NOT PWOTESTING

Was tempted to wander down but also tempted to watch how rolling news would present on BBC. I am sure Charlie Brooker is preparing a summary now. Yeah, still jadded by protest really. I think UK Uncut are doing quite well. If they can keep on the same happy non-violent tip this mass arrest should eventually work in their favour.

The statistics speak for themselves. UK Uncut arrests for non violence: 138. Arrests outside: 10. Shows exactly what the priorities for Policing are. To be fair Paul Mason made this point on Newsnight.

I got defriended on facebuk (which I still don't know why I am on) by someone because I said I couldn't see the point of smashing stuff which was covered by insurance. Hilarious no? Insurance. A pretty simple concept. The guy was actually calling random smashing "economic damage". That is ridiculous no? I mean 9/11 was economic damage. People's insurance premiums went up and that was what- 15 guys? none of whom even wore masks or carried flags. Yes. Economic damage. Peoples insurance premiums went up. A bit. What fucking economic damage does random smashing do? Right next to fuck all.

And what the fuck was Theresa May going on about? Banning hooligans? Banning masks? The cops already have laws to cover this. Ridiculous woman.

The message from Saturday? If you do non-violent direct action you will be arrested, if you violently run round with masks smashing stuff, you will probably get away with it. Another reason I would go nowhere near black block. How many of them behind those masks are cops?

Amusing blog trying to distance Labour "movement" from UKUncut
Someone in the Labour party who still backs UKUncut
Brendan O'Neill's bullshit
Inspector Gadgets "We'll show you what happens when we don't kettle" perspective
Pwotest, but not on Saturday

Update: There has been a lot of talk about unclear alternatives on the march for the alternative, so I thought I would post this excellent video from Al Jazeera where Max Keiser wipes the floor with the experts he is up against who don't even refute anything he is saying.And what he is saying is let the banks and bad banking practices fail, nationalize them as utilities which lend at 2% and give all the non bankers a wage hike to stimulate the economy. No one needs to smash anything. Surely even the Tea party can get behind that no? If we need to campaign for anything, I think a good focus would be for the general public to understand the banking system in clear terms, and the king of the castle on that isssue is Max Keiser.

Another update: If you take it all a bit more seriously than Max, Inside Job is amazing. Online here.
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JODY

The debate about what has been happening to Jody McIntyre and this subsequent Ben Brown interview is very interesting. I must admit I am siding with Jody about the F.I.T. squad -not surprisingly but I am siding with this geezer in The Telegraph about the interview.

As a representative of the BBC the guy had to robustly interview Jody. It helps Jody. Put it this way- what would the right wing press be saying about the BBC if he didn't? For Jody to be able to answer questions like this on TV helps his case, should he choose to pursue one.

Obviously I have seen the enthusiasm of the F.I.T. squad before, its not been a secret here that they know who I am and ask silly questions because they think they are leaning on me for something which is DEFINITELY in their own heads. They also do this to people known to be violent. Jody says he believes in revolution. the F.I.T squad should ask him what he means by this. I am sure they will get all the information they need without pulling him out of his wheel chair and dragging him across the street. Or they could read his blog.

They aren't very good at distinguishing actual threats from those they or their bosses perceive are they. Leaning on someone with cerebral palsy like this they have no fucking excuse whatsoever. The anti terror squad asked questions politely and calmly. Mind you that is probably because I am a honky. The F.I.T squad are a bit thick and exceed their remit. They behave like demented paparazzi. Pushing it too far and being caught on camera should be good for them. I hope they learn something for once. Jody can answer, and the way he answers is a lesson to all of us. Tomlinson couldn't.

Personally I have seen a valiant attempt from the Beeb, in a BBC manner of course- to pursue issues of Police brutality and issues of disorder involved in these protests. Maybe I am getting old or something. I have noticed white bits in my beard.

I hope this generation achieve change, and aren't distracted by policemen with these attitudes like so many of my generation were.


Jody's version of events is here
Richard Littlejohn here

Some curiously extensive stuff from The Daily Mail. Including an image of just how frontline Jody was.

...More than 180 people have been arrested by police investigating rioting during the series of protests against rising student tuition fees, it emerged today.

