This piece has been written by Remedy John, a singing minister from Nigeria. It hasn’t really been edited but has been left in the writer’s own words with all the foibles, complications, text-speak idiosyncrasies and excitements.

It’s the story of how he scoured the world for lyrics, performers and snippets of sounds for a song that reveals the truth about the new racism in our world.

Read Remedy John’s story and listen to a promo for his song and share it with everybody you can think of. We will bring you the full version soon…

Listen to the song and then read John’s words:

My Perception of Racism

Racism is more dangerous than the pandemic. It’s one of the greatest evil seeds planted into the lives of so many Christians. And it grows.

It hurts me to see those that call themselves Children of God, hating one another cuz of their skin.

My Racism Experiences

I have had many racism experiences, both online and off. I once worked on one these Chinese construction companies in my country. What I experienced there was terrible. We were restricted from entering a particular place and room cuz we were blacks. I heard a lot of racial abuses and words. I realized that many blacks working under some of these white people are subjected to slaves. They go through a lot of abuses while working for them. Most times they find it difficult quitting cuz of the country’s present economy. What really hurts me the most is, many of these guys are Christians.

In Lagos, there was a particular white restaurant that restricted blacks from sitting inside the restaurant to eat if you patronize them. You can only buy the food and take it home, only white people were permitted to eat right inside the restaurant… You can imagine racism in a black country by the whites. It was very horrible. We reported them to the government, I have no idea if the government was able to take any necessary action on the company.

My other experience was actually online. During the racial war breakout last year. It first started with Ahmaud Arbery. When the video of the gunning down of Arbery came online. I crusaded against that evil act. A lot of white people attacked me and accused me of being shortsighted and subjective. Many deleted me off from their lists and blocked. The one that triggered my anger was that of George Floyd. I saw a lot of white people even the blacks that defended the open murdering of Floyd. Some dug up his past to use against him. I was really disappointed at these disgusting comments, statements and judgemental messages on the dead. When I condemned their attacks on George Floyd. A lot of them came after me. These people were all Christians. Most times when I slided to their profiles, I was very surprised to see these people using bible verses on their profiles. 

ABOUT THE SONG

” ONE IN CHRIST” ft Various Artists

The inspiration

The song was inspired by the holy spirit I must say. On December 2019. I had an inspiration to write a song against racism. The urge and drive was huge and pushy. I asked God for his direction and guidance on the song. Initially, I wanted to make it a solo track. But I thought it would be unique and beautiful if I could bring in artists from different backgrounds, tribes, ethnicity and nationalities together to say something about our Unity. 

The journey

When I conceived the idea and was restlessly driven to start working on the song. I started looking for artists who will grace the song. I first went to the studio and sat down with my producer, describing what I wanted to achieve. He went into action. Created ‘d’ beat and my quest for good artists began. Early 2020 I found 3 artists. On the long run, they disappointed me. They opted out of the project. After months of haunting for the artists. I kept getting people who agreed and along the way opted out. I was very depressed and worn out. During this time, the racial war had broke out. After so many months of haunting and disappointed at the end. I decided to go to God in prayers. After bringing God in, everyone that I had, started working with me. 

Challenges

I had countless challenges in the process of making the song. Ranging from the financial to readiness of the verses by various artists. Many artists complained about time constraints going to the studio while others complained about studio sessions fee. Lemme surprise you. Two artists actually recorded their verses on their cellphones. My producer actually did a great job on those vocals to blend them with those that recorded in the studio. The entire process. Ranging from the artists participation to the recording, the arrangements of the song, there were all stressful, hectic and challenging. 

I started it Dec 2019 and completed February 2021. I knew it wasn’t gonna be easy doing the uncommon and unsimplified project like that but I thank God for the grace.

