Abdelbaset Ali Al-Megrahi Update

Abdelbaset Ali Al-Megrahi has published his defence case for the appeal that never was, online.

It can be accessed by clicking HERE.

Previous story HERE.

Nick Clegg, Leader of the Lib Dems Speech

Nick Clegg spoke to this year's Liberal Democrat Conference today, read it HERE.

This pep talk to Lib Dem delegates at this year's conference, is a softening up exercise to get them to vote for unpalatable policies that they have been opposed to for years.

Sugar-coating the bitter pill will not change the fact that, in a war over cuts, the Lib Dems cannot win and will result in a similar confusion in the public's mind as to what they stand for, as labour is now experiencing.

Clegg's main speech will come at the end of conference, let's hope he doesn't make the same mistake as previous leader, David Steel, when he told his party to "go back to your constituencies and prepare for government", some hope!

Brown's speech, TUC 2009 - a wasted opportunity?

Gordon Brown has today spoken for the first time of cuts to come. This speech is the first salvo in, what will be, the longest election campaign this country has ever seen. All major pronouncements from now on should be analysed against that backdrop.

I am not surprised at Brown's lack of support nationally when I can't bear to watch him on television any more, He just doesn't convey that he is in touch with public sentiment. Opinion research published recently indicates that almost any other labour leader would have a better chance than this dour, unappealing Scot.

The brothers and sisters were far from impressed with him, applause was polite rather than enthusiastic.

Read the text of the speech HERE and weep.

Yorkshire labour MP Barry Sheerman has spoken of his concerns for the future and last night 'gave Gordon Brown two weeks to save his premiership', serious stuff indeed!
Read the Yorkshire Post article HERE.

We can expect much more of this as we move towards the labour party conference, revolution will be in the air by then!

If Gordon Brown loves the labour party as much as he claims then even he should be able to see the game is up for him! If he has the stature claimed for him by his supporters the he must step aside gracefully and quickly!

Update John Cruddas gave this speech at this years Compass conference, not good reading for Brown loyalists as John may yet manage to get a serious challenge going that will force Brown out.

MP's Expenses - What's on the web!

First post on the sorry saga of the expenses row here in Rotherham.

This is when the internet comes into it's own, the links below take you to the main sources of information.

The Rt Hon. Kevin Barron MP. Parliament, Daily Telegraph. Does not have web site, and has provided no extra information. Why not? We have paid through the nose for it!

The Rt Hon. John Healey MP. Parliament, Daily Telegraph. From his own site HERE and HERE

The Rt Hon. Dr Denis MacShane MP. Parliament, Daily Telegraph. Own site on epolitixs, devoid of any extra useful information.

They make interesting reading! Have fun!

Maltby Academy! Who wants it? Sign the Petition!

If you are concerned that these proposals are not all they seem and want to protest at them, please sign the online petition on the No10 website. It just takes a moment, click HERE.

More info to follow.

Update
You might also want to look at this site, the proposed Maltby Academy, which appears to present the academy as a done deal! It is jointly run by RMBC and U-Explore. Funny, I can't seem to find any links to it from the RMBC site, are they not proud of it? Or, is this just another example of bogus consultation?

Rally For Common Sense - Rotherham Town Centre 10th Oct. Be There!

Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council ruling Labour Group has form for treating opposition to their views with contemptuous arrogance and derision.

In recent times opposition to the ending of 'Meals on Wheels' and the Bramley traffic scheme as well as the closure of the Laundry Service was handled by those who made the decisions in the most dismissive of fashions.

It it time for us to make them listen!

Peter Thirlwall, the Independent (but socialist) Councillor for Wickersley Ward has issued an invitation, to all Rotherham people to join together on the 10th of October, at Rotherham Town Centre, to tell this Council that it is time that they listened for a change.

If you are interested in helping with the organisation of this event please get in touch with Peter.
Contact details as on RMBC Website or by email to peter.thirlwall@talktalk.net

Revolting Rotherham - Web now part of Rotherham Political Campaigns

The web is now being used by protest groups in Rotherham to keep residents informed and get them involved in practical campaigning to change minds in the Town Hall.

