Right, deep breath, no blinking, I'm going for Cadell Evans to be wearing the yellow jersey on the podium on the 26th July.
The die is cast; may God be good to him and keep him upright.

Not that I believe that any deity (which may or may not exist) would take an interest in the Tour and its participants, but it's the old pishrogues creeping back.

OK, Le Tour, a quick review. I've already ruled out Contador and Armstrong (yaaawn!), also Sastre. I have to choose between Cadell Evans and Andy Schleck. I would plump for Schleck, but I read on the Saxobank website that both Andy and brother Frank are described as "polyvalent", which suggests that some farting about as per last year may be on the cards.
The betting is -

Contador evens
Armstrong 11/2
Schleck A. 6/1
Evans 15/2

I've settled for Saxobank to win the team competition. Astana is favourite but I can't see Contador and Armstrong collaborating productively.

I've never liked predicting winners in anything (superstition, pishrogues) but, on reflection I've decided to make a stand against my own benighted mental processes. After all I wouldn't dream of saying "I only have to name my choice and he's guaranteed to win". How does that differ from "I only have to name my choice and he's doomed"? I'm ascribing to myself some praeternatural power. So I have to purge myself of this arrogance once and for all.
If my chosen rider has a fall and breaks a collar-bone ... Oh Jesus! How will I live with myself. Look out Cadell, Andy, one of you is a marked man. Tomorrow I hand over the black spot.

Cartoon time.
The first is by Carlos Latuff
The second by someone whose name I can't read.

Addendum, 2nd July -
Iv'e been informed that the second cartoon is the work of Bagley, of the Salt Lake Tribune.

Did somebody die?

James Stephens (1882-1950) -

GENEROSITY

Let the man who has and doesn't give
Break his neck and cease to live.
Let him who gives without a care
Gather rubies from the air.

or was it "Let he who ..."? Easy to memorise so I didn't write it down. Now my memory and my grasp of grammar fail me. Ná bac leis.

OH-OH!
" ... it seemed like the Astana team could face its biggest goal of the season, the Tour de France, without distraction. But the team that takes the start in Monaco could be a badly fractured squad, riven with trust issues and power struggles that, under the pressure of the Tour, could explode."

So that's Contador out of the running, and forget about Armstrong. Nobody seems to fancy Carlos Sastre and his team. The search for the Yellow Jersey goes on.

So what's the agreement in the Lindsey sackings dispute? According to the Guardian -

Union sources say it includes a commitment that the 51 staff who were made redundant would now return to work at the site. The 647 construction workers who were fired by Total for walking out in support will also be reinstated.
"We understand that the contractors and the unions reached a deal last night," said a spokeswoman for Total, who were not represented at the talks. "We hope that the workers will be back on site as soon as possible, and that construction work will be completed on time."

TV news reports mentioned an agreement that workers at other sites sacked for coming out in solidarity will be reinstated. Those reports made no mention of the original 51 redundancy victims.
What I'm asking is, how can an agreement between the unions and contractors at Lindsay be binding on employers elsewhere? It can't, and presumably relies on the goodwill of those employers. There is no goodwill, but there might be a fear of provoking more walkouts.
Just as there is no genuine agreement over workers sacked elsewhere, there is no agreement with Total, who were not involved in the talks and who are the puppetmasters behind the contractors. Perhaps this what the trainborne loudmouth in Stuart Bruce's tweet meant when he said, "If we dress it up as the Jacobs solution, we'll be OK with that." They can ignore an agreement that doesn't involve them.

What are we to make of this, one half of a telephone conversation? Is it a wind-up?

"... on Tuesday, an official, presumably from the French oil company Total, sat on a commuter service from Leeds to King's Cross discussing what tactics should be deployed in the dispute triggered by job losses at the Lindsey oil refinery in Lincolnshire. Passenger Stuart Bruce was kind enough, via Twitter, to relay the whole thing to the world.

"If we sit down with the union, what shall we ask for?"

"How could they stop us going down that road? So why are we talking to them at all. We don't need them."

"We'll just tell them we'll shut down the whole project with the loss of however many jobs."

"If we dress it up as the Jacobs solution, we'll be OK with that ... We don't want to tell the press but in another week the project might not be there."

From the Guardian Diary.

I've hesitated long, but I have to post it; Jacques Prévert's "Barbara", just about my favourite poem. The translation here is Ferlinghetti's, which I'm not crazy about. So I put the original first and the translation follows on. The translator's word, "shitstupidity" for "connerie" strikes me as particularly clumsy, but I suppose it's difficult to come up with a word that combines the meaning with the right level of vulgarity.
Gore Vidal called Prévert a bad poet but a good screenwriter.Well I like his poetry but I don't know what all the fuss is about over "Les Enfants du Paradis". Still, I hope to see "The Crime of M. Lange" one day.

BARBARA

Rappelle-toi Barbara
Il pleuvait sans cesse sur Brest ce jour-là
Et tu marchais souriante
Epanouie ravie ruisselante
Sous la pluie
Rappelle-toi Barbara
Il pleuvait sans cesse sur Brest
Et je t'ai croisée rue de Siam
Tu souriais
Et moi je souriais de même
Rappelle-toi Barbara
Toi que je ne connaissais pas
Toi qui ne me connaissais pas
Rappelle-toi
Rappelle-toi quand même ce jour-là
N'oublie pas
Un homme sous un porche s'abritait
Et il a crié ton nom
Barbara
Et tu as couru vers lui sous la pluie
Ruisselante ravie épanouie
Et tu t'es jetée dans ses bras
Rappelle-toi cela Barbara
Et ne m'en veux pas si je te tutoie
Je dis tu a tous ceux que j'aime
Meme si je ne les ai vus qu'une seule fois
Je dis tu a tous ceux qui s'aiment
Même si je ne les connais pas
Rappelle-toi Barbara
N'oublie pas
Cette pluie sage et heureuse
Sur ton visage heureux
Sur cette ville heureuse
Cette pluie sur la mer
Sur l'arsenal
Sur le bateau d'Ouessant
Oh Barbara
Quelle connerie la guerre
Qu'es-tu devenue maintenant
Sous cette pluie de fer
De feu d'acier de sang
Et celui qui te serrait dans ses bras
Amoureusement
Est-il mort disparu ou bien encore vivant
Oh Barbara
Il pleut sans cesse sur Brest
Comme il pleuvait avant
Mais ce n'est plus pareil et tout est abîmé
C'est une pluie de deuil terrible et désolée
Ce n'est même plus l'orage
De fer d'acier de sang
Tout simplement des nuages
Qui crèvent comme des chiens
Des chiens qui disparaissent
Au fil de l'eau sur Brest
Et vont pourrir au loin
Au loin très loin de Brest
Dont il ne reste rien.

BARBARA
Remember Barbara
It rained all day on Brest that day
And you walked smiling
Flushed enraptured streaming-wet
In the rain
Remember Barbara
It rained all day on Brest that day
And I ran into you in Siam Street
You were smiling
And I smiled too
Remember Barbara
You whom I didn't know
You who didn't know me
Remember
Remember that day still
Don't forget
A man was taking cover on a porch
And he cried your name
Barbara
And you ran to him in the rain
Streaming-wet enraptured flushed
And you threw yourself in his arms
Remember that Barbara
And don't be mad if I speak familiarly
I speak familiarly to everyone I love
Even if I've seen them only once
I speak familiarly to all who are in love
Even if I don't know them
Remember Barbara
Don't forget
That good and happy rain
On your happy face
On that happy town
That rain upon the sea
Upon the arsenal
Upon the Ushant boat
Oh Barbara
What shitstupidity the war
Now what's become of you
Under this iron rain
Of fire and steel and blood
And he who held you in his arms
Amorously
Is he dead and gone or still so much alive
Oh Barbara
It's rained all day on Brest today
As it was raining before
But it isn't the same anymore
And everything is wrecked
It's a rain of mourning terrible and desolate
Nor is it still a storm
Of iron and steel and blood
But simply clouds
That die like dogs
Dogs that disappear
In the downpour drowning Brest
And float away to rot
A long way off
A long long way from Brest
Of which there's nothing left.

In a comment on an article in Today's Guardian a right-wingnut called "Sam Widges" writes -

The BBC has admitted there's a left-wing bias "ingrained" so deeply into the system that it's be "virtually impossible to eradicate". Does this mean they're not even going to bother?

I'd love to find the source of these quotes. I suspect they were first aired in a dream of the poster's.

Firstly, no BBC spokesperson would ever admit to such a bias.
Secondly, such an admission, I mean claim, would be an outright lie, admittedly not a new departure for the BBC.
Thirdly, the BBC, nolens volens, has a right-wing bias, a result of its craven submission to the British secret police in its news reporting. In the past all BBC news reporters, news readers and commentators had to be approved by a resident MI5 operative, whose office was in Room 105 at Broadcasting House.
The BBC claims that MI5 no longer vets their news staff - they would, wouldn't they. In fact, at the time in which we now know the vetting took place the corporation had a policy of "categorical denial". But even if that is true the people who now supervise the selection of news staff would themselves be the latest in a long line politically acceptable employees. The right-wing bias, having been carefully planted and nurtured over generations, would be self-perpetuating.
One disqualifying factor in MI5's selection process was membership of the Labour Party. Needless to state that anything to the left of Labour received the same short shrift, pacifists too.
I was interested to note that when the political reporter Nick Robinson left ITN for a berth at the BBC he felt free to reveal that he was a member of the Conservative Party, something he did not shout about when at ITN. In the same vein, the BBC Newsnight frontwoman, Emily Maitlis, is being openly touted as future star of the Conservative Parliamentary Party. In contrast to this mute acceptance of a potential Tory bias the BBC was horrified, and said so, when one of its radio presenters, Melvyn Bragg, was ennobled as a Labour peer. I seem to recall that Lord Bragg was immediately relieved of one of his broadcasting roles.

