Conservative Transport Minister Chris Grayling has unveiled plans for a fully privatised railway line, with track and trains operated by the same company. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/dec/06/new-fully-privatised-rail-line-chris-grayling-plans-oxford-cambridge
Network
Rail is a government owned company responsible for maintaining and
repairing our rail lines, it was set up after private company Railtrack
ballsed it up when they had the contract to do it. Now the UK
government is going to privatise it again. The Government
hopes this shift of control will incentivise train companies to carry
out repairs more quickly and possibly bring in cheaper fares.
The reason for setting up Network rail in the first place was private companies failed to look after tracks, and were more interested in boosting their profit than training or safety. This led to fatal crashes :- Southall (1997) 7 people dead, Ladbroke Grove (1999) 31 people dead,
Hatfield (2000) 4 people dead, Potters Bar (2002) 7 people dead. Chris Grayling has obviously forgotten all the lives lost when our railway maintenance was last left to a profit-making company. When will they ever learn!! Grayling
absolutely does not give a fraction of a shit. He's left the prison
service in utter chaos with vast private unbreakable contracts
everywhere,and he'll do it here too.
The private companies running the trains are behind
on the maintenance of the trains and carriages (who remembers all that
footage of how crowded the carriages are these days from earlier this
year?), so they will neglect the tracks too! So long as they seek a
profit there will be less incentive to repair (not more) and nothing
will be done until they are at breaking point. The idea it will reduce
ticket prices is insane; ticket prices have risen at a much steeper rate
under privatisation and have actually very recently had yet another
rise (with no improvement in service.)
We should not forget though that it is the Tory mindset to sell off the family silver to the highest bidder , the
rail , Royal Mail , British aerospace , cable n wireless , Britoil ,
British gas , British steel , British airways , Rolls Royce , water and
electricity went the same way . Thatcher
sold off council housing stock under the right to buy , most are now
owned by private landlords who charge 3-4 times the rent of council
rents . Profits were supposed to be ploughed back into building social
housing but this never happened and guess what , we have a massive
housing shortage, asset stripping of the NHS the list is endless. Some of the train operating companies are now foreign
owned , profits help subsidise their own countries rail fares whilst
Joe Public pays the most expensive train fares (by a long way) in
Europe . I
for one am not convinced by privatisation of assets.No public service, and railways are a very important public service
should ever be in private hands. Decades of evidence show that applying
business principles to public services simply doesn't work. It increases
prices, decreases choice and drastically lowers quality of service.
All
the railways need to be nationalised, it should be kept in the hands of the people.For safety's sake, Stop the break-up and privatisation of Network Rail! Please sign the following petition :-
More good news following hearing yesterday that the Dakota pipe line had been stopped. Security company and long time boycott, divestment, sanctions (BDS target G4S has sold, but not all, of its business with Israel, where it was extensively involved in Israel's notorious prisons and provided services to Israel's checkpoints, settlements, and apartheid wall, among others. in Israel within the next two years, but has denied that it is because of a years-long boycott campaign.
G4S
made the announcement when it released its end-of-year results last
Wednesday, saying that it is selling its interests in Israel as part of a
wider assets sale to increase profits. It also said that it
would suspend some other controversial projects, such as US
youth-justice centres, in a bid to boost profits after shares fell 12
percent in part due to growing costs of providing contract housing for
destitute asylum seekers.
This tremendous news comes after years of BDS campaigning worldwide targeting
G4S at every level, causing the company which reportedlyemploys 8,000 people in Israel with a turnover of $143mn, enormous reputational damage
and costing it many millions in lost contracts.
Mahmoud Nawajaa, a
spokesman for the Palestinian BDS National Committee, said that BDS had
undoubtedly pressed G4S into closing shop in Israel. “As at the
height of the international boycott of apartheid South Africa, BDS
pressure is making some of the world’s biggest corporations realise that
profiting from Israeli apartheid and colonialism is bad for business,”
he said.
“Investment fund managers are increasingly recognising
that their fiduciary responsibility obliges them to divest from Israeli
banks and companies that are implicated in Israel’s serious human rights
violations such as G4S and HP because of the high risk entailed. We are starting to see a domino effect."
