Athens Aftermath

It wasn't until Thursday morning that solid details began to emerge about the chaotic scenes outside Athens' Olympic Stadium the previous evening. I'd been oblivious to it all as I nursed a sore head & a sense of disappointment at the result. However, late Thursday morning changed all that & the initial reports gave a flavour of what had transpired:

http://football.guardian.co.uk/championsleague200607/story/0,,2087123,00.html .

By Friday the Liverpool Echo was eagerly running with the story. Its take on events was predictably partisan:

http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk/0500liverpoolfc/0100news/tm_headline=your-final-warning% .

However, the piece did quote Dr Rogan Taylor, a leading light in the Football Supporters Association after Hillsborough, & now a director of the football industry group at Liverpool University. Taylor was commendably even-handed in his analysis:

"Clubs have pressed too hard to squeeze the maximum amount of money from the sponsors. They have to instruct Uefa to do sponsorship deals which bring in less money & reduce the number of tickets to corporate businesses.

Fans must also recognise that if you get in without a ticket by being smart, it maybe deprives a dad & a daughter with tickets of their own."

Friday also saw the serious press sinking their teeth into an irresistible story. The Guardian sports weblog carried a piece by Gregg Roughley, a Liverpool fan who witnessed the scenes outside the stadium:

http://blogs.football.guardian.co.uk/sport/2007/05/25/uefa_needs_to_buck_its_ideas_u.html .

Roughley was eager to dissociate himself from the antics of those idiots who had tried to gain access, in Rick Parry's now unfortunate phrase, by hook or by crook.

Roughley asserted: "The behaviour of some Liverpool fans was certainly not beyond reproach, but they were given the opportunity by the inept Greek authorities & woefully ill-equipped stadium facilities deemed suitable by Uefa."

He pointed out that the so-called fanzone showed "no sign of fan-themed events taking place: no music, no drink (alcoholic or soft) & nothing remotely fun."

"In the ground, about 300 seats behind the goal where Liverpool supporters were housed remained empty for the entire match. Of those fans who did show up to take their seats in the second half, many were suffering sickness after being sprayed with tear gas, while others sat discosolately with their heads in their hands after being beaten by Greek police officers."

Roughley also noted: "Many ticketless Liverpool fans travelled to Cardiff for last year's FA Cup final after tickets had been stolen prior to the match, but the high standard of planning & organisation by police & stewards ensured that the day passed over without any major problems."

The Sun "newspaper" jumped on the issue with this opportunistic piece:

http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2007240105,00.html .

Yes, the rag that gave us "The Truth" pathetically tried to boost its pygmy circulation figures on Merseyside. [Before Hillsborough Murdoch's rag was selling 57,000 copies a day on Merseyside. After its infamous edition which accused Liverpool supporters of looting dead bodies & urinating on first aid staff, that figure slumped to 12,000. It has not risen significantly since.]

However, blame is clearly apportioned by Paul Wilson in today's Observer:

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/sport/story/0,,2089019.00.html .

Wilson's piece begins: "Call me hard-hearted, if you like, but I found my initial sympathy for all the ticket-holding Liverpool fans tear-gassed & clobbered by Athens police evaporating at the airport the following day, on encountering scally after scally bragging about getting into the European Cup final for nothing."

Quite why Wilson should lump in the genuine ticket-holding fans with the feckless scum isn't explained in the piece.

Later in the article Wilson asserts: "Liverpool followers need no history lessons on why all-seater stadiums came about in the first place, & now they are here it does not take a genius to work out that the seats occupied by people without tickets must be at the expense of people who paid for them."

Augmenting this trend of thought is Patrick Barclay in today's Sunday Telegraph:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtml?xml=/sport/2007/05/27/sfnpb127.xml .

Barclay draws attention to an interview with "a pair of middle-aged drunken nitwits" on Greek TV. Asked why they had turned up in Athens without tickets, one of them replied:"'We're going to wait until the game's about to start, & then we're going to storm the stadium.'"

Barclay continues: "My stomach turned, as would that of anyone who experienced (even from a merciful distance) the horrific events of the crush at Hillsborough 18 years ago. But this turned out to be more than just a bad joke. In grotesque retrospect, indeed, it can be seen as a statement of intent."

Post pending

I've been collating observations & eye-witness accounts of the events outside the Olympic Stadium in Athens on Wednesday evening. More to come.

With Hope In Their Hearts

Text messages have been exchanged with those in Athens. None of the texts contain what might be called information. Rather, they're replete with truisms & cliches. They're simply delighted to be there, ticket or no ticket.

However, the allocation issue is to the fore with the mainstream media:

http://football.guardian.co.uk/championsleague200607/story/0,,2086078,00.html .

So far, there's been only one reported instance of matters descending into stupidity:

http://football.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/0,,2086260,00.html .

This final isn't just a local football isue, it's become a civic issue. As with all the previous European finals, those who profess no interest in football (a rather select group, it must be said) & (some) of those who support Everton will be watching on TV.

Thumbing Through The Dictionary

I found myself at work today (a swap with a colleague on the other shift so I can view Wednesday's final in the pub) & saw the word "pusillanimous" on the board. I asked why it had been written & was told it was just one of those "look up a word for the week" exercises. Immediately, however, I had the word association & mental image fixed.

Hellenic Happenings

Travel arrangements for Greece have been organised by those fortunate enough to go. As for the rest of us, TV will have to suffice. Time was when the big question was, "Have you got a ticket to spare?"

This time around, it's taken for granted that at least three-quarters of those going will be ticketless. If they can't get tickets when they arrive in Greece, they'll be happy to watch the match on the huge TV screens that have been erected in the centre of Athens. Some friends of mine have managed to get tickets, & they'll also be using the trip as an excuse for a week's holiday some 200 miles from the Greek capital. Talk about killing two birds with one stone.

A lot has been written & said about the ticket allocation. Yes, it is unfair, insufficient & arbitrary (one of my friends got his ticket from a contact who works for one of UEFA's sponsors), but it has always been the case with major football finals. I know from personal experience when I was part of the great scramble for the treasured items during the 70s & 80s.

It's something of a cliche to mock judges as remote, aloof & out-of-touch figures, but they don't do themselves any favours with their occasional questions. One judge in the 1960s was quoted as asking in all ignorance, "Who are the Beatles?". Here's the latest in the long line of memorable questions:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article1805663.ece .

The Schadenfreude Continues

Sorry, just couldn't resist it.

You'll Never Walk Alone

Kopites have always been an eloquent lot.

A River Runs Through It

Liverpool's Pier Head landing stage has lain in the murky Mersey for some time now. Poor weather caused the entire structure to detach from its moorings in March of last year. Heavy rain & gale force conditions forced it into the water. That was unfortunate. What followed next was farcical. The Mersey Docks & Harbour Company, who are responsible for the Pier Head area as well as the wider waterfront, sat on their hands & left the landing stage in its watery state. Ferry crossings were affected with the boats using the same berth as that used by vessels bound for the Isle of Man. Last year the Liverpool Culture Company (http://www.liverpool08.com/ ) appealed to the MDHC to rescue & repair the structure in time for the annual Matthew Street Festival at the end of August. The blindingly obvious point was made not just by the LCC but anyone with half a brain & a civic consciousness that a submerged landing stage wouldn't look very good to the many tourists about to descend on the city for the annual Beatlefest. Given that there were to be two stages at the Pier Head itself, it seemed ludicrous to have such a well-known feature of the local waterfront under water. The MDHC displayed all their characteristic imagination & far-sightedness (remember their manufacture of the dockers' dispute in 1995) by saying, "Sorry, can't help".

Progress of a sort has now been made with a new base for the ferries (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/merseyside/6605711.stm ).

Well done, guys! What took you so long?

After all the shennanigans, posturings & cock-ups over 2008 it's nice to see more movement on developments at the Pier Head: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/merseyside/6609191.stm .

The waterfront museum has been five years in the making, according to the report. Granted, the size & scope of the project has meant that it couldn't be a rush job. However, it still seems a little on the tardy side. Still, I suppose it fits in with the more sober & hard-headed attitude that 2008 should be a starting point, not an end in itself.

Historian Tristram Hunt, on the other hand, still felt pangs of yearning for a little too much nostalgia on the waterfront & in the city generally with this "Comment is Free" thread last week: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,2062851,00.html .

These four young men appeard to be enjoying themselves at the Pier Head, despite being some decades early for the Matthew Street Festival.

Born: January, 2006. Died: April, 2007.

By far the most compelling TV drama since "Our Friends In The North". I'll miss this series.

April 15th, 1989

An image which needs no comment from me.

