Method In His Madness ?

I must try this when the £1800-odd council tax bill drops through the letterbox :

Anthony Bell, 62, told the court he works directly for UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon and though he was unable to pay his £936.96 bill he was expecting $10,000,000 to be wired to his account from Africa in the next few days.

They were among a number of claims he made under cross-examination by solicitor Eleanor Horner, prosecuting for Cotswold District Council.

He's obviously getting some 419s in his email, the poor soul.

Representing himself, Bell said he was a top world advisor on climate change and was due to address the US senate in the next six weeks.

He said that although he only had 7p to his name, the UN was working hard to pay him millions of dollars.

He also told the court he believed his important foreign work, which includes helping to regenerate Africa, meant he was entitled to diplomatic immunity from council tax.

Bell sought to prove his position at the UN by producing a series of ID cards to magistrates, including memberships for the Royal Society of Arts and the University Club in Washington DC.

He said: "I have been running on my own funds and have spent an enormous amount of time in Washington. When you are working 18 hours a day for the UN, you don't have time to pay your council tax."

Prosecuting for Cotswold District Council, Mrs Horner asked Bell: "If you were struggling to pay, why did you not apply for council tax relief?" He replied: "Do you know what it's like to be extremely busy when you are running Africa?"

Mrs Horner answered: "No."

Among other claims given in his evidence, Bell said he had advised Conservative leader David Cameron and Environment Minister Hilary Benn on climate change issues.

He said he had written the framework for the Copenhagen climate change agreement and he was in regular contact with Cotswold MP Geoffrey Clifton-Brown on the issue.

Bell offered magistrates his views on monitoring CCTV cameras in Cirencester and said he had recently been the victim of several attempts on his life.

During a break in court proceedings, Bell said he had been granted US citizenship because "the FBI are very pleased with what I did for them".

A Renaissance sort of a chap, obviously. You can see why 'they' might want him out of the way. But whatever he is, he's not daft.

The court cancelled the debt – totalling £1,153.96 including court fees and costs.

Mr Bell seems to be getting more change out of his local council than the similarly-challenged former MI5 operative David Shayler :

Glancing along a row of empty seats the judge decided to proceed without Mr Shayler and his fellow squatters, remarking: "This particular lot of trespassers usually make themselves fairly well known if they are going to turn up."

Although bailiffs were expected to arrive within the next few days to serve an eviction notice, it is thought likely that the process could take several weeks.

Speaking outside the farmhouse, about five miles from Guildford, Mr Shayler, barefoot but wearing men's clothing, said that his right to stay in the property rested on his belief that he is a reincarnation of Jesus Christ.

"You are looking at the man who has the power to give all authority on the planet and all wealth," he said.

"We are going to stay, I am the lawful user of this place.

"I have publicly claimed under oath that I am the Lord Jesus Christ which means that I am the highest authority under the law and that trumps everything."

I wonder if MI5 are regretting the day when they decided that alcoholic, promiscuous upper class homosexuals no longer represented their ideal recruiting pool ? Still, I suppose it's always possible that Mr Shayler is still in MI5. He's operating under pretty deep cover if he is.

Audacious £40m Heist

A breathless shop assistant, Mr Mandelson, told the Mail how four smartly dressed men walked into the exclusive Westminster office of the Department for Trade and Industry, held a gun to the head of chief salesman Stephen Byers, and ordered him to hand over Longbridge "or your Birmingham support gets it". "What else could he do ?" said Mr Mandelson.

No prosecutions have followed, or are likely to. "Looks like they got clean away", said Mr Mandelson, who has just returned from recuperating in Corfu and is reported to be "intensely relaxed" following the incident.

More on Birmingham ....

I, like the vast majority of people in Birmingham love the fact that our city is so diverse and vibrant. I felt that this was worth defending, especially from a bunch of trouble makers many of whom were from outside the city.

Unfortunately it turned out the UAF were no more interested in our community than the racists many of us turned out to oppose!

