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okay I get
welcome to Sputnik orbiting the world
with me George Galloway and me gatri
newspapers are fast going out of
business or into irrelevance though not
until the last editor is strangled with
the last copy of the last Edition will
we truly be free some become websites
some keep talking without anybody
listening just for the prestige and the
invitations to the Palace all are losing
money if the truth be told there are
many reasons for this and not all to do
with the Internet it's true that cutting
down trees on which to print news that
has been updated by RT many times in the
hours since you went to print is very
last century but the problem lies in the
lies they call news in the first place
everybody always knew that newspapers
held a torch for the views of their
Proprietors and that was tolerable as
long as those views were vaguely
tolerable in recent years however as
Proprietors almost all foreign and tax
avoiders to boot grew uglier and their
views more repugnant and as their
hirelings became ever more transparently
slavish less people bought them and
fewer of those who did believe the word
that was written in them just a time
then to open a new newspaper but that's
what happened following a meeting in a
pop in rdale earlier this year Alan
Davis had been a professional
photographer and had never worked in
print media before but he felt the need
to preach the word the new arrival by
that very name has burst on the scene
with a Vengeance and Alan Davis joins us
now Alan welcome to the Sputnik this is
probably the time I should tell you that
I've lost more money publishing
newspapers than anybody in Britain today
I've been the
proprietor well no he he actually uh
makes money but uh newspapers are a
pretty quick way of losing your shirt
what makes you think this word is going
to be any different well firstly we're a
Cooperative um it's not own by any one
person we've set it up in such a way
that it never be owned by any one person
uh everyone has an equal share in it and
we're a very loose Cooperative that's
been brought together by Facebook from
people all over the country who have
similar views about what's going on in
the Press uh it won't make any money but
it won't lose money because all we've
got is the printing costs that we offset
against the sales uh every one who works
and includ themselves
voluntary well uh all of that sounds
great in theory uh my guess is you'll
end up um paying some of the printing
costs yourself unless you've got the
secret to breaking out across the
country and you seem to have done a good
job uh looked at your distribution list
seems to be quite far flung uh whereas I
had thought it was concentrated in the
in the Northwest how have you managed to
obtain that level of coverage well we
started off by crowdfunding um we
started off first of all there's a
meeting in a pub in rochow we met in the
bour pub which is next to the old
pioneers Museum where the Cooperative
movement started so we thought that was
symbolic and there'll be a blue FL
hopefully next to that uh four of us
turned up at the first meeting um wasn't
that popular within certain edel on of
the labor party uh we called out on
Facebook started a group together
against the tourers and just reached out
over Facebook and people came into it
and so we built up several hundred in
that group um put the ideas of what we
were going to do uh we voted on
everything that was possible to vote on
including the name of the newspaper uh
wasn't my idea but I kind of like it now
uh we kept as Democratic as possible and
we got it out there we knew because um
I'd had a news agent years ago I worked
in news agent I knew the distribution
was a cartel between Smith and Menses in
this country and the only way to break
that is just to keep a really big hold
on the distribution people because they
I don't think it's that they're
politically um kind of sinister I think
they're just inept because they are a
cartel they don't answer to anyone so
what we did is eventually we got the
distribution
manager um for this group into a
Facebook group and we said right you
answer questions his name John M said
you answer questions we we we can't do
it while there isn't a paper in a shop
in
one in sundland you tell them yourself
and it seems to be working now because
we keep a very tight rain on it so it is
available across the country but even
then some of the big shops don't take it
for instance um wh Smiths like to charge
you several thousands just for the
pleasure of putting it on their shelves
which is kind of baly when you think
about it um but the only why I I did
this was I thought so where have you
where where do you print the actual
paper it's printed by the mirror group
in what and they have nothing to do with
the distribution um they've not really
any help with the distrib distribution
in this country is always by Smith
Menses even if you go through a middle
person it's always going to be us menes
and you haven't got a choice okay how do
you deal with the point that was
implicitly made by us in the
introduction that newspapers per se
whatever their political stripe are last
century that when you can go on to a
website that is being updated constantly
throughout the day why would you buy
special a weekly newspaper which is
going to be really completely out of
date well several answers to that
firstly you can turn off Facebook or you
can turn off anything of the internet
and we we've seen that you know that's
that's a regular on Facebook and see how
they can switch posts off not allow post
to come through if it's physical and in
your hands it becomes a sort of meeting
point you know people can actually you
you can't edit what's already there once
it's there and it's also there's lots of
other Facebook news groups but this kind
of hopefully will bring it together uh
as some kind of focal point for real the
uh politics of are are clear enough and
