The Daily Heil

The Daily Heil cover 6th August 2012

Like many I am amazed that anybody in England still reads the Daily Mail, commonly nicknamed The Daily Heil for its strong pro-appeasement stance before World War II – it was of the general opinion that Herr Hitler had many sound ideas worth copying in Britain. Today, it indulges in the “Last refuge of a scoundrel”, a narrow inane “patriotism” whilst appealing to racist hypochondriacs with scare stories about immigrants ruining Britain and medical scare / wonder-cure stories. A bit like Fox News without the graphics or indeed the TV. In fairness to middle-England its circulation has been declining, an indication that even “Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells” has had enough of this journalism free zone.

Tomorrow we see another blatant display of the sheer hypocrisy of this bilious rag as The Daily Heil gives away a Jessica Ennis (Jamaican father / English mother) poster. For a rag which specialises in running racist scare articles about immigrants like the one in the past week making disparaging remarks regarding mixed race relationships and ethnic minorities this is sickening and an insult to the great athlete and person Jess Ennis and her parents.

Jessica Ennis holds her MBE honour from The Queen alongside her parents Alison and Vinny, 

after it was presented to her last November

The Daily Heil was so appalled by the tone of Danny Boyle’s Olympics Opening Ceremony showing a diverse multi-cultural Britain that its writer (sic) Rick Dewsbury wrote disparaging remarks about mixed race relationships and ethnic minorities.

“But it was the absurdly unrealistic scene…showing a mixed race middle class family in a detached new build suburban home which was most symptomatic of the politically correct agenda in modern Britain.

This was supposed to be a representation of modern life in England but it is likely to be a challenge for the organisers to find an educated white middle-aged mother and black father living together with a happy family in such a set-up.”

Yes, like the wonderful athlete’s Jess Ennis’s parents, Alison and Vinny.  Once this racist bile was highlighted the piece was toned down in subsequent editions but there is a screenshot of the original article at the end of this piece.

Lord Rothermere with that superhuman chappie
who had regenerated his country

Hypocrisy runs deep at the Daily Heil. The Second Lord Rothermere thought Hitler was made of the right stuff and we should do business with him. In 1938 the Daily Mail wrote:

“The way stateless Jews from Germany are pouring in from every port of this country is becoming an outrage.”

And less than two months before the beginning of WWII, Lord Rothermere sent a telegram to Hitler writing:

“My Dear Führer, I have watched with understanding and interest the progress of your great and superhuman work in regenerating your country.”

He added:

“The British people, now like Germany strongly rearmed, regard the German people with admiration as valorous adversaries in the past, but I am sure that there is no problem between our two countries which cannot be settled by consultation and negotiation…I have always thought that you are essentially one who hates war and desires peace.”

Lord Rothermere in 1934 exhorting "Patriotic Britons" to support Oswald Mosley's Fascist "Blackshirt" movement

His son used to lecture Britain on “British” and family values whilst living in tax exile with his Japanese mistress. It is high time the miasma of hypocrisy known as The Daily Mail was quietly and humanely put down. 

Rick Dewsbury's shocked reaction to multi-cultural Britain in 
The Daily Mail - "toned down" in later editions (click to enlarge)

White Terror

Michael Green who terrorised Tottenham Court Road in Central London on Friday 27^th April 2012 was a BNP member who previously stood for election in Stevenage. When he went to the offices of the company he asked for a black girl called Abby who you saw being interviewed on the news. Abby told him "Abby" wasn't there, saving herself from harm. Abby Baafi, 27, the head of training and operations at Advantage, a company which offers HGV courses, said the man had targeted her offices and was holding four men hostage. During the siege Green went on the rampage throwing computers out into the street. The threat provoked an armed police response with the tube station closed, a cordon around the area and bomb squad and emergency service back up.

Tottenham Court Road cordoned off during the incident

Luckily the incident ended without anybody being harmed. Police have now charged Michael Green over the three-hour London siege which closed one of the country's busiest shopping streets. He is accused of storming into the office in Tottenham Court Road and allegedly making threats and carrying a weapon. He has been charged with several offences including possession of a weapon for the discharge of a noxious liquid/gas or electrical incapacitating device; false imprisonment; making a bomb hoax; causing criminal damage and recklessly endangering life.

