Annual celebration of student uprising to overthrow the Greek junta, the fascist colonels
March to Parliament building.
Ring of steel police vehicles nose to tail riot police to protect Parliament.
Overhead a police helicopter.
Earlier, National Garden closed, centre of Athens closed, Metro stations closed.
Then on to the American Embassy. .
To a collective sigh of relief from the country, Thick Lizzie has resigned.
The vile people she has appointed should be removed: business sec, foreign sec, NHS sec.
They have done appalling damage to the country.
The country cannot afford the Tories indulging in another leadership contest. Slick Rishi should be asked to form a government.
Pepsi Trump to stand? It is not even the First of April.
If there is to be a leadership election, no reason nominations cannot be in by midnight tonight. Election held over the weekend.
Tory membership should be excluded.
There is a high risk with short notice electronic voting no checks of foreign bad actors and Russian and Chinese hacks of the ballot
Any leadership contender:
-wealth tax
– windfall tax Banks
– cap bankers bonuses
– windfall tax Big Oil
– windfall tax Big Tech
– 5% revenue tax Big Tech
– carbon tax
– increase minimum wage
– triple lock pensions
– increase benefits
– safeguard on fuel costs
– scrap BID Levy
There has to be an Inquiry into the dark money that funded Thick Lizzie.
There has to be an Inquiry into IEA and other far right lobbyists and the source of their funding.
This is appalling.
But at least we now know.
We force BIDs onto towns to extort money from local businesses.
It is hard to believe there are still naïve local businesses who think a BID is created to support them or help their local town.
Remember the good old days of the Soviet Union when a leader would be elected with 98% of the vote?
Experience Guildford carried out a survey of local business.
Over 95% find stated that they find our marketing, promotion and events programme (such as Street Festivals, Markets, Seasonal Events and Trails, Healthy Guildford Day) are important to their business.
Really, over 95% happy with the performance of Experience Guildford?
It was not an independent survey, it was carried out by Experience Guildford, thus worthless. The respondents were self-selecting, which again renders the survey worthless.
Actually even worse. Mosaic Partnership who brag they force BIDs onto town centres, the same Mosaic Partnership that Experience Guildford paid to produce a survey result that shows over 95% happy with the performance of Experience Guildford. One could not make up this shit if tried.
We do not know what the questions were. It is all too easy to get the result you wish for with carefully crafted questions. Especially when the results are what Experience Guildford paid for, and the survey carried out by a BID parasite that brags the service it offers is to force BIDs onto local towns to extort money from local businesses.
What then is the truth on the ground? From my own random sample, wandering around talking to a range of different local businesses, 100% opposition to Experience Guildford. Not a single business wishes to see them continue.
Of the businesses I have spoken to, I have yet to find any who support Experience Guildford, and there is now talk of refusal to pay the BID Levy. Businesses object to an enforced levy, little more than an extortion racket, for which they see no benefit.
We have parasitical organisations, in addition to the BID itself, associated bottom feeders Mosaic Partnership, Loyal Free app, Mi Reward app, that suck the life blood out of local businesses.
At least with the Mafia, receive protection.
As a former Police Minister and notwithstanding the lockdown and pandemic, this has got to be the most absurd, stupid and often brutal police response to a peaceful vigil. Hobnail booted, thick response when smart, risk assessed, intelligence-led policing was demanded. Sad night. — Tony McNulty
The Met’s overnight statement is an exercise in passing blame downwards. A princess was there: you think there were no political decisions made? Or public order plans set? Even if it was only the unit concerned out of control, who created the culture? — Paul Mason
Appalling scenes Saturday night, Met Police manhandling women at a peaceful vigil. A vigil for a Sarah Everard, a serving member of the Met Police charged with her kidnap and murder.
Sickening the statements from the Met Police the following day, we had to act the vigil was not safe.
Was it made safer, Met Police in the face of those at the vigil, pinning women to the ground, adding to the numbers present?
Unbelievable arrogance Cressida Dicks, unfit to hold office and should be fired.
What is equally of concern, today the government will try to force measures through Parliament, draconian measures, increased Police powers, to stop the right to demonstrate.
We have the right to peaceful assembly, to demonstrate.
The tweets speak for themselves.
An excellent Channel 4 Dispatches programme The Dirty Truth About Your Rubbish only touched the tip of the iceberg.
