I have a guilty political secret. I do not detest Gordon Brown. That is such an unfashionable opinion that I don’t really expect any comments at all to agree with it. And yes, I do realise that he went along with the Iraq War and all the other horrors of the Blair era. Interestingly, I don’t remember the question of what Gordon Brown really thought about Iraq ever being discussed; he deserves condemnation for having not tried to stop it, and perhaps he was indeed an enthusiast. And I am well aware that the Private Finance Initiative is a terrible disaster, and that he oversaw creeping privatisation in the health services, and – worst of all – the introduction of tuition fees.
And yet I cannot dislike him. Probably because I just know too many people who have known him through decades, who are themselves good people, and who like him. Around Edinburgh and Fife you will find it hard to find people who actually know him who share the hatred and contempt he seems to arouse among the political and media classes of London.
As a general rule I do not like or dislike people according to their politics, but rather according to the sincerity of their political beliefs and the goodwill with which they hold them. I am sure Anders Breivik is sincere in his political beliefs, but those are lacking in goodwill. Sincerity is not enough – humanity and inclusiveness are also important.
There are one nation Tories who seem to me perfectly decent people, genuinely trying to do good. I don’t hate them because their political conclusions on the best way to do good are different to mine. Gordon Brown I put rather in the same category – I feel he was trying to do good for ordinary people, he just got it wrong.
Blair is in a whole different category again – insincere, absolutely focused on attaining personal power, and with a Messianic belief that what is good for him must be good for the World. The Guardian is publishing some emails around the Blair Brown rivalry this week. I don’t care and won’t read them. But while I see Blair as quite properly damned for eternity to the seventh pit of hell, I don’t think Brown deserves anything worse than North Queensferry.
I have been in Ghana the last 20 days living in a house with no internet connection and working (extremely hard) in an office with virtually no internet connection – not enough to load WordPress. I hope to get more chance to blog shortly.
Apology accepted Glenn for confusing me with another. Easy mistake to make.
But could you leave out the sainted bit please. You are following in Habbabkuk’s footsteps (late of this blog) there!
“So, is Palestinian nationalism a virus?”
Why yes, it is like a virus.
Don’t you think Zionism, or Jewish Nationalism, is like a virus?
Don’t you think the world would be a better place had neither existed?
The inquest of the late Mark Duggan continues. The latest revelation is that a senior police officer lied.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-24223890#
Craig had him down as criminal.
http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2011/11/more-fasshionable-left-stupidity/
http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2011/08/the-killing-of-mark-duggan/ A gun was found 20 metres away from the scene.
Anyway, Michael Mansfield QC who is representing the Duggan family is giving up his chambers.
Leading civil rights lawyers Tooks Chambers closes, blaming legal aid cuts
The chambers led inquiries into the deaths of Stephen Lawrence and Princess Diana and the Hillsborough disaster
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/leading-civil-rights-lawyers-tooks-chambers-closes-blaming-legal-aid-cuts-8835371.html
A loss to civil rights.
@Suhayl
I hadn’t thought and didn’t know at all about SOAS as a recruitment centre for spies. Same for lse and kings of course. Even the ‘connections’ with dodgy monied foreigners.
I know people who are attending/ have attended. I’m going to have to ask if they ever heard of such activity. Everything I have ever heard from students is how great the courses are. The politics courses sound way more interesting than other london unis. And I speak as someone with a few cses under my belt.
I think the world would be a better place if there were no countries trying to hold dominion over others.
Some nationalist movements are simply trying to seek self determination. They have no interest in conquest or expansion. I would include Palestine and Scotland in this group.
Other nationalist movements seek to expand their influence, by war or economic means. There are plenty of examples!
Well so far NASA hasn’t had much luck imaging ISON recently. Now the European Space Agency has just started a two week observation campaign with Mare Express.
http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Preparing_for_Comet_ISON
I hope that elderly gentleman that seems to be have been assaulted by Iain Dale has been for a check up at the hospital, I hope he is alright ?.
