Alternative York

You may or may not have noticed that I have added a forum to my blog. It can be found here or by clicking on the link on the right of this page.

The forum isn’t very busy yet but it is a place where all opinions are welcome and there is no fear that your posts will be edited or removed because I don’t agree with them or because I’ve been threatened by some loony activist group. So on that score alone this forum beats a certain local newspaper’s effort! The only things that will be edited or removed are off-topic posts, spam and people being silly!

So please feel free to sign up. I guarantee you won’t be spammed or added to any mailing lists and you may just enjoy some open debate on issues that really matter.

There is even one of those modern chatbox thingies!

See you soon…

It is with great dismay that I must announce that the York branch of the Animal Liberation Front, otherwise known as YAFA, are celebrating the fact that their illegal and vicious campaign of harassment and intimidation against the Blue Bicycle restaurant in York has resulted in them taking foie-gras off their menu.

Quite why these stinking, unemployable, hippies find it a cause of celebration to harass and intimidate a business legally trying to make a living is quite beyond me. It is particularly sad as the Blue Bicycle had, until now, resisted all pressure to have their menu controlled by the great unwashed and have, perhaps understandably, cracked rather than fight these lawless thugs.

YAFA’s website proclaims that

In October 2007 we were aware of 6 places in York with foie-gras on their main menu, now there are none - the majority of these places stopped selling foie-gras after polite emails or conversations - their management were friendly and professional and were able to talk and discuss concerns - there was one notable exception, which will be kept under surveillance.

So they are planning on a continuation of their terror tactics by the sounds of it

Now that every place in York has taken foie-gras off their main menu, the myth that the campaign against foie-gras was nothing more than gesture politics has been blown out of the water - the opposite in fact - the campaign against foie-gras has just begun and is going from strength to strength and has support from the overwhelming majority of public opinion.

Blatant lies - there is no evidence to support the claim that the majority of the public support their campaign. However I’d like to bet good money that the majority of the British public oppose groups of fascists attempting to dictate what people can and cannot do.

This food is so cruel that it is illegal to produce in the UK, what reputable business would sell something that is illegal to produce in the UK?

I would imagine a reputable business that sells goods that it’s customers want ! Geese bred for foie-gras production are treated incredibly well and it makes perfect sense that they are. Why would foie-gras producers abuse the animals that are being bred to produce high quality food?

This truly is a sad day for York. It gives the message that bullying works. Coupled with City of York Council’s wilful conspiracy with Joseph Rowntree Foundation to vandalise the Osbaldwick meadows, The Blue Bicycle’s capitulation to YAFA’s terrorists means that York has shown itself to be a city that is easily intimidated by those set on imposing their will on others.

What next? I dread to think!

PS: What odds will anyone give that Blanchard is in The Press within the next two days taking the credit for this hollow victory?

See you soon…

It’s not often I read something in The Press and lavish the writer with praise but today I feel compelled to do just that.

Don’t be too surprised to learn that the writer is not a Press hack but that most articulate and sensible man, Mark Warters.

Rather than say too much myself I have posted his letter regarding the disgraceful act of vandalism committed by JRF and CoYC in Osbaldwick last week.

Finally, after nine years of opposition to their “Disasterthorpe” housing estate plans, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) gives us all a taster of the future environmental “Blitzkrieg” that they will unleash on the Osbaldwick meadows this spring (Anger as developers rear down hedge, The Press, February 26).

The JRF raiding party that grubbed out a section of ancient hedgerow alongside Osbaldwick village are merely creating a roadway onto the site in preparation for the JRF mechanised battalions to indulge in industrial “ecological cleansing”.

The only surprise is the fact that neither they nor the landowner, City of York Council, could wait for the decision into registration of land as a village green - or is the result of this independent inquiry already known?

What a paradox then, when local politicians extol us all to “save the planet” and reduce our carbon footprint, when at a local level vast acreages of greenbelt are sacrificed on moneymaking housing schemes, as huge tracts of brownfield land lie idle.

What makes the “Disasterthorpe” scheme uniquely bad is that a formerly respected charity, JRF, is prepared to promote such actions.

“Disasterthorpe” is designed to provide City of York Council with a huge capital receipt which will be used to clear the Hungate office overspend. Consideration of the environment and amenity of the surrounding communities is not on the agenda.

Joseph Rowntree must be spinning in his grave.

I don’t think that letter can be improved in any way, shape or form.

Well said that man and shame on the corporate criminals who have shown themselves up as the money making scum that they undoubtedly are.

See you soon…