Journalist In Training

Fill the Jails possible song

I think I’m going to start up a band with my mate.  Got a song which I am going to write called fill the jails.  I’m writing because that was Martin Luther King’s call during the civil rights movement of America.  So here is my song 

Happy Birthday Martin Luther King its tragic that your dead 
Because the youth of today need a leader with your wise understanding head.  

The streets were burning in London, Manchester and Nottingham,  all becuase the police shot Mark Duggan.  Would he be dead if we was white.  That questions burning across my mind as I right this song by my bedroom light

So fill the jails it will be easy,  cos the tories selling of 9 of them.   Fill the jails yeah we’ll get some beating’s but we can’t let the needy down.  If we fail, then we fail and that’s life, but at least we can look back and say, well at least we tried. 

If you saw what they did to Kevin Thakrar and how the officer’s fucked him up. You’d join the investigation for justice to be done.  So lets stand together firm and lets hope that things can’t get any worse.  

So fill the jails,  and flood the streets, dont get kettled by the police,  smash the system not its windows,   But lets not fail to fill those jails.  

St James to Soweto and back again(

I remember my first ever football game. What an appallingly drab way to start a book as well as stating the blindingly obvious. Of course I remember my first football match I'm writing a football book. Manchester united have won 4 0 today which Is perfect. As Alan shearer is rightfully saying there scoring goals for fun. 

No this is my story of how football and watching Newcastle united has taken me to some amazing places. Those trips into the places in the U.K suffering desperate poverty in London side by side with incredible wealth. 

The trip across the 92 has formed many of my views about this country that we call home. The saddening thing is that when one visits the ground of Anfield on multiple occasions you cannot but feel a sense of anger and despair that the area of Anfield. gives you is a slight sense of loathing for the Tory's who appear to look upon those who are the most vulnerable in our society with nothing but hatred if the current sadist austerity measures are anything to go by. 


I remember my first game on the attempt of the 92 challenge. Newcastle lost 2-0 to an appallingly soulless Reebook stadium. Thankfully the Beach Boys were in the glove hand department so the evening was not overwhelmingly morbid. Although impressively drab Lancashire rain. Still Newcastle got Michael owen the next day. This of course turned out to be a massive disappointing signing as he rarely had the decency to keep himself out of hospital. 


So South Africa what an amazing place. The first time I visited that truly amazing country I had my most eventful near death experience when a herd of Elephants thankfully the accelarator decided to work at precisely the right moment to ensure that I didn't die at the age of 11.     

Can anyone give me a reason why we arent trusted with a referendum

The dismissal of the eurosceptics as stupid is mere arrogance from the elites.  
It is well known that the two parties in the current coalition are worlds apart in their views on Europe.   The liberal democrats are unique in their support for the EU and the backbenchers on the Tory right and the Labour left for their opposition to the EU.  However, this was not a vote for Britain to leave the EU it was merely a vote as to whether the politicians deemed the average voter capable of answering a simple question.   Should we stay or should we go? The majority of the M.P’s in the House of Commons have clearly decided that we cannot.  The idea of a referendum being held as to whether Britain should be in the EU is monstrous who would suggest such as ghastly proposal.  Well it did happen over 30 years ago and the UK did not disappear into a ball of gas and flames.  In fact the people of Britain actually voted to remain in the EU.   As we have seen with the Euro the nations which denied their people a referendum are now suffering the consequences whilst Denmark and Sweden are laughing all the way to the bank.   Surely does this not show that actually contrary to the popular belief of politicians who entertain this fantasy land of false superiority that Joe blogs appears to have a far greater understanding of the EU, the Eurozone then they could.   

