Issuu

THE

WORD

Issue #38, Jun 28th 2020.

£1

Equality Democracy Truth Courage

Forgotten bands

It is sometimes said that The The never played Leeds, or that if they did nobody would be able to tell anyone that they’d seen them. While at school in Leeds in the 1960s a friend suggested it would be cool if a band ever called themselves The The. “Easy for you to say,” I replied. “You’re from Selby.” But The The did exist, finally, and were more than a wicked name, but a wicked band too. Another band with a very clever name was The Music. “It’s too obvious a name,” said almost everyone, offended. “All bands play The Music – Duh!” “If it’s obvious, why hasn’t anyone... PAGE 16

THE PEOPLE’S PAPER

SHAFTED

BY THE FRIENDS OF ISRAEL

ONE BY ONE THE ICONS FALL

2020

thewordmedia.org Worst statues

June 30, 1997 - In Hong Kong, the flag of the British Crown Colony was officially lowered at midnight and replaced by a new flag representing China’s sovereignty and the official transfer of PAGE 6 power...

SILENCE OF THE SHEEP

Self-declared Zionist and opponent of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions campaign (BDS), Lisa Nandy, is to the surprise of many on the Left, the chair of Labour Friends of Palestine and PAGE 4 the Middle East...

Slaves of the World unite

Throughout history, powerful men have sought to enslave men, women and children. In the ancient and medieval world, it was usually victory in battle that gave you a reservoir of domestic and galley slaves. In the seventeenth, eighteenth and early part of the nineteenth PAGE 8 centuries...

THE

WORD

Jun 28th 2020

Anti-Semitism epidemic in Starmer’s Labour Party Something is very wrong with the Labour Party when twenty-five Jewish members are currently suspended accused of antisemitism; the situation borders on the ridiculous. Looking at racist atrocities committed daily and harassment of black people in the UK and the USA I can only thank heaven nobody in the Labour Party ever kneels on a Jewish neck, or chases a Jewish guy firing bullets at him, or stops him in London for the eleventh time in months while driving and says, ‘Hey buddy you got a Jewish face,’ or arrests a Jewish nurse who has been individually honoured by our Government and puts her in a cell for 18 hours.

set itself up as higher than all of that. How long can it be before this large, non-Jewish political organisation throws me out for ‘anti-Semitism’ merely for flagging up the obvious paradox? Of such is totalitarianism born.

It’s also like when the I am incensed and school bully punches you on revolted by all anti-Semitism the nose and says “har har anywhere but in particular that’s for being a bully.” when it happens, AS IT DOES Then you are called in in the Labour Party, where this large and supposedly to the head teacher’s office and told, “I hear you’re a secular organisation bit of a bully, lad.” The disciplines individual establishment is thus Jewish members in complicit. disproportionate numbers for having a I feel (and surely view on Judaism and my sensitivities are anti-Semitism that is relevant) as though different from that of the large non-Jewish JEWISH MEMBERS our wonderful Party, OF THE LABOUR recently reenergised organisation! PARTY ARE and democratised, CURRENTLY has begun to place It is simply that SUSPENDED a metaphorical the large non-Jewish ACCUSED OF organisation is ANTISEMITISM knee on the necks of Jewish members saying to Jews, “You are wrong, therefore anti- and those who sympathise Semitic, and thus the wrong with their quandary, and kind of Jew.” It hurts me to the new ‘Headmaster’ is my marrow to say this but Sir doing nothing to prevent Keir Starmer’s Labour Party it. Indeed some might say continues to act unjustly that Keir has positioned towards Jews and anyone himself somewhere between who supports them if they encouraging and enabling do not follow the lead of one any forthcoming pogrom large but minority strand of against members who take Judaism with which the Party a sympathetic view towards has allied itself; therefore the either JVL or individual Labour Party is deeply anti- Jewish members. Semitic. I wish he would actually I’m a non-Jewish follower lead rather than merely of Rashbi (go see) and possess striking a statesman-like many books of Jewish pose for the benefit of the teaching and discourse. Establishment, of which he is Nowhere does it say there and has for a long time been is only one view of well, a high profile member. A nice anything. On the contrary, gesture might be to promote Jewish culture is traditionally the affiliation of Jewish Voice dissident in the noblest for Labour to the Party. way and robust argument is Ben Rashbi – Religious encouraged in order to get to the Truth, yet Labour has Correspondent

POLITICS AND EVENTS

www.thewordmedia.co.uk

REBECCA LONGBAILEY SACKED

Almost a year to the day that Rebecca Long-Bailey reportedly told the so-called Jewish Labour Movement that “I should not be in the Labour party”, she has experienced the witch-hunt herself

ir Keir Starmer’s decision to dismiss Long-Bailey from his shadow cabinet, for sharing Maxine Peake's interview with the Independent, must surely serve as a wake-up call to the remaining members of the Labour Party. According to Starmer’s spokesperson, the reason he fired her was for sharing an "antisemitic conspiracy theory." But what was the alleged “conspiracy theory”? In her interview, Maxine said: “The tactics used by the Police in America, kneeling on George Floyd’s neck, was learnt from seminars with Israel’s secret services.” That is self-evidently not a conspiracy theory. US law enforcement officials have been

Has starmer of nandy said anything about this give-away

www.thewordmedia.co.uk

POLITICS AND EVENTS

Jun 28th 2020

THE

WORD

Subversive Tory digital media network setup after 2017 Tory dip, Report says

During the “ Corbyn Surge “ a perspicacious comment was made : Suggesting the awakening of socialism in the UKs voting minds ( and indeed the “global political springtime “ ) was influenced by the rise of social media and the attendant dissemination of a new journalism from the likes of uncensored amateur bloggers. A prescient corollary to this observation, was that the capitalist establishment would eventually stymie this phenomenon by subverting the technology. In other words, use this ephemeral openness needed to urgently maximised by the left.

travelling to Israel for decades for training, while others have received training from Israeli officials in America.

The Zionist lobby was particularly vicious in its relentless attacks on Jeremy Corbyn. His persistent apologies were seen as History teaches us a sign of weakness, that appeasement which encouraged is always doomed them to go for to fail, which his jugular. Long-Bailey has These fanatics discovered to would not The Zionist her cost. The countenance lobby was abject failure of an ethical particularly any MP to join me foreign policy, vicious in condemning the because it would witch-hunt years ago, mean a future and the Labour Party’s Labour government craven capitulation to the Israel giving unequivocal backing lobby, was a huge factor in last to the Palestinian people year’s election defeat. and demanding Israel obey

Lion from Zion

History teaches us that appeasement is always doomed to fail

international law. Now the Corbyn project lies in ruins and Long-Bailey has been consigned to the back benches, but the situation inside the Labour Party is only going to get worse. So, my advice to any socialists who remain in the party is – head for the lifeboats. Written by Chris Williamson

The veracity of this warning has been demonstrated by a report on the 2017 election published recently. The report cites by way of example a 52-year-old woman who voted Labour in 2017 but switched to the Tories in 2019.

She said she was “Frightened at the possibility of a Marxist government. Disgusted at Corbyn being a terrorist sympathiser. Most disturbed about plan to nationalise BT as I fear it would allow a Labour government to spy on internet users.” Where did all these farfetched ideas come from? Apart from the obvious suspects like the Daily Mail, the Sun, and the BBC, the report gives us some clues. It describes how the Tories invested heavily in digital media after 2017, intensively testing content for impact and setting up a network of “supportive outriders” like the Campaign Against Corbynism Media, Working4UK or Parents’ Choice, that did not acknowledge their political connection.

Setting up “supportive outriders “ that did not acknowledge their political connection

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

WORD

THE

WORD

Jun 28th 2020

POLITICS AND EVENTS

www.thewordmedia.co.uk

SILENCE OF TH

Whatever happened to Labour Fr

elf-declared Zionist and opponent of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions campaign (BDS), Lisa Nandy,

is to the surprise of many on the Left, the chair of Labour Friends of Palestine and the Middle East.