     Track info

Artists & Countries

* Angel Marie (USA)

* Apostle Raw (USA)

* Ashknash Edwin ( Pakistan)

* Krizzy Joyce (Philippines)

* King feiboky ( Nigeria)

* Purpose Robinson (USA)

* Dangari  ( Kenya) 

Genre : Afro-fusion

Prod by DJ3 ( Nigeria)

It’s the first ever Gospel Unity Anthem Against Racism therefore unifying the world through the gospel of Christ Jesus.

Contact

Facebook: Remedy Joh

Instagram: remedydgreat

Twitter: Remedy John

TikTok remedyjohn283

Email:

[email protected]

[email protected]

#racism #gospel #nigeria #newnigerianmusic

Bob Spiers was an old-fashioned kind of man. Big, bluff and tough.

He had to be, he lived on the streets of Garstang in Lancashire as a beat bobbie.

But at one time people felt that Bob had a ‘spiritual awareness’ about one of the worst series of crimes in the North of England, the Moors Murders.

Certainly it was his dogged determination and single-mindedness that led him to the discovery of Lesley Ann Downey’s body in the rain-soaked peat of the Moors overlooking Saddleworth.

It was a major breakthrough.

Yet, Bob became a bit of ‘forgotten hero’ in his later life. Not forgotten on the streets where he patrolled – but forgotten to the rest of the world.

When he died late last September he warranted barely a mention in the media, only the Garstang newspapers gave him a few paragraphs.

So, I thought we should remember Bob here.

He had only been a police officer for a month and was apparently a bit of an annoyance to his colleagues.

Bob, who was 23 at the time, was up on Saddleworth Moor and was refusing to come down. His colleagues were waiting in vans in the drizzle and were ready to go home.

They’d spent three days on the moors looking for John Kilbride. Bob shouted to them that he was busy ‘answering a call of nature’.

He told reporters many years ago: “It sounds daft but something was drawing me up there. I don’t know why. Why did I go right the way up there? Those moors had been searched the previous day and the day before that. I don’t know what made me stay but something did. Eventually, the sergeant came first and the others followed.

“I said I’ve found something, but nobody wanted to know,” he recalled. “The DS said it was probably a sheep. I said: ‘If that’s a sheep it’s wearing clothes.”

Bob had found a heap of wet clothes.

“Had we not found her then that was it and the search was off. We wouldn’t have found John Kilbride a few days later.”

Bob Spiers was a well-known officer in Garstang. Sadly, he collapsed in the town centre a few weeks ago.

Paramedics and police tried to revive him.

His son Scott said at the time: “Dad is going to be missed by a lot of people. He was so well-known and well-liked in the area. He was the ideal beat bobby because he loved people and loved meeting and talking to people. He loved going into town shopping during the week.”

Had Bob not made his awful discovery, the full extent of Brady and Hindley’s crimes may never have been unearthed. They may have only been charged with the murder of 17-year-old Edward Evans.

Further searches of the moors discovered the bodies of Pauline Reade, 16, and John Kilbride, but the remains of 12-year-old Keith Bennett have never been found.

Good on ya Bob.

‘Get well soon wishes’ to Alan Bennett after heart shock as law-change over Keith secrets lumbers on

The harrowing legacies of evil child killers Brady and Hindley

https://leighgbankspreservationsociety.blog/2021/05/14/remembering-john-kilbride-on-the-day-he-was-spirited-away-by-pure-evil/

Brady’s killing streets… what it was like growing up in shadows of evil

#bobspier #lesleyanndowney #moorsmurders #evans #hindley #brady #saddleworth #

Film editor Bob Mori sent the Preservation Society his thoughts on the impending strike in LA by the backroom workers who say they are short-changed by movie moguls and entertainment gurus.

The industry is estimated to be worth more than 700 billion dollars, yet many who work in it earn a barely living wage.

More than 98 per cent of union members have voted for the strike, according to the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE).

It’s not an unexpected action though, unions has been fighting for years for shorter working hours, safer conditions and better benefits.

President of the IATSE, Matthew Loeb, said: “This vote is about the quality of life as well as the health and safety of those who work in the film and television industry. Our people have basic human needs like time for meal breaks, adequate sleep, and a weekend. They deserve nothing less than a living wage.”