The young Muslims who rampaged through the city streets were incited to violence by UAF activists. I was near the front of the rally in Rotunda Square and I saw how they worked and I saw how it got out of hand.

The UAF should have switched rhetoric when they saw that the young Muslims were getting restless and angry. Instead what they did was get increasingly aggressive speakers to talk about ‘smashing the BNP’ (who not directly involved with the protest) whilst sending agitators into the crowd, with megaphones, to whip up anger there.

The writer of this letter to the Birmingham Post is a young Liberal Democrat.

Nevertheless it was clear that despite a majority of peaceful protesters there was a group of trouble makers intent on causing a fight. The UAF completely ignored this state of affairs and led a series of inflammatory chants and speeches calling for blood shed. When the expected march did not materialise the crowd of youths became restless. UAF agitators in the crowd stirred up trouble using megaphones and some bottles and pieces of wood were thrown at the crowd watching the protest. A great way to get people onside. Eventually the dam broke and the protest crowd surged forwards. I followed as they ran down the street, 'looking for the BNP' scattering both the Police and innocent shoppers, throwing glass bottles and damaging street furniture.
As the Police pushed back I returned to the place where the protest had started. The UAF had vanished, their work as agents provocators done, a riot was now in full swing.
The UAF's actions were insensitive and I believe that they have set the cause of race relations and anti-far right extremism in Birmingham back by years. The sight of young Asian men beating people up and running through the streets seemingly proves everything the BNP says. I have come away with the impression that the UAF is a cowardly organisation that seeks only to provoke violence and causes more harm than good.

Now to be fair, if I understand it correctly, the bottles and bits of wood were thrown - initially, anyway - at the four or five 'come on then' youths the other side of the police cordon - which our writer may not have been able to see. But I take the general point. 'Smash the BNP' to an audience like that translates as 'beat them up' - as approved by Billy Bragg.

And if you can't find any 'BNP', try any young white male. Or middle aged one. Or a bunch of girls and boys out for a drink*. At some point on this continuum - and not very far along it - protest turns into robbery with racist violence.

I wonder if the Guardian will print the letter above ? I wouldn't hold your breath.

(*I have received reports that young people arriving in Brum later that evening for a Saturday night out were beaten and robbed of wallets, mobiles etc by a large gang of doubtless sincere anti-fascists).

Hmmm

"Thamesmead was intended to be a vibrant, riverside community in south-east London."

Birmingham - a few afterthoughts

What appears to have happened in Brum on Saturday seems to fit a pattern that's been apparent since the Oldham, Burnley and Bradford riots.

a) "the provocation". This may be real, as in Oldham, where unpleasant Stoke City supporters abused and (probably) assaulted people on their way to Boundary Park, or imaginary, as in the non-existent "BNP rally" which was the ostensible reason for the 'big' Bradford riot (the earlier Bradford riot had a real trigger). In the case of the Brum trouble the provocation seems to have been a bunch of white guys leaping about and giving it the "come on then" from the far side of a pretty large police cordon. Eventually the police chased them off. Why they didn't quickly surround and arrest the two or three chief offenders I don't know - given the circumstances, "conduct likely to cause a breach of the peace" would seem a reasonable charge. But the chasing off only started once missiles were coming over the cordon.

"me and twos move down new street, as some possible skin heads, possibly just drunk guys come up mouthing off, the protesting mob goes crazy and starts throwing missiles so shoppers scatter while the police chase them down the street then turn on the rest of us taking cover in the alley, while one guy is struck on the head with a brick"

b) the response. Mostly if not always disproportionate to the ostensible provocation. Where the police still control the streets, takes the form of random, opportunistic attacks on whites, with at the most a bit of robbery 'on the side'. Where control is compromised, arson and looting are also prominent.

c) the reporting. Without actually stating so, the reporting will give the impression that injured victims were casualties of 'clashes' or 'fighting' - with the implication that it's six of one and half a dozen of the other. In fact, many if not the majority of casualties are victims of racist gang attacks - for what else can you call half a dozen onto one ?

