It is not such a bad Hague idea for UK and Canada to share certain Embassies. In future Scotland and Quebec might do the same.
Hague shared hotel rooms with his special adviser to “save money”. Good to see consistency in a politician.
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I don’t know what others think, but personally I should find very interesting new threads from Craig on the following:
– how to explain the influence of the pro-Israel lobby on UK foreign policy; where does this power come from, on what is it based?
– how great is the extent of government surveillance of internet websites and blogs, including this one. Is there any reason to suspect that not only are comments read but also the contributors identified and put onto some data base?
There is nothing wrong with catty. Or bitchy. To save even more money embassy staff will share with Canada.Well after all, Canada is the home of the mounties.
Jerôme, if you see my comment at 1.45 pm, there is a link to a video which exposes much of how UK foreign policy is influenced by the pro-Israel lobby, how it works, who is behind it. I know you asked for Craig’s opinion about this and he has already written thoroughly about this, especially at the time of the Gus O’Donnell whitewash. Peter Oborne is the journalist behind this video and I know Craig Murray is impressed with Oborne’s journalism. Hope this helps.
Thanks for that, John Goss, I’ve just watched the report. Lot of emphasis on Israel-lobby money going to Westminster politicians, but how do you explain the consistently pro-Israeli bias of the popular press and some of the “quality” papers? After all, they are surely not dependent on Israeli-lobby money, are they?
Let us admit that most politicians are bought or running scared, but do you sense a disconnect between official UK policy and what the man on the street thinks of the Israel-Palestinian situation? And if so, do you think this disconnect is widening?
BTW, you didn’t respond to my musing on whether someone’s keeping a careful eye on all of us…
Globalist fuckers continually plotting the breakup of nation states to create ethnic trivialities such as Scotland and Quebec, the better to control them in the interests of the fascist, plutocratic elite.
– how great is the extent of government surveillance of internet websites and blogs, including this one. Is there any reason to suspect that not only are comments read but also the contributors identified and put onto some data base?
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That is a given.
Yes and yes.
And if economy is the objective, replace the embassies with web sites. What possible use can there be in having a representative with a hugely expensive entourage in a shithole like Uzbekistan. In the age of telecommunications and global air transportation embassies are an outrageous waste of taxpayers’ money, like most of the rest of the bureaucratic establishment.
There is nothing wrong with catty. Or bitchy. To save even more money embassy staff will share with Canada.Well after all, Canada is the home of the mounties.
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I’m a lumberjack and I’m OK
I sleep all night and I work all day
(He’s a lumberjack and he’s OK
He sleeps all night and he works all day)
I down 14, I eat my lunch
I go to the lavat’ry
On Wednesdays I go shopping
And have buttered SPADZ ™ for tea
(He cuts down trees…)
(He’s a lumberjack…)
I cut down trees, I skip and rump
I love to press wild flow’rs
I put on women’s clothing
And hang around in bars
(He cuts down trees…)
(He’s a lumberjack…)
I cut down trees, I wear high heels
Suspenders and a bra
I wish I’d been a girlie
Just like Werritty
(He cuts down trees…)
(He’s a lumberjack…)
Et cetera.
“That is a given. Yes and yes.”
I wouldn’t let it flatter. There are so many databases and datasets which people doing more and less than supporting this blog, will appear on, in this age.
And if economy is the objective, replace the embassies with web sites. What possible use can there be in having a representative with a hugely expensive entourage in a shithole like Uzbekistan. In the age of telecommunications and global air transportation embassies are an outrageous waste of taxpayers’ money, like most of the rest of the bureaucratic establishment.
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Well said.
But the canapés
Caviar
Champagne
Coke
Pepsi
Big BOYZ coke
Girlz
BOYZ
And general expenses salary pensions fiddles troughing is just too well ingrained
Not to mention all the other PERKS, eh???
Jerôme, you have got to believe that anyone with a political viewpoint not in line with neocon/Zionist propaganda is under scrutiny. It used to be just those of us who studied Russian, or were involved in the peace movement. Now it’s anyone who’s out of line. Much of the surveillance is done from GCHQ but the United States is monitoring us from Menwith Hill near Harrogate. It’s bad enough to be watched by the Brits alone but to have a foreign power doing it rather goes against the grain. There is no parliamentary consent. There’s a campaign to get rid of this base (Campaign for the Aboliton of American Bases) and it can be done. Karimov, although a wicked dictator, got rid of the US military base in Uzbekistan. President Correa, who I’m warming to, kicked them out of Ecuador. He told Julian Assange it was all right for the Americans to have a base in Ecuador if he could have one in Miami.
http://www.caab.org.uk/
Correa also made a rather shrewd observation that there is more difference in his viewpoint from morning to afternoon than there ever is between the Democrats and Republicans in the Senate. I paraphrase.
Anders7777, very creative!
