Corbyn is 'hopelessly out of date'

Tony Blair, with his wife and children, own ten houses and twenty seven flats. Their London house in Connaught Square is worth over £8 million.

 

Yesterday he emerged from Connaught Square to do the rounds of the studios and tell us that The Labour Party must "build a new progressive coalition" with the Lib Dems. 

 

He attacked Jeremy Corbyn for advocating policies "which are hopelessly out of date and not suitable for addressing the problems of the 21st Century." He went on to warn us that "Labour's aim is not to trend on Twitter or to have celebrities temporarily fawn over us, our task is to win power".

 

This from the man described by the BBC as “the arch-exponent of celebrity endorsement.”

 

Amongst those who ‘fawned’ over Tony at No 10 when he was PM, were Sting, Sir Elton John, Bono, David Bowie, Bob Geldof, Mick Hucknall. Joan Collins, Dame Judi Dench, Cilla Black, Clive Anderson, Rosie Boycott, Delia Smith, Sir Richard Branson, Melvyn Bragg, Kevin Keegan and not forgetting Phil Redmond, the creator of Brookside. The theatre director Trevor Nunn, the conductor Sir Simon Rattle and the architect Lord Rogers, also sipped and supped with him. The full list is boringly longer.

 

Here is what is out of date. Tony Blair’s personal ‘fortune’ is, according to that left-wing newspaper, The Daily Telegraph an estimated £60 million.

 

This in the context of a country where the richest 1% of own more than twenty times the wealth of the poorest 20%.

 

An Oxfam study concluded that “more than 20 times” is an understatement with The Office for National Statistics emphasising that information on wealth inequality in the UK is "seriously incomplete" and that it’s particularly hard to measure the wealth of the very rich.

 

In the world as a whole the richest 1% have more than twice as much wealth as 6.9 billion people. 

 

While people at the top get influence, opportunities, power and invitations to pontificate in TV studios , people living in poverty miss out on the basics - like a decent education, healthcare, food and jobs. The ‘out of date’ Corbyn has been there to remind us of these facts.

 

On the same day that Blair was cabbing it from Connaught Square to Sky News and on to the BBC, Jeremy Corbyn was visiting flood victims in Rhydyfelin in Pontypridd. Two days earlier he was helping feed the homeless in Slough while the shadow Chancellor, John McDonnell, was at Belmarsh visiting the imprisoned truth-teller, Julian Assange.

 

Fuck knows where Boris Johnson was and I doubt we want to know!

Are we really sure the right person is in No 10 today?

In Defence of Simplicity

 

 1967: Enoch Powell, Tory MP and Minister of Health in the 1960s Macmillan government. At the height of controversy over his ‘rivers of blood’ speech – he was the Farage of his day - he made the mistake of trying to give a speech at Essex University. I was part of the posse who escorted him to his car. Both he and us conducted this exercise in mutually contemptuous silence.

 

1970: George Brown, Labour MP and Foreign Secretary in the Wilson government. At a general election rally in Colchester Town Hall I joined others to heckle Brown about the Vietnam war. Not a man able to contain his anger, he stepped down from the stage and took a swipe at me. The following day the Sun had a photo of his assault on their front page with the headline, “Up and At ‘Em George” Meanwhile I ducked down to avoid his blows and those of National Front thugs who had arrived at the scene.

 

1996: Tony Blair was guest speaker at the Piccadilly Hotel in London for a music awards lunch. I was there as co-founder of the charity War Child. He was introduced to me by his PA, Anji Hunter (who went on to become Director of Communications at BP and then Director of External Affairs for Anglo American Oil). I tried to tell him about the return of fascism to SE Europe. Anji pushed her clipboard into my chest and led the wretched man out of the room.

1997: As director of the about-to-be-opened Pavarotti Music Centre in Mostar, Bosnia Herzegovina,  I was tasked with inviting the town’s two mayors to its opening. (One small town, two mayors, a mini-Berlin!). When I arrived at the office of the Croatian mayor, Ivan Prskalo, his sound system was tuned to the Spice Girls. Things got off to a bad start when he said he felt offended to be invited to an event in his own town by an Englishman. I wanted to say that people didn’t normally bomb their own towns, but kept quiet. In polite chit-chat I mentioned that my former wife was Croatian. The Bosniak mayor, Safet Oručević, then arrived for the meeting and Prskalo turned to him and said cheefully, “David Wilson looks young for his years because he married a Croat", to which I replied, “No it’s because I divorced one.”

