Halloween and why God Ain't all That

“Are we right to encourage our children to gamble with evil?” 

shrieked the headline of a double page article in the Chronicle & Echo on October 31, “even in a light-hearted event?” 

Intriguing fodder for thought from the clergy you might muse? But frankly it isn't. It's just stupid.

Included within this spurious diatribe festered some of the most fascinating yet risible statements, I’ve had both the joy and misfortune of spluttering my way through for, ooh, at least two days, (the astonishing autocratic and misleading untruths peddled by Alan Johnson and Gordon Brown regarding the reasons for sacking Bristol University's head of Psychopharmacology, Professor David Nutt, exemplified a complete knee-jerk contempt for scientific reasoning and the notion of soberly weighing-up evidence). 

Try this for size.

The Chronicle confidently claims that this is the burning question of the week. Said metaphysical quandary has apparently been giving Moulton Parish Church’s Reverend Peter Breckwoldt sleepless nights clutching his crucifix white-knuckled or cuddling a furry hot water bottle glugging away inside with steaming hot holy water right up to its rubbery screw-top, poor fellow.

EVIL

Gamble... Hmm... With evi-

Sorry, did he just say gamble with evil? Regarding Halloween?

I’d never considered this before for some reason. It had never once occurred, even for a fleeting moment, the myriad of demons or wraiths that could be involuntarily summoned because of a humble game of apple bobbing. Can you dare to envisage the armies of warlocks or shape-shifters that might use the simple carving of a pumpkin as some kind of gateway into our world before unleashing their pernicious fury? How about those beasts and behemoths that could manifest their physical being into our reality just because some devil-may-care teenager decides to buy a Dracula cape from Toys ‘R’ Us?

This is terrifying stuff.

Although, having said that, with a nanosecond of consideration, I’m not sure I quite understand where either the gambling or the evil enter into the equation?
 
It appears our plucky Reverend is precisely the kind of jamfool who believes that the tumbler's erratic waddling movement across a Ouija board isn’t down to your hilarious prankster mate Jeremy.

Or me.

SHAMELESS TWADDLE

The church has apparently been busily distributing leaflets to parishioners asking them to consider their responsibilities as parents when it comes to Halloween. Or roughly translated, trying to emotionally play on the vulnerabilities of people who have already been so indoctrinated that they struggle to peer beyond this shameless twaddle. What a waste of precious pamphlet material - they could have been pizza menus.

According to the leaflet: “Concentrating on evil brings fear to the impressionable young minds. For some it is upsetting and causes nightmares. This is often underestimated.”

Er, (snort) kind of (cough), 'scuse me - PTOOEY! - a little like teaching children that if they don’t live a God-fearing, altruistic, guilt-free existence then unfortunately it’s an eternity stretched agonisingly across the lake of fire while a particular horned Prince of Darkness gores excruciatingly at their nether-regions until the end of time. Which incidentally, never, ever, ever, ever ends.

WoAhAhAhAhAhAaHaAhAaHaA - cue flash of lightning...

zIiGgZzZzlAaAsH!

I remember thinking that I was going to burn in infinite torment shortly after discovering the wicked art of whacking-off. And by God, if as an adolescent you started to harbour any uncouth feelings of attraction towards persons of the same sex as yourself then forget the good deeds my son, it’s eternal damnation no matter what. Even if you saved forty-nine piping priests from a burning bazaar and perished rescuing the fiftieth.

This painful drivel continues: “Christians believe that evil is a real but defeated power. Halloween, however, is about evil triumphant, where it is in the ascendant and is given too much importance. For Christians, Halloween is a distortion of reality. It may also give children a false sense of the power of evil.” 

Holy shit. 

BRASS BOLLOCKED BUFFOON

Forgive me for taking the liberty of informing this feckless outmoded dunderhead that evil is not a hairy, fanged, four-legged phantom; neither is it an unmentionable, stench-ridden monstrosity kept shackled in the attic; and it ain't a bloodcurdling, shadowy miscreation that descends upon unsuspecting wretches who indulge in the odd seasonal pumpkin soup-slurping session, engulfing them in a tornado of cannibalistic zombie dust.

And it most certainly is not defeated.

Here’s what evil is:

Evil is the Islamic extremist who screeches, ‘Allahu Akbar' seconds before detonating his/her bomb-vest, indiscriminately slaughtering whichever innocent victims happen to be standing nearby. Evil is the calculating fiend who swipes a young girl off the street at a bus stop and bundles her into the back of his transit van, only for her to surface again years later as a pile of bones next to a motorway. Evil is the priest who abuses the children left in his trust and destroys their innocence and subsequently their lives. Evil is a former Hitler Youth Pope who staunchly opposes poverty-stricken Africans or Brazilians or Filipinos from using condoms in the midst of an apocalyptic AIDS pandemic. 

