Gang of up to 80 youths in stand-off moments before policewoman was dragged under car

The incident is thought to have been sparked by a disturbance at a local bonfire with reports some youths were carrying knives, crickets bats and a snooker cue

Scene of the incident on Yorkshire Street, Rochdale

Up to 80 teenage youths were involved in a stand-off between two gangs moments before a policewoman was injured by a car.
The youths - some brandishing weapons - were involved in a disturbance in Rochdale, thought to have been sparked by a disagreement at a bonfire, before the officer was injured while attempting to diffuse the situation.
Last night’s trouble involved two groups, thought to be aged between 14 and 17, including boys and girls, and witnesses saw a number carrying weapons, including knives, cricket bats and a snooker cue.

 It is understood some of those involved had been at a large organised bonfire and fireworks display on Cronkeyshaw Common, where an altercation took place earlier in the night.
The two groups then made their way towards Yorkshire Street, where a huge stand-off took place, before the car which injured the officer arrived at around 9pm.
Councillor and restaurateur Farooq Ahmed witnessed the trouble and tried to disperse the gangs, suffering minor injuries in the tense deadlock.
“I had just been to a council meeting and was in my car when I saw the two gangs,” he said.
“I was really worried, especially when I noticed that some of them seemed to have weapons and I knew they weren’t local as I know all the local kids.

Det Chf Insp Andrew Aston

 “I tried to speak to them and calm them down and someone elbowed me in the stomach at one point, I don’t think it was on purpose.
“They were all standing in the road and spilling out onto the side street. It was very scary for the local residents.
”During the stand-off, a dark-coloured five-door hatchback, carrying five Asian men, arrived at the scene and stopped at the centre of the action.
Shortly afterwards, police arrived, responding to 999 calls from Farooq and other witnesses, and one of the officers approached the car. When she got to the vehicle, it sped off, forcing the officer to cling to one of the car seats.
She was dragged 150 yards along the road and repeatedly punched in the face until she fell from the vehicle.
The officer remains in hospital, where she is being treated for serious bruising and shock.
Farooq saw the woman lying in the road and ran over to her before other officers arrived.
“My first thought was that she had been attacked, but she told me she had been hit by a car,” he said. “It was very frightening and I tried to calm her down.
“My wife has since told me I was silly to get involved and could have been hurt, but as a councillor I feel it is my duty to keep the peace.”
Police have since arrested three men - a 19-year old man and two 24-year old men - on suspicion of attempted murder. They have also recovered a car.
Det Chf Insp Andy Aston said: “We would like to reassure the public that this was an isolated incident and we are making good progress with the arrests.
“Our investigation is focusing not only on the car but on the disturbance earlier in the night and we would appeal to anyone who witnessed anything relevant to get in touch with us straight away.
“The officer involved is very shaken after what happened.”
http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/stand-off-involving-up-80-youths-8029323

Press Office | Community Briefings | Publications

Board Annual Dinner less than a month away

The Dinner Chair Flo Kaufmann and the Treasurer of the Board of Deputies Judge Laurence Brass take great pleasure in inviting you to attend our Annual Dinner.

 Theresa May, the Home Secretary, and one of the UK’s foremost politicians, will be our honoured guest speaker. 

 She is the first Home Secretary to address the Board’s Dinner.“This is a major coup as she lies right at the centre of Westminster politics. She is Britain’s most senior female politician and is tipped for greater things,” said Judge Brass. He added that: “I am also delighted and honoured to reveal that the next Lord Mayor of the City of London, Fiona Woolf, will be speaking, in what will be one of her inaugural addresses following her installation as Lord Mayor a few days earlier.”

 Flo Kaufmann added that “these major coups reflect the Board’s – and the Jewish community’s - longstanding and hard-earned reputation as a crucial player in both London and national politics but also particularly in inter faith work, an area especially dear to both this Lord Mayor and to her predecessor.”

 The dinner, which fundraises for the vital work that the Board does on behalf of UK Jewry, takes place on Wednesday November 27 in the prestigious surroundings of the Egyptian Room of the Mansion House. For information on reserving a place please contact the team at “Inspire” who are managing the event, on 0208 343 4884.

