the end of the occupation

Seven views of Bristol's magnificent College Green.

This was the loaction for the disgraceful 'Occupy' camp which was finally evicted a few weeks ago. This was a vile Third World shanty town full of rich kids, drug addicts, the mentally ill and violent perverts. It was presented as some sort of 'protest' camp, which is hilarious considering the reality. The scum that were 'living' here promised they'd pay to make good the site, but of course vanished back to their posh homes before their names and money could be taken. So the bill falls on the ratepayers of Bristol, but I reckon it'll be worth every penny.

After clearing all the used needles, broken glass and filth around the site, the land is now being prepared (giving a worm feast to the seagulls, it's an ill wind that blows nobody any good!) and turves will be laid soon. The site will be available to the REAL people of Bristol again in April,  just as Spring kicks in.

So what was this visitation that descended on our fair city just a few short months ago? A bunch of reactionary students pitched tents, immediately churning up the grass, followed shortly by all the dregs of Bristol, the homeless, the mentally ill, the drug takers and the sex offenders. My own stepdaughter was pestered by one of these bastards.

We were then subjected to being banned from using OUR own green space in the city by these outsiders and dregs. This lasted almost three months. Our weak council and even weaker church just let them get on with it, whilst 99% of Bristolians seethed! We had our very own No-Go area in the middle of OUR city. Interestingly when the long overdue eviction order was issued all these cowardly scum vanished, no doubt before they were asked to pay for the damage their decadent indulgence had done.

And what were they 'protesting' about? Everything and nothing it seems. They supported a strong state, jobs for all and pensions for all - but also supported the destruction of the system that provides all this! They supported extreme left wing communism whilst also supporting 'freedom' for everyone - as long as you were prepared to live in a future where a strong state decided where you worked and lived, who you'd marry and how you'd fill your spare time.

They seemed to have no idea of Climate Change or Peak Oil or the real issues that face all of us. They knew NOTHING of economics or human nature. They were the ultimate outsiders, upper middle-class bureaucratic socialists who just want to be coddled from the cradle to the grave, whilst at the same time removing the very system that provides the excess wealth to alllow this to happen.

They also did two things that would disgust any right thinking person. They claimed to represent the majority, indeed the '99%', reducing all of us individuals to a percentage, robomen perhaps? In reality do any of us really know anyone who is actually like this? Perhaps in the 1960s, not now. In reality the 99% are hard working anti-Occupy types who are desperate to keep their families fed and well and would fight to the death to preserve capitalism. The '1%' are these freeloading, unthinking, unwashed retard scum.

And secondly they tried to paint revolutions around the world, particularly in the Middle East and North Africa, as part of the Occupy 'movement'. Greece, oh that was Occupy. Libya, that was Occupy losing their lives on the streets of Tripoli, Syria, Occupy again, even the English riots of 2011 - Occupy of course! They even stretched back into the pre-Occupy past and tried to claim those events as Occupy inspired!

In reality this was a nasty, small minded attempt to wind people up. There was no philosophy behind it, no interface with reality, no substance. A few people who should know better stupidly tried to jump on the bandwagon, ranging from brain-dead linguistic upper middle-class retard Noah Chomsky to Martian refugee Ed Milliband. All with their own agenda, taking advantage of the chaos Occupy were trying to spread.

So Occupy is now dead, not just in Bristol but everywhere. Of course. Without substance they have just withered away. I'd recommend they get drug-free, start businesses, learn some post Peak Oil skills, get married, start families and start becoming part of the community, rather than parasites on it. We shall not see their likes again, the last decadent, reactionary fling of the Oil Rich Age.

the good the bad and the totally fucking stupid ...

Everyone in Bristol should be very proud of yesterday's event, when a group of local people defied the police - including foreign officers imported from Wales - and told Tesco's that it wasn't wanted in Stokes Croft.

Stokes Croft is a Bohemian and forward-looking community in Bristol. It's a place of small local shops and sustainable initiatives. Yet multinational hippy supermarket Tesco decides it's the ideal location for one of its useless Express supermarkets. No need to ask the locals, what's it got to do with them?

So yesterday they paid the price. Decent Bristolians went out on a sultry evening and told Tesco's exactly what the community really thinks of them. The police, duffers that they are, totally misunderstood what was going on and decided to randomly strike out at locals looking on. What a chance for the Welsh to have a go at the English.

