But Craig, what would you have with which to negotiate? All Iran seems to have available to offer is (1) giving up enrichment of uranium to 20% and (2) permitting IAEA access to a small part of one site. Neither of these is worth very much.

These things seem unlikely to be the motive for the immense pressure upon Iran. Presumably, the real objectives of “the West” have to do with markets and hydrocarbons. If Iran lose control of their hydrocarbon production, they’re going to need uranium enrichment to maintain the security of their energy supply.

Just a thought from an ignoramus: Iran appears to have huge stocks of gold; could they be secretly planning something similar to Gaddafi’s African Gold Dinar?

It is true that for nuclear free Middle East no side should have a preponderance which Israel currently has. But for peaceful Middle East it seems that general agreement (between Muslim states) is that state of Israel should seize to exist. Is this also acceptable?

Sorry O/T but important i feel.

702 legal experts savage Kenneth Clarke’s proposals for secret courts,including The Rev Nicholas Mercer-once the Army’s highest legal eagle.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/2013/feb/28/kenneth-clarke-secret-courts-lawyers

Uzbek in the UK, 10:53 am:

“But for peaceful Middle East it seems that general agreement (between Muslim states) is that state of Israel should [cease] to exist. Is this also acceptable?”

The state of Israel has to cease existing in its current form in any case, simply on moral considerations. “Cease to exist” vs. “change beyond recognition”; is there really a difference? Beyond that, it’s just a matter of what the place is called.

And if you were an Iranian negotiator, you wouldn’t believe a single word they gave.

I agree Clark, Israel has already made a 2 state solution impossible, so at some point in the future their Arab/palestinian / Semite Bedouin and refugee polpulations will have to be given citizenship.That’s when the exclusive State which is an invention will become a proper Nation. they can call it what they want and make a new flag. Palestinian flag with a star of david in the top left corner ?? Why not ?
but for now, The Jewish State is exclusive and is twanging the wires of the IAEA,as is shown with the UN rep. hightailing to Tel Aviv after every encounter.
Israel will continue to not negotiate on something they dont admit to having. They want to be the regional bully with no answer to their dictats.The nuclear issue with Iran is a red herring for joe public so’s all options are always on the table.
Wish Craig was a negotiator. It would mean that their was some conviction going to the meetings.

Wise Iranians!

Please edit out that link. No idea how I did that !

“Cease to exist” vs. “change beyond recognition”; is there really a difference?

Well yes, there is. And there are dozens of examples in history and Iran itself is a good one. There have been number of states and even civilizations in Iran (including current one) but Iranian people still have their country, something they call motherland. Nobody expects people to give up that. Changes of government is acceptable as well as changes of ideology but expecting people to give up their motherland is something extraordinary.

While Israel which is surrounded by Muslim states (Arabs and Iran) is expected to give up that (motherland) is should not be expected that Israel will give up its preponderance.

Craig, I think Iran could also do with the help of a public relations firm. Or at least a roving ambassador in the style of Soviet era spokesman, Vladimir Posner.

I wish they would engage you with all negotiations, not just nuclear.

he spectre of WW3 being raised out of fear of a Dollar collapse and world currency competition, they just don’t like it up them and Saddam went for the same reasons, the Gold Dinar.

this from 2012
http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/politics-blue-collar/2012/nov/17/looking-forward-ww3-iran-russia-and-china-vs-usa/

Why are the Israelis objecting to the announcement today of an Argentinian/Iranian commission to investigate the 1994 bombing of a Jewish Centre? Surely this is a positive move to uncover the truth?
Uzbek: Haven’t the Palestinians been forced to accept an ever-decreasing ‘motherland’ because Israel demands a larger ‘motherland’? No one should be fooled by Israeli refusals to negotiate with the Palestinians. All the time there is no agreement Israel seizes Palestinian land. They fill in water wells , they demolish their homes and create IDF training zones…. Indeed any excuse to steal more land.

Jemand

I think that Iran needs more than PR and Vladimir Posner. Posner’s (who accidently is half Jew) propaganda became touchy only when Soviet policy towards the world changed following changes introduced by Gorbachev. Posner became effective speaker only when changes to Soviet’s behaviour came from above.

Also in his autobiography ‘Parting with Illusions’ Posner accepted that his words were lies and that he was speaking not from his heart but from his mind. There were number of other interviews where Posner accepted that he lied and regretted about his past doings.

Andy, 12.15pm

“Why are the Israelis objecting to the announcement today of an Argentinian/Iranian commission to investigate the 1994 bombing of a Jewish Centre?”

Because they know who was really behind it?

Andy

What Israelis are doing to Palestinians is wrong and unacceptable. But in core of the problem is Israel’s relations with the Muslim neighbours and above all with Iran and also relations of the Muslims nations between themselves (Sunnis and Shias). Other side of the problem that there is no single front of Muslim states demanding real terms of negotiations with Israel. What appears to be true is that Muslim states have no interests in helping Palestinians. What is evident from the history of the conflict is that Muslim states use Palestinians and their problems with Israel to get something out of this for themselves.

If Muslim states were to unite (at least in Palestinian question) and put real demands to Israel (not that the state of Israel should cease to exist) that occupied territories must be returned and that Palestinians must be treated equally within Israel and have right to self determination and start real peace negotiation process then it might all work out in time.

Arbed: They could watch the proceedings , wait until they report their findings and then criticise their investigation methods but surely any attempts to uncover the truth should be welcomed.

“Opposition legislator Ricardo Gil Lavedra said co-operating with Iran was a mistake.

“The bombing is being debated with the Iranian government, which ordered it,” he said.”

It seems some people already know the outcome.

DoNNyDarKo – A single state solution is wildly unrealistic, any situation that would allow the return of 5,000,000 displaced Palestinians and effectively hand a voting majority and the helm of the country over to the Muslim population is simply off the table.

While it may be the most moral solution it simply is cloud cuckoo land stuff. The Jews have the power in Israel and they have worked too hard implementing racist immigration policies to ensure a Jewish majority to give it up on a whim.

A two state solution may just be an achievable outcome to improve the lives of Palestinians, talk of a 1 state solution is just a waste of time.

Hi Andy, 12.47pm

What I meant is that there’s a lot of talk around about this particular bombing being a classic false flag op. If certain parties don’t want a full investigation into something where the culprits – on the face of it – are already known, that may well be because those parties already know that the people being blamed for the atrocity are NOT the people who actually were responsible.

“A single state solution is wildly unrealistic, any situation that would allow the return of 5,000,000 displaced Palestinians and effectively hand a voting majority and the helm of the country over to the Muslim population is simply off the table…”

The alternative of a two state solution, whether desirable or not, is no longer viable. The fascists, and I use the term advisedly, who run Israel have ensured that. Like the Germans before them who, lamenting that their people had no space in which to prosper, set out to cleanse Poland and Ukraine of Slavs and Jews, the Israelis, claiming that they have no homeland, are practising genocide on the indigenous Palestinians.
Both took their inspiration from British, and, later, US practises in north America, Australia and elsewhere where it was deliberate, avowed policy to kill off the natives, with any surviving scraps of their races being incorporated into the Anglo-Saxon founded masters.

There can be no compromise with such evil.

@chris

I thought the German army entered Poland to reclaim the Danzig region which had been annexed and had the majority ethnic German speaking populace.

First to spot the word ‘Palestine’ on the map gets a tenner.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-14630174

Strangely the Palestinian flag is bottom right.

The excellent Scot John Hilley writes on Blair and Wark.

http://johnhilley.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/blairs-smooth-talk-warks-lame-talk.html

The excellent Scot John Hilley writes on Blair and Wark.

Blair’s smooth talk, Wark’s lame talk
It’s hard to watch BBC presenter Kirsty Wark’s interview with Tony Blair without feeling both staggered by Blair’s smooth, ongoing deceit and appalled by Wark’s tepid efforts to interrogate his lies.

Blair’s “how many times have we been over this argument” denials, dismissals and evasions should be perfectly familiar to Wark, as they are to the millions who have rejected the claims for invading Iraq and ‘liberal intervention’ in other countries

/..
http://johnhilley.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/blairs-smooth-talk-warks-lame-talk.html

I think Wark is appalling in general and in particular on this Bliar rehab stuff.

In answer to a note saying:

Dear Kirsty Wark,

You clearly believe that Britain invades other countries to export democracy and freedom. Thus, please can you explain why Blair and Cameron et al continue to be friends with brutal dictators such as Saudi Arabia and Bahrain etc?

Isn’t Noam Chomsky correct when he says Britain and the US will support the most brutal regimes as long they remain subservient to Western elites?

Please find the time to reply.

Tony Shenton.

She replies:

Dear Tony Shenton

Thank you for your email. You are entitled to your opinion, but I don’t know how you can presume to know what I think, I was simply framing a question, Yours Kirsty Wark

to which he replied:

As you know, how you frame a debate reveals a lot about your ideological beliefs.

~~~

PS There is another programme on the Iraq war being broadcast by the BBC on Radio 4 on Saturday afternoon entitled The Iraq Dossier.

The Iraq Dossier
Duration: 1 hour
First broadcast:Saturday 02 March 2013 14.30
The dossier “Iraq’s Weapons of Mass Destruction”, lead to the headline “just 45 minutes from attack”, persuaded MPs to vote for an invasion of Iraq, and hardened public opinion against Saddam Hussein. Fall out from accusations by the BBC that the claims had been “sexed up” led to the death of Dr David Kelly and the Hutton Inquiry.

This drama goes behind the scenes of MI6, the Ministry of Defence and Downing Street to dramatise one of the most controversial episodes in British politics.

The author, David Morley, has created the script from the mountain of emails, memos, and first hand testimony submitted to the various inquiries into the 2003 invasion of Iraq, as well as from first-hand interviews with Dr Brian Jones, who died in 2012 and was the MoD’s leading expert on nuclear, biological and chemical weapons, concerned that exaggeration should not creep into the dossier.

Other key players include Richard Dearlove, head of MI6; John Scarlett, Chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee and Tony Blair’s adviser, Alastair Campbell.

Producer: Richard Clemmow
A Perfectly Normal production for BBC Radio 4.

Uzbek 12:42

You mean like the Arab Peace Initiative of 2002 that was endorsed by all the members of the Arab League and the Islamic Conference, and studiously ignored by Israel?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_Peace_Initiative

Sorry about the double entry. Don’t know how that happened but probably because the page froze and I refreshed it.

The Borse is a much bigger threat to the West than nukes. Really, who in their right mind would use a couple of bombs, when annihilation follows the ID of the ‘signature’? No, the threat to the domination of Petrodollar would reveal the true value of our currency, and that would have much more devastating effect. It’s true Israel feels their geography and animus makes them prime candidates for an attack, and even just two bombs might permanently disable. But the rest of Iran’s antagonists fear the money issue, more.

Also, I wait to see if the elections result in the public flaming up to protest the results. I do hope the few who seek a Theocracy will have learned something from the Vatican.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009–2010_Iranian_election_protests

Father Ted

Is not this happen at the same time – Passover massacre?

And also, is it practical to put the initiative on the table which is only supported by part of the one concerned party. Is not Hamas rejected it in the first place?

It apears to me the age old arms control negotiations have become a mechanism for promoting the arms race rather than controlling it and the 2012 NTP review conference was clearly in a state of confusion such that no decision has been made on a commitment for a nuclear free Middle East.

No, it will take a clear mind and the skills of an ‘according to Hoyle’ negotiator such as Craig Murray to enact a ‘sine qua non’ agreement between leaders.

As result of covert nuclear proliferation, new tactical weapons systems, and new strategic doctrines, the danger of nuclear war is increasing.

OT

UK judge who issued extreme ruling for Samsung against Apple hired by… Samsung!

http://www.fosspatents.com/2013/02/uk-judge-who-issued-extreme-ruling-for.html

I don’t care about corporations patent wars but this speaks volumes about the UKs legal profession and “revolving door” corruption.

World War Three – US/Britain versus Iran, China and Russia

‘Bretton Woods, NH, July 22, 1944 — 730 delegates from the 44 allies of World War II signed the Bretton Woods Agreement, simultaneously creating the International Monetary Fund and establishing the U.S. dollar as the world reserve currency.
This system specified that one troy ounce of gold would be worth $35 U.S., and that the U.S. would redeem Federal Reserve notes from foreign governments at that rate, even though the country had been off the gold standard for almost 12 years. Other countries pegged their currency to the dollar, fixing exchange rates for the member states.
The Federal Reserve quickly accumulated massive quantities of gold from all around the world in return for this paper currency, which other nations held in reserve for international exchanges, and which, unlike gold, earned interest in American financial markets.

Washington, August 15, 1971 — Due to extravagant military expenditures during the Vietnam war (in excess of $500 billion), many countries became convinced that the federal reserve bank was printing money in excess of the amount the U.S. could redeem with the physical gold in its possession, which totaled only $30 billion. President Johnson launched his “Great Society” programs, declaring “war” on poverty and adding 4 million new recipients to the welfare rolls, at the same time refusing to raise taxes.

This vast expansion of spending threatened to devalue the currency. In 1970, US government gold coverage of the dollar fell from 55 percent to 22 percent.The US money supply expanded by 10 percent in 1971, leading Germany and Switzerland to withdraw from the Bretton Woods agreement rather than devalue their currencies by propping up the dollar.

Other countries began to return banknotes to the U.S. Treasury, demanding their gold back. After France reclaimed over $190 million worth of gold and Switzerland took $50 million, President Nixon delivered the “Nixon Shock,” unilaterally breaking the Bretton Woods Agreement. Not even the U.S. State Department was warned that this would happen. The dollar was now a floating currency, and the value of that currency began to plummet against other currencies.

Washington, 1973 — Promising military protection of the oil fields in exchange for their cooperation, President Nixon convinced Saudi Arabia to sell oil to foreign nations for only one acceptable currency – the U.S. dollar. This caused a surge in demand for dollars. Other nations now had no choice but to export whatever goods and services the U.S. needed at the time in exchange for currency printed from thin air. This currency then accumulated in the oil-rich nations of OPEC as “petrodollars.”

This was the biggest con job in history. We had only to fire up the presses, and received whatever goods or services we required, as our customers had no choice if they wanted to continue to be able to buy oil. The United States had been the richest country in the world for almost a century and the most powerful for 30 years, and this arrangement seemed to cement the dollar in place at the center of international finance at a time when its value was declining rapidly against the major European currencies.
Standards of living for those directly benefiting from these policies skyrocketed, and they quickly amassed vast fortunes. They rose high in both political and financial power.
And became willing to do anything to keep it that way.

Iraq, 1991 — The Unites States invaded Iraq in the Gulf War in an effort to relieve Kuwait from aggression. The war was over 100 hours after the shooting started, and the Iraqi army was decimated. We destroyed Iraq’s hospitals, water purification facilities, bridges and much more of the infrastructure they needed just to survive.

Throughout the Clinton administration, crippling sanctions created a decade of death in Iraq. Over 1 million civilians died due to starvation, disease and lack of medical care. Five hundred thousand children died in that dark time, which then Secretary of State Madeleine Albright called “worth the price.” Worth the price of what?

Iraq, November, 2000 — After a decade of death, Iraq announced that it would no longer sell its oil for US dollars, but exclusively for Euros. This attack on the dollar was not to be tolerated, as it reduced profits the US enjoyed from being the middleman.

The US government, using the powerful mass media, easily convinced the American citizens that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, and of harboring al-Qaeda.

Iraq, March 20, 2003 — The US invades Iraq. We end up with 5,000 dead US soldiers, 37,000 dead Iraqi military and I million dead adults and children, no weapons of mass destruction, no al-Qaeda. Once control was gained, oil sales were immediately switched back to dollars, despite Iraq having to give up nearly 20 percent profit due to the strength of the Euro. The occupation of Iraq lasted nearly 9 years.

Washington, March 2, 2007 — General Wesley Clark, former Supreme Allied Commander Europe of NATO, said the following in a TV interview, repeating a conversation held with another general on or around September 20, 2001.
“I just got this down from up stairs from the Secretary of Defense’s office today. This is a memo that describes how we are going to take out 7 countries in 5 years.” “Starting with Iraq, then Syria and Lebanon. Then Libya, Somalia and Sudan. Then finishing off Iran.”

Libya, February 2011 — Muammar Gaddafi was organizing a group of North African countries, developing a new, gold-backed currency called the Dinar. The intended use of this currency? To remove dependency on the dollar and the euro, as the countries participating in this plan would accept only gold dinars in exchange for their products and resources.

US and NATO forces launched air strikes in Libya, allowing Gaddafi to be brutally murdered in cold blood, and immediately setting up a central bank, similar to the fed, that of course, would only deal with dollars.

Iran, February 2012 — Iranian central bank governor Mahmoud Bahmani announces that they will begin accepting gold as payment for oil. For quite some time Iran had been actively trying to escape the dollar, leading to prolonged “minor” sanctions for decades. This announcement was immediately followed by massive amounts of media coverage regarding the potential nuclear threat of Iran. This was followed by devastating sanctions, which have the explicit goal of crippling Iran’s economy.

A country that had not attacked another country since 1798 suddenly became the greatest threat to the national security to the United States, according to Governor Mitt Romney in the recent presidential debate on foreign policy.

I believe that President Obama meant every word he said during the 2008 presidential campaign. He spoke of hope and change, government transparency, reducing the debt, and he probably meant every single word. He was a young, idealistic senator, with very little experience outside of a classroom.

I believe that he found out who was truly in charge when he took office.
And the people who tell our president what to do will not allow the almighty dollar to fall. If even one country is allowed to stop accepting only dollars for oil, the dollar will cease to be the world’s reserve currency and will fail, utterly. So how many lives is it worth? China, Russia and Syria are staunch allies of Iran, and will not stand idly by as their primary source of oil is sacked.

We must accept our medicine for the decades of excess that the ultra wealthy have been given. They of course will be just fine, but you and I … we will pay with everything we own, including many of our lives.’ – Washington Times Community.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=HP7L8bw5QF4

Thank-you for watching.

Speaking of the Vatican….who are these people cheering and lamenting the Chef Pedophile’s departure?

I would like to be a fly on the wall when he approaches St Peter’s Gate.

Chef Pedophile? Freudian slip? Meant ‘Chief’.

can someone please try and sign on to Reuters or this link to der Spiegel my puter keeps timing out before it gets there, has been like this all day long, no problems with FB or the BBC or the local rags.

thanks in advance
https://www.google.co.uk/search?client=ubuntu&channel=fs&q=der+spiegel&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&gl=uk&redir_esc=&ei=RogvUcuVEKiR0QXCoYHoBg&sei=RogvUZbGHNKV0QWL8oCYBA&gbv=2

Mark @ 4:37

Even that bullion they have stocked should be tested for fraud. It’s probably gold-plated lead.

Nevermind No problem here with either. Was there something particular you wanted? If so I could try to copy it here.

Finally after trying all day, it took 3 minutes to load, something is not right with the local broadband net me thinks.

O?T kissy mouth is coming to Berlin, finally after receiving multiple invitations, he timed it right, just as with UBL’s assassination, this one will happen on the 50th. anniversary of ‘Ich bin ein Berliner’ ‘I am a doughnut’ JFK speech.

But it also looks like the proposal for the EU sucking up to the ACTA trade negotiations are highly flawed as activists all over Europe are gearing up to oppose this trade act from hell.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/plan-for-trans-atlantic-trade-agreement-could-founder-on-eu-concerns-a-885596.html

Mark Golding
Thanks for that summary. What was that trash CE saying about you a few days ago?

CE:
‘Mark Golding’s posts remain a refined and impressive mix of misguided rant, illogical conspiracy, straw-men, hypocrisy, and out and out irrational idiocy.

However, what truly sets them apart from others of their ilk, is the consistent ability and willingness to (mis)use ‘children of conflict’(TM), to lend credence to somewhat stale arguments and make cheap political points on a blog.’

Guano:
Sir, I salute you and your indefatigable honesty.

Thanks Mark G – that was a great little summary.

Der Spiegel there are on the side of Monsanto, Cargill and the rest of the powerful GM brigade.

‘The technology is now used by most US farmers, enabling them to grow plants that are resistant to insects and produce higher yields per hectare.’

http://dissidentvoice.org/2011/08/monsanto-gm-corn-in-peril-beetle-develops-bt-resistance/

http://dissidentvoice.org/2009/03/do-gm-crops-increase-yield-the-answer-is-no/True or false?

s/be

Do GM Crops Increase Yield? The Answer is No
by Devinder Sharma / March 25th, 2009
http://dissidentvoice.org/2009/03/do-gm-crops-increase-yield-the-answer-is-no/

Exciting stuff coming out of Bradley Manning’s pre-trial hearing today, where he has been allowed to read his 35-page statement to accompany his guilty plea to 10 lesser charges (out of the full 22).

Incoming – MAJOR fail by the MSM…

Bradley has said on the stand that he tried to blow the whistle to the Washington Post and the New York Times FIRST and when that didn’t work, he went to Wikileaks.

@Edpilkington

WOW! #BradleyManning reveals tried to give US secrets to Wash Post and NYTimes but failed to get through to them so went to #WikiLeaks

https://twitter.com/Edpilkington/status/307177117383274496

Doesn’t this kinda blow a rather large hole in the US government’s argument that Bradley Manning deliberately passed information to a “foreign power” in order to aid the enemy?

Second incoming:

Manning on stand: “no one at (the) WikiLeaks organization pressured me to send any information”, “I made these decisions on my own”

https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/307176565870047232

… And there goes their attempt at getting their hands on Assange with conspiracy to commit espionage charges.

Oh, but here’s my favourite…

Christopher Soghoian
@csoghoian

Lesson from Manning trial: Best way to get the NYT & WaPo to publish stories sourced through leaked documents is to give them to Wikileaks.

https://twitter.com/csoghoian/status/307182775507755009

More:

Andrew Panda Blake
@apblake

#Manning: I read virtually every cable that involved Iraq

https://twitter.com/apblake/status/307184134726496256

Saturday 27th April protest: Ground the Drones
Stop Britain being a launchpad for killerdrones

Assemble: 12 noon at Lincoln station
March to rally at 2pm
at RAF Waddington – the UK’s new
Centre of Drone Operations

This spring, the UK will double its number of armed Reaper drones in Afghanistan and will for the first time begin operating drones over Afghanistan from a new facility at RAF Waddington near Lincoln.

Over the past four years, the US has launched hundreds of drone strikes in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and Libya, with reliable reports showing thousands of people have been killed, including hundreds of children. In Afghanistan where the US and UK have launched over 1,500 drone strikes, it is simply not known how many people have perished in these strikes. In Gaza too, many Palestinians have been killed by Israeli drone strikes.

Drones have become the latest weapon of choice in the so-called war on terror. Drones make it much easier for politicians to launch military intervention and assassinate suspects anywhere in the world. Drones are making the world a much more dangerous place.

Join us in calling on the government to abandon the use of drones as weapons of war.

Called by CND, Drone Campaign Network, Stop the War Coalition, War on Want.

For more information please call 020 7561 9311 or email office at stopwar.org.uk

Hear, Hear! for Gary Corseri’s comments on Argo and things in general from a historical context.

Argo Apostasy… History as Myth (again!)… and the Need to Occupy the Media!
by Gary Corseri / February 28th, 2013
http://dissidentvoice.org/2013/02/argo-apostasy-history-as-myth-again-and-the-need-to-occupy-the-media/

Ground the Drones – Darling Greenham Common peace campaigner ‘you tell ‘em Helen’ is on the case at RAF Waddington, bless her…

http://directactionstation.com/?p=5004

For 30 years Helen John(70 something years) has worked “fearlessly and relentlessly” to undermine the British and US military. I remember Helen camped permanently outside RAF Greenham Common entrance, a protest culminating in around 30,000 brave women joining hands around the base.

She has broken into and damaged top-security establishments, stood against Tony Blair for parliament, and been assaulted by policemen; she has regularly been arrested and imprisoned”. In 2005, she was nominated for a Nobel Peace prize.

‘Hell hath no fury’ – Hat tip girls!

I have just watched George Galloway on ‘Comment’ on Press TV live broadcast: One of his best I think. William Hague (yes he himself) phoned in and was put in his place by George.
I don’t know when tonight’s programme will be available as a recording but watch-out for it.

Mark Golding at 4.37 p.m, what a brilliant analysis, succinct and factual. I watched the video too which re-enforced the message. We are slaves to the dollar. The banks do pull the strings in the White House. We should all get involved in the people movement that deprives greedy bankers of unearned and unimaginable bonuses, on the backs of the ordinary taxpayer, the ordinary taxpayer who has no option but to foot the bill when the Royal Bank of Scotland is about to go to the wall. I am putting the video link in again for the benefit of those who missed it earlier.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=HP7L8bw5QF4

Bluster from Boris – “This is possibly the most deluded measure to come from Europe since Diocletian tried to fix the price of groceries across the Roman Empire,” claimed Mr Johnson, adding that the decision was likely to further strain the relationship between the UK and Brussels.’

and some fudging from Cameron

“We are absolutely clear that we must be able to implement the Vickers plan in the UK, which in some ways is tougher than regulations that are being put in place in other European countries. We want to have this proper ring-fence between retail banks and investment banks and the rules must allow that to happen.”

as they attempt to oppose the EU plan to restrict the bankers’ bonuses. So, like their view that higher rate income tax will drive the talented away from the UK, they say that this EU plan, if voted through, will send all the banks running. Really?

