I said at the time (not to you, of course) that there was more than meets the eye about the Tottenham Court Road siege last Friday... AND THERE WAS. The man involved was the BNP's 2010 General Election candidate for Stevenage, Michael Green. This is him pictured shortly after the end of the siege. I don't know about you but he looks to be at least topless. One of the things he is charged with is making a bomb hoax; semi-naked? That's some power of suggestion...
But seriously: yet another loony connected with Britain's far right has been found guilty (or in this case caught red handed) of plotting and/or carrying outmurder and mayhem. Will our mass media keep portraying these scum as lone wolf madmen whose violence is incidental to their afilliations?
Elsewhere in fascist violence, read this statement by Lewisham Anti-Racist Action (via Transpontine). Last Saturday fifteen nazis assaulted two socialist pensioners (what a brave and noble master-race!):
Two local anti-racist pensioners were viciously attacked and hospitalised this Saturday by racist thugs who said they were part of a group known as ‘March For England’ which is very closely linked to English Defence League (EDL) and the BNP. Andy Smith, a retired teacher and active in Lewisham Pensioners’ Forum and the NUT was viciously attacked as well as another local pensioner.
The attack appears to be in response to a planned Unite Against Fascism event across south London whose aim was to discourage people from voting for or supporting far-right racist parties in the forthcoming London assembly elections. It follows the humiliation they received in last week’s ‘March For England’ Brighton demonstration where 1000 anti-racists succeeded in reducing the far-right march to a miserable and defeated mob.
The attack happened during a busy Saturday on Lewisham High Street whilst manning a regular campaign stall, one that has been active for over thirty years in Lewisham and an integral part of the local community. Shortly after 12pm the stall was thrown to the floor by an individual loitering in the area and according to witnesses, already there waiting for the local activists to arrive.
A group, taking photographs and staring menacingly at the activists started to gather near the clock tower. Before too long, they passed the stall en masse at which point an altercation began, with shouts and heckling from the racist group. In response to Islamophobic statements one pensioner approached them and received a vicious head-butt as an answer, throwing him to the ground . Another pensioner intervened and was quickly surrounded, man-handled and flung to the floor receiving a knock to the head. Both had to receive medical treatment for their injuries.
Earlier in the morning a photographer was also attacked by the same group of racists and had reported the attack to Lewisham police station...
LARAG is arranging a coach from Lewisham to Luton next Saturday May 5th to join the counter-demonstration to the planned EDL march there. Call 07508 633 045 to book a ticket.
A twist in the tale of London's social cleansing. The tenants associations in Hackney are taking the council to court over the new tennancy agreement the council is trying to slide by unnoticed. As the link suggests the agreement has expanded, 35 pages as opposed to the old 4 page document. The link makes reference to a number of onerous agreements, such as making tenants responsible for household members behaviour anywhere in the borough. They are still secure tenancies (although Hackney Homes will be described as a charity, a likely precursor to privatisation), but I listened to a housing activist in a branch meeting last night who told us about a number of the new conditions. This is only what I was told, but these apparently include:
Tenants must not invite known criminals into their home.
Householders must not be a member of a 'gang', a gang being defined as a group of at least three people that use a name, emblem or colour, or are associated with a particular area - by that definition football teams are now gangs.
A system of collective punishment is being instituted. But there's more, page after page of this. All tennants must carpet their own homes, including putting down high-quality underlay. Tenants must refrain from feeding any birds. Tenants may not keep any cattle, figure that one out! This was only what I was told (although I have no reason to doubt it). It seems to me Hackney Council want to conduct an experiment, which, if it 'works', will be no doubt be extended across the country. There will still be secure tenancies, but a tangled litany of terms and conditions that would leave almost every tenant and resident vulnerable.
Britain is back in recession. It hardly feels like we've ever been out of it, but our society is back in the doldrums... and that's OFFICIAL (to borrow a tabloid phrase). Who would have thought cutting services, cutting benefits, destroying jobs and lowering the general standard of living, would have been bad for the economy? This week's most egregious example, social cleansing of the poor from London has been kicking in... There's a solution to unemployment (and underemployment), banish the poor to areas with even fewer jobs. But manufacturing and services were supposed to lift the economy? For some occult reason the private sector is heading in reverse, construction -3%, manufacturing -0.4%. It's almost like there's some broader context to all this.
Who's responsible, where does the buck stop? Why it's supposed to stop with Gideon Osborne. I'm not normally one to place much emphasis on expertise, but look at this:
Osborne's first job was entering the names of people who had died in London into a National Health Service computer. He also briefly worked for Selfridges, re-folding towels. He originally intended to pursue a career in journalism, but instead got a job at Conservative Central Office.
That's his entire career... and he's in charge. Oh dear. The economy sinks but Mr Osborne floats.
By its own standards austerity is failing. Something has to change. We have to change it.
In related news there are a set of elections coming up, including the election for Mayor of London. I'm not going to vote for Ken Livingstone 1) because I'm not registered and 2) because he's a tax dodger and a scab, and that can't just be forgiven and forgotten. As a candidate he is a liability, however, if he returns to office on May 4th and carries out his programme, including fare reductions, rent caps, restoring the EMA and providing cheaper gas and electricity through bulk-buying, he will have done more for working-class Londoners than the whole of parliament put together.
That's the kind of change we need to effect. We needed to start yesterday, last month, last year. Let's not wait for Livingstone.
The headline news is of course that one in five French are nazis, a grossly unfair observation no doubt, but a national fascist vote of 18-20% is a matter of shame, it is also a matter of urgency... we have been here before. It's often noted how the French left is weakned by a dogmatic attachment to Republican ideals, it has failed to tackle state-led islamophobia (although the Mélenchon campaign was maybe the start of something different). Could this also be a long-term result of half-hearted denazification, which was known in France as Epuration Legale, which saw many collaboration politicians and civil servants granted amnesty under the Fourth and Fifth Republics? Whatever the background, the French labour movement is capable of making sharp upturns, even scoring major victories. This can be turned around.
Meanwhile in Norway, fascist child-killer Anders Breivik is still turning his trial into a grotesque circus. The court has paid far too high a price to get him to talk about what he actually did. He does seem to have offered a bit of leverage, he will aparently do "anything" to avoid being committed. His sanity is questioned apparently to discredit him, and maybe it does to some, but then I would guess most people are against mass murder already. Breivik is sane. Questioning his sanity actually lets him off the hook, lets the whole system of state racism off the hook and denies what should be the obvious fact: he did what he did because he is a fascist. His brutal rampage was fascism in action.
But a bit of good news from Britain to end on. The BNP is in turmoil and probably irreversable decline. The EDL meanwhile is going through serious doldrums. The nazis attempted to hold a demonstration in Brighton this weekend. Though they had heavy police protection (including horses and tear gas) they had a miserable day, outnumbered 10 to 1 and hounded every step of the way. Well done to all involved.
