The silent man-for six long years.

There is a danger as the Tory party collapses into a heap of nothingness that some are tempted to see Ian Duncan Smith as some sort of martyr,almost heroic in standing up to the Cameron hegemony and destroying the legend that is Osborne's financial probity.
Piffle, utter piffle.
IDS is a totally unreconstructed Thatcherite who has long preached the creed iof austerity and blamed poverty on ,well to put it simply, the poor.
Smith stands for the old Samuel Smiles vision of the poor standing on their own two feet, of putting up with hardship with gritted teeth and determination to drag themselves up by their bootstraps, or die in the process.
I do not believe that he had a Damascusene  conversion after visiting Easterhouse in Glasgow any more than I believe in fairies or indeed that Donald Trump is the answer to any question that mankind faces.
Indeed if Trump is the answer then it's a fucking stupid question!
I digress.
IDS has been pushing his solution to poverty ever since he supped at the feet of his heroine and replaced Tebbitt as the MP for Chingford and Central Nurenberg.

What we are watching is the falling out amongst thieves, it reminds me very much of the 'council meetings' in Ragged Trousered Philanthropists when the elite of Mugsborough got together to divide out the spoils.
The Tory Party are not really a party in any obvious sense, they are a band of opportunist chancers, self interested  gangsters,xenophobes,who combine for only one purpose-to steal the roof while the sun shines!
That's not to say that over the last century or so there haven't been Tories with something that approaches principle, indeed I have met some in local government who have a genuine concern for the people they represent and have a sort of guiding philosophy that has even a little logic behind it.
Few and far between are such Tories, and fewer by the day, and sadly even the logic is a little (no actually quite a lot) flawed.
But there are I'm sure some decent people who really believed that'we're all in this together'.Why there might even be some misguided people in the Labour Party and the Lib-Dems who believed that 'we're all in this together'
IDS has blown that idea right out of the water, along with the mantra of 'austerity now' or what they really meant was 'austerity for you lot-for ever and ever !
We are not all in anything together and never have been, and austerity simply is not the answer to the question- I refer back to my judgement on Trump earlier if you want a reason.

And I say very clearly to my loyal readership in the East Midlands Labour Party, who I understand pore over my blogs to find heresies and examples of deviation and divisiveness:
"Listen to the Leader of the Labour Party"
While you have been wringing your hands and whittling on about how Jeremy is not the leader you wanted, why low and behold, the hostile media have noted at last that austerity is not the answer (because of course IDS,one of the architects of austerity now thinks its gone too far) and indeed as Jeremy has been saying since the day he was first elected -worrying about the national debt and clearing the historic deficit  is not as important as ending poverty and building a fair and just society,based not on fiscal policy but on human values.

And surprise,surprise, it would appear that it's not just young radicals who are listening to him either.I don't for one second believe that the media will stop demonising the Labour Leader, but millions of people,unconcerned about Brexit or 'Stronger together' or whatever the chosen slogan will begin to recognise that the last decade has been one of mounting inequality and stultifying greed.
Time to tear up the slick PR spin sheet and look to something better.
IDS is already part of a history that the people can do without.Time to see that we don't need a handful of Tory MP's shuffling for advancement in Westminster, thee is a movement growing, in thiscountry,over Europe and further afield.
As I approach my seventieth summer I have never been more optimistic.

