The Barnsby Blog

ANOTHER DAY OF SEMI-CONSCIEOSNESS AS I FEEL UNABLE TO CONTACT ANY OF THE
FAMILY EXCEPT ESME, MY WY DEAR IWIFE , WHO, LIKE ME IS STILL A MAN LIKE
MAN A MAN IN A DRESSING GOWN A WOMAN IN A DRESSING GOWM AT TEN FIFTEEN PM
THISEVENING REFLECTS ON ESME’S LATEST SUGGESTION OF A BOILED EGG FOR T FOR
THE DAYHE EVENING MEAL WHICH WILL ENTAIL MY GOING DOWNSTAIRS TO THE LOUNGE
WHICH I SHALL HAVE TO DO ANYWAY FOR MY SECOND DOSE OF QUININE FOR THE DAY

WOLVERHAMPTON STILL CHASING RAINBOWS AT THE END OF MULTI CULTURAL REALITIES.
Once again the Express & Star, our local newspaper, exposes with
remorseless logic the foolishness of current ideas of revitalising the City
centre with non-existent money reluctantly printed by our Wolverhampton
educated Governor of the Bank of England, Mervyn King.
I have also received a visit from my second son Billy to demonstrate
how and me to repeat an exercise of climbing the stairs of our two storey
house by putting his backside on every step of our stairs, pushing himself
up and repeating the exercise from bottom to top of the stairway and then
top to bottom.
The only problem with that, as with his eminently sensible
second suggestion of a lap top computer to be used on the ground floor is a
suggestion that we abandon our upper storey and lose 50% of our resources in
my declining years after 90 years of age. Not to mention not to mention the
never declining fears that
the Computer Devil will wipe clean everything I’ve written today. So

PUT BUSH BLAIR AND BROWN BACK ON THE LIST OF TORTURERS
AND GENOCIDISTS WHO THREATEN THE EXISTENCE OF
THE PLANET AND HOPE THIS MESSAGE DOESN’T DISAPPEAR

MISFORTUNES NEVERY COME SINGLY.
Not even chasing the most important person in the world, Barack Obama
who promised to relieve the world of nuclear wweapons and then reneged see
www.Whitehouse.gov can take precedence over my personal disasters in the
last thirty six hours . First the breakdown of my computer so that for the
first time for many months my BLOG did not go out (and therewith might be
number confusion since I am using 988 instead of 989). Second almost
complete physical breakdown, crippling pain and almost total inability to
walk which my excellent Dr. Mark Wilson has diagnosed as arthritis to be
treated with an indefinite regime of pain killers whose side effect I most
certainly could have done without - no bowel movement as from today.
And all this at a time when the political situation is hotting up with
the phoney Chilcott Iraq War Inquiry, the G20 Report laying down the law to
the police on their use of force, Israel’s defiance of Obama by insisting on
Israel as an undivided city under Israeli control, continuing building of
settlements on the West Bank and much else.
At least if I can’t work I can read and I have today read the little
booklet, Stasi Hell or Workers’ Paradise? by Jim Green who I had not
heard of and Bruni de la Motte who I do know of, the Story of the German
Democratic Republic - What can we Learn from it? my favourite Peoples’
Republic which I visited regularly during its existence. This book is a
snip at ?4 including p & p from the Morning Star at 52 Beachy Rd London E3
2NS or reception@peoples-press.com The story of the building of he Wall
overnight was an incredible feat of organisation, one night the pro-faascist
Western government and the Nazi war criminals they tolerated going
to bed with their plans to destroy the GDR and waking up to find the Wall
around Berlin, 120 miles inside the GDR had been built overnight and became
the Wall of Shame in the West, but the Wall of Peace to all Socialists and a
visit to it a must to GDR citizens and visitors such as myself who visited
it several times.
And it will be Love’s Labours Lost if the computer turns ugly again on
me. So I’ll try to send this piece as it it to Martin George and myself.

THE MUGS’ ?154m RAILWAY PLAN PROVED AN ILLUSION
The idea that anyone could find ?154 millions to revitalise the town
centre has been proved an illusion and if Ken Purchase our MP can say that
he told us so, then this BLOG said it many months before and what began as a
hoax ends up as a criminal matter for which the foolish fellows who
swallowed it will find themselves with a criminal enterprise on their
hands..
It begins with the New Labour government of Blair and Brown dreaming up
schemes to transform Wolverhampton’s city centre into a paradise when in
fact was stoney broke and the only money available would have to be printed,
which people such as the Governor of the Bank of England our own
Wolverhampton Grammar School educated man Mervyn King is averse to doing
lest it brings inflation on the ‘wheel barrow’ scale of the nineteen
thirties when in Germany one needed a wheel and his deputy, previously
Director of Education in Wolverhampton but now with a meaningless title such
as Chief of Children who not only fell for this scheme to transform the City
centre, but also the equally absurd scheme called Building Schools for the
Future which entails pulling all our Secondary Schools down and replacing
them with Educational Academies which almost every one who has done any
teaching is totally opposed to.but has criminally said that both the
University and Wolverhampton City College are supporting them when there is
no shred of evidence that those institutions have discussed any such thing.
And so these pipe dreams come tumbling down with the news in the local
paper Express and Star admitting that the Council has no money to finance
the scheme. Nor is this the only local scheme to fail. Coventry has opted
out of a seven City partnership of Birmingham and the four Black Country
boroughs despite losing out on government money to build a greater
Birmingham Area and which prompted our question to the City Council of who
ran and controlled Wolverhampton from which we never got an answer from the
W’ton chief executive Richard Carr or the leader of Wolverhampton’s Tory
Council Councillor Neville Patten failing to explain. And now it is
Thursday night with Any Questions followed by The Week both on the Iraq War
Inquiry and we’re back on the roundabout who chooses the Questions for Any
Questions and supporting Diane Abbott for Prime Minister when Blair and
Brown the Torturers and Nuclear Maniacs have been arrested and we can all
sleep safely in our beds because Barack Osama has kept his promise to
eliminate all Nuclear weapons.