Writing credits to Roobin, The Doc of Rock, Ian, Ru, Steve Bandiera Rossa and Ted Splitter. And without further Badiou:
C.L.R. James - Sit Down Ricoeur Deep, Montaigne High Girls go Crazy About a Sartre Dressed Man... Jinul's Addiction - Standing in the Schoppenhauer, thinking The Hippias Hippias Shake Holding out for a Hereclitus Total Eclipse of the Hardt How much is that Dogen Zenji in the window? Gettier Kicks on Route 66 I'm too Zizek-xy Seize the Descartes Rickert don't lose that number Jared Diamonds are Forever M'Adorno - Bordieuline Quine - The Descartes of our Leibniz AudioSlavoj - Some Descartes One Quine Descartes Descartes & Confucius Led Zep - Whole Aliotta Love Mr Bungle - Carry Stress in the Giordano Bruno Holding out for a Zeno Zeno Boys - Lenin in the 80s Village Peguy - Lenin the Navy Wings - Mull of Alasdair MacIntyre Spinoza in the sky Bee Gees - Jive Dawkins Visage - Fade to Grayling The Old Grayling Whistle Test Top of the Popper Cheggers Plato Popper The Buzzcomte Later with Jools Hölderlin Rob Zombie - De Man-oid PhenomZeno-n Rob Zombie - Jesus Wittgenstein Wittgenstein Drag Quines from Planet Therborn Ayerosmith - Walk this Weber Electric Wittgenstein Bob Dylan - Rabelais, Lady, Lay Zhu Xi Quatro - Lacan the Can Barry Fanonlow - Kant Smile Without Lao Tzu Dire Strasser - Romero & Juliet Frege Chance on Me Michael Jackson - Schiller Frege Nother Little Piece of my Hardt Psycho Schiller Schiller Quine Bodycount of St Germain - Cop Schiller Snoop Dogg - Serial Schiller George Michael - I want your Sextus Empiricus The Schillers - When Hume were Jung The Shillers & Lao Tzu Reed - Tranquileibniz Let's Talk About Sextus Empiricus I'm too Sextus Empiricus Mao-er to the Peguy Mao-er to the Pieper Wings - Windelband on the run Earth, Windelband and Feuerbach Therborn in the USA Therborn of a Broken De Man Therborn to be Wilde Therborn to Run Run to the Mills "Adorno no Adorno no no there's no Leibniz" Captain BeefHardt and the Magic Windelband The Sartrelites - Confucius Tony Cliff Richard - Bachelard Boy Wilde Thing (Hume make my Hardt Sing-er) KC & The Sun Tzu Windelband Metallica - Enter Windelband Man XTC - Making Plans for Nagel XTC - Bacon Plans for Nagel Alexei Sayle - Hello John of Mirecourt Got a New Motor Russel-ton John Locke - Don't go Bacon my Hardt Husserl-ton John Stuart Mill The Sugar Mill Gang The Frege Mill Gang Gol-De Man Looking Chain Mumford & Sun Tzu Vam-Pyrrho Weekend The Age of Aquinas (let the Sun Tzu in) Mr Bungle - Pyrrho-sel Simon le Beauvoir South of the Bordieu StairWeber to Bevan Dawkins Heads Guns n' Rousseau - Double Dawkins Jive Red Hot Chili Popper - By the Weber Buber Furry Animals - Carry Lacan Anything Hume Camus, Lacan do Derrida Lacan you feel it? Mao Mao Mao - I want Lacan-dy Lacan Hume feel the Love Tonight? Platoto's Republica Maoby - Plato Mr Bungle - Girls of Therborn Credence ClearWalter Benjamin Revival CreDennett ClearWalter Benjamin Revival Ayerosmith - Living on the Edgar Allan Poe Ayerosmith - Love in an Ele-Voltaire Blue De Man Group Mr Bungle - And None of Them Flew They Were Robespierre Humetown Rats Hume Hume Mao Che Gue-Vera Lynn(ch) - We'll Meet Aga Khan II System of a Down - Pyrrho, Schiller, Cocaine, Crazy Shiny Happy Pieper The Village Pieper M Pieper M Peguy Billie Pieper Mao-er to the Pieper Common Pieper Prodigy - Voodoo Pieper Depeche Mode - Pieper are Peguy Purple Pieper Eater Don't Fear the Pieper Sly & The Family Stone - Everyday Pieper RATM - Pieper of the Sun Tzu The Doors - Pieper are Strange Peguy are Strange JamiroQuine - Pieper Underground Halloween - Pieper of the Seven Keys Chris Cornell - The Pieper This Charming De Man Buber Furry Animals - Zizek, (Thomas) More and Robespierre Mr Bungle - Love is a Fichte Florence & The Malthus - Kiss with a Fichte Smooth Crimi-Malthus Thomas Malt-Kyuss Half De Man Half Bishop Berkeley - All I want for Erasmus is a Duk-Lacan a-Weber Derrida Escape Plan John Locke Hates Jazz Florence & The Malthus- Hume got the Love John Stuart Mill Hates Jazz The Malthus Bentham-ily LeninterPol Pot Dame Vera Stalin Muse - Dead Stalin Rob Zombie - De Man Speeding Mazzy Stalin Stalinsailor Five Stalin Stalin Vocal Rand Stalind Earth, Windelband and Feuerbach - Shining Stalin When Hume wish upon a Stalin Good Morning Stalin Video Killed the Radio Stalin Catch a Falling Stalin Nietzsche (Intelligent) Falling Stalin Cypress Mill - (Bloch) SuperStalin Cypress Mill - (Napier) SuperStalin The Stalin Spangled Banner The Stalin Spangled Fanon NickelBacon - I Wanna Be a Rock Stalin Rolling Mary Woolstonecrafts - Stalin Fucker Twinkle Twinkle Little Stalin Blur - Strange News from Another Stalin Oasis - Bloch & Roll Stalin Ziggy Stalin Crosby, Mill and Nash (and Jung) Jesus Christ, SuperStalin C.L.R. James - She's a Stalin Quine Inch Nails - Stalin Fuckers Inc. The Kinks - Everybody's a Stalin DogStalin Yoko O-Noam Chomsky John Lenin George Aristotle-son Paul Mackie-ney Ringo Stalin Bukharin-go Stalin Sonny & Chairman Mao Sun Tzu & Chairman Mao Revolution Quine Street Pieper Social Buber A-Korn-o - Freak on a Nietzsche Popper Roach Living in a Marcuse Living in an Althusser Hoxha Rule John Stuart Milli Vanilli Babylon Zhu Xi - Space De Man Nietzsche Boys - Fichte for Your Right to Sartre Ho Chi Minh-go Stalin A-Korn-o - Zizek on a Nietzsche A-Korn-o - Proudhon a Nietzsche Ayerosmith - Proudhon Looks Like a Lady Hey Proudh(on) Kasabian - I'm Proudhon Feuerbach "I Pink, therefore I Wham" "I Kinks, therefore I Wham" "I Fink, therefore I Wham" Gogol Bordieu Ayerosmith - Q.U.I.N.E. Confucius B.I.G. Suzanne Frege - My Noam Chomsky is Lukacs Flew Flew Dolls The Flew - Same Jeans-Jacques Rousseau The Fall - I am Confucius Oranj The Enemy - A-Weber from Hereclitus Enya - Sail a-Weber Guns n' Rousseau - Sweet Child of Quine Kasabian - Philosoraptor Fats Domi-Noam Chomsky Feuerbach in the USSR Feuerbach in Bloch We Didn't Start the Feuerbach Ain't No Houllebecq Girl The Bee Jesus I Wanna Sextus Empiricus Hume Up Metallica - Enter Saneatsu Mushanokōji Ronnie James Diogenes of Sinope "My Millkshake brings all the Baudrillard and they're Leibniz better than yours, damn Liebniz better than yours, I could Nietzsche but I'll have to Chaerephon" Parminedes at Work "Girl, i wanna take you to a Peter Gay Thales" Voltaire Supply Something in the Voltaire Tonight Sometimes, all I need is Voltaire that I Breathe Voltaire-osmith Thales Paul Karma ChameLeon Trotsky Peter Gay Dad Ray Charles Taylor Dewey will Rock Hume Donna Haddaway The Talking Alfred North Whiteheads Schweitzer Zombie Schweitzer Wedding The Epicurus Shake Cypress Mill - I Want to get Hayek Afro De Man - Because I got Hayek Galileo Sayer Lao Tzu is Mao? Money's too Tight to Mencius Plutarch-ade Feuerbach Mencius at Work Motor-Alfred North Whitehead HawkWindelband The Derrida Escape Blanchot Sweet Boehme-labama Swing Out Cicero Ronnie James Dionysus Garbage - When I Grosseteste Up The Lucretius of Love The Brand Newton Heavies Billy Joel - Newton Girl Huey Lewis & The Newton Ricardo Astley Ricardo Zoroastra Linton Kwesi Johnson - Fichte Democritus Bakunin Zoroastra of Puppets ...and Hume will know us by the trail of Derrida Shiny Epicurus Pieper The Epi-Cure-us - Sleep When I'm Derrida The Epi-Cure-us - Boys don't Hereclitus Cyrano de Berger-rock Fantomas - Night Goethe Modest Mao The Ani-Malthus Hume-y and the Blow-Fichte Reel Big Fichte Eagles of Death Malthus Quine-osaur Jr Pe-Guillemots Peguy Sue Peguy Zhu Xi I'm Dreaming of a Schweitzer Erasmus Primal Scream - Hayek than the Sun Tzu Lenin Kravitz Peguy Lao Tzu Epicurus Mondays Dolly Proudhon Just Lao Tzu of Malthus Lionel Fichte - Plato, is it me you're Lukacs Foucault? Stevie Won-Derrida Russell-vis Presley - The Won-Derrida of Hume Lao Tzu Drunk to Foucault Dead Kenne-Derrida - Nazi Punks Foucault Dead Kenne-Descartes One Quine Descartes The Hume - Deng Xiaoping-ball Wizard Highway to Hegel Hayek to Hegel Shed Seven Sages of the Bamboo Groove Armada Shed Seven Sages of the Bam-Boomtown Rats Groove Armada Shed Seven Sages of the Bam-Boom Boom Pow Groove Armada Lucretius in the Sky (with Jared Diamond) Liu Ling in the Sky (with Jared Diamond) Dirty Deeds Zhi Dun Cheap Beatles - I am Confucius Cicero of a Down - Hobbes Zhu Xi Cicero of a Deng Xiaoping Russell-CD Sound Cicero Shakespeare's Cicero Cicero of Mercy Guns n' Rousseau - Right Next Door to Hegel Guns n' Rousseau - Welcome to the Gu Zhun-gle Mr Gu Zhun-gle Confu-Kyuss Hume2 guitarist: The Edgar Allan Poe Blur - Bug De Man Madness - John Gray Day De Man-ness - Grayling Day Quine - Schoppenhauer must go on Michael Jaspers - Badiou Michael Jaspers - Lao Tzu Badiou Icicle Works - Love Comes in Different Kollontai Alice Kuhn-per - Rawl's out for Summer Michael Jaspers - Badiou is it? Michael Jaspers - Hume is it? The Ruts - Babylon's Bernstein Rob Zombie - Jaspers Wittgenstein The Charlatans - Just when you're Fichte things over Adam & The Ants - Burke Wears White Sox Suede - The Anselm World Pink Feuerbach - Another Crick in the Rawls The Soft Boys - Quine of Eyes Mercury Rev - You're my Quine Faith no (G.E.) Moore - Epic(urus) Bloch Grape Collapsed Lung - Eat my Zola Manic Street Pre-Chairman Mao - I'm not Dworkin Dworkin in a Coal Quine Teardrop Explodes - Treason (it's just a Rorty) Manic Street Pre-Chairman Mao - Therborn a Girl Manic Street Pre-Chairman Mao - Therborn to End China Crisis - Bloch De Man Ray Mencius Street Pre-Chairman Mao - Of Dworkin Abortion Mencius Street Pre-Chairman Mao - Love's Sweet Existentialism Adverts - Debord Teenagers Mencius Street Pre-Chairman Mao - So Derrida Colourfield - Fichte of Hume Mencius Street Pre-Chairman Mao - Epicurus Mencius Street Pre-Chairman Mao - Ready for Darwin Darwin the Jungle Darwin the Ghetto The Marx Voltaire Bruce Springsteen Hume-an Touch Faith no (Thomas) More - Falling to Peguy REM - What's the Frege-ncy, Kenneth? Red Hot Chili Popper - Give it A-Weber Buber Massive Bloch Hole Buber Furry Animals - Northern Leibniz 10cc:DreadLocke Halliday - I don't Like Critchley, I Liebknicht Buber Furry Animals - The Very Best of Jared Diamond Buber Furry Animals - Weber do Hume want to Goethe? Justin Buber Where do Hume Goethe my lovely? If Hume Goethe go, go Mao Justin Pieper What does Hume want to make those eyes at me for? (when they don't mean that he's Frege) The Goethe! Team If Hume Liebknicht now, Hume take a-Weber the biggest Sartre me Jaspers 5 - If'n I was Goethe Jaspers 5 - If'n I was Gottlob Frege Aquinas the Stone Age - Sartre up your Fichte Quines of the Stone Age - Erasmus Voltaire-is The (E)Rasmus Zhu Xi Quatro - Kafka-n the Can The Jam - Sartre! It's not important to know my name/though I do know yours Bryan Adam Smith - Kant stop this thing we've Sartre-d Count of St Germain Crows Kate Bush - Babbageke Husserl-ton John (Stuart Mill) - Kafka-n Hume Feel the Love Tonight? Russell-ton John (Locke) - Lacan Hume Feel the Love Tonight? Ultravox - Love's Great Bonaventure Zhu Xi Quatro - Lacan the Kant The Commodores - Frege Times a Lady Secret Chiefs Frege Buber Hume Kant Drive my Carlyle Hume Sweet Hume The Bluebells - Jung at Hardt Trad arr Bob Dylan - Jung but daily Growin' LeAnn Rimes - Cheng Hao Do I Live Without You The soundtrack to Jung Wittgenstein Cohen loco down in Acapulco Muse - Citi-Zeno Erasmus Therborn under a Badiou sign I like Driving in my Carlyle Smokie - Living Next Door to Alasdair MacIntyre Credennett ClearWalter Benjamin Revival - Badiou Moon Rising RATM - MacIntyre Me Tina Turner/Creedence et al - Proudhon Mary (Woolstonecraft) The Frege Wheelin' Bob Dy-Lacan Mud - Tiger Laffitte Muse - Sing for Abso-Lukacs "Took my Chevy to the Lévi-Strauss but the Lévi-Strauss was dry" T-Rex - Therborn to Boogie Mach the Knife Muse - Butterflies and Aristotle's cane Blue Piaget Way Buber Furry AniMalthus - Liebknicht-y Belle The Clash - I'm so Rorty with the USA Demis Rousseau Jared Diamond - Sweet Caro-Leibniz Travelling Mill-Burys - De Man-dle with Chairman Mao Travelling Mill-Burys - Tweeter and the Monkey De Man C.L.R. James - I Know What I'm Hereclitus For Ayerosmith - Falling in Love (is hard on the Nietzsche) I've got Hume under my Skinner Morcheeba - Sartre the Process Prodigy - No Goethe (Sartre the Dance) Ayerosmith - Toys in the Attlee Alysha's Attlee Bevan must be missing an Engels I Found Bevan- sample lyric: 'I thought I found Locke, with somebody else's girl...' John Lenin - I'm Althusser-ing Hume Bee Jesus - For Hume the Bell Tolstoy Bee Jesus - Hume Win Again Bee Jesus - Staying a-Leibniz Saturday Night Weber Bee Jesus - Liebknicht Weber Bee Jesus - Mao Deep is Your Love Bee Jesus - Jive Dworkin Love is here and Mao you're gone Quine Jung Fanonbals/Husserl-vis Presley - Confucius Minds Steely Dan Dennett - Bloch Calvin Steely Dan Dennett - Bloch Mao Steely Dan Dennett - Reelin' in the Greers Tears for Greers Reelin' in the Hereclitus Greers for Hereclitus FastBalzac - The Weber Nirvana - Something in the Weber Toto-mas More Totodorov Tominaga Nakamototo The Hume - Tominaga Nakamoto Francisco de Totoledo John Totoland Alexis-Charles-Henri Clérel de Totocqueville Buber Furry Ani-Malthus - O-Hayek Heat Buber Furry Ani-Malthus - (Dworkin) Rings around Husserl Buber Furry Ani-Malthus - (S)Hume Doris Derrida Russell & The Gang Ca Plane Pour Moi - Plastic Bertrand Russell Therborn-ing Down the Mao-s Stand by your De Man Specials - Locke it to 'em JB Bloch it to 'em JB Gimme Gimme Gimme (De Man after Midnight) ABBA - Fanondo The Epi-Cure-us - Plato for Today Hardtbreak Hotel The Beat - Kant get used to Losing Hume Meat Loaf - Sun Tzu out of Zhu Xi ain't Badiou Jailhouse Locke Jail-Mao's Bloch The Clash - Rebel Walzer Jail-Mao's Socrates Donna Summer - Hobbes Stuff Donna Summer - Trot Stuff Russell-vis Presley - Return to Sen-Derrida Viva Las Wittgenstein Habermas-es Against the Classes Habermas-ter of Puppets Halliday in the Sun Tzu Buber Habermas-ive Bloch Hole Summer Halliday M'Adorno - Halliday Kate Bush - Running Up That Hilferding M'Adorno - Like a Serge-in Habermas-ive Attack M'Adorno - Like Weber Depeche Mode - Paine that I'm used Lao Tzu Maga-Zinn - Oakeshott By Both Sides Dworkin Heads - Planck Hume for Sending me an Engels Offspring - Original Planckster The Mao's That Jean-Jacques Rousseau Built Planck Turner Planck Za-Popper The Shamen Move Any Montesquieu The Sha-Mencius - Ebe-Nietzsche Goode Radiohead - The Benthams Hartley Rhythm Ace Radiohead - Paranoid Anselm Paranoid Andronicus of Rhodes Muse - Space De Man-tia Negris with Attitude - Fukuyama tha Police Buber Furry Ani-Malthus - De Man don't give a Fukuyama My Bloody Valentine - No More Thoreau Hume-an League - Sound of the Kropotkin Russell-vis Costello - Everyday I Write The Bookchin Cicero of a Down - Hume! Cicero of a Down - Tok-Cicero Stanglers - No (Thomas) More Hereclitus Tom Robinson - Up Against the Wallerstein Pink Floyd - Another Crick in the Wallerstein Quine - We are the Zhang-Zai-ons Stone Rousseau - Rawls Gold Simon & Garve-Funkel Tenacious D - Frankfurt School Of Bloch Bloch Sabbath - Children of the Garve Confucius D Mary Woolstonecraft Rousseau - Zhu Xi Bangs the Drums Dr Wham-uel Johnson The Clash - London (Stuart) Hall-ing The Clash - Rousseau Kant Fail Porno for Pythagoras Adorno for Pythagoras Parminedes like Sun Tzu Dworkin Badiou Drawn Boy The Al-chemides-ist ProTototagoras Trot Chocolate Kasabian - Fast Marcuse Rolling Mary Woolstonecraft - (I can't get Noam Chomsky) Sartre's faction Hume Kant always get what Hume want (but if Hume try sometimes, Hume just might find, Hume get Parminedes) Ayerosmith - Bloch in a Hardt Place Ayerosmith - Bakunin the Saddle Ayerosmith - Same old Song and Dan Dennett Ayerosmith - Big Zen Inch Rene Descartes Ayerosmith - Monkey on my Bakunin Ayerosmith - (C)Hippias the Mary Woolstonecraft Ayerosmith - Done With Mir Damad Ayn Rand of Horses - The End's Not Greer Mir Damad-ness Windelband of Horses - The End's Not Mir Damad Mir Damad in the BathHume Michael Jaspers - De Man in the Mir Damad The Mir Damadamned Stalinship - Weber this City on Locke and Rawls I Love Locke and Rawls (so put another Dime in the Hume Block Buber) The Epi-Cure-us - The Love Kafka-ts Michael Jaspers - Dan Dennett Gerous Michael Jaspers - Lenin the Closet Michael Jaspers - Hume is it? Michael Jaspers - Wanna Bukharin Somethin' Ho Chi Minh the Jungle Ho Chi Minh the Ghetto Ho Chi Minh the Plato Ho Chi Minh the Ghu Zhun-gle Lenin the Ghu Zhun-gle Chaka Democritus & Plato - Socrates me Buber Alice Kuhn-per - Feed my Wittgenstein Georg Lukacs and Ira Gersch-Windelband I'm Comte-ing up so you'd better get this party Sartre Therborn-mower Deth Guns n' Rousseau - The Perfect Maimonedes INXS - Maimonedes Hume Tonight INXS - Nietzsche Tonight ZiZek Top - Maimonedes Hume Tonight Zhu Xi Top - I Nietzsche Tonight Heideggadeth HeideggaDennett We Didn't Sartre the Feuerbach Proudhon-gy - Feuerbach Sartre Simply Red - Something got me Sartre A-Korn-o - Sartre Over Trot Chocolate - It Sartre'd with a Kim Quine Inch Nails - "Hume bring me closer to Gottlob Frege" Hume Lao Tzu - Sun Tzu Bloch-dy Sun Tzu Sun Tzu-Zanne Frege A-Mencius Sevenfold A-Mencius Bevanfold A-Mencius Bevanfold - Nietzsche and the Hartley (Nietzsche Schelling place for De Man's) Faith no (Thomas) More - King Faraday, Fool for a Leibniz John Locke, We Hartley Flew ye A-Mencius Bevanfold - NightMary Woolstonecraft Quine - We Will Locke Hume Quine - We Will Bloch Hume A-Mencius Bevanfold - Buried A-Leibniz John Locke, We Hartley Newton ye A-Mencius Bevanfold - Little Rees of Lacan Million Derrida Miliband Derrida Faith No (Thomas) More - The Jean-Jacques Rousseau Sartre Making Ene-Mencius Platoto - Kafka Chemi-Calvin Brothers - It Began in Kafka S-Leibniz & The Fa-Mill-y Mary Woolstonecraft - Kafka Talks to Hume mill.i.am (Everything Badiou) Badiou it for Hume Depeche Mode - Personal Jaspers The Jaspers and Mary Woolstonecraft Chain Jaspers Priest Ricardo Cheese The Jaspers and Mary Woolstonecraft Chairman Mao Me-Derrida - Enter Windelband De Man (Exit Leibniz, enter Liebknicht. Take my Rand. Off to Weber-Windelband) M'Adorno - Take a Bauer Jarvis Cocker - Heavy Weber Crowded Mao-s - Weber with Hume Stereo-Fanon - Just Locke-in Pulp - I Spinoza Suede - So Jung The Smiths - The Boy with Therborn in his Side The Smiths - Stop Frege if Hume think you've heard Therborn before David Bowie - Time will Rawls Bloch Lace - Ag-Badiou
Students in Quebec chasing the cops away. Hahahahahahaha! Or, as it's Quebec, L'ahahahahahahaha! The only question remains was this picture taken before or after the police attacked Quebec's young with rubber bullets and gas?
