The Barnsby Blog

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

WOLVERHAMPTON THE MOST IMPORTANT CITY IN BRITAIN. RAISED BY ITS OWN BOOT
STRAPS FROM THE PERCEIVED RACIST CAPITAL OF RACISM IN THE YEARS OF ENOCH
POWELL (1966 TO 1974) TO THE CULTURAL, EDUCATIONAL, SPORTING AND BUSINESS
CENTRE OF BRITAIN IN 2009.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

THE IMPORTANCE OF RUSSELL BRAND AND THE DIRECTOR GENERAL OF THE BBC.
It is beginning to dawn on some people that there is more than meets
the eye in Russell Brand. That he is a political animal as well as
entertainer; that he can afford to do the principled thing and resign after
a prank that went wrong. That he joins a principled series of people who
resigned from the BBC starting with Greg Dyke, whose classic remark at his
first board of governor’s meeting and seeing a sea of white faces in front
of him was, ‘We seem to have a problem here’. Dyke knew that there was both
racism and a structure that needed a total overhaul at the BBC and Russell
Brand knows it too and, from a younger generation knows that what started as
a ‘prank’ went wrong. He can afford to resign because he is big in America
and having already called Bush, ‘that retard and cowboy fella’, he welcomes
the chance to display both his talent and his anti-racism on a larger field.
Brand has apologised to Andrew Sachs who has accepted the apology,
apologised to the lady in question, Georgina Ballie, and resigned. In other
words he has, ‘done his porridge’ and that should be the end of the matter.
Except that there are right-wing elements who want to destroy him totally,
which they are most unlikely to achieve, but are also among those who want
to destroy the BBC and return all our public services to private hands
Today it is the turn of Peter Thompson to be under the cosh. I am no
fan of this man. I have been involved with him for several years. He failed
to respond to my demand that he discipline his newsreaders Jeremy Paxman,
Andrew Marr, Kirsty Wark and Martha Kearney for failing to raise the
question of the war in Iraq when interviewing them with the result that our
democratic rights had been withdrawn and we were little better than the
worst dictatorships which we said we abhorred.
Jenni Russell in her column in the Guardian today raises other aspects
of BBC procedures however of which she says she has personal experience. She
congratulates Leslie Douglas Radio 2’s controller for resigning over the
Ross-Brand affair. She has shown a rare dignity in resigning and breaks with
the disgraceful BBC tradition of passing the buck as far down the line as it
can. Apparently the responsibility for any programme that goes out rests
with the producer and she related how early in her career she was allotted a
‘great man’ to improve his programme, but he resisted every suggestion that
Jenni raised. She says she can well understand the impotence of the producer
of the Ross-Brand show. Everyone wants to know why the offensive items were
not edited out. The 25 year old producer was castigated for not editing out
the offensive items and was threatened with the sack. This is where Lesley
Douglas stepped in and made it known that if he resigned she would also. The
problem goes deeper than that. Editorial teams are expected to make day to
day decisions knowing that their superiors will not back them up and the man
at the bottom will take the rap in a ratings driven situation while those
really responsible are let off the hook. And the man where the rap ought to
stop is Peter Thompson.
My personal experience with the BBC is a variant of this buck passing.
I first of all complained on behalf of a friend who said that when Any
Questions came to Wolverhampton a few months ago the procedures must have
been rigged since neither the question master, nor the panel nor anyone who
was called to speak made any basic criticism of the Labour government, and
certainly no one raised the question of the war in Iraq. I emailed David
Dimbleby, the host, and suggested that it must have been rigged. On a
subsequent occasion when the programme again came to Wolverhampton I again
complained to Dimbleby, but also the producer of the show, who showed some
signs of replying to me, but upped and went to work with Google and I
haven’t been able to contact him, but will continue to try.
My present concern is to contact the participants of the programme that
follows, The Week where I am asking if Michael Portillo and Andrew Neil will
support their colleague, in outing Gordon Brown and supporting:

DIANE ABBOTT FOR PRIME
MINISTER

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

WOLVERHAMPTON THE MOST IMPORTANT CITY IN BRITAIN.RAISED BY ITS OWN BOOT
STRAPS FROM THE PERCEIVED RACIST CAPITAL OF BRITAIN IN YEARS OF ENOCH POWELL
(1966 TO 1974) TO THE CULTURAL, EDUCATIONAL , SPORTING AND BUSINESS CENTRE
2009.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