WORD

Starmer’s new shadow Foreign Secretary, Corbyn critic, supporter of the ongoing WitchHunt and one-time agent for leadership challenger Owen Smith (who?) took over the chair of LFP in 2018. According to Wikipedia the LFPME “supports a viable two-state solution that delivers justice and freedom for the Palestinian people as called for by the overwhelming

international consensus and enshrined under international

law and in UN resolutions. She ends by saying that “now is the

Racism is a disease. It does not exist in pockets. Unchallenged, it spreads and finds roots. In recent months, we have seen a rise in anti-Semitic attacks in the UK, a murder in France, attacks on synagogues in Sweden and the US and fascists on the march in Poland. As one Jewish constituent wrote to me, “people are really frightened

www.thewordmedia.co.uk

POLITICS AND EVENTS

Jun 28th 2020

THE

WORD

THE SECOND SPIKE IN AUTUMN WINTER

HE SHEEP

riends of Palestine? time do more.” Adding: “We cannot afford to fail.” That was December 2018.

updated news item was winning a party award in December 2018. Accepting the trophy Nandy declared: “We will redouble Make-or-break our efforts to achieve peace time’ on and a two state antisemitism solution. ” in Labour

To get an idea of its activity since a glance at its website is not encouraging. The most up to date Parliamentary activity mentioned was in 2017. It’s most recent

Hard times

Labour

No friend of the left Nandy did

Ashamed of where our party ended up

succeed in attracting financial help for her 2017 election campaign from two Remaineer LibDems politicians and a Brexiteer Tory businessman. Between them they handed her a total of £12,000 or just under half her £25,000 election fighting fund! Written by Philip Wagstaff

I attended a Zoom meeting last evening with Richard Horton, editor of the Lancet, last evening with 84 other screens, probably in excess of 120 attendees. Richard outlined the history of the government’s mishandling of the epidemic, and pointed to real and actual mistakes the government made despite there being clear data, information, and advice they needed to have heeded. He talked about the second wave of this pandemic (which is now peaking globally even if the UK thinks it is over it.) Covid19 will return in September and peak in the UK over Christmas 2020. A prolonged lock down will not work a second time in the way we’ve used it from March to July. Not only is it disastrous to the economy that sustains us all but it has had negative social consequences that are probably sufficient to prevent it succeeding again.. There are a number of possible avenues we could go down. There are also a number of vaccines being tested, but since Coronaviruses are made of RNA (go see) they are more unstable than ones made of DNA and more likely to mutate over shirt periods of time. Vaccines might not be the answer.

Two ideas seemed interesting and a third one obvious. The first was that if we unlock the lockdown for 2-6 weeks at a time, breaking the transmission for a lock down period of 2 weeks as soon as indicators show the vurus beginning to spread again. The second idea was for the over 40s to work from home and those under 40 maintain the economy and catch and recover from the disease, although distancing and face masks I don’t think would be abandoned. Imagine if both these options were combined! I can’t remember whether anyone asked Richard that. The mind blowingly obvious tactic was something we should have employed early on, and need to reintroduce as soon as the government goes soft on it. We need to close our borders. My own feeling is that quarantine of 14 days in a disused hotel/ motel/ facility is essential whatever anyone has needed to travel to the UK for. New Zealand now has another outbreak because two women from dirty UK were allowed to arrive and travel freely between islands to attend a funeral. Education: we are facing the prospect of a Lost Generation. We have to work out how education can be done.

THE

WORD

DSDS

Jun 28th 2020

POLITICS AND EVENTS

www.thewordmedia.co.uk

STATUES June 30, 1997 - In Hong Kong, the flag of the British Crown Colony was officially lowered at midnight and replaced by a new flag representing Chinaâ€™s sovereignty and the official transfer of power.

June 28, 1914 Archduke Francis Ferdinand, Crown Prince of Austria and his wife were assassinated at Sarajevo, touching off a conflict between the AustroHungarian government and Serbia that escalated into World War I.

June 28, 1919 - The signing of the Treaty of Versailles formally ended World War I

June 29 Elizabeth Barrett Browning (b. 6 March 1806) was one of the most prominent English poets of the Victorian era.

www.thewordmedia.co.uk

POLITICS AND EVENTS

Jun 28th 2020

THE

WORD

TO GO June 29, 1972 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled (5-4) that capital punishment was a violation of the Eighth Amendment prohibiting “cruel and unusual punishment.” The decision spared the lives of 600 individuals then sitting on death row today, 22 states in the U.S. and two-thirds of the countries in the world have abolished the death penalty. As of December 12, 2019, punishment is legal in 29 US states.

capital

According to the Death Penalty Information Center, 22 people were executed in the United States in 2019. The number of death sentences imposed was 34. According to the Criminal Justice Project of the NAACP, there are 2,656 people on death row in the United States as of July 1, 2019. June 30, 1971 - The 26th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was enacted, granting the right to vote in all federal, state and local elections to American citizens 18 years or older. The U.S. thus gained an additional 11 million voters. The minimum voting age in most states had been 21.

Since 1976, when the death penalty was reinstated by the US Supreme Court, 1,512 people have been executed (as of December 12, 2019). Since 1973, there have been 166 death row exonerations (as of December 2019). Twentynine of them are from the state of Florida

THE

WORD

Jun 28th 2020

POLITICS AND EVENTS

www.thewordmedia.co.uk

SLAVES OF THE WORLD UNITE!

THE UGLY FACE OF CAPITALISM EXPOSING THE CRIMINAL CENTR

hroughout history, powerful men have sought to enslave men, women and children. In the ancient and medieval world, it was usually victory in battle that gave you a reservoir of domestic and galley slaves.

In the seventeenth, eighteenth and early part of the nineteenth centuries, we had the appalling ‘triangular trade’ whereby British merchants sailed with guns, beer and other sought-after items to West Africa to trade for a human cargo of black slaves, captured initially by the white slavers themselves and then by ‘arrangement’ with local black chieftains and warlords.

The slave-trading Colstons of this world are still alive and well! They are called private central bankers! The slave ships then The simple and unpalatable proceeded to the West Indies and truth is that slavery, in its many America to trade their living different forms, has been cargo for sugar, rum, an integral part of cotton and other many nations’ ‘essential’ items economies and Slavery, in its which were that every race many different then taken has involved forms, has been an back across the itself in some Atlantic for the way with this integral part well-heeled truly vile trade. of many nations people of Britain… economies including some But has it slaves destined to really ended? become much soughtWhilst the appalling after domestic servants in physical suffering and aristocratic homes. death seen on those slave ships

is no more, I would argue that the world has not progressed very far, if at all. We have all seen the treatment of Indian, Pakistani and Philippine workers in the Gulf states; or the Asian ‘sweat shops’ manufacturing very cheap clothing for our highstreet stores; or the children in the Congo labouring to produce cobalt for so-called ‘green’ technologies; or even young women caught up in the revolting sex trade – these are all clear examples whereby

ruthless people of all colours and ethnicities cruelly exploit others less fortunate than themselves for profit. However, when it comes to REALLY ruthless people - people who are able to criminally exploit everyone globally for profit - we are all victims! Almost every single one of us are effectively wage slaves or debt slaves to a completely hidden, secretive and manipulative mind-set! We are, of course, talking about the private merchant bankers and the criminal central banking

www.thewordmedia.co.uk

POLITICS AND EVENTS

RAL BANKERS – PART TWO

Jun 28th 2020

Unfortunately, it has been our collective ignorance, apathy and, it has to be said, stupidity that has allowed private and ruthless criminals to decide globally how much or, more accurately, how little money the world is allowed to spend on meeting the essential needs required to achieve real economic prosperity and social

justice. The blatant truth is that ALL lives matter…but the bankers don’t agree! So, whilst places like Bristol and Liverpool have to live with their slave profiteering past, the real culprit was…and still is…the City of London. And it’s time we dealt with this barefaced criminality once and for all! Justin Walker (www. newcharistmovement.org.uk) ALL lives matter…but the bankers don’t agree! Financial enslavement by the one-per-cent over all of us.