“That is a given. Yes and yes.”
I wouldn’t let it flatter. There are so many databases and datasets which people doing more and less than supporting this blog, will appear on, in this age.
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I WOULD let it flatter.
Ever hear if CARNIVORE or ECHELON?
We are in the age of TIC – total information control.
If you already know the answers to your pointless leading questions, why bother asking Jeremy? 😉
John Goss 25 Sep, 2012 – 3:49 pm
“Jack Straw is trying to snake his way out of his culpability for the war in Iraq”
Is it too hopeful to read that the pragmatic lawyer is preparing his case: “it wasn’t me, it was him”.
anders7777 25 Sep, 2012 – 3:54 pm
“Claire Short also stood up against the warmongers”
Don’t forget Short’s failure to resign with Cook seriously undermined his effort. But, following your suggestion, which I personally doubt, it may have saved her bacon.
What can we hope to achieve following the neo con/marxist
Policy of divide and conquer?
More diversity and harder to crack conquerers.
Simple.
“=====
I’m a lumberjack and I’m OK
I sleep all night and I work all day
(He’s a lumberjack and he’s OK
He sleeps all night and he works all day)
………..”
True story, I met a woman one evening who told me she was Swedish, I asked her her name and she said “timber”. Jokingly I said, “What, is your dad a lumberjack?” , she said, “Yes, he is”. I laughed but point blank refused to believe her name, I thought she was winding me up and demanded to see some form of ID, she showed me her cash card and right there it said Tymber Andersson.
Referring to the growing influence of MI6, the late Hugo Young, former Chief at the Guardian / Observer newspapers said a decade ago – “They [MI6] are not afraid to announce their central role in government.” And presumably in foreign policy too.
The same changes are apparent in Canada with CSIS appearing to exercise more and more of the real power, and not just in foreign policy. Lobster Magazine (Summer 2011) published an article by former senior Canadian intelligence operative, Gareth Llewellyn – headlined “CSIS and the Canadian stasi” – in which Mr. Llewellyn alleges that Prime Minister Harper, himself, was a former CSIS Operative.
.
Times have changed. Perhaps wrongly, but times have changed and the diplomatic corps seems less important than it once was in both the UK and Canada with much of its influence being taken over by the secret intelligence services. Should we not be more concerned about existing multilateral agreements in intelligence such as the “UKUSA agreement” for cooperation among the signals intelligence services of the UK, USA, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, rather than worry about cooperation agreements between the diplomatic services who seem to count for less and less anyway.
“Robin Cook was whacked….” 😯 😆
Thanks for that Anders, I haven’t laughed that much since I stuck on Life of Brian a couple of weeks ago.
You got any more belters for us? Please.
@phil
Don’t forget Short’s failure to resign with Cook seriously undermined his effort. But, following your suggestion, which I personally doubt, it may have saved her bacon.
=====
I was just doing this from memory on the old iPhone down the pub, I’m sure you are correct.
Iirc smith dies hillwalking
So does cook
So does Kelly but he never made it up any hill
Smith pegs it
Antonia Miranda arrivee
Out of nowhere
Done by the old bill cottaging in safe seat beaconsfield
Out of nowhere this fantasist with purposely unfixed teeth
To this very day
Is parachuted in to become pm
Gay as a bi box of frogs
Shares throughout his miserable existence with other “chums” he absents the grease on the pole for
See the Polanski film, the ghost
So this tart agrees with bush to invade Iraq
Goldsmith has a conscience, sez no
He is flown pronto to fc where he Dora’s a beatific volte face
2m on the streets in the UK
NO matter
Tb called by bush
Shrub
Mics off
YO BLAIR
and he gets his shekels
Pounds of flesh
And 13 easy pieces
Et cetera
Vomit
“Robin Cook was whacked….”
Thanks for that Anders, I haven’t laughed that much since I stuck on Life of Brian a couple of weeks ago.
You got any more belters for us? Please.
=====
I’m perfectly serious.
You are clearly incapable of seeing what happened.
Perhaps you think Kelly had a nosebleed too.
CanSpeccy,
Are you suggesting that instead of embassies , our diplomats have Lan parties ? Or Skype each other ? It’s interesting !
And I beg to differ on Scotland becoming an ethnic triviality by leaving the UK.It’s the other way around if they stay.Centralisation whether it is Westminster or Brussels removes power and renders the people trivial along with their needs and their problems.
The people who don’t like borders or locks on doors , or trade barriers are usually trying to rob you blind.
Scotlands mining Industry was destroyed by Westminster and their fishing industry destroyed by Brussels.Means nothing to anybody outside the country but it ripped communities apart and the scars are still there.
Better the devil you know than the one you don’t !
I feel disgusted with what both Canada and the UK have done to their people. They are certainly good bedfellows, but the reality of this is that the UK wants to capitalize on Canada’s positive international image, in the wake of violence against embassies and their staff. It’s pure colonialism.