Round one to the Lindsey refinery workers. They stuck together against the intimidatory tactics of Total. Now the bully boys have to go to ACAS arbitration because the attempts to divide the sacked workers failed miserably.
If ACAS or the union bureaucrats (most likely both) demand that the men return to work while negotiations are in progress they should refuse. Once they are back at work a sellout can be agreed on.
Total was within its rights as an employer to sack the striking workers. Unofficial strikers forfeit legal protection. Add to that the fact that official strike action, to be within the law, can only be taken in a way that renders it ineffective, the gaffers can't lose. That is if the workers play by the rules. So an unofficial strike that's 100 percent solid, supported by other workers, is the only effective action under present conditions.
Interesting to see placards at the picket with the old slogan, "Workers of the World Unite", no doubt a message to the BNP who are trying to muscle in on the action.

What's happened to Mick Hall's blog (Organised Rage)? It's been AWOL for a few days now?

Yesterday's poem on John MacLean reminds me of the Matt McGinn song

"There was nane like John MacLean
The fighting dominie"

which can be heard here.

I wrote at the beginning of the poetry season that I'd met three real poets, meaning published poets. Well, if I add Matt McGinn, the singer songwriter, that's four.
I was introduced to Matt by a mutual friend who demanded (the right word) that Matt recite for me a poem about "The English Royal Family", and he did so. I later found out that Matt sang these lyrics to the tune of "An English Country Garden". Still, no harm, it was poetry when he spoke it.
The other poets I have Met; Ken Smith, as I already mentioned, John Heath-Stubbs, and Seán Hutton. Seán, to my knowledge, writes his verse exclusively in Irish, which makes his inclusion here ... What, unlikely? Maybe not, here's a very short one I've found -

PAX ROMANA (NICEARAGUA)

Tá an chrois in áirithe
an sciúirse, an casúr is na tairní;
tá an choróin spíne fite.

seo chugainn Iúdas
chun póg an bhraite a bhronnadh.

(published 1986)

Back to the poetry, and once more to Sorley MacLean. The poet served in North Africa in World War II, and these verses commemorate a fallen comrade in arms. This is MacLean's own translation of his Gaelic original, "Curaidhean" -

HEROES

I did not see Lannes at Ratisbon
nor MacLennan at Auldearn
nor Gillies MacBain at Culloden,
but I saw an Englishman in Egypt.

A poor little chap with chubby cheeks
and knees grinding each other,
pimply unattractive face -
garment of the bravest spirit.

He was not a hit 'in the pub
in the time of the fists being closed,'
but a lion against the breast of battle,
in the morose wounding showers.

His hour came with the shells,
with the notched iron splinters,
in the smoke and flame,
in the shaking and terror of the battlefield.

Word came to him in the bullet shower
that he should be a hero briskly,
and he was that while he lasted
but it wasn't much time he got.

He kept his guns to the tanks,
bucking with tearing crashing screech,
until he himself got, about the stomach,
that biff that put him to the ground,
mouth down in sand and gravel,
without a chirp from his ugly high-pitched voice.

No cross or medal was put to his
chest or to his name or to his family;
There were not many of his troop alive,
and if there were their word would not be strong.
And at any rate, if a battle post stands
many are knocked down because of him,
not expecting fame, not wanting a medal
or any froth from the mouth of the field of slaughter.

I saw a great warrior of England,
a poor manikin on whom no eye would rest;
no Alasdair of Glen Garry;
and he took a little weeping to my eyes.

Alasdair Ranaldson of Glengarry was the vainglorious coxcomb immortalised by Walter Scott as Fergus MacIvor in his novel "Waverley". In his poems "Two MacDonalds" Sorley compares Glengarry with his brother James, a hero at Waterloo. Of the former he writes -

"He cleared the tenants in Glengarry -
the few of them left-
and he cleared the tenants about Kinloch Nevis,
and he cleared the tenants in Knoydart.
...
He spoiled Clan Donald."

Which was not how the Tory snob Scott saw Glengarry.

Another poem by Sorley commemorates his fear cinnidh, John MacLean, the Red Clydesider. Again he uses the expression, battle-post (ursann-chatha), which I take to mean a brave, or perhaps a strong, champion and defender.

THE CLAN MACLEAN

Not they who died
in the hauteur of Inverkeithing
in spite of valour and pride
the high head of our story;
but he who was in Glasgow
the battle-post of the poor,
great John MacLean,
the top and hem of our story.

LINDSEY REFINERY SACKINGS

I've lifted this article unchanged from The Nation of Duncan -

Supported by Keith Gibson ex LOR strike cttee, Trevor Grewar Hull Amicus/Unite branch chair, John McEwan national stewards forum, Steve Jones LOR steward (all in personal capacities)


The Facts:- Last Weds 10th June, 51 Shaws workers were give “imminent redundancy notices” to take effect from Friday 12th.

THERE WAS NO CONSULTATION. On Monday 8th June, Blackett & Charlton (RBC) had taken on 61 recruits in almost identical numbers and trades to those being sacked by Shaws.

The Shaws workers were given NO OPPORTUNITY TO TRANSFER. Remember that RBC are only at LOR as a result of the 102 new jobs created by January’s strike which was provoked by a third of Shaws contract being awarded to anti-union firm IREM.

On Thurs 11th, Shaws workers walked out of the gate, supported by scaffolders from S.G.B, electricians for B.K., and other trades from B.I.S.

O’Hares and RBC, and have all stayed out on strike. Jacobs’ management, who’s strings are being pulled by Total, have refused to negotiate unless there is a return to work.

But have stated that the 51 will still be sacked anyway. Faced with this ultimatum, a mass meeting of LOR workers yesterday (Weds 17th) voted unanimously to continue the strike until the 51 redundancies are withdrawn.

It is clear now that the LOR bosses are using this dispute (caused by their own mis-management and their reneging on agreements made in February) to seek revenge for their forced climbdown by the strike earlier this year.

Taken with the leaked ECIA advice to employers on subverting the official union strike ballot, the bosses have declared war against the trade unions, shop stewards and the NAECI agreement.

That is why we appeal for your support. Unity is strength. Together we will win. AGAIN.

WITHDRAW THE 51 REDUNDANCIES
SHARE OUT THE WORK
PROPER CONSULTATION & NEGOTIATION
YESTERDAY’S MASS MEETING (Weds 17th) VOTED TO:
Continue the Strike at LOR until 51 redundancies withdrawn
Place pickets at all LOR gates and appeal to tanker drivers not to cross
Call for solidarity strike action across all NAECI sites
The BBC is reporting that the following sites walked out on strike today in solidarity:

At the Ensus site at Wilton in Teesside, all 1,100 workers have walked out, according to a company spokesman.
About 300 workers are protesting outside Aberthaw power station in south Wales.
More than 100 contract maintenance staff have walked out at the Stanlow Oil Refinery in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire. Shell says the action will not affect production but may delay routine maintenance projects.
Some contract workers have downed tools at Ferrybridge power station in West Yorkshire. Scottish and Southern Electric say the plant is operating normally.
The sacking of 900 workers for taking strike action is unprecedented in recent years and indicates that construction industry bosses are preparing for a serious fight (as this leaked memo on dealing with the ballot for the industry wide strike action also shows).

This looks to be shaping up to be a long and complex dispute with striking workers involved in a three way fight between employers and the parasitical behaviour of the British National Party eager to hijack this dispute that basically has nothing to do with them.

This makes sending solidarity messages all the more urgent:

Email: geminis@geminis.karoo.co.uk or
Text: 07706 7 10041

My son informs me that Real Madrid want back the £80 million they shelled out for Ronaldo. They've just found out that they could have bought a big girl's blouse from Primark for four quid.

I feel a prediction coming on.
Poor old Gordon Brown is having an inquiry into the Iraq war, in secret of course.
I'll have a guess at the findings.
After much investigation - stretched out by long breaks - and much collection of expenses, the committee will deliver the following devastating results -
The war was "probably" illegal
(one dissenting committee member will find that the war WAS illegal).
Try as it might the Committee was unable to apportion guilt or identify any guilty parties.
The committee will deem that it was all so long ago that a witch hunt for guilty parties should be avoided at all costs.
The government should introduce reforms to ensure that the nation will never enter into an illegal war (which is not to allege that it ever did).
The government (whoever) will accept the findings and promise to introduce safeguards
The government will then do nothing.

Prediction number two:
The Independent (sic) Police Complaints Commission is to investigate taser-happy officers in Nottingham used excessive force in controlling a troublemaker.
I predict that they'll find that the force used was proportional to the threat.
They might add that further guidelines on the deployment of tasers (which regularly kill people) would be helpful.
The Minister for State Repression (whoever) will agree.
The minister will do nothing.

Addendum 17th June:
I've just read that the Iraq war committee is not going to be allowed to "apportion blame", so some of the above is redundant.