So, here you Ayer. The ultimate list of music/philosopher crossover puns. Thanks go to Roobin, Ted Splitter, Ian, The Bunk, Julie, Ru, Paul, Steve Bandiera Rossa and the Doc of Rock for all their assistance.
Most notable about this experience was the discovery I made about Rage Against the Machine's song Wake Up. Most presume it to be about the bullshit the American ruling class feeds to its citizens.
It's not though. On closer inspection, the lyrics reveal a cautionary tale about what would have happened to logical positivists in Ancient Greece:
Fisting the Ayer in the Land of Hippocrates
Anyway, without any further Adorno, here is the list:
Kierkegaarda da Vida Kant Get Hume Out of my Head Bob Marley - Lenin' Marx of the Beast Chemical Brothers - Heidegger your own Hole The (Hei)Diggers Bentham Folds Five Anything you Camus, I Camus Better Stone Roses - I Wanna be Adorno Beck - "I'm Althusser baby, so why don't you kill me?" Beck - "I'm Marcuse baby, so why don't you kill me?" Wings - Ayn Rand on the Run New Kids on the Bloch New Kids on the Locke Aristotle Belafonte Jonny Lukacs - A Boy Named Sun Tzu De Man Who Sold the World Travis - De Man Hume De Man Don't Give a Foucault Paul Descartes-ney Umberto Eco and the Bunnymen Sometimes, all I need is the Ayer that I breathe Mao Mao Mao - I Want Ghandi Sergeant Popper's Lonely Hearts Club Ayn Rand Babybird - You're Gorgias Jethro Tull - Aquinaslung Hobbes Will Eat Itself Popper Will Eat Itself Kate Bush - Running up that Hilbert Electric Six - Danger, High Voltaire Puff Daddy and the Family - It's all About the Walter Benjamins Man Smart (Woman Sartre) Stylistics - Hume Make Me Feel Brand New You Spinoza Me Right Round Heaven Must be Missing an Engels Rammwittgenstein Only the Good Die Jung Colour Me Badd - I Wanna Zizek You Up Queen - Fat Alain de Bottoned Girls The Brummie tribute to Freddy Mercury - Quine Van Halen - Hot for Nietzsche Specials - Too Much Too Jung Berkeley Dutchie on the Left Hand Side Singing in the Paine Skunk Anansie - Schelling Jesus Rolling Stones - Sartre me Up Bob Dylan - A Baudrillard Rain's Gonna Fall Bon Jovi - Therborn to Be My Baby The Big Popper Xenophonboy 3 Darwin-er Takes it all Judas Priestley Great Balls of Feuerbach Bakunin Black Sex Pistols - Fichte in the Rigging Kisses Sweeter than Quine Gramsci we Love You Dazed and Confucius The Killers - Somebody Ptolemy Lukacs us if you Kant Disposable Heroes of Hippocrates Bakhtin the USSR Backhtin Black Bakunin the USSR Derri(da) Cross the Mersey I Kant Help Falling in Love with Hume Do the Barthes Man Do the Bart De Man The Bauer of Love St Francis of A-CSS The Grave Heideggers Before you Marcuse Me Back in Max Black Live and Let Leibniz Kung Fu Fichte Popper Don't Preach Christina Aguilera - Nasty Rorty Boy The Weber Necessities Rousseauing the Seeds of Love Heider, Better, Faster, Longer The Sartre of Noise Material Hegel Black Hole Sun Tzu Umberto Echobelly Four Franz Fanon Blondes Machiavelli Furtado who wrote 'The Modern Artist Formerly Known as Prince' Peabo Bergson Martin Luther Vandross Smoke over Walter Benjamin Leibniz-erachi Achy Breaky Eckhart Chas & Dave - Gurdjieff Zhu Xi in the Sky (with Diamonds) Ralph Waldo Emerson, Lake and Palmer Platoto Luigi Ferry 'cross the Mersey Level 42 - Lessings in Love Todd Rundgren's Utopia - Love is the Anselm Bacon Chance on Me Aretha Franklin - Fink Dirty Deeds Duns Scotus Cheap Durkheim is Running Out Primal Scream - Kill all Hippias Knockin' on Heaven's Dawkins Johnathon King's A Hundred Ton and Lebfevre Dizzee Pascal Plug in Buber Buber one More Time Hey Big Spengler Locke of the Bay Bloch of the Bay Mary Woolstonekraftwerk Ain't Nothin' Going on but Hannah Arendt Muse - Russell Museum De Do Do Do Derrida Da Don't go Breaking my Hardt Negris with Attitude Derrida Soul De Man la Soul Frank Za-Popper The Mamas and The Poppers Lenin on a Lamppost Bat out of Hegel Ain't no Montaigne High Enough, Ain't Novalis Low Enough The Hume-an League Kant Smile Without Hume Bentham Rhythm Ace Comte as You Are Gerry Rafferty - Frege Street Reverend and the Freges Everything But Husserl The Holloway is Up Plastic Bertrand Russell Parliament - Aquinas Boogie Popper's Got a Brand New Bag White Zombie - More Hume-an than Hume-an John Lucas in the Sky (with diamonds) Lukacs in the Sky (with Jared Diamond) A Hardt Day's Night A Hardt Rain's Gonna Fall Yellow Submarendt David ibn Merwan al-Mukammas You Are The Wonder of Flew Lenin the Ghetto I Gramsci Clearly Now (the rain has gone) Johnny Cash - A Boy Named Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite George and Ira Gershwin - Descartes Take That Away From Me Porno for Pyrrhos All Arendt the World Chris Harmanfred Mann Rock Arendt the Clock Kings of Leon Trotsky Russell-CD Soundsystem Duran Durandus of Saint-Pourçain Guns n' Rousseau Velvet Revoltaire Ernst Bloch Party Rival Schools - Marcused for Glue Huxley Rhythm Ace All Arendt My Hat Jacob Boehmean Rhapsody Half Man Half Bishop Berkeley Travelling Mill-burys Iron Maiden - Rand to the Hills Weather Girls - It's Raining Parmenides Money's Too Tight To Mencius Van McCoy & The Soul City Symphony - Do the Husserl Earth, Wind and Feuerbach For Hume the Bell Tolls Alanis Morisette - Jagged Little Mill Shiny Happy Peguy Wittgenstein Young Cannibals Fine Jung Cannibals Dead Singer for Love StereoFanon Red Hot Chilli Popper Salt n Popper The Mamas and the Popper Bacon Blue REM - Imitation of Leibniz Something in the Ayer Tonight De Manfred Mann Marina and the Jared Diamond Boulevard of Bacon Dreams Lenin the Jungle Wittgenstein on the Beach Let's talk about Zizek Foucault the Police (by Negris with Attitude) My Milkshake Brings all the Boys to the Baudrillard (and they're Leibniz better than yours) Schoppenhauer Soon Is Now? Nietzsche Tonight The Lost Sartre of Keeping a Secret (by the Quines of the Stone Age) or by: Aquinas the Stone Age GramsciMaster Flash & The Furious Five Je t'Adorno Dennett Doherty Sham 69 - Hurry up Aristotle Gorillaz - Dirty Aristotle Aerosmith - Just Push Plato Killer Quine The Clash - What's my Noam Chomsky? Husker Du - Zinn Arcade Quine Latifah Dancing Quine Jam - English Rosa Luxemburg Guns n' Rosa Luxemburg The Stone Rosa Luxemburg Gogol Baudrillard The Damned - Nietzsche Nietzsche Nietzsche Bob Dylan - Like A Rolling Wollstonecraft Talk Talk - Life's What You Machiavelli It Talking Heads - Once in a Leibniz Mao, That's What I Call Music Al-Thomas More-isette How Soon is Mao? Thomas More-issey Muse - Take a Mao If you don't know me by Mao Mao that's the way, uh huh uh huh, I Leibniz, uh huh uh huh If you leave me Mao, you'll take away the biggest Sartre me "Mao go! Walk out the Dawkins!" Mao the West Was Won and Where it Got Us Mao soon is Mao Mao Great Thou Sartre Mao do I live without you? Where have all the Mao Boys gone? Milk Mao Blues Girls A-Mao-d Play that Foucault Music Boom Boom Mao Mao-er of Mao-er Neil Jared Diamond Lenin Love With a Girl Leninterpol The Divine Comte - National Zizek-spress Zizek-sy Thing James Brown - Zizek's Machine Zizek's Ex It's Hippocrates Square Kate Bush-Laclau-dbusting Heraclite-Busted The Modern Prince - I Wanna Melt with Hume I Wanna Be De Man How Kuhn is Now? Sonny & Voltaire Sun Tzu & Cher Sun Tzu & Voltaire Gone too Kuhn Hegel Jude I can't tell Alain de Botton from the top Sound Kierkegaarden Savage Kierkegaarden Sting (Kierkegordon Matthew Thomas Summer) Blue Suede Sun Tzu's Wake up, Little Zhu Xi Zhu Xi and the Banshees Zhu Xi Quattro Quine - Mao I'm Here Ayer Yeah Yeahs Fool if you Fichte's Over I should