Barnsby Blog March 3rd 2010

March 3rd, 2010

An old friend and colleague of mine, Bob Jones came to see me this week and we passed a few hours talking football. Bob is the most knowledgeable man I know on ameteur football in Wolverhampton. We both agreed that the game we love is threatened as never before by the vast salaries paid to players, coaches and administrators and most seriously of all by the leeches and charlatans that masquerade as agents for the players. Bob played for Wolves Youth and Reserve teams as a lad, and like me, remembers a time when top players earned just a bit more than skilled Engineers and Bricklayers. The past is indeed another country !!
David Cameron has seen the Tories’ opinion poll lead dwindle away in recent weeks. It only reinforces my belief that this man will never be Prime Minister until he faces up to his responsibilities to answer the questions I have put to him over several years now. As Leader of the Opposition, he should be a champion of democracy, not a destroyer of democracy !
My good friend Gordon Jones brought me a copy of “The Monthly Review”, the marvellous American, independant, Socialist magazine, this week. In a week when UK banks have announced obscene bonuses to their top Investment Bankers, in the teeth of public and shareholders’ opinion, their editorial was very appropriate and I will quote you part of it here.
“It is the best of times for the bankers, it is the worst of times for workers. The titans of Wall St. came calling in Washington DC just a few months ago, and were given the keys to the Treasury’s vault. So successful has been the government’s multi-trillion dollar bailout that even those giant financial institutions in the worst shape are paying back what they owe, mainly to get out from what they consider to be onerous public interference in their extrordinarily lucrative business activities.
They are profitable again because of the benefits accrued from a number of government programmes: (a) the essentially zero interest rate they pay for money, while they can lend it out at higher rates (or more likely use it to trade and speculate) ; (b) the sale of toxic assets at favourable prices (for the banks); and (c) funds they received through bailouts of other companies, such as AIG. Where bankers once sat quietly while the people’s presumed tribunes in Congress scolded them for their errant ways, now they are dictating the terms of financial “reforms” and feeling bold enough to phone in their regrets when fog delayed their plane and they couldn’t make a White House meeting with President Obama, who is begging them night and day to start making loans”
Exactly the same scenario is playing out in this country, where the “saviour of the world” and war criminal, Gordon Brown, has no money left for quantitive easing or other measures to prevent the economy going into a “double dip ” recession because he has given it all away to pay for illegal wars. Meanwhile the bankers just keep piling up the bonuses and the champagne continues to flow in the square mile.

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The Barnsby Blog Tuesday 2nd March

March 2nd, 2010
In the race to put Bush, Blair and Brown under lock and key for their role in Iraq and Afghanistan, Venezuela is joining the fray in condemning the wholesale slaughter of innocents by British and American imperialists.
Today I was visited by the physiotherapists who have assesed my needs and given me some breathing exercises to help clear my chest and help with the chest infection that is laying me low at the moment. They have also given me some exercises to strengthen my legs, they will be coming every day and I hope they will be able to get me get me walking again; even if it is only around the house.
Yesterday I recieved the books left to the George Barnsby Working Class Library by Cyril Smith, a longstanding and active Communist of Walsall who died last year. A few of the books and pamphlets are already held by the library, so if anyone would like to have any of the spares please come along and get them from the bookshop in the front porch at 141 Henwood Road. They are all Communist party or left wing publications.

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THe Barnsby Blog Sunday 28th February 2010

February 28th, 2010
The Americans want to build a new embassy in Battersea, a huge glass block which neighbours say will block their view of the Thames. They say their present site is too prone to terrorist attack.
Battersea is the place where I was brought up, not only me but George Shearing, the famous blind jazz pianist who I met befor WW2 conducting a music class at Battersea grammar school. During the war I joined the Far East Rythm Club, a jazz club that we formed while serving in Imphal on the India/Burma border whose operations were abruptly interupted by the Japanese offensive which was intended to conquer India and link up with Hitler. We were ordered by Mountbatten to stay put while we were supplied by air in a seige that lasted three months.
Another Battersea luminary is Sean Creighton, an anti racsist who is also secratary of BASSA (Black and Asian studies movement which connects him with both me and Battersea. My father, also George Barnsby, fought in WW1 and came home to find work going on at the present Battersea power station site. He was a regular soldier whojoined up because he could find no work before the war. He died in 1922 as a result of gassing during the war and as a result I scarcley remember him. I am particularly interested in the power station site because Chelsea football club were said to be interested in moving to the site to build a new stadium with a roof on it.
I received a card a few days ago from an ex pupil of mine from Etheridge school, he was talking to Dave Holmes, another ex pupil, in the Trumpet pub in Bilston who told him about my illness. Apparently I took him for history from 1954 to 1958 and instilled in him a love of Roman history. He also says that he remembers me as a kindly and interesting person who took an interest in his pupils. It was very kind of him to write to me and very gratifying to know that I had that effect on him.