WORD

THE STARMIAN CREED

This Saturday morning at Town.’ It is their password and the ‘flicks’ and all the the door opens for him to kids are watching receive further orders. ‘Lockdown City,’ which is a great Thus he Western. misses the In the beginning arrival of the was The Word Kid Piffle ranch hands Newspaper. “Who gathers his from the NHS put that there?” he Corral where gang round screams and tears a table in the they have been out the page back room of the herding. Up to the Dominator Saloon. bar they go ordering He gives the order, neat chlorine. “Just “Masks on”. There is only give us the bottle.” one item on the agenda, “Which stagecoach shall we rob next?” Down the street people are Eventually it is agreed that it will preparing to go to chapel. Some be the Welfare Stage because are sad that old Pastor Jeremy the horses pulling it are old and had to retire. He gave them That tired and the guard’s gun has no Old Time Religion. What will bullets left. his replacement, Pastor Starmer be like? They notice that the Everybody thinks that the collection box is bigger and has Kid is in charge but after the gang the words ‘Notes Only’ stuck on have dispersed he must report to the side. the real owner of the saloon. To signal his approach he whistles He begins with Readings ‘I’ve Got to Leave Old Durham from the Book of Likud. “In

Start

system that the key dynastic families have been allowed to establish worldwide courtesy of corrupted politicians from all parties! A system that is allowed to create money completely out of thin air as debt and which then uses that debt to force us all into financial enslavement controlled by the one per cent.

THE

To signal his approach he whistles ‘I’ve Got to Leave Old Durham Town.’ It is their password and the door opens for him to receive further orders.

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

WORD

the beginning was The Word Newspaper …. who put that there?” he screams and tears out the page. The congregation are made to sit up and pay attention. He tells them to expect some excommunications. He is fully aware that certain members have neglected to memorise the Starmian Creed, which goes: I BELIEVE IN NETANYAHU AY HIS KINGDOM HAVE M NO BOUNDARIES I BELIEVE IN HIS DISCIPLE, SIR KEIR QC ND, MOST OF ALL, I A BELIEVE ANYTHING THAT I AM TOLD TO BELIEVE BY SIR KEIR There are mutterings among the congregation as they leave but it is noticeable that some have rushed over to the new Pastor to offer their congratulations and show that they are willing to light the candles for him. As we leave the flicks, we wonder what next Saturday will bring. Shall the Welfare Stage escape? Shall everyone in Lockdown City be forced to learn the Starmian Creed? Shall some fearless few flock to the previous Pastor to build a new chapel? What was the name of that town he went to live in? Tombstone? Continued next week…

BEST OF T 10

THE

WORD

Jun 28th 2020

POLITICS AND EVENTS

www.thewordmedia.co.uk

WORD

THE WEB www.thewordmedia.co.uk

POLITICS AND EVENTS

US president’s niece, The New York Times has reported. Mary Trump will release her no-holds-barred memoir ‘Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man’, on 28 July, according to publishing house Simon & Schuster.

Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick texted the businessman behind a controversial planning application in November while preparing to decide whether to approve it, newly published documents show. Messages released by Mr Jenrick show he texted Richard Desmond to say he hoped to see him soon, after sitting next to him at a dinner the night before. Labour said it showed “discrepancies” in Mr Jenrick’s account of events. Two people have been arrested on suspicion of murdering a man who fell from a third-floor balcony on to the street below. The man, in his 60s, fell from a property in Duke Street, Ipswich, at about 02:35 BST and he died at the scene. A man, 26, from the Harwich area, and a woman 24, from Ipswich, were later arrested on suspicion of murder. Suffolk Police said the man’s family had been informed about his death

One of Donald Trump’s brothers has requested a restraining order to block publication of a potentially explosive book written by the

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has declared the choice of whether Israel should annex the occupied West Bank is “for Israelis to make.” Israeli settlements in the Palestinian territory remain illegal under international law.

Jun 28th 2020

articles per month using the gift article service. More information can be found here. https://www.ft.com/ content/947ad76c-4132-4853a4bd-06f5f8083173

A US appeals court directed a federal judge to drop a criminal case against President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn for lying to the FBI.

Pink Floyd founder Roger Waters sees eerie similarities in Israel’s treatment of Palestinians and US police departments’ treatment of their own citizens. The legendary singer said it’s “about time” the world called out both. Columns of tanks and troops paraded through Moscow as Russian President Vladimir Putin presided over grand World War II commemorations to stir up patriotic fervour ahead of a vote on extending his rule. Mr Putin was flanked on Red Square by elderly war veterans in uniforms laden with medals as thousands of troops carrying bright banners and Kalashnikov rifles marched in the blazing sun to mark the Soviet Union’s defeat of Nazi Germany. Forced to postpone the traditional 9 May Victory Day celebrations by the coronavirus pandemic, Mr Putin rescheduled the parade for just a week before the 1 July vote on controversial constitutional reforms.

It’s Israel’s CHOICE whether to annex West Bank, Pompeo proclaims

Please use the sharing tools found via the share button at the top or side of articles. Copying articles to share with others is a breach of FT.com T&Cs and Copyright Policy. Email licensing@ft.com to buy additional rights. Subscribers may share up to 10 or 20

New York’s Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has won the Democratic primary in her race for re-election to the US House of Representatives, dealing a blow to an array of Wall Street titans who poured money into her opponent’s campaign. Blackstone’s Stephen Schwarzman and David Solomon of Goldman Sachs were among the finance industry leaders who backed Ms Ocasio-Cortez’s challenger, former CNBC journalist Michelle Caruso-Cabrera. But

THE

WORD

Ms Ocasio-Cortez, a leader of the party’s progressive wing, won Tuesday’s primary by more than 50 points, according to the Associated Press. Because her district in the New York City boroughs of Queens and the Bronx is overwhelmingly Democratic, Ms Ocasio-Cortez is near certain to win re-election in November’s general election.

THE US is set to deploy a squadron of hunter-killer drones in Poland in a clear signal to Russia’s President Vladimir Putin - and is also drawing up plans for new military infrastructure in the eastern European country. Says the ultra right wing Daily Express. What it fails to mention is that the USA has completely broken the terms of all agreements they made with Russia not to expand into Eastern Europe.

THE

WORD

Jun 28th 2020

POLITICS AND EVENTS

www.thewordmedia.co.uk

THE PATIENT

REFUELLING A CAR DURIN

I was their only customer, frozen which we’d eaten, and and was so amazed by that two gardening gloves. observation that I didn’t look up to “Pay At Pump check the price Only” requested of fuel. I got my the screen. I put chops together. the gardening First I twanged gloves on top the button of the car, my AND SOME that releases car key in my the place pocket, the PENCE; SURELY where you plastic bag on IT WAS A stick the fuel in. my right hand, MISTAKE? I got out of the car and the credit holding a credit card, card in the slot. I a car key, a clear plastic followed the on-screen bag which had held something instructions and was informed that I could have £99.99 worth I opened one of the rear doors and threw of petrol, meaning that I could fill my car and flood the entire the gloves into the passenger footwell forecourt if I felt sufficiently where they could quarantine for 72 hours. hilarious.

person who has made such a matter of honour of Personal Lock-Down has to be beyond reproach, as Dominic Cummings knows. Seemingly my reputation means more to me than his does to him, so I’d snuck out at dusk, to empty my bag of empties at the bottle bank (successfully) and turned left onto the Harrogate Road into Leeds. There is a petrol station at the southern end of a delightful urban village called Chapel Allerton, and which I have often used.

£27

Eventually I was instructed to remove the card, which I did with the hand in a bag, and turned the bag inside out with the card inside, opening the door with my naked hand and placing the card on the passenger seat; then I locked the car. “Lift nozzle fuelling.”

and

begin

I put on the gardening gloves; suitably protected I selected the ordinary grade petrol and filled my little black steed right to the top, the nozzle choking once, then after a subsequent gentle squeeze choking a second time. This would last me for another nine weeks I guessed, perhaps more! Having replaced the nozzle, removed the gloves, fiddled

WORD

www.thewordmedia.co.uk

POLITICS AND EVENTS

Jun 28th 2020

THE

WORD

Are We the Baddies There is no doubt there isn’t a more shining light of political intellect in British landscape than former MP and lifelong socialist and anti war figure George Galloway. His analysis always on point and on the side of democracy. Of course the natural effect of that is he would be exiled from frontline politics as he’s been on and off since his expulsion by Blair. Surprising then that his new party is set up in cahoots with hardline stalinists who foam at the mouth when you mention the crimes of USSR.

