Would you like to be shot with a red gun or blue gun, sir? That is the limit of the choice being offered the UK electorate as New Labour announces it will keep the Coalition public spending plans and the Coalition benefit cuts. Given it will also throw away £100 billion on Trident, and New Labour initiated the rampant privatisation of the Health Service, PFI, Tuition Fees etc., my point could not have been more eloquently proven that the UK electorate is no longer offered any meaningful choice by the neo-con parties.
It also of course demolishes completely the Gordon Brown argument that Scots need to stay in the Union to put New Labour in to power. Who carries out Tory policies is not the question; and why a nation should surrender its freedom just to make sure Ed Balls has a ministerial car and salary while he implements Tory policies, is not a question which to me has an obvious answer.
The only meaningful political choice any part of the UK population will have in the foreseeable future is the Scottish Independence Referendum. If Scots do not take their chance, all they have ahead is economic decline and the collapse of public services. The choice could not be more stark.
I know it’s a criminal offence to infect other people with HIV, but could we not have a law to stop certain members infecting important discussions with Hidden institutional values?
I’m still fuming about this statement by Herpesballs:
“Perhaps such an approach was only capable of general acceptance in the aftermath of something like WW2, where an existential danger succeeded in overcoming – temporarily – man’s natural selfishness?” in the Ed Balls thread.
Is it the product of a functioning brain to question the intrinsic usefulness of mutual human assistance? Do we not pay politicians large salaries to lay out these stupid ideas in parliament without having Hoblinshill spittle wetting our internet earlobes? I know the talking end of the phone sometimes need a wipe round with disinfectant, but you shouldn’t have to keep a toilet roll permanently on hand to dry the drivel from your earholes.
Subtract the trolls (Guano and Alan Campbell/Fred included) and there would be very few left here actively commenting until this pestilence passes. Self-congratulation of the “mission accomplished”, “or my job here is done” type, as the trolls would gloatingly put it, can only be premature. In time they stick out like a sore thumb, and given enough rope …
Mark Golding
It seems obvious to me the the Shi’a militia that were deployed in Al Qusayr were transported through Jordan from their unwelcome presence in Baghdad to Syria through the agency of the arch-betrayers, Israel, who are supposed to be part of the USUKIS alliance for Assad regime change.
Our banking friends, to whom we owe the very survival of Western Economies as they (do not) exist, have now explained why they needed to conquer Iraq. To cover their northern border with Sunni Syria by means of their real real friends the Shia. N.B. No Bull, my friend.
Catcreptin
I have an agenda, but it ain’t the same as Haven’taprayer or JustasIfeared. Spare me the sick-bowl, please.
I agree with you Guano (in this rare instance) with the “intrinsic usefulness of mutual human assistance”. Though that important and heartening thought was lost in the obscuring superfluous verbiage. It has a been a large part of group/tribal survival, it served us well and still can, but a global society which preaches institutionally ‘think only of yourself’ and in which only those who do so thrive, will in time lead to those following such a credo ascending to power and those rejecting it perishing. I then consider that this dismal course of events and outcome has already happened, an incalculable number of times. One then considers if such narcissism is genetically heritable, that successor generations might or might not be destined to or pre-disposed, selected to behave in the same manner as their progenitors, or is each child anew pure and their environment will make them monsters.
@guano: Well your joining in with the demonisation of Assad is (still) very suspect, and when you get all religious and quasi-mystical it makes my and I’m sure many others heads spin and eyes glaze over, sometimes for me simply the word g-o-d causes this reaction and automatically and totally discredits the interlocuter as someone “lost in the prisons of religion”. At the same time I especially abhor religious discrimination as the circumstances, the labelling that assigns one or another person to any faith is more often than not arbitary, is very rarely a conscious choice and if it was a conscious choice, rather than the more common familial inherited religion, it is even less explicable. There is more than enough to be seized upon to divide us without creating new intangible ones that are entirely societal constructs.
I’ve had that feeling recently: opening a book (ostensibly dealing with scientific/technical matters) and finding ‘God’ was there top of the list in the acknowledgements section; after a hearty laugh I threw it in the bin unread, rather than risk whatever idiocies might follow.
Dr Liam Fox on the way back in…..
Don’t forget, you read about it on Habbabkuk first!
Ruth Davidson with Andrew Neil on the Daily Politics show
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dlvj1FlRsTc
Good for the six protesters (including a pensioner) for standing up to this obscenity.
