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Friday 26 August 2016

John Arthur Wynne - an unsung Philanthropist!


John Arthur Wynne


"He called for Legislation to enable ‘all to read the entire word of God’, for which Petitions would be presented ‘from all parts’ of Ireland ‘if the influence of the Catholic Hierarchy could be withdrawn for a few months’"

This is from The History of Parliament online - a direct quote, not an adaptation, and while it might sound like something from a Cecil B Demille Epic - in reality and seen in purely secular terms it establishes the philanthropic Credentials of a largely unheard of - but very influential historical Figure!

So who was - and who were - John Arthur and the Wynnes of Hazelwood and Lietrim - Co Sligo, Ireland? A family who trace their origins to a 12th Century Chieftain of Wales who came from Lake Bala - and are related to those of Gwydir? Why was he so influential, but why haven't many People heard of him?

Maybe some of that is answered by the Level of Reactionarism in the Catholic Hierarchy against his campaign to promote literacy. That he had to keep them in check for a few months to be able to enact this Policy suggests that anyone - regardless of Benevolence - was somehow tarred with the same Brush as those not so philanthropic in the interests of a very Black and White depiction of the British presence in Ireland. The Foundation for his work was established by his Father - Owen - an MP in the Gratton Parliament who voted against the controversial Act of Union 1880, everyone from the most ardent Fenianist to Poet Laureat Seamus Heaney has criticized. These things never get mentioned in the Plethora of Stereotypes but even they must concede - Can there be any more substantial force for liberation than helping those Irish People Irish Nationalism always claims to represent than ensuring they can read, not only the scriptures but everything - including the Rent Book and all those other every day things? It's a Paradox isn't it - that Catholics resisted exactly this! There is an unfortunate History of what happened to others who did similarly liberating things - William Tyndale for example..

Owen Wynne


Documentaries about Irish Immigrants to the Americas might have those Letters to and from Ireland and the Americas, but how did they learn to read and write them?

This might seem trivial to People today but even now how easy would it be to scam someone who couldn't even read what was stamped on a Coin or Banknote?.

For example; Someone says how he thought he gave someone else 20p. He's asked whether it was - or might have been 50p? He says he doesn't know - but he gave the Coin with the Corners on it. They might give someone a £10 - only to be told it was only £5 - so they give them another.

In the 1840's when the worst Landlords wanted to evict a Tenant. The latter could show the former the Rent Book with last weeks Rent written recorded and even signed by the Landlord. That Landlord - with a Justice of the Peace in his Pocket - says I haven't signed or recorded anything in 6 Months. It's the beleaguered Tenants word against the Landlords.

Writing Letters meant you could communicate with Friends or Relatives in Dublin, Belfast - even abroad - like you couldn't before. To realize the significance of this just consider how Email has helped Peoples lives. Being able to write from or to People from the remotest regions of Ireland had the same effect as sending an Email to New Zealand might now.

So it wasn't just being able to read the Bible Wynne was trying to encourage, the ramifications of his Campaign are apparent to anyone. When he says how the Catholic Hierarchy had to be kept in check just long enough to enact this he doesn't just mean a few recalcitrant Priests or a Bishop or two, he means a Structure that goes as far as Rome, in a Europe dominated by Catholicism.

After People had done what others couldn't (or wouldn't) do, teach the Populace how to read Goidelic the Reactionaries condemned not just the Practice but also the Language. Admittedly it was hoped that those now literate Goidelic speakers might become Protestant, but even if they didn't they still had a Skill they were denied before. Teachers recruited from the literate Catholic Community to do this were pragmatic - despite the Conflict in Theology, seeing it as a Job with regular Wages open to them and similarly denied before. So, despite having Blood as Milesian as any Priest they - and those who learnt - were condemned as "Sassanach". (the derisory term Jacobites had for the English).

The Catholic stance on all this is skewed because it forgets how People define their Irishness. How literate Celtic Christian, or Culdean Clerics arrived in Ireland and began collecting the Stories about the Tuatha de Danaan, Firbolg and Partholonians and wrote them down. Had they not done this - or not had the necessary skills - the Stories about Nuada, Cuchulain, Maeve, Ferdia etc would have been long forgotten. Had that Catholic attitude prevailed would Goidelic be spoken at all now?

So, who's doing more to promote and protect Irish Culture - those who wanted to ensure People could at least read and write it - or those who would rather keep them in Ignorance and Superstition for Centuries?

I don't know how much Martin Scorsese knows about our History but has the maker of "Gangs of New York" asked why some of those People arrived pitiful, and who couldn't even read their own Language - let alone Amerenglish? That that Reactionaryism in the Catholic Hierarchy meant that even by the 1840s some People were still illiterate when they got there!

So, not only was Wynne helping to free Irish People from the darkness of a deliberately promoted ignorance - which might have got him burnt at the Stake only a couple of Centuries earlier - he was also one of the Architects of Emancipation. (The Slavery Abolition Act 1833).

The Act of 1833 and its conclusion in 1838


This was when he presented Petitions to Parliament lobbying for the Abolition of Slavery.

Did the 13th Amendment cost Abraham Lincoln his life?  After all - when it was passed a few disgruntled former Confederate Plantation Owners must have been miffed - just how much opposition would People like Wynne have had 35 years before? When you watch the Film "Lincoln" you see how difficult it was to get the Legislation through a comparatively small Congress - what must it have been like in a Parliament that was then even bigger than it is today - with those Irish MPs there too? Abe Lincoln was a President - those Abolitionists were just MP's and a few Landed Gentry wanting to end something even Royalty were involved with. That needed resolve and not the sort of Courage you drink.

That opposition wouldn't have just come from the Slave Seaports like Bristol and Liverpool. How many associated Industries would have been affected? The Cotton and Textile Mills of Greater Manchester and the North West, the Tobacco Trade in Bristol, those involved in Sugar, Molasses and others catering to the Empires sweet Tooth. There's a superb Documentary by a descendant of a Slave who came from Liverpool - a modest Fishing Village before the Trade started - and he shows you those Street Signs synonymous with the Trade - including Penny Lane! Huge industrial lobbying power buying Votes.

But even after years of a War that had brought America to her Knees there were still those Representatives who wouldn't vote for the 13th Amendment, which suggests just how recalcitrant the Resistance to Emancipation was - even after we'd set the Precedent.

How would 1833 influenced America?

Britain wasn't like it is now and 200 years ago ran most of the known World in its vast Empire - from Canada to Australia and New Zealand. So how long would it have been after the ending of Slavery in most of the Empire before its effects would encourage and boost the Emancipation Movement in the US? The Fact that Tobacco and Cotton was produced by Slaves before the Continental War of the 1700s would resonate with some a Century later.

Fast forward to the 1840's and you have this......

The Irish Famine


It's almost become a Cliche but many People know about the Famine in Ireland that killed something like 1000,000, caused by the Potato Blight. Equally cliched is the impression we're given that all the Landlords in Ireland were Robber Barons - plundering and exploiting their Tenants, exporting other Foodstuffs - and taking advantage of their Plight to clear Land for other uses. This is a hugely inaccurate and very misleading Representation of Fact as not all of them were - and some were even helpful.

John Arthur Wynne was one off the helpful ones.

He reduced the Rents, improved the Infrastructure by building a Canal to Sligo - and even paid for Peoples passage to Canada, all of which helped on more than one Level.


What was different to his approach and many others was how those he helped weren't plundered of their Savings by Owners of the so called "Coffin Ships" to a very uncertain future - and they arrived in Canada with some Money. There were very many who didn't, whose Plight was wretched in the extreme.

By improving the Infrastructure not only could People travel to the nearest large Town to ply their Trade (Blacksmith, Wheelwright, Carpenter, Stone Mason, etc) they could also take the Produce of their Wife/Daughters Cottage Industries with them to sell. After all, who are they going to trade or sell to if their only Customers are as broke and starving as they are - trapped in a tiny Village or Hamlet?

That while you were in Sligo Town Ships are bringing in Foodstuffs that you could also access/buy with the Money you have just made. Imported Produce, Sea Food from the Trawlers etc - so you aren't totally reliant on the stricken Potato Crop..

Plus you have less Rent to pay because he reduced it. He also proposed an inquiry into Irish Tenure!

The Tragedy is that he lost his Wife - Lady Anne Wandesforde Butler - while she was involved in Anti-Poverty work during all this.

John Arthur Wynne with his Wife


So, occasionally there are People who are quite awesome - some of whom you don't hear very much about - John Arthur Wynne was one of them......

Hazelwood House







Search here for Books, Documentaries Films or Collectibles about Slavery and its Abolition and the Irish Famine



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178 comments:

  1. It's encouraging to see that Theresa May is going to confront Slave Trade Gangs, something her Predecessor, his - oh and his too - failed to do. Not sure why - but finally we might start seeing some genuine Ethicism you didn't have to 'Wine and Cheese' at Downing Street to enjoy!

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  2. People might not realise the Significance of that 1833 Slavery Abolition Act until they see the World strategically....

    Had Britain - and thus the British Empire - not abolished, first the Slave Trade, and then Slavery (1807/33) who would the Confederacy have had as natural Allies in the American Civil War if it wasn't that Empire? Remember that that meant Canada, Anzacs, large Chunks of Africa, most of the Caribbean and even the Seaports of the far East (Singapore, Shanghai, Hong Kong etc) and Borneo. Not to mention the Worlds largest Corporation of the time - the East India Company.

    How long would the Union have lasted pitted against all that? Fighting against British Empire Troops in the North (Canada), AND those famous Battles in the American Heartland (Gettysburg etc). The pro-Confederate British Navy wouldn't only have controlled the Sea Lanes of the Atlantic they would also have the Caribbean, so how would Union Ships have sailed up the River to commence their Bombardment of Vicksburg - the Confederate Bastion of the South. How would they have blockaded the Confederate Navy if they themselves were blockaded by the British?

    Trading in the Pacific would have been difficult had they have to do battle with British Ships sailing from the above mentioned Ports of the far East. The situation the besieged Confederacy was in might have been the other way around. How long would the Union have lasted?

    There were Profiteers who supplied Richmond with Arms and Supplies but this was done in the auspices of Business - not Policy from a London who couldn't be seen supporting the South.

    Even if the 13th Amendment has been passed in 1865 it wouldn't have amounted to anything if the first post-Civil War President was Jefferson Davis - whose Capitol would have been Richmond, Virginia and not Washington DC. Thus, America would be a very different Place to what it has been since Robert E Lee surrendered to Ulysses S Grant, with a very different Constitution, or one that that was still rendered abstract - with all those 1791 Amendments made meaningless as Slavery continued.

    Also, how about the Plight of the Slaves themselves - and their People in the native Countries they were sold from?

    How long would it have been before so many had been sold the Villages and Tribes they came from started to die out? Where would Slave Traders have gone once that started to happen? China, Indochina, the Pacific Islands?

    So, John Arthur Wynne made a heftier Contribution to Freedom than just helping to end the enslavement of 100's of 1000's. That 1833 was one of the most significant Years in what we now know as modern History - if not all History

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  3. What is peculiar about the set up here though (Geographical Reference) is how something - rather like a Harlech Television that doesn't actually employ any People of Harlech) is how even this has been assimilated. There are many other Instances of similar things going on - rather like People pretending to be Jack Sparrow in a Jerry Bruckheimer Movie - which turns even this on its head.

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  4. Meanwhile, here's an Historical Diagram for everyone from former Archbishop Envoys to anyone in the Yippieocracy who tries lumping us in with any Islamic Extremists......

    I decided to post this in all these Threads for those who haven't read it.

    https://metrowynn.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/arthur-balfour-to-king-arthur.html

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  5. There's a Reason why i called this "The unsung Philanthropist...."

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  6. Here's a Definition of Slavery outlined by the Anti Slavery Commissioner Kevin Hyland against the Backdrop of the Modern Slavery Act 2015, and reiterated in a Statement made this year.....

    "Modern slavery is an umbrella term encompassing slavery, servitude, forced or compulsory labour and human trafficking. Victims of modern slavery are unable to leave their situation of exploitation, controlled by threats, punishment, violence, coercion and deception. Slavery violates human rights, denying people of their right to life, freedom and security."

    Some of this seems familiar - while all of it seems to be as ignored in the Region as other things were in the American South.

    Mississippi was anomalous to the rest of America - even other southern States, while going back even further - so was Sand Creek - when in Violation of the Treaty Black Kettle had with Abraham Lincoln Cheyenne Indians were massacred. Let's just hope there isn't a Governor John Evans or a Colonel John M Chivington who might set out to be anomalous to the above Statement huh!

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  7. This is the most innovative Legislation to help People probably since the Results of the Beverage Report but why didn't it get very much Publicity by the Media? Maybe they saw a conflict of Interest as they might be prosecuted by it. They have been before - under the Human Rights Act - but this is different.

    Who was in charge of the Human Rights Act - whose Job was to implement and enforce it? Was there a Human Rights Act equivalent of Kevin Hyland for example? No there wasn't, and unlike any other Law designed to promote some of the Stuff in the Modern Slavery Acts Mandate this is arbitrary - or open to the sort of Abuses and Misinterpretation anything left to the Discretion of a Regional Police Force might be. When things like Suffrage were left to State Legislatures in the USA some of them couldn't be trusted to ensure they were applied.

    This is the first time a Government have given some of us something to fight for. It isn't yet another foreign War, a Prime Minister trying to sell some abstract Notion of whatever like Tony Blair did in 2003, while it also enshrines things like Self-defense against those who would violate it. "Punishment" in its most extreme was found in the Lynch Mobs in the US South when Blacks fought for the Vote, Integration, Inter-relationships, and all those other things Civil Rights represented. "Threats" are to imply that "Punishment"...... Rhythm Sticks and Shamboks ..... and that includes the Thugs with Microphones and Cameras.

    We have an Election soon and I would vote for whoever ensured the Modern Slavery Acts Longevity into their Tenure as Government. I would certainly vote for whoever might increase Mr Hylands Budget, Taskforce and Powers of Enforcement. In the Film "Mississippi Burning" Agent Ward has a seemingly limitless Budget as he investigated the disappearance of those Activists, maybe Mr Hyland should be given something similar. If we don't get embroiled in yet another War of Abstractions elsewhere maybe he might.

    This is our '13th Amendment', our 'Civil Rights Act' - and the former had to be fought for - even if it meant People who had known each other for years ended up on opposite sides. West Point Graduates fought each other at Gettysburg, and I'll say here that if you support what could figuratively speaking be 'the Old South' then you will be on the opposite side to me on this - no matter how long I might have known you!

    I think this Law is meant to re-enfranchise People as well as ending all the other Abuses it covers. The US Constitution and Declaration of Independence was in suspension for another 100 years until the 13th Amendment ended Slavery and the Bill of Rights gave certain Guarantees. The same applies here - in how some People - even those who were born here - have lived as non-Citizens - like Blacks in the Slavery Era in America weren't deemed Citizens of the US. That is appalling.

