Wednesday, March 25, 2009

the numbers game

The SWP have become notorious for their habit, ever since the huge anti war demo of 2003, of seeing the validity and success of anything by how many people turn out. This has led to the repeated declaration of "this is the largest demonstration ever!" from podiums in front of rapidly and visibly diminishing crowds.
The SWP meanwhile have managed to alienate a large element of their previous audience; first through their vain pursuit of an electoral breakthrough and their courting of Muslems as a new oppressed who could be dragooned to provide a voting block. Then by rowwing with their new saviour the stalinist thug and all round lover of dictators, George Galloway they managed to alienate those (very few) who had been attracted by RESPECT.
I suppose that I am the only person in the world who still bothers to look at the SWP's rump respect website, renamed repeatedly but currently called "The Left Alternative". I was very interested to read about something that the rest of us had managed to miss:

Thousands join Unite Against Fascism demo
23/06/2008
Up to 10,000,000 anti-fascist protestors took to the streets on Saturday as part of a demonstration, organised by Unite Against Fascism (UAF) and Love Music Hate Racism (LMHR), against the British National Party. The demo was organised in protest against the BNP presence on the London Assembly and their electoral gains in the May elections this year.

Thats right, 10 million marched through London!
Fucking fantasists!


now you might say that anyone might make a typo, but to have one of that size on the front page of your site for nearly a year without anyone noticing, or caring.

your days of plenty are at an end

Much pompous bullshit is being written about the attack upon Goodwin's house, apparently, a broken window and a dented beemer is only on step away from full on terrorist war. these are a couple of comments that I wrote elsewhere:
If bankers like goodwin aren’t responsible then who is? These bastards are living the good life whilst the decisions they take destroy the lives of millions- a little payback that punctures their secure comfortable lives is to be welcomed.It is a long way away from carrying out executions of the bourgeoisie.
However there is a valid argument that they should pay for the lives that they destroy. That the blood that is shed by the sterile sweep of a pen should be repaid in kind.that the balance sheet adjustment that sweeps away industries and condemns communities to slow death should be answered with rage. that the "regrettable but necessary economies" that closes hospitals and results in unnecessary and pain filled suffering and early deaths does deserve retribution. If those who did these things were afraid that their crimes would be avenged, they might pause and think again.

They make their decisions safe in the knowledge that the effects would never touch them. Not because they intended to destroy lives or gain pleasure through others pain, but because they couldn’t give a shit for the effects it would have. Profit has been their god, and even as that god fails they walk away scot free learning nothing and caring less.

Make them fear.

"Just the Beginning"

From BBC news

The Edinburgh home of former Royal Bank of Scotland boss Sir Fred Goodwin has been attacked by vandals overnight.
Windows were smashed and a Mercedes S600 car parked in the driveway was vandalised.
A group complaining about bank executives has contacted a newspaper claiming to be behind the attack.
There has been widespread public and political anger over a pension payout worth about £700,000 a year to the 50-year-old former chief executive.
Sir Fred took early retirement from RBS last year after the bank needed a £20bn bailout from the government.
Last month, RBS reported that it made a loss of £24.1bn in 2008 - the largest annual loss in UK corporate history.
When Sir Fred stepped down from the post in October, he rejected Government pressure to accept a reduction in his package, insisting that changes to the early retirement deal he had negotiated were "not warranted".
The payout was described as "obscene" and "grotesque" by MPs and "unjustifiable and unacceptable" by Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
It is not known if anyone was in the house at the time of the attack or who reported the vandalism.
A spokesman for the Royal Bank of Scotland said short term security arrangements had been put in place at Sir Fred's Edinburgh home, and that these were still operational during the time of the attack.
The bank would not confirm what these security measures entailed.
However, earlier this month it emerged that the bank was paying about £290 per month for security, which included CCTV monitoring of the house and security staff for Sir Fred.
A police car is now guarding the entrance to Sir Fred's home, in the Grange area of the city.
Three smashed ground-floor windows of the stone villa were clearly visible.

A Mercedes S600 car parked in the driveway was damaged
In the driveway, the rear window of a dark-coloured Mercedes saloon was smashed, as well as the nearside rear passenger window.
There were no obvious signs of activity inside the house.
A Lothian and Borders Police spokeswoman said they were called out at 0435 GMT.
She said: "Inquiries in relation to the incident are ongoing. We are appealing for witnesses."
A statement was issued to Edinburgh's Evening News on Wednesday morning by a group which claimed it was behind the attack.
It said: "We are angry that rich people, like him, are paying themselves a huge amount of money, and living in luxury, while ordinary people are made unemployed, destitute and homeless.
"This is a crime. Bank bosses should be jailed. This is just the beginning."

Saturday, March 21, 2009

good arguments for shooting former nazis #1

Honestly, why has nobody put a bullet in this misogynistal scumbags skull?

Wednesday, March 04, 2009

a starter for ten





Something fishy is going on at University Challenge. After a deluge of press attention over the sight of an intelligent woman!!! being cleverer than the male contestants. the BBC have now disqualified the winning team after it was found that one of its members had left university and found a job in the time between the first two rounds and the final.
what is odd is that the BBC seem to not noticed that the university year ends in May and therfore if you record the rounds before May and the final in the autumn, then at least a third of possible students will have left and found employment elsewhere.
does that mean that third year students are now disqualified from taking part in University challenge? in case they do not go into post graduate education but instead return to the real world.