In Memoriam

John Alfred Anderson (62)
Thomas Howard (39)
Colin Mark Ashcroft (19)
Thomas Anthony Howard (14)
James Gary Aspinall (18)
Eric George Hughes (42)
Kester Roger Marcus Ball (16)
Alan Johnston (29)
Gerrard Bernard Patrick Barron (67)
Christine Anne Jones (27)
Simon Bell (17)
Gary Philip Jones (18)
Barry Sidney Bennett (26)
Richard Jones (25)
David John Benson (22)
Nicholas Peter Joynes (27)
David William Birtle (22)
Anthony Peter Kelly (29)
Tony Bland (22)
Michael David Kelly (38)
Paul David Brady (21)
Carl David Lewis (18)
Andrew Mark Brooks (26)
David William Mather (19)
Carl Brown (18)
Brian Christopher Matthews (38)
David Steven Brown (25)
Francis Joseph McAllister (27)
Henry Thomas Burke (47)
John McBrien (18)
Peter Andrew Burkett (24)
Marion Hazel McCabe (21)
Paul William Carlile (19)
Joseph Daniel McCarthy (21)
Raymond Thomas Chapman (50)
Peter McDonnell (21)
Gary Christopher Church (19)
Alan McGlone (28)
Joseph Clark (29)
Keith McGrath (17)
Paul Clark (18)
Paul Brian Murray (14)
Gary Collins (22)
Lee Nicol (14)
Stephen Paul Copoc (20)
Stephen Francis O'Neill (17)
Tracey Elizabeth Cox (23)
Jonathon Owens (18)
James Philip Delaney (19)
William Roy Pemberton (23)
Christopher Barry Devonside (18)
Carl William Rimmer (21)
Christopher Edwards (29)
David George Rimmer (38)
Vincent Michael Fitzsimmons (34)
Graham John Roberts (24)
Thomas Steven Fox (21)
Steven Joseph Robinson (17)
Jon Paul Gilhooley (10)
Henry Charles Rogers (17)
Barry Glover (27)
Colin Andrew Hugh William Sefton (23)
Ian Thomas Glover (20)
Inger Shah (38)
Derrick George Godwin (24)
Paula Anne Smith (26)
Roy Harry Hamilton (34)
Adam Edward Spearitt (14)
Philip Hammond (14)
Philip John Steele (15)
Eric Hankin (33)
David Leonard Thomas (23)
Gary Harrison (27)
Patrik John Thompson (35)
Stephen Francis Harrison (31)
Peter Rueben Thompson (30)
Peter Andrew Harrison (15)
Stuart Paul William Thompson (17)
David Hawley (39)
Peter Francis Tootle (21)
James Robert Hennessy (29)
Christopher James Traynor (26)
Paul Anthony Hewitson (26)
Martin Kevin Traynor (16)
Carl Darren Hewitt (17)
Kevin Tyrrell (15)
Nicholas Michael Hewitt (16)
Colin Wafer (19)
Sarah Louise Hicks (19)
Ian David Whelan (19)
Victoria Jane Hicks (15)
Martin Kenneth Wild (29)
Gordon Rodney Horn (20)
Kevin Daniel Williams (15)
Arthur Horrocks (41)
Graham John Wright (17)

Acknowledgements to the Liverpoop Football Club website for the names of the 96 who died at Hillsborough on this date 18 years' ago.

Enlightenment & Etiquette

Where to begin? Chronologically, I suppose.
Mulling over an anguished piece of intellectual handwringing last month (http://observer.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2036618,00.html ), I was tempted to go along with the author's premise that each age should produce its own crop of writers & thinkers who not just articulate the tenor of the times, but outline a vision of the way forward for society.
Then I checked myself. Yes, there are writers & thinkers out there (Amis, McEwan, Dawkins, Self, etc.), but they're addressing issues which no longer relate to changing society itself; the most progressive of the current crop, Dawkins, seems intent on repeating his points about religion & Darwin without linking these points to a wider debate about the body politic.

The gap in posting doesn't mean that I've been inert on the web. Far from it, I've been earnestly blogging away on the Guardian's "Comment is Free" website. Still, it was alarming to see a piece which claimed that blogging is already declining: http://media.guardian.co.uk/newmedia/story/0,,2043775,00.html .

Being on the CiF website is sometimes similar to engaging in a lager fuelled argument in the pub. It is no place for sensitive souls who view their carefully crafted prose as inviolate. Responses to posts, as well as the original articles, are often bracing. At their best, they can be scabrously witty & informative. At their worst, however, they sink to the level of juvenile name-calling. It therefore comes as no surprise that figures in cyberspace like Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia, have felt moved to act: http://media.guardian.co.uk/newmedia/story/0,,2053569,00.html .
Inevitably, responses have been swift &, well, to the point. Critics have accused Wales & others of trying to introduce censorship. There isn't a shred of evidence with which to back up this claim. In fact, to use terminology which these particular bloggers would recognise, it's bollocks with bells on.

Pete Best is the "forgotten Beatle". People are more aware of Stuart Sutcliffe because of his sudden death before fame & fortune beckoned. [Sutcliffe, moreover, couldn't play a note, & was in the group merely because of his close friendship with Lennon.]
It certainly wasn't easy for Best after he was kicked out of the group to make way for Ringo. By the time the Beatles were recording Sgt. Pepper, Best was reported by the Liverpool Echo as working in a local bakery. He also attempted to commit suicide in the late 60s.
In the 70s he found work in the civil service (my mother worked with him for a few years). Unsurprisingly, he wouldn't be drawn on his role in the history of the world's most famous band.
Over the last decade Best has been a regular at the Matthew Street Festival, that tacky & increasingly Disneyfied distortion of the Beatles' legacy. With his own band, modestly named "Pete Best's Beatles", he's made a living playing the early rock 'n' roll numbers which the band played in the Cavern. He also reportedly made £1m from the success of the Beatles Anthology releases a decade ago.
Now, it seems, Best is willing to meet up with McCartney: http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/music/news/article2432457.ece .
Quite what they'd have to talk about after a gap of 45 years is anyone's guess. However, if I were McCartney, I'd feel safer in the company of Mark Chapman & Heather Mills than in a room with Best.

The anniversary of Hillsborough will be marked on Sunday. It's never easy to deal with, particularly for those of us who were on the Leppings Lane terrace that day. Gerry Ormonde, the driving force behind the irrepressible Kopblog (http://www.kopblog.com/ ) recently posted a message/statement from Anne Williams, whose son Kevin was among those who lost their lives. It's a fairly lengthy piece & to select particular passages of it for quotation purposes would, I feel, dilute its impact.
To summarise, Anne Williams details the long campaign to achieve justice for Kevin & the other 95 victims. Go to Gerry's blog & read it (it's from his entry for 23/03/07).
The email addresses for the campaign are:
annewilliams96@btinternet.com & annajameson@tiscali.co.uk .

Tin Pot Egotists & Iron Men

When I was a callow revolutionary activist in the early 80s, trying to persuade "de youth" on Merseyside council estates to read Trotsky on the Revolutionary Party when all they really wanted to do was go out & get pissed on a Friday night, the Liberals were one of the enemy. Their leader in Liverpool, Sir Trevor Jones, a man given to ostentatiously chomping cigars while guiding Michael Heseltine around riot-torn Toxteth, was referred to as "Jones the vote", a backhanded comment on the Liberals' command of local "pavement" politics.
I was temporarily reminded of this last week when it was reported by the Liverpool Echo that today's Lib Dems in the city have chosen a former cheerleader for Ian Paisley to contest Croxteth in next May's elections: http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0100regionalnews/tm_headline=lib-dems-to-adopt-paisley .
Phil Moffat, according to the paper, "was once linked with plans to set up England's first branch of the radical Northern Irish political party in the city."
It seems that Moffat is also one of those sad sods who do battle with local officialdom over the "right" to fly the Union flag on St George's Day; he isn't just bigoted, he's confused.
One wholly unexpected benefit of the bomb damage that Liverpool suffered during the 1939-1945 war was a clear-out of those slum areas in the city where vile sectarianism held sway. The cramped, densely populated area of Everton was a hotbed of support for the Orange Lodge. The area overlooked the Scotland Road district, which had been populated by Irish Catholics in the wake of the famine-induced migration. Attacks were frequent &, by some accounts, particularly brutal. Both sides could instigate the trouble. However, the Protestants of Everton were openly goaded by their pastors to see the "papists" in their midst as a threat.
Liverpool has since moved on. These days it is unthinkable to raise religion as a possible source of conflict in the city.
Perhaps I'm giving this Moffat character too much attention. He clearly seems to be a buffoon with an ego. However, the real question to emerge from this distasteful little story is what does it say about the Lib Dems in Liverpool? The Storey administration, now the Bradley administration, like to quote the slogan about 2008: "The World In One City". How does this square with selecting a candidate who is happy to defend bigotry?

Last week's decision by Sefton Council to retain Antony Gormley's "Iron Men" on Crosby beach was a welcome sign of sanity & sagacity, not qualities I would always ascribe to Sefton's elected representatives. A few days prior to the decision the local Tories decided to remove Cllr Debi Jones from Sefton's planning committee (http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk/liverpooldailypost/news/regionalnews/tm_headline=iron-men--8217-s-- ).
I highlighted Cllr Jones' witless utterances on the matter last year. Hoping to create an issue which would help her as the Tories' candidate for the Crosby constituency at the next election, she instead drew attention to her own cultural ignorance & embarrassed senior Tories. Most importantly, she was also out of step with her would-be constituents on Gormley's work.