I have lifted these rules from Angry Arab's news blog. Our media follow them faithfully -

Western Primer on elections in developing countries
Some Western principles in assessing elections in developing countries:
1) When the favored candidates win, the elections are free and fair. And when they lose, elections are certainly unfree and stolen.
2) Violent protests against elections that produce winners favored by the west, are to be strictly condemned and protesters are to be called terrorists, hooligans and mobs (can you imagine if Lebanese opposition supporters were to engage in violent protests against the election results in Lebanon), while violent protests against enemies of the US when they win elections (like in Moldova) are to be admired (and the protesters in those cases are called "democracy activists".
3) It is not against free elections to have Western governments interfere in elections and in funding candidates through Western groups for the promotion of democracy.
4) Candidates (or even dictators) who serve Western interests are automatically labeled as "reform candidates" (even the Saudi tyrant is referred to as "reform-minded"), while candidates who oppose Western economic and political interests are to be labeled enemies of reform.
5) Candidates who are not strident in their language about Israel are always favored.
6) Western observers of elections are always on hand to declare an election unfair and rigged if the favored candidates lose.
7) The corruption of pro-US candidates (like the March 14 bunch) is preferred to the non-corruption of, say, Mugabe.
8) The democratic credentials of dictators immediately improve if they change their policies toward the US and if they express willingness to serve US economic and political interests.
9) Countries where dictators do a good job in serving US economic and political interests need not hold elections.
10) If favored candidates can't guarantee electoral victory (like the PA tool, Abu Mazen whose term has expired months ago), they don't need to hold elections and will be treated as if they won an election anyway.
11) It is just not logical to assume that people in developing countries can freely ever decide to make choices that are not consistent with political and economic interests of the US.
12) Elections that are held under American and Israeli occupations are free and fair if the preferred candidates win.

"What is Spain's greatest club: a dumping ground for Ferguson's rejects and rebels?" asks Paul Hayward in today's Guardian. Well Real Madrid may be, but Spain's greatest club is not.

I always think of Real Madrid as Franco's boys.

Adeus, Plastic-Features.

James Hope of Templepatrick, County Antrim (1764-1847), weaver, Jacobin, and, as his gravestone informs us, a soldier in his country's cause. Also a poet, and here are a couple of his works -

HINT TO POLITICAL CONTROVERSIALISTS

These are my thoughts, nor do I think I need
Perplex my mind with any other creed.
I wish to let my neighbour's creed alone,
And think it quite enough to mind my own.

THE FAST - FROM BLOOD

When tyrants wage unbounded war,
And suffering nations groan,
When dreadful tidings from afar
Cause mothers' hearts to moan;
When judgement dread in thunders roar
Against the human race;
From pole to pole, from shore to shore
They banish blessed peace.
While sanctimonious men in prayer
Give thanks for battles won,
Or call for Heaven's propitious care
And shed more blood, anon.
But know, proud man, that God won't deign
To answer your request,
While murder's in your heart and brain,
And vengeance in your breast.
Go learn the way that Heaven commands,
And righteousness obey,
Undo each yoke, and burst all bands,
And quit your tyrant sway;
The hungry feed, the naked clothe,
The prisoners' fetters break,
The poor that's at your gate, don't loathe,
But kindly act and speak.
Then shall your light as morning shine,
And every cloud dispel,
Whilst every gift that is divine,
Shall in your bosoms dwell.
This is the fast that God demands
Throughout his Sacred Word,
And none but this in mercy stands,
Or tells with mercy's Lord.
This be your off'ring - these your fasts,
Strict fast from pride and blood,
And keep them while existence lasts
If you would please your God.

Clearly James was a religious man, a deist at the least. Probably a Christian, as the reference to God's "Sacred Word" attests. Certainly not a Christian of the Bush- Blair variety, wading through the blood of innocents; more like the Catholic Worker variety.

Cut their pay? I'd cut the throats of some of these unprincipled parasites.

Idris Davies (1905-1953), his best known poem must be "Bells of Rhymney", thanks to Pete Seeger's setting it to music. I like this one, not least because it mentions Hull. The Hull dockers were always generous to striking miners, though it was the men of the Yorkshire minefields who benefitted most. I hadn't seen this poem for some time and had to search the net for it. I found it here, along with a couple of others and some biographical information. In my memory this is called "Send out your pigeons, Dai", but maybe it was homing pigeons. I'll stick with my memory, true or false -

SEND OUT YOUR PIGEONS, DAI

Send out your homing pigeons, Dai,
Your blue-grey pigeons, hard as nails,
Send them with messages tied to their wings,
Words of your anger, words of your love.
Send them to Dover, to Glasgow, to Cork,
Send them to the wharves of Hull and of Belfast,
To the harbours of Liverpool and Dublin and Leith,
Send them to the islands and out of the oceans,
To the wild wet islands of the northern sea
Where little grey women go out in heavy shawls
At the hour of dusk to gaze at the merciless waters,
And send them to the decorated islands of the south
Where the mineowner and his tall stiff lady
Walk round and round the rose-pink hotel, day after day after day.
Send out your pigeons, Dai, send them out
With words of your anger and your love and your pride,
With stern little sentences wrought in your heart,
Send out your pigeons, flashing and dazzling towards the sun.
Go out, pigeons bach, and do what Dai tells you.

Today the swastika flies over Yorkshire. The enemy my parents' generation fought to keep from these shores has been invited in by racists, paranoiacs and cretins. Of course the greater part of the blame lies with the business friendly (and worker despising) Labour Party. It turns out that in both areas where a Nazi was elected the actual vote for the British Nazi Party fell. It was because Labour supporters decided they had had enough and voted with their backsides that the Nazis snaked in.
Now they will link up with parties who don't lie about their intentions or their programme - Eastern Europeans plotting the final solution of the Roma problem; fanatics who can't stop their right arms shooting out Dr. Strangelove style. The true nature of Nazism-lite will become clearer.

As for our new representative in Strasbourg, Andrew Brons, I heard one news reporter comment after the result was announced that perhaps Brons had not been completely honest about his past. I suppose he meant that the media had soft-pedalled on Brons's past. If they knew something the electorate should have known why keep it under wraps?
"Brons, 61, started his nazi career in the National Socialist Movement, an organisation that was deliberately founded on Hitler’s birthday by Colin Jordan, the British nazi leader who died in April aged 85. NSM members were responsible for an arson campaign against Jewish property and synagogues in the 1960s.
"Brons appears to have approved. In a letter to Jordan’s wife, Brons reported meeting an NSM member who 'mentioned such activities as bombing synagogues'. He declared: 'On This subject I have a dual view, in that I realise that he is well intentioned, I feel that our public image may suffer considerable damage as a result of these activities. I am however open to correction on this point'."

BRONS, is it an English name? Sounds a bit Jewish. Could be another Bronstein who changed his name (cf. Leon Trotsky).

Looking at the website of Los Desterrados I was intrigued by their list of influences, viz. -

Gipsy Kings, Flory Jagoda, Stevie Wonder, Emil Zrihan, The Beatles, Yasmin Levy, Joni Mitchell, El Lebrijano, Sergio Mendes, Gerard Edery, Steely Dan, Francoise Atlan, Led Zepplin, Santana, Ruth Yaakov, The Police, Sting, Los Pasharos Sefardis, Earth Wind & Fire, Savina Yannatou, Vincius de Moraes, Janet & Jaq Esim, David Bowie, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Frank Zappa, Gloria Estefan, Prince, Henry Rollins, Camarón de la Isla, Paco de Lucia, Parliament-Funkadelic, John McLaughlin & Shakti, Ahinoam Nini, Hendrix, Kate Bush, Ray Barretto, Steve Vai, Bee Gees, Beach Boys, Nick Drake, Doobie Bros, A-ha, David Bowie, Vangelis, Yes, Rush, Black Sabbath, The Who, Nancy Wilson, Minnie Ripperton, Nina Simone, Taj Mahal, Herbie Hancock, John Lee Hooker, Bill Withers, Bert Jansch, Stephen Glass, Paul Simon, JS Bach, George Benson, Art Blakey, ELO, Shlomo Artzi, Zohar Fresco, Bustan Abraham, Omar Hakim.

Have they missed anybody?
What would a band playing music influenced by all the above sound like? To me they sound like a folk group singing in Judezmo-Spanish, but music writers detect folk,jazz and flamenco in the mix. As the band comprises six members I suppose they've all listed recording artists they like. Interesting line-up, a bit like the Bonzo Dog Band's "Intro and Outro"

I have no problem with the falling out of thieves, though I don't believe that honest men inevitably benefit thereby. However, I have to declare that the Blairite "bastards" attempts to overthrow Brown really stink to High Heaven. Blears, Flint, Purnell, these people really are the scum of the earth.
There's a way to stifle the BBs, with a little luck suffocate them. Poor old Gordon Brown should call a meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party, demand a vote of confidence, and inform them that if he loses the vote he'll call a general election. The BBs, and many other Labour MPs know that a snap election would see them off to find some other dishonest means of earning a crust. Their bluff would be called.
Dealer's choice.

Back to the dead white men - the Austrian Karl Kraus (1874-1936), better known as a journalist and playwright, but he wrote poetry too. Looking around for references I read this quote and had to have it here:
"I and my public understand each other very well: it does not hear what I say, and I don't say what it wants to hear."
The English version of this poem is by Karl F. Ross -

TO THE BOURGEOIS

That in gloom some are despairing
so the sun be yours alone;
that your burdens they are bearing
in addition to their own;
that their nights your days would earn you
that their chains your freedom built -
that this never did concern you,
who can rid you of that guilt?

