Another Day in Paradise

It really is another day of paradise for most of us well those with homes to go to anyway. The recent stories and the news that Chelmsford City Council are maybe looking to fine homeless rough sleepers is truly shocking but goes with the policies of the conservative party in Chelmsford. As an unemployed man of 52 I understand the workings of the council as it looks to sweep under the carpet any undesirables or any troubles while pretending everything is running smoothly and the council way is the best way.

  

Having worked in Chelmsford for a short while I saw people sleeping outside the shops in Moulsham Street and I also saw this unfortunate person sleeping on the bridge in the high street,strangely enough it was I was on the way to the job centre. I also saw a man sleeping on a park bench in Admirals Park in December,its a problem that the council need to solve and not by just fining people,because that wont solve the problem,just increase it. Forget Riverside and its state of the art white elephant leisure centre,do what you are suppose to do help the people.

You hear the prime minister talk about prison reforms and how these reforms should help educate inmates,I say let them rot ! The government doesn’t even treat the law abiding citizens fairly why should the criminals get better treatment. The truth is if those out of work committed a crime or even cut of their own leg they’d have a better chance of getting a job in this truly warped country.

The shocking truth is over £28,000 is spent every year on every prisoner they get food,shelter,the odd luxury and they get reeducated and retrained while a job is sometime sorted out on their release. The conservatives too like to move the goalposts and will say “For anyone who wants to work” what they really mean is they’ve “no answer” to the employment problems just like they’d rather look away from the problem of homelessness.

I’ve been trying to get a job for a long time and want to work,but the job centres do nothing.Just take a look around the streets and every street has an empty shop or office. I find the council attitude to people sleeping rough though amazing and find the council intolerance,hard hitting. A council that also look to build a new swimming pool complex rather than plan for a new flyover at the cities traffic black spot the Army and Navy junction.

You don’t have to trust my word for it, I’ve done my homework, if you go looking at streets in Broomfield,Melbourne and some of the areas in between you’ll see exactly what this council don’t do and this will truly amaze you if you really care about where you live. This happens here where I live, but if you look around the UK it happens in nearly every town and city as every council has to cut,while peoples pay is frozen and benefits cut…everywhere that is apart from the Houses of Parliament. This is where MP’s pay has increased from £67,060 to £74,000, that’s a 10% pay rise and this has been approved despite Downing Street and a succession of M.P’s saying it was “not appropriate”.

Inspirational !

Saturday, Oct 10th 2015

The woman who found Hitler’s tanks on the Polish border and discovered WWII was about to begin: Fascinating life of pistol-packing journalist dubbed ‘Scarlet Pimpernel’ for helping 3,000 flee the Nazis 

Clare Hollingworth was one of the best war correspondents of the 20th century, covering conflicts from Algeria to Vietnam, Poland to IndiaRevealed start of World War Two aged just 27 after just days as a reporterShe went on to have more amazing scoops, narrowly escaping the clutches of Nazi soldiers, Romanian agents and Algerian rebels along the wayHollingworth will mark her 104th birthday on Saturday in Hong Kong, as a campaign to remember her remarkable career on the front line begins

By Flora Drury

Clare Hollingworth – who celebrates her 104th birthday on Saturday – was one of the greatest journalists of the 20th century, and started her career revealing the outbreak of World War Two

Everyone wants to make a good impression on their first week on the job, and 27-year-old Clare Hollingworth did just that.

But her good impression was a little more impressive than most: the young reporter was not only the first to discover the Nazis’ tanks amassing on the Polish border on August 29, 1939. She was also the reporter who phoned in the start of the war.

They were the scoops of the century, and the start of an illustrious career which saw her chased across deserts by the Nazis, mixing with Soviet spies and facing up to Algerian hostage takers.

Tonight, the woman who many of today’s great journalists cite as their inspiration, will mark the eve of her 104th birthday in Hong Kong with a glass of champagne at the Foreign Correspondent’s Club, where she has been an almost daily visitor for more than three decades, surrounded by family and friends.

No doubt talk will turn to the stories which are each alone worthy of their own Hollywood blockbuster: a female Indiana Jones who was armed with a pearl-handled revolver for much of the war, and would happily go anywhere with just her ‘toothbrush and typewriter’.

Tales of her courage and derring-do abound: Hollingworth herself admits she would far rather be in a plane dropping bombs than watching a football match.

The most famous of all the tales shared will, of course, be how Hollingworth – who had been hired by the then-editor of the Telegraph a week earlier, after a chance meeting in London – broke the story of the start of the Second World War.

It may have been a chance gust of wind blowing back a piece of hessian lining the border road which revealed to the new reporter the extent of the massing army, but it was no accident that Hollingworth found herself on that road.

She had arrived in Poland, and was staying in Katowice with the British consul-general, who, importantly, had a diplomatic vehicle. War correspondent Clare Hollingworth celebrates turning 104

Hollingworth – a keen flyer who would rather have been in the middle of a battle than watching a football match – was 27 when she saw the Nazi tanks massing on the Polish border and called the story into the office.She was also present three days later when the first shots were taken, once again calling it in – informing the surprised British Embassy in Warsaw of the outbreak of war.It was the start of a career which would span continents and conflicts, and allow her to witness some of 20th century’s most significant events, and meet some of its most well-known faces.