MAKE OBAMA KEEP HIS
PROMISE

DAY FIFTY NINE OF A PLANET NOT THREATENED WITH EXTINCTION ?
Yet again our first task today has been to visit the Website of the
most powerful man in the world, the 44th President of the USA who promised
peace in the world and its continuance abolishing all nuclear weapons, but
then changed his mind which leaves both us and the planet suspended in the
air. As consultation with his Website www.Whitehouse.gov.us will
demonstrate.
In fact the balance is still on war with additional troops being sent to
Iraq and Afghanistan in a hopeless attempt to win these wars.
Nowhere does he discuss nuclear weapons, but these are the most
important
questions since everything else depends on it. But only an impatient
minority
are willing to write Obama off as a permanent renegade because of the
influence and power of the USA.
We ourselves have tried various approaches to the problem. The first was
to seek the opinions of the most radical critics in the USA who are Gore
Vidal, Naom Chomskyl and Michael Moore. All criticise Obama but no one
demands his head because the alternative of a Republican president would
set back progress in America to the times of Abraham Lincoln.
Another tack has been to see what Al Jazeera English is saying which has
the greatest circulation in the world, particularly among Islamic people,
but here though their coverage of the world is much greater than our western
bourgeois capitalist press there is no stomach to call for the replacement
of Obama.
My efforts today have been to consult the Cuban revolutionary newspaper
Granma the name of the ship that brought Castro and Che Guevara and their
small band of revolutionaries to Cuba to overthrow the corrupt US supported
Batista regime.
Today’s Granma is a wide rang ranging and most interesting political
issue much of it critical of US imperialism such as US bases in Columbia
threatens United States plan to control the Asian version of the United
Nations UNASUR, and the condemnation of the Ecuadorian president Rafael
Correa who is on a visit to Cuba condemning the US blockade of Cuba, no one
mentions the name of Obama. But Granma repeats he Reflections of Castro
first published on February 5 of the Contradictions between the politics of
Obama and Ethics where he outlines the actions taken by US presidents from
Eisenhower onwards who plotted to overthrow Castro from 1960 onwards but
failed so ignominiously through 100 attempts to assassinate Castro and the
Bay of Pigs disaster up to the present day, but Castro puts none of this on
the shoulders of Obama and implies that it is up to the working class of the
world to persuade Obama that he should return to the revolutionary path he
started on

EDUCATION CUTS AND THE HUMANITIES.
Sean Creighton, my felllow Batterseaonian and now the able and
energetic secretary of BASA (Black and Asian.Studies Association) says that
a fellow member of UCU (University & College Union) points out that the
economies already under way with more to follow next year will particularly
impact on the humanities. The academic engagement in Black and Asian history
whether its focus is in Britain, South Asia, Africa, United States, America
or the Caribbean and the Far East is likely to be adversely affected. UCU
is, of course opposed to the cuts and has a petition to that effect on its
Web entitled Stand Up for Research. More than 11,000 academics from every
discipline, including our own have now signed UCUs statement calling on
HEFCE (the Higher Education Funding body) to withdraw its proposals. If you
are against the cuts but have not yet signed the statement you are asked to
do so now and pass it on: www.ucu.org.uk/standupforeresearch.
But in addition to signing the UCU statement consideration might be
given to forming in each institution involved in Black and Asian Studies and
culture to liaise with one another to develop a common front. The divide and
rule competitive drive behind funding needs to be resisted has potentially
enormous consequences for anti-racism. On a broader front perhaps it is time
for some work to be done to make public former campaigns for Academic
Freedom For instance E.P.Thompson’s work Warwick University Ltd. published
as a Penguin Industry Management and the Universities in 1970 which Thompson
edited entitled Warwick University Ltd with chapters on the Power Structure
at Warwick University, the Business University, the Student Response showing
Student life at Warwick and the Course of the Struggle, Implications for the
Labour Movement, Injunctions and the Press, a mass of documents, A highly
confidential personal comment by the Editor and a General Conclusion. Since
Thompson’s Confidential Comment occupies seventeen pages I cannot summarise
it here and can only say that it is a tremendous survey of Student Politics
over a whole generation and it is perhaps from the General Conclusion which
occupies only one and a half that one gets a general conclusion pertinent
to our contemporary situation. Thompson concludes that the examination of
the University files dung the occupation had wide repercussions and spread
to schools where it became clear that vast powers of censorship were in the
hands of Headmasters. More than a dozen Universities took up the question of
political files. But it was a Brimmingham Medical School documents
including the original Warwick ones that exposed the chairman of the
Inter-University Council relating to the Medical School of the University of
Rhodesia of the intolerable racist conditions imposed by Prime Minister
Smith imposed on the new teaching hospital in Salisbury.This eventually
resulted in the white racist regime in Rhodesia being overturned and
progress similar to that in South Africa replacing it. Such had been the
influence of student politics in the 1970s.
Thompson ends with series of questions. Is it inevitable that our
Universities be reduced to the functions of providing with increasingly
authoritarian efficiency, pre-packed intellectual packages that meet the
needs of the management? Or can we by our efforts transform it into a
centre of free discussion, tolerating and even encouraging ’subversive
thought and action for a dynamic revival of the society within which it
operates? Or are these institutions so embedded in the existing society that
they will see themselves destroyed rather than have such changes made. These
were the questions that faced Thompson and his generation. Surely Creighton
is correct to raise them in the context of our present situation.

