BNP candidate arrested on explosive charge.

"A BNP candidate who built hangman's gallows for export to corrupt regimes has been charged with possessing explosives in suspicious circumstances. David Lucas has also been charged with owning an illegal weapon and ammunition with intent to endanger life.

The 49-year-old, who stood for the far-right party in this year's European elections, was arrested when police swooped on addresses in East Anglia in April.

Lucas hit the headlines in May 2006 when he revealed that he was sending his gallows and £100,000 execution systems to countries such as Zimbabwe.

He said he stopped making them in July 2006 after the export of hangman's equipment was made illegal by an EU directive. But the death penalty campaigner still has a gallows complete with noose on show at his farm in Lakenheath, Suffolk."
as reported in todays Metro

You could not make this stuff up about the BNP.

Questionable Times

Jacqui 'Lightfingered' Smith appeared last night on the BBC's Question Time. (I will let you decide if this is more or less controversial than having the BNP on.)

Anyway, she was asked whether MP's disgraced by the expenses fiasco should be elevated to the House of Lords (as she will be next May, believe it or not!). Obviously she barely attempted to answer the question and what she did say was quite unsatisfactory. Then an audience member challenged her about the £116,000 she claimed wrongly for 'not' living in her sisters bedsit. When asked if she would pay this back, she said that the committee investigating the matter, decided that although she had done wrong, it would have cost the taxpayer the same amount if she had, actually claimed correctly for a second home, therefore, she said, she would not have to pay it back as she had not benefited from it.

Excuse me? She claimed quite wrongly, indeed some might argue fraudulently, a total of £116,000 of taxpayers money as a second home allowance for a home she neither had nor lived in, or payed any pay rent or mortgage on... and she claims now that she did not benefit from this money? If that is the case, where exactly did this £116,000 go to?

Cluster bomb trade funded by world's biggest banks

Not only do they bring the world to the brink of financial crisis, and then make massive profits from the carnage they caused...
the worlds biggest banks also make massive profits from the engines of death.

The deadly trade in cluster bombs is funded by the world's biggest banks who have loaned or arranged finance worth $20bn (£12.5bn) to firms producing the controversial weapons, despite growing international efforts to ban them, reports the Guardian.

MPs' expenses: Tony McNulty faces rebuke over second home claims

Tony McNulty, a former home office minister, will be censured by the committee on standards and privileges for claiming £60,000 of Commons expenses on the home where his parents live, according to the Guardian.

He had claimed for a second home in his Harrow East constituency in London and is expected to be asked to repay £13,000 of the claim.

He will also be asked to apologise to his fellow MPs immediately.

So he will be 'asked' to apologise and pay back £13,000? We guess he gets to keep the other £47,000, and his job, and his pension and his perks and his severance pay when he gets booted out of parliament next year.

Any of us could have been sacked for a basic mistake on a travel expense claim amounting to nothing more than a few pounds, even pence.

Nick Griffin's mother-in-law says the BNP leader is a 'racist'

The mother-in-law of Nick Griffin has said the BNP leader is a “racist”.

In the Telegraph today Muriel Cook, 72, the mother of Griffin’s wife Jackie, described her son-in-law as a “work-shy pretender” who put his politics ahead of his family.
She said: “Nick is still a racist. He still holds those views – always has. He wants to see an all-white Britain, but that will never happen... he’s living in the Dark Ages."

Seems like things are just going from bad to worst for the BNP.

(Thanks to the late Les Dawson for the visual MiL joke.)

After the Party's over...

...and barely had the glasses been cleared than the BNP's own began to attack their leader... for being untrue to the parties true nature.

