The Barnsby Blog

DAY SEVEN OF A PLANET NOT FACED WITH EXTINCTION ?
Obama’s plan still holds all of us in thrall. The prospect of the
ending of all nuclear weapons is the best news of all time. But peace
prospects have been dented today by
Obama’s insistence that more British troops be sent to Afghanistan. If war
is to be intensified, the prospect of some one using nuclear weapons is
intensified.

DAVID CAMERON - TORTURER AND MURDERER.
Cameron is already guilty of supporting the war in Iraq and failing
to reply to my charges that he will never become Prime Minister while he
supports that war and that his failure to answer my charges renders him an
accessory to that war and a destroyer of our democracy and makes us no
better than the dictatorships we claim that we abhor. I have repeatedly
demanded that he reply to me but to no avail.
But today he compounds these crimes agreeing to the demand of Obama to
send more British troops to Afghanistan. The war in Afghanistan as are the
wars in Iraq, Palestine, and elsewhere are Neo-Con adventures which never
should
have taken place and the soon we leave the sooner the slaughter of innocent
people will cease and the deaths of our military personnel whose bravery
cannot hide the fact that they shouldn’t be there.
So the Tory Party is now party to Torture, and Crimes against Humanity
which will bring them before the Court of Human Rights at the Hague.
Come on David change you policy immediately and let me know that you
are doing so rather than aligning yourself with Gordon Brown.

THE ARSENAL STADIUM MYSTERY
From the depths of my library I have unearthed a book long since
forgotten. The Arsenal Stadium Mystery by Leonard R. Gribble and published
by The Book Club an organisation that still exists. This was one of the
‘firsts’ of the great Arsenal teams of the 1930s one of which is a record
that cannot be taken by any other team and that is that Arsenal have never
been relegated from the top division since 1918 when football was resumed
after World War One. The second record is to have had an Underground
station named after them when Gillespie Road station was renamed Arsenal. A
third record is that the club has always been owned by English people,
notably in the 1930s Merchant Bankers, Hill-Samuel’s, which was a private
company so that shares were not traded on the stock exchange and this has
continued to be the case up to the present, although I, who am a life
member
of the Arsenal Trust am frightened that control of the club will pass this
year to two blocks of private investors, one Russian and one American. But
this can wait. Today I want to talk about the Arsenal Stadium Mystery.
This was originally produced as a book in 1939. Gribble was a prolific
writer of detective stories, but this was the first devoted wholly to a
football team, the Arsenal. It sold well enough among Arsenal supporters
but was never highly regarded by book reviewers and even I who bought a copy
of the book at the time and was thrilled that the great names of Arsenal
players of the time were in it, I wasn’t highly impressed with the quality
of the book. The copy I have now is a 1941 edition dedicated to George
Allison (the manager who succeeded the great Herbert Chapman when he
suddenly and tragically died) ‘Without whom the book could not have been
produced’. It also has a page of Arsenal autographs of life size, including
Eddie Hapgood, their captain, Cliff Bastin, one of the earliest teenager to
play in the First Division and others in the transitional team of 1939
including Ted Drake, George Male, Jack Crayston, Alf Kirchen, Gordon
Bremner, Bernard Joy (the amateur) George Swindin the goalkeeper Bryn Jones
(the record buy brought to replace Alex James) and the two administrators
Tom Whittaker famed trainer and later manager of Arsenal and the brains
behind the show George Allison who was an early radio commentator of the
game.
But more to my liking was the film of the same name made in the same
year in which all the Arsenal team played a fictional team one of whose
members was mysteriously murdered on the pitch. The fact that 1939 was the
year of the outbreak of World War Two limited the impact of both the book
and the film but 2009 is the 70th anniversary of book and film and a new
edition of the book was already published in 2008 and the film may become
part of a cult and has already been released on Channel 4 this year.
For me involvement with Arsenal is in my bloodstream and I have watched
Arsenal tonight play and win (not too convincingly) at 2-0 against the Greek
team Olympiacos where their goalie and captain played a heroic role and
looked as if he would deny Arsenal the whole match, but justice was
belatedly done when first Arshevin and then van Persie scored for Arsenal.
But to return to my theme. I have decided that I want the Arsenal
Stadium Mystery on my Website among all my own writings and the writings of
others if deemed appropriate, so that they can be downloaded for free, thus
justifying the Free Communist Bookshop part of my title. The problem is that
the nearly 300 page book will cost several hundred pounds to put on to the
web and although my devotion to the club would extend to expending such a
sum. I thought it might be more appropriate if I asked my many Arsenal fan
supporters if they might contribute to the project. More details will
follow.

WOLVERHAMPTON - CITY OF CULTURE, EDUCATION, SPORT, HISTORY AND BUSINESS
2010.
Wolverhampton has all the potential to be the Cultural centre of Britain
and there are special organisation set up to fulfil this function. This is
particularly the case if one could get the City council to fulfil its unique
position of forming an all-party coalition of anti-Iraq war councillors
which would influence Gordon Brown to oppose the war. In this case such a
vast amount of money would be saved which would indicate that the Economic
Slump is man made and that man is Brown. The failure of the Tory dominated
city council to either recognise this or to argue with me about it is a
crime for which they will pay dearly unless they change their mind.. But
time has run out ad all I can add is:

TAKE WOLVERHAMPTON INTO THE TWENTY FIRST
CENTURY

DAY SIX OF A PLANET NOT FACED WITH EXTINCTION?
The great surge of joy that Obama brings with his avowed aim of ending
all nuclear weapons still exists on Day 6. Yet still the killings in Iraq
and
elsewhere continue.The fact that we have no reliable figures of people
killed by imperialist forces suggests there is still a divide between those
who have and those who have not. But the planet still exists and we must be
thankful for that.

