Crying out loud

I've been crying out loud

First thing in the morning

Every flipping evening,

But as a New Day stirs

Spirit is lifting.

I want to make a change

Not just for me

All of us together, forever free,

Releasing spontaneous kisses to the day

Against the torrents of social injustice

For hope and happiness, a lighter rain to fall,

Whatever the weather will keep releasing my poetry

Each sentence will speak for itself

Crying out loud. 

So Long Heathcote Williams ( 15/11/41 - 1/7/17) Radical Poet, political activist and rebel spirit

John Henley Jasper Heathcote Williams  the radical poet, political activist, anarchist visionary, pamphleteer, esteemed playwright, actor and polymathic English genius, he was also an intermittent painter, sculptor and long time conjurer, I have been notfied by text by an old acquaintance that he has sadly died at the age of 75. He had been ill for some time and died yesterday in Oxford.
Heathcote  the son of an Old Bailey barrister, Harold Heathcote Williams, and his wife, Julian (nee Henley), was born in Helsby, Cheshire, and was educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford, where he studied law but did not take his degree as he was already researching his first book, about the postwar soap-box orators in Hyde Park. In the mid-60s he became a pin-up of the underground press and a talismanic, though always elusive, figure in the counter-culture of the day.After his schooldays at Eton, he hacksawed his surname's double-barrel to become Heathcote Williams, a moniker more in keeping perhaps with his new-found persona. .
His first book, The Speakers, was published in 1964. A portrait of the orators at Speakers Corner in Hyde Park, it was  greeted with critical acclaim.He went on to author many polemical poems, written over four decades in a unique documentary style. They included works about the devastation being wrought on the natural environment – Sacred Elephant, Whale Nation,which in 1988 became "the most powerful argument for the newly instigated worldwide ban on whaling  and Falling For a Dolphin – and Autogeddon, a grim and majestic attack on the car. I have posted several here over the  years, his investigative, documentary style of writing a huge influence on me. His muse was fuelled by a witty and beautiful anger.
His last volume of poetry about Trump, American Porn, was published in January.Williams wrote that Trump’s real name - Drumpf - “suggests dumbness, even the passing of wind/ As well as the merciful transience of fame.”
In March Williams held a talk at Blackwell's Bookshop to discuss his latest book, which focused on Home Secretary Boris Johnson and Brexit, .The Blond Beast of Brexit: a Study in Depravity  a pamphlet in the radical, Swiftean tradition of pamphleteering a  20,000-word collage of the most maniacal, hypocritical, and cruel things the former mayor has ever said or done.
The many influences on his own writing included  ; Gerard Winstanley, William Blake, Percy  Shelley, Wiliam  Burroughs, Harold Pinter, William Burroughs, George Orwell,  Emma Goldman, Bakunin, Kropotkin, and the world he saw around him.
Heathcote's first full length play, AC/DC, won a hat-trick of prestigious awards. His other plays include The Local Stigmatic, The Immortalist and Hancock's Last Half Hour. More recent works: Badshah Khan: Islamic Peace Warrior (Thin Man Press), a play about Christopher Marlowe, Killing Kit, due to be staged at the Cockpit, and a play about squatting and the homeless.
Williams was a leading activist in the London squatting scene in the 1970s and ran a squatters 'estate agency' called the 'Ruff Tuff Cream Puff'. In 1977 he and a couple of hundred fellow squatters established the 'state' of Frestonia in Notting Hill and declared independence from Britain. Then Shadow Chancellor, Geoffrey Howe wrote to express his support and Williams was appointed UK Ambassador. Frestonia lasted almost a decade and had its own institutions and postage stamps.Before Banksy, Heathcote was spray painting the walls of Buckingham Palace and Notting Hill's low rent district with protest graffiti and social messages.
Williams was  also for a time associate editor of the literary journal Transatlantic Review as well as being one of those responsible for the notorious alternative sex paper Suck. He was a frequent contributor to the London underground paper International Times during the 1970s, to the radical vegetarian magazine Seed and to The Fanatic, issues of which would appear sporadically and provocatively in different formats and various countries of Western Europe. In 1974, he launched his own mimeographed underground newspaper, The Sunday Head. It was published from his home in Notting Hill Gate, London at the time when he was also the impresario for Albion Free State’s Meat Roxy, a series of music, dance and poetry events held in a squatted, redundant bingo hall near the Portobello market.
An anthology of his tracts and manifestos from this period, , was announced by his then publisher but, to the disappointment of his fans, for some reason never actually appeared. A sampling did appear in a bi-lingual, limited edition titled Manifestoes from the Rotterdam-based Cold Turkey Press as well as in the Manchester literary magazine Wordworks in 1975. He also wrote extensively for the radio and  the television
As an actor his  film performances included Prospero in Derek Jarman's version of The Tempest (1979), Wish you Were Here (1987) and Sally Potter's  Orlando (1992).
A very self-effacing man, a romantic at heart,  Heathcote spent much of his time in rural Oxforshire. As a keen naturalist he even discovered a new species of honey-producing wasp on an expedition into the Amazon jungle.
He is survived by  Diana and their two daughters, China and Lily, three grandchildren, Freya, Albie and Wilf; Charlie Gilmour, his son with the novelist Polly Samson; and his younger sister, Prue.
A truly literary original who embodied the outsider rebel spirit. So long Heathcote,  thank you for the inspiration. R.I.P

From  Revolution - Heathcote Williams
 

Nonviolent direct action requires no-one’s permission

And, for dealing with capitalism’s beds of nails –

The spikes that are everywhere to deter rough sleepers –

Cans of concrete mix and the strategy fails.