The Germans had closed the road across the border to all vehicles apart from those carrying the flag – and Hollingworth knew this.

So she immediately asked to borrow the car, to go on a fact-finding mission into Germany, and, as it happened, pick up a few essentials like asprin and white wine, then unavailable in Poland.

The ‘great gust of wind’ which kicked off her career happened as she drove back along the road to Poland.

Hollingworth looked down into the valley and saw for the first time ‘scores, if not hundreds of tanks’ below her.

These tanks were the forces of von Rundstedt’s Army Group South, supported by Reichenau’s 10th Army.

HOW A GIRL FROM LEICESTER SAVED 3,000 FROM THE NAZIS

The amazing tales of Clare Hollingworth’s bravery did not begin during that last week of August 1939.

In the four months before she joined The Telegraph, she played an important part in the rescue of 3,000 people from right under the noses of the Nazis – earning the nickname the Scarlet Pimpernel in the British press.

A hint of her remarkable feat was found hidden at the bottom of Hollingworth’s trunk: a document written in German, packed in an old school-issue foolscap cardboard folder, was a beautifully crafted appreciation certificate, which stated that it was being presented as a gesture of gratitude by refugees to whom she had rendered aid in the Polish city of Katowice.

In Katowice, Hollingworth was arranging for prominent, high-risk individuals to be smuggled across the border without the Germans’ knowledge.

Hollingworth had been meant to be working as a journalist, but instead got ‘bogged down’ in helping to make arrangements for some to be disguised as peasants and saving lives.

‘1,000 tanks massed on Polish border, Ten divisions reported ready for swift stroke,’ shouted the headline after she called it into her boss, who was based in Warsaw.

Three days later, she awoke to the sound of gun fire: it was September 1, the war had started, and she called Robin Robin Hankey, the Second Secretary of the British Embassy in Warsaw.

‘[I said] Robin, the war’s begun. He said rubbish, they are still negotiating. So I put the phone out of the window so he could hear them rolling in,’ she recalled during Desert Island Discs in 1999.

Later she told The Telegraph: ‘I wasn’t frightened. I broke this story when I was very, very young.’I went there to look after the refugees, the blind, the deaf and the dumb. While I was there, the war suddenly came into being.’

That morning would be far from from the last time she came within a hair’s breadth of the Nazis. Hollingworth spent a large part of the war in North Africa.

On one occasion, she was sleeping in the desert – which, she later noted, was more comfortable than many of the places she has rested her head over the years – when she awoke to hear the sound of German voices.

‘I was so frightened all the sweat came out and all the sand stuck to my body,’ she recalled.

Luckily, the men then drove away – and Hollingworth lived to tell the tale.She would later say of near death experiences: ‘I suppose I’ve had many. I just don’t know how near the shot is, I forget about it afterwards.’

It wasn’t always the Germans who she was running from in those days, however. The Romanians were also not fans of her work during the war years.Avoiding being arrested by them, she admitted, was one of the only times she used her feminine wiles.

Realising they were at the door, Hollingworth – who had just got out of the bath – removed all her clothes, as she knew they would never march her out the building naked.She then quickly rang a friend, and was promptly rescued.

Hollingworth – pictured here on her engagement to Ralph Burton, who she never married – spent much of the war in the desert, where she once woke to hear German voices standing a hair’s breadth away. Luckily, they didn’t realise she was there, and she escaped unharmed. It was one of many close calls

The journalist also knew two of the Cambridge Five, Donald MacLean, her neighbour in Cairo after the war, left, and Kim Philby, right, who disappeared the night he was meant to at a dinner party attended by Hollingworth. She later broke the story of his defection to the Soviet Union, having discovered how he escaped Lebanon

In 1962, she saved the life of a fellow journalist in Algiers, who had been kidnapped and put into a car by Algerian rebels. She led the press pack out and into their vehicles, certain they wouldn’t kill them all and be forced to release her colleague. Hollingworth’s gamble paid off, and they were all freed

Being so close to the action all the time meant that sometimes suspicious glances were thrown her way.

The post-war Polish secret service believed her work in the country during the 30s was because she was an MI6 agents.

On the other hand, she has been the focus of an investigation by the British Security Services – now known as MI5 – who thought she might have been helping Communists.

It wasn’t that surprising: Hollingworth, who was born in Knighton, Leicester, was an arch-networker, who counted future presidents among some of her best contacts.

But it had also brought her into contact with two of the ‘Cambridge Five’.

Clare turned like Joan of Arc to the rest of us standing with our hands up – ‘Come on!’ she said, ‘We’re going too! They won’t shoot all the world’s press!’ So we all marched out and started climbing into the jeeps.Tom Pocock on how Hollingworth saved a fellow journalist from being kidnapped in Algiers in 1962

During her time in Cairo just after the Second World War, she had lived next door to double agent Donald Maclean and his wife Melinda.

Hollingworth had already met Kim Philby, the so-called ‘Third Man’ during the 30s.

She wasn’t, she would later reveal, too fond of him – but did happen to be at a dinner party he was supposed to be attending in Beiruit, Lebanon, in January 1963.