Time for the people to sing

There appears to be a debate developing about national anthems in this land of ours.It would appear that the main concern is what the people sing at sporting events,and I understand that, but songs mean different things to different people at different times.
A good martial bellow,full of patriotic fervour may be pretty good standing on the terraces, but I think it's time we reflected on songs that reflected what really matters.
So I present my readers some alternatives, and I hope my avid readers up in the East Midlands Labour party bunker will enjoy my choices,why they may even wish to sing along-if that's not too divisive!
All the songs can be found on YouTube.
So firstly i want to get rid of that dreary loathsome peon of praise to Mrs.Windsor,if your a religious royalist,it may well float your boat, but as a republican atheist of long standing-'God save the Queen'is not anywhere in my songbook!
I believe there is a much better national anthem,and I will come to that later,but first my suggestions for the four nations that make up the British Isles.
First, the Principality of Wales.A land with so many fine songs it is a difficult,nay impossible task, 'Cwm Rhondda' would be popular, but in my view it's far too religious- so that's out.'Men of Harlech ' is great to bellow out at the Arms Park, but it a little too jingoistic for me, and always in my mind associated with bloody Michael Caine in 'Zulu'
So may i suggest 'The Bells of Rhymney' a beautiful lament that reminds us of the struggles in the mining industry, and written by an American-the late Pete Seeger.
Ireland. Well of course Ireland already has a fine anthem in 'The Soldiers' Song', but sadly we will have to wait until there is once again a united Ireland,and the gerrymandered sic counties are part of the Republic.
In the meantime however , what about Tommy Makem's ballad 'Four Green Fields' it's certainly better than the sentimentality of 'Danny Boy',which is fine in the boozer or the boxing match, but nowhere else in my mind.
As an alternative there is always Phil Coulter's 'The town I loved so well',especially poignant when sung by the late Luke Kelly,but a song that brings Derry alive.
Scotland, again like both Wales and Ireland a land with masses of rousing songs which are frequently about our past glories especially when we gave the English a good kicking- well not that often since Bannockburn and after the 'Butcher' Cumberland did fearsome damage at Culloden.
I can't advocate too many Jacobite songs for obvious reasons, although 'Parcel of Rogues in a nation' has its charms.
There is of course always the supreme song and poem by Burns 'A man's a man for a' that' that should be the real national song of socialism throughout the Isles, but that may just be too much for others to thole.
So I'll content with either version of 'The Ballad of John McLean' or my favourite 'The March of John McLean'
"The Gorbals are oot the day,ah Glesca belangs tae him'
I'm sure to my enlightened readership, especially to those in Nottingham, you don't need telling who McLean was,and if you need a clue,he wasn't Jim Murphy !
Now on to England, the largest of the four nations, and sadly the one with the fewest alternatives, oh I know that many favour Blakes 'Jerusalem',especially the Rugby fraternity, but it's a bit churchy for me,although a fine song none the less. Others have suggested 'Land of Hope and Glory' which has amazing music.but sadly in my view has a dreadful imperialist tinge.
No there is only one song for England.Edward Carpenter's 'England Arise'
Who can resist a song  with the final verse:
"Forth then ye heroes,patriots and lovers
Comrades of danger,poverty and scorn,
Mighty in faith of Freedom  your great Mother
Giants refreshed in the emerging dawn."
(You may note I've forgotten one word in the stanza, that's your test for the day!)
And so finally to what should replace 'God save....'
I did thing of course that 'The Red Flag' was a good candidate for a socialist song book, but only if sung to the original  to Jim Connell's chosen air 'The White Cockade' rather than the dirge we usually hear,based on the German hymn 'Der Tannenbaum'
So we need something else, and oddly it is to Germany I looked.Beethoven's 'Ode to Joy' is a majestic awe inspiring piece,but I think it's already used elsewhere, my final choice is in fact a 15th c folk song,sung by the peasantry who were revolting against some Swabian princes,banned until 1848, banned again by the Nazi's and sung in the concentration camps of the third Reich.
'Die Gedanken Sind Frei'
"I think as I please and this gives me pleasure
My conscience decrees this right I must treasure
My thoughts will not cater to duke or dictator
No man can deny,die gedanken sind frei'
Wouldn't that sound awesome belted out at the end of every Labour Party conference

Nothing changes-everything stays the same

It is all to common for commentators and spin doctors and those clever people who are now called 'moderates' in the Labour Party to run down and write off Marx as a failed prophet from a time when capitalism had a cruel and ruthless tint.
When it was red in tooth and claw,but of course we now have compassionate capitalism and everything is different and we march to a different tune.

We have the usual silver tongued rhetoric from the 'we're all in it together' win g of the cruel party, we have David Cameron telling the world that we all love the welfare state and we all want to help the poor and we all want a fair and just and equal society and blah blah blah.
Not for nothing was Cameron a spin doctor whose role model was the 'straight kinda' guy' who snuggled up to the banks and suckled the great big American corporate tit that was George Bush.