~~~

I also read today that we the taxpayers, are picking up a £2m bill to fill a hole in the MPs gold plated pension scheme.

Sorry it’s the Mail. Saw it in a caff, honest.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2285393/MPs-holiday-paying-gold-plated-pensions-leaving-taxpayer-pick-2million-bill.html

~~~

Also saw this. The poor infant will never be the same again.
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/02/27/article-2285586-18543B5B000005DC-626_634x428.jpg
Cherie was electioneering in Eastleigh and called into the Southampton General Hospital for some photo ops.

“as they attempt to oppose the EU plan to restrict the bankers’ bonuses. So, like their view that higher rate income tax will drive the talented away from the UK, they say that this EU plan, if voted through, will send all the banks running. Really?”

That has to be one huge point in it’s favour. Anything that can get the bankers to leave Britain for foreign climes can only be a good thing. We could spend all that money they get on something useful instead or at least something not so detrimental. The sooner the parasites get out and leech off somebody else the better as far as I’m concerned.

Mark Golding, 28 Feb, 4:37 pm, that’s an excellent article you quoted. In case anyone wants to link to it or read other articles by Mike Shortridge, here’s the URL:

http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/politics-blue-collar/2012/nov/17/looking-forward-ww3-iran-russia-and-china-vs-usa/

Fred Nobody believes that the banks will leave, least of all Cameron and co. It’s another scare story from the 1% when they tell us how many jobs would be lost plus £billions in tax. Salaries will be raised to compensate. We will pay as usual in the form of bank charges and even more ridiculously low savings rates.

I stupidly wasted an hour and watched QT. Dire and very boring. Hamilton has decamped to UKIP. Eagle and the Tory woman squabbled about nothing and Browne came across as thick from the neck up. The only bright light was good old Ken Loach whose every word the audience applauded. It came across that people are totally disenchanted with politicians and the political system as it exists and, over and over, said that there was no choice.

Mary: I don’t know why you bother with QT – we could argue either side at least as well as most of the stooges in the sham they call a debate. Hosted by an establishment toady who’s done astonishingly – nay, insultingly well – all these decades, by putting forward a pretence that we’re moving along some sensible middle-line by looking at all sides fairly.

But what it does show is being a “populist” (such as not wanting to bomb other people with whom we have no quarrel, not squandering an obscene proportion of national treasure on nuclear weapons, not wishing to further coddle the upper 0.1% etc.) is an extreme position. That position will never get any attention from the Serious parties, and none of these Serious parties would entertain positions that gain support from a substantial majority of the population.

No, you’re just “colourful”, “fringe” or “extremist”, and above all, not a Serious politician if you agreed with an informed majority.

Mark @ 4 ; 47. Brilliant Post. it would seem there are several reasons for Gaddafi’s Horrendous murder, they ( we ) murdered his little grandchildren first.

But Gaddafi certainly spoke more of peace than the west

i watched several videos at the time hell was being made of Libya, here’s one of him at the UN, 23rd December 2009. ” They hanged Saddam, we could be next ” shit hits the fan about 6 mins in

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZZvPlGCt_8

The pitiful, infantile debate about zionistan, and its ensured survival, that is the steady diet of the bogus, bought and paid for “Media” has been successfully masking the horrendous reality of the runaway dollar printing presses in the US. The humongous numbers of wandering dollars, has resulted in the maintenance of its artificially high value through tensions caused by wars, and or threats of wars across the planet.

The resultant uncertainty along with hoarding of the commodities have steadily maintained high prices, resulting in absorption of the printed dollars. Hence the recycling of petrodollar has given way to maintained blood dollars. Without the blood letting and the wars, the US economy would have collapsed for certain.

However regardless of the blood-letting and theft of other nations resources, the end of US empire is nigh, given the bilateral agreements for trade in local currencies, or goods in kind (barter) are springing all over the place, included are the trade agreements between Russia and China. The world has been growing weary of the aggressive conduct of US in maintaining its hegemony through wars and mass murder. Therefore it is a matter of time before US faces the same kind of collapse as the ex Soviet Union did.

Meanwhile, whilst US is in the process of collapsing, Iran and other developing nations are at the receiving end of the unwelcome attentions of the uncle Sam and its bullying and threats that are the order of the day. The so called Iranian nuclear program is only a means for the US to keep maintaining the state of emergency and tensions, if it were not this nuclear issue then there would have been another issue found, the fact is any excuse to bully and keep up the recycling of the blood dollars is the only reason for the current lack of reason and logic in the international relations.

November @ 6 ; 37..exelent post…my son is an argyle…seen action in afghan…told me stories about it in cluding tales of Rosz kemp shiting himself..

i hate how brainwashed he is

Glenn_UK Normally I do not but as Ken Loach was on and as the by-election result was pending I did. I agree with what you say.

There is a strange contradiction in the result and the make up of that QT audience who clapped loudly for Ken Loach’s rational humanism yet the electorate stuck to the main parties.

The nitwit factor was strong in the electorate. They managed to give the Dr standing for the National Health Action party a few hundred of their votes. Wait until they go cap in hand themselves, or with a sick relative, needing treatment or a service and find that the service does not exist.

For example, here in Surrey, where Virgin Care took over all NHS community health services two years ago, it has just been announced that the breast screening service for new referrals (ie those that should be treated with the utmost urgency) is no longer available and other locations will have to be sought.

Potential patients turned away from cancer centre
http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/s/2129087_potential_patients_turned_away_from_cancer_centre_

NHS privatisation … what’s the deal?

It’s hotly contested. The government flatly denies that it is happening, but its critics say that privatisation is the central theme of the current NHS changes. Using evidence and data from across the NHS we are examining the claims.

We begin by looking at how companies are getting a more hands-on role. Take a look at our privatisation list to see how this has changed.

We should state upfront that we believe privatisation of the NHS is increasing. Whatever your view, we hope that you will find the evidence on this site revealing and useful.

It is crucial that the public have an accurate picture of how their NHS is changing, how it might change their healthcare and a genuine chance to influence its future.

http://www.nhsforsale.info/

PS Anyway glad the UKIP woman did not win. It was put out that ‘she works in healthcare’. What a good woman! That actually means she is a director of a management consultancy and of a £multi million venture capital outfit involved in funding health companies!! She is also a scaremongering racist.

What Iran really needs to losen sanctions is a nuclear bomb.
What happened in Iraq proves any other course of action simply does not work.

PS Anyway glad the UKIP woman did not win. It was put out that ‘she works in healthcare’. What a good woman! That actually means she is a director of a management consultancy and of a £multi million venture capital outfit involved in funding health companies!! She is also a scaremongering racist.

Mary is it ok if i use/ forawrd this info….i don’t want to upset my girls..But they should Know this..and thank you

Arbed, thanks for keeping us updated on the Manning tweets as they come in. Like you say yesterday was not a good day for MSM or the US government. It just shows what everybody knows. I never even try the mainstream media with anything ground-breaking any more. The way editors have presented such a biased view of the Assange case shows their hands are tied. ‘Publish and be damned’ used to be the catchphrase. Today it’s more like ‘Suppress and keep your job’.

‘Kerry indicated, however, that these public acts to assist the anti-regime militias were merely the tip of the iceberg. “We’re doing this, but other countries are doing other things,” Kerry explained.

While not going into detail, the meaning was clear to anyone following the civil war in Syria. In recent months, more advanced weaponry has poured across the country’s borders, paid for by Washington’s key Arab allies, the monarchical dictatorships in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates and covertly organized by the CIA.’
[..]
Demands for such action are becoming increasingly shrill in the media and sections of the ruling establishment. The Washington Post, for example, published an editorial Thursday demanding that Washington “move decisively to break Syria’s bloody stalemate” or risk losing “what may be a last chance to partner with the more moderate forces challenging Mr. Assad and to steer the country toward a new regime that the West could support.”’
[..]

Washington escalates Syrian bloodbath
1 March 2013
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/03/01/pers-m01.html

“A 17-year-old boy from Leicestershire has been charged with offences under the Terrorism Act.”

“He faces four terror-related offences including possessing an article and a document likely to be useful in an act of terrorism.”

“Two other teenagers arrested on Monday under the Terrorism Act have been bailed while inquiries continue.”

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-21626493

It will be interesting to find out what the terror related offences are especially the “document…”

Brian. The info is all in the public domain.

By racist, I mean she has endlessly scaremongered on hordes of Eastern Europeans arriving from Bulgaria and Romania and committing crimes.
eg http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2013/feb/12/ukip-candidate-immigration-romanian-crime

Her financial interests.

‘Works in heathcare’ means that she is a director of this £multi million venture capital outfit,

Proven Health Vct Plc is an Active business incorporated in England & Wales on 20th December 2000. Their business activity is recorded as Activities Of Venture And Development Capital Companies. Proven Health Vct Plc is run by 4 current members. and 1 company secretary. It has no share capital. It is not part of a group. The latest Annual Accounts submitted to Companies House for the year up to 31/01/2012 reported ‘cash at bank’ of £1,772,000, ‘liabilities’ worth £133,000, ‘net worth’ of £8,485,000 ‘assets’ worth £3,667,000.

http://companycheck.co.uk/company/04131354#summary-tab
http://company-director-check.co.uk/director/915838123

She is also a director of a management consultancy Iduna Ventures Ltd
http://companycheck.co.uk/company/05079988#people-tab

doug scorgie

It was his chemistry A Level book.

They thought it could be useful to terrorists, because it was Hardback. A terrorist can easily use such a book to hit Nick Clegg over the head.

Crikey! Her fellow director at Iduna Ventures Ltd, Dr John R Forrest CBE, is Pro Chancellor at Surrey University.

I have never seen such a long and sensely packed biog. Open ‘Read full biography’

Just a fraction of it….

Dr. John R. Forrest, CBE, FREng serves as an Independent Advisor of Mentum S.A. Dr. Forrest serves as Pro-Chancellor of the University of Surrey. He started his professional career at Stanford University in California. He worked in the famous Microwave Laboratory at Stanford for three years. Dr. Forrest founded and was Editor-in-Chief of the Academy’s publication ‘Ingenia’ from 1998 to 2004. He served in the academic world until 1984. Dr. Forrest served as an Engineering Director of Arqiva, Ltd. He joined Marconi Defence Systems in 1984 and served as its Technical Director, Vice President of Technology and Director of Engineering from 1986 to 1991. He served as Senior Vice President of the Royal Academy of Engineering. He served as Chief Executive Officer of Virgin Media Communications Limited. Since 1990, Dr. Forrest led the privatisation to create the communications company National Transcommunications Limited (NTL),where he served as Chief Executive from 1991 to 1994. He serves as the Executive Chairman of CDS Ltd. Dr. Forrest serves as Executive Chairman of Cellular Design Services Ltd. He has been Chairman of Narec Capital since November 2011. He serves as the Chairman of the UK Government Spectrum Management Advisory Group……..

http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/person.asp?personId=9105472&privcapId=942357&previousCapId=50176777&previousTitle=3Roam%20SA

According to 192.com he and Diane M James share the same address.
Diane M James
Age Guide: 46-50
Surrey Full Address
John R Forrest

