4 July 2016: The United Kingdom and its exit from the European Union.
Road Transport

Trade agreements will have to be renegotiated and UK legislation decoupled from EU regulations. Depending on negotiations, a full Brexit – which includes an exit from the European Economic Area – seems likely, to be followed by the re-imposition of a ‘hard border’ between Britain and the countries remaining in the EU. Where will that border be?

Between the continent and England, certainly; between Northern Ireland and the Republic, possibly; but also, potentially, between England and a Scotland that somehow manages to persuade the rest of the EU that it is still part of it. If Brexit were comprehensive, trucks crossing those borders may again require the paperwork that drivers had to deal with prior to 1993 and the opening of the single European market. Carnets to cross borders, finite in number, may have to be applied for. http://transportoperator.co.uk/2016/07/04/how-brexit-could-affect-road-transport/

 

 

 

 

 

 
Maritime Transport

The maritime industry would be the most directly affected, given the importance of freight to the sector. Any changes in trading patterns would be especially relevant for UK ports, which themselves are responsible for handling around 90% of the UK’s trade.

Under Brexit, the UK would lose the ability to trade freely with EU member states, at least until and unless a free trade agreement is put in place, which would have the following implications. (Delays in negotiations could mean a significant period trading under World Trade Organization, WTO, agreements.)

1. UK trade would be subject to tariffs and import duties. In the WTO scenario, trade between the UK and EU member states would take place under most-favoured nation tariffs. In 2014 the EU’s average tariff rate was 5.3%.

2. UK trade would be subject to customs clearance. There would also be an increase in administrative costs. According to the WTO, around 8% of the financial cost of importing goods by sea comes from customs clearance. The World Bank estimates that the customs clearance process adds around a day to the import process for a single freight container. However, for multi-stop journeys through Europe, separate customs checks would be needed for each country a lorry had travelled through. Instead of a seamless journey off a ferry and onto a motorway, a lorry would have to wait while each separate pallet is checked, requiring extensive investment in parking facilities at UK ports and/or extensive queues in France (if customs clearance were moved there) or UK port towns.

Overall, World Bank estimates suggest that the additional customs requirements could add costs to trade. However, the scope of the impact is potentially more important. The EU is the UK’s largest trading partner. Some 49% of the UK’s trade in goods is with EU members. There is also evidence of a large increase in trade under EU membership. HM Treasury estimates show that EU membership increases trade with EU members by between 68% and 85% relative to a baseline position of WTO membership.

http://www.oxera.com/Latest-Thinking/Agenda/2016/Brexit-implications-for-the-transport-sector.aspx#_ftn8

 

 

 

 

 

 
Impact on Scotland.

Remaining part of the UK is not an option since Scotland would be further removed from the EEC with resultant adverse effects experienced by being at the end of an expensive supply chain.

An independent Scotland would, (assuming operational systems for the movement of goods and services to and from Scotland through England remain in place largely unchanged) still be severely disadvantaged.

The way forward is to significantly further develop the Ro-Ro (roll-on, roll-off) container port at Rosyth which would bring much welcomed business to Scotland. Facilities would also be expanded so that free movement of members of the EEC ( avoiding the channel ports and English customs) could be guaranteed through the re-introduction of passenger traffic.

A brief history of the Rosyth-Zeebrugge service follows so that the reader will be able to gain an understanding of events to date.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
1999: Rosyth – Zeebrugge ferry service

The European Commission backed a feasibility studies, costing £100,000 looking into the viability of a North Sea ferry service linking Rosyth in Fife with Zeebrugge. It is expected that a new ferry service would bring greater prosperity and could create 1500 jobs.

A Scottish Enterprise spokesman said: “We are all aware that the roads are getting very congested in England and the east coast seaports in England are getting extremely congested as well. We are now also seeing engineering advances which mean you can get from the east coast of Scotland to continental Europe by ship in something like 15 or 16 hours. The service, will depend on a new breed of fast ferry not yet seen in Britain, covering the 400 mile crossing at speeds of up to 30 knots.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2001: Euro ferry docks on the Forth

A feasibility study by Scottish Enterprise concluded that a new service between Scotland and Europe to be commercially viable. The study showed that most Scots would prefer to travel from a home port rather than the English port of Hull. A steering group was then set up to evaluate business plans from interested operators.

The aim is to have a daily ferry link for freight and passengers with a crossing time of around 16 hours to a port in Belgium, the Netherlands or France. It is estimated that such a service could boost the long-term survival prospects of the Rosyth yard.

 

 

 

 

 

 
2002: New ferry link makes waves

Scotland’s first passenger and freight ferry to continental Europe has set sail from Rosyth in Fife. The crossing to the Belgian port of Zeebrugge takes more than 17 hours, but will save passengers and truckers having to drive via Hull or the English Channel ports. Each ferry can carry more than 1,000 passengers, 120 cars and 100 commercial vehicles. The development brings Scotland closer to Europe.

A representatives of the Road Haulage Association said: “There is a lot of potential for people using the service. There is new drivers’ hours regulations coming into effect in the next two years in the working times directives that is going to seriously restrict what hauliers can do. So this ferry gives them great advantages from Scotland and I just hope they give it a chance. We will be encouraging them use the service.

 

 

 

 

 

 
2003: Ferry service needs more freight

Operators of Scotland’s continental ferry service have said it needs to attract more freight traffic to ensure its survival. But Superfast Ferries said the route has been a huge success, attracting 100,000 passengers so far, many of whom were new tourists to Scotland. The figure is more than double the number expected.

Tourism body VisitScotland said: “It’s a fantastic, direct access from the continent, right into the heart of Scotland and it is bringing new visitors who tend to drive and stay for longer than those arriving by air.

But there are concerns the service cannot survive without increased freight traffic, which is slowly growing at about 4% a month.

The Road Haulage Association (RHA) commented: “A number of major players are now using the ferry. Upcoming regulations restricting driver hours, could see increased freight only business. At present the way that this ferry is working, especially with just the trailers going, it’s saving on driver time, it’s just the goods that are on the ferry being met at both ends.”

Forth Ports, Chief Executive Charles Hammond said: “the it was still early days for the route. We’re still in a start-up period, but we’re building on that and we’re very confident that Superfast and the ferry service are here to stay,”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
2008: Ferry firm to axe Rosyth service

A ferry firm running services from Scotland to continental Europe is to stop operating out of Rosyth blaming fuel costs and lower than projected passenger numbers for the decision. The Scottish Government said it was “disappointed” as it was “a commercially successful service”.

The crossing to the Belgian port takes about 18 hours. and saves passengers and truckers having to drive via Hull or the English Channel ports. Each ferry can carry more than 1,000 passengers, 120 cars and 100 commercial vehicles. A statement from the company’s board of directors said: “We regret to announce the discontinuation of the Rosyth to Zeebrugge ferry service.”

The Scottish Transport Minister said: “Scottish Ministers are strongly committed to the continuation of this route, and will pursue all viable options to achieve continuity of a commercially operated service. The government will seek to identify an alternative commercial operator for the service.

A representative of the South East Scotland Transport Partnership (Sestran) said: ” the decision is difficult to understand on commercial grounds”. The ferry is currently operating at capacity and actually turning away potential business. The loss of the ferry link will inevitably impact upon the economy of the region, and that of Scotland as a whole, as travellers and freight companies seek access to ferry services elsewhere.”

A spokesman for Forth Ports said: “This is disappointing news as the ferry link is an important part of Scotland’s access to European markets. Our own analysis shows that the route could easily attract 60,000 freight units, within a potential marketplace of 200,000 freight units, making this a viable, profitable route for an operator with the right mix of vessels and frequency of sailings.”

A CBI Scotland’ spokesman said: “As a nation on the periphery of major export markets in Europe it is crucial that Scotland maintains excellent transport links to the continent. The Superfast ferry has made a significant contribution to this over recent years, and it would be a great loss if that service was to cease, as it would reduce the range of affordable, practical and reliable transport options open to freight operators and manufacturers.”

 

 

 

 

 

 
2008: Optimism over Rosyth ferry talks

Negotiations to find a new operator for the Rosyth to Zeebrugge ferry are “ongoing”. Forth Ports said it was “optimistic” that negotiations could be concluded in “a short space of time” and it would be keeping the terminal operational.

The Scottish Government said the route was still “economically viable”. A spokeswoman added: “We will continue to work closely with our partners in Forth Ports and Fife Council to do everything possible to secure a successful outcome.”

The chief executive of Forth Ports PLC, described the ferry as of “vital strategic importance to Scotland”. He added: “I can confirm that negotiations with a new operator are ongoing. Since commencing in 2002, the Rosyth – Zeebrugge ferry has been successful, carrying almost one million passengers and 200,000 freight units. We look forward to building on this success, especially on the freight side where we see significant expansion opportunities.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

2008: Dutch ferry operator for Rosyth

Dutch ferry company Norfolkline is to revive the Rosyth to Zeebrugge route, with the service starting up again in the spring, it has been confirmed. Part of the Danish Maersk group, it will operate a passenger and freight service using a new vessel.

Unveiling the new operator for the route Mr Salmond said: “Securing the continuation of this service is a real success story and hugely important to Scotland’s economy. We have worked closely with Forth Ports to ensure Scotland maintains a direct ferry link to Europe and I am delighted to announce today that Norfolkline will now operate the Rosyth-Zeebrugge route adding maintaining connections with major European markets is vital for Scotland at a time of global economic challenges. In the six years this route has been operating, it has carried nearly one million passengers, 4.2 million tonnes of freight and in 2005 generated around £3.4m of tourism expenditure in Scotland. And of course by removing 1.38 million lorry miles from Scotland’s roads it is an important contribution to the fight against climate change.”

The managing director of Norfolkline, said: “I am very happy to announce that Norfolkline will revive the Rosyth-Zeebrugge service starting next Spring. Norfolkline will run a passenger and freight service with three departures from each port every week. With the introduction of a brand new ferry, we hope to provide a comfortable and environmentally friendly crossing to our customers.”

The South East of Scotland Transport Partnership (Sestran) chairman, said: “Sestran believes that a direct ferry link between Rosyth and Zeebrugge is vital to the future development of the south east of Scotland. We are very relieved that a new operator has been found to run this important route. If the service had ended it would have had serious consequences for the region’s economy, as travellers and freight companies sought access to ferry services elsewhere.”

Under the waterborne freight grant, a Scottish Government-administered scheme, up to two million euros would be available to Norfolkline, subject to the criteria for the grant being fulfilled. However, Norfolkline has not made a request for funding at the moment, and said it was running the service from “a robust commercial base”.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2010: Passenger ferry service from Rosyth to Zeebrugge to end

Scotland’s only direct passenger ferry service to mainland Europe is to cease, it has been announced. The route operator, has blamed insufficient passenger demand for the move. The passenger service will continue the end of December.

Andreas Teschl, from the DFDS Group, said: “We are aware that the ferry service has provided an important link between Scotland and the continent so it is a matter of deep regret that we have had to take the decision to no longer operate passenger services on the Rosyth to Zeebrugge route in the future. “We know this decision will be disappointing to many people and we would like to thank all those who have supported us, particularly the Scottish government, the travel and transport industry, as well as those passengers who have used the service.”
2011: A new freight service from Scotland to mainland Europe has launched.

DFDS Seaways is running the service from Rosyth to Zeebrugge with two ships, and four departures a week sailing from each port. Route director Allan Hull said: “The freight service between Rosyth and Zeebrugge has been very popular with the haulage industry which has recognised the benefits of the route providing the only direct Ro-Ro (roll-on, roll-off) link between Scotland and the continent. While it was a matter of deep regret that the passenger service had to be withdrawn, we saw potential in enhancing the freight service to meet increased demand from the sector. Our new schedule will see two Ro-Ro ships operate on the route with the number of sailings increasing from three to four departures a week. This will increase overall weekly capacity by 25%.”

The Scottish Transport Minister said: “The Rosyth to Zeebrugge ferry route is an important link between Scotland and the continent. Although we are disappointed by the decision to withdraw the passenger service, we have requested that DFDS keep this under review. The current weather conditions certainly highlight the benefit of having a direct route to Europe, not to mention the significant positive impact it delivers in relation to climate change by removing a significant number of lorry miles from our roads.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
2014: Fresh fears over Scottish European ferry link

Fresh doubts have been raised about the future of the freight ferry service between Rosyth and Zeebrugge. Forth Ports chief executive Charles Hammond has written to the Scottish government voicing his concerns about European environmental legislation. He said rules coming into force at the start of 2015 will increase costs disproportionately. The Scottish government said it has already provided “significant support” to the service. It added that it would look at any further proposals brought forward by the industry.

The new concerns have been prompted by the EU Sulphur Directive. It will force shipping operators to switch from high-sulphur marine fuel oil to more expensive marine gas oil. North Sea and English Channel operators are allowed to fit exhaust scrubber systems as an alternative, although these are expensive and not suitable for all existing vessels.

Mr Hammond believes the cost on the longer Scottish route will be much greater than its rivals suggesting that the additional cost for the Rosyth service will be twice as great as that for Teeside. He wrote: “This has the potential to severely impact on the financial viability of existing freight ferry service into and out of Rosyth. Indications are that the disproportionate costs increases for the Scottish ferry service will not be acceptable to the current users of the service and that alternative freight routes will be used, utilising southern UK port and transferring the traffic to road.”

A Scottish government spokesman said: “We understand DFDS has been consulting customers on the options to deal with the impacts of the EU Sulphur Directive, which comes into effect next year. The Scottish government has provided significant support to the service, within EU State Aid rules, and will continue to support any proposals for EU funding brought forward from the industry.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
2014: Three bodies agree ‘safe’ future of Scottish European ferry link

DFDS Seaways, the Scottish government and Forth Ports have agreed to continue the freight ferry service between Rosyth and Zeebrugge. The three bodies signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to continue direct freight ferry services from Scotland to continental Europe.

In August, doubts were raised about the service’s future due to European environmental legislation. Capacity on the route will be increased following customer requests. MoUs are formalised decisions between two or more parties. The organisations agreed to continue the service under the management of DFDS Seaways.

Previous concerns over the route were prompted by the EU Sulphur Directive, which will force shipping operators to switch from high-sulphur marine fuel oil to more expensive marine gas oil. North Sea and English Channel operators are allowed to fit exhaust scrubber systems as an alternative, although these are expensive and not suitable for all existing vessels.

DFDS Seaways and Forth Ports have also announced that infrastructure improvements at Rosyth terminal mean that containers can be double-stacked, therefore increasing freight capacity.

Mr Smedegaard CEO of DFS Seaways said: “We have always been very committed to this route and we are very satisfied that with good dialogue with the Scottish government and Forth Ports we were able to find a solution to maintain the service in light of the forthcoming sulphur requirements, which will pose enormous challenges for the transport industry.”