 

Outside Foxtons, the upmarket Estate Agents,

There are rows of spikes to deter sleepers

So squatters delight in taking over Foxtons’ properties

To proclaim triumphantly, ‘Finders Keepers’.

In the nineteenth century the Rebecca rioters

Objected to tollgates “confining the rabble”.

They distracted the constables standing guard with a play

While they turned the tollgates into rubble.

 

Likewise the Luddites sneaked under the radar,

Disguising themselves in female dress,

They then took hammers to the mechanical looms

That were sacrificing them to ‘progress.’

  

In 1871 the Paris Commune declared Paris

To be the site of a “permanent festival”.

With their autonomous liberated city still haunted by the guillotine

This was considered more preferable.

 

In 1968 the revolutionary festival spirit broke out once more,

Enhanced by the Situationists’ declaration

That it was the revolution’s job to serve poetry

Not the job of poetry to serve the revolution.

And now interconnected activists

Tuned to a global brain

Can operate horizontally, without leaders,

To derail the hierarchical train

 

That drives a system dominated by oligarchs –

The corporate oligarchs of the one per cent –

Whose wealth spawns the tent-cities of the homeless

And who rule with no one’s consent.

   

And where property prices guarantee that the poor

Find themselves economically cleansed;

Where the disabled are deliberately disconnected

And the animal kingdom’s condemned.

 

The idea of revolution is essentially poetic,

Coming out of the soul like a rocket,

From something within that’s barbaric and wild –

To make the most exciting thing on the planet.

 

Like poetry, revolution gives you permission

To live on a higher level

And its reward is the sensation of challenging

The world, the flesh and the devil.

Stop Wars - Heathcote Williams

War’s devastation lets landscapes go to ruin. Air is defiled by dust and rank adrenalin. Stop Wars by Heathcote Williams. Narration & video by Alan Cox.

Source: International Times

All war is a symptom of man’s failure as a thinking animal.”
– John Steinbeck
.
One in eight babies is born in a war zone,
Its consciousness seized by toxic shock.
First made aware of life by an act of love
The flow of love, due to war, is blocked.

A mother’s milk dries up through anxiety.
Farmland fought over leads to famine.
War’s devastation lets landscapes go to ruin.
Air is defiled by dust and rank adrenalin.

With no haven in war’s psychotic maelstroms,
People are shot at random to see them fall.
It’s forbidden to kill yet war issues permission
Like an evil clown grinning, ‘Death’s a ball!’

War has been obsolete for thousands of years,
Yet the irrational still promote the deadly addiction
For state bullyboys with their territorial imperatives,
Spurning co-operation for low-minded competition.

‘Give me that. You can’t play with that. That’s mine.
‘I won’t be your friend if you don’t do what I want.’
Such playground motives lurk beneath realpolitik
As warmongers pretend self-interest’s irrelevant.

With serpentine hypocrisy they’re ‘humanitarians’
And it’s due to their ‘humanitarian’ instincts
That they vaporize babies with Brimstone missiles,
And that their enemies are swatted like insects.

Both Blue and Red Tories and the Yellow Lib Dems
Believe murder’s permissible in a ‘just war’.
They lack the moral imagination with which to see
It’s unjustified to bury human beings in gore.

In the words of Sun Tzu, “the supreme act of war
“Is to subdue the enemy without fighting” –
Since most wars end with each side’s negotiating
War itself may be substituted for talking.

And just as it’s a contradiction to have a civil war,
Since war is essentially uncivil,
The notion of a just war is equally specious
For war hands over justice to the devil.

Anarchy - 'NAMELESS WILDNESS' by Heathcote Williams.  

Some earlier posts :-

The Citizen's Arrest of War Criminal Tony Blair - Heathcote Williams

Royal Babylon by Heathcote Williams (rough cut)

An Iraqi child asks Tony Blair and George Bush: Are you happy now? - Heathcote Williams

IHow the ISIS theatre of murder was born - Heathcote Williams


International Times Archives:-

http://internationaltimes.it/author/heathcote/

Austerity Protest,Not one more Day: Thousands rally in London against the Tories.

Was pleased to have travelled up to London yesterday from West Wales, with local activists from Pembrokeshire People's Assembly against Austerity.
It was my first time out of Wales for 3 years after the loss of a dear one, so acted also as an inner cathartic symbol of release. We mere moved and angered as  our coach past the remnants of Grenfell Tower, I sensed a collective sense of shame at the tragedy and injustice of the situation.
We joined an estimated 100,000 people from across the country  in a protest that saw us gathering at Broadcast House and  marching through Regent's Street and Trafalgar Square  on to Parliament Square. in a wave of unity and diversity against Tory policies of austerity, cuts and privatisation and to remember the victims of Grenfell Tower, and demanding an end to the Conservative Government.
As  opposed to previous demonstrations I felt a real sense of hope, but so much more needed to be done to end the gross inequalities that run rife through our country at the present time. The most peaceful demonstration I have attended in the capital for a while, on a very hot day, with a carnival like atmosphere,  though visible was a real sense of anger at the Tories, there were reports of sit down protests but seemed to miss them. Felt personally their was a possible need for more rage,  The march's organisers, an anti-austerity campaign group The People’s Assembly, said they “need to make sure” the opposition to Theresa May’s Government is felt.