~~~

Seeing references to Surrey and to the University, have we heard another word on the deaths of Mr Al Hilli and family from Surrey Police, the French Police, anyone else? No. Just something about an aunt seeking legal adoption of the surviving child.

Mr Hurley who was based outside the Al Hilli house speaking to Sky News is now the Surrey Police Commissioner. He appointed as his deputy one of his old mukkas from the Met.

Am ex-Surrey police inspector has been arrested on 58 charges of fraud. No connection I hasten to add!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-surrey-21593275

The smart Iranian move is to put the bomb on the slow burner and get the sanctions lifted. They have no real need for it… it can wait.

The example to follow would be North Korea. They got free money off the Americans and the bomb. Ignoring NK’s appalling human rights, the US propped the regime up with aid. Then NK made a total monkey of the US policy of appeasement.

A world of many nuclear powers will be the result of the existing nuclear cartel, including the UK, not fulfilling their obligations under the NPT – to disarm.

It isn’t Iran that’s in breach of the NPT – they’re allowed to enrich. Its the UK, US, France, China, Russia. Its also Germany which is breaking the NPT by supplying Israel with submarines for it’s nuclear triad.

Mary thanks for the..Scot John Hilley link….awesome

One of these convictions has just been quashed in the Appeal Court.

Two Guildford men sentenced for illegal Iran exports.
A businessman and his employee have been given suspended jail sentences for illegally trying to export parts to Iran which could be used for weapons.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-16149258

Businessman’s Iran exports conviction quashed
http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/s/2129877_businessmans_iran_exports_conviction_quashed

je reexamine what the americans did to North, and south Korea.

BrianFujisan – you’re comment is too vague to be any use. What? when? I’m needing a clue here to understand what you’re getting at… you must know but…

@doug scorgie 1 Mar, 2013 – 9:23 am

It will be interesting to find out what the terror related offences are especially the “document…”

I bet the document is the “Al-Qaead Training Manual”. It’s a rehash of the “Anarchist’s Cookbook” of olden days, re-released by the spooks to entrap the unwary.
Here’s a link to the ‘safe’ version:
http://www.fas.org/irp/world/para/manualpart1.html

Kerry is in Turkey today meeting Erdogan. Erdogan is in trouble with the Zionists.

Erdogan: Zionism ‘Crime against Humanity’ (Video)
“Erdogan the Intelligent” calls Israel and Islamophobia crimes against humanity. The same wise man was a friend of Israel, ditched it, ran to Ahmadinejad and Assad, and dumped them also. Who’s next?
http://www.jewishpress.com/news/erdogan-zionism-crime-against-humanity-video/2013/02/28/

The BBC presenter Ben Brown {the one with the drawl and who verbally attacked the disabled protester who was thrown out of his wheelchair by the Met} has just been speaking to James Reynolds in Turkey discussing Kerry’s visit. He is getting impatitient for some action! ‘How much longer do we have to wait for action to be taken?’ he asked Reynolds who had waffled a reply about Patriot missiles being installed on the Syrian border.

The BBC is revolting.

I spotted this on Jewish Press. ‘Syria smells oil’. And of course no mention of the Israelis detecting the same smell or of the fact that the Golan Heights are illegally occupied.

http://www.jewishpress.com/news/breaking-news/syria-smells-oil-protests-israels-golan-heights-exploration/2013/02/28/

Why is the supposed threat from Iran always about “a [i.e. singular] nuclear weapon”? Is it deliberate propaganda, or just a meme that has propagated? Even Netanyahu’s famous speech involved him posing with this singular, cartoon bomb. Is the implication that this one fabled “bomb” is all it would take to “wipe Israel off the map”?

Even the biggest bomb ever made, an H-bomb, not a mere A-bomb, couldn’t destroy the whole of Israel. When the UK simulated nuclear attack in Operation Square Leg in 1980, the scenario was of 131 H-bombs, each on average nearly 100 times as destructive as a first generation A-bomb.

There is a huge difference between enriching uranium and an ongoing programme of nuclear weapon production. A serious nuclear strike capability requires hundreds of warheads. Diversion of sufficient nuclear material would be impossible to hide from IAEA inspections.

Israel might make a “no first use” promise but why expect them to honor it? They don’t exactly have a good record of honoring agreements such as the camp David accords. The demand would also implicitly acknowledge Israel’s right to have nuclear weapons. Nevertheless. Israel might reject such a demand because their real goal is probably regime change.

Clark. Very true.

Medialens are discussing the yellowcake diversion thrown into the Iraq war plotting and carried by the media at the time and also Blunkett’s tanks at Heathrow in February 2003. It follows Prescott’s admission on the Andrew Neil programme that the Iraq war could not be justified as an intervention.

http://members5.boardhost.com/medialens/thread/1362131915.html

He got his peerage though and we all remember his office activities with Tracey.

Revolting man.

I have been looking at a few more links about John Forrest, the fellow director of Iduna Ventures with the UKIP candidate at Eastleigh and who shares an address with her.

He has relinquished most of his directorships but still retains six including Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. He must have known or known of Mr Al Hilli.

https://www.duedil.com/company/01916260/surrey-satellite-technology-limited/people

Why all this scaremongering about Eastern Europeans. The other day I was checking out the reduced stall in the supermarket and the Eastern European lady in front of me saw me and blocked the entire spread with her voluminous rear and full skirt. Is this new weapon part of a NATO Eastern Europe defensive shield? I was well scared!.

I missed this in 2011:

“BBC World Service to sign funding deal with US state department”

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/mar/20/bbc-world-service-us-funding

———-

I just read it at Land Destroyer
February 26, 2013

US State Department-Funded BBC World Service “Jammed” in China

http://landdestroyer.blogspot.ie/2013/02/us-state-department-funded-bbc-world.html

“Headlines across the Western corporate-media read, “BBC says ‘extensive, coordinated efforts’ to jam world service frequencies in China” (Fox News), “BBC blocked in China just days after reporting on Chinese hackers” (Washington Post), and “BBC “strongly condemns” China’s attempts to jam World Service broadcasts” (Radio Times), before weaving a lofty narrative of a “repressive regime” trying to gag freedom of the press.

“In reality, BBC’s World Service is directly funded by the US State Department and is insidious propaganda admittedly designed to politically subvert not only China, but Iran, Russia, and many other nations perceived by Wall Street and London as intolerable competition.” (continues)

re Romanians and Bulgarians coming to the UK next year :

The fears of those who point to the risk of an influx of Romanians (and to a lesser extent Bulgarians) into the UK as from next year should not be so lightly dismissed. Does anyone seriously believe the reassuring estimates put out by various people with a certain interest, let us say, minimising the risk? A Romanian minister (or it might have been the Amassador to the UK) came out with the figure of 10.000 not very long ago. Romania has a population of almost 30 million (and Bulgaria another 10 million or so)and is probably the most poverty-stricken country in the EU; now compare and contrast the 10.000 estimate with the half a million or so Poles who came after 2004 (popilation of Poland about 39 million).

You will see tens of thousands coming. Thanks to porous borders, there are already tens of thousands of Romanians (mostly Roms, it must be said) in continental western Europe.

(And no, I am not in the pay of Migration Watch)

“In reality, BBC’s World Service is directly funded by the US State Department and is insidious propaganda admittedly designed to politically subvert not only China, but Iran…”

So how am I supposed to get propagandised in future so I know what not to believe about western foreign policy? Oh, through Craig Murray’s blog trolls. That’s ok. I’ll still know what’s not happening in the world.

Habbabkuk, you’ve got me worried now. These Romanians and Bulgarians; are “they” especially dangerous? Is life not so beautiful with “them” around? I only want people who’ve “got” Italian around me, and no one poverty-stricken. You’re right, that sounds very risky.

Zeblam on Medialens has transposed a comment by Ken Loach last night.

Ken Loach on Question Time

Posted by zemblan on March 1, 2013, 6:59 pm

KEN LOACH: The Westminster tittle-tattle we are listening to is what puts people off politics. I think there are a lot of people in this country who share the same thoughts. They hate the break up of the national health service, they hate the privatisations and the outsourcing, and the labour agencies and the low wages. They hate the mass unemployment, they hate the casual destruction of the environment that we see. I think we need a broad movement on the Left…and it’s now time that it came together.

DAVID DIMBLEBY: And how would you get that? Because every time the party moves to the Left it has historically lost votes?

KEN LOACH: I think there are a number of things that should happen. I think the unions should stop paying money to a party that is going to kick it in the teeth, because the Labour party is a market economy party – it won’t look after the interests of working people. So I think the Labour party should cut off that tap and we should start again: like we started a century ago, and form a new Labour party.

