I Care, Does He?

Introductions are in order…

Meet Brian Robinson. A councillor in the quaint and beautiful Forest of Dean….

Brian has done many many things in his community.

Hes been a councillor. 

Hes been a school governor.

he stuck up for Councillor Edwards when she was off on long term sick (and had moved out of the area) and put forward  a vote that she still get paid £4,500  

In 2016 he claimed £860 in travelling allowances on top of his £9,000 stipend. 

You get the idea… He cares for his community… He cares for kids… 

This Brian is a nice guy! 

You know what? 

He also helps run a council road users campaign called i care do you! 

See his Sainthood is virtually guarenteed! 

Ah… But… This man who cares for his constituents SO MUCH that her has saved them £600 my cancelling a school bus. 

It’s only 23 kids. It’s just under 3 miles. The roads not too bad

So… Let’s look at the figures 
The bus savings are £600.

So the  children’s safety is worth 170 pounds less than his travel expenses.

The children’s safety is worth £8,000 less than his representing their parents.

The children’s safety is worth£3,900 less than a councillor who has moved and can no longer represent her constituents.
Welcome to councillor Robinson’s world.
Go to the forest road safety page. “I care do you” like the page, post on the page with polite comments asking why the council thinks so little of its future. Ask them what makes a councillor so much more valuable than 23 children’s safety.
Then sign the petition…

https://www.change.org/p/carla-turner-child-safety-harrow-hill-via-drybrook-to-dene-magna?recruiter=350644504&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=share_petition&utm_content=fht-13792545-en-gb%3Av6

A hospital in cinderford…. 

There has been a lot of talk recently …

The local NHS commissioning group alongside various local politicians (cinderford labour party councillors  for one) have been proposing the idea for a single hospital…

With half the number of beds…

So as your local bloggers we ran a simple test….

A person in Blakeney has an appointment in Cinderford at 10am.
(For this purpose we had a real appt at the health centre in cinderford ).

A bus was caught from blakeney at around 9.30. After some very fast walking/ jogging our volunteer got to his 10am appt at 10.04….

An hour latet the appt finished, our willing volunteer (a reasonably healthy 50 year old) waited at cinderford bus station

An hour and a half later… He was still waiting….

2hours later he was cursing not coming by car, freezing cold and growling at passers by…

The cold hard truth was. To travel by public transport to cinderford meant leaving at 9.10 to get to an appt at ten four minutes late.

Then… Waiting from 11 oclock until the 13.27 bus. A five hour round trip that could have been done in half of the time by car…

TWO HOURS WAITING IN THE COLD.

Luckily our test subject just got grumpy.

But would you leave your gran, your mum to get cold waiting for two hours on a january morning?

Any attempt to close our hospitals must be met with a huge improvement in our transport network.

We know our public services arent joined up. Lets not leave the under priveleged further behind….

Activism and mental health 

This is a more personal blog than normal…. 
No rants against the system or tirades against the government, no defence of wildlife of the working class…
For many years I’ve been an activists of some sort or other. From fighting the met police in defense of migrants and the working class, to confusing provincial police forces in defence of the environment against fracking and wildlife culling. 

Due to my words and actions I’ve become known , liked and hated in equal measures.
I’ve also found it harder and harder to control my own mental health. The sad thing is that activists have an ideal to mainain and I can no longer do that. With certain campaigns you are marginalised. Certain actions and words instead of receiving a calm arm round the shoulder asking what’s going on are condemned. Even reported to the police. 
The mental health service themselves are woefully over stretched. The few who are there do their best to help. And diagnosis drugs and treatment follow. (Which are in themselves a defence against the “activists” accusations !) But a cure or respite often seems long in coming…. 
However…. We need to embrace the mental health issues of our colleagues… If our campaigns become “mainstream” and cut out those on the outside, they lose their inate power. 
Antifa, the class war, fox hunting, the badger cull … These are things that may or may not be supported by the mainstream…

Yes the mainstream don’t like the idea of Nazis people hunting foxes etc etc … But they don’t get out there and stop it. They are things fought against by the perennial outsider. For every ten letters to the local papers there is one person on the ground.

