Spokesperson: Dr.G.Barnsby 141 Henwood Rd. Wolverhampton, W.Mids WV6 8PJ
Tele & Fax 01902 751888
Web: www.friendsofbilstoncollege.unisonplus.net
Dear Friend,
It is now clear that the same forces that closed Bilston Community College continue prepared to try to airbrush Bilston Community College out of existence for ever. These include the vast and useless quango the Learning & Skills Council when Blair once said that he would never inflict quangos on us. The LSC was asked to wind up the Further Education Funding Council instead of which it embraced most of its faults, particularly not answering the questions they were asked and thought they would escape the Catch 22 consequences.
Then there has been the correspondent of Guardian Education, Peter Kingston, who promised us that he would `reconsider' his position, but found he was so in love with John Harwood's conservative style of work that he has not found room for anything from Bilston.
Next is the secretary of the lecturers' trade union NATFHE , Paul Mackney. His differences date back to the distant past when he was an ultra-left in Birmingham and Wymer, the BCC head, was an an ordinary socialist. Nothing has ever appeared in that union's national newspaper, the Lecturer.
Then there are those who moved into high flying positions such as Sir Geoffrey Hampton who then had the arrogance to think that he could recommend Jane Williams for an honorary degree and so far has got away with it, but we shall challenge it.
Trailing behind is the poor old Express & Star which comes late to the party but insists on boycotting everything written by Bilston Community College and Dr.George Barnsby. One would have thought that a newspaper, used to dealing with legal matters would have more sense than this, but apparently not. But the point is that I would much rather have the local paper on our side and not printing nonsense against travellers and asylum seekers. At least some of the staff on the Express & Star know the the paper is behaving stupidly.
Finally there are those on the ground which control the governors of Wolverhampton University and who have lied, schemed and threatened to protect their position and those at the Wolverhampton City College which was illegally set up and proposed a neo-nazi governor, which was too much even for the Express & Star who objected, and he had to withdraw.
Fortunately there is one honest paper. This is the F.E.Focus in the Times Educational Supplement which will run a further article favourable to BCC in its issue of Friday Friday 23 Jan 04.
Our recent studies have shown that that the closure of BCC was a scam from the beginning and we are now in the process of questioning all those who were said to be in favour of closing the college to see whether they were actually asked, in view of the fact that the most important witness, the chief executive of Wolverhampton, was not asked, but blackmailed by being told that if he did not agree to the closure, all education on the Bilston site would be closed down.