Philby never arrived: it was the night he escaped to Russia on a ship bound for Odessa, swapping places with a drunken sailor.

He wasn’t seen again, but there was no hint of where he had gone – until Hollingworth began flipping through a ‘boring’ shipping magazine, and noticed the Russian-bound ship on the very night he disappeared.

It was enough to pique her interest, and eventually she wrote up her story – yet another amazing scoop.

But the Guardian, who she was working for at the time, refused to publish it at first. Eventually, she managed to get it in while the editor was off – but only as a small piece, on page seven.

All the same, it sparked a storm, with veteran journalist William Ewer noting: ‘For the first time in history, the Daily Express is leading with what the Guardian said yesterday.’

The government finally admitted he had defected in July. Ironically, he had been one of those charged with investigating her links to Communism by MI5.

Hollingworth was still sleeping on the floor every now and again well into her 80s, to make sure she hadn’t ‘gone soft’. She lost her sight in 1995, and today lives in Hong Kong

Hollingworth didn’t just get great scoops because of her contacts – it was also because of her willingness to go where others feared to tread.

In Algiers in the early 1960s, Hollingworth was the only reporter willing to brave the dangers of the casbah, which had become the centre of the Algerian resistance against the French.

Biographer and historian Tom Pocock – who was there at the same time, reporting for the Standard – revealed how she would cross into the area which many of them felt too dangerous, an area where people were regularly being killed in the streets.

‘Claire was quite extraordinary there,’ he told The Guardian in 2004.

But Hollingworth was less impressed with her own courage, suggesting she was only able to walk around relatively unbothered – apart from the odd foul liquid thrown at her – because she was a woman.

‘It was much safer for a woman than a man,’ she told Desert Island Discs in 1999.

However, it was another of her acts of courage which would truly stick out in the minds of others for years after the event.

In March 1962, Daily Telegraph journalist John Wallis was grabbed by Algerian rebels and bundled into a car, after they stormed the hotel where the press pack were staying.

His capture meant his near certain death, but Hollingworth was not about to let that happen. Pocock recalled: ‘Clare turned like Joan of Arc to the rest of us standing with our hands up – ‘Come on!’ she said, ‘We’re going too! They won’t shoot all the world’s press!’ So we all marched out and started climbing into the jeeps.’

The rebels quickly realised that, with Hollingworth, they had bitten off more than they could  Her plan worked, and they were all let go unharmed.

Hollingworth was essentially married to her job: children were never an option for a woman who feared they would detract from her writing time.She has also never considered herself retired, despite officially putting down her pen in 1981. At nearly 90, she admitted she still sometimes slept on the floor, to ensure she hadn’t gone soft – despite going blind.

And in her whole career, she only asked for time off one one occasion: when her beloved husband, and fellow correspondent, suddenly fell ill while she was on assignment in Vietnam.Then working for the Guardian, she flew home to be by his side. Hoare died shortly afterwards.

After staying for the funeral, Hoillingworth’s editor sent her straight back out to Algiers and to work.It was, she said, one of the greatest kindnesses anyone has ever done her, ‘much better than my idea of staying and looking after everything’.

Nowadays, 20 years after she suddenly lost her sight, she doesn’t stray too far from home, which has been Hong Kong since the early 80s. Her last position was as Far East correspondent for the Sunday Telegraph aged 70.

The FCC still reserves a table for her at lunchtime, calling each morning to check whether she will be making the trip down the hill for her glass of wine and to listen to the BBC news.

It is no longer a daily occurrence, but tonight – the eve of her 104th birthday – she will be making an appearance to toast her long life, and its amazing tales.

On the eve of Hollingworth’s 104th birthday, a campaign is being launched to ensure her story is told and shared far and wide. Find out more about ‘Celebrate Clare’ on Facebook and Twitter, or follow the conversation by following #CelebrateClare on Twitter.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3262251/The-woman-Hitler-s-tanks-Polish-border-discovered-WWII-begin-Fascinating-life-pistol-packing-journalist-dubbed-Scarlet-Pimpernel-helping-3-000-flee-Nazis.html#ixzz3o9VHQ5dt

母は小さな男の子の誇りに思って、今日ですか？

 Is mother still proud of little boy today ?

“Enola Gay, You should have stayed at home yesterday, Ah-ha words can’t describe, The feeling and the way you lied”

Today around this time 70 years ago, the United States of America dropped a uranium gun-type atomic bomb (Little Boy) on Hiroshima at 8.15 on August 6, 1945. For anyone who detests wars like I do and thinks governments should go to much greater lengths to avoid conflicts, this anniversary is an important one and one that no one should ever forget.

Little Boy reaping destruction

Though Hiroshima has risen from the rubble to become a thriving city of 3 million, most of whom were born after the war; the anniversary underscores its on going tragedy. Officials estimated that about 140,000 people were killed instantly or died within a few months after the Enola Gay dropped its deadly payload over the city.

Three days later, another US bomber, Bock’s Car, dropped a plutonium bomb on the city of Nagasaki, killing about 80,000 people. Japan surrendered on August 15 1945, bringing the Second World War to a close. Including those initially listed as missing or who died afterward from a loosely defined set of bomb-related ailments, including cancers, Hiroshima officials now put the total number of the dead in this city alone at 242,437. This year, 5,373 more names were added to the list.