Evil is a stealthy Shaolin wasp lurking in your trackie b’s.

Ultimately, evil is human. 

It is homo sapien – a man or a woman. It is a bipedal, walking, talking, thinking, conscious and sadistic being with no empathy, no sympathy and no remorse. Evil is a person, or persons.

Kids know full well that witches and vampires and ogres and werewolves don't exist because this is regularly pointed out to them. What confuses things is when a bunch of adults tell them with stony-faced sincerity that there is a place called Hell where the landlord is a cloven-hoofed, horned sadist who doesn’t scrimp on the heating.

If you really want to see what strange forms evil can take then you need look no further than the Reverend Peter Breckwoldt himself and his ridiculous superstitious, hypocritical, baseless, mystical, humourless bunkum. I’d cast a horrible spell on this boneheaded, blithering bumblespanner if only such a thing existed. And he’s got a stupid nefarious name with letters that shouldn’t go together. I say don your cape and witches hat and cast this aberration asunder.

Praise the fucking lord for Satan.

666

666.

A Tiny Shift of Perspective

Okay, so earlier while idly trying to think of a puntastical pearl of gibberishness to leave on a friend's Facebook wall, Sky News droned away in the background and I vaguely caught the tail-end of a bulletin reporting that the highest ranking member of the British millitary so far had been killed in the war in Afghanistan. For some reason this caught my attention.


I half-consciously waited for it to roll round again as I struggled with too many verbs playing online Scrabble.

Now I say for some reason this caught my attention, not because I don't care and certainly not because I'm yet another shallow, self-centered SpaceBooker tweeting in the breeze. I mean fuck, I've followed world news and (our) current affairs relatively closely since 9/11, (Beeb, Al-J, Sky, Indie, Sun, P.Eye, Viz etc).

And for two reasons. The first being that when I watched the footage unfolding of the people jumping from the burning towers it occurred to me that I had no idea what could possibly drive anyone to want to cause that much pain and suffering and I had to find out. The second being that I'd realised that the only thing I'd ever been any good at was writing (apart from wasting time) and with life going nowhere, maybe I should think about a career in journalism. And follow the news.

I don't have a career in journalism - so merely a thruppence-worth.

Oh, and partly because of my philanthropic love of all god's children, as long as they don't just stop suddenly, brandishing a shopping trolley in supermarket aisles (apparently death by frozen chicken-bludgeoning is still an illegal on-the-spot punishment).

I've just realised that my momentary genuine pangs of heartfelt sorrow are becoming increasingly more and more fleeting. They are diminishing in their momentariness.

Yes, I think I delved deeply into the motives behind the 9/11 atrocity and felt that although I was an ill-educated oik, I had a vaguely even-handed understanding of how the situation unfolded - the whys, whats, wheres and yawns etc. We're talking pissed-up politcal pub-chat authority here not a professor standard philosophical lecture. We're talking breeze.

Still, I felt that I should face the realities of what was actually going on.

From the comfort of my sitting room.

When Bush and Blair invaded Iraq I knew this was a bad idea as did hundreds of thousands of others for obvious reasons and the aftermath proved to be more horrific than we could have ever imagined. Worse than that bad microdot trip locked in a beehive -we've been through too much together.

But this soldier's death bothered me. I mean, I watched the Baghdad skyline being bombed into obliteration on BBC News (eating Brie probably). I watched Daniel Pearl with a gun held to his head (as I picked the pepperoni off someone else's cold pizza at 4am). I watched Saddam Hussein hang (with Daft Punk playing in one ear whilst texting some cretin). I saw the online beheading of Ken Bigley. It was one of the most terrible things I've ever seen, especially following such depraved and harrowing abuse.

The beheading of American businessman Nick Berg was somehow worse.

How can it be possible to try and quantify distinctions between such terrible acts? I found that I could. And so could most of my friends. We're not sickos or deviants or vouyeurs or stalkers - most of them are well-educated, successful, well-rounded human beings (myself excluded). So what has become of us?

These things affected me deeply I'd thought. I'd surely considered all the implications (imaginable) of what this meant to the families involved. I'd thought about the longevity of their lives and how they'd wake up every morning for eternity knowing that their true love was slowly slaughtered with the worst fear already in their heart. I'd thought how they could never be happy again. I'd felt the same watching documentaries about serial killers and their victims or the families and survivors of natural tragedies or homelessness or ill-treatment of the elderly or the disabled or prostitution or Brookside.