Of course this is not the case.   The heads of state are more than aware of how to get out of the mess which the Eurozone has found itself in.  It couldn’t possibly be that Sarkozy, Cameron and Merkel have to continue to convince their electorates that its Greece that is the problem.   Everything about Greece is a problem, their government is corrupt, its people are apparently lazy having been living off the subsidies of the EU.   Even after all of this the Greeks are apparently being bailed out after their profligacy and how do they respond to the kindness of the EU.  Apparently the situation doesn’t look quite as rosy to the average Greek a country which is now plagued by massive unemployment, workers who earned some of the lowest wages in Europe, and embraces some of the worst aspects of cronyism and corruption.  Massive change was needed in Greece but all the IMF will do is turn Greece into a third world country.   The Greece situation is merely a bailout of the French and German banks which need their money to pay back for all the stupid business decisions that have been made.  So what is to be done, apparently the solution is a European bailout fund which is likely to cost over 2 trillion euros of hard earned tax payers money.   I do not claim to be any expert in the world of business nor have I any knowledge of being a PM. But surely it is rather stupid to through 2 trillion euros as the same people who have proved so incompetent that they nearly brought the world economy to its knees.  The only solution that there seems to be is to print buckets of money.  I am not against this idea as there is a shortage of money but certainatly not with the bankers.  How about we take the 2 trillion euros and instead of giving it to the French and German banks we give to those starving in Somalia or Kenya or any of the other 1 billion people living on less than $1 day.  Quite frankly the European markets and in particular the European banks have been having it too easy for too long.  It is time they joined the real world of business where there is actual risk.  The only solution is to hand the money to Africans, who will spend more and I would assume drive the price back up which means that the banks in Europe can stay happy and rich.  Or perhaps we can just have another round of money printing the gap between the rich and poor can increase once again and inflation will rise.  As long as we all remember “we are all in this together”.

The Phone hacking scandal shows why Miliband should ignore the creature of Blair

Before the phone-hacking scandal Ed Miliband was having an awful time as an opposition leader with his polling ratings lower than any other opposition leader including Ian Duncan Smith.  It was on the 8^th of July that Tony Blair reared his ugly head and had the arrogance to declare that New Labour in his words “lost the driving rhythm that made us successful”. Blair seems to still have the ludicrous assumption that he left the Labour party in perfect condition when Labour were the most unpopular government ever to win a majority in the House of Commons with only 36% of the vote roughly the same as the Conservatives in 2010 and Labour in 1979. He also sinisterly warned that Ed Miliband should not take Labour back to being a left wing party. The attack on Gordon Brown is nothing new and would not be relevant had it not been for the revelations of the phone hacking scandal. As it well known Blair courted Murdoch shamelessly flying to Australia to see him desperate not to be attacked by the Murdoch Media.  It is also well known that Rebecca Brooks was very fond of Tony Blair and how Gordon Brown was hounded by the News international press in allegedly hacking into his child’s medical details and blagging to illegally obtain details of the house price of Gordon Brown.  The media onslaught on Brown was huge and perhaps he is right that Labour may have won enough seats to form a “progressive coalition” with the Lib Dems. 

 

Perhaps this is not true and that Gordon Brown is being unrealistic although the revelations have shown exactly why Ed Miliband should not listen to Tony Blair. The attacks on Gordon Brown from Blair are highly suspicious seeing as they came only four days before revelations of NI invasions into the privacy of Gordon Brown and this raises the question.  Should Tony Blair be called in front of the commons?  When past events are assessed there appears to be a worrying pattern between NI takeovers and there support for Tony Blair.  In 2002 Blair passed legislation which would have allowed Rupert Murdoch to take over parts British companies such as ITV or Channel 5 and Murdoch took over 39% of BSKY-B.  Just a year later when there were over 1.5 million people on the streets of the UK protesting against the illegal war against Iraq strangely none of the 271 editors employed by News international were against the Iraq war. Gordon Brown also supported that war and was also strongly opposed to Britain joining the Euro as Murdoch did.  And yet Murdoch didn’t take much of a liking to Gordon Brown partly because of his attacks on Blair but he refused to pander quite as pathetically as Blair to Murdoch and it could be said that raising income tax to 50% was in defiance of Murdoch and is a move that Tony Blair would probably not have taken. 

