The Barnsby Blog

NICK COHEN
I hoped I would not have to mention this rapscalion; that he would
suffer the same fate as other Bush and Blairites and fade quietly away. But
he has insinuated himself into the headlines once again and even some
staunch anti-Blairites are urging that we should all read his new book
because of its literary merit. Let me mention that no racist wrote with
greater literary eloquence than Enoch Powell, and it is to Powell that I
compare Nick Cohen
Born of Communist parents Cohen first betrayed them and his Jewish race
with his strident support of the war in Iraq. Then he sets himself in
opposition to the majority of the people of Britain who opppose the war in
Iraq. He then insults all those Communists, true Labour supporters, anti-war
Conservatives, Lib-Dems, Scottish and Welsh people who want no truck with
Blair and his wars. Now he consorts with those called ‘cultural Marxists’ ,
beloved of by Paul Dacre, refuted very efficiently by a real Marxist, Andrew
Murray of the CPB. Then Cohen tries to smear the so-called Guardian set who
are the backbone of middle class opposition to war.
Even the title of his book, What’s Left? is stolen from someone else.
It was the title of that remarkable book by Tony Booth who is opposed to his
son-in-law’s policies, but naturally supports the fantastic achievements of
his daughter, Cherie.
But Cohen has entered the fantasy world of Bush and Blair, and to bring
him back to reality he will have to take the Michael Moore remedy which is
to put his body where his opinions are, invade Iraq himself and fight the
war under the US flag with Bush and Blair at the head.

JOE DAVIES.
Joe is a Shropshire lad who is my friend and lives in Henwood Road.
Today I have once again listened to his remarkable life story. Joe left
school at 14 before the 2nd World War. Wanting to travel, he joined a
transport firm, possessing a small haulage fleet, but also horse drawn
wagons which were the only ones able to tip their contents into the coal
fired power stations which the firm specialised in servicing. At the
outbreak of war in 1939 Men from the Ministry commandeered his best lorries,
but his horse drawn carts enabled him to continue. In 1942 Joe was called
up and joined the Royal Army Service Corps where he drove heavy vehicles,
having learned to drive in a field without lessons, He served in Europe
until he volunteered to join air borne forces, not being able to join the
paratroopers because of an injured knee. At the end of the war he joined
the Wolverhampton police whose chief superintendant, Norman W.Gooodchild
OBE, was recruiting servicemen who would then be eligible for early
demobilisation. Within the force Joe ultimately rose to the rank of
Superintendant.
When he retired from the police he became a vintage vehicle
demonstrator, his steam engine towing both his fair ground organ and the
richly decorated travellers caravan in which he and his wife, Margaret, both
slept and demonstrated to the public the travellers’ way of life.
Having recently nearly died from MRSA contracted in our notorious New
Cross Hospital, his heavy goods licence has been withdrawn, but he continues
to travel all over the country with his caravan and fair organ attending all
the leading steam rallies and now increasingly attending the funerals of
members of the ParachuteRegiment Association as well as veterans of the
steam rally association.
Now the reason I’m telling this, is that Joe is perfectly capable of
setting down his life story, but hasn’t yet got round to it. But there are
others who will soon be passing on, as illustrated by our mayor holding
receptions for those whose bravery ensured the defeat of fascism and our
present democratic freedoms, who are not able to to put pen to paper and
record their exploits themselves.
This duty, it seems to me, must now fall onto school pupils doing GCSE
projects or university students studying history, if the record of our past
is to be properly preserved.

88
So I’ve made it. Eighty. Eight, all the Eights. More by luck than good
judgement. Life is a lottery. May I use the wisdom that goes with all those
years wisely in the cause of Peace and Socialism. Many thanks to all friends
and relations who by post and email have sent me greetings today.

THE MOLINEUX STADIUM MYSTERY, ONCE AGAIN.
Google has failed me and Wolverhampton Archives have done their best,
but have not come up with the essential item of evidence to confirm or deny
that I was the writer of the report to the Daily Worker in December 1954. It
is my contention that the last train to London had left Wolverhampton before
the end of the of the most significant match that Wolves ever played, the
match against the Hungarian champions Honved. So I now appeal to railway
time table collectors, train spotters and railway historians to solve this
problem. Since the final goal was scored at the very last minute of the
game, if the last train from Wolverhampton had already left I could not have
been the writer of the match report. But if the deadline of the paper in
London had passed before the match ended the reporter, Eric Butler, could
not have written it either. So who did write the report? That is the
continuing mystery

DEFEAT AND MAYHEM.
Yesterday which began with such high hopes for the local derby against
West Bromwich ended in disgrace and defeat. Hooligans set about the police,
for which 600 had been mobilised in expectation of trouble. The Express and
Star reported that eleven police officers were injured and eight hooligans
were arrested as bricks, bollards and road signs were thrown and gas
canisters let off. Police fought running battles with hundreds of thugs as
chaos descended on the City centre. Apparently some 400-500 Wolves fans left
the match early intent on confronting the WBA fans but were frustrated by
the police. A very sad event for those of us who believe that our city is
civilised and peaceful. Who are those among us who the Express & Star call
thugs and hooligans? They must be found and dealt with, not in vengeful
spirit, but as befits the civilised traditions of our City.

