British democracy has lost its meaning. The political and economic system has come to serve the interests of a tiny elite, vastly wealthier than the run of the population, operating through corporate control. The state itself exists to serve the interests of these corporations, guided by a political class largely devoid of ideological belief and preoccupied with building their own careers and securing their own finances.
A bloated state sector is abused and mikled by a new class of massively overpaid public secotr managers in every area of public provision – university, school and hospital administration, all executive branches of local government, housing associations and other arms length bodies. All provide high six figure salaries to those at the top of a bloated bureaucratic establishment. The “left”, insofar as it exists, represents only these state sector vested interests.
These people decide where the cuts fall, and they will not fall where they should – on them. They will fall largely on the services ordinary people need.
Meanwhile we are not all in this together. The Vodafone saga only lifts the lid for the merest peek at the way the corporate sector avoids paying its share, hiding behind Luxembourg or Cayman tax loopholes and conflicts between international jurisdictions – with which our well provided politicians are very happy. The often excellent Sunny Hundal provides a calm analysis of the Vodafone case here:
Let me tell you something else about Vodafone. Vodafone took over Ghana Telecom three years ago. They paid an astonishingly low price for it – 1.2 billion dollars, which is less than the value of just the real estate GT owned. The value of the business was much higher than that, and there was a substantively higher opening bid from France Telecom.
The extraordinary thing was the enormous pressure which the British government put on Ghana to sell this valuable asset to Vodafone so cheaply. High Commissioner Nick Westcott and Deputy High Commissioner Menna Rawlings were both actively involved, with FCO minister Lord Malloch Brown pressurising President Kuffour directly, with all the weight of DFID’s substantial annual subvention to Ghana behind him.
What is the point of DFID giving taxpayer money to Ghana if we are costing the country money through participating in the commercial rape of its national assets?
And why exactly was it a major British interest that Vodafone – whose Board meets in Germany and which pays its meagre taxes in Luxembourg – should get Ghana Telecom, as opposed to France Telecom or another company? Was privatisation at this time the best thing for Ghana at all?
This Vodafone episode offers another little glimpse into the way that corporations like Vodafone twist politicians like Mark Malloch Brown around their little fingers. It mioght be interesting to look at his consultancies and commercial interests now he is out of office.
BAE is of course the example of this par excellence. Massive corruption and paying of bribes in Saudi Arabia, Tanzania end elsewhere, but prosecution was halted by Tony Blair “In the National Interest”. BAE of course was funnelling money straight into New Labour bagmen’s pockets, as well as offering positions to senior civil servants through the revolving door. Doubtless they are now doing the same for the Tories – perhaps even some Lib Dems.
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2009/01/jack_straws_cor.html
It is therefore unsurprising the BAE were able to write themselves contracts for aircraft carriers which were impossible to cancel and that their New Labour acolytes were prepared to sign such contracts. It is, nonetheless, disgusting. Just as it is disgusting that there is no attempt whatever by the coaliton to query or remedy the situation. There is no contract in the UK which cannot be cancelled by primary legislation.
Meanwhile, bankers’ bonus season is upon us again and these facilitators of trade and manufacture are again set to award themselves tens of billions of pounds to swell the already huge bank accounts of a select few, whose lifestyle and continued employment is being subsidised by every single person in the UK with 8% of their income. This was because the system which rewards those bankers so vastly is fundamentally unsound and largely unnecessary. Money unlinked to trade or manufacture cannot create infinite value; that should have been known since the South Sea Bubble.
Yet even this most extreme example of government being used to serve the interests of the wealthy and powerful at the expense of everyone else, has not been enough to stir any substantial response from a stupoured, x-factored population, dreaming only of easy routes to personal riches, which they have a chance in a million of achieving.
Conventional politics appears to have become irretrievably part pf the malaise rather than offering any hope for a cure. But political activity outwith the mainstream is stifled by a bought media.
I see no hope.
“Of course, ‘the anarchists are coming’ has been a scare tactic used by UK authorities for a century or more.”
