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The rise of 'truth' activism in Yorkshire has provoked a 9/11 Cultwatch supporter in the white rose county to contribute a small report on some of the murky waters truthers are swimming in over in West Yorkshire.
During a pub crawl in Leeds over the weekend we stumbled into The Victoria near the town hall to find a benefit gig in progress for the 'truth' movement.
From what was on display the pub appeared to be a holding pen for every variety of conspiracy nut on the planet. There was a bloke flogging '9/11 Inside Job' t-shirts, DVD's on how the weather is being used as a weapon, stuff on Barack Obama's real Kenyan origins, the secret Nazi-Jewish plot that controls America, postcards about how global warming is a myth, all sorts of racist and loopy stuff. I picked up a great poster with 'No-one is modifying the weather!' on. How's that for an early Christmas present!
Most of the leaflets on the tables were in the name of the British Constitution Group and the Whole Truth Coalition and they were giving out a free newspaper called 'the UK Column'. It surprised me how right-wing a lot of the stuff they were putting out was. The paper was full of articles about Marxists in Westminster seeking to undermine the family, promote homosexuality and permanently damage Britain's currency, which needs to be linked to the Gold Standard again apparently. We need to combat these ideas - there are enough right wing ideals in this society as it is. Whilst it is tempting to stress how peripheral a lot of these individuals and groups are it was noticeable that people who are obviously from the wing of the 9/11 truth movement least in touch with reality managed to put on a well-organised gig in a city centre pub plus a full day of meetings in one of the back rooms. The place was packed as well. I also noticed one of their upcoming meetings, 'Parliament on Trial', is advertised in the latest issue of Private Eye (pg. 35) so they have a few bob to spend as well. Yorkshire Kid |