 

http://www.bod.org.uk/live/content.php?Item_ID=130&Blog_ID=1051 

 

NWN: With all that has gone on recently, we wonder if the above 'beano' will be going ahead ?

Fear of being called racist destroyed 1400 children as police did nothing- Rotherham

29 10 2014

The above illustration of TOMORROWS JOB which came out 20 years ago predicted what would happen with uncanny precision to our Police forces.

Men took their pleasure as sexual exploitation became a way of life for many Rotherham children. Police watched it happen.
The town’s district commander for a four-year period from 2001, during which police ignored a series of warnings about the growing scale and severity of offending, was Detective Chief Superintendent Christine Burbeary.
As commander, she played a leading role in a community cohesion task force, set up to combat Islamophobia after the September 2001 terrorist attacks. Although Muslims represented less than 4 per cent of the local population she opened Islamic prayer rooms in two police stations.
Ms Burbeary, now aged 65, has been accused by specialist workers of turning a deaf ear to repeated pleas for action against groups of men, mainly of Pakistani origin, who were using and selling young white girls for sex.
A senior officer who has since retired told The Times that the publication of the Macpherson report in 1999, labelling the Metropolitan police “institutionally racist”, had a paralysing effect on other forces. “To be accused of being racist is the biggest problem a police officer can have. In South Yorkshire, you feared to tread in certain areas because of the racial dimensions. Self-appointed community leaders became very powerful and you upset them at your peril. To avoid such problems, some senior officers went the other way.”
The commander is said to have verbally attacked a researcher, who was funded by the Home Office and whose letter warned the force’s chief constable in 2001 that police in Rotherham were not doing enough to “protect children at risk and target their abusers”.
She was also involved in attempts to amend sections of a report in which brothers from a family of Pakistani origin were linked to sex offences against 54 young girls.
Serving under Ms Burbeary was Inspector Anita McKenzie, who also retired in 2005. She headed the district’s community safety unit and received monthly reports from youth workers. These contained offenders’ names, mobile phone numbers, home addresses and the locations where abuse took place. It is believed that none of the reports led to a prosecution.
The intelligence was apparently entered into “Box 5” of the force’s computer network. This was said to be a secure system designed to protect the source’s identity … a grading of intelligence known as “level 5”, which permits access to confidential material on a “need-to-know basis”… said (to be) an effective way to handle sex-grooming intelligence and that it also protected victims… but in practice it meant, according to one member of staff, that it “disappeared into a black hole and was never seen again”. Few police officers were permitted access to the information and most were unaware of its existence.
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/uk/crime/article4251029.ece

NWN: This type of Police corruption has been going on for decades now. The 'Macpherson report' finally did for the 'old time copper' whose only job was to catch crooks. The new breed are promoters of the social engineering stunt that we call 'political correctness', but which is in reality the genocide of the white British people. For the 'top coppers' like the one named in the above Times report,   Detective Chief Superintendent Christine Burbeary, should really bear in mind that 'only following orders' was not permissible or acceptable at Nuremburg.

Labour MP links Leon Brittan to 80s child abuse claims: Amid row over historic sex crimes inquiry, former Home Secretary named in Commons

• Jim Hood used miners strike debate to level allegations against Lord Brittan 
• Business minister Matthew Hancock blasts the remarks as 'disgusting' 
• MPs comments are protected from slander and contempt of court laws  

+4

Allegations: Lord Brittan, home secretary under Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s, was yesterday accused of child abuse in a Commons debate

A Labour MP has used parliamentary privilege to accuse former Home Secretary Leon Brittan of ‘improper conduct with children’.

He used a Commons debate on the 1984-85 miners’ strike to suggest that those who took part in the industrial action will not be surprised by the allegations against Lord Brittan.

The remarks from Jim Hood, who said there were ‘reports about child abuse being linked with’ the Conservative politician, were criticised as ‘disgusting’ by business minister Matthew Hancock.

Under parliamentary privilege, MPs can make contentious allegations without fear of prosecution for slander or contempt of court. But critics said Mr Hood’s comments were an abuse of this privilege.

The row comes amid calls for the head of the official inquiry into historic child sex abuse to resign over links to Lord Brittan, now 75. Fiona Woolf has admitted attending dinner parties with the politician, who was in charge of the Home Office in the 1980s.

