June 199913th Bradford Festival runs for an extra week! (21 June)
Fascists campaign to support bomber (June 9)
Bradford freemasons to bear all (June 1)
21 June 1999
![[Kobayakawa Suigin Taiko Drummers]](bigday_taiko.jpg)
This years Bradford Festival - unbelievably the 13th - kicks off this weekend with the Lord Mayors Carnival parade and runs on over 3 weeks instead of the usual two. Festival director Rob Walsh told KDIS that it was partly as a result of increased European funding and partly to enable events to be spread out over a longer period of time.
A rich mix of sponsors and funders for this years Festival means that all the major events are free. This is particularly welcome for those events that take place in public spaces - the Mela in Peel Park, the Street Festival in New Market Place, and Cafe Bradford in Centenary Square are just some examples.
Some confusion might arise however over the "Bradford Comedy Festival" which is also taking place in Centenary Square, but is apparently a private promotion by Saltaire-based comedian Mark Rough. Rob Walsh said a few privately promoted events had been added to fill empty spots. But at £6 a head it could detract from the mainly free nature of the Festival.
And there's lots of free entertainment on offer, including:
Bradford Festival runs from June 26th to July 18th.
June 9, 1999
Fascists in Bradford have been distributing stickers supporting London bomb suspect Dave Copeland. The stickers, bearing the label of the neo-fascist terrorist organisation "Combat 18" have been appearing on sites close to the victims of recent fascist attacks. Combat 18 was one of a number of fascist groups which claimed responsibility for the bombings.
Local fascists took up activity under the name of Combat 18 two years ago, targeting a number of organisations and their members for violent attack. One man is currently facing charges as a result. The name "Combat 18" derives from the initials of Adolf Hitler.
David Copeland was arrested in London following 3 nail-bomb attacks in April this year which left 2 dead and a number seriously injured. Police later claimed he acted alone for motives of his own, but photographs published recently show him associated with the British National Party and it's leader John Tyndall.
KDIS traced the stickers to a small terraced house in Parkwood Street, Keighley, from where a tiny group calling itself "18 Commando" operates.
See also Searchlight - anti-fascist magazine.
June 1, 1999
![[Keith Madeley (centre) and the Media Panel]](media_panel.jpg)
Bradford freemasons have invited Yorkshire TV to film the initiation of local man Craig Johnson into a masonic lodge. KDIS understands that Johnson is filmed blindfold, with his trouser leg rolled up, his chest bare and with a noose around his neck. However, the secret handsigns are excluded from the film.
The programme has been set up by the Provincial Grand Lodges "media panel" fronted by Bradford businessman Keith Madeley. Madeley has led a high profile campaign to improve the image of freemasons, following the exposure of masonic corruption by KDIS and others in the past.
Madeley, the chairman of Manor Financial Management, insists "A lot of criticisms are based on allegations not backed up by truth." He claims Bradford Council is guilty of discrimination for insisting top officers and councillors declare their membership of freemasonry.
The registers were introduced in 1986 following KDIS's exposure of the secret membership of a number of top officers and councillors, and of widespread masonic corruption in local councils during the 1960's and '70's.
The film, due to be broadcast on June 22nd at 10.30 pm, also features an open evening at the Baildon Masonic Hall, and a studio discussion between Madeley and critic Martin Short, author of "Inside the Brotherhood".
Update - June 14, 1999:
![[YTV camera crew party to fake]](filmmasons.jpg)
The film of the initiation of a candidate into Freemasonry to be shown on YTV later this month is a fake. A spokesman for YTV confirmed that the documentary would be "rewritten" following the revelation to the Yorkshire Post newspaper by an anonymous freemason.
The candidate, Craig Johnson, was already a freemason, and the meeting was not a regular lodge meeting, but one specially arranged for the filming. The ceremony had also been doctored.
The Freemasons press officer, Keith Madeley, who was party to the deception, furiously denounced the anonymous informer, telling the YP: "You have to treat people who send anonymous letters in this way with the contempt they deserve".
Update - June 22, 1999:
![[Left - Fake, Right - real thing]](initiation.jpg)
YTV broadcast the faked masonic "initiation" ceremony tonight, and it was immediately, if jovially, condemned as such by veteran author Martin Short in the discussion afterwards. The initiation as shown was sanitised - the noose around the neck and the dagger to the chest were left out, as were references to the traditional masonic oaths featuring throats being slit and tongues torn out. The freemasons press man, Keith Madeley, tried unsuccessfully to bluster his way around this point.
YTV presaged the clip, shot at the masonic temple in Spring Bank Place, Bradford, with a reference to it being a "reconstruction" after an anonymous mason had denounced the attempted con to the Yorkshire Post.
See How the Yorkshire Post reported the "sham"
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