 

Fumie Yoshida, who survived the blast but lost her father, brother and sister, said in 2005, “My father’s remains have never been found,” she said. “Those of us who went through this all know that we must never repeat this tragedy. But I think many Japanese today are forgetting.” – Yoshida was 16 when Hiroshima was bombed.

 

The debates whether the Americans should or shouldn’t have dropped both devices are varied. America’s own US Strategic Bombing Survey of 1946 came to an even more astounding conclusion.

“Even without the atomic bombing attacks, air supremacy over Japan could have exerted sufficient pressure to bring about unconditional surrender and obviate the need for invasion. Based on a detailed investigation of all the facts, and supported by the testimony of the surviving Japanese leaders involved, it is the survey’s opinion that … Japan would have surrendered even if the atomic bombs had not been dropped.”

Paul Tibbets (above right), the man who piloted the Enola Gay on its mission to Japan, said he had no regrets he said in 2002 “

“I wouldn’t hesitate if I had the choice. I’d wipe ’em out. You’re gonna kill innocent people at the same time, but we’ve never fought a damn war anywhere in the world where they didn’t kill innocent people. If the newspapers would just cut out the shit: “You’ve killed so many civilians.” That’s their tough luck for being there.”

The truth is no country, no politician, no individual can justify killing approximately half a million people with two bombs

Hiroshima: 20,000+ soldiers killed 70,000–146,000 civilians killed

Nagasaki: 39,000–80,000 killed

Total: 129,000–246,000+ killed

 

The public did not see any of the newsreel footage for twenty-five years, and the shocking US military film remained hidden for decades. While the suppression of nuclear truths stretched over decades, Hiroshima sank into “a kind of hole in human history”. The United States engaged in a costly and dangerous nuclear arms race. Thousands of nuclear warheads remain in the world, often under loose control; the United States retains its “first-strike” nuclear policy; and much of the world is partly or largely dependent on nuclear power plants, which pose their own hazards. Our nuclear entrapment continues to this day—you might call it “From Hiroshima to Fukushima.”

It wasn’t necessary Eisenhower said in 1963 “. . . the Japanese were ready to surrender and it wasn’t necessary to hit them with that awful thing.”

AJP Taylor (left) Robert Fisk (Right)

Robert Fisk summed things up in 2010 in a Independent article when he said : –

“On the surface, it’s all very simple. Most of us seem to believe the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was a war crime. I certainly do. The Japanese were already talking of surrender. British historians, A J P Taylor, quoted a senior US official. “The bomb simply had to be used — so much money had been expended on it. Had it failed, how would we have explained the huge expenditure? Think of the public outcry there would have been . . . The relief to everyone concerned when the bomb was finished and dropped was enormous.”

Its time America faced up to its past and stop hiding behind the bravado of “winning the war” these bombs were evil killing innocent people indiscriminately….it’s time to say sorry !

Employment Deception

There are many trials and tribulations that happen in life some are very natural,while others are definitely man made. Unemployment is one of those man made trails which tends to occur either by mans incompetence or by a longing to cut costs and maximise profits. Either tends to deeply affect the person whose lost a job and while sometimes its due to that persons incompetence mostly its due to managers inabilities and a lust for even more cash. The problem is the kind of jobs companies create and the training that is or isn’t forthcoming. We all tell our kids to strive for greatness at school and in life,then sentence them to do dull mundane jobs when they leave school because there aren’t enough interesting ones around in the job market.

Recently I had one of these jobs until “Unforseen Circumstances” as they called it forced the end of my temporary work placement. The actual work was so repetitive the shoots for this post came while I was taping and wiring. Having not been able to find work,I had to take this placement,but after doing everything asked proficiently they drop me like a stone and redesigned their production policy. To be honest the workers should really be paid more than the office staff,who really waste time doing inconsequential paperwork while at the same time trying to justify their own existence.

In government its just the same with pen pushers (or PC Keyboard punchers) trying to devises systems that change dramatically when the government changes at various general elections.The conservative government in the UK in their own way is trying to drive a wedge between the highest paid and the lowest paid in order to create the social conditions that occurred during the Edwardian period in English history around 100 years ago.

This is in order to force the lowest paid “Educated” people to take the menial jobs, which they too are well over educated to do, just to suit the conservatives brand of austerity style politics. If they only gave more back to the people and did tax people so heavily, people would have more disposable income to spend and as a result the economy would start moving and we would have prosperity not austerity.

Unemployment Deception is another way this government try to change party support. It is a total fallacy that unemployed people are stupid is just not true. It  blatantly show’s that  employment system that is now in place does not work and bm needs replacing. People should be seen in person and interviews arranged and not as present all done online. Many jobs are overhyped and made to seem important when in reality they are just mundane run of the mill jobs.

Many Job agencies are not good at fitting people in and finding them jobs,they just get put on the back burner and applications deleted at five to five every night.Office staff are generally well overpaid and really should get the national minimum wage,that the shop floor workers get now.Government policy is ineffectual and does not create much unskilled labour which the school leavers should first go into after education has finished. You cant learn experience and know how out of a text book or at a college or university.