The mask has slipped.For decades the mean spirited free traders came after organised labour.One after another the weakened and divided the trade union movement.Thirty years ago they used their attack dogs in the media to howl abuse at trade unions,we call all remember what they said about the miners and the transport workers and the fire-fighters-all those brutes who held the country to ransom, who wouldn't bury the dead or empty the dustbins or force poor commuters to freeze on draughty stations Remember the feeding frenzy when they declared that they had broken the miners.How the Murdoch press rejoiced as coalfield after coalfield was closed and communities decimated.
Remember the joy in the boardrooms,not to mention the newsrooms and almost certainly the cabinet room.
And as that was happening,most people in work nodded wisely over their cornflakes and agreed with the squalid hacks who wrote the sort of lies about Arthur Scargill that they now write about Jeremy Corbyn.Marx a century before pointed out in much more measured  tones and with sound economic logic the nature of the free market and monopoly capitalism.
When they have weaken,cowed and broken the strongest opponents, they come after the rest,and so today we see swathes of the middle class,once secure in their professionalism facing the same brutality that industrial workers have gone through.
They have systematically weakened teachers,with their regime change,the creation of 'free schhols',the privatisation of education in the academy chains and the endless control freakery within the classroom.
They didn't stop there,endless experts and financial geniuses were rolled out to show how by selling essential services to the private sector everything would be better.Railways,local government,water,power,you name it-they've sold it to their mates,and not only in the city,but in the global marketplace that is known as the free market.
So now they are after the biggest prize.break the 'junior' doctors, then they can go after the nurses and the other hospital workers,and then the big prize-the consultants.

Jeremy Hunt is everything we think he is, and more, He's only the knob on the front of the packet and will be discarded like a used condom when he's done the damage(he's the one in the packet with the small prick in it!)

For capitalism to work it has only one strategy, it will never cut profit because that is its only purpose,so it will cut costs and tell us its in our best interests-we need austerity,we need lower pensions,we need lower pay,we need less services,we need to work harder and above all we need to keep our mouths shut and our heads down.
Having written a few hundred words of unrestrained gloom and misery I see some good signs.I see a trade union movement that is starting to see the danger,a bit late but better than never.If the BMA can see the writing on the wall, then maybe others will too.It's time for union members to recognise that nothing was ever won without a fight-so goodbye to 'Sir'Paul Kenny and his ilk and lets get union leaders elected who will represent their members.
The same is true of the Party of Labour.For years it has been on its knees,fawning before the big banks and the hedge fund owners and the press barons.
There is still a long way to go, as worldwide workers start to remember whose side they're on,the spectre of fascism looms once again.
Trump and all those like him are ugly and dangerous,but they can be defeated.Bernie Saunders may indeed face insurmountable odds this time, but over three million Americans have funded his campaign and that's a lot more than the few hundred billionaires and zillionaires who fund all the others.
The biggest threat we face is racism.Once you can get people divided,on race,religion,whatever,then you can beat them.
There is no refugee crisis,any more than there is a crisis in the NHS or there is a crisis in Eastenders.If you tell people often enough there is a crisis looming they will believe it-tell them every guy with a beard is a possible terrorist then most football teams would be down to three or four players.

The Doctors must win,if they lose,then the free marketeers will have won and the next set of victims will be lined up.

Is that the lawyers and judges I see getting a bit itsy ?

It's a lesson too late for the learning ?

A curious mixture of melancholy and excitement fills my sleeping hours and most of my waking ones too.

last night instead of counting sheep I lay awake thinking of old the comrades who have passed away,when I first became a Labour Councillor way back in 1973 I was trying to count the number who have died-I lost count in the forties!

this was prompted by the sad death of an old comrade Tony Deasy just before Christmas.Tony represented all that was good about the Labour Party and his death also reminded me of the excitement and exhilaration of those times  when to be young and idealistic and effortlessly looking to the future.

it seems to me that spirit of change in how we do politics is alive again in the huge support Jeremy Corbyn has created-a sense that together 'we can make it happen'.So how do we rebuild what was once a large social democratic party with a pronounced list to socialism,before the pragmatists and naysayers once again get their paws on the structure and the power.

The left has a small window-it must use it wisely.

Here comes the nostalgia bit.

I've just finished reading David Aaronvitch's autobiography 'Party Animals' and it staggers me how only a few years apart we have lived parallel lives.His parents knew people my parents knew,we lived in the same part of North London,went to the same 'Daily Worker' bazaars,why we even went to the same school!

