I am well aware that Osborne has been redistributing money to the rich in his budget. I am also stunned by the idea that the state should see its role not as reducing regional inequality of wealth, but as reinforcing it through regional public sector pay rates.
But my days at the moment are like this. I get up at 7.30 am and after a very frugal breakfast I take a local taxi to the disastrously neglected and underfunded National Archive of India. I spend eleven hours there hastily transcribing from an enormous wealth of documents on Alexander Burnes – really beyond my wildest hopes – and then at 8.00pm the security guards kick me out, the curators having left some time ago. I get back to my budget hotel, take a light supper of imodium and activated charcoal, chat with Nadira, and then fall asleep exhausted.
so is Murdoch sending a warning across the Cameron breakfast bar?
.
Its not as if this is a shock or unknown to anyone ..
Komodo,
…. Party treasurer who explicitly said it did, on film, has obviously gone mad.
,
Indubitably, indubitably dear boy. In fact the poor chap was discussing football, if you care to listen to the undercover tape he is talking about premier league!
,
It is high time people stopped going around and spreading apathy (lord Willie Whitelaw) with this sort of nonsense. Clearly, our leaders, dear, dear, esteemed, fantastic, not kim il jong, not at all, not at all, honest Dave and honester what is that liberal chap’s name? the deputy something.
,
These guys are shitting me, democracy, for whom is the point.
,
,
Meanwhile back at the ranch,
,
,
UK in another visa-ban game with Iran
,
British Home Office says London’s spy agency MI5 could bar foreign nationals, including those from Iran and Syria, whom London accuses of human rights abuses, from entering Britain for the 2012 Olympics.
,
.
While Asma Assad is getting her citizenship withdrawn, Sarko style. These pip squeak tossers seem to have a dick swinging contest going on between them, who can outdo the other in the field of repression, coercion, and disregarding the laws of the land, that is natural, moral, and legislative laws.
Lord (ne David) Gold: A safe pair of hands for an embarrassing enquiry:
http://fcpaprofessor.blogspot.co.uk/2010/09/is-baes-monitor-independent.html
Oh, yes.
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/iainmartin1/100146844/francis-maude-involved-in-road-traffic-accident-on-the-today-programme/
.
You have got to feel sorry for this patsy Francis Maude. Cameron has sent him out again to make a statement to the HoC. He is going red in the face with exertion as he tries to speak above the hubbub about transparency and his government’s good record.
.
Milipede Jnr is loving it.
.
I live about an hour’s journey from Westminster. I can smell the stench from here.
John. I am so sorry to hear that you have had an operation. I do hope that you are fully recovered.
.
You well remember the great injustice in the case of Dr Kelly. An inquest was never held for him.
.
Now it seems that Mark Duggan will not be given an inquest. This is a cover up by the Metropolitan Police and the IPCC. Where is British justice? There is now no such thing.
.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-17514972
.
London riots: Mark Duggan inquest ‘may not be held’
Mark Duggan was shot by police last August in Tottenham
.
A pre-inquest hearing into the death of Mark Duggan has been told that there may not be an inquest at all.
.
Mr Duggan was shot by police on 4 August in Tottenham, north London, which was followed by days of rioting.
.
+++The Independent Police Complaints Commission said sensitive material relating to police decision-making may have to be withheld from the coroner+++.
.
It said its investigation had been delayed and its findings may not be available until early autumn.
.
That would be more than a year after the shooting.
.
/…
Feldman: Elvis impersonator…
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1079577/Camerons-fundraiser-Andrew-Feldman-The-Tory-Deripaskas-yacht.html
.
It’s one for the money….
Not such clever gamers now as the company goes into administration. Price Waterhouse Cooper must be so busy at the moment
.
http://www.gamegroup.plc.uk/gmg_plc/about/board/ I note the Chairman used to work for Ladbrokes.
10,000 staff in total here and abroad
1,300 stores, 609 of which are in the UK and Ireland.
.
Game Group employs 385 staff at its headquarters in Basingstoke in Hampshire, and about 5,100 in its stores in the UK and Ireland.
.
About another 5,000 staff are employed at Game’s other stores, which are located in France, Spain, Portugal, the Czech Republic, Scandinavia and Australia.
.
http://www.gamegroup.plc.uk/gmg_plc/about/board/
Not such clever ‘gamers now are they as the company goes into administration? Price Waterhouse Cooper must be so busy at the moment
.
http://www.gamegroup.plc.uk/gmg_plc/about/board/ I note the Chairman used to work for Ladbrokes.
.
