It seems like there is a project underway aiming to Bait Bush. He’s here on the 15th and although I have no idea what exactly the plan is I am certain that I want in.

The government is, apparently, considering concessions on the 42 Day Detentions. These will be much the same as the concessions over the 10p tax band, I fear. That is, a meaningless fudge designed to allow MPs to live with their consciences while failing to address key objections to the measure:

Ministers want to extend the limit suspects can be held without charge to 42 days, which many Labour MPs oppose.

To avoid losing a Commons vote, the government is to suggest halving the period during which police can enact these extra powers from 60 to 30 days.

To translate: special powers to detain suspects for 42 days without charge will remain on the cards. The only thing that’s changed in when police are allowed to use those powers, not that they’ll have them.

Which is a shame, as most objections to the bill are over the very fact that police could hold people without charge for 42 days.

Further evidence that the government hopes to pass the bill by fudge and fudge alone comes here:

The government wants to secure the support of the nine Democratic Unionist Party MPs for its plans.

One possibility might be with offers of seats on the intelligence and security select committee.

Or it could be by ensuring income from the sale of surplus Army land in Northern Ireland stays locally, rather than going to the Treasury.

Now, a test for you: spot the part of that deals with persuading those MPs with rational (hah…) argument rather than making shady backroom deals that have nothing to do with the substance of the bill.

Did you find it? No, me neither…

Brown says he’d rather “do the right thing” and lose than back down. Unfortunately, he doesn’t seem to realise that the right thing is to lose.

The Telegraph hosts a blog by Richard Barnbrook, it seems. A sample from his latest post:

Well let me tell you that times are changing. This is our city and we are going to take it back. We are going to take all the weapons of (sic) the streets even if that means sending in the Army to do it… if immigrants don’t like it then they know where the airport is

That’s it, you heard him - the army! Zieg Heil! Zieg Heil! Brutalise those fuckers to the max…

The Torygraph falls further in my estimation every day. Most of what’s in the wretched publication is bullshit. That they now host fascist bullshit is even worse…

The Tory Troll has a more thorough dissection than I’ve time for now, should you be interested in feeling ill…

Michelle Malkin is left bitter. LOL.

Now, prepare to be confused.

(more…)

Here’s what he really thinks:

“The people who have the brains and ability got out (of London) years ago, one way or another. The people who are left are either the 15 per cent of the population who are happy to put up with it, they’re so decadent they actually like it, or they are too stupid to do anything about it. They will vote BNP, but you can’t build a movement on those people.” - Nick Griffin 1997

Presumably, then, his “solutions” for London will involve the following:

1. The forcible resettlement on the, “decadent,” the “stupid,” and, of course, the blacks.
2. The forcible resettlement of those with “brains and ability” (and bigotry) in Mile End.

If UAF wanted to slash the BNP’s vote, they’d do worse to start by printing that on billboards across the capital…

(Hat tip: Tory Troll)

The GLA met for the first time yesterday. The most active element of the day wasn’t the Assembly - which rumbled its way along much as usual.

More vocal opposition was left to the angry mob predictably and joyously gathered outside of City Hall variously calling for Richard Barnbrook to be shunned, kicked out and/or swiftly castrated. Equally predictably, Barnbrook played the victim. Unconvincingly, of course. He was probably confused as to whether he was meant to be St. George or the maiden…

Unfortunately, some are likely to believe Barnbrook. His case here is basically sound. Much as we hate it, he was elected to the Assembly. To deprive him of his seat would be to disenfranchise the 5.33% who voted for him - and he’d play that for all it’s worth. Mainstream politics will be painted as corrupt and hypocritical, and the BNP will solidify its hold on that 5.33%. We can’t afford that.

Instead, we must focus on more elegant solutions with which to screw Barnbrook. The first is simple: just let him do his job. Elected BNP officials have an unsurprising tendency towards ineptitude. Anecdotal evidence suggests they rarely bother to turn up. In areas where BNP councillors have been elected, they’ve usually lost their jobs quite soon.

Given Barnbrook’s bumbling performances so far, I see no reason to think he’ll be any different. Anyone who can look at that St. George’s Day video and see a competent man needs an eye-test. And possibly a labotomy.

So Barnbrook may well perform badly anyway - and cause a drop in the BNP vote, all on his own.

The GLA can help him there. Far from excluding him, they should give him jobs. Lots of them. Jobs on dead-end committees; jobs where he has to work with the non-whites and gays his party hates; jobs which will repulse him so much he’ll contemplate quitting. Put him into close contact with Bengali community groups, with Muslims, with representations from the RMT. Include him - but make sure he’ll hate that inclusion much as he hates all inclusion.

Yesterday’s vote on Deputy Chair would be a great example, were it not (I suspect) entirely accidental. The Tories put up a non-white candidate, Tony Arbour. The leftie grouping on the Assembly put forward Darren Johnson. Barnbrook voted for Darren Johnson.

I don’t think he knew Johnson is gay. His facial contortions might have been entertaining otherwise…

The more situations that are engineered like that, the more Richard will feel like a turd (hah…). And so his work will decline, and with it his share of the vote.

This is the man you elected to the Assembly:

I hope he’s to your liking…

Actually, while I’m on the BNP, have a read of this, if you haven’t seen it already.  Well worth reading, and spot on…

That’s easy - a raging hypocrite and laughingstock.