My god, to know your child was raped and killed by some deranged, toothless zero with one eye on dip, the other on dazzle. I'd commit suicide, wouldn't you? To watch your brother slowly eaten to death by Motor Neurone Disease? To find the cadavar of the daughter who frequently stole from you, slumped, with needle still in hand in her bedroom (and to realise the last thing she saw on Earth was Big Brother 2009 Live Streaming).

I've thought about the pain these people have suffered and got to the point where my sympathy has become, er, robotic? On September 11 I lay awake for most of the night turning events over in my mind. On 7/7 I already felt that this was coming our way and was ready to be appalled and furious. I was also phoning round friends in London to check they weren't in a zillion pieces. In no particular order, I took on board the London/Madrid bombings, the Beslan school-siege, the Mumbai attacks, the war in Lebanon, Cho Seung-Hui's shooting-up of a high school, the invasion of Gaza, the death of Michael Jackson, the genocide in Darfur, the Bus Stalker Killer, the grisly assassination of Neda.

And the sad news that Margaret Thatcher had broken her arm.

And each time I swear I've truly felt it. And each time the encapsulation of all of the implications into emotion has got smaller, the time dwelt on them shorter. It's all there. Just micro-registered these days. Again not because I don't care but because I think I know all there is to know about these things and my brain has found a more efficient way to deal with them.

So this soldier...

The highest ranking British soldier to be killed in action since 1982's Falklands War. I did the obligatory gulp and cursory heartfelt ache - still half thinking about some stupid pun to daub on my mate's virtual wall and then realised that for the Taliban this was a major coup. I've read of the killing of so many Taliban leaders and thought nothing of it other than that the army are partially succeeding in their mission. For the Taliban this a major scalp that will envigour their troops. This is the most complicated strategy game imaginable and with the most appalling of consequences. And it appears to still be in its spawning stages. The strategy is all we really hear about in the news but this overlooks the realities.

For the first time ever I saw things from their side (things they consider to be positive), not because I sympathised with them but because I was angry. Like watching the German fans celebrate when they've beaten England on penalties. You kind of want to get into their heads just for a nanosecond to try and understand their inexplicable joy. Like looking through the ski-mask eyeholes of a horror-movie serial killer armed with a nailgun, stalking through the incubater ward in a hospital. Or the alien race that invades our planet and wants to exterminate us all. Hmm, how would I do it? I thought I'd applied this empathetic logic to our real life war and understood its implications - I certainly had regarding the 9/11 jumpers. I've simply forgotten. With just a tiny shift of perspective I realise I don't know everything at all. In fact I don't really know anything. My emotions have logged-off. This is so complex and motley that there are angles I've never even considered.

I actually know nothing.

I am just another shallow SpaceBooker twatting utter breeze. The empathy that I thought was sincere is merely mechanical. Nearly everyone I know has watched at least one of the beheading videos or has an opinion on Gaza or Somalia or Hollyoaks. Far too many appear to have an encyclopeadic knowledge of serial killers. They all probably watched these atrocities for the same reasons as me. An interest in the unjustly morbid or a feeling of self-righteousness. And we've all become immune.

There, I've said it.

We've watched so many horrors unfolding live-on-air that we think we know all there is to know about human suffering and tragedy so we deal with it as we would a lack of any donut peaches in Morrisons' fruit aisle.

I can't remember the last time I actually read an article in a newspaper about a soldier being killed in Afghanistan. I've registered each and every headline but I haven't actually read them. What was I going to read? Soldier killed on foot patrol? Roadside bomb? Family informed? Cue momentary sorrow. I knew it all already.

My god. We are the automaton generation. We function with C3P0-like esoteric, robotic emotion. This is scary.

So anyway, Lieutenant Colonel Rupert Thorneloe was commanding officer of the 1st Battalion Welsh Guards. The 1,000 troops under his command are deployed in Lashkar Gah and the surrounding areas in Helmand province. He was 39 years old and married with two daughters. He was also a keen polo player. An improvised explosive device exploded under his BvS 10 Viking armoured vehicle. He was killed instantly and his murder will rank highly on the Taliban's hit-list. Killed alongside him was Trooper Joshua Hammond of 2nd Royal Tank Regiment. Joshua was 18 years old and his death will be seen as a tactical success by the Taliban. So which one ranks more importantly? Well obviously neither, because both, when you actually look closely and don't flip the pages, are encircled by an incredibly complicated spiral of sorrow. The tactical strategies no longer come into the equation.

Just some young dad dude or a funny teenager that leave everything empty for those closest to them when they're not there any more. Hey, I forgot to care too.

Click. Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

The G8 Summit: A Success Story?