WELCOME TO RUSSELL BRAND.
He’s in trouble now, but he is a self confessed political man and we
shall be pleased that he is on our side and not the right-wing crowd
attempting to destroy him. What he did was foolish and he has offered a
full and unreserved apology which has been accepted by both the woman in
question, Georgina Baillie, and by Andrew Sachs and he has resigned from
the BBC. But this not enough for his right-wing critics who want to destroy
him utterly, something that they will find as difficult to do as Bush’s
blood hounds who have sought to find and destroy Osama bin Laden who Brand
dressed up as the day after 9/11. But ObL is on my list of those without
who the post-Neo-Con society of Peace and Multiculturalism cannot be built.
The director-general of the BBC is now rushing home from holiday and is
today making belated statements as he did some months back when critics
accused it of ‘not being fit for purpose’ and he put his hand on his heart
and swore that he would clean up the BBC. But the first question today is
whether Brand and Jonathan Ross had committed an unforgivable offence or
whether those who have complained, numerous though they are, preventing the
BBC moving forward into an acceptable modern world. Brand is not dependent
on the BBC, he is already big in America and presented the MTV video music
awards and described George Bush, as ‘that retard and cowboy fella’. Shades
of Michael Moore denouncing the war in Iraq and being applauded at a film
award presentation. Whether Obama wins or loses the US presidential
election we shall need a public figure who will speak out for real change
and also be a modern entertainer.
As far as his opponents in Britain are concerned, Brand was quick to
point out that it was the Daily Mail which was at the heart of the
Appeasement movement and support for Hitler in the 1930s. Brand will be an
important addition to the peace movement, and come to think of it Jonathan
Ross has never been slow to criticise the warmongers and perhaps the present
spot of bother will make him even more outspoken.
Let us hope that the present problems of performers and journalists
will persuade them that it is time to support:

DIANE ABBOTT FOR PRIME MINISTER.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

WOLVERHAMPTON THE MOST IMPORTANT CITY IN BRITAIN. RAISED BY ITS OWN BOOT
STRAPS FROM THE PERCEIVED RACIST CAPITAL OF BRITAIN IN THE DAYS OF ENOCH
POWELL TO THE CULTURAL, EDUCATIONAL, SPORTING AND BUSINESS CENTRE OF
BRITAIN IN 2009.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

OUTING GORDON BROWN - DIANE ABBOTT AS PRIME MINISTER
I had a most interesting conversation with my good friend Bob Jones who
taught with me at Dudley Technical College many years ago. Bob is an expert
on many things, but I found that we were as one on all important matters.
The criminality of the war in Iraq, the importance of Wolverhampton as a
city being but two of these agreements
. Bob’s speciality is amateur football both as a referee and also
representing the amateur Leagues at their normal weekly meetings as well as
their AGMs and helping them with their finances. It was he who informed me
that Wolves won their last match in the very last minute in a snow storm
and that their could be no better example in these days of climate change
and extremes of temperature within a few minutes than my plea for
retractable glass roofs in stadiums which I have advocated for some time
and are still waiting an estimate by Peter Friar, an Arsenal director for a
roof over the Emirates Stadium. Bob, it seems is a season ticket holder at
Wolves,
knows well Graham Hughes the Wolves custodian of trophies and club historian
who showed me round the ground a few weeks ago and promises me another visit
to ask Wolves players of their attitudes to racism in football and the
campaign to Kick it Out.
In this way we came on to politicians and their activities and the
gross
betrayal of Dennis Turner, formerly the custodian of the site of the
first furnace to smelt iron with coke in the Black Country, John Wilkinson,
and also a patron of Bilston FC in their newly refurbished ground, but
turned traitor, left his parliamentary seat to a Blair crony with no
knowledge of the traditions of the Black Country, accepted an OBE and took
the ridiculous title of Lord Bilston.
We then came on to all those who do not reply to me, including the Head of BBC and ITV, the Learning and Skills Council, Sir Trevor Phillips the chair of the Commission for Equality and Human Rights who refuses to answermy charge that he is unfit to control any race equality unit when he considered the war in Iraq was ‘outside his remit’ and still fails to say whether he supports or opposes the wars of Blair and Gordon Brown. We
then came on the BBC TV programme Any Questions where it was suggested that when the programme came to Wolverhampton the questions were fiddled so that nobody discussed the war in Iraq. This question has still not been answered by Mark Thompson,the head of BBC who has been quick to dismiss
Russell Brand today, but not Paxman, Marr, Wark, and Kearney for failing to challenge Blair on the question of the war in Iraq when they interviewed him, and thus helped Blair to join Bush in the illegal and racist war in Iraq.
Then we came on to my support for Diane Abbott and we both agreed that
it was necessary to remove Gordon Brown at once as a war criminal who with his support for nuclear weapons is liable to see the world destroyed. We ended by both agreeing that she was the best candidate for the job, but was probably a victim of racial discrimination. So I have sent an email to her partners
in the programme This Week, Michael Portillo and Andrew Neil, suggesting that they publicly support their colleague. We shall see how they respond.