But of course what happened is that the heavyhandedness of the outsiders was splashed all over the media. Local heroes have ensured that  not only will Tesco's NEVER open a shop in Stokes Croft but, hopefully, as a result of this sharp learning curve will NEVER do the same anywhere else.

Does this mean that all supermarkets are bad? Of course not! Here in Hartcliffe Morrisons opened a new store in a very run down part of the area giving locals a good place to shop, where most of us can walk to, and providing dozens of jobs in the area. They didn't take trade from anywhere else (apart from the ASDA in Whitchurch) and certainly nobody in Hartcliffe opposed it.

Of course in the long term all supermarkets will fail as the oil runs out, but hopefully the building itself will find a new role in the future, perhaps as an indoor market and bring and take centre.

And as for Tescos in Stokes Croft? Well this is what one of their spokespeople said (probably a 23 year old middle class prefect who seriously believes he'll be driving an electric car in 20 years' time) - 'we'll defy local resentment and reopen the supermarket'.

No you won't you hippy twat! 'Cos if you try the WHOLE of Bristol will chace you back to fucking London!

feet on the ground

About the only thing moving through the air at the moment are the kids on theh Chairoplane at Bristol's Funderland.

We've now had two days without aeroplanes roaring overhead and isn't it brilliant? This is a glimpse into the future if ever there was one. The air industry is in serious decline with rising fuel costs, pig-headed 1970s style staff and a 7% fall in tourist traffic over the last year. Several airlines have already shut down. Continental is stopping all flights from Bristol from November. Airports are beginning to be under-utilised, and things will only get worse for them.

As the airlines falter, and as the climate continues to heat up, perhaps the British will finally realise that we don't need to go abroad for all the things we want from a holiday? We're having four holidays this year involving flying but I can't see us doing the same next year.

BBC - shame of britain

Leadhills.


Littlehampton.


Hartcliffe.

Did you see that disgraceful BBC programme last night?

I still can't believe that such rubbish masquerading as journalism was actually broadcast.

The synopsis was - take two middle class British people with dark skin, plonk them into one of the tightest-knit working class areas of Bristol, get them wandering around with weird clothes on and acting stupid to the gangs of kids who, rightly, regard the streets as THEIR territory, and wait for sparks to fly. Inevitably some of the thicko kids reacted and threw stuff at the toffs.

Conclusion - working class people in tight-knit communities don't take kindly to middle class toffs goading them, all for entertainment.

BBC's conclusion - racism is rife in Bristol. All Bristolians get tarred with the same brush. A few hate sites are set up on Facebook and a few kids get a hiding from their parents for showing up the neighbourhood.

This was NOTHING to do with racism but everything to do with community. You have to live here and be part of the community for years before you are accepted. The residents think, quite rightly, that you need to prove yourself.

These whingeing toffs did everything they could to goad those kids, then ran to the police to tell tales. Two of the kids have been taken into community care. Does that make the BBC proud?

One of the named girls has four friends in common with Debs on Facebook. Turns out her mum died recently. There's nothing racist in her Facebook and Bebo pages.

But probably the very worst thing that this show did was to try to blame the BNP for all this. Absolute drivel! None of these kids would even know who the BNP were - they'd be considered just as much toffs and outsiders as the two reporters. We all know Thick Griffin is on Question Time this Thursday. The BBC are trying to stir up trouble, and they think we're too stupid to spot it.

I was brought up in Littlehampton which was and still is a scary place if you're not from there. Think the Falls and Shankhill in 1978, but with added knives.

I spent five years in Leadhills, a Scottish village up in the Lowther Hills south of Glasgow. There was real anti-English racism there, but once you'd been there a few years it went. People finally accepted you because you'd proved you had a link to the place.

These knobheads spent six weeks in Southmead. Six weeks!!

And if the luvvies at the BBC had picked on Hartcliffe rather than Southmead then no doubt they would have found the same feral and ignorant - but hardly racist and certainly not BNP - kids here. The story would have been the same.

balloons over bristol

Early yesterday morning I was hauled out of bed at some unearthly hour to 'see the balloons'. It was almost worth it! Then yesterday evening at a friend's house in north Bristol we saw more balloons.