It has been claimed that Lord Brittan was handed a file, which is now missing, in late 1983 which allegedly detailed child abuse at the highest levels of Westminster.

But he has not until now been publicly accused of having played a part in such abuse.

The controversial remarks were made during a debate in which MPs accepted a motion which said Margaret Thatcher’s government ‘misled the public’ about pit closure plans during the 1984 miners’ strike.

Mr Hood, the MP for Lanark and Hamilton East, who had been discussing violence on picket lines, said: ‘By the way, the current exposé of Sir Leon Brittan, the then home secretary, with accusations of improper conduct with children will not come as a surprise to striking miners of 1984.’

Tory MP Conor Burns raised an immediate point of order and said: ‘He has just made very profound, serious accusations against a noble Lord. Is that in order?’

Deputy Speaker Lindsay Hoyle said he had not heard the remark but replied: ‘It’s up to each member to decide what they said and they must make that decision.’

Mr Hood continued: ‘The rumours that Sir Leon Brittan was involved with misconduct with children does not come as news to miners who were striking in 1984.

‘When miners were going up into the dock in magistrates’ courts we were aware and miners were declaring … the point is miners were saying in the dock in magistrates’ courts throughout the strike that they objected to instructions coming from the home secretary when there were reports about child abuse being linked with that same home secretary.’

Fiona Woolf on her relationship with Lord Brittan

+4

+4

The remarks from Jim Hood, left, come amid calls for the head of the inquiry into historic child sex abuse to resign over links to Lord Brittan. Fiona Woolf, right, has admitted attending dinner with the politician

Mr Hoyle intervened again and said: ‘I think it is up to each MP, we have to be very careful on what we said, and we must consider what we are saying and what the implications are.’

Mr Hood said: ‘I accept, obviously, what you say but I’m just repeating what I’m reading in the papers.’

Mr Hancock then intervened before the next MP spoke, saying: ‘At the end of this debate the Labour front bench should disassociate themselves from the disgusting remarks of the previous speaker.’

Speaking after the debate, Mr Burns said: ‘I was astounded that Jim Hood casually, without thought or deliberation, appeared to accuse Lord Brittan of being a paedophile in a debate about the future and the past of the mining industry in Britain.’

+4

Last night Lord Tebbit, who was a Cabinet colleague of Lord Brittan, said: ‘I think it would be better if somebody wants to make these allegations of Lord Brittan, that they should do it outside the Chamber, where they can be tested – if necessary in a court of law.

‘Parliamentary privilege is a useful thing, but it needs to be used with care and in an open manner. If this gentleman has some evidence which causes him to believe this, why not make these comments outside?’

He added: ‘I’m not a particular friend of Leon Brittan, but this gentleman could equally well get up and accuse me of things like this – and I wouldn’t care for that. In fact I’d probably go round and smack him on the nose.’ 

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2811776/Labour-MP-links-Leon-Brittan-80s-child-abuse-claims-Amid-row-historic-sex-crimes-inquiry-former-Home-Secretary-named-Commons.html#ixzz3HY2F6aJE

How money from pro-Israel
donors controls Westminster
by Alastair Sloan

Around this time last year, parliamentary records show, the retired property developer and hugely generous Labour party donor, Sir David Garrard, had given a modest £60,000 towards the party's election campaign for 2015. It came in addition to around half a million he had already given since 2003.

Fast forward to 16 June of this year, Garrard hosts a Labour Friends of Israel event, at which Labour leader Ed Miliband is the main speaker. The prime minister hopeful had, the year before, proclaimed that he was a Zionist <http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/danhodges/100206049/ed-miliband-calls-himself-a-zionist-a-brave-and-welcome-statement-but-will-he-dare-to-stand-by-it/> . The lobbying group he addressed boasts dozens of Labour peers and MPs <http://www.lfi.org.uk/lfi-supporters-in-parliament/>  amongst its membership, including the Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls.

That same day, Garrard transferred a whopping £630,000 to the Labour party accounts, over ten times his donation from the previous year.

It was a near identical <https://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/peter-oborne-james-jones/pro-israel-lobby-in-britain-full-text#m12>  episode to David Cameron speaking in 2009, back when he too was hoping to take office as prime minister.