Gordon Brown had a wheeze of off balance sheet accounting, the PFI scam. It made public spending look low, a prudent Chancellor. Infrastructure, hospitals, schools, incinerators, built by the private sector, leased by the public sector, for which the tax payer is paying ten times the original cost.
Incinerators have to be fed. Local authorities sign contract for minimum waste. If fall below, they pay penalties. There is thus a disincentive to reduce waste.
Government needs to step in and annul these contracts.
Incinerators emit CO2. They should be forced to buy carbon credits for their emissions, and be hit with a carbon tax.
Incinerators emit carcinogens and other toxins.
Mass is not created or destroyed by incinerators. What is left residual waste, plus what goes up the chimney.
The residual waste is heavily contaminated with heavy metals.
A scandal several years ago, residual waste spread on an allotment in the North East, the Byker ash scandal in Newcastle – in which the city council was prosecuted after 2,000 tonnes of ash from the old Byker incinerator was found to contain potentially cancer-causing dioxins.
Incineration is not green energy, it is dirty energy. It is also destroying valuable resources which should be recycled, or placed in an industrial biodegrader.
All these measures in place, many incinerators would no longer be viable, and those in the planning stage shelved.
The figures published by local councils for recycling, are for that collected, it does not mean that collected is recycled. it is going to incineration.
Local councils need to do more to encourage recycling, some do, most do not.
We all should do our part, reduce, recycle, reuse.
We should also tackle the worst offenders, Waitrose and M&S obscene levels of plastic packaging. Is it really necessary bananas in a plastic bag, a coconut shell hacked off, then wrapped in plastic shrink wrap?
Mindful Chef, owned by Nestle, deliver recipe boxes, overpackaging, obscene use of plastic. Their frozen food boxes, a card sleeve, plastic film over what appears to be a paper tray, a plastic-lined paper tray.
Waste does not exist in the natural world either in time or space, the output of one process is the input to another, a closed loop system. We should emulate the natural world.
In Lincolnshire, the official green agenda carbon neutral by 2050, two decades too late, opposition to on-shore wind turbines, support for oil and gas exploration.
Amanda Gorman Poet Laurate reading of Inaugural Day Poem
The day started with Donald Trump leaving via the back door, a quick word with staff, Marine One to Andrews Airforce Base, a, subdued speech in front of Air Force One, incoming Administration wished well.
Joe Biden sworn in, a very powerful and moving Inauguration Acceptance Speech.
He said he works for the people. The people, not lobbyist, not Big Business, not Banks, not Big Oil.
To stop something worse than Trump, President Joe Biden must push through a Green New Deal, a radical progressive agenda, address genuine grievances of Trump supporters.
No partying, no celebrations, President Joe Biden got straight down to work.
Executive Orders to stop Keystone XL, re-joining WHO and The Paris Accord.
An executive order to wear a mask on Federal Property a step in the right direction to halt spread of Covid-19. 400,000 Americans have died, more than died during WWII.
A warning to White House staff during their swearing in. Anyone who shows disrespect to their colleagues will be fired. Bullying will no be tolerated.
Incredible and moving poetry reading by Amanda Gorman, 22-year-old Poet Laurate.
Press Conference later in the day by newly appointed White House Press Secretary a breath of fresh air.
We just had a violent mob assault the US capitol … No question the President formed the mob, the President incited the mob, the President addressed the mob. He lit the flame. — Liz Cheney
Yesterday afternoon, a formality to certify Presidential Election results, astonishing scenes as a mob stormed the Capitol Building. A mob incited by President Trump.
This was not a coup. But why was it allowed to happen?
It was known a mob was descending, egged on by Trump.
Why was the building not guarded?
Contrast with the unknown para-militaries on the streets for Black Lives Matter protest.
Or treatment of disabled protesters.
Or treatment of anti-Trump protesters four years ago during the Trump Inauguration.
We have two weeks of Trump in power.
When Trump leaves office there must be an investigation of Trump, his family, his cronies, those who funded, and Facebook that enabled.
Those who stormed the building genuinely believed the election had been stolen even though no evidence to support their delusions. Why therefore do they labour under these delusions? Delusions spread and regurgitated on Facebook.
Republicans who tried to block certification of election result should be expelled. They are unfit to hold public office. They have failed their sacred oath to uphold the Constitution.
