict in the past decade. The most dangerous countries for children in conflict are Nigeria, DRC, Mali, CAR, South Sudan and Sudan and none of these countries make weapons which kill these children. All the weapons come from the East or the West, whose countries fuel conflict and supply weapons of death after which they loot the countries. “At a time when an African child needs medicine, food shelter and education, Britain is flooding Africa with instruments of death, by night and castigating wars by day,” said Themba Mdluli, a political analyst from South Africa. “These hypocrites do not have the African child at heart. They do to our children what they will never do to theirs.” Everette Ndlovu

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Late June 2021

Cartoon

POLITICS AND EVENTS

Crossword Credit Ian QUAIFE

Literature Quiz Questions • Little Lord Fauntleroy • Hilary Mantel • Dan Brown • Thesaurus • John Buchan • The Adventures of Pinocchio • Roald Dahl • George Orwell • Jean-Paul Sartre • Dan Brown • Stephen Hawking Answers

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

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POLITICS AND EVENTS

VEGAN COOKING WITH CHRIS WILLIAMSON Ingredients

2 bananas, cut into 4 chunks, frozen ¼ cup oat milk ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract ¼ cup chocolate chips

HOW TO MAKE IT In a food processor, blend bananas, oat milk, and vanilla until smooth. Mix in chocolate chips. Place in a freezer-safe

Late June 2021

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The long-time vegan ex MP Chris Williamson shows you another of his healthy vegan meals.

container and freeze for at least two hours, or overnight. Let sit at room temperature for 10 minutes to soften before serving.

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POLITICS AND EVENTS

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THE WORST MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT AS VOTED ON BY OUR READERS

TOP 5 POLITICIANS HAVING AFFAIRS

Boris Johnson the worst of the lot Johnson’s first known affair was as part of the “Bullingdon club at university when he willingly took part alongside David Cameron in having sex with a dead pig. He then went on to cheat on his first wife, left his second wife when she had cancer, moved in with his girlfriend then cheated on her…the list is endless.

Jeffrey Archer

Had a relationship with prostitute, Monica Coghlan. Archer then won a court action against the daily star who printed the story. The truth eventually came out and Archer was jailed for perjury.

John Profumo

The Secretary of State for War in Harold Macmillan's Conservative government, had an extramarital affair with 19-year-old model Christine Keeler beginning in 1961. Profumo denied the affair in a statement to the House of Commons, but weeks later a police investigation exposed the truth

Matt Hand Cock John Major and Edwina Currie Former Prime Minister John Major and his Conservative colleague Edwina Currie had a four-year love affair when serving as ministers. The affair began in 1984 when Mr Major was a government whip and Mrs Currie a backbencher

The health secretary has apologised after pictures emerged of him with Gina Coladangelo, reportedly taken on 6 May. The Covid19 Bereaved Families for Justice group said failing to sack Mr Hancock could lead to a "Cummings effect" and people breaking the rules. None of the MSM seem to be worried about the effect the affair had on his wife or the morality this man did not have.

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Dying to Win?

How the modern game risks its players' lives

he shocking scene during the DenmarkFinland game, of Christian Eriksen suffering a full-blown Cardiac Arrest on the field, brings into focus a growing issue football is ignoring. From the creation of the Football League, until the turn of this century, 112 years, 54 players died playing football. Since the turn of this century,119 players have died in twenty years. The early deaths were due mainly to infections after injury. Nearly all of this century's deaths have been heart attacks or heart failures. Thank heavens, Eriksen is well on the road to a strong recovery, and the scenes of support by Danish fans and by other teams have been genuinely moving. But his case should not be looked at in

This thick en of the hea ing rt walls is the source of heart disease.

isolation. High profile heart attacks, like Fabrice Muamba, who famously took 78 minutes to restart his heart in 2012, and the recent case of Christian Eriksen, who took one hour to stabilise, are among the many close calls. Footballers have never been fitter, yet they are dying of Cardiac Arrests often associated with the unfit and overweight. They do though, have something in common. The heart is similar to a bag made of muscle. The outer muscles squeeze and push the blood through the body. When you lack exercise and have high blood pressure the effort to push blood through your arteries is greater. This is when the muscles grow thicker to increase the pressure. This thickening of the heart walls is the source of heart disease.