At a well-attended Conservative Friends of Israel annual fundraising lunch held in London, he again made no mention of the Palestinian lives that had been lost, this time as part of “Operation Cast Lead”. Not one mention. In that war, 1,370 Palestinians had died <http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/idf-600-hamas-men-309-civilians-died-in-gaza-offensive-1.272854> . At the time, a leading British journalist wrote <https://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/peter-oborne-james-jones/pro-israel-lobby-in-britain-full-text#m12> :

“I found it impossible to reconcile the remarks made by the young Conservative leader with the numerous reports of human rights abuses in Gaza. Afterwards I said as much to some Tory MPs. They looked at me as if I was distressingly naive, drawing my attention to the very large number of Tory donors in the audience.”

No other foreign nation is as well represented in the campaign finances of British elections as Israel. In fact, no other nation comes close – and money linked to pro-Israel donors is a single interest influence akin to that of the trade unions (the largest democratic organisations in the country) or indeed the megabucks flowing in from City financiers.

And with that money, war crimes are being glossed over, rules bent, and our hard-won democracy warped by foreign interests.

The money is already pouring in.

In April, the Conservative Branch for Brigg & Goole, the constituency of Andrew Percy MP, received £6,000 from a notable pro-Israel supporter, Lord Stanley Fink. During the recent conflict, Percy attended an Israeli military briefing about the Iron Dome missile defence system – later glibly observing  <http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/jul/30/tory-mps-visit-israel-condemned-bad-timing> that “Israel acts as we would” in response to the mass civilian casualties being inflicted by the IDF.

Percy is, like 80 per cent of his colleagues <http://www2.cfoi.co.uk/AboutCFI/Whatwedo/> , a member of Conservative Friends of Israel.

On the same day, £3,000 dropped into the bank account of the Conservative party in Harrow East. Their MP, Bob Blackman, also visited Israel <http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/jul/30/tory-mps-visit-israel-condemned-bad-timing>  during “Operation Protective Edge”. The money also came from Lord Fink.

And the pro-Israel peer pulled off a democracy-warping hat-trick that day – £3,000 for the Conservatives in Brighton & Kemptown, home to Conservative Friends of Israel linked  <http://www2.cfoi.co.uk/Campaigns/FreeGiladShalit/> Simon Kirby MP.

Over and above his backing of individual MPs, Lord Fink has also contributed over £60,000 to the Conservative Central Party accounts since July last year, and his total donations to the Conservatives over the years are now nearing £3 million.

Lord Fink is a staunch supporter of Israel – telling the Jewish Chronicle in 2009 <http://www.thejc.com/business/business-features/interview-stanley-fink>  that he shared similar views to Lord Michael Levy, Tony Blair’s aide who had close ties with Israeli political leaders <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Levy,_Baron_Levy> . Levy’s son, Daniel, served  <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Levy_%28political_analyst%29> as an assistant to the former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and to Knesset member Yossi Beilin.

Elsewhere, Lord Fink has been a “loyal donor” <http://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/55184/just-journalism-forced-close>  to Just Journalism, a now defunct group organised by the pro-Israeli Westminster think tank the Henry Jackson Society. Just Journalism claimed to be correcting “media bias” against Israel but instead acted as a pro-Israel “flak” <https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/articles/europe/13065-dont-be-fooled-media-watchdogs-are-israeli-propaganda-tools>  group aggressively criticising any British publication who queried Israel’s human rights record, including The Guardian and the London Review of Books. The group folded in 2011.

Lord Fink is also a member of the Jewish Leadership Council (more on their influence later).

In March, the Conservative Branch in Poplar & Limehouse received £3,000 from another pro-Israel funder – Sir Michael Hintze. Hintze was ranked by Forbes in 2014 as the 1,016th richest person in the world <http://www.forbes.com/profile/michael-hintze/> , with a net worth of approximately $1.8 billion.

The constituency he has plugged money into is a swing seat; a six per cent  <http://ukpollingreport.co.uk/guide/seat-profiles/poplarandlimehouse/> change would depose incumbent Labour MP Jim Fitzpatrick (a member of both Labour Friends of Israel and Labour Friends of Palestine).