As the inspiring We're Not Afraid* campaign gathers more and more subscribers at an amazing rate in response to the July 7 atrocities, and July 21 bungled attacks in London, it is clear that al-Qa'ida haven't succeeded in their objectives. What they did achieve though, was to divert attention away from the issues up for discussion at the G8 Summit in Gleneagles, Scotland.
The bombs were timed to coincide with the gathering of arguably the most powerful men in the world, including President Bush, UN Secretary Kofi Annan and Tony Blair. The results of the summit were overshadowed by the aftermath of the London terrorist strikes.

So what was the outcome of these discussions?

The G8, (no, it's not text-speak for gate), comprises of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the US, with the heads of state or government meeting annually to tackle major economic and political issues facing domestic societies and the international community. They deal with macroeconomic management (obviously), international trade and the relationships between developing countries. Member states act as host on a rotational basis, and 2005 has seen the United Kingdom at the helm, with Mr Blair chairing proceedings.

Top of the agenda at Gleneagles were Africa and climate change. These two issues represent the most serious problems facing the international community, presently and for the foreseeable future. The other pressing issue being peace in the Middle East.

As things currently stand, Africa will not meet any of the Millennium Development Goals. In a continent where 3,000 children die every single day from malaria, action is long overdue.

Concerning global-warming, ice in the Arctic has shrunk by 1,000,000 square kilometres and with sea-levels rising, we have lived through the hottest 10 years currently on record. All occurring since 1991.

So what was achieved? These are some of main promises:

Africa:

• The 18 poorest countries have had their national debt cancelled. There are more than 40 still waiting.
• Annual development aid will be increased by $25 billion by 2010 (as part of an overall increase of $50 billion for all developing countries) - more than doubling the 2004 level.
  There will be universal access to anti-HIV/Aids drugs by 2010.
• Funding to eradicate Polio.
• To reach 85% of people vulnerable to malaria with drugs and bed-nets, with a view to saving 600,000 children's lives each year.
• 75,000 African Union troops (including the 20,000-strong AU Stand-By Force) will be trained and equipped to help prevent and resolve conflict and war.

Climate-Change:

• To promote energy efficiency and to finance clean technologies - coal, diesel and methane, renewable energy, bioenergy and more efficient power grids.
• To promote the research and development of hydrogen-powered vehicles that emit water rather than harmful fumes.
• Not much else.

Peace In The Middle East:

• Support for the Quartet Special Envoy for Gaza Disengagement, James Wolfensohn, regarding the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and parts of the West Bank.
• $3 billion agreed for the Palestinian Authority for investment in infrastructure with contributions over the next 3 years to help build the economy.
• A pledge of support for the newly-elected democratic government of Lebanon and urging the withdrawal of Syrian forces there.

So, some promising results have come out of last month's summit, but behind the posturing pop stars and their politician pals' spiel, we need to see some real results. There is certainly a lot more that could have been done.
This year alone, we have seen genocide in Darfur, western Sudan, where the civil-war is ongoing. We have watched all-too-familiar images of famine in Niger which the west knew was coming - there were appeals for food as far back as last November. We have witnessed the demolition of shantytowns in Zimbabwe, rendering 700,000 people homeless, under the orders of dictator Robert Mugabe.

This is while Africa is top of the G8 agenda.

We are now seeing progress in Israel with the dismantling of Jewish settlements, which must be incredibly difficult for all concerned - with Israeli removing Israeli - but this is a huge step forward for the Middle East and they should be commended for their actions.

As for global warming, Mr Bush has refused to budge, having been handed the Kyoto Agreement and blowing his nose with it. He has finally conceded that climate change does exist, and is a genuine problem caused by human activity though, so there is hope for further progress when the G8 meet again in November...

We shall see.

Is it hot in here or is it me? aTcHoOo!

* http://www.werenotafraid.com/ is essential viewing.

The Roadmender: Beyond Repair?

On the evening of November 10, more than 150 people congregated at The Roadmender for a public meeting to discuss the venue's future. Tellingly, not one single member of the Conservative County Council cabinet, those responsible for the outcome, could be bothered to turn up.

Despite having the clout of showbiz radio-types Jo Whiley and Andrew Collins, who put their names to the Save Our Roadmender petition, alongside six and a half thousand other of us more lowly music fans (and regular venue users), on Monday, November 14, the cabinet voted to withdraw its funding from early next year.

The Roadmender was receiving around £140,000 from local council grants - £58,230 of which came from Northampton County Council annually. In April this year, the East Midlands Arts Council announced that it was withdrawing its funding which accounted for %40 of the venue's grant income. This becomes effective as of April 2006, which means that The Roadmender will probably have to close its doors for the last time before Christmas. Seasons' greetings to the town's youth from a contemptuous council.