DR.FRIDAY
This is the alias of the Nigerian doctor with the unpronouncable name
in charge of medical services at West Park Hospital, Dr Fo Nehikhare. Dr
Friday is in trouble charged not only with inefficiency but with rudeness.
His fate as to whether he is struck off the list of practitioners is
apparently in the hands of the Wolverhampton Primary Care Trust whose chief
executive is Jon Crockett.
I would want to state that I have been under the care of Dr.Friday for
more than two years and at no time has he been other than friendly,
courteous and competent. He is also an expert on Nigerian football and has
put me right on the differences between Nigerian and Tojoese players both in
the Arsenal team and in the Nigerian national side
which has reached a very high level of competence in recent years.
Nor would I have confidence in the Primary Care Trust with whom I have
crossed swords in the past accusing them of institutional racism in not
allowing West Park Hospital to have a separate Race Equality Unit. In this
case there is the fear that racial prejudice could be a factor in the
treatment of Dr Friday, this being known to be rife in the Health Service
and against Muslims in particular at this time. Whether Dr.Friday is a
Muslim or not, I would urge that the British Medical Council and the
Wolverhampton Primary Care Trust treads very warily in the case of Dr
Friday.

WHEN BLOG MEETS BLOG.
Tomorrow I intend to meet with the Express and Star Blogger, Andy Toft.
What did he think of yesterday’s violence? I understand that he has, like
me, had a birthday but not an 88th but a mid-thirties one. I look forward to
learning of his philosophy of life at this time.

DON’T MENTION THE WAR IN IRAQ!

Cameron smashes Tory hard line on ‘British values’ screams the Observer front page this week. But one of the most important British value at present is opposition to the war in Iraq which Cameron continues to support. Not long ago he was opposed to the war discussing with the Lib-Dems what is still likely to be the outcome of the coming general election,  a coalition of Tories and Lib Dems with him (Cameron) as prime minister. But only if he opposes the war in Iraq as the Lib-Dems have from the start. Cameron is committing political hari kari by supporting the war and  forfeits all rights to be considered one of the greatest Tory prime minister of all time such as Disraeli and Churchill.

Nor is that the end of the matter. When Bush and Blair stand before the Court of Human Rights, charged with High Crimes and Misdemeanours against the peoples of Iraq Palestine, Afghanistan ande elsewhere, which cannot now be long deferred, those who support the war will suffer the same fate as Bush and Blair who waged it.

Repent before it is too late, David.

FOOTBALL YET AGAIN

The great weekend has come to its frenetic end. All the mysteries have been solved except The Molineux Stadium Mystery which awaits the discovery of a Railway Time Table.

Congratulations to Amy Lawrence,  Arsenal fan, and Observer reporter who has interviewed Arsenal’s latest sensation, the Brazilian Julio Baptista in Spanish, no less.

The winners rejoice, the losers face a week-end of lament, until natural optimism prevails and the next match brings the certainty that the New Dawn has arrived.

Some of the successes of FA Cup we can all share. The genius of Wayne Rooney for English fans, but not necessarily a liking for  Sir Alex Ferguson their manager.

Surprises galors as befits the Cup. Misery for West Ham who lost, but rejoicing for Watford, bottom of the Premiership but victors yesterday. Chelsea resume winning ways, just, but are still owned by the Russian oligarch who might some day soon be called to account for the billions he stole from the Russian people. Mixed fortunes for those two remarkable teams who learned the lessons of Arsene Wenger and created multi-lingual teams capable of beating the master. Well Bolton at least, who drew with Arsenal but Portsmouth the creation of that Cockney wide boy Harry Redknapp fell to the genius of Rooney.

Then our Sunday game. Jubilation at the Hawthorns, woe and misery for the Wolves who lost the local derby 3 - 0

Ah, well. Pick yourself up, Dust yourself down and start all over again.

Tonight’s BLOG is short and sweet, but succulent none the less:

1. The State of Education in Wolverhampton - Suggestions for Improvements.

2. David Cameron committing hari karu by supporting Bush and Blair’s illegal
wars in Iraq and elswhere. Their indictment before an International Tribunal
is inevitable and imminent. The The fate of all who support Blair nationally
and locally will be the same as that of the two main war criminals, Blair
and Bush.