Senior Vice President Kell Robdrup commented: “We would like to thank all stakeholders involved for their continued support for this environmentally-friendly mode of transport and we look forward to welcoming additional customers making use of the only ferry service directly linking the continent and Scotland”.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-29896285 http://www.dfds.com/freight-shipping/routes-and-schedules/rosyth-zeebrugge

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Aberdeen – Enlightened Electorate or a City of Luddites?

Aberdeen is a lively, cosmopolitan city located in North East Scotland, famous for its beautiful architecture and as a gateway to Scotland’s spectacular castle and whisky country. The city has been the hub of the UK’s energy industry for nearly 50 years and has enjoyed a high quality of life and low unemployment.

The city offers a wide range of activities and opportunities through its vibrant sports and social scene, its cultural events calendar and its world renowned research and education institutes, to its network of business and employment support services.

Politically Aberdeen was a labour stronghold until 2003 when the Liberal Democratic and Conservatives parties formed a governing coalition.

The 2007 election saw the demise of the Conservative and the rise of the Scottish Nationalist Party. There was no overall control and the largest party, the Liberal Democrats formed a governing coalition with the Scottish Nationalist party.

The newly formed local government instructed completion of a full financial review. This revealed a financial black hole of massive proportions and the matter was referred to Holyrood and the police for investigation (reports below).

The 2012 election brought more change. The Scottish Nationalist Party gained more seats but not enough to take control. Labour, the largest party formed a coalition with the Conservatives.

The Council’s political leaders have been obstructive, at times offensive (almost to the point of misrule) to any initiative muted by the Scottish government in Holyrood, often by-passing it airing issues through a compliant press and the office of the Scottish Secretary, David Mundell (most likely the conduit for the Conservatives on the Council).

The level of undemocratic actions and misguided decisions of the administration alienated it from many Aberdonians, but local government elections were held on 4 May 2017 and the electorate returned  a Tory/Labour council. The logic of  many voters is beyond understanding

What follows is a number of historical events applicable to Aberdeen many of which are indicative of incompetence, misrule and activities bordering on criminality. Quite why they failed to persuade the good people of Aberdeen to dump Labour and Torys defeats me.

 

New look Aberdeen – Hated by the public but approved by the council

 

9 October 2014: Aberdeen City Council has reinforced the belief that it is surely one of the most distasteful and sleekit of local authorities.

It has played a dirty game over the development that it once boasted would be Marischal Square – a great opportunity for a civic space it once promised – an idea that captured the mood of the city’s citizens browned off by a recent diet of lacklustre plans lacking in ambition and confidence.

Did they say square? They did. Did. Not any more. Because square there aint. Unless you follow the logic of Cllr Boulton who, in reply to being challenged on the great disappearing square, muttered something along the lines of – the whole area is a kind of square.

It is clear the Labour- led coalition which includes a Tory and Independents while happy to provide a blank sheet for the developers eager to build shops, offices and a hotel were less interested in what the people of the city wanted. Did I say less interested? Not interested.

Of course councils ignoring the wishes of the people is not a new phenomenon but disappointing nevertheless whenever it occurs and when it doesn’t even try to modify the commercial aspects of the design as a sop to public opinion.

The final decision was taken away from the Planning Committee and put to full council to ensure the commercial proposal went through, as councillors would be more or less voting along party lines. This was nothing short of politicising the scheme and a scandalous manipulation of power on a project that is so controversial.

Cllr Willie Young is reported to have indicated on July 17th this year that the decision had already been taken to go ahead with the Muse development causing consternation among opposition councillors opposed to the deal.

https://lenathehyena.wordpress.com/tag/aberdeen-city-council/

 

After-note:

1.The projected and budgeted cost of relocating the Council Headquarters to the Marischal College was around £30m. The final bill will be around £140m.

This gives rise to the public view that the approved new builds have been put in place as income generators. The finance raised from Aberdonian’s to be used to help offset the massive overspend. So it is “sod the public and the park” and the Aberdeen taxpayer can be used to clear the overspend.

2. The demolition of Aberdeen City Council’s former headquarters (St Nicholas House) was delayed following the discovery of asbestos which had to be cleared from the site by the council before any sale could be processed. The work costing many £ million was not included in the forecast costs. No matter the Aberdeen taxpayer absorbed the overspend through their rates.

 

 

 

28 August 2008 : Aberdeen is Europe’s oil capital, but its council suffered a financial crisis, so what went wrong? Behind the granite facade lies a city in municipal ruin.

This year the city council decided to close many welfare facilities in a round of cuts alleged to be as high as £50 million – a vast amount for a council with an annual budget of £417 million.

“How could this happen in Europe’s oil capital, a city full of millionaires?”

Bewilderment that was reflected around the country that a city, home to an industry worth an estimated £15 billion annually, could not afford to pay for its services.

The council was hauled before the auditors at the Accounts Commission.

The Accounts Commission said previous coalition councils had spent £10 million over limit for at least the previous five years and “did appear to have the capacity for change”. The impression of poor management was further reinforced during the commission’s inquiry, when the council leader appeared unable to answer questions on policy.

No-one resigned or even accepted blame – Len Ironside, retained the role of leader of the opposition. Only chief executive Douglas Paterson took early retirement from his £127,000 a year post after a scandal involving a £10 million under-sale of properties.

http://www.scotsman.com/news/aberdeen-city-council-special-report-behind-the-granite-fa-231-ade-lies-a-city-in-municipal-ruin-1-1088387

 

 

 

 

 

February 1997: Aberdeen City Council – Demand for Labour councillor Ramsay Milne to quit

A political row blew up yesterday when the Liberal Democrats on Aberdeen City Council called for the resignation of Labour councillor Ramsay Milne following criticism of him in a report by the Local Government Ombudsman. The report, censured the former Aberdeen District Council for maladministration and criticised Mr Milne for breaching the national code of local government conduct.

The Ombudsman’s report followed a complaint relating to a controversial land deal under which the council paid £400,000 to Grampian Healthcare NHS Trust for land in Cornhill Hospital on which the Castlehill Housing Association was to develop property, including homes for dementia sufferers.

The development proposals drew several protests from nearby residents but were eventually approved. Councillor Milne was involved in the deal in his capacity as estates planning officer of the trust. When it was discussed in committee and at council he did not declare an interest because, he explained, he stood to make no personal gain out of the land disposal.

The complaint to the Ombudsman was about the lack of an environmental assessment and although he expressed sympathy he did not uphold it. However, commissioner Frederick Marks said that while Councillor Milne’s conduct did not give rise to the complaint he viewed his conduct as a breach of the national code of conduct on a number of occasions.

 

After-note:

At 2016 Mr Milne is the Chairman of:The Planning Development Management Committee charged with primary responsibility for ensuring the effective and proper disposal of the Development Management and Building Standards responsibilities of the Council.

This is the same person who as a senior manager in a similar position with Grampian Healthcare authorised the sale of Health Service property for a sum of £2!!! (See below)

May 29 2006: Brother-in-law of the former First Minister, Jack McConnell, McLuckie is the millionaire owner of property company Camvo 37.

In 2007, retired detective sergeant, Alistair Watson – the officer behind the ‘cash for honours’ enquiry that dogged Tony Blair – sparked an investigation into McLuckie’s dealings with the Scottish Executive by writing to the Metropolitan Police.

Apparently, five houses and a plot of prime building land had been sold to Camvo 37 by the Executive for just £2 in 2004 on the site of the former Ladysbridge Hospital, near Banff, Aberdeenshire, is now worth upwards of £1million. Mr. Watson is quoted as saying:

There is something which appears not quite above board about this deal. It raises a number of serious questions about the relationships between all those involved and the Labour Party.

What I want to know is why was this sale of what had been a public asset not put out to tender? Like any other public asset it should have been put up for sale in public. Also why is it that property worth supposedly only £2 is now worth one million just three years after-wards?

And the NHS Grampian official responsible for the sale to Mr McLuckie’s company was at one time a prospective Labour Party MSP. He is now a Labour councillor. It would appear to the average man in the street that spending £2 and making a million from it is quite a bit of luck no matter how expert the property speculator behind it. It smells and not just a little.

It was also reported that ‘six months before negotiations over the Ladysbridge deal opened, another company he owned, Choices Community Care, donated more than £2,000 to Mr McConnell’s election funds

Follow-up:

Apparently, ‘The Inland Revenue tried to stall the sale after discovering Camvo 37 was benefiting from public cash being used to develop the site.

But it was pushed through by NHS Grampian property transaction manager * Ramsay Milne, who was on a list of prospective MSP candidates selected by Labour in 1998. He is also a Labour councillor in Aberdeen.

This refers to the fact that ‘Inland Revenue district valuer (DV) Jim Campbell tried to halt the deal in 2004 when he discovered Camvo 37, the firm run by the First Minister’s brother-in- law Robert McLuckie, was to receive £120,000 from an Executive quango, Communities Scotland, to help build new homes on the land.

Another £230,000 of NHS and council cash was spent renovating the existing houses even though the DV said the company should pay. Paperwork relating to the deal had explicitly stated that Camvo 37 should cover all costs associated with the development rather than relying on grants.

Further, ‘Camvo agreed to use its new acquisitions solely to care for adults with learning difficulties for the subsequent 20 years. It built four homes on the site, and rented them out to ‘Choices, a Livingston-based firm which provides care facilities for people with learning disabilities. Mr McLuckie was on the board of Choices until February this year when he sold his stake as part of a £10 million management buyout.

Records for the 2004/05 financial year show that Camvo 37 had debts of £1.4 million. It made a loss of £2,044 from a turnover of £141,239, making the grant Camvo gained from Communities Scotland three-quarters of its annual turnover. The strictest penalty the company faced was £255,000 for paying less than the market value of the site and failing to keep its promise.

At one point, Jack McConnell was questioned about his brother-in-law’s financial dealings but refused to be drawn in to the argument. As it turned out, in June 2007, the deal was given the all-clear by Health Minister Andy Kerr.

Earlier, in 2002, Choices Community Care, which largely provides community care services in Motherwell and Wishaw, secured £337,000 worth of business in Mr McConnell’s constituency, which was brought to the public’s attention by SNP council leader Richard Lyle.

http://powerbase.info/index.php/Robert_McLuckie

 

 

 

 

17 February 2009: Grampian Police in probe on council land sale – Officers pass internal report to fiscal

Fraud squad police have investigated the sale of millions of pounds of Aberdeen City Council properties and prosecutors were today examining a police report into the controversial council property sell-offs, which spending

watchdog Audit Scotland said were almost “bordering on neglect”. Property was sold off by Aberdeen City Council for £5.5 million less than its potential value on the open market and one senior council official was sacked.

A Grampian Police spokeswoman said: “We have made inquiries, assisted by Aberdeen City Council, and the information obtained was the subject of an internal report to the procurator fiscal.

http://www.afc-chat.co.uk/forums/index.php?showtopic=19819

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2009: Audit Scotland Report on the sale of properties in Aberdeen 2000-2004

There is a lack of evidence to support the valuation at which properties were sold and there are cases where the Council may have achieved a better price

Of the 26 disposals considered, internal audit concluded in eleven cases that there was a lack of evidence to support the valuation at which the property was sold. Such a high proportion indicates weaknesses in procedures and in senior management supervision and control.

In particular, internal audit found:

• Cases where no valuation report was prepared or where valuation reports were not signed off by the Principal Surveyor.

• Evidence that valuations were prepared after property deals were agreed with purchasers or where there is no evidence to support valuations.

• The potential loss of more than £5 million in proceeds from disposals, based on a comparison of valuations by Asset Management with those obtained by internal audit from independent surveyors.

As part of the investigation, internal audit commissioned independent chartered surveyors to value properties and the District Valuer to provide additional advice on Carden House. The following table summarises the information contained in the internal audit report on the main transactions showing a potential loss:

 

                                                                                                                                        Property/site                              Potential value (£)                Proceeds

College Street Car Park                     3,630,000                     1,800,000

Land at Carnie                                   1,065,000                        365,000

Seafield Club and Allotments            2,930,000                         685,000

Site at Earnsheugh                               20,000                                 100

Land at Powis Terrace                         372,000                         275,000

Carden House                                1,250,000                          590,000

Total                                               £9,267,000                     £3,715,100                                                                                                                                                                                                                       There is of course a degree of subjectivity in such valuations and in some cases the maximum potential value would have been dependent on planning approvals. However, based on these figures, it is clear that the Council may have achieved more across these six properties. In total, this could have exceeded the amount achieved by more than £5.5 million (£9,267,000 less £3,715,100).

While the independent valuations are important in quantifying the financial consequences, the valuers’ comments provide useful additional insight on the deficiencies in the Council’s processes. The importance of option appraisal is highlighted as a key recurring point. In the case of Seafield, for example, where there is a potential loss of £2.2 million, the valuers note that investigations of alternative uses for the site would have resulted in
substantial additional capital receipts.

The most serious comment by independent valuers relates to the College Street car park where they concluded that the proceeds may have been double the £1.8 million achieved. Based on the information available and their opinion on open market value, they concluded that the deal struck by the Council was ‘extremely poor and almost bordering on negligent’

 

 

 

 

Monday, 31 March 2008: Aberdeen Council Sex Case Manager Wins Case

A council manager forced to quit his job after complaining about senior colleagues having sex in the office has won his case for unfair dismissal. Former leisure manager Tom McNeil, 52, was accused of breaching the confidentiality of a report by his employers at Aberdeen City Council. He was also claimed to have made defamatory remarks about a woman he claimed to have seen engaged in a sexual act in the office. Mr McNeil had lodged a complaint about the senior manager cavorting with another manager behind a partition.

He also complained that on another occasion, later that year in 2004, the female senior manager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was seen by Mr McNeil performing oral sex on then manager Brian Woodcock. And he claimed Mr Woodcock then asked him “would you like a cup of tea and a piece of cake?” when he spotted him.

Mr McNeil reported both incidents to his bosses, including the chief executive of Aberdeen City Council – Douglas Paterson, but claimed he was then the victim of a witch hunt. Mr McNeil, who worked with the council for 32 years, has been awarded £26,028 after taking the council to an employment tribunal in Aberdeen.

Today he described his win as “absolutely brilliant”. He said: “The council has caused themselves damage yet again and the tax payers will be left to foot the bill for this 20-day tribunal. I was asked to run Garthdee Ski Slope and was then bullied into getting the centre to make a profit. But it was in financial difficulties, I told them but they wouldn’t listen. There’s a bullying culture at the council from the top down, if you don’t believe their point of view you get kicked out. The staff are not to blame, they work really hard – this comes right from the top. This woman went to all costs to protect her lover, and she is still there when she should have been investigated. I had no choice but to leave. The allegations against me were scandalous. This has never been about the money, I just wanted to clear my name.”