The Town Hall has proved impervious to all previous attempts to change politicians minds. On earlier occasions, most notably recently, when a 6,000 signature petition was dismissed out of hand by Roger Stone (RMBC Leader) because "anyone can get signatures on a petition"!

The latest cause for concern by Rotherham residents is the Council's Consultation on the Local Development Framework Core Strategy, a rather anodyne title for a document that contains the bombshell that it is proposed to build 24,500 new houses on largely Greenbelt land!

This consultation commenced without fanfare in May, it was little known about and by the time anyone realised the implications, the consultation period was due to close on Aug 7th, during the peak holiday time. Pressure caused the period to be lengthened to the end of August to allow time for responses. Still in the holiday period, locals have made strenuous efforts and a significant number of objections are now in.

The Rotherham Advertiser has also played it's part, acting as a voice for local opinion and an organ of sensible debate through it's vibrant and very well supported letters pages, frequently publishing three pages or more of letters. This means it is now the only place where open debate flourishes in Rotherham and they should be congratulated not pilloried by self-aggrandising politicians who believe they are always right like Iain St John in his intemperate and illogically argued missive of last week, available HERE if you haven't seen it yet.

Residents across Rotherham are angry and dismayed at the Council's proposals to build an enormous number of houses, largely on greenbelt land.

The full extent of the Council's proposals (View them HERE) is only now becoming clear, the sheer number of houses is incredible over 24,000 of them! The knock-on effects on communities all round Rotherham will be significant. Very few of Rotherham's residents will remain unaffected, should these developments take place.

Make no mistake, every person who lives in the Rotherham Borough has a stake in this!
Do not protest at the problems when they happen, it will be too late! Get involved now!

Action groups have already formed, or are in the process of forming, that cover some of the areas most affected, they intend to link up in order to fight these proposals as effectively as possible. Click HERE to access their web sites

It is now clear that this is everyone's problem!
It is obvious that this issue requires the collective voice of us all. We must not let this happen!

Rotherham Borough Labour Councillors are used to getting their own way - this time it must be different! We can't let them destroy what we hold most dear, the breathing places that Rotherham needs now and for our children and grandchildren!

Wave of protest grips Rotherham following email!

Rotherham residents are quite literally in a state of open revolt on almost all fronts after being insulted and ignored when trying to influence council decision making, surely a fundamental democratic right? (Details to follow)

The public having been referred to variously as riff-raff, rabble, stupid and short sighted when opposition to council decisions develops.

The Rotherham Advertiser has stepped into the fray (Councillor's rant sparks war of words) after being attacked in an email for bias and lack of rigour when reporting on council matters by Iain St John (RMBC Labour Councillor for Anston & Woodsetts Ward). Read the full text HERE. Read Peter Thirwall's reply HERE.

Doug Melloy, the Advertiser's editor, gave a wonderfully robust defence of the newspapers political stance, reporting and of the publication of letters from readers.

St John's egregious and unwarranted attack is an alarming demonstration of hubris. In his view the voters are always wrong when they wish to influence council decisions. The underlying message here illuminates the sad fact that Labour Councillors in Rotherham no longer seek to represent those who put them there.

The Rotherham Labour Group is a self-serving elite only interested in themselves.
Their organisation would be one that Stalin would have admired.
Their discipline and cohesiveness is described by some commentators as owing more to Freemasonry than to Socialism.
They are virtually devoid of real accountability even by the few Labour Party members left.
The Labour Party in Rotherham now have so few members that they can't even give us any decent candidates. Those we get are largely time-served apparatchiks with little or no ability and with the quota system it pays to be female, no brain necessary!

It is now time for Rotherham folk to stand up and be counted! We all deserve better than this!
We want councillors who will listen to us and represent our concerns properly, rather than giving craven loyalty to a party that has so badly let us down!

Al-Megrahi - a very British dilemma?

Watching this issue develop over the last weeks has had the feeling of watching a car crash in slow motion.

