The Barnsby Blog

RECALCITRANT COMPUTERS WITH MINDS OF THEIR OWN.
Blog 729 of yesterday was aborted. Today after a night’s rest my
computer seems to be behaving impeccably, but for how long? Whether it
flatters only to deceive, we shall see later , but the Viruses are still
about determined that we shall not call for the arrest of Gordon Brown as
No1 War criminal before he destroys the world with his Nuclear Madness.
Meanwhile, while we are still all here, let me get on with the proper
work of the BLOG and COPAM.

PALESTINIAN WOMEN’S DELEGATION SPEAKS IN WALSALL.
An email from Martin Lynch the ‘Respect’ delegate says after the Israeli
onslaught on Gaza we must step up solidarity with Palestine. The Walsall
contribution is a public meeting at 7pm on Thursday 5 March at Croft
St.School. Croft Street Walsall of visiting Palestinian women from Ramallah
and Salfeet, Zaheeda Farakhneh and Nagham Madi to talk about life under
Israeli occupation. Please spread the news of this very important meeting.
For further information Martin’s email address is
martin.lynch05@tiscali.co.uk and the meeting is part of the
British-Palestine Twinning Network and International Women’s Day Tour on
their website www.twinningwithpalestine.net
I have asked before why Wolverhampton cannot stage a similar meeting
and it would seem Wolverhampton is backward in these matters, but then
Wolverhampton staged an Holocaust Day meeting with a survivor of the Nazi
prison camps, so it seems W’ton can stage such events and some liaison
between the two is the only thing missing.

STOP THE ASSAULT ON CIVIL LIBERTIES.
This is an event sponsored by the Guardian newspaper and Charter 88
which
has become Unlocking Democracy. Stella Rimmington ex head of MI5 seems to
have set the matter off warning that Britain is becoming a police state and
from this has come a an informal opposition to New Labour that includes
Amnesty International, the Countryside Alliance, English PEN, HISTORY TODAY,
Private Eye, Human Rights Watch, Red Pepper and the TUC.
I have sent the Convention my best wishes and hope that they will
associate with COPAM.

SEAN CREIGHTON’S HISTORY AND SOCIAL ACTION.
Sean is a long term friend of mine both having the triple interests of
having been brought up in the same suburb of London, Battersea, being a
working class historian and of understanding as the greatest of black
scholars and activists WEB du Bois put it that the ‘color’ line was the
greatest issue of the 20th century as it is also of the 21st.
Sean at sean.creighton@btinternet.com has produced a ten page Bulletin
that can be downloaded with a very comprehensive coverage. Sean took part
last year in the 100th centenary celebrations of the Battersea Labour Party
which had the distinction of electing the first Black mayor in Britain ,
John Archer, as well as one of the first Communist MPs in Shapurji
Saklatvala and produced a DVD which I still do not possess although I think
I remember asking Sean to let me have one. People sometimes ask where my
militancy comes from and I usually say it must be a product of the militant
history of Battersea which has rubbed off on me!
Kennington Common and Radical History, Slavery and Abolition (Nesag
Newsletter); and the Co-op Bob Dylan and Folk America.
Events outside London include African connections and English Football
at Warwick University; the North East Slavery and Abolition Society whose
five editions can be downloaded, much else that I haven’t time for and a
splendid book review section. Please consult it. Sean has done a magnificent
job and we are all on his debt.

HISTORY AND THE FUTURE IS GOOGLE.
I have some cause to be upset and annoyed at the lack of respect much
of the Labour movement pays to the Living History that the Barnsby Blog has
created and the fact that I have almost certainly the best record of West
Midland History and certainly Communist Party history since the 1940s.
This niggle has arisen as a result of my being asked to advise people on
Communist history.which is the function of the GB Working Class Library and
Free Communist Bookshop, but particularly of the changed editorship of the
Dictionary of Labour Biography frrom David Howell to another editor iwho is
not
committed to printing my 50 or so studies of Black Country Chartists and
hasa not even had
the good grace to inform me and that also applies to Dr. Gildart of
Wolverhampton University who has been involved in the reconstruction of the
DLB.
As it happens it doesn’t matter very much because Google has published
it for me on the Web and it is clear that a revolution in historic research
has occurred whereby one must first consult Google, not to mention Wikipedia
and other search organs before you or your students even start researching.
Because Google will provide you with everything you have ever written, and
moreover it changes frequently so you must always be consulting it.
Let’s take the question of Chartist Studies. Type in Black Country
Chartists and Google produces two pages with ten darkened headlines the
first an account of the movement from 1839 and the Chartist Convention of
1839. This gives a complete account of my Chartism in the Black Country and
for good measure my booklet on Woemen’s Suffrage in the Black Country.
The next Feargus O’Connor and the middle classes. And so it goes on
until the last heading Labour History News Archive and this gives some of
my very latest writings on Racism in the Black Country.
Nor can it be said that archives of the of Labour bodies are equal or
superior to GOOGLE. They are not. Neither the Socialist History Society nor
the Labour History Review have archives as extensive as GOOGLE produces and
it will apply equally to local archives such as Carl Chinn and the
Blackcountryman. So all research must now begin with what GOOGLE thinks of
YOU and everyone must take it from there. Whether it is ethical or desirable
that GOGGLE knows more about you than you know yourself the fact remains
that a revolution in research has taken place equal to COPAM my electronic
Conference uniting everyone in the world who is opposed to the war in Iraq.

GOOGLE REIGNS SUPREME - HISTORY WILL
NEVER BE THE SAME AGAIN.
ARREST BROWN BEFORE HE
DESTROYS THE WORLD.
GIVE THE MONEY TO THE
WORKERS NOT THE BANKERS

GREETINGS TO GUARDIAN CONFERENCE
Guardian Economics Editor, my friend Larry Elliot chairs a series of
debates on Capitalism in Crisis exploring the seeds of the present turmoil ,
what the way for might be, and the social impact of the recession. The venue
of the original debate is not clear but the
second debate takes place at 7pm on Monday March 2nd at Kings Place, London.
Panellist are John Gray, Jayata Ghosh and Terry Smith to discuss the reforms
needed and how to achieve them. The Barnsby BLOG and COPAM have asked that
greetings from the this BLOG and COPAM be read out at the Conferences.

JOURNALIST OF THE YEAR AWARD.
Another event, the Journalist of the Year Contest, organised by the
periodical Press Gazette, the periodical of the trade, will take place in
London, hosted again by Jon Snow on March 31 at the Grosvenor Hotel, London.
The Press Gazette has for more that 30 years celebrated the best of
Fleet St. journalism. They remain the most rigorously and openly judged
journalism of any country in the world involving more than 100 of the UKs
leading journalists made up of a mixture of independent figures from across
the industry and representatives of all the leading titles. Winning a
British Press Award is rightly seen as the crowning achievement of any
journalist’s life and just being shortlisted is to be set among the elite
of the profession
Such is the blurb of Press Gazette, but objections to these procedures
echo those of Lord Ouseley, chair of the Commission of for Racial Equality
1993-2000 who asks where the black journalists are and questions the
procedures adopted by the Press Gazette. We, with Media Lens and other
organisations concerned with Human Rights would question these procedures.
For instance, the National Union of Journalists will question whether
members of theirs were represented and indeed whether journalists who are
anti-union should be in the 100 at all and the objection of this BLOG and
COPAM to Jon Snow hosting the procedure arises from the charge that he did
not do his journalists duty back in 2003 when he failed to question Tony
Blair on the war in Iraq and has on almost 100 occasions since failed to
answer critics who say that this refusal denies us our democratic rights to
be heard.