AN DER BURGER

Dass im dunkel die dort leben,
so du selbst nur Sonne hast;
dass für dich die Lasten haben,
neben ihrer eignen Last;
dass du frei durch ihre Ketten,
Tag erlangst durch ihre Nacht:
was wird von der Schuld dich retten,
dass du daran nie gedacht.

A rabbi's advice to his co-religionists -
“I don’t believe in western morality, i.e. don’t kill civilians or children, don’t destroy holy sites, don’t fight during holiday seasons, don’t bomb cemeteries, don’t shoot until they shoot first because it is immoral. The only way to fight a moral war is the Jewish way: Destroy their holy sites. Kill men, women and children (and cattle).”
This is Rabbi Manis Friedman whose surname means "man of peace". Time for a name change, Rabbi. I suggest Machamovis.

A departure from the the parade of "dead white men" who have featured in my poetry season. Jayne Cortez is a living black woman, so that's all the PC boxes ticked in one fell swoop, and back to the comfort zone. Just kidding, honest!
I love Jazz, I love its history, it's characters. I tolerate its shits (e.g., Miles D.) on account of their talent. But I'm no jazz buff. Sometimes I'm listening to some old recording with a mate of mine, and he comes out with something really arcane. He can tell you every individual in the Basie line-up that day, who was off with a cold, and who went out for the sandwiches. Me, I just listen to the music.
All these names have some significance, for me and for others. It's good to see them all name-checked. There's that film "A Great Day in Harlem", similar thing, people who are fans listing the people they admire. As Dave Frishberg says in his piss-taking song, "I don't blow but I'm a fan".

A JAZZ FAN LOOKS BACK

I crisscrossed with Monk
Wailed with Bud
Counted every star with Stitt
Sang "Don't Blame Me" with Sarah
Wore a flower like Billie
Screamed in the range of Dinah
& scatted "How High the Moon" with Ella Fitzgerald
as she blew roof off the Shrine Auditorium
Jazz at the Philharmonic

I cut my hair into a permanent tam
Made my feet rebellious metronomes
Embedded record needles in paint on paper
Talked bopology talk
Laughed in high-pitched saxophone phrases
Became keeper of every Bird riff
every Lester lick
as Hawk melodicized my ear of infatuated tongues
& Blakey drummed militant messages in
soul of my applauding teeth
& Ray hit bass notes to the last love seat in my bones
I moved in triple time with Max
Grooved high with Diz
Perdidoed with Pettiford
Flew home with Hamp
Shuffled in Dexter's Deck
Squatty-rooed with Peterson
Dreamed a "52nd Street Theme" with Fats
& scatted "Lady Be Good" with Ella Fitzgerald
as she blew roof off the Shrine Auditorium
Jazz at the Philharmonic

Look, no punctuation. That's avant-garde for sure.
I don't know the ins and outs of this "intellectual property" rip-off, which is why I prefer to stick with the deceased. I'd love to put some of Ian Duhig's and Sean O'Brien's poems up here, but I'm a bit wary. Never mind there's a rake of others to quote.

Tiananman Square, a chance for the British media to demonstrate their human rights credentials. Gaza? Sri Lanka? Somehow they missed those opportunities. Or perhaps they they filed those events under "detail of history" (copyright J-M Le Pen).

A few words from Joe Corrie (1894-1968), miner, poet, playwright. I thought I'd read somewhere that he was blacklisted after the General Strike, but I can't find anything to confirm that. Certainly he was familiar with the dole. This poem was written circa 1930 -

EAT MORE

'Eat more fruit!' the slogans say,
'More fish, more beef, more bread!'
But I'm on unemployment pay
My third year now, and wed.

And so I wonder when I'll see
The slogan when I pass,
The only one that would suit me, -
'Eat More Bloody Grass!'

A couple of short poems from Jacques Prévert, translations by Ferlinghetti, plus the original French. One of my all-time favourite poems is Prévert's "Barbara", and that may turn up here soon. In the meantime -

THE LAST SUPPER

They are at table
They eat not
Nor touch their plates
And their plates stand straight up
Behind their heads.

LA CENE

Ils sont à table
Ils ne mangent pas
Ils ne sont pas dans leur assiette
Et leur assiette se tient toute droite
Verticalement derrière leur tête

THE DISCOURSE ON PEACE

Near the end of an extremely important discourse
the great man of state stumbling
on a beautiful hollow phrase
falls over it
and undone with gaping mouth
gasping
shows his teeth
and the dental decay of his peaceful reasoning
exposes the nerve of war
the delicate question of money.

LE DISCOURS SUR LA PAIX

Vers la fin d'un discours extrêmement important
le grand homme d'Etat trébuchant
sur une belle phrase creuse
tombe dedans
et désemparé la bouche grande ouvertr
haletant
montre les dents
et la crie dentaire de ses pacifiques raisonnements
met à vif le nerf de la guerre
la délicate question de l'argent.

I lifted the following tale from Viola Wilkins' blog on the Aussie IWW website -

Five British surgeons are sharing a table for dinner following a conference in London.
The first, a Manchester surgeon, says: 'I like to see accountants on my operating table, because when you open them up, everything inside is numbered.'
The second, a Liverpool surgeon, responds: 'Yes, but you should try electricians! Everything inside them is colour coded.'
The third, a Newcastle surgeon, says: 'No, I really think librarians are the best; everything inside them is in alphabetical order.'
The fourth, a Birmingham surgeon, chimes in: 'You know, I like construction workers best...those guys always understand when you have a few parts left over.
But the fifth, a Glasgow surgeon, shuts them all up when he observes, You're all wrong. Politicians are the easiest to operate on. They have no guts, no heart, no balls, no brains and no spine, and the head and the arse are interchangeable.

A couple of quotes; first Marina Hyde on Simon Cowell -
"... The Charles Foster Kane of unscripted programming." This is how Ms. Hyde believes that Cowell sees himself, as opposed to the Jay Gatsby figure she had discerned earlier.

"The expenses row has really put me off politics ... so I'm going to vote for racism, bigotry and hatred instead." From a cartoon in Private Eye, the work of someone who may be called Wilbur (difficult to make out the siganature).

Re Cowell and his carnival of freaks; I see that our Prime Minister has no more important matter to ponder than the condition of Ms. Susan Boyle. All the nation's problems have melted away, it seems.

"Chelsea have not won a trophy since Mourinho left, and will hope to change that at Wembley this afternoon."
I, on the other hand, hope that they get their arses kicked.
I haven't been listening to the pre-match cobblers, and I'm wondering how many times that non-penalty against Barcelona has been mentioned.

Addendum, Sunday: Ah well, never mind.

Sorley MacLean (1911-1996)is recognised as one of the great British poets of the twentieth century, in spite of his work being mostly in the Gaelic language, and so inaccessible to most of us in its original form. The following English version is the poet's own translation. The poem, from the 1930s, strikes me as a condemnation of the "unco guid", the canting hypocrites who love the Lord but not their neighbour.

CALVARY

My eye is not on Calvary
nor on Bethlehem the blessed,
but on a foul-smelling backland in Glasgow,
where life rots as it grows;
and on a room in Edinburgh,
a room of poverty and pain,
where the diseased infant
writhes and wallows till death.


CALBHARAIGH

Chan eil mo shùil air Calbharaigh
no air Betlehem an àigh
ach air cùil ghrod an Glaschu
far bheil an lobhadh fàis,
agus air seòmar an Dùn Èideann,
seòmar bochdainn ’s cràidh,
far a bheil an naoidhean creuchdach
ri aonagraich gu bhàs.

Another day, another poem; this is getting addictive.
H.J.Daniel (1819-1889), of Lostwithiel, Cornwall. That's all I knew about this gent, and I wasn't certain about Lostwithiel. Anyway I searched the web and learned a little more. All the above confirmed. Henry John Daniel, born Lostwithiel, 14th February 1818, the son of one Samuel Daniel, wholesale grocer. He wrote mostly in the Cornish dialect and his poems were published in West Country newspapers. The Dictionary of National Bigraphy ignores him. The only verse of his I could find online was a two-line epitaph for his wife -

"To follow you I'm not content
How do I know which way you went?"

The poem I have is also an epitaph, his own -

MY EPITAPH

Here lies a bard, let epitaphs be true,
His vices many, and his virtues few;
Who always left religion in the lurch
But never left a tavern for a church,
Drank more from pewter than Pierian Spring
And only in his cups was known to sing;
Laughed at the world, however it may blame,
And died regardless of his fate or fame.

Messi 1, Ronaldo 0
The world's greatest player? He wasn't even in the top five ON THE PITCH last night. He wasn't even United's best player. Still, Berlusconi was cosying up to him. Maybe he'll find a home at AC Milan.
No diving in the penalty area, no harrassing of the referee; Plastic-Features and his mates were really off-form.

VISCA EL BARÇA!
Now I'm off to watch some petulant millionaires bully a referee.

