Issue 32 - November 2000
FLOODS FUELLED BY GREED
THERE is something deliciously
poetic about the image of flood waters bubbling up through cracks in the
A27 at Lancing, closing the road for days. For it is the greed
of industrial capitalism, and the roads built across our countryside to
service it, that has caused the climate change that led to the freak
rainfall that filled the aquifers on the Downs that burst
out onto the dual carriageway and reclaimed the street on behalf of
nature. Nobody knows whether the floods are going to strike again tomorrow,
next week, next month or next year. But everybody from the Government’s
Environment Agency to the Worthing Herald is
agreed that they will be coming back, time and time again.
Climate change was not the alarmist invention of a bunch of
cranks, after all. It is real and it is coming to a town near you. Nobody is
safe. If a swollen river doesn’t get you, or a storm-driven
high tide, then an underground river might spring up under your
house, or a typhoon sweep in and blow your roof off. In the light of
all this, the concerns of the fuel protesters are looking utterly
irrelevant. Yes, it is outrageous that the Government gets
away with raking in billions of pounds of indirect taxes on products like
fuel, extracting no more from the millionaire than from the
millionaire’s gardener. Yes, the state is hiding behind
the excuse of helping the environment when it is really only interested in the
money. But all except the very dim can now see that there are more urgent
things to worry about than prices at the petrol pumps. It is becoming
increasingly clear that the whole industrial capitalist system is cracking
up. It’s not just climate change. Don’t forget about the
steady stream of people dying from CJD/BSE because of our polluted
food chain. And the threat of genetically modified food. And air
pollution. And the ozone layer. And river pollution. And
acid rain. And nuclear dumping. And more accidents like
Chernobyl waiting to happen. And the destruction of the
rainforests. And the Sussex countryside disappearing under
concrete. And intensive farming killing the soil that
feeds us (as well as helping cause floods...) The list goes on. What we have
all got to get to grips with is the fact that industrial society cannot
continue indefinitely its mad rush towards more and more growth, profits
and so-called progress. The warning signs are there and it is up to us to
respond. Are we going to sit back and wait for the symptoms to get worse and
worse? Or are we going to tackle the disease head-on and start now to
dismantle capitalism and industrialism while we have the chance? If the
latter is what you want, don’t expect any help from the Government. As
they have proved time and time again, this and every Government are nothing
but puppets of Big Business, the people who got us into this
mess. The Government’s task is to hide the truth (as with the BSE
crisis), manipulate public opinion (as with its pro-GM food
propaganda), persecute dissidents (as with the new 'Terrorism' Act)
and generally prevaricate and protect the status quo. It’s up to us
to save ourselves and close down the foul machineries of greed that are
destroying our world.
Climate change - talks not enough
WANT to know more about
climate change? Volume 29 No 2 of The Ecologist focused on the issue in
a big way (tel 01403 786726 to order). We also have a couple of copies left
(£1.50) of the Dutch (English-language) mag green pepper,
dedicated to the protests due this month against the useless UN Climate Talks
being held in The Hague. Contact Climate Action Network on 010 32 2 231 0180
or www.climnet.org
Justice for Christmas?
POLICE are still strangely inactive in
the case of Steve Christmas, a hunt opponent deliberately run
over by a hunt supporter from the Old Surrey and Burstow Hunt.
The man then reversed over him, leaving Steve on a life support machine
with multiple injuries for nearly a month. Happily, Steve is now home, walking
on crutches and making a slow recovery with his partner and baby. But despite
there being witnesses, no charges have yet been made. Contrast this with the
cops’ reaction to a demo held at the hunt’s kennels in which a
small amount of damage was done. The aftermath of this was that on October 11,
no fewer than 18 opponents of hunting, several in the Worthing and Shoreham
area, had their homes raided and their property taken away, with
another four homes subsequently raided. They have all been bailed to appear on
December 20/21 to see if charges will be laid. All those concerned were
arrested on suspicion of breaching Section 2 of the Public Order
Act, a very serious charge that can land you in prison for many years
if found guilty. Obviously so much more serious than trying to kill someone!
On Saturday October 28 200 people gathered at the Old Surrey and Burstow
kennels and all four Sussex hunts were unable to hunt on this day due to the
large turn-out of protesters. Pledged one hunt sab: "We will not be bullied
out of the killing fields by these scum and their police friends."
Rich will jump the queues
REVEALED a report in The Sunday
Times on October 22: "Supermarkets are planning to give high-spending
customers preferential treatment, enabling them to jump check-out
queues, save on certain products and get free deliveries. The stores are
expected to give gold loyalty cards to about 5% of their customers, mostly
upper and middle-class customers who spend the most." Of course, people
who can afford to buy in bulk (and stash food in huge freezers) have always
been able to get it cheaper than the hard-up, who struggle along to buy one
can of beans at a time. But this new idea really is elitism with the gloves
off. So much for Tony Blair’s classless Britain!