What we saw, was not a coup, not domestic terrorism. But what it shows is how fragile democracy. Never to be taken for granted.
Earlier, Trump standing behind a glass bullet proof screen urged his supporters to march on the US Capitol.
Trump incited a mob.
Twitter has suspended Trump for twelve house with the threat of permanent suspension.
The twitter account of Trump should be suspend until he leaves office.
The only modern parallel to what has happened was when the Spanish Parliament was stormed by fascists.
More recent past, storming of German Parliament by fascists, the Kapp Putsch in 1920. It was defeated by a general strike.
To call the last four years Trumpism is wrong. It implies a philosophy. There was no philosophy other than Brand Trump, insatiable greed of Trump and his cronies.
Now the Russian dirty money will dry up, what will Trump do as he will be of no further use.?
Let Trump set up a TV channel, and organise a boycott of every businesses that advertise on the channel.
We must now act against the enablers, especially facebook.
If we fail to act, where it ends is Auschwitz.
Covid-19 has accelerated shopping on-line by at least ten years, failing High Street chains floating on a sea of debt are falling like flies, shedding staff, and this will accelerate as furlough ends.
Enter dysfunctional Lincoln City Council in an act of mind-boggling pettiness decides to evict a fruit and vegetable market stall from Lincoln Central Market falsely claiming the stall too big.
The stall was a lifeline for many during lockdown when they carried on trading, especially for those who could not get out when they set up a veg box home delivery scheme.
Steve Sharpe has run a market stall in Lincoln for 35 years, with the help of his daughter Beth four years within Lincoln Central Market.
The stall accounts for at least 80% of the market football. If the stall goes it will hit the few remaining stalls in the market. It will also hit indie businesses in Sincil Street. It will hit those who rely on the stall for a low cost source of fresh produce, and there is nothing as fresh as grown by Steve and picked that morning. It will hit local coffee shops and restaurants that rely on the stall for their fresh produce.
All of this counts for nothing to the council bully-boys who are waging a vindictive vendetta against Steve for daring to criticise the appalling state of the market, the lack of investment.
Lincoln a county town in the middle of an agricultural county yet lacks a decent market.
Rules of the market:
The market stall always clean and tidy. If not within it allotted space, the difference must be marginal, it is not obstructing any thoroughfares, end of the stall is in line with other stalls.
Council jobsworth claims stall exceeds its allotted space, that have held extensive talks with the stallholders.
Steve and Beth dispute this. No discussion, hand delivered letters claiming non compliance.
It is not beyond the wit of the most incompetent council jobsworth to delineate the stall boundaries with chalk lines. If there is then a dispute resolve through arbitration not eviction. And it is not as though space is at a premium in an empty dying market.
The alleged discussions, produce minutes (accuracy of which will have been checked by Steve and Beth otherwise worthless), date, time, duration, location.
Council jobsworth claim the stall is unfair to other traders in the market. Difficult to comprehend how a stall that generates at least 80% of the market footfall is placing other stalls at a disadvantage. On the other hand, eviction of the stall that generates the footfall the market will die as will lose most of its footfall.
A formal complaint has been lodged with the council leader
who to date has not had the courtesy to respond.
And just when think the council bully boys can sink no lower, are now claiming the reason for eviction is secret, cannot tell.
The market is public space, the loss of the fruit and vegetable stall is a matter of public interest.
The council in cahoots with the local coop has trashed the outdoor market, Sincil Street, Cornhill, destroyed local businesses, to attract chain stores and eateries that can find anywhere and everywhere that lose the sense of place, increase alienation, drain money out of the local economy.
The hidden agenda would appear to be to destruction of Lincoln Central Market for redevelopment.
What is the hidden agenda? Having trashed the surrounding area, destroyed local businesses, is Central Market next? A dirty back door deal with the local coop?
Look to the Butter Market in Newark where local traders were kicked out to bring in Cosy Club. Sound familiar?
Something stinks and it is not the smell of rotting cabbages.
Please sign the on-line petition objecting to the eviction.
If live in Lincoln please contact your local councillors and local Member of Parliament Karl McCartney and ask them to stop this eviction, and at the very least go and visit the stall talk to customers and check for themselves the facts not rely on officials running a vindictive vendetta for criticism of a badly run market.
Keithpp's Blog 