The Conservatives have their own reasons for targeting the seat, using the youthful ex-banker and Tower Hamlets councillor Tim Archer <http://ukpollingreport.co.uk/guide/seat-profiles/poplarandlimehouse/> . Suggestions have been made that the Respect party might run George Galloway, and he could split  <http://ukpollingreport.co.uk/guide/seat-profiles/poplarandlimehouse/> the Labour vote, opening the way for a Conservative win. George Galloway also happens to be the most outspoken critic of Israel in British politics.

British-Australian Hintze is not a man the Conservatives would want to annoy. Since July of last year, he has donated just over £1.5 million to the party (the figure is doubled if you look back to 2002).

Current Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne MP received nearly £40,000 in 2008 and 2009 directly from Hintze. Mayor of London Boris Johnson, Home Secretary Theresa May MP, David Davis MP <http://www.daviddavismp.com/rt-hon-david-davis-mp-biography/>  and David Willets MP <http://www.davidwilletts.co.uk/>  have also been subject to his financial largesse.

But the first politician Hintze backed in the Conservatives was Dr Liam Fox MP, with a £10,000 gift back in January 2007.

Fox then rose to become Secretary of State for Defence, before being disgraced when it was revealed he had allowed his close friend Adam Werrity <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Werritty>  access to the Ministry of Defence and to travel on official visits (despite not being a government employee).

Hintze was implicated because he had allowed Fox a desk in his London office as part of a £29,000 donation to Fox's controversial charity – Atlantic Bridge – another pro-Israel lobbying organisation. Hintze served  <http://web.archive.org/web/20080524122740/http:/www.theatlanticbridge.com/who_we_are.php> on its Executive Council.

Adam Werrity, who had been best man at Fox’s wedding in 2005, was later appointed UK Executive Director <http://web.archive.org/web/20080524122740/http:/www.theatlanticbridge.com/who_we_are.php>  of Atlantic Bridge and played a key role in its operations.

In late 2011, “multiple sources” told  <http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/revealed-foxs-best-man-and-his-ties-to-irans-opposition-2371352.html> the Independent on Sunday that Werrity had used contacts developed through Atlantic Bridge to arrange visits to Iran, meeting with opposition groups in both Washington and London, and had even been debriefed by MI6 about his travels.

The newspaper described  <http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/revealed-foxs-best-man-and-his-ties-to-irans-opposition-2371352.html> the activities as “a freelance foreign policy” with Werrity seemingly “acting as a rogue operator”.

It was also revealed that Werrity was capable of arranging meetings “at the highest levels of the Israeli government”, and that Mossad had, bizarrely, believed Werrity to be Fox’s chief of staff.

The Guardian also raised the possibility <http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2011/oct/12/adam-werritty-liam-fox-iranian?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487>  that Werrity and Fox could have been operating a “shadow foreign policy”, using Atlantic Bridge as a cover organisation. The charity was investigated by the Charities Commission in 2011 and shut down.

Another patron of Atlantic Bridge, alongside Hintze, was Michael Lewis, ex-chairman of the Britain Israel Communications and Research Centre (BICOM).

That lobbying group describes itself as a “British organisation dedicated to creating a more supportive environment for Israel in Britain”. It was reported  <http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2011/oct/15/liam-fox-atlantic-bridge> that Michael Lewis had paid for some of Werrity’s trips to Israel, charges he later denied <http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2011/oct/15/liam-fox-atlantic-bridge> .

Fox’s resignation was forced over the scandal – although true to Westminster form – no scandal is too much, in fact, he is already back, having politely refused a role as foreign secretary in July but now planning  <http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/jul/15/liam-fox-declines-return-government-foreign-office-minister> a new career as a backbencher.

Reviewing the Electoral Commission records for 2014, the pro-Israel donor Michael Lewis has popped up again. In March, he wrote another cheque for £10,000, to none other than Liam Fox.

In the past, Lewis has also backed William Hague – to the tune of £5,000. Hague later became foreign secretary.

According to Peter Oborne, now chief political commentator for the Daily Telegraph, Michael Lewis’s baby BICOM is “Britain's major pro-Israel lobby”.

In a searing expose <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0E70BwA7xgU> for Channel 4 in 2009 and later a pamphlet  <https://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/peter-oborne-james-jones/pro-israel-lobby-in-britain-full-text#m12> calling for transparency from the Israel lobby, Oborne showed how BICOM was funded by a Finnish billionaire whose father made a fortune selling Israeli arms.