A brief plug for a local website with a difference:
http://liverpoolsubculture.blogspot.com/ .
It takes an alternative look at how the city fathers are really planning for 2008, & much more besides.

Barefoot, Books & Bigots

As 2008 looms large on the horizon, the national media occasionally tears itself away from its London-centric concerns (exhortations by art critics to visit the Hogarth exhibition at the Tate on Millbank are welcome to those of us who would have a 400 mile round trip, plus at least a night's stay at one of the capital's overpriced B&Bs) to warily survey what's taking shape up here.
The Guardian ran a piece recently which contained a nice anecdote about a visit to Liverpool in May 1965 by the American beat poet, Allan Ginsberg (http://arts.guardian.co.uk/cityofculture2008/story/0,,2017940.html ).
Particularly amusing, apart from the description of a barefoot Ginsberg traipsing wide-eyed around the "home of the Beatles", was his observation in a letter to a friend back in the U.S. that "it's like San Francisco with greyer weather".
As they would have commented back then, groovy!

Something which caught my eye was a Guardian piece last week on the question of who is the greatest British writer. Normally, I avoid reading such articles. After all, how can you arrive at an answer? Do you mean fiction or non-fiction? Or both? Do you include poetry as well as prose, or is it strictly confined to novelists? How about essayists (Orwell)?
See what I mean?
There was, however, a wonderfully telling quotation from Amanda Ross, who, according to the piece, was "Creator of the Richard & Judy bookclub, known as 'the most powerful woman in publishing'".
Ross opined, "We don't like to label anything 'literary'. In fact, I really hate that word. For our readers, if we said a book was literary, it might put them off. To the public, literary means inaccessible, or full of classical references, or with long passages in French. So we just say they are fantastic books."
Leaving aside Ms Ross' alarming syntax, which veers into the inarticulate realm, two points emerge from her gibberish. First, it says everything about the sort of undemanding, bland & unchallenging programme that is "Richard & Judy" & its perceived target audience. Secondly, I'm intrigued by her use of the word "fantastic". Does she mean fantastic as in "that was a fantastic pub crawl" or "this is a fantastic action movie"? Or does she mean the word in its original sense, ie., hard to believe? If so, it's not much of a recommendation.
Prior to this bon mot, Ross is asked to comment on the merits of Martin Amis' work over the years. The "most powerful woman in publishing" replies, "I can't say whether Amis is a great writer because I have never read one of his books. I don't think his publisher has ever submitted one [for dissection on the programme]."
You don't say!
Further discussions on the question of the best British writer (yes, ridiculous, I know) can be found at BLOG@guardian.co.uk/books.

I'd been feeling a little guilty about not posting anything recently. That mild guilt became something else when I came across the story of the Egyptian blogger who has been imprisoned for four years by the Mubarak regime (http://media.guardian.co.uk/newmedia/story/0,,2019746,00.html ).
There's also a website to highlight the blogger's plight, his sham of a trial & the campaign for his release. Here's hoping, although I'm not holding my breadth, given the nature of the Cairo regime & its support from Bush & Blair.

Now we return to that feature of this blog which has been getting a little dusty of late: Kelvinwatch.
According to Roy Greenslade in his media blog on Guardian Unlimited (http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/greenslade/2007/02/vote_vote_vote_for_kelvin_mack.html ), listeners are being asked to vote on who will be the guest male presenter of BBC Radio 4's "Woman's Hour" programme for Comic Relief's Red Nose Day. The nominations are Kelvin MacKenzie; "Top Gear" presenter, Richard Hammond; & comedy writer Andy Hamilton.
Greenslade relates that each of the nominees makes a pitch on the "Woman's Hour" website for the prize. MacKenzie, Greenslade notes, "urges women to 'get back to the sink' and calls for more Woman's Hour features on the lines of 'How to make the dinner for your man when he comes home'. He wishes to confront the 'propaganda machine' which convinces women they are no longer slaves."
Hilarious, isn't it?
Greenslade also refers to MacKenzie's Hillsborough comments: "As Matthew Norman reminded us the other day, Kelvin 'is still unsure' whether he should apologise for his Hillsborough coverage. He remains, I suspect, as anti-Scouse as ever and cannot bring himself to say sorry to the city's people."
[Matthew Norman's diary piece can be found at: http://news.independent.co.uk/media/article2303477.ece .]
I've already left a comment to Greenslades posting, repeating the points I've made here previously about the sort of creature MacKenzie is as well as the BBC's decision to employ MacKenzie for a 5Live news review programme last Christmas.

Little to Relate

Very little to relate on a personal level, hence the gap in posting. Along the way there have been the occasional hilarities, such as this: http://media.guardian.co.uk/broadcast/story/0,,1996644,00.html .
Last Sunday marked my 44th birthday. Spent most of the day at my brother's, surrounded by relatives. By 8p.m. it was starting to feel claustrophobic & the pub beckoned alluringly.

Naming The Names

It turned out last week that Kelvin MacKenzie's hurried & unscheduled appearance on BBC TV's Question Time programme was occasioned by the sudden illness of historian David Starkey. MacKenzie, who ignominiously chickened out of appearing on the programme before Christmas, stepped into the breach, presumably thinking that the coast was clear. Not quite.
The programme is still available to watch online (http://www.bbc.co.uk/questiontime ).
It wasn't until the final ten minues of the programme that host David Dimbleby raised the issue with MacKenzie.
MacKenzie, being the pathetic coward that he is, suddenly retreated from two of the three claims which he has hitherto maintained. He admitted that he had no way of knowing if the allegations regarding the looting of the bodies & the urinating on police officers were true. Desperately trying to save face, MacKenzie did, however, say that the claim that most of the fans were ticketless still applied. It's been said before but it bears repeating. The allegation that MacKenzie clings to was disproven by The Taylor Report.
MacKenzie then went further than was probably wise by qouting his "sources", an unnamed Liverpool news agency, a senior police officer with the South Yorkshire force & a Sheffield Tory MP. On the first of the three, the only news agency based in Liverpool at the time of the disaster was Mercury Press. The managing editor of Mercury said on BBC Radio Merseyside on Friday that they completely denied the claim & were taking legal advice. The second "source" was found to be Chief Superintendant David Duckinfield, whose brief on that fateful day was, yes, you've guessed it, crowd control. Duckinfield admitted to the Taylor Inquiry that when his junior officers were trying to deal with the growing crowd outside the stadium, he "froze". Duckinfield took early retirement from the force not long after the disaster & refuses to speak to the media. The third of the three is possibly the most intriguing. The Tory MP for a Sheffield constituency was initially difficult to identify, even though a Tory in a northern city during Thatcher's reign should have stuck out like a sore thumb. I vaguely recalled a Tory MP in Sheffield from that period (I didn't get out much then), but recent Google searches yielded nothing. Now he can be named. Sir Irvine Patnick was the not so honourable member for the Sheffield Hallam constituency from 1987 to 1997. These days he is a patron of the Home Business Alliance, a body set up to support small businesses & entrepreneurs (http://www.homebusiness.org.uk ).
Patnick, let's dispense with the "Sir" bit, after all, it's just another meaningless Establishment bauble, can also be contacted through this body: info@homebusiness.org.uk . There are phone & fax numbers for good measure: Tel.: 08714741015. Fax: 08714741016.
I've fired off an email, asking Patnick whether he still stands by what he told the Sun & whether he can substantiate it. You never know, he might respond, but I'm not holding my breath.

A City's Bruised Beauty

Sometimes I don't know if the rash of articles appearing in the national press about Liverpool are a help or a hiderance to the place itself in the run-up to 2008. A case in point was this piece by architecht & exiled scouser Stephen Bayley in yesterday's Observer: http//arts.guardian.co.uk/art/architechture/story/0,,1989836,00.html .
Bayley makes some excellent points about the city's architechtural history & how it's gone hand in hand with its maritime history. However, I can't help feeling that Bayley is on the cusp of falling into the cliched "Militant=civic decline mindset. He writes, "While the rest of the country went Thatcherite, Liverpool whimsically went Trotskyist. The city lost its way in the tunnel of comradely love and almost failed to recover."
There is, however, one anecdote in Bayley's piece which even local Beatle afficionados may not be aware of: "Many years ago another prodigal returned and wrote the song 'Good Morning' that appears on Sgt. Pepper. John Lennon later told me he really did as the lyrics said and went to 'take a walk by the old school', but was sufficiently unimpressed to turn down an invitation to speak at Quarry Bank's speech day. The Beatle went on to find 'nothing has changed, it's still the same'. I found a city that was changing a lot, but still much the same. Liverpool is beautiful and ugly, proud and wanton, impressive and dismaying, romantic and crass. It is not a city to feel neutral about."
Lennon would probably have made his visit in late 1966, so it is tempting to speculate that he would have viewed his home city through a lysergic haze.