1999: Michael Howard, leader of the Tory Party, 2003 – 2005 and Minister in Margaret Thatcher’s government, turned up at the Pavarotti Music Centre. He was introduced to me and I asked him what he was doing. He replied, “Meeting local politicians”. I replied,”Why?”, to which he answered, “Fact-finding dear chap.” I laughed and said, “You know as well as I do that you won’t get any facts from politicians.” He turned to his minder and asked “Can we move on to my next meeting?”

 

2006: Peter Mandelson, Labour MP, close advisor to Tony Blair and the Dominic Cummings of his day, was exiting Westminster Cathedral after Blair had given one of his ‘faith’ lectures. I had been helping organise the Stop the War demonstration outside and we persuaded people to turn up with musical instruments, pots and pans etc to ‘rough musik’ Blair. The historian E. P. Thompson described this as using raucous “music” and street theatre, to mock those “who offended against community norms.” I had cow bells which I rang in his ear as he crossed Victoria Street, while repeating the two words, “You murderer.” He should have left from the back of the building with his boss.

2018: Jeremy Corbyn: As my MP he visited me at Barts Hospital when I was trying to overcome heart / stroke problems following an operation ( I am now OK and stll here thanks to the NHS.). No entourage, no photographers. A simple act of kindness. When he was speaking recently outside the Whittington Hospital he saw me standing in the crowd and raised his right hand over his heart. I nodded a ‘yes’ to his signalled question about my health.

A simple man in the best meaning of that word. Not something that can be said of any of the others. JC4PM

Rough Music and Europe

Rough Musik is one of the many names for an ancient act of popular justice, which occurred across Europe in similar, if not identical forms. Coined in the late 17th century, the phrase is the British equivalent of the French charivari, the Italian scampanate and the German haberfeld-treiben, thierjagen and katzenmusik.   

According to E. P. Thompson, author of The Making of the English Working Class, rough music involved a wide variety of popular rituals in which an embarrassing punishment (we might call it "naming and shaming") was meted out in public to an individual or group of people who had offended the community. British performances of rough music were, at times, quite elaborate. Thompson notes that the ritual "might include the riding of the victim (or a proxy) upon a pole or a donkey; masking and dancing; elaborate recitatives; rough mime or street drama upon a cart or platform; the miming of a ritual hunt; or the parading and burning of effigies; or, indeed, various combinations of all these." But, "beneath all the elaborations of ritual," Thompson writes, "certain basic properties can be found: raucous, ear-shattering noise, unpitying laughter, and the mimicking of obscenities." To generate noise, all kinds of instruments were used: pots and pans, marrow bones and cleavers, tongs, tambourines, chains, ram's horns, empty or stone-filled kettles, whistles, rattles, bells, guns and, of course, the human voice, used to yell, scream, howl, grunt, hiss, boo and chant.
 
EP Thompson was the retiring professor the year I arrived at Warwick University's Department of Social History and, under his influence, I remember taking part in rough musicing outside the residence of the Bishop of Coventry. (Sorry but have forgotten what it was about!) Forty years later, and when Press Officer at the Stop the War Coalition, I helped organise a 'rough musicing' outside Westminster Cathedral while Tony Blair was delivering one if his 'faith' lectures inside. When Peter Mandelson tried to leave and walk along Victoria Street I pursued him, clanging a cow bell to his ear and repeating the two words, 'murderer, murderer'.
I tell you all this for two reasons. As my homage to EPT, a great man whose writings and political actions have influenced my life and to emphasise the European roots of his and my politics. They emerge from charivari. 

 I am also now able to recommend that you read EP Thompson on what we now call an alternative Europe, holding with him to the belief that through struggle 'another Europe is possible.' This is an argument that will need some rough musicing to be heard and perhaps that will be soon when we go to the polls in support of JC4PM. Here is his 'Going into Europe' written more than forty years ago.
“As British capitalism dies above and about us, one can glimpse, as an outside chance, the possibility that we could effect here a peaceful transition – for the first time in the world– to a democratic socialist society.”

some rough music

Haunted by the Ghostly Ghouly

What a day. A blog I wrote at the beginning of yesterday morphed into this one by the end of the day. A bad day and three coffees ended as a good day and three glasses of wine.