Chaim ‘Poju’ Zabludowicz, who the Sunday Times ranked as the 57th richest individual  <http://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/118052/wealthiest-jews-britain-were-born-abroad-super-rich-list-reveals> in Britain with a net worth of over £1.5 billion, founded BICOM in 2001 and is its chairman.

Zabludowicz is also a member of the United Jewish Israel Appeal, a charity whose website  <http://www.ujia.org/what-we-do/support-israel/overview/> claims it has three strands of work - “Supporting Israel”, “Connecting with Israel” and “Engaging with Israel”.

Since 2009, Zabludowicz has given approximately £125,000 to the Conservative party, either directly to party central, or to the party operating in Finchley and Golders Green, Harlow, Watford or Burton.

Zabludowicz is also a member of the Jewish Leadership Council – primarily concerned with philanthropic and educational matters within the British Jewish community, but who in June 2011 also met with the government to discuss the Middle East (BICOM attended the meeting too), and again in January 2012.

The Jewish Leadership Council, whose members also include pro-Israel Tory funders such as Lord Stanley Fink, and Tony Blair’s controversial man in Israel Lord Michael Levy, have taken it upon themselves to vigorously defend Israeli leaders from the principles of universal jurisdiction – which proves a great example of how influential the lobby is – how intent the lobby is on insulating Israel from legal redress, and exactly why British voters should be wary of how much money the lobby is pumping into our elections.

In a celebratory post in 2011, on their own website, the Jewish Leadership Council (JLC) explained that <http://www.thejlc.org/2011/09/universal-jurisdiction/#sthash.uLPCAVf9.dpuf%20>  two years ago, they had....

“commissioned a legal opinion from Lord Pannick QC which recommended a change in the law. We wanted to protect universal jurisdiction itself, a vital innovation that grew out of the Holocaust, while preventing it from being abused.”
(“Preventing it from being abused” roughly translates to “being applied to Israel”).

Following an arrest warrant being issued for Israeli opposition leader Tzipi Livni, the group said:

“We immediately sent our legal opinion to the government and opposition and worked with Conservative Friends of Israel, Labour Friends of Israel and Liberal Democratic Friends of Israel to begin generating support for this law change.”

“Within a few days, Gordon Brown had publicly promised to change the law as soon as possible,” the JLC bragged.

The Conservative party had already placed an advert in the Jewish Chronicle promising to change the law if they were elected. In 2011, the universal jurisdiction laws of the United Kingdom were changed, with arrest warrants now requiring the assent of the Attorney-General before they could be issued for alleged war criminals.

This was just as the pro-Israel lobby wanted. Rather than facing arrest when visiting the UK, Israeli politicians, generals and other war criminals can now feel assured that warrants would first have to pass through the Attorney-General, who is none other than Jeremy Wright MP, who is of course, another member of Conservative Friends of Israel.

Please note: This page was updated at 15.05 GMT on October 22nd, 2014. An earlier version of this article stated that Ed Miliband gave his speech during Operation Protective Edge. This was incorrect and the article has been updated to reflect this. Further, the article implied that George Galloway was confirmed to run in Poplar & Limehouse, which has not yet been confirmed and the article has been updated to reflect this.
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/articles/middle-east/14752-how-money-from-pro-israel-donors-controls-westminster 

Taxi boss says he will no longer offer white drivers on demand after protest by Asian employees

Stephen Campbell, boss of Car 2000 in Heywood, said he was trying to protect drivers from customers who might refuse to get in their vehicles

 

Car 2000 drivers protest

A taxi boss has said he will no longer allow customers to ask for a white driver after his Asian employees went on strike over the policy.
Stephen Campbell, boss of Car 2000 in Heywood, told the M.E.N. he made the decision after learning of the cabbies’ protest in the town centre last night.
In 2011, Mr Campbell’s family took over the business, which was formerly called Eagle Taxis, and which employed two of the nine men jailed a year later for grooming girls.
Earlier this week, Mr Campbell revealed his staff would provide customers with white – or ‘local’ – drivers on request.
But today he told us Car 2000 would no longer offer this service.
Mr Campbell, 34, said: “The drivers were all aware we did this and said they wouldn’t want to pick up a customer that didn’t want them as a driver.
“But, as soon as they raised this as a problem, I have immediately changed it and have done what they wanted.”

