1. Until the 4th of May, the bulk of my political bloggage is going to be over at the Backing Blair weblog.
2. I’m sure I don’t need to explain why you should do this… Jim Murphy
Intolerant and dictatorial behaviour, eh? Who’da thunk it?
UPDATE – Oh, go on, then… make it three.
Guido published an image of the notorious ‘Fake Sheik’ last Thursday.
Recess Monkey also published the image, but has now removed it following a gagging order from News of the World.
There’s a very good question here: On what grounds have they persuaded a Judge to issue a Court Order preventing publication of this tosser’s picture?
I’m sure we’ll all find out soon enough… and I’m equally sure that if it doesn’t stand up to scrutiny, then the name Denis Donaldson will be used in a suitably dramatic fashion.
I too wish to publish a photograph of this brave undercover reporter, but to avoid identifying him, I have featured him in a series of disguises; each more cunning than the last…
More from George Galloway (who initially released the images) here. The Respect website also reports that the restraining order expires in about an hour and a half.
Blair has to go.
Collectively, Labour MPs, councillors, members and activists have the power to make this happen, and right now we have a unique opportunity to unite them.
If Tony Blair is still in power on Thursday 4th May 2006 – DON’T VOTE LABOUR in the 2006 Local Elections. Under any circumstances.
No arguments, no exceptions, no diversions into the long grass.
Contact your local Labour candidate(s) and explain WHY you plan to take this action.
The Backing Blair site has been refitted for the 2006 Local Elections, and there’s a brand new video to help you spread the word:
Backing Blair VII – Don’t Vote Labour
Go. Do. Enjoy.
Cheers all.
Front page of a Murdoch newspaper two days before the local election campaign launch; what else is there to say?
The Times – Voters tell Blair it’s time to go: Most of Britain’s voters believe that Tony Blair has run out of steam and is destined to achieve little more as Prime Minister, an opinion poll for The Times finds today. The Populus survey suggests a growing polarisation about Mr Blair’s future. It underlines the impatience of the electorate at large about his performance after weeks of turmoil over the loans-for-peerages row. But among Labour supporters there is increasing support for Mr Blair’s strategy of staying on for the foreseeable future.
The latter group should be warned that their support for Blair – if it continues over the next few weeks – is going to cost Labour dearly.
Back to the building…
The Home Office and Metropolitan Police are appealing against the High Court decision in July last year that Brian is exempt from the ban on unauthorised protest near Parliament brought in by the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act. The outcome of this appeal has very serious consequences and could mean that Brian is evicted. Click here for details.
UPDATE – I love that this is happening on the day that SOCA is formally launched. Who organises these things? Oh, and is anybody else loving the Big Scary Monster in the SOCA logo?
Independent – Blair handover: If not now, when?: In the old Nottinghamshire mining town of Kirkby, 30 Labour Party activists sat in a horseshoe-shaped huddle in their modern party offices on Friday night, sipping mineral water. Party stalwarts and councillors meet every six weeks to discuss such staples of grassroots political activity as fundraising for party campaigns. But the agenda for the general committee of the Ashfield Constituency Labour Party last week included an item that was potentially incendiary. Senior members had called for a vote on when the Prime Minister should resign. Towards the end of the meeting, at 8.30pm, hands shot up as the motion went to a vote. Some had argued passionately that the Prime Minister should set out a timetable to quit, to restore certainty to politics and to prepare the ground for an “orderly” handover to Gordon Brown. Others called for calm, and argued against forcing the Tony Blair’s hand. It was this faction that won the day, and the call for a timetable for departure was soundly defeated.
Guardian – Brown and Blair prepare united front for local election campaign launch: Labour officials last night scrambled to ensure that Tony Blair and Gordon Brown share a platform when Labour launches its local election campaign this week, in a renewed attempt to display public unity in the face of factional squabbles in the party.
Well, that’s it; it’s time to correct this beast with a short, sharp pull on the choke-chain.
Quiet, please… man building.
PS – I meant to write a long apology/explanation for Bob Piper this morning… but it turns out that I don’t need to. In the comments under this post he says it himself; “I can understand your reservations on [insert issue here], but your local councillor is hardly to blame. Having said that, every vote for Labour will be claimed by Blair as a vote of confidence in him.”
So all I really need to say is; “Sorry… but you know why this is necessary.”
Condi Rice (31 March 2006): “People have the right to protest, that’s what democracy is all about,” Rice told reporters at a British aerospace plant. “I would say to those who wish to protest, by all means.”
Tony Blair (11 November 2003): “I say to those who will protest when President Bush comes: protest if you will. That is your democratic right.”
And we all remember how that turned out, don’t we?
UPDATE – BlairWatch – Condoleezza Rice and Jack Straw – The North West Tour Round Up
ePolitix – MP demands Labour handover plan: A Labour MP has called on the party’s executive committee to begin planning the handover of power from Tony Blair. John Trickett was one of two MPs to use a meeting of the parliamentary Labour Party on Monday night to say the Labour NEC should meet within the next few weeks in the wake of indications from the prime minister that he has a timetable for stepping down in mind. And on Tuesday the Hemsworth MP said the party needed some certainty as to what this was.
Here’s a little nugget that has passed most people by:
BBC – Intelligence lessons of 7/7: Whitehall officials have told the BBC they are now facing an unprecedented number of terrorist plots in Britain. They say the threat of home-grown terrorism has increased substantially since the Iraq invasion of 2003, and that 50% of recent disrupted plots are home-grown, involving British nationals living in Britain.
Well, there’s a big fucking surprise; irresponsible foreign policy leads to further terrorism.
But the people you really have to worry about are the protestors…
BlairWatch – Condi Rice Protest Press Coverage: The national press are still talking up the threat of trouble, though where they are getting their stories from is anybody’s guess…
(Much, much more on the Condi visit can be found here.)
War brings peace. Peace protestors are violent. Black is white. Up is down.
Meanwhile… remember those rendition flights that Jack ‘see no evil’ Straw claimed to be unaware of?
Bloggerheads – When are we going to kick this bastard out?
Bloggerheads – Jack Straw is a lying weasel (and other facts about torture)
Well, as it turns out, when we’re not actively surrendering British citizens for rendition, we’re turning a blind eye…
BBC – Europe ‘knew about’ CIA flights
BBC – Rendition report adds to terror debate
And the reaction of that great humanitarian Jack Straw? Well, there’s en established pattern of denial, and a criminal lack of curiosity. In fact, the only question he appears to have asked Condi lately is; “Do you want to come back to my place?”
And on that note, we go back to Liverpool (a place I really wanted to be this morning)…
BBC – Protests at start of Rice UK tour: US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has started her two-day visit to the north-west of England. She is due to go on to visit a school in Jack Straw’s Blackburn constituency, where some protestors have gathered.
No doubt the protestors will be guilted into thinking they should keep their distance. Or, failing that, they’ll be gently encouraged by riot police.
When Bush came to town, he and Blair also used school-children as a form of human shield, which is fucking disgraceful behaviour in my opinion.
(Sites to watch today: BlairWatch, CondiWatch and UK Indymedia)
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