Letter to Jeremy Corbyn from Ken Loach, Brian Eno & others

To Jeremy Corbyn MP – leader of the Labour Party

As artists and writers, we would like to thank you for raising political awareness in our country to a level not seen since the end of World War II. Your humanity, courage and insight have mobilised a new generation of socialist activists.

Much of our work reflects the world we live in and, as leader of the Labour Party, you have inspired and energised us for the future.

The media has been atrocious in the recent election and, in the face of provocation, we congratulate you for keeping your dignity and clarity.

You will never be forgotten.

Sincerely

Ken Loach - film director

Brian Eno - musician/producer

Grime 4 Corbyn

Nigel Kennedy - musician

Ken Livingstone - writer and ex-Mayor of London

Alexei Sayle - writer and comedian

A L Kennedy - writer

Michael Rosen - writer/poet

Francesca Martinez - comedian

Peter Kennard - artist

Matthew Collings - painter and art critic

Victoria Brittain - writer

Louise Christian - writer/ human rights lawyer

Habib Ahmadi - writer

Jacky Alty - glass artist

Sue Angus - artist

Tessa Angus - photographer/musician

Anthony Anaxagorou - poet

Anne Aylor - writer

Frank Barat - writer

Gerry Barnett - musician

Greta Berlin - sculptor

Heather Bird - musician

Cecily Bomberg - writer

Richard Bradbury - writer

Jezz Brown - writer

Carol Browne - writer

Emma Catnip - musician

Klaudija Cermak - writer/artist

Julia Chantrell - artist

Penny Crichton-Seager - artist

Nigel Clark - musician/former ‘Dodgy’

Frank Darnley - sculptor

Neil Devlin - writer

Annie Duarte - theatre director

Valerie Driscoll - artist

Neil Faulkner - archaeologist/writer

Odette Farrell - artist

Andrew Feinstein - writer

Nicola Field - writer

Mary Finnigan - writer

Matt Foot - writer

Owen Gallagher - poet

Donald Gardner - poet

Lindsey German - writer

Ian Graham - writer/computer scientist

Lana Grant - writer

Adrian Green - poet

Kevin Higgins - writer

Kate Hudson - writer

Amanda Hunter - silversmith

Tansy Hoskins - writer

Robert Ilson - poet

Stuart Inman - poet/photographer/writer

Katherine Jameson - painter

Thusitha Jayasundera - actor

Pallo Jordan - writer and Minister in Mandela’s SA government

Judith Kahn - writer/musician

Ronnie Kasrils - writer and Minister in Mandela’s SA government

Penny Kealey - artist

Alice Kilroy - banner maker

Natasha Koczy - musician

Richard Kuper - writer

Simon Leibowitz - photographer/educator

Maxine Linnell - writer

Tom Loffill - painter/musician

Vanessa Lucas-Smith- musician

Lee Mark-Jones - Theatre of the Wild

Anna Mazotta - artist

Kathleen McCreery - writer/playwright/director

Susan Medina - writer

Russell Mills - artist

Nak Modak - actor

Les Monaghan - photographer

Brendan Montague - Editor, The Ecologist

Merilyn Moos - writer

Deicola Neves - musician

Maggie Nicols - musician

Mia Nisbet - fashion designer

Rebecca O’Brien - film producer

Miriam O’Donovan - director Speakeasy Sessions, Skibbereen

Matt Panesh - writer

Hekate Papadaki - writer

Jamie Perera - composer/producer

Billy Radford - artist

John Rees - writer

Selese Roche - poet

Emma Rowell - independent bookshop

Dilshini Sandhu - musician

Sabby Sagall - writer

Tim Sanders - illustrator/cartoonist

David Seeger - ceramics artist

Nabil Shaban - actor

Sarah Shore - illustrator

Angela Tapping - poet

Theresa Tomlinsion - writer

Greg Tree - musician/artist

Andy Turner - musician

Michael Walling - Border Crossings, Artistic Director

Mat Watkinson - voice artist/former DJ

Roy Weard -writer/musician

Samantha Welstead-Wood - illustrator

Richard West - AKA Mr C

Merryn Williams - poet

Ian Wilson - sound designer

John Wilton - Prof. Intern. Relations

David Wilson - writer

Jan Woolf - writer

Haifa Zangana - Iraqi writer

 

As of 5 Jan 2020 the 'artists' letter has been signed by over 4000. These have come directly to me by email, registered on this web page or recorded on multiple entries at Peoples Campaign for Corbyn Facebook. 