COMBATING BIAS IN THE PRESS.
We are at one w ith Media Lens which was set up in response to the unwillingness, or inability of the main stream media to tell the truth about the real causes and extent of many of today’s problems including human rights abuses, poverty, pollution and such matters as the war in Iraq. The
Guardian, the most important left leaning newspaper makes great play of its
impartiality, but I have a personal example to the contrary. The paper
refuses to print anything by myself or about Bilston Community College, the first multicultural College in Britain with its one third of ethnic minority staff unequalled before or since. Media Lens focuses particularly on the press whose representatives have an unprecedented influence in forming
public opinion, because there is no other reliable source of information
available to most of us. The Guardian comes under this heading and most of its correspondent toe the line, but some of its journalists manage to go beyond the unspoken limits which each newspaper sets for itself and occasionally a particular issue contains a number of articles which transcend the norms set by these capitalist newspapers. Today has seen a number of such left-wing articles. One of these limits is that no one writes about Gordon Brown and his cabinet as the most important terrorists in the world who if they were jailedunder the Human Rights programmes, not
only would terrorism almost cease to exist but there would be sufficient
money available to pay our national debts with enough left over to finance our social services such as education, health and provision for the elderly.
Today’s issue of the Guardian has a number of such quality items. It begins
with Simon Tisdall’s article on the Baltic States supporting NATO’s
sabre-rattling policies against Russia which aligns them with US imperialist hostility to Russia. Then there is a regular outspoken column by Nils Pratley today revealing that Aviva where ?600 million have been wiped off
this firm’s assets and more of the same is expected. This tale of economic
woe is further analysed by Larry Elliot the paper’s economics editor who
says that the financial markets are clear - Britain is mutton dressed up as lamb. The economy is now more unbalanced than it was eleven years ago when New Labour came to power. Instead of a power economy fit to face the 21st century it is a debt related economy going yet again into rehab. An article by Lazlo Ander an economist and member of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development shows how financial crises have driven the country into the arms of the International Monetary Fund whose free trade policies has meant that industry and agriculture have been bought up by western companies and the country impovisherished and stripped of its independence. Similar processes have taken place in Poland and other eastern
European countries. So once again it shows that free trade impoverishes, not enriches, and countries must claim their economies back, particularly their banking systems.
Finally, an important article by David Edgar a playwright and one of
the founders of Searchlight, the anti-fascist leading organ, tackles the
question of Islamaphobia and shows that the majority of Muslims favour
integration into the world community. Salma Yaqoob the Birmingham Respect councillor is taken as the leading representative of this trend who has repeatedly opposed bans of anti-Muslim material and she and the international scholar Tariq Ramadan are seeking to build a distinctive
European Islam which sits comfortably with western pluralism without having to sacrifice the essentials of their beliefs. It is to be hoped that there are many such issues of the Guardian preaching Hope not Hate and nothing could better assist such integration as

DIANE ABBOTT FOR PRIME MINISTER.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

WOLVERHAMPTON THE MOST IMPORTANT CITY IN BRITAIN. RAISED BY ITS OWN BOOT
STRAPS FROM THE PERCEIVED RACIST CAPITAL OF BRITAIN IN THE DAYS OF ENOCH
POWELL TO THE CULTURAL, EDUCATIONAL, SPORTING AND BUSINESS CENTRE IN 2009
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

TIME FOR QUESTIONS.
Today is not one for glib answers it is a day to ask questions. My
thoughts turn to WEB du Bois. Was he right to say that the most important
question in the world today is the ‘color’ question. Or was Marx correct in
saying that the most important question is that of Class and Marx’
importance today is that the current clash of classes is so intense that
there must be a dialectical leap which will bring either Socialism, or, and
this is a real possibility these days, ‘the mutual ruin of the contending
parties’. Here the contending classes are the capitalist class and the
working class in the era of those who would be prepared to destroy the world
in a nuclear holocaust brought about by Pirates holding up a ship loaded
with nuclear weapons and selling it to the highest bidder with a resultant
Holocaust that will destroy the world and all of us in it. Even if this is
avoided there is another question recently to the fore as capitalism faces
it greatest and perhaps final end. This is Marx against Keynes.
Can we look forward to a benign solution to our present economic disasters
by applying the remedies of Maynard Keynes by spending and borrowing to the
hilt in the down turn, knowing that there will be an ultimate up turn from
which will come riches during which we can up taxes and repay our debts? Or
is Keynesianism not the solution and we shall have to face the class warfare
that Marx predicted
Nor is that the only set of questions we are faced with. Gordon Brown
and is cabinet of war criminals are now being joined by the contemptible
forgotten men -Mandelsohn, twice found guilty of criminal practices;
Blunkett the man who closed the first multicultural College in Britain,
Bilston Community College, and kept it closed by boasting that he never
corrected mistakes, and was then found guilty of sexual misconduct and turns
up today on the tele as an expert on the working class from the mansion he
now lives in . And others who break the law by ignoring their statutory duty
to reply to correspondence such as Sir Trevor Phillips chief of the
Blairite Commission for Equality and Human Rights who refuses to answer
whether he is for or against the war in Iraq, but today pleads eloquently
for attention to the needs of the white working class as being
disadvantaged. Then there is the Learning and Skills Council, also active in
closing Bilston CC and soon to be chopped into little bits and rightly so,
but at the behest of the top civil servants in Britain from whom much of the
racism in Britain stems.
The final example I shall quote are local ones where Richard Carr, the
chief executive of Wolverhampton refuses to reply to my questions asking who
runs and who controls Wolverhampton at a time when competing bodies of
‘regeneration’ outfits find themselves with out resources and having to
abandon schemes which began with such extravagant claims of transforming
Wolverhampton.
These are very difficult questions made perhaps impossible by the
current financial. Nor am I going to pretend that I know the answer to these
problems. This I leave to my experts, Larry Elliot and John Keegan my
economics advisers and Media Lens and Nasir Khan my Islamic expert for basic
criticism on Muslim matters
Time for reflection on the basic question of how to build a united
front to be rid of Brown before he gets rid of us, although I will leave you
with my greatest thought