Porky Pie’s Top Tip of the Month!
HOW TO DIVERT
ATTENTION FROM THE FACT THAT INDUSTRIAL "CIVILISATION" IS FALLING APART AT THE
SEAMS!
- MAKE OUT A HUGE METEOR IS GOING TO HIT THE EARTH AND KILL US ALL.
- RENUMBER THE YEARS AND HAVE ANOTHER MILLENNIUM KNEES-UP.
- START NUDE LOTTERY DRAWS.
- CALL AN ELECTION.
Belly Laughs With Tory Bigwigs!
WE were heavily amused to
note that Worthing Slimming Clinic is now a regular fixture at
Haversfield House in Union Place - otherwise known as the
Worthing Conservative Association HQ! The advert in The Worthing
Guardian (October 13) promised lessons in "Appetite Control", which
could prove useful for many a Tory Fat Cat. We reckon big names like
East Worthing and Shoreham MP Tim Loughton and larger-than-life
Tory councillor Nick John should weigh in and measure the scale
of potential gross benefits to the Conservative Party’s profile. But do
they have the stomach?
School sells parents to Big Business
RAMPANT
privatisation of just about everything has been the sinister agenda of
all British Governments since Mrs Thatcher came to power in 1979. Public money
has been used to create all kinds of dodgy schemes and quangos from the
Private Finance Initiative to the insidious Business in
the Community, with the result that hardly any aspect of our lives is
now left untainted by the corrupt stench of Big Business involvement.
Not even education has escaped this affliction and one particularly
shocking example has come to our attention right here in Worthing. A
few weeks ago, parents of children at Thomas A’Becket First School
in Tarring received a letter from headmaster Andrew O’Neill
informing them of a "talk evening" on November 15. Wrote the head: "We have an
opportunity to receive sponsorship from Sports Match (Government Department)
and Allied Dunbar for buying new football posts and netball/basketball posts.
In order to secure this sum, and to repeat the exercise in future, I need as
many parents as I can muster to attend an informative and entertaining talk
entitled 'Getting our children into life without going Bankrupt' by Ray Gaydon
of Allied Dunbar." Pressuring parents into sitting through an insurance
sales pitch is bad enough, but worse was to come. Added Mr O’Neill:
"Our commitment is to give Ray the opportunity to contact the parents who
attend with a telephone call subsequent to the presentation." In other
words, the school is prepared to sell parents’ time and privacy for the
£1,000 sponsorship/bribe. Outrageous or what? Incidentally, chairman of
Allied Dunbar, now owned by Zurich Allied AG of
Switzerland, is one Alexander 'Sandy' Leitch, aged 53. A former
director of controversial multinational BAT (British American Tobacco)
Industries, which used to own Allied Dunbar, he also has a finger in
another pie. He happens to be deputy chairman of our old friends,
Business in the Community. What a coincidence!
McFilth
ANOTHER example of the Big Business state
comes in an unholy alliance between McDonald’s burger chain and
Sussex Police, as revealed in The Worthing Guardian on
November 10. As part of the SNAP (Say No And Phone) campaign "multi-coloured
business-style McSnap 2000 cards will be issued to children and young people,
urging them to reject drugs and call Crimestoppers anonymously with
information." The super news is that the cards will also entitle youngsters to
a "free regular hot or cold soft drink every time they buy something else
at McDonald's". Assistant Chief McConstable Nigel Yeo was quoted as
saying: "I really welcome this concept to help children not become the next
victims." Well, not victims of drugs, maybe, but what about BSE?
Firm to profit from crime
PRIVATISED police cells have been
given the go-ahead in Worthing, reported The Worthing Guardian
on October 20. Reliance Security Group plc are being allowed,
even encouraged, to profit from crime - though normally that sort of
thing is strictly against the law. And of course the profit they make out of
the cells will not be coming from the prisoners they incarcerate (you
don’t have to pay for that - yet!) but from the good old tax
payer. Like other Private Finance Initiative schemes, the
whole thing is a scam to transfer public money into private hands. When
you strip away the bullshit, it is clear that we are all in effect being
taxed by businesses, who merely use governments, councils and the
courts as free collectors and enforcers.