MORE TROUBLE IN WOLVERHAMPTON - THE FAIRIES AT THE BOTTOM OF THE GARDEN HAVE
DISAPPEARED AGAIN.
Apart from the man who will not answer my questions of who owns and
controls Wolverhampton, the chief executive, Richard Carr and the
Wolverhampton leader of the Council, Councillor Neville Patten who spurns
the opportunity to make Wolverhampton the most important City in Britain be
leading an entirely anti-Iraq
war coalition of Tory, Labour and Lib-Dems and thus pull the rug from under
Gordon Brown, nuclear mad man who is liable to blow us all to smithereens,
there are other troubles in store as reported in tonight’s Express and Star.
Tesco and Sainsbury’s are apparently squaring up again and heading for
another Court show down over the right to build a mult-million supermarket
on a prime City-centre site in Wolverhampton.
Sainsbury’s are refusing to back down in its battle to transform land
in Raglan Street meaning that a decade-long planning wrangle will drag on
for years. Tesco recently took Wolverhampton City Council to the High Court
over its decision to name its rival as the preferred development of the
sprawling site just off the ring road in St.Mark’s in Graiseley.Tesco won
the W’ton Council backing of the ?50 million plan by promising to include
new headquarters for the City’ Primary Care Trust as well as 100 new homes.
Sainsbury’s claim that W’ton Council acted illegally in ordering it to hand
over its 86% share of the land to Tesco.
A recent ruling by a High Court judge, Mr Justice Elias ruled that he
saw ‘no reason at all’ for a claim by Sainsbury that the Council
pre-determined the wrangle in favour of Tesco. But Sainsbury today announced
today that it is fighting the decision and the tussle will now be
determined in the Court of Appeal. Tesco spokesman said that they
were disappointed. This means yet further delay and more expense. It is
possible that the wrangle could even reach the House of Lords. What a sorry
state of affairs.
In the meantime GKN the engineering group profits slumped by more than
one third with the fear of lost jobs and Manders, whose agent owns the city
centre shopping centre and there are fears that one of its owners Propinvest
will have to go into liquidation following financing irregularities

HALT THE BNP.
On 14 April the BNP are planning to hold their first ever mass rally in
a UK city - Liverpool.. SEACHLIGHT MAGAZINE and other anti-fascist
organisation is determined to stop them. A petition has been launched which
can be signed on hopenothate.org.uk/stophate A deputation of leading
Liverpool citizens supported by the North West TUC to the Chief Constable
of the Merseyside Police on Feb
27 so urgent action is necessary if you are to sign the Petition.. This is
a struggle that can be won if maximum support is mobilised. This plea comes
from jave.stevenson@btinternet.com .

THIS IS ANOTHER CASE OF A HALF COMPLETED BLOG WIPED FROM THE COMPUTER. I
STILL NEED HELP

CORRECTING THE BLOG.
Most of my time today has been spent correcting the devastation of
last night. It will be remembered that something went wrong with the
correcting apparatus and as fast as I removed one letter the next
disappeared and this continued ad infinitum, so that in the end I sent it
off with a note saying UNCORRECTED PARTIAL BLOG - PLEASE HELP. Then I found
the rest of my message had slipped many lines underneath and this was about
Race Equality work in Wolverhampton, so I sent that off too asking WHERE ARE
ALL THE FRIENDS WHO PROMISED TO HELP ME, so you will have received that too.
This morning after a night’s rest my computer has put itself right (so far)
so I corrected both versions, one for the WEB and one for the EMAIL and that
has taken most of the day.

JOINT PARLIAMENTARY COMMISSION OF HUMAN RIGHTS.
Well, blow me down, who would have thought that parliament had a Human
Rights Committee and if they have why haven’t they put Gordon Brown under
arrest as the mass murderer of Iraq and Afghan people and the man who with
his Nuclear Madness is liable to blow the world up? But then, like most
people I haven’t much faith in Parliament. One of its problems is that the
personnel of committees is constantly changing, so that Andrew Dismore MP
who I am told is its present chairman of the committee might well be
changed. I have had similar trouble with other Committees, not to mention
OFCOM and other government watch dogs which really have no teeth at all so
that some of them will only operate if you can find an MP who will take up
the case for you, or in the case of the Commission for Equality and Human
Rights in the Case of Bilston Community College, the first multicultural
college in Britain, give you the correct verdict (not guilty of financial
irregularities) and then negate the verdict by charging you for their
documents exorbitant sums that you cannot afford, so that you have no proof
of your innocence.
The other ploy by the government is to ensure that all public
servants must reply to charges made against them but then allow each central
and local government department to have their own procedures and even where
officials blatantly disregard their duties they are not disciplined or
sacked. This is our case in Wolverhampton where the chief executive, Richard
Carr refuses to answer of questions of who owns and runs Wolverhampton and
the leader of the Council, Nigel Patten refuses to answer us when we suggest
that Wolverhampton is unique in being able to form a coalition Council of
anti-war Tories, anti-war Labour and anti-war Lib Dems which if that
happened would make Wolverhampton the most advanced city in Britain and
fatally weaken Gordon Brown’s Nuclear Strategy which threatens the world
with extinction.
Fortunately, my MP is Rob Marris who apart from supporting the war
in Iraq which will almost certainly unseat him, if we ever live to see the
day of the next election , is not only a friend but the winner of awards for
the best Parliamentarian in the House of Commons, has helped me in all these
matters and we are now set for another round of assaults on the chief of the
CEHR, the Learning and Skills Council, the chiefs of the BBC and Channel 4
etc. all of whom fail to reply to us and thus deprive us of our democratic
rights.

KEITH WYMER ON NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT AND THE ECONOMY.
Here are the views of Keith Wymer (keithwymer@blueyonder.co.uk) and
David Kyte the first chair of governors of Bilston Community College
(david@kyte4.orangehome.co.uk) who unfortunately has problems with his eyes
these days but nevertheless works closely with Keith and other Friends.
Keith says that the weight of public finances lends weight to the necessity
for the UK to get rid of its nuclear weapons. Keith a CND member for almost
50 years argues powerfully that renouncing nuclear weapons is an essential
step for our economic recovery. Read about Wymer’s views and also George
Soros’ views on george@georgesoros.com and download his live webcast from
the London School of Economics where he discusses his recent book The New
Paradigm for Financial Markets: The Credit Crisis of 2008 and What it Means
with London School of Economics director Howard Davies. He speaks about his
days at the LSE, current financial instability and a need for change in the
prevailing paradigm. The video may be viewed and also an audio version by
logging on to George’s address above. Soros with his unrivalled practical
knowledge of speculation which bankrupted Britain in Thatcher’s time might
not be interested in our Wolverhampton solution of giving one million pounds
to every individual in Britain advocated by our Nigel Poxon, but his
approach is basically Keynesian which advocates spending in the bad times
and economising in the good times.