There was a trade union candidate [running in Eastleigh]. But they get no presentation. Every time I turned on the BBC or ITV to see the election discussed, you never heard that point of view. So there has got to be a determination that the Left has it voice, because it is excluded at the moment.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01r1twc/Question_Time_28_02_2013/

“And radical left wing film maker Ken Loach”.

Posted by Ed on March 1, 2013, 7:14 pm, in reply to “Ken Loach on Question Time”

Dimbleby introducing the panel: “And radical left wing film maker Ken Loach”.

No similar intro for the rest of them though. No mention of “ultra right wing disgraced politician Neil Hamilton” or “ultra right wing politician Claire Perry”.
Sickening BBC.

I watched it because Loach was on. He did well and got good reaction from the audience I thought. But he was a bit of a lone voice crying in the wilderness, just him against the 4 other right wingers and the Bullingdon Club chairman.

Yes Mary – Ken was the only reason we watched it too. That he managed to keep his hands off the throat of that Tory woman when she described him as a “national treasure” is testimony to his long-suffering good nature; and I didn’t like the way the Labour woman smirked either; at one time she would have been singing from the same hymn sheet – not trying to put people like him down.
And re Prescott in the following programme – how he had the temerity to hold forth on the Rennard business is beyond belief, in the light of his own shenanigans.
What is it with folk when they get a bit of power – do they suffer from some sort of memory loss?

Just looked back and realised my comment is a long way from the original title of the thread – but on reflection it’s all of a piece – attempted distortion of some facts, suppression of others and a blare (forgive the pun) of general BS.

Clark, don’t be so silly, and don’t use various silly tricks like making it sound as if I’d said they were dangerous and putting inverted commas around the words they and them. You know perfectly well that there is already pressure enough on employment and on social infrastructure in the UK without adding another 100.000 or 2000.000 or however many to the resident population.

Are you one of those people who would like a compltely open borders policy?

Anyway, don’t take my word for it. Wait and see how many come and then we can rediscuss.

“Habbabkuk, you’ve got me worried now. These Romanians and Bulgarians; are “they” especially dangerous?”

It’s all those donkeys and carts on the M25 that’s going to be a problem.

Yes Rose. What a man. 77 now and still heads above the moral pygmies he was placed with. Note how they stuck him on the end of the row next to that gruesome twerp Jeremy Browne, a member of a quisling party that allowed the extreme right into government.

We have not seen the real effect of the Coalition domestic ‘policies’ yet but perhaps the scales might yet fall from the eyes of Lib/Con/Dem voters in Eastleigh and elsewhere. What has Browne ever done to advance the cause of humanity?

You get an idea of Ken Loach’s amazing catalogue of work here. He must have exceptional vigour and imagination. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Loach

Note how the powers-that-be have tried to shut his work down on many occasions for political reasons.

Here he says:

“It makes you angry, not on your own behalf, but on behalf of the people whose voices weren’t allowed to be heard. When you had trade unions, ordinary people, rank and file, never been on television, never been interviewed, and they’re not allowed to be heard, that’s scandalous. And you see it over and over again. I mean, we heard very little from the kids in the riots. You hear some people being inarticulate in a hood, but very few people were actually allowed to speak”. In the same interview his focus on working people’s lives is explained thus: “I think the underlying factors regarding the riots are plain for anyone with eyes to see … It seems to me any economic structure that could give young people a future has been destroyed. Traditionally young people would be drawn into the world of work, and into groups of adults who would send the boys for a lefthanded screwdriver, or a pot of elbow grease, and so they’d be sent up in that way, but they would also learn about responsibilities, and learn a trade, and be defined by their skills. Well, they destroyed that. Thatcher destroyed that. She consciously destroyed the workforces in places like the railways, for example, and the mines, and the steelworks … so that transition from adolescence to adulthood was destroyed, consciously, and knowingly.” He argues that working people’s struggles are inherently dramatic: “They live life very vividly, and the stakes are very high if you don’t have a lot of money to cushion your life. Also, because they’re the front line of what we came to call the class war. Either through being workers without work, or through being exploited where they were working. And I guess for a political reason, because we felt, and I still think, that if there is to be change, it will come from below. It won’t come from people who have a lot to lose, it will come from people who will have everything to gain.”

from: Ken Loach: ‘the ruling class are cracking the whip’
The leftwing film director talks about the riots, his early work on television and the documentary he made for Save the Children 40 years ago that is about to be screened for the first time
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/aug/28/ken-loach-class-riots-interview?INTCMP=SRCH

~~~

Rose There are a few more comments following Zemblan’s earlier comment on Medialens.
http://members5.boardhost.com/medialens/thread/1362164395.html

doug scorgie 28 Feb, 2013 – 8:10 pm

I have just watched George Galloway on ‘Comment’ on Press TV live broadcast: One of his best I think. William Hague (yes he himself) phoned in and was put in his place by George.
I don’t know when tonight’s programme will be available as a recording but watch-out for it.

Its now available here:
http://www.presstv.ir/Program/291394.html
George is always good value for money, but to be honest I was a bit disappointed with his exchange with “William from Yorkshire”. He barely let him speak. I can’t work out either what Hague hoped to gain by phoning in, or why Galloway didn’t put the boot in.

Habby, hang on a minute, not so fast. Clark was right to point out what he did to you–absolutely right.

You were beginning ti sound a little xenophobic there. And you call them “Roms”? You come across European to me given the way you write your numbers and the way you write time as 00h15 etc.

Are you superior to these potential migrants? On what basis? Have i misunderstood something, at the risk of coming late into the thread?

Hmm, you’re having trouble projecting the “Habbabkuk” character, aren’t you? That’s because it’s a construct, not from your heart. I think that you should just give it up and be yourself again, but you’ve had “Habbabkuk” be so horrible that you probably don’t want it to become associated with your original screen-name. You seem to be painting yourself into a corner.

Hi Je @ 1st march 11 ; 55

the us genocide in korea ( north ) has been kept so secretive.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/video-the-us-rather-than-north-korea-is-a-threat-to-global-security/19357

And that’s why “Habbabkuk” ended up being parasitic; you’ve been trying to express your opinions, but simultaneously hide them lest they identify you. Eventually “Habbabkuk” was reduced to critiquing other people’s contributions. “Oh what a tangled web…” etc.

I’m sorry that this has happened and I hope that a resolution can be found.

Clark,

Absolutely spot on.

The trouble with trolls is that,the law of diminishing returns applies to their construct.

The lack of truth in their chosen disguise invariably backfires-as it must.

In this case the trolls mission fails because they end up looking like nasty idiots.All straw men ultimately suffer from their-initially necessary-but ultimately revealing lack of truth,sustainability and integrity.

We’ve seen it here time and again.

These last few months i sense there are 3 or 4 obvious trolls working in tandem plus one or two others that loiter whilst pretending to be objective/neutral.

Its a testament to Craig’s blog,the genuine posters and what i sense are many thousands who read but dont post that the trolls ultimately fail and undo themselves and their mission.

To most reading this blog its clear who the shams and nasty fools are.

In this way the trolls fail,sui-generis,inevitably.

Truth has a certain unassailable longevity and marque.

@ Villager :

I think you misunderstand, so just a couple of points.

I merely point out that the number of Romanians and Bulgarians who will come to the UK is likely to be far in excess of the numbers projected (as was the case post-2004) and that this could cause problems. For a start, it will be grist to the mill of Mr Farage and consorts (the real xenophobes)in their anti-EU hysteria and they will make hay with it.

The word “Roms” (also “Sinti”)is not an abbreviation for “Romanians” but the word used these days for what used to be called “gypsies” and I can assure you that I’m using it in a descriptive and not a pejorative sense. The fact is that there are heavy concentrations of Rom in Slovakia, Hungary and especially Romania; and that in reality the governments of those countries do their best to make life as miserable as possible for the Roms – inter alia probably with the hope that as many as possible of them will leave for other countries. The great majority of Romanians presently in certain continental European countries are Roms – to point this out is not to say that I feel myself “superior”, it’s just saying a fact.

Having said that, under current arrangements, free movement is one of the four pillars pf the European construction so there’s nothing much the UK can do about it. I just point out that we’re likely to have a few surprises in a year or so. Of course, any problems which might arise (eg of a social nature) are not likely to affect our policy makers .

I was looking at Claire Loud (yes that it is her middle name!)Perry’s Twitter. She is the new Mensch. Rather too much emphasis on immigration lest she doesn’t keep up with UKIP.

eg She retweeted this
ConservativeHome‏@ConHome 1 Mar

Net immigration falls by a third. Theresa May is delivering. http://bit.ly/Wvjhp6
Retweeted by Claire Perry

and this

Tim Montgomerie‏@TimMontgomerie Feb 28

Sir Andrew Green of @migrationwatch congratulates Coalition on progress on immigration control http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/2013/02/falling-net-migration-a-clear-policy-success/ …
~~~

More of a retweeter than a tweeter although we do have some insights of her private life – minieggs binge on her way to QT, lunch with the Bish of Salisbury on another day and a go on a teddy zip wire at Corfe Castle with her brood. What tripe.