Stephen Campbell, owner of Car 2000

 Mr Campbell described one occasion when one of his Asian drivers had been to pick up a customer who refused to get in his car – and this had left the cabbie upset.
He added: “I don’t operate a company that makes people feel bad. I was trying to protect them. But I suppose in protecting them I was contributing to people’s racist beliefs.”
Mr Campbell, who employs a total of 80 drivers at Car 2000, said all his 55 Asian cabbies were on strike today over the row.
He is set to meet with some of them this afternoon to iron out the problems in a bid to get them back to work.
Mr Campbell previously told the M.E.N. that, out of 12,000 calls a week, around 60 would request a ‘local’ or Asian driver.
He said: “Our operators have now been told that no one can do that again.”
Dozens of furious Asian drivers who work for Car 2000 gathered in the centre of Heywood last night to protest about the firm offering white drivers on demand – blasting the service as ‘racist’ and ‘discriminatory’.
They were concerned the policy would reinforce negative stereotypes in the town and described how their cars had regularly been attacked following the grooming scandal.
One driver, Abdul Hafiz, said: “There were some bad men who worked as taxi drivers in Heywood and now they are in prison.
“We have done nothing wrong but now we are being treated like paedophiles.”
http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/taxi-boss-says-no-longer-7997487

Police step in to shopping centre row after soldier refused cigarettes 'because he was wearing military uniform'

Police at the scene outside Alpha News in St Helens

A soldier has told of his outrage after a shopkeeper refused to sell him cigarettes because he was in combat fatigues.
Duane Fahy, 27, who serves with 1st Battalion, the Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment, said the staff member told him that he believed it was illegal to sell tobacco to people in military uniform.
Mr Fahy, from Leigh, Wigan, was on a break from a recruitment day with his regiment in St Helens, Merseyside, when he popped into Alpha News in the Hardshaw Centre shopping complex to buy a 20 pack of Lambert and Butler cigarettes with a soldier friend.
He said: “My colleague and I were both in uniform and when I asked for cigarettes, he refused to serve me. I was taken aback and a bit confused as to why he was so determined not to sell us something as small as a pack of cigarettes. I asked him why and he said it was because we were in military uniform.
“To be honest I was outraged. I’ve never been refused anything just because I’m a soldier, but he was adamant. I didn’t want to make a scene, I’m not like that, so we just left.”
Mr Fahy complained and shoppers rushed to his defence. Several of them staged an impromptu protest and employees are reported to have fielded phone calls complaining of prejudice against a serving soldier.
Shopping centre bosses tried to calm the row and insisted that the shopkeeper genuinely believed he wasn’t legally allowed to sell tobacco to people in uniform.

The sign put up in Alpha News apologising

 Irfan Patel, who works at Alpha News, said Mr Duane and his friends were initially refused because they looked under age, but the shop has now put up a sign apologising on a window. He said the shopkeeper had mistakenly believed he could refuse to serve tobacco to people in uniform.
Mr Patel said when he came in to work at the shop at about 8am he found about 30 protestors outside.
He said: “A couple were aggressive with me. I’ve had about 20 phone calls from people saying racist abuse. The people outside keep calling me racist, but when I try to explain they just won’t listen.
“They had been trying to stop people coming into the shop but the police stopped them from doing that. It’s definitely affected business.”
Mr Fahy posted a photo of the shop on Facebook, which was shared more than 7,000 times before he deleted it. He wrote on his Facebook page: “People I have no choice but to delete my post about me not being served at the shop due to racial and discriminating comments.”
Army bosses branded the newsagent’s actions ‘very disappointing’.
A spokesman said: “The Army is aware of an incident in which it appears two of our soldiers were refused service in a newsagent due to them being in uniform. This is very disappointing and not representative of the huge amount of public support the armed services continue to be given by the general public.”
Shopping centre owners London and Cambridge Properties said: “We believe this was a genuine error and not the result of any form of discrimination.
“We have been advised that the shopkeeper intends to extend a full apology.”

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/police-step-shopping-centre-row-7995926