Hourly wages for television, video and film camera operators are about $32.50 – $5.43 more than the average wage in the U.S. For too long the star-makers have been cashing in on cheap talent, they say.

Bob, who has worked on many films, commercials and music projects said: “It’s seems to me that business people always ask creatives to tighten their belts… While they continue making loads of cash.”

He included this clip from the film Mank, the 2020 film about alcoholic scriptwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz  and 1930s Hollywood.

Celluloid dream about to grind to halt as Hollywood workers pull plug on ‘nightmare’ pay and conditions

#hollywood #tinseltown #LA #fame #backroomstrike #hollywoodstrike

It is almost 60 years to the day that Edward Evans was bludgeoned to death with an axe by Ian Brady in a tiny nondescript council house in Hattersley.

Edward had just turned 17 in 1965 and like so many way back then, he portrayed himself as a man about town, a sharp-dressed youth with an eye for the mini-skirted ladies,

He was tall and slim too.

But there was turmoil in the Sixties on the dark rainy streets of Manchester with their listing leaning, often derelict mills, warehouse and shops.

Manchester was a working class dump and in the throws of demolition and redevelopment.

Edward’s home, 55 Addison Street, Ardwick, was on the list to be obliterated by bulldozers the following year. He lived there with his parents Edith and John, brother Allan and sister Edith.

His dad worked was a uniformed lift attendant. But Edward had ambition and got himself a job as a junior machine operator at Associated Electrical Industries Ltd in Trafford Park.

He could go places from there.

And like most blokes did back then, he liked the night-life of the City of Tall Chimneys. He was officially too young to drink but nightlife meant pub life and draught keg bitter and Watneys Red Barrel washed your troubles away.

But everybody knew that the streets of the city were rough, knives and coshes were the weapon of the day, even for the boy next door. And there were gangs and gangsters on every street corner..

Whenever his parents worried about his nights out, he was a typical young Manc and told them: ‘I can handle any trouble.’

But he wasn’t expecting trouble in the guise of perverts and murderers.

And on Wednesday, 6 October 1965 he met both, Myra Hindley and Ian Brady.

Edward’s mum Edith said: ‘Edward went out between 6.15 and 6.30pm. I didn’t see him alive again…’

Between 10pm and 10.30pm Edward called at Central Station for a drink. But the buffet bar was shut. He was at a loose end and it is believed he ended up in a gay bar nearby.

That was when Brady approached him and invited the teenager for a drink.

Hindley was probably in the vehicle.

Brady drove Edward the 11 miles to 16 Wardle Brook Avenue, Hattersley.

Edward Evans became the final victim of the Moors Murderers. And the couple’s oldest. But Edward’s killing would end Brady and Hindley’s reign of horror.

Inexplicably, the evil couple phoned Hindley’s brother-in-law David Smith, and invited him to the house.

He witnessed Brady attack Edward with an axe, smother him with a cushion and strangle him with an electrical cable.

Then he called the police.

Edward is buried in Southern Cemetery, Chorlton-Cum-Hardy.

RIP Edward Evans, we must never forget you.

‘Get well soon wishes’ to Alan Bennett after heart shock as law-change over Keith secrets lumbers on

The harrowing legacies of evil child killers Brady and Hindley

https://leighgbankspreservationsociety.blog/2021/05/14/remembering-john-kilbride-on-the-day-he-was-spirited-away-by-pure-evil/

Brady’s killing streets… what it was like growing up in shadows of evil

#hindley #brady #myra #moors #murders #hattersley #bennett #kilbride #evans #pauline #manchester #1965

Hollywood is being described as in turmoil as up to 200,000 backstage workers voted to go on strike.

And celluloid captains of the industry of dreams and riches beyond belief fear that the curtains will drop on multi-million productions.

More than 98 per cent of union members have voted for the strike, according to the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE).