Recent events are just the culmination of a long-term process started by Blair, approved of by Bush and continued by Brown. The Prime Minister has been conspicuously silent on this matter up to press. Colonel Gaddaffi has thanked Gordon Brown personally for the release of Al-Megrahi.

The sight, today, of Scottish politicians wringing their hands in apparent anger and anguish, during the recall session today of the Scottish Parliament. That they were engaging in the worst form political opportunism, to be seen in recent times, was not an edifying sight to say the least!

If Iain Gray (Leader of Labour in Scotland) rather than Kenny MacAsKill (Scottish Justice Secretary) had to take the decision it would, I am confident, been the same.

The fact that the Scottish Nationalist Party is in power in Scotland and is getting the blame and taking all the flak is perceived by every other political party as playing to their advantage, even Nick Clegg (Leader of the Liberal Democrats) has had his pennyworth of condemnation.

Gordon Brown (Prime Minister of UK) meanwhile in typical fashion is nowhere to be seen, just like Macavity the cat. He did, however, have the time to congratulate our victorious Ashes winning Cricket Team yesterday! Does Brown not watch television or read newspapers when on holiday? MacShane too, perhaps untypically, seems to be silent. Can't he find a TV camera to talk to? He must be slipping!

Everyone who has studied this case with an open mind comes to the same inescapable conclusion, that Al-Megrahi had nothing whatsoever to do with this terrible atrocity. When Tam Dalyell and Teddy Taylor agree on something the likelihood is, that they are right! Neither believe Al-Megrahi to be culpable in any way at all. Nor, for that matter, does Dr Jim Swire. See also this review on DeepBlackLies.

I don't know about anybody else, but I believe, that locking up the wrong person to satisfy the victims families understandable desire for retributive justice, has nothing do do with giving them that justice.

The whole world has been lied to from the first. The problem with this situation is that the evidence that would have been presented to the Scottish Appeal Court will now, not be tested in a Court and therefore no one will ever even look for the guilty.

What will never be known now, will be the truth! That is the real scandal here!

The Lockerbie families, rightly in my view, demand justice, but this is just the thing they have never had.

It is time for a formal Inquiry to establish all the verifiable facts. Then perhaps the authorities will dedicate themselves to catching and punishing the real guilty men!

Lockerbie families deserve nothing less!

Stop Press 25 Aug 2009 Gordon Brown has finally surfaced saying that "he was repulsed by the welcome home" he however had nothing to say about the release? Why not? Does he not have an opinion or is he hiding something?

Charlie Whelan Unite Update

Since the publication of the story 'Now there is turmoil in the UKs largest union, Unite!' things have moved on a pace.

The grievances raised by the staff who worked in the political department of Unite the trades union, he heads, have been settled at last.

Evidence was cited involving Whelan's behaviour as being 'totally at odds with the policies of the union' and 'totally against the principles established under dignity at work procedures' as well as presiding over 'a real culture of fear and a climate of bullying' in the department.

Whelan himself seems to have moved to settle other scores. He has instructed the top peoples solicitors, Carter Ruck, to pursue a libel action against Frazer Nelson of the Spectator Magazine.

What has he taken offence at? Frazer Nelson made a reference to the above complaints in a Spectator blog.

Now Carter Ruck are claiming, 'distress and embarrassment' when Whelan was accused of having a bullying manner. This case will be followed by many, probably because it might make legal history if Whelan succeeds in this legal adventure, but then I recall that Lord Jeffrey Archer once won a libel action, so anything is possible I suppose?

Expenses for MPs, top Tory on 'Planet Zog'

Senior Tory Grandee, Sir Patrick Cormack, Member of Parliament for South Staffordshire, has called for MPs pay to be doubled in return for loosing their second homes allowances. This would mean a rise from £64,766 to more than £130,000! MPs not currently eligible for these allowances would disproportionally benefit!