T’S EYE

NG LOCK-DOWN »

…the random. delivery of Robert. Peston. and the awkward sneers of Laura Kuenssberg…

around to find my car key in my pocket and unlocked the doors, I opened one of the rear doors and threw the gloves into the passenger foot well where they could quarantine for 72 hours. Then I looked for a receipt; there wasn’t one. I checked the price on the display. HOW MUCH? Surely it was a mistake

… £27 and some pence. Prices of oil, petrol, and diesel are always cheaper in Leeds than anywhere else I’ve found, but these had gone through the floor. Elated, I decided to go the pretty way home but thought better of it and turned right into non-existent traffic and drove home. As I got into our street I spotted and was spotted by our next door neighbours out for their permitted exercise with their toddlers. I was quizzed later about my car journey in casual conversation at a distance of 4 metres (two for me, two for him) by the husband and acquitted myself quite well, but for a

moment I felt as though I were in the garden of 10 Downing Street facing the awkward sneers of Laura Kuenssberg, the random. delivery of Robert. Peston. and the increasing implied criticism of the permitted and usually docile press pack. Tesco deliveries have become difficult to get again, and my best chance is to look at my phone should I get up in the night and see if there is a priority slot. I think we shall go back to the Morrison’s limited list and telephone the nice young people with pleasant Northern voices. To be continued….

These people told me my Romanian first hand experience behind the Iron curtain doesn’t matter, it’s all “capitalist lies” and I’ve been brainwashed. Brainwashed to retroactively imagine the terror I lived until I was 5? Potent stuff, that capitalism. Gets really tiring to hear Western lefties praise the glory of the USSR. To live in the collective delusion this country and the West shares that the foundational myth of recent times, World War Two, was a clear cut of goodies vs. baddies, where the angelic Churchill + the kind USSR won in honest battle against Satan—i.e., Nazis. Just saw Russia’s Victory 75 parade. I like Putin, but memories come to mind from my relatives who survived WW2: raped women, robberies and gratuitous acts of cruelty by the Russian soldiers under the occupation. Funny enough, everyone seems to remember the Nazi soldiers as fair and polite. Well, at least they didn’t seem particularly focused on raping women. A lot seems to stem from this simplistic axis of good and evil and neoliberalism seems to have made bank out of its shadow. US/UK came and saved us all from Nazis, and now we have to eternally suck their dick in gratitude. “Look, you’re assassinating innocent black people in broad day light”--”Yeah, but .. Nazis. You know? We saved you from them umpteenth years ago.” But the truth is Churchill and UK was probably as bad.

Probably same degree of cruelty. Colonial genocides pretty far and wide and over a scale of centuries. Germany had a short window of time to commit their atrocities. They tried to squeeze them in fast. Why was Germany vilified, but the West lionised? Because the West won. And it’s very useful to have “an enemy”. Likewise, USSR, yeah they may have helped defeat the Nazis. But I can’t sit here and accept their lionisation. Maybe the Nazis are this spectre of horror to Western Europe, but I was born in a grey dark place with 50 years of sheer terror instated by the Red Army. With industrial killings of only the best and most educated. Gulags everywhere. I was born there, in its shadow. To me the Soviets were Satan. Would any of these Western career commies survive a day in USSR? No. They’d be beaten to death in jail and forced to eat each other’s faeces for believing in the right to political gatherings. This simplistic worldview where we all have to regard Nazis and fascists as the supreme evil on command very easily leads to leaving a blind eye to other evils, that don’t actually wear their evil on their caps as obviously as the Nazis. Like those guys who paint “freedom” and “democracy” on the side of bombs delivered by drone strike over Middle Eastern weddings.

THE

WORD

Jun 28th 2020

POLITICS AND EVENTS

www.thewordmedia.co.uk

FAKE NEWS

Snog, Marry, Avoid A man who says he picked up a cold sore after kissing a woman is suing her for more than £130,000. Martin Ashley Conway claims he has been “traumatised” and his life and work seriously affected after snogging the woman who he met in London last year. Conway says that she was “negligent” by kissing him while she had an active cold sore.

How much toilet roll did Americans use during lockdown? A study has found that Americans used 140% more toilet paper during quarantine compared to pre-coronavirus life. With people staying home, a four-person family would burn their way through 17 double rolls or nine mega rolls in two weeks. Meanwhile, a two-person household would wipe their way through nine double rolls or five mega rolls in the same period. Russian beauty pageant for sale on Gumtree A Russian production company is selling a beauty pageant on Gumtree. The Beauty of Universe explains that it has

been forced to focus on our other creative projects in the field of cinema and festivals. “We sell the Beauty of the Universe international beauty contest for almost a penny - only £2,500,” it says. Donny And The Jets Donald Trump tried to use Elton John as peacemaker with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, according to a new book. Trump’s former national security adviser, John Bolton, says the president is a big fan of John’s music and tried to get Kim a CD of Rocket Man after discovering the North Korean leader had never heard the track. “Boy, I bet Elton will get a kick out of this!” the president reportedly said. Panic over mushroom cloud near Chernobyl Officials told the public not to panic as a huge mushroomshaped cloud filled the sky above Kiev, the capital of the Ukraine. One concerned resident took to social media to ask: “Is it Putin is testing a new nuclear weapon?” The city is located just 60 miles from the site of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.

Irish ghost hunters say they’ve got footage of a ghoul Ghost hunters insist they have “proof” a 19th century spirit is haunting an Irish castle. Paranormal Supernatural Investigations Ireland says the ghost is of Walter Peter Lambert who died in 1892 at the Imperial Hotel in Tuam, Co Galway after choking. The team say they have footage that proves the ghost’s presence in the area.

What’s In A Name People called Charlie and Jessica are the most kinky in the UK, according to a new study. The shopping marketplace OnBuy.com studied sales data and found which names made the most purchases of kinky products. Among the men, Charlie was followed by Mike and Ryan. For women, Jessica had Liz and Hannah hot on her heels when it came to raunchy retail habits. Opera house reopens with concert for 2,292 plants The Barcelona opera house has reopened with a performance to thousands of plants. A total of 2,292 plants were crammed into the venue, while the string

quartet performed Puccini’s Crisantemi. The opera house said that, following this “strange, painful period,” it wanted to “offer us a different perspective for our return to activity, a perspective that brings us closer to something as essential as our relationship with nature”. New photo sparks fresh Loch Ness speculation Has the Loch Ness Monster moved to London? Speculation about the Loch Ness Monster has re-emerged after a tourist shared a photo of a mysterious creature. Steve Challice, from Southampton, says he took the picture of what he describes as a “big fish” while holidaying in Scotland. He says it was about eight feet long. A Loch Ness Monster expert said: “If this is a genuine picture of a creature in Loch Ness, it would easily rank in the top three of all time.”

Andrew Lloyd Webber says the government has suggested that UK theatres could reopen if performers at musicals were not allowed to sing. The composer, who has spoken to Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden, said of the government: “I would

love to say that I think that they understood a little more.” He said ministerial advice included a suggestion “that was a brilliant one for musicals – that you’re not allowed to sing”.

Man to host ‘Covid-19 compatible’ sex party A millionaire is preparing to host Britain’s first socially distanced “alfresco sex party”. Richard Stanley is organising the bash, which he says will be “Covid 19-compatible”. He told the Sunday People: “It will be a voyeurs and monogamists alfresco sex party. I have to follow guidelines to the letter as [my partner] is a practice nurse. If we get the go-ahead it’s going to be an amazing night.” Trump has heard ‘interesting’ things about Roswell Donald Trump says he has heard “interesting things” about Roswell, the crash site of an alleged UFO in 1947. When the topic came up during an interview, the US president said: “So many people asked me that, and it sounds like a cute question. I won’t talk to you about what I know about it, but it’s very interesting.”

www.thewordmedia.co.uk

POLITICS AND EVENTS

Jun 28th 2020

THE

WORD

Mad Madge Talks Across Oceans Of Time

untie Maggie may have slipped away and joined the Choir Invisible, but she’s back to answer the everyday issues of tortured neoliberals. I went out with me mates to party and play a few games of tennis now all the media hate me. I have even had some guy in Australia that I have never heard of starting on me. I think I am quite good at what I do but do not do what I am ordered by anyone. Can you help people be nice to me? Novak from Belgrade The thing is, the ‘hoi polloi’ need to be kept under control and to do that we need clear rules, laws, and a well resourced legal system. And public figures have to

appear to obey the rules, well under normal conditions. However in the UK that scamp Domenic Cummings used privilege and power to completely ignore the rules and no-one could do anything about it. As you are ranked#1 in the world and as rich as Croesus, if I were you I wouldn’t gives toss and would just have a big party and exchange bodily fluids with some tennis groupies. Dear Aunt Margaret All I want to do is be a real boy please. Help? Keir from London Well my little wooden chum avoid foxes, don’t join the Circus, stay away from Whales and listen to that little voice on your shoulder and “Always Let Your