there's clearly a market you might call
it a niche I hope it's not too small a
niche uh that Jeremy Corbin has several
hundred thousand uh supporters at the
very least in the labor party in Britain
that ought to translate into a niche
market for you is it it's slow work um
because even when we started the first
crowdfund to do that and by the way with
crowdfunding again now uh crowdfunder UK
um if you want to have a look at it uh
we're trying to up the um number of days
that we can go out but if you look at
Jeremy Corbin's Facebook page likes I
think there something like
600,000 Jeremy coin's actually got the
people there um and you look at some of
the papers even ostensibly the Corbin
supporting mirror had a headline not so
long ago Corbin must go now if that's
the leftwing Press now the Morning Star
great you know we're great terms with a
Morning Star but it's not a tabloid and
what we're trying to do is something
that's uh perhaps for people who haven't
got into politics and hopefully as we go
down the line they might pick it up and
think oh that's an interesting read
that's a bit different and um that's why
we have cartoons EXA it's quite
comprehensive in that sense you've got
cartoons you've got Sports you've got
culture arts
and we're trying to make it so
eventually uh it might sound silly but
there's a lot of people that might
support ukip because they've just read
the constant drip drip drip of the media
and television telling them it's all
about this it's all about that well
perhaps if they read sort of more
balanced they might think oh well done I
saw that on the BBC and that a true
because they've got the figures in here
so that's the idea of it and has I mean
it's not the word of the Lord but it is
the word of Corbin I see with a quick
Leaf through uh has he given you any
encouragement any support um well I've
met and talked to him a couple of times
but I think he's got a lot of other
things on his plate it'd be great if he
could get on board and sort of give us a
mention um we talked to him about it and
he's approved of it but um it'd be nice
if you could put it on his Facebook page
or mention it around any post well it
doesn't seem too much to ask you've got
him on every page of uh of viewers I
mean let me go back to this question of
niche
you can't compete with news you can't
compete even with the Morning Star for
news can you I think we possibly can
because we we start off slowly and
obviously I I've got no clue about
newspapers and we're building that as we
going along by learning by trial and
error but one thing we can do and we're
starting to do now is build up groups of
people who are into certain subjects for
instance there's one of our guys up in
leads in who's building up a Facebook
group for people who are left wing and
are into football so if we can can get
100 200 people who each support a
different team and each write about
their team then we could have it funnier
or more accurate than any sports p and
any mainstream so how large is your pool
of volunteers that contribute we we've
got on the database of people have
written for us so far there's well over
a 100 um volunteers have done things
like proof reading um helped promote the
paper on their Facebook pages there
several thousand that's good well that's
very encouraging but let me go back to
my Niche point you you you need to it
seems to me provide
something that normal news doesn't
provide that has to be analysis it has
to be inside information it has to be uh
a look back historically which in my
opinion there's far too little of we
have done some of that um we've had uh
in Hudson writes for us um in a couple
of columns um Manel Cortez is um written
alongside one of our other authors a
piece uh we've got I think about 20 or
30 lecturers or teachers or Headmasters
are going in there several scientists so
we do like to get a balanced idea and I
think it's these sort of people who who
feel so strongly and so angry that they
want an outlet for their views and they
look in the mainstream media and they
don't see one well what do you think
when you look at the mainstream media I
mean when you look at a news stand I
mean personally I just turn away now I I
buy no newspapers I wouldn't
I I buy yours and I'd buy the Morning
Star but the mainstream newspapers
forget it uh how bad is it out there in
the mainstream press we being angry we
just laugh now we we we think it's there
must be a great Niche and we're thinking
of doing a a page spread each addition
on how bad are the mainstream media and
some of the lies and just put in the
truth of what they said um like I said
we're crowdfunding again on um
crowdfunder as the anti-s sun because
that's what we hope to be we hopefully
be B Ed think the sun aren't you know
tell the truth be real uh look at things
from a balanced point of view I mean for
some subjects for instance the EU
referendum we kind of split 50/50 on
that but we argued it we thought we put
a fairly balanced argument either side
and told the truth not the absolutely
ridiculous things that were being said
in the mainstream media well the wall of
racism and xenophobia that one sees
outside any news agent the mest glance
at it would you're right May make you
laugh uh but they're not laughing and
they're not laughing all the way to the
bank because most of those newspapers
will remain unsold newspapers are fast
going out of business we've got to hope
that the word is the exception to the
rule the very best of luck with it and
thanks for giving me a platform in it
too thanks very much Alan Davis coming
up what is next for the perch The
Expelled the Damned in today's scarcely
functional labor party do miss
it welcome back to Sputnik let me
declare an interest I was expelled by
the labor party over the Iraq War 13
years ago I said then that they would Ru
the day and so they did twice expulsions
have always been a method of control in
labor politics one of those giving
