David Wilson articles, 2000 - 2020

Me & My Pizza Pal Pavarotti, Camden New Journal, 29 August 2020

LEFT FIELD, now offered FREE online here

The NHS is Our Shield, Public Reading Rooms, 20 July 2020
Where is My Vote, Peoples Campaign for Corbyn FB,  06 January 2020 
El Pepe, Peoples Campaign for Corbyn FB,  02 January 2020
In Defence of Simplicity, David Wilson website, 02 December 2019 
The Crucible Re-staged, David Wilson website, 27 November 2019
Manifesto of Hope, The London Economic, 21 November 2019
Between the Wars, David Wilson website, 21 November 2019
Meeting Ken, David Wilson website, 9 November 2019
No More Tweedles, David Wilson website, 7 November 2019
Who Will Fight for the NHS, David Wilson website, 27 October 2019 
Brexit Jokers, David Wilson website, 27 October 2019
Winning the Election is Easy, The London Economic, 20 July 2019 
What Isn't Reported about Julian Assange, The London Economic, 16 April 2019
Corbyn must stand strong against attacks on Israel, The People's News, 28 August 2018
Palestinians have Right to Return and Live, The People's News, 20 May 2018
Israel's Act of Terror, The People's News, 14 May 2018
Giving the Finger to the DWP, The Canary, 11 May 2018  
Disabled Tribunal Victory, The London Economic, 10 May 2018
Disabled victory in courts: The People's News 9 May 2018  
Labour Party Remains on the Up, The People's News, 4 May 2018
Theresa May + husband + war = profit, The People's News, 26 April 2018
Criticising Israel is not anti-semitic, The People's News, 23 April 2018
The Pornography of War, The People's News, 12 April 2018
The Overton Window, The People's News, 6 April 2018
The Overton Window, The Internattional Times, 19 April 2018
Corbyn is no Anti-Semite, The People's News, 26 March 2018 
Corbyn Wise not to Spoil for Fight , The People's News, 15 March 2018
Disabled Man Taken off Disability Allowance, The People's News, 14 March 2018
The Calabash Tree, having a heart operation, 17 Feb 2018
NHS Privateers, The London Economic, 2 Feb 2018
Why Boris Johnson, a Face to be Punched, Public Reading Rooms review
My Disabled Son Stripped of Benefits, The London Economic, 24 Aug 2017
The Fool is for the Many, Jaroslav Hašek's novel The Good Soldier Schwejk, 14 July 2017
Music of the Spheres, Heathcote Williams play, 18 June 2017
Them or Us in the Election, The London Economic, 7 June 2017
Exposing Corruption in Charities, Guardian article about charity corruption, 16 April 2017,
Abandoning Refugee Children, The London Economic, 11 Feb 2017
In The Living Years, for Stand Alone under pseudonym, 16 Sep 2016
Who Speaks for the Refugee Children, Counterpunch after visit to Calais, 20 May 2016
Planet Zembar, Subdural Haematoma article in Huffington Post, 17 March 2015
Famous anti-Zionist Jews, Stop the War Coalition, 12 Aug 2014
What a Strange Way to Protect Civilians, article for US antiwar website about depleted uranium weapons, 16 April 2011
Bush in London, Counterpunch, 18 June 2008
The Collapse of Iraq's Health Services, Counterpunch article about collapse of Iraq's health services, 14 Oct 2006
Depleted Uranium Weapons, Future Trust, 2006
Gloucester Weapons Inspectors, Counterpunch, 30 Jan 2003
Music and War, as published by the European Journal of Intercultural Studies, Vol 10, issue 3, 1999 and in The Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism, University of Kansas, Fall 2000, Vol. XV, No. 8 & re-written for a chapter in Left Field



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From Camden to Mostar

 

 “We had an idea to link Camden Guitars with the Pavarotti Music Centre in Mostar, bring musicians to and from and vice versa. It has all rather gone into abeyance like most things have this year ... There are curious and wonderful parallels – both are living music centres.”

 

 

'Left Field' can now be read for free here

 

 

 

LEFT FIELD, a memoir. Can now be read FREE online here

A very British coup

 

 

“We will never allow you to rule” Theresa May to Jeremy Corbyn in the House of Commons, 5 July 2017

It is impossible to put an exact date on the British coup. Universities have not been raided and leftists have not been imprisoned as happened in Greece on 21 April 1967. There has been no killing of a UK Salvador Allende and no UK musician has had his fingers chopped off as happened to Victor Jara in Chile on 11 September 1973. Political prisoners have not been dropped into the sea as happened in Argentina every Wednesday for two years from 24 March 1976.