Senior officers said the vast majority of the 182 suspects were aged between 17 and 25 and have never been involved in violence or criminal acts before...


also breakfast news


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STOPPING

Sorry guys, I just can't see how this is a good thing and it makes me very uneasy seeing supposedly intelligent bloggers justifying "a bit of argy bargy". What killed Mayday in this country? Violence. There is nothing worse than being right and totally negating your argument. I can't see how this is bringing about change and I take a very dim view of wasting Police time. I have seen Police after they were out all night looking for a friend of mine who had become mentally ill, and not through drugs. They left without waiting for a thank you. I have seen Police attending road accidents.

I am surprised how many people my age and older are still dreaming of a day when Police are outnumbered and they think utopia will reign. When Police are outnumbered they will call fucking Blackwater guys. Get a fucking grip. Capitalists are laughing at you.

It all seems really simple to me. To try and draw back from the extremes of capitalism we need to interest the majority. As far as I can see only the top 3% will suffer in their pockets and in comparison to the bottom 50% they will still be living in luxury. As culture changes and the majority are on side, the top 3% who I would imagine are suffering quite badly from human greed might try some funny business so it would really help if the Police were on side. The reaction they had to Climate Camp on black heath was very encouraging. Please don't throw it away.

..

More Fighting Talk...

from Inspector Gadgets blog:

Metcountymounty-

‎...Even with force mobilisation we would have had a problem clearing it, it would have been brilliant but messy, and no good news would come out of it. Back to the days of mass raves now, they’ve tried and won, and we’re now screwed....

This was his response to being present at the Scumoween Rave over the weekend reported in the paper.

Rave hordes in 18-hour spree of destruction at former Royal Mail depot in central London

Illegal Holborn Rave Was A Smokers’ Revolution And Against State Control

I used to read Metcountymounty's blog and I must admit I was disappointed when he stopped blogging. I am very much in favour of Police blogs. It is a sort of accountability which is more realistic than press releases or "on high" officers with no direct experience of what they are talking about making measured statements which mean fuck all.

What's not been mentioned-

This was the third time this building has been partied, there may have been more. The idea that anyone could do any more damage to it isn't very credible.

I've heard various stories of what happened. The ITN piece about raves "coming back" was hilarious.



I think this was the fifth scumtek over the last couple of years, with over thirty rigs at each. Not really my scene. Obviously this one was reported cos it was in the West End and because there was trouble for a while. My band were playing at a fairly large squat party in a slightly more secluded place elsewhere in London.

I make no comment on what I didn't personally witness but I will say-

The sort of squat parties we get booked at charge a fair bit of money and attract a different crowd. They also put a load more money into decor and sound equipment but they are about the same size as skumtek. They are basically everything you could ask for from a professional nightclub (except for bloody toilets) with security who can look after security rather than having to steal peoples drugs from them to give to the council. They never ever have any problem with the Police because they talk to them in a polite and professional manner.

I used to do some of the more hairier Hackney parties where I used to specialise in talking to the cops to convince them not to bust us. I think I might have written about them somewhere. It was just such a damn interesting cultural barrier to cross at whatever level of inebriation I was on at the time.

(Just found one- see POLICE OFFICER NO GIVE ME PRODUCER)

There are loads of comments about the Police throughout this blog.

...Back to the days of mass raves now, they’ve tried and won, and we’re now screwed....

I am sorry Metcountymounty feels this way. For one thing, what is "back to the days"? When have mass raved ever stopped? We have been playing at raves of between 2 and 4 thousand people for years now with no trouble from or given to the Police. How are they screwed? They make the same decisions every weekend all over London. If they get to a party which is setting up they can bust it and stop it. If the building already has thousands of people out of their heads inside, its better to leave it and do what needs doing on Saturday night surely.

See ITS THE SMOKE- the last one a couple of weeks back including a picture of a lone Policeman being taken for a tour of the venue as everything was winding down. I sat eating chips with the TSG in Camden one time when they inexplicably bust the trance party next door and left ours alone.

I am sorry Metcountymounty is so enthusiastic to fight with people. He sounds just like some squatters I used to know.

More interesting comments from Metcountymounty

...What pisses me off is the fact that they had the gall to do it in central london, in the middle of a high residential population KNOWING that our spineless as fuck bosses would ultimately let them. They KNOW that the media hate us and will slate us no matter what, they KNOW that most of the population who will speak up are left wing pussies who will take any opportunity to have a go at us and they KNOW that ultimately they will get away with it....