Athletes tend to have cleaner arteries, and the exercise they do rather than thicken the walls of the heart stretches them so that more blood can be pumped with every beat. Their heart rate reduces, they should avoid heart problems. Someone like Usain Bolt though would not be expected to run the 100 metres, then quickly turn round & run

back, much less expected to keep doing this for forty five minutes. In the case of Fabrice Muamba it was found that as well as increased blood capacity the repeated stress of the modern game had caused the same thickening of the heart walls as the unfit people mentioned earlier. This has been

found across many cases. Unlike other high intensity sports, like Rugby, football creates a system of perpetual motion, in repeated sprinting, along with the high pressure and lack of control, causes just the right level of physiology and stress to cause the current spate of cardiac arrests. By Alisdair Bye

EURO2020 - SECOND ROUND FIXTURES ROUND-OF-16 - first fixture each day K/O 17:00, second fixture K/O 20:00 26th June

Wales v Denmark

Italy v Austria

27th June

Netherlands v Czech Republic

Belgium v Portugal

28th June

Croatia v Spain

France v Switzerland

29th June

England v Germany

Sweden v Ukraine

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POLITICS AND EVENTS

Familiar story for Scotland Q

uite the anti-climax.

The Scots played their first fixture in the finals of a major international competition in 23 years, and after weeks of eager build-up, they lost with a bit to spare to a Czech side of elegant touch. With a brace of goals either side of half-time, including one of the most impudent seen in international

football for many a year, Patrik Schick showed he is a potential star of the European Championship. None of this is to say the Scots played 'badly'. They created a number of openings, but somehow, the cutting edge at key moments never seemed to be there, nor did the coolness of head demanded by top-level football. Captain Andy Robertson produced his

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CZECH RE PUBLIC 2-0 SCOTLAND

best performance for his country in some time, with some fine crosses and several dangerous pot-shots from the edge of the Czech penalty area. Lyndon Dykes and Stuart Armstrong both spurned presentable opportunities. For months Jack Hendry may relive in his dreams his shot that lucklessly curled onto the Czech crossbar.

But the overall flow of the Scots' game was haphazard. John McGinn and Scott McTominay were stifled in the 'trench-battle' in midfield against Tomas Soucek and Alex Kral, while the Scots' back line looked twitchy and disconnected from the goalkeeper every time the Czechs attacked. As the first half wore on, the nervousness in the Scots' play

Luck, or pluck, of the Welsh?

ieffer Moore was the surprise hero, returning to the starting line-up to head home a handy equaliser with 15 minutes left, earning a point Wales just about deserved. However, a sluggish first hour against an unremarkable Switzerland side, coupled with a late scare when Mario Gravanovic had a goal disallowed by VAR, leaves a lingering feeling that Wales perhaps 'got away with it' in Baku. Not that Switzerland can claim realistically to have been robbed. Indeed, Moore came agonisingly close to scoring an opener in the early minutes, with his header tipped over brilliantly by Yann Sommer for one of the best saves of the tournament's opening phase of matches. And the late offside decision was correct.

But between Moore's two headers, there was a lengthy spell of Swiss control over the game, with Haris Seferovic presented with a number of openings that he wasted, while Breel Embolo looked close to unmarkable, even when two Welsh defenders were trying to cover him. It must have been concerning to the Welsh interim coach, Robert Paige, how ineffectually Aaron Ramsey and Gareth Bale tried to impose themselves in midfield. Embolo was the man who broke the deadlock to give Switzerland a merited lead shortly after half-time. He wriggled away from his markers for what seemed the twenty-thousandth time, bore down on the Welsh penalty area, and forced a fine save from Danny Ward. From the resulting corner, Embolo again escaped the attentions of the static Joe Rodon to head home.

