Author: Alison Banville

BSN Tribute to Shane McGowan

Shane McGowan died yesterday. An event which we dreaded would happen much sooner than it did touched the souls of not only those who admired his musical and lyrical genius but of those who recognised that a very special person has been in our midst. What can I say about Shane? The greatest lyricist, a true poet, a punk spirit, […]

Email to BBC Journalist re Syrian Observatory for Human Rights

I wrote to David Gritten (no I’d never heard of him either) the BBC ‘journalist’ who wrote a piece for their website about the horrific attack on the Syrian military academy on October 6th. The attack was carried out by NATO funded Islamists who waited until the recruits had gathered with their families for the graduation ceremony in order to […]

Russell Brand: What’s Really Going On?

It’s fascinating to watch how easy it is for the corporate media’s institutional bias to successfully direct the dumb gaze of the sleepwalkers to its chosen angle so that the parameters of debate are squeezed and narrowed until they include only its own perspective. In this case it’s, ‘is Russell Brand a hypocrite?’

BSNews at the Save Our Ticket Offices Rally

The following article by BSN editor Alison Banville was published in The Morning Star. A few days ago I joined a large crowd gathered outside the Department of Transport in London. There were ornate union banners being held aloft proudly emblazoned with ‘Manchester RMT’, ‘Liverpool, Branch no 5 est. 1913’, ‘Wigan RMT’ and, most movingly for me as a girl […]

Lineker and ‘Those People in the Boats’

I recently decided to live on the edge and do more dangerous things, so yesterday I walked into a Wetherspoons holding hands with an attractive Pakistani man. The response was akin to a western movie scene: drinks held mid-air, arrested on the way to gaping mouths, an atmosphere you could cut with a knife. I expected to hear, ‘you ain’t […]

The Somme: A Deeper Question

I’ve just been reading, during the commemorations for the Battle of the Somme, Wilfred Owen’s poem ‘Anthem For Doomed Youth’ about ‘these who die as cattle’. A comment by a member of the fantastic group, Veterans For Peace UK, on Facebook about the ceremonies says, ‘All the talk of fallen and sacrifice gets me. Those men did not fall they were ripped apart.’ which is exactly right. Senseless mass slaughter……and I couldn’t get Owen’s poem out of my head.

The Labour Files: Where is Democracy? Mainstream Media Blackout.

Corporate media silence as biggest leak in British political history reveals it’s implicated with politicians in a scandal of epic proportions. All hell should have broken loose in the last three days as Al Jazeera published in succession three videos of their investigation into leaks from inside the UK Labour Party. What these files reveal should be front page and […]

On the Duty of Civil Disobedience – Henry David Thoreau

This seminal 1849 essay changed the lives of Gandhi and Martin Luther King when they read it. Indeed, it’s influence can be clearly seen in Dr. King’s important ‘A Letter From a Birmingham Jail. It changed my life too in that it resounded so strongly with my deepest feelings about societal justice and articulated so perfectly my most profound thoughts […]

Law Firm’s Letter to Met Police Re Covid Vaccine Investigation: Full Text

PJH Law, The law firm involved in providing huge amounts of evidence to Hammersmith CID regarding the live investigation into the Covid jabs has sent a letter to Cressida Dick, Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, and cc’ing in several relevant individuals (scroll down to view). The law firm forcefully urges action and requests an appointment to hand in ‘irrefutable’ evidence […]