As reported in todays Observer, here ;

'Lee Barnes, the BNP's legal officer, accused Griffin of "failing to press the attack" during the televised debate, which was watched by a record 8 million people. Barnes complained on his personal website that Griffin "should have stood up to these whining, middle-class hypocrites that use the race card for self-enrichment – and thrown the truth right back into their fat, sanctimonious, hypocritical, self-serving faces". He accused his party's leader of "failing to press the attack" on the "ethnic middle class" for "taking up the best jobs while still playing the bogus race card for every opportunity". And in a move that is likely to reinforce concerns that Griffin's appearance will spark violence, Barnes used his personal website to suggest that "perhaps there needs to be a few 'white riots' around the country a la the Brixton riots of the 1980s before the idiot white liberal middle class and their ethnic middle-class fellow travellers wake up".

A spokesman for the anti-fascist organisation Searchlight said: "This strips away once and for all Nick Griffin's pretence that the BNP is a non-violent organisation. Lee Barnes is not just another BNP member, he is the organisation's legal officer, and here he is talking about riots in the streets. The BNP hoped the Question Time appearance would mark their entry to the political mainstream, but instead they have pushed themselves back to the violent, extremist political fringe where they belong."

Because they're worth it?

In todays Times Bankers and their camp followers defend their right to massive bonuses. We pick out one for your education, delectation and outrage:

The Wife
“I know some people look at our lifestyle and cringe and it does sometimes embarrass me. We have the obligatory double-fronted house in a communal garden in Notting Hill, with a gardener, a housekeeper/cook, a cleaner, a chauffeur, a nanny and a tutor. But it has come at a huge price. Most of the time I feel like a single mother — my husband comes home now and again, repacks his suitcase and is off to another European city. We do use Netjet for our Ibiza summer holidays but that is because he gets only one holiday a year, and even then he spends most of the time pacing up and down the beach on his BlackBerry in his Vilebrequins. He can never make our son’s parents’ evenings and missed our daughter playing the lead in the school play. I don’t think he has ever swum with the children in our pool. Even they sometimes wonder whether all the quad bikes, Nintendo Wiis and skiing weekends are worth it. I had to give up my career to keep the family together and he now looks 20 years older than I do. We make a huge effort to go to charitable events and are continually entertaining clients. But he missed my surprise 40th birthday party because he was on a conference call. If it wasn’t for the bonus, it wouldn’t be worth it.”

There, there. I am sure we are all happy to go on making it worth it for you.

£3K PAY HIKE FOR MPS AFTER EXPENSES CUT

GORDON Brown is planning to buy off MPs angry at having their expenses slashed by offering them a £3,000 pay rise, it emerged last night. read the article here

This is the same man who is offering pensioners a measley £124 a year increase on their state pension next year!

The same man who suggests we should forego pay increases and settle for a pay freeze (an effective pay cut!)!

The same man that wants to cut our civil service compensation scheme to allow our employers the option to offer only basic statutory redundancy terms when they come to sacking us!

The same man who wants to cut the Mod civil service by nearly 30,000 posts.

The same man who gave all our money to the bankers that we will never see back!

We woner if he drives a Volkswagon?

Our trust and hopes totally Fredding shredded?

We were promised that the money was a loan. That it would be paid back. But then they all started talking the need for pay freezes, pension cuts, job losses.

Yet hadn't they, all of them, promised to ensure that excessive bonuses would be a thing of the past?

And now RBS of all banks plan to give up to, and I exaggerate not... £5 Million pounds in individual bonuses!

A total bonus pot of £4 Billion Pounds! Thats right, £4 Billion Pounds of our money is going to be paid to champagne swilling public school associates of Messrs. Osborne, Cameron, Blair and Darling.

Thats a Billion from our salaries.

A billion from our pensions.

A billion from our services.

And a billion from our jobs.

And for what? Well, for making a massive profit with our money that they have used to defraud us all by writing off their bad debts, trousering our cash, then selling off the residue to loan collection companies, defaulted mortgages etc. at say 20% face value, which they also trousered. Oh yes, they also made profits on the 'bad mortgages' by selling the property secured against the original loan. Another tasty little profit.

Read the article here.