    There are serious Loopholes in the Human Rights Act which are open to Interpretation - while Mr Hylands Quote shows that there are no such convenient Ambiguities in the Modern Slavery Act. What People should ask themselves - particularly anyone who might be in violation of it - is why did we need an Anti-Slavery Act in 2015 at all?

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  8. Just to show that I haven't done a Scott Templeton and put Words in Kevin Hyland OBE's Mouth here's the Website the Quote is from......

    http://www.antislaverycommissioner.co.uk/

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  9. To promote the Modern Slavery Act 2015 maybe People should remember what the pro-Civil Rights President said at his Inauguration in 1960. That it isn't what American can do for me, it's what I can do for America. Kevin Hyland can't be everywhere at once, but the Act and his Commission provides the Mandate. That People should promote it - and they SHOULD - irrespective of who won the Election on the 8th of June 2017. That those People continue to keep the Issue in the Public Consciousness, thus any new Government has to take notice rather than allow the Policy to remain dormant. That Anti-Slavery is not party Political anyway, while some supposed 'Liberals' have proved recalcitrant proves this.

    If he never works in Politics again, and whether you agree with most of his Policies, one thing David Cameron has in common with those 1960's American Politicians was his "Great Society". That that Expression was first used by Lyndon Johnson when he launched his War on Poverty and signed the Civil Rights Act!

    When Americas Constitution was drafted it meant that there was no real Peace after Cessation of Hostilities at the end of the War of Independence. The Causes of the Civil War remained simmering beneath the Surface. That the real Peace only started after 1865 when that Civil War ended, and then there was another 100 years before even that took shape in some Instances. When some States still haven't ratified the final Amendment (the 24th) it could be said that that still hasn't happened.

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  10. To change ones Situation as opposed to ones Location.....

    A Chattel Slave could change their Location any time. There were no Chains and they could have wandered off day or night, but where were they going to go? They've never been paid so can't buy Land or Passage on a Ship to any non-Slave owning Country. If they fled to Cities like Boston or New York they'd have to change their Name to avoid the Slave Gangs (People who would take Bounty for Slaves captured and returned to their Owners). If they obtained paid Work they'd have to use an assumed Name in case their Boss turned them in. They haven't been given the Skills to deal with Life outside Slavery (this is why there was a 5 year Period - from 1833 to 38 - when former Slaves received Trades and Education for their Post-Slavery Lives). So, even by absconding they still weren't free - and their Owners knew their Lives could be far worse. Some made for Native American Lands and lived with them - but most were recaptured and sent back to Exploitation.

    To change their Situation means the Owner says "As from today they will be paid. They will receive Education, and have the same Access to things their former Owners had without having to escape to Detroit etc to do so". Then, after a while they could relocate - using what they had been paid to buy Land - and even their Families Freedom. When they were enfranchised they could own Land.

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  11. I have just had an Experience that was imbued with far too much Irony and bitter Paradox to be ignored....

    I was fundraising in Cardiff for Amnesty International and as soon as you leave the Railway Station it becomes apparent. A brand new Building is being put up right outside it, while homeless People are begging on the Concourse that leads to the City Center. You notice even more new Buildings - most of them complete - many of which weren't there when you visited the City only a few years ago. You notice even more homeless People - until you don't think you've seen as many homeless in any City or Town ever. Bristol is supposed to have the second highest homeless rate in Britain - second only to London - but it seems Cardiff has caught up. There it is - one of the Articles of the Universal declaration of Human Rights being ignored - the Right to have a Home! Someone particularly struck me as being one of the most vulnerable People I've seen in that position. Horrible for someone who walked against Poverty 18 years ago, while 'Cool Cymru' can no longer hide the Fact that quite a few seem to be left out of the new Welsh Dream.

    Then there's the Fact that i'm fundraising for Human Rights in a Welsh Capital that has Statues of Aneurin Bevan and John Batchelor and there didn't seem to be anyone over the Age of 21 who would stop and even talk to me about it. "Sorry Buddy - I'm in a Rush", the usual thing from some - others too busy being cool - it got demoralizing. I'm after the Price of a Cup of Coffee a Week - but maybe the Yuppification Process has meant too many Coffee Shops and not enough Heart.

    I was rather like being in Swansea in 2005 doing something similar and I met someone who was selling the Big Issue. She was in one of the toughest Cities in Britain - particularly during Dylan Thomas's time there - while a Hippie Community was only 20 Miles away on the Gower Peninsular. I know this because I did a Gig there in the early 1980's, so wondered why she was on the Streets of Swansea and not living there!

    You start to wonder if there's that much difference between the old Hippies and the newer Yippies in this Context. Is there any real Substance to most of their Rhetoric or is it just a well worn Script?

    So huge thanks Cardiff for not only making me feel I'd spent a Day in a Charles Dickens Novel but also the Zilch Sign-ups for a Charity who has influenced the UN to create the International Criminal Court, the International Arms Trade Treaty and the Convention against Torture. I suppose the Abolition of Slavery has to take second priority on those Cappuccinos nowadays too huh!

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  12. Although it's difficult to know how you can have a Universal Declaration of Human Rights in any Society that endorses Slavery and is run like some sort of Yippie Tyranny anyway!

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  13. And how can a "Universal Declaration of Anything" be at all "Universal" if it only applies to some People? It should be called the "Subjective Declaration of ...." or "Selective Declaration ......". I've just done a few Days as a Fundraiser for Amnesty International and was left feeling that this has gone the same Way as any of those Hippie things - Nepotism and the usual Patronage. It could be a bit like that with some of those Work Schemes in the 1980's - except this deals with something Eleanor Roosevelt and 50 UN Signatories said should apply to everyone. This was 1946 and the World had just seen what can happen when a Regime decides to be subjective or selective with its supposed "Socialism".

    There were things going on on the last day that were almost deliberately trying to set up an Infraction according to the Regulations for Fundraisers. People you can't sign up because they are either under 21, unemployed, have learning Difficulties, might not speak English as a first Language or are intoxicated, while you got the feeling that this was going to happen during the training days anyway. None of which I fell for, even though I needed Sign-up's to keep my Job, I hasten to add - but it was obvious they were looking for an Excuse - which I never gave them.

    You're stood in a Street that has been fundraised consistently for 16 years, with a Public who have grown wary of Street Fundraiers, some of whom have lived up to the unfortunate Tag "Chugger" etc so you have to be creative about how you try and get them to stop and talk to you. "Have you seen this Man" you could try - showing them your ID - and I've done this - while not shoving it in anyone's Face - least of all any - quote "Women who might be 8 Months pregnant" - which someone claimed I had done.

    I also felt that there was a certain amount of stage management with some of it. After all, if they can force what they call a "Mystery Shop" (where someone from the Charity/Council/PFRA etc sets it up so you 'dialogue' them) they can also do other similarly contrived things!

    Someone said that another of these fundraising things was rife with Nepotism and I get the feeling the same thing has happened/always was with this too. Considering what they are trading - and what it is supposed to have meant when it was draughted, the Yippie Dinner Party of Jobs for the Boys and Jobs for the Girls Club has gone far too far!

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  14. I went for that Job against the Backdrop of the Modern Slavery Act 2015, how it seemed consistent with what we were doing 27 years ago, and because of this distantly related Ancestor. What I found seemed to me to be the same Problems that existed in almost all of what I call the new Freemasonry. Not a Cabal of People with funny Handshakes going on about Hiram Abiff - but a Network of Dinner Party People - who work within it. It could be those who worked in 1970-80's Media, whoever derived whatever after 1990, playing Music in the 1990's here, maybe some after an Anti-Poverty Campaign in 1999.

    Thursday 28th September was my last Day doing it and if People can contrive a 'Mystery Shop' they can also contrive the Person with learning Difficulties, the many People who might be over 21 but are ex-Students looking for work, the equally many older People who are unemployed, the Inebriate - and on it goes - all of whom I could have put pressure on or manipulated to sign-up, none of which I did once I knew their Circumstances. I would also explain to some that we have to be sensitive to Peoples economic Circumstances - while Students had the Option of joining Students at Amnesty for an annual Donation of £7.5 rather than a monthly Debit. I lost count of the amount of them I did that with but suffice to say that the Charity might get an increase of Student Membership from People studying at Bristol, UWE and Cardiff Universities.

    All in all though, I felt like they were setting me up to fail - while why did the national Training Coach visit Bristol twice in one week when they have other Regions they have to work with? Tell the Team Leader to dismiss me perhaps? I noticed the Group Dynamic changed that suggested something like this was happening.

    I'm not in the habit of shoving anything in People's Faces - certainly not pregnant Women - but this was how it was misrepresented!

    Because this might be true I'm not sure they can sell a "Universal Declaration" of anything - while, being aware of the Consumer Credit Act when I sign People up - I'm also aware of the Sale of Goods and Trades Descriptions Acts!

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  15. What makes this particular odious is how there are some you would expect to be so full of Crap it pours out of their Ears - but that Network sells itself on not being like that!

    I could also elaborate as to some of those I met - who seemed like more Chess Pieces on that juxtapositional Chessboard but I won't - yet!

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  16. There were other things that I might mention here, like - for all their Piercings, Dreads etc many of those Millennials seemed a bit naive about certain things.

    A common Ice breaker Question Fundraisers use is what someone might have on the Stereo. After all, how many People do you see in Shopping Centers and High Streets wearing a Walkman? Either they're on the Phone - using a Hands-free Kit - or they're listening to Music. I met someone and asked him this - he told me "The Skins". Hmmm thought I - remembering being chased across Town by a Bunch of them because they took umbrage to my "Clash" T'Shirt - "Cool - Ska Music - "Free Nelson Mandela" was a great Song huh!" or "Have you seen the Clash doing Rock against Racism in 1977 - some of it's on YouTube" - then gauge the Reaction - if they look enthused then they're gonna support a Human Rights Charity. If they wince or look a bit furtive then they're on the other side of the Ska Equation.

    So not only do I think it's important that ALL Human Rights People are aware of the Battle for Emancipation (when Human Rights finally became acknowledged), it's (almost) legitimization of things like the US Constitution, and how all that was influenced by what happened in our Parliament in 1833, it's also crucial to know about some more recent Battles.

    The thing is, I'm not sure many of them are!

    Meanwhile, it's a shame they couldn't have built one of those shiny new Buildings in Cardiff for those homeless People to live in huh!

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  17. As Journalists like to define things with descriptive Adjectives - while we had Champagne Socialism (some called Cocaine Socialism) do we now have Costume Socialism? That to belong to it you have to have those regulation Accessories? If you don't you don't exist?

    It felt a bit abstract telling People about Amnesty's involvement in the Convention against Torture 1984, the International Criminal Court 2002 - and even the International Arms Treaty 2014 - and not about a Modern Slavery Act 2015. While Human Rights People wrangle over what will become of, or replace, a Human Rights Act 1998 that is bound up with the EU when we finally do our Brexit, the Modern Slavery Act 2015 is independent of that. That while People go on about those awful things that are happening everywhere else (and they are) are any of them going on about those that are happening here? Kevin Hyland is giving them that and has done for 2 years!

    Meanwhile, still in Cardiff - not only does it seem the Heart of the City has been somewhat covered in new corporate Concrete, that the Community I saw in 99 seems to have disappeared - if TBC (the Currency supposedly meant to end Poverty) wasn't run by a bunch of Control Freaks I might have been able to solve a few Peoples Problems there the other day. They have no Idea how much I wanted to do that, and how frustrating it is that TBC seems to be waiting until those People are too damaged to return to regular Life! And yeah, I got quite emotional about it too!

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  18. I'll have to add seeing a certain Group from here to "Playing Music in the 90's" too - and maybe even as an open Bracket/close Bracket to "Costume Socialism". I note that new Labour didn't introduce the Modern Slavery Act - but maybe they were all hiding in their "Safe European Home". The Clash wrote that as a Jibe at People who had a Fortress Europe Mentality, while are there Caveats attached to that Human Rights Act 1998 that you have to be one of these Dog Walkers to eligible!

    Perhaps TBC is also waiting for the usual Suspects to have their Fill of it all first too!

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  19. Maybe you have to be one of those People living on that Labour Era Housing Estate .

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  20. ...... Or maybe you have to be an ironic Hippie Wanker huh! Met a few of those in those all too few days!

    What I do remember about our Human Rights Project was how the Problems started after it moved into the Avon Environment Center. Before that it was based in a Back Room of someones House. Once it relocated into an Office in one of those Hippie things other People got to greet Brian Keenan when he arrived home in 1989 and someone else went to Prague!

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  21. I'm left with a Reiteration of something I felt a few years ago after what happened on Thursday 28th September - and I'm going to suggest something very Punk Rock here -

    We need a new Human Rights Organization. One that represents - and even employs - those who the Universal Declaration of Human Rights has Areas that don't apply.

    The Right to have a Home ......

    When I was fundraising for Amnesty International 12 years ago I met a Woman in Swansea who could have done our Job. At least she might have - if she had somewhere to live and wasn't selling the Big Issue. She was friendly, vivacious, intelligent and had all her Faculties - and might even have done a better job of it than some who worked for the Company.

    There are others I have met who could have done same, while there seem to be a lot of People who do do the Job - but are probably going to end up doing other things after. People who are in that Flux of Work/Study for example, while I was trying to give it some legitimacy beyond being a temporary Job before the Career starts.

    How the Modern Slavery Act 2015 should also have a Voice in the U.D.H.R, and where Kevin Hylands definitive Statement about it should be included somewhere in it. How he says that People should be allowed to change their Circumstances (and you'll note he doesn't say Location) so they can end a Life of Exploitation.

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  22. Meanwhile, here's a jolly Jape having it with the Media .......

    https://www.nme.com/news/music/sex-pistols-icon-johnny-rotten-hits-out-at-turgid-green-day-2386044

    Someone wanna forard this to Mr Lydon and the NME - in the Context of someone who fought to ensure his Ancestors could at least read a Rent Book to see if the Landlord was trying to pull a fast one. Reduced the Rents so others didn't starve, and whose Wife worked (and died) combating Poverty among the Irish Peasantry.

    "Sneakers"? Hmmm - but maybe General Sherman should begin his March through the Confederacy like it was 1864.

    Waddya reckon Mr Shelly?

    Bicycle Wheels, Tyres, and someone called Nigel???????

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  23. But what if John Arthur Wynne hadn't prevailed?

    It's 200 years ago in Macroom, Ireland. The Lydon family can't understand why the Rent Collector is disputing their Account. He tells them they owe Weeks of it - but they don't. The Problem is while they might have paid it in full every Week he's been writing down a lesser Amount in the Rent Book, but they don't know that because they are illiterate and can't read anything he's written down. It gets worse because a few days later the Magistrate and a Bailiff turn up to evict them - except they have no Defense against it because they can't read the Court Order either! The Church isn't exactly supportive because Literacy in Adults would compromise their Monopoly on reading the Scriptures! Indeed, if John Wynne had been active just 150 years earlier he might have suffered the same Fate as William Tyndale and others who translated them into English from the rather arcane Latin.

    Fast forward to late 70's London and there is no John Lydon because his homeless Ancestors starved and froze to death in the Wilderness of Cork!