It’s not an unexpected action though, unions has been fighting for years for shorter working hours, safer conditions and better benefits.

President of the IATSE, Matthew Loeb, said: “This vote is about the quality of life as well as the health and safety of those who work in the film and television industry. Our people have basic human needs like time for meal breaks, adequate sleep, and a weekend. They deserve nothing less than a living wage.”

Hourly wages for television, video and film camera operators are about $32.50 – $5.43 more than the average wage in the U.S. For too long the star-makers have been cashing in on cheap talent, they say.

 It is 14 years since writers in Hollywood went on strike for three and a half months and that shutdown cost the industry hundreds of millions of dollars.

This strike will be far more damaging, involving members from almost every area and stage of production.

The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, said it has put forward an offer. But negotiations are likely to continue even if IATSE members vote “yes”.

Stars and celebrities are supporting IATSE – names include Seth Rogen, Jane Fonda, Danny DeVito, Sarah Paulson, and Ben Stiller. 

IATSE says AMPTP hasn’t addressed:

• Excessively unsafe and harmful working hours.
• Unlivable wages for the lowest paid crafts.
• Reasonable rest during meal breaks, between workdays, and on weekends.
• New media streaming project workers get paid less.

Writers room assistants, art department and script coordinators have hourly rates under $18, with some workers claiming they’ve had to sell blood to make ends meet.

Now that the strike is authorized, IATSE and AMPTP will return to the bargaining table, with negotiations expected to last at least three weeks. If a deal fails to materialize, the workers will then go on strike.

It would be the largest Hollywood work stoppage since 1945, when 12,000 workers walked out over unions linked to studios and the mafia. 

These are the five highest-grossing movies of all time:

• Avatar (2009) – $2.9 billion
• Avengers: Endgame (2019) – $2.8 billion
• Titanic (1997) – $2.2 billion
• Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens (2011) – $2.1 billion
• Avengers: Infinity War (2018) – $2.1
• #tinseltown #hollywood #strike #backroomworkers
• #editors #IATSE #MAFIA #1945

Today, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls I changed the starboard left-erly blowy-up round thing at the front of my stately Bentley (by any other name a Chrysler 300C with a posh grill).

I did it in the elegantly leaf-blown driveway to my stately home (well, actually it was in a lay-by on the rainy wagon-rattled A5 which pollutes Weston-under-Lizard in Shropshire… but you could see Weston Hall in the distance and I did once know Lord Bradford who actually lived there).

So, tomorrow everybody I will announce my new career as an experienced mechanic on upmarket vehicles with a specialism in Bentley blowy-up round things.

Oh, and just to keep you up-to-date – a couple of days ago I cut my finger on the jagged edge of a can of tuna as I prepared a salad.

And after running my damaged digit under a tap which I turned on all by myself (I am considering a new career in chef-ery and plumbing as I write) …but I digress.

So, after almost emptying one arm down the sink as I flushed and flushed the gaping wound, I dried my damaged digit and applied a plaster!

This was all done with professionalism and aplomb (amid the tears and howls) might I add.

So, tomorrow too I will be announcing my new career as a doctor!

(Actually, I think I will keep my burgeoning careers in chef-ery and plumbing on hold for when I have more time to join social media and pretend to be something I’m not).

And just like them, I will tell the world all about my new careers on places like LinkedIn and Facebook and Twitter and Reddit and … and I can become famous in my own lunchbox as I take a break from my day job as a bus driver or from signing on or in-between those zero-hours contracts!

I am so happy. And successful. And powerful! See! My Facebook profile tells the world!

My point is, it actually isn’t a crime to claim to be something you’re not – unless of course as a bus driver from Barnstaple you start carrying out open heart surgery on your kitchen table while the missus is down the gym.

(Actually, as a new specialist pink flesh mechanic you could go-ahead and remove the brain from somebody’s pride and joy by using keyhole surgery up its exhaust – but you could end up facing civil court action for turning a £240,000 Bentley into a perambulatory moron!)