The campaign has resulted in G4S losing clients including private businesses, universities, trade unions, and UN bodies, with the Bill Gates Foundation divesting a stake worth $170m from the company following protests. The domination of G4S’ annual general meetings over several years by
protests against the company’s involvement in Israeli prisons was
undoubtedly a contributing factor in the company’s announcement.
Representatives of Palestinian civil society launched BDS in 2005,
calling upon “international civil society organizations and people of
conscience all over the world to impose broad boycotts and implement
divestment initiatives against Israel similar to those applied to South
African in the apartheid era,including embargoes and sanctions
against Israel.
As we celebrate we must still keep targetting G4S because despite the the sale of its subsidiary, G4S will still remain directly complicit
in Israel's violations of Palestinian rights through Policity, the
flagship national police training centre it co-owns, and the
settlement-profiteer Shikun & Binui group.
given its ongoing role in Israeli police training and settlement
construction in Palestine; guarding the Dakota Access pipeline
construction; aiding ICE and Homeland Security with immigrant
deportations; running youth detention facilities and providing prison
technology as part of the U.S. prison industrial complex; and other
repression worldwide, as outlined on the intersectional g4sfacts.org website released by the US Campaign and partners earlier this year
It is validation though that BDS does actually work.It follows other successes.Veolia, a French corporation, came under the spotlight because of
their involvement in the development of a tram system connecting West
Jerusalem to Israel’s illegal settlements in occupied East Jerusalem.
This was met by a seven year campaign to persuade public bodies not
to renew their transport or waste management contracts which,
cost Veolia more than $20 billion. In September 2015, Veolia sold off
all of its businesses in Israel.
Even an Israeli company, Sodastream, moved its factory out of one of
Israel’s most notorious illegal settlements, after an advertisement for
their product featuring the actor Scarlett Johansson led Oxfam to part
company with her as their ‘ambassador’.Other companies based in settlements live in fear of publicity. One
company promised a human rights organisation to move their factory in
order to avoid being mentioned in a report on companies operating in
illegal settlements.
Well done to
to activists around the globe who have been a part of the BDS
campaign illustrating the tremendous ability of grassroots organizing to
make an impact on multinational corporations, sending out the strong message that profiting from apartheid is not so
profitable after all. We must continue to hold G4S and other corporations accountable for their ongoing abuses.
Maybe occupation profiteer Hewlett -Packard could be the next win if we continue to keep the pressure up. .And if Israel wants the ongoing BDS Campaign to end,it must stop its occupation of Palestinian land and end its human rights abuses in compliance with international law and recognize the fundamental rights of the
Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality; and
respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees
to return to their land as stipulated in UN resolution 194.
The US Army Corps of Engineers have announced today they will no longer
allow the Dakota Access Pipeline to cross under lake Oshe near the Standing
Rock reservation in North Dakota, marking a huge victory for Native
Americans and protesters who had long opposed the construction.
They say they are going to reroute it. The pipeline was intended to pass through North Dakota's Lake Oahe,
which is a burial site sacred to the Standing Rock Sioux. The tribe
voiced concerns the pipeline would threaten the community’s drinking
water and would also damage sites of sacred significance and threaten water sources and cultural sites.
Military
veterans joined activists, who call themselves water protectors, at
Standing Rock this week, with more than 3,500 pledging to join the
demonstration.In a statement, Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Chairman Dave Archambault II
said the tribe welcomed the decision, but he also sounded a note of
caution saying he hoped the incoming Donald Trump administration would
"respect this decision and understand the complex process that led us to
this point." Archambault II went on :"When it comes to infrastructure development in Indian Country and with
respect to treaty lands, we must strive to work together to reach
decisions that reflect the multifaceted considerations of tribes.
Treaties are paramount law and must be respected, and we welcome
dialogue on how to continue to honor that moving forward. We are not
opposed to energy independence, economic development, or national
security concerns but we must ensure that these decisions are made with
the considerations of our Indigenous peoples."