From there, Wales roused themselves and started to re-impose themselves on the game, disrupting the Swiss tactical advantage, if little else. One or two Swiss players looked slightly intimidated as the Welsh upped the pace, and while this improvement yielded little in the way of serious chances, it did unsettle Swiss confidence quite easily. There was just enough shift in the balance for it to be no great surprise when Moore snatched an equaliser, and a useful point to open the tournament for Wales. By Martin Odoni

a useful p to open tohint tourname e for Walesnt

b e c a m e increasingly noticeable, and when Schick headed a smart opener with three minutes left before half-time, it had looked on the cards. Not long after half-time, Schick added a second – a goal that was majestic, and yet comical. David Marshall, the Scotland goalkeeper, for some reason pushed up to patrol the centre circle. The Scots lost possession in midfield, with the Czechs switching the ball to Schick in a small pocket of space near halfway. As Marshall scrambled back desperately to cover his own goal, Schick launched a high ball from the centre circle. Initially, it seemed to be heading yards past Marshall's right post, but Schick applied such prodigious inwards-curl on the strike that it shifted through a good fifteen degrees in flight. The ball did not just nip inside the post and under the crossbar, but actually landed right in the middle of the Scottish net. Marshall's hurried retreat ended with him landing in the net too, getting tangled up in it – cue Spider-Man memes all over the Twittersphere. The Scots pressed hard for the rest of the game, and probably should have scored at least once. But for all that, there was no mistaking the comfort of the Czechs, who won playing within themselves. Not how Steve Clarke pictured the opener going. Food for uncomfortable thought, especially with an "Auld Enemies" derby coming up next.

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Rahe Sterling aem t last scorelong d his first tourname nt goal

POLITICS AND EVENTS

Late June 2021

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Pragmatic England make solid but unspectacular start ENGLAN D 1-0 CROATIA

ngland made a decent start against old thorns-in-theirflesh Croatia on a hot afternoon at Wembley. Raheem Sterling at long last scored his first tournament goal as an England international, and overall, his team could count themselves unfortunate not to have scored more, both before and after he put them ahead. As it was, they made history by winning their first game at a European Championships, something no England team had managed previously. Not that the football England played exactly had observers thinking,

"Wow! Brazil in white shirts!" Although there is a certain comfortable smoothness in possession to the current England generation that earlier incarnations perhaps lacked, manager Gareth Southgate has instilled a pragmatic approach that borders on coldly functional. Therefore, England's priority for much of this game remained safety at the back. They got plenty of attacking in, and certainly created more serious openings than their aging opponents. But none of this was at the expense of recklessness or needless risk-taking. Despite the actual defensive abilities of the England back line individually

being generally unimpressive, they are well-drilled as a unit and can cover for one another's weaknesses. Tyrone Mings was particularly impressive at centre-half, allowing the Croats not a ghost of a real opening all day. England started brightly but were made to wait for the breakthrough. A wonderful early strike from Phil Foden rattled the Croatia post, and Kalvin Phillips nearly caught Dominik Livakovic in the Croatia goal napping with a shot from outside the area. But Croatia weathered the early storm to see out the first half, without

ever endangering Jordan Pickford's status in the England goal of "on-field spectator". Indeed, Pickford was so under-employed, he could almost have altered the status himself to "offfield spectator" without any appreciable increase in threat. England raised the tempo again after half-time, pushing the Croats further and further back until they inevitably broke. The creator was Phillips, who produced a lovely sidestep inside from the right flank, pulling away from two defenders making forlorn attempts to challenge him, before seeing Sterling making a burst into the penalty area ahead.

