Silent Sunday: Out of the Mouths of Babes

Prorogue Protests

Tomorrow will see a great number of protests and demonstrations against Boris Johnson's undemocratic and dictatorial decision to prorogue parliament at this crucial stage of the Brexit negotiations. 

You can find your nearest demo here - not just for tomorrow, but for the coming days ahead. Personally, I'll be at Liverpool's St George's Plateau tomorrow from 12 noon. If you're local, then maybe I'll see you there? But wherever you are, I encourage everyone to make a stand in their neighbourhood. These are scary times and it's easy to feel saddened and frightened. But those feelings don't help anyone but the people who want to ride roughshod over us and the core values of this country. We need to turn those feelings into passion and positivity. We need to fight for our freedoms. Join us tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day...because you really don't want to be the person who stood idly by and let this country slide not only into a fascist dictatorship but also oblivion.

But, wherever you are protesting, please remember these words from one of Liverpool's greatest sons

#Stopthecoup

So Farewell Then, Ruth Davidson

As Ruth Davidson, leader of the Scottish Conservative Party resigned today, let's take a look at her achievements in office...

Yes, it was the photo op wasn't it? There was nothing else she excelled at, nothing else she gave to Scotland. But hey, wasn't she good at them? She was the ABBA of photo opportunities, whereas Kezia Dugdale was the Brotherhood of Man

Quite why it took Davidson all of yesterday evening to consider her position is beyond me, and it's telling of just how pathetically two-faced she was as a politician that even her resignation this morning was mealy-mouthed enough to not point the finger at Boris Johnson's dictatorial actions over Brexit as the root cause.

Farewell and good riddance.

Out On Blue Six: Wet Wet Wet

Following this tweet directed at Boris Johnson from Hugh Grant today... 

...I can safely say that Love is All Around for the Four Weddings actor.

End Transmission

PS: Sign Labour's petition to stop Boris Johnson's plan to suspend parliament here

Word of the Day: Prorogue

Who knew there'd be benefits to living in a fash dictatorship eh? We need to look on the bright side. We've all learnt a new word today, and that word is 'prorogue'

In all seriousness though, we've learnt something else important today; we've learnt just what 'taking back control' actually means.

Taking back control means a man who is not a democratically elected leader of the nation can close parliament down on a whim, because he knows they won't give him what he wants - a No Deal Brexit. Boris Johnson can cite precedence, he can argue that he's doing it for the police and the NHS, all until he is blue in the face as well as politics. The truth is, this is all about getting his own way and to hell with everyone else. Boris Johnson has got far more in common with Hitler, than he has with his hero, Churchill.

Please sign this petition, and this one and indeed this one too, in an attempt to overturn this dictator's decision.

Out On Blue Six: Jarvis Cocker

Another suitable song now that clown is in Number 10

End Transmission

Out On Blue Six: Fun Boy Three

With Boris Johnson entering Number 10 this week and an announcement of his cabinet in the offing, this seems like an apt song to play...

End Transmission

Save Us From Boris Johnson

Oh dear.

Well I guess it was inevitable. But here we indeed are. The Tories have voted for an Eton educated, elitist, racist, homophobic, lying and cheating bully boy of a no deal backing millionaire to lead their party and be our new Prime Minister. In effect, they have just signed the suicide note for this country. 

But Boris Johnson is not, and never will be, the true Prime Minister of this country. Backed by a tiny minority and without a mandate, he is an unelected clown. We have the democratic right to demand a general election to finally get the Tories out of office once and for all and we must do so now before it is too late. October 31st is just around the corner after all. So please, sign this petition to demand a GE and share it with as many people as you can.

The End of May

I guess you expected word from me about this before now eh?

The truth is, I'm not that jubilant. Whilst May's resignation has finally, thankfully come at last, I am concerned about what the future holds.

Nothing will improve if the only option is yet another Tory government. And if that government is led by current front runner contender Boris Johnson then the country will be in an even worse mess than the one it is now.

The only recourse, the only light at the end of the tunnel, is a general election that will bring Jeremy Corbyn to Number 10.

As it stands what I will say about May's resignation is this; she cried. But she didn't cry over the deaths that happened in Grenfell, in the terrorist attacks in Manchester and London, or in the needless and estimated 120,000 deaths that have occurred because of her austerity measures.  