I Used To Defend The Licence Fee

A lot of applause is surely merited by the website, www.reclaimthekop.co.uk/ for organising Saturday's six minute protest on the Kop. The BBC commentator John Motson did refer briefly to the background to the protest. However, it was clear that BBC bosses had told the match director to minimise any camera shots of the kop during the six minute period at the start of the game. However, it seems as though the BBC is quite happy to cause further offence. They've re-invited Kelvin MacKenzie on to tonight's "Question Time" programme (http://www.bbc.co.uk/questiontime ). MacKenzie, of course, chickened out of a scheduled appearance on the programme's panel last month shortly after saying he wasn't contrite for his vile slurs. It is to be hoped that someone in the audience raises this, even though the BBC will edit it out of the programme before transmission.

There's a lot I could write about the football itself since the weekend, but I won't. I'll leave that to posting comments on other blogs.

Wringing Out The Old

A windy, soggy start to 2007. New Year's Eve was spent with friends at a pub in Crosby. Nothing particularly unusual for the occasion, just a crowded pub, generous quantities of beer, & anecdotes swapped freely.

I'm sure I wasn't the only one to find the news coverage of Saddam's execution rather ghoulish. By far the best of the 24 hour news channels is BBC News 24. However, the attention & detail it gave to the story, on what was admittedly a slow news day, verged on the pornographic. It makes me wonder how the story was covered by Fox News in the US.
It's apparent that the American public are now weary of the Iraq bloodbath. A small indication of this has been the reaction, or rather lack of it, to Saddam's death from an acquaintance of mine in Manhattan. When US forces killed insurgent leader Musab al-Zarqawi last year he sent me an email with al-Zarqawi's head superimposed on a target practice board, a single bullet hole marked on his temple. It surprised me at the time because my acqaintance would normally correspond with me about music (we're both posters on a music messageboard, http://www.thirdeyefilm.com/PhPBB2 ). I didn't realise he was so, well, gung-ho.
This time around, there has been no celebratory email, which is probably indicative of the general feeling in the US; Saddam may be finally out of the picture (save for the one caught on that execrable cameraphone video), but the morass remains &, if anything, deteriorates even further.

Today's FA Cup 3rd Round tie between Liverpool & Arsenal kicks off in less than an hour, as I write. A word of support to the organisers of a six minute protest on the Kop at the start of the match against Kelvin MacKenzie's Hillsborough comments. The BBC are in charge of live TV coverage, so it will be interesting to see how the Beeb handle, or react, to the protest, given that the corporation employed MacKenzie's services for their news review programme on BBC Radio 5Live. For further details, go to: http://www.reclaimthekop.co.uk/ .
While I'm on the subject, a rap on the knuckles to Simon Kelner, editor of the Independent, for a piece he's written in this week's New Statesman (http://www.newstatesman.com/200701080012 ), claiming that the decision to move the slot for the 5Live programme amounted to "terrified self-censorship".
Kelner, who also appeared on the programme, declares that it is symptomatic of the "craven editorial judgements of the post-Hutton BBC", & adds that the decision to move the programme was "shocking".
Kelner quotes the programme's presenter, Richard Bacon, as saying in a text message that "5Live received a petition of 700 signatories asking for [MacKenzie] not to be put on air."
The reality, of course, is that the online petition I presume is being referred to (http://www.petitiononline.com/rawk1/petition.html ) attracted over 10,000 signatures. Kelner doesn't dispute the outrage caused by MacKenzie's remarks, but seems to believe that MacKenzie has a right to air his disgusting bilge. The logic of that argument is that anyone has the "right" to express their views, even when it is accepted that such views are designed to cause offence, protests, disorder, racism, etc.
Kelner really should admit that he's on shaky ground & grow up.

Perhaps There Is A Santa Claus

A victory of sorts this Yuletide, as the BBC decided to move Kelvin MacKenzie's news review of 2006 programme to Christmas Eve rather than Christmas Day. This supposedly minor change, as it's been presented by the BBC, is significant. It's no secret that MacKenzie fancies himself as a broadcaster. The reaction of the Liverpool fans & others to the programme, via the online petition & other fora, may well mean that his name is now mud in BBC circles.

Little else to relate over the last week (apart from getting hopelessly drunk at my brother's on Christmas Day after the dinner).

Culture, Civic Recollections & Cowardice

Shortly after my last post I hightailed it to a meeting at St George's Hall in Liverpool organised by the Liverpool Culture Company (www.liverpool08.com/ ) to update the general public on preparations for 2008. (Less publicised, but complete, so we're told is the programme of events for the forthcoming year to mark the city's 800th anniversary.)
The meeting took place in the ante room to the main hall itself. However, to describe it as small would be a gross distortion. It served as the city's Crown Court until the early 80s. Admiring the ornate features & pattern within, I was jolted out of any further gazing by the realisation that it was the place where many were sentenced to death after being found guilty in murder trials.
The speakers included Warren Bradley, leader of the city council, & Jason Harborrow, from the Culture Company.
To be honest, not a lot of what was said amounted to news or fresh perspectives on 2008. However, the cynic in me smiled when it was said that there is a "vision statement". This merely stated that 2008 is not a festival, more a celebration.

The past week has seen the passing of former Liverpool city council leader, John Hamilton (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/merseyside/6179637.stm ).
To those of us involved with the Militant at the time (early to mid 80s), he was what Lenin would have called "a useful idiot". Hamilton's position was merely honourary, Hatton pulled the strings & everyone knew it.
Apparently, Hamilton spoke to the editor of the Liverpool Daily Post, Larry Nield, just before his death. If the aim was to serve up an exclusive on that period, the Post is still sitting on the story. Either that or it wasn't considered newsworthy enough.

We now come to what will be a fairly regular feature of this blog. Entitled, Kelvin Watch, it will aim to shed light on the repugnant sloth, Kelvin MacKenzie.
First items come courtesy of Wikipedia (yes, I know the entries can be falsified & defamatory items can be inserted in the entries, but I don't suppose he'll be put out by that, tit for tat & all that).
According to John Pilger in his book, "Hidden Agendas", (Vintage Books, 1998), "The sources for the allegations [The infamous 'The Truth' front page splash] were stated to be anonymous police officers and a Conservative MP from Sheffield who wasn't actually present at the game."
Pilger also relates a tale which still makes the blood run cold: "Some weeks after the disaster, Joan Traynor, who lost two sons in the disaster, was asked by ITN for permission to film the funeral of her sons. Traynor refused and publicly requested that the media respect her family's privacy with regard to the funeral. ITN and all other British media outlets did indeed respect Mrs. Traynor's wishes with the exception of The Sun. Kelvin MacKenzie sent photographers to the funeral who clambered over a wall at the cemetery and took numerous photographs of the family laying the two boys to rest before eventually being chased away. The following day photographs of the family at the funeral appeared on the front page of The Sun."
It isn't just Hillsborough which marks MacKenzie out as a prime scumbag.
Pilger states, "MacKenzie...ran a story about a previously unknown member of the public who had just undergone a heart transplant operation, the story denouncing the man as a 'love rat', Sun journalists having been told that he had left his wife fifteen years earlier. Aside from criticism about the story's highly questionable news value, the newspaper was furiously condemned as the story was run when the man's recovery was still in the balance."
This tale nicely chimes in with a snippet from the Biog section on the Wikipedia page on MacKenzie: "MacKenzie was married for 38 years but in 2006 was divorced by his wife Jacqueline on the grounds of adultery."
Well I never! Who would've thought it, eh?
MacKenzie likes to refer occasionally how familiar he is with business & infer that he is a successful businessman. Yet the reality is that he took over at publishing firm Highbury House Communications in September 2005. By December 2005 the business had folded.
MacKenzie was scheduled to be on the panel for the BBC TV "Question Time" programme on December 7. At short notice, he withdrew from the programme, citing "other engagements". He would have known that a question from the audience would have mentioned his latest Hillsborough remarks &, like the coward he is, realised he couldn't stand any scrutiny.
MacKenzie has been chosen to present a news review programme on BBC Radio 5Live on, of all days, Christmas Day. There is an online petition which has now gathered over 10,000 signatures, urging Bob Shennan, the BBC suit responsible, &, we're told, a Liverpool fan to boot, to drop MacKenzie from the programme. So far, Shennan isn't budging. Still, you never know. Here's the petition link: http://www.petitiononline.com/rawk1/petition.html .
To end with a quote from the creature himself which says everything you need to know about him in one mini-rant, I'm indebted to Peter Chippindale & Chris Horrie for this passage from their book, "Stick It Up Your Punter: Rise and Fall of the 'Sun'", concerning the readers of that rag while he was its editor in the early 80s: "You just don't understand the readers, do you, eh? He's the bloke you see in the pub, a right old fascist, wants to send the wogs back, buy his poxy council house, he's afraid of the unions, afraid of the Russians, hates the queers and the weirdoes and drug dealers. He doesn't want to hear about that stuff (serious news)".
That's enough of MacKenzie for now, but don't worry, we'll return to further expose this toerag ere long.