evidence in my support when I was being
expelled was Michael foot who went on to
be the party's leader many of the great
and good in labor history like NY beavan
were expelled at one time or another
Mass expulsions however are something
new but it has become a fine art after
the victory of Jeremy Corbin as labor
leader and the great inner party
struggle this has sparked literally
thousands maybe hundreds of thousands
were suspended mainly and in some cases
expelled by the anti- Corbin labor
national executive committee now many
are being being welcomed back by the
same people who suspended them now that
the Voting is over and Corbin has been
reelected one of those suspended and now
welcomed back is more sincerely welcomed
here today he's Charlie Allen a
columnist on the Morning Star as I once
was myself Charlie welcome to the show
and welcome back to the labor party if I
can say so as a non-member uh what was
it all about what what were the pretexts
at least well I think you have to look
at the purge as a kind of weapon of mass
suspension I wish IID said that they um
basically the labor machine the anti-
Corbin labor
machine suspended thousands of members
we don't know how many yet they refuse
to say at least 3,000 but quite possibly
more basically without any investigation
to deprive us of our vote um in the
leadership election and now on the
flimsiest of reasons and it's true there
were some abusive comments by some
people on on social media most of them
not labor members but thousands of us
were suspended for for the most
flimsiest of reasons like I Ed the
phrase Blair right hooligan and that was
flagged up and used as as one of the
reasons for for me the least you could
say really the player I huligan I
thought was pretty pretty mild it was
the time of the Euro Cup and you know I
was making they were smashing up the
party but no that that didn't get past
the the the party's witch Hunters who um
as I say now that the election's over
thousands of us again without any
investigation have been welcomed back
into the party with a formal warning
that's going to remain on our file and
um our vote has gone and uh Not only was
our vote gone we couldn't go to the
labor party National Conference which
was just after the the the leadership
was out we've been locked out of our
local labor party uh you know uh
democracy because haven't been able to
go to agms and stuff like that so so I
lost my place on my local executive
committee that there's been you know uh
you know huge huge uh ramifications to
this but the party just wants to sweep
it under the under the carpet now
welcome welcome us back give us a
warning let's all move on but there I
can tell you there are thousands of us
um and I've met a lot of them on social
media and we're not prepared to move on
we want to have some kind of justice for
for the purged quite so um the reason
why we speculated perhaps hundreds of
thousands is of course because there
wasn't just one purge there was two so
there were people who were purged by the
artificial shifting of a deadline which
hadn't existed previously then there
were people whose votes simply got lost
in the post in the electronic post then
there were those who were purposefully
suspended like you some like some
friends of mine who were purposefully
expelled for for equally flimsy reasons
and the labor party will not say how
many are involved in all of these uh
categories it must have been done with a
view to influencing the outcome and yet
the outcome for anyone with eyes to see
was scarcely ever in doubt sure right
yeah it it was a like a failed attempt
like the coup itself against Jeremy
Corin ended in Failure but that didn't
stop them trying and it's interesting if
you look at the keyword that they use
because we now know that they basically
trolled through our social media So when
you say they trolled they were
physically they didn't have machine well
they would go into onto Twitter as far
as we understand it type in these key
words which you know include words like
traitor yeah a word in the in the red
flag so we can't essentially even quote
our own song um uh words like rat uh
hooligan blairite huligan they they they
they went through a Twitter which is not
it's not clear that they have the legal
right to do that and anyway there's data
protection laws and in fact there's
there is it clear that the person
involved necessarily sent the tweet in
some cases they were retweets in some
cases there was a mistake in identity my
wife tweets uh in my name I tweet in her
name how do they know who tweeted there
was no investigation of these things
that's the most shocking thing there was
no investigation before we were
suspended and there was no investigation
um uh to to un un suspender so it it
it's so obvious if there was no it's so
transparent but of course they went to
the high court on appeal right and won
the appeal right uh and the basis of
their appeal is that the Court held that
the national executive committee can
change anything that it likes can write
or rewrite any rule that it likes that
that seemed I mean the Court ruling was
quite complicated and quite messy and I
don't know there are several reasons for
that but that seems to be an impression
that they can just make it up as as they
go along and in terms of they wouldn't
let anyone who joined after January
there's like kind of a six-month
retrospective free date which is a kind
of an unheard of thing retrospective it
reminds me a bit of these retrospective
ban words like traitor um you know they
weren't no one was told they were banned
and and and and they weren't actually
banned until months after we we we used
them so it's this whole retrospective
Justice it's a violation of of natural
Justice I will say there's another
category of people who Ed and that that
was the the registered supporters that
the 25ers these are people who paid £25
they had a two-day window to do it um to
to to to sign up which would give them a