THE LAW BREAKERS.
We cannot continue naming each night the Torturers and Nuclear Maniacs
who would destroy our planet but who never intend to reply to questions put
to them. So from now on we shall simply publish some of their names Bush G,
Bair T, Brown G , Reid J, Hoon G, Beckett M, Darling A, Hain P, Miliband
D, Johnson A. Also the newscasters Paxman,Marr, Wark, Kearney and Jon Snow,
chair of Race Relations Phillips T, and local men Patten N and Carr R. That
will be enough for today and we end with an old slogan but relevant enough:

THE STRUGGLE
CONTINUES

DAY FIFTY EIGHT OF A PLANET NOT THREATENED WITH DESTRUCTION ?
As ever our first port of call was to the Website of the most powerful
man on earth, Barak Obama, to see whether he is keeping his promise to rid
the world of nuclear weapons, but again, as you can see for yourselves at
www.Whitehouse.gov the answer is in the negative.
His day has been a productive one with the emphasis on ‘Education to
Innovate’ campaign a series of initiatives and public-private partnerships
to
help students get excited about pursuing careers in science, technology,
engineering and mathematics . Splendid. But if one turns to ‘defense’ it is
the same dreary catalogue of full speed ahead to continue the wars in Iraq
and Afghanistan, to strengthen alliances and partnerships and use all
elements of power to defeat Al Qaeda. The only talk of peace is to continue
offensive operations until the Afghans and Iraqis are strong enough to
conduct their own defenses. What a Hope! The wars they, and us, are engaged
in are illegal, racist and unwinnable. Peoples’ Power has some way to go to
persuade Obama that nuclear arms must be banned.

BLOOD ON THEIR HANDS PROTEST AT THE IRAQ ENQUIRY.
The heading is taken from the Stop-the-War Campaign Newsletter 1127 of
today 23 Nov. The first hearings of the Iraq war begin on Tuesday 24 Nov and
Stop the War has called a protest outside to demand that Tony Blair and
Gordon Brown are called to account for War Crimes which have resulted in the
deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and 179 British troops.
Joining the protest will be representatives from Military Families
Against the War, reminding the inquiry committee of the anger felt by many
relatives of soldiers killed in the war.
Sir John Chilcott the chairman of the enquiry insists that there will
not be a whitewash, but the committee - the five members were all hand
picked by Gordon Brown - looks as if it was set up with just that purpose.
Leaked secret government reports prove that Blair was a serial liar
throughout 2002 as he repeatedly lied.
But the logical conclusion that Blair or anyone in his government should
be indicted on the basis of such evidence has already been discounted by
Chalcott despite the majority of the bereaved military families committee
that this is the outcome they expect if War Crimes are proved..
You are invited to join the Blood on their Hands protest on Tuesday 24
November 9-30 to 12-30 at the Queen Elizabeth Conference Centre SW1P 3EE
(near Parliament). For more details dial http://bit.ly/8Bf28L
StW is asking all local groups to mobilise for tomorrow and also to
join the protest on December 21 to Downing Street when Military Families
against the War will present a petition signed by tens of thousands of
people calling for the troops to be brought home. Speaking on behalf of
Military Families Graham Knight and Joan Humphries - both of them bereaved
relatives who lost loved ones in Afghanistan - explain why they are making
this demand. ‘We have suffered terrible personal loss in this war and we
don’t want that to happen to other families’. For more information dial
www.mfaw.net Many localities will be sending delegates to Downing Street
and the job now is for every locality of find out relatives of troops killed
in the wars and continue to protest until these wars are ended.
Also make sure that you and your contacts have signed the Petition to
Bring the Troops Home and Petitions can be downloaded on line or phone StW
office 020 7801 2768 or email office@stopwar.org.uk

A RECORD GONE FOR EVER.
A 50 year old reveller was shot dead and another seriously injured at a
notorious nightclub in Bilston. This is the second shooting within a yea at
the Tropical Harmony night club in High Street Bilston. The police closed
the club and cordoned off Bilston High Street.. The Club will no doubt be
closed for good and it has resulted in the loss of a unique record to
another innocent pub only a few doors down. This is the Trumpet which for
many years has been the only jazz venue in Britain to provide free jazz
every night of the week, twelve months a year. Most pubs have problems in
these days of Economic Slump and the Trumpet was no exception but it had so
far survived as has the Harp at Albrighton which is the other free jazz in
the area offering free jazz two days a week and run by a willing landlord
and organised by my two good friends John and Marie Howell.
Also affected is Dave Holmes renowned drummer and one of the boys I
taught at Etheridge Secondary Modern Boys School who has been a main stay
for the Trumpet and is one of a remarkable generation of boys who left
Etheridge at 16 without any qualifications and produced a number of
prominent jazz players and vocalists. This sad news we shall have to give to
Harry Johnson of Birmingham who, together with myself are the two sole
survivors of the Furthest East Rhythm Club in the World at Impal on the
Burmese/India border . The Club which survived in a theatre of war for
eighteen months with a membership of 150 was a unique cultural event. So the
sad news must also be spread to the international jazz fraternity through
the International Association of Jazz Record Collectors and wherever in the
world that traditional jazz is played.

