A lot has been happening politically in the ten days or so since I last blogged, but probably nothing so significant as the Report carried through Executive by Councillor Paul Fisher on Tuesday which put the meat on the bones of the successful Motion on Community Empowerment put to Borough Council by the Community Group back in July.
The Report introduced the findings of the Improvement and Development Agency (IDeA) who had been commissioned towards the end of 2008 to look into Hounslow's general approach to the subject of Community Engagement. Engagement is, of course, one of those all-embracing buzz words that is used by councils of all political complexions but actually understood in its proper sense by few. To many it is an unnecessary and unwelcome distraction in which boxes have to be ticked before a piece of work can be done. What it actually is in its true sense however is a recognition that as members and officers our role is to offer the services to local people that they actually require from us.
Not wishing to cramp Paul's style I watched the meeting at home on the webcast and was amused by the tempered protests of one Executive member who complained that the Report had undertones of New Labour. Those of us who came together in an Isleworth pub in 1994 and who have been fighting ever since for our community to be elevated to its rightful place in the collective mindset of the local authority machine would not associate this project with New Labour, of all people, in a million years. Empowerment is about taking elitism and control-freakery out of our local politics.
There is a discussion still to be had about the developing role of Area Committees, which was lifted from the Report as it was felt it was a subject deserving of a separate discussion in its own right, however with this Report having been given the nod the dynamic is clearly for more local democracy, not less.
Paul's excellent Report was just the lastest manifestation of the Community Group's determination to have all the most significant aspects of its political programme incorporated into the process before the May 2010 local elections. Its passing was a massive development in the relentless onward march towards a people-focused council in Hounslow.
Saturday, 12 September 2009
Tuesday, 1 September 2009
And a great time was had by all...
The first resident-organised Isleworth Fayre (or Fair, if you prefer) passed off very successfully on Sunday afternoon, with groups and agencies from all over Isleworth and beyond mucking in to do their bit.
Local historian Eddie Menday served as Master of Ceremonies with backing from Radio West Middlesex, who provided the music. Isleworth Safer Neighbourhood Team and the fire brigade were there to answer questions and meet local people, a few fairground-type stalls, face-painting and rides were there for the kids, and tables were manned by the Isleworth Royal British Legion, the ICG, Delicacies Deli, LA Fitness, Hounslow Animal Welfare Society, the Mulberry Centre, Friends of Isleworth Public Hall, Brentford FC, the Cathja Project and The Isleworth Society (apologies if I've left anybody out). Former record-breaking cyclist and Isleworth resident Eileen Sheridan sold signed copies of her autobiography and Jon Hardy and myself endured several soakings in the stocks as residents were able to Soak a Councillor with wet sponges for a small consideration.
In the afternoon the Deputy Mayor, Councillor Barbara Harris, arrived and made a speech, then spent a whole couple of hours chatting to residents, enjoying the atmosphere and - finally - judging the tug o'war final in which the Isleworth RBL were defeated by a team from the Swan, cheered on by what had by that time become quite a crowd. It was also a pleasure to be joined in the afternoon by the Revd. Anna Brooker.
In the evening the IRBL laid on a disco and raffles, and the dancing went on till the end of the evening. A really fun time was had by all.
That this event was a great success was down to the fact that it was a real community event in which so many people pitched in, but special mention must go to our own Andy Sibley and to Linda Green from the IRBL. I would also like to thank Kate Manikon of Fusion for arranging the loan of the tables from Isleworth Public Hall.
Below are a few photos from the event:
Brentford mascot Buzz Bee arrives at the Fayre.
Isleworth's Safer Neighbourhood Team look on as Councillor Dr. Genevieve Hibbs holds court.
The ICG raffle and tombola raised over £100 for our election fighting fund.
The vegetable samosas from the Delicacies stall were amongst the best I have ever tasted. Not too keen on lollipops though.
Our own Iona London leads for the Isleworth Royal British Legion.
The Isleworth Society (TIS) signed up several new members.
Diving enthusiast Councillor Jon Hardy's wetsuit comes in handy.
Some of the bigger children at the Fayre. Linda Green (far right) takes a well deserved break from organising.
Historian Eddie Menday looks on as Deputy Mayor Councillor Barbara Harris makes a speech.
The Legion's tug o'war team takes the strain...
...but it's the Swan who eventually triumph. Councillor Harris holds the "cup" aloft.
