The Barnsby Blog

FIFTY YEARS OF THE CUBAN REVOLUTION.
Si Cuba, the magazine published by the Cuba Solidarity Campaign
announces a splendid series of events which will last the whole year. An
editorial calls for a change in UK policy and calls for respect for Cuba’s
sovereignty and independence an end to the US trade boycott of Cuba and an
end to interference in Cuba’s affairs by foreign governments..
It also asks for a change in UK policy. The US president, Barak Obama,
has just approved measures that will allow Cuban Americans to travel more
freely in Cuba and send some money to relations.
These policy changes are limited. They make no mention of and do not
address the harshest measures against Cuba - the 47 year old blockade. But
the new Obama administration has perhaps laid a stepping stone that will
pave the way for further positive developments.
Positive developments in the US echo other developments. Political and
cultural figures from across the world are queuing up to engage with the
island, the Irish and Spanish Foreign Secretaries, the Russians, the
Chinese, the whole of Latin America, William Hague, the Royal Ballet, the US
Congress and now the US president himself.
Yet at a time when all this is happening the British government seems
intent on hanging to the coat tails of the failed Bush policy of
interference rather than looking forward to develop better relations.
The statement issued by the British government’ s March 2009 Report on
Human Rights can be interpreted as a clear and provocative block to better
relations with Cuba. If other European Ministers are able to visit Cuba then
it is absurd that the British government is opposed to better relations.
At the end of the day it is for the Cuban people to determine the way
forward and the British government should start positive engagement without
preconditions immediately. Early Day Motion 1171 already signed by nearly
100 MPs of all Parties demands that David Miliband visits Cuba as soon as
possible.
For many speculating in the western media the latest US moves appear to
herald the beginning of the end of the 47 year blockade. We should all
applaud these developments while recognising that there is still much to be
done. Now is the time to suggest to the US and the British governments a
complete end to the inhumane and illegal blockade.
Cuba has survived 50 years of interference and aggression. Cuba has had
to defend its Revolution against invasion, blockade and numerous acts of
terrorism against its people over the years. Under these conditions Cuba has
the clear right to set its own terms of engagement with countries which
have previously joined this aggressive policy. We should all respect Cuba’s
right to set its own policy at this fast changing time.
Now is the time to celebrate 50 years of the Cuban Revolution and at the
same time use the 50th anniversary to push for an end of the anachronistic,
‘cold war’ and frankly silly policy of aggression against Cuba.

WOLVERHAMPTON, CUBA AND FOOTBALL
As discussed last night, I hobbled to the house of my friends Lawrence
and Jean Patton to watch the vital first leg of the European Cup. I was
right royally fed and watered by Jean and we watched the match from our
different partisan viewpoints. Laurence was probably better satisfied than
me. Man.U did win 0-1 on Arsenal’s home ground and this means that in next
week’s return match at Manchester Arsenal will have to win by two clear
goals to have any chance of remaining in the cup. So I can only hope that
Arsenal’s youngsters can perform this necessary near miracle.
Laurence, as I said last night, is in the throes of painful chemotherapy
for cancer, but he has a son, Geoff, who is in the diplomatic service and is
at present Deputy High Commissioner of Port of Spain in the West Indies. He
is at present unable to visit his father because both he and his wife have
important duties to attend to, she preparing for a visit of Barak Obama the
new black US President and he with preparations for British Commonwealth
Heads of Government meeting which takes place in Port of Spain in November. If the
visit of Obama is part of a general tour of the of the Caribbean it is
likely that either Geoff or his wife will be involved in diplomatic contacts
with Cuba and I have asked Geoff if he could let me have reports of these
activities. It is too soon to have received a reply, but we all should be
proud of a Wolverhampton connected citizen who has reached such giddy heights.

WOLVERHAMPTON FOR PEACE AND MULTICULTURALISM

WE ARE ALL TORTURERS NOW.
This is the headline in a column in the Guardian today by no less a
figure than Naomi Wolf, co-founder of the American Freedom Campaign as US
citizens outraged over torture call for a special American Prosecutor to
investigate . Republicans have now accused Democrats of the miscarriage of
justice which leaves them with ‘blood on their hands’ . The sudden urgent
call by US Democratic leaders to prosecute the CIA operatives, military men
and women who were certainly involved in, or turned a blind eye to torture
is the height of hypocrisy and scape goating. President Bush tried to hide
torture by championing it. Hilary Clinton supported torture throughout her
presidential run. Vice-President Cheney gave interviews explaining his role
in directing the policy of torture in legal terns. And what did the press do
about it? With very few exception - nothing.
But since 2003 American use of torture has been fully documented.
Electrodes on prisoners’ genitals, suffocation, hanging prisoner from bars
by the wrists, beatings, concealed murders, sexual assaults and humiliation
and forced nudity. All of this ignored by Congress and the US press. Such
activities have always been War Crimes and as the Nuremberg Trials
established neither obedience to orders, or lack of knowledge of the
consequences of the acts, nor the fact that they knew of the event but did
nothing, absolved them from the consequences. Ant this was the
international law in 1945 and is still the law today and means in effect
that everybody in the US is guilty of torture.
And what of Britain? Blair and Brown have allowed their own police not
only to watch torture, but to participate in it and the fact that Blair and
Brown waged illegal and racist wars and face charges that British military
indulged in torture means that they who waged war and those of us who have
tolerated it - we are all torturers now.