Banners….Noise & Placards

 

On Saturday last we both attended the Anti-Austrity march in London and walked from the Bank of England to the Houses of Parliament protesting at the austerity cuts imposed by the current government which bring hardship on the poor and unfortunate. Life is unfortunately sometimes more than just working, the simple life and going to the pub and sometimes we need to make our voice be heard. People also protested about other things which this government may introduce….. This is Damien Gayle account of events

“Banners, Noise and Placards”

Forty-four days after David Cameron won an unexpected majority in the general election, the opposition parties are still picking themselves up off the floor. On Britain’s streets, however, tens of thousands of people took up their placards and marched in London, Glasgow and elsewhere in the first major protest against the government’s plans for five more years of austerity.

Estimates of the size of the rally in central London on Saturday varied between 70,000 and more than 150,000. Several thousand more gathered in Glasgow’s George Square and smaller demonstrations were reported in other cities, including Liverpool and Bristol.

“We’re here to say austerity isn’t working,” said Caroline Lucas, the Green Party MP, to great applause from the crowd in Parliament Square at the end of the London march. “We’re here to say that it wasn’t people on jobseekers’ allowance that brought down the banks.It wasn’t nurses and teachers and firefighters who were recklessly gambling on international markets. And so we should stop the policies that are making them pay for a crisis that wasn’t of their making.”

Marching under the banner End Austerity Now, protesters denounced public sector cuts, the treatment of the disabled and the vulnerable through welfare cuts, and the privatisation of the NHS. Teachers, nurses, lawyers and union groups marched under their own banners.

Chants and songs demanded equality, more help for the poor and an end to Tory government. There was a sprinkling of celebrity faces, with Russell Brand, Charlotte Church and the actor Richard Coyle among the crowd. Northern Ireland’s deputy first minister, Martin McGuinness, told the rally: “It is David Cameron’s cabinet of millionaires, they are the people who are the real spongers. They are the people who are given free rein to live out their Thatcherite fantasies at the expense of ordinary, decent communities throughout these islands.”

Protesters set off from outside the Bank of England, and by the time the march reached Westminster, its final destination, a sea of banners, placards and flags stretched for more than a mile down Whitehall and past Trafalgar Square.“This is a magnificent demonstration,” said John Rees of the People’s Assembly Against Austerity, which organised the protest. “But it’s only a beginning. We can’t win with only one demonstration.”

 

Len McCluskey, Unite’s general secretary, addressed the marchers from a stage overlooking Parliament. “Let me warn this government, once again, push us outside of the law and you will be responsible for the consequences, not us,” he said.“The desire for a better world, a peaceful world, a world where human endeavour is used to enhance all people, where solidarity and community spirit reign supreme, that has always been part of the Labour movement’s DNA and we won’t let them steal it from us.”

Labour’s London mayoral candidate Diane Abbott said: “It’s sad that there are not more Labour MPs here. Tory austerity is not necessary and the Labour party should be making the case for an alternative.”

Jeremy Corbyn, the only one of the four Labour leadership candidates spotted at the rally, received a rapturous reception in Parliament Square, where he spokepassionately about his vision of society.“I want us to stand up as brave people did in the 1920s and 1930s, and said we want a state that takes responsibility for everybody to ensure nobody is destitute … We each care for all. Everyone caring for everybody else. I think it’s called socialism,” he said. Tackling criticism that demonstrations do nothing to change government policy, Corbyn said mass movements had been at the root of the Labour movement, leading to the institution of the welfare state and national health service.

“The people that marched in this square in the 1850s with the people’s charter didn’t achieve very much that day. They were dismissed as out of date, out of time and irrelevant.
“Within 50 years, we had a national insurance system. Within 20 years we had a universal education system. Within 70 years we had council housing. Within 100 years we had a universal health service.

”He slammed those who tried to blame migrants and the jobless for the crisis. “I stand with those people that came to this country, worked, contributed and are part of our society,” he said.
“I want a humanitarian and decent response to those people who are victims of war, that are dying in the Mediterranean trying to reach a place of safety. I am not prepared to join a campaign of Benefits Street and attacking so-called benefits scroungers.”

 

Russell Brand, the last speaker in Parliament Square, said: “I’m inspired to see such incredible numbers in this square after the results of the election.“My personal feelings about this movement are very, very deep. Without a welfare state my mum would have died of cancer several times. I am personally a product of the welfare state because I signed on for eight years while I learned to be a comedian.“We need to learn to talk to one another and recognise that our time on this Earth is fragile and temporary. If we don’t build systems on the idea of love and togetherness the alternative is unconscionable.”’People have finally had enough’: middle England marches against austerity

Pascale Mitchell, a school librarian and carer from Bermondsey, south London, was there with her 15-year-old daughter. She said: “I had had to donate to a friend because her benefits were sanctioned and she had to go to a food bank. I’m seeing the impact around me and it’s only going to get worse.”Boos erupted as demonstrators walked past Downing Street. The anarchist group Class War marched with a banner that read: “We must devastate the avenues where the wealthy live.” A unit of police carefully monitored a handful of black-clad protesters. It had been reported earlier that several people with convictions, or who were alleged to have caused trouble at past demonstrations, had been prevented from marching.