I am glad that the water protectors were
able to divert the path of the pipeline. I feel saddened though that it took
so long after months of violence and brutality by the state to get a basic easement off land that the oil companies
had no legal right to be on in the first place. Some 26 activists were injured in a November 20 confrontation when
police fired water cannon in below-freezing temperatures. Rubber bullets
and tear gas were also reportedly used against the water protectors on
site.Around 564 people were arrested during the protests, according to the Morton County Sheriff's Department for simply trying to peacefully defend this sacred land from pillage.
I hope they stay
true to their word.The people I fear will have to remain ever vigilant until all traces of the pipeline are removed. The World is still watching.Some good news for the time being, a huge victory for the thousands of demonstrators across the country who flocked to North Dakota in protest, standing firm against corporations willful destruction of our planet, and for the many concerned individuals across the world who have been in solidarity trying to raise awareness about this ongoing fight. People before profit.
Not sure, how, that in the years I've been writing this blog, I have not touched on the work of the late Frank Vincent Zappa, I have been an admirer of his work for a while, having numerous records, dvds by him. Anyway on this day in 1993 this musician and iconclast, who rode to fame in the late 1960s as leader of
the eccentric Mothers of Invention and kept on breaking the musical
rules, died in Los Angeles, CA of prostate cancer aged 53.
In his 33-year
musical career, Zappa proved to be one of the most prolific
musician-composers of his era, releasing over 60 albums during his
lifetime, almost all of which consisted of original compositions.His
work was a frothy stew of '50s doo-wop, rhythm 'n' blues,straight edged rock serious
experimental jazz,free-form improvisation, sound experiments, musical virtuosity, and avant-garde classical strains, often heaped high
with perverse, often scatological, lyrics.In albums with such
far-out titles as "Freak Out," "Lumpy Gravy," "Burnt Weeny Sandwich" and
"Weasels Ripped My Flesh," and "Sheik Yerbouti," Over the years, Zappa, whose albums were never
huge sellers, sustained a cult following and was admired by legions of fans worldwide that ensured the marketability
of a seemingly endless stream of eclectic recordings.Best remembered for the mark he made on the experimental rock
counter-culture of the late 1960s, his influence extended into the
worlds of jazz, classical and electronic music, and his love of
experimentation was present in all of them.
His anarchic demeanor, and
occasionally juvenile antics, accusations of misogyny were counterbalanced by an increasingly
strong sense of social commitment, an individual who shirked rampant commercialism and embraced nonconformity.In addition to being one of the most prolific and versatile composers of
the rock idiom of his time,an incredible artist who produced an insane body of work Zappa he was also an astute and outspoken social and
political commentator., a acerbic, prolific agent provocateur beyond categorisation. His music dealing with weighty subjects commenting on societal norms, politics and religion that still resonate in todays social and political climate.
An atheist, who grew up in a religious Catholic
household. He said that by the time he was 18, he had “escaped the
bondage of being a devout believer.” But the rebellion against religion started long before that. He said,"[My parents] tried to make me go to Catholic school, too.
I lasted a very short time. When the penguin came after me with a
ruler, I was out of there."He certainly did not have kind words to say about religion, especially the
Abrahamic traditions. Just look at some of his song titles: “The Meek Shall
Inherit Nothing,” “Jesus Thinks You’re a Jerk,” “Heavenly Bank Account,”
“Dumb All Over.” Zappa’s disgust of religion was rooted in the belief that religion is
anti-intellectual, that it promotes ignorance. He said about the story
of Adam and Eve,
"What was it that Adam ate that he wasn’t supposed to eat?
. . . it was the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
The subtle message? “Get smart and I’ll fuck you over–sayeth the Lord.”
God is the Smartest–and he doesn’t want any competition."
He was especially critical of religious leaders who he viewed as
hypocritical, preaching one thing and practicing another, those who
became wealthy off the donations of their followers, and those who use
religion to influence political change.Zappa described himself as a Practical Conservative, meaning he
wanted small government and lower taxes. He said he understood that
there were certain large services that only the federal government could
provide, like national defense and large infrastructure projects, but
that these services should be administered with the most efficiency and
at the lowest price possible. He advocated for elimination of income taxes and a greatly reduced role for the federal government.