MODERN CHARTIST STUDIES
Chartist Studies are popular at the moment and Jez Vanes one of the new
wave of Communist who flourished at Universities at the turn of the century
with Marxism Today and Eric Hobsbawm’s The Forward March of Labour Halted
now has a son, Edward specialising in Chartist studies at Wolverhampton
University. This coincides with Professor John Roberts teaching in
Wolverhampton but living in London who has two PhD students both of whom
live in Wolverhampton and also do part-time teaching in Wolverhampton
University and all of whom are deeply entrenched in a Marxist attitude to
life. All have recently visited me seeking my views. My answer is that
Google rules the roost and is the first thing is to consult. This leads to a
dozen sections on different aspects of Chartism, including my own work,
which I hope to elaborate on, but not tonight when I’m running out of time.
This is Living History. Watch these pages for further developments while we
close with:

SACK BROWN DIANE ABBOTT FOR PRIME MINISTER
: RESTORE BILSTON COMMUNITY COLLEGE
WHERE’S MY
MILLION POUNDS? BROWN
WOLVERHAMPTON CITY
OF THE FUTURE.

—– Original Message —–
From: “George Barnsby”
To: “Barnsby Daily Blog”
Cc:
Sent: Wednesday, February 25, 2009 2:43 AM
Subject: GEORGE BARNSBY BLOG NO.727 TUESDAY 24TH FEBRURARY 2009
www.gbpeoples library.co,uk

> IS OBAMA THE FIRST BLACK PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES?
> VOICE the African-Caribbean weekly made what I thought was the
> sensational claim that he was not and said that there had been SEVEN Black
> Presidents. the first of whom was George Washington the very first US
> president. So who do you turn to confirm this. You turn to GOOGLE. Here
> confusion reigns. Some authorites agree that George Washington was the
> first black president; others that Obama is the first. But today we have
> contacted the VOICE on line and opened the matter for discussion on its
> BLOG with two other matters. First why do white authorities not aadvertise
> job vacancies in the VOICE. This is blatant Racial Discrmination and
> should be ended and its adherents disciplined. The only white organisation
> that comes out with credit is the Trades Union Congress who are to be
> congratulated not simply on doing what the law requires and not
> discriminate, but also recruiting more efficient staff as a result.
>
> ANYONE BUT BROWN FOR PRIME MINISTER.
> This is the result of the latest Guardia/ICM poll published today. The
> poll shows the Tories maintaining a double digit lead. But f the Tories
> hope to win the election they must dump David Cameron who supports the war
> in Iraq and refuses to confront his critics on the matter. Fortunately for
> the Tories they have a ready made alternative in Kenneth Clarke, one of my
> ‘immortals’ one of the 16 Conservative MPs, together with all 53Liberal
> Democrats and 11other MPs plus 50 or so Labour who voted against the war.
> Clarke is at present shadow Business Minister and its hardly worth his
> while coming out of retirement for that and knowing that Cameron is losing
> the cofidence of his party Ken Clarke is nicely placed to takeover Gordon
> Brown’s job. Fortunately Labour is just as well placed to replace Brown.
> She is Diane Abbott able to beat Obama the new American president who
> supports the war in Iraq and as a black and female candidate would both
> eclipse Obama and return Britain to the status of a world power. There is
> only one snag and that is that her experience of racism has persuaded her
> that she could not succeed. The almost 200 Labour MPs willing to vote
> against the partial privatisation of the Post Office suggests otherwise
> and we have told her that her country needs her and all progressives will
> join me in telling her she is the candidate to replace Brown.
>
> THE TENTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE STEPHEN LAWRENCE ENQUIRY.
> Stephen’s mother writes a moving tribute on the occasion.. She says
> that the last thing she thinks of at night and the first in the morning is
> Stephen. She has lost a son and those who killed him still walk the
> streets. But the fight for justice has been worth while. When Sir William
> McPherson’s report was issued we knew we had been vindicated in saying
> that the police had not investigated the murder properly. It was essential
> that the police should be found to be institutionally racist. The
> ourageous suggestion that Stephen must have been into drugs still rankles
> with Doreen as does the fact that the commissioner of the Metropolitan
> police, Paul Condon, had not resigned or been dismissed. And later when
> the Met set up Operation Trident to investigate black on black crime the
> general attitude was that it was ‘only just another black kid who had been
> killed’. Ultimately all victims of murder whether black or white have
> families who are grief stricken at their loss This Sunday Jack Straw who
> is now Justice Secretary but ten years ago was Home Secretary said that if
> he were asked whether Metropolitan Police wers still institutionally
> racist he would say No. This is not true says Doreen. Before the Equiry,
> black people were six times more liable than white people to be searched.
> Now it is seven times. Only a minority of blacks carry knives and if they
> trusted the police more they would help catch the guilty ones. Police
> should be using proper intelligence and frontline officers should not have
> this power to discriminate. In all these respects little has changed.
> Onthe positive side however, there are more community consultations
> and advisory groups today which give people a chance to influence policing
> and police are more sensitive about how they handl the public. Such cases
> as Damilolar show that the injustice to her son has allowed justice to
> prevail for others. She sees young people today able to look to a much
> brighter future and wonders what Stephen might be doing these days.
Opinions vary as to the progress made since Lawrence. One important
> improvement has been the emergence of the Black Police Officeers
> Association which continues to believe that there is prejudice against
> them. I leave the last word with Herman Ouseley who was chair of the
> Commission for Racial Equality from 1993 to 2000. At the time of the
> Lawrence murder the top of corporate Britain and its public bodies were
> very white and male and this continues to this day. Look around and
> discover the winners and losers. Who are the people sitting at the summit
> of our institutions making the big decision and coining the big salaries
> and bonuses. Who are in the media influencing positions? Even in areas
> where there is a significant minority presence such as football minorities
> are not visible among managers and governing elites. Who is in charge of
> delivering the 2012 Olympics and Paralympic Games? And who are the main
> beneficiaries of the huge contracts being handed out?
> Even where black and ethnic minority people have reached prominent
> positions they can be marginalised in decision making their presence
> merely giving the organisation the cchance to show off its diversity and
> equality credentials. Those who do work their way up the ladder tend to
> become compliant and conformist in the struggle to survive rather than
> challenging unacceptable behaviour and unfairness. Addressing such racist
> practices would benefit all of us.
> These are the thoughts in my mind as we try to obtain a true picture
> of race equality in Wolverhampton. It is a problem that I have been aware
> of all my working life, from the time I dscovered that black jazz players
> were almost totally excluded from white bands and not allowed in the same
> hotels and shops and if white leaders such as Bing Crosby and Benny
> Goodman were brave enough to employ them they faced hostility from the
> white community
. That race hatred waas the stuff of
> fascism which led to the 2nd World War and which I came back to England to
> face having participated in the 2nd World War and seen the Brish
> government join with America and Russia to defeat the Germans and
> Japanese, but then to take French troops back to what had once been their
> colonies in what had been French Indo-China but whose inhabitants had
> subsequently liberated their country and called it Vietnam. And also
> returned the pre-war Dutch colonists to Indnesia where under their puppett
> a million Communists and progressives were butchered whil the Americans
> and English stoo idly by approving of these actions.
> Then when we came to Wolverhampton in 1954 and started to combat the
> influence of the Empire fighing back and sending its citizens to what they
> thought was their homeland to work in the hospitals, on the buses and in
> the factories and which resulted in the emergence of Enoch Powell.
> This racism was combatted by what became the Wolverhampton Race
> Equality Coouncil which I helped to found and under the triumvirate of
> Lance Dunkley leader of the Africa-Carribeans, Mr.Noor of the Indian
> Workers Association and myself as secretary of the Communist Party led the
> only REC in the country to be controlled continuously by its two main
> ethnic groups in the town for 19 years until it was closed down by Sir
> Trevor Phillips, a person rather like those described by Ouseley as a
> black person who has achieved high office but not acting in the iterests
> of ethnic minority people.
>
> GIVE ME MY MILLION POUNDS.
> With this I must close. Not even having time to explain how with the
> help of Georeg Soros, Nick Leeson and Nigel Poxon we would tackle the
> problem of the Slump
>
> DISMISS BROWN - DIANE ABBOTT FOR PRIME
> MINISTER. : WOLVERHAMPTON CITY OF THE FUTURE.