The mood was overwhelmingly good-natured. Parents walked with their children in pushchairs, young people clustered in groups of friends, older people and activists mixed. One young man had covered his face with a bandana handed out by the Network for Police Monitoring. When asked why, he said it was because of CCTV.“It’s an oppressive, absolutist state where you don’t have to do anything wrong. Just have your picture taken and the facial recognition system will get you on the database and class you as a terrorist, even if you are just attending a protest. The real terrorists are financial.”

Young people said they felt particularly exposed by the billions in cuts the government plans. Owen Winter, 16, from Cornwall, got up at 5.30am to get to London for the protest. He marched with a placard that read: “Your cuts, our future.” “I’m demonstrating because I feel that the cuts are particularly harsh for young people and affect them quite negatively, and I think that I’m going to grow up dealing with the repercussions. Generally, I think young people get a raw deal out of politics,” he said.His friend Morgan Centini, also 16, added: “I’ve grown up in an environment where I’ve watched the public sector in my home town destroyed. Watching the cuts rip apart a community, I can’t put it into words really. It’s disgusting.”

 

This post was written by Damien Gayle and printed in the 21st June edition of the Observer its unequivocally parallels my feelings about austerity and the nature of the march it can be read in full here
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/20/tens-thousands-rally-uk-protest-against-austerity

Photos were taken by myself before and during the protest march except ones with the speakers in.

Human Rights Violation ?

Inspiration in any creative spectrum can sometimes be fleeting and not something you can always just turn on and off like a tap. Getting involved in any polical field was never my intention as I much prefer commenting from a far, but being unemployed and with the U.K. having an austerity led government, you just have to come out of the woodwork from time to time. There’s just so much wrong doing in government circles and so much misspent money, which these people just seem to spend with not a thought of the real important issues.

The real impending issue in the UK is whether or not the people of this community of nations are really free of governmental interference. There has been a lot of discussion recently and panic over the Conservative party’s controversial plans to scrap the Human Rights Act. These are plans which the conservatives are setting into motion after securing a parliamentary majority in the general election recently. The Human Rights Act was introduced by the Labour government in 1998 – however it received widespread cross-party support. The Act protects fifteen fundamental freedoms: The Right to Life, The Prohibition of Torture, The Prohibition of Slaver and Forced Labour, The Right to Liberty and Security, The Right to a Fair Trial, No Punishment Without Law, The Right to Respect for Private and Family Life, Freedom of thought, conscience and religion, Freedom of expression, Freedom of assembly and association, Right to Marry and The Prohibition of discrimination

Scraping the Human Rights Act is part of Conservative scepticism toward Europe. Scrapping the Act means that the formal link between British courts, and the European Court of Human Rights  will be broken. The argument by the Conservatives is that foreign nationals, who have committed serious crimes, use the freedoms enshrined in the act to remain in the UK. How do the Conservatives plan to protect our rights ?  They have made plans to introduce a “British Bill of Rights” that will enshrine “British values”. The government do not plan to introduce a new set of basic rights but will: “restore common sense and tackle the misuse of the rights contained in the Convention”.

 

What will this mean for rights in the UK in practice ? The government plan to replace the Human Rights Act with a UK Bill of Rights will mean that the European Court of Human Rights will no longer be able to overrule judgements made in British courts to secure proper interpretation of the European Convention on Human Rights. The UK Supreme Court will become supreme. However, this could cause great upheaval for the UK and even cause a constitutional crisis as it would mean the UK is in breach of the Good Friday agreement with Northern Ireland as it affects freedoms and human rights protections.

 

Although the new Bill of Rights may contain some of the same rights and freedoms, it is anticipated that certain rights will be limited and could be overturned in particular the right to privacy or family life. This could mean upheavals all round and reinterpretations over time which could have major effects on all freedoms of people in general.

  

While walking to the job centre on Tuesday it came into my mind just how free are we really in this country ? We take great pride speaking of our freedom, many people point out that laws free us from the tyranny of our fellow man. Protections against murder, rape and theft, for instance, provide us the freedom to walk down the street unharmed. The truth is that unconstitutional and excessive laws have increasingly become a staple of government for many decades. They are a product of a statist mentality which, is becoming more prevalent. The real picture is beginning to form ? Doesn’t it look an awful lot like Big Brother ?

I was walking on the walkers side of a cycle path and came to the conclusion that we are even told where to walk and where to cycle. If I walked on the wrong side and got hit by a cyclist could I get prosecuted ? I noticed that most of the markings on the path were worn away so I could I sue the cyclist for reckless driving and could they sue the council for negligent path markings ?

As one thinks on how councils scrimp and don’t spend on essentials and then decide on building a new leisure centre the obvious thoughts over blatant misspending come to mind. How we pay road tax but the roads are full of potholes. How the National Health Service created to look after the people’s health, charges for prescriptions, no longer provides free eye and teeth checks and is now so underfunded and partly privatised.

 

How the welfare state was created to help those less fortunate people and how they are now the ones suffering as the government bales out the country’s finances, after a decade long war and a bail out of the banks. The banking crisis caused by the actions of overzealous bankers, who now are taking home big bonuses once again and poor, poor governmental banking regulations.

