Peter Rhodes of the Express & Star continues to be a star turn, both with
the hospital staff and with wider circles. A eulogy of me, was delivered in
his column of Thursday 4th February. He says it has been true grit on the
part of his “favourite Communist” George Barnsby, now suffering from MRSA,
that even in his frail condition, the revolution goes on. He ends his
article by saying “Be afraid Mesrs. Blair, Brown & Bush. Be very afraid ! ”
Peter Rhodes’ articles are often tongue in cheek, and full of such
witticisms that I can never tell if he is being sincere in his support of
me. however, he will know that sometimes, dreams can come true, and it may
well be that what he writes in jest, turns into reality. I hope it is not
entirely egotism on my part to think that may well be the case here.

Such was my confidence at this time, that I was tempted to revert to the
original purpose of the Blog, and advertise the latest bulletin of the
British Humanist Association. The BHA represents what is probably, the
largest body of people in the world, those who are Atheists or non-believers
of every sort. People would be most likely to seek the services of a trained
BHA official on the hasppy occasion of a wedding or the less happy occasion
of a funeral, and it is interesting to note that at least 3 courses to train
such officials, are now underway.

Another issue on my mind has been that of church schools, the majority of
which are operated privately and outside the control of the Local authority,
which still has to pay the bills even though they have no control over the
syllabus or the ethos of the school.

Hopefully I’m not being too morbid when I say that another issue on my mind
lately has been that of assisted suicide. The recent case of the mother of a
girl who was bed-ridden for 17 years and who had clearly expressed a wish to
end her life, being charged with attempted murder, only highlights how much
clarification and ammendment is still needed to the law in this country.

These are all matters that the GB Blog should naturally attend to and
hopefully, when I emerge from this spell of ill health, I can deal with them
all in more detail. I would just like to finish tonight with the hope and
wish that when my time is finally up, there will be sufficient local and
national support to ensure that the GB Working Class Library & Free
Communist Book Shop survives.

On Friday 29th January George was 91.  The BBC sent him a birthday present by broadcasting the entire Blair interview by the Chilcot Enquiry.  I watched the entire proceedings and indeed recorded it for future reference.  I can only say that it was redolent of Goering’s trial at Nuremberg  This wasn’t a trial however but a carefully orchestrated propaganda exercise by the establishment to protect the establishment.
At Nuremberg, Goering’s first witness, Bodenschatz, worked hard to prove that Goering was a peace loving man who did not premeditate war and actually was taking lengths to avoid it. According to Bodenschatz, in 1939 Goering attempted to negotiate with England in order to stop war behind Hitler’s and Ribbentrop’s back. However, when cross-examined by Jackson it was shown that Goering had knowledge about unjustified arrests and plans for war, which brought this witness defence down considerably.
Jonathan Powell was Blair’s Bodenschatz preparing the ground for Blair’s calumnies.  That is, they had rehearsed the philosophy that “if you say it often enough and convincingly enough perhaps people will believe it”.  After all it had worked with the dodgy dossier and the forty five minute warning which they now acknowledge was incorrect but didn’t think it of sufficient importance to put the media right on the matter!
Well, in all their preparations perhaps they thought that Clair Short’s evidence today would not be of much importance also.  (This must have been the BBC’s opinion as well as they avoided it on News 24, leaving Sky News with the coverage).  Perhaps they thought that with enough spin to the media she could be discredited.  However I think they’ll have some difficulties there because when Ms Short frequently retorted “that’s a lie” when the committee referred to the statements of previous witnesses including Blair and the Attorney General, a retort from a Government Minister at the time (the best Overseas Development Secretary we’ve ever had) with nothing to lose or gain from this charade.  Her summing up underlined the corruptness of the Blair administration and pleaded that some form of constitutional reform in the operation of government is urgently required to ensure the next narcissistic “believer” who ends up in Downing Street will not get away with it again.  We can but hope.

Bob