Obviously I am hoping Scumtek hasn't Castle Mortoned our ventures in London. I am not in favour of rubbing "their" nose in it just because you can. That's how the CJB came about. Wake up. We are a minority. They don't understand us. I don't buy any of this shit about "parties should be free" either. in my experience the people who used to shout this the loudest used to make shit loads from selling drugs.

another retired officer-

..All sounds like a return to the 90′s when I was on the TSG, spent innumerable lare turn commissioner’s reserves dealing with raves and pay parties. Must say though, that the illegal S&M rave in an archway under the railway bridge in Brick La...ne in Bethnal Green was more than compensation for all the aggro. I’ve never seen so many females in leather and rubber in one place in my life…..

The Policeman is right. I was at this party and it was amazing. I forget who the people who organised it were but it's a real shame they don't do stuff any more as they were seriously forward thinking people.

Reality check for anyone who is interested- Why am I against parties in legal venues? A certain huge South London venue which was recently closed down used to have to pass the council a box full of drugs to the value of x pounds every month to keep their license. Do you think they collected this amount of drugs on hardcore drum and bass nights or fluffy trance nights? I got totally sick of getting into a frame of mind where I was enjoying myself and causing no harm to anyone and then suddenly seeing the person next to me assaulted by wankers wearing black. I voted with my feet along with everyone else.

I take a very dim view of causing the Police problems on Saturday night when they have serious stuff to attend to, the law is not their fault and I have no influence on how they enforce it. We just do what we do. My interest is in understanding why we do it.

More on the spot footage from Skum'oween break in



UPDATE: Police bust party as it is setting up. Cheers Scum'oween! Nice one guys! Any more bright ideas?
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CONSPIRACY OF HOPE

I am not big into the conspiracy theories these guys shout about but there is something quite wonderful about what they do

POLICE STOCKTAKING

From Alex Thompsons Snowmail earlier:

POLICE, PUT THE KETTLE OFF?

Is it the end for our cops using their batons against protesters? Possibly so, for two reasons. First, they've been told to lay off the likes of climate change and G20 demonstrators by the Chief Inspector of Constabulary, Denis O'Connor.

He says in a report that officers risk losing public support if they're seen as aggressive and unfair. Second, the female senior officer put in charge of recent climate demos showed herself to be adept at keeping public order and allowing protests.

She deserves more recognition and we'd like to ask her tonight how she succeeded - but the police won't let her come on.

Curiously the key contentious issue of "kettling" - coralling crowds for hours on end and not letting them disperse until they are utterly bored and exhausted - is not overtly touched upon in this investigation. Odd, because that's the issue which has aroused more debate than probably any other aspect of street disorder policing.

Police methods ‘could erode public support’: http://bit.ly/5qyzOY

READY FOR A RIOT

Do watch Channel 4s Dispatches program about public order training in the wake of Tomlinson and the G20. I thought it was a very good programme. I have written a lot about my feelings towards all this, if you have missed my great wisdom click the police tag below.

There are some good blog reviews at
The Tone of Our Oppression
Random Blowe
Ramblings of a Scottish Student
and Paul Lewis in the Guardian

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I PWOTEST

There is a bit of a hoo har about todays Guardian front page which has pictures from Police "Spotter cards" of activists who were well known in 2005. This is old news which I can't take too seriously.

These guys used to take pictures of me, which I have been a bit indignant about here on occasion but I am not really too bothered. I can totally justify everything I am doing, it is all within the law and with the intentions of making the world a better more informed place, so if "intelligence" people in uniform who exhibit limited intelligence want to behave like paparazzi, you know, fuck them. I don't care.

I know a couple of the people on this card. They aren't violent or dangerous, they are quite principled though. Someone on facebook was saying they were annoyed about The Guardian printing their photographs. She got this letter back:

We're sorry that you have a concern about our publication of the police spotter card today. We did consider all the issues very carefully before deciding it was the correct thing to do. The response has been overwhelmingly positive, and that feedback from people whose faces appeared on the front-page, but this email is adderssed to people who have questioned the decision.

We made it clear that no-one pictured on this card had done anything amiss other than attend demonstrations, which is their right.