All in all the answer to the question is that we are not as free as we like to think we are, we are not as free as we’d like to be and financially we are living beyond our means, spending on things for show not on things that help aid the people.

Chance Lost

 

The UK reached its biggest political crossroads in five years just under a week ago as the people went to the polls and voted in the 2015 General Election. With another coalition muted a ‘dog eat dog’ campaign ensued with much being offered in the way of monetary bribes and unreasonable promises. For me I was sorted well before the election and in fact I actually stood as a candidate for the Green Party in the City Council elections. For me it was a new challenge a chance to air my views and a chance to change the outdated views of the incumbent conservative led city council

.

Unfortunately the electorate decided change, was not what they wanted, in fact change wasn’t what the country wanted either as the Tories were kept in office with a small majority vote. To me this was awful news, really sad as in five years the coalition hardly made a difference as more companies and jobs disappeared in Essex.

 

I came a respectable last and as it was the Greens first attempt in my particular ward is wasn’t too bad, although seeing newly elected councillors taking office with an average age of 70 it didn’t fill me full of hope for the future.

People just seem to think that by making cuts in monetary terms, suddenly jobs will appear resulting in a turnaround in the economy,what nonsense thinking this is. Cut a job, dissolve a company,they will never return as all the empty offices,shops and Industrial units in Chelmsford show. At the same time the voters seemed to think it was Labours fault that the economic crisis occurred. People don’t understand it was a worldwide banking crisis.

They don’t understand that it was politicians (All Parties) with not enough regulation and bankers with back handers and big bonuses shady deals and malpractice that created the problem in the first place.It should be the people in the city paying the deficit back,not your average working man or woman in the street. They also seem to think saving money will create the prosperity everyone craves. How can this be so don’t you have to speculate to accumulate ?

Doesn’t cutting jobs to save money become counter productive. Cut 5 million off a council department you don’t just cut those peoples jobs.The people who supply lose jobs or money,those people who supply them lose money or jobs.The government loses the VAT as people spend less. Cuts will never make more money and this is something the electorate just don’t grasp.If it hadn’t been for Lib Dems voting Tory to keep Labour out I’d probably not say much.How can people not vote for what they believe in. I also think this country can be alot more creative and produce more wealth and jobs here in the UK and not overseas. Well for now with the excitement over its back to the norm of job hunting,housework and enjoying life the best I can.

Election Day

 

Its polling day here in the United Kingdom today in what is looking like the closest fought election in a generation. With neither the Conservatives nor New Labour holding a decisive lead we could be heading for a minority government or yet another coalition. Minority governments by their nature never seem to last too long and tend to be dissolved within months calling new elections. There have been only a few occasions since 1900 when a single party has not commanded a parliamentary majority. Indeed, the recently dissolved Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition government was the first of its type in Britain since the National Government between 1931 and 1945.

The Labour Party, led by Harold Wilson, formed a minority government for seven months after the General Election of February 1974. That situation lasted until the prime minister called another election in October that year, following which the Labour Government obtained a tiny majority of three.The following administration also became a minority government after the collapse of the Lib–Lab pact in 1977, and the then British Prime Minister James Callaghan’s Government fell in March 1979 as the result of a vote of no confidence which was carried by a single vote and let in Margaret Thatcher.

  

The last occasion on which a minority Government held power in the UK was between December 1996 and the general election in May 1997. The Conservative Party, led by John Major, had won the 1992 General Election with an absolute majority of 21 seats over all other parties. That majority was progressively whittled away through defections and by-elections defeats, the most notable of the latter including those in Newbury, SE Staffordshire and Wirral South, resulting in the eventual loss of the Major government’s majority in Parliament.

This time it could be really interesting with the SNP and UKIP possibly holding the balance of power with the other parties including the Green Party and the Northern Irish parties having some kind of say in matters. As you may have realised I’ve been a little quiet on the posting front recently this is because I too have been involved as I’ve been nominated as the Green Party candidate in the local city council elections. For the first time the people of my ward in Chelmsford will have an option when they vote other than Conservative, New Labour and Liberal Democrats. I doubt things will really change in this part of Essex, but at least I’m doing by bit in the quest for much needed change.

I voted at around 7.45 this morning and it was strange putting an X  by my own name. Now it’s the wait for the polls to close and then I’m off into town for the official count tomorrow. I hope for change in a big way, I hope for an end to this Tory led ‘Austerity Crusade’ and an end to two party politics. Why am I standing and voting for the Green Party ? Mainly because of the austerity but also because so much of “Green Essex” has been built on in the past couple of decades, especially around Chelmsford. At the same time I believe that these policies are the right ones.

Health: End to all types of NHS privatisation and promotion of tobacco and alcohol products

Defence: Immediate and unconditional nuclear disarmament, limit military so adequate to ensure security “but no more”

Education: End performance-related pay, abolish SATS, and raise school starting age to six

Housing: Build 500,000 social rented homes by 2020 and scrap Right to Buy

Welfare: Citizens’ Income of £72 a week paid whether someone is in work or not, ban zero-hours contracts and scrap welfare cap

Energy: Insulation for all, investment in renewable energy, and ruling out nuclear and gas power

EU Referendum: Referendum on membership is backed by the party

Transport: Cut rail fares by 10% and spend £30 a head on walking and cycling measures

Also too I am a lover of nature and of things green and believe the natural world needs taking care of as sights like these cannot be man made.

