The TV debates for the Westminster election will offer you a dazzling range of neo-con policies from right wing to very right wing. Conservative, Labour, Liberal or UKIP, any flavour of corporate neo-con control that you like. It is a kind of weird speed dating circle between Cameron, Clegg, Miliband and Farage.
If it had been UKIP with thousands of supporters on George Square yesterday, does anybody doubt the rally would have received much more coverage. The decision about the election debates could not offer starker proof of my thesis that UKIP is an antibody produced by the establishment in response to voter disillusion with the lack of real policy difference between mainstream parties. Protest is to be diverted into a right wing channel that really offers no difference at all.
The fact that UKIP and the Lib Dems are to participate in the electoral debates, whereas the Greens, Plaid Cymru and the SNP – all of which offer genuine alternatives to the neo-con narrative – are not, is indefensible. The SNP will win more MPs than the Liberal Democrats and the Greens will have more votes. UKIP have just won their first ever elected MP – which means they have finally caught up with the Greens. Given equal media access, I expect the Green vote would exceed the UKIP vote too – which is precisely the outcome the broadcasters are desperate to avoid.
The voters must not be shown that other choices, other visions, other policies are possible. You can choose any neo-con you wish.
In my view, these personal attacks on Fred are ruining this blog. It really is becoming tiresome.
And Habba and Freds personal attacks do not ruin the blog Daniel?
You were obviously absent when Fred was doing the dung_flinging during the referendum debate.
He deserves everything he gets.
Habba is quite amusing but tiresome never the less.More eloquent than Fred he can get pretty low sometimes.
“You were obviously absent when Fred was doing the dung_flinging during the referendum debate.
He deserves everything he gets.”
Fuck off and die retard.
Republicofscotland
So glad you enjoyed “Rule Britannia”, I knew you would (visions of RoS wiping away a little tear as he listens…).
I hope you’ll like this one as much; it’s another one you’re always referring to.
Enjoy!
__________________________
LAND OF HOPE AND GLORY
Solo
Dear Land of Hope, thy hope is crowned,
God make thee mightier yet!
On Sov’ran[3] brows, beloved, renowned,
Once more thy crown is set.
Thine equal laws, by Freedom gained,
Have ruled thee well and long;
By Freedom gained, by Truth maintained,
Thine Empire shall be strong.
Chorus
Land of Hope and Glory, Mother of the Free,
How shall we extol thee, who are born of thee?
Wider still and wider shall thy bounds be set;
God, who made thee mighty, make thee mightier yet,
God, who made thee mighty, make thee mightier yet.
Solo
Thy fame is ancient as the days,
As Ocean large and wide:
A pride that dares, and heeds not praise,
A stern and silent pride;
Not that false joy that dreams content
With what our sires have won;
The blood a hero sire hath spent
Still nerves a hero son.
Chorus
“Wider still and wider”
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
In my view, these personal attacks on Fred are ruining this blog. It really is becoming tiresome.
__________________________________
Daniel
Fred isn’t sheepish he can and HAS dished it out on many occasions, with his bum chum Habb, don’t feel sorry for him you can of course buy a wool jumper and support his sheep farm.
Nevermind
Do stop blathering away and confirm you co-signed Iain Orr’s letter to the Home Secretary on the Moazzam Begg case.
Nothing to be ashamed of, quite the contrary!
You needn’t even be ashamed if you DID’NT co-sign despite having assured us on here that you would. After all, people are allowed to change their mind for whatever reason, Nevermind.
Just wondering who the other co-signatory was (a regular poster) according to Iain.
SOOOOOO modest of the brave man (or woman) – Mary? Mr Goss? Mr Scorgie? Baal Zevul? Tony_M? Jives? Republicofscotland? DonnyDarko? Guano? Rehmat? Node? – not to come forward and receive plaudits for sticking his or her head above the parapet!
Fred
Habb’s playing your song, why don’t you ask him for this dance, a match made in heaven or is it hell.
“!Fred isn’t sheepish he can and HAS dished it out on many occasions, with his bum chum Habb, don’t feel sorry for him you can of course buy a wool jumper and support his sheep farm.”
Fuck off and die Nazi Holocaust denying retard..
“Fred
Habb’s playing your song, why don’t you ask him for this dance, a match made in heaven or is it hell.”
Fuck off and die Nazi Holocaust denying retard.