UK’s use of drones in Afghanistan ‘may be in breach of international law’
Campaigning lawyers challenge legal defence set out by RAF as six protesters await trial over mass trespass of UK drone HQ
Owen Bowcott, legal affairs correspondent
The Guardian, Saturday 8 June 2013
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/08/uk-drones-afghanistan-legal-challenge
Heather Brooke and a Gabriel Schoenfeld on Ch 4 News last night.
Do democracies have to operate in secret? video
Gabriel Schoenfeld says covert information gathering may be necessary when a country is at war. Journalist Heather Brooke argues that governments have to make the case for such behaviour.
http://www.channel4.com/news/do-democracies-have-to-operate-in-secret-video
Schoenfeld comes from the right wing think tank The Hudson Institute.
http://www.hudson.org/learn/index.cfm?fuseaction=staff_bio&eid=GabrielSchoenfeld
If we’re talking drones, we should also talk about the complicity of the Pakistani military with the Afghan/’good’ Taliban. Pakistan if i recollect was at one time a better performing economy than India. They missed an opportunity in the last decade to milk the Americans (who were spending $11 billion a month on the Afghan War) and build a modern economy. Instead it is the Pak military i believe that took away the cream — and probably banked it in Dubai and Saudi Arabia (HQ).
As the pull-out begins, it is worrying what will be the fate of the ordinary Afghans. While o/t i would quite like to hear Frazer’s views. The Scots thread appears to be exhausted from what i can see.
“Privacy is certainly on the decrease and that would indicate that we’re heading towards more primitive times.”
Herbie you’re absolutely right, except we are already far more primitive than is made out to be by ‘modern’ man, which most people i suspect are unwilling to accept.
What about cooperation? What do you see as the trends there?
Will comment on that later…..off to London and to see Craig later today.
Craig, hope you’re feeling better. At a pain management level, it is worth exploring some kind of needle or other pointed treatment e.g. what Mark suggested.
I tried intramuscular stimulation once upon my neck which i couldn’t move and walked out 15 mins later approx. 80% better — couldn’t believe it. It wasn’t acupuncture. Check this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dry_needling
I still think, if you are a swimmer, you might be able to release the pain by even a little improvement on working on your body conditioning. And the avoidance of all milk products other than the few drops in your tea will help to stop exacerbating the pain. And of course less meat, more vegetables, and no sour and fermented foods. Good luck!
Check this video out, its a rather crude version of IMS, but it seemed to work. Inspiring:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-xBz2h1Cc4
Thanks Frazer. I’ll certainly look forward to it. And keep the bottle away from him on this occasion, substitute with chamomile, mint or green tea — lots off. Be good to see him back on his feet soon.
O/T but topical (ie current)
Prime Minister David Cameron will be hosting a G8 “hunger summit” in London on Today. Present at this summit will be representatives from some of the most powerful multinationals including Cargill and Monsanto.
“This is part of what is called the New Alliance for food security and nutrition (called at the G8 last year). In actual fact, this New Alliance is going to be the vehicle to spread land grabbing and GM across the African agricultural economy. African countries are going to be signed up to aid conditionalities that will open them up for private takeover of their land and seeds and further resource extraction.”
http://www.wdm.org.uk/g8-fuelling-hunger
Cargill operates in 66 countries.
“In 2005, the International Labor Rights Fund filed suit against Cargill, Nestlé, and Archer Daniels Midland in federal court on behalf of children who were trafficked from Mali into Côte d’Ivoire and forced to work 12 to 14 hours a day with no pay, little food and sleep, and frequent physical abuse, on cocoa bean plantations.”
“Cargill is a major buyer of cotton in Uzbekistan, despite the industry prevalence of uncompensated workers and possible human rights abuses, and admissions made by two representatives that the company is aware of the possible use of child labor in the production of its crops. Their concerns have been public since 2005, but no action has been taken regarding labor violations existent in their Uzbek operations.”
Monsanto:
Well, where do I start?
“The new alliance prioritises unprecedented access for multinational companies to resources in Africa. To access cash under the initiative, African governments have to make far-reaching changes to their land, seed and farming policies.”
“For a disturbing read, take a look at the new alliance’s co-operation frameworks with countries. Mozambique, for example, is committed to “systematically ceasing to distribute free and unimproved [non-commercial] seeds to farmers except in emergencies”.
The new alliance will lock poor farmers into buying increasingly expensive seeds – including genetically modified seeds – allow corporate monopolies in seed selling, and escalate the loss of precious genetic diversity in seeds – absolutely key in the fight against hunger.
It will also open the door to genetically modified (GM) crops in Africa by stopping farmers’ access to traditional local varieties and forcing them to buy private seeds.”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/poverty-matters/2013/jun/07/g8-new-alliance-flawed-project
I wonder what will be on the food menu for this gathering of VIP’s?