More poetry;
Ken Smith wasn't born in Hull, but he spent his schooldays here, so I'll grant him honorary citizenship. In fact a mate of mine went to school with him. He reckons the young Ken was a James Dean lookalike, which impressed his contemporaries no end. James Byron Dean was a big deal in those days.
I've met three real poets in my life, one of them was Ken Smith. He was doing a poetry reading of other people's work. I remember the Vosnesensky poem, "I am Goya", which impressed me, and which will probably feature hereabouts in the near future.
But back to Ken Smith; the following is a favourite of mine. It's about national service -

PRIVATE SMITH

You shout. I jump. The body locks.
The world lies level with my nose.

Words snap to muscles.

You use my body,
but the dead are stumbling in my brain.

Whose gun is this I carry?

The unfastidious assassin bawls and I obey.
Who would he have me kill this day?
Cyps? Lithuanians? I hear Jews
are still in season.

The gun is smooth, clean. He didn't wear
a uniform who bored this spiral,
shaped this stock, fixed sights.

I put a stop to thought, and hate instead
all those who put me here, who shaped
me this blind toy, and taught its use.

They gibber in my brain. And all around
the blind unthinking dead are piling up.

Cameron is promising to extend democracy, to give power to the powerless, to bring glasnost to the UK parliament. Like all parties in opposition his can promise the earth, and treat its promises as pie-crusts when taking over government. What else is new?
Oh Jesus, NO! He wants to turn the House of Commons into the Big Brother house. He wants to fill it up with minor "celebs" and showbiz rejects in search of a cushy berth, and give us the chance to vote them out in telephone polls. It had to come.
On second thoughts, why not? We probably won't notice any difference from the previous set-up. The current batch are expensive, ineffectual, and objectionable; so really, more of the same.

The BBC is having a poetry season. I haven't heard any of the poems broadcast, I'm just guessing that they won't be my kind of poetry. I like poetry but, being a simple soul, I don't like anything too abstract or metaphysical (not even sure what that means). Nor do I like stuff about nature and the countryside, or declarations of love.
My kind of poetry is straightforward, punchy, maybe witty, maybe lary, almost always short. Also I like political protest stuff, sticking it to "the man", having a pop at the ruling class. I also like poems about the condition of the working class, to borrow a phrase of F. Engels. Idris Davies, now there's a poet I can get along with. Joe Corrie too, he's bound to get a nod.
Some of the poetry I like might be classified as doggerel by more knowledgeable people. Still, if it pleases me it goes into my anthology, i.e., it's scribbled down in a notebook, or on a piece of paper tucked inside a book. One day I'm going to type it all out on this machine and put it on a memory stick - my anthology.
As a start to this mighty project I'm going to have my own poetry season. I intend to type a few poems I like into this blog then save them on some or other device.
I begin with one of Alex Comfort's, one that, although written decades ago chimes with the zeitgeist -

TOP DOG
(For my tripehound)

My puppyhood convinced my mother
that I was destined to be great -
avoiding my more vigorous brother
I bit my weaker litter mate:
I am a minister of state.

An idle cynophilic race
demands the cur to make it run -
the lapdog voice, the poodle-face
denote the leader. I am one;
the biggest bitch's eldest son.

I do the mischief I am able,
I make the best of what I get -
keeping me is my country's foible:
I am an inexpensive pet -
there is no filth I will not eat.

From squalid noise I will not cease
until run over or put down.
My statue in a public place
will have it's fitting honours done
by all the other dogs in town.

"The SLP today lodged a complaint against the BBC for failing to Include the SLP list of candidates for the London region on the BBC news website. Lewisham borough council who are acting as the returning office for the election confirmed that they had issued the full list to the BBC, which included Party Leader Arthur Scargill as number one on the List. SLP Members were left wondering whether this was a genuine oversight or a sign of things to come as the BBC turns to more even more "embedded" journalism during the election campaign."

Surprise, surprise!

The leader of the UK Independence Party has become highly dependent on public money to finance his independence. He claims to have syphoned off £2 million in expenses from the European Parliament. It strikes me that this fellow has little incentive to derail his magnificent and munificent gravy train, supposedly his reason for taking a seat in an establishment he claims to despise. The expression "full of shit" seems to fit this top rank sponger.
Oh, and he thinks Members of the UK Parliament have ripped off taxpayers.
The antics of other UKIP MEPs are touched on in the linked article -
" ... one of the dozen [MEPs], Ashley Mote, was expelled from the party - and later jailed - for benefit fraud. Another, Tom Wise, is now facing prosecution for alleged false accounting and money laundering relating to his EU expenses. He denies the charges. Television presenter Robert Kilroy-Silk, who won the East Midlands for Ukip, later left to form another eurosceptic outfit, Veritas."

Apparently more voters are expressing their intention of backing UKIP at the Euro-elections in protest at the corruption of the main parties.
You have to laugh, really, you do.

The bloke who sold the Telegraph all the MPs' allowance details has emerged from the shadows. He is, he says, a crusader against corruption. He's also a supporter of the Conservative Party, ex-SAS, and he runs a security firm (how secure?). Obviously a very confused fellow, though not disadvantaged in the money-grubbing department.
It turns out that the Telegraph was not his first port of call with the stolen goods; he'd been hawking them around the press and other media.
So why is everybody being coy about how much he trousered for initiating "Trousergate"? He must have had an asking price, there must have been some some dickering. Let's hope Private Eye can come up with a figure if everyone else insists on keeping shtum.

DUH! x 2

The economic system that dare not speak its name -

Gangmaster Jagjit Singh was stripped of his licence for systematically exploiting migrant workers. That's how capitalism works, systematic exploitation of the workforce. So what's he done wrong?

"Society has a neat way of neutralising the advantages that technology brings us". Nick Booth in Thursday's Guardian technology section. Not society, Nick, capitalism.

"Around 100 postal workers in Bristol and Somerset have refused to deliver the BNP’s election addresses, as have a number of workers in Macclesfield, Cheshire.
"CWU union members at offices in Prestwich, Bury, Glossop, Wilmslow and Alderley Edge have also objected to delivering the leaflets."

Charlie Brooker on the political party that's already had too much free publicity.

HOPE not hate
Celebrating modern Britain

I got a BNP leaflet through my door this morning. It's the one with the Italian couple posing as British pensioners "pushed to the back of the queue behind bogus asylum seekers". It was delivered by a postman along with Green Party and a Lib Dem leaflets. The Nazi one was by far the most expensive looking, good to see who the rich are backing. Now, if memory serves, there was some sort of official decision that postal workers have a right to refuse to handle Nazi material. I can only assume, therefore, that our postman is a Nazi sympathiser or that the Post Office management is illegally pressuring its workers to deliver the leaflets. I wonder what the CWU's attitude is to this.

Addendum: the Kirklees Unity website reports that postal workers are being threatened with the sack if they refuse to deliver the Nazi propaganda. They also report that the photograph of construction workers under the slogan "British jobs for British workers" are in fact American.

... and now I learn that the spitfire symbolising the "Battle of Britain 2009" is one flown by a pilot from the Polish Squadron in the Battle of Britain 1940 - British spitfires for Polish pilots.

OK, they are not all crooks. This is from the Labour Union Digest website -

12/05/09.Kelvin Hopkins shone out as an example of a hard-working Labour MP who claims only minimal expenses on Monday. The Luton North MP's expenses claims were exposed in the rabidly Thatcherite Daily Telegraph - only to show that he has an exemplary record. He claimed just £296 in extra expenses in 2004 to 2005, while the Labour MP in the neighbouring constituency of Luton South Margaret Moran claimed £13,796. Mr Hopkins, a tireless campaigner and socialist economics expert, has claimed just £36.45 for food bills in the entire time since 2005. His total claim for extra allowances last year was just £1,242, including some overnight hotel stays. This compared with £22,343 claimed by Ms Moran, who switched her "second home" allowance to a property in Southampton. Mr Hopkins lives in Luton and commutes daily by train to and from London. Before becoming an MP in 1997, he had worked as a research officer for trade union UNISON and the TUC. At the last election, his majority was 6,487.

In the Guardian Marina Hyde gives Dr. Richard Taylor (Independent) a clean bill of health.

Images Obama won't release; I don't blame him. I don't want to see them. I know without illustration how sick and evil was the Bush administration, how sick and evil were the torturers they let loose on the Iraqi people. The videos will enter the public domain eventually, and no doubt they will gratify sadists and paedophiles.
The question that I ask about this: why do torturers record their crimes? Do they believe that they are inviolate?

"The boys were sodomized with the cameras rolling. The worst about all of them is the soundtrack of the boys shrieking that your government has. They [the Bush Crime Family] are in total terror it's going to come out."

I'm really angry about this MPs' allowances business. Really angry that people are pretending that they didn't know that politicians are in the business of lining their pockets. In our pseudo-democracy the function of parliament and of the political class is to act as a smokescreen for the machinations of the ruling class. Everyone knows that whoever forms the next government will carry on doing what the present government is doing; taking its foreign policy from Washington, and its domestic policy from Rupert Murdoch and his ilk. When things go badly, as they usually do, they are expected to perform the role of scapegoat and divert the public's resentment from the true source of its discontents.
In return for this function they are permitted to help themselves to substantial sums from the public purse. The whole system of remuneration is constructed to facilitate this process. In addition they can earn a little extra by doing favours for the master class. This is their compensation for being the decoy ducks of capitalism.
The press is well aware of this. In fact journalists work under a similar system. They have their expense accounts by means of which they can increase their income substantially. They too can earn a little extra by airing stories for the proprietors of their souls, stories that can enhance or destroy reputations, or boost the price of shares. In return they have to abandon all scruple, and suffer the mistrust and the obloquy of the public.
All this is well known, so why are so many people beside themselves with righteous indignation? Anyone who wasn't aware that our political class is rotten to the core has deliberately avoided the truth, usually out of fear of having to take radical action. Others have kept silent because they benefitted from the corruption.
So what will happen now? The outcry will continue a little longer. A few of the greedier individuals will be thrown to the wolves. These are the "rotten apples" that always feature in cosmetic purges. The press will decide that they've taken the matter as far as they can without undermining the corrupt system that is their bread and butter (and cake, and booze, and whores). There will of course be a committee or two set up, made up of "the great and the good"; that is, senior members of the political class who will claim vast sums in expenses for their trouble. There will be an anodyne report which will lay the blame at the door of no individual or organisation. Meanwhile the corruption will continue, perhaps in some altered form to be exposed a decade or so from now.