IS OBAMA THE FIRST BLACK PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES?
VOICE the African-Caribbean weekly made what I thought was the
sensational claim that he was not and said that there had been SEVEN Black
President. the first of whom was George Washington the very first US
president. So who do you turn to confirm this. You turn to GOOGLE. Here
confusion reigns. Some authorites agree that George Washington was the first
black president; others that Obama is the first. But today we have contacted
the VOICE on line and opened the matter for discussion on its BLOG with two
other matters. First why do white authorities not advertise job vacancies
in the VOICE. This is blatant Racial Discrmination and should be ended and
its adherents disciplined. The only white organisation that comes out with
credit is the Trades Union Congress who are to be congratualedd not simply
on doing what the law requires and not discriminate, but also recruiting
more efficient staff as a result.

ANYONE BUT BROWN FOR PRIME MINISTER.
This is the result of the latest Guardia/ICM poll published today. The
poll shows the Tories maintaining a double digit lead. But if the Tories hope
to win the election they must dump David Cameron who supports the war in
Iraq and refuses to confront his critics on the matter. Fortunately for the
Tories they have a ready made alternative in Kenneth Clarke, one of my
‘immortals’ one of the 16 Conservative MPs, together with all 53Liberal
Democrats and 11other MPs plus about 50 Labour MPs who voted against the war. Clarke is at present
shadow Business Minister. Its hardly worth his while coming out of
retirement for that and knowing that Cameron is losing the cofidence of his
party Ken Clarke is nicely placed to takeover Gordon Brown’s job.
Fortunately Labour is just as well placed to replace Brown. She is Diane
Abbott able to beat Obama the new American president who supports the war in
Iraq and as a black and female candidate would both eclipse Obama and return
Britain to the status of a world power. There is only one snag and that is
that her experience of racism has persuaded her that she could not succeed.
But the almost 200 Labour MPs willing to vote against the partial privatisation
of the Post Office suggests otherwise and we have told her that her country
needs her and all progressives will join me in telling her she is the
candidate to replace Brown.

THE TENTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE STEPHEN LAWRENCE ENQUIRY.
Stephen’s mother writes a moving tribute on the occasion.. She says that
the last thing she think of at night and the first in the morning is
Stephen. She has lost a son and those who killed him still walk the
streets. But the fight for justice has been worth while. When Sir William
McPherson’s report was issued we knew we had been vindicated in saying that
the police had not investigated the murder properly. It was essential that
the police should be found to be institutionally racist. The ourageous
suggestion that Stephen must have been into drugs still rankles with Doreen
as does the fact that the commissioner of the Metropolitan police Paul
Condon, had not resigned or been dismissed. And later when the Met set up
Operation Trident to investigate black on black crime the general attitude
was that it was ‘only just another black kid who had been killed’.
Ultimately all victims of murder whether black or white have families who are
grief stricken at their loss This Sunday Jack Straw who is now Justice
Secretary but ten years ago was Home Secretary said that if he were asked
whether Metropolitan Police wers still institutionally racist he would say
No. This is not true says Doreen. Before the Enquiry, black people were six
times more liable than white people to be searched. Now it is seven times.
Only a minority of blacks carry knives and if they trusted the police more
they would help catch the guilty ones. Police should be using proper
intelligence and frontline officers should not have this power to
discriminate. In all these respects little has changed.
Onthe positive side however, there are more community consultations
and advisory groups today which give people a chance to influence policing
and police are more sensitive about how theyhandlthe public. Such cases as
Damilolar show that the injustice to her son has allowed justice to prevail
for others. She sees young people today able to look to a much brighter
future and wonders what Stephen might be doing these days

VARIOUS OPINIONS.
Opinions vary as to the progress made since Lawrence. One important
improvement has been the emergence of the Black Police Officers Association
which continues to believe that there is prejudice against them.
I leave the last word with Herman Ouseley who was chair of the Commission for Racial
Equality from 1993 to 2000. At the time of the Lawrence murder the top of
corporate Britain and its public bodies were very white and male and this
continues to this day. Look around and discover the winners and losers. Who
are the people sitting at the summit of our institutions making the big
decisions and coining the big salaries and bonuses. Who are in the media
influencing positions? Even in areas where there is a significant minority
presence such as football minorities are not visible among managers and
governing elites. Who is in charge of delivering the 2012 Olympics and
Paralympic Game? And who are the main beneficiaries of the huge contracts
being handed out.?
Evenwhere black and etehnic minority people have reached prominente
positions they can be marginalised in decision making their presence
merely giving the organisation the chance to show off its diversity and
equality credentials. Those who do work the way up the ladder
tend to become compliant and conformist in the struggle to survive
rather than challenging unacceptable behaviour and unfairness. Addressing
such racist practices would benefit all of us.
These are the thoughts in my mind as we try to obtain a true picture of
race equality in Wolverhampton. It is a problem that I have been aware of
all my working life, from the time I dsicovered that black jazz players
were almost totally excluded from white bands and not allowed in the same
hotels and shops. If white entertainers such as Bing Crosby and Benny
Goodman were brave enough to employ them they faced hostility from the white community. Race hatred was the stuff of fascism which led to the 2nd World War and which I came back to
England to face having participated in the 2nd World War and seen the Birish
government join with America and Russia to defeat the Germans and Japanese,
but then to take French troops back to what had once been their colonies in
what had been French Indo-China but whose inhabitants had subsequently
liberated their country and called it Vietnam. They also returned the pre-war
Dutch to Indnesia where under their puppet Suharto a million Communists and
progressives were butchered while the Americans and English stood idly by
approving of these actions.
This was the racism I helped to oppose in India, Burma and Britain
until I came to Wolverhampton in 1954 and statred to combat the influence of
the Empire fighing back and sending its citizens to what many thought was
their homeland to work in the hospitals, on the buses and in the factories
and which resulted in the emergence of Enoch Powell.
This racism was combated by what became the Wolverhampton Race
Equality Coouncil which I helped to found and under the triumvirate of Lance
Dunkley leader of the Africa-Carribeans, Mr.Noor of the Indian Workers and
myself as secretary of the Communist Party. We led the only REC in the country to
be contrlled by its two main ethnic groups in the town for 19 years until it
was closed down by Sir Trevor Phillips, a person rather like those described by
Ouseley as a black person who haad achieved high office but not acting in
the interests of ethnic minority people.

GIVE ME MY MILLION POUNDS.
With this I must close. Not even having time to explain how with the
help of Georeg Soros, Nick Leeson and Nigel Poxon we would tackle the
problem of the Slump

DISMISS BROWN DIANE ABBOTT FOR PRIME MINISTER.
: WOLVERHAMPTON CITY OF THE FUTURE.