SUNDAY’S NATIONAL DEMONSTRATION AT THE LABOUR PARTY CONFERENCE.
Called by the Stop the War Campaign and supported by almost every
Socialist, Communist and Peace Group in Britain this mighty demonstration
showed that the Peace Movement is alive and well in Britain.with hundreds of
Stop the War Campaign groups taking part. It was a one day Convention of the
Left. Opening the plenary session John McDonnell Labour MP said that we
faced the greatest crisis of capitalism since the 1930s. Stopping the Tories
getting elected was a top priority. We need a Socialist Labour Party, but
that is something we don’t have but must build.. Every speaker suggested the
need for Unity.
The above report was courtesy of the Morning Star and I was astonished
that the Guardian made no mention of the Demonstration nor did any of its
columnists and if the centre-left Guardian did not mention it is
unlikely that the tabloids did. Nor was it mentioned on TV. Yet we call
ourselves a democratic country

THE EXPOSURES OF IAN PIRIE.
Ian Pirie is an Assistant Principal of the Edinburgh College of Art. His
sensational letter in the Guardian of 24 September suggesting that Brown had
written a glowing preface to a book by Edgar Kristol’s wife, founders of the
Neo-Cons gave me a late night, because I had lost his letter and said it was
a rumour that Brown was a supporter of the Neo-Cons of the American century.
But last night I discovered the letter and ended my BLOG with the words, ‘It
would be a fitting end to the most hideous variant of true labour if it
could be shown that New Labour was born as it is now manifestly dying as a
lackey of US imperialism.’ By the time I had made these alterations it was
almost 3am, but the late hour was justified by my learning from Google who
Ian Pirie is and I hope he will permit me to put his name in my address book
to receive a daily BLOG.
It will also give me the opportunity of quoting from the letter below
Professor Pirie’s which was from Enrico Tortolano of Kingston-on-Thames
which pours scorn on the idea that Gordon Brown should be named statesman of
the year.

WHAT GOOGLE TOLD ME ABOUT ALISTAIR DARLING.
It would be a shame not to share the seven pages of information that
Google gave me about Darling. He was born in London but has illustrious
Scottish connections including Sir William Darling the Conservative MP for
Edinburgh.
He was educated in Kirkaldy at private schools and at Aberdeen
University which he left with the degree Bachelor of Laws. While a student
he was a supporter of the International Marxist Group, the British Section
of the Trotskyist Fourth International He was elected a Lothian councillor
in Lothian in 1982. He joined the Labour Party at the age of 23 in 1977 and
became a Labour MP in 1987 and in opposition became spokesman on Home
Affairs and spokesman for the Treasury under Kinnock and then Blair.
In office from 1997 he became one of only three people who have been in
the Cabinet ever since, the other two being Brown and Jack Straw..
But also Darling has been looking after himself. In May 2009 the Daily
Telegraph reported that Darling changed the designation of his second home
four times in four years, allowing him to claim for the costs of his
Edinburgh home and to buy and furnish a flat in London. In June Darling
apologised ‘unreservedly’ for a mistaken claim of ?700 and agreed to repay
the money. He was supported by the Prime Minister who said that it was an
‘inadvertent mistake’. Well, he would, wouldn’t he?

CATCHING UP WITH THE NON-REPLIERS.
Beginning with the Tory leader of the opposition David Cameron I have
again warned him he will never be Prime Minister while he supports the wars
in Iraq, Afghanistan etc and in failing to reply to me he subverts our
democracy.. Another warning went to our local people who could form the only
local Council in Britain to have an all anti -Iraq war coalition Council.
Instead of which the three main parties prefer to quarrel with each other as
to who can inflict the most serious cuts. Tomorrow it will be Sir Trevor
Phillips turn.

THE MAN MADE CRISIS.
I will say again that if Gordon Brown would end his wars such a vast
amount of money would be released that the Economic Crisis would end and
there would be enough left over to finance our social services properly. No
one at the fairy land Labour Party Conference at Brighton this week can
understand this simple proposition as they grimly prepare for an election
which will seal the doom of the New Labour Project despite the puny efforts
of John Prescott and Lord Mandelson who have been brought back from the
dead

END WARS - BRING PEACE AND PROSPERITY.

DAY FIVE OF A PLANET NOT FACED WITH EXTINCTION ?
Still Obama’s promise to abolish all nuclear weapons is holding. Despite
his basic error of appointing a Republican war monger, Joe Biden, as his
vice president who would automatically become President if Obama were
assassinated and there are enough mindless racists in the USA to do this
even though he is strictly guarded. Indeed there are those who believe that
the USA is more racist than it has ever been such as Jimmy Carter,
ex-president of the USA, but I agree with those who say that a more racist
USA would never have elected a black president and this will remain the case even if Obama fails. The USA, and the world would then have to pick itself up,dust itself down and start all over again. But let’s hope Obama is
successful. Day 5 verdict?  Slightly better odds than Day Four when Gary
Mills ofthe New York Review of Books made his devastating criticism of Obama.  But still a question mark.

THE END OF THE NEW LABOUR PROJECT
As the Labour Party Conference begins tomorrow and Labour MPs face the
chill of a November general election the few ghosts of the past who still
support Brown look at their majorities and are prepared to double cross
Brown and choose another non person as Prime Minister in the vain hope that New Labour can be saved
Who could ever have envisaged that Brown believing that he still exists
as a person could think of handing over control of the non-existent party to
Lord Mandelsohn a vandal if ever there ever was one who was convicted of
borrowing money to build a mansion from a minister of the crown which wasillegal. Or that David Blunkett should present himself to the public who
from being the first blind man to become a minister disgraced himself by
being caught with his pants down and as Minister of Education said that he
would never admit to any error and closed Bilston Community College, the
first multicultural college in Britain.
But the rats are now leaving the sinking ship and Alistair Darling now
the Chancellor of the Exchequer but best remembered as a main advocate of
Educational Academies which would take control of education from local
authorities and put it in the hands of private business interests with the
ultimate aim of privatising all our social services. Darling today claims
that the Labour leadership has ‘lost the will to live’ a stinging rebuke
which he extends to the whole administration.
Or Jacqui Smith, Home Secretary whose inflated expenses included
payments for pornographic material for her husband. Polling evidence from
the think tank COMPASS favourable to Labour says that new polling evidence suggests that its number of seats would fall from the present 349 to a rump of around 130 in opposition. Peter Hain is also critical believing that there may not be enough time to make up lost ground and that a new leader will be necessary.
Whether Gordon Brown is removed at the Conference is immaterial. His
fate will be determined by his foreign policy and if he renounced his wars
enough money would be saved to solve the Economic Slump and save our social services. And why not Diane Abbott for Prime Minister?

