Walk On The Wild Side

Of course, if this had happened in Manchester, it could have been a walk on the Tameside but I digress. Yesterday 40+ Flickr enthusiasts took part in a two hour trek around Liverpool as part of a worldwide PhotoWalk. The walk was organized by Peter Carr (see his Vanilla Days site). Many of the crew ended up in Baby Blue for an expensive drink or two. Probably the scruffiest crowd to enter the celebrity-spotting venue.

It was quite an experience to watch bemused shoppers wonder what the paparazzi were after.

So, here are some photos of the day.

Dark Side of the Pool

Liverpool One

On Daily Mail Bombing List

Who Are You?

Everton Moptop

Mello Cafe

Ideal Homer Exhibition

Chinatown, Liverpool

Magical Mystery Tour

Cathedral Graves

Stone dead

Wot! No Zombies

Church Prison

Death of a Child

Fallen Soldier

Up On The Roof

A weekend treat. Macca messing on the rooftops again. This time at The Ed Sullivan Theater, New York for the David Letterman Show.

Video here (for how long?)

Performances of Coming Up, Band On The Run, Let Me Roll It, Helter Skelter and Back In The USSR.

Simple Simon And His Even Thicker Flock of Fascists

I've just booked a trip to Brussels. It won't come courtesy of the morons and bigots who voted for Nicholas Griffin of the Odious BNP but it will enable me to partake of some great Belgian beers as I hope to be there during Oktoberfest.

Simon Darby of the aforementioned Odious BNP is having a good time shuttling back from Strasbourg and Brussels and keeps the troops up to date with this peach of a comment:

• Just heard that Nick will be making his first speech in the European Parliament this afternoon between three and six o´clock. Please remember that this is French time and as such they are operating an hour in front of us.

Bloody foreigners with their anti-GMT time zones; bloody BNP members - too thick to know the difference.

Further news arrives which seems to cast doubts on the BNP's egalitarian and democratic treatment of its members.

Chairman Griff takes time off from being barred from Europe's finest hostelries (or not) - 'Do you know what I am?' - to email the foot soldiers of hate and doom.

• Unlike the other British MEPs, we are not motivated by money, expenses or career;

But if you'd like to give us some of that, er, money (Britisher Pounds only - used notes preferred) then who's to stop you? After all, the party is growing like a festering disease. However, Nicholas has a note (non-traceable numbers please) of caution for the dogs of warp.

• but there is still something more that can be done: Upgrade to Gold membership!

Gold you say? But what's that all about, nick dear?

• Gold members are the 'elite' of the Party - they go that extra mile and quite rightly display their Gold membership badge with pride at Party meetings and events.

I see, those street warriors who go the extra mile (but ignore the parable of the Good Samaritan obviously) and fight the good fight with all their might. Come hail (I said hail not Heil so stop that sniggering at the back), rain or other weather conditions not caused by the Marxist conspiracy of Global Warming, these patriots are there, giving their time, intellect and strength to the nationalist movement? Well not quite.

• Gold membership for newcomers is a mere £60 - and existing BNP members need only top up their membership by £30 to become Gold members!

Oh, £30 extra, Nick. What if I'm a poor destitute indigenous person who cannot get a job, house, helicopter or lobotomy due to preferential treatment for immigrants? I feel like a second class citizen in my own nutty party. What's the benefit if I sell my antique copy of Mein Kampf and put the children on the game to pay the upgrade?

• The Gold membership badge also makes a superb addition to any type of clothing, whether a suit or casual.

Oh, OK that's me sold!

• All Gold members receive a special gold membership badge that sets them apart from ordinary members.

Yeh, take that 'ordinary' members. Bling talks.

Anyone feeling left out by this sudden elitism in the hierarchy of this democratic party may be calmed by the strident call from Griff:

• now is the time to join as a Gold member: crime, immigration, corruption, EU sell-out, dysfunctional schools and hospitals, political correctness, break-up of the United Kingdom, high-taxes, rip-off Britain, Islamification…..isn't it time you joined the British Resistance?

Those dysfunctional hospitals really do need tackling. It's not possible to walk the streets without encountering the threat of feral A & E departments jumping out and giving people a good triage.

Maybe members will wake up to the fact that Midas Griffin does not turn everything he touches into gold.

Unchanged Malady

On the day that Griffin and Brons take their seats in the European Parliament comes an in depth report from the Centre For Social Cohesion researched by Edmund Standing, whom many of you will know from Harry's Place (and previously I Kid You Not) which can be downloaded as a Pdf here.

It goes into terrific detail over the continuing links between the BNP, its members and supporters and racist, white supremacists. Many of the stars of previous posts are included.

Griffin constantly claims he and his party have changed; the reality is different.

via Lancaster Unity

See also:

Liverpool BNP Youtube

BNP Nazi Candidate

Facebook Racists

Ashes to Ashes

The Daily Mash has two articles to exercise the chuckle muscles.

Firstly, (ironically after I had a conversation last week with a US-American on the same subject):

• TEST match cricket was declared stupid last night after England drew with Australia despite being much, much worse at cricket than them.
  
  
  
• England can now claim to be just as good as Australia as experts warned it will soon be impossible to attract young people into the game if you cannot win no matter how much better you are than your opponent.
  
• Experts say Australia may have been forced into a draw after a little known by-law was used to assess their score in dog years.
  
  The passage in the rule-book, written in bright green biro, states any player involved in totals over 600 not holding a British passport will have their score divided by seven.

