Blowing in the Wind!

More, it is 'Whispering into the Face of the Gale!' is it not?

After a period of troublesome silence- excruciatingly exacerbated through unhelpful changes made to Blogger- I find that I am again, against the tide, free (almost) to express myself. For that at least I am grateful. And, at a time of such jack-boot-and-nationalistically-enforced silence?

Initially, serving as the source, I noted two half-hidden news stories. Then I dug a little deeper and wondered if it might be possible to join up several corresponding dots. Invariably, I find, there are dots to be joined- all too often easily done, once they have been unearthed! A greater concern is that these dots are not properly connected by our MSM. Maybe that, right there, is another 'dot' to be worked into the bigger picture? Let's see.

So, let us begin with the first dot, here separated into two parts. Please follow the links for further details. Dot One, Part A concerns freelance journalist Andy Aitchison (46), who was hoping to properly cover the ongoing story of Napier Barracks in Folkstone. To summarise as briefly as I feel able, Napier Barracks is currently being used to 'house' (imprison really) several hundred asylum seekers. The site is little spoken about in our MSM, as Ms Patel (Home secretary) attempts to, swiftly and without due process, dismiss their pleas for asylum, whereby they may be 'silently' dumped somewhere beyond our shores, perhaps tipped into the sea if Ms Patel has her way?

On Thursday morning Andy was arrested at his home, then detained in a police cell for a further five hours, before being released on bail. He has been instructed not to attend the barracks in the meantime. Both the National Union of Journalists and the local Conservative MP have expressed their concerns.

Those being detained in the barracks are currently undergoing an outbreak of Coronavirus- over 100 positive cases as of Sunday, 31st January. I am assuming that our government has 'elected' not to publish figures for deaths in asylum 'camps,' much like they have preferred not to report on positive cases and deaths amongst teachers or, earlier in the pandemic, to draw attention to consequent deaths in care homes. On Friday afternoon a fire broke out inside Napier Barracks, source unknown at the time of writing.

Dot one, Part B, concerns another freelance journalist, one Denise Laura Baker, who was covering the more known about HS2 demonstrations at Euston. Denise had been on the site for several days, prior to the police beginning to evict protesters. On Saturday, 30th January, she was challenged, whereupon she was able to demonstrate her legitimacy via her NUJ card. Shortly afterwards she was cuffed, when she did not reveal potential outlets for the story, and taken to Kentish Town Station. Denise has been informed that she is to be issued with a Covid fine. Both Denise Laura Baker and Andy Aitchison, both in their capacity as freelance journalists, believe that their arrest was made in an attempt to prevent them from reporting upon the issue in hand.

Given that a great many individuals are not only encouraged, more instructed, to travel in to work, often upon crowded and non-Covid-safe transport, and then to spend their days in also-non-Covid-safe offices and other work environments, it is a puzzle as to quite why Denise and Andy have been so determinedly targeted, although not really. Both are of the belief- I am inclined to concur- that their detention and harassment has been a form of state censorship. One merely needs to properly open one's eyes to see that such actions are now quite commonplace in the UK. Meanwhile, notice how Ms Patel seeks to blame the UK's high infection-rate instead upon other-and-often lesser culprits, waving her red-flag of fines before the nation's eyes.

Naive individuals, those who were blind to Hillsborough and continue to be blind to Orgreave and the ongoing internal struggle within the Labour Party, may 'tut' and wet a forefinger before hunkering down inside the pages of a favourite tabloid (or similar substitute). For the rest, fear not, Lord John Mann, or perhaps another like Lord Ian Austin, Baroness Kate Hoey or Lord John Woodcock (passionate supporter of arms sales to Saudi Arabia), may champion the cause of 'free speech!' That is unless...

It really is truly astonishing that such a crew as those former Labour MPs, knighted care of PM Johnson, can still be presented in the MSM as having somehow 'realigned' from worker supporting MPs to pro-inequality and anti-democratic sleepers in the space of so few months. Kate Hoey- friend of Farage- virtually spent her final days in the Commons raising two fingers to her voters. And, all so comfortably within easy memory of the New Labour 'cash for honours' scandal. So £300 a day for the rest of one's life is the current going rate, is it? Oh well, that's democracy, as some of our media pundits say. If they continue to say it loud enough and often enough who can imagine where they'll end up- cite Paul Dacre. Mmmm!

Whilst it is generally accepted that the UK Free Press is far from 'free,' whilst it is roundly known, amongst those not half asleep, that TV and Radio Stations do not properly represent anything like a full spectrum of political opinion, somehow there is to be found ever further room for yet more-and-more right-wing diatribe. Andrew Neil's spittle-flecked rage (GB News) will shortly be gracing the airways- holding former Conservative Councillor Timothy Davie's BBC's feet to the fire, as will Murdoch's Fox News (UK), just to balance the scales as 'twere. The (no longer) United Kingdom, on a severely downward trajectory, currently ranks thirty-fifth in the world in terms of politically-balanced news reporting- behind all of those European countries with which we are currently wrangling, just ten places above the US, the nation at which we have all been encouraged to chuckle of late. So, do we imagine that the addition of GB News and Fox will be able to move the UK above thirty-fifth, or perhaps drag it to somewhere below even the States?