And that tells us all we need to know about Theresa May. No one should feel sorry for her because she never felt anything for any of us - just herself. A typical Tory then.

Suspend Boris Johnson

Boris Johnson is a man who seems to think he can say what he bloody well likes. And, whilst what he likes to say is always inflammatory and offensive, he always gets away with it. 

Enough is enough. During a radio interview in which he was asked about the police budget, Johnson said "I think an awful lot of money and an awful lot of police time goes into these historic offences and all this malarkey. You know, £60m I saw was being spaffed up a wall on some investigation into historic child abuse and all this kind of thing"

This is the disgusting, inconsiderate mindset of the man. In one comment he dismisses the abuse of children as 'malarkey' and the finances used to gain the necessary justice they have long been denied as being 'spaffed up a wall'. To use a slang term for male ejaculation whilst discussing child sex abuse is particularly tactless, but I will say this; what a shame it is that Boris Johnson's father didn't 'spaff up a wall' the night he and his wife conceived this idiotic, cruel hearted bastard. 

In the wake of the Michael Jackson documentary Leaving Neverland and the recent convictions gained via Yewtree, Johnson's comments shows a man completely out of step with public opinion. The only people who this comment is designed to appeal to is those who live in fear of prosecution themselves. Given that Lord Steel of the Lib Dems this week admitted that Cyril Smith confessed to him as early as 1979, and chose to do nothing about it, whilst testimony has also been heard about Thatcher's PPS, the deceased Chester MP, Peter Morrison (a man whose penchant for under-age boys was, according to Edwina Currie's diaries, widely known) this is a clear sign that Boris Johnson wants to protect the paedophiles of Westminster.

Enough is enough. Please sign this petition that demands Johnson's suspension from the Conservative party. why it hasn't happened already is frankly beyond me.

We Need to Talk About Karen

Following her disgusting comments in the House yesterday, Karen Bradley's position as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland is no longer tenable.

To be fair, her position should never have been considered tenable the moment she uttered this startling omission;

"I freely admit that when I started this job, I didn't understand some of the deep-seated and deep-rooted issues that are in Northern Ireland. I didn't understand things like when elections are fought for example in Northern Ireland, people who are nationalists don't vote for unionist parties and vice-versa. So, the parties fight for the election within their own community...That's a very different world from the world I came from"

She showed her ignorance even further yesterday when - just a week before the PPS intend to announce whether prosecutions can be brought against the soldiers involved in the Bloody Sunday killings - she said;

"Over 90% of the killings during the Troubles were at the hands of terrorists. The under 10% that were at the hands of the military and police were not crimes...(but were) people acting under orders or instructions, fulfilling their duties in a dignified and appropriate way"

This inflammatory comment shows she has no understanding of the events in question or the shoot-to-kill policy and collusion between our security services and paramilitaries like the UVF, nor did she have a grasp on basic law.

Today she has issued an apology, another example of an MP who has somehow 'misspoke' (see the Independent Group's Angela Smith and her 'funny tinge' comment), but it's not enough. To my mind, Karen Bradley's comments - indeed her role as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland - shows the profoundly cavalier attitude that the Tory establishment have for Ireland, an attitude that has recently been at the fore of the Brexit backstop issue, with Jacob Rees-Mogg's belief that Troubles-era border checks should become commonplace again being exactly the kind of comment one expects from a privileged, self-entitled man who wouldn't have to experience them himself, whilst Boris Johnson dismisses these concerns as "small"

If you agree that Karen Bradley is not fit to serve Northern Ireland then please sign this petition demanding her resignation.

Why Is No One Talking About The Islamophobia Problem Within The Tory Party?

The mainstream media continue to rattle on about the anti-semitism issue at the heart of the Labour party (despite statistics showing that anti-semitism has actually reduced within the party since Jeremy Corbyn became the leader) but why is no one talking about the anti-Islam issue within the Conservative party?

Boris Johnson has stepped into the spotlight to show this is a very real problem with his offensive remarks about women wearing burkas looking 'ridiculous' and like 'letterboxes' and 'bank robbers' - comments he refuses to apologise for. That these comments come along just a week after he'd met with the bigoted fake news merchant Steve 'wear your racism as a badge of honour' Bannon is even more unnerving.