Secondly, as more (British) bodies are readied for cremation, the issue is summed up thus:

• MORE people know where Afghanistan is compared to three years ago while thousands more have promised to look it up on Google, according to a new poll.
  
  
  

  
  
  In a stunning success for the government's war strategy, almost 20% of Britons can now point to the troubled nation on a map, though less than 10% knew why they were being asked to.

...

• Margaret Gerving, from Hatfield, added: "September 11th 2001 was an awfully long time ago. There have been many, many episodes of Celebrity Masterchef since then and I had to make room for them in my brain."
  

Another Mail Apology

From today's Daily Mail:

• Inayat Bunglawala
  

  On March 15 we suggested that Inayat Bunglawala’s stabbing an intruder at his home questioned his suitability as a Government adviser on terrorism.
  

  In fact Mr Bunglawala acted entirely in self-defence and no charges were brought against him.
  

  Also, Mr Bunglawala does not support Al Qaeda or Abu Qatada as the article may have suggested.

  We apologise to Mr Bunglawala for the distress caused and have agreed to pay him damages.

Of course, had he not been a Government adviser or had a foreign sounding name, or media secretary of the Muslim Council of Britain, the Mail would have questioned his suitability just as forcefully! Had he been BNP-supporting, vigilante cause celebre Tony Martin he'd have had a few more plaudits.

(Not that I'm a great fan of the MCB or unaware of Martin's apparent Asperger's)

Ogden's Nut Gone Mad

Those of you who remember the good old days of Coronation Street will recall the superb acting of Jean Alexander as Hilda Ogden; a real actress not someone merely playing themselves as seen in Eastenders.

It seems that Liverpool has become famous for something other than the mop top. On Beatles Day yesterday, amongst the Beatles wigs (worn mostly by tourists) was the latest fashion accessory: the pre-night out curlers.

From the same day, some more fabtastic photos.

A bit strange having a plaque commemorating removing the bricks of convicted sex offenders!

Jim Coburn as Lennon

Clayton Square, Liverpool

John in Mathew Street

Jimmy Coburn (Blue Meanies) @ The Cavern
First version (clean) that I've heard of Lennon's Serve Yourself.

The girls in blue were obviously on a Hen night and when asked to take their photo, I had to obey the law.

Bloody Asylum Seekers

I'd forgotten about the post-modern irony of Simon Sheppard and Stephen Whittle, who fled the UK to claim asylum in the USA. Apparently, this master plan did not work (the US being full of non-whites and Jews and all) and they came back.

The Guardian explains, "Two British racists who fled to the US were jailedtoday following what is believed to be the UK's first conviction for inciting racial hatred online.

Simon Sheppard, 52, and Stephen Whittle, 42, were sentenced at Leeds crown court for a number of race-hate crimes.

The court heard the pair had published grotesque images of murdered Jewish people alongside cartoons and articles ridiculing other ethnic groups.

During their first trial the pair skipped bail and fled to California where they sought asylum claiming they were being persecuted for their rightwing views. They were locked up before being deported back to the UK."

...

The court heard the investigation began when a complaint about a leaflet called Tales of the Holohoax was reported to the police in 2004. It was traced back to a post office box registered to Sheppard in Hull, and police later found a website featuring racially inflammatory material.

Prosecutors said one article suggested that Auschwitz was a holiday camp for Jews provided by the Nazis. Jonathan Sandiford, prosecuting, said: "The general theme of the article was that Auschwitz-Birkenau was in fact a holiday camp provided by the Nazi regime. A constant theme was that the Jewish people had made up the story of the Holocaust as a slur on the German people."

Food for thought for our freedom of speech brigade and our deranged follower from Brighton.

Dave Gorman has an interesting and effective way of dealing with obsessives in his latest blog post here. It also raises concerns over the new mobile telephone directory.

Bloody Foreigners

One of the most disturbing aspects of the phone-tapping scandal is the lack of any substantial debate on the ownership of the press. Can it be right for non-British nationals and non-tax payers to have such a substantial stake in our so-called free press?

Of course the same papers are the first to bleat about foreign football managers and players. Maybe it's because the readership are as stupid as the publishers believe.

There's a pitiful letter in the Guardian by the Director of the PCC, which then gets torpedoed (back to U-boats eh, Eric?) by a short rejoinder published next to it.

• n the coverage about the phone message tapping allegations, the significant action the PCC has already taken to eliminate this deplorable practice seems to have been overlooked. The 2007 convictions of Clive Goodman and Glenn Mulcaire sparked a wave of activity to help raise standards and repair public confidence in investigative journalism. Our inquiry across the whole of the British press resulted in six recommendations to newspaper managements to help ensure there would be no repetition. The press code of practice was changed in August 2007 to make it more difficult to justify "accessing digitally held information without consent", and further guidance was published in the editors' codebook.

  We conducted seven two-hour training seminars at the News of the World, at which attendance was mandatory for all their staff, and two seminars in London and Glasgow with the Information Commissioner's Office for other national newspaper journalists, to train them in the correct use of undercover newsgathering methods. Additionally, the industry as a whole - also in conjunction with the information commissioner - issued practical guidance to journalists on the application of the Data Protection Act.

  This record of activity shows that the PCC took the matter extremely seriously, and was determined to ensure that bad practice would not be repeated. We publicised our activity at every stage so there was absolute transparency - and did not act, in Simon Jenkins's random criticism (Comment, 10 July), "behind the scenes".