be so Lukacs Bloch Party Phil Collins - Against All Odds (Take a Lukacs Me Now) The Lukacs Love Slade - Lukacs Wot u Dun Quines of the Stone Age - Sick Sick Socrates Tenacious D - Rock your Socrates King Missile - Socks(rates) Jenny from the Bloch Super Furry Animals - White Socrates/Flip Flops Elvis Costello - Red Sun Tzu KC & The Sunshine Ayn Rand - Boogie Sun Tzus Adam Ant - Goody Two Sun Tzus KC & The Sun Tzu Ayn Rand Locke me, I'm a Deist Bloch me, I'm a Deist Superfurry Animals - Juxtaposed with Hume If you tolerate this, your Mill-dren will be next From Despair to Weber Nowhere Schachtmann Schachtmanfred Mann Bringing Zizek Back Nowhere De Man Ellenin Rigby Russelleanor Rigby Eleanor Marx Rigby From Despair Buber Chet Frege Dave Matthews Ayn Rand - The Frege Led Zeppelin - Ayer Frege (d'yer Maker) Led Zep-Lenin Kula Frege Wittgenstein is Running Out Quine is Running Out Out of Quine Muse - Sun Tzuborn Muse - Sun Tzuburn Here Comes the Sun Tzu Sun Tzu, Bloody Sun Tzu Seasons in the Sun Tzu Don't Let the Sun Tzu go down on me Iggy Popper - Perverts in the Sun Tzu The Kinks - Sun Tzu Afternoon Sun Tzu after Hume You Are My Sun Tzu Sun Tzu is Shining Black Hole Sun Tzu House of the Rising Sun Tzu Walking on Sun Tzu Sex Pistols - Holidays in the Sun Tzu Zizek Pistols You are the Sun Tzu of my life You Kant always get what you want White Zombie - Black Sun Tzu Sun Tzu has got his hat on New Order - Confucius Bill Withers - Ain't no Sun Tzu Good Day, Sun Tzu Super Furry Animals - Hello Sun Tzu RATM - People of the Sun Tzu Sun Tzu, Lollipops and Ranbows Nivana - Jesus Don't Want me for a Sun Tzu The Age of Aquarius (let the Sun Tzu in) The Eagles - Tequila Sun Tzu Pink Floyd - Two Suns in the Sun Tzu Easy Like Sun Tzu Morning Len(in) - Steal my Sun Tzu Don't Look Back into the Sun Tzu Bring me Sun Tzu Metallica - Enter Sand-De Man Quine Jung Cannibals Russell-vis Presley Russell-vis Costello Faith no More - Land of Sun Tzu Genesis - Land of Confucius Mr Bungle - The Ayer Conditioned NightMary Woolstonecraft Rob Zombie - Mao to Frege Monster Mr Bungle - Everyone I went to High School with is Derrida Johnny Lukacs - Lenin the Kierkegaarden Afro De Man - Because I got Heidegger Cypress Mill - I want to get Heigegger Cypress Mill - Dr GreenthUmberto Eco Smells Like Teen Spinoza M - Popper Muzik Popper goes the Weasel Bacon Breaky Hardt Peggy Zhu Xi British St Francis of Asisi Power Two St Francis of Asisi Suns in the Sun Tzu Alice in Chains - St Francis of Asisi of Sorrow Beatles - St Francis of Asisi of Time Beatles - St Francis of Asisi of Holes Beatles - St Francis of Asisi of Monsters Boredoms - St Francis of Asisi Drum Sonic Youth - The Diamond St Francis of Asisi The Leibniz Family Belle & Sebastian - Ease your feet into St Francis of Asisi I like to be, under St Francis of Asisi, in an Octopus's Kierkegaarden in the Shade The Cure - Edge of the Deep Green St Francis of Asisi Black Sabbath - Children of St Francis of Asisi The Horrors - St Francis of Asisi within a sea Serge Gainsbourg - St Francis of Asisi, Zizek and Sun Tzu Kaiser Chiefs - De Man-gry Hobbes Rocket De Man REM - I am Super De Man Lamb of Gottlob Frege Hey, Mr Tambourine De Man Metallica - Enter Ayn Rand Man Hereclite-Kyuss The Feelgood Hit of the Sun Tzu Super Furry Animals - The Nietzsche Elton John - Nietzsche I need Hume Travis - Writing to Nietzsche The Nietzsches (Features) Ayerosmith When De Man Loves a Woman Pleased to Nietzsche Avenged Sevenfold - Bacon the Fallen Bacon up Before you Go Go Quine of the Damned - For Bacon Bacon Care of Business Bacon Back Sun Tzu (Taking Back Sunday) 3 Colours Red - Popper Girl Bob Dylan - Popper Kettle The Carpenters - Popper the World 50 Cent - Window Popper The Style Count of St Germain Fanon the Moon De Man on the Moon Mr Bungle - Mary Woolstonecraft go Bye Bye Mr Bungle - Girls of Adorno Adorno of a Broken Man Adorno to be Wild Adorno in the USA Adorno to Run Calvin Aristotle - "I've Gottlob Frege for Hume, if you Adorno the 80s" Jimmy Crack Adorno Tony Orlando Adorno Adorno-mower Deth Bob Dylan - Only Adorno Their Game Adorno for Pyros Smashing Pumpkins - Adorno The Adorno! Team Rammstein - Feuerbach Frei Rammstein - Engels "Adorno no Adorno no no there's no limits" Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Adorno Van Morris-Sun Tzu Jim Morris-Sun Tzu Ace of Bacon - I saw the Quine Buber Furry Animals Quine Jung Fanonbals Captain Beefhardt and the Magic Ayn Rand Aquinas - Buber Girl Meat Loaf - Out of the Frying Pan (and into the Feuerbach) REM - I am Buberman Locke Party Ian Drury and the Lockeheads Ian Drury and the Blochheads It's Arendt of the World as we Know it (and I feel Quine) Street Fichte Man Street Fighting De Man Radio Frege Europe Frege Nelson Mandela God Save the Quine Huxley Nelson Mandela Free Nelson De Mandela "(Thomas) More More More! Mao do you like it? Mao do you like it?" Pet Shop Boys - West Arendt Girls Hadornoway Adorno and the Ants I want to break Frege Emma Sun Tzu, Lake and Palmer Barry Fanonlow Tony Cliff Richard Jimmy Tony Cliff We Have all the Quine in the World Red Red Quine Suzanne Vega - Tom's Quiner The Girl is Quine Quine Inch Nails Patsy Quine The Serge-ers Mr Bungle - Desert Serge for Techno Allah Hume2 - Still Arendt Found What I'm Looking For Mr Bungle - Carry Stress in the Shaw Fantomas - Good Morning Slavoj Slavoj to the Rhythm Sepultura - Slavoj of Pain Bob Marley - Slavoj Driver Napalm Death - Quine waits for no Slavoj ThomasMorek (Tomahawk) Why, Why, Why, DeLeibniz? Bloch Betty Ayer Supply Marilyn De Manson De Mansun Mansun Tzu Billie Jean-Jacques Rousseau Marky Marx Buber Furry Animals - De Man Loves Pauline Ralph Milibandy Warhols The Glenn Miliband Weber This City (on Socrates and Roland Barthes) Bullet for my Valentine - Bacon the De Man Robbie Williams - I'm Loving Engels Instead Papa Roach - Between Engels and Insects Michael Jackson - Speed De Man Slayer - Engels of Death Eurythmics - There Must be an Engels Gorillaz - De Man Days De Man Hunter The Killers - A White De Man Love Song Earth Engels Steelheart - I'll never let Hume go (Engels eyes) Willie Nelson - Seven Spanish Engels Hume2 - If God Will Send his Engels ABBA - I Believe in Engels Engels Eyes Faith No (Thomas) More - Engelsdust Velvet Underground - Black Engels Death Song Kollontai Just Don't Know What to Derrida Myself Alabama - Engels Amongst Us Hume2 - Engels of Harlem Black Crowes - She Talks to Engels Bakunin Crowes Scorpions - Send me an Engels Bloc Sartre Sartre Garfunkel Peggy Sun Tzu De Man Don't Give a Foucault Bakhtin Black Bakunin the USSR The Locke of Love British Sea Bauer Back in Bloch Bloch Crows Bloch Sabbath Bob Marley - (Walter) BenJammin' Gerry & The Pace Machiavelli De Man La Soul Deee Man-Lite - Groove is in the Hardt Gerry and the PaceFreges I Love Locke & Roll (so put another dime in the Juke Bloch Baby) Been a Sun Tzu Sun Tzu of My Father
If you made it through that then you deserve a reward. Here it is:
It's only one poll, almost equidistant between general elections, but for the time being the UK Independence Party has replaced the (fast disappearing) Liberal Democrats as Britain's 3rd party. These voters are being attracted overwhelmingly from the Tory party. This means one thing. There are several million people in Britain for whom this government is not right-wing enough; there isn't enough union bashing, not enough service cutting, too many kids in education, employment or training, grannies are too warm in the winter, the sick and disabled are getting too much care.