Tory MP Baroness Warsi has been trying to highlight this disgusting bigotry within her own party for some time, as has the Muslim Council of Britain, but these concerns are not getting the traction it demands within the media - why? Perhaps because it doesn't do the Labour party a disservice.

Surely an impartial, balanced news media should be asking why there appears to be such problems within both parties?

I imagine Boris Johnson's comments will be forgotten about by the media in a couple of days, but the Labour (non) story will trundle on forever more.

A History Lesson For Boris Johnson

He's spent the week comparing Russia's hosting of the World Cup to Nazi Germany's 1938 Olympics, so it's time to remind him of a couple of things:

1) 20 million Russians were killed fighting the Nazis during World War II, so to liken them to Hitler's Nazis is both ignorant and disgusting.

2) Here's a photograph...

It shows the England football team ahead of a game in Berlin in the '38 Olympics, giving the Nazi salute.

They were instructed to perform the salute by the then British government...which was, of course, the Conservative party.

But what about the Russians, you might ask, did they give the Nazi salute to appeal to their hosts too?

Um no, Russia opted to boycott the '38 Olympics, seeing Nazism for exactly what it was.

Boris Johnson Is An Outright Liar

The idiotic and dangerous Boris Johnson is playing the Skripal affair for everything he can get. His weird Churchillian fantasies are coming to the fore; likening the Russian hosts of the World Cup to the Nazi Olympics (and conveniently forgetting that the Nazis wouldn't have been defeated without Russia's brave soldiers) and posing in vintage war rooms. But worst of all, he's lying through his bloody teeth, leaning heavily on experts in a way not seen since Blair's sexed up Iraqi WMD dossier.

Here's what Boris Johnson said to Deutsche Welle in an interview yesterday;

"They (Porton Down) were absolutely categorical. I asked the guy myself, I said 'Are you sure?' (that the Skripal's have been poisoned by the Russian nerve agent Novichok) and he said there's no doubt" 

Let those words sink in for a moment. 'Categorical'. 'Sure'. 'No doubt'.

No compare them to what was said by evidence submitted by the government at the High Court yesterday (the same day Boris ran his mouth off saying how sure this was the Russians) from Porton Down.

"Blood samples were analysed and the findings indicated exposure to a nerve agent or related compound. The samples tested positive for the presence of a Novichok class nerve agent or closely related agent."

That evidence proves that Porton Down, by their own words, are not 'sure'. That they are not in 'no doubt' and that their findings are not 'categorical' as Boris Johnson claims. So he is lying. He is dangerous. He is the real traitor to the British country he represents and claims he loves dearly. It sickens me that ordinary people who are advising caution are being painted as treasonous and not patriotic. But this proves Russia should not be considered an enemy. There is no clear answer as to who was responsible as yet. It is dangerous to claim otherwise.

Please do not believe the hype of the government propaganda machine of the MSM; the Murdoch newspapers and the BBC. Look beyond the hysteria and jingoistic hyperbole for the facts. Read Craig Murray's blog and share widely. Because make no mistake we are being lied to. We are being set up to fail.

The Facts Behind The Hysteria

With all the mass hysteria going on at the moment, you'd be forgiven for missing this damning letter to the Times; 

Sir, 

Further to your report ('Poison exposure leaves almost 40 needing treatment', Mar 14) may I clarify that no patients have experienced symptoms of nerve agent poisoning in Salisbury and there have only ever been three patients with significant poisoning. Several people have attended the emergency department concerned that they may have been exposed. None has had symptoms of poisoning and none has needed treatment. Any blood tests performed have shown no abnormality. No member of the public has been contaminated by the agent involved.

Stephen Davies,

Consultant in emergency medicine, Salisbury NHS foundation Trust

It's also worth pointing out that the government's line that the nerve agent is 'a type developed by the Russians' doesn't mean made or used by the Russians. And in the midst of the attacks against Corbyn for advising caution (including the 'impartial' BBC's decision to photoshop him as a Russian stooge behind a USSR backdrop last week) how come no one is concerned with the £30,000 donation made to the Tory party by the wife of a former Putin minister - just one of many donations from Russians in recent years. Even Litvenyenko's widow is talking about this, but the media don't seem to want to give her views an airing.