Merry Christmas, Kelvin!

Hanging Hubris Out To Dry (Hopefully)

Following on from my last post regarding Kelvin MacKenzie, I've been in touch with Liverpool fan Gerry Ormonde, who runs the witty & informative unofficial LFC website, Kopblog.com (www.kopblog.com/ ).
Gerry's post about MacKenzie on the day the news broke pretty much reflected my own thoughts. An online campaign to besmirch MacKenzie's name (not so unreasonable when you consider his collective libel which he is happy to repeat) is very much on the agenda. It's amazing what dirt can be dug up on someone these days, thanks to Google. Gerry's thinking about it; I'm in the process of trying to unearth something. Make no mistake, this won't go away, that bastard will be made to pay for his actions.

My new(ish) PC is like a new toy at the moment. The novelty of listening to live feeds from U.S. radio stations, particularly NPR, has been almost addictive. The wonders of YouTube, too, have been a revelation. Thanks to the site, I've unearthed this semi-forgotten gem in the last week of Liverpool's finest recording "Hey Bulldog":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGrEZH7j1bQ .

Meanwhile, Glasgow's version of Derek Hatton, Tommy Sheridan, has followed the Degsy road towards talk radio (http://media.guardian.co.uk/radio/story/0,,1969188,00.html ).
Radio phone- ins are the cheapest & basest forms of the medium, so it seems like a good career move.

The Truth? This Creature Will Be Hunted Down.

It's either rank stupidity or such malign intent as to warrant legal action which has prompted Kelvin MacKenzie's vomit inducing defence of his infamous "The Truth" headline in the Sun after Hillsborough (http://media.guardian.co.uk/site/story/0,,1961876,00.html?gusrc=ticker-103704 ).
Moreover, it speaks volumes about the craven, contemptuous and servile culture of the specimens who work for Rupert Murdoch that MacKenzie's apparent recantation on BBC Radio 4 was at the behest of that venal proprietor. Not surprisingly, MacKenzie has gone to ground, the classic sign of a cowardly scumbag who's been rumbled. However, those of us who were there that dreadful day will bide our time; as soon as this arrogant imbecile emerges from the stone which has offered him temporary refuge, we'll be ready to unleash an online & offline barrage. The local football blogs are primed, particularly the unofficial Liverpool FC blogs (more of this anon).

Falling On Deaf Ears

A period of ill-health (a head cold which coincided with a state of semi-deafness due to an excess of ear wax) meant that I have been loath to commit much to record. Anyway, for the record, the head cold has finally abated & the ear problem resolved by the syringing of both ears kindly & quickly administered by the excellent staff at the Ear, Nose & Throat unit at the Royal Liverpool Hospital. To them, much thanks.

Following on from my last post about the Freethinking debate in Liverpool, my attention was drawn to a Guardian article a few days ago: http://society.guardian.co.uk/communities/story/0,,1957883.html .
I appreciate that Denise Fergus, formerly Denise Bulger, will be haunted by her son's death & the manner of it for the rest of her life. However, it is distressingly obvious that every couple of years or so the local media play on her gullibility & ignorance (she & Ralph Bulger were just another underclass couple in a deprived Kirkby estate) &, again, she hasn't let them down. Those around Denise Fergus, particularly her solicitor, should have realised long ago that here is a rather pitible figure who is only too willing to provide the press with quotes which have everything to do with circulation figures & nothing to do with the lessons from that horrendous case.

And now, Nemesis. These will be the last words typed out on this keyboard & PC. After a long (my friends say far too long) delay, my relatively new PC will be up & running this time tomorrow. I first went online via this PC back in August 2003. However, its age (10 years or more) has been slowly & exasperatingly clear for the last year or so. The thought of it on a tip, leaking toxic chemicals into the atmosphere, leaves me cold. So, I'll be getting in touch with Friends Of The Earth to see how it can be disposed of/recycled.

Remembering The Cultural Aspect Of 2008

Last weekend saw a series of discussions & debates in Liverpool. The "Free Thinking" series, billed as "A Festival of Ideas for the Future" took place mainly at the Fact cinema, gallery & all round cultural hub in the city centre (www.fact.co.uk ).
The weekend was organised by BBC Radio 3 (www.bbc.co.uk/radio3 ) & the local station, BBC Radio Merseyside (www.bbc.co.uk/liverpool ).
The one session I managed to attend could have been an exercise in navel gazing. Thankfully, it wasn't. Chaired by Roger Phillips from Radio Merseyside, it tackled the question, "Is Liverpool An English City?"
As those dreaded exam papers say, "Discuss".
Joining him on stage at the Fact centre were journalist & novelist, Linda Grant, local cultural luminary & one-time doyenne of the city's music scene, Jayne Casey, local historian, John Belchem, & local entrepreneur & property developer, Lawrence Rothko.
Proceedings got off to a welcome start when the audience in this half full venue were asked to call out words which summed up the city. None of the old, tiresome & cliched words surfaced. Instead, the wide range of suggestions reflected not just the wit & humour of the place, but also those aspects which tend to be overlooked as the Beatle/football nexus takes centre stage in everyday conversation.
Linda Grant came up with a suggestion picked up from local lawyer (& self-styled local Renaissance Man, Rex Makin), "narky". Fair enough, I thought. She also alluded to the city's historical role as point of arrival/departure for millions when she felt a dual identity, Liverpudlan & Jewish. Grant made a valid point when she observed that the city's "individuality" has led to the culture of victimhood over the last three decades.
Choosing the word, "chaos", Jayne Casey picked up on the wider perception of the city; successive governments in Westminster had viwed the place as a "troublesome outpost", & that the city had been pretty much left to its own devices as long ago as the end of the slave trade, 200 years' back. That was a new one on me. Whilst the port made some people very rich during the era of slavery, I would have thought that the city still had commercial potential & rewards for capitalism up to the early 1900s.
Lawrence Rothko had his own words, "radical & articulate". Stressing the port's role in the arrival of migrants, he referred to my own tradition & background, Liverpool Irish, & the city's involvement in Irish history. Legendary socialist & trades union leader James Larkin actually grew up in Toxteth prior to his activism with Dublin dock workers. Rothko drew attention to a little known fact, the setting up of the NSPCC in Liverpool.
John Belchem outlined the port's role in migration patterns; it was "our Ellis Island", something that should be commemorated by the city, just as New York marks its own.Yes, Belchem noted, Liverpool's cosmopolitanism was a positive thing. However, it also had a negative side; most migrants didn't arrive here by choice.
Casey observed that "Liverpool was the birthplace of capitalism", & that the port created the wealth for the industrialised age, a comment which, I felt, appeared to contradict her previous assertion that the city was left on its own after the end of slavery.
Grant chipped in with an anecdote which had a resonance for most Scousers in the audience. She said that her grandfather arrived in the port in 1904, convinced that he had arrived in New York, his intended destination. Many Irish emigrants (my ancestors included), who weren't even familiar with Dublin, let alone Liverpool, were shown the Liverpool skyline by unscrupulous & mercenary boat skippers as they arrived in the Mersey & told that they had arrived in The Big Apple. Generations of Liverpudlians had stood at the Pier Head, Grant mused, feeling a strong sense of "possibility", of being just one step away from venturing into the wider world. Perhaps this city's innate sense of rebellion stemmed from this, she ventured. Perhaps, I thought, although this was veering uncomfortably close to the cliche-laden depiction of Scousers. Local folklore has it that the teenage John Lennon stood with Paul McCartney at the waterfront & made such an observation as they waited for the merchant seamen to jump off the boats with the early rock 'n' roll records from the U.S.
The city's image in recent years was put under the microscope when Grant maintained that the depiction of Liverpool had been "vicious & racist", referring to the comment by Jack Straw a few years' ago that Liverpool people were "always up to something". [I well remember that remark. The context of it was that Straw, then Home Secretary was to meet a delegation from the Hillsborough Family Support Group at his Whitehall department. The delegation was delayed by the London traffic & cited it as the reason for their lateness when they met Straw, who said in response that he wondered what had happened, given that Liverpudlians were "always up to something". Straw saw it as a witticism, designed to break the ice, as it were. However, local opinion saw the comment as being every bit as offensive as the infamous headline in The Sun a few days after the disaster, "The Truth!"]
Rothko drew murmurs of agreement from the audience when he noted that Scousers can be their own worst enemies; the city's image had been "hijacked", he said, by those who wanted to impose a one dimensional view of the city. We all knew who he was referring to: the Professional Scousers, the local "comedians", Boardman & Tarbuck, Cilla Black, et al. Those, in short, who hitched a ride on the city's 60s bandwagon which accompanied the rise of the Beatles.
Grant spoke about the Militant era, claiming that Hatton & Co. tried to define the city's image as a purely industrial one, ruling out all other aspects of the city. Warming to her theme, she said that the 80s were the starting point for the "racist" coverage of Liverpool. On the first part of this point, I felt that it completely overlooked the reasons (or "objective conditions" as we used to say) for Militant's rise. The second part of the statement had some validity.
Belchem observed, "We're in the industrial North, but not of the industrial North." The city's separate status from the rest of the north of England has been counter-productive as the port declines; the city has "no allies" in this context.
Casey summed up what for me is the schizophrenic nature of the city & its people by saying, "We lack confidence in ourselves." 2008 can help the city face up to its social problems, she continued, a remark which had me raising both eyebrows as far as they would go.
The hitherto overlooked issue of the city's social problems was picked up by Belchem, who declared that 2008 needed to be followed by major investment in the city in order to tackle social issues. This struck me as being particularly asinine. The "Big Dig" in the city centre continues apace, yet too many areas outside the city centre remain untouched by similar projects & investment. For the people in these areas, 2008 is, at best, an irrelevant sideshow.
Casey provided an anecdote which roused my ire. She said that she had been made to feel uncomfortable at a London dinner party some years' ago because of the mocking comments about her Liverpool accent. My reaction would have been to turn the tables on the tormentors with Lennon-like Scouse sarcasm, coupled with high celebral "bon mots".
Rothko made a good point when he asked, "How many Scousers will get the jobs" in the city's reconstruction? He worried that the city's working-class population, who've had to endure nearly four decades of civic & economic decline, won't benefit from 2008.
In response, Casey noted that there is still a lot of confusion over what 2008 is supposed to be about. Sceptical observers, myself included, joke about 2008 being the Culture of Capital festival.
Grant revealed that the reaction from much of the London-based media had been one of mirth when Liverpool was chosen as the European Capital of Culture. Perceptions were starting to change, she said, yet Liverpool's status for 2008 is still largely unknown in the south of England, a situation she ascribed to the negligible coverage of the city by the national media.
Interjections from the audience were mainly considered & cliche-free; no-one harped on about an anti-Liverpool conspiracy in the rest of the country. Self-pity, one of the charges made against this city, was notable for its absence.
As the hour long discussion drew to a close, Phillips, whose chairing of the proceedings had been BBC impartiality personified, asked the audience for one word answers which would, perhaps, sum up Liverpool in five years' time. The replies were mainly aspirational, relating to civic pride & a forward-thinking mentality. Grant chipped in with one of her own, one which drew applause, "envied". Rothko was stumped momentarily before falling back on the official slogan for 2008, "The World In One City".