THE LICHFIELD HOARD
This hoard, accidentally discovered by the man whose ground it is on,
will change our concepts of the so-called Dark Ages and there will no doubt
be an important section of the archaeological world who will lobby for this
unprecedently important hoard to be permanently displayed in London.
    We in the West Midlands have experience of this sort of thing. In
Walsall in the 1930s Jacob Epstein the US born sculptor died leaving one
of the greatest collection of pictures, sculptures and other artefacts to
the New Art Gallery in Walsall.
    There were six Garman sisters and one brother. The children of the
Wednesbury Medical Officer of health moved from the midlands to London to express their talents which were to make them scandalous and most of the sisters had liaisons. Kathleen, the eldest, became the mistress of
Epstein and when his wife died they were married. In due course Epstein died and left all his worldly goods to his wife. Kathleen proposed that this
fabulous collection should remain in Walsall, but a powerful art lobby
believed it was too important to remain in the provinces and wanted it moved to London. This Kathleen rejected and she, together with her friend SallyRyan had a special gallery built, the New Art Gallery and there was
deposited the Garman-Ryan Collection where it still remains. It is hoped
that the Lichfield hoard will remain in the city whose most prominent
citizen has so far been Samuel Johnson.

THE BATTLE OF TETTENHALL
    Wolverhampton is no stranger to the history of the Anglo-Saxons. In
this city was fought the penultimate battle of significance for national
history. If we had won the Battle of Tettenhall there would have been no
Battle of Hastings. But we didn’t we lost it But if we had won it we would
no doubt be speaking in modern times not a variant of Anglo-French, but a
variant of Mercian and we might have developed as an industrial nation as
early as did those Lichfield people whose talents are most clearly
demonstrated in the Lichfeld hoard.

THE NEO-CON ORIGINS OF NEW LABOUR.?
    A letter to the Guardian of  24 Sep by Ian Pirie of Upminster says that he found interesting the fact that Irving Kristol,founder and champion of new labour moved to the right under the influence of his wife, Gertrude Himmelfarb. He is at present reading a book by Himmelfarb entitled Roads to Modernity and was amazed to find that Gordon Brown wrote a glowing preface to it

     It would be a fitting end to the most hideous variant of true Labour if
it could be shown that New Labour was born as it is now manifestly dying as a lackey of US imperialism.

             NOT NEW LABOUR NOR OLD LABOUR JUST LABOUR

DAY FOUR OF A PLANET NOT FACED WITH EXTINCTION ?
Obama’s promises of a nuclear weapon free world still holds. Those who
cling to his coat tails such as Bush, Blair and Brown still echo the voice
of their master, but with snivelling reservations such as Trident submarine
replacements, makes one woner what they would do if their master turned
tail.

A RADICAL CRITICISM OF OBAMA BY THE NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS.
Fortunately there is one US journalist who is following the tradition
of opposition to the hand that feeds it which resulted in the expose of the
Vietnam War and another journalist yesterday from the New York Times, if I
am not mistaken who pointed out that innocent people were still being killed
every day in Iraq, Afghanistan etc as a result of the continuation of the
war. But the article from the NY Review of books by Garry Wills is called
the Entangled Giant and is a fundamental criticism of Obama.
He begins by saying that when George W.Bush left the White House
unpopular and disgraced it was clear what changes were necessary. Illegal
acts should cease; torture and indefinite imprisonment cease, unilateral
cancelling of treaties, defiance of the Constitution, nullification of laws
by signing statements should not be exercised and Judges who will give the
President any power he asks for should not be confirmed.
But the momentum of accumulating power in the Executive is not easily
reversed. It was not created by the Bush administration. The whole history
of the US since World War Two has been a transfer of authority to the
President. The monopoly of use of nuclear weaponry, the cult of the
commander- in- chief, the world-wide network of military bases to maintain
nuclear alert and supremacy; the secret intelligence agencies; the entire
national security state, the classification and clearance systems may not be
easy to dismantle. Sixty eight straight years of war emergency powers
(1941-2009 have made the abnormal normal.
The truth of this was borne out in the first few days of Obama’s rule
when he became head of the CIA, Leon Panetta said that ‘extraordinary
rendition’, the practice of sending prisoners to foreign countries was a
tool he wanted to retain. Obama’s nominee for soliciter-general Elena Kagan
told Congress that she agreed that a terrorists captured anywhere should be
subject to battle field laws. Obama has also refused to release documents
showing ‘enhanced interrogation’. He has also said that past crimes will not
be investigated and this was the bedrock of the Nuremburg Trials without
which Crimes against Humanity will never be brought to trial.
So it is clear that Obama has weaknesses as well as strengths and it
will need the strength of ordinary people everywhere to see that his
wonderful vision of a nuclear free world comes about.

ANGRY PEOPLE
The world is full of angry people who want to change the present
world. Many of them would have been at the Convention of the Left
demonstration today. This is an excellent movement for unity, peace and
multiculturalism consisting of socialists, communists, Greens, CND, Women’s
Groups and  other groups. This is one of the largest groups of angry
people determined to change society.
But this BLOG and COPAM has been besieged by people this week
requesting that I publicise their work. Yesterday it was Lindsay Hutchinson,
Marxist, dissenter so extreme that his favourite author is Enver Hoxha the
Albanian. He has changed his abode from Birmingham to Bangor where his skill
as bookseller and bookbinder can be combined to create a working class
outpost in North Wales. But when it comes to fundamental changes such as we
have seen in the last week of the prospect of a nuclear weapons free world,
Lindsay says he depends on my BLOG to guide him.
But the angriest man of the week is my good friend Mushtaq Shafi who is
determined that the world is changed and eager to lend a helping hand and
he challenges me to tell of his experiences. So here goes. Mushtak is a
member of a group called Whitmore Reans Partnership charged with the task of
uniting the whole community. At a well attended meeting this week which
numbered friends of mine as well as Mushtaq noted as persons who get things
done and serving the community instead of serving themselves contaned such
such people as Rob Marris the MP for the area voted by his peers as
backbencher of the year and well regarded by his constituents as a man of
action locally, and also Sandra Samuels a black girl noted for her work
with fellow ethnic minority people and also the self-effacing C of E priest
Tim Fyffe were all at a meeting which democratically elected Mushtak as chairman, but
this has been vetoed by the local authority. There are a number of points
here. Firstly Mushtak suffers from a compulsive syndrome, although he won’t
thank me for mentioning it, but it affects others similarly disabled who
have great difficulty in finding employment voluntary or communal, full-time
or part-time and are thus discriminated against because of their disability
and for whom Mushtak is a welcome example. All these people wish to change
society and are angry at the many bureaucrats who stand in their way.
Finally I want to say that I am angry too and amd at odds with friends
such as George Galloway and Ken Purchase as well as foes such as Richard
Carr the chief executive of Wolverhampton who has never answered the
question of Who Runs Wolverhampton or my erstwhile friend Roy Lockwood
director of education in Wolverhampton who is determined that all our
secondary schools be knocked down to be replaced by Educational Academies under a scheme of vandalism called Building Schools for the Future
which will take our schools away from the local authority and given over to
privateers whose thoughts are for self not community. Roy was once my friend, but no longer is 