This is the second terrorist incident by a BNP member in this area, in April 1999, the Admiral Duncan Pub in Old Compton Street, Soho, which was a busy gay pub, was the scene of a bomb blast when the Neo-Nazi David Copeland detonated a nail bomb which killed three people and wounded around 70. Copeland planted three nail-bombs, one in Brixton, one in Brick Lane and one in Soho, in which three people died and around one hundred fifty people were seriously injured. His motivation was to target ethnic communities and gay venues to stir up strife in a city which values diversity.

Once again the media were keen to state that Copeland was an isolated individual despite the clear political motivation behind the bomb placements and the fact that he was proven to have stewarded BNP meetings.

So why no mention of the "T" word in the news reports on the Tottenham Court Road incident? Does it not apply if you are a beardless, white male?

More background on the excellent Big Smoke Blog.

http://www.bigsmoke.org.uk/?p=76116

Jane Elliott: How does it feel to be treated like a "nigga" for a lifetime?

"When am I gonna quit? When racism quits. Do I have a job for a lifetime?

I'm afraid so."

Jane Elliott

Last month I published this post about Daryl Davis, the black musician man that persuaded twelve members of Ku Klux Klan to leave the organization. He wrote a book about it "Klan-destine relationships: a black man's odyssey in the Ku Klux Klan”.



I was amazed when I did read about Daryl achievement and the same happened when I watched at the TV Jane Elliott doing one of her workshops.

She exposes the weapons of racism by making people feel in their skin how discrimination, segregation, being stereotyped and mistreated have a terrible impact on the minds of the individuals who are part of a minority group and for this reason are mistreated in this case having a black skin.



I always asked myself why behavior experiments always aims evil. Stanford Prison and Stanley Milgram experiments were both done by psychologists trying to verify how people can be controlled or behave according to what they are told individually or in a group as a whole.

The ethical aspects of both experiments were questioned and the scientific methodology, especially in Stanford Prison, is questionable.



I never saw any of these psychologists doing experiments and, once again, I ask myself why they are done behind closed doors since they have to do with human beings emotions and behavior what is of interest of everybody.

It became an unquestionable fact that psychological experiments have to be done away from the public and one explanation is that it is necessary so that interferences from the outside don’t jeopardize the results. I’ll pretend it is true.



Jane Elliott’s workshops received some critics but what she does is not related to a scientific experiment and Jane payed a high price for her activism, fighting racism, and all her family was affected.

The workshops last two hours and I would love to be part of one of them especially to be at the blue side, the minority group.

Two groups are divided: blue eyes and brown eyes and this is the explanation that is at her site:

About

“Jane Elliott is an internationally renowned teacher, lecturer, and diversity trainer who presented this Seminar in the City Campus Union. She is famous for her classroom experiment, “Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes.”



In response to the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. over thirty years ago, Jane Elliott devised the controversial and startling, "Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes" exercise. This, now famous, exercise labels participants as inferior or superior based solely upon the color of their eyes and exposes them to the experience of being a minority. Everyone who is exposed to Jane Elliott's work, be it through a lecture, workshop, or video, is dramatically affected by it.”

I watched twice one of her workshops at the TV and it is true that people are highly affected because Jane is really good in creating the “prejudice arena” that some people are confined because... exactly. Why?



There are some good learning materials at Jane’s site. In a very simple and easy way she puts in evidence what is hidden in some of the phrases and statements we use. I truly believe that in same cases we only learn when we face the problem ourselves and Jane’s work is perfect to make us see how dis-empowering being part of a minority is.



Visit Jane’s site to meet a great woman and learn more on how the dungeons of prejudice work and understand what the blue eyes/brown eyes workshop purpose is.

This is the work of a lifetime.

A Black Man's Odyssey in the Ku Klux Klan

I did this post in 2006 when I had a blog in Portuguese. and publish it again at my blog justAna posted on August, 7, 2008,

I want to share it here because this is a great achievement: a KKK member giving up his beliefs after meeting a black man.

As I think that racism is something out of the planet I try to show people how strange, to say the least, it is to hate people based on single attribute of a person.

I'll write about a great woman, Jane Elliot, who helps fighting racism doing "Blue Eyes Black Eyes" exercises workshops.

I had a blog in Portuguese and talked about many different things.
This is one of the post I wrote about Daryl Davis:
Son of a diplomat Daryl Davis at the age of 15 have decided to be a pianist against the expectations of his father who wanted that he had followed his career.
Ironically it was as a pianist where he found the way to achieve results where diplomacy not always can reach.

When with the age of 10 he returned to USA, after living in Russia, Ethiopia and others African countries he came across with racism. After been jeered, attacked with stones pieces of glass, listening that he should go back to Africa, and, after being attacked by a racist policeman he started to ask himself about the reason why people hated him because of the color of his skin, in other words, what is the fundament the ideology of racism hate.

