Cupid Stunts

September 30th, 2009 § 3 comments § permalink

From the latest BNP mailing list updating their members on the Equalities Commission court case about their membership rules…

A few weeks ago we received an anonymous letter, supposedly from a CEHR insider, telling us that one of their senior executives had called a tele-conference in which he asked various members of staff to find ‘sympathetic’ members of ethnic minorities who would agree to try to join the BNP. His idea was that this would provide fabricated evidence of our alleged membership discrimination. CEHR would then use taxpayers’ money to fund their legal actions against us and the individuals would be rewarded by getting damages from us.

Scarcely able to believe that even CEHR would be so cynical, corrupt and desperate, we submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to establish whether any of this is true. Last week we received our answer: Yes, it is! We have forced CEHR to confirm that they regard this as a very serious matter and have already launched an internal investigation. We will be given more details shortly. Once our lawyers have these, a whole new line of counter-attack will be open to us.

*bangs head on desk very fucking hard*

If this is true, then stupid fucking cunts. What the fuck are the Commission playing at?

If you gonna play the game like that you make sure it’s deniable, non-traceable. For fucks sake, take the cloak to the dry cleaners and polish up the dagger. If you’re gonna make such basic mistakes as this, why fucking bother in the first place.

C’mon, CEHR. Get yer fucking act together.

Some thoughts on Gordon Browns’ speech

September 29th, 2009 § 0 comments § permalink

I didn’t get to hear or see Gordons’ speech today and being a lazy sod I haven’t really gone looking for it, but from what I have picked up is from here

• Provide 250,000 free childcare places for two-year-olds.

• Delay the introduction of compulsory ID cards for British citizens.

• Provide a network of supervised homes for 16- and 17-year-old parents.

• Create up to 10,000 green job placements.

• Protect the schools budget.

• Hold a referendum on the alternative vote electoral system after the election.

• Remove hereditary peers in the House of Lords “once and for all”, in the next parliament.

• Give constituents the right to remove corrupt MPs.

• Increase the role of post offices in providing financial services.

So, 250k free childcare places for two year olds. Very good that will help a great deal for some people, but surely wouldn’t it be better to make it so people didn’t need free nursery places, either by working towards a situation where couples do not need have both of them working or by making it so people can afford to pay for their own childcare.

Delay the introduction of compulsory ID cards. Not abandon the idea but delay. It’s still on the cards, as it were. It’ll still gonna happen. It’s just not so subtle as in 1997* when Blair said Labour wouldn’t introduce university top-up/tuition fees and then in 2001* said that that promise was just for the previous parliament.

(*I might be 4 years early with this and it happened in 2001 and 2005)

Supervised home for young parents. ‘Nuff said here.

10,000 green job placements. The word ‘placements’ bothers me. If it was just jobs, fine, but ‘placements’ doesn’t sound very permanent. You used to get a work experience placement at school and then when you left school it was a YTS £40-a-week placement. Neither lasted long.

Protecting schools budgets. Everything else is going then.

Referendum on an alternative voting system. Good.

Remove hereditary peers. Wasn’t that in the 1997 election manifesto?

Recalling MPs. Another good one.

Same for Post Offices.

What is this about (also mentioned here)?

Brown promises 10,000 skilled internships. He wants young people ‘to embrace ambition and British enterprise’

Don’t interns work for nothing but expenses? Is that what Gordon’s promising? If it is, it’s setting the bar a bit low, isn’t it? He wants young people to embrace the ambition of getting a job that pays? Is that it?

I gather ‘change’ appeared a lot* in Gordons’ speech, but surely after twelve years of a government we should be at least on the right track (for the government) and not needing to change too much, otherwise what’s the last twelve years been spent doing?

(*link via qwghlm.co.uk)

Anyway, that’s it. Gordon’s on his way out whatever. Is it time for a proper revolution yet?

If it looks like a goose and steps like a goose…

September 28th, 2009 § 0 comments § permalink

The BNP are not Nazis, Fat Nick tells us.

Well, if it looks like a goose, and steps like a goose…

Mike Bell, the midlands BNP organiser took a delagation to Germany to a rock festival organised by the NPD.