The British, perhaps more correctly the “English",  are more subtle and more effective. For there has been a coup, but carried out without soldiers having to leave barracks, without politicians being murdered, without university raids, without the torture of sngers, without the need for helicopter drops over the sea.. 

 

How has it happened?

Our Allende has been removed, not by physical assassination, but by character assassination.

The possibility of even a mildy reformist Labour government has been removed by the actions of the Party’s own parliamentary representatives and by its own party HQ staff.

Both major political parties are back together again in shared neo-liberal orthodoxy, with oppositionists expelled or left demoralised.

Today it’s been announced that Tom Watson, Assassin-in-chief in the House of Commons has been nominated for a peerage by Sir Keir Starmer. He will be joining Iain McNicol, aka Baron McNicol of West Kilbride – Assassin-in-chief when General Secretary of the Labour Party.

Fleeing war is not the crime

 

 

 

Five years ago I visited the refugees in Calais. First with medics and then with musicians. In the intervening years the refugee situation has only got worse. We used to condemn our politicians for their silence. Now we must condemn them for their words.

Boris Johnson, talking about the fleeing refugees on small dinghies in the Channel, says, “I want to make sure that they understand that this isn’t a good idea, this is a very bad and stupid and dangerous and criminal thing to do ... when people do get here, it is very, very difficult to then send them away again, even though blatantly they’ve come here illegally.”

Lisa Doyle, from the Refugee Council answered him: “It’s incredibly disappointing to hear the prime minister using such inaccurate and inflammatory language to describe men, women and children who are desperate enough to make perilous journeys across the busiest shipping channel in the world ...Seeking asylum is not a crime ... and nstead of scapegoating people in desperate circumstances, the prime minister and his government could address this by ensuring that people do not have to take these risks.”

I wrote up my experiences in Calais for Counterpunch and sadly if I was able to go there again, the only change I’d need to make to these words would be to increase the numbers and extend the references to human suffering.

“In recent years around 60 million people across the globe have fled their homes. Many of them have been running from the abyss of destruction, death and chaos our bombardier politicians have rained down on them. In the last two years more than one million people have reached Europe; the continent’s biggest wave of mass migration since the end of the Second World War. 36% of them are children. Those are the fortunate ones. At least four thousand people have drowned to date in the Mediterranean. An average of two children have drowned every day since September 2015 and 340 children, many of them babies and toddlers, have drowned in the eastern Mediterranean alone ... On shore they have been washed in puddles and wrapped in plastic to keep out the cold. Many have died from hypothermia and, among the living, many are ill … There are at least ninety thousand unaccompanied children among the refugee population ...On both visits we were welcomed with warmth and too many cups of sweet tea. The refugees were eager to talk about their lives and what had brought them so many thousands of miles from their homes … How had they arrived on the channel coast? On EasyJet? Eurostar? Hired coaches? Some of them had walked across Western Europe. When you next fly or train it to southern Europe, look down at the ground. Walked? … Conditions in the Calais camp are diabolical, with cramped makeshift tents plagued by rats, water sources contaminated by faeces and inhabitants suffering from TB, scabies and post-traumatic stress. The homeopaths I went with visited numerous families. Only one didn’t have colds, coughs, sore throats or worse … Many volunteers are working in Calais – doctors, nurses, musicians, and youth workers. At the large and well organised warehouse mostly young people unload foods, clothing, medicines and sleeping equipments …

 

 

On my second visit with Calais Sessions musicians I spent some of the time ‘teaching’ guitar, but quickly roles were reversed. After 30 minutes of C, G, A and F chords, Assi thanked me, smiled and asked if I’d like to learn Ethiopian Tizita pentatonic scales … Atieyb had brought his guitar on the long journey north. It only had two strings. One young Syrian didn’t want to play guitar, but told me he liked to be close to music. ‘It gives me’, he said, ‘sanity’ … Why did he want to get to the UK. Most of his family had been killed – ‘My sister is in Bristol. I want to go there.’ Can anyone give me one reason why he shouldn’t?

