Crich, Sunday 4th July - A service for our soldiers

Servicemen and women past and present and their families will gather at the war memorial in Crich for a service of remembrance this week.

The annual regimental pilgrimage for the Mercian Regiment will take place on Sunday, 4th July.

It will commemorate the lives of those members of the regiment who have given their lives in service to the country.

Hundreds of serving and former members of the regiment are expected to turn out to the event, which will kick off at the landmark memorial at 3pm.

More than 50 local dignitaries, including deputy mayor of Amber Valley, Cllr Ron Ashton, have been invited to attend the event.

Lieutenant Colonel Keith Seddon, who is responsible for the event, said: "Normally if we have got a memorial it's a case of the longer it's there the less population will visit it, but it always turns out to be the opposite here. More and more people come to the pilgrimage every year, come rain, wind or shine.

"The support for the regiment is fantastic at the moment."

The pilgrimage will be led by the colonel of the regiment, Brigadier A R D Sharpe OBE and the main service will be led by the Right Rev Paul Butler, who is the Bishop of Southwel and Nottingham Families of those soldiers who have recently lost their lives in Afghanistan will later gather at the dedicated post-1945 memorial for a small ceremony of remembrance.

The Mercian Regiment includes soldiers from Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire.

Ripley and Heanor News

Equality & Human Rights Nottingham funding is cut

The Council for Equality & Human Rights Nottingham & Nottinghamshire (CEHRNN) has had funding cut after joining 'anti'-fascist protesters opposing the EDL in Nottingham on December 5th last year.

It looks like it was the last nail in the coffin for them. Here's the full story courtesy of the Nottingham Evening Post...

It states:

"Some council officers felt the CEHRNN's involvement with the recent English Defence League assembly had risked doing more to increase tensions than to reduce them.

"It was noted that the CEHRNN had been attempting to balance its role between defending freedom of speech for the Muslim community, recognising the EDL's right to freedom of speech and encouraging the Police to guard against incitement of religious hatred.

"Nonetheless, the general feeling shared by Nottingham City Council and the Police was that the Council for Equality and Human Rights Nottingham and Nottinghamshire's presence and strategy on December 5 was unhelpful and was contrary to that agreed by the local authority and its partners."

The cost of policing demonstrations organised by the EDL and anti-fascist groups in Nottingham was put at more than £200,000.

Notts Police have refused to clarify why the presence of the CEHRNN was unhelpful and an explanation has not been provided by the city council, despite requests by the Evening Post and the CEHRNN.

Staff at the CEHRNN refute the allegations and claim they are being undermined.

Workers who were at the EDL rally say they simply stayed close to a group of young Muslims who had become involved in a fracas on the day and guided them away from potential trouble.

Nottingham South MP, Alan Simpson, who was involved in speaking with numerous organisations ahead of the EDL rally and on the day, said: "If anyone was scuppering any plan on the day I would have been informed. "This retrospective criticism does not have any credibility."

Other criticisms in the report include:

Inappropriate representation on the CEHRNN board.

Lack of cover for staff in key positions, staff absence and difficulties.

The CEHRNN continues to focus on mainly race inequality instead of looking at all forms of inequality equally

Not setting out new name and remit quickly enough.

Not enough work with groups other than black and ethnic minority groups

Offices sometimes not open or staff not contactable.

Gordon Griffith, chairman of the CEHRNN's board, said:

"The concerns raised in the equality impact assessment have all been and are being addressed.

"For example we have representation on our board with members of Nottingham's gay community and our chief executive is also sitting on boards representing the interests of disabled people.

We are an organisation which has been in existence for 54 years and embedding change can take time but we have been responding to all the points raised. There have also been some staffing issues and again these are being addressed. The city council have also accused us of breaking protocol in relation to the EDL rally but we have not been informed of any protocol. 

The whole report seems to be riddled with these strange accusations. There is no other organisation which is dealing with inequality in the city and this decision by the city council undermines the 54 years of hard work by the former Race Equality Council, now CEHRNN."

The decision to pull the funding was published on Friday following a behind closed doors meeting involving Coun Hassan Ahmed, responsible for equalities, and deputy council leader Coun Graham Chapman.

Nottingham City Council's corporate director for community and culture, Michael Williams, said: "The city council appreciated the work the CEHRNN had done to promote racial equality and diversity in the city.

"Unfortunately, despite considerable support from the city council, it has not been able to fulfil its wider role. In particular it has not been able to monitor and respond effectively to all hate incidents including racial harassment, homophobia, disability-related crime and other hate crime for which it now receives its funding."