Who are the NPD, I hear you ask. PoliticalhackUK has a the answer…

The NPD is the National Democratic Party of Germany and has been under constant investigation by the German government for being a threat to the constitution – these nutjobs worship Rudolf Hess as a martyr to the cause

They wished Obama well for his presidency, announcing that he was elected by a ‘Jewish-Negro alliance’ and was out to destroy the white identity of the US.

Germany still maintains very strict laws about displaying anything relating to the Nazis – not a great surprise, to be honest. So when one of their local leaders – Jurgen Rieger – wore a Nazi uniform to be driven around in a Nazi staff car bedecked with Nazi propaganda, he ended up being prosecuted for this minor transgression. Rieger is now out to try to create a museum to the Nazi ‘Strength through Joy’ movement which extended Nazi Party control to leisure and travel in the pre-war years. He’s also been blocked from using a rural hotel to start a training camp for young wannabe Nazis – German police had to storm the building after gunshots were reported. Jurgen is reported to be a great admirer of Oswald Mosley.

Nice.

via Bob Piper

My own little letter writing campaign

September 27th, 2009 § 0 comments § permalink

I don’t need to tell you about the shit that Tim has had to go through whilst investigating the Glen Jenvey/Sun/Jewish hit list story, do I?

Good.

Well, Tim has asked for a hand, writing to your MP about the behaviour Patrick Mercer.

Here is my letter, via WriteToThem.com to Dr Evan Harris…

Dear Evan Harris,

I am writing because I have a friend who could do with some help.

I’m sure you remember the story about a Jewish hit-list that appeared on an Islamic internet forum and was reported by the Sun newspaper. The list featured prominent names such as Alan Sugar, Mark Ronson and David Milliband.

The story was provided to be the Sun by discredited freelance spy Glen Jenvey and subsequently, it has been proved to be a false story. The Sun has now apologised.

It was my friend, Tim Ireland, that proved the story was untrue. In the course of and as a result of his work, in his free time as he is not any sort of journalist, in getting to the bottom of this story he has had to endure a lot of stress and worry. This includes being smeared as a stalker, being mentally unstable and a peadophile. Tim has had his ex-directory phone number and his address published on the internet and also had veiled threats against his family.

Nearly all the threats and smears are as a result of the actions of Patrick Mercer MP (Conservative, Newark & Retford) or his staff.

If Patrick and his staff had behaved differently, the whole ordeal would’ve gone differently and the threats/smears would’nt have arisen or at the very least, Tim would’ve had to endure them for a shorter time.

How you can help, Dr Harris, is to take the time to read the two following articles by Tim that will explain things better than I could:

http://www.bloggerheads.com/archives/2009/09/patrick_mercer_boom.asp

http://www.bloggerheads.com/archives/2009/09/suburban_jihad.asp

and then ask Patrick Mercer what the bloody hell he’s playing at.

Yours sincerely

Tim Ireland, Patrick Mercer MP and a bloody disgrace

September 25th, 2009 § 3 comments § permalink

Maybe this is why proper, real journalists don’t do any investigating any more and only print what they’re told…
After all, if you were looking into a story and, like Tim Ireland, your reward was…

To be smeared, to have his mental health impugned, to be accused of being a paedophile, lied about, vilified, stalked, and finally his home address made public on the internet. He has had to involve the police.

with those that could and should help not do so, is absolutely disgraceful.

Patrick Mercer should be ashamed of himself, at the very least, and the Tory high command have done nothing about him. Not even commented.

Tim has had help from Richard, but could do with more.

Write a letter, spread the word

…reach out to your local MP and find out what they think about this. No mobs, just a few quiet, well-informed questions to a few MPs.

A “polite letter-writing campaign,” if you will.

It doesn’t matter which party your MP is from, but you probably needn’t bother telling CCHQ or any relevant/senior members of David Cameron’s cabinet about this; they were informed days ago that all this was going on, and they haven’t said or done a damn thing about it.

Daily Mail/ Councils FOI requests

September 25th, 2009 § 0 comments § permalink

Because of an idea in the comments of this post on Liberal Conspiracy, I fired a few FOI requests to whatdotheyknow.com.

I sent one to each of the following councils:

  • Vale Of White Horse District Council
  • Oxfordshire County Council
  • Oxford City Council
  • Abingdon Town Council (I made a bit of a pigs ear of that one so may have to submit another request if this one turns out to be shite)

asking for
– What are the top 10 websites visited by the Vale of White Horse
District Council staff during the months of June, July and August
2009.