John Hilley on the Palestinian statehood vote.
http://johnhilley.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/uk-recognition-of-palestinian-state.html
and Ali Abunimah’s update on the UK vote
By recognizing “State of Palestine,” Sweden could harm Palestinians
10/06/2014
http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/recognizing-state-palestine-sweden-could-harm-palestinians#update
RepublicOfWildLongings
“Fred
Habb’s playing your song, why don’t you ask him for this dance, a match made in heaven or is it hell.”
___________________
ROWL, you auld divil, that was a subtle hint that you want to hear it again, wasn’t it!
Here you go then, just ‘cos it’s you! Enjoy!
RULE BRITANNIA
When Britain first, at Heaven’s command
Arose from out the azure main;
This was the charter of the land,
And guardian angels sang this strain:
“Rule, Britannia! rule the waves:
“Britons never will be slaves.”
2
The nations, not so blest as thee,
Must, in their turns, to tyrants fall;
While thou shalt flourish great and free,
The dread and envy of them all.
“Rule, Britannia! rule the waves:
“Britons never will be slaves.”
3
Still more majestic shalt thou rise,
More dreadful, from each foreign stroke;
As the loud blast that tears the skies,
Serves but to root thy native oak.
“Rule, Britannia! rule the waves:
“Britons never will be slaves.”
4
Thee haughty tyrants ne’er shall tame:
All their attempts to bend thee down,
Will but arouse thy generous flame;
But work their woe, and thy renown.
“Rule, Britannia! rule the waves:
“Britons never will be slaves.”
5
To thee belongs the rural reign;
Thy cities shall with commerce shine:
All thine shall be the subject main,
And every shore it circles thine.
“Rule, Britannia! rule the waves:
“Britons never will be slaves.”
6
The Muses, still with freedom found,
Shall to thy happy coast repair;
Blest Isle! With matchless beauty crown’d,
And manly hearts to guard the fair.
“Rule, Britannia! rule the waves:
“Britons never will be slaves.”
£££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££
Daniel : “In my view, these personal attacks on Fred are ruining this blog. It really is becoming tiresome.”
Republicofscotland : “… don’t feel sorry for him …”
DoNNyDarKo : “He deserves everything he gets.”
You’re both missing the point. Nobody cares about Fred, he’s as bad as you lot. It’s the rest of us who are suffering from your self-indulgence. You’re ruining the blog.
You are far too frit to sign the letter aren’t you Habbasocket, you don’t like justice very much when it concerns the innocent, but when it concerns your kind of scrots, you’re the first to be righteous.
So why are you here on this blog, we’ve got all the spare wheels we need, verschwinde du kleine Rotznase.
Habbabkuk,
Typically you’ve reduced yourself to vague patriotic sloganeering and old anthems of colonial madness.
You like your quotes don’t you Habbabkuk..?
Here’s one for ya…
“Patriotism the last refuge of a scoundrel.”
Many would argue it’s the first refuge.
You fool.
Nevermind
Of course I didn’t sign Iain Orr’s letter because, as I made clear to him on this blog, I am much less certain than he is that Moazzam Begg had entirely clean hands.
Nor am I someone who spends all his time on this blog damning the UK and all its works and institutions.
You, on the other hand, together with the other Eminences do spend all your time on this blog damning the UK and all its works and institutions; and you are all firmly convinced of Moazzam Begg’s innocence to judge from various of your posts.
That is why
1/. it is not surprising that I should not have co-signed the letter
2/. it is very surprising that you and many of your fellow-Eminences have not signed.
All you all bark and no bite? Armchair warriors? Loudmouths in your anonymity but afraid to stick your heads over the parapet?
Jives
“Habbabkuk,
Typically you’ve reduced yourself to vague patriotic sloganeering and old anthems of colonial madness.”
__________________
Not at all, Jivesy.
What happened was that RepublicOfPerspiringDreams was mentioning Land of hope and glory, God save the Queen and Rule Britannia so often that I thought it’d be nice to serenade him on the blog by offering him the lyrics.
I think that was rather nice of me and I’m sure he appreciated my efforts. Of course I stand ready to make further efforts if he wishes me to do so (and even if he doesn’t).
Hope that helps. Have a splendid evening thinking about Gaza, Jonathan.
Not so sweet Lord Sugar. He wants Brown back!!