Conscience Be Your Guide”. If you can’t do that then do what your donors want you to do, just keep it quiet who they are. And for pity’s sake stop using so much hair gel, you look a right Muppet. Dear Margaret I don’t understand why black lives matter more than white lives. Me and my family fought hard for years for our rights and yet now we seem to be shown very little respect. Can you tell me how we can go back to the good old days? Robert E Lee from Virginia Well ‘Bubba Lee’ I know it is commonplace to declare ‘The South Shall Rise Again’ but it’s been 150 years and even then the confederacy

only lasted for four years. Now I don’t want to be the one to tell you this but your side lost and slavery was banned. You would have expected Black people to have worked themselves out of abject poverty by now, because the elite you vote for are still the same people. It’s like that in the UK, when the Tories lose power it’s always to an establishment corrupted ‘Labour’ party and nothing ever changes. Dear Maggie Someone put an app on my phone and I cannot get it off. It tracks everything I do. When I have a shit, when I don’t wash my hands, when I pick my nose. Everything. Every time I click no permissions it gives itself

permission to do things. Last night it took a picture of me in bed with my girlfriend… and my wife saw it. It even recorded me talking in my sleep and calling Government Ministers idiots. Michael Gove from London Young Mickey ‘Fat Tongue’ Gove, I really wouldn’t worry about anyone finding out about your personal life, just look what happened when you announced your proclivity for Cocaine, nobody gave a toss, and those that did were ignored by Domenic Cummings, who has his own moral compass about private dealings. Essentially you’re not important enough to worry about, just meat in the room.

THE

WORD

Jun 28th 2020

POLITICS AND EVENTS

www.thewordmedia.co.uk

Forgotten Bands

THE MUSIC The The

t is sometimes said that The The never played Leeds, or that if they did nobody would be able to tell anyone that they’d seen them. While at school in Leeds in the 1960s a friend suggested it would be cool if a band ever called themselves The The. “Easy for you to say,” I replied. “You’re from Selby.” But The The did exist, finally, and were more than a wicked name, but a wicked band too.

again a Leeds connection. They were from a small, quite awful village to the East of Leeds called Kippax. It isn’t even Garforth, and by size, it shouldn’t have anyone living there who could play a musical instrument at all, yet it had at least five.

Insense, and most Leeds bands had shared a gig with them, sometimes higher in the order, sometimes lower.

Unlike The Kaiser Chiefs, who were previously known in Leeds as Runston Parva, misnamed after You drive Ruston Parva in WE KNEW THE along the East Yorkshire BAND AS INSENSE, Selby Road, (it must be WHO GOT ONE STAB s o m e t h i n g up Garforth Cliff (there is in the water,) AT SUCCESS AND Another band with a very such a place – a Insense got one BECAME clever name was The Music. “It’s cliff, dozens of stab at success HUGE too obvious a name,” said almost miles from the and became everyone, offended. “All bands sea) and suddenly HUGE; Parva had play The Music – Duh!” there’s a turn in the road; been snapped up, you miss it and you’ve missed chewed over and spat out by “If it’s obvious, why hasn’t Kippax. At that point you thank the Recording Industry and anyone ever thought to call God for small mercies. spent time licking their wounds themselves The Music before?” before regrouping under a new I’d answer. We knew The Music, We knew the band as manager and discovering their self-belief once more. Insense Welcome to the North is another hit the top first time round. Their first, eponymous album arresting title, and a good collection made number 4 in the charts of tracks. It’s also a nice thing to say in 2002/2003. Other releases to people not from the North. didn’t do so well.

Popular

…suddenly there’s a turn in the road; you miss it and you’ve missed Kippax. At that point you thank God for small mercies.

Mates who played in Insense were dropped and still grumble, but Stuart, Phil and Adam continued, changed round roles a bit, enlisted Robert ‘Tid’ Harvey, gigged, got spotted, and with their new band name were for a while the second biggest grossing foreign band in Japan after Metallica. I have most of their albums and they were good. They had a whimsical way with titles, calling songs things like The People, The Dance, and ‘Jag Tune,’ named because Adam, lead guitarist, previously singer before the ‘big rearrangement,’ played a Fender Jaguar guitar on it rather than one of his favourite other guitars, one of which I now own. Going to Track One of their CD and hitting <Rewind> gets you to a hidden track called New Instrumental. Contrast

this seeming lack of creative thought (or amazing confidence) with the unforgettable title of a wonderful song Take The Long Road And Walk it, and an earlier EP called You Might As Well Try To Fuck Me. Try ignoring that in a record shop! Welcome to the North is another arresting title, and a good collection of tracks. It’s also quite a nice thing to say to people not from the North. Success arose out of very aggressive but creative management. But success finally made life hard for them. Robert Harvey, not always having made the best of decisions, got into alcohol addiction, sorted himself out, then worked in Manchester with Mike Skinner, formerly of The Streets. The Music as a unit disbanded in 2011 which was very sad for those who knew them and really liked them.

www.thewordmedia.co.uk

POLITICS AND EVENTS

Jun 28th 2020

THE

WORD

ACROSS THE POND

Get Rid of the Presidency Kippax, West Yorkshire

If the prospect of the Trump – Biden presidential election fills you with horror and despair, you might give some thought to not just replacing both candidates but the presidency as well, at least as we now conceive it. For some time now, but maybe since the Kennedy administration (which ended in a hail of voter-suppressed gunfire), I have been thinking that one of the biggest problems with American democracy is the presidency itself, the idea that the chief magistrate of the country should be one person elected every four years by a few swing voters in Ohio, North Carolina, or Florida. What good can be said of an office that regularly is awarded to the likes of Ronald Reagan, Richard Nixon, and George W. Bush, and that this year, for its finalists, has Donald Trump and Joe Biden, men who otherwise would not be eligible to coach Little League teams or lead Scout troops (pussy grabbers and hair sniffers need not apply).

Kaiser Chiefs

The Music

Instead, every four years, because of a document drawn up more than two hundred years ago, the United States puts into its highest office men of stunning incompetence (think of W’s facial expression while reading The Pet Goat on 9/11) and low cunning (“Ike likes Nixon and we do too…”), who over time have managed to turn the office of the presidency into what it is today—a violent reality show that has brought you Vietnam, Watergate, the USA Patriot Act, and Barack Obama’s “necessary war” in Afghanistan. *** According to James Madison’s notes from the 1789 constitutional convention, the job of the American president was to “execute” the laws that Congress passed. In times of war, the president was to serve as the commander-in-chief of

the state’s militias—to exercise civilian control over the military. At the Philadelphia constitutional convention, the dispute about the presidency concerned which model to follow in creating a template of the chief executive. John Adams and Alexander Hamilton aspired to create a constitutional monarchy of sorts, with their favorite aristocrat, George Washington, on the throne. At the very least they were in favor of a strong, lone-wolf executive with centralized powers, while Benjamin Franklin (with the emotional support of Thomas Jefferson from Paris) and others favored a federal council, something closer to the Swiss model, in which the powers of the chief magistrate would be devolved to a committee, not on one person. James Madison, who had loyalties in both camps and a heavy hand in drafting the new constitution, came up the compromise and helped to shape the American presidency that we know today—that of an elected monarch. In Philadelphia in 1789, the constitutional framers had hoped they were creating an office-holder along the lines of an auditor-in-chief, someone who would make sure that the Congress (notably the House of Representatives) spent the people’s money wisely and kept the trade lines flowing through (tariff-free) interstate commerce. It never occurred to any of them that they were creating a monster along the lines of a political Frankenstein who might someday, as if with bolts protruding from his neck and an awkward square haircut, stump his way though Lafayette Square and hold up a Bible in front of St. John’s Episcopal Church.