It is extremely important to be able to show the general public just what the police are doing by way of stigmatising demonstrators.

These are all pictures of people who have decided to attend public demonstrations, precisely in order to make public their own political views. They are therefore people who have voluntarily gone into the public arena to engage in political action.

Naturally, we don't want anyone to suffer any detriment for their beliefs. We believe that many of the people on that card will be pleased to have now contributed towards exposing and helping stop this kind of police behaviour. They will not primarily have been thinking of themselves, but of the benefit to the causes they believe in.

It is important to bear in mind that no-one personally asked us to black out their faces beforehand, although we circulated our plans to those members of the protest community we could find. A few people claimed that unidentified third parties might object, which is not a basis on which we could proceed.

The other important factor is that the faces on this card have already been published in the media before. They were shown in detailed close-up in the film 'Taking Liberties', which was distributed in cinemas and is available to buy as a DVD. The makers of the film describe the film as a "surprise box office hit". As many will be aware, one of the people on the screen holds up the "spotter card" to the camera and there is a clear view of everybody on it.

http://www.noliberties.com/index.htm

http://www.noliberties.com/release.htm

Most if not all the people on this card would have been well aware of that.

Some on the card say there was some sort of agreement that we would not publish the "spotter card" unless there was permission from all of you and failing that, we would blur some of the images.

Some background - we have carrying out research for this series since June. A few months ago, there was an idea that we should try to contact all the people on the card and interview them. At that time, the idea was to print some biographies of the individuals on the card to draw out various points - such as - the obviously important issue of how many people had criminal records. As it turned out, seven people on the card called me. It was clear that we were not going to be able speak to all on the card. As the project evolved, we abandoned the idea. During that process, we spoke to people on the card on the understanding that we would not name people if they did not want to be. As it turned out, we did not name anyone on the card, except Mark Thomas who wrote a comment piece about the card - http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/libertycentral/2009/oct/25/doth-i-protest-too-much

It should be clear from the general thrust of the articles that we are looking to highlight the wrong-doing of the police, not the protesters. The publication of the card helps to tell many in the wider public what is actually going on here. Many in the protest community have complained that the mainstream media have ignored what the police have been doing. We hope that you will recognise that the Guardian has in the past year published a series of articles which have helped to expose police wrong-doing. The articles on Ian Tomlinson and the treatment of protesters at Kingsnorth are two examples of these.

We recognise that some of you are upset but we hope that you will have a better understanding of why we published the card.

Yours,
Rob Evans
Paul Lewis
Reporters,.
The Guardian

UPDATE: Hoo-Har here

UPDATE: Suspect "A"

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NO PHILOSOPHY

Guardian-

...Small actions like the ones above may be inspirational to the participants, but they are of little use to the wider aim of garnering support and jolting politicians into action; showing politicians that the world is moving on and that they need to move with it.

For that you need to be ambitious, you need to plan and research meticulously; the result can be actions such as Greenpeace's climbing of the Kingsnorth chimney or Climate Camp's occupation at Heathrow, which genuinely created a buzz.

The next few months are crucial. It will be interesting to see whether Climate Camp's decision to invest in movement building will pay off...


err.. Yeah anyway whilst everyone was in town ripping the S off of SHELL I was up at the camp discussing Where Now? Very difficult because it was organised by people at the front who told everyone to discuss in groups for ten or five minutes and then went off on one themselves all the time yabbering between these stunted debates. This is consensus I am quite used to and it doesn't really bother me. I still reckon it is a good thing, we just have to spend longer invovled in each others lives than your average Capitalist.

They played a game where everyone walked around in circles shouting ideas at random which the group then answered which was quite fun. How can I surmise? People wanted Climate Camp to appeal to more people. They feel a bit middle class and honky-fied. Someone said they wanted less national meetings cos they are hard to get to and distract people from creating strong local groups. They want to engage with pre-existing community groups and residents associations.

I only arrived for the afternoon session, but in total this went on for about six hours. For the whole time one guy was standing alone with some stupid sign hassling people every so often with the facilitators trying to reason with him. Right at the end, when one chick got up and said there would be time for people to quickly publicise upcoming events to the group as a whole, another of them stood up and said she "Had to learn to say no" at these things, and then proceeded to use the time up waffling some more herself instead.