ARSENAL SUPPORTERS TRUST SELL THE CLUB DOWN THE RIVER.
I very much regret an email I have received from the Arsenal
Supporters Trust of which I am a life member and a team I have supported for
at least 73 years. The point at issue is whether Arsenal should continue
to lead the way in keeping the club in English ownership or whether it
should sell out to foreign owners as almost every other Premiership side has
done and run the risk of becoming bankrupt and disappear in this period of
Slump.
The Arsenal message says and I must paraphrase it is my printer is out
of order: I’m sure you will understand that we are unable to prevent
individuals
acquiring shares in Arsenal as long as their are willing sellers and
buyers.
Our website shows that we are for a plurality of ownership rather than
shares in the hands of one individual or entity. We shall continue to talk
to all the stakeholders in the club in an effort to achieve a model of
ownership and custodianship of the club for future generations of fans. End
of message.
Thus ends the duality of Arsenal and Wolverhampton Wanderers leading a
struggle to see that our teams remain English as a Russian and an America
now hold more than 50% of Arsenal shares and though they declare undying
devotion to the Club they are likely to be forced by competing
organisations such as the Football Association, the world football agency
FIFA the EU and the government which is already privatising education and
the rest
of our social services.
These are issues requiring that I consult footballing legal
authorities before replying, since foreign clubs also face such problems,
but it is impossible to think of German Clubs being owned by anything but
German,s nor Italian clubs suffering as they do from the whims of the Mafia,
nor Spanish clubs whose main clubs Barcelona and Real Madrid take their
names from their history. Barcelona from battles of the 1930s Civil War, and
from their independence struggle of the Basques and Madrid from the Spanish
dictator Gen.Franco.
Similar issues face Wolves whose former owner Sir Jack Hayward, a
great English patriot, has now sold out to Steve Morgan, a Liverpudlian
whose many millions have been made from house building and which are liable
to disappear as quickly as they were made in the Credit Crunch.
But that is only the beginnings of the complications of Wolves’
ownership, as the pitch is owned by the City council, and all the land on
which the buildings stand are also owned by the Council, so there doesn’t
seem much for Steve Morgan to own apart from the players and contents of the
buildings.
Nor is this the end of the complications. White the City council was
controlled by Socialists it would be logical to think of Wolves as a team
owned by the people of Wolverhampton, but now that the city has passed to a
coalition of Tories and 5 Liberal-Democrats one can think of a situation
where the Tories would opt for privatisation of the club. In such a case I
as a citizen would want to contest their decision and this brings us back to
the letter of the Arsenal Supporters’ Trust. It is possible to prevent the
unrestricted sale of shares in clubs. One would be by government action and
this is possible because MPs include Co-operative members of which Ken
Purchase is one, which has a long history of favouring co-operative
ownership of clubs. An interesting item on the news tonight was the
Co-operative ownership of Ebbsfleet FC which had no intention of allowing
itself to be taken over.
But the threat to our liberties are such that other methods most be
considered. The most democratic would be for Parliament to remove Gordon
Brown and vote in Diane Abbott who is both black and an experienced female.
and the news that the number of Labour MPs who propose to vote against the
partial privatisation of the Post Office is now touching 200 shows that this
is perfectly possible, without having to resort to a Citizen’s Arrest which
me and Lance Dunkley have put into operation for the Court of Human Rights
in the Hague to operate, although they have not yet done so and we need not
remind them if Labour MPs will do the job for us.

FLUSHING THEM OUT.
The curse of those who will not reply to me and thus deprive me of my
democratic rights continues, but progress is being made by addressing them
individually. First comes Gordon Brown, next David Cameron, then Sir Trevor
Phillips race equality chief , then the Learning and Skills Council, then
Lords of the Fourth Estate those commentators we have to listen to and
watch, because there is no alternative. The week-end has passed with
acknowledge acknowledgements from only one, Jeremy Paxman. His message after
years of not replying is, ‘Stop sending these silly messages to me’. So at
least that is a start. But it gives me a chance to contact the Chief of the
BBC and Channel 4 who allow their employees to ignore me for years and when
I do get a reply it ignores the question originally asked which was, Why did
they not question Blair on the Iraq war when they interviewed him back in
2003 ? So we shall expect others to capitulate sooner or later because I
shall continue to send CORAM and my Blog to all of them including Jeremy
Paxman.

THE GEORGE BARNSBY 90TH BIRTHDAY PARTY.
Between us Esme (my wife) and I continue to find cards and gifts which
have not been acknowledged. How about this from Dr.Friday, my Stroke
specialist who, together with my doctor Mark Wilson and my diabetes nurse
Liz Wilson keep me in the land of the living. The card from Dr. and Mrs. Fo
Nehikhare ( universally known as Dr.Friday) who has become a great friend
of mine says: Dear George, Many personal dreams you have nurtured/Many
others you’ve helped to come true/ for your heart is for ever giving/Life is
richer for knowing you. Happy 90th Birthday. The card continues, but it
would make me blush to read it. I was only sorry that he was unable to
bring his wife wither her magnificent Nigerian head dress.
A letter of apology comes from Brian Lawley a prolific writer of letters
to the Express and Star and a former pupil of Etheridge Sec.Mod. Boys’
School (with ?20 enclosed) He writes that he is not able to come as he is a
Carer of his family. But he says that the billions spent on war beggar
belief. If we couldn’t win a war in Afghanistan when we were an Empire,what
chance do we have when we are a banana republic.

THE VOICE.
At last I think the BLOG of the Voice has a mechanism whereby I can
communicate with them. So tomorrow I will send a message about my main
interests in the VOICE. These are that their list of the 50 most influential
Afro-Caribbs has not been put on their BLOG so that we cannot have an
argument about who is on it and who has been left out. Second is the scandal
of white agencies not advertising in the VOICE. This is a racist activity
that deprives organisations of the best black candidates and consolidates
Racism. Thirdly there was that remarkable item last week showing that Obama
was not the first black president, but the SEVENTH.
Other things I would have written about are the people who know how to
deal with the Slump such as George Soros whose weekly news letter I am
receiving and who brought down the Tory government of Lamont in a previous
Depression and Nick Leeson who single handedly toppled the greatest Merchant
bank in the world, Baring Brothers who financed the Napoleonic Wars.
But here I must end with:

SACK BROWN DIANE
ABBOTT FOR PRIME MINISTER :
WOLVERHAMPTON LEADING CITY OF CULTURE EDUCATION
SPORT AND BUSINESS

TODAY BELONGS TO DAVE HOLMES OF BILSTON JAZZ FACE.
I wrote last night of Dave. A former pupil of mine at Etheridge
Secondary Modern Boys’ School at Bilston who mobilised other former pupils
of Etheridge for both a reunion at the Trumpet in Bilston on the occasion of
his long delayed wedding and then again for my 90th Birthday party on Jan 29
2009. Dave is a jazz drummer of note and connected with the TRUMPET in
Bilston, the only venue in Britain to provide trad jazz 256 days a year,
with one more if it happens to be a leap year. Dave is also a writer on jazz
and associated with me in the famous world wide jazz society called the
International Association of Jazz Record Collectors. Dave also taught at
Bilston Community College the first multicultural college in Britain and
well knew the racists and bigots who closed the college.
Dave has always supported me, first in my BLOG and now with COPAM
(Conference of Peace and Multiculturalism). He has had to deal with the sad
circumstance of the death of two drummers, one of them black, Earl Palmer
from New Orleans and the other Loui Bellson, who was white and considered by
Duke Ellington in whose band he played, the only white man in an otherwise
black orchestra and Dave wrote obituaries of both. This material I have
conveyed to IAJRC and enquired about other material I have sent them on our
Furthest East Rhythm Club in the world at Imphal on the Indian/Burma border
which overcame the Japanese after the three month siege when we were
supplied by air in what was until then the largest airlift ever mounted.
I have also informed IAJRC of other matters with which we have been
jointly engaged, namely my submission of an article which has not yet
appeared on Modern Jazz Pioneers (notably Don Rendell the New Jazz
saxophonist who is a Jehovah’s Witness and related to me vaguely as a
distant relation and a local Jehovah’s witness Shiv Awale of Wolverhampton
who knocked on my door and I said I would not have any truck with him unless
he was prepared to denounce the war in Iraq. This he appeared to agree to.
But he has been so many months in India that I still await his knock on my
door.
But Dave’s interest in local jazz has led him to produce an
appreciation of Kelly Groucutt a native of Coseley who has died age 63 and
he has sent me this tribute:. I knew Kelly as young Mick as he used to be
called during the late 1950s when he still wore short pants and when I was
an occasional guest at his happy, welcoming motor-bike-mad family home at
Coseley, Dudley.
He was always popping in and out of the front (music) room where his
brother John and I played early rock and roll records - loudly. He already
had the bugs and the ‘moves’ I seem to remember. Young Mick went on to find
fame and fortune by playing guitar and singing with ‘Tel’ Garvey and Elo.
I’m pleased to have known him briefly. Occasionally during the last few
years it was nice to say hallo at one of his many charity shows and I was
hoping to meet him and his new band at the Trumpet jazz pub. in Bilston.
Sadly its too late now. So rest in peace, young Mick, you did a great job
with no ’side’ to you and you made lots of folk happy.
This tribute will go across the world tonight and particularly the jazz
world of IAJRC.

WHY OBAMA WONT BE THE FIRST BLACK PRESIDENT.
This from the VOICE and Dotun Adeybayo who is a VOICE correspondent
and runs one of the most important BBC radio programmes. Trendy young
Nichelle Carr is one of the high flying African American attorneys backing
Obama from these shores. She works for the top law firm Linklaters which
advisers the world’s leading companies, financial institutions and
governments and represents a new class of black middle class here in
Britain.
Nichelle had dinner at Dotun’s home and Dotun wondered whether
Nichelle would be as enthusiastic about Obama as she is if she knew that
Obama is not the first black president but the SEVENTH . Obama has an
Indian mother. We’re talking about racist America where the one drop rule
applies (one drop of African blood) in which case Dwight D.Eisenhower the
wartime Marshall who became president in the 1950s is a bruvva. A photograph
is provided of Dwight Eisenhower’s parents on their wedding day in 1888
where Dwight’s father is obviously White and his mother just as obviously
Black. The difference is that Obama can’t pass as white whereas all his
predecessors could. Thomas Jefferson was the first black president and it
seems that his daughter remained a slave during his presidency, according to
the book The President’s Daughter by William Wells Brown. The other black
presidents were Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, Warren G.Harding, and
Calvin Coolidge.
Harding’s black ancestors escaped to the north via the Underground
Railway and Harding attended a college for fugitive slaves. Such is some of
the information provided by VOICE and as I have said before white people
neglect the VOICE at their peril and this is an example. It was printed
on the VOICE website in June 1908, so there is no reason why I should have
missed it and no likelihood that white journalists should claim that they
knew the story all the time. .

FOR PEACE AND MULTICULTURALISM
SACK BROWN AND APPOINT DIANE ABBOTT.
END THE ECONOMIC CRISIS BY
GIVING EVERYONE A MILLION POUNDS .

MY 90TH BIRTHDAY PARTY YET AGAIN
At the party was Mohinder Singh one of my oldest of friends from the old
Indian Workers Association days, Mohinder Singh. He gave me a wonderful
present of an Indian temple which lights up in colour. I at first thought it
was the Taj Mahal, but on phoning Mohinder he told me it was the Golden
Temple of Amritsar, a holy shrine connected with the Sikh religion. Mohinder
and Councillor Singh promise to call on me when we will discuss the question
of Wolverhampton having been for two years without any Race Relations unit
and why Sir Trevor Phillips chair of the Commission for Equality and Human
Rights closed down the W’ton Race Equality Council against the will of most
W’ton activists and who is himself accused of failing to reply to questions
as to whether he supports the war in Iraq or not. I have promised to
acknowledge all who attended the party, and so I will, but not tonight when
I must return to other areas of interest for the time being.

SACK BROWN APPOINT DIANNE ABBOT PRIME MINISTER.
This is the most important thing I have done today. A message to Diane
Abbott pleading with her to accept the post of Prime Minister when Gordon
Brown is removed. Your Country needs you I say, and the message goes to all
the progressive MPs, including those of the Socialist Campaign Group of MPs,
some of whom were put forward in Parliament to challenge Brown but failed
to get sufficient support. Now that Obama is obviously not going to fight
for Peace and Multiculturalism unless world opinion can change his views, it
is essential that Diane, both a black woman and a female should become PM
and change Britain from being a third world nonentity to a first class power
again as the first country to have a black and female Prime Minister.

MEDIA LENS SHOWS ITS TEETH.
How useful is the Press Complaints system? This is something I am always
asking myself as I am forced to watch British television and the faces of
Paxman, Marr and Co. because there is no alternative and I would much rather
watch Al Jazeera English as most of the Arab and civilised world does and
this is a form of censorship of which I do not approve. Putting out the
People’s Eyes is how Media Lens puts it.
Last week the Media Standards Trust, an independent charity published a
report assessing the British media’s capacity to regulate itself. and found
that the current system is neither independent nor effective. The current
system is paid for by the newspaper industry, its rules are written by
working editors and almost half of the Commission is made up of newspaper
and magazine editors. Martin Moore, chairman of the Trust, writes that if
anyone makes a complaint about the media they have a 250-1 chance of having
their grievance recognised and redressed. Helena Kennedy QC observed that
the PCC continued unwilling to answer such questions as to how much does
each newspaper group pay to fund its operation and why does the PCC not
allow third party complaints unlike Ofcom or the BBC Why are not the
minutes of public appeals made available .
The failure of public servants to reply to charges made against them has
been a constant complaint of mine and the refusal of Jeremy Paxman, Andrew
Marr, Martha Kearney, Jon Snow and the chiefs of the BBC and Channel 4 to
reply to me had reached 50 before I lost count and it must now be about 100
occasions when they have refused to explain why they did not in interviewing
Tony Blair before and after the Iraq war began challenge him on the war and
this made it easier for Blair to support the war on the coat tails of Bush.
Moreover failure to reply deprived us of the most elementary and essential
of liberties - the right to be listened to and answered. Media Lens is the
most influential of various other institutions which respond to the
unwillingness or inability of the mainstream media to tell the truth of the
many problems facing us.
Fortunately, these are the days of the common man and modern
electronically devices such as the computer allows us to exercise our
political rights which I am doing through COPAM (Conference for Peace and
Multiculturalism) which is the largest organisation in the world of people
opposed to the war in Iraq. COPAM’s influence is already considerable. Help
it to grow.