Phillips played the through-pass precisely, and Sterling got his foot cleanly through the ball, sweeping it past Livakovic and into the net. Rarely has Sterling celebrated a goal as exuberantly as this one. Sterling should have added a second late on, but his finish was erratic. But overall, despite some nervy noises from the Wembley crowd, England guarded their lead in great comfort, seeing out time without having to hit fourth gear again at any stage. Next up: 'The Auld Enemie.' By Martin Odoni

Turkey's goose cooked by Welsh

ressed in their away strip of gold shirts and green shorts, Wales resembled an Australian Rugby Union team more than a football team. But in truth, they were superior to Turkey in almost every aspect of a rather ratty, bad-tempered contest, which threatened to turn nasty as the Turks' frustration began boiling over. Turkey went into Euro2020 as many people's 'dark horses' for the tournament crown. But there is a history to such dark horses of there being no middle ground. If they do not fulfil all of their promise and get to the business end of the competition in style (think Greece in 2004), they tend

to crash out early and limply, and have their backers wondering what on Earth they saw in the team to begin with (think the Soviet Union at the 1990 World Cup, or Colombia at the 1998 World Cup). Two Turkish defeats in two matches (3-0 by Italy in the opener), both firmly decisive, and without troubling the scoreboard operators in either game; Turkey have conformed to the latter pattern and already face elimination at the first hurdle. Hence their late frustration here, as the Welsh defence marshalled their attacks with few troubles. Having had the better first half chances, Wales took a merited lead

through Aaron Ramsey shortly before half-time with an expert finish from a fine ball into the box by Gareth Bale. Indeed, Wales were so comfortable, they could even afford for Bale to miss a penalty after the hour, and still never looked in any danger of being pegged back. A late headed opportunity for the Turks, when Mehri Demiral leapt and powered the ball towards goal, gave Danny Ward a fine save to make. Ward is a candidate for goalkeeper of the tournament, and choosing from the four British squads, he is probably the UK's best keeper.

contributed to the Turks' growing agitation. Ramsey in particular should have had a second when he blazed a glorious opportunity over the bar. In the closing stages, anger clearly got the better of the Turks and some petty rows with the referee and the Welsh players ensued.

Wales looked deadly on the counterattack, which doubtless

Wales took it all in their stride, finally putting Turkey out of their

misery deep in injury time. Bale did a mazy dribble into the Turkish area before setting up Connor Roberts for the simplest of finishes. Wales are all-but-guaranteed a place in round 2 after just two matches. Turkey are in dire peril. By Martin Odoni By Martin Odoni

et truly is Sunshine ” then nd round es in the County onship, modified Covid-19 re being eir most

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"AULD ENEMIES" CANCEL EACH OTHER OUT

eople across mainland Europe are often bemused by football games between England and Scotland. They see little appeal, finding the tooth-and-nail, highphysicality football the matches tend to produce slightly numbing. British fans may love the visceral nature and unmistakable passion, but the Europeans think, as the saying goes, "It's magnificent, but it isn't art."

Aesthetic skill remained at a premium

What was so unappealing about the meeting at Euro2020 was not the crude, visceral brutality on show. Instead this game was just plain boring, the worst match of the entire first round. In some regards, one could argue that it was one of the least visceral or bruising games the 'Auld Enemies' had ever played, but it failed to replace the fire and fury with anything else that might please the beholder. In unhelpfully timed heavy rain, serious opportunities eluded either side, and even without pace or competitive power, aesthetic skill remained at a premium. England can point to an early John Stones effort that clattered a post – the second game in a row England have been unlucky with the woodwork – and the Scots can point to a diving save Stephen O'Donnell forced out of Jordan Pickford from fairly close range not long before half-time. But most of the match was bogged down, as the Scots focused on squeezing England out of their stride, and only attacked cautiously. England seemed incapable of getting their full backs forward to broaden attacks. Harry Kane was swamped and

If this is Scotland isolated. Che Adams, added to doing the Scotland line-up to bolster w e ll, one fea the creative options, saw the rs game largely pass him by as for them much as it did Kane. Stalemate. against Croatia England might have had a late penalty, but the referee ignored Andy Robertson's admittedly soft trip of Raheem Sterling. The Scots, as usual when avoiding defeat in competition with England, were given excessive congratulation at full-time for a minor 'achievement'. Yes, as everyone was saying, England played poorly. But it is maudlin to say that the Scots played well. They effectively, but then so did England. The football in attack from both teams was one-dimensional, inflexible and lacked real penetration. The praise is based on measuring against expectations, creating an obvious nonsense logic. "Big bad England expect better than to draw. Gallant little Scotland expect no better than to draw. Therefore, Scotland achieved what they expected, England did not.