A recommendation was made to cabinet for the council to end its financial commitment to the venue and work alongside trustees to help secure grants and sponsorship from other organisations.

Does this strike anyone else as being a little like stealing a kid's BMX and then offering him/her to hop onto their own stunt-pegs for a trundle down to the local Halfords? Sheesh.

Cabinet member for Community Services, Councillor Rosemary Bromwich has stated that, '..all our investigations and debates come back to the same point - this money would be better invested in other cultural activities and projects for young people.'

As for which ones? Hmm?

A beach at Sixfields? Maybe a simulated lunar surface in Jimmy's End? Well, you try and find out. She also cites other problems with the venue: poor pedestrian access, lack of parking availability, safety issues due to its location next to a dual-carriageway, etc. Now I genuinally don't want to be a pedant but these objections just don't stand up to close scrutiny.

Since when did a 5 minute walk from the town centre constitute poor pedestrian access or is there a pool of quicksand somewhere along the journey that I've somehow overlooked? Are there wild beasts to be dodged - lions, crocodiles, maybe even velociraptors?

A lack of parking availability? Forgive me, but is there not a council-owned, multi-storey carpark directly opposite the venue? It's the big, grey, oblong-shaped, tiered structure. You know, some kind of garagey, parking-lot type of affair.

I think it's called the Mayorhold. I assume there's no way that council departments can work together to solve this tricky strategic problem? Besides, the kids who attend the alcohol-free nights at The Roadmender don't drive there. They get dropped off by their parents.

The venue is also located next to a duel-carriageway. By sheer coincidence it is also sited directly adjacent to a pedestrian-crossing that traverses said dragster-alley. This 'duel-carriageway' is in the middle of the town centre and with the sheer profusion of traffic lights, the labyrinthine one-way system and spawning speed cameras every 100 metres it seems unlikely that Doc Emmet Brown and Marty McFly would have selected it to pick up the required speed of 88mph needed to coincide with a bolt of lightning due to strike the wonky weather vane atop of Northampton's Best Kebab House at the bottom of Gold Street on the morning of Friday, October 25, 1985.

1.21 Gigawatts? Great Scott!

Jon Gloerson, interim Chief Executive of The Roadmender says they are repaying their debts on time and that the balance is rapidly decreasing. They are in the middle of a turn-around operation where trading deficits have been reduced by £60,000 from 2002/03 to 2003/04. He goes on to say that in 2004/05, The Roadmender broke even and the financial projections for 2005/06 point to the accumulation of a surplus which would help to alleviate the Arts Council funding shortfall.

The council isn't interested.

Mr Gloerson also says that they have been approached by a number of possible new partners. Let's hope so.

There's a venue in Harlow, Essex called The Square which is funded by Essex County Council and managed by Essex Youth Service through its Harlow Locality. They have seen the likes of Blur and The Beta Band put on performances there, just as we have at The Roadmender. The Square has an extensive programme of live-performances, video and recording facilities, and a Rock School among many other ongoing projects. They receive funding from the Arts Council (East), the regional Arts Lottery Programme and the European Social Fund.

Sadly, what's good enough for the youth of Harlow isn't good enough for the youth of Northampton.

Do you know how much 45 minutes of Mr Droning Keating cost our council at this year's Balloon Festival?

Trust me, you really don't want to.

Up in Smoke?

From Puff the Magic Dragon to Puff Daddy, it seems that smoking, despite the clear health risks, is as popular today as it's ever been. Whether your tabs are just something to draw shapes in the air with when you're shakin' your stuff on the dancefloor or a device to add extra emphasis to your gesticulations and dramatic pauses, it seems that smoking is here to stay. But should we have to inhale other people's second-hand Richmond Superkings' smog whenever we go out for a drink or some grub? According to Liberal Democrat Lord Avebury, around 4,800 people die each year as a result of passive smoking.

The goverment's recent White Paper on Public Health plans to make most enclosed public areas, including offices and factories, smoke-free zones. The Department of Health received an unprecedented one thousand submissions from individuals regarding the paper. It will only be private members' clubs (where votes will decide) and pubs (which do not serve prepared food) that will not have to adhere to the new laws. This means up to 90% of bars will become smoke-free within the next few years. The restrictions will come into force in NHS and goverment buildings by 2006, with public places following suit in 2007, and licensed premises the year after that.

Whether the government will eventually be willing to follow their Irish counterparts by enforcing an outright nationwide ban on smoking in all pubs, restaurants and workplaces, as the British Medical Association would like, remains to be seen. As the law currently stands in Ireland, pub and restaurant owners face fines of up to £2,000 if punters are caught puffing on the premises.