MONEY AND THE FATE OF FOOTBALL
The welcome compilation by Phillip Beresford of the 1000 Richest People
in Britain allows us to be quite specific on the subject of football which
takes up so much of the time of its supporters and threatens to take over
their lives. For instance we have tonight watched Chelsea play Barcelona in
Spain and achieved a creditable draw 0 -0 which will hold them in good stead
next week when they play the second leg at Stamford Bridge. Tomorrow it will
be Arsenal against Manchester United which I shall watch at Larry Patton’s
house if the chemotherapy he is undergoing for his cancer allows. He a
fanatical Man.UP. fan and me an Arsenal supporter. But the state of football
clubs being owned by foreigners is not a tenable one and we have today
perhaps the first example of a professional team, Southampton, ceasing to
exist if its debt problems cannot be solved within a few days.
I am concerned that the Arsenal Supporters’ Trust has sold the pass and the
club is now owned by foreigners. This I have objected to strongly but have
received no reply from the Trust of which I am a life member.
The richest man by far is Roman Abramovitch who owns Chelsea worth
?7,000milion, although his fortune has been diminished by almost one third
since last year. Second comes Joe Lewis of Tottenham worth ?2,500million.
Third is Alisher Usmanov of Arsenal worth ?1500 million and others with an
Arsenal connection are Danny Fizman, tenth at ?214 million, Lord Harris
?150m, Lady Bracewell-Smith ?85m and David Dein ?65m. Others in the Top Ten
include Lord Grantchester of Everton fourth at ?1250m, Mike Ashley 5th of
Newcastle United at ?700m, Mohamed al-Fayed of Fulham 6th at ?650m, Peter
Coates, of Stoke City equal 7th at ?400m with the Walker family of
Blackburn, and 9th the Warburton family of Bolton Wanderers at ?330.
It is probably correct to say that the only teams among the 20 who have
lived within their means, debt free and made a profit are Arsenal on the
proceeds of the housing and property at their old ground Highbury, and
Middlesborough who are paying the price of their board and directors living
within their mean of being in the bottom three in the Premiership at the
moment and thus threatened with relegation.
The same financial problems are suffered by most foreign teams and the
solution rests with the FIFA who have tried to solve such problems as how
many foreign players should clubs be allowed to field, whether players’
salaries should be limited and whether foreigners should be appoinnted
coaches of national teams But the problems need radical change.

EDUCATION
Football is not the only area of dispute. Education has always been
contentious and the perennial question has always been intelligence innate
or acquired. As a working class lad who left school at 16 without any
qualifications, but who later went to his favoured University, the London
School of Economics, and became a teacher who in 1954 came to Bilston to
teach at a Secondary Modern School and subsequently took time off to study
for an MA and Ph.D I suppose the argument for an acquired intelligence is
unanswerable. But particular emphasis recently has been on how to ensure
that children who live in poor localities as defined by postal codes should
have as much chance of educational opportunity as those children from more
affluent areas who fare much better in studying for degrees and particularly
at Oxford and Cambridge where these Universities have always catered for the
children of the rich and despite making some progress in correcting such
inequalities are now being forced to accept large numbers of overseas
students whose fees fill part of the hole left by diminishing endowments
and the falling off of enrolments due to the economic depression.
Into this argument I want to insert two betes noir . The first is
Estelle Morris, impeccably educated and Secretary of State for Education who
was responsible for the closure of Bilston Community College, no doubt on
the recommendations of her Higher Civil Servants who are a main source of
racism in education. Ms Morris had neither the common sense or perhaps the
inclination to understand that she was closing the first multicultural
college in Great Britain with about 30% of students and staff from ethnic
minorities, figures never before or since equalled anywhere. Nor had she the
wit to know that in Bilston the last of its heavy industry, steel making,
was closing down and the town’s labour force, largely unskilled would be
workless without the chance of being trained for new jobs except in a
college like Bilston. Estelle Morris eventually became quite ‘umble and
resigned her post saying she was not up to the job. For the moment we can
leave Ms.Morris and turn to Peter Kingston who is a chief writer for the
Guardian Education supplement. Kingston was one of those who helped keep
Bilston Community College closed because he said he would never print
anything from the Friends of Bilston Community College whose Spokesperson
and Whistle Blower I was and whose editor Alan Rusbridger supported Kingston
and so from that day to this no article or letter of support for BCC has
ever appeared in Guardian Education or the main paper.
Kingston’s article this week has been an interview with the new head of
the Learning and Skill Council, who were also responsible for closing
Bilston Community College and have defied a ruling gained under the Freedom
of Information Act that no irregularities were found in the activities of
BCC, but they will not release the information except by exorbitant
payments, which the Friends cannot afford.
Esther Morris’ behaviour is of a different order. She has had the
effrontery to quote the Simon Bolivar orchestra of Venezuela and the system
that ensures that every child in the country is introduced to classical
music at an early age, is provided with instruments free which has resulted
in there being hundreds of classical orchestras throughout the country and
the ’system’ has been exported to other countries. Ms Morris rightly extols
the virtues of such a system, but it is her and the likes of her who have
impoverished our educational system and it will take a change of political
system before Britain can boast of classical music orchestras thoughout the
country.

MUSIC AND CULTURE FOR THE PEOPLE.