Social media has done many good things over the years and in some small ways it has fulfilled its promise to bring together communities across the world and give the common man a voice and a platform for his dreams, his ambitions, his conscience, sometimes his vitriol and bile. But very often for his fantasy world.

His Walter Mitty world of self-engrandesment. Fallacious fame based on the nob-head notion that you can become famous by fantasy because nobody will ever know really who you are anyway!

In today’s social media world though, there is a frustrating and baffling battle – social media, more than anywhere, is a place where the Press meets the People and gets a battering.

The reputation of bona-fide trained and experienced journalists – like what I am – has never been so low.

Not, in reality, because of the actions of the journalists themselves on the whole, but more to do with the tub-thumping, look-at-me! look-at-me! pretend punditry of those who rant because they can’t write!

As a professional, experienced, trained and working journalists I simply find it appalling how many people glibly decide to call themselves journalists – why? Why? Why?

After all, all us real journalists are Tory-boy liars, cheats and self-promotionalists according to the world you live in …

So, why do you want to be part of us?

Is it because you want to clean up our act? How can you do that when you don’t have the vaguest inkling of what we do?

Only today I was talking to a woman from a far-flung enclave of the Land of Fake News and initially I took her at face value. She said she was an investigative journalist with a focus on the environment and social issues, had worked for major networks and been at the forefront of frontline horror scenarios.

But the issue became confused when we started to chat about story collaboration, story sharing, copyright and licensing.

She became very animated, called me a bully and blocked me …

Another chap a few days before chatted with me about writing for the Preservation Society and blithely told me he could do anything I could do and do it better. The problem was he couldn’t even spell the word journalism, obviously couldn’t edit because he never corrected his mis-spelling, obviously couldn’t interview because he filled his site with news from bona-fide news outlets and obviously doesn’t have the tenacity to be a journalist at all as he never got round to doing the two interviews he promised to do for me.

And then there is the nincompoop ‘newsman’ from the North’s Never Never Land who claims to have an extensive background in medical matters – wait for it, wait for it … because he once chatted with one or two doctorly types in a newsroom environment decades ago!

I could go on and on about the wanna-be-but-not-quites I keep bumping into on the electric avenues of the cyber world. But instead, let’s look at the demarcation in the weird and wacky world of being a writer and storyteller (for in reality that is what a journalist is):

1. If you write an email then you are an emailer
2. If you write a blog, then you are a blogger
3. If you share news about your local area on the internet, you might be considered a citizen journalist. That means in fact you are a blogger with an over-blown title
4. If you write a book you are a writer
5. If you write for a news outlet – terrestrial or cyber world – you are probably a reporter
6. If you investigate corruption in its many forms you are almost certainly an investigative reporter
7. If you edit the work of other writers, then you are an editor or more likely, a sub-editor
8. If you control the content of a news outlet then you are a news editor
9. If you define the content and direction of a news outlet then you are an Editor or an Editor in Chief
10. If you do all of the above – and you design pages, manipulate images, write headlines and lecture on your chosen vocation, if you are invited regularly on to radio and television to share your views, then you are what is known as an all-round journalist.

And that’s me! I do all those things for a living!

And I’m proud of what I do and what I have achieved, I was instrumental in getting the Kite Mark on UK furniture, I hunted Jimmy Savile, Cyril Smith and Stuart Hall, I exposed perverts within the education system, got a Bill brought before Parliament over Britain’s roads, campaign for victims of parental alienation, I am working on rescuing a village and am about to expose the iniquities of a public institution.

So, I say to all you wannabe Clark Kents and Lois Lanes start telling THE TRUTH – and shove your badly spelt, bile-dripping inarticulate blogs where The Sun will never shine!

#journalists #journalism #fakenews #citizenjournalists #bloggers #selfpublishers #vanitypress #fakenews

Some say that God moves in a mysterious way His wonders to perform …

And so he does too.

