Tuesday, December 14, 2010

WIN LOSE OR DRAW; THE STUDENTS HAVE CHANGED THE GAME – THEY HAVE SHOWN THAT DECENCY, COURAGE AND SOLIDARITY ARE STILL PART OF THEIR MAKE UP.

Watching the establishment close ranks against the students has been exasperating and entirely predictable. The overwhelming consensus from the sewer that is Murdochland is that the students are a gang of thugs who are out of control and only interested in violence and destruction, readers of this blog will recall that that was what I predicted when the first demonstration took place. To put it all into some kind of perspective we now have a situation where spraying graffiti on Winston Churchill's statue is a far greater crime than assaulting a young student by hitting him over the head with a truncheon and causing him to be admitted to hospital to undergo brain surgery and this after refusing him medical attention. Stories as expected are now being invented and credited to "sources" among the student protestors and lies reported as "an insider told us" etc. etc. Theresa May the Home Secretary is now blatantly stating that the students were a disgrace and bent on violence, due process anyone? Will a judge throw out any charges because the Home Secretary has prejudiced the outcome? Will we see any charges brought against any Police Officers?
"honest M'Lud it was the horse's fault that the protestor got trampled not mine"

Meanwhile one or two papers are telling different stories but they are being dwarfed by the Murdoch Empire and you will look in vain to find any TV or Radio programme prepared to break ranks. Dig deep; persevere; and you might find references to unprovoked brutal police tactics; not necessarily from students but from adults who were there and many of them are of exemplary character some were parents of some of the students and many were education professionals, teachers, lecturers etc. Very little evidence is caught on film of the violence reported by the obsequious media but that doesn't stop them from painting word pictures for us that are shameless in their bias and pro establishment leanings.

Let me delicately throw in another part of the jig saw that has not been mentioned, I am doing this because I have experience of such matters. I have been on many picket lines and demonstrations in my 62 years the most obvious would of course be the coal disputes (coal disputes not Miners Strikes) the fawning media insist on 'miner's strikes' because that description avoids telling us that there are two sides to every dispute and perhaps it's possible that either side could be wrong, even the employer/government side. There was a thing called the "picket line shuffle" we would link arms and so would the cops and we would shove each other back and forth with lots of threatening noise etc. the only injuries sustained at this were toes trod upon, we used to chat away to the cops during this performance. They took great delight in thanking us for the overtime pay they were making and we would wind them up by asking where their ID numbers were.

The ID numbers were missing again in Parliament Square, pickets were told on the coal dispute lines by some numberless cops that they weren't in fact cops but military, who would have thunk it? In democratic Britain as well with a law abiding Tory Govt. running the country. Here is another mystery from those days. When hostilities were done for a while miners and their sympathisers would debrief and discuss the day's events and it became obvious after a while that we were asking ourselves who some of our own team were. Many of them were not known and they were mostly unwilling or incapable of taking instructions from the union marshals, they appeared and disappeared with the trouble, they were not the usual suspects, Anarchists: Socialist workers; Maoists etc. they were well known to us so who were they?

"Agents Provocateurs" are people who incite crime to get someone else arrested and have been used by Govts. For centuries for this purpose and I'm not talking about the political agitators here I'm referring to the forces of the state. Many believe including me that It was done during the coal disputes and I have no reason to doubt that the present Govt. would do it again, Is it possible do you think that we might have seen them in Parliament square the other night?


16 comments:

Anonymous said...

You are starting to sound like Billy from Paisley expressions.

Cllr Terry Kelly said...

By Anonymous on WIN LOSE OR DRAW; THE STUDENTS HAVE CHANGED THE GA... at 12:03

If it’s the case that in your world Governments don’t lie and do things like using undercover agents to deliberately stir up trouble and of course newspapers don’t lie either and of course police officers always display their ID numbers well, what can I say? Poor old Billy from Paisley Expressions is not on his own after all.

Anonymous said...

Cops without numbers...seem to remember the same thing happened when the pro-hunt demonstrators were roughly handled too. We need to be vigilant, Terry,to prevent our right to protest being eroded bu government thuggishness

Cllr Terry Kelly said...

By Anonymous on WIN LOSE OR DRAW; THE STUDENTS HAVE CHANGED THE GA... at 14:07

I did not pay much attention to the pro. hunting mob but even then I don’t recall them being mistreated in the way that miners and students were.

Cracking a picketing miner over the head with a truncheon does not carry the same risk as cracking a hunt supporter over the head. The hunt supporter’s daddy might be a judge or a lawyer or a high level policeman. Were hunt supporters ‘kettled’ ?

Anonymous said...

Dont think kettling was practiced then Terry.
But your point about the police/military backing off because daddy could be famous, is well made...from memory, one of the pro hunt guys was Bryan Ferry's son,ex Oxbridge, I think.

Anonymous said...

Terry, are you claiming you were on the picket line during the miners dispute?

Cllr Terry Kelly said...

By Anonymous on WIN LOSE OR DRAW; THE STUDENTS HAVE CHANGED THE GA... on 22/12/10

Otis I believe, his dad was not only a crap singer but he was a celebrity because he was a tory.

Cllr Terry Kelly said...

By Anonymous on WIN LOSE OR DRAW; THE STUDENTS HAVE CHANGED THE GA... at 18:59

Picket lines and marches and demos as well as organising as much help as we could for the miners. I also have form for UCS, as well as Anti Apartheid and Anti Nuclear, my last outing which was hard going was the Edinburgh march in support of the Palestinians. I’m past it a wee bit but I still care.

Anonymous said...

Where did you picket with the miners, Terry?

Cllr Terry Kelly said...

By Anonymous on WIN LOSE OR DRAW; THE STUDENTS HAVE CHANGED THE GA... on 24/12/10

It’s 26 years now but Hunterston was a big picket and Auchinleck was a place I attended several times because my job took me to the area quite often, although it was relatively quite, I remember meeting Welsh miners at Auchinleck who were here to show solidarity and watch Scotland at rugby if memory serves me correctly.

I also attended pickets in the Fife Coal Field, our union branch “adopted” the pit village of Oakley. and at Ravenscraig which were pretty bad.

Anonymous said...

Terry, I salute you...your picketing puts you right up there with the Tiananman Square One, baring his bosom to that tank before it ran over him. Salute!

Cllr Terry Kelly said...

By Anonymous on WIN LOSE OR DRAW; THE STUDENTS HAVE CHANGED THE GA... on 27/12/10

Is there a point to your posts ? are you trying to say something ?

Anonymous said...

An early Happy New Year to you and yours, Big Man.

But dont understand your 6.16 comment. I put you alongside the Tiananman Square protestor, one of the iconic pictures of our time and a very courageous man, yet you get ratty.

Do you have so many supporters you can alienate even one of them?

Cllr Terry Kelly said...

By Anonymous on WIN LOSE OR DRAW; THE STUDENTS HAVE CHANGED THE GA... on 30/12/10

I assumed your comment comparing me with the Tiananmen Square guy who stopped the tank was sarcastic. If you put me alongside this guy I would be delighted: I would advise you however to get things into proportion but: please accept my apologies for any offence.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for explanation Terry. In future, should you think I'm being sarcastic, it really is a misunderstanding. I do try to stick to the principle, 'If you wouldn't say it to John Wayne, dont say it to Terry,'

Cllr Terry Kelly said...

'
By Anonymous on WIN LOSE OR DRAW; THE STUDENTS HAVE CHANGED THE GA... on 01/01/11

“The hell you don’t” That is a neat turn of phrase; I look forward to hearing from you again.