Therefore, Scotland fulfilled more potential than England, because they were no worse than England, therefore they did better than England." If this is Scotland doing well, one fears for them against Croatia early next week. This match was just a bad cup tie, and in the months ahead, as people re-watch it in the cold light of day, it is likely to be realised that neither team deserved much credit for what they produced. It is only the fourth meeting of the two countries, out of 115, to end scoreless, and the first match between them on English soil to finish without a goal. By Martin Odoni

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ITALY SWEEP GROUP A, BUT WALES SAFELY THROUGH TO ROUND OF 16

ITALY JUST A BIT TOO GOOD FOR WALES

taly completed a 'clean sweep' of the group stage of Euro2020, beating Wales by a single goal in Rome. Wales deserve credit for keeping the Italians out for almost forty minutes before conceding to a set piece, deftly headed past Danny Ward by Matteo Pessina. It was by far the toughest match Italy faced in the first round, but even so, the 1-0 scoreline scarcely reflected the Azzuri's dominance. It also has to be conceded, before overstating the credit for Wales, that the Italians, with a second round spot already secured from the first two matches, made eight changes from the win over Switzerland, with no

By far the toughest match Ita faced in t ly h first roun e d

noticeable loss of rhythm. Wales did well not to let in a second, a task made all the more difficult when Ethan Ampadu was sent off with some thirty minutes to play. The red card was somewhat harsh, but reflected the guidelines UEFA gave to referees before the tournament began about tackle attempts that go over the ball and land on an opponent's ankle; Ampadu, by letter of the law, did land his studs on Federico Bernardeschi's ankle, and so the referee clearly felt compelled to order the early bath, Italy continued the smooth, incisive passing game that served them so well in the wins over Turkey and Switzerland, and might have yielded further rewards, with over twenty attempts on goal. Wales did have a late opportunity for Gareth Bale, whose volley flew way off target,

For W despite thales, second pel loss, in the groace was secur up e on goal d difference but in tr uth, anything other than an Italian victory would have been robbery. Italy have now gone thirty consecutive matches unbeaten, equalling the nation's all-time record achieved in the 1930s. For Wales, despite the loss, second place in the group was secured on goal difference from Switzerland, who beat Turkey 3-1 in the other match. With four points, the Swiss were a very strong third place team, and qualify for the second round as well. By Martin Odoni

THE

WORD

Late June 2021

SCORES ROUND-UP FROM EURO2020 Group A 1 Italy 2 Wales 3 Switzerland 4 Turkey

W 3 1 1 0

F 7 3 4 1

A 0 2 5 8

Pts 9 4 4 0

Italy Switzerland Italy Turkey Italy Turkey

3-0 1-1 3-0 0-2 1-0 1-3

Group B 1 Belgium 2 Denmark 3 Finland 4 Russia Denmark Belgium Denmark Finland Denmark Finland

W F A Pts 3 7 1 9 1 5 4 3 1 1 3 3 1 2 7 3 0-1 Finland 3-0 Russia 1-2 Belgium 0-1 Russia 4-1 Russia 0-2 Belgium

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Luka Modric is the star as Croatia dump Scotland out of the Euros