We’ve been hit hard by the ‘mysterious’ fuel shortage in the UK, we rented a bijou little cottage which glistens by a reservoir in the midnight moon and lies under the flight path of hundreds of geese that fly in an ultimate V over our gently smoking chimney top…

(However, they are so regular and regimented at least three times a day and under the cover of night, that it has made me wonder if this a new top-flight way of delivering drugs from one end of Shropshire to the other … not drug mules as such, but rather ‘drug ducks’ …)

Anyway, our little cottage lies at the end of a rough and battered concertina of a two mile drive and is miles from the nearest town. And we had a thimble-full of diesel left when we arrived. We assumed we could fill up in the morning.

But we couldn’t because the powerful fuel companies had locked up all the petrol and diesel in big buckets by the seaside and gone home.

And from their balmy balconies and sunny verandahs they blamed us for the fuel shortage. Panic buying they scoffed.

Well, we can’t panic buy can we! We don’t have enough high-octane diesel to get us to a petrol station and back again if they have sold out by the time we get there!

The fuel bosses couldn’t give a sausage,,,

So, we sat in the ancient beamed lounge of our little cottage with the ‘drug ducks’ flying over-head sounding like a million broken police horns and kept on dialling fuel station after fuel station … always the same answer ‘no, sorry no fuel today, try again tomorrow’. Or we just got an answerphone ‘hi, your call is important to us, please hang on and a petrol pump operative will be with you within the next few weeks…’

And then God made a u-turn … He wasn’t remotely sheepish about it and the U didn’t seem to mind … and a little independent garage a quarter of a mile beyond Gailey Island on the way to the M6 and Cannock, said: “Yes we have Ultimate diesel!”

We were off on our thimble full of fuel faster than a ‘drugs duck’ … and we got £35 worth of fuel – just over 4 gallons by my reckoning. But enough to get us home again and then down to the Ham and Eggery for a beer or two!

But you know what else was at this little unassuming petrol station?

A Greggs! That’s what! Yes a Greggs! Britain’s great emporium of pastry and pies!

So, not only did we get nearly five gallons of fuel, we got six sausage rolls, four cheese and onion pasties and two beef and onion pies!

All I can say is praise the Lord for his wondrous ways…

Bob Dylan’s  occasionally ending tour is back on the road this autumn.

Bob has had his longest break since 1981 when he was ‘parked’ for more than three years.

The Rough and Rowdy Ways tour,  kicks off at Milwaukee’s Riverside Theatre on November 2nd — Dylan’s first public performance since 2019.

Then he’ll travel through the Chicago, Cleveland, and Bloomington, Illinois, before heading to the East Coast. He’ll hit his usual New York City spot — the Beacon Theatre — for three nights in late November.

Hopefully it will transform into a worldwide tour lasting through 2024. There are strong hints.

The new shows will feature Dylan’s most recent album Rough and Rowdy Ways; although he streamed the Shadow Kingdom concert special last summer, he mainly performed songs from the Sixties and Seventies. Earlier this month, he released the massive Springtime in New York: The Bootleg Series Vol. 16 (1980-1985), spotlighting the early Eighties.

#bobdylan #neverending #bobtour #bobworldtour

AN OPEN LETTER TO ANDREW TOBAS

Recently, I sent this email to the big Chief Exec of GAB, a debatable enclave of freedom of speech based somewhere down the murky highway trod by the internet’s moronic murderers of any kind of freedom at all.

If we had a satnav to the Wild West of cyberland, its saccharine robotic voice would keep telling us to turn Right! Turn Right! Turn Right!

Then, eventually you would end up meeting Andrew Torba and his tyranny right up his own arsehole.

Or, so some would say in a haughty Left-wing trendy way.

Personally, I don’t know, I’m still standing at the crossroads waiting for some kind of contact from him.

I have my suspicions but no real satisfying proof, So I joined GAB and Torba’s newsletter began to roll into my inbox … articulate and on the face of it at least, and perfectly reasonable.