10,000 staff in total here and abroad
1,300 stores, 609 of which are in the UK and Ireland.
.
Game Group employs 385 staff at its headquarters in Basingstoke in Hampshire, and about 5,100 in its stores in the UK and Ireland.
.
About another 5,000 staff are employed at Game’s other stores, which are located in France, Spain, Portugal, the Czech Republic, Scandinavia and Australia.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-17512814 Who’s who. The list of donors. No snippets like Komodo’s. I wonder what their combined net worth is and how much they have benefited from Osborne’s higher rate tax reduction.
One of Cameron’s dining donors was Michael Hintze who funded Atlantic bridge, and thus Werrity!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-17512814
Thanks for the recovery wishes, Mary. It’s a twelve week schedule but I’m doing all right after three. I’ve walked about 1 mile and a half today and try to do a similar distance every day, though some days are better than others, and I feel I can manage more on some occasions. Can’t wait to get back on my bike.
.
Thanks too for the Mark Duggan link. I’ve posted it on the David Kelly and related matters of International Importance page, which Thames Valley Police appear to have infiltrated. Some people even send TVP messages of things they ought to watch on this closed Facebook site.
.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2113306/Police-hacked-website-David-Kelly-campaign-group-claim-activists.html?ito=feeds-newsxml
@Clark
#Boniface Goncourt, the blog software has sent one of your comments (2012/03/25 at 10:12 pm) to the moderation queue, where it awaits approval or rejection. Since it consists entirely of abuse of another contributor and contains no evidence nor political argument, I don’t feel like approving it..#
Fair enough Clark. It’s just that getting called ‘tripe’ and ‘toxic’ may cause a heated reaction. I don’t bring up the subject of religion, they do.
@Passerby
You may think it’s ok for a nurse to leave a patient
lying on the floor while he mumbles to ‘allah’, I don’t.
Do muslims enjoy you calling them an underclass? I notice you sneer
at jehovah’s witnesses, but at least they are polite, and do not call for fatwas, stonings, floggings and amputations for the kuffars.
“The rabbit-like Lord Levy has just been on Sky waving his arms around, protesting that Bliar never did anything like this.”
.
What about all those…play tennis with Blair meetings that Lord Levy set up, only the very rich were invited to attend.
John I suppose that whilst they were messing about on that Facebook site, their attention was diverted from finding the culprits in that dreadful vice ring involving girls in care, some as young as 11. I think the case was long standing.
.
Guest. I know. He was saying much the same on Radio 4 Today this morning. Cash for honours wasn’t it called and Yates who let them all off the hook is now in Bahrain helping to oppress the people.
Have we, the mug taxpayers and bailers out, been consulted on this? No. Obviously Cameron was busy on this and sent Maude to the Commons to make the Cruddas statement. Cruddas is now the equivalent of yesterday’s fish and chip wrapping of course.
.
Breaking news LATEST:The government is in advanced negotiations to sell up to a third of its stake in Royal Bank of Scotland to Abu Dhabi, the BBC learns
Mary, the dreadful thing about it is the continued cover-up. Hutton’s 70 year prohibition or Dr Kelly documents and photographs, cover-up of what really happened in the Hilda Murrell murder, de Menenez and now Mark Duggan. No doubt the police have a difficult job but there is no independent scrutiny and while the police continue to investigate themselves there can be no justice for those who want closure.
@clark
.
With respect, Clark, I don’t think you should take this line with Boniface. I happen to agree with him on a number of points but seldom express myself as pungently (unless I’ve had a wee bit too much wine). There are a number of Muslim posters here, and I recognise that that is a very important part of the unique value and flavour of the site. However no opinion should be ruled as sacred beyond challenge, including vigorous challenge. I suspect that I may not be the only reader here who is appalled by the naivete of some of the religious utterances, but who is (ordinarily) too polite (cowardly?) to say so. Atheists have feelings too, you know. We wouldn’t want too many Bonifaces, but none at all would also be the wrong number.
Israel knows no law.
.
26 March 2012
Israel ends contact with UN Human Rights Council
The Palestinians have demanded an end to Israeli settlement building as a prerequisite for peace talks
.
Israel has cut working relations with the UN Human Rights Council, officials say, after it decided to investigate Jewish settlements in the West Bank.
.
+++The foreign ministry has reportedly told its envoy in Geneva not to co-operate with the council or with UN Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay+++.
.
+++It will also prevent a UN team entering Israel to assess the effects of settlements on Palestinian rights+++.
.
Last week, Israel said the decision to establish the probe was “surrealistic”.