Once again, my advice is look to the truth and not what the government are saying. This is May's Falklands moment and she's loving it, as is the odious Boris Johnson who seems to think he's his beloved Churchill; just in time for The Darkest Hour buzz. Why? Because just like Thatcher's government in '82, it gives them the perfect excuse to bury the real unrest and disasters occurring under May's premiership and the chance to boost her ailing approval ratings with the sheep like contingent of the general public. Brexit, Grenfell etc can all be ignored while they wave what remains of the Union Jack against the menacing Soviet bear.

Theresa May and the Alleged Saudi Funding of UK Terrorist Cells

It's bad enough that Theresa May is so hypocritical that she is spouting crap about getting tougher on the question of extremism - as if she wasn't in a position to do this these past SEVEN YEARS as Home Sec and now PM.

It's bad enough that at the weekend, at a time when electioneering was supposed to be called off as a mark of respect, Boris Johnson tweeted that 'Corbyn will never protect us from our enemies' - again, we've had two terrorist attacks in a fortnight, and one in March; all under the Conservative government's watch. That's the same Tory government that slashed police budgets, made several thousand officers redundant and dismissed senior police chiefs concerns of vulnerability in the face of potential terrorist attacks as 'scaremongering' 

It's bad enough that the supposedly impartial BBC and their political editor Laura Kuenssberg deliberately misinterpreted Jeremy Corbyn's stance on Shoot to Kill in a report after the Paris attacks in an attempt to make him appear weak on security and terrorism.

It's bad enough that the media are continuing with the appalling state sponsored black propaganda against Corbyn regarding his peace seeking activities in Northern Ireland - activities that won him the Gandhi Foundation's Peace Award in 2013.

But what's really bad, what needs pushing the most right now is just what does Theresa May know about the Saudi Arabia's links with the terrorism we're currently witnessing on these shores.

Because right now there's a report the government are sitting on that explains just what they know, but they refuse to release it deeming its contents as 'sensitive'

Yes, it would be very sensitive right now just days before a General Election and just days after the second terrorist attack in as many weeks.

They don't want us to know because it will damage their reputation, their election campaign and their chance at staying in government.

You can read more about this despicable Tory-skin saving cover up here at the independent news blog AAV and at the Guardian, the Independent and Newsweek.

You can read the Foreign Affairs Select Committee report  that states Britain are supplying Saudi with arms to commit war crimes in the Yemen. And feel your spine chill at Boris Johnson's claim that 'if we don't, someone else will' - as if that justifies such mercenary acts?!

Saudi Arabia fund terrorism. How can Theresa May justify the arms trade with them?

Why was Manchester's attacker Salman Abedi allowed to enter the UK despite the US warning he planned an attack and his time spent in Libya and Syria? John Pilger asks what did Theresa May actually know of Abedi?

Why are supposedly impartial news outlets such as the BBC refusing to address this story? Why are daily newspapers not pushing this to the front page? 

Philip May, Theresa'a hubby, was wheeled out for that natural hotbed of political discourse, The One Show, recently in a bid to appear domestic and human. But what does his work at the Capital Group and his links through his role there with princes Adel al-Jubeir and Muhammed bin Nayef tell us? Especially given that these two people are alleged to fund ISIS in the report. Is it any wonder the Tories are sitting on this?

Don't believe the lies of Theresa May and her cronies. They have not kept us safe. They will not keep us safe. Their only interest is in monetary gain, not people. 

Vote Labour this Thursday. This is our chance, don't squander it.

He's BoJo, He's No Bozo

Boris Johnson. He might look and act like a monumental buffoon, but that's exactly what it is; an act.

The news that Boris Johnson won't be seeking election as the next leader of the Conservative party and Prime Minister of the country comes as no surprise to me. Since the EU referendum result last week it became increasingly clear that no one in the Leave campaign that Boris was the figurehead of, actually envisaged being the winning team. How else can you explain the lack of any clear plan ready to be put in place?

Equally, it's become clear that Boris didn't even want the country to leave the EU in the first place. His whole motivation here was to flex his muscles against his old Bullingdon Club mate David Cameron to show the party that he had what it took to be the next PM. His plan of action seemed to be to lead the Leave campaign and then, when the campaign failed (as he presumed it would) to rely on the sour feelings of the Tory MP's around Cameron to stage a coup in much the same way Labour are now doing against Jeremy Corbyn. The result - Cameron out, Boris in and the whole of the UK (a country still aligned to the EU) at his disposal.