Does anyone know if Iain Dale has been charged with assault/GBH yet.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_SMvUFTPKw
@ Glenn
Q: I asked you to tell me where Moore’s film presents a “9/11″ conspiracy theory.
R: Sometimes it’s those who’re on he opposite side of one’s personal views, who can shed new light on what you’re looking at.
My uncle [retired senior captain, who flew wide-body planes for JAL] remarked that ‘switching off a responder doesn’t mean the plane’s actually ‘off radar.'”
Think about that for a second/moment or 2.
My friend Barbara’s husband [owner of the Uemura Gummi, a humongous construction company], “After 9/11, they haven’t changed the building codes…”
Think about that for a moment too.
If Micheal Moore is really that smart, wtf is he so ff-ing obese?
Why does he point at Saudi Arabia only? Isn’t this matter far more complex?
How the F did OBL manage to arrange for the exact same ‘drills’ to take place where planes were highjacked and flown into buildings, leading to confusion amongst air traffic controllers?
LINK to audio
Also: “Some original recordings from 9/11 still have not been made public, including military communications, discussions among White House officials, and the cockpit voice recorder from Flight 93.”
Tape of Air Traffic Controllers Made on 9/11 Was Destroyed.
Magic tricks only work as long as the magician manages to misdirect your view [or distract you otherwise].
Daniel : Please don’t misunderstand my position. See the official “9/11” thread if you want to see what that is.
What I do object to is the lumping of every conspiracy theory together, as if they all had equal validity (or lack thereof). That’s what Mike was doing before he got all upset and ran off, claiming he was being treated unfairly, and what NR is still doing. It’s an unworthy attempt at equivalence where there is none. All have to be looked at on their individual merits.
It makes it particularly distasteful when – for example – the Sandy Hook victims are being treated as hoaxers, and it’s very annoying when a “9/11-truther” is expected to answer for (say) the lizzard-people conspiracies, Alex Jones type nonsense, and every last half-witted explanation that any “9/11” conspiracy theorist has ever come up with.
http://www.consensus911.org/
Though the most damning facts are the US government’s active intervention to shepherd the hijackers out of reach of law enforcement investigations. Richard Blee, Alfreda Francis Bikowsky, Michael Anne Casey, and Marion Bowman all participated. Bowman also obstructed justice by destroying evidence of the concurrent anthrax attacks.
“Some nationalist movements are simply trying to seek self determination. They have no interest in conquest or expansion. I would include Palestine and Scotland in this group.”
So you think the Scots are in the same position as the Palestinians? Don’t look now but the Palestinians are laughing at you.
How many times in history did Scotland invade England? Didn’t William Wallace invade England? What about Charles Stewart? Nationalists are never content with self determination if they were you would be content.
“It makes it particularly distasteful when – for example – the Sandy Hook victims are being treated as hoaxers, and it’s very annoying when a “9/11-truther” is expected to answer for (say) the lizzard-people conspiracies, Alex Jones type nonsense, and every last half-witted explanation that any “9/11″ conspiracy theorist has ever come up with.”
It is annoying that whenever the American government doesn’t want anyone to believe something it gets Iked.
Fred: Exactly! That’s my point – at least I hope _you_ understand that’s what I was saying.
This:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/23/donald-sachtleben-guilty-ap-leak_n_3977123.html?utm_hp_ref=politics
Stinks.
Let’s give Alex Jones his due. Jones is the only person giving a hearing to unsanctioned but unimpeachable sources such as William Pepper, Francis Boyle, Russ Baker, and Christopher Busby.
Ickes is different. Ickes mixes some interesting facts with easy-mock lizard overlords. It’s likely he’s a propaganda clown. With Ickes standing by, anyone who obtrudes an awkward fact faces instant guilt-by-association. Tellingly, Ickes catapulted scare stories of the tormail kiddy-porn attacks on progressive sites, which just happened to coincide with the FBI takedown of tormail. Funny how arch-pedophiles get to go about their business for years, until they put up a service that counters illegal NSA surveillance, then WHAM.
