I Intend To Escape ......................And Come Back

Time For Some Manchester United Fans To Grow Up

Tomorrow sees my team, Manchester United, travel to Arsenal. 

For over a decade now Manchester United fans have taunted Arsenal's manager, Arsene Wenger, with a particularly puerile and stupid song accusing him of being a paedophile. The song appears to go back to Wenger's early days at Arsenal, where the clubs share price was temporarily affected by a false rumour (started by Spurs fans working in the City) that Wenger was resigning as Arsenal manager, due to child sex charges. Wenger himself appeared on the steps at Highbury to harangue the media for considering such false rumours to have possibly been true, an incident that was soon forgotten as the same journalists preferred to describe Wengers normally calm persona and even temperament. 

Whilst all is fair in love and war, and most things fair in football, this song diminishes United's fans, and it diminishes our club. United have already appealed to supporters in the club programme to stop singing it, and Reds have everything to gain, and nothing to lose, by meeting the clubs request. 

It is time to shut up and concentrate on the football. Oh - and kicking the Glazers out.

Raise The Green and Gold

To mark the opposition to the Glazer family, Manchester United fans are now wearing green and gold, rather than red. These were the original club colours when the club was founded in 1878 as Newton Heath, by the employees of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway.

"United's soul is never sold, so proudly wear the Green and Gold 
We'll never wear our famous red, 'til Glazer's gone or even dead
So raise that ancient standard high, by Green and Gold we'll live or die,
That day will come again for sure, when we can wear our red once more."

Howard Zinn Dies

The great American historian Howard Zinn has died, aged 87.

Zinn was a giant on the US left, and a constant reminder that underneath all the froth, showbusiness and greed, America has a long and passionate history of rebellion and resistance. Of his writings, the Zinn reader was perhaps the past sample of the depth of his knowledge and range of his contacts, but others will have their own favourites.

Thank you Howard for what you gave us.

We Can Certainly Go On Like This!

The Conservative election posters featuring an airbrushed David Cameron have been hit hard across the country by an army of graffiti artists, and on-line by a wave of pranksters.

What an excellent start to the election campaign! Hopefully this is just the beginning as Eton Boy gets the rough ride he deserves over the next six months. Here's my two favourite doctored posters so far:

Welcome To The Islamic Republic of Trafford?

Ian Hopkins, the Deputy Chief Constable of Greater Manchester, has been working the news rooms this morning ahead of tommorow evenings Manchester derby.

On Radio 5 Live Hopkins announced that the police had issued photofits of fans wanted for alleged offences at last weeks first leg. Of equal significance was an aside Hopkins made that as well as a vastly increased police and stewards presence, they would be taking action against local sites selling alcohol. For some years now much of Trafford has been a designated no drinking area, meaning that it is illegal to drink in the street.

Police attempts to enforce this around Old Trafford on match days however, proved unsuccesful. Firstly off licences in the area sold most of their weekly stock in the 3-4 hours before kick off - they were not going to turn that type of money away. Even when uniformed officers told them to. Secondly the police under estimated the willingess of United fans to assert their indpendence and to carry on doing what many have done for generations - enjoy a few cans outside the ground before the match. Who are Greater Manchester Police to stop that?

Eventually fans resistance proved stronger than the police's willingness to enforce a bad law - the only time you are safe to drink in the street in Trafford is now on a match day. It is quite possible, given the hype surrounding the Cup Semi Final, and Hopkins comments above, GMP will revert to type and attempt to stop fans supping ale on Wednesday. If so - they must be resisted. This is Manchester, not some tinpot Islamic republic. If the cops don't like that, they can always take themselves to somewhere alcohol is banned. I believe Saudi Arabia is lovely at this time of the year...........

Youth ID Cards: Ignore The Pilot

Hackney MP Meg Hillier may only have a few months left in government, but she is using them to push a policy that will never be fully implemented - ID cards.

The Home Office Minister is advocating a volunatary card for 16-24 years olds, which could be used for European travel and could be used as proof of age at UK retail outlets. The card costs £30.

Here's a tip for any 16-24 year olds. Why not ignore Ms Hillier, and spend the £30 she would like you to spend on an ID card, either on a holiday, or at a retail outlet where you are not asked for proof of your age?

A Boxing Robbery

How else can you describe Hackney's Ian Napa losing the British Bantamweight title to Doncaster's Jamie McDonnell?