Inside view on the BNP

The Fleetwwod Weekly news have published an excellent account of one of their reporters experience of the BNP meeting held at the Frank Townend Centre in Cleveleys. You can read the article here .

Just a year on from the financial crisis...

....and the big banks, Goldman Sachs preeminent amongst them, are already stacking up huge amounts of cash in bonus pots ready to award their hard working bankers with millions and billions of bucks and pounds and yens.

How can this be, you ask? The government, the Tories, even the Liberals say we must all take either/or a pay freeze (actually a pay cut), compensations scheme cuts, pension cuts, job cuts, service cuts... and why? To maintain and reduce the public debt, they say. But wait, aren't we in such bad debt because we had to borrow loads of money to support failing banks? And isn't this money supposed to be paid back to us by those very financial institutions that caused the mess in the first place?

Then how is it that those very financial institutions that caused the crisis are already making massive profits and preparing to pay out the biggest bonus pot in history?

The truth is that the banks are using our money, paid for with our future pay, pensions, jobs and services to make their profits and to reward their staff. Neither the government nor the opposition parties propose anything substantial to halt or control this obscene fraud that is being conducted before our eyes.

Those politicians that understand what is happening do nothing because they have their snouts and trotters firmly buried in the same trough... and those that don't understand it go along with the game as a bunch of useful idiots, blinded by the baubles offered to them in the forms of floating duck houses, pornographic movies and mortgage payments on second, third and even fourth properties.

Perhaps once the veil of avarice has been removed from their eyes, the bulk of our representatives will begin to see the wider world and try to grasp just what is being done to the vast majority of us by a small and very wealthy and powerful minority.

This isn't about class, as it was back in days of Wilson and Heath. No, what is happening today is that an increasingly powerful oligarchy is dictating the economy of the world through fraud, deception and political patronage.

BNP forced to end policy for ‘whites only’ membership

The BNP will be forced to admit black and Asian members after a legal victory for the Government's Equality and Human Rights Commission which will end the party's “white only” policy.

In a court order issued today, the party agreed to amend its constitution to ensure that its membership rules no longer discriminate on grounds of race, religion or any other “protected characteristic” specified under equality legislation.

The commitment means the party, which previously allowed only “indigenous Caucasians” and those from connected ethnic groups to become members, will now be required to admit any person who wishes to join its ranks. The policy change was announced today at the Central London county court after the BNP decided to admit defeat in a legal battle with the Equality and Human Rights Commission over its membership rules.

More

Were all in this together? Again?

No Tory action on MP’s £100k claims

David "Call Me Dave" Cameron today took no action against a Conservative MP who is accused of paying £100,000 of public money into his own company.

David Wilshire, 66, set up the business with his girlfriend and then paid it with his Commons allowances for office assistance and other services.

Mr Wilshire, the MP for Spelthorne, Surrey, admits that he and his partner Ann Palmer were the sole owners of Moorlands Research Services, which was not a registered company. For three years between 2005 and 2008, Mr Wilshire paid up to £3,250 a month into it. Along with extra invoices submitted, the total paid was £105,500.

Parliamentary expenses rules forbid MPs from entering into arrangements that “may give rise to an accusation“ of profiteering from taxpayers' money. According to the Daily Telegraph, parliamentary officials did not check how the money was spent and Mr Wilshire did not provide a breakdown.

Perhaps Mr Wilshire and Dave went to the same school or something?

Addendum: Last night Mr Wilshire said he will not stand at the next election? Is this so he does not have to pay back that which he has appropriated?

First come, first served

The Government has ordered a fire sale of assets worth £16 billion – including a stake in a uranium enrichment firm – as the first steps towards tackling the deficit, reports the Telegraph, today .

"The Government also plans to auction off surplus real estate, part of a £220 billion portfolio owned by departments and quangos."

That would include Kentigern House then?

If this is the "first steps", what on earth will be steps two, three and four? Your guess is as good as ours!

Whatever, we're all in this together?