WOLVERHAMPTON AGREES TO TALK.
I was most relieved today to have a message from P.M.Meddings, from the
Leaders Office iof Wolverhampton’s Leader’s Office nforming me that emails had not been properly addressesd so that they had not been received, but if I would like to state the natureof
my complaints he will ensure that it is addressed by the proper channels.
This is a good news to me, because it seems that a blockage has been
removed and I can henceforth address members of the City Council and hope to
receive a reply. This is more than a local breakthrough, it will also
influence all those nationally who refuse to answer my communications.
Readers of the BLOG will know full well what my ‘complaints’ are because I
have voiced them so often in the past. But tonight I will summarise them
briefly.
Firstly it is my proposal that the City Two Day Annual Show shall include a
multicultural event similar to that in the Millennial Year when blacks
and whites together were ready to march through the City hand in hand celebrating
our Multiculturalism. As you will know, the event had to be cancelled at the
last minute when a black organisation thought that we were hi-jacking its
name of Carnival. What has happened since is that Ethic Minority groups have
each staged their own ‘Carnival’ which is excellent but nowhere else in
Britain has staged a united Multicultural event, so that Wolverhampton could
still be first; and this is what we have proposed for this year’s event.
Our second proposal concerns the unique position of Wolverhampton which
arose from the May Elections where a hung council of Tories, Labour and
Lib-Dems made possible an Anti-Iraq war coalition of Conservative
Councillors who oppose the war, Labour Councillors who oppose the War and
the five Lib-Dems whose party has always opposed the war. This will have an
immense influence both locally and nationally pulling the rug from under
the feet of Gordon Brown and his New Labour cabinet who support the war in Iraq and give MPsof all parties the chance to vote Brown out of office and elect a Prime
Minister opposed to the war.
The third thing we ask the Council to do is to be mindful of the status
of the City and we seek the Crown of being the Cultural Centre of Britain in
2010 as the most important City in Culture, Education, Sport and Business
and the Wolves winning promotion to the Premiership yesterday will have given
our hopes a tremendous boost.
I am indebted to Mr.Meddings for giving us the chance to do what the
government nationally refuses to do - be an open and democratic society.

THE SPA JOINS THE BARNSBY BLOG.
I was most happy today when ordering a copy of the Sunday Times for its
supplement on Britain’s 1000 Richest People from my local newsagent to learn
that the two brothers who run the Spa shop, Gordon and Maurice Crump were
more than happy to become part of my BLOG. Their shop in the village of
Compton also has a Post Office, which is not at present under threat of
closure, but which will be as New Labour try to dig themselves out of the
economic hole they have created. Also, of course, the brothers livelihood is
endangered by the Slump. It seems that we can help each other. They by
continuing to provide services particularly for poor people, those
incapacitated and the elderly while we help resist any threat of closure in
Compton.

SATHNAM SANGHERA IF YOU DON’T KNOW ME BY NOW….
This remarkable Memoir of Love, Secrets and Lies in Wolverhampton is
already spreading tentacles in Wolverhampton. Bernard Trafford my good
friend ex–head of Wolverhampton Grammar School and now head of Newcastle
Royal Grammar School sent me his new email address and I was able to
appraise him of the story of Sathnam to date. Brought up in Wolverhampton of
mixed Muslim and Punjabi parents his exceptional talents were recognised by
his teachers at Primary School where the head recommended that he take the
Wolverhampton Grammar School exams which he passed with flying colours and
eventually became one of the few local working class lads to be admitted to
Oxbridge where he obtained first class honours and proceeded to become a
journalist, via a spell with Peter Rhodes at our local paper the Express and
Star, to become first a financial journalist on the Financial Times and on
to his present position as a financial journalist on the London Times. I
suggested that Bernard would be interested in the book and he himself might
have been involved in teaching and encouraging Sathnam or would have known
of his years at the Wolverhampton Grammar School.
I also suggested to Sehdev Bismal, another friend that as a Punjabi he
would be interested in the book, but that he as connoisseur of books would
also be interested and will pass his enthusiasm onto his colleagues in the
W’ton Interfaith Group and other organisations to which he belongs.
But that was only part one of Sathnam’s story. Part Two was that his
Muslim mother had only one thought in her mind with regard to her son and
that was that he should marry as soon as possible a nice Muslim girl from
India in an arranged marriage. While he was equally determined to defy his
mother, get himself a home in London where he could lead the life of the
Englishman that he is.
The second part of the story was that it took place in a household
afflicted with mental disorder which his father suffered from and also his
sister Puli, almost as talented as Sathnam, but who dropped out of school
and ended her days in a mental institution. In this, the second part of the
story his, mother was the strong minded head of the family who kept it
going financially by home working on a sewing machine, yet another reason
why Sathnam should not upset his mother.
But the third part of the story is of his mother’s early married life
with his father in her planned marriage as she came as a very young girl
from India to Wolverhampton, The story climaxes with Sathnam’s life being torn apart by his
having to tell his mother that he was a modern Indian not bound by Indian
customs and yet do it in a way that would not upset and perhaps derange his
mother. I’ve no intention of revealing the astonishing denouement and I beg
that you obtain the book for yourself and see that it gets to schools and
colleges in the area.

NEW AREAS OF DEMOCRACY AND REPLY.
Even a cursory look through the Times 2009 list of the 1,000
wealthiest persons in Britain, sheds light on areas such as tax avoidance where
many who receive letters are not too keen to reply. These are the problems
that beset Gordon Brown and his Chancellor as they have struggled to present
a budget, almost universally accepted as Gordon Brown’s, although his
Darling, Alistair, presented it.
After the BAFTA presentations which took up most of last night on BBC
1, I made the remark that it was wholly a white presentation, from
the organisers to the judges, to the participants of awards were all white
people and the fact that we lived in a multicultural world seems to have
escaped their notice.
Today I rang me brother Sidney who spent his life in the film industry
and was himself a member of BAFTA for many years. I asked him if he watched
the programme and he said he didn’t because he didn’t know that it was on.
But he has one of those gadgets which enable you to watch a programme
whenever you want, so he will watch it eventually. I then asked him what he
thought of the principle of the programme and was surprised to hear him
answer Rubbish. Why? Because the entrants and winners were invariably
‘fixed’ and this was discrimination. And because no black people appeared
it was race discrimination. And he, a Tory, and me, a Communist both agreed.
Other areas where at present people fail to reply when they should,
continue to exist and I will only mention the closure of Wolverhampton Eye
Infirmary, the closure of Bilston Community College, and the closure of the
Wolverhampton Race Equality Council which besmirch the name of
Wolverhampton, but remove these bad apples from the barrel and we’re on
course for:

WOLVERHAMPTON CITY OF CULTURE, EDUCATION, SPORT AND BUSINESS 2010

STOP THE WAR WEEK-END.
Yesterday the Stop the War Coalition annual conference took place with a
splendid array of well-known speakers including Tony Benn, George Galloway,
Ken Loach, Jeremy Corbyn MP, Daud Abdulla and others. I am so fed up with
not being able to read these speeches that I emailed Tony Been asking him to
let me have a copy of his speech. It seems to me that it is time to go
further and set up a Progressive Press Agency to maximise contacts and
influence. I notice the Stop the War email has gone to stwc@lists.rise.upnet
I’ll try linking this site up to my BLOG and COPAM tonight. But most of us
need IT tuition by experts such as Martin George and others. What do other
people think?