You’re fired Ed!: Labour peer and Apprentice star Lord Sugar calls for Miliband to be sacked… and replaced by Gordon BrownLord Sugar hails Gordon Brown adding: ‘I wish he’d come back as leader’
Comes amid mounting pressure on Ed Miliband following party conference
Miliband told MPs next election would ‘slip away’ unless sniping at him stops
MPs fear public concern on immigration leading to surge in support for Ukip
Public support for Labour’s immigration policies has slumped to six year low
14 October 2014
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2792903/you-fired-ed-labour-peer-apprentice-star-lord-sugar-calls-miliband-sacked-replaced-gordon-brown.html
Sweden’s recognition of Palestine
“The British vote followed an announcement by the new Swedish government that it would recognize Palestine as a state. However, following the outcry in Israel, the Swedish government toned down its position and said the recognition would take place only after peace talks.”
http://davidduke.com/must-recognize-israel-anti-semitic-recognize-palestinian-state/
Can anyone verify the Swedish climb-down?
It’s happening and few know.
14 October 2014
More than half of local health contracts ‘go outside NHS
Private firms ‘win 70% of NHS bids’
Pause NHS privatisation – Labour
The value of clinical contracts awarded by local health commissioning groups has risen to just over £2bn between April and September this year, data shows.
[..]
Private providers
But there’s a concern in some quarters that local hospitals will lose revenue as patients are sent to private providers for care and treatment.
According to Prof Tim Briggs, a leading orthopaedic surgeon, hospitals will be left only with emergency work and that may prove impossible to sustain.
“I think for trauma services, patients want to know that if they fall down, they’ve got a local hospital that they can give them the trauma help they need. And I’m concerned that that might be at risk because of the financial destabilisation of the Trusts,” he says.
The NHS Support Federation argues that the rising trend of contracts being advertised means that more of the NHS budget could be drained into the hands of alternative providers.
But a government spokesman said: “It’s now local doctors and nurses – not politicians – who have control of NHS budgets, because they know the needs of their patients best. Use of the private sector grew far faster under the previous government, and it now represents only 1% more of the NHS budget than in 2010.”
The issue of non-NHS providers in the health service is generating more debate. What will become clear in the months ahead is whether it has a higher profile in the political debate over health before the general election.
You can hear Hugh Pym’s full report on BBC Radio 4 – File on 4, 20:00 Tuesday 14 October, repeated at 17:00 Sunday 19 October.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-29620329
~~~~~
NHS: Testing the Market
File on 4
In the biggest outsourcing to date, the NHS in England has announced it is tendering a huge £700 million contract for providing NHS cancer care in Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent, along with another £500million for end of life care in the region. Officials say it will streamline services and provide better treatment while critics say it’s the most reckless privatisation yet. BBC Health Editor Hugh Pym investigates..
Producer: Paul Grant.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04l0x07
Warning. Anti emetic needed here.
The Establishment – Andrew Marr And Owen Jones
14 October 2014
Medialens Editors
Picture the scene: No.10 Downing Street, September 16: ‘a gentlemen’s-club-style reception room, given factitious poshness by two marble pillars’. The event: a book launch party hosted by Prime Minister David Cameron himself to ‘mark the publication’ of a political novel, ‘Head of State’, by the BBC’s senior interviewer and former political editor, Andrew Marr.
Reporting for the Independent, eyewitness John Walsh saw the significance:
‘To see how the establishment operates, you really needed to be at this week’s launch party for Andrew Marr’s new book.’
Walsh noted that the room was packed with political and media bigwigs:
‘Jeremy Hunt, George Osborne, Yvette Cooper. Journalists talked to each other, eyes busily flickering, desperate not to miss anything. Beside the bar stood Jason Cowley, editor of the New Statesman.’
The BBC’s creative director, Alan Yentob, was there. So, too, was Lord Chadlington, or Peter Gummer – brother of John Selwyn Gummer, or Lord Deben, former chairman of the Conservative Party – who ‘has long-standing links’ to David Cameron, is President of the Prime Minister’s Witney Conservative constituency association and ‘lives in a manor house that neighbours Mr Cameron’s Oxfordshire home’. Chadlington is also chief executive of Huntsworth, a major public relations firm. In 2011, Cameron bought a plot of land from Chadlington for £140,000, the latter having donated £10,000 to Cameron personally to fund his 2005 run for the Conservative leadership.
John Walsh describes Lord Chadlington ‘as the link between Marr and David Cameron’, adding of Marr’s fictional debut:
‘It was [Chadlington] who gave Marr the central idea for the plot; his name is on the book’s copyright page; there’s an introductory note about him by Marr, and another one by himself, delivering his imprimatur.’