*** Another problem with the original intent of the presidency in the U.S. Constitution is that it was a laissez-passer for slaveholders in southern states (not to mention their cotton brokers in New York City) to do pretty much as they pleased in terms of exploiting the means of production. Until the corporate railroad lawyer Abraham Lincoln came along, American presidents functioned as trustees for slaveowners, and nearly all (in the manner of James Buchanan during the era of Dred Scott, the runaway slave of Supreme Court fame) bent over backwards to insure that indentured service remained an unenumerated right of the moneyed classes. A few presidents, Andrew Jackson being one of them during the 1832 Nullification Crisis, pushed back against the notion of states’ rights, but Jackson—himself a slave owner— made up for the hurt Southern feelings by ethnically cleansing Florida and Georgia of the Cherokee Nation, and turning over the rich soil of its land to his slave-holding brethren. Only Lincoln decided that the constitution (tolerating the slave trade until 1808 and otherwise silent on the question of human bondage) was a document inconsistent with the ideals of American liberty, and he waged a brutal civil war to amend the constitution. An unintended consequence of that war, however, which broke the power of individual states to operate farms as prison labor camps, was to concentrate in Washington and in the office of the presidency a host of powers (over the budget and the military, especially) that the founding fathers had never intended to confer on one person. by MATTHEW STEVENSON

THE

WORD

Jun 28th 2020

POLITICS AND EVENTS

www.thewordmedia.co.uk

TAL FRO THE

former Albuquerque City Council candidate who ran on a toughon-crime platform shot a protester at an anti-police brutality demonstration on Monday and was arrested alongside members of a right-wing militia group. The shooting is an extreme example of a trend that has played out across the country as armed vigilantes pledging to protect property have shown up at protests — in many cases with encouragement or even explicit collaboration from law enforcement.

The shooter, Steven Ray Baca, had been intimidating protesters planning to topple a statue of the murderous Spanish conquistador Juan de Oñate outside the Albuquerque Museum. He was joined in this quest by members of the New Mexico Civil Guard, a militia group that emerged in the wake of coronavirus-related shutdowns. Baca, who was recently named a board member of the Albuquerque Tea Party, claims to have family in law enforcement and has led pro-police activism in the past. Amid protests over a police killing in 2014, he created a Facebook page in support of Albuquerque officers and told a reporter that he had an uncle with the department. A profile of Baca from his 2019 run for city council notes that he is the

www.thewordmedia.co.uk

POLITICS AND EVENTS

Jun 28th 2020

THE

WORD

LES OM E USA sculpture viewed as a symbol of genocide and racism. Members of the New Mexico Civil Guard stood watch carrying assault weapons, ostensibly to protect the monument. Suddenly, the cheers gave way to shouts. Baca threw a woman to the ground, then strode away from the crowd. When protesters chased after him, a scuffle broke out. “He’s going to fucking kill you!” a bystander screamed before four gunshots pierced the air. Several of the bullets hit protester Scott Williams in the torso.

son of a former Bernalillo County sheriff’s deputy. In a tweet, the sheriff’s office said, “His father worked for the agency nearly twenty years ago, but was no longer an employee of BCSO as of 2001.” But Baca behaved as if his father still wielded influence, according to Nicholas Soto, a protester who witnessed

the shooting. After firing his weapon, Soto said, Baca asked law enforcement to call his dad, whom he said was with the sheriff’s office. Before Baca opened fire, protesters were pulling a chain looped around Oñate’s neck, preparing to tear down a

With Williams bleeding in the street, the New Mexico Civil Guard members formed a protective circle around Baca, their weapons ready. When law enforcement arrived, officers created a second ring around the militia, according to a video provided by another witness. After detaining the shooter and several militia members, officers fired tear gas and flash-bang grenades at the distraught crowd.

“The police handled the New Mexico Civil Guard and the gentleman very gingerly, with care, to make sure they didn’t get injured, while they were on the opposite side trying to target Black and Indigenous people,” said Soto. Williams, the victim, was in critical but stable condition as of Wednesday night, according to the local news station KRQE. As the uprisings that followed the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis spread across the country, farright counterprotesters have

mobilized in large cities like Chicago, as well as small towns like Bethel, Ohio. Some are members of groups like the Boogaloo, Oath Keepers, and Three Percenters. Others are local supporters of police. The warm police reception they have received stands in stark contrast to the violent treatment law enforcement has dealt Black Lives Matter demonstrators. Two weeks before the shooting in Albuquerque, the city’s police were caught on film encouraging men in tactical gear preparing to guard property against police brutality protesters.

WORD

THE

WORD

Jun 28th 2020

POLITICS AND EVENTS

www.thewordmedia.co.uk

LEGAL FIGHTIN LAUNCHED TO

ACTIVISTS AND FIGHTBACK AGAIN

Lives Matter campaign is a manifestation of how people are turning to extra-parliamentary action instead.

The general public are increasingly wising up to the failures of representative democracy. The Black

In the US in the 1960s, the Black Panther Party recognised the emancipation of workingclass communities and the fight to end racial oppression didn’t just intersect, they were one struggle. The same is true today! One of their leaders,

he prospects for electoral socialism have faded on both sides of the Atlantic. Fossilised political old guards in the Labour Party and US Democrats have sabotaged the transformation that millions are craving.

Fred Hampton, said: We’re going to fight racism…with solidarity [and] …capitalism… with socialism”. We must do the same! Our political system has failed to eliminate poverty, reduce inequality and stop imperialist wars. That means we need to build our own equivalent of the Black Panther Party to create an irresistible

pressure for change. A key component of that effort requires us to establish and grow our own media vehicles, like The Word. The existing big media outlets merely act as a mouthpiece for corporate elites. Meanwhile, the activists who are in the vanguard of the effort to create a decent society continue to be targeted. So, we also need to use the legal system

to fightback against the witchhunters and defend the activists campaigning to create a fair and decent society. But legal action can be prohibitively expensive. For example, after ruling that I had been unlawfully suspended last year, the High Court ordered the Labour Party to pay my legal costs, which were a colossal £89,000. Most of this money had

www.thewordmedia.co.uk

POLITICS AND EVENTS

Jun 28th 2020

THE

WORD

WOMEN ARE MAKING A DIFFERENCE (PART 1)

NG FUND O DEFEND

NST WITCH-HUNTERS been raised through donations from grassroots supporters, so I used the award to establish a legal fund. It is being used to take on institutions that pursue socialists, anti-Zionists, black and Muslim activists and others who fight for justice. Several activists have already been defended, but this is just the beginning. Weâ€™re currently defending left-wing, pro-

Palestine Labour Party members who have been targeted, and the purge is continuing. In the last few weeks, dozens of new suspensions and expulsions have been imposed, so the Legal Fighting Fund will be essential in helping to thwart these attacks.

or regular donation. If you are a solicitor or barrister with the relevant expertise who can offer pro bono assistance, get in touch. If you have been suspended or expelled by the Labour Party or harassed by the police while on a Black Lives Matter protest in recent weeks, let us know.

But we need financial and practical assistance. If you can afford it, please make a one-off

You can contact us here: h t t p s : / /c a m p a i g n f o r c h r i s . nationbuilder.com/fightingfund

Looking around the world today I see many arrogant male leaders who act more like dictators, expecting their people to accept their decisions without question. I want to start looking at how some women leaders can be more pragmatic and empathetic than male counterparts. They can collaborate with colleagues and reach out to their people. EITHIOPIA SAHLE WORK-ZEWDE was elected as the country's first President in October 2018. Having spent over 3 decades working as a diplomat she was ideally placed to work alongside reformist Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed. # He recognised the value of women in his government by filling half his cabinet with women. Commenting on Sahle's appointment the country's US Ambassador said 'She brings the right competence and experience to the office' Adding 'In a patriachial society such as ours the appointment of a female

Head of State not onlysets the standatd for the future but also normalises women as decision makers'. Sahle has committed herself to make gender equality a reality and to uphold peace and unity. # Abiy was awarded the Nobel Peace prize in 2019 for stabilising relations with neighbouring countries, including ending the more than 20 years of conflict with Eritrea. During this covid pandemic she has released thousands of prisoners to curb the spread of the virus. She has spoken out to encourage African countries to diversify their economies and be more competitive in areas like pharmaceuticals, textiles, energy, horticulture, tourism and ICT. Her legacy will be empowering women on the continent though her words and by example. She said: '...I would urge my fellow leaders in Africa to empower women in their country, trust their work and allow them to flourish'.