Like him I was called a 'red diaper' baby by American Communists who visited our flat.Like him I was wrapped in the cosy certainty that when we talked about 'The Party' we only meant one party- the Communist Party.

There by the way the parallel lives end,he went over to the dark side and writes a column for 'The Times',I only write for the 'Chronicle & Echo-a part of Johnston Group newspapers !

Coming to Northampton was a real culture shock, from the frantic politics of the Stoke Newington Peoples Paper' and the 'Theoretical Practice' study group (don't ask!) the pace was very different and the rhythm,shall we say,somnambulist provincial.

One neighbour in Western View was a remarkable woman, 'Doll' Pickering. Her husband had been a local Labour Councillor and she was a widow, but very active in the community-in her local church at Castle Hill, local charities and Castle Ward Labour Party.

She heard us bitching about the government in our garden, invited us to a ward meeting and the rest is history.

Now Doll was no fierce revolutionary,far from it,she worked hard for Reggie Paget the right wing Labour MP, but she recognised that the Party needed young blood,renewal and above all a shift in enthusiasm.

It was people like Doll that were the glue that held the party together.Rooted in the community,rooted in her neighbourhood and understanding what they were talking about.

Which brings me back to Tony Deasy. He was a tall kindly man who would talk to anyone,and talk and talk....

He lived in Thorplands and for a number of years represented that ward on NBC.He didn't need to run surgeries because everyone knew where he lived,he didn't need to knock on doors to 'listen' to people because he knew them and heard them everyday and he didn't need to organise litter picks to get his photo in the paper-he would argue with the Council officers that they had to do their job properly and not rely on volunteers.

Since the 1970's the party has changed.When we first joined the newly created Northampton South CLP there were dozens of union branches affiliated, there were I think 5 TGWU branches,2 NUBSO (boot and shoe workers) several AEU branches,several NUPE branches and so on.

Wards sent delegates as did the unions andthe organisation was both welcoming and relatively efficient.we also had our own building at 97 Charles Street, once the NUBSO offices but bought I think by Paget for Labour Party use.

Later we converted the ground floor into a club with Party rooms above.Every night there were meetings and any party or Union member visiting Northampton knew that there at least like minded companions could be found.

There were often fierce arguments and passionate debate,both upstairs and in the bar sometimes,

factions met,plotted,dissolved and re-formed.The party was alive to all sorts of currents in the broader movement.

It was a time when Local government was central to party strategy, when the GLC, the London Boroughs,Liverpool,Sheffield,Edinborough and dozens of other places were the centres of resistance to central government.

Even wee Clay Cross in Derbyshire played a part in the resistance.

My point is that there was a coherence within the movement and the party, a comradeship and a vitality.members were not simply used as leaflet deliverers and door knockers.The battle in the aprty during the 70-80's was to wrest power from the parliamentary elite,or even the council elite and bring it back to the wards and branches.

There is a new enthusiasm abroad in the movement that needs to be brought out before frustration sets in.There are only so many litter picks you can support before you think maybe joining a Keep Britain Tidy group might have been a better option.

So what must the local Labour Party do ?

First it must create real meaningful branches throughout the town that have autonomy to do more than leaflet but be able to initiate campaigns.

It must ensure that as many members as possible are encouraged to get involved,not just in ward activities but in broader community activities too.How many are members of local tenant or resident groups for instance ?

There must be an opportunity at ward level to discus ideas,and not just await the word from on high.The Labour Party is not organised obn democratic centralist lines (at least not when I last looked)

And above all else wards must attempt where possible to select local candidates from their community.that may mean training,not simply in how to canvass or how to fold leaflets, but how to speak in public, how to deal with council officers,how to write leaflets and use social media.

I am very optimistic that the party can move forward, as part of a broader movement.But it needs to be brave and it needs to learn from its history,from its mistakes and its successes.

But already time is short and there are too many unleashed dogs of war, and they all seem to be in the party.