Its all quite funny really and, as I say its something I am quite used to. I like living surrealism. Will mainstream society one day embrace this non-hierarchical way of life? I think so. It is something which has been lost a long time ago which we are struggling to refind so although I felt a bit frustrated it didn't put me off any. I am only on the periphery of climate camp and if I can say anything useful I will.

Predictions? Well trying to shut down a Power Station will put the Police straight back into Kings North mode. Hassle people. Inconvenience them. Inconvenience them a lot. Provoke them. Try to discourage them from coming back. You can't just shut down Power Stations now can you? They'd look pretty silly if a bunch of people like this did shut a Power Station down eh.

But wait...

...Scotland Yard said tonight the model of policing used at Climate Camp, the week-long gathering of environmental activists that ends tomorrow, was a "really successful" approach that would be repeated at future demonstrations.

Chief Superintendant Helen Ball, a spokeswoman for policing at the campsite in Blackheath, south-east London, said neighbourhood-style tactics which included a "low-key" presence, limited surveillance of activists and almost no use of stop-and-search powers proved the Met had changed its approach since the G20 protests in April. The tactic is likely to be repeated at future demonstrations, she said, noting there had been just one arrest in seven days. "Where the opportunity arises to adopt a similar policing style in the future, we will do that, so if you are in Nottingham in October, buy some candles"...

I made up that last bit.

In the evening Martha Tilston played, which the folkies thought was a big deal. I realised as she played what was alienating me from all this. She has a great voice and beautiful songs but "Wonderful world" just isn't something I can relate to or sing along to with any conviction. Its not that I think it isn't, I just have no philosophy. This became apparent to me in a flash of inspiration in Tescos the other day. I would imagine a lot of people have shed their belief system in the queue at Tescos, this is how I shed mine.

I looked up and sitting down next to her mum was an Indian girl of perhaps fifteen with her face like the Elephant man. Sort of hall of Mirrors without the mirrors. Of course I looked away or tried not to look, or tried not to look uncomfortable. I walked on and saw a beautiful young blonde and felt my eyes and whole self attracted toward her. She opened her mouth and shattered the spell of her beauty with some proper Bermondsey attitude.

I just thought, human beings are just naturally as fickle as any other creature and I am one of them. No religion, no philosophy. I am not going to question anymore. If I can have fun, create or make the world a better place, its just because its a good idea. No belief, no goal. I think I am happy with that.

When I was hungover on Sunday some Spanish guy visiting my house was going on about Holotropic breathing. I have been giving it a go since and its made me incredibly angry very quickly to the extent that I am seriously considering finding some sort of guide rather than getting it all DIY style off of Youtube. Someone said I was "Holding on to Negativity" and had to "Breathe through it."

..

FIVE

I didn't go up today, was jamming in Hackney, but yesterday I went to a meeting run by the legal observers. There is a lot online about legal observers being hassled at Kings North, but apparently they have had a meeting with the cops and are recieving some sort of status recognition though it remains to be seen what will happen when this lot next take action of course.

They are advising everyone not to give their details to the Police as a policy and are all wearing T shirts with this message on them. There was some fainlty alarming stuff about data bases and Police questions. Its all a bit late for that for me as all the FIT posse know who I am. As I have said before I don't really care. I can totally justify what I am doing and I am of such disposition that if I started down the path of worrying about information, databases and "the state" I would drive myself more nuts than I am already. Again this was another meeting preparing fresh new people to become thorns in the side of the worst extremists of Capitalism by all non violent means necessary, including the law.

For a festival of between six hundred and a thousand people, maybe more at any one time there is nothing quite like it. Logistically the camp is split up into groups who are expected to, and intend to be responsible for various workings of the whole. I live close by so I can come and go but I am beginning to see how the intensity of things on site could become a bit cultish if you were camping up there, especially for people from outside London this sort of meet up must mean a hell of a lot. Me? I ain't joining any cult anytime soon. In a cliquey place like this city I am sure it is much easier if you fit into a group. I've had a foot in all sorts of camps over my time in London but never felt truly part of any of them. For a while now I have retreated into music. When and if Atilla is let out of jail there is a possibility I might make one film, apart from that I can't really see my focus changing.

comment by
John Q. Publican on Liberal Conspiracy-

...The job for this generation is to consolidate (what you describe as “becoming main-stream”): to get people to accept that they’re not going away, and that they know what they’re doing. One way you do that is photos of your people being butchered on the evening news while holding their hands up and chanting “This is not a riot”. It worked for Gandhi. It worked for CC.