Big Chief Torba is Right-on too with equality, describing himself as a businessperson, rather than a businessman.

Gab’s user base has been pegged at about four million people. (Torba has more than three million followers.) In a recent newsletter, Torba claimed that the site has 15 million unique monthly visitors. He described a typical Gab user as “a Conservative Christian with a family and interests in hunting, fishing, cars, camping, news, politics, rural living, homeschooling, privacy, free speech, cryptocurrency, guns, and cooking.”

Torba’s own concerns centre around threats to free speech, what he sees as the true nature of misinformation, imperiled personal liberties, and the righteousness of Jesus Christ. He is particularly incensed at Covid restrictions and vaccine mandates. “Vaccines are causing the variants.”

So, here is my email to him.

Hi,

I’m a UK journalist … Yep, a real one, BBC, Daily Mail, The Sun etc etc …  I’m not fake news, a mouthpiece for any government, council or political party. And I check things.

I believe implicitly in honesty, freedom of expression and freedom of speech … And I believe in the right to shine a light in the beds of the rich and the famous, the influential and those who choose to be in control.

I’m not racist, I”m not homophobic and I do not respect Trump – or indeed  Stumbling  Joe. I however have my fingers crossed for Boris. But only because Starmer and his motley crew of middle-class Duffle coat-wearing poor little rich boys and girls are an insult to most people’s intelligence. I do not respect double standards.

So, to the  reason for sending this mail: 

… Please send me your manifesto on free speech and tell me how free you believe we should be… Say what thou want? Or say what thou wilt?

I would potentially like to write about you.

Look forward to hearing from you

Cheers

Leigh G Banks

This is part of the long rambling statement from Tobas that made me want to speak to him. The thing is you see, since the onslaught of the murky, incompetent robot-ridden world of the internet it is really difficult to divine who is telling the truth and who isn’t.

“Gab is not a lawless website. We work diligently to stop and prevent illegal activity from taking place on our platform. We have great relationships with many foreign countries who understand and respect our position on free speech and appreciate our zero tolerance for criminal activity.

“Our mission is to defend free speech online for all people, everywhere. Including in Germany. We will continue to do that, regardless of any threats from foreign governments. If we bow to Germany today, what’s to stop us from bowing to literal tyrants, such as those in Russia or China?

In matters pertaining to serious crime, German police forces already know how to reach us, as indeed they have done many times in the past. We will continue to respond to those requests and provide prompt assistance to those police forces on a voluntary basis. What we will not do is restrict access to, or remove, content which is legal in the United States on or from servers in the United States.”

But recently the left-of-centre UK newspaper,The Guardian, claimed a data breach at Gab offered a picture of the inner workings of its platform.

In a very Guardian way they describe Gab’s internal workings as ‘opaque’.

The hack had revealed Gab databases,the newspaper said, which appeared to show user accounts and a history of public posts and direct messages.

The Guardian said: “The user lists appear to mark 500 accounts, including neo-Nazis, QAnon influencers, cryptocurrency advocates and conspiracy theorists, as investors. They also appear to give an overview of verified users of the platform, including prominent right-wing commentators and activists. And they mark hundreds of active users on the site as “automated”, appearing to indicate administrators knew the accounts were bots but let them continue on the platform regardless.

Finally, the data appears to contain direct messages between the Gab CEO, Andrew Torba, and a user who has been identified as a high-profile QAnon influencer, showing the entrepreneur seeking direct feedback on site design from a member of a group that promotes a “spiderweb of right-wing internet conspiracy theories with antisemitic and anti-LGBTQ elements”, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.”

I like many others have been led to believe that Gab is a forum of last resort for extremists and conspiracy theorists who have been banned on other online platforms.

The leaked files contained what appears to be a database of over 4.1 million registered users on the site and tags identifying subscribers as “investors”, “verified” users and “pro” users.

So, in the interest of freedom of speech, freedom of information, freedom of facts and freedom of equality and life, come on Bigly Chief Tobas reply to us!