DIANE ABBOTT FOR PRIME
MINISTER

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

WOLVERHAMPTON THE MOST IMPORTANT CITY IN BRITAIN. RAISED BY ITS OWN BOOT
STRAPS FROM THE PERCEIVED RACIST CAPITAL OF BRITAIN IN THE DAYS OF ENOCH
POWELL TO THE CULTURAL, EDUCATIONAL, SPORTING AND BUSINESS CENTRE IN
BRITAIN 2009.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

THE SOULS OF BLACK FOLK.
I have vowed that I would not write the remaining two thirds of my
autobiography because it was Living History which was recorded nightly on my
BLOG. However I started on a limited resume yesterday on the grounds that
the Nuclear Idiots of Gordon Brown and his cabinet were likely to blow us
all up if Pirates sold nuclear weapons to the highest bidder and that would
be the end of all of us. However, while we remain in one piece we need to do
something and the most important question in the world, with which the war
in Iraq is intertwined is Racism. This has raised its ugly head recently in
Wolverhampton where two bye-elections produced two BNP candidates in
Wednesfield wards where two Labour councillors resigned for having sex
parties in their house. The result was that the Tories gained two seats and
are now almost independent of the five Lib.Dems who had previously held the
balance of power. What is alarming is the number of votes gained by the
neo-fascists the BNP. The BNP vote throughout the country averages 12% . But
in Wednesfield North the BNP polled 337 votes which was 11% of the total
while in the South they polled 358 which was 14% of the vote. Just as
alarming is that in both wards the BNP polled more votes than the Lib Dems.
Clearly this is a crisis situation which Wolverhampton has not before faced
and it has so far been only the Wolverhampton Trades Union Council which has
organised the City around the campaign led by Searchlight International and
supported by the Daily Mirror called Hope Not Hate and organised when
elections take place. This campaign was successful in reducing BNP
councillors across the country and also in the Black Country. But in
bye-elections they stand in every seat and clearly something more must now
be done in Wolverhampton. This comes when racism is increasing in football
and it was great to see a moving glass placard at the Chelsea v Liverpool
match on Sunday proclaiming, ‘Kick Racism out of Football’ and players
such
as the Manchester United captain, Rio Ferdinand and David James of
Portsmouth have been particularly active in combating racism as was
Theirry Henry when he was in England and Sepp Blatter the world football
chief appointed Henry World Ambassador of Football . Since black players
are now so well integrated into modern teams it is to be hoped that Hope Not
Hate will prevail.
One effective way of combating racism has been Black History Month and
this year the Guardian was quick off the mark in producing five double page
posters of key figures and significant events for Africans and the Diaspora
over the past 2000 years. Unfortunately they did not feature probably the
greatest figure that the black movement has produced, WEB du Bois. He was
not only the greatest intellectual figure of the black movement
forcing his way from poor black parents to be the first black ever to
receive a PhD from Harvard University but he was also the founder of the
first black movement against slavery and racism, the National Association
for the Advancement of Coloured People and was active in every other advance
from the 1880s until his death as a citizen of Ghana in 1963 at the age of
98. His most famous book is The Souls of Black Folk and his most significant
statement, ‘ The color line is the most important question of the
nineteenth century’. This also remains true for the 21st century.
Is it a coincidence that the Guardian fails to mention that du Bois
was a Communist
and that many other American Communists from Claudia Jones who was expelled
from
the USA in the years of the McCarthy terror and Angela Davis who opposed
the war in Vietnam were only the most prominent of many other Communists who
helped
the cause of Negro emancipation.

MORE TROUBLE IN WOLVERHAMPTON FOR RICHARD CARR.
Apart from the expiry of the six day limit for which the chief
executive of Wolverhampton is obliged to reply to my question of who runs
and who owns Wolverhampton problems are piling up on a ?60 million deal
with private sector Axon to overhaul the computer system which involve
cutting staff.. The Council is battling against inflation and a shortfall of
?7 million worsened by a missing ?5 million from Birmingham Airport shares
which has failed to materialise. The LibDems demand to see the report of
1000 pages and so do we. As I’ve said to Richard Carr there are dangers of
malfeasance in dealing with outside firms instead of the Council keeping
control of contacts and Richard Carr could well find himself engaged in
malpractices unless he comes clean .
That’s enough for tonight, but please support