Happiness Is A Warm Gig

I was more intrigued than excited about seeing Sean Lennon at Liverpool University on Saturday evening. That he was a singer-song-writer in his own right (or "write", as his father once punned ) was of more interest to me than any superficial concerns about family resemblance or inherited musical influence.
However, a reminder of his father's fate & its consequences for his family was evident as the audience filed outside the venue. Normally, "security" extends to a millisecond of eye contact with the guy on the door. This time, however, there was a double security check, a frisking just outside the venue, followed by the same measure just inside the Stanley Theatre.
A typical gig crowd, the age range being mixed, included a few people belonging to that generation which would have remembered the Beatles before their break-up. Lurking amongst this element of the audience was Peter Grant, erstwhile rock reviewer for the Liverpool Echo, & its sister paper, the Daily Post. In contrast to most critics, Grant told anyone who would listen how much he was looking forward to the gig. My initial surprise at this sentiment quickly gave way to the realisation that it is almost heretical for any measured, let alone hostile, pieces on anything Beatle related to be filed for the local media; why slaughter the cash cow, the thing that draws in the tourists each year to the increasingly tacky Matthew Street Festival?
After two numbers, Lennon, visibly hesitant at the thought of breaking the ice at this symbolic gig, stumbled into speech.
"Um, well, hello," he ventured.
The crowd's response was instantly warm & welcoming. Appreciative calls from the audience punctuated the 90 minute set. At one point, Lennon smiled & apologised, "I hear what you say, but I can't really understand you!"
His accent was pure Manhattan, yet his vocals did evoke his father on the "White Album". As for appearance, the shoulder-length hair & beard suggested Lennon Snr. circa 68/69. His sartorial attire, however,recalled the early Beatle period, when suits were still "de rigeur". References to his father were brief. It was enough that he was playing this city, a statement in itself.
Yet he did refer to it in a typically leftfield Lennon way when expressing his nerves at playing Liverpool, "seeing as my dad grew up here, if you didn't know."
The suffix in the comment drew much laughter from the audience, like a well-received punchline to a joke. Lennon, hitherto relatively tense & cautious, visibly loosened up. He even joked with the crowd about his out of tune acoustic guitar; as a guitarist, he displayed a dexterity which would have eluded You Know Who.
Aside from a cover of an obscure T-Rex track, the set consisted of his own material, which owed just a little to his father's style. What I found heartening was the fact that no-one in the audience called out for any of his father's songs. It was a reflection of this audience's musical maturity.

All At Sea?

Still no word from the boys in blue regarding my encounter with hoodie sub-culture. That is not surprising; I quickly surmised after giving a full statement to the police that these things have a tortuous & nebulous process which can appear to defy rational (& not so rational) expectations.
[On a germane note, I see from this evening's Channel 4 News & the Guardian Unlimited website that David Cameron is advocating a "tough love" approach to this issue. The tough love I'd have in mind would involve a garotte.]

Anthony Gormley's statues at Crosby beach continue to make the headlines. I still think that they should stay, they inject a little bit of genuine culture in an area which is, at best, culturally nondescript, &, at worst, a repository for unabashed philistinism. This is despite yesterday's news from the beach (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/merseyside/6107294.stm ), which appears to owe more to an ignorance of local tidal patterns.
The initial furore was generated by a local tory councillor, Debi Jones, who first came to local attention as an irritating "presenter" on BBC Radio Merseyside back in the 80s (think Ken Dodd, but without the, erm, wit). Jones now has hopes of standing for Cameron's lot at the next election in the Crosby constituency. However, such rank populism may no longer be the vote-winner it once was. Crosby has changed in cultural trends; there is a readily appreciative local audience for Gormley's work, & they, Cllr. Jones, are also voters.

I nearly choked on my lunch at work today when I spotted this story: http://www.guardian.co.uk/midterms2006/story/0,,1937064,00.html .
In the land of free market capitalism it seems so surreal as to be hallucinatory. As the article notes, the guy may resemble a blunderbuss rather than a heat-seeking missile, & he may be more Miliband than Marx in policy terms, but the reality is that his message has resonance. Has Michael Moore picked up on this guy?

A quick word about The Raconteur's gig in Liverpool last week. It was everything you'd want from a gig; the excitement was well warranted as a full house savoured a raucous, yet musically superb performance. It's difficult to see how Jack White can return to The White Stripes with any real conviction after this so-called side project.

Before I Was Distracted

The police haven't been in touch since Saturday, which mildly surprises me. I agreed to have my details passed on to Victim Support. I don't feel traumatised or unsettled by Saturday's incident, yet it will be interesting to see what, if anything, they can assist me with.
Most of Sunday was taken up with friends, some of whom I hadn't seen for over a year. After venting our frustration at Liverpool's spineless showing against Manchester United, tumescent testosterone giving way to flaccid fatalism, we had a few more beers before retiring to a local Italian restaurant. The rest of the evening was, erm, a little bit hazy. Reaction to my experience the day before was suitably sympathetic & supportive. Once upon a time they would have reacted like the archetypal Guardian-reading social worker. Nowadays, they, like me, view the world differently.
A few thing which have caught my attention over the last few weeks:
I'm not alone. It turns out that this blogging thing is catching on: http://media.guardian.co.uk/mediaguardian/story/0,,1923064,00 .
I'll return to the Anthony Gormley statues on the beach just down the road from my home presently, but the news wasn't good when it broke a few days' ago (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/merseyside/6065070.stm ).
Adding to unwelcome news was this morsel: http://www.guardian.co.uk/medicine/story/0,,1929904,00.html . It's usually the sort of thing I ignore, but, after a week in which I've come uncomfortably close to a kitchen knife of significant proportions, it somehow lodged in my mind.
Google's rise continues apace, so it didn't surprise me to come across this story: http://www.guardian.co.uk/Technology/news/story/0,,1930009.html . Some people, not all of them on the liberal-left, have been shocked by this story. However, if I were one of the famous Google Two, Page & Brin, this is precisely the sort of thing I'd be working on.
I'm now off to Liverpool Academy to see The Raconteurs. It's the "hottest ticket" in town this week. It's enough to make me feel trendy.