 He started his research and read about the White Power movement after meeting a classroomate who claimed to be a neo-Nazi and found out that these racists groups fight among themselves. One of them want to separate USA in five: some states for Arian, others for black people and some for other races. The solutions for "race problem" are multiples.

In a bar where he played piano Daryl got in touch with a white man who told him "-This is the first time that I sit to drink with a black man." Daryl asked him the reason "- Because I'm a Ku Klux Klan."

The diplomacy he saw when he was a child and the fact that he is a musician "-Music unite people." helped this black pianist, always compared to Jerry Lee Lewis, to get the address of a Ku Klux Klan Grand Dragon, Roger Kelly, who have agree to be interviewed. What should have been a quick meeting have turned out to be a two and a half talking.

"While you are actively learning about someone else, you are passively teaching them about you" is Daryl motto who made friendship with Roger Kelly, and for Daryl surprise, gave him the Ku Klux Klan clothes and all the paraphernalia used in Ku Ku Klax rituals including the burning black people's homes whose names fall in misfortune next to members of the sect. Elevens kukluskamen followed Kelly's example.
He also got in touch with neonazi that are waiting anxiously for the 4º Reich. But they even considered the black man a nice person.

One of the results of his work was the book published in 1997: "Klan-Destine Relationships: A Black Man's Odyssey in the Ku Klux Klan".
A lesson of action and efficiency when someone wants to make a difference in a case although he is criticized by black and white people.
Of course, some of his friends think that he is crazy. After all Ku Klux Klan have more than a million members.

Here you will find a game to punch Ku Klux Klan members if this is your case.
I just want do not know if Klu Klux Klan, neonazis and other sects have sense of humor or the guts to make a little game to kill blacks or no matter what race they hate. It is openly offensive and they prefer to do it in real life. As always it is hard to find the most adequate tact: the Luther King or the Black Panthers late days way.

I wrote a e-mail to Daryl and he was kind enough to answer me:
Dear Ana,

"Please call me Daryl. First, I must tell you how happy I am to hear from you and your interest in my work. I must also tell you that Brazil is one of my favorite countries in the world. I have visited 49 countries. I LOVE Brazil. I visited Bahia, Rio, Sao Paulo, Recife and Brazilia. Each city was very different and I love them all.

Yes, you are correct; I am very fond of Martin Luther King and his work. The original Black Panthers with Huey Newton was a good group and did a lot of good for the Black community when they had no one else to help them. They encouraged education and they made sure children in the community always had food to eat. Unfortunately, as is the case with many groups, someone goes astray and causes problems and ruins the reputation of the group with whom they are associated. Naturally, when they were pushed illegally by racist law enforcement, they would stand up for themselves even if it meant the use of violence.

There are about 3 groups today using the name Black Panthers. None of these groups are associated with the original group and I'm sure any of the original members who are still alive, would have nothing to do with these new groups. I know a couple of these new groups and they advocate violence. I am not a big fan of violence unless I am under attack and must defend myself or my loved ones.

Yes, Roger Kelly is now out of the Klan. He no longer believes in the principles of hating people because of their race. When his first child was born, I was her godfather. But he received a lot of criticism over that, so I told him, to let someone else do it. You must take things one step at a time. I don't care what anyone's race is. I respect all people and only judge them based upon how they treat others and how they treat me. But when you grow up in a family and environment filled with hate, it will take others a while to accept the changes you chosen to make in your life, if they ever accept it.

What have I achieved with my book? I would say my biggest achievement was a complete surprise to me. I never set out to cause people to quit the KKK. I simply wanted to interview them and get information for my book. But during the time of interviewing many of them, we saw that we all were human beings and friendships started to evolve. Eventually, many of these people began questioning their own beliefs and many eventually quit the Klan. We are still good friends today. So it has given me hope that we can change for the better and all is not lost. But, more people in my country need to take the step to get to know each other and sit down and talk. We fear each other too much for no reason. Just because of the color of someone's skin.

It bothers me when I hear my fellow Americans call this country the greatest nation on Earth. Yes, we have achieved many things that other countries have not achieved. We have the ability to put a man on the moon. While that man is walking around on the moon, we can talk to him live via satellite radio phone. You have a cell phone and you have email. You and I can communicate all the way from Brazil to the USA. So my question is: If we can communicate with someone walking around on the moon instantly and we can communicate with people on another continent, WHY can't we communicate with the person who lives right next door, just because he/she is a different skin color, religion, nationality, ethnicity or whatever????? So before my country can talk about how great we are, our ideology needs to catch up with our technology. I am doing my part to try to get my fellow Americans to come into the 21st century and I hope they will do their part.