WORD

THE

WORD

Jun 28th 2020

POLITICS AND EVENTS

SW London - The clock has ALMOST STOPPED TICKING The Coronavirus threat has really highlighted just how many (NHS) hospitals we’ve lost over recent decades, and the beds that have disappeared as a result. South London/North Surrey is no different to any other part of the country in that regard, and yet local NHS bosses continue with their plans to shrink the services available to the public. Some years back, the plans were laughingly entitled Better Services, Better Value (always have deceptive names). That was thrown out, due to mass

opposition. Over the last few years, it’s been re-packaged as Improving Healthcare Together. The current CEO of Epsom and St Helier Hospitals is Daniel Elkeles, who was one of the key architects of the disasterous, recently rejected NW London plans (Shaping a Healthier Future). On Friday July 3rd, The IHT team have their final decision meeting. This will likely result in both Epsom (Surrey) and St Helier Hospital (near Sutton) losing their A&E, maternity, intensive care and more from both sites (downgraded). A

smaller, single facility should be built in a few years, resulting in less overall services, fewer beds (in existing sites), and more people traveling further. It has seemed a crazy plan for some time, but especially now, when it’s been highlighted we need to keep all we have, and build additional (publicly provided) hospitals. Please help if you can before next Friday (3rd). For more info, please follow... www.facebook.com/ koshh.org/ Colin Crilly / South London campaigner

www.thewordmedia.co.uk

COVID AND THE L While the Covid-19 crisis has prompted most of us to contemplate future changes, NHS England is forging ahead with the imposition of permanent changes. Plans to centralise specialist care, move nursing care out of hospitals and switch to virtual GP services are being cemented into place under cover of responding to Covid-19, with little or no public consultation. Informing these changes is NHS England’s ‘Long Term Plan’. Their strategy for the financial sustainability of the NHS, the ‘Plan’ is the latest

attempt to divide the NHS into local health systems, first as Sustainability and Transformation Partnerships, then Accountable Care Organisations, now rebranded as Integrated Care Systems. These are local health economies unified under one structure; it is feared these will be offered to the private sector on longterm, multi-million pound contracts, thus spelling the end of the NHS as a national, publicly run service. A feature of the Long Term Plan is reducing expensive hospital stays and moving people into the community

www.thewordmedia.co.uk

POLITICS AND EVENTS

Jun 28th 2020

THE

WORD

Cashing in on the crisis LONG TERM PLAN instead. This strategy saw patients discharged into care homes during the peak of the crisis without adequate testing or protection, resulting in thousands of unnecessary deaths. There is no indication in London’s Covid Recovery Plans that cutting hospital beds overall is being reconsidered or even evaluated. The heroic but overstretched, underfunded and asset-stripped NHS is being changed out of recognition without our knowledge, and when we need it most. Frances Cornford / NE London campaigner

The role of what was once our local 250 bed General Hospital in Louth, Lincolnshire during this pandemic is symptomatic of the decline of the NHS under New Labour and the Tories. A fully functioning local hospital, with available beds in wards with oxygen provision and associated facilities, including a morgue, lay ignored and unused while the government bought bed space from private healthcare companies.

We have seen throughout this Covid 19 pandemic, a systematic transference of public money from the state to private ‘enterprise’. From the buying of bed space and a contract to buy non-existant

ventilators from a Tory party donor to the shambolic ‘test & trace’ programme, handed, untendered, to multinationals, billions of pounds which should have been available to the NHS and local authorities to combat the pandemic has disappeared into the coffers of big business and shareholders’ pockets. This will be one of the final acts in the privatisation of the NHS which started underThatcher, continued Blair/Brown and accelerated under Cameron’s austerity ideology.

The Tories ‘Magic Money Tree’ does exist. It is the ‘legal’ laundering of public money from the state to the private sector - the railway companies through subsidies, the arms and pharmaceutical industries, academised education and now the promised infusion of cash into the NHS will have the private healthcare companies and their backers salivating at the prospect. Julie Speed / Fighting 4 Louth Hospital (Lincolnshire)

WILDLIF

THE

WORD

Jun 28th 2020

POLITICS AND EVENTS

www.thewordmedia.co.uk

Image 04 Image01

Beautiful Birds

Image 22

ere on the Essex “Sunshine Coast” we are blessed with an enormous range of birds: Finches, tits, sparrows (and sparrow hawks!), pigeons, thrushes, corvids and, being a stone’s throw from the beach, seagulls of various types. While I like photographing birds, I’m a bit limited at the momentwith the lockdown, so all of my recent images have

been shot in the back garden.

SELECTION OF SUMMER VISITORS

We were fortunate in the early part of this month to have a pair of blue tits raising a family in the neighbor’s nest boxwhich faces our back door and is only about 3 meters away. [Image01, Image02, Image 03] There is a tall tree in the neighbour’s garden where birds

like to perch. This gives me an excellent opportunity to capture them [Image04 & Image10, a jackdaw looking for all the world like Sam the Bald Eagle in the muppets.] At the risk of being guilty of anthropomorphism, [Image05] shows what looks like a form of camaraderie between species. while [Image06] has a jackdaw

raiding a feeder. Other corvids show a bit more athleticism while using the small bird feeders. [Image11 to Image14]. [Image22] shows a jackdaw with what appears to be a broken or missing beak. Although he seems to be managing ok, he does seem to be the victim of a certain amount of bullying from the other birds. [Image07]

shows

youngster that arrived quite unceremoniously by, apparently, falling off our roof! He sat there dazed for a while then flew off. We were unable to find a nest that he may have come from. [Image23] shows a sparrow that appears to have bitten off more than he can chew! And it’s not just birds! [Image24] shows a bee, busy pollinating.

FE DIARY www.thewordmedia.co.uk

POLITICS AND EVENTS

Image 05

Jun 28th 2020

Image 07

Image 10

Image 24

THE

WORD

THE

WORD

Jun 28th 2020

Vegan recipes

POLITICS AND EVENTS

www.thewordmedia.co.uk

Cooking with Chris Williamson

TUSCAN BEAN STEW

PREPARATION Warm some olive oil in a pan. Add the onion, garlic (crushed), rosemary, thyme and a pinch of salt, then cook over a medium heat for 5 to 10 minutes until the onion is soft.

hen I was a kid, I used to hate butter beans, but as an adult I have come to love them and this is a recipe where they are a key ingredient. This is another Italian influenced dish, which I actually made and thoroughly enjoyed last weekend with my grown-up children on Father’s Day. Unlike me, they’ve never had an aversion to butter beans! We ate it with new potatoes and fresh garden peas, but it is equally delicious with brown rice or toasted sourdough bread. Serves four people. INGREDIENTS 1 red onion 3 garlic cloves 1 tsp dried thyme 1 tsp dried rosemary 2 parsnips 175g plum tomatoes Tomato puree 1 tin butter beans, drained and rinsed 1 tin cannelloni beans, , drained and rinsed 2 tins tomatoes fresh parsley

Once the onion is soft, add the parsnips and plum tomatoes along with the tomato puree and cook for another 10 to 15 minutes, until the tomatoes have collapsed, and the parsnips are soft. Now add the butter beans, cannelloni beans and tinned tomatoes and give everything a good mix. Bring the liquid to the boil, before reducing the heat and leaving to simmer gently for 10 to 15 minutes until the tomato sauce is rich and full of flavour. Sprinkle the fresh parsley over it just before serving. Bon appétit.

www.thewordmedia.co.uk

POLITICS AND EVENTS

Jun 28th 2020

THE

WORD

THE

WORD

Jun 28th 2020

Astronomy Quiz Questions Name the nearest known star to the Sun? Which rare astronomical event occurs when a high-mass star reaches the end of its life? The Shoemaker-Levy 9 comet smashed into which planet in July 1994? Name the brightest star in the constellation Ursa Minor? Which astronomer is best known for his laws of planetary motion? In 1610, who discovered the four largest moons of Jupiter using a telescope? The Sun is composed primarily of which chemical element? Which astronomer proposed an equation to work out how many civilizations there could be in our galaxy? Name the galaxy that contains the Solar System? What unit of length is equal to about 3.26 lightyears?

THE WORD POLITICS AND EVENTS

www.thewordmedia.co.uk

Answers: Proxima Centauri A supernova Jupiter Polaris (also known as the Pole Star or North Star) Johannes Kepler Galileo Galilei Hydrogen Frank Drake The Milky Way A parsec UK Statues and Monuments 1 The statue on Denbigh High Street in North Wales is of which notorious slave owner? 2 The first Irish to arrive in the United States, doing so in 1891 were Annie Moore and her two brothers, where would you find statues in their honour? 3 Who designed the Angel of the North Statue that stands in Gateshead Tyne n Wear? 4 The Knife Angel sculpture is made up of how many knives handed into police across the country 5 A statue of which notorious slave owner was recently removed from outside of the Museum of London Docklands. Answers 1 H M Stanley 2 Cobh, Ireland.