He has been criticised by Labour as 'out of touch' and by Lib Dem, Ed Davey, Foreign Affairs spokesman is quoted as having described him as 'living on Planet Zog'

Alan Duncan, Tory MP for Rutland & Melton and Shadow Leader of the House of Commons, has also embarrassed the Tory Party for being secretly filmed by a campaigner complaining that they were 'having to exist on rations'. Watch the video HERE

Even the New Speaker of the House of Commons, The Rt. Hon John Bercow MP (previously Tory MP for Buckingham) doesn't yet get it! He has just ordered an expensive refurbishment of his apartments in the Palace of Westminster!

In view of the recent disclosure by Baroness Royall, slipped out while in recess, in response to a written question by Viscount Tenby (Read it HERE), it is about 2 thirds way down) that the total cost of running Parliament now stands at £500 million a year and rising! you would have thought that enough was already being spent on them. This profligate bunch of Parliamentarians need to economise before the people will ever trust them again.

Parliament cost us £500m last year!

Yes that is a cool half Billion Pounds!

What on earth do they spend it on?

At a time like this when constituents are in desperate straits, this kind of lavish expenditure on their own comforts is quite extrordinarily arrogant to say the least!

The time is coming when the citizens of Rotherham can throw them out if they want to!

What the voters give they can also take away!

Time to take stock!

It is now time to start to take stock after the longest continuous period of Labour in Government. This is an enormous task that will keep analysts and historians busy for the next fifty years or so. A few random thoughts to start with.

After 12 years of Labour Government, real anger is present amongst even the most loyal members and supporters. They feel betrayed and badly let down by a government that promised much. Why should this be?

We are in the midst of the worst economic crisis that capitalism has ever faced and this time the axe is falling much higher up in companies than hitherto. There are now at least 2.5 million out of work and it will rise rapidly in the autumn when seasonal jobs dry up. The youngest members of the workforce are also now bearing the brunt. Young people in the Not in Employment, Education or Training (NEETS) category is one of the the fastest growing sectors.

The poor have got poorer under labour and the rich, richer. Surprisingly the rich have gained three ways under labour, they now get a larger slice of the national income, pay less tax and even get a bigger slice of welfare benefits than they did before labour came into power in 1997. This has had a disproportionate effect in Rotherham given the demographics. This government has actually taken from the poor and given it to the much better off, not something a labour government has ever done before. No wonder ordinary people are in such a deep despair and feel such anger and estrangement from the Party they though would help them.

We are engaged militarily in two conflicts that, with the benefit of hindsight, were ill judged and have proved far more difficult, complex and costly than imagined at the outset. Can killing people just because they don't want a western style nation state and believe in a different way of life ever be justified?

Our civil society is under threat from both domestic and foreign terrorist attack. Unlike the IRA attacks the perpetrators wish to die whilst committing these atrocities. In some areas social cohesion is under severe strain like never before, with a siege mentality developing in some communities, doing irreparable harm.

Many questions come to mind that require answers, here are a random selection of these;

What is the state of the Labour Party locally and New Labour nationally? Why is this important?
What about other political parties in Rotherham and nationally.

What has it done for the people, especially at the lower end of the income scale?

How well have our three MPs, Kevin Barron, John Healey and Denis MacShane done for Rotherham and it's people? What have they achieved, if anything, for the nation? How have they spent our money?

How well have Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council done in serving its people?
How has the Leader, Roger Stone and Cabinet members benefited the people of Rotherham?

Elections, what do the previous elections in Rotherham tell us? Can any of the Parliamentary Seats be lost by Labour? We will show Labours vulnerability in next years General and Local Elections.

Over the next few months we will explore the record of Labour in Government in some detail, hopefully to bring illumination to some dark corners. We also invite contributions from others, either in the form of comments or letters and articles.

Council Leader forgets Senior Railcard. Shock! Horror!

A couple of weeks ago the Rotherham Advertiser published a story criticising Roger Stone for forgetting his Senior Persons Railcard and claiming back the difference. As, is often the case, Marlene 'Gob on Legs' Guest, was involved in this petty, vindictive (almost to the point of obsession) non-story.

Why? Such a usually sensible newspaper gave space to this spiteful little story is beyond me? Could it, perhaps, have anything to do with its source?