If you want further information or would like to help check out Care4Calais

 

 

New use for SERCO vans

 

 

The Serco ‘Code of Conduct’ states ...

“Care means that we take care of each other, and those we serve, and we aim to make a positive difference to people’s lives.’

 

In my recent blog, Coronavirus Pest Control, I talked about how “The government is using a massive public health crisis, the Coronavirus epidemic, to siphon billions of pounds into the pockets of friends who have no experience in the field of public health.”

I mentioned a rodent infestion company pocketing a multi-million pound award to get in on the lucrative Coronavirus ‘market’, but forgot to mention SERCO, who have secured a government contract for the Covid contact-tracing programme.

As a hospital patient in 2018, I became aware of Sercos’ presence. Their employees, loving, gentle and caring health workers, once worked directly for the NHS, but as Serco employees, were earning £8 per hour and hadn’t seen a pay rise for ten years. Good news for Serco’s CEO, Rupert Soames CEO, (Winston Churchill’s grandson) with his annual salary of £850,000.

 

I look forward to the day when we put a Serco prisoner van to good use and take their CEO to prison for profiting off the suffering of the people.

Coronavirus Pest Control

 

The government is using a massive public health crisis, the Coronavirus epidemic, to siphon billions of pounds into the pockets of friends who have no experience in the field of PPE or public health.

Ministers have told Whitehall departments, the NHS and local councils that they need to act fast because of the public health risks posed by the pandemic. They could therefore, sign deals without advertising or calling in competitive bids.

Official data analysed by the Guardian shows the government have awarded 115 contracts under this ‘principle’ (pardon the pun). They include two contracts worth more than £200 million.

One of these was the £250 million PPE contract awarded to Ayanda Capital, an investment house set up for private wealth tax avoidance.

This was AFTER the firm had charged the NHS £150 million for 43 million face masks which failed regulatory tests and could not be used.

As Craig Murray reports, “Ayanda Capital would fail every single test in normal procurement criteria to supply PPE to the NHS. I can see no evidence that anybody in the company had ever seen PPE except when visiting the dentist. They appear to have no medical expertise, no established medical procurement network, no quality control inspection ability, no overseas shipment agents, no warehousing or logistics facilities.”

Working on this principle, any one of us could offer PPE services to the government, be awarded a contract and then go looking for a ‘sub-contractor’ to carry out the work.

The Tories have a past history of this behaviour. Remember the ‘ferry company’ which had no ferries?

The Ayanda deal was put together by Andrew Mills, a “government adviser”, who is also an “adviser” to Ayanda Capital. He set this all up and established a company to make off with a personal fortune.

There are now hundreds of Ayandas involved, but let’s take a look at two of them. Public First, a company owned by James Frayne and Rachel Wolf. Frayne has worked on political campaigns with Dominic Cummings. Wolf was awarded a £500,000 contract to work with Michael Gove to promote his ‘free schools’ when he was Education Secretary. She went on to write the 2019 Tory election manifesto.

Public First were awarded the untendered contract to test the effectiveness of the government’s coronavirus messaging, worth £840,000. It was issued by the Cabinet Office, which is run by …. Michael Gove. The only written record is a letter retrospectively offering the contract that had already been granted. There was no advertisement for the work, no competition and no official notice of the award.

It gets worse A pest control company, Pest Fix, were awarded a £109 million untendered contract to supply urgently needed gloves, gowns and masks to the NHS. Their company profile tells us that , “At PestFix we hold stock of a full range of rat poison, mouse poison and other rodent control.”

In the two weeks before Pest Fix was awarded this contract the government was approached by 16,000 companies who had no rat poisons on offer but who could supply PPE. Some of them had long track records in the manufacture or supply of PPE, and had stocks that could be deployed immediately.

Remember that the necessity to avoid tendering is because of the urgency of the situation. Yet no deadlines were set for Pest Fix and the government recently admitted that “none of the isolation suits delivered (by Pest Fix) has been supplied into the NHS”. Maybe the rats got to them first.

On and on it goes. There is the employment agency with net assets of only £623 that was awarded an £18 million contract for face masks. A confectionary company given a £100 million contract to supply PPE, and a £250 million contract given to a ‘family office’ registered in Mauritius whose speciality is currency trading.