Monday, 31 August 2009
ICG in the news for all the right reasons
The most gratifying thing about being involved with the ICG is that while our opponents whinge about our success and bitch about things which may or may not have happened twenty or thirty years ago, we just get on with it, and get down to doing the things that really change peoples lives for the better.
As Lead Member for Housing Jon Hardy has barely been out of the news over the past few weeks. The New Build at Convent Way is progressing, with badly needed new homes for our tenants. Also on Jon's watch £1.3m of funding has been allocated to completely eradicate the shortfall in the Aids and Adaptations budget.
Syon councillor Shirley Fisher took pride of place in an excellent report in the Hounslow & Brentford Times featuring our very well-supported public consultation on how funding for St. John's Gardens should be spent. The community around St. John's is very well-organised and resourceful, and has been a great source of strength to us as set about developing a community-driven ethos throughout the two wards which are under our jurisdiction.
Meanwhile her husband, Isleworth councillor Paul Fisher paid a visit to Hounslow Toy Library in his capacity as Chair of the Community Investment Advisory Panel to deliver them a cheque for £14,500 (see above), which is additional to the £10,000 which they receive on an annual basis. Paul commented: "I was kindly invited by Mrs. Matthews to see what they do and how they struggle each year to make ends meet. I was when I visited instantly struck by the love, care and total devotion shown by those to the disabled children in Hounslow and their parents who use this facility that I immediately made enquiries in how I could further fund them."
Sunday, 30 August 2009
Thought for the week
"In conditions where large sections of the electorate are abandoning all the mainstream parties, for anti-fascists not to be supporting or initiating local projects that are prepared to confront rather than support the Labour Party is to politically abandon those communities to the BNP."
Acknowledgements to Red Pepper.
Acknowledgements to Red Pepper.
Saturday, 29 August 2009
Come to the Fayre in the Square - Sunday 30th August, 12pm
Well okay, it's on Isleworth Village Green, but that doesn't rhyme with "Fayre". For anybody new to the area that's off North Street, close to the junction with South Street.
There will be lots of stalls, refreshments, two tombolas, items on sale and information about local groups and societies. I believe we have a fire engine making an appearance, and if the police are able to excuse anybody from Carnival duties they will be along too. There'll be a tug-o-war, pool and darts tournament, music, and a dare-you-miss-it opportunity to soak your local councillor in the stocks (Hardy doesn't know it yet, but he's booked all day!).
In the evening there will be entertainment at the Isleworth Royal British Legion, to which everyone is invited.
The whole thing starts at noon. Hope to see you there.
There will be lots of stalls, refreshments, two tombolas, items on sale and information about local groups and societies. I believe we have a fire engine making an appearance, and if the police are able to excuse anybody from Carnival duties they will be along too. There'll be a tug-o-war, pool and darts tournament, music, and a dare-you-miss-it opportunity to soak your local councillor in the stocks (Hardy doesn't know it yet, but he's booked all day!).
In the evening there will be entertainment at the Isleworth Royal British Legion, to which everyone is invited.
The whole thing starts at noon. Hope to see you there.
Thursday, 27 August 2009
Now Ann cuts Mogden community adrift
Sorry to keep banging on about the Keens, but an extraordinary development yesterday left me wondering just what kind of advice our Member of Parliament is receiving.
Users of the BrentfordTW8.com and ChiswickW4.com community forums will be aware that a spokesperson for Ann Keen recently threatened that his party would "work around" the resident-led Mogden Residents' Action Group (MRAG), which for many years has served as the voice of the organised community living in the vicinity of the plant and whose authority to do so derives from public meetings attended by hundreds, a petition signed by several thousand and a group action involving some 1,400 litigants.
To understand the thinking behind this one has to look back into the history of the conflict in and around Isleworth between the residents' movement and New Labour. This conflict is essentially one between two broad schools of thought. One (theirs) has it that only a small, select group of people who are essentially "in the know" and have the requisite intelligence, guile and expertise (them) are truly capable of representing the people's interests and that the role of the wider community is to elect them to positions of office - not just strictly political office but also within residents' associations, amenity groups and suchlike - and then stand back and leave it to them to do what needs to be done on our behalf.
The other (ours) has it that the community itself should aspire to take the lead on local issues and that the role of their elected political leadership is simply to provide guidance, advice and assistance where asked for.