Please keep in touch.

Obrigada,

Daryl

Troy Davis was executed: the world is watching

I rather be silent. "Hurricane" is the song I feel like listening.
"May God have mercy on your souls".
These were the last words of Troy Davis, directed to prison officers, before he died by lethal injection.
(read the story here)

Troy Davis x Rubin Carter: what Troy Davis don't have

Bob Dylan. Troy Davis don't have Bob Dylan to write a protest song telling his story.



I was a teenager living under dictatorship, because US wanted it in order to prevent communist regimes and other reasons, and this music was playing on the radios and though I could not understand all the lyrics, I emphasized the few lines and words I could understand in the seventies, and had nobody to ask what was it about I knew exactly what he was denouncing.



I got so angry when I heard it and justice was all I wanted as many of those who didn't know the whole story.At that time politics was part of culture and a man could not dare to say he didn't have political views. Men read newspapers in the morning, it was part of the ritual and he had to talk to his friends about political topics.



 I remember watching at the TV, that beautiful woman - just searched and it is Scarlet Rivera - with a long hair playing the violin, Bob Dylan guitar and singing. That's what many Americans did at that time and it set Rubin Hurricane Carter free. It was when I watched the movie Denzel Washington impersonates Rubin Carter that I became aware of the whole story.



Again I'm angry because there are many stories like this one in US but America has gone back in time, or turned mad, or... whatever happened that even it's president after breaking many conventions and laws appears at the television claiming: "Justice was done." after the death of Osama bin Laden. If the president of United States of America gives this example, Obama ordering to shoot Osama is a crime according to international law, and this is one of many international laws US is breaking in the name of "protecting Americans", "humanitarian aid" and other "noble causes", what is striking is the way American is treating it's own citizens, black or white.



Blacks, or Afro-Americans as to remind that they are not real Americans cause they came from Africa, as always, at the death-row... same old story even when the case has international attention like Troy Davis that will be executed today, or the case of Mumia Abu Jamal to name two, US government remains silent, people remain silent. If you followed till here, thank you, this is the song that made a great part of the world be aware of the injustice Rubin Hurricane Carter was suffering and helped him have a trial.



Troy Davis? He is about to be executed 7:00 p.m. Greenwich Meantime.



This case has received world attention and Troy Davis didn't have a fair trial and is about to have a lethal injection. Names like Joan Baez, Salman Rushdie and others have twitted but who knows about it? What is happening to our culture that makes it impossible to people be responsible for what is happening and fight for justice of others or even manifest discontentment with a status quo that affects directly citizens daily life?



What is happening to Troy Davis went too far. Being on the verge of receiving the lethal injection after all of what was done? What is happening that made our voices blow in the wind without any result? America is playing with us, playing a ridiculous game and it is a shame. If Obama could see himself at today's speech trying to prevent Palestine to be part of UN the way many people do he would never show his face again. Obama, Sarkozy and others are clowns and all the elite that is ruling the world have power and are inflicting heinous pain to many. Ironically they are clowns who lost track of how ridiculous they look, how old their strategies are and how far from freedom they have always been. They are condemned from birth.



Update: Troy Davis will not be killed today and this case is being used I still don't know why. Update: September, 22, 2011 he was executed by lethal injection - (post above)





Hurricane

Bob Dylan



Pistol shots ring out in the barroom night





Enter Patty Valentine from the upper hall.

She sees the bartender in a pool of blood,

Cries out, "My God, they've killed them all!"

Here comes the story of the Hurricane,

The man the authorities came to blame

For somethin' that he never done.

Put in a prison cell, but one time he could-a been

The champion of the world.



Three bodies lyin' there does Patty see

And another man named Bello, movin' around mysteriously.

"I didn't do it," he says, and he throws up his hands

"I was only robbin' the register, I hope you understand.

I saw them leavin'," he says, and he stops

"One of us had better call up the cops."

And so Patty calls the cops

And they arrive on the scene with their red lights flashin'

In the hot New Jersey night.



Meanwhile, far away in another part of town

Rubin Carter and a couple of friends are drivin' around.

Number one contender for the middleweight crown

Had no idea what kinda shit was about to go down

When a cop pulled him over to the side of the road

Just like the time before and the time before that.