Croatia teach Scotland a football lesson

Turkey Wales Switzerland Wales Wales Switzerland

Group C W F A Pts 1 Netherlands 3 8 2 9 2 Austria 2 4 3 6 3 Ukraine 1 4 5 3 4 N.Macedonia 0 2 8 0 Netherlands 3-2 Ukraine Austria 3-1 Macedonia Netherlands 2-0 Austria Ukraine 2-1 Macedonia Netherlands 3-0 Macedonia Austria 1-0 Ukraine Group D W F A Pts 1 England 2 2 0 7 2 Croatia 1 4 3 4 3 Czech Rep. 1 3 2 4 4 Scotland 0 1 5 1 England 1-0 Croatia Scotland 0-2 Czech Rep. England 0-0 Scotland Croatia 1-1 Czech Rep. England 1-0 Czech Rep. Scotland 1-3 Croatia Group E 1 Sweden 2 Spain 3 Slovakia 4 Poland Slovakia Spain Slovakia Spain Slovakia Poland

W F A Pts 2 4 2 7 1 6 1 5 1 2 7 3 0 4 6 2 2-1 Poland 0-0 Sweden 0-1 Sweden 1-1 Poland 0-5 Spain 2-3 Sweden

Group F 1 France 2 Germany 3 Portugal 4 Hungary Hungary France Hungary Portugal Portugal Hungary

W F A Pts 1 4 3 5 1 6 5 4 1 7 6 4 0 3 6 2 0-3 Portugal 1-0 Germany 1-1 France 2-4 Germany 2-2 France 2-2 Germany

CROATIA 3-1 SCOTLAND

There see to be somms kind of fir e round 'plast teau' for Scotland.

fter a generation in exile, Scotland may feel they made great progress just by reaching Euro2020. But past failures echoed loudly over them once the tournament was under way. Scotland used to go into tournaments with serious hopes of trekking deep into the competition. Then opponents arrived, Scotland would play three matches, and we all know what would happen then – nearly nothing. At full-time here, the Scots put a brave face on scoring once in three matches – two of which were at their national stadium – registering just a single point in Group D. But there seems to be an intangible first round 'plateau' for Scotland. No matter which generation of players make up the team, the plateau is insurmountable. Billy Gilmore was forced out of the side due to a CoVid19 scare, but the plateau makes one doubt he could have made the difference. One light in this dark defeat was Scotland's only goal of the tournament, a fine strike from the edge of the penalty area by Callum McGregor just before half-time. It revitalised a Scottish display that, despite a couple of decent openings made more by sheer force-of-will than guile, had been second best for most of the first half. Croatia got an early lead through a daring strike by Nikola Vlasic, then 'puppeteered' the Scots with expert passing. The Scots only kept in touch through creditable effort.

The Croats are not what they were. Ageing, they have lost some stars of their World Cup odyssey of 2018. But they remain canny, led by a maestro any side in Euro2020 would spill blood to have in their own XI - Luka Modric. Man-of-thematch by many miles, he seemed to run the game single-handedly from his own private world between the centre circle and the D of the Scotland penalty area. It was seemingly a world no Scotsman could enter or disrupt. At 35, Modric's legs are thought to have 'gone', but that is immaterial. A player with his football brain needs little pace. Modric's mind takes him to the optimum position before the ball has even set off. Between his tidying up of every loose ball, and his visionary distribution, Modric had the whole match revolving around him. He had over 100 touches of the ball, set up a goal, and scored another, setting the standard for goal of the tournament. Scotland's equaliser galvanised the Hampden crowd, but Croatia did not panic. They withstood a strong Scottish start to the second half, and nearly scored a breakaway goal when David Marshall saved well in a one-on-one with Josko Gvardiol. Five minutes later, Modric proved he is still one of great playmakers, as he struck a

gentle but perfectly lofted curler minutes left was glanced home by from inside the D with the outside of Ivan Perisic, and the match was over. his right foot, landing it in the top- Scotland, full of endeavour, but right corner of the net, for one of perhaps too desperate, had simply Euro2020's true screamers. A corner been outclassed. Their tournament taken by – you guessed it – ended in the first round yet Modric again. A maestro with 13 all other s By Martin Odoni ides

in Euro2020 w o u ld spill bloo have in thd to own XIs -eir Luka Mod ric.