     A full days’s work and I will end the day with;

SERVE THE WOLVERHAMPTON COMMUNITY NOT SELF

DAY THREE OF A PLANET NOT FACED WITH EXTINCTION ?
Still a question mark. Still the feeling that leopards cannot change
their spots - and how dangerous were the leopards of Obama and Bush and
Blair and Brown when their policies were based on nuclear weapons and not
abolition as they now claim, but we live in hope.
But a basic problem remains. While professing peace the innocent
people of Iraq and Afghanistan, of Palestine continue to be butchered by
missiles which kill wedding parties rather than the ‘terrorists’ on whom
they are targeted.
Matters seem to coming home to roost as a Wolverhampton soldier Michael
Lockett became the 217th soldier to die in Afghanistan. His friend, Luke
Cole, also from Wolverhampton praised the man who together with him
displayed astonishing valour in September 2007 when both won Military
Crosses for ’supreme valour’ in saving a fellow comrade’s life despite being
shot twice.
Surely this is bravery to be saluted, but it cannot disguise the fact
that they should not have been in Afghanistan and it is the height of
hypocrisy for Gordon Brown to praise their bravery when he himself was
responsible for their death
Fortunately the soldiers serving in these wars are increasingly
recognising that they are illegal, racist and unwinnable and these include
the commanders in chief of our own forces.

:COMRADE EGGINTON’S REPLY TO MY LETTER ON TERRORISM
I was ever so pleased that the Express and Star published my letter on
how Gordon Brown can cease being a Torturer and Nuclear Maniac and instead
of being a Barbarian joins us Civilised people who are opposed to war. Not
only is it in accord with the majority of the people in the world, which
includes those who run our local newspaper, but it has prompted my good
comrade Joe Egginton to agree with me in principle, but also to disagree
with me on the fight against terrorism.
Here I must ask Comrade Joe to raise his sights to who is the greatest
terrorist in the world and this is George W.Bush and his Neo-Cons of the
so-called American Century which states that if the United States is more
powerful than all other countries in the world both militarily and
economically then it is entitled to act unilaterally, to ignore such
international bodies as the United Nations and mould the world into the
image of the United States. Following such ‘principles’ the US has invaded
almost every part of the world. They are the main terrorists in the world
and terrorism in the world would disappear almost at once as the innocent
people of Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, Gaza and Africa ceased to be killed
by these Torturers and Nuclear Maniacs which have ruled and exploited them
so that they have no alternative but to become the Terrorists who Comrade
Joe Egginton wants to destroy. Come on, Joe, lets work together for peace
and multiculturalism.

A VISIT FROM LINDSAY HUTCHINSON
Lindsay is one of my favourite dissenters. Not only does he believe
that that most lefties are betraying the inter ests of working people, but
he
himself favours the extremism of Enver Hoxha the late Communist leader of
Albania. whose two books in my possession are ‘Euro-Communism is
anti-Communism’ and his memoirs, ‘With Stalin.’
For many years he ran the Bookshop called Bookbane in Birmingham which
was the last working class book shop in Britain and because he displayed the
works of Stalin and Hoxha his windows were smashed. Also he was arrested in
Birmingham, ill-treated by the police and served a long jail sentence. He
also ran a youth club in Birmingham which the City authorities wanted to
close, but never managed it while Lindsay was in charge.
However, like all of us Lindsay became old and decided to move the
Bethesda in North Wales where his 90 plus year old Mother lived and make
his living by opening another bookshop and which together with his book
binding skills could make a living.
But Lindsay will have nothing to do with computers which to him are
the works of the bourgeoisie and deliberately calculated to stop people
thinking of socialism and he quotes Bangor University, where he studied in
his youth as an example whose staff and students are intent on a career
which means that scientific studies are phased out and in favour of Business
and such Studies. He quotes the example of Bangor University being the only
University in Britain founded by working men, for it was the Quarrymen of
Bangor who found it necessary from their experiences to have a university
education and went on to found one.
I am constantly pressing him to have a computer and so let his views be
heard by thousands of people instead of me alone for who he scribbles barely
legible notes, especially as he has now decided to write an autobiography of
which I greatly approve, but urge him to release parts of it immediately
because his book which he wants to be interesting and well written as well
as informative and he is likely to be dead before this opus appears. His
answer? He doesn’t care about posterity and quotes the example of Robert
Tressell the biographer of The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists whose
biography of Tressell lay unfinished and completely forgotten until after
his death when it was published by Tressell. Here indeed is knowledge for
knowledge’s sake. But the only bourgeoisie source that Lindsay will have any
truck with has is the Financial Times which he reads because he thinks it
represents the true interests of the capitalist class.
So when a position occurs such as this week when Obama and Brown
representing the capitalist class do an about turn Lindsay find himself
turning to my BLOG for an explanation of their behaviour which is
flattering to me, but touches on Magabe and the situation in Zimbabwe and
even the situation in Myanma with Aung San Suu Ky’s imprisonment and such
venerable figures as Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Tutu are facing charges
of collaboration with the white imperialists and these are charges not to be
lightly dismissed.
I end tonight with a slogan suggested by Lindsay

PEACE TO THE COTTAGES - WAR TO THE CASTLES.