Now here's a form of transport that may survive Peak Oil. It existed well before oil was discovered so it's pretty odds on that they will survive the post-oil period. So even in fifty years time a few favoured people will get to see what the Earth looks like from the sky.

the death of the green party

I've been hearing some very interesting and disturbing stuff from local Bristol Green Party friends. It appears that the Green Party in Bristol are talking about discussing the possibility of trying to do deals with a shabby outfit called 'Respect', carving up wards in Bristol and offering not to stand against each other. If true this would be a disaster.

What on Earth does the Green Party have in common with a rag-tag bunch of whingeing London middle-class lefties?? Nothing, as far as I can see.

But, apparently, they are like twins. People will happily vote for either. Well, I wouldn't. If I found a 'Respect' Party candidate in Hartcliffe I'd probably turn the community gun on them. At the very least they would get a serious kicking. That's if somebody else decent hadn't beaten me to them ...

I HATE socialism. It was a system devised by middle-class losers to punish successful people. In all its forms, wherever it has sprung up, it has brought nothing but poverty, ignorance and often death. From Lenin through Hitler and Thatcher to Blair and Bush, socialists have laid the world bare. The fact is that the world would be a better place without politicians and politics. It has created this mad consumer society, taken away our historic freedoms and has hampered business development. It tries to mould us all as perfect, consuming, citizens. It throws us madness like christianity, Gareth Gates and soaps, it tries to shepherd our kids into the whole industrial treadmill from the age of 5, keeping them indoors and teaching them stuff they'll never need. This is the sytem the Green Party supports.

Socialism only had an existence in a world where the economy could endlessly grow. Those days have finished, but Bristol Green Party don't seem to have noticed. To provide champagne for everybody, the socialists' stated aim, was impossible even in a growing economy, let alone a contracting one.

I've been a Green Party member on and off for 22 years. What attracted me originally was their radical vision. Yes, they had one once!! 'Neither left or right, but Green' was the slogan. No wonder we joined in droves.

That seems like a different world now. These new 'greens' want to do mad socialist stuff like renationalize the railways!! Railways should be owned by the communities and people they serve, not by the same sort of fucking bureaucrats that destroyed our system in the 60s. Barbara Castle, socialist, was the most evil sow ever. In fact there were even calls for me to be thrown out of the Green Party a few years ago because I dared to suggest they look at the local ownership idea for railways. Oh no, they wanted them to be run by distant civil servants. They even happily exhibit the authoritarian streak that socialists love.

I was brought up in a socialist family. I was taught to hate business, the royal family and foreigners. Foreigners started at Emsworth and Dorking. I still hate the royal family - more socialists living on the state rather than working for a living. Foreigners and business are cool.

And now the Green Party are considering (or at least talking about considering) disenfranchising large swathes of Bristol's voters. It would be like taking away a Mars Bar and replacing it with a pile of dog poo.

So the Green Party dies by its own hand, absorbed by the very socialist system that it originally set out to destroy. Perhaps all those environmental votes will go to the BNP ...

bristol snow

It's been an amazing week, with four big snowfalls hitting Bristol. This morning's was the heaviest with around 6 inches.

Pundits are aleady blaming climate change, and this does seem to fit the pattern. But it's not that different from 1947, 1963, 1979 or 1981 so perhaps there's nothing sinister about it.

But what it does show is how vulnerable we are. Forget comparisons with Switzerland, Finland, New England etc - that's not relevant. Those places get regular cold winters with lots of snow, and it's worth them spending plenty of money on protection. More to the point is how quickly regular activity can come to a halt. Imagine if this was Peak Oil!

But there's been a fun side too. Kids have been off school, adults haven't been able to get to work. Hartcliffe's been even friendlier than usual these last few days. We think we're above (and beyond) nature, but it's clear we're not.

busy and wild weekend

Bristol in the middle of Saturday night's storm


The Fleece on saturday night


Jungi at the zoo on Sunday.

We've had a really busy weekend!

We rejoined the gym on Saturday, then went off to a gig on Saturday night, at the Fleece, a new venue for me. Not a bad location at all with loads of character.

To the zoo on Sunday then, amazingly, to the gym on the way back.

All the activity practically killed me off. We're getting in practice for the summer, when we'll be totally redoing the garden and getting Transition fit!

the last embers of 2008

Bristol tonight - first shot is of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra leaving the stage after finishing on a stirring Radetsky March in this year's Strauss New Year's Eve concert.