He was especially critical of the Reagan administration for, among
other things, what he saw as its pandering to the Christian right. he was a libertarian in many ways.Zappa was skeptical of authority and indoctrination, and was critical of the mainstream media.He was also fierce defender of free speech and waged a public battle
against the Parents Music Resource Center and its proposed ratings
system, he testified before a congressional committee in 1985, voicing his
opposition to legislation that would require labeling of music to warn
parents of explicit content. In his prepared statement, about how such
regulations are a threat to the First Amendment, Zappa said, " The establishment of a rating system, voluntary or
otherwise, opens the door to an endless parade of Moral Quality Control
Programs based on “Things Certain Christians Don’t Like.” What if the
next bunch of Washington Wives demands a large yellow “J” on all
material written or performed by Jews, in order to save helpless
children from exposure to concealed Zionist doctrine?"
Zappa clearly wanted government out of all business except that which
only government can provide, and he was willing to attack both political
parties when he thought the freedoms guaranteed by the Bill of Rights
were threatened. But his faith in the political machine wasn’t exactly
resolute. As Zappa put it,"Government is the Entertainment division of the military-industrial complex"
In 1986, Frank Zappa engaged in a fiery debate about dirty lyrics and
censorship based on religious morality in this classic clip from CNN’s
“Crossfire.”Debating with John Lofton, conservative columnist for the Washington Times, Zappa noted that:The biggest threat to America today is not communism.
It’s moving America toward a fascist theocracy. Everything that’s
happened under the Reagan Administration is steering us right down that
pipe.
Asked later in the interview to give “one example of a fascist theocracy” by co-host Tom Braden, Zappa replied: When you have a government that prefers a certain moral
code derived from a certain religion, and that moral code turns into
legislation to suit one certain religious point of view, and if that
code happens to be very very right wing, almost toward Attila the Hun…
Lofton responded: “Well then you are an anarchist.
Every form of civil government is based on some kind of morality Frank,”
but Zappa set him straight, curtly remarking: “Morality in terms of behavior, not in terms of theology! You can watch the exchange, below,
Zappa defines Fascist theocracy
For more of this stuff, I recommend checking out Thorsten Shutte’s new documentary, Eat that Question: Frank Zappa in his own words, an intimate encounter
with the iconoclastic composer and musician with rare archival footage
revealing a provocative 20th-century musical genius and fierce public intellectual whose worldview resonates into the present day and beyond.Frank Zappa’s diverse work throughout his career as a musician and activist all combine to form an
image of Zappa as a confirmed iconoclast who used his talents as composer, guitarist, entertainer, band leader, and
social commentator to skew the status quo, illuminate hypocrisy, and
slaughter sacred cows. The legacy of Frank Zappa will long
be remembered.However for a nonconformist composer, so vehemently opposed to commercialization, it is kind of ironic though that Zappa’s image
is now preserved in brand-name aspic by the strenuously protective
Zappa Family Trust.
Eat that Question: Frank Zappa in his own words, Official trailer 2016
The rag known as the Daily Mail's hypocrisy continues to hold no bounds. On
the same day that it tried to stoke up
anti-immigrant and anti-refugee feeling on its front page, alongside it ran a tribute to 86-year-old actor Andrew Sachs, who has sadly died in a care home last week,after having battled with dementia for the past four years alongside the image of
his best known character; Manuel, an European migrant hotel worker who is subjected to daily verbal and physical
abuse, whose accent and level of English is perpetually mocked, and who
is restricted to the low-paid service sector? Of course the Mail is paying tribute.
You could call it ironic or just bloody plain insensitive because Andrew was born in Berlin,
Germany, and as a Jew had to flee the country to escape the Nazis - the
same Nazis that the Daily Mail at the time enthusiastically supported.Let’s not forget remember that the Mail opposed Jewish refugees coming to Britain in the 1930s. It was ‘an outrage’ they said.