– How many many minutes were spent on each site during the above
months.

– How many people does the Vale of White Horse District Council
employ.

– How many times the Daily Mail website (any URL beginning
http://dailymail.co.uk) was accessed in the above months if not in
the top ten.

The prize for the quickest proper response goes to *drum roll*… The Vale of White Horse

Further to your recent FoI request please find attached reports on the
top ten sites visited by Vale employees during the months June – August
2009.

Unfortunately our software does not provide the functionality to report
on the number of minutes spent on each site, or to report on how many
times a particular website has been visited within a given period.

The Vale has 278 employees.

I hope this information is of assistance.

The results were sent in a .pdf format and are here, June, July and August.

June:

white_horse_june_top10

July:

white_horse_july_top10

August:

white_horse_august_top10

More to follow… hopefully.

No Platform – A response

September 24th, 2009 § 1 comment § permalink

I have been kindly invited to respond to a previous blog that argued the No Platform policy advocated by UAF is not the correct approach. Whilst I understand why many believe the way to stop the BNP is to share every platform with them, and enter into debates with them whenever they appear in the media arena, there are a number of difficulties with this tactic. I will try and make this response as short as possible.

Firstly, there is the question of historical evidence. If you are arguing that the BNP should be allowed to exist as a democratic political party, participate in elections, engage in debates alongside all the other political parties, and have their racist propaganda treated as a ‘view’, and that this is the best way to stop them, then the gaping hole in your argument is Hitler and the Nazi party in Germany. Hitler’s rise was through the democratic machinery of the state, starting out in a small extremist party, and ending up as a Fascist dictator. I need not spell out the details of the holocaust again, but the sheer scale of these horrific acts should serve as a warning to us all. The only thing that did work in the end was direct physical confrontation in the shape of one of the (if not the) bloodiest wars in human history. Democracy was no safeguard to these crimes, it enabled them. The BNP should not be given a platform. History shows us what can happen when Fascist parties are. By sharing a platform, you begin to create the legitimising conditions that can lead to the most extreme consequences imaginable.

But things are different now I hear you say. That would never happen here! Well, I imagine that the majority of the German population would never have thought that it could have happened there! If things are so different, why are we still having to deal with the threat of fascism and racism nearly 70 years on?

On the basis of evidence alone, the policy of sharing a platform and allowing Fascists to participate in democratic life must be discarded. If this was a scientific theory one was testing, it would be immediately negated, but there is a general reluctance to suggest that we should marginalise them and use direct action to prevent them being heard. This is Fascist itself isn’t it? People have a right to their own views?

The real issue at hand, and the one that places constraints on the choice of tactics that we should use, is the issue of free speech (I have argued previously on this blog site about this  –  please address it if you disagree). Allowing racist and Fascist parties to spout their propaganda, and defending it on the basis of freedom of speech is a complete misapplication of the notion of ‘freedom’ to ‘speech’.  If we were in favour of freedom of choice, or freedom of action, we would not expect these ‘freedoms’ to include choosing to murder someone, or the freedom to rape someone. We understand freedom as bounded by some form of basic moral framework, and expressed within a social context.

Why then do we think that when applied to speech ‘freedom’ means saying whatever we want? We would not apply it in the same way to other ‘freedoms’.  ‘Speech’ and ‘action’  are not isolated spheres. Saying whatever you want is not harmless, it does have consequences. Inciting and promoting racial hatred leads to physical acts of racial violence. Ask any victim of a racial crime, or the many people in this country that have to put up with racist abuse. Freedom of speech does not mean that you should have this right.

It is this misapplication that paralyses the current Government in allowing the party to exist, and also the many millions of opponents of the BNP who mistakenly believe that outlawing the party would somehow be anti-democratic. What actually happens is that a Fascist party, once in power, get’s rid of democracy and most freedoms.

Secondly, and following on from the point above, I also want to address the way that debate manifests itself, and to show the limited potential of engaging in debate with them. I watched the previously posted clip of the Nicky Campbell show. After 10 whole minutes of debate, I did not see the BNP being shown up hugely. There was the odd moment where Brons was not comfortable, and avoided the question, but this is behaviour we see from all politicians. The  Reverend also brought in the notion of free speech I have previously addressed, and quickly the topic became derailed and muddled. By even having him on the show, Bron’s racist hatred has been presented as a ‘view’, and has not been treated with the contempt it deserves.