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  24. If the Cacaphony of supposed Liberationist Culture and Media, and the veritable Talk Shop of glib Academe had solved it why did we need the Modern Slavery Act of 2015? One thing it also did was show the Deficit of New Labours supposed Ethicism.

    Seeing how some Academe seems to manipulate Social Media like the 2015 Act never happened reminds me of Mississippi Governor Ross Barnett's Segregationism Reaction to James Meredith's Attempt to become a Student at the State University.

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  25. I've noticed that the Docuocracy is trying desperately to turn all of this inside out.

    Maybe it's because the Info-ocracy (Academe, Media, Entertainment, Research, IT) might have replaced Manufacturing and Agribusiness as the mainstay Economy but it is no less exploitative.

    If the Cacaphony of supposed Liberationist Culture and Media, and the veritable Talk Shop of glib Academe had solved it why did we need the Modern Slavery Act of 2015? One thing it also did was show the Deficit of New Labours supposed Ethicism.

    Seeing how some Academe seems to manipulate Social Media like the 2015 Act never happened reminds me of Mississippi Governor Ross Barnett's Segregationism Reaction to James Meredith's Attempt to become a Student at the State University

    still want to know where all this "Social Inclusion" is. In 1999 I heard this from the New Labour Chancellor himself. Then suddenly we get this horrible Street Art and Rock Operas, after which the Trestle Table People set up to promote their Politics. In the "Cold War" Post you will SEE my Response to it all.

    It was the SNP who got rid of the History by Hollywood Statue that could have enslaved Scotland to dubiously motivated Film Makers and Australian Actors, not the Scottish Labour Party.

    An Example of dubiously motivated People are all those conspicuous in absentia People, whose roaring Silence about recent Hostage Crises prompts Questions about their Motives 30 years ago.

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  26. The Problem Labour has in Scotland is multi faceted.

    They have nothing to offer the Scottish People that they don't have now which they derive from the SNP controlled Parliament in Edinburgh.

    The lack of Tution Fees for Students gives Scottish Graduates an Advantage because their post-ed Debt is smaller than others in the UK.

    It was Tony Blair's Government that introduced Tuition Fees so how can Scottish Voters trust them with that or anything else?

    Labour Campaigners are going to be told by savvy Scottish Voters that they have more to give the Labour Party than the Party gives them. For years Scotland provided the necessary 35-40 MPs in Westminster to give them a Majority to become the Government. If Labour can't offer them anything new why vote for them?

    The old New Labour Tricks don't work anymore. The Mandelsohn Snake Oil is very superficial and the SNP took Scotland in spite of it.

    If the recent Election Result translated into an Independence Referendum the "yes" Vote has increased massively from the 45% the Referendum did yield.

    Everything that has been wrong with here can be laid at the Feet of former Deputy PM John Prescott. From Transport to Town Planning - all were covered by his Portfolios. Liam Fox might be our Constituency MP but the Buck stopped at the Office of the Government when it all started in the late 90s.

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  27. And while New Labour had this Slavery Black Gap in their supposed Ethicism (probably due to their Info-ocracy Cronies), so did President Obama .... ironically, and for the same Reason. Maybe People should start doing Caricatures Making Yippies look like 18th Century Colonialist Slave Traders.

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  28. Oh, and while Media Executives invoked Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights which guarantees Privacy during highly contraversial Trials, while others can't in their day to day lives, it seems the British Home Office can't (or won't) define what Slavery is. Also, the former Commissioner meant to implement the Modern Slavery Act 2015 resigned because of continuing Interference by Theresa May.

    Sounds like Filibustering to me!

    As for that EU Law being selectively applied while the rest of us were told that Legal Aid was being cut back severely, said Media Executive was being given free Legal Advice from a former and current Prime Minister!

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  29. One of the most important Museums in the World is the Georgian House in Bristol. Museums like the Smithsonian might show the Effects of Slavery, but the Georgian House shows the Slaveocracy at source, how they lived in one of the most complicit Cities in the World.

    Where it is is also significant. You have just left the Harbourside where the Trade took place and you get it by walking up Park Street. You visit it and see where the Money came from for the Wills Building and Clifton beyond it.

    Unfortunately, the Region's involvement with the Trade isn't confined to the synonymous Era if West Africa. They were doing it as long ago as 1600 years ago with Britons and other Tribes People. Not sure they've changed very much either.

    While Slavery exists anything else is rendered null and void. In "Journey through Slavery" Colin Powell says how the Constitution might claim Rights to be "self evident" and "inalienable" but while it didn't include Black Folks (denied Citizenship) it was purely abstract. This applies to anything else or any Isms People might subscribe to these days. That the Environment, Vegetarianism, Feminism, and all other Isms are rendered meaningless if they aren't extended to everyone.

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  30. Oh, and I recommend the Dog Nazis watch the 2016 Film "Birth of a Nation". There's a Scene in it which unravels ALL their supposed 'Political Correctness'. As Colin Powell said of a Constitution not involving Black Folks also applies to their Posturings of Ecoism, any others Ism's .... isn't it the most.

    Meanwhile, in Ireland, " An old man tried to walk me home!"

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  31. I thought he should have known .....

    Maybe after they've seen the 2016 Film they then ought to see the Film of the same Name from 100 years earlier. It might make them feel a bit uncomfortable.

    See them burning Crosses, see the Flames higher and higher!

    The President who signed the Civil Rights Act, finally giving substance to Jefferson's Constitution and Lincoln's 13th Amendment might have been from Texas but like the Highlander he wouldn't spell Clan with a 'K'!

    There's a Glimpse in the Nate Parker Movie that could have been in "Lord of the Rings" or even outside Waitrose about 6 years ago. Even "Game of Thrones" when Euron is taking Yara - a Prisoner - into Kings Landing!

    Ebenezer Balfour indeed!

    Ebenezer Scrooge even. The old Miser from "A Christmas Carol". That's always been the Problem with this, too many mean spirited People, too many Excuses, far too many things to facilitate that Selfishness. And and they took every one of them!

    Then it gets worse .....

    It could be like when Ramsey Bolton leads Rickon Stark onto the FIELD outside his own home. Ramsey has occupied Winterfell and appointed himself Warden of the North, a Title that belonged to Rickons Father and one he was rightful Heir to. It's like a Tale of 2 Cities ..... both of which on Elidir ap Sandde's Isle of Man. The thing is, which one are you. Ramsey with all his Horribleness, or the other reminiscent of one of the most famous anti-slavery and Civil Rights Activists of all time? Spartacus even, from a very famous Film!

    Ramsey has other Connotations too, like a certain Street in an Australian Soap Opera!

    Sandon Clegane buries Sally and her Father saying they deserved better, Ramsey is killed and eaten by his own Hounds!

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  32. Ramsey could be doing that to someone, and that someone is outside his own Name!

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  33. Meanwhile, about these 'Holders', particularly of any "Boards"! I suppose this would have been the sort of out of Context Crap People like John Arthur Wynne might have put up with. Rather like those People who cut-n-splice Word Syllables so nothing happens!

    How are you Richard?

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  34. I remember how People felt Hippies were the Agents of conservatism in the late 70's. While the Parliament of 200 years ago would have been riven with the Slaveocracy today's Equivalent are those People. Their stultifying Effect 30 years ago was devastating.

    What do you THINK?

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  35. Particularly the Shit we've got here, every one of them a Stooge in a Costume!

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  36. While America made it illegal to promote Literacy with Slaves in the early 19th Century Wynne did exactly the opposite with the Irish (see above).

    There are some similarities with what happened in America in the preamble to the Civil War and what seems to be happening here. In America you had the free States and the Slave States, an Inconsistency that made Jefferson's Constitution theoretical. After all, how can it apply to "All" when it was so arbitrary? It's rather like Aragorn in 2004 when he says "All" in his Coronation Speech. It was apparent then, as now, that that didn't apply - even with the 2015 Act of Parliament.

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  37. You have to remember here that Slavery wasn't an exclusively White on Black Phenomenon. There were Black Overseers on the Plantations while the Trade involved Africans selling other Africans.

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  38. Slimy Labour Party Activists (bit like slimy late 90's Culture Ministers).

    Not sure if this ought to be here or in Movie Quotes, but there's a "GoT" Scene where the Slave Masters are about to be defeated and they meet Deanarys, Tyrion and others. After Grey Worm has killed 2 of them the remains one. Is on his Knees. Tyrion puts his Hand on his Shoulder and tells him to tell everyone else what has just happened.

    Typical Politicians, but as Social Inclusion still hasn't happened and People like Holly Cowens run this Shit like some sort of Jessup County Nightmare (the Reality at Home rather than the flowery PR elsewhere), Sharleen Frey etc might be asked the same Question Maisey Williams is.

    That her Sword could be analogous for anything, like Arthur Pendragon's Camelot.

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  39. I say this because one of those Party Activists did that Hand on Shoulder thing in a Charity Shop with me recently!

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  40. The Reason it bothers me is because, when I heard about "Social Inclusion" it came from the Chancellor himself, Gordon Brown, in his Office in 1999. That was the Culmination of an anti-poverty Campaign we did that year, and while whatever gleaned from that doesn't seem to have got here neither, it seems, did any "Inclusion". No-one is expecting any Invites to Downing Street but what was happening with Labour Party Activists here?

    Because all they seemed to do was latch on to what might have been wrong before , while the New Labour Era Theme Park merely reinforced that who's to say the same wouldn't happen with anti-slavery?

    It also needs saying that the Modern Slavery Act 2015 wasn't a Labour Policy either. That isn't a Conservative Party Comment either, I'd be saying this if it were a Lib Dem or Brexit Party Policy. The Fact is, someone introduced it and it wasn't them!

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  41. Philanthropy ....... Not to be confused with any male or female Names, erm of course!

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  42. Several things are certain ....

    John Arthur Wynn wouldn't have been arbitrary in his Work against Slavery. There was no careful Word Fiddling like there seems to be now.

    Also, Slavery wasn't about Names. Default Slave Names like Nathalie or Mike didn't exist when he risked all against a Practice that even Royalty were implicated in. Or when 600,000 died in America in the War to end it.

    There is no Natalie and Mike Clause in the 13th Amendment!

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  43. I'm astonished no-one has made a Film or Series about this either ......

    It starts in 1800 as Owen Wynne is in the Grattan Parliament in Ireland, voting against the Act of Union. Read rather like a Narration on this is Seamus Heaney's Poem "Act of Union" not known for its Politeness. The misled Catholics who supported it believing it would lead to Emmancipation and their Representation in Parliament who had to wait another 29 years. When they did get these they were useless against Injustice - most significantly the Famines of the 1840's.

    Then we see John, his Son, working to promote Literacy amongst the Irish Peasantry, a Clip from "The Great Rock and Roll Swindle" appears showing Steve Jones, unable to read those Documents and thus not solving the Swindle. It cuts back to a Peasant Family, unable to read the Court Order evicting them, because they can't even read the Rent Book.

    The Camera cuts to the Vatican and Pope Pius Vllth or Gregory XVlth is having Breakfast. A Scroll is dropped on the Table, he opens it and splutters in his Corn Flakes.......

    "Someone is teaching Irish Catholic Peasants to read!"

    He reminisces how they burnt People alive for doing just that only a 100 years before.

    Then we go to the Palace. The King is with his Treasurer calculating how much they make from Slavery. A Herald comes in and tells them about this Character who has just taken Petitions in to Parliament to end it all.

    They might even have secret Meetings with the Bishop at Westminster Abbey about this progressive MP for Sligo who undermines their Authority and Income!

    John Arthur Wynne is at his House, Hazelwood, being told about the growing Famine that ravages the Land. He decides to reduce the Rent while other Landlords are evicting Defaulters. He spends his own Money helping People to get to the nearest big Town so they can trade and travel.

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  44. Wonder what the Jehovah's Witnesses have to say about modern Slavery!

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  45. Meanwhile, here is something that might make a few Bristolians wince....

    Slavery in Bristol didn't start with the Era everyone associates with it, the 17th Century. It was notorious there Centuries before until a rather vociferous Cleric set out to abolish it .

    https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=4BKLBgAAQBAJ&pg=PT8&lpg=PT8&dq=wulfstan+and+bristol&source=bl&ots=aANV9NvnHy&sig=ACfU3U1prfzU1eqE50fpu3jtUVb2WfwqmA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjbrL2rkuHpAhUjQkEAHbvDB4wQ6AEwDnoECAQQAQ#v=onepage&q=wulfstan%20and%20bristol&f=false

    Sorry about the huge URL, but it should give you an Account of Wulfstan llnds work to end Slavery in Bristol. Unfortunately, Slavery was reinvented in another Name by the Normans who called it Serfdom.

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  46. "Living was for other Men" someone once sang in 1994, and while the Verve's "History" might be one of the best Songs of the 90's 400 years of Afro-Americans/Caribbeans could have passed it down the Generations. They never really lived at all, and just hoped they could endure up to the Civil Rights Act of 1965. Slavery had gone on for far too long, and if any of those proto-Afro Americans from when everyone really was equal, could have fast forwarded to the Plight of Black America by then they'd have been appalled. What would Frederick Douglas make of his native Baltimore after the Ravages of recent years?

    Edward Colstons Statue was taken down last night in Bristol by Protestors who then threw it in the Harbour which has invoked mixed Feelings. The Afro-Caribbean Mayor, Marvin Rees, described it as understandable and no loss, Boris Johnson felt it should have been left to Democracy. Lord Peter Mandelson says those responsible should be arrested.

    The Problem is that while Talk about removing the Statue went on for Years, Tony Blair's Government repealed the 1833 Slavery Abolition Act in 1998 and then incorporated it's Aims into the 1998 Human Rights Act. Suddenly it becomes a secondary Piece of euro Legislation, a sort of Constitutional Backwater that is obscure and subject to the EU Convention on Human Rights rather than an independent and unambiguous Law against Slavery.

    Sleight of Hand indeed, rather than retaining the existing - very clear - Law and even adding to it. Lyndon Johnson created his Civil Rights Act in 1965, but never repealed the 13th Amendment.

    David Cameron's Government introduced the Modern Slavery Act in 2015, via Parliament, thus observing all the Protocols of Democracy. The Un-Democracy might be any regional anomaly that chose to ignore it.

    He might even say of the toppling of the Statue that there is a Reason they create Acts of Parliament, that of social Safety and you choose to ignore it at your own Peril.

    The Modern Slavery Act isn't the Tooting Popular Front where Robert Lyndsay and his Accomplices attempt rather impotent Acts of Sedition.

    There might be those who try to circumvent it with Cultural Excuses, but then so did pre-1865 Americans with their pre-1865 Constitution, saying how Thomas Jefferson and George Washington never created any Law against it! Not even the Federal one still waiting for the 13th Amendment.

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  47. Oh, and the Modern Slavery Act was 2015, 5 years ago, not last week!

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  48. Maybe London having to deal with this Area is rather like Washington having to deal with Mississippi in the 1960's. Jackson was the worst City in America for Segregation and Racism in the Country. They had Plans to use the Stadium to imprison Protestors. Amongst others who did similar was Augusto Pinochet in Chile!