I gave the fight to Napa by at least four rounds, as did the Sky commentators, and it seems most in the audience. Whilst virtually every sport now makes some use of technology, football and boxing stubbornly refuse to do so. How frustrating it must be for Napa to see that he landed far more clean punches - to head and body - yet two judges managed to ignore the statistics and side with the aggression of McDonell? 

Napa had the classier shots, and more of them. He was rarely troubled. He was robbed and the board needs to order a prompt re-match. 

NAMPy-Pambies

What a curious organisation the National Association of Muslim Police appears to be.

Yesterdays news featured a furore over evidence they have submitted to the Commons Preventing Violent Extremism enquiry. I was shocked when I read the NAMP report as to just how poor it is.

Firstly it is littered with spelling and grammatical mistakes, and looks as if it has been proof read by a distracted first year student. You would have thought a professional body, submitting its views to the government, would have produced something that was a lot tighter. What for example does this mean?

“1.5: All forms Right Wing, Separatist, so called Islamist, Green issues, Single entity…….need to addressed as opposed to the current PREVENT focus on Islam”

Politically it is also very poor. A simple glance at the Home Office May 2009 statistics on terrorism arrests in the UK shows 91% of terrorist prisoners in the UK classed themselves as Muslims (p.7). Given Muslims comprise something like 5% of the UK population, it is hardly a suprise that the government (and the general public) is concerned about the conduct of radical Islamists in the UK.

In recent years we have also seen a small number of right wing gun nuts and BNP inadequates obtaining convictions for hoarding weapons and/or experimenting with and possessing explosives. At some stage one of these of guys will get through, as the National Socialist Movement's David Copeland did in 1999. On the numbers given though, fascist terrorists would appear to be outnumbered by at least 9-1 by jihadists and would be jihadists.

The NAMP seem to have as big a problem with maths as they do with grammar.

Publications Page Updated

I've just got round to tidying up the 'My Writing' page on this blog, with hopefully a few more things to come shortly.

You can view it here.

A Poor Man's Ken Baily

What a bizarre outpouring of simulated national grief and bluster.

How else can you comment on the fuss regarding Kraft buying up Cadbury? That's capitalism folks. Perhaps most curious of all was the sight of this gentlemen, dressed up as some latter day John Bull.

 

Anyone 40 or over will remember Bournemouth's Ken Baily,  who dressed in a similar manner at just about every major English sporting event in the 60s, 70, and 80s, styling himself as the most patriotic man in the country, serving Queen and country as our sporting mascot.

There has of course been a vacancy in this role ever since Mr Baily was forced to retire after a rather embarrassing court appearence following a misunderstanding in a park with some 'lads'. Where ever he is today, Ken Baily would be delighted to see he has spawned an imitator. Lets just hope this particular story ends differently to the last one...........

Todays Looky-Likey

The FBI has been rightly panned for basing a 2010 age progressed image of Osama Bin Laden on Gaspar Llamazares, a Spanish Communist.

But surely they should have based their projection on Yorkshire gun nut and BNP 'gold member' Terence Gavan? Check these images out.

 

For those who are confused, the man in the first picture is an obsessive narrow minded bigot who wanted to kill lots of people, whilst the man in the second picture is an obsessive narrow minded bigot who has killed lots of people.
Osama Bin Laden does have a bigger head though.

Sunday Morning

Flicking about on You Tube recently, I came across James' classic cover of the Velvet Underground's Sunday Morning.

I had forgotten just how good it was. Here it is.

 

Do Your Own Airbrushing

David Cameron's 'We can't go on like this' billboard poster is attracting graffiti artists across the country.

Well you can also have a go at altering Dave from the comfort of your own armchair. Check out the excellent My David Cameron site, and give it a go!

On The Perils of Predicting

Hello to paranormal parents Jane and Craig Hamilton!