The tribunal found that the relationship between the two managers, who were married to other partners at the time, was “well-known” to every senior manager and “probably to more than 90 per cent of their employees”. And it was described by one witness as being “the talk of the steamie”.

Mr Woodcock, who was in charge of the Garthdee Ski Centre, was later suspended and investigated after allegations relating to financial matters but the other senior manager remains in employment at the council. Woodcock was then sacked from his post after allegedly sending “inappropriate” emails to the owner of the Garthdee Sports and Alpine Adventure centre in the city. He later sued Aberdeen City Council and was awarded more than £100,000 in a settlement.

When Mr McNeil was given his role, he advised the council chief executive the £2.3 million ski centre would always run at a loss but was told to make it work.

The tribunal ruled that evidence given by chief executive Douglas Paterson was truthful but criticised him for his lack of recollection of crucial matters that he might have been expected to remember.

The tribunal heard how the council was involved in a “sex for favours” scandal and council solicitor, Mary Kearns, claimed Mr McNeil was one of the managers involved. But Mr McNeil, now a business development manager, said he was subjected to a witch hunt because the chief executive wanted to get rid of him.

It was alleged he had breached the confidentiality of an investigation and had made “defamatory” remarks against the woman while expressing his concerns about the conduct of her relationship with Brian Woodcock in the workplace. The female manager had also alleged that Mr McNeil was a “sexual harasser”.

The tribunal found that Mr McNeil should not have discussed a confidential report but held that his remarks were not defamatory due to the council not having investigated his claims the woman and Woodcock engaged in a sexual act in the council office. It held that Mr McNeil was unfairly constructively dismissed by the council but awarded him half the compensation he was entitled to because he had contributed 50 per cent to his dismissal because of his conduct.

http://www.careappointments.co.uk/care-news/scotland/item/19758-Aberdeen/Council/Sex/Case/Manager/Wins/Case

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2006-2008: Aberdeen City Council – Performance Inspection of Social Work Services by the Social Work Inspection Agency (SWIA)

A performance Inspection of Aberdeen City Council’s social work service was commissioned early and completed late 2007 and published in a report in June 2008.

Main findings were;

1. The Council’s performance failed to rate above ‘adequate’ against any of ten areas for evaluation. ‘Resources and capacity building’ and ‘leadership and direction’ were both evaluated as ‘unsatisfactory’.

2. The report also contained findings from a follow-up inspection of criminal justice social work in the city, following an earlier inspection in 2006. There was a lack of progress in improving service performance and scrutiny of the service by senior operational, strategic and corporate managers was rated unsatisfactory.

3. Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Education (HMIE) published a report of a joint inspection of services to protect children and young people in the Aberdeen City Council area in November 2008. The reports were critical of the performance of Aberdeen City Council, across the range of services inspected. Each inspection was due to be followed up during 2009. Because the findings were so serious, the audit and inspection agencies agreed to co-ordinate timetables and activities.

http://www.scie-socialcareonline.org.uk/performance-inspection-of-social-work-services-aberdeen-city-council-follow-up-report/r/a11G00000017xYSIAY

 

 

 

 

August 2013: Aberdeen City Council gets £100,000 penalty for IT security failings

The ICO said information included details relating to the care of vulnerable children by social services. The information was released after a council employee accessed council documents, including meeting minutes and detailed reports, from a home computer. A file transfer program on the machine automatically uploaded the documents to a website, publishing sensitive information about several vulnerable children and their families.

The council was informed and the original documents were removed, before the incident was reported to the ICO. The ICO’s investigation found that the council had no relevant home working policy in place for staff and did not have sufficient measures to restrict the downloading of sensitive information from the council’s network.

Ken Macdonald, assistant commissioner for Scotland at the ICO, said: “In this case Aberdeen City Council failed to monitor how personal information was being used and had no guidance to help home workers look after the information. The council also had no checks in place to see whether existing data protection guidance was being followed. The result was a serious data breach that left the sensitive information of a vulnerable young child freely available online for three months. We would urge all social work departments to sit up and take notice of this case by taking the time to check their home working setup is up to scratch.”

The council is currently in the processes of agreeing an undertaking with the ICO, which commits the organisation to improving its compliance with the Data Protection Act.

http://www.computerweekly.com/news/2240204497/Aberdeen-City-Council-gets-100000-penalty-for-IT-security-failings

 

 

Council cutbacks

 

 

2014: Capital Allocation underspend

Aberdeen City Council reported that they had underspent by 45% against their 2013/14 capital budgets.

Reasons offered for the underspend included unexpected withdrawal of, or delays caused by, external partners in projects to develop new waste management facilities, build a new bypass (the Western Peripheral Route) and introduce hydrogen-powered buses.

Ongoing underspending will result in the council not having the most appropriate assets in place to deliver services effectively.

 

 

Aberdeen city council’s finance convenor Willie Young

 

 

 

2016: 38degrees have placed a petition on line castigating the Councils performance

If you think that the current Labour Conservative administration at Aberdeen City Council is not fit for purpose can I ask that you sign this petition please? The intention is to confront them with a vote of No Confidence and to have them removed from office.

Why is this important?

The current Labour and Conservative administration at Aberdeen City Council took office in May 2012. Almost immediately they awarded senior council executives (themselves) a 5% pay increase while most other council staff were given nothing. Up until then the Labour Party had been opposed to pay increases for management at the council.

http://newsnetscotland.com/index.php/scottish-politics/5005-labour-group-in-aberdeen-council-accused-of-hypocrisy-over-pay-award

In February 2014, Willie Young offered the First Minister of Scotland a train ticket to visit him, claiming Aberdeen wasn’t getting it’s fair share of public money and wanted to discuss it.

http://www.eveningexpress.co.uk/news/local/councillor-makes-fare-offer-to-salmond-1.235340

Later that month Willie Young voted NOT to accept £7.3 million boost in funding for Aberdeen City Council, why? Was it to make the Scottish Government, First Minister and the SNP look bad? Wouldn’t this extra funding have given Aberdeen it’s fair share as Mr Young wanted? Unsurprisingly the First Minister accused the ruling Labour Party of incompetence and in response to that on the 3rd March 2014 Willie Young and Aberdeen City Council proposed to ban Scotland’s democratically elected First Minister from all Council Buildings. The administration are having a vote on this on Wednesday 5th March.

http://www.falkirkherald.co.uk/news/scottish-news/council-votes-on-salmond-city-ban-1-3326999

What is clear is that these officials, Willie Young in particular, spend more time, energy and money (public money at that) hating our First Minister and the SNP than they do doing their jobs.

What the Labour Party fail to realise is that the money they awarded themselves is public money. All property owned by Aberdeen City Council is public property and owned by the people of Aberdeen and NOT the administration or the Labour Party so they have no right to ban anyone because of their politics. The £7.3 million Willie Young should have accepted would, if used properly, have benefited the City.

The Labour Conservative admin in Aberdeen seem more interested in playing politics with attempts to discredit and oppose the First Minister and the SNP at every opportunity regardless of the cost to the city and as a result are neglecting their duties to serve the people of Aberdeen.

https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/vote-of-no-confidence-in-aberdeen-city-council

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lord Jack and Lady Bridget McConnell

 

 

 

29 May 2006: Scotland’s First Minister Jack McConnell  was facing demands last night to set up an inquiry into a controversial land deal involving his brother-in-law.

A company part-owned by Robert McLuckie, the brother of Jack McConnell’s wife, Bridget, bought three quarters of an acre of land for £1 as well as five houses on the site of a former hospital in Banff, also for £1. Details of the sale have been met with widespread local anger.

Councillor John Cox, from Banff, said that news of the deal had come as a complete shock and added that the community had been devastated by the closure of the hospital. “How could this ever happen? A full public investigation needs to be launched to find out why the land was allowed to be sold for that price,” he said.

Ladysbridge Hospital in Banff, which cared for people with learning difficulties, closed its doors in 2003. A local developer bought most of the grounds at market value so that the site could be transformed into a village.

But Camvo 37, the property development firm of which Mr McLuckie is co-owner, was able to buy part of the site for the token price of £1 in August 2004. It also acquired four semi-detached houses and one detached house, all former nurses’ homes, for the same sum.

The sale, which was not made on the open market, came after lawyers acting for the Scottish Executive took over negotiations from the owners of the hospital, NHS Grampian. It was decided to sell it for the peppercorn sum because the buyer was said to be a community care provider and part of the contract demanded that the site be used only for the care of people with learning disabilities.

After 20 years the contract allows the company to do what it likes with the property. If the company decides to break the contract before then, it will have to pay £255,000 to the Scottish Executive, a figure said to be well below the market value for the houses and land.

Stewart Stevenson, the Scottish National Party MSP for Banff and Buchan, said that he planned to look into the sale. “It’s very important that matters like this are dealt with in an open and transparent way,” he said. “I certainly want to know more about this deal and intend to talk to the health authority.”

Murdo Fraser, the Scottish Conservative deputy leader, challenged Mr McConnell to confirm that the transaction was conducted within the rules. “We need assurances from the Executive that the proper procedures were followed. If they were and this is the market value for this property, then there’s not any problem with the fact that Jack McConnell’s relative is the buyer. But if there is a discrepancy, then it is a matter for serious concern and it may be appropriate for the Auditor-General to investigate.”

A spokesman for Mr McConnell said: “He has no interest whatsoever in his brother-in-law’s trading arrangements or in decisions that NHS Grampian makes — it is a matter for them.”

A spokesman for Camvo 37 said: “The purchase of Ladysbridge was done in a proper manner.”

An NHS Grampian spokesman commented: “The sale fully complied with national transaction guidelines and external professional advice was used throughout the negotiations. We are satisfied that the terms of the sale benefited both the ex-patients and the NHS, which had the substantial burden removed of upkeep and maintenance of an unused site.”

Until recently Mr McLuckie was involved in the care industry as owner of Choices Community Care, a company based in Livingston. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,170-2201390,00.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

March 2006: What the Press wrote:

1. Paul Gilbride, ‘McConnell’s relative faces probe into £2 property deal,’ The Express, 26 March 2007.

2. Mark Howarth, ‘Police probe into £2 land deal by McConnell in-law,’ Mail on Sunday, 25 March 2007.

3. Maggie Barry, ‘New Quiz over £1m Hospital Land Deal: Minister under fire after Holyrood answer,’ The Mirror, 5 March 2007.

4. Mark Howarth, ‘Probe call over £1m land Jack’s brother-in-law was given for £2: Demand for Auditor General to investigate sale to McConnell’s millionaire relative,’ Mail on Sunday, 4 March 2007.

5. Mark Howarth, ‘Revealed, the cash handout to Jack’s millionaire in-law: Property company was given £100,000,’ Mail on Sunday, 4 June2006.

6. ‘McConnell grilled after in-law buys £1m land for £2,’ The Express, 29 May 2006.

7. Tim Pauling, ‘Ladysbridge sale process gets all-clear,’ AberdeenPress and Journal, 13 June 2006.

8. Patricia Kane, ‘The First Minister’s brother-in-law, the infamous Red Rose dinner and the contracts worth £337,000 in McConnell’s own constituency,’ Daily Mail, 22 November 2002.

 

 

 

 

 

 
29 May 2006: Brother-in-law of the former First Minister, Jack McConnell, McLuckie is the millionaire owner of property company Camvo 37.

In 2007, retired detective sergeant, Alistair Watson – the officer behind the ‘cash for honours’ enquiry that dogged Tony Blair – sparked an investigation into McLuckie’s dealings with the Scottish Executive by writing to the Metropolitan Police.

Apparently, five houses and a plot of prime building land had been sold to Camvo 37 by the Executive for just £2 in 2004 on the site of the former Ladysbridge Hospital, near Banff, Aberdeenshire, is now worth upwards of £1million. Mr. Watson is quoted as saying:

There is something which appears not quite above board about this deal. It raises a number of serious questions about the relationships between all those involved and the Labour Party.

What I want to know is why was this sale of what had been a public asset not put out to tender? Like any other public asset it should have been put up for sale in public. Also why is it that property worth supposedly only £2 is now worth one million just three years after-wards?

And the NHS Grampian official responsible for the sale to Mr McLuckie’s company was at one time a prospective Labour Party MSP. He is now a Labour councillor. It would appear to the average man in the street that spending £2 and making a million from it is quite a bit of luck no matter how expert the property speculator behind it. It smells and not just a little.

It was also reported that ‘six months before negotiations over the Ladysbridge deal opened, another company he owned, Choices Community Care, donated more than £2,000 to Mr McConnell’s election funds

 

Ladysbridge Hospital Building

 

 

 

 
Follow-up:

The Inland Revenue tried to stall the sale after discovering Camvo 37 was benefiting from public cash being used to develop the site.

But it was pushed through by NHS Grampian property transaction manager * Ramsay Milne, who was on a list of prospective MSP candidates selected by Labour in 1998. He is also a Labour councillor in Aberdeen.

This refers to the fact that ‘Inland Revenue district valuer (DV) Jim Campbell tried to halt the deal in 2004 when he discovered Camvo 37, the firm run by the First Minister’s brother-in- law Robert McLuckie, was to receive £120,000 from an Executive quango, Communities Scotland, to help build new homes on the land.

Another £230,000 of NHS and council cash was spent renovating the existing houses even though the DV said the company should pay. Paperwork relating to the deal had explicitly stated that Camvo 37 should cover all costs associated with the development rather than relying on grants.

Further, ‘Camvo agreed to use its new acquisitions solely to care for adults with learning difficulties for the subsequent 20 years. It built four homes on the site, and rented them out to ‘Choices, a Livingston-based firm which provides care facilities for people with learning disabilities. Mr McLuckie was on the board of Choices until February this year when he sold his stake as part of a £10 million management buyout.

Records for the 2004/05 financial year show that Camvo 37 had debts of £1.4 million. It made a loss of £2,044 from a turnover of £141,239, making the grant Camvo gained from Communities Scotland three-quarters of its annual turnover. The strictest penalty the company faced was £255,000 for paying less than the market value of the site and failing to keep its promise.

At one point, Jack McConnell was questioned about his brother-in-law’s financial dealings but refused to be drawn in to the argument. As it turned out, in June 2007, the deal was given the all-clear by Health Minister Andy Kerr.

Earlier, in 2002, Choices Community Care, which largely provides community care services in Motherwell and Wishaw, secured £337,000 worth of business in Mr McConnell’s constituency, which was brought to the public’s attention by SNP council leader Richard Lyle. http://powerbase.info/index.php/Robert_McLuckie
* At August 2016 Ramsey Milne is the convener of the Aberdeen City Council Planning and Development Management Committee. The Aberdeen Council blog (to follow) makes further mention of him.