 

However the last fortnight has seen resurgence in Ed Miliband in attacks as effective as Cameron’s over the expenses scandal.  He has done what seemed impossible before the phone hacking scandal he dared to defy Murdoch but also in a way Tony Blair. He has been at least 2 if not 3 steps ahead of the government in the phone hacking scandal and has become more and more defiant as the scandal has continued. He is not content merely to allow the Murdoch Empire to regroup and has rightfully called for the break-up of the Murdoch Empire. But the parameters of British politics have changed and this can be seen with the apologies from News international in their rival papers.  Where once politicians felt that they had to grovel to Murdoch or lose an election it is now Murdoch who must grovel to politicians. For the first time a politician is able to attack the Murdoch empire and where this would have been dangerous in the past it is now a sure way to improve their popularity.  But this is not the only reason why Miliband is rising in popularity. His message that there has been a gross irresponsibility of those in power is not just aimed at Murdoch it is aimed at the entire political class as well as the bankers who like Murdoch held to much power and were grossly irresponsible.   It is messages like this that will show Miliband as the progressive leader that many in this country desire for. Let Blair talk about Miliband not following the politics of protest.  In truth Blair hates the politics of protest because the majority of the protests have been directed mainly towards him and there was much that he did to protest about. 

 

So I say this to Ed Miliband, please go to the left and defy Tony Blair. The election result for Labour in 1983 was a disaster but that was when the Murdoch media had too much power, the party was divided and Micheal foot was old and tired.  Add to this that many key members of the Labour party left for the SDP in what was arguably a “betrayal” of the Labour party.  But those times are gone now and there is no other party who will receive anything close to the 25% that the SDP achieved.  Therefore Ed Miliband should not only become more left wing to provoke a genuine opposition to the politics of austerity and negativity then he will win over the working class and the progressive middle class which abandoned Labour for the Lib dems.   

Should Tax avoiders be stigmatised as well

So David Cameron should tax avoiders be stigmatised as well?

The Daily express is full of stories of waste of the taxpayer’s expense of anything which has taxpayer’s money if it is not for a war, locking up criminals or potholes.  Yet they are noticeably quite when the rich sponge of the taxpayer and cost Joe public money.  The richest in Britain currently fail to provide Britain with the means to which the country can be financed. They refuse to pay tax a huge amount of it. It is estimated by the PCS the union whose many members work in tax collection that Britain £l20bn. I will let that sink in. It is more than we currently spend on our NHS.  The deficit would be reduced to £40bn pound if it did not occur. Yet David Cameron clearly doesn’t think this is a problem despite his constant claims that there is no money left. Not only is he not doing anything about it he is cutting off the very people who work so hard to catch the rich who feel they do not have to lower themselves to the level of the commoners who dare to pay tax.  

 I am sure that David Cameron he is appalled at the amount of money that is denied to the public purse by those who commit welfare fraud. It is a cool £1.4 billion and whilst this is large amount of money it is smaller than the amount that the company Vodafone avoided in paying in taxes. It is also only £200 million less than Philip Green paid in a dividend to his wife who just happens to live in tax-free Monaco.  Yet there are still many who make the same point time and time again as if this ends the argument that tax avoidance is perfectly legal. I admit that I am no legal expert but I also believe that it is also illegal for a man or a woman to leave them and their children to fend for themselves.  Just because something is legal does not therefore make it acceptable.  So what should we do David should we as we have apparently done with drink driving should we shame tax avoiders into paying tax? That sounds like a good idea to do this shaming let’s have groups of people reminding those such as Philip green of what there taxes could pay for if they paid for them.  If only such a group of people existed.  I believe they already do and are known as UK uncut. They have several famous supporters such as the businessmen Duncan Bannatyne.  So does Cameron reward these people command them as the big society? Curiously enough he does not; apparently these people are criminals, vandals who terrorise staff and customers.  At the huge March for the Alternative there were 149 people arrested of whom only 11 were not involved in the occupation of Fortson’s and Masons.  The police were reportedly bemused at having to arrest those inside the vast majority of who were peaceful. There is a twisted irony in using a public service that is the police to arrest those that point out that if that certain business paid their tax then we not need austerity.  The police should refuse to arrest such people and they would be well within their rights. It would also improve the relationship between protester and police which is needed after the meltdown in trust after the killing of Ian Tomlinson and amongst many who still do not feel they can forgive the police after there behaviour during the Thatcher era.  So David Cameron would you at least have the courtesy of allowing those with such opinions as UK uncut to present their case or will you continue to criminalise them and allow the “squeezed middle” and the countries finances to be unnecessarily starved at a time when there is no money left. Tax is not a punishment it is a moral obligation to a country and a society.  It is time we recognised and punished those who’s avoidance of this moral obligation are making are country a less equal and less affluent place to be.  