Yes, but it is also a radical pose adopted by some studenty types who might not actually be that interested in living in an anarchist community (it would probably be a bit dull, let’s face it) who are also then interested in the violent revolutionary image.
I know people who are genuinely anarchists and, as Vronsky said, they tend to be more on the ultra-pacifist and gentle-reasoning end of the spectrum of political activities. In fact, some of them are simply waiting for the rest of humanity to catch up with them.
Also, it isn’t just in the UK that anarchists were treated as trouble. Anarchists have faced far more brutal treatment elsewhere:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amakasu_Incident
The poor old Irish people are about to be hauled over the coals/taken to the cleaners by the EU.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-11750676
Anarchism is troubled, as Suhayl so aptly said, almost every circle of interest groups has been infiltrated, including the anarchists.
But if we assume they are, this also purveys a paranoic notion of distrust, undermining themselves from within.
Thanks for pointing out that anarchists have had a rough ride everywhere, angry, and they still do, but so do many other disperate organisations who try and press a new lifestyle on others, the religiously brainwashed such as the Waco misguided, or Italy’s bourgoise red brigades.
What has just appeared to me is this, should we asked whether an increasingly repressive system, able and willing to do anything to keep the establishment demure and proffering, has a symbiotic relationship with anarchism, a tool to justify ever greater repression.
What say?
http://ceasefiremagazine.co.uk/
Interesting mag.
“I know people who are genuinely anarchists and, as Vronsky said, they tend to be more on the ultra-pacifist and gentle-reasoning end of the spectrum of political activities. In fact, some of them are simply waiting for the rest of humanity to catch up with them.”
Gosh, angry, you’ve floored me. I didn’t expect you to want to notice that. Perhaps we might agree in a general way that arguments should not be dismissed by giving them derogatory labels?
I know you’re all going to sigh and cover a yawn, but a samizdat is beginning to appear in Scotland. Try this stuff (tinyurl.com/3y768jy) on libertarian socialism (it’s about hope, so I’ve finally posted something on topic).
‘Bella Caledonia’. Its front page editorial is by Kevin Williamson, who set up Rebel Inc. (that story is fascinating in itself). His work – indeed possibly even his artistic-political raison d’etre – has always been genuinely cutting-edge and radical. I respect Kevin Williamson, even though, to my knowledge, I’ve never met him and I certainly do not know him personally.
There are some who are genuinely cutting-edge and others who might be described as, ‘The Latest Pretender’. It’s the difference b/w real and fake.
Intriguing, and possibly emblematic, account in relation to the publishing industry [at the mention of that term, I need to ingest tranqillisers, for fear otherwise of exerting as powerful a gravitationjal influence as a neutron star].
The webzine looks very interesting – thanks, Vronsky, for this info.
If there is a deep state, a political hierarchy above Foreign Office, Intelligence services and Westminster, it must be subject to the same flaws as all other political organisations. Politics is the art of self-promotion. Politicians are always in it for themselves first. They are always trading. Who’s buying, is also selling. Who lives by the sword, dies by the sword. Treachery is the word.
So, if there is a deep state, sending its officers racing up to the top floor to cascade fire extinguishers on the crowd, in order to disgrace justified protest against unfair laws, or placing bombs under innocent passengers in order to pin the blame on Muslims and steal their hydro-carbons, then there is hope.
Politicians’ self-obsession is also self-destruction. There is never unity of purpose amongst the political class.
If I was cynical enough to believe in a deep state, I would breathe a sigh of relief. Because it would be far less likely to achieve its purpose than the fatuous, shallow morons we see in the media from the surface political class, the Sawers, diplomats and MPs.
And what a thankless task. They are constantly scheming how to steer the British public into becoming slave-zombies, and the slave-zombies constantly take no notice, play up and see through the crap that the deep state serves them. Did you see that demonstration where they smashed the glass of the Tory headquarters? Not my problem. Just another deep state think-they-know-everything media scam for the cameras. Will you put another pint in this glass?