  Your revelations are extremely concerning about the situation as it was before all this action was taken. Clearly there are separate roles for the police and for non-statutory bodies like the PCC, which have a specific and more limited remit. But if there are any complaints that phone messages have been tapped since 2007 we will deal with them immediately. We are also urgently looking at whether the PCC was deliberately misled at any point during its inquiries two years ago.
  Tim Toulmin
  Director, Press Complaints Commission

• So, the Press Complaints Commission, the chihuahua of the media regulatory world, is back on the case (Watchdog to examine if News of World executives told the truth, 10 July). The News of the World should be afraid, very afraid.
  Geoffrey Rider
  Ripon, North Yorkshire

Quiz Time

I know a lot of people come here to idle time away whilst at work in local councils and universities when they should be working, and such skiving can have repercussions as this woman (who had the temerity to criticise Hazel Blears) found to her cost, but hey, it's Friday, it's Beatles Day so put the phone off the hook (obviously if you work for samaritans or Air Traffic Control this may not apply) and test your Beatley knowledge.

If your fiery supervisor (who's probably on seven pence an hour more than you) complains, send them round to me; I'm a Fifth Dan in the dark art of paper shuffling. (Hint: always carry a piece of paper when walking around the office. It looks like you have purpose even if it's only a printed copy of Captain Nijinsky's tips from the Racing post)

The Liverpool Echo has a good Beatles quiz today. I got 42 out of 50 which says a lot for my trivia knowledge if not my life. I'm sure one of the answers given by the Echo is wrong (Laxton's Superb rather than Granny Smith for the Beatles Apple logo was my recollection) but there you go.

The Quiz is here.

Questions 1-10 to start you off:

• 1. What was John Lennon’s first primary school?

  2. Where was The Beatles’ last full-scale concert appearance?

  3. And when was their last Liverpool concert?

  4. Which church hosted the fete, in July, 1957, when John Lennon and Paul McCartney first met?

  5. Mal Evans, The Beatles’ studio prop man, provided which item that later became a crucial sound effect on the song, A Day in the Life?

  6. Which Beatle said “Liverpool keeps me feet on the ground”?

  7. What was John’s Aunt Mimi’s surname?

  8. What is the pub on the front cover of Ringo’s Sentimental Journey album?

  9. In which Beatles album track does the National Trust get a name check?

  10. Where now is the original Magical Mystery Tour Bus?

The Beast Goes On

As Uponnothing on AngryMob notes the story about Griffin's comments on sinking migrant boats was not covered by The Daily Mail (though it did find space for a picture of Lily Allen's nipple). Even The Express carried the story though did not trust its readers to comment on the piece.

Griffin is again in the news with his latest filth:

• The BNP leader Nick Griffin has described Islam as a “cancer” that should be removed from Europe by "chemotherapy".

  In an interview with Channel 4 News, Mr Griffin, who has just been elected to the European Parliament, said there was "no place in Europe for Islam".

No doubt he'll claim this is out of context but there are obvious dog whistles to the methods the BNP would like to use to 'voluntary repatriate' (if I may boldly split the infinitive!)

Baby You Can Clamp My Car

The Daily Mail often has a special place for campaigning on behalf of the poor motorist so hard done by with taxes and speeding fines so the following - from The Daily Mash - is a fitting antidote:

• RAC CALLS FOR BAN ON CLAMPING PEOPLE WHO IGNORE NO-PARKING SIGNS

  CLAMPING someone who sees a no-parking sign and then blatantly ignores it is a breach of their human rights, the RAC has claimed.
  
  
  

  Yet more corporate gibberish
  The motoring organisation said thousands of drivers are being forced to pay large fines simply because they think they can park their car wherever they bloody well feel like.
  
  ...
  
  "And anyway, most of the signs had fallen off, or the drivers had to park there because their grandmother had just died, or they have a medical condition which means they have to go to the toilet every 20 minutes and if they can't park their car they will, sadly, poo themselves."
  
  Tom Logan, director of Bastards Ltd, a London-based clamping firm, said: "Look, I would not be in the wheel clamping business if I was anything other than a total shit.
  
  "But in my defence there is a huge yellow and black sign that says don't park here or we'll clamp you. There is - and you know there is."

The full piece is here.

Beatles Day

After the ranting and tiresome comments from BNP trolls, some positive news. Tomorrow is the second Beatles Day in Liverpool. Some of the events can be found at this link.

Stinker Murdoch

On Merseyside we pride ourselves with the low sales of The Sun. The Murdoch owned Sunday sister-in-crime, The News Of The World is taken to task for phone tapping. You have NO excuse for giving Murdoch any money.

Bastards.

Griffin's Titanic?

Boats carrying migrants from Africa to Europe should be sunk to stop Europe being "swamped by the Third World", British National Party leader Nick Griffin has said.

Mr Griffin, one of two members of the extreme-right party elected to the European Parliament last month, said occupants of sunk boats could be given life rafts to get back to Africa.

Nearly 37,000 immigrants, many from Egypt and Sub-Saharan Africa, arrived in Italy by sea last year from Libya which has become a major staging post.

Mr Griffin said he would back the creation of a ocean-going force to block the Mediterranean route but called for tougher measures to be introduced.

"The only measure, sooner or later, which is going to stop immigration and stop large numbers of sub-Saharan Africans dying on the way to get over here is to get very tough with those coming over.

"Frankly, they need to sink several of those boats," he told BBC Parliament's The Record Europe. "Anyone coming up with measures like that we'll support but anything which is there as a 'oh, we need to do something about it' but in the end doing something about it means bringing them into Europe' we will oppose."