 

 

 

 

 
22 August 2016: Ladysbridge Hospital – The ugly duckling now a very lucrative swan

The hospital, which once cared for people with learning disabilities, closed in 2003. A local building company (Ladysbridge Village Limited) bought part of the site at market rates,thought to be around £1.5m. Hospital buildings and associated land was sold to Choices Community Care for a peppercorn cost of £2.

This peaceful rural haven has since been turned into a small rural village. The site offers various housing options. The original substantial stone building has been lovingly restored, with character and original period features, providing spacious townhouses and a series of traditionally built customised houses are available set in ample plots in the surrounding woodland. Approximate value of land and property £30M!!!!!!!! http://www.ladysbridgevillage.co.uk/siteplan.html

 

 

 

 

 

Robert McLuckie

 

 

 

 

17 June 2008: Millionaires airport rage – Jack McConnell’s brother-in-law in flight delay bust-up.

The boozed-up brother-in-law of former first minister Jack McConnell spent the night in cells after an airport bust-up. Millionaire businessman Robert McLuckie hurled abuse at airline staff and police after guzzling white wine as he waited for a Globespan flight at Edinburgh airport.

Yesterday, he was fined £200 at the city’s sheriff court after he admitted breach of the peace.  The court heard McLuckie had snapped after a delay of more than six hours and launched into a foul – mouthed tirade as other passengers looked on.

The brother of McConnell’s wife Bridget bellowed: “I’ll never fly Globespan again” and told airport staff to “get to f***” and “f*** off”. They called police and McLuckie was arrested when he told officers: “F*** off. I am leaving.”

The aircraft eventually took off at 1.20am yesterday – but without the care home millionaire who was on his way to a cell at Drylaw police station in Edinburgh. McLuckie – who has no previous convictions – lost it on Sunday after the 16.30 Globespan flight from Edinburgh to Barcelona was delayed until yesterday morning.

The court heard McLuckie, 47, of Livingston, West Lothian, is the director of a company who provide care homes for the elderly and deals in property. He does not pick up a salary but receives share dividends.

Sheriff Elizabeth Jarvie asked what McLuckie’s annual income was and he replied: “£100,000 in a bad year and pounds 1million in a good year”. The sheriff asked if it had been a good year or a bad year and McLuckie replied: “A bad year.”

McLuckie’s lawyer said the businessman regretted the incident, which had upset his wife and children and other passengers. He said his client planned to write to Globespan staff to say sorry. McLuckie denied a charge of struggling with police, which was accepted by the Crown.

McLuckie hit the headlines last December after causing a disturbance at a posh charity bash.  The property millionaire also hurled sectarian abuse at two singers after booing their tribute to soldiers killed in Iraq.  http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/local-news/businessman-arrested-after-ediburgh-airport-2633604

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The New York Times Magazine featured the under-noted must read story. In print, it occupies an entire issue. It is a very  long article and is perhaps best saved and perused over a few days

 

 

Fractured Lands: How the Arab World Came Apart

This is a story unlike any previously published. The product of some 18 months of reporting, it tells the story of the catastrophe that has fractured the Arab world since the invasion of Iraq 13 years ago, leading to the rise of ISIS and the global refugee crisis.

The geography of this catastrophe is broad and its causes are many, but its consequences — war and uncertainty throughout the world — are familiar to us all.  The story gives the reader a visceral sense of how it all unfolded, through the eyes of six characters in Egypt, Libya, Syria, Iraq and Iraqi Kurdistan.

Accompanying the text are 10 portfolios by the photographer Paolo Pellegrin, drawn from his extensive travels across the region over the last 14 years, as well as a landmark virtual-reality experience that embeds the viewer with the Iraqi fighting forces during the 2016 battle to retake Falluja.

It is unprecedented to focus so much energy and attention on a single story,  but what follows is one of the most clear-eyed, powerful and human explanations of what has gone wrong in this region that you will ever read.  By Scott Anderson.  Photographs by Paolo Pellegrin.

“http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/08/11/magazine/isis-middle-east-arab-spring-fractured-lands.html”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The labour Party in Scotland and its links to an impartial BBC Scotland

The under-noted persons are given mention in this advisory note which questions yet again the oft stated impartiality of the BBC in Scotland.

Former BBC officials: Big Boab Wylie, John Boothman, Michael McGlinchey, Michelle Watt, John Morrison

Frank McAveety: Glasgow City Council

 

 

Bob Wylie

 

 

 

 

 
22 March 1990: Bob Wylie and five other militants face Labour inquiry

Six Glasgow Militant Tendency members face expulsion when they appear before the Labour Party’s constitutional committee in Glasgow on disciplinary charges. They face a variety of charges, including being members of the Trotskyite group, and bringing the party into disrepute.

Those appearing include Bob Wylie, once listed as a member of Militant’s central committee and its Scottish spokesman. Militant newspaper’s former West of Scotland correspondent, he is now a freelance journalist and a member of the Glasgow Central CLP branch.

The others, all members of the Glasgow Pollok branch, are:

Lynn Sheridan, sister of Tommy Sheridan, chairman of the British Anti-Poll Tax Federation.

Kirsteen Walker, former Young Socialist Scottish Labour executive member;

Margaret Dick, Strathclyde regional councillor Margaret Dick (Pollokshields/ Shawlands).

Bill Bill and George McNeillage, activists.

It is believed that another six members of the Pollok branch could face similar charges in coming weeks. Last autumn the NCC expelled six Militants from the Cathcart branch, and a month earlier expelled Mr Sheridan. If all the Glasgow expulsion go through it will be the biggest

purge of Militant Tendency supporters from Labour since Liverpool. While Militant supporters label it a ”witch-hunt,” there are claims that Militant is about to set up a separate political party. Several expelled members are believed to be preparing to stand in the forthcoming regional elections.

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/11936687.Militant_six_face_Labour_inquiry/

Additional information is to be found in: Militant: 2016 edition: Written by Michael Crick (Updated and expanded), Crick explores the origins, organisation and aims of Militant, the secret Trotskyite organisation that operated clandestinely within the Labour Party, edging out adversaries at grass-roots level and recruiting people to its own ranks, which, at its peak in the mid-1980s, swelled to around 8,000 members. Whilst eventually most of its leaders were expelled, it caused damaging rifts within the party and closed the door to Downing Street for almost a generation.

 

 

 

Michael Crick

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
19 May 2003: Indefatigably yours George Galloway and his close friends

George pens a weekly column for the Scottish Mail on Sunday and “two or three” of his five closest friends are journalists. He has spoken to John Boothman, editor of BBC Scotland’s Holyrood Live, every day for 20 years or more. BBC news correspondent Bob Wylie is another

close friend. They, not his fellow MPs, are his political sounding boards. http://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/indefatigably-yours-1-648573

 

George Galloway

 

 

 
20 May 2016: Ex-BBC Scotland news head John Boothman jumps ship to lobbying firm

The former head of news at BBC Scotland, John Boothman, has taken up a media training role with lobbying firm Charlotte Street Partners.

Boothman, who moved out of his role over an upheld bullying case against him at the BBC, will lead a new media training group at the corporate partnership.

The news division of BBC Scotland had numerous bust-ups during his tenure, including threats of industrial action from staff on the eve of the Scottish independence referendum.

Head Scottish organiser for the National Union of Journalists, Paul Holleran, said there would be “palpable relief” that Boothman had moved on at the time of his departure.

Boothman, a former Labour party student chair, also faced accusations of bias from pro-independence campaigners due to his personal and family links to the Labour party. Investigative group.

https://www.commonspace.scot/articles/8428/ex-bbc-scotland-news-head-jumps-ship-lobbying-firm

 

 

John Boothman

 

 

 

 

 

19 May 2005: George Galloway off to the US Senate’s sub-committee to defend his support of Saddam Hussain – So why did the BBC feel the need to send Wylie with Galloway?

From a Scottish point of view, the most puzzling aspect of George Galloway’s appearance in Washington this week was Bob Wylie. The gangling BBC Scotland reporter was first sighted at Galloway’s side at Dulles airport. Then, after the MP’s performance in front of the US

Senate’s sub-committee, there was Wylie again, popping up to tell us how, in his considered opinion, he thought it had all gone. Which was pretty well, actually. Oh, there may be a few people yet to be impressed by Galloway’s bluster, but on the whole, Wylie gave assurance

Washington was knocked out. The MP for Bethnal Green and Bow had faced down American accusations that he’d profited from Saddam Hussein’s illegal oil deals and, what’s more, he’d denounced the US invasion of Iraq.

Galloway, reported Wylie, was the “Braveheart” on Capitol Hill. Braveheart? Come off it. Even Gorgeous George’s most ardent supporters in Britain would shrink from romanticising him in this way. But not the gushing Wylie. His presence in Washington begs two questions:

1. why did BBC Scotland feel it needed to send its own man when (a) it is currently implementing drastic cost cuts and (b) the BBC’s Washington correspondent, Clive Myrie, was already there and more than up to the job?

2. If BBC Scotland really, really had to send someone, why did it have to be Wylie, whose friendship with Galloway goes back years and who, received an acknowledgement in Galloway’s autobiography? and co-authored with Galloway the book “Downfall:Fall Of Ceaucescus: Ceausescus and the Roumanian Revolution. 23 May 1991. Wylie is not an expert on Iraq or on American politics. And in this case, he was clearly not impartial, and neither was BBC Scotland. Shame on them.

http://www.scotsman.com/news/so-why-did-the-bbc-send-wylie-with-galloway-1-712840

 

 

Frank McAveety

 

 

 

 

24 May 2005: Impartiality in doubt

I was puzzled at the appearance of tjhe BBC Scotland reporter, Bob Wylie, in his role as side-kick to George Galloway in Washington. This latest display of blatant cheer-leading for the Left while masquerading as an impartial commentator comes swiftly in the wake of

accusations concerning “institutional leftism” in the corporation. In a new book, Robin Aitken, a former BBC correspondent, has claimed that systematic political bias “undermines” the BBC’s “solemn pact with the public to present the news impartially”.

When Bob Wylie started reporting for the BBC I knew I had met him before somewhere, but the memory only recently clicked into place. At the height of the miners’ strike, when I was a Labour Party member, he addressed a meeting of the party’s Cumnock branch in a futile

attempt to gather new converts to the bosom of the Militant tendency. James Macmillan, Glasgow.

http://www.scotsman.com/news/impartiality-in-doubt-1-713473

 

Robin Aitken

 

 

 

 

 

 
20 November 2007: BBC Pair (Michael McGlinchey and Michelle Watt) departing for Strathclyde Partnership for Transport Group

BBC Scotland is losing two key members of staff to Strathclyde Partnership for Transport, whose director of communications is himself a former BBC Scotland investigations correspondent.

Communications manager, Michelle Watt, along with assistant editor (online), Michael McGlinchey, have both been recruited by Bob Wylie.

Watt has been appointed media and public affairs at SPT, while McGlinchey becomes SPT’s web manager.

Michelle has worked as the communications manager for BBC Scotland for the last five years. Before that, she worked at a senior level for the BBC in London and in Belfast.

Meanwhile, McGlinchey has been assistant editor at BBC Scotland online for the last eight years. Previously, he was a senior editor in newspapers in London, particularly the Daily Mirror.

http://www.allmediascotland.com/uncategorized/14727/bbc-pair-departing-for-transport-group/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
14 May 2010: SPT director Bob Wylie goes amid shake-up

The man in charge of communications at Scotland’s largest transport authority has left his post before it was due to be cut in a management shake-up.

Mr Wylie had been communications director at SPT since 2006. He joined the organisation from BBC Scotland, where he had worked for 12 years, latterly as investigations correspondent.

His role at SPT was thrust into the headlines after the organisation was engulfed in an expenses scandal earlier this year. (http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/quangos-footie-junket-expenses-branded-1076802) The body’s three most senior staff – chairman, vice chair and chief executive – quit after it emerged officials had run up more than £100,000 in expenses and gone on foreign fact-finding trips. There were also questions about expense claims from officials – including Mr Wylie – in Manchester on the day of the Uefa Cup final in 2008 between Rangers and Zenit St Petersburg.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/glasgow_and_west/8682963.stm

 

 

 

 

 

 
14 October 2015: Glasgow City Council leader Frank McAveety hands former BBC and SPT communications director Bob Wylie ‘special adviser’ role

Glasgow City Council leader Frank McAveety has handed a key role in his administration to former Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT) communications director Bob Wylie.

Wylie was in charge of the transport quango’s public relations during an expenses scandal in 2010.. He left the post during a subsequent restructuring which also saw SPT’s three most senior staff – chairman, vice chair and chief executive – leave their roles.  It later emerged, in 2010 that officials had run up more than £100,000 in expenses and gone on foreign fact-finding trips.

After leaving SPT, Wylie worked for social enterprise The Wise Group before setting up his own PR firm, Communication Strategies Ltd. The former BBC journalist still has an office at The Wise Group’s premises in Glasgow’s east end and lists the social enterprise’s phone number as the contact on his company’s website.

Speaking this morning, Wylie confirmed that he has been taken on as a “special advisor” to McAveety. He added: “It’s signed, sealed and delivered – I’m just about to walk into the leader’s office now.”

McAveety recently won a vote to succeed Gordon Matheson as head of Glasgow City Council by 24 votes to 19 during a meeting of Labour colleagues in September.

He was previously leader of the council from 1997 to 1999, when he was elected as an MSP for Glasgow Shettleston. He lost the seat to the SNP in 2011 but was again elected a city councillor in 2012.

An SNP source said: “I can’t imagine what Wylie offers McAveety other than controversy and links to past scandals.” A source close to McAveety said: “Everyone has a past. Bob is an operator and I’m sure he’d do a good job.”

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/13846416.Glasgow_City_Council_leader_Frank_McAveety_hands_former_SPT_communications_director_Bob_Wylie__special_adviser__role/

 

 

Gordon Matheson

 

 

 

 

 

 

15 April 2016: Glasgow City Council ‘shoring up’ public relations operation as ex-BBC journalist John Morrison bids for contract

Cash-strapped Glasgow City Council could be about to bolster its public relations operation by handing a lucrative contract to an ex-BBC journalist.

Former political correspondent John Morrison is among the consultants contending for the chance to provide “independent analysis” of the local authority’s digital presence.

Last year council leader Frank McAveety handed a well-paid senior special adviser job to another ex-BBC reporter, Bob Wylie, who was previously in charge of public relations at Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT) during an expenses scandal.