“‘The Man Who Was Thursday, a Nightmare’ (G K Chesterton)”
See also “The Sentimental Agents in the Volyen Empire” (Doris Lessing)
@ All ?” for the record,
“COURTENAY BARNETT ?” Your comments Nov 7 – !:11 AM & 1:24 AM. I found your comments yesterday to be distasteful and out of character for you. And then I remembered that you were working in the Caribbean area (T & C) and wondered if you had heard any rumours that appeared to show me in a bad light and that might cause these comments.
Just to recap, you will recall from earlier posting on August 29 that I too had worked in the Caribbean – Indeed, I had worked on some potential time share projects that related to Cuba, and in Jamaica as CFO of Sandals Resorts International (the hotel management arm of Sandals). I did an excellent job in all respects. But then when one is dealing with a manufactured (intelligence agency driven) slander campaign it can come from all angles, where one least expects it. As Cartoonist said about Zerzetsen (Zerzetsen) slanders … “It’s about manipulating people or groups of people by typical STASI methods (hearsay, gossip, lies, spreading rumours about someone … the list goes on).”
I found your comments yesterday to be completely out of character for you, and I wondered why. Then I recalled you were working in the T&C and almost certainly will have met * several people * who do business in the relatively small T&C community and know of me. For example, as a lawyer yourself, do you perhaps know my old friend Ian Phillipson – who was the Sandals lawyer, and partner to a former Prime Minister of Jamaica?? You shouldn’t have heard anything negative about me from any source whatsoever. But if you have, you do me a favour by telling me — Is there anything you should be telling me?? ”
– And ?”
“Roderick: I don’t think Courtenay was not fully aware at first of the history of that troll team in relation to the persistent attacks on you, or indeed in general with respect to this blog. I sense he came to realise it after looking back through the posts/threads, etc. I’m sure he can answer for himself, though – this is just my impression.
What’s T and C, btw, is that ‘Turks and Caicos’? Looks idyllic!”
– And ?”
“Roderick,
There is no rumour, forget it, just read ‘Courtenay’ again – you will see he is ridiculing Larry’s slippery attempt at staring into the minds of others, in this case your mind, that is why he has involved you.
Courtney’s insight has surprised me he is an asset as you are, and your experiences are firmly in my conscious.”
Oh! Oh! Let’s not forget the great, the incredible, the magnificent, the absolutely luminous ( incredibly so) ?” “LARRY FROM ST. LOUIS” WHO SAID ?” BEHOLD!
“So Courtenay links to a video by the failed Mr. Kollerstrom, who is a:
1. 7/7 denier;
2. 911 denier; and
3. Holocaust denier.
I’m still amazed at what scumbags inhabit this blog.”
THE MAGNFICICENT LARRY HAS SPOKEN YET AGAIN ?” INCREDIBLY SO. I NOW MUST ATTEND THE SCHOOL THAT LARRY WAS TRAINED AT ?” ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE TALENT THIS MAN IS ?” MUST LEARN MORE ?” SOON ?” VERY SOON ?” NAME OF SCHOOL LARRY?
Look all ?” ( Larry excluded):-
I SIMPLY BLOG AND EXPRESS MY HONEST OPINONS ?” AND ANYONE IS FREE TO SAY I AM RIGHT OR WRONG OR SOMEWHERE ELSE THAT THE EXPRESSED OPINION/POST MIGHT BE PLACED. SO RODERICK AND OTHERS ?” THAT IS HOW IT IS. NO HIDDEN AGENDAS. WHAT YOU SEE IS LITERALLY ?” WHAT YOU GET FROM ME.
@ Anon,
“If I was cynical enough to believe in a deep state, I would breathe a sigh of relief. Because it would be far less likely to achieve its purpose than the fatuous, shallow morons we see in the media from the surface political class, the Sawers, diplomats and MPs.”
What then do you say about the intelligence community.The arms trading factions and the “independent money” related thereto?