Just leaving a message saying your inbox is full doesn’t cut it – in fact could it mean you ignore the freedom of people to write to you and expect an answer?

Well, I didn’t know I had it in me, but last night I finally came out.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen and everybody else who is reading this … I love Abba!

Abba are up their with my favourite bands.

My Top Ten goes like this:

At No I …. drum rollllllll… his Royal Bobness takes the No 1 spot, stone me, he’s keeping on keeping on rolling with his band.

At No 2 … wait for it, wait for it! THE DOORS – yes, that’s right. Ol’ Jim might have acted as a bit of door knob at times – but he was never down for that goddamn long

AT No 3 … Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds … Nick tragically became a real travelling troubadour of heartbreak – although he still doesn’t mind using his fans as footstools at Glastonbury and other venues!

AT No 4 … Roger Chapman’s Street Walkers (actually me’n Roger had a bit of a falling out a few years ago, so he’s lucky to get a mention here)

AT No 5 … ZZ Top … although sadly now I can only love them half as much.

AT No 6 … Oasis! The Mancs with their wonderwall of hard driving sound of Madness…

AT No 7… Joe Bonamassa – that geeky bluesman who could blow Alexis Korner off the stage, if he was still around to be blown off (if you forgive the phraseology).

AT No 8 … Dr John and any of his boogie-woogie bands and particularly anything he did with Etta James …

AT No 9 … Nina Simone – I once went to Paris to interview her and she was out!

AND AT No 10 … yep, you’ve got it… ABBA!

Yes, I have to admit it, I fell in love with  Agnetha Fältskog in the 1980s. But it was unrequited so being the kind of manly man I am I fell in love Anni-Frid Lyngstad instead … I wanted to form a trio with them and abb a bit of fun.

It never happened of course.

I love some of their lyrics … not many can better them (OK, they’re not wring Gates of Eden of Murder Most Fowl but…)

Well, I can dance with you honey
If you think it’s funny
Does your mother know that you’re out

Or

Sometimes I see how the brave new world arrives and I see how it thrives in the ashes of our lives

Or

Seems to me now that the dreams we had before are all dead, nothing more than confetti on the floor

Or

what happened to the wonderful adventures, the places I had planned for us to go? Well, some of that we did but most we didn’t, and why, I just don’t know

And then this! Heartbreakingly beautiful and it moved me to tears… I admitted this to a mate and this is what he said:

“Ya big softie!”

Yep, Leigh G Banks is no longer ‘the man’ – even in his own mind!

No he is just a big softie.

Have a listen and see what you think … tell me if it made you weep.

Here are the lyrics

I Still Have Faith in You

ABBA

I still have faith in you
I see it now
Through all these years that faith lives on
Somehow

There was a union
Of heart and mind
The likes of which are rare
And, oh, so hard to find

Do I have it in me?
I believe it is in there
For I know I hear a bittersweet song
In the memories we share

I still have faith in you
And I will say
I never really thought I’d feel this way

But I remind myself
Of who we are
How inconceivable it is to reach this far

Do I have it in me?
I believe it is in there
For I know I hear a bittersweet song
In the memories we share

We do have it in us
New spirit has arrived
The joy and the sorrow
We have a story and it survived

And we need one another
Like fighters in a ring
We’re in this together
Passion and courage is everything

I still have faith in you
It stands above
The crazy things we did
It all comes down to love

Do I have it in me?
I believe it is in there
For I know I hear a bittersweet song
In the memories we share
Do I have it in me?

We do have it in us
New spirit has arrived
The joy and the sorrow
We have a story and it survived

And we know that we need one another
Like fighters in a ring
We’re in this together
Passion and courage is everything

and we still have it in us
We’ve only just begun
(Do I have it in me?)
We stand on a summit
Humble and grateful to have survived

I still have faith in you
It’s stands above the crazy things we did
It all comes down to love
Do I have it in me?

#abba #haveigotitinme #1970s