DIANE ABBOTT FOR PRIME MINISTER

GEORGE BARNSBY LIVING HISTORY.
There was no BLOG last night, mainly because I had started an outline
of what had become My Living History, but it grew and grew like topsy so
that it had to be abandoned for the night.
In the meantime so much is happening, locally where the mugs who think
that vast sums of money are available if only we agree to pull down our
schools and erect two Educational Academies, and schemes to ‘regenerate’ the
town continue to be abandoned as Gordon Brown wants us to follow his lead
and jump off the cliff as capitalism breathes its last gasp.
And then nationally so much has happened. Tony Benn has been in
Wolverhampton wowing people at the Grand Theatre, again on the follies of
capitalism, yet found time to reply to me and bid me keep up the good work
of exposing those who break the law by not replying to me. These include
the nuclear maniacs of Brown and his cabinet who threaten to blow us to
pieces, and locally Richard Carr the Wolverhampton chief executive who
continues to risk the sack and imprisonment for not replying to the
questions of who runs Wolverhampton and who owns it which becomes more
complex with every day that passes.. Then there are emails and letters
addressed to me piling up such as the one from the American firm which
manages the blind pianist George Shearing and raises all the unsolved
questions of Jazz in Wolverhampton and the Furthest East Rhythm Club in the
World. Also Bulletins from good comrades such as Labour Heritage, Socialist
Educational Association, Black and Asian Studies Association Socialist
Campaign Group, Labour Briefing, and the dear old Pensioners’ Convention
group who are all engaged in fighting racism and protecting our social
services from being privatised by the same gang of villains led by Gordon
Brown.
Then there is my position. My son William took me to his home so that I
could see Arsenal beat West Ham and revel in the fact that Manchester United
beat Chelsea at home .At West Ham there was a hoarding which read ‘Kick
Racism Out of Football’ at a time when racism is again raising its ugly head
in British football and we are challenging the ownership of clubs by
foreigners such as the Glasers at Manchester United and the oligarch at
Chelsea whose vast fortunes are quickly declining as a result of the Slump
which is now official and could lead to the bankruptcy of the clubs. Worst
of all is Manchester City now buying the most expensive players in the
world, but are owned by a Thai crook who has now been found guilty of
corruption and whose government is demanding that Britain send him back
home.
Finally my personal dilemma. I started yesterday a BLOG with the same
title as heads this BLOG on the three turning points in world history in
which I had personally witnessed and participated in. But it ran away with
me and so is still on the stocks, so to speak. I shall complete it during
the week as a separate item. But it doesn’t solve the dilemma of tonight
where I’d like to watch Match of the Day, have some relaxation and above all
do some reading. It is not possible to do all these things, so I must think
of some other solution for the BLOG. Has anyone any ideas? And last of all,
please support my campaign for

OUST BROWN - DIANE ABBOTT FOR PRIME
MINISTER

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

WOLVERHAMPTON THE MOST IMPORTANT CITY IN BRITAIN. RAISED BY ITS OWN BOOT
STRAPS FROM THE PERCEIVED CAPITAL OF RACISM IN THE DAYS OF ENOCH POWELL TO
THE CULTURAL, EDUCATIONAL, SPORTING AND BUSINESS CENTRE OF BRITAIN 20009
———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————-
AN AUDIENCE WITH TONY BENN IN WOLVERHAMPTON.
In his inimitable way Tony held the audience spell bound in a two hour
show at the Grand Theatre Wolverhampton.. He might have been a Black Country
man if his father had won, instead of losing a seat he contested for the
Labour Party in Dudley in 1935. Why did he not win? Because of the slump, of
course, and Tony was off with a topical theme with variations in between .
When the Slaves were liberated, he reminisced it wasn’t the slaves who were
compensated but the slave owners. What would it cost today to give trade
union members a ?10 a week rise? Nothing, in fact, because they would spend
the rise and that would decrease unemployment. Pure Keynesian economics. To
him Thatcherism and New Labour are as bad as each other. Both are part of
the
same conspiracy to smash trade unions and put public services into private
hands. Benn found a few minutes before the show to be interviewed by Peter
Rhodes of the Express and Star. On the United States he
said he thought George W.Bush was the worst president the US ever had. The
biggest laugh of the night came from his being asked what he thought of the
House of Lords and he replied what would you think of a dentist wielding the
drill who said that he wasn’t a very good dentist, but his father had been!
Benn rumbled Blair and New Labour from day one and opposed him from the
beginning. He left Parliament as the longest serving MP ‘to do some useful
political work’ and here he is as active as ever in political action to
bring Brown and his war mongering cabinet to book. After I had read about
Benn in the Express and Star tonight I sent Tony a copy of my BLOG of
last night which covers the ground of why Wolverhampton is the candidate
next year of being the City of Culture, Education, Sport and Business of
2009.
And Tony found time to reply to me as follows: ‘Thanks for your kind
personal message at the top off you BLOG - which I always try to read. Keep
at it Tony. It made my day’
What a contrast to the rapscallions who break the law by not replying to
me - the chief executive of Wolverhampton, the Learning and Skills Council,
Sir Trevor Phillips of the Commission of Equality and Human Rights, David
Dimbleby whose panel of experts on Thursday night was rigged because the
original Labour minister proposed was too outspoken in his criticism of New
Labour. Those who closed Bilston Community College, Paxman, Marr, Wark,
Kearney. Jon Snow and others who ‘fix’ the news we must listen to, for there
is no alternative. These will all be brought to book, sooner or later as the
unacceptable stooges of a capitalism which is at present on its last legs.