The Taxpayers Alliance are trying to get Elliot Morley prosecuted for his allegedly fraudulent mortgage claims. Good luck with that, ladies and gentlemen, and I wait with anticipation to hear which Conservative MPs you'll be pursuing through the legal system.

Once again The BBC shows its true colours -

"The programme failed to mention that Clive Jefferson, one of the BNP activists it interviewed, was arrested two years ago for an alleged public order offence, following a complaint from a member of the public that he had been threatening and abusive whilst distributing BNP literature.
"A second BNP figure featured in the report, Martin Wingfield, was arrested, prosecuted and imprisoned in 1985 under the Race Relations Act, following distribution of racist literature.
"His criminal record was not mentioned either and BNP Deputy Leader Simon Darby advised his members to watch the broadcast, claiming it was, ‘not a bad piece overall’."

Whenever the BNP looks like making progress in elections the BBC gives its representatives a sympathetic hearing and a publicity leg-up.

I note with relief that Lembit Opik didn't claim for the Cheeky Girls' breast implants on his allowances.

Right , we've got to the Tory front bench and - what do you know - Cameron is Mr. Clean. Well, compared to the rest of the crew - young Ozzy didn't let me down. Still I suppose the multi-passported Lord Ashcroft is always good for a sub, and it needn't go through the books.

Conclusion - they're all bent. Now let's see some resignations and prosecutions. Time for some new snouts to access the trough.

The Telegraph casts its net wider and snares a couple of Sinn Feiners. Still no sign of the expenses records of Cameron and associates.

Still no sign of Cameron's expense sheet; or Osbourne's; or Hague's; or, er ... don't know any more Tory front-benchers. Is that turd Michael Gove in the team? What happened to Bercow and Lettwin - too Jewish?
Well, let's not be too hasty in accusing the Torygraph of bias, of being corrupt. I see they've taken their naming and shaming beyond the ranks of the Labour Party. Take a bow Alex Salmond, of the Scottish Nationalist Party.

Dog bites man - Politicians are bent. Correction, Labour government ministers are bent. Tomorrow the Telegraph will be publishing the opposition front bench's expenses claims. Well maybe, maybe not. There are hundreds more Labour MPs to name and shame. After that, with a bit of luck, some sort of injunction will be issued; police investigations will place stolen data sub judice, and the Conservatives can relax.
Am I being cynical? We'll know tomorrow.
I've always assumed that there may be a handful of honest, uncorrupted MPs (I won't say incorruptible). Why don't the papers save time and space by naming them, should they exist outwith my imagination. We can then assume that the rest are mired in corruption and prone to nepotism. Of course, the higher they rise the deeper they sink in sleaze.

"An honest politician is one who, when bought, stays bought." (Simon Cameron, secretary to "Honest Abe" Lincoln)

Americans name their brats -
"Also newly popular for boys were Chace, Kash, Ishaan, Jadiel and Urijah. Isla, Mareli, Dayami, Nylah and Jazlene were new popular girl names."

Code Pink activists interrupt Shimon Peres during AIPAC speech

Today, Shimon Peres kicked off the AIPAC conference with a special address. Phil noted some observations below. Initial buzz from the speech in and around the conference center is that Peres neglected to mention the need to establish a Palestinian state as part of the peace process. This is shaping up to be an important tension between the Obama and Netanyahu administrations.

During his speech, Peres was briefly interrupted by activists from Code Pink. The photo ... is of Desiree Fairooz standing on a table in front of Peres as he speaks (photo credit: Mark Wilson, Getty Images). Below is the press release they sent out after the action:

WASHINGTON -- During Israeli Pres. Shimon Peres’ speech today at the annual AIPAC (American Israeli Political Action Committee) policy conference at the Washington Convention Center, CODEPINK members raised banners saying “Want Peace? End the Occupation," “What About Gaza?," and “No Money for War Crimes."

As the six activists were forcibly dragged away from the stage, they shouted similar phrases including "Tikun olam (Heal the world) for Gaza, too!", all meant to draw attention to widespread opposition to AIPAC's policies lobbied to Congress that include unconditional support and financing for Israel’s militaristic policies including the recent devastating invasion of Gaza, building of illegal settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, the separation wall, refusal to negotiate with the Palestinians’ democratically elected representatives, and threats to attack Iran.

“The brutal invasion of Gaza was a breaking point for me and many American Jews,” said CODEPINK co-founder Medea Benjamin, who recently led a 60-person delegation to Gaza. “I was appalled by the devastation and the suffering I saw, particularly among the children. As a mother, I feel compelled to speak out against Israel’s bombing of civilians and the ongoing siege that is so devastating to the lives of Gaza’s 1.5 million people—most of whom are under 18.”

While AIPAC claims to represent the U.S. Jewish community, its wholesale support of the Israel government goes against the majority opinions of the Jewish Americans. According to a recent survey by the Jewish lobby group J Street, 76 percent of American Jews support a two-state solution, 69 percent support negotiating with a Fatah-Hamas unity government, and 59 percent felt the Gaza invasion did not improve Israel’s security.

“Like most American Jews, I grew up with a deep appreciation for the state of Israel," said Rae Abileah, a young American Jew of Israeli descent. "After witnessing the attack of Gaza on TV and hearing the calls for crippling sanctions on Iran, I can no longer avert my eyes to the other side of the story most rabbis still aren’t talking about. I am joining the dozens of Jewish organizations, and the growing global movement, advocating a change in the Israeli policies of occupation and aggressive violence. It's high time to drop the victim narrative so that we may all survive, and one day thrive as neighbors.”

CODEPINK activists inside the AIPAC conference (with its theme "Relationships Matter") were: Medea Benjamin, 56, Rae Abileah, 26, Blaine Clarke, 29, Christianna Reinstein, 21, Desiree Fairooz, 53, and Tighe Barry, 52.

“The most important relationships for Israel to cultivate are not with U.S. Congressional allies but with the Palestinian people,” said Christianna Reinstein, a student of Middle Eastern studies who joined the protest inside the AIPAC conference today. “AIPAC’s lobbying of Congress has not made Israel more secure and has hurt American efforts to improve relations in the Arab world.”

The above report is from Philip Weiss's blog (see link). AIPAC is the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a powerful Zionist lobby group that has most US senators and congressmen in its pocket. As the report points out, it is out of touch with majority American-Jewish opinion, but scares the pants of US politicians. It is not averse to using dirty tricks to bring them in line.

ADDENDUM May 6th:
From today's Guardian -
"Aipac wields considerable influence in the US Congress. Its critics say that what amounts to bullying pressure tactics has narrowed the room for debate about Israel, and claim the group has played a leading role in unseating some members of Congress who were critical of the Jewish state's policies"

"When Companies Begin to Lose Money, They Start to Listen"

Pakistan's army: as inept as it is corrupt

"The armed forces account for 20% of Pakistan's national budget, totalling $5bn last year according to official statistics. But the actual figure, already staggering for a country with high levels of illiteracy and malnutrition, is likely to be much higher."
...
"Every one of Pakistan's democratically-elected civilian leaders has been forced to abdicate by the army. A general has directly ruled the country for 34 of its 62 years of existence."
...
"According to Ayesha Siddiqua, in her seminal study, "Military Inc", the army's private business assets are worth around £10bn and it owns a handsome share of the country's business and land. The generals, as a result, appear to be more interested in leveraging control over businesses, properties and politics."

(Mustafa Qadri)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PETE SEEGER ninety years old today.
This gent seems to have been around all my life, though it turns out I can't have heard his music before 1950 when, with the Weavers, he first made his mark on popular music, with "On Top of Old Smokey". From then on I was hearing his stuff without knowing his name; "Tzena, Tzena", "Goodnight Irene", "Wimoweh", and "Kisses Sweeter Than Wine". Was that last one of Irish origin? The Irish loved it.
Then in the sixties, with the folk revival, Pete came into his own, the Doyen of the genre. Over here we had Ewen McColl, an affine of Pete's, though I'm not sure how the relationship would be described - half-brother-in-law? Comrade McColl was a lot less fun than Comrade Seeger, whose music continued to bother the charts. The songs, not usually his own but refashioned in his style, were taken up by popsters and became Known to a mass audience beyond the folksong community; "Wimoweh", "Guantanamera", "Sloop John B", others I can't think of at the moment. The bloke has been a massive influence on the popular music scene, with his own interpretations and those of his disciples and borrowers. I don't know how many modern artists would cite Comrade Pete as an influence, apart from Springsteen. It should be a multitude.
And to top it all he outlived that creep McCarthy, and all those other witch-hunters and red-baiters; Nixon, Bobby Kennedy, Reagan, et al.
And he hasn't finished yet.