DAY TWO OF A PLANET NOT FACED WITH EXTINCTION.?
How good it is just to believe that survival of the human race is
possible. Gordon Brown talks of following his master Obama, yet talks of
retaining three Trident submarines instead of four. An article in the
GUARDIAN today by Richard Norton-Taylor sets out some of the dilemmas facing
Brown. He not only offered to cut submarines but also suggested that he
would cut our stock of war heads significantly. If we are serious about a
nuclear free world we will need statesmanship not brinkmanship he said in a
review of the speech he will make to the United Nations tomorrow.
But this is already drawing criticism particularly from the navy who
have not been consulted on these revolutionary arrangements.
Lee Willett, head of military capabilities at the Royal United Services
think tank describes the decision to cut submarines outlined in the 2006,
still to be discussed in Parliament as, ‘incredibly risky.’ John Hutton, the
former Defence Secretary whose constituency is Barrow and Furness where .the
submarines are built said the fleet should not be reduced unless
round-the-clock patrols could be maintained and added that we have not found
a way of dong this and nor has any other navy in the world been able to
manage it. No doubt those organisations concerned with a nuclear free world
such as CND, Liberty, Green Peace and others will say that this is not
necessary as we face no major power which not committed to the
Non-Proliferation Treaty and smaller nuclear powers such as N.Korea and Iran
have no reason to trouble us if the greatest holder of nuclear bombs, the
USA, is a nation committed to peace and in any case the expense of keeping
such useless weapons would impoverish them as it has impoverished Britain
and the USA
Obama meanwhile was putting a four point plan to the United Nations
Assembly: Vast nuclear arms reductions; promotion of peace in the Middle
East and elsewhere; new efforts on climate change ; and common resolve on
global economic problems. However to vast numbers of Americans who elected
him only two points are primary.The first is the fact that he is not George
WE.Bush and the second is his blackness and ordinariness. Playing both these
themes he said that if he could become president then in theory so could any
other Black man and since coloured people represent 80% of the world’s
population these people might put aside their centuries old disagreements -
and here he was talking of Iraqis and Iranians, Jews and Palestinians,
Moslems in India and Asia and others. The world need this black man as
inspiration as well as guide in a multicultural world and events only this
week of commemoration of the 65th anniversary of the ending of World War Two
which was attended by two of my friends Joe Davies and Frank Spittle at
Arhem and Niemegen is a perfect example of Dutch-British friendship bred
into every child born in Holland to respect the Englishmen such as Joe and
Frank who brought them their freedom.

TORTURERS AND MURDERERS FOR THE LAST TIME?
While Gordon Brown was a Nuclear Maniac, not only him, but his whole
Cabinet was responsible for Crimes against Humanity and indeed these
atrocities are still occurring dally in Iraq and Afghanistan and all other
places where wars are being waged by Gordon Brown. But there is reason to
believe that some Labour MPs are prepared to act against Brown and put
themselves forward as PM. The best solution would be for Diane Abbott to be
made the. Prime Minister and this would be the first time that a
predominantly white nation had ever elected a black and female Prime
Minister. I have again asked Diane if she is prepared to stand There are
other white MPs who would now be prepared to stand notably Alan Simpson and
Jeremy Corbyn, But it would be better if they were prepared to recognise
that Diane is best and encourage her to stand.

UNFINISHED BUSINESS
Time is running out and I will simply mention items which have to be
left until tomorrow. One is about responses to the printing of my letter in
the Express and Star of my letter that suggests the Economic Slump as far as
Britain is concerned is an artificial one. Because if Gordon Brown were to
renounce the war in Iraq there would be such vast savings as a result that
the Slump would disappear overnight and there be sufficient money remaining
to fund our social services properly.
In regard to the above Wolverhampton was in a unique position from
the 2008 local election which dumped a Labour council with a majority of
five into a hung council of dominated by Tories with a majority of one with
five Lib-Dems and thus made possible an all anti-Iraq war council comprising
Tories who opposed the war, Labour councillors who opposed the war and the
five Lib-Dems whose party never supported the war. This incidentally would
have brought great popularity to our City and would have had the national
effect of forcing Brown to accept the same policy (which only this week he
appears to accept). This left Wolverhampton council squabbling over who
could make the most cuts when cuts are quite unnecessary.
There is also an important item which I will find tomorrow and explain
fully. But it appears that Gordon Brown’s political opinions may be with the
Neo-Con Americans of the American Century, for he wrote a preface the work
of Kristol’s wife who was equally Neo-Con. That’s all for today

LOVE PEACE - HATE WAR

HOPE NOT HATE.
This is the slogan of our premier anti-fascist and peace organisation in
Britain - Searchlight International. It is the progeny of Britain’s oldest
socialist peace organisation dating back to Hiroshima and the Cold War and
for the first time since 1946, we seem to have the prospect of the ending of
the nightmare of destruction of the planet as Obama charts the end of
Nuclear weapons. Too good to be true I said last night as Gordon Brown spoke
of hundreds of nuclear power stations in the deserts of Asia. But Brown’s
latest statements of foregoing four Trident submarines and having only three
may be more than just following his master, Obama, but the beginning of a
realisation that if he renounces Nuclear Madness then he can save the Labour
Party from extinction at the next election and leave this world with the
reputation of one of the great statesmen of all time, as will Obama himself,
if he means what he says.
Tonight I wonder if there is hope for humanity which has passed through
the most dreadful two centuries which have seen two world wars, the
Holocaust and Genocide not only of the Jews by Hitler but of the people of
Africa themselves who have suffered four centuries of white domination.
If this dream is about to become fact one would hope to turn to our
Culture which has been built up so painfully as humanity evolved over
countless millennia as we celebrate Charles Darwin’s centenary or watch with
anguish the destruction of an ancient civilisation in Iraq by US and British
barbarians.
I speak as a 90 year old participant in the Second World War who was
brought up by a single Mum the widow of a soldier who experienced every day
of the First World War in the trenches only to die in the flu epidemic of
1922.
I am driven by the urge to ensure that nobody misrepresents this
terrible history while I remain alive, which a friend of mine, Peter Rhodes
of our local newspaper the Express and Star once said that his generation
would secretly envy my generation.
But I’m a tired old man and would welcome the chance to read more and
follow the two great passions of my life, Sport and Jazz. .