It would have been as a direct follow-up to her spokesperson's threat that, on August 22nd (a Saturday?), Mrs. Keen allegedly met privately with an unnamed Director of Thames Water without any prior consultation with the residents. The Director, we are told, regaled her with the usual empty spiel about how concerned the company is for the plight of long-suffering residents, advised her of a meeting of the Mogden Residents' Liaison Committee to take place in September of which the rest of us have already long been aware, and informed her (and from the wording of her Press Statement it came as news) that nearly six months ago the local authority had granted permission for a 40% expansion of the plant's capacity.
According to Mrs. Keen she was "delighted" by news of the plant's expansion, and following publication of the Press Statement her spokesperson raced onto the local internet forums to announce "Ann Keen Speaks Up For Local Residents"!
And yet, of course, what she has done is added her own name to the already long list of politicians who have consigned residents already suffering the excesses of Mogden to even more misery as Thames sets about making a case for reneging on its promise not to increase intake, which anybody who is familiar with its track record knows it inevitably will.
By her actions Mrs. Keen has without question kissed goodbye to almost any remaining support she might have had within a two-mile radius of Mogden. That they consider her betrayal something to gloat about would suggest that Camp Keen is either woefully ignorant of local issues and has given her the worst possible advice or, more likely, that they have already given up and that the remainder of her campaign is to be a mere "spoiling" exercise in which she intends to wreak as much "revenge" as possible upon her ungrateful constituents.
Whichever is the case she's bought it, but on a parliamentary level at least the question remains - who will speak up for the residents living around Mogden?
Users of the BrentfordTW8.com and ChiswickW4.com community forums will be aware that a spokesperson for Ann Keen recently threatened that his party would "work around" the resident-led Mogden Residents' Action Group (MRAG), which for many years has served as the voice of the organised community living in the vicinity of the plant and whose authority to do so derives from public meetings attended by hundreds, a petition signed by several thousand and a group action involving some 1,400 litigants.
To understand the thinking behind this one has to look back into the history of the conflict in and around Isleworth between the residents' movement and New Labour. This conflict is essentially one between two broad schools of thought. One (theirs) has it that only a small, select group of people who are essentially "in the know" and have the requisite intelligence, guile and expertise (them) are truly capable of representing the people's interests and that the role of the wider community is to elect them to positions of office - not just strictly political office but also within residents' associations, amenity groups and suchlike - and then stand back and leave it to them to do what needs to be done on our behalf.
The other (ours) has it that the community itself should aspire to take the lead on local issues and that the role of their elected political leadership is simply to provide guidance, advice and assistance where asked for.
It would have been as a direct follow-up to her spokesperson's threat that, on August 22nd (a Saturday?), Mrs. Keen allegedly met privately with an unnamed Director of Thames Water without any prior consultation with the residents. The Director, we are told, regaled her with the usual empty spiel about how concerned the company is for the plight of long-suffering residents, advised her of a meeting of the Mogden Residents' Liaison Committee to take place in September of which the rest of us have already long been aware, and informed her (and from the wording of her Press Statement it came as news) that nearly six months ago the local authority had granted permission for a 40% expansion of the plant's capacity.
According to Mrs. Keen she was "delighted" by news of the plant's expansion, and following publication of the Press Statement her spokesperson raced onto the local internet forums to announce "Ann Keen Speaks Up For Local Residents"!
And yet, of course, what she has done is added her own name to the already long list of politicians who have consigned residents already suffering the excesses of Mogden to even more misery as Thames sets about making a case for reneging on its promise not to increase intake, which anybody who is familiar with its track record knows it inevitably will.
By her actions Mrs. Keen has without question kissed goodbye to almost any remaining support she might have had within a two-mile radius of Mogden. That they consider her betrayal something to gloat about would suggest that Camp Keen is either woefully ignorant of local issues and has given her the worst possible advice or, more likely, that they have already given up and that the remainder of her campaign is to be a mere "spoiling" exercise in which she intends to wreak as much "revenge" as possible upon her ungrateful constituents.
Whichever is the case she's bought it, but on a parliamentary level at least the question remains - who will speak up for the residents living around Mogden?
Saturday, 22 August 2009
Keens' continued boycott of Hounslow Council gives the lie to victim plea
I hit the headlines again this week, courtesy of the Hounslow & Brentford Times which carried an article about my relationship with the parasitic Keen duo and their lack of co-operation with the London Borough of Hounslow.
For the benefit of anyone who is unfamiliar with this particular story I will elucidate. In May 2006 I joined the local authority's Executive as Lead Member for Housing & Community Safety. Some time afterwards the his-and-hers MPs decided to make an issue of the fact, and they wrote a letter to Councillor Peter Thompson, Leader of Hounslow Council, "reserving the right to withhold our co-operation from your administration" for as long as I remained a member of the Executive. The reason given was my former membership of the National Front, an organisation whose views I had publicly renounced a decade and a half previously.