This is also probably a Breivik bounce. The normally not-great Jonathan Freedland of the Guardian has got it spot on here, about the unfolding catastrophe of the Breivik trial:
My Guardian colleague Vikram Dodd, who covered that London trial, was struck when he heard a Radio 5 Live phone-in this week that was regularly interrupted by snippets from Breivik's statement. "The grammar of the coverage was as if this was the chancellor giving his budget," says Dodd.More than one caller to that programme, while quick to insist they disagreed with Breivik's methods, did rather think the Norwegian had a point about multiculturalism run riot. "I can understand where this guy's coming from," said Tom from Dover. Several readers of a Guardian article sought to post comments in the same vein, calling for "a complete stop of immigration from Muslim countries" and suchlike. To listen to it, you'd think Breivik had simply wanted to start a debate, that he'd perhaps written a provocative pamphlet for Demos, rather than committed an act of murderous cruelty.
This is the backbone of (potential) British fascism beginning to flex (a fascist party in Britain will come, if we are not vigilant and active, in part from a party like the UK Independence Party lurching rightward). I warn you, there will be mass-murdering fascists in Britain soon.
We live in an age where it's better to look young, act young, but not be young. Post War rebellion ...and upheval was driven by prosperity, its bearers were the young. Who saw the no material reason why they must defer pleasure or self-realisation, as previous generations did. Anything that stood in the way, the class barriers, organised religion, the education system, had to be razed. An ambigous urge that could be just as much Thatcherite as socialist, you could see it as a class moving up or people moving up out of their class.
That dream has been eroded almost to nothing. Neoliberalism means the end of the future. No one looks forward to the future anymore, compare that to the 1960s... The dream of ever expanding prosperity started to fade between the oil crisisand the IMF bailout. Punk comes after this, it comes in with all the other music trends that have happened since; plenty of good music, plenty more mediocre and awful music, but it does not have the spark, it is the Imitation of Life. It needs repeating. The constant worry about whether pop music and youth culture are vital any more is at best tilting at windmills. Youth culture today makes no impact on wider society because young people have been progressively marginalised.
#foodsongs started trending earlier tonight. Here's what I had to contribute:
Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Sandwich Metallica - Enter Sandwich Brimfull of Mash-a Plug in Baked Bean Suet Child of Mine Anything by Pasty Cline or Cake That Bread Bread Wine Sweet Dreams (Are Made of Cheese) I Will Always Love Stew Sushi in the Sky (with Diamonds) When a Flan Loves a Warm Naan Everything I do (I do it for Stew) I Would Stew Anything for Love (but I won't Stew Fat) The Naan don't give a Fuck Baby you can fry my carp After Eight days a week Papa's got a Brand New Baguette Little Green Baguette Save all your Quiches for Tea Welcome to the House of Bun Baguette Trousers Lettuce Dance Lettuce Snow, Lettuce Snow, Lettuce Snow I Believe I can Fry (I believe I can touch the Pie) Pork this Way Food looks like a Lady Wake up Little Sushi Living in a Burger Bar Holding out (for an Aero) Anything by Lurpak Shakur The Liver of Creams Eaten Trifles Chipstick on your Collar Can't Smile without Stew Jackson 5 - Can you fillet? I want to bake Brie In the Eclair Tonight Fresh Chicken in the USA Alisha's Attic - I Spam, I Veal Metallica - Sad but Stew Nine Inch Nails - Bread Like a Roll Don't go Baking my Tart Heaven Must be Missing an Angel Delight Popadom Preach Suet Home Alabama A Lard Day's Night Onion Ring of Fire Chocolate Orange Crush This one goes out to the Bun I Love Buns n' (Cadbury's) Roses - Stew Could be Brine Eat it Meat it Sundae, Bloody Sundae You're not a Scone Bullet with Butterfly Chicken Breast
While here are some other highlights:
Mullet in the Head Bean Beany Since You've Been Scone Rice Rice Baby Fry me a Kipper You can't Curry Love Cake on Me Take Another Little Pizza my Heart Like a Gherkin Sausage Seems to be the Hardest Word Total Eclipse of the Tart Super Massive Black Pudding Jumping Jack Mash This Charming Naan Pasty Dutchie on the Left Hand Side No Gammon, no Fries Under the Fridge Yoghurt the Love Sealed with Haggis Anything by Jason Doner Van My Blue Meringue Won't Come Back Smells like Bean Spirit Don't Let the Bun go Down on Me The Long and Winding Roast Give Peas a Chance In the Gravy The Soup Soup Song Roquefort Around the Clock Hula Hoops Upside Your Head Spaghetti Hoops Upside Your Head Bun to the Hills Cheese Electric Cheese the One It's my Chapatti and I'll Cry if I Want to Girlfriend in a Korma Circles in the Sandwich Paradise by the Muller Light Girls Just Wanna Have Bun
Interesting news, well, almost news, the suggestion has come from the Summit of the Americas, that there may be a coming yielding in the war on drugs:
... Largely due to the efforts of Guatemalan president Otto Perez Molina, who in the Guardian issued a passionate argument on behalf of reform, proposing "to abandon any ideological position (whether prohibition or liberalisation) and to foster a global intergovernmental dialogue based on a realistic approach – drug regulation".
Is this the beginning of the end of the war on drugs?
Although Obama has been clear that he opposes all forms of decriminalisation and legalisation, he admitted that drug reform was a debatable issue, stating: "I think it is entirely legitimate to have a conversation about whether the laws in place are doing more harm than good in certain places." Perhaps even more telling was Harper, who conceded at a press conference that the drug war was "not working".
This is not your run of the mill set of public figures calling for decriminalisation of this, legalisation of that, but heads of state suggesting a change of policy, maybe even a ceasefire. Let's not get ahead of ourselves, let's remember a few things:
1) This is an issue of political economy. Drugs make money. Crack cocaine is the single most profitable commodity on Earth. The world's great financial centres are heavily implicated in laundering. If drug money ceased to flow the world would certainly plunge into recession. This is a powerful impediment to any shake-up.
2) This is an issue of geo-politics. Poor nations, and poor farmers within poor nations, suffer because they have to export primary commodities at larger relative cost, which are vulnerable to fluctuations in price. Drugs are a sure fire cash crop. Prohibition helps keep said farmers down at heel, it reinforces the power relationship between Global North and South and also strengthens the hand of the cartels.
3) This is an issue of class, race and policing. The war on drugs ploughs the road for more and more agressive and invasive policing of working class and ethnic minority communities, who are the intended victims of all policing.
These are three important obstacles blocking liberalisation. Prohibition is a 20th century phenomenon. It is often attributed to the campaigning of Harry J Anslinger, who explicitly linked prohibition with race. Of course prohibition was a much bigger movement. For example, UN Convention of Psychotropic Drugs requires all member states to prohibit the manufacture and sale of LSD25 (amongst other substances).
Prohibition is inbuilt into the way the ruling class does things, how it governs. This issue will be very difficult to shift.
Yes, the lists are back. This week is a music and light entertainment list (slightly abridged due to people's rather wide intepretation of light entertainment). Thanks to Keith, Julie and Ruairdh.
Kim Deal or No Deal Sly and the Family Fortunes Fine Young Casualty Who Wants to Be a Million Dead Echobellyaddicts Noel's Bloc Party Noel's Bauhaus Party Noel's House of Pain Bob's Full House of Pain All Creatures Great and Small Faces New Kids on the Blockbusters Through the Butthole Surfers Massive Art Attack Have I Got Muse for You? Big Brotherhood of Man Lovejoy Division Mr Mr Bean Mr Mr and Mrs Father Ted Nugent Are You Smarter than Ten Pole Tudor? Are You Smarter than 10,000 Maniacs Cash in Alysha's Attic Bargain Blunt Aerosmith and Jones System of a Countdown System of a Downton Abbey How I Metallica Your Mother Coldplay Your Cards Right Boney-M-erdale R.E.M.erdale Eminemerdale Pets Win Primus Gay Dad's Army East Enya Westlife Swap Hill Street Blues Traveller Simple Minder Jimmy Eat Gardener's World Jimmy Eat Whicker's World Good Morning with Anne and Nickelback
Next week, actually existing footballers with amusing names. You have been warned.
One just ending, one beginning. Coming to a close the trial of Alfie Meadows and co. In my opinion reading the court reports you can see the defence has been excellent. This is a most important case; aggressive and egregiously political policing was used against the student movement of November/December 2010, the first mass movement against enforced austerity, a movement which was causing the government to falter, the coalition to come apart.
If the imprisonment and battery of children and young adults is allowed to stand, if it is deemed to be 'proportionate policing', as the Commander on the day described it, it will be a dark day for us all. I fear for the people on trial. The business end of the state urgently needs to sweep through London, make it a happy place for capitalists of the world to enjoy their Olympics. The state would think nothing of sacrificing young lives to this end. In my opinion if Alfie Meadows is found guilty we will all have to watch out for each other. If Alfie Meadows, who nearly died at the hands of the police, can be sent down for violent disorder, they can come for any of us.
Just beginning, the trial of fascist child murderer Anders Breivik. He did it. He killed 77 people, mostly teenagers at a youth camp. He does not deny it. If he is allowed to turn the trial into a political exposition, if his 'self-defence' argument is given any credence we will be in deep trouble. This is an important political event. There is great responsibility on the prosecution. If they get it wrong we could be facing the prospect of Breivikite attacks across the continent.
Maybe this is genuine, maybe it isn't. Maybe these are actually existing overeducated, amiable airheads, maybe it was all concocted by Chris Morris. Either way I want you to look at this (pointed out to me by the sterling class-warrior Keith Watermelon). This, apparently, is an advert for a flatshare:
So check it, we've chanced upon a relatively inexpensive yet glorious palace in Streatham. Only trouble being that theres a gaping hole waiting to be filled by 2 beautiful souls... We've one small and one medium size room in a chunky 3 story house with a garden, delicious kitchen, delectable dining room, wonderful living room, etc etc. public transport links are good, all manner of shops at the end of the road, and 3 choice cuts of mankind currently inhabiting. if you are prime to live and love life in a most splendid setting, do read on…
Yes read on, it's some of the most astonishing prose written in living memory, and it's an ad for a flatshare... In Streatham.