We witnessed Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn rounding on the Tories for uniting with hardline Northern Irish party the DUP and for the “hypocrisy” of praising emergency services in the aftermath of the Grenfell Tower blaze. He said the Government’s refusal to lift the cap on pay rises for public sector workers was “absolutely unbelievable”.
A labour amendment to the Queen Speech to end cuts to emergency services and the 1 per cent pay cap were defeated in the Commons on Wednesday evening.https://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.co.uk/2017/06/the-politics-of-cruelty.html
In front of a mass of people chanting  "Oh Jeremy Corbyn" the Labour leader said: "I say to any public sector workers in Northern Ireland or anywhere else - don't have any illusions in these people, when they started the austerity programme they meant it and they meant it to carry on.
they started the austerity programme they meant it and they meant it to carry on.
"And carry on with a growing gap between the richest and poorest in our society, with a growing impoverishment of those at the bottom, a growing under-funding of local government, health, education and all the other things that we all need in a civilised society."
He added: “The utter hypocrisy of Government ministers and others who queued up in the chamber over there in the House of Commons to heap praise on the emergency services, the following day to cut their wages by refusing to lift the pay cap," he said.
"The hypocrisy is absolutely unbelievable."
John McDonnell also spoke to the crowds and vowed to support the victims of the Grenfell Tower fire. At least 80 people are believed to have been killed when a huge blaze broke out at the high-rise tower block on Wednesday, June 14, with the number undoubtedly rising as more details emerge.
.Mr McDonnell said: "To the victims of Grenfell Tower we pledge now, we will stand with you and your families all the way through.
"Grenfell Tower symbolised for many everything that's gone wrong in this country since austerity was imposed upon us."

There was also a minute’s silence for the victims of the Grenfell Tower fire and a minute’s applause for the emergency services.
I do not believe that Jeremy Corbyn is the messiah like some I witnessed, but believe he as at least drawn people together, that I have not  seen before. We must continue to keep ranking up the pressure on this rabid and out of control Tory Government, currently only hanging on by a thread, propped up the equally obnoxious DUP. We should remember that Austerity actually kills. This is just the beginning. We must keep resisting.

Having set off from my home at 4.30 in the morning, did not get through front door until about 12.30 p.m, tired and exhausted but  glad to have met friends old and new, who provided much strength, will continue to keep on fighting back with others.

Jeremy Corbyn Full Speech At the #ToriesOut Protest Rally in London 1st July 2017  

The Politics of Cruelty

I  currently find it utterly disgusting that the Tories voted against Labour's amendments to stop cuts to police, firefighters, and nurses  and to end the pay cap on hard working  public sector workers.
Labour had proposed an amendment to the Queen's Speech to "end the public sector pay cap and give the emergency and public services a fair pay rise".MPs voted 323-309, a majority of just 14, against. Labour's bid to end the 1% public sector pay cap was the first Commons vote since the general election.
The Tories do this and say there is "no magic money tree", yet the Tories still managed to bung the DUP  over £2 Billion, in a desperate attempt to cling on to power, whilst also managing to give the Queen an 8% pay rise. And repeatedly have taken pay rise after pay rise for themselves, they simply have no shame. I cannot believe their sheer arrogance! Torys actually cheered after blocking Labour's amendment.
Public sector workers have had their pay frozen for two years thanks to Tory austerity. a pay freeze that has seen nurses, firefighters smd other workers subject yo a 14 per cent pay cut over the last seven years. It looks like the it's business as usual as the Tory's inflict their  cruel policies of austerity as they have done previously.Not one Tory had the decency to rebel and  to vote for Labour's amendment - and all 10 DUP MPs voted  with their Tory paymasters against it.
Theresa May is a hypocrite who only  last week  'thanked' the firefighters who worked throughout the night  trying to save people from the Grenfell Tower fire yet yesterday she and her cronies cut firefighters pay,  

Nurses are currently using bloody food banks; to feed their families despite working 12 hour shifts  with such dedication , that we all rely on, and yet they get pay cuts while the Queen sits in her castle and gets an 8% pay rise and the DUP who have done nothing for us get £2 Billion. It's wrong, and many  people are increasingly feeling much justified anger.
It just  proves they don't care about the public or have even learnt from the election let alone listen as Theresa May had promised they now would, and after all their hollow words from them about "our heroic emergency services" and about "learning lessons and having to listen to the public" they jump straight back to being what many of us know they have always been and what they always will be. It shows us the true nature of the Government we have now been left with.  May and the Tories must go.
I will leave you with the words of Nye Bevan to express what I and many millions are currently feeling :-

And here is list of all the M.P's who voted against the amendment, who voted to continue the wage repression of our emergency service workers,  shame on them all :-