Eclipse under Leadened Skies

So the solar eclipse came and went and for us in the South East of England it was a total disappointment as cloud ruined any chance of even seeing a glimpse of the sun. It was the same back on August 11, 1999, where it went dark under leadened skies. I knew it would be cloudy but I did hope to record the event recording the darkness as it proceeded but even those photos were disappointing.

               

1999                                                                      2015

The solar eclipse took place here this morning at around 9.30am as the Moon moved between the Sun and the Earth, before the sun returned to normal by 11am. Astronomers had said the eclipse was going to be particularly striking, as the Moon was currently at the point of its elliptical orbit closest to the Earth, a configuration technically known as the perigee-syzygy.

 

Only residents of the Faroe Islands, a tiny, country off the northern coast of the UK, experienced a 100 percent eclipse, but this was only seen from the air, as the cloud was again present. In the UK it was a partial eclipse ranging from 85% in the South East to 98% in North East Scotland.

During the morning there were news reports on BBC Breakfast from various places in the UK. BBC reporter John Maguire was in Newlyn, Cornwall, Carol Kirkwood was on the Isle of Lewis, while there were reports from the Faroe Islands too.Seeing how I couldn’t afford to charter my own plane, I took some live shots from the TV,I know it’s cheating but they were taken at the time it happen. It’s 11.57am and guess what the suns coming out. Now that’s over, back to job hunting.

Fed up with the Hogwash

    

It’s 7.34am on a cloudy Thursday morning and its the day before the eclipse takes place. Yesterday however centre stage was the UK’s chancellor George Osborne giving his final budget before the General Election on May 7th. Politics is for most something they shout and moan about all the time and vote in every now and then, but most people never actually look into manifestos and policies before they vote.

Maybe the manifestos are written in a boring way, maybe the people who explain them do so without using plain English, but the plain simple fact is, many people make up their minds up about who to vote for, by watch the TV or reading the newspaper. I suppose I can count myself amongst these people too or at least I could have done in the past, but with time to read and time to find out, I’ve managed to make up my own mind during the last 5 years.

Voting is, of course, a highly personal decision, but for many they vote for the same party every time regardless of policies, others vote for the party that leads the polls, but the fact is most don’t really know what they are voting for. You really should vote regardless of who you vote for and whether they win.

For some 20 years now it seems as I’ve been voting to get a party out of power as their policies fail and us taxpayers (even the unemployed pay VAT) have to pick up the bill. In Brentwood where I used to live and Chelmsford where I now live Conservatism is rife, unfortunately the chance of getting any other party in power are so slim, you have to look at the whole picture rather than ending up on the winning side. Brentwood has never had a non-Tory MP, Chelmsford’s last non-Tory MP (the only one) was Ernest Millington Common Wealth Party in 1950, so unless you want to vote Tory you have to look to policies and pride yourself with knowing that you’re voting for a party with the right principles.

1945 Chelmsford Election Result  (Electorate 79,638)

Party	Candidate	Votes	%
Common Wealth	Ernest Rogers Millington	27,309	46.7
Conservative	Hubert Ashton	25,229	43.2
Liberal	Hilda M A Buckmaster	5,909	10.1
Majority		2,080	3.6
Turnout			73.4

​​

For me this is the Green Party !

I’m fed up with all the hogwash of the big two parties Labour and Conservative, the Lib Dems don’t seem to know where they are going at present, UKIP have some interesting ideas, but its the Green Party to me, who seem to have the most level headed ideas. I’ve never ever belonged to a Political Party but in the last year, fed up with the other parties I’ve pinned their colours to my mast.                                                                                                                                              Why !!  Because what they stand for, resonates with me the most. As a nature lover and a people person, I want what’s best for all…not just the rich, the young or just the employed. So what do the Green Party stand for here in the United Kingdom ?

 Here’s why and what they say :

What we stand for

Imagine a political system that puts the public first. Imagine an economy that gives everyone their fair share. Imagine a society capable of supporting everyone’s needs. Imagine a planet protected from the threat of climate change now and for the generations to come. That’s the world we want to create and we believe we have the means to do it. By ensuring that everyone has access to a secure job that pays at least the Living Wage we will build an economy that works for the common good, not just the privileged few. By restoring public services to public hands we will ensure they are run in the interests of the people that use them. By investing in renewable energy and reducing our reliance on fossil fuels, we will build a stable and sustainable society that protects our planet from climate change. By building more social rented homes and bringing abandoned buildings back into use we will ensure that everyone has a secure and affordable place to live. Vote Green and you can help us build a society that works for the Common Good.

See more at: https://www.greenparty.org.uk/we-stand-for/

It’s a shame we live in such a sad world where people go everywhere in metal things with wheels (go for a walk around town and you’ll understand).It’s a shame people value possessions before people. It’s also a shame that people struggle to live while others have so much money they don’t know what to do with it. Believe in people, Believe in our planet, Believe in each other….for the Common Good…..Vote for the Green Party on May 7th. Most of all….”MAKE SURE YOU VOTE”

Click image to register (UK citizens only)