An All Too Close Encounter

Early Saturday morning sees me on my way to work. It's 5.35 a.m., dark, as you'd expect, & I'm approaching a footbridge over the Leeds Liverpool Canal. A youth approaches me from a side path which runs parallel with the canal.
"Have you got a light, mate?", he calls.
"Sorry mate, don't smoke," I reply, my street savvy mechanism whirring into action as I slow my stride.
The youth then says, "You want to watch it, mate."
"Watch what?", I reply, eyeing him warily.
He repeats the warning. Within a few seconds three youths, all hooded, cross the bridge in my direction.
The youth who warned me calls out to them that they should "leave it".
I decide, in my best "fuck you" mode to sidestep them on the bridge. They move toward me, one of them has what seems to be a ski mask.
"Where d'ya want it, mate?" he demands.
Within a millisecond I spot the large kichen knife he's brandishing. I decide to say as little as possible; a single word could act as a trigger.
A brief, but all too tense, standoff ensues, during which time one of the three who had crossed the bridge mumbles, "We just want your money, mate".
That much was crystal clear to me. At the first opening, I decide to hightail it back towards home just a few hundred yards away (I also surprise myself by sprinting in heavy shoes).
An initial phone call on my mobile phone to the police is followed by a call from home to my workplace. A squad car arrives within 20 minutes & two officers take a statement. It transpires that there had been a report of a postal worker being threatened by youths answering the descriptions I've given approximately 30 minutes before my encounter.
Most of Saturday morning is taken up with a visit to my workplace by another officer, who takes a full statement. He drives me back to the scene of the incident. He scans the scene, then says, "Bingo!"
A bar, at the side of the road leading to the footbridge, has a CCTV camera pointed in the direction of the bridge. Inquiries are made with a female cleaner at the bar. The bar owner can be contacted on Monday morning, she says.
"The officer, who reminds me slightly of John Simm in "Life On Mars", notes wryly, "He will be".

Update: Apathy Gets A Jolt

There I was before, musing that, perhaps, too much spare time to fill today (I'm off work). Then I came across this article in the print version of today's Guardian which I've now found a link to on their website: (http://guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,1883730.html ).
As singer/songwriter, musician & all round decent chap, David Byrne remarks in the piece, "I kept saying to myself, OK, these are the Christian version of the Madrasas.....So both sides are pretty much equally sick."

Inertia & Urgency Part II

My brother's wedding passed off successfully. I had been secretly dreading it. Family occasions always have what could be termed "minefield" potential. You know the sort of thing, long-suppressed feuds, petty resentments, mind games, etc. Everything appeared to go to plan at a civil ceremony in a hotel/conference centre in Aughton.
Inevitably, I was asked about my own single status & whether I was happy with it. I had my response ready.
"So, when is it your turn?", cooed a well-meaning, but uncomfortably intrusive female relative.
"When Everton win the Champions League", I smiled, before downing another glass of wine.
Ah, yes, the booze. There was lots of it. Not so much as to provoke any arguments or indiscretions, at least, not as far as I am aware. I staggered from the proceedings at a family friend's house later on that evening. I considered going to a local pub to catch the Liverpool v. Newcastle game, but my laboured lurches which passed for walking by this stage persuaded me not to go there.

Despite Labour's conference in Manchester this week, nothing in the world of politics has stirred my curiosity or emotions, a reflection of the state of politics & the appallingly low level of political debate rather than indiference or apathy to politics per se. However, I did enjoy Steve Bell's cartoon in this morning's Guardian; it sums up the egos & vain posturings, in their differing ways, of Blair & Precott ( http://www.guardian.co.uk/cartoons/stevebell/0,,1883888,00.html ).
Of rather more interest to me in the last week or so has been some of the postings on the Guardian's "Comment Is Free" weblog ( http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree ).

Inertia & Urgency

A lot to relate later this week, hopefully Thursday. Tomorrow sees my brother's wedding. Expect a much more personal post about this, for obvious reasons.

From The Past To The Present

Another nostalgia fest has come & gone. The Matthew Street Festival was little different to previous years. It should be said that this was the first time the organisers appeared to acknowledge that there is a modern Liverpool music scene; a stage was set aside at the Pier Head for local, unsigned bands. That said, however, when set against the backdrop of unashamed 60s nostalgia, it did seem like an afterthought.

Saturday evening was spent at a fundraising dinner for the Merseyside Stop The War campaign. The dinner was held at the restaurant of the city's Roman Catholic cathedral. Cue witticisms from us atheists & agnostics about the absence of children & their possible whereabouts within the cathedral grounds. It was pleasant, rather than rousing. Guest speaker was Bruce Kent, who rambled amiably about the Middle East & Afghanistan. A selection of Paul Robeson spirituals rounded off the evening. Nothing startling about Bruce Kent's comments. Well, that is if you don't think that both Bush & Blair should be hauled up before the International Criminal Court at The Hague for war crimes.
This year's Labour Party Conference takes place later this month in Manchester, so, given the short distance between the two cities, I'm tempted to join many others as they gather outside the conference venue to "welcome" Blair.

A Crushing Victory?

Spotted in what used to be the Anfield Kop two weeks' ago at the start of the Liverpool v. Maccabi Haifa Champions' League tie was the Lebanese flag. Until a couple of months' ago I wouldn't have immediately identified it. I've written before about the unease I always felt when comment turned to the Middle East (it's bad enough trying to form an articulate & consistent argument about Ireland, the Israel/Palestine saga makes the Irish troubles seem like a neighbourhood spat).
However, it did make me smile, given the arrogance & contempt most Israelis (& yes, I do say MOST Israelis) seem to have not just for the people of Lebanon, but for any outsiders who question the carnage visited upon millions of innocent civillians. Yes, I realise what Hizbollah is all about, & the idea of living under a global caliphate isn't my idea of a happy future, yet the response to the abduction of two Israeli soldiers (who have yet to be released) has been militarily counter productive & diplomatically disastrous.

It's been a strange week in which the voice of rational, practical reason over the immigration debate has come from, not the TUC, they're hiding in the forest of cowardice, but the CBI. Yes, the same CBI that cheered on Thatcher as she devastated whole communites in the 80s. Admittedly, Digby Jones has been viewing the issue through the prism of free market capitalism, but it has served as an effective rejoinder to the naked racism which has accompanied the latest immigration figures.
It is, however, nice to see that a local arm of what still calls itself the Labour movement has responded to the feral sniffings of the BNP. A leaflet popped through my letter box last weekend from Sefton TUC, making fairly basic, yet salient points about the fascists. It may seem simplistic for anyone reading this blog whose reading habits normally end with the Guardian, Independent, etc. but one extract from the leaflet merits reproduction here, & I make no apology for quoting it in its entireity:
"The claim that asylum seekers are living in luxury is a total myth. Asylum seekers cannot claim mainstream benefits. If destitute, they can only apply for basic food and shelter. A single adult is eligible for £38.96 a week, equivalent to 70% of basic income support. A Home Office report shows that people born outside the UK, including asylum seekers, contribute 10% more to the economy in taxes and national insurance than they consume in benefits and public services-equivalent to a boost to the economy of £2.6 billion in 1998/99. Britain, the world's fourth largest economy, is ranked 9th in Europe in 2003 in terms of asylum applications per capita. The world's poorest countries both produce and have responsibility for most refugees."

Liverpool is preparing for this weekend's Matthew Street Festival. There appear to be heartening signs this year that the organisers have been made aware of today's music scene in the city. We'll know for sure this weekend.

A Time To Rage?

Well, Sheridan had his day, or rather month, in court & emerged victorious. Whatever the conflicting accounts of the case, it seems clear that the News Of The World's reputation was also up for judgement in the Edinburgh court. In siding with Sheridan, a majority of the jury indirectly gave their own verdict on what is probably Murdoch's most venal outlet of propaganda.
As Sheridan & his wife emerged triumphant from court on Friday (looking almost Clintonesque in their sartorial splendour) it would have been tempting to add the image to those of other instances of wronged individuals having turned the tables on their accusers. This time, however, it was different.
One of those who was called to give evidence in support of the allegations was the SSP's trade union convenor, Richard Venton. I knew Venton on Merseyside during the 80s when he was the leading full-timer for the Militant. Even though my own political views have changed since then, considerably, it must be said, I have always regarded Venton as being a man of his word. So when Venton gave his testimony, more in sorrow than anger, by all accounts, that he attended the SSP meeting at which Sheridan admitted to visiting swingers clubs, the whole affair began to crystallize in the eyes of many who had been torn up to that point.
[This is a point I've twice made on the Guardian's "Comment Is Free" weblogs, amid shrill, partisan & downright ignorant postings on the matter.]
What now for the comrades in Scotland? Part of me couldn't care less; the SSP still clings to the utopian nostrum that a Soviet-style planned economy is attainable. However, the fall-out from the Sheridan case promises to be ghoulishly fascinating. It appears that a split will emerge on the old Trotskyite sectarian lines. Sheridan's old comrades from the Militant were most vociferous in their criticism of him, while the SWP element in the SSP have wasted no time in welcoming the verdict as a vindication of the former leader.