Nigel Adams (Conservative - Selby and Ainsty)
Bim Afolami (Conservative - Hitchin and Harpenden)
Adam Afriyie (Conservative - Windsor)
Peter Aldous (Conservative - Waveney)
Lucy Allan (Conservative - Telford)
Heidi Allen (Conservative - South Cambridgeshire)
Stuart Andrew (Conservative - Pudsey)
Edward Argar (Conservative - Charnwood)
Victoria Atkins (Conservative - Louth and Horncastle)
Richard Bacon (Conservative - South Norfolk)
Kemi Badenoch (Conservative - Saffron Walden)
Steve Baker (Conservative - Wycombe)
Harriett Baldwin (Conservative - West Worcestershire)
Stephen Barclay (Conservative - North East Cambridgeshire)
John Baron (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Guto Bebb (Conservative - Aberconwy)
Henry Bellingham (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Richard Benyon (Conservative - Newbury)
Paul Beresford (Conservative - Mole Valley)
Jake Berry (Conservative - Rossendale and Darwen)
Bob Blackman (Conservative - Harrow East)
Crispin Blunt (Conservative - Reigate)
Nick Boles (Conservative - Grantham and Stamford)
Peter Bone (Conservative - Wellingborough)
Peter Bottomley (Conservative - Worthing West)
Andrew C Bowie (Conservative - West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine)
Ben Bradley (Conservative - Mansfield)
Karen Bradley (Conservative - Staffordshire Moorlands)
Graham Brady (Conservative - Altrincham and Sale West)
Jack Brereton (Conservative - Stoke-on-Trent South)
Andrew Bridgen (Conservative - North West Leicestershire)
Steve Brine (Conservative - Winchester)
James Brokenshire (Conservative - Old Bexley and Sidcup)
Fiona Bruce (Conservative - Congleton)
Robert Buckland (Conservative - South Swindon)
Alex Burghart (Conservative - Brentwood and Ongar)
Conor Burns (Conservative - Bournemouth West)
Alistair Burt (Conservative - North East Bedfordshire)
Alun Cairns (Conservative - Vale of Glamorgan)
James Cartlidge (Conservative - South Suffolk)
William Cash (Conservative - Stone)
Maria Caulfield (Conservative - Lewes)
Alex Chalk (Conservative - Cheltenham)
Rehman Chishti (Conservative - Gillingham and Rainham)
Christopher Chope (Conservative - Christchurch)
Jo Churchill (Conservative - Bury St Edmunds)
Colin Clark (Conservative - Gordon)
Greg Clark (Conservative - Tunbridge Wells)
Kenneth Clarke (Conservative - Rushcliffe)
Simon Clarke (Conservative - Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland)
James Cleverly (Conservative - Braintree)
Geoffrey Clifton-Brown (Conservative - The Cotswolds)
Thérèse Coffey (Conservative - Suffolk Coastal)
Damian Collins (Conservative - Folkestone and Hythe)
Alberto Costa (Conservative - South Leicestershire)
Robert Courts (Conservative - Witney)
Geoffrey Cox (Conservative - Torridge and West Devon)
Stephen Crabb (Conservative - Preseli Pembrokeshire)
Tracey Crouch (Conservative - Chatham and Aylesford)
Chris Davies (Conservative - Brecon and Radnorshire)
David T. C. Davies (Conservative - Monmouth)
Glyn Davies (Conservative - Montgomeryshire)
Mims Davies (Conservative - Eastleigh)
Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
David Davis (Conservative - Haltemprice and Howden)
Caroline Dinenage (Conservative - Gosport)
Jonathan Djanogly (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Leo Docherty (Conservative - Aldershot)
Julia Dockerill (Conservative - Hornchurch and Upminster)
Michelle Donelan (Conservative - Chippenham)
Nadine Dorries (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Steve Double (Conservative - St Austell and Newquay)
Oliver Dowden (Conservative - Hertsmere)
Jackie Doyle-Price (Conservative - Thurrock)
Richard Drax (Conservative - South Dorset)
James Duddridge (Conservative - Rochford and Southend East)
David Duguid (Conservative - Banff and Buchan)
Iain Duncan Smith (Conservative - Chingford and Woodford Green)
Alan Duncan (Conservative - Rutland and Melton)
Philip Dunne (Conservative - Ludlow)
Michael Ellis (Conservative - Northampton North)
Tobias Ellwood (Conservative - Bournemouth East)
Charlie Elphicke (Conservative - Dover)
George Eustice (Conservative - Camborne and Redruth)
Nigel Evans (Conservative - Ribble Valley)
David Evennett (Conservative - Bexleyheath and Crayford)
Michael Fabricant (Conservative - Lichfield)
Michael Fallon (Conservative - Sevenoaks)
Suella Fernandes (Conservative - Fareham)
Mark Field (Conservative - Cities of London and Westminster)
The liar Vicky Ford (Conservative - Chelmsford)
Kevin Foster (Conservative - Torbay)
The disgraced Liam Fox (Conservative - North Somerset)
Mark Francois (Conservative - Rayleigh and Wickford)
Lucy Frazer (Conservative - South East Cambridgeshire)
George Freeman (Conservative - Mid Norfolk)
Mike Freer (Conservative - Finchley and Golders Green)
Marcus Fysh (Conservative - Yeovil)
Roger Gale (Conservative - North Thanet)
Mark Garnier (Conservative - Wyre Forest)
David Gauke (Conservative - South West Hertfordshire)
Nusrat Ghani (Conservative - Wealden)
Nick Gibb (Conservative - Bognor Regis and Littlehampton)
Cheryl Gillan (Conservative - Chesham and Amersham)
John Glen (Conservative - Salisbury)
Zac Goldsmith (Conservative - Richmond Park)
Robert Goodwill (Conservative - Scarborough and Whitby)