FAREWELL THE TRUMPET’S RECORD - BUT ITS JAZZ STILL GOES
MARCHING ON

DAY FIFTY SEVEN OF A PLANET NOT THREATENED WITH DESTRUCTION ?
Still we continue on the trail of Barak Obama the most powerful man on
earth who 57 days ago promised that he would end all nuclear weapons in the
world, but changed his mind and some of his acquaintances include some of
the most bloody thirst War Mongers and Nuclear Maniacs in the world. Yet we
continue to consult his Website at www.Whitehouse.gov and look for scraps of
information which will indicate that he is not entirely lost to the cause
which warmed the hearts of countless millions throughout the world who
yearn for Peace.
Yesterday was apparently the last day of his World Tour for today he
is back in the White House and having meetings with his Cabinet. He has
also spoken on ‘defense’ as he does every day, but I can assure people that
he is still reiterating what he has said over the days of his world tour and
there is nothing about nuclear arms and their control, but lots on his
meeting with his War Cabinet and his intention in Afghanistan and elsewhere
to wage war to the bitter end. And bitter it will be for these wars are
illegal, racist and unwinnnable and our troops should be withdrawn at once.
The connection between US and UK is very close. When Tony Blair
instituted the Freedom of Information Act I thought he was being original,
but check FoIA with Google and you will find yourself connected with a prior
act of the same name in the USA. Obama has promised to answer all questions
given to him by the public. So my message has been short and sweet. It is:
Why did you promise at your inauguration that you would destroy all nuclear
weapons and then change your mind. No reply to this question has been
received so far.
In fact a question from us to Obama was put to him when he was first
nominated for President and it was similar to a question put by the General
Council of the International Working Men’s Association (the First
International) with which Karl Marx was closely associated to Abraham
Lincoln when he took office in 1866. It was a letter of congratulation on
being elected President in the main task to which he was elected and that
was to free the slaves in the US which would, of course, have world wide
implications. Lincoln replied to this letter (as Obama has not yet done so)
by saying that he was greatly encouraged in the difficult tasks that he had
undertaken of freeing the slaves in the south by the knowledge that he was
supported by the Working Men of the entire world. The slaves were eventually
freed but Lincoln was assassinated. The parallel between Obama today and
Lincoln in 1866 is very clear. Obama is closely guarded to prevent him
meeting a similar fate, but the tradition of the Cabinet in the USA. dates
back to the beginning of the Presidency itself and it is clear that if
anything happened to Obama he would be succeeded by the vice-President
Joseph R.Biden who is a white Republican extremist opposed to everything
that the black Obama represents.
But the Cabinet consists of a rigidly controlled pecking order
including 15 executive departments. The Secretaries of Agriculture,
Commerce, Defense, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Homeland
Security, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Labor, State,
Transportation Treasury and Veterans’ Affairs as well as the
Attorney-General.
A picture is shown of Obama with his Cabinet at a meeting on April 20,
2009, but how many of these are Republicans opposed to Obama’s programme and
how many are white rather than black, and how many are women? All matters
of contemporary debate.

BUILDING THE UNITED FRONT FOR PEACE.
The No73 Autumn 2009 issue of Socialist Studies, price ?1 is another
waiting in a queue for my attention. It is the official journal of the
Socialist Party of Great Britain, founded in 1904 and reconstituted 1991.
The Socialist Party of Great Britain has been complaining recently that
their particular contribution to a united front has been ignored by others,
so at least they cannot complain about this BLOG. Theirs is an honourable
tradition of accepting the principle that all other parties compromise
themselves by seeking a united front, that the enemy is capitalism and
however small the party is, that is better than compromising one’s
principles. This is a view I cannot accept, but every man to his taste.
Their particular ire is reserved for the Socialist Workers’ Party who
themselves have been complaining of neglect by larger organisations such as
Stop the War Campaign, Respect, Liberty etc. but whatever your views give
the SPGB a whirl by contacting www.socialiststudies.org.uk
Capitalism is a main issue in the bourgeoisie press too. For me this
today means the Observer. Critics are sure the capitalist crisis will end
but are divided as to whether the ‘green shoots of recovery’ are real as
Brown and his chancellor hope, or whether action to hasten its revival will
create further inflation. The latter are the views of my favourite
economists, Larry Elliot and William Keegan and my favourite central banker
Mervyn King.
But today there is no guarantee that the crisis will end, if one has
my view that capitalism is a blind beast threshing about and the only way to
control it is to abolish it. This was what the Soviet Union tried to do
without success, but the new Socialism of Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez and the
indigenous Communism of Evo Mores and Ecuador and in other parts of the
world including Australasia may see the end of the brute.

DAY FIFTY SIX OF A PLANET NOT THREATENED WITH EXTINCTION. ?
Some people think I am foolish labouring away for fifty six days at
Barak Obama even though he is the most important man on the globe and
capable
of preserving or destroying the planet, but I beg to differ. No one else
clings like a bulldog to his ankles, but the most important truths are the
simplest truths so I continue to demand of Obama that he fulfil the promise
he made fifty six days ago to destroy all nuclear weapons in the world and
that he discards the Torturers, the Nuclear Maniacs, his war mongering vice-
president, his War Cabinet led by Hilary Clinton and judges who put
so-called ‘national security’ above the truth and therefore support torture
techniques that include sleep deprivation, perpetual solitary confinement,
standing for hours on a stool blindfolded, nakedness, vermin and insects in
food and much else that still goes on at Guantanamo Bay where Americans
continue to occupy Cuba and starve its people with an illegal blockade
condemned by most countries in the world.
Yet in spite of all this we refuse to believe that Obama has deserted
his Nation and ethnicity permanently and so continue to consult his Website
at www.Whitehouse.gov and to cherish even the smallest hint that he is
returning to his roots.
And so, for today we consulted his daily item on ‘defence’ and found
absolutely nothing on Peace although on his Weekly Address and Travelling
Abroad for our Economy at Home Blog he made the following statement in
Seoul, South Korea which I interpret as hopeful. He talks of promoting
America’s principles of an open society and his efforts to prevent nuclear
proliferation in North Korea and round the world and joint efforts to combat
climate change. Also talks in depth about the primary objection of the
tour - engaging in new markets that hold potential to spur job creation here
at home. Small matters, but encouraging, but not encouraging enough to
remove the question mark from our main heading.