Good responses ‘Ruth’ – I adore comments with a sting in the tail – and I also note ‘Courtenay’ is on form.
Suhayl – ‘hot’ contacts may give one a very slight edge but is it not without risk. I was interrogated on ‘webcameron’ by an ‘agent’ called ‘therealelvis’ who seemed to think I knew too much. I totally believe ‘Roderick’ and his frightening experience; I too have been ‘buzzed’ by very low noisy helicopters in the wee hours – not something for the faint hearted.
Was it not galling to hear Gen Richards spouting what could be a football chant – Al Qaeda will never be defeated – in the light of the loss of life and the destruction of a people and the land that has been taking place over the last 10 years? He says that the logic of the invasion was flawed.
WE ALL KNEW THAT GENERAL RICHARDS AND SOME OF US HAVE BEEN SAYING IT SINCE 2001.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-11751888
Okay, Courtenay, thanks.
Mark, please tell us about those awful experiences – ‘therealelvis’ (please explain what you mean) and the helicopter. What exactly is ‘webcameron’? Are you saying someone contacted you via e-mail to interview you and they were really acting for the state? And the helicopter buzzed you in your home? I think it’s important that people who have been subjected to such things share their experiences, partly because there is such pressure on ‘commentators’ to apply derision of individuals who assert that they have been the victims of these tactics.
So far, among the regular commentators on this blog, I’ve counted five, or possibly six: yourself, Roderick, Ruth, Courtenay, Craig himself and possibly Anno (though I may be being presumptuous in relating his ‘black magic’ descriptor as something equally sinister but more mundane; I apologise in advance for this). I may have missed some others out – again, apologies.
The superlative Scottish poet, Tom Leonard, once wrote a poem about it, entitled, ‘The Fair Cop’:
http://www.tomleonard.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=51&Itemid=49
Tom’s website (minus the usual prefixes) is at:
tomleonard.co.uk/
So I think it can be a powerful act to expose such practices, to make public these matters, partly because some of their power over us resides in the imbalance b/w the massive corporate/ state entity and the individual and partly because suffering in secret and alone can be (metaphorically and in some cases, also literally) disabling. Going public, not as an individual but as a group or a mass, imparts power and to some extent, credibility. In a word, Solidarity.
Over to you, sir.
“Gosh, angry, you’ve floored me. I didn’t expect you to want to notice that. Perhaps we might agree in a general way that arguments should not be dismissed by giving them derogatory labels?”
Not all arguments are equal. I don’t think that socialist libertarianism needs to be dismissed with a derogatory label; anarchism wasn’t a derogatory label anyway. On the other hand, someone’s argument that the world is ruled by ten foot lizards doesn’t deserve as much respect. So I can’t agree that arguments cannot per se be dismissed with a derogatory label; it is far more economical to do so in some cases.
But if you do believe arguments must not be dismissed with derogatory labels, are you sure you apply this consistently?
Suhayl’s comment,’So I think it can be a powerful act to expose such practices, to make public these matters, partly because some of their power over us resides in the imbalance b/w the massive corporate/ state entity and the individual and partly because suffering in secret and alone can be (metaphorically and in some cases, also literally) disabling. Going public, not as an individual but as a group or a mass, imparts power and to some extent, credibility.’is absolutely right.
And also for your own safety it’s much better having everything out in the open. The intelligence services will think twice before doing anything serious because if they do, everybody will know the injury would be attributable to them.
Suhayl’s comment,’So I think it can be a powerful act to expose such practices, to make public these matters, partly because some of their power over us resides in the imbalance b/w the massive corporate/ state entity and the individual and partly because suffering in secret and alone can be (metaphorically and in some cases, also literally) disabling. Going public, not as an individual but as a group or a mass, imparts power and to some extent, credibility.’is absolutely right.
And also for your own safety it’s much better having everything out in the open. The intelligence services will think twice before doing anything serious because if they do, everybody will know the injury would be attributable to them.