DIANNE ABBOTT FOR PRIME MINISTER.
Diane Abbott is one of a panel of four who comment on a particular
subject every Sunday in the Observer. Today it was contrition from Ronny Biggs the train robber who is
due to be paroled despite the fact that he will not apologise for the harm
he caused to the train driver, Jack Mills. Diane agrees, as I think most of
us do, that this man has served his time and is now so old that he can do no
further damage and ought to be enabled to spend his last years with his
family. But, typically, Diane, takes the matter further and says that
contrition is necessary before society can forgive a politician and she will
never forgive Tony Blair for taking us into the war in Iraq Only contrition
shows that you have learned from your mistakes, but Blair shows no sign of
contrition for taking us into a war that was not only illegal, but was on
the basis of a lie. As long as he shows no contrition he can never be
forgiven.
Diane exhibits real statesmanship in her attitude and it is a reminder,
that Gordon Brown and his New Labour Cabinet risk the destruction of the
planet with their nuclear madness and there is not moment to be lost in
putting him under lock and key. But who would replace him? It is clear that
Diane as both a black person and black female should replace him NOW. This
would help salvage the reputation of Britain, but it would do more than
that. It would offset the weaknesses shown by Barak Obama the black man to
whom the whole world looked for radical change but who is now making
preparations to continue to occupy these countries. The question for us is whether
Britain prepared for radical change? if it is not it is doomed. If it is,
then Dianne is the fittest person to be PM and we must not only ask Diane to
accept being nominated in Parliament for the post, but to ask Tories who are
opposed to war to support her, not least her two partners in the TV show The
Week Andrew Neil and Michael Portillo.

MORE ON SATHNAM SANGHERA.
We told part of this remarkable story last night.The boy brought up in
Prosser Street, Wolverhampton of a Muslim mother and Punjabi father who rose
from rags to riches becoming the first of his community to attend
Wolverhampton Grammar School, the first to go to Oxbridge, the first to
achieve a double first, the first to tear himself away from his family and
lead an English life in London. But that is only the first part of the
story. The second part of the story is that his mother,a devout Muslim, had
only one thought for her son and that was that he should submit himself to
an arranged marriage in the Muslim tradition. But the only thought that
Sathnam had was to avoid such a marriage and it is in this conflict that we
learn so much of Muslim culture and customs. For instance I little knew of
the significance of boys’ topknots combed with such loving care and then
covered, the example of Sathnams’ being illustrated on the cover of the
book. and the sacrilege when the hair is cut. This second part develops into
the conflict between mother and son for him to lead his own life and how to
disclose the fact that he was married to a white girl and how to explain it
without breaking her heart. But that is only the second theme of the book.
There is a third which I will reveal tomorrow and I can only suggest that
people and schools and colleges get themselves a copy of the book which is
published by Viking an imprint of Penguin Books at ?16-99.

THE BAFTA AWARDS.
This has occupied the whole evening on BBC 1 tonight and it was most
clear that this was a white event, from the people who organised it to the
crowd who watched to those who won awards. This was true of the Booker
awards which I complained about some three years ago and gained from the
organisers a promise to try to change this.The question of black
representation is a current controversy with important black interest groups
suggesting that black actors emigrate to the USA to find work.
Be that as it may. It reminds me of the experience of Greg Dyke when
he became head of the BBC. On calling the first meeting of his executives he
found himself surrounded by a sea of white faces and is reputed as saying,
‘We have a problem here’. Unfortunately he was moved before he had time to
remedy the situation and learn the lesson:

BRITAIN IS MULTICULTURAL SOCIETY

MEDIA ALERT PROTESTS AT THE WAR IN IRAQ IN AN EXCHANGE OF VIEWS WITH MARK
URBAN THE BBC’S DIPLOMATIC EDITOR.
Media Lens which claims to correct for the distorted view of the
corporate media has issued its latest criticism of the press with a
forthright attack on Mark Urban. They write that Urban was formerly defence
correspondent of the Independent. He served in the British Army for nine
months as a regular officer and four years in the Territorials. He has
hosted a series of virtual war games for the BBC and is the author of
several books on war. He also runs a War and Peace BLOG in which in the
latest edition he calls for a plague on both their houses, but in doing so
has misunderstood the whole basis of the anti-war protest. The argument is
that the invasion of Iraq was illegal, in fact a classic example of the supreme war
crime - the waging of a war of aggression. The Nuremberg trials made it
clear that it makes not a jot of difference whether such criminality has
positive outcomes - the waging of aggressive war is illegal.
We are grateful to Media Lens for supporting the view that the GB
Working Class Library and its partner COPAM have held since 2003 -
That a chasm exists in modern society which divides it into barbarians who
support the war in Iraq and civilised people who oppose it.

