It’s tree planting time at Rattlechain lagoon- its giving something back to the community time- it’s bullshit time in the Express and Star again- it’s Rhodia UK Limited- oh they aren’t Solvay yet?
It’s been 14 long years of campaigning to draw attention to the toxic waste lagoon, investigating what caused the wildfowl deaths and writing countless letters and emails, phonecalls etc- many of which never received any reply at all. I can only say to those people who sit idly by in their cosy offices watching the world go by, that I hope one day you will see your own injustice, and have to bear direct witness to it without any resolution ever coming. In the event that our paths ever crossed in the street, and they needed my help, I would leave them to die there.
My distaste for this newspaper began when it became clear that they doubted or tried to pour cold water on what was a newsworthy story- but for some reason not “newsworthy” for someone within its corridors of power. They were quick to publish my “claims” of bird deaths- (expecting me to have a running total to hand as though this was the fucking issue.) They were also to publish Rhodia’s spin rebuttle without question, giving them the last line that there was nothing harmful in the lagoon.
As soon as we had investigated what was really behind the bird deaths (white phosphorus), and told them of the US evidence base and the opinions of US scientists who supported our view that this chemical was to blame based on their practical experience- something appeared to change. One Express and Star journalist that did a story stated that a reader who used to work for the company had contacted them after the “Worries over toxin in pool” story about yellow phosphorus and how dangerous it actually was.
The word used in this story was a gross error by this paper, given that “a toxin” is organic in nature, a poison produced by living things, wheras a toxicant is artificially produced by man. We wonder if this was another attempt , as the chemical industry like to portray that naturally occurring substances are more dangerous than their own disgusting creations.
Bear in mind that this toxicant was banned as a UK rat poison in 1963, beacuse it was considered to be “a cruel poison”. I asked for the reader’s details, and of course it was not given. What was also not printed was this callers information, which would have substantiated or helped to back our hypothesis. WHY?
Where’s the investigation of the truth here? A paper happy to print my claims, but when the evidence starts to stack up against a polluting former Quaker business- press or editorial censorship would appear to have kicked in. If this reader is out there, please contact us and tell the real story that you know to be true.
Subsequent confirmation of direct evidence of systemic exposure has been confirmed as indisputable, and yet this paper does not want to acknowledge this evidence, nor our work to find it and still trots out lines relating to white phosphorus such as “which the birds are believed to be ingesting”. If anyone can explain to me how p4 appears in a birds system without ingesting this material then please drop me a line. You can’t ask a bird what it ate if this is what they are trying to claim for not printing the evidence. Perhaps they sucked it up through a straw using their arseholes?
THE FORMER “FRIEND” – “THAT OLD CHESTNUT”
In life you get competition. You also get those acquaintances who always live in your shadow and finish behind you in many things. One such individual went on to write for The Express and Star, (after failing his A- levels).
As a student of human behaviour I once tried a little experiment to predict his. Doing some questions to answer, I took mine with me, but in its place next to him left behind a piece of paper with a written message upon it, which he could only have read if he had turned the page to copy my answers.
It was a look of both bemusement and surreal experience that said “I will never better you.”
Some years later I contacted the Star and this aquaintance answered. I told him about the Rattlechain to which he replied “Oh that old chestnut”. It was his little piece of worldy power in that he was now a gatekeeper of my story and could crush it by not reporting it.
THIS IN A NUTSHELL IS THE JOURNALISTIC MINDSET, AND WHY I TURNED MY BACK ON WANTING TO FOLLOW THIS PATH. THE JEALOUS, THE INFERIOR, THE WISDOMLESS WILL THRIVE IN THIS INDUSTRY- AS WILL THOSE WITH FAMILY CONNECTIONS WITHIN IT. AND IT DOESN’T MATTER IF YOU FAIL YOUR A- LEVEL ENGLISH- OH DID I MENTION THAT ALREADY?
Ignorance and want are the hallmarks of much of the media and environmental regulators. Some people DO SOMETHING about things instead of saying nothing and then ending up having to try to justify themselves at every turn banal questions, wheras The Express and Star investigative “journalists” copy and paste press releases from multi- nationals as though they were the entire story.
The lies of a chemical company about what was really contained at this site are no longer able to be contained , like the spin doctors and liars whose job it used to be to do just this at Albright and Wilson’s Trinity Street factory wanted- and they don’t like it up ’em.
But where is the questioning about the surrender of the waste licence permit which this work has really been about, or the long term future of selling off this site to a foundry sand tipper, or even a come back on the line of the tardiness of John Moorhouse of “Rhodia” ;
“We hope the work we have done will result in a safer habitat for wildfowl in future”
– Oh of course they say that now- but what about dozens of dead birds earlier when they knew full well what was behind the issue? The obvious question which the paper does not ask “So are you admitting now that it was unsafe for wildfowl in the past, whereas previously you claimed that it was “a safe haven for wildfowl” and that it only contained “harmless calcium phosphate.”