"I'd rather be called red by a rat than rat by a red." (Michael Quill)

MAY DAY

"In this Mesopotamian prescription of a plague on all their houses we must not forget though the opponents of the war back home as well. For while many may feel vindicated by what subsequently happened, it was their hand wringing and magnification of every set back or mis-step that played a key role in undermining the political will to achieve more in southern Iraq."
Mark Urban of the BBC.
This fellow will go far in the corporation.

On the "not guilty" verdicts on the Beeston trio, Ali, Saleem and Shakil -
What intrigues me about this is how things have changed since the 1970s. Then when an IRA bomb went off all the muskers had to do was grab some handy Paddies, verbal them up, and a jury would do its duty and find them guilty as charged.
This time the jury has chosen not to believe the prosecution's tale. Is it anything to do with the behaviour of the police of late? Jean Charles de Menezes, Ian Tomlinson, the lies the police told, and their ever changing stories as the facts emerged little by little?
Of course back then it was possible to beat a confession out of an innocent person in custody, but it happened too often to be allowed to continue.
Then again it may be the number of convicted "bombers" who were later released and (officially)compensated that could make a jury think twice about taking police statements as reliable.
Who knows? Not me, I expected a guilty verdict regardless of the quality of the evidence. After all these were Muslims, with BEARDS. Perhaps I should have had more faith in the jury system, but a long memory makes that difficult.

Franklin Rosemont, Wobbly and Surrealist, obiit April 12th 2009.

"My mother died a year ago ...", Lampard plays that dog-eared sympathy card again.

He's rich
He's spoiled
He's selfish
He plays for Chelsea
He's got a look like a kid who carried the can for something someone else did.

What's not to like?

I can't wait to read Marina Hyde's take on this.

JACK JONES
Not the worst union general secretary. He appears not to have lined his pockets from members' dues, which makes a pleasant change. Damning with faint praise? Maybe, but any praise for a TU full-timer is a departure for this old grouse.
Fought in Spain; carried on in the class struggle after retirement, unlike his old mucker LORD Scanlon. Not a bad record when all's said and done.
The press has used Jack Jones's passing as an excuse to revive all that cobblers about "the overweening power of the unions" in the seventies. Speaking as a rank and file member of the T&G in the 60s, 70s and 80s, I have to wonder why that power, if it existed, was not used to improve our lot. The power of the unions at grass rooots was minimal, in the construction industry anyway. Because the union bureaucrats were invited to Downing Street for the proverbial "beer and sandwiches" the lying press can portray their organisations as having some influence over government policy. They were going there to make deals with the government and the employers' organisations, deals that gave very little to the people they were supposed to represent. Still the old canard is now firmly established. We were the enemy within, lazy, overpaid, strike-prone.
Lies, lies, lies!

28th APRIL 2009

INTERNATIONAL
WORKERS
MEMORIAL
DAY

REMEMBER THE DEAD - BUT FIGHT FOR THE LIVING !

Gather 10.30 am at the statue of the unknown
building worker at Tower Hill next to the Tower
of London, Tower Bridge. Rally with speakers.

March from Tower Hill to the Health and Safety
Executive (HSE) headquarters in Southwark St.
Continue the march to City Hall, London, SE1 for
Rally with speakers from 12 noon

CONTACT: 077 477 95954



INTERNATIONAL WORKERS MEMORIAL DAY

April 28th 2009



WHY SHOULD YOU
JOIN OUR PROTEST?

Every year throughout the world more people die from work activity
than die in wars. The International Labour Organisation (ILO), estimated
that, globally, about 2.2 million people die every year from occupational
accidents and diseases, with 270 million workers suffering serious
non-fatal injuries and another 160 million workers suffering from
short or long term illness from work-related causes.

In Britain the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), our safety police, say
in the last 25 years, over 2,800 people have died from injuries received
as a result of construction work. In 2007/8 there were 72 construction
fatalities. Many more have been injured or made ill. The government
say there are currently 4,000 deaths a year from asbestos exposure.

The government, in its drive to de-regulate and cut costs has become
even more business friendly. Cuts to the budget of the HSE mean HSE
inspectors visiting workplaces and enforcing the law has declined
(overall from 1,483 inspectors in 2004 to 1,238 in 2008). The number of
HSE prosecutions is also in decline (overall 1,720 offences prosecuted
in 2003/4 to 1,028 in 2007/8). All of this in a period when accident
rates remain high. The courts still fine some companies a few thousand
pounds following a worker death. The number of jailing following a
worker death is not much more than a dozen.

WHY PROTEST TO LONDON’S MAYOR?

The Mayor of London has control over two massive public sector projects
– the Olympics site and Crossrail. It is necessary to remind the Mayor
we want these projects built safely with fair employment practices for all.

THE RECESSION IS A HEALTH AND SAFETY ISSUE?

The Economic Collapse threatens your Health and Safety; it’s the filthy
rich that caused it – It’s not foreign workers, But its workers in all countries
who are being made to pay for it. Resist and get organised join a
Trade Union and establish active workplaces and community committees,
Demand that there is no increase in workplace fatalities and major
injuries. Demand the government not allow our jobs to be lost with
all the poverty and ill heath this will cause. Demand not just the nationalisation
of the banks but also all major industries. Demand the end of
privatisation of all public sector bodies. Demand the reinstatement
and expansion of construction direct labour organisations and all other
public services. End all agency and bogus self-employment by having
workers directly employed.

Workers and trade union safety reps must
be given more rights in law to defend
themselves.

The government must repeal the anti-
trade union laws.

The government must fund the HSE
properly and change its enforcement
policy to be more “big stick” and less
“carrot”.

The courts must jail employers who
negligently kill workers and increase the
level of fines.

Remember the dead – but fight for the
living

The construction safety campaign is
calling on workers from all the different
industrial backgrounds, Trades Unions,
workplaces and community groups to
support this event

CONTACT: 077 477 95954

Here's a little fairy tale I've just made up.
Far away in a Labour held constituency a byelection is in the offing. The party members are preparing to cast their votes for their favoured candidate, when - Presto! - another postulant appears as if from nowhere. But no, she is sent from on high, for she is child of the Nomenklatura, Daddy is on the inside.
The electors revolt and decide to give the young lady's arse a skelping to demonstrate their independence.
To no avail; practitioners of the black arts are on hand to frustrate their plan. Behold! A ballot box with a broken seal. The ballot is declared null and void.

On a completely different subject; I think the student Ms. Georgia Gould will be selected as NEW Labour candidate for Erith and Thamesmead. I see she has the blessing of the wife of the perjuror and Berlusconi creature, David Mills, which must be a great help.

She said she pointed to her face and asked the officer: "Do you realise there are three film crews filming you?"

... and when, I wonder, will their footage be shown to the public? They might as well have stayed in bed for all the good they were.

BIAS, BULLSHIT, COWARDICE

"Haaretz gave considerable space to the BBC's findings yesterday. I'm not surprised. But why is it that Haaretz's top correspondents – Amira Hass and Gideon Levy – write so much more courageously about the human rights abuses of Israeli troops (and war crimes) than the BBC has ever dared to do? Whenever I'm asked by lecture audiences around the world if they should trust the BBC, I tell them to trust Amira and Gideon more than they should ever believe in the wretched broadcasting station. I'm afraid it's the same old story. If you allow yourself to bow down before those who wish you to deviate from the truth, you will stay on your knees forever."

(Robert Fisk)

The BBC Trust upheld a complaint by a Zionist organisation alleging bias on the part of its Middle East editor, Jeremy Bowen. In this case bias = truth. The BBC is expected to broadcast Zionist propaganda, and does so on a regular basis. Jeremy Bowen is a marked man.

114 individuals who had committed no offence were arrested by the Nottinghamshire police yesterday.
G20 protesters were subjected to collective punishment last week. A passer-by was killed by a masked police officer.
Last month climate change protesters "were threatened with arrest after invoking their right to not to disclose personal details. They were also subjected to repeated searches, and police seized more than 2,000 items, including a clown outfit, cycle helmets, tent pegs and board games. The confiscation of the camp's supply of soap was justified by police 'because protesters might use it to make themselves slippery and evade the grip of police'."

Altogether now -
"Die Fahne hoch! Die Reihen fest geschlossen!
SA marschiert mit mutig-festem Schritt."

We often hear about the desecration of Jewish graves by anti-semites. Are all such desecrations to be condemned? Apparently not.

"... your bosses tell you that you've got an hour to get your coat and go and "we're sorry but haven't you heard about the crisis, we're going bust too, and you can forget about redundancy pay and even the pension you've accrued". The odds are that you'd feel a cross between furious, depressed and scared.
"Also, imagine you find out that last year your boss from the same company that is going bust managed to rustle up some spare change for himself for a total of $1,341,667 as well as a staggering $8,393,607 with shares and bonuses - and that your chief executive too found enough dough to take home: $1.48 million in cash and bonuses."

Funny thing -
that Channel 4 had video evidence of Mr. Ian Tomlinson being batonned by a riot cop but chose not to air it until the cat had been let out of the bag and proof of an assault was all over the internet. One might suspect Channel 4 of collaborating with the police in a cover-up.
Ken Loach's account of his experiences with TV programme commissioners is pertinent.