SATHNAM SANGHERA’S REMARKABLE BOOK, ‘IF YOU DON’T KNOW ME BY NOW’, A MEMOIR
OF LOVE, SECRETS AND LIES IN WOLVERHAMPTON.
For the past three weeks (that’s how long it takes me to read a normal
sized book) I have been reading with ever increasing suppressed excitement a most remarkable book.
It was only almost by chance that I read it. It was brought to me by
my friends at the Wolverhampton Special Needs Library who every month.bring
me a parcel of books related to my special interests which include ethnic
minority books and books about Wolverhampton. The latter I usually reject,
not because I wouldn’t like to read them, but because I just don’t have the
time to read them, but Sathnam’s book combined both these interests and so I
started on a magical journey and I don’t know where it will end.
Let me start with a bare outline of the book. An unremarkable boy of
mixed multicultural heritage, his mother Islamic and his father Punjabi is
put forward by his teachers for a place at Wolverhampton Grammar School
where he flourishes and becomes the first Muslim to win a place at Oxbridge.
Here he leaves home and begins a totally English life and becomes a
journalist whose first post was on the Wolverhampton Express and Star under
the tutorship of Peter Rhodes that paper’s chief reporter, and then he
became economics reporter on the Financial Times and is now a journalist on
the London Tmes, leading a double life in London and Wolverhampton.
For me the most remarkable thing is that Sathnam tells you what it
feels like to be Muslm and the only book I can compare it to is George
Shearing’s book, ‘Lullaby of Birdland’ which not only explains to sighted
people what it feel to be blind, but at the end states that if he were
offered his sight back, he would not take it. George is 90 on the 30th of
April and I hope the birthday card I have sent him reaches him in time for
him to have as brilliant a 90th birthday party as I had, the connection
being that George and I were both brought up in Battersea a suburb of London
in 1919.
I hope I am making clear the importance I attach to Sathnam’s book and
the vitality of his journalism. Because the only other working class black
person I knew who from an orphan upbringing in a London home, where he
become an Arsenal fan and which he has carried over ever since, like me, is
George Frith.
George was a great sportsman and could have played for England at
football or played for England at cricket, or perhaps even both had he not
been struck down by a neuro disease which has now reached the stage that
George has to have his daughter Gloria hold a sheet of paper for him to be
able to hold a telephone conversation.
But there is also another level of interest about Sathnam’s book of
current interest to many people and especially to me. Who was the primary
school head who put his name forward for the grammar school; and who was the
head and who were the teachers who aroused his love of written English. Did
they include Bernard Trafford, a good friend of mine who had been Head of
WGS for many years and for many years before that had been head of music
and with whom I keep in touch now that he has moved to the headship of The
Royal Newcastle Grammar School.
I shall be very pleased indeed to meet Statham Sanghera whose past and
future will feature in this BLOG for a very long time.

WOLVERHAMPTON - THE MULTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF THE FUTURE.

GREETINGS TO MICHAEL MOORE ON HIS 55TH BIRTHDAY.
Only one day late we sent sincere greetings to Michael Moore and hope
all our supporters will do the same by contacting maillist@michaelmoore.com
Our message read: Not only are you one of the greatest filmakers of the
age, but you are also one of the bravest men of the world. You defied Bush
and the war criminals such as Cheney and others of the New American
Century whose aim was to wage continuous unilateral war against a supposed
axis of evil war as the military power greater than all other countries of the world put was fashioned in the image of US imperialism.
Now you continue foremost in the world challenging Bush Blair and Gordon
Brown and his Cabinet who by their Nuclear Madness are threatening the
future of the planet.
You also challenge the deviations of Barak Obama the new black president
of the US who now proposes to keep military forces in Iraq, Afghanistan and
elsewhere in violation of the expectations of the American people who voted
for peace and radical change.
May you continue to enjoy the good health necessary to enable you to
continue this struggle strengthened by the knowledge that you have the
support of the majority of the people of the United Kingdom and the world
who are also
fighting for Peace and Multiculturalism.

END THE WAR IN IRAQ.
Today Britain is a siege economy. Predictions that Alastair Darling
made
only two days ago are being falsified as new information show the Depression
much deeper than thought and the three main parties now seem to agree that
massive cuts will be necessary if we are to survive and ride out the other
side of the worst depression since the 1930s. So the media has been
discussing the whole day what to cut. The armed forces? Not with our alleged
commitments to he people of Iraq, Afghanistan Palestine and elsewhere. So it
will have to be pensions and social services, education and care of old
people.
Yet if the wars in Iraq Afghanistan and elsewhere were ended there
would be such a massive saving that there would be no economic depression
But I have listened and watched discussion all day but few have mentioned the
war in Iraq and those who have are not answering the question that I have been
putting to Google all day: What is the current cost of the war in Iraq to the
British taxpayer? But all that Google gives me are statements made in 2005
which are so out of date as to be valueless. Is this deliberate? Is there
a deliberate censorship? The Peace Movement is as active as ever calling for
the end of the wars, but for me it has got to the stage that I am having to
ask Tony Benn for a copy of his speech which he will make tommorow in
opening the Stop the War national annual conference.
The war situation worsens by the day as at least 84 Iraqis died in
bombings after an alleged capture of the Al-Qaida leader in Iraq Abu Omar
al-Baghdadi. But news of the arrest of this Shi’a leader by groups of
Sunni’s has been made in the past but proved false and only indicates the
divisions in Iraq which Iraqis must solve for themselves, Western white
imperialists have no right in Iraq.

END WARS NOW.

.

THE BUDGET.
What are we to make of Gordon Brown and his tribe of New Labourites. Not
only are they Barbarians prepared to see the world blown to smithereens with
their Nuclear Lunacy, but they have lost all sense of reality and become
phantasy people. The thought of printing billions of pounds to give to
bankers might make some sense if the banks were nationalised, but that is
against New Labour principles, so handing them the money will only result in
poverty, unemployment and houses dispossessed for the poor and vast wealth
for the rich, who, as ever, will keep it for themselves. One of the few men with the vision to see this is the Governor of the Bank of England, but
his sensible policies will be overuled and he will have to do as he is told.
Larry Elliot, the chief economist at the Guardian puts it best by saying
that it leaves a tough decision for the next government which Brown hopes
will be Labour in 2010, but has left a poison pill for Cameron, just in
case. And all of Brown’s cabinet have troubles of their own witness the Home
Secretary and her expenses; Miliband and his civil servants condoning
torture of prisoners ; carbon footprints, to mention only a few problems.
Nothing has been solved, problems have only been postponed.