    I remember how it seemed to insulate itself from everything that happened 30 years ago like 30 years ago never happened at all!

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  49. I should, erm, imagine William Penny's Statue must be feeling a bit nervous at the moment.

    It must be said that while Boris Johnson said that any moves to remove the Edward Colston Statue should have been via democratic Process Marvin Rees has been part of that Process since being Mayor of Bristol in 2016. Suffice to say it was the Protestors who removed the Statue not him!

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  50. Everyone keeps banging on about the good ole 60's, but Afro-American and Afro-Caribbean 60's were very different to those of their White Peers. White 1960's were either almost full Blue Collar Employment, vis a vis buying into the Consumerist Lifestyle (after all, Vespa weren't giving those Scooters away, Parlophone was a Record Company not a Charity), or College and the whole Student Hippie thing for those more inclined to all that.

    History repeated itself in more recent years as we had People looking like Extras from "Woodstock" or "Monterey" but, as the Man sang in 1994, that was for other Men. Some of us were made to feel like the perpetual Outsider, having to observe those "other Men" doing it, rather like Afro-Americans and Caribbeans in 1960's Cinemas watching the latest Dick Lester Movie.

    Then, when the World really did tilt on its Axis 30 years ago, and I was involved with some of that, nothing happened like writing now is like writing in the crappy old 1980's. Except in the 1980's I at least had 1990 to look forward to and was still in my 20's.

    Being Afro-American in Jackson, Mississippi in the 1960's must have been horrible as you saw all that other Stuff going on on TV, always filmed somewhere else, while locally, there was that Chasm that separated you from others who could access all that.

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  51. A Chasm not dissimilar to some post-90's Yippie glibly saying "Bye bye" outside a Supermarket.

    The Hollies were a 60's Pop Group making Music for those "other Men"!

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  52. In fact, most of that 90's Crap turned out to be Music for other Men, including Portishead.

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  53. What if those original Afro-Americans from the 1640s and 1650s, who were usually freed indentured Servants who then owned Land as free People and some even became wealthy by colonial Standards, fast forwarded to now and saw what was left for their Descendants after the Ravages of Centuries of Slavery?

    I remember how the 90's started for me, and then how they ended!

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  54. And what I'm being fobbed off with now I wouldn't dignify with a Response, rather like the Contrast of those original Afro-American Landowners, and the Lives of their current Descendants.

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  55. ...... And even their Lives could be compressed into 10 years. Their 1960's started with Kennedy and Dr King, and ended with Nixon and Altamont!

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  56. The Civil Rights Act of 1965 was part of Lyndon Johnsons "Great Society" but that had been devoured by the Vietnam War!

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  57. Here's how my 90's started .....

    https://metrowynn.blogspot.com/2016/09/memorabilia.html?m=1

    https://metrowynn.blogspot.com/2016/10/more-memorabilia.html?m=1

    I shudder to think what dirty Deals were done in the years since to end up where we are now!

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  58. Penny Lane ......

    There is a continuing Debacle about the Liverpool Street made famous by the Beatles Song. That it was named after notorious Slave Ship Owner and Advocate James Penny. Liverpool Mayor Joe Anderson has been asked to rename it, which is part of a Campaign by anti-Slavery Groups calling for all Streets so named to be changed (Earle st, Rodney St etc). He has rebuffed Claims that it was, saying there is no Evidence to suggest it was named after James Penny at all.

    The thing is, even if it wasn't, it still has a Connection with the Trade via someone who did live there .... Peter Holme. He lived in a Residence called Greenbank and according to the UCL Project, "The Legacies of Slave Ownership" he invested in 50 Slave Ship Voyages and was a business Partner with Members of the Atherton and Earle Slaver Families, which is how he made his Money.

    Ironically, Greenbank was then sold to William Rathbone lV who was a very active Abolitionist and co-founder of the Society for effecting the abolition of the Slave Trade.

    So whether you do or don't subscribe to the James Penny Theory the famous Street does have murky Connections with the Slave Trade, then a Campaign to abolish it.

    The Problem is, are the Beatles celebrating its dubious Past, or criticising it? The Song "Penny Lane" does seem like a chirupy Pop Tune, with its 'everything is wonderful' Vibe, but is it tempered by "While my Guitar gently weeps", which is a rather snide somewhat sneery Jibe at People who might have been "bought and sold" - by Peter Holme maybe????

    The thing is, the 'Guitar' in the Song is played by former Yardbird Eric Clapton, who as part of London's 60's White Blues Movement played many Songs by Afro-Americans, and those Groups regularly filled their Albums and B Sides with them.

    Suffice to say that Afro-America never received a Cent or even a Penny for any of this. When the Rolling Stones, more Regulars in London's White Blues Scene, went to America they were shocked to see one of these Bluesmen wasn't living like Elvis. Most of them were impoverished, while there were still "Race" Radio Stations and Record Companies where Black Music was ghettoised. Even worse, some Venues might host White Blues Rock Bands but not admit Black Audiences.

    So the Injustice felt and manifested in recent Protests is also cultural.

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  59. You could be Afro-American and hear Afro-American Music being played in some Clubs, but couldn't go in, just like it was in the 1920's, and like it still was in South Africa's Sun City right up to the 1980's. Other times you might be in the Balcony, but not the Stalls which were white only, and perish the thought that you were a Black Group looking at the White Audience. Horrible all of it, except for the Promoters counting the Money in the Box Office, while Black Music made a Fortune for White business men!

    Even during Roosevelt's "New Deal" Afro-Americans in Harlem could see the Tri-Borough Bridge Project ending in their District but couldn't work on it because of racist Construction Workers Unions. During this, Shops owned by Whites were quite happy to take their Money - but didn't employ any of them, and when the Project was finished they could use it, if they had the Money to buy the Car in the first place, which many of them didn't because they couldn't work.

    The recent Protests should be a rallying Point for anyone who has been treated similarly - where they might be exploited, but aren't allowed to know the benefits of any of it. Even as China has become controversial in recent Months because of Covid19 and how it's Government Acts many of the Reforms People might enjoy there were asked for by the Tiannenmen Square Protestors of 1989, who quite ironically haven't benefitted from them.

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  60. In some ways, even how Documentaries show Slavery is a bit watered down. They have Participants who were the Descendents of a Slave, and sometimes they might name them and give some Biog . This wouldn't have just been one individual though because Slavery was hereditary, where someone was because their Parents were, whose Parents also were, and this would go on after them and could do for Decades, if not Centuries. What must it have been like to have Slave Ancestors, growing Sugar in the Caribbean, who had Descendents then sold on to Plantation Owners in America? How many Generations of People can be born and die in all those years?

    And wouldn't you want to take this up with anyone writing somewhat sneery Songs about People who were "bought and sold"?

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  61. And while nearly 75 years of exploitation went on in the Rock and Roll World, and still is in some respects, this Process didn't just apply to Blacks.

    The only difference between Harlem and Harlech is a Syllable - every other part of this Story is the same, and like New York in the 1930's what brought it into Focus was a Road Scheme.

    Bristol's Spine Road Project ended right outside the former Harlech Television Building, and there were People of Harlech who never had a days Work when the TV Station was operating.

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  62. It looks like former Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn has joined the Fray. While his Comments on how Cecil Rhodes made his Money were very appropriate in the Context of how someone so venerated could be so exploitative, he doesn't explain why the Labour Government repealed the Slavery Abolition Act 1833 and replaced it with a Clause (Article 4) of the Human Rights Act 1998. In doing so we lost a valuable and independent Law against Slavery and ended up with it being reduced to not much more than a Paragraph in a Law that was bound up with EU Legislation.

    In the Months of Transition to Brexit, for which he campaigned, is a Black Gap that is not covered by any Human Rights Law at all. At least the 1833 Act was immune from this, while Brexit has proved how dangerous being too dependent on the EU was.

    Even when Lyndon Johnson brought similar Legislation into a modern Context with his Civil Rights Act in 1965 he didn't repeal the 13th Amendment of 100 years before. Many People fought and died to achieve that, which gave it its moral Authority rather like our Slavery Abolition Act derived it's Authority from the terrible Suffering of those it protected and the brave and selfless Work of quite genuine Abolitionists.

    Had Tony Blair not repealed it Article 4 of the Human Rights Act might have been bolstered by its own Heritage! Anti-Slavery is the very beginning of any Human Rights Work.

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  63. And while Johnson didn't repeal the 13th Amendment, Lincoln didn't a Constitution that even Thomas Jefferson thought was lacking. Why not, when, after all - he could have done and reinvented America however he saw fit?

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  64. Penny Lane 2 ....

    Has Joe Anderson read this yet? How about those Beatles Fans who might have laughed behind George Floyd's Back?

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  65. American Pie ......

    While Black Lives Matter, so do everyone else's. No-one should be enslaved or expendable, and while Don McLean might have written his Song, there should never be a "Bye Bye" in any of this! If there was all you have done is replaced one Injustice with another!

    Besides which, it was McLeans Mentor, Pete Seeger who wrote and sang anti-racist Protest Songs as long ago as the 1950's.

    I prefer Beer and Rum to "Whiskey and Rye" anyway!

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  66. A Slave was the most expendable Human Being in the World. They weren't Soldiers who might, or might not, survive a Battle, or Workers in a Company who at least paid them before making them redundant, or even Labourers on some huge Public Works Program like they had in Stalin's Russia. They were worked to a Death that wasn't commemorated or memorialized with a Grave, but most definitely certain.

    Speaking from experience I would say to the People organising the Campaign that they need to guard against the sort of White middle class Yippie Games that went on during ours 30 years ago. Everything was going to be so awesome but now it's like it never happened. The same should never happen to what they are doing, but, I suspect there are those who might try and make that so.

    So, while there are cultural Problems that are part of an exploitative Problem rather than an inclusive Solution there are other cultural Phenomena that threaten to divide, rule and exclude!

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  67. Now it seems Fans of Natalie Imbruglia have taken the side of the Rednecks. I s'pose that was inevitable considering how exploitative some of that 90's Culture was, and just how Australians treat their Natives.

    Maybe that was her being Miss "Yeah" on the Bus that time! Maybe she'll be (Jubil) Early, or just the Earle Slaver Family in Liverpool.

    Wonder whose side Stuart Quantrill is going to be on! "The South will rise again" apparently!

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  68. How about the Yellow Rose of Texas?

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  69. Slaves are "lazy" .... apparently.

    Astonishing isn't it, that among all the other libelous things said about them, they have to endure this particular Infamy. So did I .....

    Except, it was 1985 and I had a part time Job in a Shop, paid £5 a day. The average Wage for a days Work then was about £22. In comes HTV's highest paid Employee, a TV Presenter who had a Chauffeur with them. If you went back to 1968 you'll know that they had that Job because it was created by our People. The Job I had was in the rather genteel and fashionable Clifton Village, except when I finished Work I went back to Accommodation a million Miles away from all of that. How many HTV People didn't is a Question for them.

    There have been other things too .....

    A Work Regime where there was no start and finish Time, not paid anything like enough to afford Transport - not even a 49cc Moped. No Expense Account to claim Taxis from. Quite often a 12 Mile Walk home in the small Hours while many Colleagues strolled less than a Mile to and from Work. No minimum Wage either!

    And concurrent to this there was a growing Rift between myself and others where you start to ask how you get to the rest of the World from here?

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  70. How does Biggotry shift the Average?

    In Fiction (though based on Fact), Gene Hackman appeared as Agent Anderson in the Film "Mississippi Burning". We discover that he used to be a Sheriff in a similar Town to Jessup County, that he and Agent Ward (Willem Dafoe) are investigating. He tells Ward that his Father was as much of a Racist as the Klansmen who murdered the Activists. We surmise that he only got to be Agent anything because that Background ensured he could put "Sheriff" on his Resume. If his Parents had been Black or like Agent Ward he would have even been Deputy.

    In Fact Governor George Wallace of Alabama was in the same Democrat Party as the Kennedys, but the similarity ended there. Despite this he could access them, and even Anderson's Boss - J Edgar Hoover either through being Governor of a US State, or as a Member of the Democrat Party. All of this because his Constituency would have been leveraged considerably by the Klan and their Sympathisers.

    So how does that affect things here?

    What if you were part of a similar Clique or Cabal? Or that you might have been similar from Jackson, Mississippi and had your Application to Berkley accepted in the 1960's? Would you have been able to afford to do it, let alone allowed, had you not been? You are like Hackman sat in that Car with Dafoe, not trapped like the Afro-Americans in the Film. He's investigating a Klan Murder, you have the same Student Card as People who might be Civil Rights Activists.

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  71. You are like George Wallace, and have access to anything and everything.

    How many times has that happened, where other People seem to have access to everything while some of us can't seem to access anything?

    A few years ago I met, and emailed someone connected with a Campaign we did 30 years ago. While we must have spoken for less that a couple of Minutes and the Email was never replied to how about the Usual Suspects? How much access did they have?

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  72. Reparations ......

    This is where I agree with former President Obama. Unconditional Reparation Payment is infinately better than so called 'Business Opportunities' or any of the other things loaded with Subtext. After all, Joe Anderson - just how many of these things can we be "alerted" by? How much more of this "Traffic" can we be offered that might or might not be "diverted"?

    Are we to infer that a large swathe of Pop Culture, with its Affectation with the South or the Confederacy, is pro-Slavery?

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  73. And maybe former President Obama might have been concerned that - to local education Establishments - some of us might as well not exist. I emailed a College in Bristol.

    It's like something the NAACP might have investigated in early 60's America, and you don't necessarily have to be Black to empathise through experience with what they worked for.

    I'm supposed to be able to go to one of these Colleges if I need to enhance my Resume or boost my Qualifications, and it's a publicly funded Institution, not a private Business. This was 2008 and suffice to say the Social Inclusion Cool Aid from meeting Gordon Brown in 1999 had completely worn off because of it.

    That was in London but it seems I'd crossed the Mason-Dixon Line when I returned to Bristol, back to watching the Hype on TV like it was happening somewhere else!

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  74. Meanwhile, here's something that merits further Investigation. I googled "Anti Slavery T'Shirts" and got many different Results ....... some very relevant, others not, but even my powers of lateral Thought were taxed by this ......

    https://www.redbubble.com/i/t-shirt/I-m-getting-the-word-nonce-by-Duncando/2418934.UIIS2?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=g.pla+notset&country_code=GB&gclsrc=aw.ds&&gclid=CjwKCAjwxLH3BRApEiwAqX9arc-OpLWQt6bawplwFgpDI64OGrpRp7qOb8cZcZXaRTMkG_fW_hD5fBoCRF8QAvD_BwE

    Sorry about the rather long URL, but. I thought it was disgusting in the Extreme that anti-slavery is being lumped in with Sex Offenders!

    Hope those who tore down Colston's Statue read this because whoever is responsible for that particular Libel should have theirs torn down!

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  75. Maybe the same People doing this sort of Merchandise were those responsible for all that Covid19 Stuff that didn't work.