Whether they know it or not, Hipsters are the grave diggers of working class communities in London. Nature abhors a vacuum. Where rent rises and housing benefit caps clear out the working poor and unemployed to languish, if they're lucky, in places like Croydon, Romford or Staines, do nothing, know nothing underage oxygen thieving BoBos fill the void, and they fill it with vegan crunk nights.
Oh, and this is the picture accompanying the ad... It really, really is...
Or is it just Alexander Boot? Herr Boot thinks that homosexuality is not a disease, no, merely a 100 to 1 aberration one that, we will see below, can apparently be 'taught'... by his maths it's clearly not taught well... either that or there's something wrong with his maths... But, so far, so Daily Heil. Alexander Boot deserves a special mention. Boot also thinks that Trenton Oldfield, boat race disruptor, graduating from the London School of Economics proves that the Fabian society (founded by "lifetime followers of Lenin") is destroying our society but, luckily Herbert Marcuse (another famous member) has given the game away. The aims of the Fabian Society are:
1. The creation of racism offences. 2. Continual change to create confusion 3. The teaching of sex and homosexuality to children 4. The undermining of schools’ and teachers’ authority 5. Huge immigration to destroy identity 6. The promotion of excessive drinking 7. Emptying of churches 8. An unreliable legal system with bias against victims of crime 9. Dependency on the state or state benefits 10. Control and dumbing down of media 11. Encouraging the breakdown of the family.
You remember this plan, don't you? The secret plan...? No...?
Mansfield [for the defence] questioned [Commander] Johnson’s tactics once again, asking him if he understood the difference between ‘high-profile’ and ‘low-profile’ policing to which Johnson replied ‘I use proportionate policing’. Mansfield referred to Johnson’s handling of the G20 protest and the way ‘thing went wrong there’. Johnson said he didn’t accept things had gone wrong, to which Mansfield responded ‘somebody died there’. ‘They did, yes,’ replied Johnson.
You have to bear in mind this is probably not a gaffe (even though it should look bad to any right-thinking person). This is Total Policing. Things did not 'go wrong' at the G20, at least not for the police, who demonstrated their power and, through that, the power of the British capitalist class. Somebody died, but people do that all the time. The point was people were made that little bit more afraid of expressing their politics.
Things did not go wrong for the police on Westminster Bridge either, where several thousand young people were corralled in sub-zero temperatures and Hillsborough-like conditions by commander Johnson's men. It was revenge for the humiliation inflicted on the police by the students invasion of Millbank Tower.
Tony Blair says he has no memory of rendition of prisoners to Libya, but you know what they say, if you can remember what the Blair government was like you were never really in it.
George Zimmerman has hit the internet. The man who shot Trayvon Martin is trying to raise money for a legal defence. In his preamble he apparently says "On Sunday February 26th [night of the shooting], I was involved in a life altering event which led me to become the subject of intense media coverage". This is as opposed to Trayvon Martin, who was involved in a life ending event. Also Zimmerman wasn't "involved" in the event, that implies it was something that happened to him, he wasn't involved, he initiated the event; shooting an unarmed man is as pro-active as it gets.
A useful list: miscarriages of justice, listed by Wikipedia. Memorise enough of these. If ever you get cornered by a capital punishment bore reel them off, ask the bore which of these deserved to die. From the UK list:
John Alexander Dickman was wrongfully convicted of the murder of John Nisbet on 6 July 1910, and sentenced to death, on purely circumstantial evidence, and on the basis of an ID parade where the witness was tainted. The Home Secretary of the time, Winston Churchill, took a keen interest in the case, and he expressed doubts about the evidence. A campaign was run to free Dickman, but John Dickman was hanged in Newcastle Prison on 10 August 1910. In 1925 a person called "Condor" confessed to killing John Nisbet. The document of 40,000 words spread over 205 pages was sent to Truth Magazine. The document was sent on to the Home Office but they refused to order the police to investigate it. William Herbert Wallace who was convicted of murdering his wife, but the conviction was overturned by the Court of Criminal Appeal in 1931, the first such instance of a capital conviction being quashed. Walter Graham Rowland was tried for a murder in Manchester and hanged in 1947, despite poor identification evidence and a confession from another. Timothy Evans's wife and young daughter were killed in 1949. Evans was convicted of the murder of his daughter and was hanged in 1950. An official inquiry conducted 15 years later determined that the real killer of Evans's daughter had been Evans's co-tenant, serial killer John Reginald Halliday Christie. Christie was also responsible for the death of Evans's wife, his own wife, and six other women. He was the chief witness against Evans at his trial because the police accepted all of his statements as fact. The police were incompetent in their several searches of the house at Rillington Place, missing bones of earlier victims exposed in the tiny garden of the property. They also concocted false confessions from Evans to justify their accusations against Evans. The case was important in leading directly to the abolition of capital punishment in 1965 in the UK. Mahmood Mattan, little known case of a Somali fisherman, hanged in Cardiff in 1952. Conviction overtured in 1998. £1.4 million compensation was shared out between Mattan's widow Laura, and her three children. Derek Bentley, executed for murdering a police officer. The charge was based on the allegation that during a standoff with police, he shouted to an armed friend 'Let him have it, Chris'. The case is often said to be a miscarriage of justice, and the verdict was overturned half a century later. It should be noted, however, that the grounds for overturning the verdict was that the trial had not been fair, due to various procedural defects. Had Bentley still been alive, there would certainly have been a retrial; he was not pronounced innocent by the Court of Appeal. Andrew Evans served more than 25 years for the murder of 14-year-old Judith Roberts. He confessed to the 1972 murder after seeing the girl's face in a dream. His conviction was overturned in 1997. Stephen Downing was convicted of the murder of Wendy Sewell in a Bakewell churchyard in 1973. The 17-year-old had a reading age of 11 and worked at the cemetery as a gardener. The police made him sign a confession that he was unable to read. The case gained international notoriety as the "Bakewell Tart" murder. After spending 27 years in prison, Stephen Downing was released on bail in February 2001, pending the result of an appeal. His conviction was finally overturned in January 2002. The Birmingham Six were fraudulently convicted in 1975 of planting two bombs in pubs in Birmingham in 1974 which killed 21 people and injured 182. They were finally released in 1991. In 1974 Judith Ward was convicted of murder of several people caused by a number of IRA bombings 1973. She was finally released in 1992 having served 18 years in prison. The Guildford Four and Maguire Seven were wrongly convicted in 1974 and 1976 respectively of planting bombs in various pubs in Guildford and Woolwich. Their convictions were quashed in 1989 and 1991. On February 9, 2005, British Prime Minister Tony Blair issued a public apology to the Maguire Seven and the Guildford Four for the "miscarriages of justice they had suffered." Stefan Kiszko was convicted in 1976 for the rape and murder of an 11-year old Lesley Molseed in 1975. He spent 16 years in prison before he was released in 1992, after a long campaign by his mother. He died of a heart attack the following year at the age of 41. His mother died a few months later. In 2007, Ronald Castree, of Shaw, near Oldham, was found to have the same DNA as Lesley's attacker and was convicted at Bradford Crown Court. John Joseph Boyle aged 18 was convicted under the pretenses of an alleged confession at Belfast City Commission on October 14, 1977 of possession of firearms and ammunition with intent to endanger life, and membership in the I.R.A. He was sentenced to ten years in prison on the first count, and to two years in prison on the second count, the terms to run concurrently. A suspended sentence of two years imprisonment imposed for a previous offense was also invoked, making a total of twelve years in prison. When released he underwent a long fight to prove his innocence. In 2003, his conviction was quashed but he has been denied compensation. Paul Blackburn was convicted in 1978 when aged 15 of the attempted murder of a 9-year old boy, and spent more than 25 years in 18 different prisons, during which time he maintained his innocence. He said he had never considered saying he was guilty to secure an earlier release because it was a matter of "integrity". He was finally released in May 2005 having served 25 years when the Court of Appeal ruled his trial was unfair and his conviction 'unsafe'. The Bridgewater Four were convicted in 1979 of murdering Carl Bridgewater, a 13-year-old paper boy who was shot on his round when he disturbed robbers at a farm in Staffordshire. Patrick Molloy died in jail in 1981. The remaining three were released in 1997 after their convictions were overturned. Peter Fell, a former hospital porter, described in the media as a "serial confessor" and a "fantasist", was sentenced to two life terms in 1984 for the murder of Ann Lee and Margaret "Peggy" Johnson, who were killed while they were out walking their dogs in 1982. His conviction was overturned in 2001. He had served 17 years. Sean Hodgson, also known as Robert Graham Hodgson, was convicted in 1982 of murder following various confessions to police, although he pleaded not guilty at his trial. His defence said he was a pathological liar and the confessions were untrue. He was freed on March 18, 2009 by the Court of Appeal as a result of advances in DNA analysis which established his innocence. Winston Silcott was jailed for the murder of PC Keith Blakelock during the 1985 Broadwater Farm Riot in Tottenham. He was cleared in 1991, when new evidence came to light. Kenny Richey, a UK-US dual citizen, spent 21 years on Death Row in the US after being convicted of starting a fire that killed 2-year-old Cynthia Collins. His conviction was eventually thrown out. Richey agreed to a plea bargain in which he agreed to plead 'no contest' to involuntary manslaughter, child endangering and breaking and entering. In exchange for this plea, the prosecution dropped the charges of arson and murder. Part of the agreement was that Richey leave the U.S. immediately. The Cardiff Newsagent Three, Michael O'Brien (of the Cardiff Newsagent Three), Darren Hall and Ellis Sherwood, were wrongly convicted for the murder of a