"The city council's single equality scheme, Fair and Just Nottingham, makes tackling hate incidents a top priority but the CEHRNN has not been able to complete the areas of work the city council and its partner agencies need to focus on to meet this priority, despite support from the council.

"We have done everything we can to work with the CEHRNN and help it tackle the new requirements.

"The city council will continue to fund these services in alternative ways which will pick up the wider issues in all communities including schools, older people and disabled and vulnerable people."

michael.greenwell@nottinghameveningpost.co.uk

WELL DONE EDL! 

Labour in Fix Storm + Hoon in cash-for access scandal

Hoon and De Piero

The row over who will represent Labour in Ashfield at the general Election continues to rumble on – with local members denying the shortlist has been fixed to ensure former GMTV presenter Gloria De Piero secures the position.

Ashfield party bosses have rejected reports at the weekend which suggested they believed ‘that Downing Street is “using every trick in the book” to force Ms de Piero into the commons’.

The claims centred on the changes made to the shortlist on Thursday to make it easier for Ms De Piero to become the party’s candidate.

But Ashfield Labour party vice-chairman, Edward Llewellyn-Jones, said:

 “Nobody in the party has come to me and said anything of the sort. We have no idea why the list was changed between Thursday and Friday other than what the party have said – that it was a clerical error”.

It had been reported that another candidate – Pam Tatlow, who is a chief executive of university think-tank Million+ - was on the list but then a revised version was issued with Joyce still on it instead.

The labour party denies claims that Mrs Tatlow had been replaced because ‘she looked like a serious contender’, while Mrs Still was an ‘unheard of health visitor’.

Yesterday Labour backed Mr Llewellyn-Jones claim that the mix-up was caused by a ‘clerical error’ – and say it was rectified as soon as possible.

On Friday, the shortlist of candidates – which includes Ms de Piero, Berkshire-based Mrs Still and party campaigner Faye Abbott – turned out for the hustings at Ashfield District Council’s Kirkby Offices.

They addressed party members, who will decide by postal ballot who they want to replace current Ashfield MP Geoff Hoon as their candidate, and the results are expected to be announced on Saturday.

None of the candidates were able to speak to the press at the hustings but Mr Llewellyn-Jones said that it had been a ‘very good meeting’, that all the candidates had their strong points and they answered their questions well.

The Chad ( You won't find this article online)

Meanwhile, Geoff Hoon is at the centre of a cash-for-access row after being secretly filmed offering help to a fake lobbying company in exchange for cash, set up by Channel 4.

Full story HERE

Nick Griffin speaks at the Sutton-In-Ashfield Roadshow

Video by xrw5000

Since the British National Party's membership was reopened last Friday over 1,000 new people have joined.

Listen to Nick Griffin's speech (above) in Sutton-In-Ashfield last Sunday to see just why people are joining the only party true to Britain and her people.

Hucknall Central Ward By-Election Thursday 11th February 2010

Edward Holmes

Due to the death of Tory councillor Gordon Riley on December 10th 2009, there will be a Hucknall Central Ward By-Election on Thursday 11^th of February.

Former chairman of Ashfield District Council and a former Labour Councillor, Edward Holmes, who defected to the British National Party, will be standing as the BNP candidate.

Mr Holmes said:

“Unfortunately the Labour party I represented no longer cares for the local people. The Labour party of today is not the party that represents Britain’s working class.”

Although it is unknown territory for the BNP, there is a lot of positive feedback from the public; there is a good chance of the BNP gaining a seat on Ashfield Council.

If you have a couple of hours free at any time for leafletting please contact me asap at DerbyPatriot@live.com

Robbery? Don't worry, it happens all the time.

Robbery and violence is all too common these days and the police don't seem to give a damn about it. They are far to busy clamping down on drivers to capture real criminals. Maybe it's now in their contract not to tackle criminals for fear of getting hurt.

Two weeks ago a pub landlord in Kirkby-In-Ashfield, Nottinghamshire, went out the back of his pub to get rid of some rubbish.

What he saw disturbed him. A youth was in the bin looking over towards a betting shop; along side the bin were a couple of holdalls.

The landord called the police but they didn't turn up for over a week.

Later the same day the betting shop was robbed by 5 weapon wielding thugs.

The police said that as 'this type of thing is happening alot in Nottinghamshire, we have no idea who they are, so we are taking no further action'.

So that's it. The raiders have got away scot free with nice sum of money for fifteen minutes work.

There is no mention of this story in any newspaper, tv or even online. I wonder why that is.

The word 'vigilante' springs up in conversations all across the country. That's the state this government has got us into.

Maybe that's what they want so they introduce marshall law.