be honest Scotland is better at tennis

We  English still find it hard to accept that Scotland is better at tennis

Murray is not the favourite to win Wimbledon. Of course he is not why would he be he is playing Nadal a man who is obviously far superior to Andy Murray despite him needing to have an operation in hospital to permit him to play.  Where has the hysteria gone around Murray and why are our expectations of him so low.  He has already surpassed Henman’s achievements by reaching three grand slam finals.  He has also won Queen’s this year against Tsonga which no looks even more impressive after his defeat of Federer in that Quarter-final.  Despite this there is a distinct apathy over Murray’s chances of winning Wimbledon this year.  There are noticeable differences between Tim Henman and Andy Murray. Murray has not had an easy childhood, he was brought up in Dunblane and could have been killed on that tragic day although thankfully he survived.  Tim Henman has never had the misfortune of hearing his fellow pupils being shot dead by psychopath and perhaps it is this difference that has shaped the two men’s characters.  The Wimbledon crowd has never taken Murray to its heart the way that it did Tim Henman.  Can this really be explained because Tim Henman was “nice” and Murray is obviously not nice?  Murray shows infinitely more passion when he plays than Tim Henman ever displayed and yet Henman is still engrained forever in Wimbledon’s memory.   The grassy hill were spectators can watch on the big screen the live action on Centre court will never be Murray mound despite the BBC’s efforts to adopt the name.  There was no official complaint about the name Murray mound but it would never take the place of Henman hill. 

So what is it about Murray that we do not like, surely it cannot be that he is Scottish. This seems as plausible as it is ridiculous.  Murray is officially the British no 1 but he is at heart Scottish. There is something we do not about this.  Wimbledon is played in England, it was founded by Englishmen and tennis is a resolutely Upper class English sport.  It is partly because of this that English tennis followers find it hard to warm to someone so blatantly Scottish.  Apathy of Murray runs far deeper than merely that he is not nice nor that he was not as good looking as Tim Henman.  It is because he is Scottish.  It is as pure and simple as that but of course this is not acceptable any claim that the English judge Murray because he was born north of the border is of course implying that the English are racist towards the Scottish.  This is not at all true but at heart the majority of people in Britain do not truly consider themselves British.  Murrays rise also comes at a time when Scottish nationalism is threatening to break the UK.  In five years Scotland may be independent and Murray would no longer be Britain’s No 1 but Scotland’s No 1. The fought of this is obviously terrifying for the unionists in the UK and there is nothing more stereotypically English than Wimbledon with it’s obviously being class based and with its eccentricities. That does not mean it is at danger because it might be won by a scot so come on you English unionists yes Murray is Scottish but he may only be the British No for some time enjoy whilst you can still call him British.  