Back in December 2008 SkyMag, the free magazine sent to all Sky subscribers, invited the psychic pair to make their predictions for 2009, as they starred in the Biography Channel's Our Psychic Family. The Hamilton's, who now style themselves as Craig and Jane Hamilton-Parker on the Psychic & Mediums Network, looked into their crystal ball, and came up with the following:

1. Barak Obama will survive an assassination attempt - it will be a John F Kennedy-style shooting.
0-1.
2. A celeb will be involved in a knife attack.
This is so vague as to be virtually worthless, but it is hard to name any prominent celebrity thus injured.
0-2.
3. Victoria Beckham will become pregnant with a longed for baby girl.
She remains as skinny as ever. Another miss. 0-3.
4. A major eco-catastrophe in Paris will impact on the global community.
Paris still looks fine from where I am standing. 0-4.
5.Katie Price - aka Jordan - will announce a surprise pregnancy.
She has rarely been out of the news, but not for these reasons. 0-5.
6. The world will go even deeper into recession - far worse than currently predicted. This will have disastrous repurcussions in Africa.
This is a harder one to score. Yes the recession continued, but it was the UK that lagged behind others. As for Africa, it does not appear to have suffered more, comparatively, than anywhere else. 0-6.
7.Gordon Brown will be ousted from power.
Completely wide of the mark, Brown not only remains in harness but the Tories have failed to pull away in the polls. 0-7.

SkyMag ended its article with the words "We'll have to check back this time next year and see if the Hamilton's are right". Sadly Sky did not, but I have - and they were not! I do hope Sky were not paying them for such rubbish?

 

 

Mr Bond, I've Been Expecting You

The financial mess that the Glazer family have landed Manchester United in is now crystal clear.

In a way there is something particularly apt that as the UK wallows in debt and international opprobrium due to its love in with the banks and American foreign policy, the UK's most famous football club is on the rocks due to the debt inflicted on it in a dubious purchase by American owners.
I am aware of the head of one Manchester United supporters club branch who got tired of anti-Glazer feeling at the club and took to lambasting fans singing anti-Glazer songs. "Are you serious?" he would ask.

Well - things look pretty serious now, as the excellent Jim White comments here.

I don't think the Glazers would dare sell Old Trafford - indeed even renaming it would be difficult. Such a change would be a 'die in a ditch' issue for supporters. That obviously leaves selling players, some form of bond scheme and selling the training ground - all options far more likely. If so, United fans have to return to the militant methods of a few years ago, targetting not just the hotels the Glazers stay at when they visit Manchester, but United's sponsors and in particular demonstrations at their city centre stores and headquarters.

The Glazers must go. And for that to happen - they must be made to go.

More on Moazzam Begg, Jihadism and Amnesty International

Yesterday I was invited to pen a little piece on Harry's Place about the former Guantanamo Bay prisoner Moazzam Begg, who is currently working closely with Amnesty International. 

I have real concerns about this. You can read the article here. 

So, Farewell Then

As the snow thaws, or at least begins to, it is timely to recap on its effects. 

Firstly the snow showed England and Wales at its worst. (Scotland is at its worst during any English sporting success, and Northern Ireland at its worst during the week of the 12th, so I exempt those two corners of the British Isles from my analysis).  

The safety first tendency now runs the mindset of much of the country. As Arsene Wenger put it, it matters less that 60,000 people attend a football match, than one person attends and falls over. And sues. Still, at least Arsenal managed to play football on Saturday - the streets around Upton Park were virtually clear of snow on Sunday, yet West Ham's match with Wolves had already been postponed. Pathetic. 

Secondly, such a wussy approach reaffirms generational differences. Those brought up in the safety first culture, who have never known anything else, will not only reproduce it but instinctively reach out for, and make excuses. A big wet blanket threatens to suffocate us. This year in London social events have been cancelled in case people can't get back home easily, work meetings postponed. A whole generation of young people have now been introduced to such behaviour as normal - and worse will use 'the great freeze of 2009-10' as their own reference point in the future. 

How do we break this cycle? 

 Beats me! 

On the plus side, anyone who had scheduled a good drinking session after work (or at places more important than work) in 2010, will have had an excellent opportunity to see just who is who.  Faint hearts will have been elsewhere. Perhaps a few lessons will have been learned............

Angola versus Mali

How good was the first game in the African Cup of Nations?

The worst racist cliche is that African teams have great natural talent but are 'naive'  defensively. Even Ron Atkinson would struggle to dare to use it - but I should imagine the Angolan manager wishes to tattoo those words to the backs of his defence! 

Angola - with Flavio outstanding - led 4-0 with 16 minutes to go. The match finished 4-4. 

African Nations games are live on Eurosport. I suggest you tune in. 

Galleani Goes To Hollywood

The Italian-American Anarchist Luigi Galleani is an often overlooked figure. 

That all looks set to change, with a film, No God No Master, being made by Strata Productions later this year. The No God No Master website can be viewed here. 