2. Contacting Rachael Heyhoe Flint, Queen of the Sporting World and
confidante of Sir Jack Hayward. Condolences on her visit to Australia!

3. The Molineux Stadium Mystery. The reporting in the Daily Worker of the
most important game that Wolves ever played, against the Hungarian champions
Honved in December 1954

4. The Present Plight of Wolves. Talk of Takeovers; Ownership of clubs
world wide, such as Wolves and Arsenal, should be locally; Breaking of
metatarsals self-inflicted injuries which will continue until toes are
protected by modern lightweight steel. .

All this and more to be found on www.gbpeopleslibrary.co.uk Tell your
friends!

CONTACTING RACHAEL HEY-HOE FLINT
Queen of the sports world, ex-captain of England’s women cricketers,
member of the Wolverhampton Wanderers elite and the confidante of Sir Jack
Hayward, all-round cheerful and enthusiastic good guy, I have recently
wanted to contact her through her email, but this has failed to register on
my computer and so I have been obliged to write to her detailing the matters
that have concerned me recently. First, however, I sent my condolences to
her over a recent trip to Australia where she suffered the indignities
(which we all share mentally) of being whitewashed by the Pommies and
totally annihilated by all other comers .

The matters in question are threefold. First is what I call ‘The
Molineux Stadium Mystery’. Not to be compared with the ‘Arsenal Stadium
Mystery’, of course, the 1930s film which, although not too brilliant
demonstrated the superior position Arsenal occupied at the time and whose
recent reissue enables this generation to see, even if only darkly, these
superstars of long ago. No, the Molineux Stadium mystery concerns my
reporting Wolves matches to the Daily Worker and especially the one reckoned
to be the best Wolves ever played when they beat the Hungarian champions
Honved in December 1954. At first sight it seems that I did not report this
match, for a copy from the National Newspaper Library shows that Eric Butler
the regular reporter sent a long and most excellent report which was printed
the next day. But certain mysteries remain. The Daily Worker could not
afford to send a reporter to Wolverhampton and perhaps I did write the
report and it appeared under Butler’s name because of trade union
regulations permitting reports only by NUJ members. Alas for that theory,
the report was much better written than I was capable of particularly on a
bitter, rain sodden winter’s evening. Also if Butler had come to
Wolverhampton he would have required accomodation in the town and someone to
show him around, and this could only have been me as secretary of the local
Communist Party. Finally, the matches between Wolves and East European
countries that I did report for the Daily Worker had to be truncated because
it was necessary for me to leave the ground and phone my report to meet the
paper’s deadline. Also the last train from Wolverhampton to London had
already left before the end of the match, and a feature of the Honved game
was that Wolves won at the very last minute. So, the Molineux Stadium
Mystery, unlike the Arsenal Stadium Mystery which was solved by its script
writers, still awaits a solution.

The second matter is the present plight of Wolves which would seem to
require a take-over such as that proposed by Graeme Souness, British to the
core and one that I would have thought would be approved by Sir Jack
Hayward.

The third matter is the continuing metatarsal problems currently of
Robin van Persie of Arsenal and others which to me are a scandal of self
inflicted injuries which will continue until boots are produced with proper
toe protection with lightweight modern steel instead of the virtual ballet
shoes players wear these days.

THE END OF THE DAY -
Brings no respite from football. Tomorow brings another battle of the
Titans as Wolves clash with the Baggies in another FA cup tie. Well, not
quite the Titans they once were as ‘Bully goes head to head with the
Bomber’ headline in the Express and Star emphasises. For the uninitiated,
Bully is Steve Bull the greatest goal scorer of the Wolves in the 1960s and
the Bomber is Tony Brown ditto for West Bromwich Albion. Yet the FA cup has
its own magic and there will be no empty seats at Molineux tomorrow as there
has been today in many matches. And the little known Wolves skipper, Karl
Henry, will be the first ever Wolverhampton lad (I think) to captain the
team.
Come on you Wolves!

THE STATE OF EDUCATION IN WOLVERHAMPTON.
I wrote a recent piece on this subject which suggested that although
pupils and teachers have much to be proud of, there were too many unknown
factors for complacency and optimism on this subject. Since then questions
have arisen as to whether our pupils are given an education, or whether they
are being trained to pass tests. GCSE and A Level results have finally and
belatedly been published by the DE&S for 2006. These purport to show in a
League Table how each of the 22 secondary schools and colleges in
Wolverhampton stand. The results are not encouraging. Wolverhampton stands
127 out of 150 local authorities in GCSE result and 139th at A levels.
Schools fall into various categories.