They may look invincible. They may seem superhuman, to the letter writers but they are the same. They have the same needs and wants as anyone and are often more willing to fight back due to their precarious mental nature.
So let’s not sideline or forget them …
Put your arms around them and welcome them. 
Who knows one day you may be glad of them ……

St Jeremy and the Anarchists

A modern parable…
Who knew an old previously unremarkable career politician could unite the far left behind him and polarise views so much.

It is now a hanging offence in many circles to critique St Jez of Islington. And let’s be honest he’s better than the other lot. But at the end of the day he’s a career politician. Far from being a renegade against the Westminster elite he is one of them.

Now he’s suffered some ridiculous smears the IRA one springs to mind, but between him and his london Mayor he’s socially cleansing london estates. Communities are being devasted in and around London. Gentrification is rife, fine if you fancy spending five pounds on a bowl of sugar puffs served by the obligatory bearded hipster. Great if you fancy a Lebanese Korean fusion latte, or want to spend a tenner on a bottle of craft beer. But frankly devasting for families on those estates, torn away, many from the only homes they ever had.

He’s taken some heat over trident. Well frankly good. Spending hundreds of billions renewing trident makes no sense in the first place, it makes marginally less sense if you say you’ll never use it. Here’s a thought just say you’ve renewed it and give the money to people using FOODBANKS.

But the real problem I have is anarchists… And I should know I’m one myself.

Suddenly a mildly socialist person turns up at the head of a party still effectively holding the centre ground. And suddenly everyone wants to vote st Jez.

In fact if you don’t accept that the only right and proper way forward is to vote for the party promising 10,000 more police you are a secret tory.

If you don’t want to vote for the party aiming for 1000 extra prison officers and 1000 extra border guards you are in the government’s pocket.
I’d like a new option. 
None of the above.
Without the support of a party in parliament st Jez is a paper tiger. Nothing will be achieved.
If you are a single issue voter then fine vote labour…  If you oppose the Westminster elite…  Don’t vote.
But don’t go around criticising people who refuse to endorse the political system.

They aren’t confused 

They aren’t secret Tories.
They just don’t want to endorse a party of nuclear arms and social cleansing.


 And after the election you’ll be standing shoulder to shoulder with them again whoever wins
….

Democracy in a post capitalist society

So….
The Tory party have called a snap election so let’s look at the choices…
Tory…
Well if you think the NHS is worth less than trident. And let’s be honest since the fall of the Berlin Wall the whole nuclear policy is ill conceived. Currently we fight Daesh, and let’s be honest the only boots on the ground are roving bands of antifascists with the PKK…. 

They cut disability benefits …. Food bank use is up 20% on an annual basis …

EMPLOYED NURSES ARE HAVING TO USE FOODBANKS..
Let that sink in…. 

THE PEOPLE WHO SAVE YOUR LIFE ARE USING FOODBANKS.

So, I’ll vote labour…
Cos mr corbyn is such a nice man..

Yes ofcourse I realise that the Labour Party support trident (see above) 

But they also support social housing. Apart from the estates in London they have evicted tenants from, many who’ve been there for decades, and sold the ground off to developers….

Now on a personal note I spent many a happy summer on estates in north and east London with aunts, grandparents, uncles, and all of those estates are being redeveloped and gentrified.

But that’s okay. Cos now I live in the country, too upset to stay n the London  I loved, 
But wait …. Local pubs bought by rich developers shut for years and redeveloped into luxury weekend homes for those who can afford it. 
So I’ll vote green… 

But wait I don’t live in Brighton…. And, even if I did the Green Party voted to reduce workers wages … 

The Green Party agreed with austerity cuts. 
Let’s  be honest, the Green Party are a middle class protest vote, I hate the incinerator, cos it’s too close to my home I hate the nuclear reactor, cos i live within the fallout area.
So I’ll vote UKIP 
Well no… Cos frankly I’m not a cunt. 
Lib dem?