@ glenn 24 Sep, 2013 – 7:02 pm — replied at:
http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2010/01/the_911_post/comment-page-10/#comments
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B7t89yG3NCBNMVVaMXR5MlZMak0/edit
Five years ago, nearly 180,000 Americans were serving in harm’s way, and the war in Iraq was the dominant issue in our relationship with the rest of the world.
LIES
Iraq is still the ‘dominant’ issue. Four million Iraqis are still displaced. Iraq terrorists murder over a thousand innocent people and children a month. Some terrorists trained in Iraq have trained migrated to Syria causing tens of thousands of violent deaths.
For the United States, these new circumstances have also meant shifting away from a perpetual war-footing.
LIES
America wants war with Syria on lies. American wants war with Iran claiming they are building a nuclear bomb.
Nowhere have we seen these trends converge more powerfully than in Syria. There, peaceful protests against an authoritarian regime were met with repression and slaughter.
LIES
In 2011 the Syrian government introduced political reforms according to the Syrian peoples wishes. The slaughter of policeman and soldiers in the first week of the revolution was carried out by SAS mercenary trained Saudi terrorists.
And on August 21st, the regime used chemical weapons in an attack that killed more than 1,000 people, including hundreds of children.
LIES
Irrefutable evidence exists that proves the chemical weapons were supplied to terrorists who used them to deceive the world into thinking it was carried out by the Syrian government.
It’s time for Russia and Iran to realize that insisting on Assad’s rule will lead directly to the outcome they fear: an increasingly violent space for extremists to operate.
LIES
The Syrian government, President Assad and the Syrian people will prevent the situation we witness in Iraq today where terrorist bombs murder scores of innocent people including children daily.
The United States of America is prepared to use all elements of our power, including military force, to secure these core interests in the region.
LIES
American exceptionalism is proven to be extremely dangerous creating fear, destruction, death and deceit.
Yes, I agree. I tend to be towards the right but I’ve always had some respect for Brown – a much more substantial and honest politician than Blair, anyway.
I’ve always suspected that the media turned against him because he wouldn’t toe the Murdoch line. You’ll see that’s the case with a lot of ‘unpopular’ politicians, such as Clegg and Miliband. Meanwhile, people like Michael Gove and Jeremy Hunt get a relentlessly good press, even when they don’t do a lot to deserve it. Brown’s Sky microphone ‘accident’ has always reeked of dirty tricks to me.
Obama doesn’t need to demonise Assad. After UK snipers started the civil war Assad has destroyed most of his country and the rest has been destroyed by his opponents. What type of man defends his own power to that level that nothing is left of his constituency?
I see people describing Political Islamic as nihilistic. It is not. Assad is nihilistic. The dictator’s mind reads that if I cannot exist, nothing will exist, and that self-centred state of mind will never accept compromise or reason.
As and when Assad releases his destructive resources of chemical weapons, if he has any, he will realise that he can no longer take everything down with him. This strategy concocted by Russia and seconded by Obama demonstrates, for maybe the first time in history, psychological understanding and human intelligence being used by world leaders.
Maybe the strategy of Political Islam was from the outset to stage destruction on a scale that would panic the world leaders into stepping back from the brink that has characterised world leadership in the war on terror and Arab Spring. You want chaos, we will give you chaos. But Syria is just that tiny bit too close to home, on the edge of Europe, to be allowed to be destroyed by one self-obsessed dictator.
When Assad’s toys are taken away from him, tantrum time and removal will follow soon,
thanks for the apt links and for the cross issue posting, thats what makes this blog vital, not its bitching or incandescent demands for moderation.
Samantha Lewthwaite just being further put in the frame by hairy Pax’s Newsnight.
Thanks Mark G. for accentuating the LIES about Iraq and how the same old tactics are being used again in Syria.
Today Obama batted back Rouhani’s advances,(fool), after getting much attention from the Itranian PM he is still playing his limp dick role, he still needs to be stimulated some more so his AIPAC glands respond and the whole thing becomes an advert for the dismantling of Israels own nuclear capabilities.
I mean Israel, side by side with Egypt, North Korea, some other ROGUE island nation and Al Shababeeeee South Sudan are now the only nations on earth to not be members of the OPCW.