Suhayl’s comment,’So I think it can be a powerful act to expose such practices, to make public these matters, partly because some of their power over us resides in the imbalance b/w the massive corporate/ state entity and the individual and partly because suffering in secret and alone can be (metaphorically and in some cases, also literally) disabling. Going public, not as an individual but as a group or a mass, imparts power and to some extent, credibility.’is absolutely right.
And also for your own safety it’s much better having everything out in the open. The intelligence services will think twice before doing anything serious because if they do, everybody will know the injury would be attributable to them.
I agree ‘anonymous’ obviously, but I am still somewhat reluctant to relate my own experiences with this type of hassle. Let’s be honest we are trying to combat ‘fear’ and associated tactics not generate more fear. However I have much respect for ‘Suhayl’ so I am answering his questions.
Suhayl,
‘webcameron’ was a ‘new media’ Conservative experiment now defunct but can be viewed here:
web.archive.org/web/*/http://webcameron.org.uk
‘therealelvis’ was the anonym of a commenter on ‘webcameron’ who thought I knew too much and wanted to know my sources.
I have had a ‘death threat’ via email coia[at]coia.org.uk. It was routed via Pakistan and warned me not to go out after 8pm else I would be shot. The mail was full of expletives. A helicopter flew over my house at around 500 feet while my wife was in the garden and hovered for several minutes before flying off.
Mark you have my sympathy, you must be doing something right. Could you physically move, bit by bit? could you have two abodes? one for emergency which you never use, until that helicopter tries to land.
Is kite flying forbidden in Baghdad? how about a few helium ballons with your charity advert, permanently flying some 100 feet over your house?
You have us here, should anything at all happen, make sure you have a computer ready to tell us about it from a different isp so to speak.
Same for Suhayl, any squid you get let us know on here, I would not be surprised if we all get some harrassment in future.
Mark, thank you very much indeed. I am very grateful to you, on all counts.
Naive statement:
I think that it is high time for an open and extensive public debate, in the MSM, about the role of the intelligence and security services in a complex capitalist democracy and on their white, grey and black budgets, the fiduciary outsourcings of pertinence.
John Sawyers, Head of the SIS, recently went public about his organisation. Whatever his agenda, in some senses, this surely could be regarded arguably as a licence for the MSM to open a debate about the role of the security and intelligence complex – both state and increasingly, in the private sector, as well as in relation to the revolving door b/w the two.
The debate should involve people who’ve had experiences such as Mark’s, Roderick, Ruth’s, Craig’s and Courtenay’s (as related on this blog), as well as enormously intelligent and experienced ex-diplomats like Iain Orr, Craig Murray, Brian Barder and Charles Crawford, as well as whistleblowers like Annie Machon (and yet again, Craig Murray), and those who have studied the area – Stephen Dorril, David Miller and Robin Ramsay. It should not simply involve the likes of Con Coughlin, Frank Gardner, Dominic Lawson et al.
It should be conducted in the intelligent manner of that on the thread on this website about the receipt of information from torture, in which nextus and technicolour had central roles.
It should be ground-breaking and should shirk from no area – financial (tax havens, VAT, etc), assassination, the arms industry, academia, infiltration of activist groups, disruption of oppositional media, intimidation of those who refuse to spy for them, the exponential rise in, and strategic use of, private armies, etc.
In a corporate police state, the sec-intel complex focus increasingly on internal dissent rather than simply countering espionage/ genuine terrorist threats, etc. Control of the population and of the discourses within that population and their representatives, elected, career and appointed, becomes the prime directive. Protection of (essentially transnational; their flags and anthems are those of convenience rather than conscience, their loyalty is to themselves and their very narrow class) elite interests trumps any concept of ‘national interest’.
There is always a tendency for this to happen and has been right from the creation of Special Branch, the SS and the SIS. Now we have a powerful and (I think) unregulated private sector sec-intel machine as well which operates in the UK and abroad.
