Secret terror trial. Secret for how long?

Civil rights campaigners are right to be horrified at the prospect of the secret trial of two men accused of plotting some form of terrorism. The right to be tried by jury in open court is one of bulwarks of any society that can make any claim to be "free". It it difficult to see how the security and well being of the nation can be all that threatened by knowing the truth but a court case might easily be embarrassing to any number of government departments. But what I find most difficult to believe is that what happens behind the locked door of this secret court will remain secret for very long. The internet will combine with the human propensity for a nice bit of gossip to ensure that freedom of information will triumph. All that the State's determination to keep this case under wraps will do is make thousands of people more determined to find out what's going on.

Suffer the little children.

Home Sweet Home.

Hardly a day goes by without hearing that the housing crisis, especially in London and the South East, can only be solved by a massive house building program. Sure, the likes of Danny Dorling have been saying for some time that we have plenty of housing stock but that it all tends to be in the wrong place or that far too many dwellings are under occupied. The mainstream opinion however is that, partly in order to house all those immigrants, we just have to build more homes. Most politicians agree. Lack of investment, bureaucratic planning restrictions, selfish NIMBYs, Green Belt loving tree huggers, all conspire to prevent the huge building program that is our only hope. WE MUST BUILD MORE HOMES. But hang on a minute. Do any of these proponents of more building ever actually look up from their smartphones and have a look at the skyline? London is a forest of cranes with the city being virtually one big building site. Of course none of this building has anything to do with solving the housing shortage and many of the luxury flats being built will remain empty. This is all about international financial speculation and much of it is dirty money. Not content with being an offshore tax haven, UK is set to become the money laundering centre of the universe. Even retired City Of London chief planner Peter Wynne Rees, said in a recent interview that dirty Russian money and Chinese gamblers have priced Londoners out of the housing market. Miliband's threat to double the council tax of these foreign investors must have them quaking in their boots. Not all of the building industry however, is focused on the construction of mile high blocks of luxury apartments. For the small building firm, and there are a great many of them, the current craze for "extensions" is proving to be a gold mine. There was a time when the average homeowner might have considered adding an extra room or a loft conversion in order to meet the needs of a family that was growing. Today it's all about growing the value of your investment. Everyone, the shady foreign businessman stashing a few million away in the London property market, the buy to let landlord who knows that it beats working any day, the couple down the road gambling on a loan to have a third added to the size of their house paying off in a couple of years, everyone is behaving perfectly logically. It's the logic of the market place and unfortunately all the time that it prevails no amount of house building will halt the housing crisis. To do that we need to build in order to meet peoples needs rather than simply create profit. Oh! One more thing. These immigrants who are causing the housing shortage. Who do you think is actually building all this stuff anyway?

Boxing is back!

Professional boxing in this country doesn't have anything like the appeal and interest to the general public that it used to have. There was a time when the names of British and World champions were known to just about everyone but not anymore. It was easy to keep track when there were eight or ten weight divisions and a universally recognised world champion in each. Now, with seventeens weights and half a dozen governing bodies, you have to be very committed to the sport to keep up. The long time absence of boxing from terrestrial TV must have resulted in some loss of interest as well. Not that there is a lack of quality fighters, or for that matter quality promotions, but for whatever reasons boxing is no longer a mainstream interest. Well the trend was reversed last night and no mistake. Eighty thousand fans packed into the Wembley Arena to see Carl Froch defend his IBF and WBA super-middleweight titles against George Groves. Their first match had resulted in a controversial stoppage and a win for the champion. Froch left no room for doubt last night bringing matters to a close in the eighth round with as good a right hand as anyone can remember. The fight showcased the physical chess, conditioning, courage and mental will that make boxing a unique sport. For one night only - boxing was back.

Ewa Jasiewicz right on the money as usual.

Excellent and timely piece in yesterdays Guardian.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/may/29/ukip-workers-class-identity-race-immigration

Still time for a ripping yarn or two.

"The age of exploration" was of course very much the age of exploitation of both indigenous people and natural resources. But that never stopped generations of kids thrilling to the exploits of the great explorers and dreaming of the adventures they themselves might have given half a chance. Eventually all the blank spaces on the maps became filled in and it seemed that there was little left to explore. For would be explorers and adventurers, the news that a hitherto unknown peat bog the size of England has just been discovered in Central Africa comes as a real tonic. No doubt we should all be pleased about the carbon sink benefits to the environment and suchlike worthy concerns but for me at least this huge area teeming with crocodiles, gorillas and elephants is straight out of a Tarzan story. Great stuff!

A shot across the bows.

CLASS WAR ELECTION CAMPAIGN: STATEMENT OF INTENT

There is a class war waging and we are losing it. The rich are getting richer and the gilded elite who have ruled us since Norman times remain in power and dominate land ownership just as they did when they first robbed it. We live in a feudal society dominated by an oligarchy of privately and Oxbridge educated toffs who run not just the government, banks, diplomacy but the media, music. comedy and even the opposition. We see no difference between any of the parties – we oppose Tristram Hunt with the same venom we hate Zac Goldsmith. . We don’t want to kick the tories out to replace them with Labour or any variety of failed Trots. We don’t want to kick them out at all – we want to kick them in!

Started in 1982 CLASS WAR was first a combative, funny, populist anarchist newspaper then mutated into a similar political organisation. We are proud of our past. But 30 years later the same approaches do not work. Endless photos of overseas riots and balaclaved anarchists bring no movement here. The same old same old is getting us nowhere. Time to think and do the unthinkable, to cross the Rubicon.

We are standing Class War candidates in the general election on May 7th 2015. We are doing this to launch a furious and co-ordinated political offensive against the ruling class with the opportunity an election gives us to talk politics to our class. We in no way see the election as an alternative to direct action. By the brick and the ballot.

We are not talking community politics here. It’s too late for a patient slowbuild like the IWCA. The ruling class have us by the throat -they need a short sharp kick in the bollocks. Our election campaign will use any means necessary. we won’t be ushered away by PR minders – we will make ourselves central to the campaign in a funny, rumbustious combative and imaginative way. We will be on the streets and in their faces.

Comrades whatever our yesterdays you are welcome now. join in. reject cynicism. have fun.

FULL STEAM AHEAD THROUGH THE SHIT

Re-blogged from Ian Bone.