Out on its own as a school mainly financed by the local authority, the
Girls High School which shows 99% of pupils gaining 5 or more GCSEs. It is
one of the best schools in England and Wales. But it draws its pupils from
all over the City which must mean that other schools are deprived of high
achieving children. Then come three so-called Independent schools, W’ton
Grammar School which performs almost as well as the Girls High, Tettenhall
College, and the Royal W’ton School. All these perform better than our
Comprehensive Schools, especially as they now take the children of wealthy
overseas parents with money to burn. Then come two church schools at Compton
Park on the edge of the City, St.Peter’s CofE and St.Edmnds Roman Catholic.
Both recruit from the entire City and perform well. There are two other
Church Schools. One is Our Lady & St.Chads RC which does less well, because
they tend to take local children who are not Catholics and recruit more
non-Catholics than Catholics. The last is Regis School once the pride of
Wolverhampton’s comprehensives, but recently highjacked by the Church so
that there is no secular Secondary school in Tettenhall Wightwick for those,
like me who would under no circumstances want to send my children to a
Church school. Despite this, the school does not flourish and lingers in the
bottom half of the League. So then we come to our State funded Comprehensive
Schools. All of them bear fancy names which we suspect enable them to cheat
and draw pupils from outside their cachment areas. Highfields remains the
best performing of these schools as it has been since headmaster Tony
Bowyer, one of the two truly innovative heads in Wolverhampton since the
war built an IT suite which still compares with anything built since. (The
other is Keith Wymer who created the first multicultural college in
Britain). Smestow is another comprehensive which performs well, but we are
then on a slide with Deansfield High, Parkfield High and Pendeford High
consistently the ‘worst’.

Instead of taking the logical step of examining why these schools are
the worst, the DE&S proposes either to close such schools, or to put them
under the tutelage of so-called ’superheads’ , a false course we have
already suffered, or indeed, to bulldoze them all and replace them with
private, palatial enterprise Trusts to the greater glory and profit of of
private enterprise sharks.

Clearly such New Labour insanity needs to be combated. We need good
local schools as we need good local hospitals and I am proposing a course of
action which I hope will be followed by all with interests in making our
City foremost in Britain for Culture and Education and remove the threat of
nuclear annihilation which will continue until Bush and Blair are put under
lock and key.

I propose a full enquiry into if and why these schools are failing,
using indices ignored by the Blairites. For instance the ethnic composition
of the pupils and staff, the area of the town in which they are situtated
and the social composition of the population; the number of pupils receiving
school meals; whether the schools were over-subscribed or not; the staff
position at the school, whether there is a full staff or not. Whether
teachers stay at the school or does the school pay large sums of money to
bring supply teachers to the school who are unable to control the children
and lead to poor exam results. How much is spent on the school and what is
it spent on. These are some of the indices we need to use to judge the
performances of all schools and particularly the under-performing ones.

I would propose a joint approach to these enquiries. Not only should
the two education trade unions, the NUT and the NASUWT, be involved but
also the independent schools’ organisations two of which have leading
officials among Wolverhampton heads. The first is the Head Masters’
Conference this year headed by the W’ton Grammar School Head, and Chair of
the Society of Heads of Independent Schools who is head of Tettenhall
College. I would also want to involve the Express & Star which gives weekly
education spreads and shows much concern for our schools. Then there the new
Race Equality organisation, the Race Equality Partnership, Wolverhampton
which is responsible for organising all ethnic minority people in the City,
and the Interfaith Group which includes the Muslim organisations in the
City. Then Wolverhampton City Council with its Equal Opportunities Committee
will surely want to be involved. Also unattached Ethnic Minority groups. I
could go on, but will end with those usually ignored, the children
themselves who know, perhaps better than anyone else the good and not so
good features of their education. I should want to hear not only from
children organised in schools and youth clubs, but most particularly from
pupils excluded from school, those in youth detention centres and those in
prison.

I put these proposals forward, not as a programme of my own, but as one
for discussion by all sections of our multicultural City blacks, whites and
browns. Some such programme is necessary not only if our multicultural
society is to flourish, but because its very existence is is at stake.

WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON? AGAIN.
Some part of the day has been spent informing the BBC world wide
BLOGGERS that their is a new operator on the block dedicated to the
proposition that Blair be given two hours to clear his desk. That the Great
Divide in the world today is the War in Iraq. That Bush and Blair should be
prosecuted in an international Tribunal for crimes against humanity and
waging illegal wars in Iraq and elsewhere.