From Rod Liddle in todays Times:

A survey out last week revealed that “whatever” and “at the end of the day” were two of the most loathed words or phrases in America. Maybe we should offer a contender from the UK: “We’re all in this together.” Especially when uttered by a millionaire politician — who therefore isn’t really in it — to excuse freezing the wages of poorly paid public sector workers who truly are in it, a consequence of the behaviour of very rich bankers who put us in it but who are not themselves in it because the millionaire politician who talked about us all being in this together doesn’t think they should be in it and won’t raise their taxes or clobber them with a windfall tax. At the end of the day or whatever.

(Pictured left is Boy George "We're All In This Together [unless you're wadded]" Osborne, Tory toff, millionaire associate of Russian billionaire oligarchs, sometime Shadow Chancellor and chumster of David "Call me Dave" Cameron)

Tories to cut MoD civillian jobs by 25%!

As reported yesterday (and see new PCS circular here) the Tories are to cut MoD costs by 25%, and entirely from the civillian staff. As Tory Shadow Defence Secretary Liam 'Sly Old Fox' Fox puts it, (BBC) when "Frederick Duke of York was preparing for the Napoleonic threat between 1792 and 1804 he increased the size of the Army from 50,000 to nearly 500,000 - and he did it with 38 staff at Horse Guards."

That is as may be, but of course, what he fails to realize, being an out of touch Tory Toff is that the clerical, logistical and support functions for the Army were done then by uniformed staff in the regiments... something that has changed in modern times as more and more civillian staff, like us, have taken on roles once the preserve of regimental clerks and quartermasters, such as making the payroll, procuring and delivering supplies, and a myriad of ancillary support and clerical functions. Moreover, civillian staff perform those jobs at a fraction of the cost and across the three services.

Even the Liberals claim they will reduce MoD civillian staff by 10,000!

So what will go? The staff supporting service personnels families? Maybe civillians making sure soldiers are paid on time? Or perhaps those delivering the food and weaponry to the conflicts? Your guess is as good as ours.

What we do know for sure is the cuts will be unwarranted, driven by political dogma and damaging to the economy and the MoD and the services it supports. We also now know for sure a vote for either is to vote to end support for front line military personnel and/or support given to veterans.

Unite against the BNP in Cleveleys

It has been brought to our attention that the BNP are holding a meeting (invite only as far as we are aware, although rumours have been heard that it is to be a public meeting) in the Frank Townend Community Centre in Cleveleys which is owned by Wyre Borough Council.

The meeting is taking place on 13th October 2009.

You are all urged to complain to Wyre Borough Council on 01253 891000 or by email and The Frank Townend Community Centre on 01253 863369.

The BNP is an extremist racist organisation that seeks to divide the community, and as such we feel that a community centre (especially a council owned one) that is supposed to serve the needs of the whole community is not the place for such a group to hold a meeting.

Please phone/email and ask them to cancel this meeting on the grounds that a community centre should be there to serve the whole community, and not to promote a group that seeks to divide and alienate whole sectors of the community.

If they do not cancel the meeting then the UAF will be arranging a demo outside the building.

We are all in this together...

...Yeah, right!

'Tory Boy' George Osborne claimed 7 times at the Tory conference that "we are all in this together." He gave the very real impression that merely a pay freeze, a longer working life and piffling attacks on our pensions would be THE price's we will pay to support the bankers, Old Etonians and dying millionaire's heirs. Yes we are all in this together, unless, it seems, we are in the MoD.

Todays Times reports that the Tory's plan to make 25% cuts in the costs of running the MoD, with no plans to cut uniformed personnel; "instead sweeping cuts would be applied to the 89,300-strong workforce of civilian staff employed. "

By my reackoning thats around 22,325 civillian jobs to be disposed of in the MoD.

So who, exactly, is in this together?

Hooray! What they don't steal...

... they can pay for?

Tory member is arrested at party conference for 'stealing £150 bottle of champagne', reports the Daily Mail.