He denied advocating that anyone should be "murdered at sea", telling the BBC: "They can throw them a life raft and they can go back to Libya. But Europe has sooner or later to close its borders or its simply going to be swamped by the Third World."

Mr Griffin also conceded that the BNP had been unable to find enough extremist allies to create a "group" in the European Parliament, where he will take his seat next week.

The decision of Italy's Lega Nord to join the Europe of Freedom and Democracy group led by Britain's UK Independence Party effectively ended efforts to find the necessary 25 MEPs from seven different member states.

"No one was prepared to commit themselves knowing that we had not got Lega Nord on board," he said. "Even so, we will continue to work together with these other groups and share ideas."

And still, we hear people try to claim that the BNP are not Nazis. This is not a smear on the BNP as their own site of hate is gleeful over the exposure: BNP SHITS

One of the BNP acolytes comments: straight forward plain common sense talk from Mr Griffin as usual. I like the idea of sinking the boats,

So much for democracy as Eric The Fish is banned from commenting on the BNP sites (apart from the Merseyside BNP one which only 5 people and a Brighton vole read - after all, I have +1)

Another rational response:

Rig up a few guns on the decks and offer free cruise holidays to old WW2 Merchant Navy Dems Gunners, who can have a bit of target practice in between cocktails.

Simon 'I care about animals I do not eat more than non-white humans' Darby attempts to defend the inedible Griffin: (see video too)

• As Nick stated he didn't mean sinking boats with the people actually on them and of course we wouldn't want to be sending shipping to the bottom of the sea with full fuel tanks and other leachants and contaminants.

Yet, 'Nick' stated in his next sentence that,

.." I didn't say they should be murdered at sea...boats should be sunk..they should be thrown a life raft..and they can go back to Libya

Griffin then makes a reference to a 'Camp of The saints' scenario. What does this mean? Well, as can be seen by the old Wiki point of call we hear that it is a 1970s French novel which was "widely revered by American white supremacists"

Sympathy For The Devil

From the Liverpool Echo.

A BNP sympathiser has admitted threatening staff at a bookshop during a far-right march.

Liam Pinkham, 21, was taking part in a BNP march through Liverpool city centre when he burst into the News from Nowhere community bookshop on Bold Street.

Liverpool crown court was told the skinhead was dressed in stereotypical far-right clothing, including a bomber jacket and jack boots and was abusive to the two women workers inside.

They claimed he threatened to “burn down the shop”.

Pinkham yesterday admitted intentionally causing harassment, although his barrister Philip Astbury insisted he had only threatened to “shut down the shop”.

Pinkham, of Leeswood Road, Woodchurch, Wirral, had originally been charged with criminal damage and racially aggravated intentional harassment, but he pleaded to the lesser charge on the day his trial was due to start.

Footnote (and more evidence that Facebook is addictive!)

Mr Pink has some interesting friends on Facebook (haven't they all?):

Aidan Aryan (!) who has some White Supremacist mates
Guy Gladstone who worships the English Freedom Fighters.

To be fair there are lots of other people - some of whom claim to be university students - on his list and he doesn't have direct links to the BNP (probably too soft). Are these people mental, or do they just accept every passing thug's friendship. It must be great to be popular!

UPDATE:

Our friend Mr Pink has been spreading his hate a bit further:

• A MAN has been charged with racially aggravated harassment following a BNP victory party.

  Michael Heaton, 41, of Mersey Street, Leigh, was arrested after the rally in Blackpool.

  Michael Hayes, 22, of Henderson Road, Widnes, Liam Pinkham, 21, of Leeswood Road, Wirral, and a boy of 16 who cannot be named for legal reasons, were also charged with the same offence.

Will I Am King-in-waiting, You Know

Future King called to the Bar (ho ho)

The news that Prince William is to be made an honourary barrister is like being eaten by Nicholas Soames; both preposterous and unsurprising.

Here We Go Again

Steve Doughty has been at it again. Today's Mail has the startling headline, 'One in ten state-subsidised homes goes to an immigrant family'. Seems familiar. I remember looking at 2007 EHRC figures before. This said a lot about this public perception fuelled by sections of the media where it was apparent that the figures did not bear out the headline scares.

A few initial points:

• Given that about 8% of the population (2001 Census) were from abroad, isn't this broadly in line with the current percentage?

• Do the figures include (as immigrants) families where,say, one parent was born abroad but the the other is British?

• Do the figures suggest that immigrants are getting priority over others.

The Guardian answers the last question:

• Equalities watchdog heads off BNP rumours as study finds only 1.8% of social tenants have moved to the UK recently.

The Mail concentrates on this bit: (strange to say only when it is above the figure in the headline):

• Only 11 per cent of migrants over the last five years live in social housing, the report said.

Of course this won't alter perceptions. Today's phone-in on Radio Merseyside was 'swamped' by three versions of the IMNARB species. If you get the chance try to listen to the Tuesday (7/7/09) programme here. (It doesn't always work properly and is only available for 7 days).

The main players are Ken (I fought in the war) from Grassendale, Gary (mass immigration is more than one) and Jean ( I'll ask you a question but won't let you answer) from Garston. Priceless, but not a little worrying given that their barking, irrational and offensive views are supported by others.

An interesting comment coming out of this is from John Healey, Housing Minister who states:

• (the belief that immigrants were favoured in the allocation of council homes was) "largely a problem of perception".

He also comes up with a solution:

• "All of this is no substitute for building more homes."

This seems a bit tardy from a Government which has had power for 12 years and could have initiated a social housing programme to undo the effects of the great Thatcherite council house sales when local authorities were prevented from using the funds raised to build new properties.