Sum total of council thrills
IS there nothing we
wouldn’t do to inform the Great Worthing Public? While you lot were
settling down for a night at the pub or a relaxing evening in front of the
telly the other week, we were busy perusing the 1999/2000 Audit
Commission Performance Indicators for Worthing Borough Council. They
were fascinating - in parts! Such as the number of public toilets with
baby-changing facilities (0), the percentage of benefit claimants
satisfied with the way they were dealt with by the authority (figure not
available), the astonishing five ‘No’ answers in the
are-you-doing-something-to-promote-equal-opportunities section and the number
of homeless people in hostel accommodation (0 - the council has no
hostels!) But you’ll all be pleased to know that the council is very
good at collecting taxes, with a 97.9% success rate. Only trouble is,
it cost them £11.69 per household to do so, slightly
overshadowing the princely £1.98 per head of population it spent
on public transport during the year! Incidentally, you may like to know
that we averaged 1.89 bottles of lager and 36ml of whisky per
head while extracting these useful facts for you.
Police resisting DNA theft
THREE policemen have
emerged as the frontline warriors in the battle against a Big Brother state!
The Guardian reported (October 27) that three detective
sergeants who refused to give "voluntary" DNA samples "have been forced
to take desk jobs with Gloucestershire police force. They claim the decision
to move them to desk jobs was a breach of their human rights." The detectives
are being supported in their battle by the Gloucestershire Police Federation.
Coppers Against the Police State. Go for it, sergeants!
You have been Vaughaned
UNMISSABLE highlight of the autumn
comedy season in the Worthing Guardian have been the mad,
reactionary letters pouring in from one John A.M. Vaughan of Brook Barn
Way, Goring. As well as calling for a six-lane motorway from
Folkestone to Plymouth (across the South Downs, presumably), he has urged
prosecution of ten year olds and the abolition of Human Rights.
Other gems include - Oct 20: "I was amused by the recent
anti-capitalism protests at the WTO meetings. It occurred to me that the
protesters all had one thing in common; they had no capital! (Ho, ho, ho,
Mr Vaughan. You’ve seen through us there, haven’t you?) Oct
27: "The fact is that every one of these countries which has been given
independence would be FAR better off as colonies with an ordered society. Just
look at a map of Africa to see the turmoil which exists. They are incapable of
governing themselves." Yeah, right. Keep a look out for Mr Vaughan’s
future zany letters to see if he next proposes bringing back the slave
trade!
PORK-SCRATCHINGS
A VERY timely article appeared in The
Worthing Guardian on October 20 about Connex South
Central announcing a new publicity campaign called "It Will Happen".
The piece explained: "The theme is that it is not a question of whether
fare cheats will be caught - the only question is when!. And the answer
was just four days later - when the arrogant, over-charging and
under-performing rail firm tragically lost its franchise!
* * *
BEST wishes for a speedy recovery for our friend Bob, a stalwart
campaigner for environmental and radical causes who is currently languishing
in hospital after suffering from a stroke. Get better soon, Bob - Worthing
needs you!
* * *
READERS of The Worthing Herald may have spotted us making its
front page on October 27, pouring some cold water on the council’s
latest wasteful idea - a £230,000 water spout in the sea near the
pier. Anyone who has been down on the prom in the stormy weather will know you
don’t need stupid gimmicks to make the sea interesting! Meanwhile, the
suggestion that the spout could be financed by private firms merely
raises another question. Why, if they are prepared to pay for that white
elephant, are they not prepared to cough up a similar amount for something
more worthwhile - like improved sea defences, for a start?
* * *
THE next meeting hosted by Worthing.eco-action will be on Tuesday December 5,
at 7.45pm, at 42 Marine Parade, Worthing, (above Paiges bar).
Sacred right to make money
REFUSAL to accept business
sponsorship will be illegal under the planned Prevention of
Economic Terrorism Act, warns the Minister of
Prosperity. He explained: "It has become all-too-apparent recently
that subversive elements exist in our society who are not prepared to
embrace the key partnership of public and private sectors that is building a
Better Britain. Acts of sabotage against the generosity of the
Business Community cannot be tolerated. For instance, any parent who is
not prepared to undergo 20 hours of financial hard-selling in the interests of
their child’s education is clearly unfit to play any further part in a
forward-looking society and will be jailed for their own good without
the costly and outmoded red tape of a trial. Any single mother not
prepared to bid for Business Sponsorship by performing various intimate
services for supermarket Gold Card holders will be sent to South Korea on a
nine-year employment re-education course. And, toughest of all, any other
person not prepared to accept the unassailable right of business to
make money at any cost to the so-called human race or the planet will
be sentenced to read, re-read and memorise the collected letters of John
A.M. Vaughan of Goring until they go completely mad.
Flood us out with subscriptions!
THE PORK-BOLTER is an
independent newsletter for Worthing, out to scare you silly with our dire
warnings of social, economic and ecological disaster. If you want to make sure
of getting a copy of issue 33, simply send us a stamped self-addressed
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No copyright. No sandbags. Help!
remember folks ... There’s a climate for change and a real storm
brewing!