The letter itself was simply a "hook" for a much wider campaign against me and by association the Community Group, which involved briefing a number of sympathetic journalists from Tribune, the Daily Mirror, and of course the London Evening Standard where the Keens seem to enjoy a naturally cosy relationship with the odious and deceitful Andrew Gilligan. It also included a question in the House of Commons by Mrs. Keen to the then Prime Minister, Tony Blair, which to his credit he brushed aside with barely concealed contempt.
The devil in the Keen's "non co-operation campaign" transpired over the coming months to be in the detail. Their principled stand did not, it seem, extend to boycotting publicity opportunities and photo calls organised by the local authority. The non co-operation was to be limited to issues which involved an element of hard work.
Unimpressed by the Keens' selective application of what was supposed after all to be a point of high principle, I put a Motion to Borough Council which had the effect of formalising the lack of a working relationship between the local authority and the MPs in a way which removed the potential for embarrassment to our officers, by declaring that henceforth the Keens would only be admitted to any activity organised by the local authority with the express permission of the administration. The Motion was passed with the full support of the Conservative, Liberal Democrat, ICG and other independent councillors, with only Labour voting against. No more unearned photo ops for the Keens.
Having been hoist by their own petard the Keens and their little band of followers and organised letter-writers squealed concertedly like stuck pigs, just as I had predicted they would. It wasn't fair. The local authority was cutting off relations with the Keens, who had done nothing wrong. They hadn't said they wouldn't co-operate with the council, only that they would reserve the right to do so. And so on. Henceforth the lie was promulgated that the severing of the relationship between the borough and its MPs was all at the behest of the administration, with the MPs being the innocent victims for simply having done the honourable, ethical thing by expressing real and valid concerns about the involvement of the neo-fascist ICG in the administration of a multi-cultural borough.
In order to be sustained the lie had to divest itself of some inconvenient truths. The first was that, in the many months which had passed between the sending of the letter to Councillor Thompson and the Motion to Borough Council the Keens had already withdrawn their co-operation from the local authority. Nobody can name one solitary instance of them having helped or co-operated with the new administration during that period in any way, shape or form.
The second was that, far from being motivated by ethical considerations, the Labour position was actually incredibly confused. My initial appointment to the Executive was made by Borough Council in May 2006 and was supported unanimously, that is by every member of the Council including all 24 members of the Labour Group. Then, in 2007, following the announcement of the Keens' "principled" stance against my appointment, the same Labour Group abstained on (not opposed) my appointment to the Executive on the grounds of my former NF membership (they also refused to support Caroline's appointment as Deputy Mayor, presumably in the belief that previously-held political associations are contagious and can be passed on to other members of the family). And in 2008, which was to be the last year I would stand for Executive, they approved my nomination unanimously once again!
The gist of the newspaper article was to point out that, now I am no longer a member of the Executive, there is not really any justification for the Keens' non co-operation continuing. Yet continue it does, with Mrs. Keen refusing to comment as to why (it also gave a very gratefully received plug to my new anti-fascist blog Walk Away, which is already beginning to attract a small trickle of new visitors).
This petulance and deceit characterises completely the sheer unpleasantness of what New Labour has become today. I am looking forward to the electorate giving these two shameless self-seekers the boot at the next general election and replacing them with people who are prepared to put the welfare of their constituents before political point-scoring and work with the local authority, whatever its political complexion, for the greater good of the community we were all elected to serve.
For the benefit of anyone who is unfamiliar with this particular story I will elucidate. In May 2006 I joined the local authority's Executive as Lead Member for Housing & Community Safety. Some time afterwards the his-and-hers MPs decided to make an issue of the fact, and they wrote a letter to Councillor Peter Thompson, Leader of Hounslow Council, "reserving the right to withhold our co-operation from your administration" for as long as I remained a member of the Executive. The reason given was my former membership of the National Front, an organisation whose views I had publicly renounced a decade and a half previously.
The letter itself was simply a "hook" for a much wider campaign against me and by association the Community Group, which involved briefing a number of sympathetic journalists from Tribune, the Daily Mirror, and of course the London Evening Standard where the Keens seem to enjoy a naturally cosy relationship with the odious and deceitful Andrew Gilligan. It also included a question in the House of Commons by Mrs. Keen to the then Prime Minister, Tony Blair, which to his credit he brushed aside with barely concealed contempt.