In Paterson that's just the way things go.

If you're black you might as well not show up on the street

'Less you wanna draw the heat.



Alfred Bello had a partner and he had a rap for the cops.

Him and Arthur Dexter Bradley were just out prowlin' around

He said, "I saw two men runnin' out, they looked like middleweights

They jumped into a white car with out-of-state plates."

And Miss Patty Valentine just nodded her head.

Cop said, "Wait a minute, boys, this one's not dead"

So they took him to the infirmary

And though this man could hardly see

They told him that he could identify the guilty men.



Four in the mornin' and they haul Rubin in,

Take him to the hospital and they bring him upstairs.

The wounded man looks up through his one dyin' eye

Says, "Wha'd you bring him in here for? He ain't the guy!"

Yes, here's the story of the Hurricane,

The man the authorities came to blame

For somethin' that he never done.

Put in a prison cell, but one time he could-a been

The champion of the world.



Four months later, the ghettos are in flame,

Rubin's in South America, fightin' for his name

While Arthur Dexter Bradley's still in the robbery game

And the cops are puttin' the screws to him, lookin' for somebody to blame.

"Remember that murder that happened in a bar?"

"Remember you said you saw the getaway car?"

"You think you'd like to play ball with the law?"

"Think it might-a been that fighter that you saw runnin' that night?"

"Don't forget that you are white."



Arthur Dexter Bradley said, "I'm really not sure."

Cops said, "A poor boy like you could use a break

We got you for the motel job and we're talkin' to your friend Bello

Now you don't wanta have to go back to jail, be a nice fellow.

You'll be doin' society a favor.

That sonofabitch is brave and gettin' braver.

We want to put his ass in stir

We want to pin this triple murder on him

He ain't no Gentleman Jim."



Rubin could take a man out with just one punch

But he never did like to talk about it all that much.

It's my work, he'd say, and I do it for pay

And when it's over I'd just as soon go on my way

Up to some paradise

Where the trout streams flow and the air is nice

And ride a horse along a trail.

But then they took him to the jail house

Where they try to turn a man into a mouse.



All of Rubin's cards were marked in advance

The trial was a pig-circus, he never had a chance.

The judge made Rubin's witnesses drunkards from the slums

To the white folks who watched he was a revolutionary bum

And to the black folks he was just a crazy nigger.

No one doubted that he pulled the trigger.

And though they could not produce the gun,

The D.A. said he was the one who did the deed

And the all-white jury agreed.



Rubin Carter was falsely tried.

The crime was murder "one," guess who testified?

Bello and Bradley and they both baldly lied

And the newspapers, they all went along for the ride.

How can the life of such a man

Be in the palm of some fool's hand?

To see him obviously framed

Couldn't help but make me feel ashamed to live in a land

Where justice is a game.



Now all the criminals in their coats and their ties

Are free to drink martinis and watch the sun rise

While Rubin sits like Buddha in a ten-foot cell

An innocent man in a living hell.

That's the story of the Hurricane,

But it won't be over till they clear his name

And give him back the time he's done.

Put in a prison cell, but one time he could-a been

The champion of the world.

undefined

American citizen schools police

After so many bad news this month I found something amazing.

An American citizen whose son was being taken by cops for no reason without any explanation puts them at their place. As my friend David Butler who gave me the link for this video says:

 "A lawless enforcer fears nothing, except an informed citizen. When you know your rights, you know you're right." Justice was done. Justice by the people. This is the lesson of this month: we have to know our rights! "Ignorance of the law is no excuse." 

 See you in September.

Miami Beach police caught on tape killing Afro-American and threatening eyewitness

After watching this video I keep hearing Narces Benoit, the eyewitness who taped on his cell-phone and put the smart card in his mouth, saying:

"They're gonna kill this man, Oh my God"/ "They're gonna kill this man."/ "Oh My God, He gotta be dead." "He's dead?" ..."He's dead... bro.' "They killed this man...Oh My God!"/... "he is dead."