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  76. On the Subject of dubious Sales Pitch some Realtors are now promoting Property as being in "Non Covid19 Regions" and more specifically "Non Black Lives Matter Protest Areas".

    While, during a global Pandemic, there are no Covid19 free Regions - not yet - the Blurb ought to read "Region that does not approve of either Racist Murders or Slavery"!

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  77. Often wondered whose side they were on in this particular Arguement.

    How about Culture?

    While a Commentator was critical of the northern Europeanism of "Lord of the Rings" he must also have been of a Film called "Notting Hill", set in the London District made famous by its annual, and huge, Afro-Caribbean Carnival, but it seemed the Afro-Caribbeans had been ethnically cleansed from the Screen. It's rather like a certain Australian Soap Opera that neither had, or even mentioned, Australia's native People.

    At best it's a sort of inverse Ghettoisation - creating Whites only Ghettos that thrive instead of Black ones that don't, at worst it creates Havens for those who might endorse Racial Killings and Slavery.

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  78. The Brits abroad .......

    "Notting Hill" was about the Brits abroad, except they weren't in Ibiza or the Algarve, wearing knotted Hankerchiefs, wanting British Football, British Beer, British Food, all the other Stereotypes attached by slightly snobbish People. They were in Notting Hill, wearing Armani etc, wanting British Cricket, Pimm's and Steak, instead of Fish, and Chips. So how are they any different to the Stereotype, or the sort of People you might meet anywhere?

    It's like Ramsey Street, a Melbourne Suburb like any you might find, from mainland Europe, Britain, America, South Africa, or the middle class District of any other City.

    The sort of People who might have come from that Suburb aren't that different to the Colonel Blimp Character you might have found in a Colonial Bar in Bombay in 1946, sounding like Captain Square in "Dad's Army", wearing a Pith Helmet, sipping Pimm's. The thing is, they might have mocked him in Anzac Accents, or Afrikaans, sipping Castlemaine 4x in Shorts and T'Shirts.

    No Episode of "Neighbours" I ever saw made any reference to Australia's Natives like they never existed, and if Sharleen and Toadfish hadn't have sounded Australian they could have been anywhere.

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  79. Oh, and by the time Redbubble and Shopping Trolleys get here they most certainly aren't Afro-American Baltimoreans! And definately no Frederick Douglas!!!!

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  80. In just a few Seconds the Protestors in Bristol achieved what Decades of Posturing hadn't. For years, Culture sat around its Dinner Table talking about how bad Apartheid etc was, but it never went much further than that.

    By taking down Colston's Statue they went for the Cause of their Struggle rather than the Symptoms. Riots usually did more Damage to Black Lives as Business's and Homes were destroyed, along with crucial civic Infrastructure. How many of them are descended from People Colston traded?

    It was like 1968 revisited, except this time they were more effectual. That year the pro-Civil Rights, anti-Vietnam War Candidate was killed, the most famous Civil Rights Activist and Afro-Anyones equivalent of Ghandi, and another who might have been a bit more radical, and with Bobby Kennedy, Martin Luther King and Malcolm X out of the way they gave us "Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band". Except, how many derivatives of "A day in the Life" can we possibly have as nothing happens? Which it itself is a derivative of "Yesterday" as the Singer 'looks up'!

    It was the Protestors who took the Statue down, not Paul McCartney, Bono or even Richard Ashcroft.

    Also, while Australia's Natives are ethnically cleansed from Ramsey Street, how many of those Kylie ever worked with said anything about it?

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  81. Years ago now some of us still drank the Social Inclusion Cool Aid, but what did that actually mean as Portishead the Band played to their Dinner Party?

    White Middle Class Media Companies like All3Media (guess where the 3 goes), Silver Balls, and Assimilation rather than Integration. Education Establishments that can't reply to quite reasonable Email, People on Buses making you feel like you're travelling from Birmingham, Alabama rather than Weston Super Mare, and a horrible feeling of being completely expendable!

    So called Newbies arriving in the Town, rapidly becoming part of what was wrong with it before rather than being an Improvement, others touting for dodgy Redheads in Fleet Street.

    Every Life matters!

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  82. And while Stonewall builds his in Mississippi I fly the Flag of the 1863 Republic!

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  83. What is brilliant, and genuinely new, about the current Protests and direct Action is how it works outside the established Networks. Suffice to say that it wasn't Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch or even the UNHRC that took Colstons Statue down recently. Ironic though, as Abolitionism was the first Manifestation of Human Rights in a modern Context.

    It wasn't Culture either, although it had had years to do something about it. Certain People in it spend more time manipulating the Words than ending the Problem, while all of it is just a Business, and one that can and does corrupt. Infotainment might not go on in redbrick Buildings with Chimneys belching Smoke, but it's still an Industry capable of the same excesses and abuses Manufacturing and Agriculture can be.

    It also has far too many built-in Obsolescences and Doublespeak. What if you gave Penny Lanes "Fireman with an Hourglass" a Chocolate Fireguard? Oh, you already have!!!!

    How it works creates its own conflict of Interest. I discovered how there seems to be a set Group of People who do things, and those of us who don't. Had things turned out differently 30 years ago I might have spent them as a very busy, and rather successful Concert Promoter, doing Gigs in eastern Europe and elsewhere, when History presented us with something else genuinely new.

    But heck, how can the Plantation Owner continue growing Cotton if his Slaves are elsewhere growing Cotton of their own?

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  84. And having mentioned that, the Plantation Owner in "The Heat of the Night" probably thought he was the epitome of Sophistication and Civility as he pottered around his Conservatory growing his Flowers. Except that isn't for everyone is it, and certainly wouldn't have been for any if the Afro-Americans working his Fields.

    I certainly felt like Sydney Poitier that time in Costa too, when the Manager was a bit like the Diner Owner in the Film ......

    "I ain't serving him" he says.

    Black Lives Matter is a crucial Name. It suggests that they aren't expendable and their not insignificant Contribution is just as important as anyone elses. Also, they are People who are hated from the moment they are born to the day they die for no other reason than being them. Some might fall into delinquency as they get older, or become politicised - but what the heck are they supposed to have done to anyone when they were growing up? Theirs should be a rallying cry to anyone else who has been treated like that all their Lives for no other reason than being born.

    And those of us made to feel like that should remind those of them who never have. I read somewhere how an Organisation wanted to work together to end Slavery. Does that mean EVERYONE being "together" or just People stood on either side in Waitrose?

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  85. If it's the latter it'd be Tri-Borough Bridges all over again wouldn't it. People who need it most deriving the least and Jobs for the Boys and Girls like all that other white Hippie Crap!

    Or even that racist Road that cut through Bristol, ending outside the Harlech Television Building where no People of Harlech ever worked. Or where a certain Project was based where the same thing applied in the end.

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  86. Cecil Rhodes and all that eh Mr Corbyn!

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  87. RMS Portishead and those Lifeboats Mr Barrow, or those on the RMS Brislington and Captain Smith, or even Theodens "Slave Ship" in a James Cameron Movie eh Rachel!

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  88. Even a Bus travelling from Weston Super Mare, which felt more like Birmingham, Alabama, huh Ms "Yeah".

    And the Bloke who ran Costa had the same Name as a Bloke who ran a Pub a few years ago!

    More Seats in those RMS Portishead Lifeboats eh Matthew!

    So whose Statue is coming down next?

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  89. And has that Bloke on Radio 5 Live ever seen the Film "Bopha"?

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  90. You won't believe the Crap they're fobbing us off with here now!

    And on the Subject of "Now" how many Generations of Edward Colston's Victims must have asked "when"?

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  91. Maybe we'll re-enact the Freedom Rides, buy those Day Rider Tickets (which should put a Weed up the Arse of any weepy Guitars) wearing "Black Lives Matter" T'Shirts, and ride that Portishead to WSM Bus until Ms "Yeah" rears her ugly KKK Head!

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  92. One thing that was also apparent is how all that 'global Village' Stuff is empty Hippie Crap. But then, I started feeling that years ago after the Fuzziness faded. I started meeting White Australian Hippies, ditto for South Africans, and after a while it merely begins to reinforce just how different their Lives are. What's it like to fly to Heathrow or Gatwick from Melbourne or Johannesburg? What is Life like back there so you could? How about native Australians or South Africans? Could they afford to do it, and how many of them would have the Passport and Visa anyway?

    While I might watch "The Wire" and write about People like Robert Cecil and George Calvert one of them was telling me about his Jaunt to the Chesapeake. Somewhere I've never seen.

    David Simon and Ed Burne might have written and made the Show, but if RMS Baltimore struck an Iceberg they would probably have a Seat in the Boat when many others wouldn't.

    The Situation for native Australians is dire. They have been trodden into the Ground so often it's like they have been broken. The War on them is still in living Memory while the Death Toll is incalculable. How long will it be before they are encouraged by what is happening in Britain and elsewhere and they take down Captain James Cooks Statue?

    How about Native Americans whose Pile of Grievances at least equal those of their Afro-equivalents? America is strewn with Statues and Monuments to their Enemies which might be brought down like Colston's was!

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  93. No Blacks, no Irish ...... No Music!

    Suddenly we are imbued with the Gift of Time Travel .....

    We go back to the 1920's - when Juke Joints reverberated to the likes of Robert Johnson and Big Bill Broonzy, the Cotton Club jived to People like Duke Ellington and Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong, and they were all airbrushed out of History. Their Music erased and deleted, along with Singers like Bessie Smith.

    Then we fast forward to the 1960's. Someone called Micheal Jagger graduates at the London School of Economics - becoming a Chartered Accountant, while another called Brian Jones goes to College in Cheltenham. A Club in London called the Crawdaddy hosts Morris Dancing, Quartet Music and Acapella Motets. A Bloke called Eric never goes there, ditto for others called Relf, Mayall, Bruce, Page , Greene ...... None of whom become Musicians at all.

    Vespa and Lambretta continue selling their Scooters to italian Shop and Office Workers while Mod was never even thought of. After all, who will White Soul Singers like Steve Marriot and Steve Winwood emulate if there were no Soul Singers like Ray Charles for example?

    And how about those 1950's, bereft of People like Fats Domino, the afforementioned Charles, Little Richard and the most copied and covered of Musicians - Chuck Berry? Sally is neither long or tall, while there really is no particular Place to go!

    Someone called Keith starts having Nightmares!

    But heck, there's always the Grand ole Oprey and Nashville right ....... erm, right?

    We go further back and ethnically cleanse those Irish Immigrants whose Hands really did build America. And while they did they took their Celdhi Music and Irish Folk with them. This is redone in a very rough Style in Barns and Square Dances everywhere. Throw in other Immigrant Music Forms and some of that Black Slave Vocal and you have every Rednecks Favourite - Country and Western. Suddenly there is none of this because you killed it's Origins.

    Oh crap, no-one from Johnny Cash to Garth Brookes! No Ray Charles again, who started as a Country Singer.

    But hey, how about that quintessentially White Rock and Roll. After all, Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis were good ole southern Boys rockin' and a rollin'?

    They might have been if there had been any of the above to influence them and make History. A bunch of Scousers called John, Paul, George and Ringo, live and die in obscurity because there were no Rockers to skiffle up and Liverpool Docks never reverberated to those 'Race' Records Sailors might otherwise have brought!

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  94. If you stripped supposed "White, Anglo, Saxon, Culture" or "Britpop" of its Black and Irish Influences all you're left with is Morris Dancing, Oompah Music and a few German and English Composers.

    Johnny Cash might be considered a Country Artist but he was borderline Rock and Roll, certainly in the 1950's, who toured extensively with Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis and others. He might have been the Man in Black, but he was also the Cowboy without the Rhinestones.

    Had Chuck Berry not hardened and sped up that Rhythm and Blues Riff Intro to "Johnny be good" it's unlikely everyone from Keith Richards and on would have a Career in Music at all.

    Those 'Race' Records Sailors brought to Liverpool in the 1950's - the Coasters, the Platters, the Drifters - contained the vocal Arrangements Merseybeat would infuse it's Music with when it made the Transition from Rock and Roll to Pop. The same would happen in Manchester as one of the most harmonious of Singer's, Graham Nash, developed it with the Hollies then took it to one of the biggest Groups of all time .... CSN&Y!

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  95. The Ku Klux Klan, the South's worst Enemy ..... White and Black.

    After the Civil War of the 1860's the worst thing that could have happened to the South were the Klansmen. The Region's Agriculture had been destroyed as the Plantations were sacked and razed by Sherman, and Slaves left their former Owners without a Workforce. It's Import/Export Trade severely hampered with the Capture or Destruction of its Harbours and what Industry there was had burned or blown up with every City captured by the Union Army, Sherman's Neckties trashed the Rail Network.

    The South desperately needed the North and the North obliged with Reconstruction.

    Unfortunately there were some Southerners who recidivated, most famously former Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest who became a Leader of White Supremacists the Ku Klux Klan. Their Violence and Terrorism put off Northerners investing in the South - after all, how can you finance a Mill that has a racist employment Policy, or might even be torched or boycotted if it were too liberal? The Segregationist Policies of the South learned nothing from the Civil War. That Richmond lost Support from Countries like Britain and France because of the Institution of Slavery.

    Thus, many of the social Problems that afflict poor Whites as well as Blacks in the Region owe as much to that Attitude as any economic Factors.

    Even a dyed in the Wool Secessionist, pro-Slavery redder than Red Reb like Forrest resigned from the Klan because he felt it was too violent.

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  96. So, what is Slavery, ancient or modern?

    Here is the Definition as stated by the former Anti-Slavery Commissioner Kevin Hyland .....

    "Modern slavery is an umbrella term encompassing slavery, servitude, forced or compulsory labour and human trafficking. Victims of modern slavery are unable to leave their situation of exploitation, controlled by threats, punishment, violence, coercion and deception. Slavery violates human rights, denying people of their right to life, freedom and security."

    And it's the line "Victims of modern Slavery are unable to leave their Situation of Exploitation" that is the operative Statement. One that probably almost everyone responsible has ignored. Every supposed new Development, People, everything, is just more of the same, like they are just parts of something that perpetuates it. In another time or culture it might have been called Vampirism, but in a modern Context it's a Process of assimilative Parasitism.

    It benefits them, but not everyone involved!

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  97. The 'Management'

    In the Film "The Heat of the Night" the Plantation Owner thinks he has inherited the Right to hit Afro-American People. He does because his Ancestors did, going all the way back to the Confederacy - and that is just 'how it is'.

    In Philadelphia it isn't, and hasn't been since Abraham Lincoln and before.
    Sydney Poitier shows the Plantation Owner that he can't do it and expect impunity.

    The latter and Rod Steiger are aghast!

    So how about this so called 'Management'? Who did they inherit the Right to 'Manage' anything from? And how about those People, just because that's 'how it is'?

    Not surprised then that this falls foul of the Anti-Slavery Commissioners Statement.

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  98. I meet so called Socialists who are, or very rapidly become, part of that Sclerosis. Who lay the Blame at the Tory MP or other aspects of the Conservative Party, except it isn't at all Party Political.