Although the rag does acknowledge Sachs’ relatives background in an
obituary to the actor on web page ten, the entrance web page goes a
incredibly lengthy way to illustrate the way that this tawdry rag has run a program of dehumanising migrants of any kind as much as possible, stoking up fear about migrants to Britain from Europe and then havinge the gall to pay tribute to Andrew Sachs, a migrant from Europe.
While this odious little paper
continues to spew poisonous bile into the atmosphere, I do think it needs to be
publicly vilified and refuted at every opportunity.Let's think about the people of today who are forced to flee oppressive régimes and let's not be like the Daily Mail.
My deepest condolences to Andrew Sachs and his family.
"The Indians knew that life was equated with the earth and its
resources, that America was a paradise, and they could not comprehend
why the intruders from the East were determined to destroy all that was
Indian as well as America itself." - Dee Brown, author of Bury My
Heart at Wounded Knee; April 1970.
On the heels of increasingly severe human rights violations against the water protectors of Standing Rock, the Army Corps of Engineers released a statement that on Dec. 5 that they plan to shut down the Oceti Sakowin camp
— the primary camp where water protectors and allies have been
resisting the completion of the Dakota Access Pipeline for months now.
Gov. Jack Dalrymple of North Dakota has stood in agreement with the plan by ordering the water protectors to evacuate the camp.The water protectors have been standing strong in the face of police assaultswith
rubber bulets, concussion grenades, tear gas, and water cannons in
freezing temperatures, and the risks are threatening to become worse. As a result, the camp has issued an emergency call for others to stand in solidarity on Dec 4.
Defend The Sacred ( A Poem for Standing Rock.)
Water if life, oil is poison
one is a creator, one is a destroyer,
under angry sky proud people stand defending ancestral burial ground, in a battle for survival treated so shamefully pleading for sanity in a state of distress, daily faced with disrespect and intimidation rubber bullets, intruders threatening, invaders returning, stealing and encroaching in a thirst for profit, means of fairness hidden.
Let us pray for all the tribes of
Standing Rock deprived of joy and laughter, a means of survival, grant safe keeping, peace, love
and many blessings
respect the water protectors for courage and brave
heart,
release them from oppression, free from corruption
offer peace, love
and many blessings, worldwide unity as they battle to save our planet
people before needless, senseless profit,
souls drenched, not from water, but tears
grant power to the people, united so strong.
Those at Standing Rock remain steadfast and free
peacefully trying to erase enormous pain,
armed with the truth, waiting for justice to call
sorrow and sadness to dissipate, healing to return,
to escape the bonds, flee the enemy
to be at one with mother earth,
indigenous resistance we must celebrate
honor and protect their sacred fight,
let our warmth melt their fears
allow their magic to forever flow.
Look ahead,beyond the chaos
our only hope is the children,.
make them see, make them care
show them a brighter vision,
where people no longer bludgeon each other
for a slice of bread or less.
Destroy apathy that does not give a toss
just keeps the status quo running at
huge human cost,
a case of hope deferred, energy lost
when we should be keeping spirits high
by fighting for a nobler cause.
Try not to become defeated or foiled
reach out for freedom, peace,equality
keep looking for another way of possibility
or be doomed forever as prisoners of time.
Teach the children to listen
offer them the gift of understanding,
if fear is the only way
frighten them into caring.
When this task is undertaken
beyond the walls of illusion,
we can all become one
society re-moulded, re-cast,
for future generations to come.
We should not be laughing as it is announced that Paul Nuttall is now the new UKIP leader.Even though I have posted a rather silly picture of him. His views alone are pretty worrying, he is a sexist,
racist, climate denier, who thinks immigrants are taking all our jobs, he wants to abolish the NHS, and come down hard on abortion, he has also called for a referendum for bringing back the death penalty and a repeal of the hunting ban, Nuttall is a leading advocate for banning the burqa,"The law should be clear - either you are allowed to express your
religious beliefs at all times, or you accept that there are some
occasions where these are restricted," he said last year."Face coverings should be banned in any public building. while Nuttall is in favour of removing the right of Muslims to wear
what they please, he does not believe there should have been any
restrictions on the right of Christians to express religious
discrimination.In 2011, Peter and Hazelmary Bull were found to have acted unlawfully
in refusing to allow a gay couple to stay in their hotel. Nuttall was
not impressed with the ruling." This week has been a good week for the PC brigade," he wrote on his blog.