Miliband must become ruthless or resign

 Ed Miliband must be destroy New Labour before it destroys him
The election of the Labour party leader which saw too brother’s fight against each other brought about the wrong result for many in the Labour party.  David Miliband would continue the project of New Labour and there would not be a radical change in policy merely a drastic improvement in PR from Gordon Brown. There are still many within the Labour party who refuse to recognise the resounding defeat of last May.  Let us recap; Labour won only 29% of the vote, the lowest since 1983.  The Blairite wing of the Labour party has given their solution. Labour was simply not right wing enough and to win the next election Labour must move to right. There were comparisons with the defeat of 1983 when the old Labour leader Michael foot was emphatically defeated as Labour’s hostility towards the market amongst other things was out of touch with the electorate.  Labour should learn from the 1983 defeat but the response should not be the same.  There is no reason why Labour should move even further to the right wing for a supposedly “conservative electorate”. If this electorate is so conservative then why did the Liberal democrats achieve 23% of the vote?  Labour lost over 12% of the vote from 1997 to 2010, but this was split almost exactly between the Tories and the Lib Dems.  By those who vote Lib Dem, the Labour party was no longer seen as the party to bring about social justice for those at the lowest of society and it was those younger more aspirational voters who turned the backs on Labour.  The coalition has also given Labour a huge opportunity at the next election. The Liberal democrats will be all but insignificant in the next election.  Whilst there are only 57 Liberal democrat M.P’s the majority of the Lib dem votes is in marginal constituencies. If Labour can win these votes amongst the progressive middle classes it may be enough to push them over the line.   

However, Labour cannot simply assume that former Lib dem voters will merely jump back into the arms of Labour in four years’ time.  There is a reason why they went to Nick Clegg’s party and that must be addressed.  Labour were not only a regressive party in their 13 years in office they were also an authoritarian party more so even then Cameron’s Conservatives.  This is why it is crucial for Ed Miliband to bring an end to the New Labour fiasco.  New Labour may have kept the Conservatives out of power for 13 years but at what cost? The gap between rich and poor went up under Labour, Child Poverty in the UK remains amongst the highest in Europe and Britain is one of the worst industrial countries in the world for social mobility.  It is no wonder that many working class voters abandoned Labour either by voting Tory or in many cases by not voting at all.  Labour needs a Clause 4 moment; Ed Miliband needs to assert himself as the leader of a truly progressive party which has the interests of the majority of the British people at heart.   He must not be scared to be controversial and he must make more of an effort to be noticed.  It is true that Labour will not win merely by shouting louder in PMQ’s but they have to become part of the debate.  Currently the differences which the voters are aware of are those within the parties of the coalition and Labour’s and Ed Milibands response has been too muted. 

 However, last Wednesday we saw a more animated and aggressive Ed Miliband and he had the Prime minister rattled.   It is too early to assess the qualities of Ed Miliband as a leader of the opposition a job which is said to be the second hardest job in politics.  The leader of the opposition must not only hold the government to account but also show a credible alternative to the government.  The other key job of an opposition is to realise when it is no longer the popular choice of the electorate.  This is the case of Labour in 2010. However, the problem with Labours strategy is that it is based on the view that because they lost the election that automatically means that the Conservatives won.  This is not true, and the Conservatives were forced into a coalition to have an overall majority. This is not because of the bias of the FPTP system but because the public did not want a Conservative government.  It was a defeat for Labour but not a victory for the Conservatives and is this fact that makes the next 4 years so intriguing.  Ed Miliband must succeed in turning Labour into a truly left of centre party with a progressive alternative to the Conservatives negativity.  Labour must bring about a new more optimistic politics and offer hope, and not fear.  It will not do be able to do this if the New Labour dinosaurs are given the voice that they do not deserve. The deregulation that Labour endorsed and the lack of care which was shown to the poorest in society has meant that the attacks of the Coalition government have appeared far less shocking than it would have done so had Labour been a progressive government.  On the face of it in many ways Cameron is far more right wing than Thatcher although so are the supposedly left wing opposition.  This is what must be addressed by Miliband.  However, it is not his animation that needs increasing the most.  The support which he gets from his shadow cabinet has been pathetic at the best of times, and that is because secretly they don’t despise the Conservatives enough to really attack them.  Miliband must convince his party to really hate New Labour as well as the Tories that way he may lead them to election victory in four years’ time.