Michael Gove (Conservative - Surrey Heath)
Luke Graham (Conservative - Ochil and South Perthshire)
Richard Graham (Conservative - Gloucester)
Bill Grant (Conservative - Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock)
Helen Grant (Conservative - Maidstone and The Weald)
James Gray (Conservative - North Wiltshire)
Chris Grayling (Conservative - Epsom and Ewell)
Chris Green (Conservative - Bolton West)
Damian Green (Conservative - Ashford)
Justine Greening (Conservative - Putney)
Dominic Grieve (Conservative - Beaconsfield)
Sam Gyimah (Conservative - East Surrey)
Kirstene Hair (Conservative - Angus)
Robert Halfon (Conservative - Harlow)
Luke Hall (Conservative - Thornbury and Yate)
Philip Hammond (Conservative - Runnymede and Weybridge)
Stephen Hammond (Conservative - Wimbledon)
Matt Hancock (Conservative - West Suffolk)
Greg Hands (Conservative - Chelsea and Fulham)
Mark Harper (Conservative - Forest of Dean)
Richard Harrington (Conservative - Watford)
Rebecca Harris (Conservative - Castle Point)
Trudy Harrison (Conservative - Copeland)
Simon Hart (Conservative - Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire)
John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Oliver Heald (Conservative - North East Hertfordshire)
James Heappey (Conservative - Wells)
Chris Heaton-Harris (Conservative - Daventry)
Peter Heaton-Jones (Conservative - North Devon)
Gordon Henderson (Conservative - Sittingbourne and Sheppey)
Nick Herbert (Conservative - Arundel and South Downs)
Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Simon Hoare (Conservative - North Dorset)
George Hollingbery (Conservative - Meon Valley)
Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Philip Hollobone (Conservative - Kettering)
Adam Holloway (Conservative - Gravesham)
John Howell (Conservative - Henley)
Nigel Huddleston (Conservative - Mid Worcestershire)
Eddie Hughes (Conservative - Walsall North)
Jeremy Hunt (Conservative - South West Surrey)
Nick Hurd (Conservative - Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner)
Alister Jack (Conservative - Dumfries and Galloway)
Margot James (Conservative - Stourbridge)
Sajid Javid (Conservative - Bromsgrove)
Ranil Jayawardena (Conservative - North East Hampshire)
Bernard Jenkin (Conservative - Harwich and North Essex)
Andrea Jenkyns (Conservative - Morley and Outwood)
Robert Jenrick (Conservative - Newark)
Boris "£350 million" Johnson (Conservative - Uxbridge and South Ruislip)
Caroline Johnson (Conservative - Sleaford and North Hykeham)
Gareth Johnson (Conservative - Dartford)
Joseph Johnson (Conservative - Orpington)
Andrew Jones (Conservative - Harrogate and Knaresborough)
David Jones (Conservative - Clwyd West)
Marcus Jones (Conservative - Nuneaton)
Daniel Kawczynski (Conservative - Shrewsbury and Atcham)
Gillian Keegan (Conservative - Chichester)
Seema Kennedy (Conservative - South Ribble)
Stephen Kerr (Conservative - Stirling)
Julian Knight (Conservative - Solihull)
Greg Knight (Conservative - East Yorkshire)
Kwasi Kwarteng (Conservative - Spelthorne)
John Lamont (Conservative - Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk)
Mark Lancaster (Conservative - Milton Keynes North)
Pauline Latham (Conservative - Mid Derbyshire)
Andrea Leadsom (Conservative - South Northamptonshire)
Phillip Lee (Conservative - Bracknell)
Jeremy Lefroy (Conservative - Stafford)
Edward Leigh (Conservative - Gainsborough)
Oliver Letwin (Conservative - West Dorset)
Andrew Lewer (Conservative - Northampton South)
Brandon Lewis (Conservative - Great Yarmouth)
Julian Lewis (Conservative - New Forest East)
Ian Liddell-Grainger (Conservative - Bridgwater and West Somerset)
David Lidington (Conservative - Aylesbury)
Jack Lopresti (Conservative - Filton and Bradley Stoke)
Jonathan Lord (Conservative - Woking)
Tim Loughton (Conservative - East Worthing and Shoreham)
Craig Mackinlay (Conservative - South Thanet)
Rachel Maclean (Conservative - Redditch)
Anne Main (Conservative - St Albans)
Alan Mak (Conservative - Havant)
Kit Malthouse (Conservative - North West Hampshire)
Scott Mann (Conservative - North Cornwall)
Paul Masterton (Conservative - East Renfrewshire)
Theresa May (Conservative - Maidenhead)
Paul Maynard (Conservative - Blackpool North and Cleveleys)
Patrick McLoughlin (Conservative - Derbyshire Dales)
Stephen McPartland (Conservative - Stevenage)
Esther McVey (Conservative - Tatton)
Mark Menzies (Conservative - Fylde)
Johnny Mercer (Conservative - Plymouth, Moor View)
Huw Merriman (Conservative - Bexhill and Battle)
Stephen Metcalfe (Conservative - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Maria Miller (Conservative - Basingstoke)
Amanda Milling (Conservative - Cannock Chase)
Nigel Mills (Conservative - Amber Valley)
Anne Milton (Conservative - Guildford)
Andrew Mitchell (Conservative - Sutton Coldfield)
Damien Moore (Conservative - Southport)
Penny Mordaunt (Conservative - Portsmouth North)
Nicky Morgan (Conservative - Loughborough)
Anne Marie Morris (Conservative - Newton Abbot)
David Morris (Conservative - Morecambe and Lunesdale)
James Morris (Conservative - Halesowen and Rowley Regis)
Wendy Morton (Conservative - Aldridge-Brownhills)