The BNP has found this to be a useful tool. In one area they leafleted they claimed that immigrants were taking up nearly all of the new allocations but this was refuted by the Council itself who indicated that, in fact, only a few had been given to migrants.

The 2007 figures cropped up when I attacked a comment by the famous Jean of Garston (see above) in October 2008. She had made the glib comment that 85% of council housing went to immigrants. My email was as follows:

• Further to your penultimate caller to today's lunch time show - Jean de Garston, I have been trying to obtain some figures relating to the claim she made about immigrants and social housing. I am used to the lady spouting bigoted tripe about her favourite subject, yet she started off reasonably today until she slipped in the 85% quote. Whilst she said that she did not want to pursue the matter further, I feel that if the matter is left it will give succour to extremists as perception becomes fact like a Daily Mail smear story, and exceptional cases like the Afghani family will be seen as representing the norm.
  Although there appears to be no exact data relating to her claim of 85% of properties being allocated to immigrants (I think that is what she was getting at), there is a study conducted by IPPR for Channel 4's Dispatches in Sept 2007. The links are provided below.
  The study considered the effects of immigration on the economy and country as a whole, but there is a section on social housing (p. 31 of pdf)

  • Table 5.13. Proportion of population living in social housing, by country of birth,

    2005/06

    Rank by Country of birth

    Living in local authority or housing association housing

    1= Australia 5%; 1= France 5%; 1= USA 5%

    4= Poland 8%; 4= India 8%; 4= South Africa 8%; 4= Canada 8%

    8 China 9%

    9 Italy 10%

    10 Kenya 12%

    11 Sri Lanka 14%

    12= Pakistan 15%; 12= Philippines 15%

    14 Cyprus 16%

    15 UK 17%

    16 Zimbabwe 20%

    17= Republic of Ireland 21%; 17= Uganda 21%

    19 Nigeria 29%

    20 Iran 33%

    21 Jamaica 35%

    22 Ghana 39%

    23 Portugal 40%

    24 Bangladesh 41%

    25 Turkey 49%

    26 Somalia 80%

    Source: LFS and ippr calculations

The figures do not give a concrete indication of the actual migrant percentage only data for each individual nation. However, it is clear that the 85% figure is not possible given the relative sizes of the population. Again this is in line with perceptions on the net effect of immigration on population rises.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission refers to the study:

1. 90 per cent of those in social housing are UK born.

   ---

2. Most new migrants to the UK over the last five years, particularly from the new European Union member states such as Poland, have been ineligible to claim entitlement to social housing.

   ---

3. There is no evidence in the research thus far of any abuse of the system including ‘queue jumping’ to the significant detriment of any group, including white families.

   ---

4. 11 per cent of new migrants have been allocated social housing. The comparable figure for UK born residents is 17 per cent, and for all foreign born UK residents is 18 per cent indicating that though some migrants do benefit from social housing, they are unlikely to do so until they have been settled for several years and become British citizens; and that they are not significantly more likely to benefit than other residents.

   ---

5. More than 60 per cent of new migrants to the UK over the last five years are housed in private rented accommodation.

   ---

6. In an LGA survey of housing managers, two out of three said that they attributed the shortage of social housing in their area to high house prices. 6 per cent said that the reason for shortages is new migration.

   ---

7. Perceptions that migrants displace UK-born social housing applicants may arise from the fact that much of the private rented housing which is now home to many newly arrived immigrants is former social housing stock. Local residents may believe it is still ‘owned by the council’ despite it now being in the private sector.

Sources:

http://www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/newsandcomment/Pages/Socialhousingallocation.aspx

IPPR Download (pdf)

EHR Summary (Word doc)

Interestingly, the BNP today use some of the figures to claim:

• A report entitled “Britain’s Immigrants, An economic profile”, produced by the IPPR in September 2007 for Class Films and Channel 4 Dispatches, shows that huge numbers of immigrants living in Britain are in social housing, contrary to the EHRC’s claims.

  The IPPR report shows that 80% of Somalis, 49% of Turks, 41% of Bangladeshis, 39% of Ghanaians, 35% of Jamaicans, 33% of Iranians, 29% of Nigerians, 21% of Ugandans, 20% of Zimbabweans, 15% of Filipinos, 15% of Pakistanis, 14% of Sri Lankans, 12% of Kenyans, and 9% of Chinese immigrants live in public housing.

The BNP does not highlight the issue of allocation by need, which will mean that certain migrant groups may suffer more unemployment than others, but it is noticeable that the BNP only concentrates on the higher figures. What a surprise.

Indicative of the BNP policy and who is British and who isn't (and indeed The Mail colluded in this quite recently too)

Part of the problem is public stupidity - fuelled, as I said earlier by the usual suspects - and revved up with personal bigotry. As with crime figures, the word 'migrant' is used with a wink to mean non-white even though other nationalities are included.

Open Sesame

I know online and offline computer security is important - we can probably guess some of our fellow workers' keywords through the picture of the cat next to their monitor, or their Man Utd tattoo - but don't you think Cory Doctorow of BoingBoing. is going a bit far both in his approach and his view of his own importance?

In the Guardian he says he is worried about others having access to his encrypted files and passwords if he gets knocked down by the proverbial bus, but has the solution:

• I'd split the passphrase in two, and give half of it to my wife, and the other half to my parents' lawyer in Toronto. The lawyer is out of reach of a British court order, and my wife's half of the passphrase is useless without the lawyer's half (and she's out of reach of a Canadian court order). If a situation arises that demands that my lawyer get his half to my wife, he can dictate it over the phone, or encrypt it with her public key and email it to her, or just fly to London and give it to her.