 

Is he standing for the leadership? Just a thought.

 

NOTE: Please contact  david@davidwilson.org.uk   f you want further information.

 

 Penny Crichton-Seager

Old Corruption

Postal votes run by company connected to the Tory party

Former Tory MP and Social Security Secretary, Peter Lilley, now Baron Lilley, is a director of IDOX Elections, which, since 2012, has provided electoral services on behalf of UK central and local government, focused upon Electoral Registration and its Postal Vote Management System. IDOX are the largest provider of electoral management systems in the UK. It describes itself as "one of the premier election service providers in the UK, providing outstanding expertise and knowledge across all areas of election management".

 

Is it part of their expertise to provide Laura Kuenssberg with insider information?

If we ever have another election I would recommend to Not use your postal vote unless you are sick or too old to get to your ballot station. Theresa May’s comment to Jeremy Corbyn - “We will never let you become Prime Minister” now chills my bones. As do the words of Roberto Saviano, anti-Mafia lawyer when he said, “Britain is the most corrupt country in the world.”

 

 www.davidwilson.org.uk

La Lutte Continue

Before we continue with our French lesson some economic statistics.

The twenty six richest people on earth have the same net worth as the poorest half of the world’s population, some 3.8 billion people. In the UK the richest 10% hold 44% of all wealth.

This is taking place in a context where Oxfam claims that in recent years 2,200 billionaires worldwide saw their wealth grow by 12% as the poorest half saw its wealth fall by 11%.

You need to have this information to understand why it is that the Tory government are so eager to pull the UK out of the EU. The EU are introducing the Anti-tax Avoidance Directive. This establishes a number of legally binding measures against offshore tax avoidance. The Johnson government is full of tax avoiders. Think Jacob Rees-Mogg and Theresa May’s husband Philip just for starts .

You can find information on all this here, here and here

The Jeremy Corbyn-led Labour Party fought the recent election in an attempt to deal with wealth discrepancies. As he noted, "there has been a growth of billionaires in this country alongside a growth of extreme poverty ."

The election result has left the left-wing despondent and dejected. I argue here that we should pick ourselves up from the floor and with Joe Hill, ‘don’t mourn organise.’   

In French that is ‘ne pleure pas organise.’ 

In France wealth discrepancies run parallel to those in this country. The richest 1% hold 20% of all wealth. France is also home to Bernard Arnault, the richest person in Europe and worth an estimated $107.6 billion. 

And it would seem the French people have had enough. 

For over a week France has been in the grip of strikes and protests. An estimated million plus have been taking to the streets and strikes are affecting rail and road transport, education, health services, education and the oil and other fuel refineries. The main union, the CGT, said there would be no break in strikes over the Christmas period unless the government backs down. 

Back down from what? President Macron wants to raise the pension age which is at present set at 57 and reform social security payments. "We have one of the best pension systems in the world, if not the best," said the General Confederation of Labour, "Yet the president has decided to wipe it out." 

Laurent Brun, head of CGT's railway branch, added, "No Christmas break unless the government comes to its senses. The strike continues until we are assured that the current system is maintained and negotiations are underway to improve it." 

Martine, a council workers who was on a march in Marseilles on 11 December, said, “I’m 59 and I want to be able to retire soon. My job is hard work and I don’t want to be working until I am 65 or longer to get a pension. If you’re forced out before the pension age due to sickness the scheme is rubbish. I will be living in poverty—after 31 years in the job. Macron’s reforms will mean I work longer and collect less. Screw it. People are questioning many things they normally accept. The Yellow Vests made us think about who gains and who loses in life. So now we see clearly, ordinary people are crushed and the rich are richer than ever.” 