David Mundell (Conservative - Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale)
Sheryll Murray (Conservative - South East Cornwall)
Andrew Murrison (Conservative - South West Wiltshire)
Robert Neill (Conservative - Bromley and Chislehurst)
Sarah Newton (Conservative - Truro and Falmouth)
Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)
Jesse Norman (Conservative - Hereford and South Herefordshire)
Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough)
Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Guy Opperman (Conservative - Hexham)
Neil Parish (Conservative - Tiverton and Honiton)
Priti Patel (Conservative - Witham)
Owen Paterson (Conservative - North Shropshire)
Mark Pawsey (Conservative - Rugby)
Mike Penning (Conservative - Hemel Hempstead)
John Penrose (Conservative - Weston-super-Mare)
Andrew Percy (Conservative - Brigg and Goole)
Claire Perry (Conservative - Devizes)
Chris Philp (Conservative - Croydon South)
Christopher Pincher (Conservative - Tamworth)
Dan Poulter (Conservative - Central Suffolk and North Ipswich)
Rebecca Pow (Conservative - Taunton Deane)
Victoria Prentis (Conservative - Banbury)
Mark Prisk (Conservative - Hertford and Stortford)
Mark Pritchard (Conservative - The Wrekin)
Tom Pursglove (Conservative - Corby)
Jeremy Quin (Conservative - Horsham)
Will Quince (Conservative - Colchester)
Dominic Raab (Conservative - Esher and Walton)
John Redwood (Conservative - Wokingham)
Jacob Rees-Mogg (Conservative - North East Somerset)
Laurence Robertson (Conservative - Tewkesbury)
Mary Robinson (Conservative - Cheadle)
Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Douglas Ross (Conservative - Moray)
Lee Rowley (Conservative - North East Derbyshire)
Amber Rudd (Conservative - Hastings and Rye)
David Rutley (Conservative - Macclesfield)
Antoinette Sandbach (Conservative - Eddisbury)
Paul Scully (Conservative - Sutton and Cheam)
Bob Seely (Conservative - Isle of Wight)
Andrew Selous (Conservative - South West Bedfordshire)
Grant Shapps (Conservative - Welwyn Hatfield)
Alok Sharma (Conservative - Reading West)
Alec Shelbrooke (Conservative - Elmet and Rothwell)
Keith Simpson (Conservative - Broadland)
Chris Skidmore (Conservative - Kingswood)
Chloe Smith (Conservative - Norwich North)
Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
Julian Smith (Conservative - Skipton and Ripon)
Royston Smith (Conservative - Southampton, Itchen)
Nicholas Soames (Conservative - Mid Sussex)
Anna Soubry (Conservative - Broxtowe)
Caroline Spelman (Conservative - Meriden)
Mark Spencer (Conservative - Sherwood)
Andrew Stephenson (Conservative - Pendle)
John Stevenson (Conservative - Carlisle)
Bob Stewart (Conservative - Beckenham)
Iain Stewart (Conservative - Milton Keynes South)
Rory Stewart (Conservative - Penrith and The Border)
Gary Streeter (Conservative - South West Devon)
Mel Stride (Conservative - Central Devon)
Graham Stuart (Conservative - Beverley and Holderness)
Julian Sturdy (Conservative - York Outer)
Rishi Sunak (Conservative - Richmond (Yorks))
Desmond Swayne (Conservative - New Forest West)
Hugo Swire (Conservative - East Devon)
Robert Syms (Conservative - Poole)
Derek Thomas (Conservative - St Ives)
Ross Thomson (Conservative - Aberdeen South)
Maggie Throup (Conservative - Erewash)
Kelly Tolhurst (Conservative - Rochester and Strood)
Justin Tomlinson (Conservative - North Swindon)
Michael Tomlinson (Conservative - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
Craig Tracey (Conservative - North Warwickshire)
David Tredinnick (Conservative - Bosworth)
Anne-Marie Trevelyan (Conservative - Berwick-upon-Tweed)
Elizabeth Truss (Conservative - South West Norfolk)
Tom Tugendhat (Conservative - Tonbridge and Malling)
Edward Vaizey (Conservative - Wantage)
Shailesh Vara (Conservative - North West Cambridgeshire)
Martin Vickers (Conservative - Cleethorpes)
Theresa Villiers (Conservative - Chipping Barnet)
Charles Walker (Conservative - Broxbourne)
Robin Walker (Conservative - Worcester)
Ben Wallace (Conservative - Wyre and Preston North)
David Warburton (Conservative - Somerton and Frome)
Matt Warman (Conservative - Boston and Skegness)
Giles Watling (Conservative - Clacton)
Helen Whately (Conservative - Faversham and Mid Kent)
Craig Whittaker (Conservative - Calder Valley)
John Whittingdale (Conservative - Maldon)
Bill Wiggin (Conservative - North Herefordshire)
Gavin Williamson (Conservative - South Staffordshire)
Sarah Wollaston (Conservative - Totnes)
Mike Wood (Conservative - Dudley South)
Mr William Wragg (Conservative - Hazel Grove)
Jeremy Wright (Conservative - Kenilworth and Southam)
Nadhim Zahawi (Conservative - Stratford-on-Avon)
Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Nigel Dodds (Democratic Unionist Party - Belfast North)
Jeffrey M. Donaldson (Democratic Unionist Party - Lagan Valley)
Paul Girvan (Democratic Unionist Party - South Antrim)
Ian Paisley (Democratic Unionist Party - North Antrim)
Emma Little Pengelly (Democratic Unionist Party - Belfast South)
Gavin Robinson (Democratic Unionist Party - Belfast East)
Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
David Simpson (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Sammy Wilson (Democratic Unionist Party - East Antrim)