COMMEMORATION OF ARNHEM AND NEIMEGEN IN HOLLAND.
Today I have spoken to two Wolverhampton friends who have both spent
the last six days in Holland They are Joe Davies and Frank Spittle. Joe and
his wife Margaret went under the auspices of an organisation based in
Tipton, and Margaret whose smiling face appeared in a photograph of the
party and has her own problems of frail health, inability to walk very far
etc. said that it was the best holiday she had ever had in her life and the
hospitality of the Dutch people was unsurpassable.
Joe who suffered the defeat at Niewegen as German armour surrounded
the British paratroopers dropped behind their lines and in fact met up with
Frank Spittle in the ceremony.
Frank went under the aegis of an organisation called the Birmingham
Market Garden Veterans Association these being aspects of the battles fought
at the time. I was astonished that Frank went abroad for so long since it
was only a few weeks ago that he was near to death. He was most emotional
about Dutch respect for the army that liberated it in 1945.
He and Joe both sat, a few yards apart from the honoured guests of the
commemoration, these were the Duke of Edinburgh for Britain and Queen
Beatrice of Holland. Joe will return to Holland to receive a special Dutch
award and he stresses with Frank the fact that all Dutch children are
brought up to respect the British army which liberated their country and
their hospitality is overwhelming.

DAY TWO OF HOPE.
Today has seen the publication of my letter calling for Brown to be
sacked and replaced by Diane Abbott who is both black and female in our
local paper the Express and Star. The letter first appeared in The British
Pensioner but the E&S which used to print letters from me have not published
my recent letters bringing a fear that they were boycotting me This is
already the case with the national paper the Guardian which will not publish
anything by me or the Friends of Bilston Community College which was the
first multicultural college in Britain but was closed by racists and bigots.
Refusal of public servants to reply to correspondence removes a main pillar
of our democratic society and creates corruption. Guilty Men (and Women)
include Gordon Brown, Sir Trevor Phillips of the Commission of Equality and
Human Rights, the TV commentators Paxman, Marr, Wark Kearney and Jon Snow,
the heads of the BBC and ITV who refuse to discipline their employees and
lots of others. Local examples which are highly important as examples the
government should follow are Wolverhampton councillors who should have
created an all Iraq anti war coalition instead of squabbling with each other
as to how much they can cut our social services when the know if Brown
stopped supporting his wars such an immense amount of money would be
available to demonstrate that the Economic Slump is an artificial one
created by Brown and he alone can remove it.
Lots more going on, the Lib-Dem Conference where Nick Clegg fails to
indict Brown as Warmonger and demand the ending of the war in Iraq, and
Baroness Scotland not being dismissed despite her corruption with her
servant and her house.
But I’m determined to get some reading done tonight until I return to
the fray of making;

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

A VERY NICE AND INTERESTING DAY AT ST.COLUMBA’S CHURCH DAY CENTRE
It all began with Dee exercising her masti, Kia, along Henwood Rd. each day.
She asked me if I would like to attend the day centre of which she is Deputy
Head. I said Yes, particularly when she told me that they had a new
visitor who wanted to talk to an interesting person and Dee though of me.
Actually the day centre is not ‘within my remit’ so to speak nor Esme’s
since we are both night birds not used to being dressed at 10-45am when the
Ambulance calls to pick up patients for the day which consists of music and
1930s song (dancing optional!) a cooked dinner, followed by Bingo and being
returned home at about 4pm. This facility is only available to people over
the age of 75 (I think) who live on their own, but since I do not live on
my own I was only eligible to come if I paid ?20 which I am prepared to do.
So being given today’s date I was prepared to rise about 9am and be
ready to be picked up. Unfortunately I didn’t wake until almost 10am and an
almighty rush ensued which was helped by the ambulance not arriving until
after 10-45.i This involved Esme who attended to my breakfast and unwrapped my many medicines and ensured that I was tidy enough to appear in public.
The ambulance driver and attendant were very friendly, but it was not
until I got to St.Columba that I met a familiar face and that was Dee who I
learned was Deputy Manager and her surname was Dainty, no relation to Billy, the comedian I was assured.
I was most interested in this collection of oldsters because these
were precisely the people who Gordon Brown would be victimising and
St. Columba the sort of institution likely to be closed. So I set about
enquiring about my fellow guests which was not helped by my have forgotten my hearing aid and so subsequent intercourse took place via writing onserviettes from which I gathered the following. Mr Bernard Mason was a ninety four year old. Was he in the forces and where had he served? His answer surprised my - he had served ten years in the fire fighting servicesin Wolverhampton.

 I have recently been concerned with veterans from the
forces all of which have an association of their own which cares for them.
Do firefighters have an association of their own who looks after Bernard? I
don’t have an answer to that question, but I want an answer.
The oldest person present was a woman of 102 I was told but I did
not catch her name. Then there was Jeff 86 who remembers me as a Communistbefore the War (which war?). And there was the man who wanted to talk to a interesting person who rejoices in the aristocratic sounding name of Howard Holder-Cowles.
But the most interesting man to me was a black man. We sat next to
each other at the Bingo and he certainly had his wits about him then. He
seemed to have his face permanently twisted with his tongue showing. I was told that he could not speak and was absolutely mindless, although he was determined that I should not take pages from the Daily Mail which
I wanted because they had pages regarding Lady Scotland who is in trouble
for misrepresenting her two million pound home and which I touched on in
last night’s BLOG. Is this black man really left alone in his home? The
thought is quite frightening
The day had given me enough to think about and investigate, but it
was St.Columba itself which gave me the most food for thought.
The St.Columba is a private enterprise not subsidised in any way by
the state and presumably finding it difficult to raise funds from private
persons and bodies in these days of credit crunch. Yet it provides a unique
service in Wolverhampton and perhaps for all I know, Britain. It is
essential that it should continue to exist and not disappear and see its 100
year olds evicted as Gordon Brown prepares to sell off our Social Services.