.
Negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians on a two-state solution stalled in late 2010 after a dispute over settlement construction.
./..
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-17510668
About 500,000 Jews live in more than 100 settlements built since Israel’s 1967 occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The settlements are considered illegal under international law, though Israel disputes this
@Vronsky 26 Mar, 2012 – 6:55 am
Are those pants pneumatic? Looking for the bicycle pump.
More snippet: please compare with rich list here https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?authkey=CM2egqgB&key=0AtAQVk3Qj4FYdEJKVTg3aTZteV9pcnFZbXBvN3lRcUE&hl=en&authkey=CM2egqgB#gid=0
…..Key allies of Mr Cameron appointed (to the Lords – K) on Friday include Alistair Cooke, the Conservative party historian who gave Mr Cameron his first job; party treasurer and donor Stanley Fink (£2M = K) ; and Andrew Feldman, a friend of Mr Cameron from university who is now Tory co-chairman, dodgy Elvis impersonator – K and fundraiser.
Despite the additions to Tory ranks, Labour remains the biggest single party in the Lords, with 244 members, or 30 per cent of the house. But the new additions will see the coalition benches swell to 316 members, or 39 per cent. This takes membership of the Lords to 794, at a time when Lord Strathclyde, leader of the house, is examining ways to cut numbers.
The new intake could also cost the taxpayer up to £2.5m a year, since each peer can claim up to £300 for every day they attend, amounting to a maximum £43,500 annually if the house sits for 145 days.
Michael Grade, the former executive chairman of ITV, Fiona Shackleton, the lawyer who represented the Prince of Wales in his divorce, and the Oscar-winning screenwriter Julian Fellowes are also among 27 new Conservative peers.
George Magan, (£1.5M – K) the financier, is another big City name on the roster, as is Sir Michael Bishop,(£705K = K) former BMI chairman, and Robert Edmiston (£3.25M – K), head of the IM Group. Also raised to the peerage is Patience Wheatcroft, who will step down as editor-in-chief of the Wall Street Journal Europe.
.
Donations over £1M to nearest £50K – K
.
(FT, Nov 19th, 2010 (cached))
Edniston (who is an evangelical Christian), reborn in the Love of Jesus (Hallelujah! Glory!), has no doubt repented fully of the former errors which interested Inspector Knacker –
.
Those becoming Conservative peers include Bob Edmiston, a multi-millionaire car salesman, who gave £2m to the party before the 2005 election.
.
Mr Edmiston was nominated for a peerage in 2005 but was blocked by the Lords appointment commission. He was subsequently questioned by police, under caution, during their investigation into the “cash for honours” allegations.
.
(BBC News Nov 19th, 2010)
.
Wonder if more cash changed hands?
Boniface Goncourt
,
call for fatwas, stonings, floggings and amputations for the kuffars.
,
Whoooow, foreign words, and shit, must be bad by default.
,
You are a right caricature, aren’t you?
,
@Vronsky
Thanks for that Vronsky. Pungent, eh. And me teetotal. I’m glad Clark is feeling better after the bit of trouble he had. Religion is vanity, ‘god’ merely a self-projection, and madness is never
far away. I don’t buy the ‘hurt feelings’ ploy, or the the rubbish about ‘moderates’. Where were the ‘moderate Jews’ demonstrating when Rachel Corrie was crushed to death by an Israeli tank? How many Jewish Chronicle subscriptions were cancelled after the 2008 Jewish onslaught on Gaza? Did 100,000 ‘moderate muslims’ demonstrate about these events? –
## 3 February 2011 – Four Islamic clerics were arrested this week for ordering Mosammet Hena, 14, to receive 100 lashes in a fatwa or religious edict at a village in the south-western Shariatpur district. It has now been reported that the teenage girl was raped by her married cousin and then accused of having an affair with him. The girl collapsed after she was lashed in public with a bamboo cane around 70 times on Monday, police chief Shahidur Rahman said. She was taken to hospital, but died hours later. ##
##2 November 2008 – An Islamist rebel administration in Somalia had a 13-year-old girl stoned to death for adultery after the child’s father reported that three men had raped her. Amnesty International said the al-Shabab militia, which controls the southern port city of Kismayo, arranged for a group of 50 men to stone Aisha Ibrahim
Duhulow in front of a crowd of about 1,000 spectators. A lorryload of stones was brought to the stadium for the killing. Amnesty said that Duhulow struggled with her captors and had to be forcibly carried into the stadium. “At one point during the stoning,
nurses were instructed to check whether Aisha Ibrahim Duhulow was still alive when buried in the ground. They removed her from the
ground, declared that she was, and she was replaced in the hole where she had been buried for the stoning to continue. ##
Did moderate muslim Yusuf Islam, aka pop dronester Cat Stevens, trim his weard beard in protest? Thought not.