AND SO TO BED.
Much remains to be said, but time passes by and I deserve a relatively
early night. So don’t forget:

DIANE ABBOTT FOR PRIME MINISTER

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

WOLVERHAMPTON THE MOST IMPORTANT CITY IN BRITAIN. RAISED BY ITS OWN BOOT
STRAPS FROM THE PERCEIVED CAPITAL OF RACISM IN BRITAIN TO THE CULTURAL,
EDUCATIONAL, SPORTING AND BUSINESS CENTRE OF BRITAIN 2009.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

SO MUCH TO DO.
My Marxism tells me that the dangerous position we find ourselves in
today
where nuclear maniacs threaten the world with destruction is matched by its
opposite
the prospect of peace and multiracialism , means that there must be
a dialectical leap to an entirely new prospect. Here we have a business
corporation Wilson Given with exactly the same objective as the GB Blog - to
promote Wolverhampton as the Cultural, Educational, Sporting and Business
Centre in Britain in 2009. Yet everywhere we meet with disbelief, pessimism
and people are either too busy to do anything about it or too pessimistic
that their efforts would be worth while.
Take the question of the removal of Gordon Brown before the nuclear
maniacs blow up the world. The present endless prattle by those who know no
better and those who ought to know better such as Polly Toynbee and who are
the key players in forming public opinion keep most of us in an unreal
world, busy, busy, busy, while the simple solution is obvious - end the war
in Iraq
and the new world of sleeping secure in our beds and enjoying the fruits of
the possibilities of the world in 2008 are within our grasp.
All this emphasises the importance of events now taking place in the
USA, still the most important democratic country in the world, where Barack
Obama appeared like a beacon of light to that troubled country to become the
first black candidate for Presidency. Yet he couldn’t resist the massive
forces of capitalism which oppose him so he changed his mind about ending
the war in Iraq and took to himself a war mongering Vice President to the
delight of the most reactionary forces in the world of Bush and the
Neo-cons who are the greatest terrorists in the world and whose removal
would end most of the world’s terrorism almost overnight. We still hope
Obama will win but he has sold his inheritance as the man who could end
racism in the USA for a mass of pottage. This brings us back to Britain and the unique possibility of outing Gordon Brown and replacing him with Diane Abbott who is both black and female. What an example this would give to the world and we hope Diane will agree to stand.
Next we come to Education perhaps the most important question after the one of the future of the world. Here Gordon Brown and his New Labour cabinet are determined to privatise all our social services and theinstrument they have chosen in education is Academies. These have been opposed nationally by most educational organisations and particularly by the unprecedented coming together of the two largest teaching unions the National Association of Schoolmasters and Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT) and the National Union of Teachers (NUT). Ken Purchase our MP for Wolverhampton NE
has also been particularly vocal in opposing Academies.
Yet we find that locally the city council has fallen for the crack
brained scheme of supporting Academies with what is a virtual bribe of ?millions to destroy the present schools and build two Academies in in the
city. The fraud is that the government doesn’t have ?350 millions to spend on schools.
But worse than this the education chief in Wolverhampton, Roy
Lockwood, tells me that this is the policy of the local authority instead
of support for Comprehensive schools which has been the policy for manyyears. If this is so it is illegal change by stealth and must be rejected.
Our schools are a mixture of high achievement and deceit of calling
themselves fancy names such as Sport or Business, Music etc. Schools which is little more than an excuse for ignoring their catchment areas and recruiting pupils from the whole city and beyond to the detriment of the schools without fancy titles. This is done by boards of governors and headmasters in secret as much of the activity of the schools are veiled. It results, for instance in schools showing no enthusiasm for the nation wide importance of
participating in the solving of the question of whether the Battle of
Tettenhall was fought in Tettenhall or in Wednesfield or indeed, disclosing to the public what their history syllabuses are and whether they are ‘fit for purpose’ in a multicultural city such as Wolverhampton.
Then there is the question of Sport. Wolverhampton has always been famed for its football team which has been subsidised in recent years by Sir Jack Hayward a Wolverhampton super patriot who not only does much for football but is involved in the most important question in football and that is to ensure that clubs remain British owned. In this regard Wolves are at one with Arsenal who lead this fight, a team that I have supported for 75 years and also Wolves which I have supported ever since we came to Wolverhampton in 1955.
In Sport Wolverhampton also has a unique Hall of Fame which honours the many
sports people that Wolverhampton has produced including Rachael Heyhoe Flint a former captain of England’s womens cricket team, a director of Wolves and the go-between with Sir Jack when he is out of England.
The Hall of Fame also contains the names of others who have excelled in their sport and in some cases transformed it such as Percy Stallard to who we owe the sport of cycle road racing and others who pioneered motor cycling racing.
And in George Frith we have a black athlete who might have played football for England or cricket for England or both if he hadn’t been struck down by a wasting disease which is still deteriorating and he is now unable to hold a paper to read and it has to be held up by one of his loving, caring family.
It is my privilege to have known George since before his disability
which he bears with equinimity and fortitude. He is at one with most people in condemning the war in Iraq.
It’s not only sports people but also organisations which are 100 and
more years old such as Wolverhampton Cricket Club and others which are honoured in the Hall of Fame.
But there is a dark side. The Wolverhampton Sports Advisory Council set up decades ago to advise on sport was originally run by sports people, but was taken over by paid officials who thought they knew more about the future and needs of sports than the men and women sports participants. They did not know better then and do not now.
Frank Spittle, member of an outstanding sports family and himself the
pioneer of Rifle Shooting tells the sorry tale. Once we could bask in the
glory of champion city of sport, but this was before the officials took
over. The Aldersley Athletic Club which produced local national and Olympic class members have seen their grandstand bulldozed along with their clubhouse leaving a dedicated group of voluntary coaches and officials in despair. The international rifle range once nominated as an Olympic venue was closed by the Leisure Services while they sat on ?335,000 obtained for refurbishment. Not a live round has been shot for ten years. It is closed and unused. The cycling track is just a training ground for our top cyclists and it is only a personal campaign of letters to the press which has prevented the chair-borne mandarins of the Leisure Service doing away with the Sports Advisory Council altogether and taking over sport themselves.
Frank also has solutions. The first a National Centre for Sport; and
locally a Wolverhampton Head of Sport elected by the sporting community. There is much more about local development of sport, but there is not space to elaborate on it here. Fortunately it can be downloaded on the George Barnsby BLOG so that present people may know its many sensible suggestions and posterity can see what should have been.
Finally I return to Business, the life line of Wolverhampton’s future
and its supremacy in Culture, Education, Sport and Business. Not only do we have Wilson Given and myself plugging the superiority of this city, but a Business Link which supports what is the life line of our city with branches which supports women going into business and another supporting ethnic
minorities. These with their annual glittering gatherings and prizes for the most successful member completes the picture of Wolverhampton being the City of Culture in 2009.
It only requires emphasising the positive and eliminating the negative and the job is done and our slogan will be:

REMOVE GORDON BROWN - DIANE ABBOTT FOR PRIME MINISTER

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

WOLVERHAMPTON THE MOST IMPORTANT CITY IN BRITAIN. RAISED BY ITS OWN BOOT
STRAPS FROM THE PERCEIVED CAPITAL OF RACISM IN THE DAYS OF ENOCH POWELL TO
THE CULTURAL, EDUCATIONAL, SPORTING AND BUSINESS CAPITAL 2009.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

DIANE ABBOTT FOR PRIME MINISTER.
Today I’ve sent messages to Socialist Campaign Group and Labour
Briefing, the two main traditional Labour Groups asking their Committees to
discuss the proposition that Diane Abbott as both female and a black women
is the best qualified candidate to oust the war criminal Gordon Brown and
that such a candidate would have wide international reverberations with
Obama in the USA being a crippled candidate by supporting the war in Iraq.
This, and its appearance in this BLOG tonight will publicise the proposition
and I would welcome comments both for and against Diane on my Website
tomorrow.

THOSE WHO TALK AND THOSE WHO ACT.
We have seen today the illusory activity of media people who mould the
political views of most people. At Question time in Parliament today the war
criminal Gordon Brown was cock-a-hoop over the problems of George Osborne
who has apparently been meeting the Russian oligarch Deripaska and cadging
some funds for the Tory Party. A serious offence no doubt, but a trifle
compared with the fact that he and Cameron, like Gordon Brown, support the
war in Iraq and the slaughter of innocent civilians. Even Polly Toynbee has
been drawn into the endless talking as to whether the Labour Party or the
Tory Party will win the next general election assumed to be in 2010 when the
nuclear maniacs refuse to face up to the fact that Somalia pirates are
likely to hijack a cargo of nuclear weapons and sell them to the highest
bidder and thus the world will be blown to bits and all of us with it.
The only one with his feet on the ground and acting responsibly is our
Wolverhampton man the goverenor of the Bank of England, Mervyn King, who
confirms that there is a slump and that it will be a long slow haul to claw
its way back out of recession. So there are two problems here, one is the
question of how to deal with the headlong fall of shares and the FT index
which I am
happy to leave to my two friends Larry Elliott in the Guardian and William
Keegan in the Observer. The other
is the question of finding sources of news which are objective and can be
relied on to inform people and not deceive them and this I have been
investigating today. First there is Media Lens which attempts to expose bias
in the press. The second is al-Jazeera English which reaches more
English speaking people that any other source such as the BBC once the most
respected of sources listened to in secret in Nazi occupied countries, but
long since become a discredited apologist for the war in Iraq. Today’s
front page is only a fraction to the left of the BBC the fact that it has
inherited the mantle of the BBC means that more people trust its coverage
than the BBC.
My search for a left opposition paper in Iraq led me to the Patrick
Henry Press News criticising the Americans and the puppet Iraqi government
puts it in verse: It’s not you fault there are hungry people/ With a little
luck they’ll starve to death/ Its not your fault the system is crippled/
With your trickle down philosophies/Your trickle down economies/ Won’t you
trickle, trickle trickle trickle/ Down to me.
An attempt to find BLOGS in North Korea landed me with Reuters so I
neither expected or found anything useful or radical there. It is clear that
organisations like Media Lens ought to be operating in all countries to
ensure free expression of views.