I have spent most of my life believing that socialism would never come via a vote in Parliament. I will never forget the start of a march on Westminster against the 1970s anti-union laws and agreeing with the speaker who recommended we don't go there as he didn't believe in disturbing the dead.
And on the Labour Party I took Ralph Milliband's words seriously when he wrote: “Pious references to the Labour Party being a ‘broad church’ which has always incorporated many different strands of thought fail to take account of a crucial fact, namely that the ‘broad church’ of Labour only functioned effectively in the past because one side – the Right and Centre – determined the nature of the services that were to be held, and excluded or threatened with exclusion any clergy too deviant in its dissent.”
But Jeremy Corbyn changed all that for me and I have now joined the Labour Party. I am probably one of the few geriatric members of Momentum. Because of illness, I have been unable to join in party canvassing and have chosen instead to write articles which I hope can serve as ammunition in the struggle. And I have Jeremy to thank for now believing that perhaps radical change can come about with a Left social democratic party.
That process started when Jeremy won the leadership, but it is a struggle in every sense of the word.
On the morning of 4 May I woke and turned on the radio to hear the Right wing MPs, Jess Phillips and Chuka Umanna, demanding an enquiry because the Labour Part had done so badly. I am not supposed to drink coffee, but was now on my third and it was only 8 am.
Why wasn't Jeremy being interviewed or, at least, a shadow minister who would speak truth to this nonsense.
As the day went on it became obvious that Jess of the Ubershrills and Chuka Themoaner were blatantly lying. The BBC's own figures settled on the following.
Labour won 2,323 seats - up 62
Conservatives won 1,330 - down 32
Lib Dems won 536 - up 75
The Greens won 39 - up eight
UKIP won three - down 123
What in heaven's name is their definition of 'badly'.
There is no way the right wing of the Labour Party will tolerate Corbyn and his challenge to the consensual tweedle-dum, tweedle-dee politics of the last decades.
At the heart of this is the neo-liberal agenda of austerity for the many and riches for the few, privatisation and war.
Labour's right wing MPs have and will actively continue to oppose any moves to the Left in their party and seem happy to sabotage a Corbyn leadership which has gathered together ½ million members. As even the 'corporate' media have recognised, any successes from the 3 May local elections have been attributed in no small measure to the dedication of Momentum members.
The ghostly ghouly Blair sits smiling on the shoulders of Tess and Chukaa and the other right wing MPs who are ably backed by their non-recall salaries and their invitations to the front pages of the right-wing media and the comfortable sofas of BBC chat shows.
Elections and their results are important – Jess, Chuka and the BBC understand that well - which is why election results are misinterpreted, but we now need to stress that a socialist Labour Party is not just about elections. We must not return to the days of incumbency in place of insurgency, church politics in place of non-conformist dissent.
The Labour Party needs to return to the mass rallies we saw at the beginning of Corbyn's ascendancy. Be present on picket lines and demonstrations. Stand with and lead popular protests on Grenfell and Windrush. Fight for and with the disabled and the welfare-robbed poor. Defend the NHS from the privateers. Be central to the anti-war movement and alert to those in their own ranks who have taken us to war in the past and likely to do so again - and soon! Support those, often Jewish and Black 'anti-semites' driven out of the Party and shout back at those fabricating 'evidence' against them.
Meanwhile I will keep writing and be on the streets once I have stopped using my stick. Or perhaps I will continue to have it with me just in case!