Boris is a canny political player. Like George Osborne, who has also ruled himself out of the race, BoJo knows that to become the PM now of a deeply divided country in the midst of a constitutional crisis that can only get worse is nothing more than a poisoned chalice. After all, who in their right mind would want to be the PM responsible for the break up of the United Kingdom? Who on earth would be so arrogant and stupid enough to actually want their legacy to be the loss of Scotland, Northern Ireland, hell even Gibraltar?

Oh yeah, Michael Gove and Theresa May. That's who.

Heaven help us.

Fighting Back : Petitions to sign

Racism and anti-semitism in politics have figured large in this week's news in the wake of the Naz Shah/Ken Livingstone incidents last week. But it goes deeper than that doesn't it and these petitions certainly believe so

Whilst the Tories attempt to capitalise on the media shitstorm they have helped create against Labour ahead of this week's election, it's curious that they've turned a blind eye to their own racism. Boris Johnson called Obama 'half-Kenyan' and called into question his position regarding the EU based on his ancestry. This is nothing but disgusting, colonial racism. Sign this petition to get Boris suspended from the Tories. I'm surprised Cameron hasn't done this to be honest, it would remove his one true rival quite easily and pave the way to a remain vote.

Whatever your view on Ken Livinstone, and I've made mine known about the foot-in-mouth idiot, why has John Mann not been investigated for bringing the party into disrepute at such a crucial time? This petition at least asks for disciplinary procedure against what many have seen to be an extremely public, unprofessional and opportunistic stunt before the TV cameras. If you want his motives for doing so investigated, that's the petition for you.

'Spin, Smears and Threats' Oh really, IDS?

The odious and evil Iain Duncan Smith (the cunt) has claimed today that those promoting to stay in the EU are using 'spin, smears and threats'. In other words, they're not being honest about their reasons to stay in. 

Well let's be honest here, IDS isn't either. The real reason this cunt wants to leave the EU is because there's a move to bring him to book for the cruel and harsh benefit cuts (or welfare reforms as the Tories insist on calling them) at the Court of Human Rights and the ICC at the Hague because they believe that are 'grave and systematic violations of disabled people's human rights'. If we vote to exit, he won't have to answer to those charges and can continue to ride roughshod over the most disadvantaged in our society with further extreme cuts, whilst he and his rich friends get fatter. 

And let's look at Boris whilst we're at it - as the Stewart Lee interview I shared yesterday pointed out, the traffic pollution in London is two to three times over the legal EU limit and, to avoid paying fines, Boris sends out people to spray anti-freeze around the readers so that the particles stick to the ground and they can't get a correct reading. He has also allowed two readers to remain broken in Central London with no sign of them being repaired. It is the EU that actually defends our environment - not the government of the day.

Fighting Back : Petitions to Sign

Stop the Neo-Nazi Demonstration in Liverpool on Saturday 15th August. Ask the Chief Constable of Merseyside to stop their proposed 'White Man March'

Calls for Manchester City Council to revoke its decision to criminalise the homeless for using tents. Give them housing options and interventions now!

Demand the govt keep their promise to 'provide greater support and protection to survivors of sexual violence' and help the Yazidi Women and Girls kidnapped by ISIS

Stop the cuts, stop the GENOCIDE. It's as simple as that.

Iain Duncan Smith - Resign!

Boris Johnson purchased unusable water cannons at £218,000. Londoners demand that he personally pays this cost back out of his own £275,000 salary, rather than make them pay for his renowned stupidity.

Calls for Cameron to remove money and corporate influence/power from politics

MP's Pay Rise; link it to those of other public sector workers. Aren't we all in this together?

Austerity; start it at Westminster and review all costs regarding the Palace of Westminster and the Lords

Stop Mental Health Cuts

Put an end to Buy To Let Mortgages and effectively end the housing crisis now

A White Feather to every Labour MP who abstained from the Welfare Reform and Work Bill. Fucking disgusting. Shame on these cowards.

Change the law that says soldiers who gave their lives after 1947 are not allowed to have a military headstone.

The Clutha Trust demand the TV soap Emmerdale withdraws its shameful, sensationalist copycat storyline of the very real helicopter disaster that occurred in Glasgow in 2013