I also had a South Bank Show film, Which Side Are You On?, about the miners' strike, withdrawn for political reasons. I was desperate to make a programme about the strike because the news presentation of it showed the opposite of what was actually happening: the brutality of the police, the subterfuge of the government, the power of the state, the fact that the other trade union leaders were turning their backs on the miners. None of this kind of thing was talked about at the time - it was a parallel universe.
But the strike was also a time of cultural explosion in the mining areas. In almost every pit I went to there were creating writing groups. Women were active - suddenly finding that they could stand on their feet and address a couple of hundred people. It was a time when people stood tall. My film was about the miners' songs and poems. I made it in a week, and cut it quickly. Melvyn Bragg came to see it with Nick Elliott, who was a member of the LWT hierarchy. There was the sound of breath being sucked in through teeth, and heads were shaken, and I was told that they wouldn't show it. The film included some amateur footage of police brutality, which hadn't been seen. They told me that if I cut that, it could be shown.
It was screened at a documentary festival in Florence, where it was given a prize, and was eventually shown on Channel 4, but the quid pro quo was that immediately afterwards they screened a programme in which Jimmy Reid, the shipbuilders' union leader, who had become a newspaper columnist, spoke directly to camera, attacking Scargill and the miners' leadership

If there is anything to feel optimistic about today, perhaps it is the hope that we are witnessing the flowering of an effective inverse surveillance society. Inverse surveillance is a branch of sousveillance, the term coined by University of Toronto professor Steve Mann, and it emphasises "watchful vigilance from underneath", by citizens, of those who survey and control them.

Another good article by Marina Hyde on an important topic, and an addition to my vocabulary, sousveillance.

"This video is not available in your country"
According to one Bobbie Johnson in Guardian IT "Google pulled music videos from YouTube in the UK, complaining that it would cost more to show each video than it got in payment ...". Well tough shit, Google, don't you make a fortune selling the information you garner on our tastes and interests? How much is too much for you money grubbers?
I checked my del.icio.us account to see how many tagged videos were no longer accessible; Five had gone down the pan, 17 remained, mainly at last.fm or Foxy Tunes Planet, but five were labelled 'YouTube'. So presumably YouTube videos are still accessible but not via Google. The workings of the internet remain a mystery to me.
One video, I've forgotten which, is the subject of a copyright squabble involving someone called 'Archibuild Ltd'. I'm sure they're great music lovers.
Google had deprived me of a particularly favourite, "Intro and Outro" by the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band, but fortunately I was able to hook up to it again on last.fm.
Up yours, Google!

It’s all happened very fast. Our politicians’ French is getting worse and worse. Advertisers continue to abuse our language with each new billboard. The school system does what little it can ... That’s how low we have sunk - and all things considered, no one really gives a damn. One cuts straight to the point these days, and we simply follow suit while everything around us is falling asunder, seemingly unconscious of the downhill slope that leads from the Princess to the bloody idiot.

I find it difficult to see any progress in that.

( (François Taillandier, L'Humanité, 31st March)

You too, France?

Listening to the "Today" programme on BBC4 this morning, the Ian Tomlinson video being discussed. It was described as "amateur", "amateurish", "shaky", and "all over the place". Surprisingly the speakers didn't get round to describing it as worthless as evidence, though I'm sure they were dying to do so.
The interviewee described what was to be seen on the video, including the cop striking Mr. Tomlinson with his truncheon on the back of the legs before knocking him to the ground. The interviewer declared that he had not discerned the use of the truncheon. At this point I'd had enough and turned the radio off before I heard it suggested that Mr. Tomlinson was an al-Qua'ida operative - or maybe the BBC is leaving that claim to the (Daily?)Mail.
The Metropolitan Police have lied again about the death of a man at the hands of their officers. Now the story will keep changing until the media get tired of reporting it. The Guardian has a headline suggesting the assailant could face a manslaughter charge - could, but won't, Messrs Guardian. However he can expect a promotion soon.
Blair Peach, now what happened to his killer? Oh yes, I remember now, he was never charged but he WAS promoted.

Caravan buyout creates 100 jobs
This is a headline from my local paper, but when one reads the article it turns out not to be true. One local firm has bought another local firm that was in administration. The buyers have stated that this will create up to 100 jobs, i.e., a number of jobs somewhere between one and 100.
My local paper usually leaves the "up to" bit in when reporting new employment opportunities. It's always a good idea to take the figures with a pinch of salt but the paper never does. "Up to a thousand new jobs will result from these orders" says employer; that kind of thing. No-one ever revisits the story and asks "How many actual jobs were created as a result of that order/that new firm moving in?
The Hull Daily Mail, the Dr. Pangloss of jobsearch.

"Rules must be binding, violations must be punished, words must mean something."
(President Obama)
So, at last something will be done about Israel's constant flouting of UN resolutions. Oh! - North Korea - right, carry on Israel.
Then maybe this means that the USA will at last stop flouting UN resolution after UN resolution on blockade of Cuba ... or maybe not.

Well played the Scottish FA. Barry Ferguson and Allan McGregor will never play for Scotland again. Well done Rangers (I never thought I'd write those words). Ferguson loses the captaincy and both wasters have been suspended without pay for two weeks.
Now imagine this happening to any of the spoilt millionaires who play for England. Actually I can't. The English FA standing up to the shirt salesmen - never!

Judge McCallum said Cockayne "thoroughly deserved to go to prison" after watching CCTV footage that showed the Robins star repeatedly kick Mr Thompson.

Then he let him walk free. Why? Well, the thug is an investment of the business called Hull KR.

A spokesman for Hull KR said: "As a club, we take the court's decision and Ben's sentence very seriously. We intend to meet with Ben and his representatives to discuss this outcome. We are not in a position to comment until this meeting has taken place."

Translation, "We're not going to do anything".

I read on jailhouse lawyer's blog that the broadcaster Nicky Campbell called someone a fascist, but later apologised. I should think so. The BBC term is "far right activist". Fascist, like extremist, can be used at the BBC when referring to left wing organisations, but never of right wingers, fascist or otherwise. I expect Mr. Campbell will be on a warning for this gaffe.
Still, no smoke without fire, eh?

A quarter of a century ago I read an article on male hair loss (a great fear of mine) and some figures therein stuck in my mind. According to the author:
One male in five starts to lose his hair before the age of twenty.
One male in two starts to lose his hair before the age of thirty.
If a man still has a full head of hair at forty he almost certainly will not go bald.

I was pleased to read this, being forty-five at the time and still in possession of my barnet, but with me there's always a nagging doubt ("knowing my luck ...", etc.).
Another snippet of information on the subject - almost an obsession with me - was a statement by a trichologist made during a television programme on the subject. If you want to know whether or not you'll go bald, he said, don't look at your father, look at your mother's brother(s). His hair will be your hair.
This too was reassuring; my father had begun to lose his luxuriant black curls around the age of thirty. Though he never became completely bald, the few wisps on the top of his head amounted to pretty much the same thing for us, his sons.
My mother's only brother, on the other hand had hair so thick that it had to be kept cropped in order for him to look civilised. His hair went grey at an early age, which seems to me to be a common trait among Irish males, but he retained that wiry crop until his death at circa seventy years of age.
Looking good for the brothers and me then. At fifty still OK, at sixty too. At sixty-five no problem, but today - horror of horrors! - the curse of calvity has fallen upon my bowed head. I'm combing miniature birds' nests out every time I groom. The hair has visibly receeded from my forehead, though the term "baldness" doesn't really apply as yet. But the hair atop my skull is thinning. I keep inspecting my scalp for visible bald patches. None so far, but I'm sure it's only a matter of time.
I pray that this attrition will come to a stop. Or I would if I knew of a deity or a saint to whom to address my whining prayers. There's almost certain to be a patron saint of hair.
But then, since when did I believe in the efficacy of prayer, or an afterlife stuffed with indulgent spirits waiting to answer my petitions?
Why should I care at my age and in my physical condition, about losing my hair? Well I'm such an ugly specimen of humanity, that any form of covering is welcome , and any further exposure of my person to the public gaze will erode my self regard even further. I'm going to make a pitiful looking corpse.

Quote of the Week -
"I am not a man - I am Cantona."

This morning I heard on Sky News that "tens of thousands" of protesters were gathered on the Victoria Embankment in London. This afternoon the tens of thousands had become "thousands". I await a Metropolitan Police estimate of something like 500 marchers.

Update, 29th March. According to the police there were more than 35,000 on the March, so I'm guessing 40-60,000.

Marina Hyde on the latest FA fashion line -
"Whether you believe replica England shirts to be a tax on stupidity is irrelevant."

Jade Goody - I wish I was there. I wish I could be outside her gaff laying down flowers, with a little note attached full of misspellings. I would write something about heaven and angels and all that shit. Then I'd find somebody to hug, and I'd pretend to weep - but only if the TV cameras were there. First though I'd ring home and say, "Put Sky News on and start recording, I'm going to be on the telly."
No, on second thoughts I don't honestly think I'd bother. Still I'm sure plenty of people will; I don't think the media hacks will have to pay anybody to do it.

"I have always felt some discomfort in claiming the money, to be frank. I decided that it's simply time that I stopped – partly because mortgage interest rates have gone down and partly because I can do without it."

Tony McNulty, New Labour Minister. So you're going to give your immoral earnings back,Tone?
He's done nothing wrong, that's how the system works. Great, eh?

BLESS 'EM!