It seems that due to the pragmatic nature of the Irish, the ban has been declared a success, even leading to a fall in the sale of cigarettes.

But can it work here?
JD Wetherspoon has announced plans to ban smoking in all of its 650 pubs by May 2006; two years before government laws come into action. The company, which pioneered no-smoking areas, has said that 60 of its pubs will become smoke-free zones in May of this year, amid worries that smoky pubs are deterring customers.

Smoking in public places isn't just a concern for us Brits. Bans have been introduced in a wide range of different countries across the world, from Australia to Tanzania.

In Oz, sparking up a fag after surfing on Manly Beach, one of the most picturesque stretches of coastline down under, will result in a hefty fine.

Sound harsh? Then try lighting up in the remote Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan, where they have introduced a total ban on tobacco sales. The penalties imposed on hotels, bars and restaurants is the loss of their business licenses and heavy fines. Could Bhutan become the world's first smoke-free nation?

In Cuba, the home of the cigar, their chuffing dictator Fidel Castro can't even blaze-up in a restaurant in his own capital without having to cough up some pesos for the fine he'd be subsequently slapped with. You're Havana laugh, (apologies).

So smokers are being marginalised the world over: some say demonised. Pro-smoking campaigners have suggested that businesses should be allowed to choose their own policy to suit customers and staff, for what is a perfectly legal habit that brings in millions of pounds to the treasury each year. Are smokers being treated like snoutcasts? Fag lepers? Should they ring bells to warn of their coming? Well, maybe not quite yet.

It seems things aren't as cut and dried as they first appear with regards to people's tolerance of smoking bans. Caterer & Hotelkeeper magazine recently reported that a pub landlord had lifted a smoking ban at The Junction Inn in Groombridge, Kent after sales plummeted by 'thousands of pints' during the 6 months of fume-free fun. Although food sales improved during the ban, they met only half of the loss in beer sales, which, over a 3-month period was equivalent to 100 barrels. The landlord said that said that the village regulars had felt alienated by the ban and had voted with their feet, but were now coming back and pushing sales up drastically.

So it can be difficult to gauge public opinion on this divisive issue. Ultimately, there is no way that non-smokers should be forced to breathe in other people's smoke against their wishes. No-smoking areas are not satisfactory - smoke is a feral beast, seemingly oblivious or ignorant to No Smoking signs, rendering them almost pointless.

Smoking is without doubt a killer. However, on the flip-side, the pro-smoking lobby isn't just made up of hardliners who think that Nicorette patches are for people who are too scared to smoke proper tabs. A great proportion of them would love to kick the habit, but you know, smokes just go so well with beer.

So we need a climate of tolerance and choice do we not? If you don't want to breathe in smoke, you shouldn't have to. If you do, then you should be able to.

Why not smoking pubs and non-smoking pubs? Then we can make our own choice of where we work, eat or drink. Not all non-smokers object to the evil vapour. Not all smokers insist on sucking the twisted mist constantly. In a democracy, where minorities are supposed to be represented, we should all have the choice...

Er, anyone got a light?

Do we need Trident?

"We don't need dangerous and costly Trident and cruise missiles," he stated back in 1983. The following year he called them,"...unacceptable, expensive, economically wasteful and militarily unsound."

Who did, you might be asking yourself?

Well surprisingly, these were the words of Tony Blair twenty three years before his decision to rush plans through parliament to update Britain's Trident missile-carrying nuclear submarines at an initial cost of £20 billion before he finally leaves office. The fleet will take an estimated seventeen years to develop and build and its shelf-life will run only until 2050. The final cost to the tax-payer looks set to run to over £70 billion. This is a programme that is fully supported by Prime Minister in-waiting Gordon Brown. The 160 warheads will have the combined power of 1,280 Hiroshimas - just one warhead that killed over 80,000 people in a single Japanese city in 1945. More than 90 Labour MPs voted against the proposed upgrade and the vote only succeeded with the support of the Conservative Party.

In 1968 the Non-Proliferation Treaty was opened for signature with the object of preventing the the spread of nuclear weapons technology, and to promote the peaceful use of nuclear energy; its ongoing goal being complete nuclear disarmament. The Treaty entered into force in 1970 and 188 parties have now joined, including five nuclear powers - United States, United Kingdom, France, Russia and China. The Treaty is legally binding on all states that are parties to it. Pakistan, India and Israel (all nuclear powers) have neither signed nor ratified the Treaty while North Korea withdrew in 2003.

Prime Minister Blair has said that Trident is the country's "ultimate insurance" against the return of a threat from a major nuclear power or against the new threat from rogue states such as Iran or North Korea who might support nuclear terrorism. He went on to say that Trident would only be used in self-defence.