In the same post Nuttall went on to defend football pundits Andy Gray and
Richard Keys after they were sacked for making sexist comments. In 2015, he faced criticism after joking that “perhaps we should throw (Scottish First Minister Nicola) in front of a hunt horse." in order to commemorate the day of celebration for the life of
Suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst. For this he was branded as misogynistic
and insensitive.In some respects he is an even more hard line right-winger than Nigel Farage.
The 39 year old new leader has been MEP for North West England since 2009 and has served as Ukip's chairman and deputy leader.He had previously stood for the Tories in 2002, and failed:Don't see him as some sort of comedic figure though,it's easy to make fun, but this doesn't seem to work, after all isn't that what they did with Donald Trump? While
some of you are probably guffawing at him, I
think his acceptance speech alone will ring alarm. We are witnessing a new dangerous strain of empowered Far-Right thinking
politics, flourishing at the moment, Paul Nuttal is one of many, appealing in pro Brexit times to
beleaguered, alienated working-class people. Mr Nuttall, who was born in Bootle, Mersyside, with working class roots, a former history lecturer who played football for Tranmere Rovers as a boy, has claimed that he is well placed to snatch working class voters from Labour to further his vision of making UKIP, the "voice of patriotic Britain." He has made clear his sights are on poaching votes from Labour, arguing
that the party under Jeremy Corbyn was more interested in "dinner party"
topics like climate change and fair trade than the interests of their
working class voters, such as immigration and social mobility. "Ukip's future is bright but for it to be so, Ukip must unite. Today's result has ensured that it will." The politics of hope, decency and social justice are now under threat, we must forever be on our guard from the likes of Nuttall and his friends in UKIP with their brand of reactionary, divisive politics that threatens the
character and cohesion of our society. There is nothing patriotic in
stoking up hatred and mistrust of our neighbours. UKIP should not be seen as a comedy party on the slide, they still pose a serious threat. You have been warned.
Theresa May yesterday announced in the Sunday Times that her faith in God, gives her confidence, she is doing the right thing, saying her moral sense of right and wrong is helping her work out what is best for Britain claiming “There is something in terms of faith, I am a practising
member of the Church of England and so forth, that lies behind what I
do.”
The daughter of a vicar went on: “If you know you are doing the right
thing, you have the confidence, the energy to go and deliver that right
message.”But she confessed “in this job you don’t get much time to sleep” and admitted that she was “very conscious” of the enormity of Brexit saying ‘it’s a moment of change” and “a hugely challenging time.” Isn't this the sort of clap-trap Tony Blair used to say, offering pontifications about his so called divine right. Whilst God was engaged, kept busy did he/she also tell her it's OK to drop nuclear bombs on people too, whilst she carries on staunchly defending selling arms to human rights abusers.From what I remember, from studying scripture did not Christ help feed those that were oppressed, homeless and starving, taught us to love thy neighbour? So not sure whose been guiding her, because even though i'm a bit of a skeptic not sure if this friend of hers would have told told her to keep continuing with
austerity, homelessness and foodbanks, and screwing the sick and disabled on a daily basis? Or that
successive Tory MP's should carry on with the same objective.It could just be a case of simple delusion, or the sayings of just another Tory hypocrite, who I remember previously saying " We, the Conservatives will put ourselves at the service of normal working people. We will strive to make Britain a country that works for everyone, regardless of who they are and where they're from."
As dreams fade and lights dim
sinews of imagination
split and cut the sky;
on every waking morning
allows love to hear the fire of breath,
absorbing waking moments
a man in fedora hat carries on singing,
unchanged in memory,grants assistance
reflection echoed across eternal oceans,
offers tangible thread of reassurance
on the road to somewhere else,
still able to purify heart
enabling light to cast its shadow,
as we all hang on as best as possible
salvaging what we can, delicately balancing,
keeping on loving while we are still able.