Yes … Ofcourse con-dem kinda killed that.
So I won’t vote, because I’m apathetic?

No I care so much it fucking hurts

So I won’t vote because the parties don’t engage with me?

No they have tried and I think they are all useless. 
Theresa May…. Political elitist

Jeremy Corbyn …. Political elitist

Tim farron… Homophobic political elitist 

Paul nuttal …. Nazi

Green person… Middle class apologist.

So I won’t vote because my father fought for the rights…

He had a choice of a candidate who cared for him. 

I won’t vote because my great grandmother Picketed for the right to vote

She had a chance to vote for someone who cared for her rights 

Now the election will be decided by the media, the head of bskyb has more power than Theresa May.
The election will be decided by a billionaire running the sun.

All I have left is direct action. 
All I have left is protest, 
I hope we can inspire a new generation. 
Not to vote for a political elite. But to fight back against them 
If you vote for them… You legitimise them.
Fight back

They said it would be all over by Christmas….

So, in Gloucestershire the government’s fourth annual sponsored badger persecution has finished. 
Year 4 of 4 of their test on free shooting has been done.
So what have they achieved? 
Well, an awful lot of normal glos folk are now a lot less trusting of the police, and far more cynical about their motives. On the bright side they are also a lot most knowledgable about their rights. One of my favourite memories is of a law abiding pensioner, masked up, and refusing to give a copper her name. 

They have watched for four years as Btb rises in the cull zones. Sadly this hasn’t made them think they are doing something wrong, but then making governments think is a tricky affair, possibly even impossible, and makes you wonder the reason they tested no badgers for Btb…

They have however made people think. These same people who he government has for want of a better word radicalised, are now joining the fight against fox hunting. The cull has shown them that hunt saboteurs are not a mythical ninja group with special powers, just ordinary folk (and quick tip, if you want to help or donate to them, choose your local group and contact them direct, don’t send it to the hsa).

They proved fairly early on that badgers can’t be free shot effectively and resorted to cage trapping…. Still, who doesn’t love cage dancing.  

They have spent a colossal amount of cash, tens of millions. So if you’re in glos and wondering why you no longer have a local police station (to hand yourself into) them thank the nfu. If you’re in glos and wondering why your bus services are cut thank the Tories. 

They have validated direct action. Badgers were saved in all the cull zones, not by the hard work of NGOs and charities petitioning parliament. But by boots, wellies and in some cases crocs on the ground. Not to say that the “badger army” did nothing. The profile raising and fund raising was absolutely necessary. They made the people in black and camo wearing masks in the dead of night the good guys. They shouted down the nfu press steam roller. And because of them, badgers were saved… Even the wounded badger patrols were direct action, although they won’t thank me for saying it. 

They made criminal damage socially acceptable. People who would have tutted under their breath at throwing  a brick at a window, clapped you on the back for trashing a badger cage. (By the same token they have made anarchist more socially acceptable)

And lastly, they gave me some friends I’ll have for life. Friends I would and have back up no matter what. And that is the one thing I thank them for.

Criminality and Incompetence

Themis…

For those of you without a knowledge of Greek mythology is one of the Titans.

She was often pictured blindfold with scales.
Themis was the goddess of a civilized human existence, of natural justice and fairness.

Her Roman name was justitia, we know her as the figure atop the old Bailey, madam justice.
How ironic that gloucester police used this epithet for their operations policing the badger cull and the badger cull area. 


Lest we forget, despite the threats and the assaults on badger cull protesters, or as the more politically correct are want to call them wildlife protectors. Despite ladies being followed, run over, men being assaulted, shots being fired over people’s heads, nothing was done…

Actually that’s a lie, a man, or so some would call him was blocked in, after running a last over…. The witnesses were given harassment notices.