NOTICES OF ACTIVITIES.
This is the time of the month when magazines send out notices of Spring
activity and request re-affiliation. This week has seen a bumper crop.
First was the W.Midlands CND circular.from 54 Allison St. Birmingham B5 5TH.
Phone 0121 643 4617 email wmcndall@gn.apc.org and web www.wmcnd.org.uk In
asking for funds it makes a series of very telling political statements.
Three retired senior military men writing in the Times say it is difficult
to see how the UK can exert leadership and influence on the issue of
abolition of nuclear weapons if we insist on a costly successor to Trident.
Or a retired NATO military commander saying he thinks the British government
could do away with nuclear weapons and lead the world. Or a former
vice-president of the International Court of justice backing the Scottish
government in its attempts to remove nuclear weapons from its soil.
Campaigning costs money it says seeking cash for a very worthy cause.
Next Labour Heritage. Chair Stan Newens, Secretary Maureen Colledge at
11 Aylmer Rd. Shepherds Bush, London W12 9LG. Tele 020 8743 4139
GriggShampan1@ukonline.co.uk (Here a bit of a moan. I wish societies would
not give the address of their chairman in their email address. You never
know when it will change and cause problems in contacting them.) The Labour
Heritage AGM and Meeting will be held on Sat. 14 March at Conway Hall, 25
Red Lion Square, Holborn London WC1 4RL and 1.30pm. Speakers will include
John McDonnell on the Left’s response to Unemployment in the 1930s and now;
Alan Spence on John Burns - Trade Union Militant and Parliamentary
Socialist, and John Grigg on the 1929 Labour Government and the Start of
the Great Depression. It also gives a plug for the Socialist History Society
including its meetings on Tom Paine’s 200th anniversary on the Rights of Man
on 9 May at Conway Hall; Andy Croft at Bishopsgate Institute on Sat May 9
on Hunting the Reds : Communist Party writers and the Cold War
Then the Society for the Study of Labour History Newsletter No.7 Feb
2009. This is Vol 75 No.1 April 2009 a special number on Chartism co-guested
by Joan Allen and Owen Ashton.. Contents include an editorial on New
Directions of Chartism; French Revolution or Peasants Revolt Petitioners and
Rebels in England from the Blanketeers to the Chartists by Robert Poole.
Chartist Music and popular Aural Tradition and other fascinating articles by
Malcolm Chase, Peter Gurney and Robert Fyson. Chartist studies are having
something of a renaissance and I shall be writing soon of Chartist Studies
in the West Midlands.
But amid the ever increasing economic problems its time for me to
sign off with:

BROWN OUT - DIANE ABBOTT IN AND GIVE ME SOME
POCKET MONEY AGAINST THE SLUMP
A MILLION POUNDS
WLL DO.

.

CORAM AND THE ARREST OF GORDON BROWN.
I find that I cannot amalgamate COPAM with GBWCL&FCB because I have
been beaten to the title by about eighteen years and it is my friend Bob
Hazlehurst who has discovered it. This organisation has as grand a title as
my own. It is called. Global Democracy.org Well my COPAM is also about
world
democracy, so I have emailed them, said I would like to join then and asked
if they would mind if I called myself COPAM1. Let’s see what happens.

THE STRANGE CASE OF EUNICE PEARSON.
Eunice Pearson first cam to my attention as the bus conductress of the
bus driven by Lance Dunkley the leader of the West Midlands African
Caribbean Association. Lance lived near to the house where Enoch Powell
lived in Merridale Street Wolverhampton. It was in that area that
Afro-Cabs led by Lance, Indians led by Mr. Noor of the Indian Workers’
Association and I as the secretary of the W’ton Communists waged our war
against Powell and his ‘Rivers of Blood Speech’. Eunice was not as
political as Lance and me, and I did not know at the time that she was the
daughter of Major Pearson who was the Army Recruiting Officer at the Army
Recruiting Centre in Queen Street, a man my friend Joe Davies of Henwood Rd.
circus showman and leading light in the Association of those who flew
aircraft of gliders during the Second World War remember Major Pearson as a
very erect figure as he strode down the street with a stick which disguised
the fact that he had been wounded during the war.. I knew his daughter
Eunice for a period but the association of her father with the military was
not acceptable to me at the time and as her association with Lance on the
buses faded away so Eunice faded away from my life.
Then in the past week or so Joe Davies and his wife Marge, told me of a
TV programme in which someone was appearing who was connected with the Burma
Star Association and that there had been quite a write up in the Express and
Star, because she had so amused the programme makers that they had to call
halt and start again, and he was sure it was Saturday’s paper because it was
the one day of the week that Peter Rhodes did not have c column and there
was a photograph of Eunice and quite a spread, but he had disposed of the
paper. Well, I still possessed the paper in question and there was nothing
in my edition that mentioned the Burma Star Association. However, all agog,
I turned the programme on and of the three women one was a Eunice from
Wolverhampton , surname not mentioned. Eunice was a credit to Wolverhampton
and I thought she might be the winner, but she became the weakest link about
half way through the programme, but I must have dozed off because I never
saw her disappear and there was no mention of the Burma Star Association at
all. And I can’t even find the name of the lady who is secretary of the
Burma Star Association through Google, the best I can find is a Paul Loseby
who runs a Burma Star Association website, which I must look up sometime.
Shall I contact Eunice and see if we can resume our relationship? What light
can other readers of the Blog shed on this conundrum.

THE EVEN STRANGER CASE OF IVAN GANDY.
Ivan is the super hero of Wolverhampton. A soldier in the Second World
War he was captured in France in 1940. Not only was he badly treated by the
Germans, but he witnessed the atrocities committed against the Polish,
Russian and other prisoner-of-war.
Ivan Gandy escaped ‘through the wires’ four times.which did not
always gain the admiration of fellow PoWs who had resigned themselves to
captivity until the end of the war. and who were punished for allowing a
fellow prisoner to escape. Nothing like the treatment of Ivan who endured
solitary confinement, beatings and starvation rations.
Only the last escape was successful and Ivan and some companions made
their way to the advancing Russians when they literally rode from Poland to
Berlin on Soviet tanks. Ivan said, here we were witnessing the barbarity of
two wild beasts, both brought about by political brain washing of both
sides.. The Germans driven on by their Gestapo officers, and the Russians
made brave with alcohol and seeking revenge on the German population because
of the atrocities committed on their fellow citizens.
Gandy wrote a book on his experiences, but in a subsequent fire all
copies I understood had been destroyed except a copy that Peter Rhodes of
the Express and Star possessed and I had a roneoed copy which I have
subsequently mislaid. Neither Ivan nor his wife wanted the book reprinted
while they were alive, but by now understanding that both were dead, I
approached Peter Rhodes and suggested that the Express now republish the
book and his first reply was that I was welcome to publish the book,
although he didn’t envy me the trouble with copyright. I replied that I had
faced that situation before and that a note in the preface to the effect
that I had searched for a copyrighter and failed to find them had not in the
past been questioned. The next night Peter put at the end of his column
notice to the effect that he was seeking any relations of Ivan Gandy and a
couple of nights later he sent me a notice saying that Fred Blades would
like a chat on Ivan’s book. I phoned Fred and he told me not only that I was
wrong, but 100% wrong. That in fact copies of the book had been deposited at
all libraries in the West Midlands, that he himself had a copy of the book
and that Ivan’s wife 18 years younger than him is still alive
.I shall see tomorrow whether the central library in Wolverhampton has a
copy of the book. We’ll see what tomorrow brings from both Fred’s and my
enquiries.

