Chester

This was taken at The Boot Inn, Chester. It is situated on The Rows. A larger version can be found here. An unspoilt pub serving Sam Smiths beers including Old Brewer Bitter and Taddy Porter (bottles).

Special Brew

Watched some of The Specials at Glastonbury last night. Brought back some memories. Black and white together. Then I read Simon 'Oucho' Darby's barb on his ridiculous blog and I realised that I feel proud to have several specials albums in my collection.

After having a pop at Lily Allen, the BNP naturalist (thank your lucky stars he's not a naturist) turns his attention via NME to Terry Hall et al:

• The foul-mouthed wretch [Lily Allen]was followed by The Specials:
  
  The multi-racial band took the time to express their anger at the recent election of two British National Party European MPs in England.Before a feverishly-received 'A Message To You Rudy', frontman Terry Hall addressed the crowd, saying: "It's taken us 28 years to get here but things are still the same. Then it was the National Front, now it's the BNP. This next song's called 'F*** The BNP'."

Oucho's blog can be found by googling "simon 2 wardrobes darby"

Racist and Nutter on Flickr

Received a lovely comment on one of my Flickr photos from the charming Cancer Healer (!). He had already been banned for posting anti-Semitic and barking mad hatred on his account. He then posted some of his cretinous pieces on the Liverpool group and was quite rightly booted. Thought I'd check out his new account and noted he had a photo of the US train crash with pathetic, sick joke so I commented to that effect (ever the protagonist) and received this:

• Cancer Healer said (32 minutes ago):
  Hey asshole....you the busy asshole....you the son of bitch,jewish gay....you the capitalist ,imperialist bastard....Do not comment my photos....You deal with your asshole...

So, if you have a Flickr account feel free to leave some messages for him or report him to Flickr.

He also helpfully has some emails on his profile.

Seems some of his other offensive efforts have been removed.

UPDATE: He is again banned on that account. No doubt he will rise again and he's not worth pursuing but it is good to see that Flickr will kick out the haters. I also think he is mentally ill, which has been a positive in art throughout the centuries; unfortunately this guy just used other people's pics to make racist remarks.

Back Home

St Mary's Basillica

You see what I did there? Clever title cleverly linking to the previous clever use of an England goal. Oh yes, The Fish is back and ready to catch up with all our trials. I tried hard to avoid Planet England while away save for reading a photocopied Guardian a couple of times and succumbing to the hotel PC (with Linux dontcha know) once. Glad about that having seen what The Mail and express have been up to. Yet again The Mail has shown itself to be the chief stoker of anti-gypsy hatred whilst distancing itself from anything which its readers see as an inevitable reaction to multi-culturalism. So more later. First a few photos.

Red Hot

Eric The Dragon

Old Town Hall and Cloth Hall

Human statue for Tibet

Tasteful b/w

Cloth Hall interior

Travel agent ad

Cloth Hall

Theatre

Wawel castle at night

Rynek Glowny

Krakow Glowny Rail Station

Dancing Queen

Fire artists

Cycle relay

Johnny Be Good

Tranny's New Manager

The intrepid Fish is off for a few days. Special prize for anyone spotting Lobby Ludd on the webcam @ Webcam 1.

Legion of Dishonour

Well done to the Royal British Legion for publicising its request to Nicholas Griffin of the Odious BNP' not to wear poppies during electioneering. Quite aside from the fact that it is inappropriate for such emblems to be used outside November - think of one blogger who tales pleasure out of putting Happy Xmas (War is over) on pub jukeboxes in July - it is another sign that the extreme right is happy to hijack symbols and campaigns.

In The Guardian, the open letter states,

• The Royal British Legion has accused Nick Griffin, the BNP leader, of trying to ­politicise "one of the nation's most treasured and beloved symbols" after he repeatedly wore a poppy badge during the European parliament election campaign.

I corresponded with the RBL over the constant wearing of medals by local Napoleon, Peter Molloy. The Legion are of the view that such activities are not desirable and that the wearing of medals should be done on 'suitable occasion' and not detract from their dignity. Obviously, it is not illegal to wear them but the public should be aware of the attitude of a body which has represented veterans for many years.

Anyone know whether Griffin's poppy was made in Warsaw or not?

Don't Forget The Diver

Goo Goo Gajoob

It's not clever and it's a waste of eggs but........


Guardian

Eric The (Half) Bee or B but no NP

Seeing the bees in the garden over the last few days has brightened me up. It's been a very bad week; if the BNP wins were not bad enough, we learned of the battle lost by Dave Halligan of poons fame. I had read his musings for many a year and corresponded over our shared hatred of all matters Fascist. It was only recently that I discovered that he hailed from the same town as me. I think we owe it to him to hitch up our collective kecks and carry on.

There are upsides to the BNP results. As many commentators have already pointed out their vote was not the great leap forwards they had predicted; rather, it was a mixture of low turnout and Labour implosion wot won it.

Moreover, they now have the oxygen they crave and as such this should be used to hasten Herr Griffin's Downfall. As any diver will tell you, oxygen can be a killer as well as a life preserver.

We need to question, question and question at every available avenue and analyse their work in Brussels.

In a recent interviews the MEPs have been somewhat evasive over who they will represent. Griffin told Iain dale that he didn't expect any non-indigenous citizens to want his help but in the same breath said he would represent everyone. Would it be wishful thinking to hope that every Asian, every Muslim, every Traveller and every black footballer in the North west could bombard his office with lengthy pleas for assistance on complicated EU matters, and that his Inhuman Resources Department is swamped with applications from Messrs Patel, Hussein and Ferdinand for jobs. The race discrimination laws that Griffin does not mind flouting 'inadvertently' may be a welcome tax on these purveyors of hate.

The fight continues

Make no mistake. We carry on.

Obama in Thueringen

President Obama visited Buchenwald death camp as seen by the first photo. The other picture is one taken by Jesschen when I visited with her family a few years back. As we await the results of the Euro elections, it remains important that we NEVER FORGET.

No Moore

It's turning into a bad week all round as Ronnie Moore has been sacked by Tranmere after losing out in the play-offs (in the 88th minute) to the eventual final winners Scunthorpe

Ronnie was a player when I first started going to Prenton Park and has served us well on limited funds. Indeed, Anthony Kay - arguably our best player last season - has left for a team below us. Is this the shape of things to come now that Uberlord Johnson is taking a more hands on approach as Chairman?

The statement issued refers to falling attendances. Let's see what masterplan Johnson has for increasing them. I'm sure teams across Europe are now quaking at the thought of losing their coaches now there is a vacancy here.

Eric Salutes Eric

North-West Tonight did the anti-Fascist cause no good with its two lead stories about an alleged fake college in Manchester and the court case involving Ishaq Kanmi. However it did have an interview with one Eric Goldrein. His story can be found here.

I have had a couple of interesting meetings with the man himself - my one and only first class train journey and tea and cakes served at his house (served by his High Court Judge wife complete with pinny!).

His wife escaped to Britain as part of the kindertransport and Eric had an eventful war.

Read the tribute at D-Day Revisited and remember why you voted against the BNP scum. If they do win a seat, make no bones about it, the fight will continue.

The Lakes