Let's look at the Mail and Telegraph coverage of Brum - not exactly the left-wing press :

35 arrests in Birmingham after rival protesters clash

But apart from one chap with a Union Flag getting attacked, having it torn from him and burned, rival protesters didn't clash - and a good thing too.

Mass brawl between right-wing group and anti-fascists as race riots spill onto streets of Birmingham

Down on his knees as his attackers' feet fly in, this man's face was left a bloodied mess. It was just one of the sickening scenes photographed when a riot erupted in a city centre after Right-wing protesters clashed with anti-fascist demonstrators.

But there wasn't a mass brawl, and the guy in the green shirt just happened to be in the wrong place with the wrong skin colour (and the guy with the Union Flag who was attacked is shown in another photograph, minus flag, speaking to police. Caption : "Trouble brewing: A man appears to argue with police officers").


If this is the narrative the Mail and Telegraph are handing out, don't look for much from the BBC and Guardian. If the green shirt guy had been Asian being attacked by whites, the "English Defence League" would now be proscribed by law and the victim would be on the news 24/7.

Fame At Last ...

I was on holiday when this came out and missed it completely. Thank you, Ed West.

Blogs like Laban’s have changed the political climate in Britain. It’s one of thousands of similar blogs out there, all telling the truth about demographic change, abortion, the underclass, welfare mismanagement and Government debt. They go where newspapers, with our advertisers and middle-class hypocrisy, sometimes fear to tread, and so these blogs are setting the agenda. Together they chip away at the lies put out by our Government and our political class, and continue an English tradition of freedom-loving that stretches from Hereward to Tom Paine.

It's the chipping away that's important. We can't all be Guido or Iain Dale, so let's do what we may. As Marian and Izz Huett wrote to Angel Clare :

"... continual dropping will wear away a Stone - ay, more - a Diamond".

Not that there's much precious about this government, mind. They're stony broke but that's about as close as they get.

"The Real Face of Fascism"

Morning Star :

But it is with the people of Britain that hope lies. It is with those who took to the streets of Birmingham who showed those spreading hate that such poison will provoke an instant reaction.

Well, yes. Absolutely. An instant reaction. And not just to those spreading hate either (possibly distressing video content in the link) :

"as far as i'm aware the story behind this guy is that two people said to each other "lets rob him" and because they started hitting him ..."

Nasty - looks like a jump to the head from the thug in trackies. If hope lies with him and his mates the future looks bleak.

"... the rest of the crowd, already wound up from the drunk guy gobbing off from earlier all pounced on him with at least 10 or 15 people kicking this guy on the ground. don't think he was EDL but can't confirm ..."

And if he had been demonstrating with the English Defence League it would still have been a disgusting attack. From the comments at Harry's, RandomBrummie :

The majority of the people who were attacked were random passers by. The “fash” as you call them had long gone by then. If you were a White male passing by the crowd you were going to get a kicking. There was even a foreign White guy who made the mistake of taking pictures of what was going on and he was attacked in front of his young baby who was left unprotected in its pram. Granted the majority of the attacks were not as brutal as the pictures on the Daily Mail Website but i still don’t think it should have happened. Ironically the UAF scarpered when they saw what was beginning to happen with the ethnic minority youths attacking innocent White passers by (not saying that a few of the people who were set upon weren’t inciting the minorities because they were, but the vast majority just made the mistake of being in the wrong place at the wrong time) so it seems that the UAF only protest against racism when it is White racism directed towards ethnic minorities, not when it is the other way around.
I was in full support of the UAF originally as i agreed that the EDL were not what they seemed but after seeing what ended up happening i have changed my opinion completely.

I just thank god that i am a female so was not in the roaming youths line of fire.

As I wrote back in May :

I do not approve of beating up innocent people, be they respectable fast-food vendors of the wrong ethnicity in Luton or respectable fathers of the wrong religion in Coleraine.

Better add white Brummies to that.