DULWICH HAMLET TO LOSE GROUND.THE DECIMATION OF LONDON NON LEAGUE FOOTBALL GROUNDS CONTINUES

It looks likely that Dulwich Hamlet football club are to lose their historic Champion Hill ground to developers.It is a story that makes me very angry indeed and is a story that touches my heart. It affects me personally as the top London non league football team that I supported for many years Enfield lost their ground to housing developers in 1999.The owner of Enfield had no serious plans for a new ground.

The list of London non league football clubs who have lost their grounds to developers in the last thirty years is quite large. Walthamstow Avenue, Leytonstone, Hendon, Wealdstone, Fisher Athletic, Hillingdon Borough and my club Enfield.

What usually happens is that the clubs owners sell the grounds with a vague promise to build new stadiums when they can find a site for a new ground but in reality they have no plans to build new stadiums The owners of the grounds just take the money and run. They manage to get planning permission to sell the grounds for housing development with the connivance of both Tory and New Labour councils. When the owner of Enfield football club was planning to sell the Enfield ground with no serious plans for a new ground the New Labour sports minister Tony Banks was totally uninterested in the appeals from rank and file Enfield supporters against building homes on the Enfield ground.

Of course the reason that the owners can get away with stealing the fans ground for development is because the clubs have a small fan base often about five hundred although Enfield was about one thousand.

What this shows is basically what I have stated so many times before in my previous blogs is that the business corporate elite do not care about the human feelings and hopes of ordinary people. So to protect non league football grounds in the future we must build an alternative economic system.

BRITAINS FLOODS CRISIS SHOWS THAT WE ARE ALL IN IT TOGETHER

Without doubt 2014 in Britain will be remembered as the year of the floods and storms.Let us hope that this does not happen on this scale every year in Britain. Because if it does it means that this country will face serious problems for the future.

I do not intend to speculate in this blog what is the cause of the severe storms and flooding in Britain this year whether it is caused by man made global warming or sunspots as I am no experts on this subject. However without doubt the governments handling of the crisis has been awful the lack of immediate action on the crisis allied to the cuts in the flooding defence budget in recent years. However the opposition Labour Party,s response has also been timid particularly their half hearted attacks on the governments handling of the crisis. Perhaps they realise that to really solve the problem would cost an enormous amount of money.

However the idea that I really want to put forward in this blog is that what the floods crisis really shows is that we are in in together when it really comes down to it. Many of the severe floods have taken place in rural well to do regions of the South of England and many of the people affected by the floods probably have an I’m all right jack attitude. However in a major climate crisis like we are having in Britain right now it shows that even these people need the help of the rest of the community and cannot get by without the help of others.

So the present British floods and storms crisis shows that we all need the help of others and the rest of the community in times of crisis. So it shows the bankruptcy of right wing Social Darwinist neo liberal ideology. The crisis can only be solved through building an economy based on mutual co-operation, a major flood defence Marshall aid type plan and helping others.

Have a nice weekend all.

VICTORY TO THE STRIKING LONDON TUBE WORKERS

The RMT and TSSA trade union,s are holding a three day strike of the London underground tube workers from today Tuesday 4/2/14 to Thursday 6/2/14.The strike is over the plans of London,s Mayor Boris Johnson to close all London tube station ticket offices thus leading to the loss of over 900 tube worker jobs.

Despite predictable attacks on the striking tube workers by the reactionary London Evening Standard and the rest of the right wing corporate media a Survation independent opinion poll shows that 65% of London tube travel users support the tube strike and only 29% oppose. The support for the strike amongst the general public is not surprising as the obvious question is how will people be able to renew their oyster cards and also how will they get their queries dealt with regarding tube travel if the ticket offices are closed down.

The general public are becoming sick and tired of Britains ruling class attacks on peoples essential services that,s why they support the striking tube workers.

The tube workers must win their strike against Boris Johnson. The RMT fortunately are led by a strong trade union leader Bob Crow. Finally if you can try and visit a striking tube workers picket line to show your solidarity.