ST. GEORGE’S DAY.
Today the flag of St. George flies over Wolverhampton as throughout
the land. But who was it who said, Patriotism is the first resort of the
Scoundrel? And certainly the BNP wrap themselves in the Union Jack and it
is this that puts off normal, modest Englishmen like myself.
I never saw any point in being proud of a gynaecological accident
which deposited me in England where people were no different from other
places. Some were good, some were reasonable but some of them so bad that I
wouldn’t touch them with a bargepole, let alone a flagpole.
It was easier for me in my younger days. I was a citizen of the world
and my pride was of being a Communist and my allegiance was to the Working
Class of the World. Certainly not to a mythical Welsh dragon called George.
But times change and the kings and aristocrats whose duty it became to
head all organisations of importance but most of all military organisations
such as the British Legion and regimental associations have died off or
become thin on the ground so that those of humbler birth must take over if
these organisations are to continue. In Wolverhampton it means that people
like my good friend Joe Davies an English patriot through and through who
served his country in the Second World War and ever since has been a member
of his military organisations which included being a Paratroop volunteer and
Joe spends his days now attending funerals of old comrades who die, seeing
that they are decently buried with Joe and others as pall bearers.
So Joe and I, he a natural Tory and Christian and me the atheist and
Communist are now firm friends each appreciating the worth of the other.
Yesterday we fell to discussing my funeral and I said that I didn’t
mind how many clerics attended my funeral as long as they remained in the
audience and had no say in the proceedings which I hope will be arranged by
my family and include a few words of appreciation, and I become consigned to
the flames cremated in a cardboard box. But what about you ashes? asked Joe.
Well, that has not yet been decided. I thought of the ashes being scattered
on the Emirates pitch of the Arsenal, or on the Wolves Molineux pitch. But
at present I think that I might prefer to be finally buried in my own back
garden at 141 Henwood Rd. And so at last the world will be rid (unless it is
ended with all of us being turned into Pompeian type mummified remains) of
that turbulent, but modest person who though of himself as English, but
remained committed to Marx and the International Working Class of the World.

JACK JONES, TRANSPORT AND GENERAL WORKERS UNION LEADER.
Jack, who has died aged 96 was for most of his life a prominent Labour
figure. He was born of a Liverpool docker’s family and left school at age 14
and became an engineering apprentice at five shilling a week and joined the
T&G as they were always known. In 1927 he became a shop steward and by 1934
helped organise a Merseyside contingent for one of the Hunger Marches to
London. In 1937 he joined the International Brigade and fought in Spain
against Franco’s fascists. In 1937 he was badly wounded in the fighting on
the Ebro front, one of the critical battles of the war and lost many close
friends and comrades.
At the outbreak of the Second World War Jack became a full time TGWU
organiser to the Coventry district and helped boost war time production with
his distinctive version of shop floor power. This was not to the liking of
right-wing Labour leaders who effectively black listed him, wrongly accusing
him of being a Communist.
But in 1956 Deakin died and the enormous weight of the union was given
to the left when Frank Cousins was unexpectedly elected. Jack Jones was then
elected to the Labour Party executive. Cousins joined Harold Wilson’s
cabinet, but resigned in 1966 in opposition to Wilson’s wages policy, after
which he resumed his leadership of the T&G, and then supported Jack Jones’
election as the leader of the union. Jones became the most influential
member of the TUC general council, chairing most of the main committees and
with Hugh Scanlon, the president of the AEU (Amalgamated Engineering Union)
became one of the ‘terrible two’ able to persuade the government to create
such new institutions as ACAS to mediate in strikes and the Manpower
Services Commission in charge of work training. Jack Jones was vehemently
opposed to public honours all of which were on offer had he chosen to accept
them. But he rejected them all until the Queen offered him a Companion of
Honour which he accepted as being offered to his union rather than to
himself.
Jack spent his long retirement years as he had spent his whole life,
agitating for better conditions for his union’s pensioners and became
President of the National Pensioner’s Convention and in 2001 handed it over
to his friend Rodney Bickerstaffe, the retired leader of UNISON.
Perhaps the most remarkable fact about Jack was how unchanged he was
throughout his life. His commitment to Socialist ideas was unshakeable, yet
he was the kind of man that almost any person would respect.
Much of the above has been taken from the obituary by Geoffrey Goodman
in the Guardian today.

SALUT - JACK
JONES.

J.G.BALLARD.
The death of one of the most outstanding authors of the twentieth
century is a sad event. Born in 1930 in Shanghai the son of priviledged
expatriates his most famous work was Empire of the Sun, a fictionalised
account of his upbringing in a Japanese internment camp. This was later
turned into a very successful film by Stephen Spielberg.
I was naturally interested in Ballard since I served nearly four years
in India and Burma during the Second World War. But it was something that
has not appeared in his obituary which first attracted him to me. This was
that he had been offered an honour which he had as contemptuously rejected
as did Benjamin Zephaniah as being a theatrical throwback to an outdated
world to continue the reign of throne and aristocracy and the continued
exploitation of working people.
These views tally with Bengy’s views that no black person should accept
the ‘dishonours’ of an empire which ceased to exist in the 1950s, but which
had in the previous 400 years exploited and murdered black people.
I had previously recommended that Bengy should be appointed the next
Poet Laureate, especially as the present incumbent, Andrew Motion had been
the first Laureate ever to resign, saying that it affected the quality of
his poetry and that a job which consisted almost entirely of writing fawning
paeans of praise to the Queen on her Birthdays (both of them) was not a job
for a normal poet.
Bengy has in fact refused to consider becoming Poet Laureate, although
I think he could transform the post as befitting to the new world of
multiculturalism. This is particularly important when large numbers of
black people have been thoughtless enough to accept CBEs or OBEs where
they populate the House of Lords when they should be agitating to abolish
it. And even Lady Scotland who has become the first woman, and black at
that, to become Lord Chancellor should turn her thoughts to solidarity with
her fellow blacks.