Meanwhile, the so-called Holy Land continues to take an almost carnal pleasure in carnage. Margaret Beckett has clearly been rattled by the criticism of her performance & the observation that she has gone from 80s Bennite firebrand to Blair's supine supplicant. It's prompted her to make the risible claim that the criticism of her is rooted in sexism (http://observer.guardian.co.uk/politics/story/0,,1838342,00.html ).

Echoes of the past

As someone who normally has little time for nostalgia, certain stories in the last few days have forced me to cast my mind back to times past.
The death was announced last week of Ted Grant (http://politics.guardian.co.uk/politicsobituaries/story/0,,1831179,00.html ). This obituary, penned by Bob Wade, whom I vaguely recall, is a sympathetic, &, at times, fawning portrait of Grant.
Wade is on strong ground when recounting the facts: "By the 1970s [entryism] began to pay dividends. Within a decade the Militant Tendency was a household name, with 8,000 members, three MPs, a seat on the TUC, control of Labour's youth section, effective control of Liverpool council and more full-time organisers than the Labour party."
All of which is true. It was a high watermark for revolutionary socialism in the U.K. Hatton was the de facto leader of Liverpool City Council (John Hamilton, the nominal leader, was tolerated, even benignly indulged, by the organisation; as long as the real position of power & responsibility lay with Hatton, no one cared about official titles). Similarly, in the Labour Party Young Socialists (LPYS), the youth section was the best possible recruiting vehicle for those in their late teens & early 20s from working class estates throughout the Thatcher years.
Wade's obit then takes a more partisan turn: "Grant...was beginning to see the writing on the wall from the Soviet Union, in that there would not be a 'political revolution' as he had previously predicted, following the collapse of Stalinism, but instead a triumphant West and an ideological counter-revolution."
This little bit of revisionism needs nipping in the bud. The fact is that Grant & his entourage left the organisation in the early 90s because they refused to accept the analysis of people like Peter Taafe that capitalism was, indeed, returning to Russia. I readily recall many a speech & article by Grant as late as the early 90s to this effect (one Grant peroration at a London conference, I remember, included the words, "Capitalism will never return to Russia!", the word "never" being roared, not just spoken).

At the time of the "split" the Tories were pushing ahead with the poll tax, using Scotland as a dry run for its introduction in the rest of Britain. Tommy Sheridan emerged as a natural leader & spokesman in the anti-poll tax movement. For all his political sincerity, a not altogether healthy entourage began to follow in his wake. Having seen a near identical pattern in Liverpool with Hatton, I treated Sheridan cautiously. The libel case he's been fighting with the "News Of The World" in a Glasgow court this month reaches its conclusion this coming week. I make no comment on the allegations which have been at the heart of the case, not just for legal reasons, but because none of the protagonists on both sides emerge with credit & dignity from this episode. (http://observer.guardian.co.uk/focus/story/0,,1833385,00.html ).

Here's something I don't like to admit, but Tony Blair made a valid point this week. Not over Iraq or Lebanon (still scampering & panting around Bush at the Washington press conference on Thursday).
No, the reasonable point he made concerned the rise of what are, let's be honest, self-inflicted ailments which doctors, nurses & GPs are being asked to treat: (http://politics.guardian.co.uk/publicservices/story/0,,1830606,00.html ).
I'm becoming incresingly exasperated with parents I see in public, taking their, sometimes frighteningly young, offspring into fast food emporia as a "treat". Ignorance is no longer a defence. Enough has been established by now to convince parents that giving young children fast food as a substitute for a proper meal amounts to a form of child abuse.

Dissecting stupidity

A week away from work which has largely been spent at home. The dubious attractions of cable TV relaying images of a globe with a death wish.
When I was a kid summer heatwaves would be seen as a Good Thing, a chance for the kids to amuse themselves while the parents could get some respite. Not any more. These days, consistently high temperatures are seen in the context of global warming. A sobering thought to act as an effective antidote to the facile cheers of those who don't think about the long term effects of being baked.
In the 1980s there were certain causes which many of us on the revolutionary Left embraced. Nicaragua, as well as the rest of Latin America was a pet topic. The Middle East, on the other hand, we tended to avoid, save for the occasional vague hope that the PLO would adopt a more Socialist path. For the most part, however, concerning ourselves with an issue which went back millenia & invoked religion (fundamentalist religion at that) made us atheists & agnostics feel deeply uneasy. The news coming from the Middle East in the last week paints a grotesque portrait of a region still mired in 12th Century theological arguments, yet using 21st Century military technology.
Feeding on feelings of unease caused by a world in flux & turmoil are the far Right. It was my misfortune to have a BNP leaflet pushed through my letter box over the weekend. Before binning the offending piece of paper, I decided to make a note of the glaring inconsistencies in their position. I have always thought that the fascists display stupidity & bigotry in equal measure. The leaflet confirmed that.
IMMIGRATION: "On current demographic trends, we, the native British people, will be an ethnic minority in our own country within sixty years."
[The source for the "current demographic trends" is not named. Nor do they care to define "the native British people". Celts, Vikings, Saxons, Normans, Hugenot French, & let's not forget the Romans, have all helped make British identity down the centuries. We know that these creatures don't see anyone from an Afro-Caribbean or Asian background as being British, so we'll just observe that the white British identity the BNP claims to represent is drawn from different parts of Europe.]
The BNP say they will "encourage the increase in the British birthrate which is the only real answer to the looming demographic crisis of an ageing population."
[The hapless lads who read the "ladmags" & surf "adult" websites will, presumably, be the shock troops in this Aryan baby boom; they'll think Christmas has arrived early.]
ECONOMY: "Globalisation, with its export of jobs to the Third World, is bringing ruin & unemployment to British industries & the communities that depend on them Accordingly, the BNP calls for the selective exclusion of foreign-made goods from British markets."
[Shall you tell them, or shall I? Wake up & smell the coffee, boneheads!]
NORTHERN IRELAND: "Long term, we wish to end the conflict in Ireland by welcoming Eire as well as Ulster as equal partners in a federation of the nations of the British Isles."
[Ah, now, isn't that nice of them to welcome the Irish Republic & its people back into Britain's bosom after the failed experiment of Irish independence & sovereignty spanning more than 80 years!]
EDUCATION: "We will...seek to instil {sic} in our young people knowledge of & pride in the history, cultures & heritage of the native peoples of Britain."
[Waterloo, yes. Peterloo, no. Hang on, isn't this line dangerously close to saying Britain is multi-cultural & multi-racial? I know it hurts your heads, folks, but do try to THINK before you come out with this crap.]

I do not wish for one moment to minimise the threat that the fascist filth pose. However, it is necessary from time to time to highlight the stupidity which underpins their arguments.

When the scales fall off your eyes

Many will be disillusioned by Blair over his paean of praise for nuclear power today. Some may even feel betrayed, though this is more a reflection of their own naivety than Blair's true nature. Long, long ago, way back in 1997, there was a feeling shared by many, including, I noticed at the time, those who voted Tory, that there really was change in the air. The late Robin Cook spoke confidently about "an ethical foreign policy". I held my tongue. True, the temptation to tell all & sundry that they were in for a rude awakening offered its sweet allure. But, no, I thought, let 'em learn the hard way. Sure enough, the severity of that lesson has been apparent to those poor saps in the last four or five years (many gave Blair extra time in the immediate wake of 9/11).

The bloggers have secured their first big political hit on this side of the Atlantic over the Prescott affair. Even though Guido Fawkes (5thnovember.blogspot.com/ ) & I come from different political & philosophical places, I have to congratulate him on the digging he's done on one of the most hypocritical figures in New Labour ( & that's saying something!). I won't mention the name of the female Labour MP named by Guido whom, he claims, is Prescott's other mistress, not because the claim is risible (it isn't), but because you never know if a loophole can be found, & it's found that a blogger can be sued for libel. [Interestingly, the MP named on Guido's blog has, obviously, denied the story, yet declined to take legal action.]

A measure of just how far I've made my own political journey over the last decade and a half was instantly apparent to me last Saturday when More4 screened the Alan Bleasedale serial, "GBH". When it was first aired on Channel 4 in 1991 I was still very much an active member of the Militant. By a strange quirk of scheduling (at the time we were more cynical about its timing) the first episode was shown in the middle of the Liverpool Walton by-election, a contest noted for its bitterness, dirty tricks & open hostility. Both sides were guilty; I recall telling people on the doorstep that Kilfoyle had something VERY dodgy to hide.
It was an open secret in the organisation that Bleasedale's drama was a thinly-veiled portrait of Derek Hatton. Bleasedale denied that the drama's main protagonist, Michael Murray, was wholly based on Hatton's character. We claimed that it amounted to nothing more than character assassination. Looking back, both protestations were wrong. It's ironic that another totemic leader of the Trotskyite Left, Tommy Sheridan, is now revealed to have, ahem, feet of clay.