Apparently is was all a big mistake and the Tory member intended to pay the £150 for the bottle! The toffs had probably been on it all night anyway, celebrating being "all in this together" with the rest of us? Yah!

MoD pay update 21

Pay grievances

Our union has seen the letter that MoD has now issued to PCS members who have lodged grievances in respect of the reduced pay band maxima at E1 and E2.

We are asking all members to:

1. Attend the grievance hearing – this is your opportunity to tell the department what you think about the decision to cut your pay and pension.
2. MoD has asked all members to set out the remedy that they seek from the grievance process. We advise members to use the following form of words: "that MoD reinstitute the pay band maxima for my grade (specify E1/E2) to the figure as at April 2009"
3. We also ask members to set out what the imposed cut means for you in terms of the pay award that you will receive and also any other relevant information.

PCS will provide all members with representation at the grievance hearing.

Update on MoD pay negotiations

After Susan Scholefield, the MoD director of civilian personnel refused to meet with PCS members impacted by pay and pension cuts, we have now written to Bob Ainsworth, the secretary of state for defence with a request that he meet our members.

We are suggesting that he directly intervenes in this dispute and helps address the concerns of PCS members. Unfortunately as yet, he has not responded to our letter.

We will now ask John McDonnell, the chair of the PCS parliamentary group to write to Mr Ainsworth asking him to intervene and to try and resolve an issue that threatens the pay of thousands of his employees.

National pay update

Civil service pay continues to be unfair, unequal and irrational. Staff continue to be paid different rates for work of equal value.

In comparison to the rest of the public sector our pay has progression up the pay scale funded from the pay allocated. Every other part of the public sector funds progression/advancement separately to the basic pay award. This is wholly unfair.

Our union continues to put pressure on the Treasury and the government and we are determined to win on our objectives on pay which are:

· A reduction in the number of bargaining units
· Eradication of the huge pay differences, of up to 25% or more, for work of equal value
· Common conditions of service package
· Abolition of performance pay and bonus payments (putting less money into non-consolidated pay and more into consolidated pay rates).
· A return to national pay bargaining across all civil service organisations.

Defend jobs – Defend the CSCS

Not only is the MoD job slaughter continuing, but it is clear that developing plans being drawn up by our employer and the government will see the attack intensify. NO JOB in MoD is safe.

The media is full of quotes from discredited politicians engaged in a grotesque auction of promised job cuts. Our members are not the cause of the economic crisis – but are being asked to pay for it with their jobs and pay.

If that were not bad enough we are also attacked with disgraceful lies. For example Liam Fox, the Conservative shadow defence secretary claims: “the military seems consistently to shrink while the civil service keeps growing?” (strange, when 36,500 MOD civil servant jobs have been lost since 1997 compared to only 19.000 service posts), as well threats of a pay freeze and attack on pensions from the Liberal Democrats.

As for the current Government, the less said about New Labour the better!

The current proposals to slash the entitlements in the civil service compensation scheme (CSCS) must be seen for what they are.

The government proposals can only save money once civil servants are made redundant – and therefore the proposed cuts represent a clearing of the ground to begin a savage attack on our jobs which will allow the next government to cut tens of thousands of posts in the future on the cheap.

In 2005, the government agreed a deal with our union to honour our existing pensions with a new scheme (the best in the public service) put in place for new entrants. At the very least, the same should happen with the CSCS.

Yours sincerely,
Paul Barnsley Group Secretary
Chris Dando Group President
KC Jones Group Vice President

Members under the age of 27

Regional Young Members Network Meeting

The young member’s network aims to:

Provide an easily accessible platform for young members to develop their skills as a union representative
Get involved in young member specific campaigning and
Share experience with other young members.
The young member’s network has successfully built up a network of nearly 500 young members in different workplaces and regions and we are continuing to build links with other trade unions and youth organisations.

There will young members meeting 0n Monday 19th October 13.00 at Trinity Bridge House 2 Dearmans place Salford M3 5BA.

For further details click here