Outcasts or rebellious heroes?
what a shame that such bastion of democracy and goodwill towards its kind of humanity, have yet to join this important treaty, I mean what can we do here, regulars and lurkers, to change this equation, make the rulers of Palestine repent and realise that intelligent humanity does not need superiority complexes, that hope for the truth is bigger than perceived perspectives.?
suggestions on a stamp please.
sorry, I(t)ranian, grrrrrr, fast finger syndrom….
Really, xxpat, we know they don’t pick FBI goons for their brains, but Sachtleben pled to downloading kiddy pron to his home IPs on an open wireless connection (none of those files were found on his computer. Instead, he later got caught trading stuff over yahoo email accounts – logging in from his home IPs.) On his computer were ‘references’ in unallocated disk space. So he didn’t turn off swapping, didn’t overwrite file pointers. And he carried 30 pron files (of unspecified origin) around with him on the job. It’s plausible that a certain percentage of the population could be that inept, but an FBI agent? Trading kiddy porn is their profession. Was he basking in the afterglow of his FBI impunity? Thought he was still untouchable even in retirement?
Or maybe we’re learning how US government kompromat works.
That is one line of thought, but don’t fucking bet the farm, or for that matter the rickety old bicycle on it. The powers did not somehow got together, it was move and there will be new arsehole drilled proposition that got the point across.
Mediterranean will not become a private lake, regardless of the wishes of those bent on turning it into a private lake.
=====
Did anyone really expect any other reaction from the US?
US is no longer a country tethered to reality and reason, the events of the last decade should have clarified this beyond any reasonable shadow of a doubt. So far as the zionistan goes, this artificial entity too is on its way to the dustbin of history, it is only a matter of when in time, and not if.
Late night thought process:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=7B2crGXKXsY
OK OK yes I know I know, I apologise for the music…
The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge – Stephen Hawking
You might be right about about oor Gordon, purely on the basis that I generally believe the opposite of what I’m told by the mainstream flow of pish.
NR: Rather than make any sort of genuine reply, for example making a justification for your own assertions, you refer me to a link of the “9/11” discussion.
Would you be kind enough to explain why?
The transcript of the Iranian president to UN general assembly:
Hassan Rouhani Speech
Transcripts of the US president to UN general assembly:
Barack Obama Speech
Make your own minds up, and don’t let some fuckwit earning a living out of “newsing” you to confusion, make your mind up for you. After reading these then read the corporate media and see how far wide of the mark do these pontificate?
Finally, if you can be arsed to read the speech wanky Moon has delivered here is it is
“95 Year Old WWII Vet Refuses to go to Hospital for Urinary Tract Infection, so Police Shoot and Kill Him”
http://healthimpactnews.com/2013/95-year-old-wwii-vet-refuses-to-go-to-hospital-for-urinary-tract-infection-so-police-shoot-and-kill-him/
“Police seek to question McBride publisher Iain Dale”
http://www.itv.com/news/update/2013-09-24/police-seek-to-question-mcbride-publisher-iain-dale/
NR: Ah, I see. On the “9/11” thread, you refer me to a gentleman called James DeMeo, who describes Howard Zinn as a “Red Fascist”, says Chomsky and Moore engage in brainwashing, and goes on to sneeringly refer to USA/Israel “oppression of Palestine” – the author put that in quotes – as if the idea were simply preposterous. He does go on to assert that Iraq did indeed have WMDs, and was complicit in “9/11” itself however – I take it you must feel the same, since you uncritically reference this font of wisdom.
Rather than refer me to mass of revisionist work by that freak, why don’t you try answering the rather basic question yourself, which arose from your own assertions?
I notice your referenced hero is very fond of straw man arguments, blanket assertion, and mass generalisation. However, again like you, he is very short on specifics – omitting the actual proof of, and examples of, Moore’s deception, for instance.
*
I’ll ask just once again, because this is getting rather tedious – do you have any evidence that Moore lied, and that he’s produced “9/11” conspiracy theories?
If you’ve got none, just man up and admit it, eh?