“Rhodia” want to thank a number of organisations, one of whom The canal and Rivers Trust formerly as British Waterways, acted as co-conspirators to dump toxic waste into this wretched hole. Because it was a cheap option, because it was there.
The Express and Star do not question or challenge business. They question and challenge individuals who question and challenge business. Ultimately this makes one question the owners of this title and what they are really about.
My advice to people who have a story to tell like this one is to do it yourself. Believe in your convictions and do not trust the media to tell it for you. Journalists and editors in particular look down on what they term “the citizen journalist.” That is because they know that the days of print media are nearly done. They bemoan press regulation. The truth about many journalists is they are failed politicians or want to be politicians. And there are many failed politicians who have second careers as journalists. You can’t believe either of them. The future will be in the hands of “the citizen journalist” to bring about real change.
PRESS BARON DOYENS- MANIPULATORS OF PUBLIC OPINION
You can easily take a look at the history behind The Express and Star. It was cofounded by Scottish/American steel magnet Andrew Carnegie. This Liberal had big ideas about reforming the establishment and largely getting rid of it. Noble ideas, with which I agree. Carnegie however also made a habit of producing libraries. But what books were chosen to fill them, and did he have the power to censor the volumes that did not conform to his own set of views or spoke a different form of “truth.”
And then we have The Graham family- who have run MNA media- publishers of many local titles around the country since it began. When it comes to political families and print media families, what we really see behind the spin of “press freedom restrained” and “controlling the press”- as voiced in the ES editorial is the The Graham family sphere of influence from the sidelines to influence public opinion being eroded in favour of politicians sphere of influence to influence public opinion on the rise. “Truth” doesn’t ever come into it. This is a power game. The editors of the paper are the employees of the owners.
One fine example of Editor was Clem Jones- a Wolverhampton Quaker. Editor for ten years between 1960-70, he had joined the paper on the approval of Malcolm Graham. Jones avoided service in The second World War citing “conscientious objection”. Like those Quakers in the Albright and Wilson families – he stayed at home.
Thankfully there were many millions more who made history instead of writing about it and as the pro supporting military tabloid frequently states “lest we forget”.
We wonder however if he questioned the manufacture of his fellow Quakers weapons of mass destruction during WW2? Or what about the post war emissions from the factory at Trinity Street- during the boom years of their business empire? Were the senses of injustice and the quest for truth maintained by asking his journalists to look at this local issue of concern?
His main period of editorship is known for his former friend Enoch Powell’s Rivers of Blood speech.
Jones had been an unofficial adviser to Powell on media relations, and had groomed him on how to approach the media with pre-prepared speeches. The Rivers of blood speech came out of the blue concerning its content to Jones. Jones tasked his journalists with finding out if the individual cited in Powell’s speech really existed. They could not find the Wolverhampton woman- or did they not look that far? Unfortunately for Jones (and it would have been interesting to be a fly on the wall of Malcolm Graham’s study), the local opinion massively backed the message in Powell’s speech and that “he was right”. JUST TO CLARIFY I DO NOT, THOUGH SEE INCREASING RESONANCE IN AT LEAST SOME OF THE PREDICTIONS CONCERNING NUMBERS OF EASTERN EUROPEAN MIGRANTS NOW CAUSING MASSIVE SOCIAL ISSUES .
Jones’s days were numbered, and it is alleged that he recieved “racist” phonecalls concerning the stance he took on Powell being wrong- presumably putting to the fore his own Quaker Liberal views. Just as Jones may have been right to question Powell’s source and intentions, it could also be questioned whether these phonecalls really existed either. Is it not the case that Jones left in the knowledge that he could no longer influence people as editor through his liberal views or change human hostility to those who were not of the same feather?
Blimey all that said, it’s tree planting time at Rattlechain and some Heymans have returned.
say what ?
As has Fergal. It appears that he might have been busy demolishing some old buildings at Trinity Street whilst Napoleon and Bonaparte were busy shifting piles at Rattlechain.
An impressive cradle
A wide selection of tools
Holes were drilled into the mesh to plant the young whips. I wonder if they are horse chestnuts?
But the geese still occupy the moral highground!
Also observed this week were The Rhodia/Solvay crew. You know when they are about when the blue van turns up. I call it the bird hearse- as it usually turned up to pick up the dead from the lake- en route for delayed post mortem at AHVLA Shrewsbury.
“Monitoring” it seems now extends to canal testing as well, and no doubt the eventual reclamation report will propose that the water being discharged from the lagoon is cleaner than the water in the canal- I can see it now, a no brainer- though total crap.
“I’m sure that discharge pipe was around here somewhere.”
The big dipper
Box of samples collected
It’s always good to see a man happy in his work
The Rattlechain pier has been undergoing some connections to allow the discharge back to the canal.
