Norma Conquests
I enjoyed the Leeds Jamaica Society dance in support of the Jamaica Diabetic Society. There were many old friends there, as well as great steel band and fantastic food. Councillor Norma Hutchinson was magnificent, collecting the money on the door. However I didn't manage to win the raffle for a free flight to Jamaica but met several friends who offered put me up in my customary style if I did manage to make their magic island.
Councillor Taggart's mobility problems
Councillors Taggart and Moxon did not grace the event. I was by now beginning to get very worried about Councillor Taggart. He hadn't been sighted at either the reggae concert, the Carnival Queen Show or the Carnival itself. Perhaps the stress of his boundary-changing efforts or his mourning over losing the Chair of West Yorkshire Police have began to affect his ability to get about. The Chapeltown South Police forum which he chairs has been put back yet again. And again another no show at the Scott Hall Show.
And then at last a sighting with his fellow ward councillors and the returned Fabian Hamilton. He was spotted shambling like some faded ghost through the glorious sunshine of the Chapel Allerton Arts Festival.
This festival goes from strength to strength, getting larger, livelier and better. The happy revellers of a packed Victoria Street enjoyed a succession of great musical acts. There was also a large number of tempting stalls selling everything from knick-knacks to houseplants, and Mike McGrath, in his white hat, presiding over an intellectually challenging bookstall. There were also many stalls devoted to green issues and peace.
By the afternoon Left Alliance members and supporters had completely outnumbered the remaining handful of New Labour supporters shipped in from across Leeds. They had a great time. The New Labour Tories issued an unnumbered special Chapel Allerton Festival 2002 edition of their newsletter where their councillors declared 'Chapel Allerton "Most Exciting Place to Live"'. Of course too much excitement can be a bad thing and that is perhaps why Councillors Taggart and Moxon have deliberately chosen not to live in Chapel Allerton.
One highlight from the Festival was the fantastic art exhibition held at the Eco House on Allerton Park. This showed the brilliant range of talent that was now working in the area. Later on I was able to rock (or hop) into the evening with Gerrard's ever-improving Shade Monkey.
Nuclear Power £400 million. Coal £0
The Selby coalfields get no government support while British Energy, the UK's biggest electricity generator and operator of the nuclear power stations, is receiving a loan of £400 million to bail it out. Asking why the New Labour MPs (Yvette Cooper, John Grogan et al) of the region support this policy and are unable to deliver for the workers in the region will become the most important election issue over the next few years.
New Labour's debt grows
Dave Triesman, New Labour General Secretary, has admitted that their party's debt is now over £10 million. During August they had to beg £100,000 from the Trade Unions to cover their bills over the summer. He has also admitted some leakage of party members, ie they are leaving.
Increasingly the Blairites are looking to cut the party further from its membership by bringing in state funding. Which means you and I end up paying for Blair.
Already an expensive version of this has occurred in Leeds. The Leeds City Council Labour Group has not only put up its individual expenses but has taken on seven research and support staff which along with the pro rata arrangements for the other parties will cost the taxpayers £250,000 a year.
The "research" is just simple propaganda for the New Labour group. For instance their online site has a couple of pages justifying the huge expenditure on Millennium Square. They explain that "no council tax money at all has been spent on the square's construction." However they then go on to say that the biggest single contribution (over 5 and half million pounds) comes from the sale of council assets, ie its capital. But of course it is not easy to spend revenue from the council tax on a capital development. This money could have been used by the council to improve schools, libraries and aged persons homes. The cost of maintaining the square at over £150,000 a year is at least less than that of the councillors' propaganda unit.
Bush the part-timer
Bush summoned Blair to Camp David to tell him when he had to fight Saddam. Although Bush does some work at his three holiday homes he spends the bulk of his time there playing golf and watching television. It has been worked out he has spent 42% of his presidency at these leisure destinations.
Polls
In a recent MORI poll 66% of the people named the health service as their number one government priority, followed by transport at 22%.
A different poll conducted around the same time indicated that 69% of people agreed with the statement "that at the end of the day I'm working class".
New Labour and Enron's accountants
Arthur Andersen, Enron's accountants, have enjoyed an unusually close links with New Labour:
- Thatcher banned Arthur Andersen from government contracts after their role in the De Lorean affair. In 1997 New Labour lifted the ban.
- Geoffrey Robinson in his memoirs praises Arthur Andersen for their help in putting together New Labour's economic policies.
- Ed Balls (Yvette Cooper's husband and Chief Economic Adviser at the Treasury) spent the 1997 election campaign working with Arthur Andersen
- Trade Secretary Patricia Hewitt was Research Director for Andersen Consulting, a former sister company of Arthur Andersen
- And Enron itself managed to pay New Labour "nearly" £30,000 before its spectacular collapse.
The war on the Iraqi people has already started
The hundred-plane raid on Iraqi positions represents another significant action in the war on the Iraqi people. Britain and the USA now have 100,000 troops deployed around Iraq. Hence the need to move the US command and General Franks from Florida to reactionary Qatar.
5,000 Turkish troops have already entered Northern Iraq.
The Iraqi army is one third as strong as it was during the Gulf War. However the recent massive war game in the US on invading Iraq showed the USA losing. The Generals running the "game" ignored their losses and carried on to win.
Thousands of Iraqi children have died as a result of the US blockade on essential medicines reaching Iraq.
The war aims of Bush are seen in the increased influence of "oilman" Cheney and the decreasing influence of Colin Powell. Almost all of Bush's actions are devoted to serving the interests of his good ol' oil buddies from Texas. The Iraq war is no different.
And of course our former bearded wonder and Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon says it is in Britain's best interests to stand with the US against Iraq. This was the gist of a speech he made to the University of Louisville in Kentucky this week. He was in the US for a week to receive his orders from the Americans.
However the UN chief weapons inspector Hans Blix says there is no evidence that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction or is trying to build them.
Meanwhile in Afghanistan...
A United Nations monitoring group says that the al-Qaeda is alive and well and continues to pose a real threat to the world. The US Treasury Department criticised the document for being limited and out of date.
However this seems like wishful thinking. They have failed to capture bin Laden or the core leadership of the Taliban despite many months of trying.
...and in Yorkshire
Lindis Percy, a founder of the Campaign for the Accountability of American Bases, has been banned from going nearer than 200 yards to the US base at Menworth Hill. Harrogate magistrates imposed this gross infringement on Lindis's civil liberties.
A trip down memory lane
The last Rolls-Royce to be built at Crewe has left the production line. Some have put this closure of the Crewe factory down to BMW's rationalisation plans. However my old friend Garth Frankland remembers when he was taken for a mad ride round Leeds and Chapeltown by my colleague the Guardian columnist (and Evening Standard sports writer) Matthew Norman, in an open topped Rolls-Royce he had managed to borrow from Crewe. The rot started then.
Lies, damn lies and statistics
I had previously commented that Councillor Neil Taggart might feel some relief in not being the Chair of West Yorkshire Police given the 90% rise in street crime in Bradford and Calderdale combined with a large drop in the detection rate. The overall street crime figures for West Yorkshire show a small overall rise. However by the time they reach the national media they have been translated to a 22% drop in street crime. This manages to fit with Blair's April prediction in Parliament that street crime would be under control by September.
How has this miracle been achieved? Very simply by starting from what Blair announced and introducing a "factor" to bring the figures down because there was now a "new" way of recording crime. Therefore the factor was needed to make the figures comparable.
The West Yorkshire Police Authority is advertising for a new manager to be paid over £60,000 a year to produce more such figures. They could of course have gone for a couple more police officers.
-- Half-Celestial Khan