newsagent, Phillip Saunders. On October 12, 1987 Mr Saunders, 52, was battered with a spade outside his Cardiff home. The day's takings from his kiosk had been stolen, and five days later he died of his injuries. The three men spent 11 years in jail before the Court of Appeal quashed the conviction in 1999. The three have since been paid six figure compensation, but South Wales Police had still not apologised or admitted liability for malicious prosecution or misfeasance. Michelle and Lisa Taylor, wrongly convicted for the murder in 1991 of Alison Shaughnessy, a bank clerk who was the bride of Michelle's former lover. The trial was heavily influenced by inaccurate media reporting and deemed unfair. Colin Stagg falsely imprisoned for the Rachel Nickell murder case on Wimbledon Common, London in 1992, but cleared in 1994. The case was thrown out on the grounds that police had used a "honey trap" plot in a bid to encourage him to confess. On November 28, 2007, Robert Napper, a convicted rapist and serial killer, was charged with her murder on the basis of new DNA evidence, and convicted on December 18, 2008. Stagg was subsequently awarded £706,000 compensation, and claims the false conviction ruined 14 years of his life, as he became unemployable and shunned. The Cardiff Three, Steven Miller, Yusef Abdullahi, and Tony Paris were falsely jailed for the murder of prostitute Lynette White, stabbed more than 50 times in a frenzied attack in a flat above a betting shop in Cardiff's Butetown area on Valentine's Day 1988, in 1990 and later cleared on appeal. In 2003, Jeffrey Gafoor was jailed for life for the murder. The breakthrough was due to modern DNA techniques used on evidence taken from the crime scene. Subsequently, in 2005, nine retired Police Officers and three serving Officers were arrested and questioned for false imprisonment, conspiracy to pervert the course of justice and misconduct in public office. On 6 July 2011, eight of the officers stood trial at Swansea Crown Court for perverting the course of justice together with three witnesses accused of perjury. However, on 1st Decemver 2011 the entire case collapsed, as the judge ruled the police officers could not be given a fair trial due to the previous publicity. Sally Clark was convicted in 1996 of the murder of her two small sons Christopher and Harry, and spent three years in jail, finally being released in 2003 on appeal. The convictions were based solely on the analysis of the deaths by the Home Office Pathologist Alan Williams, who failed to disclose relevant information about the deaths, and backed up by the paediatric professor Sir Roy Meadow, whose opinion was pivotal in several other child death convictions, many of which have been overturned or are in the process of being disputed. In 2005 Williams was found guilty of serious professional misconduct and barred from practicing pathology for 3 years. In July 2005 Meadow was also removed from the Medical Register for serious professional misconduct and prohibited from practicing medicine. Sally Clark became an alcoholic as a result of her ordeal and died of alcohol poisoning in 2006. The Gurnos Three, also known as the Merthyr Tydfil Arson Case (Annette Hewins, Donna Clarke and Denise Sullivan). Wrongly convicted of the arson attack on the home of Diane Jones, aged 21, in October 1995. Someone had torn away part of the covering of her front door and poured in petrol to start the fire. The fire spread so rapidly that Ms Jones and her two daughters, Shauna, aged two and Sarah-Jane, aged 13 months, were all killed. The convictions of Ms Hewins and Ms Clarke were quashed at the Court of Appeal in February 1998 and a retrial ordered in the case of Ms Clarke. Donna Anthony, 25 at the time, was wrongly jailed in 1998 for the death of her 11 month old son, and finally released in 2005, also because of the opinion of Sir Roy Meadow. Angela Cannings also jailed wrongly for four years on the now discredited evidence of Sir Roy Meadow. Angela was later stalked by a jail inmate she befriended, and the strain of the wrongful conviction destroyed her marriage. Barry George was cleared on August 1, 2008 of murdering Jill Dando after a retrial in which police were unable to rely on discredited forensic evidence. David Carrington-Jones was released on October 16, 2007, after spending six years in jail for a rape he did not commit, having been previously found guilty on two counts of rape and sexual assault against a pair of teenage sisters in December 2000. One of the accusers subsequently admitted to police she made up the allegations against her stepfather Mr Carrington-Jones because she 'did not like him'. It has transpired that the girl had previously made up other allegations of rape against her brother, fiancée, stepfather and even a customer at her work, but the jury was not told of this, and Mr Carrington-Jones was sentenced to a ten-year jail term at Lewes Crown Court. He was later refused parole hearings because he refused to admit his guilt. Mr Carrington-Jones is said to be discussing claiming compensation. Suzanne Holdsworth served three years of a life sentence after she was convicted in 2005 of murdering Kyle Fisher, a neighbour's two-year-old son, by repeatedly banging his head against a wooden bannister at her home in Hartlepool. She was found not guilty in 2008 by the Court of Appeal after new medical evidence suggested Kyle may have died from an epileptic seizure. Sion Jenkins, acquitted after a second retrial of the murder of Billie-Jo Jenkins in February 2006. Jenkins was convicted in 1998 but the conviction was quashed in 2004 following a CCRC referral. The basis of the quashed conviction at the Court of Appeal (Criminal Division) were the concessions by the Crown's pathologist that evidence given at the first tribunal were inaccurate. Barri White and Keith Hyatt. On 12 December 2000, Rachel Manning, aged 19, was found strangled to death and her face battered with a car crook lock, in the grounds of Woburn Golf Club, in Milton Keynes, Bucks. Her boyfriend, Barri White, 20 at the time, was jailed for life in 2002 for her murder, only to be freed after being acquitted of killing her at a retrial. Mr White's co-accused, Keith Hyatt, 47 at the time, served two-and-a-half years for perverting the course of justice, relating to the post-death battering of the victim’s face, before also having his conviction quashed. Dr Peter Bull, an expert in geo-science forensics, labelled the evidence 'totally implausible'. Subsequently, in 2011, Shahidul Ahmed, 40, from Bletchley, appeared at Milton Keynes Magistrates' Court and was remanded in custody for her murder after the case was reinvestigated by a new team.
... is still the place; a photo of Saturn and Titan taken this January by the Cassini Orbiter. Doesn't the planet look serene? From that photo alone you couldn't reckon for the 1,000 mph winds raging through its atmosphere. Fans of the sublime (ehwho?) might want to note, Titan is tidally locked. Like our own Moon it shows the same face to the planet as it orbits. If you were able to stand on the intersection between the equator and the meridian and look up you would see Saturn directly above you, hanging almost motionless and filling the sky. Remember, Another World is Possible, it could be a gas giant, an icy moon, a Hot Neptune or a Super Earth... If you can imagine it the universe can make it.
It is sometimes suggested that trade unionism and politics are two separate activities and that they should remain so. Last November millions of public sector trade unionists struck in opposition to changes in their pensions the headline figure being a 3% increase in members contributions, basically a special income tax to pay levied on those workers to pay for bankers in need. 61% of the public backed the strikers against the government. The point being strikes change public opinion, the bigger and more significant the strikes the better the change.
Since then various union leaderships have tried to abandon the struggle, other leaders have tried to downgrade it. They have been doing what union leaders always do without sufficient rank and file pressure put on them. Since then the NHS destruction bill has passed (without so much as a national demonstration, let alone ballot from any of the health unions). We've also seen Gideon Osborne's fuck you budget, complete with the abolition of the 50p tax rate, balanced by decreased tax allowances for pensioners, and working families. Michael Gove's nutty schemes have kept on coming. We've even had ministers advising us to store petrol in the event of a non-existent strike. Nuttiest of all we've seen goverment proposals to withdraw housing benefit from under 25s and Tory MPs suggesting prisoners should do litter picking in chain gangs, how that's supposed to make Britain's refuse collectors feel I don't know.
The Tories only do these crazy things because they reckon they can get away with it. Trade unions are the core of the opposition in the country. They MUST fight.
Well, the first part you already know; London is being turned into a giant barracks:
Security officials are exploiting the Olympics as a once-in-a-generation opportunity to multiply and militarise their weapons stocks, laminating another layer on to the surveillance state. The Games justify a security architecture to prevent terrorism, but that architecture can double to suppress or intimidate acts of political dissent. The Olympic Charter actually prohibits political activism, stating, "no kind of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda is permitted in any Olympic sites, venues or other areas". What "other areas" means is open to broad interpretation. So despite Olympics human-rights rhetoric, the charter dictates – if indirectly – that local authorities squelch political activism. On cue, London police recently vowed to scour social media to sniff out any organised protests or disruptions.
The Olympics will militarise London, with surface-to-air missiles at the ready, a Royal Navy battleship moored offshore, and soldiers on patrol. After initially estimating 10,000 security guards would suffice, the London organising committee determined more than double that number would be required. The ministry of defence is filling the gap with about 13,500 military personnel, 4,000 more than are currently based in Afghanistan. Not placated, the US declared it will send its own security to London, including 500 FBI agents.
Enjoy the Olympics, OR ELSE! Do you reckon these provisions will be removed after the games are over? It'll be interesting because the word on the grapevine is the EDL are planning another close encounter of the third reich in East London this August, Walthamstow, apparently, which is an Olympic borough. What're the odds the state will make an exception, again, for the fascists?
If you want to head off that threat you can start by letting everyone know about it. London was, is and always should be a nazi free zone. The next thing you can do is make Luton a nazi free zone, May 5th, national counter-demonstration against the EDL. The last time the master race went there their friends in the police turned the centre of Luton into a ghost town. Lets try to keep it open this time, open to all, except the fascists.