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The Barnsby Blog Wednesday 24th February

February 24th, 2010

Why are Brown and his cabinet not under lock and key? It is partly the fault of all who do not do their legal duty and can call on legal practices such as invoking the law to arrest all war criminals, dismissalls in parliament would be a start and maybe less orthodox ways such as acitizen’s arrest.

Engels believed that Communism would not be built by politicians, who should be consigned to the dustbin of history, but by groups of people who would create a Communist society for themselves, by themselves.

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The Barnsby Blog Sunday 21st February

February 23rd, 2010
I have been back home a week now and it’s good to be back, but as yet I still have no access to a computer of my own. So I am still reliant on my son Bill when he brings his laptop with him when he visits. To carry on my work against the nuclear maniacs and war mongers-you know who they are-I need four things.
1. Access to my blog at all times
2. Access to the daily and weekly press, including the  ethnic minority press
3. Access to the daily statements of Barak Obama
4. Access to the daily statements of Gordon Brown
But without a computer of my own this is proving difficult, hopefuly this situation will be resolved in the very near future and I can get back to hounding these war criminals and getting them their just desserts.
A couple of items from this weeks issue of ”THE VOICE” caught my eye today, the firsty one being Boris Johnson’s decsion to cut the funding from £76,000 to just £10,000 for Black History Month celebrations. A facebook petition called “not the headline news” is opposing the decsion and I urge as many of you as possible to sign it and get the funding re-instated.
The second item is that the former South African President, Nelson Mandela is to be honoured with a special plaque in north London on the 22nd of February. Islington Council and the Nubian Jak Community trust will install a green plaque at 28 Penton Street Islinngton to mark the 20th anniversary of his release from prison. A true giant of world politics and thoroughly deserving of the honour.

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Barnsby Blog February 18th 2010

February 22nd, 2010
A new issue of “History Today” arrived, with an excellent main article on Cuba’s ventures into Africa to support revolutionary struggles in Angola, Ethiopia, Yemen and the former Congo. These ventures met with varying degrees of success and are interesting for what they tell us of the personal involvement of Che and Fidel themselves. People often forget that these missions were planned and carried out from the earliest days of the Cuban Revolution and all at a time when Cuba was very short of every resource except for comitted revolutionaries.
Between visits from my teams of carers, I have been spending much time reading the hilarious Jeeves and Worcester books by P.J. Wodehouse. I am now on my 3rd book of this current spell of incapacity, “What Ho Jeeves”.
Wodehouse is in my humble opinion, the funniest writer ever to put pen to paper, and I have always loved his tales of the archetypal, English, upper class twit Bertie Wooster (as played so brilliantly by Hugh Laurie) and the all-seeing, all-knowing butler Jeeves. I will give you a sample of the 1st chapter of “What Ho Jeeves” for the benefit of newcomers to his work.
“Jeeves, I said. May I speak freely ?”
“Certainly sir.”
“What I have to say may wound you”
“Not at all sir.”
“Well then. no - wait, hold the line a minute, I’ve gone off the rails”
He then reports the complex case of Gussie Fink - Knottle, Madeleine Bassett, Cousin Angela, Aunt Dahlia, Uncle Thomas, Tuppy Glossop and Anatol the cook !! If that doesn’t touch your gift of humour, I’m afraid nothing will. Those who love Jeeves will have to be content with this extract and for newcomers to his work, I would recommend you buy one of his books now (all available from Arrow publishers.
On to other matters. The Barnsby beard, while not as impressive as Adrian Chiles’s on “The One Show” is coming along nicely. Mine also serves a political purpose in showing solidarity with our Muslim brothers and thereby discouraging Islamophobia. Although it’s still more Ken Bates than Osama Bin Laden !

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Football is a funny old game

February 15th, 2010

Football is a funny old game but most of us are bound to it by indestructible ties, a lot through amateur participation of the game. Our local paper, the Express and Star lists 9 leagues alone for the black country of around twelve teams in each. In addition there is a fair number of women’s teams as well and this is not counting the myriad school teams. A big supporter of these leagues is Arsene Wenger, who revolutionised Arsenal and the way they play with his principles that football is a game to be played to entertain. He has been remarkably successful in maintaining these principles as well as developing his own young players and still being one of the most successful teams in the country. Wenger was once asked whether he would not win more trophies by having available obscene amounts of money at his disposal much like Man City or Chelsea. He replied that he would not know what to do with such sums and that it should be put to better use.
Recently Arsenal have played the top two teams, Man Utd and Chelsea and lost them both, so it was natural that the critics would say that Wenger produces marvellous football but is unable to win trophies and that his team beginning with their best player Fabregas will implode as he disappears back to his native Spain where Barcelona are keen to sign him. So it was surprising that Arsenal were the only team in the top four to win in midweek putting them right back in the hunt.
Wenger is a man who supports the principle that British clubs should be owned by British people and the game is at a crossroads which may see several teams go out of business unless they follow more conservative fiscal policies instead of spending more and more of their turnover on players fees and salaries. Wenger practices what he preaches, having moved Arsenal from their traditional home at Highbury to their new home a few hundred yards down the road to Ashburton Grove and accomplishing this by balancing the books and he has the happy knack of knowing when to offload a player and having a ready replacement. So, as the Daily Express chief sports writer says “Trust in Arsene just a little while longer”. One of the only other clubs in the premiership willing to follow the principles of prudence and ownership by British people is Wolverhampton Wanderers, my local team, where Sir Jack Hayward, a great British patriot has in fact sold his club to a Liverpool builder, Steve Morgan. After having financed the Wolves for many years and left them with the legacy of an excellent stadium and has taken the precaution of remaining a member of the board who would exercise a veto to sell the club to a forigner. The premiership needs more owners like this.