 

A wind of change blows up from St.James

Who would have believed it ? On a damp Saturday afternoon in January in downtown St James Northampton over 200 folk gathered to hear a Labour Party shadow cabinet MP.
There was a time not so long ago when a real labour Party cabinet minister couldn't attract an audience of much more than a few loyalist hacks and the odd passing dog.
Yet times have changed, and the crowd from Northampton and other parts of the County turned up at the Rodber suite at Franklins gardens to hear a range of speakers culminating in the shadow Chancellor John McDonnell.
And unlike many such meetings in the past the crowd stayed on because he was delayed on his journey down from another meeting in Derby, and the meeting over ran my a good half hour.
Such is the pulling power of the new leadership of the Labour party these days.
There were other quite inspirational speakers there too, top of the platform was young Richard and his Mum.He is a very brave young disabled man who spoke movingly and with a sly sense of humour about the plight of young people with disabilities.He spoke as the Youth Ambassador of the Ron Todd Trust and a damn fine ambassador he is too.
It was therefore a pity that a local self-styled anarchist,writing on Facebook chose to describe Richard's presence as being an example of patronisation,as some sort of cynical manipulation on behalf of the organisers,perhaps even emotional blackmail.
However it would appear that the anarchist who left in protest-he thinks of himself as an eagle amongst a flock of pigeons-didn't really listen to what was being said, that solidarity is starting to mean something once again.
He demonstrated all the political skills and nuanced analysis of those Labour shadow cabinet ministers who are leaving the shadow cabinet with great purpose and no effect!
Yes,I've never heard of them either and I didn't notice them leaving!
Most of the speakers were drawing attention to two areas -Dave Ward the General Secretary of the CWU and Lee Barron the Regional Secretary of the TUC were laying great emphasis on the need to build and organise the trade union movement.
In times of great difficulty,indeed growing difficulty,it's not the Parliamentary Labour Party that will make the difference to peoples lives-that may come later,but it is organised labour that will hold the ring.
One small observation is that both Trade Union speakers came from the CWU-is there something about postmen and women that is breeding a new militancy and a new desire for change?
Speaking on behalf of the Unison members employed by Northamptonshire County Council their secretary made it clear that the biggest danger in the immediate future is the wholesale privatisation of the County Council.
Northamptonshire is being used as a blue print(in every sense of the word) for the future of public services in this country.If the Tories have their way,then there will be less than 200 people working for the County Council (and they will all probably be senior managers!) whilst all other jobs and services-those that haven't already been decimated,will be in the private sector.
What we see happening in the public sector is nothing less than what the last Tory government did to the mining and steel industries-no if's and no but's.
John McDonnell despite arriving late and not hearing the other contributions brought together the strands quite effectively, which I must say suggests that at last the Labour movement is singing off the same songsheet.
Nobody at Franklins Gardens that afternoon underestimates the scale of the problem facing the Labour movement today.But the reality at last that we are talking about a movement, that is parliamentary and extra-parliamentary, that brings together all sections of the community and understands instinctively that an injury to one is an injury to all.
The labour party grew out of mass movements, it didn't emerge a fully fledged parliamentary group that understood the archaic traditions of the Palace of Westminster, that didn't really give a monkeys about the gibberish and gentleman's club rules of the Commons, and more important than anything realised that all struggles are interconnected.The fight against austerity is not simply an economic argument, but is a social and an equality issue too, that involves healthcare,education,housing,military spending,overseas aid-everything in the end is political.
Yet the solution is not simply 'political'that is a catch all word that is about as meaningless as the Liberal-Democrats and the Progress group in Parliament.
What is changing in Europe,and indeed all over the world is that people are starting to see that there is a common interest that transcends nation states historic game playing.
Capital is global,our response must be international too.I see that there is a new grouping,or grouplet in the Labour Party called 'International Labour'.I gather they want to replace Trident and keep bombing other bits of the globe.
I expect they are called 'International Labour' because they couldn't quite get their collective heads around the idea of 'International Socialists'-hey ho!
And finally to the young Northamptonian who left in protest to continue his lonely fight as an anarchist can I remind him that the most effective strain of his particular ideology can be found in the Anarcho-syndicalist movement, that understood the need to combine and work together-in solidarity!

The world turned upside down-reprise!