Vronsky I feel it necessary to repeat your post above. Spot on.
## MI5 recalls all of its agents. Guess Edinburgh is going to be very quiet, then.
.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/mi5-puts-all-3800-agents-on-olympic-watch-7584968.html
.
When the Olympic bomb duly goes off and the BBC announces within minutes that the outrage ‘carries all the hallmarks of Al Qaeda’ I thought it might be useful to have a little checklist of the hallmarks of a false flag operation carried out against you by your own security services. It’s not my fault that the same list seems also to be the hallmarks of Al Qaeda.
.
(1) Multiple causluaties, not a single carefully targetted hit;
(2) All the casualties are ordinary people, no personages of importance and certainly no politicians; and
(3) The security services had no foreknowledge of the plot, but quickly arrest any surviving perpetrators and their associates. Perfect ignorance is followed by perfect knowledge in less than 24 hours. ##
Think how many things that last sentence applies to! JFK, 9-11, crucifixion of JC, anything in the ‘torah’…
Vronsky, I consider Boniface Goncourt’s abusive anti-religious language (which he’s been banging on with for days) as similar to Canspeccy’s repeated ranting about immigration; repetitive, needlessly inflammatory and likely to lead off-topic.
.
Guano posted a comment admitting an error of judgment, with a respectful note in religious language about our shared mortality. Nothing at all that could have provoked Goncourt’s response. And I’ve not deleted anything, I just don’t feel like approving it. Why should I help him try to start fights?
http://www.howtogetridofstuff.com/wp-content/uploads/flea.jpg
Now DSK is up on charges of engaging in involvement in a prostitution ring.
26 March 2012
.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn charged in vice ring case
Mr Strauss-Kahn’s questioning in Lille on Monday came as a surprise
Former International Monetary Fund boss Dominique Strauss-Kahn has been charged in France over alleged involvement in a prostitution ring.
.
Mr Strauss-Kahn was placed under formal investigation by magistrates in Lille.
.
He has admitted attending parties where the authorities believe prostitutes were provided by a gang, but denies knowing that they were prostitutes.
.
Last May, he resigned from the IMF after being accused of attempting to rape a hotel maid in New York.
.
The charges were later dropped.
~~~~
There is such a contrast between these rich people we keep reading about and their self obsessed lives and the cheery workers on the Tube who I have been watching in the documentary series on BBC2. I am impressed at the pride they have in their jobs and their good humour. They have a fraction of the wealth of the likes of the No 10 dinner donors or DSK yet go to work in dirty and sometimes hazardous conditions to keep the system running. They are the happier.
As every account holder with RBS knows (having been repeatedly told by RBS command), all their English/Welsh high street business is to be sold to Santander. (The MSM know only that negotiations are still in progress, and the outcome is undecided). Sooo…in order to ringfence the commercial bank from the speculative side ( thanks, Dubai) the commercial bit has to be appended to another extraterritorial entity which has not separated its commercial and hedge fund business? Someone tell me I’m wrong. Please.
Yes yes Clark but you are playing the hurt feelings card again.
‘Abusive anti-religious language’? Many of us find religious language in itself abusive. the godbangers are too obtuse to see that.
More (very big) problems for Murdoch
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/mar/26/news-corp-ondigital-paytv-panorama
YES WE CAN:
Murder – whenever – whoever – wherever
NOBODY CAN STOP US!
.
While Israel agrees not to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities until after the US Presidential elections, this in exchange for more powerful America bunker-busters and long range refueling planes, the United States increases it’s special forces in Uganda.
.
In another humanitarian
violationintervention American plans for Africa are part of a global design in which 60,000 special forces, including death squads, already operate in 120 countries..
The threat to the West is not of course Islamic terrorism, it is China. We remember Libya was an important source of oil for China, now gone. Support for the NTC gave France 35% of Libya’s gross national oil production with America and Britain jostling for another 40% or more.
.
So with Iraq and Libya secured and Iran pending, the scramble for more of Africa by the US continues with another divide and rule, the destabilisation formula of drones, death squads and destruction. While the Chinese build bridges, roads and dams, America and Britain smash their way to a continent’s crown jewels.
.
In the Obama world it seems what matters is not so much the colour of your skin as the power you serve and the millions you betray.