“The new alliance prioritises unprecedented access for multinational companies to resources in Africa. To access cash under the initiative, African governments have to make far-reaching changes to their land, seed and farming policies.”
They’re at it in Europe too.
http://www.realseeds.co.uk/seedlaw.html
I thought I might come across the names here when searching for G8 hunger summit. Phony Tony has nothing on Agent Cameron.
‘This ‘New Alliance’ was launched during the US G8 presidency last year. There’s plenty in it to benefit Unilever and the other multinationals – including Cargill, Monsanto and Syngenta – who have signed up, but it’s much less obvious how it will translate into poverty reduction.’
The real winners from today’s hunger summit
The real causes of hunger are inequality of wealth and power, not a lack of big business. So the G8 leaders should abandon their efforts to promote the corporate takeover of African agriculture, and instead support the demands of the African farmers’ groups.
http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2013/06/real-winners-todays-hunger-summit
~~~
G8 “Hunger Summit” initiative rejected by African civil society – Corporate takeover of agriculture & land will increase hunger, groups claim PDF 03 June 2013
At the heart of the leading initiatives to “modernise” African agriculture is a drive to open markets and create space for multinationals to secure profits. Green revolution technologies – and the legal and institutional changes being introduced to support them – will benefit a few at the expense of the majority.
As world leaders gather at the high profile ‘Hunger Summit’ in London this week to endorse the spate of on-going initiatives to ‘modernise’ African agriculture, 57 farmer and civil society organisations from 37 countries across the continent have slammed these efforts as ‘a new wave of colonialism’. Harmonisation, free trade and the creation of institutions and infrastructure to facilitate multinational companies’ penetration into Africa are presented as the answer to food insecurity on the continent. These large multinational seed, fertiliser and agrochemical companies are setting the agenda for the G8’s “New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition in Africa”, the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) and the implementation of the African Union’s Comprehensive African Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP).
http://www.acbio.org.za/index.php/media/64-media-releases/432-g8-qhunger-summitq-initiative-rejected-by-african-civil-society-corporate-takeover-of-agriculture-a-land-will-increase-hunger-groups-claim
Sorry Fred and Doug. Didn’t look back before posting. Great minds think alike 🙂 but we all have different links.
4I was prompted to post something having just seen the well fed face of Cameron speaking humbug about 1 billion on this planet going hungry. I presume that he and the other parasites at The Grove all filled their faces last night on the best food available.
http://www.thegrove.co.uk/food/
Cryptonym
Thank you for your generous and open-minded response. I agree with you about fears that the human spirit is capable of degenerating and that is the best possible argument for welcoming outsiders of all colours into the UK to freshen up our mental habits as a nation. Humans thrive on inter-communication.
My work makes it necessary to befriend and to use the services of people of many religions. Tensions occur and we have to bear in mind our interdependence on eachother all the time. Sometimes when people forget this, as the dictators like Saddam and Assad have done, we have to remind them. If you take us off the street in broad daylight and torture us, we will one day find a way to return your treatment to you. Revenge is for killing, not for every little thing.
When a Muslim is having a go at other creeds it does not mean that they are about to wield the machetes on the streets of London, or even if they found themselves on the streets of Aleppo. We are trying to find the theologically correct route to paradise as contained in the scriptures given for the purpose.
1967 mini manual id no good for BMW mini. BS 7671 2008 Electrical Installation, revised, not the 12th,15th or even 16th edition. My sense of humour comes from that spiritual truth. When you see that God is in charge of everything, then trials become opportunities.
Sometimes even health events like Craig’s enable one to find how much of the rest of the body system is functioning normally, while the particular problem is being analysed for a solution. Cure is with God. He made the system, and He has a right to pull us up and check our intentions in whatever way it suits Him.
They say that incongruity is the source of humour. As in Lewis Carroll:
“”In my youth,” said his father, “I took to the law,
And argued each case with my wife;
And the muscular strength which it gave to my jaw,
Has lasted the rest of my life.”
But when I told my son yesterday that the pelvic muscles my ex developed doing bad things have enabled her now to join an Olympic rowing team, I get told off for being cheeky. There are ways and ways of dealing with problems, and the right ones, the light-weight, humourous ones do seem to take a long time coming.
Fred “The survey shows 35% in favour and 62% against, that’s in line with the last independent survey I saw.”
You are wrong, Fred.
The survey shows 35% in favour of independence, and 24% for the status quo, with another 6% wanting the Scottish Parliament abolished. I make that 35% for, and 30% against.