The devil in the Keen's "non co-operation campaign" transpired over the coming months to be in the detail. Their principled stand did not, it seem, extend to boycotting publicity opportunities and photo calls organised by the local authority. The non co-operation was to be limited to issues which involved an element of hard work.
Unimpressed by the Keens' selective application of what was supposed after all to be a point of high principle, I put a Motion to Borough Council which had the effect of formalising the lack of a working relationship between the local authority and the MPs in a way which removed the potential for embarrassment to our officers, by declaring that henceforth the Keens would only be admitted to any activity organised by the local authority with the express permission of the administration. The Motion was passed with the full support of the Conservative, Liberal Democrat, ICG and other independent councillors, with only Labour voting against. No more unearned photo ops for the Keens.
Having been hoist by their own petard the Keens and their little band of followers and organised letter-writers squealed concertedly like stuck pigs, just as I had predicted they would. It wasn't fair. The local authority was cutting off relations with the Keens, who had done nothing wrong. They hadn't said they wouldn't co-operate with the council, only that they would reserve the right to do so. And so on. Henceforth the lie was promulgated that the severing of the relationship between the borough and its MPs was all at the behest of the administration, with the MPs being the innocent victims for simply having done the honourable, ethical thing by expressing real and valid concerns about the involvement of the neo-fascist ICG in the administration of a multi-cultural borough.
In order to be sustained the lie had to divest itself of some inconvenient truths. The first was that, in the many months which had passed between the sending of the letter to Councillor Thompson and the Motion to Borough Council the Keens had already withdrawn their co-operation from the local authority. Nobody can name one solitary instance of them having helped or co-operated with the new administration during that period in any way, shape or form.
The second was that, far from being motivated by ethical considerations, the Labour position was actually incredibly confused. My initial appointment to the Executive was made by Borough Council in May 2006 and was supported unanimously, that is by every member of the Council including all 24 members of the Labour Group. Then, in 2007, following the announcement of the Keens' "principled" stance against my appointment, the same Labour Group abstained on (not opposed) my appointment to the Executive on the grounds of my former NF membership (they also refused to support Caroline's appointment as Deputy Mayor, presumably in the belief that previously-held political associations are contagious and can be passed on to other members of the family). And in 2008, which was to be the last year I would stand for Executive, they approved my nomination unanimously once again!
The gist of the newspaper article was to point out that, now I am no longer a member of the Executive, there is not really any justification for the Keens' non co-operation continuing. Yet continue it does, with Mrs. Keen refusing to comment as to why (it also gave a very gratefully received plug to my new anti-fascist blog Walk Away, which is already beginning to attract a small trickle of new visitors).
This petulance and deceit characterises completely the sheer unpleasantness of what New Labour has become today. I am looking forward to the electorate giving these two shameless self-seekers the boot at the next general election and replacing them with people who are prepared to put the welfare of their constituents before political point-scoring and work with the local authority, whatever its political complexion, for the greater good of the community we were all elected to serve.
Friday, 21 August 2009
Politicians in the schlaemmer?
An opinion poll conducted in advance of next month's parliamentary elections in Germany suggests that some 18% of voters would cast their votes for Horst Schlaemmer if he were to decide to run.
The problem for German politicians and those who would have us take them seriously is that, far from being a serious player on the electoral stage, Herr Schlaemmer doesn't actually exist. He is a fictional character created by comedian Hape Kerkeling, apparently a kind of German Ali G, whose new Horst Schlaemmer Party campaigns under the slogan "Yes Weekend" and wishes to replace the country's eagle emblem with a bunny rabbit.
It would seem it is not only in the UK that the cosy charade which is party politics is in meltdown. For so many of these people the fear of electoral defeat, which they reassure themselves is merely cyclical, pales into insignificance by comparison with the fear of ridicule.
If only Screaming Lord Sutch were alive today to see this.
The problem for German politicians and those who would have us take them seriously is that, far from being a serious player on the electoral stage, Herr Schlaemmer doesn't actually exist. He is a fictional character created by comedian Hape Kerkeling, apparently a kind of German Ali G, whose new Horst Schlaemmer Party campaigns under the slogan "Yes Weekend" and wishes to replace the country's eagle emblem with a bunny rabbit.
It would seem it is not only in the UK that the cosy charade which is party politics is in meltdown. For so many of these people the fear of electoral defeat, which they reassure themselves is merely cyclical, pales into insignificance by comparison with the fear of ridicule.