MORE ABOUT WILLIAM MORRIS AND WOLVERHAMPTON.
Some more opinions culled from Google: Paul J - If my recollections are
correct Mander was close to the Arts and Crafts Movement and there are some nice examples of their work in Wightwick House, particularly of William Morris. Hawkweed - Yes, Paul, William Morris wallpapers and furnishings everywhere. The Manders were great friends of Rossetti and Ruskin etc.

STOPPING THE BNP.
An email from Nick Kelleher of Wolves TUC says the case against Adam
Walker by the General Teaching Council was cancelled due to what the Police call, ‘community tensions’, thus making unnecessary the rally in Victoria Square that day.
But the BBC has announced that it will give a platform to Griffin on
Question Time on October 15. United against Fascism has said that if the
appearance goes ahead there will be protests on the day. See details on
www.uaf.org.uk
An anti-fascist meeting in Birmingham can also be recorded. West
Midlands UAF is co-ordinating the work of anti-fascists across the region on Wednesday 21st October 7-30pm at the offices of the Musicians’ Union Benson House, 98-104 Lombard St. Birmingham B12 0QN

IT’S A LONG WAY TO TIPPERARY
Another magnificent piece of research from our friend Michael Walker.
It’s too long even to summarise here, but if you’re interested in either
Ireland or India then call up michaelm.walker@ btopenworld.com But I
cannot resist giving some idea of it. The song will always be associated
with the Connaught Rangers raised in 1793 to meet the perceived Napoleonic threat. It fought in the Napoleonic Wars, Crimean War, Sudan, Boer War and the First World War
But events at home were quickly changing. The Easter Rising of 1916,
its ruthless crushing and subsequent execution of its leaders led to the
demand for Irish Independence. The British government responded by setting up what were called the Black and Tans whose drunkenness and cruelty became legendary. Soldiers serving with the Connaught’s in India were made aware of
these atrocities from relatives and friends in England.
At Jallunder in the Punjab where the 1st Connaught Regiment was
stationed the fight for Indian independence started in 1920. The Connaught
battalion mutinied and when reminded of their battle honours said these were for Britain, not for Ireland. 75 mutineers were court martialed and 13
sentenced to death . The only death penalty carried out was of James Daly
who became an Irish martyr and made history by being the last member of the British army to be executed for a military offence
The Connaugts were disbanded in 1922 many of their officers and men
helping to form the new Irish National Army. This splendid item by Michael
Walker is based on an article in the Irish Sunday Times by Michael
MacDonncha.

THE BRITISH PENSIONER.
Britain’s leading magazine for Pensioners seeking a Better Deal has
produced its 74th edition of Autumn 2009. Once again it is so packed with
relevant material that the best thing I can do is to urge you to subscribe
if you do not do so now and give details of national and West Midlands
contacts. The national secretary is Ann Green of 22 Auburn House Aikman Av. Leicester LE3 9JN while the West Mids Secretary is Alan Wilkins of 53 The Hiron, Coventry CV3 6HS. Tele 02476 502 The scope of this paper is very wide and the bulletin carries the Coventry and Warwickshire article on
Direct Action Day of April last with the We’re Not Fools on the occasion of
the Day of Direct Action on 1st April 2009.
John Lister says goodbye to bad rubbish as he canes NHS boss, Mark
Briittnell, l whose meteoric rise to director-general of the NHS is greater
even than the exploits of David Loughton head of Wolverhampton Trust
Hospitals who are wasting vast sums of tax payers money in directing large
sums and exorbitant salaries to the private sector with the ultimate aim of
handing all our social services over to private capitalists.
Other contributors stress the need to relate pensions to the average
wage and prevent even more pensioners ending their days in poverty.

SACK BROWN - DIANE ABBOTT FOR PRIME MINISTER.
It is appropriate that my letter on Brown Torturer and Nuclear Maniac
should be printed in the British Pensioner, but this has been the case and
I would like to thank the editor for printing it. It is us older generation
who see clearest what the future holds and:

LET’S HOPE THE PLANET IS STILL HERE TOMORROW FOR YOU TO RECEIVE THIS BLOG

THE END OF NUCLEAR LUNACY?
Today we are told that Obama is ready to slash the US nuclear arsenal
and the Pentagon has been told to map out radical cuts as the President
prepares to chair UN talks with a goal of eventually abolishing nuclear
weapons altogether. Are we dreaming, those pioneers of CND and LIBERTY who
have fought since the 1950s to abolish these evil weapons?
But know, fast on the heels of Obama is an article in today’s Guardian
from no less a person than the Foreign Secretary, David Miliband,
condemning
nuclear weapons. Has he been listening to his master’s voice in Washington
and turning somersaults?
Miliband is cagey. This is one of the most vital issues we face, he
says, ‘Get it right and we will increase global security, pave the way for a
world without nuclear weapons and improve access to affordable, safe and
dependable energy - vital to tackle, climate change, Get it wrong and we
face
the spread of nuclear weapons and the chilling prospect of nuclear material
falling into the hands of terrorists’. Has Miliband told Brown about this?.
The last we heard of Gordon was his prattling about nuclear bombs as the
core of his strategy and hundreds of nuclear power stations in Middle
Eastern deserts (NIMBY, you will notice) to provide power to the world.
What are we to make of the Nuclear Maniac’s volte-face? To ignore it
would be churlish but it all seems too good to be true and we should keep
our powder dry to resume combat if necessary.

DEATH OF AN EVIL MAN - IRVING kRISTOL.
Irving Krisol was the creator of the project of the New American
Century, an evil doctrine, postulating that the US was more powerful
militarily and economically than the rest of the world put together and it
was
thus entitled to ignore collective organisation such as the United Nations
and shape the world according to the interests of the USA. This became
Neo-Imperialism and has led to there hardly being a spot on the earth where US presence is not felt.
The most telling repudiation of this doctrine came in 2003 and the
invasion of Iraq where George W.Bush declared victory but the heroism of
Iraqi
troops ensured that this was not the case and forced the Americans
to consult the United Nations. It now finds itself in a similar position as
with the war in Vietnam fighting a racist and unwinnable war in Iraq.