Also that those who support these illegal wars are guilty of complicity
in these crimes and will suffer the same fate as Bush and Blair.

None of this is new to readers of this BLOG and what remains is to
spread this message world wide and also in local communities.

I should end on this note, but two personal matters keep nagging at me,
both sporting, which some would consider trivial, but are perhaps not and
are of personal concern to me, 70 years an Arsenal fan and 50 years a Wolves
supporter.. The first is the case of the broken metatarsal of Arsenal’s
talented Robin van Persie. It is disgraceful that this should occur. I blame
the boot manufacturers whose sole motive is profit, managers who should know
better and the players themselves for self-mutilation. Players of the old
school, Billy Wright, Alex James and Co. rarely suffered from broken toes
because they were protected by boots with an iron cap surrounded by leather.
Modern players need to be similarly protected by boots with modern
lightweight steels. Until this happens the walking wounded will continue to
accrue.

The other thing is the takeover bid at Wolves by Graham Souness and his
British consortium. For full details of Sir Jack Hayward, his achievements
and his cut price sale, and the fact that the ground on which the club
stands is apparently owned by the local authority see previous BLOGS; also
the belief general belief of those parties and me that clubs should be
owned by the local people. Nevertheless in the present climate of takeovers,
it would seem that this is the best solution for the torpor of Wolves once
in the 1940s and 50s the greatest team in Britain, but now facing a
prolonged period of poverty and powerlessness outside the Premiership.

LESSONS IN MARXISM.
The daily routine remains the same, but the results may vary
considerably. Today I think I will follow the example of Simon Jenkins who I
rate among the top ten who have influenced the opposition to the war in Iraq
and Blairism. He starts his column today describing his early day routine
which includes reading THE GUARDIAN as does mine.
Why the Guardian? I suppose its because my wife is lower middle class
by birth and I have become the same by profession. Not that I have much
reason to love the editor of the Guardian who supported the closure of
Bilston Community College, denied anyone with a contrary view space in the
paper and has never printed a letter of mine. I prefer the Guardian to the
INDEPENDENT, however, which is the midddle class alternative because the
Guardian is larger, more comprehensive and gives more space to those who
oppose the war in Iraq even though its attitude to Iraq is more
circumspect. Under few circumstances would we buy the populist mass
circulation papers and certainly not the Rupert Murdoch press whose support
Blair craved and received because he has always been a Tory.
So let’s skim through the pages of today’s issue. Front page, a
picture of the three British matrons hoping to scoop the pool at this year’s
Oscars. Lead story, Sir Ken Macdonald director of public prosecutions puts
himeself at odds with John Reid the Home Secretary by calling for a ‘culture
of legislative restraint in passing new laws against Terror’. But his lines
are as crossed as Reid’ s on terror. The real terrorists are Bush and Blair,
arrest them and terrorism will virtually end. Page two, MPs criticise
handling of Olympic costs. Page three Bush exults on home grown crops to
replace oil, forgetting that he is yesterday’s man completely dependent on a
Democratic Congress to make things happen. We press on with items that catch
my eye. Pirates of Penzance as Devon people remember their traditions and
strip a beached container ship. Trial of alleged London bombers which would
not have been necessary had Blair not started a war in Iraq. We’re now at
page 12 Simon Hoggart a satirical anti-Blair stalwart on trying to ward off
sleep. Ever onward, page 19 a piece on Turkey rising above its
ultra-nationalists by Simon Tisdall, another anti-Blairite. On to the
financial pages, Mervyn King, governor of the Bank of England, a local
Wolverhampton Grammar School ex-pupil, warns against wage deals which
threaten inflation. Now we are coming to the heart of the matter, Comment
and Debate with Jonathan Freedland, another anti-Blair stalwart, on why the
transformation of the IRA shows that Israel should talk to Hamas, and John
Henley, a newcomer to me, prodigiously anti-Bliar, (misprint, but I’ll leave
it) with his Daily Diary.
Turn the page, and lo and behold a ferocious attack on the BBC for its
‘cultural Marxism’ by Paul Dacre, king of the popular press, with whom I
have had some contact and admired his ability to criticise Blair, but what
could he possibly mean by that peculiar phrase? Read on. A valiant defence
of the tabloid press as the very embodiment of the views of the majority of
the people of Britain and not the contemptuous view of it held by the middle
class critics such as Newsnight and the Guardian. And who is to say him nay
when the Social Social Attitudes survey on this very same day reports a huge
majority of British people think that curbs on civil liberties are a ‘price
worth paying’ to fight terror and 70% believe that everyone should carry an
identity card and be compulsorily finger printed. Is this what the much
vaunted liberal and tolerant people of Britain have descended to? Mind you
Mr.Dacre then admits that ‘things are now becoming rather complicated’. I
should think so too, because the editor of the Daily Mail is not rushing to
join the BNP as a previous editor supported Mosley and his fascists in the
1930s. A great deal of serious thinking has to be done by large numbers of
people of very differing opinions, does it not, Mr.Dacre. I turned to
Guardian 2 for some enlightenment on these vexed questions where Andrew
Murray, described as a Marxist (I prefer the more cautious ‘tries to be a
Marxist’) and director of communications for the Transport and General
Workers’ Union is asked the question Is the BBC Marxist, but bangs heads
together instead and comes up with the most satisfactory solution I know.
He says, Marxism is the doctrine of the self emancipation of the
working class. This is a cause to which the BBC contributes absolutely
nothing. Its overal presentation of current afffairs may seem alarming when
seen from the vantage point of Paul Dacre’s Daily Mail, where everything is
turning out for the very worst, the middle class is always one step away
from calamity and there is still a columnist, Melanie Phillips who thinks
things are going well in Iraq. Perhaps that is why the Mail this week
accused the Beeb of ‘cultural Marxism’ that was contemptuous of millions of
ordinary Conservatives.Take the class struggle as waged by Marx and Dacre.
Any TU activist can testify how hard it is to get an equal hearing from the
BBC which is now axing its only industrial correspondent. Or look at popular
protest. In 2003 the BBC banned its staff from joining the huge anti-war
demonstration, but no such ban was issued for the Countrywide Alliance
march. Would any self-respecing Marxist behave as the BBC governors did over
the Kelly affair? Those are Daily Mail readers not Morning Star ones. The
media has always interpreted the world in various ways. Marx said the point
is to change it. The BBC is on the side of those who like the world pretty
much as it is. Whew. Point to Andrew Murray? I think so.
Much relieved I turned back to my Guardian and found that Marx was
continuing to take his revenge from beyond the grave. For among the
obituaries were those of two famous Marxist economists, Bo Yibo, veteran
Chinese leader whose loyalty to the Party survived its purges, and Surenda
Patel pioneering economist grappling with the issue of technology and the
third world. Patel suffered victimisation during the McCarthyite witchhunts.