THE FAME OF ETHERIDGE SECONDARY MODERN BOYS’ SCHOOL SPREADS THROUGHOUT THE
WORLD.
I’ve had an interesting email on my computer waiting for attention from
Tony Vernon who can be contacted at wordpress@gbpeopleslibrary.co.uk He
chanced on my Blog and wrote on the 4th November 2009 a piece which I will
paraphrase as follows: I have just had an interesting read bringing back
happy memories of Etheridge Secondary Modern Boys’ School. In those days I
lived in Darlaston Lane and always walked to school in hail, rain or
sunshine. My form master was Mr.Siverns and our classroom was adjacent to
the main assembly hall. One of my fellow students was a lad called David
Daker who went on to perform on many television shows never seeming to lose
his unique Bilston accent, ‘Wot yo doin Harry? to quote him from the series
Boon
I well remember trips from school to Bilston Football Club ground to
play our matches against other Houses, Vincent, Wedgwood and Bourne. I was
in Sheldon which ensured that until I stopped playing football at the age of
60 I always played in green football socks under the usual one
of any team I played with. I have travelled the world since then, but I
would welcome hearing from my old school pals, Geoff Holmes, Bill Williams,
Sam Edmunds, Walter Lavender, Wilf Pearce, Geoff Walton, Georgei (Moggsy)
Morris, ‘Snowey’ Jeavons, Billy New, Harold Colbouurne to name a few.
Tony is not the only Etheridge boy to travel the world. I remember
another lad who told me that he had picked up a piece about a school
excavation I had carried out on the Roman road which skirts Barnhurst Farm
on the approaches to Wolverhampton and he had been deputed to do the
drawings of the excavation and he subsequently went to the USA where he has
lived for 50 years.
Now it so happened that I have lost my records of this archaeological
excavation the first I had ever done with school pupils, but my original
papers are probably with other records of mine in the Wolverhampton
archives. But I was overjoyed to hear from Sam Spittle a so-called backward
pupil in the D stream who I had lost contact with for years and he said he
had a booklet called Anvil which was a publication by Etheridge Boys’
pupils and which I knew nothing of. Here in this publication was my own
report of the dig, all but the drawings. Sam was the only pupil that I ever
recruited into the Communist Party or the Young Communist League, it being
my firm principle that I should not directly preach Communism in my history
lessons, but that my personal conduct should be such as to encourage
progressive outlooks. Everyone knew I was a Communist however and my two
sons, Robert Owen and William Morris (named after Socialists) were much
attached to Sam who built beds for them when they were young.
Negotiations were in progress to have a number of copies of the Anvil
photocopied, but
during the negotiations, I learned that my printers, Glovers were in trouble
so I tackled the Moreton Print Shop attached to Moreton School and after a
number of reminders they have just told me that the Print Shop is now run by
W’ton City Council and in the meantime I have temporarily mislaid my copy of
the Anvil, but at least I can track down Sam Spittle who has vanished back
to France as mysteriously as he revived contact with me so all will be well,
given time!
.
EDUCATIONAL ACADEMIES AND THOSE WHO WOULD RUIN OUR EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM.
‘Building Schools for the Future’ is the watchword of those in the
government and locally who have fallen for the idea that all our
Comprehensive Schools should be pulled down and replaced by Educational
Academies which every one of educational standing are utterly opposed to and
which are part of New Labour’s plan to destroy our social services and hand
them over to private vested interests whose aim is either to make money or
else to serve some religious purpose.
The last time this happened was under Margaret Thatcher when Heads were
given total control of schools and encouraged to pay themselves the same
sort of outrageous salaries as private businesses were paying themselves.
The experiment failed then and it will fail again but not without mayhem and
misery which will extend to pupils, parents, teachers, governors and
administrators alike.
Unfortunately the system is being imposed on Wolverhampton at this very
moment with a South Wolverhampton and Bilston Academy due to open on
September of this year. Parkfield closed on August 31st and reopened the
following day as an Academy operating from two sites before all pupils
relocate to a new building at Bilston Urban Village. Construction is due to
start in May 2011. No sign here of consultation with trade unions or other
bodies concerned with school. The running has been made by Roy Lockwood and
Tim Westwood the former once being Education Officer in the town and
appointed instead of Keith Wymer as a safer pair of hands than the principal
of Bilston Community College but now has a title intended to deceive which
is Director for Children and Young People. Tim Westwood is the director of
the ?370million BSF scheme. But Gordon Brown is stoney broke and the ?370
million scheme can only be accomplished by printing money which our
Wolverhampton Grammar School educated Governor of the Bank of England,
Mervyn King, is loathe to sanction because of its effects on the money
supply, trade and inflation. Lockwood and Westwood have no notion of these
affairs, but continue for the time being to be in charge of our school
system and will continue to be until Labour MPs sack Brown and replace him
by a person who is both black and female who can only be Diane Abbott.