THE PROBLEMS OF LADY SCOTLAND.
Like the chair of the Commission of Equality and Human Rights, Sir
Trevor Phillips, there is no guarantee that being black will either make
you act sensibly or that you will not collaborate with white
imperialists. Patricia Scotland is the first black Attorney-General Britain
has ever known, but it seems that her claims for expenses are rather high
and not entirely reasonable. Then she has a black maid who the Daily Mail
claim she is not treating fairly.  Loloahi Tapui’s flat in West London was
raided by UK Border agency immigration officials the home of a woman
employed by Lady Scotland as a maid, but considered an illegal immigrant.
The flat in West London was entered by means of a 3ft metal battering ram.
They spent two hours searching the flat and are said to have left with a
number of documents. These sensational developments are prompting
speculation that Lady Scotland’s flat could be invaded and privately her
colleagues doubt that she can survive especially as she is being quizzed
over ?170,000 expenses she is not entitled to, these being for peers who
live outside London despite saying that her main house is her ?2 million
house in Chiswick.
Phillips, chief of the main Race Equality organisation is also in
trouble, apart from the charge, which he will not answer, that one who
supports the war in Iraq is no fit person to represent ethnic minorities. He
has so upset his fellow commissioners, a gaggle of whom have taken the
queen’s shilling and accepted honours of an empire which ceased to exist
about a hundred years ago and who in the previous centuries ruled over the
largest empire the world had ever known, where the sun never set and the
blood never ceased to flow. Too few have followed the example of Benjamin
Zechariah who refused contemptuously to accept such ‘dishonours’

END THE WAR IN IRAQ.
With us not knowing tonight Brown’s reactions to his foreign secretary’s call to ban nuclear weapons we end the night by saying:

             SUPPORT THE BANNING OF A LL NUCLEAR WEAPONS.

.

—– Original Message —–
From: “George Barnsby”
To: “Barnsby Daily Blog”
Cc:
Sent: Monday, September 21, 2009 2:41 AM
Subject: GEORGE BARNSBY BLOG NO922 SUNDAY 20TH SEPTEMBER 2009 INCORPORATIN
COPAM (COMMITTEE OF PEACE AND MULTICULTURALISM ) barnsby@ blueyonder.co.uk

A HAPPY DAY
It is our family’s tradition to celebrate birthdays by having a family
meal at a venue nominated by the birthday person. Today it was Esme’ s turn
and I was happy that she nominated one of the most historic buildings in
Wolverhampton, The Mermaid Inn on the Bridgnorth Road.
The Mermaid was one of a series of building connected with the Mander
family wealthy paint and varnish manufacturers who also happened to be
teetotallers and when the Mermaid was built it was connected to Wightwick
Manor, an even more important building by a series of black and white pseudo
Tudor architecture along the road and when it was built the Mermaid served
the local population of mainly agricultural workers just outside
Wolverhampton.
Wight Manor is closely connected with the Arts and Crafts Movement
and it has features built by the most famous architect of the period.
The Arts and Crafts Movement arose in the fourth quarter of the
nineteenth century when the Great Depression which had lasted from almost
1848 to the 1890s was receding. It had been preceded by the Great Expansion
which saw Britain made the workshop of the World and had wiped out almost
the entire working class movement with socialist possibilities, namely
Chartism and began to develop new roots which would lead to our modern
labour movement. (See my Socialism in Birmingham and the Black Country
1850-1939).
Even so, leaders tended to be middle class and well-off such as the
founder of the Social Democratic Federation, HM Hyndman and William Morris
himself as Britain built social and political movements which beside
political parties such as the Fabian Society and the Independent Labour
Party built the remarkable plethora of social organisations which became
known as ‘Cheerful Socialism’. This included Clarion, whose social
activities
were widespread, but the longest lasting one has been the Cycling Clubs
which still exist.
The SDP was the main organisation disseminating Marxism , but it
quickly split and the Socialist Labour Party emerged with connections with
the
American party of the same name dominated by Daniel de Leon and became
important purveyors of Marxism in Britain.
Labour Churches founded mainly by Nonconformists spread quickly into
Christian Socialism involving Church
of England socialists.
The second split occurred in 1905 when the Socialist Labour Party was
formed. But by this time the outline of the modern Socialist movemenet was
clear with the Independent Labour Party with formed the Labour Party and
the Fabiann Society which became the intellectual core of the Labour
Party when it was formed.
At this time the Trade Unions were experiencing US influence as branches
of the Knights of Labour were formed. The First World War destroyed the
labour movement as parties affiliated to the Second International which was
pledged to resist war if it broke out reneged almost entirely and people
like Hyndman voted for their ‘own’ country and only the Russian Bolsheviks
under Lenin opposed the war which ended in 1918 after which the Russians
created world Communism.
It remains to return to the influence of William Morris on the buildings
where this afternoon we had our birthday meal. Morris was a giant of the
nineteenth century. Architect and craftsman of genius. He believed with
Robert Owen that Socialism should be built through every aspect of life,
that life could only be expressed in work. He left a legacy of political
activity, his Utopian News from Nowhere and his art throughout the country
from Kelmscroft the Red House where he lived and adapted for himself by the
Thames to houses and their furnishings throughout Britain, including
Wightwick Manor in Wolverhampton. Original member of the artist dominated
Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, head of the ‘firm’ William Morris noted for
every artistic artefact from pots to wallpapers with which we decorate our
homes today.
I think this is enough about Morris and thank you Esme for taking us
for our meal in one of Wolverhampton’s most historic buildings

THE NUREMBERG TRIAL.
Such are the crimes of Gordon Brown and his Cabinet and the leader of
the Tories, David Cameron and Sir Trevor Phillips of the CEHR and the
journalists Paxman, Marr, Kearney, Wark and Jon Snow and the BBC and ITV and
local people who refuse to reply to me and thus destroy our democracy. It
is salutary that I have been reading the foreword to R.W.Cooper’s
authoritative account of the Nuremberg Trial by Sir David Maxwell-Fyffe who
led the British delegates at the trial. He distinguishes between Crimes
against Peace, War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity.
The above named people who refuse to answer questions posed to them
will
have time to reflect on what will be their fate if the Nuclear
Maniacs:

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