Six Bells Colliery Disaster, 28th June 1960

On 28th June 1960, at approximately 10.45, a huge  underground explosion suddenly blasted through the confined roadways of  the West District of the Old Coal Seam at Six Bells Colliery (then known as Arreal Griffin) at Aberbeeg, near Abertillery killing 45 men.

On the date of the explosion, 1,213 men were employed underground and 239 on the surface. A 24-hour, three-shift regime operated, apart from Sundays, producing 1,800 tons of saleable coal each week.  

Six Bells village is on the southern end of Abertillery town and at the centre of an area that, to the date of this incident, contained a greater concentration of collieries than anywhere else in South Wales.

As the colliery hooter sounded and word of the explosion spread, crowds gathered quickly, as they had at every disaster since mining began. Wives, parents, children waited desperately for news.  Some kept vigil without break for more than twelve hours.
While rescuers tunnelled through tons of fallen rock more than a thousand feet beneath them, people supported one another as best they could: they wept together, prayed together. The Salvation Army poured cups of tea, and ministers of various denominations led a service in Bethany, where many of the men still underground had been in Sunday School as children.
Soon they would be back again , but only because the schoolroom behind the chapel had now been turned into an overflow mortuary. 
Of the 48 men at work in ‘W’ district of the Old Coal Seam, 45 were killed in the explosion, the worst post-war colliery disaster in British coal mining history.The tragedy, which a Public Inquiry  later found was caused after a falling rock was thought to have caused an ignition of firedamp, a combustible gas associated with bituminous coal.The Public Inquiry also stated that “lethal concentrations of carbon monoxide gas were present which suggested the men lost consciousness rapidly and death occurred within minutes”. 

Families, friends and the whole Valleys community were left in shock as the extent of the major mining disaster was slowly revealed throughout the day. Revealing the terrible cost of coal.

Mining at Six Bells continued after the disaster. before eventually closing in 1988. by which time it had merged with nearby Marine Colliery in Cwm.

On the 50th anniversary of the disaster in 2010, a giant  steel sculpture of a miner standing over 20 m tall, named "Guardian of the Valleys" was unveiled by the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams. Designed by Llangrannog based sculptor Sebastien Boyesen, this beautiful moving  memorial is made from thousands of steel ribbons. Around the plinth are inscribed the names of all the men who died in the disaster. in tribute to those who lost their lives. It is regarded as a Welsh answer to Anthony Gormley's  Angel of the North. It  also serves as a sober reminder of  human losses in the entire South Wales Coalfield.

Names of the Victims

Ivor James Baiton aged 48, cutterman. 

Daniel James Bancroft aged 46, collier on panzer.

Robert Charles Brown aged 35, roof control officer.

Frank Cooper aged 44, supplies man.

Joseph Corbett aged 50, haulier.

Thomas George Crandon aged 46, repairer.

Walter Thomas Davies aged 34, borer.

Royden James Edwards aged 27, repairer.

Percy Gordon Elsey aged 52, repairer.

Albert John Evans aged 34, packer.

Leonard Keith Frampton aged 29, collier.

Albert Gardner aged 59, assistant cutterman.

George Goldspink aged 37, repairer.

Clive Alan Griffiths aged 18, prop checker.

Vernon Alexander Griffiths aged 33, deputy.

Earnest Victor Harding aged 51, deputy.

Idris Jones aged 57, packer.

John Percival Jones aged 56, repairer.

Joseph John King aged 56, packer.

Dennis Edmund Lane, aged 19, wireman.

George Henry Luffman aged 55, general worker.