Now …. Martin Surl will tell you that that was in the past, and liaison is so much better these days…

More lies.
What they call liaison is in fact a cost cutting exercise… Year one they reported every badger cage missing. Just driving behind a badger killer would get you a harrasment notice. And walking through a field with a torch was an act of criminality.
However they got clever…. Years two and three they have got clever… They have “listened” and now want to “engage”.

We have lost count of times people mentioned that nice Adrian Tuft, or how the new wildlife office Jill Shields will be good of how Inspector Cruse is a vegan you know….

Here’s a thing. They are the police . They are NOT ON YOUR SIDE . If they were the hunts wouldn’t have free access over the county, Brian Bennet wouldn’t be able to bulldoze badger setts with impunity and Mr J T Griffiths would be in HMP.


But let’s think about that for a moment… In listening were they really being neutral, or have they sold us a con.
Has “police liaison” done anything other than giving us a higher level copper to say fuck you in more diplomatic terms….
Cos let’s be clear once and for all…. They have sold us on the lie that they are impartial. They aren’t. They are plebs protecting their feudal masters. 


This is the old struggle, the monitors who tell the police about the hunt, the oppressed who tell the authorities about their landlord…. Nothing has changed and nothing has been done. 

To illustrate this point I could use so many examples.

But I will use one.

KENTS GREEN.
James Griffiths

Recently, and by recently I mean after the cull there was a thriving badger sett, thriving because people had spent weeks protecting them….

Now AFTER THE CULL mr Griffiths and  his cohorts filled in the sett…. Placed feed bags down it…. Poured petrol and diesel down and tried to incinerate the Badgers. They killed them all. 

And here is the strange part. The police (operation Themis and glos wildlife ) were called. They have admitted that these badgers were killed illegally. They have fingerprints. They have lots of scene of crime evidence, but have decided not to prosecute.


The police know that it wAs him and his cronies. When sabs walk on his land he and his inbred chums are there in seconds. Why? Because the whole place is drenched in cameras, all miraculous in the fact they failed to capture people burning badgers to death, but capture a person looking at the results.

Let’s make this clear.

They have evidence. Witness statements and fingerprints. And won’t prosecute. 
Now there are those that will apologise for this … They are the same ones who blast the police for their treatment of activists.
We cannot cooperate with these people they enable and encourage crimes and wildlife and crimes against people.

Here’s a thought…. Try breaking the law in front if the police ….
Try laughing at madam justice You will be arrested …
There really are only two possibilities the police concerned are either corrupt or incompetent. 

The activists who place their faith in them are naive in the extreme.
The hideous cliche is there is no justice just us. 
The sad truth is there never has been any justice, there will only be natural justice . 
Help us.

Email badgerfather@gmail.com 
We can stop these monsters 

Brexit and other great lies

In the red corner we have old Etonian career politician and all round man of the people david Cameron…..


In the blue corner we have old Etonian career politician and all round man of the people Boris Johnson…..
This is your choice. 

Yes there are are side characters… Lazy ex tory stock brokers and closet racists (Nigel Farage, claiming to represent British fishing, yet on the eu fisheries commission only turned up once out of 43 meetings) billionaire media tycoons worried about the lack of influence they have over Brussels… Left wing career politicians promoted way above their ability to cope (and new messiah of the keyboard left).Gideon “beat me mistress” Osbourne. 


This is your choice…
The hatred and xenophobia whipped to the surface would make Enoch Powell a happy fascist. Do these morons represent the hopes and fears of this country? I have met many many beautiful people saving badgers, I have met many many beautiful people helping refugees in Calais and fighting fascists…This small and insignificant rant is not meant to sway your vote in or out.


It’s to sway your vote against making a decision based on a little Britain mentality. Thankfully the empire is gone. 

Thankfully blind allegiance to the flag and the monarchy is gone (in the main).

Britain never be “great” again. But then for most of its inhabitants it never was.