 Hat tip to John at the ever on the ball Kate Sharpley Library for this piece of news. 

Orwell Prize Nominations

The Orwell Prize is a competition for bloggers, run by the Orwell Trust, Political Quarterly and the Media Standards Trust. 

I'm pleased to say it is self nominating (so no need for false modesty!) and bloggers can nominate up to ten of their own articles. Here's the 10 I have put forward, which I hope indicate the range of issues covered here, and over at the 9/11 Cultwatch blog. 

Radio 4, ACPO and the English Defence League. 

Rugby, Class and Bookshops. 

Big Brother Is Watching You In The Bedroom. 

How To Solve The India v Pakistan Crisis

Michael X: A Life In Black and White 

White Bicycles Over Hackney.  

New Queen Mum Statue A Towering Success. 

A Giant Leap Sideways (From the 9/11 Cultwatch blog, on whether the moon landings were faked).  

Do You Have The Same Job As Your Uncle? 

Anarchists: Don't Trip Over Any Journalists Today. Or - how Emma Simpson broke my heart. 

The Staff In The Halifax Bank Advert Must Die

All this snow is doing strange things to people. 

Over at Ian Bone's blog, the old man is going stir crazy, his madness seemingly caused by over exposure to the Thomas Cook advert featuring Louise and Jamie Redknapp. My psychosis has been brought on by the Halifax's "High Five" advert. 

Here the Halifax announce they are giving £5 to their account holders, in the setting of a very, very fake radio station. Before you form a queue in the high street, it should be noted that this is only applicable if you deposit £1000 per month. Great deal there! This is irritating enough, but add a latter day Friar Tuck in a Halifax staff uniform, Spandau Ballet's 'Gold", plus the succession of hammy facial gestures, fake chumminess and 'high fives' - it is all enough to send a sane man loopy in the trenches.  

I was once that sane man. 

Anarchists have not killed anyone in Britain since 1911. That has to change. Ian - if you take out the advertising executives at Thomas Cook, I will do the same to the agency employed by the Halifax. We will pardon the Redknapps and that fat bloke from the Halifax. For now.......

Its Been A Long Time.........

But test trains are running on the East London line. 

This morning I spotted a brand new London Overground train heading east out of what will be Haggerston station.  At last, some progress beckons in Hackney that will benefit all, rather than the privileged minority. 

Forward the East London line! 

Women and Fascism

Quite a few teenagers have been known to complain that their parents are fascists, but in the case of James Maw it was actually true - his mother was a member of Sir Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists. 

"Mother Was A Blackshirt" on Radio 4 today at 1100, goes considerably further, with Maw sketching a little known connection between the Suffragettes and the Blackshirts, and profiles some of the women who were firmly behind Mosley. 

New Photographs For Your Pleasure

Scroll down the left hand side of this page, and you will find new pictures added to the following sections:

Hackney Life 
Snapped
How's Life in London?
Flatlands

As always, comments welcome. 

The Truth Behind NPowers 'Free' Lightbulb's

Like most Npower customers, I received 4 free low energy light bulbs just before Christmas. 

Given the money this company have made out of me over the years, and their tendency to discriminate against customers who do not pay by direct debit, they will have to go a bit further than that to bribe me. All the more interesting then to read that this dumping was rushed through before a ban on issuing unsolicited bulbs, and that NPower saved millions of pounds with this act. 

Green capitalism - dontcha just love it!

A Bureaucratic Start To The New Year

Was I the only person buggered about on New Years Eve by transport and police restrictions?

Leaving Hackney at 10pm, it should be perfectly possible to get to Waterloo by 11.55pm, where I wished to view the new year fire works. But not when London Transport stop the 243 bus a mile from its destination, and the Metropolitan Police close roads to prevent you crossing the river - or even getting close to doing so. This was all justified by an army of London Transport staff brought in for the night, their florescent jackets fluttering in the breeze. 

It is interesting to see the extent to which public order policing, perfected against demonstrators, is entering the general policing of London. Last night London's streets were divided into sections (often by use of metal screens closing off routes people wished to take) with officers following groups 'of interest'. CCTV and police helicopters watched over us, whilst everyone was left frustrated that they could see where they wanted to go, but were prevented from doing so. For the streets not worthy of the Met's attention, private security guards were employed to shiver in blue jackets and guard crash barriers with gusto. 

And of course, all this is for our own good. Welcome to 2010, which so far looks very similar to 2009.