Telford Cecil Mapp aged 42, general worker.

Herbert Amos Mayberry aged 55, dumper.

William John Morden aged 52, engine driver.

Sidney Moore aged 54, repairer.

Colin Malcolm Donald Morgan aged 26, repairer.

Colin Reginald Morgan aged 22, assistant repairer.

Ray Martin Morgan aged 44, repairer.

Islwyn Morris aged 44, deputy.

Anthony Verdun Partridge aged 20, assistant borer. 

William Henry Partridge age 45, borer.

Trevor Paul aged 25, assistant repairer.

Wilfred Alfred Charles Phipps aged 60, cutterman.

Albert George Pinkett aged 45, collier.

Frederick Rees aged 37, fitter.

Mansel Reynolds aged 21, measurer.

William Glyn Reynolds aged 21, assistant repairer.

Wilfred Hughes Thomas aged 57, repairer.

Arthur Waters aged 37, general worker.

Phillip John Watkins aged 53, engine driver.

Wilfred Weston aged 47, water infuser on panzer.

Frederick White aged 58, under-manager.

William Burdon Whittingham aged 55, assistant repairer.

Richard John Williams aged 51, general worker.

John Woosnam aged 24, fitter.

Sic Bells Colliery Memorial, Abertillery, South Wales

Government: "No cover-up of official #Grenfell death toll"

LABOUR MP David Lammy has made dramatic claims of a cover up recently over the tragic Grenfell Tower fire.
Mr Lammy, who lost his friend, artist Khadija Saye, in the shocking inferno which so far has a death toll of 79 , called on the Prime Minister and Metropolitan Police to immediately seize all relevant Grenfell Tower documents.
Among residents,  trust in the authorities is falling through the floor and suspicion of a cover-up is rising , Theresa May and investigators must now ensure all pertinent documents are protected.
The Prime Minister needs to act immediately to ensure that all evidence is protected so that everyone culpable for what happened at Grenfell Tower is held to account and feels the full force of the law.
A tragic story of Austerity, a culture of neglect  that has resulted in the loss of many thousands over the last years. These are crimes of epic proportions.  Justice must be served.
The Conservatives have said there's no cover-up of the official  # Grenfell Tower fire death toll despite MPs like David Lammy suggesting there might have been. Because there’s no way the government would lie to people or try to cover anything up, that would be just silly.

Not one Day More

The General Election result was devastating for Theresa May and the Conservatives. She called it to gain a bigger majority in Parliament  and despite massive media bias in her favour failed spectacularly to deliver on that. Now the Conservative Party are in chaos, forced to try to prop up a Government with the deeply conservative and regressive DUP in a desperate attempt to cling on to power. Self serving parasites. Even if they can get a Queen’s Speech through Parliament, this arrangement cannot last long.
The Election result represented a rejection of Tory policies. They know they have no mandate; already the Government has suggested they may have to ease their austerity plans because of huge opposition. We need to make sure the full force of that opposition is felt. If we continue to mobilise in huge numbers we can deepen the crisis for the Conservatives and force big concessions on the NHS, education, housing and jobs. There is already talk of another General Election in the next few months which would likely see the Tories loose further support and be unable to form a Government.
Protests have sprung up across the country and there are many more planned. On Saturday 1 July it is hoped , that campaigns and community groups all over the country, from the trade unions, from political parties, and  individuals  to come together in one massive show of strength. We will be marching against another five years of a Tory Government committed to austerity, cuts and privatisation. We’re marching for a decent health service, education system, housing, jobs and living standards for all. We’ll hold a minute’s silence for the victims of Grenfell Tower and a minute’s applause for the emergency services who responded so bravely.
At this time we must also send our deepest condolences and solidarity to our friends at the Finsbury Park Mosque. Now more than ever we need to show unity in such difficult times.Join us, bring your friends and spread the word.
I will be travelling up with Pembrokeshire People's assembly against austerity.No matter how many buses or coaches are put on there will be lots & lots of people who will be physically unable to travel to London, yet still wish to express their condemnation of these murderous Tory scum.May's failure to form a stable government and their inability to respond quickly & efficiently in the aftermath of the Grenfelll Tower fire indicates the weakness of the old Tory militarist establishment. In this context, pressure on the government from outside parliament is critically important.
Friends based here in West Wales and unable to get to London  will urge to to express there  support [bring placards & visual displays] for ‘Not One Day More – Tories Out – No More Austerity - ‘Justice 4 Grenfelll’ support protest outside the Guild Hall, Cardigan from 10,00 a.m. till 2.00 p.m.
Small support protests reported in ALL local newspapers with photo’s, would complement the press coverage of the main event & extend the coverage, beyond the initial one or two days on national media, for many weeks after. This is because the local papers will come out days after the nationals & TV etc wil have finished with the story. Plus local letters pages can keep a story alive for weeks after that. So extending the reach of positive publicity even further.
Saturday's demonstration is the first opportunity since the election to show the scale of national opposition to May's government and kick it on its way. Coaches and people are coming from all over the country. Marchers are asked to assemble by 12 noon, at BBC Broadcasting House, Portland Place, London W1A 1AA. March to Parliament Square Details of the demo are here.
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