    I come from a Constituency that has always returned a Conservative MP, most famously in recent years, former Prime Minister John Major. But while no-one there has inherited the right to hit anyone it also isn't at all as conservative as this Area.

    Going all the way back to Celtic Britain where I lived produced a Woman who showed the Romans that you can't hit her and violate her Daughter's with impunity just because that's how it is in the Roman Empire. An Earl who stood up to the Plantagenet Usurper - Prince and King John, and an MP who had to show an autocratic King that he didn't have the divine Right to rule on a Whim.

    All of this despite being a Conservative Constituency.

    There have been many instances that have proved how conservative it is here. 30 years ago, when History was reset and the World tilted slightly here was like nothing happened. Bristol was no better. Coming back from London in 1999 after hearing about "Social Inclusion" from Labours #2 was like returning to the South in America after meeting LBJ talking about his "Great Society". So, where is the Mason-Dixon Line then, Reading, Swindon or Bath Spa Railway Station?

    Meeting so called Socialists or Reformers here is like a Freedom Rider meeting Democrat, George Wallace rather than Democrat Robert Kennedy.

    How many years now has the Town been represented by a so called Leftfield Group?

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  99. And before the Usual Suspects of Deliberate Inertia try to position themselves with Penny Lane Games the current Leader of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan is from Harrison, Arkansas!

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  100. That dealt with how is any 'Management' chosen exactly? Who did they somehow inherit that from like they were Slave Owners or something?

    What is certain is how they aren't employed like any Entertainment Manager, being paid a %, they weren't voted for or interviewed for the Post, and also unlike Entertainment Management they don't pay their Clients their % either!

    So is this some hereditary thing passed down from someone somewhere in the 1970's?

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  101. Here's the quote again ......

    "Modern slavery is an umbrella term encompassing slavery, servitude, forced or compulsory labour and human trafficking. Victims of modern slavery are unable to leave their situation of exploitation, controlled by threats, punishment, violence, coercion and deception. Slavery violates human rights, denying people of their right to life, freedom and security."

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  102. Hope the 'Management' haven't committed any of these!

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  103. Meanwhile, why does there seem to be more Confederate Stuff on eBay than similar for the Federals?

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  104. And this is what bothers me .....

    People selling Confederate Stuff on the Internet are making Money from it, those buying it are part of its Propaganda - thus the Confederate Cause is promoted and it's Community becomes richer.

    So, Google's Homepage showing someone of African Origin is just a Picture on a Screen, not People in real life. It's rather like insincere Hollywood Crap about the American Continental War, except you could say "Careful with that Axe Eugene Gibson" couldn't you as we become Bricks in Jackson's Stone Wall.

    It's the useless Photo of France in "Boardwalk Empire".

    A Husband and Wife are suffering Strains on their Marriage because of his WW1 Trauma and Business Activities. She plans to leave with some Artist Friends and go to Paris. This all falls through and her Friends go without her. She gets a Postcard from them of the Eiffel Tower. Later in the Series she is killed in a botched Gangland Assassination. Had she really gone to France instead of being sent that useless Photograph she would still be alive.

    Thus, a thriving Market selling Confederate Merchandise is real - a lot of Arty Stuff, and insincerity is just condescending and patronising.

    Erm ..... 'now' let's wait to hear Radioland say "brilliant" but not much else!

    When Martin Luther King was killed he was so by a System that only pretended to change. It hadn't and was just biding it's time, despite a lot of Lip Service given to the Civil Rights Movement.

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  105. If I asked you to name the 10 most famous People in 60's America, by 1968 Dr King would have been one of them. Quoted by all sorts of People, synonymous with the Struggle for Civil Rights, known of by every Student Activist and continually in the Spotlight, but none of this protected him in Memphis!

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  106. Hope Israel supports the anti-Slavery Protests. After all, do they not base their Countries existence on the most famous, and probably first documented Act of Emancipation ....... the Book of Exodus?

    Then they had their more recent Enslavement, then the Diaspora of AD70, then the Return in 1948.

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  107. https://biography.wales/article/s-WYNN-OWE-1300

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  108. Meanwhile, I bought a T'Shirt the other day, a Black Lives Matter Shirt. The Lettering is in the Rastafarian Colours, "Black" in Green, "Lives" in Black Letters on a Yellow Background, and "Matter" in Red. What bothers me is how the Word "Black" appears, like it was another of those Roadsigns. There are others, Black, White and Red all over like a Newspaper , some in Black and White.

    I also have a DVD of the Film "Catch a Fire" where the main Character calls his Wife "Precious" like he was Gollum in "Lord of the Rings".

    Maybe I'm missing something here and this is an attempt to confront the negative Connotations by using them to say "so what ....... and?" or it is done by those whose Interests are conflicted by what the Design and the Film are about.

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  109. Pretty fly for a White Guy ....

    While the BLM Campaign ought to widen to an anti-Slavery one, I suppose it was inevitable that People would try and hijack the Name George Floyd.

    George becomes Harrison, Floyd becomes a Rock Band, when both are white and the Man killed in America was neither. That while White Guitar Players and Hippie Rock Bands might somehow position themselves to appropriate the BLM Campaign the Fella who was killed was Black. Thus, he is expendable to the dubious Motives of the sort of People who could turn Brian Keenan into any other Brian apart from a former Beirut Hostage.

    Do you get a free Cream Jacket with that Cream Car by the way?

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  110. And Mirrors on a Bike are not Mirrors on a Ceiling, or Mirrors in a Bathroom.

    Next thing you know William Quantrill and Bloody Bill Anderson will try and tell us they were Abolitionists!

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  111. Pretty fly for a white guy - part two.

    Sure enough, the Internet is full of exploitative Doublespeak in the Aftermath of the George Floyd Controversy.

    How many Property Listings can have the Word "Lane" in them Penny Arnold? How many "Collections" can appear online? How about an "Old Prison House" that has supposedly been in the Market for about 2 years? That House, at that Price and they can't sell it????? Is that a Yew Tree in that other Houses Garden?

    And on it goes, except the White Guys behind all this are like the Heroin Dealers of old. As long as it isn't white middle class People being killed huh!

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  112. Rather like the Afro-Americans of the 1860's whose World was nothing like that of their Ancestors of the 1630's to 50's, I compare what Opportunities exist now to those of 30 years ago.

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  113. In the 1630's - 50's they owned Land, grew Produce and employed People. By the 1860's they owned nothing, grew Produce for other People, and Employment meant unpaid Slavery.

    Had he lived what would Jan Masaryck have said if he saw Czechoslovakia just before the Velvet Revolution of 1989, and everything that had been done to it since he resigned from the Munich Conference of 1938?

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  114. The Democratic Process ......

    Boris Johnson tells us that Edward Colston's Statue ought to have been removed via the Democratic Process, except what does he think that Process is?

    One thing it isn't and that's some abstract thing that happens every 4 years when People vote. That's just the beginning of it.

    You will vote for a Constituency MP who either spends the next 4 years in the Legislature (the Commons), or is made a Cabinet Minister by the Prime Minister. Either of which is significant, the former votes on Decisions by the latter, which is everything from Education to the Environment. All those Services provided by the Government, local, regional, national, and international, have someone whose Job is to run it all. We get to choose how all of this run - while the Vote itself is run by your Councils Electoral Services Office.

    But what is any, or all, of these isn't working properly? What if these People, in positions of Trust, part of the civic Infrastructure, are somehow dishonest?

    In recent years I was subjected to an excrutiating Run-around by many in that Infrastructure after meeting someone relevent, not only to a Project we did 30 years ago, but also a helluva lot of subsequent Creative Economics. It seemed everyone in it was either blocking it all up or acquiring whatever Angle on it they might glean at the Expense of those who made some of it happen in the first place.

    Then, that "Democratic Process" isn't working! Exasperating when it is done by People you are supposed to trust.

    Martin Luther King believed in the System, and how the innate Goodness of People will prevail if he campaigned for long enough. He, or rather we, discovered it doesn't. When he was killed America saw days of Rioting and Protest.

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  115. And, of course, while that years long Run-around went on someone who epitomised Democracy died in 2011.

    "A Shot rings out in the Memphis Sky", someone once sang about another of those moral Authorities - and whether it was James Earl Ray or not, maybe that Bullet whistled as it struck home when Dr King was on his Balcony.

    "Early Morning, April 4......"

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  116. So, if Education, Law Enforcement (past and present), Local Government, Youth and Community Services, Ecumenicals, Welfare, and even the Employment Service couldn't be trusted to ensure this didn't happen what exactly do you have to do in "a Town called Malice" where People smell of "Pubs and too many right Wing Meetings"?

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  117. And I hope most sincerely that Helen Epstein of the Guardian isn't somehow trying to create a Rwanda here by mentioning anti-Poverty Campaigns in Rwanda which only benefitted a few wealthy Hutus at the expense of 1000's of others, then using it as a Template attached to whatever might have happened with an anti-Poverty Campaign we did here. I might ride a Chopper eBike, but it isn't a Machete, and to make that Comparison is as insulting as a Jewish Film Maker trying to lump us in with the Nazis in his central Reservation in "Band of Brothers".

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  118. Still no Apology from his Camp by the way!

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  119. And to understand Hitler and Mussolini at Munich then is to understand 30 years of Yippies now.

    Hitler could be very charming. How many American Journalists did he beguile in the 1930's? Even Charles Lindbergh was fooled by him, while Wartime British Prime Minister David Lloyd George was full of Praise for the former Austrian Corporal who had made good and was rehabilitating Germany.

    Chamberlain and Daladier must have been taken in too, as Nevile got off that Plane with his stupid "Piece of Paper" prattling on about "Peace in our time"!

    Britain and France must have been terribly shocked then, as Hitler's Charm at Munich dissolved in 1939 once he'd wheedled the Sudeten. It was then the Nazi Cool Aid wore off and Lloyd George insisted Chamberlain resign.

    Even the former Tbilisi Gangster was devastated as Hitler invaded the Soviet Union like Stalin's Envoys meeting with Ribbentrop hadn't happened.

    Why is all of this so horribly familiar with the Modus Operandi of those Thugs in Cheesecloth, and how they work? You wait and see what happens once the Wheedling has wheedled!

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  120. I had to give Czechoslovakia away to someone who, it seems was nothing more than a Conduit for all of that!

    And for all their Pretentions of civility and sophistication not one of them has done so much as as organise a Cup of Coffee!

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  121. "They smelt of Pubs, and Wormwood Scrubs, and too many right Wing Meetings"

    Being Woking, Surrey's most famous Son, the Jams Songwriter could have been singing about People from Guildford.

    And while 250 years of Slavery meant Afro-Americans went from owning quite choice Pieces of Land in the 1630's to living in the sort of Places you might have seen in a Martin Scorsese Film set in the 1860's - Property Ownership of whatever might be left after the Ravages of 30 years is just a Scam by another Name!

    Rather like Sharecropping erm 'really' meant something else.

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  122. And while the infrastructural and constitutional democratic Process wasn't working, how about the cultural?

    Was it Lennon and McCartney in Bristol a few weeks ago? How about Johnny Rotten and Sid Vicious, Mick Jones and Paul Simonon? However many other cultural Iconoclasts of Rock and Roll?

    Alan Parker - a British Film Maker - could have used the momentum from his "Mississippi Burning" Film to lobby Bristol City Council in the late 1980's to do something about it, but did he?

    There are many other Examples of this, but while Culture has more Rigging than a Fleet of Spanish Galleons so nothing does happen other People make sure it does!

    And I think the final Straw came not just with the Killing of George Floyd, but also with the continuing Exploitation of some by others who might even claim to be 'alternative'. I met quite a few of those sort of People, but in the end they're just Club 18-30 in print Blouses. That their Script had been regurgitated many times and it sounded emptier every time we heard it, and while we did those Houses got bigger, the SUVs got bigger and shinier, the Visas in their Passports more exotic.

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  123. And it isn't just about whatever Property might be left after the Ravages of 30 years, at least what anyone might want, it's also how it hasn't got any cheaper.

    In 1992 the average, registered Rent in Prague was about £5 - that's 5 GBP - a month when British Income Support was about £30 a week. Now the average price of a modest Flat of 60sqm in the Czech Capital is £158,400. In Britain an early 90's House cost about £104,000, now it's closer to £200,000 with regional variables + or - .

    There's a lot of Clickbait on the Internet, offering supposedly cheap Houses, but most of them are either "Sold", "SSTC" or "Under Offer" if they even bother to tell you or update the Website, if they ever existed at all.

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  124. There might be other Reasons why People gave up waiting for Culture to do anything ......

    "Just you wait" the Flower Girl sang in "My fair Lady" but while Martine played Audrey playing Eliza how many Years can Culture make any of us "wait" for it to do anything? It gets weirder, and not just a little sinister as they hide behind Children.

    The thing is, they aren't Children at all.

    People I remember as long ago as the 1980's were driving Cars, riding Motorcycles (and not those 50-125cc Learner Bikes either), having consensual Sex, owning Property, working full time on Adult Salaries, drinking Alcohol, some were smoking, a few did Government Schemes you had to be 18+ to do, others claimed various Benefits at the 25+ Rate, and all demanded to be taken seriously as Adults.

    Now, unless there was a severe Birth Certificate Malfunction in early-mid 60's Bristol and Somerset Registry Offices or every one of them was committing mass Fraud these weren't Children at all. If they were then Social Services must have been very lapse.

    Even People I knew in the 90's were Adults then, as much as they are 40 something's now. To give you an Idea of all that one Contemporary from University in Bristol is now the Wife of Pakistani Cricketer and Prime Minister Imran Khan.

    Even up to very recently - apparently there are 'Children' writing Articles for local Coffee Table Magazines, who do some or all of the above.

    The thing is, while they all seem to remain 'Children' those at the broken end of the Bottle certainly aren't and while Pink Floyd might think in terms of 10 years, some People have put up with it for considerably longer.

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  125. Shock, horror Probe .....

    There are 'Children' running Shops, who used to drive Vans, doing Gigs in Working Men's Clubs, other 'Children' running Property Companies - and 'Children' in BBC Libraries talking about John McCarthy.

    Here, I hope those 'Children' on that Bus aren't bonking each other, otherwise they need to have a Visit from the CPA!

    Sheesh, with this contagion of Child Labour and (gasp) Child Sex, it was imperative that that Slave Trader Statue came down!

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  126. While People decide whose Statue cones down next they should ask whoever runs these 'Children' when exactly do People become Adults here?

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  127. And because of the Regime of decades of assimilation without integration whoever's Statue should come down sooner rather than later!

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  128. Maybe it's time Dr King turned into Bobby Seale and started shooting back!

    Oh, and what about that other aspect of Culture ...... the one that turned 'Now' into 'Then' because they - erm - do little too!

    The problem with Culture is it covers itself in too many Layers of Irony and Doublespeak!

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  129. And I hope none of those 'Children' were/are doing Drugs. I always thought there were strict Rules amongst Dealers about selling to Juveniles! While, of course, those People who "smelt of Pubs, and Wormwood Scrubs, and too many right wing Meetings" drank Coca Cola when they did. It is "the real thing" after all!

