MORE NEWS FOR A NEW WEEK

Every week brings new treats where the news is concerned. Juicy little stories you might say, and recently there’s been plenty. That said I’m only commenting on three. Firstly the personal attack by the current leader of the Parliamentary Labour Party on Britain’s largest Trades Union, Unite, and its leader Len McCluskey. Secondly the heroic people of Egypt, mainly its youth, who in their many millions and with   the support of the army behind them to further their cause have created a new revolution against the Muslim fundamentalists, their political party and Egypt’s President who were fast turning the country into a religious state. And finally, more about the shocking conduct of the police that’s been in and out of the papers thick and fast.

Many of you may object to the fact that I’m not saying anything about the upcoming re-release of one of the child murderers of young Jamie Bulger. This is a horror and torment that his parents will forever live with just the same as it is for his two killers, only children themselves at the time. Every one of us lives with this grief. We feel it in our hearts. We share the sorrow and mourn with the parents. Yet we also hope that the killers may do something good with their lives and within themselves give retribution and atonement. So let the little child sleep sweetly now, forever in our thoughts, his tragedy urging us to be better, more decent, more loving people.

Now the attack by Ed Miliband on Len McCluskey and the Unite Trades Union is something real special. Ed Miliband has referred a so called internal Labour Party Enquiry - which he and his Parliamentary colleagues in the Shadow Cabinet requested into the conduct of the Unite Union - to the police. In short, the leadership of the Parliamentary Labour Party have asked the police to investigate their complaint of illicit conduct by the Union at one of their Party branches, Falkirk in Scotland to be precise, where it is alleged that the Union tried to interfere with the selection of a new candidate for an upcoming by-election. In this case the Unite candidate was the Secretary to Tom Watson himself  the Shadow Cabinet member in charge of organising Labor’s upcoming National Election Campaign. The specific allegation of the Internal Enquiry is that the Union tried to rig the Party membership in Falkirk to ensure victory for its candidate.

Len McCluskey and his Unite Union have described the Internal Enquiry as a ‘stitch up’ and a ‘smear’ on the Union. Ed Miliband has said that he would not have “my Party” dealt with in such a manner. That’s fair enough but someone should tell Ed Miliband, the Parliamentary Party leader that the Labour Party, such as it exists outside the Parliamentary Party, is not YOUR Party and neither is it the property of its representatives in Parliament. The Party itself belongs to its MEMBERS, by far the greater majority of whom are Trades Unionists, its ACTIVISTS and SUPPORTERS, NOT YOU ED MILIBAND OR YOUR MATES IN THE SHADOW CABINET. The Unite Trades Union and all the working people who are its members are far and away the greatest financial contributors to the Labour Party itself. It is their contributions that in main help the election campaigns to return to Westminster Labour Members of Parliament!

Never mind that this Parliamentary Labour Shadow Cabinet campaigns for and supports economic and social policies little different from those of the present Tory-Lib Dem Coalition Government. Never mind that Ed Miliband had said that he will not reverse these policies should he win power in a General Election. Never mind that the views of he and his Shadow Cabinet are virtually indistinguishable from those of the Tories. The main thing is that he has asked the police to investigate Britain’s main Trades Union and therefore the Trades Union movement itself. Indeed, he has turned the police onto the Union for the purpose of attacking and discrediting it.

This is important. Ed Miliband was part of Gordon Brown’s now discredited Labour Government. You know, the one that caused the great economic collapse and was responsible for all the major banking, taxation and corporate scandals that resulted in the serious impoverishment of the British people. Just as important however, with Ed Miliband a part of this Government, the police were up to their elbows in undercover spying on individuals and campaign groups for many forms of social and legal justice, all of which were undoubtedly known to Labour Home Secretaries and their Police Ministers! In this respect could it be the case that the police were also busy spying on Trades Union members and Trades Unions themselves while Ed Miliband was a member of this Government. Did you yourself know anything about such police spying practices while you were a member of the Brown Government, Mr Miliband? Furthermore, were you aware of any undercover police spying practices while you were a Member of Parliament during the time of Tony Blair’s Labour Government?

For a leader of the Parliamentary Labour Party to smear Britain’s largest Trades Union and turn the police on it is a radical departure in Labour Movement politics. Supporters of any Labour Party that remains have been warned that if a Labour Government is elected led by Ed Miliband its policies will be no different to those of the Tory Party. Okay, now people know, but then kindly tell us, WHY ON EARTH SHOULD ANYONE VOTE LABOUR IF YOU’VE SAID THAT YOU’RE GOING TO BE NO DIFFERENT TO THE TORIES?

Everyone knows that the recent Labour Government was one of uncontrolled mass Muslim and East European Immigration, gross failures of economic control and a long term extensive attack on British working people and with you getting busy with the police all over again on behalf of the Tories, Ed Miliband, why should anyone think that you and your middle class Parliamentary wretches, many up to their eyeballs in expenses fiddling, are worth putting a tick against when it comes to a General Election? 

You’ve got nothing new to say and nothing better to offer working people except more attacks on their standard of living, more social injustice and more police spying. That’s what you’ve become. The dirty party and there’s the remarkable thing really. You’re even more dirty than the Tories!