Militancy is growing. Last week power company, EDF brought in managers to run the Cordemais power plant in Loire Atlantique to limit the effect of the strike and on Tuesday strikers occupied the control centre of the plant. 

The rage, and the desire for action, is not just about pensions. A headline in newspaper Liberation said, “In Paris, we march against the pension reform project and ‘the system’”. 

Maybe it’s time for our own French Revolution. We are not defeated because we have hardly started. Pick yourselves off the floor and repeat after me ‘La Lute Continue’.

Information from France 24, The Guardian, Liberation, Socialist Worker, World Inequality Database, Oxfam

 

 

media manipulators

The Guardian's extraordinary account of Jeremy Corbyn’s visit to Bristol on 9 December is for me, as the cliché goes, the last straw. Here is a video clip of the reception given to Corbyn and how it was explained in that newspaper.

We are living at a critical moment and the choice on Thursday is stark. Are we going to choose a government that will reverse ten years of austerity or one led by our very own Trump-with-a-worse-haircut?

If we end up with the latter some of us will not just be blaming the ignorant many, but worse than that, the conscious manipulation of truth by the knowledgeable few. 

David Wilson

Last Chance Election

We are now two days away from the election. I know I have said this before but I will say it again. In my seven decades this is the most important general election since my first. That was in 1945 with the election of the Atlee Labour government which saw the setting up of the NHS. 

In that election my only voice was as a wailing baby. My only actions at the other end of my body. For the first time in my life I am actively involved in what has become a vital struggle to return this country to a semblance of civilisation. We are not talking about a social revolution, but the attempt by a Corbyn-led Labour Party to place the UK alongside the social and economic policies of the Scandinavian countries. 

 

This election is not about Brexit. It is not about the idiocy of Boris Johnson. It is quite literally about life and death. I am alive today because the NHS has been there to save me. Please watch this short video and read ’Nail Your Flag to the Mast’. Then join me on Thursday and Vote for a Labour government. It is the ‘last chance’ election. 

 

 

Nail Your Flag to the Mast

 

ENEMY OF THE STATE Boris Johnson warns voters Jeremy Corbyn is a national security risk who will bow down to Britain’s enemies. THE SUN 

BRITONS FURIOUS at Corbyn’s OAP tax attack. “Stick Your Hikes where the Sun Don’t Shine.” DAILY EXPRESS 

JEREMY CORBYN FORCED to deny he wants to get rid of MI5 after Boris Johnson called him a security risk. THE DAILY MAIL 

JEREMY CORBYN IS ASHAMED OF BRITAIN. He’d leave our defences in the hands of a chaotic committee. THE DAILY TELEGRAPH 

 

All four headlines from one day, 2 December 2019. If the billionaire Press have persuaded you to believe and act on these words all our futures will be very bleak. Fortunately we are now able to communicate with each other on social media and scrape away the frost from the corporate media window.  

 

I have met many politicians over my seven decades, but have never empathised with any of them, never joined their parties or knocked on doors for them. Until now. In next week’s election we have a manifesto worth fighting for. 

 

I have personal reasons for this. First of all the experiences of my son when faced with cuts to his disability benefits. See here, here and here and my own health crises and direct experience of the need for our free NHS. See here,  here  and here 

 

If Brexit is the most important issue for you, above and beyond child poverty, foodbanks, the rise in homelessness, zero-hours contracts, low pay and low pensions, social benefit cuts, climate extinction, the NHS, peace not war, anti-racism….add your own list here, then read this 

 

Finally the massive lie that is being used to persuade us that we should not elect a Corbyn-led Labour government. - that he is a racist and anti-semite. If he is then so was Albert Einstein. Read here,  here,  here and  here 

 

Six months ago I wrote that we are on a winning run. Today it seems the bookies agree with me.No more Tweedle Dees and Tweedle Dums. On 12 December the choice is stark and will decide all our futures 

 

None of us struggle alone or without support. Although I blog on my own website,  I have been published by The London Economic, The Peoples News, Stop the War, International Times and regularly by The Peoples Campaign for Corbyn; run defiantly and with a commitment few of us could manage, by banner maker Alice Kilroy.

 

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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