https://twitter.com/claire4devizes
~~~
I stayed out of the previous exchange for obvious reasons but, if I had entered in, I would have said in the style of the old saying when such things mattered, ‘Excuse me Madam, but your slip is showing’, substituting ‘racial prejudice’ for ‘slip’ but that would only have heaped yet more of the insults upon my head!

sorry to disappoint, but no racial prejudice involved! (But thanks for the (expected) insult and innuendo)

I was not wrong. She has an admirer.

‘Indeed Mensch, who calls Perry a “kindred spirit”, believes Perry’s relatively late entry to the party should be “embraced” as a refreshing change. “I like that she is prepared to say ‘sod it’ … She speaks her mind and everybody likes it about her.”‘

http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2012/may/27/claire-perry-new-iron-lady

Perry was a double rowing Oxford Blue, a banker with Credit Suisse and also worked for McKinsey. Her husband is a fund manager. She worked for Gideon after she joined the party. She has a house in Salisbury which is an old rectory and worth £2.5m, three kids at boarding school and the Labrador. So representative of the BIG SOCIETY, not, and far away from Ken Loach’s depictions of life in this country for five or six decades.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/claire-perry-i-am-not-a-celebrity-it-is-not-the-jungle-8449405.html

Excruciating stuff.

PS I have just realised that some wag must have substitued Loud for Louise on her Wikipedia page! I thought Loud was one of those strange u class family names.

She is ceaseless. Today in the Torygraph. She is obviously ‘of the moment’.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/9904122/Intrusive-parenting-damages-childrens-lives-says-Claire-Perry-David-Camerons-adviser-on-childhood.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claire_Perry

Sounds like just another career Stepford-if that makes sense Mary.

‘Orrible.

Mary, thank you again for pointing out for me the things i ‘need to know’. This time about Claire Loud Berry–God she made me cringe in her performance at QT. What a climber. And her record at McKinsey only underscores her mediocrity (obviously didn’t make it to an equity partner). Which was in itself all too obvious in the presence of Ken Loach whose intelligence (a much falsely used word) is of the true variety in line with this blog’s genuine host.
—
Habby i’m having a think about the genuineness of your last comment. Slow start with a somewhat groggy head from an unnecessary late night sans alcohol. But thank you for responding and i shall do the same later.

Clark, 1 Mar 6:57pm

Regarding Habbabkuk’s comment, it’s unfair to ridicule people’s concerns about unregulated migration given the history of problems that arise when large numbers of people migrate unexpectedly without forward planning. Has the UK got policies in place to accomodate the needs of the many new arrivals that some are predicting? 

Indonesia and China have their own problems with internal migration and the EU is discovering its own. One day, the UK will need to address these issues before the next BIG depression that will certainly result in major civil unrest. And for those of you who support Britain’s continued membership of the EU, you’d better hope that this migration surge does not result in a 
popular backlash and decision to leave the Union when the referendum comes around in 2017.

The following links explain many of the issues :

Up-front cost of new migrants to Oz est. $500,000 -
http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/39930.html

Problems with population growth -
http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/44896.html

Britain unprepared for surge in migrants - 
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/immigration/9637967/Britain-facing-new-eastern-Europe-immigration-surge.html

Overpopulation poses threat to Britain -
http://english.ruvr.ru/2011/06/30/52606880.html

Problems with govt sponsored internal migration in Indonesia -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transmigration_program

Problems with internal migration in China -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Migration_in_China

Contributor behind “Habbabkuk”: your essential problem is that you didn’t really value “Habbabkuk” in the first place. Regarding it as a puppet, you thought that you could just pull its strings and have it do whatever. So to see if you could draw out a bit of racism, you had “Habbabkuk” use some possibly racist language. Then you’d have sent your hapless character in to do the demolition job. Of course, it would be easier if you could use multiple screen-names, but there’s a rule against that and without multiple IP addresses you’d risk exposure. That does indicate that you’re not part of a team, with access to multiple connections.

But you overlooked something. Nearly everyone here is just a name on the screen; in that sense “Habbabkuk” is just as “real” as most others, and thus invites the same level of scrutiny as any genuine contributor. Ironically, other contributors have been taking “Habbabkuk” more seriously than you do yourself.

Maybe you should write to Suhayl Saadi and ask him for some advice about how to develop characters in fictional writing. I think that he’ll tell you that you have to respect your character’s integrity, let it develop as a real person would, even if that means it ends up saying things that you wouldn’t. But, of course, you never intended “Habbabkuk” to have autonomy. You sent “Habbabkuk” in as your agent, to try to influence the debate in a direction the “real you” would approve of. But there is only one “real you”, not two, so “Habbabkuk” has inevitably fallen between two stools.

White’s Chappaquidick Theorem (A. Bloch, 1990, page 98):

“The sooner and in more detail you announce the bad news, the better.”

I’ve really fucked up here at times. There are things I look back on with excruciating embarrassment, especially when I’ve just smoked my first bit of weed after a while without. But hell, “Better to have loved and lost…” etc.

Jemand,

Not exactly unbiased or reliable sources some of those.

In fact one of articles seemed to be promoting a eugenics argument in sync with the need for more spending on weapons of mass destruction.

re Claire Perry (various posts, above):

the several comments on this person (whom I’d never heard of before, by the way) seem rather indicative of the mindset of a few commenters, led as always by Saint Mary, she of the generous spirit and the conscience of this blog, in that they concentrate less of attacking the woman’s ideas than on attacking her ad feminam (I assume, of course, that the comments are not meant favorably).

Let’s look at a couple of them (in the order they were made).

* she lunches with the Bishop of Salisbury : so what? Why shouldn’t she?

* she went to some event with her “brood” : leaving aside the loaded word, so she’s a mother who goes and does things with her children – good for her. Would you prefer that her nanny – if she has one – should go out with the children?

* she went to the country’s leading university and, while she was there, also distinguished herself in a sporting activity. I should have thought that would indicate a certain mental and physical ability, not things to be deplores, surely? Do you think that people should boycott Oxford and not practice sport(s)?

* she worked as a banker and then at McKinsey – entry to both of which is highly competitive. A rather impressive performance which should attract, if at all, admoraation rather than censure. Unless of course you believe that bankers and consultants shouldn’t be allowed to exist.

* she has a husband who presumably earns a good salary, a nice house in the country, three children (any problem with that, by the way? I believe we’re always bemoaning the ageing population?) and a nice dog. I’m sure a lot of woment would like to be in the same position, so perhaps she is rather “representative” of people as a whole in that regard (see below)

* she is not representaative of “Big Society” – is it the belief of the writer that the representatives of society as a whole must be Mr or Mrs Exactly Average and that anyone who deviates from this Average should be ineligible to represent society in any way (eg as an MP)?

* her record at McKinsey – she didn’t make it to equity partner – apparently underscores her mediocrity. Generally speaking, I should say that that comment implies the writer wants to have it both ways : would Villager have abstained from citicism of she HAD become a partner? I doubt it and suspect that that wxould also have become a reason to damn her. Specifically : how long soes it take, on average, for someone to become an equity partner at McKinsey – and do you know how long she was with them? I suspect not or at least not when you made your comment.

You’ll notice that I’m not commenting on her performance on QT. If your criticisms had focussed on that, fair enough. But what really seeems to irk you is that someone has – whether by ability or luck or a mixtyre of the two – has made what many people would consider to be a success of life.

There’s far too much of that sort of thing on this blog, and I’m afraid to say that Mary is one of the main culprits. A pity for the blog, in my opinion.

PS – possibly an ignoble thought, but if life had turned out differently for our host, and if he had one day got into the news or assumed, on retiring, a couple of directorships in companies Mary disapproves of, who knows if Mary wouldn’t one day have been spitting out her venom against Sir Craig Murray, a former priviedged and unscrupulous mandarin of the FCO and ….well, you know… a bit too fond of the bottle and women…? Just a thought!

@sorry to disappoint, but no racial prejudice involved! (But thanks for the (expected) insult and innuendo)

It was not an insult as I was stating the obvious. As for the innuendo, maybe I should have said ‘Excuse me SIR, but your racial prejudice is showing’.

I care not who you are, whether you are M or F, where you come from etc. Most of us here know or can deduce the basics about others and what makes them tick.

Off out now to do some gardening and clean out the hens. OK?

Jives

OK. Deregulate everything – your labour market, banking, prisons, security, transport, migration, healthcare. Then flush, stand back and watch your country go down the toilet.

Enjoy!

@ Jemand :

Thank you for that. I should point out to all that my “concerns” are not at all of a personal nature, because my personal circumstances are such that I’ll not be affected in any way when the likely surge arrives and beds down.

@ Clark : I’m flattered that you should have given so much thought to who or what the real Habbabkuk is, but would reespectfully point out that your post reveals a little of the conspiracy theory mentality that underlies so many comments on this blog. Habbabkuk is Habbabkuk – why embroider further? Just answer any points I make – if you are able and can be bothered (if not, OK with me as well).

*******

La vita è bella, life is good! (it was time to say it again)

Fascinating that some posters label Craig-who raised the vital issue of ” a global market for torture”-and suffered greatly for these most humane of principles as unscrupulous!

Speaks volumes.

“Habbabkuk is Habbabkuk”

Except when he/she gets caught-as has happened- by the mods using different identities!

LOL.

@ Jives (12h43) : you just don’t get it, do you? Are you really so stupid? Read the post again – carefully – I was saying that that is the sort of thing The Viper-Tongue would have written about Craig had his career developed differently.

PS – do you share Mary’s opinions about Claire Perry as revealed through her comment?

Mary’s post at 12h32 is typical of her style (and of her contribution to this blog).

I said, in reply to an earlier post of hers, “Sorry to disaapoint, but no racial prejudice involved! (But thanks for the (expected) insult and innuendo”

Of course Mary then, instead of defending her original slur, eg by saying “yes, I do actually think you are actually a racist for this and this reason…”, ie, instead of replying on the substance, chooses to reply on whether or not what she posted was an insult or innuendo. In other words , there is always a focus on the subdidiary (and ultimately unimportant) question and never an attempt to discuss the real issue. As was pointed out on another thread, this is in essence cowardice.

This demonstrates

Habbabkuk, I think you’re on the verge of losing the plot. If you haven’t already, pull yourself together. Your intellectual firepower which you love to self-aggrandise is nothing but a fizzle-stick. Your obsession with Mary is past beyond getting the better of you. Life IS beautiful, we need no re-minding and so is Mary contributing to its Beauty by pointing out loads of blemishes. You’re stuch in a groove, stunted. Shame you’re struggling to find your path to enlightenment. Perhaps the clues lie in Clark’s observations of your other stunts–you’re not being true to yourself, leave alone deceiving others.

Re: “her record at McKinsey – she didn’t make it to equity partner – apparently underscores her mediocrity. Generally speaking, I should say that that comment implies the writer wants to have it both ways : would Villager have abstained from citicism of she HAD become a partner? I doubt it and suspect that that wxould also have become a reason to damn her. Specifically : how long soes it take, on average, for someone to become an equity partner at McKinsey – and do you know how long she was with them? I suspect not or at least not when you made your comment.”

A. I know exactly how long the path to Partner/Director at McKinseys is (do your own research)

B. with the lure of money she would not have left them if she was going to cut the mustard, and

C. Familiarise yourself with Rajat Gupta ex-CEO of Mckinsey who has been convicted and is due a jail term for insider trading.

More on your race/immigration leaning remarks later. I’m keeping my powder dry and pondering deeper issues.

Youre really out of your depth here Habbabkuk arent you?

Guess you’ll have to change identities for a few posts now eh?

Why cant you just be honest and not hide behind fake names and deceitful posts?

Cheat.

LOL.

I see that self-combustion is imminent above!

I wrote that reply about two hours ago and when I came indoors found that the screen had frozen with the comment still not sent. In refreshing the machine, the comment was apparently sent. It predates the garbage that followed.