ARE YOU ENJOYING THE FLOODS?
Here it is still autumn and because of climate change Britain is
experiencing the worst floods since records began. What will it be like in
deep midwinter? As far as football is concerned matches today have been
postponed but what will it be like in deep midwinter? My proposal that sport
will not enter the 21st century until games are played in all purpose
stadiums with glass or plastic retractable roofs and Arsenal Supporters’
Trust has promised me that the managing director, Peter Friar, has promised
me that he would let me have an estimate of the cost of roofing Arsenal’s
Emirates Stadium which he has not yet done. What better day than today to
remind him when we see empty seats and much needed revenue lost that the
future lies with the clubs who construct an all-weather stadium and the two
teams that I happen to support, Arsenal and Wolves are in the best position
to lead and make it as natural and pleasant to watch your favourite past
time in a covered and safe environment.

FLOODS MAY SURROUND US BUT LET OUR SPORTS CONTINUE UNDER
COVER.

DAY FIFTY FIVE OF A PLANET NOT FACED WITH EXTINCTION ?
Yet again we have visited the site of the most important man on earth,
Barak Obama, who promised us all a world of peace as he told an expectant
world that he would destroy all nuclear weapons in the world, but then
succumbed to the Neo-Cons and Nuclear maniacs who threaten the existence of
the planet. We go to this site www.Whitehouse.gov every day searching for a
ray of light that would enable us to remove the question mark from our
heading and today has been no exception, and under his heading of ‘defense’
we still find nothing to encourage us to remove the question mark.
Today he has been in South Korea and the picture of the day shows him
with President Lee Myung-Bak during his state visit. But nowhere has there
been talks on banning nuclear weapons or even talks concerning the
unification of Korea which was the first war which nearly led to the use of
atomic weapons as General McArthur had to be dismissed by President Truman
for playing at being President as he attacked Korea and the Chinese came to
the rescues of the Koreans by launching Chinese troops. Subsequent
negotiations led to the present situation of an artificial line drawn across
the peninsular and the land divided into North and South Korea. Again the US
president enters a minefield created by his predecessors and again the
unification of Korea can only be solved by peaceful negotiations.

PREPARING FOR PEACE.
Today has been a funny old day. Just imagine the Queen in her Cinderella
gilded coach parading round central London as Gordon Brown in desperation at
being regarded as a nonentity at best and a Torturer and Nuclear Maniac at
worst decrees another session of Parliament at which legislation found
impossible to carry through and Lord Mandelsohn, Jack Straw and David
Miliband play the wicked fairies to Brown’s Cinderella when the only issue
is whether Brown goes today legally deposed by Parliament or by the will of
the People as expressed by their votes at a general election before the end
of this month.
Meanwhile the Peace Movement has been making their own arrangements to
end the wars. Walsall has a twinning arrangement with Palestine and Martin
Lynch has advertised a twinning conference in Birmingham this Saturday.
Walsall will be represented by their Kobar Friendship Association a twinning
group which has held several meetings in Walsall with Palestinian speakers.
An attached flyer asks all who are interested in Peace to attend the
conference on Saturday. For further details contact
martin.lynch05@tiscali.co.uk
Then there has been a notice by Sean Creighton my Battersea buddy and
now secretary of the Black and Asian Studies who announces a Marika Sherwood
lecture on 25 November 6pm at Room ST276, Stewart House, 32 Russell Square
London for a lecture entitled Strength to Stand Firm in the Fight and is a
lecture by Steve Martin an independent historian who reviews the centuries
of contact of Britain within the Islamic World from Peter the Saracen in
early 13th century Northampton to Black African political activists and
Victorian converts on to how currents of trade, migration, war scientific
and cultural exchange in both directions fashion the notions which inform
contemporary opinion on both sides. For further information and information
about BASA’s membership ring 0208640 2014 or sean.creighton@btinternet.com
or www.blackandasianstudies.org

ARSENAL INDEPENDENT SUPPORTERS ASSOCIATION.
Today a sheaf of corresponded from AISA reminded me of my lifetime
connection with Arsenal from the time that I played tennis-football with
Denis Compton under the newly built West Stand at Highbury which was closed
on reserve matches and our duty was to throw the ball back when players had
kicked it into the stand. These were the great days of Herbert Chapman which
ended so tragically with his unexpected death, but whose success continued
under George Allison and the greatest of physiotherapists Tom Whittaker. I
am already a member of the Supporters Club and a Life Member of the Arsenal
Supporters’ Trust and not the least of all this is that Arsenal have always
been foremost in insisting that Arsenal should remain British owned and
opposed to racism in the sport and also should live within their means all
of which issues have raised their ugly heads recently.
I have also been involved in advocating a retractable roof at the
Emirates to bring it into the twenty first century of having all year sport
which has been emphasised this week with details of a December tennis
tournament in London which could not have taken place had there not been a
retractable roof to the centre court at Wimbledon…Everyone at Arsenal,
supporters, players and officials have united to support Kick it Out the
official campaign and the Anti-Racism Week in October which resulted in
Arsenal being presented with the award for best team in opposing racism in
football.
With regard to good husbandry, Arsenal built their new Emirates largely
on the proceeds of selling Highbury and building flats on the old pitch and
the protected facade of the old stand and even though the value of property
fell sharply during the Credit Crunch the 1907/8 accounts show that current
income will enable the club to break even without resort to the vast loans
which load the two Manchester Clubs and Chelsea and Liverpool and most other
Premiership Clubs which could lead to bankruptcy and eventual extinction of
the clubs.
Until recently Arsenal have steered clear of these problems, but now
the failure of the Arsenal board to protects its independence has led to
Arsenal now being at the mercy of American and Russian oligarchs who
declare themselves loyal to Arsenal but might well lose their fortunes as
rapidly as they made them and Arsenal will be exposed to the same fate as
the rest.
Fortunately all Arsenal organisations are opposed to private ownership
of Arsenal, but other falls from grace have been registered at Arsenal
recently. Thierry Henry their former record goalscorer and leader of the
fight against racism has blotted his copybook this week by deliberately
handling the ball in the French 1-Nil defeat of Ireland and now face the
possibility of the match being ruled null and void by appeal to the
international authority who are being asked to re-run the match.
Lastly, my own appeal to the Arsenal Supporters’ Trust to allow me and
my ‘minder’ go to the Emirates, shake hands with my hero, Arsene Wenger,
watch a match and come home via Carpenders Park so that I can once more
meet my ailing and nearly equally aged brother on the way home goes
unanswered by Arsene