BOOKS AND THE WOLVERHAMPTON CHIEF LIBRARIAN.
I wrote of Karen Lees, the chief librarian of Wolverhampton, amid
complaints that she was transforming the Central Reference Library from a
place where newspapers and periodicals could be read into a Computer based
library which one correspondent in a letter to the Express and Star likened
an attempt to read a newspaper as being like a man on the London tube in the
rush hour. I confessed to some sympathy with Karen a she faced the almost
impossible task of marrying last century librarianship with the computer
based modern world of the 21st century. But my son, William confirmed the
complaints and added that the reading room smelled and I added this to the
complaints.
Karen, however, has replied to me today saying that the removal of
newspapers and journals from the upper floor to the ground floor is to make
them more accessible to readers and begin the process of merging both the
staff and the stock of the lending and reference sections. The decision was
taken after much public consultation. This area is not full of computers, as
alleged, and there is no intention of making it so because there is already
a Learning Centre in another section of the Library.
Karen agrees with the writer of the Express and Star who stated that he
area downstairs is very cramped, but it is work in progress and has now
changed from the situation described by the letter writer. We are making
these changes during normal working hours in order not to close the Library
while these changes take place. Staff continually monitor the area, so
please feel free to make any comments to them.
I replied to Karen thanking her for her prompt and friendly reply, saying that
I would judge her statements from the occasional reports of my son Billy,
who is not able to attend daily because of parking problems, but my
sympathies were with her.
I also took the opportunity of raising with her the questions of my own
George Barnsby Working Class Library and Free Communist Bookshop
incorporating COPAM and particularly what will happen when I die. I accept
that most of the books are likely to be worthless as there will be other
libraries holding copies which can be downloaded for free. And in that
regard my Working Class Library is particularly advanced as virtually all my
writings can be downloaded gratis and this will increasingly be the case as
the Computer Age advances and all books are put on the web. This will be a
fantastic advance for scholars and readers who will never have to leave
their own homes to read and study. But for some years my library, the only
one fashioned on Eddie and Ruth Frow’s Working Class Movement Library will
have to have trustees which will include my wife Esme, and my two sons but
will be strengthened if they include librarians and Libraries sympathetic to
the working class, Marxist approach. To know that, for instance such
libraries as the Wolverhampton Central Library, the Wolverhampton Grammar
School Library and possibly Wolverhampton University Library, not to mention
Wolverhampton Archives, the local WEA branch and W’ton History and Heritage
Society understand the importance of retaining this local material I shall
die a contented man. More contentious is my concept of Living History
through which I lead my political life and is gathered in my BLOG now
produced almost daily and which now comprises almost 800 BLOGS which
includes the last two thirds of my Autobiography which anyone will be able
to put together from the BLOG while I get on with my political life. And if
no one wants to complete my life I shall have been too long dead to worry
about it.

WOLVERHAMPTON PREMIER CITY OF CULTURE, EDUCATION, SPORT AND
BUSINESS 2010

AN EMAIL TO GEOFF PATTON THE DEPUTY HIGH COMMISSIONER OF THE PORT OF SPAIN
Geoff Patton is the son of a neighbour and friend of ours, Laurence
Patton, who lives a few doors from us in Henwood Rd. That his son was in
the diplomatic service was a surprise to all of us; that he held such an
exalted position was an eye opener. Larry and his wife Jean have suffered
greatly recently. Larry recovered from cancer only to become re-infected and
he now is on chemotherapy treatment, and his son, like us his neighbours,
have been concerned for Larry. But Geoff has recently married and his duties
preclude his taking leave at present to visit his father.But in his letter
to his father he said that his wife would be tied up with preparations for
the visit of the US President Barak Obama to the island, and he himself has
a number of issues to attend to in connection with the Commonwealth Heads
meeting due to take place in Port of Spain in November.
Scenting interesting items for my BLOG I asked Larry if he minded if I
contacted his father and suggested that he might allow us to print news of
these events.Larry had no objections so off went the email today.
I congratulate Geoff on his diplomatic successes and told him that I
wrote a daily, radical, Communist BLOG and invited him to sample it and I
hoped he would allow me to print reports of these important events. We must
now wait and see if him and his wife reply. In the meantime Laurence is
moving into sheltered accommodation at the James Beattie Care Home which is
near to the Wolves football ground. But he cannot sell his house and as
prices plummet there is no knowing how long it will remain unsold, but I’m
sure Larry will make himself very comfortable in his new Home even though he
is a Manchester United supporter.