Anyway all that aside, I see that the subject of racial prejudice has been neatly side stepped by yet another parsing of what I say about a very pushy Tory woman who has got herself close up to the seat of power, if that phrase can be used in the same context of Cameron, Osborne and now Hammond’s PPS.

Back to racial prejudice, let’s ask the Inquisitor General what he/she thinks of the Zionist treatment of black Ethiopian Jews who have come to live in Israel.

Ethiopian women in Israel ‘given contraceptive without consent’
Israel’s health ministry is investigating claims that Ethiopian immigrants have unwittingly had Depo-Provera jabs for years
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/feb/28/ethiopian-women-given-contraceptives-israel

PS I see Perry has another piece in the Press today. It must be the effect of that sugar rush from the mini eggs binge she had on Thursday.

British children ‘babied’ by intrusive parents, says MP
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21641004

s/be British people patronized by pushy Tory MP.

This is Mr Perry. They obviously fell for each other at Credit Suisse!

http://uk.linkedin.com/pub/clayton-perry/10/710/b40

http://www.avocacapital.ie/index.php/our-team/specific/clayton-perry

He deals with the Collateralised Loan Obligations (CLOs). Lovely.

London and Dublin. http://www.avocacapital.ie/

“More on your race/immigration leaning remarks later. I’m keeping my powder dry and pondering deeper issues.”

I’m ready to debate you on this topic. You. Your friends. You AND your friends. I’ve been ready for more than twenty years to knock the wind out of the sails of any bunch of socialist dandies who wants to grandstand and parade on this very, Very, VERY IMPORTANT SUBJECT. Put your X-bombs and R-bombs aside, cliched pejoratives won’t save you from your inevitable humiliation, and debate the real issues WITH ME.

Do ordinary, unsophisticated people have any voice in the discussion about immigration? No. All you pompous lower-middleclass wankers have hijacked the debate for your own pseudo-intellectual gratification. ‘Apparently’, ordinary folk are too stupid to understand the highly nuanced issues of immigration, economics, public infrastructure and social harmony. It wouldn’t occur to any of you clever DICKS that the bottom 50% are justifiably anxious about economic and cultural security – a fundamental RIGHT of ALL PEOPLE, including my black brothers in Australia. They’re anxious about their future wellbeing and some of them think, AUDACIOUSLY, that it is their duty to lay the foundations of a safe, prosperous and secure future for their children and grandchildren. How PATHETICALLY old-fashioned that must seem to you all.

That was just a taste of things to come. What say you, Villager, you devilishly clever, British intellectual giant. Are you ready to take on an impertinently haughty colonial????

Furthermore Mr/Mrs/Miss Habbabkuk do not link my name to your indirect smearing of Craig with sly references to alcohol consumption.

I have never met him but have heard him speak. I have the highest regard for him and am full of admiration for his courage and bravery for standing up and speaking out against injustice. I think Nadira and his family are lucky to have him for a husband and father.

Now give us a break and clear off, there’s a good person.

@Mary (15h48)

You don’t get it either, do you (or you pretend not to). Let(s say it clearly one last time.

You, Mary, specialise in posting what you consider are damning bits of “evidence” against anyone you’ve take a dislike to. So, for example, since you obviously have something against Claire Perry (for reasons unexplained), matters like what her husband’s job is, or that she went to Oxford, or that she has three children (a “brood” in your charming expression), or that she once worked for McKinsey, are all balck marks against her as far as you’re concerned.

If, now, Craig had retired from his job as Sir Craig Murray and it then came to your notice that, for instance, he said or wrote something of which you’d disapprove, or was revealed as a director of a couple of companies of which you’d disapprove (eg ; a private health company bidding for NHS work), I’m certain you would immediately, in your post, contrive to bring to your readers attention in your usual sly little way that Craig had left his wife for a younger woman or that he had been accused of being too fond of the bottle. This is your way, isn’t it.

Re-read your post about Claire Perry and reflect.

@ Mary :

I do not know anything about how black Eithiopian Jews are being treated in Israel. If, however, it were the case that they are suffering discrimination of any sort because of their skin colour, then I would deplore it.

@ Villager :

“B. because of the lure of money she {ie Claire Perry} would not have left them if she was going to cut the mustard”

That is a foolish comment on several levels.

1. You are making an assumption about someone you know little if anything about.

2. You’re one of the commenters who has an occasional rant at bankers and management consultants. So you should be happy that she left them because that makes it one banker/management consultant fewer.

3. Furthermore, if she left because she didn’t cut the mustard, then that would show, would it not, that she is not evil enough to be a banker/management consultant.

I realise that you probably posted that flawed comment in your haste to rush to the defence of Mary, but you should really try and keep to a minimum standard of cogency and logic.

@ Mary :

“This is Mr Perry”

Here’s Mrs Claire Perry slyly damned through her husband.

You probably know that during the Stalinist terror of the 1930s, if one spouse was executed on whatever the trumped up charge was, it was common praactice to send the other spouse into exile (or even imprisonment) and the children were put into state orphanages. This was a varianht of visiting the sins of the father onto the child.

Sound familiar, Mary?

Even the Nazis didn’t as a rule go in for that. Which, in a certain sense – and toutes proportions gardées – makes you, morally speaking, worse than a Nazi, doesn’t it.

Israel 1984

Habbabkuk, Israel public health authorities have been reported by Israeli press as surreptitiously administering contraception to black jews. The truth or otherwise, I don’t know, as information and misinformation are so often delivered together, intertwined, like two snakes in loving embrace. I find it plausible and I think the authorities have the burden of proving that the reports are false. If the reports are proven to be true, the government will need to feign ignorance and blame it on a rogue official. What other possibility is there?

Contributor behind “Habbabkuk”, it is you that isn’t “getting it”. The corporate media constantly glorify these people such as Perry. They are presented as “natural leaders”. The corporate media indoctrinate their readers to believe that society should be controlled by the rich, that it is right and proper that the majority of the influential should pass through a tiny minority of privileged schools and, mainly, just one university. It is incestuous.

So Mary has a go at these people; so what? It provides a much needed balance to the near deification constantly projected by the corporate media. Mary provides a fine service by revealing the links between these people, showing that our “representatives” are a tightly-bound clique, a tiny minority utterly unrepresentative of the vast majority of people.

Want to see snide comments and put-downs from the corporate media? There’s plenty of it, but it’s directed at the weak, the poor and the powerless; the single mums, “benefit scroungers”, people addicted to corporately promoted junk food, people who steal due to poverty or to try to look like they’re living up to the corporately promoted lifestyle.

By your constant attacks you give the impression of supporting that which Mary opposes. You write that “life is good”; it becomes easy to believe that your life is indeed good, and that you don’t care what happens to anyone else so long as your life stays that way.

Good lord Habby how do you live with yourself?

I see you are such a confused/fragmented being. Which may be driving your constant demand for clarity from others, where really you need to be sorting out your inner world. Its affecting your ability to comprehend.

She’s a climber. A failed consultant and a failed banker–a mediocre mind with the gift of the gab that has become your politician. EXCEPT seated next to the slightly-built immensely wise Ken Loach, her gab’s use, it turns out, is best for blow jobs.
Quote from the Independent:

“On paper, it’s easy to see why some of Perry’s constituents find her hard to take. She talks a lot about fighting poverty, yet she’s an ex-banker who sends three kids to boarding school. She campaigns for wholesome values, such as blocking online porn, but is happy to turn the air blue herself. Like the time she walked into the House of Commons tearoom after a debate, and said: “What do I have to do to speak, give the Speaker a blow job?”

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/claire-perry-i-am-not-a-celebrity-it-is-not-the-jungle-8449405.html

Further:
On February 28th 2013 Perry ‘trended’ for some time on Twitter – due to the hostile reaction to her strident and clumsily expressed views when a guest on BBC Question Time

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claire_Perry
—
She’s all yours, you can have her–she’s not my type, and while I have tangoed with a banker or two, I now prefer women who are deeper than their throats.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkQpVgOcGVY

Where the Perrys live there is a summer gathering. Last year they had Gove along and Paxman.

This year in June they have these treats in store. Among many others, a Spitfire in a vintage air show, Boris, Lumley, Pantsdown, Stourton, Hislop and Sebag Montfiore on Jerusalem. The only one missing seems to be Kirstie Allsop.

http://www.cvhf.org.uk/speakers

http://www.cvhf.org.uk/festival-programme

On the first day Laurence Rees will be speaking on…
•Event 3 – The Dark Charisma of Adolf Hitler: Leading Millions Into the Abyss

Can’t see anything about the Mandate of Palestine or Al Naqba The Occupation though.

Much looking back to the glory days of Empire with bits of history thrown in. Penelope Marland is one of the trustees of the charity. Wife of Lord Jonathan who resigned as a government minister at the same time as Strathclyde. Still a trade envoy for Cameron. A one time party treasurer too.

The Trustees are Peter Bell, Tom Holland, Penny Marland and Stephen Whitmore.

CHALKE VALLEY HISTORY FESTIVAL MANAGEMENT

James Heneage, Joint Festival Chair and Managing Director.
Founder of Ottakar’s chain of Bookshops, sold to Waterstones in 2006. Former Chairman of Cheltenham Literature Festival. Now a writer of historical fiction.

James Holland, Joint Festival Chair and Programme Director.
Best-selling author of historical fiction and non-fiction, broadcaster and presenter.

Peter Bell, Treasurer.
Managing Director, UK M&A, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and trustee of SWAN Advocacy Network, a mental health charity.

Jane Pleydell-Bouverie, Development Director.
Former television producer & Governor of the Royal Ballet, currently Governor of Live Music Now and Trustee of Rambert School of Ballet & Contemporary Dance.

Rachel Holland, Operations Director.
Long experience in Executive Search with specialisation in the education sector.

The Chalke Valley History Festival has a Steering Committee comprising the above plus Pam Clover, Hannah Bell, Abigail Ashton-Johnson, Penny Marland, George Ashe and Katie Whitmore, all of whom perform various management services for the Festival.

I am so glad I do not live in Broadchalke. There are so many establishment cliques in Salisbury, even within the Cathedral. One of my relations lives there and cannot wait to get out.

Clark, at 17h35, says that “Mary provides a fine service” (with her numerous posts).

I wonder if you would include, for instance, her latest post (18h41) in that description? I suppose you would, so let’s take a look at it and discover “fineness”.

She starts off by telling us that there will be a “summer gathering” where the Perrys live (nb – not in the grounds of their home, just in the “place” (?village) where they live) and tells us the names of some of the guests.

She then appears to complain that nobody will be speaking on Palestine.

Next, we learn the names of a few of the trustees of the festival. These names will mean nothing to 99,99% of readers (and indeed, why should they).

And now Mary rounds off with a list of the Festival management. We learn that most of the people in question have daytime jobs which an observer might agree have some relevance (greater in some cases, lesser in others) to the organisation of a festival of that kind.

So the conclusion has to be that this post teaches us nothing, it says nothing of relevance to anything (challenge to Mary : what point are you trying to make? ) and it will be forgotten – even by the Eminences of this blog – as soon as Mary comes up with her next scoop. On short, it is dross.

A fine service, indeed.

@ Villager :

You are excelling yourself today, with one lot of silliness following rapidly on its predecessor.

Let’s disregard the pocket psychology with which you start off (a pale imitation of Clark’s nonsense – please do try to be original for once!) and go to the substance.

She’s a “failed banker and failed consultant and has a mediocre mind”. Why should I take your word for that without further explanation? What is your status in matters of success or failure for that matter? And as far as the mediocre mind is concerned, I don’t get the impression from your posts and responses to the posts of others that you’re the sharpest knife in the drawer. So why should I accept your judgement?

The “immensely wise Ken Loach” – it is the sign of a mediocre mind to ascribe great wisdom to anyone whose opinions you happen to share. But perhaps I’m being unfair to you and so offer you the opportunity to substantiate your claim. Be as long as you like with objective examples of his immense wisdom.

It is apparently easy to see why “some of her constituents find her hard to take”. Yes, that’s the funny thing about elected MPs, you’ll usually find that every one of them has some people who find him:her hard to take and others who find him/her to be the bees knees. Anyway, the outcome of the next General Election will tell us which group is in the majority.