It emerged in 2010 that officials had clawed back more than £100,000 and gone on foreign fact-finding trips. Mr Wylie later handed back expenses racked up during a junket to Manchester on the day Rangers played in the 2008 UEFA Cup final.

Sources claim the council’s public relations programme has been “floundering” recently and Mr McAveety is thought to be keen to “shore up” the operation.

A council spokesman confirmed that the local authority is “conducting a review of council communications, with special reference to developing digital communications”.

Mr Morrison, who runs a Glasgow-based public relations company, said: “They’ve spoken to me but there is nothing agreed.” He later issued a statement which said: “Morrison Media Strategies is a communications and media training company. We have discussions with  companies and organisations every day. We don’t talk about them.”

http://www.barrheadnews.com/news/14430793.Glasgow_City_Council__shoring_up__public_relations_operation_as_ex_BBC_journalist_bids_for_contract/

 

 

 

Morrison Media Strategies

John Morrison is the owner of Morrison Media Strategies a leading PR, Public Affairs and Media Training company. Previously John was Chief Political Correspondent, Europe Correspondent and BBC Network News Scotland correspondent. Morrison Media Strategies is a PR and lobbying company based in Glasgow.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

30 June 2016: Dugdale off to the USA attending an indoctrination course – But her deputy Alex Rowley is not fit to lead the party in her absence

Dugdale’s attendance on the US State Department’s International Visitor Leadership Program this month may also create a headache for her party, with relations between the two at a low ebb insiders are speculating about who will lead the party when she is abroad.

It is understood Dugdale will remain in charge while she is away and a rota for Shadow Cabinet members will be in place to provide day-to-day cover.

A senior Scottish Tory source said: “It’s no surprise Scottish Labour is responding to the upheaval at Westminster with added chaos of its own. Scottish Labour needs to get a grip, not descend into further turmoil over its internal splits.”

An SNP spokesperson said: “At a time of national crisis, with the UK economy in turmoil following the EU referendum result, political parties have a duty and a responsibility to step up to the mark, show some leadership, and work to find a way forward. It is shameful that both the Tory UK government and the Labour opposition have instead chosen to abdicate their responsibilities. They have no plan and rather than uniting to come up with one they are indulging in infighting and naval gazing at the expense of the country.”

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/14594955.Scottish_Labour_at_war__Relations_between_Dugdale_and_her_deputy_have__completely_broken_down_/?ref=ar

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Usa’s indoctrination programme

The International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) is the U.S. Department of State’s premier professional exchange program. Through short-term visits to the United States, current and emerging foreign leaders in a variety of fields experience this country first-hand and cultivate lasting relationships with their American counterparts. Professional meetings reflect the participants’ professional interests and support the foreign policy goals of the United States.

This is the same direction taken by Blair, Brown and others in New Labour before taking up the reins of government. Blair, etc. left the UK unilateral anti-nuclear and returned pro-nuclear. Howzat!!!

https://eca.state.gov/ivlp

 

 

 

 

 

 

Paul van Buitenen says nothing has changed

 

Neil Kinnock insisted reforms were on track

 

 

 

 

27 August 2002: Brussels whistleblower quits in despair

A European official whose whistle-blowing revelations sparked the resignation of the entire European Commission has quit, after declaring that nothing has changed.

Paul van Buitenen says he is returning to his native Netherlands because the pressure in Brussels became too great to bear. In 1999, he went public with details of corruption, cronyism and abuse of power in the commission. The entire team of 20 commissioners, headed by then president Jacques Santer, resigned in a symbolic gesture to demonstrate their commitment to cleaning up the commission’s act. But Mr Van Buitenen says that, three years on, it is business as usual. “Despite everything, I can’t see any change in Brussels,” he said.

The clean-up operation has been headed by the UK’s Neil Kinnock, administration commissioner and a commission vice-president. But as long ago as March 2000 Mr Van Buitenen cast doubt on whether the reforms would achieve anything. “(Mr Kinnock) has drawn up a nice reform plan which looks right but he does not tackle the people who committed the irregularities,” he said at the time. “They have been confirmed in their jobs or even promoted.”

Confidence in the commission’s inner purging was knocked again earlier this year, when another whistleblower, chief accountant Marta Andreasen, was forced from her job. She had tried to highlight problems in the commission’s budget, which she insisted was running out of control amid “shambolic” control systems. She was removed from her post after refusing to sign off last year’s accounts. She told the BBC this month that the computer system on which the transactions were processed was “incoherent, insecure and allows no audit trail.” The lack of security, she warned, “gives big room for fraud” – and makes tracking it almost impossible.

Mr Van Buitenen, an assistant auditor at the time of his revelations, told the UK’s Daily Telegraph newspaper that the treatment of Ms Andreasen was the last straw for him. He says he was similarly ostracised after making his own stand, being moved to a lower position in Luxembourg on half his original salary. He has worked for the commission since 1990.

Mr Kinnock’s office has insisted that progress is being made on tackling fraud.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/2219114.stm

 

 

 

 

 

 

A message on a floral tribute to Jo Cox, near Leeds, England, June 17.

 

“A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear.”  –  Marcus Tullius Cicero

 

 

Imam and Bradford Council Respect councillor Alyas Karmani

 

 

 

13 July 2013: Bradford Imam Alyas Karmani drafts sermon to condemn grooming

Bradford Imams are spearheading national condemnation of sex grooming by Muslim men by issuing a special sermon to be read in mosques across Britain this month. The hard-hitting Islamic message, called a Khutba, has already been sent to 50 local Imams to be delivered during Friday prayers on June 28. It forcefully demands all men obey strict Koranic teaching on respectful behaviour to women and children and behave with the highest morality.

Muhammad Mustaqueem Shah, general secretary of Bradford Imams’ Forum, said the sermon was being sent to religious leaders across the country. “The target is to have it read out in a minimum of 500 mosques,” said Mr Shah.

Drafted by Imam and Bradford council Respect councillor Alyas Karmani, the title of the sermon is Tackling Street Grooming in the UK and it begins with the following sacred verse from the Koran: “Verily Allah enjoins justice and excellence, giving assistance and support to your family. “And forbids sexual indecency, wickedness and oppression of others – He admonishes you that you may take heed.”

Mr Shah said this was a key teaching. “This is very relevant to the issue, powerful and to the point,” he said. The sermon continues: “Allah commands us to undertake all matters to the highest standard of excellence. “As Muslims we are commanded to be just, fair and shun evil, wrongdoing and all forms of indecent and immoral behaviour. “Failure to remember and act on this results in the society that we are part of declining in social and moral terms. “Addressing every man today, I will speak to you of sexual grooming. “There has been a lot in the news recently about men of Pakistani and South Asian background in Derby, Rochdale, Telford, Oxford and West Yorkshire who have been convicted of this evil and wicked crime. “Unfortunately there are many such cases pending and this will mean the issue will continue to be in the headlines for some time to come.

“These incidents have been extremely evil and have included:

* Kidnapping

* Trafficking of children as young as 11 for sexual purposes

* Intoxication

* Getting 12-year-old girls to take heroin

* Physical assaults and sexual assaults on boys.

“These actions are reprehensible and we condemn those involved and support the victims who are innocent children. Islam is a religion of mercy and compassion and places a strong obligation on safeguarding and protecting the weak and vulnerable from abuse particularly women and children.”

http://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/10480398.Bradford_Imam_Alyas_Karmani_drafts_sermon_to_condemn_grooming/?ref=mr

 

 

 

 

14 June 2013: Imam Alyas Karmani stands up for hope, while Hope not Hate betray their principles

Even worse than a deliberate absence of condemnation for groups which seek to spread hate is their failure to highlight the efforts of Imam Alyas Karmani in Bradford to combat the grooming of young girls by Muslim men, something which is widely recognised as a problem.

Imam Karmani – who is also a Respect Councillor – has issued a Khutba to be read in Mosques during Friday prayers on the 28th June and which is intended to drive home to worshippers that such actions are not acceptable in the eyes of Islam. His goal is that it should be read in more than 500 mosques across the UK.

For those of us who feel that Imams should play a more visible role in combatting the rise of Islamic extremism, Imam Karmani’s initiative is to be welcomed, and is perhaps a sign that moderate Islam is capable of rising to the challenge.

What is more puzzling is Hope not Hate’s failure to even mention his initiative. What is the point of calling your organisation ‘Hope not Hate’ if all you are interested in is the ‘Hate’, and only certain types of hate at that?

The key to their silence is Karmani’s ‘Respect’ affiliation. In Bradford, Labour are seeing support haemorrhage in two directions – to UKIP on the right, and to Respect on the left, as evidenced by George Galloway’s election as MP.

Because of this, Karmani’s initiative will fail to gain the support of Hope not Hate. Not because it is not worthwhile. Not because it is wrong. But because the Imam represents the ‘Respect’ Party and not Labour, and to push his initiative would be to admit that Labour – like Hope not Hate – has no answers, and indeed caused many of the problems

By failing to promote initiatives such as Karmani’s, Hope not Hate – who have access to a considerable audience – are helping to create the impression that there is no action within the Muslim community to tackle these problems.

Their silence allows the EDL and the BNP to condemn Islam as something to be feared, because Hope not Hate is too mired in party political allegiances to shout from the rooftops the message of hope contained within Karmani’s initiative.

They would rather allow their silence to act as a recruiting sergeant for the far right than stand up and proclaim what should be their core message – Hope, not Hate.

This is an issue which cuts to the heart of the problems of Islamic extremism, and one which is beyond the nonsense of partisan politics. Karmani – whatever his political allegiance is tackling a problem, all good people should embrace his message. Good ideas should be embraced whatever their political or religious source. Common sense is common sense.

So the message to Nick Lowles and his Hope not Hate comrades. Shame on you, for betraying your core principles. Shame on your silence which allows hate to grow and lies to spread unchecked. And shame on your shoddy attempts to put your own personal allegiances ahead of an initiative which will clearly aid better relations between communities.

Your blinkered attitude and political partisanship makes you no better than those you claim to oppose. For many years, you attacked the BNP, and ran with the slogan ‘Not in my name’, only for us to find the tables are now turned, and an increasing barrier to harmonious relations between communities is not the BNP and the EDL, but Hope not Hate and your refusal to back initiatives like Karmani’s. If you must continue with such wilful blindness, be aware you do so on your own and not in my name.

http://nopenothope.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/imam-alyas-karmani-stands-up-for-hope.html

 

 

Nick Lowles – owner of Hope not Hate
who sanctioned VAT fraud

 

Ruth Smeeth – Hope not Hate
Educational Ltd’s general
secretary: did she know of
VAT fraud?

 

 

 

31 January 2013: Hope not Hate and the £70k VAT fraud

Senior Hope not Hate staff face having their collars felt as research indicates they misused the VAT exemption certificate for their charitable arm – Hope not Hate Educational Ltd – to evade VAT on services relating to their anti-UKIP political campaigning.

An in-depth report see: “http://itmaynotbeillegalbut.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/charity-evades-70k-in-vat-on-political.html” suggests that campaigning work carried out in the 2010 General Election by political strategy company Blue State Digital was invoiced without VAT being included. On publicly available invoices this amounts to a little over £12,000 they fraudulently evaded, but as Blue State Digital still work for Hope not Hate, this could amount to a total of over £ 70,000 over the past 4 years.

In this time, Hope not Hate have received over £150,000 from the Department for Communities and Local Government towards their charitable aims. The question must now be what will Hope not Hate’s financial backers think of such tax avoidance? The Daily Mirror wrote 3 months ago that “Tax avoidance is now running at £35billion a year – £3billion more than when Labour was in power….Because think how many nurses, police officers and teachers could be employed with that £35billion. Think how many vital services could have been saved from the cuts and how many jobs protected.” http://nopenothope.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/hope-not-hate-and-70k-vat-fraud.html

 

 

 

 

 

5 June 2014 Hope not Hate: Dodgy Accounts Filed

At last the latest set of accounts that purport to set out the organisations financial position have been published. After a quick examination it is obvious that things just don’t add up. Read for yourself as they raise more questions than they answer and someone needs to investigate the organisation. http://hopenothateexposed.blogspot.co.uk/

 

 

Sally Green likes to racially abuse white people

 
7 July 2014: Hope not Hate: Hope not Hate’s 0fficial Photographer Arrested For Racism!

Hope not Hate’s official photographer, Sally Green was arrested for racism and criminal damage (she was arrested after screaming at an Irish person to ‘ Piss off back to Ireland) outside a Britain First meeting held in Wigan.

Green who also uses the alias, Brenda Wright on Facebook to troll young persons Facebook accounts was working under the direct orders of, Nick Lowles who believes it’s OK to racially abuse and attack people so long as they’re white. http://hopenothateexposed.blogspot.co.uk/

 

 

 

 

 

 

18 July 2014: Hope not Hate: Hope not Hate’s Violent Supporters Wanted By Police!

Two violent Hope not Hate supporters who played an active role in a violent street brawl during a Saint George’s celebration held by March for England are being sought by police. The two thugs are being sort after attacking a pub where a few English men who dared to celebrate Saint George were enjoying a quite drink.

So far a 17-year-old boy, a 47-year-old man and a 32-year-old man, all from Brighton, and a 46-year-old man from Henfield have now been arrested on suspicion of violent disorder and bailed until September 11. All have links to Hope not Hate. http://hopenothateexposed.blogspot.co.uk/

 

 

victim said she suffered dozens of attacks at the hands of a gang over five years after being groomed from the age of 11.

 

 

 
27 August 2014: The responsibility for the grooming crisis lies within the culture “Hope not Hate” has infected the Labour Party

‘Shining a light on abuse’ is a disgraceful apologia issued by Hope not Hate following the publication of a report on child abuse in Rotherham. (1)

As an exercise in obfuscation and blame passing it is truly New Labour in its scope, which is only to be expected from an organisation so heavily supported by the New Labour faithful.

Hope not Hate’s interest in the issue was politically motivated and solely an attempt to counter BNP propaganda: the type of involvement which Hope not Hate advocated and which was deeply entrenched within the Labour Party – turning a blind eye and hoping the problem went away on its own – ensured the continued ability of these grooming gangs to operate.

Desperate attempts to play down their culpability have lead to major re-writes of sections of their blogs and websites as history is re-arranged to make their own actions seem less supportive of those who engaged in child grooming. Fortunately the heavily amended pages are available off-line, meaning articles are not entirely lost to posterity:

Time and again, Hope not Hate ignored some of the most unpleasant aspects of extremist Islam as they try to persuade us that there is nothing to worry about. Misogyny and homophobia have been ignored as they take aim time and again at any who would dare to raise the fundamental incompatibility between a secular western democracy and fundamentalist Islam.