Miami Beach police celebrating memorial day.
The "nigga", that was the most important crime of all in this story: they are all "niggas", and we know that "niggas" are not citizens in the eyes of many people, who was killed with the immunity of the badge was Raymond Herisse.
No trial, no "you have the right to remain in silence, the right to an attorney".
This man was executed.
Narces Benoit narration in his tape predicting and witnessing the murder shows that he is used to this kind of crime and he feels the pain for this murder and all the others that he has heard of. Why would he put the smart card in his mouth if he was confident in the scrupulousness of the policemen? These are the Americans cops?
According to many comments at sites where the video is exposed yes, this is the way American cops behave in many states in America, the democratic America.
This is an example:

Matt Wilemon 2 days ago in reply to alvaro

"Police kill people with immunity in the US. It is sad but way too common in this country, Even though there is video evidence to prove those cops were out of their mind by shooting that many bullets into a suspects car nothing will happen to those cops. Look at the guy who executed Oscar Grant in Oakland for no reason other than he is a rabid, bloodthirsty murderer with a badge. He is already out of prison. And that guy is one of the few to actually get convicted even if it wasn't for murder. That's how "innocent until proven guilty" works in the "land of the free" Cops dump hundred of bullets into somebody they even have yet to apprehend and charge with a crime (for our protection, of course) and worry about it later. Police brutality is a serious problem everywhere and it only gets worse. Cops are tasing old people who get attitudes with them, little kids, shooting at minorities they think are suspicious. They are the ones who are out of control and now we are the ones who go to jail when we catch them committing crimes? NWA was right. F@#$ the police!""

We want justice, not executions. It's hard to be fair when the president of the country invades another nation and executes a terrorist. Yes, Osama was a terrorist but this is not how justice is done and being applauded and considered a hero for that is a bad example that induces authorities keep abusing their power. There is a lot to be changed also in about human rights in America.

undefined

English Defence League protest leads to 12 arrests

Tonight Aylesbury is deserted at the end of a tense and economically damaging day after English Defence League protestors descended on Aylesbury's Market Square chanting 'England' repeatedly and engaging in some audible racist chanting. As I predicted the effect on Aylesbury of this racist Rent-a-mob descending was fairly dramatic with the Town Centre in a complete lockdown and over 600 Police on duty including mounted police, Police from Wales and the Police Helicopter overhead. For a Town Centre where a normal policeman cannot be found on a Saturday this is a dramatic and expensive change. No Market took place in Market Square, The main shopping centres and bus station closed as did most shops in the Town Centre, many of which were boarded up. EDL members wouldn’t quiet appreciate the economic damage they have done as few of them appear to be economically active.

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2010/04/edl-are-not-wanted-in-aylesbury.html

However their attempted invasion of Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire failed today. The EDL’s racist, swaggering; Islamophobic supporters hoped they could take over the town and intimidate Muslims and ordinary people. They failed.



They hoped Asians and black people and trade unionists would be too scared to demonstrate against them. They failed. Around 200 anti-EDL demonstrators, overwhelmingly local people including trade unionists and 75 Asian people, gathered in the town’s Vale Park in a show of anti-racism and support for multiculturalism.

Twelve people have been arrested during the protest which attracted more than 800 people. The EDL, which says it opposes "militant Islam", organised the protest in Aylesbury's Market Square. A police spokesman said that "on the whole" the protest had been peaceful but there had been "some disorder". Eight of the people arrested were being held on suspicion of carrying offensive weapons.

Several "disorders" were dealt with by riot officers as more than 800 English Defence League supporters gathered in Aylesbury, Thames Valley Police said. Demonstrators were believed to have hurled coins, glass bottles, plastic flag sticks and cans at officers. Officers had to deal with a surge against police lines in the Market Square.



The EDL protest presented a "major challenge for the town", officers said. The organisation, which describes itself as "a counter-Jihad movement", has held several demonstrations in recent months in Manchester, Bolton and Dudley. Police said there were fewer protestors than the EDL had anticipated.

Supt Richard List, of Aylesbury police, said: "We made it very clear to the EDL at the outset that we would not tolerate any disorder on the day and that there would be a significant police presence. "The police operation will continue until we are totally satisfied that there are no risks or threats to public safety. “He added “We are a tolerant, successful and proud town - we all need to remember our tremendous strengths at this difficult time. I would like to express my sincere thanks to you all."A counter protest was held in Vale Park earlier, but has since dispersed.

Andrew Grant, the chief executive of Aylesbury Vale District Council said afterwards that “a range of entertainment has been organised for Monday by the Town Centre Partnership to help welcome people back to the town". Indeed – the vast majority of local people will be glad the EDL have gone.



The Muslims who defended Britain.

The EDL are not wanted in Aylesbury

England's Defenders?