So, returning to the championing (former Labour MP?) Lord Mann- Dot number two- appointed by err, oops! Anyway, Lord Mann, in his capacity of curiously promoting anti-Semitism, via his given role of anti-Semitism Tzar, has stated that he wishes to clamp down upon sites such as, obviously, the racist Sun and similar Daily Mail. Only joking! He has instead targeted fastidiously anti-racist sites such as Skwawkbox and the Canary. Lord Mann shouts very loudly when required to, especially when there may be a pre-arranged TV crew on hand, yet he struggles rather with more cerebral matters. So, it is a mighty fine good fortune that freelance journalists such as Denise and Andy are not at hand to question and thus clarify Lord Mann's take upon anti-Semitism. Clearly Lord Mann has (yet again) 'mistaken' 'anti-socialism' for 'anti-Semitism,' thus will, by default, be driving greater anti-Semitic argument. We are correct to doubt that any of the following (retweeters) will be questioning Lord Mann: Laura Kuenssberg, Robert Peston, Andrew Neil, Andrew Marr. Curious, isn't it, how Kuenssberg and Peston are always the first to be leaked the latest government 'initiative' (U-turn), or permitted the first Covid-update 'question.' Ever wondered why they're not particularly probing questions? Who better to sort out and adjudge on issues such as political balance than Paul Dacre (Ofcom)! Ta-dah!

Heads may well be scratched at Lord Mann's specific targeting of two such lesser-known news outlets when there are currently quite so many far more prominent alternatives, that regularly spout racist ideology, from which to choose! One wonders quite what Lord Mann will make of GB News or Fox News? Only joking! Donkeys may nod abstractedly!

The Opposition, of which there is currently none in the Commons, is meanwhile busily redefining racism within its own ranks, such that Lord Mann's route through the Looking Glass is not to be impaired. Of note, there have been numerous readmissions to the Labour Party, of those recently unjustly expelled, just as those such as Rachael Riley (numbers bod and self appointed anti-Semitism stooge) are more frequently now having to retract their censoring tweets, another Dot but, in this instance, something of an aside.

Which brings us 'nicely' up to speed. I shall attempt to round things up here by skipping along the Mediterranean, to Israel- the nation currently leading the globe in Covid vaccinations! Except, of course, what is not properly being reported- likely it is in many of those thirty-four countries ranked above the UK- is the Israeli Government's approach to (not) ensuring that the Palestinians are also being vaccinated. We remember Palestine, don't we, the nation that has been illegally occupied by Israel for over half a century. The cost to the global economy that Vaccine Nationalism may wreak is currently estimated to be £1.2 trillion per annum, something that the Israeli and UK Governments should (but won't) consider.

So Dot three, Israel! And there, right there, goes my Labour Party membership! Oh well! Dot three, part A concerns a recently compiled report by B'Tselem, who has declared Israel to currently be operating as an apartheid regime. B'Tselem, for those wishing to know, is the largest human rights organisation operating within the state of Israel. In their report B'Tselem has stated that Israel does not need to declare itself to be an apartheid state in order to be one. What matters, B'Tselem has made clear, is that Israel's actions define it as a nation, not the (misinformation) statements that it pushes out to the rest of the world. From this onlooker, thank you, B'Tselem! Thank you very much! Encouragement indeed to BDS!

Dot three, part B concerns another very welcome report. This one from the International Criminal Court, which has made clear to Israel, and to the wider world, that the ICC has jurisdiction in Palestine, to rule and to prosecute on war crimes perpetrated in the occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip. Benjamin Netanyahu has, of course, reacted as one might expect. To draw a neat comparison with the current UK, Israel, under its also-current 'leadership' regards itself as "having taken back control" (ref. Michael Gove). The significance of both parts A and B, notably within the UK's reporting of such, may be reflected in the reaction of the Guardian Newspaper which has elected to report on both issues- might upset a couple of its journo-team. Breath holding with regards to other news outlets in the country could well prove fatal! Merely joining up the dots could be considered an anti-Semitic trope inside the Labour Party, fast becoming a hollowed out shell under the auspices of Sir Keir. Could it also be considered as anti-Semitic to here question Starmer's genuine commitment to (that fleeting 'moment' of) anti-racism? Something positive, amongst all the carnage, and just when we all thought that the Labour Party had half gotten away with throwing Palestine under a proverbial bus!

And don't forget, in the good ol' UK, even when kids continue to go hungry, never should the chance to skim a full £25 quid off the top of an already miserly £30 food parcel, teaspooned into a clear bin bag, be permitted to go begging. Clapping on the streets again, anyone? Perhaps if we clap loudly enough there will be no need for food parcels! #IStandWithKenLoach