By refusing to shine a light on crimes which they are supposed to expose Hope not Hate have revealed their fundamental hypocrisy: it could be argued that they are in some respects even complicit for promoting an attitude and a culture within the Labour Party which actively prevented such issues from being dealt with. Hope not Hate are shamed by their silence which allows hate to grow and lies to spread unchecked.

It’s blinkered attitude and political partisanship makes it no better than those it claims to oppose. Hope Not Hate’s moral ambiguity has permeated the Labour Party to such an extent that it has failed in its duty towards not just children, but whole populations of a significant number of Metropolitan areas which it controls. The fault is theirs.

http://nopenothope.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/the-responsibility-for-grooming-crisis.html

 

Rotherham, South Yorkshire, where 1,400 girls were abused by Asian gangs over 16 years.

 

(1) 5 February 2015: Rotherham child abuse: The background to the scandal

A report commissioned in the wake of revelations that “at least” 1,400 children were sexually exploited in Rotherham has branded the local authority “not fit for purpose” and left it facing takeover by government commissioners. How did it reach this point?

The issue of child sex abuse in Rotherham first came to light in November 2010 when five men from the town’s Asian community were jailed for sexual offences against underage girls. But suspicions were already growing that the scale of the town’s problem was far more widespread.

Andrew Norfolk, a journalist on The Times newspaper, later published an investigation which revealed a confidential 2010 police report had warned thousands of such crimes were being committed in South Yorkshire each year by networks of Asian men.

“The Rotherham police exposed, arrested and broke up an evil gang of internal traffickers who were sent to prison,” he said. “But it is clear the internal trafficking of barely pubescent girls is much more widespread.”

In October 2012, the council, South Yorkshire Police and other agencies set up a Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) team to investigate the issues raised in the report, although South Yorkshire Police denied it had been reluctant to tackle child sexual abuse or that “ethnic origin had been a factor” in its decisions.

Rotherham was not the only community in the North and the Midlands to have uncovered such abuse. There have also been arrests or prosecutions of groups of men in 11 towns and cities, including Oldham, Rochdale and Derby.

In the other cases, overwhelmingly, they were men of Pakistani origin and we need to understand why this has been happening,” said Mr Norfolk. He described a previous report into gang exploitation as a “missed opportunity” because of its failure to look at the proportion of men of Pakistani origin committing such offences.

Yet, despite the concerns, in 2012 no further prosecutions for child sex exploitation took place in Rotherham. However, the council did say “improved public awareness” had helped it identify more young girls at risk of sexual exploitation in the town.

In January 2013, the town once again fell under the scrutiny of MPs. This time it was the borough council which appeared before the Home Affairs Select Committee to answer questions about the lack of prosecutions.

Mr Vaz said the council had not done enough since the 2010 prosecutions. “In Lancashire there were 100 prosecutions the year before last, in South Yorkshire there were no prosecutions,” he said. “We’re talking about hundreds of victims, of vulnerable young girls, who have not been protected because, at the end of the day, what people are looking for are prosecutions.”

In August 2013, the council’s deputy leader stepped down over claims he knew about a relationship between a girl in care and a suspected child abuser.  “http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-23820054”

In July 2014 the town’s Labour Party mayor Barry Dodson quit over separate claims he sexually abused a 13-year-old girl in 1987. He did not comment on the claims. “http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-28319557”

Following the publication of the Jay Report, South Yorkshire Police said up to 29 people had been charged with child sexual exploitation offences in Rotherham. However, the force said it was unable to say how many had been convicted. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-28934963

 

 

Sarah: 11: Nobody listened

 

 

Jack Straw Blew the Whistle in 2011 but the judge said he was wrong

Speaking in 2011 after the jailing of two of the men, former Home Secretary Jack Straw suggested some men of Pakistani origin saw white girls as “easy meat”. The judge in the case said the race of the victims and their abusers was “coincidental”.

Professor Alexis Jay led the inquiry that found at least 1,400 children in the South Yorkshire town were sexually exploited by criminal gangs of men who were predominantly of Pakistani origin between 1997 and 2013. at least 16,500 were said to be at high risk over the course of a year.

21 November 2012: Rotherham sex abuse: More girls at risk. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-20423789

1 November 2013: Alexis Jay will lead child abuse failings probe at Rotherham. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-24771229

26 August 2014: Rotherham child exploitation report. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/28939475

26 August 2014: Rotherham child abuse scandal: 1,400 children exploited, report finds. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-28939089

26 August 2014: Rotherham child sexual exploitation report: At a glance. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-28942986

27 August 2014: British Pakistani states: Abuse ‘brushed under the carpet’. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-28958907

27 August 2014. Reaction in Rotherham to abuse inquiry findings.  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-28960738

27 August 2014: Rotherham child abuse: Cases in, Oxford, Derby, Rochdale, Oldham, Telford, Peterborough, Keighley other towns. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-28953549

29 August 2014: Rotherham abuse victim: ‘I was raped once a week, every week’ http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-28949188

5 February 2015: Rotherham abuse victims tell their stories. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-28971058

29 March 2015: Rotherham abuse scandal: Key dates. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-28955170

 

Five Rotherham men were convicted for sexual offences against girls in 2010

 

 

Inquiry launched into how much Tony Blair’s government knew about the Rotherham abuse scandal.

 

 

 

31 August 2014: Rotherham Abuse Scandal: How Much Did Labour Government Know?

A House of Commons committee is to investigate whether Tony Blair’s government knew about the Rotherham child abuse scandal, as far back as 2001.

The Independent on Sunday reported an inquiry will happen after it emerged a researcher at the Home Office was conducting an investigation in 2002 into trafficking and underage prostitution by Muslim gangs in Rotherham.

But her work was shelved by the Labour-run council when she attempted to blow the whistle.

Keith Vaz, chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee, told the Sunday paper he would ask the home secretary, Theresa May, to what extent the Home Office knew at the time.

“We would be very keen to get from the Home Office a full and frank response to the research that was commissioned in 2002. This is an essential part of the jigsaw to determine why the council failed to act, and whether the Home Office could have done more to ensure that it did act,” he said.

“We want to see every piece of information the Home Office holds on this, and I will be writing to the Home Secretary to ask that the databases are searched to see what files it holds on this horrific behaviour in Rotherham.”

The researcher’s investigation came at the time the former Labour government wanted to pacify relations with the Muslim communities following the race riots of 2001.

Tensions within the cabinet were also boiling over when former foreign office minister  and local MP Denis MacShane was nearly sacked by his boss, foreign secretary, Jack Straw, after calling on Muslims in the UK to choose between the “British way or the way of the terrorists”.

Ironically, MacShane was disciplined following protests which were led by one of the politicians now at the centre of the sex abuse scandal in Rotherham, the paper added.

Professor Alexis Jay’s report revealed that more than 1,400 young girls were groomed by gangs, mainly consisting of men of Pakistani heritage, between 1997 and 2013.

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/rotherham-abuse-scandal-how-much-did-labour-government-know-1463361

 

 

Former UK PM Gordon Brown Backed Hope Not Hate

 

 

 

28 July 2015: Hard Left Campaigners in Hope not hate Lied About Islam vs West ‘Civil War’ Claim

Groups like Hope Not Hate are incredibly sinister and dangerous for quite a few reasons. So utterly convinced are they that their totalitarian vision of the world is what’s best for all of us, they do not do not question the morality of activities they undertake.

Their sole consideration is how on much damage they can inflict on to those who disagree with them. Disagreeing with a leftist vision for the world is an unpardonable sin, as anti-Islamist, communist activist Maryam Namazie knows well.

Some extreme left groups, like Hope Not Hate, pretend to care about Islamists and to condemn them. They also believe they are owed congratulations for this. It is easy to condemn beheadings, but until there is condemnation for a woman’s testimony being worth half that of a man’s, or recognition of the nature of the awful Muslim Brotherhood, the position of these groups cannot be taken even remotely seriously.

Hope Not Hate has called for the Mohammed cartoon exhibit to be banned. Its members believe that only political campaigning they approve of should get the light of day.

Extreme leftists despise democracy and routinely interrupt the democratic process. They cannot allow dissenting voices to be heard (just in case people might agree) so instead of facing up to the points raised, or the facts stated, they attack speakers and intimidate people in to not listening.

It must be understood that the extreme left in Britain represents a real threat to political freedom. They have defined the parameters of speech and a have a tied-and-tested weapon against all those who dares to dispute them.

The best way to deal with groups like Hope Not Hate is to make sure they have no bearing on our decisions whatsoever. In the face of their lies, there is only one thing that to be done – carry on.

When people become newly involved in political campaigning, particularly any kind involving Islam, they often do so with apprehension. Many are afraid of violence, or of being labelled a “racist” and therefore ostracised, and they invariably fear losing their jobs.

This fear is partly caused by deceitful, and particularly nasty attacks from people and groups on the extreme left. The left’s attacks on its opponents can be venomous. It’s important to note that rarely do leftists trouble themselves with political discussion of issues actually raised, nor does it often concern itself about whether or not the ammunition it will use for its attack contain any truth.

http://www.breitbart.com/london/2015/07/28/hard-left-campaigners-lied-about-islam-vs-west-civil-war-claim/

 

 

 

 

December 17, 2015: Hate not hope

For many years the Jewish Chronicle was a supporter of Hope Not Hate, an organisation that had admirable aims. But it has now lost its claim to be taken seriously. Last year it started targeting UKIP as if it was no different to the EDL or BNP. But its latest offering on supposed Islamophobes is not merely shoddy – it is dangerous.

Including those who criticise aspects of Islam, or even Islamism, even when some of those critics are practising Muslims, is libellous, ignorant and deeply counter-productive. It also effectively places them on a hit list for jihadis to target.

And including the likes of Melanie Phillips on the basis that she is a vocal defender of Israel is deeply disturbing. Hope Not Hate is now, it seems, engaged itself in the politics of hatred – by smear. http://www.thejc.com/node/151419

 

Durnan blocks the poster truck

 

 

 
16 June 2016: Exposed: Anti-Farage Remain Protest Linked To EU Bankers And EU Funded Trades Unions

A co-ordinated attempt to disrupt UKIP’s poster campaign launch today is linked to a former European Union (EU) banker, EU-funded trades unions, and the Wall Street hedge fund-backed hard-left group Hope Not Hate, Breitbart London can exclusively reveal.

Activists continued their relentless pursuit of UKIP leader Nige Farage on the campaign trail by boxing in the UKIP poster bus with two digital advert vans with large screens reading: “Don’t wake up with Nigel next Friday”, and, “Right on the ball Lord Farage, Minister For Health.”

They also blocked the view of photographers with signs reading: “United Kingdom, Not Divided Kingdom!” The signs were home made to portray the protest as grass roots driven – yet it was anything but.

In small text below the signs was their legally-mandated campaign imprint: “Promoted by Laurence Durnan on behalf of Best For Our Future Limited”.

‘Best For Our Future’ was registered as a private, limited company on May 5th 2016 at a mysterious shell address’ used by firms wishing to hide their true whereabouts.

Among the company’s ten listed directors is Cormac Hollingsworth, an economic policy consultant who has worked for the European Investment Bank, blogs for Left Foot Forward, and is listed online as a Chair of Trustees at the hard-left group Hope Not Hate.

He describes himself as an “expert adviser on financial markets, with a unique breadth of expertise and relationships that spans capital markets, regulation and policy”, and has worked numerous big European Banks and a globalist think tank.

Laurence Durnan, also a director, was recently the editor of the Political Scrapbook website, bankrolled by EU-funded, hard-left trades unions.“Blogging is great fun anyway, but I would say our contributors are ultimately driven to make life difficult for the right”, Mr. Durnan has said of the website he set up.

Speaking to Breitbart London’s Editor in Chief this morning Mr. Durnan said: “I read your publication every day. It’s a wonderful organ. Especially your stuff”. When asked who funded the protest this morning, he refused to declare it, but said that all spending would be registered with the Electoral Commission as required by law.

http://www.breitbart.com/london/2016/06/16/exposed-anti-farage-remain-protest-linked-eu-bankers-eu-funded-trades-unions/

 

 

 

 

 

 

Funding The White Helmets

the organisation is funded through the UK Government’s £1bn Conflict, Stability and Security Fund (CSSF)

They are used as:

1. A means of supporting and lending credibility to opposition structures within Syria.
2.  An supposedly impartial organisation that corroborates UK government accusations against the Russian and Syrian states.

The 2017 Annual Report provides revealing details:

Click to access conflict-stability-security-fund-annual-report-2016-2017.pdf

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Jo Cox Memorial Fund Supports

Wow – a million pounds has been raised in Jo’s honour in just three days thanks to you all. She would be so proud.

The scale and speed of the public response to this fund has been overwhelming and deeply gratifying to all of us. It shows how powerfully Jo’s story has moved so many.

A huge, huge thank you to every single one of you who has given so generously and been in touch with so many kind messages. As you can imagine it may take us some time to get back to you all but we are reading everything and extend our heartfelt thanks.

Heartfelt thanks again to each of you. We are truly showing the world that we have more in common than divides us.

we are raising funds to support causes closest to her heart, chosen by her family:

The Royal Voluntary Service, to support volunteers helping combat loneliness in Jo’s constituency, Batley and Spen in West Yorkshire.

HOPE not hate, who seek to challenge and defeat the politics of hate and extremism within local communities across Britain.

The White Helmets: volunteer search and rescue workers in Syria. Unarmed and neutral, these heroes have saved more than 51,000 lives from under the rubble and bring hope to the region.  https://www.gofundme.com/jocox

 

 

 

 

 

21 June 2016: WHO ARE SYRIA’S WHITE HELMETS?

Who are the White Helmets? This is a question that everyone should be asking themselves.

A hideous murder of a rising star in UK politics, Jo Cox, MP has just sent shock waves across the world. Within hours of her death, a special fund was established in her name to raise money for 3 causes. One of those causes is the Syrian White Helmets.

Are we seeing a cynical and obscene exploitation of Jo Cox’s murder to revive the flagging credibility of a US State Department & UK Foreign Office asset on the ground in Syria, created and sustained as first responders for the US and NATO Al Nusra/Al Qaeda forces?

 

UK defence minister Hammond with members of the white helmets.

 

 

If this is the case, and I fear it is, the depravity of our government, the US government, the state led media and associated Syria Campaign support groups have reached a new level of perversion of Humanity. The White Helmets have been demonstrated to be a primarily US and NATO funded organisation embedded in Al Nusra and ISIS held areas exclusively.

This is an alleged “non-governmental” organisation, the definition of an NGO, that thus far has received funding from at least three major NATO governments, including $23 million from the US Government and $29 million (£19.7 million) from the UK Government, $4.5 million (€4 million) from the Dutch Government. In addition, it receives material assistance and training funded and run by a variety of other EU Nations.