They regularly give column inches to this loathsome woman's opinions and unacceptable political views. Presumably, their defence is one of providing balance. Would they have printed Nazi propaganda during the war to provide balance, I think not!

The Advertiser should refrain from giving this odious, attention seeking seeking female, the 'oxygen of publicity' for her poisonous and pernicious views. Enough is enough! Please stop it before you do irreparable harm to community cohesion in our ethnically and culturally diverse Rotherham.

Now there is turmoil in the UKs largest union, Unite!

The cancer of old fashioned chicanery is alive and well inside Unite, the Labour Party's biggest union paymaster.

This story of Charlie Whelans enlightened attitude to management and communication has resulted in formal grievance complaints being made coupled with copious amounts of sick leave amongst his staff, is bad enough, but civil war is raging among members of the Amicus Section who are choosing a new General Secretary amid blatant manipulation of the process by the current General Secretary one Derek Simpson. He fell foul of the same law that he used to unseat his predecessor Sir Ken Jackson. Very careless you might think?

This time the 'David with a sling' was Bristols', Jerry Hicks. One is forced to conclude that Derek Simpson is obviously not up to running the union if he can't even avoid Ken Jacksons mistake that he himself had identified years before - Time to go Derek!

See also, Kevin and Derek - Two sides of the same Coyne
and Jerry Hick's own site.

Update to this story Published 22 August 2009

Now the attack on our civil liberties!

When the Ex Chief Spook, Dame Stella Rimington, says we have gone too far. we should ingnore her at our peril!

If the above doesn't convince you try the recent report of The International Commission of Jurists

Liberty - Protecting Civil Liberties Promoting Civil Rights

Amnesty UK Site

Amnesty International

Civil Rights Movement

Justice

Freedom of Speech Under Attack - Towards the New Thought Police!

"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."
Evelyn Beatrice Hall, (1868 - 1919)

Fitna the Movie: Geert Wilders' film about the Quran (English) Judge for yourself.

PC cowards need to Geert a grip! - Carole Malone 15/02/2009.

'Saint' Gordon Rides To The Rescue!

It is now becoming clear that Gordon Brown is 'playing a blinder' in his 'Falklands' moment.

The economic battleground is his war, familiar territory indeed for him. He bestrides the economic world like a colossus and has now had his economic theories and prescriptions to deal with the current economic crisis adopted throughout the whole globe even America.(that's quite enough praise for now, we wouldn't want anyone to think that we had lost all our objectivity Ed.)

Gordon Brown will be, if it works, nothing less than, the saviour of the entire economic World!

This must trump most, if not all, of his predecessors achievements.

Blair who? is now a common enquiry. Even a casual observer must wonder from these, that he must be having a moment of crisis, thinking he is still important, The Office of Tony Blair, The Tony Blair Faith Foundation and the Tony Blair Sports Foundation, for starters. Satire on Tony Blair is becoming commonplace, try these, Tony Blair and Blair Foundation, have fun!

South Yorkshire Pensions Authority loses £18 Million. When will it end?

It has just emerged that South Yorkshire Pensions Authority has lost £18 Million of its members money, speculating in Iceland's own version of the 'South Sea Bubble'.

This loss would be very embarrassing at the best of times, but on top of the losses on the stock markets, must be quite a headache for those in charge.

Is it soon to be a headache for members and pensioners? We wonder!

Also news just in, South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Authority also had a piece of the action to the tune of £5 Million.

Anyone else, put your hands up now please!

Council looses £3.8M of your money in Iceland Debacle!

It has been reported today that Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council (RMBC) has lost £3.8M of your money by investing it in an Icelandic bank that has now gone bust in the effective bankruptcy of Iceland.

The council is engaged in furious lobbying for the government to reimburse them for the £3.8M they have lost. Some hope I suspect as the total revealed so far runs into hundreds of millions and may even exceed 0.5 billion by the time the full facts emerge. I wouldn't want to swap shoes with the minister for local government right now, one John Healey, the member for Wentworth Constituency, as the lobbying will be extreme at times because of the panic in many Town Halls today.

More when the full picture is clearer.

Total losses known to date £840M!!!!!!