So make your vote, of you choose to vote at all, for a better place for everyone. Not based on the drivel being fed to you by the privileged few. 
Our dreams do not lay in a ballot box, they lay in the hearts of those who want to make this country a haven of equality and fairness. 
Our country can be great, by being a place that welcomes all with equality regardless of their wealth, their creed, their looks….
I feel a twinge of pride when I see people giving up their time and money to help refugees, animals and the oppressed around the world. 

I feel shame and horror when I see fascists screaming hate and “normal people” laughing as they throw coins at beggars in France. 
My one hope is people will vote for considered views. Not for markets, not for imaginary lines drawn on maps. 

This world is a small and delicate place. Vote to make it better. Or don’t vote at all. 
It makes no difference to me,I will just carry on same as ever… The only difference this vote will make is which cause I pull the mask on for…

A death in the family

For hundreds of years, we’ve been voting, now granted only in the last hundred years has everyone been able to vote, but I digress….


I’ve mentioned in the past on the roll of social licence and petitions in the case of direct action. 
I’ve always been firmly of the belief, without social licence direct action has no authority. 

Without direct action petition signing etc has no teeth.
Believe me the poll tax wasn’t dropped because Mrs Smith wrote a letter to the chingford gazette, but because of her letter, the fighting on the steers of London ceased to be rent a mob and became warriors for social justice. They cannot exist without each other. 

But increasingly, the political parties know that X % will vote for them whether they install a nuclear waste ground in their local school or not. They have cowed the electorate so much they know Simon Cowell will get more votes than the council. They can slip their chosen puppets into the local planning with a small core of local supporters.

This is highlighted by the recent events in North Yorkshire…

They did everything right. 

The anti fracking camp did the social license surveys. They got the petitions signed. They had a letter writing campaign that produced over 3000 objections locally. In short, they did everything right.


And it made not one iota of difference. 

The people in power have contempt for the electorate apart from that small window when they want you to vote for them.

Yes, there are still a few idealists in politics. But they are the exception. Not the rule anymore.

If you disagree with something, better get some stout shoes. Cos your going to end on the streets or in a field.

It’s the only way now. A corner has been turned. Lines drawn in the sand.
And sadly the first casualty of this war has been democracy.
Killed by neglect. 

On badgers and the Class War

In Somerset and Gloucestershire and more recently Dorset. Meles meles or the badger, one of our most enigmatic wild animals has been the subject of a heated and fierce war. 
On one side you have the National Farmers Union, home to the wealthiest 18% of britain’s farmers, and the Countryside Landowners Association. In the other corner you have a ragtag band of aged rock stars, hunt saboteurs, anarchists, vegans, badger lovers and every major scientist who has expressed an opinion. 

  
Now, I can’t speak for the rock stars, the hunt sabs, or even the normal people! But people have said why is an anarchist spending six weeks a year nocturnally,wearing a mask and trying to save badgers?

  
There is as ever a myriad of answers:

The badger cull is scientifically wrong. (So is homoeopathy and I’m not picketing Holland and Barrett anytime soon)

The badger cull won’t help Btb reduction, bio security will (again true, but no gofundme for farmers’ badger proof fencing from me)

Badgers are a scapegoat for poor farming practices (yes yes, and if someone writes a strong letter I’ll treat them to a stamp)

The reasons I happily spend the time engaged in open hostility with our landed gentry is this. They don’t own these animals, so they want to kill them. 
This cull is a pointless exercise in feudalism. 
It’s my land so I can kill what I want. 

  
At the end of the day we fight gentrification and oppression of the working class in cities because it is wrong.

We fight fracking and the poisoning of our land for capitalist gain because it is wrong. 

We say no pasaran to fascists and racists everywhere because they are wrong.

We fight for the badgers for the same reason we fight for the oppressed in camps in Calais. 

We fight for the badgers for the same reason we fought for the miners and we fought the poll tax.
  
BECAUSE IT IS RIGHT

BECAUSE WE CAN

AND IF WE DONT – WHO WILL?