The rest wanted Devo Max, which isn’t on offer. How they vote will decide the referendum.
http://wingsoverscotland.com/uninteresting-news-ignored/
Back to Prism. Microsoft’s Gates has just been on TV. He is at the G8 ‘Hunger’ Summit needless to say. The interview wasn conducted in the open air with the Shard in the background. He completely denied any Microsoft involvement in or complicity with the NSA project.
LOL. And laughing in our faces, again.
Passerby linked to this blog yesterday.
NSA Built Back Door In All Windows Software by 1999
Posted on June 7, 2013 by Washingtons Blog
Government Built Spy-Access Into Most Popular Consumer Program Before 9/11
In researching the stunning pervasiveness of spying by the government (it’s much more wide spread than you’ve heard even now), we ran across the fact that the FBI wants software programmers to install a backdoor in all software.
Digging a little further, we found a 1999 article by leading European computer publication Heise which noted that the NSA had already built a backdoor into all Windows software:
/..
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2013/06/microsoft-programmed-in-nsa-backdoor-in-windows-by-1999.html
Hold that about Gates and Prism. Might have misheard what he said judging from another conversation I just heard. Will confirm.
Flaming June.
I was aware of my car being tracked by police in the early 90s and the Family police officer told me it was ridiculous for me to think that the technology to do that was affordable or available at that time. Until quite recently they were trying to persuade us that street-cleaners were working for MI5 trying to glean information about us Muslims.
Fact is, that not only do they gather information about us but they share that information with a broad range of Muslim institutions, such as employers, Mosques and other agents. The best way to deal with this unwanted attention is to feed them with everything they don’t want to hear about the truth, religion, Bilderberg succubi, the workings of the bought mentality of the collaborator section of society. When they are being paid to listen, they have to listen. Snoop soup, sheep’s eyeballs, everything!
Ask Herbacious-Bordering-On-Insane.
@Frazer 7 Jun 10:30pm
Although my comment at 10:25pm 7 Jun was my first post, like you I have been following Craig’s blog for some years. Generally I find the debate informed and thought-provoking, and often this blog is the first site I visit when the computer gets turned on.
Having said that, there are a few individuals who delight in directing sarcastic, sometimes malicious remarks at others seemingly for the “sport” of it. Feeling tired and irritable at the end of a bad day at work, I couldn’t resist my response to that individual. I actually found it quite therapeutic 🙂
I wholeheartedly agree with your sentiments but beg your indulgance just this one time.
THANK you June
The other question he refused point blank to address was in reference to fair trade.
Like other hypocrite so called philanthropists Gates does not seem to see the blindingly obvious connection between the unequal distribution of wealth on the one hand and enduring starvation and poverty on the other. He and other plutocrats who had benefited from government ineptitude and inability (or perhaps used their obscene wealth as influence) to legislate against protectionism and for free trade to become maga rich. To answer the question about whether fair trade with LECDs might not be a better solution than giving direct food relief, hiding behind the mask of philanthropy and saintliness like school child Gates refused to answer unless the questions made him look spotless, quite clearly from your research he has spots the size of craters to cover up.
Juin Flambée
Wasn’t Herbacious Border.. not telling us recently that lack privacy was the norm for us detritus of human specimins. Some of us evolved respect for our fellow human beings and we regard spying or repeating what we overheard as a very low pursuit.
When I was in Turkey a couple of years ago I asked them what they thought about low-grade jobless Herbacious types taking jobs spying. They regarded it as very much part of the norm, as if they were well conditioned to Big Brother. This explains the popularity of Egodan. Many would rather a bout of direct confrontation to the constant grinding looking over the shoulder, by homosexual, non-Muslim, freemason, Attaturk spying.
Unfortunately amongst Muslim would-be leaders in this country it is now the norm. A respectable Muslim profession. Allah forgive us and guide us to another way. No wonder people don’t trust the Muslims!
“You are wrong, Fred.
The survey shows 35% in favour of independence, and 24% for the status quo, with another 6% wanting the Scottish Parliament abolished. I make that 35% for, and 30% against.
The rest wanted Devo Max, which isn’t on offer. How they vote will decide the referendum.”
Well no, I’m not wrong. Only 35% voted in an option resulting in independence while 62% voted for an option which didn’t.
The last independent poll I saw showed 31% yes and 59% no which, as I said, is in line with those figures.
http://www.scotsman.com/the-scotsman/politics/scottish-independence-poll-drop-in-yes-backing-1-2924728
The independent poll didn’t try to manipulate the figures by giving options which will not be on the ballot paper.
Let’s use your logic then Fred.
Only 24% want the status quo, therefore 76% want change. As independence is the only change offered, independence is a formality.