Report on Chilcot Report is the 'pick'

My report on Chilcot Report is TLE pick of the day 

Protest in the Digital Age

                 Protest in the Digital Age - Huffington Post, 11 June 2016

Jimmy McGovern & Reg Keys

Jimmy McGovern's 'Reg' starts on BBC 1 on Monday 6 June. Reg Keys is the father of 20-year-old Lance Corporal Thomas Keys, one of six Royal Military policemen killed in Iraq in June 2003. Reg directed his anger at Tony Blair, “because he took us to war on a lie” and his defiant gesture and quiet moral authority make for a moving story about injustice and a world of pain behind every casualty of war. Jimmy has said, “It was an honour to meet Reg Keys, a truly remarkable man, and it has been a privilege to tell this part of his story.” Introduced to Reg by Felicity Arbuthnot, we persuaded Reg to stand against Tony Blair in the 2005 general election. Brian Eno then put up money for Reg's campaign and helped me organise the first press conference in his studio. You can read about all this in 'Left Field'. I too am proud to have known this remarkable man and to have played a small part in helping him against Blair. After the death of his son, followed by that of his wife Sally who died in 2011 'of a broken heart', I wish him every happiness in his future life with Jenny. 

Dictation from the Establishment

The Guardian's Michael White says, “... I know that Westminster-based pundits are supposed to be an unimaginative bunch of sheep who take dictation from the 'establishment' ”. Where did he get that idea from? Perhaps it's the memory of his support for Tony Blair and the Iraq slaughter. “It's disappointing for the pack that always gathers where Blair goes, not least because the Get Blair crowd are looking for something that isn't there – the smoking gun that proves Blair's villainy.” Working from an office 'embedded' inside the Westminster parliament, White finds his targets amongst the “romantic beardies who wear sandals and socks to the office.” Who can he be referring to? Pity he couldn't have been at UNITE'S offices last night where I went to help the Jeremy Corbyn campaign. Three rooms packed with volunteers on the phones. At age 70 and beardless, I was probably the oldest there, surrounded by young people, many of whom have never been involved in political activity and hopefully have never read Michael White. None of them were wearing sandals.(I visited MW's Westminster office when working with David Hencke on my WarChild memories. You can read more about David in 'Left Field')

Jeremy4leader

Just after MPs pocketed a 10% pay rise they voted for yet more social security cuts. The only Labour Party leadership candidate to oppose the cuts is Jeremy Corbyn. Unsurprisingly he is now ahead in the polls and likely to increase his lead after these comments. From Tony Blair, “I wouldn't want to win on an old-fashioned leftist platform … If your heart is with Corbyn get a transplant” From Blair's former adviser, John McTernan, “These figures are disastrous for the Labour party, disastrous. Corbyn supporters are “suicidally inclined … They need their heads felt … They are morons.” Today I am going to join the suicidal and the morons. As someone who has always argued that participation in the parliamentary road is tantamount to disturbing the dead, this is a big decision for me. But Jeremy is my local MP and has always stood against neo-liberalism, against war, Trident and for Palestine. Anyone can vote in the Labour Party leadership election, which is now run on the basis of one-person-one vote and is open to a new category of Labour supporter. Registration as a supporter costs just £3. Join me. Then read more about what I think about disturbing the dead in 'Left Field'.

Military Families Against War

Ten years ago, at the time of the 2005 election, and two years after Iraq had been invaded, Brian Eno told me he would put up money for an anti-war candidate to stand against Tony Blair in his Sedgefield constituency. Reg Keys was the father of Lance Corporal Tom Keys, one of six military policemen killed at Majar al-Kabir in Iraq. Tom and his fellow soldiers had been sent to a police station where they were ambushed. They had no radios and had been issued with limited ammunition. In Reg’s words, ‘They were let down in life by the men who sent them to their deaths and they have been let down in death by the people who continually deny responsibility.’ As one of many parents of unnecessarily killed soldiers, Reg was campaigning against the Ministry of Defence and was supported by Military Families Against the War. He had been planning to stand against the Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, in Blackburn. I had worked with the journalist, Felicity Arbuthnot, when making a film for ITN on attitudes of Iraqis in the UK to a possible attack on their country. She said we should contact Reg and, through her, I did so. He agreed to switch his candidacy to Sedgefield and I organised his first press conference at Brian’s studio. I got to know Reg, a lovely man, and soon after became a friend of ex-SAS trooper, Ben Griffin, of Veterans for Peace. (VfP) You can read more about the Sedgefield story and about Ben in 'Left Field'. And watch Reg's brilliant put-down of an edgy-looking Tony Blair at the election count. Thanks to Reg and Ben my memoir (to be published in Feb/March 2016) is now linked to VfP and if the book goes into profit, they will get my support. They will get my support even if it doesn't.