Aylesbury last Saturday was its usual relaxed weekend self enjoying a sunny day enlivened by St. George’s day celebrations on a subdued scale. In Kingsbury Square the cafes and pubs had plenty of tables outside as people enjoyed the weather with their children and had a drink or snack whilst enjoying the Morris Dancing. There was also a Dragon roaming around attracting the kids and a little street train with a loco called “George” bringing the kids around the pedestrianised centre of the town. In the Market Square, overlooked by the statue of the local MP John Hampden whose refusal to pay the “ship tax” (Buckinghamshire is not on the coast!) to Charles I precipitated the English Civil War, the market traders jostled for custom from their colourful stalls as they have done for over four hundred years in this the County Town of Buckinghamshire. In the courtyard of the King’s Head, an ancient coaching inn owned by the National Trust, locals and visitors were enjoying the live music and the traditional ale from the Chiltern Brewery.


Market Square, Aylesbury

But what a difference a week will make in this town of 70,000 people. There is a sizable minority of Muslims in Aylesbury who are mostly from Pakistan controlled Kashmir where they have fled from conflict and work hard to provide a better future for themselves and their children. We have a Mosque and some of the best schools in the UK and by and large everybody rubs along quiet well. There is, as in any large town, a lumpen proletariat and there have been in the past some racist incidents whose reports generally include the words “skinheads” and “drink” but we pride ourselves on community relations and have had a Muslim Mayor.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2001/may/28/race.world

Aylesbury has a mixture of London commuters and busy local employment and is set in the attractive and rich farming area of the Vale of Aylesbury close by the Chiltern Escarpment and the area of Outstanding Natural Beauty known as the Chiltern Hills. It is a good and improving place with a good quality of life which is appreciated by the inhabitants who include sturdy yeomen of Buckinghamshire and many who have moved here from elsewhere including a large Italian and Irish community and more recently Polish. It is an inclusive place and we are particularly protective of disabled people who are very visible in the Town Centre on a normal Saturday as Stoke Mandeville Hospital with the National Spinal Injuries Centre is nearby. That was last Saturday. Next Saturday will be different, very different.


The borrowed iconography of the EDL including Constantine the Great's motto " In this sign I will conquer"

On Saturday 1st May our town is being high jacked by a self appointed Rent-a-Mob called the English Defence League or EDL. The effect is palpable. Aylesbury Bus Station will be closed, many small shops are closing at 12, they gave been advised by the Police to not have chairs and tables outside, keep shutters down and consider if they want to really open. The fear is well founded as the video taken by a neutral outsider at a recent EDL “Rally” in Stoke on Trent where 17 people were arrested shows. So next Saturday May the 1st these strangers are going to use our town to contrive conflict where none exists. So next Saturday in Aylesbury Town Centre there will be no buses, no old people, no children, no disabled people and no shoppers. There will also be no pubs open in the town. Here are the details from these Brave English Defenders own website;

“Initially, point 'A' was chosen as a muster area due to it having a small cluster of pubs that would serve as a meet point for our supporters to socialise in before the demonstration. However, the local licensing authority has visited these pubs and as an upshot of that, they have decided to close on the day. We would like to point out that at every single EDL demonstration; no pub has ever received any damage whatsoever. A business that could take three weeks worth of business in the space of a couple of hours deciding to close? I don't know what was said to them, but it sure must have been scary.”

Some Brave Army the EDL marching on its accelerated alcohol consumption?


Kingsbury Square, Aylesbury where all the pubs and cafes will close next Saturday

Some England, some defence? And who are the EDL? Well they have no discernible policy, have not been elected or stood in any democratic process and their web site consists of one long sneer against Muslim people quoting liberally from extremist and unrepresentative Muslim preachers to justify their obsessive fixation with “defending” the English against Islam?

The national leader of the English Defence League has warned that Saturday's demonstration in Aylesbury could be the first of many after a bitter row erupted with police and council bosses. Officers were hoping to keep EDL members on the outskirts of town before a rally in Market Square, to prevent skirmishes with counter demonstrators. But yesterday Tommy Robinson – not his real name – said EDL protestors are now planning to evade police and instead gather in Vale Park – where an anti-EDL demonstration is due to be held.


King's Head Aylesbury

He said: "If our demonstration doesn't go how we want it to go, we'll come back in six weeks. No other place has tried to block us like this one has." The EDL fell foul of police and council chiefs after trying to put up a stage and use loudspeakers – which they need a licence for. At a tense meeting on Monday, they were also told that they were not allowed to carry wooden framed banners. Coach loads of EDL members would have been met by police and escorted to Market Square, where they would have been contained inside solid barriers. Robinson said ominously: "We don't think they're doing well if they want it to go peacefully."