Daniel Bruce, the chief executive of anti-corruption campaigners Transparency International UK, said, “the government should not use the pandemic as a way of loosening controls over accountability.” Wish on.

I write this as a person with a medical hisory that makes me high-risk. As I sit in my flat under voluntary house arrest, am I supposed to take pleasure in the knowledge that we are being ruled by gangsters with posh accents who are doing very well out of this public health crisis?

Johnson’s Tories view government as an opportunity for self-enrichment through their control of the state purse. Covid-19 may seem a disaster to many of us, but to them it is time to open another case of Dom Perignon.

Some people are calling for a public inquiry. We have long experience of how effective these are. Remenber the Chilcot inquiry and the Iraq war, with Blair left richer than ever. Remember the Grenfell Tower fire massacre inquiry, ongoing after three years and with many suvivors still homeless.

This time we need effective pest control and with the rats sent to prison.

 

 

 

Just some of the comments made about this article ...

They have the backing of 70% of the media.

I have never felt so angry towards any government in my life as I do this bunch of buffoons, my god when will it all end, they have no shame at all and they just keep getting away with everything.

Making money from a pandemic is worse than the virus.

There seems to be nothing you or I can do to rid ourselves of these contemptuous frauds.

What is to become of us all with this corrupt Tory government ruling the roost?

Corbyn was our only chance, he was a trustworthy honest man who we could put our faith in.

A load of thieving uncaring and contemptuous B…..ds. They call themselves a government.

This is what corruption looks like.......

Tory. Bloody evil.

I felt sick to my stomach reading this. The most corrupt Tory trash party ever. We must rise up and march together to get this amoral, appalling excuse for humans out of government for Gods sake.

With Cummings involved in the electoral vote counting company we can never trust a result with a Tory win!

 

The Pirate of Penzance

PERICULO BORIS (Dangerous Boris)

by David Wilson

I am the very model of a modern primal minister
I’m ignorant of vegetable, animal, and mineral
But know the kings of England, and can quote the fights historical
From Marathon to Waterloo in Greek and schoolboy Latinal,
I'm very well acquainted, too, with matters quite corruptible

I understand equations thought up by Dominic of Dur-en-ham
Ennobling the terrible, the Lords have quite a lot of ‘em,
With cheerful faces from my brother to financiers
I understand the necessity for moneyfat enhanciers
I understand the necessity for moneyfat enhanciers

CABINET CHORUS

So many cheerful faces from his brother to financiers
So many cheerful faces from his brother to financiers
So many cheerful faces from his brother to financiers
We understand the necessity for moneyfat enhanciers

PERICULO BORIS

I’m not so good at differential calculus
At honesty and logic, and at hoi polloi humanitas
And although I know the names of beings animalculus
In short, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral
I am the very model of a modern primal minister

CABINET CHORUS

In short, in all matters vegetable, animal, and mineral
He’s the very model of a modern primal minister
In short, in all matters vegetable, animal, and mineral
He’s the very model of a modern primal minister

PERICULO BORIS

I know our mythic history, King Arthur's and Sir Caradoc's;
I answer Greek acrostics, I've a pretty taste for paradox,
I quote in Latin all the crimes of Heliogabalus,
and with pandemic virus I am reckless with my parabolous

Oh and I can write an expenses form in Babylonic symbology
And hide from you Jeremias’ manifesto “pro multis nona pauci”

CABINET CHORUS

In short, in all matters vegetable, animal, and mineral
He is the very model of a modern primal minister

PERICULO BORIS

More than that, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral,
I am the very model of a magniloquent primal minister
In fact, I know what is meant by "dolus malus", "corrumpera",
And I benefit with interest from “personam nec munera”

I’m a chisel chousing cozen, a bleeding diddle con, I’m a euchre fiddle fleezer, a flimflam gaffing gyp. I’m a hosing, hustling mulcter, nobbling plucking skunk, a swindling sucking thimblerig, a fleecing phoney cheat

I know more of tactics than a novice in a nunnery--
In short, I've more than a smattering of elemental strategy,
You'll say a feral primal minister has never conned you more
You'll say a feral primal minister has never conned you more

CABINET CHORUS

You'll say a feral primal minister has never conned you more ??
You'll say a feral primal minister has never conned you more ???
You'll say a feral primal minister has never conned you more ?????????

They run off stage.

CURTAINS