vote um and thousands of them tens of
thousands of of them the party took the
money and then said sorry no vote for
you and then it took the money to go to
High Court yeah they used they used the
members money against the members was
was you or couldn't have made this story
up it brings the party into disrepute
let's be honest who is going to join the
labor party now or or what are they
going to be thinking and they think well
I'm I'm going to join but is my social
media going to be trolled through do I
have to watch what I say can I not use
the word tra I mean we can all agree
that hate speech has got no place in the
labor party but then who decides the
line between hate speech and Free Speech
where do they draw the line it's these
the the bureaucrats the Party Machine
and the way that they Define it the way
they drove a line it does look a lot
like they're targeting the Corin Easter
well yeah I mean you you'd have to to to
paraphrase a judge one time you'd have
to be a a blind in a hurry uh not
to see what they're up to right um
Jeremy Corbin himself is effectively
powerless to deal with this because of
the situation on the national executive
committee where depending on uh what the
issue is he he doesn't have a a majority
it's very difficult for him especially
because the part's now on a kind of
election footing the last thing he wants
is to trigger a huge you know into to
exacerbate the internal Civil War he
just wants to make peace move on get the
party machine working properly as it
should do you have to remember that
since he was elected um the Party
Machine hasn't really been working for
the leadership very well remember they
on the day of his first inauguration
they all came to it wearing black back
because it was they thought of it as a
funeral and since then I've heard it
described as a kind of work to R you
know that the the leadership office will
say okay I need we need this press
release done or we need uh this opinion
poll um taken or we need to get some
data and the Machine will go okay sure
we'll get on that and then nothing will
happen and then they ring up what's
what's going oh no no we're just waiting
for there are all these obstacles that
are kind of thrown in in in the leaders
ship well that's why G's opening WS
about scarcely functional uh it is
actually now scarcely functional the
labor party they are for example the the
leader took an exceptionally fine view
on the sale of arms to Saudi Arabia the
use of those arms and slaughtering
civilians in Yemen and there was mass
extension deliberately conspiratorially
contrived with their own
whips to Scupper it and the government
would have lost the vote if the labor
members hadn't abstained uh you say
Labor's on Election footing it's
scarcely believable as a as an electoral
force in these circumstances shocking I
mean if if that doesn't bring the party
into disrepute I don't know I don't know
what it does you had um unnamed labor
MPS been quoted in the Sunday Times a
couple of weeks ago um basically
say to to die I mean they're saying that
I mean I mean in the what whatever world
you know jokes like that are
unacceptable but if it was a joke they
say it was a joke but in this in the you
know since the tragic murder of
assassination of of of Joe Cox we just
can't and these are labor MPS talking to
talking to to National journalists I I
just don't I don't understand I don't
understand why the labor party NEC
General Secretary don't go after those
people they're the ones bringing part
you say you don't understand but I know
that you do we we all understand why not
in a word Charlie because we're out of
time is coup number three going to
happen I think that we're it's all up
it's all up in everything's to play for
at the moment I think that there the
anti Corbin or the Corbin Skeptics let's
call them that within the labor party
are split and most of the the majority
the kind of Center left they just want
to win elections they just want to get
the party back together they want you
know to repair the machine remember the
labor party machine is the the greatest
campaigning machine that's ever been
built probably and unfortunately at the
moment there are bits that aren't
working properly so they need to be
repaired and um for me person maybe
because on my Purge letter it was the
General Secretary Ian McNichols
signature at the bottom and and and
everyone else all our all the other
people who are purged he's the one
responsible for personally purging us
using powers given to him he didn't have
to suspend us without an investigation
that was his choice and I think his
position really is untenable now and for
us to move on as a party I don't think
there should be a Purge of the right or
anything I don't believe in purges but
for us to move on I think the general
secretary should realize that he's lost
the confidence of of his members do a
decent thing and then I think together
as as a party we can move on Charlie
Allen thanks for joining
us and now it's your turn to tell us
what you think through the portals of
social media what's rling gri uh so we
told um the audience that we would have
a a purge member of uh the labor party
uh on the show and in response we cut we
received so many of people who
experiened the same kenot to for example
5 member sarily told that I had tweeted
something bad and barred from voting
silence ever since 25 poorer and I Laina
says many of us now unsuspended after a
huge outcry but with a bogus warning on
our file illegal
unspeakable and intolerable should not
be tolerated yeah and it's a good thing
that they don't leave it lying like that
well that's all the tweet that we have
for today which alas means that's the
end of the show but you can stay in
touch with us on social media on Twitter
at rtor Sputnik or on Facebook Sputnik
on Russia today it's goodbye from me
gatri and from me George Galloway it's
been marvelous
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