3 Antony Gormley 4 100.000 5 Robert Milligan Books Made into Film 1 Based loosely on the book by John Buchan, what film was directed by Alfred Hitchcock starring Robert Donat and Madeleine Carroll? 2 Which film starring Gregory Peck in 1956 was based on an 1851 Herman Melville novel 3 The many films made about Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde are based on what book by which author? 4 The 1984 film “A Passage to India” is based on a book of the same name. who was the author? 5 Starring Jack Black which 2010 film is based on a book by Jonathan Swift

Answers 1 39 steps 2 Moby Dick 3 Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stephenson 4 E M Forster 5 Gulliver’s Travels Name the comedy shows that made the following slogans household catchphrases 1 Does my bum look big in this 2 No No No Yes 3 Lovely Jubbly 4 I have a cunning plan 5 I don’t believe it Answers 1 The Fast Show 2 Vicar of Dibley 3 Only fools and Horses 4 Blackadder 5 One foot in the grave

Name the song these groups of artists have covered 1 Leonard Cohen, John Cale, Jeff Buckley Rufus Wainwright, KD Lang and Alexander Burke 2 Otis Redding, Aretha Franklin, Janis Joplin, and The Blues Brothers 3 Dolly Parton, Whitney Houston, and Beyoncé Knowles 4 Simon and Garfunkel and The Bangles 5 Roberta flack, The Fugees, Johnny Mathis, Carly Simon and Alicia keys Answers 1 Hallelujah 2 I Can’t Turn You Loose 3 I will always Love you. 4 A Hazy Shade of Winter 5 Killing Me Softly

What do these Acronyms stand for? 1 YMCA 2 DEFRA 3 CAFOD 4 Ofsted 5 WAG Answers 1 Young Men’s Christian Association 2 Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs 3 Catholic Agency for Overseas Development 4 Office for Standards in Education 5 Welsh Assembly Government

www.thewordmedia.co.uk

POLITICS AND EVENTS

Jun 28th 2020

THE

WORD

LIVERPOOL PLOTTING AUDACIOUS MANE-MBAPPE SWAP DEAL

TRANSFER CENTRAL

n a slight alteration to previous years, the Premier League’s 2020 summer transfer window will officially open on the 26th of July. However, that hasn’t stopped clubs from approaching players and getting deals done, and it certainly hasn’t hampered the rumour mill either. We take a look at the most interesting and credible updates below. Potential Incomings After confirming the signing of Timo Werner over the weekend, Chelsea have turned their attention to English fullback Ben Chilwell. Leicester have slapped an £80 million price tag on the player, which could slow things down, but I think Abramovich will get this one done, check down the side of the couch Roman. Sticking with Chelsea for a moment, and rumours have surfaced this week about a potential £50 million swoop for Manchester United youngster Dean Henderson. Lampard clearly isn’t convinced by Kepa Arrizabalaga, and a guarantee of first team football at a Champions League side may well prove to good to turn down for Henderson. Elsewhere in the top half, Arsenal have agreed a £14 million deal with Flamengo for central defender Pablo Mari,

something which David Luiz seems determined to prove was the right decision. Manchester city have held talks with Leverkusen winger Leon Bailey, a potential replacement for Leroy Sane, and Liverpool, have fully lost the plot. Okay, maybe that’s a touch harsh, but Jurgen Klopp and Liverpool are certainly aiming high, with rumours suggesting the Merseyside club have enquired with PSG about a potential s w a p deal

Nice Matty Longstaff

five-year deal, salary move from £850 per week to around £30,000

involving Sadio Mane and Kylian Mbappe. Potential Outgoings Earlier this month Udinese offered Newcastle academy graduate Matty Longstaff a lucrative five-year deal, which would see his salary move from £850 per week to around £30,000. Newcastle have revised their offer to the youngster as a response, with a £20,000 per week offer being put forward to stave off the Italian side.

Tottenham’s hopes of keeping hold of out of contract Jan Vertonghen took a blow over the weekend, as Roma entered negotiations with the Belgian centre back, and, Inter Milan have reportedly made Man City fullback Kyle Walker their number one defensive target.

Elsewhere in the league, Pep Guardiola has acknowledged that Leroy Sane is very likely to leave the Etihad in the summer. Bayern Munich looks to be the most likely destination, although City have clarified that they won’t agree a deal until their valuation is met. Given that Sane has 12 months left on his contract, a fee between £40 million and £60 million will likely be needed to get the deal done.

THE

WORD

Jun 28th 2020

POLITICS AND EVENTS

www.thewordmedia.co.uk

THE OPENING WEEK OF FIXTURES WAS FILLED WITH UP

PREMIER LEAGUE FOOTBALL MAKES TRIUMPHANT RETURN

he Premier League finally got back underway this past week, with a host of upsets at both ends of the table. We assess the big winners and losers from the opening week of fixtures.

Winners Our first big winners of the weekend are Brighton & Hove Albion, who embarrassed Our second big Arsenal 2-1 at the Amex arena with winners from the a 95th minute coming against opening fixtures winner from Bournemouth is Wolves, who French forward back in restarted their Neal Maupay. December. This season in B r i g h t o n victory over emphatic had been in Arsenal, however, freefall before the fashion gives them clear season was put on distance from the hold, with their last win relegation scrap, with five

points between them and 18th place Bournemouth. Our second big winners from the opening fixtures is Wolves, who restarted their season in emphatic fashion by cruising past a lacklustre West Ham at the London Stadium. Wolves are now unbeaten in their last six Premier League games, keeping a clean sheet in all but one of those matches. Wolves are now 6th in the table, level on points with Man United in 5th, and with Cityâ€™s Champions League status in

FULL LIST OF RESULTS: Aston Villa 0-0 Sheffield United

Man City 3-0 Arsenal

Norwich 0-3 Southampton

Spurs 1-1 Man United

Watford 1-1 Leicester

Brighton 2-1 Arsenal

West Ham 0-2 Wolves

Bournemouth 0-2 Crystal Palace

Newcastle 3-0 Sheffield United

Aston Villa 1-2 Chelsea

Everton 0-0 Liverpool

www.thewordmedia.co.uk

POLITICS AND EVENTS

THE

WORD

Jun 28th 2020

PSETS, CONTROVERSY AND EMPHATIC VICTORIES

Newcastle and Southampton both returned in the most emphatic way, winning 3-0 against Sheffield United and Norwich respectively.

serious doubt, it looks very likely that they will be joining Europe’s elite competition next term. Losers Our big loser from the opening week of fixtures is of course Arsenal, and specifically David Luiz. Mikel Areta watched his side being mauled by Man City on the opening day, with David Luiz all but sealing his fate at the club with a frankly silly sending off. Arsenal’s week went from bad to worse though, as they pushed for a late winner against Brighton on Saturday, eventually losing the game 2-1. Arsenal now sit 10th, six points off a potential Champions League spot with only eight games left to play. Honourable Mentions Newcastle and Southampton

for the season up to 16.

both returned in the most emphatic way, winning 3-0 against Sheffield United and

Norwich respectively. Danny Ings continued his

electric pre-covid form, curling in a wonderful finesse from outside the box to take his tally

Bruno Fernandes coolly slotted home from the spot against Tottenham, meaning he has now scored three goals, and registered three assists in his first six Premier League games.

THE

WORD

Jun 28th 2020

POLITICS AND EVENTS

www.thewordmedia.co.uk

CITY LOSS HANDS LIVERPOOL THE TITLE City lose 2-1

upporters set off flares and fireworks after Chelsea's 2-1 win against Manchester City gave the Reds their first league title in 30 years. Within half an hour of the result, about 2,000 fans had gathered outside the stadium with some celebrating above the players' entrance. No attempts were made to disperse the crowd by police officers at the ground. Only a win for City at Stamford Bridge would have allowed them to hold on to the Premier League trophy for a little longer and their twoyear reign is now officially over.

Pep Guardiola’s side lost a total of six league games in those two seasons combined, but their eighth defeat of this campaign leaves them 23 points behind the leaders, with seven games left. Kevin de Bruyne’s brilliant second-half freekick cancelled out Christian Pulisic’s breakaway goal for the hosts but Liverpool’s title was confirmed with 12 minutes left when Fernandinho was sent off for handball on the line and Willian dispatched the resulting penalty.

at Chelsea