By way of contrast to all this we have seen the heroic revolutionary secularist masses of Egypt, mainly its youth, unemployed and poor masses, courageously gather to demonstrate against increasing poverty and islamification of their country by an elected Muslim President and his Muslim Brotherhood Movement. Their dissatisfaction with their policies and actions over the last year had reached its head in the last week with gigantic demonstrations in cities throughout the country prompting the army to intervene on their behalf. The army could have intervened on behalf of the Muslim Brotherhood and its political party in the Egyptian Parliament but instead chose to support the mass of the people so clearly against them. The army, then, has chosen to support the insurrectionists who have courageously acted to make a new revolution just a year after they made the old. In this respect, the political development and advance in the wisdom of Egypt’s youth and working people has been extraordinary and quite frankly a beacon of enlightenment for the rest of the world. Egypt’s young people and poor would not be sold a pup, be silenced or stilled.

And what has the BBC had to say about all this? You know the BBC don’t you? Formerly main promoters of the Jimmy Savile fan club they then became its protectors, refusing to air a television documentary which raised suspicions about the conduct of their favourite son. So what has the illustrious BBC had to say about the new Egyptian revolution? Well during the last week it has come to officially describe it as a military coup d’état, an undemocratic intervention by Egypt’s army against what it has repeatedly described as Egypt’s democratically elected Muslim Brotherhood Government. Its presenters and on the spot reporters have endlessly repeated this view. They’ve repeatedly interviewed supporters of the Muslim faction in the streets but never once bothered to talk to or interview anyone from the vast mass of demonstrators on Tahrir Square. Furthermore, when interviewing ‘experts’ or panels of ‘experts’ on Egyptian politics it has made sure that most of their panelists were supporters of the former President’s regime. In short it has given a very decided slant to its broadcasting of events, taking the side of the Muslim Brotherhood against that of the masses.

This slant of the BBC was somewhat vague during the early part of the week, even after the military intervention on behalf of the secularists. On Thursday and Friday however this definitely changed, hardening into a generalised support for the old regime. The new revolution with army support was put across as illegitimate, unconstitutional, undemocratic and mob inspired. All the well-known, well-worn BBC establishment phrases of denigration. BBC reporters and journalists ensconced up on hotel balconies overlooking the square making hostile judgements without bothering to go below, get out into the crowds of excited cheering youths and working people and ask them why they were there and what they believed in. They stayed well away from these people but no such ‘caution’ on Friday when they went straight into the Muslim Brotherhood demonstrations and let these now oppositionists make their threats and say what they liked, then adding their own view for the British public that the country was now clearly divided.

This clear BBC slant on behalf of the former Muslim regime of ex-President Morsi, now deposed, should come as no surprise to many BBC watchers who have observed for some time that the Corporation behaves more like a Muslim front organisation than an objective, impartial conveyor of news, and if they ever wanted evidence of this, first hand, then the events in Egypt supplied it in plenty. For myself and the wretched BBC apart I can only express my admiration for the sparkling optimistic and courageous young people of this country, rich with all manner of views, rich with history and with fire in their hearts for change! Their enthusiasm for change and a better life should be a beacon for us all in these days in Britain when the three main political parties all stand for the same thing and the supposed main opposition party has betrayed and turned its back on everything it once believed and the millions who supported it.

Finally this week more interesting news about our lovely police. Firstly an official report condemns a police shootist with a sub-machine gun for pumping eight bullets into a man sitting in a car in Edgware, a suspected drugs dealer, most of them fired when the man was already dead! The killing was described among other things as unjustified and illegal and their raid on his motor vehicle condemned. Even so the police have refused to apologize to the mother of the man shot in 2005 who led a campaign for justice on her son’s behalf. No apology for you, lady, however we will review our procedures! Lovely isn’t it! Illegally kill an innocent man and you don’t even want to say sorry!

Secondly, the police have finally owned up to speculation in the newspapers that they bugged a conversation they had with Steven Lawrence’s friend who was with him at the time of his murder, and the man’s solicitor. If they intended to record the conversation they should have acted lawfully and informed those present. Where was the harm in that? But no, they acted unlawfully again… and did so because they clearly believe they can do so. And do you know what? They can! That’s because nobody will slap these people down because as the State force of order, they are simply too important. So it’s the police who’ll keep on doing the slapping, illegal or not, not the elected politicians! And sometimes they’ll even give the elected politicians a slap to remind them who’s boss, like Andrew Mitchell!  Of course, they’ll keep on reviewing their procedures about who they can slap or not. Slap safely that is. Without too much fuss.

And last but by no means least, horror of horrors, the name of the policeman most prominently linked in an official report to the Hillsborough Disaster and the misconduct of the police that went with it, i.e. the extensive falsification of police statements and evidence along with extensive police procedural misconduct has been connected to allegations of smearing the names and reputations of the family of Steven Lawrence. A finger has been pointed at Sir Norman Bettison in the press as a man connecting one cesspool of illegality with another. Such dirty police behaviour is appalling but quite frankly it doesn’t come unexpected. However, it is the press who is doing all this finger pointing and as everyone knows, they themselves have a lot to answer for. Allegations have been made but the man is still innocent of these until proven otherwise and no-one should rush to judgement.

Let us not judge the police individually or collectively by the standards they use to judge us, namely the suspicion or presumption of guilt. Let us judge them instead from the higher more moral plain that underpins British law, the presumption of innocence. Not that they care one way or another! And if this sounds offensive to the many victims of police misconduct from physical assault, threat and abuse to being fitted up or falsely convicted I simply say that you need to take strength from your experience. You know you’re better so go out and work to do big things with your lives.

Finally come to think of it who recommended Sir Norman for a knighthood and which Government gave it to him?