So are the government behaving illegally? Well this is a matter that is still up for debate. Critics argue that the agreement between the UK and the US is a contravention of NPT rules as the transfer of nuclear weapons between states is not permitted. The goverment claims that only technology is being transferred and therefore the NPT is not being broken. It is illegal under the NPT to use a weapon which cannot discriminate between civilians and militants. Does this mean Trident breaches humanitarian law?

It seems that the only way to make a decision on which side of the debate to stand depends on a moral and ethical judgement as to whether you think that the money is being spent wisely in a post-Cold War world where the threats facing the UK as a nation have transformed dramatically.

Protestors involved with Faslane 365 calling themselves No Nukes Northants know exactly which side of the divide they fall. Evoking the spirit of the Women For Life On Earth, who, in September 1981, marched from Cardiff to RAF Greenham Common Airbase in Berkshire to challenge, through debate, the decision to site 96 cruise missiles there. On arrival, their request for a debate was ignored and they set up the Women's Peace Camp and so began a most audacious and lengthy protest that lasted for 19 years.

On October 1, 2006, Faslane 365 began what is to be a one year continuous blockade of the Faslane Naval Base. The blockade will run until September 30 this year and Faslane 365 are asking a wide range of local, national and even international people from all sections of civil society to assemble at the base with a commitment to staying for at least two days to make their concept for a peaceful future visible, and to aid the idea to demonstrate/block the base all year round. Faslane 365 staunchly promote non-violent protest and absolute respect for the opponent and everyone invovled. They undergo preparation and training to make sure they meet these ends.

On April 2, a number of No Nukes Northants protestors from across the county joined the '365 protestors and held their first in a number of peaceful demonstrations at Faslane Naval Base, situated on the Gare Loch; extending northwards from the Firth of Clyde in Scotland. The NNN protestors ranged in age from 14-50 and took the marathon journey to the base to convene with other protestors (including Northampton Action For Peace) armed with banners, scripts and musical instruments.

First day festivities from the Northants party included a performance of their play, 'Anti-Nuclear Monologues' which was written especially for the occasion. It follows the personal history of four of the protestors from the Aldermaston marches in the 1950s via Greenham Common to the present-day remonstrations. They also read poems about peace, held a Ceilidh (Gaelic gathering) and sang peace songs while sporting a rather fetching array of slogan-splashed pants. As in Y-fronts.

According to NNN's Chris Lowe:

"I think one of the major problems with this government is that they think they can do as they please without the consent of the people of this country. Now is the time to say no, this is not what we want. We don't want to send out a message of war against other nations, we want to send a message of peace, this is how we can best assure a safe and stable future for everyone."

For further reading:

Trident On Trial by Angie Zelter, or visit:

www.myspace.com/nonukesnorthants
http://www.faslane365.org/
http://www.actionforpeace.org.uk/

The Bombs and the Backlash 07/05

And so the inevitable happened. On the morning of July 7, as rush-hour commuters headed to work in the sunshine, London was hit by a series of simultaneous bomb blasts on the underground (and another shortly afterwards on a bus), killing 55 and injuring hundreds more, with the death-toll looking likely to rise. Al-Qa'ida had brought their bloody terrorist campaign to the heart of the nation's capital. The murder was indiscriminate, the victims arbitrary - colour or religion unimportant.


London had been in euphoric mood before the attacks, having staged the impressive Live8 concert, and just the day before, having been awarded the 2012 Olympics. This had no bearing on the timing of the bombings though. With Tony Blair currently chairing the G8 summit in Scotland, world-leaders including Bush, Chirac and Putin all on British soil, the eyes of the world were already watching us. This is what makes it hard to understand why the security-alert level wasn't at its highest - with so many powerful politicians here and countless police officers north of the border in Gleneagles.

So why are we a target?

We had been told it was not if but when we would be hit and apparently there is absolutely nothing we can do to stop this. Blair has also claimed that the attacks have nothing to do with the war in Iraq. This is a display of breathtaking arrogance. When you declare an unprecedented pre-emptive war on an Islamic nation there are surely going to be factions that fight back. This is the nature of war. It is a two or more-sided grisly affair. After the London bombs, Blair has said that the killing of innocent civilians is 'totally unacceptable', yet under his (and Bush's) orders, nearly 100,000 innocent civilians have been killed in Iraq. Over there they are regarded as 'collateral damage'.

Iraq is the new breeding ground for 'Islamic' extremists and Mr Bush and Mr Blair have given them their cause. The continued killing of Muslim civilians (not only in Iraq) gives al-Qa'ida the potential, which is rising exponentially, for the recruitment of operatives. The extremists are of course completely un-Islamic and to give them a title pertaining to Islam is unfair to Muslims everywhere.