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Barnsby Blog 11th February 2010

February 12th, 2010
A mixed day today as I attempt to combine my prior task of recovering from my recent illnesses with the self-imposed task of bringing Blair, Bush & Brown under lock and key.
The most importance advance today has been with my physiotherapist, who along with giving me various exercises in the gym, ensured that I was able to walk further today than at any time since I arrived here, just before Christmas.
I made the mistake of trying to pick from today’s Express & Star, a few items relating to the city of Wolverhampton, but quickly found I had to give up the attempt due to the distraction of national matters. These included the case of Sir Michael Lyons, chief of the BBC Trust, now coming under criticism for making huge cuts to BBC programmes financed by licence holders and Sir Ian Blair, the former Chief Constable of the Met Police Force, who is being brought to Wolverhampton by the University and is expected to meet serious criticism about police matters.
One scandal has been exposed in Wolverhampton, when it was announced that the new Radiology Unit at Newcross Hospital will cost 10 times more than the actual value of the project, due to the fact that it was procured under the PFI initiative. The other nine tenths of the total ammount spent will go in payments over the next 30 odd years to the developers. This is being repeated on similar schemes all over the country, with billions of pounds being wasted in the long term to cook the books in the short term.
Another example of billions of pounds being wasted, is the Building Schools for the Future project which aims to tear down all our secondary schools and replace them with new schools that will then pass out of the control of the Local Authority and into the hands of private companies. The total bill for this project is £370 million, and that’s just in Wolverhampton!
The country will be paying for Brown’s reckless and unecessary schemes for generations to come.

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February 12th, 2010

12th February 2010.

With Georges permission I would like to add two pennyworth to the Blog

 

In 1925, Adolf Hitler wrote in Mein Kampf “The broad mass of a nation…..will more easily fall to a big lie than to a small one”.  Well Blair and his Unterleutnants must have been conversant with Adolf’s works when they planned the Iraq War.  It was a big lie alright.

 

They tried the same technique when it came to trying a cover up over BAE’s corrupt arms deals with poverty stricken Tanzania.  That is, neither Claire Short nor Robin Cook succeeded in stopping the sale of very expensive military radar system to a country that didn’t have any military aircraft.  A contract that the World Bank judged was unnecessary and over priced and what is more where a third of the contract price was diverted into secret offshore bank accounts. However when Short and Cook complained, our Tony insisted that the deal had to go through.

 

And of course we all know what Tony had to say when the SFO tried to investigate allegations of massive BAE fraud in the case of the sale of military aircraft to Saudi Arabia.  “Further investigation would compromise the excellent exchange of security information between our two nations”.

 

And now they’re at it again.  At last the British Judiciary have allowed the publication of documents proving beyond doubt that MI5 were complicit in the torture of prisoners held at Guantanamo.  After months of resistance and obfuscation on the part of Mr Milliband, using the same old argument that the exchange of valuable security information and “the special relationship”, would be seriously compromised if American files were published in the UK (Already in the public domain in the USA by the way!) big lies have been tried again.

 

You know what they say about statistics well it’s the same with liars.  There are liars, damned liars and New Labour politicians.

 

Bob

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The Barnsby Blog No 1007

February 11th, 2010
We ended yesterdays blog praising staff but suggesting that I had serious criticisms of the administration of West Park hospital, starting at the very top with David Laughton, the chief executive.
During my stay here I had a very nasty experience, it was a bad reaction to Codine, a strong painkiller I was taking for severe pain in my back. I was being given paracetamol for the condition and the pain was almost intolerable so my family asked for a stronger painkiller to be subscribed, hence the codene. But it made me drowsy and lethargic, I stopped eating and drinking and became very poorly so they had to put me on a drip to get fluids into me and it was during this time that I suppose I must have been hallucinating, because I thought that I went to bed at home one night and woke up the next morning chained to a bed in the hospital against my will, when in reality the chains were in fact the drip tube that was feeding me essential fluids to help me recover. It was a scary time for both myself and my family, whenever they came to visit me I was either asleep or convinced I was being held against my will, I hope I never have to go through that again.
Anyway, back to global concerns, Bush, Blair and Brown continue to be at large and not under lock and key as they so thoroughly deserve to be. That means the blog must continue in it’s attempts to bring these criminals to book and will not stop until this has been achieved.

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