Sensible or paranoid? Maybe he just needs a porn buddy to go round to the flat and remove any 'for research purposes only' files!

Tall Ships 2009

In 2008 in our year of Culture we were proud to host the start of the Tall Ships Race. This year the host is Gdynia in Poland, which I visited in January. Some pictures can be found here but the city harbour looks much better now it has the ships in situ. A contact of mine on Flickr, Agnieszka has some great night shots here. The official site is here. Note that Gdynia has also issued its own currency for this event!

Anyone passing through looking for information on the ships and the city should visit the official site and maybe take a peak at some of the photos of the 2008 event in Liverpool docks and the parade of sail.

Those fortunate to be visiting should check out the hidden gem of a pub called Degustatornia. It is hard to find but is on 81-404 Gdynia ul. Świętojańska 130. You will find a bicycle shop and you need to go round the corner to a less than inviting facade and enter via steps (you'll know that much of Poland's night life is underground). The strength and range of beers on offer here means a taxi may be the last order of the day. Tell them Eric The Fish sent you. when we visited we managed to get two free pints because the pumps were just running out.

The pub's own site is here.

Just Kiss And Make Up Will Yer!

Interesting times in the off/on love affair between The Daily Mail and the Odious BNP. In an attempt to claim the moral high ground the official racist site has a pop at the pitiful Mail story about UK crime rates being worse than South Africa. Of course the author of this bilge is our old friend James 'fiddler on the hoof' Slack. Read 5CC here and you'll see how this vile creature regularly twists figures to suit his bigoted agenda.

Now, Slack and his mates at The Mail are used ad nauseam by the BNP lot to back up their racist ideals and Fascist ideas. So, it comes as a bit of a surprise, n'est-ce pas (guess who was watching Poirot at the time) to see another dig at their bed chums (following on from the call to complain to the PCC).

In truth the BNP article takes Chris Grayling (quoted in the Mail story) as its real target:

• The rank amateurishness which characterises the modern Conservative Party has been exposed with the embarrassing claim by Tory Home Affairs frontbencher Chris Grayling that Britain has a higher violent crime rate than South Africa and America.

The piece continues:

• In reality, both South Africa and America have dramatically higher rates of violent crime than Britain. The Tories are simply lying, and have shown the intellectual shallowness of the people who want to make up this country’s next government.

Hmm, a bit rich coming from a party which routinely lies about crime figures in order to portray non-white people as the enemy within and in their recent leaflet highlighting alleged racist crimes committed by non-whites against whites, used numerous examples which were nothing of the sort.

The real reason the BNP are glad to run this attack on the story becomes clear further on:

• To make matters worse, evidence from the British police shows that immigrants to Britain are responsible for a majority of the reported murders and related violent crime in Britain - making a mockery of the Tory allegations that British people are violent.

So, how do our statistical saints arrive at this startling conclusion? In a move that Slack himself would be proud of we see this:

• Most murders in London in 2007 were committed by foreigners, according to Scotland Yard figures released in November of that year.

Really? Of course we have to put ourselves into the racist mindset of Nicholas Griffin to make sense of this whopper:

• Of 47 killings between April and September 2007, where the nationality of the accused was known, 26 of the suspects - 55 percent - were not Britons. At least 23 of the victims were foreign, including Somali, Brazilian, Irish and Vietnamese citizens. The accused in the London sample hail from all corners of the world: Peru, China, Albania, Romania, Lithuania, Nigeria, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

Time after time we have seen the Mail do this smoke-and-mirrors trick. Note that 'suspects' and 'accused' are transformed - as if by magic - into the guilty. Tell us anything about what awaits us if this lot had control of the judicial system?

I'm not sure if this includes the murders that Richard Barnbrook dreamt up but who knows? (Tory Troll)

Also of interest is the implication that 'victims' - being foreign - are the cause of their own demise; the 'well, if they weren't in this country in the first place...' comment we saw in The Mail when Jean Charles de Menezes was (wrongly) reported to have been an illegal immigrant.

The Mail and the Beeners: the love that dare not speak its name.

Footnote:

Simon 'Two Wardrobes' Darby has a big plan. He wants to go all Co-op on us:

• With nearly one million voters spread right across the country and over 11,000 members an opportunity exists to set up an in-house Nationalist alternative to the supermarkets, the sticky point being distribution and initial range of stock.

Yeh, good luck with that!!

Remember the last big idea? The British Pages? You don't? Oh treat yourself and wander over to their high-tec site here. Back already? Good wasn't it? Note all the jobs available for us indigenous, oppressed folk and also the job applicants from all the nationalists discriminated against by everyone. Not one fucking entry!

Then there's the classified section. Note that they all seem to be BNP members: the taxi firm of Euro candidate Edward 'Spud' O'Sullivan, Euro candidate Degsy Adams's soon-to-be-demolished BNP pub The Ace of Diamonds, the Kimberley Hotel in Blackpool - venue of the BNP post-Euro love-in and other goodly businesses like Halal-free builders with added apostrophes and Teutonic tonsors. There's also the inviting enterprise of 'Premium Plasters' (obviously for any cuts received at the hands of the demon barber) who helpfully supply us with a quotation - "Remove 2 existing upvc doors and 2 windows for relocation. " (that'll be for carrying out the voluntary repatriation' policy then!)

Fish in a barrel? Yeh, but when in Rohm.