Another year approaching and another feeding frenzy.Without doubt the next few months will be concerned about only two things,the bloody EU Referendum and the feverish plotting in the Parliamentary Labour Party to get rid of the leader elected with the biggest popular mandate in British political history.
What does that tell us about the state of the political realm at the moment.
First the EU referendum, I'm totally bored by it already,it would appear to be already decided anyway and even if it isn't it doesn't much matter anyway.
In or out,the multi-nationals will win, Cameron will come back waving a bit of paper and proclaiming 'peace in our time'-sorry, 'Victory is ours' and that bloke who looks like a frog and didn't win Thanet last may will jump up and down a bit,then go on drawing his fat cat salary in the European parliament.
I actually hope we all forget about the whole thing,and the turnout is lower than the one that got Police and Crime Commissioners elected (Remember them ? about 60k a year for doing bugger all squared!
Now the other issue is the continued harrying of Jeremy Corbyn by the assorted disloyal deadbeats that make up about one third of the Parliamentary Labour Party or to put it simpler about 00000.1% of the Party membership.
Mind you there is a vigorous rear guard action going on to resuscitate the memory of T.Blair. 
In last Sunday's Observer there was a two page spread rehabilitating the man who almost destroyed the Labour Party,who lost thousands of members,who saw local parties contract,ward organisation disappear and affiliated membership collapse.
The piece was written by one Peter Hyman who strangely enough was TB's chief speech-writer (did he I wonder write that immortal almost line 'I'm just a straight sort of guy' or some such tosh) 
Hyman's big argument was that:
"This is an existential moment in Labour's history.It may not survive.And it may never win again."
In order to demonstrate the dreadfulness of Labour's future he outlined the success of new Labour's past.He gave three examples.
1.The National Minimum Wage 
2.The Good Friday Peace settlement
3.Civil Partnerships.  
Now I'm willing to give a cheer for the national minimum wage (shows how fair minded I am) but of course a national living wage might have been more sensible.
And of course the Northern Ireland peace accord was a good bit of work, but I seem to remember it was the bravery and stubbornness of the late Mo Mowlam who had more to do with facing out paisley than ever Blair did.
Civil Partnerships were also a good thing-but changing the course of history ? naw I don't think so.
Hyman also went on to extol the great achievements in Education, health and local government. Well if saddling schools with more ways to weight a pig was an achievement, if dumping on the NHS dozens of costly PFI schemes and introducing cabinet government to creaking local authorities can all be measured as achievements-I suppose Hyman has a point-of sorts.
But on the biggest landmark and abiding feature of the Blair presidency we had this;

"The Iraq war,and the knock-on effect on the region,has for many tarnished the entire record ofv the Labour government."
Tarnished the fucking record-no it trashed the record for all time and virtually destroyed the party as a left of centre force.Even the bloody Lib-Dems had more sense and voted against the invasion of Iraq.
If those clones of Blairism think that there is an appetite for more wars,more weaponry,more aggression then they are as dim as Donald Trump on a clear day.Has no-one on the Blairite wing noticed what happened in Scotland ? One Labour MP left in Scotland.
And they expect Jeremy Corbyn to work a miracle there this year!If you want to know what went wrong in Scotland how about two wee names-Dougie Alexander and Jim Murphy is all that you need to know.
So far this has been a pessimistic piece and I don't mean it to be.At last I believe there is hope emerging within the Labour Party, as there is all over Europe.The old machine politics will take a long time dying, just look at the PLP if you want to see its death throes, but there is something quite exciting happening and contrary to the commentators it is not going back in time.There is an optimism ,but it needs nurturing and building.
What the labour Party needs to go back to is what it was once good at,building support in communities,street by street and in workplaces (where they exist) and it needs to do it not with the dinosaurs of New Labour but rather with the young,inside and outside the party.What we need is not a party but a movement that embraces those in existing parties like the Greens,SNP,Plaid and SF, but also in the broader groups fighting austerity and inequality, fighting for tolerance and for a socialist island.
I believe Momentum needs momentum to move forward,with activists from all over the left,because we have one hell of a war to fight,not simply with the numpties of Blairism but with the awful spectre of the far right, that is rising in many guises,from the crackpot little Englanders of UKIP to dar more sinisterforces of the far right.
It's time for a Very New Labour Party. 
   

Sometimes things get nasty.