The movement learned a lot from the crushing, and subsequent media treatment, of the Gleneagles protest. They learned that the only way to win that fight is through letting the forces of reaction show their colours and getting it on video-tape. They’ve implemented that knowledge, honed it across several violent assaults by police in the last 8 years, and on Bishopsgate the government handed them the chance they needed.

So now the task is to build on that. They’re at the table with the Met, finally, after 5 years of trying to get a useful response. They’ll be at the table with the GLA fairly soon, given how many members are interested. Ask me again in 11 years...
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NOT TELLING

UPDATE: The Police, from what I briefly saw pretty much behaved as requested. I was in the city lunch time and there were maybe six city Police observing what was going on and the touring group of cyclists who passed was totally unescorted. To be fair they didn't seem to stop anywhere for long either. As you can see from the website, no cops to be seen at Climate Camp. I bet everyone is well dissapointed.

..

INTEGRATION

No trouble on the second day of The Lambeth Country Show but the cops were searching every "black yoof" just in case. Some people were saying the crew yesterday were beating up other kids. They certainly looked like trainee steamers. What can the Police do? It is a shame that this thing reinforces itself so being hassled by cops is a way of life for a black teenager in Brixton and not joining a gang leaves you vunerable to gang activity. Anyway I thought it was a great festival. It is a great experiment to bring a bit of the countryside into town. This is Brixton and there is nowhere quite like it.

Heavy Entrance

No one is interested in the Liberal Democrats

Really stunning Cactii

The biggest one sold for eighty quid

Note the cactii tie. This guy said he had been coming down with his cactii from Lincolnshire since a year after the riots and had seen friends he had made at this event grow up. They are often at posher events in London, Hampton Court etc but they don't like to miss this one, everyone expects them to be there.

"I brought my wife down, she said at the end of the day she had never kissed so many black ladies in her life!"

Family Dread

Mark and Dark. DJ Dark (left) was put in jail for graffiti a while back. He said the open prison was OK and a lot of people inside had read about his case and knew he was coming.

"People were throwing plastic bottles of Appletons over the fence for New year!"

Lambeth Country Riot

Well that was fun for all the family. Goats, Chickens, Llamas, Eagles, Vultures, Owls, Sheep, Flower arranging contests, Cactii, Tents full of hollistic healing, stages full of reggae, a fair ground with rides full of gleefully screaming punters whilst a rioting mob of a hundred or more black kids went steaming back an forth pursued by a similar sized group of white Policemen. Before I left I spotted riot Police gearing up behind one of the attractions. I'm going back for more, with the camera this time!

..

POLICE DON'T HAVE TO BECOME HIPPIES

But Mr O'Connor is going to have a go...

...speaking at a conference of senior police officers in Manchester, Mr O'Connor said "it is not simple but it is a great British thing".

He added: "It is not that we have all become hippies now and we are all OK with that.

"But it is starting from a different place and having a different mentality."...

...Mr O'Connor admitted many of his recommendations were "not terribly profound"...

...He said: "In the medium term at least it may be worth monitoring the effect of containment on people.

"The object being to win the consent of as wide a group as we possibly can."...

...He said: "I have not heard a lot about crowd dynamics and also about our own group dynamics. It is a great challenge for officers to stand for hours facing a difficult situation."...

Yes. Erm... Tell them to "Chill out"?

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I DREAM A DREAM

OK. It is safe now. Panorama's protest piece started by addressing everything I was moaning about, and proceeded through all the relevant questions about Police and FIT squad attitudes to protest. Well done Panorama, I'll shut up now.

Apart from that life is in a bit of a holding pattern at the moment. I may be filming, I may not. I may "get somewhere" filming, I might not. I might just branch off and do something totally different. Sort of same as usual really. I can't complain.

I have just finnished reading The Brotherhood of Eternal Love by two British writers Stewart Tendler and David May (interview here). This is an excellent book which, as David says might be made into a film at some point. I haven't wanted to take acid for a long while now, though I would like to again one day. I am off all drugs for the moment and I have stopped smoking for health reasons. I am avoiding social situations involving alchohol because I don't want them to lead to more cigarettes. I even went running with Mr Camel which was a surprise.