That’s probably as much Marxism as its opponents can stand for one day.
We’ll see what tomorrow brings.

THE GREAT DIVIDE.
Two periodicals to which I subscribe arrived today. The first is
CATALYST the bi-monthly of the Commission for Racial Equality. The other is
Runnymede’s quarterly BULLETIN. Both share the characteristic that nowhere
do they mention the War in Iraq. Sir Trevor Phillips has now left the CRE
to join the all-purposes anti-discrimination body which the government has
set up and which, most concerned people think will leave race discrimination
at the bottom of the pile. We still do not know which side Trevor is on.
When CATALYST first appeared I wrote to the editor giving two cheers for the
paper, since no where does it mention the war in Iraq. Despite the fact that
it is advertised as a journal of debate and analysis, my letter was not
printed. With the current Jan-Feb 07 issue I must severely criticise the
journal for not mentioning the War in Iraq in all its 36 pages. It is true
that the issues it covers are important. An article by Denis Macshane
criticising the England for the English crowd; Catholic schools in Scotland;
The danger of seeing people in ethnic terms alone; Francis Beckett on the
history of the beginning of the end of the British Empire; and an article
that comes nearest to mentioning Bush and Blair in shifting allegiances in
Lebanon. All these , important as they are, fade into insignificance
compared with the war in Iraq.

The Runnymede quarterly Bulletin follows a similar course, important
issues discussed but nowhere a mention of the war in Iraq. The Runnymede
issue is important because they published in 2000 the most influential book
so far available in Britain on Race Relations called the ‘Parekh Report, The
Future of Multi-Ethnic Britain’ . It’s importance was that it was the first
to recognise that there could be no true equality in Britain until ethnic
minority people were economically equal to whites. After that, however, the
money ran out and Runnymede resorted to promoting its report in various
quarters which had no real intention of delivering real equality, notably
the Civil Service, The Department of Education and Skills and the Blair
government itself. Runnymede seemed to be losing its way. One must say,
that those who drew up the report, bright eyed and enthusiastic as they were
in 2000 also began to lose their way. These include Lord Parekh himself
whose views on the war in Iraq have not been widely advertised, Trevor
Phillips whose views on the war remain wrapped in mystery and Andrew Marr
now head of BBC news who actively assisted Blair by not questioning him on
the war. The war in Iraq is the dividing line. If this is ignored the result
is Blair-speak, the fantasy world of Bush and Blair.