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POLITICS AND EVENTS

Late June 2021

WORD

England win Group D without a single goal conceded in the group phase CZECH REPUBLIC 0-1 ENGLAND

Sterling goal sees off Czechs E

ngland found a safe, if hardly inspired, path to the knockout stages of Euro2020 with another 1-0 win, this time over the Czech Republic. Just like the win over Croatia nine days earlier, the game was won rather more easily than the final score suggested. Nonetheless, doubts remain over how far England can progress in the tournament when showing a disinclination to kill off opponents. The England players, stinging from deserved criticism for their awkward, grinding and inflexible display in the draw against the Scots, started the final group game with more urgency and fluidity. They were just centimetres from being rewarded barely three minutes in. A clever, quick passing move played in Raheem Sterling down the left, with the Czech full-back out of sight. Sterling closed in on the onrushing Tomas Vaclik in the Czech goal, deftly lifting the ball over him. It smacked the far post, bouncing to safety for the Czech Republic. England hit the woodwork in all three group games. Sterling's luck turned on just 11 minutes though, thanks to another well-worked move down the flanks. The move involved Bukayo Saka, who had an absolutely barnstorming game on the right, Harry Kane, Luke Shaw and Jack Grealish, replacing Mason Mount who had to self-isolate due to a CoVid scare. Grealish was eventually played in on the left, got to the teeth of the byline, and launched a peach of a cross to the back post for Sterling to nod home.

Sterling had to wait seven years for his first goal at an International tournament. Now two have come along at once. And England could have had more, especially when a fantastic through-ball from Harry Maguire, returning to the starting line-up after over a month out injured, played in Kane, who neatly side-stepped inside a defender before firing a low shot that Vaclik did well to save.

At the other end, Jordan Pickford was again underemployed, although he did produce "a-save-for-the-cameras" from a Tomas Holes long-range shot. There was also a brief scramble in the England box just before half-time, ending in a snapshot from Tomas Soucek that just missed outside Pickford's right post. But England still deserved their lead at the half.

The second half, by contrast, was almost a non-event. The Czechs got far more of the ball but created literally nothing with it for the 45 minutes, as England opted to focus on remaining wellgrouped, and held on to what they had. This they achieved and, even if it was a little tiresome to watch, the England fans went home happy enough; they cruelly cheered several times in the second half as

live score updates from Hampden revealed that Scotland were losing to Croatia. England win the group with three clean sheets. Scotland bottom of the group and eliminated. Yes, England fans were happy. But they know their team will have to improve in the knock-out rounds. By Martin Odoni

Home truths time for Scotland T HE SCENE: Scotland are eliminated from a major tournament. A defeat by strong opposition in their opening group game is followed by an unimpressive-but-useful draw in the second match. The Scots go into game three knowing a win should qualify them for the knock-out rounds. Instead, conceding three goals, the Scots sink to a chastening defeat, and endure the familiar feeling of, "Out-in-the-first-round."

No, I am not describing the Scots' showing at Euro2020. I am in fact describing Scotland's previous showing at a major tournament - the World Cup in France back in 1998. A narrow opening defeat by Brazil by 2 goals to 1 was followed by a scrappy but just-about-acceptable 1-1 draw against Norway. Hope remained, until a pitiful display against lowly Morocco saw the Scots getting overturned 3-0. Since then, Scotland, the Southend United of International football, has spent a generation in the International wilderness,

qualifying for no tournaments at all. When they finally return after 23 years, it is only to produce… almost identical rubbish. Was this exile not a sufficient kick-up-the-backside? As of summer 2021, it is now eleven major tournaments Scotland has played in, starting with the World Cup in 1954. Eleven times, they have crashed out in round one.