A request has been put into the EU Secretary General to provide all correspondence relating to the funding and training of the White Helmets. By law this information must be made transparent and available to the public.

There has been a concerted campaign by a range of investigative journalists to expose the true roots of these Syria Civil Defence operatives, known as the White Helmets.  The most damning statement, however, did not come from us, but from their funders and backers in the US State Department who attempted to explain the US deportation of the prominent White Helmet leader, Raed Saleh, from Dulles airport on the 18th April 2016.

“It was unclear whether Mr. Saleh’s name might have shown up on a database, fed by a variety of intelligence and security agencies and intended to guard against the prospect of terrorism suspects slipping into the country.” ~ New York Times

Mark Toner, State Department spokesperson:

“And any individual – again, I’m broadening my language here for specific reasons, but any individual in any group suspected of ties or relations with extremist groups or that we had believed to be a security threat to the United States, we would act accordingly. But that does not, by extension, mean we condemn or would cut off ties to the group for which that individual works for.”

 

 

UK defence minister Hammond with members of the white helmets

 

The White Helmets are perhaps being demonstrated to be the most crucial component of the US and NATO shadow state building inside Syria.  Led by the US and UK this group is essential to the propaganda stream that facilitates the continued media and political campaign against the elected Syrian government and permits the US and NATO to justify their regime of crippling economic and humanitarian sanctions against the Syrian people.

If this latest mechanised ‘NGO’ blueprint is successful then we could see it being re-deployed as key to future neo-colonialist projects. The White Helmets are a direct intra-venus line into the terrorist enclaves within Syria, acting as a conduit for information, equipment and medical support to maintain the US NATO forces.

Is this the future of warfare, is this the “swarming” outlined in a 2000 report produced by the RAND Corporation and entitled: Swarming and the Future of Conflict.

“The emergence of a military doctrine based on swarming pods and clusters requires that defense policymakers develop new approaches to connectivity and control and achieve a new balance between the two. Far more than traditional approaches to battle, swarming clearly depends upon robust information flows. Securing these flows, therefore, can be seen as a necessary condition for successful swarming.”

Is this why we are seeing what is, in effect, crowd funding for  proxy war? Do we really want to look back and be “judged by history” for enabling conflict and state terrorism, violating international law and invading sovereign nations.  Are we prepared to accept the consequences of such actions, consequences that should be taken by our governments alone but are now being diffused outwards to the general public.  Is this an attempt by our government to disassociate themselves from their criminal actions?

To condense our research on the Syria White Helmets, we have collated all relevant articles and interviews below.  We condemn wholeheartedly any senseless murder but we recommend that there is serious public and political re-evauluation of the morality of funding a US NATO organisation established to further “regime change” objectives in Syria.

Mass murder is being committed across Syria and the region by US and NATO proxy terrorist militants. Funding the White Helmets will serve to prolong the suffering and bloodshed of the Syrian people.

 

 

 

UK Column: White Helmets, Humanitarians or Executioners?

“Vanessa Beeley speaks to Mike Robinson of UK Column about recent executions of Syrian Arab Army soldiers celebrated by White Helmet operatives.” Watch:

Hands Off Syria: The Syria White Helmets Exposed as US UK Agents Embedded with Al Nusra and ISIS

 

 

“Speaking to Mnar Muhawesh on ‘Behind the Headline,’ investigative journalist Vanessa Beeley pulls back the curtain on the anti-Assad ‘freedom fighters’ and ‘moderate rebels,’ revealing a carefully calibrated propaganda campaign to drive US intervention in the war-torn country.” Watch:

 

 

 

Video made by Hands Off Syria in Sydney Australia based upon the research of Vanessa Beeley on the White Helmets. Watch:

 

 

 

Mint Press: US Propaganda War in Syria: Report Ties White Helmets to US Intervention

“White Helmets primary function is propaganda” reported an independent journalist, who tied the group to George Soros and the controversial advocacy group Avaaz.”

Change.org Petition: Do NOT give 2016 Nobel Peace Prize to Syria White Helmets

This petition has currently garnered 1370 signatures. The White Helmets have received over $ 40 million in funding from the US Government [USAID] and the UK Foreign Office despite their claims of being “fiercely independent and accepts no money from governments, corporations or anyone directly involved in the Syrian conflict.”

Sputnik: Soros Sponsored NGO in Syria Aims at Ousting Assad not Saving Civilians

“One of the largest humanitarian organizations operating in war-torn Syria – the White Helmets – has been accused of being an anti-government propaganda arm that encourages direct foreign intervention.”

21st Century Wire: Syria’s White Helmets, War by Way of Deception Part 1

This piece examines the role of the Syria Civil Defence aka,’The White Helmets’ currently operating in Syria and take a closer look at their financial sources and mainstream media partners in order to better determine if they are indeed “neutral” as media moguls proclaim these “humanitarians” to be.

21st Century Wire: Part II. Syria’s White Helmets, “Moderate” Executioners

The NGO hydra has no more powerful or influential serpentine head in Syria than the Syria Civil Defence aka The White Helmets who, according to their leader and creator, James Le Mesurier, hold greater sway than even ISIS or Al Nusra confabs over the Syrian communities. This article explores the White Helmet involvement in terrorist executions of civilians particularly in Aleppo.

21st Century Wire: Humanitarian Propaganda War Against Syria – Led by Avaaz and the White Helmets

“The White Helmets in their haste to point the finger of blame at Moscow, managed to tweet about Russia’s air strikes several hours before the Russian Parliament actually authorized the use of the Air Force in Syria.” ~ Sott.net

UK Column: Syria White Helmets

“Mike Robinson speaks to Vanessa Beeley about the so-called NGO, the White Helmets. Are they really the humanitarian first responder organisation they claim to be?” Watch:

 

 

 

Eva Bartlett: Human Rights Front Groups Warring on Syria

This page will continue to expand as more so-called “Human Rights” groups are outed for propagating anti-Syria war rhetoric and false allegations against the Syrian government and Syrian Arab Army.  As it is, the list of players is quite extensive.  Below, I’ll list the known HR front people and groups (many, if not most, with links to the US State Department and criminals like George Soros).

Ron Paul Institute: Syria the Propaganda Ring

We have demonstrated that the White Helmets are an integral part of the propaganda vanguard that ensures obscurantism of fact and propagation of Human Rights fiction that elicits the well-intentioned and self righteous response from a very cleverly duped public. A priority for these NGOs is to keep pushing the No Fly Zone scenario which has already been seen to have disastrous implications for innocent civilians in Libya, for example.

 

We will add to the above articles and interviews as they become available.  Vanessa Beeley has just completed a speaking tour of the UK and Iran during which she highlighted the role of the NGO complex in general and the White Helmets in particular as a new breed of predatory humanitarianism being unleashed against target nations. Videos of her talks will be published as soon as they become available from the AV7 conference and Frome Stop War.

 

Author Vanessa Beeley is a contributor to 21WIRE, and since 2011, she has spent most of her time in the Middle East reporting on events there – as a independent researcher, writer, photographer and peace activist. She is also a member of the Steering Committee of the Syria Solidarity Movement, and a volunteer with the Global Campaign to Return to Palestine. See more of her work at her blog The Wall Will Fall.

http://21stcenturywire.com/2016/06/21/who-are-the-syria-white-helmets/

https://ingaza.wordpress.com/syria/human-rights-front-groups-humanitarian-interventionalists-warring-on-syria/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The large village of Birstall – where the 41-year-old was killed – played host to Prime Minister David Cameron and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn on Friday who paid a special tribute to Mrs Cox

 

 

An opinion

In the aftermath of the cruel murder of the labour MP Jo Fox just about every aspect of the UK media presentation was and continues to be focused on the event to the exclusion of any other newsworthy headline. Almost all politicians and political hacks, in support of the “remain” campaign are guilty of cruelly apotheosizing an unfortunate young woman for political gain.

The truth has many faces and it is to the shame of a significant section of the political elite favouring “remain” that they concentrated their efforts on the version which supported their agenda. Manipulation of the minds of the UK electorate through the unfettered use of emotional blackmail is wrong. The Referendum deserves to be decided upon the impact of the political arguments advanced by both sides. The judgement of individuals before voting should be focused on the answer to a single question. “Are you happy with the way the UK is being run within the EU or are you persuaded by the “Brexit” campaign that there is a better way”?

In justification of the foregoing I am adding supporting information that has surfaced very recently.

 

Conservative peer Baroness Sayeeda Warsi and Labour MP Naz Shah attended a vigil in Batley

 

17 June 2016: Jo Cox MP death: Police probe right-wing links to MP’s killing

Police investigating the killing of MP Jo Cox have said they are prioritizing inquiries into the suspect’s possible links to right-wing extremism. Mrs Cox, 41, was shot and stabbed outside her constituency surgery in West Yorkshire on Thursday. A 52-year-old man has been arrested. The BBC understands Nazi regalia was recovered at suspect Tommy Mair’s home.

David Cameron and Jeremy Corbyn have described the killing as an “attack on democracy”.

West Yorkshire Police’s temporary Chief Constable Dee Collins said the force was also pursuing the suspect’s link to mental health services. She said the man arrested, named locally as Mr Mair, had been examined by two specialist medical practitioners and deemed fit for detention and interview and said detectives were continuing to question him.

Mr Corbyn said he had asked for Parliament to be recalled to enable politicians to pay tribute to the Labour MP “on behalf of everybody in this country who values democracy… free from the kind of brutality that Jo suffered”. He added: “Jo was an exceptional, wonderful, very talented woman, taken from us in her early 40s when she had so much to give and so much of her life ahead of her. “It’s a tragedy beyond tragedy what happened yesterday. “In her memory, we will not allow those people that spread hatred and poison to divide our society, we will strengthen our democracy, strengthen our free speech.”

Mr Cameron said: “Where we see hatred, where we find division, where we see intolerance we must drive it out of our politics and out of our public life and out of our communities. “If we truly want to honour Jo, then what we should do is recognize that her values – service, community, tolerance – the values she lived by and worked by, those are the values that we need to redouble in our national life in the months and years to come.”

Commons Speaker Mr Bercow described Mrs Cox as an “outstanding” MP. “I think everybody is united in grief, in horror and in an overpowering respect for somebody who we came to know, whose talents we admired, whose passion we observed on a daily basis,” he said.

 

 

 

 

 

The leader of the Liberal Democrats, Tim Farron, said she was “inspiring to listen to”, adding: “A young family has lost a mum and a wife, a community has lost a great MP and Parliament has lost an authentic and passionate voice.”

On Friday, hundreds of people, including Conservative peer Baroness Sayeeda Warsi and Bradford West Labour MP Naz Shah, attended a vigil at the Indian Muslim Welfare Society’s Al-Hikmah Centre in Batley.

Vigils, including those in Leeds and in Parliament Square, have also been held in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberavon. The Labour Party in Northern Ireland said a vigil will be held in Belfast on Sunday.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-36560895

 

 

 

 

19 June 2016: The truth about the late Jo Cox MP

I’ve always believed that one should not speak ill of the dead – and especially someone so brutally murdered as was Jo Cox MP on Thursday. But when that dead person is being deified out of all proportion– rather as Princess Diana was after her death – by a mainstream media hand-in-glove with a prime minister who is desperate to create false hysteria in order to sway the most important decision of our generation – our vote in the EU referendum – then something has to be said, and it is this:

We’re being told what a truly, extraordinarily wonderful person Jo Cox was, because her life was devoted to helping refugees. I’m sure she was a very sweet person – her face shows that. But how wise and truly aware was she? Today, with her body barely cold, her husband Brendan Cox is tweeting out a “Go Fund Me” link to his wife’s ‘favourite causes’ and one of those is the “White Helmets.”

 

The PR ‘human face’ of The White Helmets

 

 

The “White Helmets” is not a charity, and neither are they ‘the good guys’ despite their white helmets. The “White Helmets” is the military propaganda arm of the Allies attempt at regime change by destabilizing Syria – and this is exactly what is causing the refugee component of Europe’s migrant crisis in the first place.

The “White Helmets” also does not need our hard-earned cash. It is well-funded by George Soros’s organizations, the UK, the US and the Syrian opposition Party in its work, which is mainly with the rebel group Jabat al-Nusra, the infamous al-Qaeda affiliate.

The “White Helmets” are represented PR-wise by “Purpose” whose co-founder Jeremy Heimans also helped to create “Avaaz.” “Avaaz” is a global “pro-democracy” group which has been accused of furthering the US/EU agenda in the Middle East and elsewhere. It is also “Avaaz” that it encouraging, on social media, a sort of hands-around-the-world show of sympathy for Jo Cox today.

The unvarnished truth is that what we had in Jo Cox, at the very least and to put it charitably, is someone who was so busy paving the road with good intentions that she didn’t look up to see that they were leading to Hell.

The Hell was only 11 miles from her own constituency, where white children were falling victim to a large Muslim paedophile ring (1)– their presence in Halifax no doubt largely due to liberal and unrealistic sentiments like Jo’s, and others associated with NGOs like the “White Helmets.” The National media and press failed to report the story.

Added to that, tens of thousands of children have gone missing in Europe because of woolly-minded liberal NGOs encouraging mass migration and open borders, according to UNICEF. And then there is the phenomenon of Taharrush, public mass gang raping of European women by Muslim men.

 

Assisting Bob Geldorf and his flotilla. Jo Cox, her children and husband disrupt “Brexit” fishermen’s protest at the Houses of Parliament the day before her murder.

 

 

 

An Undemocratic elite – Brendan Cox

While there is every sympathy in the world for someone left to bring up two children on his own, it would be remiss not to point out that he has had a rocky career in the development field.

He was forced to resign from the charity “Save the Children fund” only 6 months ago, in November 2015 after several women accused him of behaving inappropriately with female members of staff. He denied the allegations, but left anyway. An acutely embarrassing incident no doubt, for a wife who was the “equalities and discrimination advisor” for a Labour Women’s Network.

He has since been jetting around Europe for the “World Economic Forum” examining ways to combat the growing “populist opposition” to the “refugee” population transfer programme. Among his findings are that the vote for nationalist parties is not important and that European populations are still willing to take in far more refugees.

Now there are calls from a few over-sentimental types in Parliament for Cox to be ‘shoed-in’ to his wife’s safe Labour Batley seat. This would be totally undemocratic – according to the laws of this land. There has to be a by-election – but these people who benefit from the EU NGO gravy train have no respect for the democratic process or for what the rank and file, working class Brits think. They are tearing to shreds all our rights – and then they wonder why we don’t like them, and want to vote them out on Thursday.

https://theholisticworks.com/2016/06/19/the-truth-about-the-late-jo-cox-mp-and-her-husband-brendan/

 

 

 

 

 

As Morgoth’s Review brilliantly put it in The Jo Cox Murder and the Liberal Elite:

“The liberal classes, media and political, have an agenda which is objectively false and they will vilify and attack anyone who disagrees and attempts to push a counter narrative.