SPORT FOR ALL.
One thing I did not mention yesterday was the remarkable victory of
Arsenal over Manchester United on Sunday which throws open the question of
the Premiership championship and the mega-millions available to those who
finish in the first three. That is one of the questions in sport, the rich
and the poor. The question of racism in football is never too far from the
surface. Despite the efforts of the Football Association, the Players’ trade
union, the PFA, leading players, the England team, organsisation such as
Kick Racism out of Football and much else, problems remain. Racism is no
longer about one’s own black players, but other teams’ black players. Why
do so few black people attend football matches? Why do so few EM players
become managers or administrators? Why was Paul Ince, the first black
player to captain England, not among those interviewed to be the the new
manager of Wolves? And what of the future, the youth? Wolves set their
hopes on their Academy of 150 players and backroom staff who have prodced
£15m of football talent in ten years, but from the photograph published, few
seem to be black. The Express and Star listing of youth team results on a
Monday covers a whole small print page. Some of these clubs play in an
Indian League and their is even a small Muslim clutch of clubs. Is this a
good thing or not? Do the black EMs form their own League because they are
discriminated against or are they segregating themselves from choice? Is
their much racism on the pitch? Alas, we know too little about these
matters.
But some things we know more about and the broken metatarsal of
Arsenal’s Robin Van Persie higlights a problem I have dealt with in the
past. Old time players such as Stanley Matthews, Billy Wright, and Alex
James rarely suffered from broken toes because they were protected by a
steel cap covered in leather. Modern football boots offer no such
protection, anad are designed solely for maximum performance. The main
culprits are the monopoly providers of boots whose sole aim is to make
profit. More culpable are managers who should not let their players wear
such boots, and the players themselves who suffer long periods out of the
game. Boots should have light, modern steel or plastic toe protection and
the recent cases, which included Wayne Rooney the most gifted English
footballer of the age only emphasise the necessity for such boots to be
provided.
Oher problems crowd into us. Local control of clubs. Arsenal have been
owned for decades by those most aristocratic of capitalists, merchant
bankers. Arsene Wenger’s revelations that nevertheless Arsenal could be
taken over by US monopoly interests is a case in point. Manchester United’s
present ownership, (still opposed by Man United Supporters Trust), by Glaser
and his US sports interests mark a growing trend of foreign control, which
surely should be resisted. Foreign clubs such as Barcelona and Real Madrid
are not for sale because they are owned by their communities, Barca, by the
Basque community which fought German and Italian invaders during the
so-called Spanish Civil War, and Real supporters of Franco the fascist
dictator who ruled until recent years. Although such direct political
connections do not apply to English clubs in Wolves case the club is
controlled by Sir Jack Hayward, a rare type of a fiercely patriotic
capitalist. He it seems would not sell off the club to anyone but an English
interest who would pump more than the cut-price of £20m which he is asking
into the development of the club. And this is, perhaps why, Souness, the
present bidder for the club exclaims angrily that he is no fly-by-night
foreign interest as the Wolves board appears to be rejecting his bid. It
may, in this case be the local authority will have the last word in seeing
that Wolves remains under local control as it seems that they own the land
on which the stadium is situated. Just one of the variations by which our
clubs could and should be retained under local control.

BUSINESS AS USUAL
Back to the grind after the ‘official birthday’ of yesterday. The real 88th
is 29 Jan. The ‘grind’ is the taking of the dreaded water pill, the daily
walk up and down Henwood Rd. which, while not exactly painful is not
pleasant except that it leads to social contacts which make my day. Then
there is the indignity of being a diabetic and the ups-and-downs of the
blood sugar count described yesterday. Today it is 10.9, too high, but
suggesting that the eating excesses of yesterday have done no permanent
damage.

THE MOLINEUX STADIUM MYSTERY DEEPENS.
At the party yesterday were three people able to throw some light on
the football match I reported on for the Daily Worker in 1954, said to be
the greatest match Wolves ever played against the strongest team in the
world at the time, Honved, the Hungarian champions. Two of them were my sons
who had volunteered to pay the necessary �13-50 for a copy of the sports
page of December 14, the day after the match to read their dad’s report. The
other was Bob Hazlehurst my friend and key maintainer of my computer.
The newspaper cuttting from the British Newspaper Library had arrived
the previous day. The report proved to have been written by Eric Butler, the
sports editor of the Daily Worker. Two points suggested that it was made by
him and not me. These were that it was a highly competent, detailed and
lengthy report which Daily Worker reporters were famed for, especially their
horse racing correspondent. The second was that victory for the Wolves was
achieved only in the very last minute, and that to meet the deadline of the
paper on other reports I made on Wolves matches for the Daily Worker, I had
to leave Molineux before the match ended and phone my report to London. So
how could Eric Butler possible have written the report? One possibility was
that he came to Wolverhampton unbeknown to me and stayed overnight in
Wolverhampton. Not very likely. Firstly the expense of sending a reporter to
Wolverhampton was one the paper was loathe to make because they could not
afford it. Secondly to come to Wolverhampton to report the match he would
want to contact someone who knew his way round the town, and this would
involve my knowing about his visit, and, if he stayed overnight it would not
be at a hotel, but a comrade’s house and that would almost certainly have
been mine.
The contribution of Bob Hazlehurst was that he also was at the match,
that he also has a programme to prove it, but forgotten by me, the fact that
the night was a terrible winter one and that he on the open terraces was
drenched with rain and almost frozen to death, a state that would have made
my writing a report even more difficult, even though I was under cover that
evening. So who and how was the report written? This mystery I now refer
back to the Morning Star comrades, and anyone else who reads this BLOG who
can throw further light on the affair.