He was, however the stalking terror. The one feared by the self-styled anti-nazis of prominence at LMHR, the one used to stir up voters by all three parties, the one who made all sources beg to get out the vote and dilute the power of a hard-core of racists. He was also the one that filled me with horror and shock when it was announced the BNP had won via top-up. At the head of the Party List that the BNP assembled they placed the name of their candidate for mayor.

Barnbrook is perhaps atypical of the standard BNP member. Firstly he is responsible for a film named HMS Discovery: A Love Story, which features whipping, gay sex and some naked chaps jumping into a river. His name is on the credits reel but he claims not to have written:

“It bares you like a foreskin’s folds”

Which is a pity because I find that quite beautiful. Or:

“Open-mouthed, I shall dream of altar boys.”

Which is probably for the best, really.

It actually sounds like it might be worth a viewing, perhaps even a public screening somewhere. I’m just not sure that this is exactly the representative that most of the party would have in mind for themselves.

If you want to find it, it’s filed under “Marxism”.

Secondly he was, at least at one point, proposed to Simone Clarke; the notorious BNP ballerina. He arranged a counter-protest to the one staged by UAF at her first public performance after The Guardian revealed her BNP membership in 2006. That aside their relationship, indeed her political affiliations, were rendered rather odd given that she had a half-Asian daughter aged 4 at the time. Barnbrook once remarked that “I’m not opposed to mixed marriages but their children are washing out the identity of this country’s indigenous people.”

Worse was to follow, though as the News of the World released an expose of his cheating ways, saying that he had slept to a woman who was not only not his partner but not from this country. Apparently he had had an almost affair with none other than a Finnish lady who he sent photos of his genitals to prior to their first actual meeting.

As you might have guessed in some respects this has not gone down too well with the far-right. Those I spoke to on the issue mentioned that Barnbrook’s organisation London BNP operates as an almost autonomous unit and, although nowhere near as opposed to Griffin as Yorkshire division, seems not to need him. Given that the BNP achieved only a quarter of what they had hopes for. On one level, then, the GLA seat serves as a consolation prize for the weakness of the party advance, while on the other the relative triumph of an internal organisation that operated apart from the rest of the party must leave a bitter taste through implicit comparison to the rest.

Regardless, Griffin could unquestionably have hoped for a more appropriate champion.

So it seems that the racist, homophobic BNP have placed into their most powerful position yet a director of a gay film that has had not only an affair but also been caught in an affair with an immigrant.

Still, the Finn only discovered her “average” lover’s political views upon finding a copy of Mein Kamph under the bed, a book that Griffin considers to contain “Some really useful ideas”. So there’s hope yet.

“Good for politics, good for London.”

I’m going to stop myself plunging off of the handle here. It’s a powerful temptation but I’m going to play up the optimism and tone down the woe as much as possible. We’ve lost a fine leader and are going to be a socialist out-post no longer. This is a true pity and it remains to be seen how much of the good can get over-turned. Ken was humble and calm and made me miss him instantly, taking all of the blame personally. I would also, however, blame Paddick who remains entirely inexplicable to me, especially now he revealed his secret second preference party of choice was not Labour, as I had assumed, but instead the Left List. If he’d said it then perhaps they’d have gotten a headline or two and not had to sneak onto the front-page via a few of their signs being held at the NUT strike.

But I’m only bad-mouthing the Trots to make myself feel better. It’s a miserable event, the Tories even sweeping well past the 9 required to 11. I’m still not sure about that, though: coverage has been a total mess and most of the sources we used to follow it {the Guardian and Stop Boris} admitted as much.

On the bright side…

He’s probably the best member of the Conservative Party going.

He’s suggested that getting rid of Brown and replacing him with Miliband would be wise. That is correct.

Ken gets more time with his five children.

Ken might come back, who knows.

Perhaps this first, early dosage of Tory smugness will give me some degree of immunity from a general election win.

The BNP have not made as great an advance as could have occurred, although still expanding their vote. Given that UKIP are no longer really of note and the English Democrats are still a bad joke this
should concern them and encourage us. Barnbrook got a seat, which might mean that the party holds itself together, but I’m sure that Douglas & his Green chums at the GLA could arrange a viewing of HMS Discovery in City Hall in honour of that. Turning woe into lulz is win.

There is bad stuff, of course. The gas guzzlers will go unhindered and unharassed, free to spill their C02 while the housing plans he has in mind are shoddy nonsense. His approach to crime is vague and idiotic and his head seems to have been turned thoroughly by editing the Spectator. A supporter of Bush is going to struggle to represent London properly and I imagine that his comments about Islam could, if repeated, spark a riot or two. He could be a Tory puppet, which would effectively leave the Conservative Party in command of the city. At best he will ruin everything and frighten the voters away come the general, which rather seems to treat London as a city sacrifice.

Who knows, perhaps he’ll do a fine job. We have to hope. That’s all we can do, at the moment.

Yes yes, I know I know. I’m perfectly aware that after the last two posts you may well think you’ve had enough of hearing about them after all that.

No you haven’t.

This article starts off jaw-droppingly shocking and then grows belly-achingly hilarious when it reaches his excuses. Somehow I suspect that this man’s career not only as a politician but as an anything may have just ended forever. Still, at least he is an equal opportunities extremist sympathiser: apparently he has actually spoken to black people. On the radio of all places, imagine!

Seriously though, if only Nick Griffin were as blatant.