A NOTE FROM SEAN CREIGHTON
Sean and I have in common the we were both brought up in Battersea in
South West London and also that we both have a consuming interest in Race
Relations. Sean has sent me a note saying that he is starting a news letter
to share information on a range of interests activies and networks in which
he is involved. He is going to call it Agenda Service News. He undertakes
community, cultural, heritage and organisational projects and also runs a
small publishing imprint called History and Social Action Publications. This
is just the sort of thing CORAM would wish to join. If others would like to
join contact with Sean contact him on sean.creighton@btopenworld.com

PROJECTS IN PROGRESS
Gordon Brown sickened me tonight with his hypocrisy of expressing
sympathy with a dying child while having no sympathy at all for the
children, women and men slaughtered by his commands in Iraq, Afghanistan and
else where while his Cabinet tear themselves into pieces defending the
indefensible on the printing of money, and which of their several houses
lead to the least payment of tax. What a crowd they are.

SACK BROWN - DIANE ABBOTT
FOR PRIME MINISTER .
GIVE ME MY
MILLION POUNDS

PROJECTS IN PROGRESS
You may have noticed that I have decided to merge the Bookshop and
COPAM. I may change my mind (a prerogative of a man of 90!) but let me
explain. I originally hoped that the Library and Free Bookshop should be
sponsored by the CPB (Communist Party of Britain) because it was their
listing on Saturdays of my two websites GB Library and Friends of Bilston
Community College which set us off on the road to fame if not fortune.
However I then was put in touch with the US Monthly Review a progressive
independent socialist magazine which has existed for nearly 60 years. So it
should be possible for a Communist organisation to survive. By now I was in
contact with influential members of the CPB including its secretary Robert
Griffiths, its organiser Andy Goodall who had just been sacked from our
Wolverhampton New Cross Hospital for trade union activity, influential
economists and historians such as John Foster, John Callaghan recently moved
on from Wolverhampton University to Manchester University (I think) and the
two important historians I am in contact with, Graham Stevenson and Michael
Walker with whom we share short notes on progressives and Communists via the
Morning Star website. Whether I might affiliate to the CPB has not been
raised, But contacts have been reinforced by my invention of COPAM.
This is the largest organisation in the world electronically convened
of persons and organisations opposed to the war in Iraq and it is the
extension of its influence with which we are grappling at the moment. It has
no organised membership although it contains supporters that I know would
join if that were necessary and others who read it regularly but might not
want to join, through to influential journalists and broadcasters who read
it and use my material, but are not willing to be known to be consorting
with a Communist.
All this can wait as I am still assailed by this Virus which could
wipe out everything above that I have painstakingly written. First are those
who refuse to reply to me from Gordon Brown down to the local man Richard
Carr who refuses to answer my questions of who runs and controls
Wolverhampton when the place is coming to a standstill as so-called
regeneration bodies fight with each other for money that is no longer
available as the city sinks into decay. We have hitherto relied on such
organisations as OFCOM and OFSTED to bring the villains to justice, but a
recent document from MEDIA LENS which we will discuss shortly shows they
have about as much chance of ending corruption as Barack Obama has of
bringing peace to Iraq and Afghanistan.
But we are taking the course of approaching such people personally.
and the first one we have approached has been David Cameron who we have
emailed today asking him to reply to our charge that he will never be Prime
Minister while he supports the war in Iraq. We shall follow this up and our
next target is Sir Trevor Phillips chief of the Commission for Equality and
Human Rights who refuses to answer our charges that he considered that the
war in Iraq was ‘not within his remit’ when chair of the Commission for
Racial Equality and while he has been appointed chair of this new Blairite
body CEHR confirmed by Brown and his Cabinet, he still refuses to say
whether he supports the war in Iraq or not.
With that preface we can go on to some of the projects we have in
progress. The first is the case of Jean Charles de Menezes who the
Metropolitan Police shot dead. Our query was why did not the police shoot to
wound instead of to kill. If they had done this they would have avoided the
charge of murder which they now face and would have had a live witness who
could have assured them that he was not a terrorist. A simple question, but
still unanswered and we shall have the job of asking Sir Ian Blair and the
New Commissioner why they won’t shoot to injure and not to kill.
The next project is to the Leader of the Wolverhampton City Council
asking him what the Council’s intention was now that they had disbanded the
latest Race Equality organisation they had set up after the Wolverhampton
Race Equality Council had been disbanded for not giving value for money. Why
the leader of the Council Councillor Neville Patten will not give a reply to
this is most strange since the only people we can appeal to are Richard
Carr, the Council’s chief executive who has got himself into the farcical
position of being both a man complained about and at the same time the man
who hears complaints. Fellow members of the WREC Bhajan Devsi who was at my
90th birthday party and has written a book called Equality and Diversity
within Sikhism and asks me to read it and comment on it, which I will gladly
do, and Lance Dunkley also at the party but now in Jamaica attending the
funeral of a relative , have also asked why there has been no effective
Race Equality Unit in Britain for two years now. The only other body that
one ought to be able to appeal to is the Commission for Human Rights and
Equality, but their chief is Sir Trevor Phillips who, as explained above,
will not answer anyway.
Another Wolverhampton project concerns education. The education
committee has embraced a madcap scheme to pull down all our schools and
build new one which would inevitably be Educational Academies out of the
control of the local authorities and controlled by private person and
religious organisations. I wrote to the chief education officer, Roy
Loockwood requesting that this be condemned, but received a reply from him
that far from condemning the scheme the education committee was in favour of
the scheme. Roy Lockwood who has long been a friend of mine, was appointed
chief education officer as a safe pair of hands rather than Keith Wymer who
was recommended for this post by the WREC. Now Roy leads a campaign to
oppose the Council’s tradition of Secular Comprehensive Schools controlled
by W’ton City Council without having any authority to do so.
Meanwhile, Keith Wymer ex-chief of Bilston Community College, the
first multicultural college in Britain with 30% of ethnic minority staff and
pupils, totals never achieved by any other College before or since finds
himself with his College still closed despite assurance that no wrong doing
had occurred which was the charge of the racists and bigots such as John
Mellor, self confessed supporter of Enoch Powell who reported BCC to the
West Midlands Police Fraud Squad which after 18 months found that no
illegalities had occurred. The illegalities of closing BCC were established
after appeals to the Freedom of Information
In the mean time at 10pm withe the shadow of the Virus at my shoulder,
I shall just mention one or two of the many projects still on the stocks.
One is my strruggle with the Arsenal Supporters’ Trust to tolerate a
situation where two foreigners a Russian and American now hold sufficienet
shares to control the Club and thus overthrow existing policies to keep the
Club in British hands
Then there is David Holmes’ project (a former pupil of mine at
Etheridge Boys’ Secondary Modern School in Bilston to use his experience at
the Trumpet in Bilston, the only venue in Britain to pu on traditional jazz
every day of the week 52 weeks of the year , himself a drummer of note, of
the black drummer considered the greatest in the world, Earl Palmer and of
who Dave wrote, but whose title was challenged only this week by the death
of Loui Belllson a white drummer, who was the only white person in Duke
Ellington’s otherwise all black band and which Ellington himself said was
the greatest drummer of his generation. David’s expertise may lead to jazz
being downloaded for free through COPAM.
There’s much, much more to come but at nearly 1am I am determined
to have a relatively early night

IF JAZZ BE THE MUSIC OF
LOVE - PLAY ON. BUT ARREST GORDON BROWN MAKE
DIANE ABBOTT
THE NEXT PRIME MINISTER AND GIVE ME MY ONE MILION
POUNDS WHICH IS THE ONLY WAY TO SAVE GORDON BROWN’S
SKIN.