And if you are in any doubt about how giving Fascists a platform will not help show them up, then watch this clip of Andrew Marr interviewing Nick Griffin:

How brilliant was Marr at showing Griffin up?

Griffin may be many things, but he is not stupid. He knows what he can and can’t say, has been carefully rebranding the BNP, and will anticipate many of the questions that come his way. If he were to appear on question time, any audience questions would be made available upfront, giving him time to prepare. Sitting him alongside the leading members of  the three main parties would confer status on him, without any guarantee that they would be able to show him up – we don’t trust them to do anything else right, so why this?

The only solution is to refuse to share a platform with them, and confronting them with direct action, whether that is trying to stop their festival of race hate, or standing up to the EDL in the streets of Birmingham or the Mosques of Luton.

To recap why:

  • Racism and Fascism is not a ‘view’ to be debated.
  • Sharing a platform legitimises these ‘views’.
  • There is a very limited potential for ‘showing up’ the BNP for what they are. Both mainstream TV programmes referred to above certainly do not show the BNP in a particularly bad light.
  • Allowing Fascist parties to participate in a democratic system was a contributing factor in creating the conditions in which Hitler rose to power.

We cannot risk making the same mistakes again.

There is much more that could be said on this matter, but there is hard evidence, from history and the present day, that shows the limitations of an approach to defeating the Fascists based on engaing them as a political opponent.

Here? Why not there?

September 22nd, 2009 § 3 comments § permalink

Teh Guardian

Scores of French riot police descended early this morning on the “jungle” camp in Calais, bulldozing makeshift tents and rounding up hundreds of illegal migrants hoping to stow away on lorries to Britain.

It’s a sorry state if affairs.

We all know why illegal immigrants, asylum seekers, whatever you want to call them, want to come here to this sceptred isle. Depending on who you ask the reasons range from: work; benefits; convert us all to Islam; endangered at home; want a better life; other family already here.

These guys in the ‘jungle’ in France, though. Looking for asylum in Britain. If they get here and can get a claim going, fair enough to them. But…

All the journalists and reporters I’ve heard on this story (and I don’t claim to have heard them all) have all asked why these refugees want asylum in Britain, but never asked why they’re not claim asylum in France when they’re already in France.

Is the French system that bad? Surely they don’t all have family here?

Just an observation. That’s all.

Conservative Change Channel

September 22nd, 2009 § 3 comments § permalink

Get the inside scoop here and here.

Greener than walking

September 19th, 2009 § 0 comments § permalink

I was just thinking this morning about how much longer I would have to wait for a reply to this email to Ocado about their claim to be ‘as green as walking to the supermarket’ when early this afternoon a response plops into my inbox…

Dear Sim-O,

Thank you for your e-mail.

The claim that ?Ocado is greener than walking to the supermarket? was a conclusion that was reached by an independent Carbon Footprint Assessment agency called Greenstone and not by Ocado.

The centralised warehouse which every order is picked from means a small supply chain and massive energy/resource efficiency at every level of the business.

Greenstone compared our unique picking model to several well known supermarket chains. These chains emit huge amounts of carbon as they have countless stores around the country, all consuming electricity, using chillers etc. All of these stores have long supply chains from suppliers driving up and down the country. Building new stores generates high amounts of carbon, while Ocado can still grow within one Warehouse.

The most recent comparison in May 2009 of Ocado to ?traditional supermarkets? across the same detailed categories showed that we had a lower carbon footprint. This did not take into account the huge additional carbon footprint of traditional stores from customers traveling to them each week by car.

Hence it was concluded independently that Ocado is greener than walking to a supermarket

For more information on the survey itself, you can contact Greenstone in the following ways:

Greenstone Carbon Management Ltd,
4th Floor,
Vigo House,
1-4 Vigo Street,
London W1S 3HT.

T: +44 (0) 20 3031 4000
F: +44 (0) 20 3031 4001

E: info@greenstonecarbon.com

I hope this has been of assistance.

A customer service bod

Fair enough*. I’m not gonna try and see the survey for myself as, frankly, I can’t be arsed.

*I think I was a little unfair in this tweet as I read it quick and misread it.

Where am I?

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