Go on then Anders, entertain me at the witching hour, let me guess, Gaynor Cook was a Mossad\MI6 plant and pushed him to his death ❓
Go on then Anders, entertain me at the witching hour, let me guess, Gaynor Cook was a Mossad\MI6 plant and pushed him to his death
=====
Mock ye!
Mock ye!
(Frankie Howerd)
In all seriousness, read THE GHOST, and I was onto the plot soon after Smith dies and this arsehole transvestite Antonia Mirand Blair was parachuted in – BTW, those two names were what he went by at Fettes and at his dragonlady Chambers.
My disgust is TOTAL.
The Ghost Writer (released as The Ghost in the United Kingdom and Ireland)[2] is a 2010 French-German-British political thriller film directed by Roman Polanski. The film is an adaptation of the Robert Harris novel, The Ghost, with the screenplay written by Polanski and Harris. It stars Ewan McGregor, Pierce Brosnan, Kim Cattrall and Olivia Williams.[3]
Plot
An unnamed English ghostwriter (Ewan McGregor) is recruited to complete the memoirs of former British Prime Minister Adam Lang (Pierce Brosnan). His predecessor on the project, Mike McAra, Lang’s long-term aide, died in an apparent accident. The writer’s agent, Rick Ricardelli (Jon Bernthal), is very much in favour, and the writer will make $250,000, but the project is on a very tight schedule. The writer travels to the fictional American village of Old Haven (an allusion to Vineyard Haven) on Martha’s Vineyard where Lang is staying with his wife, Ruth (Olivia Williams) and a staff of servants and security personnel. The writer is checked into a small hotel. Lang’s personal assistant (and mistress) Amelia Bly (Kim Cattrall) forbids him to take McAra’s manuscript outside, emphasizing that it is a security risk.
Shortly after the writer’s arrival, Lang is accused by former British Foreign Secretary Richard Rycart (Robert Pugh) of authorising illegal seizure of suspected terrorists and handing them over for torture by the CIA, a possible war crime. Lang faces the threat of prosecution by the International Criminal Court, unless he stays in the U.S. or goes to another country that does not recognise the court’s jurisdiction.
Reporters and protesters swarm over the island. To prevent the press from having access to him, the writer moves into Lang’s house, using McAra’s old room, whose personal belongings have not been cleared out yet. Lang departs for some high-profile Washington meetings with top US officials to convey the PR message that all is well. As the ghost writer clears the room, he finds an envelope containing clues suggesting McAra may have stumbled on a dark secret. Among the material is also handwritten phone number which the ghost writer discovers belongs to Rycart. During a bicycle ride around the island, as the rain and wind pick up, the writer seeks shelter and meets an old man (Eli Wallach), who tells him that there is no possible way the current could have taken McAra’s body from the ferry where he disappeared to the beach where it was discovered. The old man also reveals that a neighbour woman saw flashlights on the beach the night the body was discovered, but later fell down her stairs and went into a coma. Continuing his ride, the writer is intercepted by Ruth and her security guard who have gone out to look for him. On the ride back, she clutches the writer’s hand as she cries. He doesn’t protest, interpreting her emotional outburst as feeling neglected and abandoned by Lang. Back at the estate, he and Ruth watch the evening news, the leading story being Lang’s visit with the vice president in Washington. At the dinner, and later over drinks, they talk fairly openly. The writer wonders why someone like Lang (handsome skirt-chaser) suddenly decided to go into politics in his early twenties when he never had a political thought in his head up to that point. Ruth admits to being much more political than Lang and says that until lately he always took her advice. The writer tells her what he heard about the body from the villager. She seems very shaken by the news and suddenly rushes out into the rainy night to “clear her head”. Upon getting back, distraught and soaked, she confides in the writer that Lang and McAra had a terrible row the night before he died and, while weeping inconsolably, wonders “what has my husband gotten himself into.” She and the writer end up sleeping together that night.
The next morning, feeling he’s becoming too intimate with his subject, the writer decides to move back to the hotel. He gets into the car used by McAra, but instead of going to the hotel he decides to follow the instructions McAra had programmed into the car’s SatNav, which leads him off the island to the Belmont estate of Professor Paul Emmett (Tom Wilkinson). Emmett denies anything more than a cursory acquaintance with Lang despite a photograph of the two of them on the wall of his study that Emmett dismisses as Lang showing up at an event organized by Emmett’s organisation called Arcadia. The writer then confronts Emmett with the fact that the GPS directions from Lang’s estate to Emmett’s house were programmed into McAra’s car the night he died, but Emmett denies any knowledge and seems evasive as the conversation turns testy. The writer leaves Emmett’s estate, and he is followed by a car, but eludes it. The writer boards the ferry, but when he sees the car that had followed him drive aboard, he flees the boat and checks into a small motel by the ferry dock.