FOOTBALL FOR ALL - SAY NO TO WAR

DAY FIFTY FOUR OF A PLANET NOT FACED WITH EXTINCTION ?
Once again we have contacted the most important man in the world, Barak
Obama and consulted his website at www.Whitehouse.gov to see what he has to
say on the question of ending Nuclear Weapons. It will be recalled that he
made a promise fifty four days ago to destroy all nuclear weapons but has
since changed his mind and we search his ‘defense’ item every day to see if
there is any progress towards his reverting to his original opinion. It
must, however, be said that there is no sign at all of that happening from
today’s entry.
However, he is on his first world tour and definite decisions are
unlikely to be made while he is on this tour which means that it could be
Thanksgiving time in the US very near to Christmas that decisions are made
and
that is not possible with the fate of the planet in his hands. So some
decisions will have to be made. He has, for instance already told the
Chinese president that he recognises Tibet to be part of China which will
not please the Dalai Lama. But two interrelated issues have also arisen. One
is Obama’s intention to have the suspects of 9/11 brought from Guantanamo
to New York to be tried and secondly the fact that he will not be able to
close the concentration camp there nor end the blockade of Cuba nor evacuate
the island as he is pledged to do.on his present time table.
We have so far given Obama the benefit of the doubt with regard to
these issues knowing that most of the world is against the blockade of Cuba
which would otherwise make him a Torturer and Nuclear Maniac which we are
reluctant to assume. But knowing that the slaughter of innocent men women
and children in Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine and Gaza continues unabated we
have sided with the Peace Movement in Britain, chiefly CND, Liberty and
others to build campaigns and Petitions etc to end the wars.
Obama is becoming a Jekyl and Hyde, even supporting rendition and
support for not disclosing information where it is said to be in the
interest of the state. No wonder his hair is going grey!
Hitherto we have attempted to get information from Cuba via Al
Jazeerah English and Cuba Si but this has so far failed to reach Cuba, where
we want first hand information of the people directly affected by the wicked
blockade. But we have now found three direct sources in Cuba including their
famous newspaper Granma and asked for first hand information. Will this
work? We shall have to wait and see.

WHAT IS HAPPENING AT HOME.
Today is Thursday evening of Any Questions and The Week where the great
and the good pontificate on politics and morals and yet fail to answer my
questions. Today has seen the EU appoint two strangers the world had never
heard of. One appointed President and the other with no experience of
financial matters the Finance Minister. This is thought to be a sign of the
times because no one now trusts politicians.
At the back of it is Gordon Brown who the more he loses touch with
reality the more buttons and switches he moves, according to David Cameron,
to fill a void with more and more legislation which has no more chance of
being successful than previous efforts to do the same thing and this on the
day when the Queen opened what will be the last parliament of this
government.
So lets look at these people and what I, also a nobody has done today
Brown I have charged with signing a complimentary introduction to a book by
Edgar Kristol’s equally Neo-Con wife’s book commending it and thus shows
that he and New Labour were pawns of Yankee imperialism from the beginning.
Did he sign this book or not? Simple enough to answer, but this is the third
time he has refused to answer my question. It seems that I am too
unimportant to reply to and so he doesn’t bother. Then there is David
Cameron, never likely to be Prime Minister while he supports the war in
Iraq. True or false? He doesn’t bother to reply. Then there is Any
Questions. Did David Dimbleby and his team fix the question when the team
came to Wolverhampton as a friend of mine said they did by removing the most
pointed questions. Did they or didn’t they?. This is relevant to present
circumstances when Nick Griffin the BNP leader was allowed on the panel and
the chief executive of the BBC has defended his organisation while I
complain of the shame of allowing fascists into my living room. The BBC has
an enormously complicated system for complaints but no one is answering my
question. Then there is The Week, a most charming and popular programme with
Andrew Neil as chair and Michael Portillo and Diane Abbott as protagonists.
I have suggested that the next Prime Minister once Brown is locked up and
out of harm’s way should be a black and a female and the one most suited is
Dianne Abbott and that Portillo and Neil should support their comrade Diane
by encouraging her to stand. Have I received a reply from any of them
agreeing or disagreeing with me? not on your nelly! Even tonight when
discussion has been specifically on the falling number of women in
parliament and the percentage of women in Parliament being less than Rwanda
and other equally objectionable dictatorships. Portillo supports all-women
lists at the next general election but the point never seems to have
crossed the mind of Portillo and Neil that the answer to Britain’s problems
was sitting next to them and even Diane was either too modest or embarrassed
to press her own case.
I can quoi a hundred cases where objection has been made and it has
been ignored - Sir Trevor Phillips, the head of the Learning and Skills now
almost defunct quango, the old and new chiefs of Channel 4 and the
journalists Paxman, Marr, Wark and Kearney who refuse to answer my charges.
Because I am a nobody and without power? But the very meaning of democracy
is rule of the little people of which I am one.