ARSENAL AND ITS SUPPORTERS’ TRUST.
Most readers of this BOG will know that I support two football teams,
Arsenal who I have supported for almost 80 years and Wolves who I have
supported ever since we came to Wolverhampton in 1954. Also that I support
these teams not only for their history and present prowess, but because
these two teams have led the way in advocating that teams be owned by
Britishers not foreigners and also that they belong to the local community
which they serve.
It was this which attracted me to Arsenal who had been owned by
merchant bankers Hill-Samuel and were a private company whose shares were
not on the stock exchange and so could not be purchased by outsiders. It was
this that attracted me to the Arsenal Supporter’s Trust (AST) which at the
time followed this policy and when I learned that life membership could be
bought for ?150 I signed up.
The Wolves followed a different route to patriotism. Sir Jack Hayward
is a super-patriot who made his money in the West Indies and who saved
Wolves from almost certain extinction when he bought them. By the time he
sold them he has spent many millions of pounds as well as creating the
marvellous new Molineux stadium as a ground fit for football of the
Premiership standard. When he decided to sell the club he sold it to a
Liverpudlian, Steve Morgan, for ?10 on condition that he spent at least
?30million the team and Sir Jack reserved a seat on the Wolves board and a
veto to ensure that it remained in British hands.
But the Arsenal Supporters’ Trust have in my view departed from the
principle of British ownership by allowing two foreigners, Ivan Gazidis, a
Russian oligarch and also an American sporting entrepreneur to purchase
nearly 30% of Arsenal’s shares and hence Arsenal are now in the same
position as Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City and other
teams owned by foreigners and whose wealth is rapidly disappearing and who
could well become bankrupt in these days of economic Depression and the
threat of extinction hangs over Arsenal as it does these other clubs
So although I was pleased to get an email from the Trust today I was in
no mood to agree to the proposals in it. This was that they were delighted
to invite all their members to a meeting with the new chief executive, Ivan
Gazidis on 11 May who will give his views, introduce himself and set out his
plans for taking Arsenal forward.
My reply stated that there was little point in our relationship unless
AST answered my criticisms of their conduct and demanding that they should
do so.
But then tonight I hear about the new Wimbledon stadium which has a
retractable roof and I remember that I had asked the Trust to give me an
estimate of what it would cost to put a roof on the Emirates stadium and in
fact Ken Friar, then a director of Arsenal had been requested to give me an
answer. And since most people will agree that not only tennis but also
football and of course our new Olympic Stadium which at present has no plans
for a roof, but there is still time to remedy this and the 21st century
demands that most sports should be played in all-weather stadiums.

4-4.
You can’t keep English football out of the headlines. After Manchester
United’s defeat by Everton yesterday and the end of a dream for a grand slam
of 6 trophies this year comes tonight’s Arsenal draw with Liverpool at
Anfield. This has scuppered any chance of Liverpool being Premiership
winners, but also Arsenal’s already faint hopes of winning the Premiership.
This leaves Arsenal’s hopes of silverware (apart from their youth teams and
their women’s team - and why shouldn’t they have the same status as the
adult team?) the winning of the most prestigious prize of all - the European
League. And I’m not going to spoil their chances by saying that .’I'm
quietly confident’ of winning it as I did with the FA Cup. But I will say:

UP THE GOONERS.

SCANDAL AND JOY ARE INTERTWINED.
As Gordon Brown and his government reel from the latest scandal a
feeling of joy sweeps over cities such as Wolverhampton, Birmingham and
Leicester as their football clubs win or stand on the brink of promotion.
Complaints of brutality by police officers against protestors continue
to pour in concerning both the G20 Demonstration as well as environmental
protesters where the police seem to be targeting possible protestors before
actual demonstrations begin. These complaints will be considered by two
influential parliamentary committees and the police are not averse to a full
examination of their methods. With regard to torture of prisoners in
Guantanamo and similar prisons elsewhere not only are British police accused
of being present when torture took place, but they have now been accused of
passing information on to a private firm as emails show civil servants
passing on data to E.on. Alistair Darling’s budget is also under scrutiny
Larry Elliott the Guardian’s economics editor puts Brown’s dilemma
succinctly Either be bold and lend and print money to give to the people
and thus give impetus to industry or to give the money to bankers who will
not spend the money except to give vast salaries and bonuses to its
managers. The situation calls for nationalisation of the banks, but this
would be too much like Socialism to Brown and his New Labour cabinet and
Elliott suggests that the budget next week will be mild and watery, which
will do little to remedy the situation.
A similar dilemma faces the government with football. On the surface
everything is fine with joy and sorrow equally divided according to the team
you support. But the government at least understand that billions of pounds
spent on buying players and millions spent paying their wages is a situation
which cannot continue and the basic principle of accountancy must be
re-established that clubs only spend what they earn especially in these day
of economic slump. So MPs are beginning to suggest that the governance of
football is faulty and legislation will be necessary if football is to
continue to be not only exciting, as befits the country where the game
originated, but that elementary principles of good housewifery ensure that
our clubs continue to exist.

NASIR KHAN HAS HIS SAY.
More on the ball is my good friend from Poonch in Kashmir but now of
Norway, who, as I have said before, is the greatest radical living authority
on
Middle Asian affairs (India, Pakistan, Kashmir). He reacted quickly to my
suggestion that he reply to Barak Obama’s recent ‘key statement’ on Iraq.
Nasir said that Obama’s decision not to prosecute CIA interrogators who used
waterboarding on terrorism suspects amount to breach of international law as
do other techniques used by the CIA such as weeklong sleep deprivation,
forced nudity and putting insects in with a tightly confined prisoner. A
full version of Nasir’s reply can be downloaded on
http://nasir.khan.blogspot.com/2009/04/will-obama-vacate-iraq.html .
Nasir tells me that the response to this article has been considerable.
Over 45 news agencies, journals and websites have published the article,
together with an American agency called Global Post which can be seen from
typing in Google www.globalpost which will print an article from his BLOG
every day. This is a notable contact with Americans who oppose the war in
Iraq.

STOP THE WAR COALITION NEWS LETTER 20/4/09
Book now for the Stop the War Conference on Saturday 25 April from
9-30am to 5-30 at South Camden Community School London. To register as
delegate or observer phone 020 7801 2768. The Conference will be an
opportunity to discuss the war on terror and the next steps for the anti-war
movement. Sessions will be: Tony Benn - Obama and the war; Troops out of
Afghanistan with Rose Gentle; Palestine with Karma Nabulsi and others;
Muslims and Civil Liberties with George Galloway and Iraq Briefing with Sami
Ramadami. Other speakers include film director Ken Loach, Guardian
journalist Seamus Milne, Lindsey German. Jeremy Corbyn MP and chaired by
Andrew Murray Stop the War national chair..

STOP THE WARS - NOW.