John Cave appointed deputy mayor of Padiham, on edge of Burnley, and is likely to step up to mayor in a year’s time The British National party expects to see one of its members become mayor of a Lancashire town close to the scene of serious street violence a decade ago. John Cave, whose wife, Sharon Wilkinson, is a BNP county councillor for the small former mill town of Padiham, on the edge of Burnley, is likely to take over the office in a year’s time after being chosen as deputy mayor this week. The council has only parish status but Padiham retains the title of town and uses traditional civic regalia and the town hall to assert as much independence as it can against Burnley borough council. Cave joined the town council a year ago and a minority of fellow members had bridled at his bid for office. Cave said his role was non-political and the council was “about Padiham and not politics”. He said others had raised no objections and had supported him for the deputy mayor’s job as an out-and-out Padiham man. “This is my home town and I was born here. It is all about Padiham and Padiham is not about politics. “I will be raising money for charities – but they have to be in Padiham. For me Padiham is home and I think it could be a lot better. Keeping our town hall alive is one of the biggest jobs we’ve got.” The council bats single-mindedly for Padiham, a cluster of dark stone Pennine houses in a steep valley with the National Trust’s Gawthorpe Hall a famous link with the Bronte family, whose wealthy Liberal friends the Kay-Shuttleworths ran their cotton empire from the town. The hall houses Britain’s largest textile collection outside the Victoria and Albert Museum. Community relations have been strained by the BNP’s inroads, but the town council events have included a Balti evening at a British Asian restaurant, along with Remembrance Day celebrations and a Hallowe’en party. The bishop of Burnley, the Rt Rev John Goddard, challenged Cave to give up his BNP associations in order to carry out his civic duties properly. He said: “It will be interesting to see if he acts in the best traditions of a mayor in the community, and I pray he does, as he will have to reject the philosophy of the BNP. “If he retains the BNP political philosophy then how can he expect to serve and represent the whole of the community?” BNP Martin Wainwright guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …John Cave appointed deputy mayor of Padiham, on edge of Burnley, and is likely to step up to mayor in a year’s time The British National party expects to see one of its members become mayor of a Lancashire town close to the scene of serious street violence a decade ago. John Cave, whose wife, Sharon Wilkinson, is a BNP county councillor for the small former mill town of Padiham, on the edge of Burnley, is likely to take over the office in a year’s time after being chosen as deputy mayor this week. The council has only parish status but Padiham retains the title of town and uses traditional civic regalia and the town hall to assert as much independence as it can against Burnley borough council. Cave joined the town council a year ago and a minority of fellow members had bridled at his bid for office. Cave said his role was non-political and the council was “about Padiham and not politics”. He said others had raised no objections and had supported him for the deputy mayor’s job as an out-and-out Padiham man. “This is my home town and I was born here. It is all about Padiham and Padiham is not about politics. “I will be raising money for charities – but they have to be in Padiham. For me Padiham is home and I think it could be a lot better. Keeping our town hall alive is one of the biggest jobs we’ve got.” The council bats single-mindedly for Padiham, a cluster of dark stone Pennine houses in a steep valley with the National Trust’s Gawthorpe Hall a famous link with the Bronte family, whose wealthy Liberal friends the Kay-Shuttleworths ran their cotton empire from the town. The hall houses Britain’s largest textile collection outside the Victoria and Albert Museum. Community relations have been strained by the BNP’s inroads, but the town council events have included a Balti evening at a British Asian restaurant, along with Remembrance Day celebrations and a Hallowe’en party. The bishop of Burnley, the Rt Rev John Goddard, challenged Cave to give up his BNP associations in order to carry out his civic duties properly. He said: “It will be interesting to see if he acts in the best traditions of a mayor in the community, and I pray he does, as he will have to reject the philosophy of the BNP. “If he retains the BNP political philosophy then how can he expect to serve and represent the whole of the community?” BNP Martin Wainwright guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Everybody knows that Tim Pawlenty is running for president, even though he’s only formed an exploratory committee . But tonight he’s making headlines for actually saying the words—maybe inadvertently—in an interview airing on Piers Morgan’s CNN show . After pointing out that Donald Trump is ahead of Pawlenty in recent…
Continue reading …Former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist had to eat crow today—on YouTube. As part of a settlement with David Byrne for using a Talking Heads song without permission, Crist had to post a video with a formal apology, reports the Orlando Sentinel . “I pledge that, should there be any future…
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A 19-year-old man who is among the detained confessed to killing more than 200 people, President Felipe Calderon said Mexican investigators have found a total of 116 bodies in pits near the US border, 28 more than previously reported, Attorney General Marisela Morales said. Morales said a total of 17 suspects tied to the brutal Zetas drug gang have been detained in relation to the killings in the northern state of Tamaulipas, some of whom have purportedly confessed to abducting passengers from buses and killing them. President Felipe Calderon said a 19-year-old man who is among the detained confessed to killing more than 200 people. Calderon gave no other details. Interior Secretary Francisco Blake Mora pledged to step up the presence of troops and federal police in the area where the killings occurred and not leave the area until the killers and drug gang members there have been caught. “Organised crime, in its desperation, resorts to committing atrocities that we can’t and shouldn’t tolerate as a government and as a society,” Blake said. The graves were found earlier this month in the township of San Fernando, the same area of Tamaulipas where investigators found the bodies of 72 migrants massacred by suspected drug cartel gunmen last August. Most of the 72 migrants were Central Americans, who frequently travel