CND - CAMPAIGN FOR NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT.
A letter today from the chair of CND Kate Hudson makes the case for
another small man this time Chris Wood to be a delegate at the
Non-Proliferation Treaty in New York in May 2010. To send a delegate costs
money and I am urged to donate ?36 or whatever I feel I can afford to help
send Chris of the younger generation who will inherit this world if indeed
it still exists. Over ?41,000 must be raised to send a delegation. CND has
always been the most effective organisation combatting Nuclear Weapons and
at this time when the world could be vaporised it might well be said that
CNDs day has come:

DEFEAT THE NUCLEAR MANIACS - PEACE NOT
WAR.. .

DAY FIFTY THREE OF A PLANET NOT THREATENED WITH EXTINCTION
Again today we have contacted the most important man in the world
Barack Obama through his website www.Whitehous.gov and asked him why having
raised the hopes of all the world by stating that he would destroy all
nuclear weapons he has done an about turn and now threatens the world with
extinction by threatening to use the same weapons against countries, notably
Iran to force then to give up nuclear weapons which they deny they have.
Obama this week is engaged in his world tour and we have searched under
‘Defense’ for evidence of peaceful intent or abolishing nuclear weapons. His
statement today, however, under the heading of Use all Elements of American
Power reads as follows: The President is committed to building our civilian
national security capacity so that the burden for stability operations is
not disproportionately absorbed by our military. In Afghanistan in
particular at the same time that we are increasing our troop commitment, we
will employ the necessary civilian resources to build Afghan governance
capacity and self sufficiency.
Not much there to suggest that Obama is a Peacenik or that he intends to
abolish Nuclear weapons. But his hosts for the past two days which include
Japan and China have made it clear that although they appreciate the
President’s friendship they want the present wars finished as soon as
possible and nuclear weapons destroyed.
He is even having trouble with what have hitherto been his staunchest
allies, the European Union. Set up as it was to oppose the alleged threat of
Soviet expansion reactionary hopes have been that Tony Blair should be its
new leader. But even Denis McShane the Labour MP and previous Minister for
Europe and as reactionary as they get, now feels that the secret haggling is
getting them nowhere . The President is supposed to come from the
centre-right and the foreign secretary from the centre left. David Miliband
was favourite for the Foreign Minister’s job. But ten days ago at a Fabian
Society meeting Miliband emerged seething with anger from a meeting with
Poul Nyrup Rasmussen the Danish head of the European socialists who said
that he would never support Blair for leader.
This is a case of when thieves fall out and meanwhile the progressive
movement in Britain says scrap the EU, save the money spent on supporting
wars and scrap nuclear weapons.
In the meantime although Obama is now in the Far East he took time off
to criticise the Israelis who are beholden to the Americans for their
strategy of delaying plans for a united Palestine indefinitely because they
want to annex the whole of Palestine.
Meanwhile Obama was playing the tourist in the Forbidden City of
Beijing. Dating back to the fifteenth century it was home to 25 Chinese
emperors who ruled for almost 500 years between 1420 and 1911. Earlier in
the day Obama had talks with the Chinese president Hu Jintao and raised
differences over Tibet, human rights and Iran. The Chinese president asked
Obama to respect China’s core interests, a reference to Taiwan and Tibet.
Obama said that the US recognised China’s right to Tibet but pushed for
early resumption of talks with the Dalai Lama. He also said that their
differences over Iran were obvious. Iran has an opportunity to demonstrates
it peaceful intent but if they failed there ‘would be consequences.’ Hu
said however that the Iran issue should be settled by negotiations, China
being a long term ally of Iran. Obama reposted by saying that he didn’t
expect that the waters would part and everything change over the course of
about a two and a half day trip to China.
But still there was no reference to Guantanamo Bay and my own
connections with Fidel and Raul Castro are still not strong enough for me to
have an opinion on whether Obam is keeping his promise to close the
Guantanamo concentration camp and the US occupation of Cuba.

JESUS WANTS ME FOR A SNOWDROP.
I still press that the Lords of the Universe, Jeremy Paxman, Andrew
Marr, Kirsty Wark, Martha Kearney and Jon Snow answer my charges that they
did not challenge Tony Blair on the issue of Iraq when they interviewed him
on the war in Iraq and thus enabled Blair to cling to Bush’s coat tails and
start an illegal, racist and unwinnable war in Iraq. This also removed our
democratic right to be heard and they became accessories to the war.
Of those named only Jeremy Paxman replied and told me in effect that I
was talking rubbish, but each of the journalists named since have challenged
Brown and indeed like most civilised people are opposed to these wars. In
fact I admire these journalists and each of them receive my BLOG nightly to
which they obstinately refuse to reply. However Jon Snow has interested me
recently. He invites comments on his Snowdrops which he issues daily. So my
comment to Jon is what is the use of your Snowdrops if you do not reply to
me.
Similar comments apply to those who still refuse to talk to me including
David Cameron who will never be Prime Minister while he supports the war In
Iraq and also Sir Trevor Phillips chair of the Commission for Equality and
Human Rights who supports the war in Iraq.
Time is running short and so much left unsaid. I thought of Brown
helping the aged and the young. Well they will need divine intervention to
survive. Or the Arsenal Supporters’ Trust with its balance sheet for 2007/8
showing how a club could break even when all around them are head-over-heels
in debt but must leave it at that.

EARLY TO BED AND EARLY TO RISE MIGHT MAKE THIS
MAN WISE
BUT NEITHER WEALTHY OR HEALTHY