If only Screaming Lord Sutch were alive today to see this.
Monday, 17 August 2009
Sunday, 16 August 2009
Joe and Ciaran lead out the Bees
Yesterday we spent a family afternoon at Griffin Park watching Brentford play their first home league game of the season against Brighton & Hove Albion in League One.
Whilst the game itself was a fairly uninspiring scoreless draw, with both sides making chances but unable to capitalise, for us the highlight of the day was watching Joe and his cousin Ciaran lead the teams out as the official mascots for the day.
Both lads got a pendant which they were able to take around the dressing room and get signed by all the players as well as by manager Andy Scott (the second time in a month that Joe had got to meet him), a small football and a match program in which they both received a mention and a small write-up. Then they went out onto the pitch and enjoyed a kickabout for some forty minutes before going into the tunnel to lead the teams out for the game. They also got to shake hands with all the players from the Brighton side.
It was a wonderful experience for both of them and below are just a few of the photos that I took:
Whilst the game itself was a fairly uninspiring scoreless draw, with both sides making chances but unable to capitalise, for us the highlight of the day was watching Joe and his cousin Ciaran lead the teams out as the official mascots for the day.
Both lads got a pendant which they were able to take around the dressing room and get signed by all the players as well as by manager Andy Scott (the second time in a month that Joe had got to meet him), a small football and a match program in which they both received a mention and a small write-up. Then they went out onto the pitch and enjoyed a kickabout for some forty minutes before going into the tunnel to lead the teams out for the game. They also got to shake hands with all the players from the Brighton side.
It was a wonderful experience for both of them and below are just a few of the photos that I took:
Saturday, 15 August 2009
Getting ready for the big one
A dozen activists attended the ICG's first Elections Strategy sub-Committee meeting of the current campaign last night and it is clear that there is a real determination around the organisation to build on the successes of 2006.
Members agreed unanimously that the ICG should be involved again in the local elections of 2010. Whilst the increasing commitment of the main political parties to the Community Empowerment agenda introduced into our local politics by the ICG was noted, it was feared that any administration in which we were not involved would be sidetracked by other priorities and would therefore not be ruthless enough in driving the new culture through.
We in the Community Group believe there is every likelihood that the 2010 local elections will leave Hounslow once again in a state of No Overall Control. We intend to position ourselves so that we might take advantage of that situation to the benefit of our local residents.
Members agreed unanimously that the ICG should be involved again in the local elections of 2010. Whilst the increasing commitment of the main political parties to the Community Empowerment agenda introduced into our local politics by the ICG was noted, it was feared that any administration in which we were not involved would be sidetracked by other priorities and would therefore not be ruthless enough in driving the new culture through.
We in the Community Group believe there is every likelihood that the 2010 local elections will leave Hounslow once again in a state of No Overall Control. We intend to position ourselves so that we might take advantage of that situation to the benefit of our local residents.
Thursday, 13 August 2009
New blog targets far-right
Yesterday I launched a new blog called Walk Away, which I'm hoping will in time develop into a valuable resource for combating the far-right, not just in Hounslow but throughout the UK.
Having been a member of the National Front and another far-right group myself (1977-1991) and having had to overcome a number of obstacles - some of them understandable but others grotesquely opportunistic - as I have endeavoured to do my human duty to expose the far-right, I make no apology for using my unique knowledge and experience as a lever for trying to encourage others who might be tempted to abandon previously-held racist views and affiliations. I am aware that my efforts will be the subject of attack, both by racists and by so-called "anti-racists", but this project is one that I am determined will succeed.
If fighting racism and fascism is a subject that interests you, please do take a look and feel free to leave a comment. Better still, if you manage your own blog or website please link to it. I'd be happy to reciprocate if asked.
Having been a member of the National Front and another far-right group myself (1977-1991) and having had to overcome a number of obstacles - some of them understandable but others grotesquely opportunistic - as I have endeavoured to do my human duty to expose the far-right, I make no apology for using my unique knowledge and experience as a lever for trying to encourage others who might be tempted to abandon previously-held racist views and affiliations. I am aware that my efforts will be the subject of attack, both by racists and by so-called "anti-racists", but this project is one that I am determined will succeed.
If fighting racism and fascism is a subject that interests you, please do take a look and feel free to leave a comment. Better still, if you manage your own blog or website please link to it. I'd be happy to reciprocate if asked.
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