“The liberal classes are truly detested by a massive number of British people and they, the liberals, are unable to understand why …

“…The problem we face is that the liberal establishment are not just seen to be living in merely an ivory tower or bubble, but in a dark and sinister castle. The decrees and morality which they foist down onto the general population are not ‘humanitarian’ or in any sense morally justifiable; it is ill conceived lunacy at best, genocidal at worst.”

The Halifax Muslim child rape gang was just one of many now operating across the Labour heartlands of northern England that are, largely, being ignored or covered up by social services workers, police and politicians. At the Leeds trial, only 13 of the men were convicted, despite more than one hundred being arrested.

Bleeding hearts like Jo often don’t realize that it is their do-gooding actions which create far worse problems if the consequences are not properly thought through.

Was Jo silent on the children being abused because of the number of Muslims in her constituency? Or was her cognitive dissonance somehow connected to the political aims of one of her ‘favourite causes’, the White Helmets?

Whatever the reason, we need to prise off the white knuckled grasp of this unelected, EU-funded, do-gooding, unrealistic liberal elite from the helm of the ship of state, before they steer us into a whirlpool from which we will never escape. There’s only one way – we must vote Leave on Thursday.

http://nwioqeqkdf.blogspot.com/2016/06/the-jo-cox-murder-liberal-elite.html

 

 

 

(1) 16 June 2016: More than 150 years jail for 13 men who sexually abused vulnerable Halifax schoolgirl

In Halifax, 11 miles from Cox’s constituency, a vulnerable underage girl had been left to fend for herself at the age of thirteen after her mother died. The child ended up being preyed on by 100 Muslim males who plied her with alcohol and drugs. The girl nominally in council care was then passed from house to house and from town to town as far away as Manchester and London. The girl described being filmed by Muslims on a mobile phone while being orally raped. She contracted an STD. Some of the rapists were identified from CCTV which had been seized from the hotels she could remember, while others were caught because of DNA from stains on her clothing. The police said afterwords that the girl, one of two victims, had shown “immense courage and bravery in reporting these matters to the police and providing evidence.”

At the Leeds trial, only 15 of an excess of 100 men originally arrested were convicted. Many dozens of culprits walked free. It was a lurid and horrific story but such hearings are so common these days, they have become wearily familiar.

Nevertheless you would think this would be a issue that would enrage a feminist-minded, morally crusading MP. But no, instead of fighting to defend the White girl victims of Muslim rape gangs, female Labour MPs have preferred to defend the Muslim community and deflect any criticism. Or, like Jo Cox, they have chosen to ignore it completely. In her maiden speech, Jo Cox said that her community had been “deeply enhanced by immigration” but presumably child rape was not what she had in mind.

A judge passed jail sentences totalling more than 150 years on 13 men convicted of the horrific sexual abuse of a vulnerable schoolgirl from Halifax. Four other men have yet to be sentenced for sex offenses in the case.

The girl was raped and abused between the ages of 13 and 15. One of the men sentenced for offenses against her was also jailed for a sexual assault on another girl.

West Yorkshire Police, said: “This was the largest and longest running investigation into child sexual exploitation in Calderdale. “At the centre of the complex inquiry were two young vulnerable victims who were preyed upon by men for their own sexual gratification. We would like to praise them for their courage in coming forward and firstly disclosing the offenses, then bravely giving evidence. We hope the outcome of these trials will enable them to start to put this trauma behind them and reassure any other potential victims that we will treat them with the utmost sensitivity and take positive actions against the perpetrators.
The guilty and their sentences

Aftab Hussain, 37, of Halifax, who pleaded guilty in September last year to two offenses of sexual activity with a child, was sentenced to six years imprisonment.

Haaris Ahmed, 32, of Halifax, was found guilty of two counts sexual activity with a child and with the supply of Class B drugs. He was sentenced to 12 and a half years imprisonment.

Taukeer Butt, 31, of Halifax, was found guilty of four counts of sexual activity with a child. He was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment.

Azeem Subhani, 25, of Halifax, was found guilty of two counts of sexual activity with a child. He was sentenced to nine years imprisonment.

Tahir Mahmood. 43, of Halifax, was found guilty of two counts of sexual activity with a child and sexual assault. He was sentenced to 11 years imprisonment.

Mohammed Ali Ahmed, 43, of Halifax, was found guilty of one count of sexual activity with a child. He was sentenced to six and a half years imprisonment.

Talib Saddiq, 31, of Halifax, was found guilty of two counts of sexual activity with a child, and was sentenced to nine years imprisonment.

Amaar Ali Ditta, 27, of Halifax, was found guilty of two counts of sexual activity with a child. He was sentenced to nine years imprisonment.

Sikander Malik, 31, of Halifax, was found guilty of sexual activity with a child. He was sentenced to six years imprisonment.

Haider Ali, 41, of Halifax, was found guilty of sexual activity with a child and causing a person to engage in sexual activity. He was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment.

Mohammed Ramzan, 35, of Bradford, was found guilty of rape, and was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment.

Khalid Zaman, 38, of Bradford, was found guilty of two counts of rape and supplying Class B drugs and was sentenced to 17 and a half years in jail.

Hedar Ali, 36, of Bradford, was found guilty of two counts of rape and two counts of trafficking for sexual exploitation. He was sentenced to 25 years imprisonment.

http://www.batleynews.co.uk/news/local/more-than-150-years-jail-for-13-men-who-sexually-abused-vulnerable-halifax-schoolgirl-1-7968693

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(2). Soros-funded ‘White Helmets’ NGO caught faking ‘civilian casualties of Russian airstrikes’ in Syria

The Soros   sponsored “White Helmets,” one of the largest NGOs operating on the territory of Syria, is busy with cooking up lies instead of protecting the human rights of the Syrian people.

The “White Helmets,” a controversial quasi-humanitarian organization, is playing dirty in Syria: the NGO has been spotted fabricating “evidence” of Russia’s “disastrous” involvement in Syria.

an interesting thing occurred in Australia, a US ally, on their national TV channel, the ABC.  In a rather surprising fashion they openly mocked US claims. ABC started their news piece by mentioning the US has flown 7,000 sorties against ISIS (at a cost of $4b) during which the Islamic State has expanded their territory ten fold!

That was the initial mock, but it then added a piece on the White Helmets calming a girl in a hospital as she is sobbing, or trying to – the camera continues rolling, she lifts up her head and asks in Arabic “is this good?”.  It seems Australia deviated a bit from the US&UK narrative. Once the so called White Helmets got caught, Twitter exploded. The deceit was obvious. For so long they have enjoyed the fruits of their marketing campaign depicting them as selfless heroes, saviours of humanity, impartial protectors of kittens and Syrians in equal measure.  Unarmed, neutral, demi-saints climbing the “Mount Everest of war zones”.  It’s all BS.

The organization has published a photo on its Twitter account, depicting a bleeding girl claiming that the poor child was injured together with a number of civilians during the Russian air strike launched on September 30.

Russia strike in Homs today. 33 civilians killed including 3 children and 1 @Syria Civil Def volunteer.

“Russia strike in Homs today. 33 civilians killed including 3 children and 1 @SyriaCivilDef volunteer,” pic.twitter.com/5aYYSrwv2d— The White Helmets (@SyriaCivilDef) September 30, 2015

“White Helmets” use a Sept 25th photo to document Russia Sept 30th strikes against ISIS and AQ. #BestPractices pic.twitter.com/hpAyVVu0E1— U.S. Dept. of Fear (@FearDept) September 30, 2015

However, the false claim was immediately exposed: Twitter users discovered that the photo of the wounded girl was actually taken on September 25, 2015, five days ago.

The White Helmets in their haste to point the finger of blame at Moscow, managed to tweet about Russia’s air strikes days before the Russian Parliament actually authorized the use of the Air Force in Syria.

Investigative journalist and peace activist Vanessa Beeley pointed out that the “White Helmets” (formerly called the Syria Civil Defense) was not created by Syrians and certainly does not operate in Syria’s interests.

Funded by the UK, US and the Syrian Opposition Party, the controversial organization works mainly with the rebel group Jabat al-Nusra, the infamous al-Qaeda affiliate. She said: “White Helmets demonizes the Assad government and encourages direct foreign intervention.” :

https://www.sott.net/article/302997-Soros-funded-White-Helmets-NGO-caught-faking-civilian-casualties-of-Russian-airstrikes-in-Syria

http://macedoniaonline.eu/content/view/28178/53/

https://winstonclose.me/2016/06/11/fake-heroes-syrian-women-condemn-usaid-funded-white-helmets-in-syria-by-prof-tim-anderson/?iframe=true&preview=true

https://www.sott.net/article/318008-The-White-Helmets-A-rescue-and-assist-organization-for-terrorists

 

 

Jo Cox representing Oxfam in Dafur

 

2007 – 2009: Jo took up employment with Oxfam as Head of Humanitarian Campaigning all over the World, operating out of New York.

Oxfam – A Charity in Disgrace

The Oxfam sex scandal exposed sexual abuse and exploitation of vulnerable people by staff of the  charity in Haiti, after an earthquake ripped the country apart.

A  hallowed Oxfam abused the public cynically abusing its motto “ending poverty” to muster  funding and support.  As a charity, it claimed that representing all that is good in society it would do no harm to it which is the reason it has fallen so far from grace in the minds of the public.

 

 

20 June 2016: The selective compassion of Jo Cox

Jo Cox wanted to make the world a better place and it was a cause for which she was willing to travel halfway across the globe. Whether consoling rape victims in Darfur or bombed out villagers in Afghanistan, it seemed the jet-setting international aid worker was rarely far from the action.

Lately it had been the struggle of Syrian war refugees to get to the West that touched her heart, and their plight was a subject she returned to again and again after becoming a Member of Parliament.

It seemed there was no victims anywhere she could not empathize with. Except, perhaps, with one striking omission.

And that would be the white child rape victims of Muslim grooming gangs in her own back yard.

For her West Yorkshire constituency is near the epicentre of the Muslim child rape epidemic that has been sweeping the Labour heartlands of northern England, largely ignored or covered up by social services workers, police and politicians.

For it is a striking omission that of all the subjects she enjoyed sounding off on, this world-famous crisis affecting the poorest whites on her doorstep was not one of them.

One cannot help wonder if this shrewd silence was connected to the fact that her lavishly paid MPs job in the constituency of Batley and Spen largely depended on the support of the local Muslim community.

Co-incidentally, just as Jo Cox was shot and stabbed to death outside her constituency office in Birstall last Thursday, sentencing was about to take place at Leeds Crown Court after a long trial involving a horrific case of Muslim child exploitation.(1)

 

 

 

(1): 8 February 2016: ‘It takes two to tango’

As 12 Asian men were jailed for 143 years for gang-raping a 13-year-old white girl a local Muslim councillor admitted some in his community were of the view that “it takes two to tango” and still think SHE was partly to blame.

What an utterly unbelievable statement, it just reveals the prevalence of the underlying attitude.

The point to take here is that the men involved don’t believe they are doing any wrong and that the girl deserved it.

Whichever way you spin it this is a deeply entrenched cultural attitude.

These men and there has been case after case after case of similar abuse have never targeted Asian girls.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3437252/Twelve-men-repeatedly-gang-raped-abused-vulnerable-teenage-schoolgirl-saw-utterly-worthless-jailed-total-140-YEARS.html

 

 

 

17 Feb 2018: Jo Cox’s Husband Forced to Resign From Her Charities After he Finally Confesses to Inappropriate Behavior Amid New Allegation That He Drunkenly Grabbed a Woman By the Throat

The husband of murdered Labour MP Jo Cox last night sensationally admitted to being a sex pest – and quit two charities he set up in her name.

His confession came as shocking new details surfaced of a second sexual assault he allegedly committed.

The accusation relates to his time with Save The Children in the year before his wife was killed by a far-right fanatic during the 2016 Brexit referendum campaign.

It is claimed that Mr Cox drunkenly harassed a female employee at the charity in London, forcing her against a wall outside a bar, holding her by the throat and telling her: ‘I want to f*** you.’

The incident led to him being forced to leave the charity in 2015. Save The Children’s chief executive Justin Forsyth, a close friend of Mr Cox and former aide to Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown, resigned four months later.

For the record: prior to working for Save the Children Brendan Cox had been a senior advisor to then Prime Minister Gordon Brown. He had in fact been part of the prime minister’s inner circle and as such was part of the Whitehall elite.

 

Astonishingly, one month after Mr Cox left the charity, a senior female US Government official told police Mr Cox had carried out a similar alleged assault on her at Harvard University in America – as this newspaper revealed last week. The woman was unaware of the Save The Children incident at the time.

In another development, it emerged yesterday that Mr Forsyth was also the subject of a complaint by a female employee.

It related to an ‘inappropriate comment’ he allegedly made. The complaint was investigated and said to have been resolved ‘by consensus’.

Insiders insist Mr Forsyth’s subsequent departure from the charity had nothing to do with the complaint against him, nor the handling of the Cox scandal.

Mr Forsyth was then appointed deputy executive director of Unicef in New York, a post he still holds.

A Save The Children source said: ‘Brendan and Justin were a formidable double act. But they were too big for their boots.’

The disclosures will fuel the current controversy over charity sex scandals and cover-ups.

Full details here: (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5404241/Jo-Coxs-husband-admits-sex-pest-resigns.html)

 

 

21 Feb 2018: Rotherhams 1510 Victims

The number of victims of child sexual exploitation in Rotherham is now thought to be 1510, the National Crime Agency has said.

NCA officer Paul Williamson said his 144 strong team is working with more than 260 victims and had identified 110 “designated suspects.” (the mirror)

 

 

24 Feb 2018: Child Grooming Gangs Acted With Arrogant persistence in Newcastle and North East England

A serious case review found that despite local knowledge and reports sexual predators in the North East were not investigated until 2014 after Northumbria Police were forced to act after a child told her social worker she  was being sexually abused.

To break the case the Northumbria police gave £10,000 to a convicted paedophile  who gave evidence in court against the 18-strong Pakistani-Bangladeshi grooming gang who were found guilty of numerous offenses against 22 girls and sentenced to long prison terms.

It is projected that an estimated 700 plus children (girls), aged between 11-25 have been sexually abused and prostituted, for a number of years by organized groups of men, some illegal immigrants and refugees, all of Islamic faith aged between 14-70. Investigations are continuing. (The Mirror)