The rest are from the walk back to the car through a frigid and consequently quiet Bristol.

Now for a bottle of 1990 Tokaji Aszu to see the new year in.

portishead railway - about time!!

As you may have seen in the local media FOSBR is running a postcard campaign to reopen the rail line to Portishead and the line between Avonmouth and Bristol Parkway via Henbury. Funding will become available from the government for transport priorities in the South West region in the new year. We want the West of England Partnership (ex-Avon authorities) to include them in the bid. Only items high up the regional list will receive funding. Previous funding bids have been exclusively road-based. Since the government have refused to allow Network Rail to fund these schemes, this is the only way. We think that we have a good chance, but need your support.
The postcard is now available on the FOSBR website here.

Please print it from the website, fold it in half and tape it together before you send it to the West of England Partnership. Sorry, but you'll need to provide a stamp!

Besides getting people out of their cars and into quick and efficient public transport, there are several good reasons to support the campaign

These rail links would provide a cross-city service and a new link between the Severn Beach line and Bristol Parkway.

There has been much talk about Rapid Transit. This is the original rapid transit: Filton Abbeywood to Temple Meads in 8 minutes & Parson St to Stapleton Rd in 12 minutes!

Greater Bristol rail stations have seen passenger numbers double in the ten years to 2004/5. There have been further significant increases since then. Since Bristol City Council put money into the Severn Beach line to increase the service in May, numbers increased by 30% in three months. The demand is there.

Portishead's traffic and that into Bristol along the A370 is notorious. The Henbury line runs close to major employers including Rolls Royce, Airbus and Royal Mail at Filton and would provide a public transport alternative where none may exist at present.
Road accidents!

The West of England Partnership (representing ex-Avon authorities) estimate that congestion costs local businesses £350 million a year.

Government funding will be allocated for new transport schemes in the new year but our local decision-makers must submit a bid for it prioritising the schemes they want. This gives local councillors the chance to show that they are interested in schemes other than roads and buses.

For those who see such things as important, at roughly £20 million this proposal compares very well with road schemes.

What you can do:

Please send the postcard to the West of England Partnership.

If you want physical (rather than electronic) cards to send or to give to other people please let me know and I will arrange to get them to you. The more people who are involved the better.

Please foward this email to your friends and anyone who may be interested.

If you are involved with trade unions or other organisations please would you ask your colleagues to send cards and if the organisation will issue a statement of support as that would be wonderful!

For those interested, there is a Facebook group about the Portishead Railway campaign which can be found here. There is a copy of the postcard available here too.

Originally posted on somerset and dorset

cabot circus settles down

We popped to Cabot Circus yesterday. It has improved enormously from our first visit. The crowds are down and the shops are just about empty. The restaurants are busy still, and that was what we went for. Until Cabot Bristol city centre seemed almost devoid of decent eating places. Now we're spoilt for choice.

These developments are a problem for all forward-thinking people. The leftie scum are anti any sort of consumerism and will condemn absolutely any development. The hippies are so apart from normal people that they can't even grasp the concept of somewhere like Cabot.

The real forward-thinking people, the grounded working class right wing greens, know that places like this are LOVED by 95% of the population. The 'problem' is to make them sustainable and stay relevant to the communities they serve. Providing a cosmopolitan eating experience is one step, getting rid of all those crap shops and replacing them with hardware outlets, sustainable energy shops, seed stores and all the other stuff we'll need in the future is the next step. And for fucks sake GET A BLOODY TRAMWAY RUNNING TO IT AND THROUGH IT!

Also posted to future economics

circuses and bread

Milling penniless consumers at Cabot Circus,


Where to next - everything looks the same!


LOL!


REAL retail space - St Nicks.

We visited the new Cabot Circus in Bristol today. On the way we saw zombies, spat venom at time travellers from the SWP, signed an animal rights petition and missed the christians. The place itself was an infuriating tangle of different floors, totally unimaginative shops and some nice (but far too busy) restaurants. All in all a white elephant with a sense of timing that staggers. It may well be the UK's last major retail development and will probably be all but empty once peak oil hits.

Less than a mile away is the excellent St Nicks, a REAL retail development. Small units, tons of atmosphere, individually locally owned businesses, useful products and superb eating facilities. St Nicks will outlast Cabot Circus by centuries.