through the area to reach the United States. Police say witnesses in the latest killing case have told them that gunmen pulled the victims, mostly young men, off passenger buses traveling through the San Fernando area in late March. Authorities blame the abductions on the Zetas drug gang, the same group accused in the migrant killings. The motive for the bus abductions remains unclear, though prosecutors have suggested the gang may have been forcefully recruiting people to work for it. San Fernando is a town about 90 miles south of Brownsville, Texas, on a well-traveled stretch of highway that runs near the Gulf Coast. It is an area regularly patrolled by the Mexican military. The Zetas and rival Gulf Cartel are fighting in Tamaulipas over lucrative drug transit routes to the US. Authorities are working to identify the bodies, one of which may belong to a US citizen, through DNA samples and other techniques. One of the bodies is a Guatemalan man, the government of that Central American nation said. The victim has been identified as Feliciano Tagual Ovalle, 44, the Guatemalan Foreign Ministry said in a statement late Monday. The statement did not say whether the man was a migrant passing through or a resident of Mexico. It said the Guatemalan government planned to bring the body home. Mexican authorities confirmed one victim was Guatemalan and said another was a man from central Mexico. Mexican prosecutors had previously said most of the bodies were probably Mexican citizens. Mexico Drugs trade guardian.co.uk
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The sons of former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak are being questioned over their role in violence against protesters and corruption allegations Egyptian prosecutors have ordered the detention of the former president’s powerful sons to investigate allegations of corruption and the abuse of their authority, Egyptian state television said. The move, the most dramatic in a series of investigations against top regime officials, comes just hours after former President Hosni Mubarak, 82, was hospitalised with heart problems as he too was to be questioned by prosecutors. Gamal Mubarak, his younger son, was a top official in the ruling party and was widely seen as being groomed to succeed his father before 18 days of popular protests brought down the regime on February 11. While the ex-president was in the hospital in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh where he has been living since being removed from power, his sons were taken for questioning to the nearby courthouse by prosecutors from Cairo. An angry crowd of 2,000 people gathered outside and demanded the two be arrested. Then, in the early hours of the morning, the head of provincial security in the South Sinai told the crowd that Gamal and his businessman brother Alaa would be detained. “Brothers, whatever you wanted, you have got … 15 days,” said Major General Mohammed el-Khatib, as the crowd erupted in cheers. As a police van with drawn curtains took away the two brothers, the crowd pelted it with water bottles, stones and their flip-flops, a sign of disrespect in the Arab world. The increasing role of Gamal Mubarak in the government over the last decade and the belief that he might succeed his father helped galvanize Egypt’s protest movement. At least 800 people are estimated to have been killed during the protests as police opened fire on the crowds. Authorities are now investigating government officials for their role in ordering the violence. Gamal is also believed to be the architect of Egypt’s privatisation program and economic liberalisation, which has brought in billions in foreign investment but has also widened the gap between rich and poor. Many of his close associates were billionaires and held top positions in the ruling party and the government. There are allegations that they used their positions for personal gain. Mubarak himself has not been detained, but he was due to be questioned by prosecutors when he was admitted to the Sharm el-Sheikh hospital on Tuesday night complaining of heart problems. In a sign that his ailment might not be very serious, however, Justice Minister Mohammed el-Guindi said he was then questioned in his hospital suite for his role in the violence against protesters. The investigation into corruption charges would be carried out later by the Justice Ministry’s anti-corruption department, he added. The protest movement that deposed Mubarak is now pushing for him to be brought to justice for what they say are decades of abuse. The protesters had criticised the army, which took over the country after the president was pushed out, for being too close to the old regime and not swiftly bringing Mubarak to trial. For four days protesters reoccupied parts of Tahrir Square in downtown Cairo and closed it off to traffic. Efforts by the army to evict them Saturday resulted in at least one death and dozens of injuries and raised tensions between the protesters and the country’s military rulers. The investigations into Mubarak’s sons are expected to mollify the opposition. On Sunday, Mubarak defended himself in a prerecorded message saying he had not abused his authority, and investigators were welcome to check over his assets. It was his first address to the people in the two months since he stepped down. Shortly after, the prosecutor general issued a summons for Mubarak to appear for questioning. Egypt Hosni Mubarak Arab and Middle East unrest guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Bolivia will soon put in place a first-of-its-kind law that gives Mother Nature the same rights as humans. The idea behind the Law of Mother Earth is to try to rein in pollution and the exploitation of natural resources, reports the Guardian . It grants nature several rights, including the “right…
Continue reading …Filmmaker Simcha Jacobovici is convinced he’s found the actual nails used to nail Jesus to the cross—even if no one else is. In a new documentary entitled The Nails of the Cross , Jacobovici will lay out what he calls “the best archaeological argument ever made” that the nails have…
Continue reading …As the deadline approaches for Congress to decide whether to raise the debt ceiling, brace yourself for fevered debates about how the very fate of the nation is at stake. David Paul Kuhn offers a spoiler alert at Real Clear Politics : “Washington politics is unusually dysfunctional even by Washington standards….
Continue reading …Stephen Colbert had some fun at Sen. Jon Kyl’s expense on his show last night , and he’s keeping up the ridicule today via his Twitter feed. It all stems from Kyl’s wildly exaggerated claim that abortions account for 90% of Planned Parenthood’s business—and his office’s followup explanation: “His remark…
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