The writer dials Rycart, who inquires about his whereabouts and indicates he’ll pick him up. While waiting for Rycart, he does a Google search on Paul Emmett, finding that in addition to being a Pulitzer Prize-winning author and geopolitical affairs expert, the professor is linked with the military contractor Hatherton Group through the Arcadia think tank that’s focused on Anglo-American relations. He also finds leads that connect Emmett to the CIA as early as 1971 when he graduated from Yale University and was just one of the number of individuals from academia whom CIA recruited for the creation of propaganda material to be used abroad.
Once Rycart arrives, he tells the writer that McAra was the one who supplied him with documents linking Lang to torture flights. The last time they talked McAra also told him about finding something new that he didn’t want to talk about over the phone, confiding to him that in case anything happened, the key to explaining everything that had gone wrong in Lang’s and Rycart’s government was in the beginning of the book. The men cannot, however, find anything in the manuscript’s early pages. Then Lang calls and the writer is told by Rycart to go with Lang. On the plane, the writer accuses Lang of being a CIA agent recruited by Emmett, but Lang derides his suggestion.
Upon alighting the aircraft, Lang is assassinated by a British anti-war protestor who had lost a son while Lang was Prime Minister. The assassin is in turn shot by Lang’s bodyguards. The writer is questioned by U.S. authorities as the prime witness; they take his passport so that he has to stay and provide information. Despite Lang’s death, the writer is asked to complete the book for posthumous publication.
Back in London, during the book launch party, Amelia tells him by accident that the order to have the manuscript accessed by only a few people actually came from the Americans, as the “beginnings” contained evidence that threatened national security. She also tells him that Emmett was Ruth’s tutor when she was a Fulbright scholar. He now realises that the clues were hidden in the original manuscript at the beginning of each chapter, and discovers the message, “Lang’s wife Ruth was recruited as a CIA agent by Professor Paul Emmett of Harvard University.” Ruth has shaped Lang’s every political decision to benefit the United States, as directed by the CIA. The writer passes a note to Ruth telling of his discovery. She unfolds the note, and is devastated. She sees the writer raising his glass, as if making a toast to her and leaving the party with the original manuscript in hand. She starts following him but is stopped by Emmett. As the writer crosses the street off-camera, a car accelerates in his direction, and sound effects and flying papers indicate that he has been hit.
vague hague definitions.
short slightly gay bald northern twatter.
probably was half decent once but you see when you have skeletons in cupboards you are open to control and black mail yes no.
sharing of embassies is a spiffing idea wot wot.
all very tight and cozy don’t you know.
the aussie and canuck governments are owned by mr rothchild and family members kind of a testing ground for stuff it makes perfect sense to merge all the assets.
wot wot.
Yes Anders that’s a lovely story, but what in the name of the wee man does it have to do with Robin having a heart attack on Ben Stack (sorry being whacked) ❓
PS. Last time I checked Robert Harris was in the fiction section at my local Waterstones. Although I suggest you try your hand, some of your tales could give him something to think about.
Stay tuned CE, you have a loooong way to go Matey boy!
Toneeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
Parfait, as usual!
yes no
I thought what linked (being in the Labour Party not being enough) John Smith, Donald Dewar and Robin Cook was a certain blood-thinning drug. Gaynor McFarlane is of course a BBC producer, a well known nest of spookery, vetting and plants, but does quality work. I haven’t read the Guardian article, (like the BBC and google/youtube the internet is just fine without them) but embassies are on the front line thanks to American exceptionalism mainly, with worry over future security practicalities and costs it might make sense.
Fukushima: earthquake, tsunami, nuclear meltdowns, we accept all three events, but can anyone say for certain which order they happened in –all the right notes but not in the right order. What is the connection between Fukushima and Dimona?
CE, where are you fomenting your fantasy wars for tonight, the situation of the gay community in Iraq is becoming pretty desperate, any likelihood of sorting their plight out for them before setting you set course for Teheran?
CE
Yes Anders that’s a lovely story, but what in the name of the wee man does it have to do with Robin having a heart attack on Ben Stack (sorry being whacked)
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read the Ranulph Fiennes book The Feathermen
coupla quid on amazon 2nd hand
get back to me! 🙂
ce
are one of those weird conspiracy types that thinks the british government is above reproach in the kill whack dept.
how much blood has liar blair on his hands.
none
some
a bucket
a bath full
or a scottish loch full.
they did a lovely thing with mr cook they allowed his body to be found in a lovely quite place.
they allowed him to keep his reputation intact
rather than putting him in a sports bag.
or putting an orange in his mouth some womens tights on and hanging him next to a porn mag.
nobody likes a wankers death.
by having the main male eye witness push him it left his reputation intact and kept another kelly like loose cannon quite.