THE EXPRESS AND STAR BLOG.
I was most interested to learn that Andy Toft at the Express and Star
had become a fellow BLOGGIST. Hastening to his site I was pleased to learn
that it was detailed, and decent, spliced with humour, a good mix of
national and local news, and totally anti-Blair. In other words, just like
my own BLOG! I should hope that we could support each other, and I will be
interested to see whether Andy is a Seven Day a Week BLOGGIST, or a Six Day
one, which is the number of days a week the paper is printed, or he wrestles
with a Five-Day-Week as I am doing. Whatever his solution, I greet him and
commend his site to all my readers.

PIONEERS OF EDUCATION IN WOLVERHAMPTON
At my party last night was a friend who had been a teacher at
Highfields School in Wolverhampton under the headship of Anthony Bowyer, who
had also been head of the Oldbury Technical School at which I taught for a
time. I asked her if she had heard anything further regarding him recently.
She said that it seems he has written a book on education, which I would
like to read.
Bowyer was a major in a Gurkha regiment during the Malayan insurgency
who became interested in the education of Gurkha children and set up a
school for them in Nepal. His admiration for the Gurkas continued into a
period when he was charged with some unfortuate monetary offences and served
a time in prison. When he was released he made amends by using his lump sum
(he was only one year from retirement at the time) to repay the money
missing. I wrote offering him my condolences and we corresponded briefly and
then lost touch. My friend said she thought Bowyer an outstanding
educationalist who had created an outstanding school at Highfields, with an
IT suite which compared well with any such facilities today. I agreed that
he was an outstanding head too, employing me, although he knew I was a
Communist, as an acting unpaid head of both Economics and History
departments. This was condemned later by HM School Inspectors who, not being
able to criticise my teaching, thought that holding two Heads of Department
appointments was unorthodox and to be condemned. He was always most friendly
and supportive to me, especially on an occasion when I had taken a party on
an archaeological Field Trip to Derbyshire which entailed dropping them off
at one point and their visiting several sites using map reading skills and
all joining up at the end of the day. Unfortunately, on this occasion one
group failed to appear and I eventually had to take the decision to return
home without them. Neither girls nor boys came to any harm, however. They
reported to the local police and turned up at school the next day. I also
carried out an archaeological excavation with pupils in the centre of
Oldbury at a time when its highest point was stripped of buildings and a
unique opportunity occcurred of digging. It resulted in the discovery of
neolithic flints and other artifacts which enhanced the reputation of the
school and was the sort of things that Bowyer encouraged.
I said to my friend that this reminded me of that other great innovator
of education in Wolverhampton, Keith Wymer. He created the first
multicultural college in Britain subsequently closed by racists and bigots
which included Blunkett and Blair and the Learning and Skills Council.
Wymer’s two greatest achievements were to create an anti-racist oasis
at Bilston Community College where ethnic minority people could hold their
own and family functions safe in the knowledge that racism was banned there,
in contrast to other educational establishments where racism was rife. His
other achievement was to create the first open college which took students
without qualifications thus ending the system which still persists of
further educational training going mainly to those who already possess
qualifications.
The present position of the College is that investigations under the
Freedom of Information Act have shown that there was no valid reason for
closing the College, but
the intentions of the Act have been nullified by requiring that those who
wish to take action to rectify the position must pay to do so. The result
will be that any applicant faces the unlimited possible time and money they
will have to spend on appeals and legal expenses. Here is discrimination and
racism run mad, which it is hoped that the
imminent demise of the Blair government will put right.

TOMORROW’S AGENDA
The great dividing line in the world today is the War in Iraq. Examples
of those who claim to be anti-racist, but who never raise the question of
Iraq are discussed.