It goes with the territory, politics can sometimes be nasty,brutish and short!It is always possible that someone will not agree with you (heavens forbear!) and they will disagree with you, they might even shout at you, and if you were Spencer Percival they might even shoot you dead!
Fortunately the killing of politicians is a relatively rare  occurance. In.In some parts of the world it is an operational hazard and assassins do operate,but even so it's still rare.
however what is far less rare is innocent civilians being killed by fanatics,the criminally insane,or high level bombardment from the air.
We are likely to see in the next few weeks and months many examples in Syria of what the American's euphemistically call 'collateral damage', it is likely that the odd school,hospital,old peoples home will be hit by a stray bomb that was aimed at a terrorist.
I'm afraid I take with a huge pinch of salt the notion that there exist such precision weapons that they can pinpoint with devastating accuracy the individual target.
"Wfo are we looking for Buddy ?"
"A guy with a beard and a dark skin"
"Hey, there's one know, he's going into that door!"
"That's the guy-go go go!"
"Gotcha- oh shit, there's another guy with a beard and dark skin..."
This whole bombing campaign is not going to work, and when we understand that each missile costs £30,000 a pop and they have already spent a seven figure sum in the last 48 hours,the cost the exercise is not worth the candle.
Indeed it would appear that most of the military expers and indeed military intelligence (surely a contradiction in terms!) agree that without the 70,000 fantasy army on the ground to in fact fight on a street by street basis the whole exercise is doomed to failure.Even Fallon the indefensible minister admits that the campaign will take years.
How many times does it have to be said, that this is not war as we knew it-it is not fucking Agincourt, with neat lines of men that stopped when it got dark, nor is it WW1 with neat lines of trenches where each inch cost hundreds of lives, nor is it WW2 where set battles were fought.
And it is certainly not a guerilla war like Vietnam ,where although the tactcs were different the NLF were a recognisable army with brilliant military tactics.
This time, despite what they say about Syria and Iraq it is a messy jigsaw of hundreds of competing armies,bands,a few mates, whatever, some on one side,some on the other,some on both.
And above all it is a 'war' against individuals.Even the worst examples of terror involve a tiny handful of crazies-some may have an ideology of some vague religious affinity (dreaming of thousands of celestial virgins ) some may be impressed by a 'religious cult' leader,some may be doped up to the yeballs and of course some may be keen to get their hands on a wad of Saudi Arabian dosh.

You fight these sort of people in two ways, firstly in Syria and Iraq by supporting the workers organisations that have patiently and systematically being fighting both the autocracies and theocracies for decades.When the kurdish people were crying out for support,what was the west doing ? Oh, I remember, helping their mates in Turkey suppress the legitimate aspirations of the Kurdish people for self determination.
At the same time, an economic embargo on Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States and an international embargo on arms sales to the despotic regimes would swiftly screw the power oof Isis, as indeed would an embargo on the oil companies who trade with them.
As to the 'terrorists' in Europe, effective policing coupled with a crack down on Islamaphobia might just work in our favour.It wasn't so long ago in this country that Irish people were victimised and discriminated against.
Finally the position of Her Majesties opposition.
I object in the strongest possible terms to Hilary Benn's assertion that bombing Syria is just like fighting fascism in the 1930's and especially his historically illiterate comparison between the bombing campaign and the men and women of the International Brigades who went to Spain.
The volunteers who went to Spain had a clear political understanding of the nature of fascism and what was needed to stop it, and they gave their lives in many cases for that cause. and of course,even though the Red airforce assisted the Republic with a small number of fighter planes, the only air war fought over Spain was that initiated by Germany and Italy which bombed cities towns and villages and killed thousands of civilians.
Or has been never seen the painting of Guernica!  
Of course people are going to be bloody angry with Labour MP's who in a cavalier fashion belittle and riducule the growing number of citizens who say 'this war is not in my name',of course they will get angry responses, and some might even be construed as threats, but calling Danzuk a tosser or even suggesting that he would better serve humanity if he was missing the odd bit of his anatomy in no way compares to what he and his Tory and Lib-Dem mates have unleashed on innocent civilians.If there is a huge flood of desperate refugees trying to cross the Mediterranean  in flimsy boats-who will take the responsibility.
Over the years I have taken a lot of political flack, a lot of personal criticism and quite a bit of threats from far right groups and others,why we've even had burning paper stuffed through our letterbox.
It is unpleasant and even a bit scary,but every action creates a reaction.
I'm sure many left MP's and Trade Union leaders have put up with offensive and vile behaviour ,even death treats.
If the threats to these MP's are credible,they have a remedy-they can call for Police protection.
The people of Raqqa have no such remedy.