If that sounds chummy, so, too, did Cameron, commenting in his speech at the book launch:
‘I haven’t read Andy’s book yet, but I gather it’s about political assassination. After the week I’ve had, that sounds like a very welcome idea…’
One wonders just how favoured Marr must be to receive such gracious treatment from the unlovely Tory grandees he is supposed to be holding to account.
/..
http://www.medialens.org/index.php/alerts/alert-archive/2014/778-the-establishment-andrew-marr-and-owen-jones.html
Marr’s novel is a slightly amusing read and a bit of a page turner, but unfortunately he doesn’t write well and the plot goes awry towards the end and loses whatever slight balance it had until that point. Nonetheless his theme that the country its media, politicians, bankers and security services have all sold out keeps you reading. John le Carre it ain’t.
Fred. Just so you know. You have a traitor in your flock! Inconrtovertible proof .
here
It is not possible to avoid the suspicion that Mr Murray has the right of it regarding UKIP: “An antibody thrown up by the establishment”. I for one agree with this.
I too, like Mr Murray, like people. Though the use of this terminology to defend an excess of inbound migration makes me queasy. Straw men and semantics have no place in honest debate. The reasons for what I term “weaponised immigration” are clearly bifurcated toward economics, and ideology. That ideology is being forcefully inflicted upon us without our consent being sought nor required. Perhaps, we ordinary folk do not deserve to have their views heard by those lofty individuals elected to administer our affairs. In which case, why do we bother to vote?
As for economics; Well the case has already been stated: Wages are driven down, consumption is driven up, so that the business interests supporting mass immigration are very happy. Well, that’s democracy for you: Or is it? But then we must not forget the financialisation aspect. How about the trusts created against every citizen of thise corporate state? Trusts created under the Cestui Que Vie ACT last modified in 1707 I believe. Very big money! A scam founded under cover of an early false flag terror event in the year 1666. The deduction that this was a terror event is not far fetched as represents in my mind a near certainty, given that the population records were stated to be lost in the course of that false flag, thus enabling the Cestui Que Vie. What madness! Are the commentors on here lost at see? Are we all dead people conversing? I think not. Did the reversioners visit our homes as the law states? Of course not. A scam: A very big scam. But a scam worth billions; Or Trillions over times. But that’s ok, because I like people.
There is always, always, an agenda: Follow the money.
Harry,
It’s a myth to say that immigration drives down wages. On the whole it doesn’t. Principally, it’s neoliberal economic policies and the fragmentation of organised labour that are a consequence of these policies, that drive down wages. It’s always easier to scapegoat immigrants.
Sofia
Brilliant! I’m sure Freddy boy will appreciate it.
A ‘massive blow’ to UKIP and the likely loss of 2m euros.
16 October 2014 Last updated at 17:58
Eurosceptic MEP group collapses
Nigel Farage (left) with Beppe Grillo at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, 1 July
The UKIP party of Nigel Farage (left) and the Five Star Movement of Italy’s Beppe Grillo (right) dominated the group
How Eurosceptic is European Parliament?
How UKIP became a political force
Profile: Beppe Grillo
A Eurosceptic group in the European Parliament (EP) that includes Britain’s UKIP and Italy’s Five Star Movement has collapsed after an MEP withdrew.
The development means a loss of funds and less influence for the parties in the Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy (EFDD) group.
The EFDD accused EP President Martin Schulz of engineering Latvian MEP Iveta Grigule’s exit from the group.
Speaking to BBC News, Mr Schulz’s office denied any wrongdoing.
The office said that after meeting Mr Schulz on Wednesday, Ms Grigule had brought her letter of resignation from the group to his office on Thursday morning.
Consequently, leaders of the European Parliament decided that the EFDD had to be dissolved, the office told the BBC.
To qualify as a group, parties must represent at least seven countries and Ms Grigule’s departure had reduced the EFDD to six.
‘Massive blow’
Analysis: Chris Morris, BBC News, Brussels
According to one source in the European Parliament, the EFDD group was due to get just over 4m euros (£3.2m; $5m) in funding in 2015 – more than 80,000 euros per MEP in the group.
For UKIP, with 24 MEPs, that’s more than 2m euros of revenue hanging in the balance. Half of it usually goes to the communications budget – a valuable resource in an election year.
If Mr Farage is no longer the leader of a group, he will also get less speaking time in the parliament, and fewer opportunities to make speeches on big set-piece occasions.
/..
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-29646414
@Mary
14 Oct, 2014 – 1:32 pm
In fact I think the Greens, the SNP and Plaid Cymru should join in a classs action to secure their right to take part in the leaders debates.
Let the writs fly!!