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  130. Phone Hacking and modern Slavery .....

    During the Phone hacking debacle no-one ever asked the Mobile Phone Companies how their Systems were so easily violated by a bunch of rogue Journalists. I always thought that the only People in Britain who could access other People's Phone Calls or Text Messages were GCHQ in Cheltenham. Even then, despite their vast array of Technology, Satellites and Boffins - they still have to obtain considerable amounts of Documents before they can proceed.

    So how did a few Scribblers do what they did using nothing more than a Handset they might have bought at RadioShack for a Tenner? No-one asked the CEOs of Vodafone, O2, Virgin Mobile, Orange, or any of the others how all of that happened. Can we trust our Phone Providers anyway, who might pass Stuff on to Media Companies? They do like giving away those free Texts and huge amounts of Call Minutes after all, along with their Voicemail Services. These are kept by them so maybe everyone from Jude Law to Milly Dowlers Parents might have been better off with one of those Tape Ansafones you used to see.

    The thing is, if there is indiscretion on the Part of the Telecoms Industry how are People's lives going to improve if that Industry are in cohoots with a hostile Media? The very Dilemma the Anti-Slavery Commissioner was trying to confront.

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  131. Pretty fly for a white Guy ..... Continued.

    More "Collections" seem to appear, like they were posh white Hippies from Cambridge, rather like, I suspect, there will be quite a few "Weepy Guitars" - like it was the white Blues Movement if the 1960's plundering the Blues Music of impoverished Afro-America.

    I was playing Music in the Street a couple of years ago to help pay the Rent and some mealy mouthed, snotty white Hippie Trash said glibly and slitheringly "are you collecting"? It was then that I thought I might show him another use for a Guitar - except I probably wouldn't be able to play it afterwards.

    The big Betrayal that happened in Portishead was how Portishead hijacked something with its Origins in the New Deal Liberalism of Roosevelt's America and that of JFK in the 1960's. It then became the Domain of a few small town Rednecks.

    As I said, the usual Suspects might manouvre themselves to assimilate something as long as it isn't them doing the dying! Heck, even Confederate Soldiers started complaining that the Civil War was a rich Man's War, but a poor Man's Fight.

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  132. The thing is, the "Wayne" in the Offspring Song has to see the Difference between how George Floyd lived ..... and died, and how everyone from Pink Floyd (past and present), or Mick, Keef, McCartney, Starkey and Clapton have and will.

    Those Rock Stars will end their Days either via old age, maybe an Illness or even an Accident, as very wealthy old Men, who will pass their Estates to their Spouses and Children. McCartney has said he won't, but he still has that Choice.

    What WON'T happen is they'll be murdered by a racist Cop after a Life that might have been less than certain.

    While George Floyd, and millions of others, are kept in their Ghettos and Projects while their Music turned those Rock Stars into Multi-Millionaires there is no Integration. That George Floyd's Demise contrasts with that of Pink Floyd is also analogous of the same Problem. How many others have there been while the Rolling Stones rehearse "Little Red Rooster" by the Poolside - or Cream recorded "Spoonful" or the "Crossroads" - just before going to one of George Harrison's Parties?

    As the Usual Suspect Club play the same Game they have since the 1960's George Floyd was just a Fashion Accessory! If he and the many others in the years had enjoyed as much integration as there had been assimilation he might still be alive today!

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  133. The bitter Irony about the Confederacy in the American Civil War was how the majority of those maimed and died for it had no Slaves. They were just Farm Labourers, Land Owners who eaked a Living from modest Spreads, or Clerks, or Blue and White Collar Workers in whatever Industry and Infrastructure the South had. They might have been committed Soldiers when they enlisted in 1861 but many gradually changed their Tune as they realized what was happening.

    So, if even dyed in the Wool Rebs started to see what was happening in that rich Man's War, poor Man's Fight 150 years ago to what extent do you think the Black Lives Matter Campaign has seen through the Game those white Rock Stars have either played, or been complicit in, for 55 years?

    I've discovered just how loaded the Dice are in that particular Game of Craps. After a Campaign we did 30 years ago they smothered it all in the usual Doublespeak, Layers of Insincerity and Assimilation. Instead of being in Velvet Revolutionary Prague organising Concerts in the early 90's I'm in the same High Street I was in in the 1970's.

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  134. "Business as usual, in Police Room 619", like an Album with "Don't give up" never happened at all eh Peter!

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  135. George Floyd ...... Pink Floyd, the only similarity is the Name. Everything else about it is different. When Syd Barratt and Rick Wright died they didn't have a racist Policeman's Elbow on their Throats for 9 Minutes.

    And while Barratts Royalties are still paid and the Floyd Keyboard Player passed his Millions to Kith and Kin what did George Floyd leave for anyone? Not very much probably, and he might have lived in a Tenement so didn't even own the Rooms he lived in.

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  136. And maybe so called 'Socialists' were too busy doing Deals with the People who smelt of Pubs and right Wing Meetings to confront Slavery. So much for trusting them to do anything about it then, while, it seems the Info-ocracy are up to the same old Tricks they were 30 years ago, this time with Films about South Africa and Apartheid.

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  137. "I am just a Fashion Accessory"....

    It's the early 70's and Richie Edwards, James Bradfield, Nicholas Jones and Sean Moore are at one of their Parents Houses watching the English Hippies in "Arthur of the Britons". Fast forward to the early 80's and they're at the Cinema watching same in "Excalibur", maybe they went to see "Ghandi" at about the same time. Wales suffers the worst Ravages of Monetarism imaginable in that Decade and by the late 80's they've formed a Band. They write "La Tristessa Durera". "I see Liberals, I'm just a Fashion Accessory" they sing, because all this Stuff night be great if you were Richard Attenborough or something, but no-one is making them part of that Process. It's the same with all the other usual Suspects in Hampstead Heath but none of this finds its way to Wales .

    I was watching a Line-up of similar doing "Get up, stand up" except there wasn't a single Afro-Caribbean amongst them, while "Notting Hill" ethnically cleansed any of them from the Screen.

    So, the Usual Suspect Club are at it again with Films about Apartheid, while they might even know those white South Africans I met on that wretched Harbourside a few Months ago.

    Bit like how a Hostage Campaign turned into Vans with Morrell written on them, and every other Brian except someone who was a Hostage in Beirut. Not sure what that has to do with Hostages at all.

    Portishead the Group are a sales Promotion for Portishead the Town, but what happens if we traced their Career Timeline back far enough?

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  138. Meanwhile, if Robert De Niro wants to make crappy, racist Jokes about Sheep maybe 'Vito Corleone, Sam Rothstein, Jimmy Conway, etc' should have a Holiday in Nassau, the Bahamas!

    Horrible isn't it how Hollywood and Watts County are Districts of the same City! How many Afro-Americans who have seen the Film's, and the Academy Awards, trapped in the latter wonder how they get to the former?

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  139. Is Human Rights reclaiming itself ....?

    I sometimes think it is. The whole Notion of Human Rights in a modern Context started with the anti-Slavery Movement of 200 years ago. More anciently the Cfraith Hywell - a legal System introduced by 9th Century Welsh Prince, Hywell Dda - went some way to protecting and ensuring some basic Rights for People that wasn't subject to the arbitrariness of regional Variations. Some of that is found in modern Law and Societal Attitudes.

    Magna Carta, while being a Blueprint for many modern Democracies really only dealt with distribution of Power amongst the Gentry and constitutional rights and restraints of the Monarch.

    In targeting Monuments to Slavery the current Campaign has done what not even Rock against Racism or the Anti-Nazi League did, while Groups like Amnesty International always seemed a bit mute on the Subject of the Slavery Legacy of Cities like Bristol and Liverpool.

    Because of the Modern Slavery Act, 2015 they aren't some Outlaw thing like the ludicrously romanticised James Gang or the media Exploitations of the Robin Hood Legends. They are working within the Law and are prepared to see it enforced after the Slavery Abolition Act 1833 was cruelly revoked by Tony Blair who reduced anti-Slavery Law to a Paragraph in his Eurocentric Human Rights Act 1998.

    Maybe the previous Act caused a Conflict of Interest with his Info-ocracy Friends in Hampstead, while the established Human Rights Groups had succumbed to a similar Lobby. After all, do some of those big Celebrity Donations come with a Caveat?

    As I said, it wasn't any of them who took that Statue down a few Weeks ago!

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  140. One thing I do hope, and that is how this Campaign doesn't end up like everything else .....

    TV Companies with a New Deal Era Roosevelt/LBJ Great Society Heritage filling up with the sort of People who could quite easily have worked for any other, including the BBC and Channel 4.

    That New Deal, Triborough Bridge Project that employed the sort of People who could have worked anywhere in a 1930's deeply racist America.

    The 1990's which was just "Business as usual" for the sort of People who got established in any other previous Decade, including the sort of People not long term unemployed, doing crap Jobs or Training Schemes in the 1980's.

    Any of the above who might be in a few square Miles of South West England.

    I call all of this the Kommorovski Effect, named after the odious Character in a Boris Pasternak Novel who flourishes in 20th Century Russia, whoever is in charge - the Tsar, the Decemberists, the Mensheviks, Bolsheviks and even the Yeltsin and Putinists if he (Kommorovski) had lived long enough!

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  141. Wonder if they do 1920's Themed Holidays in Nassau so People like De Niro, Pacino, Scorsese, Buscemi, and the many other Hollywood Actors and Film Makers who have made Careers of a certain Genre can see where People like Bill McCoy and almost everyone else on Rum Row got their Hooch from!

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  142. Hollywood is supposed to be the Font of all American Liberalism and Political Correctness, but crappy Racist Jokes about Sheep are no less offensive to the Welsh as crappy Racist Jokes about Monkeys are to Afro-Caribbeans and Afro-Americans.

    And, while America never got real Closure on 9/11 they were fobbed off with a dreadful Film about US Navy Seals eliminating Osama Bin Laden. This was during the supposedly liberal Obama Government, and as the Film reached its Climax and the Soldiers penetrated Osama's Compound in Pakistan one was heard to say "Geronimo has been eliminated" or something to that effect.

    How deeply insulting to Native Americans, being lumped in with Islamic Extremists in someone else's Country while they suffered Genocide in their own.

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  143. And was today's Adventure with the Traffic Lights some "Day in the Life" Bulshit ...... because old "Weepy Guiter" takes exception to being called a Slaver sympathising Racist?

    Seems Joe Anderson's Promise to put Plaques about the Activities of the likes of James Penny, the Earle's, Atherton's and Holmes are just empty Words. That the Racism is as institutionalised in Scouse Music as it might be certain American Police Departments.

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  144. I am just a Fashion Accessory" Pt2.

    While everyone, from TV and Film, to Literature and Music, Art and Theater have exploited the Cymru-Industry to huge financial Gain this is what happened with the Blues.

    People like the Musicians in Groups like the Manic Street Preachers spent years watching anyone but the Welsh in those TV Shows and Films, read Books by them, heard the Songs and all the other Stuff, but they couldn't access any of it. Meaning they couldn't be part of that often very lucrative Process.

    When a Bunch of People pretended to be homeless Outlaws in 1980's Bristol, and others filmed them, I actually was homeless and/or unemployed, while had a Job paying rather less than they got.

    While those White Blues Musicians had access to the Structure that would make them wealthy Rock Stars, in many instances playing those Blues Standards, or Adaptations of same, could the Afro-Americans, whose Songs they were, do the same?

    During the New Deal of the 1930's Harlem was one of the main Junctions for the Tri-Borough Bridge Scheme, but could it's Afro-American Residents access the Work and thus the Wages in its Construction? They could access it as Consumers, rather like People could be an Audience to their own Stories and Culture, but could they be part of the Production?

    Henry Ford wasn't giving those Model T's away, and neither were the Booths selling Tickets to the Turnpike, while everyone from Robert Stigwood to George Martin, Alan Parnes to the People at Polydor were making huge Profits selling, not giving, those repackaged Songs.

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  145. While you have Slavery and Exploitation People can be as Eco-Vegetarian, LGBT, Socialist, Anarcho-syndicalist, organic, and "ethical" as they like, every one of these is cancelled out and null and void. It's all just Club 18-30 in Cheesecloth, Tupperware Parties in semi-detached suburban Kaftans!

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  146. The operative Word here is Choice, but what if you deny some People that Choice? Why are you doing it? Those Hampstead Communists ought to know what Marx had to say about access to the Means of Production, and what happens if there aren't any!

    Many of the things before never forced the Issue onto the Agenda to the Point where a Prime Minister had to comment in it. There are other things that start to look permissable, but on second Glance have that built-in Obsolescence. Robert Del Naja AKA 3d from Massive Attack for instance, might have made his Comments on Slavery, while his Group refused to do the Colston Hall, but note that it is "3" not 2 or 4, what shenanigans could you get up to with all that?

    How about Punk?

    A conspiracy Theorist could say that Julian Temple had a secret Meeting with Glen Frey and Joe Walsh which resulted in Gordon Sumner, but while he, Joan Baez, Chrissie Hynde and Peter Gabriel sang a Bob Marley Song where were the Afro-anythings?

    Erm "wow" huh!!!!!

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  147. Then you have the Misery Industry, those who cash in in, and make Careers out of, other People's Struggles.

    Bruce Kent - as Leader if the CND - was asked what his biggest Ambition was, and he replied "to disband CND because all its Objectives had been achieved!"

    Can the same be said for them?

    One of the biggest 'What ifs' of History could be if Abraham Lincoln met Jefferson Davis in 1861 and said of the Slaves ......

    "Why don't you try paying them Mr Davis?"

    What if Jeff Davis agreed?

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  148. ......And don't get me started on Weepy Guitars and Crocodile Tears!

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  149. Maybe those Yippie 'Managers' were getting conspicuously sleek, plump, and arrogant. Maybe People heard the Beatles once too often.

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  150. And just to make all this rather more poignant, that Cyclist might not have been driving an old, early 60's Police Car while he didn't have anyone with him in one of those horrible, ugly 1940's Pick-up Trucks, but I sure felt like I was being tailgated by him the other day!

    Re: "Mississippi Burning".

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  151. As for all this "Children" Nonsense, which started with "Penny Lane" no less than 53 years ago, our Protest against what is a particularly odious way of appropriating maybe we should bust the sexual Partners of these so called "Children" as Paedophiles!

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  152. And because a 60's Pop Group wrote some Crap more than half a Century ago this is how People have had their Cake and eat it.

    But, if they're "Children" their sexual Partners should be put on the Sex Offender Register, and this is just one part of something much bigger.

    The local Government Officials who issued them with falsified Birth Certificates, the DVLA for those fake Driving Licenses (full and provisional - the latter you can't have until you are 16), the Passport Office for the same Reason.

    Then there were the incompetent DHSS Workers (now the DWP) who were paying them anything at all let alone the Adult, over 25, rate of Benefits. The Employers who hired them on Adult Hours for Adult Wages. The Bar and Off License Staff for selling them Alcohol.

    So if these People were "Children" then People everywhere have committed all sorts of Slavery Violations, from Child Labour to Child Sex, Pandering, and those no better than Pimps, selling the Services of Minors.