• Premium Plasters are responsable for removing and disposing of all waste materials.

Insert your own joke here. Why should I do all the work?

There's also another pub - the Rose and Crown in Upperby, Carlisle. Anyone in that area without offensive views and a shiny skull may wish to find another boozer.

Looking forward to the new BNP hypomarket then?

Reuters Pictures Of The Month: June 2009

Some of the best photojournalism from Reuters archives from last month here. One of the 65 photos is by Thomas Mukoya of a boy selling boiled rats in Malawis capital city, Lilongwe. Sort of puts into perspective my squeaking over the mystery rodent in our garden.

Beware The Little Man

Its always the small ones isn't it?

UPDATE:

As The Daily Quail points out The Daily Mail has picked up the story and proudly shows off its readers' love of good old dictators. Despite moaning about Gordon McBroon not being democratically elected (because they have no understanding of our system) they seem to favour the liberal use of the old jackboot. As can be seen on the comments on the story here, the readers are reliable as ever in their admiration for Herr Hitler.

Pride of place goes to regular free-thinker Councillor Chris Cooke of Tamworth with this belter:

• He's not wrong. Hitler did get things done. Not what should have been done perhaps - and not in the way people might have wanted them done - but get things done Hitler certainly did. So did Ghengis Khan for that matter! As for Max Moseley leading Britain - could he be any worse than Brown or Blair, or that leader-in-waiting Cameron-de-Pinko? Anyway - Mr Ecclestone is a billionaire - he can say what he likes and damn what the media think. On balance free speech like that is a good thing.

  - Cllr. Chris Cooke, Tamworth, UK, 4/7/2009 11:37

People of Tamworth, are you mental? Cooke - like the BNP - has a strange relationship with The Mail. He complained to the PCC about the paper yet still submits his classics to it.

For anyone new to Cllr Chris's rational and sane take on life and his dalliance with the Odious BNP, a trip to the following links will be most productive. I may be tempted to set a test so make sure you do.

Councillor Sane and Rational's Official Eyebleed Site

Great Alliterative Hedgehog Article With Added Banter and Battering

Cllr Cooke On Speed

Rats!

The pathetic Daily Mail gobshite, Richard Littlejohn joined the paper's perverse campaign against Wheelie Bins as this is what really grinds the gears of Middle England - speeding fines (taxes), environmentally friendly schemes (taxes for polar bears) and not being able to wear jewellery (even when you can).

So, I was bit perturbed to come home to find this in the garden:


Incidentally, turning back to Anton's crushing of the new crucifix story, the great problem is that despite the facts showing the article to be the usual scare-mongering anti-Muslim crap, the Mail has already succeeded. As with The Eid smear I covered here, t'internet was full of verbatim repetition of the false and deliberately misleading article.

UPDATE

The rat above (I shall call him Eric for that is what I do) has been back today. He looks quite tame to me so I wondered if he was an escaped pet. I must admit this is the first one I've seen here in over 20 years. we get all sorts of visitors - birds, frogs, flutterbys, hedgehogs, squirrels, mice and even the odd pheasant - but I'd only seen rats in Birmingham and Paris.

They've even made it into the Liverpool echo via Heppy37 on the Flickr group. My Flickr efforts are here.

Life In The Fash Lane

You know those people who come on the radio and start with the immortal words, 'I'm not a racist but...'? IMNARBs I call 'em. They then proceed into a vile rant about sending back dem coloureds whilst inserting a few bon mots about the bloke in the corner shop.

Why then (he asks knowingly) would Eyebrow Man, Simon Darby say this:

• On reflection I have to say that there's something very unsavoury about Jack Straw being in a position to deny Ronnie Biggs parole. In no way do I say this thing in an anti-Semitic manner, it's just that I find the whole thing, well, just thoroughly vindictive.

Protest. Too. Much?

UPDATE

I was going to insert a link to the original article by Darby and I found one of his commenters had stepped up to the mark. for those new to these things let me tell you that I often post single sentence responses to Herr Darby's crapulence, knowing full well that they will never see the light of day (indeed I have now been banned from his 'democratic forum for free speech').
As with the BNP's friend the Mail (we're not talking to each other this week; next week we'll be covering each other in our personal fluids), we see what really floats the BNP boat. Take it away "Jayne":

• I'm sure you've heard all about the Asian ladybird that's threatening our native, cherished ladybird. It's been described as having "phenomenal reproductive capacity" and threatens to displace our native species, No further comments necessary really.

Where have I heard this from?

Ah yes...

The Asian lady set to wipe out British ladybirds

Guess which paper. 2007! Job Done.

You remember my reference to Aesop in a previous post? The point remains that Darby and the BNP still choose to allow these comments whilst suppressing any opposition. Fast friends or fash friends the truth is out there.

The Mail also chose the headline ' Spot The Invader' to cover this story in 2007. Interesting use of words there. Invader? Where do we see this? Ah yes the BNP site.

Footnote:

Whilst treading through the cesspool that is the BNP official site, I chuckled at this:

• Long-time British National Party superactivist Terry Lewin has been appointed new Black Country organiser, replacing the nearly superhuman Ken Griffiths who has stepped down for health and personal reasons.

Is it a bird?, is it a plane? Oh no it's Sad Ken. Been a bit crook recently. I'm sure he didn't avail himself of any immigrant or Griffin Test non-Brits while in hospital. You'll have to save the planet yourselves though.

Check In Any Time You Like But May Never Leave

I take quite a relaxed view to debates over Ryanair; my numerous sojourns on the good ship O'Leary put me in a difficult position sometimes.