The backlash has already begun with mosques in Leeds, Birkenhead and Bristol being subjected to arson attacks by right-wing groups. The Muslim community should no more be under suspicion for the atrocities in London than the indigenous-white, heterosexual population were in 1999 when right-wing extremist David Copeland was placing nail-bombs in Soho, Brixton and Brick Lane, targeting ethnic minorities and homosexuals. The Muslim community at large have no more influence over the radical extremists than I do over the activities of Combat 18 and their political wing The British National Party. These attacks were an attempt to cause suspicion and mistrust - to divide people. They have sectarian violence in their plans. It is wrong to say that to be critical of the war in Iraq is to legitimise al-Qa'ida's agenda. It has gone beyond that now. We have seen bloodshed on the streets of London, suicide-bombers committing cold-blooded murder that was previously confined to places like Jerusalem, Grozny, Bali or Beslan.

Clearly the War on Terror isn't working. We need to look at our alignment with US foreign policy. We need to address the issue of the withdrawal of Israeli settlements in Gaza with more veracity.

The problems are multi-faceted. They need to be tackled at the root-causes. These suicide-bombers were homegrown. We need to address the poverty and social deprivation of a large majority of the young British Muslim population - the disaffected youth who are vulnerable to being coerced into committing atrocities in the name of a twisted version of the Koran by nihilistic criminals with promises of being martyred for the worldwide jihad, thereby cementing their place in history.

Londoners have of course reacted with bravery and dignity.

Did the cowards of al-Qa'ida really expect anything less?

Northern Ireland: A Very Concise History

Following Northern Ireland's shock 1-0 victory over a lacklustre England side in a World Cup qualifier at Windsor Park on September 7 (their first against the old enemy since 1972) it was easy to imagine a jubilant mood that would sweep through the province uniting people, regardless of religion.

This of course did not transpire, when on Saturday 10, the people of Belfast witnessed rioting, involving gun and grenade attacks, that went on until the following Tuesday. During this time, more than sixty police officers and several dozens of civilians were wounded. The trouble began when the British authorities refused to allow a Protestant march to walk along the edge of west Belfast, a Catholic area.

There are still deep divisions among the people of Northern Ireland, but where did it all begin?

During the reign of Henry VIII (1509-1549) Catholic Ireland was brought under the rule of Protestant England and so began the tensions that have existed to this day. Some fifty years later, with James I (1603-1625) perched on the throne, a Protestant majority was created in the north of the country, which still exists today.

Another fifty or so years later, Catholic James II (1685-1688) was to only briefly sport the shiny hat before being defeated at the Battle of the Boyne by Protestant William of Orange (1689-1702) and the Protestants again took control.

In 1920, The Government of Ireland Act decided to split the country in two due to the religious divisions, creating a predominantly Catholic south and a predominantly Protestant north.

In 1949, the south cut all ties with Britain and became the Republic of Ireland. The six counties that make up Northern Ireland - Antrim, Armagh, Down, Fermanagh, Londonderry and Tyrone - remained part of the United Kingdom. Unsurprisingly, not everyone was happy with this political and religious division, with the minority Catholic population in the north preferring to be part of a united Ireland, while the Protestants are staunchly determined to stay part of the UK.

This eventually led to the forming of paramilitary groups on both sides of the sectarian divide.

The period known as The Troubles refers to the last thirty-five years or so, beginning with the Civil Rights marches of the late 1960s up until 1998's Good Friday Agreement, which created a 108-member Assembly and 14-member executive body which represented both Catholics and Protestants.

Three months after the signing of the agreement, the worst single atrocity of The Troubles took place with the Omagh bombing which claimed the lives of 29 people.

With the IRA now deciding to lay down their arms and choose dialogue over bombs and bullets there is much more hope for the future of Northern Ireland, but these ceasefires are always uneasy.

Following the rioting in Belfast this September, which left police vehicles riddled with bullet-holes, the British Governer, Peter Hain has said that the outlawed Protestant group, 'The Ulster Volunteer Force' had effectively broken its ceasefire and that Britain no longer accepted it as valid.

So the undoing of centuries of animosity is not going to happen overnight, when not all paramilitary groups have laid down their weapons, murders and punishment beatings are still commonplace and there is a frightening rate of suicide by victimized teenagers. Since 1966 more than 3,500 people have been killed and over 36,000 injured.

When Mr Bush and Mr Blair have finished sorting out the sectarian violence, power-sharing issues and religious mistrust between the Sunnis and the Shias 2,500 miles away in Iraq, perhaps they could tidy things up here too?