The standard excuse, "We're a small country!" cuts no mustard. Almost undressed by Croatia's imaginative movement and crisp passing, Scotland's defeat on Tuesday was by a country whose population is roughly half a million smaller. Moreover, 'small' Croatia played in a World Cup Final only three years ago. Similar to the draw with Norway in 1998; Norway's population is roughly the same size as Scotland's too, and yet Norway beat the mighty Brazil in that same competition. Look at Uruguay. Its population is not much more than half that of Scotland, and yet they have been World Champions twice, and got to the World Cup semi-finals

as recently as 2010. If these other small countries can achieve these things, why can Scotland never overcome even one hurdle? No, population size is not the issue. Otherwise, why has China never won the World Cup? Why do Germany sometimes fail to win the European Championship? Scotland's problem is expectations. They are so low that even singlepoint fiascos like their last two tournaments seem satisfactory. England fans can be irritatingly hard-to-please, but at least that keeps their players on their toes. I have long felt that the Scots, perhaps from a desire to appear 'different' to their rivals, have gone much too far the other way. Somehow, a tournament showing in which they have a solitary, ugly draw, and score only one goal in 270 minutes, is seen as 'progress', even though it is no different to what happened before the exile. I am not saying the Scots need to

be as impatient as their English counterparts, but there must be a minimum acceptable standard, below which their team has let them down. If, as is the current narrative, the 'redeeming feature' of Scotland's Euros adventure is the most boring game of the tournament, in which they failed even to score, then the Scotland team has let its supporters down. Supporters should forgo their usual national defensiveness and say it. Draw a line below which players know it is unacceptable to descend. At least then the team will finally have a firm target to aim for, and that might even lead to more than just round 2. By Martin Odoni

Having got one game against an Auld Enemie out of the way, along comes another

FOOTBALL 'RIVALRY' BETWEEN ENGLAND AND GERMANY IS MYTHOLOGICAL"

Next uGEpRMfANoYr! I

E ng l a n d –

England are safely through round 1 with an unblemished defensive record. But their players on Wednesday night might have rolled eyes on learning their opponents in the round-of-16. One-time nemesis, Germany, scraped second in Group F at the conclusion of round 1. A night of unreadable drama had England poised to face each of all four teams in the group at some point, as scorelines changed more than a horror movie fan changes his underwear. But it's England v Germany AGAIN.

The football 'rivalry' between England and Germany is mythological. Many England fans see the Germans as their main rivals - certainly more than Scotland – but there is little feeling the other way. Most German fans regard the Netherlands, Italy, and possibly even France, to be rivals more than England. They are even bemused by ill-feeling from across the North Sea. The real reason for animosity is an inferiority complex England developed in the 1970s. German football advanced rapidly during

this era, and soon the series between the two countries, completely dominated by England before 1968, was being dominated just as heavily by (West) Germany. England did not win any competitive matches against Germany from 1967 until the 2000 European Championships. Twice England were agonisingly close, losing only on penalties in the semifinals of the 1990 World Cup, and the 1996 European Championships. England got a catharsis in 2001, smashing Germany 5-1 in a World Cup qualifier in Munich.

Sore feelings diminished subsequently, although a 4-1 defeat by Germany at the 2010 World Cup was a painful reminder of what the 70s, 80s and 90s were like. But since the turn of the millennium, results have been more evenly balanced.

So what now? Well, this current German team looks weak. They play 'Wimbledon football' i.e. lots of long, hopeful, diagonal balls into the box looking for a forward to nod down to set up a midfielder to follow up. They look blunder-prone at the back, with their full-backs often caught upfield. England's Raheem Sterling,

Ben Foden and Bukayo Saka will be looking at the space they leave and licking their lips. Leroy Sane, formerly of Manchester City, remains dangerous, but has sputtered in this tournament. Declan Rice should be confident of stifling him.

Germany were lucky not to lose to Hungary, and really should have finished bottom of the group. There is nothing in this team for England to fear. So, I will say it. I think England should win. No, I said SHOULD. Not WILL. By Martin Odoni