Many commentators have a go at the airline's 'hidden' extras when in fact it only takes a few minutes of reading the T & C to see where potential pitfalls arise. Most of the surcharges can be avoided although with the introduction of a £5 per flight fee for the privilege of using your own ink to print the boarding pass and various debit card fees, this is becoming harder.

One thing I would say is that Ryanair (as with Easyjet) are fine for a couple of hours in the air if everything is running smoothly. The problems arise with delays and unforeseen circumstances.

I was reminded of that when I heard that Ryanair was having a pop at Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) for passengers missing early flights from the Irish capital due to delays at security.

• Ryanair passengers reported delays of over 30 minutes to clear passenger security which contradicts the DAA’s recent claims that it takes a maximum of 15 minutes.
  Ryanair’s Stephen McNamara said:
  “The DAA’s spokesperson, Siobhan Moore, claimed during radio interviews last month that it takes ‘a maximum of 15 minutes’ to clear security at Dublin Airport and denied claims that passengers were missing flights as a result of security queues. On Saturday, passengers had to suffer long (30 minute) security delays and over 50 Ryanair passengers missed flights as a result.

The problem with this is that Ryanair - now it has decided to dispense with check-in desks - encourages passengers to arrive 45 minutes before the flight rather than the previous suggestion of 2 hours. All well and good but Ryanair is expecting it to work smoothly at all times and patently there will be times when this will not occur. Having a go at the DAA for trying to fleece customers with over-priced drinks and food is pots-and-kettles at its finest (sachet of vodka at inflated euro exchange rate, anyone?)

On my return from Krakow last month, I got a taxi to the airport and was in situ some 130 minutes before take-off. Unfortunately - it being pre-9am- there were few security desks operating but many flights due out. This resulted in an unpleasant experience as we all snaked around like reluctant Corkscrew riders at Alton Towers. Belts off, shoes off, pissed off. I still managed to get my miniatures and water through (5 times in the last 8 flights) so the ant-terrorism measures are plainly working!

So, even arriving before the magical 2 hour figure we only just made the gate. Fortuitously for those following on (and perhaps following Ryanair recommendations) the flight was held back and they ambled aboard. The same does not appear to have happened at Dublin.

Whilst O'Leary may be justified in criticising the DAA, in making this part of his ongoing battle with authorities, he offers no practical solutions. People who have tried to obatin refunds from the no frills operators will testify as to how frustating this can be.

Won't Somebody Think Of The Children

Coming soon to ITV3, the heart-rending story of two soul mates and their love-hate relationship as it careers out of control. Can't live together; can't live without each other. In an amazing missive to disciples, Nicholas Griffin takes the esteemed Associated newspapers publication, The Daily Mail to task:

• In a shocking hate-filled rant, journalist Harry Phibbs (pictured right) wrote the following:

  "Certainly the current housing allocation system has promoted resentment. Decent people have held their noses and voted for the BNP. Perhaps they are not aware when the BNP canvassers appear on the doorstep wearing suits that they are masquerading as a political party but are in reality a bunch of neo-Nazi thugs."

  We can quite safely summarise from this rubbish that Harry Phibbs has never encountered BNP activists, especially the large number of BNP Second World War veterans that actually fought against the Nazis.

• Later in the same article Phibbs is at it again, stating the following: "The rival socialist parties - Labour and the National Socialists of the BNP - can argue about housing allocations. What is really needed is an alternative to life in the ghetto, for all council tenants black and white."

  So, according to the fantasist Phibbs, the BNP is a "bunch of neo-Nazi thugs" and "National Socialists" - how low can these worthless media vermin descend? There is not a shred of evidence that the BNP is a movement comprised of 'Nazis' - we are ordinary, disgruntled British patriots who are sick and tired of watching our country being dragged into a 'multicultural', bankrupt third-world mess.

This would be the shreds which have been widely reported in the media and on this ego-trip blog: the SS avatars, the meetings with KKK leaders, the Nazi salutes and the hesitant answers to questions about 'voluntary' repatriation.

Herr Griffin urges his Sturmabteilung to report the matter to the PCC. Well, good luck with that one! My main worry is who will get custody of man-child Richard Barnbrook. It's all very well having these symbiotic relationships but you must think of die Kinder.

UPDATE:

Even though the odious BNP secured 2 seats in the Euro Parliament with the accompanying funds, this still hasn't stopped Griffin from asking for more dosh from his gullible followers. This suggests that reports of them stretching themselves during the campaign were quite accurate and they were fortunate to achieve a reprieve through the EU.

Frightened of getting more egg on his face, Griffin pleads:

• We desperately need to support our wonderful Security Team. These extraordinary brave men and women are all volunteers and give their time freely in order to secure the safety of us all. I can tell you personally that if it were not for their dedication, professionalism and bravery, I would not be here today.

  Our Security Team are heroes, it's time
  we invested in their safety

  In today's Political climate the need for fully trained, well equipped Security Staff is vital. Our team desperately needs new radio equipment, Sat Navs, Clothing, and ongoing training. These people risk life and limb for our safety, the very least we can do is to supply them with the necessary equipment to do their job. We complain about this government sending our troops into war zones without the proper equipment, and rightly so. But let us not be accused of doing the same with our lads and lasses, who freely give their time to protect us.
  New radios alone will cost £18,000 so you can see, we have to make a significant commitment to our Security Team but believe me they deserve it. If you witnessed the shocking scenes at our London Press Conference you'll know how much our Security people deserve our support!

More money for hired thugs?