This would not be in the name of generating more fear, sensationalism or hysteria, but in pursuit of truth and genuine democracy. In pursuit of Enlightenment values. In furtherance of ‘our way of life’.
I told you it was going to be a naive statement.
The fact that no-one in their right mind could ever conceive of such a debate actually occurring in the public mass media itself is a powerful illustration of just how extensive the controls on the discourse are.
This dovetails to some extent with Kevin Williamson’s comment (in web and actual ‘zine, ‘Bella Caledonia’, the link to which kindly was provided by Vronsky earlier in this thread) that writers can play a crucial (oppositional and redefining) role in shaping the terms of the discourse. And by writers, I don’t mean just people like Alasdair Gray and the late (great) Angus Calder, I mean people who intelligently ‘host and/or post’ on blogs as well. I think it’s very important. There should be no sense of futility about it. It is not synonymous with, but rather complementary to, actual physical activism.
In some ways, without puffing-up either the genre or our little selves beyond what is realistic, it is a tribute to the potential importance of cyber-blogs that they should be infiltrated and disrupted in precisely the ways we have seen on this blog over the past few months/ years. But it must always be re-connected in some way with real activism, and I sense, from the comments made by a number of bloggers here, that many who post here are so connected.
If you thought there was something fishy about the Oct 21 cathedral killings in Baghdad plus all the other bombs and killings that are happening, you should have a look at this.
Mossad….again.
http://www.maskofzion.com/2010/11/baghdad-cathedral-massacre-zionist.html
Courtenay
I was picking up on Craig’s comment that the political class is non-ideological, merely seeking to secure their own careers. And I wondered whether those in the deep state whom you list were different from normal types of political animals. Are they purposeful and united?
Has this skid-to-halt emergency stop of the world economy altered the force of gravity or swapped the magnetic poles?
The human chain that delivers mobiles or food on the shelves of our supermarkets etc is bigger and more organised than them. I always thought under the last dose of Tory rule that normality continued in spite of government and not because of them.
somebody, that is an incredibly powerful article, thanks. It was written by Jonathan Azazieh, who is of Jewish origin. His own family’s story is amazing; it’s the type of narrative of which we never hear.
http://theinfounderground.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=40&t=3075
The points made in the Mask of Zion article are the acknowledged truth of the USUKIS invasion of Iraq, by all the people of Kurdistan. The only difference being that the Iraqi leaders that its author politely calls collaborators, are universally referred to as pimps in Kurdistan.
The points made in Jonathon Azizeh’s article, The Mask of Zion, are the acknowledged truth of the UKUSIS invasion of Iraq, by all the people of Kurdistan.
The only difference being that the (some of them, newly re-elected) Iraqi leaders whom its author politely calls collaborators, are universally referred to as pimps in Kurdistan.
The Mask of Zion, the UK as people see us from Kurdistan.
So powerful in fact Suhayl Craig’s site went off-line!!
Let there be no doubt whatsoever the Zionist state of Israel is a monster beyond control and that all efforts for peace in the Middle-East are doomed to failure. It will never be revealed but I can tell you with all sincerity that even our own intelligence services have NO control on the disproportionate power Israel possesses that enables its agents to plant bombs in Britain, violate international law and enjoy immunity from being held accountable before the international community.
Remember Britain and France colluded with Israel in the 1956 invasion of Egypt to overthrow Nasser and take back the Suez Canal which he had nationalized. Since 1967 our will to oblige Israel to behave like a normal state has evaporated and now the ‘terror war’ is a prelude to a new world order where force is the dominant factor.
Even though Robin Cook (PBUH) warned me I have been naive to the power of deception, even believing Wikileaks was genuine. Now I know it’s presence is another Zionist hell-hole and annoyingly I fell (along with others) for ‘treat and trick’ – a clever intelligence game.
For that I apologise because I intend to outwit these Zionist bastards. My children and grand-children are NOT taking the burden of my quiescence and lassitude because a Zionist world order is polar, is antithetical to my order and theirs.