I haven't really made a point of taking a stand politically here because I don't really feel political, though I do feel a bit guilty about that. I assuage this guilt a tiny amount joining in debates over at the excellent Pickled Politics blog where I managed to get myself accused of being racist and of not being racist enough in the comments section of the same post.

I am not really any good at debating. I rarely take it seriously enough and pursue a path of comedic anti-intellectualism which is designed to be more entertaining than productive and probably isn't that entertaining either. Most of the time I find myself butting into the middle of some of the regular commenters long term rows with each other with the same stuff over again, but I like Pickled Politics and I think they are taking a very "live" attitude to the recent BNP gains in the European Parliament. I am glad they are taking it seriously even if I am not. I mean, the far right are no threat are they?

Whilst none of these extremist groups affect my life I hold the same attitude to all of them. I find these controversial utopic views fascinating. I don't know why, but I do.

What else have I been getting into? Oh yes. Lady Gaga at Glastonbury and I don't know why about that either. All her songs sound like the same mediocre Madonna song, but I am not sure which one. She sounds like she is doing a bad impression of Madonna when she sings, but scores a few points for grunginess. She is marginally prettier than Madonna was at her age. I think she will be quite sexy if she gets to forty- yet the whole package, together, I can't help liking, and I was never a Madonna fan though I liked the one with the buring crosses in the video.

..

David Shayler Challenges Babylon's Authority IN HIS UNDERPANTS!

In his fuckin underpants man! Call yourself a revolutionary? You ain't shit...

Return to Tyting from anaconda on Vimeo.

USE THE FORCE?

PERSONAL SHIT

Yeah I haven't written any personal shit for a while. I feel as if I am doing all the right things but noticing my general lack of enthusiasm about doing them. Brian posted a link to the Essene Gospels on facebook. I took a look and I must admit they focused me back onto thoughts I have been having for a long while about fasting and general clean living inducing a better state of mind.

I am fascinated by this Hindu/Buddhist vegetarian version of Jesus, and the translation of "demons" as the worms and caked on shit which come out of your arse through colonic irrigation and boils coming out of your skin when you fast.

..."Seek, therefore, a large trailing gourd, having a stalk the length of a man; take out its inwards and fill it with water from the river which the sun has warmed. Hang it upon the branch of a tree, and kneel upon the ground before the angel of water, and suffer the end of the stalk of the trailing gourd to enter your hinder parts, that the water may flow through all your bowels. Afterwards rest kneeling on the ground before the angel of water and pray to the living God that he will forgive you all your past sins, and pray the angel of water that he will free your body from every uncleanness and disease. Then let the water run out from your body, that it may carry away from within it all the unclean and evil-smelling things of Satan. And you shall see with your eyes and smell with your nose all the abominations, and uncleannesses which defiled the temple of your body; even all the sins which abode in your body, tormenting you with all manner of pains. I tell you truly, baptism with water frees you from all of these. Renew your baptizing with water on every day of your fast, till the day when you see that the water which flows out of you is as pure as the river's foam..."

Moving from bodily functions to all this Police stuff recently I feel a bit of a plan coming on. I call it Robocop 3 theory. Have you seen it? The one where the Police and the squatters team up against evil coporations? Its going to happen. Its got to be worth a go. I'm going to try and do some digging behind the scenes to see who is up for it.

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IF YOU WANT PEOPLE HIT...

You''ll have to hit 'em yourself say Police in The Sun (Who owe me money):


Riot cops ‘to go soft on demo’

RIOT squad cops will refuse to enforce the law at a Budget day demo in London today.

Police in the Met’s Territorial Support Group, stung by criticism over the G20 demo, will take a “softly, softly” stance...

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In defence of the Police..

I have met some really good cops on demos who I could cut the bullshit with and talk to as human beings. This has really meant a lot to me over the years. I have family members who work for the Police. I have seen Police very recently, and over the last year on at least three occasions put themselves out to rescue friends of mine who had developed problems mentally. I am really glad they were there and they left without waiting for thanks.

I can't stress how important it has been for me over the years to look through the uniform, nor how often I have met the human there. We are very lucky in this country and I am sure we can sort this all out still.

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