    As for the fake Roadsigns, do we also add "Human Trafficking" to the List of Charges?

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  153. Now, about this tailgating Cyclist .... "Right!"

    They're all a bit creepy here aren't they, but while - even Winston Churchills Statue has been targeted, how about the Group that wrote the Songs celebrating the Slave Trade "Penny Lane" and the one about People being "Bought and sold"?

    Erm "Yeah" it was "good news about John McCarthy" but if you had said it to my Face rather than behind my Back we might have celebrated it with a few Beers in the BBC Bar that Evening like the 27 year olds we were!

    You weren't 27?

    Oh, erm, so you'll be having the fizzy Pop then!

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  154. The Modern Slavery Act 2015 deals with modern Slavery, like the Stuff that's going on now, not what was happening 2-300 years ago, and while the current Campaign has dealt with some of the Symbols of previous Slavery Violations I hope they are going to be consistent, and approach their modern equivalents with as much Zeal.

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  155. The Bloke who did promote Concerts and Music in Czechoslovakia (or Czech and Slovak by then) became a Millionaire by the time a Documentary was made.

    Maybe that Fella in the former Warsaw Pact was freer than I was - trapped in a World of Yippiecrites dominated by tear stained Crocodile Guitars and crappy Songs about Streets in Liverpool.

    On the Subject of Pink - not George - Floyd how many "Kids" did you lot "turn on" Roger?

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  156. How did those white South Africans know about that Colour? A Colour I remember from 2008. That's when the Word "Normal" was used, along with "Lazy" and how I should get a Job in Asda, then a criminal Assault took place. Maybe I should write this in Afrikaans.

    While the Czechish Bloke was becoming a Millionaire in just 4 years things here were far less lucrative, and as he made that Money promoting Concerts I bet he never put up with that 2008 Nonsense.

    He got all that because he got with the Program, and wasn't sleeping with his stuckinthe60's Beatles Albums. He probably did a few Shows in that new Stadium they were building in Prague in 1990!

    Heard the Word "Normal" again today.

    Heard it a few Weeks ago too, that Slavery was normal 200 years ago!

    Tell ya what .....

    I'll work at Asda when those others from 30 years ago do.

    Oh, erm "cheerzzzz mate" by the way!

    'Gurt, loike' etc.

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  157. It's astonishing how unusually tall People think they're normal isn't it Gordon!

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  158. The Czechoslovak Example shows how wrong, and stultifyingly conservative Britain is. Oh, and also how brutal.

    Only a few years before that Fella lived in a Country where he could be arrested without Charge, surveiled on, tortured, murdered, sent to the Gulag and all sorts of other stuff, but because he did become what he did prompts questions about this supposed Democracy, free Society and Hub of the British Empire.

    That our Culture Industry is a Bastion of that conservatism goes without saying as the very conservative 90's proved, while it is rotten with Doublespeak. He didn't become a Millionaire listening to Beatles Albums, or watching BBC Comedies with Bill Owen and Kathy Staff. I live somewhere dominated by both, and either is just the Tip of the Iceberg.

    And Britain has even fewer answers than it did then ......

    We do not have a Record Industry anymore - from the very big Companies, to the smallest Indie - they have all gone.

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  159. Now, about these "Shock Absorbers"?????

    Of, course, the Arguement the BLM People could level at David Cameron and his Successors is; while they work within the Auspices of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 when exactly are they (Cameron and Successors) going to enforce it?

    When the Kennedys enfranchised Afro-America they were prepared to send in US Marshalls and the National Guard to see it done. Even if one Individuals Civil Rights were violated - as happened to James Meredith - JFK did by sending Troops to Mississippi to guarantee his Access to the State University.

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  160. "Freedom Rock" except - rather like early 60's America - some are more free than others eh Frank! That's from someone who used to work in a Record Shop.

    If a Statistician used Figures to justify Exploitation or Exclusion they could cynically say; James Meredith was just one Fella, a Fraction of a bigger Whole than he might have been if he was a UK Resident. America has always had a 5 to 1 Ratio in Population than Britain.

    Bobby Kennedy could have shrugged in the Attorney Generals Office and agreed; why should I bother just because one Bloke in 100's of Millions wants to go to College, but can't? Lots of People can't go to College for a myriad of Reasons.

    The thing is he didn't!

    So where's the "Democratic Process" Mr Prime Minister, while the same night be asked of other World Leaders. Tony Blair and GWB sent 1000's of Troops to a discredited misadventure in Iraq - but won't ensure things at-home with the same Enthusiasm.

    The BLM Protestors do so at considerable Risk, and while their anti-Slavery Campaign is completely legal they should get Support from national Government not just a few regional ones like the Mayor of Bristol.

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  161. And if that is what it was like for James Meredith, who they tried stopping going to a University in early 60's Mississippi, how different was his Life to those of the white middle Class Students at early 60's Berkley?

    Probably about the same as it might be for some of us to those white Yippies and Yip Yoppers in Portishead. Even after Obama's "New Age" Government, which was post 90's Club 18-30 in Cheesecloth.

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  162. We've got a few Statues that have caused some hidden Problems that meant more of the same. Silver Balls that turned "Give Blood" a Human Rights Song that began our Album 30 years ago, and "We don't need another Hero" into "Tommy" and the Acid Queen from same. Don't remember this being in the Script in those days.

    There's also those 3 Matchsticks which can either be derived from Jack's Matches in "Titanic" - being adjacent to Newfoundland Way (as in George Calvert Avalon) or the Fun Boy 3, maybe even Robert Smith and those "3 Imaginary Boys".

    Maybe they're those "Pictures of Matchstick Men" by Status Quo, or something Lowry might have painted.

    Perhaps they're just something to do with Violins.

    Any or all of these are just part of the same old-same old that has gone on for years when some of us thought it meant Trips to Prague to organise Human Rights Concerts.

    The thing is, is this Art?

    Rose; Monet doesn't blush
    Jack; He does Landscapes!!!!

    While Culture can become Multiple speak, Monet's Landscapes have been turned into Gardening.

    Great, except I have a Balcony!

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  163. There's a Documentary called "Berkley in the 60's" and when I watch the Crowd Scenes I wonder how many of them are from places like Mississippi. How none of them are James Meredith. Wonder how he started feeling as the 60's wore on?

    Probably a bit like some of us when we watch Stuff like the Glasto Coverage every year.

    What was cool about Bobby Kennedys Election Campaign in 1968 was how he avoided all that Hype (the Haight, Greenwich Village, Sunset Boulevard, Laurel Canyon etc), and even other Culture Places like Memphis and Nashville. He went to find real America, and when he did he saw it was broke and broken, a Million Miles away from "In a Gadda Da Vida"!

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  164. And when I heard Songs like "In the City", "This is the modern World", "Down in the Tube Station at Midnight", or "Going Underground" I wasn't thinking about Jars with Pictures of Gollywogs on them!

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  165. Sons of Anarchy ......

    Hmmm, why do I suspect the Origins of this TV Show and Fashion might be due to a secret Meeting between Julian Temple of "Great Rock and Roll Swindle" fame and the Eagles in the late 1970's?

    That the Man who put the Cambridge Rapist Hotel in his Film might collude with the American Rock Band who stay at the Hotel California, and it all leads to the Sons of Anarchy, "California" whose Cut Offs look like Hell's Angels Regalia?

    But there's a Twist if you'll excuse the Pun, because "We are the Mods" apparently, who are, of course, the Nadir of the Rockers.

    The thing is, we never saw the Record Bosses beating the Crap out of each other on Brighton Beach did we!

    Divide and rule indeed, and partially explains why Culture can't end Slavery!

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  166. The Stage Management would suggest that the Sex Pistols and the Eagles were Rivals as "God save the Queen" stopped "Hotel California" from getting to number one in the UK Charts, but that's just what we were being shown. Mick Jones of the Clash went on about the "New Groups" except his Mates the Banshees ended their Debut with "Helter Skelter" and the Damned b-sided "New Rose" with their rendition of "Help".

    "When I get to the Bottom I go back to the Top"??????

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  167. All3Media ......

    Just another Bunch of exploitative Yippie Scuzzthugs with Cameras and Microphones in Cheesecloth wanting their Club 18-30 Lifestyles in print Blouses!

    Asking Culture to end Slavery is like asking Smith and Wesson, Colt, or Springfield to broker a Deal with Abe Lincoln and Jefferson Davis in 1861 - before 600,000 Americans were killed and vast Areas destroyed.

    To prove it, which wrinkly old Tart from the 60's is passing herself off as a young Maiden in the 90's?

    Thelongandwindingroadislongheaintheavyroads.

    People might scoff at this but that was how the Republican Party of Abe Lincoln, Abolitionists and Reformers gradually became that of GWB and Donald Trump. The northern Arms Industry made so much Money during the Civil War they became the Economy that corrupted the Grant Presidency.

    Now, about these "Shock Absorbers" Frank Cutler!!!!!!

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  168. Looks like the white, middle Class are at it again .....

    I knew they would. How they would use Pink Floyd to juxtapositionally hijack the Murder of George Floyd, and how after all of this has happened Black Lives Matter might never have existed.

    If they want to play that Game why don't we start getting Kate Bush Records and turn them into George, 'confuse' Dustin with Abbie Hoffman, that there was a Prime Minister called Lionel Blair, a Mancunian Singer called Gordon Brown, and the Sex Pistols Guitarist was really the Singer and Harmonica Player with Manfred Man. The Clash's Frontman did have a Brother called David Mellor after all.

    Heck, dintcha know that Peter Townshend was former Beau to Princess Margaret before playing Guitar for the Who, and Fred Barrett used to drop Acid and write Songs for Pink Floyd while he stoked Boilers on the Titanic.

    I'm also quite sure the usual Suspects will even indulge in some Tokenism, rather like Hockley with Jack, but the BLM Campaigners could argue that America had the ultimate Tokenism - an Afro-American President. After all, he was for 8 years, so there shouldn't be any racist Murders and Assaults in America at all ....... should there????

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  169. Meanwhile, according to some Constitutional Historians and a few GOP Politicians there are 2 13th Amendments to the US Constitution.

    There is the most famous, being that of Abolition, ratified in 1865, but there is also a rather obscure one that is supposed to be from 1812. Apparently, because America was in yet another War with Britain and their Relationship with France was ambiguous a Law was passed forbidding Lawyers to run for Political Office. The Idea being that they, and anyone of noble Birth going back to the old Countries could be bribed with Incentives from the Old World, being a sort of 5th Column in the US.

    Here is a quote from a Comment made on YouTube replying to my Post about the 13th Amendment abolishing Slavery making the Constitution more complete .......

    "Wrong, The Original 13th Amendment was removed,very sneakely, by none other that Good ol Abe himself who was actually a Communist, And he didnt Actually free the slaves, they chose to free themselves, when they had enough,,however the removal of the Original 13th Amendment because it had a clause stateing that Persons with titles of Nobilty could not serve any government office because they{Lawyers} could not be trusted as they have servitude to the British Crown and that is where their loyalty lies. And see how they made it work for themselves in infiltration. Most of those Politicians are Lawyers and Need to be fired. Because in all honesty, I'd say 95% of them are self serving and it Blatantly Show. So Vote RED on NOV 3rd so that POTUS may finish his job in DRAINING THE SWAMP."

    There is also a movement to re-establish this 13 Amendment, with a pledge that the 1865 Document won't be banned. This would make the latter the 14th, but of course also means every one of the others will also have to be re-tagged. 14th becomes 15th, 15th becomes 16th etc.

    Not sure Abe Lincoln was a Communist though, while if it were in place in 1960 Kennedy would have been unable to run for Office because of his Ancestry.

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  170. Big Apologies in advance to the many who haven't read this yet. There are many 1000s who have, but those who haven't can thank a recalcitrant Website Promoter who has either deliberately, or been told to, drag their Heels in their promoting it.

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  171. If they continue being as obtuse as they have since December 23rd then I might mention them here and maybe whoever has commissioned a £1m Research Project into those responsible for the Slave Trade can see who they are!

    Also, if all that Hippie Crap could be trusted with the Social Conscience of the World why did we need a 2015 Act of Parliament 50 years after all that Beatles and Bob Dylan Nonsense?

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  172. But before the Crustocracy and Punk wraps itself in smug self- congratulation what makes them THINK they're any better? While Hippie had 50 years for their Utopia to become a Reality you had had 40 years to do the same. What if the "Good Ship Venus" was nothing of the sort and was nothing more than a dirty Slave Ship Messer's Jones, Matlock, Cooke and Rotten? What might those Researchers find if they started poking around those late 70's.

    And why did the Chicken cross the Road?

    Same reason you might cross a Coat with a Nosey Parker!

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  173. What if they contact traced those Punk Record Bosses to those Hippies in late 70's Brislington and the Whiteladies Road?

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  174. The List those Researchers end up with could look like Bruce Ismays' Passenger List or even those Portishead Guesties!

    Now, about these "Blow Wave" Cars Mr Cook.

    While all this went in Tony's Cronies, Alan Kananga and Barron Gallagher Government, they were like the Indian Ring. While they had their Dinner Parties like People in "Notting Hill" those Hippies prattled about that "Deliverability".

    But while they were bookended by the Cameron's - the Film Maker in 1997, the Prime Minister in 2010 - the latter could quite reasonably ask Messer's Blair etc what actually happened in those 13 years? You'll note that the Modern Slavery Act 2015 was a Cameron Policy, not a Labour one. Blair prattled on about "Social Inclusion" except 7 years before him I was included in everything. By the time Labour left office there was nothing.

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  175. Here's a thing ....

    A couple of years ago, after writing this, and our acquiring of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 I back linked this Post onto a YouTube Channel run by someone called Little Dread, who had posted a superb Documentary called "A Journey through Slavery".

    That, I thought was that.

    Then I started seeing someone in the Town who was staying at the Travelodge. This must have been for a couple of Years - until one Day I got talking to him. An unusually tall Bloke called David who went on about those "nasty little grungy Guitar Solos" on a Manic Street Preachers Song.

    You don't suppose he can be connected with a psuedo ironic Channel on YouTube, a Street in Portishead, and Jimmy Hendrix's "Little Wing" do you? Maybe it's "Freebird" by Lynyrd Skynyrd (not my favourite Group) or even Papa Whatsit, also on youtube.

    Maybe all of them are associated with certain exploitative 70's Hippies in the Town who do like fiddling with those trisyllaballic Words!

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  176. Result!!!!!

    Bristol University has decided to set up a Process by which People can express their Views on various Buildings on the Campus being named after those involved with the Slave Trade.

    Rather like other Bristol Landmarks like the former Colston Hall and Colston School the University will drop the controversial Names in favour of other, more acceptable ones.

    Those being considered are .....

    Wills Memorial Building
    Fry Building
    Merchant Venturers Building
    HH Wills Physics Laboratories
    Goldney Hall
    Wills Hall
    Dame Monica Wills Chapel

    So, it looks like one of Britain's most prestigious Academic Establishments might relent and hopefully set a Precedent.

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