THE ATHEIST BUS CAMPAIGN.
London has set the trend . Buses will carry posters that read: ‘There’s
probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life’. A neat way of
establishing the rights of non-believers to have the same rights as
believers. Can we have a campaign to get the same posters on buses
throughout the country - including Wolverhampton?
Don’t forget:

DIANE ABBOTT FOR PRIME MINISTER

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

WOLVERHAMPTON THE MOST IMPORTANT CITY IN BRITAIN.. RAISED BY ITS OWN BOOT
STRAPS FROM THE PERCEIVED CAPITAL OF RACISM IN BRITAIN IN THE DAYS OF ENOCH
POWELL TO THE CULTURAL, EDUCATIONAL, SPORTING AND BUSINESS CAPITAL OF
BRITAIN IN 2009
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

DIANE ABBOTT FOR PRIME MINISTER
I have had a reply from Diane’s agent Jeffrey Mills that reads as
follows: Diane has personally seen your email and asked me to respond on
her behalf. She said that she thinks you are very kind but that she will
regretfully have to decline this proposition.
A pity. But the matter cannot rest there. The possibility of a woman
and black person as prime minister who opposed the war in Iraq from the
beginning and is well qualified to become prime minister is too important a
matter to leave at that. We would ask every progressive organisation in
Britain to join in asking her to change her mind. This would bring support
for the Labour Party pouring back and give an example to the world when the
US has a flawed black candidate who supports the war in Iraq

EDUCATION IN WOLVERHAMPTON GOES OFF THE RAILS.
Last night I complained that Tim Westwood, W’ton’s Chief Children’s
Services Officer had fallen for the con trick of demolishing our secondary
schools and with what is really a bribe of ?350 millions setting up two
Educational Academies which are condemned by every responsible educational
body including the teaching trade unions and requesting that Westwood be
disciplined for departing from the authority’s long established policy of
support for Comprehensive Schools
Actually the situation is worse than I thought for I received a prompt
reply from Lockwood telling me that support for Academies was the Education
Committee’s policy. This is certainly news to me and will be rigorously
challenged.
Roy Lockwood is an old, good friend of mine. He was appointed Director
of Education by a not very left wing Labour authority as a safe pair of
hands instead of Keith Wymer who was recommended by the W’ton Race Equality
Council. Keith would have been a dynamic and original Director who would
have transformed Wolverhampton’s education system as he was to transform
Bilston Community College solving the main problems of equal opportunities
for all children and especially for ethnic minority children.
His letter in reply to me is truly disgraceful. He tells me that
Westwood was not acting off his own bat, but was acting on behalf of the
Council and has his full support. The Academies will be Comprehensive
schools. This may well be, but they will be part of the privatisation of
schools which is the policy of Gordon Brown and New Labour and the local
council will have no say on who is admitted, what the syllabus is, what
seedy interest has purchased the schools whether religious or a private
business organisations and certainly without any regard for the equality of
ethnic minority pupils. From what he reads in the papers (what papers does
he read?)rather than being bankrupt the government is
proposing a Keynesian response to the economic difficulties and wants to
prioritise public investment in public projects as a means of sustaining
economic stability. The Wolverhampton Building Schools for the Future
proposals fit in very well with that thinking .
I’m sorry to say so, my good friend Mr.Lockwood, but I have never read
such unadulterated piffle in
all my life. New Labour is fighting for its very life and the good ship
England is sinking under its debts. Lastly he added that the Council is not in debt but has reserves. Tell that to Wendy Thompson the Tory Councillorresponsible for Finance who is worried to death by the debts that the Labour council left.
There still remains a chance to end the problems by bringing our troops
out of Iraq and Afghanistan after which there would be enough money to solve
our present financial difficulties and leave enough for a decent education
system in a Wolverhampton coalition council of Tories who oppose the war in
Iraq, the five LibDems who never supported the war and Labour councillors
opposed to the war and set an example to the country..

THOSE WHO DENY MY DEMOCRATIC RIGHTS.
I have sent another message to Richard Carr the chief executive of
Wolverhampton who refuses to answer my question as to who runs Wolverhampton
and who owns it among the plethora of organisations claiming to be
‘regenerating’ it. The refusal to discuss it in a period when mass
bankruptcies and mass unemployment is the order of the day is foolish in the
extreme as it might disguise corruption in high places and deprives me and
all citizens of the democratic right to know what is happening in the
Council.

DAVID CAMERON WILL NEVER BE PRIME MINISTER.
Another reminder has gone to David Cameron saying that he will never be
Prime Minister unless he repudiates the war in Iraq At present not only
does
he support the war in Iraq but he removes my democratic rights by not replying to me. If by any chance he did become PM he would only have two options on Iraq and Afghanistan - either to get out or be chucked out.

DIANE ABBOTT FOR PRIME MINISTER