Here is a thoughtful article in the Guardian about this entirely bogus “protest” which is hijacking our town next Saturday by local resident and Labour Parliamentary Candidate in the forthcoming General Election, Kathryn White.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/mar/09/english-defence-league-aylesbury

So in Aylesbury next Saturday let us keep our nerve with these unwanted and unwelcome visitors. As Communities Minister John Denham pointed out, “The tactic of trying to provoke a response in the hope of causing wider violence and mayhem is long established on the far-right and among extremist groups.” Let us remind ourselves of the EDL’s origins which highlights the ambiguous position that the BNP holds in regards to this new combination of football hooligan gangs and street racists. The BNP, and the NF before it, used to openly embrace football hooligans as useful muscle with a fierce nationalist pride. However, demonstrations and punch ups no longer fit with the image that the BNP tries to project, and so the EDL has filled a gap in far right politics that the BNP voluntarily vacated in its pursuit of votes.


The flower of England?

So does England need these “Defenders?” Well, England has defended itself fairly well in the past and I presume will do so very well in the future and the EDL membership will make no contribution either way. Like the ludicrous Nick Griffin, the convicted racist who leads the BNP, who surrounds himself in photo ops with make believe soldiers in battle fatigues the EDL will seek to use the last refuge of a scoundrel and these shower of aggressive, unemployed yobs will wrap themselves in false patriotism, a patriotism which probably doesn’t include not being dole scroungers? You have to wonder about the mentality of people whose idea of a good day out on a Bank Holiday weekend is to hold a market town and its diverse inhabitants to ransom. There is no point in me telling them not to come to Aylesbury for their tribal cow stomping because, lets face it, these yobs didn’t get where they are today by listening to others. There is also the practical point that if they were to get themselves tanked up, fight the other side in a macho male tribal display and then go home and watch their yobbery on TV after a footie match it would cost them a lot more than these members of the underachieving Master Race can afford.

Preserve us from such sham defenders; preserve us from such sham patriots.

The Swiss go Cuckoo

Posters of the far-right Swiss People's Party depicting a woman wearing a burqa against a background of a Swiss flag with several minarets. It reads in French 'Stop - Yes to the ban on minarets'

Switzerland’s popular democracy with the right to call referenda looked far less attractive today as it descended into racism and intolerance. The country voted to ban the construction of new minarets, in a surprise result certain to embarrass the neutral government and which the justice minister said could affect Swiss exports and tourism. The Swiss news agency ATS and other media said about 57.5 percent of voters and all but four of the 26 cantons approved the proposal in the nationwide referendum, which was backed by the right-wing Swiss People's Party (SVP).

The government and parliament had rejected the initiative as violating the Swiss constitution, freedom of religion and the country's cherished tradition of tolerance. The government had said a ban could "serve the interests of extremist circles". "Muslims in Switzerland are able to practise their religion alone or in community with others and live according to their beliefs just as before," it said in a statement. Justice Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf said the outcome of the vote reflected a fear of Islamic fundamentalism, but the ban was "not a feasible means of countering extremist tendencies".



A group of politicians from the SVP, the country's biggest party, and the conservative Federal Democratic Union gathered enough signatures to force the referendum on the initiative. Its campaign poster showed the Swiss flag covered in missile-like minarets and the portrait of a woman covered with a black chador and veil associated with strict Islam.

This is not the SVP’s first run at a deliberately racist campaign. In 2007 it launched a poster campaign depicting three white sheep standing on the Swiss flag, with one craftily kicking away a black sheep, which was plastered on to billboards, into newspapers and posted to every home in a direct mailshot. The poster was, according to the United Nations, the sinister symbol of the rise of a new racism and xenophobia in a country where one in four, like the black sheep in the poster, are now foreign immigrants to this peaceful, prosperous and stable economy with low unemployment and a per capita GDP larger than that of other Western economies.

This latest referendum is a disgrace in a state which found no problem in being bankers to the Nazis and handling stolen goods from around the world generally. Let's go the whole hog and bar steeples, roadside shrines, crosses on the skyline and Stars of David on Synagogue windows? Still, Switzerland’s Cantons were the result of vicious sectarian warfare? This should serve as a warning that the world is still building barriers and stigmatising people based on race and religion. It is surely the mark of a mature and confident society that it welcomes diversity and the contribution of different cultures to enriching society for everybody? It seems the cuckoos in Switzerland are not just in the clocks.