About her “sins”: I know you’re just quoting the Independent – but I imagine with approval? – but these two (yes, just two) arguments for why she is hard to take are rather light, aren’t they? Many socialists politicians – going back well beyond the Blair years, thank you very much have called for equality but sent their children to private schools. And yo are surely not seriously equating the dissemination of pornography with cracking one off-colour “joke”?

And finally : she trended on Twitter. As do thousands of others. Why do you single her out? And what is your problrm with that?

So you see, dear Villager, that your post is, like the last one of Mary’s – dross. It will take greater intellectual firepower than that to convonce people you have a serious case. Beta double minus/gamma for you today, I’m afraid.

Contributor behind “Habbabkuk”, I am more interested in what people contribute than the various bits and pieces that may not prove useful. Hopefully you remember that I’ve given you credit when you’ve contributed something of value. In a mesh of powerful or influential individuals, who knows what may prove to be important? Mary seems to do well, and often comes up with links that help to illuminate structures that are not advertised. If this trawling process also produces some links that go nowhere, so be it.

You, on the other hand, rarely contribute anything original at all. I object to your constant criticism of other contributors, which could be seen as an attempt to intimidate them into silence.

Habbabkuku:

“So you see, dear Villager, that your post is, like the last one of Mary’s – dross. It will take greater intellectual firepower than that to convonce people you have a serious case.”

Habitual Babbler,

You are not ‘people’, you are just a jackass. Don’t flatter yourself that i feel compelled to convince a dolt like you of anything.

I’m well aware of the limit of my genius, possibly even calibrated to below average here, but I’m equally, and now acutely, aware of the infinity of your stupidity. Lets ask actual people if they see any ‘intellectual firepower’ coming from your selfsame fancied direction?

HENCE READY
TO PRESS THE
IGNORE BUTTON
ARRIVEDERCI

Seven lines from Villager and not a single counter to any of my comments.

I was too generous – you’re a straight gamma.

@ Clark

“who knows what may prove to be important?”

Otherwise known as the scatter-gun approach. The occasional gold nugget in a sea of bilge?

All for today.

“Logic will get you from A to Z; imagination will get you everywhere.”
― Albert Einstein

Hearing Villager quoting from Einstein is to recognise the truth of the saying “throwing pearls before swine”.

BTW – some substantive answers, please? Take your time, get it right!

Ms Doucet, usually carrying the messages of and sometimes for war, thinks that there is some hope for a good outcome of the talks.

Nuclear talks: New approach for Iran at Almaty
Saeed Jalili said the talks had been “more realistic” than in the past

Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili hailed the talks as a possible “turning point,” while a senior US official just labelled them “useful”.5

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-21619461

@ Mary

“Iran’s chief negotiator Saeed Jalili hailed the talks as a possible “turning point”, while a senior US official just labelled them “useful”.

Is the purpose of your post to hint that the Iranians are being positive and flexible and seeking a successful conclusion to the diplomatic process while the Americans are dragging their feet with the aim of ensuring that the talks do not succeed?

If that is the case, and given that you were not at the talks, how can you possibly know?

You are as thick as a plank and are becoming more stupid by the day

Those were the words of the BBC report.

Go and do something useful for a change.

@ Mary :

Yes, they were the BBC’s words and since the underlying message suited you for once (because you don’t like the BBC much, do you) you hastened to make us aware of them.

You are the stupid one, I think.

I note in passing that you avoid answering the main point, as always.

The main point being that you are a plank. Now go chew your boots and stop disrupting this blog. It is too valuable to be ruined by a type like you. I expect you know you are a laughing stock.

Habbabkuk (La vita è bella!)
2 Mar, 2013 – 5:03 pm

You say:

“I do not know anything about how black Eithiopian Jews are being treated in Israel. If, however, it were the case that they are suffering discrimination of any sort because of their skin colour, then I would deplore it.”

First: “I do not know anything about how black Eithiopian Jews are being treated in Israel.”

Well Habbabkuk don’t you think you should find out? Research seems to be something you don’t do.

Secondly: “… If, however, it were the case that they are suffering discrimination of any sort because of their skin colour, then I would deplore it.”

Why do you not deplore the discrimination meted out by Zionists on the Palestinian people in Israel; the West Bank and Gaza simply because they are Muslims and Arabs?

Mary, you’re still not answering the main point, are you.

When challenged, insults instead of answers are little Mary’s stock-in-trade.

But I can understand it in a way : before I came along, Mary probably wasn’t used to being challenged. Her feet of clay were concealed.

I’m quite pleased that I’ve probably helped many of the followers of this blog see what a good number of her incessant contributions to this blog are really worth, judging by her unwillingness and/or inability to defend them.

@ Dougie Scourge (21h30):

Have you done serious research into the situation of the Australian aboriginals, the people of the First Nations of Canada and the plight of the Amazonian Indian tribes?

Don’t you think you should?

You yourself have deplored on this blog the discrimination meted out by Zionists to Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.

Why do you not deplore the discrimination meted out to the Australian aboriginals, the peoples of the First Nations of Canada and the tribes of the Amazonian basin?

********

La vita è bella, life is good!

If the commenter at http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2013/02/nuclear-negotiations-with-iran/#comment-396946 has not already sought psychiatric help to cure his schtick, I suggest he does so and soon.

cf Mary, nice and early again (07h36) – you see, yet another insult but still no reasoned answer. Hopeless.

As a reminder, the question was : do you (you, Mary) believe that the Iranians are approaching the ongoing diplomatic negotiations in a constructive, positive spirit while the Americans are doing their best to make sure they don’t succeed.

You’re always very vociferous, and it was you who posted the link to the BBC report, so let’s have your take on this. Thank you.

You really do think you are the Resident Interrogator, don’t you! Asking stupid meaningless questions to which there is no answer. If I say A you would follow up with another stupid question or comment. If I said B, the same would apply.

E-mail Ms Doucet if you want to know what she thinks. You are like that pre 6pm News programme on BBC 1 which is called Pointless.

You even have had the nerve to cross question Craig.

Get lost and find a broom cupboard in which you can have an argument with yourself.

Remind me not to reply to you ever again even when you attempt to antagonize me.

“Have you done serious research into the situation of the Australian aboriginals, the people of the First Nations of Canada and the plight of the Amazonian Indian tribes?”
“Don’t you think you should?”
“You yourself have deplored on this blog the discrimination meted out by Zionists to Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.”

“Why do you not deplore the discrimination meted out to the Australian aboriginals, the peoples of the First Nations of Canada and the tribes of the Amazonian basin?”

Yes I have done the research. (By the way you missed out the USA aboriginal tribes).

I do deplore the discrimination meted out to those you mention and others you don’t mention.

Sorry that last post was directed at Habbabkuk

Habbabkuk
On the Bradley Manning thread you rant about my questioning of Guano’s credentials:

Habbabkuk (La vita è bella!)
2 Mar, 2013 – 9:16 pm
@ Dougie :
“How does it feel to be always suspecting something?
I suspect you’re from Alpha Centauri.”
Habbabkuk
3 Mar, 2013 – 8:05 pm
“Yes yes, I know, the whole world’s a conspiracy against you and your thirst for true knowledge.”
“Lucky for you that Mary and the other Eminences are here to keep you on the path of true knowledge, right?”
Chump.
Habbabkuk
3 Mar, 2013 – 8:08 pm
“I have reason to suspect that guano….etc”
“Reason to suspect” – isn’t that the language used by police, prosecutors and others of whom I suspect you don’t approve?”
“Who cares what you suspect?”
“Pompous twit.”

Habbabkuk you are letting your true purpose show through (i.e. TROLL). You seem to be getting annoyed.

Why does guano not reply to my original question?

Why do you feel a need to defend him?

Are you one and the same?

Habbabkuk

Masturbating in front of a full length mirror can have profound psychological consequences that could seriously diminish your ability to put forth a cogent argument.

Please refrain.

Habbabkuk (La vita è bella!)
3 Mar, 2013 – 3:36 pm

Mary

“Is the purpose of your post to hint that the Iranians are being positive and flexible and seeking a successful conclusion to the diplomatic process while the Americans are dragging their feet with the aim of ensuring that the talks do not succeed?”

“If that is the case, and given that you were not at the talks, how can you possibly know?”

Habbabkuk,

I’m not here to defend Mary – she is quite capable of that herself – I’m here to help you understand some of the complexities involved in foreign relations around the world and provide you with some historical context.

You do of course know that Iran has signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty and is a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency unlike Israel, India, Pakistan and (now) North Korea.

Taking North Korea as an example:

North Korea did sign the NPT in 1985 and allowed IAEA inspections but in 1993 threatened to withdraw after suspicions that the US was using the inspections as a cover to spy on North Korea’s military status.

How silly, as if the US would do such a thing.

At that time (1993) the US then agreed to bilateral negotiations which lead to N. Korea retracting its intention to withdraw from the NPT. That was under Bill Clinton.

Then along came Bush. The Bush administration refused all requests for negotiations on the (verifiable) production of peaceful nuclear energy and named N. Korea, Iran and Iraq as the “axis of evil.”

John Bolton, who will be known to posters here, described Cuba, Libya and Syria as “Beyond the axis of evil.”

I would not be surprised if Iran is maneuvering itself into a position where it could produce nuclear weapons at short notice. I may be corrected here but I think that such a capability is not contrary to the NPT as long as they stop short of actual production of such weapons.

Given the United States history of state terrorism; assassinations; military coups; torture; wars; drones; over 700 military bases in over 130 countries (and expanding) and, of course, Guantanamo Bay etc. etc. I am surprised we don’t have more nuclear weapon states than we do now.

You need to consider that the USA has already indicated its desire for regime change in Iran. Look at its actions in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria.

So, if it is regime change the US is after, then it is logical that the US would be “dragging its feet.”

@ Doug Scourgie (17h18)

“Habbabkuk
I’m not here to defend Mary – she’s quite capable of that herself-”

Really? Then why doesn’t she?

@ Doug Scourgie (20h27)

“You seem to be getting annoyed”

Not however to the point of calling those you disagree with masturbators or using four letter words (cf your last post)

@ Doug Scourgie (17h39) :

“Yes, I have done the research.”

In that case : sources, facts and figures, please.

“By the way, you missed out the USA aboriginal tribes”

Non sequitur?

@ Doug Scourgie (17h18)

Thank you for the various historical elements. Can you please clarify a couple of things you mention in the para started “Then along came Bush…”?

1/. from whom did these requests for negotiation emanate? Were they made by the North Koreans, or if not, by whom?

2/. when did the Bush administration come in and when were Iran, Iraq and N. Korea named as the axis of evil?

And another clarification if you’ll bear with me. You say that in 1993 N.Korea threatened to withdreaw from negotiations but then changed its mind (in the same year). Do you know the reasons for N. Korea changing its mind?

Habbabkuk (La vita è bella!)
5 Mar, 2013 – 5:41 pm

“By the way, you missed out the USA aboriginal tribes”

Non sequitur?

You obviously don’t know what non-sequitur means.

Don’t worry, Dougie, I can spot a non-sequitur when I see one.

Would you now care to supply the additional information I (politely) asked you for? To refresh your memory, the questions are in my posts of 5 March at 17h51. As you have obviously researched the topic in some depth, it should not be difficult to do so, surely.

Thank you

Habbabkuk (La vita è bella!)
6 Mar, 2013 – 7:50 am

“Don’t worry, Dougie, I can spot a non-sequitur when I see one.”

Can you really?

I said:

“By the way, you missed out the USA aboriginal tribes”

You replied:

Non sequitur?

Please note:

aborigine
n.
a. A member of the indigenous or earliest known population of a region; a native.

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Aborigine

So Habbabkuk, please explain your use of “non-sequitur?”

@ Dougie Scourge :

I have the feeling you are trying to avoid answering the quustions on matters of fact that I’ve asked you in relation to North Korea and the history of its negotiations with the USA.

Is it because revaling those facts might damage your original narrative?

@ Dougie Scourge:

I think you also owe me the sources, facts and figures relating to your research into the discriminated-against miunorites, don’t you?

Come on, chop chop, don’t hang around so!

I would love to re post this entry on my own website will that be okay